“I Refuse To Believe A Single Soul Wants To Eat It”: 35 People Share Overhyped Foods
Interview With Author
It's natural for people to have different tastes – taste in music, movies, interior design, clothes. The same goes for food. Different people like the taste of different things. Some people have a sweet tooth, others go crazy for all things savory. But can we say there are foods that almost everyone likes? Pizza, maybe?
Redditor YarnSpectre wanted to know if there are popular foods people just don't get the hype about. They asked netizens 'What's one food everyone seems to go crazy for, but you just don't understand the hype?' And the people delivered – from parsley, truffles and pumpkin spice to olives, kombucha and bacon. Wait, there are people who don't like bacon?!
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this thread, YarnSpectre. She was kind enough to chat with us and tell us more about what inspired the post on r/AskReddit.
This post may include affiliate links.
Aussie here. Oreos….meh, there’s plenty of way better biscuits around
"It was just one of those weird random thoughts," YarnSpectre says when we ask her about the inspiration for this thread. The Redditor explained that her brain just sometimes goes to weird places.
In her opinion, the most overhyped popular food is the croissant. Apparently, not everyone feels this way – 142 million people in the US alone enjoyed croissants in 2020. Their popularity is undeniable, but their haters are plenty as well. And YarnSpectre is not alone in this.
People like how fondant looks, I refuse to believe a single soul actually wants to eat it
Energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster
Blogger Peter Michaels described croissants as "pretentious, overpriced toast." "I mean, they can't decide if they're bread or cake," he wrote on his blog back in 2021. "You can eat them for breakfast? Can't be a cake."
Croissants had some haters among other commenters in this thread as well. User Scherbatskyyyyyyyy wrote: "I eat to be full, so having a bite with [a] paper-like break with lots [of] air inside is not for me, especially [if] it costs $4 and I'm still hungry."
Foie gras. F*****g gross. Texture is rotten, flavor is no better, plus the animal suffers for it?? No thank you.
Zoidberg: "What is this? Goose liver? Fish Eggs? I ask for rich guy stuff and you give me this garbage?"
True, I was slightly drunk once and tried some. I'm ashamed that I did. It's animal cruelty. Delicious, wish it could be done without the cruelty. Truly delicious.
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I had some in one of my courses at a restaurant in Toronto. I liked it, a lot, but when I found out how it’s truly made I felt super guilty. The goose is literally force fed until it’s fat and then killed for its liver. Poor goose. It’s actually outlawed in some places as to get it truly authentic it comes in a cruel way
I listened to a podcast once where they interviewed a guy who figured out a way to get the geese to overeat willingly. It’s been probably 8 years or so ago. I wonder if ethical foie gas is still a thing.
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Can you give me a brief of why it’s cruel. I could google, but I don’t want to look at any gross images right now. Edit: never mind. Cat woman explained below. That’s awful.
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As a vegetarian I never accuse people for eating meat as long as I don't have to. But this goes way over my limit to be quiet!
When I was around 14 I had to explain to my adult uncle why I was horrified he’d eaten veal.
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In France the geese and ducks suffer, but nearly all places in the US use the Romanian method for feeding, and nearly all US Foie Gras is cage free with some even free range. The abuse is mostly out of the system in the US and mostly just still exists in france. I have been to a Foie Gras farm that was cage free, with the Romanian Method for feeding, and it was not suffering. I mean if the animal lived to an old age they would have health issues from the diet, but they dont live that long
I thought ethical foie gras existed and this confirms it.
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I might be hated but this is actually very delightful. It needs an acquired taste but it so delicious. Melts like butter and has a wonderful mild flavour.
I was at a wedding in France where they had absolutely delicious appetizers. There was this one hot-dog like thing, with a small soft bun and a kind of mousse in thea middle. Delicious, had a few before thinking to ask what was in it. Foie gras. Fork. I was happier not knowing. Couldn't stomach another one.
The liver is a filter for bodies. I think that should gross people out. You wouldn't take the filter contents and eat them. Why would you want to eat the filter.
" plus the animal suffers for it " BUT SUSHHHH don't tell what they do to chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs etc...in America ! VOTE ME DOWN AND DELETE MY POST ! chickens-6...dc368e.jpg 
chicken shreddin g ALIE ! chick-shre...1918bf.jpg 
for anyone wondering, to produce the livers, geese/ducks are force-fed up to a kilo or more of food each day, which can cause damage to other organs, difficulty walking, and a painful life for the unfortunate bird. :(
The force feeding of ducks by forcing a metal pipe down their throats into their stomach over and over, breaking their beaks is a video that will haunt me until I die. Cruelty beyond imagining.
That is why most places switched to the Romanian Method using a soft rubber tube that doesnt go past the beak. I've seen it live, the birds seem eager for it.
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I‘ve tried it, when I was doing a…. „Test week“(?) in a fancy restaurant here in Germany. Germany does not allow making it, but it is allowed to import. So, they had it from France, I think. Anyway. It wasn‘t bad. Actually ok. But, it would not be a favorite, even if the animals had not suffered for it. I only tried it, because they would have otherwise thrown it away. It was a leftover from a banquet. I wish Germany would make it illegal to import too.
It's terrible what they do to get this. Animals are tortured their whole lives just to be killed? Not ok! I'm not a vegan or vegetarian I like meat but this is cruelty and I cud never do this to an animal. Looked up what it is and I'm sick to my stomach!
Besides the ethics, a punch of fatty liver that overpowers any dish is not something that l appreciate
Its actually really nice , if its the real thing , with fresh white bread and a chilled Chablis wine...
Love foie gras! Give me "Crème brûlée de foie gras", filet mignon Rossini or a good mousse on a crackers with figs jelly or caramelized onions anytime!
Two things can be true at the same time. You can like foie gras. But at the same time you also have to admit the cruelty it causes. So can you acknowledge it?
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I can't stand to eat any type of water bird. They taste like mud puddles.
I really don't get the downvotes for someone's opinion.
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Foie gras is awesome. So is veal. Unfortunately , the process by which they are procured is unethical.
Um...ALL animals that are slaughtered suffer horrendously and don't want to die.
Yes, but calves that are kept in small boxes until slaughter or ducks that are force-fed corn suffer when alive, not just when they are killed.
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Hot Cheetos or takis. Anything with the artificially colored spicy powder
People really had a lot of preferences to share – the post got over 13k comments. YarnSpectre says she didn't expect that kind of reaction. "I was very surprised. It was overwhelming," the author admits.
Still, the Redditor doesn't think it's fair to yuck other people's yums. "It's fine to politely say 'I don't care for that', but not ok to criticize or pick apart what you think is wrong with it," YarnSpectre shared with Bored Panda.
Pumpkin spice. It’s fine, but absolutely not anything to make a fuss about
For me, it just signifies the season. I don't eat or drink everything pumpkin spice but it is definitely a favorite and has been since I was little. Pumpkin bread was the first quick bread recipe I ever learned!
Those dry a*s Walmart sugar cookies
For a long time, we believed that our tongues had different taste zones. But today scientists believe that all regions of the tongue can detect different taste qualities. And not just the sweet, the sour, the salty and the bitter. There's also a fifth one – savory, also referred to as umami.
Truffles… WTF?…. Tastes like leaf mold mixed with aged compost and everybody’s like oooooohhh… it’s expensive so I love it…….nobody needs truffle oil on their French fries damn it
Love them. But they aren’t something you could just eat a bunch like other mushrooms, which I also love. Even if you don’t necessarily like it it’s hard to not agree that the taste is unique, and powerful. I worked for a high end catering company in NYC and we would get cases of them in and I would shave this slices for various dishes. If it’s an acquired taste I certainly acquired it then. Mushrooms varieties other than portobello/cremini/button are not commonly found in restaurants in the US. Chanterelle, morel, woodsear, enoki, lion mane, lobster, porcini, oh so many delicious and unique flavors. But, truffles outshine them all in its unique firm texture, aroma and flavor.
Neuroscientist and taste expert at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Brian Lewandowski told Brain Facts that the differences picked up in the different zones are there, but are too minute to actually matter.
"All regions of the tongue that detect taste respond to all five taste qualities. There are some mild regional differences in sensitivity for different taste qualities, but these differences are small enough that they do not play a clear role in taste perception."
Caviar
Another instance where there are many different kinds, and the taste varies significantly. Also depends what it is paired with as most of us don't just dig into a bowl of caviar like it was cereal.
Nutella. It’s just ok.
There are way better Chocolate spreads around, especially ones without palm oil
Red velvet cake. I've had ones that were supposed to be excellent but it's just red cake.
It's a chocolate cake with red food coloring. I don't like it, either.
We can explain scientifically why some people like a certain food and others hate it. It's apparently in your genes. Research scientist on sensory, flavor and consumer sciences Nicholas Archer writes: "The receptor proteins are produced from instructions encoded in our DNA and there is significant variation in the DNA code between individuals."
Turkey. As a non-American living in the US, it's a f*****g miserable bird. Everyone is like Yeah but if you brine for 37.5 hours in this mixture, dry rub it for 22.7 hours, it tastes so good! Spend that amount of time and effort and any kind of meat is going to taste better than the turkey. Not to mention that people are prepared to destroy their major asset trying to cook it. Lastly, there is no turkey based fast food chain in the US. Y'all claim to love it so much but the market knows the truth.
A 2013 study found that each person has a unique set of genetic variations and almost no two people have the same aroma perceptions. In fact, they claim that any two individuals have genetic differences that translate to differences in 30% of their receptors.
Licorice!! Tried it for the first time about 2 years ago. Gulped it down in front of people, all the while fighting the urge to spit it out. Yucckkk
Black licorice: You either love it or hate it. I've never yet met a person who could go either way. Myself, I'm on the 'Love it' side.
Every time McRib comes back, I’m SUPER excited for it. I bite into one and then…the spongey texture hits me and makes me remember why I don’t need to buy it ever again.
Then, somehow, McRib season rolls around again 2 years later — and there I am in line…
It's just a frozen patty of mechanically shredded pork pressed into a riblike shape. The frozen food companies have been making them for fifty years. The only thing missing is the sauce. Just buy some Swansons and use your own BBQ sauce and bread.
Can it be a beverage? Cause I kind of hate IPAs but everyone else seems to love them - and I like beer, just not IPAs.
Chick-fil-A. I had a sandwich. Is was... okay, but that's about it.
Most red velvet cakes are just sh**ty vanilla cake with red food coloring. Get one (or make one) the correct way with non-Dutch-processed cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. It's an incredibly smooth, very different type of chocolate cake.
So it's suppose to be not just red cake with the taste of a coloring.
I mean, people go crazy in both directions, but cilantro. There’s the whole “does it taste like soap or not” thing, but it’s usually presented as “people either think it tastes like soap or they find it amazing”. I am neither. It doesn’t taste like soap to me, but I also don’t love it. Meh.
Coriander does taste like soap to me, but then so does rocket. Yuk.
Sweet pickles/relish
Omg!! Thank you!!! I HATE sweet relish. Mom used to make bread and butter pickles and I liked those but never loved them. I'm a dill pickle girl all the way!
Mint flavored drinks or candy. I like some mint gum or a peppermint but it’s disgusting in actual food
No I love mint with anything. Might be controversial to some people. Some say “tastes like toothpaste”
What about lobster? I can dig it with drawn butter and I ain’t mad at it. But if I’m gonna pay $29.99 for a lobster. I’d rather eat shrimp.
Ranch Dressing.
OMG same and I'm an American! WTF is it with the ranch and ranch flavored everything? I thought I hated salad until I was in my 20s and discovered vinaigrette. I didn't hate salad. I hated ranch dressing!
Nutritional yeast.
It does NOT taste like cheese. It smells like what I imagine an early to mid severity case of trench foot would.
it is amazing on food. I love it. Specially with foods with umami (mushrooms for example).
anchovies
A long time I thought I hate it, but then I was in Italy and my Italian wasn't that good and accidently I ordered a pizza with anchovies. I am a very proud person and I did not want to admit my mistake so I sayed nothing and ate it. Since this time I love it more than it's good for me.
Macarons. I never cared for them either. I had one yesterday at a potluck, homemade ones. They were seriously something else, with some sort of butter cream and jelly inside. Never had anything quite like it. Now I wish I had grabbed a few to take home. Still won't eat store bought ones though.
Depending on where you are buying them, most "store bought" macarons shouldn't be legally permitted to call themselves macarons!
Poutine. Cheese curds are a big nope from me. Especially on soggy fries. I’ve had someone tell me “but they squeak on your teeth!” as if that would somehow change my stance lol
Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
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It is a really weird concept to me that if someone doesn't like something they assume everyone else must be lying about liking it. I hate lima beans, I've never once considered that everyone who says they like them must be faking it for some odd reason. I just assume people have different tastes.
It was the opposite way for me. I always wondered why I was such a weirdo and hated mint when everyone else loved it. Turns out, I'm allergic! Lol. But have you ever tried pressure cooking Lima beans in a dish for the cooker? I hate them too, cannot stand them, unless I put them with a dish that goes into the pressure cooker. It's like all those flavors get crushed into the beans and it actually makes them edible!
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THAT should be on the list! Half of the stuff on it is delicious... marzipan tastes like fraud.
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I love how through these people reply "well if you add half a pound of bacon and some cheese to it it's delicious". I mean, yeah of course it is. You could add those things to red velvet cake and it would be delicious.
I mean, salt and fat are the things to typically make things taste great. It's why restaurants are terrible except for every once in a while. They load every dish up on the sodium and fat. Ever taken a look at IHOP's chicken sandwich? It has over half the DV of recommended sodium.
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I'm English. I hate tea. (As in the drink). You can imagine how well that goes down here...😬🤣
I'm American, and the idea of putting milk into tea makes me gag. Love Twinings Earl Grey, but with no sugar and no milk, and it has to be Twinings because no one else gets the bergamot right. Also love Chinese black tea with Chinese takeout, also unadulterated.
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A lot of people in these comments are saying that you can't dislike something since it's a category under which a lot of things fall, but usually there's a lot of common taste, texture, ingredients, etc. that is used as a defining feature for most of the category. And when you reference the exceptions to this conformity as reasons why someone can't dislike something, then you're mostly just picking holes in what we define as being in the category, not what they dislike. When someone says they dislike or like food, such as sushi or alcohol, we well know what they mean, trying to nitpick doesn't really get us anywhere (I'm just giving my view on things here, I may be wrong but this is how I see it)
Right after the holidays and no one mentioned my favorite — fruitcake!
It's very near sacrilegious in my part of the country, but I just don't understand why people make such a big deal about boiled crawfish. That's too much work for that little bit of meat that doesn't taste all that good anyway. I'd rather have shrimp any day of the week.
Newsflash: not everyone likes every kind of food. That doesn’t make any food “bad,” it just means we have different tastes.
Pickled onions. It' started becoming trendy maybe 10 years ago for "house made" pickled stuff to appear on menus, especially at BBQ places. Then it became a side, and you'd have a small, sad, and sour pile of slimy purple onions taking up space on your plate. Bleah. Oh - and any "house made" ketchup. You just know it's going to be chunky, unpleasant, and taste nothing like ketchup.
I am a super adventurous eater. My parents said that I had to try everything once, but I never had to eat if again if I didn't like it. I've had a lamb's eyeball in Morocco. I've had snake 3 ways (eggs, stew, jerky) in Cambodia. Lutefisk in Sweden. The only food that I ever refused was BALUT (a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell.) My friend bit into one and it looked too gross. Still, I find olives are the worst.
For me, it's any type of carbonated drink. How do people drink that stuff? It's awful!
I thought this site is supposed to be European? How come nearly everything on here is so US centered? Americans probably don‘t even realize this. Most of these foods are very US American. Red velvet cake, pumpkin spice, Walmart sugar cookies, ….. I wish there would be less articles about the US. It‘s like an obsession here.
The site may be based in Europe, but the internet is worldwide and there are loads of American Pandas, including me. Personally, I'd rather see more articles about the rest of the world. Most of the American articles get nearly everything wrong and almost always take one person's opinion and extrapolate to a ridiculous stereotype.
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I wouldn't eat most of the things on this list, but I wonder why boiled peanuts didn't show up here. I love boiled peanuts but they are usually frowned upon by people who didn't grow up in the southeastern US.
What's with the byline, "I refuse to believe a single soul would want to eat it?" I understand the hype angle, but only a couple are truly unusual! You really can't believe anybody likes Oreos or Cheetos?! I can't believe people who say they like pizza but will only eat plain cheese, but it's still good! I expected more stuff like cat/dog/horse or other things that are popular in some regions but not most!
Sushi. Well. it looks nice and is a lot of work, but - whatfor did we invent fire? I do not want to eat raw fish
Try California rolls. It's cucumber, avocado, and cooked crab meat. Yummy. Philly roll is also good its same thing except instead of avocado it has cream cheese.
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It is a really weird concept to me that if someone doesn't like something they assume everyone else must be lying about liking it. I hate lima beans, I've never once considered that everyone who says they like them must be faking it for some odd reason. I just assume people have different tastes.
It was the opposite way for me. I always wondered why I was such a weirdo and hated mint when everyone else loved it. Turns out, I'm allergic! Lol. But have you ever tried pressure cooking Lima beans in a dish for the cooker? I hate them too, cannot stand them, unless I put them with a dish that goes into the pressure cooker. It's like all those flavors get crushed into the beans and it actually makes them edible!
Load More Replies... THAT should be on the list! Half of the stuff on it is delicious... marzipan tastes like fraud.
Load More Replies... I love how through these people reply "well if you add half a pound of bacon and some cheese to it it's delicious". I mean, yeah of course it is. You could add those things to red velvet cake and it would be delicious.
I mean, salt and fat are the things to typically make things taste great. It's why restaurants are terrible except for every once in a while. They load every dish up on the sodium and fat. Ever taken a look at IHOP's chicken sandwich? It has over half the DV of recommended sodium.
Load More Replies... I'm English. I hate tea. (As in the drink). You can imagine how well that goes down here...😬🤣
I'm American, and the idea of putting milk into tea makes me gag. Love Twinings Earl Grey, but with no sugar and no milk, and it has to be Twinings because no one else gets the bergamot right. Also love Chinese black tea with Chinese takeout, also unadulterated.
Load More Replies... A lot of people in these comments are saying that you can't dislike something since it's a category under which a lot of things fall, but usually there's a lot of common taste, texture, ingredients, etc. that is used as a defining feature for most of the category. And when you reference the exceptions to this conformity as reasons why someone can't dislike something, then you're mostly just picking holes in what we define as being in the category, not what they dislike. When someone says they dislike or like food, such as sushi or alcohol, we well know what they mean, trying to nitpick doesn't really get us anywhere (I'm just giving my view on things here, I may be wrong but this is how I see it)
Right after the holidays and no one mentioned my favorite — fruitcake!
It's very near sacrilegious in my part of the country, but I just don't understand why people make such a big deal about boiled crawfish. That's too much work for that little bit of meat that doesn't taste all that good anyway. I'd rather have shrimp any day of the week.
Newsflash: not everyone likes every kind of food. That doesn’t make any food “bad,” it just means we have different tastes.
Pickled onions. It' started becoming trendy maybe 10 years ago for "house made" pickled stuff to appear on menus, especially at BBQ places. Then it became a side, and you'd have a small, sad, and sour pile of slimy purple onions taking up space on your plate. Bleah. Oh - and any "house made" ketchup. You just know it's going to be chunky, unpleasant, and taste nothing like ketchup.
I am a super adventurous eater. My parents said that I had to try everything once, but I never had to eat if again if I didn't like it. I've had a lamb's eyeball in Morocco. I've had snake 3 ways (eggs, stew, jerky) in Cambodia. Lutefisk in Sweden. The only food that I ever refused was BALUT (a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell.) My friend bit into one and it looked too gross. Still, I find olives are the worst.
For me, it's any type of carbonated drink. How do people drink that stuff? It's awful!
I thought this site is supposed to be European? How come nearly everything on here is so US centered? Americans probably don‘t even realize this. Most of these foods are very US American. Red velvet cake, pumpkin spice, Walmart sugar cookies, ….. I wish there would be less articles about the US. It‘s like an obsession here.
The site may be based in Europe, but the internet is worldwide and there are loads of American Pandas, including me. Personally, I'd rather see more articles about the rest of the world. Most of the American articles get nearly everything wrong and almost always take one person's opinion and extrapolate to a ridiculous stereotype.
Load More Replies... I wouldn't eat most of the things on this list, but I wonder why boiled peanuts didn't show up here. I love boiled peanuts but they are usually frowned upon by people who didn't grow up in the southeastern US.
What's with the byline, "I refuse to believe a single soul would want to eat it?" I understand the hype angle, but only a couple are truly unusual! You really can't believe anybody likes Oreos or Cheetos?! I can't believe people who say they like pizza but will only eat plain cheese, but it's still good! I expected more stuff like cat/dog/horse or other things that are popular in some regions but not most!
Sushi. Well. it looks nice and is a lot of work, but - whatfor did we invent fire? I do not want to eat raw fish
Try California rolls. It's cucumber, avocado, and cooked crab meat. Yummy. Philly roll is also good its same thing except instead of avocado it has cream cheese.
Load More Replies...
