Order a pizza topped with pineapples at any restaurant in Italy, and you will regret every little step that led you to making this decision. Because if there’s something Italians won’t tolerate, it’s pineapple pizza and cappuccino in the afternoon. But while some of the most controversial food preferences have to do with local culture and its quirks, the rest of it comes from our weird and wonderful personalities.
The same goes with our food opinions. Like, saying that mint choc chip ice cream is gross, tomatoes ruin a burger, or that Greek yogurt is sour cream in disguise. You may not be the most popular person in the room for stating this, but you’re surely not quite wrong either.
So let’s dig deep into the often silenced world of controversial food opinions shared in this viral Twitter thread that will heat up the room temperature and will surely bring out your inner Gordon Ramsay.
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Bored Panda reached out to Stefan Balkenende, a spokesperson of Greenpan.co.uk, a cookware manufacturer that specializes in ceramic-coated pans for healthier cooking. Stefan shared some insights on food opinions and preferences, as well as of ways we talk about food so that it won’t become a sensitive topic.
“No matter where you’re from or what kind of food you eat, the topic of food brings people together, acting as an easy ice breaker when meeting new people. It’s universally appealing,” Stefan said and added: “In fact, last year Dr. Amber Spry, who is the Politics and African American Studies professor at Brandeis University, went viral as she had asked her class ‘how does your family cook rice’ instead of traditional ice breaker questions, which naturally got the class talking, sparking debate and conversation over something so trivial but relevant to everyone.”
According to Stefan, even if a particular food preference seems unusual now, it could easily become more mainstream as time passes. “For example, the idea of drinking bone broth might have seemed odd a few years ago; in fact, in 2016, Google Trends identified an interest score of just 21. Fast forward to January 2020, and it hit a popularity score of 100.”
Moreover, unusual food preferences can be an exciting challenge for a cook. “Part of creating a great recipe is combining different flavors and textures in new ways, perhaps unimagined. What might seem like a bizarre preference could spark inspiration for an exciting new dish,” the spokesperson of Greenpan.co.uk explained.
When asked whether a chef could refuse to cook a very unusual order made by a client, Stefan said that “unusual food preferences can be a tough pill to swallow as a chef, but it can be a positive challenge.” “That being said,” the spokesperson continued, “customers should be aware that professional kitchens will have prepped their menus and food orders in advance, so last-minute changes can be difficult to overcome. Likewise, some chefs may find it hard to deviate from what they’re used to, as their menu is an art and experience.”
“Depending on how obscure the food order is, chefs can use it to their advantage and make use of existing ingredients they have and try and incorporate what they would have served in a slightly different way,” Stefan concluded.
Actually all the differnt pasta shapes each have their own specific purpose. They are each speciallised for a particular task, and cannot be interchanged if you are after the best result. E.g. if you cook lasagna with farfalle (butterflies) the result will be wierd (or actually a wrong interpretation of pasta bolognese), as the plates are what holds a lasagna toghether, so it can be cut into blocks. Some of them, like the shells and cannelloni (large tubes) are actually meant to be stuffed. Each type of pasta will interact with the sauce diffently, which will have an effect on the experience of eating the dish. So yes diffent pasta shapes makes the pasta(dish) taste differently, but the shells are not always the best.
Bored Panda also talked to Alex Gunz of "Gourmand Gunno," a London-based professional food reviewer and the winner of Square Meal's 'Critic of the Year' 2014 award.
When asked whether talking about food, especially if one has unusual opinions when it comes to eating, can sometimes turn sour, Alex Gunz told us that it should not and does not need to be a sensitive topic. “The more people are open and willing to discuss their opinions, the less sensitive the topic becomes,” he added.
This person is mightily confused. And need to read up on dairy products.
Yeah... I asked a Mexican friend of mine who lives in USA if Taco Bell was authentic when it comes to tacos and he said no, because Tacos aren't supposed to be in a hard shell
Moreover, “Everyone will have their own view on what constitutes 'unusual.' Always important to make a distinction between what preferences might be a function of either religion or health relative to just more personal reasons,” Alex explained.
When it comes to chefs preparing very unusual orders, Alex said that whether the chef would agree to make a special order or not “totally depends on the circumstances (type of restaurant, price point, and expectation of the consumer).” Having said that, he added that “menus exist for a reason, in most cases.”
Love a deep dish, but I love pizza. Even those greasy crackers that are NY style slices are good if you put one on top of another like a calzone.
You're eating it wrong. Change your bread to something like toasted ciabatta.
Yes, I do love tea. But uuuuuh, I used to work as a baker and when you wake up at 4 in the morning tea isn't enough to wake you up
On the fence. Maybe they are too sweet, but they are so soft! They are literally air and sugar.
You are making your cookies the wrong way, if your dough tastes sandy.
I disagree with this 1000%. I couldn't stand not eating meat.
I HATE sauces on my meat! Even seasoning is a push. I love meat for the taste, no other reason.
Absolutely correct. I see we’ve hit the “most controversial opinion” about food. Look at the downvotes. Demanding meat is entirely social conditioning, and that fact seems to be the most objectionable thing with which a person can be confronted. People may call themselves progressive, support LGBTQ+ rights, claim to support environmental protection, be pet lovers (including doing rescue), actively subject themselves to police violence to protest racism... but the second veganism comes up, holy hell the attacks and bigotry that flies out of these supposedly progressive people. It’s a step too far for so many people and it looks exactly as irrational as it really is.
Former meat lover! Meat actually isn't that great and never was. It's everything that makes that meat interesting. When I stopped eating meat i actually started eating foods I never wanted to try. It "opened" so many taste buds!
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I agree with this. I know so few people who eat meat with condiments/sauce/etc. Lamb must have sauce, beef must have sauce, pork must have.... Honestly, why eat meat? Just drink the sauce.
A really good steak with NO seasoning and NO sauce is the BEST! Just grilled and eaten
How many substitutes have you tried? Sure, it’s not likely to be a 100% same experience, but why does it have to be? You eat different preparations of meat, which produces different textures and tastes. The objection to mock meats is one of expectation and the expectations are usually off. A valid objection is that it’s processed food, but that is ALSO a highly common problem with mass market meat products.
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I don’t even like to eat meat that much but this isn’t true. Good meat that is quality is actually pretty great tasting, and I actually don’t like it with too much seasoning and sauces when the meat is good. I’ve even tried the same sauces/seasonings I use on meat with veggie/vegan options and it is truly not the same.
I like the flavour of beef, chicken, salmon, white fish, pork, bacon, ham (all from the same magical animal). I dont understand why people often put such strong sauces on some meats as it overwhelms the flavour of the meat.
Nope, I love meat. I try and have it’s only only once week thou. But i get to to that 1 week every month where i crave it like it’s crack.
stop downvoting things everyone its supposed to be unpopular opinions
No. I hate it when meat is seasoned. Beef anyway. A little salt is all it needs. White meat (chicken and pork) needs seasoning though.
Good pork doesn't need any more seasoning than good beef.
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vegetables get boring over time, if you are only eating salads or whatever. meat adds a little bit of spice
Meat is awesome. And if done correctly, doesn't need all the seasonings and sauces. Excepting au jus, of course.
I once tried to go vegetarian for a week as an experiment ... but failed less than halfway through, because I missed stuff like bacon & seafood! LOL. Also, it’s not true about seasonings/sauces. I personally prefer my fish to taste fresh like the ocean & can’t handle anything even slightly peppered or spiced. I do like stuff I’m used to, but mostly because I have Aspergers. Every now & then, my tastes will change & I have a new favourite for the next few weeks/months! It’s weird, but that’s just how my mind works. 😅
Meat is more a textural experience than a flavor one. No firmness of tofu or arrangement of grains can imitate it. Also, if meat is bad, why do people try to make non-mean taste like meat, but not the other way around? Who ever said "can you make this hamburger taste like a slab of tofu, but not BE tofu?"
Honestly this is how i feel. I'm not vegetarian but I like a lot of vegan stuff anyways haha.
Pork and goat are decent, beef is generally overpriced, flavorless, and not very appealing.
this is why bored panda sucks sometimes because people are so f*****g toxic
Maybe. Maybe not. I know people who aren’t even vegetarian but they still don’t care for much meat.
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Where did you think your meat comes from? If you can't face that, don't eat it,
LOL!! I can't even see them anymore! RIP to those opinions.
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Funny how half of those opinions are highly upvoted and the other half is highly downvoted. There's no middle ground in that article.
You can eat what you want and I can judge those foods all I like
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Why are people downvoting opinions....on a page for unpopular opinions?
Why do people get downvotes for their opinions. Even if their opinions are gross, it's still their opinion.
Ever tried a bratwurst they’re amazing
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I'm with you. Unless is in the 80%-90% range, I don't even bother. Of course, I got dowvoted for commenting that up there
Load More Replies... I'm certain I'll get downvoted for this but my controversial opinion on food is......most pizza isn't very good. I have had a few decent one's but most of the time it's greasy dough overloaded with greasy cheese and greasy meat thrown on it. The best pizza's I've had usually have a limited amount of cheese and other toppings.
Agreed on this - about american-style pizza, anyway. Italian pizza is a different beast. The worst pizza I had in Italy was still better than 99% of the American style pizzas I've ever had.
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What's the point of down-voting something that answers to the articles description? You knew it was supposed to be controversial, so why not up-vote them instead for being an actual controversial opinion?
Taste in food is totally personal. It doesn't nor should it ever matter to me or anyone else whether you do or do not like a food. I like anchovies, SO WHAT. The only legitimate response to that is OK fine whether you like them or not.
You can say "I like anchovies" or "I don't like anchovies", that's your problem, your taste, and noone can criticise it. But if you yell "ANCHOVIES ARE TRASH" like that other guy did with cheese, it is a normative statement and it's normal that the people feel attacked
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Too much dark chocolate tastes like coal, and too much white chocolate tastes like snorting the entire sugar output of Cuba.
Here's mine. Brisket is way overrated. People spend all day cooking it and at best it tastes like a run of the mill roast with some kinda stuff on it. And yeah, I've had every version known to mankind.
Most of these people haven't tasted proper prepared food! Or they are lacking taste buds i don't know!
Taste buds that people have do vary. I'm what's called a 'super taster' as I have more taste buds than average.
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Hmmm, let's see: I don't particularly like stew, mild cheddar, I haven't eaten spaghetti bolognese since I was five, I get carbonara when my family does spaghetti dinner instead. Also, I dip Mc Donald's fries into my Mc Flurry occasionally.
Wendy's fries in their chocolate shakes. SO GOOD.
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How about this.. everyone should respect what other people like and don't like to eat. You should never s**t on someone for their preferences. I get crap all the time because I don't like raw veggies or chocolate. It takes all the fun out of eating.
FFS, Bored Panda. Don’t give me notifications of replies if your ass-garbage web-code isn’t going to take me TO that damned reply!!! Every time I come here and participating, I end up regretting it, firstly because of bad web code.
for some reason the website refuses to do that, but the app usually takes you to the reply. yeah they really need to fix that
Load More Replies... So, we have a little of everything here: personal choice, sweeping generalizations, bad experiences, racism, cooking critics, societal failures, undeniable certainty and a lot of bad manners.
So, just a bunch of stupid statements and opinions regarding taste? Yawn.
Don't understand why it's so important to some people, what other people eat! After all, what they eat is their business............you don't have to eat it/
I have an opinion... Those weird sweet pickles are disgusting.
There’s way too many people in the world to start criticising personal food preferences! LOL. I’ve had some seriously weird ones that only my closer family can understand; like taking sliced ham (the processed kind), cutting it into smaller pieces & letting it soak in malt vinegar for as little as 5 minutes before tasting. Maybe it sounds nasty, but I have already had one older sister & my 2nd eldest niece (who is in her 3rd year of med school) try it voluntarily & they now enjoy it as an occasional snack, so I do think it’s worth trying. I think the best kind of ham to use (if you know this UK brand) is Denny’s Pork, Onion & Tomato, but you can try it with all sorts, I guess. I wouldn’t advise using crumbed ham, though. 😅
I'm italian, I don't know what half of those people eat normally, meatloaf isn't good? Mac and cheese is trash? Artichokes are bad? You need me to come there and cook for you a proper dish?
The pancakes topped with ketchup nearly turned my stomach. Sorry to folks that like that.
Guacamole is lame. Just weird green stuff with little taste and a weird texture.
I was going to come and say how we shouldn’t downvote people for their opinion - but that would be ironic because I’ve been downvoting people that I don’t agree with.
There are A LOT of things I will never serve in my restaurant, mainly stuff that not only ruin the ingredients (like overcooked steak), but things that disrespect the cultural value of some food (like adding ketchup to pasta).
My grandma taught me one rule on food: If you need sauce (or frosting), then you didn't cook it right. Rare exceptions being pasta with a sauce, obvs, and we made our own, thanks.
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Chocolate tastes horrible and I don't like the way it squishes around in my mouth and it's just gross. Cheese is disgusting too. It tastes like old snot and the glue you borrowed from your friend in second grade. I'll wait for the downvotes to roll in haha
I wish I could figure out how to report you because people like you are getting annoying just stop reading bored panda
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LOL!! I can't even see them anymore! RIP to those opinions.
Load More Replies... Funny how half of those opinions are highly upvoted and the other half is highly downvoted. There's no middle ground in that article.
You can eat what you want and I can judge those foods all I like
Load More Replies... Why are people downvoting opinions....on a page for unpopular opinions?
Why do people get downvotes for their opinions. Even if their opinions are gross, it's still their opinion.
Ever tried a bratwurst they’re amazing
Load More Replies... I'm with you. Unless is in the 80%-90% range, I don't even bother. Of course, I got dowvoted for commenting that up there
Load More Replies... I'm certain I'll get downvoted for this but my controversial opinion on food is......most pizza isn't very good. I have had a few decent one's but most of the time it's greasy dough overloaded with greasy cheese and greasy meat thrown on it. The best pizza's I've had usually have a limited amount of cheese and other toppings.
Agreed on this - about american-style pizza, anyway. Italian pizza is a different beast. The worst pizza I had in Italy was still better than 99% of the American style pizzas I've ever had.
Load More Replies... What's the point of down-voting something that answers to the articles description? You knew it was supposed to be controversial, so why not up-vote them instead for being an actual controversial opinion?
Taste in food is totally personal. It doesn't nor should it ever matter to me or anyone else whether you do or do not like a food. I like anchovies, SO WHAT. The only legitimate response to that is OK fine whether you like them or not.
You can say "I like anchovies" or "I don't like anchovies", that's your problem, your taste, and noone can criticise it. But if you yell "ANCHOVIES ARE TRASH" like that other guy did with cheese, it is a normative statement and it's normal that the people feel attacked
Load More Replies... Too much dark chocolate tastes like coal, and too much white chocolate tastes like snorting the entire sugar output of Cuba.
Here's mine. Brisket is way overrated. People spend all day cooking it and at best it tastes like a run of the mill roast with some kinda stuff on it. And yeah, I've had every version known to mankind.
Most of these people haven't tasted proper prepared food! Or they are lacking taste buds i don't know!
Taste buds that people have do vary. I'm what's called a 'super taster' as I have more taste buds than average.
Load More Replies... Hmmm, let's see: I don't particularly like stew, mild cheddar, I haven't eaten spaghetti bolognese since I was five, I get carbonara when my family does spaghetti dinner instead. Also, I dip Mc Donald's fries into my Mc Flurry occasionally.
Wendy's fries in their chocolate shakes. SO GOOD.
Load More Replies... How about this.. everyone should respect what other people like and don't like to eat. You should never s**t on someone for their preferences. I get crap all the time because I don't like raw veggies or chocolate. It takes all the fun out of eating.
FFS, Bored Panda. Don’t give me notifications of replies if your ass-garbage web-code isn’t going to take me TO that damned reply!!! Every time I come here and participating, I end up regretting it, firstly because of bad web code.
for some reason the website refuses to do that, but the app usually takes you to the reply. yeah they really need to fix that
Load More Replies... So, we have a little of everything here: personal choice, sweeping generalizations, bad experiences, racism, cooking critics, societal failures, undeniable certainty and a lot of bad manners.
So, just a bunch of stupid statements and opinions regarding taste? Yawn.
Don't understand why it's so important to some people, what other people eat! After all, what they eat is their business............you don't have to eat it/
I have an opinion... Those weird sweet pickles are disgusting.
There’s way too many people in the world to start criticising personal food preferences! LOL. I’ve had some seriously weird ones that only my closer family can understand; like taking sliced ham (the processed kind), cutting it into smaller pieces & letting it soak in malt vinegar for as little as 5 minutes before tasting. Maybe it sounds nasty, but I have already had one older sister & my 2nd eldest niece (who is in her 3rd year of med school) try it voluntarily & they now enjoy it as an occasional snack, so I do think it’s worth trying. I think the best kind of ham to use (if you know this UK brand) is Denny’s Pork, Onion & Tomato, but you can try it with all sorts, I guess. I wouldn’t advise using crumbed ham, though. 😅
I'm italian, I don't know what half of those people eat normally, meatloaf isn't good? Mac and cheese is trash? Artichokes are bad? You need me to come there and cook for you a proper dish?
The pancakes topped with ketchup nearly turned my stomach. Sorry to folks that like that.
Guacamole is lame. Just weird green stuff with little taste and a weird texture.
I was going to come and say how we shouldn’t downvote people for their opinion - but that would be ironic because I’ve been downvoting people that I don’t agree with.
There are A LOT of things I will never serve in my restaurant, mainly stuff that not only ruin the ingredients (like overcooked steak), but things that disrespect the cultural value of some food (like adding ketchup to pasta).
My grandma taught me one rule on food: If you need sauce (or frosting), then you didn't cook it right. Rare exceptions being pasta with a sauce, obvs, and we made our own, thanks.
Load More Replies... Chocolate tastes horrible and I don't like the way it squishes around in my mouth and it's just gross. Cheese is disgusting too. It tastes like old snot and the glue you borrowed from your friend in second grade. I'll wait for the downvotes to roll in haha
I wish I could figure out how to report you because people like you are getting annoying just stop reading bored panda
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