Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Yes, the shape of a shrimp is slightly off-color; the 'shell' thing I can see.

I am young, so I can tell you that MOST kids in their twenties have aversions to many 'different' foods. Obviously, it is due to lack of exposure or interest. But really, I am seriously turned off by anyone unwilling to TRY. Simply unfair (I could argue this up and down for hours)

At any rate, the food I most often see with a very strange stigma attached is mayonnaise. I have no idea why my generation has such a thing.
Additionally, I see onions as a victim.

As for myself, I haven't any food phobias--never met an ingredient I did not like. Something I do find very odd though are marshmallows!

When I was a kid, I had trouble with sour cream because it looked like mayo. I also am not a big fan of ground meats (hamburger and sausage and the like) because of the the texture.

I've noticed exactly what EmilyTaylor has: onions and mayo get a bad rap. My boyfriend drives me nuts and refuses to eat both. Actually, that's a lie; he'll eat caramelized onions, but only because they're cooked to death. He doesn't like the slight crunch of regularly cooked onions in food. This is annoying to me because I'm an onion fanatic and I like mayo on sandwiches and a few other choice things.

I'm really turned off by people who won't try certain foods because they "think" they won't like it, but have no basis as to why they wouldn't. I know quite a lot of people like this and I don't like cooking for them or eating with them. Quite frankly, they annoy the hell out of me. How many times have we heard that people think sushi is gross, but they've never tried it? Stuff like that seriously drives me nuts. I want to yell, "Try the f&*%ing sushi!" Then- and only then- can you talk shit about if you actually don't like it. You should only be allowed to avoid foods you've actually tried.

I steadfastly refused to try papaya for years, but finally gave in to my husband's begging me to try it.

Big mistake.

I KNEW it would taste like baby puke, and it did.
UGH - I almost yakked.

Ps: @huneybumper: that is in fact fair enough! and yes, like third graders is what i tend to imagine.

A girl I went to college with lot her sense of taste/smell when she was young (I have no idea how). She based her eating habits on foods that felt good in her mouth. She loved sprouts and hated ground beef.

My FIL won't eat raisins (they look like poo), rice (looks like maggots) or noodles (look like worms).

My wife never had a mushroom until long after we were dating, because they looked 'weird'. She grew up on a game farm and for years would only eat pheasant and dry toast.

We're mostly vegetarian, but there's almost nothing I won't try. I balked at strips of raw horse in Japan, and I won't eat chicken or other birds, because I'm very fond of them (we keep them as pets).

After reading Gunter Grasse's "The Tin Drum", I have never been able to even envision eating eel~ way too gross!!

My mother wouldn't eat shrimp or lobster because they "look like icky bugs!" Also wouldn't eat mushrooms ~ see "manure" above! And she grew up on a farm.....

My father wouldn't eat lamb - "tastes woolly" and I grew up with all sorts of limitations on what I would eat. Not a problem any more! My son, who was raised in the Pacific Northwest (think Dungeness crab, salmon, halibut, clams, mussels, shrimp, trout, etc.) will not eat anything that lives in water. I've tricked him a couple times, but he really cannot handle the smell, the texture or the tastes. Breaks my heart.

I've never tried scallops....just looking at them I wonder what the texture would be like....I have no other rational reason for not trying them. I love seafood.

No eggs. They make me wretch.

No fungus. Texure freaks me out.

No seafood. Also texture.

No olives. See the texture thing.

@ChelleyD01 - I got sick on eggs when I was pregnant 24 yrs ago....I can eat them again now, but it was many years before I was able to. They are one of my favorite foods, but even now sometimes the smell.....

I won't try sauerkraut because it smells strongly of vomit to me. It could be the best stuff ever, and I'll never know. Much to my husband's chagrin.
Strangely or not, I actually love most anything else pickled (except perhaps eggs/beets). The more sour/dilled a pickly thing is the better I like it. Don't know why poor cabbage makes me run, since I also like IT well enough. :(

I don't eat Rabbit because I received one at Easter time as a pet when I was 16. My mother hated the idea of this rabbit being caged so she paper trained it. He had the run of the house. He was a gray Dutch rabbit. We lived in a 4 room apartment that didn't allow dogs or cats. Rabbits don't make much noise = perfect 4 legged furry pet!

A friend used to say, "You don't have a rabbit you have a dog with long ears."

Every delivery boy in the neighborhood knew we had this rabbit. Whenever we got pizza or groceries delivered, the kid would crane his neck looking for the bunny. We'd call him over and he'd sit up high on his haunches and sniff the kid. He'd get his head patted and be off on his way through the apartment.

My rabbit hated snapping fingers and whistling. The Andy Griffith Show theme drove him apesh*t. He'd thump his back legs and tear off. He'd dash from the living room which was carpeted, through the kitchen which had linoleum and he'd slide on the linoleum. Every morning, he'd circle the feet of the first person up until he got a saucer of milk. Every wekk, my mother would cook a small pot of the following items: Macaroni with squash, peas and tomato. He got a little dish of it every day along with his pellets and alfalfa.

. o O (You're all now convinced I'm insane, it's no longer a mere suspicion...)

He never really had a name because nothing fit him. Mom and I called him "bunny" but my brother was fond of "Bunson Burnah." I mourned that rabbit for weeks. He lived 4 years which was about 3.5 more than anyone thought he'd last.

The very idea of eating rabbit makes me queasy.

Yogurt of all things - frozen, creamy, mixed with fruit I DON'T CARE. If it says Yogurt I'm not eating it. Will admit it's bizarre because I have no idea why (and I have tried it). I think its tied to a high school biology class, where we studied bacteria. Also goat cheese, lamb chops, olives, goat meat, sheeps milk. Stay away and I'm not a picky eater! Just can't get my taste buds in line with some things that I know should be good.

Oh Well - bourbon makes my face wrinkle, but Scotch is good. A glass of milk will make me puke - but I have no trouble cooking with it. Go Figure!

@chiff--why is your rabbit story weird? I know plenty of people who have litter box trained rabbits. They're very intelligent animals and can be trained like dogs. The only problem is because they are prey animals they are very, very shy at first, and it takes some patience to win them over.

Regarding 'annoyances' of the 'not try' variety--my father and stepmother won't eat (amongst many other things) Indian food, Thai food, sushi, chocolate, butter, vegetarian food, most vegetables except for spinach pie and tomatoes in olive oil, and will only eat out at 2-3 restaurants in any one area--because they only eat 'Greek food.' By their definition, Greek food comprises all cheeses, Jell-O, pizza, salsa and chips, sherbet made from fruit, bacon, and many other things you might not consider 'Greek.' However, hummus, falafel, grilled zucchini, and so forth is not Greek because they don't like it. If I suggest anything I like and they don't, they make a big stink about bad 'American' nutrition/taste.

LOL great comments everyone.

for the longest time I refused calamari, I tolerate it now and only really enjoy it when it's cooked properly. Especially with ztaziki sauce

I had a friend that refused to eat mayo because she thought it was like eating pure fat. (not too far from the truth but...) To this day whenever I hear that somebody refuses to eat mayo, I start thinking that they are snooty and stuck up, that they believe mayo is beneath them, like only poor, obese, white trash folks in trailers eat mayo.

I was afraid to eat kimchi because of the colour, the bright red made me think it would be very very very spicy. I just recently tasted it for the first time and don't mind it.

I (and most people I know) will have to say No to calf fries ... just too weird to think about eating, well, you know. Ugh.

Consistency and texture is an issue for me. I loved (and still do!) ketchup, but as a kid I wouldn't eat tomatoes because I thought they were slimy inside. Now...I put them in everything! The only random thing I can think of as I'm older are capers - I don't know why. And hummus - texture again (and the smell!)

I'll try anything except dog, but I don't think that there's any weird reason that I won't try it.

Mayo is white trash food? I had some on the French Fries I made last Friday night (peel on and fried twice-- mmm tasty). My wife, son, and son's friend looked at me like I had three heads and wouldn't even try it.

Ahem I know this is weird but - I can't eat chunky peanut butter because the little chunks on peanuts make me feel like I am eating baby teeth and it makes me want to throw up.

Oh and olives taste like band-aids to me.

@Kerosena - Christel is right, if you like nuts and sweets, you should certainly give nougat a try. The wiki entry is pretty good, only I've never had nougat with fruit (perhaps because I don't eat cooked or dried fruit:-)).

The only reason I have for not eating certain things is because I don't like either the taste, or the texture. I'm weird about textures. I don't eat mushrooms, melted cheese, or seafood (although I will eat some fish, like salmon). Although I HAVE tried these things, so I can honestly say I don't like them, and not just that I won't eat them.

I am flat out terrified of milk. As in, would have to move to the other side of the table if someone drinking it sat down next to me. It's a lot better than it used to be (I was a very strange kid), but milk, cream, yogurt, sour cream... anything made of milk that looks white and creamy is totally gross to me - I'll only eat it in something where it's totally hidden and overpowered and even then I have to psych myself up for it.

The mayo thing is not only the younger generation. I'm in my mid-twenties and while I think it is gross, my father refuses to let it into his house - he's almost as bad about mayo as I am about milk. I think he is somewhat judgmental about people who eat it (as some of the comments above have mentioned), but snob that he can be, he hates mayonnaise way, way more than he could ever hate poor people.

It occurs to me that there may be something hereditary going on here - funny thing is, we're both fairly adventurous eaters otherwise.

@ hungrychristel - Touche! LOL, I guess I am one of those annoying girly girls who thinks that if a drink comes in a martini glass it's a martini, even if it's pink, frothy and garnished with pineapple! LOL - maybe I should change my handle...

This was HILARIOUS! I don't like unincorporated eggs, like fried or sunnyside, but will eat hard-boiled eggs in a salad except egg salad. I don't like mashed potatoes and loose ground meat (as in shepherd's pie) but like meatloaf & mashed potatoes (the texture is different). I don't like raw celery, but like celery salt and will use celery in mirepoix. And I like hot dogs but don't like baloney/bologna, and I love foie gras, but don't like liverwurst. Ok, I know I'm strange.

I hate the taste of organ meats such as liver and lung, but I love stomach because it's kinda crunchy like cartilage. I also dislike eating chunks of animal fat (beef or pig fat attached to the skin, like you get in a nicely marbled pork belly) because it just tastes too rich and animal-y. I don't like dragonfruit because it's tasteless, though it's pretty interesting looking.

I won't eat Kraft singles because of a bad childhood incident, but I don't think I'm missing out much tho...

Love this discussion.. I'll try anything once. I spent two years stationed in Japan during the Vietnam war and traveled to nearly all the countries in the Western Pacific. Lot's of foods that aren't *normal* to your average American. Whale in Japan, mystery meat from a street vendor in the Philippines, octopus, squid, and many unknowns.

Only things I'll never eat again are raw jellyfish and raw fish roe.

Junie - I can't remember but I think it was something PBS or BBC?

I know a guy who is so put off by milk that he won't eat any dairy products or anything that looks remotely dairy...his reason "it's white"

it seems in my area fish in general is just a big "ew" but I can't get anyone to give me an actual reason why they won't eat it

my father...most confusing of all...refuses to try sushi because it's raw fish yet he swears up and down it can't possibly be raw because "americans have poor immune systems and would just get sick" he fails to acknowledge his own contradiction

as for myself...maybe it's because both of my parents are immigrants or maybe it's because my dad is a chef but I can't remember ever flat out refusing to try any food...well other than anything involving bugs...I was always the kid to try anything from cat/dog treats to leaves to the glazes in art class (which pretty much all taste the same btw)

among friends I have a bit of a reputation as "a foodie" solely because I actually know what's in/goes into foods and how they're prepared...I find it alarming that other people don't know and/or don't care to know

Growing uo on a farm in KS my brother and I wouldn't eat chicken because we knew them personally.