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Shiitake mushrooms. I can almost enjoy them it they're sauteed in lots of butter and soy sauce and lemon. Cannot tolerate them any other way, especially dried.

My mom prefers angel hair to all other types of pasta. I hate thin pasta with cream sauces (not enough surface area for sauce to cling), but mom only wants thin.

I really dislike penne pasta. It's too thick and dense, and for some reason I'm bothered by its ubiquity (is that a word?).

I prefer angel hair for just regular marinara sauce, but I do like other shapes for different sauces. I won't use a Bolognese sauce with anything but fettuccine or curled/curved shapes. I also have a friend who can't eat raw tomatoes, but loves them cooked in anything. It's that textural thing again.

I love mushrooms in all manifastations; but, DO NOT give me canned. Can't stand that slimey texture... Ugh!

I hate anything grape "flavored" but love grapes.
I too prefer angel hair over spaghetti but for me it's a texture thing.

I have some texture hang ups too - can't eat any sort of pepper if it hasn't been cooked to death. I'm not big on the taste of bell peppers either way, and both texture and taste cause me to immediately spit out olives (I try to routinely give them a fair chance, though it never goes well).

I really think a lot of it is the way food is cooked or prepared. For most of my life I hated chicken, until I started making it myself, and learned to cook it properly, now I love it.

Same for pasta, I mean God bless her, but my mom is of the "cook it to death" school, we often refer to her meat as "jerky" behind her back, and she cooks pasta to mush if not watched carefully too. I thought I hated salmon, until I had wild, properly stored and prepared salmon.

I am mostly willing to try new things, especially if I know I'm in a high-end place or with trusted people where the food will, more often than not, be cooked as it should be. I think if people were less picky, or perhaps less stubborn, they would like many more foods in different preparations if they let go of past experiences of those foods.

I feel your friend's pain. I, too, hate spaghetti, but love angel hair pasta. For me, it is simply that when I was growing up, the only pasta that my mother *ever* made was spaghetti - overcooked, tasteless and rubbery - and to this day, I cannot stomach it. However, she never once made angel hair, and I actually really like it.

I have no patience for irrational bullshit. Contrary to what years of watching Woody Allen movies have led to us believe, neurosis is not endearing.

I love fresh bananas...but I won't eat anything with banana in it...ice cream, bread, etc.

Love carrots raw, can't stand them cooked.
For me pasta is pasta regardless of the shape, but angel hair is not my fav, probably because I usually manage to overcook it and it becomes too mushy. I like the ear shaped pasta because it's a cool shape but I also think it's just right for most of the sauces I like.

I think the "love angel hair/hate spaghetti" idea is silly, but I completely understand how someone could have such preferences.
I agree with the previous post that angel hair is easier to overcook, so it is not my pasta of choice at home, but I'll be happy to eat it in a restaurant if cooked properly.

I know lots of people who do not eat raw tomatoes, but love pizza, pasta sauce, etc. Or, those that will eat salad, but not cooked vegetables. A lot of this comes from childhood, if your mom served you canned or overcooked vegetables, or if you were "forced" to clean your plate.

I do like deep-fried calamari, but don't like it raw (sushi) or boiled (pho, etc.). I'm not adventurous when it comes to offal, or eating animal flesh other than common chicken, turkey, duck, beef, pork, lamb, fish, and shellfish.

I like linguini, but can't stand skinny semolina noodles. But skinny udon noodles are fine. I acknowledge that this makes no sense.

I don't think it's unusual to hate a food prepared one way and love it another. For example, boiled brussels are vile, roasted they are divine.

I'm sure by now you've got your answer but my vote is that your friend has more of a textural issue than a flavor issue and can't articulate the difference.

AuntJone - I am so with you on bananas vs. banana-flavored things!!

Also, I love raisins, love raisin bread, love them in oatmeal, in cookies, cakes, etc. But I HATE raisin bran cereal. For some reason, raisins in my cold cereal, with milk, makes me want to hurl. Odd!

I definitely think that shape/texture affects the taste of pasta. I think that linguine has a different "taste" than spaghetti and I think it's the flatness of the noodle.

I have a cousin who doesn't like uncooked cheese but loves it melted. That is something I really don't get.

for me it's coffee and tea. i love iced coffee but drink it hot when i am home cause i never remember to make ice. i love ice tea but only like hot tea from loose mixes from this lady down the street. tea bags are boring.

I prefer angel hair over pasta too because it makes a better vehicle for the sauce. It's like how a paint brush made from a finer fiber, like sable, holds more paint than a brush of equal length made from more coarse fiber. Maybe it's there's just less space between the noodles to hold more sauce.

I could see angel hair being more of a blank slate as it picks up more pasta sauce (smaller pieces, more surface). He probably likes pasta sauce, but not pasta. :)

Another 'texture alters the taste' issue is with peanut butter: some people will only eat creamy or chunky.

@huneybumper~born and raised in RI. i don't know anyone else that hates it. my mom had a bf that worked for autocrat and we had coffee and coffee syrup up the kazoo. my bf has coffee milk or ice cream all the time and the smell kills me.

@Pavlov - I don't think that not eating tomatoes but eating arrabiatta sauce is weird because arrabiatta might have a lot of other flavors they enjoy.

@radish - I'm the same way with grape! Grape flavoring = nasty, but grapes themselves are delicious.

This one might be a little different but I despise plain red onions, but when they are pickled....yum!

I also like beets but hate borscht (beet soup) with a passion.

Hillary
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