Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Turkey. Maybe I just think it's gross because I'm not an American. Maybe I think it's gross because at least 50% of thanksgivings there winds up being a dry, disgusting bird on the table. Roasting turkeys smell great. Then in the end, it just tastes like turkey.
Along that vein, how about fatty duck or goose? Smells good, but every mouthful is full of greasy fat chunks. No thanks.
How about unseasoned hamburger meat? Fry it up and it smells tasty but it actually tastes totally gross.
How about the reverse? Milk smells gross but tastes just fine.

Sorry eathermaiden but you're wrong about the salt water. Salt actually raises the boiling point (temperature at which it will boil) so that the boiling water is hotter with salt than without. I'm not sure if the hotter water cooks pasta faster or if it is just that the higher temperature results in a better end product.

This is the same reason why cooking at high altitudes is a problem as the lower atmospheric pressure lowers the boiling point of water. Water boils at lower temperatures and so doesn't properly cook things since the water molecules can't get any hotter than the boiling point and still be in a liquid state.

How about:

1) Olive oil has fewer calories than butter.
2) Drinking milk will make you lose weight.
3) You can't put yucca in soup (I bought yucca root and said I was going to put it in soup. My mother said, "You can't put yucca in soup." She perhaps meant, "You can't put yucca in soup and expect me to eat it").

@tracyd - I think the pesticide-thing depends on fruit/vegetable involved. For example, it's impossible to really wash everything out of your broccoli, but a smooth-skinned fruit might not be so bad. Ideally, I would buy organic produce whenever I intended to eat the skin. But, uh, I earn hourly wages, so I'm just happy to have fruits and vegetables!

I have a friend who insists that calories are not a factor in weight gain, but that the weight of the food determines how much weight you gain. So, you can eat a pound of brocoli or a pound of chocolate cake and it will have the same effect on your waistline. Oh, if only that were true.....

My mom insists that the skin on fruits and veggies is so contaminated with pesticides that the only healthy way to eat them is to wash and peel the skin first. It drives me crazy because I know that the vitamins are most concentrated in the skin. The pesticides can not be that bad, can they? Can't we just wash them off like we always have in the past?

@em- I've met folks that have those "allergy disconnects," and it drives me nuts, too. If you don't like something, just say you don't like it!

However, in your friend's defense, raw shrimp is often treated with thimerosol (sp?) as a preservative. When the shrimp is cooked, the preservative dissipates. If you wear contacts, you may notice that most liquid solutions say "thimerosol-free." It is a fairly common allergen, though I've never heard of anyone being "deathly allergic" to it. It usually causes hayfever-type symptoms.