Nanci Kuykendall

This is an interesting conversation. I wonder if it
is a genetic predisposition, some kind of hunter
gatherer sensativity to certain textures. Maybe it
has to do with racial heritage, or maybe it's just a
random thing. I know that I am almost all Irish, and
I can't eat (either from allergies or from dislike)
many tropical foods, like coconuts, bananas, avacados,
and others. Then again, I adore lemons, and those are
not cool weather fruits, so it's probably just a
coincidence, but an interesting one. I grew up in a
household where cooking was considered a high art, and
in a city world famous for it's restaurants, with
parents who liked to eat out , travel and eat out, and
to host gatherings where food was a focal point. They
were in gourmet clubs for many years. So I had
exposure to many different incarnations of foods
bearing the items I dislike, prepared very well, but
was still never able to eat them.

>Hey I did this with my son in law. He hates tomatoes
>he said. I asked him when the last time he tried
>them, after all he loves sauce and ketchup.
>He willing tried it again after admitting it had been
>years, shook his head no and went to the trash.
>Something about the texture.

This is me too. I love sun dried tomatoes, tomates in
stews, sauces, pizza, etc, but fresh tomatoes, blech!
Unless they are cut up very small. I guess it's
textures. I always peel them off sandwiches and
burgers and things like that. I peel off the warm
wilty sauce covered lettuce too, puke!

My husband, when we first got married, had dislikes to
a lot of foods, like a number of vegetables, many
different dishes (like meatloaf, or pork chops) many
spices, and other things. I was dismayed at the
limitations in what he said was appealing to him for
me to cook. It turns out that almost all of these
dislikes are due to his being raised in a household
without very impressive cooking, where vegetables came
out of the freezer or a can, a lot of margarine was
used, and everthing was boiled and overcooked. I'm a
pretty good cook, and I use mostly fresh ingredients,
always of good quality, lots of herbs and spices,
enjoy experimenting and have a pretty good sense of
what tastes and textures go well together. I have
never cooked anything that he tasted and didn't like.
Almost without exception he raves over it.

Now my meatloaf, pork chops, stuffed peppers, steamed
veggies and many other things he never used to eat are
his favorite things. Just this morning he was doing a
little happy dance because he got to take leftover
meatloaf to work for his lunch. He loves getting all
kinds of envious comments from his coworkers when he
heats up his good smelling lunches and dinners at work
(he teaches night classes.) He's learned to be quite
a good cook in his own right, making things from
scratch, baking bread, and using spices with
confidence. He often marvels at how he is eating
something with relish now (like a big salad with lots
of veggies, or candied yams) that he never would have
even wanted to put in his mouth before. It makes me
wonder how much of some food dislikes are due to
environment or limited experience and how much are
just inborn.

Nanci K.