Jump to content

"The Picky Eater Files," by Annie Groer


TedE

Recommended Posts

I really don't even know where to begin on this topic. Being a picky eater is something I posted about here (and with great trepidation). My food hangups are NOT something I'm proud of, but old habits - and fears - die hard.

My parents blame themselves for my pickiness because they were never strict with me. I definitely absorbed some of their food issues, but my biggest hang-up (seafood) doesn't come from them. They love seafood. As a kid, I would cry and freak out if they so much as considered cooking seafood for dinner. The smell made me absolutely crazy. It still makes me feel nauseated even though I will now consume small amounts of crab and lobster if prodded. Still no fish. I have tried oysters, shrimp and scallops - just not enjoyable for me at this point.

Growing up, I would ONLY eat American cheese and ONLY in grilled cheese sandwiches. Even then, it had to be 100% melted. Ixnay on the yellow American cheese too; only the white. I wouldn't even eat a cheeseburger! Something changed along the way and now I'm a huge cheese lover. Stinky, runny cheeses, blue cheeses...bring 'em on!

But I grew up with a mother who hates tomatoes and mushrooms, and a dad who won't eat onions. Both like their meat well done or close. Growing up, I did as they did, but now I have come to enjoy both tomatoes and onions (and sometimes, but not always, mushrooms), and I take my meats medium rare or medium, thankyouverymuch. Some of my reluctance to try things is just habit and I take great care to evaluate why I'm not eating something. Texture and smell affect me greatly so I can't always conquer my reluctance to try a new food.

In the right chef's hands, I'm much more inclined to try new things. Thanks to Johnny Monis, I realized that I enjoy goat and cavair. Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that I'd even try these things. It's been a long, long time since I was unable to find an option or two on a menu so there's definitely happy progress.

Other miscellaneous thoughts:

* I'm horrified to think that someone might not invite me to a dinner party because of my food limitations. My closest friends know my tastes and I know that they'd choose friendship over the small inconvenience of having me declinde a course. It's embarassing for me, more than anything else. I am not seeking to create more work for anyone kind enough to have me to their homes for dinner.

* I think that chitterlings (I spend a lot of time in the south) and tripe are on my permanent "forget it list." Who knows, though. I have surprised myself recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always been a very picky eater. I don't care for many vegetables (of the non-starchy varieties), and my proteins were mostly limited to pork, beef, chicken, turkey and dairy. No seafood (except for lobster and tuna from a can), no lamb, veal, organ meat or gamey meats of any variety. No raw protein. I've been far more liberal in styles of preparation, seasonings, spices, etc., and will happily eat the cuisine of any region of the world, assuming my ingredient limitations are met.

I've been working to change that by trying new things at the hands of great chefs. On a tasting menu, I'll try anything placed in front of me. Sometimes I'll develop a taste for something I wouldn't eat previously. Sometimes not. For example, I've had delicious fish at 2941; I still generally don't like the stuff and won't order it, but I will try it. I loved the scallops at Maestro, but otherwise find them only tolerable. As for raw protein, I've tried many carpaccios but don't generally like them; I've tried many tartares but have only found one I'd choose to eat, at the RTC preview dinner (in the eggs). I also found the first shrimp I've ever enjoyed there, but seriously disliked the crab others raved over. At Citronelle I loved the soft-shell crab but didn't care for the blue crab it was stuffed with. I now enjoy venison, if it's from a leaner, less gamey tasting cut, and duck; I still dislike most organ meats but duck liver is quite tasty, and although foie gras has not convinced me of the existence of a divine being, it's making a hell of an argument. Veal cheeks are wonderful, but lamb is still on my no thanks list, although I did order it once to get to the risotto it was served with. I've had delicious clams and oysters, but I still hate anchovies, and I'll never understand why one of the best chefs in the area abused a defenseless piece of mozarella with caviar.

There's still quite a long list of things I just don't like, but it's a much shorter list than it used to be. Quality ingredients and excellent preparation make a huge difference. Trusting the kitchen is also very important.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My parents blame themselves for my pickiness because they were never strict with me. I definitely absorbed some of their food issues, but my biggest hang-up (seafood) doesn't come from them.
My parents were pretty limited in what they would eat, for different reasons, and I got so that I wanted to try things other people ate that we didn't eat at home. My father was more of a classically "picky" eater (mostly meat and potatoes, literally :) ), whereas my mother didn't really enjoy eating that much but had to eat regularly and on a schedule because she was diabetic (a brittle, juvenile/type 1 diabetic--no matter how regimented she was about it, it was very hard for her to keep her blood sugar stable). What she could eat was also dictated by her diabetes and the dietary advice for people with it, which changed significantly over her lifetime. She lived with it for close to 45 years. I think this affected my view of food and eating in ways I still have not quite unraveled.

My mother was a good basic cook but didn't enjoy it much. She made wonderful rib roasts and roasted potatoes and mashed potatoes and meatloaf and all kinds of variations on meat and potatoes! There were some foods one of them liked that the other didn't. Despite his other predilections, father loved asparagus. He had grown up during the Depression, and asparagus was considered too expensive to eat often, so he loved it but hardly ever ate it. When I got to be an older teenager, I'd go to the market and buy him some as a gift so he'd be able to eat it. It seemed crazy to me to have such a limited number of foods to enjoy and then deprive oneself of a food that was really enjoyable.

One thing that still sticks with me is that my father loved calves' liver but not lamb, and my mother was the opposite. Once a month or so, we'd have liver and bacon (cooked by my father) and lamb chops (cooked by my mother), divided up by preference. I was with my mom on this one. I'll eat chicken and duck liver, but I generally am averse to organ meats. That's about the only major food dislike I have. Everybody ate the bacon.

It's weird, though, to think that I never ate pizza or chili until I was a teenager and had it with friends because my parents didn't eat pizza or chili. They didn't eat any ethnic food except checkered tablecloth Italian. Mushrooms were another food they never ate. When I started cooking and a recipe called for mushrooms or avocado or some other food we never ate, I'd go buy them and start eating them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I find people who have aversions to certain foods, I think it is likely we all have at least one thing we do not enjoy to eat at all (durian for me, and bruss). But I try everything. Even the things I think might be weird. I used to avoid tomatoes at all costs but for tomato soup and ketchup. I tried fresh tomates and other preparations maybe 20 years ago and decided I was crazy from not having tried again sooner. No sooner had I decided to try them and realize I really like tomatoes, that my wife and I went to Palena (maybe 2002?) where my wife's starte was an excellent plate of heirloom tomatoes properly seasoned and dressed along with sardines IIRC - incredible.

Anyway, I would strongly encourage people that have dislikes and hangups about food to try them again. Try them again especially if it has been more than a year since you last tried (or 5 years, or 10 years or 20 years). Your tastes DO change over time and you may be missing out on something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...