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pecuniumAs might be obvious, I like food.
For some reason some of the politics of food choice is zooming around the internet (bouncing from one link to the next shows how such things spread, and the way in which conversation happens in the strange mental place which the internets inhabit in our heads, but I digress).
But I don't want to make this post about food politics (which is never far from the surface of lots of conversations, things one might not expect to be about them often bounce to them in the strangest of ways), no I want to talk about the foods I don't like, and the strange ways in which that afflcts me.
All of us have foods we hate (even Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything has things he just won't eat, avgolemono soup, for one). I happen to dislike a smallish number (ot maybe not so small, but I happen to like enough other things, and some of them strange, or seen as exotic, that my dislikes seem less, in comparison).
Most I can eat around. A few are deal breakers. I won't eat the dish they are in, no matter how much you dress it up with other things I like, cooked spinach and artichokes fall into that category. The first makes me retch, and I am one of that portion of the population for whom artichoke makes other foods sweeter. This means it bothers me. By iteslf I find it sort of pointless. Not that tasty and too much work. If I need an excuse to eat hollandaise (or good mayonaise) apsaragus, french fries, or celery sticks work just fine
Liver is funny. I love the smell of live being cooked, can't abide the way it tastes, nor the feel of it on my tongue, or in my teeth. But make a forcemeat of it, or a pate/terrine, and I'll scarf it down, YUM.
Bell Peppers. Yucky, and potent. They flavor the foods they are on/in, with an amazing strength. I can eat around them, but they diminish the dish for me.
Mushrooms, sautéed in butter. The smell overwhelms me, and the flavor is rank. It's why I never cared for cream of mushroom soup. Mushrooms and I have an odd relationship anyway. Texture is something I am very aware of, and they have a distinct one. Up until I was about 15 I thought I flat out didn't like them, until my mother left them out of a dish. It was awful. So I ate around them. In the past 15 years or so I've learned to eat them, and enjoy the texture of well done mushroom dishes (and there's a pointless turn of phrase; practically tautolgic, if I liked the dish, it was well done). Putting them on pizza has all the same problems of sautéing them in butter, but more so.
Broccoli. This one's iffy. There are some broccolis I like. Some I don't. They way most restaurants treat them is revolting. Overdone, too stemmy and falling apart to affect all the other veggies in the dish. Cooked cauliflower is the same way, though I like it raw.
Eggplant. Again, there are a few dishes I like. That has led me to try more, but in the main, I can do without it.
Most fish. This is probably my greatest regret. I read of fish dishes, and I get hungry. But the actual stuff runs from, "I won't send it back" to "get this away from me". I experiment by tasting other people's. Were I to do restaurant reviews, I'd need accomplices who like things with fins and scales.
Milk. Slimy and nasty. Things done with it are wonderful, and I can eat cream straight out of the bottle, yogurts and kefir are fine. Lassi is a swell drink, but milk... vile.
Okra. Slimy. Wouldn't be gumbo without it, but that's as far it it goes.
Mango. No. Just no.
My problem is that many of these are ubiquitous. Broccoli and cooked cauliflower are almost staples in the chain restaurant side dish. Mango shows up in drinks, desserts, chutnies, salads, marinades, you name it.
Spinach, mushrooms and eggplant define an entire school of vegetarian cooking (the restaurant which wants to have a couple of items for vegetarians. Spinach lasagna, spinach quiche, eggplant parmagiana; ravioli, etc.).
Bell peppers... almost impossible to avoid.
That's pretty much my list.
So there are a lot of people who see me not eat from that list, and think I am picky, or just don't like vegetables.
How about you? (we can get into the politics of food choice some other time, or raise issues in comments)
For some reason some of the politics of food choice is zooming around the internet (bouncing from one link to the next shows how such things spread, and the way in which conversation happens in the strange mental place which the internets inhabit in our heads, but I digress).
But I don't want to make this post about food politics (which is never far from the surface of lots of conversations, things one might not expect to be about them often bounce to them in the strangest of ways), no I want to talk about the foods I don't like, and the strange ways in which that afflcts me.
All of us have foods we hate (even Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything has things he just won't eat, avgolemono soup, for one). I happen to dislike a smallish number (ot maybe not so small, but I happen to like enough other things, and some of them strange, or seen as exotic, that my dislikes seem less, in comparison).
Most I can eat around. A few are deal breakers. I won't eat the dish they are in, no matter how much you dress it up with other things I like, cooked spinach and artichokes fall into that category. The first makes me retch, and I am one of that portion of the population for whom artichoke makes other foods sweeter. This means it bothers me. By iteslf I find it sort of pointless. Not that tasty and too much work. If I need an excuse to eat hollandaise (or good mayonaise) apsaragus, french fries, or celery sticks work just fine
Liver is funny. I love the smell of live being cooked, can't abide the way it tastes, nor the feel of it on my tongue, or in my teeth. But make a forcemeat of it, or a pate/terrine, and I'll scarf it down, YUM.
Bell Peppers. Yucky, and potent. They flavor the foods they are on/in, with an amazing strength. I can eat around them, but they diminish the dish for me.
Mushrooms, sautéed in butter. The smell overwhelms me, and the flavor is rank. It's why I never cared for cream of mushroom soup. Mushrooms and I have an odd relationship anyway. Texture is something I am very aware of, and they have a distinct one. Up until I was about 15 I thought I flat out didn't like them, until my mother left them out of a dish. It was awful. So I ate around them. In the past 15 years or so I've learned to eat them, and enjoy the texture of well done mushroom dishes (and there's a pointless turn of phrase; practically tautolgic, if I liked the dish, it was well done). Putting them on pizza has all the same problems of sautéing them in butter, but more so.
Broccoli. This one's iffy. There are some broccolis I like. Some I don't. They way most restaurants treat them is revolting. Overdone, too stemmy and falling apart to affect all the other veggies in the dish. Cooked cauliflower is the same way, though I like it raw.
Eggplant. Again, there are a few dishes I like. That has led me to try more, but in the main, I can do without it.
Most fish. This is probably my greatest regret. I read of fish dishes, and I get hungry. But the actual stuff runs from, "I won't send it back" to "get this away from me". I experiment by tasting other people's. Were I to do restaurant reviews, I'd need accomplices who like things with fins and scales.
Milk. Slimy and nasty. Things done with it are wonderful, and I can eat cream straight out of the bottle, yogurts and kefir are fine. Lassi is a swell drink, but milk... vile.
Okra. Slimy. Wouldn't be gumbo without it, but that's as far it it goes.
Mango. No. Just no.
My problem is that many of these are ubiquitous. Broccoli and cooked cauliflower are almost staples in the chain restaurant side dish. Mango shows up in drinks, desserts, chutnies, salads, marinades, you name it.
Spinach, mushrooms and eggplant define an entire school of vegetarian cooking (the restaurant which wants to have a couple of items for vegetarians. Spinach lasagna, spinach quiche, eggplant parmagiana; ravioli, etc.).
Bell peppers... almost impossible to avoid.
That's pretty much my list.
So there are a lot of people who see me not eat from that list, and think I am picky, or just don't like vegetables.
How about you? (we can get into the politics of food choice some other time, or raise issues in comments)
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:11 pm (UTC)I will not touch asparagus and most fungi.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:25 pm (UTC)Used to not like tomatoes because they were slimy.. now I can't get enough of them, especially during heirloom season.
Asparagus: my taste buds have liked it on two very rare occasions in my life. One was cream of asparagus which tasted like asparagus, but did not have any of the bitterness that I almost always taste. The other was peeled asparagus stalks. Every other time, it has tasted incredibly bitter. Even young ones. Even whatever ones.. it is bitter.
Peanuts/nuts in dishes: their flavor just overwhelms anything they are in. I used to like creamy peanut butter but became a chunky person because of the new enjoyment of the texture of the crunch. But it is a flavor that I think has become overused.
Neat hard liquor: I don't enjoy breathing drinks which fume. Maybe something mixed is nice, but if fumes come from my mouth, I really can't enjoy my drink because of the difficulty of drinking around it. Interestingly enough, port is just fine by me.
Gizzard, tripe, and muscles: they're just a little too chewy for me. But I like sweetbreads and oysters.
Stew: Dad, from an Irish lineage, would make enouh stew to eat for the next two weeks. Understandably, I would get very tired of it. I avoid it where possible.
Most cooked fruits: I like my fruits raw and natural. I'll eat a few in cooked state, such as apple or strawberry pie, poached pear, and jams and jellies. But if you give me something like a blackberry or blueberry pie, I'll avoid it. The fruit has been altered from a state that I like it in and become mushy.
I don't think I've ever come across anything I haven't liked outside this list and I am quite a foodie otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:32 pm (UTC)Eggplant I'm iffy on. A few dishes, yes, most no.
Okra is nasty.
What I won't eat: Most organ meats, raw tomatoes (cooked is ok if chopped small), squid and octopus I've tried, but don't comprehend-they're rubbery, anchovies and smelt and other eat-them-whole fish, raw oysters (snot on a shell), eggs sunny side up or over easy (again with the snot), insects, snails, sea cucumber (it looks like a turd), monkey, dog, cat and horse for sentimental reasons, although I like a good rabbit. Pretty much anything else I'd be willing to try once.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:47 pm (UTC)Anchovy is not for pizza, but it doesn't ruin the whole thing, just the slice it's on. A friend of mine used (before he entered fandom) to order pizza with one anchovy. He hated anchovy, but it kept other college kids from eating any of the rest of the pie.
Fans just did what he did. The more finicky avoiding the adjdacent slices.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:27 am (UTC)K. [former breakfast cook]
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 10:42 pm (UTC)Oysters, and raw eggs, as said below, too slimy (see Okra). Spinach can be eaten, when cooked, as spanokopita that's it.
I made the mistake once of deciding that my problem with cooked spinach (induced by a terrible pre-school, which had only one foodstuff which had to be eaten; you guessed it, spinach; canned and then overcooked) was gone.
So, at a restaurant I frequented at the time (Hamburger Hamlet, just down the way from <lj user =rednikki, and where we had our first meal together. At the time it was a weekly get-together with friends) I decided to have the hamburger florentine. I managed to avoid spitting it onto my plate. TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:17 pm (UTC)The problem is that this foodstuff is sufficiently universal to make me Little Miss Picky in a lot of lunch establishments. And in its usual applications, it can't be picked out or scraped off. Know what it is?
Mayonnaise.
Horrible, sickly, oily demonsmeg that isn't even delicious but is used as a filler to allow skimping on the good stuff. And in this country it can be a bugger finding a sandwich that doesn't have any.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 01:09 am (UTC)You're not.
DV
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 05:18 am (UTC)and when they just put that burger that has been in contact with mayo on another bun, guess what, it gets sent back again.
you cannot scrape off the flavor. *shudder*
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 12:54 am (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 05:05 pm (UTC)Oh, there is one other thing that I really don't like: savoury jellies. To me that texture is wrong for anything that's not sweet.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 02:15 am (UTC)I used to think I hated mayo until I tasted the good stuff. It's Miracle Whip I can't stand, and that's all my mom ever bought.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:17 pm (UTC)I've lost the taste for mushrooms from years of not eating them:
Overcooked broccoli and spinach -- and even worse, overcooked brussel sprouts -- are vile.
I don't like most fish because it simply is not fresh enough. I grew up part of a large Catholic family in Florida, and my dad would go fishing on the weekend to supplement the family food budget. He was quite a good fisherman, and I got used to eating trout that was either very fresh or had been completely frozen while very fresh. So fresh in fact that I didn't know what "fish smell" was until I went into a fishmonger's with a friend in college (very fresh fish have no smell).
Prosciutto is soapy, and Serrano ham but a bit better. Blech.
Many strong cheeses I find off-putting. I am not fond of strong bleu cheese, or aged manchego, for example, or very very sharp cheddar.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 12:55 am (UTC)But I found some baby sprouts which were just blanched. They were sweet, and damned good. They were part of a duck salad.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:26 pm (UTC)Texture can be an issue. I'm not big on slimy or gooey things, for the most part. (No natto or uni for me, thanks.)
Most processed deli meat tastes like chemicals to me (and the texture is unpleasant). It's a cause for minor rejoicing when I discover a place that makes their turkey sandwiches from a real turkey that they roasted earlier in the day.
And then there are all the foods I like but avoid because they don't agree with me (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, dairy...) *mournful sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 12:53 am (UTC)Just in case you were looking for a common cause.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:40 pm (UTC)I was not particularly fond of brussel sprouts or asparagus, but that's because my mother only made them when they were out of season.
The only thing I have found I have no stomach for is beets. I have yet to find a way to cook beets that does not leave them smelling like nauseous dirt.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 03:47 am (UTC)wow. You have wider food repertoire
Date: 2006-09-01 01:05 am (UTC)His favorite things are smoked meats, especially ribs, though he also makes a frizzled breaded chicken liver thing (breaded with parmesan/breadcrumbs/garlic) that I will actually eat when I will not eat any other plain liver product -- I too like pates and terrines of liver, but my mother did terrifying things with beef liver that scarred me for life.
His vege palette is: onions, bell peppers in every color, lettuce, corn and potatoes. He Does eat most fruits and any fruit dessert in our house has a short shelf life though we've had cakes go moldy. He doesn't 'do' any condiments besides barbecue sauce.
I may take my own comments to my own LJ though.
Re: wow. You have wider food repertoire
Date: 2006-09-01 01:15 am (UTC)TK
Re: wow. You have wider food repertoire
Date: 2006-09-01 01:21 am (UTC)Though cooking cooked liver (say a grilled patty of braunshweiger) is quite nice.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 01:34 am (UTC)Cooked cauliflower doesn't really have much of a taste to me, but for some reason it also induces regurgitation, and I have no idea why. Never tried it raw.
Mushrooms -- eh. It's a texture thing.
rambling about food...
Date: 2006-09-01 02:03 am (UTC)I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian, have been since I was 21. The smell of cooking beef or turkey makes my mouth water, but the idea of eating flesh again kinda makes me oogy. I don't like touching it, and even when I was omnivorous I didn't like skin, fat, or bones. Organ meats were right out (though for a short time in childhood I did voluntarily eat sauteed chicken livers). I did like fish and shrimp, and the meaty parts of lobster, but could not abide most bivalves, scallops being the exception. Though accidentally ingesting fish or fowl makes me feel sort of defiled these days, they won't hurt me; however, eating red meat will, as I can't digest it anymore.
Vegetarian protein sources I like: Tofu, seitan, edamame, tempeh, cheese, some nuts and nut butters, legumes.
Things I've tried to like but just don't: Eggplant, coffee, and beer. It would be very useful to like eggplant, since so many places and people assume that vegetarians eat it, but no matter how many chances I give it, I just don't. I don't mind a bit of coffee flavor in things, but I just can't drink it. Beer is just Teh Ick. I love ciders and lambics, though.
I had to learn to like tomatoes, mushrooms, and the more pungent cheeses. Cheese can get too pungent for me, though; if it starts to smell of ammonia, it ceases to be food. that's why I prefer blue cheeses on the youngish side. I didn't eat them until about 2 years ago.
I won't eat mayonnaise, vinegar, ketchup, mustard, relish, pickled things, salad dressings, sour cream, or most other condiments. I do like balsamic vinegar, though.
I don't like foods with snotty textures (with fresh tomatoes I eat only the fleshy part), though I do like foods with soft, smooth textures (custard, silken tofu, avocado, etc.). I don't like mealy textures, like when apples are getting past their prime. I don't care for overly bitter tastes. I like peanut butter, but I don't like peanuts. When I eat nuts, I usually prefer them on their own instead of in things, and definitely prefer baked goods without nuts.
Jeez, when I lay it all out there, I feel a little bit like a freak. :-} I'm actually more adventurous now than I was 10-15 years ago, though. It's just that i'm very definite about what is and is not food for me.
Re: rambling about food...
Date: 2006-09-01 02:44 am (UTC)Yuck. Unpleasant flavor, and nasty texture. It does defile the things it touches.
So Maia gets lots of contaminated mexican food.
TK
Re: rambling about food...
Date: 2006-09-01 05:16 am (UTC)Re: rambling about food...
Date: 2006-09-01 02:47 am (UTC)It is a blessing from on high.
TK
Re: rambling about food...
Date: 2006-09-01 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:25 am (UTC)Perhaps my liking of pretty much every comestible is behind this opinion.
K.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 04:51 am (UTC)generally slimy foods i can't abide. okra, runny egg whites; that stuff actually induces my gag reflex. also, gristle in meats; i will clean any meat i cook very thoroughly to remove silver skin and other assorted features that turn to slime-covered hardness when cooked. but i don't find the inside of tomatoes slimy in the same nasty way.
i am quite picky when it comes to condiments -- there are certain preservatives that make the whole dish taste like it came from the morgue. i have very definite ideas as to what mustards and pickles i buy; mostly if its american hotdog fare i'd rather go hungry.
vegetables i like either raw or blanched; any vegetable that's boiled limp like my mother made it can just stay away from me. i really like peppers especially, including the lowly green bellpepper, but i don't like it all that much raw; i'll blanch it when i include it in salads. i'm especially fond of hungarian dishes with peppers and paprika. i also blanch broccoli and cauliflower, just a bit. broccoli is most sensitive to being a certain consistency, on either side of it i don't like it much. cauliflower i can handle much better even if it's not perfect. dislike mashed peas. okra. did i mention okra? hate okra. keep it out of gumbo too. eggplant i can take or leave; tend to like thai eggplant, but aubergine not so much. again the consistency and manner of preparation matters. celery i am becoming less and less tolerant of; dislike the taste. the root is still ok in certain winter dishes, the tops i mostly avoid now. artichoke is way too much effort for *meh* results.
spinach falls into the "dull and boring" class of foods, along with iceberg lettuce, and really, most supermarket lettuces. i grow my own mix which is a lot more flavourful.
mushrooms i like if they're freshly collected, and something other than the totally boring and tasteless white and brown things they have in supermarkets. those i only like canned, which is an oddity (i usually do not like canned foods).
fruit. bring it on. fresh, please. don't care as much for most cooked fruit, though if it's in pie i'll be ok with it. just prefer fresh. i don't know that there is any fruit i don't like. i have to be careful with mango to not eat it straight by gnawing it off the pit; my mouth breaks out from contact with the oils in the skin. i have lots of preferences in this group, but no, can't think of a dislike.
fish must be fresh. M.U.S.T. which leaves out much fish one can buy in regular stores, except here on the island it's relatively easy to suss out the fresh places. or catch it myself; there is no comparison. i especially love sushi, but it's imperative the sushi chef know what zie's doing. oh, and preserved fish is fine; love pickled herring. oh, how i miss a good swedish smorgasbord.
like you i don't like to drink milk straight; but i love most things made from it. especially not fond of skim milk; if it's blue it doesn't count as milk. in summer i'll mix milk with lemon juice and sweetener and guzzle it down before it can curdle. everybody always looks at me like i am nuts. i am, but not because of that :).
meats: tripe. *yuck*. even the smell makes me go *urk*; i used to smear vicks under my nose when i cooked it for the dogs. brains -- the texture is vile. liver is ok, though contrary to you i don't like the smell, but do like the taste and texture. calf and chicken liver better than beef. don't like fatty or gristly cuts. horse is too sweet. prefer not to have bones in my meat, but it's easy enough to eat around.
so, that makes the dealbreakers: slime, gristle, tripe, brains, artificial flavour of death. oh, and "off". there's a certain stage of badness where my stomach will all of a sudden clamp up. i can eat the whole piece of meat up to that bite, and *brrk*, stop it now. i listen.
generally i'm easy, and will eat foods i don't so much care for if there's nothing else (or it would require rudeness to host). also have the good luck not to be allergic to any foods.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 06:23 am (UTC)By thinking hard it might be possible to come up with a list about as long as yours of foods that I don't especially like, and try to avoid -- but I've had almost all of them prepared in some way that rendered them highly-edible or even delicious. Even spinach, eggplant, and bell-pepper, all of which I consider generally only marginally edible.
Unfortunately, I have one -- sadly broad -- area of nearly-total intolerance: Hot Spices. Chili peppers, primarily, but also much more than a hint of black or white pepper, or of several other seasonings common in some ethnic cuisines. They have some unpleasant physiological effects, and they utterly destroy, for several hours, my ability to savor any other flavors. This is not what food is all about, in my book. Actually, a tiny amount seems to be okay -- a scant tablespoonful of Keith Kato's Medium-hot Chili mixed into a large bowl of rice is fine, but I have to be Extremely Careful (not that keeps me away from them, mind you) in Mexican, SE Asian, Cajun, Indian, Korean, & Ethiopian restaurants. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 10:46 am (UTC)The second is fermented soy shoots. I got them in a Japanese restaurant once and it took a glob of that green radish stuff to get rid of the taste -- the ginger wasn't enough.
There's one way of cooking cauliflower that will have me not touch it, but that's not the cauliflower's fault but the cook's.
I doubt if I could get myself to eat insects, no matter how they taste, because I've got a bug phobia.
I strongly dislike, but will eat before I go hungry or offend the host: Squishy innards (lungs, brains, kidneys), most cheeses (esp. mould cheeses, but also feta and everything smelly), fennel or fennel tea, tofu (except in Miso soup), scrambled eggs, asparagus (slimy and tasteless), carp (muddy), and low-fat dairy products. Also, most rooibus teas, "Stroh Rum" and café latte.
There are some things I dislike in whatever dish they appear: some types of preservatives (taste hot and bitter), most artificial sweeteners (burning my tongue), and too much sugar.
Fortunately, I have only one allergy (elderflowers -- not berries).
I actually love eggplant, okra, peppers of all colour, liver, lentils, brussels sprouts, all kinds of cabbages, black olives, anchovies, groats, runny eggs, and all kinds of strange things.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 06:44 am (UTC)Natto, plain. I sometimes will eat it if it's in a dish.
Brains. It could be that I'd really like them, but I will never know because I don't need the prions.
Insects, except for chocolate-covered crickets.
I don't usually like foods with slimy textures but the individual ingredients aren't what put me off them. But otherwise I am willing to try almost anything, and am not very picky about individual ingredients. I've even come around to brussels sprouts, when they're prepared well.
So, a question for you: you dislike bell peppers; what about other capsicums?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 06:57 am (UTC)Brains, well the issue of prions is funny, and I can tell you that it's basically not a worry, but that's not enough to make it worth it. They taste, to me, vaguely of fish.
Depends on the pepper. I don't care much for the flavor of jalepño, when green, but it's good in nacho dips, and wonderful when chipotlized.
Other peppers are ok, though I am not the most heat tolerant of pepper eaters.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 02:59 pm (UTC)Cauliflower. Brussels sprouts. Pretty much any cooked cabbage, although it's fine raw. Rare meat of any variety, medium is about the best I can do. Organ meats are right out; the smell of liver cooking will drive me completely out of the house, ugh. Runny eggs in any form, they need to be cooked through and not slimy. Not so interested in stinky cheeses. I generally prefer to avoid whole fish and other things that still have a head, not for the taste but for the presentation. Don't like most cooked greens, as IME they tend to be slimy. I don't in general like fish roe. I can deal with some small amount of tobiko on sushi (not by itself though), but ikura is right out.
Spinach and broccoli and carrots and such can be cooked well (by which I mean "just barely"), but usually they aren't and in general I'd rather just eat them raw. I don't actively dislike bell peppers, but I don't go out of my way to find them either.
There are a few things that I will eat occasionally, depending on how they're prepared: calamari, eggplant, okra and tofu come immediately to mind.