David R. MacIver's Blog
What don't you eat? (How to feed anyone)
I was out for dinner with a friend last night and she wouldn’t eat
the squid in her seafood dish. Nothing wrong with that - we all have
things we don’t like - but it, combined with reading through the latest
post on Smitten Kitchen in a
vain attempt to stave off the cravings induced by StumbleUpon being down
today, made be think about the subject.
Which is not to say it made me think coherently about the subject. It is
a saturday morning. So the following is more of a brain dump than a well
thought out argument. Also it contains no cooking. If you were hoping
for a recipe accompanied my fun filled antics and tomfoolery in the
kitchen, you might want to give up and go back to bed now.
I think I’m pretty open minded about food. I’ll eat most things, within
the restriction that I only eat a restricted subset of meats. I don’t
eat Okra if I can avoid it (it’s the devil’s vegetable), and I don’t
drink wine or beer, but that’s about it. I also don’t eat bad food, but
that’s a separate issue related to me being a snob rather than food
related. :-) On the other hand, I used to not eat dairy either, so I’m
reasonably familiar with the difficulties of working on a restricted
diet.
I know a lot of other people who are very fussy eaters, either by
nature, moral choice or medical neccessity. Amongst my friends and
family we have nut allergies, dairy intolerance, gluten intolerance. One
of my friends can’t eat sweet peppers. Moral choice is more obvious - I
know quite a few vegetarians of varying degrees and lived with a vegan
friend for somewhat over a year.
Then there are people who have things which they just don’t like to eat
(and things who have people whom they just don’t like to eat, but that’s
a separate post). Some of my friends basically don’t eat vegetables, or
don’t like specific vegetables. Mushrooms seem to be the fungi which
everyone loves to hate. My brother’s girlfriend doesn’t eat anything
which is purple.
There’s a tendency to roll one’s eyes and tell them to stop being so
fussy. I’m certainly guilty of it (but then I’m judgmental and horrible.
Ask anyone).
To some extent this is warranted - I can’t imagine not eating most
vegetables, and I find it amazingly difficult to accommodate people
don’t. But part of that is just me - I’m sure if I stuck a great big
slab of bacon on their plate they’d be happy as a pig in... ok, bad
metaphor. But you get the point. I’m sure they’d find it similarly
difficult to feed me.
On the other hand, maybe we should think of restrictions as
opportunities. In my presentation on vegan cooking I mentioned that
there are basically two secrets to good vegan cooking: Variety and
proper use of spices. Neither of these are particularly vegan centric -
they’re just things which happen to be especially important for vegan
cooking. Once you’ve learned them you can port them to any other style
of cooking you like, and you’ll be a better cook for it.
I’m sure other genres of cooking are the same. In cutting something out
of the mix you will expose limitations to your cooking style which its
presence has helped to cover up and, in learning to deal with these
limitations, you will become a better cook for it.
So. What don’t you eat?
Comments
Tim Hardy on 2007-01-28 23:30:00:
My most irrational food dislike is mashed potatoes. I’m not a huge
fan of potatoes in general but enjoy them them roast or fried from time
to time. However a plate of mash induces a gag reflex so strong that I
cannot even swallow a mouthful. The origins of this lie in a product
called Smash (instant mashed potato) that I was forced to eat at primary
school. Just the thought of that horrible creamy mess is enough to make
me feel ill decades later...
All of which goes to show, it’s not just the raw ingredients that might
bother a fussy eater, but also their preparation.