What the hell is curry? How about we get a burger?

Well, Picky Eater in that article is a pretentious cunt with no tastebuds. First off it's ROBIOLA, not Robiolo, and secondly, why in fuck would you pair a nutty, buttery, overly rich food(white truffle) with a buttery, sweet, rich cheese? And top it off with extra butter as well? Hell, I wouldn't eat that shit. Learn to balance your flavours, you stupid whore, you just murdered a fucking white truffle.



Focus:

I grew up in Italy, my parents are foodies who insisted I try everything at least once from an early age, I regularly watch cooking shows to steal ideas and I can do that sweet-ass thing with a chef's knife when I chop stuff up really fast, so yeah, food's kind of a big deal to me. I eat about 90% of my meals at home, so I get a lot of practice, and I'm the designated cook at friends/family gatherings. I can recognise good flavour, but I'm not a picky eater - yes, I'd RATHER eat pumpkin and sour cream veloute' over a wild mushroom and goat's cheese crostini, but hey, if all you've got is sliced bread, chips and microwaved hamburgers, that'll do just fine too.

That being said, I fucking HATE people who refuse to try something on principle (unless it's religious or ethical). I mean, you have a bite of something and it tastes like fried asshole to you, then fair enough, I won't force that shit on you. But balking in front of a plate of food because "I bet it tastes gross" or "I think I won't like it" like you're a fucking spoiled six-year-old is fucking ridiculous. Eat the damn food, you'll probably like it.

The amount of times I'm out for dinner in Rome and I see tourists cramming Hard Rock Cafe' or McDonald's into their mouths, or sitting down at shitholes that serve boring-ass, bland, safe, processed versions of real Italian food boggles my mind. IT'S ALL RIGHT THERE. ALL THAT DELICIOUS SHIT. EAT IT ALREADY.

 

I think this is massively important if you care about food at all. I'm a pretty serious cook, and everyone in my family is a foodie (not in a horrible pretentious sense, but we appreciate really good food/trying new restaurants/etc). The last guy I dated wouldn't eat cheese, chicken, meat that wasn't well done, vegetables that weren't carrots, sushi, thai, and on and on. Whenever my family would try to take us/him somewhere nice, he would say horrifying things like "Can't we just go to TGIF?" Then, we would end up nice places and he would pick at his food like a petulant child.

Needless to say, this was a HUGE problem. I spent a ton of time trying to convince him to try new things, eat the things I cooked, etc, and finally just gave up because he wasn't worth it/let people be closeminded if they want. I have a really hard time understanding how massive differences on something this fundamental actually work.

 

To answer scootah's question, curry and sushi were relatively "normal" in my suburban New Hampshire hometown. So I think it's safe to say that yes, they're everywhere.

Anyone who says the following sentence is probably unimaginably boring:

I bet he likes Nickelback too.

Also, what does this even mean?

Best out-of-context sentence in the article:

Edit: Is anyone else getting a banner ad for the dating site BBWCupid.com in this thread?

 

I'm in a similar situation BUT my gf is awesome in that she at least tries everything. For me, that's really important. Who am I to judge what she does or doesn't like? The will to actually try things (and discover highly random things that she does in fact like) is important. Also, she's really easy-going and won't make a fuss about anything, so it doesn't bother me at all. While it limits the things I can cook & share, it doesn't limit what I can eat at all.

In essence the actual food compatibility isn't really important, but the willingness to give things a try coupled with general tolerance and non-asshattery is.

edit: The answer to the question is yes, they can be happy. I'll try anything (rat, duck-embryo, anything) while she'll try a bit, not like it and go on happily eating her food.

 

It's one thing to be a foodie. It's another to pay more for a fungus than you would for a cow.

 

I'm the same way, but I don't consider any of that stuff weird. I saw a restaurant in China that served everything with rat. You could go out to the back where they bred them and pick your own rat(s) if you wanted. My dad told me about a business meeting in Japan where they strapped a monkey in the center of the table, with only it's head peeking out. They then lopped off the top of the head, scraped the brains out with a spoon, and fried them on a grill in front of them, kind of like Korean barbecue. That's weird.

I'm all about variety. With very few exceptions there isn't anything I can eat very often. Sadly, as a cook I'm just ok for right now, and it's definitely something I need to improve on. I can cook Asian/American food decently and love to make my own steak marinades. As for girls, I couldn't care less what they eat so long as they aren't obese. That doesn't mean I won't argue endlessly over what constitutes good taste.

 

My girl and I are pretty big foodies and both love to try new things from Vietnamese street meat to haute cuisine, bring it. I'm totally intolerant of people who won't even try something new. If you give it a fair go and don't like it, fine. If you won't even try it, Fuck You, I'm going to be judging you as a petulent child and have nothing but contempt for you, sorry.

For me one of the huge parts of travel is the food. As Tommy says above, if you travel and stick to McDonalds you're an asshole. Also make an attempt to pronounce food correctly I was in Florence last year in a little hole in the wall restaurant and heard an American girl order a spaghetti bolognese, by asking "can I have the pasta with meat sauce and a coke" wanted to slap the bitch.

So yeah I could never be with someone who didn't appreciate or know anything about food.

 

There's "I try new foods, like curry and sushi", and then there's the stuff Anthony Bourdain does at work...


Boyfriend is happy to try almost any food, with the exception of tofu. His issue is texture - most of my favourite childhood Chinese foods are off-putting to him because they have a texture that he finds unpleasant. Me, I grew up in a house with chicken feet, taro cake, sticky rice made with thousand-year-old-eggs and (thanks, Grandma) the occasional pickled squirrel (you just drink the liquid). Weird foods don't bother me.

Houseguest, when she was staying with us, had more foods she "couldn't eat" than foods she could. No broccoli, no eggs, no tomatoes, all meat had to be well-done, no fish or seafood, no onions, nothing spicy, nothing "soupy", nothing too acidic, nothing too creamy. After three days of trying to cater to her, we decided to just give her a section of the freezer for her chicken fingers and frozen fries, and let her fend for herself. Unreal.

 

My parents always call me a picky eater, but there's only a few things that I will not eat - such as:


Carrot - I cannot stomach the taste or texture, regardless if it's cooked or raw; if it's part of a dish, I'll try and scrape as much of it to the side as I can

Bacon and other smoked meat or meat cooked over smoke - guaranteed to make me nauseous. I don't think anyone here would knowingly eat something that they know will make themselves sick.

Lutefisk, balut, other "very exotic" foods - No. Just not happening. If it looks like snot or I can see a beak/mouth and eyes, I am NOT eating it. I do not give a fuck how tasty you say it is. However, I do eat escargot - no beak or eyes there!

 

I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't eat with most of them members here as I am extremely picky. Here is a quick list of "normal" food that I don't like;

sour cream
guacamole
onions (of ANY type)
any cooked bell peppers
raw red or yellow bell pepper
tomatoes
artichokes
avocado
refried beans
cottage cheese
pulpy OJ
chunky salsa (like where its just chunks of tomato, onion & stuff)
French onion soup
spinach
hard boiled eggs
sunny side up eggs
nuts in my brownies, ice cream etc
red apples

etc
etc

You get the idea. A slab of ice berg lettuce on my burger is my version of "getting my vegetables"

 

I'm not sure what "South" you're referring to, but in my area of Texas, we have an abundance of excellent sushi and curry restaurants, many of them not in the major cities, either. There's also a town between Dallas and Ft Worth that has a large Vietnamese population and the LittleSaigon" area is replete with restaurants where you can get your pho on. Gun Barrel City is probably going to be a little different. You might find one Chinese take-out spot, but this compensated with an abundance of fried catfish and a year-round DQ.

The explosive trend around has been wood or coal fired brick oven pizza. Somehow, that cooking element and the mention of EVOO imported from "a quiet hamlet nestled in the foothills outside Naples" justifies a $30 price tag.

And we have some really great dining available in gas stations. Seriously. Triple D did a segment on the one in Wautaga (duck with morel mushroom risotto served inside a Comoco station!). There's also a Shell station in Southlake that makes the best burgers in the area (served with choice or fries or tater tots--who doesn't order tater tots?!?!)

 

I'm totally adventurous - I enjoy pineapple on my pizza.

 

If you add hummus, sushi, queso and bleu cheese or gorganzola along with fruits to that list you pretty much have some main components of my every week diet.

I realized recently that I am becoming a food snob more and more as I get older. I no longer eat fast food or chain restaurants (unless dire emergency or I am with others because I am not an asshole), I research and only eat at the best local restaurants in whatever city I am vacationing in, and my husband and I can cook some incredible things at home.

A recent example: Last night we dined at a chain restaurant because some friends wanted to go and we had a gift certificate that someone had given my husband. I had steak, sweet potato and a salad. My friend had a burger that I tasted as well. The food was edible and ok but my husband and I can cook all of those things at home with better quality ingredients and techniques which make for a much more delightful experience. We have actually cooked burger and steaks in the past two weeks and both were light years better than this restaurant. I also am currently planning my husband's birthday "party" which will be dinner with approximately 15-20 people attending. We had dim sum last year and I have had several friends actually request this again because they enjoyed it so much last year. I was going to choose a local seafood restaurant for something different but upon consulting my husband it will be dim sum again.

I would love to have a favorite recipe thread to share and gain some new recipes.

 

Add ham with that. Best pizza toppings ever.

Almonds should never be mixed in with delicious food...the texture, the blandness. Just no. Rocky Road ice cream is just fine without almonds and fudge with almonds... Why? I know their healthy and all but spare me.

 

Ahem

I will also agree with your point about rather cooking at home than going to most chain restaurants. I, like you, find myself criticizing my meal whenever I go out to a restaurant and thinking about how I could have not only made it better at home, but also how much cheaper it would be to make a better meal.

Fortunately for me, I do most of the cooking in my house and it's pretty much an unspoken rule that I'm going to make whatever I want to eat, and if anyone in the house doesn't like it, you're either on your own for food or you don't eat. Thankfully, though, my girlfriend is pretty open minded about eating a lot of things, so rarely is it an issue.

 

I second this. I know we have the Cooking Thread, but it would be nice to have a roughly organized recipe thread as well. I'm also always available for advice and whatnot, should anyone need it.

FOCUS: It's a deal-breaker for me. One of my few. I mean, I'm a fuckin' chef. My entire career is based on making magic with food, and finding creative and often unorthodox, outlets for odds and ends. I've dated only one woman who didn't cook for a living, and I couldn't connect with her on any meaningful level. Every other woman? Chefs, cooks, bakers, etc. Those are the women I can connect with. A most women who cook for a living fuck like tigers, just for the record.

Now, my wife is a vegetarian, but she only asks that I respect what I eat, and not waste any of it. As long as I follow that very important and responsible* rule, anything is fair game. I mostly eat vegetarian, which saves me the trouble of having to prepare two meals each night, but every now and again I'll bust out something meaty.

*This is a rule everyone should live by

 

Add bacon and it becomes perfect.

Texture is the only thing that gets me. Things like mushrooms, tofu, avocado, etc...slimy things are avoided. I'm also not a sushi person because of the texture mix; the rice, avoado, raw fish, seaweed kills everything for me. And those fried ones are still out of the question. Also, I have a couple weird picks: hate chocolate ice cream, love fudgecycles, no cold tomatoes, only cooked, no nuts besides pistacios(sp?) and sunflower seeds.

Back to the original focus, I could never be with someone who was picky in odd ways, although I could get used to certain diets, vegans are just plain nuts...see what I did there? At least I think that works. Anywho, I am definitely down for trying just about anything, not those fetus egg things, that just fucking disgusting.

 

I'm no Andy Zimmerman or Tony Bourdain, however I'll usually give a new food a try. My older brother eats like a six year old yet other than occasionally annoying me when he orders a steak well done, I'm ok with it. His tastes (or lack of) are just that...his. It's the same when some beer shits all over the perfectly content guy drinking a Coors Light or a PBR.

On the other hand, since I've moved to the DC metro area, I've found dietary habits a make or break item. It seems every third women I meet is a vegetarian/vegan and likes to wear the fact on their sleeve like a badge of honor. After a few questions, its usually clear its not for religious/ethical reasons, or deep personal convictions. Instead its a "designer" fad. Those are the ones I can't stand...usually they're the ones who will jump to the moral high ground when I order a burger.