I recently read an article on aol.com about people’s yuck button. It’s that gril button we all have for certain food or dishes.
Hold the beans please!
Mine has always been baked beans. My idea of foodie hell would be to eat an eight-course meal where every dish includes this gravelly, mushy bean drowning in brown goo. I loathe the bean and I curse Clint Eastwood and his cow herding friends for making it so darn popular.
A close second would be polony, mystery meat – any meat in a tube. Meat is not supposed to be served in a tube – that’s all kinds of nasty.
Oh and trifle. I don’t get it? How can soggy bread drowning in a tumble dryer of jelly, custard, fruit and other sweet stuff be called a classic dessert.
Love and loathing
When I posed this question to my friends and colleagues I found out there is quite a fine line between love and loathing. Food like broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, spinach, blue cheese, olives, beetroot and radishes all walk that fine line.
Texture, also seems to play a big part, as a lot of people struggle with the salty-sliminess of a raw oyster or that little jig of a runny egg or the juice of beetroot bleeding all over your plate.
The usual suspects
The usual yuck suspects like tripe, offal and liver got the most votes. And organs – liver, kidneys and things like tongues, brains and feet seemed to press all the wrong taste buttons.
My parents have tripe once a year and invite their family and friends who also love it over. I make sure that I am nowhere near the house on that day. I think there’s something strangely comforting in it for them, because tripe was quite often on my granny’s menu.
I know that the memories I associate with food play a role in my likes and dislikes. I am like a bloodhound when I smell sardines in a can. Instead of following the scent, I run in the opposite direction.
During a silly initiation at university, I had to down half a bottle of Tassenberg and eat a whole can of sardines in tomato sauce while I had another one poured down the front of my top. Sigh – it wasn’t pretty. I have bad (very bad) food memories of sardines and have a giant gril running up my spine just thinking about it.
What food presses your yuck button?
Ilze Dreyer is the deputy editor of Food24 and wants baked beans banned.