Haggis (sp?)

My buddy's family is big time Scottish and he is in heaven when this gets served at family functions.

Vegemite, and I'll eat almost anything. I bought a jar this year, couldn't even get past the smell and threw it away.

Sushi-the idea of eating raw fish turns me off.

Fried curds and pickled salmon.

ESH: Back in the '80s when there was an Aussie craze my boss bought some back his trip to Austrailia. He wanted me to try it with him. I refused and he couldn't eat it either. How do they eat that stuff Down Under is beyond me.

Eat More Possum: What is fried curds?

Picklehead
How do they eat that stuff Down Under is beyond me.
I'm sure they wash it down with lots and lots of beer. They'd almost have to.

bananas. The size of a turd and the consistency of toothpaste. No farking thank you.

mayonaise or cheese

Picklehead curds are unpasturized milk, boiled down to a thick consistency and left to sour. I think they about one step before it turns to cheese. Not that bad alone. Fried they are sticky and have a nasty taste (imho). The beautiful and talented Mrs EMP keeps a jar of them curing.

Rocky Mountain Oysters

bananas are satan's fruit.

Eat More Possum: My dad, who would be near 100 if he was alive used to eat cornbread crumbled up with buttermilk. Not sweet cornbread but white. It looked nasty to me.

brains and eggs. boiled kidneys. head cheese. scrapple. potted meat product. tripe (although i have had menudo). pigs feet. pigs ears. pig snout (although i'm sure i've eaten all of that and more in hot dogs - i just don't want feet on my plate). ham and olive or ham and pickle loaf. octopus. gefilte fish in jelly. haggis. and anything that's a reptile or, now that i think about it, an amphibian.

also, no big safari game - no zebra. no tiger. none of that stuff. regular game is fine - deer, elk, whatever.

i do eat sushi, sashimi, carpaccio, snails, liver pate, and eel.

Nesco: When I first moved to Colorado people tried to get me to eat them but I found out quick what they were. Someone finally tricked me into eating it. It was rather plain and don't understand why people like them. And I was angry that I wasn't informed as to what I was eating.

picklehead - that does look nasty, but isn't that different from, say, oatmeal with yogurt instead of milk, which i eat (not hot - cold yogurt, usually with fruit, and oatmeal stirred in).
if you add maple syrup to the buttermilk and cornbread, it's even better. looks farking nasty though. like scrambled eggs and ketchup, only white.

cottage cheese.

Picklehead, sorry your were tricked into that one. When I was little my brother and uncle rolled a horse pellet(shiat) in cookie dough, then convinced me to eat it. I wasn't a happy camper after that either.

One word. Lutefisk.

Picklehead I used to think the same about sushi until I tried it, now it's like crack.

Brains. A guy I used to work with said that every Sunday morning his dad would make scrambled eggs with pork brains. The idea so disgusted me I can't eat scrambled eggs to this day.

on mcrat's suggestion, i'm adding lutefisk to my list.

Picklehead I like cornbread and buttermilk. It's an Appalachian favorite.

CineKal We had a steer slaughtered a couple of weeks ago and the little lady went wild over the brains, tongue and heart. They really are tasty, it's just the thought of what you are eating.

Thai fish sauce. The stuff smells like feet. =P

Eat More Possum: My parents are from the South. I've ate all kinds of greens and beans. Fried everything or it seemed like it. I liked fried green tomatoes and eggplant. I don't eat that stuff now. About the only Southern cooking I eat is fried chicken and fried okra at some restaurants. I miss my mother's chicken and dumplings.

Womblebug My husband thinks Parmesan cheese and Kraft mac and cheese smell like feet.

Nuts, the fleshy kind, from any species, plus several things that have already been mentioned.

Fried okra, yum, yum. That's my favorite veggie.

Something else I won't touch is that damned dried fish they they eat in Russia. They beat it on something to soften it and was it down with vodka.

Fried okra...great stuff...I also love fried chicken gizzards with loads of Tabasco chased by a few cold Shiners...I don't know if there is anything (fairly) mainstream that I wouldn't at least TRY...you never know what you might be missing...

okra is reminiscent of a three inch long booger. Nossir, I don't like it. I did try it though.

There is almost nothing I will not eat (except caulk). Not too fond of mustard, though.

/off to make myself an iguana and whalefat sandwich

Womblebug:

If thai fish sauce smells like your feet, you either need to shower more or visit a podiatrist.

To answer the question: nothing. I'll try anything once. So far, I haven't found anything I detest. I will never discount a food or cuisine just because it "sounds gross." Sushi IS crack. I grew up on raw shellfish (New Englander). Rocky Mountain Oysters taste much like fried clams. Can't wait to taste haggis (getting married in Scotland in September). Okra is... interesting. If prepared well, the gooiness doesn't bother me. I adore anything pickled - anything. I adore game meat.

But if you're looking something else to add to your close-minded lists (that is, if you write something off without even having tried it), add natto. Look it up. For you sushi freaks: try ordering it at your favorite sushi bar. Whether or not you enjoy it, you'll get about 100 extra points on the sushi chef's respect-o-meter. To make it most edible for the uninitiated, have it temaki, spicy.

Picklehead, I enjoy the pungent aroma of a fine aged stinky cheese. But fish sauce, man... I have to physically leave the kitchen. Yack.

Asparagus and celery. I don't care what they're in, if either one is in it, I won't touch it. Asparagus is farking nasty.

And i'm not picky, I grew up eating pigs feet and goat hash, and just about everything fried. There's still nothing better than a mess of green beans seasoned with fatback.

/typical rural SC diet

Pig feet, chicken feet, chiterlings, rocky mountain oysters, ham, pickled anything, the list goes on and on...

Tripe - it's pig intestines, not food. I know for some it's a cultural thing, but damn that stuff is foul.

Dirt - I know some people in the south eat a specific type.

Rocky Mountain oysters/calf fries: a buddy of mine grew up eating these in OK.

Never said it smells like -my- feet; if it did, yeah, I'd have to keep my nose farther away from them than is physically possible. =) It smells like what I imagine really nasty unwashed cheesetoe feet -would- smell like.

And yeah, natto is legendary. I've thought about it, but haven't been able to work up the courage yet.

Err .. let's see, something I won't eat. There are lots of things I avoid. Examples: shrimp (yes, I know I'm missing out, but to me it's like eating a segmented worm), peaches (too fuzzy, like eating a testicle), beets, veal (because it's a really cruel way to produce something that tastes like chicken), spam (I don't trust any food that comes with its own lubricant).

Picklehead, my dad loves cornbread crumbled up in milk. I don't drink milk, so I never saw the attraction. Fried okra, fried chicken, chicken and dumplins - food of the Gods.

damn I've eaten most everything you all think is too digusting.

these days though I can't even stomach the thought of meat. Can't say I didn't try most everything before going veg though.

We have a okra festival here ever year. I won't eat snails. My dad always tries to make me eat one when we go out to dinner.

DownSouth:

You're not missing much. I tried one, and it had the consistency of the eraser off the end of a pencil, but it tasted like the butter I'd just dipped it in.

Man, I was expecting to see all kinds of exotic scary foods that people had heard of but never eaten. I get in here and I see cheese, mayonnaise, eggs, bananas.

I'll be different. Here are the foods I eat that people think are disgusting.
Pickles (kosher dills only please), mushrooms (raw or cooked), jelly on grilled cheese, burritos with ketchup, and Mountain Dew. I'm sure there are some others. These aren't really crazy foods or anything, but I consistently get a "Yuck!" out of people when I say I like them.

shiat I won't touch:
Any of the funky animal parts already mentioned. I tend to shy away from internal organs. I'm not a big fan of sushi either. The whole raw thing kinda creeped me out, but I tried it. I had rolled sushi, so there was seaweed on it. I seriously think people are mistaken when they think that the seaweed is supposed to be eaten. As for the fish, it was pretty bland. The whole thing was kinda boring and flavorless. Also, I won't eat lettuce. It's not that it's disgusting or anything, it just tastes like grass. I don't particularly care for the taste of grass.

Fried foods have been taken to the extreme lately. Like fried Mars bars and fried pickles. Oh, won't someone please think of the pickles?

Picklehead:

I had a fried twinkie once. My wife tried the fried cheesecake. I couldn't stomach the idea of the fried Snickers or fried Oreo though.

The strangest thing I ever ate was from a cookbook. It was a sandwich made with French bread, peanut butter, jalapeos, butter and bacon. It actually tasted good. But I knew once was enough because of the calories.

Okay, laugh at me.

Picklehead:

Actually, I really like fried pickle chips. Have you ever tried them? Dipped in ranch, yummy.

Cowboy Spencer Fried cheesecake? I've heard of the fried Twinkie and that sounds gross enough! But cheesecake?!?

Cowboy Spencer: Nope. I only eat fried foods when I go out. And I doubt if anywhere in Colorado there will be fried pickles. Maybe at the state fair but that's it.

tongue.
liver.
brains.
haggis.

I hate when my mom packs testicles in my lunch box. None of the other kids want to trade.

Tried jellyfish and sea cucumber once. Jellyfish actually had no real taste but the peanut sauce it was in was fantastic. I'd eat that again in a minute.

Now the sea cucumber, on the other hand, was about the worst thing I'd ever eaten. Tasted like shiat and had this truly horrible texture and consistency like the jelly-like stuff in a can of dog or cat food. Never again.