Picky Eater

{NOT SO YUM}

I have natural aversions to certain flavors.  I mean, who doesn't?  It'd be weird if I didn't.  These foods, I would never prepare dishes for myself with these.  At restaurants, I shy away from menu items if there's any mention of these.  Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of blue cheese, cilantro, and lamb meat.  It has nothing to do with look, texture, or politics (when my sister introduced me to Cafe Buon Gusto's {+} veal tortellini, there was no turning back - scowl all you want, it's freaking good), and everything to do with taste.  

{Blue cheese}

No thank ya', sir.  Too pungent and lingering aftertaste, although I can handle small melted amounts and the less blue there is, the better.  

{Cilantro}

Tastes like soap.  It is NOT refreshing and crisp and clean like its lovers describe.  A recent NYTimes article {+} described the scent as bedbugs, but I don't care to ever familiarize myself with such a scent.  I mean, ew.

{Lamb}

Many are stumped when they learn that I don't care for this otherwise highly regarded meat.  I just don't like the taste.  For full disclosure, there was a pastitsio (a rich Greek lasagna with a beschamel sauce) with ground lamb that my sister introduced me to a couple months ago that I loved.  I didn't detect the lamb-iness in there.  Maybe all that cream helps.  

{OH SO YUM}

Then there are certain flavors I adore and it's so surprise that these ingredients are usually in the form of desserts.  I have not just one sweet tooth, but many.  In fact, each of my chompers can aptly be named a sweet tooth.  I was mostly a chocolate fan all the way until somewhere along the way in my twenties when I developed a liking for vanillas and caramels, too.  I would stay away from these as a kid, but now have frequent cravings at the oddest of hours.

{Almond paste/Marzipan}

I would marry it if I could.  That's how bad it is.  There's this particularly high-calorie almond croissant at Au Bon Pain that I haven't had in years.  The filling is an almond paste with sugar and I don't even want to think what else.  I could eat just that without the pastry.

{Coconut}

The soft flakes always beckoned me with its prettiness, but every time I tried a bite I just wasn't interested.  In fact, I didn't get German chocolate cake.  Why waste a perfectly good chocolate cake by covering it with a mound of coconut?  Almond Joys?  Gross.  But now.  Oh, now!  Sorbets, cakes, what have you...Have you ever rolled a ball of vanilla ice cream in fluffy coconut flakes?  Try it.  Now.

{Meringue}

I had such a difficult time understanding why people waxed poetic about these fluffy mounds of heaven.  It wasn't until Soeur stepped out of a Parisian bakery during our spring break and she insisted that I try it that I finally understood what all the hubbub was about.  Well, that was two decades of neglected egg whites and sugar.