I just overheard a coworker saying “Oh, I would never try that in my life!”, in a discussion of food. (This was about consuming a steak cooked less than medium well). It made me wonder what life is like for those who refuse to try new food, especially those who refuse to try mundane things like fried shrimp.

Why limit yourself? It seems like such a closed-minded way to view food. Help me understand?

EDIT:

I wasn’t going to do this, but I’m tired of replying to people and will post this at the top.

The person that prompted this question is a close-minded piece of crap. He has no sensory issues, just a shitty mindset, with ignorance and prejudice on display with no shame. I have the pleasure of hearing his annoying shit every night.

The knee-jerk reactions I have received from people in this post have had me examine my own knee-jerk reactions, attributing malice to that which may be misunderstanding rather than bigotry or hatred. This is what I am taking away from this post. That even I should take a chill pill every now and again; it’s not all a tragedy.

I will not delete it, because there are some very thoughtful replies that explain different viewpoints, that people took time to type out. It would be disrespectful to them to do that.

Call me what you like. Don’t care. I will not be replying to any other replies.

  • cybervegan@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Sounds like you’re lucky enough to not have any sensory problems - you probably don’t get overwhelmed by textures, flavours or smells. Not everyone is like that. You also don’t seem to have any particular cultural or ethical concerns about your food choices. My family is vegan and very neurodivergent; none of us would ever consider steak or shrimp, for ethical reasons, and most of us have texture and flavour sensitivities that mean that certain foods are off limits for some of us. We generally buy within those parameters, but some of us really like things others really hate, so cooking can be a nightmare. In many cases, it’s the texture of food that causes this - often borderline textures going from firm to soft, too granular, “wrong” like soft when should be crunchy etc.

    But I bet you have some things you wouldn’t try, based on cultural or texture preferences, which some people love. What about…

    • Soft biscuits (cookies) - baked crunchy, but have gone damp and soft?
    • Dry, stale bread - baked soft, but just dried out and stale?
    • Witchetty grubs - moth larvae from Australia?
    • Dog meat, eaten in some Asian countries?
    • Fermented shark meat, stinky and rank, eaten in some Nordic states?
    • Reindeer poo - traditional Finnish cuisine sometimes uses it?
    • Natto - stringy, slimy soya beans fermented by a bacteria, very strong flavour, popular in Asia, especially Japan?
    • Tempeh - soya beans colonised by a particular edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?
    • Tofu - bean curd in various textures, but very little flavour, eaten widely by vegans and in Asia?
    • Furry tofu - tofu colonised by another edible mould fungus, eaten widely in Asia?
    • Jadey@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      Pretty much this, I have tried a lot of foods and some of them just make me want to puke just from texture alone. A great example is bean sprouts. Another example is if you put too many chunks of various foods in a rice or pasta dish, I get completely overwhelmed.

      I can force myself through the food if I need to, but it’s just a horrible experience akin to being stabbed. It’s not me being closed minded or childish, and I’m tired of people being condescending to me because of this.