h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sasha also asked, "Do you have particular favourite foods, or food you don't like?"

I have a lot of favorites, which I suppose means I don't really have A favorite, so I'll go with what I don't like

I'm not particularly picky, but there are things I don't like. Most of them are less a taste issue than a texture issue--I don't like slimy. For example, I love asparagus steamed, roasted, stir-fried, and raw, but canned? (By the way, when I refer to canned foods here, I referring to commercially canned--I've not had home-canned versions of any of these, so I don't know how much of a difference there is. I do know that there are differences between home and commercially canned versions of things I've had both versions of...) Okra is well known for being slimy, but I've only had it in soups and fried--both of which cut the slime factor to pretty much nothing (and I still can't decide if I like it fried or not, so I keep trying it--it's just fie in soups). Some people consider meat fat to be slimy, but I don't, so that's a yum for me. Another texture I don't like is whatever you'd call the texture of canned beets. I also don't like oysters, but that's a taste thing--they're just too strong. I do love every other type of seafood I've had, though. Artificial and zero calorie natural sweeteners are also a huge turn off. I can taste just about all of them, and they are very bitter to me.

Thank you - this is very interesting indeed

We have a lot in common, there - texture is very much a factor of foods I do/don't like. I do consider meat fat to be slimy, so I don't eat that, and I like things like pasta to be 'al dente' so they have some texture to them I like some mushrooms, but not all - there's one particular type (enokitake I think) that looks like a snail and tastes like I imagine a snail to taste like, so I avoid that one.

I haven't tried Okra, but I think I shan't be rushing out to try it. That's interesting about the difference between home and commercial canning - I don't know anyone who can can, but a lot of people I know can pickle vegetables and store them in glass jars.

"Artificial and zero calorie natural sweeteners are also a huge turn off. I can taste just about all of them, and they are very bitter to me."

Yes indeed - I'm exactly the same

Difficult in the UK since the powers that be instituted a Sugar Tax, so rather than giving people a choice between eg Regular Dr Pepper, Iced Tea, etc with natural sweetener and Diet Dr Pepper, Iced Tea, etc with artificial sweetener, they put some artificial sweetener in the Regular versions so that gives me no choice and I can't have any... I have recently found carbonated fruit juice, though, so I can sometimes have a refreshing drink, but I just have to check the labels carefully first.

I still remember that disappointing ginger beer that tasted of nothing but artificial sweeteners, even though there was a *huge* bang of ginger when opened

That is disappointing indeed.

I had something similar this evening at a carol concert, as it happens - the smell of it was strange, but it did taste a bit spicy like non-alcoholic mulled wine, with a hint of ginger that was then drowned out by the bitterness of the artificial sweetener...