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Original poster

Food which makes your heart sink

272 replies

GnomeDePlume · 31/10/2023 07:46

Do you have a meal/food which when suggested just makes your heart sink?

For me it is boiled bacon. It just sounds so dreary. Whenever DH suggests it for dinner I am instantly thrown back to childhood and salty boiled bacon cooked in brine served up with boiled to death sliced carrots and fallen boiled potatoes.

DH actually cooks it really well, he rinses the joint thoroughly and cooks it with apples and sometimes cider as well. He serves it with crushed roast potatoes and peas or beans.

But the words 'boiled bacon' take me back to childhood and the dreary, salty meal.

Does anyone else have similar instant responses to certain foods?

I know this is a first world problem and I am lucky to have choices and a DH who cooks most meals.

OP posts:
WednesdaysChild50 · 31/10/2023 11:30

Why anyone would eat kidneys is beyond me 🤢

Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 11:31

I can't do pearl barley. Growing up in Scotland I encountered this a lot and just used to leave it all in a grey mushy pile at the bottom of my plate of soup!

Leggytigberk · 31/10/2023 11:31

1)Pumpkin pie, was taken to a restaurant in London by an American who was delighted to have found this on offer. One of the worst meals ever.
2)Anyone fancy Tripe?

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General food
Stopbloodybanging · 31/10/2023 11:33

I’ve just realised how much I love food. Pretty much all food. Beige party food, yum. Homemade curry, yum. Even boiled bacon sounds pretty good. The only thing I can agree to not be keen on here is kidneys…….and maybe liver.

Onethingatatime23 · 31/10/2023 11:37

I quite like tinned tomatoes and have to stop myself eating them straight from the tin when I'm making something with them.

I just love tomatoes generally though.

Onethingatatime23 · 31/10/2023 11:38

Yes I agree on pumpkin though I like almost any other kind of squash.

Tellmeallthestories · 31/10/2023 11:38

Pasta salad. It's so slimy.

Pasta has no business being served cold!

Fink · 31/10/2023 11:40

Luckymeluckyme · 31/10/2023 08:17

Another note on Fish Pie, it always shocks me that so many people have it on Christmas Eve…why when you’re in the season of fine foods and delicious decadent treats would you choose to have something as awful as fish pie!

Fish is the main Christmas food in a lot of European cultures. Also, having fish on Christmas Eve was traditional in this country because the Advent fast, where meat was off limits. And the idea was to have a low-key meal on the eve, to save up for the blow out the next day. Feasting and fasting goes in cycles.

As it happens, I like fish pie. But other fish dishes are available!

Original poster
GnomeDePlume · 31/10/2023 11:40

Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 11:31

I can't do pearl barley. Growing up in Scotland I encountered this a lot and just used to leave it all in a grey mushy pile at the bottom of my plate of soup!

Pearl barley is DH's sad food. His DF loved it and would have it in stews and casseroles. For DH it is instant disappointment.

Generally apart from the aforementioned boiled bacon, it's wet, savoury food which I struggle with emotionally. Soups and stews particularly. Every mouthful tastes the same and it's very difficult to discretely feed to the dog.

OP posts:
Sheraprincessofflower · 31/10/2023 11:43

Any freezer food, especially oven chips. My mum served up chicken nuggets or fish fingers or sausages with oven chips and baked beans for my sibling and I nearly every day for a good 10 year period and although I can eat them without feeling sick I would never ever choose to eat any of those items myself because I got sick of them. They are so bland. My heart also sinks if anyone suggests fish and chips. I just don’t like it. Too greasy and bland.

In my teens in the 90s, the most joyless meal was anything in a Chicken Tonight sauce. They were, without fail, bland, weirdly sweet, shiny and watery.

And in the 80s, boiled gammon - the smell of it cooking for hours was pure misery.

Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 11:45

@GnomeDePlume Really? I can't understand anyone liking it in stews etc. I know it's a thing now to make pearl barley risotto and haven't tried that but don't want to either. In Scotch Broth it just becomes slimier and bigger the more the soup is heated. A pan of soup could be on the hob for several days in my childhood. 😞

Loubelle70 · 31/10/2023 11:45

Unpopular opinion but, mcdonalds and fast food

Alargeoneplease89 · 31/10/2023 11:46

Boiled potatoes- just why?! Only ever had them in childhood and can't understand why you wouldn't mash, roast or do something with them!

Gee19 · 31/10/2023 11:46

Pea and ham soup.

Yuk.

Fink · 31/10/2023 11:47

DilemmaDelilah · 31/10/2023 11:06

I frequently get that feeling if I go out to a perfectly ordinary restaurant only to find that the few dishes I like the sound of have all been chillified. So something that sounds absolutely delicious will be described as having red chilli flakes in it. Something which would NEVER had been so adulterated 15 years ago.
I am a super taster, which means that I can detect even minute quantities of things I don't like in a dish.
What REALLY made my heart sink though, was going round to my son in law's for Sunday lunch when he was cooking beef. It was a beautiful joint and he is a very good cook. However, when I was him preparing the beef I could have wept, as he was carefully massaging in a huge quantity of English mustard. I can't eat mustard. I ended up just having the veg.

I'm also a super taster and I can't stand black pepper (or chili either, but I can avoid it more easily). It completely overpowers any other flavour in the dish and leaves me gasping. So many people/restaurants seem to add it automatically to every savoury dish without thinking, and they don't even add it to the description of the dish so you can't see it coming.

Original poster
GnomeDePlume · 31/10/2023 11:49

Fink · 31/10/2023 11:40

Fish is the main Christmas food in a lot of European cultures. Also, having fish on Christmas Eve was traditional in this country because the Advent fast, where meat was off limits. And the idea was to have a low-key meal on the eve, to save up for the blow out the next day. Feasting and fasting goes in cycles.

As it happens, I like fish pie. But other fish dishes are available!

Show quote history

A friend of mine told me the Polish side of his family would have carp on Christmas eve cooked according to GM's recipe. Everyone agreed it was vile but they liked the tradition.

OP posts:
Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 11:49

Brie and Camembert with their thick white crusts and honky smell. I know I'm in the minority but I can only eat the insides and my heart sinks if they are the only cheeses available. I do buy them for DH though who loves them.

Fink · 31/10/2023 11:51

GnomeDePlume · 31/10/2023 11:40

Pearl barley is DH's sad food. His DF loved it and would have it in stews and casseroles. For DH it is instant disappointment.

Generally apart from the aforementioned boiled bacon, it's wet, savoury food which I struggle with emotionally. Soups and stews particularly. Every mouthful tastes the same and it's very difficult to discretely feed to the dog.

Show quote history

I love soups and stews and the like. What really makes my heart sink is anything where there's a slab of meat and some sides: pork chops, lamb chops, ham (boiled or roast), steak, ribs ... these were all served relatively frequently in my childhood and they all just seem to centre around meat. I much prefer something where carbs are the centrepiece.

Sheraprincessofflower · 31/10/2023 11:53

Gee19 · 31/10/2023 11:46

Pea and ham soup.

Yuk.

Oh, this is rank. It tastes exactly like the smell of fresh dog poo to me.

Gee19 · 31/10/2023 11:54

When a recipe states chicken thighs, as they so often do. I understand the benefits of thigh over breast meat but I find it slimy and slippery.

meikyo · 31/10/2023 11:55

Asparagus....my MIL loves it and often serves it....

FourNonBlondez · 31/10/2023 11:57

Anything with mushrooms in.. makes me shudder.
I've also never understood gammon and pineapple rings.

ImCamembertTheBigCheese · 31/10/2023 11:58

Liver and onions. Takes me back to primary school and that disgusting bitter taste you were forced to eat.

ohtowinthelottery · 31/10/2023 11:59

@Onethingatatime23 Tinned plum tomatoes in an omelette was a go to quick tea when I was a child.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 31/10/2023 12:05

@Fink that’s super interesting. I’m almost the opposite - for corn on the cob I have to have butter and a ton of black pepper, dried chillies (sp?) on pizza, Worcestershire sauce on rice, I even used to put a bit of vinegar in ice cream way back before it became trendy to put balsamic vinegar on everything. I can just about stomach gnocchi with a strong sauce but nothing else potato-wise is tolerable. I find it really difficult to each yoghurt without adding muesli or something to increase the texture too.