I was going to say yes, but I haven't tried insects and probably won't. I think it's a texture thing - I don't think I could feel the legs in my mouth and not gag. I would eat basically anything vegetarian and seafood (though eyes sound like too far) and I do love trying new things, but I do have limits.
I was gagging after I accidentally used my H's toothbrush the other day (he takes great care of his teeth so nothing personal) so I would say my gag level isn't very high, lol.
I want to say moderately adventurous, but I’m limited by:
- I don’t like most cheeses or dairy - I have a fairly serious texture/gag issue - I don’t like spending money on something I won’t like (so my most adventurous eating is on a cruise or when someone else is paying)
I would love to be a more adventurous eater, however a lot of things are cooked in or with alcohol.
People can tell me it's cooked out until they are blue in the face. Having a seizure means I can't drive for 6 months, probably don't feel safe driving for over a year and think every weird twinge my body has for over a year is an on coming seizure. Also I wouldn't feel safe parenting my DS alone for a good long while. So the stakes are too high. #epilepsy
10 years ago I would have said he’ll no. I had like two meals that I would eat. As I have traveled internationally I have gotten more adventurous because well those two meals aren’t available in most other countries. I will try most things, that said I am also fairly picky in that I don’t like most sauces/dressings/condiments so anything that comes with those is a hard pass.
I was ready to say I’m fairly adventurous, but after reading this thread maybe not. I don’t like meat on the bone or dark meat at all due to textures. I’ve never tried organ meats or insects and am not open to them either. I’ve also never tried game meat (venison, etc) and am not interested. As I get older I’m less interested in red meat and I’ve never been a big fan of pork or ham (the occasional sausage or bacon are okay).
Most vegetarian or vegan dishes I’m happy to try at least once and I usually enjoy them.
I haven’t yet been to an ethnic restaurant where I didn’t leave happy, so I’m not picky on that at all. I love trying spices and food traditions from all over the world.
Thank you for explaining me so well too. I am not adventurous with meats, eat them less and less as I get older and love all the vegetables and all cuisines. And if I don’t like something, I won’t eat it. I love food and get excited about all my meals. I don’t want to try crickets though
Also, isn’t pork white meat? I’m confused by the reply above saying pork is red meat?
Those 80 commercials from the pork board: Pork, the other white meat.
I look at it as a mammal. Red meats are mammals. But, I also avoid land animals. But not completely, as I do eat things occasionally, mostly when we are traveling and the only non-animal option is a salad and fries. And I do miss a good steak, so I often get one for my birthday or Christmas.
That was a digression. I’m somewhere between plain and adventurous. But I have quirks, mostly around mayonnaise. I’ve only, in the past few years, been able to accept an aioli. This is probably the thing that holds me back the most, fear of Mayo based sauces.
Being served spiders is a new fear unlocked. Hard pass on spiders/scorpions.
I was also a super picky kid so I'm sure child me would be shocked to learn I've eaten crickets.
I'll sit down next to the people with texture issues, because I also can't do fat, gristle, tendons. In my family my parents just ate it, and to this day it ruins a cut of meat for me (and I still have a hard time remembering that hey, I'm an adult, I can just trim that off and not eat it). I also don't like to eat meat on a bone because my teeth hitting bone = unsettling shivers. I've never had tripe, but I imagine I wouldn't like the texture (kind of like how I don't think the texture of tongue meats is that great, even if it tastes fine).
Every time I see friends get in to The Lost Kitchen I think about how if I got picked of the 68,000 postcards it would be so wasted on me. And that place isn’t likely to serve insects or anything like that.
I enter that lottery every year! No luck yet.
I will eat anything except bugs. I used to be a super picky eater (wouldn’t even eat pizza!) but I got over it as an exchange student. My need to please overcame my distaste for vegetables, anything squishy, or really anything new.
Post by basilosaurus on Jul 30, 2023 13:37:24 GMT -5
I don't think it's picky or non adventurous to want quality ingredients. I've been labeled picky because I don't like one of 3 sticky sweet sauces applied to a-g protein all overcooked and not trimmed. That's very normal here, and I skip it.
Oh, and I'm accused of not eating veg when they say onion and garlic count with nothing of color. I'm happy to eat that, more than happy, but don't claim it's veg that I'm missing.
Although I don't understand it, it's taken me awhile to understand friends picking out tomatoes from an iceberg side salad. Chances are those tomatoes are actually not good. But I used to judge it as childish behavior
I’ve eaten some not typical WASP food (like grasshoppers, tripe, corn fungus, offal) but I’m a big NOPE to hard boiled eggs or any runny egg yolk. And avocado. I also don’t love lobster or scallops or shrimp. Or raw fish but I’m ok w eel or “cooked in lime juice” fish. Ugh! Beets & brussel sprouts are things I’d rather not pay money to eat too.
So, I will eat some adventurous things but it’s usually my egg aversions & avocado dislike that prevent me from tasting menus. Such popular ingredients these days
After reading other answers, I'd say I'm 85-90 on a 1-100 scale based on the extremes already expressed here. I will try just about anything once and some of my favorite foods are on other people's ick lists. My tastes have definitely changed over the years though. Lots of things are too sweet for me now, and red meat doesn't taste very good to me.
I think on adventure scale from 1 being I only eat buttered pasta and 10 being being I'd be totally comfortable and unhesitating in eating casu martzu with a side of eyeballs, I'm probably around a 7. Jury is still out on the wiggly larvae cheese, but I'm never eating eyeballs, and I'm ok with that.it?
I'd say I'm somewhere in the middle, but since looking this up, I will say I am not interested in trying this. At all.
Post by hannahgruen on Jul 30, 2023 21:45:36 GMT -5
Definitely no. I don't eat red meat or pork, or tough seafood like mussels and clams. But I do love clam chowder. I won't eat anything with gristle or connective tissue. I do like collard greens, and spicy food. I like almost all vegetables. I like most any kind of spices. My husband says I'm picky, I think I'm perfectly normal. Lol
Post by lightbulbsun on Jul 31, 2023 8:04:04 GMT -5
As a vegetarian I'd say no because the foods that people tend to think of when they say adventurous are mostly random animal parts or bugs or something. I will eat pretty much anything without meat, though, and I was pretty adventurous with eating new food when I went to India because all of the veg food was clearly labeled.
Absolutely not. I was a picky kid and still am picky. Give me a hamburger and a hot dog all day any day. Though I hate mushrooms and would never eat one, on our last cruise I ate a ribeye that had been coated with mushroom dust (which I knew in advance of ordering it). I ate it twice, actually. It was so good. So there is that.
My mom always complements my cooking and adventurous eating. I have become a good cook, but adventurous eater I am not. Between allergies and a preference for vegetarian dishes (I will occasionally eat meat in very limited settings) I actually have a fairly limited diet. However, I love bold flavours and will try anything from any cuisine as long as it doesn't have my allergens or meat.
I draw the line on anything currently alive, and bugs/larvae/worms that aren't ground into some kind of meal. Poorly butchered meats where bits of bones and gristle are everywhere. Picking bones out of fish is also really just a no.
Oh and durian. Had it. Not a fan. I guess I'm thinking adventurous more in terms of combinations of flavors or spices, not that it has to be some sort of living being that isn't normally raised for food.
Yes, but 1) I have SOME weird texture issues (I eat yogurt, but sometimes the texture is just a no for me) and 2) I did decline the grasshoppers at a Oaxacan restaurant while my husband and our friend ate them. I was thinking this morning that I could probably do cricket flour or something, but it wouldn't be a first choice. There are some things considered delicacies in cultures that are not my own that I wouldn't want to try, like century egg.
I was a vegetarian for a dozen years, but I'll eat most meats - venison, all seafood including octopus and raw oysters, beef tartare, sushi, etc.
My biggest WTF with that plate is the swirl of guac that looks like it came out of a tube.
Not really. I’ll eat more than DH or the kid, but I’m not into bugs.
I’m not one to spend $$$ on dinner out. We went to a nicer restaurant at the beach and $300 later for the five of us and we were still trying to figure out why my 2 crab cakes didn’t have a side. They were just on some cabbage. 🤷🏼♀️
Also, isn’t pork white meat? I’m confused by the reply above saying pork is red meat?
There was a commercial back in the 80s that called pork "the other white meat" to try to increase pork sales - comparing it in the makeup of fat/protein to poultry more so than beef because people were in the low-fat craze. It's not actually a "white meat" like chicken, fish, or turkey, though. It's red meat, which is defined as red when it's raw - beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, venison, bison, wild boar.
Duck is white meat, but ostrich might be red meat, lol.
Post by midwestmama on Jul 31, 2023 9:41:07 GMT -5
Nope, not adventurous. I am probably what would be classified as a picky eater in adult terms. I don't like fish or seafood, though I would eat freshly caught and fried whitefish if that was the only thing available (because typically freshly caught whitefish doesn't taste very fishy). I don't like "wild game" animal meat, duck, or lamb. My French professor in college brought in escargot for everyone to try, and it was a hard pass for me. Organs and insects, nope, don't want those. (All I can think about with insects is a leg or antennae getting caught in my teeth, and even the thought of that makes me nauseous.)
I don't like very spicy food (I have a very Midwest palate), so that is also limiting.
I would probably try most fruits and vegetables, unless the smell or texture is completely unappetizing. I only like onions if they are fully cooked.
Yes, but 1) I have SOME weird texture issues (I eat yogurt, but sometimes the texture is just a no for me) and 2) I did decline the grasshoppers at a Oaxacan restaurant while my husband and our friend ate them. I was thinking this morning that I could probably do cricket flour or something, but it wouldn't be a first choice. There are some things considered delicacies in cultures that are not my own that I wouldn't want to try, like century egg.
I was a vegetarian for a dozen years, but I'll eat most meats - venison, all seafood including octopus and raw oysters, beef tartare, sushi, etc.
My biggest WTF with that plate is the swirl of guac that looks like it came out of a tube.
I wasn't even sure what that was but was so grossed out by that. Even without the grasshoppers, that isn't an appealing presentation at all.
Sort of, but there are some things I won't eat/don't like....so if it's in the dish I may not eat it. Plus being mainly vegetarian a lot of things are out for me to eat.
The craziest dish I had was chicken sashimi with a raw egg on top. My Japanese co-workers ordered it and dug right in, so I thought - why not. It was too slimy for me, so once is enough.
Day to day, I'm less adventurous, but when travelling, or splurging I'm happy to try most things once.
“With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent,”
I'm spoiled that Indian food does a really good job of turning any and all vegetables into all kinds of delicious preparations, mostly cooked. Meat and seafood aren't a huge part of traditional diets, but whenever it is present in regional diets, it's always cooked and never raw. So when I read "adventurous," I thought this was going to be about some kind of unusual flavor or spice.
I did not expect to open this thread and find it to be about consuming bugs. NOPE.