I'm Picky With Food. Deal With It
Oct. 20th, 2010 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darthfarWhen it comes to food, my mother does not take "no" for an answer. It is her chief belief that I'm ridiculously fussy about my food, and it is her duty to (1) disseminate this information to anybody who mentions food preferences and (2) condition me to like them with repeated, forced exposure. (Well, not so much anymore, since the last repulsive food she exposed me to a few times caused severe allergic reactions for two nights in a row, a few months back). Obviously, the latter doesn't work, because I have not managed to like anything that I was repulsed by upon initial contact, but more annoyingly, everybody who has heard this now assumes that I was spoilt rotten as a child, and am now insufferably, reprehensibly picky.
I choose to believe that there is an in-built biological reason why people like or dislike certain foods. Part of it might be environmental influence - babies have been shown to favour foods that their mothers ate during pregnancy because mature foetuses have sufficiently developed taste buds and olfactory receptors to taste flavours in the amniotic fluid (although I would not be able to prove this in my case, as I was adopted and do not - and have no desire to - know who the birth mother was) - but I believe part of it is due to evolution as well. Just as most people fancy foods that are rich in fats and carbohydrate because in the not-to-distant-past, food was scarce, and fat was excellent energy storage material (a reason why women's bodies tend to hold on tightly to their fat stores: child-bearers need energy to sustain both themselves and their unborn children, and the nursing ones)... and well, sugar is a simple compound that provides lots of energy, I think that innate dislike of certain foods may partly be our bodies warning us against their potential harm. When you consider just how many young children hate vegetables and plant products (and have to be trained to eat them), and just how many plants (and their fruits etc) are harmful in their original form or at least do you no good because it's their natural protection against being eaten by animals, having no claws or locomotive ability (eg. the pips and kernels of apples and apricots contain cyanide, certain beans contain phytohaemagglutinin - which can give you a nasty bout of food poisoning -, cassavas and bamboo shoots have cyanogenic glycosides which - again! - can cause food poisoning, ginkgo seeds contain neurotoxins, a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables can cause allergic reaction in certain people, ... and you don't get much nutrition from uncooked leafy veg anyway, because you're not a cow and don't have a huge bioreactor inside of you to process cellulose), I don't think it's a far-fetched notion at all.
[BTW, trying to use psychology on me in an attempt to convert me is utterly useless, of course, not that it's stopped my relatives trying. "What if you'd been born in a country where all you had to eat was this [name of hideously repulsive plant]?" - But I'm not, am I? So why should I imagine that I am? or how could I, any more than the starving people at that hypothetical country can imagine eating marble cheesecake? Oh, here's a better one, "Don't you know how the starving children in [name of 3rd world country] would love to have this food?" But how? You can't send it to them; the food would rot. You can't even send them in their uncooked form, because they're [usually] veg and would need special handling, and you'd need a cook to prepare it, and food relief to countries in need is in more practical forms anyway, like milk powder and sugar. So it's just ridiculous to even make the association. Or, "You're just fussy because you have never gone hungry before." Oh yes I have. As a student. In college. It has failed to increase my appreciation for coriander and celery.]
But, reasoning aside, I'm not "picky" with food in the way most people have been led to believe. In some ways, I'm actually quite culinarily adventurous, and will happily try any manner of meat, including those that the people I know would be horrified by (I like crocodile, frogs, camel and ostrich and raw fish; would love to try snake, and would have happily sampled fried grasshoppers in Thailand had everyone not been grossed out, and had we the time to stop and buy them). It's just that I have rules concerning my food that people - least of all my mother - do not even bother to try and understand. (I'm not being difficult; everybody has a set of rules or codes they live by, and you don't see people giving them grief over it). I've tried explaining them time and time again when the issue came up, but I've gotten to the point where I'm sufficiently fed-up to compile a complete list that I shall REFER EVERYBODY TO if they give me hell about my food preferences again.
MY RULES CONCERNING FOOD
1. I'm quite happy to eat the skeletal muscles of *any* animal you offer me.
2. Offal and coagulated blood do not come under the heading of "food" because they're internal organs/tissues. Skin does, because it's an external organ.
3. I do not eat boiled meat. Boiled meat is perfectly fine if the reason you're boiling it is to remove flesh from bone for biology or forensic anthropology, but it is not acceptable as "food". I *will* eat soup (and other food) containing it, but I will *not* touch the meat. Besides, it's mushy and gross.
4. I only eat straight noodles. I don't touch the curly ones, never mind that they're made from the same ingredients. Curly noodles are weird in your mouth. Fusilli doesn't count; it's corkscrew-shaped.
5. I generally do not eat naturally-occurring plant matter whose names start with the letter "C": cucumber, cilantro/coriander, corn, celery, carrots, chestnut, cashews, or any manner of corm. (including Chinese water chestnut/caltrop - ewww). You will also notice that, aside from coriander, all of them are very crunchy things. Crunchy non-fruits are scary.
6. For that matter, all manner of gourd are not food either. Not in my book anyway. Frankly, I find them terrifying; the ridged ones even more so.
7. Purple plant matter are fairly horrifying, unless they happen to be berries. Mangosteens are the exception because their flesh - which is the only part you eat - is white.
8. Mollusks taste like rubber, with a squishy centre. One does not eat rubber. Except for abalone, but it has to be straight out of the can and soft; exposure to heat turns them into horrible rubber mats more suited to lining the floors of cars.
9. Nothing is allowed in my omelette except for animal proteins and fungi. What's acceptable: mushrooms, cheese, ham, bacon, sausages. (All of them from heterotrophic organisms). What's not: Onions, bell peppers, and anything else that comes from plants. Don't get me wrong; I *love* white onions - *raw*, and on their own. They have no place in my omelettes.
10. I start a meal by taking a helping of everything on the table in the correct proportion. (Well, everything that I consider edible anyway). It probably comes across as greedy to people who don't know me, but by taking everything all at once, I know *exactly* how much I will be eating, which serves to control the amount I ingest. (It's hard to keep track when you take one portion at a time, with the result that you very often overeat - which is why I loathe multi-course meals and Chinese dinners, especially if nobody will tell me how many dishes there are going to be). Once I'm done taking, don't expect me to take any more.
11. I prefer minimal interaction between different foods. I am fine with different foods touching if they were cooked together (eg. pizza, Chinese fried rice), or if they're cooked separately but are meant to be eaten together (eg. bolognese sauce and spaghetti), or if it's gravy. But food that's cooked separately and are not necessarily meant to be together (eg. different meat/veg) do *not* get to mix on my plate. They can sit side by side, but overlapping is out of the question. (If we're at a restaurant and the stuff comes jumbled up, I have to sort them out first. Don't stop me). Yes, I *may* eat a mushroom and a piece of meat in the same mouthful, but I get to dictate the proportions of Food A to B. And yes, I know that food gets mixed up in the stomach; my biology/physiology is beyond my control, but my eating habits are not.
12. I will absolutely NOT tolerate *anything* coming into contact with my rice, unless it's in regulated amounts on my spoon just before it goes into my mouth. If you dare to heap *anything* on my rice, I *will* snap. And it will be your fault.
13. The food that is sorted out is eaten according to type (veg? meat? fungi?), palatability and intensity of taste. In that order.
14. Yes, I take a little longer to eat than some other people. When food goes in my mouth, the different components get sorted out and eaten individually. Especially if it's sandwiches. Again, yes, I know food gets mixed up in the stomach. Again, a matter of stuff in my control vs stuff beyond my control.
15. For goodness' sake, don't ask me what I want to eat; most of the time I don't even think about food because the choices make my head hurt. If I do feel up to eating something in particular (which is very seldom), rest assured I *will* tell you.
16. [An aside: I don't eat pineapple, honey or pistachio, not because I don't like them, but because I'm actually allergic to them.]
I choose to believe that there is an in-built biological reason why people like or dislike certain foods. Part of it might be environmental influence - babies have been shown to favour foods that their mothers ate during pregnancy because mature foetuses have sufficiently developed taste buds and olfactory receptors to taste flavours in the amniotic fluid (although I would not be able to prove this in my case, as I was adopted and do not - and have no desire to - know who the birth mother was) - but I believe part of it is due to evolution as well. Just as most people fancy foods that are rich in fats and carbohydrate because in the not-to-distant-past, food was scarce, and fat was excellent energy storage material (a reason why women's bodies tend to hold on tightly to their fat stores: child-bearers need energy to sustain both themselves and their unborn children, and the nursing ones)... and well, sugar is a simple compound that provides lots of energy, I think that innate dislike of certain foods may partly be our bodies warning us against their potential harm. When you consider just how many young children hate vegetables and plant products (and have to be trained to eat them), and just how many plants (and their fruits etc) are harmful in their original form or at least do you no good because it's their natural protection against being eaten by animals, having no claws or locomotive ability (eg. the pips and kernels of apples and apricots contain cyanide, certain beans contain phytohaemagglutinin - which can give you a nasty bout of food poisoning -, cassavas and bamboo shoots have cyanogenic glycosides which - again! - can cause food poisoning, ginkgo seeds contain neurotoxins, a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables can cause allergic reaction in certain people, ... and you don't get much nutrition from uncooked leafy veg anyway, because you're not a cow and don't have a huge bioreactor inside of you to process cellulose), I don't think it's a far-fetched notion at all.
[BTW, trying to use psychology on me in an attempt to convert me is utterly useless, of course, not that it's stopped my relatives trying. "What if you'd been born in a country where all you had to eat was this [name of hideously repulsive plant]?" - But I'm not, am I? So why should I imagine that I am? or how could I, any more than the starving people at that hypothetical country can imagine eating marble cheesecake? Oh, here's a better one, "Don't you know how the starving children in [name of 3rd world country] would love to have this food?" But how? You can't send it to them; the food would rot. You can't even send them in their uncooked form, because they're [usually] veg and would need special handling, and you'd need a cook to prepare it, and food relief to countries in need is in more practical forms anyway, like milk powder and sugar. So it's just ridiculous to even make the association. Or, "You're just fussy because you have never gone hungry before." Oh yes I have. As a student. In college. It has failed to increase my appreciation for coriander and celery.]
But, reasoning aside, I'm not "picky" with food in the way most people have been led to believe. In some ways, I'm actually quite culinarily adventurous, and will happily try any manner of meat, including those that the people I know would be horrified by (I like crocodile, frogs, camel and ostrich and raw fish; would love to try snake, and would have happily sampled fried grasshoppers in Thailand had everyone not been grossed out, and had we the time to stop and buy them). It's just that I have rules concerning my food that people - least of all my mother - do not even bother to try and understand. (I'm not being difficult; everybody has a set of rules or codes they live by, and you don't see people giving them grief over it). I've tried explaining them time and time again when the issue came up, but I've gotten to the point where I'm sufficiently fed-up to compile a complete list that I shall REFER EVERYBODY TO if they give me hell about my food preferences again.
MY RULES CONCERNING FOOD
1. I'm quite happy to eat the skeletal muscles of *any* animal you offer me.
2. Offal and coagulated blood do not come under the heading of "food" because they're internal organs/tissues. Skin does, because it's an external organ.
3. I do not eat boiled meat. Boiled meat is perfectly fine if the reason you're boiling it is to remove flesh from bone for biology or forensic anthropology, but it is not acceptable as "food". I *will* eat soup (and other food) containing it, but I will *not* touch the meat. Besides, it's mushy and gross.
4. I only eat straight noodles. I don't touch the curly ones, never mind that they're made from the same ingredients. Curly noodles are weird in your mouth. Fusilli doesn't count; it's corkscrew-shaped.
5. I generally do not eat naturally-occurring plant matter whose names start with the letter "C": cucumber, cilantro/coriander, corn, celery, carrots, chestnut, cashews, or any manner of corm. (including Chinese water chestnut/caltrop - ewww). You will also notice that, aside from coriander, all of them are very crunchy things. Crunchy non-fruits are scary.
6. For that matter, all manner of gourd are not food either. Not in my book anyway. Frankly, I find them terrifying; the ridged ones even more so.
7. Purple plant matter are fairly horrifying, unless they happen to be berries. Mangosteens are the exception because their flesh - which is the only part you eat - is white.
8. Mollusks taste like rubber, with a squishy centre. One does not eat rubber. Except for abalone, but it has to be straight out of the can and soft; exposure to heat turns them into horrible rubber mats more suited to lining the floors of cars.
9. Nothing is allowed in my omelette except for animal proteins and fungi. What's acceptable: mushrooms, cheese, ham, bacon, sausages. (All of them from heterotrophic organisms). What's not: Onions, bell peppers, and anything else that comes from plants. Don't get me wrong; I *love* white onions - *raw*, and on their own. They have no place in my omelettes.
10. I start a meal by taking a helping of everything on the table in the correct proportion. (Well, everything that I consider edible anyway). It probably comes across as greedy to people who don't know me, but by taking everything all at once, I know *exactly* how much I will be eating, which serves to control the amount I ingest. (It's hard to keep track when you take one portion at a time, with the result that you very often overeat - which is why I loathe multi-course meals and Chinese dinners, especially if nobody will tell me how many dishes there are going to be). Once I'm done taking, don't expect me to take any more.
11. I prefer minimal interaction between different foods. I am fine with different foods touching if they were cooked together (eg. pizza, Chinese fried rice), or if they're cooked separately but are meant to be eaten together (eg. bolognese sauce and spaghetti), or if it's gravy. But food that's cooked separately and are not necessarily meant to be together (eg. different meat/veg) do *not* get to mix on my plate. They can sit side by side, but overlapping is out of the question. (If we're at a restaurant and the stuff comes jumbled up, I have to sort them out first. Don't stop me). Yes, I *may* eat a mushroom and a piece of meat in the same mouthful, but I get to dictate the proportions of Food A to B. And yes, I know that food gets mixed up in the stomach; my biology/physiology is beyond my control, but my eating habits are not.
12. I will absolutely NOT tolerate *anything* coming into contact with my rice, unless it's in regulated amounts on my spoon just before it goes into my mouth. If you dare to heap *anything* on my rice, I *will* snap. And it will be your fault.
13. The food that is sorted out is eaten according to type (veg? meat? fungi?), palatability and intensity of taste. In that order.
14. Yes, I take a little longer to eat than some other people. When food goes in my mouth, the different components get sorted out and eaten individually. Especially if it's sandwiches. Again, yes, I know food gets mixed up in the stomach. Again, a matter of stuff in my control vs stuff beyond my control.
15. For goodness' sake, don't ask me what I want to eat; most of the time I don't even think about food because the choices make my head hurt. If I do feel up to eating something in particular (which is very seldom), rest assured I *will* tell you.
16. [An aside: I don't eat pineapple, honey or pistachio, not because I don't like them, but because I'm actually allergic to them.]
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Date: 2010-10-24 05:13 pm (UTC)And I hear ya! Some foods are just *not* meant to go together. Like eggs and onions. Or spinach with... basically everything, actually.
Coloured cauliflower??! There's PURPLE cauliflower??? [runs away screaming]