Heaven: I feel I ought to like this but I DON'T

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  • Interesting. I believe the vast majority of American beer is pilsner. Presumably from German immigrants rather than Czech, the latter being a very small number.
  • Could we broaden this thread to include things other than alcoholic drinks, please?
  • Why?
  • Sure, MT. I've heard there were plenty of US ales prior to Prohibition, but yes, German, and to an extent, Dutch influences were strong on US brewing. Indeed, the German influence is felt worldwide. Most beers around the world are a variant on the pilsner or lager styles - although there are more variants within those styles than are commonly supposed.

    Any way, I'll shut up, I'm upsetting Baptist Trainfan.
  • TrudyTrudy Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Could we broaden this thread to include things other than alcoholic drinks, please?

    It has ranged pretty widely through books, music, comedy, and only recently come to rest on alcoholic beverages. It will likely move on again (or die the death that awaits all threads eventually).
  • Any way, I'll shut up, I'm upsetting Baptist Trainfan.
    Okay here.

    Coca-Cola. Can't stand the stuff. I liked it when I was a kid, then I intentionally stopped drinking it for a couple of years, and have never been able to like it again, nor any cola.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    It's interesting you think Jack Daniels and Jim Beam are similar. I find the former undrinkable, and the latter quite pleasant.
    Same here.
    Could we broaden this thread to include things other than alcoholic drinks, please?
    You do have the power to try and take the thread in a different direction, you know. :wink:


    I’ll through out the one that has baffled my wife for almost 30 years: Peaches.

    Can’t stand them, can’t stand the smell of them. Fresh peaches, peach ice cream, peach cobbler . . . . They all taste horrible to me. And this time of year in these parts, peaches are everywhere.

    I think my wife believes there must be some kind of mental disorder involved. I try to tell her she shouldn’t knock it—it means she can always have my serving.

  • bassobasso Shipmate
    I admit I don't get an aversion to peaches. A fresh peach is a delight.

    A neighbor in my new neighborhood handed me four fresh-picked peaches as I walked past his house the other day. What a delight - the neighbor and the peaches.
  • Yep. I’m weird that way, and I’ll admit it. Just the smell of them is very unpleasant to me; the taste even more so. Everyone else loves them and thinks they’re one of the best parts of summer. I think they’re gross.

    More for everyone else.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    Coca-Cola. Can't stand the stuff. I liked it when I was a kid, then I intentionally stopped drinking it for a couple of years, and have never been able to like it again, nor any cola.
    I would like to add all carbonated soft drinks to that. And "sparkling" wines, including champagne. (Oops! I'm back to alcoholic beverages.)


  • “Co-Cola” is mother’s milk to me.

    Pepsi is not an acceptable alternative.
  • TrudyTrudy Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I'm with Nick Tamen on peaches. I don't have an actual aversion to them but I would never go out of my way for them. I can eat a baked dessert made with canned peaches -- like a peach cobbler -- if I'm hungry and there's nothing else around, but I would no more bite into a fresh peach than I would into a piece of plastic fruit. The taste just has no appeal for me, and unlike a lot of things mentioned on this thread it really is one of those things I actually think I "ought to" like, as most people believe peaches are good AND they're good for you. But I can't see the appeal.
  • You have to get the truly ripe ones which probably means farmers market. Otherwise it is indeed plastic.
  • Pepsi Max (Vanilla if I'm feeling fancy) for me. Mmmmm. Got 30 375ml cans at 40% off yesterday.
    ("Burn the heretic!", screams Nick!)

    For fruit -- mangoes. Bleh. Bleh. And another Bleh for good measure. I can have 1 banana every 3 months but I'm done after that. But I will eat banana and walnut bread.

  • Ah yes - the foods which Australians are just naturally supposed to like. I'll second your nomination of mango as bleh, but am even less fond of bananas than you are and as for pumpkin...
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    mousethief wrote: »
    Coca-Cola. Can't stand the stuff. I liked it when I was a kid, then I intentionally stopped drinking it for a couple of years, and have never been able to like it again, nor any cola.
    I would like to add all carbonated soft drinks to that. And "sparkling" wines, including champagne. (Oops! I'm back to alcoholic beverages.)

    Yes, another one who can't stand Coca-Cola, Pepsi, any of those sweet fizzy drinks - it's really difficult finding non-alcoholic drinks that are potable.

    Really on the list of things we're supposed to like and I really don't: drinking champagne is unpleasant; I'm allergic to most white wines*, even more so to nasty cheap fizzy wines, Prosecco included, so the current trend of offering free Prosecco with deals just means I don't want the deal, ever.

    * white wine is a migraine trigger, I can tell tasting it I'm going to react, migraine as in not functioning for 24-48 hours, lying in a darkened room, and probably throwing up. I was sent out to buy some nice wine one night when we were working late and bought a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé, had to find me something else.
  • As an aside, I get the impression that there's a bigger gulf between supermarket fruit and veg and farmers market produce in the US than elsewhere. Or are we just talking about Walmart where I'm led to believe that everything is rendered as plastic and tasteless as possible?

    There are nefarious things done in UK supermarkets of course - and I've tended to find French and Italian ones a lot better when it comes to local produce etc whenever I've been those countries.

    However, whilst we get most of our meat from the Farm Shop (walking distance) sometimes the veg is better in Asda.

    Anyhow ...

    On potable non-alcoholic drinks in pubs. I will drink non-alcoholic beer when driving or during Lent, not because I like it, but because I find most carbonated soft drinks too sweet and sugary.

    I know that 'botanical' ones like Fentimans and what we might call craft soft drinks are actually very sugary too, but I'll go for a Fentimans at the top end, a fresh orange juice or cheap-skate lime and soda if I'm driving or when I'm not drinking alcohol for liturgical reasons as it were.

    As for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, I can't remember the last time I had either. It wouldn't occur to me to drink them.

    As for the Scottish mainstay, Irn Bru ... don't get me started. It tastes like bubble gum mixed with plasticine.

    There are some decent local lemonades around which actually taste as if they have some citric content.

  • On fruits in big box stores: the problem is one of scale and sourcing and shipping. To stock a hundred WalMarts you need a hell of a lot of peaches. Getting smaller numbers from lots of smaller farmers isn't nearly as efficient as getting them all from one farmer or broker. Which is usually far away so they need to ship without spoiling or getting mushy. Which means they need to be picked green.
    .
    Go farmer's market.
  • Some weeks ago I bought some nectarines. A few days later I noticed an unusual smell in the living room. It slowly got stronger although my wife didn't notice it and thought I was going bonkers. It started driving me crazy,I thought that something had died behind the sideboard and I even moved it to have a look.

    Eventually I realised that the nectarines were having some kind of a reaction with the unglazed pottery fruitbowl. Panic over - but the smell still lingers slightly.

    Yesterday I chose to buy peaches instead!
  • How interesting! And concerning... Hope the peaches don't explode in the unglazed bowl!

    Thank you Kittyville: I don't feel so alone.

    On things I shouldn't probably like, but do: the tumeric latte I just had was a delight.
  • Yuck! Turmeric is a curry spice not with latte!!!!!!! I think the world is going mad with what they add to good coffee.
    Mind you, rather than a latte I'd have a Portuguese galao - stronger than a latte - or else add another shot of coffee to the latte.

    Irn-bru is the nectar of the gods. It'll make you strong, "it's made wi' girders!"
    Did you know that the Trump won't serve it in his Scottish golf clubs because he's "feart" (afraid - translation) that it will stain his precious carpets. It's the same colour that he is !!!!!

    I dislike licorice. Sweet or sour. It's 'orrible.
  • MooMoo Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The trick to buying tasty peaches (and apples too, for that matter) is to choose the ones with the most intense color. I carefully pick through the display and if only one has intense color, that's all I buy.
  • You have to get the truly ripe ones which probably means farmers market. Otherwise it is indeed plastic.
    Doesn't help. Farmers markets and fruit stands are the standard places for getting good peaches around here. Peaches are bought at the grocery store only as a last result.

    Doesn't matter how ripe/fresh/intensely colored they are. They taste—and smell—terrible to me.
    Climacus wrote: »
    Pepsi Max (Vanilla if I'm feeling fancy) for me. Mmmmm. Got 30 375ml cans at 40% off yesterday.
    ("Burn the heretic!", screams Nick!)
    Not at all. Different strokes and all.

    Pepsi was invented in Eastern NC, not far from where I grew up (and about 5 blocks from where my mother grew up). It is marketed here as "The Taste of the Carolinas." I'm all for local, including historically local, but this is one instance where I draw the line. If I want a local soft drink, give me Cheerwine over Pepsi any day of the week.

  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    I'm a simple soul. In my book craft is simply posh keg.
    So am I. In my book craft is a synonym for over-priced. Adding the word craft adds at least 50% to the price. Hipster beer.

  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I’ll through out the one that has baffled my wife for almost 30 years: Peaches.

    Can’t stand them, can’t stand the smell of them. Fresh peaches, peach ice cream, peach cobbler . . . . They all taste horrible to me. And this time of year in these parts, peaches are everywhere.

    Can you tell me where these parts are please, and how long the peach season lasts so that I can avoid going there.

    This is not a dislike. I have an allergy to peaches, even walking through a room with peaches in a bowl makes me feel unwell. I avoid the fruit sections in markets for this reason.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    balaam wrote: »
    Can you tell me where these parts are please, and how long the peach season lasts so that I can avoid going there.
    These parts would be the Carolinas and Georgia, so unless you've got a trip planned in the next few weeks, you should be safe. :wink:

    Peach season in North Carolina is basically July into August. In South Carolina (where one can behold this water tower) the season is a bit longer, and in Georgia (aka, "the Peach State"), longer still—maybe late May through August. Prime peach season is often considered to be from the 4th of July until Labor Day (the first Monday in September).

  • Irn-bru would be fine if it were actually made from girders ...

    They used to do some very fine adverts, though.

    Shame it tastes like llama shit.
  • Shame it tastes like llama shit.

    Just wondering how you would know that...
    :wink:
  • I have a vivid imagination.

    Scotland's produced some culinary delights, single malt, shortbread, haggis even ...

    But the Glaswegian diet is legendarily awful. Deep fried pizza anyone, deep fried Mars Bars?

    Ok, they did the latter to stick two fingers up at Sassenach journalists, but even so ...

    Has anyone ever had a 'bridie'? It's a sort of mutton pie. It's like lard covered in pastry.

    Ach y fi!
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    I've never really like comic books. Mostly, I think the aversion comes from trying to read Spider-Man a couple of times as a kid, and finding that they were filled with in-the-know references(complete with footnotes) to things that had happened in previous issues, which I didn't care to look up(I'd imagine some people get turned off from watching soap operas for the same reason).

    The only comic books I got into were Archie, horror(House Of Secrets etc), and Marvel Classic Comics(eg. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde), which might seem like an odd combination, until you consider that the stories in them are all self-contained.
  • Irn-bru would be fine if it were actually made from girders ...

    They used to do some very fine adverts, though.

    Shame it tastes like llama shit.

    If llama shit were made from five different artificial sweetners with just enough filthy orange liquid to keep them in solution.
  • Yes. Perhaps I'd have been better saying, 'Irn-Bru tastes like llama shit would if it were concocted from five different artificial sweeteners with just enough filthy orange liquid to keep them all in solution.'

    That would be a better way of putting it. Indeed.

    Nectar of the gods?

    My arse.
  • Nectar of the gods?

    My arse.
    No, the llama's arse.


  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Cola:
    I like CocaCola, Coke Light, Pepsi, Pepsi light, and Coke Zero sugar.

    But Pepsi Max? No thanks.
  • Blimey! Whips the llama's ass? Well, what d'ya know?

    I nearly wrote yak poo. I don't know why I chose a llama.

    Worth the diversion.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Yak poo and llama shit are preferable to Pepsi Max.
  • I wouldn't know. I can't remember the last time I had Pepsi Anything.

    Mind you, I can't remember the last time I had yak's poo or ...
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    If I want a local soft drink, give me Cheerwine over Pepsi any day of the week.
    I agree. I greatly enjoyed it when I was in North Carolina earlier this year. But it is a bit far from Australia to regularly travel for my fix.

  • But the Glaswegian diet is legendarily awful. Deep fried pizza anyone, deep fried Mars Bars?
    I thought the latter (if they indeed exist) allegedly came from Aberdeen?

  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    balaam wrote: »
    I'm a simple soul. In my book craft is simply posh keg.
    So am I. In my book craft is a synonym for over-priced. Adding the word craft adds at least 50% to the price. Hipster beer.

    Aye. Tends to be the tipple of the sort of people who order burgers too tall to eat served on a dead pigeon's tail feathers, with chips served in a dead mole's arse instead of a fucking plate like any normal person.
  • Deep fried Mars Bars exist, I've eaten one - well, shared one between a lot of us, to try it.
  • The story I heard was that a fiesty Glaswegian chip shop owner was stung into action by a quip by a London journalist that Glaswegian food was so fatty, he wouldn't be surprised to find that they deep fried Mars Bars.

    So the fella started serving them just to spite him.

    That might be an urban myth but I'd like it to be true.

    Just as it'd be great if they did make Irn-Bru from girrrderrs.

    It'd taste better if they did and be better for you. All that iron.
  • According to Wikipedia, the first record of deep fried Mars Bars comes from 1995 from Stonehaven, which is near Aberdeen, several hours by train north east of Glasgow.

    Stonehaven is where Dunnottar Castle is found, one of the backgrounds offered as standard on the Microsoft backgrounds for Windows 7.
  • Climacus wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    If I want a local soft drink, give me Cheerwine over Pepsi any day of the week.
    I agree. I greatly enjoyed it when I was in North Carolina earlier this year. But it is a bit far from Australia to regularly travel for my fix.
    Maybe I can set you up sometime. :wink:

  • On this side of the pond, our State Fairs are notorious for Deep-Fried Everything, including Mars Bars.
  • Irn-Bru: the truth: https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/is-irn-bru-really-made-from-girders-1-4147010. (Mind you, it's from an Edinburgh paper so may not be trustworthy ...)
  • Maybe Irn-Bru is made from Deep Fried girders?
  • But the Glaswegian diet is legendarily awful. Deep fried pizza anyone, deep fried Mars Bars?
    I thought the latter (if they indeed exist) allegedly came from Aberdeen?

    Can assure you they at least did exist. I know of someone who got his wife to make him some!
  • Walking in the Lake District in 1997, we found a chippy that sold deep fried Mars Bars, Twix, Snickers and Bounty plus maybe some others. I remember those because we bought one of each deep fried bar for each of the four kids after fish and chips, a day's walking and a healthy picnic lunch. I remember trying the Twix, Snickers and Mars bar and the only one I'd repeat would be the Snickers. But only after a day's walking when I was that hungry.

    I have seen deep fried Mars Bars in chippies again since, but haven't tried them.
  • So, from Stonehaven to Glasgow to the Lake District in just two years. Impressive.
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