I'm a somewhat adventurous eater. When I travel, I always try the local cuisine instead of sticking to the things I can get at home.
For example, I was sent to Japan for a month for a system migration while working for the Department of Defense. My traveling companions preferred to eat on base where the American franchise fast food shops offered only foods they were familiar with.
I preferred the Japanese vendors on base or the many options available off-base because when would I ever get the chance again? And if you're going to eat McDonald’s in Japan, at least make it one of the restaurants that cater to local tastes, right?
But some people are only interested in what's familiar. Which is fine, but very limiting.
I say somewhat adventurous because I can’t do spicy—unlike everyone else in my family. I can thank my autism for that.
What my family finds mildly spicy is at the upper limit of what I can handle. My family knows me well enough to not rate spiciness for me on whether it's mild to them. In the Amelia Scale of Spiciness—sorry Scoville—there's only "you can try a bite of this" or "this will probably kill you."
Not literally kill—I'll just wish I was deceased. Those hot pepper eating challenges where at the end people are drooling, crying, vomiting, snotty messes? That's me with a single jalapeño ring hidden in my nachos.
Which is a shame because I love the flavor chilies can bring to a dish when added for flavor instead of pain. I just need to stick to mild poblanos—around 1200 on Scoville's scale—and dishes with just a hint of any hotter varieties.
Needless to say, regrets, I have a few.
Like trying the "not spicy at all" Thai food my Thai friend recommended. Or the "it's not hot" spice level 0 seafood golden curry in Japan.
I actually ate all of the seafood in my curry—while trying to minimize sauce intake and eating a lot of white rice and drinking pineapple juice between bites—because the flavor and texture of the scallops, octopus, squid, crab, clams, and prawns was amazing.
But by the last morsel...
Reddit user Iluvaic asked:
"What food did you try once and immediately regretted it?"
Bhut Jolokia
"I put too much dried bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) on some rice. It wasn't the heat. It was spicy as hell, but I like the spice."
"It did something to my stomach, though, and I realized that the peppers were smoked before crushing them (it was a powder)."
"Then I learned that chipotle peppers, which I don't like, are just smoked jalapeños."
"That day, I learned that I don't do well with smoked peppers."
~ verbosehuman
Natto
"Natto. I didn’t expect to like it, but it was so much worse than I expected."
~ Direct-Tip-987
"It is definitely an acquired taste though."
"The flavor is mild, but the most off-putting part is usually the texture."
"Normally people eat it over rice to help with the texture issue."
~ Dangerous-Leek-966
* Natto are fermented soybeans. It's known for its sticky, gelatinous texture and pungent, nutty smell.
Twizzlers
"Twizzlers. I bought them from an American store in Frankfurt, Germany."
"They taste like coagulated nail polish."
~ gerginborisov
Liver
"Liver. I hated it after the first time I tried it."
"My mom would make it about once a month when I was growing up. My dad would get a bit sore at us if we didn’t eat what was served at the table, so I would take the smallest piece possible and drench it in ketchup."
"I don’t think I’ve eaten it since I left home at 17. I don’t miss it at all."
~ Cantech667
7-11 Hot Dog Chips
"The 7-11 brand hot dog flavored potato chip."
"I couldn’t even swallow it."
"How u make a chip taste like dirty meat?"
~ tucat_shapurr
Heinz Macaroni and Cheese
"Heinz macaroni and cheese, sold in cans in the UK. Here in the US you can get them from Cost-Plus, an international market type store, real interesting stuff there if you can find one."
"I wasn't paying $5 for a can of MAC, but they had a dented can for $3, and I said, why not? It wasn't breached, and it was in-date."
"I should have known from the smell when I opened it, but I cooked it up anyway (heated it in a small saucepan). The smell didn't get any better. And it tasted horrible."
"It didn't taste rotten/spoiled, it just tasted BAD. But it seemed that it was meant to taste like that?"
"I spit out the bite I'd taken and threw the rest out, then immediately carried the trash out."
~ CerebralHawks
"I feel vindicated by this comment. When I was a small child in the UK, I asked my mum to make me a can of this because I'd seen people talk about 'mac n' cheese' in American shows on telly."
"It was so revolting from the second I approached it that I didn't try actual macaroni cheese for another 20 years or more."
"Even if I order macaroni cheese in a restaurant and I'm genuinely looking forward to eating it, I am physically more tense than I should be."
"And I blame it all on that can of Heinz macaroni cheese."
~ guyincognito___
Butcher Scraps
"Chitterlings, hog maw, hog head cheese, tripe, liver, cow tongue."
"Whenever my mom or grandparents made this, my sibs & I would eat cereal."
~ Advanced_Pie_6909
Balut
"Balut. Got it served to me while living in Vietnam, cracked open the egg to see the little fetal duck/brown mess inside.
"Was about to tell my host my egg is a little 'overdone', only to watch them all slurp it down Temple of Doom style."
"I feel strongly that refusing food served to you in a private home is very rude, so I followed suit, just trying to let the whole thing slide down as quickly as possible."
"Unfortunately it required some chewing."
"It took the strength of all my ancestors to not projectile vomit after those few, gooey, crunchy bites, then downed an entire Tiger Beer to help the cursed mess on its way."
~ darthva
*Balut is a fertilized duck egg embryo that is boiled or steamed and eaten from the shell.
Japanese Wagyu = GOOD
"A5 Japanese Wagyu."
"It's so good I regret it 'cause it's f*cking expensive as hell, and now I need it constantly."
~ joe_nard_vee
Japanese Wagyu = BAD
"Ahhh. Wagyu. I have the exact opposite experience with it."
"First, some context. I'm from Argentina. Our beef is GREAT. We love that stuff. Argentinian meat is exported to the USA and Europe consistently because of its flavor."
"But here's the catch: our meat is not necessarily very marbled. Most Argentinians eat meat on the leaner side (compared to Americans), unless the fat is on the external part of the beef. Keep this in mind."
"A couple of years ago, a wealthy American client had just come to visit my country and invited me and a coworker to spend some time with him and his company partners in Buenos Aires. He planned a very fancy dinner at an awesome apartment, and hired a well-known chef."
"I don't remember the whole menu, but it included several courses. Soups, salads, seafood, you name it."
"But the star of the night was a very exclusive wagyu beef. As a foodie myself, and an adventurous one at that, I was SO excited to try it."
"Dinner was great until I tried the wagyu."
"It was mostly fat, and not in a good way. I mean, I knew it was supposed to be fatty, and I knew it would be way out of my comfort zone, considering I mostly eat lean meats, but that was the point of tasting the beef."
"I wanted to feel the whole 'melt in your mouth' thing. I wanted to taste the nuances of such an iconic (and expensive) meat."
"I did my best not to throw up."
"Never again."
~ LluviaDeMilangas
Hákarl
"Hákarl—fermented shark. I took a deep whiff and didn’t break my face and tried a piece."
"0/10. Don’t try it. Not worth it."
~ Compulsive-Gremlin
"You can get it in Reykjavik, Iceland, for sure."
"You can smell it walking past restaurants. Absolutely honks."
~ PeroniNinja84
Old Chocolate
"I worked at Goodwill, and sometimes candy bars are donated."
"Some of them proved to be very old."
~ Childoftheway
Pet Gourmet
"Cat food. Both wet and dry varieties."
"Both not great due to protein make up being suitable for cats."
~ kna5041
"I tried a Milk Bone when I was a kid. Dry and pretty tasteless."
"And a bit of Gaines Burger, if you remember those. It was oddly sweet."
~ blitzen_13
Candy Cane Bacon
"I used to work at a conference centre so the annual Christmas party was always quite awesome. For an appetizer they had candied bacon….except the candy was candy canes."
"I tried it, partially out of curiosity and partially because I was like 'it has to taste better than it sounds if they keep serving it at events'."
"It did not taste better than it sounds. It was bacon with a candy cane after taste. It was horrible. So so horrible."
"They served it the next year too and I avoided it like hell."
~ GraveDancer40
Carolina Reaper
"Ate a whole Carolina Reaper pepper. I like spicy food and can handle a lot of heat, but this was on a completely different level."
Beside the fact my mouth was maximally on fire for like 30 minutes, it also affected my gastrointestinal tract in a way most spicy food doesn't. I had a sharp pain in my stomach, felt nauseous and was sweating profusely."
"I should have just tried to throw up."
"I could feel it working its way through my digestive system all day until I took the worst sh*t of my life. It felt like I was pooping broken glass and battery acid."
~ Rogue-Accountant-69
Ouch!
That'd be a big old Hell to the no for me.
What culinary regrets do you have?
@sama/X
