I am reading a paper on the emotion of Disgust. It is not going quickly for the mere mention of things disgusting evokes disgust as the author correctly point out. Disgust is a universal emotion and quite fascinating really. There are the ubiquitous things that evoke Disgust: other people’s effluvia, dead or decaying things, insects, vermin, and Edith Massay. Evolution shaped us to find these disgusting as they are health hazards. The caveman who cringed away from the dog droppings lived on while the dimwit who thought them something to eat dropped dead.(1)
These things make sense, but what about food? Why is it something considered a delicacy in one culture be beyond question in another? Monkey brains anyone? Curiouser and curiouser.
Someone loathes mayonnaise. Loathing is too mild a word. Even saying the “M” word gets the poor man heaving and we must quickly change the subject. Sometimes at mystery meals I act as food sampler to tell him the coast is clear or a discrete ‘not for you dear’. Yet I find mayo quite yummy especially in deviled eggs.
On the other hand I have graciously declined an invitation to eat fried grasshoppers “the food of the future” on the grounds they are not kosher (true) but the real reason is it makes me gag to think upon it. A Chinese acquaintance from college learned early to keep mum about his fondness for cat (or was it dog?) as it would clear the table like a bad fart.
I haven’t gotten too far into the paper but it seems if you grow up eating fried rats than this doesn’t phase you later on when you learn most people would rather starve than eat such a abomination. (2)
There is no accounting for taste. In my youth the notion of eating squash in any form was enough to make me sick up yet I ate Jello. Now it’s the other way around.
I was curious to find the foods that hit highest on the world’s ‘Disgust-ometer” so I foolishly googled the topic and found “The top 10”. I did not get past #3 as my stomach was beginning to rebel. (3)
I am curious to hear from Spo-fans if you have any particular food stuffs you find especially disgusting, your sooner I’d eat rats at Tewksbury tidbits.
I will start. I always finish Chinese food for cold leftovers transform into a gelatinous cube, that goes slurp as you remove it from its carton. It stays in that form, long enough for me to retch and push it down the waste pipe with plenty of water to follow.
(1) Yes I am channeling “John Waters”, but hey this is about Disgust. Connect the dots folks.
(2) Do I dare say it? Sooner I’d eat rats at Tewkesbury than eat rats on a stick?
(3) It was the soft-boiled fetal duck in the shell recipe that did me in. Please don’t go there.
26 comments
November 8, 2016 at 1:28 AM
Kato
There is no way I would want to eat an animal I personally knew by name. We have a rabbit called Bobby. I would be totally disgusted-out if I was expected to eat her. But I had no problem eating feral rabbit I had trapped and killed in my youth. Or fish.
November 8, 2016 at 3:40 AM
David
Stumping me, there are things I prefer not to eat, like “Wonder-Bread” but disgusting, I have been repulsed by pork scrapple – thought I have to admit I have not tried it. Whale was good, if a little tough, if offered the opportunity would I sample dog or cat – maayyybee.
November 8, 2016 at 3:58 AM
anne marie in philly
I agree with someone – mayo is YUCK! so are most vegetables, wonder bread, and anything from mcdonalds.
one particular barf food – fried chinese dumplings; I call them “things that smell like ass”.
November 9, 2016 at 12:37 PM
fearsomebeard
Ass smells better. I had a major stomach flu once that hit within hours of consuming Chinese dumplings and all in can remember is vomiting so hard I had them coming out of my nose and coming out of my nose and coming out of my nose …yes ass smells better.
November 9, 2016 at 4:16 PM
anne marie in philly
OMB! :-0
November 8, 2016 at 4:04 AM
Frogdancer
Bananas.
The devil’s food.
November 8, 2016 at 5:50 AM
Urspo
They still make me slightly nauseous to consume. As a boy I learned I could make a sick scene by eating one quickly. I recall getting sent home twice from machinations via bananas
November 8, 2016 at 9:34 AM
Jeffrey
I so agree!
Bananas = Monkey Food
November 8, 2016 at 4:58 AM
mitchellismoving
Fried grasshoppers taste like chicken… so I’m told.
November 8, 2016 at 6:36 AM
Practical Parsimony
Okra in any form makes me gag because I sat next to Daddy and watched the slime as he raised it to his mouth. Therefore, the smell is evocative of slime. Mayo makes me wretch; Miracle Whip is delicious. Runny scrambled eggs won’t do. Any kind of entrails or brains or tongue sound disgusting and smell the same. I am about to throw up thinking about beets and cantaloupe! And, I would not eat sheep eyes, testicles from anything, and no insects.
November 8, 2016 at 7:27 AM
Jean
Andouillette.
It’s a French dish, rarely on the cheap menu, comprising some kind of animal intestine formed into a sausage shape so that it looks remarkably like a dead person’s penis. Even the smell of it when being consumed by a nearby diner can make me heave.
November 8, 2016 at 8:08 AM
fearsomebeard
I find Edith Massey fabulous, brilliant and most entertaining.
As far as disgust I will answer that with one word: Sushi.
November 8, 2016 at 8:27 AM
larrymuffin
Me I’m an equal opportunity eater, I will eat anything.
November 8, 2016 at 9:57 AM
anne marie in philly
one could take that statement many many ways…
November 8, 2016 at 9:10 AM
Greg
I used to dislike brussel sprouts, but now I find them delicious…especially if you fry them with a little bacon and sprinkle some feta on them.
November 8, 2016 at 9:49 AM
anora
As a turophile I can stomach a lot of things, but I wouldn’t eat casu marzu for all money in the world.
November 8, 2016 at 3:21 PM
Kato
Yep… that seems disgusting.
November 8, 2016 at 3:42 PM
Sassybear
Beets make me nauseous. Tasting them. Seeing them. Smelling them.
November 8, 2016 at 5:23 PM
Old Lurker
As a squeamish vegetarian I avoid most foods. Probably I won’t eat meat that looks as if it was once an animal, which I am told is a Western peculiarity.
The only time I had persimmons they were overripe, I think. I found them disgusting.
November 8, 2016 at 6:13 PM
jefferyrn
Very unappetizing indeed. Since I am trying to lose weight though any thing fried sounds wonderful.
November 8, 2016 at 6:21 PM
truthspew
I once did a contract doing grocery scoring. Thing like raw polar bear meat and ground squirrel were evaluated. I suppose I wouldn’t mind trying either so long as it was seasoned correctly.
Now the one vegetable I cannot abide, okra. Gads, slimy inside. Ick!
Now Mayo I can take or leave. Some things require it, on others like a hamburger it’s forbidden.
November 9, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Kato
Sleep in dear Spo. And friends of Spo. Delay the pain.
November 9, 2016 at 12:07 AM
Kato
November 9, 2016 at 4:13 AM
David
Talk about disgusting, there will be a line around the block to get into your office today. Any suggestions to make us forget this nightmare?
November 9, 2016 at 12:47 PM
Old Lurker
Unfortunately, some of us have been eating a lot of crow, disgusting or not.
I hope you are doing okay. Given how ruffled the election was getting you I am a bit worried.
December 10, 2016 at 5:16 AM
Ron
Interesting subject, food. I dislike intensely all seafood. And I mean ALL. From slimy fish to the crusctations like shrimp and lobster. The “fishy” smell reminds me of, uh “womanly” parts. Macaroni and cheese likewise makes me gag. And rhubarb pie (which I only ate once in my life) caused me to be violently ill with stomach cramps. Unfortunately that dadtrous episode occurred when I was a guest in a friend’s home and his mother kept insisting “here, have another” of her vile sugar encrusted rhubarb pie. On the other hand I have eaten squirrel brains (sucked those brains out through the skeletal eye sockets of the now dead squirrel resting comfortably in my Mother’s squirrel and dumpling stew (my father was an inveterate small game hunter). Being young (6-7 years old) I probably didn’t know I was supposed to be repelled by eating a bushy tailed rodent. However. I still like scrapple which is made by chopping up all the pig parts left over from slaughter (yep, including the pig’s butt hole as well as the pig brains, ears, tail and all the pig guts) and mixing up this “stew” with cornmeal and spices and frying this abomination in grease. These days I imbibe on tamer fate like hummus, pits chips and veggie delights. However I do not like tofu nor soy sauce nor duck (too greasy). Of. Purse my all time favorite dish is (are you sitting down?) ……………….Eggplant Parmesan! Properly done of course, none of that greasy rubbish that is often palmed off as eggplant parm. Bon appetite!