A matter of taste

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

Having just moved to Texas some months ago I've noticed some differences of opinion in terms of food.

I love mushrooms, hate spicy food (I'm the worst Latina ever, I know!), and can't stand fries with a ton of salt. But I've seen all of the above here.

From a marketing standpoint I can see the reasoning behind this. Offer what the locals want and they'll come.

Even my coworkers hate dark chocolate, which I kind of get, but it's what chocolate actually is before the milk and sugar is added. I used to hate it myself and got used to it.

I'm not claiming to be a food critic or a connoisseur, as I enjoy my barbecue sauce now and then, but when do you think too much is too much? At what point does sauce fail to enhance the food itself rather than cover it? Same with coffee, desserts, etc.

Or is it all, as it were, a matter of taste?

[Komori]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Are you asking if specific flavors/food techniques/amounts are objectively better than others, as in your example of milk vs dark chocolate? Or you just want to know what each person's personal food peeves are?

Because yeah, there are certainly different regional food preferences. There are some places that eat their french fries with ketchup, some with mayonnaise, and some with malt vinegar. I certainly prefer ketchup, but it's not like the other two are objectively inferior. And some regions of the world or the countries prefer spicier foods, or foods with a lot of dairy, or what have you. Also if we're talking about BBQ, there are different parts of the country that feel VERY strongly about what's real BBQ. XD

But ultimately, it's all about personal preference. There are stuff that is objectively worse (like if a food's burnt or overcooked), but flavor stuff, that's all just up to stuff you like or don't.

[M is for Morphine]

Taste is funny because different factors shape it for different people. Apparently a TON of it is genetic- some people can't taste bitter things, so their opinion of chocolate/coffee/beer is going to be way different than someone who's very sensitive to it. There's a gene that makes cilantro taste like dish soap, when other people love it. Various medical issues change it too- I bought a coffee for a (recovering) heroin addict and he ordered it with 16 sugars. My boyfriend had a series of severe issues with his nasal passage, now that it's treated and he can smell things, he can taste things differently, too.

Personally I knock the salt off of my soft pretzels, which makes me the worst Philadelphian. In terms of taste, I do/eat many disgusting things and have no room to judge on any level. XD

[Ian Wolf-Park]

It also depends on a person's eating habits. For example, I know my dad tends to put spicy items, depending on the food item, probably because he ate quite a lot of spicy items. Me, on the other hand, don't mind a little spice, but I still tend to avoid spicy items.

[Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff)]

Jan 16, 2017 22:04:17 GMT -5 Komori said:

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Are you asking if specific flavors/food techniques/amounts are objectively better than others, as in your example of milk vs dark chocolate? Or you just want to know what each person's personal food peeves are?

Sorry. XD I did mean all of the above.

[Gelquie]

There's a lot of genetic components to it, but I think it's mostly environmental. Two kids in two countries that have two different eating habits common in their country are going to develop different tastes, and if you introduce one kid to the other cuisine... Well, they may be open to it, but they may not be used to it. Though I think they could alter their taste if they had to rely on it, like if one moved to the other country.

Because of that, I don't think there's much leeway in what's objectively good or bad. I think for the most part, it really is a matter of taste, or at least common diet. Taste buds do change quite a few times in your lifetime, but it's still a matter of taste.

It still applies even if the food is cooked really well. I've had times where I've gone to a really good restaurant and ordered a thing that I knew was perfectly cooked and there was nothing the cook could do to make it better, but my take on it was still rather "meh". Which is a thing purely stemming from my preferences.

That said, there can be some degree of objectivity in terms of flavor balance, at least. It's not going to be perfect; some people like more sauce on a dish, some prefer that what the sauce is covering should be the star of the show and thus should only have just enough sauce. But I think most people agree that a dish is better if there's not so much sauce that it may as well be soup. Or that the sauce have so much of one thing that the other flavors are muted, thus robbing it of the sauce's complexity. Which doesn't necessarily mean that people won't eat it, just they may not think it's as good.

Figuring out the right balance is a matter of practice in the kitchen, though.

[June Scarlet]

I always figure it's a good thing not everyone shares the same tastes I do, otherwise the world would be forever short on my favorite foods, and there'd be a surplus of foods I don't like. Someone has to eat all the foods I don't like, and luckily it doesn't have to be me.

[Breakingchains]

I'm reminded of a tumblr post, which I can't find so I'll have to paraphrase: "I maintain there is a difference between good good pizza, bad good pizza, good bad pizza, and bad bad pizza."

Like you have two axes, one for objective quality ("How much tomato actually made it into this sauce? How much of this cheese is actually wood pulp?") and one for actual enjoyment of the end product ("Just how many of these am I inclined to scarf down during a 12-hour netflix binge?") They correlate, especially the more foods you try and the better quality food you eat in general, but it's hardly 1:1.

[Reiqua]

As people have said, there's environmental factors, there's genetic factors... but there's also psychological factors.

That's part of what speech pathologists do - see children who have aversions to eating certain textures or colours.

Also I have texture aversions myself. I can't consume anything less solid than a firm mashed potato cos I just gag on it xP
Except water. That's literally the only liquid I can cope with (and just as well or I'd be dead!) xD

[M is for Morphine]

Jan 17, 2017 21:04:07 GMT -5 Reiqua said:

As people have said, there's environmental factors, there's genetic factors... but there's also psychological factors.

That's part of what speech pathologists do - see children who have aversions to eating certain textures or colours.

Also I have texture aversions myself. I can't consume anything less solid than a firm mashed potato cos I just gag on it xP
Except water. That's literally the only liquid I can cope with (and just as well or I'd be dead!) xD

There is a certain texture that appears in Japanese cooking, like kake gohan or natto, and I just can't manage it. It tastes good, but I just can't manage that goopy raw egg mucus-y consistency. When it's time to swallow my body's like, "Nah."

[Komori]

I can definitely get weird texture hangups, but not like, one specific texture that applies across all foods. Like, super-chewy food can be fun as a candy, but when I ate one of those tiny octopus at a Chinese buffet once, the texture of chewing on a sand-filled balloon made me so queasy I almost lost it at the table. XD

But overall, I like trying all sorts of foods. Super-spicy or bitter foods I don't really care for, and there've been some specific dishes I don't like, but I don't think I could point to like, any specific cuisine or type of food that I won't eat. (Maybe that's why I'm so fat! XDD)