Ugh liver. Yes I'll never get over that one. You know what's worse than calves liver.. is that certain cafeterias call it 'baby beef liver'

BABY BEEF

What the heck!?

My older son has been scarred for life by being forced to eat cafeteria broccoli at least once a week at his preschool. Overcooked green glop--the stuff of nightmares.

Pigs Feet or snails for me. (Yes I know, quite a combination).
When I was a kid my parents were very cosmopolitan and had us try everything.
I wouldn't eat escargot on any bet anymore.

The only way I will eat liver is chopped with lots of fried onions and shmaltz. Mmmmmm.....

In fact there is some in my Fridge right now, just waiting for me to get home tonight.

Sorry, all of my current food fears are completely rational... but when I was taking biology in middle school I refused to eat baked ziti because I thought it looked like aortas.

We can talk about rational fears here too. EL

Brunch cooties.

I had live scallop liver once and it made me hallucinate.

When I was a kid (isn't it interesting how many fears - rational or ir), Mom would buy liver, shape it to look like a t-bone steak, and fry it like a hamburger. The aroma was less than pleasant. Years later I had a group of friends and we had regularly scheduled liver-n-onions nights, sometimes in and sometimes at restaurants that served the dish. I grew to like the taste.

Then, of course, there is the ever-popular Braunschweiger, or as we Milwaukee folk called it, liver sausage. Yum!

I hated liver as a child 'cause my mom cooked it hard and dry--kinda like shoe leather. But, during a short hospital stay when I was 14, one of the meals was liver and onions. I asked for something else, but was told there wouldn't be anything else. Well, I poked at it with the fork, then cut a tiny piece and tried it, and it was tender and delicious! Mom never learned to cook it well, but I do, and I love the stuff.

I fear anything with tentacles...they look scary. I was taught not to turn away from a food because of how it looks, so I've tried them. They taste like fishy rubber...yick!

How do you shape a lliver to look like a t-bone steak? Isn't the lack of bone a bit obvious? I'm all aboard the Liver Hate Trim, but isn;t that just dislike not fear? An irratonal fear would be that eating the liver would allow the cow's spirit to inhabit your dreams.

Pickled eggs: large jar among the booze bottles in a northern Wis. bar. Greenish white eggs pushed up against the glass. Never saw anyone eat one.

Hospital liver? Really? Do I have to point out the obvious fear that it might be the liver of Mrs. Martinez in Room 308.

Gack. (Which is my new favorite disgusted word, thanks to this blog) EL

Ooops. What kind of slip was that? Should be Hate Train.

I would say that pickled eggs is a very rational food fear.

Irrational would be peanut butter and pickle samdwiches. They are delicious, but I can't get anyone else on board.

Elizabeth,

I always thought you liked calf liver. Mom used the freshest and served it medium rare with bacon. I thought it was wonderful.

Gack. EL

If you didn't clean your plate, you didn't get any ice cream for dessert.

Sounds like a cost cutting measure to me. I'll bet they saved hundreds of dollars by not serving ice cream one day a week.

Wow, D@L has been spammed!

Whoops, I meant to kill that out. I'll do it now. EL

jl - pickled eggs are best when consumed after having drunk a half-keg of Pabst Blue Ribbon and on a dare ... and it's mid-January ... in Rhinelander, WI ... 4 below zero (wind chill of -30) ... about 1AM ... in a bar with far too many heads of dead animals mounted on the wood-paneled walls ... where manhattans (if you're bold enough to order one) are automatically made with brandy, not bourbon ... been there, done that, got the t-shirt, good times.

New prize: Longest MOST Off Topic Post. Winner - Ren.

(And its not like off topic is a small category around here.)

I had to kill Ren's diatribe out. I did think it was spam, as Hal pointed out. Anyway, surely that honor should be saved for Owl Meat or Voodoo. EL

liver is definitey a rational food fear. why do we want to eat another creatures toxin filter??

My irrational fear???

Owl Meat.

:)

The mint bowl next to the business cards on the hostess stand, or the community nut bowl at the bar. While we're at it, this is more of a restaurant facililty fear but I prefer bathroom doors that push out and don't have a doorknob. A pattern is developing here...

I truly abhore ketchup. I can't even be around people eating it, the smell kills me. I always get dinners and delis to take it away from the table when eating out.

Especially because everyone always keeps a bottle in the fridge forever and then pulls it out once or twice a year. Can this be good? EL

'pickled eggs are best when consumed ...' I'm not sure which part of this is scariest.

Insects. I hear they are a source of high quality protein. But, I just can't....

Liver, well, love that stuff.

I know, OMG, surprised me too. It was Children's Hospital; maybe it was so good because it was young and really fresh.

Ulp...sorry folks, got carried away...morning meds wearing off, too soon for afternoon meds...won't happen again.

I'll try almost everything, but the only irrational food "fear" I have is pickles... wet green pickly things... no thanks. I don't like liver, but I don't fear it. I think that is almost a rational fear as amie pointed out.

A couple rational food fears... balut and cow brains (grandma used to make them and it gave me nightmares).

Welcome to the dark side Dottie.

I think there is a difference between an irrational food fear and not eating something because you don't like it. If you say you hate sushi, but you've never had it, that is irrational. If you say you don't like calf liver, and that opinion is based on tasting calf liver - even if you like duck liver and scrapple - all that means is you simply don't like the taste of calf liver.

That being said, there are a lot of foods in the world that I wouldn't even try. I'm not going to try rat, cat or dog. I really don't care how it is prepared. I don't care if I could be sure it was safe to eat. Now if I refuse to try rat, cat or dog, am I irrational? I would certainly say I was irrational if I said I hated rat,cat and dog and never tried them, but would I be irrational if I said that I will not eat those things regardless of the argument presented? I'm not sure.

I think it would depend on how hungry you were. EL

All these organ meats bring sci-fi fantasies to life. Or the old M*A*S*H where Hawkeye pretends he's eating the liver of a recently deceased North Korean. Imagine if humans were raised the way current "crop animals" are and we were delivered to a Martian McDonald's or Venus Fried People.

I can't get these past my eyes: pickled tongue, blood sausages, head cheese, souse, haggis (hog maw), calf brains, brain sandwiches, sweet breads, and eggnog (no matter how much booze it has in it-barf).

My irrational (or rational) food fear- the science experiment called...Hot Pockets! They scare me.

OMG and Dottie, over lunch we checked the toe tag and it was not Mrs. Martinez. However, word on the third floor has it that the deceased's kin have hired a Eulenfallensteller. Just a friendly tip. And, EL & RoCK, rat, cat, dog...an all expenses paid trip to Nam in the 70's makes me pass on this food group every time, double barf. /:~)

Imagine if humans were raised the way current "crop animals" are and we were delivered to a Martian McDonald's or Venus Fried People.

To Serve Man.

Haggis and hog maw are two different dishes. I come from close to Pennsylvania Dutch country, where hog maw is popular. The maw (stomach) is simply an organic casserole dish that you stuff with diced potatoes, cabbage and sausage, stich closed (looks like a football) and bake. It's very delicious.

Owl Meat G - please post recipe of scallop liver ;)

The maw (stomach) is simply an organic casserole dish that you stuff with diced potatoes, cabbage and sausage, stich closed (looks like a football) and bake

Sounds an awful lot like haggis to me. Except that the stomach is from a pig instead of a sheep.

Real fears people:
1) I need to sit with a view of the door in case someone tries to murder me.
2) I need to eat an odd number of small items, preferably a prime number. So I need to have three grapes, not four. And if I have three grapes followed by three grapes that's six, so I need three more, which is nine, but five more would be better because that adds up to eleven, a prime number.
3) All salad is contaminated with bacteria and should be avoided in restaurants.
4) Somehow they secretly put mayonaisse in something (which disgusts me.)
5) Because of refilling the same bottles, a small part of the kethcup is from 1978 and may or may not contain flesh-eating bacteria.

Scallop liver recipe? Easy:

1) A picture of yourself
2) A boat on a river
3) Tangerine trees
4) Marmelade skies
5) Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
5) Marshmallow pies

No recipe, it was a very special non-menu item at a little place in Đồng Hới on the coast of Vietnam.

Pig's Feet - I can't even imagine eating something that was walking in mud, crap and whatever else. And it looks much too life-like.
And don't tell me how much better soup tastes when cooked with chicken feet!

Two words: prison food.

Pickles... I can't even be near them. I freak out if they touch my food. I've been known to nearly throw pickles at the server when I have been CLEAR about not having them anywhere within walking distance of my food. Who knows where this comes from...

I am having an on-going battle with Atwaters when the server puts NO NO NO Pickles on my order and then there they are. They contaminate the rest of the food.

Cauliflower

I used to love it as a kid, there was no single event that turned me off of it, but it now absolutely disgusts me and I hate the smell and taste and appearance of it

I'll eat almost anything, too

I had a friend who hated pickles but always got them on his burgers and then took them off. Why? Hates pickles, loves pickle juice.

Piano, you have indeed been there. Brought a tear to my eye. Had a real thing for the Brandy Man. for a spell after my first successful bout of non-smoking. They killed the cravings and about everything else. Great stuff. But I gotta tell ya, hard as I tried, never did drink enough PBR to warm to a pickled egg.

Hal VoR --
I had forgotten about that story.

There was another one [title gone from my head along with my hair] about mercenaries who allegedly supply spare body parts medical purposes but inreality are using them for food.

And, as long as we're doing sci-fi food, let's not forget Kilgore Trout's Trafalmadore story where food is so restricted that the people watch food porn -- films of people eating laciviously a la Tom Jones.

Oops, we've morphed again.

"Imagine if humans were raised the way current "crop animals" are and we were delivered to a Martian McDonald's or Venus Fried People."

Oh I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wee ner .....

Ho-kay now. Lady Elizabeth, this was a good idea, once, but maybe not every week! Maybe when the moon is only the merest crescent in the night sky.

Hey jl get a better name tiny name person and also my baloney has a fist name it's OSCAR. Poo-taaaaaaaaaaaaah! Zoosh kazaam (stealers!)

If it weren't for #2 on his list, I'd think OMG was my long lost twin. Especially the one about sitting with my back to the door, though I would add also sitting with my back to the majority of the other diners. I want to see what is coming at all times, from the door or elsewhere.

Pulp in orange juice - I'm afraid I will choke or something.

Pulp in orange juice. This is what we want. Seriously nuts members of the sandbox. Its this kind of irrational fear that makes OMG, VDPork, RocChick and Bacon Girl seem positively normal by comparison.

I don't eat blue food. Blueberries don't count because their coloring was derived by mother nature. So I should say I don't eat unnatural blue food. The sight of a blue razzberry slurpee gives me the willies.

Eyeball tacos.
Nope, I'm not clever enough to make this one up. I heard about it on KCRW's Good Food, in an interview with Eddie Lin, one of the bloggers on Deep End Dining. You can see the original at http://www.deependdining.com/2007/06/in-other-newsapple-introduces-itaco.html
It's as if a couple of junior high kids dared each other to think of the most disgusting food possible -- and they did it! From the moment I heard the introduction I knew I could never go near Santa Barbara again.

Lioness, maybe George Carlin molested you. He used to do a routine about blue food or the lack of it.

Brussel sprouts.