They tried it, they love it. You tried it, you don't.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by AOII_LB93

I guess I'm late to this thread's party.

I didn't realize food was trendy...maybe it's because I'm in southern California, but most of those ethnic foods I've been eating since I was a kid.

I can understand some foods being "trendy," so to speak - but the ones listed don't seem trendy to me.

Plus, I LOVE good Indian food. It's one of my favorite types of foods.

Originally Posted by AOII_LB93

- Applebee's/Hometown Buffet/ Carino's/ Olive Garden/ various other large chain restaurants - sure I can go for a drink, but people I know swear by these places and I just find them pretty sub-par. I'm more about family owned small restaurants in general. I do have to give it to Olive Garden, their breadsticks with alfredo sauce are tasty. That's about all I like there though.

Agreed - you can find good family-owned places in most cities and towns that are better than the chains. That goes especially for Olive Garden; go to the local pizza joint, and you'll get better quality Italian food.

Originally Posted by AOII_LB93

- Twitter - It's over-blown and makes some really lame people feel self important because they have followers.

Haha...a bit judgmental on the Twitter subject, huh?

[AOII_LB93]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I can understand some foods being "trendy," so to speak - but the ones listed don't seem trendy to me.

Plus, I LOVE good Indian food. It's one of my favorite types of foods.



Agreed - you can find good family-owned places in most cities and towns that are better than the chains. That goes especially for Olive Garden; go to the local pizza joint, and you'll get better quality Italian food.



Haha...a bit judgmental on the Twitter subject, huh?

Totally judgemental on twitter...I mean look at the base of the word itself...TWIT....

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Plus, I LOVE good Indian food. It's one of my favorite types of foods.

Ah, a man after my own heart. I grew up eating Indian food. Kheema and basmati rice = aephi alum's comfort food.

Anyway...

I love rice. When I was on the Atkins diet, rice was my biggest high-carb temptation. However, I hate anything made with rice - rice cakes, cream of rice, risotto, Rice Krispies treats, etc. Just the smell of a rice cake makes me gag.

[AGDee]

I guess they're trendy in this area 15 years ago, no such restaurants existed. Now? They are all in the communities that are considered trendy and people are going to them constantly.

[Xanthus]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Plus, I LOVE good Indian food. It's one of my favorite types of foods.

Indian food is good, but it's way too spicy. Kind of like Tai food.

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by Xanthus

Indian food is good, but it's way too spicy. Kind of like Tai food.

Not all Indian food is spicy. There are dishes that will take paint off your car, but there are also dishes that are quite mild, like biryani or butter chicken.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

Not all Indian food is spicy. There are dishes that will take paint off your car, but there are also dishes that are quite mild, like biryani or butter chicken.

Exactly - some of it is extremely mild.

That's one of the things I really miss about Boston - my wife and I are friendly with a family that owns Indian restaurants in the area, so we could easily get our Indian food fix. There's a halfway decent place in our town here in CT, but it's just not the same.

[PrettyBoy]

Most of the foods I like, folks won't even try. Like, salt pork, fatback, hog maws and neckbone. Mmmm good.

[libramunoz]

Originally Posted by PrettyBoy

Most of the foods I like, folks won't even try. Like, salt pork, fatback, hog maws and neckbone. Mmmm good.

OMG! I am over here laughing my butt off! Hog maws, haven't heard of those in years!!! Don't tell me, you like pigs feet too? Gimme hogshead cheese any day and I'll meet you up with a pile of hog maws! Neckbones, use them every holiday in the greens! Saltpork and fatback, same! You're right, they are quite tasty!

[PrettyBoy]

Originally Posted by libramunoz

OMG! I am over here laughing my butt off! Hog maws, haven't heard of those in years!!! Don't tell me, you like pigs feet too? Gimme hogshead cheese any day and I'll meet you up with a pile of hog maws! Neckbones, use them every holiday in the greens! Saltpork and fatback, same! You're right, they are quite tasty!

I forgot about pigs feet. I eat those things like steak. I haven't tried hogshead cheese, yet. My mom says it's good, and she and like the same food, so I'm sure I'll like it. LOL at the holidays. I throw down on some holiday food.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Well, if people have stronger sensitivity to salty, sweet, bitter or sour, it seems like that would effect how taste in total is perceived.

You can come to my house to see this in action. We had macaroni (real, not from a box) even though we know son won't touch it. Something about the texture is so off-puting to him. How specifically does it affect the nervous system?

The sensory integrative theory is that people with autism process sensory information differently than other people. Temple Grandin describes this well with sounds that were actually painful to her because of how she processed them. Usually, it is stimuli that over-excite the central nervous system. Chewing something really chewy like Tootsie Rolls is usually calming to the CNS. The things we do to calm babies (rocking, neutral warmth, wrapping in a blanket, low light, etc) are calming to the CNS. Strobe lights, music with a beat faster than a heart beat, spinning.. all excitatory stimuli. Generally, if a texture in the mouth excites the CNS, it will bother the person with autism. Sometimes pairing it with other stimuli that calms the CNS can re-train how their brain is processing it so it's not so aversive. Sometimes introducing it in small amounts can help desenstize the aversive stimulus too. Fascinating stuff, truly. Lorna Jean King, the OT who did the most research into this area worked with Temple Grandin and that's how I ended up hearing Temple Grandin speak. It was the single most eye opening lecture I've ever attended. It's a gift that she is so talented at describing her experiences. I always sort of regret not getting certified in Sensory Integration, but I used a lot of the techniques with ADHD kids that I worked with (and a few kids with mild autism) and got amazing results in improving their attention spans. The two disorders are not dissimilar.

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Agreed - you can find good family-owned places in most cities and towns that are better than the chains. That goes especially for Olive Garden; go to the local pizza joint, and you'll get better quality Italian food.

The one chain place that I truly do enjoy though is Carrabas. I was shocked that it was a chain because their food is really good. It's still not quite as good as three of the Mom & Pop Italian places locally (PM_Mama's family's restaurant is THE BEST), but it's still very very good.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by libramunoz

When I visited Cali in 08, I think there were still a few around.

Mmmmmmm.....I grew up on Winchell's Donuts. The one my mom used to take me to (in Cali) when I was a kid was bought out but there's still another one near my house. Whenever I think of it, I groan like Homer Simpson.

ETA: Pumpkin pie. My mom always makes sweet potato pie at Thanksgiving so I just never developed a taste for it.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

Mmmmmmm.....I grew up on Winchell's Donuts. The one my mom used to take me to (in Cali) when I was a kid was bought out but there's still another one near my house. Whenever I think of it, I grown like Homer Simpson.

ETA: Pumpkin pie. My mom always makes sweet potato pie at Thanksgiving so I just never developed a taste for it.

PS. grown =/= groan. though if you eat donuts in mass quantities i suppose you could grow like him

[southbymidwest]

Calamari. Ick. Something everyone else in my family loves.

Eel. Gak. Daughters love it in sushi. No thank you!

I must admit, I am a card carrying member of the Wussie Eaters Club.

[PhoenixAzul]

I am a pretty adventurous/open to anything/ will try it at least once (and then again a few years down the line) type of girl, so my list is pretty short. I love haggis, had all sorts of miscellaneous food while traveling in Spain, and will generally assume that it won't kill me to try to eat it.

-Pickled fish (if we're being specific, pickled herring). It's a tradition on my dad's side of the family to wave pickled herring above your head at midnight on New Years Eve going "money money money!" and then eat it. Tried that as a kid, was traumatized. Tried it as an adult...traumatized again. No thanks.

-Cottage cheese with pineapple on it. Ok, I love cottage cheese. I love pineapple. But I don't want them together because of the weird congealing of the milk+pineapple juice on the plate. I'm even ok with them on the same plate, as long as the juice isn't mixing. My husband does not understand.

-Seafood in general. I'll eat it at Lent/on fast days or if I'm in a seafood specific place (crabcakes in MD for example). But I'll never go out of my way to get it, and I'll never cook it. Also: expensive.

I feel so bad for all the Thai/Indian food non-enjoyers. I love Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican...love it all. If you make Indian food at home, it is a lot easier to control the spice of it so you can get the flavors and not just heat.