Grits and cream of wheat.
Give me steel-cut oatmeal (though I hated that as a kid, too).
I didn’t think I was that adventurous of an eater, but I am surprised by the number of staple type foods that others won’t touch.
Although, I wonder how much it depends on what part of the country you live in. We get our much of our produce locally, or from California, and it is fairly high quality.
For instance, we’ve been eating a mandarin & orange hybrid called Sumo, which is the best orange Ive ever had.
http://www.suntreat.com/Varieties/sumo.aspx
But back to what I don’t like. Most national chain fast food. Miracle Whip. Most cakes & candy. I’m so picky- probably because my parents didn’t give me sweets when I was little, so I didn’t develop a taste for them, until I got older & could decide for myself!
Yellow mustard.
I’ll also say I don’t like abalone, but the only time I’ve had it, it was soaked in mayonnaise and was as chewy as an eraser. But I do like clams, and they are similar.
emeraldkity4, Sumos sound great ! I love a good blood orange. I am with you on yellow mustard , but I love better mustards ! And ditto on the Miracle Whip. When my mother married my step father 30 + years ago, he was a fan of it. That was the biggest adjustment for my sisters and I when it came to her new life !
I used to have a sweet tooth , but it has evolved into a savory tooth
Thankfully, my mom didn’t like liver so unlike my friends’ households, we never had liver at our home. yay mom!
I won’t eat the chestnuts or those weird baby corn that are in some dishes.
Interesting that it might be the lemongrass in some curries that make some taste like soap. I do like cilantro, and I like many curries…just not the ones that taste soapy to me.
I know that coconut is a “love it or hate it” food. I love it. I LOVE Almond Joys…and I LOVE my mom’s Italian cake…I could live on that.
I was happy to see that my Costco had doubles of Nutella. I bought 2 dble packs and gave singles to my kids.
@countingdown have you had home-cooked real grits ??
Nutella - eh, ok but would rather have crunchy PB.
I too cannot eat baby corn. Flavorless and yucky texture.
No yellow mustard for me either. I love Kosciusko mustard, the other stuff does not compare. Miracle Whip kind of tastes spoiled to me, grew up on Hellman’s.
@pizzagirl - I’m with you - black licorice and shredded coconut are the only other two things (besides cilantro) that I can’t stand. My husband loves coconut and my kids always immediately forked over their Halloween Mounds and Almond Joy bars to him. There are a couple of things that I have never tried but am so grossed out by them that I can’t even bring myself to try, such as eel or snails.
A few things that I used to hate but really like now: brussel sprouts, lima beans, cabbage, beets, spicy food (though still can’t do TOO spicy). I pretty much like any veggie.
I’ve never had nutella, but both Ds were fans. We have a cute photo of them in Paris eating crepes from one of those street vendors, with just as much nutella on their faces as on the crepes.
@Nrdsb4 - you need to have a crepe with nutella filling. It doesn’t have to be in Paris (although that helps).
ek: I like Cara Cara oranges…are Sumos similar or better than those? I’ll have to look for them!
Oooh! I LOVE charred marshmallows, although I would never ruin the flavor by smashing them between chocolate and graham crackers. They deserve to be enjoyed without interference.
I like carbon too.
Burnt toast, especially french bread with salted butter, burnt marshmallow, charred hamburgers and corn on the cob…
But I will never forget when our family was camping, oldest was ten & youngest was two. I needed to get away for a walk so oldest and I went to the restroom. When we were heading back to campsite, I caught a glimpse of youngest playing with toasted marshmallow like it was silly putty.
D & I decided to do another loop of the campground!
Canned pork brains in milk gravy doesn’t taste as bad as it sounds…if you chill it first it tastes just like a bologna milkshake!
Love almost everything including liver, oysters, octopus, sushi, snails, sweetbreads are fine, but I cannot eat mayonnaise. Just looking at it is hard for me. Even I think it is crazy.
Blue cheese is also something I really don’t care for, but I can eat it without gagging unlike mayo. It just reminds me of Ajax.
I forgot about one thing. Horseradish. Just the thought of it makes me sweat.
When I was a kid I frequently babysat for one particular family, the dad was (actually still is) a real prck. Just a jerk. Anyhow one day he came up to me with a bowl of *something and says, “Hey, smell this.” I took a big whiff…fresh horseradish. Ugh. I thought my face would fall off.
Cheap frozen vegetables (and larger freezers) weren’t available decades ago. btw- frozen vegetables can be more nutritious than fresh- a matter of freezing immediately after harvesting versus being used days after harvest.
Cereal- had forgotten about it. I can eat, but won’t enjoy oatmeal without a LOT of sugar et al and any milk soaked flakes are disgusting to me as they get between my teeth. My mother bought mainly Wheaties for breakfast food, PBJ sandwiches for lunches- could only complete a bad day with liver and peas- fortunately that never happened. It sure would have been nice for my family to have been able to afford more.
My mother was a single parent that raised four daughters. How she stretched her food dollar on the salary of a school cafeteria worker sort of amazes me. There certainly weren’t a lot of extras, but we had no idea we were poor. We didn’t go without in terms of a roof over our heads, warmth and food on the table.
She never really liked to cook , but she managed. I didn’t like PB&J sandwiches or cereal…unless I could eat it dry.
This has nothing to do with food aversions, but my grandmother had a lot of money and didn’t help my mother out financially because she never approved of my father, and seemed to want to teach her a lesson once they divorced
My step-grandfather was a wealthy man …he paid off her house and gave her a trust fund that I think equalled his social security. It wasn’t much money, but it helped.
The funny thing is, I recall my best friend’s mother , who also had four children and a husband was more frugal with her food budget. She did the dry milk/ fresh milk thing and bought the store brand sandwich cookies when my mother bought the oreos 
I love fruit and I love cake. I just can’t eat fruit cake
My parents actually had a fair amount of money, but expenses were often tight due to getting overextended with other stuff. We ate our share of hot dogs and mystery hash! My Mom was a decent cook, but had some weird 1950s’s habits like canned whatever casserole. We also had some interesting meals when we lived in Africa! I’ve eaten a lot of weird meats!