Ambivalence

Today I got to thinking about my love/hate relationship with food. I watched a documentary last night called Sandwiches You Will Like. It started off fair enough, descriptions of places, local lore about how certain sandwiches developed, interviews with people who eat them, etc. Some sounded delicious, like the muffaletta from Central Grocery in New Orleans and corned beef and pastrami from Katz's down on the lower east side in NYC (speaking of NYC, I'm dreaming of Gray's Papaya as I write this...I'll see you in October!!). But then there were some things that sounded just entirely unappealing to me. In fact, downright disgusting. For example, a loose meat sandwich called "the special" slapped on a white bun (essentially a sloppy joe without the sauce from what I can gather) and placed in a pie plate, where you are given a spoon with which to scoop up the leftovers. Gross. The other real winner was a sandwich (of sorts) from St. Louis called the "hot brown." If the name doesn't do enough to repel you, please, let me describe. It's toasted corners of white bread, piled high with severely thick slices of turkey, weighed down with tons of bechamel sauce, then topped with bacon and cheese. The whole thing is then thrown in the oven to bake until golden and bubbly.
I know some people may find these things appealing. Given my love of most things edible, I do understand that I have tastes for things that others might find less than stellar themselves. I really can't knock on other people for it; I mean after all, who am I to judge what you put in your mouth? But it did get me thinking about all the things that simply don't sit well with my umami, and I composed a list of my personal abhorrence's. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Creamed Spinach
2. Natto maki rolls
3. Any form of liver, especially foie gras and any form of liver sausage
   
4. Cheese filled sausages or hot dogs
5. Beets
6. Egg Nog
7. Fat on any part of cooked meat (just call me Jack sprat)
8. Ambrosia (that Jello salad with marshmallows and fruit in it)
9. Tapioca pudding
10. Bubble tea
11. Cooked peas
12. Broccoli salad (that one with broccoli and nuts and mayo and other random stuff)
13. Fava and kidney beans
14. Cream of Wheat and grits
15. Pulp in juice
16. Barley
17. Brussel sprouts

It's obviously not a complete list, and given more time, I'm sure I could come up with plenty of other foods that I simply do not find appealing (I also left off the most obvious things to me, including any sort of brain, testicle, tongue, and so forth). Mostly my issues with the foods above are texture related. There are just some textures that I can't seem to stomach. There's no rhyme or reason for it, especially considering my love for slimy things like eggs over easy and oysters. What foods make you crazy?
On a more positive note though, thinking about all these foods got me back in the kitchen. I've had a yellow squash Kristal gave me from her garden that I've been meaning to do something with for over a week now. I'm not typically a squash person, but I consulted Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, and settled on a pan cooked summer buttered zucchini and yellow squash dish. I sauteed the zucchini in ~1 Tbsp of butter for about 8 minutes (stirring pretty consistently) on medium heat, threw in some kosher salt near the end, and ta da!I do love some fresh local food.