CHAT What was the worst food you had to eat as a kid

[NHGUNNER]

Liver with onions. My father loved it and I could smell it walking up to the house after getting off the school bus.

 

[AlfaMan]

Speaking of grits...........

I'm from the north and never ate them............

.........but used to eat cream of wheat cereal and loved it...........

So when I first came down south I was at a breakfast buffet...........and I see them on the buffet and think.........I'll take a bowl of this cream of wheat cereal......

I put maple syrup on it and chowed it down.

Someone at our table who is a native of the South looked at me and said "so you like grits?"

I said "huh?........what are grits?..............this is cream of wheat cereal".

They said "nope.............those are grits"

So I said............"then grits are cream of wheat cereal to me because I can't tell the difference.........."

Does anyone else notice this or have I not see when all grits are like?

Now grits is a food I can sink my teeth into. A pat of butter, some salt and pepper on a big bowl of them and I'm ready to take on the day. Not yankee grits (yellow grits, yuk) but white grits.
And if there's leftovers, fry the grits up as grits fritters. Try one with some sorghum syrup, ooo wee that's tasty.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Anna,

French toast was/is a New Orleans staple. It's also sometimes called "Lost Bread" because it was a way for families to use stale French bread and turn it into something delicious.

Here's another hint: An old New Orleans treat is what are known as beignets. These are deep fried New Orleans donuts that are liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar. Mmmm. Good stuff! The New Orleans version(s) are thick squares of special dough - each chef has their own recipe - which are deep fried until golden brown. A quick and almost as good substitution is to deep fry canned biscuits (the kind that come in the cardboard tubes). Just pat the dough down a bit and shape them into squares. Cook and when ready, remove them from the oil, place them on a dish covered with paper towels and douse 'em with the powdered sugar!

Oh, these do not keep well in the fridge overnight. They're edible, but you really want to eat them when they are hot and fresh out of the pan.

Best
Doc

Sounds similar to what we called Dough Gods. The easy way to make them was to use frozen bread dough. Deep fried. Top with cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, honey, etc.

 

[Double_A]

Green beans. I know y’all are thinking I’m crazy to say that, but I couldn’t stand them and as soon as I’d swallow one, it would come right back up. Even the thought still makes me gag.

Now this was one of those things Mom made that I liked. Washed and trimmed beans, set aside. Fry up some bacon and onion with a tiny bit of garlic (optional). Pour off most of the fat and then add one can (8oz?) of Tomato Sauce. Stir the mixture when hot add in the Green Beans and saute.

The beans were always cooked nicely in this tomato sauce, bacon, onion mixture.

 

[psychgirl]

Now grits is a food I can sink my teeth into. A pat of butter, some salt and pepper on a big bowl of them and I'm ready to take on the day. Not yankee grits (yellow grits, yuk) but white grits.
And if there's leftovers, fry the grits up as grits fritters. Try one with some sorghum syrup, ooo wee that's tasty.

Yummmm!!

 

[AlaskaSue]

The liver of vegetables...turnips, parsnips and rutabagas.

Hey! I like all of those! I even grow them…but maybe Alaska just makes better veg, lol!

 

[AlaskaSue]

Now grits is a food I can sink my teeth into. A pat of butter, some salt and pepper on a big bowl of them and I'm ready to take on the day. Not yankee grits (yellow grits, yuk) but white grits.
And if there's leftovers, fry the grits up as grits fritters. Try one with some sorghum syrup, ooo wee that's tasty.

Momma never ever made grits. A California girl in Oklahoma she just wouldn’t go there. Alas!

Tuens out that grits (esp with butter or cheese or sausage gravy) is incredibly delish. Many Alaskans appreciate a good bowl of grits….

 

[mikeabn]

Eggplant.

 

[Dozdoats]

I hated anything cheese, up until I was about 10 years old. Somehow I discovered pizza, and it was ON ...

Still no pimento and cheese tho ...

 

[annieosage]

Honestly, my Mom was a great cook. I don't recall ever having a bad meal. I guess my least favorites would be tuna casserole and maybe SOS but even those were good growing up.

 

[SackLunch]

I hated anything cheese, up until I was about 10 years old. Somehow I discovered pizza, and it was ON ...

Still no pimento and cheese tho ...

Pimento cheese eeeewwwww!

 

[annieosage]

Pimento cheese eeeewwwww!

OK not my Mom but my Great Aunt always had pickle and pimiento lunchmeat

 

[Pebbles]

Canned Beets

 

[Martinhouse]

My dad used to grate up some longhorn style Colby cheese, fine chop some pimiento, and then mix them up with mayo. (Actually it was the cheapo white stuff called "salad dressing". Not really mayo, but it came in quarts or pints and was way cheaper than real mayo. Back then, saving a dime or so on a jar of mayo was important to a large, poor family.)

I liked the cheese and the dressing, but just looking at that sandwich or cracker spread mixture practically made me heave. And I still can't stand pimiento or cooked tomato!

 

[undead]

beets and beef liver and fatty beef cuts (although I'm okay with beets nowadays)

 

[Sojourner]

Pork chops make me want to cry.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Lima beans.

I like those, but I used to call them “slime of beans.”

Seal eyeballs, hot and raw from a fresh kill.

Where the hell did YOU grow up, in a horror movie?

Tuna casserole. Never could figure out why my mom insisted on making it when we all hated it. Fortunately, we finally won that battle.

If you put enough cheese in it, it’s damn good. The sharper the better.

My mom boiled all veggies to death, and then poured melted velveta cheese ove them. Barf.

Um, eww. The eyeballs sound better.

Green beans. I know y’all are thinking I’m crazy to say that, but I couldn’t stand them and as soon as I’d swallow one, it would come right back up. Even the thought still makes me gag.

Very odd. But I love them raw.

That reminds me I have a package of chicken livers in my freezer I should$ thaw out and fry up!

Southern fried chicken livers are among my all-time favorite foods.

Fried Spam was another thing she ruined. Spam isn't bad, but it's better to lightly fry it with onions, not nearly burn it.

Diced spam, lightly fried, then made into a spam and cheese omelette. Yummy.

 

[packyderms_wife]

I like those, but I used to call them “slime of beans.”

Where the hell did YOU grow up, in a horror movie?

If you put enough cheese in it, it’s damn good. The sharper the better.

Um, eww. The eyeballs sound better.

Very odd. But I love them raw.

Southern fried chicken livers are among my all-time favorite foods.

Diced spam, lightly fried, then made into a spam and cheese omelette. Yummy.

Maritime Native American, it’s a right of passage.

 

[Red Baron]

Where the hell did YOU grow up, in a horror movie?

 

[Red Baron]

Liver with onions. My father loved it and I could smell it walking up to the house after getting off the school bus.

LOL!

DW and DD wouldn't go near beef liver.

I would sauté a sliced whole onion in a generous pat or three of butter, remove the onions when soft and then cook the liver for a couple of minutes per side. Add the onions back to the pan to get them warm again.

Rudi, the black and tan smoothie wiener dog, and I would be dining in hog heaven as the girls left the kitchen.

 

[Walrus Whisperer]

I think fried chicken livers are food of the gods....

 

[Mary Contrary]

Liver. Mom didn’t make it often, thank goodness. When she did I loaded it with ketchup.

I love liver fried with onions, green peppers and mushrooms - in Butter !

that was mine too. it all stemed for an incident when my parents were trying to make a young me eat an unfamiliar food. For decades hominy was my ultimate villian food, hated and despised. Till one day not long ago when the adult me questioned why i thought hominy was aweful. i tackled this demon by opening a can and trying it. Anticlimatic. it was bland, boring and and not worthy of a strong opinion for or against.

it's. Good warmed up with butter.

I think I would actually starve before eating beets, especially pickled beets.

I love pickled beets!

 

[Mary Contrary]

Green beans. I know y’all are thinking I’m crazy to say that, but I couldn’t stand them and as soon as I’d swallow one, it would come right back up. Even the thought still makes me gag.

I lightly fry them in butter and bread crumbs and sprinkle grated cheese over. Yum!!! Fresh not canned.

 

[Mary Contrary]

that's what I serve over mine. I like mine filled with sourkraut.

In our family it's either been mashed potatoes or sourkraut filling. With caramelized onions in a side bowl and a bowl of sour cream.

Yup! My mother couldn't cook either!

If it was meat, it was cooked to the consistency of shoe leather>>>>burned and stiff as a board. But liver and onions was her "specialty" dish>>>>>tough and burned>>>and tasted like chalk.

As an adult I have learned to cook liver and it is delicious! Pan fry on each side long enough to turn light brown and then serve immediately>>>>tender, still somewhat bloody and has an awesome steak flavor!!

I was constantly accused of being "to lazy to chew" as a child>>>>>meat that has the consistency of leather just gets BIGGER AND BIGGER when you chew it! It even had burned splinter like ends making it hard to swallow with out scraping your throat.

Vegetables were cooked in the liquid from the can and they were ALWAYS store bought. BLECK!!

Finally, steak which was fried to death was a weekly treat. I hated it until my brother came home to visit from college and showed me how to oven-broil a rare steak>>>>loved it every since!

Now a days, after learning to cook myself, I love most vegetables >>>>except for turnips>>>>perhaps if I was starving, but otherwise NO!

I will also always remember the carrot cake mom made that had LOTS of egg shells in it! And it happened TWICE!!

It AMAZES me how she COULD NOT cook!! She was basically a stay at home mom who grew up in the 20's and 30's>>>>HOW did she not know how to cook??

My dad was Polish and grew up in the Depression. He knew how to cook from scratch. He was a good cook. He would buy raw turnips and we would eat them like an apple with salt. He made good chili, sauerkraut and fresh sausage. He picked wild mushrooms and strung them on a thread and hung in the attic.

 

[Mary Contrary]

My mom made Rice and Raisins, too, and we liked it! Sometimes had it for breakfast. Probably about as healthy as, and a lot cheaper than, any store-bought cereal. (For anyone who has never had it, it's rice cooked with raisins in it, then served like cereal with a little sugar sprinkled on top and milk poured over it. We often had some cinnamon sprinkled on it, too. If you don't like, or don't have, raisins, other fruits can be used, or just plain rice.)

Kathleen

Oh man, that sounds GOOD!!! I'm gonna try it. I have a Chinese rice cooker.

 

[Mary Contrary]

Lemon jello. I was at a friend's house and was given a small bowl of it. They had a rule that you eat all the food you're given, kind of a clean your plate rule. It must have been the texture, it just would not go down without me gagging. Thankfully, an older brother intervened and finished my portion...I think he knew what would happen if they tried to force the issue. To this day, I hate jello.

I could add fritos to the list. I can't even stand the smell of them.

All my mom ate was Fritos. I never liked them.

 

[Mary Contrary]

As a Son of the South I've always loved grits ... but not with syrup! The only way to eat grits is with butter and a bit of salt. For many years now, my DW makes me the same breakfast every morning: Buttered and salted grits (in a bowl) topped by a lightly fried egg. It's so good I never suffer food fatigue.

Best
Doc

Yep love grits with butter, salt and pepper. Many yrs ago my girlfriend was leaving her boyfriend' and she brought the cops there so she could get her stuff. The guy must have run out the back door when he saw the cops cuz he left a hot breakfast on the kitchen table....fried eggs, bacon and GRITS! While she gathered up her stuff I ate the whole breakfast! I started out just eating the bacon.....I wonder what he thought when he got back home? He probably thought SHE ate his breakfast ha ha..

 

[Mary Contrary]

When I was a little girl I didn't know any better. Me and my dad would eat pickled pigs feet a lot. Now it grosses me out to think that I ate dirty pigs feet. I would devour them as a child. I loved my daddy and I ate everything he ate including Tripe which is the inside of a cows stomach. Not today!!

 

[bluelady]

Overcooked Brussels sprouts. We called them testicles of the vegetable world. Mom couldn’t boil water to save herself. It took 10 years of marriage for me to try them when my wife cooked them properly and those are ok.

Until we could cook for ourselves, we knew dinner was ready when the smoke detector went off.

Same here with the Brussels sprouts!! My mom was actually an excellent cook, except for cooking vegetables to death. Yuck. But really, seems like most people overcooked veggies in those days. Or just used canned which is the same thing. Remember Popeye's spinach?

 

[CELLO]

Brussel sprouts, pickled beets, lima beans, Baloney sandwitches
mom hated to cook

 

[Marie]

Everything that's good for me

 

[meandk0610]

Canned spinach. I would literally almost puke for just one bite. But I did earn a wrap skirt at summer day camp one time by managing to eat half a small bowl at camp, crying the entire time, which took about an hour to do.

 

[alpha]

Beef kidneys

 

[SackLunch]

What was the sliced lunch "meat" called that had green olives in it? It goes on my "worst food" list, up there with the canned peas.

 

[Gimpywarrior]

Grandma cooked it and we ate it and were thankful. Being poor people, we ate a lot of things that people today would frown on. When you are hungry, it all tastes good

 

[TedM1911]

Fried eggplant.

 

[Freeholder]

Canned spinach. I would literally almost puke for just one bite. But I did earn a wrap skirt at summer day camp one time by managing to eat half a small bowl at camp, crying the entire time, which took about an hour to do.

I like most vegetables, but have to admit that canned spinach isn't very appealing, even for me. My dad taught us kids to eat it with some Miracle Whip smeared on top of it (we never had real mayo -- that's something I still find rather disgusting, LOL!). Any salad dressing works, though.

Kathleen

 

[Martinhouse]

Mary C, I'm not sure but I don't think it's just the stomach that tripe comes from...maybe someone can tell us for sure?

 

[33dInd]

sorry but I'm a chow hound and my motto even today is anything is good that I don't have to cook.
and if you saw my cooking, you would understand

Now that being said I preferred Northern cornbread over SOUTHERN corn bread.
Dad hated sauerkraut and it was NOT allowed at the table, but I will eat sauerkraut when available

 

[Walrus Whisperer]

What was the sliced lunch "meat" called that had green olives in it? It goes on my "worst food" list, up there with the canned peas.

It was called" olive loaf". I liked it. It's even better crisped up in a frypan....