The Top Foods I Hate or That I Think Are Overrated

This one is pretty straightforward. Below are my picks for foods that I cannot stand or that I think are way overrated in standard Western cuisine. Unless stated as much, there may be exceptions to each one, so read my reasons carefully.

Chile Pepper Extract

With the advent of super-hot chile peppers like bhut jolokias (AKA ghost chile peppers), 7 Pots, Trinidad Scorpions, and the new Carolina Reapers, it’s SO easy to get extract-level heat (as long as we’re not talking about millions of Scoville Heat Units) in a hot sauce. Plus…those chile peppers can have an excellent flavor! Chile extracts are absolutely nasty, bitter, and chemical-like. Virtually all sauces that contain them are unsuitable for consumption. A note to hot sauce makers: don’t add extract; that era is over!

Olive Oil

There’s just the lightest touch of the bitter flavor of unripened olives that ruins this for me. Unless the EVOO is buried in certain recipes and dishes, this taste gets to me.

Horseradish and Wasabi

Now I can preemptively state that I like a little wasabi in my soy sauce when I’m chowing down some sushi rolls. And I like a bit of horseradish kick in a sweet n’ spicy mustard. But anything more than just a smidgen is way too much of a completely undesirable nasal-whipping sensation that neither approximates good taste on the tongue nor gives you the endorphins that proceed the lovely heat of chile peppers.

Restaurant-Style/Homemade Potato Chips

Why anyone would eat these monstrosities is beyond me. Something can be said for the freshness of restaurant or homemade foods over pre-packaged foods, and you would think that this doubly apply to mass-produced, preservative-filled snack chips.

But I’ve yet to come across any homemade potato chips that weren’t overdone, burnt, greasy, and downright bland and pitiful when it comes to flavor. They are HORRIBLE. If I want a fried potato snack or appetizer, give me A) snack chips from a bag, or B) thick cut fried potato slices, with a crispy outside and soft, white, flaky insides.

Milk Chocolate

It may be sacrilegious to admit that, but I don’t care for milk chocolate. It’s just too rich, and it falls into a weird “sweet zone” that’s unappealing to me. There are a few exceptions and applications where I can easily tolerate milk chocolate (such as in peanut butter cups), but most of the time you should keep this away from me. I would MUCH rather have the more awesome, bolder tones of dark chocolate or the lighter, creamier presence of white chocolate.

Liver

Those of you who have eaten this know what it tastes like. Precise words fail me, but to me it’s gamey, metallic, bloody and rich (and not in a good way).

Sour Cream and Mayonnaise

I just can’t deal with these two white, creamy products. Sour cream by itself has simply too much spoiled dairy flavor for me to stomach; and putting a dollop of it on Mexican food ruins my appetite. Mayonnaise is like a thick, egg snot that someone whipped up with oil. Leave it off my burger, please. I can take these two if they’re prepared the right way with the right ingredients to mask the consistency or taste.

Bacon

I have to start off by saying that Scott Roberts does indeed LIKE bacon. But it’s not the food of the gods that numerous bozos on the internet make it out to be. It’s trendy and cool too give Tim Allen-style grunts and approvals at all these meme photos bacon; but seriously, where were all these bacon fanatics ten years ago?

Heck, bacon is not even my favorite type of pork meat; give me deliciously smoked ribs, pork chops, pork steaks, pork shoulder, or ham over bacon. It’s about time that the gas in this meme and hype machine ran out.

Sardines, Anchovies or Any Type of Smelly Fish

Never cared for any of these. Give me clean, light and flavorful fish any day over them.

Nuts

There’s lots of exceptions to this dislike of mine. Yet for the most part for me the vast majority of the time, nuts are hard, anti-flavor, bitter-tasting pieces that are either unpleasant snacks, or terrible, texture-ruining additives to food. Eating walnuts and pecans like candy leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and adding peanuts to sweets like ice cream and brownies only increases the “blech” factor.

Coconut

A good way to ruin any dessert or sweet is to add shreds of this to it. No thanks, keep it away. Disclaimer: I can stomach Almond Joy bars; which, judging by the main ingredients (milk chocolate, coconut and almonds), one would figure I would hate ’em with a white-hot passion!

What Do YOU Hate?

Disagree with any of my choices above? Are there foods others love that personally get your goat or make you want to vomit? Let everyone know below!