Vegan MoFo Day 17: Top Tens!

My Ten Favorite Fruits and Vegetables:

Broccoli!   I love, love, love broccoli.  What's funny is that when I was a kid I wouldn't touch it with a ten-meter cattle prod, primarily because of how my mom served it:  cooked way past done and covered in Velveeta "cheese" sauce.  I still won't eat it that way.  I didn't even taste it any other way until those create-a-meal frozen bags of vegetables with sauce started appearing, and Mom and I tried a teriyaki variety.  Lo and behold, I was hooked.  Nowadays I'll eat it straight up steamed with salt and pepper.

Mushrooms.  The portabello, I'm convinced, is what the gods intended us to eat instead of beef.  My favorite mushroom application besides pizza is a portabello sandwich with pesto on sourdough toast.  Nom nom nom.

Potatoes.  I've already sung the praises of the humble tuber, but it bears repeating:  potatoes are one of the greatest foods on this lovely, bountiful planet.

Carrots.  What's better than oven roasted carrots?  Me eating them!  

Apples.  I don't like them cooked, just like I don't like peaches cold, but I do adore a sweet-tart, shiny apple.  My favorite is the Honeycrisp, which is in all the stores this time of year; they grow up to the size of a softball and the name is spot-on accurate.  I also like Pink Lady and Pacific Rose, with the Royal Gala as a year-round friend of mine.  In fact the only apples I don't like are Red Delicious; they're mealy and flavorless to me, and for a long time I thought I didn't like apples because that was all I thought existed.  Moving to Austin expanded more than just my mental horizons.

Pineapple.  Mmmmm.  Fresh pineapple.  I can eat it by the bucketful, which is a bad idea, as the enzymes and acids tend to make my tummy a little irritable.  And pineapple juice finds its ultimate expression when combined with vodka, coconut rum, and grenadine.  I'm just saying.

Bananas.  Another fruit I don't like cooked; banana bread and its relatives are kind of gross to me.  But a fresh banana is one of my favorite breakfast accompaniments, and I have recently discovered the loveliness of peanut butter and banana slices on a toasted bagel.  

Corn.  I grew up in a small farming town bordered by fields of corn, sorghum, soybeans, and rice.  I can't count the number of times I snuck into fields and swiped ears of corn, eating them right then and there off the cob raw.  I love it just about every way except creamed.  Creamed corn makes me think of nursing homes and false teeth.  When corn is in its peak season I love to take a whole ear, chuck it in the microwave for half a minute, and eat it as soon as I get it home; the sugars in corn turn to starch very quickly so the faster you eat it the better it tastes.  I even have a deep affection for Mexicorn, that canned stuff with the bell pepper bits in.  Corn is one of the few veggies I love canned as much as frozen.  The only corn thing I'm not very fond of is polenta--actually any sort of cornmeal.  I'm the worst Southerner ever; I don't like cornbread or sweet tea.  

Coconut.  Coconut milk has become important to my cooking in the last couple of years since I discovered its versatility and richness, but I also like it in baked goods, candy, and freshly chunked out of the shell.  My favorite nondairy frozen treats are the ones based in coconut milk rather than soy milk--NadaMoo, Coconut Bliss, and even the makers of Purely Decadent are getting into the act.  They're also starting to make coconut milk based yogurt, possibly the only kind of yogurt I can eat without making disgusted faces.

Raspberries.  Where have you been all my life, oh beautiful berry?  I hated raspberries and raspberry-flavored things all my life, but in the past year I've apparently had a culinary lobotomy reversal, because now I can't get enough of them.  Raspberry sorbet is the food of the gods.  

Ten Fruits and Vegetables I Absolutely Will Not Eat:

Spinach.  In fact most leafy greens--can't stand 'em.  Raw vegetables aggravate my IBS, and that goes double for greens, but cooked they're all slimy and gross.  Plus, I hate the flavor and texture of spinach.  It's really a shame, because spinach is one of the healthiest foods in the world, but I content myself with my love for broccoli, which is every bit as good for me.  Spinach, blech!  

Mangoes.  Slimy.  Slimy foods just give me the willies.  That in mind I have to include:

Okra.  My grandmother used to grow okra in her massive garden, and I had okra forced on me in a variety of ways, all of which were beyond yucky.  It's the taste as much as the texture.  

Melons.  All types of melons, from water to cantaloupe.  Ew.  Cantaloupe is the great deceiver--it's a beautiful fruit, all orange and creamy looking, but it just tastes like ass to me.  The smell of watermelon flesh nauseates me, which is ironic, because in my family I was known for my uncanny ability to pick out a perfect watermelon.  There are a lot of watermelon stands in the summer where I grew up, and we'd drive out to one and my parents would turn me loose to tap, listen, thump, and rub.  I could pick them, I just wouldn't eat them.

Raw Tomatoes.  Ewwwww.  Nasty!  They're the larval stage!  They're all slimy on the inside and full of that weird jelly seed business!  The horror!  I love tomatoes cooked.  Love 'em.  But raw, well...I've been known to sit and pick them out of restaurant salads for a good ten minutes...along with:

Cabbage.  Again with the leafy greens, but cabbage, especially purple cabbage, is in a class by itself.  Another of those foods my grandmother cooked all the time--boiled cabbage, coleslaw, homemade sauerkraut...no thank you.  And while they're not leafy greens, I throw Brussels sprouts into this category because they look like tiny cabbages and are just as disgusting.

Blueberries.  Another of those so-good-for-you foods, I'm a lot more kindly disposed toward blueberries than I used to be, but I still don't like them.  Their flavor is weird baked, and almost nonexistent fresh.  I'd rather let someone who loves them have my share.  They're really pretty, though.  

Beets.  Dear lord.  There are few things less appetizing to me than beets.  

Olives.  The only olives I like are the unsophisticated green jarred variety with pimentos in them.  All the ritzy olives you find at olive bars, and black ones from the can, make me want to scream and hide.  This is why I've never made pasta puttanesca even though I love the name.  

Sea Vegetables.  I realize they're healthy and they're certainly popular in vegan cuisine, but I'd rather fellate Bobby Flay than eat kombu, kelp, hijiki, or any of their fishy brethren. 

Comments

[Pyrola]

You've only tasted American blueberries, right? Because the European type is an entirely different thing. Living in Sweden I've been picking and eating blueberries my entire life, and they're full of taste and nice both baked and raw.

I don't say that you have to love blueberries... I don't care much for the American ones either.

[Quizeen]

I hear you about the raspberries. I can't understand why I ever disliked them. I suspect that chemically candy and sugary cereal masquerading as the delicious berries are probably responsible for any early misunderstandings between myself and them.

[Nina]

I actually happen to love almost everything on BOTH of your lists! I don't really care for raspberries-too tart for my taste. I had actually forgotten how much I love pickled beets; I'll have to pick some up on my next shopping expedition. Also, if you haven't tried broccoliflower yet, do so. It's amazing!

[Mana]

I used to ask people to cut the seeds out of my strawberries. They laughed at me, silly girl.

I love veggies and fruits in a waythat surprises me. Not too long ago, I went out with a friend for crepes, and she set a slice of pineapple aside - she'd never really tried it, and wasn't going to eat it. I was shocked, absolutely crazy that some people never ever eat fruit.

Also - have you ever tried crispy spinach of the thai variety? I found it really interesting and munchable with fingers, like chips!

[Mana]

I like it aaaaaaaall!

Say, every try crispy spinach? I've had it at some thai places. Crispy like chips!