A survey was conducted a few years ago by Birds Eye (and
reported in the London Times) on the foods that British people most dislike to
find on their plate. It was based on answers given by 1,000 people, all being
adult men and women.
Here is the list, in reverse order, with my personal
reactions – with which you may or may not agree!
10th place
Mushrooms. What? Mushrooms? Unbelievable! 15% said that they
would not want to eat them, but that would not have been my reply – I can never
get enough, raw or cooked! Maybe the 15% fear the reputation of fungi as being
poisonous but, as Terry Pratchett said, all fungi are edible.
(OK – he did go on to say that some of them are not edible more
than once!)
9th place
Salami – 20%. I can’t really comment on salami, because I can’t
remember ever having eaten it. However, it is made from meat, and I don’t eat
meat, so it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be tempted.
8th place
(It’s actually 7th equal) Brussels sprouts – 24%.
This is surprising, because they are something that many children dislike but
adults acquire a taste for later in life. Perhaps the 24% didn’t bother trying.
Anyway, it’s certainly one of my favourite vegetables and one that I would
choose in preference to many others.
7th place
Avocados – 24%. They don’t come my way very often, and I
can’t say that they delight me when they do. On the other hand they don’t
disgust me either – they don’t taste strongly enough to be either loved or
hated, in my opinion.
6th place
Goats cheese – 27%. I do sometimes choose goats cheese in
restaurants because it offers an interesting change from more conventional
cheeses. It certainly wouldn’t be on my list of dislikes.
5th place
Blue cheese – 38%. I can understand why this is on the list,
because some blue cheeses are not very pleasant – Danish blue comes to mind.
However, my favourite cheese of all time is Stilton, which is always a delight
to me. OK – it’s local to where I live in Leicestershire, but then so are
Melton Mowbray pork pies and I wouldn’t give them house room!
4th place
(Or 3rd equal to be precise) Black pudding – 39%.
I wonder how many people dislike it before they know that it is made from pig’s
blood and how many do so afterwards? It’s not something I would eat – for the
same reason that I wouldn’t eat salami.
3rd place
Olives – 39%. I can’t agree with these being so high on the
list – I absolutely love olives, especially black ones. When choosing a pizza I
will always go for one that has olives on it, or I’ll ask for them to be added.
A pizza without olives just isn’t a pizza in my opinion!
2nd place
Chicken liver – 41%. I am really surprised that this is
nearly at the top of the list, because I wouldn’t have thought that all that
many people would have had the opportunity to eat it. It’s not a dislike for me
because I’ve never eaten it and almost certainly never will.
1st place
Anchovies – 44%. Oh yes – these get my vote every time! I’m
very fond of fish (I’m that kind of vegetarian!) but anchovies are just nasty
little lumps of salt masquerading as fish, and I’ve always hated the taste of
salt.
Some other findings
So what do you do when your dinner party host presents you
with a plate containing one or more of the offending foods? Apparently 21% of
people will surreptitiously feed pieces to the waiting dog, and 9% of women admitted
to slipping unwanted items into their handbag when the host wasn’t looking!
© John Welford
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