sumi, I actually like pickles, but only if they're extremely sour. It's sweet pickles I can't stand.

I know it sounds weird, but I most prefer tart foods to sweet ones. It's why I went for Tuscan cookery instead of Neopolitan or Sicilian.

edit: but I should add, given a choice between olive oil and vinegar, I'll go for the olive oil every time. And yet? I back away from anything other than the faintest of onion tastes, even while adoring garlic.

I think supertasters taste the bitter - the green tastes - are stronger than I taste them. and there is a range for them as well. I ( not a supertaster) can taste all ranges of taste, but while I can find the bitterness or greenness in something- like broccoli, green teas, or green pepers - it has to be very strong before I go blech. and if the flavor is more complex - like in a green tea or something like fernet, I can go past the bitterness and taste other things. I have a friend that the first taste in almost any glass of wine is alcoholShe can't get past that taste to taste the fruit, the alcohl taste is too big. For me I know there is alcohol in wine - esp since so many are are between 12 and 15 % now, but it is not the first thing I taste - and it sort of brings the flavors together in my mouth.

Oddly, I have been thinking about how food tastes to me vs. how it tastes to other people since I was a kid. So I've asked lots of people with strong food preferences about what ad why. Most of the people that can give really good answers, are cooks - or maybe more acurately people that like to cook.

Apparently I lack most people's aversion to anise-flavored foodstuffs. I love licorice, and even absinthe doesn't give me a shudder reaction unless it's undiluted by water or sugar.

anise-flavored foodstuffs

some of my favorite things

I've got an urge to go buy gumdrops from a convenience store right now.

Please allow me to state that at no time did I wish to do bodily harm to either Raq or Matt, no matter what this picture might suggest to the contrary. Man, the flattering pics are few and far between. (Not fishing, just coming to a place of...acceptance).

It's not just Pernod in Italian clothes, but if you can't stand anise, don't go near the Frenet.

I kinda liked the Fernet, and I hate ouzo or anise in general. A little dab'll do ya, however.

I'm all confused now. I despise anything licoricey, but the rest of the descriptions sound, well, if not good then at least interesting. Perhaps I shall give up on it here, since there doesn't seem to be much point looking here anyway, and count on trying it at the next F2F.

Three pictures from last night's "Welcome shrift to Chicago" dinner: [link]

I remember somebody trying to persuade me that Shrift's real name is not Shrift. This is clearly crazytalk. She is the very incarnation of Shriftishness, and could not possibly wear any cheerful wee festive-sounding diminutive of a name. She is SHRIFT.

the licoreness of Fernet is way exaggerated her - there are like 30 herbs inthis drink. It is a cacophany of flavors. the end note for me is a little mint. bitter pepper ( harsh green ) is the front end.

If I could actually taste more I would go get a shot and break it down more.

stoooopid ick.