I have mouthfeel issues with shitake mushrooms and overcooked squid -- basically if it feels like I'm chewing on a rubber band, I don't want to eat it.

Other than that I'll eat just about anything. (I have insect-squick issues with head-on shrimp and lobster, but I'll happily eat any crustacean if someone else deconstructs it for me.)

Oh, and I'm paranoid about fish bones, due to a choking incident as a child.

Both olives and tonic water are best consumed in the presence of vodka.

I just took a BBC test on supertasterism which was interesting because it doesn't ask about how you perceive the flavour of any foods. Anyway, I test as super for them, and I'm going to go ahead and call Jesse (and maybe JZ) non-tasters. Big old hos, that's what your tongues are.

I remember reading that taste buds don't regrow, and you can kill them by burning. Which made me sad, since I burn my mouth on food people consider a fine temperature to eat (it took me way too long to just give up the semblance of propriety or normalcy and just put a couple ice cubes in my tea once it was done brewing). But if it could possibly mean I'm less of a supertaster than I used to be, I'm all for it.

I wonder what sort of tasters top chefs are...are they normal or non tasters who don't taste a cacophony where others taste food? Or supertasters that can ferret out a flavour at fifty feet?

Or maybe it doesn't matter.

I like tonic water. As a kid, I couldn't do chile. Still not too fond of lots of red chile, but not because of the bite. It's too earthy or something. Now the green stuff, pile it on!

I do have bitterness issues, but it is oddly specific.

Spinach leaves a weird feeling on my teeth sometimes, but that's about it.

Spinach leaves a weird feeling on my teeth sometimes, but that's about it.

That's common.

Slut.

Slut.

Sure.

Based on that quiz, I'm a non-taster. Except, I know that isn't true. I may be normal, but the thing about the quiz is it revolves around restaurant dining, which for me is a whirlwind of overstimulation. I can focus on the food, the atmo, or the people, but not really all of it. Given the choice, the people are more demanding and food slips into the role of being largely fuel. If I don't like it, I won't eat it, but I don't focus on it.

That quiz was dumb -- it gave me between supertaster and normal, but the reason I often wish the things on the menu were somewhat different isn't because I'm avoiding certain foods, it's because the kind of (small, simply decorated) restaurants I go to often have weird combinations!

If I don't focus on food, it doesn't get eaten. I have a really hard time making it just be fuel, which has its downsides (like, say, last week), but I've "counselled" a few people for whom it's always just fuel, and I'll take my picky tongue and stomach over their food experience just about any day.

eta: What I think was interesting about that quiz is that it seemed to be more about your relationship with food, and the psychological effects of what sort of a taster you are.