Let's List Unpopular Opinions!

[redbreegull]

I have a serious pet peeve with foods that stick in your teeth or make them feel slimy, like starburst candy

[redbreegull]

licorice/anise/fennel is a gross taste. one of the only "flavors" I can think of that I downright dislike

[vixnix]

I love hot baths. Candles, spa products, wine and some kind of podcast. Lying down in hot water, what’s bad about that? Uh...nothing, that’s what

But yeah, popcorn is not worth it. I loved it until a few years ago and now I just feel like I’m too old for it, it’s so salty and gets stuck in my teeth, I can’t do it. I dislike snacking on nuts and seeds for the same reason. I’d rather have a spoonful of almond butter out of the jar.

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

licorice/anise/fennel is a gross taste. one of the only "flavors" I can think of that I downright dislike

Have you tried fish sauce, shrimp paste or durian by any chance?

[vixnix]

Fish sauce is one of the few flavours/smells that I still battle with. It still prompts a gag reflex. I love Thai food...but if I get a strong whiff of fish sauce it kinda ruins it for me. I’m working on it.

Goat’s milk and cheese make me gag, too. One time I was frying some haloumi and suddenly I was like wait just a minute now, that smells very goat-y and sure enough, it was made with a mixture of sheeps, goats and cows milk. Which is authentic and everything but it was still sad. I love haloumi but that goat taste just makes me gag. I fed it to the kids , so at least they will grow up liking it.

I think chèvre is the only thing I have genuinely struggled to swallow. I tried a sample at a cheese factory once and stood there for a good five seconds, my body gripped by a fight or flight reflex, before I managed to force it down. Goats, man. So goaty.

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by vixnix

Have you tried fish sauce, shrimp paste or durian by any chance?

I like fish sauce. I can't recall the taste of durian exactly, but I remember it smelling a lot worse than it tastes

[yo soy el mejor]

smartphones breed assholes. if you've ever walked down the sidewalk looking at your phone and not where you're going, you're an asshole.

[yo soy el mejor]

popcorn is great with fresh lemon juice, lemon pepper, tajin (or parm).

[yo soy el mejor]

i like the smell of and to cook with fennel, but f some licorice.

[yo soy el mejor]

coffee is whatever.

[FoolofaTook]

durian is BOMB. smell is totally worth it.

anise can suck cthulhic dong.

and i wish i could enjoy baths but my stupid elongated legs stick out like the towers of minas tirith (formerly minas anor) and minas morgul (formerly minas ithil).

[yo soy el mejor]

i like baths. i got one planned for tomorrow.

[FoolofaTook]

Originally Posted by yo soy el mejor

coffee is whatever.

[Disco King]

I used to hate black licorice as a kid, but it grew on me. Maybe it means I'm becoming an old person. It feels like such an old-person candy.

Not a fan of the super salted stuff, though.

I've only purchased anise once. Had no idea what it's used in, so I just threw it in a stir-fry. I could have just Googled it, sure, but I wanted to experiment.

I'm thinking that I might throw it in a pie next. Like, a strawberry, rhubarb, and anise pie, or something. Imagine that. Licorice pie. Kinda, but not really. That sounds delicious.

[FoolofaTook]

ew

[redbreegull]

Took, you drink any Arak in the Holy Land?

[vixnix]

My husband is obsessed with Bak Kut teh, and bought some star anise when he decided to make it at home, one time. It was in a blend with other stuff though, so not that noticeable. I guess it’s part of Chinese five spice maybe. I don’t mind licorice or fennel but I don’t like it enough to go out of my way to buy it. In NZ we had a box of seasonal organic fruit and veg delivered once a week and there would be a good 6 weeks or so, of figuring out how to use two bulbs of fennel a week. I don’t miss that but I guess we’ll be back in that position soon. It’s easier to use than parsnip, I can tell you that much

[Disco King]

I just realized that anise and fennel are two entirely different plants.

I thought they were used interchangeably, and opted for "anise," because it's a prettier name.

But the thing purchased and used in a stir-fry was actually fennel, not anise.

I'm guessing anise is one of the spices in that oriental five-spice seasoning. I taste some notes of licorice in there. I love that shit.

Interesting tidbit: finocchio, the Italian word for fennel, is also used as a derogatory slang for gay males. I learnt this when the old Italian lady I work with referred to somebody as a "finocchio," and though I had no idea what that was, from the context it was used in, I had a pretty good guess what it meant. I Googled it, sure enough, I was right about the connotations, and also learnt that it was the direct translation of "fennel." What gay men and this particular vegetable are supposed to have in common, I'm unsure. They both smell good?

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by vixnix

It’s easier to use than parsnip, I can tell you that much

I've just thrown parsnips in pretty much anything I can use carrots in. Soups, stews, stir-fries, etc. Any root vegetable seems pretty versatile to me.

[FoolofaTook]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

Took, you drink any Arak in the Holy Land?

yup. once. it was nasty. i didn't have enough money to go buy wine in west jerusalem so i settled for a bottle of arak in east jerusalem. i chased it with watermelon smoothies and got wrecked (it doesn't take much for me i rarely drink). then i posted about it here and slunken made fun of me.

it's is my life.

[FoolofaTook]

i had read about it before so i thought hey it's arak! fuck that shit.

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by Disco King

I've just thrown parsnips in pretty much anything I can use carrots in. Soups, stews, stir-fries, etc. Any root vegetable seems pretty versatile to me.

I did the same, and then one day my husband was like...you know I think you got the parsnip to food ratio just right, tonight. Lol. The flavour is so much stronger than carrot and it can get a bit oppressive after four or five days in a row. When it was in season we would get probably 2kg a week, so there would be like 2 cups of parsnip in each meal. Probably too much. I dunno, it doesn’t bother me, I grew up eating that way, so I’m used to having a lot of whatever is cheap and in season. But his family were farmers, so they had a lot of land and big vegetable gardens, and didn’t really grow parsnips. It’s one of those privileges that suburban/city kids don’t even realise they’re missing out on.

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by Disco King

I just realized that anise and fennel are two entirely different plants.

I thought they were used interchangeably, and opted for "anise," because it's a prettier name.

But the thing purchased and used in a stir-fry was actually fennel, not anise.

I'm guessing anise is one of the spices in that oriental five-spice seasoning. I taste some notes of licorice in there. I love that shit.

interestingly, licorice is also a completely different plant than fennel, star fennel, or anise

[D.]

Originally Posted by yo soy el mejor

popcorn is great with fresh lemon juice, lemon pepper, tajin (or parm).

All Hail Tajin

Love ittttt

[D.]

Black licorice is the best, you absolute bell ends!

[Disco King]

Black licorice = black metal

[Disco King]

I recently started brushing my teeth with a charcoal powder, and there's something that feels really black metal every time I spit out pure vanta-black liquid as part of my morning routine.

Even though I pretty much have to clean the inside of the sink every morning now.

[ilikeplanets]

I liked Tyra Banks and Steve Harvey's talk shows

[D.]

Originally Posted by Disco King

I recently started brushing my teeth with a charcoal powder, and there's something that feels really black metal every time I spit out pure vanta-black liquid as part of my morning routine.

Even though I pretty much have to clean the inside of the sink every morning now.

Whoa this wild.

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by FoolofaTook

wow that's pretty hardcore vixnix; i mean your work with the elderly. and i thought cleaning cells on the intake level was bad...

when you rinse the diapers where does the waste go? and where would you do it? it a regular sink? good point about women doing this for ages before. there's so much we get used to and forget that things were different for so long.

I never answered this! Many people have a spray attachment for their toilet, so they can hold the diaper over the toilet and spray most of the solids off and flush. I didn't have one of those, because we were mostly renting when my kids were in diapers. So I would use the laundry sink, and clean it up afterwards. Most houses have a single waste water output, so regardless of where you use the water, it's going to the same place.

And yeah, the rest home was hardcore. I only worked there for three months before I burned out. I worked a 3pm-11pm shift on Saturday and Sunday nights, as an 18 year old. A 15 year old would come and help me between 4-8pm. I had to do everything. So I would be cooking dinner - like, putting a casserole in the oven or something, and then showering the residents and dressing them for bed. The 15 year old and I would give out all their medication - we had no training whatsoever. There were usually 15 residents. One of them had a fall, and I didn't realise how serious it was until the night staff member (there was only one person there overnight) who was far more experienced than I was, told me I should have called for an ambulance 2 hours ago. Nobody had told me that when an 85 year old falls on their hip, it could kill them

It was a really sad job. One time a man pressed the call button...when I got to his bedside, he was crying so hard, and telling me "Please tell them I'm sorry, please tell them I'm sorry", and he was in the early stages of dementia so I couldn't tell if he was referring to something that happened a long time ago, or something that happened earlier that day. All I could do was hold his hand and pat his arm and assure him I would tell her, and that everything was OK, and that he could go back to sleep, it would be alright. And then write up, in my end of shift report.

Two residents died, while I was there. The first resident starved herself to death; she would just refuse to open her mouth for food, because she wanted to die. The second resident was an American woman who had bipolar; she was either lovely or really, really mean...but it was still horrible to see her, dead in her bed.

There was a laundry out the back with a dedicated sink for washing soiled linen. It was pretty hard, getting used to cleaning up old people's poop.

When I applied for the job, I was attracted to the pay rate and the hours. But in the interview, the woman who hired me said "I can see you have a sense of humour, and really, that's the essential thing. That will take you a long way, in this job." and that's true. But in the end I was 18 and just not ready to spend two of my evenings every weekend, being face to face with human frailty.

But yeah. After caring for 15 elderly residents, most of whom had dementia...cleaning and cooking and showering them...having just the ONE baby and cloth diapers didn't really seem that hard. Plus, I breastfed...I mean the crap that came out in the diaper had actually all come from my own body. I was basically cleaning up after myself