Spoiler Alert: This post is not a book review, I swear.
This past weekend, I read Bringing Up Bebe. It was a quick, fun read. I found it thoroughly delightful and I am ready to move to Paris.
The author did something I love – something that Mary Roach and Malcolm Gladwell do exceedingly well – which is to drop in little fascinating tidbits throughout the book. These are the little Easter eggs tucked in among the broader narrative – tiny little details turned up in the author’s research that she includes purely to surprise and delight.
For instance: French women don’t diet or watch their weight or watch what they eat. No. They “pay attention.”
(I pay attention to all the cookies I eat, that’s for sure. Probably not the same thing.)
Also: In kiddie slang, the French term for “fart” is “prout.”
One such takeaway from the book was that someone famous, a chef, I think (I should look it up.) (Jeffrey something?) (Eh.), set out to see if he could make himself like the foods that he’d always hated. He wrote a book about it, apparently? (I should look that up too.) (Eh.) And it turns out that he COULD change his mind about certain hated foods. In fact, he ended up liking nearly ALL of them.
Obviously I didn’t read the book HE wrote, I just read this other book that referenced his book very briefly. But I think maybe he ate each food 10 times and that did it.
I don’t think I ever really thought it was possible to change your mind about foods you hate. Sure, I know tastes change over time. I mean, I used to detest mushrooms. But now I LURRRRVE them. The thing is… that wasn’t a conscious decision to get over my mushroom issue. It just sort of happened. I got older; I liked mushrooms. The end. The evolution of the palate or something.
But I guess I just figured that some people just CANNOT like certain foods. I mean, there’s a physiological (possibly – I’m not a food scientist) reason that some poor souls can’t stomach cilantro.
That is how I feel about tomatoes.
No. I just. No.
I can’t eat them raw. I can’t eat them cooked. I can’t even eat them when they are in minuscule pieces in pizza sauce.
I cannot even stomach a tomato seed – in that green goop GAG – on a leaf of lettuce if a tomato has made its way into my salad.
I usually cut tomatoes on a whole separate cutting board when I’m making tacos or hamburgers for dinner.
Do not get me started on sundried tomatoes.
The only way I can eat “tomatoes” is when they are completely pureed – as in Hunt’s tomato sauce or tomato puree.
Otherwise, I get that gaggy feeling.
Do you understand the depth of my loathing for this horrid fruit?
But Internet, I do not ENJOY hating tomatoes.
The fact is, they are EVERYWHERE.
Everything contains tomatoes. They are so common, they sometimes don’t even show up in the item descriptions on menus.
They are easy to cook with, so I often find myself at book club face to face with a bowl full of tomato-clad pasta.
They are ubiquitous in summer, so I have to hear people wax poetic about the beautiful lush tomatoes and how good they are and how wonderful and juicy and BARF. (They are PRETTY, I will give you that. And they smell lovely and lemony whilst on the vine.)
I’m sure there are plenty of wonderful dishes that I completely ignore because tomatoes appear in the ingredients list.
So I have decided that I’m going to follow old what’s his name’s lead and try to exposure therapy myself into liking tomatoes.
At least tolerance. I’d go for not gagging.
I began The Tomato Experiment on Saturday.
I’d pulled a handful of tomatoes off of my tomato plant (!!!) for my husband’s dinner. I’ve heard all the rah-rah about how fresh, garden-grown tomatoes are Da Bomb, so I figured, what better tomato with which to begin my new voyage into Loving Tomatoes Tolerance?
So I cut it in half. (It’s of the grape tomato size, so it was about the size of a grape. Or a grape tomato.) I took at teensy little bite.
INTERNET. I don’t think you understood that:
I ATE A TOMATO. Willingly.
Okay, a teeny little corner of a teeny little tomato. But STILL.
And I swallowed it and didn’t die. So I ate another little bite. And another. And another.
(Imagine, if you will, one of those crazy idiots on Fear Factor, tenderly snipping off bits of a live leech with her teeth. Ugh. I cannot stomach that show, that’s for sure.)
In total, I ate a quarter of the tomato. Then I couldn’t do it anymore.
So. One down, nine to go.
My husband claims that these little tomatoes are not so super, that I should try one of the bigger ones. That they are sweeter and better.
Sweeter and better seem like a step up. But when they apply to a tomato…
Let me just say… It may take me a while to warm up to Taste Two.
But maybe this whole idea is just silly? (I know it’s silly.) I mean, I didn’t even read the book that inspired this little experiment. Probably I’m missing some critical point that is going to make all my tomato-tasting worthless.
Have you ever done this, Internet? Turned a Much Hated Food into something that you like, or at least can stomach?
Is it worth it?
I think it would certainly make eating out and at friends’ homes easier. Being picky is not endearing, you know. And it’s just such a pain, to have to pass on an otherwise wonderful dish because it has that dreaded ingredient… or to engage in negotiations with a patient waiter who is trying valiantly not to roll his eyes… or to take a teeny corner of your host’s World Famous Tomato Pie at a cookout and then try to sneak it to your husband without anyone noticing… or to try to get a friend to determine whether the sauce at the pizza place she recommends is Totally Smooth before you decide to try it out…
Never again having to explain Totally Smooth vs. Every Other Kind of Tomato Sauce alone seems like a fair trade for 10 tastes of a real live tomato.
haha! Of all the things to hate, the most ubiquitous THING ever. That’s gotta suck.
On another note, you should come visit this weekend. There’s a giant tomato fight downtown. http://www.livingsocial.com/adventures/325346-midwest-tomato-fest
I have been doing this for about ten years! I pick things that I don’t hate with every fiber of my being (for example, I shall never do cilantro, raw celery, or peppers) and then I eat a tiny bit of them whenever they are available. I did tomatoes a couple of years ago. And now I actually seek them out on purpose! So you can do it!
One of the first places I actually enjoyed the tomatoes was cooked with pasta. I took cut up, seeded tomatoes and stir fried them with pasta. It is kind of saucy that way. So maybe try that? You could also try peeling them the first few times.
I’ve also gotten mustard (my very first thing), mushrooms, fish (kind of), onions, zucchini, and a couple other things. I think I may start working on sweet potatoes. But maybe not. Potatoes are not meant to be sweet.
Jennifer,
I swore I hated sweet potatoes. I don’t know why, to be honest. Maybe it’s because I just like plain baked potatoes so much that I never gave them a fair chance. Plain as in NO BUTTER, SOUR CREAM, BACON, ONIONS, SALT, etc.! I just like them baked, and I eat them plain. While out of town for a family function I tried one of my uncle’s sweet potato fries. I was shocked to find that it tasted REALLY good. I ate another, and another. I could have eaten them all but stopped @ three because they were his, and because I would have gotten sick. So, I tried making them @ home one night. I didn’t fry them, I baked them in my small oven and they were delicious (I sliced them like fries and placed them on a vented non-stick cookie sheet). I never thought in a million, billion, trillion years that I would EVER eat one. I am so happy I gave them a try! It’s one of the few foods I can eat by mouth (I am primarily tube fed). The End!
Yes, Jen! Potatoes are definitely not meant to be sweet. Gag. However, I have done this with them. My husband loves sweet potatoes and so do the kids. I just ate a tiny bit of them each time he cooked them (out of laziness, to be honest – I didn’t want to make another side dish just for me) and now I can tolerate them. I still don’t LIKE sweet potatoes or seek them out, but I CAN eat them.
Also, grape tomatoes (and cherry tomatoes) are awful. I stick to the big ones.
I married an adventurous eater. I love to cook and decided to experiment with all kinds of recipes. It turns out that many vegetables I thought I hated or didn’t want to try were delicious – kohlrabi, eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, parsnips, etc.
On the other hand, I still think cilantro tastes soapy. Onions, especially red, upset my stomach terribly unless they are cooked extremely well. Spicy peppers are indelible to me – not be ause they don’t taste good but because it actually hurts my stomach for a prolonged period. I was disappointed because I thought that meant I was still picky, but my husband says It can’t be helped that I’m sensitive. That’s my body’s fault, not a mentally picky thing. Interesting perspective I thought.
Don’t bother. I thought you were telling a story about me and tomatoes in that BLOG post. But when you left out the part of your family trying to pay you large amounts of money starting at the age of 5 just to eat a small little slice then I realized it was someone else. Not even for $500 was I able to do more then get one (a very small one) close to my mouth. Just holding it caused me to gag and retch and break out in hives (I am not allergic to them, just grossed out). The fact that you will even pick them off the vine, cook with them for someone else, or even select and purchase them in a grocery store is a HUGE accomplishment. Really! But please let us all know!
I grew up a picky eater and wouldn’t eat most anything honestly. I did love tomatoes, but most any green veggy, beans, onions, mushrooms, squash, melons, all sea food…well you get the idea. Some of those things I hated on purely texture issues (beans, mushrooms, and onions mostly) and some I just couldn’t handle the taste or smell.
Then I didn’t with most of them. I love pretty much everything on that list now with the exception of beans seafood and melons. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be married to a cajun who is an amazing cook and hate seafood? Or the fact that my father was the manager of a sea food restaurant growing up?
I try a little bit of fish every time it is around hoping I can tolerate it. Some seafood I have come to terms with, like clams oysters muscles and some very mild white fish. Other things like crab and salmon I fear I shall never like no matter how many tiny bites I take. But I keep trying in hopes that someday I won’t want to vomit at the taste or smell of crawfish.
Keep strong, one bite at a time.
I did it with yogurt. I’m still not on board 100% – I have to really talk myself into eating it once a week – but once I decide to, the eating part isn’t that terrible.
Tomatoes and I are still iffy, but I have forced myself to tolerate them because, as DJ said, ubiquitous! Most other things I wouldn’t eat as a kid, I have come to like, or at least tolerate. I really don’t see it happening with mushrooms, though. Part of it, for me, is texture issues. Oysters? Not happening in this lifetime.
Tomatoes are on the list of things my husband has a mild allergy to, so I know well the pain of attempting to avoid them. But I love them, so sometimes I buy them just for myself!
I think cilantro tastes like soap and I will eat another Brussels sprout the day someone pays me millions of dollars to. Gross.
I hate grape tomatoes……but I do like the big beefy ones. I tried cauliflower and even asparagus…still can’t stomach brussel sprouts though. I think you can get used to almost any food group especially if you are hungry.
I didnt used to eat/like tomatoes, until gradually, in my mid 30s, I started to try them again and now I do somewhat like them. And you’re right – it does make life easier! I started with sundried tomatoes, which imo are much tastier. Good luck!
I was the SAME way about tomatoes. I picked the chunks of them out of pasta everywhere, always said “no tomato” when ordering–just in case, and so on. And then about four years ago, when I was 30, I decided I was tired of being held hostage to my tomato dislike. I think the final straw was a really really good salsa that I had to dissect before I could eat.
My mom found this thing called a tomato shark–it is a little spoon with shark-like teeth all around the edge, and it was awesome to scoop the insides of the tomatoes out with–since I found I could handle the clean and seedless outer part best. So then I could make pico de gallo, which was a good start. Anyway, I now only remove about half the tomatoes off of things, and I can eat FOUR cherry tomatoes in one sitting.
It is slow going, and tomato still isn’t something I like or search out. But it is a tremendous relief to be able to eat a dish with tomato in it, even if I go light on the tomato.
I have also heard about that Jeff guy who tried it, but I’d forgotten until you mentioned it. I am intrigued again.
I hope you’ll keep us updated! I feel the SAME WAY about tomatoes!!
(Also, I emailed you and I need you to answer =).)
I did this with multiple vegetables, and it totally works. I decided in college that it was time to be grown-up and stop with the pickiness. My roommate hated tomatoes, I hated cucumbers, and we forced each other to take a bite of the other’s salad when we had lunch. Now, I voluntarily eat them (though, truth be told, it’s because I know they’re good for me, not because I luuuuurve them or anything).
I have also had success with this technique on: salmon, halibut, broccoli and asparagus, and am making strides with carrots, my most hated food of all time. I will eat raw carrot as long as it’s grated very finely, or cooked carrots, any style. So, you can do it!
Also, just as an fyi, it’s the seeds and the “goopy” stuff in tomatoes that give them most of their flavor. So maybe start by eating the smooth outside and you’ll have less tomato-ness to deal with.
So glad I’m not the only one spouting little tidbits from this book (and I do it all the time: “well, the FRENCH would…”). I thought it was quite a delightful read for the same reason, but I was the only one of my book club who actually finished it (and also the only one who doesn’t yet have kids!).
I never had such a dislike for tomatoes, but growing up I didn’t like them and wouldn’t exactly choose to eat them – so a few years ago I started with including a slice on a sandwich or hamburger as an easy way to start eating them. Now I really enjoy their being there, have no problem with sliced cherry tomatoes showing up on my salad (still wouldn’t probably eat a raw one whole, that’s a little weird), and I rather enjoy them sauteed and tossed with pasta or roasted/grilled with other vegetables as a side dish…
So I think it is possible to change, and tomatoes are totally worth trying for!
YES, I have done this several times now! In high school, I had a friend whose family ONLY bought Diet Dr. Pepper. I HATED it (made me gag) but made myself drink a little more each time I went over until I could drink it, and eventually kind of enjoyed it. It was a lot more convenient than dying of thirst or drinking water (gasp!) I have also done this with cinnamon, because it’s ubiquitous and people always lie about whether or not it’s in things as though I can’t TASTE it. I made it so I can tolerate it in small doses, because too many people caught on that I was lying when I said I was allergic.
Weird but true: One of my favorite summer sandwiches is a tomato sandwich. Bread, nice big slice of tomato, salt, mayo, cream cheese. Cheese and cucumber optional. This sound perfect for garden tomatoes.
My daughter is like that with tomatoes so I am very used to whipping out the immersion blender to make sure everything is smooth. 🙂 I am not crazy about raw tomatoes and they upset my stomach, so I go easy on things like salsa.
However, my ‘thing’ is food that smells bad to me. I just can’t do it — if it smells gross, I will not even bring it close to my face. So I will not eat parmesan (or any remotely stinky cheese), anything with mayonnaise or vinegar in it (unless the vinegar is cooked away or used in a marinade and dumped out). No salad dressings here. No mustard or pickles. UGH. I can’t even be near people eating this stuff — the smell makes my stomach turn!
You should read this article about how she( the author of Bringing Up Bebe) planned a menage a trois for her husband’s 40th birhday.
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/relationship-issues/threesome-sex-menage-a-trois-planning
Some of these comments are super funny. Yes I too have decided to like something because I HAD too. Um yes, after living in a foreign country you HAVE to. You know, eat sick gross nasty food or…die. Seriously. I gag thinking about some food too! ha. Because I feel so strongly about some food I don’t even make my kids TRY everything. I’ve had some friends (who also have children) tell me that I NEED to to better about MAKING Gooner try stuff. Um really? No.
I’m currently reading Bringing up Bebe (side note, short, sure but I have been “reading it” for like a week now and am only through chapter one…apparently reading with Bebe is not so easy) (I do have to admit that I have not made it a priority) and LOVING IT. The views are SO reflective of who I am and how I was raised and how I was pregnant and how I plan to raise P with any luck.
Secondly, the hubs hates tomatoes too but will eat them in any shape other than raw, pretty much (except sun dried). SO WEIRD
I love little nuggets of info tucked into stories. I especially like how they say women “pay attention” to food and figure. That’s so neat! And it amazes with how much the French love to eat – my recent Julia Child kick really brought that to light – but stay so trim.
As far as changing tastes, I’ve never purposely tried to change a dislike into a like but when I eat better the junk I used to grab doesn’t sound appetizing in the least. Like my pop-addicted friend recently said, she only drinks water and now and doesn’t even crave pop. And when she thinks about having a pop she’s amazed at how extremely unappetizing it sounds.
PS – I don’t like tomatoes either. Not as much you don’t like them but I think you’re brave for biting right into one!