I Don’t Eat Kiwi

Last night was another delightful beer dinner at the City Beer Hall with the crew from SingleCut Beersmiths. Part of the fun is trying beers that wouldn’t otherwise make it up to the Capital Region. But the big draw is the creativity Dimitrios and his team bring to the table, and often I’ll get to experience some ingredient I’ve never tried before.

This most recent dinner was my first time having ripe jackfruit. That was worked into the last dish of the meal, which was kind of like dessert, but more like a cheese course. The only real sweetness came from the double IPA paired with the food.

Dinners like this are no place for picky eaters. And I’m lucky, because I totally eat everything. Except recently I remembered that’s not entirely true.

Every now and again there are polls on the internet about foods you don’t eat. And I hate these polls, because there is a difference between foods I don’t eat and foods I won’t eat.

Here’s an example. For the most part, I don’t eat ranch dressing. It’s presently in vogue to hate ranch dressing. Although I’ve heard it argued that a good herbed buttermilk dressing is effectively ranch. Which is compelling. There are almost always good versions of terrible things. Still, when given a choice between greens tossed with a high quality olive oil and a little acid, or greens tossed with a creamy dressing, these days I’m totally going for the olive oil.

Now, let’s say you served me buffalo cauliflower, and the only thing on the plate was a little ranch dressing for dipping. I might dip a little, even if I definitely would have preferred a blue cheese dressing.

I’ll eat most things. I just don’t eat the dreck if there’s a better option. And thankfully there is almost always a better option.

While I like to imagine that I eat everything, this past weekend I was at Trader Joe’s, and wandering through the fruit section I realized that kiwi is a fruit that I won’t eat raw. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it. I do. But it’s one of the fruits that can occasionally produce a strong and painful physical reaction in my mouth.

Pineapple is the other one. But pineapple I love. So I’ll occasionally take the risk. Kiwis are just okay in my book, so the risk is just not worth the reward.

This isn’t earth shattering news.

However, I wanted to capture this fleeting thought about foods I choose not to eat, and foods I actively avoid. Because while the former list may be large, the latter is surprisingly small.

Just to add a quick final twist to the story, years ago Dimitrios gave me a sample of some fruit he had been pickling in the kitchen at City Beer Hall. And part of the mix was a kiwi pickle. That was delicious and I ate that with no ill effects. Because no matter what, when a chef gives me something to eat, regardless of the potential consequences, I’m going to give it a try.