lemons and spicy lemons

[cimorene]

I just realized that all my most favorite savory foods are based on lemon or lime. Also all the cocktails I've liked (though I don't try many because I'm not big on them). I also love every lime or lemon dessert I've had mostly, but they're not my favorites (my most favorite desserts are apple- or coffee-based). It's just weird that it took me so long to notice that.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Good to know!

I am a big fan of lemon and lime too.

[isilya]

It's not weird! It's funny but most people don't actually know what they like and don't like.

I have a food survey that I send to people I'll be cooking a lot for but then as I observe them I realise that people don't understand their own preferences.

They often know what they truly hate (cilantro) but don't realise that actually given any dish prepared with or without *any* soft fresh herbs or microgreens, they prefer the herbless version. I do know, because I am a creepy stalker observer.

There's a broad spectrum of how attuned people are to their preferences, from completely numb to pretty normal, but even people who know what they like don't truly understand what they truly love.

They will say things like "this is the best burger in the world", and everybody will disagree with them, and they just think everyone else is wrong. Actually what is happening is that they most love "creamy unctuous gooey" without knowing it, so this double cheese smashburger with no pickles/sauce/mustard with tons of very mild creamy burger sauce is right in their wheelhouse.

In general, it's like fanfic: if you like most of what is out there in a category, and are willing to lower your standards and seek out more and more of it even at lower quality, then you truly LOVE the thing.

If you will only accept the highest quality of a specific thing prepared in a very specific (and potentially unusual way) you probably don't fundamentally like the thing itself all that much.

My husband thinks he loves cake. He dislikes 99.9% of all cake, I tell him he doesn't like cake, he disagrees and just thinks there is something wrong with 99.9% of all cakes.

Heston Blumenthal had a series called "In Search of Perfection" and I spent most of the time yelling at the TV about how he needed to set the parameters "perfect for him" first. Like, his perfect hot potato chip is the crunchiest hot potato chip; that is not mine!

If you don't understand your true preferences, then you can't seek out matches, you're just blindly following recommendation lists "Top 10 pizzas in America!" okay but what if you don't like Sicilian/Detroit/NYC/Napoli style pizza? Or what if you do like Napoli-style but you don't understand that your favourite is when the crust is ultra-crisp and the sauce is really wet and there's basically no cheese? You're just going to be living life thinking that pizza is meh everywhere!!!

My brother in law asked for a chocolate cake for his birthday and I was like "of course! do you like fluffy and light/dense and rich/brownie-like/buttercream/ganache/cream-cheese/sweet and uncomplicated/bitter and dark/extra flavours like rum or coffee or..." He of course had no idea and just plaintively repeated the request for "chocolate cake" and said he'd be happy with anything. Happy, sure, but HAPPIEST??!!

[cimorene]

Well, I am at least somewhere in the middle here. I have a lot of scattered data points about my favorite foods at minimum, and I wouldn't hesitate to pick cake or cookie or brownie textures or pizza varieties!

I did just realize you're probably right though, and I guess that means I'm not really a cookie person even though I've thought of myself that way since childhood, because I have very limited tolerance for store bought cookies...

[isilya]

I think store-bought cookies and homemade cookies are dissimilar enough that they are basically different food groups though, like a McDonald's cheeseburger is not a cheeseburger but a confectionary/snack item (but still very delicious to me!).

I have a friend whose preferred biscuit texture is store-bought crunchy, she is an excellent baker and is frustrated by the difficulty/inability of replicating that crunchy/dry/salty at home!

I am constantly seduced by recipes that promise they are the best chocolate chip cookie EVER and then finding out that the recipe-writer has replicated a Subway cookie. Turns out, I've never had a chocolate chip cookie that came close to my enjoyment of an oatmeal-raisin or a gingernut. Poor chocolate chip cookie, being so judged by me for not having the texture of oatmeal-raisin.

[cimorene]

Ugh, Subway cookies.

I also really like oatmeal texture - you just can't get the same texture in chocolate chip cookies without the oatmeal. One of my favorites is peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip. (Unfortunately Wax hates raisins in baked goods.)