Fuego (of Life as a Fuego) tapped me for a "six weird food quirks" blog. So here goes.

1. I have hated tomatoes my whole life. I have successfully hated them for over thirty-three years. The taste and texture were always repellent in and of themselves, but then there was the fact that they conflicted terribly with the appearance. Basically all aspects of the tomato were in conflict with one another, creating a overall experience of yuck. Don't get me wrong, I have tried them over the years, just in case I might some day like them, but to no avail. I have wanted to like them -- it's not easy to hate tomatoes, they're put on just about everything, but no matter what the medium (except in tomato sauce and ketchup) they have pretty much immediately activated my gag-reflex. A little over a month ago, Fuego offered me a bite of her Bagel with cream-cheese, tomatoes, and capers. Not a fan of either tomatoes or capers, I agreed to take a bite just to humor her... I liked it. Since then I have inexplicably enjoyed tomatoes. I've had them on sandwiches (on purpose), on bagels, on pizza. I can't explain it, but it's happened... I like tomatoes. (Is there some group I need to go to now?)

2. I make s#!+ up. I'm pretty sure other people would like these things if they would be willing to try them, but (sadly) people are put off by the ingredients. Frequently these creations involve peanut butter, cheese, curry, ground cayenne, and some form of bread (tortilla, bagel, toast). You might recognize some of these ingredients from my last post =o) I will admit that the peanut butter burrito-dog wasn't really worth it, but the burrito-dog itself was great and worth repeating. Of course I make other stuff up that doesn't have weird ingredients too, but that isn't so much a weird food quirk as just good cooking skills ;o)

3. I like SPICY food. I'm not just talking about the occasional Cajun, Mexican, Thai, or Indian food spicy that you find in restaurants, but of habaneras, tiny red chilies (the kind that make people cry when they accidentally eat them), extra spicy curry from India, ground tiny red chilies (also from India), jalapenos, and pretty much any other pepper that can be chopped, powdered, sliced, or eaten whole. Many of these go into my recipe for "Death by Chili" -- a vegetarian chili that I created to see if I could eat it... and then to see if any of my friends would be willing to try it ;o). So far only DJ Purgatory has been willing to eat a whole bowl with me more than once -- but he and I are part of how it got taken this far since we kind of egg each other on (okay, and Some-of-the-time-girlfriend eats it on chili dogs). If it doesn't make your eye brows sweat, it just isn't spicy enough. When your eyes start to water, you're getting there ;o) Anyone want to come for chili night?

4. Packaged artichoke hearts... seriously, what's with the rigid little, impervious to teeth leaves? You can't chew them, they're spiny feeling in your mouth, they pretty much ruin any bite of food containing them. Sadly the artichoke heart is one of the finest of the less-common food toppings other than these yucky little barnacle. I do love a good steamed artichoke, especially the hearts! But apparently machines just aren't equipped to tell the difference between the gross part and the good part.

5. I have two strange but somewhat beneficial food allergies -- MSG and Artificial Sweeteners (especially Aspartame/NutraSweet). The beneficial part is that it makes me read food ingredients, so I know what I'm eating, and it also keeps me from eating a lot of unhealthy foods. Of course, the other side of it is that MSG is in most flavored chips and highly flavorful inexpensive foods. The "itos" food group is right out (Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos [flavored], and Tostitos [also the flavored ones]). Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are easier to avoid, but I've found them in some odd places over the years -- Alka-Seltzer Cold and Flu medicine and Airborne immunity booster are two of them. MSG gives me headaches, an itchy face, and seriously impacts my moods. Aspartame gives me tachycardia and arrhythmia (racing heart rate and an irregular heart beat) -- I figured out the Alka-Seltzer Cold and Flu one when I had a resting heart rate of 120 for over three hours (yikes!). Since aspartame has a negative cumulative effect on short-term memory and can mimic symptoms of Alzheimer's, I can't be too sad about that one ;o)

6. I'm a vegepescetarian who eats organic poultry. I stopped eating red meat and pork for environmental and humane reasons back in 1992 in response to a college biology class. In January of 2003, I learned why all of the chicken wings at Kentucky Fried Chicken are broken. I had never heard of factory farming before that winter, and not only was I not able to eat the rest of my dinner, but I wasn't able to eat chicken of any kind for the next six months. I literally felt sick to my stomach -- I just couldn't fathom the level of cruelty and environmental blight that factory farming represents. So I was a vegepescetarian for six months. When I discovered free-range organic chicken I went back to being able to eat poultry again, but although there is such a thing as organic beef and pork, I can't eat red meat anymore, and I really don't like pork all that much after having been away from it for fifteen years. Yes, I do realize that we're over-fishing the oceans and that in another fifty years 2/3 to 3/4 of the fish population will be depleted and extinct, so I don't eat fish very often anymore either, but at least there's still peanut butter ;o)