An Incomplete List of Things M Likes to Eat
I swear this is not just a food blog, but I thought it might be interesting to pull together all my comments about the foods M prefers into a single post as a sort of care and feeding guide. Most of these have been mentioned somewhere in one food summary or other, but sometimes summarizing things leads to new insight, and if nothing else my family will have it as a handy reference if we ever get to visit them again.
I should note that this list is not meant to be an inclusive summary of all the things M will eat, just some particularly things she really likes or really does not like. It is not in any way prioritized. With that, let's begin.
- M does not eat pork, beef or lamb. Unlike my stance against red meat, which is largely environmental, M's stance is mostly based on animal welfare. Her usual guiding rule is that if she doesn't think she could kill the animal herself and eat it, she's not interested. Having lived in rural Guatemala for two years in the Peace Corps, she's seen a lot of farm animals be killed, and she thinks she would have no trouble killing a chicken. Venison is also out.
- M loves onions in general, and red onions in particular. She has stated repeatedly that if it was more socially acceptable she would eat raw red onions like other people apples.
- She also likes pickled things. That includes variants of the traditional cucumber pickles, as well as pickled turnips, sauerkraut, pickled ginger, kimchi (not too spicy), banana peppers and assorted other pickled items. Closely related, she likes slaws, especially vinegar based slaws.
- She likes both fennel and dill a lot more than most people. She also loves garlic. Mint is another favorite herb. Sesame seeds and sesame oil are also a strong preference.
- As a general rule, M loves sauces. As such, foods that are designed to be sauce delivery methods are often appreciated. Salsa (red or green), guacamole, BBQ sauce, tahini sauce, pesto, mole sauce, ranch dressing, peanut sauce, sriracha, hummus, you name it, M probably enjoys it. Weirdly, one major exception is the Guatemalan hot sauce called picamas. If you're ever in a Guatemalan restaurant in the United States they will inevitably have picamas (and if they don't, you may not want to eat there), but for whatever reason M isn't impressed by it.
- One notable exception to the sauce delivery method rule is that M does not eat chicken wings. In fact, she does not like anything that has bones in it. Speaking more broadly, she's not usually in favor of food that has to be eaten with your hands. For instance, she prefers her melon to be cubed rather than eaten off the rind, and she's been known to eat pizza with a fork. This means that she always has white meat when I roast a whole chicken.
- M loves tacos and the adjacent food groups of corn chips and arepas. She also likes beans quite a bit, both in the context of Latin American cuisine and beyond.
- On the vegetable front, M really enjoys arugula, mustard greens and collard greens. She also particularly enjoys green beans. However, her true love is root vegetables of all kinds, especially beets. Roasted beets on an arugula salad with some red onions may be her platonic ideal of a vegetable dish. Sweet potatoes are another winner, as are orange squashes, spaghetti squashed and cabbage, particularly red cabbage.
- As a general rule, M has much less of a sweet tooth than I do. This includes having much less interest in desserts of all kinds, as well as manifesting in less interest in fruit than I have. Again, less interest is not no interest, but as an example she's much less likely to casually state "I could go for some ice cream" than I am. Admittedly about 99% of the human population is less interested in having ice cream than I am at any given moment.
- From an ethnic cuisine perspective, as you'd guess M loves Mexican, El Salvadoran and Guatemalan food. She's unenthused about Italian, a preference that carries over into a general lack of excitement about pasta. Sushi is a big winner. She also likes Indian, Thai and Vietnamese. She really likes Middle Eastern food, which in Cleveland usually takes the form of Lebanese food.
EDIT:
- I forgot to mention that M really doesn't care for extra salt at all. I already put less salt than most people in meals, but with M's taste buds I cut it even more.
I should note that this list is not meant to be an inclusive summary of all the things M will eat, just some particularly things she really likes or really does not like. It is not in any way prioritized. With that, let's begin.
- M does not eat pork, beef or lamb. Unlike my stance against red meat, which is largely environmental, M's stance is mostly based on animal welfare. Her usual guiding rule is that if she doesn't think she could kill the animal herself and eat it, she's not interested. Having lived in rural Guatemala for two years in the Peace Corps, she's seen a lot of farm animals be killed, and she thinks she would have no trouble killing a chicken. Venison is also out.
- M loves onions in general, and red onions in particular. She has stated repeatedly that if it was more socially acceptable she would eat raw red onions like other people apples.
- She also likes pickled things. That includes variants of the traditional cucumber pickles, as well as pickled turnips, sauerkraut, pickled ginger, kimchi (not too spicy), banana peppers and assorted other pickled items. Closely related, she likes slaws, especially vinegar based slaws.
- She likes both fennel and dill a lot more than most people. She also loves garlic. Mint is another favorite herb. Sesame seeds and sesame oil are also a strong preference.
- As a general rule, M loves sauces. As such, foods that are designed to be sauce delivery methods are often appreciated. Salsa (red or green), guacamole, BBQ sauce, tahini sauce, pesto, mole sauce, ranch dressing, peanut sauce, sriracha, hummus, you name it, M probably enjoys it. Weirdly, one major exception is the Guatemalan hot sauce called picamas. If you're ever in a Guatemalan restaurant in the United States they will inevitably have picamas (and if they don't, you may not want to eat there), but for whatever reason M isn't impressed by it.
- One notable exception to the sauce delivery method rule is that M does not eat chicken wings. In fact, she does not like anything that has bones in it. Speaking more broadly, she's not usually in favor of food that has to be eaten with your hands. For instance, she prefers her melon to be cubed rather than eaten off the rind, and she's been known to eat pizza with a fork. This means that she always has white meat when I roast a whole chicken.
- M loves tacos and the adjacent food groups of corn chips and arepas. She also likes beans quite a bit, both in the context of Latin American cuisine and beyond.
- On the vegetable front, M really enjoys arugula, mustard greens and collard greens. She also particularly enjoys green beans. However, her true love is root vegetables of all kinds, especially beets. Roasted beets on an arugula salad with some red onions may be her platonic ideal of a vegetable dish. Sweet potatoes are another winner, as are orange squashes, spaghetti squashed and cabbage, particularly red cabbage.
- As a general rule, M has much less of a sweet tooth than I do. This includes having much less interest in desserts of all kinds, as well as manifesting in less interest in fruit than I have. Again, less interest is not no interest, but as an example she's much less likely to casually state "I could go for some ice cream" than I am. Admittedly about 99% of the human population is less interested in having ice cream than I am at any given moment.
- From an ethnic cuisine perspective, as you'd guess M loves Mexican, El Salvadoran and Guatemalan food. She's unenthused about Italian, a preference that carries over into a general lack of excitement about pasta. Sushi is a big winner. She also likes Indian, Thai and Vietnamese. She really likes Middle Eastern food, which in Cleveland usually takes the form of Lebanese food.
EDIT:
- I forgot to mention that M really doesn't care for extra salt at all. I already put less salt than most people in meals, but with M's taste buds I cut it even more.