Cucumbers, scary? They can be, says one Dallas Morning News reader.
Michael Hogue/Staff Artist
Which foods give you “the ick,” Dallas diners? Bugs and brains are strong contenders for scariest foods from Dallas Morning News readers during spooky season.
Dallas chef Leigh Hutchinson, owner of Via Triozzi on Greenville Avenue, said she’s turned off by candy corn, one of the most polarizing Halloween candies of all time.
Slimy stuff, like wet cucumbers, got a mention. So did slippery food, like octopus.
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East Dallas resident Sheetal Patel took a wider stance. “Bland food,” she wrote on Instagram. That’s what scares her. Preach!
The list goes on: Some Dallas diners fear fish with a face, the squishy feel of mushrooms and the way you scrape artichokes against your teeth to eat them.
We asked Dallas Morning News readers to tell us about scary foods. Fermented shark, a staple in Iceland, was one.
Michael Hogue/Staff Artist
Irving resident Ranjin Mathew doesn’t like kiwifruit because it makes his tongue feel fuzzy. Maybe this is a “him” problem, actually. (“I suspect I’m allergic,” he said.)
Check out these nine food frights. Did we pick yours? Tell us here.
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Name a food ingredient that scares you. Why’s it so terrifying?
Tinned anchovies
Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, who has appeared on The News’ Eat Drink D-FW podcast, has a love-hate relationship with tinned anchovies. “I love adding them to dishes for extra umami but rarely need the whole tin,” Vaughn said, “so I store the leftovers in the fridge.”
There they sit, like a science experiment.
“How do you know if they’ve gone bad when they already stink?” he asked.
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Cucumbers
“They taste like wet and infect everything they’re in,” said Jamil Bata, an attorney and Dallas food insider who spends his evenings and weekends visiting restaurants. Bata is full of hot takes. When we asked chefs and influencers about the most overrated ingredients, Bata said he hated seltzer water. (“It tastes like static noise sounds.”)
Octopus
Don’t put pulpo in Dallas Morning News journalist Zaira Perez’s tacos or ceviche. It’s a texture problem, she said. “The more I chewed, the more I freaked out.” For similar reasons, she won’t eat lengua (cow tongue).
The rubbery texture of octopus makes Zaira Perez shudder.
Michael Hogue/Staff Artist
Lab-grown meat
“I will go vegan before I eat lab meat,” said Dallas chef Aubrey Murphy, a former fine-dining steakhouse chef who will soon open a restaurant called Brute on Greenville Avenue.
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Why? “It is the biggest hammer PE [private equity] can swing at small independent farmers to wipe them out completely,” he said. He believes fewer farms mean more space to build data centers. Lab-grown meat was banned in Texas for two years, starting in 2025.
Lab-grown protein could be the future for fast-food chains that want a cheap option, Murphy suggested. You won’t find this Dallas chef going near it.
Olives
Don’t come for our dirty martinis! North Texas diner Aaron Horowitz won’t: His dad told him olives were poisonous when he was a kid — so Dad could have more to himself.
Old habits die hard, and Horowitz still doesn’t love olives.
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“It’s one of the only things I’m still not a fan of,” he said, “but I’m trying to get more used to them.”
Related: Are martinis out of style, Dallas?
Olives are not for everyone.
Michael Hogue/Staff Artist
Fermented shark
Now we’re really getting deep. Chef Hutchinson is haunted by fermented shark, the national dish of Iceland. Lauded for its healthfulness, hákarl smells like ammonia or cat urine and has a salty, pungent taste.
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Not one to sit by and watch, Hutchinson tried it on a trip in 2017 to Iceland.
“I will never forget the taste,” she said. Not in a good way.
Bitter melon
Bitter melon looks like a cucumber covered in warts and earns its name because of its bitter taste. Laotian chef Uno Immanivong grew up eating it at home, where her mom would stuff the green gourd with pork, then simmer it in collagen-rich consommé. “Even then,” Immanivong said, “that sharp, green bitterness had nowhere to hide.”
“As a kid, I wanted no part of it,” she said. “At 49, my palate has changed, and I’m curious about the very flavor I used to avoid.”
Bonito flakes
Some see bonito flakes, or dried fish shavings, as a salty topper to an umami-laden dish. Bonus: They often “dance,” or wave in the air, when placed on top of hot food.
Former Dallas resident Matt McCartney (and a groomsman in my wedding) isn’t having it. He doesn’t like the free show or the flavor. “They taste like fish farts,” he said.
‘Natural flavors’
Dallas baker Kate Lyamzin asks a scary question. What are “natural flavors,” which are extracts that come from food but are highly processed, often in a lab? “Natural flavors” can be listed on ingredient labels, as approved by the FDA.
“What scares me most about ‘natural flavors’ is the lack of transparency,” said Lyamzin, who owns Layers Bakers, a cake company that sells sweets on the weekends at the Dallas Farmers Market. She’s stopped buying ingredients from purveyors that can’t explain what their “natural flavors” are made of.
“When a brand uses real vanilla beans, berries or other recognizable ingredients, they can list them by name. But ‘natural flavors’? That could mean so many different things, and as a customer, I have no idea what’s actually in my food.”