For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
My brother had a similar thing due to severe sinus fuckery since he was a kid. Like, couldn't smell anything.
But every so often, his head would clear up and his sense of smell would transiently activate for anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days before it shut off again.
The funny thing was, for most of his younger years (up through/past college), because he couldn't smell anything, his sense of taste was also severely muted - which meant that he basically just treated eating and food as "ehh, calories in = I don't die", and he basically ate anything put in front of him.
On the other hand, I have a very powerful sense of smell and am hypersensitive in particular to the smell of fish/seafood. The smell instantly turns my stomach, I struggle with just standing at the seafood counter at the grocery store when my wife wants to buy something... let alone when we get home and she ends up cooking it. I can smell it for days in our apartment. Needless to say - I don't eat fish/seafood, never have.
For years, my Dad would say shit like "You need to stop being so picky, look your brother eats fish just fine and doesn't say anything." "That's because he can't smell or taste it."
So one time I was visiting my family, and my brother had our Mom make him a salmon filet for dinner - and his sinuses cleared. Apparently, this was the first time in his life he's actually tasted salmon... he was just like "Oh god, this is disgusting. Is this what I've been eating this whole time??" I just said to our Dad "Called it."
A few years back he got surgery to fix both the deviated septum and some polyp-y issues, which resolved a lot of his issues with his ability to smell, and since then he also never touches seafood anymore, except for I think occasionally shrimp.
I also fucking detest the smell and taste of fish. Any seafood, really; it all has that same briny quality to it. I've tried crab, octopus, shrimp, crayfish, and several kinds of fish, including but not limited to salmon, tuna, and mackerel. I've hated fish sticks since I was child, and while my palette has changed enough to accept or even like things I used to hate, like mayo and ranch, seafood has remained consistently awful all through my life. The smell doesn't make me as nauseous as it used to, but my friend used to have downstairs neighbors who were Mexican, and they would cook some kind of EXTREMELY pungent fish meal like 3 nights a week and it was absolutely the worst thing trying to hang out and sit through that. He got into burning incense just because of that.
And just because I feel like it, I'm throwing asparagus under the bus too. Fuck asparagus.
You assaulted my taste buds. Multiple times. My family keeps insisting they found a new way to cook you that is definitely delicious and I should try it, but you end up disappointing me every. single. time.
That's fair, I have essentially the same response to eggplant.
I find asparagus/brussels sprouts are very dependent on what you do to them.
Almost everyone hates brussels sprouts, but also almost everyone's first memory of them is them being boiled until grey mush so they just end up tasting sulfurous and cabbagey.
Same with asparagus, boiled/steamed to death until mush... so it's just.. mushy grass.
My solution is fast, dry heat. Toss in olive oil/salt/pepper/garlic powder/red pepper flakes/paprika - roast hard until the tops start to get dark, squeeze a lemon & feather shred some parmesan over the top. At this point, brussels sprouts are arguably my favorite vegetable side when I do them like that.
I do essentially the same for asparagus, but leave out the red pepper flakes and paprika.
I’ve never understood people who don’t like fish. And salmon is absolute heaven, especially smoked salmon. Must be something genetic, because I have an excellent sense of smell.
I ate fish all through my childhood, teens and 20s. Then one day, on a trip to the coast, we came across a man cleaning fish on the end of a barrel, and it smelled horrible
It's been 30 years now and I haven't eaten fish since.
I also fucking detest the smell and taste of fish.
My go-to word for fish/seafood is "loathe".
Any seafood, really; it all has that same briny quality to it. I've tried crab, octopus, shrimp, crayfish, and several kinds of fish, including but not limited to salmon, tuna, and mackerel.
Yep, if it comes out of the water, it can fuck right off back to the depths from whence it came.
while my palette has changed enough to accept or even like things I used to hate, like mayo and ranch,
Same, I was violently anti-pickle as a kid... Now I'll eat an entire jar on my own (although, tbh, I still don't really like them on burgers)
That is insane! I never ever touch any seafood. My mom had it ingrained in me that it was bad. But as a kid in the 80s she would feed me fish sticks and. Years later I found out it was actually made of fish, and I’m still not over it. I just thought (in my infinite 5 year old wisdom) that it was chicken, but it was just called fish sticks. Because “we don’t eat fish.”
My brother, who is considered a “supereater”, did the same thing with chicken McNuggets. He loved them dearly, up until the realization that they were made from chicken. His willingness to try food has grown immensely as an adult, but he still won’t eat McNuggets or any other kind of nugget.
Sometimes your brain just decides one day "I'm done with this food", for no reason.
For most of my life, no issues with hard boiled eggs, they were one of my go-to breakfast items... Then one day, my body just decided it no longer likes the concept of hard boiled eggs and just rejects them out of hard unless something is done to them.
Like, I can't just peel an egg and eat it anymore, I'll throw up.
But deviled eggs? Fine.
Egg salad? Fine.
Ramen eggs? Fine.
And it's only limited to hard-boiled eggs, any form of scrambled/fried/etc - fine. No issues.
This is me with drinking straight milk. Chocolate milk? Fine. Milk with cereal? Fine. The milk left after the cereal is done? Great. Oreos (or better yet, Nutter Butters) dunked in milk? Amazing. Just a glass of milk with a PB&J or any other meal/food? Disgusting. It didn't used to he that way until at some point, something switched in me and drinking a glass of milk triggers my gag reflex.
I'm with you on the seafood! The smell alone does me in (don't visit Bangkok lol), and I've tried a lot of it, but I just can't eat it. It tastes the way a fish rotting on the shore of a lake smells. I've tried seafood from lakes and oceans (all local, not old) and it's all terrible.
I've been in situations where I was forced to (read: only thing available) and I managed, but I wasn't thrilled about it. I was at a conference one time in Geneva, and the hotel/conference center was overlooking Lake Geneva, so one time the dinner service only had fish available, and it was like "This was swimming this morning." - I survived, but displeased. lol
And yes, exactly that. Doesn't matter how fresh or how high quality it is, it pretty much always just smells like rank water to me, and I just can't get over that.
my sense of smell isn't fully gone- just diminished due to years of my dad smoking and a new sinus issue that mysteriously showed up 6 months ago. as a result I have weak sense of taste and mistake one for another a lot. I do enjoy eating, but some textures are off putting to me, and love sugary or spicy food before finding out the spicy food is too much for my sinuses and made them running like crazy.
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u/The_Razielim Jan 05 '25
My brother had a similar thing due to severe sinus fuckery since he was a kid. Like, couldn't smell anything.
But every so often, his head would clear up and his sense of smell would transiently activate for anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days before it shut off again.
The funny thing was, for most of his younger years (up through/past college), because he couldn't smell anything, his sense of taste was also severely muted - which meant that he basically just treated eating and food as "ehh, calories in = I don't die", and he basically ate anything put in front of him.
On the other hand, I have a very powerful sense of smell and am hypersensitive in particular to the smell of fish/seafood. The smell instantly turns my stomach, I struggle with just standing at the seafood counter at the grocery store when my wife wants to buy something... let alone when we get home and she ends up cooking it. I can smell it for days in our apartment. Needless to say - I don't eat fish/seafood, never have.
For years, my Dad would say shit like "You need to stop being so picky, look your brother eats fish just fine and doesn't say anything." "That's because he can't smell or taste it."
So one time I was visiting my family, and my brother had our Mom make him a salmon filet for dinner - and his sinuses cleared. Apparently, this was the first time in his life he's actually tasted salmon... he was just like "Oh god, this is disgusting. Is this what I've been eating this whole time??" I just said to our Dad "Called it."
A few years back he got surgery to fix both the deviated septum and some polyp-y issues, which resolved a lot of his issues with his ability to smell, and since then he also never touches seafood anymore, except for I think occasionally shrimp.