Today, a group of co-workers and I went to a place called China Bee.

There, we ordered a variety of dishes in an attempt to simulate a trip to Taiwan. One of the signature dishes of Taiwanese cuisine is stinky tofu. So, of course, we ordered some stinky tofu.

I haven’t eaten stinky tofu in a while, but I do remember eating some of it back in my youth and at various times when visiting restaurants with my parents. But, I suppose that gives me some kind of advantage.

Of the four other people I went to lunch with, three attempted to eat one piece each but failed. The last person was too intimidated to even try. I then shouldered the responsibility of eating the rest of the plate – around 6 pieces or so.

I don’t take any particular pride in eating something that other’s couldn’t. I would have preferred that everyone liked the dish. But, it made me curious: are there foods out there that I couldn’t stomach? Does everyone have their stinky tofu? In recent memory, I don’t remember anything that I actually could not finish eating, but I think that’s a very similar attitude to what my co-workers had before that stinky tofu got into their mouths.

Food is such a delicate topic when it comes to taste. Different cultural dishes have such different tastes and so many are acquired tastes that it would be completely unsurprising to one day find my stinky tofu.

That’s not an invitation to try and find such a food for me, though.