My family and I have an ongoing dialogue about “foods we can live without”.  What we mean by this is “what foods could we do without for the rest of our lives, and not miss them?”

The foods on this list give me no pleasure at all. It would be ok with me if these foods were sent to a desert island, never to be seen again. I call that island “Strawberry Island”, because one of the foods I would send there are strawberries. This is my list of Strawberry Island foods:

1) strawberries
2) pickles
3) olives
4) tea
5) balsamic vinaigrette
6) cake
7) apples
8) key lime pie
9) pesto sauce
10) white bread

You may be thinking “you just haven’t had the RIGHT olives”, or “wait until you try really FRESH strawberries!” I’ve had olives in Greece, tea in England and Japan, and picked my own strawberries and apples. My daughter brought aged balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy.  I really get no pleasure from any of these foods.

The funny thing is that my family loves some of the foods on this list. They love olives (Theresa sometimes serves a bowl of olives with dinner, and has an apple every day with her lunch). They really enjoy strawberries, and they don’t mind that I am not eating cake, because it means more cake for them.

If you bake cupcakes like this for them, they will be overjoyed.  My reaction is “yay”.

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I like a number of foods that other people do not like, (and that I did not like when I was young). I like brussel sprouts, beets, pepper, and garlic. When I was younger I did not enjoy any of those.

What foods would you send to Strawberry Island?