Not a picky eater at all. It's okay to not like something, but it annoys the shit out of me when people refuse to even try something, or take the food and start sniffing it right up against their nose -- just f*cking eat it!
Would you rather the person try the food and empty the contents of their stomach on your carpet? Lot's of people won't try new stuff, or will sniff it first, because most of the time they do try new things, it makes them gag/vomit
It annoys me when someone is practically shoving food in my face insisting that I try it. Trust me, there's often a good reason...
Sounds like bullshit rationalization. If the person can't handle food for whatever reason (allergic reaction, etc), all he/she has to do is ask if something is in there, say that they can't handle such food for reason x, and that's the end of it. On the other hand, not trying something just because you're close-minded? Well, again, that's just annoying.
And as I mentioned, worse yet are the sniffers. And don't give me that crap about naturally smelling (Roy), do you shove your nose 1" over the plate on someone's dish when you're invited over to dinner from someone else's house? I've seen cases like that in say, Japan, where a Japanese family went great lengths to prepare a full meal for some foreigner, and the f*cking guy starts sniffing the thing like some bloodhound (again, all he had to do was ASK what it was/if something he couldn't eat was in there). If you don't think that kind of behavior is rude, then you just don't have a clue.
Sheesh man. I like to smell my food before tasting it, this goes with any food, whether I like it or not. I can't say I've ever used it as a test to see if I would eat something or not, nor do I get inches away from it. I do agree that your example is pretty rude, but it seems like an extreme to me.
When I talk about not trying a food, I don't mean refusing to try anything new. I have a pretty good idea of what I do and don't like.
Let me give you an example scenario of what drives me nuts:
"Hey man you ever eat cow tongue?"
"No"
"You want to try it"
"No thanks"
"Why?"
"It doesn't look appealing, sorry can't we just leave it at that?"
"Aww c'mon, you won't know until you try"
"Please stop, I said I don't want to"
and this goes on for a good 3-4 minutes
"Fine, I'll try the damn cow tongue"
*tries it
*starts to looks sick
either a *spits it out or *b starts to gag/vomit.
What business is it anyones if I don't want to try a new food? Why the hell can't they stop at No thanks. Badgering someone to try something that they have a pretty good idea they won't like seems rude to me. I mean really, what the hell is offensive about not wanting to eat something? Maybe I'm not hungry, maybe meat is gross to me, maybe it smells awful, do you NEED a reason? Not understanding that some people DO have problems with some types of foods (that aren't moral or health related), and refusing to let them be, seem pretty closeminded itself.
I will tell you every thing, every last little piece of food that someone has had me try, after my saying no thanks because the food did not seem appealing to me at all, I have hated. I have yet to try something that I had a pretty good idea I wouldn't like that:
A I was barely able to swallow
B Involuntarily spit out
C Start gaging/actually vomit stuff up.
I'm not being funny or joking about the gaging/vomiting, it HAS happened. In fact I have stopped trying many new things after years of trying just about everything I came across, I got burned way too many times. After a while, you have a pretty good grasp of the qualities of foods you like and don't like. Maybe I am genetically predisposed to not liking certain foods of which there have been studies to suggest such things, who knows?
So I ask, who's more closeminded? The person who has a good idea of what they do and don't like, and politely refuse something that they most likely won't like/induce vomiting if they do try it, or the person that badgers them to try it, and is insistent, not understanding that the person has a pretty good grasp on what they would and wouldn't like?
If you can't understand that some people, for whatever reason, have a much more limited palette than you, then you are pretty closeminded yourself.