What Food Do People in Your State Hate the Most?
Do you live in Florida and hate licorice? In Louisiana and disdain cookies with raisins? In Michigan and revile cold pizza? Are you an Ohioan who can’t abide pesto? (Also, hey, what’s wrong with pesto?)
If you answered any of those questions in the affirmative, you may take comfort that you are surrounded by people who share your negative food associations. (Strange thing to take comfort in, perhaps, but can’t we all use all the comfort we can get?)
A dating app called Hater, which pairs people up based on the things both parties hate — “Meet someone who hates the same stuff,” the app’s website trumpets — has created a map, reflecting data compiled from its users, that reveals the foods people in each state hate most.
The results are surprisingly varied and probably reveal a lot about us — prompting all sorts of questions about the reasons behind the scorn.
For instance, it makes sense that denizens of Washington state — home of Starbucks — are not so hot on Keurig K-Cups. Oklahoma, with its cattle ranches, understandably is not big on veggie burgers. It’s probably lucky that landlocked Kansas doesn’t like shellfish. And West Virginia probably didn’t have to tell us they weren’t into tofu; we may have assumed as much.
On the other hand, what did tuna salad ever do to Georgia? And how did Wisconsin settle on Lunchables, of all things, as the food it most reviles? And sorry, Utah, but your distaste for balsamic vinegar seems a little random, although not so random as Missouri’s strong negativity toward “the last bite of a hot dog.” The Show-Me State is showing itself to be a real head-scratcher on that one.
Also, a food-hatred-map-based word to the wise: Don’t dab pizza grease with your napkin in Virginia or reach for the corner piece of a brownie in Maryland or put ranch dressing on your pizza in New York and expect to find a big group of like-minded friends.
You’ve been warned.