Onion Eater or Hater?

“I won’t be able to eat the noodles,” she said. Her friend tried to convince her that the aboki made the best noodles for his customers all the time. “He puts onions in his food, right? I can’t stand the taste of onions in my food!”

I had overheard two ladies talking, and wasn’t surprised when one of them said she hated onions. Luckily for me, I found another person who I could share my aversion for onion with again. In my opinion, statistically, out of every ten people, at least two persons dislike the sight of onions in their meals.

Pondering on what she had said, I decided to do some research on people that hate onions and those that have onion allergy, and Google did not disappoint with the ever-interesting suggestions. 

I had always known I disliked onions, but I never knew there was a group of onion haters, and I couldn’t hold back the laughter. It felt good to know I could finally belong to a group. While scrolling through the internet, I came across many comments regarding the issue, and I realized it’s a little more serious than I had thought. There are people with onion allergy while some others, like me, dislike seeing it in our meals. I also found some more hilarious comments on Quora.

Okay, Seriously, ignore these funny comments and let’s talk about onions.  I don’t want you to get me wrong, I know that onions give our foods good flavour and I enjoy cooking with it. As a matter of fact, I can eat raw onions with pepper like the one in suya. For me, as long as I don’t see or eat it mistakenly in my cooked food, you can put as much as you want to. Nevertheless, these are the questions I have running through my mind.

1. Is aversion for onion just very normal in the same way we all have food preferences? 

2. Should parents insist on their children who have a dislike for onions eat it?  

3. Is there a scientific explanation as to why people dislike this vegetable?

4. I realized that garlic belongs to the same scientific family as onion. Could it be possible that some of us don’t like plants from that family?

5. To every onion hater, can you eat onions without knowing and still be happy that you had a good meal?

I’ll give my opinion on two of these questions. 

Question 1- Food preferences are normal just as we have colour preferences, people preferences, subject preferences, cloth preferences, etc. It is part of what makes us human. I have met people who always insist on having enough onions in their meals. Even cake which virtually everyone loves, some people still dislike it.

I also know some people who love beans more than any meal. Shockingly, I have met some people that don’t like our very own Naija Jollof. Imagine not eating Jollof rice? It’s the same with onions! Onions are proof that we, as people, all have food preferences.  

Question 5- Yes, I hide my onions by blending or grating it into very small bits. With this, I am satisfied with the onions in the food and I still get to enjoy a well-flavoured meal. 

The rest of the questions are open for discussion. 

What are your sincere thoughts on Questions 2,3, and 4?

I’d love to hear from you.

Have a fun-filled Valentine’s day!