Yeah, came here to say this. East Asia has a whole collection of sauces based on fermented fish that taste amazing and have no offensive smell when cooked, but dear God, the smell of the stuff before it’s cooked is horrifying.

EDIT: I guess I should clarify, for anyone who hasn’t had it. It’s not so much that fish sauce itself tastes delicious alone, but it has a ton of umami flavor. Same sort of stuff you get from, say, powdered boletes mushrooms or MSG. It makes savory dishes just taste way better when you add it to them.

Vinegar is pretty universally hated a scent. Most foods wouldn’t be the same without it.

All vinegar smell seems to be universally hated. It does add the right acidity when needed and you don’t have citrus around though.

What do regular papayas taste like?

Fish Sauce.

Love the flavor that it brings to dishes, even to uncooked sauces, but holy crap the smell.

I like the smell of most vinegars. Maybe I’m just weird though. Especially the smell of vinegar on fried foods.

Really don’t care for cabbage. My mom always said it smells like pig slop, not that I’ve ever smelled pig slop. But yeah I never liked it and I think that had something to do with it lol.

I’m guessing oyster sauce is another? I suspect it’s one of those magic ingredients that makes restaurant Pad Thai so good, but I’ve been hesitant to buy a bottle of my own.

Yeah why does eggs cooking smell like wet, microwaved dogs?

wet, microwaved dogs

Honestly, that’s not helping me much as a reference point.

Vinegar is pretty universally hated a scent. Most foods wouldn’t be the same without it.

Tripe. I can’t stand the smell while menudo is cooking but it’s so damn tasty!

My wife totally has the soap thing, and I must be a carrier for that gene, because I can see where the soapy flavor is coming from, but it doesn’t bug me.

For the smell/taste thing, I have the opposite. I love the smell of roasting coffee… can’t stand coffee.

Ditto unsmoked tobacco, smells amazing, cannot tolerate smoking.

Butterfish It is delicious but smells so bad that nobody in my family wants to cook it at their house so we would go to our grandparents’. The aroma lingers for more than a day if you don’t properly aerate the place. Febreeze, candles and other air fresheners do not work.

Bagoóng It is a Filipino condiment made of shrimp paste. There are other variations but still stinky.

Durian disone@lemmy.zip is right about the heavenly durian milkshakes! My siblings and I would eat them outside — we weren’t allowed to bring them inside the house.

There were signs all over my hotel in Thailand prohibiting the consumption of durian on the premises.

wet, microwaved dogs

Honestly, that’s not helping me much as a reference point.