Sheldon has made a ridiculous mistake here. Broccoli is not stormtroopers; broccoli is TREES. And he's not a T-Rex; he's a GIANT.

Granted, stormtroopers/T-Rex is funnier, but I wanted to lay out the proper way to muscle down vegetables, for any readers who still haven't read Anne Lander's Guide to Choking Down Nasty Foods.

I rather imagine that broccoli is a major reason we have imaginations, true. However, broccoli, raw, with french dressing isn't too bad. Like okra, it gets nasty when boiled or steamed. Brussels sprouts, on the other hand, are good only for Smurf golf and are totally inedible by human beings no matter if they be raw or cooked.

I don't know what Sheldon's issues with broccoli are. I've always rather liked it, even as a kid... it tastes much better than, say, brussels sprouts (bleargh) or savoy cabbage (urrgl).

With the exception of okra (which, lets be honest, has the mouth feel and taste of warm mucus) I can't think of a veggie that I don't like. Granted I haven't tried every vegetable yet, but I am willing to eat just about anything once before I make a judgment.

Oh I like cauliflower, too, never tried okra though. I eat most veggies (being a vegetarian, that makes sense, I guess :p), but I actually get sick when I have to eat brussels sprouts. Just can't stand the taste. My parents made me eat them as a kid and I'd get up, go to the bathroom and puke them out again immediately.

Cauliflower is really tasty if you eat it with potatoes and melted butter (and ham, if you're not a vegetarian).

People keep talking about broccoli whereas what they mean is the considerably more mudane calabrese. (sigh).

However, to make broccoli or calabrese and cauliflowers into something rather more special, try a dish called flowers of the reformation - roughly equal volumes of purple sprouting broccoli, or calabrese if you must, with cauliflower. Not so much cook as turn out hot and dizzy after about five mins or so in/above a minimum of water that is just below boiling (at boiling if in the hills), flick a little unsalted butter over 'em and finish off with sprinkling chopped ham mixed with a tiny amount of crumbled cheese (a proper cheese with a crumbly texture - coverdale, wenseleydale, white stilton if you must. A chunk about the same size as your forefinger will do it for four people). We like to finish it off with a dusting of black pepper.

As to sprouts (aka the devil's vegetable), well, the memsahib does them, only hot and dizzy again, with chopped bacon and chestunts and they aint too bad. OK, I only eat them once a year with Christmas dinner!

Of course, with all veggies, they tend to be lots nicer if you grow 'em yourself and they arrive in the kitchen still blinking and wondering where the garden went!

I have no quarrel with broccoli (of course, I like Sweetarts and marshmallow Peeps, so we already know I'm no arbiter of taste). What I cannot stand is raw celery - if carrots on a veggie plate have touched raw celery, I can taste it.

To each our own taste. Deep fried okra is okay especially dusted with Cajun spices.

Wearetheonly2, have you (or anyone else here) ever heard the Jerry Clower vignette on boiled orka and the dog fight? Hilarious and so true.

"You eat boilt orka? Old slick, slimy boilt okra?"