My Son Has No Tastebuds

Actually, I think he's tastebud-disabled. Admittedly, you could say the same for me - the first month of my pregnancy, I ate wasabi paste straight from the tube. I'm addicted to wasabi peas, dried anchovies, smoked oysters, etc. Always have been. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when I have to eat my wasabi peas out of his sight, lest he demand that I share. Ditto for dried anchovies, oysters, all the rest of it. And there ARE things he doesn't like - he is not convinced that raw mushrooms are a food, for example. Anything really, really mild, there's a chance he'll hold it in his mouth, forget it's there, then gag and spit it out. He used to do that ALL THE TIME, which is why we used to put chili powder on everything he ate. So he does HAVE tastebuds, they're just, well, "differently abled".
Sometimes, though, I do wonder. Today, I was peeling him an orange, and he decided I was taking too long. He picked up that white membrane that goes down the center of the orange and started eating it. Okay, not too weird, it's edible. Then he picked up a chunk of skin, nibbled experimentally at the edge, and apparently he liked it, because he then CHOMPED. Big bite of orange peel, chewed and swallowed.
Is it just me, or is that bizarre?
Assuming he has tastebuds, I think they've been dropped on their heads a few times too many. Or he's burned them off with wasabi in utero.
Generally speaking, he's an easy kid to feed. He likes vegetables, and in particular will eat anything in a hollandaise or cheese sauce. He's got all the toddler favorites - cheerios, mac and cheese, bread and peanutbutter - but he'll also eat things containing squid and tofu. The only catch is that the first bite of almost anything that isn't a bread product will involve a fight. BUT, if you can pin the hands down and get him to swallow what you force in his mouth, he will then eat the rest of it. I know not why this is, I'm just glad that once the first bite's over, we're usually home free.
If we HAD a food battle, it would be over meat. We went through a phase where meat had to be ground and concealed in something. I was celebrating the week of Thanksgiving when he had his first Happy Meal and ate two out of four chicken nuggets without a fight, because I once bought a box of frozen popcorn chicken with the intention of using it as quick and easy protein for him, and he would not eat those no matter what. Back then, the speech therapist said he wasn't chewing, and so he gagged on it, and being a quick study, he figured out what it was that gagged him and rejected the entire food group. If I held up a bite of pork chop, chicken, or a chunk of a hamburger, he would instantly dissolve into tears as if I'd offered him a nightshade salad with hemlock dressing. "Mommy, how COULD you!" Since then, thanks to hot dogs, crunchy raw fruits and vegetables, and some very tender steak, he has been getting better at chewing and it's not an issue. He's not that much of a carnivore, but he has an uncle and a cousin both who are not that into meat, so there's a precedant for that. I have no problem with him getting his protein from beans and peanut butter, so long as it's his own choice and not because he thinks he'll choke otherwise.
Orange peel, though. Huh. That's a new one on me. Hey, we know he'll never starve!