La or de la pistache

Question

Salut! Why is it “je préfère la pistache” instead of “de la pistache”. Do we not use du, de la, etc before food in this case?

Accepted Answer

Hi Rhea, 
With verbs like 'préférer', 'aimer', 'détester' you are generalising what you like, hate or prefer so  you will not use the partitive du, de la, de l', des 
but le, la, les.

J'aime le fromage = I love cheese
Il préfère la pistache à la vanille = He prefers pistachio to vanilla 
Nous détestons les haricots rouges = We hate kidney beans

But if you were ordering, eating or buying you would say-

Je voudrais des asperges = I'd like some asparagus 
Il mange du beurre avec ses épinards = He is eating some butter with his spinach
Nous achetons de l'huile d'olive = We are buying olive oil

indicating you are talking about a quantity of something and not the whole lot.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi Rhea,La pistache is a countable noun. This is the flavour requested (The nut flavour).If you had requested some nut flavour you would say "de la pistache" but you are simply requesting "the nut flavour".Hope this helps.Jim