Cloves (丁香 / dīngxiāng) are a common ingredient in Chinese cooking, especially in dishes like slow-braised meat dishes, called 紅燒 / 红烧 / hóngshāo / "red burn".
I associate them with toothache, from my childhood experience of using them for short term pain relief, so biting into one in a hongshao dish does not bring pleasant memories.
One solution is to note how many cloves have gone into that hongshao dish, so that one can fish them out before serving.
I first came across this method when visiting a couple (Aldo and Ling) back in 1979 or 1980. For dinner, they'd made a dish using cloves. Each time they came across a whole clove, they'd put it aside and say aloud, "That's one, which means x left." Very systematic way of avoiding an explosion of a toothache-association taste in your mouth.
Another way is to use a small bag (made of muslin or something) just for holding them, which will make it even easier: no need to fish out the bag at the end, just let it sit in the stew.
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