What food tastes have you acquired, failed to acquire from your parents?

[Never Say Dice]

All children have some different food tastes from their parents.
But as they grow older some tastes they pick up and others stay different.

tastes picked up - from Dad, swiss cheese, horseradish sauce, Polish dill pickles
- from Mom, lettuce and tomato on a burger

tastes not picked up - pumpernickel, cream and sugar in coffee, squash, eggnog and fruit liquors at holidays

[Bosstone]

My whole family adores shrimp, sushi, and most other seafood. I can't stand it, won't touch it.

I picked up my preference of diet soda from my dad. Since he was diabetic, that's all we ever had in the house. I never tried regular sugary soda until after I was already used to diet, so it tastes way too cloying and sweet.

[3:20:59 or bust]

Liverwurst...ultimate fail.

My Father used to make sandwiches out of the stuff...with tons of mayonnaise...I'm feeling a little queasy just thinking about it.

[Claude Remains]

My mother likes eveything from popcorn to steak burnt to a crisp and over salted. :eek:

[Chronos]

Mostly from Mom, since I lived with her: Fresh vegetables and hot tea.
Not picked up: Mushrooms (except in a very small number of contexts), asparagus
Lack of taste that I picked up from parents: Coffee and beer. Neither of them drank either, so I never developed a taste for either.
No idea where I got it from, since neither parent likes it: Spicy hot foods.

[Student Driver]

Picked up: Wheat, pumpernickel, and rye breads. Buckwheat pancakes. Real maple syrup. My favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Samoa, also my mom's favorite. Cooked white rice eaten as a cold, sweet cereal. Savory potato pancakes and corn fritters. Velveeta Shells 'n' Cheese. Spaghetti sandwiches. Most Chinese food (in general).

Failed to pick up: puddings, cream and meringue pies, cranberry sauce, sauerkraut, corned beef hash, peanut butter and sugar/honey sandwiches, use of honey as a topping in general, boiled or canned vegetables, hot coffee (I like my coffee drinks chilled, sweet, and frou-frou). Sausages of any sort. Sweet and sour Chinese food, and the canned La Choy chop suey type stuff. (This last part was a big reason I thought I hated Chinese food until I was in my teens... I thought for years that all Chinese food was covered in neon sweet/sour sauce or bland brown goo.)

[teela brown]

Picked up: love of rich beef dishes, jello, tapioca pudding, milk, fish of any sort, artichokes.

Failed to pick up: thin horrible black bitter coffee, breadless meatloaf (i.e., baked hamburger clod), various post WWII cheapy dishes (like spaghetti sauce made with Campbell's tomato soup, or "garbage soup", or tamale pie).

Is there an "acquired on my own, to my parents' utter horror and disgust" category?

[Jettboy]

Mom raised me on garden fresh vegetables, which I still love. Scratch-made biscuits. Hamburger 'steak' with red wine, onion & mushroom gravy, and all manner of 'poor people food' that made the best of the cheap stuff we had on hand.

Never did develop a taste for liver & onions, though; the smell of it cooking still makes me gag.

[Khadaji]

tastes not picked up - coffee, liver.

[DrFidelius]

I eat and drink almost anything (including scrapple), but one thing my Father drank that I never could manage is buttermilk.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

I realized the last time I visited my folks that I eat almost nothing they do any more.

them: skim milk; me: soy milk
them: margarine; me: Smart Balance and olive oil
them: canned vegetables; me: fresh or frozen only
them: diet soda and juice; me: hate soda, prefer tea, coffee, and I do like juice
them: cookies and crackers; me: just the cheese

What we still have in common is I still do love steak and potatoes. That's almost it, though. I have to go the grocery store and take my own food when I go to visit them at their lake house.

[MissTake]

Dad: Rye bread, braunschweiger, black pepper on corn, fresh raspberries. I used to even eat liver and onions with him, but I no longer can.
Mom: SPAM (oh, hush), pieroghis, eggs fried in bacon fat, hot tea.

Where we diverge:
I strongly dislike coffee, they were unbearable until they had a pot. Each. At 5am.
Iceberg lettuce being the only lettuce. Dad always complained that any salad was rabbit food, and refused dandelion greens because he had them when he was very young and dirt poor. Mom will now eat fresh spinach.
Hamburger Helper. Do I need to say more? TheKid will get her HH fix when she goes over to Moms' house, but that's the only place where it's found.
Fish. Maybe if it was ever something other than northern served, but I have never developed a taste for fish.
Oleo/margarine. Back when butter was ridiculously expensive, Mom quit buying butter altogether. Parkay took it's place. I will, in a pinch, use oleo when baking, but never for anything else.

[congodwarf]

I didn't pick up much from my mom. She is a fairly picky eater and hates to cook. So when we were growing up, I ate what I made. She did give all of her daughters her massive sweet tooth though. She didn't allow us to eat her junk food when we were growing up so now that we have our own money we buy it - in large quantities. We all have an issue with junk food and need to work on it.

However, my mother LOVES liver (chicken) and liverwurst. I detest both.

My mother loathes celery. I love celery. I've even had celery soda.

[lshaw]

Acquired: lots of Asian dishes like braised meat rice (lu rou fan), Peking duck, Shanghai soup dumplings (xiao long bao), Hunan style tofu, green onion pancakes, thousand layer pancake, red bean soup, green bean soup, Taiwanese spicy beef noodle soup, soy milk, jasmine and oolong tea, Taiwanese sugar apple, etc...

Failed to acquire: Asian dishes like oyster pancakes, stinky tofu, grass jelly, ai yu jelly, taro, lotus root, chicken feet...

[kaylasdad99]

My mother convinced me that eggplant was not, in fact, food. Not, intentionally; she just didn't know how to cook it.

My father convinced me that hominy was not, in fact, food. Again, not intentionally; he just had no idea what a #10 institutional-sized can of hominy was for, and served it to us straight out of the can, mixed with, IIRC, stewed tomatoes.

I have since learned that both lessons were wrong. But Mom's was more wrong than Dad's.

[Kyla]

My parents were hippies and the closest grocery store to our house when I was a kid was an organic health food type place. We went to Safeway for big grocery runs, but for just a few items, it was usually easier just to run around the corner to get them. The result is not exactly that I'm a health food nut (I love my sweets), but I dislike a lot of processed foods. They just taste too...chemical-y to me. There are quite a few foods that I have learned are quite common since becoming an adult that I have never eaten because I wasn't given them when I was a kid. A friend had a poll on LiveJournal recently, asking if we liked a. Miracle Whip and b. Cool Whip, and I had to admit I've never had either one. So, my mom won there. I'm sure she's pleased with herself.

But my parents failed to pass on their love of fish (hate it, now I'm a vegetarian anyway), artichoke, and horseradish. God, horseradish is disgusting. For years I hated pesto, which my parents make tons of every summer, but I've come to like it in the last few years.

[aruvqan]

I do not like the really *FISHY fish, especially mackeral, herring in any form, sardines, bacalao and lutefisk. I prefer mild 'sweet' fish like cod, haddock, sole, flounder, and like crab/lobster/shrimp. Allergic to bivalves.

To this day, they do not understand my disgust at the smell of mackeral - it smells like someone left it out in the sun and it is rotting.

Oddly enough, I do like canned tuna, and sashimi tuna ...

Liver and onions. Blargh. Only organ meat I like is heart [though I did have a killer good haggis that they didnt put the liver in so I would try it. And I have eaten pork brains in eggs to be polite] Our parents could not get either my brother or I to eat liver and onions.

I do love most veggies, except for acorn squash, zucchini, eggplant, okra and I am highly allergic to mushrooms. The family favorites seem to be artichoke, asparagus, and the beautiful sunny yellow summer squash. And everybody seems to like hubbard squash soup made to an old [1600s] family recipe. My dad used to make a fantastic faux native american soup based sort of on succhotash ... he invented it as a way to use up leftovers. I believe it was thickened with mashed succhotash, the meat was generallly leftover roasted chicken or turkey, and there was whole unmashed succhotash in it. I need to try and reproduce it...

My mom got me drinking both coffee and tea very young.

[janeslogin]

"What food tastes have you acquired, failed to acquire from your parents?" This answer may sound facetious but truthfully, most of my food tastes were not acquired from my parents. I still like foods fried in bacon grease, a taste acquired from my parents, but almost everything everything else I eat, Mexican etc was a taste acquired in adulthood.

[Hypno-Toad]

Growing up in suburban DC, I failed to get my parents southern tastes for the most part. Black-eyed peas? Barf. Okra? No thanks.

The parts I did pick up include the love of things fried. The Unidentified Fried Object (is fish, or chicken?) one can find in institutional cafeterias still draws me in.

[gwendee]

"What food tastes have you acquired, failed to acquire from your parents?" This answer may sound facetious but truthfully, most of my food tastes were not acquired from my parents. I still like foods fried in bacon grease, a taste acquired from my parents, but almost everything everything else I eat, Mexican etc was a taste acquired in adulthood.


My experience is (I believe) similar. I was raised by a single mom. She has the palatte of a 5 year old. Nothing spicy, no seafood, no peppers of any kind ever not even bell, not even near her food. If you ordered a cheese pizza with peppers on half she would not eat a slice of the cheese half because it was too close to the peppers half. She never met a mashed potatto she didn't like but hates rice in any form. As I was growing up I just echoed her and said I didn't like all of the same things she didn't like.

Turns out most rice dishes are perfectly fine for me, some are even delicious. I like seafood, including sushi and sashimi. Oddly the one seafood item she will allow past her lips is lobster and I do not care for that. Vegetables? Love 'em! Even brussels sprouts and asparagus.

My sister also turned out to be a far more adventurous eater than our mother is.

[outlierrn]

Utterly and completely failed to acquire a taste for liver, shudder

[The Tooth]

Velveeta and onion sandwiches with lots of salt and pepper.

[Skald the Rhymer]

My father loves collard greens, as did my mother. I consider them suitable only for forcing confessions.

[gonzomax]

Sauerkraut. I mother made it at home and the house reeked. The process turned me and my brother away from it.

[ivylass]

Thanks to my dad, I put salt on my watermelon. I have also learned from my dad that barbecue is pork, only pork, nothing but pork. And since he's my dad, he's right. :D

My mother was English, so I never had any meat that wasn't well-done until I was in college, when my now-husband introduced me to the wonder that is medium.

[overlyverbose]

From my mom: garden-grown tomatoes, homemade pesto, fried chicken, wine, popcorn; most things loaded with cheese

Not picked up from my mom: liver (cooked any way - she loves deep fried the best); bland, creamy dishes made not for flavor but because they're made with whole cream and butter (she loves decadence for decadence's sake); hard alcohol

All my own: very, very strong coffee; any type of very spicy Asian food (if it doesn't make your lips tingle, it isn't cooked right); cookies

[Angel of the Lord]

Acquired: Salmon, very sharp cheddar, spicy food, shrimp, gumbo (dad). Also fresh green beans, onions, and sausage on pizza. Also an irrational love of pickles (mom).

Did not acquire: Coffee from both. Liverwurst-type things and pea soup from my mom. Anchovies from my dad. My mom's also a major chocolate fiend, and I can take it or leave it.

Kind of acquired: We didn't have fruit growing up, and so it's really weird for me to buy and eat it. Especially fresh. I've had to force myself to buy it recently. Some are easy, but I've yet to figure out how to get good peaches and pears. We also never had regular soda and didn't have sugar cereal (Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, etc) until I was nine or ten. I don't drink regular soda, and I can handle sugar cereal maybe once or twice a year as a special treat.

[maplekiwi]

Not acquired from my Dad: Tripe! I've only eaten it once, cooked by a Portugese friend in a spicy tomato sauce & it was OK, but I'm certainly not going to cook it for myself.
Blackball candy. I don't know how anyone can like these - & I've never met anyone under 65 who does!
From both parents: Schnapper & terakihi. I thought I hated all salt water fish cause thats what was usually caught & served at our house. Those are actually pretty much the only 2 I don't like.

Acquired from my Mum: Drinking my coffee & tea unsweetened.
From both parents - I ate gherkins & olives as a preschooler. Still do, but that is unusual for a NZ child.

[Jamicat]

As a kid, I hated anything that had spices in it...Pepper, Hot Sauce, Old Bay...ect.

As an Adult, I dislike anything without proper seasoning...Pepper, Hot Sauce, Old Bay...ect.

As a kid, I hated full grain rice, loved minute rice.
As and Adult, I never once used that crap called rice you make in minutes.

Things I liked as a kid but never made as an adult.
7 bean salad, Kale n vinegar, Pearl onions n cream sauce, sweet potato w/marshmallows, fried green tomatoes and other weird stuff you get at family Holiday parties.

As a kid, I didn't care for anything too much out of the ordinary.
As and Adult, I'd Die for liver n onions, artichokes, almost anything wrapped in bacon...even bacon.

Hate 2 things Turnups and Peas (early peas get a pass, and so does pea soup).
I can deal with Eggplant only in the Parmesan form cooked thin n crispy.

So, my tastes are the same just much much broader on a world cuisine scale.


...making me hungry -.-

[Lacunae Matata]

I acquired at least 95% of my food preferences from my parents: properly cooked traditional Southern foods. Grits and cornbread (never sweetened, of course!), pork in all of its glorious forms (except organ meats,) greens (without the traditional condiment of pepper vinegar, which most of my family just didn't eat, for whatever reason,) garden-fresh tomatoes, homemade biscuits, and practically anything fresh from the garden, really fresh seafood - especially shrimp and oysters, and a wide variety of game - from venison to quail to frog legs. Also, from my mother, I seem to have inherited a tendency to dislike foods based on texture, rather than taste. For example, I like the taste of onions, but can't stand the "squeaks in your mouth" texture of raw or undercooked onions.

The tastes that I don't share with my parents: Liverwurst, pickle loaf, pimiento cheese - or any other food with jarred pimientos, any sort of dish that includes egg yolk as a "primary" flavor/texture (over-easy eggs, or prepared salads with boiled eggs,) sweet pickles, or my father's fishing trip standbys: tinned sardines or Vienna sausages. Or, for that matter, any sort of canned fish - tuna, salmon, etc.

Tastes that I acquired on my own: Unlike most of my family, I like spicy foods. I adore fresh tuna, salmon, and sardines, even though I can't abide the canned varieties. I also like different preparation methods than my parents. My father famously met my mother when she was a waitress, and he ordered a T-bone steak, "lightly burnt." I don't eat beefsteak around most of my family members, because they tend to gag at the sight of my very, very rare sirloin or t-bone... I'm a lot more adventurous than my parents, also. I'll gladly try new foods and cuisines, and have learned how much I love everything from escargot to pho.

With my own kids, I see a similar evolution of individual tastes. My 12-year-old son is the most adventuresome eater on the planet. He eats the spiciest of spicy foods, and I've never once introduced him to a food that he refused to try. My 9-year-old daughter, on the other hand, isn't exactly "picky," but she has very definite ideas about what foods she will pair up. She doesn't dislike butter, for example, but she doesn't want butter on her pancakes or waffles; similarly, she doesn't want gravy on most starches - potatoes, rice, etc. Kind of weird, but good for her in the long run, right?

[Simmerdown]

Acquired: hot (Chinese) mustard, horseradish, a good crispy brussels sprout, smoked fish.

Not really, or not at all: sauerkraut, blood sausage, head cheese, fava beans, buttermilk or kefir.

My grandfather used to give me dates, and they were ok, but they always reminded me of cockroaches (not that we had any in the house or anything... come to think of it, maybe cockroaches remind me of dates).

I always wanted to try the flaming benedictine shots my dad and his artist buddies used to drink, but I'm a bit too scared of torching my insides. Always liked the smell, though.

[magellan01]

Liver. Yuk.

[freckafree]

I was a notoriously picky eater as a child, so it's amazing I acquired any tastes.

Acquired: Bloody rare beef, cornbread without sugar and the same in cornbread stuffing, unsweetened tea

Not acquired: Reheated leftover meat. i'm sure this was a necessity rather than a preference, but I loathe it nonetheless.

There are a lot of things I wouldn't eat as a child but now long for, like fried green tomatoes with pan gravy made with evaporated milk.

Jamicat, I love Minute Rice. My dad used to eat it for breakfast with milk and sugar. It's not real rice. It is what it is. NOM! I could eat a lot of it, with loads of butter and salt. Fortunately, my son has become an incredible rice snob and won't eat anything but basmati.

[Serenata67]

My mom hates black olives due to a childhood incident with them. I never liked them, and I never had such an incident. My dad loves mustard. I mean LOVES mustard. I love mustard so much I'll crave it and make a piece of toast just to slather mustard on it.

[dropzone]

NOT from Mom and Grandma: Head cheese. Any recipe that begins, "Take one pig's head," is naturally suspect, but when properly prepared (by Mexicans, not Bohunks)) cheek meat and tongue are yummy. It's when chunks of them are suspended in a vinegar aspic (thickeners from the skin and bones) it's disgusting. Okay, if I'd managed to clear out of the house early enough, maybe it'd be edible, but being in the house while it was prepared killed any desire to eat it. Ditto for Grandma's Bohemian lutefisk, which she made for Grandpa. Smelled it and knew the guy--it required a trip to the bar to be edible.

[Avarie537]

My parents were "recovering" vegetarians when I was growing up, so I was never accustomed to a meal of meat, starch, veggie, bread on a plate until high school. We ate tofu a lot (mostly in stir-frys or prepared cacciatore), and we always had "real" food - wheat bread, cheddar cheese, whipped cream, mayonnaise, leaf lettuce, sliced deli meats - instead of the processed versions. Lots of fruits and veggies. Only properly cooked rice - no instant stuff. We were exposed to ethnic foods fairly young - Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Greek - so I'll try pretty much anything once.

One of the most horrifying "meals" I ever saw prepared as a child was my best friend's little brother's favorite sandwich: baloney, Kraft singles, and Miracle Whip on Wonder bread. It was the total opposite of my ideal sandwich: roast beef, leaf lettuce, fresh sliced tomato, and cheddar cheese on whole wheat.

[HeyHomie]

Both my biological parents and their new partners have all loved local freshwater fish (catfish, crappie, shit like that). I can't stand it. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck.

Mommahomie made me eat vegetable soup (specifically, her dad's recipe) day in and day out for years. Today I won't go near the stuff.

Both my dad and my stepdad loved their beer. I don't like beer.

I did, however, pick up a taste for coffee (my dad and stepdad both love it, mom can't stand it). The dads like theirs black, I like mine with cream & sugar.

[Miss Woodhouse]

My mother taught us to eat cottage cheese sprinkled with sugar and American cheese on our banana bread. When I've mentioned these combinations in the past to people it seems those aren't common food tastes.

One weird one I didn't pick up is her love of cheese and jam sandwiches. I really didn't get that one until I made a PB&J with cheese for my Grandpa. I guess she picked it up from her parents.

[vivalostwages]

The folks were from PA and grew up during the Depression.

I like the sauerkraut now, but I can't handle the thought of eating scrapple, which they loved.

[lindsaybluth]

I like virtually all types of fish; they like the "biggies" - salmon, tuna, haddock.
They LOVE steak. T-bone or Filet only, and every week. I can only have a tiny 3-4 oz portion or I'll pass out from all of the fat, and I only have it when I'm with them.
They're all somewhat lactose deficient. So am I, but they buy the Lactaid, while I'll take a pill.
They're perfectly happy eating 75% of their veggies frozen.
They adore bananas and apples. The two major fruits I loathe are bananas and apples.
They're content to eat most of their food sweetened with Stevia or high fructose corn syrup (cereals, etc), and I prefer plain sugar.
They drink a pot of coffee each morning (a large 12 cup one) and a decaf one every night. Brewed absurdly strong. They (sincerely) do the "ahhhhh" and smile stupidly, like in commercials after their first sip.

Ahh, the biggest thing - they spice everything as though it's their last day. While I enjoy my food very spicy, I have learned that not everything is a race to burn my tongue off.

What I did acquire was not so much a type of food but a type of restaurant, from my mother. While they're solidly upper middle class and country club members, I distinctly remember going to many a dive growing up that had the "best fried fish" or the "best gyro" or the best whatever in town. Perhaps the band was ear-shattering, or the smoke from the bar wafted over, but if it had good food, we went. I still do this, but am even more adventurous than they are.

[tumbleddown]

Acquired from my mother: a taste for tea (hot or cold but always sweet), Miracle Whip (she won't touch mayo, I'll use either and consider them interchangeable on sandwiches), spicy mustards and Pepsi-Cola. Avocados. Ethnic foods (Chinese, Indian, Japanese including sushi, though now I go for vegetarian sorts, Eastern European, authentic Mexican).

Acquired from my father: PB&J with cheese, or just cheese and jam sandwiches. Tabasco in, not on scrambled eggs. (Cooking mellows the flavor. Mmm.) Sweet whole wheat breads, like Roman Meal. Black olives on pizza. Mint ginger ale. Mixing mint ginger ale or apple juice into iced tea. "Tin can spaghetti" which wasn't the spaghetti in a can, but spaghetti with canned or jarred sliced mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts and roasted peppers plus cheese from the green can. I now make it with better quality ingredients but it's the same idea. Apples. Grilled cheese sandwiches.

Didn't acquire: Meat. Shallow fried foods especially home fries (usually made in bacon drippings). Ketchup as a basic, daily condiment (that was dad). Pineapple. Banana Splits (mom's all time favorite dessert). Shoofly Pie (dad's fave). Milk. (From dad, like mom I don't touch it.) Celery. (Mom ate celery when dad ate apples.)

Bonus -- Acquired from my two best friends: Matzoh brei. Parmesan on popcorn. Bean sprouts in egg salad or tofu salad in place of celery. Coffee. (It was never in our home, ever.)

[wierdaaron]

Only thing that would apply is sushi. I can dig a good sushi, my mom can't stand the sight of it.

[MoodIndigo1]

Not acquired from my Dad: Tripe! I've only eaten it once, cooked by a Portugese friend in a spicy tomato sauce & it was OK, but I'm certainly not going to cook it for myself.
Blackball candy. I don't know how anyone can like these - & I've never met anyone under 65 who does!
From both parents: Schnapper & terakihi. I thought I hated all salt water fish cause thats what was usually caught & served at our house. Those are actually pretty much the only 2 I don't like.

Acquired from my Mum: Drinking my coffee & tea unsweetened.
From both parents - I ate gherkins & olives as a preschooler. Still do, but that is unusual for a NZ child.
Zat you, C.?

Not acquired from my mom: all overcooked food. She even liked her toast burnt to a crisp. Canned mushrooms. Iceberg lettuce. Miracle Whip (never ever bought a single jar.) Oddly enough, when I'm sick, I sometimes crave creamed corn on white storebought bread (wonderbread sort). That reminds me of her and is reassuring, somehow.

Acquired on my own: rare beef, even tartare; lightly cooked fish; sushi and sashimi. Indian (subcontinent) food; northern Chinese food, all kinds of ethnic food. FRESH mushrooms of all kinds. Fresh vegetables and home-grown herbs.

[Eugene of Sandwich]

Buttermilk.

Mom and Dad grew up southern and kind of kuntry poor. I grew up watching them "snack" on cold cornbread and buttermilk. In a glass. Like a sundae. Yum, right? I remember trying it when I was a kid and thinking they were knuts. How could anybody deliberately eat something that tasted like vomit?

These days, pretty good stuff actually, although I don't eat it as often as Mom & Dad. You really need to put some onion in there, too.

[Mahna Mahna]

I picked up my tea-drinking habits from my mother. In the morning it should always be regular (black) tea with neither milk nor sugar, switching to herbal tea in the afternoon/evening.

I also subconsciously think of coffee as a male beverage and tea as a female beverage, mostly because my mother was exclusively a tea drinker and my father was all about coffee. I can't remember ever seeing my father drink tea, and could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen my mother order a cappuccino.

That's as far as it goes, though - I do drink both coffee and tea, and never bother to switch to decaf coffee even if it's well past my bedtime... it's just that it feels odd to drink "real" tea after dark, because that's not how it's supposed to be.

[ministryman]

All children have some different food tastes from their parents.
But as they grow older some tastes they pick up and others stay different.

tastes picked up - from Dad, swiss cheese, horseradish sauce, Polish dill pickles
- from Mom, lettuce and tomato on a burger

tastes not picked up - pumpernickel, cream and sugar in coffee, squash, eggnog and fruit liquors at holidays

Tasters NOT picked up: Liver and Onions. Bleeeeeeah!

[maladroit]

picked up - mom put sugar in her bean soup, dad put ketchup, all 3 of us kids put both. Not picked up from dad - pickled pigs feet. Mom wouldn't even let him keep the jar in with the real food, it went in the cupboard with the pots. Not picked up from mom - canned spinach and mushrooms, either one. Just ick. Spinach is good, but I can't stand soggy canned spinach, and I have some weird mental block against mushrooms.