I would agree with this. When I was a kid, I loathed pineapple and coconut, for example. But as an adult, I learned the difference between fresh and canned, and proper preparation. Now one of my favorite quick dinners to whip up is pineapple-creole chicken — but the pineapple has to be fresh. Mmmm.
And coconut? I still don’t like what passes for coconut generally, but I got to have fresh shavings from a coconut straight from the tree when I was on my honeymoon in Fiji, and it was freakin’ ambrosia. I tried around when I got back to the U.S., but nothing really compares. Don’t know why. Half the reason I want to go back to Fiji is to have fresh coconut again.
I absolutely detested olives until I went to Spain (I was 19). As others have mentioned, preparation and freshness make all the difference: I thought of olives as these salty, briny black rings, and having them fresh and carefully marinated made all the difference. <craving olives>
When I was really little, I absolutely would not eat whipped cream - the texture just made my stomach turn…what a fool!!
Learning to like foods is something I quite enjoy.
-Around the age of 15 I went from loathing olives to adoring them.
-When I was 21, I decided to learn to like beer (up to that point, I thought it was nasty, way too bitter). Once I got used to the bitterness, I could suddenly start tasting all the wonderful delicacies of flavor you can get from a good beer.
-I hated green bell peppers for a long time, in part because of a nasty breakup with a woman who loved them–but only in part for that reason. But I decided it was worth learning to live with them, and now I can tolerate them well in cooked dishes and quite enjoy them raw.
-Eggplant is still not my favorite dish; it’s probably my least favorite vegetable. But my wife has discovered an eggplant bharta dish that I will eagerly devour.
-And one of these days I’m going to learn to like gin; I have a sip of my wife’s gin and tonic whenever she orders one.
I’m another cilantro convert. At first I didn’t like it because of the powerful soapy taste. But then I tried some once and the soapy taste was much more in the background, for some reason, and quite tolerable. The next time I tried it the soapy taste was completely gone.
Similar experience with lentils - I never used to like them, they had an obnoxious flavour that was entirely their own, and if I could detect even a little of it in a dish, it ruined it for me. Now, though, I can’t taste that flavour - I still taste the lentils, but not the obnoxious flavour. Either I have lost the capacity to detect that flavour, or my perception of it has changed to the point where I don’t recognize it anymore.
This reminds me that there are some foods I liked as a kid but don’t like now, and liver is one of them. I could’ve eaten a livermush sandwhich for breakfast every morning when I was growing up. Wouldn’t touch the stuff with a 39 and a half foot pole now.
Green bean casserole, that mushy mushroom soup thing with the fried onions that gets trotted out at holiday meals?
I thought I hated it, and had always hated it, until a few years ago when I was busy tending an infant and someone else fixed me a plate of food and included that. It didn’t suck! I dunno how or when exactly my tastes changed, but I was over thirty when I noticed it.
I tried olives a couple of times when young and didn’t like them at all. I tried one again in college and I did like them. Coconut is another changed taste. I think the turning point was when Baskin-Robbins had Gorilla Vanilla (with toasted coconut) one year. Now I like it in ice cream and can tolerate it in baked goods.
There are other things I disliked when young, but as an adult I found out it was how they were prepared. For example, my mother always overcooked chicken, so I hated the dry white meat and would only eat dark meat. When I finally had a chicken breast that wasn’t overcooked, I liked it. Ditto asparagus - overcooked, mushy asparagus is disgusting.
I hated mushrooms - my mother always used canned mushrooms in recipes. I found out later I liked fresh and fresh-cooked mushrooms.
I could never bring myself to try sauerkraut as a kid - I just hated the smell. But I tried it as an adult and found it palatable.
As a child, I used to not want to eat mushrooms, because they are fungi… but now I love them.
Also, seafood: because I thought it was weird looking and slimy, I guess. Now I LOVE seafood!
I have to admit though, I still have an aversion to organ meats, such as liver, kidney, brains, intestines, testicles, etc. And things made with blood, like English blood pudding. It just seems yucky to me to eat organs such as the liver… although I am fully aware that is a totally silly and irrational belief.
Yams are the only thing that’s coming to mind at the moment but I think that mostly had to do with preperation methods. Until last year, when I had them in a roasted balsalmic vinagrette, my experience with them had been limited to Thanksgiving when it was just this orange mush with melted marshmallows on the top. Ugh. I love them now though and the dish that introduced them to me anew has become a favorite.
I think I might bake one and have it with a couple chicken breasts for dinner, actually.
I developed a taste for black olives in the past few years after previously thinking them quite vile. I have also learned to appreciate (fresh) parmesan cheese in very small amounts that do not cause me to be overwhelmed by the smell (I still cannot sit next to someone dumping 1/2 cup of Kraft parmesan on their spaghetti).
I also developed an aversion to a couple of items fairly recently. I used to enjoy green peppers, but now find them too sharp and can only eat them when they are grillled to the point of carmelization. Also can no longer appreciate jalapenos or chili or anything stronger than medium salsa. They don’t upset my stomach, they just taste nasty all of a sudden. I thought taste buds were supposed to get less sensitive with age?
I’m 26, and I hated most of my foods when I was truly a little kid (elementary school age), but started trying new things and liking them when I reached my teens. Now I’ll try ANYTHING once, and I like almost everything except pickles and olives.
The only thing I can think of that I didn’t like in my early adulthood that I like now is green peppers. I used to eat it in certain recipies, but couldn’t stand it on pizza or in spaghetti. Now either of those things taste wrong without it.
I used to hate onions as a kid but about 15 or 16 learned to appreciate them. In fact, I found a book from when I was 5 called “My Book About Me” and one of the questions was what are your favorite foods, what is your least favorite, and I answered onions. Now I use them pretty much every day.
Still can’t tolerate sushi, asparage, brussel sprouts or liver.
Mustard. Used to make me retch, now I love it (sometimes).
Tomatoes, I went from actively disliking (like, making a second dish of something made with tomatoes to avoid them) to sometimes liking, sometimes not, but eating around them.
Lettuce, but only in salad, or on a club sandwich.
On the other hand, there’s plenty of food I used to like, that I can’t stand any more. Hamburgers, except from certain places…balogna…roast beef…
Bell peppers. I’m 28 and I hated them till last year. One day I thought I would try some in my fajitas, just in case. I’m so glad I did. Now I love them. I’m going to grow them in my garden this year. Yum, yum!
Cream cheese. I used to think it was disgusting and repulsive, even though I like cheese. Maybe because I mistakenly connected it with cottage cheese, which is, in fact, disgusting and repulsive.
Anyway, one morning, my mom made me a bagel with cream cheese before I left on a road trip. It was dark in the car when I unwrapped it, so I didn’t notice the cream cheese until I took a bite. My reaction was,
“Goddamn it, I have only 3 food dislikes. My sisters have 217, and she can recite them verbatim. Why can’t she friggin’ remember mine?”
“Hey, this is good!”
Mayonnaise/Miracle Whip. Maybe it’s just something about creamy white stuff that seemed disgusting. Started eating this on sandwiches and hamburgers sometime during college. I think maybe Wendy’s hamburgers with everything convinced me that mayo wasn’t really the devil’s condiment.
