When I was 18 I was on a flight with some pretty overworked flight attendants who really weren’t into customer service. One of them passed right on by me with the coffee, and I really wanted some. I called her back. Crikey, you would have thought I was asking her to harvest the beans and roast them. I was not about to ask for cream or sugar, which, up to that point in my life, I had always put in my coffee. I decided I’d have to live with the black coffee.
Even airplane coffee was pretty good black and to this day, my first cup of coffee in the morning is black. Later in the day I use cream, and I never put sugar in my coffee.
Once I was at a bed and breakfast where they served English muffins in the morning. The only peanut butter they had was crunchy. I *hate *crunchy peanut butter. I mean…I had never had it, but I *knew *I hated it.
That was 15 years ago and to this day I only buy crunchy peanut butter.
When I was about six, my father told me that I wouldn’t like potato skins and that I should give him mine because he didn’t mind making the sacrifice and not wasting food. I still haven’t forgiven him for that one and to this day I treat potato skins like dessert
I remember as a child loving black olives. Then when my dad gave me a green one I popped it in my mouth and nearly gagged. Steered clear of them after that.
Till 40 years later I was at one of those gourmet brick oven pizza places and ordered a sausage, salami, and olive. I was a little shocked when it arrived at my table with green olives on it.
It was the best damn pizza I ever had.
Mine is a coffee one, but the reverse. I was always a cream, no sugar guy, literally for 40+ years. Then one day the drive-through gave me my coffee with sugar–and I was immediately hooked. Now it’s cream and a couple of Splendas.
I always preferred Coke to any other soft drink, and found Dr. Pepper to be gross. I had heard the “prunes” myth and I think that was a big part of why I never wanted to try it.
Then one hot summer day, 106 degree heat, I used my last two quarters in the college vending machine to get a cold drink for the long walk to my car. The soda machine gave me a Dr. Pepper instead of the desired Coke.
I figured I could at least enjoy holding the cold can on my long hot walk, but by the time I was nearly to my car, I had decided that anything wet was bound to be good at that point, so I cracked it open and had a sip.
So, “Something that I thought I wouldn’t like or didn’t like before but years later I tried it and liked it”? Is that the idea?
This has happened to me so often and so regularly that I wouldn’t even bother to remember any specific instance. Isn’t that a common experience with food?
Beets are (is?) mine. Mind you, plain beets always have been and forever will be, nasty to me. The only way I had ever tried them was plain. A Russian friend served a beet salad at dinner. I had to be nice and at least try it, so I did. YUM! It contained beets, eggs, potatoes, dill pickles, onions and other stuff. She also served me borscht. I had been led to believe that borscht was a cold beet soup. This, however, was a hot soup with a beet base and contained peas, carrots, and green onions with a big glop of sour cream. Again, YUM! Since then I have discovered and really like pickled beets as well. Just not plain beets.
Oh, and crunchy peanut butter is the only peanut butter in hell.
Ah, I take it back, I just remembered one! As a child, my only experience with zucchini squash (courgette) was in frozen vegetable mixes. It was soggy and awful and I hated it.
One day, someone was making dinner and was cutting vegetables and handed me a stick of something and said, “How’s this?” I ate it and quite liked it. It was a stick of fresh zuchhini. What a pleasant surprise.
I used to be really big on only eating name-brand Kraft Mac & Cheese. With a half stick of butter and a quarter cup of milk.
Then one time I had to “buy lunch” for me and my business partner when we had absolutely no money. I bought a 33 cent box of generic mac & cheese and took it to his house. He only had like a pat of butter and no milk. I made the stuff anyway (with water instead of milk) and it turned out totally fine.
Now I buy only generic mac & cheese, and make it with 2 tbs of butter and a splash of water. I prefer it to anything else.
The best example I can think of is pumpkin pie. Once upon a time, my brother accidentally used the tablespoon instead of the teaspoon to measure the spices in the standard pumpkin pie recipe. Ever since, tablespoons it is! Seriously, I’m amazed that the rest of America is so stingy with the spices.
As a kid, I thought I hated green beans. In reality, I love them, but they have to retain some hint of crunchiness. They had just been overcooked by my parents and relatives. I even like green beans raw. When I do a veggie platter with ranch, I usually put a few green beans out. Everyone looks at me weird, but that just means more for me.
I also have to second Elemenopy’s recommendation on cottage cheese. I grew up being taught to eat it with fruit (pineapple or canned peaches, for example), but then I discovered cottage cheese is meant to be savory! Black pepper is the only way to go.
Just wondering. As a born-bred USA kid, I grew up on peanut butter.
How does the rest of the world view this?
PB&J sandwiches when we were poor kept us going.
Almost as good as Ramen noodles.
I was a died-in-the-wool Coke drinker until I had to spend several months in the South. And got hooked on Royal Crown cola. And I mean hooked. I go to different things at the Consol Arena just to get the 32 ouncer of RC ON TAP! Nirvana.
Try harvard beets. Though my mom added a tablespoon or so of butter to finish the sauce.
I like cottage cheese with half sharp paprika. And I use cottage cheese with a tiny bit of vanilla extract and splenda as faux ice cream when I want something sweet.
Never really been forced to try anything and liked it better, but for the past couple of years I have used foodgawker to change up the recipes to keep from being food-bored. A serendipitous discovery was Russian potato salad. Can’t say I prefer it to the traditional stuff, but it is pretty damned decent. Well, we did just discover a BBQ recipe that we have decided we prefer to our previous homemade sauce recipe. It is a combination of a marinade and a basting sauce [if you use it on pork cut the vinegar down a bit.]
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When I was growing up, I hated beef. Roast beef, steak, hamburgers…I hated them all.
I actually don’t remember the incident that changed this. But I do know the first time I tasted properly cooked beef, it became one of my favorite foods. My mother, who otherwise was a really good cook, insisted* on cooking beef until it was completely brown throughout then a little more just to make sure there was no hint of pink left anywhere, even on the thickest cuts and largest roasts.
*Actually in retrospect I think it was my father that insisted, now she cooks beef medium rare.
I got hooked on fresh Brussels sprouts when I started shopping at farmers’ markets. I always steamed them, though, which can be tricky. They take longer than other veggies, but get a bitter bite if overcooked that way. Then I read somewhere (maybe here) about roasting in olive oil. Oh man.
Dr. Pepper is still my favorite, although I really like other sodas too. It was the first soft drink I had with any regularity, because of my grandfather. Mom didn’t keep soda in the house hardly at all, but when we visited my grandparents he would give us kids each a whole bottle of Dr. Pepper. We didn’t have to share! Glass bottles!
I’m convinced the reason so many people don’t like pumpkin pie is that it’s usually so fucking bland. (Store-bought pumpkin pies are absolutely the worst: you could fall asleep eating a slice.) So I’m totally with you on this. When I make pumpkin pies, I start with the recipe on the can of Libby’s pumpkin, and I double or triple the cinnamon and cloves.
Back in the 1980s Guinness Stout was very rare in the US. The company wanted to grow their demand in the US. But they had a problem: the common perception was that Guinness tasted nasty.
So they came out with a big ad campaign. Which slogan was “Guinness: I’ve never tried it and I don’t like it!!!”. Showing folks being coerced into giving it a try & screwing up their face like a kid being fed cough syrup. Then being pleasantly surprised at the actual taste.
Today Guinness sells a metric f***load of stout in the US.
