Bleu Cheese. Well, any kind of strong cheese except cheddar. I used to despise the stuff. Hated how it looked (blue? on cheese?! VISIBLE COLORED MOLD?!), how it smelled, and how it tasted. Then my dad made tomato soup with lots of basil and bleu cheese in it, and I was hooked. I’l eat the stuff plain now, just munching on the crumbled stuff in the plastic tubs.
I still can’t get myself to eat gorgonzola though… EWWWWWW.
Oh yeah, another one for me: Mushrooms. I used to loathe them. The taste and texture - bleah. Then once I was brave enough to try a mushroom gravy my aunt had made and it was fabulous. Now, I loves me some portobello and brie thin crust pizza. Mmm.
Tomatoes. I still don’t like the big, soggy ones, but do like the little ones like grape, cherry and plum/roma and eat them regularly. The last is really the best for sandwiches; they are not wet, and four slices cover the average slice of bread very neatly.
Zucchini, yellow squash, and mushrooms.
I still don’t like broccoli. I can eat it raw if it’s smothered in dip or melted cheese, but no power on earth short of absolute starvation will prevail upon me to eat it slimy and cooked. Same with cauliflower.
I used to really dislike rosemary and sage. I came around to rosemary first, and finally started enjoying fresh sage a couple of years ago.
Now one of my favorite pork roasts is Arista, a Tuscan recipe that involves literally caking a loin roast with a mixture of chopped fresh rosemary and sage, crushed fennel seeds, salt & pepper & olive oil, and roasting it atop a bed of sliced garlic.
I think that means you need to take a shower.
I am very weird when it comes to tomatoes. I can’t stand them raw, or stewed. But I love them in ketchup, salsa, and sauces.
Exactly the same for me. My first experience with asparagus was overcooked with hollendaise sauce, which actually made me vomit. Now, I absolutely love asparagus, but I prefer it sauteed with garlic and olive oil. Mmmmm…
On a lesser note, I thought I didn’t like pesto, though it really was because I thought it looked gross and my mom didn’t like it, so I never tried it. When I finally tried pesto in college, I fell in love with it. I absolutely LOVE pesto on pasta…it’s actually one of my favorite things to eat. I can’t believe I let myself go the first 18 years of my life without it.
Ya ready for this?..
::wallace style fist-waving:: Cheeeeese!
When I was growing up, my only choices for cheese were American Yellow and Kraft Mac & Cheese. I must have been the only kid in America who couldn’t stand KM&C. (I can just about barely tolerate it when I am camping and have plenty of cayenne pepper to hide that… “taste”.) When I was in high school, I refused to eat cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, or anything with cheese other than pizza.
Then, round about the time I hit college, I found out that cheese can have flavor! That was also around the time that my folks started buying the good stuff, too. (We were never “poor,” but we were thrifty.) I still don’t do the “funky” cheeses, but some good swiss, gouda, cheddar, or brie? Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! :drooly smile:
When I was younger, I hated cheese, mostly because all I was exposed to was that God-awful American cheese (which is either tasteless or vile). I still don’t like that, but I’ve developed a liking for many other cheeses – Jarlsberg, Havarty, Boursin, cheddar, brie, gruyere, bleu (including the dressing), gorganzola, mozzarella, parmasian, romano, and SHUT THAT BLOODY BOUZOUKI!
There was a time when I wouldn’t eat peanut butter or mustard, but I had liked them before and like them now.
Tomatoes. It’s weird, I used to eat them fresh off the vine with a little salt til I was 5 or 6, then consistently loathed them until a few years ago (tomato sauce or even stewed tomatoes were A-Ok, just not the raw ones).
I still don’t eat them terribly frequently, but often put them on bread with a little olive oil and garlic…yum. I diced one up and threw it into the pseudo-paella I made tonight and it was awesome, but don’t tell The Highwayman that I sneaked diced tomatoes into the rice, 'cause he loathes them more than anything! :eek:
I still don’t be diggin’ on the raw tomatoes either–cooked is fine, any way you like, and I can handle salsa cruda once I put it into the blender and get it all consistently gloppy. Raw tomato has a musky flavor that tastes like skunk smells and it just gags me. The dog likes 'em just fine, though, to the point where I had to move the tomato plants to the back of the garden so she can’t get her head in there and munch them all up.
Cucumbers I cordially detested until I tried Asian thin cucumbers and discovered they weren’t all soggy and flavorless with waxed thick skins and gigantic snotty seeds in the middle. I grew some Armenian cucumbers and squash a couple of years ago–lime green in color, very crisp and sweet with almost no seeds in them, delicious!
Avocados were daunting until I grew up a little, now we go through bags of them when they’re reasonably priced.
Very spicy foods were an acquired taste which I’m glad I acquired. It’s nice to go to a Thai restaurant and be able to order it hot so you don’ t get the “stupid roundeye” stare.
Sashimi took a while to get into and I’m still selective about it. Salmon and tuna are okay, some of the rest not so much.
I can eat crawdads but I’ll be damned if I suck the gorp outta their icky little heads–I know that’s where the flavor is but I have my limits!
I still can’t handle black olives, but green ones stuffed with garlic and kalamata olives, yum!