Foods I’d like to like

In My Humble Opinion
1

There are many foods that look so yummy in recipes, but that I can’t stand. My grandmother once insisted that if you forced yourself to eat a food for a year, by the end of that year you’d like it. The “evidence” so far is spotty. She likes mushrooms, but still won’t touch tomatoes or bananas. Me, I still gag at whole wheat bread. So, in no particular order, here are a bunch of foods I’d like to like.

Feel free to share! Or better yet, suggest some way to like these foods.

Dill

Most fishes

All nuts

Tomatoes

Whole Wheat Bread

Raspberries

Fancy mustard (I don’t care about french’s)

Pepper (As in black)

Bell peppers that aren’t red (I already like the red ones)

Parmesan

More Basil

Zucchini (Love it in bread, hate it otherwise)

Ricotta Cheese

Sugar Snap Peas (I loathe peas, but it would be nice to like these)

Jicama

Cooked Spinach (I like fresh, raw)

Grapefruit

Honeydew

Artichoke hearts (Never had any “just” artichoke, so I don’t know about that.)

2

Mushrooms. I eat a lot of vegetarian food, and so much of it seems to have mushrooms in it, and they’re usually minced into pieces that are too tiny for me to pick out and not tiny enough for me to not notice they’re there.

3

First of all, don’t sweat it. There’s no particular reason to eat any of them, if you don’t want to. A couple of suggestions:

–Try the snap peas raw, or in a salad. I think they lose most of their charm when cooked, anyway.

–If you mean raw tomatoes, pass them by unless you can get the best, freshest ones. Then try a salad of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette with some fresh
basil shreds.

–Ditto on the honeydew–don’t even bother to eat it, unless it’s fresh and in season.

–Maybe try another whole grain bread, like oatmeal. Or eat your whole grains in the form of cous-cous or another cooked grain and eat white when you feel like having bread. There are alson some brands of white bread (e.g., Weight Watchers) that use white flour but sneak in a whole bunch of fiber in the form of oatbran.

–Plain, cooked spinach is pretty boring. Maybe try adding it to pasta, or seasoning it with garlic, sesame oil, vinegar, etc.

–I don’t like green bell peppers either, so can’t help you there. I can take them in small quantities.

–Try grilling or roasting the zucchini–it’s good combined with red peppers, which you already like.

–

4

Chinese black beans. I don’t know WHY I don’t like them- I like regular black beans, and I like salty foods. But I don’t like Chinese black beans. I keep forgetting that I don’t like them, ordering something with them, and not liking it :frowning:

5

Oh yeah, I forget to ask to “hold the parmesan” all the time. I hate that. And it’s totally my fault, so I’m not going to send it back. But it’s a guarentee that I won’t eat much of that meal.

6

What? Not like parmesan? That’s unpossible! I’d say anyone who doesn’t like parmasan cheese must have some sort of food neurosis. But that’s just me.

Seriously, I’ll eat anything, as you know, but when I was a kid there were certain vegetables I didn’t like. Having them cooked differently helped me get to like them, though.

Try to find a recipe for the foods you don’t like that cooks them with spices and other flavors you do like. Don’t just add them to a dish you already know and like–you’ll taste the addition and dislike it, at least compared to the “usual” recipe. So don’t just make spinach lasagne, for example–find something new that cooks the spinach with spices and oils you like.

7

I’m trying to get myself to like okra. It’s very nutritious. I’m a vegan, so smothering it in a bunch of meat and rice and choking it down won’t quite work. A lot of people like it deep-fried, but if I’m going to waste the calories on something deep-fried I am going to do it for something I adore, not something I loathe.

As far as the whole wheat bread goes, you might try easing yourself into it by eating breads that are made with half whole wheat or craked wheat, and half white. It’s really good, and will let you get accustomed to and maybe even learn to appreciate the rougher and heavier texture.

8

I’d like to like eggs. I only recently learned to tolerate them scrambled or in an omelette, but they really look kind of good fried up in butter. Cowboy likes them and I’ve learned to cook them for him. However, the smells makes me run away gagging. It’s kind of weird to request “no eggs” in a breakfast special.

I’m perfectly happy not liking them hard boiled though - it’s not like you see people enjoying those every day.

9

Okra’s a perfect example. I used to hate okra. But I love Indian cooking. I had okra in curried vegetables (where it wasn’t slimy, BTW) and discovered I liked it there. Then I had it in other Indian dishes, including some very okra-heavy ones. Then I had pickled okra, and discovered I like that, too. (I recomend it, especially if it’s the sliminess that turns you off. And it’s much healthier than fried okra.)

Southern-style stewed okra is still disgusting and slimy, and fried okra frankly doesn’t do that much for me, but I’ve had enough okra dishes that I’ve enjoyed eating that I can’t say I hate it anymore, or even that I dislike it. In some forms, I really like it.

10

Can’t stand scotch unless it’s mixed with something besides water. Ditto brandy. Yes, even the “smooth” good stuff. It all tastes like OHMYGODITBURNSITBURNS! to me.

11

I’m not much of a drinker, especially when it comes to hard stuff, but even I’m shuddering to think what you would possibly mix with Scotch besides water (unless you mean plain soda).

12

Broccoli is supposed to be one of the best foods you can eat. I wish it didn’t taste like bitter string to me.

13

The two I can think of off the top of my head are alcohol in general (for no discernable reason… I just want to like it) and seafood. Most everything else, I can tolerate if cooked in a particular way but those two items defy any attempts to make them tasty, no matter the method. It’s a shame too… there’s lots of seafood dishes that look really good, like paella, but I just can’t think of eating them without getting queasy and I’d really like it if I could savour a wine or drink instead of grimacing and holding my nose so I can get past the flavor to get the effect.

Have you tried pickled? I hate okra too but it’s tasty after it’s been brined.

14

eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww,

Tomatos make me cringe!

Why is it? Is it the skin? or is it the weird taste? or maybe the gooey texture on the inside? Man do I hate them. Yet I love fried tomato paste or sauce. Weird.

I have a long list of common things that really intereferes with my eating. I’ll try to list them with my stupid reasons for not liking them

Cucumbers… I like pickles. But not cucumbers. But they are just too tasteless for me. Not vegetable enough to taste like a real veggie (like Spinach!) but not sweet like a fruit. It reminds me of a melon. I’m not a fan. Why put them on anything? They have no taste!

Mushrooms!!! Ewwww… The taste is pretty much okay, but the texture really, really, really turns me off. And I don’t like the idea of anything that can sprout up in a matter of hours. What the hell does it come from?

Not too many fruits I don’t like. Except kiwis. I just don’t get green fuit. Plus its hairy. Gross.

Veggies are my main problem.

I am slowly learning to like collard greens. Around here that is a big thing. This is through my like for spinach, so this is an acquired taste.

Zuchinni? I won’t touch it. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t care to know.

Eggplant? Nope, I don’t care. Can’t be good enough to make me get over my prejudice

Avocado? I HATE Guacamole. I’ve tried that, but its got such a basic taste. Its almost like soap.

All in all, I’m a freak when it comes to food. I’m severly prejudiced when it comes to trying new things. I am the kind of guy who felt weird eating my friend’s mom’s cooking because it seemed strange that someone else cooked it. I guess that’s just me.
But on the other hand, I’ll eat any kid of crustacean or fish. I was eating crawfish the other day, and I realized when looking at the underside of the tail, that it pretty much looked like a giant insect. But then the meat is reassuringly good, so I got over it quickly. I even suck the heads!

Which reminds me. I’m off to start a crawfish thread.

15

Sounds like you may hate cilantro instead of avocados.

An allergy to it typically manifests itself as a soapy taste and it’s pretty common in guacamole and other Mexican foods.

16

I’ve never seen so many people who dislike tomatoes. I’ve seen reference to this several times recently. What’s not to like? I wondered whether over-consumption of tomatoes might be exacerabating my arthritis. I decided that, even if it was, I’d sooner put up with the pain than forego eating them.

I wish I liked eggs. I can’t even stand the smell of them. Just thinking about them has me screwing up my face right now. But I hear they’re nutritious and they’re so quick to cook.

17

I love to eat almost everything – if it can be cooked, I’ll eat it and usually like it. But I really, really wished I liked eggplant. I can’t seem to develop a taste for it. I’ve tried it deep fried, sauteed, broiled, grilled, covered in cheese and sauce, and to me it still tastes like a stack of wet napkins. The only way I can tolerate it is in the form of Baba Ganoush with LOTS of garlic.

18

I had a regular customer who would order scotch and milk. :eek:

19

Hunh! I was pretty shocked when I read that, but a little googling shows it’s a real cocktail, apparently pretty popular at one time. Rumour has it heavy drinkers liked it because the milk settles the stomach.

Now I’m thinking I might just have to try it. :eek:

20

I would have to say seafood. I like about two seafood dishes, one of wich is clam chowder, and the other…well…I don’t know what it is but I merely assume there has to be at least one other seafodo dish I like.

So many times TV chefs make the seafood look so tantilizing, but then I realize it will all taste like “fish” to me, and I stop wanting it. Oh well, you go have your salmon, more cow for me.