Foods I’d like to like

Ok. I finally thought of something I just plain dislike the taste of. (The OP knows this one already.) Mangoes.

Weird, I know. Everyone else loves the stuff. They taste like carrots to me. Which are fine, except in a fruit. I don’t hate the taste; I’m willing to eat mango, but I’m always disappointed when I do. The only case of my enjoying mango that I can think of is mango chutney.

Steak. I wish I liked steak, or any cuts of beef for that matter, but I don’t. I’ve tried to make myself like beef for my entire life, but it’s not working. I just can’t stand the taste of it. Occasionally, I can eat a hamburger, as long as it’s cooked to death and resembles a hockey puck (in other words, as long as it doesn’t taste like beef!).

I’ve had it. It’s not quite as bad as you might think. Really :wink:

I know folks with ulcers who used to drink it so they could have fun AND coat their stomachs at the same time. Hey, it was the 60’s :smiley:

I find that cooked, chopped spinach is delicious mixed with curry sauce and fish or chicken. Zucchini I prefer sauteed in butter, or mixed into sauce with pasta. And if you are trying to like raspberries, try any combination of raspberry and chocolate. :slight_smile:

There’s only a few things I can’t eat anymore - hot dogs (ugh) and okra (slimy!).

I wish I could eat eggs, too. I like cooking omlettes, but even the smell just about makes me gag, and I can’t stand the taste or texture of fried eggs. Boiled eggs are even worse; I remember a kid in grade school that use to deliberately make me vomit by waving a hard-boiled egg in my face. Heck, I used to be leary about cooking with eggs, but I’ve gotten over that and, in fact, I can eat raw egg whites, just not cooked eggs.

I used to be a really picky eater until I started cooking for money. Then (slowly) I started trying other things. Raw tomatos are a pretty recent addition to my pantry (about five years ago) and I’ll give just about anything a shot or two; more if I like the cuisine or want to know how to cook it.

Stranger

Beer. I hate it. It tastes like soap. But I’d like to like it, because it’s such a basic thing that everyone likes. Same with whiskey/scotch.

Bananas, if only because there’s so much nutrition in such an easy-to-open package. But I can’t stand the taste or smell, and only like them in banana bread.

Yepyep, was talking about pop. Scotch/brandy and water tastes like death on top of the OHMYGODITBURNSITBURNS! thing. Lemonade is a good mixer, too. Try that trick with something like Glenlivet or Laphroaig, though, and you’ll get lynched. Since I like my neck in its present condition…well, I’ll stick with gin, y’know?

As for eggs: I’m the same way. Plain fried or scrambled eggs are just blah. No flavor, no real consistency…ick. They make a great binder for diced ham, cheese, basil, parsley, cayenne, tobasco, and S&P, though.

Dill
Fresh dill is mostly pointless, and only really goes well with fish or seafood, so I wouldn’t bother unless you start liking fish or seafood. It has so little taste anyway it is more used for its prettyness.
Most fishes
Do you like smoked samon, tuna ? Can you pluck up the courage to try tuna sashimi (raw tuna) as it is the least fishy of all fish imho.
All nuts
Try using ground almond in a curry sauce, also experiment with nut oils for cooking or salad dressings.

Tomatoes
If you remove the skin and seeds before using they can be much nicer. Do you like smoothe tomato sauces? If you don’t mind spending money to experiment, try heirloom tomatoes, especially with a little crumbled blue cheese.
Whole Wheat Bread
Crunchy bread goes with crunchy fillings. Also wholewheat bread can be dryer than more processed bread so use more butter in making sandwiches with it. Whole Wheat or brown bread also works well as accompanyment to soup, where a little extra texture can be an advantage.
Raspberries
If you like chocolate, get a nice rich chocolate cake/torte. Crush fresh rasberries through a sive into a small bowl. Then serve the chocolate cake with fresh thick cream and a small pool of rasberry juice on the side. Also rasberry juice makes a good addition to chocolate fudge brownie recipies. I agree that rasberry seeds are not very nice at-all spoiling the use of whole berries for me.
Fancy mustard (I don’t care about french’s)
Just an acquired taste, try red-dragon Cheese see if you like it. Beaver also do a selection of fairly friendly fancyish mustards.

Pepper (As in black)
Too much is rarely much good, but a little often improves almost any cooked sauce. Try strawberries with a little black pepper if you like strawberries.

Bell peppers that aren’t red (I already like the red ones)
Yellow and orange are sweeter, green more bitter, make sure you remove all seeds and white structures from inside the pepper before cooking with them. Try using a selection of colours when you might otherwise use red.
Parmesan
Only ever use Italian Parmesan, and grate it freshly as you use it. Regiano is the best quality and is well worth using. Long lasting parmesan is just nasty.
More Basil
Just an aquired taste, go for fresh basil when possible (though the stuff you get in ‘toothpaste’ tubes isn’t too bad) use sparingly and it helps make any Italian dish more Italian.
Zucchini (Love it in bread, hate it otherwise)
One of many low-flavoured vegitables, you can do without it. Cook it quickly with garlic or something to add flavour.
Ricotta Cheese
As one of many cheeses on a mixed cheese pizza works quite well

Sugar Snap Peas (I loathe peas, but it would be nice to like these)
Qucik steamed as a side dish, maybe add a little lemon zest.

Jicama
– bless you
no idea

Cooked Spinach (I like fresh, raw)
Pretty pointless foodstuff. Spinach isn’t even believed to be all that good for you any more, so don’t bother and stick to fresh spinach in salads etc.

Grapefruit
Halve a grapefruit. Use a knife to partially separate the segments. Sprincle with sugar and cinimon and place under a grill until the sugar starts to caramalize, then eat with a spoon.

Honeydew
Slices of mellon with proscutiio ham makes a simple starter to a meal.

Artichoke hearts (Never had any “just” artichoke, so I don’t know about that.)
Some of the artichoke hearts preserved in oil I have had are pretty nasty. But if you find a good supply a few pieces of artichoke heart can be added to a salad to good effect.

Wow Bippy the Beardless, that’s a lot of suggestions.

Dill seems to be called for in just about every recipe that looks yummy to me these days. That’s why it’s on the list. Honestly, if it could be left out, I’d be just fine.

I love tuna sushi/sashimi! I like salmon in all incarations except smoked. I actually will try just about anything if it’s in sushi form. The rest of my biological family thinks I’m a freak.

I’ll try the idea with the nuts; my goal is to be able to snack on them. They look so snackable.

I do like sauces for tomatoes, and I like whole wheat pasta, so I may give up on the bread thing. The Kangaroo_in_Black likes whole wheat bread a lot though, and I’d rather not keep ignoring bread. (I near refuse to have two loaves in the house as they’ll go bad. Currently we compromise on potato bread, but I’d like to be healthier, and I know he’d be happier with the wheat.)

It seems overwhelming-Chocolate and Raspberries! Sadly, this has not soothed away my dislike of raspberries. I simply wonder why anyone would do that to innocent chocolate.

Peppers, Black pepper, mustard and basil. I like a little of the last three, but a lot is no good. I think I might shame my italian family, as I can’t enjoy a good pesto. (Except the one moi and that_darn_cat made many moons ago. But it didn’t taste “basil-y”.) Maybe different types of basil like lemon. Different types of mustard, different types of peppers… I think I’m seeing a theme.

The grapefruit idea sounds totally lovely. I think I’ll be trying that this weekend. It’s on the menu!

Actually, all of your suggestions look worth trying. Except maybe the Jicama. I don’t know if blessing it before every meal is really worth the effort…

It’s all mental.

Can’t think of anything, actually.

First of all, cucumbers have taste. Something must be wrong with your taste buds. I’ll eat a cucumber with nothing else.

As for things I wish I could like…

There are two things that my dislike have made me feel like an outcast. First of all venison. I just can’t eat anything that smells like a sewer has backed up. And before anyone says anything, I’ve eaten it properly blooded and properly cooked blah blah blah. It still tastes rancid. But my in-laws are big hunters and every Thanksgiving the fresh dear steaks come out and I start to wretch.

Second is wine. Any wine. From cheap nasty stuff to fine champagne. It all just tastes like wine to me. The worse part is even people who know this will still cook with it assuming I can’t taste it. Guess what, I can.

I wish I could like onions. I can actually handle them in some things - sauces, soups, Kung Pao chicken - but anything that has too much onion… bleh. I hate burgers with onions and pizza with onions. See, the worst thing about this is it’s hard to explain. People will see me eating Kung Pao chicken, and quiz me: “How can you eat that? It’s got onions in it!” But it doesn’t taste like a raw onion! I can even eat French onion soup, since it’s made with a beef broth and doesn’t taste like a raw onion. I can eat thin onion rings, the ones that are mosty batter.

I don’t like when people try to fool me, either. “Here, try this!” And it tastes like an onion dipped in onion juice.

And they’re in EVERYTHING, so they’re hard to avoid, and it’s hard to know what’s going to be good or bad.

PEPPERONI. I just don’t like it! I’m the hardest person to split a pizza with… :frowning:

Sausages. They smell good, but the texture… and the rubbery things I find in them… eeeugh.

Meat, for the most part. I like the taste, and it feels good in my stomach, but I hate when I find veins and fatty gross things in it and I get laughed at for picking them off. It’s the texture. Hamburger meat is gross too. I hate the little hard bits I keep finding in it. I can’t eat a steak in front of someone I want to impress, that’s for sure. I wish I could ignore the gooey bits like everyone else does!

This is going to be the summer I give raw tomatoes a shot. We’re going to buy fresh from the farmer’s market, and I’m going to try them in salad, with mozz, and on an open-faced sandwich.

I like tomatoes in marinara or even a chunky pasta sauce. I like V8 and tomtato juice. But raw tomatoes…they’re just “gooky.” (Yes, this is my term for the funky gooey stuff inside tomatoes. Egh. shivers) But, since I married a Joisey boy who’s convinced that tomatoes are what summer is for, well, suffice to say he and his family think my aversion is a bit nutty.

So, I’m calling you out, tomatoes. We’re gonna settle this… [sub]The heart is strong, but the flesh is weak![/sub] …in a couple of months! :cool:

Raw tomatoes. I just can’t eat them. I love tomatoes in almost any other form, though I’m not quite sure about tomato juice yet. Tomatoes always look so luscious, but when it comes down to it, I can’t stomach even a little piece of raw tomato.

It’s so nice to know that I’m not alone.

I present the recipe that got my picky four year old to like broccoli: Chinese Style Broccoli Salad.

Take a handful of broccoli crowns. Rinse. Chop up into bite size pieces. Steam in a steamer until they turn bright green (should take about 7-9 minutes). Immediately douse them with cold water to stop the cooking and refrigerate.

Dissolve one teaspoon of sugar in two teaspoons of sesame oil and 4 teaspoons of soy sauce. Pour over the chilled steamed broccoli. Let sit in refrigerator for several hours or overnight, stirring occasionally so dressing coats the broccoli (actually I put the whole thing in a plastic container with lid and give it a shake every so often).

If you don’t like THIS broccoli you never will. It is one step removed from putting chocolate sauce on the stuff.

When jicama is good it is yummy but I stopped buying it several years ago. I kept getting ones that tasted bad, like they were starting to get moldy (I dont’ think they grow them around here so they have to travel a long way). I don’t know where you live but maybe that is part of the problem?

Laughing Lagomorph, I currently live in D.C., but my wish to like Jicama dates from when I lived in NM.

Yogurt. Cottage cheese. Sour Cream. They all just taste spoiled to me. :frowning:

Thanks dear. :slight_smile: I’ll give it a try in the next week or so.

Please tell me butter is a Britishism here and you don’t really meaned churned milk. That sounds disgusting.

This comes as a complete surprise to me. Cite?