Apple and cinnamon is my favourite, but it’s hard to find these days, so I make my own. Just buy some plain, unflavoured yoghurt, and stir in some diced, stewed pie apples (out of a tin), some honey, and some cinnamon. Good stuff!
Sour Cream. I detested sour cream as a child. Now it is one of my favorites. I can’t imagine a baked potato or taco without it…
Artichokes. Would not have touched the tough hairy things as a child and young adult, but now I love them. I’m not talking about marinated artichoke hearts in a jar or can, but fresh artichoke, steamed until it opens, the leaves pulled off and eaten with melted butter or a good bleu cheese dressing. Mmmmmmm.
When I was really young, I hated mushrooms, onions, asparagus, smoked meat, and a great many other things with strong flavor that I now love. A big part of it for me was being able to handle the strong flavor within the food, and, well, we know a lot of kids like bland food.
I still won’t eat okra or cooked spinach/cabbage, but enjoy some of the things that I hate when cooked as raw foods.
My fiancee swore up and down for years that she loathed Indian food because of one meal she’d had with her dad that she didn’t like. She still somewhat pissed off at me for making her try some so that she discovered it’s actually her favorite food of all time. She doesn’t like to be proven wrong.
In my youth I would not eat italian food or seafood. Silly me.
As a kid I hated raw mushrooms. Still hate them, further, I have no clue why. Give 'em to me cooked, and I’ll scarf 'em down. Everytime I cook with them, I’ll toss one in my mouth, take 3 chews and immediately toss it out into the sink. I keep thinking one of these days…
Artichokes and asparagus as well. I used think my babysitter was trying to poison me with artichokes, and the “come on, you’ll like it, just try” was all a ploy to get rid of me. Although I do recall calling my brother a little girl because he wouldn’t try them either.
I loved dried octopus as a kid, but can’t eat it now. Think I ate too much of it.
Chinese food.
Right up to the age of 25 or so, I had it in my head that I didn’t like Chinese food. I don’t remember my family ever eating it, so it’s not like I had a traumatic experience or anything, but maybe it was that very lack of exposure that made me shy away from it. I regarded it as exotic, foreign – nay, alien – and inedible. Then one day I was out with a friend and he wanted to stop for Chinese food for lunch. I tried the most innocuous thing I could find on the menu, probably sweet and sour chicken or something like that. I loved it, and quickly branched out to all sorts of Chinese dishes.
I’ve been a convert ever since. Bring on the Chinese food, and make it extra spicy!
Diet soda. I could never stand the taste. Then I stopped eating sugar for a while and all of a sudden diet soda became good. Now, I never touch the “real” stuff.
Also Chinese (American) food. I just always assumed I didn’t like it. I remember as a kid going to a Chinese restaurant and eating nothing. Then one day I decided to try it and it’s delish.
Dill pickles. It seems all of the dill pickles I’d ever tasted were ugly, nasty-tasting abominations. Then one day I had a deli sandwich with a kosher dill, and it was really good. Nowadays, I’ll buy kosher dills anytime. I still don’t like the non-kosher brands. I don’t know how they’re different, but they definitely are, and not in a good way.
Mussels and hard cheese, sometimes together! :eek:
I’ve always liked fish, but I’m pretty sure that when I was a kid I wouldn’t have gone near sashimi or raw shellfish, but now I love anything on the half shell. It’s one of the best things about going to a seafood place.
Still don’t care for squid or octopus, though, whether raw or cooked.
Asparugus. I had convinced myself that I hated it for the past twenty years, after trying it once. But a side of it came with a steak I ordered a few weeks back and I decided to give it a second chance. I was kind of shocked to find I liked it. I even went out and bought some and cooked it myself. Recipes welcome!
Lamb and olives. Not together of course, but… Hey, why not together?
For the longest time, I thought they both tasted “odd.” But I kept coming back to lamb because I thought I “should” like it. Eventually I did. Now I avoid eating it because I can’t afford it.
I have never liked olives, but all I’d ever had were canned. I still don’t like those. But after a few experiences with pizza and Mexican food topped with olives, I’ve grown to like them. Like, not love.
One thing I never liked was anchovies. Not that I ever tried them, but everyone I knew informed me that I did not, in fact, like them. Now, I can’t imagine caesar salad without my beloved Sea Bacon.
Steam and enjoy.
Steam, sprinkle with a little toasted sesame oil, and enjoy.
That is all.
From earliest childhood I was always OK with cooked veggies like carrots and peas, but didn’t like the stronger tasting ones like broccoli, spinach, or brussels sprouts. I think that changed during my college years; the cafeteria tended to leach most flavor out of everything, but they couldn’t quite do that to spinach or broccoli, owing to their natural gifts. So I would tend to gravitate towards those because at least they had a taste, and from there it was a short step to actually liking them.
For me, it is actually very recent.
I hated Brussels sprouts until last week I had a very nice oven dish with potatoes, onions, ground beef and… Brussels sprouts.
Hmmmm, tasty.
Then a few days later I made some nice chicken in sweet and sour sauce but couldn’t find the right pack of veggies, so I picked up one that also had sprouts.
Hmmmm, finger-licking good.
I may be alone in this one… okra. But only if it’s stewed in something.
As for the prawn deal, TheLoadedDog is talking about sucking out the insides of the head. The brain is pretty tasty. It’s not unusual for Asians to suck the heads or clean out the head with a spoon. Alot of Asians also eat crab fat (sparingly for me though as it gives me a major cholesterol headache) and fish eyes. I’ve never tried fish eyes but I’ve been to dinners where people call dibs on them.
Eggplant. I wouldn’t touch it until I was in my twenties, but I’m now trying to persuade my husband to eat them so I can make them for dinner again.
I roast it sometimes. Drizzle it with olive oil, salt, pepper, roast at 475 till tender (8 min. maybe?) Yummy.