Am I the first to mention coconut? I wouldn’t go near coconut candy (which was the only coconut I ever saw) as a kid. Nowadays I’m fine with coconut candy, coconut cake, coconut ice cream, coconut-milk soup, whatever.
Used to hate the smell of fish sauce. And I’m Asian!
Now i love the stuff.
Still can’t stand crab, lobster and raw fish. Yeah, i know, i’m missing a lot.
Spinach. Not only have I always been a classically “picky” eater, but there seems to be an assumption that even children with normal appetites aren’t going to like spinach. I avoided it for years and to this day I don’t really like very many vegetables.
Now love spinach, especially fresh, and in fact am going to plant some soon in case of another tragic spinach shortage.
Why, I forgot a big one. Sandwiches, generally. I used to hate cold sandwiches, probably because I associated them with bland elementary school lunchbox collations of boloney and Wonder Bread, but I learned later there are obviously sandwiches and sandwiches.
My mom and dad disagreed on some foods, and I had a habit of siding with my mom throughout my childood.
Things that I remember my dad loving while he was alive, that I now love include…
[ul]
[li]oysters[/li][li]mussels[/li][li]horse radish[/li][li]mushrooms[/li][/ul]
I know there are more, but I can’t think of any others.
Of course you meant to include mayo in the list of sauces. I shall forgive the oversight, but just this once.
I cannot stand coconut flesh (either fresh or dessicated in sweets) but I love the taste of coconut milk in Thai dishes and curries etc.
Onions. I still don’t like them raw, but cooked in any form (lightly or otherwise) and YUM!
I could have written that post. I’m a grown woman and don’t have to eat raw onions if I don’t want to, so I don’t.
Avocados. Slimy and soapy to my child’s eyes and palate. Now I kill for them. Still won’t eat oysters or beets in any form.
Olives. The thing that made me turn the corner was, several years ago, starting to use olive oil in cooking. At first I was shocked at the taste. "Eew, this oil tastes like olives! :rolleyes: But then I got used to it, and began loving the taste. Lo and behold, olives themselves began to taste good. I still can’t eat one in cold blood, but I do like them on pizzas and in salads now.
Beans. Not green or string beans, but all the typical beans like kidney, black beans, lima beans, canellini, garbanzos … I hated them and their pasty texture with the fire of 1000 habaneros. My mom actually made little stickers to reward me for eating them. The stickers said “Harriet Ate Beans Today!” Needless to say, those were not a big motivator.
Now, while I still avoid limas, the others are fine in chili, hummus, minestrone and many other dishes. And if a few limas are in mixed vegetables, I won’t pick them out.
I’m still a firm believer that hummus and filafel are the only acceptable ways to eat garbanzo beans.
You must be my long-lost twin. I’d like to add to that lobster. As a small child, I was frightened out of my wits by a moving lobster, and to me, it remained nothing but a giant scary insect for years. I can’t say I hated the taste, I wouldn’t sit at the same table if people were eating it. Now I love it.
Mushrooms were a big one for me. As a kid, I vocally stated my opinion that fungus has no place among the four food groups. These days, I like them. I still hate mayonnaise, however. I always request that it be excluded from any meal I’m ordering.
Calamari.
I mean, who could eat a rubbery, slimy squid?
Then, on a trip to the U.S. West Coast in my late 30s, I ate some very good calamari. Must have been very fresh. And I loved it!
And now I order it whenver I’m near an ocean. I will **never ** order it locally (U.S. midwest) though, because the locals don’t know how to prepare it (or it’s been frozen too long) and it turns out nasty, i.e, rubbery and slimy!
Mushrooms.
Cheese.
Spicy food.
Now I eat mushrooms and cheese as long as they are ingredients in food that I like (pizza with mushrooms? Yum!), but I won’t sit down with a big block of cheese or pop a couple mushrooms in my mouth.
And I love spicy food now. Been told I have an asbestos palette - food that will send people screaming for the ice water seems mild to me.
Yeah, hold da cold blood.
Most of mine have to do with discovering that it was the canned or frozen version of a food that I didn’t like, not the food itself.
Mushrooms. I hate canned button mushrooms, which is pretty much what I had as a kid, but I love mushrooms now that I don’t eat those.
Black olives. I always thought they were nasty, until I tried good ones (the kind that come from the olive bar, not the canned ones). I still think canned black olives are nasty.
Brussels sprouts. If you get them fresh (NOT frozen) and don’t overcook them, they don’t have the strong taste and smell that I find objectionable.
I don’t care much for plain mayo (as a sauce for artichokes or anything else), but put some crushed garlic in it and you’ve got yourself a yummy aioli. When I have artichokes, I usually have them with aioli, though I may have to try them with blue cheese dressing sometime.
I realized I was officially an old fart last year when I tried an anchovy by itself - and LOVED it! Pure salty goodness! I never minded them in Ceasar salad dressing, and would work with them all the time as a pantry cook, but I could never get myself to try one on its own.
I just started to appreciate sour cream in the last few years too. Hated it as a kid - “Its sour! That means its gone bad!”
I love strong, stinky blue cheeses like Cabrales or Gorgonzola, but I dont like blue cheese dressing - what’s up with that?
And I love a nice filet of tuna - but that crap out of the can? Nuh-uh
And I still hate mushrooms too.