For as far back as I can remember, I hated tomatoes with a passion. They were my arch-nemesis, my kryptonite, my mortal enemy. I would never eat anything that had been contaminated by a tomato, even if it was surgically removed. I was convinced that the mucous-like tomato juice would linger on the food and ruin it forever.
Thinking of the psychological genesis of my tomato aversion, I believe I must have developed post tomato stress disorder (PTSD) after biting into what appeared to be a ripe, sweet fruit—only to be met by a distinctly non-fruity assault to my taste buds. Or, perhaps there was something more Freudian at play.
But, tomatoes always looked so appealing to me—they were like forbidden fruit. So, every ten years or so, I would try to overcome my prejudice and give them another shot. But, time after time, they disappointed me with their disgusting flavor. Bleh!
Then, something miraculous happened. When I was old and wise, I decided to give tomatoes one last chance. And…I loved them!
Ever since then, I’ve been devouring tomatoes like there’s no tomorrow, trying to make up for all the wasted years. How could I have been so wrong, those bad boys are delicious!
Canned black olives are differentiated from the can only by the fact the the can is much harder to chew. The taste is pretty much the same.
I grew up loving the pimiento-stuffed olives (not that we had any sort of olives all that often). As an adult, I’ll chow down on almost any kind of olive if it’s available.
Another person here who as a child liked all the stuff that children are supposed to hate. I even liked liver, which my father cooked to the point where it had the approximate consistency of shoe leather. Later, when I had liver properly prepared, I liked it even more.
I also like chicken livers, which I prepare with onions, mushrooms, sour cream, and paprika, and serve over egg noodles. In fact, I have several one-pound packages of chicken livers in my freezer, which I will be cooking up as soon as I pick up the rest of the ingredients.
As far “I thought I didn’t like this” goes, I will try almost anything twice (twice, because it may be an acquired taste).
I grew up thinking I didn’t like mayonnaise. But actually my mom always bought Miracle Whip, and I just didn’t realize it wasn’t the same as regular mayo. Turns out I like mayo just fine, I just don’t like Miracle Whip.
I used to not like onions as a kid, except if they were an ingredient in something else. Then I began to realize grilled onions are pretty good, and I thought I just didn’t like raw onions. But now I’ve realized I do like a like a little bit of raw onion on certain things, like a thin slice of red onion on a burger. And on the same note, I realized I like onion rings. I think I just didn’t want to try them when I was younger because I assumed I didn’t like onions, period. But they’re basically like grilled onions, but with a crunchy breading on the outside.
When I was pregnant, my roomie did liver and onions at least twice a week because it was cheap, got so the smell was an automatic vomit, couldn’t smell frying onions alone for years. Then when I got able to do fried onions, chemo and driving past a place frying up italian sausage peppers and onions screwed it up for me again, haven’t gotten to where I can smell frying onions without the nausea yet.
I found this brand of frozen egg rolls that I think are delicious. Lots of good stuff mixed in. I had been eating them on and off for months, and the last time I was eating them, I discovered, to my horror, that they have teeny tiny bits of mushrooms in them.
It’s really the texture that bothers me. Like slippery slugs. I can enjoy a steak that was smothered in mushrooms as long as they are removed from the steak and I don’t have to eat the actual mushrooms. I guess for these egg rolls the texture was camouflaged by cabbage and such, but my mind can’t accept it.
I’ve heard that, but I’ve loved Brussels sprouts ever since I was a kid. And like most vegetables, it’s not hard to cook them properly: All you have to do is not overcook them.
Including Aldi’s “Benner” brand, which is about a third of the price. There’s just no reason at all for anyone to drink Lipton or Tetley’s. I mean, it is tea; it’s just really terrible quality (though still not the worst I’ve encountered).
My most recent “I thought I didn’t like that” experience was, I think, yellow squash. I was at a friend’s house, and that was the vegetable they were serving, and it’d be rude to not have any, so I just dished myself a small helping. And it was good!
I think the only vegetables left on my “do not like” list are asparagus, eggplant, and strong mushrooms. And I make it a point to try them again every few years, just in case. The last time I tried asparagus, I didn’t dislike it as much as I used to, so maybe I’m heading that way, too.
With eggplant, meanwhile, there are ways to make it tasty, but any tasty recipe with eggplant in it would be even tastier if you made the exact same recipe, but started with something that’s food instead. And strong mushrooms are usually expensive enough, and enough desired by other people, that nobody ever objects much when I leave it to them.
I can’t do asparagus either. I have a happy family memory of going on vacation with my grandparents when I was about twelve, and we went to a restaurant that was having an asparagus festival. I was rightly horrified, and my grandparents made me take a picture right next to a giant asparagus cutout and my grandmother bought me a tin with asparagus all over it.
I still have that tin.
And while I still detest asparagus, it does make me smile.
Wow … though I am like that about soft shell crabs [6 years old, driving trip to Florida to visit grandparents, down the Eastern Shore - nope nope nope, not eating shells and guts, thanks!
Have you tried bacon wrapped asparagus? or proper German roulladen [slice of roast beef wrapped around various things like gherkin or the white asparagus that comes in the glass jar]. I am with you on the eggplant, had it pretty much every way people tried feeding me and nope. I get this funky machine oil sort of taste to eggplant, zucchini and oddly swordfish. Eggplant also sucks up oil, so can end up horribly greasy.
