Absolutely true! The heavenly fish & chips in northern Ontario that I mentioned had a crackling crispy crust and the wonderfully soft flaky interior of a fish that had been caught only hours earlier. The only downside is that the school bus up on blocks had a reputation for their fish & chips, so there was often a long lineup.
I don’t distinguish spices well, but IIRC I don’t mind coriander.
To the extent that this applies, this would explain a lot.
I actually thought I disliked chicken from about the age of 5 all the way up until I was 18, or very nearly so. This was due to biting into a chicken leg two or three times as a kid and biting into the bone and sinew. Very unpleasant sensation. I also got the impression, probably from eating cooked chicken, that it was an unbelievably bland meat. Until I finally ate a proper piece of grilled chicken and realized that I had just had bad cuts / preparations of it (and that I had probably eaten chicken many times without knowing I was eating it).
Today I like chicken, I just like it properly prepared (grilled well-done, rare chicken is not good, or my favorite – Buffalo wings).
My father, on the other hand, can’t stand fish or seafood in any form. It disgusts him. This may have had something to do with him growing up by the sea and his amateur fisherman father bringing home all manner of fish all the time…then again, that doesn’t explain why he’s equally disgusted by all manner of poultry…
Cilantro is coriander leaf. Coriander seed has a very different flavor.
Yeah, and that’s the one I would describe as citrus-like. The leaf is hard to describe. To me, it’s like the essence of “green” and “bright” and “fresh .” (And a hint of bitter and light soapiness.) Probably my favorite herb, especially combined with parsley and basil.
at least you have Guy Fieri for company when it comes 
to eggs
just curious, what about deviled eggs?
Ha. I still can’t drink Ouzo, but I trained myself back to tequila… by emptying out a third of a bottle and adding bird’s eye chillies. Marinaded for a few weeks…
I love chillies, I have currently got 4 litres of habanero, garlic, and lime in honey marinading. Should be ready in a month or two.
Canadians crack me up. I’ll give you Hudson Bay as “northern Ontario”, but Georgian Bay?
Frankly, I’ve never had the nerve to try a deviled egg, which, as far as I know is still a hard boiled yolk, just mixed with other stuff.
I can’t emphasize how immediate and violent my reaction to that first bite was. It was all systems go with gagging, throat closing, stomach ready to send its contents up the pipe, and the overwhelming need to get it out of my mouth. And remember, my thought just before biting down was something like “This is going to be great!”
So, it may now have a psychological element, but I still love just about all other preparations of egg that doesn’t solidify the yolk (including scrambled, which are somewhat ambiguous, I guess).
I agree with everyone who suggests this phenomenon is as much psychological as physical or physiological.
My younger tween daughter (a) is an adventurous eater, not picky at all, but also (b) craves novel experiences. She is very happy to try new foods, and is exceptionally enthusiastic when she discovers something she likes. Escargot, curries, asparagus, lychee, duck, octopus, etc etc etc, she’s tried and enjoyed all these. When she sees a current favorite on a restaurant menu, she’s happy to order it.
… For a while.
Then her palate gets bored, and after six months or a year, she “doesn’t like it” any more. She won’t order it, and she’ll pick grouchily at it if you put it in front of her.
At the moment, she can’t get enough mushroom risotto. But I fully expect that at some point during this calendar year, we’ll be at a restaurant, and I’ll see it on the menu and suggest it to her, and she’ll say, I saw it, I don’t want it, no thank you.
She doesn’t do it to be difficult. I’m also not suggesting that a psychological objection “isn’t real,” in the way that the sensitivity to cilantro has a physiological component. It’s genuinely part of her mental hard-wiring to seek out new excitement, wallow in it, and then move beyond it, and I suspect it’ll be a lifelong pattern for her.