It need not be recent or a bad experience.
For instance, the first time I ate a persimmon, my impression was of a weird and slightly unpleasant mixture of tomato, carrot and juuuuuust barely (teetering on the brink of) over ripe pear, in taste and texture.
It was Thanksgiving in the USA yesterday, and my sister-in-law made everything except the turkey, stuffing, and gravy, which I provided.
Where shall I begin?
Big Feastes done by incompetent cooks are an evergreen source of … novel … taste and texture experiences. Start wherever you like; you can hardly go wrong.
Or are you still overseas (China? Mexico?) and your sister in law is not an American but is trying to duplicate traditional Americana? That could / would be epic.
Yes. I second this.
After decades living around the world and eagerly sampling new foods and flavors, it’s hard for me to encounter something new. But it just so happens I ate something for the first time just a few weeks ago: mammee apple, which my neighbor, who works as a gardener and often has more fruits than he can use, gave me. Never before had I tried this lovely fruit, and if I ever saw it before, I don’t remember it.
It’s really good. Kinda crispy like an apple, and tastes somewhat like a delightfully aromatic apricot.
I am five.
My parents take me to a restaurant little kids normally aren’t taken to - couldn’t get a sitter? No idea why.
Lobster tail is on the menu. My mom loves lobster. She orders it. I want to order it too.
Mom, not wanting me to do that since it’s expensive and I’ve never had it before: “Pick something else. You can try some of mine.”
Dad: "No, it’s OK. If she wants it let her have it.’
I ate the whole damn thing.
I recently had kiwi berries for the first time. Interesting. They were billed as being like kiwi fruit, only with an edible skin. I found them more tart and a bit less pleasant.
Well, mid-dau took split peas and made into patties with other stuff, binders etc .
Not good. Not falafel tasting. Nothing good came from it. Not anything I’ve ever tasted could compare. Gross.
Don’t do it. Just don’t do it.
My MIL makes this… stuff. I had never encountered it in the wild before I met my wife and have not encountered it anywhere else.
What she does is, first she bakes a ham, saving the ham juices. Then she takes a bag of dumpling noodles (the frozen kind) and put them in a crock pot. Then puts some more in. And some more. She squishes them down into the crock pot, breaking them up so she can fit even more in. Then she adds some more, followed by more breakage, and then more noodles. This she repeats until the noodles are packed in like dense sand. Then she pours in the juice from the ham to fill the pan, which doesn’t take much – just enough to fill in the cracks. Then she turns on the crock pot and lets it “cook” for a few hours, giving it a stir and adding salt every once in a while. The result is something that tastes like pureed salt lick mixed with fermented trash bag runoff and has the consistency of the paste used by schoolchildren. Any semblance to the original noodles disappeared long before it’s “done”.
Other than my MIL and her kids, there’s only 3 other people in their very large extended family that eat this revolting garbage. The first time I saw it I thought “what depths of penury did someone long ago experience to come up with this vile concoction and actually think for one picosecond that it actually was something actual human beings could eat?” I still don’t have the answer to that question.
On the other hand, my uncle on my father’s side once introduced me to sliced pears with blue cheese. Absolutely delicious.
I also never had pot stickers until very recently, when one of my students made some in a culinary class and brought in the leftovers. Very yummy as well. Ditto eggs Benedict, which I kind of knew about but hadn’t tried until this year.
Nice post. I appreciated that description of the crock pot trash dump. 
There is a cafe in town called The Olive Cafe, that serves Mediterranean food. There is a dessert item called a warbat. Filo pastry is wrapped around a cream filling. The filling is similar to a firm custard and is just slightly sweet. The outside has a very thing drizzle of honey, not too much, and the whole item is about the size of a small person’s fist and is triangular.
I’ve used filo for lots of things but this one is new to me, and I really really like it. Of course I have been know to eat anything that is standing still or even moving slowly, but I’m going to have to try to make this item and will be going in search of a recipe.
The first time I ate tororo (a Japanese sort of paste made from grinding a kind of yam) I immediately thought of nasal mucus, without the flavor.
There are lots of Japanese dishes that were new to me when I first went to Japan, over 40 years ago. Mugi-cha, which is tea made from wheat, is quite refreshing served either iced or at room temperature. I was pleasantly surprised. Octopus sushi is crunchy and surprisingly good (as distinct from squid served any style, which as far as I’m concerned is like trying to eat rubber bands). I was already familiar with miso soup, but when I was staying with a farm family in Hokkaido it contained, in addition to the usual stuff, some long irregular narrow whitish tubes, definitely not any kind of noodles but some kind of animal part. I barely managed to choke them down out of politeness. I never did find what they were, because if I ever asked, they would assume that it was something I didn’t like (which was true, but I didn’t want to say so). There are probably others, but those are the ones that are at the forefront of my memory.
Oh, one other, much more recent. Sansho is an aromatic (herb or spice? I don’t know) that some say is reminiscent of white pepper. It’s not spicy per se, but it makes your tongue tingle and go a little numb. I found I don’t care for it, it tends to overpower other flavors and I’m not a fan of either the flavor or the effects.
One thing my parents, and my mother in particular taught us kids was never to refuse what a host(ess) was serving. Take the smallest portion and mess around with it on your plate, eat a few bites at least and leave some behind. That teaching has come in handy over the years, although I’m not picky about food.
@Baker 's post reminded me of my first taste of an exquisite Middle Eastern food at a Lebanese restaurant in Cairo. It’s a mezze called “muhammara,” but the vowels and the number of H’s, M’s, and R’s are subject to variation, because the original name is in Arabic (which can also vary in spelling and pronunciation, just as English does, from nation to nation).
Basically, it is a walnut and chili pepper dip, also containing things like garlic, olive oil, bread crumbs, vinegar or lemon juice, and probably other ingredients I’m forgetting now. I have had only modest success creating it at home, but made properly it is a thing of beauty.
I love this! When I’ve had it, it’s included mild red peppers and pomegranate molasses.
Yep, I was forgetting the pomegranate molasses, but that’s a key ingredient. I’m happy to know I am not the only Doper familiar with muhamarra’s deliciousness.
I’m swooning now just thinking about it. Thanks for mentioning it! Have you ever had Fesenjan?
I had persimmons once, a long time ago in Minneapolis. They were being sold at the department store where I was working, so I decided to try them. Not bad, but I didn’t particularly care for them. I found them to be astringent.
The only time I’ve ever had carp or Southern fried rabbit was during my year in Czechoslovakia, at Christmas and New Year, respectively. They were both tasty, but those goddamned fish bones!
Lobio (Georgian bean salad) is great, though the main flavor that comes through is of fresh cilantro.
Yeah, there are cooking persimmons, which are astringent and eating persimmons which are astringent only when not fully ripe.
On an impulse I bought a bottle of Kefir (kuh feer) guava flavored. Why? I loathe milk as a drink by itself. But It’s not like milk at all imo. Somewhat effervescent, slightly tangy with a yogurt aftertaste. I like it! I drink a small glass first thing in the morning.
I had something new for lunch, as it goes. Mehmet’s Slice - I’m assuming the market stall holder is called Mehmet, and this is his own concoction. At first glance it appears to be quiche, and I suppose it kinda is, except there’s no pastry, and it’s pan fried hard enough to give it structure - a pancake of sorts, I guess, containing vegetables (definitely pepper and onion; not sure what else) and, we think, something like a gram flour. Spiced with cumin, It was OK, but in honesty the Gözleme (Spinach And Feta Stuffed Flatbread) is a better bet.
Beyond my dietary limitations (not allowed red meat) I’ll try anything. A few recents:
Crete: cod with garlic sauce. Actually, I had this for the first time in February in Athens. The cod was grilled, and the garlic sauce is actually (a lot of!) rather runny mashed potato strongly flavored with garlic. Delicious.
Crete: Eggplant and cracked wheat in sour milk. Uh - I guess that’s it, really. It was great - so good we went back to the same restaurant the next day and I had it again, because who knows if the chance will ever come again? (Το Sefteri, if you ever find yourself in Rethymno. “Mama” specializes in home-style cooking),
Turkey: Şalgam - a drink. I’ve mentioned the experience once before on this board. Wiki says
Although the Turkish word şalgam literally means “turnip”, şalgam is made with the sour and salty brine of purple carrot pickles, salted, spiced and flavoured with aromatic turnip (çelem) fermented in barrels with the addition of ground bulgur and rock salt
And I stand by what I said then:
“The guy serving explained that you could have it cold or hot, and hot was more usual, so that’s what I opted for. Turns out his English was good but not great - he meant it came either hot (spicy) or mild. What I had tasted like (as closely as I can describe it) bitter tomato juice containing a ridiculous amount of Worcestershire sauce. Glad I did it? Yes. Ever again? No.”
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