Thought You'd Hate It but Love to Eat It Now

In My Humble Opinion
1

Now remember, all you perverts out there, this is a food thread!

What foods did you swear you’d hurl if you ever tasted them and now find you enjoy? I wish I could say this about sushi and sashimi, but my Danish grandmother fed me pickled herring with my first solid food. Below are some of my own candidates. Please post your own culinary discoveries.
1,000 year old eggs.

While nothing near that old, they are well aged (~100 days). Some people are put off by the deep brown color of the yolk. While they might appear to be rotten, they are far from it. When one considers that refrigeration is a recent invention, this method of preservation is rather ingenious.

How to describe the flavor? Intensely creamy without a trace of sulfur or off flavor. Overcooked fresh eggs can taste infinitely worse that any preserved egg I’ve had. Do yourself a flavor and try one at your next opportunity. You will be astounded at how delightful they taste.

Beef Tendon

Having run into tendons in poor cuts of cooked meat, I had built up a pretty solid aversion to their chewy gristle-like properties. Fortunately, I know well enough to always go to a Chinese restaurant when a Chinese person invites you.

Cold paper thin slices of a near transparent sort of mild tasting crunchy beef flavored raw potato, is what it tasted like. The flavor was quite delicate and the texture made for an excellent change of pace in the meal.

Oysters

As a child I liked smoked baby oysters (which I now consider an abomination) but my only exposure to the real item had been with the large raw Pacific oysters. Frankly, I’ve had better head colds. Then is was taken to Chez Louis in Palo Alto for my birthday. My lover ordered the Bienville oysters on the half shell. These were much smaller than the Pacific honkers, so I gave one a try.

[Bart Simpson]

Suepoib

[/Bart Simpson]

The restaurant (alas, no longer there) was skilled enough to pace the meal around the second plate of oysters that I immediately ordered. I have been hooked on isters ever since. Olympias and Kumamotos (same breed, different locations) are my favorites. Blue points and Appalachicolas are fun too. The Bienvilles were excellent and I now look forward to trying the local oysters wherever I go.

I recently had them cooked as “swine on horseback,” which is a highly seasoned version with bacon and cream. I’m not fond of cooked oysters to begin with and this recipe utterly masked the flavor of them.

A good oyster is often no larger than your thumb. It should smell like a sea breeze coming in off of the shore (when the tide is up!), and have only the very faintest semi-metallic tang to it. The texture should be firm and not gooey in the least. Once you’ve had a good raw oyster, there’s no turning back. I like them with just a squeeze of lemon. I’ve had them at sushi bars with mirin, shoyu and minced scallion. It’s a nice change-up, but I prefer them with only the lemon.

2

Well, my used-to-be-aversion isn’t near as unusual as yours, but I remember gagging at the thought of barbequed goat.

Then I ate some…and Oh. My. Gosh. That stuff is simply delectable. My uncle used to have a Fourth of July Goat Roast every year and I counted the days until the next one.

The goats are young (not necessarily kids, but not very old either) and are slaughtered about three days before. The guys used to cook them, slowly, the whole three days before the party and man…it was just heavenly. No fat, no gristle. Just lean, tender barbeque that would put any swine to shame for taste.

I have no idea what all they used in the preparation, but I’m pretty sure vinegar was involved and special, homemade barbeque sauce. The guys that made the sauce never would give anybody the recipe, and maybe we don’t want to know what all it involved!

I also thought I would hate venison until I had some venison roast. I didn’t know what it was until it was consumed, but it was ten times better than plain ol’ beef roast. Wish I had one now to throw in the crockpot!

Deer hamburger is great too, and you’d never have heard me say that fifteen years ago. Doesn’t even need marinading in worcestershire, either, which is something I must do to regular hamburger.

Still hate raw oysters, though…ugh. Tried them twice…and hated them both times. A lot.

3

Sushi is my unexpected favourite food. I never even used to like cooked fish, but these days I love sushi, especially salmon sashimi. Haven’t had any for a few weeks, actually, think I might go for some this weekend. Mmmm.

I don’t like thousand-year eggs though. I’ve had them a few times, but nope, not for me. Then again, I strongly dislike eggs anyway. I’ve had food poisoning from eggs twice, and that’s hard conditioning to overcome.

Btw, a friend of mine ridiculed me for calling them thousand-year eggs, laughing that they were only 100 days old. From what you say, we were both right. Thanks for resolving that one for me.

4

Gaucamole. I thought it looked vile, but it was dreamy. I’ve even perfected my homemade recipe! fabulous with the Tostitos hint of Lime flavor!
FaerieBeth

5

Well, my used-to-be-aversion isn’t near as unusual as yours, but I remember gagging at the thought of barbequed goat.

Then I ate some…and Oh. My. Gosh. That stuff is simply delectable. My uncle used to have a Fourth of July Goat Roast every year and I counted the days until the next one.

The goats are young (not necessarily kids, but not very old either) and are slaughtered about three days before. The guys used to cook them, slowly, the whole three days before the party and man…it was just heavenly. No fat, no gristle. Just lean, tender barbeque that would put any swine to shame for taste.

I have no idea what all they used in the preparation, but I’m pretty sure vinegar was involved and special, homemade barbeque sauce. The guys that made the sauce never would give anybody the recipe, and maybe we don’t want to know what all it involved!

I also thought I would hate venison until I had some venison roast. I didn’t know what it was until it was consumed, but it was ten times better than plain ol’ beef roast. Wish I had one now to throw in the crockpot!

Deer hamburger is great too, and you’d never have heard me say that fifteen years ago. Doesn’t even need marinading in worcestershire, either, which is something I must do to regular hamburger.

Still hate raw oysters, though…ugh. Tried them twice…and hated them both times. A lot.

6

Sushi is my unexpected favourite food. I never even used to like cooked fish, but these days I love sushi, especially salmon sashimi. Haven’t had any for a few weeks, actually, think I might go for some this weekend. Mmmm.

I don’t like thousand-year eggs though. I’ve had them a few times, but nope, not for me. Then again, I strongly dislike eggs anyway. I’ve had food poisoning from eggs twice, and that’s hard conditioning to overcome.

Btw, a friend of mine ridiculed me for calling them thousand-year eggs, laughing that they were only 100 days old. From what you say, we were both right. Thanks for resolving that one for me.

7

Sushi is my unexpected favourite food. I never even used to like cooked fish, but these days I love sushi, especially salmon sashimi. Haven’t had any for a few weeks, actually, think I might go for some this weekend. Mmmm.

I don’t like thousand-year eggs though. I’ve had them a few times, but nope, not for me. Then again, I strongly dislike eggs anyway. I’ve had food poisoning from eggs twice, and that’s hard conditioning to overcome.

Btw, a friend of mine ridiculed me for calling them thousand-year eggs, laughing that they were only 100 days old. From what you say, we were both right. Thanks for resolving that one for me.

8

I’ll second oysters. I watched my sister down a large, raw Pacific oyster and never could drum up the courage.

Then, we sold our boat to an oyster farmer in PWS on the easy payment plan. When, he’d come to town and sell his ware, we’d get a pmt and oysters. Finally, I tried one that was microwaved long enough for the shell to open with a squirt of lemon and YUM! Talk about tasty and they make you feel good, too! SOmething about the shock to the system. Now, I can’t get enough! Where’s that boat?

9

Welcome to the wide wonderful world of multi-posting!

10

Surprisingly, I like shrimp. I just still have problems eating it, because they look like little bugs and you have to peel them and pull off their little legs, and the eeeeewwwww! factor is just too much for me. But I love shrimp salad and shrimp roll.

11

Sushi/sashimi for me too. Except for the uni.

Venison carpaccio.

Fermented black beans. They smell like, well, rotting vegetables but I’m in love with the flavor.

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Vegemite

13

Anchovies on pizza. My roommate and I ordered it once out of boredom and morbid curiosity. We hated it. It’s been about two months now, and we’re at the point where we’ve actually been making anchovy pizzas in our own kitchen.

14

Mouldy soft european cheeses.

Coffee and tea without sugar.

Bangers and Mash with onion gravy. ( have always loved B&M without OG, often pretending to puke when offered OG, but now I love B&M with OG)

I am sure there are others but I can’t be bothered to continue breathing.

15

I used to detest having onions in my fried potatoes for brekkies. While I was in Denmark, my cousin made Bixemad. It’s a hash of cubed potatoes, ham and onion.

I love it and make it frequently. I’ve even been served hash browns with onions and been able to eat them.

However, there are limits. I’d still rather be dragged through thumbtacks and dipped in rubbing alcohol before I’ll ever put ketchup on my hash browns.

[retching sounds]

[/retching sounds]

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<hijhack>

quick question fot Zenster: Are you a chef, or do you just really love food? I mean it in the nicest possible way, I’m just curious! :slight_smile:

17

I would join you in your dragging and dipping journey as I would rather do that than put ketchup on anything

My 6 and 5 year old nieces would gladly put half a bottle of ketchup on their plate of chips. Their ability to consume ketchup astounds me!

Incedentally - Hash browns are one of those things I didn’t used to like, until I had the Mcdonald’s ones.

18

I can’t believe it! Someone else who loves bixemad! That was the first thing that I ate in Denmark.

My Danish mother (like a mother but not related) who lived on Fyn by the sea made fried eel and it was wonderful! I also liked the tongue she prepared but couldn’t help but wonder if it could taste me back. And herring in cream sause is fantastic!

19

You just captured, very succintly, one of the main reasons I am afraid to try new foods. My imagination kicks into high gear and I come up with thoughts along these lines, and that’s it, I’m done for.

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Samarm, I have worked as a chef and I really, really love food and cooking. I firmly believe the feast is one of the most loving acts there is. Keep an eye out for my Ultimate Recipe Thread and its Indexed Archive that circulate through MPSIMS every so often. Please feel free to contribute any recipes you might have.