My daily walk.
I had double-bypass surgery about 3 years ago. My cardiologist insisted that I start an exercise program of some form, and recommended a 45-minute walk 4 or 5 days a week. Sounded positively awful boring to me, but I started it.
I now walk an hour a day, outside if it’s nice, at the Y if it isn’t. On the rare day that I don’t walk, I miss it.
I’ve always said, the key to pineapple on pizza is, it’s got to be eaten hot, like just minutes out of the oven hot. Let it cool, and it becomes unpalatable. So, order the Hawaiian Pizza first, and everyone eat one slice before it cools, then order something else.
This of course only works for eat-in pizza restaurants, of which there are fewer every year.
Newbies should stick with California roll or Philly roll. They can work up to tuna, eel, etc.
no no NO…I have friends who are perfectly happy, after years of resistance, to eating California roll with yum-yum sauce drizzled on, and ritualistically putting on tiny bits of ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce. That is their ‘sushi’ experience. They should not experiment with raw fish. maybe they can take a bite of someone else’s raw fish first, and if it’s a mind-blowing experience, then branch out…It’s like someone who never ate a clam. they eat a deep fried breaded clam on a ‘seafood platter’, and it’s pretty good, and they are now clam lovers. You don’t tell them to order a platter of raw ones, or a basket of steamed green boogers, they have their clams. the. end.
Orange vanilla Coca-Cola. While in the throes of COVID shortages, I couldn’t find my beloved Cherry Coca-Cola one day and decided to give orange vanilla a try. I was skeptical but desperate and now I can’t get enough of the stuff.
Jane Eyre, The House of Mirth and The Great Gatsby. I read them all for a book club. Loved them all.
Already mentioned, but if you had told me a great many years ago that I would like raw fish, I would have scoffed. Since then, sushi – really good sushi prepared by an expert chef at a first-class sushi bar – has become one of my absolutely top treats, although I can only afford to indulge in the real top-quality stuff on rare occasions (I’m talking more than $500 for two!). But it’s a heavenly experience.
diet/no sugar soda … still not my fav but i dont barf at the thought of one… next thing to try … beyond meat
I second sauerkrout but not cold but warm. When I was a kid there lived someone in the same building as we did who boiled sauerkrout almost every day. The whole stairway in the apartment building where we lived smelled from it and my parents hated it. So every time we had sauerkrout it was served cold and my parents told never to warm it.
Then as an adult I had a business trip in Frankfurt am Main and there in one evening I went to a local beerhouse and as my dinner ordered sauerkrat and bratwursts. The sauerkrout I got was fried and warm and I had my suspicions to eat it but it actually tasted good. Now I always panfry my sauerkraut. Had some yesterday with bratwursts and hot mustard. DELICIOUS!
K-Pop (or more specifically, Black*Pink). Generally my tastes are indie-alternative, although I like a lot of pop, too. But I’ve always had an aversion to manufactured girl groups, of your Spice Girls or Little Mix or Fifth Harmony vein. And given the Korean studio system, they don’t come much more manufactured. Yet I love everything they’ve done.
I’m having a difficult time thinking of a food that fits this thread for me, as I like every food!
But then I remembered SPAM. I never tried it, as I thought of it as a joke. Then I read about Spam Musubi and I just had to give it a go. Delicious.
We have a Patterdale terrier, very close relative to the Jack but not as cute. I never thought I’d like a dog this much- I am a working border collie snob and never wanted another breed. But Jack (maybe named because my SO was looking for a JRT but couldn’t find one and instead found a breeder of this obscure relative instead) definitely grew on me. I also was afraid he would be a cat killer, since they are literally bred to go down holes and kill stuff but it turns out he is just another cat in disguise and they accept him as one of their own. Loyal, smart, surprisingly cuddly and a bit of asshole- he’s a blast.
On other things that surprised me that I would like was the show Kingdom - it’s a show about MMA fighters, something I have zero interest in but I binge watched it in a week.
Degree of killing instinct is to some extent bred in (or out). What to kill and what not to kill is learned behavior. Dogs raised with cats as packmates rather than prey, or even with cats as do-not-touch domestic animals in the way farm dogs are taught about chickens, will generally not be dangerous to them; though a dog of the same genetics who hasn’t been socialized with cats may well see them as prey. Some dogs can be taught otherwise as adults, with considerable caution.
There’s a pizza place in town that has a combo of pepperoni and/or Canadian bacon (I can never remember which) and pineapple, jalapeno, spinach, and blue cheese. Sounds positively disgusting, but it all comes together perfectly and it is what I order every time I go there.
Moby Dick is a book that I turned out liking way more than I thought I would. In fact, I’ve read it multiple times, and always find something new to like about it.
The band Drive By Truckers. I’ve told the story here before about how my wife and brother and I went to one of their shows because one of our favorite bands, Old 97s, was opening for them. We didn’t know anything about DBT and wound up leaving about four or five songs into their set. I’ve bought a few of their albums since then and have decided in retrospect that bailing on their show was a dumbass move.
Our cat. I was never a cat person, never associated much with cats at all. And when I did, did not find them appealing.
Until Wowbagger arrived about 10+ years ago, when our beloved dog died and the Mrs. wanted some companionship right away. He’s chill, he’s a bit of a jerk, but he’s a good nap buddy, and certainly has a lot of savoir faire.
He tolerates the current dog (who wants to be Wowbagger’s best play buddy ever) and slaps the dog on the nose when the dog gets too pushy.
He goes on walks in the woods with the family, keeping up with us for a mile or more most times.
He’s terminated some of those damn squirrels which trashed one of our attics.
He says “wowbagger” instead of meow.
He pointed out the hiding place of a bat that had gotten into the house, enabling me to dispose of it right then and there rather than spending the night hunting for it.
He gives me decent back rubs too. Sometimes without using claws, even.
Wowbagger, you’re all right. We’ll prolong your stay with us, ad infinitum.
Sushi. As a kid I would have been revolted by the mere thought of raw fish. But as an adult, I came to love it. In the last few years, I have grown less fond of raw fish, but more fond of fish roe. And there are plenty of non-fish varieties to choose from.
Honey-mustard dressing. If I were cleaning out the cabinet, and I saw a jar of honey standing next to a jar of mustard, I would never in a million years have thought to combine them. When I first saw it on a restaurant menu, I thought it must be a joke. But I tried it, and I liked it.
Cheese. My mother loves sharp cheddar. I hate it. I grew up eschewing cheese. But as an adult, I learned that sharp cheddar is not the only variety, and I like the milder-flavored ones.
I had to read Moby Dick in high school. I didn’t hate it, but I found it kind of boring. A few years later, I was browsing a bookstore, and saw a copy. On a whim, I bought it, read it cover to cover, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
About sauerkraut, cabbage is really good in very different dishes. Ever try kimchi? I’ve very recently been enjoying it raw on fish tacos I make at home: corn tortilla, breaded and pan-fried white fish, cabbage, onion, cilantro and a squirt of mayonnaise.
I’m not sure about this, but it seems to me that cabbage is more tender now than it was earlier in the year.
After trying sushi a time or two, it became one of my favorites. More for warm weather than cold, though.
I learned my lesson about pre-conceived food tastes when I was very young.
I must have been around 4-5 years old, and my mother was making something in the kitchen. I asked her what it was, and she said “cheesecake, want to try some?” I mediately thought of cheddar cheese, and said, “ugh, no.” She gave me a little smirk, and said “ok.” After several months (probably seemed like decades to a young kid), the same thing happened - I went into the kitchen, and asked what she was making, and she said "cheesecake, want to try some?” I hesitated, but this time I said OK.
OMG - it was the best thing I had ever tasted!
That was a real life lesson for me…
SUVs.
I hated them at first. On principle and because I’m a sports sedan guy and hated the styling, the wallowy handling and shit performance of the SUV/SAV type vehicles.
But of late, and with the latest generations of SUVs, I’m starting to appreciate how easy they are to live with. They still don’t handle like my sport sedan, but I don’t drive as aggressively as I used to anymore, and they don’t shatter my bones. I’m actually considering one when it’s time to replace my current vehicle.
We were assigned Hunchback of Notre Dame in high school, and even then I had an aversion to long books, not to mention old books. Was amazed to find I couldn’t put it down (after about 80 pages of ‘getting into’ the language & style).