# What Food Did You Once Despise Yet Now Eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349 "2017-03-04T00:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/1 "2017-03-04T00:10:36Z")
(I know this has been done before. Hasn’t everything?) As a wee lad, I remember going to my grandparents’ house for the weekend and when hunger struck, wanting a simple sandwich to tide me over. I was always partial to baloney or ham with a slice of cheese on white bread with a skosh of mayo and I was good to go. Instead in the deli drawer of the fridge of my grandparents was some vile combination of deli meat presented as… …pimiento loaf (???) God how I despised it and couldn’t stomach a single bite of it. And now, lo these many years (decades?) later, I’m o.k. with it. Who’s next? ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/2 "2017-03-04T00:27:39Z")
Fish. It wasn’t until I grew up and started eating at restaurants that I realized my mother was doing it all wrong and fish should not smell or taste like raw chicken left in the sun over a hot weekend. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/3 "2017-03-04T00:29:37Z")
I always thought that beets taste like dirt (yeccch). After living in Russia, I’m now able to eat them in salads and borscht. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/4 "2017-03-04T00:29:39Z")
Bleu cheese. Hated it, hated it, hated it. Until I tried it again less than five years ago. Suddenly, it was AWESOME! I’ve loved it ever since. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/5 "2017-03-04T00:33:16Z")
Brussels sprouts Cauliflower Rare steaks Steak Tartare Mom was a steady cook, but gourmet she wasn’t. It took marrying the Most Perfect Woman In The World to understand what foods I was missing. eta: And what **jayjay** said. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/6 "2017-03-04T00:47:36Z")
Olives. The only kind I’d ever had were those awful black canned things you see on stadium “nachos” or pizza. Fishy-tasting salt bombs. Then GF started to have me taste deli olives, green ones stuffed with interesting things. Now I love them (though not the black canned ones). ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/7 "2017-03-04T00:50:07Z")
Mushrooms. Hated them, now love them. Sushi. Never truly hated, just avoided. So perhaps that’s different ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/8 "2017-03-04T00:59:53Z")
Steamed shrimp. The smell made me gag. Now? Get outta m’way (picture Homer at the Frying Dutchman buffet). ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/9 "2017-03-04T01:07:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Brussels sprouts > Cauliflower I was in my 50s before I willingly ate a Brussels sprout. Hated cauliflower as a kid but I’ve always liked broccoli. Also hated peas and cooked carrots, although I liked raw carrots. Now I like all of these. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/10 "2017-03-04T01:32:47Z")
Tree-of-life. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/11 "2017-03-04T03:53:05Z")
Cheese and nuts. Now I devour then. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/12 "2017-03-04T03:59:18Z")
Brussels sprouts Mushrooms Tuna ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/13 "2017-03-04T03:59:44Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Cheese and nuts. Now I devour then. There’s a great joke in there somewhere but damned if I can find it… ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/14 "2017-03-04T04:04:00Z")
I think Brussels Sprouts suffered from the typical 60s/70s preparation method of boiling the life out of them. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/15 "2017-03-04T04:15:43Z")
Like many non-Indonesians, I used to hate _emping_, a crunchy potato chip-like treat made from smashed [melinjo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnetum_gnemon). I found them weird and bitter. (They are both, at least to the uninitiated palate.) Then one day perhaps 20 years ago, I was walking by a small storefront in central Java, and the fragrance of freshly fried emping wafted out. “I have to have some, they smell delicious!” I said, even though I had been turning up my nose at emping for the past year or so. It was an epiphany, and I have loved emping ever since. I wish they were more widely available outside Indonesia, so others could snack on this delightful treat. If you ever get a chance, give them a try! _Emping manis_ are the sweet ones;\* emping pedas\* are chili-flavored. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/16 "2017-03-04T04:56:40Z")
I hated tomatoes for the first several decades of my life. Raw tomatoes that is. They tasted disgusting, looked disgusting and felt disgusting. Then something changed and I started to tolerate them. Now I kind of like them. Kind of. When I was a kid and a teenager I hated steak. I would never order it, even at a steak house (I would get the chicken dish) and I didn’t like it when my parents made it. In my 20s something changed and I loved them. Still do. Had one tonight even 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/17 "2017-03-04T05:50:38Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Olives. The only kind I’d ever had were those awful black canned things you see on stadium “nachos” or pizza. Fishy-tasting salt bombs. Then GF started to have me taste deli olives, green ones stuffed with interesting things. Now I love them (though not the black canned ones). I grew up with green olives only because my parents didn’t like black olives. Now I prefer the reverse, although I’m not a big olive eater. I do cook with olive oil and indulge in the Paul Newman brand because I think it’s the best. I never liked rice or mashed potatoes either, because all I ever had was Minute Rice and Potato Buds. “Real” mashed potatoes and non-Minute Rice are yummy. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/18 "2017-03-04T06:00:15Z")
Nothing. I was raised during WWII by a depression-era mom, you grow up liking everything. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/19 "2017-03-04T08:56:13Z")
Lamb. Before I took up with my current partner-in-crime, I was convinced that the flesh of sheep was not a wholesome food for human beings. Now I certainly know better. Oatmeal. I used to abhor the stuff; as I grow older I’ve come to realize that a bowl of hot oatmeal with brown sugar and cream and perhaps a scanty handful of raisins is a fine thing indeed. Be this as it may, my favorite cereal will always be Coco Puffs Chicken livers. I gag at the notion of eating the livers of our fellow mammals (except for liverwurst and braunschweiger), but some time between the ages of 21 and 40, I was turned on to a plate of fried chicken livers with rice. It was simple, and sumptuous, and it made a beliver out of me. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349/20 "2017-03-04T12:35:40Z")
Raw/rare meat or fish. I grew up thinking that medium well was the only way to eat meat or fish. Then somehow I saw the light. Now I love meat rare, love carpaccio, mett, steak tartare, kibbeh, sashimi, etc [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-food-did-you-once-despise-yet-now-eat/781349.md?page=2)