What foods do you only like because you were raised with them, you'd otherwise hate?

Cafe Society
1

Because of the way I feel about fish generally (not a fan… firm, white, cooked through, served with an acid sauce I can enjoy occasionally, but as a rule I’d much rather not, thank you, and for god’s sake do not serve it with anything creamy…blech…) I am absolutely certain that had I not been raised eating tuna fish from a can mixed with mayonnaise (at first it was Miracle Whip! Yikes!), there is no way on earth I would EVER have eaten it. Conceptually, it is exactly the sort of thing I would find completely disgusting… but since I was raised with it, I like it.

I can’t think of anything else that stands out like that, but considering all my weird fussiness, there are probably other things.

What about you? Anything you enjoy that you feel certain you would never have liked even a little if not for the fact you have been eating it since childhood?

2

That’s a tough one. I can think of all sorts of foods that I look on with fondness more for the memories associated with them rather than their own flavors. I cannot think of a single food that I like only because I was raised with them. However, I do hate spaghetti because of my childhood and it’s a food I can most definitely say I would otherwise like. There were a few years growing up where we would eat spaghetti 2-4 times during the week and I just grew to resent it over the years. It’s totally irrational as I will happily sup upon a red sauce and some other kind of noodle rather than spaghetti even though the flavor and the texture are not at all different. I just can’t stand the idea of eating spaghetti.

3

Dropjes. The saltier, the better.

4

Brussels sprouts. The overcooked frozen brussels sprouts that everybody hates. In our house, they were a special treat served only at Christmas dinner, so they have all kinds of good associations. If they were every day fare I would probably hate them like everybody else.

5

Pace medium salsa mixed with mayo on whole wheat toast.

6

Pickled bologna.

7

Boiled tongue.

8

Thinking about this a bit more, especially in light of recent pictures in my Facebook feed, most of the stuff on a Thanksgiving menu. Not the stuff that turns up on a normal, non-holiday American table, like salad or potatoes, but turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, canned bloody cranberry “sauce”, and whatever horrific casserole some picky cousin liked as a child so now it’s tradition for everybody to pick at and then scrape into the trash.

Turkey is OK, we get a lot of it minced as it’s low-cost/low-fat. Smoked breast is a decent sandwich meat. But if you’re going to roast a bird, chicken or duck are better tasting. And I don’t get why people buy these enormous turkeys and get stuck with tons of leftovers. Dry ass leftovers.

“Not my turkey,” somebody must be saying. Sure, if you soak it in brine, stuff it, rub it with 10 bucks worth of spices and butter, and cook it in a smoker, you might get something tasty. Yes, and if you invest that much time and money you can make a damn hotdog sing, too.

I think most people are able to admit that cranberry sauce really is not only gross but tacky, so I won’t try to justify the assertion. I’ll just leave it at any food that not only comes in a can but retains the shape of the can is probably not fine dining. I also don’t think that my antipathy for overcooked creamed crap casseroles needs explanation, either. It’s also just gross, and probably has hair in it.

Stuffing is, for me, still a decent food. I suspect, however, that if I’d never had it before, I’d be dubious if I read a description of it on a restaurant menu. Not to mention that to make it right you have to violate food safety rules. And, even though I sort of like stuffing, I’ve never once bothered to make it other than for Thanksgiving.

OK, so that brings me to pumpkin pie, which I know some people like a lot, and I used to find tolerable. As a kid, I liked the crust and found the filling just odd. How do you make a pie out of a gourd? Is this what happens to jack-o-lanterns after they rot on people’s porches? I eventually came to associate pumpkin pie with family gatherings and gorging, and came to like it a bit. Even so, if I had a choice between pumpkin pie and nearly any other kind, other kind won, Thanksgiving or no. My opinion changed again when I took my Australian wife and stepson home and they tried it. Neither are picky eaters, both have decent taste, both hated pumpkin pie. They’re right. If the pilgrims could have scored some raspberries they would have treated the pumpkins as they should be: nice vegetables for roasting.

Now that I’ve written this all out, I’m thinking the question is quite inane: any food that I like is because of my previous experiences with the food. If I was born in Beijing I probably wouldn’t like tacos as much as I do. If I was born in Scandinavia, I might find lutefisk delicious.

9

Liver and onions was a staple food growing up. Mom served it a couple of times a month, and it never occurred to me that it might strike others as gross. Later in life I realized that it is an acquired taste, and one must make a concerted effort to get past the initial reaction to the flavor. My wife tried really hard for a few times, but I just ended up taking it off the menu.

10

American cheese singles, and boxed Macaroni and Cheese (aka Kraft Dinner). I love them both, but highly doubt I’d touch either if I didn’t grow up eating them.

11

Liver sausage.

Even now, when I eat and enjoy it, a small part of my brain occasionally emits an “ew”.
mmm

12

Scrapple
Crab

13

I wasn’t coming up with anything until I read this, but ditto. I’ll eat a slice of American cheese right out of the package when I’m making grilled cheese sandwiches, but if I didn’t have good childhood memories of it, I wouldn’t even have it in the house.

14

Gefilte fish straight from the jar or, as my gentile friends call it, Jewish cat food. I love the stuff.

15

Cheapie cold cuts, I guess - bologna, and its relatives olive loaf, pickle and pimento loaf, and that pale fat-flecked generic ‘lunch meat’. I still love bologna with mayo on white bread. I buy the others, rarely, just for a change, for nostalgia sake. But sliced very very thin. It goes down easier if very very thin, for some reason.

16

Fried Chicken gizzards. Yum. But you have to have been born in certain places and a certain class of people in the south to have grown up with them. I suppose if you called them something like ‘sweetbreads’ then all the foodies would be all over them.
(And sweetbreads are good too)

17

Peanut-butter, mayo, and banana sandwiches.

Just - no. But I love them!
That’s pretty much the only thing. We weren’t exotic or fancy eaters when I was little. The fanciest we got was sodden boiled asparagus, and that did NOTHING to help me like it.

18

If I was raised with a fresh veggie garden, I would probably hate canned veggies.

I prefer the canned generally over the fresh.

I guess I got used to mushy veggies. :frowning:

19

Vegemite.

The saying goes that mothers in past generations would smear their nipples/bottle teats with Vegemite to tempt recalcitrant feeders to suck properly. And if you haven’t tried Vegemite by your first birthday, you’re not going to ‘get it’.

Unless you’re Qadgop. :smiley:

20

Velveeta. Dad would have it sprinkled with black pepper and so that’s how I came to like it. I can’t imagine making a concious choice to get it if I’d never had it before. Same with Spam. I only have it about once a year as it is. But I’d never have it at all if I’d not been subject to it as a kid.