Capers
Chilies of all kinds. Right now I have a selection of chili purées in my fridge : Madagascar, Sénégal, Réunion island...
Pizza and burgers
Asparagus, Broccoli, and broccolini... although to be fair, I didn't discover broccolini until about 20 years ago, when I was in my mid-30's.
Also, I found out it wasn't the veggie that I disliked, but the way it was prepared. My family boiled (ok Blanched) all vegetables when I was growing up. That's about the worst way possible to cook most veggies, especially the three I mention above.
Here is what I do to prepare them:
Asparagus: Heat oven to 350F. Trim woody ends and place them in a single layer in an oven proof dish. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Finally top with Parmesan Reggiano. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes or when cheese is browned.
Broccoli (florets only) and broccolini (trim woody end, but leave as much of the stem as possible: Heat oven to 350F. Place veggie in a single layer in an oven proof dish. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. You can top these two with Parmesan, but I usually do not. Roast until slightly charred about 25 minutes.
I will never blanch a veggie ever again, except for green beans. There are times when you're serving a spicy dish, or something with a sauce and just need something plain to go along with it. Case in point, for my General Tso's Chicken, I serve it with blanched green beans. Otherwise, I sautee them with salt pepper and red pepper flacks and a bit of high temp oil.
Olives. Growing up poor in New Zealand in the 1950s/60s my only exposure to olives was in American magazines. You'd see a martini with a green olive in it. It looked sophisticated and was surely delicious.
Fast forward to my parents' silver wedding anniversary, which they celebrated with a family meal at a very fancy Italian restaurant. I would have been ten or so, first time in a restaurant. I was thrilled to see dishes of green olives on the table. At last, I'd get to eat one!
I put that olive in my mouth and tasted something overwhelmingly vile, alien, disgusting. I faked a coughing fit and spat it into a napkin. So sophisticated!
These days I eat handfuls of olives - green, black, stuffed, whatever. Kalamata is my favourite. Yum!
Liver, tuna casserole, sardines. Getting old is weird man.
At the same time?
Beans
I find that beans taste like various flavours of dirt and vomit (with the exception of green beans), how did you learn to like them?
Fats and spices help.
Spinach. Maybe it’s availability but growing up we only got it canned and my mom cooked the hell out of it. I hated the black slimy bitter salty …. Just not even a food . But now that I’m an adult and fresh spinach is available year round, I love a nice spinach salad and even slightly wilted spinach in a pasta
Child pickiness and Brassicus-Cultivar appreciation aside, I have another:
There were those weird times when things just wouldn't taste right. ~10 years ago I disliked cherries for tasting somewhat like alcohol, and more recently Orange juice tasted soapy to me for a time. Both of these things have since gone away and I'm back to eating just about anything.
Sweets in general.
As an alcoholic, when I was drinking I never cared for sweets. Now that I've been sober for some time, I crave candy and ice cream and sweet cereals.
Probably has something to do with the way I process alcohol / sugar.
We just crave that dopamine in any available form
Welcome to the club!
Lots of energy in alcohol, still better to eat candy and desserts!
I've grown to like mustard but in low quantities.
I used to scrape it off my burger until I was in my 30s, but now I'll mix mustard and ketchup for my fries, and use a lot of it for eating smokies.
I always liked mustard but I’ve really grown to dislike ketchup. I just taste sugar now, and I’m not interested in pouring sugar on my burgers or fries
Brussels sprouts.
No one in the 80s-90s knew how to cook them and always overcooked them. Now they’re made roasted and absolutely delicious.
Oh! It's not just that we got better at cooking them! Brussel sprouts were actually bred to taste better around the 1990s/2000s.
https://www.mashed.com/300870/brussels-sprouts-used-to-taste-a-lot-different-heres-why/
No wait! I read something about this! Those were totally different brussel sprouts! I guess they came up with a new species that didn't such so bad and that's why brussel sprouts suddenly got tolerable.
Now I have to go see how much of this is true.
Edit: What do you know? All of it! https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/from-culinary-dud-to-stud-how-dutch-plant-breeders-built-our-brussels-sprouts-bo
Seconded. Oven roasted or air fried, they're little balls of joy.
I always got boiled ones in the old days, same with spinach 🤮
Airfrying...thank you, good tip!
I always fry them in butter, small onion, garlic and little bacon, then add a very small amount of stock and steam them lid on till the stock has evaporated.
I use more onion and bacon when I am preparing them for Dutch Stamppot.
Soooo goooood.... My go-to now for a really good really "bad" meal are Memphis style ribs with roasted brussel sprouts with butter and garlic.
....why can't you be on sale now ribs lol
I keep hearing this, have to bite the bullet and try sometime.
Pickled everything.
Korean food changed my perspective on pickling and fermentation, and my digestive system!
I always liked sauerkraut but I was weirdly against the idea of kimchi as a kid. I think the first time I heard of it, it was described by someone who didn't like it because it sounded super gross, and I had zero spice tolerance. These days, I put it on practically everything or eat it by itself as a side.
I LOVE home-made kimchi. Store bought kimchi is just... meh.
Olives. A greek salad with some big ol' kalamata olives sounds really good right now.
Mushrooms - I once puked them up on the table when my mom made me eat them...canned mushrooms FTW! I now, of course, can not get enough of them - sautéed, baked, sliced/raw on a salad...gimme some fungus already!!
I get so jealous when people post pictures of their locally owned supermarket selling chanterelles and morels... I'm just sitting here like a chump eating button mushrooms which are apparently the only mushrooms that exist according to all the store owners in my city. ;-;
I did not like many vegetables at all as a kid.
Tomato and onion are two of my favorites
Broccoli and brussel sprouts for me
I’m pretty sure most of my vegetable phobia is being forced to eat them anyway as a kid. I love trying new foods, including vegetables, and new ways of preparing things from anywhere in the world, but vegetables, the way they’re always prepared here are just gross.
I don’t know if tomatoes are a good example but I have an immediate reaction to want to spit them out if I accidentally get some. Yet I love a good salsa, pico, marinara, etc
Broccoli is something i don’t even like touching
I've slowly become obsessed with olives.
Broccoli is awesome.
Two standout ingredients: avocados and horseradish.
I used to wonder how anyone could even enjoy horseradish until I tried it with salmon and was like "Ohhhhhhhhh, so that's why"
Cheese.
Sadly, most cheese does not enjoy me.
Same. Turns out I do like cheese, just not the cheap rubbery crap they sell in the supermarket.
Same same... but I suffer. very worf
Cilantro. I'm still not convinced that I'm not one of the people to whom it tastes like soap, but over the years I started to tolerate, then enjoy it.
You'd definitely know it if you were one the people who have that trait. It's like liking a bar of ivory soap.
School food ruined so many things for me. I used to hate rice and gyros but they are really tasty if prepared well
Onions, like slices of onion on burgers or in a dish.
At some point it just didn't matter anymore and they are kinda nice.
I was the same. The cellular looks of onions, especially when cooked made me want to retch. Now I put onions in nearly everything I cook.
Kale, because my parents had no idea how to cook it. When I make it myself it's awesome.
How do you cook it? I've only tried it raw in a salad.
First make sure you rip all the stems out and are eating only the leaves. Then I saute it in a light coat of olive oil and with garlic and onions, or steam it. I think the real trick is to not overcook it. Don't let it cook for more than 5 minutes. You don't want it to get squishy and boiled down like you do with spinach, it's not the same thing as spinach. It should still hold its shape somewhat after cooking.
If you have an air fryer put a little olive oil and salt on it and fry it at high heat. Like 5 minutes and it's light and crispy and almost nothing. It's amazing
I didn't like cottage cheese until I was 38. I kept trying it, not sure what changed.
Tomatoes. I disliked them for a long time but a few years ago I tried them again. I don't remember how I made that decision - it may have been from forgetting to ask for no tomatoes on a burger but I ended up trying them more and came to like them. I don't like all tomatoes and not in everything, but I do enjoy them in sandwiches, burgers, and a few other things.
Sauerkraut! Used to be toilet cheese, now it's a delicacy that's earned its place on my sandwiches.
I'd say avocados, I still wouldn't eat a slice of avocado but a little guacamole on a taco or something is OK.
Avocado, young me thought it was a Kiwi so it might just have been the surprise of how different it was.
Hummus
As a kid i used to hate fuul with tamis (ful medames and naan bread) but now i can't get enough of it. basically legal crack.
Mmmm smother it with garlic, cumin and some olive oil bro. Goes down beautifully
mustard. that weird sourness wasn't friendly to my kiddie tastes.
bread and butter. couldn't get the charm of it.
onions. shallots to be specific. it has that fragrance.
eggplant. mutabal is now great.
goya. still work in progress.
While it is nice that you're getting around to the works of Spanish painter Francis Goya, I think this thread was only about food
hahah, that's a good one! also til about the artist.
I used to hate coconut anything, but now I like it.
I used to dislike anything battered, but now I absolutely love it! Battered fries/chips are honestly such a step up that I'll only eat normal ones if I don't have a choice
Biscuits and gravy. It's the most American thing I do is pig out on some good biscuits and gravy.
Pickles because of spirolactone, but not as much anymore, don't got the balls for it anymore.
Ranch.
