I used to hate it but now I love it

[Jinmyo]

Coffee.  Couldn't stand it -- smell or taste -- until I was pregnant with Peter.  Now it's a pot of really strong stuff every day.

Really? That's the opposite of my experience. I love coffee, but the only time I really disliked the taste was when I was pregnant. Must be one of those wacky hormone things.

I used to want to eat tar.

[lamb]

i still loathe the ones that come in that can, all red and icky.  for that matter, i still loathe spinach in that can as well. those cans from the 70's had a way of taking something perfectly wonderful and making it into mushy disgusting nastiness.

Rewind back to the 60's and our kitchen in Brooklyn. Mom tries in vain once again to get me to eat canned Green Giant green peas. Gag.

Can't even imagine why they are still on store shelves.

Fresh snap peas now are on my dinner menu regularly.

[coolranch]

I hated cilantro for a long time, then after taking a cooking class while in college, I decided that I loved it.

I also had an aversion to cumin flavoring---I couldn't eat enchiladas when we first moved to Texas (I was 7). But after living in Texas for 20+ years now, I do love the Tex-Mex, cumin, cilantro and all.

[Raynickben]

Used to Hate but now like: Hot Dogs

Used to Like but now hate: Ice Cream

[tommy]

Used to Like but now hate: Ice Cream

used to love/now hate: southern comfort.

[marezion]

Sorry, Tommy, but I think that alcoholic beverages we used to love but now hate is really a new thread.

And to that, I say: vodka gimlets

[BrennaMorgan]

I used to hate pizza! How insane is that? Now it's basically a food group in itself for me since I've started college...mmmm....

[Ling]

Used to hate but now love: eggplant, asparagus, tongue, olives, salty shrimp paste (Cantonese?)

Used to love but now hate: canned creamed corn mixed with ketchup (lovely bright orange lumps), Kraft cheese macaroni drowned in a big bowl of cold milk (best part was the cold, cheesy milk ), Frosted Flakes

[emmapeel]

Based on the interesting I hate cheesecake thread pondering foods you don't like, What did you once hate but now have learned to like or even love?

I used to hate ketchup, white potatoes and beef, but really like them now. I still don't use ketchup on fries but I do on burgers. Some others are Caviar, Fish, Sushi, Mussels, beets, raw onions, pickles and collard greens. I've learned to enjoy so many new foods since my youth. What are some of yours?

[Pan]

There are things I used to hate or dislike but like fine now, but the only one I love I guess is dark meat chicken. Way back before I was 7 or so, I would eat only the skin of the chicken.

[SobaAddict70]

well, that's easy.

I used to loathe -- and I mean loathe -- garlic and just about anything spicy.

Not any more, lol.

Soba

[Genny]

Wow, we really have some NY night owls on tonight!

Asparagus is a biggie. I used to fight my mom on that one. Coffee. Fish/Sushi. Lamb, it took a while to like it and sometimes now the smell is a little strong for me. It definitely has to be medium rare or stewed until falling apart!

[albiston]

Artichokes: as a kid I found they had a really weird sweet taste. Admittedly my dislike also had to do with my mother (sorry mom!) leaving plenty of hard "leaves" on the choke. There must be a good reason why chewing artichokes is not as popular as say chewing tobacco . Also lamb, for pretty much the same reasons Genny mentioned.

Over twenty years later tagliatelle with a nice lamb and artichoke ragout is one of the dishes I prepare when I want to give myself a treat .

[mukbo]

Believe or not Chocolate.

[moosnsqrl]

Fennel. I still struggle with pastis (et al.) and I don't see myself ever eating a twizzler, but I have learned to love the milder, fresh version -- both raw and cooked -- after years of trying.

[thecuriousone]

Beets

I was totally anti-beet untill I tasted my first roasted one. It openedup a whole new world.

[HungryChris]

The first steamer clam given to me as a child seemed to me, to be an evil trick. The first clam on the half shell for me was quite unpleasant. There was no such thing for me as a nice piece of fish, bleh!

I worked in a seafood restaurant while in high school and saw so many people who absolutely loved everything from the sea and I desperately wanted to as well.

Over time, I did develope that appreciation. Go figure!

Cheers,

HC

[msfurious1]

For me it would be mushrooms. Never liked them or that woodsy smell, either.

When I was a teen my older sister was making stuffed button mushrooms with the chopped minced stems, bacon, onion, garlic, parmesan cheese with butter and wine. The stuffing smelled so good, although, I think it was the bacon aroma that was drawing me in. How bad could that be?

Anyway, she had me taste some of the stuffing on a saltine. It made a great spread on that cracker and I thought it was delicious so I was moved to try the baked stuffed mushrooms.

From that day on I could cross mushrooms off my list of "things I hate". I really love any kind of fungi now.

[cakewalk]

Olives.

[honeye22]

Olives.

←

I used to HATE Salmon....that and asparagus. Now, I can't get enough of either!!

[Nyleve Baar]

Cilantro.

[bergerka]

oh my gosh, when I moved here there were SO many things I didn't like that are now part of my regular diet (and some are favorites). Slowly but surely, Sam wore down my resistance to even trying them, bless his heart.

Most kinds of seafood, including lobster, crab, salmon, any oily fish, scallops, shrimp (now one of my favorites, especially the salt and pepper shrimp in the shell at Grand Sichuan, I eat 'em shells & all), mussels (again, now one of my favorite things), squid, octopus (still picky about this one) and especially ANCHOVIES, which I now really like. I'm still a little iffy on first taste if something strikes me as "fishy" (and it's weird what things will do that). Oh, and I've gone from being totally icked out by raw oysters to craving them, more than occasionally.

Olives! Yeah, olives! WTF was I thinking? Without olives and anchovies, how can I eat pasta puttanesca?

almost any kind of offal. I now eat sweetbreads (in fact, well-prepared sweetbreads have been known to cause me to flush, breathe hard and feel dizzy, they're so good), blood sausage, liver, grilled chicken hearts, but brains...still not my thing. Nor lungs. And I can't see kidneys hitting my list of faves anytime soon.

Now isn't that weird?

Edited May 30, 2005 by bergerka (log)

[Genny]

Artichokes: as a kid I found they had a really weird sweet taste. Admittedly my dislike also had to do with my mother (sorry mom!) leaving plenty of hard "leaves" on the choke. There must be a good reason why chewing artichokes is not as popular as say chewing tobacco  . Also lamb, for pretty much the same reasons Genny mentioned.

Over twenty years later tagliatelle with a nice lamb and artichoke ragout is one of the dishes I prepare when I want to give myself a treat  .

←

Isn't that funny, I love lamb and artichoke stew. I put cured black olives in mine to deepen the flavor. Oh my! I think I ate the left overs every day for a week! (And I don't usually like left overs!)

[*Deborah*]

I can't think of anything that became a love, although broccoli went from never to often. I can't imagine saying that I love broccoli the way I love chocolate, or pistachio gelato, or a pulled pork sandwich.

Asparagus went from never to once in a while, as did lobster.

[Siren]

Fish/shellfish is a big one. Growing up in a small town in upstate NY, fish sticks or the occassional fish fry, shrimp cocktail, crab legs and whole bellied fried clams(which is what I had EVERY birthday dinner from ages 7-13ish) were my education. Salmon was foreign and tuna not from a can was something of myth and legend. But, now that I'm in Maine I actually get cravings for them.