I used to hate it but now I love it

[annanstee]

Onions

Beets

Bananas

Grapefruit

Chicken Livers

Squid

Homous

Fish, but fish wasn't as good back then- it came from

further away, under cellophane, and smelling distinctly fishy.

[SuzySushi]

Tomatoes. Growing up, I hated them in any way, shape, or form.

I still pick out the seeds.

[Pan]

You reminded me: I used to like tomatoes only when cooked in a sauce, then only when cooked (broiled was OK). Now, I just plain like them (if they're good).

[MarketStEl]

I can think of four foods I absolutely hated as a kid: Beets, turnips, chitterlings and liver.

Many years later, as an adult well out of college, I ordered pickled beets as a side dish with a meal. I can't say I've now gotten to the point where I can't live without them, but I have come to like beets as a result.

Liver is now a fairly regular item in my diet. And chicken liver pate or spread with minced onion is absolutely divine.

As for the other two: Nope, still don't like 'em.

[Ellie]

Until about a year and a half ago, I always hated blue cheese. Thought it tasted like vomit but I blame the uncoated penicillan I took as a child. But I wanted to like it and would taste it occasionally, to no avail. Then one day, I tried a a warm blue cheese cake, and it all turned around. I feel rather proud of my perseverence over all of those years, working to break down that aversion. I still proceed cautiously, of course.

Now I have to work on that darned Shiso.

[afn33282]

Cilantro.

←

Yes, thank you. I hated it when I lived in Thailand, and then years later I think I had it in some pico de gallo, and...presto! Now I love laarb, etc.

[tejon]

cauliflower

lentils

kechup

mustard

basmati rice

avocados

cheese

milk

(the last two I didn't actually try until I was six years old. Cheese was a hard sell, even the mildest sorts. Tasted horrible and rotten to me. Milk was also an aquired taste and while still not a favorite, something I can now enjoy.)

[marlena spieler]

Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese! I could barely gag down velveeta unless it was grilled in a sandwich.

And yogurt. it was so sour.

and butter, real butter. so rich.

what was i thinking of? my grandfather once ranted and raved for about 2 hours at my brother and i about how horrible we were and what failures were were in life because, unlike our cousins, who were perfect in every way including eating dairy products, we didn't like these things. how silly was he? now i think: oh man if he could see me with the cheeses, with the fermented dairy products. and also, i do love them, but what was that so important to him? i am just thankful that i have allowed myself to grow into this passion, unlike my brother who declared himself lactose intolerant (i don't think so!) and never ate dairy again until the day he died.

Now I yearn for the most flavourful (read: stinky) of cheeses,

and am a connoisseur of yogurts, could live on tzadziki.

and butter: well butter is beautiful.

oh, and i didn't like beets then, love them now.

m

[chocomoo]

Longan (still don't like the dried kind though) & dried oysters. I still don't love them, but I do like them now I don't know what it was about longan - I think they tasted somehow smoky to me. And dried oysters, well, they seemed really fishy, & it's not like they're ever smothered in any kind of sauce in Chinese cooking - they're usually steamed together with Chinese preserved meat & sausage.

[Mooshmouse]

Geez. I was the pickiest eater as a child, replete with food fixations, so nearly everything falls into this category.

Mushrooms. Clams and mussels. Raw oysters. Broccoli. Cauliflower that's not in soup. Asparagus. Foie gras. Blue cheese (thank God for Saint Agur). Meat cooked anything other than briquette style. Lamb. Curried anything. Spicy anything.

Clearly, I've come a long way since the days of chicken noodle soup or spaghetti for 3 days in a row.

[MicBacchus]

Not really a food but...mayonnaise. I don't exactly love it now, but at least I don't have an attack if it's on bread. Homemade mayo, however, is another thing entirely.

As a child, I remember someone bringing over eggplant on bread - I don't think my parents even offered it to me!! Now I love it any way. Also, I developed a love of calamari first and then was able appreciate it in unfried forms.

I think quite often it's how the food is prepared that affects whether you like it or not, or will even try it.

[Country Cook]

Cilantro, liver as a kid because my Mom cooked it to death, fennel and tarragon, can't think of much else. The more I try them the more I like them.

[jgarner53]

Fish, definitely. As a kid, it had to be breaded and fried before I'd touch it.

Mayo - hated sandwiches generally, except for BLT (hold the L please) or an open faced toasted sandwich. I went to school for nearly 8 years with a thermos of something or other (bless my mother's heart )

I'm still not a fan of broccoli, but have learned to love spinach, cauliflower, beets, and red peppers. I have distinct recollections of feeding my long cold cooked spinach to my friend's dog when at their cabin once (her parents were tremendous sticklers for eating everything on your plate, and you didn't leave the table until you did - on this particular occasion, it was frozen spinach, just reheated).

Coleslaw (see friend's mean parents above for another similar episode that had long-lasting psychological repercussions).

[marlena spieler]

Actually, it was my MOTHER who was (and is) a picky eater. i would be eating something so happily--tongue comes to mind--and she would see me eating it, then stick out her tongue disgustingly, taunting me with: its a tongue, you're eating a tongue! I still feel sick when faced with tongue, but more like shell-shocked traumatized.

we never ate things like eggplant salad, and if someone brought them over my mother would throw them out quickly. as a result i never got to taste the delicious things in the family repertoire that could only be eaten at events in which other people were cooking or bringing things.

my brother and i went in opposite directions foodwise: i am pretty much enthusiastic about most things except allergic to shellfish.

he wouldn't eat anything except for chinese food, luckily he lived in china. though after living in india for about 4 years he wouldn't eat anything except for indian food. i think he just didn't trust food, and felt that western food was very dangerous, as clearly my mother viewed all food as dangerous unless it was preserved, canned, and cooked past all signs of succulence. if she saw me eat a rare steak (i like em reallll rare), or worse, steak tartare, i think she would scream and grab the plate away, or start making imitations of a cow to upset me.

marlena

[djbeers]

Cheese of any sort. My mother and father were quite fond of cheese and they would bring home all sorts of it from a great deli we had in town. Most of this was, as I called it at the time, "stinky cheese". I would even scrape the totally unoffensive mozzarella from my pizza.

I eventually accepted mozzarella in my teens, but the great realization occurred when I was in the Navy. Lots of port calls in Europe led me to try local cheeses in order to look worldly in front of the locals and my shipmates. Much of this was alcohol induced, but I soon discovered what I had been missing for all those years.

[Tough Cookie]

Eggplant, ginger and anchovies. Now, I can't imagine life without these items, especially grilled eggplant.

I'm still not a big fan of cilantro but can live with it in a dish.

[shelora]

Truffles. There was something so smelly feet about them that just put me off. Now I can't get enough of the earthy skank.

[DrKoob]

Here's a theory. Sometimes what we don't like when we were younger is because what we ate or drank when we were younger was crap.

When I was a kid my parents used to drink wine from a box. I tried it. It tasted like crap and I never drank wine again (other than I am ashamed to say, White Zin) until I was 45 and married my second wife. She talked me into trying her red wine (from a bottle). I thought it was pretty good. Then one night at Cafe Zoe in Seattle we tried an Amarone. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I have become a wine freak. Especially dark, deep red wines. And to think of all those years I didn't drink wine just because my parents drank wine out of a box.

So now when my 20 something kids say they don't like something I tell them they just have not had it prepared the right way. For instance, my 26 year old son hates mushrooms. Until I take him to Seastar restaurant in Bellevue, WA and order the wild mushrooms on a cedar plank which he then devours. Or my son-in-law who hates olives until he tastes imported kalmatas. Or a good friend of mine who is in her early twenties who hates all vegetables but wolfed down my eggplant parmesan saying she had never tasted veggies that tasted so good.

[Chris Amirault]

Good theory. For years, I believed that broccoli was grey....

[Hest88]

Runny eggs, until I started making them for hubbie enough weekends so they started smelling appealing. Now I love them.

Goat cheese, until a transcendent Hilary's goat cheese cheddar at Sooke Harbour House in B.C.

Olives. Just because. Sometime in the last 20 years I've grown to like them.

[jm chen]

Cold boiled shrimp and whipped cream. Not together.

On the other hand, I liked eggs until I was 3, when I didn't feel like finishing them and one of my parents insisted. Boy were they sorry when they had to clean up afterward. 30 years later? Still don't like eggs.

[emmapeel]

Runny eggs, until I started making them for hubbie enough weekends so they started smelling appealing. Now I love them....

←

Yes, I'm right there with you. I would have never eaten a runny egg until I ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, at a great diner, but the eggs were delivered over easy. I made a sandwich and it was sooooo good. If I had not done this I would never have eaten Eggs Benedict, which is one of my most favorite meals.

[lia]

Shellfish. Oh how I dreaded Christmas Eve, the smell of the house. I'd hide in a corner and eat a pepperoni/american cheese sandwich on white bread. My parents would scoff and insist that I'd grow to love the feast, and I'd scoff "NEVER!" right back.

They were right.

[Pan]

Yeah, I, too, wanted my eggs completely cooked through when I was a little kid, but I must have started enjoying runny eggs pretty early, maybe around 7 or so.

[onehsancare]

Black licorice!! (Now, I truly cannot stop until it is all gone.)

I agree that Mom's original presentations had a lot to do with my likes and dislikes. Asparagus, for example. Frozen asparagus cooked until it's mush is a completely different food from fresh steamed asparagus.

Salmon! When we moved to Oregon from New York, one of our first dinners out was to have salmon. I was sure that I despised salmon, and ordered something else. (Could the dislike have come from having overcooked canned salmon patties at least two Fridays a month? Hmmm. ) Now, of course, it's wonderful.

Brussels sprouts never moved off the hate list, though!