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.
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.
I keep hearing this, have to bite the bullet and try sometime.
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.
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/
Oh super interesting! I love that we’ve bred all kinds of vegetables and fruits to be more palatable over the eons.
Life never gave us lemons, we made them ourselves.
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
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.
A few years ago, I was working at a restaurant when it went under, so as sous-chef they let me take a few bits home with me. I took 5kg of kimchi home. I used to, like, come home drunk and eat a handful of it out the fridge, haha.
Oh man, that’s the dream. I buy it from a local guy who started making his mom’s recipe for friends during the pandemic and now sells at farmers markets and stuff, and I go through about a gallon every month or two. I need him to start selling me buckets of it.
I LOVE home-made kimchi. Store bought kimchi is just… meh.
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.
Avocado, young me thought it was a Kiwi so it might just have been the surprise of how different it was.
Sauerkraut! Used to be toilet cheese, now it’s a delicacy that’s earned its place on my sandwiches.
Broccoli is awesome.
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 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
Cheese.
Sadly, most cheese does not enjoy me.
Same same… but I suffer. very worf
Same. Turns out I do like cheese, just not the cheap rubbery crap they sell in the supermarket.
Olives. A greek salad with some big ol’ kalamata olives sounds really good right now.
I used to hate coconut anything, but now I like it.
I’ve slowly become obsessed with olives.
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.
Onions are definitely underrated imo
Underrated? Onions are in, or are the base of so many dishes and sauces its not funny. Thats almost like saying ‘people should try using garlic or salt in their recipe more often’
People should
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.
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
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.
