Ask Lemmy

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.

Pickled everything.

Korean food changed my perspective on pickling and fermentation, and my digestive system!

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!!

Cheese.

Sadly, most cheese does not enjoy me.

I've slowly become obsessed with olives.

Broccoli is awesome.

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.

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

Kale, because my parents had no idea how to cook it. When I make it myself it's awesome.

Sauerkraut! Used to be toilet cheese, now it's a delicacy that's earned its place on my sandwiches.

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.

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.

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.

Avocado, young me thought it was a Kiwi so it might just have been the surprise of how different it was.

Two standout ingredients: avocados and horseradish.

I did not like many vegetables at all as a kid.

Tomato and onion are two of my favorites

Liver, tuna casserole, sardines. Getting old is weird man.

Beans

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!

I've grown to like mustard but in low quantities.

Hummus

School food ruined so many things for me. I used to hate rice and gyros but they are really tasty if prepared well

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.

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.

Vegetables

I have eaten 9 grapes.

I used to work as a sullen kid picking grapes for a winery in the summers. Hated the very thought so never ate any, not because I had any respect back then. As a poor kid, you aren't forced to try something if it would waste food: give it to the people whom it can benefit.

Now then, decades later, and we're touring another vineyard, me and my wife. "Here," says the tour guide, handing me one. "Try it."

Wife knows the deal - squick - but knows I won't be impolite while this man shows off his livelihood. Her eyes flash a dare but I didn't need that. I ate my first grape about 14 years ago from st hubertus winery in Kelowna. Didn't make a face so as not to offend. It was meh.

Since then I've had one or two more. And then we go to this fancy pants restaurant and the appetizer on the pricy-ass set menu is this Italian salad thing with all.kinds of green grapes. Fuck me but it was expensive. Ate the whole thing because we don't waste food in my family. She chuckled and rolled her gorgeous green eyes as she stole a few. That's the last 6.

So 9.

I may have had 1 hundred strawberries too. I'm livin it up.

Herring. Specifically pickled herring.

Once i realized you're supposed to have it as a condiment to other food, everything changed. Chopped matjes herring with new potatoes, butter and red onion is like crack cocaine.

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.

I used to hate coconut anything, but now I like it.