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
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. ;-;
Liver, tuna casserole, sardines. Getting old is weird man.
At the same time?
Avocado, young me thought it was a Kiwi so it might just have been the surprise of how different it was.
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.
Hummus
I’ve slowly become obsessed with olives.
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.
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
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
I didn’t like cottage cheese until I was 38. I kept trying it, not sure what changed.
Biscuits and gravy. It’s the most American thing I do is pig out on some good biscuits and gravy.
Ranch.
I’ve grown to hate ranch, as it expands to everywhere and there are too many cheap “ranch” flavorings that just taste like chemicals
I moved to the suburbs and suddenly I liked it. Seriously.
Maybe that’s the problem. I moved from suburbs to a more urban area and ranch is now so vile and overdone 🤪
What actually is “ranch”? I mean, what is the flavour? It’s not a thing in the UK.
It’s more than just a flavor, it’s a way of life. 😉 You can put on salad, French fries, pizza (!!!). Doritos and Corn Nuts come in a ranch. It is a popular meme and Halloween costume. And so much more!
Ingredients
1/2 cup mayonnaise ▢ 1/2 cup sour cream ▢ 1/2 cup buttermilk or regular milk ▢ ¾ – 1 teaspoon dried dill weed ▢ 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley ▢ 1/2 teaspoon dried chives ▢ 1/4 teaspoon onion powder ▢ 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder ▢ 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt ▢ 1/8 teaspoon finely cracked pepper ▢ freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste approximately 1-3 teaspoons, adjust to taste
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
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
I mix a tiny bit with mayo to bring the sugar down.
That’s a great idea! But I’ve generally headed the opposite direction: malt vinegar for fries or fried fish, spicy mustard for beef, garlic 🧄 Parmesan or wing sauce for chicken. I tried some HP sauce from England (not bad but similar to A1), curry ketchup from Germany (love the taste but too thin to stick to fries), etc. instead of mayo, either miracle whip or kewpie mayo. Lots of different bbq sauces worldwide: currently working in a variety pack from japan
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 only ever had steamed or boiled vegetables as a kid and it was bland and mushy and unpleasant. Roasting vegetables changed everything for me.
Yeah, I’ll second that. In general I strongly prefer uncooked vegetable to cooked (except of course obvious ones like potatoes), but I’ll eat roasted. I’ve even chosen to roast vegetables myself
