“What’s A Food You Went Your Whole Life Thinking It Was Nasty Until You Tried It?” (30 Answers)
We recognize five basic tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and savory. But we also identify an enormous range of flavors, as every variety of every ingredient has its own distinct characteristics.
We do this with our taste buds that are housed in the small pink bumps on the tip of our tongue. So while we might have an idea of whether or not we will like a certain food, we simply cannot be sure until we put it in our mouth.
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Green beans. Turns out fresh ones are a completely different taste from the canned ones.
Cheesecake!! Cheese in cake form didn't sound appealing. I was 34 when my eyes were opened!!
Scalloped potatoes. I had been made to eat the instant box kind as a kid, and the texture and taste made me gag.
Turns out that I love homemade scalloped potatoes.
I thought roasted potatoes must be horrible until I was in middle school. I ate over a friend's house and knew that, as a guest, it was impolite to decline any of the dishes, so I took a few red potatoes. And so the love affair with potatoes began! .
Meat loaf. We had it as a kid and it made me gag. My wife then made it and I thought this is fantastic! Years later my mother made it for us again. I gagged. Sorry Mom.
My grandfather would never eat pizza because he didn’t like how it looked. In his late 80s we took him to dinner with us for my brother’s birthday for..pizza. So he ended up trying it. After that he loved it and said he wished he’d tried it years ago!
It took four of us to get the old military hard shoes off of "The Colonel" and into a set of New Balances. Picture skinny colonel bird legs waving in the air. Then the minute his feet touched the ground in the new shoes, he stepped about a bit, said "Hey, these are really nice!" and shuffled off to Buffalo out of the room.
Indian food. A whole cuisine.
Edit to clarify: The smell put me off for years. Not because it was bad just because it was pungent I think. I adore Indian food now, nothing compares. Greek is a strong second.
I'm a Brit, and can't imagine not having full access to Indian food here. Bliss on a plate, yum.
Pineapple on pizza. I was once one of you but I have seen the light. The trick is you have to have jalapeños on it too. You want that contrasting heat and sweet. I don’t do the traditional Hawaiian thing. Pepperoni, pineapple and japs is where it’s at.
Green Eggs & Ham
Luckily, thanks to one almost-unbearably persistent little fellow, I eventually tried it and found that I do, I do like Green Eggs & Ham.
Salt and vinegar potato chips.
My sister had really bad ingrown toenails when we were kids and she soaked her feet in white vinegar every night. I couldn’t imagine why someone would want to put something that smelled like that on a potato chip. I found it revolting.
Then one day, I tried a vinegar chip accidentally and it changed my whole life. The sour flavor is actually amazing!
Kimchi, turns out it’s delicious!
Egg rolls. I didn’t like eggs.
The egg roll is a variety of deep-fried appetizer served in American Chinese restaurants. It is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded cabbage, chopped meat, or other fillings inside a thickly-wrapped wheat flour skin, which is fried in hot oil. Egg rolls do not typically contain egg in the filling. In addition to the disputed origin of the dish, it is unclear how the word "egg" appeared in the name, since the predominant flavor in American egg rolls is cabbage, not eggs.
Sushi, until i actually had it 10 years ago. its so legit. not an acquired taste at all. hits like a good steak , or lasagna or something. easy to enjoy.
I lived in Japan for several years. I gave sushi a fair chance but didn't like it.
Pho. I didn’t know there was a version without tripe. The first time I had it a friend ordered for me and did ask beforehand if there was anything I don’t eat. I said no, not expecting tripe. I don’t like tripe. Hesitantly went again 10+ years later and got it with sirloin strips. Delicious.
Tzatziki!
How can anyone not like tzatziki! Im happy you changed your mind. Proper Greek recipe though. So good to dip freshly baked bread into 🤤
I grew up Muslim so bacon and whisky.
Glad I'm Jewish for the whisky but I'm more than happy to pass on the bacon, too :)
Saurkraut and cabbage.
Then I ate at a German restaurant and the saurkraut was good and they had something called rokult(pickled cabbage) that is really good.
Rohkost? Krautsalat? I'm not sure what the "rokult" is here. I love Krautsalat though - so cheap and easy to make. It's just thinly shredded white cabbage and white onion, salted and left for 30 mins before adding vinegar, sugar, oil and caraway seeds. I can eat kilos of it!
Grits. I’ve lived in the south for most of my life and only recently cooked them myself- turns out I just dislike how they’ve been served to me.
Rhubarb Pie.
But even better with crumble (and hot custard), yum. As kids (60s/70s), we'd find this growing (looooong stalks) in bomb pecks (Brummie (UK) slang: areas that had buildings demolished/post-Birmingham Blitz), so we had a lot of rhubarb crumble. Then we moved, and we had apple trees and blackberry bushes in our new garden, so mum made a LOT of Blackberry & apple Jam. Can't stand it now, lol. Same with Mint Sauce, as she made that too. But I've never gone off Rhubarb Crumble & Custard. 😊 (sorry for the ramble)
Asparagus.
Fresh harvested is not in the same universe as canned. It's beyond my comprehension why anyone would bother to can it.
Cooked carrots, add some butter and salt, god damn!
This is one I can't abide personally. Raw, yes. Cooked, bleugh! Whenever anyone gets the tzimmes out, I have to pass.
Chick peas.
Garbanzos, hummus, falafel. There is a whole cuisine based on chickpeas around the eastern Mediterranean.
Eel.
I was with a friend eating from a big platter of sushi and telling him how I would never eat eel, because it just sounded gross and creepy. “Not like this - this is good. What is this?”
”Eel.”.
Spam!! I love it. I always thought it looked nasty. Then I grew up.
Sushi, guacamole, hummus.
Capers. I don’t like green olives and for some reason I assumed they tasted like green olives since someone told me that once.
ADORE them! Lentils with lemon zest, olive oil, parsley, loads of capers and beetroot is a staple in our house. The kids love it too. In fact, we had it last night!
Ceviche.
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Scallops. Had them once when I was a child and perhaps they weren't cooked right. My wife got me to try them and I love scallops now.
scallops turn to rubber if not cooked properly!
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We used to go to a restaurant that put a spiced apple ring on each plate. For years I got to eat both spiced apple rings until my husband learned it wasn't a beet.
i was scared to try salmon cuz i just wasn't the biggest fan of fish. but one time my oldest sister had a birthday at this restaurant where they js would keep bringing out meat until you said no more. one of the meats they brought was salmon. now my older brother was a big fan, so I said, why not. i got a little piece just in case I didn't like it. needless to say, I got a ton more later
Scallops. Had them once when I was a child and perhaps they weren't cooked right. My wife got me to try them and I love scallops now.
scallops turn to rubber if not cooked properly!
Load More Replies... We used to go to a restaurant that put a spiced apple ring on each plate. For years I got to eat both spiced apple rings until my husband learned it wasn't a beet.
i was scared to try salmon cuz i just wasn't the biggest fan of fish. but one time my oldest sister had a birthday at this restaurant where they js would keep bringing out meat until you said no more. one of the meats they brought was salmon. now my older brother was a big fan, so I said, why not. i got a little piece just in case I didn't like it. needless to say, I got a ton more later
