I used to be so picky that if I had not acquired a taste for a few things I would still be eating only fried chicken, fried porkchops and plain garden veggies. Not that those things are bad mind you.

I felt the same as you about green olives Jim. In my teens I had a girlfriends who would sit with a bottle of green olives for snack and I didn't understand how she could eat those horrible things. I don't remember how many years later I acquired a taste for them and now I love them.

The same with sour cream. I found it revolting until about fifteen years ago and now I don't understand why I didn't like it.

Another thing is guacamole. I think the reason I thought it was so bad is because I had only ever had it in restaurants that made it runny, didn't put cilantro or lime juice in it and put a lot of sour cream in it. Once I tasted really good guacamole it became something I craved. Sometimes now for breakfast I will make me a bowl of fresh guacamole.

Then there's mayonnaise. I was brought up with Miracle Whip Salad Dressing in the house and could not tolerate mayo when I went to someone's home and that's what they had. I would just have a dry sandwich. Then some twenty years ago I had a friend who was a mayo fiend. Somehow I started eating it and can almost eat it in gobs now. I don't eat Miracle Whip anymore.

Hearts of Palm - Now this is something I have not been able to acquire a taste for yet. I can eat them if I have to, just don't like them. Someone told me I probably tried the wrong brand so I tried another. Still don't like them.

I still don't want red wine, red wine vinegar or champagne.

An interesting observation. Several years ago, my best friend told me how she felt about foods you had to acquire a taste for. One, they were usually expensive and two if you didn't like the food and it was expensive why would you want to acquire a taste for it. I didn't necessarily agree with her but thought it was interesting, nevertheless. The only foods I was always reluctant to try were brussels sprouts, which I still don't cook but do eat them and anchovies. Anchovies are okay if they are mixed in food but not on top of pizza, for instance. (I probably didn't say that right).

jude

As a child, I hated pizza and doughnuts. Now I love pizza, but still dislike doughnuts. I loved escargot as a kid, but now in a reverse taste acquisition, I can't bring myself to eat them. Beer was definitely an acquired taste.

Jo

Cilantro was also difficult for me to like, but I do like it now although not an overwhelming amount of it. Thai fish sauce was also a deliberate, acquired taste for me.

I am still trying to like lamb. Never had it growing up. As an adult, I've had it where I've really liked it and when it made me throw up. So - how do you reconcile that?

Still can't get past some real stinky cheeses or red wines with a bouquet of "old leather" - yuk.

seagrass

I seem to like all foods, including some strange ones such as thousand-year-old eggs, bitter melon, etc.

I can't eat hot hot pepper. It burns my throat.

dcarch

I hated any kind of mayo, salad dressing as a kid. Love it all now! Full fat, low fat, fat free...I really do like it all.
Not many other taste changes for me.
Don't like mutton (still need to try true 'lamb') liver, eggplant, cooked turnips, fresh cilantro and parsley are both on my "skip it" list. I do, however, have to have cilantro in salsa.
Can't stand pesto, but must have basil in spaghetti sauce.

There isn't much I don't like. Hot peppers aren't a big draw for me due to the heat, but I like the flavor, so usually choose a milder version.

I have lots to still try..... :-)

Deanna

Well folks, I should have anticipated the direction this thread would take, i.e. likes and dislikes. But that's now what I had in mind. Likes and dislikes are important for sure. However, what is more interesting is when a strong aversion reverses itself and becomes a strong preference. Do you have any instances of that? If so, what happened? Was it a matter of taste buds maturing gradually over a period of time? Was it a sudden revelation that something you despised was actually quite good? What happened?

Jim

Edit:

But that's not what I had in mind.

Certainly had that with coriander (cilantro) - thought it tasted of soap now I almost cry if I can't get hold of some and want a taboulé or some such food!
also, Oysters. Couldn't eat one until I came to live here - probably because I come from Oxford in England which is about as far as you can get away from the sea in a fairly small island hahaha. Now, when I go to buy fish, I even stand next to the oysters to get the wonderful smell!

No, Jim, I can't say that I suddenly "learned" to love something that I've always detested.

My problem with many foods is texture, I've finally learned to eat avocado and peanut butter and like them both, but I still can't get past the texture of banana or okra.

I've found that if I don't like something, sometimes I'll learn to tolerate it if I try it time after time, but I seldom learn to just love something if I don't like it to begin with.

Not even champagne, which I still don't like. Of course, since I don't like wine, that probably has something to do with it. And yes, I've tried. I've gone to wine tastings in California, here in Michigan. I've gotten numerous bottles and glasses as restaurants and at the homes of friends. I cannot learn to like it, not in food or by itself. Then a nice man at the Food and Wine Show said "red wine is an acquired taste for most people" and suddenly I realized that if I hadn't acquired it by now, I probably wasn't going to.

Annie

Like Annie, I've also never learned to love something I can't stand - olives, pineapple, green peppers, goat cheese, blue cheese and sour cream. I've also always had a texture issue with mushrooms. Never acquired a taste for beer, although I drank it in college and when I lived in London many years ago. Never drink it now.

However, the exception is cilantro - wasn't a fan and then grew to love it!

I think that my experiences were mostly of being wary of the unconventional or new. Your first taste of something that you imagined to be terrible, like artichokes or oysters or calamari. Sometimes it helps to not know what you are eating.

As a child of the south, I could not imagine spicy foods, like Mexican. But I first left home to go to school in Tucson, and I still avoided Mexican food (this was before Taco Bell, or the spread of such foods into the general vernacular). Today, I can't get enough, and the hotter the better, to some degree.

Calamari! My dad had fond memories of the Greek island food he grew up eating. So whenever the fish monger had fresh squid available, he'd get some. He would make squid stew, cooking it all day. The smell was vile. I'd close the kitchen doors, close my bedroom door, and open both my bedroom windows. Then I'd spray deoderizer like crazy. I just knew that I'd never eat squid willingly.

Years later at a fancy cafe I ordered a seafood salad. The menu said shrimp, scallops, and lobster. What I got was a couple shrimp and a HUGE pile of white calamari rings. I didn't eat one ring.

Then a few years later I was at a seafood restaurant with my daughter and she wanted to order deep fried calamari as an appetizer. I humored her and tried a ring. But to my amazement I actually enjoyed it. Now it's one of my favorite things to eat. But only deep fat fried. We have a favorite Italian restaurant nearby and everytime we visit, we order a large calamri appetizer. However, I still don't think I could handle squid stew.

I think zucchini would fall into that category for me. Growing up Mom made it in a tomato sauce, I imagine it was close to ratatouille-- but mostly zucchini. Now I love it steamed, grilled, baked or as lasagna, but never swimming in a tomato sauce. Go figure...

I think our palates change as we grow older, for one thing. There are many foods that I loved as a kid that I'm pretty blase about now and also foods I didn't like then that I love today.

I'm pretty much an equal opportunity consumer nowadays, as long as the food is prepared well. Carp is carp, no matter the individual ingredients. As I get older, I do find that my tolerance for junk food and poorly prepared food has gotten very thin.

My Mother raised us to at least taste foods, and more importantly, to be polite and eat what was put in front of you when dining in someone's home.

So, when I moved in with a Chinese family at 17, I had a fairly early education in the art of how possible it is to learn to like foods that I found initially distasteful. Ma Yee got a kick out of the White girl who would eat things she couldn't even get her own kids to touch and made sort of a game out of seeing if she could get me to balk.

Funny, out of all the strange (to me) things she put in front of me, the closest she got was when she put a big bowl of cilantro on the table. We were eating these twice cooked, 5 spice pork ribs and the whole family relished munching on cilantro with them. I'd never even seen cilantro, and the aroma as everyone chowed down on it was overwhelming. I honestly thought I was going to be ill but I choked some down. Didn't take me long to learn to love the stuff.

Oysters on the half shell were pretty pukesome the first time I tried one. But I worked in a restaurant where we sold up to a dozen different varieties, and I had to be able to describe the difference in flavors to the clientele. It was a struggle, but now I love them.

My rule nowadays is that if there are people somewhere in the world who eat and enjoy a particular food, I'll at least give it 3 or 4 bites, and be willing to try it multiple times. I do draw the line though, at anything that still moves. Nothing alive and squirming is going into my mouth.

Oh jessy...

Just like annie1992, I have never acquired a taste for something I disliked at first, with one exception, that being scotch. Now it is the only liquor I will drink.
I have tried to eat things I do not like by cooking them at home, and while DH will eat anything I cook, I still just cannot get whatever down. I have paid for many a meal at restaurants just to try things again, only to find out I still do not like them.
So for me the "7 year rule" just does not apply. I do try new things (usually at someones home) or even in my own but, if I donÂt like it once I wonÂt be eating it again.
Again like annie, I have tried my best to learn to like pizza and wine, just isnÂt going to happen for me!

Red

As a kid, I hated sugar, it made me ill. Hence I never ate candy, muffins, and I hated going to kids birthday parties because some well meaning mother would force me to have a piece of cake, I always ended up sick to my stomach. I also never drank soda or hot chocolate. In my adult years, I acquired a taste for sugar. I use a little in my coffee and though I don't crave it, I've been know to prepare, serve and or eat a dessert from time to time. I also love a small piece of dark chocolate occaisionally though I still cannot eat a candy bar.

I'll eat ice crea on occasion but I cannot drink fru-fru cocktails. My friends say I drink lighter fluid but I just can't stand a sweet cocktail. I even cut lemonade with half water.

Sweete potatoes. I couldn't eat them as a child, although I really tried. My daddy loved them, and I'd try to eat some to be like daddy, but just couldn't get them down. Now I love them!
Mushrooms. My momma called them "fancy" and didn't use them in cooking, and turned up her nose when my sister used them in a stew. After I got over that, I found that mushrooms are a wonderful food, lots of flavor, lots of variety, and I use and enjoy them often.
Used to love marshmellows as a child. Now I just can't get past the texture, so my "adult" taste buds don't match my "childish" taste buds.

Most everything changes as one grows older - why not tastes?

It is obvious here, Jimster, that some of the "I don't Likes" are repeated, so that should tell us something to work on.

Acquired taste for me, olives, smoked oysters, really old cheddar, pate, blue cheese, shrimp, hollandaise and espresso.

I think, when I was younger, it had to do with strong tastes, different textures and most of all budget!

Still not acquired, raw oysters, sushi, lamb and stew.

I was never a picky eater as a child so I havent had too many "eureka" moments when some formerly scorned food suddenly became a favorite.

Most of my acquired tastes were foods that my family members didn't make or were not available then. One that comes to mind is fresh limes. Because we ate a lot of fish, we always had fresh lemons on hand but my lime exposure was limited to the bright green liminess of Popsicles, Jell-o or Kool Aid.

When some neighbors from Trinidad moved onto our block in my teens, I had my first taste of fresh lime and have loved limes ever since.

However, what is more interesting is when a strong aversion reverses itself and becomes a strong preference. Do you have any instances of that?

I remember when I didn't like girls. They had cooties and stuff.

Then along came Grade 9...I now have a strong preference.

************************************************************

Chase; now that you have a smoker, you have to smoke your own oysters. Funny enough, you have to brine them!!!

Remember when you could go to the dairy and buy C cracks...the eggs that cracked during packaging? well, we go to the oyster farms and buy burlap sacks full of oysters that didn't make the cut...broken shells, odd shape, too small, too big...and smoke them. Then I vac them and freeze (shhh...don't tell the food police or they will tell me I'm going to die) and enjoy them over the rest of the year. I do this in the fall, same time as tuna/salmon canning/smoking season.

Highest rack, lowest heat possible. I use alder.

Jim :
I know what you are saying.
Acquired taste, has been a subject of conversation , with my family and friends, since I was a kid.
I think we were eating Dinasaur's then ( barbecued ).

My father ate everything and tried to talk me into some of his delicacies.

One thing that didn't have nothing to do with taste, was Roasted Lamb's head.
Can't eat something that is looking at me.

As for taste I didn't like Peas but eat them now.

I love tomato's but didn't like Tomato Vegetable Soup.
Eat it now but not a favorite.

I liked Cantalope but it upset my stomach. Had to quit half way thru one piece but now it is OK.

Tried to talk my Daughters into trying different foods but it was a No Go. Now they eat them.

One thing I couldn't eat was Escargo, because they looked like Bugs or Snails.
I figured there was enough other good food in the world.

I eat Escargo now. They talked me into believing they were not Snails. I'm still not sure.
I could think of a few more but it is dessert time.
LOU

Coffee, I used to hate coffee. I now can not get enough of it. I drink 3-4 pots a day.

As far as going backwards. I used to love spagetti with marinara and now I can not stand it. I can eat lasagna but that is it for a pasta with red sauce.

Same with BBQ sauce I used to love it as a kid and now I can't eat it.

There are some vegetables that I had to learn to like. Beets, eggplant, radishes, bitter leaves, etc.

I've always liked almost all kinds of meat, fish, poultry, shellfish. Being Chinese, I grew up eating odd stuff - sea cucumber, chicken necks and gizzards, fish heads, tripe, etc. A few things still weird me out - fish eyeballs. let's say.

As I get older (and older, and older) I am less and less interested in sweets. I still like ice cream and pastries, but in very small quantities.

Durian and kim chee are things I've never developed a taste for.

For me it was yogurt. I did not care for the slimy feel in my mouth or the...I guess you would call it a "tang" flavor. I started trying the flavored yogurts a few years ago and now have it for breakfast regularly. Stonyfield organic yogurt is my favorite.
I still don't care for egg salad though. Hated it as a kid and still can't bring myself to eat it. NancyLouise

As a child I was a very picky eater but now I eat - and enjoy - virtually everything. So my list would be very long. But three things popped into my mind when I read the question:

1) Raw tomatoes. This was one I actively worked on because there's just so much raw tomato out there I felt rude constantly picking it out. It's not until recent years that I've honestly looked forward to tomato season.

2) Mushrooms, in particular button mushrooms. Once I discovered I could eat portabello mushrooms I slowly worked my way backwards and now can eat and enjoy "regular" mushrooms. I still have no use for them raw in my salad though.

3) Tequila. For many years the mere smell of it would make me nauseous. After countless episodes of "praying to the porcelain goddess" I never would have expected to get over that smell association. But now when I do a shot I let out an honest "aaaahhh" as opposed the "RRRRRRRRRAH!!!" of yesteryear.

I have not acquired a taste for Chicken Napoleon.

Too many "bone-ly parts".

dcarch

[ Sorry Jim. :-) ]

As a child I hated vegetables with the exceptions of potatoes, corn, raw green peppers and raw carrots. Once I left home, I started eating vegetables, don't know why but possibly to be polite, having been brought up to eat whatever I was given. Now I love cooked vegetables, though I'm still not nuts about salad vegies, and can only eat raw tomatoes in the form of bruschetta, or else buried in a sandwich with lots of other stuff. We titled a family email home from a recent trip to Czech Republic "The Unbearable Absence of Vegetables" due to almost never finding any on a plate! (It's weird- you see piles of yummy looking veggies at stands in the markets but I have no idea why, as no one seems to consume them...) My mother would have fainted at the idea of me MISSING vegetables :-D
My aversion to olives started to change as I ate them on pizzas at friends' houses- now I love them, even on their own.
A couple of other food aversions I had I lost due to working in kitchens where they were used a lot. Anchovies was one- I worked in an Italian restaurant which also did pizzas, the boss would make pizza at the end of the night with the leftover ingredients and give me a couple to take home, often with anchovies. I grew to like them :-) And another restaurant where I worked the owner (and my co-cook) loved Gorgonzola, and assumed I did too as she handed me a canape to try. Surprise! I loved it and lots of other blue cheese too (much to my husband's disgust). My in-laws had already introduced me to Camembert when I was dating :-)
I still don't like oysters, try one every few years but it hasn't happened yet :-)

"The Unbearable Absence of Vegetables"

LOL!!!! Having read "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", I got a big kick out of that reference. Very clever!

BTW, I recommend the book to anyone who hasn't read it. I think it's time for me to read it again.

Colleen, you have some very interesting taste acquisition experiences.

Jim

This is a weird one: when I was a kid, I hated shortbread, even good shortbread. It tasted...... salty??? to me. Now I love it!

I also didn't like spaghetti. What kid doesn't like spaghetti? I seem to have outgrown that aversion, LOL.

I also did not like blue cheese or any cheeses with a similar flavor and that yucky mold. Now I actually order salads because they contain blue cheese. Funny how our tastes evolve and "mature".

Largely, I like the same things or I started liking things because I had a better version, but I think I've acquired tastes for

cilantro
raw sushi and oysters
alcohol
coffee

I think, largely, that bitter things are an acquired taste. Probably slimy things, too. I'm not generally a picky eater, but I still can't manage to acquire tastes for blue cheese (or any smelly cheese, really, the smell of the cheese section at whole foods makes me want to puke) or mayonnaise.

Mine would be tomatoes and potatoes. I didn't like either when I was younger but I kept trying them and I liked both after a while. I started eating potatoes fairly young, but I was in college before I started to enjoy tomatoes. I just kept trying until I liked them.

I keep trying eggs every once in a while in hopes that the same thing will happen but I still can't stand them. I can't stand the taste, texture or smell of eggs no matter how they are cooked, hard boiled being the most reviling to me. I used to not be able to eat mayonnaise because it tastes so much like eggs.

"Funny how our tastes evolve and "mature"."

Exactly! That's the thought which caused me to this thread. Some of the foods mentioned have been a surprise to me.

Cilantro seems to be a favorite acquired taste. That was not surprising to me. For those of us who like tomatoes, it's hard to understand an aversion to them, but aversion to tomatoes appears to be a fairly common and strong one.

Jim