apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This past Thanksgiving I had pumpkin pie from scratch for the first time. Yes includes taking a pumpkin and cutting it up.

I will never go back to the canned or store bought again!

Avocados. I'd never liked them (green! mushy! creamy vegetable!) and then one day I found them in the simple green salad I'd ordered. Divine.

My mom used to pack canned pineapple in my lunches when I was in elementary school, so the first time I tasted fresh pineapple, I didn't even realize what it was. It was like they were two different foods!

The other food experience that changed my life was eating mussels in Monterosso in Italy. I had had mussels before (and loved them), but these put the rest to shame. I swear I will never be satisfied by seafood again.

A recent food revelation for me was real, baked mac-n-cheese. Having been raised on the blue box, I refused to even consider trying the 'real' thing.

Like your scallop story, I was served some at a friend's house and now half of my personal recipe collection is devoted to this dish.

For the record, my favorite is Alton Brown's.

Tasting balsamic vinegar for the first time.
Foie gras.
Lardons.
Rabbit.
A rare steak for the first time, ever, when I was 26.

And on the other end of the spectrum, eating undercooked industrial-farmed chicken disgusted me so horribly that I immediately swore off all meat for two years.

I still remember the first time I had fresh green beans, lightly steamed. so sweet and delicious, almost nutty goodness. When I was growing up we had canned (mushy and olive drab), or frozen(tough and chewy), neither of which I liked.

I always thought I didn't like squash of any kind. Until I went to a Sur la Table cooking class and the chef made a gorgeous Italian tortellini soup with butternut squash in it. Brilliant! Turns out that what I don't like is squash that is cooked until mushy. Squash cooked properly is just fine!

not a dish, but a drink. I used to hate beer, until I had a Belgian brown ale from Old Dominion Brewery. It opened the door, and now I can drink most beers.

i never hated steak, id just never had a prime steak. the day i did it changed my life and i will never waste my money on a steak that isnt going to completely blow me away.

Brussel sprouts! Thought I hated them until I had a roasted vegetable omlette in Boston. I spent the whole breakfast thinking there is no way those are brussel sprouts - had to ask the server to make sure. Now I roast brussel sprouts all the time and try to convert as may people as I can to them.

Steak; apparently i like it rare.
Brussle Sprouts; mother hated them and never cooked them, i love them.
I've gotten my husband (and his mother) to love asparagus, and I'm working on zucchini & mushrooms.

I hated eggplant growing up. It was "slimy." In college a friend sliced it thin, marinated it, and broiled it. Crispy edges and melty insides. Yum! Now I love eggplant, in all forms, even the ones I would found to slippery as a child.

An ex-boyfriend taught me how to cook kale (saute an onion and a grated carrot in olive oil, added chopped kale and the water on the leaves, cook, covered until just beyond bright green. Serve with LOTS of lemon juice and some s&p.) I never knew what to do with the big leafy greens before that. Now I have a huge collection of kale recipes. Roasted kale chips are seriously addictive, btw.

Well, I was a vegetarian for six years (since age 14) until a month ago, when I was swayed by the combination of Julia Child's coq au vin, cooked by a friend for her birthday dinner, and lamb kebabs at an excellent kebab house by my boyfriend's apartment. I haven't looked back since! I'm not a carnivore by any means, but I've been trying as many different animals, cuts, and preparations as possible since then!

tomatoes. after a terrible experience as a child being forced to eat a bowl full of chopped (out of season) tomatoes at a friend's house, I swore I hated raw tomatoes. A few years ago (mid-20s), my mom somehow convinced me to eat one of her green zebras from her garden and I was converted! I now anticipate tomato season and the baskets of heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market like it's a holiday!

Dry black beans, simmered and spiced. I've loved beans of all kinds for a long time, since I've been a vegetarian for 18 years. I cooked with canned beans most of the way through my twenties. My mom always cooked dry beans but didn't season them. One day I returned home for a visit and found a pot of beans simmering on the stove. I put in some salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, and a little brown sugar.

Canned beans seem one-dimensional now.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/blackbeans/index.html

Also, I rediscovered brussel sprouts, asparagus, avocado, chard, and mushrooms in my 20s. Steaming and sauteeing and simple seasoning are the world!

Fred F, i have had the opposite experience with pumpkin. cooked and mashed one and tried to make something with it...until i thought UGH! this is so gross and smells awful! why would i ever bother when i can get perfectly good canned pumpkin! :)

i never liked brussels sprouts until i had them sliced in half and cooked over a campfire. so good!

When I started cooking on my own, I have discovered dozens of things that I now love. This includes onion, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, curries, spicy food, ect.

I don't have many dislikes and the ones I do have annoy me. I would like to be free of it. My mom always put caraway seeds in chicken soup and I disliked it. I finally got over when I had really good pastrami on really good seeded rye. Now I like the flavor.

I've also really never liked the flavor of cooked strawberries so most strawberry jams were out. But I recently had some freshly prepared strawberry jam at a canning event at BreadBar in Los Angeles. I realized that lightly cooked strawberries can be very nice.

Eggs!

As a child my mom cooked eggs for me and my brother so many times that I would get nauseous when I ate them. But one day at culinary school I ate Eggs Benedict and my love for everything eggs returned.

Growing up, I only ever had very, very sour grapefruit, and all the sugar in the world didn't help. Plus, I was a kid.

Then in college I went to visit a dear friend in Ireland (we were pen pals when we were twelve) and stayed with her family. One morning it was just her mother and me at home; my friend had a class that morning, and we'd head out that afternoon. Her mother made me breakfast, and offered me a half a grapefruit. I politely refused.

Then, like every mother everywhere in the world does with a fussy eater, she gave me a LOOK, and just as politely said, "perhaps you could TRY it, at least?"

I did.

Grapefruits had improved since I was a kid. I devoured it.

Spinach. I always hated cooked spinach (slimy is not a texture I like) and then one day I had it raw and just loved it. Now I eat raw spinach several times a week.

I've heard about roasted brussels sprouts being fabulous but I've yet to try them. I hate them every other way I've tried them, but this thread has given me extra encouragement to try them roasted.

Seeing so many converts to brussels sprouts maybe I should give them a try. I used to hate cauliflower and then I tried this recipe because a neighbor gave me a cauliflower from her garden: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/pasta-with-cauliflower-walnuts-and-feta/

Well since then I'm a total sucker for it, especially in this dish.

Tuna "salad" made with olive oil and garlic instead of mayo.

Whole eggs cooked just to medium, with a still glisteny yolk, vs. dried out boiled eggs with chalky yolks.

A handful and in no particular order:

a. Strange Flavor Eggplant (the late great Barbara Tropp from China Moon... her cookbooks are indispensable):
http://www.culinate.com/user/carrie/favorites/strange-flavor_eggplant
I hated eggplant until I tried this recipe.

b. Italian spinach, cooked with garlic, and at the last second a tiny splash of balsamic vinegar as it comes off the heat.

c. Tuna salad for sandwiches... made with line caught oil-cured tuna, vinaigrette, black oil-cured olives, fresh tarragon, and minced preserved lemon rind (salted lemon rind, not sugared). Serve it on a crusty bread and you're set.

d. Chocolate Nemesis from Ruth Rogers & Rose Gray's River Cafe:
http://www.abc.net.au/wa/stories/s871018.htm
I hated chocolate until I tried this recipe...
and that statement is SO not true!
(I'm a chocolate addict)

e. The "Liquid Amber" truffle, formerly sold through Alice Medrich's now-closed Cocolat shops, a liquid caramel that dribbled down your chin if you didn't pop the whole truffle in your mouth.

pine nuts
fresh cherries (I'd only had dried or canned ones)

I think that might be it. I will pretty much eat anything.

I've always loved cardamom, but until college I'd only ever had it in sweet things. Being of intensely Scandinavian descent, my experience was limited to breads and cookies. But oh, how wonderful in Indian dishes! It completely changed how I thought about cardamom.

i was just talking about this the other day... how lately ive found so many things i love that ive been missing out on because i thought i didnt like it...

steak... my parents weren't the best at making a good steak... and i never ordered it in restaurants... i hated that it took forever to chew and by the time i was ready to swallow the thing the flavor was gone from all the chewing. then when a few years ago i ordered a med. rare steak for the first time and it was lightly seasoned it was like heaven.

also seafood... my mom doesn't like it and doesn't know how to cook it so i grew up thinking it was gross. but i've come around to crab, and shrimp still have to work up the courage to order fish.

onions... growing up i hated them. now i love em.

mustard.... always hated yellow mustard (still do) but now i love honey and dijon

sweet potatoes. scared of them... now im hook on sweet potato fries.

mussels... a happy hour with oven roasted with chorizo changed my mind

beets... I remember a bad experience at a pizza salad bar when I was 4. It took over 20 years to try them again. I love all the tricks you can do with fresh ones.

My big ah hah was mushrooms. My dad would hunt for Morels every year. I always thought they looked grotesque. In fact, all mushrooms were disturbing. Then I began working in an upscale steakhouse, walked into the kitchen, and smelled the most wonderful aroma. It was button mushrooms with butter, garlic and sherry. Mmmmmmm. Now I'm completely hooked. I love 'em all!

Beans. When I ate chili as a kid, I always picked around the beans. Then, in college, a really hot visting professor from New Orleans invited us all to his apartment for his specialty, chili. Before I realized it, I had bowl of chili, full of beans, sitting in front of me. I had the good sense to know that I shouldn't pick out the beans and drop them somewhere, so I ate them. And loved them. Now I am addicted to Rancho Gordo's heirloom beans!

Grapefruit! Growing up, my dad would slice it like orange wedges and I HATED it. But when we were first dating my husband cut up a grapefruit for me so that I wasn't eating the white pith and it was wonderful. It turns out I love grapefruit.

Also, I went to the u-pick at my CSA last year and had peas straight off the plants. They were one of the sweetest, most delicious things I've ever eaten.

The only one I can remember is pork chops. My roommates used to get it because it was cheap, and use it in just about everything. It was also extremely dry, and in my opinion, flavorless.

Last year (or the year before), my fiance's mother made pork chops for dinner (with applesauce she'd gotten while traveling). I LOVED it.

Overall, though, I don't think I've had revelations regarding food being prepared right so much as having my tastes change over time. For instance, I can now actually enjoy red, yellow, and orange peppers (I still only tolerate green, and only cooked, so I can squash it into the food). I'm also starting to learn to tolerate seafood. I keep trying it, wondering if this will be the time I actually like it. A nearby Thai restaurant actually came close on that account.

Steak. I grew up on a farm where we ate our own beef. Once I left, I tried steak in a restaurant. I think once. It just wasn't the same. I didn't order beef (except hamburgers) in a restaurant again until my 30's.

rocky

I recently tried asparagus again and I really enjoyed it, to my surprise. I haven't had the nerve to try to fix it myself, but I'm going to try soon. Sweet potatoes are another one that I always thought I hated and now can't get enough of.
A few years ago I tried pecan pie for the first time and now I adore it. I like pecans, but I always thought the pie looked gross so I avoided it. (Boy was I wrong!)
I'm not a terribly picky eater so I don't have too many things like this, but my little sister has always been pretty picky and has suddenly started eating tons of things she's always hated, which was surprising.
I keep trying to come around on broccoli, but it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen.