Dishes you hated or wouldn't eat when you were a kid but changed your mind as an adult

[captain queeg]

I know I’m missing some major ones, but these come to mind: stuffed peppers, sauerkraut, dumplings, most vegetables except corn on the cob. Tastes sure changed over the years. Plus there were a lot of things I wouldn’t even try based on how it looked.

[FakeNoose]

1. Asparagus

My mom made me eat it, but I just had to choke it down. Now I love it.

Something I hated as a kid and still hate now: Liver. Yuck!

[pandr32]

4. 100% me, too.

[Bev54]

12. 100% but then we lived in a very secluded town, and so our only

options were canned vegetables. Have you ever had canned asparagus? It is bloody awful, so when I tried fresh asparagus, actually cooked properly I was in heaven. Many years I refused to even try it because I hated the canned soggy mess. I was like that with squash as well, but to be fair I did not even try it until I was an adult, I don't think my Mom cooked it.

[FakeNoose]

14. No I don't believe we ever had canned asparagus

My mom loved it and she cooked it a lot, but only when it was fresh.

As I got older and learn how to cook for myself, I've only steamed the fresh asparagus and it makes a big difference. Thanks for the tip on canned asparagus, I don't ever want to try it.

[captain queeg]

15. Squash. That's one I hated. Now I loved fried squash.

[yellowdogintexas]

39. try a good Southern Style squash casserole

you will never be the same.

[Zorro]

2. Pizza

Thought it smelled terrible.

[electric_blue68]

45. I finally started to like it around 12 years old

[RainCaster]

3. Spicy peppers

I like em now.

[nocoincidences]

5. Shrimp, fish.

I grew up land locked in the Midwest, in a small town in Southern Illinois.

I don't think I even knew shrimp existed, and the only fish I ever saw were freshwater and fried.

I taught myself to like shrimp when I was 35. Now I can't get enough of them!

And grouper, flounder, I live on the Atlantic beach, I love fish!

But crab...I have really tried to love crab, but I can't. I do love she crab soup, but crab in any other form, I just can't do it.

[Midnight Writer]

29. Same here. Small Illinois town, and never ate shrimp or fish. Wasn't on the menu here.

Now I like it a lot, even though all that you can get around here is Red Lobster, Long John's, or Captain D's, and I have to drive 100 miles to find them. Occasionally a local group will have a fish fry, which is pretty good.

[yellowdogintexas]

40. same here. I can't even make myself swallow it.

I have never figured that out either. I have tried to like it, really I have.
My throat just shuts down

[unblock]

6. Vegetables lol

It wasn't until college that I really had much in the way of vegetables that wasn't in the form of a salad. Hated that, it turned me off to pretty much all veggies besides corn on the cob.

Turns out its vinegar I can't stand.

Salad with just oil is great.

[msongs]

7. avocados and coffee...

used to watch grandma and her friends drinking it from their china cups and thought it tasted awful. now maybe it's cuz I use a mug?

[CozyMystery]

8. Tomatoes

I ate a tomato sandwich at a friend's house about 10 years ago, just to be polite. Wow! I love them now.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

16. I wouldnt eat anything with tomatoes for a long time

I still don’t like ketchup, but when I was a kid I wouldn’t eat anything remotely tomato-related. As I understand I was very young and had some sort of cold sore or something and my mom gave me something with tomato and it hurt my mouth. I didn’t eat pizza till I was in junior high.

[electric_blue68]

46. As a kid/tween I'd eat tomato derived stuff, but Not actual tomatoes till ?late teens.

[cinematicdiversions]

9. Brussel Sprouts and caviar. NT

[spooky3]

10. Salmon nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

11. turns out many things I hated cause they were typically frozen or canned back then

And people (mom/grandma) would just reheat them out of the package and serve. Blech, I still don't like them in this format.

But, all these things, when fresh, and cooked (or raw)/seasoned/served properly, that I previously hated ... I'm now totally down with:

Broccoli, Asparagus, Brussels, Green Beans, Beets, Peas (okay frozen actually)

HATED mushrooms and eggplant, now I'm cool with 'em.

Didn't like tomatoes unless in the form of a sauce or salsa, now I dig 'em.

Didn't really like cheese unless it was melted on something, now I love it.

Things I didn't like then, and still don't:
Seafood if it has any hint of 'fishiness' whatsoever
Olives

[Karadeniz]

13. Eggs! Mother made us buttered noodles for breakfast!

[Iggo]

17. Brussels sprouts.

Um-num.

[lunatica]

19. Me too!

I love them now!

[lunatica]

18. Fish

I grew up in Mexico where fish was sold in a separate store. Walking past a fish store was awful! The smell was terrrible! So I hated fish until an aunt in North Carolina fried some fish fillets for me and served them with home made cornbread hush puppies. She seasoned fish with spiced up cornbread and I loved it!

Then in my twenties I worked as a waitress in a seafood restaurant which was one of the best in the Bay Area. They fed us so we could order meals for ourselves. They had fabulous fish! Halibut was my favorite and I loved the steamed clams and the fresh crab. They served a fish called Sandabs which they cooked on the griddle, which is incredibly delicious. Many of the clientele went there just for the Sandabs.

Now I eat fish all the time. I love Salmon and Halibut. As a matter of fact I just made myself a fish soup with Rock Cod. It was perfect. Really hit the spot!

[Walleye]

27. Halibut is the best. A few years ago I went out on a boat in Alaska and caught two halibut on a hook

And line. Heavy fish to reel up of the ocean floor. But Delicious. It was a perfect day in Cook Inlet. Volcano smoking whales breaching.

[Jeebo]

20. Sliced cucumbers, drowned in vinegar.

When I was a kid, my father used to peel and slice a couple of big cucumbers and drop them into a big bowl full of vinegar, then put the bowl on the dinner table. I pretty much ignored them then, but I love sliced cucumbers now.

Also salads. When I was a kid a bowl of salad seemed to me just like going out into the yard and pulling up fistfuls of grass and putting them in a bowl on the dinner table, but now I love a good salad. With oil and vinegar dressing, and lots of tomatoes.

Conversely, something I loved as a kid that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole now: Pickled pigs' feet. Yuck. Total gross-out.

-- Ron

[yellowdogintexas]

41. Meals in summer were incomplete without that bowl of cukes and vinegar

I still make them to this day/

When you go outside in the morning and find a bushel of cukes on your doorstep, you have to eat them. We made lots of pickles

[hlthe2b]

21. Any overcooked vegetable. I learned to cook them properly & found non-soggy veggies delightful!

[Elessar Zappa]

22. I've never been too picky but

when I was younger I hated onions, mustard, and pickles. The flavors were too strong for me. Now I love all three.

[no_hypocrisy]

23. Just about anything.

When I was a kid, I restricted myself to bread-and-butter sandwiches, baked chicken legs, spaghetti with butter sauce, hamburgers.

Once I got to college and found my restricted diet wasn't going to be accommodated, I tried new foods and found them to be tasty.

I now embrace exotic fare such as venison, wild boar, pheasant, ostrich, etc. and all vegetables.

[captain queeg]

34. A kid in my class lived in hamburgers and fries

He was an only child (uncommon back then) and his parents were doting on him. I never saw him eat anything else. The first time I moved out and had a place of my own with a roommate I had a job at a meat market. I used to bring a 10 lb box of hamburger patties home regularly. We pretty much lived on burgs and fries. It was great the first couple months but quickly got old.

[DFW]

24. No change. Steady as a rock.

From the day I knew what they were, I have always hated: Peas, Lima Beans, Lamb, Acovados and Licorice.

That has not changed at all.

[femmedem]

25. Bleu cheese, brussel sprouts, lima beans.

Once I started roasting brussel sprouts, they became one of my favorites.

Oddly, even as a child I loved olives, so much so that one year my parents got me a gallon of olives as a Christmas present.

[jcgoldie]

26. I hated milk when I was a kid

Now I have a dairy goat farm and drink a quart of raw milk every day. I dry the girls off in january february to kid again in march and I go into withdrawals!

[smirkymonkey]

47. I hated milk when I was a kid and I still hate it.

One thing I never acquired a taste for. I thought it was vile then and I still do. I can't even stand to see someone else drink it.

[Walleye]

28. Never ate sushi until I was an adult. But loved it, grew up eating raw clams and oysters

Something that I don’t really eat now, but loved for breakfast as a kid, was scrapple

[sinkingfeeling]

30. Guacamole

[malthaussen]

31. Pizza, as documented in this poem:

“Pavlov’s Dog Needs Only One Iteration”


“I hate pizza,” I said, and she smiled
as she held up a wedge to my mouth.
A bite, the cheese and sauce blending
on my tongue; crunch of crust as I chew, then swallow.

A few bites more, and then with mischief in her eyes
she presses her lips to my startled mouth.
Quick flicker of tongue, as she steals a crumb,
a taste cooler than any liquid to wash down
the commingled flavors.

God, I love pizza.

-- Mal

[malaise]

32. You sound like my younger sister

She hated all vegetables except corn. I think I was the smartest - I learned to love veggies early because most of my siblings hated them so I got the most.

[Paladin]

33. Liver. (nt)

[Lunabell]

35. For me, fried chicken liver.

I love crunchy fried liver, but still hate beef liver.

[Paladin]

36. Don't forget the fried onions to go with it. (nt)

[rurallib]

37. tacos

but a girl friend pushed me to try one - I fell in love with tacos immediately

[yellowdogintexas]

38. sweet potatoes!!! Okra. turnip greens. fried green tomatoes

Pineapple kraut. blackberries.

I hated sweet potatoes until I ate them in other ways besides all sugared up. Now I make delicious stews with them - including some vegan dishes.
I hated okra until I had it fried
I hated turnip greens until I lived in Boston where it was impossible to find them. The first time I went back to KY I requested Turnip Greens.
I simply could not abide fried green tomatoes until I had them made with Panko crumbs Now I am hooked.
I hated kraut because I had braces and it reacted against the metal and was nasty. I love it now
I hated blackberries due to braces because the damn seeds kept getting stuck in the braces. Jelly - now that was another thing entirely.

I still don't like oysters, crab, squid or octupus.

I love coffee now which I hated as a kid.

[Boomerproud]

42. Chinese. I grew up on chop suey and couldn't look at it.

Now I have cravings for Hunan.

[wnylib]

43. Disliked most vegetables except

the sweet ones like corn, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. Especially hated peas, lima beans, and broccoli. Hated liver.

Now I like peas, limas, and brocoli. Use them in various dishes. Still hate liver.

[electric_blue68]

44. I was SUCH a Picky Eater 😄 Drove my poor parents crazeee

I ate carrots, corn, apples. Tomato soup, tomato sauce but not actual tomatoes!
Hardly any other fruits, and veggies.

I ate hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, bologna, liverwurst, ton's of tuna sandwiches, eggs various ways, American Cheese, not much else in that dept. No other sea food,nor fishy fish.

The one thing I missed out on - lamb shesh kabob as we were a half Greek Americans extended family!

Now...
In my mid late teens I finally started to expand my palatte over just a few years, and still try new foods.

My mom had a cheese of the month club in my late teens. Got to love many more, though blue cheese came later still!

So veggies - eggplant, Tomatoes, sweet peppers & more!
Fruit - peachs, avocados, plums, red grapes, and more!
Mushrooms.

Still no fishy fish. No clams, mussels etc.
A big yes to shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab, white fish, tilapia.

Still no organ meats other than liverwurst and that's rare.

Cuisines - Indian, way more Greek, Chinese, Mexican, Middle Eastern and more..
And yes - I finally got into shesh kabob and enjoyed many more family summer grilling get togethers! 😄🥰