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.
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
Seconded. Oven roasted or air fried, they’re little balls of joy.
I always got boiled ones in the old days, same with spinach 🤮
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.
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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’ve slowly become obsessed with olives.
Cheese.
Sadly, most cheese does not enjoy me.
Spinach. Maybe it’s availability but growing up we only got it canned and my mom cooked the hell out of it. I hated the black slimy bitter salty …. Just not even a food . But now that I’m an adult and fresh spinach is available year round, I love a nice spinach salad and even slightly wilted spinach in a pasta
Tomatoes. I disliked them for a long time but a few years ago I tried them again. I don’t remember how I made that decision - it may have been from forgetting to ask for no tomatoes on a burger but I ended up trying them more and came to like them. I don’t like all tomatoes and not in everything, but I do enjoy them in sandwiches, burgers, and a few other things.
Cilantro. I’m still not convinced that I’m not one of the people to whom it tastes like soap, but over the years I started to tolerate, then enjoy it.
You’d definitely know it if you were one the people who have that trait. It’s like liking a bar of ivory soap.
Liver, tuna casserole, sardines. Getting old is weird man.
At the same time?
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
Kale, because my parents had no idea how to cook it. When I make it myself it’s awesome.
Olives. Growing up poor in New Zealand in the 1950s/60s my only exposure to olives was in American magazines. You’d see a martini with a green olive in it. It looked sophisticated and was surely delicious.
Fast forward to my parents’ silver wedding anniversary, which they celebrated with a family meal at a very fancy Italian restaurant. I would have been ten or so, first time in a restaurant. I was thrilled to see dishes of green olives on the table. At last, I’d get to eat one!
I put that olive in my mouth and tasted something overwhelmingly vile, alien, disgusting. I faked a coughing fit and spat it into a napkin. So sophisticated!
These days I eat handfuls of olives - green, black, stuffed, whatever. Kalamata is my favourite. Yum!
Avocado, young me thought it was a Kiwi so it might just have been the surprise of how different it was.
Asparagus, Broccoli, and broccolini… although to be fair, I didn’t discover broccolini until about 20 years ago, when I was in my mid-30’s.
Also, I found out it wasn’t the veggie that I disliked, but the way it was prepared. My family boiled (ok Blanched) all vegetables when I was growing up. That’s about the worst way possible to cook most veggies, especially the three I mention above.
Here is what I do to prepare them:
Asparagus: Heat oven to 350F. Trim woody ends and place them in a single layer in an oven proof dish. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Finally top with Parmesan Reggiano. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes or when cheese is browned.
Broccoli (florets only) and broccolini (trim woody end, but leave as much of the stem as possible: Heat oven to 350F. Place veggie in a single layer in an oven proof dish. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. You can top these two with Parmesan, but I usually do not. Roast until slightly charred about 25 minutes.
I will never blanch a veggie ever again, except for green beans. There are times when you’re serving a spicy dish, or something with a sauce and just need something plain to go along with it. Case in point, for my General Tso’s Chicken, I serve it with blanched green beans. Otherwise, I sautee them with salt pepper and red pepper flacks and a bit of high temp oil.
