As a further elaboration: growing up, I absolutely hated pasta salad. I could not and would not eat it. But one day, when I was about 22-23, I was working somewhere that includes meals, since shifts were literally all day for a week (save eight hours for sleeping). The cook made a pasta salad that I could only describe as “orgasmic.” I ate that same pasta salad for every meal for the next two days until they finally tossed the leftovers. Ever since then, I have been “converted” to enjoy pasta salad. That one dish completely changed how my body reacts to a food that I already tried several times.
I was a picky eater as a child. There are tons of foods I didn’t like and would not eat. As an adult I’ve been challenging myself to try these foods again. The most dramatic difference in what I tasted versus what I expected was just fresh cut strawberries. I was at a wedding and they had a fruit display. I tried one, and then I got more. It turns out that a lot of the foods I didn’t like as a kid were either not the right temperature or bad quality.