Acquired tastes

[jefmcg]

From a thread about strawberry chicken, it made me think again about acquired tastes. That is, things you didn't love - or even like - the first time you tried but now you love.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3.

1. Beer. As a beginner drinker, I liked some white wines, mixers and cocktails. But when a lecturer bought his first year students to the pub at the end of the year, I asked for a tequila sunrise and felt like a dick. So over that summer, I acquired a taste for beer. It took a while - but now I love trying a new IPA, lager or ale. Happiest in Brussels with a really complicated glass and an "odd" tasting lambic.
2. Coffee. Finding insisting on a tea getting more and more embarrassing - but I had literally been weaned on tea - I made a decision to be a coffee drinker. It was a struggle at first, with a lot of sugar. But damnit! I love me an espresso now. One of my regrets for choosing london as my home is how many shitty coffee shops there are.
3. Sushi. I think the firs time I had sushi was at the end of semester dinner with my Introduction to Japanese class mates. I didn't hate it, but it was ... meh. I tried it a couple of more times, then went Tokyo with a big International group - and oh, boy, I loved it. It's very hard and usually very expensive to have good sushi, but when it's done right, it can literally bring me to tears. No other food has ever done that.

So what tastes have you acquired?

note: I have used "literally" twice above. To be clear, in both cases I have used it strictly. My mother moved me from milk to tea first by adding tea to my bottle and then serving me a cup of tea that was 90% milk. And I have cried over a platter of sushi, because the intersection of flavours made me so happy.

 

[IBarrett]

Olives.
We have a property deep in olive growing territory in Andalusia in Spain, so you get a handful with everything you eat or drink.
I hated them at first but have grown to love the green ones. Thankfully they rarely offer you Black ones.
I prefer them quite pickled but Mrs B prefers them very green. We are like Mr & Mrs Spratt.

I recently also discovered the delights of very expensive cured Ham - Jamon. Oh my lord, it's fantastic.

 

[jefmcg]

Olives.
We have a property deep in olive growing territory in Andalusia in Spain, so you get a handful with everything you eat or drink.
I hated them at first but have grown to love the green ones. Thankfully they rarely offer you Black ones.
I prefer them quite pickled but Mrs B prefers them very green. We are like Mr & Mrs Spratt.

I recently also discovered the delights of very expensive cured Ham - Jamon. Oh my lord, it's fantastic.

That's the stuff!

 

[User33236]

Whilst I have never gone from yuck to yumm on any food types my tastes have developed as I got older. For example getting into more full bodied red wines and appreciating olives a lot more. Butter beans always left me uninspired until someone made me a four bean stew.

Mrs SG on the other hand has been converted to eat and drink a list of things she wouldn't touch till we got together. These include:-

Rice, cous cous, red wine, bananas, olives, peaches, mushrooms, tuna and blue cheese.

 

[jefmcg]

[QUOTE 4866321, member: 259"]Beer and cigs. I had to wean myself on when I was 15 or 16 and it was bloody tough - especially if my dad had brewed it.[/QUOTE]
Damnit. Can't quite like this. Dads poisoning their children is outside my original intention.

But for sharing!`

 

[jefmcg]

@User33236, we should go to dinner some time (as I rarely leave London, you can feel safe!)

Rice, cous cous, red wine, bananas, olives, peaches, mushrooms, tuna and blue cheese.

Thumbs up on all of these, except banana, the devil's fruit.

 

[smokeysmoo]

@User33236Thumbs up on all of these, except banana, the devil's fruit.

Bananas are natures mars bars, I'd be lost without mine

 

[jefmcg]

Bananas are natures mars bars, I'd be lost without mine

I've eaten nearly everything I been proffered including horse and sea urchin - but excluding whale meat and banana.

Banana is my one plant kingdom exception. As well as whales, I won't eat dolphins or any close relatives and any primates. Generally avoid calf, but not lamb.

Only banana is rejected because of it's disgusting taste. The other choices are intellectual/moral.

 

[raleighnut]

Another one here who thought beer was rank when I first tried it.

 

[User33236]

I've eaten nearly everything I been proffered including horse and sea urchin - but excluding whale meat and banana.

Banana is my one plant kingdom exception. As well as whales, I won't eat dolphins or any close relatives and any primates. Generally avoid calf, but not lamb.

Only banana is rejected because of it's disgusting taste. The other choices are intellectual/moral.

I went to a restaurant in Tokyo for the 40th birthday some years ago and, having adventurous tastes, ordered the rather vaguely named 'mixed Japanese starter'.

When it arrived the heavily accented waiter tried to describe what was on my plate but I couldn't pick out anything he'd said. Having thoroughly enjoyed it I asked the easier to understand waiter clearing the plate what I'd just had. One thing that did stick with me was the mention of pickled whale.

 

[biggs682]

Cheese and Beetroot sandwiches yum yum

 

[smutchin]

Broad beans. I hated them as a kid, now they're my absolute favourite vegetable. Don't know when or how I acquired the taste.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Another one here who thought beer was rank when I first tried it.

Same here. I remember seeing my grandad with a pint barrel glass of mild. To me as a 6 or 7 it looked like a bucket load. He gave me a taste once. It tasted awful but i thought to myself,it might taste horrible but we have to drink it when we get older, so get used to it. Seriously,i thought beer drinking was compulsory. My favourite tipple as a child was sweet sherry by the way.

 

[keithmac]

Whisky..

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Whisky..

Whisky is something I tried to like when I was in my teens but never succeeded, spirits in general I don't normally drink, beer only in small quantities, I can't drink beer in large quantities. Pasta and garlic I had to acquire a taste for.