Name one food you have had to acquire a taste for.

Beets. My mother used to make pickled beets. I thought they were horrible. I never enjoyed beets until I grew my own. Roasted beets, especially with goat cheese and aged balsamic vinegar, I'm very fond of now.

Nothing comes to mind.

I don't think this has happened to me. It's always been the opposite. When I was younger I would eat anything, and now I'm really picky about food.

nothing comes to mind. I think I pretty much dislike the same things I have always disliked.

It probably has happened to me, in fact I'm sure of it. But my memory being as bad as it is, I can't remember what foods I didn't like as a kid.

Mashed potatoes. I loved baked potatoes, fried potatoes, and hash browns, but I have never been a fan of mashed potatoes. I can eat them now, but I would rather not.

Mushrooms, onions, peppers, cooked carrots (although I'm still not a big fan - it's more that I don't insist on having them raw instead).

liverwurst

I can't think of anything. The few things I really didn't like I still don't like. I'm sure there was something, though...
I guess I thought the concept of sushi was gross when I first heard of it, but I was never forced to eat it anyway. And I warmed up to it pretty quickly.

Dropped dumplings. My maternal grandmother used to make them and my mom always made me take a few bites, just to try it. I'd actually feel sick after eating them. Overtime, I got to where I could eat them, but they still aren't something I really like, just something I can eat. I haven't eaten any in several years and since my maternal grandmother is the only one I know that makes them, and I have nothing to do with her, I doubt I'll ever have them again.

When I was little I hated tomatos, but now I love them. I could live off tomatoes sandwiches. Yummy!

Avocado pear............now I love it

Olives, mainly the green ones. I used to crave them, while being repulsed by them at the samet time. Then one day, voila, they started tasting good to me. As for drinks, I've just recently developed my liking for beer.

What are dropped dumplings? I have something in mind, but I could be way off target!

Beer

I'm not sure exactly how they're made, so I'll explain them the best I can. They are similar to the dumplings in chicken and dumplings only with much less taste. You make the dumplings out and drop them into a boiling pot of something. I think it's tomato juice, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, the resulting taste is pretty much boiled flour. They are okay, but not exactly good. Hard to explain them.

I forgot about beer until I saw your comment. I always hated the taste of beer. I drank it as a teenager, just because it was readily available and could get me drunk. (Still haven't figured out why I enjoyed being drunk, because now I wouldn't do it if someone paid me to!) Anyhow, about 4 years ago, I really started liking beer.

That's kind of what I was imagining, I think my mom used to do something like that when she'd make a pot of chicken soup. Boiled flour, yummmm.

It's nice to be able to enjoy a cold beer every now and then. Just like with the olives, I would crave it, but I hated the taste up until very recently!

lima beans, i love them now.

I can stand peanut butter now, but I'm still anything but a fan.

Oh and lentils, I had a lentil soup in a Greek restaurant in Dec and I love them ever since.

I had brunch with some Canadians....maple syrup on eggy bread, right next to their bacon!

vegetables

I was never forced to eat anything as far as I know. I ate everything willingly, with zeal! They should have forced me not to eat so many things.

Anyway... I think I know what you're getting at. Certainly, some vegetables... also, bitter drinks like coffee and beer.

Plenty! .........boiled okra, , brussel sprouts, turnip greens, creamed corn, fried green tomatoes, lasagna, spaghetti....i still don't really enjoy spaghetti but I can eat it...lasagna is ok. I really don't like marinara sauces much. I will only eat my husbands spaghetti and nobody elses! Everyone elses spaghetti that I've ever had sucks. He doesn't cook much - but he has perfected this dish.

I hated cauliflower as a kid, today I love it. Same with asparagus.

If vodka could be considered as a food..............

have you had a pure, non-sweetened peanut butter or only the stuff that's overly processed and chock full of sugar (Jiffy, ...)? There's a world of difference betweeen them. Almond butter and cashew butter are also very nice...

No. I was never forced to eat anything I didn't like. My mother occasionally made my father, my sister and I all separate dinner meals since no one liked the same thing.

> No. I was never forced to eat anything I
> didn't like. My mother occasionally made
> my father, my sister and I all separate dinner
> meals since no one liked the same thing.

wow, that was very patient of her!

Thinking back, I'd say it was stupid, catering to the tastes of us individually. She should have made one dinner and said "eat it".

mushrooms

I don't know...if I dislike something, I tend to stop eating it. But sometimes years later I'll try it again and now like it. But that's not really acquired.

My son and I findly found the instruction book to the printer and figured out why the damn thing was saying it was out of paper when it wasn't, so I'll be mailing out your recipe for Fantasy Fudge and postcard on Saturday.

Grapefruit juice
Avocados
Garlic
Scotch
Hot mustard

If I haven't had garlic in awhile, I have no interest in cooking with it, and don't get back into it until I go out to dinner where it's the popular option.

As far as losing a taste, that would be beer. I buy an exotic new flavor now and then, only to recall when opening it that I don't really like beer anymore. And like Amande, I don't really have an interest in getting drunk anymore either.

So what did you eat, since you're a vegeterian?

I only have regular market stuff.
Cashew butter seems lovely, but I bet it's very expensive.

I haven't checked the price of cashew butter recently but I bet you're right...

I've never been able to enjoy grapefruit... I love the citrus component but then there's that grapefruit part which kinda tastes like ass...

I've never been able to get past the cell-layer-stripping sensation of scotch (or other hard liquors) as well.

Almost everything savory that I cook ends up having garlic in it... not to make it garlicky but as a foundation for the other flavors...

Brussels sprouts.

I had eggy bread (with maple syrup!), warm bread, cheese (Brie?), grapes and an amazing fresh raspberry muffin

Thanks. I can't wait!

I'm taking off in a little while to go shopping and I'll drop it in the mailbox then. Hopefully you should get it in a few days.

Kittens

I never heard of eggy bread. How do you like maple syrup? People will eat it with anything here, even scrambled eggs.

My base is pineapple, chipotle peppers, onion, and red bellpepper. I can add mango-ginger chutney, but you can see how garlic is a tough fit there. Not all grapefruit juice is the same, just as red bells are sweet and green are not. Have you tried Ruby-Red?

Sprouts.

Now I'm more than happy to eat them.

> My base is pineapple, chipotle peppers, onion,
> and red bellpepper.

That sounds very, very yummy.

> I can add mango-ginger
> chutney, but you can see how garlic is a
> tough fit there.

Yeah, I can see garlic missing out on that...

> Not all grapefruit juice
> is the same, just as red bells are sweet
> and green are not. Have you tried Ruby-Red?

I haven't but I'll be happy to give it a shot.

I've been making a lot of pesto lately, which tends to have a decent amount of garlic in it... I made a very yummy roasted red pepper pesto. Hummus and babaganoush also with a decent amount of garlic.

I'm guessing eggy bread is a much more appropriate, descriptive phrase for "french toast"...

I'm fond of pesto too. I never thought of hummus with garlic. Hummus works well with my base. Throw in beans and cheese on chips, and it becomes nachos.

Oh, I see...

Don't you mean freedom toast?

What romkey said. Although, I often think French toast is crispier and eggy bread is soggier. I don't know if there really is a difference though.

I wasn't crazy about the maple syrup with the egg - it wasn't nasty but it didn't seem to go either. Maple syrup on ice-cream would probably be good though.

oh wow I think I must have hummus nachos now

French toast should be a bit crispy - still soft but not soggy. In fact, some recipes for it call for mixing a tiny bit of flour into the egg. I like it with egg, milk, a tiny bit of flour, and a nice amount of cinnamon.

The Canadians made it with a little cinnamon - which tasted very odd to me. I love cinnamon toast, but I'd make that by adding a lot of cinnamon and also demarara sugar and frying it crispier before sprinkling it with a little more brown sugar. I used to make it for my little brother but haven't had it in years. That was the sweet variation - the normal eggy bread was definitely savoury.

I used to make "Panis dulcis" as well - which I swiped from a Roman recipe described in a museum exhibit. Bread, soaked in milk and then fried, served with honey

I have a friend who likes savory french toast - I'd never had it but tried to make it for her. I ended up dipping bread in egg and milk and frying it, and cooking up some diced tomatoes, onions and basil with a little roux and making a gravy with some stock and slopping it over the french toast. She says her mom doesn't make the gravy, just mixes the veggies in with the egg mix, but she likes the gravy a lot.

Better than cinnamon in the egg mixture is to use cinnamon bread for the sweet version.

I've never had "Panis dulcis" but now I want some! (after the hummus nachos... )

I'd spend so much time playing in the kitchen if I could...

The gravy sounds a little odd with the french toast - not something I associate with eggs. Tomatoes go great though I like Welsh Rarebit too - with egg, cheese and veg grilled on top of toast.

I love Welsh Rarebit!

I think I went in the gravy direction because I'm so used to drowning my french toast in maple syrup... it didn't seem right dry.

I'm sure that once you graduate you'll have a lovely kitchen of your own and be cooking away!

Maybe in about 10 years when I actually have a job! A good kitchen will be my main requirement when I'm finally looking for houses. I'd like a big one that can take a good sized table in the middle and lots of surfaces to spread out over (I'm a messy cook).

I just love the taste of hot dogs" and I love Lasagna made it the other night. Sloppy Joes are one of my favorites along with french fries they taste so delicious yum and yummy! onion rings are also very good and a chocolate cake for dessert.

Burritos and tacos soft shell, Chinese and Italian,French Toast

Spinach. I really like it now but was forced into eating it as a kid.

Spinach, asparagus, goat's cheese, avocadoes, and I'm sure a few others.... But I just love all of them now!!

Pop tarts I have a taste for them?

Beer

Oh hell yea. First time I had beer as a teenager it was horrible. Now? Miller Lite w/ a ice cold frosty mug is my absolute favorite. Also, mushrooms were really scary when I was a kid - hated them. Now, love sauteed mushrooms! Most veggies I hated as a kid actually, except... you know it - Corn.

I like French toast, and even Italian toast, but I don't care for Chinese toast at all.

I just love Chinese Toast and I love hotdogs with sauerkraut and I have had hotdogs for breakfast with chili at 9:00 in the morning yum" yum"

Avacados- I used to hate them but now they yummy!!
Beer- I still drink shandy, but I'm starting to acquire a taste for it now.

Isn't the eggy bread/French toast another UK/US thing? Maybe not.
In Kramer vs. Kramer (I think it was that one) Dustin Hoffman makes it the same way I do, but I call it eggy bread (after Brownie camp) and he calls it French toast. I love the way the Sc spell checker says Lookup "eggy" in Dictionary or add to dictionary!

Avocado

Mushrooms and now I LOVE them

A Billy Bob Bob Burrito and a Billy Bob Bob hot dog

Liver. I still avoid certain kinds, but there are some that I will eat now.

Sushi. I tried it because a couple of my friends were insistent. It wasn't too bad, but the texture and the idea of eating raw fish was a bit overwhelming for me. I found myself in situations to try it again over a period and really developed a taste for it. Now, I love the stuff! Who'd have thought raw salmon and tuna tasted so damn good?

I'm hoping to develop a liking for Indian food. I've only eaten it once, and I despised nearly every bite. I'm willing to give it a few more chances since everyone I know raves about it. Apparently the restaurant I tried is somewhat nationally renowned, but all it did for me was make me moderately nauseous. We'll see.

If anyone has thoughts about which dishes are best to start with, I'd love to hear them! Just no meat, please.

There's such a range of indian food, and most of it is rather extreme. It can be hot, sweet, citric, bitter, or savory, and usually a combo of most of those. I stick to the hot-sweet-citric and avoid the bitter/savory stuff. Hot mango chutney is my most common cooking condiment. It goes great with nuts, dairy, and fish, on rice, or even on nachos. I usually throw in pineapple and chipotle peppers too.
The india specialty store I visit has all sorts of horrid fruits, veggies, and every sort of grain imaginable, for instance stringy lotus root or jac fruit which smells like gym socks. I've grown fond of using rose syrup in all sorts of dishes.

To experiment, find stuff at the grocery and study the ingredient lists before buying. Rice makes a good test-bed.

Thank you for the thoughts. I'll report back when I give it another whirl.

And happy happy happy birthday!

Chicken. I didn't eat chicken until I was 22. I am glad I do now, because often times it is the only choice.

Sugar-free candy, diet drinks, reduced sugar beverages and cereal, ya know, healthy stuff.

pizza?

That stuff isn't really healthy. From what I've read, they can cause really wierd problems. Sugar just adds calories to run off (or get fat) and a risk of diabetes. Artificial sweeteners mess with your metabolism mechanisms and cause headaches.

When i go shopping, I shop for real food (lots of fat and protein on the label) and just eat less. I don't want to pay extra to have the fat removed from my dairy products so they can resell it to me as butter. Finding products with real cane sugar is hard to do these days. Most of it's made with high fructose syrup genetically processed from genetically manipulated corn.

If your label had all those supposedly good for you claims, you'd be paying for water.

Not that I can remember.

> It probably has happened to me, in fact I'm
> sure of it. But my memory being as bad as
> it is, I can't remember what foods I didn't
> like as a kid.

I don't remember what I didn't like either. I do remember that Mandy didn't like V-8 juice. Did she also not like eggs?

dunno

I was brought up to try everything. Some things more than once. There are very FEW foods I dislike... oysters, clams, anything smoked, like fish... and because I could "taste them for hours" green peppers... well, green peppers are BACK and I love 'em... the indigestion is gone, gone gone... I can even enjoy them in salads raw... but I really love stuffed green pepper.

There was one think I loved INSTANTLY, my folks told me, and it's true to this day... blue cheese! LOVE blue cheese

I'm finally having to reply... I love Welsh Rarebit, too... and you guys are making me starve! Alice is a great cook and I grew up in the kitchen with my Dietician mother, so we have GREAT meals around here... Alice just did the most awesome eggplant dish! All I had for dinner was a salad, so all this reading of food *drool*

Kristal, Alice and I do great meals, and sounds like you're stuff is right up our collective alleys... we must trade recipes and condiment lists

I wouldn't know where to start. My creativity often comes from two sources, astral meditations into ancient foreigtn cultures, or near empty cabinet desperation, where I might find that orange and cranberry work well with spinach, or find new uses for coconut and dates.

My custom tea is licorice (& star anise), mint, w/ ginger and orange. I sweeten that with either rose syrup or cola fountain syrup.

A touch of fresh mint leaves are great in salads, along with a touch of strawberry, orange bell, and devon cream.

If you go to the perfume section of my website, I also have food and beverage recipes along with perfume formulations. Those posted usually represent some mystical holiday experience.

Since you love Bleu Cheese (I've found real Roquefort is worth it on special occasion), try putting it on sourdough-rye with mushrooms and deep pan frying it in butter. Half a piece is nearly too rich.

Favorite h'ors d'oeuvre (learned when i was five): Pit dates (needle nose pliers work great), and fill void with wedges of cheddar cheese. Wrap entirely in bacon (2 half strips), skewer, and broil on cookie sheet. These things disappear before you set them on the table. Again, intensely rich.

Tempura kebabs with medly of shark, cherry tomatoes, fresh pineapple, cocktail onions, shrooms, red bells, etc etc marinated first in orange honey chipotle sauce.

Fruit pizza: cream cheese,cranberries, dates, onions, honey-clove/ginger-tomato pizza sauce.

As i said, I have no idea what interests you most.

Kristal, ALL of it... and ya, the real Roq is much better, but I settle for the cheap stuff! Alice loves to experiment, and since her husband is in no way a food nut, hard to get him to eat anything, we sort of have our fun and don't worry if Jim's gonna like it.

One way to do it is simply to go to the international section of the grocery, or forign groceries, and just buy something new like poppy seed filling or kiwis in syrup, and figure out things to do with it when you get home.

you wouldn't believe everything we have here... but you have given me some new ideas! I told Alice I had some new friends with the same healthy food lifestyle... everything we buy and cook is the good stuff... none of this preservative crap or additives... we like the real honest to God natural food.

Alice has a great recipe for Cilantro salad dressing... topped with roasted pepitas, a certain kind of cheese, which I can't recall right now, and cut toasted tortilla strips... this dressing is SO good... her kids got her a brand new cuisinart for Christmas, so she makes a lot of stuff with that... a real treat for me to be back with such a fine cook and nutritionist! I've actually lost weight with such balanced and natural meals... Organic carrots are just too good for words... too bad it is so expensive to eat good... not a lot, but well... and I know you understand!

Good experimental cooking can be cheap if you hunt for ingredients in irregular places. Even within the same grocery, you can find things like an absolutely superb egyptian strawberry preserve which is cheaper than anything in the jelly aisle. Mexican items here are often a third of the cost of similar products on other aisles. Things like spices in bulk can cost 1/10th, but I do find them to be inferior.
I buy 12oz jars of cumin to bury my cottage fried potatoes in.

Alice is all the time complaining about the prices and non-availability of good stuff... like avocados here can be $1.50 or more for one... ON sale! Sometimes we find a deal and stock up.

We like to shop at PCC, a natural health food store... more expensive, but mostly worth it. Everything we can, we buy in bulk... more people should, too.

Alice would love to meet you in person when she plays Southern Cal, probably get the best meal all tour visiting you! I just had super news from my doctor, since living here and eating so good, I have lost weight (155-145.5#) and between Lipitor and Alice's good nutrition, both my cholesterol levels are normal, for the first time ever! And Egyption Strawberry Preserves... YUM

Saw a really funny avocado.com billboard today... half avocado divided in 4 with labels "me,me,me husband"

Couldn't ROFL on the bus, but sure did LOL

Avos cost more than that here too. I saw that billboard yesterday too, along with one divided in two "Avocado Salad, making avocado salad".

When I was a kid in LA I seem to recall everyones yards having avos, apples, peaches, plums, oranges, etc. Their disapearance, along with the disapearance of various critters like amphibians and blue butterflies, I take to be a sign of the decline of civilisation.

I checked out one of her songs, something about how anyone could become homeless. It wasn't quite my angle on life. She probably has interesting tales to tell though.

tune sounds like "Night Patrol" I like Hard Time Killin Floor, also on the website

she was telling me of all the tree ripened fruits, home grown veggies, and how she had a big garden when she liven in Grass Valley for 18-20 years, she'll be pissed to hear things are going down the tube

she didn't write Night Patrol

It was 'Hard Time Killin Floor' I listened to. Besides not being my mood (even for blues) (I prefer Tracy Chapman, Ry Cooder), It was a bit repetitive. She should experiment with wildly sprawling out in every direction, haunty, sweet, tortured, frantic, goofy, in practically every chord, then she can come back to center picking the best melodic storieS (transitions are important.) 'Hate that man, hate that man, hate that man' is not nearly as interestiing as 'Hate that man, hate that man, hate that man. Gonna kill that man. Why'd I kill that man'. Read some ancient Irish folk tales where it's an interaction with nature with a cosmic-psychology realm of meaning, and much is meant by the baying of a hound, and yet moral conclusions are drawn in realms of fire, earth, air, and water.

Hardtimes isn't her tune, either, but she does add lyrics to almost everything she does. The stuff she just recorded in Nashville was all her own songs.