FLIGHT

For me, the onion. I spent most of my life hating everything about it: the way it stings your eyes, the way it CRUNCHES and fills your mouth with horrible flavor. Within the last year I've been converted (I did it for love!), and now that I throw onions into everything my cooking has improved a lot. It think it was the essential flavor I've been missing.

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hopelarson.com
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Yeah, the three key ingredients that I almost always cook with are onions, garlic, and olive oil. If you can afford it, shallots (the onion's smaller, redder, slightly sweeter-tasting cousin) are definitely the way to go if you want to dress up your dishes a little more. I usually switch to using shallots when I'm making fancier dishes when company is around (which is incredibly rare these days).

As for my formerly hated food, beef tripe has grown on me over the years, mostly because I was able to get past my childhood trauma of my brother telling me what kind of things come into contact with tripe while it's still in a living cow...

However, you still could not get me to come within two city blocks of durian when it's in season. I can't stand the smell of that stuff, let alone the taste. It's definitely not of this earth, is what it is.

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keaner.net
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i had always hated broccoli until fairly recently. i also refused to touch onions when i was little, but i can tolerate them these days.

i still gag at the thought of eating mushrooms though....yuck....

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Phil in the Blanks

the only example I can think of is Avocado. I know, it sounds crazy. I think it's because as a kid, the only context that I saw it in/tried it was with my parents, who cut it in half, take out the pit, then FILL the crevace with vinegar. when they stuck it in my mouth, it was a stinky, acidic, smushy mess.

Of course, after I started running into Avocado outside of the home, I realized that avocados are the vegetable (no, fruit) equivalent to chocolate, and that my parents were just crazy. I mean, I can eat avocados with a BIT of vinegar, and I even drink a Tbsp of vinegar a day for health, but the amount they poured on to those avocados were criminal. all you can taste is acid and it probably melted teeth enamel.

I'm going to brag here a bit, and say that California RULES. near where I lived for college, there is an old avocado grove (it's in the parking lot of a buch of offices) - we go out there every summer and climb the trees and pick 30-50 avocados a trip (there's so much where that came from) and eat avocados like crazy.

One food I can't STAND is liver. I passed out a couple times during middle school from Anemia (lack of iron) and my dad used to force feed me liver and fish oils and stuff. So nasty.

now I have to smell/see it all the time because my dad's thinks my dog Winky loves it.

Olives, anchovies to an extent and Coffee.

I still can't eat Avocado. I just hate the texture...

d.

Hahaha, coffee.

I wonder if that one's true of everyone.

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hopelarson.com
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?

I don't like coffee either, although sometimes I like the smell. The caffine gives me horrible headaches. Same with caffinated teas.

which is mysterious because I must get plenty of caffine from chocolate. I guess chocolate is like my coffee, I always have dark chocolate in the house to nibble everyday... must be all that tryptophan, phenylethylamine, and Anandamide - it stimulates the same receptors in the brain as does THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

also: beer is Nas-TAY (some wines are okay)

i am not a big fan of coffee or beer either.

though i do sometimes drink those crazy chocolate mocha things. they can be tasty.

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Phil in the Blanks

Strawberries. Used to hate em, weird huh?

But I'm a textural taster, I love the taste of onions, but I can't eat large pieces of it, cooked or otherwise. It has to be diced and cooked within something, something to do with the crunching, gives me the willies.

You can put me down for broccoli, too. I used to hate pretty much anything green, but now I just can't get enough vegetables. I love em. And I've been a coffee drinker ever since I was 5. I used to drink cans of iced coffee at my grandmother's restaurant in the mornings while waiting for my mom (who would help her set up for the day) to drive me to school. I loved it then and I love it now.

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Cubans give coffee/milk to their kids in baby bottles, so I have been drinking espresso since I was maybe 3?

Shama--I am with you, I used to hate strawberries, now I love them. I think it had something to do with texture.

Otherwise, I used to hate bean soups (either spanish or cuban cuisine, I dont know) red bean, white beans, pinto bean, garbanzo....hated them all, now I love those soups.

How about the opposite, foods you liked as a kid, and cant stand them now? One of mine would be chicken, I still eat it, but I only tolerate the white meat. Can't deal with dark meat. Oh, and spaghetti-O's, hate them now.

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http://www.richardpose.com

oh yeah, I, too, used to not like beans - I think once again, because I was introduced to it in a bad context - I just remember thinking it smelled like dog food - now I'm as neautral about them as they taste.

I remember one time 3? years ago, I biked out to get a burrito, and i asked them NOT to put beans in it. When I got the burrito, it had beans in it. I started crying, unable to contain my dispair and frustration. (I think it was a certain time of the month) I went up to the counter and asked for a different one without beans. When the guy saw my face, he made me a new one right away.

how dramatic is that (whoooo!)



I can't stand cheap/sugary/artificial candy. I can't believe all these companies trick kids into eating that crap.

Foods I used to love and now hate? I'm going to go with two meats, but I started hating them while still a meat-eater, so I think they count.

1) Hot dogs. Turned out I'm reaaaallly allergic to nitrates, and they'd give me massive migraines.

2) Processed chicken anything. For years and years I loved this stuff, because it was a delicacy not available at my house. Then, one year at summer camp, I bit into a chicken sandwich and saw a vein dangling in front of my face. A boy at my table ended up gamely finishing the sandwich.

What is it wih you guys and strawberries? Now, blueberries I can see... They're like the fat, juicy ticks you pull off dogs.

Mmmmmmm.

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hopelarson.com
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Onions for me. I hated onions to death. Now I dig them ok if they are cooked. I used to hate peppers as well, but I like them all now. I still gag at the uncooked or not really cooked onions though. I did always like McDonalds' small child friendly onions on their burgers (LOL) Weird huh?

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Visit the GK Movie Watch Blog at www.Galaxykid.blogspot.com

I second: It is very wrong to not like strawberries. Strawberries with champagne are one the 10 reasons for living. It's right there in the book. But maybe I'm entirely too romantic.

Sushi – believe it or not, I hated it as a kid – nowadays I find it a fast snack.
Since about 12, I was a fast food junkie. These days, I can't stand anything fried anymore. I also used to consume vast amounts of vegetables, mostly fried. Not so much now, and I can't stand cooked cabbage.
A couple of years ago, my diet seriously consisted of instant ramen - can't stomach it more than once a month now.
Gin and any hard liquor – I find it entirely unsuitable in any form now. I’ve stopped drinking heavily. Story: On vacation in Israel, I’ve been drinking with my cousins – several bottles of Stolichnaya later, I was headed somewhere through a small alleyway…(fade to black); Next morning, I found myself in a pool of vomit; Upon standing up and then falling down again, I noticed that it was not just the hangover causing pain my body over – there was a fucking knife in my leg. I fainted, probably due to the loss or sight of blood. I woke up in Bikur Cholim several hours later, my leg bandaged. I could have been killed; someone didn’t have the nerve.

Small pleasures I’ve grown to be thankful for: non-alcoholic aperitifs; cognac, absinthe and ibuprofen.