Don’t get me wrong, being invited to things is wonderful and I’m always thankful to be with friends, but the other weekend I was just really feeling like a homebody and having a quiet weekend in. And, part of that plan included treating myself to something I’d been craving for a couple days (and my cat covets): a big batch of shrimp and scallop ceviche.
As I was out getting my ingredients that Saturday, I remembered that I really disliked scallops when I was a kid (maybe I couldn’t get past the pale globbiness of it?), yet here I was spending an arm and a leg for about half a pound of it. In fact, there were a couple other things going into my dish that once upon a time I really hated.
I couldn’t stand avocados. But there I was in the produce aisle gently pressing on avocado after avocado until I found just the right one (avocado selecting is truly an ancient Mexican art form, thanks mom). My mom never cooked spicy when I was little, yet I had pepper flakes and a giant bottle of Cholula waiting for me at home (also great on diced avocados).
Basically, I set on enjoying a meal that would have made me kick and scream as a kid. It got me thinking of other foods I used to hate but now enjoy—chopped up tomatoes, brussels sprouts, some nice crunchy broccoli, certain mushrooms (still not those small ones that get sliced onto pizza, blech). Some thinking behind all this:
...there's a lot of foods that we eat that little kids don't like — beer, etc. But we also like amusement park rides, we like to be scared, we like to cry at movies. This is an example of a very common thing in humans... which is to say that we learn to like things that our body rejects. And it's benign because it doesn't hurt us.
It's like getting to like smoking — when you first smoke, it's terrible. But you [may] keep going because there's social pressure. And that pressure gives you enough experience ... and somehow with that experience it usually inverts. For some people it inverts pretty quickly.
Of course as a cancer survivor I’m staying the hell away from a pack of Marlboro’s and not encouraging anyone to pick up a pack, but you get the article’s drift.
What about you?
What foods and dishes did you once despise as a kid,
but now enjoy as an adult?
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