Changing tastes...

[NightAngel]

The other night my hubby made me a sandwich. I bit into it and nearly gagged- there was something on it that was so amazingly disgusting I nearly spit it out. It took me several seconds to realize what the nastiness was... Miracle Whip!

This was a bit of a shock since I have ALWAYS loved Miracle Whip and only barely tolerated Mayo.

However, it seems after a year of working and eating in a restaurant with exclusively Mayo I can no longer eat Miracle Whip. I do like the taste of Mayo now at least- it's no longer something that's barely tolerable. MW tastes so very different to me now I almost didn't recognize what it was.

Has this ever happened to you? A drastic, surprising change of taste?

[Jester]

Tastes and palates change over time for most people. Being a foodie, I have definitely noticed this in myself. And I am not just talking about kids growing up and liking adult food rather than just the usual kid stuff. I am talking about things you used to love you now loathe, and vice versa. Some examples from my life:

--As a kid, as all children, I loved bologna. I now despise it. Ditto ketchup.
--Earlier in my life, I was not fond of cheese unless it was one of the Italian cheeses (parmesan, mozzarella, etc.) or Swiss cheese. Now I love most cheeses, though there are some I still despise, such as yellow American. (I hated Muenster cheese as a child SO much that I still have not tried it as an adult. Perhaps the only thing from my childhood that I have NOT retried.)
--I loved butter pecan ice cream as a kid. These days, I really don't like nuts much, with the exceptions of peanuts, pisatchios, and cashews.
--Even as recently as my 20s, I did not care for beans. Now I love (most of) them.
--Before I gave up caffeine in 1990, I was not overly fond of the non colas, such as Sprite and 7-Up. Now they are among my favorite sodas. Necessity often determines taste. Ask anyone who didn't like diet soda until they went on a diet and force themselves to drink it, and now prefer the taste of diet to regular.
--I recently have tried some beers that I thought I didn't like, that I had tried in my early 20s. I was shocked to find that many (though not all) of them I rather enjoyed, the biggest surprised being Red Hook. I still have not had Heineken in years, but much like Muenster cheese, I just can't imagine that it would be any better than the disgustingness I remember. And to be fair, I have had Heineken far more recently than Muenster cheese.
--Until about seven years ago, I was not overly fond of red wine, preferring white when I did drink wine. My ex-fiance turned me on to red wine, and now that is by far my preferred wine.

Some things never change. Grape jelly is still my favorite with peanut butter, mint chocolate chip ice cream still rocks, and I still have an unbelievable weakness for fudge and candy corn. And on the other side, I still despise olives, have always found lima beans revolting, and have zero use for diet anything.

But palates do change over time, not just from trying new things, but just by aging and changing our tastes, for whatever reason. I don't know what that reason is, but I know I am not alone in this.

[tacohuman]

(I hated Muenster cheese as a child SO much that I still have not tried it as an adult. Perhaps the only thing from my childhood that I have NOT retried.)


what passes for muenster most of the time (the bland, pasty, bone colored mush with the frighteningly bright orange rind) is nothing you're missing. however, if you can find it, a true abby-style washed-rind muenster is a joy to behold.

[Sliceanddice]

i use to love peanuts now its cashews or macademia or nothging at all
i use to hate dr pepper now i want a continues iv
i hated swiss now i love it
i tolerated mexican food as a kid, ive grown to totally dispise it.
i dont know about the rest but i can say i still have an everson towards pizza

[Ree]

I used to love eggs with soft yolks. I would dip my toast in the yolk and eat it that way.
Now, the thought of a runny egg makes me gag.

I used to despise vegetables, but I am gradually developing a taste for some of them.

I used to like only French dressing on my salad. Now, I hate French dressing and will actually try all kinds of different dressings now.

[Amina516]

I agree with everyone else. People change as do their tastes.

Theres something else that affects taste tho.....um, pregnancy.

Any chance? :angel:

When i was pregnant with my daughter I could not stand the taste, smell or even LOOk of cheeseburgers. As I was pregnant in the summer, this was an issue with me @ BBQ's. Lol.

Now though, Im back on the burger train with a vengeance. :p

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I've noticed that over the last few years . . .

Foods I used to like . . .

Tuna salad . . . I could eat it by the gallon growing up . . . now just the smell makes me want to hurl.

Sloppy Joes . . . we ate these all the time when I was a kid with sour cream and shredded cheese on them. Now I can't stand the smell of those either.

Kool Aid . . . drank that stuff like water once upon a time. Now it just tastes like flat syrupy water.

Chips Deluxe coconut chip cookies . . . Back in the 70's and 80's they were sold as the Coconut Chocolate Drop cookies. I could eat half a package when I was a kid. Now I cannot stand them . . .

Chicken livers . . . I learned to eat these as a kid thanks to my aunt, who would cook them at least once a week (and it was the ONLY thing she could cook decent.) Now I have no taste for them ever since my 20's.


Things I've grown to enjoy . . .Raw onions . . . I couldn't even stand to slice them as a kid (still get teary eyed when slicing them now) but I eat them on sandwiches all the time. Great with bologna/ham/turkey/chicken or on a salad.

Pinto Beans . . . I wouldn't even touch those as a kid, now I like them pretty well. They're especially good with sauteed onions and green peppers and served over rice or simmering in the crock pot all day with a hambone with meat left on it. Add on a hot cake of cornbread and it's chowtime.:D

Pound cake . . when I was a kid, I could take it or leave it. Now I can make one disappear faster than Houdini.

And speaking of which, I hear a strawberry pound cake that's chilling in the fridge calling me . . .:p

[Jester]

Sloppy Joes . . . we ate these all the time when I was a kid with sour cream and shredded cheese on them.

Raw onions . . .

Sloppy Joe's with sour cream. Intriguing. I shall have to try them.

As for raw onions, I am one of those guys that when he is chopping up onions in his kitchen to cook whatever, he will be munching on said raw onions. Yes, I LOVE onions. Raw, cooked, whatever.....onions rock!

[purplecat41877]

When I was young, I didn't like spinach or squash. Now I like some squashes like acorn squash, zucchini, and pumpkin, and spinach is now one of my favorite vegetables.:D

[Kittish]

One thing that has not changed for me is how I like my veggies. I have always preferred them as nearly raw as I could get them. I have, however, become more tolerant of some cooked vegetables over the years, like carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, and the like. But they do taste better raw.

Hmm.. as a kid I couldn't stand mushrooms, now I'll eat them in salads, on pizzas, in spaghetti sauce, in stir fry.

Chocolate ice cream made me literally ill as a child, but these days my favorite ice creams have a chocolate base (Baskin Robbins Peanut Butter n Chocolate FTW!!). I still can't stand melted ice cream. I want my ice cream SOLIDLY frozen, hard enough so that it takes a jack hammer or a blowtorch to carve off a serving.

I'm with Jester about the bologna, can't stand the stuff now. I also liked spam as a kid and that is the most disgusting stuff ever now.

I like cooked onions in stuff, but don't care for them raw, that's one of the few exceptions to my veggie preferences. Oh, a tip for slicing them up without tears. Cut the root end off FIRST, and hold the cut end under cold running water for a few seconds. Also rinse off your knife. Cut off the top end, and repeat with the cold water. This cuts down dramatically on the tear factor, completely eliminates them except with the most pungent of onions.

[NightAngel]

Any chance? :angel:

Nope. I had that taken care of when I had my C-Section 9 years ago.

I know people's tastes change and this isn't the only taste change I've ever had. It is, however, the only one that actually surprised me in any way.

For example, when I was a kid I loathed onions - as an adult I love them. :)
I used to love Chinese Dumplings until a few years ago when I got ahold of some bad ones that make me vomitously ill... to this day I can't hardly even look at them. :(

[Dreamstalker]

I used to like raw onions, now I can't stand them raw or cooked.

Loved butter pecan ice cream, now I'm not a real fan of nuts except almonds and pistachios (both of which I used to despise)

Hated brussels sprouts, now I can't get enough of the things when they come in season (baby brussels sprouts tossed with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and oven-roasted---YUM)

Other things I used to hate but now love:
Sushi (one of my sillier goals is to make enough money to be able to buy a slab of sushi-grade mackerel and just nom on it)
Sweetbreads (dad is greatly amused by the fact that even after being told what I was eating I asked for more)
Black pudding

Still can't stand lima beans, so that never changed. Mom claims I used to devour them though :confused: There are a few veggies that I wouldn't consider buying at a supermarket but will snap them up at a farmer's market, so it's possible that being locally-grown they tasted different
i tolerated mexican food as a kid, ive grown to totally dispise it.
Same here. Maybe living in NM for all those years (the wonderful learning-center secretary and her to-die-for tamales) spoiled me somewhat. I can't even get good green chile in this neck of the woods; typically I have to call my dad and beg him to send me some Chimayo chile powder. My aversion to Mexican food here also may have to do with my getting a summer-long stomach bug from a burrito place down the street.

[strawbabies]

I used to only like hamburgers if they came from McDonald's. I absolutely hated what everyone else considered a "good" burger.

Then my fiance and I tried a new restaurant, and when I saw the cheddar burger on the menu, I absolutely had to have it. I've always disliked onions, and would pick them out of any food that contained them. On this burger, though, I freakin' loved the raw red onion.

Great. Now I'm hungry.

[McGoddess09]

As a child, I never liked swiss cheese or veggies in any form. Now, I love those things.

Except, the veggies cannot be canned veggies. Never liked them. Ever.

I used to love Kraft Mac and Cheese with the powder cheese, now, I can't stand that. It has to be the cheese sauce or homemade.

My taste for bologna and Miracle Whip goes on and off.

I am sad though because I used to be able to eat tons of frosting and all that sugary stuff. Now, I can have very little or no sugary depending on the day.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I like cooked onions in stuff, but don't care for them raw, onions.

I'm the opposite...I like raw onions (especially in tuna salad, sometimes in a tossed salad or on burger, depending on my mood), but can't stand them cooked. I'm the same way with bell peppers...

Funny thing is I love the smell...when I was in college I worked in the little campus fast-food-type restaurant, and one of the things on the menu was a cheese steak. We would toss a handful of peppers, onions and mushrooms on the grill, while we cooked the meat, then scoop the veggies on top and put cheese on top of that to melt, and lay the bun on top of the whole mess. When the cheese was melted we'd scoop it all up and flip it over onto a plate. It smelled sooooo good (and was fun to make :p) but you couldn't pay me to eat one...

As far as Miracle Whip vs. mayo, I can't stand MW, and mayo has very limited uses in my life. My grandmother used MW when I was a kid...yuck.

[Jester]

I like cooked onions in stuff, but don't care for them raw...
I used to like raw onions, now I can't stand them raw or cooked.

I am one of those people that LOVES onions. How much? When I am cooking, and I am using onions (which is pretty often), when I am chopping them up, I will munch on them. Raw. And I prefer white or red onions. You know....the strong ones.

Onions RULE!

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:wzVXDbPuGVE_hM:http://www.best-of-web.com/_images/080320-032944.jpg


one of my sillier goals is to make enough money to be able to buy a slab of sushi-grade mackerel and just nom on it

This may piss you off, but living on a tropical island for ten years does have its benefits. Like when you befriend one of the local fishermen and he gives you a few slabs of fresh mackerel. Fresh as in was-swimming-happily-in-the-ocean-that-very-morning fresh.

My aversion to Mexican food here also may have to do with my getting a summer-long stomach bug from a burrito place down the street.

Or it could be that you are in a place that just doesn't have any good damn Mexican food. It happens.

[AdminAssistant]

Or it could be that you are in a place that just doesn't have any good damn Mexican food. It happens.

I always have to get Mexican food when I go home; there aren't any decent Mexican restaurants here. :( Which is odd, when you consider the vast array of excellent, locally-owned Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Greek, Italian, Mongolian, and other ethnic restaurants in this relatively small town.

[Kullervo]

As a kid I would eat all kinds of candy.
I don't touch the stuff on but rare occasions. that goes for all sweets actually.
cookies,candy, ice cream, etc.

Strong cheeses. As a kid unless it was really mild. colby for example. I wouldn't touch it.
Now some of my favorite foods have strong cheeses. Fort myers has a place called Marios deli. they make some artichokes stuffed with gorganzola and sweet peppers stuffed with goat cheese. couple of the best things I ever had.
Also a grilled cheese with a little bit of blue cheese added will give it a great kick of flavor.

I used to like tomatos. but now I can't stand them in the raw form.
made into sauces they are fine but the texture I find disgusting.

I used to hate fish with a passion. Now I like it in certain forms.
blackened catfish, fried grouper, smoked salmon,smoked mullet, sushi grade tuna.

I'm starting to find lettuce to be a bit bitter for my taste. That one I can't explain though.

[Dreamstalker]

Or it could be that you are in a place that just doesn't have any good damn Mexican food. It happens.
Yeah; I thought the stuff here was good until I moved out West. Living within walking distance of the real stuff (and professors who were all to happy to make recommendations) has pretty much soured me on any of the "standard" stuff here. Except for Trader Joes, their frozen Mexican food isn't bad.

[trailerparkmedic]

I never used to like Mexican food, but then I moved to Texas :)

I used to like breakfast sausage but now even the smell of it makes me sick.

[RavenStarr]

Foods I Liked As A Kid But Now Hate: Spam, bologna, treet, creamed corn, corndogs, sausage gravy, fish sticks, Macaroni & Cheese, pumpkin pie.

Foods I hated as a kid but now love as an adult: Mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, asparagus, brocolli, sweet potatos, yellow squash, crab cakes, most kinds of fish fresh of course.

[Boozy]

Yes, I LOVE onions. Raw, cooked, whatever.....onions rock!

I buy half a dozen largish onions during my weekly grocery shop. That's for two people in our household.

I add onions to everything. They add tons of flavour without any fat or sodium.

[1756GR2]

Any change in meds since the last time you liked it? My son had another seizure med added earlier this year, there are some things he can't stand to eat since that addition. Changed the way his brain perceived those few flavors. Could be other meds that have that kind of effect.

[Shards]

When I was young, I could eat Chocolate anything and be happy, now, I only ever much on chocolate if there is nothing else in the house and I'm hungry. I just do not enjoy the taste of chocolate, in any form, as much as NON-chocolate equivalents (regular milk, un-dipped fruits, etc.) the only exception to this rule is cakes, and even then, I prefer a fruit pie, or, even better, a second course worth of meat.

Additionally, when I was young, I used to find something offensive about the texture of cheesecake, and now, it is without question, my favorite dessert. Unfortunately, the cheesecake that originally turned me on to cheesecake in general (T.G.I. Friday's Cinnabon Cheesecake) is no longer sold the only place I knew to get it. :cry:

[JustaCashier]

As a kid, I loved Lucky Charms cereal.

When I was around 9, I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle for awhile, and drove my Aunt nuts, with how I always had to have a bowl for breakfast. She called them "Crappy Crummies" :p

Years later, probably into my late 20's/early 30's, I bought a box to relive my childhood, and could barely stand them. They were indeed both crappy, and crummy. :lol:

Maybe around two or three years ago, in my late 40's by then, I was at the Dollar Store, and they had the Lucky Charms wannabe, that was one of those brands you never hear of anywhere else. So, I thought what the hell, and decided to give it a try. Not bad. Went under the assumption, that I would probably still dislike the actual Lucky Charms, but that this off brand was just different enough for me to find tasty.

Just within the last month or so, the grocery store I shop at had Lucky Charms at a good sale price. So, I thought what the hell, and decided to give them another try after many years. I found I actually like them again, though probably not as much as when I was a kid, and ended up buying three or four boxes, during the two week or so duration of the sale.

Viva Crappy Crummies! :super:

Mike

[Terinka]

I used to hate fruits, any kind, i was a vegetable lover though...lately i can put in a banana or peach in :) dont mind any of fruits anymore :)
And as a kid i used to love chocolate, now i dont really eat it, but dont hate it either, i guess working for Nestle choco factory back in Europe did it for me, I ate tons there...ew :angel::lol:

[Jester]

Except for Trader Joes, their frozen Mexican food isn't bad.

Frozen....Mexican....food? Speak not such blasphemy. Especially after you talked about living in Texas and getting turned on to real Mexican food.

Sorry, just will not accept that a chain store in the Northeast can produce frozen anything resembling the wonder that is real comida Mexicana. Es no verdad!

As a kid, I loved Lucky Charms cereal.

Brings back memories of the college dorm cafeteria.

I ate there a lot as I was both poor and on one of the school's meal plans. Now, our dorm caf sometimes had really good food, and sometimes didn't. And on days they didn't, I often would resort to hitting the cereal dispensers for my meals. I referred to these days as "Lucky Charms days." And then there were those horrible days, where the food being churned out by the caf staff was inedible muck, and the cereal dispensers were empty. Dark, dark days! :(

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I was gonna mention pregnancy, too. :lol: It happened to me. That's what tipped me off!

Miracle Whip is not mayo. Dukes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke's_Mayonnaise) is mayo.

It is the ONLY mayo.

If you cant get it where you are, I am so sorry. SO sorry.

One of my friends actually used to keep a jar of the stuff in my fridge so that she could be absolutely certain to have acceptable sandwitch spread at my place when she came over. People here do not fool around.

Dukes.

Accept no substitutes.

[Nurian]

When I was a kid, we use to get hotdogs, both brand named or otherwise, depending on what was on sale. When I left home, I continued to do that. I ate Bar S, Armour, Oscar Mayer, grocery store brand, you name it. A couple of years ago, I noticed I was buying less of the generic and grocery brand and more of the Oscar Mayer. One time when I was really low on money, I bought some Bar S....and gagged. It was terrible. I couldn't eat it directly, so I cooked that batch into beans (yes, I still eat Beanies and Weenies :P). Now, I HAVE to eat higher end hotdogs. Everything else just tastes bad.

[EricKei]

As a kid: Mayonnaise sandwiches -- me and my brother both. Literally, jar of mayo, loaf of bread, that's it. Ever since...? I can't take more than a thin veneer on my sammiches.

Hot dogs - I used to be able to eat "normal" dogs and even the red ones...Now I can't take any except real beef ones (which are, at least, slightly less bad for you)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

As a kid: Mayonnaise sandwiches -- me and my brother both. Literally, jar of mayo, loaf of bread, that's it.
)

If you were using Dukes, that actually sounds pretty awesome.

[HYHYBT]

From someone who can't stand mayo of any stripe: what's so different about Duke's, as opposed to, say, Hellman's?

[EricKei]

If you were using Dukes, that actually sounds pretty awesome.
Classic old-school style Hellman's. Consistency that reminded me of ricotta (a bit chunky) and a distinct zing of lemon.

[Jester]

From someone who can't stand mayo of any stripe: what's so different about Duke's, as opposed to, say, Hellman's?

I have never had Duke's. Never even heard of it before this thread. But when it came up earlier in the thread, I looked it up, so I have the answer to your question. From wikipedia:

"Since its creation Duke's has never changed the original recipe. The product is unique among similar condiments[/URL] in that it is completely natural and contains no sugar. As such, many southern cooks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condiment) and chefs[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef"] use only Duke's in their kitchens as it offers a more traditional, less sweet taste than other mayos."