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?

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.

[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.

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 . . .

[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.

[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?

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 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 ) 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.