All the fruits I never loved
As an adult, there are very few foods I do not like. I can count them on one hand: arugula, licorice, papayas, and... arugula. OK, so there are three foods I do not like.
Growing up, that list was quite a bit longer. I didn't care for okra, I wasn't crazy about mango, and I couldn't stand papayas. I also went off of pineapples on one childhood trip to Sri Lanka. Being a tropical country, pineapples were practically falling out of trees. (Pineapples don't grow on trees.) It seemed like every aunty's house we went to, they served pineapple for dessert. Even at restaurants... after a nice meal, here came the pineapple! I got so sick of pineapple that I started telling people I was allergic, to the point that my parents would give me puzzled looks. How could they not know that their daughter was (deathly) allergic to pineapple?
Nowadays, I love okra, and can finally appreciate pineapple - especially if freshly cut. As for mangoes and papayas, my mother once told me that as a toddler, I could eat an entire papaya by myself. Several years ago, it was a white lady of German descent who finally got me to appreciate mango. She served me a bowl of fresh sliced mango as a treat. My first thought was: ohh no... how am I ever going to tell her I detest mango? I forced a smile and ate a piece hoping a dog would come by and I could feed them mango beneath the table, or she'd step out of the room and I could slide them into the compost bin. It turned out, however (to my complete surprise) that I really did like mango! What I apparently didn't like was: overripe fruit. Show me a banana with brown spots like freckles and I will positively gag. Fruit that smelled sickly sweet made me sick with disgust. So, that mango, slightly crunchy, nice and sweet but not overly-so was a treat after all.
When the kids were small, our dinner-time rule was that you had to try one bite of whatever was served. They wouldn't be forced to eat anything, but recognizing that taste-buds change with time, they simply had to test whether their taste-buds had caught up yet. Now, we have two adult kids who are open-minded and even adventurous about food. Our Rachel manages to eat peas (especially in front of her kids) and loves olives; our josh has begun to appreciate foods resembling soup.
Last year, josh asked me if the reason why we didn't eat arugula when he was growing up was because I didn't like it. I reminded him that the leafy green wasn't even a thing until the mid-'90s - the trendy baby-salad-staple simply hadn't shown up on American shores yet.
It is a mystery, even to me, why I don't like the taste of arugula. Too spicy? Not a chance! Too bitter? Nope, I love mustard greens, which are the definition of bitter. Too pungent - like cilantro? Not to me, though I know some who can't. There's just something about the twisted mossy sharp flavor that hits me wrong. I've tried - and can manage to choke down the odd leaf in a mixed salad, but arugula by choice? Never.
Some people say that textures do them in - as in, say, mushrooms or cottage cheese. Others simply don't like certain flavors, such as Greek yogurt or anchovies. And some don't like squishy surprises like cherry tomatoes or peas. Still others blame the sharp tang of Brussels sprouts and beets. (It is hard for me even to write this because I love all these foods!) I believe that the association with these foods are what people often find off-putting. They can't seem to get over that initial aversion and take those periodic "one bites" to see if their taste buds have caught up.
In the meantime, I luxuriate over those foreign textures, the sharp flavor notes, and the oddest of edibles. Funky blue cheese... salty, fishy anchovies... briny, spicy capers... spongy, lardy marrow...
But that arugula... still no.
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