What food did you hate as a child but now love?
From coffee to crab, what did you loathe as a nipper but now enjoy eating?
There’s a news story that does the rounds every year or so about the demise of marmalade, and how it should be rebranded 'orange jam' and taste less bitter to appeal to 'da yoof’. I can see where brand managers are coming from; kids love orange juice and sweet things, so why not launch a sugary orange jam and do a spreadable ‘Sunny D’? It’s not just marmalade though; there are a whole host of products which as children we find horrible, but slowly come around to.
Drinks
Tea: my four-year-old has just started asking for a cuppa. Mainly I think because she hopes to get a biscuit or piece of cake with it.
Coffee: with the Starbuckification of the nation, young people are totally at home hanging around in coffee shops. This may expose them to coffee at an earlier age, but like tea, it’s only milky sweet coffee; they're hardly ordering macchiatos.
Alcohol: I remember the time in my early teens when I went from drinking Appletise(r), to fizzy cider. The world turned a few degrees and things would never be the same again.
Animals
Strangely, in my experience children like the bland softness of fish, whereas stronger-tasting and firmer beef often gets pushed aside. On the other hand it’s hard work to get kids eating oysters. Crustaceans fair better, particularly the white meat of crabs; there’s also great fun to be had pulling apart the bits. My daughter also loves smoked salmon, but I bet most kids don’t. I meanwhile remember as a teenager having a tongue sandwich at a family buffet and upon being told what it was running for the bin to spit it out.
Fruit, veg and carbs
Our Food Writer Charlotte couldn’t stand avocado, but now loves it. Brussels sprouts and other strong brassicas don’t often find room on your average child’s plate. Things like rye bread are also a bit of a challenge for youngsters. Of course, chilli isn’t popular with children, ditto curry and other hot, sour, spicy foods. Mind you, there’s plenty of adults who don't like curry.
Sweet things
I remember as a child pinching some of my granddad’s Bournville chocolate, and spitting it out as it tasted so horrible. In the 1970s Bournville was practically the only dark chocolate on the market, along with Terry’s All Gold. Now dark chocolate is ‘in’, but are kids eating it? I very much doubt it.
When I stop and think about what I eat most days, my younger self would have turned his nose up at most of it. But to paraphrase Corinthians 13:11, 'When I was a child, I ate as a chid… but when I became a man, I put away childish things'.
What did you hate as a child, but now love? Share your memories in the comments box below.
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