What food did you think you didn't like because you'd only had it cooked badly?

[caroleanboneparte]

Inspired by tonight's trifle.

I hated trifle growing up.

Then had one made using a celebrity chef recipe about 10 years ago now look forward to it every Christmas.

DM 'offered' to make trifle this year. It's bogging. Tinned fruit. Dry sponge. There's hardly any sweetness at all. Think she's used made up custard.

So many other examples:
Red peppers
Macaroni cheese
Tzatziki
Most veg
Lasagne
Omelettes
Cheesecake

Jacket potato skins

Nut roast. I thought I hated it but I'd just never had a good one. Very pleased with the good one I had for dinner today 😋

Chicken (my mum always massively over cooked it)
mashed potato

Beef

Cabbage. As a kid I was always served it boiled . Dh fries it in butter and it is lovely .
Nando’s serve peri peri chicken livers . I am converted, chicken livers can be nice .

Broccoli and mashed potato. Didn’t eat either until we’ll into my 30’s and had to eat them out of politeness at SIL’s and they were both bloody amazing and I eat it all the time now

Most vegetables.

Pork chops.

Roast beef. My mum would cook it the night before then cook it again the next day. It was grey. Proper roast beef still pink in the middle was a game changer.
Also green vegetables, see above. They were boiled for about 15 minutes so lost all texture and colour. I now love broccoli with a bit of a bit of a bite.

Pretty much all meant. I was essentially vegetarian for years purely because my family always cooked meat to the point of inedible. So dry, you'd chew and chew and be unable to swallow. Also marmite, because I was given that spread really thickly on toast and only realised at uni when I saw a flat mate put a tiny bit on his toast

Sprouts. They aren't awful. We just eat them wrong. They should be roasted not boiled.

Most vegetables. We occasionally visit DH's dad and step mum for Sunday dinner and they are of the same ilk where everything is cooked to within an inch of its life.

Calamari - had a rubbery version in a restaurant & it put me off. Tried it whilst overseas & loved it.

Steak was the first and biggest revelation. My mum was a dreadful cook. Everything was cooked to inedible- dry meat and soggy veg/pasta. She cooked everything from scratch and I loved it when she was in a hurry and put on a microwave meal. I really only discovered the joy of food after I left home and had enough disposable income to eat out on decent restaurants.

I am, however, grateful that she did attempt to put healthy wholesome food on the table and she tried her best. My gran was worse in the kitchen! Not everyone is good at cooking I guess.

Spinach
curry

DM is an amazing cook but does spinach creamed and very spicy curry…

Courgette, in slimy circles. I quite like courgetti, grated or it dried out a bit.

Macaroni cheese. Mum used to boil the macaroni, stir in some marge then some grated cheese, and oven it. It wasn't horrible but a proper cheese sauce makes all the difference. She was a terrible cook and I'm so glad I can cook as I do love to eat!

Oh yeah agree with courgette, lovely done in the air fryer or roasted not so much slopping over your plate.

Also had the over cooked veg issue growing up and (the very worst) my mum did roast potatoes in the deep fat fryer 🤮 they were ok I suppose but nothing like an actual roast potato!

My parents used to despair of me as a child as I was so fussy. I am 47 and they still think I’m fussy. I am not at all fussy. I just didn’t enjoy what was served in my home town in the 80s, which was pretty much meat and three boiled root veg, daily.

The only things I don’t like are broccoli, cauliflower (I eat all other veg) and creamy sauces. I love every world cuisine, all meat and fish and fruit etc. My parents still maintain that I am fussy.

And yet my dad doesn’t eat anything with any spices of any nature, anything with garlic, anything smoked etc. My mum doesn’t eat any pasta, seafood, any chicken that isn’t breast, minced beef or cured meats. And I’m the fussy one 😂

Most veg. Growing up, my dad tended to boil it, my husband will roast veg for me and I much prefer the taste.

Salmon. My mum used to cook it in milk and it always had a scummy white stuff all over it.
Really like it now but I never cook it in milk!

Not me but DH - steak

for ages he told me he wasn't a fan of steak so in the early days it wasn't something we ever had to eat together as a couple although I occasionally had one in restaurants.

then one day I just really fancied steak so made it for us at home, mendium rare in a hot pan with butter and mushrooms and loads of seasoning.

Turns out his mum always put them on the grill for about half an hour each side and then served them with bisto over the top. He now likes steak.

Until then he had never had a properly cooked one as why would you pay steak prices in a restaurant if it's something you think you dislike.

sadly I am yet to persuade him of the merits of vegetables al dente rather than boiled to mush like his mum did.

Not me but DH, didn’t like bacon when I met him. When I made some actual nice bacon he asked what it was!

Polenta
Chicken livers

However calf/pig/lamb liver is actually just revolting, I had it cooked to resemble leather growing up and then had it in a lovely restaurant as an adult and still hated it!

Liver - as a child, it was always cooked and presented like an evil tasting shoe leather.

Scones - my mother used to do these horrid, doughy, flat things that tasted of nothing but flour and water. I think they were nasty, because she used cheap margarine, and because they used to go in with the Sunday roast as Sunday was the only time the oven was on. Fair enough, we needed to economise, but as far as I was concerned there was no point in going to the effort of making scones when scones rely on the quality of their ingredients, and the correct oven temperature to be edible, Might as well have bread and jam, or a banana.