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What everyday food did you not taste until you were an adult?

81 replies

Musicmummy63 · 10/11/2025 21:09

So I didn't eat any broccoli until I was around 20. Mum was a good cook, but we always had peas, carrots, cabbage etc, but never had broccoli. I first had it when I had a dinner with my future DH family (around 40 years ago), and it's been my favourite veg since. Just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience.
1st post here, so hopefully I've not created an AIBU vote!

OP posts:
Twattergy · 10/11/2025 21:13

Seafood (as in prawns, crab, lobster not fish, I'd had fish before then!) in my early 20s, due to faith reasons. Enjoyed it a lot and continue to love it (especially when abroad).

Tukuk · 10/11/2025 21:15

so much my mother had all sorts of weird and irrational food restrictions she imposed on us all.
But the three that stick out the most are mushrooms which I’m still irrationally annoyed about as they’re so delicious and indian food, I had my first takeaway as an adult, again absolutely delicious and grapes weirdly.

lljkk · 10/11/2025 21:18

Like OP, possibly cooked brocoli or brussel sprouts!! My parents disliked them. Turns out I like all the brassicas a lot, too.

Parsnips, Swede, most squash. My parents didn't like them. Turnips, too.

Ubugly · 10/11/2025 21:22

I wouldn't really try anything until my late 20s, early 30s 🙄 including cheesecake!

Now I will try anything really except sea food. I still dont reallh like fruit or vegetables.

katmunchkin · 10/11/2025 21:23

Rice 😂

LifeBeginsToday · 10/11/2025 21:27

Meat. I was raised a vegetarian. I tried meat in my early 20s and didn't look back.

NotMyRealAccount · 10/11/2025 21:28

I was in my late teens when I first had tinned tuna, peanut butter, and soft cheese that wasn't Dairylea triangles.

RuncibleSpoons · 10/11/2025 21:30

My mum was the most basic of cooks - meat, potatoes and veg cooked to slurry. My dad had one meal in his repertoire - pork chops and mashed potatoes.

It was only thanks to school friends’ parents that I knew food could be great and varied and international. And I was at least 18 before I had curries, Chinese food, seafood, sushi - even fish and chips and American style food.

My children react like I was sent up chimneys and down mines when I tell them this.

DarkEyedSailor · 10/11/2025 21:30

We weren't allowed Findus Crispy Pancakes or Pot Noodles. I tried the Pot Noodle, but I'm told the Crispy Pancakes aren't as good as they used to be so I've not tried one of those.

Almostwelsh · 10/11/2025 21:33

Pasta that wasn't out of a tin in tomato sauce. Asparagus. Mango. Fresh pineapple. (Expensive in the 1970s). Curry.

PashaMinaMio · 10/11/2025 21:36

Avocado in my early 20’s.
Have loved it ever since.

JustAnotherMinionForAMerchantOfDeath · 10/11/2025 21:37

Olives. Avocado. Takeaway Chinese food.

CalliopeFosterBeauchamp · 10/11/2025 21:41

This has brought up a lovely memory, not about me but about my gran. I bought
some yoghurt and gave it to her to try when she was in her mid-70s. I still remember her lovely smile when she realised how much she liked it :) She ate it every week for the rest of her life.

GlasgowGal2014 · 10/11/2025 21:53

Avocado. Didn't even know it was a thing until I saw other people eating it in the lunchroom at my first proper job. Kids won't believe that now!

Wincher · 10/11/2025 22:44

Houmous - I clearly remember the first time I had it, aged 21!

cornflourblue · 10/11/2025 22:48

Houmous, avocado, pesto, halloumi, fajitas. Any Asian foods.

Going to uni and meeting people from different backgrounds and cultures was a revelation.

ChristmasWrapping2025 · 10/11/2025 22:49

Lasagne… I was 42! 😱

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/11/2025 22:51

GlasgowGal2014 · 10/11/2025 21:53

Avocado. Didn't even know it was a thing until I saw other people eating it in the lunchroom at my first proper job. Kids won't believe that now!

I fed a boyfriend his first avocado. He said, ‘I feel like you’ve tricked me, I thought it was going to be a delicious fruit but it’s like eating lard.’

Ilikecocacola · 10/11/2025 22:54

Seafood, first tried it in my 30’s ( hate it except prawns)
peanut butter. Love it now!

SpottyAardvark · 10/11/2025 23:02

Avocados. They hadn’t yet made is as far up the M1 as the small Derbyshire town in which I grew up in the 80s.

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 10/11/2025 23:05

Growing up in the 1970s, I would imagine that there were many, many foods I wouldn’t have had as a child that we look upon as being every day foods now. Certainly nothing Asian in origin, most Italian food other than tinned ravioli and a very tasteless spag bol made with minced roast lamb and tinned tomatoes; fish other than cod or tinned salmon or pilchards: cheese other than mild cheddar or the Danish blue my dad had for Christmas; avocado, sweet potato, squash, rocket, courgettes, broccoli, olives. Pulses other than fresh broad beans and baked beans; bread other than standard white or brown.

Enrichetta · 10/11/2025 23:06

so much my mother had all sorts of weird and irrational food restrictions she imposed on us all.

Same here. Plus she was a very unadventurous cook. The only spice she ever used was nutmeg… The list of foods I only discovered as an adult is endless, including any and all ‘foreign’ foods. Yes, even spag bol was off the menu.

Lots of vegetables never graced our table: broccoli, avocado, aubergine, okra, yams, pumpkin, butternut squash, parsnips, turnips, lemons, ginger, herbs other than parsley and dill.

We never had fish or seafood of any kind, or lamb.

TiredofLDN · 10/11/2025 23:10

God loads- before I was 18 and left home, I don’t think I’d ever had:

aubergine
courgette
avocado
fresh tuna
olives
hummus
cheese except cheddar or mozzarella
lentils
anchovies

I could go on!

longtompot · 10/11/2025 23:10

Artichokes. First had them at my to be in-laws with hollandaise sauce to dip the leaves in. Utterly delicious!

GiveUsACoffee · 10/11/2025 23:11

Avocados for me! My neighbour is in her 90s. I took her some chopped Indian mangoes once (Kesar), and it was the first time she had tried them. I was so happy!