What's one food your children surprised you by loving? Win a £100 Rosa's Thai voucher!

[MaddyMumsnet]

We all have ideas about what our children will and won't eat... and then they completely surprise us.

Has your child ever loved a food you were convinced they'd refuse? Maybe they happily tucked into something spicy, developed a taste for olives, or unexpectedly became obsessed with curry or sushi!

If you're happy to share, we'd love to hear about it. Your story might even encourage another parent to try something new with their own child. 🍽

Leave your comments by 13/8/26, to be entered into the Rosa's Thai voucher draw.

Clams and baby octopus have been adored by my two since they were tiny…

My daughter goes gaga for gherkins, Marmite, sushi, and is starting to gradually build a tolerance for spicy food. Not all at the same time naturally.

My son loves brie, gherkins, and occasionally stilton. Sometimes all at the same time.

My eldest has been obsessed with mushrooms since she was a baby. I’ve never known a small child to like them 😂

Asparagus. No idea why, perhaps because it’s another way of getting butter into their mouths.

My children eat everything, and love spicy food especially my daughter, sometimes when she was little the staff in restaurants would come over because they were so impressed with her, give her a really hot Laksa any day.

All my dc like cabbage and broccoli, just plain steamed, nothing fancy. They all like mussels, and at least two of them loved snails when we were in France.

(Just for a bit of balance, one of my greens-lovers retches at peas, sweetcorn and baked beans!)

Smoked salmon and spinach (not together, bit you never know!)

Sardines!

My little ones both loved wasabi peas. I was amazed as both were quite picky and often complained other foods were too spicy

Lemons. Whenever there's a slice of lemon with the salad in a takeaway they go mad for it. I have to go and get a lemon so that they can have some each.

Mine have always eaten everything I’ve given them - olives, curry, gherkins, smelly french cheese, DS1 ordered snails in garlic butter at a restaurant age around 8🤢

Weirdly the only thing DS1 won’t eat is sandwiches 😂

Caper berries! What are those weird little seedy pods?! But my daughter will tuck into them.

My nephew is a fussy eater but LOVES olives.

Prawns, probably as I hate seafood.

I wanted my child to try Thai green curry, so I made a milder version just for them. I used less green curry paste, added plenty of creamy coconut milk, and mixed in chicken, sweet peppers and a little sweetcorn to keep the flavours gentle. I served it with lots of fluffy jasmine rice to balance the spice. I expected them to be a bit unsure, but they absolutely loved it and even asked for seconds! It taught me that with a few simple tweaks, children can enjoy foods we might never have thought they'd eat

Salt and pepper chilli squid for my youngest (who apparently doesn't like spicy food) and fondue for the oldest (who claims not to like cheese). Kids are weird!

Crispy duck, when he was teeny tiny. He wasn't an adventurous eater, it was that and fishcakes!

When my dd learnt to open the fridge she managed to open a packet of mussels and eat them. She also loves smoked salmon and pickled onions. Strange strong flavours for a small child!

Spicy food. We're talking top level spicy like ghost peppers.

We took our first child to Malaysia when he was 18 months old. He turned out to like durian!

Quite helpful really, as we were being hosted by local people and wanted to be polite by accepting what we were offered. I struggled with that as was in early pregnancy and very very nauseated. Couldn't cope with durian at all. Having one family member who liked it went down well.

My daughter has ASD and loves calamari (as in the battered version of squid rings) - went to France and she ordered calamari which turned up as full on octopus with tentacles etc - I though no eat will she will eat it - she ate the whole lot 😳

Sardines on toast.

Fish eyes! Yes, really! My son demands them any time we eat a whole fish. I'm really not quite sure how it started, but it's a tradition now and he loves eating them.

My picky son loved sushi! Shock of my life haha!

Mine both asked for liver & bacon for Christmas dinner a couple of years in a row. They don't like it now though!