Food dislikes-as guest, but will politely eat

[Eden]

Seems like a lot of people maybe are not suffering from actual dislike of so many foods, but from exposure to bad cooking.....

I'll never write something off the first, second, probably even third time I've had it. You can get foods prepared poorly and *think* you don't like them.

I had octopus quite a few times and thought it was not too good before I found that if it is prepared correctly it is wonderful. I'm not crazy about a lot of cooked fish dishes, but I loooooove sushi. I used to think a lot of vegetables were nasty - probably because I'd never had them from any source that wasn't a can - Yeah, canned (or jarred) asparagus is awful, but fresh asparagus is yummy with a capitol Y. I don't care to use many veggies that are not fresh - okra, artichoke hearts and corn work frozen, but I don't care to buy other veggies frozen.

There are definitely things I don't eat regularly for health reasons, some things I avoid for ethical/philosophical ones, but I've definitely learned that no matter what I ever thought in the past, always try a food if offered it, especially if its prepared in a way I've never had it. I would have missed out on so many absolutely food experiences if I closed my mind and my mouth to things. I really believe that one of the things that makes people open up the most is sharing food. Food is a huge part of a culture - eating with someone and eating what they eat is sharing their culture with them! People love to talk about their food - it makes them happy!

Maybe I am unusual, but I definitely have a broad palate - I love to cook and I love to cook foods from all sorts of ethnicities. I cook a lot of Chinese, Thai, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Middle Eastern. People often ask me which of your parents is "X" after talking about cooking food from that place??? Nope - sorry I just have a lot of cook books and access to the internet...