Eating habits in the past and now

You are the second person in this discussion who mentioned Okra. I have never tasted it, so I am not sure if I would like it or not. I had to look up bittermelon to find out what it looked like. I don't think that we can buy it in my country, I have never seen it in the shops. I have never really eaten offal except a Danish spread called "leverpostej" which consists of pork liver and a couple of other things. It is not because I find the idea repulsive, but I never had offal dishes in my childhood home. My mother doesn't like offal dishes so she never cooked that kinds of dishes in my childhood.

I am a huge fan of livers, My fridge have 1 pound of liver on it. Its my fave offals of them all. I think the Europeans who eats the most Offals are the French and Italians. I do know the Finnish eats blood sausage. I know Asians are stereotyped to eat offals but I know many Asians who will never touch them. Okra is very slimy in texture, that's why I struggled as a kid eating it. Its Elvis Presley's favorite vegetable though. if American Kids hated Brussell Sprouts, Asian kids hates Bitter Melon (also called Bitter gourd) Its a wrinkly green or sometimes white gourd, that is bitter. It is good for the health though, its proven to be anti-cancer, and anti-diabetes, Its also said one of the reasons why people in Okinawa Japan lives a long lifespan. There is now Bitter Melon capsules for people who wants its health benifits without enduring the bitterness. I learned to appreciate eating it as a kid. While it took me 2 decades to learn how to eat okra.

You should try the Danish "leverpostej" if you ever visit my country. It contains liver, onions and different kinds of spices. It is an extremely popular spread in Denmark. You can buy it in every grocery store or you can make your own. The homemade "leverpostej" is the best Brussels sprouts are a common type of food in my country, but there are many people who don't like them. It is interesting to hear to hear that Bitter Melon is good for our health, and it is nice that people can take capsules if they don't like the taste. I wonder if I have tasted Bitter Melon without knowing it. I remember one dish that I had at an Asian restaurant. It was very bitter, and I didn't like the taste. It could have something else instead, but it was definately a taste that we don't have in own country.

I still haven't learned to appreciate eggplants I can eat them, and I do eat them if I visit someone's home they have cooked a dish that includes eggplants, but it is not something that I would buy and eat at home. You and my husband have something in common. He also tries to avoid some kinds of beans because he doesn't like them. I know how he feels about it so I wouldn't cook a dish with beans for him. Aside from that he is not very picky and he eats most things.

You should come to my house and try my mother's spetzofai. You will love eggplants. Or her beef with potatoes and eggplants. We just had it today.

What is spetzofai? I haven't heard about that dish before...

When my husband and I visited Cambodia we joked about the fried spiders that they sell. We challenged eachother to try them, but neither of us actually tasted them. They are considered a delicacy in Cambodia, but it wasn't something that I felt tempted to try You mentioned Okra. I don't think I have eaten that so I don't know the taste. Minestrone soup is quite popular in my country. I don't eat much soup, but I know that many people from my country like minestrone soup. There is another popular soup in my country. Most people like it, but I really don't like the taste. I think that soup is a local dish from my country, I have never seen it in other countries.

Ewwww, fried spiders, ack! I mean, come on, why in the world fry such a tiny little thing? It's like frying a flea to me, haha. I think, but I'm not quite sure, that Okra is IN Minestrone soup. It's a green mushy vegetable which gives me the shivers, lol! The reason I mention Okra and Minestrone soup is many, many years ago I had the Flu and it was the really bad flu that made me sick for 2-3 weeks. It was awful. Before I even knew I had the Flu I ate a nice big bowl of Minestone soup....puked my guts out. I can't even think of eating that soup today still after all that time. That's how bad I had the flu.

The spiders in Cambodia are much bigger than the normal spiders from Europe. Some of the Cambodian spiders are about the size of the human palm I read that they taste like chicken, but I didn't taste them so I am not sure if it is true. Sometimes a bad experience can influence the way that we feel about a certain type of food like you experienced when you had the flu. My husband experienced a similar thing some time ago. We had bought durums the same day my husband started puking and feeling really bad. He had the flu and it didn't really have anything to do with the durum he had eaten, but today he always avoids durums.

I love deserts and sweets but I am trying to cut back on those things at the moment because I would like to lose weight. I love to eat different types of food and I love eat food that I have never eaten before, but there are some exceptions and dog meat is one of them. I have visited a country where dog meat is eaten and as a joke we took a picture of a random dog and another picture of a meat dish and told people that it was the dog that we had eaten for lunch. It was funny to see people's reactions. It was just a joke, because dog meat is one of the types of food that I would never eat. I have eaten frog legs at a Thai restaurant once. I also think that they tasted like chicken.

I too need to do that but I keep getting gifts from those who visit us and I just cannot resist eating them. Today itself I looked at myself and found that I have really put on weight and I have every intention to do something about it. May be increase my walking but not eating chocolates? - no way!

I have heard abour the rotten fish, but I have never tasted it, and I think that is one of the things that I don't have to taste I like shrimps and I had some of the best shrimps in Vietnam during a cruise on the Halong Bay. There was a seafood buffet, and the shrimps tasted really good. There was a huge difference between those shrimps and the shrimps you can buy in my country. I agree with you about sushi, it is not one of my favourite types of food. Some time I visited an Asian restaurant where there were sushi and dishes from China. The Chinese dishes were very nice, but I didn't like the sushi.

That is true. If you never try things you won't discover if you like them or not. That was also my parents' attitude when I was a child. They wanted me try things at least once, but sometimes I didn't want to do that because I didn't think that I would enjoy the food. I was afraid of trying new kinds of food at that time. Today I am completely different and I like to eat new kinds of food.

Yep. What my mom does know that she is a grandparent is every Saturday she tries to cook a new dish. Most of the times all of the little kids will eat. My daughter and myself don't like curry. We both tired it and we both suited out. I love it when my mom does different pork chops.

In my country we also use to make things from scratch but that changed when many women started working outside the homes. When the women had to cook and work at the same time, they stopped making things from scratch because they didn't have enough time to do that anymore. In my family we had very healthy food because father is a diabetic and my mother cooked the same food for all of us instead of cooking a different kind of food for my father. Like you I was picky when I was a child and I got less picky when I got older. Today I wouldn't call myself picky because I like to try many different types of food.

It is probably best to read this discussion when we have already eaten! Otherwise it is easy to get hungry. I had a very nice meal tonight (Indian take-away) so I don't really feel hungry now I can see that we like many of the same things. I love sweet things, pizza, burgers, fries, fruits, vegetable dishes etc. I am not a vegetarian but I like vegetable dishes very much, and sometimes I only eat vegetables and fruits. I also love sweet food like candy or cakes. I could eat candy and cakes almost daily, but I would gain too much weight if I did that, so I try to cut back on those things.

I think that it is a great thing to eat different types of food and get to know more about the different cultures that way. I was very picky when I was a child and it was really hard for my parents to convince me to try different types of food, but today I am totally different and I love to experiment with new kinds of food especially food from other cultures. There are many international restaurants in the city where I was born. I don't live in that city anymore, but when I visit the city I love to have dinner at one of the international restaurants. There are many Chinese restaurants, but there are also restaurants with Italian food, Turkish food, Indian food, Mexican food etc, and sometimes it is so hard to choose a restaurant because they all sound interesting to me

Many of my friends also had parents who taught them to eat the food that was put on their plate, but own parents let me make a sandwich if I didn't like the food that the rest of family was eating. I was picky as a child, but today I love to eat food that I don't know.

My mom would not let us in her kitchen. Im about the same with my son. I let him make a sandwhich last night.. he put 5 pieces of ham on it...

I can see from the responses in this discussion that other people have experienced the same thing as you and me. They were picky eaters in their childhood and today they eat many different types of food. I also wonder why this development seems to be quite common. Many parents are worried if their child is very picky, but that doesn't always mean that the child will remain the same way as adult. The child can actually become the complete opposite type of person like it happened in my case. My parents are surpriced that I love to eat new kinds of food today. They would never have guessed that based on my eating habits as a child, but today I am even more adventurous than my parents and I have eaten exotic food that my parents who never eat.

I have experienced a similar thing. When I was a child liked certain kinds of vegetables, but there was a very large group of vegetables that I didn't like. Today I eat a lot of vegetables. I have been a vegetarian in the past and that time I didn't eat meat at all. Today I eat meat sometimes but more than 75% of my food is vegetarian food, because I usually prefer vegetarian food.

I was the same way in my childhood. There was a lot of food that I didn't like for instance many different types of vegetables. My mother tried to introduce me to new kinds of food, and I think that must have been a challenge for her, because I was reluctant to try new kinds of food and I usually prefered to stick the types of food that I already knew. It is great that you love the Japanese food today. I have never been Japen, but I spent some time at a Danish/Japanese school in my country and sometimes the Japanese students cooked Japanese food for us. I didn't like all of the food in the beginning, but it was very interesting to taste food that was different from the traditional food in my country, and there are many differences between the Danish food and the Japanese food.

It is true that the senses decrease when we get older. In my previous job I met many senior citizens and many of them experienced problems with their sense of taste and they felt that the food had become boring because of the lack of taste. I think that must be an annoying problem. I love to eat new types of food especially food from other countries and I think that I would be sad if I couldn't taste that food anymore... My parents are surpriced to see me now because I used to be so picky when I was a child, but today I actually eat food that my parents don't want to taste

I was the same way when I was a child. There were many kinds of dishes that I didn't like at that time. My parents were not so strict at home. If I didn't like the food I was allowed to make myself a sandwich instead, but when we visited other family members or my parents' friends I had to eat the food that they had cooked and I forced myself to eat it even if I didn't like it. I love Italian dishes. I have lived in Italy and I learned to cook many Italian dishes at that time. I don't know the Puerto Rican dishes at all, but it could be interesting to taste some of them.

I think that is a good choice to eat food that is healthy. I try to do the same thing. I generally eat a lot of vegetarian food and I try to avoid unhealthy food as much as possible. I want to remain healthy and I would also like to lose some weight. When I was a child I was picky like you. There were cetain kinds of food that I liked, but there were also many other kinds of food that I didn't like for instance many of the vegetables. Today there are still some kinds of food that I don't like to eat, but today I love to try new things and I love eat the local food from other countries. That is always interesting and I have discovered some really delicious food that way.

I had friends in Italy who loved rabbit meat. In own country pork, beef or chicken are more popular than rabbit meat. I don't eat rabbits. I keep them as pets, and they are not food to me. I have eaten horse meat in the past, but I didn't know what it was when I ate it. When I had eaten it I was told that it was horse meat. I was at a school at that time and they probably knew that most of the students wouldn't have eaten the dish if they had known what it was. I have never tasted dog meat, but it is one of the things that I don't want to taste.

My parents weren't very strict about cleaning my plate and I was usually allowed to make myself a sandwich if I didn't like the food that the rest of the family had. I tasted blood sausage when I was living in Estonia, but I was not involved the process where they made it, and I am happy about that. I have never tasted hearts, my mother doesn't like hearts herself so she didn't prepare that kind of dish for our family. I don't eat rabbit meat, because I keep them as pets. What does squirrels taste like? I am curious, because I have never eaten squirrels.

The same thing happened to me when I had horse meat. I didn't know what it is was when I ate it. When I had eaten the meat it was revealed that we had eaten horse meat. Horse meat is not very common in my country and most people prefer to eat pork, beef or chicken, and most of the people in the room probably wouldn't have eaten the meat if they had known what it was