more food

[calimac]

Mark Evanier can't think of any food he disliked as a child but likes now. I can, for myself: scallops, the shellfish. I disliked the taste, find it OK now.

That's not counting a lot of exotic cuisines I would probably have picked at if I'd encountered them as a child but didn't. College and grad school years were the great eras of discovery for me. I remember exactly when I first had Thai food: I was 25 and a colleague where I was working on my grad school work-study program took me out to dinner at what was probably then the only Thai restaurant in San Francisco. It was also one of the two spiciest Thai restaurants I've ever eaten in, the other being in Birmingham, England, a bit of a surprise since English versions of spicy cuisines tend to be very mild.

Memories of great meals of the past are giving me comfort since right now I'm not eating much of anything.

Comments

[oursin]

English versions of spicy cuisines tend to be very mild.

!!!!!!

The 1000s of South Asian restaurants across the UK would beg to differ.

[calimac]

South Asian in particular. Shockingly mild, even bland.

[sartorias]

Onions and spinach. (Though I have to say we only got frozen spinach as kids, which was slimy and gritty and I still don't like it. But fresh spinach in a salad? Yum!)

[oursin]

There's enormous variation within S Asian food - it isn't all fiery hot, which used to be the perception, but nonetheless, it can scale up considerably.