Available food sources? I don't like X but X is one of the things we have so we have to get used to it.
Also, Social status. Y food is rare and a delicacy and I have to eat Y to be cool.
Additionally, Cultural Norms/Expectations. Z is commonly eaten by people of my culture/ethnicity so I have to eat Z on at least some occasions.
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1) Our subconcious mind has a large influence on the taste. If you are expecting a sweetroll and bite into a cannelloni, you will probably hate it. If you eat something for the first time, misled expectations (even if you think you aren't expecting anything) might make you dislike the dish.
2) Our hormones go through a pretty large adjustment every few (about seven) years. This also influences or taste.
If you tried something and are unsure (or just 'don't like it that much'), or if you dislike cerain elements (often spices) of it, try it again one or two times. If you still dislike the taste, that will probably not change for the next few years.
2) Our hormones go through a pretty large adjustment every few (about seven) years. This also influences or taste.
This. About a month or so ago I discovered I no longer enjoy the various types of cola. Tell that to 7-year-old me and he'd laugh in your face.
Why get new tastes? Experiences, of course!
I work in the food industry, more specifically the extra-virgin olive-oil industry (also some stuff with prunes, but mostly olives), and in the end taste is all about new experiences.
Taste and smell are the two most powerful memory senses; simply tasting or smelling a dish can throw people back to previous experiences in ways few other things can. So actively expanding your taste repertoire is a great way to enhance your life, as each of those new tastes will be potential connection to previous experiences. The more stuff you enjoy eating, the more likely you are to fix them to possitive situations. And the more of this connections you have, the more likely they are to influence your daily life in a good way.
Then there is also a social component, I suppose. For example, I don't drink alcohol; I just can't enjoy it, and believe me I've tried every spiritous concoction this side of legality. However, due to the industry I work in, I am regularly forced into situations where I am expected not only to drink alcohol (generally wine), but also enjoy it. So while I have not been able to enjoy drinking, I have developed quite a capacity to fake it! Though I like the fact I don't enjoy alcohol, I admit it would make my job much easier if I did.
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The first time I ever ate pizza as a kid I hated it. Now, I want to roll around on them.
The first time I ever ate pizza as a kid I hated it. Now, I want to roll around on them.
What about broccoli?
An acquired taste is something you can, but need to, learn to get used to. The classic example is coffee, and I must say I never found the point in putting in the effort.
However, other things I HAVE learned to like the taste of, and I consider the time well spent today.
Coffee is a good example, incidentally enough. "I hate coffee, but I need the caffeine." Eventually you'll probably like coffee.
I've heard some people don't like coffee, but I truly don't understand why. Of course the fact that I'm 70% coffee probably has something to do with that.
There's two of us!! :D
(Seriously, being a non-coffee drinker in Sweden will get you more will-you-stop-being-a-bother looks than almost anything else.)
I do believe that another good reason would be in the event that the first time one tries something, aside from expectations, there's the chance that the preparer, for lack of better term, did it wrong. My first experience with kimbap was terrible, but the second time I fell in love with it. Also, a few other foods come to mind, in regards to my wife - she loathed beans, hated beets, despised coffee, and refused to eat spinach before she met me. However, after a year of living with me, she was eating spinach when I cooked it or made salads, was as much a coffee drinker as I am, and with a few more years and me getting back into Indian cooking, she was smitten with my myriad dal and chhole, palak paneer, and beetroot and coconut samosas among other things. In her case, she grew up with spinach, beets, and beans out of cans, just thrown in a pot, heated, and served like that. Even I would be disgusted with them, had I grown up with that...except the beets, which I do still like. I'm weird like that.
Also, it turned out the wife didn't like Maxwell House coffee. She preferred my brand of choice, purchased whole-bean and prepared with a Cuisinart grind and brew.
The classic example is coffee, and I must say I never found the point in putting in the effort.
+1
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My father-in-law likes to take my family to dinner, usually to an Italian place. His favorite place always puts out a basket of bread and a bowl with a variety of olives. I was usually starving at that point so I'd eat the olives [and bread] even though I found them too bitter, not at all like the canned black olives I was used to.
Eventually they did grow on me and now I buy them from the grocery store.
The first time I ever ate pizza as a kid I hated it. Now, I want to roll around on them.Don't do that while they're too hot.
Spoken from experience? I will never tell.
But we will wonder. Oh yes we will.