Have you ever had a time a food so good it "converted" you?

You'd rather we cut the steaks off of a still living animal? Seems kind of cruel.

I don’t know if this fits but orange juice. I always disliked it even though I thought it smelled great and everyone else loves it, plus I like oranges. Every year or two I would try orange juice again hoping to like it, I really wanted to like it!! After three decades of trying to like orange juice I tried some from a brand I don’t usually buy for my family and it happened! It was so good! I drank like three glasses and got a bad acid stomach ache lol but I’ve liked it ever since, it still hurts my stomach if I drink too much though

I ran away from home to live in the woods when I was five. My mum packed me sandwiches. I didn't get very far because I wasn't allowed to cross the road on my own.

I never liked steak. Growing up, my parents tended to overcook everything (not sure if deliberate, my dad always ordered his steak well done at restaurants), which made eating steak or pork chops an annoyingly chewy experience all for the reward of dry, bland meat.

Just a few months ago, I bought a striploin cut and decided to keep it simple and just die a fry/bake and got lucky and cooked it perfectly (I say got lucky because I had screwed up my plan but caught it at the perfect time and the next few attempts weren't nearly as good because I didn't screw up the flawed plan and inadvertently stop cooking it when it happened to be perfect). And now I get why some people are obsessed with steaks.

I still prefer burgers and generally meats that aren't beef if I'm having meat, but every now and then I'll try a steak. Though I got a mixer and grinder, so there's a decent chance that the nice cut will get turned into a nice burger or meatballs, now that I have easy access to ground meat that isn't just from scraps or cheap cuts and don't have to hand mix it.

It was the fourth of fifth date with my girlfriend. She was an avid cook and wanted to cook me dinner.. Specifically lasagna.

I arrived at her apartment with her in full swing preparing it... The only problem was all the pasta was green, it was a vegetarian lasagna (she's not vegetarian). Asparagus and other vegetables rounded it out. It looked really unappetizing.


Here's the problem. By this time I was REALLY into this girl and here she was spending a lot of effort making me something that I really didn't think I could eat. I was afraid this was going to end our relationship.


So I spent the whole time watching her make this dish telling myself... "Ok Canopy, you're a 34 year old man and not a child. You can pretend to enjoy it this once. It won't kill you."


Over and over that was going through my mind.


We sit down at the table and she told me to serve myself and I dished out as much as I thought polite...


Then I took a bite.


I ended up eating two servings worth it was so damn good.


OH, and she and I have been married for 20 years now and have two boys. Also, food became one of the cornerstones of our relationship. She took me from being a Midwest redneck meat and potatoes child, to a full blown foodie that actually has a wider palate that her.


She also taught me how to cook and it turned out I am really good at it. I made us salmon cakes with an aioli, with mashed potatoes (that I just threw together without a recipe), and roasted broccoli.

Tastes change over time so I've never thought of it as a conversion. I used to think fish was disgusting. Then I aged and started liking it. I used to think asparagus was gross. Then I aged and started liking it. You probably 'liked' pasta salad for a while (as in you would have enjoyed eating it) before you had reason enough to try it again.

it's so good.

ginger

you know this is really mean, that person has a name and is an individual, just calling them ginger is rude

I didn't realise I had to be politically correct about cannibalism

Any "salad" that wasn't some type of leafy green and dressing. Pasta, macaroni, tuna, potato, and I think coleslaw caught some strays causes of the cream adjacent association.

I found out it was raw green peppers and celery I don't like. But taste change. After I got into cooking and learned what mirapoux was, it was over. I still prefer an acid based slaw as opposed to cream, and I still don't really fuck with raw green peppers (I would never complain about them if I got them, I don't even think I would ask for them to be removed, I just would probably cook them if I was at home first).

Hated bananas as a child, the smell alone would make me gag.

Puberty hit hard though, and periods do weird things to a person. I woke up in the middle of the night one night NEEDING to eat a banana. I ate all the ones we had at home (about 4-5). When my mom woke up I asked to go grocery shopping to buy more.

I've had a completely regular relationship with bananas ever since.

Meanwhile, I like nearly all fish except freshwater fish (trout excluded).

If you make teriyaki Spam and eat that with rice and nori, it's basically spam musubi, which is surprisingly good.

Oysters did this for me. Hated them growing up, even into my early adult years I still hated Oysters. The texture and taste just did not agree with me.

Then one Friday I had to go away for work for the weekend, I went to the local pub where I was staying for dinner, and the chef came out with like 6 Oysters for free, I tried one, then demolished the other 5, ended up ordering a dozen and demolished those. Been hooked on Oysters ever since

I'm smiling ear to ear over here. Lovely story.

Companies aren't tech. Regulations change, new funding comes through. Eventually it's gonna be cheaper to cultivate meat than farm it.