Food you didn't like until you left home
Discussion
Bit of fun, inspired by a reddit thread.
Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was s
t.
My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
t cooking?
Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was s
t. My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
- Stirfrys are made in the oven.
- They don't season anything, because salt == bad in their household.
- They have this deep inground paranoia about salmonella so cook chicken to the point where you can use it as brake pads.
- Brussel spouts must only be grey in colour, you achieve this by boiling them for about 30 minutes.
t cooking?devnull said:
Bit of fun, inspired by a reddit thread.
Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was st.
My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
t cooking?
I'm 6ft 2", left home in 1999, aged 29 and weighing 10st. I'm now 52, weigh 13st and enjoy food more than ever but my partner has a food science degree, loves her cooking and I love eating it!Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was s
t. My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
- Stirfrys are made in the oven.
- They don't season anything, because salt == bad in their household.
- They have this deep inground paranoia about salmonella so cook chicken to the point where you can use it as brake pads.
- Brussel spouts must only be grey in colour, you achieve this by boiling them for about 30 minutes.
t cooking?My mum wasn't a 'bad' cook but she didn't understand food like Mrs F does. My mum's cheese & potato pie was so nice and I have tried to do it but it's not the same. But also my mum would put the veg on before putting the roast in the oven, Vegetables to me growing up were a tasteless mush and probably why I weighed so little.
My dad wouldn't allow curries or any 'foreign muck' in the house, the smell made him gag, so I didn't have my first curry until I tried a balti with my girlfriend. He started eating pizzas in the 90's but probably thought they were exotic.
I have just discovered stilton, after so many years of trying it and pulling faces of disgust.
My parents are both good cooks, so it's not so much how they cooked things, but there's definitely some stuff that I wasn't keen on as a kid where it was because my mum was being a bit tight.
Cheese sandwiches? Great if you use actual cheese, not so much processed cheese slices.
Orange squash? Tastes good if you dilute it to a reasonable strength rather than something homeopathy would recognise.
Also quite a few things where finally tasting the "real" version rather than supermarket own brand was a pleasant surprise.
Related to this, one small detail I always found interesting is Brussels sprouts - when people say they didn't like them as a kid but do now, it's not just due to their taste changing, it's also changes in the specific varieties grown, so modern ones are less bitter.
Cheese sandwiches? Great if you use actual cheese, not so much processed cheese slices.
Orange squash? Tastes good if you dilute it to a reasonable strength rather than something homeopathy would recognise.
Also quite a few things where finally tasting the "real" version rather than supermarket own brand was a pleasant surprise.
Related to this, one small detail I always found interesting is Brussels sprouts - when people say they didn't like them as a kid but do now, it's not just due to their taste changing, it's also changes in the specific varieties grown, so modern ones are less bitter.
Fastchas said:
devnull said:
Bit of fun, inspired by a reddit thread.
Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was st.
My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
t cooking?
I'm 6ft 2", left home in 1999, aged 29 and weighing 10st. I'm now 52, weigh 13st and enjoy food more than ever but my partner has a food science degree, loves her cooking and I love eating it!Which foods didn't you like until you left home and had the realisation that it was simply your parents cooking that was s
t. My parents were fairly good cooks, but I was put off eating eggs for about 20 years because my mother would serve scrambled eggs to me as unseasoned rubber granules. She didn't believe in butter, because butter was bad and it would make you fat and you would die etc etc.
When I started working and having breakfast in nice hotels, it dawned on me that good scrambled eggs with lots of butter, cream etc were actually rather nice.
I would consider myself a fair good cook myself, and I've managed to unwind some of my wife's expectations of food. Her mother...isn't great at cooking.
- Stirfrys are made in the oven.
- They don't season anything, because salt == bad in their household.
- They have this deep inground paranoia about salmonella so cook chicken to the point where you can use it as brake pads.
- Brussel spouts must only be grey in colour, you achieve this by boiling them for about 30 minutes.
t cooking?My mum wasn't a 'bad' cook but she didn't understand food like Mrs F does. My mum's cheese & potato pie was so nice and I have tried to do it but it's not the same. But also my mum would put the veg on before putting the roast in the oven, Vegetables to me growing up were a tasteless mush and probably why I weighed so little.
My dad wouldn't allow curries or any 'foreign muck' in the house, the smell made him gag, so I didn't have my first curry until I tried a balti with my girlfriend. He started eating pizzas in the 90's but probably thought they were exotic.
I have just discovered stilton, after so many years of trying it and pulling faces of disgust.
When she met me she had never eaten curry, or spag bol for that matter. I don't think her parents possessed a single spice!
In fairness I think food in the UK has moved immesurably since many posters here left home. For me I left home 1992/3, my Mum was not a bad cook by any means but firmly set in the 70/80's so gammon or fish and chips, plate pies, lots of mash and overcooked veg. My Dad would not contemplate rice so that only appeared with a takeaway and things pasta were unheard of. McCains French bread pizza was a lunch for me only (its kids food) and curry? No chance!
So I guess for me the big changes were pasta and rice and meat cooked less than well done purely because they didn't exist at home.
ETA: pork, eat loads now but t home as a kid it was banned... "worms"
So I guess for me the big changes were pasta and rice and meat cooked less than well done purely because they didn't exist at home.
ETA: pork, eat loads now but t home as a kid it was banned... "worms"
Edited by 21TonyK on Monday 10th January 19:37
I didn't touch pasta or curry until getting to university. I convinced myself that I hated meat as a child and teen as all meat dishes were cooked dry. Rank chewy roast dinners, potatoes like stones, mushy veg. Pork or lamb chops that were chewy and dry and the worst of the worst, a fckin slow cooker with braised beef that looked like dog food.
I don't miss a single aspect of "home" cooking tbh.
I don't miss a single aspect of "home" cooking tbh.
I grew up in the 70s and 80s and my mum was a really good cook. We ate all sorts including pasta and risotto at home on a regular basis and occasionally curry out. But she struggled to get me to eat green veg apart from peas, despite not overcooking it. I don't think that changed until I went to uni the second time round in my mid-20s and as I could cook I cooked for the house and everyone else insisted on veg. 
I can't think of anything. My mum was an excellent cook and as my dad was Foreign Office we lived in a few places with great local cuisine. Every post had some form of embassy wives club for "bored housewives" married to diplomats from all over the world and they all met regularly to gossip, drink wine/cocktails and swap recipes from their respective cuisines as well as bringing in local experts to demonstrate traditional favourites. We lived in Moscow, Singapore, Peking, Rome and Budapest, so by the time I left school I'd been exposed to a lot of variety and all manner of "exotic" ingredients and dishes. My diet today is very bland in comparison thanks to a teenaged stepson who has a flavour phobia!
A couple I can think of.
I left home, at 18 years old, in 1987 and, in general, Mum was an excellent, creative cook who could turn her hand to many things. However:
1. Liver: I was convinced this was a tough, almost powdery item that was 'orrible to eat, and only by poor people. Only relatively recently have I discovered its delights when sensitively cooked, especially with mashed potatoes, onions and roasted apples (Berlin style). Similar with chicken livers which I only discovered when accidentally ordering in a pasta dish.
2. Curry and other Asian delights: This is the shocker. Mum and Dad were brought up as traditional English-food-eating types (spaghetti Bolognese was considered fairly exotic), and subsequently the nearest I got to "curry" were the Vesta packet things. I was therefore convinced curries were terrible. Then one fateful weekend while visiting a mate at his university he convinced me to go to the local tandoori: Eyes. Opened. Couldn't live without Asian food now, be it Indian, Chinese, Thai or whatever. Glorious.
I left home, at 18 years old, in 1987 and, in general, Mum was an excellent, creative cook who could turn her hand to many things. However:
1. Liver: I was convinced this was a tough, almost powdery item that was 'orrible to eat, and only by poor people. Only relatively recently have I discovered its delights when sensitively cooked, especially with mashed potatoes, onions and roasted apples (Berlin style). Similar with chicken livers which I only discovered when accidentally ordering in a pasta dish.
2. Curry and other Asian delights: This is the shocker. Mum and Dad were brought up as traditional English-food-eating types (spaghetti Bolognese was considered fairly exotic), and subsequently the nearest I got to "curry" were the Vesta packet things. I was therefore convinced curries were terrible. Then one fateful weekend while visiting a mate at his university he convinced me to go to the local tandoori: Eyes. Opened. Couldn't live without Asian food now, be it Indian, Chinese, Thai or whatever. Glorious.
generationx said:
<snip>
2. Curry and other Asian delights: This is the shocker. Mum and Dad were brought up as traditional English-food-eating types (spaghetti Bolognese was considered fairly exotic), and subsequently the nearest I got to "curry" were the Vesta packet things. I was therefore convinced curries were terrible. Then one fateful weekend while visiting a mate at his university he convinced me to go to the local tandoori: Eyes. Opened. Couldn't live without Asian food now, be it Indian, Chinese, Thai or whatever. Glorious.
You've taken me back to just before I left home in the late '60s.2. Curry and other Asian delights: This is the shocker. Mum and Dad were brought up as traditional English-food-eating types (spaghetti Bolognese was considered fairly exotic), and subsequently the nearest I got to "curry" were the Vesta packet things. I was therefore convinced curries were terrible. Then one fateful weekend while visiting a mate at his university he convinced me to go to the local tandoori: Eyes. Opened. Couldn't live without Asian food now, be it Indian, Chinese, Thai or whatever. Glorious.
Pasta was tinned Heinz Spaghetti on toast and curry meant vaguely spicy gloop at a families' lunch in the mess when I was home from school. It was accompanied by little bowls of almonds, raisins, chopped tomato and was bland to the point of tasteless.
Since then curry, in all its forms, has become a firm favourite to cook, in restaurants and from takeaways.
21TonyK said:
In fairness I think food in the UK has moved immesurably since many posters here left home.
]
Agreed. My dad is probably a better cook now at 73 than he’s ever been. Last trip home his food was wonderful. ]
For me, I’ve never really been a fan of root vegetables purely because of their overcooked bond mushiness growing up. For example I can eat buckets of raw carrots, manage them in stir fries etc but cannot eat them in stews or casseroles.
Meat was always well done, pink meat or any blood was seen as a sign you would die before bedtime. I discovered otherwise in my early 20s thankfully.
The other big one was sugar. Growing up I had 2 sugars in tea or coffee. Weaned myself off it at uni, took my parents about another 20yrs to do the same.
Lucas CAV said:
I didn't touch pasta or curry until getting to university. I convinced myself that I hated meat as a child and teen as all meat dishes were cooked dry. Rank chewy roast dinners, potatoes like stones, mushy veg. Pork or lamb chops that were chewy and dry and the worst of the worst, a fckin slow cooker with braised beef that looked like dog food.
I don't miss a single aspect of "home" cooking tbh.
Same here. Any curry in our house was a Vesta's packet, they were not good. I now love properly cooked Indian food. I don't miss a single aspect of "home" cooking tbh.
Likewise 'roast' dinners in our house would be more appropriately named 'nuked'. My mother would cook the meat until it was well overdone, because her mother did it like that, because they were all petrified of food poisoning.
I now cook a lovely joint of roast beef, cooked to perfection according to my wife, through no greater skill than following the time and temperature recommendations on the label, then leaving it to stand for a while after cooking. Most importantly, not nuking it!
Quite a lot!
My mum isn't a great cook, and my late father was a kidney dialysis patient so diet very controlled and we all ate the same family meals. He really had to watch his salt intake for example, cue very little seasoning! Something my mother still does despite being divorced many years!
My mother in law however is an extraordinary cook, so we eat VERY well when we visit.
As a funny example of my mothers cooking, and I've seen someone else post about gaining weight when losing home. I moved out at 18, but at about 23/24 I was back with mum briefly after a failed relationship and me being in between houses! I used to get home before my mum and I had developed a love of cooking by this point. In the 6 weeks I stayed with mum, she gained a stone through my meals (when you consider she's about 9 stone it's more impressive, if impressive is the word) !
My mum isn't a great cook, and my late father was a kidney dialysis patient so diet very controlled and we all ate the same family meals. He really had to watch his salt intake for example, cue very little seasoning! Something my mother still does despite being divorced many years!
My mother in law however is an extraordinary cook, so we eat VERY well when we visit.
As a funny example of my mothers cooking, and I've seen someone else post about gaining weight when losing home. I moved out at 18, but at about 23/24 I was back with mum briefly after a failed relationship and me being in between houses! I used to get home before my mum and I had developed a love of cooking by this point. In the 6 weeks I stayed with mum, she gained a stone through my meals (when you consider she's about 9 stone it's more impressive, if impressive is the word) !
generationx said:
2. Curry and other Asian delights: This is the shocker. Mum and Dad were brought up as traditional English-food-eating types (spaghetti Bolognese was considered fairly exotic), and subsequently the nearest I got to "curry" were the Vesta packet things. I was therefore convinced curries were terrible. Then one fateful weekend while visiting a mate at his university he convinced me to go to the local tandoori: Eyes. Opened. Couldn't live without Asian food now, be it Indian, Chinese, Thai or whatever. Glorious.
Very similar to me....my parents hated the thought, smell and flavour of a curry (Indian, Chinese, Thai - anything of that nature) and generally any foods that tasted spicy or exotic, so no such thing ever passed through the front door of our house, let alone got cooked for us. It was usual basic english meals for us a household.Fast forward to 18 years old, leaving to go to university, my house mates couldn't believe it & were always trying to drag me to the local curry house, but I always found an 'excuse'....until the peer pressure was too much and I went. I had a korma, naturally. Whilst it took me a couple of visits to get the flavour (building up through the spice levels mainly), i've never looked back. I now couldn't live without a good Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi these days....
Crazy really....but the upside is that it made me ensure my kids have been exposed to all sorts of food from a young age so they don't 'miss out' like I did. To be fair, neither are particularly fussed for curry, but they have a pretty good spice tolerance
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