First Tastes

[Deleted]

Kerouac mentioned in another thread about his and others experience with tasting certain foods for the first time.

An intriguing topic particularly for me in many regards as much of my experiences along these lines was certainly influenced by regional/cultural exposure and divides.

For starters I will list at least 3 prominent foods that I was never exposed to while growing up in the Northeast and I will elaborate further when time permits.

The first being Avocado.
Artichoke
Eggplant
Okra
the obvious regional seafood e.g. crawfish and some other local fish.

These are just a few that come to mind but hopefully will generate more discussion along these lines.

[Deleted]

I was well into my twenties before I had any of those fruits/vegetables you mention, casimira. Just not avaiable in small town Canada. You can't pay me to eat okra, I'm afraid, although I love the others.

Being born and raised in the centre of the country, I never developed a taste for seafood, especially shellfish. I'll eat prawns and scallops in a pinch.

[Deleted]

I never tasted an avocado until I went to university in California. I remember being quite disconcerted knowing that it was a fruit and was shaped like a pear, but it had no fruit qualities as far as I was concerned. Didn't much like it. It took me years to warm up to avocados and they are still far from the top of the list of things I like to eat.

Oddly enough, I immediately liked the avocado milk shakes that they make in Vietnam.

[lagatta]

But you certainly eat tomatoes!

[Deleted]

I have never had a tomato milkshake, though.

[lagatta]

Neither have I. Not an avocado one. Since I had a very severe cow milk allergy as a child, I never grew interested in them. It isn't a texture that appeals to me, even if made with goat, sheep or so-called milks from vegetable protein sources. But I do like both tomatoes (except cherry tomatoes) and avocados.

[rikita]

i might have had avocado in my teens for the first time, okra when i was 17 and an exchange student in oklahoma (never really took to it - the okra i mean, i enjoyed being in oklahoma), artichokes as an adult, though i don't remember the first time ... eggplant from childhood onwards, as my parents grew them in our greenhouse and usually made ratatouille with it ...

a drink of which i remember my first taste quite clearly was root beer - on my first day in oklahoma, as my host family stopped at a restaurant on the way home from the airport where they had picked me up, my host brother ordered it, i was curious - and i liked it right away ...

of course there are some exotic foods that i know when i first had them - like cuy during my time in peru or dosa when i was in kerala ... ah and fruit - the pepino dulce and prickly pears we had often for dessert in chile, sugar cane i first tried as a kid when a family friend brought a little piece home from a trip ... and of course there as a great time of "discovery" when i was ten and we suddenly had all that food from the "west" available to us, and at first it seemed all so great ...

[Deleted]

This is an odd one:parsnips.

I did not taste a parsnip until around 2010. (I had seen so many posts on here featuring them and then sought them out in the produce section.
It turns out my husband had never tasted one either but it makes more sense that he would not have been exposed to them having grown up here in NOLA).

I say it's odd because it's the kind of vegetable that could easily be grown in the NE along with the many other root vegetables that we grew on our farm.

The reasoning behind this I have no clue.

It's one of the many questions that have come up since my mother passed away.

So, I guess I'll never know.

[chexbres]

I distinctly remember the first time I tasted olive oil - it was wonderful, and I will carry this to my grave.
It was in the little Pompeian bottle - the only kind widely available in the 1960's.
My family always used bacon drippings and "vegetable oil" - and my family did not eat green salades.

I also remember the first time I was given a piece of pumpernickel bread, when I was around 3 years old, which made me immediately throw up. It was only until I reached the age of 30 and worked in a deli that I was forced to taste it again. Now I can take it or leave it.

[onlyMark]

With being fortunate to have travelled a little I have recent memories of tasting something for the first time. One of the worst was injera (sourdough flatbread with a slightly spongy texture made out of teff flour and is a national dish in Ethiopia and Eritrea) -
and it tasted and smelt like dog sick.
Unfortunately I had broken down in a small village on the Ethiopian side near the the Kenyan border and as I was just relocating the truck from capital to capital I had no food stocks to rely on. It took me several days to repair the problem and in that time the only food available was injera and a version of wat (meat stew) made out of tough old goat.
I lost quite a lot of weight not eating and trying to work in high temperatures. I was young then though.

[bjd]

I used to know a Malaysian/Chinese woman who had lived in England before coming to France. She used to complain that she couldn't find parsnips here. I had no clue what they were in fact. Then, in the past few years, they have appeared at my local market, only in winter of course. I had to ask how to prepare them -- not my favourite food, but I guess they are okay from time to time.
The same seller has been selling other root veggies that I didn't use to see in France: rutabagas and other turnipy things.

I didn't taste artichokes until I came to France. I don't see what the fuss is about. I also tasted snails once, shortly after arriving here -- they were in some garlicky butter but my husband (he's French, he is supposed to know how to cook) burned the butter when he heated them and I had such a stomach ache that I have never wanted to taste them again.

[Deleted]

I had never seen parsnips either until a few years ago when they appeared next to the carrots. I have discovered that they are of no interest to me.

Meanwhile, chards have basically disappeared in France. When I moved here, they were very common and even in the canned goods section of the supermarket, there were plenty of tins of chards next to the peas and beans and the other canned vegetables. Not anymore.

I was exposed to artichokes at an early age (French mother!) and have always found them more fun to eat than 'good' to eat. As a child, what could be more fun than a finger food that you peel away little by little until you get to the 'prize'? By the same token, I have little interest in artichoke hearts unless I have revealed them myself after hard work. When I see the tins of artichoke hearts at the supermarket I just think WTF.

As for snails, they have always been part of my diet but only at 'festive' times. Since they really have no taste at all, the main interest in them is the bubbling hot garlic butter and of course -- also from a child's point of view -- the treasure hunt of digging them out of the shell with a 'snail fork' (something that all of us are supposed to own in France -- I currently use my grandmother's snail forks which must be at least 80 years old).

[Deleted]

Parsnips were cultivated by the Romans and were an early source of sugar, before beets and cane. I've also read that they were one of the staple starch crops before potatoes made their appearance in Europe.

I adore artichokes and I'm getting excited that the season is coming up. Italian recipes all the way.

[Deleted]

When I worked in Casablanca for a few weeks (when I review my life, I find it hard to believe that I can truthfully write 'when I worked in Casablanca'), I usually went for a few beers with my colleague Miloud after work, and he always took me to a bar that put bowls of sea snails on the counter along with a few pins. It was my first experience with this, and I very much enjoyed extracting the little snails from the shells (and sometimes failing). Frankly, just like the snails we eat in France, they didn't really taste like anything, but it was a fun thing to do while standing at the bar.

[bjd]

I can find chard (blette!) at the market here but don't buy it. I tasted it at the maternity hospital and decided I could live without it.

[Deleted]

I could easily do without chard or kale and find them terribly overrated.

My first snail experience was a non event. I found them too chewy much like calamari when it's not fresh and or "young".

Kerouac, you should try and see if your grocery has artichoke hearts marinated in olive oil and spices/garlic et al sold in a small jar.Add some fresh squeezed lemon juice throw it in a salad.
It might change your mind about them.

[onlyMark]

Roasted parsnips. Food of the Gods.

[Deleted]

See? I knew there was some point of reference pointing in the direction of where I first started hearing about parsnips.

It was A Brit thing. And likely Baz with his culinary posts and you Mark were the impetus that piqued my curiosity.

And, that's exactly how I prepared them, roasted.

[lagatta]

Another veg that is very good pan roasted is sprouts (Brussels sprouts). And I do like parsley root. I'm trying to think of foods I first ate when studying in Italy that later became popular here; I don't recall eating rocket - roquette - rucola - arugula here before then, not even at the Jean-Talon Market in our oldest little Italy. I believe it hailed from different regions than the Italian immigrants here came from. I had kale in the Netherlands before it was popular in so many places. Chard I can't remember not eating, especially in the form of a double-crusted pizza that was either vegetarian or with something like ham, lardons or sausage.

I like chard very much, and I don't hate kale, but it is downright weird in salads. The main problem is that it is being touted as a faddish "superfood" - of course it is nutritious, but then so are all dark-green and cruciferous vegetables.

The whole topic reminds me of Elizabeth David and a bit later Claudia Roden introducing more southerly ingredients first to the UK and from there to parts of northern Europe and North America where they had been unknown or uncommon.

[Deleted]

Sorry Lizzy but, I think that needs to go into another thread.

I loathe these trendy food stuffs while they may well be delish, are just that, a trend or, maybe not.

Before you get offended read me out on this K?

Some years back I knew a slew of chefs at some very prominent high end restaurants here in NOLA.
I was "courted" so to speak to grow some new and "different" food items/ingredients and bartered with a bunch of them mainly with citrus but also turmeric and some other herbs not readily available on the market}.
I (and now in retrospect am glad I did, relented and stuck with what I knew how to grow, an example being FENNEL which I grew aplenty but now the demand not for its bulb or greenery but FENNEL POLLEN.  _{( F me )}
That's where I drew the line.

[lagatta]

I think I might have eaten that in Umbria. Fumobici? It is among an array of semi-wild herbs and greens people eat in central Italy. I've had sampfire in the Netherlands; it would certainly grow as well in nearby Britain.

[mich64]

I too enjoy parsnips! Roasted or boiled. From childhood, my mom boiled them (lots of butter, salt and pepper) as an adult, more so roasted.

Disliked brussels sprouts as a child, my mom boiled them, but as an adult I love them when roasted with crumbled bacon.

Did not try avocado until an adult could eat it even alone scooping it out of the rind. My husband tried avocado for the first time while on our holiday in Costa Rica, it was a no for him, texture issue. I gladly added it to my salad.

Growing up, we spent 5 years on Price Edward Island (P.E.I.) and one memory my mom will tell from living there is when she found me underneath the kitchen table with a bottle of clams, delicious! This is where I was also introduced to fiddleheads, quite good.

I have never had the opportunity to try okra. Chard and artichoke are available here but I have never tried either.

My mother-in-law frequently made snails but never when I was there. I wonder if she still has her bag of shells?

[lagatta]

Chard would probably grow where you are if you have any decent soil. Kale is a cold-climate leafy cabbage, it certainly would. Artichoke, don't think so. They grow near Montréal now in the summertime but I think that is the coldest zone where they grow, and I suspect they have help (like unheated greenhouse-type shelters). Oh, I love that seafood! I'm a cat, after all. I've never been to PEI, only to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia eastwards.

[fumobici]

Mar 5, 2017 0:39:50 GMT lagatta said:

I think I might have eaten that in Umbria. Fumobici? It is among an array of semi-wild herbs and greens people eat in central Italy. I've had sampfire in the Netherlands; it would certainly grow as well in nearby Britain.

Fennel is extensively used in Tuscan cookery.  It shows up as a roast side veg, in soups, stews, paired with roast pork, or in sausages.  And the seed is, again, a very common cooking spice. The wild version commonly grows alongside the strade bianche in the Apenine foothills, I know spots near my family's house to pick it. The italian name for the plant, finocchio, is also a disparaging term for gay men in Italy, so if you are watching an Italian movie and hear it don't be confused into thinking they are necessarily discussing culinary plants.

[lagatta]

Fumobici, I wasn't referring to fennel, which has been a common veg at Jean-Talon Market for at least 40 years, and probably longer, but that cute little wild green thing discussed upthread. And yes, of course I know that finocchio is a disparaging term for gay men.

[Deleted]

I probably never had curry until I was an adult, but I have absolutely no recollection of the first time. Now it is something that I eat very regularly.

[bjd]

Given that I don't like the taste of anise, I won't eat fennel either.

I don't quite understand the fad for kale -- there are much tastier green leafy vegetables. My daughter-in-law's parents eat things because they are good for them rather than things they enjoy, so she has planted kale in their garden near Ottawa. When I am there, I try to avoid eating too many of the leaves in a salad but without being obvious about it.

[chexbres]

Fennel - I use braised fennel to stuff whole fish.
Also use it when I make bouillabaisse. And I eat it raw in salades.

Parsnips are very good when sliced and roasted with a little olive oil.
I parboil Brussels sprouts for one minute, then roast them with butter until they are a little brown.

I am vehemently against the trend of "blackening" any vegetable using a high temperature in the oven.

[onlyMark]

I didn't try McDonalds until my mid-twenties. Found it ok but nothing too good.

[Deleted]

I have not yet had my first taste of whatever Starbucks sells.