Brussels sprouts were gross in the '90s, they were gross in the '70s and they’re gross now. People need to stop trying to make Brussels sprouts a thing. They’re cabbage, and cabbage is gross.
5 Likes
One time I was in a Sainsbury’s supermarket cafe area for reasons I can only guess at, and next to the checkout there was a bowl of “kid’s snack apples”, which were just unusually small apples. I remember thinking there is nothing more British than going out of your way to cultivate apples specifically for stinge.
4 Likes
My wife hated sprouts until I cooked them for her, since mom-in-law is from old British stock and believes strongly in the “boil until soft” approach to cooking everything from meat to veg. When Mrs. Puma confessed to her that she now likes sprouts, her mother almost immediately prepared a big batch and came over to visit and enjoy them with us. I was quickly educated as to how I too could’ve learned to hate sprouts had my own grandmother not believed in slathering in oil and roasting. We politely ate the whole batch though. When I had an opportunity to return the favor with my own batch at a later date, I was told mine were “interesting” and “different.” We have since stuck to our preferred methods and never crossed the sprout line again.
8 Likes
No, cabbage is good!
You’re gross!
10 Likes
I had the same experience eating bananas in Liberia. So incredibly good!
2 Likes
This. I grew up hating many vegetables because they were canned and prepared terribly. I still haven’t forgiven asparagus, but at least it’s made it to “meh” for me. Thank dog grandma did her own canning and that’s where the majority of our veggies came from. It was the number one influence on my adult tastes (and career choice!).
6 Likes
My Grandmother, who was a saint and utterly beyond criticism, used to boil asparagus in milk. While I think everything Grandma ever did was wonderful and above reproach, somehow the end result of this cooking technique betrayed her. Over time I have learned that grilled/roasted asparagus is delicious, and so I have forgiven it for the treachery it showed Grandma.
Brussels sprouts were real borderline for me as a kid. Halfway between liking them and gagging on them. Now I 100% like them, and BoingBoing has told me why.
3 Likes
Don’t underestimate the power of situation to change how things taste, and how you remember them tasting. I have had bottles of wine on vacation in beautiful places that totally blew my mind. Of course, I bought bottles and then drank them later at home. Exact same wine when I’m tired after work, just “meh”. Same goes for restaurant dishes when you’re having a great time vs being in a bad mood. Sure, some variation exists on how the dish is made night to night, but effect of mood and circumstance is dramatic.
Assuming you were eating a “standard” Cavendish banana, as others have said, it is literally an identical genetically cloned copy of the same banana instance that everyone has eaten since the Gros Michel was wiped out by blight hundreds of years ago. The fact that bananas are all clones is mostly lost on people. It’s interesting to me that nobody asks how something with no seeds manages to reproduce. I never thought about it either until I started reading about the history of banana cultivation. Perhaps most people have gotten a little too far from our agricultural roots. 
It’s still possible to get other banana strains and grow them yourself. There are hobbyists who grow Gros Michels, for example, because they are apparently a lot better.
6 Likes
6 Likes
I find almost all cook cruciferous vegitables to be kind of nasty. A little cabbage in a stew or egg roll seems ok. But otherwise I much prefer to eat them raw.
1 Like
The first time i had Brussels Sprouts was around 2002 and they were really delicious but i do remember it having a faint bitter aftertaste. The overall experience was really positive though, had no idea that it had been altered that recently to make it different but i guess i shouldn’t be surprised. The sprouts are a definite favorite and me and my significant other love to make them
1 Like
A lot of people don’t realize that there’s a genetic component on the human side of this equation. The Taster trait is the cause of many divergent opinions on cruciferous vegetables.
6 Likes
It roaches the texture. Never had one that wasn’t mush. The same is true of most frozen veg, terrible texture. And while technically it might “improve” the flavor I’ve never had that didn’t taste horribly over cooked even if cooked for just long enough to heat through. So it’s a can but doesn’t situation.
My grand father, who is Irish, ended up vastly preferring them roasted. Though growing up for him the rule was not boiling the shit out of them. But steaming them till they were still crisp.
My grandmother on the other side of the family was the boil the fuck out of it sort. She is otherwise an excellent cook, and comes from a French background where boil everything isn’t the deal. Hell we grew up eating crepes 3 days a week.
She stopped ruining sprouts the minute we introduced her to other methods.
I hated most vegetables as a kid as canned or frozen were too common, and everything done got boiled. I don’t know what it is in American cooking that says all veg are either boiled or a salad. But I ate a lot of salads.
Boils the fuck out of sprouts Grandma had a small, part time farm where they grew a lot of their own food (and ours). And we had a large garden.
The only time I would voluntarily eat most vegetables was when we had the fresh ones from the garden or Grandma’s home canned stuff.
Later money happened and we started buying fresh veg and things like chicken instead of doing it the hard way. Then toaster oven.
Wut?
5 Likes
I honestly feel like a major part of the trend toward healthier grocery store options, organic agriculture, the proliferation of farmers markets and the general sense that meat isn’t always the centerpiece of a meal comes from a combination of the major deficiencies in mid-century diets and just enough of a cultural memory from the pre-war agrarian diet and preservation methods to know better.
5 Likes
Growing up i also hated a lot of veggies, it wasnt until nearly my teens that my mom connected the dots that the ingredients i was really hating was her overuse of celery and cilantro in many of her dishes. She was able to adjust her ratios and i immediately started loving her cooking and by the time i got to college and was cooking for myself i slowly transitioned to being a vegetarian.
I can’t use fresh veggies fast enough so i typically end up buying frozen but i’m very careful about which kinds of veggies i buy frozen as to avoid the mushiness.
1 Like
Viz. retsina, but for stronger values of “meh”.
3 Likes
In Venezuela we have quite the variety of obscure bananas and other varieties and hybrids of other fruits. One particular banana that’s loved is a real small variety and has a somewhat tough center that isn’t typically eaten (think of something like a corn cobb), the variety is pretty sweet and extra delicious that eating them can be addictive… except that there is a minor drawback. Eating them will make you want to use the bathroom 30-60 minutes later. We have an amusing anecdote of a cousin who ate like 8 of them because he was being a glutton and then nearly soiled his pants an hour later 
6 Likes
I can dig it; different strokes and all that. I enjoy most members of the brassica family heavily roasted (as well as raw and/or fermented) but wouldn’t fault anyone for not caring for them.
2 Likes
That’s something I’ve not heard of for asparagus (grilled, wrapped in bacon is still tops for me), but we do it for bulb fennel, butter, milk, parmesan, salt and pepper, and boy, it’s lovely.
3 Likes
Brussels sprouts (why is sprouts capped here?) are by far the most misspelled food I see in supermarkets and on restaurant menus.
People seem to have a pathological aversion to ending a proper noun with an oh-god-won’t-this-make-it-plural s.
3 Likes
