Feed Your Baby

For all my new parent readers out there, I thought this Nestle study was interesting - talking about how you need to reintroduce previously rejected foods, as some babies take time to adjust. I for one can attest to a few foods that I've previously detested and now love...I'd say reintroduce throughout life - in my case, for some foods, it's taken 25 years!

• xiang gu - Chinese dried black mushrooms. Their taste is very strong and when I first had them as a kid did not like them at all. I was still a kid when I started to not just like them, but love them. They're an essential ingredient for homemade jiao zi.
  
• tofu - I couldn't stand tofu when I was a kid -- all the way to my early 20s. To me, it was a bland cube of mushiness. And sometimes it was a bland cube of fried mushiness. No thanks. Then a few years ago in Seattle something changed and I started loving tofu. I ordered it whenever I could instead of meat. I still can't get enough and like all kinds. My dad used to get cho tofu (stinky tofu) and it was just more reason to dislike tofu as it stunk up everything in the fridge, and when he started cooking it outside on the back porch, would stink up the whole neighborhood! I never even ventured a bite (why would I put something so stinky in my mouth when I couldn't even stand being within a 50 foot radius of it?!). However, last year, when I visited my aunt and uncle in Kaohsiung, I ventured to try some at the night market. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Now that I've moved to Taipei I've had it on a few occasions and enjoy it.
• tea - I've hated tea my whole life. Being in a Chinese family, this proved particularly difficult as every Chinese person I know drinks tea. Every Chinese restaurant serves you tea. Every Chinese host offers you tea on arrival. And I always have to refuse as my true longing is for a nice large cold cup of water. It's not just the heat of the drink that bothers me but also the flavor. And when I got older I realized that the caffeine has a strong effect on me, so just one more reason to avoid it. However, in my first visit to my cousin in Malaysia, she offered me tea from one of her many beautiful tea sets. How could I refuse? And it wasn't as bad as it usually is. Usually one sip makes me want to gag, but this was doable. Since then, I can drink tea in social situations.
• green beans - boy did I ever avoid this dish when I was a kid. Since the rest of my family liked it, my mom would always make it. The taste was always too unpleasantly strong. At friend's houses for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I would politely take 3 little strands and force them down my throat begrudgingly. But again, this one changed recently...maybe while I was at my sister's a couple years ago. I think the sauce balanced out the flavor and I've since become used to the natural flavor.
  

There's still a list of foods that I can't stand (celery, licorice, papaya) but maybe in the next 25 years that will change too.