Food you hated/loved as a child

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In summary, as a child, I hated anything that had to do with being "health conscious" or "sensible". I loved fried apple pies and fatty meat. My best friend was Mexican, so I ate a lot of Mexican food. I swam competitively and loved eating Tang and cheese for lunch.
  • #1
Evo
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Ok, what popular foods aimed at children did you hate when you were a child?

Top of my list are

anything chef boyardee

spaghettios

Campbell's chicken noodle soup aka "worms in a can"

jello
 
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  • #2


I thought this was a list of foods you hated as a child, not "reasons I get up in the morning".
 
  • #3


Pengwuino said:
I thought this was a list of foods you hated as a child, not "reasons I get up in the morning".
LOL

You like this stuff? I can excuse anything except those nasty, slimy, soggy noodles and little cubes of cardboard (they say it's chicken) and the flavorless broth of Campbell's chicken noodle soup. If you add the recommended can of water it is so diluted it's tasteless.
 
  • #4


Bit o honey candy bars and chocolate covered roaches, I mean raisins.
 
  • #5


Evo said:
anything chef boyardee

That's about the only thing that comes to mind. But I do distinctly remember that we never ate the stuff, friends did, and I never liked any of it when I tried it.

The sudden onset of a stomach virus and a poorly timed Oscar Mayer bologna sandwich, ruined me on bologna for years.
 
  • #6


Ivan Seeking said:
The sudden onset of a stomach virus and a poorly timed Oscar Mayer bologna sandwich, ruined me on bologna for years.
Oh no, that's truly sad. Just the other day lisab reminded me of how great a bologna and potato chip sandwich was.

I guess we can expand this to foods you loved as a child.

At the top of my list would be the original McDonalds FRIED apple pies. They would serve them hot out of the fryer. Then the "health conscious" movement made them change to bland baked pies. Now fried pies are a gourmet treat. I'm watching a show about them on tv as the "best of".
 
  • #7


Evo said:
LOL

You like this stuff? I can excuse anything except those nasty, slimy, soggy noodles and little cubes of cardboard (they say it's chicken) and the flavorless broth of Campbell's chicken noodle soup. If you add the recommended can of water it is so diluted it's tasteless.

Eh... yah it wasn't that great. Then again, what else was there before these progresso things and what not started coming around?

Chef Boyardee was... IS... so awesome. I'm thinking of it right now. mmmm. BEEFARONI :D. I occasionally ran into these big containers of beefaroni... and I would ALWAYS want one but my mother would never buy me any. Now when I'm in stores, i can never find them. Spaghettios were good too! I was walking down a cereal aisle today and oh my gawd... I just wanted to buy every cereal there and bathe in cereal. Then eat it. Mmmm. Ok... what were we talking about again?
 
  • #8


i'm having trouble remembering common things like the Spaghettios. i think my mind needs to run a background process on that for a while. but the weird thing about me as a child is that i was Jack Sprat, and would eat no fat. this means i did not eat mayo, baloney, eggs, cheese, etc. i would eat peanut butter. fat was trimmed from steak. white meat chicken, never dark. I'm still mostly that way.

the thing about the chicken noodle soup... you're supposed to eat it with about a half a sleeve of saltines.
 
  • #9


Evo said:
I guess we can expand this to foods you loved as a child.

At the top of my list would be the original McDonalds FRIED apple pies. They would serve them hot out of the fryer. Then the "health conscious" movement made them change to bland baked pies. Now fried pies are a gourmet treat. I'm watching a show about them on tv as the "best of".

Tacos
Enchiladas
Taquitos
Tamales
Menudo

My best friend was Mexican and his mom cooked a lot!

When I was swimming competitively, and later during summer football training, I was addicted to Tang and cheese - a better part of a quart of Tang a huge block of cheese - for lunch each day.

Three Musketeers! [esp with half-and-half]
 
  • #10


Ivan Seeking said:
Tacos
Enchiladas
Taquitos
Tamales
Menudo

My best friend was Mexican and his mom cooked a lot!

When I was swimming competitively, and later during summer football training, I was addicted to Tang and cheese - a better part of a quart of Tang a huge block of cheese - for lunch each day.

Three Musketeers! [esp with half-and-half]
Menudo (tripe stew), now that's not something you'll find on every child's list of favorite things.
 
  • #11
Food I hated as a child:

Pretty much any vegetable, but that had just about everything to do with my mother's food prep skills and not at all to do with the veggies. She came from the Boil The Ever Lovin' Beejeebeez Out Of It school of cooking. Everything had a hideous consistency that was a combination of mush and slime and all of the flavour left behind was generally bitter.

The only vegetables to have held onto my disdain past childhood are Brussels sprouts and parsnips. Everything else has since been tried properly prepared and, oh, what a difference.
 
  • #12


Evo said:
Menudo (tripe stew), now that's not something you'll find on every child's list of favorite things.

Probably not! But they wouldn't tell me what was in it for years. :biggrin:

My least favorite food was probably string beans. [Not counting canned spinach or sauerkraut, which I wasn't required to eat]
 
  • #13


Pengwuino said:
Eh... yah it wasn't that great. Then again, what else was there before these progresso things and what not started coming around?

Chef Boyardee was... IS... so awesome. I'm thinking of it right now. mmmm. BEEFARONI :D. I occasionally ran into these big containers of beefaroni... and I would ALWAYS want one but my mother would never buy me any. Now when I'm in stores, i can never find them. Spaghettios were good too! I was walking down a cereal aisle today and oh my gawd... I just wanted to buy every cereal there and bathe in cereal. Then eat it. Mmmm. Ok... what were we talking about again?
That's too funny.

I loved Kraft macaroni and cheese. Yes, the orange powder. That is how macaroni and cheese should be. I still love the stuff, it is my comfort food. Serve that with hotdogs stuffed with cheese and wrapped in a Pillsbury crescent roll. :!)
 
  • #14


Evo said:
That's too funny.

I loved Kraft macaroni and cheese. Yes, the orange powder. That is how macaroni and cheese should be. I still love the stuff, it is my comfort food. Serve that with hotdogs stuffed with cheese and wrapped in a Pillsbury crescent roll. :!)

ok, so that is one. kids are supposed to love mac and cheese, but i wouldn't (still won't) eat it.
 
  • #15
As a child, I wouldn't drink milk or eat onions. I didn't like mushrooms, cheese or soup, but I would eat them. My mother told me that I wouldn't eat peas until she told me that I was a monster and the peas were people. I don't remember that. Other than these few, I liked everything else. I now like mushrooms, cheese and soup. I still don't like whole milk, but I learned later in life, that skim milk is ok. If my parents had given me skim milk there would have been no problem. Only onions remain as a food that I cannot eat. I think that as a child I ate a pastrami sandwich that had onions on it and the meat was bad. I vomited and I think the smell and taste of onions triggers a memory of that sandwich. However, I like pastrami. Although the aversion is only psychological, it is overwhelming and I get sick at the smell or taste of them. Unfortunately, they are the cheapest vegetable, they grow like weeds, and most people like them, so avoiding them is not easy.
 
  • #16
- white milk
- onions
- anything green (which kind of covers all vegetables)
- meat
 
  • #17
rootX said:
- white milk
Is there another color? :biggrin:
 
  • #18
Evo said:
Is there another color? :biggrin:
Tan. Once in a while my father and I would eat in a diner. On stools at the counter, like real men, not at a booth like wimpy families. He would order coffee for himself and milk for me. Some coffee would invariably spill into his saucer and he would pour that into my milk which then became palatable to me. Later I found out that he was spilling the coffee on purpose for my benefit.
 
  • #19
Evo said:
Is there another color? :biggrin:

Brown! It comes from brown cows.

aka chocolate.
 
  • #20
Evo said:
Is there another color? :biggrin:

I liked my milk to be red, chocolate, yellow, pink, .. anything but just white milk.
 
  • #21
Jimmy Snyder said:
Tan. Once in a while my father and I would eat in a diner. On stools at the counter, like real men, not at a booth like wimpy families. He would order coffee for himself and milk for me. Some coffee would invariably spill into his saucer and he would pour that into my milk which then became palatable to me. Later I found out that he was spilling the coffee on purpose for my benefit.
Awww, how old were you?

I loved ice cold whole milk. Now whole milk tastes like cream, it's too rich for me to drink a full glass.
 
  • #22
Evo said:
Awww, how old were you?
42
Text added to satisfy a curious criterion.
 
  • #23
Jimmy Snyder said:
42
Text added to satisfy a curious criterion.
:biggrin:

The 4 character minimum is to prevent people from making short, to the point posts. So, now they have to add needless characters. That'll teach 'em.
 
  • #24
My worse enemy was lima beans, my dad decided that I needed to eat them, I told him I didnt want them, explosive vommit followed. I guess I showed him, still can't even smell lima beans without getting nervous about what is to follow. The other I remember was raw clams. About 8 years old in san diego at a fancy seafood resturaunt I thought I wanted clams, the waitress asked my dad how I wanted them prepared, he happily said raw in the half shell, I figure he wanted to teach me not to expand my horizons, I showed him again(or he showed me the jury is still out), left a trail all the way from the table to the restroom. Still to this day clam chowder gets my gag reflex a going.
 
  • #25
Jasongreat said:
My worse enemy was lima beans
Those horrid green things? I can't eat them.

On the other hand large dried white lima beans cooked withn a ham hock until they get creamy are like butter.
 
  • #26
Evo said:
Those horrid green things? I can't eat them.

On the other hand large dried white lima beans cooked withn a ham hock until they get creamy are like butter.

Yes the horrid green things, I do agree anything is better with a big chunck of ham hock, but I doubt even that could help lima beans, green or white.
 
  • #27
GeorginaS said:
Food I hated as a child:
The only vegetables to have held onto my disdain past childhood are Brussels sprouts and parsnips

I had the same experience with vegetables as a child; canned, frozen or fresh didn't matter, there were always way overcooked... :yuck:
I've had parsnips in homemade soup (vegetable and chicken) and they tasted delicious, naturally sweet. Today I enjoy eating pretty much any vegetable that I've tried, except mushrooms (allergic to them).. But then mushrooms are not vegetables are they, they're fungi.

Evo said:
Ok, what popular foods aimed at children did you hate when you were a child?

Top of my list are
anything chef boyardee
spaghettios
Campbell's chicken noodle soup aka "worms in a can"
jello

As a child I agree on the first. Though the chef's real name was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Boiardi" ) I suspect dishes he prepared as a chef, tasted wonderful.

Campbell's chicken noodle soup, I did enjoy. Though today I wouldn't touch it (with yeast extract in there).

Jello was ok, but I think its greater attraction was the jiggle.. :smile:
A TV documentary told of Gustavus Swift (a captain of the beef industry) accumulating more wealth selling byproducts of cattle than the meat itself..Gelatin (jello) was just one example.

Besides not enjoying boyardee canned goods, I didn't like the Tuna or Hamburg Helper products.
 
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  • #28
Evo said:
anything chef boyardee

spaghettios

I started reading and realized that this thread just became a "how much we hate chef boyardee and spaghettios" thread. :rofl: Oddly, I recall mentioning how I had eaten something from chef boyardee before and didn't think it was so bad. Now I can't remember when that happened.

I personally had a problem and still have a problem with raw cucumbers. I think they have a 'green' taste. :yuck: On the other hand, I love every other type of vegetable with cauliflower topping the list.
 
  • #29
I ate almost anything as a kid. Seriously, my favorite meal was liver cooked with bacon and onions, and spinach. Also I loved a dish my mom made: shrimp in a tomato-based broth, with cheese dumplings.

But the one thing I truly hated: beets. Still can't stand them.

And that Nestle's "strawberry milk" - ugh, disgusting. Not a big fan of powdered milk, either.
 
  • #30
lisab said:
I ate almost anything as a kid. Seriously, my favorite meal was liver cooked with bacon and onions, and spinach. Also I loved a dish my mom made: shrimp in a tomato-based broth, with cheese dumplings.

But the one thing I truly hated: beets. Still can't stand them.

And that Nestle's "strawberry milk" - ugh, disgusting. Not a big fan of powdered milk, either.
Liver with bacon and onions was a favorite of mine also. Any and all seafood. Collard greens, greeen beans and new potatoes. Any vegetable except canned hominy corn (smells like old sweaty sneakers) and green lima beans (taste like green cardboard), white limas have resemblance in taste to the green things. My mother cooked all vegetables until tender, I loved them, they were always seasoned so well.
 
  • #31
~christina~ said:
It wouldn't be inaccurate to assume that I couldn't exactly not say that it is or isn't almost partially incorrect.
I'll take that as a yes.
 
  • #32
I hated Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Unfortunately, I sometimes got roped into eating it at other kids' houses (rude to turn it down). My mother made the most wonderful macaroni and cheese with sharp cheddar cheese, milk to make the cheese creamy, topped with saltine crumbs before baking to make a nice crust.

I figured out which invitations to "stay for supper" should be avoided. Some of the kids' mothers couldn't cook at all. The could open boxes or cans and heat stuff up, or make sandwiches out of crappy store-bought bread. Blah! My best friend should have been a skeleton the way his mother "cooked". He actually thought that Chef Boyardee spaghetti, ravioli, etc were good. Compared to his mother's cooking, it probably was, but YUCK!
 
  • #33
Ice cream, milk, chips... Can't recall anything other
 
  • #34
When I was young, I lost my taste for tripe, hot dogs, and bologna. But I later regained my taste. I think part of it is how they are prepared. My mom used to like to boil hot dogs, rather than roast or back them.

I also didn't like asparagus, but that's probably because my mom overcooked asparagus until it was mushy. I love asparagus, especially with manchego cheese sauce. I cook it though by dropping fresh asparagus stalks into boiling water for about 40 seconds. It's still crispy, but hot.

I also didn't like shrimp, but that also was apparently the way they were prepared. I love shrimp, preferably fried, and I eat the tail. I don't understand why people through away the tail and only eat the flesh part.

I now pretty much eat everything - okra, lima beans, beets, sea urchin, and all kinds of strange things.

The only thing worse than Tang and vodka, is vodka with Fanta root beer. :yuck: It doesn't help to smoke a cigar afterward either. [experience of a 16 yr old]
 
  • #35
Astronuc said:
I also didn't like shrimp, but that also was apparently the way they were prepared. I love shrimp, preferably fried, and I eat the tail. I don't understand why people through away the tail and only eat the flesh part.
Don't you think that the sharp edges could do some internal damage?

I think there were only two things that I didn't like to eat: overcooked bell pepper, because of it strong bitter taste; and undercooked mushrooms, because of its gummy texture.

I loved salad of chicory with a sauce of creme fraiche and pieces of orange, together with battered deep-fried chicken and a sprinkle of lemon. I also loved melon with raw ham, a sauce of mustard on bread, with a sprinke of cress.
 

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