Grown-up foods

When you’re a child, it’s not uncommon to sometimes think of your parents as weird. Especially some of the foods they eat. Say, vegetables or shell fish or hamburgers cooked medium-rare.

Sometimes tastes don’t evolve — hence the reason Mexican restaurants feature chicken fingers on adult menus. But more often than not, the foods that seemed so foreign to us as children become some of our favorites.

Author Accidental Hedonist describes the change that happened with oysters.

When I was younger, oysters were slimy things, often bought from the tin, and often smoked … Now as I’ve aged (and have moved to a region of the country where oysters are plentiful), I find myself migrating to dishes that contain the mollusk, regardless of whether it’s raw, cooked, or deep fried.

But it’s not just oysters. Other foods that I have once disdained I’ve recently rediscovered. The ultimate test, I suppose, if anyone could make liver an interesting treat.

Why and how do our tastes evolve? It’s mostly a mystery. Of the five tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami), children seemed programmed to react positively to sweetness and adversely to bitterness. As people reach adolescence, saltiness starts playing a more important role and sweetness takes a back seat. (People remain divided on bitter.) It stays relatively the same for adults, though our sense of smell decreases with age, causing older people seek out stronger foods.

Whatever the reason, just be thankful kids don’t like foods like oysters since it saves that much more for us adults.

(Image via Flickr: Daniel James)