when I was real young, probably about 9 years old, and had a thing for pate. still love it but as a kid it was a weird thing to be into. by 11 I knew at least 5 different mushrooms and at 13 started working in the business and here it is 30 years ans 200 pounds later and i'm still trying new things to see what I like. unfortunately some of the things I like no longer like me, green peppers are out, cant eat them any more, now when I make stuffed peppers I have to use the yellow ones!

Smoked eel!
The gentlemen we got our live crabs from would smoke his own eels and walking past that smokehouse smelled sooooo good I had to try whatever it was being smoked, and I loved it.
Taught me to taste first and dislike a taste and not a description..

a lotus root in a stir fry.

Really cool looking, not much flavor but totally out there for a 10 year old.

Anchovies! The first time I had a "real" Ceasar Salad, I loved "that taste" that came from the anchovies.

It is as much as matter of upbringing as attitude. We always had artichokes when I was young [although in those days they were served with mayo and we learned early how to clean the choke]. And whole tongue and sweetbreads. When I visited the Netherlands on business years 20 ago, my host was surprised that I would eat herring from a corner stand although I skipped the eel.

Escargot, shad roe, and liver and onions were favorite foods when I was young. My taste for these foods seemed to set me apart from my peers, who generally preferred mac & cheese, pizza, burgers, and the like.

Fried soft crabs and raw oysters. My mother just wouldn't eat them or serve them. We had fried oysters and hard crabs, but she couldn't stomache the "faces" and the legs of a soft crab. Same with raw oysters--I loved the smell so couldn't wait to try them. She felt raw was dangerous and slimy. Sister is like mom--more for me (still).

When I was growing up, it was either canned peas (YUCK!!), canned corn or cream of corn as the vegetable with dinner. I refused to eat the peas so my parents would make me eat lettuce to get my "greens". A couple of veggies I love as an adult that I never had as a child are steamed squash or steamed asparagus; hollandaise optional.

And then the year I was 10, we lived in Athens

Greece or Georgia?

Greece. EL

For me it was frog's legs. I think I tried them for sheer shock factor when I was about 8. I remember thinking how good they were, how well the lemon and garlic worked with the crisp coating. The combinations of textures and flavor really excited me. I figured if something as wierd as a frog could taste this good,I should try something different everytime I went out. Luckily, my parents gave me the freedom to develop my pallet at a young age.

Roquefort.
When I was in grade school in the Sixties, my Dad would host the Colts pre-game and post-game parties in our rowhouse on 33rd St.
One of the noshes was Roquefort on celery. I was 6 years old when I first tried it. It was divine. One of the guests was amazed that someone so young could like blue cheese.

My first bite of fresh halibut. At that moment, I realized there was much more to fish then fish sticks and from that day forward, I stopped always ordering the chicken at restaurants.

Escargot. Definately escargot.

When I was a kid I loved pate, escargot, and medium rare steak. Charcuterie too. As a "treat" I was allowed to spread braunschwieger on toast or rye crisps (until my mom decided I had consumed enough nitrates to last me a lifetime). At the beach in New England I loved whole belly fried clams.

I flat our refused to eat mac and cheese, and frequently picked the cheese off of pizzas. I never cared for ice-cream or milk chocolate, only extra dark. I was one weird kid.

I'm going to go with Kiwi fruit. It is not that unusual now, but it was quite exotic in Aberdeen around 1980.

A visit to a Moroccan restaurant on a trip to Toronto in my teens. All sorts of new flavors!

Oysters. Raw. Served in a cocktail at my friend Mary McMillan's home. My mother, sister, and I were invited to dinner there shortly after my dad died. It was really my first adult dinner party and I was 16. (I had eaten fried oysters before at home, but it wasn't the same thing.)

An olive. I ate my first during a wine tasting at Cinghiale, maybe two years ago, and I was hooked. Now I have three-ish decades of olive-eating to make up for. Going well so far.

I also think that appreciating the depth onions give a dish was an "I'm an adult!" moment for me.

For your artichoke try olive oil, vinegar (more vinegar then olive oil), italian seasons, salt and pepper instead of butter...yuck.

Horseradish as a condiment.

I hated it as a kid, but when I was a bout 16, I was at a bull roast and decided I would try eating a pit beef sandwhich with nothing but horseradish and raw onion. Prior to that I'd just eat it with just lettuce tomato and mayo. But this time I was daring, so onion and horseradish it was. And it was awesome. I've been eating pit beef that way ever since, though sometimes I do ass a tad bit of mayo on occasion.

I didn't get my awakening until I was older than most of the previous commenters, but when I did get it, it was big. I was 16 and spent 3 weeks in France, living and traveling with a French family, determined to try everything they put in front of me. Fois gras, frog's legs, something in a salad that (if my poor high school French served) had come from a duck's stomach, rabbit, bouillabaisse . . . I'll confess that I was luke warm on the frog's legs, but everything else was a revelation.

Great topic--I'm getting hungry reading all the food memories here.

I'm with Pilsman on the Roquefort cheese. I think I was 6 or 7 the first time I tasted a really fine bleu (or blue, if you prefer) cheese. It might have actually been Stilton, because it was served by my great-Aunt who had a flat in London as well as other houses in California. La di dah! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I don't think I had a moment. Always, I'd order the thing on the menu I'd not had. If there was something I'd never heard of, even better.

My brother, on the other hand, will only eat hamburgers and chicken. He would only try new foods if beaten into it.

We were just born that way.

Whale steak at Haussner's. I was about 6 or 7 (60 years ago). I remember it was served "swiss style" with tomatoes and onions. I thought it was delicious, none of my friends believed me when I told them I had it. I feel guilty about it now, that whales are an endangered species.

I encouraged my son to eat frog legs, it turned him into a vegetarian. :-)

I read that that the Humpback Whale might be removed from the endangered list. Maybe the whale steak will make a comeback even though Haussner's will not.

Iceland claims that, at least in their waters, minke whales are not endangered. They've been hunting them for a few years now (and the whale kabob, or "Moby Dick onna Stick" I had in Reykjavik was most likely minke).

They've also been hunting a few fin whales for export to Japan. This is, of course, hugely controversial.

The one thing I not only wouldn't try, but indeed, left the house when my father was eating it was Limberger cheese.

I have eaten and enjoyed every other kind of cheese imaginable and still have not partaken of Limberger. The smell reminded me of dirty socks!

My father, God rest his soul, loved the stuff and knew he could clear all of us kids out of the house by sitting at the kitchen table and enjoying his Limberger.

When our family ate out, which was fairly often, my parents only discouraged me from trying something new, if it was costly. I learned at an early age not to turn away from a food because it looked or smelled "funny." If I didn't like its taste, that was fine, but looks and smell didn't count. As a result, there are very few foods I won't eat.

Dottie
So I take it you have eaten the "stinky cheese" limburger?
If so, did you like it? How did you get past that smell?