Tastes change

I don't like olives.  Never have, never likely to.  Big fan of their oil, just not the little green and black things themselves.  Apparently some people take to olives later in life.  It's one of those things that if you didn't grow up eating them, people seem to think you will become a fan when you are older and your taste buds are more mature.  Do taste buds actually mature though?  Or do we just like eating what we like eating regardless of age or whether we grew up on it or not?

I never had spinach as a child as my mother had been forced to eat it when she was a child and subsequently hated it so much that she never cooked it for us.  So I came to spinach somewhat late in life but love it none the less.  The same with sweet potatoes.  As a child growing up in Ireland in the 70's/80's,  sweet potatoes only existed in the cool American picture dictionary I had (same goes for yams and bison).  Now give me some sweet potato fries and a splodge of aioli and I am a happy girl. 

I can see how if you were forced to eat something you didn't enjoy or ate it so often you got sick of it that would put you off eating or cooking it.  My aim for this month is to try to shake off my pre-conceived notions of what I like and don't like, try new things and make my children try them too!