But, children's taste buds are different from adults. Iirc they taste things more strongly, so the bitter notes are more pronounced.
Also, they've been breeding stuff like brussel sprouts to be less bitter for a while now, so veggies might actually taste better than when we were kids.
Same with Brussel sprout. My step-dad would boil them. Tastes like a soggy sulfur fart. But cut them in half, toss them in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, roast them until crispy in the oven with, and they're delicious. Oddly sweet, even. Try with other seasonings to enhance further.
Some might say that it makes them less healthy, but a very light drizzle of honey before you cook them, and it becomes one of the best things you'll ever eat
I dunno about asparagus, but it turns out the Brussel sprouts we ate as kids were bitter and didn't taste as good as the ones they sell now. But yeah, with asparagus, you gotta broil those bad boys with garlic/olive oil, etc
I love steamed (not boiled) asparagus. Though for most of my life, vegetables were just a vehicle for butter and salt. I’ve pulled way back on how much I use in recent years.
My buddy makes the most delicious grilled asparagus. He’s a real pro and it’s a treat to bbq with him.
The real reason is that unhealthy food contains ingredients that were rarer for our ancestors to obtain. Dense caloric food meant surviving a winter, but our winter never comes.
I looked my mother in the eyes after a long day once and responded to a similar statement with "No, I hated your chilli when I was a kid."
She really does make the absolute worst chilli I've ever tasted. It's so bland. There is almost no chilli powder in it, just some salt and a little bit of pre-ground pepper from a packaged salt/pepper shaker. The recipe amounts to "throw some hamburger and tomato sauce with canned beans in a pot and cook it for an hour and then add random amounts of all THREE seasonings"
It's a wonder I survived to be able to cook on my own.
Ahhh the Midwest classic of I don't need recipes I just throw impossibly small amounts of seasoning in despite there being literal pounds of vegetables and ground meat in it.
Don't forget to cook your venison through with only a little butter so you don't get sick! A fucking alligator couldn't bite through that shit.
My mom was a hippie and made her own bread and we always ate homemade food. When I went away to camp, I was the one pigging out on the sugary breakfast cereals like Froot Loops etc. while the other kids were busy being amazed by the eggs and pancakes and whatnot.
No! Salt kills you, cooking kills vitamins and when you think you do everything right, then your vegetables don't have good enough quality and don't have enough nutritients. Eating healthy means to suffer, deal with it!!! /s
Unnecessary racist comment but it's OK since its against the one group that its OK to be racist towards. This wouldn't fly if it was about black people and a similar gotcha line
Because you are designed to seek out salt and sugar as a survival trait; then decided to mass produce it and put it into everything. Now your tastebuds have been ruined, even the standard apple/banana has been genetically modified to have more sugar
Like many other cultures, bananas and apples were selectively reproduced to obtain fruits with more to eat. Corn, carrots, every single kale and cabbage, potatoes, oranges and even strawberries can go into this basket.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
But to call the work of millenia and who knows how many generations of farmers genetic modifications is a bit over the top.
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more) resistant plants.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
I cannot help thinking about the first proto-human that started munching on the tips of wild grass.
"Hey Unk, check out Krug over there, chewin on the grass. That shit's messed up."
iirc the modern banana is actually a less flavorful variety than centuries past, but not for selective breeding reasons. The more popular variety, the Gros Michel, was susceptible to a certain fungus that wiped it out by the 60s. Those apparently tasted closer to the artificial banana flavoring that is still used today and in fact are what that flavoring was based on (albeit probably quite a bit more sugary and concentrated since it's still a candy flavoring).
And then you have other produce like apples and tomatoes being bred for size and yield, since that will both net more profit and feed more people. This often necessarily means that the produce will lose flavor in the process, as well as nutritional value by weight since the size/yield increase is mostly just the crop taking up more water. (I think the genetic modification you mentioned is in some part meant to correct that inverse relationship between yield and nutritional density, but I'd have to read up more on the subject.)
So I think you can just as much argue that it's not our tastebuds being ruined so much as produce itself being considerably less appealing to them.
You can buy Gros Michel bananas still you just have to put in some effort. If you are in the USA and have the cash the Miami Fruit Co ships them when they grow them. I haven't checked but I believe they are in banana season.
Depends on if he's having a bad day, or if he believes in himself. Wait, is that why faith is how you get into heaven? God having shitty self-confidence and not wanting any haters around makes as much sense as any other I've heard.
The bible actually says there are other gods beside the main one; he's the king of kings, god of gods. But maybe there's an emperor of emperors, God of gods of gods? It's gods all the way up.
Because who buys spices at the regular grocery store, it's like $4 for a 50g bag. You gotta go to the Asain grocer or Indian market for those delicious half kilo bags for $6.
Then put them in an old pasta sauce jar and shove them in your pantry and let them get old and off gas their aroma until they're just bland sawdust....but act like you're still better than other white people because you own spices.
I still don't understand why the cooking skill of my parents sucked this bad. I started cooking on my own when I moved out and even after just a bit of practise and good recipes you can cook tasty meals. How do you go on 50 years failing this, I don't understand. If I see another bowl of dry rice, canned peas and ready marinated chicken from some discounter I'm going to throw up.
Boomers came up as fast food franchises and convenience foods began to dominate. The equal rights movement meant more women in the workplace and less in the kitchen and instead of spreading the burden, capitalism filled in the gaps.
Another explanation is that American cuisine got wrecked by the Great Depression. Everything that had flavor was expensive. People's inability to purchase and make certain foods stopped generational transfer of knowledge on how to make certain things. Thankfully, after several generations it's finally recovering.
"Ethnic" food (non European) wasn't as affected as much.
I heard an interview about a book on it a few years ago but now I can't find it.
Because they did cook well at one point. It took hours, it involved a lot of cleanup, and 4 year old you whined and complained for some chicken nuggets and the fucking candy bar your aunt gave you without talking to your parents first.
So they gave up. The tantrums, the rejection, the effort. None of it was worth it. Like pretty much every skill in life it atrophied.
I loved to cook and I'm good at it. My 5-year-old won't eat a burger I made and asks instead to go to the "burger store". I don't want to cook much anymore.
I just spent Thanksgiving with my family, and was reminded how much my parents love boiling things. Fucking disgusting, no spices either? Fuck bland potatoes. It takes almost no effort to just toss a bunch of fucking spices on them and then put them in the oven.
My dad does this, just boils vegetables and potatoes so long that they're reduced to their component quarks and then serves them in a bowl with nothing on them. For bonus points, he makes sure they've cooled off to room temperature before we eat. I want to blame the Great Depression for this style of "cuisine", but he was born after that shit.
No excuse for bland potatoes. Even boiled, they can taste good. Low effort, throw some dill on those bastards. It's that easy. My mom is diabetic, and down a kidney, so salt and sugar are not really things in the food she makes, but it always tastes good.
Isnt thanksgiving a month from now? Are you like from the future? Why did you suddenly come back? Is the whole world doomed and you came back to warn us of something terrible?!?!?
As a lazy person who grew up with a parent who's method of cooking vegetables was just "boil it till its grey!", if a vegetable can be eaten raw, I will be eating it raw.
Raw broccoli dipped in garlic greek yoghurt is delicious, nutritious and fast/lazy to prepare.
I'm on the hunt for a vegan alternative that is decent, but until then, crunchy carrots and sugar snap peas are my go-to lazy veggies.
Maybe you just need to find the right veggies or the right seasoning. I wouldn't say I love veggies more or less than a burger, but they add much needed variety.
I’m also a meat eater but have to disagree with you there. I prefer variety because eating the same salty slop gets boring. Maybe you have abused your tastebuds . If you take a break from certain foods it recalibrates the taste buds.
Seriously though I’m amazed at how many people don’t understand basic cooking and how easy and necessary it is to take interest in self health and basic nourishment. But then get shocked when their organs start to shut down before 50. Like “omg they are trying to kill us all with salt and sugar in fast food” shouldn’t be a shock anymore. It’s capitalism. That’s how it works. They don’t care about your body.
All these air fryer, broiler, sautéing, and other methods...
Y'all forgot about microwaves. Microwaves and veggies are amazing. Broccoli, carrots, etc. Microwave until a fork still has a little resistance. Add a spot of sour cream or honey and dill... Or something. Tada. So fast. So yummy.
Okay I microwave veggies a lot because it's convenient but we cannot pretend that the fart cloud created by microwaved broccoli is in anyway close to the delicious crispyness of stir fried or baked broccoli
Steam broccoli and cauliflower together in a microwave or steamer of your choice with butter and whatever seasonings you like. Toss in a wok with ripping hot olive oil until golden brown on the edges. Make sure to be rough with the broccoli and cauliflower, you want it to be crushed a bit. Shit slaps and it so easy. Idk if it's healthy anymore after all the butter and oil but whatever. you can adjust the butter levels as needed but make sure there's enough oil in the wok
Butter isn't bad for you per-se, it's the quantity that gets you. It's a pretty calorie dense food, and it has a lot of other things in it that, when taken in large quantities will clog up your cardiovascular system.
Used in proper moderation and it's wonderful. Throwing a whole stick of it into a single serving at every meal is probably too much.
Disclaimer: I am neither a health professional, nor a nutritionist.
A four-panel Mr. Lovenstein comic titled "THIS COMIC MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO EELS OF WOOD"
The first panel shows an angry pink humanoid standing on a green circle, holding a bunch of asparagus spears and speaking to a yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid barely in the panel. The pink humanoid is saying "HEY GOD, WHY DID YOU MAKE HEALTHY FOOD TASTE BAD?"
The second panel shows the yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid in more detail. It has a halo and is wearing a white robe. It's rolling its eyes angrily as it responds "OH MY GOD! DO I HAVE TO SHOW YOU EVERYTHING?"
The third panel shows the still-angry yellow-skinned humanoid cooking the asparagus spears in a frying pan over the open flame of a gas stove as the pink humanoid watches on amazed. The yellow humanoid is saying "SAUTÉ 'EM AND DON'T FORGET THE SEASONING! STIR AND TASTE AS YOU COOK!"
The final panel shows a close-up of the pink humanoid holding a half-eaten asparagus spear with its mouth full and eyes wide in awe as it says "IT'S... DELICIOUS!" A response from off-screen replies "OF COURSE IT IS!"
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From what I understand, it's that foods containing lots of fats, sugars, salt etc aren't normally unhealthy, out in the wild. When you're worried about not starving, foods with energy storage substances like sugar are a good thing, and the amount you'll get in some wild fruit or something isn't bad. Salt is an essential thing to get enough of, and overabundance of it in food isn't common. So, rather than evolve some ability to know exactly what substances we need and only want to eat food with those exact things, we have the evolutionary shortcut of "sweet things are good, fatty things are good, salty things are usually good, etc". Our biology hasn't really evolved to for the possibility of us farming stuff that contains sugar on an industrial scale, extracting and concentrating that sugar, and then putting unnaturally large concentrations of it in everything.
Depends on the veggies. I'm very sensitive to bitters, so Asparagus to me tastes awful no matter how it is cooked. Same with arugula and some other leafy greens. But beans, broccoli, carrots all taste nice and I eat a lot of those.
Cook nearly any veggie in shallots, cream, whisked in egg, top with Parmesan, broil until brown.
Veggie gratin that isn't the most healthy but is better than nothing, and brilliant served as a side to steak. I recommend mushrooms, spinach or zucchini.
Was gonna say, that sounds pretty high in fat. Definitely better than a lot of the alternatives, but I'd only call it just this side of not healthy.
The real problem is that healthy food really is only good if it's fresh, and so it's a lot more inaccessible than shitty, processed either frozen or fast food.
-Raw is perfectly fine for most veggies.
-Steaming is an easy method, if raw is unpleasant or if the veggie is more woody.
-Blanche and shock make a cooked veggie divine!
-Sauteed (with plenty of butter) until fork tender on the stove top also helps.
-Baking on a sheet tray, covered in olive oil and salt / pepper make a lot of veggies shine
The main issue with all of those is understanding cook times, which takes trial and error.
I just discovered a cookbook called Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden while looking up cookbooks to get me to eat more veggies. It's in the mail, so I can't vouch for the recipes yet. Apparently it's very highly rated though and I'm excited for some tasty veggies.