I liked food a lot more once I realized that my grandmother and my mother were horrible cooks.

I had no idea salmon was good until I was in college, because when I was a kid my mom made salmon patties during Lent with canned salmon that she would mix with chopped raw onion, and the patties weren't cooked long enough to soften the onions. They were...not good. Then my BFF's mom made salmon steaks and I knew I had to be polite and try to eat it...and it was a revelation.

The only food I just couldn't try was tongue. I was sixteen at the time. I feel like I could do it now. Probably.

It reminded me mostly of pot roast. I had to keep getting past my mental block of "Aaaaaaah! THIS IS A TONGUE!", but it tasted pretty good.

My mom also made salmon patties! But no onion. I was very anti-onion as a kid. Now I still won't eat mushrooms, the taste AND texture I dislike. There are other things in not a big fan of (eggplant) but will eat in some preparations, or eat around, or to be polite (and have extra sides if I can)

Calla, best of luck to your mom!!

What really turned me off about tongue was that it was served WHOLE... on a bed of lettuce.

To this day, I really try not to eat any meat that can be positively identified as to what part of a body it came from. I call it Plausible Deniability Vegetarianism.

It's was sweetbreads for me. My mother liked them and would order them in restaurants as often as she could. I turned my nose up to them until I was around 40 or so and she convinced me to try them one more time. By then I'd tried all kinds of stuff I'd never thought I would 20 years earlier, so I went for it. Now I love them.

I liked food a lot more once I realized that my grandmother and my mother were horrible cooks. In very different ways. My grandma was the main cook and she lived through the depression and hated cooking. Plus we were poor and my grandpa was Archie Bunker in his detestation of any ethnic food, though mostly Italian. My mother could follow a recipe but could and cannot put together a menu, and she over cooks everything. My family also are a lot of things like potato flakes, minute rice, etc.

Oh, my family is exactly the same! I was a picky eater as a kid (okay, I still am) but I was also a sickly child, and I think my family was just so glad when I'd eat ANYthing that they let me eat whatever I wanted and didn't try to force anything. There wasn't much need for a "just try one bite" policy, because we never cooked anything new, so by the time I was 5 I knew what all the food tasted like. Vegetables were gross because they were cooked into mush. I don't think we ever had a salad with dinner until I was older and my mom discovered these new dinners. Spaghetti with a "boughten" roll and a side salad then became popular in our house. I never knew until I moved to NJ that we weren't eating a proper spaghetti sauce, it was some kind of meaty sauce mom made up. Which is probably why I liked it; I wouldn't eat the pasta if I didn't have enough meat sauce to go on it.

I am still not very adventurous regarding food, and I don't have a wide range of tastes that I like. I've tried most all types of "ethnic" food and have found a couple dishes I like well enough in each, which allows me to go to restaurants my friends like without making a fuss of myself, but it's not something I'd choose on my own. I'd eat steak and potatoes every night if I could. Sorry, all my foodie friends. I've never even eaten a muffaletta.

(If they're in my hot dogs, just hush, please).

Eat kosher hot dogs and bologna.

Is there another word for "ethnic" food that I wouldn't have to put in quote marks?

(If they're in my hot dogs, just hush, please).

Eat kosher hot dogs and bologna.

Oh, I actually LIKE that hot dogs & chicken nuggets use more of the animal than would otherwise be usable - I just don't want to know any detail. And seriously, if I could unsee the beef lips... shudder.

If I'd known what lamb fries were before tasting them, I doubt I would've been willing to. They're...surprisingly like chicken nuggets, though with a softer, less meaty texture.

Is there another word for "ethnic" food that I wouldn't have to put in quote marks?

International? Or, just specify the ethnicities in question -- Greek food and Peruvian food are pretty different.