Food Fads.

I was thinking of my childhood food dislikes: tapioca (frogspawn!) and sago puddings and macaroni pudding, which fortunately probably don't exist now; jelly ( because of the consistency); any visible black specks on fried food ( possibly ants!); any visible fat on meat at all.

When I didn't like smoked salmon (raw!) and artichokes , caviar and asparagus, I was assured by my parents that these were 'acquired tastes' - and sure enough, I did acquire a taste for all these later on. Which is probably why I was a thin child and became a very fat adult. Having however seen more snaps of my grandfather, this may be partly inherited.

Food I don't like now is more to do with the associations: tongue, heart, kidneys, brains etc. though for some reason I do like liver and oxtail. I think I like nearly all fish and seafood, with the possible exception of whelks, which are very tough and fairly tasteless.

On HK it was interesting to see how many people loathed Marco's pigs trotters. This was an incredibly complicated dish to make, but one I never got to taste. Stuffed with a chicken puree studded with sweetbreads and truffles, it should have been OK, but plates were sent back one after the other. Strange, in view of the current fashion for eating every part of the animal.