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Why do foods you enjoy NEVER seem to live up to expection?


mint

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Have you had this experience......I mean the experience of really looking forward to eating or drinking something you have enjoyed for years in the past and now you turn your nose up at it?

Do you think our taste just gets better with age....or, well, what?

On Sunday, I had some top-rate sausage meat and decided that I would make myself a scotch egg.  It looked great, just like the picture in my head but, on tasting it was anything but great.  In fact, it was pretty revolting...

Now I am afraid to taste anything that I used to really like in case I shatter a few more illusions.  So, on that basis, pickled egg is out, so is fish and chips, so is boiled ham with parsely sauce, so is Irish stew, steak and kidney pudding, jam roly-poly with custard, and sardines on toast, and garibaldi biscuits  .......I am quite sad about all this?

What is there left to look forward to in culinary terms?

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Also, mint, if you are on medication or other treatment that might affect your taste.

I know when my father was ill he would look forward to a meal with dishes he enjoyed, only to find they tasted disgusting and he didn't want to eat them at all.

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Yes, agree to a large extent, but last night we had a roast gammon with fruit glaze and sauce which was delicious and had all the flavours I remember from over the years.

I think as you get older you have to increase the flavours as the palate gets jaded or old, which means I use stronger mustard, for example and lashng of Worcester sauce whereas in the past used very little.

Beef I now can't stand as it seems tasteless muck.
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Shame, isn't it, all one's little indulgences now not worth looking forward to[:(]

Mind you, I have adopted a "plant-based" diet for the last 5 months so I daresay a scotch egg is as far removed from meals largely made up of vegetables as you can go!

Strange in a way because, no sooner had I changed the composition of my meals, than "plant-based" and "friendly to the planet" diets are now all the rage[:D]

So at least for once, I am on the front foot!

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I have been giving this careful consideration, and there is little that we have always eaten that I have not continued making.

However, last summer we had a big do and it was a bit of a nostalgic affair and it was suggested that I make some corned beef and onion pies as I used to for our 'do's' in the 1970's.

I buy corned beef fairly regularly, and we love my recipe for Corned Beef Hash, as well as corned beef sandwiches with HP sauce, or beetroot or just onions on them........... but these pies, well, what a disappointment they were, seemed to lack the flavour I remembered. I will not be making them again.

And I still don't get why.

There is much that the multi nationals have changed over the years and they are now awful lacking that flavour that should be there:-

Kitkats, Blue Ribands, Dairy Box, Quality Street, Cadbury's creme eggs......... not as if I have a sweet tooth or anything like that[Www]
I buy none of the above these days, wouldn't waste my money, and I have to mention that even wagon wheels are not quite what they were.

Of the rest of our diet,  it is eclectic, we eat foods from all over the world, including traditional dishes from our childhood and there is nothing that we say we would not want again. I still make things rice puddings and mince and dumplings, and roast beef and yorkshire puddings with gorgeous gravy.

The only thing I have sort of gone off  is apple pie and prefer just about any pie to plain apple pie.

Do our tastes change, to some extent, probably and medication can make a difference too.

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Not so sure about that and my palate WB.

Unlike every adult friend and family member I have, I have never smoked and drink so little alcohol, that you could probably count less than 10 units per year. Also, as I bake and cook a lot, and try new recipes as well as make some up, I am very aware of the nuances of flavour and texture.

You might be right, but for the moment, I think I'll go on still trusting my palate.

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Breakfast cereals have changed, at least the British ones available here - are there any French ones anyway?

The only ones we buy which taste anything like they used to are Corn Flakes and Weetabix, although Rice Krispies, Special K, and Bran Flakes do still taste like cat litter.

All the others are full of sugar, honey, unidentifiable gloop, dehydrated fruit, chocolate, or whatever some bright spark imagined could whet the customers' appetites this month.

Once or twice a year I just have to order a batch of food I can't get here from an online supplier in the UK, and high on the list is Shredded Wheat.

Unfortunately, to make up a reasonable order I have to bulk it out a little, with various biscuits, smoked bacon, gammon steaks, and Melton Mowbray pork pies.

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Quaker oats and skimmed milk for breakfast every week day. Still tastes as good now as we it did when we started nearly 20 years ago. However, neither of us smoke or are on any serious medication.

I have gone off strong hard cheese (cheddar etc) and much prefer the milder soft french ones (chaource, brillat savarin etc), but do miss crumbly white cheshire cheese.
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