What's The Tastiest Thing you didn't think would taste good? (from look/smell/ingredients)

Asked this question on Gamefaqs a while ago and got some interesting responses.
What's something you didn't think would taste good but actually ended up being awesome?

For me:
Mocha Frappe: Mostly because I never liked the taste of coffee the few times I tried it. Now that I know how simple they are to make at home I don't need to run to McDonalds to grab one (unless I'm lazy lol)
BBQ Sauce on Onion Rings: It just sounds weird, and it IS weird, but it's SO good highly recommend this one.

 

When my daughter was a kid, she made hot chocolate and steeped a Lemon Lift tea bag in the cup. I thought that was about as ghastly as anything I'd heard of, but my son convinced me to try it. It was really good.

 

I beg to differ. When I went through my vegetarian phase, I quickly learned that the ONLY vegetarian dinner offered as a substitute for real food at banquet halls is Eggplant Parmesan -- and I'm extremely allergic to eggplant.

It didn't go well.

 

I usually order the vegetarian meal at banquets even though I haven't been a vegetarian in four decades. The other choices are usually prime rib and some kind of over-cooked chicken disguised with Questionable Sauce. None of the vegetarian dishes ever included egg plant and I don't even know what courgettes are, so I guess I've been fortunate.

 

Grits and Greens; now, I happen to like both grits and collard greens separately, but both look awful individually and even worse together, semi-solid beige cornmeal mash streaked with bits of slimy dark green, yum! I make them every year for thanksgiving now and everyone loves them, even the northern half of the family who initially turned up their noses.

 

Pomegranate as a child. There was something really odd to me about ruby red corn kernels packed in what looked like a beat up old fruit skin. My dad was like - try it you'll like it. I did and I did. I wasn't expecting the tartness but that's what I loved about it.

Ice wine. I don't like wine and I don't really drink; I could probably count the number of drinks I've had on both hands. But my brother when he worked at a vineyard got a free bottle of ice wine and let us all taste it. I was pleasantly shocked by its sweetness.

 

I told my daughter that pomegranites were Princess Fruits. She wanted one every year for Christmas until after she was grown.

I learned about courgettes on the new word page. Zucchini. I know what zucchini is. We used to grow it and celebrate Leave A Zucchini on a Neighbor's Front Porch Day every August.

 

At a stretch - as pretty much all edibles look tasty to me, even when they’re anything but - I’d have to say sushi.

 

L smoked oysters in hotsauce.

My dad has a weird pallet and is always trying to get me to eat weird food. Cheese grits, smoked horse, clam chowder, breakfast mash (basically everything in your fridge but mixed with egg). Hes always experimenting with food, and it looks gross but tastes really good (with the exception of the breaskfast mash... My stomach couldnt handle it and i threw it up).

The oysters, though, looked nasty. Smelled nasty. I was not convinced they'd be good so i didnt try them when he offered. He'd open the tin and douse them in hot sauce, skew them with a tooth pick and eat them.
Eventually, i got curious and when he wasnt home, i did what he did and ate them with hot sauce. They were really good! Dad was mad, though, because i'd eaten the last tin

 

Durian. When I was a kid the smell made me hide under my bed. When I finally tried some it's actually delicious.

 

I'm with @OurJud on this, I've never really had a problem eating pretty much anything that I'm told is food. However I do remember in high school hearing about peach salsa, and wondering how such a thing could be good. Of course nowadays sweet/spicy combos like that are everywhere, and with good reason (as it is, in fact, good).

 

I'm up for all kinds of sweet/spicy combos (half my family is in southeast Asia) but peach salsa is pretty nasty to my taste buds.

 

I don’t like spicy on any level, but sweet/savoury combos is a whole different kettle of worms

 

I'm not a huge fan of spice either.
The only time I can really tolerate it is when it's an 'accent' (like as in barely there, as in when it hits your tongue you know it's there but can largely ignore it) or if I can taste flavors other than said spice as well. (like if the heat comes first, then you taste other flavors like sweet or sour)
That said, Bonefish Grill has some tasty as fuck shrimp in a spicy sauce I never thought I'd like.

 

It’s a real bugbear of mine, that so many snack foods aimed at the male market tend to be made ‘spicy’ by default. It doesn’t seem to matter what the snack is, even when it’s a flavour not usually associated with spicy, it’s always marked ‘fiery’ or ‘hot!’

 

What's your take on those dried mangoes with red chili powder? That's the true apotheosis of sweet/spicy, IMHO.

 

As I've gotten older I've gotten to a point where I can eat mild-medium spicy stuff.
I tend to not mind it as much if the spice isn't overpowering everything else.
It's still not something I actively seek out unless I'm feeling adventurous though.

 

I grew up on hot peppers, and for most of my life could eat a spicy hot dish and taste the individual pepper varieties, like one can taste corn and milk in chowder. Alas, that ability diminished as I got into latter middle age and is almost gone now, though I still like heat in my food. I don't include processed snack food: most of them are death by chili powder.

 

I think I've had those once or twice, not bad.

Snack food aside, my ideal sweet/spicy mix would probably be something like laksa noodle soup (there are different kinds, but most of them combine coconut milk with spicy curries) which is pretty typical of Indonesian/ Malaysian cuisine.

 

Gourmeh Sabzi - Persian herb stew. It’s a stew with thick spaghetti like noodles, kidney beans, and herbs, so it looks like worms, bugs, and ectoplasm to me. My In-laws presented it so lovingly bc they had grown the herbs, rolled out the noodles, and told me it was the only vegetarian dish at the whole banquet. It was green soup or go hungry.

Turns out, wow, it’s so good!! Never question anything made out of herbs - sure are green, but delicious.

 

Blue cheese and chocolate.

What the what?

Saw it on something called "The Science of Food" and for some odd reason in most people's taste buds the two match up really well. Of course, I like both separately, so there was little to no risk in trying the combination. Just a slice of Danableu and some Meiji dark chocolate bars, nothing fancy for the test.

 

It's sort of a white trash recipe, but a smoked oyster with mayonnaise and tabasco sauce on a saltine cracker. Sounds a little strange but it's very good.