Comic Strips

Yup, properly cooked veggies are awesome.

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.

I didn't even think you could do that to asparagus. That's seriously demonic.

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.

Blanche and shock are the only way I actually like asparagus.

I can tolerate a baked or sauteed spear, but the margin for error is too damned small, and either side of it makes it unpalatable.

but our winter never comes

Sad George R. R. Martin noises

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.

My kids are the opposite. We can sauté up some fresh green beans and make them so good, but the kids only want to eat the canned ones.

Or just dont overcook/boil your veggies. Everything in moderation.

Im of Scottish, Irish, and South German descent my ancestors didnt conquer shit beyond the whole bursting into flames under direct sunlight problem.

Genetically modified? That's a stretch.

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.

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.

Super God, duh

I feel like God would have the capacity to realize he is the higher power. Nothing says there has to be a higher power at each level.

The spice must flow

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.

I would have written that as "oh my me"

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.

Honestly fresh veggies sautéed right are better than any hamburger, and I love to eat meats

I'd take those over some greasy burgers any time of the day

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.

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