Carbs Are For Kids

A food taster says that bitter is better. Our fondness for sweets leads us to avoid the complex and sometimes bitter flavors of a healthier diet:

the compounds that make foods taste bitter (carotenoids in sweet potatoes and spinach, flavonoids in cranberries and kale, polyphenols in wine) also make them good for us. 

Bitter melon with black beans and pork

Like many kids growing up in Hawaii my mother mixed in milk and sugar with poi to encourage me to sample the sour purplish-gray paste. She gradually reduced the M&S until I could eat poi just like the adults (a desire to appear grown-up can also be the impetus for trying foods like kim chee or sashimi, both of which, by the way, are not as well suited to the ministrations of M&S).

But it wasn't until my late teens that I learned to tolerate, then appreciate bitter melon.  The younger members of the household won't eat it (there's little hope for that generation, as the polls seem to show), but sometimes I crave its sharp bitter taste.  The good news is that when I order it at a family-style meal at a Chinese restaurant, it's all mine.