I grew up in a suburb of NYC in Westchester NY.  I have 2 brothers, who can both attest to the truth of the matter, we grew up eating out or grilling.  Mom was not much of a chef.  But dad loved his grill, so if we were eating at home, it was something on the grill.  However spices were not popular in our house, so everything was plain.  By the time I was 18 I had enough baked or grilled plain chicken to know that I never wanted it again.  So for a little over 5 years, I boycotted chicken.  Then one day, I had chicken and veggies and was amazed, I actually liked this piece of chicken.  It had flavor.  It was soft, and not dried out.  It was shocking to me, chicken that actually tasted good.  I then realized that I had been deprived as a child and started my pursuit of eating good foods.  

There were so many foods I had never tried.  I was still a bit aprehensious to try everything, I would start small, and see what would happen.  I tried asparagas, green and red peppers, red onions, zucchini, squash, all kids of squash and I liked them all.  I found a few things I didn’t like, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts and most beans to name three.  

Then I moved onto seafood.  Christmas eve 3 years ago, we were at my boyfriends mothers house for the traditional Italian 7 fishes feast.  (This was my thrust into seafood.)  I looked down and o crap, there was a scallop on my plate.  I couldn’t be rude, but I had never had one, and didn’t want to find out I don’t like it in front of his whole family, so I ate it anyway.  And holy cow, I fell in love with scallops.  My boyfriend then fell out of love with them for a while, as I made them for dinner 2 or 3 nights a week for a month.  (I had 30 years of catching up to do).  

Currently I am pretty good about trying foods.  I know there are certain types or cuisines that I don’t like and don;t like me, for instance, Indian food kills me, and I have given up and trying to like it.  I think 28 years of bland food made my stomach a certain way, and not much can change it.