Does your picky eater like some non-typical kid food?

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One of my sons refuse to eat most vegetables, though I keep offering. Strangely he likes a few things that typical kids wouldn't like, like hot spicy food (chili, Indian food), garlic, onions and various other strong tasting food. I'm guessing his issue isn't taste, but texture? I was so surprised to find that he's crazy for garlic. Does your picky kid like some weird taste or food?

I myself love all the bitter tasting veggies, even though I'm a super taster. The bitterness doesn't bother me much and I liked them since I was a toddler. That is probably a bit weird.

The only veggies I can get my son to eat regularly are olives and pickles. He will also eat some pickled vegetables if they are crunchy and sour enough.

My son does not really like vegetables, but he loves broccoli. They look like little trees. We don't dump cheese on it--as he hates sauce or any kind of food covering except on pizza. (Texture and because it is messy looking, I think)

So, yeah, he eats plain, steamed broccoli.

He will also eat plain, non-battered fish like salmon, and has no issues.

I always liked tomato juice, semolina soup, broccoli, brussels, cauliflower etc. which is quite unusual for kids.

I remember other kids telling me that tomato juice looks and tastes terrible but it was my favorite drink and I actually refused to drink anything else for a while.

And it's sort of natural for kids to refuse the "healthy food". But I guess the fact I liked the foods might have something to do with the fact I was never forced to eat it and noone called it "healthy". It was never a dinner in our house but a lunch or afternoon snack so it was optional, I could take it or leave it. I can't say they tasted that good though. They were mostly tasteless yet had interesting structure so they were fine but nothing special. There was some foods I liked much more. Especially sour stuffs. I could eat whole lemons just as some people eat oranges. Although I hated oranges.

On the other hand I seriously hated potatoes and meat - the taste and texture were terrifying and I was always forced to eat those during dinner because it was our everyday food(dad's favorite). "You won't go to play until you eat the meat".
Also cooked carrot was a no-no, it tasted like puke to me yet my grandma tried to force it to me anyway without understanding why I would hate such "tasty" food.

I loved broccoli as a kid because it looked like little trees. Sadly, can't sell my boy on it. As a toddler he used to eat all sorts of veggies and fruits but especially cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. He will still eat apples most of the time and blueberries and occasionally strawberries. I used to really try to push stuff on him but it got stressful for both of us.

Is bacon a non-typical kid food? Because my son loves it. It's basically the only meat he will eat now. Unless you count roasted chicken skin.

Apparently when I was a baby, I loved olives and lemons.

I haven't encountered anybody who doesn't like bacon yet. But maybe because we're Canadian. I think I blame my son's pickiness on my husband (NT). When he was a kids he would only eat peas, corn and carrots for veggies. My son actually would eat a couple more than that. But it's nothing compared to the 30 - 40 types of veggies my side of the family usually serve. Both my mom and I go crazy for produce we haven't tried before and like to experiment. My recent favorite is fenugreek greens. I'm not too crazy for root vegetables like carrots, beets, parsnips or kholrabi, but would still dutifully buy them and cook them.

My picky-eater daughter will only eat corn and cauliflower as veggies, but the weirdest thing she likes to eat is feta cheese. She will eat the crumble or block kind, and she also likes slices of Parmesan cheese. She doesn't like other forms of cheese. Just these two! LOL!

My picky kids absolutely LOVE roasted asparagus, which many other parents seem surprised by, so I guess maybe that's not typical. With my kids I have to keep everything very "pure"-- no sauces, no seasonings other than salt, and nothing mixed together. They love plain salmon, pan-seared in olive oil with just some nice salt on it. The roasted asparagus, also, just has olive oil & salt. They don't even like butter, which astounds me. (But I guess that's a good thing-- they don't know what they're missing!)

They far prefer raw vegetables to cooked (the only cooked they will eat are the asparagus, and broccoli), so I put out a "crudite" plate most nights, with raw carrots, celery, cucumber, bell pepper etc... I add a couple new things every now and then, to stretch their courage & their palates... they just seem a lot more willing to try out the raw form. It's interesting. They would FAR rather eat a raw carrot, than cooked CANDIED carrots (butter & brown sugar). I do think it's a sensory thing. Cooked veggies can look pretty gross, and the texture isn't always nice. I have a texture thing myself, so I know that it can be a real deal-breaker if a texture is not what you want.

All my kids love black olives (ohhh the lovely salt) and pickles (again, the salt). My 6-year-old just started eating sandwiches finally (just meat, cheese & bread-- no mayo or mustard or other dressing) but he likes to put pickles inside... I think we're all just a bunch of salt fiends.

Oh also, my 6-year-old likes to swipe whole roasted coffee beans from the counter if I spill when I'm grinding the coffee in the morning. He also sneaks them from the bulk coffee bean dispensers at the grocery store. He loves the way they taste.

Those are my favorite as well especially the green olives, pickled vegetables are good such as pickled Okra....now I just wish I had some, perhaps tomorrow.

I have never really liked a lot of sweet things, which some people have found weird....especially when I was a kid, like the fact I didn't like white cake, or those disgusting sugar filled, excessively sweet cereals they market to kids. Another terrible thing is mashed potatoes.

My parents have photos of me when I was about a year old taking onions right out of the bag, and biting into them like apples. Nowadays, I don't think I'd be able to do this.