�

Not much changed as I grew into a teenager. My mother forced me to eat a serving of vegatables at dinner every night (and a glass a milk, which I always just plugged my nose and chugged) and would come up with an alternative if the rest of the family was having salad. I HATED salad. Lettuce literally made me gag.

I can remember even into college, I never touched the fairly awesome salad bar in the caf, sticking mostly to the cereal bar, which I far preferred. (I don't know about you, but when your college town is only a few hours away from Battle Creek, where Kellogg's just loads a train full of cereal and ships it to your campus--you have a KICK ASS cereal bar.) At that point, my hate for milk had lessened somewhat, and I learned to love milk on my cereal.

At some point in the last six and half years, since I moved to Los Angeles, I have come to love almost every food that I ever hated. Still not a huge fan of broccoli, and green beans I can stomach, but don't crave -- but salad? I love me some salad.

A doctor friend once told me that you grow new taste buds every seven years and that that's why most people start liking things they hated (and sometimes vice-versa), and I can tell you, I am the poster child for that medical theory.

In fact, though I have loved salad for years now, the last six months or so have left me craving -- on a near constant level -- a salad from a local restaurant here. It is made with spinach and toasted nuts, goat cheese and dried cherries, and topped with a near perfect viniagrette. (And chicken sometimes, if you like, not to mention some other topping-y stuff.) The first time I had it, I never wanted to leave the restaurant. I wanted to back in the kitchen and sit down with a bucket of spinach and a vat of dressing and eat until I went all Popeye.

Recently, the most exciting thing happened: I have re-created the salad at home almost perfectly. The dressing needs to be tweaked, and I think I may switch nut varieties, but I have it pretty much nailed.

Next week, I'm going to buy industrial sizes of all my ingredients and... suffice it to say, the next time you see me, I may very well be wearing a sailor hat and a pipe.

Has it been a while since you tried something you used to hate? Give it a shot. A lot can happen to your taste buds in seven years.