New To Me (Food and Drink Edition)

I have been blessed to live at a time of great cultural change.  Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is by example.  I list below some of the foods and drinks that I started to consume, in various categories, as an adult, in roughly chronological order.  These are not all necessarily newly invented, but illustrate in sample size N=1, the expanding horizons that have come from cultural change.

Foods I Grew Up With That Were Not Eaten Or Exotic For Both Of My Parents Before College
pizza
spaghetti
Chinese food
granola
grapefruit
Pineapple juice
pineapples

High School (Oxford, Ohio; New Zealand; domestic and Western European travel)
soda
coffee
wine and beer
gazpacho
matzo
tofu
Toblerone chocolate
papaya
star fruit
escargot
raw oysters
ugly fruit
Mexican food other than tacos (e.g. enchiladas, burritos)
dim sum
Indian food
lassi
yogurt
frozen yogurt
rice cakes
grog
selected Greek foods (e.g. Gyros, baclava)
weinersnitzel
veal
British style fish and chips with malt vinegar as a topping for the chips
meat pies and Shepard's pie (other than Cornish pasties)
tea with milk
Yorkshire pudding
mince pies
Pavlova
Kiwi fruit
fried cicadas
caviar

College (Oberlin, Ohio), Law School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and Buffalo, New York
ramen
Hawaiian pizza
calzones
barbecue tofu
matzo ball soup
bread bowl salads
falafel
humus
squid aka calamari
Tabasco sauce as a popcorn topping
cold Vietnamese style coffee
gouda cheese
Asian pears
lychees
Korean food
shrimp chips
sushi
select Japanese food and saki
mango
pate
pesto
portabella and shittake mushrooms
almond butter
nutella
couscous
polenta
salt bagels
plantains
expresso drinks
almond syrup
chocolate covered expresso beans
biscotti
NutraSweet (r)
brewer's yeast as a popcorn topping
powdered cheese as a popcorn topping
prosciutto
artisan breads other than baguettes
marijuana
sangria
gelato
olive oil in lieu of butter on bread
mole sauce
frozen custard
buffalo wings
beef on weck
crab cakes
mackerel
mahi mahi
shark
tuna not in a can
frog legs
borscht

Since Moving To Colorado
elk
venison
Rocky Mountain Oysters
guacamole
avacados
pomogranate juice (as oppose to seeds)
pistachios
buffalo
breakfast burritos
spiced cheeses (e.g. Pepper Jack)
absinthe
wasabi bites
edamame
California style burritos an Burrito bowls (e.g. Chipotle, Qdoba)
Gorditas (possibly invented by Taco Bell)
whole wheat tortillas
smoothies
white pizza
cocktails (i.e. mixed alcoholic drinks other than beer or wine or grog or sangria)
mead
fish tacos
flavored sparkling waters
kefir
rabbit
kale
Andouille chicken sausages
bruschetta
moist non-shredded mozzarella cheese
white cheddar cheese
focaccia bread
paninis
agave nectar
chai tea
white tea
Thai food
soba noodles
pierogies
tempeh
soy milk
almond milk
nutritional yeast flakes
honeycrisp apples
Smart Balance (r) and similar butter substitutes
ratatouille
"ancient grains" (e.g. spelt, amaranth, quinoa, chia, eikhorn wheat, durum wheat, emmer wheat)
high percent cocoa gourmet chocolate
spicy pepper mocha
steak served Brazilian style
Vietnamese food
Mongolian style BBQ
Ethiopian food
vege straws
alligator
gourmet donuts (i.e. donuts with elaborate toppings in the style of Voodoo Doughnuts)
kumquats
Greek yogurt
protein powder
turmeric drinks
cookie butter
tangerine juice
blood oranges
truffle oil
coconut butter
ostrich meat
shrubs (i.e. mixed drinks including vinegar as an ingredient)

Other food trends
There were also other trends in food that didn't have momentum until much later in my life.

"Natural foods" was something that I was aware of even as a child, and that my parents were aware of early on, as were reductions in sugar and fat in diets and vegetarian diets.

But, "organic", "gluten free", "GMO-free", "low carb" and vegan diets were very uncommon.  Nobody knew about nut allergies as something that ordinary people needed to be concerned about for others, if not themselves, either.

Eating local was something one did out of economic necessity, rather than moral commitment.