Developing taste

In the 1970s, I ate a bit of caviar, most of it cheap. Because I'd been warned that caviar is an acquired taste, I didn't spit the stuff out.

I was less lucky in 1991. The sister magazines Gourmet and Bon Appétit had been treating goat cheese as the bee's knees. At a D.C. restaurant, I saw a sandwich with both goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, and I pounced. Gack! No, I didn't spit anything out; my lunch companion was a nice young woman. Instead, I plowed through the horrid concoction although every bite was a nightmare. Ever since, I haven't gone anywhere near goat cheese.

I thought I'd found a food soul mate in writer Sandra Marton, who has two scenes dissing goat cheese in her award-winning "The Second Mrs Adams." Alas, I'd made the fatal error of confusing the author with her characters.

What does this all mean? I'll have to give goat cheese another try, I suppose.