Fighting with toddler to eat?

So recently my 1.5 year old has been getting into these moods where he absolutely refuses to eat for me.

For example, today for lunch we had cheese pizza. He took two or three bites and then refused to eat it. So I warmed up some chicken nuggets and green beans. He played with them (ripping them apart, etc) but refused to eat them. So I made a pb&j; sandwich and offered it to him several times over the next 2 hours, he refused every time. By now it’s 4pm and he’s getting cranky, and I know it’s because he’s hungry but he still refuses to eat the pb&j.; I finally held him down while he’s kicking and screaming and smeared some jelly on his tongue. What do you know?! After that taste he proceeded to eat the sandwich happy as a clam.

He has moments like this quite often lately, even with foods I know he loves. He refuses to try foods, but if I hold him down (meaning his hands so he can’t push the food away) and force him to taste what I’m offering, he often decides he wants whatever it is. I won’t force him to eat something he truly doesn’t like, but I’m tired of fighting with him to get him to eat anything especially when it’s tried and true and I know he likes it. I’m also not about to let him get into the habit of me being a short order cook and offering him 5 different options until he finds one he feels like eating. He isn’t verbal enough to tell me what he wants yet, so I can’t ask if he wants A or B.

Any tips? Or is this just a phase that toddlers go through and I need to tough it out?