Princess Easy Pleasy!!!

We are in Bhutan.... the land of Gross National Happiness for our summer family vacation!! “Family vacation” is more like a business trip for parents with lists and inventories made out for all kinds of contingencies and emergencies that one might face while travelling with kids! Sometimes it feels like all you do is run around managing your kids’ needs, moods and tantrums that it hardly feels like a vacation at all!!!! That said, it would also be difficult to leave them behind  and enjoy the vacation sans kids.....especially when you get on the plane and   served your children's favorite pasta, or drive through your son's dream view of snow capped mountains, or try your hand at a local sport that your son would sure love, or try out the local costume that you bet would look perfect on your daughter, or taste the local flavors of ice creams.....how can you possibly enjoy without your kids!!! Isn't it?

The biggest challenge during any travel with kids is of course food ...and  finding the kind of food that appeals to our kids palate always keeps one on tenter-hooks!!! In keeping with our family travel tradition that began during our travels with Abhay, we’ve continued to pack our travel size rice cooker, albeit as a back up as our little one is more open about experimenting with different cuisines (touchwood!) when compared to our older one who had an appetite only for “curd rice”!!!! 

But believe me, the back up plan during the first couple of days always ends up being upgraded into the mainstay during the final days of our travel...and for all you realise.... it’s not only the little one who is craving for some Anna-Sambhar!!! 😊

As a prelude to our travel, I had picked up a wonderful book that highlights this exact plight of parents planning a travel with their young kids. A surprise find .. really.. but we’ve latched on to Princess Easy Pleasy ...ever since I chanced upon this book at Kutoohala that I later managed to save during its closure sale. So much so... that inspired from the original story, we’ve also tried to spin off a few other anecdotes in Princess Easy Pleasy style...just to keep our little princess from being displeased!!!!   

“Princess Easy Pleasy” a Karadi tales publication by Natasha Sharma and pictures by Priya Kuriyan revolves around a sprightly and a stubborn little princess who does not find anything up to her expectations as she travels with her parents, the king and queen, to various countries from Hong Kong to China to Singapore to Cambodia to Thailand to Srilanka (considering their choice of destinations... I wonder why they didn’t travel to Bhutan!) In each country,  she seems to have a problem with the milk served, or the vegetables cooked, or the mattress laid out, or the pets around or even the elephant brought in for a ride, having  her parents pander to her almost impossible tastes, finding a scapegoat in the royal packer who’s ordered to add to the packing list, each time the princess throws a fit!!! So in their effort to appease the not-so-easily-pleased princess, the ever expanding list includes a cow, their own chef and their own vegetables and so on and so forth... until things go horribly wrong when the exhausted royal packer quits and all travel plans cancelled by her equally  exhausted parents!!! As the bored princess pleads with her mom to change her mind, her mom yields, however “on one condition” ( and we love this part !) and we all know what it might be... don’t we?? A hilarious take on what is common travel woe of most parents!! In fact, this book provides a great parenting tool too... as the  “on one condition” strategy has come to our aid as we try to get our terrible twos toddler to toe our line!!! 

Scrummy!

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of food in the context of your little one? For me….its the biggest bone of contention between me and my son ….ever since he was started on supplements! I have written enough about my little picky eater....and dug out enough books on the said subject! When I started writing this blog, one of the first issues I wanted to address or rather vent my frustration over was food and the mammoth task seeing its journey into the little one’s system…..at least three times a day!!!! At the risk of sounding repetitive ….I had even done a week long special on picky eaters!!!! But all said and done……food still remains the last thing on my seven year old’s mind!!!

So today we did something different for today’s reading prompt for the 30 books in 30 days challenge, we reflected on some endearing aspects of food! One of the most delightful reads  surrounding the making of food…is Nandini Nayar's What shall I make? , a must read in any Indian household with the staple diet of chapatti!  We also happen to revisit a youtube version of  “"The Sandwich Swap"” by Her Majesty Queen Rania Alabdulla with Kelly Dipucchio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa, that we'd read a while ago, which explores how one can be prejudiced about another’s lunchbox at first only to try it and actually like it later!

Today we also read "Scrummy "by Leigh Hodgkinson, starring a little girl named Sunny McCloud who is a  popular character in Leigh Hodgkinson’s stories. Sunny  recalls her dad saying that every family has its own special magic recipe with lots of scrummy stuff inside and Sunny feels that her family is like a sandwich! It may sound boring but it all depends on what is inside. Sunny rattles on the ingredients of her family sandwich, with Ingredient No.1 being cheese and being ever so bendy and stretchy. Sunny decides that she represents the cheese in the family! Sunny then compares her twin younger brothers to the greeny salady stuff in the sandwich that always seem to tickle …… an ingredient which is always there…..even though sometimes you’d wish it wasn’t! J There’s Mayonnaise, a little of which makes a sandwich tasty but too much makes it soggy…just like her dog Mr. Honeycomb! Finally the most important ingredient of all…..two slices of bread as they hold the sandwich together, just like her soft and spongy parents who hold the family together! But then Sunny decides to spice her up sandwich a little more ….with additional ingredients  ….like bananas, ice cream, milk chocolate and marshmellows that reminds her of monkeys, penguins, cat and sheep respectively, who all would be a great addition to her family too! Alas...her family sandwich seems too tall to hold up and falls over making a giant mess! So Sunny realizes that no matter what…its best to stick to her original ingredients…..and nothing beats her fabulously filling family super sandwich…with all the ingredients she loves! Accompanied by striking illustrations, this book beautifully uses food as a medium to celebrate the love one feels for one's family! Well our family's magical recipe is Abhay's favourite palak paneer....with the hot-headed mommy representing the Masalas (Spices), daddy being as evergreen as the Palak (Spinach) and Abhay.....may be aiming to be the paneer???  J What’s your family’s magical recipe?

 

 

Potatoes for the prince??

The recent issue of "Parent Edge" has a feature dedicated to “Handling fussy eaters” and most hapless parents of fussy eaters know that a child is either born a “hearty” or a “picky” eater – and there’s not much you can do until they grow out of it! J If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’d probably know that Abhay is legendarily fussy about food! I had even done a week-long special on books on picky eaters! I’m sorry I know …I am not helping myself by labeling my seven year old a “fussy” eater…he’ll only grow comfortable with that tag …and will probably get stuck with it his entire life!:-) To be fair, I must say that it gets better with age……I mean Abhay’s list of food declared unacceptable has drastically come down over the years. For instance, in fruits, mango and papaya have progressed from the “Hate it” list to the “Love it” list, while water-melon is still on the “Last choice’ list. Similarly, the mandatory soya milk has given way to once-in-a-while regular dairy milk or brinjal has definitely moved up the tolerance scale and drumstick is at least on “Will have if the last choice on the earth” list! But no matter what, there will always be some kind of food, be it vegetable or fruit….that’s not only an absolute ‘no-no’ but also on the “rather perish than eat it” list…..and for Abhay, that food is ……the ubiquitous aloo (potatoe)!!!! So you see….no parenting magazine can help me!!!

 

Though I know this book, like all my earlier books on picky eaters would be of no help when it comes to Abhay’s food fuss factor, I went about reading this one anyway. “The Princess and the Peas” by Caryl hart and Sarah Warburton, as the caption goes “funny tale for royally fussy eaters everywhere” is a fun spin off on the age old fairy tale narrated in hilarious rhyming verse. Lily Rose May is a prim and proper girl who is always at her best behavior except when she is offered peas, she throws a fit! So her father dashes off to the library to find a book (like me!) on the perfect peas recipe, but nothing can make her eat her peas. So the doctor is called on who believes she is afflicted with "Princessites", a condition that is supposed to have arisen out of the “Princess and the pea” story, with a ban issued on eating peas for all the princesses! As princess Lily-Rose May  sets off to enjoy her royal stay at a a palace which is obviously is a “No-pea-zone”,  she realizes that the peas are greener on the other side, as she’d much rather try to eat her father’s peas than try the cold cabbage stew that is offered day in and day out at the palace! So now Lily Rose May is an expert in peas and is seen eating her peas dipped with ketch-up, chocolate and cheese! So how about potatoes for our prince?? Hmm..........that will probably  only stew up a another blogpost!!!  :-)

The Mango party!

Yesterday we had been to Rangashankara’s famous “Mango party” which is a one of a kind event held every year dedicated to the most awaited fruit of summer!  An open and free event that has each one bringing one kilo mangoes of any variety into the mango pool with a chance to sample as many a variety as one can! Since it was our first time at the mango party, we weren’t sure what to expect. But once we walked in with three kilos of the “Mallika” variety of mangoes, it didn’t take us long to join in with the rest, including the who’s who of Bangalore’s theatre fraternity in this gala celebration of sharing and savouring the king of fruits! Abhay though loves mangoes insists on relishing this fruit the so called civilized way – cut, sliced and served in a plate/bowl with a spoon or a fork! So when he found that he was supposed to scoop the pulp off its skin and work around the seed without the aid of a fork, he didn’t indulge as much as we thought he would! But when Arundhati Nag herself volunteered to show how to devour a mango peeled like banana, he did oblige but just enough to take a picture!

 

Well …..last year he wasn’t even ready to taste a mango, this year he wasn’t ready to taste any fruit other than the mango…..probably next year he will be ready to devour a mango like there’s no tomorrow…which is what we did at this year’s Mango Party! Abhay was fascinated to see different varieties of mangoes displayed and was particularly on the look-out for the Mundappa variety that was featured in Malvika Shetty’s “"The Sweetest mango"”.  The Mango Party at Rangashankara invited people to share some of their mango stories and ran a contest for the ten best “mango stories” On the occasion of the Mango party; I was look out for a mango story myself for Onestoryaday and remembered the most famous mythological story on the mango. The story of a Race between Ganesha and Kartikeya for a magical mango that couldn’t be shared! Sage Narada devises a ploy to find out the most intelligent of the true brothers and offers a special mango to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. On realizing that this fruit cannot be shared, they turn down the offer. Meanwhile Ganesh and Karthikeya stake claim to the fruit and a contest ensues between the two brothers for the mango! The contest is to go around the world thrice and the winner would walk away with the mango. Karthikeya wasted no time and embarked on his flight around the world on his divine vehicle the peacock. The contest taken in its literal sense made it almost impossible for the pot-bellied Ganesh to win, but being the Lord of Success that he was, Ganesha chose to go around his parents who meant the whole world to him and landed with the prized mango in his hands! One of Abhay’s favourite Ganesha stories, this one was also about one of his favourite fruits! Enjoy the rest of the mango season everyone!

The Mango season!

Last year this time I was lamenting over the fact that my son will never know the pleasures of savoring the most celebrated tropical fruit ever – the mango! It was almost a herculean task to get him eat a slice of mango. However, what I hadn’t realized was what could not be accomplished by a mother’s cajoling was effortlessly done by a grandparent’s pampering! Towards the end of the season last year, Abhay’s maternal grandpa had managed to feed him some luscious alphonso slices and apparently he couldn’t get enough of the king of fruits!  But what I hadn’t expected at all was that my little one who has an aversion against fruits in general, was in fact eagerly waiting for the mango season this year! Last year, Abhay just stood by watching us relishing mangoes, this year however he was the first one to dig in! But the only flipside is that he refuses to eat any other fruit other than the mango!

 To celebrate this rare change of taste, I had to read a mango story for my mango lover! Last year Tulika brought out a magnificent book titled “"The Sweetest Mango"”, but this year though I couldn’t lay my hands on any book, I found a delightful story in the May issue of Highlights Genies by one of our favorite authors Nandini Nayar titled “Meera and Kiran and the Mango story”. While enjoying the best mangoes of the season, Meera wonders where do mangoes come from, Kiran replies that mangoes come from the shop, Meera further quizzes as to where does the shopkeeper fetches mangoes from to which Ma replies from the trees. Kiran seems puzzled and wonders if there is a tree in the shop ( Abhay loved the illustration of a shopkeeper perched on a tree selling mangoes!) Assuming that all trees grow mangoes, Meera declares that she cant wait for their tree to start growing mangoes too when Ma clarifies that their tree is a coconut tree which can never grow mangoes. So Meera and Kiran set out to grow a mango tree in their garden which Kiran promises to take care and share his food. Ma then gives them a one-on-one on the essentials of gardening which the children follow to a T and before they know it, they are relishing the mangoes from their garden! An informative story to narrate as your little ones gorges on the king of fruits! Enjoy the rest of the mango season everyone!

Cupcake surprise

Staying on the subject of celebrations, I am one of those who believe that no celebration is complete without a cake. Though still a novice in baking, I managed to bake a small batch of cupcakes for the second anniversary since its Abhay’s favorite. But for Abhay, a cupcake without frosting is no cupcake at all! This time however I sought Abhay’s help to whip up some fresh cream for the cupcakes inspired by the hostess of  “I can cook”, a cookery show with kids on CBeebees, a BBC channel that was recently discontinued. Similarly, I had also read in last week’s issue of the Outlook magazine that, thanks to an explosion of modern gadgets, books, TV shows and activity clubs, urban kids are increasingly displaying an interest in baking and parents are encouraged to involve their kids in their kitchens. So I thought a special event on my blog deserved Abhay’s participation too and had him don a nice little apron and turn into my sous chef! So how was our cooking adventure together..you may ask? Hmmm…..Well, let’s just say that cooking or baking with a six year old seems a lot cooler on TV than it actually is in reality! For now, I have no dreams of making my son a Little Masterchef, though I must say he sure knows how to pose like one! J

The central theme being cupcakes, I had Abhay read “Cupcake Surprise”  by Lynn Maslen Kertell and illustrated by Sue Hendra, a Level 1 Reader from the famous Bob books publication that brought out one of the first Early readers. Its Dad’s birthday and Jack and Anna decide to bake him cupcakes. But they soon discover that their pantry is short of the ingredients as they head to the store for flour and also pick up cookies for the road. When they get home, they begin mixing all the ingredients with their puppy Buddy dropping the cookies into the mixing bowl, by accident. Nevertheless, they decide to go ahead with their plan and seek their mom’s help to put them inside the oven (Very important to have the adults help out!) Jack, Anna and Buddy watch the cupcakes bake that they can’t wait to taste! Finally, as Dad arrives, Jack and Anna give him the best birthday present ever - cupcakes!  Reading and writing  about cupcakes gets me in the mood to bake….of course this time I going to stick to baking solo!

Strawberry Surprise!

 Abhay has always been a picky eater but what he seems to be the pickiest about are fruits! It took me two years to get him to eat an apple! It took us a year more to get him to eat a banana! I know it sounds unreal but true. In fact my pediatrician balked at us accusing us of not trying enough while  suggesting us to buy him water melon with a rhetoric “Which kid does not like a watermelon?”! Till date, Abhay doesn’t eat water melon! Anyway, with his dad’s ingenious tricks and his mom breathing down his neck, Abhay’s list of acceptable fruits started to grow, albeit at a snail’s pace! But one fruit that surprisingly made its way to the top of the list while we were in the US and has stayed there ever since is, strawberry! Strawberries are mostly available all year through in the US, whereas in India they are seasonal and are available only during winter, of course for twice the price! So when the season’s first strawberries arrived at the local grocer, I just had to pick it up even though they cost me a whopping 80 bucks a box! J

 

To celebrate the arrival of the season’s first strawberries, I recalled a book that was read in the story time at the Hillsboro library a couple of years ago. I tried to find the online version of the same, and Voila! I came across this link. A delightful read titled “The Little Mouse, Red Ripe strawberry and the Big Hungry bear” by Don and Audrey Wood. A little mouse is seen scaling up a ladder to pick a red ripe strawberry when he learns about the big hungry who loves red ripe strawberries, and can smell the  ones that have just been picked from even a mile away. As he yanks the fruit off the plant, he hears the  Bear’s footsteps approaching him,  and hears him sniffing for the strawberry. No matter where the strawberry is hidden or who is guarding it, or how it is disguised, the bear will find a way to the red ripe strawberry. Suddenly the mouse realizes that there is only one way to make sure that the bear doesn’t get to it first….ask your little one to guess as you put a red ripe strawberry into his mouth!

The Sweetest Mango!

Come summer and it’s time to savor the king of fruits – the mango! While mango has never been my favorite when growing up, I ended up missing this tropical fruit the most in the last three years that we spent in the US.  So it wasn’t a surprise that when the makeshift mango bazaars sprung up at every corner of the city, we were amongst the first ones to line up. But what was a surprise that our five year old absolutely refused to bite into whatever variety of mango we brought home! Abhay has always been picky about fruits, but turning down the king of fruits almost feels blasphemous, particularly when we hail from a place that is famous its numerous sweet and sour preparations from the most celebrated fruit of India! So imagine my delight when I came across a Tulika Publication titled “The Sweetest Mango” but by the time I could lay my hands on the said book, it was nearing the end of Mango season! J

 Though I managed to read the book before the season’s last mangoes, I really wish that the mainstream bookstores would carry Tulika publications as and when they release. “The Sweetest Mango” by Malavika Shetty and pictures by Ajanta Guhathakurta, is a story based out of a small village in South Kanara district of Karnataka, and being a South Kanarite myself, I loved the references to the vernacular expressions of “Ganji”(rice porridge), “Dodda” (grandmother), and “aata” (a yakshagana perforamce).  The story begins with the author describing Suma’s love for mangoes and how her mouth waters at the thought of the pickles her grandmother would make out of raw, green and crunchy mangoes or curries her mother would prepare out of sweet ripened mangoes. But her most favorite summer activity is to climb up the mango trees around her house with her best friend Jyothi and pluck the firm, plump mangoes and bite into them while the juice drips through their fingers as they suck on the squishy fruit. Suma and Jyothi are neighbors in a village full of mango and coconut trees and this year it seems as if there are more mangoes than ever before. Suma and Jyothi loved guessing the number of mangoes on each tree as they walked to school every day. One day Suma, perched high on a mango tree spots a large round mango the variety commonly known as ‘mundappa’. Since it is still raw, she decides to wait till it ripenes into the round and juicy fruit it is  meant to be. As Suma makes great plans of plucking the fruit after a few days, she leaves out Jyothi from the plan as she desires the fruit all for herself. Every day, Suma keeps a close eye on the Mundappa and hopes that she would get it before anyone else could. So eager was Suma to savor the fruit, that she begins to see her mundappa in the ball the school children played on the school ground, or in the color of her ajja’s mundu (a cloth worn by men around their waist) or at the sunset! So when the D-day finally arrives, Suma is shocked to discover that her mango that was almost ripe a day ago, is now gone! Suma is inconsolable as she suspects the monkeys to have targeted her cherished mundappa before her! Just as Suma tries to reconcile to her fate, her friend Jyothi arrives with a surprise. Read on as the story ends with a valuable lesson for your little one brought out in a most subtle and sensitive manner complemented by the vibrant and colorful illustrations. A must read for anyone who loves mangoes and intends to get anyone to love mangoes! Did I manage to get my five year old sample at least one of them – that’s another story ….probably meant for another post! J

Lunch Box challenge!

Ever since Abhay started after-school day care, my biggest concern has been packing his lunch! If getting your little one to relish piping hot meals at home is a challenge, then having him  polish off his lunch box is an extreme version of the said challenge! Needless to say, Abhay is not exactly thrilled at the prospect of eating out of a box packed in the morning. So I’m still in the painful process of figuring out what clicks and what doesn’t! Besides, I have to work my way through several cooking challenges that in fact closely resembles a Master chef contest -  Abhay’s lunch should neither be spicy nor bland, neither sticky nor dry, neither mushy nor hard, neither contain too many vegetables nor made plain and finally not-to-forget perfectly fermented curd or curd rice!!! To top this, I have bear in mind the nutrition quotient of the meal!  With such high standards to meet, can you blame me for being on an obsessive prowl for lunch box ideas all over the internet …… so here's message to  all you food bloggers…. HELP!!!

 So today, I read about a girl whose aversion against her lunch could well be Abhay’s story! “Samira’s awful lunch” by Bharati Jagannathan and Preeti Krishnamurthy throws light on how to tackle picky eaters who treat lunch boxes as mere samples rather than full meals! Samira,  (whose mother I sincerely pity) cannot appreciate what her mother packs for lunch – noodles remind her of worms; upma feels like wet sand and idlis taste like mud and not surprisingly, she does not like the day's  lunch - parathas and brinjal curry! Determined not eat it, she closes her lunch box and heads out for a stroll in the school grounds when she meets a row of ants who empathize with her and decide to offer her their lunch – a cockroach wing! Disgusted, she runs into the garden when she meets a butterfly who agrees that vegetables are boring and in turn encourages her to drink the nectar off the flower! So Samira meets all her animal friends from the crow to the cow who seem more than willing to share their lunch with her. But compared to the half-eaten mouse offered by the crow, or the barley-seed lunch of the sparrow, or a cow’s meal of grass and hibiscus bush, Samira runs to open her lunch box to find parathas with brinjal to be the most delicious lunch she’s ever had!!! So a good read to help turn your little one's lunch box from awful to awesome!:-)

Dosa Delight!

Every Indian would swear by the fact that there is no place like India when it comes to food – be it lunch or dinner at your regular vegetarian restaurant or a gourmet restaurant, or mini meals or snacks at a Darshini style fast food joint or baked savories at Iyengar bakery, or roadside chat, and of course chilli bajjis dished out by your neighboring gaadiwala – variety is the true spice of your appetite! J While in the US, though we got to sample various cuisines around the world, I remember my constant lament over the lack of many choices for vegetarians like me, especially in places like Texas or Hawaii. Added to this, we found not many places catering to our Indian Palette when we craved for some savory snacks during teatime. I mean seriously, a cinnamon swirl or a banana walnut cake is hardly a match to our good old aloo bonda  to go with your cup of chai! Anyway, when you are on the road with a picky eater like my five year old ……thank God for Dosas!!!

It didn’t take too long for Abhay to turn from curd rice boy to the dosa boy! So today I found a book that titled “Dosa” by Sandhya Rao and pictures by Ashok Rajagopalan. Though a book more for toddlers, it did not fail to charm my five year old dosa lover!  Amma makes Dosa for Bapa who is busy reading newspaper. Amma makes one, two, three, four and many more dosas for Bapa who seemed to gulp them down in no time. Finally tired of making dosas, amma asks Bapa if she can stop making dosas. Then Bapa seems surprised and asks her when she even started as he claimed to have eaten none! Amma doesn’t believe bapa when he asks a question bothering amma and the readers ‘Who ate the dosas?" As we turn the last page, we  find the answer – we see a picture of a pet dog waging its tongue! Read “Dosa” to your little dosa lover but make sure you have the dosa batter ready!:-)

Cupcake Wars!

Abhay has never been too fond of desserts except of course for cupcakes and even as far as cupcakes are concerned, he is only interested in the frosting. Every time we approach the bakery section in a grocery store, we are conned into buying cupcakes for Abhay who vows to devour the cake along with  its cream frosting.  Of course, like most promises, this one too is forgotten the moment he gets what he wants and we are left with six cupcakes (they mostly come in a pack of six) with their frosting polished off clean. So in our three years in the US, we’ve probably set a record as being the couple who’ve had the most number of cupcakes minus the frosting! :-) So off late, in an attempt to do some damage control, I’ve been trying my hand at baking. Though ostensibly meant for Abhay and his weakness for baked sugary treats, I realized that I quite enjoy working the oven. Unfortunately, all my efforts seem to be in vain as all Abhay wants is the cream on the cake! It doesn’t matter, if I have tried a new recipe, or managed to make it eggless or that the cake looks and tastes simply delicious. As long as the cake or the cupcake is not iced with a frosting, he couldn’t care less.So today I baked strawberry cupcakes and for the first time, tried to whip up some frosting as well. Did Abhay enjoy them? Hmm….well….no matter what you do, some people just cannot be pleased! :-)

Even if Abhay didn’t find the cupcakes to be delectable, I still read the book “Fancy Nancy and the Delectable cupcakes”, a Level 1 in I can read series of Early Readers,  by Jane O’Connor and pictures by Robin Preiss Glasser. Nancy can’t wait to return home from school to make cupcakes for next day’s bake sale. Once back home, she and her mother gather all ingredients and bake the most delicious looking cupcakes which Nancy decorates with sprinkles and frosting so as to make them  fancy enough to live up to her reputation. Once done, her mother asks her put the cupcakes out of Frenchy’s ( her dog) reach. Heeding  to instructions not being one of her specialties, she places them just where she is not supposed to and Frenchy gets the taste of her cupcakes before the bake sale. Devastated by the ‘destruction’, she realizes she’s will be a no show at school the next day. Just then her father arrives home with all the necessary ingredients that once again go into making fancy Nancy’s delectable cup cakes!! If only I knew the exact ingredients that go into what my fastidious four- year old deems “delectable cup cakes”!:-)

This is how we do it!

After painting the town red over our kids’ picky food habits, it’s time for some introspection! How much do we experiment with food or how adaptable are we to different cuisines? Our food habits are shaped by where we come from and where we live now. One of my American friends found it amusing that we Indians start our day with something spicy like a dosa/paratha with pickle and not something sweet like a waffle or a pancake. Well, with breakfast, I guess it pays to be adaptable…I mean I thank God for Quakers Instant Oatmeal every morning!:-) I only wish my little desi boy would have Oatmeal instead of his Guli-appe/ rice balls which is the only thing he eats every day.

Anyway, when we move to a different place, we learn to acquire a taste for its cuisine and the younger we are, the easier it is to develop an acquired taste. Frankly, it took me more than a couple of visits to Taco Bell to start liking a burrito. Being a vegetarian, I still can’t get over the smell of the sea-weed used in Japanese cuisine! When I took my parents last year to an Italian restaurant here, they weren’t impressed with an authentic basil pasta but found my spicy Indianised penne, delicious! :-) So it’s not only the little ones, but we adults are guilty too! Honestly if you were given a choice between Oats and a Masala Dosa for breakfast, what would you choose?

To conclude my special on food fights at home, today I read “This is the way we eat our lunch” by Edith Baer and illustrated by Steve Bjorkman, an around the world food adventure for you and your little one to relish. It’s time for lunch and what will it be? Will it be Clam Chowder of Massachusetts or South Carolina’s potato pie or Texas tacos or Quebec’s soufflé or Columbian Tamales or Moroccan Couscous feast or Israeli Pita Bread or Italian Macaroni & Cheese or Indian curry-rice or Japanese tempura or Australian Barbecue! Abhay liked the colorful illustrations of the multi-ethnic world and its multi-cuisine food network! Who knows, may be in a few years from now, I’ll find him saying “Amma….dont fuss so much, it’s only a sushi!! :-)

Show me the curd rice!

Unlike most kids, Abhay isn’t all that crazy about eating out, be it burgers, fries, fried rice or noodles! Until recently, he did not exhibit even an iota of interest in pizza, a regular feature in most birthday parties and a life savior during travels. My four year old son finds outside food revolting just like my ninety four year old grandma in India! This means when we vacation, whether or not our suitcase has clothes, it will most definitely have a rice cooker! So wherever we travel, whatever exotic food we feast on, Abhay is always content with his on-the- go rice bowl. I will never forget the day when we were amongst a formally dressed crowd waiting in queue at the New York Winter Theatre for a Broadway show, and all eyes were on my darling son who was happily chomping on his curd rice out of his yellow lunch box! I will never forget to remind my son when he’s all grown up, that many of the must-see spots in the US, like the NYC Wall Street, Las Vegas Bellagio, Disneyland’s Toon-town or Grand Canyon’s South Kaibab Trailhead have all been his lunch (curd rice) stopovers! :-)

Speaking of finding another’s food revolting, today I read “The Sandwich Swap” by Her Majesty Queen Rania Alabdulla with Kelly Dipucchio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa. This is a story of two best friends named Lily and Salma who love everything about each other except each others’ lunch box. Lily thinks Salma’s Hummus and Pita sandwich is weird and Salma in turn feels Lily’s Peanut butter sandwich looked gross. One day when Salma finds Lily thinking aloud, she feels hurt and snaps back with her opinion of Lily’s peanut butter sandwich. The next day, the best friends sit tables apart at the school cafeteria. Soon, the word spreads, a simple spat ensues into a food fight with everyone taking sides! They feel ashamed when the principal summons them for an explanation. To set right the damage, the next day, Lily decides to taste Salma’s Hummus Sandwich and offers her Peanut butter sandwich to Salma and they soon discover how delicious each others' lunch is. So what started with a peanut butter sandwich ended with a hummus sandwich! So I’m waiting for the rice cooker’s curd rice to progress into restaurant fried rice! :-)

Try Try again!

Like many kids, Abhay too has always been and still is reluctant to try out new food. It took me ages (apologize for this expression, as with kids, even a month feels like forever!!) to get him to just nibble on half a slice of an apple. When he progressed on to eating the whole slice, we cheered like we would cheer for a cricket match! In the hope of making him more flexible with food, I enrolled him into a preschool that also provided meals as part of its plan. But I when I saw that he was alternating between only two options in his daily meal report viz. had very little or had none at all, I gave up!!! In all of nine months that he was there, never once did I get ‘ate all of it’ or ‘tried something new’!! How do we make them try out something new without throwing up? Most parenting books advise trying for at least 10-15 times! I mean, seriously.....is that possible?

Anyway, having exhausted all options suggested by books, Im now down to my signature method of ‘reading books’! Today I read two books on two difficult kids determined not to eat what they are supposed to. The first one, “Eat up Gemma” by Sarah Hayes and illustrated by Jan Ormerod. Little Gemma refuses to eat her food and shakes her head for everything that is offered. Everyone in the family is seen asking Gemma to eat up as she sits with her lips pursed. One day at church, when Emma finds a lady wearing a fancy hat with look-alike fruits and she leans forward to eat up. So when they get home, her brother hits upon an idea to have a bowl inverted into a hat decorated with grapes and bananas. Sure enough, Gemma finally eats up!

Another book, in an early readers format is, “Try it” by Christianne C Jones and illustrated by Hye Won Yi. It is a story of Tom who does not even try to eat his vegetables, with peas thrown at his sister, beans stuck up his nose, broccoli hid in his shoe, corn shoved in his pocket and a carrot made into a toy castle! But when mom makes a vegetable casserole with peas, beans, broccoli and carrots, Tom decides to give it a try and he ends up liking it and eating all of it! Okay ….I think Im now ready to get Abhay to try an Avocado! Wish me luck guys!!!:-)