Jane: Cinder, Flora, how do you guys feel about bean sprouts these days?
Flora: I love them, they’re so juicy and crunchy.
Cinder: Um, not so much.
Jane: OK, I’ll serve them on the side then.
And she fights the urge to extrapolate and to hammer the point home with a sledge hammer, because sometimes, it really is THIS easy. Honest.
Photo: That’s Flora’s “by request” birthday supper. Steak Tartar. Because a photo of bean sprouts would be really boring.
More like this:
Picky eaters: how can he know he doesn’t like it until he takes a bite?
“Jane, baby, what’s with this dial-in post?”
“I’ve been crazy busy making money, beloved. But wait until next week. Just wait until next week… We’re going to break the Interwebs again, lovelies.”
xoxo
“Jane”
P.S. Looking for me? Connect with Nothing By The Book on Twitter @nothingbythebook, Facebook, and Google+. Or, for a not-in-front-of-the-entire-Internet-please exchange, email nothingbythebook@gmail.com.
Nothing By The Book 
LOL Jane. I made brussel sprouts tonight, you think the kid is going to eat them? I won’t tell him what they are and get back to you!
Brussel sprouts are one of those foods that were ruined for me as a child. I won’t eat them now. Never even bothered to offer them to my children…
(It was bean sprouts they were eating. Which are delicious. For Flora and me, Cinder not so much.)
As a long time veggo and vegan of 20+ years my kids were well versed in “unusual” meals. That’s not to say that they didn’t balk at various foods, only that I now get to raise my eyebrow at them and their adventures in Korean cookery when as young teens they would raise their arms in unison (and horror) at the site of a curry or hot chips (don’t ask…they are obviously clinically insane). The trick, and you are absolutely correct to point it out to the less fortunate amongst us (for “less fortunate” read “not desperate enough to try ANYTHING”), is to remember that kids won’t starve. Much like dogs they will eat when they are hungry and most especially, if there isn’t one of mum’s buttons to push if they resist. If mum could care less whether they eat or not, there isn’t any fun in bucking up. Most mums learn this by the time they have had 3+ kids. The first kid is still alive, the second one seems to be still alive (even though the first kid has done their damned hardest to return themselves to single child status on every possible occasion since you gave birth to numero due) and what the heck… you don’t have time to puree the hell out of Brussels sprouts and airplane them into a small angry red faced humanoids epiglottis! Life lessons and learning to negotiate. 2 VERY important skills for intergenerational relationships and the sooner we learn them (both sides) the better. It bodes well for humanities survival.
I actually clicked to enlarge the picture. Such a beautiful, creative plate, just as I would expect. Love you, even when you dial-in. 🙂
Credit goes to restaurant chef, not me. 🙂 But thank you for assuming the best.
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