"You can't expect kids to eat Indian food; that's just too weird."

[eyesroll]

I overheard this at work today -- apparently, a co-worker mentioned taking her kids to an Indian restaurant this weekend, and the younger kid (probably a pre-schooler or so by now) acted up.

The other co-worker blamed this on the weirdness of the food -- "kids aren't supposed to eat Indian food."

Try telling that to the 1 billion Indian people who feed their kids Indian food every day.

The woman replied that no, the kid ate some rice and naan but got squirmy because, well, he's a little kid and that's what they do.

Jeez, I understand not wanting to give your kids anything too spicy ("this hurts my tongue," said my SO's three-year-old this weekend when she accidentally ate some of her Dad's pasta with the crushed red peppers in it), but I remain convinced that if more people around the world ate the food of other cultures, there'd be a lot less hate. (How can you hate someone when you love their food?)

I get super-annoyed when I see people in perfectly good, kid-friendly ethnic restaurants bring in McDonald's. (My parents had a rule -- we couldn't order the grilled cheese or the chicken fingers off the kiddie menu unless/until we'd tried some of the actual ethnic food -- and guess what? We never did order the grilled cheese or the chicken fingers. But if we did -- at least it's not McDonald's. That's just rude and possibly a health code violation.)

The three-year-old was an omnivore until about 9 months ago, and is now picky (nothing surprising there), but her dad has a similar rule and guess what? She still likes pho (she even wants to use chopsticks for the noodles), and rice and tortillas and salsa (even with a little kick) and guacamole and naan and mango juice and anything that looks like a meatball, and I bet, when she comes out of the picky phase (which could be soon, could be 15 years, oy) she'll be willing to try new foods easily. (She likes to help us cook, too, even if she thinks the final product will be icky.)

[crispini]

1. My mom always had a rule.

"You have to try it."

That worked well for me even through my very very pickiest years. I once refused a hamburger because it was the "wrong shape." :eyes: I tried it, but it was still the wrong shape. :rofl:

I grew out of it, though, and by the time I was 14 I'd had EVERYTHING under the sun, up to and including sushi. I attribute my mom's rule and my dad's adventurous taste in cuisine to my enduring enjoyment of other cultures and my bad travelling addiction.

Except Thai food. (Kidding! :rofl:)

[eyesroll]

2. You can't expect kids to eat Thai food; it's too weird.

Their little delicate tummies can't handle noodles and rice.
:D

I nver really did the picky thing -- I impressed the hell out of a Japanese restaurant waiter when I was 4 by pointing out that there was tofu in the soup (this was before tofu was everywhere). And I ate the tofu and everything else in the bento box.

I remember going to a birthday party in junior high -- the girl was fillipina, and the party was for extended family as well as friends, and friends' parents were invited in for food, too. There was Subway or some such, but the rest of the food was pancit and buns and so forth (cooked by the girl's immigrant grandmother). I ate myself silly, ignorning the Subway (I think I was the only American kid to do so), and when my dad came to pick me up, he ate himself silly, too. This repeated itself at my Korean friend's 16th birthday a few years later.

[crispini]

5. I stayed at a friend's house as a teen.

The mom was Korean, and she expressed surprise at the fact that I would eat Korean food, because so many of her kids' OTHER friends would not. Sad, really. Korean food is YUMMEH!

[eyesroll]

6. Ditto -- Mrs. Jang usually cooked when I stayed over, and I remember

once I was disappointed when she ordered pizza. (As a gracious guest, I still thanked her and then groused to my parents when I got home.)

I make a decent chapchae now.

[Donkeyboy75]

63. Mmmmmm...

chapchae. One of my best friends from grad school is Korean, and I got some great kimchi, chapchae and kim pap recipes from her.

You still live near Chicago, right? Chicago Foods off of Kimball is a veritable warehouse of Korean goodness. :9

[grace0418]

82. Oh, I know Chicago Foods well.

One of my best friends is Korean and she took me there the first time. YUM!

[eyesroll]

90. I'm in Milwaukee, but I should hit Chicago sometime.

I like that big Asian market in Arlington Heights -- used to be Yeohan but it's something else now -- for groceries, bakery and a food court.

[grace0418]

85. Ah yes, Filipino parties...

My husband is Filipino and I blame his family for my weight gain since I started dating him. ;) I have never seen so much food in my life as what his family puts out for a standard party. And none of them eat very much! All the women are about 102 lbs., seriously. My mother-in-law is one of the best cooks in the family too.

The only problem is that I don't like seafood. I know. I know. Believe me, I have tried every kind of seafood dish out there, hoping that something would click. I've had the freshest sushi from an excellent restaurant in the middle of Tokyo. I've had fish plucked from a stream and grilled minutes later. I've had mussels in white wine in Paris. I've had lobster bisque, catfish curry, salmon mousse, crab cakes, calamari, shrimp toast, bbq eel, you name it. I want to like it, really I do. But I just don't. And it SUCKS being in a Filipino family and not liking seafood. I always feel like they think I'm some picky white girl but I swear I'm not! It's so embarassing.

[China_cat]

15. In the best Girl Scout tradition

we've always insisted on a 'no thank you' helping...3 bites.

[ET Awful]

33. My mom always had a rule too . . .

That's dinner, if you don't like it, tough.

:evilgrin:

Worked for me. :P

[Blue_Tires]

57. amen to that shit

"You can eat what's in front of you, or go to bed hungry--makes NO difference to me!"

[Withywindle]

77. Same here!

I don't get the coddling, I really don't. I ate what was put in front of me 'cause, well, that's what there was.

Now, I was lucky - my mom's an awesome cook. But I didn't always appreciate it, that's for sure.

I threw some tantrums, went to bed hungry a few times. I didn't die.


And now I'm really glad, because I'm not a picky or timid eater as an adult, which means I don't wind up insulting my hosts or making their lives difficult. In some countries it's considered DEEPLY rude to refuse food--I think that's because in lots of places, memory is awfully fresh about food being hard to come by (if it's not still).

[xmas74]

100. It's not just rude in some countries,

it's rude even in some areas of the US.

I was always raised to eat what my guest offered me, to tell them it tasted good and to thank them for the effort. My daughter is being raised the same way.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. My parents' rule was

"You have to try one bite."

If we still didn't like it, fine. But we weren't allowed to "hate" some food just because it was different.

[DS1]

3. Indian food is the best stuff on Earth

One of the few good things the Brits ripped off :hide:

[billyskank]

84. We didn't do it, the Indian ex-pats ripped off their own food

for British consumption. I never saw a white guy working in an Indian restaurant before. It's pretty different to anything you'd actually get in India.

[momophile]

4. I can't wait to feed my baby Indian food...

but I don't know when would be a good time to start. She is only six-months old now and only eating the basics, but we do try introducing something new every several days. She goes to the Indian restaurant with us often so at least it will be familiar to her when she is ready to eat it - maybe in four months?

So many good foods to try! My girl will definitely have more chances and choices than I did growing up. Ethnic food was only Mexican and Chinese and we could rarely afford to go out to eat.

[eyesroll]

7. I don't know a lot about infant development, but I can't imagine she'd

need to be restricted in her introduction to Indian food any more than she'd need to be restricted in her introduction to American food, if that makes sense. (In other words -- if she can have rice, she can have basmati rice; if she can have bread, she can have naan; if she can have non-pureed vegetables, she can try some of the mashed or small-pieces veggie dishes.) I've read somewhere that an infant diet need not be bland, so long as it's not spicy hot and it doesn't contain honey.

[LeftyMom]

9. That's true

LeftyKid's first adult food was garlic soup. I gave him a taste thinking he'd hate it and quit pestering me for some but he ate all of my bowl and everything that was left in the pot. :D

[China_cat]

13. My youngest did that with escargot.

He wanted it even after we told him it was snails. Figured we'd teach him a lesson and got it for him. Now it's one of his favorites. He was 8 when that happened.

[eyesroll]

14. Hee.

The three-year-old likes to make spaghetti into "snails." Don't know how she'd deal with a real one.

[Ravenseye]

19. My 16 month old loves it

I don't know when we first gave her a taste...After 6 months. She had some skin issues with eating rice at first, so her diet was fairly controlled as we introduced solids. Maybe 10-11 months old we first really gave her some real Indian food.

Now we go and she gets something like Saag Paneer or Palak Paneer with nan. Uses the nan to dip and slurp off the Saag Paneer, and then eats the naan.

[yellowdogintexas]

58. Naan bread, rice, a little cucumber riata, get some tandoori

chicken and give her little bits of the breast meat, etc. Mine hated pappadams the first few times we went for curry but she loved everything else (she was about 9 or so at the time). Then she tried the green spicy sauce with the pappadams and feel in LOVE. She will eat absolutely anything and there are very very few things that she has refused after having eaten them once.

The first adult food she actually showed interest in was hot and sour soup, at 3 months. She was in dad's lap and the soup came to the table: she made a LUNGE for it and nearly spilled it all over herself. She got a cracker to suck on but she really wanted that soup.

[Deep13]

8. Indian children eat it.

[gollygee]

10. My 3-year-old LOVES Indian food

it's one of her favorites.

She's been eating it as long as she's been eating solid food.

:shrug:

[clyrc]

11. My daughters eat Indian food, although my very picky oldest

will only eat rice and naan. Once I tried to get her to try something she didn't want to eat, and she vomited all over the table. Another time she went into screaming hysterics that lasted and lasted. On her own occasionally she will decide to try something new, but mostly she eats from about a dozen different foods. Her younger sister, however, loves most food, thank goodness.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

68. Your kid went into screaming hysterics over food?

What did you do about it, just curious?
Duckie

[BikeWriter]

12. My kids were given a wide variety of foods...

as soon as they could eat it. I firmly believe that's the best way to avoid raising finicky eaters.

[AwakeAtLast]

16. My daughter ate Hot and Sour soup when she was a year old!

She still likes it now that she is four. She loves egg rolls, Thai food, hummus, you name it!
I haven't had Indian food myself, but would love to expose her to it (I don't live in a very
culturally diverse place). I like seeing her try things with me, it's so much fun!

:hi:

[alphafemale]

75. Mine both loved that too.

My son, when a toddler, was a hit with the kitchen staff of a certain chinese restaurant because he loved Hot & Sour Soup. He'd wipe his toungue with a napkin between bites, but he loved that soup!

He's almost 16 now and still has adventurous tastes.

Daughter (19) is a Vegetarian now but likes to try many tastes. Non-faced that is.

[Initech]

17. I get pissed when I see people bring McDonalds in ethnic restarunts, too.

Like, maybe you should TRY some of the food before you make judgements. That's a slap in the face to the people who own the restaraunt.

[Deja Q]

20. They're just children.

Best to cajole them into trying the real stuff, but why not give them grease slop if they have tried it and not cared for it; their taste buds will evolve in time? The adults are there to eat the real food and what's wrong with keeping the family together?

Of course, the adults could tell the children to be good children and pick from the menu provided; most restaurants do have kids' sections that don't bite...

Worst of all, the downside is to allow a kid to be contented with one thing rather than keeping their minds open to new things will be a detriment in the long run. My aunt knew this and always opened me up to new things. Which was hard at times because of prevailing circumstances (not my parents, who tried in their own ways, but my PDD...)

It is a slap in the face to the restaurant owners, but only in a minor way, if someone brings in garbage for their kids to eat while they themselves partake in real food.

But if I went into a restaurant and pulled out a Double Whopper with cheese for all to see, THAT would be an insult. A real one. Doubly so, since fast food is the worst sort of 'food' on this planet.

[Initech]

41. Of course, the way I see it...

I've seen people with kids bring the shit McDonalds calls "food" in FATBURGER. A restaraunt that serves hamburgers!

That's why I get angry when I see McCrapald's being brought out in restaraunts like that, even Indian or Chinese or Mexican restaraunts. At least let them try the food and if they dont like it, drive thru McDonalds afterwards.

And people wonder why there's so many fat and stupid people in this country. :eyes:

[Withywindle]

78. I have never seen this before!

People actually bring McFeedbag "food" (or food from any other place) in another restaurant??!?

Holy shit, how rude is THAT?

[Withywindle]

79. I just can't believe people DO this...

This is the first I've heard of this practice, and I'm kind of mindboggled, honestly.

I mean, WTF?

I just can't fathom what would make anyone think it's OK to bring food from one "restaurant" (using the term as loosely as possible for fast food) into another.

I'm just kind of speechless. And when I thought etiquette and entitlement-mentality couldn't get any worse, it always does, just a little bit.

[supernova]

18. People really do this?

Bring the food of another restaurant into an eating establishment? :crazy:

[Deja Q]

25. If it's for their children I can be adequately tolerant...

Though I'll admit it is caving into the child's whims, which is not a good thing either.

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. I cannot be tolerant of it at all.

There is no reason for it whatsoever. I do not believe in caving in to the whims of children in that way. Either they eat from the menu, or they go without dinner entirely.

And they don't get to pick from the "food for American kids" part of the ethnic restaurant - no fucking chicken pieces, no spaghetti, no hot dogs.

It's incredibly rude to the restaurant owners (but then, I consider going to a restaurant to be like being invited into someone's home, and I should act like a guest, not a "client" that needs to be appeased), and it also sets a really, really bad precedent for that child's attitude toward food, by, in effect, reinforcing the concept that ethnic food is "weird", "strange", and "something that's for adults, not children".

Bullshit.

[xmas74]

101. But many ethnic restaurants are more than tolerant of

children's palates and will substitute something from their menu for their dining experience. Chinese is a great example. I've watched families bring in McDonalds or Burger King for their children. Why when they can try the sweet and sour chicken w/ the sauce on the side instead? Easy fix and a child can be told that it's like a "Chinese Chicken Nugget."

And any place that uses spices will usually honor the request to tone them down for a child. They know that the children coming in w/ their parents now could be their future customers as teens and adults. They will do their best to make them happy.

Many restaurant owners are parents themselves and understand that children can be picky. If the request is reasonable they will usually be happy to do it.

[eyesroll]

27. I've seen it a couple of times.

(And I'm not just talking about someone bringing a cup of coffee into another fast-food place.)

Baby food, bottles...sure. Of course. Most restaurants don't have baby food, and I'd be scared if I found a restaurant that had breast milk.

Although I don't pay attention to what other diners order (unless it's sizzling nearby and smells good), it's hard NOT to notice when they bring in fast-food bags...I wonder if they order the "safest" thing on the menu for themselves, too...

(I shouldn't make fun of that. Too much. My mom's not very adventurous and sticks to salmon teriyaki and beef with broccoli, and won't even go in to an Indian restaurant. How my dad, who loves food of all kinds, has dealt with that for 34 years is beyond me.)

[LostinVA]

29. That's actually been illegal every place I've ever lived

[eyesroll]

43. And probably here, too...

Doesn't stop some people.

[LostinVA]

47. A seafood place I waitressed at one summer

Used to tell people they either had to leave or put the food in their car when they would do it. And, the thing is, the place had a non-seafood "kiddie" menu -- grilled cheese, chicken fingers, peanut butter sandwich, etc. So, there was no excuse.

Besides being tacky as hell, it was against health regulations AND the place's insurance.

[Ravenseye]

21. Gotta love ignorance

When my wife was pregnant, someone actually told us to not eat Indian food because it could cause a miscarriage. Can you believe someone would say that? We were like, "Well what the hell do Indian people eat while they're pregnant!?"

People everwhere, but americans in particular, are very ethnocentric. They just can't understand that people do and eat things differently and that it's ok. The ok part is the hard part. It's even funnier when people think that if you don't do things the way you do, then you're endangering yourself.

Same reason I hate fundies of all stripes.

[ikri]

32. My mother ate Indian food when she was pregnant with me

Probably explains why I'd crawl off my death bed for a good Balti :)

Indian food is some of the most delicious food on the planet. Everyone, no matter their age, should try it. You can guarantee that there's something you'll enjoy.

[Ravenseye]

34. Yeah exactly

When someone says they don't like Indian food, I ask them what they had, or how many things they tried. Usually it's once. It's like someone saying to me (which happened) "No I don't want to go to the Thai place...I don't like food with peanuts in it." He wouldn't believe me that not all Thai food had peanuts in it. He thought all thai food was essentially exactly the same as Pad Thai because that's what he had one time.

Indian food has such a range, that unless you go and try at least 4-5 different dishes from Tandoori Chicken, to Saag Panner, to a Keema Vindaloo, to maybe a Shakti Mahar or something like that with a sweeter creme sauce....bah...

I've met people who wouldnt' go to chinese because it was too strange. People are so insular sometimes I want to beat them over the head with an oar.

[China_cat]

56. There's a really good basic Indian cookbook

called Indian Home Cooking that is a staple in my house...very thumbed and spotted. :) And when I mentioned that I was cooking a lot out of it to a friend in the middle east (oil geologist), he went to the souk and gifted me with garam masala, tandoori masala, cumin and enough saffron to pay off the national debt if you bought it here. I fill out my spices at ishopindia.com

Lovely food, lovely smells. Hmph...now I'm hungry.

[gollygee]

46. I've wondered if that's why my daughter loves it so much

We went out to this Indian place at least once a week when I was pregnant I craved it so badly. And I ate it all the time when I was breastfeeding too and breastmilk picks up flavors from foods.

I don't know what it is but she LOVES Indian food. Can't get enough.

[Common Sense Party]

22. Well, I know plenty of people who love Mexican food but hate

Mexicans. Go figure.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

69. The tex-mex food we have here in the US isn't real Mexican food...

If you've had real mexican food, it's not that great. My cousin had it in Cancun. She barfed her guts out. It was watered down and gross.
Duckie

[miss_american_pie]

23. Aside from your co-workers lack of logic

and isn't that an astounding one, I really can't get worked up about how other people feed their kids.

:shrug:

[redqueen]

24. My super-picky kids like rogan josh.

What a silly thing to think / say.

[noonwitch]

26. Most little kids I know don't like spicy food

That's something maybe their mouths are just too sensitive for. It took me years of smoking to be able to get some of that kind of food down. Now, my favorite cooking ingredients are cajun seasoning or Crystal Hot Sauce.

My neices do like middle eastern food-it's not very spicy if you don't dip everything in the garlic sauce (although I use the sauce generously).

[Fleshdancer]

28. My daughter's favorite food: sushi. She's 5 yrs old.

When it's celebration time, she doesn't ask for McDonald's, she doesn't ask for chicken fingers or macaroni. She wants sushi. Her favorite is tuna but she likes salmon too. Sometimes it has wasabi on it, sometimes it doesn't.

My point is that there is absolutely no reason to limit the food choices of children. Give them a chance to experience new flavors and textures and they're bound to surprise you. My girl has an advanced palate for her age because we don't assume that she'll only like processed "kiddie" crap...that wouldn't be very fair to her or her health. We can put anything in rice and Abby will eat it. During the week we eat a lot of doctored couscous, asparagus, baked chicken breast...if we eat it, she eats it. That's the rule. She doesn't like red meat because of the texture, she can handle small doses of curry but can't stand garlic or tomato based sauces. Sounds pretty human to me, not necessarily a reflection of age.

[Karenina]

55. I rue the day

that I allowed my kids a bite of my wasabi covered sashimi. Cost an arm and a leg to keep up with their culinary demands, but they are now as adults FLUENT in Japanese. Go figure... :shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. Fucking moron asshole typical american pigbrained fuck

Yeah, any food that you didn't grow up with, assknocker, is "weird". Fuck you. And when you add "and not meant for children", let me offer a double fuck you and a year in Gitmo, you racist arrogant moron fuck.

Yet another in my long, long laundry list of complaints against Americans.

[4morewars]

35. I love you, man !

Don't ever change !

Re the OP, I have a sticker on one of my monitors that sums it up:

"Forever, I walk among the ignorant"

[tjwash]

36. Indian food is my favorite.

And it's damn good for you too. I turned my nephews on to it, and they loved it, and they are picky little guys.

If I was a kid, and my mom made veggies like they do in some of my favorite Indian food places, I would have eaten my veggies when I was growing up.

[LibertyLover]

37. Well, I guess my kid is weird

she is three and loves Chinese, Mexican, Moroccan, German, Italian, Thai and Indian foods. Especially if they are a bit hot. One of her favorites? Hot and sour soup. Where did we go wrong?

[qanda]

38. Oh, how I miss Indian food

One of my best friends is Indian and she stayed with me while doing her internship at a local hospital. When she visited home, her mom would cook tons of food for her to bring back with her. I need to call her up and see when she's coming to visit me again.

[mondo joe]

39. For goodness sakes - my kids have been eating Indian, Viet

Namese, Japanese, Thai, and a lot moer for the whole lives.

:eyes:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. Back in my college teaching days, the ordinarily mediocre cafeteria

turned the kitchen over to the foreign students one night each year.

Instead of tasteless gray glop, the kitchen turned out Malaysian satays, Salvadoran papusas, spicy Caribbean meat and fruit stews, Indonesian corn fritters, and countless other fantastic foods that I can still taste.

The faculty made a point of eating in the dining hall that night. (The other occasion was the Hawaiian students' luau.)

But one such evening, I had just joined some colleagues at a table near the door with a plate full of goodies from around the world, when two students walked in, wearing the standard male college student uniform (at least that year) of sweatpants, a beer T-shirt, and a baseball cap worn sideways.

"Oh, no!" one of them groaned. "International Night!"

"I've got my car," the other said. "Let's go to McDonald's."

They were typical of the majority of that students at that school, who seemed to go out of their way to avoid new experiences, whether it was new foods, new people, non-Top 40 music, non-blockbuster movies, the opportunity to study abroad, or the opportunity to hear famous authors, politicians, social commentators, and humanitarians speak.

[eyesroll]

44. I *loved* the International Dinner

As an undergrad, the International Dinner was a paid event (some nominal fee, like $2) but I went every year -- I once took the eight-year-old I tutored, too (that was a lot of fun).

My school had a big international population -- and a big percentage of students studied abroad, too -- so we didn't have so much xenophobia.

[Withywindle]

80. Those people have no soul.

Shit, college was my ramen noodle/generic canned tunafish time. I would have stormed over dead bodies to eat what you're talking about.

So much for the spirit of intellectual and humanistic curiosity in higher education. Sad.

[Nikia]

45. I ate a variety of things when I was little but didn't eat a lot of ethnic

Aside from Chinese, Mexican, and Italian food. For a while, I was afraid of Chinese food after eating some that I didn't like so then I ate rice and then fried rice. I am still a big fan of pork fried rice but I have expanded my tastes. Going to a Chinese buffet really helped with that.
I liked Mexican food from the beginning.
I didn't really like Italian food at first. For some reason, I didn't like tomato sauce for a while when I was a preschooler. Going to an Italian buffet also helped me like the food better.
Ethnic buffets might be a good idea for introducing a child to ethnic foods if restaurants are available in that area. That way a child can sample a variety of food so they can find out what they like rather than get something and dislike it and assume that all food from that country is bad. Buffets also might have other things too that the child would eat if they don't like the ethnic food.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

48. I ate Indian food day in and day our for almost 20 years.

Might have to do with the fact that I'm Indian. :)

[Guy Fawkes]

49. Right... kids should eat

Nepalese. They've got some good ass food.

[Hobarticus]

50. What restaurant allows you to bring in outside food?

I've never heard of such a thing.

I worked in a theater, and there's liability issues involved with outside food.

[Left Is Write]

51. Why not? My kids (even the picky one!) like Chinese food.

[Lisa]

52. and to think there was a time in North America, when Italian food ....

... was thought to be "too weird"! Never mind Thai, Indian, or Ethiopian!

No kidding. Even broccoli (mainstay of moms everywhere) wasn't widely eaten until many years after it was introduced by immigrants in the 19th century.

Most North American kids may not be used to really hot spices (and there's that thing where parents are being advised to not introduce them to food containing peanuts for the first couple of years) -- but my friends' children seem to be doing fine at ethnic restaurants. Last weekend we all went to a new Vietnamese place downtown. The 2.5-year-old had the mild spring rolls (cut into small pieces) and vermicelli noodles. If anybody at the table is eating with chopsticks, she absolutely refuses to use a fork (or open her mouth for food presented to her on one) -- she wants the chopsticks too. Happens at home, as well. (In fact, her parents feed her stuff she normally fusses about, using chopsticks ... that's the only time when she won't pitch a fit.)

[yellowdogintexas]

62. mine tried chopsticks when she was about 3, well she just couldn't

get them to work, darn it so she went to the drawer and got herself another one. She figured if two wouldn't work, she probably needed another one.


That was so funny..but by the time she was 5 she was an expert. Won't eat Chinese food without them.

[Lisa]

64. There are times when a third "finger" on the chopsticks ...

... might actually be handy! Maybe your daughter could invent a new eating utensil someday. (My birthday present to the 2-year-old was a plastic clamp which turns chopsticks into "tweezers" by securing the ends, making them easier to manage for a novice. I'm sure she'll get the hang of it eventually, but for now, her eagerness is a bit ahead of her dexterity, even when we shorten the chopsticks for her.)

[eyesroll]

65. My SO's three-year-old uses one chopstick in each hand.

She's actually pretty adept at picking up noodles that way.

She'll learn the real way soon, I'm sure.

[AnneD]

53. I started early with my daughter...

You had to eat a small portion. She LOVED spicy foods (Thai, Indian, Cajun,etc). My fav story...I cooked some Chinese food and packed the leftovers for the next days lunch. The day care worker told me (laughing) that when they were heating the lunches for the toddlers, someone gave my daughter's Chinese food to her Chinese classmate and the Chinese girl's sandwich to my daughter. It took them a while to figure out why the girls were so upset (crying) about their meal.

We have been all over the world and shared many a meal. Barriers break down when you break bread.

[Rob H.]

54. I didn't like spicy foods as a kid, either, but now I love them.

It seems like people's sense of taste (or at least the things they like the taste of) can change over time. There are things I eat now, like sushi and tofu, that I wouldn't have dreamed of trying as a kid. (My family also didn't have a lot of disposable income when I was growing up so restaurants were strictly "special occasion-only," and that might have something to do with my youthful lack of culinary daring, too.)

[KitchenWitch]

59. My 4 year old LOVES Thai food.

[MiniMandaRuth]

60. My mom worked at an indian resturant while she was pregnet with me...

Mmmmm.... it was GOOD...

[opiate69]

61. My kids eat Indian food regularly..

well, except for the 8 year old who simply refuses to eat anything that isn't exactly what he wants on a given night... but I make chicken curry at least twice a month and my 5 year old and 3 year old love it.

[malmapus]

66. Wow my 2 year old loves it

We actually had Indian last night, this small family owned resturant..been going there for almost a year now since we moved here. All this time I didn't know that she wasn't suppose to eat it! UGH stupid me.

[trof]

67. 3 year old grandson's favorite food: Sushi

Go figure.
He goes through phases.
Sometimes he eats nothing.
As far as we could tell he lived on air for a couple of months.

Then he eats anything.
Then he goes on the mac & cheese diet.

Lately it's sushi.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

70. I think Indian is probably one of the more kid friendly cuisines.

Not brutal vindaloos and such, but basmati, naan, lamb koorma? It's all good.

[nemo137]

71. heh. I'm Anglo, but my idea of home cooking is Indian food

That's what my mom cooked growing up, so when I come home from college, it get spicy vegetables and lamb for my comfort food.

[tjdee]

72. WHAT! Shah Rukh Khan ate Indian food when he was a kid...

and look how hot he is now!

I can't believe ignorant people. They really irritate me. Just...eww.

[grace0418]

73. The rule in my home was always "Eat what I made or go hungry."

I may not agree with my mom on a lot of things but that rule worked for me. Sure, I have foods I don't like but I'll try almost anything before I say I don't like it.

And Indian food is the consistency and color of baby food most of the time. Why not feed it to a kid (unless it's just way too spicy)?

[Name removed]

74. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eyesroll]

89. That's Ms. Smartypants, hobo_baggins.

And a more proper analogy would be loving steaks yet hating whatever it is cows eat these days. Cows don't eat steaks.


And what did the cows ever do to you?

[asthmaticeog]

98. Don't ask questions you may not really want answered.

:scared:

[hobo_baggins]

102. well im not a big fan of grass either

a cow shot my brother in reno, just to watch him die

[Susang]

94. That doesn't make an ounce of sense

Unless you're a cannibal. :shrug:

[NMMNG]

76. People can be so ignorant

and so ethnocentric. I'm sure that some of the stuff that woman feeds to her kids (or eats herself) would be considered strange or even repugnant by others. She needs to pull her head out of the sand--there's a whole world out there besides McDonald's, BK and Denny's.

[grace0418]

81. This thread is making me so hungry! mmmmm... Indian food...

Luckily Chicago has TONS of Indian restaurants. I'm lucky enough to have an excellent one within walking distance. It has the best saag paneer I've ever tasted. I also love that they don't coddle their customers. If you ask for medium spicy it's good and spicy.

[billyskank]

83. That's plain old bigotry

Nothing more and nothing less. We got lots of that too. :(

[grace0418]

86. My kid won't know what ethnic food is, I don't think.

To him or her it will just be food.

I'm Greek, my husband is Filipino. When we go out to eat with our circle of friends, there is typically 5 or more different cultures represented (Greek, Filipino, Korean, Taiwanese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, German) who are well versed in the foods of their culture. And they love trying food from all over.

Even the food I make at home tends to be a mish-mash of pan-Asian or Mediterranean flavors.

[izzybeans]

87. Who Knew? I guess we better knock it off then and tell my son

he actually hates it.

[slide to the left]

88. Try some Arab food

Not Lebonese, but Morrocan. Tajine... wow.

You havent lived until you have had Bastilla. To DIE for. Recipe below.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1626,145170-225207,00.html

[Patiod]

91. Am I the only one on DU that doesn't like Indian food?

I eat everything else, other than Cuban (don't like plantains, don't like sweet food).

Have tried Indian food in many different (US) cities because we have lots of Indian clients - everything from little hole-in-the-wall buffett restaurants to family-style to big fancy Indian restaurants. All spiciness levels. Lots and lots of different things. Thankfully, I do love the taste and smell of curry, and can usually get by ordering a curry dish so I don't look totally hopeless.

But was out recently with a lot of hard-core Indian food fans recently, and I was really hungry, and they ordered EVERYTHING extra-spicy, and I thought I'd died and gone to hell. Ended up like a kid, eating the rice and nan. Tried a little of everything else, and was literally crying from the heat.

[kwassa]

92. Spice level is a cultural thing

Many native Indians I've eaten with like the food high hot spice levels. The homemade food in particular has been, well, memorable.

A group of us were in pain, bright red, sweating profusely, and our Indian host was mystified by our response. He didn't think it hot at all. At the same time, the homemade stuff was the best I had.

Curries are often the hottest dishes, so I am surprised that you turn to that.

Cuban food isn't usually sweet at all, except for plantains, and they can be cooked very differently depending on who is doing it. I love the marinated roast pork, black beans and rice, garlic chicken, etc.

[Patiod]

95. My experience with Cuban food is FAR more limited

Cuban food only hit Philadelphia about 8 years ago. I went to only one restaurant, and tried my meal and something from all the other women at the table and EVERYTHING was sweet, sweet, sweet. I probably need to do like I've done with Indian, and try various kinds of places - you can't base your opinion of a whole cuisine on one restaurant!

It's taken years for me to get used to really hot/spicy food, and usually request MILD curry (hey - I grew up in an Irish house where black pepper was considered spicy and exotic).

But I've progressed - a few months ago I asked for tabasco for the jumbalya at a geechee restaurant!

[kwassa]

97. I know some great Cuban places in LA

The only thing really sweet are the desserts, which can be outrageously sweet, and some of the fruit drinks. Meat gets marinaded in Mojo, which is a citrus-based marinade with lots of garlic. LOTS of garlic.

There is supposed to be a good one here in Maryland in Silver Spring, but I haven't been there yet.

[MountainLaurel]

96. It works in some strange ways

My husband used to work with some Vietnamese women who would put their traditional hot pepper sauce on everything in large quantities, but for whom Taco Bell was too spicy.

[flamingyouth]

93. My mom is a self-taught cook.

And she was always experimenting with different cuisines while I was growing up. Basically the only things I wouldn't eat as a kid were squash and zucchini (I've since grown out of that). My dad, on the other hand, is a way pickier eater. He can't stand to smell garlic being browned, for example. :crazy:

Anyway, I have fond memories of Mom's multi-course "theme dinners" for my friends and me while I was growing up. She'd always sneak in a geography lesson or two while serving us the food of a particular region. My friends still talk about them all the time.

[xmas74]

99. My five year old must be weird.

She likes Indian cuisine, along w/ many others. The key is to find something similar, in the beginning, to something they already like and go from there. Once they know that there is something there they already like they will slowly try other things.