My kids are adventurous eaters -- afraid we are going to lose that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, taking your kids to pho and Indian food doesn’t make them gourmands. Teach them how to make really amazing scrambled eggs. Watch the cooking shows. There are about a 1000000 out there. Chefs table is great. It’s all about making do with what you have. Plant a garden. Learn about local ingredients. And FFS order some groceries or send someone to the store. Every source on the subject has said it is fine.

Every source on the subject has not said that going to get groceries is fine. It is one of the few places that people are actually congregating in any numbers now and definitely presents a risk. It is a risk that some people feel they need to take, but it is risk nonetheless. Have you tried ordering groceries? I have and it is hard to get a delivery window and, when you do, you are pretty limited in what you can get. As for planting a garden, we have a small one in the limited space we have, but that's not something that can sprout up on demand.

I agree that teaching kids to cook is a good idea and we do. But, cooking and eating are two different things. One doesn't have to be a good cook to be a "gourmand." And, though not terribly common, there are great chefs who, for a variety of reasons, have restrictive palates.

[Anonymous]

Op you sound like an insufferable dick. Take this time to work on that. Seriously, pompous ass alert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your kids will be fine. I was the pickiest eater ever until about age 10...and now I eat pretty much any cuisine.

This is a wake up call, though, to expand your cooking repertoire and keep a broader variety of ingredients on-hand once we resume something closer to normal life. I'm Asian-American, so my spice cabinet is more varied than average, I'm guessing...but I tend to have the spices available for a pretty broad variety of cuisines. I generally avoid more complicated dishes of cuisines I'm less familiar with, but I try to mimic the spice profiles. It's an easy way to create variety without needing a lot of exotic ingredients.

Stocking up a little is a good idea and it might give me a few more options. But, I'm in pretty decent shape with spices. I don't have any meat (other then frozen beyond meat "sausage") and I have very few vegetables. That makes it hard to do much and my attempts at resupply have so far been unsuccessful.

Before we ran low, I was doing a decent job of making real meals some of the time. I made a Paella and Japanese curry soup, for example. I can make chili and the like, and I am supposed to get some tofu soon, so that will open up a few other options.

But, since I've got enough food overall, including protein with beans, cheese and hopefully tofu, I'm not inclined to take the added risk of shopping.

OP, you don’t need meat or a lot of ingredients to make “adventurous” food. I’m East Asian and we don’t have a lot of meat and ate the same vegetables often. I don’t know what you have, but here are some dishes that require very few ingredients:

-fresh rice with butter, soy, sesame, or rice with PB. Use leftover rice for rice balls with any filling or fried rice.
-any Asian or pasta noodle in a peanut sauce, or broth, or cooked and then pan fried
-any broth with spices and whatever you have in the fridge and freezer - vegetables, wontons, dumplings, frozen seafood, coconut milk

The point is, your take on “adventurous” or “ethnic” food is pretty privileged and insulting for those of us who grew up with those foods. My mom often made a huge pot of miso soup or stew and we would eat that with rice for 2-3 days. And now you’re here whining about how you’ve made paella, but good thing you’ve got tofu coming, so your kids can continue to cultivate their palate!

Yes, I am "privileged" in that I am hoping to provide my family more than miso and rice. Sorry, I am not going to apologize for that. (And for the paella, I was responding to people who claimed I clearly never cooked and was unable to do so. It was also very clear that was something I made before I ran short of basic supplies. Mentioning tofu would hopefully allow people to offer suggestions and also to explain that we had enough to eat, so I wasn't willing to risk going to the store.)

Your claim that this is "insulting" is ridiculous. The point is the variety. It sounds like you are likely Asian, so you grew up with Asian food and flavors. (And of course I know there is a huge variation in Asian cooking. I don't want to guess more particularly about your background.) But, you may not have been exposed to cuisines from the Middle East, for example, so that would be more adventurous for you. For someone from the Middle East, Asian cuisine might be more adventurous because it is less the norm. Plenty of kids, regardless of background, eat only very simple, plain foods. So a kid who will eat a wide variety of foods and flavors can reasonably be called an "adventurous" eater, regardless of what this kid's particular heritage is.

As for your actual suggestions, thank you. We haven't done noodles in a peanut sauce for a long time and that is a good idea that we can probably pull off with what we have. (If I recall, smooth peanut butter was better, but we can make our chunky work I am sure.)

[Anonymous]

How about you not worry about this at all as it is really a minor concern for which there is no real solution that doesn't involve you leaving the house or ordering in, which you dont want to do. I'm going to be charitable and not call you an ass because while i get how people have that perception, I think this is just a manifestation of your anxiety and the sorrow we are all feeling right now about the loss of normalcy It is a weird point to fixate on, but i suspect we are all irrationally focused on something minor right now.

How about you redirect your energy to exposing them to a foreign language instead. There are lots of online options. Language is the true entry to another culture, and how much fun will it be to read a menu in Italian or whatever when we come through this?

Do what is in front of you, don't make yourself miserable longing for what's not available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your kids will be fine. I was the pickiest eater ever until about age 10...and now I eat pretty much any cuisine.

This is a wake up call, though, to expand your cooking repertoire and keep a broader variety of ingredients on-hand once we resume something closer to normal life. I'm Asian-American, so my spice cabinet is more varied than average, I'm guessing...but I tend to have the spices available for a pretty broad variety of cuisines. I generally avoid more complicated dishes of cuisines I'm less familiar with, but I try to mimic the spice profiles. It's an easy way to create variety without needing a lot of exotic ingredients.

Stocking up a little is a good idea and it might give me a few more options. But, I'm in pretty decent shape with spices. I don't have any meat (other then frozen beyond meat "sausage") and I have very few vegetables. That makes it hard to do much and my attempts at resupply have so far been unsuccessful.

Before we ran low, I was doing a decent job of making real meals some of the time. I made a Paella and Japanese curry soup, for example. I can make chili and the like, and I am supposed to get some tofu soon, so that will open up a few other options.

But, since I've got enough food overall, including protein with beans, cheese and hopefully tofu, I'm not inclined to take the added risk of shopping.

OP, you don’t need meat or a lot of ingredients to make “adventurous” food. I’m East Asian and we don’t have a lot of meat and ate the same vegetables often. I don’t know what you have, but here are some dishes that require very few ingredients:

-fresh rice with butter, soy, sesame, or rice with PB. Use leftover rice for rice balls with any filling or fried rice.
-any Asian or pasta noodle in a peanut sauce, or broth, or cooked and then pan fried
-any broth with spices and whatever you have in the fridge and freezer - vegetables, wontons, dumplings, frozen seafood, coconut milk

The point is, your take on “adventurous” or “ethnic” food is pretty privileged and insulting for those of us who grew up with those foods. My mom often made a huge pot of miso soup or stew and we would eat that with rice for 2-3 days. And now you’re here whining about how you’ve made paella, but good thing you’ve got tofu coming, so your kids can continue to cultivate their palate!

Yes, I am "privileged" in that I am hoping to provide my family more than miso and rice. Sorry, I am not going to apologize for that. (And for the paella, I was responding to people who claimed I clearly never cooked and was unable to do so. It was also very clear that was something I made before I ran short of basic supplies. Mentioning tofu would hopefully allow people to offer suggestions and also to explain that we had enough to eat, so I wasn't willing to risk going to the store.)

Your claim that this is "insulting" is ridiculous. The point is the variety. It sounds like you are likely Asian, so you grew up with Asian food and flavors. (And of course I know there is a huge variation in Asian cooking. I don't want to guess more particularly about your background.) But, you may not have been exposed to cuisines from the Middle East, for example, so that would be more adventurous for you. For someone from the Middle East, Asian cuisine might be more adventurous because it is less the norm. Plenty of kids, regardless of background, eat only very simple, plain foods. So a kid who will eat a wide variety of foods and flavors can reasonably be called an "adventurous" eater, regardless of what this kid's particular heritage is.

As for your actual suggestions, thank you. We haven't done noodles in a peanut sauce for a long time and that is a good idea that we can probably pull off with what we have. (If I recall, smooth peanut butter was better, but we can make our chunky work I am sure.)

The point is that you can make all kinds of things from what you have. Maybe you are way too strict about recipes. Yes, you can use chunky PB, wtf! Just try it. Yes, my parents are East Asian but we also grew up eating spaghetti, hummus, Schwarma, Jewish deli food, Polish food, etc. There wasn’t a big deal made about it, it’s just food. I guess I grew up to be an “adventurous eater” by your standards, but eating the same pot of soup for three days straight didn’t prevent me from developing my oh so sophisticated palate. TLDR is basically get over yourself. If you were that worried about it, you’d be making grilled cheese a lot less.

[Anonymous]

The chunky peanut butter comment sealed the deal for me in thinking this is a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about you not worry about this at all as it is really a minor concern for which there is no real solution that doesn't involve you leaving the house or ordering in, which you dont want to do. I'm going to be charitable and not call you an ass because while i get how people have that perception, I think this is just a manifestation of your anxiety and the sorrow we are all feeling right now about the loss of normalcy It is a weird point to fixate on, but i suspect we are all irrationally focused on something minor right now.

How about you redirect your energy to exposing them to a foreign language instead. There are lots of online options. Language is the true entry to another culture, and how much fun will it be to read a menu in Italian or whatever when we come through this?

Do what is in front of you, don't make yourself miserable longing for what's not available.

+1

[Anonymous]

I think you have more important things to worry about right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^
Yeah, she doesn’t want her kids eating like actually “ethnic” people. She wants them to eat like rich Americans.

I'd love to hear the explanation for this piece of DCUM logical brilliance.

So going to restaurants owned and operated by immigrants from around that world that, in many cases, cater mostly to their community is "eat[ing] like rich Americans?"

How then would you suggest someone actually eat like people from various communities around the world?

Short of hopping on a plane to visit Yemen, for example, going to Marib seems like the next best option. But, please enlighten me.

I didn't write that post, but I'll take a stab. A lot of food you get at restaurants, even ones run by immigrants with a lot of immigrant clientele, is not the typical food that people eat at home. I'm Indian-American, and Indian restaurant food is way richer and more varied than the Indian food we ate at home. A typical home cooked meal would be rice, roti, a single daal (and rarely the rich black daal you find at restaurants), and 1-2 vegetables lightly sauteed in a few dry spices. And I did grow up a rich American...it's just that day-to-day food for most ethnicities is pretty simple, and doesn't always require a lot of meat.

For OP, I would suggest adding some spices even to American kid foods. For example, you can put frozen peas, curry powder, and parmesan cheese in boxed Mac 'n Cheese to make it a little more complex. This was a trick I learned in grad school when I had little time and even less money...so it's not even something I started doing for my kids. It's not gourmet, and it's certainly not any particular ethnicity, but it's a little more variety than just plain Kraft dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The chunky peanut butter comment sealed the deal for me in thinking this is a troll.

Why? When I make peanut noodles, I use creamy.

[Anonymous]

Funny- my kids are becoming a bit more flexible - we have less and limited choices and are all making due with whatever meat and vegetables are available. Plus, I am cooking more so changing it up more.

[Anonymous]

I made khao soi last night with ingredients from the regular grocery store (plus dried chilis I bought off amazon) and my 2 year old devoured it. You can easily make delicious adventurous food at home, it's the mindset of the outside world that's making you think you need to subsist off pbj for the next 4 months. Don't give in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^
Yeah, she doesn’t want her kids eating like actually “ethnic” people. She wants them to eat like rich Americans.

I'd love to hear the explanation for this piece of DCUM logical brilliance.

So going to restaurants owned and operated by immigrants from around that world that, in many cases, cater mostly to their community is "eat[ing] like rich Americans?"

How then would you suggest someone actually eat like people from various communities around the world?

Short of hopping on a plane to visit Yemen, for example, going to Marib seems like the next best option. But, please enlighten me.

I didn't write that post, but I'll take a stab. A lot of food you get at restaurants, even ones run by immigrants with a lot of immigrant clientele, is not the typical food that people eat at home. I'm Indian-American, and Indian restaurant food is way richer and more varied than the Indian food we ate at home. A typical home cooked meal would be rice, roti, a single daal (and rarely the rich black daal you find at restaurants), and 1-2 vegetables lightly sauteed in a few dry spices. And I did grow up a rich American...it's just that day-to-day food for most ethnicities is pretty simple, and doesn't always require a lot of meat.

For OP, I would suggest adding some spices even to American kid foods. For example, you can put frozen peas, curry powder, and parmesan cheese in boxed Mac 'n Cheese to make it a little more complex. This was a trick I learned in grad school when I had little time and even less money...so it's not even something I started doing for my kids. It's not gourmet, and it's certainly not any particular ethnicity, but it's a little more variety than just plain Kraft dinner.

Your stab is pretty different from what PP wrote, but I largely agree with you.

I definitely agree there is a difference between what is served in a restaurant and what is served at home. Also, many restaurants will serve at least somewhat modified food for American audiences. But there is a big difference between Meiwah in Friendship Heights, which is very Americanized, and Xian Gourmet in Rockville, which is more authentic. And, even somewhat Americanized versions of various food, is very different than more typical kids food.

Your idea to add spices to typical food is a good one that I will try. I'm curious whether my kids will go for curry mac and cheese, but it is worth a shot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How lazy are you? All you can make is grilled cheese, PBJ, and Mac n cheese? You have to order out to introduce your kids to real foods with, like, vegetables and stuff? Why don’t you learn how to cook then? Moron

Before I would write such an inflammatory post and call someone a moron, I’d at least read what the person had written.

I cook plenty and have cooked more during the current crisis. My main problem now is that I don’t have the ingredients to cook much beyond the very basics. I have no meat and very few vegetables. I have limited myself to food delivery because of virus concerns and, at the moment, what I have been able to get online has been limited.

Then...you're not shopping from the right places. We haven't had this issue and we are having groceries delivered only. I've bought dried goods from Amazon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How lazy are you? All you can make is grilled cheese, PBJ, and Mac n cheese? You have to order out to introduce your kids to real foods with, like, vegetables and stuff? Why don’t you learn how to cook then? Moron

Before I would write such an inflammatory post and call someone a moron, I’d at least read what the person had written.

I cook plenty and have cooked more during the current crisis. My main problem now is that I don’t have the ingredients to cook much beyond the very basics. I have no meat and very few vegetables. I have limited myself to food delivery because of virus concerns and, at the moment, what I have been able to get online has been limited.

Then...you're not shopping from the right places. We haven't had this issue and we are having groceries delivered only. I've bought dried goods from Amazon.

Normally, you would the share ideas of where you had been shopping. That was some of the info OP was looking for. Based on the number of threads discussing the difficulties in getting delivery right now, I am not surprised people are having trouble getting fresh food in particular.