"Just try it once. If you don't like it you won't have to eat it again," I tell our son. "How do you know you don't like it if you don't try it?" I implore. "Remember how you used to feel about sushi?" I remind him. "Think of what you'll be missing if it's wonderful and you've refused to taste it," I beg.
And so it goes with us - badgering in the kitchen, across the dining-room table and in restaurants - as it no doubt goes with all exasperated parents and their obstinate, fussy, nine-year-old children.
Yet I am mostly guilty of the same thing. I admit to being a habitual eater. I have my favourite foods, my so-called signature dishes that I make time and again, and I always return to the same restaurants where I love to eat the same dishes I've always loved. I don't really enjoy surprises, or disappointments, which is why I like to stick with what I know. But I do at least taste things before I make up my mind one way or the other, which is something I'd very much like Seb to start doing.
On a recent holiday to New York, I realised I'd never eaten the ubiquitous chicken and rice, which is sold from colourful halaal carts dotted all over the city. I also remembered the dish my friend Janieke had made for us. A fan of the food writer Deb Perelman, who included a recipe for "new chicken and rice street-cart style" in her book Smitten Kitchen Every Day, Janieke recreated the famous dish, I now know, to perfection. I'd also read about it in my hero Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year (she called it food-cart curry chicken).
Bu hikaye Woolworths TASTE dergisinin January/February 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Woolworths TASTE dergisinin January/February 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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