Confidence in the Kitchen: Sharing Cooking Experiences with Your Preschool Child

“Try one bite! If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.” Have you said this before? This week I was saying it to myself as we sampled fare from a local Indian buffet. I’m not against trying new things, but I had a pre-natal block against Indian food. Five years ago, I attempted to ingest Indian edibles and let’s just say my body reacted violently. I was less than enthusiastic about venturing to try it again. My husband has a goal of trying ethnic restaurants throughout town. I support him in this, and I wanted to be brave and to communicate open-mindedness over reluctance to my protégée. Off we went for a culinary adventure.

The smell of curry and Tandoori chicken permeated the small restaurant. I was a bit on edge, but determined to go through with eating there. The entire offering of the restaurant was contained in their buffet. This was perfect for our purposes as there was no possibility of getting stymied by choosing the wrong thing from the menu.

My protégée’s plate held a small portion of Tandoori Chicken along with raw veggies and a yogurt dressing. She nixed the dressing, but loved the chicken and asked for more. She also liked a carrot salad which she said reminded her of baby food. Even more important than her trying new foods was her observing her father and me doing the same. Her father is an adventurous sort, and piled his plate with good-sized portions of lots of different things. To his benefit, he didn’t have any pre-natal blocks in his food memory!

Though it was a struggle for me to fight off the reminiscence of my last Indian buffet, I hope I presented a willingness to try things I might not like. I found two dishes I’d readily eat again, Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikki Masala. More importantly, I think I’m over my block and can venture to eat Indian food again without feeling like I’m on Fear Factor.

Being an adult means you get to pick your own meals, avoiding things as you care to. It also means you can choose to set a good example by stepping outside your comfort zone and into your kid’s shoes.