One of the many details we need to take care of to prepare for our trip is introducing the kids (and us!) to new foods. We are a pretty unadventurous family when it comes to food. I grew up with a very old school British/Irish diet. Meat and potatoes at every meal. We couldn’t take a chance with salmonella so the meat had to be exceptionally well cooked. The only ‘spices’ in our house were salt and pepper….and I’m not even 100% sure there was pepper. Maybe there was because they came in a set but I’m pretty sure nobody used it. Pizza was too ‘exotic’ for us and we really never ate at any restaurants. Brett had a much more diverse food background (who didn’t really?). Growing up in San Diego, he had a lot of Mexican food and still really loves a good taco or burrito. My diet has slowly expanded as an adult but neither of us knows much about Asian cuisine except for your basic Chinese takeout.
There’s so much to learn…so many new flavours, new spices, new dishes…and chopsticks! Each week we’ve been going to eat at a different restaurant to get used to all these new foods. We went for our first Vietnamese Pho experience a few weeks ago. We had no idea what to expect. We tried asking the waiter for help on how to eat it but he didn’t speak any English. We made a bit of a mess, but we really enjoyed it. We were so proud of the kids for having an open mind and giving it a try. Chopsticks proved a challenge that we will need to work on.
The next week we decided we’d try Cambodian food. After a brief Google search, we found one of the few Cambodian restaurants in Portland. We drove out to east Portland to a restaurant in an isolated strip mall. We were the only customers. It was attached to a nightclub with what seemed to be a Cambodian lounge singer performing to a very large empty room with strobe lights. There was an armed bouncer. All a bit unsettling and strange… but the food was great. We tried dishes we read about that were traditional Cambodian dishes – the tastes were different but good. Again, we were super impressed that even though this environment and food were so different than what we were used to, the kids gave the food a good try and actually liked some of it!
The next week we went to a restaurant with cuisine from Northern China. It was delicious, a bit more similar to what we are used to with Chinese food. We learned that as long as we can get fried rice, no one will go hungry.
Tonight we went for Thai food. My nemesis. I hate the taste of peanut or ginger so I’ve always stayed away from Thai food. The smell and taste of Thai food is strongly linked to a job interview I once had over lunch at a Thai restaurant. I didn’t understand anything on the menu so I asked for the same thing that the person who was interviewing me ordered. The taste was overwhelming and I found myself in the very uncomfortable position of not being able to swallow. All the while I was being asked questions like ‘Where would you like to be in 5 years’. The food was not going down and I was trying with all my might to make sure it didn’t come back out. It was awful. 20 years later, I walked into a Thai restaurant tonight and the smell immediately brought me back to that tormenting memory. I was reminded of that agonizing feeling of trying to answer questions that would help define my future all the while trying desperately to pretend that neither of us noticed that my mouth was getting fuller and my face was turning green.
As always, Brett is easily adaptable and enjoyed his dinner. One of the mixed blessings with the kids is that I know that if I show the slightest hint that I don’t like the food, they won’t try it. I have to put on a brave face no matter how I feel. I pushed through the smell and the memories, ordered some Pad Thai and ended up really enjoying it. The kids did well too, and I think were relieved to have forks rather than chop sticks.
One of our big lessons in this culinary journey is that the kids are more resilient and open minded than we give them credit for. We may not be quite ready for south-east Asian food for every meal but I’m at least comforted that I don’t think we’ll starve 😊