Not much going on today, so I'm offering up an homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who would have been 106 today had he not died flying his plane somewhere over Marseille in 1944, and his most famous legacy, Le Petit Prince.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye ."
So with only 3 volcanoes (2 active, 1 dormant), a rose and those pesky baobab trees, what do you suppose The Little Prince did for lunch up there on his asteroid?
"Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people."
What were you forced to eat as a kid, that you couldn't stand? What did you hate as a kid, but love now? (or vice versa) What was your favorite lunchtime treat? What kinds of misguided shit did your parents inflict on you, all in the spirit of them being the grown ups and you being the kid? (let's keep that last one to lunch - this isn't grouphug.us)
And, what oh what, in honor of Count Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry and Le Petit Prince, will you be having for lunch today?
EDIT: SHIT! Happy Birthday to a former frequent contributer to OWFL, Rico Horsecock!!!!
30 comments:
Well...la petit little korean/italian child I was not...I ate well for all meals!
If any of you have ever gone to the grubb road deli with me or simply seen the contents of my pantry, fridge and freezer (or even read a word or two of what I've written on this blog) you would know that a picky eater I ain't. As HT pointed out to me over the weekend, having stock piles of food is an 'italian' thing that apparently I took too extremely well!
But I was that kid who loved brussel sprouts and lima beans though and my mother has a serious sweet tooth (which basically resulted in her having fillings in all but two teeth). She was a kid's dream mom...cake, pie, hot pink sno-balls and cookies were tops on her breakfast options. I literally would beg my mom to buy me grape nuts cereal as she would grab boxes of froot loops and cocoa rice krispies for me instead. Don't get me wrong, she was a great cook and I owe a lot of my fondness of the culinary arts to her and my dear departed grandpop.
Anyways, I digress yet again. My lunches were always typical and nothing to turn my nose up to. Sandwiches, a bag of chips from the variety snack pack of the week and some sort of little debbie snack cake with a juice box or lil huggie. Apples or any other type of fruit of vegetable were completely optional.
I grew up eating what I was given. Period. Growing up in the heart of MSU's international community from an early age I was eating curried goat, kim chi, kibbe, dried squid, injera and fufu. For those not familiar with injera or fufu they both represent starches used in Ethiopian and West African cooking (respectively, though fufu is actually used widely in central African cooking as well). The reason i point out the injera and fufu is becaase it is customary to eat them with accompanying meat, fish and veggie dishes from community platters with your hands. Thus early on in life my mother made sure that I became accustomed to sharing food.
I didn't realize until age 10 or 11 that kids could whine and scream for special meals every night. i remember visiting friend's houses and being "treated" to hotdogs, boxed mac & cheese and/or fish sticks. Then I would return to their houses and have the identical meal. "It's my favorite" my friends would say. (This practice imbedded in me the idea that all white families lived on a diet of fishsticks, boxed mac & cheese and/or hotdogs with the occasional appearance of chipped beef over toast.) Some friends of mine would only eat hotdogs. Every night. They would refuse to eat anything else. I thought this was fascinating. And in an episode of my life that is reminiscent of an old Eddie Murphy bit (when he sees his white friend swear at his parents and goes home and says "eff you!" to his father) I once attempted to protest an eggplant dish my mother was preparing one night with a mini tantrum. The swift judgment she handed down left my pride, my ego and ass severly bruised. And like Oliver Twist I asked for more.
So as an adult there are few things that I won't eat. The exceptions being rhubarb, coconut rice & bread pudding. In fact the only way I got away with developing a distaste for those is because they were involved in desert items and my mother thought it was admirable when I turned down sweets.
My favorite lunchtime treats were big sandwiches. They still are. My mother would find a way to put everything in the frige on my sandwiches and I loved it.
As for today's lunch it will be with my father who is in town for business. Not sure where yet but details will be posted post-lunch...elsewhere.
And Happy B-day to rico. We celebrated last week and weekend with three very drunk outings in Chicago. Wish you all could've joined us.
happy happy bday ricotubbs!
growing up korean in the US is a very interesting and unique experience. i grew up eating things that i thought were normal at home. but then i'd visit friends and realize that it just wasn't.
tripe soup? DELICIOUS! sliced pigs feet? DIVINE! rotten cabbage covered in spicy pepper flake and fish sauce? ROCKIN'! when i told kids on the playground, they'd scream "eeeewwwwwww!" spinach? LOVED IT! the way my grandma made it sauteed in sesame oil with salt and some roasted sesame seeds. but other people would say "blech, i HATE spinach! how can you eat that stuff?" and even though i grew up in a very asian neighborhood, they'd still never admit to others what they ate, so i was the only one ostrasized for it. america is a strange land.
i think HT are heading out for salads. i did however bring 2 lunches from home. i finished the first one and will wash it down with greenery. then, i'll dive into lunch #2 at around 3pm.
that was meant to read "HT and me/i..."
i am no grammarian.
I never understood parents entertaining picky children. My parents had some friends who had three children who would ONLY eat macaroni with butter and hotdogs (no buns). Everytime we went over for dinner there would be two different meals, one for the adults and one for the kids...or their kids cause I'd eat grown up food. It's one thing to have an item that you don't like and refuse to eat, but to solely grow up on plain macaroni and hot dogs is absurd...and sad. I think if I had ever proposed to my mother to make me something different than what she had prepared, I would've gotten a spankin' like no other.
Happy birthday rico!! I'd offer to make you something sweet or shaped like a female body part...but I practically had to shove a tittiecake down your pie hole when you were here for the conference...I felt so rejected!!
Hey Chi-towners...if you are going to the Taste of Chicago on the 4th go see Mike Doughty play (especially if you missed him at Bonnaroo). Although if you are anything like me you probably avoid those types of events due to the invasion of non-city dwellers with no etiquette. BUT I would make an exception for a great free show!
http://www.mikedoughty.com/show_dates/
I'm going to see how many posts I can put up in a row....
MUST
KEEP
BLOG
ALIVE!!!
phew...I'm exhausted...
Happy bday Tubbs.
One thing i would never eat, and still will never eat, is bananas. Those things are the spawn of the devil, they're even radioactive, not kidding. My grandma said I would spit out strained bananas as a baby, so it goes way back.
Other than that I was pretty much raised on cereal, lots and lots of cereal, the sugarery the better.
My Mom wasn't like many typical "Moms" who did things like cooked food for her children or did their laundry. So at about age 11 I was cut off from Mom assistance, and all meals I was on my own to put together. Hence I ate about 5 bowls of cereal a day. My favorites were fruity pepples and cornpops, yum!
For lunch today I hit market to market. Maybe its due to the fact that its the closest food based establishment, other than BK, but I eat there all the time.
Today it was spinach salad, salmon cake, asparagus and tomato salad, corn and black bean salad, orange chicken, spring roll, and snow pea salad.
I got the Mozzabella salad from Just Fresh, with chicken. I'm impressed. Greens, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pecans, mozzarella and portabellas. Yummy.
I also got BANANA pudding (sorry, WD, but I love me some nanners) with nilla wafers in it.
WD--Yes, bananas are radioactive. So are kitty litter and brazil nuts, so you'll want to avoid those as well.
The only thing I ate as a child that I won't eat now is actually a result of childhood trauma. I couldn't swallow pills as a kid, so my mom would crush them up and put them in strawberry jam, so now I just can't bring myself to put strawberry jam on anything.
And I'm with those who are anti-special meals for the kids. Eat what's put in front of you or don't eat. Because picky kids become picky adults. I know a grown woman who will eat only the following items: bread, pasta w/o sauce, chicken or turkey breast, and baby carrots. I think I once saw her eat a potato chip. It's just sad.
Oh, and lunch today was a roast beef sandwich from a new place. It was fine, but not worth the additional travel time and hassle involved in crossing Rockville Pike to get the new place. And I'm jealous of HT's salad.
I grew up in Mexico city up to first grade. The absolute best food i can remember eating was Ashley Viberg's maids taquitos de pollo con salsa verde. She made the most divine taquitos from an old timey family recipe from up in the mountains somewhere.
We also had a maid, well a rotation of maids, there were 3 that I remember. Gaby, Josephina, & Socorro (she was retarded. Her name meant 'i need urgent help' in spanish. They did good french toast.
But I digress. What I wouldn't eat was anything from the sea. Even fish stix. I didn't start that until I began working in DC and people made me feel like an idiot for not eating seafood. I felt the pressure and began to try shrimp. Now I like all sorts of creatures from the sea.
Lunch today was a late breakfast sammie from Dunkin donuts.
Maybe I'll have a bowl of steamed mussels in white sauce and an entire bagette ... maybe a little wine...
Nawww!!! I got a big hamburger baby!
oooo ... what did I hate as a kid?
Pemento cheese ... OMG ... how can they call that stuff, that looks and smells like the stuff janitors used to throw on puke, cheese?
Miu! All of my dishes are antique Fiestaware from the 40s and 50s, even!
Only the red ones were dangerous, but they've started making red again, which is safe, now.
None of mine are red.
What IS it about red and health problems. Remember the red M&M's?
it's always a little rush to see your post referenced in somebody else's thenks miu.
Miu, I've even been to the factory in West ByGod Virginia, where I picked up some additional pieces, though they're new. (the yellow of my dishes is different than the current yellow that they're making; my side plates are cobalt, and I have cups and saucers in turquoise. Of the new stuff, I have a butter dish in an ugly blue, chartreuse cereal bowls and a turquoise serving bowl. I'm always looking for more though - I love it so much!)
I can't believe you really have one of the original red bowls!! How very, very exciting!
Things I could not tolerate in even trace amounts as a kid: yellow mustard, pickles, olives, mushrooms, hot dogs, beer, scotch.
I agree that indulging picky kids creates picky (soul-sucking, maddening) adults. My parents' refusal to indulge me for too long led me to get over most of those hangups, although I only got over some of them in the past four or five years. (Those last two I got over long ago and with a vengeance!)
That said, I still despise the taste of yellow mustard, and, despite a regular quarterly regimen of trying them again, olives - unless stuffed with crabmeat or bleu cheese and soaking in grain spirits - make me gag.
Lunch today was at Taco Bell. I loves me a burrito supreme now and again...
Be bold! Use the red bowl. I'm not saying you should feed babies and pregnant women from it, but bust it out for Christmas, Valentine's and other special occasions. You get more radiation from flying and they're so festive (Fiest-ive!). I miss being able to pretend that HT's bowls were my very own . . . so pretty.
I don't know what kind of white kids that Jo hung out with. That wasn't my family.
I remember eating cabbage soup and "Liking It"(TM). Its just how things were in my house. You didn't like it? You went out .. got you a job .. and then paid for your own food and rent.
I was also a recipient of "Swift Judgement". I still have scars in the shape of wagon wheels, cactuses and spurs on my ass from the tip of a belt.
You should have seen me eat when I was in the Pac Rim... I loved it!!!
I could live off of olives.
And diz, notice that you were the only "white kid" (outside of mikey) to speak up. I think the rest of them on here were raised on the unholy trinity of hotdogs, fish sticks and boxed mac & cheese.
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