What's Cooking?

Abang and Adik's tastebuds are quite different. Adik is a true-blue Malay boy who loves his rice. "Na-tik (as in "nasi" or "rice")! I want na-tik!" is his usual battle cry.

Abang, on the other hand, is a pasta and cream of mushroom soup boy. He wallops the pasta like there's no tomorrow, especially if it's the "instant" San Remo ones. I have to finely chop up some veges to hide in there so that he gets some greens. One packet of that baby will last him only 2 sittings.

Of course, one thing the boys have in common is their general affiliation to fast food. It's hard to walk past a McDonalds without hearing "I waaaaaaaaaant...!" I certainly don't give in all the time, which just goes to show the power of advertising and marketing!

Today I took Adik out for brunch and he happily fed himself his nasi lemak. I tried to interest him in some cakes and pastries but he's just not into any of that. He'll take noodles too, but of course that has to be fed to him. A little too messy.

It's amazing how their tastebuds change over time. Abang used to eat anything and everything, even some slightly pedas food. That was intentional so that they don't grow up wimpy like their mom and not be able to handle pedas stuff. Then, we he started to develop a mind of his own, he got fussy and would reject anything that has (or even look like it may have) chilli. Plus he didn't really like rice anymore and opted for more pasta.

Adik used to reject fruits. From the time he started on semi-solids I tried to introduce a whole host of mashed fruits - papaya, watermelon, banana - but he would almost recoil in horror when it got near his lips. When he started teething, I tried to get him to bite those soft fruits but still no luck. But we never gave up. We just kept on trying until one day, he didn't reject them! Now he would eat some fruits, although not in a crazed-like manner like Abang who can finish an entire bowl of, say, manggo.

We are very careful not to let them eat junk food full of empty calories. I know, when they go to school they'll be exposed to all that rubbish. So I'm hoping that little teasers of the stuff (so they'll know what they taste like) along with some education ("yes, it's quite nice but it'll rot your teeth and then you'll have no teeth to eat anything") will help them to be moderate in their consumption of those things.

Once Abang brought home a birthday party pack from kindergarten absolutely laden with junk food. He was so excited to have the Twisties because some of his classmates eat that and I guess he was curious. I opened it for him and let him have it because I expected him to find it too salty.

I was right. After a few mouthfuls and some "Mmm, I like this! This is nice!" he had enough and gave me the remainder (more than half the packet). "Mummy I don't like, so masin," he told me feeling rather disappointed that it didn't quite meet his expectations.

Whenever we go to Tesco, he will inevitably ask for some MSG-laden snacks and I just tell him it's too salty. I don't have to worry about the occasional junk food snack for him because my auntie takes care of that! But she's also quite good about rationing these snacks and sweets so I can't really complain.

Well, maybe just a bit. But it's not as bad as it could be.