Okay, I usually hate 'cute kid' stories, but this one really was funny at the time.

When my children were very young and I worked full-time, Friday was usually the night when we picked up something for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook after a long, hard week. Quite often, we went to this BBQ joint that had really good ribs. Wonderful, and *very* spicy! My 4-year-old seemed to have been born with a Teflon-coated tongue, but I always fixed something else for the two little ones when we had BBQ.

One Friday night, though, the middle one (2 yrs. old at the time) demanded to eat ribs with the rest of us. I explained that they might burn his tongue, but he was adamant that he was "big enough for Q". Okay. So he eagerly chomped down on his first rib ever....and immediately started screaming, "Mommy, Mommy, come quick!" (I was sitting right next to him, about 2 inches away.) "I tink I twallowed a bumblebee!"

I guess you had to be there...but we laughed until the tears rolled!

My kid was born into a hippie family; we've long since grown out of it and you can hardly tell except for the twitching and occaisional outbursts of "Far Out".

For his first 4 years, David was a vegetarian like his parents. He ate well; fantastic smoothies, nuts, fruit- the typical veggie lifestyle. We were anti meat, anti chemical, anti sugar, etc As we grew older and eventually broadened our outlook, we got involved in a church and toyed with the idea of reintroducing meat into our lives; claiming dominion over the beasts, so to speak.

We explained to David that we were thinking about eating meat and he showed some interest. Having grown up in the middle of roaming bands of travelling hipeye and no TV, his only experience of animals as food was when we made our Christmas pilgramages to my mom's town. We still only ate vegetarian but he would watch the rest of the family eat like wolves.

We were invited to a church potluck as the new novelty family, still dressed like gypsys. We let David run around the place having fun with the other kids while we made conversation with our new friends. After a little while we went to check on little david and found him sitting on the grass shoving hotdogs down his gullet. It was like he hadn't eaten in days. He had a look on his face that said "mine". Of course, we hadn't intended his first meat meal to be a nitrate laden gut missle but it was and he was loving it or them, we couln't tell how many he had eaten.

He's thirty now and cooks gourmet food like nobodies business. I fancy myself as a pretty good cook but this kid dances all over me with his BBQ and long smoked meats. We alternate Sunday dinners at his palce and ours; we definitely have dominion over the beasts these days.

michaelp

My daughter also lived in a anti meat, anti chemical, anti sugar, etc zone for the first part of her life. But once a Hebrew National hotdog crossed her horizon, there was no going back to tofu pups. She acted as if we'd betrayed her!

Jessy, I can't even eat Epoisses!

I can't Top Michael's story...but along the same lines...
My son was a "fussy eater"...and that's putting it mildly...he ate chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, chocolate milk, plain milk and every kind of cheese ever presented but cottage cheese. He now is the gourmet cook with the long smoked ribs and the quickly seared tuna steaks.
I'm remembering when my daughter was about 18 months, one lovely spring day, my husband and I and a friend were having a cocktail outside. We had carried the baby's high chair out and were giving her her dinner while we had a martini....or 2! Becky was having 7-up in a stemmed glass with an olive....she loved "ollies". I went in to make a second round of martinis....including a "faux-tini" and served everyone....and Backy gasped! And out came a strangled little voice saying.."That's good 7-up"...LOL! And she hates martinis to this day!!
Linda C

Well, no hippies in our household. We've always been "dominion over the beasts" folks. On night we were gathered at the dinner table...nothing out of the ordinary. I'd prepared a rump roast, mashed potatoes/gravy, and veggies (don't remember what kind?). Anyway, Jim (age 7) stopped eating & asked DH, "What kind of meat is this?" DH responded, "Rump roast". Jim actually turned physically green. He put his fork down, sat back in his chair, looked at DH and in a weak voice asked, "Do you mean...do you mean as in b*tt?" Holding my napkin to my face, I started to giggle. DH nodded & he couldn't control the grin starting all over his face. Jim immediately jumped from his chair gagging. In a flash, he was in the bathroom upchucking his dinner. DH & I were still at the table laughing so hard we couldn't react to Jim. By the time I got to him he was pretty sick to his stomach. To this day (he's now 32), Jim doesn't eat ANY roast and really doesn't particularily like meats of any type. He refuses to eat hamburgers 'cause he's worried about where the 'meat' came from! Ah, childhood traumas. lol

/tricia

Great stories :) Once when the 2 little gd's were visiting us a friend came by with 2 sweet little stuffed lambs and a cute sweater with a fuzzy lamb design for each girl. Not sure why the lamb theme, but anyway the little girls loved their new lambs.

Well, DD and SIL went out that evening and Ken and I had dinner at home with the girls - we had grilled lamb chops and the girls never had lamb chops before (we didn't know that) and the older one said "wow, Gramps makes the best steak" and we just let it go at that.

'Its odor is so strong that reportedly it has been banned from French public transport

I refuse to believe it! But it does remind me of a story (off topic I'm afraid)...

When I visited London in 2003, I took the train to Paris for the day. Since it was a 3 hour trip leaving early in the morning, lots of people had brought food with them. One of the passengers complained to the conductor that someone was eating stinky cheese and it was bothering them. The conductor (french) looked at this passenger (american) with disdain and said, "well? what do you want me to do about it?"

I found the whole thing quite amusing. I didn't smell anything (I may have been sitting too far from the cheese eater, or I may have overpowered any smells with my own food). What amused me was that the demand to stop the cheese from stinking was pretty typical coming from an american, and the reply was pretty typical coming from a french guy. Sort of our whole culture clash in a microcosm.

Michael ...great story.

My eldest child, #1 son was about 3+ in England when my uncle came to visit. I made rice that had mushrooms in it, but mentioned... X doesn't like mushrooms., as I took them out of his rice. My uncle said..."Oh no Maureen, don't give him mushrooms. He's not old enough for mushrooms. You have to wait till he's x years old for mushrooms!"

I don't recall if this son asked for them that evening, but I do know he ate mushrooms from then on. He, now 40, just remarked to me one visit..."I knew what Uncle J was doing then with his psychology." Uh, I doubt it...but he may very well have figured 'something' was up with that talk. ;-)

My #2 son went thru a variety of aversions...mostly to meat and seafood which were very plentiful in a lot of the places he lived. "Oh no...not shrimp again!!" He later started complaining about my cooking.. "What's this? aaaargh...Gourmet cr*p!"

Guess who works in the food business now?!??? and yes, he says he makes...Gourmet Cr*p.

Not a kids story but... Well, I was rather young at the time...

A group from work decided to have a bridal shower at the newly opened Harbor House, ( all you can eat, table served place )... Up until then the most exotic meat I had ever had was veal and no real fancy cuts of other meats... The first thing they introduced me to was prim rib.... Loved it.... The next thing was crab legs... Really loved them... Then they told me to try the frog legs... Told them; I think I'll pass... They said it tastes like chicken... I said, I don't know, frogs... They're green... Icky... They said try it, you'll like it better than the crab legs... Reluctantly I put one on my plate... After examining the whole thing and not seeing any green I picked it up and put it to my mouth... As I was biting into it one of the gals said.... "Ewwww, how can you eat that green slimy toad"....

I will never ever go near another frog leg.

Rita

Introducing foods to our kids? Nope, my girls and both Grandkids ate anything put in front of them, little heathen carnivores. Spinach, sardines, Makayla ate gefilte fish when she wasn't a year old yet.

Now, however, Ashley at age 19 will look into the refrigerator, give me a pitiful look and say "don't you ever cook anything NORMAL". LOL Please, tell me Makayla will never say that to me...

OK, I will admit that there was one time in a restaurant when I ordered calimari. Both girls were scarfing them down when Ashley asked what they were. I replied that they were squid tentacles. She stopped, mid-bite, for about half a second and then shrugged and popped it into her mouth. I didn't think any more about it. The next time we went to that restaurant, though, Amanda very self-assuredly ordered "squid testicles". I thought the waiter was going to wet himself trying to keep from laughing.

Annie

Great thread Jessy. Very cute stories.

I don't have any great ones. The only thing I can think of is that my kids would never eat quiche, but they will eat "scrambed egg pie". They're kind of simple those kids of mine!

AM
The Dinner Chronicles

Alice has always had an inquisitive palate. When she was about 18 months old I served Brussels sprouts to her father and myself. She eyed them and indicated that she wanted one, too. I gave her a quarter of a sprout with some butter and watched. She took it in her fingers and carefully and thoughtfully ate the entire thing. I asked her if she would like another. She gave me a very solemn look and shook her head slowly "no."

"Fried squid testicles please, with a mountain oyster shooter on the side." Variation on a theme..

Rita,

They really do taste like chicken! I had a little frog experience you may enjoy...

Meandering our way back to CT from Charleston a couple years ago we stopped in Mrytle Beach for lunch. Inside, by the front desk, there was a tank of frogs (think like a lobster tank). On the tank was a sign..."Two-ffers"! I almost lost it...and, mostly, I'm OK with frog legs but seeing them in that tank just did me in.

/tricia

No funny stories. My kids ate what I served. Always. One of them wasn't fond of eating meat when she was little, so she would chew it and chew it to get the flavor out, and then spit the pulp discreetly in the wastebasket. Gross. Even hot dogs.
Typical meal.
Kid: What is that Mom?
Mom: Carrots
Kid: I don't want that
Mom: Then don't eat.
Thereafter they always ate what I served, and to this day are not fussy. Now my grandkids...that's another story.
My oldest daughter's two daughters are ridiculously fussy. My middle daughter's two daughters (the middle daughter is the meat pulp girl) eat anything you put in front of them including all raw veggies.
We'll see if the two babies are fussy. Time will tell.
Oh, one cute story. I love sour things, so I used to buy Schweppes bitter lemon and drink it straight. My 3 year old DGD wanted to try it so I let her. She took a sip and puckered up her face and sucked in her glands, and said, Mmmmm, that's good. After that, whenever she came to visit she would ask if she could have some "Sour, Sour, Sour." And that's what we call Schweppes bitter lemon to this day.

Sour, sour, sour! Adorable.

My son's likes & dislikes seem to change on a daily basis, now (though he'll still eat a bowl of mashed advocado as if it was ice cream and has an amazing capacity for fried calamari). When he turned two the Dr gave the go ahead to give him shellfish so we were introducing him to 1 variety at a time. One night we went to a local hole in the wall for their outstanding thin crust pizza and some mussels. We figured that the little guy could eat the pizza and maybe try a mussel. Needless to say we were shocked when he slurped one mussel after another right out of the shell, dispatching the entire bowl pretty much singlehandedly. He contines to eat mussels and clams this way, two years later.

I have fond memories of him at about 14 months, asking for jambalaya.

Nina

Love these cute and funny stories! I was not a short order cook for my two boys either, Sherry! They had a choice: eat what was prepared or fix themselves a bowl of cereal or a sandwich; usually they ate what I had prepared.

Son #1 was about 3 or 4 and shopping with me; he asked me to buy a bag of "these, Mom! - these 'shoo dogs'" - he was holding a bag of hush puppies! He was a great one for making up his own words if he didn't know the right words.

Son #2 would eat anything you put in front of him. As a toddler in a high chair he once ate bites of vanilla ice cream alternately with steamed oysters - *shudder*

My 7-year-old daughter is a Perrier connoisseur. But she insists the name of it is Perry-oh. After many corrections, she will still stand flat-footed and tell you it is Perry-oh. She likes it with a lime squeezed in it.

She wants to be a chef when she grows up too.

I love these stories.

I actually have two.

The first one is when my oldest son was probably 5-6 we were eating fried calamari and he wanted some, so I gave it to him and he said he loved the round shrimp. For the longest time we did not tell him what it was until one day he was out with us and he tried to order "round shrimp" and the waitress just kept saying...what is round shrimp and he tried explaining...my dh and I were almost on the floor crying that we could not even help the poor kid.

This same adorable child was about 3 and we were at a restaurant like "olive Garden" that serves the big bowl of salad on the table. My boys love salad. He was eating everything in the salad (except the lettuce). He got to the chick peas and ate one....his eyes lit up and he gathered them all in his hand and exclaimed as loud as he could "YUCK" and proceeded to throw them at the next table.

gotta love kids! :)

ds was very adventurous as a toddler, but now at 14 is on what we call the "white diet"--chicken, any bread/cracker, yogurt, Cabot's x-tra sharp cheddar, mashed potatoes, granny smith apples, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, and green grapes. That's about it.

dd (7) has always tried everything we eat. She loves seafood and most vegetables. Her funny is not about trying new food per se, but I had made a fabulous Bourbon Apple Pecan pie made with raisins soaked in bourbon...

She had some the first time I made it. The second time I made it, she refused and I had no idea why because she *loves* pie. Finally she told me that she didn't like the "squishy nuts". We were laughing so hard and she didn't know why until we explained that the squishy nuts were raisins!! LOL!

I remember being embarrassed as a kid when at the movies with my parents I asked for a soft drink, not a hard drink and they laughed at me. What I meant was "no bubbles", I wanted a non-carbonated drink.

another stinky cheese in France story...

In Provence we were brought the cheese coarse. DS2 smelled it and announced that it smelled just like Woogens, an angora billy goat he once had! There are a lot of funny Woogens stories, BTW. We were crying due to our hysterical laughter. Fortunately, we were dining outside at a rural restaurant. DS2 is now 23 and dearly loves goat cheese above all others.

Fun thread!!

When my daughter was about 2 she loved to taste everything and was pretty adventurous. I can't remember what I was making, but I had the cider vinegar out and allowed her to taste it.
She screwed her face up and pronounced it "Eeewwww, gross!"

I didn't even know she knew the word "gross"!

Another time my mom babysat and gave her raisins all day to snack on.........well, we shopped the same sale and I fed her raisins all evening... We'll just leave it there. Blech!

My kids ate what I fixed or went without. Only took about once going to bed hungry...

They all eat almost every vegetable and fruit and only one thinks her canines are pointless! LOL

Deanna

It was the meatloaf.......traditionally baked in a loaf-shape, that our then nine year-old declared he would eat never again.
I fooled him -- changed the shape to large meatballs next time! He ate the meatballs without question for the next three or four years, then suddenly asked, "is this what I think it is?" After we agreed that it indeed was meatloaf, he eats it no matter what shape, and complains no more.

A young visitor found an Italian green bean in a pasta sauce and was about to throw one of her royal fits. I had to think fast to save the day, and told her how lucky she was to have found the special bean. We held it high and announced that this was her lucky day, and that anyone finding the lucky beans would also share in the luck. It worked!!

The first day I kept the two neighbor boys after school, I sliced apples, and bananas on a plate for their after school snack. The six year old took one look and announced, "we don't like fruit, and we won't eat it!" The 10 year old told me they usually have potato chips and soda at grandma's house.
Those are the two things I don't keep in my house.
We've found a few healthy snacks to replace their regular junk. And I've got the younger one to eat Elvis' grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich now and then.

Jan

Cameron doesn't like pilze (German for mushrooms) but he will eat champignons (mushrooms) or mushrooms.
He was a very good eater until he got sick. The chemo changes the taste buds. It has been an adventure to get him back to eating a lot of things.
Lisa