A foodie fairy tale

Once upon a time, an culinarily adventurous couple lived in the eastern border of the city of London. They enjoyed a variety of foods, both at home and afar (meaning restaurants in the city and beyond). The woman loved scouring recipe books and magazines for new dishes to create. She took great pleasure in cooking varied foods, trying these new recipes and creating more than a few of her own.

The man loved food. He taste tested all the concoctions with relish, giving each a thumbs up (most of the time) or thumbs down. He eagerly anticipated dinner and the plethora of food it would provide. The woman would savour each creation and decide whether it was up to snuff or determine what needed to change the next time she cooked it.

Meals were rarely boring. A wide variety of ingredients graced their cart at the grocery store. New spices were purchased, local and exotic veggies lovingly selected and tantalizing smells wafted from the pots on the stove.

Then one day, this couple produced two offspring. While their children didn't immediately affect the couple's dining habits, before long, the chants of "Eeewww" and claims of "I won't eat THAT!" grew tiresome. It became far easier to create kid-friendly meals than to turn dinner time into a battle ground.

The woman would sometimes venture outside the usual family menu to encourage the kids to try new foods and provide her and her husband with a taste of the days BK (before kids). Sometimes she'd even create two meals to satisfy both sets of palates.

This restrictive atmosphere lessened the woman's enjoyment of cooking and bored the man. In fact, they reminised just this morning about the meals BK and talked about how they missed the variety. The woman wondered if her children would ever be more open to different foods or whether they'd have to wait until they kids were out of the house before resuming the adventurous repitoire.

It's a sad, but true, tale.

The end.

Tina