Posted by Allison Hemler, August 26, 2008 at 7:30 PM
As children, some foods truly disgusted us. But the same ones—Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and spinach all come to mind—we now dream of roasting, braising in butter, and creaming with ricotta. As adults, there are still plenty of foods we can look back on and agree—they are better left for the kids.
Joe Posnanski lists what he calls "Pixifoods," or "any food substance that is highly pleasant to the taste as a child and tastes shockingly unpleasant once you become an adult."
Some examples he includes: cotton candy ("cotton root canals"), Fig Newtons ("fruit chunks wrapped in death"), and Spaghetti-O's ("plastic and ketchup"). While many of the descriptions send shivers down my spine—Beanie Weenies are a no-brainer—I still snack on and enjoy Marshmallow Fluff and Pop Tarts from time to time. So, serious eaters, what childhood foods disturb your taste buds as an adult? [via Metafilter]
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 26, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Illustration for a child's book, "Peter and the Moon" Story and Pictures (32 in color) by Jan Balet—not yet published. November 1946
Paul Lukas, of Uni Watch fame forwarded this awesome illustration to me. (Best children's book illustration ever? Quite possibly," he says.) He in turn got it from a friend.
It appears to be from some sort of 1946 promo of a book yet to be published at the time. I can't find any mention on the web of Peter and the Moon in connection to Jan Balet, so who's to say if it ever appeared on shelves—or is so far out of print that it doesn't appear online. Balet appears to have hit his stride in the late 1940s.
Related: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," The Movie
Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 26, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Mayor Gregory Manning in Clayton, California is losing major credibility with kids right now. According to ABC News, he doesn't think two young ladies, three-year old Katie Lewis and her eleven-year old sister Sabrina Lewis, should manage a street corner produce stand where they once sold surplus crops like zucchini and melon from their family's garden. When the police recently showed up, they shuttered the stand for violating zoning and traffic laws, only because of one complaint to the mayor's office.
"They may start out with a little card table selling a couple of things, but who's to say what else they have," warned Manning, who fears for a raucous future involving eggs and chicken sales. In response, Sabrina has authored a petition, which is fast receiving neighborhood support. She is a hero for little entrepreneurs and lemonade stands everywhere. Or are you siding with the mayor?
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 21, 2008 at 7:30 PM
Think your school lunches growing up were pretty bad? Check out these questionably edible school lunches from Harrison City Public Schools in Virginia, then decide. Such nutritional delights as Italian Dunkers, Chicken Fryz, and Taco Patties will make your eyes and stomachs bleed. View more of the lunches if you think you can handle it. Some of my favorites are the Taco Tub and the Ham and Cheese Pita. What were your most disgusting school lunches growing up?
Valleywag reports: "The family has gotten Neal to agree to eat vegetables, but only if a Facebook group they've set up garners 1,000 users."
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 11, 2008 at 12:00 PM
What happens when babies eat lemons? They make the most adorable facial expressions! You can see more than 30 of those squishy, pudgy-faced expressions in this montage of babies' reactions to eating lemons, the dominant feeling being something like, "Eeuh, eeahah, bleech, ughhg."
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Posted by Robyn Lee, August 6, 2008 at 12:00 PM
In this Candid Camera-type show from Spain, kids participate in a fake casting for a yogurt commercial not knowing that the yogurt they have to enthusiastically eat is full of salt. Watch them as they attempt to fake satisfaction or give in to the unexpectedly distasteful yogurt after the jump.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 24, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Opening the Chewandswallow Digest this morning, we learned of spaghetti storms in our stars—but not until 2010. Ron and Judi Barrett's classic children's story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will become a 3-D IMAX film by Sony Pictures Animation, starring Andy Samberg and Anna Faris. Beyond pasta, the town of Chewandswallow will also be deluged by Gorgonzola snow flurries, toast hurricanes, and pea-soup fog.
Since an illustrated 30 pages can only lend so much film fodder, the plot invents a scientist who instigates the edible meteorology in hopes of ending world hunger. (If you remember, the book begins with Grandpa accidentally whacking his grandson with a pancake while flipping one for breakfast, then explains how normal this is in Chewandswallow.) Similar to Twister and Backdraft, the film will have a Mother Nature–gone-wrong twist.
Now, if only we could squeeze our childhood beds into the theaters for ultimate viewing pleasure.
Posted by Emily Koh, July 16, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Family meals have been credited with doing a lot for kids, from reducing the risk of substance abuse and eating disorders to teaching healthy eating habits to fostering good relationships with parents. Turns out it's not just good for kids—parents also benefit from having family dinners. A new study showed parents had more successful and optimistic outlooks on their professional careers if they made it home in time for dinner.
A tip for successful family meals: Keep it simple. Just because it's a home-cooked meal doesn't mean you need to whip out your chef's hat—it's less about the meal than the communal aspect. As the Slate piece aptly puts it: "Regularity matters. Maybe the family dinner is all about getting into a rhythm: a steady drumbeat of mess, munching, and musing."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Mark "The Minimalist" Bittman can kick back and relax when retirement phase rolls around. His three-year old co-star in this week's New York Times video on "Banana Paleta," a take on the Mexican ice pop, was the "Mini Minimalist," a three-year old whose YouTube videos over the last few months have mimicked the original Bittman videos with every Bittmanian hand motion, finesse and verbatim script—plus more mumbling, crawling and onesies. Was he listening to Bittman's voice instead of bedtime stories every night before bed?
Mark Bitt-Little-Man seemed uncharacteristically shy this week as he pressed blender buttons with his godfather. Couldn't handle the stage-sharing? But he was himself again in this newest uploaded performance, a take on Bittman's braised short ribs act.
"Luxurious, sensual... you're cooking for a loved one, you have to take your time," Mini Minimalist declares, as if a middle-aged man who understands the important nuances of slow-cooked, sensual beef. Watch the video after the jump.
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, June 9, 2008 at 10:15 AM
The good news is, someone in my family is eligible to enjoy a prix fixe menu at Chicago's Frontera Grill, Osteria di Tramonto, One Sixtyblue, or Coco Pazzo Cafe for $4. The bad news is, I have to pay $20, and we don't live in Chicago.
If we did, however, I'd be all over Kids' Restaurant Week in Chicago, which runs June 21-28. Nineteen of Chicago's top restaurants are participating. The rules are: (1) come in between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; (2) kids under 12 pay their age; and (3) adults and older kids pay $20.08.
The web site doesn't say anything about the menus, so I called a couple of the restaurants to find out what kids should expect to eat. Read the menus, after the jump.
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, April 7, 2008 at 11:30 AM
When I heard the Georgian Room, Seattle's fanciest hotel restaurant, would be holding an etiquette class for 8- to 13-year-olds, I had one question for instructor (and Georgian Room maitre d') Tony D'Agostino: are any kids going to come to the class on their own accord?
Not likely, he admitted. "How many kids go, 'Mom, I want to go learn etiquette?'" D'Agostino said. "It's right up with the adult classes, though. You go around the table and ask, 'Why are you here?' The husbands go, 'My wife is bringing me.'"
So how do you keep a captive and potentially unruly audience entertained? In a word, snacks. And not those cucumber sandwiches, either. The tiered tea trays will hold scones and clotted cream, peanut butter sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches (crustless, of course), and chocolate chip cookies. To drink, kids will get a choice of hot chocolate with whipped cream and mini-marshmallows, or herb tea. This doesn't sound like much of a choice to me.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, February 13, 2008 at 3:30 PM
In Sunday’s New York Times, Alex Williams wades into a modern minefield of a topic: parents who bring their children into bars.
Williams’ article, “Look Who’s Getting Rolled Out of the Bar,” takes a look at parents who like to bring the wee ones into the local for a quick cold one. Concerned about stroller pileups and liability issues, some bars are asking parents to pass on by (or at least leave the Maclaren at home), while bar patrons' arguments have grown increasingly heated on both sides of the debate (for proof, just check out the comments that have been showered on the article). Williams’ story focuses primarily on parents and establishments in New York, where neither city nor state laws ban minors from bars; other places, of course, take a different approach.
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, November 12, 2007 at 3:00 PM
The Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box surely deserves a spot in the toy hall of fame. I've lost count of the number of "meals" my daughter Iris, 3, has prepared for me with this thing. The best feature is the sound: when the wooden knife lops off a chunk of toy carrot, cucumber, or watermelon, the Velcro gives way with a crunch much like the sound of a real knife through celery.
Trouble is, Iris has had the toy for almost two years, and she's getting bored with it. What's the next step? I have just the thing.
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, October 23, 2007 at 12:00 PM
I've been reading new kid-related cookbooks so you don't have to. First, the good news.
Nicola Graimes's Top 100 Recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox
is petite (the book is about 6-inches square) and English. The author may also be petite and English, for all I know. The recipes have an emphasis on "healthy" but without resorting to unsavory stuff like low-fat cottage cheese or tub margarine. Surely my daughter Iris could be convinced to take Chicken Tikka Naan, Zucchini & Parmesan Fritters, or even Sushi Cones in her Hello Kitty lunchbox, although she would eat the contents of the sushi cone and leave the seaweed. There is a whole section on salads; if your kids accept salad in their lunch, please don't mention this in the comments. Top 100 is appealingly laid out and a bargain at $10 list.
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Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, September 24, 2007 at 3:25 PM
Hello there, children! | Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
Concerned chefs and food writers agree: American school lunches suck. Reform programs such as Alice Waters's Edible Schoolyard have sprung up at every grade level from kindergarten to college.
Deborah Madison recently took a trip to France and observed schoolchildren choosing between two salads, mâche with roast duck and fava beans or mâche with salmon and asparagus. Meanwhile, Ann Cooper's book Lunch Lessons surveys the depressing fast-food landscape of the average American school and offers some ideas for fixing up your school's lunch program.
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Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 10, 2007 at 12:05 PM
My friend John told me the other day that his son was at the stage where he was only willing to eat if John pretended the spoon was a plane or train en route to his little mouth. I sent him a link this morning to Babyplane, a spoon with a little plastic plane built around it, and he wrote back to call it a scientific breakthrough, saying, "You could actually TRIPLE the amount of food that gets into a toddler with that spoon." $15 at Pylones, in blue or pink.
