Memorable Things Your Kids Said About Food

[Susan in FL]

In the Spaghetti and Meatballs thread, Heather Shorter mentioned that when she added meatballs to the sauce, Emma said it looked like "tucking them in their blanket of sauce." I was struck by how sweet that was, and got to thinking of some of the cutest things my son said about food when he was little.

One story we tell time and time again (he's 25 now, and in Naval aviation) is about when he was around 10 or 11 years old and was at Cal Ripken Baseball School. My husband worked a couple of sessions each summer at the camp, and remembers when they were going through the cafeteria line at dinner one night. The food was pretty traditional southern style, and among the choices were mashed potatoes and gravy. As he was served the mashed potatoes, he said to the ladies, "I would like some sauce with my potatoes." I realized he was being raised with sauces, not gravy!

Sometimes he used to complain and ask why I didn't cook "regular food" like most other parents did... But it was our home where all his friends loved to eat the most. On the occasions when his best friends didn't join us, they used to ask him what we were having for dinner. Now, he often calls from Pensacola to ask me for advice when he's cooking for his girlfriend and himself.

Any kid quotes to share?

[Carrot Top]

You must have done a good job, to have him calling for cooking advice!

There were so many hilarious mispronounciations of things that I have already forgotten...and my children are only (only?) ten and twelve years old....but the one phrase that sticks in my mind is one my son used for several years.

When announcing that he was hungry, he would add...'Mom, I want something Hot and Tasty and something Cold and Sweet!' (Sounded like he was on his way to creating his own fast food restaurant with the motto ready-made....)

He still likes that combo. Food's gotta be hot and tasty and drink's gotta be cold and sweet or disappointment is lurking....

[Jensen]

The only really memorable food-related thing the Spawn has said came when she was around 4 years old. We were out in the valley and were running late getting home to start dinner. As we were very hungry, we decided to stop at a diner for something to tide us over; the Spawn ordered fries and gravy.

The service was abysmally slow and the Spawn was getting restless. The Spouse said to her, "Well, it's your fault they're so slow. They have to catch all the flies for your flies and gravy."

Being four, she got quite perturbed, insisting that she had ordered FRIES, not FLIES.

The Spouse, being who he is, kept insisting that she had ordered FLIES.

The Spawn finally put both hands on the table, leaned forward a wee bit, and looked her dad straight in the eye.

"I ordered FRIES, not FLIES. That's CHIPS, not LIPS!"

Needless to say, she had the last word.

[tanabutler]

Picky Eater (the oddest karma to befall a mother who's paid to cook good food for other people) had a favorite phrase when she was little: "I don't like it. It has THINGS in it."

Meaning that it had texture. Nuts, skin, crust, seeds, a single bit of crisp where soft was sought...REJECT.

Her little brother is my darling dear (EDIT: he's not mine, he's my ex's little boy). He's my foodie baby boy, and has been cooking with me since he could stand on a chair next to the stove.

Aged four: he says he likes to go to Costco with me..."I like those little restaurants, Tana!"

Edited August 30, 2004 by tanabutler (log)

[Jaymes]

When my middle child was five, I was making him a PB&J sandwich. He stood at my elbow watching. "And I don't want that piece of bread," he said, pointing to the heel. "That's the one with the scab on it."

[Marlene]

One of my son's favourite foods is beef stroganoff. for some reason, when he was 4, he decided we were having Honeys and rice. And it's been that ever scince for him. Now if I tell him we are having Beef Stroganoff, I get this really blank look until I tell him "honeys and rice!"

\

[snowangel]

Diana, at age 6: "Mom, I want larb."

[Ladybug]

My son, at 4, could not say "s" sounds at all - for some reason, everything with "s" was pronounced with a "p" instead. One day in the grocery store as we were going down the soup aisle, my little wonder said (very very loudly), "Mom, why you like POOP?!" Every head in earshot snapped around quickly to see the Mom who liked "poop."

[Daddy-A]

My son at 8 asked my wife to make him some biscones. After a while we realized he had combined the names of two things she bakes that he likes:

Biscotti & scones.

BTW, he meant scones and we still call them biscones to this day.

Arne

[sparrowgrass]

In my house, raisins are still zee-zees. The child who coined the word is now 6'2".

[GG Mora]

My stepkids are still adjusting to a "Mom" who actually cooks. And some of the stuff I cook is entirely foreign to them. Last Christmas, I portioned out a lovely beef tenderloin into individual filets that I planned to pan-sear and serve with a nice red wine / veal reduction. When asked the inevitable "What's for dinner?" by one of the twins (age 12), I simply said "filet mignon". When the other kids asked the same question shortly thereafter, the twin answered with utter confidence and aplomb and even a little flourish "FlamMAY LonYON".

____________

One of my brother's daughters, when she was about 4, inquired about a truck full of pigs that passed them on the highway "Dad, how come they're taking those pigs for a ride in that truck?". My brother, ever the straight-shooter, said "Oh, I suspect they're taking them away to make them into bacon."

(Thoughtful pause.)

"They use pigs to make bacon?"

"Yes."

(Thoughtful pause.)

"Do they have to kill them to make bacon?"

"I'm afraid so."

(Longer thoughtful pause.)

"Dad, how come they have to kill the pigs? Why don't they just go to the store and BUY the bacon?"

Edited August 30, 2004 by GG Mora (log)

[Okbrewer]

My wife, daughter and I were on a mini vacation in state a few years back. One day after driving around seeing the sites we all started getting a bit hungry. It was after normal lunch time but too early for dinner, so my wife and I decided that we would just hold out for a big dinner. Well, my daughter didn't agree with our reasoning that it was too late for lunch and not time for dinner, she was hungry! She pleaded, "couldn't we just stop for a little, late, light, lunch!?" We popped into KFC and got her some chicken strips to satisfy her until dinner. Now, whenever we get hungry at that time in the afternoon, we are known to suggest, "how about a little, late, light, lunch?"

[Susan in FL]

I love these. I've been LOL reading them. It tickles me how we adults hold on to the phrases and mispronounciations forever, in a way hating to see them go when the kids stop saying them.

Tana, your story about "It has THINGS in it" reminded me of when Michael was real young. He used to say about anchovies (the tiny bones) and OJ which had pulp in it, "It's gots hairs in it." Of course now when I see him eating anchovies or drinking pulpy OJ, I say be careful, it's gots hairs in it.

Something we all obviously have in common is raising kids in a way that gives them excellent taste in food and drink.

[hjshorter]

Today is Emma first day of kindergarten, so I asked if she wanted a special dinner tonight. She's requested "chicken sundaes" and told me how to make them: scoop of mashed potatoes, with chicken sprinkled on top, and gravy poured over. No idea where she got the idea but it's cute.

She also tells her father frequently that he's "as silly as a pickle!"

[jo-mel]

When the kids were growing up, Sunday dinner was a roast of some kind, with gravy, mashed -- whatever. In the Fall, when football was either on the radio or TV, Marty Glickman's voice was in the house with us. DD associated Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding with Glickman and came to think of that dinner as a "Marty Glickman dinner" She's now 46 and still serves a "Marty Glickman Dinner". (We do too!)

[NulloModo]

In a similar vein to the pig story from above:

My parents recount a tale from when I was apparently very young, and having just come home from a school field trip that somehow involved a Dairy Farm, asked them: "So, I know how you milk a cow now, but how do you meat a cow?"

[aliénor]

my grandson was visiting from france-he is 5 and bilingual. we had been serving him spagheti with meat sauce and other toppings .now after the third day he looked at me and said "encore pasta" when we asked him what he would like, his reply was "poisson avec citron et pommes frites" and this is at five. the french part of him was already making itself known!

aliénor

[munchymom]

My little guy's not yet two, so it always warms my heart to hear him say "Mo' eggpwant pweeeze!" Or tofu, or broccoli, or spinach - all those things kids aren't supposed to like - he eats everything.

The one mispronunciation that made me roll on the floor laughing - when he first started to have peanut butter, he called it "penis butter"! (Unlike some of the mispronunciations talked about in this thread, this one has not been adopted as the permanent name for the food in our house.)

[chezcherie]

my middle son had never had grits (hey--i know...) until we were in a big

las vegas buffet line. he asked what they were, which drew pitying glances from the couple in front of us. (i know that "hot saucing" is being debated on another thread--is it child abuse to deprive a child of grits?) he placed a spoonful on his plate, and when we got to our table, he gamely plunged in.

now, bear in mind, these were steam-table, las vegas style grits, so i couldn't really blame him when he got a look on his face i'd never seen before, and pronounced "those taste like air, whipped with nasty!"

[chow guy]

Years ago my wife tried to get the kids to eat more healhty foods and would add tofu to stir frys etc.

One day the kids Montessori School director requested a parent teacher pow wow. She wanted to know why my wife was forcing her daughters to eat "toadfood".

Toadfood Annie became that daughters knick name and even after all these years she still will not eat tofu.

[daniellewiley]

My little guy's not yet two, so it always warms my heart to hear him say "Mo' eggpwant pweeeze!" Or tofu, or broccoli, or spinach - all those things kids aren't supposed to like - he eats everything.

The one mispronunciation that made me roll on the floor laughing - when he first started to have peanut butter, he called it "penis butter"! (Unlike some of the mispronunciations talked about in this thread, this one has not been adopted as the permanent name for the food in our house.)

This reminds me of Dylan's funniest food comment to date:

She was sitting on the potty about 6 months ago (she was almost 2.5), and was talking to me about body parts. I was explaining the various words to her, and told her that boys have a penis. So she replies:

"I eat penis at Ty's house!"

Ty is her friend who just turned 3. This seemed a bit premature.

Suddenly, I remembered. At Ty's birthday party, she had some peanuts for a snack.

phew

[StudentChefEclipse]

My nephew is being raised vegetarian, which when he was younger he had a hard time saying. So he would say, "I'm a vegetablearian."

[gariotin]

When my daughter was about 3, I was making mussels. As parents are wont to do, I went thru a big explanation of the fact that they were an animal even tho they looked like a stone, blah, blah, blah. Then I steamed up the pot and called her back over to look at the beautiful orange fleshy result. I said "see how it looks so different now - here is the shell that you could see before, here is what was hiding inside. This is the part that you eat." She looked at it long and hard. Then looked at me and said "Why?" I guess that's when I realized that mussels, clams, oysters look pretty darn unappealing.

[rajsuman]

We are Indians, but have been living in Ireland for the past 9 years. My 5-year old son would ask me why dinner at his friends' places looked different from ours. That got me started off on how the food differs from one country to another. To give him an example I said that while Indians eat a lot of chillies, most Irish people didn't.

We went to India later that year and one of the first questions he asked with much excitement was, "Is everybody Indian here? Do they all eat lots of chillies like we do?"

Then a few days ago his Irish friend Shane came for dinner. While I was careful enough to serve Shane very mild food, he wanted to eat the other hotter things that we were eating. So I gave him a bit of that and was surprised to see him polish it off with relish and ask for more. Seeing him eat the spicy food my son said,"So you like spicy food? That means you're Indian!"

Edited September 8, 2004 by rajsuman (log)

[Jinmyo]

Years ago my wife tried to get the kids to eat more healhty foods and would add tofu to stir frys etc.

One day the kids Montessori School director requested a parent teacher pow wow. She wanted to know why my wife was forcing her daughters to eat "toadfood".

Hahahaha