Foods I Hated Eating

 

Are there foods you hated eating as a child? How was the matter solved?
Were you cajoled or forced to eat?
Share your experience or that of your child, please.

While looking at the plate of food before me, my heart failed. I had to eat everything on it, including the plantain. Oh boy. Who will come to my rescue today? Grandma isn’t around. Today I go hear am. Daddy will not hear of it. I must eat it all.

Grandma always came to my rescue in moments when I didn’t eat what was cooked. She wouldn’t let me starve, ao she would just make something else for me. You know na, grandma cannot watch her grandchild go hungry because the food available didn’t appeal to her taste buds.
I remember once when she was cooking something for me because I didn’t want to eat what was available.

Daddy came back when the food was on fire. He was wondering why they were still cooking lunch at that time? Lunch should have long been ready. He was upset when he was told that grandma was cooking something for me. So he went to his mother.

“Diya (mother in Gyong language), why are you making something else for her when there is food already?”
“She doesn’t like beans. Any time we cook beans, she goes hungry. It’s not okay for a child to go hungry.”
“No Diya, she has to learn to eat what everyone is eating. If you teach her to choose now, what will happen when you are not around? It could become a problem to her in the future.” He went on to explain to her the dangers of being choosy. Life is unpredictable, what if, what if, what if?…

Phew! Grandma told him she got the message, “but letting her starve isn’t the way to teach her that”.
Daddy was adamant. “If she starves a little, she will learn.”
I don’t know about that, to date there are foods I’d rather not eat.
Am I picky? I Don’t think so.
I actually eat most things regular people eat.

Mummy was in school then, even though she went from home, she sometimes came back late and tired, so she didn’t really have that time to listen to us whine and complain. Grandma, on the other hand, had all the time.
Grandma was gracious and kind enough to move in with us when mum had to go back to school. She was our nanny, our go-to person, our anchor. On days we commit an offence that requires flogging. She was there to either stop it or limit the number of strokes one would receive.

If daddy planned to flog you and she is there, nna, you are free, except she isn’t around. He respected his mother so much. Once she talks, he drops the cane.
Mummy would most likely give you a stroke or two before she grudgingly drops the cane. So if they really need to correct you, they would take you to their room where grandma will not hear till maybe you start to shout and by then, dem for don pass (they would have passed) the message across.

Mum and her mother in law (grandma) had a good relationship. I still remember them sitting and talking for hours. They had their disagreements, but they never went too far, nothing out of the ordinary. No one ever overstepped their boundaries. There was mutual respect between them.
Because of their relationship, I know that it’s possible to have a good relationship with your mother in law. Not every mother-in-law is a witch. I would love to have a mother-in-law one day.

Omo, There were three foods I hated while growing up,
- Beans
- Plantains, especially the ripe one
- Irish Potatoes.

I hated plantain the most. I used to stare at the middle of it, with those weird black dots. Every time I looked, I saw ‘eyes’ staring back at me every time I had to eat fried plantain. So to eat plantain, I remove them by cutting it into pieces and removing the portion with plenty of eyes (black spots) before eating. That was torture. But I had to eat them on days when grandma was not around.

Years later, beans became one of my favourite foods to eat. I eat plantains and Irish potatoes now but,
You know the way you start to crave for something? A meal, a snack or something? Plantains and Irish potatoes are foods I never have cravings for. I eat them whenever I see them but, I don’t go out of my way for them, asides from plantain chips, that dry and crispy type sold on the highway.

I love sweet potatoes, on the other hand. Oh, I could eat them boiled or fried or baked or roasted or even… hehehehe, raw.
There are other foods I could eat without batting an eyelid. Yam, Rice, Tuwo. Sighs. I can actually eat anything that humans eat. No, that most humans eat because there are things other humans eat that I can never eat no matter what.

So that day grandma wasn’t around and my dad had my time. Nna na so I eat fried plantain ooo. I ate it amidst tears, yet he didn’t budge, so eat it I did.

I guess my distress moved him. He never forced me to eat plantains or anything ever again. At most he would say, “you need it to grow and develop well”.
Toh, I dey here today.
At some point, I began to dislike milk and eggs. I would almost throw up eating eggs especially.
“Add pepper and … before you fry,” my mum would advise but, for where? my system rejected it.

I was to later find out about lactose intolerance.

Toh, I seem to be blabbing today.
Share your food experiences with me, please?
Thank you.