Passions for Fast Food
Yes, we must admit: children love Fanta. And Coca-Cola. And hamburgers with cheeseburgers. And chips. And chocolate bars. And McDonald's is their culinary Mecca, the pinnacle of everything that civilization has invented in terms of food and drink. And that is terrible. Especially when you take your child somewhere abroad. It is doubly offensive if you go to a country famous for its culinary and restaurant traditions, and then look for the hated letter “M” made from a broken potato in Paris, or capitulate to Burger King in Budapest.
At home it is easier. At home, in familiar surroundings, you can always neutralize the gastronomic whims of young Neanderthals of the “Next generation” one way or another. But abroad you remain alone with a child craving food that is not only distasteful to you, but simply harmful.
Believe me, the father of an eleven-year-old “non-eater.” Believe a man whose wife used to throw him out of a good Italian restaurant “to smoke in the fresh air” for his intense desire to put a plate of spaghetti on his own son's head. And a completely natural desire, by the way. Because, you see, at home pasta with ketchup is tasty. But here, in a rather pretentious Calabrian establishment, the same thing—only authentic, objectively tastier—does not work. Not at all.
And hotel buffets, huh? On the one hand, they are a salvation, because the wealth of choice allows you to feed the child once or even twice a day with minimal expenditure of emotional strength. And then not to be tormented by pangs of conscience: ah, again toxins mixed with cholesterol! On the other hand, it is sickening to watch how your unreasonable (although seemingly quite adult!) offspring completely ignores all possible local delicacies and fills a full plate with canned corn mixed with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. And to that—a couple of mini sausages, an apple, and three cookies. Plus a butter sandwich, but without jam. The jam (pâté, soft cheese) is tasteless. And we do not drink juices because there is no clarified apple juice, and all the others are also tasteless. Same with tea. And in general, why doesn't dad go to the bar and bring a can of Pepsi-Cola?..
Pizzeria? Pizzeria!
But still, we are not used to retreating. And we keep the lifeline in the form of McDonald's and the like, which is loathsome to the heart of a traveling gourmet, for the very last, most extreme case. And, as a rule, this case never comes.
Because we still know the Tao. And it lies in a single magic word—pizza. Just one example: last spring, while walking a small but spoiled gang of elementary schoolchildren around Prague, my class teacher and I perceived the appearance of yet another pizzeria at the appointed lunchtime as a gift of fate. That means the children will not be fussy, they will eat quickly, with appetite, and not the most shameful food of all possible. And we will somehow arrange dumplings and a goose leg with beer for ourselves a little later. Coca-Cola (Sprite, Fanta—depending on mood), unfortunately, was inevitable: when dealing with little monsters, it is impossible not to make certain compromises...
But let us return to relatively peaceful family vacations. Thank God, throughout Europe (America and Asia are a separate matter) and civilized North Africa, pizza appears on the menu of almost every other restaurant. Moreover, the higher the level of the restaurant, the more respectable the pizza. Tested in practice in various countries. That is, parents can calmly enjoy the fruits of foreign cuisines and not worry that their child, engrossed in his pizza, will remain hungry.
Lifebuoys of “Mare Nostrum”
Italian cuisine is truly a salvation. And not so much in it alone, but in the Mediterranean gastronomic tradition in general. Because in Italy, Spain, the southern coast of France, Greece, Tunisia, and even Egypt and Lebanon, you can find dishes that will tame even the most demanding “non-eater.”
First of all, let us give thanks to the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits—regardless of the season. Children eat them willingly, and also all year round. If you add a little bit of everything else to such a plant-based diet, you can calmly hold out for a week, and another, and a third.
“Everything else” (if we exclude pizza and other “familiar” food) is, first of all, seafood. In this case, the preferences of little picky eaters and adult gourmets surprisingly coincide. There are, of course, differences—a child is unlikely to agree to taste mussels or oysters. But baby octopuses, not to mention various crustaceans, enjoy unconditional success. Peeling shrimp or langoustines generally turns into a separate show: the child has not only his mouth but also his hands occupied, and parents can enjoy at least half an hour of relative peace. Just keep putting napkins out in time...
Finally, pasta and rice dishes are served throughout the Mediterranean. If they are not too spicy and piquant, you can persuade the child to at least try them. What if he likes “spaghetti alla napoletana” or “paella a la catalana”? But I will note right away—success is not guaranteed here.
Other Shores
In the repertoire of most other cuisines, you can also find dishes that are very welcome even by the most capricious children. The exceptions are Latin America and Southeast Asia. Everything there is too specific, exotic, spicy, pungent-smelling, and unusual in taste. Adults usually like it, but children categorically refuse.
The USA and Canada are a separate culinary story. And in terms of children's food too. On the one hand, average American food - hamburgers, pizza, donuts, cola - suits the perverted taste of a modern child perfectly. On the other hand, all of this together forms what we have so diligently tried to avoid. Namely, “McDonald's” on the scale of almost an entire continent. But if you are taking your child to Florida's “Disneyland”, you will have no other choice anyway...
Europe is another matter. Take, for example, British fish and chips (found in abundance both on the Islands themselves and in all places favored by the British for holidays). Essentially, nothing complicated - french fries with pieces of fried fish. But, firstly, fish and chips is very difficult to ruin, and, secondly, children generally like composed dishes that can be eaten with hands. An additional plus is that fish and chips can be calmly eaten on the street, right out of a paper wrapper, and no one will say a bad word to you: the British have managed to teach the rest of humanity that this is perfectly acceptable. Add some drink to the fish and potatoes - and you get a full-fledged street snack.
And such mutually acceptable options are easily found in almost any European cuisine. In Germany and Austria, these will be bockwursts, bratwursts, and a dozen or so other varieties of sausage products (show me a child who would refuse a sandwich with good sausage or a boiled sausage with mashed potatoes!) In France - croissants with all sorts of fillings. In Belgium - delightful Belgian waffles. In Scandinavian countries - their ingenious sandwiches. And so on, and so forth.
Europe will help us
Throughout Europe, there are a number of universal dishes of one or another ethnic flavor, optimally adapted if not for full-fledged nutrition, then at least for somehow feeding a child without experiencing pangs of conscience. First of all, we are talking about soups. In almost any restaurant, you can find a list of first courses of at least three or four items - and items that are fundamentally different in content. And then you can adjust your choice to the preferences of specifically your son or daughter. Does your child eat pureed soups at home? Something from the French cuisine repertoire, for example, cream of mushroom soup. Likes borscht and cabbage soup? An excellent option is Italian “minestrone”. Has a weakness for thick meat soups? Hurry to order Hungarian goulash and its numerous derivatives.
Notably, I took all three items from the menu of a German restaurant, and by no means the most fancy one... And if, say, we recall such a magical place as Amsterdam's Soup Kitchen cafe... But even a simple listing of its soups would take too much space, and in general, a dining spot in the Dutch capital that is almost optimal in terms of price-quality ratio deserves a separate discussion.
Also in the West, it will not be difficult to find once French, and now completely international baguettes and crepes. The first are long loaves cut lengthwise and filled with something tasty, like ham with salad greens and cheese. The second are pancakes with some sauces and gravies, though mostly sweet. Baguettes and crepes are reconciled by bagels, borrowed from Jewish cuisine: they can be either vegetable-cheese-meat (the bagel is cut lengthwise and layered with one or another filling) or sweet. What is most important for us - all three are eagerly eaten by picky eaters and at the same time have no effect on the state of their precious tummies.
Well, and of course, a source of eternal pleasure, both for children and parents - desserts. Sweet pastries, mousses, soufflés, cakes, and other confectionery wonders. And also, of course, ice cream. And here one can argue for a long time whose cookies are tastier, English or Danish, whether Swiss chocolate is better than Belgian, whether German fruit jelly is more proper or French... Sweet dishes are good everywhere, from the North Sea to the Yellow Sea, from Helsinki to Cairo. But, unfortunately, feeding a child only desserts is, at the very least, inhumane. And in general, the topic of desserts is a separate question, and it cannot be said that it is entirely childish.
So for us, dear parents, there is only one road left - to the pizzeria. And the only hope is that when the little monster grows up, he will learn to appreciate “adult” foreign food, tasty, interesting, and varied.