New Incarnation ...

Today in Max's lunchbox he has pumpkin soup. This goes in a food thermos that I bought from Moore Wilson's to keep it warm. I added some brown rice noodles that I had left-over. It's actually very, very rare for my boys to get soup in the thermos (and I know most people think thermos = soup) but generally they have dinner left-overs. Kumara chips, jacket potatoes, fish, eggs - whatever I have to throw in there.
Now this is an even stranger lunch as pumpkin is one of the few foods that Max doesn't like. He's never been a fan and although he'll eat a roasted piece begrudgingly it's definitely not his favourite. Then he asked to accompany me to the Food & Wine Show this year and we went along and did a lot of tasting. The only vegetarian dish at Simon Gault's table was pumpkin soup so Max had a try. And he loved it. Since then I have been making it for him once a month or so. Now anyone who has been to one of my workshops knows it's important to let kids try something - even if they've told you 100's of times they don't like it. Sometimes being in a new situation or with different people transforms a previously disliked food. Similarly we all have contradictions when it comes to food tastes. Liking a vegetable cooked one way or not another so it's important to try all the incarnations. Think how different mash is to chips to crisps to jackets and yet they are all potatoes ...

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