Chapter 14: What Foods did You Dislike as a Child? Has it Changed Over Time?

The only food I remember not liking when I was a child is fried eggplant. My mother would dip it in egg, coat it with breadcrumbs and then fry it. It looked like tonkatsu, a.k.a. pork cutlet, but the taste was, I can’t remember, but it wasn’t nice. When I was living in Okinawa, off base, one of my neighbors opened an izakaya. The literal translation for izakaya is “stay-drink-place.” It is kind of like a tavern or pub, but it has a menu of many types of small dishes that you can order to snack on. Anyway, her izakaya offered mainly grilled food. After ordering a few dishes, the owner gave us a “service,” or “complimentary free dish,” of grilled eggplant. I didn’t want to eat it, but I wanted to be polite, so I tried it.

American eggplants are usually very large, and the Japanese ones are rather small. I grow them in my garden and usually harvest them when they are small. I think that the smaller ones are more tender and tastier. Cucumbers are the same. American ones are fat and Japanese ones are skinny. I harvest some of my cucumbers when they are small but let a few of them grow very large. They both taste good, but the smaller ones are crunchier, and the larger ones have a softer texture. Again, I digress, back to the izakaya.

She grilled several small eggplants, cut them in half lengthwise and drizzled a little soy sauce on them. I told myself to show a happy face, but that was easy to do – they were delicious! Now I like eggplants, but I usually stick to the smaller ones.

I just remembered. I hated tuna casserole when I was young. I tried making it a few years ago to see if my tastes have changed. It was ok, but I haven’t made it since. I think that canned tuna should be served cold. If I visited someone’s house for dinner and they served tuna casserole, I would have no problem eating it. I will eat pretty much anything someone is so kind to feed me.

Here are some photos of a typical yakitori grill, large and small eggplants and cucumbers. My large cucumbers were larger than the English cucumber below. Some of my friends love the larger ones and make “quick pickles” with them.