Picky eaters - don't you just hate them?
Andrea Lo
Britain's Prince Philip once wisely said: "If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it."
He's right, which is probably why I can't stand picky eaters: people who won't try a food because they don't like the sound of it (is pig's ear really worse than the back fat bacon is made from?); who refuse to order an item as basic as chicken wings because, "I don't eat meat off the bone"; who won't eat .
I wasn't born an adventurous eater. As a child, I hated any foods that were dark in colour. After my brother was diagnosed with asthma, my mum cooked him crocodile soup - which is believed to be a cure. In a show of support, the whole family had to drink it with him. I remember holding my nose, downing it and then thinking, "Hmm, it's not so bad."
In Cantonese, we have an expression, , which means "being wasteful with food". It's usually said behind someone's back, to criticise them for being ungrateful.
Picky eating should be grown out of, not become a lifelong nuisance that fellow diners have to tolerate because you are .
HK Magazine
