THE ONE REDEEMING FOOD

Looking back over the years, the thought of many of the foods I was given to eat as a little boy growing up, fills me to this day with a degree of revulsion. As a little boy, I was made to eat all my vegetables and everything else that was dished up to me.

There was spinach, Silver beet, suede turnips, ordinary turnouts, parsnips, running beans, cauliflower, and various other foods that I found hard to tolerate.

My ‘not like’ list included boiled peas, boiled pumpkin, and boiled cabbage. Thinking back on it now, I was a finicky eater made to eat what was put in front of me – and to this day the things I’ve reported are not vegetables that I like.

Nevertheless, as an obedient young boy, I ate these things, generally hating every mouthful, and being ever so glad when those particular items of vegetable were gone.

I always left until last on the principle of eating “the worst first and the best last” when I was a child were baked potatoes. Potatoes that had been peeled and baked in the oven until they turned beautiful brown.

I love baked potatoes then and I love them now and whenever I eat baked potatoes I think back to the relish, gusto and enthusiasm with which I ate them when a child many decades ago.

Give me baked potatoes now and it takes me back in memory to sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner with our family and enjoying the only vegetable that I liked – baked potatoes.