Are you a big fan of SPICY FOODS? Being a Malaysian, most of us cannot turn away from the spiciness in our cooking.
The Malays say “Lidah Melayu la katakan,“. Welp, I am not going to disagree with that as I am also one of the big fans of spicy foods.
However, not many of us can tolerate spiciness. This may happen to your children as well. You do like spicy foods and will always consider cooking some spicy meals but, what about your kids?
You wouldn’t want to serve them with merely bland food, aren’t you?
It is already hard to get the kids to eat and it will be more challenging to get them to eat spicy food. BUT it is not impossible!
I am going to share with you on how you can get your child to eat spicy foods – but make sure to eat in moderation. Too many chillies can lead to some health problems.
6 Tips To Turn Your Children Into “Chili Eaters”:
1) No warnings honey, just eat.
I admit this sounds quite cruel, but a little trick goes a long way. One of the ways is to not tell your child that there is some chilli paste, chilli sauce or even ‘cili padi’ in their fried rice.
Alternatively, you can just say “Its lunchtime. Let’s eat!”.
It is also better to not caution them about the chilli sauce that you put in their burger could tingle their tongue.
If you start to tell or explain the hotness of the food, your kids will ask too many questions which can disrupt their interests rather than just scoop the meal into their mouth.
2) Yummy, Yummy So Delish!
When you are eating spicy foods, show your kids how delicious it is.
Do know that young kids usually imitate what we are doing, so they are more inclined to eat what we are eating, even though it may not be appealing to them at first.
I tried this trick when I cooked ‘Siput Sedut Masak Lemak’ and served it to my kids the other day.
Snails might seem unappealing to some kids, even for adults. I did the trick and voila – they ate more than once!
3) No Big Chunks Please!
Yes, it is not a problem for spicy head parents to eat the whole chunk of red peppers and chillies just like that.
No matter what, we still cannot deny that when we were young, there would be instances where we would bite the wrong chunk in the dishes – big peppers, herbs and etc that burnt out the mouth.
As for your kids, do not prepare the meals by adding in huge chunks of chillies or serve sandwiches filled with peppers to prevent these outbursts from your kids.
Also, do not use raw peppers. Do clean the seeds out before you put them in your child’s meal.
4) Take It Slow with The Levels
When you are cooking chicken soups or braising the meat, add a tablespoon of the spicy element.
If your kids can eat it, you can add more one tablespoon in the next dish, little by little.
You just want them to be able to taste the hint of the heat.
Spicy ingredients should not be presented as a very hot thing; they are just another flavour/seasoning.
5) Backup is Necessary
Always prepare some backup meals or some bland meal if the dish is too hot or just not up to their liking.
You always have to make your child’s favourites on the table so your child does not go to bed hungry.
Do not let your kids starve just because they cannot eat the spicy dish that you make for them. It will make them dislike spicy foods.
Some soy sauce based chicken or just a simple mac and cheese on the sides would suffice.
6) Keep an Eye on Your Spice!
You do not want your kids to mindlessly eat your spicy treasures that you keep in the safe (fridge).
I remember one of my nieces ate a mouthful of my spicy Korean ramen (SamYang) that I left on the table just for a while and the next thing I knew, she was having a meltdown and her cheeks went red.
It was hilarious to me but on the other hand, it would be a terrible first experience for a kid to encounter that high level of spiciness!
All I could do was constantly telling her that the burning would go away in no time.
It does not hurt to let your children eat spicy food, but make sure they eat in moderation. Remember that too much of anything can lead to some negative effect in the future.