A cool Kings Beach image:
Mixed vegetables with mushroom and fungus
Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell
from Kings Chinese Takeaway,
Warilla Grove NSW 2528 Australia
Price: a standard takeaway container. Other meals are .50 including rice or noodles
I am lucky enough to live near Warilla Grove, a lovely little shopping center that has a range of food shops (Woolworths, Bi-Lo, Mitchells Fruit and Veg, Leonards), several takeaways (Kings Chinese, Kebab, Coffee Shop, Chicken shop) , Butchers (Bushs Meats), Chemist, Clothing and gift stores (Home and House, Homeart, GoLo) which make for an enjoyable shopping experience.
Recently I had some friends (Michael and Adrian S. from Keiraville) phone me up and suggest we go for lunch. I had only just eaten lunch (a wonderful scrambled egg and mushroom on toast) and suggested they grab a .50 meal from Kings Chinese and bring it here to plate up. An hour later Michael and his son arrived with two dishes (Satay chicken and Curried Chicken) and Michael was very impressed with the value for money. Adrian wasn’t hungry at first but after an hour of Super Paper Mario Bros on Wii he had worked up an appetite and once he tasted the satay chicken dish he devoured it in no time. Adrian has Asperger syndrome (high functioning autism) and when we first met him back in 2006 all he wanted to eat was white bread with sweet chilli sauce. Over the years we introduced new foods (bok choy, butter chicken, spaghetti bolognaise laden with hidden minced vegetables) with the motivation of being coached through some particularly tricky computer games on PS2 and Wii. After a while he was soon choosing to eat bok choy and actually liking it, and no longer baulked at trying new foods and really enjoyed eating with us at two Shellharbour restaurants (Tandoori Indian restaurant and Ocean Beach Hotel) last year.
It is hard to describe how happy it made me to see Adrian enjoying his meal and to know that through a lot of patience, perseverance and motivation you played a part in his food journey. Sometimes it was as simple as putting different types of new foods on a plate and asking him to taste each one and eat at least one third of what was on the plate. The sooner he did so the sooner he would be back playing games. I guess I have my mother to thank for my own open-mindedness when it comes to food, and many of my efforts mirror hers. Both Adrian and Siobhan are benefiting from the greater range of foods in their diet and I can definitely say that it IS worth persevering with fussy eaters. Just keep encouraging them to try new foods and involve them in cooking and shopping for fresh ingredients. I have seen the pain some children have been in when allowed to eat nothing but cheese sandwiches or bread with sweet chilli sauce. Crippling constipation being but one of the side-effects. Find the foods which they will tolerate, encourage them to find the healthy foods that they do enjoy and lead by example and try foods that you haven’t tried and make a game of it. Give them praise when they do taste something, even if they spit it out or make a face. They tried, that’s the important thing. If they are hungry they will eventually eat the thing they dislike the least, which may soon become a favourite. They will definitely thank you later.
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