I was not a fussy kid and had a good appetite. Only, I was not happy to eat keerai and vegetables.
— Vijay Sethupathi, Indian actor
No matter how busy I am, there are three things I must do everyday.
Before I go to work, I must feed my mother, my cat and my dog. When I return home from work, I have to perform these tasks again.
My mother, cat and dog are fussy eaters. My mother loves to eat meat. My niece, Ah Hong, and my mother’s favourite grandchild, calls her a carnivore.
What does carnivore mean? It means an animal which eats other animals and a person who is not a vegetarian. I guess, the second meaning of the word rightly applies to my mother. She hates eating vegetables, especially bitter gourds, which according to the Chinese are good for health, and brinjals.
Knowing how tedious cooking a meal is, especially for a caregiver who has another profession like me, my niece suggested I buy ready-to-cook chicken drums from a cold storage. “You just fry them and they are ready to eat with rice,” she told me during an online chat.
Ever open to new suggestions for improvement in my professional as well as private life, I did what she suggested.
I bought a big packet of breaded chicken drumettes but my mother only ate one of the first three drumettes I fried. The next day, when I fried four more drumettes, she also took only one.
“What happened?” “I asked myself. “Isn’t she crazy about KFC chicken?”
Besides fried chicken from fast food restaurants, my mother also loves pizzas. But I cannot feed an 83-year-old lady KFC chicken and pizzas every day, can I?
I usually cook three dishes for lunch and dinner. One of the dishes is a soup, another comprises chicken or pork while the last one consists of fried vegetables.
My best friend has suggested I cook a good soup with lots of meat pieces, fish or meat balls and different kinds of vegetables.
“A good soup will ensure a balanced diet for your mum. She will have protein and fibres in her diet,” she stressed.
So I proceeded to cook ABC soup with potatoes, carrots, big onions and chicken in it.
That was when I found out that unlike me, my mother does not eat a lot of soup. I have to stand beside her and make sure she finishes it instead of throwing it down the sink.
Frankly speaking, I am a reluctant cook. If I were alone, I would eat fruits and salads all day long. My best friend, who is very supportive of me, assures me I have done my very best for my mother.
“Do you know some sons and daughters just buy fried or kolo mee (noodle tossed in transparent sauce) for their old parents?” she told me.
Now, it’s time to talk about my cat and dog. Both are fussy eaters as well.
Mimi is a male feline. Initially, we all thought it was a female cat because of the way it walked and behaved.
A veterinarian corrected our perception when we took Mimi to an animal clinic. We were all shocked to learn Mimi was a male cat. But what we had named, we had named. So our cat was stuck with a girlish name for life!
Mimi must have canned sardine fish and Cuties Catz, seafood flavoured cat food, everyday. It eats sardine with rice first and then the cat food. One day, I accidentally bought the cat food with a different flavour. That day, Mimi did not touch the food at all.
The third fussy eater in my house is my mongrel male dog, Cookie. At first, it did not mind eating rice mixed with boiled and chopped chicken heads and necks. Then, one day, it did not finish the good food at all.
After cracking my head, I bought chicken hearts instead. For the moment, he loves rice with boiled chicken hearts.
My best friend shared me the story of one fussy dog. “The owner got fed up and decided to starve the animal for a few days. When she finally fed it just rice with soup, it finished all the food. Perhaps you should starve your cat and dog for a few days,” she said.
Maybe I should do that one day to Mimi and Cookie — just to teach them a lesson. But can we teach animals lessons for life?
As for my mother, of course, I can’t do that. I guess I just have to be extra patient.
Until next week, take care and stay safe, my friends!
