It’s a chicken finger world…but we don’t have to live in it
I was all ready to get uppity about David Kamp’s piece in the NY Times May 30 about the ubiquity of the chicken finger on kids’ menus all over town. Surely, I thought, this would be another elitist rant about the dreadful way American children are eating.
And I was right. But I also was surprised to find myself agreeing with just about every point he made. Particularly the point about our being held in the “grips of a nefarious chicken finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young.”
Somebody say Amen!
I think it’s already been well proven that the more you pander to kids’ unformed palates the more picky those palates will become. Unfortunately, as every parent knows, it’s simply too easy to pander at the end of the day.
Fortunately, the times appear to be changing. At least in the world of dining out.
Kamp cites various restaurants that are starting to think out of the box in terms of their children’s menus. Why can’t a five year old enjoy a small, very tender steak with smashed potatoes? Well exactly.
And there’s the ethnic option of course, where hopefully you’ll never be confronted with chicken finger. Rice and beans? Healthy and kid-friendly as anything gets. Rice noodles? Pot stickers? Orange chicken?
With just a little imagination, restaurants can serve its younger diners delicious, healthy, and appealing meals… with nary a fried chicken nugget in sight. It’s a trend I’m all for.
How about you, parents? What sort of non-child menu food do your kids like to get when you take them out to eat? Dish it!
