{"id":4106,"date":"2013-09-05T11:59:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T15:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/familyfoodandtravel.com\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2013-09-05T11:59:23","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T15:59:23","slug":"encouraging-children-eat-food-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyfoodandtravel.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/05\/encouraging-children-eat-food-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"Encouraging Children to Eat Food While on Vacation","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
All parents know that children hate change \u2013 and some are especially particular when it comes to food. Whenever my friend and I go out to eat with her kids, they always choose the exact same things on the menu: chicken nuggets and plain tomato and cheese pizza. Both children top their dishes with lashings of ketchup before diving in whilst also covering themselves from top to tail in their food.<\/p>\n
During my recent travels around the Canary Islands, my friend came over with her children to visit me. She decided she wanted to encourage them to get out of their comfort zone and try the local food. After all, they can\u2019t survive on chicken nuggets and pizza forever! Despite the wide variety of Canarian and Mediterranean food available at their hotel<\/a>, the kids always headed to the children\u2019s section which served chicken nuggets and plain pizza every day, without fail.<\/p>\n Being enthusiastic carnivores ourselves, my friend and I headed to El Cordero<\/a> (the lamb) restaurant in Guargacho<\/a>, Tenerife south. This grill-style eatery had been recommended to me by a number of travelers because it was affordable, the portions were huge and the quality was amazing, so I was very much eager to try. When we arrived at the restaurant in my rental car, we were greeted with a huge bush in the shape of a giant lamb. The bush was larger than the restaurant itself and instantly got the children interested.<\/p>\n Once seated at a table on the outdoor terrace, we ordered our drinks and patiently waited for our menus. Instead, a waiter came over to our table and told us the restaurant didn\u2019t use menus and he was just going to tell us what the chef was cooking that day. Although it caught us off guard, it sounded wonderfully fresh, so we listened carefully.<\/p>\n The list seemed never-ending and incorporated almost every kind of grilled meat we could imagine. In the end, we asked our waiter to bring us a mixed platter suitable for two adults and two children with enough Canarian potatoes and mixed salad for everyone.<\/p>\n Whilst we were waiting for our food, the children were adamant that they weren\u2019t going to enjoy their meal, with the older boy even remarking that he wasn\u2019t going to try a thing. There were some amazing smells wafting over from the grill, so we humored the children and told them that was fine, knowing that curiosity would get the better of them when dinner arrived.<\/p>\n Within around 20 minutes, a handful of waiters descended on our table, each holding two plates. As ordered, there was one huge portion of fresh salad, a generous serving of Canarian potatoes, a tray of assorted sauces and the highlight of the meal: plate after plate of grilled meat. My friend and I examined each piece and after a few minutes managed to work out what we had: sirloin steaks, pork chops, lamb shoulder, pork ribs, rabbit and chicken legs \u2013 enough to feed a family of ten, never mind four!<\/p>\n