Who is the Picky Eater Now?

We went out to a Japanese restaurant last night to celebrate our anniversary.

My wife ordered amaebi (sweet shrimp sushi), which Kai and I had never had before. The body of the shrimp is served as onigiri, wrapped with a ball of rice. Our server, the Japanese owner of the restaurant, asked my wife if she would like the heads of the shrimp as well, which she did. The entire head of the shrimp is deep fried in a light batter.

Kai did not like the sushi as we forgot to order it without wasabi, the Japanese horseradish that Kai does not like.

However, he was eager to try the shrimp head. He asked what the two small black things were and we told him they were the eyes. I was not sure I wanted to eat the shrimp head myself, but Kai happily gobbled his down and said it was good.

So, I tried it, too, and was surprised how tasty it was. The whole thing was very crispy and easy to eat.

My wife and I ordered a large platter of sushi for ourselves, only some of which is pictured here.

For Kai, we always get regular shrimp sushi and he ate them after my wife scrapped off the wasabi.

This time, though, he also wanted to try octopus. My wife and I do not like to eat octopus, being too chewy for our tastes. We warned Kai that he might not like it, but he still wanted to try it.

We were very surprised when he said he liked it. In fact, he liked it so much that he wanted us to order a couple more pieces for him.

So, the little boy who once was such a picky eater is growing up to have an adventurous palate, surpassing even his parents in some respects.

Good for him.

And it will be good for us, too, as we expect to be spending quite a bit of time in Japanese restaurants later this year.