"In The US, It's Macaroni And Pizza": American Asks What Little Picky-Eaters Around The World Eat (30 Posts)

Mostly corn porridge or 'mieliepap' in South Africa. With milk, meat or just so. Anytime of the day.

I’m French, and I was sooo picky when I was a kid. I didn’t like any kind of cheese which was hard growing up in France ! I remember eating a lot of pasta with tomato sauce, rice, mashed potatoes, chicken, ham and fish sticks. My mom made us lots of soup in the winter too (I only liked it if it was a certain color though, no matter what was in it). The typical French dishes that I ate a lot were croque monsieur (two slices of bread with ham and cheese in it, but my mom made it without cheese for me lol), gratin dauphinois (sliced potatoes with lots of cream in it and oven baked), quiche lorraine (a kind of pie with lardons in it), quenelles (don’t really know how to explain this one but look it up it’s delicious), hachis parmentier (shepherds pie but without the vegetable), crepes, duck confit, ratatouille... I’m pretty sure I ate all of these even if I was very picky so these can be trusted ! I ate a ton of sweet stuff too like cakes and desserts because my mom is a great baker.

Norway, daughter (4) has a glass of full milk in the morning, then 3 slices of bread with liverpâté and two small boxes of cucumber and bell peppers for the kindergarten (they don't cook anymore during covid). Sometimes cubes of cheese, some fruit or a yogurt.

For dinner she doesn't eat much, but she likes garlic bread, plain pasta/rice, loves broccoli and corn. We have chicken 3+ times a week that she likes, but wants all ingredients separate/deconstructed dishes.

German here - Cucumber with Maggi, Spätzle baked with cheese, Schnitzel, Potato salad, mashed potato, fish sticks, fried noodle with eggs, baked noodle with egg, ham and tomato sauce and of course Vesper, so basically a good sourdough bread with sausage, cheese and raw veggies

From Quebec, we have "pâté chinois" (we do have a lot of "Chinese" thing") that is also popular with kids. It's a layer of ground beef, under a layer of corn, under a layer of mashed potatoes. You can hide other veggies in the potatoes if you want it healthier...

China. My niece (2 years old) usually eat noodles with egg soup. The most common meals on China family table is “fried meals”, “fried in Chinese way”, aka “炒”. So kids eat 炒food with rice or Mantou(Chinese bread). Sometimes we just have dumplings.

Molasses pancakes - goes well with gingerbread seasonings added - you can use whole wheat flour for these since the molasses has a strong enough flavor to "cover" the whole wheat. You can use the apple butter in place of maple or other syrup as the topping too. I grew up in semi-rural Appalachia (Virginia) which was my dad's hometown, and of course have a fondness for regional comfort food.

Arroz con huevo frito. Cuban comfort dish - just white rice, fried egg on top, good squirt of ketchup on all of it. It's what I make when I don't really feel like cooking but I'm willing to wait 20 minutes for rice.

Here in Spain my two top picks would be, 'Arroz a la cubana' and 'croquetas'.

The first is simply white rice with tomato sauce and a fried egg sunny side up. With a side of a half of a pan fried (in oil) banana, if you are feeling fancy.

The second one is a leftover wonder: take any leftover meat and mix it with a béchamel until it gets thick, make a "football" shape, batter it and leave it in the fridge/freezer. When you want to eat them, fry them in very hot oil for 3-5min (olive oil is better, but it's not compulsory). Remove from the oil when its golden brown all around. They are great and I've never met a kid that didn't love them. Vegetable options are great, but meat ones are a must.

We're in Romania, and my kids eat what we eat, are not fussy, but when they were little, I had some go-to recipes such as omelette (simple, or with mushrooms, bacon, cheese etc.) with fresh tomatoes/cucumber/pepper, marinated meatballs, chicken in tomato sauce & potato puree, sauteed mushrooms, chicken rice, lentil soup, baked potato wedges & ketchup, carrot muffins. Our house rule is to always eat protein, vegetables, and fruit every day. If your kids don't like cooked vegetables - no problem, they can eat fresh carrots and cucumbers and peppers as a snack.