Breakthroughs!

I managed some breakthroughs on Wednesday night. Somehow, both me and my mum were thinking of eating Japanese food for dinner! Well, we had agedashi toufu (fried toufu with special sauce), teriyaki chicken ramen, sake chawanmushi (juz chawanmushi), yasai tempura (vegetable tempura), tamago shushi (egg sushi) and salmon sashimi (raw sliced salmon).

The breakthrough was actually getting my mum to eat raw salmon. At home, she is so used to eating steamed salmon, believing wasabi is too spicy and raw salmon makes her sick. Well, I cannot blame her totally as she was brought up eating fried and steamed fish, so raw food, especially seafood, was never a choice for her. Well, I was glad I treated her to salmon sashimi last night as she could finally appreciate the smoothness of salmon sashimi. Although she only took 3 half slices, it was already a breakthrough. She also took well to the ramen, toufu and sushi, but enjoyed the yasai tempura the most. And she was not so afraid of wasabi after tasting it. Most importantly, after listening to my explaination of Japanese cusine, my mum felt that Japanese food is relatively healthier as it is not too oily nor too heavy in taste.

So I believe the biggest highlight is having changed my mum's perception that Japanese food are all cold and raw. Now that she has tried food that suits her taste, I am sure she will agree more readily when I suggest eating Japanese food in future. People, it is indeed hard to change adults' perception of things, especially when there is a generation gap. If we do make the effort to explain and show them what they find acceptable, we can manage small steps in communication. At least we will be able to reduce their bad feelings towards things we appreciate. Would you ever let your parents try something which you like but not acceptable by your parents?