Here's how to increase your kids' love of Bengali food
Dear Saa Nasta Readers,
We’ve started off 2024, with the Israel-Palestine conflict. The death toll in Gaza is over 22,000, with double that number wounded.
While you dwindle back into your usual routines, I’m sharing a story about how to get your kids to eat Bengali foods. I hope you and the family get to enjoy a few dishes together.
Sincerely,
Nargis
Here’s how to get your kids to eat Bengali food
By Nargis Hakim Rahman
Last year I surveyed to find out what stories you want to see in Saa Nasta. Some of you shared that you’d like your kids to eat (more) Bengali food. From experience, I’ve seen families, there’s one kid who loves chicken curry and rice, but there’s usually one kid who runs the other way at the sight of Bengali food.
For many of us, eating traditional food is one way to hold onto our culture. Some of us didn’t want to eat as much Bengali food growing up, but we appreciate it now.
If that sounds like you, here are a few things to try out.
Make the meals together: If your kid is helping you chop vegetables (use a plastic butterknife for younger children), or mix the daal with you, they are more likely to try it out. Kids are naturally curious and there’s nothing like being a part of the grown-up responsibilities. Many people who enjoy cooking as adults are people who also spent time helping their moms in the kitchen and learned to do things for themselves. This is true for boys and girls.
Encourage them to try new things: I know you’re thinking, well if my kid doesn’t like chicken curry and rice, there’s no way they will like other Bengali foods. Surprisingly, one of my good friends told me she feeds her kids tanga (a tangy stew) and daal-blander foods that meet the taste palettes of her kids who are just not that into eating heavy curries. This gives kids a good source of protein from the lentils, and still get a meal in through daal. Tanga is a good source of fish and helps digest food. My picky eater likes hokoin sheera. I load it with vegetables such as potatoes, eggplant, spinach, and protein like fish, and shrimp. This kid also likes nalee shaag and laal shaag.
Add familiar flavors: One of my hacks is adding some pasta to a batch of leftover butter chicken, making a taco out of leftover beef curry, or a burrito with the leftover baazi or chicken. Layer the sandwiches with tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.
Change it up: If your kids like chicken and potato curry but you’re trying to create healthier alternatives, swap the potato for fani kodu (opu or cucuzza squash), or cabbage. Sometimes it just hits differently. You’ll be surprised at what foods they do like. Other crowd favorites in my house are aloo de maas (fish with potatoes), a simple aloo baazi (stir-fried potatoes), and mangsho with uri (beef with green beans).
Eat together: One of the things we often overlook is eating meals together. That might look like gathering all the kids together and feeding them “that yummy food,” taking out the curry when the cousins are over, or eating at least one meal together as a family. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, eating meals together has benefits like lowering rates of depression and anxiety, fewer eating disorders, and building resilience in kids.
It’s special to share some of your favorite foods with your children. Celebrate the things they do eat. Let them chop the ingredients and stir the pot. Do it together. That’s what makes it magical.
I hope these tips work for you. If you have other tips, share them with us on socials @thesaanasta.
#saanasta #thesaanasta #bengalifood #bengali #Bangladeshi #thorkhari #baazi #culture #fortheculture
Community News:
The Michigan Bangladeshi American Democratic Caucus to host a tribute dinner for the late Mohammad Ruhul Huda, former Vice President and General Secretary of MI-BADC. The tribute will be held on Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. located at the Gates of Columbus in Hamtramck.
The Hamtramck Alleyway Project will host a community meeting on Jan. 10, 5:30-7:30 p.m. to gather feedback about designs for an alleyway as part of the Joe Louis Greenway.