When I was growing up, Chinese food was our big culinary adventure.  And Chinese was Mom’s particular favorite. She always had a favorite Chinese restaurant and it would be her first choice when travelling and looking for something new.

Lately though, Mom has become the pickiest eater this side of 3 years old.

Over the past couple of years, she seems to have given up on eating anything that she does not consider delicious.  It’s an increasingly short list. Her diet this past year basically has consisted of cheese pizza, eggs, pancakes, simple pastas, orange juice and ice cream. Really, that is it! It’s incredibly boring diet and causes me ongoing worry about lack of nutrition.

Last night we ventured out to a local Chinese restaurant a few blocks from our house. Let’s be clear that none of our list of agreed upon foods can be found at a Chinese restaurant but I decided to give it a try.

We ordered a couple of dishes to share in the hope that Mom would eat something. First, she slurped down the egg drop soup and pronounced it excellent. Then she moved on to lo mein and then… drum roll… a serious pile of broccoli. I sat there, consumed with joy. It’s ridiculous I know, but seeing Mom eat her first vegetables in months was rather fabulous.

Then we came home and I found the leftover bag of Halloween candy, emptied.  Well, I guess if she is going to eat that much chocolate, at least there are vegetables to go along with it!