SHOCKING FOOD

The other day, a Japanese friend of mine asked me if there was any Japanese food that I couldn't stand. As usual, I answered that I dislike natto (fermented soy beans) and umeboshi (pickled plum). I also told him that I used to hate toufu (bean curd) but got used to it over the years.


Japanese people often ask me this question and they seem surprised that there are only two dishes I dislike. I am more surprised with myself, however. This is because when I was a child I never ate anything healthy. Growing up in England in the 1970s and 1980s meant that we didn't have so many international dishes (well certainly not in my house) so I lived off English food and I refused to eat any vegetable except potatoes until I was age 14!


Let me show you a typical daily diet for Anthony Gardner age 10.


1. Coco Pops for breakfast (I think you have these in Japan but call it something else. It's a chocolate cereal that, as the advert used to say, "is so chocolatey, it even turns the milk brown."

2. Crisps for a mid-morning snack. Americans call crisps potato chips. I used to eat these a lot. My favourite was prawn cocktail or smoky bacon flavour!

3. School Lunch in my primary school was shockingly bad. We only had one choice served by a huge dinner lady with hairy arms (maybe). My memory is of colourless, tasteless slop. We wept as we ate it and I would throw it on the floor so that my plate looked finished and I could go out to play.

4. Biscuits. Americans call them cookies. I was hungry after school because I had thrown my lunch on the school dining-room floor, therefore I always nagged my Mum for something to eat when I got home. She just told me to eat a chocolate biscuit. I would sit in front of the TV and eat many biscuits until I was full.

5. Dinner.Because I had eaten so much about two hours before, I never had an appetite for dinner. My Mum would be angry because I couldn't finish what was on my plate (which was usually potato and meat of some kind). I refused to eat vegetables and my Mum never forced them on me. I think she didn't worry so much about my health and I wasn't fat at all. I always had room in my stomach for dessert though!


As you can see, I had a steady diet of dangerous food. However, I never ate fast food from shops and I got exercise every day so I think I wasn't as bad as some of the kids today.

Anyway, tell me what you think about the Anthony Gardner diet regime!

▼▽▼▼【講師】Anthony先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【New Class Quandary】2010.08.27 (Fri)