Baby Tries Tofu, Mushroom, and Bok Choy

The flight between Auckland and Kuala Lumpur with an eight month old could be pleasantly uneventful at best, and unimaginably terrible at worst. The actuality doesn’t quite fit in this duality, as my back would argue it was painful and yet there were delightful, eventful moments as well.

Delight #1: Baby cut her first tooth somewhere over the Outback in Australia. Husband and I had a friendly $100 wager of when Baby would cut her tooth: He had first two weeks of July. I had last two weeks of July. We were both wrong.

Delight #2: Baby slept most of the trip, in our arms (no bassinet this time, dammit)… until it was meal time.

Delight #3: Baby trying three new foods during the in-flight breakfast! I had the vegetarian breakfast on my table, Baby on my lap. The entree was some sort of Asian noodles with tofu, mushroom, and bok choy. I gave baby a small piece of tofu, a perfect baby food, soft and bland. She chewed it, then grabbed her own bigger piece of tofu.

There is no better delight than giving a baby a small piece of food, then baby reaching for a bigger piece. Baby did this at Waffle House with a waffle, she did it again with tofu. It makes my heart feel light.

I gave Baby a mushroom. She did not reach for a bigger piece of mushroom. I’m not surprised; some people have a weird texture thing with mushrooms.

Then Baby played handsy with some bok choy. Bok choy has a weird texture too, right? It’s just … limp. But the leafy part soaks up sauce so well, right? Baby didn’t know what to make of bok choy: She might have mouthed it, she might have thought it was a dog toy. Later that day, I tore up the leafy part of bok choy and she seemed to put some in her mouth. Or on the floor.

I don’t have much love lost if she’s meh on bok choy, or mushrooms for that matter.

I love the fact that she went for tofu though! Tofu: such a bland, boring protein. Great in mapo tofu, kinda lame on its own. But for a youngster to grab her own piece of tofu so early in this trip… it makes me smile just because I find it so… unexpected. And because it’s unexpected, that is what makes it delightful.

A Kiwi-American family's journey in Kuala Lumpur via food. Written by Tina TM, previously based in Kuala Lumpur. Learn more about this blog.