by Elizabeth Young

It isn't always easy to accommodate everyone's tastes in a family. When you ask the question, "What do you want for lunch or dinner," one child wants a pizza, another a hamburger, another is vegetarian, one parent feels like a salad, another is hungry for a stack of ribs. Look for food courts or "country" markets, where there are kiosks with all kinds of foods, reasonably priced. The Farmers Market in Los Angeles has been popular with local kids since the 1930's, and is still going strong with over 25 different food stalls. The Grand Central Terminal food court has New York favorites - Junior's Delicatessen, pizza, Indian vegetarian, dim sum, chicken noodle soup, hot bagels, custard ice cream.

Splurge dining

At some point in your trip, it's nice to get dressed up and eat in a "splurge" restaurant as a special experience. But in a strange city, how do you avoid venturing into a restaurant, only to have the waiters stare at you with cold frozen looks, and belatedly you realize you've stepped into a romantic bistro, only whispers are allowed and there are tables for two. Or, after you're seated in the restaurant, you discover the menu consists of dishes such as goat cheese covered with prune sauce, topped with flecks of dried squid, something none of your kids will touch and the price is through the roof.

Splurge dining can be fun, and worth the expense. Reservations may be required, so do some scouting in advance. Check out the menu posted outside or ask to see a menu. When the restaurant has a kid's menu, by definition kids are welcome. (Use this as leverage if your kids aren't perfectly well-behaved.) But the lack of a kid's menu doesn't mean that a splurge restaurant won't be fun. Check out other options on the menu - many fancy Italian restaurants will do half portions of any pasta dish for kids. Or, sometimes a restaurant will prepare an item from their lunch menu at dinner. If the menu looks okay, but you're still not sure if children are welcome, go inside the restaurant and ask if you can split an entrée for kids. If they answer in a friendly way, this is a good sign; if the maitre d' is insulted you asked, that restaurant isn't a good prospect. Some expensive restaurants simply like kids, and go out of their way to make you feel comfortable, so take advantage of good service.

Childhood food memories are long-lived, and trips even more so. It might be a memory of sitting up straight at a restaurant with sparkling white table cloths, where the waiter hands you your own menu and you feel very grown up, sitting out by the river eating fresh cantaloupe on a camping trip, reaching for little pastries during "high tea" at a fancy hotel, munching on a cheese sandwich and hard boiled eggs while riding on a train, shaking off the sticky sugar from Mexican pastries in Old Town San Diego, or dreaming of a chocolate river at the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain in San Francisco where the ice cream sundaes and banana splits are really big, really cold and, "My dad stole the banana."

www.travelforkids.com © Globetracks, Inc. 2006

Travel for Kids publishes Fun Food for Kids, family travel restaurant guides. Fun Food for Kids lists hundreds of restaurants and eating spots, located in areas your family will want to explore.

(Source: Travel For Kids) (...BACK)