kid eating sand by gill wildman
Why is it that toddlers on the beach like to put sand in their mouths? Do they just want a taste of the sea?
My earliest memories of the beach are of sandwiches- quite literally – and crisps (potato chips) which tasted distinctly gritty. I was old enough to know better; no matter what you do though, when you are at the beach, there is just no escaping the salt and sand. Unless of course you’re on a rock or pebble beach. Somehow though that seems a bit like cheating.
For all us landlubbers, getting the taste of the sea can be a bit of a challenge. It’s tempting to suggest a sprinkling of sand on the sandwiches. After all, sand is pretty available at the hardware store. However, I’d consider that cruel and unusual punishment. I’ve been forced to come up with some alternatives. Anyway, strictly speaking, sand is really a touch sensation rather than a taste.
Fish and Shellfish
I’ll admit it, little kids just don’t tend to be greatly fond of fish and shellfish. I don’t think it’s worth spending the kind of $ it takes to acquire these to feed to kids when your nearest ocean is half a continent away. Still, it’s worth providing a taste because the taste of fish is the smell and taste of the ocean.
A word of warning, seafood and fish allergy is one of the more common. If your child has never had these before be aware of that.
Canned sardines are what I’d suggest. You can get sardines in all kinds of sauces. If the plain ones don’t appeal you might try the ones in tomato sauce. Yum! If you’re squeamish about eating something that looks like a fish, even when they are headless, go ahead and substitute tuna. You can follow up with some cool facts about how large the average tuna is. Really, it’s amazing that I ate tuna for decades with no concept of the size of the whole fish!
Now if you have made a commitment to avoid eating all meat and fish, please don’t get mad with me. Your kids may not eat fish, but they could at least smell it. You most likely don’t want to waste fish by buying it just for your kids to smell, but if you have a cat or dog there’s a pretty good chance your pet could be eating fish from a can and pet food is just as good as human food for smelling. Maybe even better!
Seaweed
I’m not sure what makes seaweed so irresistible to me. Have you ever tried those Japanese seaweed snacks? Or sushi made with nori? Maybe they add a bunch of MSG. Whatever it is, a trip to an oriental supermarket will turn up a treasure trove of seafood items and several kinds of seaweed. Once you try them you might just be addicted!
Now, if there is no oriental grocery store close to you, despair not, regular supermarkets and wholefood stores will likely yield you at least a couple of varieties of seaweed. Popular types include nori, dulse and kelp. Each has it’s own culinary uses. For little kids I’d recommend starting with the nori snacks, or something like Nori Komi Furikake, which is a seasoning you sprinkle over rice. I’ll put some links at the end to let you see how these look.
Salt
Arguably the single most defining characteristic of the sea is its saltiness. I spent most of my summer holidays (vacations) as a kid digging in the sand and paddling and jumping in the waves. I got more than my share of mouthfuls of salty water and I’m not forgetting it anytime soon. Yet, it’s surprisingly hard to remember just how very salty the sea (ocean) is.
I’d go ahead and suggest that you make up water to the concentration of the sea and have a taste, but, understandably, a recipe is hard to find. Search for a science experiment on making up sea water and you’ll find a wealth of recipes for making salt water for an aquarium, or you’ll read about how to distill water to make it drinkable. Sea water is NOT drinkable by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it has emetic properties (induces vomiting).
Skip the salt water, and enjoy some sea salt on your tomato sandwich, or sprinkled on your steak. And if you want to go the whole hog get yourself some Fleur de Sel, which is sea salt from France. Fleur de Sel is used as a finishing salt – sprinkled on your food straight before eating. It’s a quite new experience if you’ve not tried it.
I hope you will enjoy exploring the tastes of the sea with your kids. Do let me know if you have thoughts and suggestions to share.
Related post: Feel the Sea
Sardines, and Nori photos reproduced under a creative commons licence from FlickR.
Find Seaweed snacks at Amazon.com – my favorites are Nori Maki Arare and Nori Komi Furikake. They also have Fleur de Sel, which makes for an unusual gift.
Read about Sea Salt and Tuna at Wikipedia.
On the Beach – Lift the Flap is an Usborne book available from Usborne Books & More.
Related posts:
The Queen likes tuna. DeBoy won’t eat any meat in any form except chicken nuggets. We are fortunate enough to live within 12 hours of a beach, and siblings who live at about the halfway point. So we have managed a beach trip the last 2 years and are planning one this year with the Mountain Man’s whole family. These little tricks will be good preparation.
Ack, the only problem about writing about the ocean is that when I hear how others manage to visit the beach, or maybe even live close to the beach, I’m liable to dissolve into a puddle of something that closely resembles seawater
I tell you what, if you have any beach photos to share, let me know. I’d like to post them or link to them to cheer myself back up
We live in Rhode Island the “Ocean State”, so getting to the beach isn’t a problem. I plan on taking my several times this summer. She will eat baked haddock with Ritz craker topping, which is very mild. I think she would throw a sardine at me …lol
Hi Robin, baked haddock sounds good. Of course I grew up on fish from the ‘fish man’. He delivered fish right to our door once a week, usually sole or plaice. He also sold smoked haddock, which I’d love to be able to get hold of here.
Maybe I should have suggested prawn ramen noodles instead of sardines, not that they would seem to contain much in the way of seafood :-0
Alison, likewise, I visit your blog often and with so much going on in my mind I read and enjoy, and most often relax in the knowledge that I’ll always find something interesting to take away and think about. But such is the fog that is my brain by the evening that sometimes coherent comment is beyond me. Maybe you need a little ‘I appreciated this post’ button just for me!
Lindab, I like the idea of an “I appreciated this post” button. Are you gonna write to Google now and suggest it?
when seafood is cooked i dont feel the necessity to add salt if its cooked with spices its gives out good taste