Makin’ Some Maki

Due to his multitude of allergies, Matthew has never eaten a restaurant prepared meal. When we eat out, he will bring his own food and order a drink. That is one of the many reasons we don’t eat out all that often. It’s not that he complains, because he never does, it’s just that I don’t want him to feel completely deprived all the time and so I do what I can to make things as inclusive as possible for him. Over the past few years, Daniel and Nathan have come to really like sushi. That preference coupled with the fact that Tsunami, one of our favorite sushi places, is completely nut free and therefore safe for Malia, means that when we do splurge on a meal out, Tsunami comes up in the rotation quite frequently.

Matthew has a tendency to be a pretty picky eater (if anyone has a right to be so, it’s him) and in the past, he has stuck with his favorites and has been reluctant to try new things. Unfortunately, fear can be a hard task master and overcoming the fear enough to eat something new is a daunting feat. In the past year though, he has gotten braver and the things the rest of us eat, sushi included, have started to look mighty appetizing to him. I’m a good cook and I have a lot of experience not only cooking from scratch, but doing it in such a way that it accommodates his food needs. That is something I have happily done over the years. But I learned long ago that no matter how tasty something turned out, if Matthew was not emotionally ready, he wasn’t going to eat it. So I have learned to let him drive the new food experimentation.

The last couple of times we have eaten at Tsunami, Matthew has started looking at the sushi with longing and telling us how good it looked. That was an indication that he was ready to give some exciting new foods a try and I told him we would make our own over fall break. Today was the appointed day and although I’m not confident enough to do the raw fish part of the adventure, I’ve done the basics on multiple occasions and got everything we needed to make some basic California rolls and dragon rolls. Matthew helped make the rolls and for a first-time sushi chef, I think he did an amazing job! He ate what he created and liked it, which is a win.

I hope he will continue to desire to try new things. With so many limitations, I feel like his diet can get boring and I want to help him explore all the wonderful options that can be made safely. It’s always one careful step at a time for him, but this was a big one, one I'm very impressed that he has taken.