Food and family just go together — like bagels and cream cheese. I suppose that is why I so often write about my parents within this column. This week will be no different, especially with today being my dad’s birthday. I feel that I inherited his food habits — sometimes quirky, sometimes indulgent but always authentic.
Here are three of my favorite father-inspired food memories:
1. How he used to eat worms.
In his university office, he kept a terrarium of mealworms. Whenever my sister, brother and I would visit his work, he would make a show of plucking one out and swallowing it whole. To this day, I have a fascination with insect-eating — as you well know, dear readers.
2. How he fed me pancakes and soda every morning for breakfast.
I was rather difficult to get along with as a teenager — to put it lightly. But that didn’t stop my dad from trying. Every morning, as I got ready for school, shut in my bedroom and agonizing over my appearance, my dad would bring me a plate of scratch-made pancakes and an icy can of cream soda. It was obviously a father’s last resort to pacify his petulant daughter — a gesture totally lost on my teenage self.
3. How he taught me to love the outdoors — and bagels.
On Saturday mornings, my dad, sister and I would pick up a sack of fresh bagels and find a park. There, we would sit in the grass and take turns dipping hunks of bagel into small tubs of cream cheese. My dad would teach us about the surrounding wildlife, the names of which I have mostly forgotten. But there is still so much I remember.
Do you have a favorite food memory? We’d love to hear it! Email smontgomery@timesfreepress.com.