How Neophobia makes your kids selfish
"How come everything I don't like is good for me and everything I do isn't?!" — Mario, Super Mario World Many years ago, a friend of mine came home and joined us for lunch. As a typical south Indian house, we were having white rice and daal with pickle, papad, etc., After a few minutes, I saw he was spending a lot of time sorting something on his plate. I noticed he was picking mustard seeds one by one with his finger and pushing it to the side of the plate. He collected so many seeds that the plate was crawling with rolling mustards all over. We all finished our food but he was so busy with all that activity on his plate that he was not even halfway through. I asked him what he was doing and he said he doesn't like that the taste of mustard seed. Really? a mustard seed? I didn't even know what a mustard seed tastes like. I found one on my plate and put it in my mouth and to my awe, I did get a taste - a taste so negligible that I don't even remember the ...