The day I got to eat something I don’t like.

Do you cucumber? I’m not fond of cucumbering, unless they are pickled, otherwise I’m in a pickle when it comes to cucumbers. This is the story of how I was confused by a cucumber, and how my zero-cucumber policy that had lasted for so long came to a shocking end.

Last week, I went to my parent’s house because I had been asked to prepare dinner for my father instead of my mother. So, I ordered Chinese food; chicken with cashew nuts, Wood ear mushroom and egg, and lettuce fried rice via Ubereats.

My nieces’ dinner was mackerel and Chinese vermicelli soup. My oldest niece said. ”I dislike mackerel.” However, she came to my house last month and she enjoyed the onion gratin soup we made at home, even though she didn’t like onions. She could eat it, I thought that it depends on how it is cooked.

Ubereats arrived, which was a lot for two people, so I had to share them with my second niece.

“Hitomi, isn’t this cucumber?”, she said. It is a well-known fact in my family that I do not like cucumbers. At family dinners, the children always say, ”Hitomi-chan, you don’t like cucumbers, do you?” They always seem to love to take advantage of adults’ weaknesses.

“No, it’s zucchini. For chicken with cashews, it’s zucchini!’. Incredibly, I googled it. There is no recipe for cucumber, after all, and the green vegetables are either peppers or zucchini.

”No, these are cucumbers,“ even my younger brother and sister-in-law said.
I have hated cucumbers ever since I can remember, so I could hardly believe it. So I called the Chinese restaurant to verify the fact.

”Well, I’d like to ask you about the dish, what is that green stuff in the chicken with cashew nuts?”
”They are cucumbers grown in Japan.”
”What?” I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Oh, wait a minute. I’ll go and check… What’s in the chicken cashew nut stir-fry is chicken, cashew nuts, spring onions, onions, and cucumber.”

“They said cucumbers!’
“Right. It’s a cucumber, no matter how you look at it.”
“Hitomi ate a cucumber!” The whole family was buzzing.

As a child, one might be pleased to grow up when they get to eat something they don’t like, but for me, having disliked it for almost 40 years, it left me feeling awkward, as if I had eaten it without knowing it was frog meat or something and yet it tasted good.

My younger sister, a professional chef, came home.
“Something amazing happened today. By the way, What would you put in chicken cashew?”
“Chicken, cashews, spring onions, and peppers, right?”
“I knew it. And…”
“I want to guess what happened!”

When we got to the facts, giving hints, my younger sister was also laughing a lot.
But my calm sister said. “Zucchini is expensive, so maybe they put cucumbers in?”
That must be true! The Chinese restaurant emphasized that the food was domestically produced. These days, I’m more worried about pesticides in domestic produce…

The heat of the wok probably removed the green smell of the cucumber. In other words, what we assume we dislike can become something we can eat, depending on how it is cooked. I hope that the fact that I ate something I disliked in front of children will be a good lesson for them.

Even if you encounter things in life that you don’t like, you can overcome them with creativity. I’m completely defeated by the Chinese restaurant.