Originally Posted by
13901
The OP's kids don't like olives and aubergines. As I kid, I ate aubergines pretty much every day when they were in season (the perk of a farmer grandad), mostly under the form of my grandmother's "parmigiana" (with very little parmigiano, I should say, but lots of raclette). On the other hand, I tried tikka masala only aged 18; the closest thing to fried chicken I ever had was a 'milanese', and chocolate was also pretty rare too.
Had I been the OP's children, I'd have eaten the pasta with glee; at the end of the day, it's a matter of taste.
I think it also depends from background cooking culture. I'm Italian, I grew up with aubergines, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes and pasta. My kids grew up in Belgium, where the default kid meal was/is "pasta bolognese", "balletjes in tomatensaus" (meatball in tomato sauce) and soup.
When they were little they were not used to eat peppers and aubergines*, so they didn't like them much. They would have eaten that BA kid meal because that was what provided, but they probably wouldn't have enjoyed it too much.
I must say, however, that I have no experience in airline kids meals, because we started to fly long haul with them age 10 and 9 and we never ordered a special meal, they always chose from the regular menu.
* also because what they sell in supermarkets here has nothing to do with the same vegetable/fruit grown in southern Europe... so I almost never buy them. And don't let me started on the difference between local tomatoes and Calabria's ones.
PS
I love melanzane alla parmigiana
even in the version with zucchini instead of aubergines (Calabria recipe)