Don't be chicken

An inexpensive dish of chicken and rice, inspired by the famous New York street food, reminds Sam Woulidge of the importance of trying something new and to keep nagging her son to do the same.

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"Just try it once. If you don't like it you won't have to eat it again," I tell our son. "How do you know you don't like it if you don't try it?" I implore. "Remember how you used to feel about sushi?" I remind him. "Think of what you'll be missing if it's wonderful and you've refused to taste it," I beg.

And so it goes with us - badgering in the kitchen, across the dining-room table and in restaurants - as it no doubt goes with all exasperated parents and their obstinate, fussy, nine-year-old children.

Yet I am mostly guilty of the same thing. I admit to being a habitual eater. I have my favourite foods, my so-called signature dishes that I make time and again, and I always return to the same restaurants where I love to eat the same dishes I've always loved. I don't really enjoy surprises, or disappointments, which is why I like to stick with what I know. But I do at least taste things before I make up my mind one way or the other, which is something I'd very much like Seb to start doing.

On a recent holiday to New York, I realised I'd never eaten the ubiquitous chicken and rice, which is sold from colourful halaal carts dotted all over the city. I also remembered the dish my friend Janieke had made for us. A fan of the food writer Deb Perelman, who included a recipe for "new chicken and rice street-cart style" in her book Smitten Kitchen Every Day, Janieke recreated the famous dish, I now know, to perfection. I'd also read about it in my hero Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year (she called it food-cart curry chicken).