Better Than Soy Crayons

Watching my mom cook dinner was sometimes a boring task. With no deadlines to meet in my younger days, I would ask my mom if I could play with the rice, or the mung beans, before she cooked them. She would let me, since she would wash the rice and the mung beans before cooking anyway. I loved the cool feeling of plunging my hand into a pot full of stubby white grains of rice or of not quite spherical green mung beans. I was delighted by the way the pieces crowded around my immerse hands as though trying to fill the void that was already filled by my little hands. Then my mom would whisk away the pot, and the next I would see my playthings would be in my bowl, cooked. I wonder what the other kids played with. Wooden spoons on upturned saucepans no doubt. One can’t exactly toss a kid a bowl full of uncooked spaghetti and say “I’ll need that back, but you can play with it for now.” And that’s just the Italian kids. What do you give the French kids? Escargot? Irish? "Here, have a potato… or not." Andean? "Have fun with this guinea pig, but don’t name him." Those kids sure miss out. Jessica loves stuffed animals and colors. She owns a much coveted 96-color Crayola Crayon set but prefers the clean lines of colored pencils.