Caterpillars, yes. Omelettes, yuck . . . .

Flies, worms, caterpillars . . . . and omelettes

Earlier this afternoon, playing a favourite board game, me and The B and The G.

It's called Tummy Ache.

The basic concept, that each player has to pick food cards at random and put together a nutritious meal that comprises a three-part main course (for instance, pork chops, potatoes and carrots), a dessert and a drink.

It sounds simple, but some of the items included in the deck are not as appetising as others.

These are the Tummy Ache cards, depicting, for example, chips that are crawling with spiders, a maggot-infested pizza and a frog hiding in a glass of juice.

Pick up such a card and you have to shout Tummy Ache as loud as possible (which, trust me, in The B&G's case, is very loud indeed).

For as long as you have a Tummy Ache card at your place setting, you cannot win.

That, in a nutshell, is the game.

Playing Tummy Ache with a fussy eater, that's an interesting exercise.

Take The G, for instance.

This afternoon, she selected a card that, upon examination, prompted her to yell "Tummy Ache".

"Yuck!" she said, studying it, her distaste obvious.

The card in question showed some hairy green caterpillars munching on a tomato.

It turns out that The G was more perturbed by the tomato than she was the caterpillars. 

Later, she picked another card that prompted a similar reaction.

"Tummy Ache!" she bellowed, followed by the obligatory "Yuck!"

I examined the card, expecting to find an ant or some flies or perhaps even a mouse.

It featured nothing of the sort, just a delicious-looking omelette. 

Like I said, playing with a fussy eater is an interesting exercise . . . .