Asafoetida

My children have dumped this expensive, hard to find, and extremely rank herb all over their playroom. It is amazing how much this little stinky spice gets into your throat. It was dumped during a pretend meal preparation of wooden beads and other random items (I mean pan fried doughnuts and latkes).

Last week, it was soup made from juice that has now created a nice fermented sticky mess all over the toys and floor. But, my daughter would proudly serve this "soup" up in tiny pot after tiny pot. I remember similar "cooking" play when I was young. My mother would get so angry with the things that my siblings and I would take out of the kitchen to add to our concoctions. My sister was hands down the sneakiest when it came to ingredient procurement. My daughter takes after her in this regard.

I can't say that the activity itself is at all irritating. I enjoy being served the miniature meals by the beaming chefs-in-training. However, the stank that has resulted of the most unusual combination of stinky spice and fermented juice is a little much for even the most appreciative customers of the imaginary restaurants. I mean eeewww! It doth reek!