I think I may have been the ideal child. I usually did as I was told, I got good grades, and I ate my vegetables. Heck. I loved my vegetables, and I loved fruit even more.

Growing up, I ate tons of vegetables and fruit. In fact, I usually preferred them to meat, bread, and dairy products. Everything from bok choy to Chinese cabbage, okra and even spinach, I loved. My favorites were onions and mushrooms, and probably the only vegetable that I didn’t like was bittermelon; everything else was game — cauliflower, carrots, jicama, bell peppers, and so on. With fruits, I especially loved the exotic — mango with shrimp paste, persimmon, nectarine, tamarind, and avocado with sugar and milk. I also absolutely loved eating tomato.

I’ve heard of all-protein diets that limit the intake of fruit and vegetables, and I will never truly understand how they work. While I filled myself with leafy greens and juicy canteloupes, my younger sister filled herself with a lot of meat and rice, and I came out half her weight, not the other way around.

I’ve heard of kids who can’t stand fruit and vegetables, and I can’t comprehend how they ever turned out that way. Fruits are the sweetest snack, however they’re prepared, and even vegetables, when raw, are nice and sweet. Just freeze a bunch of seedless grapes and snack on them sometime, and you’ll see what I mean; they’re better than bon-bons.

The problem with living in my neighborhood is that there’s a shortage of really good, inexpensive oriental markets, where crisp, fresh vegetables and exotic fruit usually abound. If I want to munch on raw snow peas for a snack, I’d either have to pay a ridiculous amount at the grocery store just down the street for some wilted ones… or drive some 20-50 miles to an Asian food store for a bunch of them at 10 times the quality and one-third the cost.

I prefer my salads without dressing, and I prefer my vegetables raw or lightly steamed, rather than boiled beyond all recognition. I prefer candied fruit to fruit-flavored candy, and fruit-flavored candy to just plain candy; above all, I prefer canned and natural fruit.

Am I crazy? I sometimes wonder if I am because except for vegans and people on diets, most others seem to prefer steak and pizza over salads of any kind. But not me. I genuinely like the taste of fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and Vegetables rock.

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