Things you have probably never eaten if you are 100

My grandmother is an adventurous eater. She claims there's nothing she doesn't like, though in fact she is not keen on potatoes. As I've mentioned before, she's also blessed with a healthy appetite.

She happily eats pasta, pizza, stir-fry, Chinese food, and many other things she was never exposed to for most of her adult life. At age 100, I reckon this is impressive.

Sometimes she will comment on an unheard-of item that she has seen in the newspaper or on television. Last week she asked me if I'd ever had couscous, today it was quinoa. The answer to both is yes, although I am sure she's not alone in never having heard of quinoa before.

I was a bit more surprised when she asked if I cook with garlic - she said this is not something she's ever done. Garlic has been a regular flavouring for me ever since I started cooking, and I can't quite imagine culinary life without it. But I suppose that when she started her married life in the 1930s, garlic was nowhere on the horizon. She has produced tens of thousands of family meals since then without feeling the lack of it, though she must have eaten it in restaurant dishes.

As for me, most of my pasta dishes would be poorer without it. A stir-fry would be lacking in character, and curries would be missing something. I'd hate not to use it to flavour olives, and I have mixed but mostly fond memories of home-made garlic bread that left me stinking of the stuff for at least 48 hours afterwards.

I've now introduced my grandmother to risotto - a mushroom risotto, which did, incidentally, contain garlic. It went down pretty well. I reckon couscous is next on the agenda.