I witnessed a peculiar scene outside the supermarket a while ago: A father with three children was asked what the night’s dinner would be, replied that it was liver stew, and all three children went “Yay!”

That must have been a practised act. Or maybe the effect of a severely twisted upbringing – I mean, it’s a fact of nature that children don’t like foods like liver, isn’t it? They may reluctantly eat it, but no healthy child will cheer at the mention of it. Noone I knew did, neither could I stand it, and, according to my vow to never fully grow up, still don’t (except in heavily processed forms like some varieties of liver sausage or Swedish liver paste, but that’s as much liver as Fanta is an orange drink.)

But now I must admit I have omitted something, namely the french fries. To me that sounds like an odd combination with any stew, but could it really be that the effect of such a fat-saturated, high-carb side is enough to get youngsters to eat anything? Would an experimental combination of aquired tastes like “olives baked with Gorgonzola and Stilton cheese” result in the same response if served with crispy, deep-fried potato sticks? Could you soothe a not too rare family tragedy by explaining that “we all know how much you loved Fido, but now he is in a much better place: on a dish with tasty, golden fries!”

I can’t handle this mystery – In fact I think I should pay the University a visit on Monday, to convince someone that this area requires in-depth research.