Welcome to Our Table

If you thought you knew a lot about food, think again! Welcome to Our Table is packed with facts
and fancies about humans and food. The organization of the book is unpredictable, which
creates a kind of whimsy not often found in nonfiction. There are sections about categories of
food (rice, maize, noodles, bread, vegetables, peppers), interspersed with sections about topics
such as types of lunches, foods that come from pods, and the textures of foods. A favorite
spread is likely to be the one on smelly food: French Vieux Boulogne, Japanese natto, and West
Indian stinking toe fruit. Geography seems…

If you thought you knew a lot about food, think again! Welcome to Our Table is packed with facts and fancies about humans and food . . . The illustrations are reminiscent of Gyo Fujikawa's cherubic children, with identical faces made diverse through color, clothing, and other simple details. This engaging, informative book will be loved by early readers.

A wide-angled overview of the foods that sustain and entertain us.

Taking a resolutely international approach, the authors-one a poet, the other a trained chef-offer terse but taste-tempting descriptions of hundreds of dishes prepared worldwide with dozens of fruits, vegetables, meats, herbs, spices, nuts, and sweets. After priming readers to think of food analytically in terms of taste, smell, and texture, they launch their survey with various savory examples made with "Remarkable Rice" or "Amazing Maize," from Italian risotto (which "you must, must, MUST keep stirring as you cook, because this helps it become really oozy") to noodles like Ukrainian…

Another way we are all linked by our differences; rewarding reading for everyone who eats. (Nonfiction. 7-9)

—Kirkus Reviews, Kirkus Reviews