FOOD FOR THOUGHT by Ken Robbins

Food for Thought: The Stories Behind the Things We Eat

by Ken Robbins

Roaring Brook Press, 2009

review copy purchased by me after I saw Jama's review in June

Go over and check out the inside images Jama has of this book (I hope you're not hungry). I first fell for the gorgeous pictures, but after I got my own copy, for the informative, well-organized, conversational text. For each food there is historical information, information from around the world, and tidbits that make you go, "wow!"

• Bananas are bushes that grow 20-30 feet in a year and die after producing just one bunch (100 total).
• Before the Chinese even knew about tomatoes, they had a sauce named kat siap, made of the brine of pickled fish. This name and the idea of this sauce has spread around the world and has had a variety of main ingredients. The first tomato ketchup is about 200 years old. In the U.S., we now use more salsa than ketchup.
• The grenade and the garnet both get their names from the pomegranate.

Every food does, indeed, have a story, and that's food for thought!