Around the World Cookbook

Around the World Cookbook
By Abigail Johnson Dodge
Published at DK Canada

About the book

With foods like hummus and Pad Thai becoming as common as meatloaf and apple pie, it’s no surprise that international foods are hotter than ever. Kids today are growing up in an increasingly multicultural world, and with Around the World: An International Cookbook for Children, they can eat like it, too!

While cooking these traditional cuisines, kids also learn about the countries they’re from: how a tandoor oven works, what smorgasbord really means, and how to make a croque monsieur into a croque madame. Together with DK’s fun and innovative visual style, the information and recipes in this unique cookbook tie in beautifully with school curriculum and make it an essential part of every young foodie’s library.

Who is Abigail Johnson Dodge?

Seasoned and successful cookbook author Abigail Johnson Dodge is a contributing editor at Fine Cooking, where she founded the magazine’s test kitchen. The author of five popular cookbooks, Dodge’s most recent publication, The Weekend Baker, (W.W. Norton, 2005) had the honor of being named one of the “Top Ten Cookbooks of the Year” by Food and Wine magazine as well as being named an IACP Cookbook Finalist. She was also a contributor to Savoring America (Oxmoor House, 2002), which was nominated for a James Beard Award and received the prestigious Ben Franklin Award. In addition to regular appearances on TV and radio, Dodge teaches classes and seminars at cooking schools around the country, belongs to several food associations including The International Association of Culinary Professionals and the American Institute of Wine and Food, and serves on the National Cutco Culinary Advisory Board.

My Thoughts

Geared for children ages 8 to 13 years old, this cookbook will transport them around the world without leaving your kitchen and dining room.   You will find about 50 international recipes that you can do with your kids.   I was particularly interested in this cookbook because I wanted to include some dishes in our menu that will come from countries we would study in the coming year.   

I will admit to you that for the purpose of this review, I have done the recipe myself while the kids were playing.    But I know that in the future, I can trust my oldest son – who is ten years old – in doing a recipe while following the instructions in the book.   I know for a fact that he is quite interested in doing so as he often asked to do supper for us and he explore this cookbook numerous times.     The cookbook contains the basics on how to get started but also recipes from Asia, India,Indonesia, Australasia, Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean, Russia, Northern Europe, South America, Mexico, The Caribbean, United States and Canada.

So it was time to try out a new recipe again in our household.   And when I received this cookbook, I had already identified the recipe I wanted to do.   Let’s go explore the South America, Mexico and the Carribeean.  When you start a new section, you have a little introduction of the area with a photo, map and information about the places.    For example, I have learned that 7000 islands made up the Caribbean Islands, that fish and shellfish are commonly used and cooked just after being pulled from the ocean, and that curries are made from recipes passed down through generations of ex-slaves brought over from Africa by European settlers.   As you might have guessed the recipe we tried is coming from the Caribbean more specifically Jamaica. 

JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN was the recipe I have made for the whole family.   I wasn’t sure how it will be received to be honest…

The first step is to mix the various spices and coat the chicken breast in it.   The chicken will be cook in the oven at broil within 15 minutes or so.

The other part of the recipe was to make a Mango Salsa that will accompany the Jamaican jerk chicken.   In this salsa, you will find mango, red pepper, French shallot, cilantro to name a few of the ingredients.   I will admit that I didn’t have any jalapeno pepper so I skipped that one.  

The final product was amazing in sight.    Now what will it taste…    I have one difficult child and surprisingly he loved the chicken.  The cilantro in the salsa didn’t had the same reaction than the chicken.   It was a new herb that the kids were tasting and it wasn’t a big favourite for all of them.    But in the end, everyone in our family gave a high 10 for the recipe.   As my husband said

This is definitively the best new recipe we made in a long time! 

We also all agreed that this recipe should be made for people coming over to our house.   So to my friends – don’t be surprised to try something new next time you come for a visit.    And more than likely my oldest kids will be the ones who will make it! 

The chicken was very tasty and the flavor stayed in your mouth for quite some time afterwards.   I was impressed and look forward to discover other recipes in this cookbook.  

Around the World Cookbook is perfect to have while you are studying geography.   It is a creative way to incorporate the food from the countries and continents you are exploring so that you can taste their flavors yourself.

I almost wish that the pages would be made of plastic so I can wiped them out if they get dirty.   Putting water on them will make them go wavy unfortunately.   A solution to keep the pages dry and avoid spill on them would be to use a cookbook stand.

Around the World Cookbook is available everywhere even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.