Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater

Dr. Jessie Voigts's picture

 

The funniest book I've ever Read...

I've recently read a WONDERFUL, and funny, book - about food, and love, and teaching your kids how to love food (and life). Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, by Matthew Amster-Burton, is now one of my favorite books - and cookbooks! A hilarious journey into the challenges of feeding your child (and feeding her well), Matthew shares excellent (and easy) recipes that can be made with a kid or that kids will love. Part memoir, part cookbook, and all humor, this book is a treasure.

 

Matthew Amster-Burton - Hungry Monkey

Making pizza

 

Readers of Hungry Monkey will both fall in love with Iris, Matthew's daughter, and laugh at his hilarious notes on feeding Iris well. Often, I get sick of kid stories - even stories about my OWN kid. However, Matthew's stories of Iris - eating, cooking, reading food magazines, growing up - are never cloying or sweetie cute, but interesting, funny, and adorable...

My daughter's first meal was supposed to be, oh, let's say local organic carrots pureed with homemade chicken broth in a hand-cranked food mill. That's what everyone wants for their kid, right? I swear I was totally planning a feast of that nature when fate intervened and a doughnut fell on her head.

A David Sedaris for the parenting set, Matthew Amster-Burton made me LAUGH. I love this book, and immensely enjoyed reading it.  He has quite the credentials - he is a restaurant critic, food writer, and former rock journalist. You can find his writings at Gourmet.com, Culinate, Seattle Magazine, and the Seattle Times. He has been featured in the Best Food Writing anthology repeatedly.

 

Hungry Monkey is divided into chapters that explore different foods - from Discovering the First Rule of Baby Food and You Fed Your Baby WHAT? to Spice Girl, Magic Cooking Robots: Fun with the Slow Cooker and Pressure Cooker, Sugar Makes Parents Hyper, and (my personal favorite), The Only Snack Dad in Preschool.  Each chapter shares Matthew and Iris's explorations in different foods, cuisines, restaurants, stores, and more.

 

Each chapter also features several delicious recipes - from potstickers (we love that recipe), Thai Salad Dressing that we used for our Spring Rolls, Banana-Nutella Panini, Chocolate Malts, Bibimbap, chicken and spinach meatballs, sticky Chinese-style spareribs, Cornish pasties, Pad Thai Sauce, and more. We've made many of the recipes in this book - inspired by Matthew's writing and their family's enjoyment. They've all been a hit with our family.

 

Our 7-year old daughter loves that there are other kids around that love creating - and eating - food as much as she does. Creating bento, slurping pad thai and somen, baking desserts, and flipping crepes are all things that our daughter loves - and that her friends don't quite understand. When we read this book together, we LOVED finding another family that loves creating - and enjoying - fantastic global food. Matthew's humor and kindness in raising Iris to be an adventurous, global eater is so enjoyable to read. His writings show both his great love of their daughter, and of his excellent culinary skills. He just makes you want to get in the kitchen with your kid. Or, barring that, you just want to turn into Iris and experience all these great meals with them!

 

We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Matthew about cooking, parenting, Iris, international food, and more. Here's what he had to say...

 

 

WE: Please tell us about your new book, hungry monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater...

MAB: It's a book to help parents relax, (hopefully) have a laugh, and enjoy sharing food with their kids. It covers birth through age four, and it's one of the only books out there that presents real stories of a father and daughter having adventures with food.

 

 

WE:  What was the genesis of your book?

MAB: I started thinking about it when Iris was about 8 months old and ate two spicy chicken enchiladas for dinner, something I didn't realize it was possible for a baby to do. The baby food books I had suggested homemade purees at this age. Iris was never interested in pureed anything, except for Gerber pear puree mixed with Greek yogurt, which is very good.

 

 

WE:  It can be so difficult, with today's over-processed food choices, for parents to serve healthy food to their families. Do you have any tips for busy parents?

MAB: I wrote two chapters on this topic. One is about quick cooking and the other is about the slow cooker and pressure cooker. The pressure cooker, an appliance few Americans have, is very handy for cooking hardy vegetables on a moment's notice. You can make kale or collards or cabbage in five minutes, and whenever you make greens, they can sit in the fridge for a few days.

But there's also plenty you can do without buying any new appliances. I stir-fry a lot, and Iris is always excited about any meal that includes rice. Iris loves steak, and I make steak salad many ways, which takes less than 30 minutes. Iris rarely eats any of the greens, but she's welcome to when she's ready. And I shamelessly recommend Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, which has dozens of quick-meal recipes every month made with fresh ingredients.

I tend to make a big pot of stew on Sunday and serve it a couple more times during the week; I especially did this before Iris grew teeth, when stew was her favorite food. Someday when I have no teeth I'm going to ask Iris to make me a stew every weekend.

I haven't really explored the world of freezing meals ahead, but Iris and I make homemade potstickers in large quantities and try to have them in the freezer at all times for a dinner that takes literally ten minutes.

 

 

 

Matthew Amster-Burton - Hungry Monkey

Matthew and Iris at the Market

 

 

WE:  International food is a GREAT way to learn about the world. What are Iris's favorite international foods - and restaurants?

MAB: I have tons of international recipes in the book. In addition to the potstickers, I have a great simple pad Thai recipe that kids will love because it's just plain noodles with sauce. Plus, it makes extra sauce that you can freeze. I have Mexican pork carnitas; stacked enchiladas with crunchy cheese; and Korean bibimbap. Bibimbap is a big bowl of rice with various toppings: vegetables, meat, and usually a fried egg. You serve it with Korean hot sauce. One of my favorite things in the world, and so easy.

Iris's favorite international restaurants are a Japanese noodle place where she can get a crispy shrimp bento box, and a taco restaurant where she orders a lengua (beef tongue) taco. She also likes conveyor-belt sushi and any Chinese restaurant offering scallion pancakes. Also gelato. Gelato is international, right?

 

 

CBS Morning Show - Hungry Monkey - Raising Kids who Love to Eat

 

 

 

 

WE:  Where else can we find your writing? (Is book 2 in the works?)

MAB: I am taking suggestions for book two. :)

In the meantime, you can find me at Gourmet.com twice a month; Culinate.com once a month (http://www.culinate.com/columns/bacon); and
frequently in the Sunday Seattle Times and Seattle Magazine. My blog is http://www.rootsandgrubs.com/

 

 

WE:  Kids love to help and be part of things - can you please share some tips that work for you and Iris, to cook together?

MAB: Sure. My main tip is not to shy away from the more dangerous aspects of the kitchen, because they're probably what your kid is most interested in. When Iris was four, I bought her a sharp paring knife and an electric frying pan. The frying pan -- a tip from Mollie Katzen in her great cookbook Pretend Soup --is "Iris's stove." We set it on the kitchen floor and Iris puts on her pink oven mitt and we make scrambled eggs or mac and cheese or toasted sandwiches.

For baking, get a digital scale. You can get a good one for under $25 now, and they make baking with kids so much easier. Why? Because kids in their exuberance tend to throw in too much flour or sugar, and with a scale, you know how much to take out.

 

 

Matthew Amster-Burton - Hungry Monkey - Pike Place

Matthew and Iris at Pike Place

 

 

WE:  Is there anything else you'd like to say?

MAB: Like traveling with your kids, sharing food with your kids is supposed to be fun. Believe me, some days Iris is as picky as any five-year-old, but we still figure out areas of agreement (yes, sometimes it's cookies, or, yesterday, this tangy Japanese fruit candy called Hi-Chew) so we can enjoy food together. You have to eat. Have some fun with it.

WE: Thanks so much, Matthew! Your book is already dog-eared and recipe-stained, from great use in our kitchen. Both our 7-year old daughter and I constantly flip through, remembering our favorite parts and seeing what we can make with your excellent recipes.

For more information, please see:
http://www.rootsandgrubs.com/books/hungry-monkey/

and you can also find Matthew's work at
http://www.rootsandgrubs.com/

and our recent favorite, a to-die-for recipe for an incredible milkshake

Photos courtesy and copyright of Lara Ferroni.

 

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