About the Holiday
This month we celebrate the culinary arts from entrees to desserts to everything in between. July is also a great time to honor the chefs, cooks, and bakers who continually develop new dishes, create exciting taste sensations, and make dining out an event to look forward to. Of course, during this month we also thank those home chefs who prepare healthy meals for their families every day. To celebrate the holiday, go out to your favorite restaurant or try a new place. At home, get the kids involved in making meals or special treats. Cooking together is a terrific way to spend time together, and today’s book can get you started!
United Tastes of America: An Atlas of Food Facts & Recipes from Every State
Written by Gabrielle Langholtz | Illustrations by Jenny Bowers | Photographs by DL Acken
If you have a child who loves to cook, who’s a bit of a foodie, or who just likes to chow down, then the mouth-watering, eye-popping United Tastes of America is for them! Young travelers will also appreciate the wanderlust that the recipes and fascinating facts from each state serve up in abundance. Come along on a dip into the vast and varied culinary world of America!
Image copyright Jenny Bowers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Starting on the East Coast in the state I grew up in, we visit Florida, where as Gabrielle Langholtz says, the “tropical weather allows farmers to grow all kinds of fruit, including lots of citrus.” The plentiful coastline on this peninsula also provides “fish such as grouper, pompano, and mullet.” Residents from Cuba Jamaica, Haiti, and the Bahamas have brought “Caribbean dishes such as mashed yucca,…fried plantains,…and arroz con pollo.” A slice of refreshing Key lime pie deliciously finishes off any meal. Some other tidbits to gnaw on before getting to the Key Lime Pie recipe on the next page revolve around the Cubano sandwich, conchs, alligators, and stone crabs.
Image copyright Jenny Bowers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Moving up the coast and a bit inland, we come to Pennsylvania, where members of the Pennsylvania Dutch community know how to dish up traditional flavors from their German heritage that are still favorites with adults and kids. Some of these include “chicken potpie, ham loaf, egg noodles, and schnitz un knepp, or pork with dried apples.” You’d also find bright pink hard-boiled eggs (colored by pickling them with beets) and hinkelhatz, a hot pepper used to make sauerkraut from homegrown cabbage. Other local delicacies include button mushrooms (“The tiny town of Kennett Square, home to only six thousand people, grows more than a million pounds of mushrooms each week! That’s half of all the mushrooms farmed in America.”), chow chow, cheese steak, scrapple, and pepper pot. Turn the page and you’ll find a recipe for Soft Pretzels, a well-deserved pride of Pennsylvania.
Photograph copyright DL Ackers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Trekking into the very middle of the country, we discover Missouri, which in addition to it’s tasty treats has a distinctive connection to home cooks everywhere. In 1931 Missouri resident Irma Rombauer “published 3,000 copies of The Joy of Cooking…. Irma’s book showed American food in a time of change.” While it contained recipes “for farm foods, like pickles, pie, and even possum…The Joy of Cooking also included recipes for canned ingredients, which many people saw as the foods of the future.” Irma may have been inspired by hearty Missouri fare like steak (a favorite ever since cowboys began bringing cattle from the southwest to the rail yards in Kansas City, MO), black walnuts from the Ozark Mountains, toasted ravioli, introduced by the state’s Italian immigrants, and partridge, a purported fave of Mark Twain. When you’re ready to create a true Missouri original, turn to the recipe for St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake that is a “creamy-on-the-inside and crisp-on-the-sugary-top treat.”
Image copyright Jenny Bowers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Travel down and west a few states to find New Mexico and its spicy cuisine. Known for its chile peppers (when you order be prepared to answer “the state’s official question ‘red or green?’”), New Mexico boasts home cooks and restaurants who can really highlight this hot ingredient. You can enjoy Posole, which is hominy simmered with green chiles and shredded pork or chicken; carne adovada, “pork cooked in red chile sauce with vinegar” and served with warm tortillas; and spicy pie, which is “apple pie baked with spicy Hatch chiles and often eaten with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.” If you want to try something non-spicy, take a taste of prickly pear or piñon nuts. Hungry for a cookie with a bit of snap? Try the recipe for the anise-flavored Biscochitos, the official state cookies of New Mexico, that pair nicely with hot chocolate.
Photograph copyright DL Ackers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Finally, this culinary caravan reaches the west coast and Oregon’s diverse flavor sensations. On the coast, fish and seafood as well as fiddlehead ferns, chanterelle mushrooms, and berries are seasonal treats. The Cascade Mountains offer more fishing, and in the valleys below fruit orchards provide apricots, peaches, pears, and apples. Foodies will be interested in snapshots that include the fact that “Oregon grows 99 percent of America’s hazelnuts” and that “scientists at Oregon State University developed delicious new berry varieties that include marionberries and tayberries.” You can get your day off to a healthy start with the hearty recipe for Granola with Hazelnuts and Cherries.
In addition to pages and recipes from the fifty states, United Tastes of America also includes culinary highlights from Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
Image copyright Jenny Bowers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Before kids and adults get cooking, Gabrielle Langholtz packs the front matter with cooking tips, descriptions of nine cooking methods, helpful cooking how-tos, an illustrated and descriptive guide to kitchen tools, and a map of the United States and its territories. Two indexes in the back of the book help readers find information presented in the text and also present the recipes by level of difficulty from Easier than Average to Average Difficulty to Harder than Average. Most recipes fall within the Easier and Average categories. Her light, conversational introductions to each state will pique the interest of foodies, history lovers, and travelers alike.
Photograph copyright DL Ackers, 2019, text copyright Gabrielle Langholtz, 2019. Courtesy of Phaidon.
Each state is introduced with a two-page spread spotlighted with Jenny Bowers’ vivid, bold typography that names the state and presides over a silhouette of the state which hosts charming depictions of the interesting morsels of culinary information. Every recipe is clearly and beautifully photographed by DL Acken and presented in a way that is irresistibly enticing.
A cookbook that goes beyond its culinary roots, United Tastes of America will appeal to both kids and adults. It is a book that will be as welcome in the classroom for geography and social studies lessons (with a side dish of tastings) as in the kitchen, and is highly recommended for home, school, and public library collections.
Ages 8 – 11 and up (these are terrific family recipes that all ages will enjoy)
Phaidon, 2019 | ISBN 978-0714878621
You can connect with Gabrielle Langholtz on Instagram and Twitter
You can find a portfolio of work by Jenny Bowers on her website.
Discover more about DL Acken and her photography on her website.
Culinary Arts Month Activity
My Family’s Recipe Box, Label, and Cards
Holidays are a perfect time for kids to learn traditional or favorite family recipes. With this easy craft and printable label and recipe cards, children can create their own unique recipe box.
Supplies
- A tea bag box, such as Tetley Tea or another appropriately sized box with a lid that overlaps the front edge
- Printable Recipe Box Label | Printable Recipe Cards
- Washi tape
- Heavy stock printing paper
- Adhesive printing paper (optional)
- Glue (optional)
Directions
- Cover the box in washi tape
- Print the label on adhesive printing paper or regular paper
- Stick label to box or attach with glue
- Print recipe cards on heavy stock paper
- Write down favorite recipes and store them in your recipe box
You can find United Tastes of America at these booksellers
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound
Picture Book Review
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