Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The subtitle of the book "A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater" is somewhat misleading. The "Quest" is basically over by the time his daughter cuts teeth. I had expected to read about a struggle, some sort of resistance, even some failures as the author raises his daughter.

It does have it's humorous moments and is an easy, enjoyable read. But, for those of us trying to raise kids with similarly adventurous palates, he makes it sound too easy.

Not every anecdote results in his daughter licking her plate clean and asking for more, but his stated goal of raising an adventurous eater is accomplished very early in the book. The rest of it reads like a proud father showing off his daughter's trophy case... "and here's the time she stuffed herself with sushi... and here's the time she ate pad thai for three days straight..."

Yes, I read the entire book, but apart from debunking advice re: baby food. I did not come away with much usable advice for raising my own adventurous eaters. He acknowledges this fact, but it seems like a cop out.

The recipes at the end of each chapter were nicely annotated and looked like they'd be welcomed by my children once they get out of the "no mixed-up food" phase.

Amster-Burton should write a companion "Cooking with Iris" cookbook of his daughter-friendly recipes bolstered with excerpts of his anecdotes. I liked his idea of using an electric skillet for cooking with children.

I finished this book today and gave it to my husband so he could read it while on a business trip. I am already regretting that decision because I won't have Hungry Monkey in my hands again for 6 whole days. As soon as I read the last page I wanted to start over again with some little sticky flags in my hand to mark recipes I wanted to try and passages where Amster-Burton says specifically that kaiten sushi is ideal baby food. But no, I was all, "This book is hilarious. It's about cooking and kids and Seattle. You're going to love it. Why don't you take it to LA with you?" And now I can't make dumplings or cornmeal pizza crust until Friday. If you know me at all, and you might not, you'll understand why these four reasons alone merited my five-star rating of Hungry Monkey:

-Amster-Burton writes about Seattle and makes me feel like an insider, even though I live in Bellevue;
-he references Bread and Jam For Frances multiple times, which is possibly the best book ever written;
-he got a 5 on my humor rating scale, meaning I was laughing out loud to myself AND making my husband listen as I read funny parts aloud;
-the way he talks about food and feeding his family is equal parts Anthony Bourdain and M.F.K. Fisher, which is no easy feat.

What I was drawn to most in this book is the author's respect for both his daughter and the food they make together. Their relationship as depicted in the book is really quite lovely and illustrates that one does not have to dumb down conversations, expectations, ideas or flavors just because one lives with someone who happens to be a toddler.

And, on a personal note, as I sat in a nearly empty restaurant today and waited for our order that I could SEE on the warming tray for over 15 minutes (including one child's order of mini hamburgers and grapes...yawn) while my own toddler got increasingly flappy and bouncy in her high chair, I thought about our last visit to our favorite sushi place where she happily ate her fill of tamago sushi and edamame as soon as we sat down. Then I thought about Hungry Monkey and realized that I'm glad to have its message, its spirit and its recipes to guide me through these next several years of eating, cooking and throwing food on the floor.

Super funny book about the adventures of raising a kid under a foodie's watch. The writing style and pace of the book make it tough to put down. Plenty of bacon and pirate references as any good book should have.

The recipies seem to be pretty dang good. I have made the Phad Thai recipe so far and am going to try out the braised short ribs soon even though my kid can't eat real food yet.

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton is many things -- entertaining, mouth-watering, quirky, a bit self-important (as I'm convinced all memoirs are) -- but advice for parents? Not so much.

So--in short, as a parenting book/memoir I give it 3 stars, but as a book for foodies, I'd give it 4. Let's call it 3.5 stars.

Amster-Burton is a foodie. He's not just a foodie, he's a professional food writer/restaurant reviewer. He's the fulltime caregiver for his preschooler Iris, the "hungry monkey" at issue, balancing this freelance work with his parental responsibilities.

If you're a foodie, and can stomach (no pun intended) a little parental bragging (probably no worse than you come across in your typical mom blog or phone call with your first-time parent friend or relation), then I think that you'll enjoy Hungry Monkey. However, if you're expecting to find suggestions on how to convince your young child that he should eat mushrooms, then you're going to be disappointed.

The conclusion that he makes is that kids will eat what they want to eat. Yes, offering variety -- persistently -- is good. Yes, get them involved in helping you make the food. But no, don't expect that just because you and your spouse love hot chilies that your progeny will let you indulge your spicy palate at the family table.

But, if you enjoy food and cooking, you will enjoy reading about his culinary explorations and how the addition of a child changed it somewhat, but not completely. So, in that, it's aptly titled. It is a foodie's quest, and I would say that Iris <em>is</em> more adventurous than most children and many adults.

Each chapter has some sort of a theme, and there are a few recipes at the end of each chapter. They are gourmet, but not daunting, and there are several that I want to try, including his simple pad thai, bibimbap, shrimp and grits, and I have to say that he even made me curious about trying brussels sprouts.

A fast, sassy read by Matthew Amster-Burton. Each chapter is short and sweet with recipes that he referred to within the section at the end. I purchased this for my husband, who busted out laughing every time he picked it up. As a first-time expecting mom, it was good to find out how other foodies sought to raise their kids on more than just pizza. There's light use of profanity, but the stories are completely wholesome. Strangely, I learned about colostrum from Matthew before other preggie books! Good to know. I enjoyed strongly agreeing or disagreeing (mainly agreeing) with what Matthew wrote. "Strawberries from California suck." was the only thing I have a beef with Amster-B about...apparently, he's not tasted a Watsonville strawberry in early June, or any strawberries from Berkeley Bowl for that matter. Other than that, I consider him a fellow foodie. The only problem is that this book is too short! I wanted to read on.

For every parent navigating the choppy waters of transitioning their baby to solid food, the avalanche of information is no help at all. Almost every book/expert on the topic suggests bland, boring foods, introduced at a glacial pace. They also suggest that if your child refuses to eat kale, it's because you didn't present it properly. But for those of us who recoiled at the idea of feeding our child bland rice cereal, wondering how children in India or Jamaica survive given how highly-seasoned all the food is there, and if our kid would ever learn to enjoy bibimbap, there's solace in Hungry Monkey.

Hungry Monkey is, mostly, an account of the author's first few years feeding his daughter real food. It's hilarious, and full of little amusing quotes from the daughter. Each chapter ends with a few recipes, designed in most cases to be relatively quick and easy.

One will quickly notice, however, that these recipes aren't terribly different from recipes in other, non-child-oriented cookbooks. After the first post-breastfeeding chapter, which has useful recipes like creamed spinach, it's just food that the author's daughter likes. Or, often, liked-before-she-developed-the-neophobia-that-nearly-all-children-do.

The utility of this book is mostly the therapeutic consolation it provides. Your kid used to loved yams yesterday, but hates them today? You're not the only parent to go through that. Your kid refuses to eat anything except pizza and PB&J? Again, you're not alone. Your kid ate a huge bowl of white rice, and nothing else, for dinner? Join the club. The recipes that we've tried are pretty good, but nothing about them sets them apart as particularly child-friendly.

Also, it's really, really funny.

This is a wonderful laugh out loud adventure of one man's quest to document and introduce his daughter to food. In the process, he paints a picture that every man should aspire to as a parent to have with his daughter--open, humorous, loving, at times silly and all about learning to be the best person that you can be. This should be required reading for all new dads (and moms too!). I cannot wait for the next adventure of Iris and her dad to begin! Bravo!!

This is an extremely funny book based on foodie dad wanting to expose his young daughter to all foods, not just the manufactured "kid-friendly" ones. So it's a trip through the spice cabinet, the joys of pad thai, and the exotic language of sushi rather than Chef Boy-are-you-uncertain-what's-in-here and powdered yellow stuff with macaroni.

Setting aside the overall aim, the recipes are also quite good. And if other parents want to argue with you about what you're feeding your child, there's information to refute them here as well.

Fun book that connects parenting with good food. Maybe we'll see lots of folks carrying this around this summer, a year after they were carrying In Defense of Food...

Amster-Burton, a relatively well-known food blogger in the Seattle area, wrote this book about cooking with and for his four year old daughter. I had heard about it when it was published, but I picked it up recently because a food-loving friend is having a baby in February. There are some fun and interesting stories in it as well as some tasty-sounding recipes, but the most valuable thing that Amster-Burton passes on may actually be the fact that a child's tastes change - his adventurous two-year old was a relatively picky four-year old at the time the book was published.

great book, lots of ideas and reciepes. not a how to book on how to get your child to eat. but lots of other advice. pretty funny also!