Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater
Matthew Amster-Burton was a restaurant critic and food writer long before he and his wife, Laurie, had Iris. Now he’s a full-time, stay-at-home Dad and his experience with food has changed â¦a little.
Hungry Monkey is the story of Amster-Burton’s life as a food-lover–with a child. It’s the story of how he came to realize that kids don’t need puree in a jar or special menus at restaurants and that raising an adventurous eater is about exposure, invention, and patience. He writes of the highs and lows of teaching your child about food–the high of rediscovering how something tastes for the first time through a child’s unflinching reaction, the low of thinking you have a precocious vegetable fiend on your hands only to discover that a child’s preferences change from day to day (and may take years to include vegetables again). Sharing in his culinary capers is little Iris, a budding gourmand and a zippy critic herself–who makes hug sandwiches, gobbles up hot chilis, and even helps around the kitchen sometimes.
A memoir on the wild joys of food and parenting and the marvelous mélange of the two–Hungry Monkey takes food enthusiasts on a new adventure in eating (with dozens of delicious recipes!). In the end, our guide reminds us: “Food is fun, and you get to enjoy it three times a day, plus snacks!”
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great book, and I don’t even have kids!
This is very engaging, entertaining and interesting reading. I don’t even had kids and I enjoyed this book greatly. It is a pleasure to read very good writing. I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes.
5 Stars Hungry Money - Enjoyed Every Bite!
I recently picked up a copy of a new food memoir titled “Hungry Monkey” by Matthew Amster-Burton…because you got me…I loved the kitchy title, its cover and because it was about food. Oh, and the author is from my home - Seattle. What is there not to like about this book? Well, nothing! After a busy Saturday morning with my a$$ firmly planted on my upper deck I devoured this food memoir, enjoying every bite of it!
Yes, I did take some reading breaks! The first break was to try almond milk - steamed milk + almond syrup + lots of foam milk on top! Only my version had three shots of Nespresso espresso. I bring the caffeine, I bring it strong! Head back to the upper deck for more reading! And I got about half way into “Hungry Monkey” realizing my next break needs to be page markers. So I go inside and gather my Eiffel Tower Post-It note collection! I am flagging pages left and right of stories that make me LOL and recipes that I must, must try. Like stew. I have never in my life made a stew…that will change in Fall because I will be making some type of stew that will include bacon, and the good smoked bacon Matthew raves about in his book - Neuske’s bacon. Oh, and Trader Joe’s Greek style yogurt with fig puree. OMG! How have I missed this product on my bi-weekly TJ’s visits? Tj + Figs is a kismet combination that I simply must try. And farmer’s markets.
Farmer’s markets was break number three. I turned on my laptop and searched for when/where my local West Seattle Farmer’s Market is to discover it was the next day! So Sunday morning I woke up extra early, got lots of cash, and headed to the WS farmer’s market. And blew through my $40 in less than 4 minutes too! Here’s what I got: A flat of blueberries and raspberries, olive bread, white goat cheese with chives, blueberry butter, 2 delicious gluten free pastries (a biblical experience) (yum) (very yum), and flowers.
And to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger…I’ll be back!!! Farmer’s Markets ROCK!
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5 Stars Loving Dad’s Tribute to his daughter
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!!
3 Stars Foodie? Give it a try. Parent? Depends on what you’re looking for.
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 is 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.
4 Stars the quest is short, the brag is long. **sour grapes alert**
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.
Filed under: Parenting Advice Book Reviews