Review by Booklist Review
When Saini's newborn daughter rejected the usual bland mush Americans call baby food, she called on her own delicious upbringing by her mom, an excellent home cook, to create flavorful, well-seasoned meals for little eaters. Why, the author wondered, shouldn't American babies enjoy vibrant, appetizing foods, like their counterparts around the globe? This cookbook is Saini's take on the flavors and dishes served to babies on every continent. Recipes include strawberry-lychee puree (China); milk-poached salmon with dill and mustard (Scandinavia); fava beans with cumin and garlic (Egypt); and curried coconut rice (Southeast Asia). Saini divides the book into purees for babies six months and older, followed by foods with chunkier textures or more seasoning for older babies. Recipes are short and easy to follow, and most call for just a handful of ingredients. It's an inspiring collection for foodie parents who want to introduce their children to a variety of tastes and raise adventurous eaters.--Neumer Lara, Alison Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Saini (masalababyfood.com) offers up purees with an international flair along with baby-friendly spices. Why spice the baby's food? "Babies have 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds," according to the author, and this enables them to be more open to new flavors as they grow. First, global spices are highlighted. For six months and up, there are mango banana saffron oatmeal (India), congee, or rice porridge (China), and purple potato mash (Peru). Meals such as niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter (Ethiopia) and seasoned lamb kebabs (Turkey) are featured for babies ages seven to nine months, while muhallabia, or rice pudding (Lebanon) and sinangag, or garlic fried rice (Philippines) are on the menu for ten months and up. The book has an attractive layout, with color photos, maps, and background text that complement the recipes. Also included are preparation and serving tips. Recipes are fairly simple to execute; the main item needed to puree is a food processor or blender. There are also a further reading section and metric conversion chart. VERDICT This book -delivers a wide variety of purees that will captivate your baby's palate and encourage future exploration in the world of solid food.-Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
