“Every time angels get their hair cut at the salon, angel hair hunters wait below to catch the falling strands and throw them into their pots,” says author and illustrator Steven Guarnaccia in his book The history of pasta and how to cook it!. “Did you know that there are those who think that tortellini “Were they inspired by the navel of the goddess Venus,” the illustrator continues, “and that spaghetti grows on trees until they reach the perfect length?” The book is a delight, full of curiosities and legends about pasta, with fun images that show us the step by step of each recipe. “Writing and illustrating a book,” the author states in the prologue, “is like making a pasta dish. In a recipe many elements have to be combined (…) In the same way, a book must combine words, ideas, jokes and illustrations to create something beautiful and harmonious.” Along with the stories and the recipe book, the book aims to educate the little ones in the good ways to be an authentic Italian at the table. Thus, the author tells us, “you should know that spaghetti is eaten by rolling it on a fork (never using a spoon); that it is permissible to cover the plate with bread once you have finished your pasta; that it is not acceptable to add Parmesan cheese to pasta with fish and that it is advisable that, while you wait for the water to boil where you are going to prepare your pasta, you join your fingers, kiss the tips and exclaim with the same enthusiasm as would make an Italian: “Very beautiful” (Very nice, in Spanish).
Sitting in the kitchen, while a pot aromatizes the room with its slow-cooked stew, we open the book Babel Street, nº10 (Ideaka Edelvives) by the illustrator and author, Felicita Sala, and we began to narrate this beautiful and indoctrinating story aloud. This is the story of a building, the one found at number 10 Babel Street, located in any place in the world. Its indigo door and roof, its old brick façade and several open windows, full of flowers, from where an adorable and hypnotizing perfume of world cuisines escapes. If you stand for a few seconds in front of its door and close your eyes, your sense of smell will surely tell you the story of each of its neighbors. Babel Street is a delightful book aimed at the little ones at home where, yes, it talks about gastronomy, and also invites you to cook recipes such as turkey meatballs, mini quiches, sole meunière either dahl with coconut milk, for example; but this book goes much further: on each page it reveals who lives on each floor and, at the same time, it teaches that, in this peculiar building, people from every part of the world coexist in harmony, who share their culture and traditions. through the dishes that they cook and share every day at a large communal table. Without a doubt, a beautiful song to equality and tolerance and that passage so that the little ones understand that by eating the world can be united.
“You can be sure that what does not exist in any inhabited place are people who neither cook nor eat,” wrote Ferran Adrià, in the prologue of the book. Markets. A world to discover (Flamboyant publishing house). “When we visit a market, our heads fill with questions, but we also find many answers,” Adrià continues in the first pages, anticipating what we will find later in this book: a tour of the markets of the world, a universe of ingredients, a fascination of colors. This beautiful edition is the work of journalist Josep Sucarrats and illustrator Miranda Sofroniou, who have managed to create a delightful journey through markets with history, from Barcelona to Thailand, which seeks to discover the personality of each territory through what we see in its street shops , in the shopping centers, in the scented souks, in the floating boats that serve as street stalls… Almost 50 markets, their people and their way of life. In short, a book to share with the little ones and stimulate and motivate them to continue discovering local markets, trying to help them understand the importance of seasonal products. A little gem to reread in every season.
And from the market… we return, again, to the kitchen to continue asking ourselves questions: What is our usual menu like? What did our ancestors eat? What does an astronaut eat? What will be our favorite dish in, say, 30 years? The world of what, how, when, how and why is posed and answered in the book: To eat! Like cavemen, pirates and other historical figures (Phaidon). A delight, illustrated by Natalia Rojas Castro, and written by journalist Rachel Levine, which will lead the most curious people in the house to find fascinating facts such as that in ancient Egypt they ate hippos, or that the Vikings were obsessed with a good plate of herrings and ninja They fed on snakes… A manual of curiosities, historical notes and funny winks that will take you to the history of humanity narrated in a graphic way and full of humor. At the end of the book you will find some recipes to put into practice some of the favorite dishes of our ancestors or, if we dare, recreate a dish from the future.
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