"new food" news and stories

At first glance, this book doesn't look like much. The front cover is an unadorned green, with just a small box to house the title and author. However, as soon as you open the front cover, it feels like you've stepped into a different world, full of lovely and interesting pictures of salads, citrus, noodles and exotic vegetables.

Written by Benjamin Lewis, New Food is written around the premise that there's a world of foods available to the average grocery shopper these days that would have been unknown to our grandparents. There are sections devoted to microgreens, cauliflower, exotic fruits and squash and each make those potentially unfamiliar ingredients accessible and appealing.

This is the type of book that would make a great gift for a friend or family member who doesn't have a whole lot of experience with some of the newer, fresher foods in the farmers markets and wants to understand exactly what to pea shoots or quince.

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Many experts say that it takes time for a child to accept a new food once it has been offered to them. The number of times you should offer a food varies according to who you ask. The most recent number seems to be 15 times, but once of the reasons to bring up new foods so often is to prevent the kids from getting into a rut with what they eat.

Pediatric nutritionist Jeanne Cox says that variety is important to make sure that kids are getting all of the nutrients that they need, even if the foods that they like are already healthy ones. New foods add flavor variety and change the vitamins and nutrients the children take in. If they are offered, and allowed to eat, the same foods every day, they may be less likely to try new foods in the future.

Cox tells parents that they should offer children, especially picky eaters, very balanced meals that include protein, starch, vegetables and/or fruits. Each element should be varied, serving potatoes, bread (whole grain, of course), pasta or rice for the starch, for example. Even if a child only eats the protein on one night and the starch on another, in the long run, the child will have eaten a relatively balanced diet and probably tried a few new foods, too - new foods that he or she might just want to eat again.

More about picky eaters:

• The "Cool factor" and picky eaters
• The science of picky eating

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I've long been a fan of McSweeney's Reviews of New Food, but a link on Food Migration recently pointed out some food-related material elsewhere on McSweeney's. "An Open Letter to Foie Gras" finds frustrated waitress Jennifer O'Reilly wondering why the fancy French liver can't just come out and say what it is. She asks: "How was I to know what you were, Foie Gras? I've never eaten in a fancy restaurant. I don't speak French. How was I to know they gave prospective wait staff competency tests asking them about obscure high-cuisine dishes?" More recently, the open letters section featured a steamy love letter to the Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme. "The second your tortilla met my lips, I knew there was no turning back." Um, yeah. There's a letter to Omaha Steaks, as well. As a side note, you can find a review of mine, "Grapples (a reprise)" buried somewhere in the new food reviews.