WELCOME TO OUR TABLE

A wide-angled overview of the foods that sustain and entertain us.

Taking a resolutely international approach, the authors—one a poet, the other a trained chef—offer terse but taste-tempting descriptions of hundreds of dishes prepared worldwide with dozens of fruits, vegetables, meats, herbs, spices, nuts, and sweets. After priming readers to think of food analytically in terms of taste, smell, and texture, they launch their survey with various savory examples made with “Remarkable Rice” or “Amazing Maize,” from Italian risotto (which “you must, must, MUST keep stirring as you cook, because this helps it become really oozy”) to noodles like Ukrainian lokshyna. Along with the multitude of entrees, side courses aplenty look at tableware, the dangers of overfishing, how to say delicious in 15 languages, and more on the way to pages of desserts and a closing map of all the countries featured (with, characteristically, “The End” in 18 languages). Lynas’ brightly colored images of, mostly, children diverse in race and ethnicity who appear eager to chow down on yummy-looking provender make all of this even easier to digest. Though some widely consumed ingredients don’t earn separate entries (neither barley nor honey makes the cut, for instance), the menu does extend to insects and even (if under the heading “Fake food”) meat grown in labs or made from plants.

Another way we are all linked by our differences; rewarding reading for everyone who eats.