Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wondrous Words: Delicious! Poems Celebrating Street Food Around the World




It's National Poetry Month here. Who could resist a book of poems about the various kinds of street food around the world? And it's written by the wonderful Julie Larios, a gifted Cybils judge last year, and illustrated by her friend and fellow-Julie, Julie Paschkis.

Here's a sample poem, just to give you the "flavor," if you will: 


Beautiful, right? Just beautiful.

Now let's zoom into the words, shall we?

   MARKET BREAKFAST

              OAXACA, MEXICO

Steaming cup of champurrado,

panecitos, cinnamon churros---

mmm, mmm! Delicioso!

Lovebirds chirp: Pio! Pio!


Now let's take a look at all the food words from the poem. Champurrado. Panecitos. Cinnamon churros. Are these new to you as they are to me? 


Champurrado. "Champurrado is a chocolate-based...warm and thick Mexican beverage, prepared with either masa de maíz, masa harina, or corn flour; piloncillo; water or milk; and occasionally containing cinnamon, anise seed, or vanilla. Ground nuts, orange zest, and egg can also be employed to thicken and enrich the drink." Doesn't that sound yummy? Here's a recipe for champurrado if you want to try it from Mexico in My Kitchen.


Panecitos. Panecitos are little breads, and come in a wide variety of shapes and flavors. The recipe I liked best is in Spanish and is from Las Recetas de Mamá here.


Cinnamon churros. Churros are a Spanish and Mexican pastry resembling a doughnut or cruller and made from deep-fried unsweetened dough and sprinkled with sugar. There's a fabulous recipe here from Cookin' Classy. 

Whew! And that's just one poem. There are others with street foods from Russia, Tasmania, Peru, and many more. Wouldn't it be fun to read these poems during National Poetry Month and prepare street foods to go along with the poems each day?

As for me, I'm delighted to find a book that combines my love for poetry, words, foods, travel, languages, and picture books, all in one place.


For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.

12 comments:

  1. How lovely. I have a few Mexican friends and always loved their food and their imagination with it.

    Thanks for visiting my TTT earlier.

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  2. Those panacetos look wonderful! I'm only familiar with Mexican food that is later in the day and not desserts (except churros, which are great.) Yum!

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  3. It feels as if I've been eating dessert just reading your post ^^ There are churros in the south of France too, they're very popular (due to the closeness with Spain ?). No cinnamon for me, though, but I'll take chocolat any day, especially with poetry :)

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  4. Oh yummy!!! Especially the Champurrado and the cinnamon churros. But especially the Champurrado. I am going to take a look at that recipe right now.

    Thanks for taking part in WWW Debbie!

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  5. What a wonderful book of poems. I love that it has inspired you to find recipes and try some of the foods. That's what poetry means to me, inspiring.

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  6. Not sure I'm into a thick choclate drink like tha for Breakfast, rather have savory

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  7. Wow, what wonderful breakfasts and the artwork is lovely.

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  8. I've had churros (delicious) but not the other food. Not sure about the chocolate drink. I think it is something I would have to try rather than read about. To me it would be more like a dessert than something for breakfast. Interesting how we are influenced by culture in our food choices.

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  9. I love churros. I've had them a few times. One of my neighbors used to make them and I loved them.

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  10. LOVED THIS!!!!! I have a brand new Tex-Mex cookbook. I will make something from it tomorrow in honor of this post!

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  11. Thanks, Deb! I had such fun writing this book. Loved reading the recipes you found.

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