Tasty tidbits about foods from around the world

So you’ve got a growing gourmand in the house? Think you’re raising the next Food Network superstar? Then make mealtime even better with “The World in Your Lunch Box” by Claire Eamer.

Starting with the humble sandwich, Eamer takes kids on an around-the-world and through-the-centuries tour of the foods they love to eat (and a few they might think are icky).

“Food doesn’t have to be fancy to be interesting,” she says.

Take, for instance, the sandwich.

Back in the 1700s, there was an earl who loved to gamble. He once gambled for 24 hours straight and when he got hungry, he asked for some slices of beef between pieces of bread. He was The Earl of Sandwich.

The earl was lucky, though. Once upon a time, poor people in Europe couldn’t afford ingredients to make bread. Their main meal was a kind of stew known as pottage, made from whatever could be thrown into a pot: some beans or a little pork, maybe onions, vegetables, or wild root. Mostly, though, pottage was made of barley, and they ate it for every meal.

There was a time in Europe when potatoes were the main food for poor people and prisoners because taters were cheap and easy to grow. But when a French army officer who had been a prisoner in Germany returned home, he brought potatoes to King Louis XVI. The royal family loved potatoes so much that Marie Antoinette used potato flowers to decorate one of her gowns.

Tomatoes were once thought to be poisonous. Watermelons are 90 percent water and are sometimes used as canteens on desert journeys. Hot dogs were once made of “mystery meat” that was swept off the floor. And if you live in parts of Australia, you’d better be hungry. You just might find your plate filled with grubs!

Blend Eamer’s stories together gently with history and science, stir in artwork by Sa Boothroyd, serve it on an otherwise boring summer afternoon, and this book becomes a treat kids will relish.

I think budding young foodies and adults who love to eat will want to bite into it soon. For the 7- to 12-year-old who’s epi-curious, “The World in Your Lunch Box” (Annick Press) is a recipe for fun.

“The World in Your Lunch Box,” by Claire Eamer [121 pages, 2012, $14.95].

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.