Do you know where tacos originated? I bet the answer will surprise you!

Mia Wenjen has visited my blog before.  She blogs about parenting, children’s books, and education at PragmaticMom.com and is the co-creator of Read Your World, celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day, a nonprofit celebrating diversity in children’s books. She is the author of several illustrated nonfiction children’s books, including Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes, Asian Pacific American Heroes, and Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World. Mia Wenjen lives in Boston with her husband and three kids.  You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or on BlueSky.

THE TRAVELING TACO: THE AMAZING AND SURPRISING JOURNEY OF MANY OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS is a nonfiction picture book that explores the origins of several popular foods. Each food is introduced in rhyme (!) and includes sidebars of history. Every food chosen has traveled from one country to another and many of them really are astonishing. For instance, I had no idea that tacos did NOT originate in Mexico OR Spain! And don’t even get me started on French Fries (there’s apparently a very heavy debate there). Not only is the subject well researched and written, but the illustrations are fun and lively (and the Pavlova one is incredible!). There’s a lot to take in with this read.

Welcome back Mia!

Me: I love the idea of tracing the cultural origins of some of the most popular foods.  What gave you the idea for this picture book?

Mia: I love documentaries on food culture. When I watched the Taco Chronicles on NetFlix, it struck me that the Al Pastor taco came from Lebanese who immigrated to Puebla, Mexico. That kernel of an idea became the basis for the book.

I also wanted to find a way to change the negative narrative around immigrants that has been pervasive lately. What better way than through food? I wanted people to know that the food they love came from immigrants; so if you love the food, don’t hate the immigrant!

Me: I love that! You have 12 foods that you focused on for this book. How did you pick which ones to research and include? 

Mia: I wanted geographic representation so I had a few anchors like Fish and Chips, ice cream, and pasta. But then I had to dig for more.

Me: Were there any foods you wanted to include but didn’t make the cut? 

Mia: Apple pie. It’s not actually American but came from Britain. 

Me: Ha! That’s funny. I never knew that. Can you talk about your research process? How in the world did you find some of these facts? How deep did you have to go in your research? Any special resources?

Mia: I tend to gravitate to adult nonfiction when I research, but there weren’t any books on this particular topic, so I relied on Google searches and watched a lot of YouTube videos. It was very fun to research this book. It also made me very hungry!

I find that online research tends to be contradictory, so I have to dig deeper once I find inconsistencies to figure out what is actually accurate.

Me: Kimberlie Clinthorne-Wong’s illustrations are so colorful and lively! That spread for the Pavlova is incredible. They are the perfect fit in both color palette and style for this story. Were there any illustration surprises for you?  Any favorites?

Mia: The jerk chicken spread was our biggest challenge because brown food cooked in an underground pit doesn’t look visually appealing. It was also a judgment call of who to portray … Taino and escaped enslaved Africans from the past, or a family set in contemporary times.

I thought Kimberlie did the perfect balance of lush vegetation amid a modern setting.

Me: What surprised you in writing this story?

Mia: That fish and chips came from Portuguese Jews escaping the Portuguese Inquisition!! I only really knew about the Spanish Inquisition, though it does make sense that Portugal would do the same thing (but it wasn’t in my history books at school). I also was flabbergasted to learn that Thomas Jefferson tried “fish fried in the Jewish manner.” History was literally coming alive for me!

Me: What is one fun food fact you learned in the process of making this book (included or not included in the book) that is your favorite?

Mia: That Marco Polo didn’t bring pasta from China to Italy. It happened much earlier than that!

But also that Italy’s pasta came from Ancient China’s food culture!

Thank you for stopping by my blog again Mia.

Dear readers, this book was published yesterday! If you’re like me and like to learn more about things you might take for granted, then this book is a fascinating read you won’t want to miss!