Learn something about food every day, and occasionally a recipe to go with it! Reading this makes me want to look up and maybe even try recipes for foods that are talked about here but don't have an included recipe, like how Indian pudding really evolved from colonists' hasty pudding. "Hasty pudding?" I think. "What's that? I wonder if I could make it and what it would taste like..?" Since it is filled with trivia, history, and of course food, I think that students or anyone who likes to cook would enjoy this book.

I am a cookbook reader, and the concept behind Foodimentary intrigued me. Every day a Food Holiday? Hell, yes! I was not familiar with the author’s blog, and found the introduction, where he describes the “a-ha” moment when he discovered the word “foodimentary” and how he built his blog, just a little too precious. But, I am *not* an Introduction reader and usually skip them, so no matter.

What does matter is the content of this marvelous book! Hopkins has produced a readable, fun book filled with interesting facts about food and 365 reasons to celebrate. Every.Single.Day. I’m not entirely clear on how he selected the Food Holidays, but I do like his flexibility in changing them up. The Food Holidays described in the book are so much fun to read and will be even more fun to celebrate. Since reading this book, I have celebrated Oreo Cookie Day (March 6), Stuffed Mushroom Day (Feb 4) Margarita Day (Feb 22).

The book itself is big and chunky, and filled with retro illustrations that remind me of old cookbooks. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but am looking forward to testing a few. This would make a wonderful gift for the foodie in your life, and there is tremendous potential to connect with the author through social media and share your pics of how you’ve celebrated his Food Holidays. Recommended.

My birthday is National Whiskey Sour day, and thanks to this wonderful book I can now make them at home. On second thoughts me knowing a new cocktel may not be the best idea. Oh well...

The first thing that caught my attention with this book is the formatting. It's simple yet so beautiful and I can only imagine how pretty it's gonna look on print. It's gonna look even prettier on my kitchen stand once I buy it.

The book tells us the National Day food or product and proceeds to tell us facts and the history of such. There's also recipes in the middle of the months that go from cakes and simple foods to desserts and drinks.

Divided in seasons and then in months this book has a daily surprise for each day and tons of recipes to spice up your kitchen. I dare say this book would be great for families with children. After all you could try to incorporate the national day ingredient or thing into your meal for the day.

I truly loved this book and I'm sure you will too.

Did you know that September 18th is National Cheeseburger Day? Or that November 2nd is Deviled Egg Day? The brains behind Foodimentary.com, John-Bryan Hopkins, has now compiled a cookbook with information and recipes from his popular website. Foodimentary: Celebrating 365 Food Holidays with Classic Recipes. This fun book, which is not only food trivia at its best, but also plenty of nostalgia for those of us who have followed food trends over the years, has an actual US holiday listed for each day of the year, as well as dozens of National monthly celebrations. The book is well-written and has enough fascinating facts about food that you’ll find yourself curling up in a corner and reading for hours.

Anyone who is searching for a holiday to celebrate will refer to this delightful book often; it not only includes daily holidays (i.e., National Taco Day on October 4th and Tater Tot Day on February 2nd) , but also monthly celebrations such as National Chicken Month in September and National Frozen Food Month in March.

There are dozens of recipes included, and most are simple enough for even inexperienced cooks. They are just right for the celebrations outlined in the book, and many are mouthwatering. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of the finished recipes, which is the only real negative aspect to this cookbook, but there are some cute illustrations. The book does include old photos that bring back a sense of nostalgia for the foods that have been immortalized in special celebration days.

This is the book for every foodie on the planet. Most of us want an excuse to cook, or at least eat something, in celebration mode every day, and this delightful book gives us the opportunity. Foodimentary: Celebrating 365 Food Holidays with Classic Recipes is great for gifts, and almost everyone will find it an extremely enjoyable read.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Foodimentary is a book full of "food holidays" for each day of the year, including the elusive 29th February.

The book is split into the four seasons, starting with the season of Spring and the month of March. There are lists of food holidays associated with each month or a certain week in that period. Then each day has a food holiday, with a short explanation for that day and some of the days include a recipe too.

Though there is some photography throughout, it leans more to the food history of that day with black and white pictures of women in a cafe as an example. Whilst the drawings are cute for the food, I was disappointed there were none in regards to the food or the recipes associated with the day. Some days are quite similar throuhhout the year and include similar themes, so the odd time the history was repeated on another day.

Foodimentary by John-Bryan Hopkins is a delightful read as the author has written a book that features food holidays, food trivia and recipes. For example you can find out April 7 is Coffee Cake Day or May 4 is Hoagie Day. His book is broken down by seasons and and you will find recipes often prepared during the season featured. Some of the recipes you'll find in his book include:

Sticky Buns
Vanilla Cupcakes (Vanilla Cupcake Day is November 10)
A Modern Ceasar Salad
Traditional Corn Fritters
Classic Mac & Cheese

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for letting read this lovely book. The layout is simple and the illustration are bright and fresh. Each day of the year has a unsual or intersting food fact often with an old photograph or advertising poster. Being British it answered some mysteries of American favourite foods for me. I now know what moonpies, sloppyjoe and popovers are. Open this book at any page to learn something new about an everyday food. Be warned you will be craving a little something sweet or savoury in no time. Luckily it also includes some timely spaced recipes. Enjoy. I'm off to the kitchen to make a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich!

How did I not know there was a 'cheese doodle day' or that it was 'one of the only packaged snack foods that Julia Child would eat?" This book is super cool (although I'd prefer a different layout). It seems more of a fun FYI book rather than a cookbook but that's okay with me. In just one resource, I can celebrate food every day :) I'm super excited to celebrate March 27th -- world whiskey day, or April 2nd, peanut butter & jelly day. I think this book would be a great gift for foodie-kids and their parents.

Fun, informative foodie book! Everyday of the year is a food related food holiday! Bonus, some recipes scattered throughout! Fun!

With bright, colorful illustrations and a dedication to celebrating food holidays, one for every day of the year, this is a fun book but not really an essential one. This is coming from a person who never saw the point in food holidays to begin with, so perhaps I am just biased. In the intro, John-Bryan Hopkins describes how he came to be the food holiday guru, which apparently started with a desire to launch a food blog with a punny name and no initial idea of what to write about. He eventually realized that food holidays, such as National Donut Day, were always trending on Twitter, and thus an idea to blog about self-created food holidays was born. He respected some food holidays that were already around, replaced some of the less popular ones with more exciting food holidays of his own, and made up the rest to fill in the remaining days of the year. While I had never heard of Foodimentary before, he apparently has a loyal Twitter following and has been written up in many magazines, proof that anyone can carve a niche for themselves with a little ingenuity and media savvy.



Perhaps I'm not giving Hopkins enough credit. While I found his tale of self-promotion and Facebook tragedy off-putting (talk about first world problems), he has done an excellent job researching food trivia and finding a way to deliver it in bite-size pieces that make each day of the year a little more fun. The book mostly features recipes that are cornerstones of American food (strawberry rhubarb pie, sloppy joes, tapioca pudding), but also some with a more interesting spin, such as his pretzel-inspired pigs in a blanket and his BLT bruschetta. I would have enjoyed hearing more about John-Bryan Hopkins' cooking credentials, as the only thing I knew about him before reading the recipes was that he was a food blogger, and I wanted a more compelling reason to try his recipes compared to similar recipes in other cookbooks.

The design of the book is clever and well-thought-out. Cute illustrations abound; vintage photos add to the historical vibe; the font is eye-catching and trendy; and the organization by season and month give it an appealing calendar format. I enjoyed flipping through the book casually, stumbling upon the occasional recipe and absorbing the food trivia as I went along. If you ever enjoyed the Food Network show Unwrapped, you'll enjoy the facts in this book. While this isn't a book that I would necessarily run out and buy right now, it would make a lovely coffee table piece.

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

This was a year long journey through food holidays accompanied by some amazing food facts. This is the perfect book for all foodies and those who love to learn about the history of food and have an interesting tid bit up their sleeve to drop into conversation. This was a book I couldn't put down. I couldn't wait to see what other food holidays it would contain. The book is visually perfect. Beautiful illustrations accompany the histories and facts and the font is very appealing also. This is a book that will leave you hungry after it and there are plenty of recipes in it to get your mouth watering and made you excited to cook and learn more about food!

Excellent reference! Easy way to learn the food history. Good choice for family and friends.

This is a great book to celebrate fun, quirky holidays with friends and family. I loved everything about this and will consider it for gifts as I feel it would be great.

With a different food celebrated each day, this little book is full of food trivia,charming illustrations, and recipes. It's arranged monthly, by seasons, starting in the spring.

At the beginning of each month is a listing of the types of food celebrated that month as well as those celebration days, like National Doughnut Day, that are not on specific dates.

It's tons of fun for food lovers!