On Thursday, July 2 I hosted an event at the Hamilton Public Library to celebrate my book The World’s Strangest Foods.

I brought all kinds of unusual food from countries including Japan, England, Ecuador, Germany, and many others.We started out with horned melon from New Zealand, and dragon fruit from Vietnam. I offered about 19-20 different items, which varied from the tame (British candy and coconut soda) to preserved eel (in a can),  and Limburger cheese. I never would have expected so many kids to try every item on the menu!

Culinary options at the Strange Foods event

Horned melon from New Zealand

While I’d been expecting about 15 kids to attend, we ended up with more like 35-40 kids. They ranged in ages but there were lots of tweens and teens and many boys in the audience. I read segments from the book and got the requisite oohs and aahs at some of the more bizarre culinary offerings (fermented shark meat, anyone?).

I would love to bring a presentation like this to other libraries and schools. We had a terrific time!

This is what Library Director Hilary Virgil had to say about the event: “Limburger cheese, dragon fruit, canned roast eel, seaweed crackers, lychee candies, coconut soda and more! We had a fabulous feast exploring foreign foods with local author Alicia Klepeis…and we learned our teens are fearless! Thank you, Alicia!”

Library Board of Directors member Maureen Wallace said, “What a fantastic event. I cannot believe how attentive and willing the participants were to try everything! Alicia did a wonderful job!”