A Feast of Serendib by Mary Anne Mohanraj #BlogTour an exclusive recipe from the book & giveaway

I'm a little bit embarrassed to say just how many cook books I have. Let's just say, enough to stock a small library.
Yet a new cook book is always a cause of excitement.

A Feast of Serendib by Mary Anne Mohanraj is a type of cook book I enjoy to read, as it's not just a selection of recipes, but a story of the author's ethnic background and family history including old photos and lovely snippets of personal stories related to recipes. You get to know the author, as she describes her favourite food and her family history.

Synopsis:
Dark roasted curry powder, a fine attention to the balance of salty-sour-sweet, wholesome red rice and toasted curry leaves, plenty of coconut milk and chili heat. These are the flavors of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka was a cross roads in the sea routes of the East. Three waves of colonization - Portuguese, Dutch and British - and the Chinese laborers who came with them, left their culinary imprint on Sri Lankan food. Sri Lankan cooking with is many vegetarian dishes gives testimony to the presence of a multi-ethic and multi-religious population.

Everyday classics like beef smoore and Jaffna crab curry are joined by luxurious feast dishes, such as nargisi kofta and green mango curry, once served to King Kasyapa in his 5th century sky place of Sigiriya.

Vegetable dishes include cashew curry, jackfruit curry, asparagus poriyal, tempered lentils, broccoli varai and lime-masala mushrooms. There are appetizers of chili-mango cashews, prawn lentil patties, fried mutton rolls, and ribbon tea sandwiches. Deviled chili eggs bring the heat, yet ginger-garlic chicken is mild enough for a small child. Desserts include Sri Lankan favourites: love cake, mango fluff, milk toffee and vattalappam, a richly spiced coconut custard.

In A Feast of Serendib, Mary Anne Mohanraj introduces her mother's cooking and her own Americanizations, providing a wonderful introduction to Sril Lankan American cooking, straightforward enough for a beginner, and nuanced enough to capture the flavor of Sri Lankan cooking.

Review:
Mary Anne started writing a Sri Lankan cook book as a present for her Mum, writing down some of her recipes. Her mother had had to make many adaptations when she came to the States in 1973, for example, using a tomato ketchup instead of coconut milk. Then Mary Anne herself kept changing the recipes further, adapting them to her tastes.
As Mary Anne says in the Introduction: "But I try to accept the truth, that I will likely never cook exactly how homeland Sri Lankans would. My adaptations of my mother's adaptations are still tasty".

Let's look at the list of contents:
Appetizers and Snacks
Eggs, Poultry and Meat contents
Fish and Seafood
Vegetables
Accompaniments
Grains
Drinks
Sweets

There is a good selection of recipes for meat eaters and vegetarians. I had a quick look at the section with Vegetable dishes (22 recipes), and most of them include coconut milk, and no dairy, so are suitable for vegans as well.

There are a couple of recipes in this section which include a Maldive fish as one of the optional ingredients. It is a staple of the Sri Lankan cuisine, but obviously that would change the recipes from vegetarian to pescatarian. I have tried to google for the vegetarian/vegan substitute for the Maldive fish, and it looks like a dark miso might be a possible candidate, but don't take my word for it. I haven't tried Maldive fish, so am not an expert on its taste or alternatives.

This book celebrates the best of the Sri Lankan cuisine.

I have bookmarked several recipes to try, like Milk toffee with cashews, Golden rice pilaf, green mango curry, mango pickle and others.

So far I have tried only one recipe from the book - Cashew Curry, which is a rich vegetarian/vegan dish. It would be great as part of a curry night, with several different curry dishes to mix and match.

I'm looking forward to expanding my curry repertoire. The recipes in the book seem easy to follow, and there are lots of little tips on the possible alternatives, if you cannot source the right ingredients.

This is a book for everyone who would like to be able to cook real Sri Lankan food. It includes a comprehensive and fascinating collection of mouthwatering recipes. Lovingly compiled, this cook book will appeal to both amateurs and committed foodies.

My only slight niggle is that I would have liked more photos in the book, as for me they are often the first thing which draws me to a recipe.
Another thing to keep in mind: as the cook book is written by an American author, the measurements are also American (i.e. cups, stick etc).

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I have an exclusive recipe for Ginger Garlic Chicken from the book.

Ginger-Garlic Chicken (recipe reproduced with permission from the publisher)
(30-90 minutes, serves 6-8)

The timing on this is so variable because you can either do it the long way described below, the way my mother recommends, which is definitely a bit tastier - or you can do a much faster version, where you mix the spices with the chicken, skip the marinating, and then just sauté the chicken in the pan on medium-high until cooked through and serve. I use both methods, mostly depending on how much of a hurry I'm in. Regardless of which method you use, this dish is best served fresh; if it sits, the chicken will tend to dry up and not be as tasty.
NOTE: This is my daughter's favourite chicken dish, and one she always greets with delight; she started eating it when she was about five, with no added chili powder. Over time, I've added a little more chilli powder when feeding it to both kids, serving with milk to help them along, you can also use black pepper if you'd prefer.

Photo credits: Mary Anne Mohanraj

Ingredients:
1 heaping tsp ginger powder
1 heaping tsp garlic powder
1 heaping tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
12 chicken thighs, about 2 lbs, deboned and cut bite-size
vegetable oil for frying
1/2 to 2 heaping tsp red chili powder (to taste, optional)

1. Mix first four spices in a large bowl, add chicken pieces and rub with your hands until well coated. Marinate 1/2 hour.
2. Heat oil on high; add chili powder (if using) and cook 15 seconds, stirring.
3. Add chicken and sear on high, turning to brown all sides.
4. Reduce heat to low and cover; cook approximately 15-20 minutes, until meat is cooked through.
5. Uncover and cook until all the liquid is gone.
6. Tilt pan and push chicken pieces to one side; allow excess oil to drain to one side for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to dish and serve hot.

NOTE: If reheating a day or two later, I recommend reheating in a pan with a little coconut milk; just simmer 5-10 minutes, enough for the milk to thicken with the spices into a nice sauce. Or serve dry chicken with a nice coconut-milky vegetable curry, like carrot or beetroot curry.

About the Author:
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion (HarperCollins), The Stars Change (Circlet Press) and 13 other titles. Bodies in Motion was a finalist for the Asian American Book Awards, a USA Today Notable Book, and has been translated into six languages. The Stars Change was a finalist for the Lambda, Rainbow, and Bisexual Book Awards.
Monhanraj founded the Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning speculative literature magazine, Strange Horizons, and also founded Jaggery, as S.Asian & S.Asian diaspora literary journal.
She received a Breaking Barriers Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women for her work in Asian American art organizing, won and Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose, and was Guest of Honour at WisCon. She serves as Director of two literary organisations, DesiLit and The Speculative Literature Foundation. She serves on the futurist boards of the Xprize and Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and lives in a creaky old Victorian in Oak Park, just outside Chicago, with her husband, their two small children, and a sweet dog. Recent publications include stories for George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series, stories at Clarkesworld, Asimov's, and Lightspeed, and an essay in Roxane Gay's Unruly Bodies. 2017-18 titles include Survivor (a SF/F anthology), Perennial, Invisible 3 (co-edited with Jim C. Hines), and Vegan Serendib.

Social Media Links
Facebook - Mary A. Mohanraj
Twitter - @mamohanraj
Instagram - @maryannemohanraj
Website: www.maryannmohanraj.com and http://serendibkitchen.com

Disclosure: Many thanks to Mary Anne Mohanraj, Serendib Press and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

This post is part of the blog tour, you can discover more recipes from the book here, for example, a recipe for a vegetarian Beet curry on ShortBookandScribes:

Giveaway:
If you enjoy exploring the world cuisines and love the sound of this book, the lovely people from Serendib Press have offered an e-copy of A Feast of Serendib as a giveaway prize for my blog readers.

T&Cs:
1. The giveaway is open internationally.
2. Giveaway ends on 3 July 2019 (midnight).
3. To be in with a chance of winning, please leave a comment, answering a question:
Have you tried Sri Lankan food, and what is your favourite Sri Lankan dish? (If you haven't tried, which dish would you like to try first?)
4. If you are leaving a comment as Anon, make sure there is your name or username so that I can get in touch with you. If you have a Twitter name, that's the easiest way to contact you if you win.
5. I will contact the winner regarding their email address after the closing date. If they do not reply within 7 days, the prize will be allocated to another person.

Good luck!

Rustlers Burger Hacking Challenge

I think the abbreviation TGIF was invented for my family. Schoolday mornings are usually a painful affair. I get up first, plod to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for my guys, then it's time to wake them up, and oh boy, nobody is happy when I open the curtains in bedrooms.
Fridays are typically more cheerful, because there's a weekend ahead, and for Eddie, it's an extra special day as his best friend Peter is coming home with us after school.
The boys play and live Minecraft, so I leave them to it, offering snacks and drinks, and asking them to have a break from playing. They are days when they play chess, or some board games, but recently it's been Minecraft.
On Friday morning when we go to school, I ask Eddie what his friend and he would like to have for dinner. His choices are usually not very varied - pizza or burgers.

Last Friday I offered them a new burger - Rustlers Southern Chicken Burger. These burgers come with sachets of lightly peppered mayo.
Each chopped and shaped chicken burger is coated with a southern fried breadcrumb and comes in a sesame seeded bun.
Calorie wise it is 410kcal per burger.

If you read my blog even occasionally, you know that I enjoy cooking from scratch, but I also love shortcuts which allow me to have a break from cooking. With a special needs child who eats the same food on a daily basis, I tend to cook several different meals every day, to adapt to my family's needs and tastes (Sash and Eddie eats different meals, and now my husband decided to go vegetarian, so often it feels like I'm running a restaurant).
And there are days when I'm pretty knackered to do a restaurant shift.

Recently BritMums got in touch with parenting bloggers, asking to take part in Rustlers Burger Hacking Challenge. All participants received a £20 Tesco gift card to spend on products.

I confess that I haven't tried Rustlers before, I tend to buy fresh burgers which need cooking on grill or in the oven.
I was impressed to discover that Rustlers chicken burgers use only the finest quality chicken, fully traceable to the farm of origin. That is deserving commendation.
Twin packs offer smaller than average burgers (at just 140g each), so they are great for kids - handy to hold and easy to bite into.

Burgers out of packaging, before being cooked

Just pop them into a microwave for 90 seconds and add whichever toppings you fancy.
You don't necessarily need a microwave. We don't have one: I just heated up the burgers in the oven, and toasted the buns. I think buns should be toasted, even if you microwave the burgers.

Since both boys love pickles, I offered them a small dish of gherkins to go with burgers, plus a pink slaw (white and red cabbage, with carrot and red onion in cider vinegar) and a three bean salad with sweet corn and red pepper.
I am not going to take credit for either slaw or salad. The slaw was courtesy Tesco (and it's one of my favourites which I buy often), while the salad is from M&S.
Later they had a mango sorbet (which is Eddie's favourite ice cream).

What did we think of Rustlers?
They are handy to have in the fridge for quick and easy meals, either during the week or at the weekend.
You can be as creative as you like with all kinds of toppings and sides, be it fries, slaw or salad - for a balanced meal. The appeal of burgers, Rustlers or any other, is that you are able to personalise your meal to suit your tastes.
For example, our boys didn't fancy any peppered mayo. In fact, Eddie dislikes mayo with passion. But he loves ketchup, which works perfectly well with the burger.
The burgers disappeared very fast, and got thumbs up from both boys.

Eddie enjoyed his burger so much that we bought another pack on Sunday as a quick pre-cinema meal ( we went to see Early Man).

I used the leftover sachets of mayo to cook small sized Portobellini mushrooms - spread with peppered mayo and later topped with sliced smoked scamorza cheese, and cooked until the cheese melts.

How do you eat burgers? What are your favourite flavour combinations?

If you're looking for ideas on how to serve burgers, check out what some other family bloggers created for the Rustlers Burger Hacking Challenge:
Rustling up a manic midweek fakeaway (Madhouse Family Reviews)
Rustlers Burger Hacking Challenge (Dragons and Fairy Dust)

This post is an entry for BritMums "Rustlers Burger Hacking Challenge", sponsored by Rustlers.

Disclosure: Please do not be confused by the term "sponsored", this was not a paid for post. I received a £20 Tesco voucher to buy the burgers, which I still haven't had a chance to use two months later.

Strawberry, avocado and tomato salsa

"It's just another manic Monday, I wish it were Sunday"... or even better summer holidays. I am sooo tired of school. School mornings are a grim affair. Eddie gets up with an "I hate school" motto, though by the time he actually arrives to school, he is usually cheerful and eager to meet his friends.
I have just had another espresso to keep me going. After the weekend there is usually so much to do. The house looks like Genghis Khan and his army went through and stayed overnight, horses and all.
Instead of clearing the mess I am procrastinating, catching up on yesterday's episode of Poldark.
On Saturday Eddie and I went to see Despicable Me 3. Eddie liked it a lot, I wasn't so enthusiastic.

Our latest Degustabox delivery was over a week ago, and I still haven't used any of the recipe mixes in sachets. On Sunday I bought a whole chicken, partly for making soup, partly for roasting with a Pulled Chicken spice mix for pulled chicken sandwiches.
To complement the meal, I made a quick and easy salsa, with whatever ingredients I found in the kitchen. I had fresh tomatoes and a piece of cucumber, tinned sweetcorn, an avocado and a handful of strawberries.

1 medium avocado
2 medium tomatoes
3 big strawberries
1/3 cucumber
4 heaped tbsp sweetcorn
1/2tsp onion granules
1tbsp chilli-flavoured oil
1tbsp lime juice
1tbsp chopped fresh mint

The recipe couldn't be easier. Just chop all the ingredients, season with sea salt, chilli oil, lime juice, add onion granules (or fresh thinly sliced onion) and mix well. Make it just before you are going to eat.

For the roast chicken I used a sachet of Schwartz BBQ Pulled Chicken mix, which promises an authentic American flavour. It adds a rich smokey flavour to meat. Ingredients include caster sugar, salt, onion powder, smoked paprika, molasses powder, garlic powder, flavourings such as barley and mustard, malt extract and more. You just need to add 2tbsp of tomato ketchup and water to mix a paste, which you then rub into chicken before roasting. I have added juice of 1/2 lime to the paste.

Baxters Hearty range of soup

December is always a hectic month. What, with all the shopping and planning festive meals, school fayres, Nativity and Christingle, helping with end of term homework, I am feeling on the verge of collapse. Thanks goodness, the school is over for a while.
When you need a meal in a hurry, a soup is often the answer, especially when "the weather outside is frightful".
I'm a decent cook, and often make soup from scratch. But at lunchtime, when my guys are at school and work, I sometimes opt for a ready-made soup. Thankfully, in the last month I had help from Baxters.
Baxters Hearty range of soup offers a selection of recipes from around the world.

Hearty Tuscan Style Bean, Bacon & Pecorino if full of Meditteranean flavours.
This wholesome soup contains 3 of your 5 a day, no artificial colours or flavours
The blurb on the back of the tin says: "Inspired by my Italian travels, I created this taste of the Mediterranean by combining double smoked bacon with a medley of borlotti, cannellini and pinto beans. The distinctive, sharp and salty flavour of the Pecorino cheese adds another dimension to this recipe"
Ingredients include mixed beans, tomatoes, onions, tomato paste, courgette, red pepper, smoked bacon, green peppers, Pecorino cheese etc.
It could be included in a 5:2 diet or any low cal diet, as this is a low fat meal with 244kcal per can. It could do with lowering the amount of sugar as well, as it has 12.4g of sugar in a tin.
I love chunky Italian-style soups, and this soup follows the classic recipe.

Hearty Chicken & Sweetcorn Chowder is another classic recipe. Sweetcorn chowder is the ultimate comfort food, creamy and packed with flavour.
Soup stats: 1 of your five a day; 296kcal per can.
"This recipe cheers up even the dullest day! A rich and creamy soup made with a delicious blend of succulent chicken, potatoes, sweetcorn and a generous splash of double cream. A sprinkling of thyme is the finishing touch which compliments the chicken beautifully!"

Hearty Smoked Red Lentil & Smoked Bacon soup contains 2 of your 5 a day. I love red lentils-based soups, and often add them to whichever soup I'm cooking, they bulk up any soup nicely.
"The double smoked bacon in this delightful recipe combines perfectly with pureed red lentils & vegetables to create this wholesome & warming soup. The final touches are a warming blend of spices - coriander, turmeric, ginger & chilli to name but a few".
I do love spices in soup, but this was quite hot for my personal taste. A bit too heavy on the chilli. Perhaps a good spoonful of Greek style yogurt or soured cream would make reduce the heat.
Calorie-wise it counts 272kcal per can.

Hearty Beef, Bean & Vegetable soup is a traditional combination of flavours.
At 2 of your 5 a day and 188kcal per can, it will make a lovely lunch. Many people go on a diet in January or start counting the calories, and this chunky tasty soup could be just the thing.

"This recipe is big on fill and flavour. Tender pieces of beef are combined with chunky vegetables & cannellini beans to create this wholesome, hearty soup. A cheeky splash of red wine to enhance the flavour just finishes it off nicely".
I enjoyed this soup, but I have to say, it could do with more beef, it was more of a beef-flavoured soup as the chunks of beef were but a few and very small.

Hearty Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato, Chilli & Lime soup was my top favourite from the range. I love sweet potato and butternut squash, and lime adds a lovely zing to the sweet and earthy soup.
Stats: 3 of your 5 a day+ 232kcal
"For me this soup is a real treat! Butternut squash & sweet potato are such versatile ingredients. Blended with a selection of warming spices and finished off with some red chilli and a squeeze of lime, this recipe is truly delicious!"

I haven't yet tried the sixth flavour - Country vegetable, but expect it to be as hearty and flavourful as all the soups in the range.

Have you tried the Hearty range? Which flavour is your favourite?

Disclosure: I received a selection of Baxters Hearty soup for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are my own.

Back to school with HelloFresh

HelloFresh meal - Yoghurt and Dukkah Crusted Chicken with Aubergine and Bulgur Wheat

September whizzed by, with back to the school routine, my Mum staying for a month, my in-laws visiting for a week, long-planned trip to London for a cooking masterclass in the Italian restaurant, volunteering at school and much more crammed in.
Just this week I went on a school trip to the museum with Eddie's class, did a reading class, attended the Harvest Festival service at the church today and baked cupcakes for the fundraising event.
I enjoy cooking, but sometimes preparing a varied menu on a daily basis could be more of an onus rather than pleasure.
I envy those organised people who plan their meals a week in advance, I surely do, but as much as I admire their organisational skills, it just doesn't happen in my life.
I appreciate all the help I can get, and was very happy to have a helping hand from HelloFresh this month.

Every week Head Chef Patrick and his team create new recipes with step-by-step photos. No planning on your part is involved, all has been done for you by the team.
You don't need to take long lists to the supermarket (I'm also known for writing long lists and then leaving them at home), traipse through the aisles and also buy a lot of random things just because they were on offer or caught your eye (does it sound familiar? I sometimes go in the supermarket to buy a bottle of milk and some bread, and end up with a full shopping basket).
So relax, it's all being done for you. All the ingredients arrive in exact quantities needed for three (or more) big meals.
All the foods arrive in a chilled recipe box - you can choose a day. Delivery is free too.
You can choose one of the three possible boxes - Classic, Veggie and Family; a size - from 2 to 4 people and the quantity of meals.
I had a good look at all the boxes, and it was a difficult choice. All the recipes looked delicious. As we're omnivores, I have selected a Classic Box with 3 recipes. Each meal comes at £4.92, a very reasonable price for a big creative meal.
The Classic box came chilled, the ice in the box hasn't even melted completely in the cooler pads.
All the meat, vegetables and herbs looked fresh.

There were three kinds of meat for three recipes - chicken breasts, beef steaks and a pork oregano sausage, as well as some dairy products - feta cheese and natural yogurt.

There was a wide selection of vegetables, herbs, spices and condiments.

Each card has a photo of the final meal, an easy guide on which ingredients you will need to prepare the dish and a concise step-by-step.

The first recipe I have prepared was Yoghurt and Dukkah Crusted Chicken with Aubergine and Bulgur Wheat. I butterflied the chicken breasts as suggested in the technique tip. Bulgur wheat was very easy to prepare. Aubergine and peppers were roasted on the tray in the oven, so it was just the matter of cutting and chucking it all in the oven.

The chicken was cooked in the oven, smothered with yogurt and sprinkled with dukkah spice. I haven't tried this Egyptian spice mix before. If like me you are not familiar with dukkah, this is a tasty spice mix made with celery, sesame seeds, chopped almonds, walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. thyme, coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprika, black pepper and sea salt.
As it was the first time I cooked with dukkah, I have halved the amount of the spice mix. The combination of yogurt and dukkah works very well. The chicken was moist and flavourful.

It was a delicious meal, full of beautiful flavours.
The portions were very generous. We had plenty of couscous left for the next day's lunch.

The second meal was a Courgette, Broad Bean and Feta Orzotto with Pork Meatballs. This one was
the most time-consuming of the three recipes, as you also had to pod the broad beans.

It was a creative recipe but it did require quite a bit of ingredients. I have felt that there was no need for the peashoots leaves. They made the final dish prettier, but there was enough food on the plate without them. My impression - and I do mean it kindly - that whoever created this recipe, was over-enthusiastic. Sometimes less is better.
We also ended up with too much of the orzotto. It was a big pot, enough not just for the family of four but for a mini-army. I have packaged half of the orzotto into small plastic containers and put in the freezer.
I have finished cooking it in the pot in the oven, as it kept getting stuck to the big pan on the stove.

To speed up the cooking, the meatballs were made from the skinned pork oregano sausage. Because of the sausage texture, the meatballs were a bit dense. When I make my own meatballs, they have a fluffier texture. Saying that, they tasted lovely, with just the right balance of oregano.

Finally I cooked Seared Steak with Crispy Potato Salad. I love a good old potato salad, and this potato salad with green beans didn't disappoint. It was flavoured with roast tomatoes and garlic. I also love olives, so for me this was a win-win recipe. I didn't use all the potatoes at once.
I do tend to cook my steak well done, so it might look too dark for rare beef eaters. This is just a personal choice.

Verdict: The portions are very generous. The quality of ingredients is excellent.
I enjoy cooking, but having a break from planning and shopping was a big bonus. It is a real treat for me when someone else takes care of the menu planning. It was very convenient to have all the ingredients prepared. It was particularly helpful this month, as getting back into the school routine sucked all my energy.
Readjusting to early mornings and a bigger daily load of washing and ironing, plus helping with school homework and volunteering, I appreciated the convenience of HelloFresh service.

If you like the look of these recipes, you can download all of them in HelloFresh Archives section - for these meals go for September 2016.

Disclosure: I received HelloFresh Classic box for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Adventures at Thaikhun, Oxford

We often get invitations to visit and review cafes and restaurants, but the majority of these events happen in London. I always politely decline the invitations as travelling to London and back home would involve a whole day. There are too many factors to take into consideration - like travel costs, organising a childminder for our older son who wouldn't be interested in eating out etc etc.
A few days ago I received an email, asking if we'd like to visit Thaikhun in Oxford and sample their newly launched menu for children.
Wednesday the 19th was the day when Thai street food restaurant Thaikhun has hosted its official kids menu launch party.

Eddie is a social animal who loves meeting new people, and he was very excited to go to Oxford with me. We caught a bus to Oxford, hoping to be in time for the start of the event. The bus was crawling sooo slowly, and it was unbearably hot inside. By the time we arrived at Thaikhun we were flustered, red and sweating, not the most elegant sight.

Friendly staff accompanied us to our reserved table. Eddie was most excited to find lots of balloons floating above the chairs. Kids and balloons. Such simple things keep them entertained for ages. Eddie played with the balloons and was thrilled to find out we could take them home.
This was our first visit to Thaikhun, and I was curious to see the interior. It is a treasure trove of objects and artefacts which gives an authentic feel to the dining experience.

The ceiling is decorated with all kinds of exotic lanterns and bells.

Eddie was happy to chat to two young lads sitting at the table next to ours. They all seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere. Eddie even told me enthusiastically "This is the best restaurant ever".

The team at Thaikhun has been working with a team of children who did the taste testing of the new menu.

As you can see from the menu, you could choose one option from each column: jasmine rice or plain noodles, grilled chicken or pork or mixed vegetables and no nuts satay sauce or sweet BBQ sauce or slightly spicy green curry.
Each kids' meal comes with carrot and cucumber sticks to start. We also had a big bowl of crackers and a small dipping bowl of sweet chilli sauce, which was mildly spicy.

And the most adventurous bit - free creepy crawlies are served with every meal! Not for faint-hearted the sight of these dried Buffalo worms. I thought they looked revolting unappetising. These crunchy critters are freeze-dried and are packed with protein.

Oh my, worms for lunch?!

I could have never imagined that my very fussy eater will be brave enough to sample the creepy crawlies. But having seen the other lads eating them, he decided he was sport enough to give it a go. My brave son has tried the first worm very cautiously, then grinned and said he liked it. Soon enough, he was happily munching on a few more.

Eddie loves rice, so he decided to try rice with vegetables and sweet BBQ sauce. He enjoyed the sauce, ate all the carrots but wasn't keen on broccoli.

My suggestion for the vegetable option for kids is to expand the choice of vegetables. Serving just carrots and broccoli seems like an incomplete meal. How about adding some green beans, courgettes, sweet peppers and other veg? It would be more colourful and appetising. It did look like a side dish rather than a main course.

The sweet BBQ sauce was flavourful and got top marks from Eddie. He also liked the jasmine rice.

I was also offered to choose a starter and a main for myself.
For the starter I fancied a dish of dumplings or Ka Nom Jeeb. The menu says "an age old Chinese import, dumplings have become a real street food favourite with us in Thailand". I opted for steamed vegetables dumplings, but you can also choose pork and prawn-filled dumplings. It was a lovely light starter.

I have also ordered a Geang Kiew Wan or Thai green curry, cooked with chicken, courgettes. green beans and fresh Thai basil. It was served with a fragrant sticky jasmine rice. The curry was delicious though a tad on the hot side (there were generous slices of fresh red chilli in the sauce). This classic dish was aromatic and full of flavours.

When we were leaving, Eddie got a Thaikhun goodie bag with a portion of creepy crawlies. He is very tempted to take them to his birthday party on Sunday and treat his guests.
What do you think, should we put some worms in the party bags?!

Disclosure: Eddie and I were invited to have a free meal at Thaikhun to sample a new menu for children. All opinions are ours.