Great Grub from the Meerkat Café: A Safari Cooking Adventure in Your Own Burrow Hardcover – March 30, 2020

This is not your ordinary cookbook. Yes, recipes abound, but this book gives so much more, for all ages. Author Pam Bennett-Wallberg makes sure that each page is packed with fascinating facts about the animals and insects that live in the Kalahari Desert, home to the meerkats (Did you know that a cockroach can run 3 miles per hour?). As well, African proverbs provide thought, hope, and life lessons (My favorite: Patience and Love can cook a stone). You’ll find that you stay on each page longer than you had planned!The illustrations are remarkable. We are provided a rare, realistic glimpse of the abundant wildlife of the desert. Most breathtaking are those depicting meerkats standing tall to honor the sunset, the colors and shading making you look up to search for the actual source of the sun. Illustrator Kristen Perry realizes that not everyone may meet a meerkat, as I have been blessed to do; her portraits of these animated animals capture authentically their actual stances, poses, gestures, and expressions.And yes, there are the recipes. You can actually make these tasty main and side dishes and desserts, which are sprinkled with a bit of humor and the perfect level of “Yuck! Gross!” that will draw children and the young at heart to help prepare and dine. For example, you may want to follow the author’s advice to replace the chopped millipedes with uncooked macaroni, or the lice with sesame seeds. Oh, and do remove the legs of buckspoor spiders (deviled ham) and the wings of locusts (ground beef) since they can get caught in your teeth.This delightfully resourceful book is not one to be read once. It is not one to be stored on the shelf. It is every bit as playful, enjoyable, and stunning as meerkats themselves.

I must confess. I am a big old softy when it comes to tiny meerkats. I’ve always been a big fan of the little critters. About 10 years ago I discovered a meerkat sanctuary near Palm Springs, California called Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Sanctuary. Not surprisingly, it is run by the delightful Pam Bennett-Wallberg who is the author of Great Grub from the Meerkat Café and who is a member of the prestigious Royal Geographical Society in London.Inspired by her life long passion for the little “earth menchen” (aka meerkats) this book is a wonderful compilation of recipes, African proverbs and meerkat animal facts. These are all accompanied by marvelous and humorous illustrations by Kristen Perry.The recipes are quite interesting whether or not you choose to use the original ingredients (I mean, it’s pretty hard to find dung beetles in Southern California) or the substitutes. Not only are the recipes delicious, the facts about the unusual ingredients used by the meerkats at their cafe :) are fascinating. Even if you don’t cook, perusing this volume, appreciating the amazing artwork that illustrates it or just enjoying the narratives throughout, this book is a treat.I highly recommend this tome for you, your children or anyone you know who is an animal lover.

Yo people what are you waiting for....this book will sell out soon....Author and Director of Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Center Pam Bennett-Wallberg had an excellent idea to write this far-fetched extraordinary one of a kind cookbook.....the illustration is truly fantastic....well written and amazingEach page describe some meerkats facts, their daily adventurous activity in the Kalahari Desert and their family way of bondingEach page "food for thought" have enough shocking bug description that the children will be squirmy screaming with delightThe recipes with peculiar ingredients are appealing to an individual who has impeccable palate...positively ain't me....not even closeI made the "Fruit Fly Smoothie"....oh so yummylicious during this stay at home hot days...I hope mama meerkat didn't mind me using her kitchen deep in her burrow....next time I will try making the "Termite Casserole"...the creepy-crawlies ingredients will be on sale soon at Trader Joes.....lolThis recipe book will definitely be your favorite and mine.....curiously stimulating reading book material...Surely Chef Andrew Zimmern's whose culinary curiosity knows no bounds will visit mama meerkat burrow to feature her "Great Grub Meerkat Cafe" on the TV Travel Show "Bizarre Foods Delicious Destinations".....stay tune

Having been to the meerkat preserve and being friends with Pam, I immediately bought this book and treasure it. This book is beautifully bound, the pages thicker than normal paper and sturdy. The illustrations are just beautiful! The recipes are for food made by Meerkats, which are for real food you can make at home, using local substitutes instead of African insects. Great fun to use to cook with your kids. I handed the book to my granddaughter and the look on her face was priceless as she read the ingredients. She even asked where we could buy the bugs! Buy this book and support the Fellow Earthlings Wildlife Center. Buy it for yourself, for presents for your kids and grandkids, for anyone with a sense of humor. Spend some fun time with your kids and grandkids making Spaghetti with Grasshopper Heads, Centipedes in blankets, Assassin Bug Bread, Chocolate Moth Brownies and a host of other creative recipes.