We’re the Ostmo family, and we love learning about countries and people. Our oldest daughter, Melaya, has tons of friends all around the world and some of them love cooking with herds and spices!

Do you like cooking? What are your favorite herbs and spices?

Lee’s Dad Uses Thyme to Cook

Melaya has a friend named Lee from Taiwan, a country in Asia. Lee’s dad owns a restaurant. Lee is an amazing cook. He loves mixing different spices, herbs, and condiments in his dishes. His favorite dish is chicken stew.  He uses thyme to make his chicken stew. Thyme is a herb with a distinct smell. Flowers, leaves, and oil are commonly used to flavor foods and are also used as medicine.

He always has an appetite for chicken stew. Appetite is the desire to satisfy your hungry stomach. What food do you like eating? When you are hungry, how much food can you eat?

In Paris Charlotte Bakes with Cinnamon

Melaya has a friend from Paris, France named Charlotte. Charlotte likes to bake. In a conversation with melaya last week, she said she can guess the names of ingredients in any pastry. Amazing right? That’s how much she loves pastries. Her favorite ingredient for baking is cinnamon. She loves adding them to her pastries when baking. She loves the aroma and the taste of the pastries when she’s done. Her favorite pastry is bread.

Do you like baking? What is your favorite pastry?

Lakshmi From India Uses Pepper to Make her Food Spicy

In India, 4,000 miles from London lives Lakshmi a friend of Melaya. Last time they talked, Lakshmi explained how much she loves spicy food. She said her grandma loves spicy food too. Their favorite spice to use is Indian red chili. When Lakshmi’s grandma’s food has no red chili in it, she gets a little annoyed. At first, Lakshmi’s mouth hurt a lot whenever she ate spicy food, but over the years, she has gotten used to it and now she likes it.

Do you like spicy food like Lakshmi? 

Jocelyn in Norway Loves Lavender

Lavender is a sweet-smelling herb with a lot of health benefits. In Norway, over 1,000 miles from London lives Jocelyn a friend of Melaya. During a conversation last week, Jocelyn told mealy about her family garden. She told Melaya about the beautiful and amazing herbs and spices they have planted. Her favorite is lavender. She is very discreet when picking them from the garden. Jocelyn loves lavender because of its many uses. She hopes to one day become a botanist and study more herbs and spices.

What would you like to be when you grow up?

Basil is Melaya’s Grandma’s Favorite Herb and She Uses it to Cook Delicious Pesto Sauce

Cooking in the kitchen takes lots of different ingredients, but each one has its specific flavor, color, and aroma. Melaya’s grandma always makes sure all ingredients are accounted for before she prepares her delicious meal.

Melaya’s grandma makes a delicious Pesto sauce, she uses fresh basil, basil is a type of herb that has a strong smell that can overpower other ingredients. Sometimes Melaya eats the pesto sauce with bread, vanilla is what makes her grandma’s bread special. Vanilla is a spice that adds flavor and aroma to food.

Melaya looks forward to using other types of herbs and spices to cook like mint and Garlic. 

Tell us in the comments what your favorite herbs ad spices are! If mom and dad are reading with you, please use @learningtail on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to keep in touch!

If you want to learn more about different herbs and spices, make sure to download the activity pack, we have flashcards, a learning guide, handwriting sheets, and drawings pages all dedicated to various herbs and spices!

Also, Melaya loves chatting with kids from all over the world! If you want to teach Melaya about where you live or your favorite activities, please tell your mom or dad to get in touch with us on social media. 

Ciao friends, until next time!