Sometimes culinary books don’t pop up as standalone books; they sneak into your hands when you look for series books like the next Nancy Drew or Harry Potter book. (Harry Potter would count as a culinary series.)
We delve into the fun of How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse, Book 4 in the How to Train Your Dragon series, with a bird-hunt on skis. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Hiccup for short, learns that his best friend Fishlegs has Vorpentitis, a disease that only the Unnamed Vegetable can cure.

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Yes, Hiccup has to find a potato in Britain’s rainiest island, before the Americas have been discovered, and the only Viking with a potato is an ax-crazy Hysteric, Norbert the Nutjob. Hiccup has also shot Norbert’s buttock with an arrow, so the Hysteric won’t give up his prized potato easily.

As you may imagine, the Potato Quest was the first reason I chose Dragon’s Curse as a culinary book. In addition, food becomes a big part in helping and hindering the quest; a large pot of onion soup breaks Hiccup’s fall into a Hysteric banquet but announces his presence to an angry Norbert. Toothless, Hiccup’s disobedient tiny dragon, insists on filling his belly before rescuing Hiccup from a hanging cage. And with no sword to defend himself, Hiccup uses a food fight to turn a Viking’s large banquet into an advantage against armed soldiers.

I also find Dragon’s Curse as my favorite HTTYD book because Hiccup for the first time takes charge of destiny. The gods don’t like this red-headed, thirteen-year old “weirdo” and do all they can to break him. When a friend’s life is on the line, however, Hiccup will defy bad luck and ignore the signs of doom. (Of course, the books only get darker from here, with Hiccup trying to fulfill a destiny that others keep shattering.) Also, a certain villain does NOT return from the dead and gives us a break from his treachery. No kid could be a better hero, and no book could be a better bridge from childhood heroics to maturity's trauma.