A delightfully delicious YouTube series featuring a pint-sized Japanese girl with an adventurous appetite has become quite the viral smash.
The series, "Rino which eats world various dishes," shows the tiny tot -- 3-year-old Rino -- tucking into a variety of elaborate, international dishes created painstakingly by her mom.
There's Rino eating tiramisu, angel food cake, pad thai and pho, as well as zuccotto, madeleines and scones. Sometimes, Rino's little brother also makes an appearance in the clips -- much to the little girl's chagrin.
With Rino's heart-crushingly cute antics and squeals of appreciation for the diverse dishes her mom prepares for her, it's no surprise that these clips have become quite so popular. (For instance, the video of Rino eating the Korean dishes jap-chae and bibimbap has racked up more than 50,000 views.) However, as Buzzfeed's Emily Fleischaker points out, the videos -- as cute as they are -- may also carry a more serious message for parents and kids about food culture.
"[The series is also] about how picky eating is a cultural construct," Fleischaker writes, quoting food blogger Michele Humes.
She adds:
We don't all have time to launch a cooking channel on YouTube. (Rino's mom's cooking channel is even more impressive.) But there's something to be said for celebrating diverse food with your child early on, especially when it gets you to spend time together in a relaxed, fun way.
In a HuffPost blog post about how to get kids to try new foods, Charity Mathews, founder of Foodlets.com, encouraged caretakers to be enthusiastic about new dishes and to make the dining experience "fancy" and fun.
What do you think of Rino's eating series? Watch some of them on YouTube here, and tell us in the comments below.