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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
What I liked:
This book had basically everything I was expecting! There were foods I had never heard of, great photography and illustrations throughout, and enough information with every entry that if anything took my fancy more than a little it was easy enough to track down more information. I also really appreciated the sections that were about a phenomenon rather than one specific food, like certain places to find a type of restaurant, for example.
What I didn't like:
Always hard to find things I didn't like about a 5* book, but if I had to pick something it would be that I wish some of the entries that were clearly dealing with famous widely available regional foods had listed more than one restaurant in the "how to try" area. However, being pointed at a specific place as an especially good example of something never hurts either.
Overall:
If you're interested in food or food history, this is a great book. It doesn't go into depth on any one food, choosing to instead cover a vast number of dishes across the entire world. Its strength is as an introduction to what is out there, or as a great coffee table book due to the colourful pictures throughout and short entries
What I liked:
This book had basically everything I was expecting! There were foods I had never heard of, great photography and illustrations throughout, and enough information with every entry that if anything took my fancy more than a little it was easy enough to track down more information. I also really appreciated the sections that were about a phenomenon rather than one specific food, like certain places to find a type of restaurant, for example.
What I didn't like:
Always hard to find things I didn't like about a 5* book, but if I had to pick something it would be that I wish some of the entries that were clearly dealing with famous widely available regional foods had listed more than one restaurant in the "how to try" area. However, being pointed at a specific place as an especially good example of something never hurts either.
Overall:
If you're interested in food or food history, this is a great book. It doesn't go into depth on any one food, choosing to instead cover a vast number of dishes across the entire world. Its strength is as an introduction to what is out there, or as a great coffee table book due to the colourful pictures throughout and short entries
From 500 fermented birds in a seal skin in Greenland to the research base kitchens in the Antarctic authors Wong and Thuras cover the globe with fascinating meals and historical facts.
Lots of pictures and info in paragraph sized chunks. The book is divided by general region- Asia, Europe, America, south america etc.
Lots of pictures and info in paragraph sized chunks. The book is divided by general region- Asia, Europe, America, south america etc.
Very cool idea but many of the blurbs are duplicated in different sections...
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Funny and easy to read then put down.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the title.
If you're a fan of Atlas Obscura, you're going to love this. It's a food-focused book that feels great for flipping through rather than cover to cover, and though some of this stuff felt very familiar as someone who loves sites like AO and Mental Floss, there's a lot of gems.
If you're a fan of Atlas Obscura, you're going to love this. It's a food-focused book that feels great for flipping through rather than cover to cover, and though some of this stuff felt very familiar as someone who loves sites like AO and Mental Floss, there's a lot of gems.
Gastro Obscura explores the world through what it eats, and sometimes, what it shouldn't eat. The book is divided up by location, with lots of illustrations, captions, and sidebars, and most stories take no more than a page or two to tell, so it can be read piecemeal (sorry) or cover to cover. Regular readers of Atlas Obscura, Mental Floss, and other such sites will know some of these stories, but there is still plenty to learn and digest (sorry again). My one wish would be for more citations and/or an index to learn more about certain sections.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
Based on the Atlas Obscura style, this book features curiosities and tales of foods eaten around the world. This subject has taken on new significance with the mutation of the corona virus caused by the consumption of snakes and bats in China. There are common food items throughout the world. Examples are dumplings like Jewish matzah balls are eaten in about every geographic area, and using insects and worms for protein sources.
This makes a good coffee table book or waiting room book. It has a lot of pictures and call out boxes as well as manageable sections of texts about food, agriculture, restaurants, wineries, and festivals from a variety of countries throughout the world.
The book is organized by continents, so you read 60 to 80 pages (or so) about food from Africa to Oceana to Europe to Asia to the Middle East to the Americas (and more--Antarctica!
It's very interesting to learn about various beverages, baked goods, meats, insects, and produce that are consumed by people all over the world. It's all too easy to claim that some foods look unappetizing, when we probably have some totally yucky food in the US that we eat, but we area acclimated to it, so we don't realize how bad it is. (OK, I do realize how bad cheap, milk chocolate is here as well as how bad our many fried foods are. GAH!)
Anyway, it was very fascinating to take a world tour by focusing on each region's foods.
The book is organized by continents, so you read 60 to 80 pages (or so) about food from Africa to Oceana to Europe to Asia to the Middle East to the Americas (and more--Antarctica!
It's very interesting to learn about various beverages, baked goods, meats, insects, and produce that are consumed by people all over the world. It's all too easy to claim that some foods look unappetizing, when we probably have some totally yucky food in the US that we eat, but we area acclimated to it, so we don't realize how bad it is. (OK, I do realize how bad cheap, milk chocolate is here as well as how bad our many fried foods are. GAH!)
Anyway, it was very fascinating to take a world tour by focusing on each region's foods.
informative
slow-paced
It's the next best thing to traveling-- no, it's probably better than traveling now in these times to read the comprehensive and far-ranging articles on the quirky and rich details of foods around the world. Beautiful work.