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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
funny
informative
medium-paced
Bouncing Meatballs!
Starter Museum!
Spaghetti Ice Cream!
Pretty good grouping though I am wondering why the restaurant in the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian was included - the NAMAAHC is included. The book is nice little short bits so you can dip in and out. I like the bit about the science stations in Antartica.
Starter Museum!
Spaghetti Ice Cream!
Pretty good grouping though I am wondering why the restaurant in the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian was included - the NAMAAHC is included. The book is nice little short bits so you can dip in and out. I like the bit about the science stations in Antartica.
As usual, this is probably better as a "read a bit then put it down" book but library + stuck in 2 rooms with covid means I needed to get through it. Really interesting. I appreciate that it wasn't US-centric but instead started with Europe then Asia - Oceana-before coming to the Americas. Some were fascinating, many disgusting to my tastes, peculiar, disturbing. Not quite as many for New England as I expected, and none I knew. Learned quite a bit.
A wonderfully weird book that takes you on a journey around the world through food.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Fascinating, if a bit uneven. People eat some weird stuff - fruit bat stew, birds nests, - and store cheese in weird places.
Fun to pick up and browse.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reading copy.
Fun to pick up and browse.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reading copy.
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Such a fun book to read! A good mix of stuff you’d never try in a million years but is so fun to hear about and places you can actually incorporate into a trip, with great historical background.
As a person who loves both bits of trivia (the stranger the better) and food, this was the book for me. I will be buying it for my home library, even at a time when I've switched to mostly buying ebooks so as to not have to buy more bookshelves or get rid of books.
Someday when I possibly regret trying some of the exotic dishes therein, I'll fondly blame this book.
Has bits of history, culture, science, etc, too
Someday when I possibly regret trying some of the exotic dishes therein, I'll fondly blame this book.
Has bits of history, culture, science, etc, too
This book serves up a combination of unusual foods, unique restaurants, food customs, and other loosely food-related trivia from around the world.
For example, the section on Mexico features:
*Huitlacoche (mushroom-flavored corn fungus)
*Toloache (a plant in the nightshade family with hallucinogenic propoeries that can be smoked or consumed as a drink)
*El Vilsito (an auto repair shop that turns into a taqueria at night)
*Pulquerias (bars that serve a fermented drink made from the same part of an agave plant as tequila and mezcal)
*Mezcal de Pechuga (mezcal made with raw chicken suspended over the still)
*Escamoles (ant pupae and larvae, fried in butter and served in a tortilla)
*Pasteleria Ideal (an elaborate cake showroom)
*Salsagheti (sweet & spicy gummy strands served with tamarind sauce)
*Mexican candy (a full page photo featuring different types of unique candy)
*Avocados (an explanation of how extinct giant sloths probably spread avocado trees throughout the region)
*Jumiles (cinnamon-flavored stinkbugs that are eaten live...wrapped in a tortilla)
*Molinollo (a 16th-century tool used to froth hot chocolate)
It's a pretty mixed bag, with a lot of foods that might be considered unappealing by outsiders. The focus here is on the unusual, rather than the best, with a lot of food history and food connections. For example, there's a two-page spread on "Yoshoku" (Japanese versions of western food) and another on Italian food in the former colony of Eritrea (East Africa). The section on the United States is the biggest (82 pages out of 411). Yes, there's a lot of diverse food culture in the States, but the book is definitely 'Merica-centric.
Overall, this would be a fun coffee table book for someone who enjoys travel and food. I checked it out from my local library and read it over the course of six weeks, which isn't really ideal. It would be better savored (like maggot cheese from Italy) when a certain country or region catches your interest.
For example, the section on Mexico features:
*Huitlacoche (mushroom-flavored corn fungus)
*Toloache (a plant in the nightshade family with hallucinogenic propoeries that can be smoked or consumed as a drink)
*El Vilsito (an auto repair shop that turns into a taqueria at night)
*Pulquerias (bars that serve a fermented drink made from the same part of an agave plant as tequila and mezcal)
*Mezcal de Pechuga (mezcal made with raw chicken suspended over the still)
*Escamoles (ant pupae and larvae, fried in butter and served in a tortilla)
*Pasteleria Ideal (an elaborate cake showroom)
*Salsagheti (sweet & spicy gummy strands served with tamarind sauce)
*Mexican candy (a full page photo featuring different types of unique candy)
*Avocados (an explanation of how extinct giant sloths probably spread avocado trees throughout the region)
*Jumiles (cinnamon-flavored stinkbugs that are eaten live...wrapped in a tortilla)
*Molinollo (a 16th-century tool used to froth hot chocolate)
It's a pretty mixed bag, with a lot of foods that might be considered unappealing by outsiders. The focus here is on the unusual, rather than the best, with a lot of food history and food connections. For example, there's a two-page spread on "Yoshoku" (Japanese versions of western food) and another on Italian food in the former colony of Eritrea (East Africa). The section on the United States is the biggest (82 pages out of 411). Yes, there's a lot of diverse food culture in the States, but the book is definitely 'Merica-centric.
Overall, this would be a fun coffee table book for someone who enjoys travel and food. I checked it out from my local library and read it over the course of six weeks, which isn't really ideal. It would be better savored (like maggot cheese from Italy) when a certain country or region catches your interest.