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Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine [ARC] by Edward Lee

3.94 AVERAGE

mbrandmaier's review against another edition

4.0
Edward Lee explores restaurants around America and asks the question, what makes a dish/restaurant truly authentic, if there even is such a thing? (Spoiler alert: when it comes to food, you define your own authenticity based on your own life experiences). Many of the restaurants Mr. Lee visited serve mashups of different cultures’ food, such as Champun’s Rest Haven in Montgomery, AL which serves Southern, Lebanese, and Italian dishes. These mashups occurred as a result of immigrants from different backgrounds all blending together in the same city.

Extra star given for having a chapter on Shapiro’s, ahhhh, drool.
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amanda_y8s's review against another edition

4.0
Read this for a book club challenge for the category of a book to help plan my next vacation, and since so much of my travel revolves around food, this seemed like a good pick. I expected to enjoy traveling vicariously through recipes and brief stories from cities across America, I didn’t expect the stories to be so poignant. I didn’t expect Lee to bring up so many questions: what it means to eat food (and to consume culture) in America, if authenticity and tradition are actually achievable or necessary, how it’s so easy to forget how much of the incredible immigrant food and culture in America is the direct result of displaced refugees, of a lack of other opportunities beyond the service industry. I enjoyed his meditations on how food can be frozen in time, a nostalgic representation of home, of family. As far as visiting the places represented? I definitely added some new cities to my road trip list, and will have to revisit some to hit up the restaurants that I’ve missed.

katie_esh's review against another edition

2.0
It turns out I prefer cooking shows to books, but stuck with it for a reading challenge.
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thaumatologist's review against another edition

4.0
funny informative reflective slow-paced

vanessasafie's review against another edition

5.0
An unexpected salve during this tough climate. A reminder that we are more connected than we aren't and how we can find our way to living in some semblance of harmony.

ajreader's review against another edition

4.0
Really enjoyed this one!
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buffycat's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 40%
More of a travel log  with a theme than a culinary journey.

aging_phoenix's review against another edition

5.0
I love this book. It's a very measured, thoughtful look at American food, and how the interaction cultures, especially immigrant cultures, affects the food we eat. Lee examines our (and his) understanding of what "classic" or "traditional" food means, and how it plays out in a community's feel for nostalgia and what good food means.
He also includes recipes that are discussed, and they are excellent touchstones for what he says about the food in the communities he discusses

justine3's review against another edition

5.0
This book is about travel and food but is not travel or food book.

The stories and writing capture the essence of why I love traveling and exploring different cuisines in a way that’s hard to put into words.

velvetcelestial's review against another edition

3.75
adventurous informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced