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knod78's review
4.0
I'm only on the Third Chapter of this book, which is Rhona's part called Communion on Crete. So far, I dig how these chefs are talking about food and culture in such a different way. I was hooked when George talked about how he went to this small village in Japan where they didn't like outsiders and just gave him a fish to eat. He ate it. I love to explore the cultures of the world and I'm crazily becoming a foodie. It's mixing my two great ideas of traveling and food. I can't wait to get to Bourdain's section.
lsparrow's review against another edition
3.0
Like any collection of writing by different writers some pieces will resonate more than others. I definitely felt hungry and I think the travel bug is starting to get itchy. It was less the writing or even the stories themselves but rather what I felt I would have to write or tell and a reminder of the joy of food, food shared and food experienced.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
Mongolians don't believe in wasting any of their beloved sheep. Everything was in the bowl, floating in a sort of primeval ooze: lungs, stomach, bladder, brain, intestines, eyeballs, teeth, genitals. It was a lucky sheep dip; you were never sure what you were going to pull out. I fished carefully, not too keen on finding myself with the testicles. My first go produced an object that resembled an old purse dredged up from the bottom of a stagnant canal. I think it might have been an ear. I had better luck with the intestines, which were delicious, and once brought to the surface, went on for quite a while.
That's why we read books like this, which is sub-titled Life-changing Food Adventures Around the World, isn't it? For the startling meals we would never have thought of as edible, let alone the company-best casserole, written about by people with a willingness to do anything as well as a good sense of humor. This anthology put out by Lonely Planet is, as with every anthology, a mixed bag of the fantastic, the heart-warming, the pretentious and the slightly boring. The count is loaded towards the fantastic, with the best story of all by Tim Cahill, The Rooster's Head in the Soup, which manages to be instructional, touching and very, very funny. Other stand-outs included a story about Kansas City barbeque by Doug Mack and a short bit by Andrew McCarthy (yes, that Andrew McCarthy) set in Thailand, about how a meal among friendly strangers can ease loneliness.
That's why we read books like this, which is sub-titled Life-changing Food Adventures Around the World, isn't it? For the startling meals we would never have thought of as edible, let alone the company-best casserole, written about by people with a willingness to do anything as well as a good sense of humor. This anthology put out by Lonely Planet is, as with every anthology, a mixed bag of the fantastic, the heart-warming, the pretentious and the slightly boring. The count is loaded towards the fantastic, with the best story of all by Tim Cahill, The Rooster's Head in the Soup, which manages to be instructional, touching and very, very funny. Other stand-outs included a story about Kansas City barbeque by Doug Mack and a short bit by Andrew McCarthy (yes, that Andrew McCarthy) set in Thailand, about how a meal among friendly strangers can ease loneliness.
misterjay's review against another edition
4.0
Borrowing its name from the Hemmingway classic, Lonely Planet's entry into the burgeoning travel + food genre is a thoughtful sampler menu of meals eaten around the globe. Some of the stories are quick and simple like a light lunch grabbed from a trattoria at a railway station in the north of Italy, while others are more substantial, more thoughtful, more deserving of a glass of wine and pleasant company.
(I don't normally make it a habit to take notes, however brief, on each story in a collection. However, the stories in this collection are disparate enough, and intriguing enough, that I wanted to be able to quickly reference who wrote what and what it was about.)
Food on the Hoof, by Jan Morris is a paen to the joys of eating while moving, the feeling of rushed happiness as one moves from one locale to another in search of whatever new adventure may lie in wait around the next corner.
Daily Bread by Pico Iyer is a quiet nod to the Californian monastary where the author retreats to a silence that is broken only by the Sunday lunch put on by the monks after mass. This story manages the difficult task of making simplicity and austerity things to be treasured. It is one of my favorites in the collection; I had no sooner finished the story than I was on Google, looking for the monastary.
Communion on Crete by Rhona McAdam left me a little cold. Although well written, it was not to my taste. The story tells of a communal dinner, each dish made locally and with care by the inhabitants of the village.
Of Boars, Baskets and Brotherhood by David Downie is another personal favorite from the collection. Downie recounts a stay in Genoa wherein he and his wife were able to befriend a local harbor pilot, describing in elegant turns the pride of the village, even as it empties and is encroached upon by a population of wild boars. The food sounds lovely, the town and its people lovelier still.
Seasoning Jerusalem by Elisabeth Eaves is interesting in that it strives to tell both sides of a story without actually going into that story itself. In this case, the big, untold story is that of the conflict in Jerusalem, and the narrative is the story of how the food can be so similar between two cultures that claim to have nothing in common.
Couscous and Camaraderie by Anita Breland tells of the author getting to know a culture through the shared making of a meal, even amongst those who do not speak the same language.
Cooking with Donna by William Sertl is my kind of story. It takes place on a private island, features trips by boats and days by the beach and ends with a tour of Mick Jagger's private residence. This is the kind of traveling I need to do.
Salad Days in Burma by Karen J. Coates is a story about cooking and journalism and what is and isn't allowed in the politically charged atmosphere of Burma. Interesting more for the ways Coates' students must deal with the violent changes in their lives than the food, this story is reminder that food can bring us together even in the midst of chaos.
Just What the Doctor Ordered by Alexander Lobrano describes the kind of experience most travelers crave: A random stop turned memorable by the kindness of strangers. In this case, a group of doctors who fed the author lunch.
The Hair of the Cow by Laurence Mitchell is a tale of being far too drunk in Georgia.
Siberian Chicken by Anthony Sattin was fascinating as much for its depiction of post Cold War economics as its chilling illustration of the perils of traveling in a still rough area of the world.
The Scent of Love by Stanley Stewart is an ode to Mongolia and the people who inhabit its empty reaches.
The 'Cue Quest by Doug Mack is the kind of father - son tale I like: about being friends and about shared joy in everyday things like the perfect barbeque.
Propane and Hot Sauce by Liz MacDonald, about the quest to obtain a kind of hot sauce made by a group of stoners in Hawaii, was fun enough, but it didn't do much for me.
A Pilgimage to El Bulli by Matt Preston questions whether a night at the famed restaurant is really worth its reputation.
Ode to Old Manhattan by Anthony Bourdain was disappointing, not because it was not well written, but because this is something I've heard from Bourdain so many times now that I could almost play the beats with him as his story wanders through restaurants who refuse to change with the times, who preserve a past long forgotten by most of the world. It was a pleasant enough story, just too familiar to anyone who has read Bourdain's books or watched his t.v. shows.
Dorego's by Matthew Fort tells us of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and makes it sound like a place that is somewhere worth going.
Tijuana Terroir by Jim Benning gives those of us North of the border a different look at a town famous for everything wrong with it. Benning tells us of at least one thing Tijuana gets right, and that's the food.
Andrew Zimmer's Like Father, Like Son was a little too long and too meandering for anyone not already a fan to get into.
Dinner with Dionysus by Henry Shukman is all about the pleasures of Greece and how they have weathered the test of time.
Lawrence Millman's A Feast on Fais is the best description of what it's like to eat a flying fox I have ever read. That it is the only description of what it's like to eat a flying fox that I've read doesn't bear consideration.
Long Life the King by John T. Newman tells of the exquisite Queen of Fruits, the glorious and delicate XXXX, and the King of Fruits: the foul smelling durian. Having heard of the durian from many a traveller, this one made me laugh while exciting my desire to travel to South East Asia.
Mango Madness by Amanda Jones is a quick story about the delights of a single mango presented under odd circumstances. Charming.
Adrift in French Guiana by Mark Kurlansky is one of the more truly exotic stories in this collection. It details the delights one can find in simple fast food Chinese after weeks in the jungle.
Speciality of the House by Simon Winchester is a funny story about the best piece of dog he's ever eaten and the horrified reactions of his readership when they learned of it.
Let Tendances Culinaires by David Lebovitz tells of the trends among French chefs and why he thinks that their day is far from over.
Peanut Butter Summer by Emily Matchar is a love story, that of the author and a boyfriend, and that of the author and food.
The Ways of Tea by Naomi Duguid contemplates how sharing a pot of tea can bridge the myriad gaps of culture, language, and lifestyle that divide us.
Breakfast Epiphanies by Ruth Rabin tells a cultural exchange of a different sort, that of being hit on and then being set up with locals when in a foreign land.
The Potion by Johanna Gohmann is a sweet reminiscance of what might have been long ago during winter days in Venice.
Himalayan Potatoes by Larry Habegger attempts to define the good and bad in our lives, the right and the wrong, by telling us of a pair of locals he met while lost, cold, and hungry on the hiking trails that lead up towards Everest.
Chai, Chillum and Chapati by Sean McLachlan is an amusing tale of one man's attempt to become enlightened by spending an afternoon with the yogis in India. And drinking cup after cup of chai.
The Icing on the Japanese Cake by Stefan Gates kind of bothered me. Personally, it was hard to read this story and feel like the author had very little grasp of everything he had seen and experienced. He is let into a cultural exchange available to very few and professes to have gained an insight into the Japanese mind that is given the lie by the preceeding few pages of bewilderment and confusion glossed over by gross simplifications is happening around him..
The Abominable Trekker by Jeff Greenwald is a funny tale about being the idiotic intruder into a culture and making the biggest of blunders. Well worth reading for anyone who has been in that kind of position.
Italy in Seventeen Courses by Laura Fraser tells of the author's first experience in Italy contrasted with the present through beautiful food.
Foraging with Pee by Jeffery Alford competes with 'Adrift in French Guiana' as the most exotic story in this collection. The author relates a story of a very different kind of food, the kind found on subsitance farms deep in rural Thailand.
The Best Meal I Ever Had by Andrew McCarthy is another tale of the unexpected happening and resulting in a memorable experience.
The Rooster's Head in the Soup by Tim Cahill teaches the most important lesson of traveling, wherever you go, whatever you do, don't offend your hosts, even if it means eating a rooster's head.
(I don't normally make it a habit to take notes, however brief, on each story in a collection. However, the stories in this collection are disparate enough, and intriguing enough, that I wanted to be able to quickly reference who wrote what and what it was about.)
Food on the Hoof, by Jan Morris is a paen to the joys of eating while moving, the feeling of rushed happiness as one moves from one locale to another in search of whatever new adventure may lie in wait around the next corner.
Daily Bread by Pico Iyer is a quiet nod to the Californian monastary where the author retreats to a silence that is broken only by the Sunday lunch put on by the monks after mass. This story manages the difficult task of making simplicity and austerity things to be treasured. It is one of my favorites in the collection; I had no sooner finished the story than I was on Google, looking for the monastary.
Communion on Crete by Rhona McAdam left me a little cold. Although well written, it was not to my taste. The story tells of a communal dinner, each dish made locally and with care by the inhabitants of the village.
Of Boars, Baskets and Brotherhood by David Downie is another personal favorite from the collection. Downie recounts a stay in Genoa wherein he and his wife were able to befriend a local harbor pilot, describing in elegant turns the pride of the village, even as it empties and is encroached upon by a population of wild boars. The food sounds lovely, the town and its people lovelier still.
Seasoning Jerusalem by Elisabeth Eaves is interesting in that it strives to tell both sides of a story without actually going into that story itself. In this case, the big, untold story is that of the conflict in Jerusalem, and the narrative is the story of how the food can be so similar between two cultures that claim to have nothing in common.
Couscous and Camaraderie by Anita Breland tells of the author getting to know a culture through the shared making of a meal, even amongst those who do not speak the same language.
Cooking with Donna by William Sertl is my kind of story. It takes place on a private island, features trips by boats and days by the beach and ends with a tour of Mick Jagger's private residence. This is the kind of traveling I need to do.
Salad Days in Burma by Karen J. Coates is a story about cooking and journalism and what is and isn't allowed in the politically charged atmosphere of Burma. Interesting more for the ways Coates' students must deal with the violent changes in their lives than the food, this story is reminder that food can bring us together even in the midst of chaos.
Just What the Doctor Ordered by Alexander Lobrano describes the kind of experience most travelers crave: A random stop turned memorable by the kindness of strangers. In this case, a group of doctors who fed the author lunch.
The Hair of the Cow by Laurence Mitchell is a tale of being far too drunk in Georgia.
Siberian Chicken by Anthony Sattin was fascinating as much for its depiction of post Cold War economics as its chilling illustration of the perils of traveling in a still rough area of the world.
The Scent of Love by Stanley Stewart is an ode to Mongolia and the people who inhabit its empty reaches.
The 'Cue Quest by Doug Mack is the kind of father - son tale I like: about being friends and about shared joy in everyday things like the perfect barbeque.
Propane and Hot Sauce by Liz MacDonald, about the quest to obtain a kind of hot sauce made by a group of stoners in Hawaii, was fun enough, but it didn't do much for me.
A Pilgimage to El Bulli by Matt Preston questions whether a night at the famed restaurant is really worth its reputation.
Ode to Old Manhattan by Anthony Bourdain was disappointing, not because it was not well written, but because this is something I've heard from Bourdain so many times now that I could almost play the beats with him as his story wanders through restaurants who refuse to change with the times, who preserve a past long forgotten by most of the world. It was a pleasant enough story, just too familiar to anyone who has read Bourdain's books or watched his t.v. shows.
Dorego's by Matthew Fort tells us of a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and makes it sound like a place that is somewhere worth going.
Tijuana Terroir by Jim Benning gives those of us North of the border a different look at a town famous for everything wrong with it. Benning tells us of at least one thing Tijuana gets right, and that's the food.
Andrew Zimmer's Like Father, Like Son was a little too long and too meandering for anyone not already a fan to get into.
Dinner with Dionysus by Henry Shukman is all about the pleasures of Greece and how they have weathered the test of time.
Lawrence Millman's A Feast on Fais is the best description of what it's like to eat a flying fox I have ever read. That it is the only description of what it's like to eat a flying fox that I've read doesn't bear consideration.
Long Life the King by John T. Newman tells of the exquisite Queen of Fruits, the glorious and delicate XXXX, and the King of Fruits: the foul smelling durian. Having heard of the durian from many a traveller, this one made me laugh while exciting my desire to travel to South East Asia.
Mango Madness by Amanda Jones is a quick story about the delights of a single mango presented under odd circumstances. Charming.
Adrift in French Guiana by Mark Kurlansky is one of the more truly exotic stories in this collection. It details the delights one can find in simple fast food Chinese after weeks in the jungle.
Speciality of the House by Simon Winchester is a funny story about the best piece of dog he's ever eaten and the horrified reactions of his readership when they learned of it.
Let Tendances Culinaires by David Lebovitz tells of the trends among French chefs and why he thinks that their day is far from over.
Peanut Butter Summer by Emily Matchar is a love story, that of the author and a boyfriend, and that of the author and food.
The Ways of Tea by Naomi Duguid contemplates how sharing a pot of tea can bridge the myriad gaps of culture, language, and lifestyle that divide us.
Breakfast Epiphanies by Ruth Rabin tells a cultural exchange of a different sort, that of being hit on and then being set up with locals when in a foreign land.
The Potion by Johanna Gohmann is a sweet reminiscance of what might have been long ago during winter days in Venice.
Himalayan Potatoes by Larry Habegger attempts to define the good and bad in our lives, the right and the wrong, by telling us of a pair of locals he met while lost, cold, and hungry on the hiking trails that lead up towards Everest.
Chai, Chillum and Chapati by Sean McLachlan is an amusing tale of one man's attempt to become enlightened by spending an afternoon with the yogis in India. And drinking cup after cup of chai.
The Icing on the Japanese Cake by Stefan Gates kind of bothered me. Personally, it was hard to read this story and feel like the author had very little grasp of everything he had seen and experienced. He is let into a cultural exchange available to very few and professes to have gained an insight into the Japanese mind that is given the lie by the preceeding few pages of bewilderment and confusion glossed over by gross simplifications is happening around him..
The Abominable Trekker by Jeff Greenwald is a funny tale about being the idiotic intruder into a culture and making the biggest of blunders. Well worth reading for anyone who has been in that kind of position.
Italy in Seventeen Courses by Laura Fraser tells of the author's first experience in Italy contrasted with the present through beautiful food.
Foraging with Pee by Jeffery Alford competes with 'Adrift in French Guiana' as the most exotic story in this collection. The author relates a story of a very different kind of food, the kind found on subsitance farms deep in rural Thailand.
The Best Meal I Ever Had by Andrew McCarthy is another tale of the unexpected happening and resulting in a memorable experience.
The Rooster's Head in the Soup by Tim Cahill teaches the most important lesson of traveling, wherever you go, whatever you do, don't offend your hosts, even if it means eating a rooster's head.
ivanssister's review against another edition
2.0
There are some decent stories here. Bourdain's is short, and is nothing you wouldn't already know if you watch him on TV. Zimmern's story was a little meatier and enjoyable. Given that this was a book brought to us by The Lonely Planet I probably shouldn't be surprised that there were a lot of stories about trekking in far flung places eating crazy stuff while life hung in the balance, but by the end of the book it was a little tiresome. Okay, I get it, your life is an adventure.
jascolib's review against another edition
DNF at 18%.
I love travel and I love food, so I should have loved this book. Super boring, the short stories felt lifeless.
I love travel and I love food, so I should have loved this book. Super boring, the short stories felt lifeless.
alundeberg's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed reading this collection of essays about travelers’ experiences with culture, connections, and food. All serious travelers can related to these experiences, but this book would be good for travelers just starting out as it provides some roadmaps on how to respond in situations that challenge our beliefs and culture and leave us feeling vulnerable— how to be and how to eat when you’re the stranger in the strange land.
jrho's review
adventurous
fast-paced
2.25
The few good stories are far outweighed by the sexism and weird, exoticizing fetishism in other stories.
angelofmine1974's review
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:
https://youtu.be/Fr0wrkRUr7s
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/Fr0wrkRUr7s
Enjoy!