I enjoyed this a lot more than Kitchen Confidential, primarily because Anthony Bourdain allows himself to fade into the background in several chaptersI enjoyed this a lot more than Kitchen Confidential, primarily because Anthony Bourdain allows himself to fade into the background in several chapters of the book. I loved his descriptions of meals across the world, and almost every single chapter made me hungry and/or made me laugh out loud. There's a pig roast in Portugal, a market in Vietnam, taco stands in Oaxaca, vodka-soaked dinners in Russia and sake-soaked dinners in Japan.
Bourdain has a true gift for writing about food and about meals. This book is about the search for the perfect meal, but he makes sure to qualify that - the perfect meal is "very rarely the most sophisticated," because "context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life." This is absolutely true, at least for me. The thought of venison sausage brings me back immediately to the Texas hill country in the early 2000s, and there's probably nothing better (or less authentic) than my mom's spaghetti. The adventure in this book is less about the search for the perfect meal, and more about reading other cultures through his culinary explorations. The chapters that I enjoyed the most were the most contained and conveyed an absolute sense of place through the meals (Basque, Morocco, Russia, and Portugal).
I found the structure of the book a little odd, as well as the choice of locations. Bourdain has three separate chapters about Vietnam. I could certainly read about Vietnamese food forever, but because the chapters are split up through the book I was continually surprised by each return. There's also, rather shockingly, a chapter set in Cambodia, where he pays locals to take him to a Khmer Rouge stronghold. The history lesson on Cambodia is useful, but I found the entire idea that Bourdain would drag (1) his crew and (2) a bunch of local Cambodians to Pailin to be so distasteful that it soured the second part of the book for me. Bourdain repeats a couple of times that he wants to have Adventures, potentially in the style of a Joseph Conrad villain (!); he also mentions that his TV producer gently suggests that he look at a map before he goes to a country. This is certainly an honest representation of why he's choosing to travel, but it veers into a reckless arrogance that I don't particularly like.
Bourdain also spends part of an entire chapter defending Gordon Ramsay for being crass and confrontational in his kitchen (I wonder why Anthony Bourdain would do that?), and writes a chapter about San Francisco that seems to be specifically targeted towards demeaning vegetarians. It's certainly possible to go to San Francisco after visiting Cambodia and feel that Americans are lucky to have accessible meat, at all, but Bourdain's attitude towards vegetarianism is so antagonistic and puzzling. If kids in Cambodia are starving, should everyone around the world say, "You're right! We should be consuming as much factory-farmed meat as possible, because that's an authentic expression of our cuisine?" There's a world of difference between Bourdain's elevation of the Portuguese pig farm slaughter and his cursory few sentences about the bland and fattening mass-produced food of the Midwest. Are we all supposed to ignore climate change until we've solved world peace? If he didn't want to go to a vegan restaurant in Berkeley, couldn't he have decided to visit India, or Israel, or Ethiopia? You don't have to be popping entire roasted birds in your mouth in Vietnam in order to experience the world's cuisine.
Anyway, I liked this a lot, and Bourdain is a gifted writer. But I'm still puzzled by his position as an elder statesman of American food culture. I don't think I particularly like him....more
I loved this! I would have loved it even more if it were 4x as long. Kaster's an engaging storyteller - I bet he's a great Classics 101 professor - anI loved this! I would have loved it even more if it were 4x as long. Kaster's an engaging storyteller - I bet he's a great Classics 101 professor - and I thought his writing style and approach were very accessible. His trip along the Appian is marked with stories about each city or place he travels through. I liked that he doesn't discriminate between eras: he picks the best story for each place. If you want to learn about Crassus's ungodly wealth and purgatory churches in the same book, this is for you.
The best part is his trip through Benevento. Apparently the residents of the area identify as Samnites 2000 years later, which is totally bonkers.
Minus points because the photos included are in black and white. I'd definitely pay more for an edition with color photographs, especially since Kaster is fond of describing the gorgeous colors in the landscape....more
This was exactly what I wanted! It was invaluable when walking around Campo Marzio and other sites that aren't part of the Forum and Palatine Hill, siThis was exactly what I wanted! It was invaluable when walking around Campo Marzio and other sites that aren't part of the Forum and Palatine Hill, since I'm new to Roman archaeology. My favorite detail was at the Pantheon: if you walk around to the back, you can see a marble frieze with dolphins and seashells on it. Scholars thus believe that the Basilica of Neptune originally stood there.
I found the maps a little difficult to parse, especially in the Forum, because you're set on a specific route. The order in which sites are listed also caused quite a bit of flipping back and forth. But overall, I was really glad that I carried this around with me while in Rome....more
Out of my friends that have read this book, half find Elizabeth Gilbert endearing and half find her obnoxious. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter half. Out of my friends that have read this book, half find Elizabeth Gilbert endearing and half find her obnoxious. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter half. Possibly it was my mindset while reading the book - I wasn't that enthused about her spiritual conversion. She's a very engaging writer, but some of her humor seemed a bit too forced, and I would have liked more focus to be on her actual physical experiences....more
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