Rate this book

Lucky Peach, Issue 7 (2013)

by David Chang(Favorite Author)

4.2 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1938073479 (ISBN13: 9781938073472)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Lucky Peach

review 1: At first, not my favorite issue of Lucky Peach.The "travel" theme wore thin as the first handful of stories too closely resembled each other, following the classic travel trope with a culinary twist: writer goes to foreign place, has unique foreign experiences, and eats unique foreign foods. The end. I mean, it's interesting if you're the one that got to go there, but after reading 6 stories about different writer's very similar experiences, it got old.But then I hit the middle-end of the issue, and things started to get better. The piece about KFC in China is fantastic -- as an outsider, it gives you a frame of reference to understand the "foreign experience" instead of just a longwinded play-by-play, like the previous pieces. Joy Wang's history of curry is also fantastic... more. If you read nothing else in this issue, at least read this piece. What a fantastic way to look at a food that seems to be commonplace all over the world.I would have given this issue only a 2/5 stars, but it redeemed itself in the second half. On to the next issue!
review 2: This was one of the more enjoyable issues to read since the magazine's inception. Though light on recipes (especially vegetarian-friendly recipes), for once it felt like every written piece hit the topic spot-on-- perhaps with the exception of the trying-too-hard-to-be-weird fiction piece by Jack Pendarvis. Granted, the topic of travel is a broad one, but the editors did a great job of choosing a variety: travelogues, memoirs, tours through hidden culinary gems, quests for traditional fare in a world catered to comforting tourists, travel advice pieces, and so on. Particularly notable were Greg Larson's unsettling recounting of his guided tour through North Korea, Harold McGee's (of course!) chemistry piece on cooking with plastics, Adam Gollner's rather poetic memoir of Crete and the persistence of a tradition of abundance in a time of crisis, and Jack Carneal's reflection on the culinary importance of getting lost.When I read this issue, I had just come back from my own vacation in Europe, and much of the feel of the issue reflected my personal approach to travel: go somewhere new, walk around, get lost, eat good food, never eat at the same place twice. Ask, try, stumble blindly into new places, and taste with an open mind. It felt like an issue written just for me, and provided some insight on where to travel next.Moreover, THERE IS A RECIPE FOR MOCHI. I had never thought to make my own mochi before, but you'd better believe I will now. less

Download links for: Lucky Peach, Issue 7

Advertising