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A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around The World (2010)

by Don George(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1742202292 (ISBN13: 9781742202297)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Lonely Planet

review 1: Excellent writing. This book transported me to Italy for a wedding feast so elaborate and with so many courses that the writer was, quite regrettably, unable to try everything. I "visited" Thailand, where I discovered that red ant egg salad was a delicacy (and I sincerely feel a little sad, as I doubt that I will likely ever be able to try it.) I learned about the Naked Man Festival in Japan. I felt the compassion of a lone man in Nepal who saw two lost, hungry hikers and invited them into his home for a simple but memorable meal. I laughed at a man's first experience with the durian fruit in the Banda Islands, as it reminded me of my own first experience with the so-called "King of the fruits".I followed a son and his father as they went on a pilgrimage of sorts to find a... more famed barbecue joint. Actually, there were a number of good father/ son stories -- parents instilling in their children a love of good food -- and one particularly sad story of a family teaching their daughter that food was something to be afraid of, as it has the potential to make one fat. (Fortunately she overcame that, but what a burden to bear.)I also learned that if I ever find myself in Georgia (the country, not the state), it is considered rude to toast with beer.There are so many wonderful stories in here. I've read a lot of travel writing and this book is one of the best. I am unable to travel very far at this stage in my life (but I'm saving up for it!) so this is how I learn about the world around me for now. These stories are written by people who I guarantee you do not have photos of themselves standing in front of tourist-attraction signs. They have actually lived among the residents of other countries and their lives are the better for it. That's how I feel about having read this book.
review 2: 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. less

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