A Cook's Tour
3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by bluehawaii218 from Washington, District of Columbia USA on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I read this book in bits and pieces - each chapter could be its own self-contained story. Travel around with Anthony Bourdain while he tastes all sorts of global treats. Fun for people who love to travel and love food.
The Barnes & Noble Review
This time, the tables are turned on Anthony Bourdain. The gonzo chef who wrote what he calls "an overtestosteroned account" of his life in the restaurant business is no longer in control in the kitchen -- he's a guest at the table, hoping for a perfect meal.
Now a perfect meal, as Bourdain points out, is not usually the most expensive or most sophisticated. It's the pizza you had when you first fell in love, the first wild strawberry you ever ate. Context is a major player here; so is what Bourdain calls "food magic." As Bourdain travels around the world eating scary and interesting food, he doesn't get that perfect meal very often, but he always has adventures.
The Bourdain mix of bravado, irreverence, and self-deprecation that delighted readers of Kitchen Confidential is on full display in A Cook's Tour. Picture Hunter S. Thompson high on paella instead of peyote. Imagine Redmond O'Hanlon not only in trouble again but hungry, really hungry. In Pailin, ("a miserable one-horse dunghole in northwest Cambodia"), Bourdain writes to his wife: "Could you maybe make a doctor's appointment for me when I get back? I'm thinking a full workup, to be on the safe side. I've been wading in water -- and drinking it -- from the kind of worst-case scenarios you read about in the guidebooks and travelers warning. Needless to say, some of the food I've been eating -- well, the food handling has been...dubious, at best."
Trailed by a camera crew from the Food Network, Bourdain treks from Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh City to Morocco, Portugal, and Russia. In Japan, he eats fugu, the deadly puffer fish that can only be prepared and served by licensed cooks. In Saigon, he gets a meal of live cobra heart, guaranteed to make him "very, very strong." He eats haggis in Scotland, reindeer in Russia, iguana tamales in Mexico, and drinks homemade rice whiskey in Saigon with all the old war heroes from the American War. He takes his brother back to the coast of France to taste fresh oysters, and lures his best chef pals along on a pilgrimage to the French Laundry in the Napa Valley. It's a helluva meal. (Ginger Curwen)
The Barnes & Noble Review
This time, the tables are turned on Anthony Bourdain. The gonzo chef who wrote what he calls "an overtestosteroned account" of his life in the restaurant business is no longer in control in the kitchen -- he's a guest at the table, hoping for a perfect meal.
Now a perfect meal, as Bourdain points out, is not usually the most expensive or most sophisticated. It's the pizza you had when you first fell in love, the first wild strawberry you ever ate. Context is a major player here; so is what Bourdain calls "food magic." As Bourdain travels around the world eating scary and interesting food, he doesn't get that perfect meal very often, but he always has adventures.
The Bourdain mix of bravado, irreverence, and self-deprecation that delighted readers of Kitchen Confidential is on full display in A Cook's Tour. Picture Hunter S. Thompson high on paella instead of peyote. Imagine Redmond O'Hanlon not only in trouble again but hungry, really hungry. In Pailin, ("a miserable one-horse dunghole in northwest Cambodia"), Bourdain writes to his wife: "Could you maybe make a doctor's appointment for me when I get back? I'm thinking a full workup, to be on the safe side. I've been wading in water -- and drinking it -- from the kind of worst-case scenarios you read about in the guidebooks and travelers warning. Needless to say, some of the food I've been eating -- well, the food handling has been...dubious, at best."
Trailed by a camera crew from the Food Network, Bourdain treks from Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh City to Morocco, Portugal, and Russia. In Japan, he eats fugu, the deadly puffer fish that can only be prepared and served by licensed cooks. In Saigon, he gets a meal of live cobra heart, guaranteed to make him "very, very strong." He eats haggis in Scotland, reindeer in Russia, iguana tamales in Mexico, and drinks homemade rice whiskey in Saigon with all the old war heroes from the American War. He takes his brother back to the coast of France to taste fresh oysters, and lures his best chef pals along on a pilgrimage to the French Laundry in the Napa Valley. It's a helluva meal. (Ginger Curwen)
Journal Entry 2 by bluehawaii218 from Washington, District of Columbia USA on Friday, December 15, 2006
I'm going to send this off on a bookring! THIS BOOKRING IS STILL OPEN - IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED PLEASE SEND ME A PM! :)
I found these instructions on Triggerfish's page and I liked them so here they are (with slight modifications :)):
1) Everybody should leave a journal entry when receiving the book AND after the read! Please let us all know what you think about it...
2) Also PM the next person on the list for a mailing address and when that person doesn't answer within 14 days MAX! please PM the one after and let me know (I'll try to contact them and move them down on the list)...
3) Everybody should also try to read the book soon but in a joyful speed. It's not about how many books someone can read within a certain amount of time - it's about enjoying it...
4) If you find you don't have the time to read it when it's your turn please PM and I'll move you to a later slot.
5) Enjoy!
BOOKRING ORDER (subject to change slightly based on sending prefs!):
1. missprisy (MA, US pref)
2. azuki (FL, US/Canada pref)*
3. bookreadera (PA, US pref)(<-- sent to 2/12)
4. istop4books (US)
5. EMA375 (CA, Int'l)
6. voveryte (Lithuania, Europe pref)
7. okyrhoe (Greece, Int'l)
8. k2005 (UK, Int'l)
9. Back to me! bluehawaii218 (DC)
I found these instructions on Triggerfish's page and I liked them so here they are (with slight modifications :)):
1) Everybody should leave a journal entry when receiving the book AND after the read! Please let us all know what you think about it...
2) Also PM the next person on the list for a mailing address and when that person doesn't answer within 14 days MAX! please PM the one after and let me know (I'll try to contact them and move them down on the list)...
3) Everybody should also try to read the book soon but in a joyful speed. It's not about how many books someone can read within a certain amount of time - it's about enjoying it...
4) If you find you don't have the time to read it when it's your turn please PM and I'll move you to a later slot.
5) Enjoy!
BOOKRING ORDER (subject to change slightly based on sending prefs!):
1. missprisy (MA, US pref)
2. azuki (FL, US/Canada pref)*
3. bookreadera (PA, US pref)(<-- sent to 2/12)
4. istop4books (US)
5. EMA375 (CA, Int'l)
6. voveryte (Lithuania, Europe pref)
7. okyrhoe (Greece, Int'l)
8. k2005 (UK, Int'l)
9. Back to me! bluehawaii218 (DC)
Journal Entry 3 by bluehawaii218 at Sent to fellow bookcrosser (C'ville Post Office) in Clarksville, Maryland USA on Friday, December 29, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (12/29/2006 UTC) at Sent to fellow bookcrosser (C'ville Post Office) in Clarksville, Maryland USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Sent to missprisy today as part of bookring!
Tracking number: 0306 2400 0003 4673 5742
Sent to missprisy today as part of bookring!
Tracking number: 0306 2400 0003 4673 5742
Arrived today! I'll start this one soon and pass it on. Thank you bluehawaii218 for sharing and for the beautiful postcard.
A very enjoyable read. Now I really want to visit Japan. Bourdain's description of his evening in Japan was a delight. Thank you for sharing bluehawaii218. I've seen some of Bourdain's television series, but this is the first book of his I've read. I have azuki's mailing address and will get this in the mail next week.Release #1 for Guinaveve's Keep Them Moving 2007 Challenge
A big THANK YOU from a foodie: Thanks bluehawaii for sharing the book and Missprisy for mailing it. Mysterious Theming at work again: I got this book in the mail along with Pomegranate Soup!
This week is crazy - I received six bookrings, to add to the two I am reading. (and a few weeks ago I had absolutely nothing!) I promise to do my best to move this in a timely manner, without killing my love for reading.
This week is crazy - I received six bookrings, to add to the two I am reading. (and a few weeks ago I had absolutely nothing!) I promise to do my best to move this in a timely manner, without killing my love for reading.
This is my first Bourdain book and I enjoyed it tremedously. (I gave him lots of bonus points for his love for the stinky durian, but they all got deducted later for his rabbit killing spree...)
Like an excellent dish, the book is craftily prepared: colorful, flavorful, authentic, with complex layers of tastes, slightly exotic, teasing you to indulge in forkful after forkful. I wonder if Bourdain has a ghost writer. Otherwise, his talent with pen certainly matches the one with pan!
Bourdain is not shy about exposing his intimate thoughts and feelings, which makes this travelogue and food guide that much more entertaining. Very often, he would start talking about a dish, a cuisine, and then delve deeper. Like when he visited France, in the end he realized that he didn't go there to look for the perfect meal. He didn't go there to look for his childhood home. He went to look for his father, who was no longer there (or anywhere.) Similarly, his visit to Cambodia unleashed some very strong comments about Kissinger.
Something I find weird about the book though - it looks like the editor hit a shuffle play button on his computer. The chapters hop around, from Portugal to Vietnam to Spain to Japan then to Vietnam and Japan again... Not that it matters much as each chapter pretty much stands along, just kind of weird.
This book will be mailed tomorrow to the next reader.
ETA: pm'ed bookreadera on 4/24 as she hasn't journaled. Haven't heard from her. Emailed her Aug 7 07.
Like an excellent dish, the book is craftily prepared: colorful, flavorful, authentic, with complex layers of tastes, slightly exotic, teasing you to indulge in forkful after forkful. I wonder if Bourdain has a ghost writer. Otherwise, his talent with pen certainly matches the one with pan!
Bourdain is not shy about exposing his intimate thoughts and feelings, which makes this travelogue and food guide that much more entertaining. Very often, he would start talking about a dish, a cuisine, and then delve deeper. Like when he visited France, in the end he realized that he didn't go there to look for the perfect meal. He didn't go there to look for his childhood home. He went to look for his father, who was no longer there (or anywhere.) Similarly, his visit to Cambodia unleashed some very strong comments about Kissinger.
Something I find weird about the book though - it looks like the editor hit a shuffle play button on his computer. The chapters hop around, from Portugal to Vietnam to Spain to Japan then to Vietnam and Japan again... Not that it matters much as each chapter pretty much stands along, just kind of weird.
This book will be mailed tomorrow to the next reader.
ETA: pm'ed bookreadera on 4/24 as she hasn't journaled. Haven't heard from her. Emailed her Aug 7 07.
