A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Cook's Tour
Book Review: Ethnoculinary Traditions Exposed
Summary: 5 Stars
"A Cook's Tour" by the wonderfully worldly and well-traveled Anthony Bourdain, is a book about food like no other, and it is simultaneously entertaining, exciting, and revolting. Tony travels the world in search of the perfect meal; it's an exciting quest for any chef to ponder, but along the way he comes across numerous local delicacies that can be best described as only for the strong of heart.
Although he encounters several problems with dishes from around the world (the Mexican sautéed ant eggs and Scottish deep-fried haggis with curry sauce and deep fried egg stand out), the most stunning for my money are the things he eats in Asia, and especially Vietnam. I for one would not be able to eat the traditional Vietnamese breakfast of soft-boiled duck embryo complete with feathers, followed by a steaming bowl of "chao muk", a hearty soup made from ginger, sprouts, cilantro, shrimp, squid, chives, pork-blood cake, and croutons; later Tony enjoyed some braised bat ("imagine braised inner tube, sauced with engine coolant"). Even worse than that, though, is the concept of eating a still-beating cobra heart, after a very special snake disemboweling ceremony.
While Vietnam takes the proverbial cake, the book features other gastronomic nightmares from around the globe, with Japan coming in second in the contest for unusual and disturbing foodstuffs. The foodie tour of Japan started out benignly enough, with an appetizer of "amuse-gueule of hoshigaka goma-an" (dried persimmon and fried soy curd with sesame paste), but quickly progressed to things like "suppon-dofu" (a soft-shell turtle in egg pudding with green onion and turtle broth), and culminated in the classic and beloved Japanese delicacy, "natto", which Bourdain describes as "an unbelievably foul, rank, slimy, glutinous, and stringy goop of fermented soybeans". After the natto, Bourdain finished with a dish described as "mountain potato": of this he said, "I could only handle a single taste. To this day, I have no idea what it really was.... The small, dark, chewy nugget can only be described as tasting like salt-cured, sun-dried goat rectum".
Throughout the book, Bourdain maintains his wry, sarcastic sense of humor, possibly as a survival tool to get him through his next meal. He mocks a vegan potluck dinner as the "real heart of darkness", discusses fabled and exotic foods such as the unbelievably rank durian fruit, and always manages to do it while being respectful of local traditions and cultures very different from his existence in New York City. This is a great book for anyone interested in foods and cultures of the world, and I recommend it highly!
Book Review: GREAT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite books that I have read in the past year. Anthony Bourdain is a great writer, and he really takes you on a journey with him as he travels the world searching for "the perfect meal", and if there even is such a thing. Yes, other reviews have said that Bourdain is "a whiner" and "snarky", but that is the beauty of Bourdain's writing style. He tells it as he sees it, if he doesn't like something, he will let you know. There's no sugar coating in his writing, and of all of Bourdain's books, I have to say that this is my absolute favorite. The chapter on Morocco is one of my favorites, as well as the multiple chapters on Vietnam, a place that Bourdain came to adore during his world travels. I would say that I am a discerning book critic, and I love this book. I've read it at least 5 times just to absorb everything, and I think anyone, foodie or not, would love this.Book Review: Gonzo-gastronomic Writing at it's best
Summary: 5 Stars
It's never quite clear whether Bourdain is really after the 'perfect meal' or just expanding his repertoir of local libations. Either way, he sounds like he's having a heck of time eating, drinking, and razing the Food Network crew trailing him. Not every chapter is stellar, nor is there a particularly coherent thread, but the good chapters are bitingly hilarious and will make you want to eat things you didn't know were edible!
Two dictums attributed to the father of gonzo fit best: "Never let the facts get in the way of reporting the truth;" and "when the going turns weird, the weird turn pro." Bourdain embodies both as the delinquent chef-turned-author who manages to capture a piece of the soul of eating (and drinking) around the world.
Book Review: Great Condition
Summary: 5 Stars
The book arrived in a timely fashion and was in pristine condition. Great price, too. Thanks.Book Review: It's a delicious world out there
Summary: 4 Stars
Anthony Bourdain has a sweet job. Traveling the world, sampling its culinary delights...its the kind of job that one would never even imagine exists until someone creates it. And it is a bit odd that he should have this job. Anthony Bourdain is not a great writer, although he manages to turn a decent phrase. I have no idea if he is a great cook or not, but by his own admission he is not one of the greats. He is a great traveler, and has enough courage and sense of adventure to give it all a try, even though things don't always go well.
Which is pretty much the same with "A Cook's Tour". I have never seen TV program that the book is based on, but I am a big fan of "No Reservations" so I suspected something along the same lines. This book follows much the same format of "No Reservations", with Bourdain hitting various culinary spots across the world and trying what they have to offer, no matter what that might be. A whole pig in Portugal. Haggis in Scotland. All the goodness Mexico has to offer. And of course the infamous cobra's heart in Vietnam. He doesn't like everything he tries, but he tries everything that is offered.
Its good. Its interesting. One of the great things about Bourdain's style of travel-eating is that we could do it too. He doesn't hit the high-priced, pretty and polished restaurants that most readers of the books could never afford. He hits the street stalls, the home cooking, and wonders at the delights of the common meals that make everyone happy. I have been to a few of the places showcased on "A Cook's Tour", and it makes for a nice walk down memory lane to think of breakfast vodka in Russia, or deep-fried pizza in Glasgow.
Strangely enough, I think the one place he didn't get it right was in Japan, which is where I happen to live. I was looking forward to see what he would have to say about the place, and what delights he tried and what he thought. Instead, he had a traditional kaiseki dinner at a ryokan in Atami, accompanied by no less than two geisha. We are talking probably a multi-thousand dollar event here, something experienced only by the very super-rich of the Japanese populace. Not exactly "eating local", and a bit of a disappointment.
More A Cook's Tour reviews:
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