Tag Archives: Scotland

BOOK: “A Cook’s Tour” by Anthony Bourdain

Posted on by
1
A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme CuisinesA Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Bloomsbury

Anthony Bourdain’s work is a joy to read if you love gonzo writing, and food — lots of food. It’s like reading Hunter S. Thompson, if Thompson were obsessed with the meals that he ate. A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain’s second work of nonfiction, after Kitchen Confidential, the book which turned him from Executive Chef at a high-brow New York restaurant to a Personality — writer, TV star, and celebrity. Where his previous book explored life in the kitchen, this one ventured out into the world, to Portugal, Scotland, Japan, Mexico, Cambodia, San Francisco, and Vietnam — to name a few.

I must admit, if Bourdain had been the kind of foodie that was obsessed with foam reductions and $300 per head tasting menus, his writing would hold limited intrigue for me. But because this was a guy who seemed as happy with a streetside bowl of pho or a simple hunk of grilled meat on a stick as he was with fine dining, I find his work relatable. It also avoids the cognitive dissonance of reading someone who wrote like Hunter Thompson, but who only talked about escargot and wine pairings. It lent Bourdain authenticity.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who travels, loves food, or lives at the confluence of the two.

View all my reviews

BOOK REVIEW: Outlandish by Nick Hunt

Posted on by
Reply
Outlandish: Walking Europe's Unlikely LandscapesOutlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes by Nick Hunt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

There are many beautiful and wonderous sights that come to mind when one thinks of Europe: forests, meadows, alpine vistas, or cities of stunning architecture. However, there are other sights that one wouldn’t expect at all: tundra, jungle, desert, or steppe, but those are the unexpected destinations that Hunt takes his reader. In some cases, a destination under discussion doesn’t meet the technical definitions for said ecosystem, but they’re the closest that Europe has to offer, and that’s enough to make them outlandish.

The book takes the reader on a tour of four uncharacteristic ecosystems of Europe: Cairngorms arctic tundra in northern Scotland, Poland’s “jungle” – the forest primeval of Bialowieza, Spain’s Tabernas desert, and the Hungarian Puszta (i.e. the Pannonian Steppe.) For each of these places, the reader is treated not only to vivid description of the locale and its flora and fauna, but also some fascinating folklore, cultural peculiarities, and indigenous mysteries. In Scotland, this involves inexplicable reindeer and the legend of the Big Grey Man. In Poland and Belarus, we learn about legendary forest folk deities and about the last Soviet standing. In Spain, one gets a lesson in Spaghetti Westerns. In Hungary we see birders, neo-Nazis, and Central Asian immigrants all traipsing the same ground.

I found this book to be an engaging read. It helps raise consciousness about climate change without collapsing into a gloomy doom-fest. This discussion is most notable in the most extreme ecosystems, Cairngorms and Tabernas, but most of the intense discussion is saved for a brief epilogue entitled “The Last Snow.” The book offers rudimentary maps, but relies entirely on text to paint a picture, but I felt the author did a great job of bringing the places to life through words.

If you’re interested in learning more about a few of the globe’s lesser-known natural settings, I’d highly recommend this book.

View all my reviews