Quicklets: Your Reading Sidekick!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Viewed simply, A Cooks Tour is one mans quest to discover just what the perfect meal might be. Unfortunately, things are rarely so cut and dried. As Bourdains travels, at least for this book, took place pre-September 11th, there is still a little elasticity in the travel. Yes, Bourdain experiences certain moments of unease while on his journey, but not in the way that travelers are forced to take added precautions today.
Food is the great equalizer: a shared passion, simply made up of different ingredients, depending on where you are in the world. It is able to evoke the strong, visceral reactions related not only to taste, but also touch, smell, sound, and sight. Given foods shared cultural arc, its not a stretch to see how something as basic as food could be considered transformative.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Shauna Patton grew up in the wilds of Northern California and thus removed from populous cities, she turned to the expanse of her imagination for entertainment. This would include writing short stories and plays, and roping unsuspecting friends/family into producing and performing. This led to a four year tenure at UC Santa Cruz, where she majored in Theatre Arts, with a year abroad at a University in Southern England. When not concocting crazy stories, she loves to watch movies (especially Bollywood, anything Christian Bale and 1940's film noir), read, knit, watch the Dropkick Murphy's in concert, rock out to cheesy 80's pop and hang out with friends.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
Inspired by the idea of the perfect meal, Anthony Bourdains novel A Cooks Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines is part foodie travel diary and part memoir of the man himself. Not for those with weak stomachs, Bourdain launches himself on a tour around the globe on a quest for good food, movie-style adventure and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Whether hes chowing down on the still-beating heart of a cobra in Vietnam, lamb gonads in the Sahara, haggis in Scotland, or shuddering through the horrors of birds nest soup, Bourdains food encounters offer a great sensory delight for the reader, especially secondhand.
Much of the developed world is far removed from their food. There is little knowledge about the actual gathering and preparation of food, as the glossy supermarkets hide the behind-the-scenes carnage. As Bourdain notes, Respecting the ingredients may no longer be an economic necessity in much of the emerging world; it is now a pleasure, to be experienced and enjoyed at ones chosen time and place.
Bourdains quest for culinary excellence is grandiose: I knew that the best meal in the world...is rarely the most sophisticated or expensive one...context and memory play powerful roles in the truly great meals in ones life.
Buy a copy to keep reading!
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour
+ About Anthony Bourdain
+ About the Book
+ Overall Summary
+ Chapter-by-Chapter Summaries
+ ...and much more