A Cooks Tour In Search of the Perfect Meal, Anthony Bourdain. (Paperback )

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A Cook's Tour In Search of the Perfect Meal
Author: Anthony Bourdain

Amazon.com — A Cook's Tour is the written record of Anthony Bourdain's travels around the world in his search for the perfect meal. All too conscious of the state of his 44-year-old knees after a working life standing at restaurant stoves, but with the unlooked-for jackpot of Kitchen Confidential as collateral, Mr. Bourdain evidently concluded he... more » needed a bit more wind under his wings.

The idea of "perfect meal" in this context is to be taken to mean not necessarily the most upscale, chi-chi, three-star dining experience, but the ideal combination of food, atmosphere, and company. This would take in fishing villages in Vietnam, bars in Cambodia, and Tuareg camps in Morocco (roasted sheep's testicle, as it happens); it would stretch to smoked fish and sauna in the frozen Russian countryside and the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. It would mean exquisitely refined kaiseki rituals in Japan after yakitori with drunken salarymen. Deep-fried Mars Bars in Glasgow and Gordon Ramsay in London. The still-beating heart of a cobra in Saigon. Drink. Danger. Guns. All with a TV crew in tow for the accompanying series--22 episodes of video gold, we are assured, featuring many don't-try-this-at-home shots of the author in gastric distress or crawling into yet another storm drain at four in the morning.

You are unlikely to lay your hands on a more hectically, strenuously entertaining book for some time. Our hero eats and swashbuckles round the globe with perfect-pitch attitude and liberal use of judiciously placed profanities. Bourdain can write. His timing is great. He is very funny and is under no illusions whatsoever about himself or anyone else. But most of all, he is a chef who got himself out of his kitchen and found, all over the world, people who understand that eating well is the foundation of harmonious living. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

In this paperback reprint, swashbuckling chef Anthony Bourdain, author of the bestselling Kitchen Confidential (which famously warned restaurant-goers against ordering fish on Mondays), travels where few foodies have thought to travel before in search of the perfect meal: the Sputnik-era kitchen of a "less-than-diminutive" St. Petersburg matron, the provincial farmhouse of a Portuguese pig-slaughterer and the middle of the Moroccan desert, where he dines on "crispy, veiny" lamb testicles. Searching for the "perfect meal," Bourdain writes with humor and intelligence, describing meals of boudin noir and Vietnamese hot vin lon ("essentially a soft-boiled duck embryo") and 'fessing up to a few nights of over-indulgence ("I felt like I'd awakened under a collapsed building," he writes of a night in San Sebastian hopping from tapas bar to tapas bar). Goat's head soup, lemongrass tripe, and pork-blood cake all make appearances, as does less exotic fare, such as French fries and Mars bars (deep fried, but still). In between meals, Bourdain lets his readers in on the surprises and fears of a well-fed American voyaging to far-off, frugal places, where every part of an animal that can be eaten must be eaten, and the need to preserve food has fueled culinary innovation for centuries. He also reminds his audience of the connections between food and land and human toil, which, in these sterilized days of pre-wrapped sausages, is all too easy to forget.

Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

ISBN: 142646
Publication Date: 2001
Pages: 274
Rating:

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Publisher: Bloomsbury
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 3
Reviews: Member | Write a Review

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Hermine R. (herlibrary) reviewed A Cook's Tour - In Search of the Perfect Meal on 9/22/2006 + 76 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Delicoius and delightful tales

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Blanche L. (MaiasGranny) reviewed A Cook's Tour - In Search of the Perfect Meal on 9/16/2006 + 103 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

An engrossing tale of world cuisine with thought provoking sprinkles of political commentary. I'll read this again. . . and probably again.

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Gail C. (catsmom) - , reviewed A Cook's Tour - In Search of the Perfect Meal on 3/23/2007 + 25 more book reviews

Loved this book. The story about the poor little iguana broke my heart.

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ShawnMarie M. (ShawnMarie) reviewed A Cook's Tour - In Search of the Perfect Meal on 8/16/2006 + 78 more book reviews

You either like Bourdain or you don't and if you like him you will love this book. Such an interesting read. Hard to put down.

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Rachel R. (Rachel) reviewed A Cook's Tour - In Search of the Perfect Meal on 9/28/2005 + 25 more book reviews

Really enjoyed it!

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