Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure [Hardcover]

Bill Jamison (Author), Cheryl Alters Jamison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2008

After years of writing award-winning cookbooks, Cheryl and Bill Jamison were ready to take a break. They packed their bags, locked up their house in Santa Fe, and set off on a three-month-long visit to ten countries—all on frequent-flier miles.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After years of painstaking planning, veteran cookbook authors Cheryl and Bill Jamison (Smoke & Spice, American Home Cooking, The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining) used all their frequent flier miles on a three-month global culinary tour, chronicled in this charming travelogue. Beginning in Bali, the couple traveled to 10 different countries during the fall of 2005, sampling the local cuisine and taking in the sights. Narrating as "we," the Jamisons bring readers along as they dig into succulent jumbo crab at a hole in the wall in Singapore, dine on a luxurious wood and rattan houseboat in India and tour wineries in Australia; unfortunately, the spell is occasionally broken by awkward lapses into third person. That aside, the Jamisons make for informative and inquisitive travel guides, seeking out lesser-known establishments that capture the feel of each country. Though they occasionally splurge on an upscale meal, the majority of their dining experiences are well within the budgets of most travelers. Those interested in replicating legs of their journey will find the book a welcome resource, including information on lodging, dining destinations and not-to-be-missed cultural experiences (like the Carmen Miranda Museum in Brazil). For the sedentary, the Jamisons have thoughtfully included a native recipe from each stop.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Loath to squander frequent-flier miles on pointless excursions, the Jamisons organize a trip around the world to sample the best foods the planet has to offer. Traveling a westerly route, they commence their planetary banquet in Bali, with its unique island version of Hindu cookery. Fine wines enhance the Australian dining experience. Singapore’s multiculturalism turns the days spent there into a vast Asian banquet. South Africa offers an opportunity to savor such wild delights as smoked zebra. No gastronomic journey being complete without a French stopover, the travelers revisit a favorite Provençal inn. For each destination, the Jamisons offer a list of visited hotels and restaurants and a particularly exemplary recipe. Anyone contemplating a similar circumnavigation or other extensive, exotic travel will find here a trove of practical and anecdotal information and encouragement along with useful recommendations for clothes, luggage, and even medicines. --Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (March 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060878959
• ISBN-13: 978-0060878955
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars BORING !!, October 5, 2008

By 

jmcc (Richland, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure (Hardcover)

Like the literary equivalent of reading a birder's checklist of sightings.

I was hoping to get a "you are there" experience of exotic places and people. Instead, I got a few anecdotes, that mostly revealed the curmudeonliness of the authors, and a list of meal ingredients.

It is written in 3rd-person, present-tense with inane dialogue quotes that string together the tally of meals. The following is one example (from page 69).

"Our best meals come at small restaurants with more faithful specializations. One is a mom-and-daughter Vietnamese operation in a strip mall around the corner from out hotel. While the middle-aged daughter handles the cooking in the kitchen, the elderly mother serves the patrons, seating us at one of the two simple tables on the sidewalk, actually more atmospheric than the brightly lit, larger tables inside. For starters, she brings us a platter of delightful fried crab spring rolls, which we wrap in lettuce leaves with pickled ginger and then dip in fish sauce. Bill moves on to a spicy fish preparation, with cubes of the day's catch stir-fried with vegetables in a piquant sauce that gets his nose running again. Cheryl opts for a vermicelli salad with grilled bits of pork and pork balls, served with lettuce leaves, carrot strips, ginger, and peanuts to bundle together for eating.

L'Astrolabe, on the Baie des Citrons, reminds us of numerous seaside bistros on the French Mediterranean, in its menu as well as the alfresco setting. For our lunch, Cheryl chooses the plat du jour, a seafood carpaccio combination. Paper-thin slices of giant clams, salmon, and tuna arrive with seasoning portions of astringent greeen olive oil, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and lime, all arrayed around a mound of garlicky slivered crudite salad. As terrific as this is, she really swoon over the accompanying vegetable side dish. 'It's the sweetest pumpkin I've ever tasted, baked and then pureed with cream and some curry powder.' Bill picks the house meat specialty, a steak tartare with frites called Le Gastrolabe. Chefs prepare it in the kitchen rather that at the table, blending local beef luciously and richly with capers, tomatoes, onions, and gherkins, and flavoring the mixture with subdued but sound hints of parsley, chives, basil, egg yolk, brandy, olive oil, garlic, and Tabasco. The food punches out our congestion for hours."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars uugh awful writing, April 9, 2009

By 

jrnlmkr "jrnlmkr" (los angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Around the World in 80 Dinners (Paperback)

i love travel essays because they tend to give insight not often found in the average guidebook and was particularly interested in reading a book about traveling around the world in search of delicious food. this book was a disappointment. the writing is flat and boring--i actually found it a chore to read. and for a reason i couldn't ever figure out, the authors switch from first person to third person, using we to describe themselves at the beginning of a paragraph, switching to bill said or cheryl did at the end of the very same paragraph. i found it confusing.

in the hands of a really good writer, words can often make me smell and taste, but the author's descriptions of food were bland and dull. throughout the book they describe dish after dish and not once did i find myself getting hungry when reading. worse, i have visited many of the places they describe and found myself thinking, "it was so so much better than that."

for some reason, amazon sent and billed me for two copies of this book--i wish i'd sent them both back.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MAY I TAKE YOUR ORDER?, April 1, 2008

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure (Hardcover)

Armed with heartiness, enthusiasm, and a ton of frequent flier miles cookbook authors Cheryl and Bill Jamison did what most of us would only dream of doing - they embarked on a 90 day long visit to ten countries. Their destinations and cuisines were diverse, from Bali to Brazil.

Of special interest is a detailed description of their trip preparation with many helpful tips whether it is clothing to take or the how-to of making room reservations in a foreign country.

Cheryl's clothes were mix and match (many from Chico's), no wrinkle and easily scrunchible. Bill, on the other hand, took slacks with expandable waists and zippered pockets plus his "blazer cum safe." Rather than tote guidebooks or language manuals for each stop they reviewed the materials, photocopied what they deemed important, and made succinct destination notes which were discarded after a visit.

Their preference is not for the most prestigious hotels but rather for "the best and priciest quarters at smaller local inns and hotels." They also found that dealing directly with hotel managers rather than a reservation service resulted in better accommodations and service.

First stop Bali where they found that ceremonies were of the utmost importance in people's lives and relished a dessert of "fresh tropical fruit cubes suspended in a yogurt and coconut milk mixture."

Australia held a host of wineries and chefs with a tendency to be adventurous in food preparation. Their hotel of choice in New Caldonia was closed because of a strike so they were transferred to the Nouvata Park which proved overly busy but their room had a magnificent view of the ocean.

So it went with ups and downs, chest colds and delighted taste buds to India, China, South Africa and Brazil.

Each chapter closes with recommended accommodations and restaurants.

Penned with humor and attention to detail Around the World in 80 Dinners is frosting on the cake for armchair travelers.

- Gail Cooke