Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure (Hardcover)

by Bill Jamison (Author), Cheryl Alters Jamison (Author)
Key Phrases: nam priks, chile paste, black vinegar, United States, New Caledonia, Cape Town (more...)

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 (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #629,569 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 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 (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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

3 of 3 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

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."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, August 13, 2008

By	Ciel (MA) - See all my reviews

I wanted to love this book. It has all the components that I love-a memoir, food centered, travel centered, but...it wasn't to be. I found the writing to be inconsistent. Many of the descriptions seemed more like lists of food, ingredients or things that they saw rather than a true description. I also found that the descriptions were often a little too snobby sounding rather than helpful (ie a Merlot is described as having "a vigorous structure, backbone, and tannin". I ended up enjoyed the descriptions of people much more than the food. Still, I usually read straight through the books that I check out and I no longer was interested in finishing the book by the time I was half way through. I kept having to read something else for a while and then see if I could get back into it. Maybe I would have been pulled in with color photos --the ones on the cover are very inviting, or fewer lists or??? I'm not sure.