Customer Reviews

Eat This!: 1,001 Things to Eat Before You Diet

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

...and he was hungry, he very well might have written this charming book. A celebration of that spot in town that only the locals know about, this book is a light footed tour through the places that will never be included in the Michelin guide, but should not be missed at all costs.

Written with a great eye (and ear, nose, and tongue) for detail, lovers of "real food" everywhere will find this book a very satisfying read. Finally, a food book that understands that a super omelet or a perfect pizza is just as important to understanding great food as a fancy 3-star meal.

A fantastic book. It makes you want to give up the gym and the sensible eating and just eat everything you can get your greasy hands on; the best lobster rolls in maine, key lime pie in florida, and burgers everywhere.
It also tells you how to have all this amazing food delivered right to your door, making it even easier to become a true couch potato.
my only beef is that it doesn't mention the bacon egg and cheese and the yankee doodle in new haven, two of those and your hangover is just a distant memory, maybe it will make it into the next edition
In the meantime, if you take your food serious, EAT THIS

Anyone who travels the country will like this entertaining book as a quick reference. It's fun to read and full of useful information on local, interesting eateries.

This book serves well if you want to learn about US region cooking, if you are traveling and want to know what to check out, or if you are looking for sources of regional specialties on the internet. Extremely well researched, this book will serve repeated use on all fronts. A great read.

I really enjoyed this book, but was crestfallen upon discovering no mention of the northern New Jersey Italian Hot Dog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_hot_dog) in the otherwise quite serviceable section on Hot Dogs. How can one know about "rippers" at the Rut Hut and not make mention of the Italian Hot Dog?

I liked the book so much, I bought 15 copies -- one for me and the others as gifts for family and friends, both local and farflung. I figure, wouldn't anyone want to read about great eateries both where they live and where they might some day travel? Plus, it's a great read.

I should have looked at this book in a B&M bookstore before ordering sight unseen on Amazon. I expected it to be set up in list form, similar to the travel book "1000 Places To See Before You Die," or at least some kind of organized, coherent pattern. It was not. It was a mishmash of disorganized "notes" and "essays" set up in the most inconceivable way with zero connection from one chapter to the next. There is no flow to this book. There is no rhyme or reason to this book. It's as if the author took all his food diary entries from the last 20 years and slapped them together in no particular order (not even alphabetical!), with no particular point.

Even the index is aggravating. For example, in an attempt to find some sort of coherence in this book, I attempt to navigate my way through it by using the regional index. I saw an entry for "Algeria." I though, oh great, maybe there will be a section on Algerian food. WRONG! The country of "Algeria" is merely mentioned in his section on dates. The sentence is as follows: "I imagine we got our dates from one of the major producers among the nations of North Africa: Algeria or Morocco; perhaps Egypt." I checked and, sure enough, Egypt and Morocco are listed in the regional index as well. Misleading when the only reference in the entire book to these countries is one word in one sentence. Pfft. Ripoff.

After reading the most interesting parts I could find, I don't did not find this book useful (or interesting) enough to consume bookcase space. I enjoy cookbooks and food books, but this does not cut it. For what it's worth most of the high ratings seem to be from New York (whatever that means).

I haven't figured out what culinary qualifications, if any, the author has. He certainly does not know anything about Durian (but he ate it once frozen/thawed and included a couple of pages about it). His other books don't seem to be food related. Don't expect much depth of knowledge in this book.

The layout of the book is a annoying - especially the frequent boxes label 'Quick Bite', which since there is no other subtitle on the boxes, you need to read before you know it was something of little interest. This book is a hodge podge of stuff which does not seem to know where it is going. Fun title, disappointing book.