Customer Reviews

Rachael Ray: Best Eats in Town on $40 A Day

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sadly, it's too obvious that the publisher tried to crank out "$40 a Day" as a disposable consumer product, not a lovingly crafted book. The book serves as a passable companion to the TV series, nothing more, nothing less: there are too few restaurant listings for it to be a decent travel guide and too few recipes to be a cookbook. Even as a supplement to the series, the book isn't exactly satisfying. There are some answers to questions loyal viewers have had ("What's up with being a miserly tipper?") and funny anecdotes here and there, but the experience recounted in Rachael's somewhat lacking prose is not as great as watching the show. Someone, please get her a thesaurus so we won't read over and over that this or that place "rocked" or was "rockin'" or "awesome"!

On a similar note, there are numerous grade school grammatical errors suggesting that the editors and proofreaders were asleep at the job (an English lesson for Rachael Ray and the editors of "$40 a Day": "it's" is a contraction of "it is" and "its" is a third person possessive pronoun). The unprofessional editorial quality of "$40 a Day" extends to a few grossly pixelated low-res images, which was probably downloaded from the restaurants' websites by an intern, and chunks of text in a hard-to-read display font. This may not bother some readers, but it is baffling that books with such elementary errors, and so many of them, go to press.

With more care and perhaps more additional information or stories, "$40 a Day" could have been a great book that can stand on its own. In its current form, however, the book merely serves as a cross-marketing tool for the TV show, falling short as a travel guide, a cookbook, or even just a decent, well-written book. If you must, get this book used. It certainly doesn't warrant the $16.95 cover price, and frankly, the publisher doesn't deserve your hard-earned bucks for such a sloppy piece of work.

Rachael Ray constantly surprises me with her Food Network shows and books. When I began watching the Food Network and saw Rachael appearing among high powered chefs like Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse, I thought her show was an invention of the Food Network and Miss Rachael was brought in as a pretty face and perky personality to front the show in much the same way that the distaff hosts of `How to Boil Water' are actors first and foodies second. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that her show concept was entirely her idea and that the show and the first book actually predated Rachael's appearance on the Food Network. Then, I thought her appearing on the `$40 a Day' show was simply cashing in on her '30 Minute Meals' popularity. Wrong again. The eating out on a budget idea also came from Rachael and also predated her appearance on the Food Network. What will that girl do next? Actually, we know what her next gig is, on a show interviewing entertainment celebrities who also happen to be foodies.

The value you can get from this book depends a whole lot on where you live, how many of the TV show episodes you have seen, and whether you like to travel. The `where you live' is important because a large number of venues are in the northeastern US and on the southern Atlantic coast. So if you live on the East Coast, a fairly large number of locations will be within your reach in two to five days, round trip. The importance of how many episodes you have seen can work in two different ways. If you have seen no episodes, the book will be much more valuable than if you have seen several, and find little to interest you. On the other hand, if you have seen many episodes, and really like the kind of stuff presented in the shows, the book will tickle your fancy as much as the show does, with added value (more on this later). If you like to travel, even if you don't actually travel, but like the idea of travel, this book will be much more enjoyable than if you are a psychological homebody.

There are several things in the book that do not appear on the show. First, there more information on where Rachael got the information she used in planning her visits. The show features the Internet, free newspapers, and locals. To her additional suggestions, I would add the `New Yorker' and travel magazines.
Second, there are recipes from several of the eateries featured on the show. These recipes will be of little value if you are a major cookbook collector, as most of them are very common dishes such as clam chowder, pasta Puttanesca, and French toast. Third, there are tidbits of information on scenes which never made it into the show such as Miss Rachael's run up the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, emulating Rocky, in her sweats.

As an occasional traveler who has been to several of Ms. Rachael's venues, including Rome, Paris, Florence, New Orleans, Cape Cod, and Chicago, and who has had both very good and very bad luck in picking out places to eat, I find Rachael's advice potentially very useful. My least favorite memory, which grows more grotesque the more I read about Italian eateries, is a lunch I had in a very small room in Florence which appeared to be nothing more than the front room of a private house where the family had two or three tables and served the most dreadfully common food you can imagine. The other side of the coin is that this experience tempers my opinions when I hear of the abundance of great eateries in some out of the way corner of the world. I don't need Tony Bourdain to tell me there is some really bad food being sold out there. The other side of the coin is a chance discovery of an excellent tavern / restaurant I found in New Bedford on a whimsical turn off the Connecticut turnpike on the way to Cape Cod.

I can't really give this book five stars for several reasons. First, it is dated material. As the author says herself, places go out of business on a regular basis, so call ahead if you plan to visit these venues. Second, the material the book adds to the experience of the show is not great. It is much more fun watching Rachael do something embarrassing by simply being herself than it is to read about it. Third, the book is not a substitute for a true travel guide, as the selection of venues is very narrow. Even in a small town like Cooperstown, there are probably plenty of other good places to eat that will be reasonably priced. But, it is still a fun book at a very reasonable list price. I have a lot of admiration for Rachael and her publishers for keeping the prices of her books down to a very reasonable cost for the quality of the material.

Recommended for foodies and travelers.

I ordered this book on May 26. There were publication delays which resulted in my finally receiving the book yesterday! It was well worth waiting for. Unlike Rachael's other books, this one is in full color with lots of interesting pictures and the names and addresses of all restaurants she visited for 55 shows. There are some recipes as well. The restaurants are grouped geographically rather than chronologically, in the order in which she visited them. Evidently she read the message boards, because she explains why she tips 15%. She does it to bring the show in on budget. When she's not eating for the show, she tips 20% or more. She was a little dismayed when numerous people said that La Madeleine, where she breakfasted in Dallas, was a chain. She does not avoid quality chains, as this is, but rather does not go to fast food places.

All in all this is an excellent book and would be very useful for anyone who plans to visit a city where Rachael has spent her 24 hours. I know I'll look at it before I travel.

I really like the upbeat personality of Racheal Ray as she finds some good food deals here and abroad. I really wanted this book because I love to travel and thought this would be a great companion for when I am in the locales covered. The problem that I have truly with the book are minimal. My expectations were higher, I thought that there would be more pictures of what she ate, and more of the scenery she took in while travelling. I didnt realize that most of the book would be a written commentary on each place the food was at, and how she knew this or that patron, a bio on the owners, or why she chose the spot. I liked all this but I really wanted to see the food and (even though this would eventually be inaccurate) how much her total tabs came out to for each meal. I did appreciate that she chooses diverse cuisine and the standard favorites. She included some recipes which were decent enough but not great pics of the food to accompany it with. For example I loved her Portland Maine lunch on tv- this large, juicy lobster roll that she had trouble picking up with huge pieces of meat, but in the book she just mentioned that for lunch she had one helluva lobster roll. Another example is the enchilada and eggs she had for breakfast in Laguna Beach, the book shows a small picture of it with the recipe, but on the show it looked mouth watering.
I agree with other reviewers, this book is a good companion but does nothing for the TV show. I would recommend the show over the book any day.

This is a great book for anyone who enjoy's Rachel Ray's $40 a day show on the Food Network. Each show has 2-4 pages describing Rachel's experience at that location, things she did and what restaurants she went to. There are recipes interspersed throughout the book.

What I like about this book is that Rachel vears from her normal, tv-self, where she loves everything she eats, and talks about what food she liked and what she doesn't like. Whe knew she doesn't like desserts? I would enjoy more information on how she picks the restaurants. Some of her choices seem random, and even like poor choices in places where I know there are plenty of great cheap eats. I'd also like some more explanation of how she picks the locations to visit---why Park City and not Baltimore? She seems to have missed some big cities. Of course, this book does not cover the newer shows, where she goes places like Mystic, CT and Martha's Vineyard.

Overall, a fun book.

Before I opened Rachael Ray: Best Eats in Town on $40 a Day, I made a mental note of four places where I have taken people who raved about the experience and food at these low-cost venues. I decided that I would check to see if Rachael had spotted these sleepers as well.

The first is a little hideaway in Cambridge where I often bring friends, family, and out-of-town guests for great beer and food called Grendel's Den. Everyone raves about how great the place is and ask to be taken back on later visits. Rachael found it, too, but was low on money when she arrived so she mainly had a beer. But she enjoyed meeting a Harvard lawyer there. As a fellow Harvard lawyer, I'm pleased she mentioned that aspect of the Den. I've been going there for over 30 years and have loved every visit. The food, Rachael, is better than the draft beer. Come back and try it!

The second place was in Rome, where everyone I know loves to eat the fried artichokes at Pompiere. Yes! Rachael spotted it and ordered the right dish. That's pretty impressive when there are so many great, inexpensive restaurants in Rome.

The third place was one I found when one of my sons was in graduate school at Bennington in Vermont, The Apple Barn & Country Bake Shop. Yes! Rachael ordered the required apple pie.

The fourth was to enjoy wine, bread, and cheese in Europe. Rachael figured out this is a great thing to do in Paris. You win, Rachael, you do know how to pick great, inexpensive meals and snacks.

The book is also filled with lots of color photographs and a few recipes of mostly simple dishes. If you have seen lots of her shows, you'll feel like you are reading through a well-prepared scrapbook.

The main drawbacks of the book are the following:

Even major metropolitan areas (like Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C.) sported only three or four choices. You could obviously do a while book on each one.

Tiny towns (Cooperstown, Grand Canyon, and Sedona) get just the same amount of attention.

In the bigger areas, you could spend the better part of the day driving from one locale to another. In the big cities, you could spend an extra $40 a day in parking to get to some of these spots and stay there for a meal. There's no attempt to integrate the eating into a reasonable day of sightseeing.

This material is already very dated. With time, it will be less valuable.

There's not much logic behind the recipes that are selected. You could get more complicated ones from any of Rachael's recipe books.

So what's my advice? Borrow the book at the library if you are planning to go to one of these cities. Check to see if the places are still in business, look up how far apart they are, and investigate whether there's free parking or public transportation available at modest cost. And look forward to some wonderful times and good meals!

I love this book. I enjoy traveling and eating at new and different places. This book was enjoyable to read and informative.

Rachael Ray has so much energy it is fun to watch her show. Reading the book puts you right there even if you can't travel to each town.
I recommend this book to everyone looking for new a varied tastes in eating enjoyment.

This book has some great recipes, the hummus recipe is awesome, but there is no table of contents or index to find the recipes. This would be a book of great use for frequent travellers to big cities giving I'm sure great places to try out. My travelling friend loved it as a gift, she said it's going to be very useful.

This is the best of the Rachael Ray Books. It is fully illustrated with helpful hints that are updated and accurate. The pictures were divine. Also this will make anyone travel-savvy. Good job Rachael.

I was so happy to receive this book. It has good information for places I can visit when I do get time to travel. I watch Rachael Ray's $40 a day show often and enjoy it alot. Food is one of the reasons I love to travel. It is fun to see new places and try some of the foods in different parts of the world. These little out of the way places are so fun to read about, and reading about places near where I live is also great. I enjoy Rachael's humor and it is nice to see someone with so much energy. I recommend the book and also the show. It was definitely worth the money.