Customer Reviews

Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies; An Epicurean Adventure Around the World

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

 

 

Fascinating photos, recipes for foods I wouldn't even want to look at in a cage, but the writing is great, and the author's point: Food is all about culture, is very provocative. A very strange, yet terrific coffee table book for the more adventurous

I bought this book for the shock value. It is a great conversation piece; the topics are definately bizarre. But upon reading it, I became more surprised at the academic way each subject (animal/insect, etc.) was handled. Surpisingly, it is a book that is more thought provoking than shocking. The quality photographs give it a National Geographic look and feel.

Moose Nose Jelly, Placenta Paté, Double-Boiled Penis Soup, Jelly Fish Salad, Asparagus-Scorpion Canapés, Deep-Fried Field Rat, etc.

Jerry Hopkins and Michael Freeman do a good job presenting the strange foods from around the world (but mostly Asia it seems). Mr. Hopkins trys to persuade the reader to expand his culinary resources beyond beef, pork, and chicken, but for this reader his book had the opposite effect. It's a good argument for vegetarianism although he does provide information about some unusual vegetables. This book more than anything else calls to mind the banquet scene in the film "The Dark Crystal" (qv). I think I'll stick to my mundane American diet albeit with not quite so much meat in it.

Some factual errors appear in the text that should have been caught during the editing process: armadillos are not reptiles but mammals; the sea cucumber is not the same thing as a sea slug (nudibranch) nor is it a mollusc; chitin, not 'chitlin', makes up 3-10% of an insect's body weight. Also, Mr. Hopkins repeats the story of a restaurant where the patrons consume the brain of a living monkey. I wish he had confirmed this personally rather than repeating a news item.

An intriguing book, but one that may have not have the effect the author intended.

Strange Foods is a fascinating investigation of foods that are unpalatable to westerners. It'd be a real treasure, but it is beset by both factual and writing errors.

One caveat: this is NOT a book for the squeamish - not only does Hopkins discuss, in great detail, the consumption of things like gorillas, insects, and endangered species, but Michael Freeman provides full-color, often full-page photos of nearly every food item in the book. If the text doesn't turn your stomach, at least a few of the pictures will.

The errors will also turn some stomachs, mostly those belonging to writers and scientists. The book is full of non-sentences and in some places seems entirely unedited; I found an average of four errors on each page, and I wasn't reading for mistakes. Hopkins' convoluted sentence construction and affinity for fragments makes for truly eye-watering reading at times. Although the factual errors were less prevalent, they were present, and in some ways they were even worse than the writing.

Also, there are areas where Hopkins carefully skirts the issues behind his culinary experiments; he's determinedly neutral on environmental and species-preservation issues. I imagine his stances would really irritate a committed environmentalist - the section on whales, for example, might raise a few WWF eyebrows, as would the section on bush meat (primates).

Still, the book is worth a read, even for people (like me) who are unlikely ever to try any of the foods mentioned. It's always good to see how the other half lives, and eating is a huge part of that. For world travelers, too, it is handy to know beforehand what to expect; those who read this book will be fully prepared for strange dietary preferences, no matter where in the world they go. I don't consider this book useful as a reference source (because of the errors), but it is entertaining. On the whole, Strange Foods isn't worth the cover price - check it out of the library or buy it used - but it is worth the time it takes to read it.

At first I bought this book as a coffee table book: intriguing writing, great photos, and a "strange" subject. But the book is more than this. It is a gentle commentary about how we humans often view the familiar as normal, and the other fellow's familiar as "strange". Mr. Hopkins amazing life experiences make this a book with a good story.

Here's the story of this book. One day I was at the old Barnes and Noble off of main street and this book was on the self and I noticed it while looking for a cook book. It was great! I almost bought it and then decieded not to. Well over the next 3 years I kept thinking about how I should have bought that book that I couldn't find when I went back to look (probably because it's out of print). Finally, I thought to look on Amazon, and low and libby, there it was! So guess what?????????


I bought it!

It's such a great book. After leaving it on my coffee table (and I Don't drink coffee) and having all my "friends" read it, I took it to my classroom and now I share it with my students, especially when I am teaching sociology. It's such a good teaching tool. I wish there were more pictures, but even without more (and it has a lot, I just want more), it's a great book. Obviously some students get a little grossed out, but that's what makes it so captivating, some of this book is like that accident we just have to look at but more positive. My favorite are the parts on Balut, Placenta (no pictures), Rats, Insects, Rotten Fish, and so many more! As long as you have a little bit of an open mind (or a lot), I am sure you'll like this book! Also, here's a list of things I've eaten to date that might be considered werid:

---cultural foods that are uncommon in my area----
Cow tongue
Blood Sausage
Gefilte Fish
Menudo
Haggis
Sails
Frogs Legs
All sushi
Fugu Fish (in Japan)
Kangaroo
Wild Boar
Lama
Rattlesnake
Elk
Alligator
Bufflo Oysters


---cultural foods that are more different---
grasshoppers
silk worms
scorpions
chimbai ants (they're pretty big)
meal worms
crickets
taruantula (home made too!, WARNING TRICKY TO PREPARE THOUGH)
wasp larve
giant water bettle
Balut

well, I am probably forgetting somethings, but you get the idea, I love to try new things!! I recommend "Typhoon" the resturant if you're in Southern California, and I recommend "Seattle's Finist Meats" if you want to order some interesting meat, I think they ship nationally? Good luck opening your mind, just don't let your brain fall out, THAT I won't eat, gross....

Lastly, if you have not yet registered with Amazon, this would be a good time to do so so you can rate reveiws, and rate products, and rate reveiws, and buy products, and rate reviews. Take care.
I am sure I am fogetting something here, but

Jerry Hopkins offers a glimpse into the wonderful world (universe really) of truly exotic foods, ranging the stinky fruit durian, which he refers to at one point as being like eating ice cream in an outhouse, to rats (not consumed often enough as far as I'm concerned) to even his son's placenta, which the author warns you to de-vein if you are to serve to party guests.
My only complaint, and it is a slight one, is that the book seems to be a little too concentrated on the cuisine and customs of Southeast Asia, which is somewhat understandable give the fact that Hopkins resides in Bangkok. However, I would have liked to seen some more information on Gamle Ole or the maggot cheese which is consumed in Sardinia, or hakarl (Greenlandic Shark).

This is one of the best coffee table books EVER created.
The entries are strange but often times hilarious.

You have got to see this book! There are some truly unbelievable things in it. Put this on your coffee table or in your waiting room and you will get conversation like no other!

There is no logical reason that turkeys and chickens should be more often butchered than other forms of birds, nor that some fishes are more often eaten than others. However, it is a negative thing to widen the list of animals falsely termed edible. END