Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run by Alton Brown

Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run Reviews

• 
  CM

  I really enjoyed this. Alton really has a way with words, but if you watch him on the Food Network, you already know that. He talks about the interesting people he meets on the road, and, of course, explains thoroughly the food that he discovers. Happily, he also shares a lot of interesting recipes, too! And there are quite a few history lessons artfully thrown in as well!! {Thanks, Beka! :)}
• 
  Harris

  I enjoyed reading this culinary travelogue; food and travel are two of my favorite things, particularly together. Brown does a great job describing the places and people he met upon the Great River Road of the Mississippi from its mouth in Louisiana to its headwaters in Minnesota. The book is as meandering as the river as Brown and his crew drive motorcycles through the heartland of America, encountering "good eats" and letting the trip develop naturally. This is both a good and bad thing for the book, which can be a bit disjointed as various locations are mentioned. It definitely shows its origin as the book version of a television program. Much appears missing in the print version.
  
  However, all of the stops chosen by Brown are extremely evocative of American road food and should provide a great resource for travel destinations in the region. He even includes one of my own favorite restaurants, the Russian Tea House in St. Paul. The recipes, courtesy of many of the restaurants visited on the trip, are also really nice, including the Russian Tea Houses' delicious borscht. In conclusion, a nice companion from the show that features much in the way of good eats and good travel tips.
• 
  Steven Peterson

  If you watch Food Channel (FC) a lot, you know who Alton Brown is. He has a quirky little show. This book is a little treasure, as far as I'm concerned. The opening foldout map shows the nature of his mini-Odyssey along the Mississippi River, sampling diners and restaurants as he (and his crew) cycle from the Delta to Lake Itasca. I'm an Illinois farm boy, so it was cool to see some of the towns from my home state on his map--Cairo, Alton, Quincy, Nauvoo, and Moline. And other places familiar to me from the Iowa side--Burlington, Muscatine, Clinton, Dubuque.
  
  Some examples of eateries and recipes:
  
  New Orleans, Louisiana: Crawfish Bowl at Big Fisherman Seafood
  
  Greenville, Mississippi: Breakfast ribs at Jim's Cafe
  
  Memphis, Tennessee: Memphis-style turkey legs at Melanie's Soul Food
  
  Illinois and Iowa: Loose meat sandwich (Maid-Rite--In my home town,
  we had a Maid-Rite while I was in high school--Yummy!). Ground beef,
  onion, prepared mustard, water, Worcestershire Sauce, kosher salt).
  Despite my cholesterol level, I'm tempted to try this!
  
  Crosby, Minnesota: Parsley Bread from The (very quirky) Nordic Inn.
  
  There is a final description of Lake Itasca, where the Mississippi River begins.
  
  As one might expect from watching Brown's show, this is an idiosyncratic work. But it is a lot of fun and there are some neat recipes in here. But the Odyssey may be even more interesting than the recipes. Good eats? Good reading!
  
  
• 
  Dani Shuping

  This book works well with the "Feasting on Asphalt" DVD series. Not only does it have great photographs (taken by one of the other members of the trip) but also has insightful stories and commentary about each section of their journey. Alton writes in his normal witty manner, highlights some of the restaurants and places they stopped, and shares some recipes along the way. Some of the recipes are directly from the people that cooked the meal that Alton and his crew enjoyed and others are Alton's best approximation of the menu items. It's a bargain at its current price and I highly recommend it for any fan of Alton.
• 
  Teresa

  More of a travel book than a cookbook, and I really enjoyed that. It was definitely a change from my normal reading, but I adore Alton Brown and have a deep love for Southern and Cajun cooking, which is definitely highlighted in this book.
• 
  Diane

  Christmas present from Trish. Can't wait to visit some of these sites. Loved reading this--Alton is a very funny man.
• 
  Jessica Favor

  I think this book’s principle issue is that it’s trying to wear too many hats. It is a travel memoir of Brown rambling northwards along the Mississippi River on a motorcycle with a camera crew to document the restaurants and eateries he finds. It’s also a cookbook that compiles the recipes that were shared with him by the people he encountered during this journey. It is also, finally, a food memoir as Brown and his crew ate their way through America, avoiding the interstate and trying to find “authentic” small-town cooking. That’s a LOT for a book that is less than 250 pages, and I don’t think that Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run truly succeeds as anything other than a cookbook.
  
  Another problem, however, is that I opened this book because I was looking for the aforementioned luscious food writing and didn’t find it, which is (to some degree) the book’s fault for being a piece of food literature that failed to make me hungry but also (to some degree) a case of expectations vs. reality that is purely on me. My review is negatively biased, so for fairness’ sake I won’t be giving a star rating to Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run.
  
  To dig into the meat of this review (ha), however, let me say that this really is a food book that just doesn’t make you hungry. Alton Brown (or perhaps his ghost writer) writes with a real economy of language that is at times detrimental; food is often described as simply “good” or “perfect” and I don’t get a real sense of what the experience of the food is—except when it’s repulsive, like when Brown describes the texture of cooked pig intestines in his mouth, or sucking out a crawdad’s innards through the shell of its head.
  
  The travel memoir aspect of this book is also lackluster. The people Brown meets during his travels are sketched briefly but (I must admit) fairly well on a surface level; he draws strongly on archetypes and then provides supporting details. However, there’s a complete dearth of nuance. Brown is traveling through some of the most impoverished areas of modern America; there is a point where he is trying to figure out why someone would think to pair fried catfish with spaghetti, and one of his crew members has to whisper to him that “it’s cheap.” This could have been an opportunity for Brown to actually think on what it means to be eating in this area and what daily life (and potentially food insecurity) is like for the people he’s rubbing elbows with as he eats, but nope, it doesn’t happen. This book manages to be almost entirely apolitical—and I’m saying that as scathingly as possible; it feels flavorless.
  
  Overall, I can’t escape the feeling that I wasted my time with this one.
• 
  Tom M.

  Alton Brown's South-to-North motorcycle trip along the backroads that follow the Mississippi River from the Bayou to its source. Along the way they, of course, stop at small, often family-owned restaurants, diners, hole-in-the-walls and find dedicated people making extraordinary food.
  
  The book is part daily diary, part photojournalism, part recipes. And a very fine read.
• 
  Stacy

  One of the best culinary travel books I've come across. It's definitely food-centered, so don't think you're going to find out lots of details about the tourist stops many riverside communities. Great photos, and journal-like layout.
• 
  Rogue Reader

  Alton Brown takes a roadtrip up the Mississippi, stopping where ever. Self interested writing, often disrespectful of those who prepare food for him and poor photography.
• 
  Jas

  Perfect read after watching the show
• 
  Beka

  Nice, but not my favorite of his cookbooks.
• 
  Jennifer

  Let me get this out of the way first- I love Alton Brown. I find him strangely attractive. I like his spiky hair and his round, tortiseshell glasses. I adore his sense of humor and I love that he isn't afraid to be smart. AND HE COOKS! *sigh*
  
  This is a companion book to the second Food Network series of the same name. If you watched the series (as I did), you won't necessarily learn anything new, although the book contains 40 recipes gathered from the road trip. The photography is beautiful, and Alton makes good use of his writing skills honed from years of working in television and films. (Did you know he writes all the scripts for his TV show Good Eats??) I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.
  
  However, what makes this book so valubale to me is the index in the back of the book that lists the name, address, telephone number, website and GPS coordinate of every place they ate along the way! I can't tell you how many times I've watched a food/travel show on PBS or the Food Network, wanted to visit a featured place, and then could never remember exactly where it was. Alton also gives a list of suppliers for many of the specialty food and spices needed to make the local grub in your own home.
  
  Now, if Alton would only come out with a companion book to the FIRST Feasting on Asphalt series...
• 
  Morgan

  I LOVE Alton Brown. I'm pretty sure he's the funniest person on television, and I desperately want to meet him. Ashley recommended Feasting on Asphalt to Jon and I last summer, and were lucky to catch an episode while in Vegas. Let's just say, that was the beginning of the end. We harassed his parents to record the whole season for us, and were lucky enough to find Season One on sell. We love these shows. We follow these shows. We planned part of our roadtrip around these shows. And let me tell you, when we ate where Alton ate, we were not disappointed.
  
  My loving husband found out they were making a book of Season 2, The River Run. It came out just in time for our trip. Wit oozes off the page and fills each memory with joy and laughter. You feel like you know all these people. And let me tell you, when I met the cooks or owners of these restaurants, it was like meeting movie stars. You easily fly through this book, consumming page after page until, suddenly, you're at the end of the road.
  
  I think anyone that likes food, or traveling, or America would enjoy this book. It gets you to the heart of the country and reminds of what we've seemed to have forgotten.
• 
  Elisa

  I love food and I love dorky guys, so this is a no brainer for me. Brown takes another motorcyle ride, this time traveling along the Mississippi River, and eating his way along the river. The book is a collection of travel essays and journal entries from the road.
  My favorite aspect of the book is the way that Brown treats the people he encounters. I worried that he would be a jerk, but was actually far from it. He gives respect and voice to the people, history and culture of the River Run, and makes your mouth water along the way. Recipes are included and I am dying to try a few. It was interesting to see how the recipes and foods change as you go north. I also really enjoyed seeing what Alton thought of the places where I have lived and the food I grew up on.
  A great read for a fan of roadtrips and greasy spoon dives that taste like heaven.
  I hear that there is a television series that went along with this, and would love to watch it one day.
• 
  Angel

  This book will make you want to go out on a road trip of your own. That is certainly the effect it had on me as I finished it. If you saw the show on the Food Network, then you already know what this book is about. Even if you did see the show, I recommend the book. The photos are very nice, and the prose is pretty engaging. The book also features appendices with a full list of all the locations visited (along with a few extras) and a small list of sources for the ingredients in the recipes featured in the book. If you did not see the show, this book might make you want to watch it when they run it again (or get it on DVD maybe?). Alton Brown reminds us that when it comes to travel, the good stuff is on the byways and side roads, not on the interstate. My dream now is to someday take some time to do the river run as well.
  
  I borrowed it via Interlibrary Loan, but I would definitely think about buying it.
• 
  Kathryn Mcgehee

  I obtained this book during one of Alton Brown's public appearances/ book signings a few years ago. My mom and I were just excited to meat one of our food heroes in person, to be honest, so buying the book to get autographed was just icing on the cake. We were both fans of Good Eats, the show, and have enjoyed his other books. However, I still have yet to see the show this particular book is a companion to.
  
  Feasting on Asphalt turned out to be a delightful read--part travelogue, part recipe book, and part local history of that amazing great river I live close to. Maybe it's because I live close to the Mississippi River that this one resonates with me. I admire Brown's love of local culture and cuisine, and his passion to record it before the kind of culture he admires is gone for good in the name of major food and restaurant chains. I also appreciate the way he opened my eyes to the great donut shops in my own city....I never knew!
• 
  aaron

  those who know me, know that my wife and i love food network. and on food network my personal favorite personality (as well as one of my faves along ALL networks) is alton brown. he is the mad scientist of food, the crazy inventor of the culinary, the idiot savant of the mastication arts. in short, he is awesome! this book is the companion to a short show he did for food network in 2007 called feasting on asphalt: the river run. he and his small crew took bmw motorcycles and traveled all the way from the end of the mississippi river to the start. the epic journey took them 26 days and allowed for them to find a ton of great food joints and culinary feats along the way. if you've never read/seen alton brown, this is a great place to start. filled with interesting recipes, road sayings, great photography, and just plain fun; this is a wonderful read. i highly recommend!
• 
  Robyn

  I'm not going to give this a star rating, because I don't think it would be fair. I've never seen the show that this is a companion book for, and I won't be making any of the recipes. If I gave it a star rating, I'd likely bring down the overall rating, and the book is intended for people with different reasons for reading it than I have.
  
  I basically picked this up at the library because I was checking out a couple of the Good Eats books and this was in between volumes 1 and 3 of those. It's a fine book. It's ok. Not having seen Feasting on Asphalt 1 or 2, I just can't say that it's more than that. I haven't had cable in a very long time, and FoA isn't available free online anywhere as far as I can tell. The book (and the show, definitely the show) is a great idea, and it looks like it was probably a great deal of fun. That's about all I can give it.
• 
  Erik

  Having already read some of AB's cookbooks I was really excited about this travel narrative/cookbook. It was equal parts Travels With Charley (Steinbeck),
  On the Road (Kerouac) and had recipes to round it out. The book covers Alton's trip from the Southern end of the Mississippi to the most Northern most point. Along the way he and his crew travel off the interstates in search of regional delicacies and oddities. There are some really good recipes I have yet to try and the story that accompanies was certainly worth the read.
• 
  Noran Miss Pumkin

  I really both of his road trips, and they relate more to me, then his guesting on Iron chef. Hosting is a waste of his skill set. These roads trips make think about little place in my area I drive by all the time, and never try. They are old or small, or worn out, or been there for so many years. I regret never trying old diner down town. Now after reading the book-I wonder about Harvey's--that does only breakfast/lunch for decades.
  
  Also makes me want to try more little places, on our next road trip. This has recipes, but nothing I would do. Yes, the koolaid pickles are in the book. Maybe try that one for Halloween.
• 
  Laura

  I really enjoy Alton Brown and sometimes I really had his life. Who wouldn't want to hop on their motorcycle and criss cross the country checking out America's road food? *Raises hand*
  
  This is no literary classic, but it contains interesting descriptions of interesting places and some great pictures. Some of the information was not quite correct, like that In N Out is only in Southern California and Las Vegas when in fact, it has invaded Northern California. But overall, a very fun book and I love mine all the more since Alton signed it for me. (:
• 
  Molly

  I enjoyed reading this, but with a few exceptions (Koolickles, Roasted Asparagus and Pecan Coconut Pie) there isn't a single thing in this book I would like to eat! This is the companion book to the second season of Alton Brown's Food Network show, and it chronicles the trip north following the Mississippi. Many of the places listed I have been, so that was fun. This is a quick read with lost of pictures, so if you enjoy the show, road food or any of the areas covered int he journey, pick this one up.
• 
  Carol

  This was more than a cookbook. It actually was not a cookbook at all and there are not a lot of recipes in it but I did get some cooking hints in it, for instance grate eggs into tuna salad instead of chopping them in. It is a book about a motorcycle trip Alton Brown and his video crew made from the very end of the Mississippi River to the very top of it. I did not know that at the top of the river it would be like a little puddle. I love the Mississippi River and got so much out of reading about his journey. Also, the photographs were great. Alton seems like a nice guy also.
• 
  Mara

  This is a fun, light read. It has a clear storyline, which makes it nice to read cover to cover, but integrates recipes into that. Normally I don't read cookbooks all the way through, I jump around and pick things up a little at a time, and honestly there are some recipes in even the most interesting cookbooks that I never really look at, and the format of this got me to at least skim all of them. While I won't be making koolickles any time soon, I appreciate that Alton Brown at least got me to learn what they are.