| Title | : | National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0735223165 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780735223165 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | Expected publication June 20, 2023 |
We all have an idea in our heads about what French food is--or Italian, or Japanese, or Mexican, or.... But where did those ideas come from? Who decides what makes a national cuisine? Anya von Bremzen, award-winning international food writer, has written definitive cookbooks for Russian, Spanish and Latin American cuisine, and delved into the world's great food traditions as a three-time James-Beard-award-winning food journalist. Now, in National Dish, she embarks on a fascinating journey to the heart of six of the world's most storied food traditions, going high and low, from world-famous chefs to people on the street, in search of how cuisine became connected to place.
Paris is where the whole idea of a country's food as its national heritage was first invented, and so it is where Anya must begin. With an inquisitive eye and unmistakable wit, she ponders the invention of the restaurant, the codification of French food, and the tension between the cosmopolitan and locavore tendencies of the modern eater. From France, she moves quarters to Naples, where she comes face to face with the myth and reality of the pizza in the city where it all began, and takes on the Italian-ness of pasta in the bargain. Next is Tokyo, where Anya and her partner Barry explore the mystique of ramen, rice, and the distance between Japan's future and its past. From there they move to Seville, to search for the essence of Spain's tapas culture and sense of community, and then Oaxaca, where culture wars over the pretty dream and the complex reality of postcolonial cultural integration find expression in the form of maize, mole, and mezcal. In Istanbul, a traditional Ottoman potluck with friends becomes a lens on how a great multi-cultural empire defined its food heritage. Finally, they land back in their beloved home in the melting pot of Jackson Heights, Queens, for a Ukrainian dinner centered around borscht, a meal which has never felt more loaded, or more precious.
A book of astonishing range and connoisseurship, National Dish peels back the layers of myth, commercialization, and fetishization around these great world cuisines. In so doing, it brings us to a deep appreciation of how the country makes the food, and the food the country.
National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home Reviews
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(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
This was a fantastically fascinating read. In exquisite detail, Anya van Bremzen reveals a range of complexities and myths that can lie just beneath the surface of dishes and cuisines that are held up as emblematic of various nations. Some are cooked and enjoyed across large regions by multiple countries and peoples but are claimed by a particular nation as theirs and theirs alone. Others have spent literal centuries scorned in their home countries as low-class or regional dishes not worth considering before they received their current prominence. Meanwhile, a few are heavily influenced by the cuisines of outsiders, and a shocking amount were pushed to national elevation as part of heavy top-down affairs. Pardon the puns, but there’s just so much food for thought to mentally chew upon. Not only was I able to learn a tremendous amount of the several cuisines that von Bremzen selected, but it’s given me the foundations for a brand new critical eye for other national, and even regional cuisines that I’m already greatly appreciating.
For lovers of food history, or for those who just love to curl up with a great nonfiction read, National Dish is not a title to be missed! -
As said in another review, this book made a perfect marriage of two things that I don't think anyone can really argue with: food, and historical facts that would make Jeopardy! question writers roll in their graves. Every question I had about anything and everything was answered, sometimes even before I realized I had that question. The writing was phenomenal, with an ability to transport me out of my dingy college sublet and into these cities around the world. Travel stresses me out, but for any of these places, I'd be willing to take that risk.
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I loved this book as it was a combination of two of my favourite things: food and nonfiction trivia/information/lore.
I often wonder how foods got to be as popular as they are in countries: what we call CHINESE FOOD would never be served in China and even the food I got in Tokyo was different from the "authentic Japanese food: that I can get down the street. (DItto for "foreign foods" found at, say, Taco Bell! Popeye's CHicken may be the same, though ... lol!)
A great book for the foodies in your life or anyone who loves reading about other cultures and their impact on our tastebuds...I loved it enough to order a personal copy for myself! -
National Dish is a book about the author's worldwide history and experience with food. It is interesting to read about how the food we know has become national dishes and how she shows her connection based on her experience.
Sometimes I find it unrelatable due to different cultures and my need for an understanding towards cuisine.
I would recommend this book to familiar readers with this background.
