Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater
by Alan Richman
Overview
From the Publisher
Alan Richman has dined inmore unlikely locations and devoured more tasting menus than any three other food critics combined. Over the decades, his editors have complained incessantly about his expense accounts but never about his appetite. He has reviewed restaurants in all the best Communist countries (China, Vietnam, Cuba) and supped heartily all over the free world. Wherever he's gone, GQ magazine's acclaimed food, wine, and restaurant critic has brought along his impeccable palate, Herculean constitution, and biting humor.
In this globe-trotting literary smorgasbord, the eleven-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for food writing retraces his most savory culinary adventures. Richman's inexhaustible hunger and unquenchable curiosity take him to the best restaurants and most irresistible meals, from Monte Carlo to Corona, Queens. He seeks out the finest barbecue in America—it's in Ayden, North Carolina, by the way—the costliest sushi in Los Angeles, and the most perfumed black truffles in France. Along the way he has studied at Paul Bocuse's cooking school in Lyon (and failed), moonlighted as a sommelier in New York (and failed), and charmed his way through a candlelight dinner with actress Sharon Stone (and failed big time).
Through it all—roughly 50,000 meals and still counting—one thing is certain: Alan Richman has never come to a fork in the road without a fork in his hand.
My thoughts
I can't decide whether to keep reading this book or pitch it. The book itself is good, which makes me think I should be a big girl and keep reading. The principal of the book is annoying, which makes me want to pitch it into the recycle bin. Let's start with the good.
The author has a dream job. He gets to dine at the best restaurants in the world -- 5 course meals, no out-of-pocket expense. He gets to visit world class cities and see the sites, while seeking out local restaurants to review. He gets to take his friends out with him; he gets to ask for special orders from top chefs; he gets preferential treatment in 5-star hotels and on airlines! How do I get that job?!?!
My beef with the book? I bought the book thinking I was going to get, well, a book, key word being "book", about his dining experiences and travels. Instead I got a series of short stories. That annoys me. I'm not typically a fan of short essay books, and had I know this was one of them I wouldn't have purchased it. OK, so I was duped. It's not the first time. So what if it's not a continuous story? So what if the stories jump around from continent to continent?
I was cruising along enjoying the stories, being annoyed only when the chapter ended and I had to acclimate myself to a new set of circumstances and a new cast of players, when I came across the section on Vietnam. Now, I don't think of myself as a political extremist by any means. I follow world politics in so much as I can understand them, and from time to time I have strong opinions on a political matter, but for the most part I sit back and let others spew on about politics and try to learn from the banter. Something about Alan Richman's chapter on Vietnam set me off! He offended me when he laughed about stealing weapons from the US government and pilfering from US merchants. Taxpayer dollars! MINE! YOURS! It's something so small...but something that irritated me greatly as I read this chapter. I decided to keep reading, again telling myself to get over it, but then he got to the part about the Vietnamese women lined up to service our servicemen, and I kept wondering when we were going to get back to the part about his food editorials.
My beef with this book is that I was duped twice! once when I discovered I had a book of short stories rather than a book, and once when the book went political on me! I'll still give it two stars because the stories in the book really are good, but it's a weak two stars!
LEAST Favorite Passage
One problem with being in my unit was that ammunition wasn't easily obtained. For administrative purposes we worked under a logistical command whose mission was to unload ships. This had advantages, since the soldiers who did the unloading were the very ones who stole the steaks and lobster tails I kept in the freezer compartment of the full-size refrigerator in my quarters, but these guys had little use for ammunition. The only people likely to pull a gun on them were the captains of the American freighters they were plundering. The way we got most of our ammunition was to trade for it or to steal it.
Since we belonged to the unit that towed ammunition upriver, all that we required was within reach. What I most needed were the 40-mm grenades I enjoyed firing at the trees along the Dong Nai. (Officially, this was known as a reconnaissance-by-fire.) It didn't make sense to break into a pallet and steal a single box of grenades, because the theft would be noted and investigated. It was better to break into a pallet, take a single box of grenades, and throw the rest into the river. That way nobody would notice a thing. Now you know yet another reason why the Vietnam War cost so much.
