A Cook's Tour (Anthony Bourdain)*

Bourdain has his schtick, and this is more of the same, but I enjoyed this book a lot more than Kitchen Confidential. It's the story of Bourdain's travels around the world in search of the "perfect meal." He attends a pig slaughter, eats the heart of a cobra (which is still beating), and eats that famous poisonous blowfish. He even eats at the French Laundry, which tragically I have yet to do. We listened to this as we drove across boring-ass Nevada, and it really did make the time go by.

Although the book was well written and evocative and full of personality--and I really enjoyed the job Bourdain did of reading it, which he did himself--it did come across as poorly organized. He spends an awful lot of time in Vietnam, but he doesn't put all the Vietnam material together, just scatters it all over the book. And then he doesn't really explain why; I get that he loves Vietnam, but after a couple of chapters, I already get it, and it seems to be belaboring the point.

Anyway, if you're a foodie, you might enjoy the stories Bourdain has to tell. He's really pretty good as a writer, and definitely entertaining. Especially in boring-ass Nevada.