Extreme Cuisine: The Weird & Wonderful Foods that People Eat

by Jerry Hopkins, Anthony Bourdain (Foreword), Michael Freeman (Photographer)

"I could not have written A Cook's Tour without this book. There is so much I would have missed. So dig in. Enjoy […] Eat. Eat adventurously. Miss nothing. It's all here in these pages." —From the Introduction by Anthony Bourdain

Sit down for a meal with the locals on six continents and what they eat may surprise you. Extreme Cuisine examines eating habits across the global neighborhood, showing once and for all that road kill for one culture is restaurant fare for another!

"I've tried to make this book a guide to how the other half dines and why. Over a period of twenty-five years I've augmented my meat-and-potatoes upbringing in the United States to try a wide variety of regional specialties, from steamed water beetles, fried grasshoppers and ants, to sparrow, bison and crocodile. I've eaten deep-fried bull's testicles in Mexico, live shrimp sushi in Hawaii, mice cooked over an open wood fire in Thailand, pig stomach soup in Singapore, minced water buffalo and yak butter tea in Nepal, stir-fried dog tongue and "five penis wine" in China, the boiled blood of a variety of animals in Vietnam, and pate made from my son's placenta when I lived (and he was born) in the UK. This list goes on, and I share some of these experiences in the chapters following, along with many recipes. After all, no matter what humans eat, by choice or circumstance, the one thing all the dishes have in common is that they must be prepared properly." —From the introduction by Jerry Hopkins

Chapters include:
Mammals
Reptiles & Water Creatures
Birds
Insects, Spiders & Scorpions
Plants
Leftovers

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cooking

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Jerry Hopkins was an American journalist and author best known for writing the first biographies of Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison of The Doors, as well as serving for 20 years as a correspondent and contributing editor of Rolling Stone magazine.

Reviews

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you watch Bizarre Foods or No Reservations, some of this food may not be very new to you. Extreme Cuisine is basically an overview of all sorts of things people eat around the world. The book is divided into different sections - Mammals; Reptiles & Water Creatures; Birds; Insects, Spiders, and Scorpions; Plants; and Leftovers (which includes Blood, Fermented Food, Roadkill, and Excrement). There are also recipes within, if you are inclined to make earthworm patties, camel hoof paste, curried rat with noodles, placenta pate, or dandelion wine.

Educational but mostly entertaining.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is incredibly interesting, but long and a bit redundant. I felt that I was more interested when I first began reading it and as time went on it began to wear on me. There are a lot of interesting stories in the book, but it just seems to get a little stale after a while. It is also heavily skewed toward strange Asian food practices (though to be fair to Hopkins he tells you that from the beginning.) The Kindle version of this book also has several spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm not sure whether this was a conversion issues or whether these mistakes are also in the original manuscript.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

An exploration of the unusual things eaten around the world, along with recipes for most of them.

I loved the topic of this book, but I did find myself struggling to read this. There's a lot of sentence fragments, run on sentences, and grammatical mistakes that were hard to overlook. Towards the last third of the book, I found myself skimming through. He takes a lot of detours and sometimes rambles, which makes it hard to sustain interest.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

342 - 2014

Versi paperback dan sedikit lebih banyak yang dibahas dari buku meja kopi Jerry Hopkins yang sebelumnya kubaca, Strange Food.

Tambahan bahan makanan yang baru di sini antara lain beruang, unta, otak, kecoak (yikes!), dan roadkill. Mungkin ada hal baru yang terlewat, tapi sudahlah.

Aku lebih suka versi meja kopi, yang selain hardcover juga foto-fotonya langsung disajikan bersamaan dengan bahan makanan yang dibahas, sehingga lebih enak untuk dibaca.

Oh ya, di versi ini, resep makanannya juga lebih banyak.

PS. Aku beli dua buku Jerry Hopkins ini dari Periplus dalam waktu yang sama, karena mengira yang satu adalah sekuel dari yang lain. Ternyata... nyaris buku yang sama. Huahahahaha #tertipu :P

[Chiquita Hindarto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini menceritakan tentang makanan-makanan yang tidak lazim dimakan, misalnya ragout dari daging kucing, tikus goreng kering dan lain sebagainya.

Sebenarnya bisa jadi buku yang asik buat dibaca, apalagi untuk orang-orang yang tertarik dengan dunia kuliner. Sayangnya gaya bahasanya terlalu kaku dan juga layout buku ini mengingatkan saya sama textbook yang saya pakai jaman kuliah dulu.

Kalau saya layoutnya lebih menarik dan bahasanya lebih santai, mungkin saya akan kasih 5 bintang untuk buku ini.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed and well-researched book about all kinds of food considered "extreme" from around the world. The first section starts of tame enough with Mammals, and then delves deeper into foods using Reptiles & Water Creatures; Birds; Insects, Spiders & Scorpions; Plants, and "Leftovers' (which includes blood, dirt, fake food, gold, and other things left unmentioned). Most intriguing is each section ends with an actual recipe. How about some Rootworm Beetle Dip for your next party?

[Chris Herdt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a great deal, but really wish that it had gone into more detail about some of the strange and exotic foodstuffs that were mentioned. I guess that's what you get when a rock'n'roll journalist covers food: a broad overview of curious consumables. It's still worth it, though, before delving a little deeper into any of the specific dishes.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indians drink their own urine. I'm glad that he got that one down for posterity. The book's main thesis was that people eat weird and wonderful foods. I'm pretty sure there's a somewhat racist subtext. If I were smarter, had more time, and was less white, I'd be a tad irritated.

[Feka Angge Pramita · Rating 5 out of 5]

talked about anykind that can eat. grasshopper, bugs, spider, antz..... i`ve ate grasshopper.... mak nyuss... and crispy

[Meitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extreme Cuisine..
How extreme you are???
Eating monkey? or, baby's pig? or..
This book helps me to "experience" the food without testing them..

[Ilker Yazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book of all time

[Leon Bhagawanta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely crazy but wonderful. Some of it actually is something that not very extreme but some of it may make you doubt your eye. One thing for sure is this book is containing nearly every food/drink that people consider uncommon and well some maybe make you curious but some will make you scream.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! Thought provoking and world expanding.

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.

[Moodyfeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more comprehensive "odd foods" books I've run across over the years. Fairly enjoyable.