A Fork in the Road

by James Oseland (Editor)

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher

A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure and Discovery on the Road

2014 James Beard Award Nominee and 2014 Society of Travel Writers Foundation Thomas Lowell Travel Journalism Bronze Award Winner for Travel Book

Join us at the table for this 34-course banquet of original stories from food-obsessed writers and chefs sharing their life-changing food experiences.

The dubious joy of a Twinkie, the hunger-sauced rhapsody of fish heads, the grand celebration of an Indian wedding feast; the things we eat and the people we eat with remain powerful signposts in our memories, long after the plates have been cleared. Tuck in, and bon appetit!

Featuring tales from: James Oseland, Frances Mayes, Giles Coren, Curtis Stone, Annabel Langbein, Neil Perry, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Jay Rayner, Madhur Jaffrey, Michael Pollan, Josh Ozersky, Marcus Samuelsson, Naomi Duguid, Jane and Michael Stern, Francine Prose, Ma Thanegi, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Rita Mae Brown, Monique Truong, Fuschia Dunlop, David Kamp, Mas Masumoto, Daniel Vaughn, Tom Carson, Andre Aciman, MJ Hyland, Alan Richman, Beth Kracklauer, Sigrid Nunez, Chang Rae Lee, Julia Reed, Gael Greene

About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, a suite of inspiring travel pictorials, literature, and references, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travelers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.

Genres: Food, Travel, Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories, Culinary, Memoir

334 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

James Oseland is an American writer, editor and television personality. He is the author and editor-in-chief of World Food, an acclaimed book series from Ten Speed Press. He served as editor-in-chief of the U.S. food magazine Saveur from 2006 to 2014. His memoir and cookbook Cradle of Flavor (2006, W.W. Norton) was named one of the best books of 2006 by the New York Times, Time Asia, and Good Morning America, among others. He has edited an array of bestselling and award-winning anthologies and cookbooks, notably Saveur: The New Comfort Food (2011, Chronicle), A Fork In the Road (2013, Lonely Planet), and Saveur: The New Classics (2014, Weldon Owen). His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Vogue, and dozens of other media outlets. He was a judge from 2009 to 2013 on the Bravo television series Top Chef Masters.
Oseland is the author of Jimmy Neurosis (2019, Ecco Press), a critically acclaimed coming-of-age memoir set against the California and New York City punk rock movements of the late 1970s. Out called the book "nonstop entertainment," while Rolling Stone hailed it as a "vibrant coming-of-age memoir [told] in an instantly lovable voice."

Reviews

[Petra is living the big city vibe in Miami now · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's get straight down to it, the best essay was about a nude truckers-stop restaurant. If I hadn't read it, I'd have thought maybe it was in some quirky film, perhaps a Russ Meyer one. I can't do better than quote:

As we sat at the counter in the Adam and Eve, waiting for our home fries and eggs, we were greeted by Miss Nude America, Cheryl Turner, who served as hostess.

Except for high-heel shoes, Cheryl was completely naked, although she did carry around a small patch of shag rug to put on chairs so her ass wouldn’t stick to the Lucite or Naugahyde. Bleached blonde with gravity-resistant breast implants, she walked from customer to customer offering little plastic combs imprinted with the words Naked City Truck Stop. For a few dollars, truckers were invited to comb her tuft of pubic hair and keep the comb as a souvenir.

For a few dollars more, you could buy a Reddi-Wip and honey dessert, with Miss Nude America serving as the human plate. Whether it was the strain of hours on the road or just the bizarre, unreal quality of life in a nude truck stop, there was a strange lack of sexual tension in the air.

No other essay matched up to that.

One made me laugh though, M.J. Hyland found herself in Helsinki with airfare and hotel paid for, but ran out of money after three days and so she went to a restaurant and ordered only a bowl of soup and then faked being a restaurant critic, looking as though she was appraising the food and making notes and thereby getting a very good meal for free.

At the end of the meal she was charged only for the soup and told the maitre d' that she was a lawyer, but not in a way that would disabuse him of the notion she was really a critic who was going to give his restaurant a fabulous review after all the free food.

Jay Rayner who is a wonderful writer and food critic, wrote an essay on going to an extremely remote place, Mersea Island for the oysters and being accompanied by David Coulter, once a musician in the Irish folk/punk band, the Pogues but was always more interested in eating than touring and now will "travel for lunch". I like the sound of that, I too will travel for lunch. Invite me!

Another review shadow-banned, suitable for friends only, wider community must nt be allowed to view this review because... Because what? It contains mention of nudity? It has long quotes? What is contentious about this review? What is contentious about me? I've only been back on Goodreads since January and I am finding reviews shadow-banned and GR customer support refuse to answer my emails? What do do?

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a delight to read, and truly served a very important purpose. To distract me and comfort me while the whole world is going to shit. I had noticed a pattern that my reading has been pretty heavy the past few books, and was really just desperate for something fun and fluffy à la Norah Ephron. And boy did the food writers who compiled A Fork in the Road deliver! I mean the lady who wrote Under the Tuscan Goddamned Sun wrote an essay.

Reading all that food writing blends together with the same few terms and flavors, and it really is a warm, comforting, culinary blanket. It wasn't life changing, but it did make me hungry.

[Biblio Files (takingadayoff) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than average anthology, by which I mean I enjoyed about three quarters of the essays (average being about half). These are pretty short entries, around ten small format pages apiece, so they go quickly. There doesn't seem to be any particular order, so you can skip around, picking the authors you like or the titles that intrigue. But try to get around to all the essays, because there are some that might surprise. I enjoyed a quirky essay by M.J. Hyland, an author I hadn't heard of, about her trip to Finland, in which she found herself cashless (and apparently without a credit card). Her return flight and hotel were already paid for so she only had to worry about food and entertainment. Her solution was effective if rather unorthodox. I also liked Tom Carson's experiences of Indian food, years ago as the teenage son of a Foreign Service officer, and later when his parents-in-law turned out to be experts in Indian cuisine. Andre Aciman's account of his family's disastrous stay at a Tuscan farmhouse was fun, and Francine Prose's family's lunch at a village restaurant in France was hilarious. A fun book to dip into for a light snack.

[Kelly (The Happiest Little Book Club)]

I have been enjoying this book over the last three months.

The book contains 30+ mini memoirs of how food can shape us and our memories. How it inspires our travels, ties smells and flavours to our favourite people (grandparents, parents, siblings, friends), and inspires careers.

The short stories touch on everything from favourite dishes growing up and experiencing different cultures and cuisines, to how longing to try a "popular food" only to have it disappoint you, can shape your childhood (Hostess Twinkies).

I liked that this book had so many short stories/mini memoirs because it made it easy to pick up when I was between ball games this summer or when enjoying a short amount of quality alone time.

If I smell onions being sautéed in butter, it immediately takes me back to being in my Grandma's kitchen. One of the best pizzas of my LIFE was eaten at Allo Pizza (on the island of Mo'orea) during our honeymoon. I am sure we all have a food memory like this. :)

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Put this essay collection on my phone to pick up and read a couple of entries whenever I had some downtime. Worked well for that purpose, although some entries worked better than others.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book combines two of my favourite things: food and travel.

I especially loved the article by Giles Coren about Hostess Twinkies. It totally took me back to my childhood and my obsession with getting to taste one. And my experience when I finally did mirrored his completely.

Fantastic book, but beware the urge to snack whilst reading.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essays about food AND travel? Sign me up! As with any essay collection, it's a bit hit or miss, but the hits are a delight and even the misses aren't terrible. Jane and Michael Stern's essay about the nudie truck stop is definitely among the hits.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of short stories - all of them well written! Great read of you love food or love travel or especially both!

[Maggie Skarich Joos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun anthology of food and travel stories. You will know a lot of the authors from tv and foodie "royalty".

[Ian House · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection of short pieces relating to food.

It's a rich and diverse collection with most of the stories hitting the right notes. Those that deal with interesting places, time periods or really exploring one particular food are the highlights and there are too many to metion. A couple fall into the trap of just listing the things eaten, particularly the ones on American BBQ and an Aussie chef in Paris, but they are rare missteps in an otherwise excellent collection.

[Neko~chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a wonderful collection of essays. Better than Best American Food Writing imo. Delicious, thoughtful, and interesting.

[Mike Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a nice easy breezy, pure escapism kinda read. Though some of these I would not consider a culinary journey, but just reminiscence and reflections. 3/5

[Dominic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never really thought about reading a book about food. Don't get me wrong, I love food; I love eating it, I love cooking it, I love trying new foods and when I travel I do try to find and sample as many of the local specialities as I can. However, it has never crossed my mind that reading about food (other than a recipe book) was a thing. But, when I subscribed to Kobo for the year and got a free ebook from a choice of terrible looking titles, only one book stood out, purely for the "Lonely Planet" bit at the top. I love travelling as much as I love food, and Lonely Planet guides have helped me navigate and find interesting new places all around the world, so I trust them, so I chose this book.

Most of the stories are interesting enough, a few are very good, many of them left my stomach rumbling and my mouth watering and, sadly, a few made me fall asleep. If there were fewer of these ones I would have given the book a higher rating!

Despite the bad stories though, this book actually did change the way I travel, and the way I think about the food I eat whilst I travel. As I mentioned before, I do always like to sample different foods from around the world, and reading these anecdotes it made me realise that many of my best experiences I have had when travelling, (either in exotic countries or around the UK), have involved food! From meals cooked over open fires in little huts in China's southern jungles, to my first taste of freshly caught fish which me and my sisters and friends gleefully gutted when on a childhood holiday in Devon, a lot of great memories revolve around food. The fact I was reading this whilst travelling in Cambodia and Vietnam also made me want to try as much food as I could, which is part of the reason I felt inclined to try (and I don't recommend it) giant cockroach in Phnom Penh, sour palm wine at the side of the road in Ankor Watt, Vietnamese street food which tasted delicious and brought me much closer to the porcelain in my hotels and hostels I stayed in and many other culinary delights from around that part of South East Asia.

I am very glad I read this book, it has added another dimension to my experiences of both travel and food!

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the contributors' names were familiar to me - Curtis Stone, Madhur Jaffrey, Frances Mayes, Martin Yan, Michael Pollan, and Carla Hall - just to name a few. But some were not - Giles Coren, Annabel Langbein, and Ma Thanegi, for example - and I was grateful for the brief bio of each contributor at the beginning of the piece.

Most of the contributors' pieces details their discovery of food. Good food. Or they might discuss how they embarked on their culinary trajectory. In any case, this book is filled with life-altering food experiences.

In Curtis Stone's "An Italian Education," I found myself missing Italy tremendously. He writes, "It makes perfect sense that the slow-food movement began in Italy. That relaxed, leisurely philosophy to cooking permeated everything they did. Except perhaps driving." He credits his time in Franciavilla, Calabria with teaching him everything about why he wanted to cook.

Francine Prose had me longing for cassoulet after reading her "We'll Have the Cassoulet." She shares, "Every bean was a masterpiece. The chunks of sausage were sublime. I thought I'd known something about duck confit, but until now I'd known nothing. I'd been a cassoulet virgin."

Joe Dunthorne wrote about sanguinaccio in Sardinia. Fuchsia Dunlop chased the tail of Chiuchow cooking. And Alan Richman, in "Omar Sharif Slept Here," lamented Cairo cuisine. "I can't understand how a people whose civilization predates all others couldn't come up with tastier food," he writes.

It's impossible to pick a favorite piece because they were all so fantastic. Seriously. If you have any inclination towards food writing, this is a must read.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love my food porn seasoned with tidbits of information. Curtis Stone ran the bulls in Pamplona! Carla Hall was a model in Paris! Gael Greene writes erotic fiction! And most astonishingly of all, James Oseland was a punk in the 70’s!! I read essays that made me hungry and essays that made me squeamish. I wish to be an adventurous eater, but I draw the line at blood soup and maggot cheese.

[Georgie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic little collection. Writers and chefs who love food share stories about dishes that they enjoyed in a particular place at a particular time and which changed or had significance in their lives personally or professionally. Some of them write about favourite dishes enjoyed at the tables of their own families, others write about the food of their home country, while others describe trips to destinations around the world defined by the meals they ate.

I greatly enjoyed all the essays except for one - Tom Carson - while the food descriptions were wonderful, he seemed to feel the need to slip his own political views and agenda into his essay. It wouldn't have been a problem if the political stuff had somehow been connected with the food he was talking about (as it is in Ma Thanegi's wonderful and fascinating little essay) but it didn't. It just sat there like (pardon the pun) a hair in your food, it was utterly unnecessary and just typical middle-class-liberal-American showboating. Not that his views aren't entirely valid, some of them are, they just have no place in that particular essay, and ruined what could have been a fun foray into Indian wedding feasts.

But I guess you get one disappointment in some form in any collection of writing, and this one is wonderful otherwise.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book I was reminded of ordering whole grilled sardines in Portugal. They were served whole: eyes, scales, guts, and all. I wondered if I had the guts to eat this small school staring up at me from my plate. I did. I paid for it later. This was a reminder of what I already knew: my stomach is not as adventurous as I am.

These 34 essays by various food/travel writers about food span the globe and range of experience. Some are merely anecdotal; some are reflective and show the transformative power of both travel and food in all parts of the world. If you're homebound and need to get away for a bit, this selection is the ticket.

[Anne Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

A piece of light indulgence rather like a tasty snack that whets the appetite for more. This collection is described as a "34-course banquet of original stories" and there's definitely all the variety of a banquet. The consistent theme is food and travel, those subjects of perennial appeal. All the stories are well written and bear evidence of each author's passion for his or her subject. Interesting to read those by well known Australian foodies, Neil Perry and Curtis Stone. If you love food, travel and a diverting, entertaining read, this one's for you.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Fork in the Road is a book full of travel writing/food essays. Each writer shares a story about food most often though not always related to a travel experience. As is usually the case with these types of compilations I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. I liked the ones where people wove their experiences in with the food more than those that seemed to just concentrate on the food itself. I read this for a book club, so I'll be interested to hear what everyone else had to say about it.

[Ellyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of short essays about food, specifically food that is connected to a travel experience or strong sense of place for each author. Most of the authors are food writers or chefs. I love travel, and I love food, so it seemed like the perfect book for me! I did enjoy it, some stories more than others, and it was fun to reflect on my own experiences with food growing up and during my travels as an adult. It took me a while to get through it, but that might just be because I read it during a busy time, and short stories don’t tend to draw me in as much as other formats do.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love food-related essays and this one didn't disappoint. Most entries are short. Some are funny. Others are heartbreaking. I was especially touched by the Ozersky's story of his trip to Paris with his father. Tamasin Day-Lewis describes fishing with family and friends off the coast of Ireland. The decription of cooking and eating the catch will make your mouth water. Fans of Ruth Reichl anf M.F.K. Fisher won't want to miss this.

[Jennell McHugh]

Enjoyed this particularly because the food/dishes were sometimes roundabout/sometimes central to the experience being shared. Likewise, those sharing experiences in this exercise were not all chefs or food critics so the approach and relationship to food - and writing about it - varied, and stirred up my interest in exploring the main medium of some of the contributors. Also, definitely piqued my interest to explore some previously unknown gems.

[Meredith Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully accessible exploration of how food and drink is so much more than food and drink. The 34 original stories from food-obsessed writers and chefs are as digestible as the life-changing food experiences they describe. Although, like all short story collections really, it has its highs and lows to provide readers with favourite chapters to savour and other, more self-indulgent ones that might be skipped through more quickly.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice mix of up-and-coming and well-established authors,many of them contributing writers for "Saveur," are included in this anthology. I intended to use this as inspiration for my own writing yet I found myself putting this down after only 9 of the stories.

Perhaps I prefer my bite-sized food reading in monthly magazine format.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It looks like I took 6 months to read this and I guess I did. It's all short stories about different people in the food world and their memorable experience with food
Some were tedious to read but others got me totally involved with the food. I used this book as a time filler and not a cover to cover read

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great book. Really. The short stories are intriguing and draw you in. It almost creates a green eyed monster within you. However, I have a hard time focuses on multiple stories. Some were almost too short, not giving you enough time to get into them. Be sure to have a snack when you read this - you surely will be hungry!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love memoirs and essays, especially when food and travel are involved, so this collection was made for me. Some of these were wonderful, others were ok. But the best truly transported me. Kaui Hart Hemmings writes beautifully about cross cultural adoption and Madhur Jaffrey takes readers on a lovely tour of Sri Lanka. I'm also looking forward to reading more from Anabel Langbien.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful compilation of stories from individuals passionate about food and travel. Highly recommend-- especially the stories with Adam and Eve Diner, the barbecue hunt across the state of Georgia, the story about the kitschy new step mum and the pink-purple squid sambal, Michael Pollan's take on Kim chi, and Marcus Samuelsson's quest for fugu and overall epiphany about Japanese cuisine.

[Kayla Tornello · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to get so many different perspectives on food experiences that stood out to the different writers. It was interesting to read their unique stories. I also appreciated that these experiences occurred all over the world. None of the stories really stood out and seemed that great to me, but none of them were poorly written, either.

[Kris Rude · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven. Some really super essays and some that made me wonder how low the bar is for food writers. Or maybe the editor just took random clips from already existing work and had to reach to fill the space? A quick read so I didn't mind, but I've certainly read better compilations. Don't read it on an empty stomach, though - some of the food descriptions will leave you drooling.