Fragrant Heart

by Miranda Emmerson

We buy food we can point to. We stalk the streets until rush hour and wait for the little hatches to open in the sides of restaurants. From the steamy openings, cooks in overalls sell jiaozi (dumplings) and bowls of thick, sticky, white congee – an unholy cross between soup and porridge. Baozi, steamed white buns, are light as air. I buy them filled with water spinach and nettle – delicious dipped in sharp, black Chinese vinegar.

In 2008, Miranda and her partner set off for one last big adventure before settling down. They chose to travel through South-East Asia. All did not go to plan: Asian flu, falling off boats and the general chaos of a life abroad challenged them at every step, and yet, in the midst of it all, they fell in love with the culture and culinary delights of China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Food, Food and Drink, China, Asia

368 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2014

About the author

I am an author and dramatist. I grew up in London before studying English at Oxford and Playwriting Studies at Birmingham University. I now live in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales with my husband and our two daughters.

My travel and food memoir Fragrant Heart was published by Summersdale in 2014. My first novel Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars was published in 2017 by 4th Estate and Harper Collins. My second novel A Little London Scandal comes out summer 2020.

I'm a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 (sometimes as Miranda Davies) and I'm just completing a PhD in the history of BBC radio adaptation at Cardiff University. I'm represented for fiction and non fiction by Caroline Hardman at Hardman & Swainson and I'm @MirandaEmmerson on Twitter and Instagram.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Travel narrative is well done, and the foodie angle is okay, although the second-hand reports of anything with meat are slightly . . . awkward. Couldn't connect much with author's personal life, which is a fair amount of the content. Her drawings are excellent!

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll admit it. I sometimes struggled with the sense of exoticism combined with #firstworldproblems that tends to shade the narrative of this book. It was hard not to be offended when Emmerson, a vegetarian who waxes lyrical about the delicious meat-based stocks encountered across Asia, makes a flippant comment about being nervous around some street food skewers because "there's something doggy-looking about the shapes on the grill". What is a doggy shape? Should one really reinforce stereotypes about Asians eating dog meat based on an observation about the "shape of a meat"? Arghhhhhhh.... #endrant

[Sherry Mackay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love food and i write a food blog but this book drove me nuts. Why are there recipes? Why does she have to tell us every ingredient in every bowl of soup she ate?! Who the f..k cares? Talk about self obsessed. I skimmed the last half of this.

[Pam Kaur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth your time. Writing is sloppy and it's like someone's personal diary.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really there should be an extra box or rating; like for Gcses or A levels there should be a 5* and if there was then would get it. Quite possibly one of the best books I've read this year.

Very occasionally I come across someone who writes the way I think. So I assume they must think the same as I do. This then leads me to conclude that humanity is still bound tightly together even if we have all been conditioned to think we are special unique snowflakes....Miranda's book was a freebie, a First Reads giveaway. If you weren't lucky enough to get a copy you should go out and buy this, buy it right now! and savor every word.

I love travelogues. I'm especially interested in China (because a distant relative was part of the Boxer Rebellion and his photo album, which is now in my hands, is packed with little pictures taken by various Chinese photographers their addresses stamped across the bottom of each one) and Vietnam (my curiosity stems back to seeing picture on TV of the war in the 70's, my parents, humanist and communist, debating feverishly about the awfulness of it all). I also love cooking, and snippets of ancient history/religion that I can grasp and understand without trying too hard. So this gem fills all of those for me.

And god it made me think. About my own life, about the things I've done or not done and the places I've been. It made me think about spirituality and politics (yes my back ground is similar to Miranda's in that respect) and fear and how we live our lives and cope with change. it also made me want to cook and tkae pleasure rom the small things around me that are actually awesome in the true sense of the word.

Will read again.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads Firstreads - thank you Miranda and Goodreads for this lovely read - a couple's journey through Asia on a budget as narrated by the female-foodie of the couple! I was enthralled. I could almost taste the food described. I turned down several corners whilst reading to mark either places I'd like to visit or recipes I'd like to make.

An interesting mix of history, travel guide and recipe book! I related to the problems with the non-payment of rent by tenants (been there, done that!), and envied the ability to take as long as they wished to visit places, avoiding the usual tourist traps (Im less willing to 'take the risk' now with 3 kids in tow). I've had limited travel in Thailand and Malasia but now Cambodia and Vietnam have to be added to the list (China's already on it!)

I had many favorite parts in 'Fragrant Heart', but my ultimate two "best bits" had to be the eventful bus trip to Kep and the hat of many memories!

[San Diego Book Review · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many readers who enjoy armchair travel will enjoy "Fragrant Heart", an extensive Asian travelogue —but just as many readers will skip pages, even chapters as this is quite extensive and, unfortunately, in paperback edition. Miranda Emmerson is a good writer but she is often lost in details and often sidetracks; both in the travelogue also in her personal life of the past and during the trip. (Read the Rest...)You can read this entire review at San Diego Book Review

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly observed, a wonderful tale of a fabulous foodie journey. The evocative narrators voice brings to life sights sounds and smells of a great journey, if you've been there it will transport you through the memories of your own journey and if not you will read this and want to go. A beautiful book from page one you are learning and experiencing right through to the end. Read it and eat!