Eat This!: 1,001 Things to Eat Before You Diet – A Culinary Travel Guide to Local Treats and Guilty Pleasures Across America

by Ian Jackman

“Ian Jackman had the fool-hearty courage to set out armed with the two most dangerous tools for traveling in America, an inquiring mind and a hungry stomach. He lived to tell the tale with wit and charm.” — Mark Kurlansky, bestselling author of The Big Oyster and Cod Ian Jackman believes that life is too short to deny yourself our nation's true culinary treasures. Guided by food experts throughout the land, he travels from east to west—from small town to big city—uncovering local treats, guilty pleasures, and some oddities that no true food lover should miss. From lobster rolls and buffalo meat to banana cream pies and clam stuffies, Jackman finds the sinful temptations your taste buds crave—and he writes about them in a way that's certain to get any confirmed foodie salivating! Escape the guilt and anxiety propagated by our puritanical, diet-obsessed society and indulge yourself with Eat This!

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Travel

448 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgot I even had this; picked it up and saw it was interesting, and liked the "before you diet" blurb. It's not a list, and it's not organized by state, so some complain about it not being useful. It is organized by type of food, though the categories blur. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a big book, with lots of interesting stuff packed inside. Plenty of tips on where to find certain items, and on ordering online. Lots of good stories about his trips to various places. I envy his being able to travel around and write about good food (sounds like a lot of the visits were in the course of other travels, so it's not like he was some jet setting playboy- any of us could do this, writing about our local favorites and exploring while traveling.)

A good introduction to the variety of foods in America. Good descriptions of various styles of pizza, etc. I'm sure I'll come back to this before trips.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is best read while eating, although it may make you disappointed with your meal! The chapter organization made sense but the little boxes and pull-out quotes scattered within the chapters bothered me as they didn't seem to be necessarily worthy of a highlight to me, and sometimes they weren't really related to the chapter topic. I was pleasantly surprised at the very brief mention of the Happy Joe's pizza chain in the Midwest (which originated in my hometown) however I would argue that they are NOT known for their Canadian bacon & sauerkraut pizza but more their taco pizza. The sections on scrapple and burgoo were fascinating (who knew how versatile squirrel meat could be?) but the sections on chilli were boring and impossible to summarize in one chapter (worthy of whole books really). It's an exhaustive sampling of eats across the U.S. but, of course, never complete. This book did compel me to order a sampler box of chips and snacks though from Detroit!

[Jule · Rating 2 out of 5]

It made me hungry all the time, therefore not a good bedtime read.
It was interesting and I definitely learned a lot about food in the US (very diverse!!!), but most of the food described is virtually inaccessible for most people, and probably expensive, too! So unless you plan on spending all your time and money traveling around the country hunting for Mr. Jackman's recommendations, you will only get to try maybe 5% of what he mentions. :-(
It's an easy read and Jackman's style is fun and casual, but some parts did not seem properly researched and the info boxes on every page were just annoying.
I liked the "please make it a habit to spend more on food, it's worth it"-attitude.
And I've already found several farmer's markets in San Antonio thanks to this book, so the 4$ I paid for it were well spent.

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. I liked this book well enough, for what it is, part travel book, part enjoying food. It had no wow factor, nor did it excite me after the first 100 pages. The chapter layout/order was well thought out, but once you got to the meat in the chapter it felt awkward. You have to navigate weird call out boxes that don't really seem to need to stand out, and you have a summary at the end of each chapter which doesn't summarize the experience.

[Rozanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read. I liked Jackman's breezy, unpretentious writing style. I must make it my mission to get to NYC so I can eat a pizza cooked in a coal-fired oven. Apparently, the ovens reach temperatures on a par with the temp at the surface of Venus.

[Joyce]

Not as good as I expected. I thought it would be hints on local delicacies, but so far it turns out to be more of the author's ramblings on how much he loves lamb and how we should all eat fruit from the farmer's market.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun reference book that shows the history behind some famous eateries around the country. It was nice reading about some places we've visited and found some I'd like to try during our future travels.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never really made me want to go eat anything that he was writing about. History of the food was interesting enough, but the book was just kind of there otherwise.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't what I expected. Most of it was reviews of restaurants on the west or east coast, so it was not relevant to me. I love the premise of a huge list of wonderful foods to savor.