Status Updates From Acid Trip: Travels in the W...

I think I've figured it out. The problem with this book is that if focuses too much on PEOPLE--the author, the chefs he meets--rather than the actual vinegar.

TELL ME ABOUT VINEGAR. STOP TELLING ME ABOUT DRINKING WITH A DUDE AND TAKING A PICTURE "but truthfully, the perfect evening lives on even more vividly in my mind." I DON'T CARE. I CARE ABOUT VINEGAR.

There's something about this author that doesn't seem credible. "Mitsuyasu Uchibori is singlehandedly establishing a culture of drinking vinegars in Japan." Okay, back that up. Please.

Disappointing so far. Book can't decide whether it wants to be a history, a personal travelogue, or a cookbook.

Fascinating book. Review to come.

Now the science of vinegar. Very thorough book.

His writing style is jumpy. Like he's giving vignettes instead of the whole story about the people he's talking about. Not sure I like it.

Odd...he'll be describing a dish that sounds AMAZING, then give you he recipe to something completely different. Bait and switch!

"Oreen has been a pickle fanatic for ages; at age six or seven he ate so many pickles that his mom refused to buy him more, and she suggested he just take some cucumbers from the garden, chop them up, and put them in the excess brine; he's been pickling ever since." Smart mom!

Akihiro's grandfather stopped pesticide use in the 1960s on the crops he used to make vinegar with. Yield dropped initially, but the quality went way up. Gee, food is better when we don't poison it first? You don't say!

Kombucha can be over-fermented into vinegar!! Cool!

"There aren't many bees where the vinegar is actually made,...(that) part of Piedmont is highly agricultural, which means drifting pesticides from neighbors are a serious threat." How messed up is that? Can't have bees by where our food is grown to pollinate and other natural stuff, because we poison it. Wonder what that poison does to the people who eat that food?

If a dish has cheese and needs acid, use vinegar, not lemon.

The more food books I read, the more I realize the "food" I eat is probably counterfeit and killing me slowly...these books depress and anger me. Some people will counterfeit ANYTHING, even food, to get a buck!

A true balsamic vinegar is aged, minimum, for 12 years. I'm assuming the "extra old" gold cap of 25 years or more is best. Wow, who knew!