Dare Eat That: A Guide to Bizarre Foods from Around the World
Is a book which will remind you of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations (an American food and travel show).On Dare Eat That, the author writes about her love for travel and her husband’s love for trying different cuisine. If you love travel stories and food stories, you will enjoy this book. It’s like Masterchef, meets TLC travel stories with a punch.
I like eating good food. Food with a wow factor. But this thing is a personal choice. This book is also a personal choice and not for the squeamish. It’s for the braveheart. When I travel, I forever look for hotels which will serve local, as well as standard food. Dare eat that will help me plan my travel adventures.
The author’s introduction took me back to my food adventure in Delhi. Delhi does have some of the best food places at unknown corners. Her rating guide for taste and fear factor is understandable and cute. Vivek sounds like a very brave foodie and Divya no less. It takes a lot of love to adjust to dissimilar food palate. I like how the book is arranged according to countries, without overwhelming the reader.
What I bookmarked for eating and Not!
Food journey is more about the experience than anything else. Food is a way of talking about cultures. History remembers local cooking and produce. The China town story of jelly-like fried starfish and fried Squab was interesting. But Balut was too much for me. I wonder how Vivek managed to eat that. When you don’t know, you can eat a lot of stuff.But when it looks like a baby bird,thats tough!
The only borderline strange meat I have eaten is squid and Vivek leaves me with a list of more. Batter fried quail reminded me of my attempts at eating a teetar in Rajasthan. Tony da Dhaba in Pune is on my wishlist. I would love to eat the avocado cheesecake in the Vietnam cake shop and visit the Tiong Bahru Bakery, a famous French-style bakery in Singapore.
What I would love more of
- I would love to know more about what Divya loved.
- A few lines from Vivek after each food adventure.
- More of their pictures, because food and travel stories go the extra length with pictures. Pictures of the restaurant and ambiance.Snapshots of the food and the way it was cooked.
- The food stories have socio-cultural backstories. Often economy and availability determine one’s food choices. That insight would be interesting to read too.
My Final Takeaway
A breezy read with some great storytelling, about food adventures around the world for the brave heart.A great book to gift for a travel-loving foodie.
Dare Eat That: More info
Book Blurb
There are people who travel to eat and people who travel for adventure.
And then there are those who travel to eat adventurously. Divya and Vivek are one such couple.
From using sign language to haggle over ant eggs in Bangkok to being hungry enough to eat a horse in Luxembourg, from finding out the perfect eel to barbecue to discovering the best place to source emu eggs in India, Dare Eat That explores their journey to eating every species on earth, at least once!
About the Author
Divya is a product manager who writes six-pagers by day and is an author by night. She gets her best creative ideas when she’s hanging upside down at her anti-gravity yoga class or doodling. Her wanderlust gene is a result of having lived in three countries and eight cities. In 2017, she won the Juggernaut Times LitFest Contest for her short story That Girl Is Trouble’. Divya has an MBA in Marketing from SPJIMR, Mumbai and a master’s in HCI from UC Berkeley, California. When she’s not wandering through the food streets of the world, she can be found at home in Bangalore with her husband Vivek. Dare Eat That is her first book. This book has been published by Penguin Random House.
This review is part of Blogchatter Book Review Program