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Showing posts with the label food writing

(A kind of) Review: Not On the Label by Felicity Lawrence

Genre: Food writing. Reading challenge:   The 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge , hosted by The Introverted Reader Challenge tally : 4 books. I love to read food books, both foodie memoirs and cookbooks, but this is a different kind of food book - one designed to inform and make you think about what you eat and how you shop for it. The subtitle of this book is "What really goes into the food on your plate". It might lead you to believe that it's all about food additives and such (they are mentioned occasionally, and discussed - stomach churningly - in some detail in the last chapter) but it is actually an investigation of the whole system of mass food production, from crop to factory to distributors to shop to consumer, with a focus on intensively grown/farmed foods like vegetables, fruit, coffee, chicken and shrimp. The situation Lawrence describes is that of the UK, but much of it is valid for any western country, and I have no doubt it is at least partially...

Review: Bon Appétit! by Peter Mayle

Full title:  Bon Appétit! Travels through France with knife, fork and corkscrew Genres: Food writing; travel writing Subjects: Food and eating, wine and drinking, festivals, France, the French, the Michelin guide  Reading challenge: The 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge , hosted by The Introverted Reader  Challenge tally : 2 books. I have previously reviewed two of Peter Mayle books, the ones with „Provence“ in the title, and I thoroughly enjoyed both. In this book, Mayle has abandoned the joys and frustrations of expatriate home-ownership in France and turned his attention to food, a subject that just happens to be quite as close to my heart as travelling.  He writes with skill and humour about food and drink (mostly wine) and about the relationship of the French with it. He pokes affectionate fun at the French tendency to turn into gastronomic know-it-alls in the presence of foreigners and self-confessed novices, and visits food and win...