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Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices |
Author: Chitrita Banerji
Published: 2007-07-10 |
List price: $24.95
Our price: $16.47
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As of: January 08th, 2009 01:11:50 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Scholarly work, yet very entertaining.
I would highly recommend this literary work to anyone that is interested not only in the cuisines of the different regions of India, but who is also interested in the history of India.
 Page turner in the wrong sense
The title of this book should really have been "Eating India: Proof that Bengali cuisine is superior". Knowing the author is from Kolkata, I expected more coverage of Bengali cuisine. But I certainly didn't expect a blatant bias when covering other regional cuisines. The author constantly harks back to the food she knows best and asserts how her native cuisine requires a more delicate balance of spices and herbs without making much of an effort in knowing if other cuisines require a similar balance. Simple Bengali dishes are glorified while dishes of similar or even higher complexity from other regions are given just a passing mention. I made a bad decision in buying this book outright. So I couldn't justify quitting after the first couple of chapters. I could however, resort to speed reading and turn the pages as quickly as possible. :-)
 Eating India
Title: Eating India
Author: Chitrita Banerji
ISBN: 978-1-59691-018-8
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Review By: Diana Rohini LaVigne, Indian Life & Style Magazine
From local eating myths to well-known facts about how food migrates with its people, Eating India rips into the history of food in India leaving no stone unturned. Wonderfully written in travel journal-style, Eating India takes readers from the pepper capital of Kerala to the imperial styled northern cuisines of Muslims to the eating habits of the fast-paced city by the sea, Bombay. Chitrita Bangerji challenges her own childhood memories of various cuisines and asks locals about emerging trends in food'. She strives to find the `real' story from `real' people and delivers a knock-out book in the end.
The details of her findings are laced with interesting tidbits about the geographic region, the nature of the people in the area and a vivid description of the sights and sounds so that a reader can place themselves exactly in that area without difficulty.
This is an important book in order to preserve some of the finer details about the exquisite cuisine in India. Without this book, the world might loose some of that history. Eating India is fun to read, delivers an incredible amount of information and an important part of keeping the history of India's cuisines alive.
Fantastic--Indian food comes alive
this book is in a class of its own--part travel, part food and part culture spiced throughout with love --
Chitrita spoils us again with her excellent writing, fantastic eye for detail and ability to bring together and share with us the foods and customs and locales that make India so wild, exotic and special; she shares it all from her authentic perspective. This is unlike any other book on India; we have waited too long for this integrated point of view. hope she has another book in the works. Mary K. Eliot
A Great Read, even for an Indian reader !
You think you know India, but after reading Eating India, you realize how wonderfully rich, tasty, and complex is the "Khichdi" called India. The real melting pot through millenia that has absorbed the waves of Aryans, Huns, Mongols, Greeks, Mughals, Europeans, and many others into its ever changing but unique identity is explored here in this book through the medium of food. The book is more than just a food book. It offers a prismatic look at the people, history, geography, and culture of the various regions of India. I grew up in Gujarat, but after reading the book, my salivary glands are working overtime, and I cannot wait to visit Ahmedabad and check out Agashiye restaurant. For the gastronomically adventurous traveller, especially if she has the digestive immune system that can handle a few choice microbes, the pleasures of eating at a roadside "dhaba" is not to be missed.
A wonderful book for anyone who loves food, travel, and history. Desis and non-desis alike will find it stimulating and appetizing.
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