Medium Raw and more

August 25, 2010

Medium Raw? More like Bloody and Dripping. For Bourdain has whipped out his samurai sword and slices, dices and slashes. No one is spared, not his despised Food Network, not food writers like Alan Richman or Gael Greene, nor chefs like Wolfgang Puck, Alain Ducasse. He does, however, champion plenty of others like Fergus Henderson and, surprise surprise, Jamie Oliver (although he qualifies that by saying: “Before you spit up your gnocchi, turn back to the cover of this book, and make sure you’re reading the right author, let me explain. I hated The Naked Chef, too. And all that matey, mockney bullshit. And the Sainsbury’s business… and the band… and the scooter = all that shit that made Jamie a star.”

All that is entertaining enough, especially when he skewers the Food Network. But the best thing about reading Bourdain is his passion for food. So my favourite chapter was Lust, where he made me salivate with his food and travel porn. Drool with me now:

On roast goose in Hong Kong:

“Layers of what can only be described as enlightenment, one extraordinary sensation after another as the popils of the tongue encounter first the crispy, caramelized skin, then air, then fat – the juicy, sweet yet savory, ever so slightly gamey meat, the fat just barely managing to retain its corporeal form before quickly dematerializing into liquid.”

And the way eating Sichuan hotpot is at once carnal and vile:

“The liquid boils and bubbles like witch’s brew opaque, reddish brown distillate of the mind-blowingly excessive amounts of dried Sichuan chilies bobbing and roiling up throughout. The oil is cooking down, reducing by the minute and growing yet more powerful. You drag a hunk of tripe through the oil; it disappears below the surface, where it shrinks, then hardens like an aroused nipple; and then you remove it from the hell-broth and into your mouth.”

It is quite a treat. A delight for the senses.

While I appreciate his honesty, humour and sarcasm about the world of food (especially that anecdote about Sandra Lee), I think I prefer when he raves about food.

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook- Anthony Bourdain – borrowed from the library

A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, Fallows writes about China’s economic, political and social changes, from topics such as its industries, tycoons and censorship. Most of the essays were interesting and insightful, but the two I enjoyed the most were the ones on the China version of the TV show, The Apprentice, although with a focus on entrepreneurship; and the other ‘postcard’ on Macau’s gambling industry.

Fallows, amazingly, does not speak much Chinese, despite several years spent trying to pick up the language (he can read some Chinese as he is fluent in Japanese, which has some similar characters).

Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China (Vintage) – James Fallows

(PS. You can read the  title essay here on The Atlantic website)

Written by olduvai Posted in Food, Non-fiction, Reading, review Tagged with Anthony Bourdain