Andrew Zimmern. Host of Bizarre Foods and several spin-offs. Minnesota Chef and writer. Man who will eat just about anything.
I really like Zimmern. He seems authentic. I don't get the vibe that he's conceited or feels like he's the smartest person in the room compared to a lot of other celebrity and professional chefs that I know and watch. Zimmern has a world view that the things we eat are what can bring us together, despite differences in both opinion and taste. It's something I try to emulate in my culinary classes; especially when we discuss global food cultures.
Over the past 6 months, I've been trying to increase my culinary knowledge by reading all kinds of works about the food industry. After the recent loss of our oldest cat, Lily, I felt like I needed something light for a while. Thankfully, Andrew Zimmern's Field Guide to Exceptionally Weird, Wild and Wonderful Foods was sitting on my to-read shelf and it helped me during my time for grief and recovery immensely.
Though there are a few recipes in this book, this is not a cookbook. It's also not 100% culinary related. There are about 3 dozen alphabetical listings of foods that Zimmern finds to be kinda oddball. Some of the things he lists like Bird's Nest Soup and Durian (both of which I have sampled), I wholeheartedly agree with. Twinkies and Hot Dogs (again, things I have consumed), I just don't. I understand Chef's argument that how they are made with a terrifying assortment of parts, bits and chemicals can be looked upon as weird. I would define those foods as troubling. As for things like alligator, (one of my all-time fried favs), I would classify them as exotic. Wonderful, not Weird. But to a non-food professional, I can see those large lizards are being both weird and wild to eat.
Amazon rates this book as being for readers aged 8-12. Zimmern in his opening chapter says his book is for all ages. I know that kids and adults alike love Zimmern's TV travel series that explore foods that the common American kitchen lacks. So this book has a universal appeal to fans. However, with some very advanced terms and a frank but necessary discussion of how feces, urine and blood are often intertwined with some of these foods, I can see where not all readers will be fans of this book. OR that all readers would be ready for the material.
The all-age appeal that I think Zimmern is talking about is some of the additional factoids he includes. For example, under his chapter on bats, he includes facts about some of the greatest baseball hitters of all-time. That appeals to generations of readers. I know his TV shows cover non-culinary aspects of the cultures he visits and if Zimmern had stuck to that as additional information, I would totally be on board. I would have liked more entries of bizarre foods and less about how to defeat a zombie, as discussed in the chapter on brains. The off-the-wall non-culinary segments were fun. Just not what I wanted in a Bizarre Foods related read.
Going back to the bats. This book was written in 2012. Of course, many of us know of the urban legend that somebody in China eating a bat was who started COVID in 2019. I'd be interested to know how if this book was re-issued today how Andrew Zimmern would cover the eating of bats due to the rumors. It would be an opinion that I would definitely be interested in hearing.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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