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 enlarge | Authors: Peter Menzel, Faith D'aluisio
Creator: Marion Nestle
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $18.06
You Save: $21.94 (55%)
New (28) Used (15) from $6.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 43848
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 12.2 x 9.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 1580086810
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.3
EAN: 9781580086813
ASIN: 1580086810
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: THIS BOOK IS NEW AND IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. BOOK STILL IN SHRINK-WRAP SAME DAY SHIPPING WEEKDAYS BEFORE 3:00PM EST
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| Customer Reviews:
Enchanting Book for the Foodie May 31, 2008
At the James Beard Awards in 2006, a huge, on-stage screen supplemented each presentation with images for the audience - images that illustrated themes within restaurants, foods, photos, and books. As a "foodie" who writes about beer, I was enchanted by a number of entries, including Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.
So intense was this impression, that I was unable to leave the memory of this book at the Awards Ceremony. Two years later, the compulsion overtook me. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats stood on the shelf at my local bookshop, tempting me with what lived within the covers. This masterful display of "what the world eats," is so alive that, as I read, I become a participant in every global society we pass through.
Each chapter (organized by country) begins with a photograph of a "typical" family unit. The families are posed within their living quarters, surrounded by the food consumed in an average week. We feel as if we are peering into their personal lives. We know how much they spend on this food, (converted into US dollars). We see what they wear, how their family unit is structured, and what we would encounter in the marketplace where they shop. We are exposed to the sudden realization that some societies physically work for an entire lifetime at the meager chance for survival, so harsh are their living conditions. In other societies, the threat of obesity and diabetes looms with constancy, despite an affluence that, in theory, should be the key to longevity and health.
The authors give us extraordinary details about foods in each land - how animals are slaughtered and preserved without refrigeration; the method used to patiently separate barley grains from sand; or the necessity of constantly hand-filling an animal trough with water, because the earth and the heat claim its own share. We imagine surviving on skewered scorpions, seahorses, cicadas and silkworm pupae; Spit-roasted cui (Guinea pig), narwhal skin, polar bear, and camel; Khova (partially caramelized condensed milk), mung beans, spiny lobster, and aiysh (porridge); espresso coffee, well water, jasmine tea, cocoa, and Ur-bock beer. We also contemplate the effect of preservatives, prepared foods, and fast-food franchises on our daily lives in the Western world.
So fascinated was I with this voyeur's look into the personal eating habits within our fellow global societies, that I was unable to put this book down. As a documentary on global survival, it is superb. As a catalyst to our own self-examination, it is invaluable. It does not read like a novel, but is a rich tapestry that can be digested in bits and pieces - with leisure, or as an all-consuming, intellectual work.
Haunting, essential and beautiful March 31, 2008
This book should, in my opinion, be assigned reading for everyone in so-called first world countries. What the author manages to accomplish is nothing short of remarkable- chronicling one week of food consumption in a number of families around the world. The text is well-written and informative, but it's the photographs that speak the loudest. To compare the weekly food consumption of a US or German family with that of a Sudanese or Mongolian family is haunting and recalibrates what we take for granted. Highly recommended.
Hungry Planet March 23, 2008
Excellent book... showing how, what, and why we eat what we do.. Interesting the vast differences between countries and peoples. Made me appreaciate what I have...
what a fascinating book March 17, 2008
I love, love, love this book. The photos of real families standing in front of a week's worth of food make me feel as if I know these people. For all our differences, humans everywhere need food. This book is the next best thing to sitting down to a meal with people all over the world.
 Eye opening February 14, 2008
This book really opened my eyes as to what the world is eating (and not eating).
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