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ptothelo's review against another edition
4.0
Gives me a great appreciation for where food comes from and the importance of where and how it's grown. I knew there was a reason why those potatoes on PEI tasted so amazing!
j3mm4's review
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
I love food. I love food writing. Even with a foundation of that love shaping both the ambient level of information about food in my head and the experience of reading food writing, I have not found so much as a single brief article or essay which had me smiling through the duration of my encounter with it. I smiled constantly reading American Terroir. I laughed aloud multiple times. This book is palpably passionate towards food, infectiously curious and adoring towards it, and cracklingly funny to boot. Though some forays out of the whitest parts of North America, be they short asides or entire chapters, occasionally flirt with a kind of othering exoticism that left a sour taste in my mouth, on the whole, this book confers a level of respect to the producers of the food as well as the food itself that I greatly appreciated. I definitely want to read Jacobsen's Geography of Oysters now.
jennutley's review against another edition
3.0
I found this on a list of best books of 2010 and when I couldn’t find it in my library system I put it on my wish list on Amazon. (Thanks Mom.)
The idea that foods take on the “taste of place” is appealing to me. I want to learn the what and the why and the where of what makes certain foods better when they come from a particular region. And information centered on American offerings is even better—I have a greater chance of getting to try those.
The chapters here are pretty uneven. The maple syrup chapter is easily the best. Some of the others rely too much on the personalities the author meets along the way.
While I liked this one, I preferred [b:The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World|13839|The Botany of Desire A Plant's-Eye View of the World|Michael Pollan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388190199s/13839.jpg|908398].
The idea that foods take on the “taste of place” is appealing to me. I want to learn the what and the why and the where of what makes certain foods better when they come from a particular region. And information centered on American offerings is even better—I have a greater chance of getting to try those.
The chapters here are pretty uneven. The maple syrup chapter is easily the best. Some of the others rely too much on the personalities the author meets along the way.
While I liked this one, I preferred [b:The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World|13839|The Botany of Desire A Plant's-Eye View of the World|Michael Pollan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388190199s/13839.jpg|908398].
smv1's review
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
Jacobsen needs to write a lot more books. His voice is so clear and funny at times, relatable and educational without being pedantic. I would like to read this several more times and it's copied up with my recipe books thanks to the unique recipes he provides.
fallona's review
4.0
It's certainly an interesting book, and sometimes very engaging--but I frequently found myself overtly disliking some of the glimpses of the author's personality. This made it difficult for me to decide how to rate this book; three stars, because I found the author's side notes often off-putting? Four stars, because some aspects really were fascinating and I learned some things? I decided to go with the latter, ultimately.
eberico's review
5.0
Side note: I'm willing - no, happy - to admit that a lot of food writing is excessive and sanctimonious. Writing about local food can be even more insufferable. A book about great American foods, then, has the potential to be unbearably smug. This was not that book.
Another side note: while Shane was happy to give me this book for Christmas, he takes issue with the concept of terroir - specifically that place and context can play such an important role in the characteristics or quality of specific foods. This book, and our discussions of it, changed both of our minds.
In 200-or-so enjoyable pages, Rowan Jacobsen explores why and how specific foods are so uniquely American. It's not quite as simple as you'd think.
Take the Yukon River salmon. The size and quality of the meat will vary depending on where it is caught in its journey upriver. At the mouth of the Yukon, the fish is outrageously fat, having stored all the energy it needs to make the difficult trip. Closer to the spawning grounds, the fish will have expended all of that energy, so the muscles will be lean and strong. Worn out fish might not be good eating, but they may provide amazing caviar. The quality and quantity will also depend on the state of the Bering Strait, where environmental changes can affect the food supply.
And on we go, learning about how mother nature, natural selection, and human intervention have produced Michoacán avocados, PEI mussels and potatoes, and Jasper Hill Winnemere, which I can't wait to try. Each food has an interesting, well-written, and occasionally drool-inducing story. Overall, the book is less about eating local than it is about celebrating the ways that man and nature have cooperated to create amazing foods. I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys food writing and enjoys knowing about both the process and the end product.
Another side note: while Shane was happy to give me this book for Christmas, he takes issue with the concept of terroir - specifically that place and context can play such an important role in the characteristics or quality of specific foods. This book, and our discussions of it, changed both of our minds.
In 200-or-so enjoyable pages, Rowan Jacobsen explores why and how specific foods are so uniquely American. It's not quite as simple as you'd think.
Take the Yukon River salmon. The size and quality of the meat will vary depending on where it is caught in its journey upriver. At the mouth of the Yukon, the fish is outrageously fat, having stored all the energy it needs to make the difficult trip. Closer to the spawning grounds, the fish will have expended all of that energy, so the muscles will be lean and strong. Worn out fish might not be good eating, but they may provide amazing caviar. The quality and quantity will also depend on the state of the Bering Strait, where environmental changes can affect the food supply.
And on we go, learning about how mother nature, natural selection, and human intervention have produced Michoacán avocados, PEI mussels and potatoes, and Jasper Hill Winnemere, which I can't wait to try. Each food has an interesting, well-written, and occasionally drool-inducing story. Overall, the book is less about eating local than it is about celebrating the ways that man and nature have cooperated to create amazing foods. I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys food writing and enjoys knowing about both the process and the end product.
squirrelfish's review
4.0
I want to go to Montreal. Specifically, I want to go to http://www.jardinssauvages.com/?nom=menus . The book talks of terroir, but it isn't talking just wine, but a wide variety of tastes of place. The foraged foods of Quebec specifically called me, but the romance of Prince Edward Islands potatoes and mussels has a pull, the cheeses inspired by fungi of Vermont caves, apples pressed in illegal cider mills and a sudden need to taste all the colors of maple syrups has taken up a place in my hindbrain. This is a look at the variety in some of our favorite foods - and it is relentlessly encouraging of tasting more and better. While at times [a:Rowan Jacobsen|16940|Rowan Jacobsen|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1353620656p2/16940.jpg] will call something the best salmon, or describe a specifically delicious variety of honey, generally this inspired me to explore what's best around me. The flavor differences from one spot to another, the natural differences from season to season, regional food specialties are all registering higher on my radar now that I've finished this book. It's not really an exploration of terroir across America although some sections are a little closer - but this book is too diverse for that. When Jacobsen briefly addresses wine from Vermont vs Missouri vs California vs Washington, he is much more educational about the winemaking process. His mussels discussion is really just about PEI. The oysters discussion probably comes closest to truly capturing the concepts of comparative terroir, but don't expect this book to tell you just which bays and which states have what flavor differences. American Terroir mentions only a few bays with true descriptions - but now when I go to an oyster bar, or on a coastal road trip, I'm going to pay a new kind of attention to what I'm eating and where it came from.
Overall, good exploration of American foods.
Overall, good exploration of American foods.
jennutley's review
3.0
I found this on a list of best books of 2010 and when I couldn’t find it in my library system I put it on my wish list on Amazon. (Thanks Mom.)
The idea that foods take on the “taste of place” is appealing to me. I want to learn the what and the why and the where of what makes certain foods better when they come from a particular region. And information centered on American offerings is even better—I have a greater chance of getting to try those.
The chapters here are pretty uneven. The maple syrup chapter is easily the best. Some of the others rely too much on the personalities the author meets along the way.
While I liked this one, I preferred [b:The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World|13839|The Botany of Desire A Plant's-Eye View of the World|Michael Pollan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388190199s/13839.jpg|908398].
The idea that foods take on the “taste of place” is appealing to me. I want to learn the what and the why and the where of what makes certain foods better when they come from a particular region. And information centered on American offerings is even better—I have a greater chance of getting to try those.
The chapters here are pretty uneven. The maple syrup chapter is easily the best. Some of the others rely too much on the personalities the author meets along the way.
While I liked this one, I preferred [b:The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World|13839|The Botany of Desire A Plant's-Eye View of the World|Michael Pollan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388190199s/13839.jpg|908398].
kathleenitpdx's review
3.0
Lots of interesting tidbits about some of the foods produced in the "new world"--where they came from, varieties, cultural habits and some about some of the people who grow and produce the foods--chocolate, maple syrup, wine, coffee to name a few.