How I Walked Out the Door Mouth First . . . and Came Back Shaking My Head
Years ago when my family had Netflix, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern was one of our favorite food shows, and we were sad when we ran out of episodes to watch. I don’t recall how the show was organized—whether is was location-based each episode or not—but a few meals stand out in my memory.
First on the list for me was the rotten shark meat he ate in Iceland. How anyone ever figured out the best way to cure that poisonous dish is beyond me.
Next was the massive palm-grubs he ate in the tropics. Zimmern mentions in this book that his bug-eating moments got the most press, though he really didn’t eat all that many. Perhaps it’s less the number of bugs and more the size of them that grabs his fans’ attention, because those things were huge!
What’s most memorable, though, is the fact that Zimmern considered only two dishes (to my memory) inedible: Lutefisk in his home state of Minnesota and durian in Southeast Asia. I’m still waiting for some Norwegian to invite me over for Lutefisk, now that I’m living in Minnesota too, but I’ve eaten plenty of durian in my time, and his reaction to that smelly fruit made me laugh. To my friends, I describe this massive, reeking fruit like this: It’s like someone put pineapple and onions in a plastic bag in the sun and let them rot—open the bag, and that’s the smell of durian.
This book, The Bizarre Truth, is a companion of sorts to that wonderful series on food travel. In it, Zimmern retraces many of his travels around the world, naming some of his absolute favorites. For example, he describes his all-time favorite food day in France, his favorite pork in Cuba, and his favorite seafood experiences in Samoa.
While most of his descriptions are mouth-watering, Zimmern also describes some of the weirder things he’s tasted, like that cheese that’s left to spoil until it grows worms, which are then eaten along with the rotten cheese itself as a sort of seasoning (I think that was in Italy). There’s also a rotten meat dish available—in India, if I recall—that he didn’t seem willing to recommend…or retry.
I did recognize a major missed opportunity in this book, though, as I read, something I missed while watching the show. Certainly there are plenty of places Zimmern hasn’t traveled and plenty of delicious foods he hasn’t tried, but he named two Asian dishes in this book that originate from a specific place in China, yet he’s never visited that place and seemed satisfied with unoriginal reproductions of these foods.
In Singapore, he praised the “Hainan Chicken Rice” and in Guangzhou the “Wenchang Chicken.” Both of these dishes originally come from Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province— the chicken specifically from WenChang village. While Hainan isn’t known for it’s flavorful foods, the fact that two of its dishes make Zimmer’s list of favorites in Asia makes it seem like he owes the island a visit. Knowing that he enjoys a suckling pig, too, only solidifies it, since Hainan’s DongFang city is famous for its candy-skinned pigs slow-roasted over the fire.
I felt that to praise Singapore for it’s “Hainan” Chicken rice or Guangzhou for its “Wenchang” chicken is like praising Detroit for its authentic Kansas City BBQ—it just doesn’t make sense. Andrew, if you need to visit the island let me know—I’ll hook you up.
This was a fun read and exciting review of the Zimmern and his crew’s exploits in making that show. He drops some adult language here and there, so take note of that. Besides that, it’s an enjoyable and mouth-watering travelogue that I really enjoyed here at the end of the year.
©2021 E.T.
Check Out More Books on Food and Cooking:
- The Maple Syrup Book by Janet Eagleson and Tosemary Hasner (2006)
- The Bizarre Truth by Andrew Zimmern (2009)
- Love Food and Live Well by Chantel Hobbs (2010)
- Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World of Food by Andrew Zimmern (2011)
- Scars of a Chef by Rick Tramonto with Lisa Jackson (2011)
- My Pizza by Jim Lahey (2012)
- Weeknights with Giada by Giada de Laurentiis (2012)
- Asian Pickles: Japan by Karen Solomon (2014)
- Food a Love Story by Jim Gaffigan (2014)
- Huangjiu: Traditional Chinese Liquor by Shu Guo (2021)