Book description
What do we learn from eating? About ourselves? Others? In this unique
memoir of a life shaped by the pleasures of the table, Doris
Friedensohn uses eating as an occasion for inquiry. Munching on
quesadillas and kimchi in her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, she
reflects on her exploration of food over fifty years and across four
continents. Relishing couscous in Tunisia and khachapuri in the
Republic of Georgia, she explores the ways strangers come together and
maintain their differences through food. As a young woman, Friedensohn
was determined not to be a provincial American. Chinese, French,
Mexican, and Mediterranean cuisines beckoned to her like mysterious
suitors. She responded, pursuing suckling pig, snails, baba ghanoush,
tripe, jellyfish, and anything with rosemary or cumin. Each rendezvous
with an unfamiliar food was a celebration of cosmopolitan living.
Friedensohn's memories range from Thanksgiving at a Middle Eastern
restaurant to the taste of fried grasshoppers in Oaxaca. Her wry
dramas of the dining room, restaurant, market, and kitchen ripple with
tensions -- political, religious, psychological, and spiritual. Eating
as I Go is one woman's distinctive m?lange of memoir, traveler's tale,
and cultural commentary.
"In quiet tones, Friedensohn describes meals eaten and
friendships formed over the years, both in the United States and
abroad.... An enjoyable volume." -- Publisher Weekly
