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Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run
He’s on the road again. This time, Alton Brown and his motorcycle-mounted crew are off on a thousand-mile, south-to-north journey that follows America’s first �superhighway”—the Mississippi. Starting at the great river’s delta on the Gulf of Mexico and ending up near its headwaters in Minnesota, Alton and buddies travel the heartland’s byways to scout out the very best of...more
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published
April 1st 2008
by Stewart, Tabori and Chang
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I enjoyed reading this culinary travelogue; food and travel are to of my favorite things, particularly together. Brown does a great job describing the places and people he met upon the Great River Road of the Mississippi from its mouth in Louisiana to its headwaters in Minnesota. The book is as meandering as the river as Brown and his crew drive motorcycles through the heartland of America, encountering "good eats" and letting the trip develop naturally. This is both a good and bad thing for the...more
Christmas present from Trish. Can't wait to visit some of these sites. Loved reading this--Alton is a very funny man.
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If you watch Food Channel (FC) a lot, you know who Alton Brown is. He has a quirky little show. This book is a little treasure, as far as I'm concerned. The opening foldout map shows the nature of his mini-Odyssey along the Mississippi River, sampling diners and restaurants as he (and his crew) cycle from the Delta to Lake Itasca. I'm an Illinois farm boy, so it was cool to see some of the towns from my home state on his map--Cairo, Alton, Quincy, Nauvoo, and Moline. And other places familiar to...more
I obtained this book during one of Alton Brown's public appearances/ book signings a few years ago. My mom and I were just excited to meat one of our food heroes in person, to be honest, so buying the book to get autographed was just icing on the cake. We were both fans of Good Eats, the show, and have enjoyed his other books. However, I still have yet to see the show this particular book is a companion to.
Feasting on Asphalt turned out to be a delightful read--part travelogue, part recipe book,...more
Feasting on Asphalt turned out to be a delightful read--part travelogue, part recipe book,...more
Brought back MANY memories of meals in Mississippi. I'm so glad that Alton Brown and I agree on two key points: Chitterlings are never good, no matter how they're cooked (I was forced to eat many times on mission). There is something just wrong about eating food that smells like anus. The other key point we agree on is that the best steak in the U.S. can be had in Greenville, MS, at Doe's Eat Place. Alton says it is the best he's ever had as well. If you are ever in the Delta, do yourself a favo...more
I'm not going to give this a star rating, because I don't think it would be fair. I've never seen the show that this is a companion book for, and I won't be making any of the recipes. If I gave it a star rating, I'd likely bring down the overall rating, and the book is intended for people with different reasons for reading it than I have.
I basically picked this up at the library because I was checking out a couple of the Good Eats books and this was in between volumes 1 and 3 of those. It's a f...more
I basically picked this up at the library because I was checking out a couple of the Good Eats books and this was in between volumes 1 and 3 of those. It's a f...more
This book works well with the "Feasting on Asphalt" DVD series. Not only does it have great photographs (taken by one of the other members of the trip) but also has insightful stories and commentary about each section of their journey. Alton writes in his normal witty manner, highlights some of the restaurants and places they stopped, and shares some recipes along the way. Some of the recipes are directly from the people that cooked the meal that Alton and his crew enjoyed and others are Alton's...more
This was more than a cookbook. It actually was not a cookbook at all and there are not a lot of recipes in it but I did get some cooking hints in it, for instance grate eggs into tuna salad instead of chopping them in. It is a book about a motorcycle trip Alton Brown and his video crew made from the very end of the Mississippi River to the very top of it. I did not know that at the top of the river it would be like a little puddle. I love the Mississippi River and got so much out of reading abou...more
Alton outdoes himself in this book. He chronicles the trip he took while riding with his crew, on motorcycles across the country. Its an easy read, where you can almost hear Alton talking to you. From place to place, he uses a vibrant array of different descriptions to paint a very realistic view of what he is seeing. It really makes you want to just get on a bike or in a car and take a trip. There are some awesome recipes in this book, some of which are the exact recipes of things he ate along...more
I enjoyed reading this, but with a few exceptions (Koolickles, Roasted Asparagus and Pecan Coconut Pie) there isn't a single thing in this book I would like to eat! This is the companion book to the second season of Alton Brown's Food Network show, and it chronicles the trip north following the Mississippi. Many of the places listed I have been, so that was fun. This is a quick read with lost of pictures, so if you enjoy the show, road food or any of the areas covered int he journey, pick this o...more
I LOVE Alton Brown. I'm pretty sure he's the funniest person on television, and I desperately want to meet him. Ashley recommended Feasting on Asphalt to Jon and I last summer, and were lucky to catch an episode while in Vegas. Let's just say, that was the beginning of the end. We harassed his parents to record the whole season for us, and were lucky enough to find Season One on sell. We love these shows. We follow these shows. We planned part of our roadtrip around these shows. And let me tell...more
Let me get this out of the way first- I love Alton Brown. I find him strangely attractive. I like his spiky hair and his round, tortiseshell glasses. I adore his sense of humor and I love that he isn't afraid to be smart. AND HE COOKS! *sigh*
This is a companion book to the second Food Network series of the same name. If you watched the series (as I did), you won't necessarily learn anything new, although the book contains 40 recipes gathered from the road trip. The photography is beautiful, and...more
This is a companion book to the second Food Network series of the same name. If you watched the series (as I did), you won't necessarily learn anything new, although the book contains 40 recipes gathered from the road trip. The photography is beautiful, and...more
May 20, 2008
Elisa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
travelers and food lovers
Shelves:
cooking-eating-books
I love food and I love dorky guys, so this is a no brainer for me. Brown takes another motorcyle ride, this time traveling along the Mississippi River, and eating his way along the river. The book is a collection of travel essays and journal entries from the road.
My favorite aspect of the book is the way that Brown treats the people he encounters. I worried that he would be a jerk, but was actually far from it. He gives respect and voice to the people, history and culture of the River Run, and m...more
My favorite aspect of the book is the way that Brown treats the people he encounters. I worried that he would be a jerk, but was actually far from it. He gives respect and voice to the people, history and culture of the River Run, and m...more
I don't usually do cookbooks, but this is a worthy exception. This book works on many levels by presenting pork chops served on top of a mountain of pancakes, homemade tamales, rabbit stew at a Civil War reenactment, lutefisk in a Viking town, grilling steaks on green wood...and then centering it all around the descriptions and photographs of a road trip that gets the mind stirring and the heart yearning for something other than the sedentary reading about it.
This book will make you want to go out on a road trip of your own. That is certainly the effect it had on me as I finished it. If you saw the show on the Food Network, then you already know what this book is about. Even if you did see the show, I recommend the book. The photos are very nice, and the prose is pretty engaging. The book also features appendices with a full list of all the locations visited (along with a few extras) and a small list of sources for the ingredients in the recipes feat...more
I love watching Alton Brown on Food Network. He's so darn funny but you can tell he's very, very smart as well. I enjoyed reading this travelogue of his adventure from Louisiana all the way up to Minnesota. I learned some interesting facts and find myself wanting to find these "off the road" eateries the next time I travel with my family. I did watch some of these shows when it was on, but I think reading it was even more enjoyable. Great book!
Alton writes just like he talks on his show, and I love watching him. The writing is great and I enjoyed his travel journal entries included in this book. There are only a few places that are pretty much on my regular path when I'm in the South, so visting the others has to be a specially planned trip. I was only interested in a few of the recipes, but I still enjoyed the book, again because of Alton's writing.
those who know me, know that my wife and i love food network. and on food network my personal favorite personality (as well as one of my faves along ALL networks) is alton brown. he is the mad scientist of food, the crazy inventor of the culinary, the idiot savant of the mastication arts. in short, he is awesome! this book is the companion to a short show he did for food network in 2007 called feasting on asphalt: the river run. he and his small crew took bmw motorcycles and traveled all the way...more
For the type of book that it is, basically a journal of his journey, it is an excellent read. He writes the way he talks, which I find entertaining. It made me want to take a road trip to find some of his "pit stops" as well as some of my own. If you need a quick read, pick this one up. It wont take you long. It does have 40 recipes included, but I didn't try any of them.
I'm a huge Alton Brown fan. I was in the middle of watching Feasting on Asphalt when my mom and dad bought this for me off the clearance rack at Border's. I really enjoy Alton Brown's style of writing. I don't think I'll try any of the receipes though I liked reading them and seeing how the things I saw on the show could be made. This makes me want to read Good Eats and Good Eats II.
As a foodie, I watched this series on the Food Network years ago and loved it. This book was a great reminder of the show and tales of the different places Alton visited along the Mississippi river. I love Alton Brown and everything he does and this book is no exception.
For the rest of the review, visit my book blog at: http://angelofmine1974.livejournal.co...
For the rest of the review, visit my book blog at: http://angelofmine1974.livejournal.co...
Alton Brown is probably the only food host I can stand on the Food Network these days. I loved his show Good Eats. I did see this series Feasting on Asphalt when it was on a few years back. This book is from one of this trips he did on that show following the great Mississippi from the mouth all the way up to the source.
My only complaint with reading this is, like the food network, seeing or reading about all the food they cook can be considered a form of torture in not being able to partake in...more
My only complaint with reading this is, like the food network, seeing or reading about all the food they cook can be considered a form of torture in not being able to partake in...more
If you enjoyed the show and wanted some of the recipes, check out the book from the library, read it over, and then decide if you want a copy. Alton writes in a cool, humorous style, and there are a TON of pictures. Not sure if I'd ever make any of the recipes for just two people, tho. Being the geek that he is, he included GSP coodinates to everywhere they stopped.
Lots of interesting places visited in this book and a couple cool-looking recipes to try. What I liked most, however, was how Alton doesn't seem to to be so full of himself to have a few pictures of him looking a bit rough...maybe that's because he's trying to uphold the biker image? Anyways, it's refreshing to see a celebrity who is clearly not obsessed about their appearance. Did I mention the cool recipes? Can't wait to try them!
Alton and an entourage took a motorcycle trip up the whole Mississippi, eating all kinds of disgusting but fascinating road food along the way. What I learned: that zydeco music is named after a bean salad (and that that was pretty much the only vegetable they ate along the way). Very interesting stuff!
This book is transcribed from Alton's audio diary and notebook on the road. Not very dense and follows the series quite closely, but I love the tidbits and JC's photographs are amazing. DISCLAIMER: approach with caution if you have potential for itchy feet. Or a terminally itchy soul, as in my case.
Although it is loaded with interesting recipes (some truly disgusting, some I'm anxious to try), it is so much more than a cookbook. Told with Alton Brown's signature style (part food geek, part comedian), it's a wonderful story about America and Americans. Kind of makes me want to hit the open road.
I wasn't really interested in the "Feasting on Asphalt" series, until I learned that in this book Alton followed the Mississippi river from the Gulf of Mexico up to the headwaters in Minnesota. Turned out to be a pretty cool story. I want to try a Koolaid pickle now.
I may not be giving this book its due. Alton Brown has an interesting presence on the food channel and he narrates this journey up the Mississippi well. Until I can travel some of his path, and compare some of my experiences this judgment should be tabled.
I should say rereading this one. I have followed Mr. Brown for years mainly because I can learn about why I do certain things when I cook or how to do other things to get a different result. Entertaining while he's teaching me.
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Alton Brown is an American food personality, cinematographer, author, and actor. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats, the miniseries Feasting on Asphalt and the main commentator on Iron Chef America.
Brown received a degree in drama from the University of Georgia. He first worked in cinematography and film production, and was the director of photography on the m...more
More about Alton Brown...
Brown received a degree in drama from the University of Georgia. He first worked in cinematography and film production, and was the director of photography on the m...more
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