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155th out of 469 books
—
976 voters
Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco
Calvin Trillin has never been a champion of the “continental cuisine” palaces he used to refer to as La Maison de la Casa House. What he treasures is the superb local specialty. And he will go anywhere to find one. As it happens, some of his favorite dishes can be found only in their place of origin. Join Trillin on his charming, funny culinary adventures as he samples fri...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
May 11th 2004
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published 2003)
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There are a few things I’ve learned about Calvin Trillin. Foremost, he is a very good reporter; he works for New Yorker magazine, and his descriptions here are detailed yet succinct. Obviously, he is also a person supremely obsessed with food, as Feeding a Yen has him trotting the globe in a mad search for the local rarities he loves. He sometimes reveals a congenial, slightly dry sense of humor. Finally—and I only got this by sensing what was conspicuously missing from Feeding a Yen–he doesn’t...more
I am a Calvin Trillin fan, particularly of his nonficiton. He sometimes travels the world in search of favorite foods. I think his
The Tummy Trilogy: American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat;
and
Third Helpings
are even better. But I was much younger when I read them; they have a very warm place in my heart.
I confess to a fantasy of being married to Trillin. Then I read About Alice , his loving memoir of his wife--who was beautiful, intelligent, and close to perfect. I was forced to accept that even...more
I confess to a fantasy of being married to Trillin. Then I read About Alice , his loving memoir of his wife--who was beautiful, intelligent, and close to perfect. I was forced to accept that even...more
May 24, 2008
Marguerite
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Foodies
Recommended to Marguerite by:
NYT
Calvin Trillin's food writing ranks right up there with the late Laurie Colwin, Jane and Michael Stern and Jeffrey Steingarten. It's food as experience, quest, pilgrimage, sacrament, with a lower-case "s." And, it's a salute to Food Done Right (Done Write?). We've all had memorable dishes (muffuletta from the Central Grocery in New Orleans comes to mind, as do J.K.'s baby backribs on the Outer Banks and perfectly cooked beef with fried beet and sweet potato chips from Aujour'dui in 1989 in Bosto...more
There's probably more to Trillin than self-important globe-trotting gluttony. Unfortunately that's what this collection showcases. It's not that he doesn't write authoritatively and respectfully about a whirlwind of food cultures. Everything he says about Ecuadorian cuisine (fanesca!! chifas!!) rings true, for example. It's more his tone, which he thinks is delightfully witty (he's forever quoting himself) but which reeks of entitlement and appropriation. I mean, clearly the people of the world...more
This book contains fourteen of the humorous essays about food that have made Trillin famous. Ranging from the origins of the fish taco to the problems of tracking an elusive pumpernickel bagel, the essays cover local specialties around the world. Trillin also touches on the question of whether, in a blindfold test, experts can really tell red from white wine.
I always find that the problem with reading a book of essays is that several are good, several are OK and one or two are total clunkers. I loved the piece on New Mexican cuisine and pimientos de padron, but really struggled through the last chapter. A few of the other essays were forgettable. I'd tell you which, but I can't remember them.
Dec 14, 2008
Joyce
added it
When Calvin Trillin started writing his essays on vernacular foodways, the big irony was that a hyper-sophisticated New Yorker with access to the best cuisine would instead choose BBQ, bagels, and boudin as his favorite foods. Now, the challenge seems to be that there are fewer baffling but authentic new food experiences to discover.
Chasing down unique edibles available in select locations, our intrepid food-lover traipses all over the globe. At times the author seems a tad too obsessed with these hard-to-find delicacies. I suppose some people really do get all worked up about the perfect bagel and such, but do we need to go on and on about it?
I will always love Calvin Trillin unconditionally, but this wasn't his best collection -- a little one-note and blah. It's awesome that he gets so focused on these random individual dishes, but hearing about them one after another after another gets old, and what this book really did is remind me that I'd like to go back and finish his Tummy Trilogy.
Currently on a re-reading jag--first Edward P. Jones' two short story collections, which are excellent in every regard, now Calvin Trillin. His amazement that he found his wife Alice and that she married him lingers, even nine years after her death. His writing is always a pleasure to read.
Reading Calvin Trillin is a treat, and I was lucky to catch him speaking about this book for the radio show "West Coast Live" at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley in the Spring of 2006. He was charming in person as well, and his writing is witty and warm. Enjoy.
I love to read Calvin Trillin on the supbject of food. He makes me think that I would be willing to taste anything. (Which is a lie, but who cares)
Feeding the Yen is about the foods that never appear outside the local market--they usually don't travel well or the appeal is limited or the production is small. But sometimes the taste lingers in the memory and you have to go back to try it again--and again.
Task 30.5D Virtual Block Party--Food-related nonfiction noncookbook
Feeding the Yen is about the foods that never appear outside the local market--they usually don't travel well or the appeal is limited or the production is small. But sometimes the taste lingers in the memory and you have to go back to try it again--and again.
Task 30.5D Virtual Block Party--Food-related nonfiction noncookbook
Aug 06, 2011
Alan
added it
Short essays on food. I always enjoy Trillen's writing. Here he writes about food cravings and foods you can only get in one place, like boudin sausage in South Louisiana or Sopapillas in New Mexico.
Nothing brilliant about the writing, but reading this book my mouth watered with all the foods I miss from Spain and can never get in New York, no matter how much stuff we import.
Calvin Trillin is this as a rail, yet seems to eat a dozen or so meals a day. He must be like one of those hot dog eating champions. This is a little love letter to local cuisines: fish tacos in San Diego, ceviche in Ecuador, BBQ in Kansas City. Trillin also gets in some digs at the online "foodie" community, particularly Chowhound. Nothing Earth shattering here, but fun anecdotes from a guy you'd like to share a meal with.
One of the best books I've ever read about food. Touching and very funny. A must read for anyone who appreciates food of all kinds.
fun read, but the stories became repetitious after a while.
I expect to get hungry when reading about food. This was the first time that I felt stuffed. I have no idea how someone the size of Calvin Trillin can eat so much. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
"Feeding a Yen" is strikingly similar, in many ways, to Jeffrey Steingarten's book "The Man Who Ate Everything." Yet while Trillin shares Steingarten's obsession in food, as well as his humor, he lacks Steingarten's meticulousness and focus. As such, while "The Man Who Ate Everything" provides the reader with a fair amount of practical knowledge, Trillin's book tends to veer of into rambling personal narratives that, ultimately, have very little to do with the foods in question. It's humorous a...more
Calvin Trillin makes me wish I was an adventurous eater...
Great little essays by a food writer about regional foods and cravings that cannot be fufilled until you revist the area that produces them. This was my introduction to Calvin Trillin's writing, and I'm definitely going back for seconds!
I love Trillin's writing and I always get hungry reading him.
Calvin Trillin is a national treasure!
loaned to joe sniezek
didnt' get to
Made me laugh out loud numerous times.
Calvin Trillin is at his best when talking about food. Not quite as good as Alice, Let's Eat, but still an entertaining read.
I wanted to like this book. the food topics were excellent. I just couldn't get into Trillin's style of writing. I enjoy food and reading about food and learning about food and history of food and culture. The food writing was good, but I really wasn't into Trillin's stories about his family. Usually I enjoy reading about such things, but not this style, not this... family.
This book encapsulates why I travel. Hell, it's why I get up in the morning! From supermarkets shelves in Hong Kong to pastry shops in Queens to guinea pig in Peru (which I indeed did order and eat; it tasted like bad dark meat chicken). Hooray for Calvin Trillin (and his editors) for putting so many of these wander/hungerlust stories together in one book. I want seconds!
Trillin collects a series of articles/essays in which he discusses local food specialties that he craves and the lengths he will go to get them (traveling to Ecuador for cerviche, for example). Very funny. Laugh out loud funny, in fact, and Trillin is as interested i nthe people involved as he is in the food. Well, almost as interested in the people.
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Calvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll an...more
More about Calvin Trillin...
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll an...more
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“Daddy, how come in Kansas City the bagels taste like just round bread?”
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