Eat My Globe - by Simon Majumdar (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Internationally popular food savant and blogger Simon Majumdar has an "irrepressible humor [that] sparkles through every bite" (Booklist) of this "ballsy, often hilarious foodie travelogue" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) that chronicles a yearlong journey around the world in search of everything delicious, odd, and oddly delicious.

When Simon Majumdar hit forty, he realized there had to be more to life than his stable but uninspiring desk job. As he wondered how to escape his career, he rediscovered a list of goals he had scrawled out years before, the last of which said: Go everywhere, eat everything. With that, he had found his mission--a yearlong search for the delicious, and curious, and the curiously delicious, which he names Eat My Globe and memorably chronicles in these pages.

In Majumdar's world, food is everything. Like every member of his family, he has a savant's memory for meals, with instant recall of dishes eaten decades before. Simon's unstoppable wit and passion for all things edible (especially those things that once had eyes, and a face, and a mom and a pop) makes this an armchair traveler's and foodie's delight--Majumdar does all the heavy lifting, eats the heavy foods (and suffers the weighty consequences), so you don't have to. He jets to thirty countries in just over twelve months, diving mouth-first into local cuisines and cultures as different as those of Japan and Iceland. His journey takes him from China, where he consumes one of his "Top Ten Worst Eats," stir-fried rat, to the United States, where he glories in our greatest sandwiches: the delectable treasures of Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan, BBQ in Kansas and Texas, the still-rich po' boys of post-Katrina New Orleans.

The meat of the story--besides the peerless ham in Spain, the celebrated steaks of Argentina, the best of Münich's wursts as well as their descendants, the famous hot dogs of Chicago--is the friends that Simon makes as he eats. They are as passionate about food as he is and are eager to welcome him to their homes and tables, share their choicest meals, and reveal their local secrets. Also a poignant memoir, Eat My Globe is a life told through food and spiced with Majumdar's remembrances of foods past, including those from his colorful childhood. A captivating look at one man's passion for food, family, and unique life experiences, Eat My Globe will make you laugh while it makes you hungry. It is sure to satiate any gastronome obsessed with globetrotting--for now.

Review Quotes

" The dangerously obsessive, staggeringly knowledgeable, provocative and opinionated Simon Majumdar knows his shit. No question about it. I don't always agree with him but he's always worth listening to. Many would kill to have eaten the meals in their lifetimes that Majumdar has consumed in a single year -- and he has an endearingly soft spot for the grimiest of lowlife pubs. Plus -- the bastard can write." -- Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

"Eat My Globe is a culinary tour de force that mixes an irrepressible enthusiasm for the world of food with a celebration of the people who prepare it. Majumdar is without question the world's most enthusiastic gourmet. His love of eating -- or rather feasting -- is so infectious that we never turned a page without feeling an overwhelming urge to eat great food, roam the Earth, and read another page." -- Andrew Rimas and Evan Fraser, authors of Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World

"Eat My Globe is part travelogue, part personal memoir, part food journal, and part performance art, as Simon Majumdar travels the planet and consumes the full spectrum of cuisine -- from the haute to the horrifying -- establishing himself as an Indiana Jones for the foodie set." -- Andrew Friedman, co-editor of Don't Try This at Home

"[A] pleasure... Globe [ital. title] is critical yet enthusiastic, worldly yet humble, and so much fun you'll want to go buy yourself a big red suitcase."

--Alton Brown, TV food guru and bestselling author

"Majumdar writes like a dream and eats like a pig. It's a killer combination. Eat My Globe is a very funny, very hungry book, much like its author." -- Jay Rayner, author of The Man Who Ate the World

"Simon adores pulled pork, yet pulls no punches in this passionate, refreshingly honest, and delicious journey. Traveling with him on his gut-busting world tour is a rollicking good time. By the end, you'll want to sit with him over a few martinis to plot a meal, even if it's just some hoofed animal's meat on a stick in a developing country. Read only with a well-stocked fridge; you'll get hungry." -- Kathleen Flinn, author of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry

"True to Simon's enthusiastic, opinionated, knowledgeable personality, EAT MY GLOBE is filled with good one- liners that made me laugh out loud. But I'm determined to convert him to a love of pizza."--Donatella Arpaia, author of Donatella Cooks

About the Author

Simon Majumdar is an acclaimed author, broadcaster, and cook on an endless journey to go everywhere and eat everything. He has written several books about his travels, including Eat My Globe, Eating for Britain, and Fed, White, and Blue. He has also appeared on the Food Network and Cooking Channel on shows such as Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions, Guy's Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, Beat Bobby Flay, Iron Chef America, The Next Iron Chef, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and Extreme Chef. He lives in Los Angeles.