Eating India: An Odyssey Into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

by Chitrita Banerji

Book Overview

Though it's primarily Punjabi food that's become known as Indian food in the United States, India is as much an immigrant nation as America, and it has the vast range of cuisines to prove it. In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596910186
• ISBN13: 9781596910188
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Scholarly work, yet very entertaining.

I would highly recommend this literary work to anyone that is interested not only in the cuisines of the different regions of India, but who is also interested in the history of India.

Eating India

Title: Eating India Author: Chitrita Banerji ISBN: 978-1-59691-018-8 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Review By: Diana Rohini LaVigne, Indian Life & Style Magazine From local eating myths to well-known facts about how food migrates with its people, Eating India rips into the history of food in India leaving no stone unturned. Wonderfully written in travel journal-style, Eating India takes readers from the pepper capital of Kerala to the imperial styled northern cuisines of Muslims to the eating habits of the fast-paced city by the sea, Bombay. Chitrita Bangerji challenges her own childhood memories of various cuisines and asks locals about emerging trends in food'. She strives to find the `real' story from `real' people and delivers a knock-out book in the end. The details of her findings are laced with interesting tidbits about the geographic region, the nature of the people in the area and a vivid description of the sights and sounds so that a reader can place themselves exactly in that area without difficulty. This is an important book in order to preserve some of the finer details about the exquisite cuisine in India. Without this book, the world might loose some of that history. Eating India is fun to read, delivers an incredible amount of information and an important part of keeping the history of India's cuisines alive.

Fantastic--Indian food comes alive

this book is in a class of its own--part travel, part food and part culture spiced throughout with love -- Chitrita spoils us again with her excellent writing, fantastic eye for detail and ability to bring together and share with us the foods and customs and locales that make India so wild, exotic and special; she shares it all from her authentic perspective. This is unlike any other book on India; we have waited too long for this integrated point of view. hope she has another book in the works. Mary K. Eliot

A Great Read, even for an Indian reader !

You think you know India, but after reading Eating India, you realize how wonderfully rich, tasty, and complex is the "Khichdi" called India. The real melting pot through millenia that has absorbed the waves of Aryans, Huns, Mongols, Greeks, Mughals, Europeans, and many others into its ever changing but unique identity is explored here in this book through the medium of food. The book is more than just a food book. It offers a prismatic look at the people, history, geography, and culture of the various regions of India. I grew up in Gujarat, but after reading the book, my salivary glands are working overtime, and I cannot wait to visit Ahmedabad and check out Agashiye restaurant. For the gastronomically adventurous traveller, especially if she has the digestive immune system that can handle a few choice microbes, the pleasures of eating at a roadside "dhaba" is not to be missed. A wonderful book for anyone who loves food, travel, and history. Desis and non-desis alike will find it stimulating and appetizing.