I have (literally) just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It is a quite fascinating read, tracing and sourcing four meals beginning with McDonalds and ending with a hunted & foraged feast. It was borrowed to me by a co-worker & friend, who had read it along with a few other co-workers over this past summer. I had been eager to get my hands (and eyes!) on this book for months and it was well worth the wait. I highly reccomend it.
It contains the complete history from source to mouth of four very distinctly different meals and for many an omnivore will truley open your eyes.
From my unique standpoint I found it was missing some essential facts, not so much in the history but in what happens to your body after the food is consumed. I consider that to be an equally important factor in selecting a meal. Then again it was not the point of this book at all, as it is subtitled "the history of four meals". My eyes are also considerably biased in the area of food gathering and consuption.
Though he presents a very good argument in the animal/humanistic relationship formed in farming & rearing meat and reminded myself of why we began to eat it in the first place, and continued once we absolutly do not need to eat meat for survival or health.
I stand by the my opinion that if you are able to hunt & dress your own meat you most certinally deserve to eat it, and Mr. Pollen dives into the range of human emotions during this most primal human experiance, those I hope to never experiance first hand.
This book also sparked a great interest in the mystery of mushrooms. A growing favorite food, and completly mulit-fascited culinary delight as well as a great link in the earths cycle of life and death, I will be diving into this subject in the future!
All in all I highly recommed this book to everyone! No matter where you fall into the global food economey change, this book is sure to open your eyes with fascination and hopefully, delight!
