Books about Man eating from Amazon.com

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Amazon Best of the Month, July 2008: Maarten Troost is a laowai (foreigner) in the Middle Kingdom, ill-equipped with a sliver of Mandarin, questing to discover the "essential Chineseness" of an ancient and often mystifying land. What he finds is a country with its feet suctioned in the clay of traditional culture and a head straining into the polluted stratosphere of unencumbered capitalism, where cyclopean portraits of Chairman Mao (largely perceived as mostly good, except for that nasty bit toward the end) spoon comfortably with Hong Kong's embrace of rat-race modernity. From Beijing and its blitzes of flying phlegm--and girls who lend new meaning to "Chinese take-out"--to the legendary valley of Shangri-La (as officially designated by the Party), Troost learns that his very survival may hinge on his underdeveloped haggling skills and a willingness to deploy Rollerball-grade elbows over a seat on a train. Featuring visits to Mao's George Hamiltonian corpse and a rural market offering Siberian Tiger paw, cobra hearts, and scorpion kebabs (in the food section), Lost on Planet China is a funny and engrossing trip across a nation that increasingly demands the world's attention. --Jon Foro

Maarten Troost's Travel Tips for China

1. Food can be classified as meat, poultry, grain, fish, fruit, vegetable and Chinese. Embrace the Chinese. If you love it, it will love you back. True, you may find yourself perplexed by what resides on your plate. You may even be appalled. The Chinese have an expression: We eat everything with four legs except the table, and anything with two legs except the person. They mean it too. And so you may find yourself in a restaurant in Guangzhou contemplating the spicy cow veins; or the yak dumplings in Lhasa, or the grilled frog in Shanghai, or the donkey hotpot in the Hexi Corridor, or the live squid on the island of Putuoshan. And you may not know, exactly, what it is you're supposed to do. Should you pluck at this with your chopsticks? The meal may seem so very strange. True, you may be comfortable eating a cow, or a pig, or a chicken, yet when confronted with a yak or a swan or a cat, you do not reflexively think of sauces and marinades. The Chinese do however. And so you should eat whatever skips across your table. It is here where you can experience the complexity of China. And you will be rewarded. Very often, it is exceptionally good. And when it is not, it is undoubtedly interesting. And really, when traveling what more can one ask for. So go on. Eat as the locals do. However, should you find yourself confronted with a heaping platter of Cattle Penis with Garlic, you're on your own.

2. To really see China, go to the market. Any market will do. This is where China lives and breathes. It is here where you will find the sights, sounds and smells of China. And it is in a Chinese market where you will experience epic bargaining. The Chinese excel at bargaining. They live and breathe it. It is an art; it is a sport. It is, above all, nothing personal. If you do not parry back and forth, you will be regarded as a chump, a walking ATM machine, a carcass to be picked over. And so as you peruse the cabbage or consider the silk, be prepared to bargain. The objective, of course, is to obtain the Chinese price. You will, however, never actually receive the Chinese price. It is the holy grail for laowais--or foreigners--in China. Your status as a laowai is determined by how proximate your haggling gets you to the mythical Chinese price. But you will never obtain the Chinese price. Accept this. But if you're very, very good, and you bargain long and hard, and if you are lucky and catch your interlocutor on an off day, you may, just may, receive the special price. Consider yourself fortunate.

3. Travelers are often told to get off the beaten path, to take the road less traveled, to march to a different drum. You don't need to do this in China. The road well-traveled is a very fine road. The French Concession in Shanghai is splendid. The Forbidden City is a wonder of the world. So too the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. Indeed, the Chinese say so themselves. There is much to be seen in places that are often seen. And yet... China is not merely a country. It is not a place defined by sights. It is a world upon itself, a different planet even. And to see it--to feel it--means leaving that well-traveled road. And China is an excellent place for wandering. From the monasteries of Tibet to the rainforests of Yunnan Province and onward through the deserts of Xinjiang to the frozen tundra of Heilongjiang Province, China offers a vast kaleidoscope of people and terrain unlike anywhere else on Earth. This may seem intimidating to the China traveler. Will there be picture menus in the Taklamakan Desert? (No.) Is Visa accepted in Inner Mongolia? (Not likely.) Still, one should move beyond the Great Wall. And if you can manage to cross six lanes of traffic in Beijing, you can manage the slow train to Kunming.

4. Hell is a line in China. You are so forewarned.

5. Manners are important in China. How can this be, you wonder? You have, for instance, experienced a line in China. Your ribs have been pummeled. You have been trampled upon by grandmothers who are not more than four feet tall. You have learned, simply by queuing in the airport taxi line, what it is like to eat bitter, an evocative Chinese expression that conveys suffering. This does not seem upon first impression to be a country overly concerned with prim etiquette. But it is. True, hawking enormous, gelatinous loogies is perfectly acceptable in China. And a good belch is fine as well. And picking your teeth after dinner is a sign of urbane sophistication. But this does not mean that manners are not taken seriously in China. It's just that they are different in China. And so feel free to spit and burp, but do not even think of holding your chopsticks with your left hand. You will be regarded as an ill-mannered rube. So watch your manners in China. But learn them first.

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Price: $13.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?

Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their “SUV diet” was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.

It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II–era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refused to play by the rules of a global economy. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives. For the first time they felt connected to the people and the places that sustain them.

For Smith and MacKinnon, the 100-mile diet became a journey whose destination was, simply, home. From the satisfaction of pulling their own crop of garlic out of the earth to pitched battles over canning tomatoes, Plenty is about eating locally and thinking globally.

The authors’ food-focused experiment questions globalization, monoculture, the oil economy, environmental collapse, and the tattering threads of community. Thought-provoking and inspiring, Plenty offers more than a way of eating. In the end, it’s a new way of looking at the world..
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The author applies a no-nonsense approach to dieting, exercising, disease treating, and other aspects of everyday life. Our looks, longevity, as well as our physical and mental conditions result from the way we eat, breathe, and take care of all our physical and psychological needs. The question is not limited to nutrition only, as is the case of dieting programs..
Price: $11.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Social Skills 101: An Essential Etiquette Guide

A valuable client is in town and needs to be entertained You are interviewing for a great new job and your prospective employer suggests you go out for lunch. You are on a first date with someone special. It is time to finally ask your boss for a raise. No problem, right? You are charming, well-dressed, funny, smart, and successful. Everybody loves you. You are going to knock'em dead......but, what about your table manners? Pass the bread the wrong way and your valuable client thinks you are a clumsy halfwit. Grab your prospective employer's water glass by mistake and she begins to question your poise under pressure. Argue with the waiter and someone special decides you are really a jerk. Tear at your lobster like an animal and you can stop worrying about getting a raise and start worrying about keeping your job. Etiquette matters. Whether you are a new intern at your first formal business dinner, or a seasoned professional out for a power lunch, business meals are big business. A lack of manners is just plain bad business. Organized in five easy, enjoyable lessons, the Food Scholar Dining Etiquette CD includes all the practical information you need to make a great impression at your next business meal or social engagement. It is simply the best dining etiquette reference available. Don't eat another important meal without listening to this CD first!

Quick and easy learning.Food Scholar has made its etiquette lessons available in audio format for your convenience. Listen on CD or download the lessons to your MP3 player and learn at the gym, on the plane or in your car on the way to a client meeting, job interview, romantic dinner, or other important dining event.

A valuable tool for any professional. If you entertain clients or dine with colleagues, your table manners reflect on your overall level of professionalism. Food Scholar's comprehensive, thoroughly researched etiquette CD quickly teaches you every dining etiquette rule you need to correctly handle any dining situation.

Vital job interview information. Your résumé may get you the interview, but it's how you handle the interview that gets you the job. Conversation, handling the utensils -- it's the little things that matter. Employers conduct interviews during meals to evaluate how applicants handle themselves in a social setting. Polish your etiquette skills by listening to the Food Scholar etiquette lesson.

For your social life. People are impressed when you treat them with respect. By completing the Food Scholar etiquette lesson you will learn how to be seated, correctly identify tableware, handle silverware, properly order your meal, handle hard-to-eat foods, gracefully pay the check, and much more!

Great gift for students or any professional.

The Food Scholar Dining Etiquette lesson includes five informative units:

Unit One: The Restaurant and Your Table (including arriving at the restaurant and being seated, understanding who is who in the dining room, and identifying silverware, plates & glassware)

Unit Two: Ordering and Enjoying the Meal (including ordering, using your napkin, handling silverware, using finger bowls & hot towels, and handling difficult-to-eat foods)

Unit Three: Handling the Check (covering paying the check and tipping the restaurant staff)

Unit Four: Special Topics (including managing business meals and handling awkward & unexpected situations)

Dining Etiquette Essentials Unit (a convenient summary of all units that can be reviewed en route to a restaurant for quick & easy reference)

The Food Scholar Dining Etiquette CD is an essential reference for everyone!.
Price: $14.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Conventional wisdom holds that our dietary habits are mostly set by the time we reach age 5. Perhaps this explains why the thought of eating insects sends the average Westerner into a fit of shudders and gagging. But entomophagy is practiced by all kinds of people, all over the world. Arthropods are a good source of protein, they're plentiful, and they're often easier to catch than a fast bird or dangerous mammal. Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, the husband-wife team behind the photojournalistic masterpieces Material World and Women in the Material World, bring us the world of insect eating through stunning photos and amusing, enlightening text, complete with recipes for delicacies like Simple Scorpion Soup. Peter dives into each insect meal with gusto, whereas Faith is always less enthusiastic, but participates nonetheless, if only to push her Western taste boundaries out a bit further. Here she describes her first taste of a fried tarantula in Cambodia: "I can stall no longer. I break off a leg--it's two inches long, but seems like twelve--and ask if this too is supposed to be eaten. Yes, I'm told, so I do. I'm surprised that it doesn't feel hairy in my mouth because it looks awfully hairy.... It doesn't taste bad, but I can't say it tastes good."

Man Eating Bugs is part global anthropological study, part nature essay, part travel adventure story. The plentiful, gorgeous photographs will take you on an emotional journey, from the depths of disgust to the heights of awe, as you realize that "the shelves of the supermarket carry only a small slice of what the world has to offer." --Therese Littleton.
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Along the Bay of Bengal, between the countries of India and Bangladesh, stretches a strange and beautiful landscape—part ocean, part river, part forest. This is the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, and it is home to more tigers than anywhere else on the earth. Nowhere else do tigers live in a mangrove swamp. Nowhere else do healthy tigers routinely hunt people. Yet about three hundred people a year are killed by the tigers of the Sundarbans. And no one knows why..
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At the age of twenty-one, stylish and striking Ron Saxen turned heads on the street. A promising model with a tony California agency, his lithe and muscular body graced the pages of magazines and even the cover of a fitness book. He was headed for a future of bright lights and brighter possibilities--but a dark turn of events would leave Saxen working for minimum wage in a coffee shop and dodging his agent less than a year later.

Binge eating disorder, a malady that strikes some 2.5 million Americans--40 percent of whom are men--led Saxen to gain nearly one hundred pounds, destroying his modeling career and threatening his health and sanity. This compelling memoir tells Saxen's story as he plunges into binge eating, dangerous starvation diets, drug use, and a rollercoaster ride of odd careers, destructive relationships, and personal tragedies--all set against a fabulous backdrop that ranges from the streets of Sacramento to the fundamentalist enclaves of the Great Plains. A gripping page turner from start to finish, this amazing personal memoir will help break stereotypes and shed new light on this common disorder..
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As the subtitle of David Quammen's Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind suggests, his fascination centers on those animals that raise human "awareness of being meat," and he likens the historic impact of these predators to modern-day car accidents: sudden, unexpected, life-changing. While his research is extraordinary--encompassing extensive field work and diverse reading on the science and lore surrounding predatory animals--Quammen's peripatetic mind jumps from history to psychology to ecology and from Africa to Russia to Australia, sometimes leaving his readers without a base camp to recuperate during the breath-taking journey.

His research on the lions of Gir forest in India, on the crocodiles of Northern Australia, on the bears of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, and on the Siberian tigers of Far East Russia finds animals held in constant tension, encircled by every-expanding human populations. But Quammen doesn't oversimplify the conflicts. Often, in fact, Quammen has so much to say about competing interests that he makes several false starts before finding his true theme. Recalling his reading in the l970s literature on crocodiles in Africa, for example, Quammen abruptly jumps to a failed farming and reintroduction project begun in India before finally settling into the investigation of Northern Australia's Crocodylus Park.

These changes in geography, time, and perspective can be disorienting in a book that is already complicated by its several competing approaches. Adding to the abundance, Quammen explores human population growth projections, images of the Leviathan in the Bible, keystone species theory, the Muskrat hypothesis (the idea that the "wastage parts" of an animal species are the ones most likely to suffer predation), and the 1994 discovery of the Chauvet cave paintings. Yet Quammen, author of The Soing of the Dodo moves with such ease through this wilderness of ideas that even the most difficult material becomes palatable. --Patrick O'Kelley.
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