Atlantica - 01.05.2007, Page 27

26 a t l a n t i c a
Every year the average person unwittingly
consumes over 500 grams of insects. That
unappetizing statistic is just a, shall we say, amuse
bouche to the other culinary secrets that mild-
mannered Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone uses to
entertain the reader in his new book In Bad Taste.
This food book spins on the ordinary by tackling
the disgusting, the outrageous, and the revolting
– but also the most sought-after food delicacies
around the globe. Marcone’s self-imposed rules are
clear. He doesn’t study plain old weird foods (spiced
crickets, say), but rather, he examines “uncommon
variations of perfectly respectable and mainstream
foods that people enjoy consuming, such as coffee,
mushrooms, cheese salad dressing and caviar.”
So this “food scientist, adventurer and urban
myth buster” travels the globe to discover, examine,
and ingest such delights as Indonesian coffee
made from beans that have passed through the
end of civets (a cat-like creature), Moroccan oil
made from goat dung, and, my personal favorite,
an Italian soft cheese that is literally swarming with
edible maggots.
An interesting read, but perhaps best to enjoy
without munching on a snack.
Travel books To Take you from a To Zon the fly
Young Angus Bell is working for a Montreal “mafia money
laundering operation under the guise of magazine
publishing” when he is told by a local psychic that he
will soon be going to Eastern Europe to play cricket with
local teams. Actually, the psychic isn’t that specific. But
Bell interprets the seer’s cryptic message to mean that
such a journey is in his future.
So begins Slogging the Slavs, Bell’s hilarious stint in his
10-year-old Skoda through the lands behind the former
Iron Curtain. But is the game so loved by the British
Commonwealth and so misunderstood by everyone else
popular in these nations? During one radio interview, Bell
admits, “I’ve found entire teams of Slovak gardeners…
and a team in the Slovenian Alps that began playing on
a farmer’s meadow in the seventies. I’ve just met a team
of winemakers on a Croatian island that plays against
air-traffic controllers from the mainland.” There’s even a
national cricket team in Estonia, although they’re listed
as the worst in the world (“It’s a great marketing tool,”
boasts their captain).
One of Bell’s biggest goals in his many tournaments
is to score an elusive century. I had no idea what that
was – I still don’t – but a shameful ignorance of the great
game is no impediment to enjoying the book.
Slogging the Slavs is published by Fat Controller Media,
a small new company dedicated to promoting the works
of young people, and was enthusiastically received by
the British media. There may be more similar works to
come from this new publishing house. Stay tuned.
“Tropical rainforests account for just six percent of
the Earth’s land surface, yet they are believed to
contain at least half of all the species on the planet.”
So begins the foreword to Rainforest, Swiss
photographer Thomas Marent’s labor of love for
the past 16 years, during which he traveled to five
continents to capture stunning images of the world’s
rainforests.
This coffee-table book, published by Dorling
Kindersley, a company known for its travel and
photographic publications, features both animal
and plant life. Flora includes carnivorous pitcher
plants and flowers that are over a meter wide, while
fauna covers the spectrum from apes to poisonous
frogs to leafcutter ants – all in countries as diverse as
Kenya, Costa Rica and Indonesia.
Rainforest is a poorly disguised plea to save its
namesake; a part of every book sold supports the
Rainforest Foundation (rainforestfoundation.org).
But it is difficult to argue with the author’s motives.
As Marent himself points out, if present rates of
destruction continue, there will be no rainforests to
photograph by 2060.
Haute Cuisine?
In Bad Taste: The Adventures and Science Behind
Food Delicacies, by Dr. Massimo Francesco
Marcone.
nature’s KaleiDosCope
Rainforest, by thomas Marent.
stiCKy WiCKet
Slogging the Slavs, by angus Bell.
GettinG
Around
Compiled by Eliza REid