Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

"Grub" opens by poking fun at people who get "cranky when the goat cheese isn't served at room temperature", or are "fond of restaurants that serve chocolate-covered edamame", and then goes on to gleefully serve up recipes such as "Yucca Chowder", a recipe which by itself calls for a dizzying list of exotic ingredients including yucca, "kombu", "recao", saffron, and okra. What is the point of lecturing for half the book about using locally grown foods, and then offering recipes crawling with uncommon or downright bizarre ingredients? Where the hell am I supposed to get locally produced plantains, black rice, and pine nuts in southern Michigan? Should I buy my "kombu" organic? Perhaps I should skip down to the farmer's market for the ingredients for their "Picadillo-Stuffed Chayote with Rutagaga-Garlic Sauce." Failing that, I suppose I can always go collect some "seitan" (what the hell is it anyway?) from my vegetable garden. It has been a long time since I read Diet for a Small Planet (written by the author's mother) but I seem to recall simple, nutritious recipes made from a minimal list of recognizable ingredients. If the child of that heritage has grown to believe that this sort of nonsense is sensible, then the whole foods movement she claims to champion is indeed doomed to failure.