The Man Who Ate the World by Jay Rayner

Can you tell I’ve been on holiday? Yes, I did  a little bit of reading. The Man Who Ate the World by Jay Rayner was the last of the stack…I read it on the Eurostar to and from Paris, which I thought was very apropos.

I really enjoyed this. Immensely. I sorta want to read it again. I was so engrossed in this that two different Eurostar staff members stopped me to ask what I was reading. (Love Eurostar Leisure Select.)

Rayner has a fantastic ability to use the richest, fattest, most lovely words in describing dining and restaurants and food.  And he’s funny. I laughed out loud when I got to the Tokyo chapter and he talks about trying to find a restaurant…"It looks like the kind of place where a woman with too many cats might lead a life of quiet desperation." (For the record, I am allergic to cats.) I loved that he flew all the way to Geneva to find the white wine vinegar his mother-in-law favors, only to fnd that Genf is closed down for a bank holiday. What I want to do now is re-read and see if I can rank the restaurants by Jay’s loveliness of experience. He spends a lot of money on a lot of food in The Man Who Ate the World, but the funny (but perhaps not surprising) part is that he doesn’t always get bang for his buck. You, however, will not have that problem if you head out and buy this now. It’s really very very good.