New Book Searches for World's Weirdest Foods

Sept. 11, 2007 — -- His name may be unfamiliar, but his family is not. Author Tom Parker Bowles is the son of Prince Charles' wife, Camilla. The British food critic has columns in Night and Day and Tatler. He also has written a book called "E Is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed."

In his latest effort, "The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes," Bowles examined the cultural divide of food. Two friends' food phobias inspired the book.

He traveled for a year through Asia, Europe and America in search for the world's most thrilling, scary and odd foods. To see what he discovered read an excerpt of the book below.

My love affair with America was, for the first twelve years of my life, a faroff, unrequited crush. I gazed longingly at this mythical land from afar,my youthful passion fuelled by a ceaseless flow of movies, television, and comics. It mattered little that the farthest west I'd ever been wasCornwall, at the toe of Britain's isle, because the accent of my imagination was firmly American. Anything that glided over the Atlantic, fromIndiana Jones, Archie, and Ronald Reagan to Lifesavers and Tab Clear, seemed impossibly glamorous in comparison to the seeming drabness ofmy own world. But my infatuation with American food overwhelmed any other concern. While we were draped in the dull brown and orangelivery of Sainsbury's -- a glum, plodding existence -- America seemed glossily alive and dynamic. Not for them variety packs of ready salted crisps or bulk loads of PG Tips; America had Fritos and iced tea. It had cherry slushies, all frozen and tingling. We had Sainsbury's orangesquash. America was a land filled with McDonald's, Burger King, and Dairy Queen, bright, pristine, and filled to the gills with glorious burgers.We had the dull suburban yawn that was Wimpy, with its sad meat patties and second-rate, watery milk shakes. America had Willy Wonkacandy, Twinkies, Baby Ruth, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, Hershey's Kisses, and a million other exciting, slick sweets that were made all the moredesirable by their appearance on the big screen. All we got was a Terry's Chocolate Orange. And because of this imagined world, America becamean edible Emerald City, a culinary Kubla Khan where hot dogs paved the streets and Kool-Aid flowed from taps. A place where Chuck Norris tookit in turns with Arnie to keep the peace, while Corey Haim kept the well-coiffed vampires at bay. This was my culinary mecca, not the familiarlandscapes of home, or France, Spain, or Italy. And the sooner I could get there, the sooner I could start my edible American Dream.It's not that my own life was dull or unhappy. Anything, but, in fact.

I grew up in a big house in the country, with a farm attached. My family has always been great eaters and food a source of joy and celebrationrather than just fuel to get by. Actually, we're all pretty damned greedy, full stop. My father was, and still is, a keen gardener. When I was a child,he'd bring in hauls of knobbly Pink Fir Apple potatoes, tiny broad beans nestled in their furry pods. Then plump, fiery radishes, endless varietiesof lettuce, curly kale, prickly artichokes, and mammoth cauliflowers. There were plums and apples and pears in autumn, picked straight off thetree. And figs as warm and seductive as a Sicilian breeze. This was local, seasonal fresh food way before the concept became trendy. I assumedthat everyone's father had large kitchen gardens and chickens pecking about the lawn. My sister and I used to collect fresh eggs from the henhouseevery morning (very softly, so as to avoid the broody hen's angry beak). They were warm to the touch, with a brilliant yellow yolk. AtEaster, my father would swap the brown speckled eggs for chocolate ones, covered in a sugar shell so realistic that even the birds were fooled.We all had favorite birds, including one called Whitey who was convinced he was human. He'd strut into the kitchen and chase the dogs. Sadly, hefell victim to Mr. Fox, who ripped off his head along with six of his favorite ladies. So we respected the various animals that milled about thefarm but were under no illusions as to their purpose. The link between beast and plate was always made clear, in very unsentimental terms; allthe creatures on the farm were for milking or eating, save Humphrey, an overweight and irritable sheep who had escaped the abattoir thoughpure strength of character. Cruelty to any beast was unthinkable and still remains one of the most important lessons I learned; if we eat meat, wemust ensure it was raised in the most humane way possible. It was only my mother who cooked, although we had various lovely(and generally wide) ladies in to help occasionally. My father could hardly boil a kettle, let alone fry an egg (he's improved now, stretching toDover sole, kippers, and steak). He would grow, raise, or buy the ingredients and my mother would cook them. Thankfully, she was a master ofsimplicity. She made no secret of hating pastry and cakes and the other, more empirical side of British cuisine. But show her a flappingly freshDover sole or a piece of well-hung beef and she'd produce perfection every time. The average time between being dug up and appearing onthe plate was about thirty minutes so the flavors were clean, pure, and sharp. This sort of pared-down cooking only works when the ingredientswere of the very highest quality?which they were. Summer nights were filled with the aforementioned sole and sauté potatoes, say, with a handfulof rosemary from the bush outside the kitchen ("always pick from the highest branches, as those dogs," warned my father, "just love to piss onthe base"). Freshly podded peas with roast chicken (perfectly burnished, with the "essential lemon up its ass"), freshly boiled prawns with mayonnaiseand blushing pink wild salmon with buttery new potatoes. Then summer puddings pregnant with tart berries and gooseberry fools,homemade, with just the right amount of tart to make the lips pucker. Winters meant hearty, soul-sustaining stews and braises and roasts andbuttery potted shrimps (always from Mr. Baxter in Morecombe Bay) and the very tenderest of calves' liver. Pudding was treacle sponge or treacletart and I never remember a hungry or unhappy meal. These first eight years of my upbringing were blissful in every sense. But then, out ofnowhere, came the sucker punch that would change my happy, privileged world forever ... five years of prep school.