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A review by spaceykate
Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin
4.0
"Forager. Noun. One who loves the land so much that she literally eats from it."
I received this book through the First Reads program. Eating Wildly is a tale separated by seasons, spanning a period of years past and present. Each chapter title includes a common and scientific name beneath it, indicating the foraging focus in the following pages amongst Chin's vivid memories. She describes food the way one might detail clothing or a particularly stunning landscape--each description filled with rich adjectives. From the first pages, the reader is immersed in the story. You can almost taste the dishes, revel in the joy of discovering a stubbornly camouflaged mushroom, and feel the heartbreak.
Eating Wildly is a memoir of Chin's life and experiences, threaded through with relationships (both family & otherwise) and foraging adventures. As I read the book and became accustomed to Chin's writing style, I started to appreciate her phrasing gems and the dialogue interspersed with forager talk. Recipes for the foraged foods began to populate the ends of chapters. In the spirit of the Urban Forager, I fully hope to put those recipes to use someday.
Chin's grandparents' house features heavily in the beginning portion of the book. Their house is her safe haven and the birthplace of her food love, a welcome respite from her mother's series of romantic entanglements. Her grandmother reminds me of my own: of failing health in her last years of life, blind in one eye, always questioning about my love life and if I've had enough to eat. Chin's grandmother, on the other hand, had more than oatmeal cream pies and butter-soaked grilled cheese in her kitchen.
The scene in the hospital where Chin recalls her grandmother trying to detach herself from the machines keeping her alive--so she can go on her own terms--is poignant and beautiful. It also serves to highlight the mulberry tree discovery, channeling a moment of mourning into something uplifting. I felt my heart twinging in sympathy. Mulberries, man.
All in all, Eating Wildly is a solid read. Whether you're searching for an imperfect love story filled with its fair share of bumps, a winding path among New York foraging grounds, or an excellent blend of the two, this is the book.
I received this book through the First Reads program. Eating Wildly is a tale separated by seasons, spanning a period of years past and present. Each chapter title includes a common and scientific name beneath it, indicating the foraging focus in the following pages amongst Chin's vivid memories. She describes food the way one might detail clothing or a particularly stunning landscape--each description filled with rich adjectives. From the first pages, the reader is immersed in the story. You can almost taste the dishes, revel in the joy of discovering a stubbornly camouflaged mushroom, and feel the heartbreak.
Eating Wildly is a memoir of Chin's life and experiences, threaded through with relationships (both family & otherwise) and foraging adventures. As I read the book and became accustomed to Chin's writing style, I started to appreciate her phrasing gems and the dialogue interspersed with forager talk. Recipes for the foraged foods began to populate the ends of chapters. In the spirit of the Urban Forager, I fully hope to put those recipes to use someday.
Chin's grandparents' house features heavily in the beginning portion of the book. Their house is her safe haven and the birthplace of her food love, a welcome respite from her mother's series of romantic entanglements. Her grandmother reminds me of my own: of failing health in her last years of life, blind in one eye, always questioning about my love life and if I've had enough to eat. Chin's grandmother, on the other hand, had more than oatmeal cream pies and butter-soaked grilled cheese in her kitchen.
The scene in the hospital where Chin recalls her grandmother trying to detach herself from the machines keeping her alive--so she can go on her own terms--is poignant and beautiful. It also serves to highlight the mulberry tree discovery, channeling a moment of mourning into something uplifting. I felt my heart twinging in sympathy. Mulberries, man.
All in all, Eating Wildly is a solid read. Whether you're searching for an imperfect love story filled with its fair share of bumps, a winding path among New York foraging grounds, or an excellent blend of the two, this is the book.