Celebrated journalist R. W. ("Johnny") Apple was a veteran political reporter, a New York Times bureau chief and an incisive and prolific writer. But the role he was most passionate about was food anthropologist. Known both for his restless wideopen mind and an appetite to match, Apple was also a culinary scholar: witty, wide-ranging and intensely knowledgeable about his subjects. Far Flung and Well Fed is the best of legendary Times reporter Apple's food writing from America, England, Europe, Asia and Australia. Each of the more than fifty essays recount extraordinary meals and little-known facts, of some of the world's most excellent foods -from the origin of an ingredient in a dish, to its history, to the vivid personalities-including Apple's wife, Betsey-who cook, serve and eat those dishes.
Far Flung and Well Fed is a classic collection of food writing- lively, warm and rich with a sense of place and taste-and deserves to join the works of A.J. Liebling, Elizabeth David, M.F.K. Fisher and Calvin Trillin on the bookshelf.
"In a time when the bookshelves and small screen are filled with globe-trotting food personalities, Apple brings something special to the mix."
The Denver Post
"With R.W. Apple, Jr., triumph is a given. He approaches food writing the same way he approached political reporting or war reporting or parachuting in."
Calvin Trillin in The New Yorker
"Johnny Apple's magnetic writing about food makes it crystal clear why food ought to matter as much to the rest of us as it meant to him: He understood that food is the purest expression of human culture. And he knew that what will save us in the end is the embrace of food diversity in all its cultural and biological splendor."
