Tom Parker Bowles is the son of the famed Camilla Parker Bowles. This book is a year of culinary adventures. In England he pursues a disappearing eel. In New Mexico, the pursuit is hot chile. In China it is anything strange. In Nashville, it's a BBQ overload. Tokyo brings a chase for seafood. Korea is the hunt for dog. Laos chases anything that moves. Spain is a mollusk. Sicily is a pursuit of gastronomy.

The book is a little odd. Bowles can really write well for short stints, then he frequently slips into quotable history from his bibliographic sources. His culinary adventures are to be educational on more than just the kitchen front, supposedly. Bowles is British and this book is chock full of references that will not be easily understood by many Americans. Outside of his witty insights, Bowles is both cocky and self defeating. His cocky side is the less enjoyable.

Even with a large vocabulary, Bowles illustrates an interesting challenge. Can language adequately describe our experiences? Why are most cooking shows filled with the same adjectives? Why do most cookbooks emphasize "fresh" but are incapable of adequately describing how to find a "ripe tomato"? When more than one of our senses is involved (smell, taste, or hearing), does language fail us? I understand Bowles paragraph about Water Beetle sauce in Laos, but I'm no closer to having the same experience, and consequently, I don't really know how this culinary adventure tastes.

I continue to keep my distance. Having just feasted on live creatures, karma might be coming round to give me a shock. It's a sauce for dipping, Lucky explains, and very popular in the South. I roll a ball of rice in my hand, and dip it in, still eyeing the deaad beetle for any sudden, zombie-like resurrection. There's nothing. The taste is strong and slightly acrid, dominating everything else with a hint of nail polish, like the essence of pear drops. This artificial sweetness lingers on the tongue, refusing to budge for anything. It's the nearest I've got so far to an entirely new taste. Although the nail polish gives you a hint, it's so unique as to be unclassifiable. Not horrible, just weird.