Historians and journalists have devoted millions of pages to trying to understand the world. In fact, it may be a lot simpler than that. Just maybe it can be done by eating.We’ve all seen politicians in America, campaigning by eating the local foods and imitating local eating customs. Why isn’t the same true for geopolitics?
If we can understand the culture of another country through its food, perhaps we’d better understand its people, its culture and its ideas. In so doing, the world just might be a happier, and more satisfied place.
That’s what Graham Holliday has done in trying to appreciate first south Korea and then Viet Nam. A place that he takes us to in Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table
.My conversation with Graham Holliday:
