not just a good book on different geographical regions of Chinese food, but an interesting social commentary

This book made me interested in trying foods- vegetables- I don't even like, such as cauliflower. The way he writes so passionately about food, and the history of each piece of produce, really inspired me to think more about what I eat and where it comes from.
All of the recipes sounded delicious, and I thought about making each one. But it was the information that made it a book I could read cover to cover. In addition, we'll read it over and over again by section and produce to remind us of what to look for and how to select the best produce.

Pollan details support for some rules that will help all of us eat better. "Eat local fresh whole foods," "take more than 20 minutes to eat any meal" and "stay out of the middle of your grocery store" come to mind. I enjoyed all of the writing, however, one could argue that the bottom line (last couple chapters) is all you really need to read.

It's the children's version of Fast Food Nation. It was a very quick read, interesting, and I didn't feel like it was dumbed down for teenagers. I especially enjoyed the social justice part- a different twist than the normal "we should all be vegetarians" that I expect from these books. They discuss how teenagers are exploited by fast food companies and how they break unions. There was also the normal stuff about the environment and animal suffering. I care about all of that, but obviously not enough to really change my behavior. I also feel that I've heard all of it before, even though I'm re-amazed by it every time.
I do want to eat slightly better than I have been.

I'm interested, after reading Omnivore's Dilemma, about what we can do to eat better, especially for the environment.
This book was interesting and had really good facts- I was especially interested in the in-depth discussions of local food and why it's not always the best option, depending on your reasons for buying it. I also really liked the explanations of different models for calculating the water consumed to grow cattle. I found these discussions useful and unbiased. However, the authors were very focused on animal suffering. I'm not in favor of animal suffering, but it's not my first concern for food and I don't believe it's morally wrong to eat meat. They were obviously hugely biased to the vegan/vegetarian diet, and their objectivity became questionable as they act as if scientific studies are questionable but accept anecdotal stories as strong evidence for their own side.
Informative, but a touch holier-than-thou. I did really like their conclusions that not everybody has to be vegan all the time, it's important to decide what you can do.

surely one of the most powerful books I've ever read. Amazing, will need to get some distance to fully process how influential this has been

This book was ok. It did make me a bit more aware of where my food is coming from. But as a low income student household living in an apartment, I cant really change our situation as much as I'd like to.
I'd love to some day move to a farm and have a nice big garden with a chicken coop. Unfortunetly I have a few more years in the city before I can make the dream a reality.
I did not like Steven's essays. I found them to be dissruptive to the text. I eventually just started skipping them. Camille was a bit too self rightous for my taste. But she is a teenager...

I really enjoyed reading this book. Despite their descriptions of how difficult the job is, driving around and eating tons of food all over America sounds pretty good to me.
Their descriptions of all of the food sounds so good. I also loved the stories of the interesting people they met.
It also made me nostalgic for the America of the 60's and 70's and earlier, with more independent cafes and restaurants and fewer strip malls and Applebee's.
I wonder if I were to partake on something similar, how much bad food I would have to eat before finding the remarkable stuff. What's the secret to finding good road food?