Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Driving Hungry by Layne Mosler

Driving Hungry Layne Mosler Stack of Books

Summer is upon us and I couldn’t be happier!!  Hard to believe that next week is the Fourth of July which to me marks the middle of the summer.  How can that be??!!  We are headed to the beach very soon and it’s been a long time coming.  I Love to sit in my beach chair with my toes in the water  a good book in my hand,  with my sunglasses and my SPF 50 sunscreen.  I can’t think of anything more relaxing than that can you?

I just finished this very entertaining book. 

Are you looking for a great beach read?  Consider this one.

It promises to take you on an adventure!

 

Driving Hungry: A MemoirDriving Hungry will be released by Penguin Random House on July 14, 2015. 

This delicious and fun book is by the author of the popular blog Taxi Gourmet where Layne Mosler takes you on her Taxi Cab Adventures.  She learned quickly back in 2007 when she started writing her Taxi Gourmet blog that sometimes the best food a city has to offer is sometimes off the beaten path and who would know better where some of these hidden treasures are than the taxi cab drivers shuttling locals and tourists around town?  She writes about the food and restaurants she discovers on these adventures and  also writes about the interesting, and diverse and colorful cab drivers she encounters from all parts of the world.  And so much good food.  But if it’s bad or if it’s not all that, she’ll tell you.

 

Driving Hungry is  a memoir that will take you from Buenos Aries to New York City and finally to Berlin.  You really get to experience all three of these unique cities through the eyes, nose, and taste buds of Layne Mosler and learn a lot about taxi cab culture as you tag along on one of her "Taxi Cab Adventures".  She discovers the uniqueness of each city by tasting it's food based on the recommendations of the taxi cab drivers she meets along the way.

Driving Hungry Laynes Mosler Washington Post Photo

Photo from an article in the Washington Post February 19, 2009 Cabbies Steer Blogger to Buenos Aries’s Diverse Culinary Offerings by Joshua Partlow

I so appreciate good writing and Layne Mosler can write.    She takes the reader of her memoir to three very different cities.  It starts in Buenos Aries, a city that I really didn’t know anything about except that it’s the capitol of Argentina and is known for it’s beef.  I don’t speak Spanish but I do have a thing for beef and Chimichurri sauce.   : )   The sights, sounds, and smells of this city are brought to life in Layne’s descriptions of what she gets to eat so much so that I found myself looking for recipes to try my hand at making empanadas.  They seem to be the easy street food of choice there.  Tasty and economical.  Her charming story includes a romance that centers around the handsome Tango Dancer she meets but also gives us a taste for the culture and tradition of Tango dancing that is the city of Buenos Aries. 

Driving Hungry Layne Mosler WSJ photo

Photo from the  Wall Street Journal  July 2, 2010 A City of Tasty Fares by Aaron Rutkoff

Next stop is New York City.  It’s a city that I am sure would chew me up and spit me out in a very short amount of time!  But Layne gives it her best shot and even finds herself in cabbie school after meeting a couple of female taxi cab drivers and gets her cab driver’s license and starts picking up fares in a tough city.I admire her braveness.  Her Taxi Cab Adventures continue by finding the hidden food treasures of a gritty and bustling city but something is missing and soon she finds herself in Berlin.  Berlin is another city that I am so unfamiliar with but I found it fascinating to learn of it’s history and to see it through her eyes.  She meets an especially endearing taxi cab driver who experienced the Cold War first hand and witnessed history watching  the Berlin Wall come down.  She must have fallen in love with Berlin and her Taxi Cab driver because she is still there!  Such a sweet story. 

Want to read more about Layne and her taxi cab adventures here’s another link:

 New York Times  October 31, 2010 A Cabby and Her Cravings by Simon McCormack

Driving Hungry.  Highly recommended and thoroughly enjoyable!