Bottomfeeder

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

Taras Grescoe has gone fishing in the world's oceans and rivers, and he's caught a big one - several of them in fact. In his epicurean and ethically driven quest for the perfect seafood dish, Grescoe nets some shocking discoveries about the fish we eat, where they come from and the often slimy inner workings of the multi-billion dollar industry that depends on them. Bottomfeeder is designed, menu-style, as an account of Grescoe's globe-trotting, seafood-eating journey. He takes us from the familiar - a deep-fried visit to a Red Lobster franchise in North Carolina, where he chows down on popcorn-battered shrimp laced with chemicals, imported as local Gulf shrimp trawlers sat idle - to the foreign, such as a stay in Kochi, India, where Grescoe discovers how the curry-simmered fish and prawns he is enjoying have actually contributed to unprecedented ecological and social devastation, including playing a role in the 2005 tsunami disaster. Along the way, in a fork-to-fishing-line discourse, he tours the world's largest fish market with a marine biologist, takes celebrity chefs to task for putting threatened species on the menu and partakes in a few once-in-a-lifetime meals guaranteed to shock - and even kill - the palate. Much more than a screed against an often slippery fishing industry, however, Bottomfeeder is a food lover's highly entertaining and provocative delight, written by an intrepid adventurer who loves to dish on what's delicious, exciting and ethically digestible.