Off the Menu

Last year a book titled “Man Eating Insects” came out just in time to surprise many a recipient on Christmas morning. People just couldn’t get enough of those gorgeous full-color photos of people eating bugs of all sorts.

Well, the world of odd eats goes way beyond the insect kingdom, as former rock ‘n’ roll writer Jerry Hopkins shows in “Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats, and Butterflies” (Periplus, $29.95). Hopkins lives in Thailand, and Southeast Asia probably has fewer food taboos than any other part of the world. He’s made the most of his ringside seat, so you can read about drinking bats’ blood and tasting cat meat (much less greasy than dog meat, it’s nice to know--I guess). There’s a lot on insects, but Hopkins has chapters on worms, dirt and even poisonous plants as food, all gorgeously photographed. And you have to love a book with a chapter titled “Ears, Eyes, Noses, Lungs, Tongues, Lips, Gums, Glands and Feet.”

Well, maybe “love” is too strong a word, but if you want to read about food while squirming as if at a horror movie, “Strange Foods” will do it for you.