** Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review **
This anthology celebrates the joy of discovery—through taste, culture, and the road less traveled. The essays are organized into sections that take you from bustling urban markets to remote, unforgettable landscapes. I found myself lingering over the sensory details in each piece, almost tasting and smelling what the authors described. The mix of well-known food writers and fresh perspectives keeps the reading experience dynamic. By the end, I felt both well-fed and full of wanderlust. It’s an inspiring reminder that food and travel are some of life’s most powerful connectors.

An excellent collection from the year - I felt that I was able to learn something or feel something with almost every piece I read. An interesting way to group the pieces - showing how travel, and especially food always touch politics, history and culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; it was highly informative. I will certainly recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

So, last year I was a bit disappointed to see that they merged the "Best" series for travel and food into one book. I thought that they deserved to have their own sections as the stories can quiet often be different. I still feel that way - but felt that this one was more encapsulating the food side of things, which is the one that I already read anyway, so I enjoyed it quite a bit more (although I feel for the travel fans).

Terry did a great job of selecting the pieces for this anthology and I particularly liked the way they were set into different themes. Those themes being Memory, Identity, & Family; Power, Resistance, & Survival; Erasure & Resurgence; Exploration & Pleasure; and Queerness, Desire, and the Politics of Pleasure. To think about food is to think about the cultures that built the foodways and traditions that we know. Exploration (going along with travel) is going out of those comfort zones and exploring what these other places have to offer us. But that also means understanding where they came from and how they got there. We can have that bite of rice, but do we know exactly what went into that dish and the story of the people who made it? Some may argue that that's not necessary; but I'd argue they probably have some sentimental stories of their own food that they think are important.

Probably my favorite story in this book was The City that Rice Built. Anything that shares how a niche product comes into being and helps support a community is something that resonates with me. Probably because I don't have any of those traditions or food in my own family for the most part (unless you count the midwestern casserole with a creamed soup of something in it). I crave those stories because I have so few of my own. While there were some stories that didn't quite resonate with me as well, it's probably because of that same reasoning, I lack the context to make it meaningful or relatable.

Overall a thought-provoking anthology. While I'll still hope for them to reseparate the subjects again for their readers, I'm pleased that this one was so food-centric.

Review by M. Reynard 2025

And so we come to “The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025” edited by Bryant Terry; series editor Jaya Saxena. I am a longtime follower of these books, going back to when food and travel were separate volumes. I believe that this is my ninth collection that I’ve read, my first being the 2009 travel stories. Last year’s entry was a bit depressing, so I was hoping that this was a one-time blip. Instead, we plunge even further away from what good travel/food writing can do.

This is a compilation of very depressing stories; there is no joy, no wonder, no discovery. I understand that these are dark and trying times that we are living in, and that is why we need to be uplifted more than ever. Instead, we dwell in misery. There is almost no travel at all, the food writing occasionally is interesting but mostly falls flat. The editors need to remember why we read about travel and food, to escape, to be surprised, to be inspired.

“Brandied Fruit”: A woman ferments fruit with her mom.
“The Miracle of Cabbage”: A woman finds moldy cabbage in her father’s refrigerator as he is dying.
“The Taste of Memory”: Asian Americans grow rice in South Carolina.
“What I Took or Did Not Take to the Potluck”: A remembrance of the AIDS crisis.
“From Scratch”: Pasta sauce throughout a trans relationship.
“On Any Given Sunday (Grandpa’s Hands)”: A two-page story of making fish and grits like grandpa used to.
“The People Who Feed America Are Going Hungry”: Immigrant food pickers and their lack of food security.
“They Ate at my Table, Then Ignored My People”: A Palestinian immigrant comes to terms with how she’s viewed in America.
“The Land Back Movement Is Also About Foodways”: Native Americans trying to get their land back and return to take care of the Earth.
“Black Earth”: The dumping of harmful chemicals in a poor black neighborhood and the farming, purchase of an old plantation.
“Nice View. Shame About All The Tourists”: The negative effects of tourism, and the history of people’s reaction to it.
“A Taste of Freedom”: A black community in Columbia.
“The City That Rice Built”: The history of growing rice in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Why The Black American Origins of Mac and Cheese Are So Hotly Debated”: The title explains it all.
“Fifty Years Ago Her Book Took On The Wine Patriarchy. It Still Holds Up”: Sexism in wine tasting and critique.
“They Used to be Places Just for Women. Now They’re UNESCO World Heritage Sites”: The first true travel story in this collection, all about the beguines, where single women used to live in communes throughout Europe.
“Breaking the Pattern”: A historically racist club in the South will now have a black chef.
“I Loved How Much Ugly Baby Hated Me”: a last look at an interesting Asian restaurant in New York. A fun story.
“How To Eat A Rattlesnake”: The author comes to terms with his Oklahoma past.
“Meet the Foragers Changing the Way Philly Eats”: Searching for weeds and other gifts of the environment. Interesting.
“Meet the San Francisco Influencer Getting Gen Z Girls Excited About Crab Fishing”: a young Asian American girl posts videos of her crab fishing.
“Good Vibrations”: The rise of Sichuan Peppers in Western cooking. Interesting.
“Aspartame, I Love You”: A love letter to artificial sweeteners.
“One Mixed Dozen”: a memoir of growing up with Dunkin’ Donuts.
“An Acquired Taste”: A person transitioning to a man acquires a taste for mixed nuts.
“Aphrodisiac”: The rise and fall of green M&Ms, from the green M&M’s perspective.
“The Food That Makes You Gay”: The perception of eating certain foods and manhood.

As I mentioned above, very little on travel, mostly food-centric, and very little joy.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Mariner Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thank you to the publisher for this arc!
This is my second time reading something from the best American writing collection and I loved this collection! It’s a great group of authors and varied povs. I think my favorite section was the one on family and identity! I do wish there was more travel writing but that’s a pretty small complaint.
4 stars!!