Tackling his preconceptions of dangerous foods, Tom Parker Bowles set off around the world to eat the weird with an open mind. As a passionate campaigner for local produce and culinary culture he fears the decline of quirky regional specialties so made it his quest to seek out exotic foods, from the bizarre to the outlandish, and bring them home for you in this wickedly funny book.

He visits the deep south of America to blast his taste buds (and apparently more) with spicy sauces with names like "Bayou Butt Burner", "Colon Cleanser" and "Pain is Good" at The Fiery Food Show. He goes to Japan to eat the deadly fugu fish, and Korea to try dog meat. He discovers that deep-fried bees are crisp, sweet and delicious while water beetles taste like essence of pear drops, and silk worm pupae taste so foul they suffuse his whole body with festering horror. He travels to China to meet his dinner face-to-face: a justifiably irate cobra who watches on as an apprehensive Tom knocks back a cupful of its still-warm bile.

And how does Tom take all this gastronomic peril? With buckets of machismo in a chest-thumping mission to prove his virility? No. He's not a six foot two achingly cool adventure-chef but a self-confessed "windy, five foot eleven and a half toff" who horrifies himself with his own planned derring-do. Even with boyish dreams of discovering espionage in Cambodia and the mafia in Sicily, he faces each new culinary adventure with trepidation as he grapples with either the advisability or the morals of his actions. Yet he continually bumbles on with typical self-deprecation; you cannot help but be charmed by him.

As well as being a wildly enjoyable read, this book portrays the author's real love for food and the wonderful diversity the world has to offer. His search for culinary extremes offers the perfect antidote to the tasteless perfection of British supermarket food.