"Listening to the gentle lapping of the river, I ponder the strange fate that brought me, a Soviet kid from a small Russian town, right here, to this very table in the middle of the Surinamese jungle on this particular night." From early childhood spend in an akademgorodok (purpose-built academic community) in the USSR, Kaminski has been obsessed with food. Fuelled by ancestral wanderlust, as an adult she put her obsession to good use, contributing to several dozen Lonely Planet and Rough Guides guidebooks and traversing six continents in search of sustenance and something even less tangible. Part-memoir, part-travelogue, "Eyeball Tacos & Kangeroo Stew" explores a life less ordinary through the prism of memorable meals, from sharing burgers with death row inmates in San Quentin Prison to feasting on spam and cassava with the crocodile-skinned men of Papua New Guinea's Middle Sepik, and being adopted by an Aboriginal family in the Outback over a pot of kangaroo stew. Through breaking bread with strangers and travel to the further corners of the former Soviet Union and beyond, the author discovers that her roots stretch further than she'd ever imagined and that kinship can be found in the strangest of places. AUTHOR: A freelance travel writer for nearly 15 years, Anna Kaminski has contributed to dozens of travel guidebooks, covering destinations that span six continents. She's the co-author of several editions of the Rough Guide to Chile and Rough Guides to South America, Central America, Europe and South-East Asia On a Budget, as well as the Trailblazer Trans-Siberian Handbook, and Lonely Planet guides to Mexico, Jamaica, Borneo, the Baltic States, Central Asia, Kenya, West Coast Australia, Wales, Canada, Nicaragua, Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Vietnam, Greek Islands, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia, among others. An incorrigible foodie, there are few things that Anna will not eat, and she is prepared to travel great distances in search of memorable meals. Her favourite pastimes, besides eating, include corresponding with death row inmates, trekking and attending Bruce Springsteen gigs. A career in criminal law is her 'road not taken.' She presently calls Cómpeta, Andalusia, home.