The Anthony Bourdain thread

Haha is he really on Check Please! What restaurant did he pick?

http://blogs.kqed.org/food/2009/01/06/check-please-barak-obama/

Nice, Dixie Kitchen! (Once upon a time there were three cold winter weeks in Evanston during which my girlfriend ordered Dixie Kitchen daily, compulsively and weirdly, and I think it says something good about Dixie Kitchen that it wasn't until the third week that I seriously got sick of it.)

chicago episode was pretty cool. L2O looked crazy!

The US Southwest episode sucked. Too much quirky shit, not enough food.

I thought Bourdain was going to move to Chicago after that episode.

I kind of liked Bourdain's visit to Ted Nugent's ranch. I call bullshit on Ted that that was his second beer ever. He's always said shit like that, but i guarantee he used to get high.

I can't stand Ted Nugent so I couldn't watch that episode. Chicago OTOH was pretty good.

The Ted Nugent part is at the end, so if you want, you can watch the boring first 45 minutes and then turn it off.

I had it on the background while I did dishes.

nugent has always been a dickhead sXe guy. always.

I was horrified to find out that Mancow and I have the same favorite movie.

I think among chefs and foodies, Chicago's reputation as a superior food town was sealed by guys like Charlie Trotter, Rick Bayless, and now Grant Achatz. Plus, the restaurant that Barack and Michelle go to for their anniversary -- Spiaggia -- was nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant a couple years ago.

I think the two favorite meals that I've had in Chicago were at Avec and Hot Doug's so it was cool to see both of them there.

I was surprised there wasn't really anything about Mexican food at all, other than the sketchy tamale hotdog atrocities.

"I think the two favorite meals that I've had in Chicago were at Avec and Hot Doug's so it was cool to see both of them there."

Those were my two best Chicago meals too!

The mexican food here sucks. I know, I was surprised, too.

Haha Kenan I think that opinion says more about your lucky lack of exposure to sucky Mexican food than it says about Chicago

I grew up in a solid hard-shell tacos / Old El Paso seasoning packet / packaged shredded cheddar / canned black olives kind of Mexican food place so Chicago seems pretty decent Mexican-wise to me.

Could be. All I know is, the mexican food in Texas is fan-freakin'-tastic, and here it ranges from stomach-churning to meh.

Just out of curiosity, have you been to any of the upscale places (Frontera/Topolobampo, Salpicon, De Cero, Adobo), or are you basing that just on neighborhood taquerias?

I grew up in a solid hard-shell tacos / Old El Paso seasoning packet / packaged shredded cheddar / canned black olives kind of Mexican food place so Chicago seems pretty decent Mexican-wise to me.

You forgot the shredded iceberg lettuce.

http://www.aintnosurfintexas.com/zz%20top%20tres%20hombres%20mexican%20feast3%20copy.jpg

On my other favorite show, Diners Drive-ins and Dives, they went to a mexican place in Chicago that looked AWESOME called Puebla Cemita or something.

I like the actual diners, drive-ins & dives, but I cannot watch the pink fuckface on that show for more than a few minutes.

I've been to De Cero and Frontera and thought they were both decent but kind of disappointing. De Cero seemed to be taking itself to seriously and didn't live up to what they thought of themselves. Frontera was good and maybe was really innovative like 15 years ago when everyone thought Mexican food was hard shell tacos with iceberg lettuce but didn't seem all that interesting to me now. I also thought whichever of the three Pasaditas I went to wasn't anything all that great.

But I've really liked Taqueria Moran every time I've been there - which admittedly I was either starving or hung over or with lots of friends so that may cloud it.

Frontera/Topolobampo

Oh man, Rick Bayless's places are amazing. Really killer stuff. I guess that's not what I meant by Mexican food -- I took my Dad to Frontera once while he was in town, promising great Mexican food, and I could see the puzzlement on his face as he looked at the menu. "Where's the giant bowl of queso?" So I guess I put that in another category, even though maybe I shouldn't.

jinky: best. gatefold. ever.

"Where's the giant bowl of queso?"

uh

I don't want to get into a whole Mexican thing, because we've done it before a whole bunch of different times, but lookit: I occasionally felt like Chicago's Mexican was lacking compared to the tasty southwestern stuff I grew up on (which is a whole different kind of food in the first place), but honestly, compared to almost any place else in this country, it is generally decent and nothing to complain about. Honestly. Seriously. Up until I found a good southwestern-style place here in New York, I'd have killed for even the kind of stuff you can get at Flash Taco.

(I would also submit -- from personal experience! -- that if you're really used to Texan or "southwestern" Mexican, you can get to a point where someone gives you certain types of authentic Mexican food and you're like OMG this is terrible, given that it's a big country and many parts of it are not gussying up their dishes with as much first-world richness and stewing and cheese as parts of ours.)

haha xpost! -- the parenthetical bit above = "where's the giant bowl of queso" EXACTLY

yeah, if i can get some tacos with tasty carne al pastor, cilantro, onions, and spicy salsa, then i'm happy. no queso necessary.

(i realize that the tex-mex thing is totally different, and i'm not that familiar with it)

You're making me so so hungry for things covered in red sauce and melted cheese.

That whole southwestern-vs-authentic thing once led to a really embarrassing conversation between me and another ILXor, about a local restaurant:

ME: Everything seems really weird and thrown-together there.
HIM: It's pretty much just authentic Oaxacan style.
ME: No way, they just throw that runny white cream on everything!
HIM: I believe that's known as Oaxaca Cream.
ME: Well they're definitely using some kind of cheap, bland cheese.
HIM: Yeah, that's called Oaxaca Cheese.

i hate that white cheese

so do they really provide big bowls of cheese at tex-mex places?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Queso.jpg/400px-Queso.jpg

I have never seen such a thing.

I've never seen anything like that in my life.

Not saying I wouldn't down the whole thing, just saying.

so basically Chicago mexican is more authentic than Austin/SATX mexican?

Queso is amazing.

so basically Chicago mexican is more authentic than Austin/SATX mexican?

well, "authentic," like nabisco said.

My mom makes it as an intermediate step to homemade mac'n'cheese, it's basically your roux with sharp cheddar and whatever else melted into it. Then she has to beat us about the hands with her wooden spoon as we try to scoop it up with chips before she puts the pasta in.

But sitting, possibly lukewarm, on a restaurant table? I can hardly imagine.

I am also a fan of the giant hollow puffy fried corn tortilla smothered in queso. (Which is short for chile con queso, not to be confused with queso blanco, which is the stuff I could seriously live without.)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2891374366_b89ab3436f.jpg?v=0

not like i don't like cheese, but that seems kinda unnecessary. mexican food isn't exactly healthy to start with, i don't need a giant bowl of cheese too.

Well, when they put it in front of you, just try not eating it.

Texas is all about the unnecessary

I think I would be totally fine with not eating that. But I can be picky about cheese products.

I would totally eat that.

I can't believe how many people haven't had queso! Surely most of you have at least had, like, a jar of crappy queso dip from the supermarket? Cause it would be sad if processed nacho cheese was as close as someone had come.

Anyway: it's not an authenticity battle, I'm just saying that when you're used to awesome American-regional versions of Mexican food, other versions can throw you, for a second. But yeah, I'd say that the bulk of decent Chicago Mexican falls into one of two camps: (a) the tacqueria-style basics, and (b) sit-down restaurants, catering to a good share of actually Mexican patrons, serving actual Mexican entrees -- you know, not just enchiladas and stuff but the seafood dishes and fried things and whatnot.

There's plenty of both in Chicago that's pretty good, and this is even ignoring "nice" places. But it's true, if you're used to Southern California style, or New Mexican style, or Texan style, or something like that ... some of these might seem blander or drier or less mind-blowingly delicious, I guess?

The queso home game is a bowl of melted velveeta mixed with salsa. It ain't art, but it's quality slumming.