The Anthony Bourdain thread

zimmerman sucks.

actually i think zimmern isn't all that googly-eyed zany about all the wierd shit he eats. he's pretty respectful, actually! considering yeah it's basically an engrish gross-out show. but as a host i don't like him much, a little too dorky.

He's respectful, but that doesn't mean that he escapes the show's premise!

china episodes are the best. hong kong is perfect and the beijing/chengdu and shanghai/yunnan. and japan episodes, back to a cook's tour and the weird rural cambodia/tokyo half-half one. singapore's cool. a cook's tour is always tight, no lameshit immunity challenge filler shit with roller derby and skeet shooting, fuck that shit, but sometimes too tight, none of the 10 minutes in a beijing sheep guts restaurant segments that i like. and the dude on a cook's tour is less tanned and weathered and professional and more naive and genuinely excited about shit, "oh fuck i'm eating a bento box on a bullet train."

i really liked those gaucho dudes in argentinia

i hate zimmerwhatever. i've only seen a couple of episodes, but i found it pretty meanspirited not to mention tame. so you tried a bite of guinea pig - big whoop.

see that's the thing, the SHOW is like that by design, but i get the feeling that ZIMM doesn't feel or act that way. i think he really is goofily excited and interested in grub worms and snake pancreas or whatever -- but still, i don't like him much, for other reasons

zimm = kid on the playground who would eat worms

also chaki otm re: gauchos, I want to go to Argentina even more now

he went to Patagonia right? I need to see that one.

the bit where bourdain got a real-deal tribal tattoo and had this amazing looking chicken way up in the hills in malaysia (i think?) elicited a complicated you are a douchebag/wow that's beautiful reaction from me.

The Tuscany episode was pretty awe inspiring too.

lauren Zimmern eats much crazier shit than guinnea pig. The fried bat was pretty nasty, for starters.

I like him, I think he's goof and fun, but after seeing a few episodes, it's just not that interesting. Once you've seen him eat every kind of bug there's not much left.

tonight's Bourdain repeat in Uzbekistan was ok, had some fun stuff in it, I'm guessing the food isn't all that great because they spent about 5 minutes eating!

Roffles -- the actual post is here but is being swamped, so:

Just got back from seeing Anthony Bourdain in in the city, and it was an absolute treat. He is every bit as much fun as you would imagine him to be. Lots of good and useful stuff in the talk, but two stick in my mind:

1. Truffle oil is the ketchup of the newly affluent.
2. To find good places to eat, provoke the nerds.

#2 showed a remarkably precise understanding of the internet. The question at hand was how to find good restaurants, and his answer was to take the city you want to go to and just google up some restaurant names that serve the dish you’re after. Then got to chowhound or another foodie site, and rather than asking about restaurants, you put up an enthusiastic post talking about how you just had the best whatever you’re looking for at one of these restaurants.

At that point, what drivingblind likes to call the nerdfury will begin. Posters will show up from nowhere to shower you with disdain, tell you how that place used to be good but has now totally sold out and – most important to your quest – will tell you where you would have gone if you were not some sort of mouth breathing water buffalo.

(Actual post's title: "Hunting Vegetarians with Ted Nugent")

Bourdain is a troll! I knew it!

Confirms everything I love about AB, and more.

Christmas special had some rough spots - too much forced humor, QOTSA cameo, yawn. And I could have done without the foie gras apologism - instead of justifying what is clearly unnatural and bizarre, just say "yeah, it's unnatural and bizarre, but a million times better than your average chicken farm..."

Food looked really good, tho.

the show has gotten a little old for me - I've seen the movie a few times now - but it's still capable of doing something rare - that NoLA episode is maybe the best thing about the post-hurricane city I've seen

The show in Iceland is still one of the greatest food shows I've ever seen.

New one tonight: Saudi Arabia.
Haven't watched all the Colombian one yet, but liked what I saw.

crew blog: http://no-reservations-crew-blog.travelchannel.com/2008/07/under-the-abbaya-female-produc.html

this is a great show to tivo up and just have some eps kicking around for like hangover sunday watching.

wow, he really outdid himself on this Tokyo ep

Bourdain bank

Mexico ep was good.

I am super-psyched: apparently he's going (or has gone?) to Ethiopia for an upcoming episode.

I like his persona on this show, if only because I think he's one of very few presenter types on TV who is recognizable as an actual human. There's a palpable personality there, and on balance I think it's a charming one: he seems smart, he can be serious-minded at times, he's endearingly grumpy, he does/says things that are lame and embarrassing enough to seem like an actual person, etc. (Is this just because he writes his own narration? Is that why actual personality seems to be there?) Unlike some people upthread, I don't get a huge macho or tough-guy vibe out of him, though I can see something that could be mistaken for that.

Seriously, really psyched for any forthcoming Ethiopia episode.

And -- to be honest -- I'm having trouble even dredging up another example of a host/presenter of this sort who seems to me like a televised human, as opposed to just being competent and professional. Maybe this one dude on Globetrekker, I dunno.

In the Mumbai/Kolkata episode, the local writer said "in Kolkata we like Jerry Garcia, and in Mumbai they like Jim Morrison" and Bourdain was like "I love Jim Morrison" and the writer sorta glared at Tony.

I love how in the Colombia episode he ate at one of my fave places in Medellin, around the corner from my Dad's house.

my friend from Columbia was over my house and i showed him that episode. He didn't even know who bourdain was but he loved it.

A little Anthony Bourdain goes a long way.

I'm a big fan of all the South American episodes. Like the massive meat bbq in Uruguay or when he was hanging out with some people in Argentina and was all "vamos Boca!" and they gave him the death stare before responding that they supported River Plate.

my bro was blown away that he was chillin with those kids on the roof top.

Maybe this one dude on Globetrekker, I dunno

which one? http://www.pilotguides.com/tv_shows/globe_trekker/travelers/index.php

got a bit of a crush on Megan. I think the fact that Bourdain has basically no media/journalism training sets him apart from the pack, ie he never was trained to develop a robotic, distanced, TV persona.

got a bit of a crush on Megan.
me too a little bit

me too more than a little bit despite her Romney shit, but maybe that should be on a travel show personality S&D thread rather than the Bourdain one

"Tony's in" Venice next week, which I'm looking forward to cuz I may do the same this year

and he's doing DC the night before the inauguration.

He is in Detroit today, apparently, to film a segment for his show.

Everyone crushes on McCormick (there are some creepy fan sites about her, even). I had Ian in mind, but now that I think about it, Justine is way more Real Recognizable Person to me; Ian's just more charming. I even figured out that she was from the Bay Area before she said so, just because you can somehow ... tell.

My big strike against Bourdain is that he's friends with Batali, which seems like not a good sign.

What's wrong with Batali? His folks are awfully cute in the Seattle episode.

saw a cool episode recently where he ate on the texas/mexico border

Ooh. Venice could be interesting. Right now the Korean episode is my favorite... it's hilarious, and he eats lots of good food and I really liked that they showed his friend's family. What country was it where his camera man knocked over a few shelves full of food in a small restaurant and had to help clean up? That was a pretty good one as well.

It doesn't seem so silly if you've seen the episode, and know Bourdain's general attitude toward war and the military, ans especially not if you share his views. He's not a big fan of war, is critical of our government, but was himself stunned by the generosity, personability, and machine-like competency of the US Marines. These are really good people, he said in no uncertain terms.
I'm just going to say that it's a good thing that I missed this the first time around. Military guys normal people shockah. (yes, I am still dating the coastie and yes that of course colors my opinon)

What's wrong with Batali? His folks are awfully cute in the Seattle episode.
His dad (runs Salumi) is AWESOME. I've chatted with him a few times when I've been in there getting a sandwich and he's always talking with the 9 million people waiting in line- really wonderful guy.

Bourdain comes off like a complete moron in the Beirut episode.

The knocked-over shelves of food was in Indonesia, I think.

I used to not like Batali but he seems alright - anyone who's had their show purged from the Food Network has to be doing something right. He seems like a total food nerd in the best way.

He was on this local Michigan produced TV show hosted by an incredibly annoying guy who was asking him if he planned to open a restaurant near Traverse City, where his wife is apparently from and where he hangs out a lot in the summer. He was all "fuck no, this is my vacation spot, moron" and I can respect that.

Bourdain comes off like a complete moron in the Beirut episode.

Really? Complete? I think that's a bit uncharitable, a bit incendiary. I thought he came across as a tad naif and yet thoughtful.

I have no reason to be charitable towards him, but you're probably right.

Tony Bourdain, and Morcheeba?