Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

I wish I had Travel Channel..




I'll have to keep TiVo'ing "A Cook's Tour". Also, I WOULD like to see AB get himself a show where he actually COOKS.

Who is watching this??

I now have TravelChannel (I've actually had it since very late in 2005). I love this show. More snarky AB. In the new season that just started, I liked to Osaka episode. Really good. Makes me want to go there. I just saw this week's Quebec episode. Good stuff. A cooking supply store that also sells guns? Wild. You would think that would be something you would find in Texas. And that restaurant with all that fois gras? Awesome. I so need to go there.

I was hoping someone else was watching this, I love it. He really will eat just about anything, the Foie Gras feast was painful to watch. (delicious but painful) I'm pretty much open to all the culinary experiences of a foreign country but the family style raw seal orgy was a bit much.

I really want to go to the firey hot Schezuan restaurant he featured in the Asia Special.

Looking forward to Sweden next week. :up:

Dignan said:

I was hoping someone else was watching this, I love it. He really will eat just about anything, the Foie Gras feast was painful to watch. (delicious but painful) I'm pretty much open to all the culinary experiences of a foreign country but the family style raw seal orgy was a bit much.

I really want to go to the firey hot Schezuan restaurant he featured in the Asia Special.

Looking forward to Sweden next week. :up:

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The seal thing was eye opening.. To me, what was the MOST odd about it is that it took place in what looks like a typical, fairly modern American (or in this case, Canadian) kitchen. It wasn't in some hut or tent or igloo or something. Just sort of an "odd" contrast.

Yeah the blood soaked children and grandparents sitting on the linoleum floor was truly bizarre.

I'm one behind on this show, but still liking it. The more snark, the better.

I have watched a few shows before (Vegas & another), then when I seen there were all new ones coming on I set up a Season Pass. I had to turn away after I heard the eyeball was coming! He just seems like a nice guy.

7thton said:

I'm one behind on this show, but still liking it. The more snark, the better.

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Same here... haven't played the Quebec ep. yet, but I like what I've seen so far. I think the hour format works a bit better than the half-hour of Cook's Tour. I still think the nastiest stuff he ends up facing on all these shows are the local drinks. I mean, insects, cobra heart, roasted guinea pig, haggis -- all that I can take. But that bizaare syrupy cactus mash in Oaxaca, or booze made out of saliva-fermented yucca root?

My wife watches it while I'm in the room. I personally find him to be very smarmy and artificial, with most of his "prickly" stuff being obviously affected and insincere. I know, it's television, he's a showman, you have to expect that. And I have no problem with that, when they're being honest about it. It's just the playing at being no-holds-barred and genuine that makes all the affectation and exaggeration and hamming-it-up seem like the wrong kind of phony.

That said, sometimes it's interesting to see the things going on behind him. The Osaka episode was cool precisely because everything's already so over-the-top that he doesn't have to play at anything. The Key West one was boring as heck for the same reason.

We have a SP for it but haven't watched any yet, although we did catch an Behind The Scenes episode that was great.

I've been watching it since it began. I love it. Sometimes he uses the same lines over and over ("Oh yeah, that's the good stuff.") but it really is interesting to see some of the things he does and some of the places he goes to. Definitly made me want to travel to a few places now.

I agree, I think the drinks are by far the nastiest thing he had to ingest. The saliva-fermented yucca root had me gagging.

It helps to have read Kitchen Confidential to get a sense of what Tony has been through in his life. He was a major drug addict from the looks of the show still a hard drinker (and smoker). That's part of the appeal for me, he's the Anti Rick Steves of travelogue hosts. I also like his writing/narration style and his reverence for accepting foreign cuisine. Fermented shark anyone?

I think the snarkyness is the real deal, he's kind of a bad ass and with all that travel kind of cranky and hung-over.

jsmeeker said:

The seal thing was eye opening...

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Oh, come on! Is nobody going to respond to this one ?

Must I be the one?

OK, then...

"Literally!"

(I like the old woman's instruction - "Just suck on it like you're sucking on a nipple")

To me this show is alright...my girlfriend is really the reason why it's on SP...
It just seems to be a lot of the same thing in different locations...the again, a vast array of cuisine isn't really tops on my list of things that I care much about...

Bourdain has an attitude. And I love it.

Ancient thread being resurrected...

Travel Channel Sets Marathon of 'No Reservations' in Tribute to Anthony Bourdain

Article says there will be a 12 hour marathon on Sunday.

Wow, a 12-year necro. Impressive!

logic88 said:

Wow, a 12-year necro. Impressive!

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I was surprised to see that there was a time when I didn't have the Travel Channel available to me. I don't even recall that. Yet it obviously was. Didn't actually have Travel Channel when his new show first premiered.

jsmeeker said:

I was surprised to see that there was a time when I didn't have the Travel Channel available to me. I don't even recall that. Yet it obviously was. Didn't actually have Travel Channel when his new show first premiered.

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Heh. I'm always surprised when I read my old responses. It's like they are from a completely different person!