No Reservations wrapped up with a semi-season finale this week (part 2 of the season airs this summer), and Anthony Bourdain revisited one of his favorite food destinations, Vietnam.
Bourdain originally did Saigon way back on his Food Network show A Cook's Tour, and he waxed poetic about memories of pho during this season's food porn episode. But the Vietnam Bouridan sees this year is a contrast—you can still slurp snails streetside or stumble down a back alley and find live shrimp on a grill—but the Capital is also overrun with new motorbikes, Gucci stores, and thousands of tourists. Even the "soup lady" street vendor serving steaming bowls of pork blood has now been over-documented by American food bloggers.
Yet Tony still isn't turned off—in fact he spends much of the episode whining about how badly he wants to live in Vietnam, displaying a sentimental attachment to the country that we haven't seen from him before, anywhere. He even checks out some houses and laments that he isn't wealthy enough to ditch everything and move here. Although we're gonna have to call BS on Mr. Restaurateur/TV star/bestselling author not being able to afford a house in Vietnam. Maybe we should start a donation fund?
Related Stories:
· Vietnam travel guide [No Reservations]
· Anthony Bourdain Directs a Food Porn [Jaunted]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Travel Channel] ]]>
The best part about No Reservations is how much Anthony Bourdain mixes it up; how he visits somewhere utterly predictable one week (such as Manhattan), then ends up in the most random place you can think of (say, the Azores).
This week fell definitely on the random side, as Anthony headed to Colombo, Sri Lanka, a place we imagine being dusty, war-torn and unbearably hot. Bourdain spends the first half of the episode complaining about how dusty, war-torn and unbearably hot it is, but then of course he discovers the food. We don't even know how to go about classifying the Sri Lankan food Tony sampled, except that every dish seemed to have about 25 spices, four kinds of fish, eggs, rice, bread, vegetables…well, you get the point, seems like these people will not hesitate to put anything on top of everything. Of course, it all looks delicious, whatever it is.
Bourdain mostly got personal guided tours around the country, and ended the episode by lamenting that Sri Lanka just isn't safe and accessible enough yet for everyone to visit. We've got precious little coverage of Sri Lanka travel in the Jaunted archives, so it made us wonder—Is it possible to travel in Sri Lanka today? Anybody been? Let us know in the comments.
Related Stories:
· Sri Lanka Travel Guide [No Reservations]
· Tourism Board Travel: Sri Lanka Is Safe, Minus The Terrorism [Jaunted]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Travel Channel] ]]>
Anthony Bourdain left behind the Momofukus and the Le Bernardins for a week, dedicating the most recent episode of No Reservations to "disappearing Manhattan." Tony visited all those classic New York places that everyone always espouses their love for -- Katz's Deli, Manganaro's Foods, Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop -- and everyone espouses equally as much about why most of them keep closing. (Hint: Could it be because certain media personalities keep devoting most of their airtime to places like Momofuku and Le Bernardin instead?? Just a thought.)
But we do appreciate Bourdain's love for these old school New York dives, even if for only one episode. Although we have a bone to pick with Tony—in his mostly excellent tour of disappearing Hell's Kitchen, he walks by his fave old dive, Holland Bar (532 9th Avenue, no website of course), and lumps it in with the masses of shuttered gems, lamenting its closure again later in the episode.
Holland Bar is the real deal—a place where no one knows your name, service is not accompanied by a smile, but the bar is dark and the vodka is cheaper than anywhere in Manhattan. And most importantly, Holland Bar is not closed. It just took a temporary break for a mild renovation—don't worry, Tony, it's still dirty as hell, with the same unfriendly, drink-your-afternoon away vibe. Sure, there are the occasional inevitable "hair-gelled douchebags" as Bourdain would say, but we have to wonder if Tony wasn't trying to trying to trick us away from this dive bar gem. Don't disappear it yet, Tony! Manhattan isn't totally lost to the wine bars and douchebags.
· Disappearing Manhattan Travel Guide [No Reservations]
· Anthony Bourdain Directs a Food Porn [Jaunted]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Travel Channel] ]]>
After a couple of low-key stateside weeks, visiting Chicago and reliving his favorite food moments, Anthony Bourdain is back to what he does best this week, discovering little-known hole-in-the-walls serving weird-as-hell grub in far-flung locales.
Tony visited the Philippines this episode and trekked literally all over the country, finding genuine lumpia spring rolls down a dark alley in Manila; slurping down beef buffalo soup in Cebu City; and tentatively trying boiled pork face in Angeles City.
Tony's got the info for all those restaurants on his website, but what we really want is an invite to one of those gigantic pork roast parties he got to hang out at. Now that would be a one-of-a-kind Filipino meal. How come we don't get any info on that? What gives, Bourdain?
· Philippines Travel Guide [No Reservations]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Philippines travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Travel Channel] ]]>
No Reservations was a clip show—er—special this week, as Anthony Bourdain put together a montage of his most orgasmic eating experiences. He approached it as kind of a greatest hits mix, visiting the most celebrated, and honestly, rather predictable eateries around.
Bourdain feasts his eyes on some taco porn at Jose Andres' Oyamel, has Eric Ripert whip him up an off-the-menu sea urchin-caviar concoction at Le Bernardin, gets gooey about the cheese board at Picholine and drools over David Chang's legendary pork buns at Momofuku.
But we were surprised at one far-flung stop. Tony revisited his favorite Vietnamese pho noodle shop, a Ho Chi Minh City hole-in-the-wall aptly named just Pho Noodle Shop. And suddenly Bourdain is a whiny, whimpering mess as he waits with ants in his pants, like a five-year-old, for his bowl of liquid fat to come. No snark, no measured approval, no witty one-liners, but pure unadulterated—genuine!—excitement. We've never seen him like this, and we're thinking we need to get to Ho Chi Minh sometime soon.
Fortunately, Tony is going back to Vietnam for another episode later this season. Definitely setting the Tivo for that one.
· Food Porn Travel Guide [No Reservations]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Vietnam travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Travel Channel] ]]>
Anthony Bourdain finally made it to Chicago this week, and while he gave the Second City plenty of props for being a genuine high-end culinary town, he still was able to do what he does best—find the city's most outrageous, over-the-top, questionably-edible offerings.
In Chicago, that of course means an awful lot of plates that scream the phrase "heart attack." Bourdain hit all the usual suspect—the foie gras hot dog at Hot Doug's, the mile-high pork-and-egg sandwich at Silver Lake Restaurant, and the five-pies-squeezed-into-one at Burt's Pizza. But he impressed us most by discovering one Chi-town delicacy we've never heard of: The Mother-in-Law sandwich. It's a simple but terrifying concept.
Just take the idea of a Chicago hot dog—loaded with peppers, onions, chili and all the toppings, but take the dog out of the bun and replace it with a hot tamale. It's an unholy combination that seems like a recipe for an instant and long-lasting upset stomach, and we have to say even Bourdain looked a little grossed out wolfing one down. Of course, he smiled afterwards and declared it pure genius, but we wonder if this monstrosity was too much for even him to handle.
Has anyone tried the fearsome Mother-in-Law? What's the verdict? Insanity on a bun or genius brewing on Western Ave? Let us know.
· Chicago Travel Guide [No Reservations]
· Hot Dogs at Hot Doug's [Jaunted]
· Chicago travel coverage [Jaunted]
Photo: [Southern Foodway Alliance] ]]>
After Anthony Bourdian's rather bland exploration of Washington, DC, we were glad to hear his next No Reservations stop was a little crazier: The Azores, an archipelago of Portuguese islands set 900 miles off the European coast in the remote Atlantic Ocean. Now that's more like it. It's pretty crazy that this place even exists, let alone that people can easily get to it.
Bourdain got interested in the Azores during his early days working in kitchens across Cape Cod, where apparently, tons of Azorean people live. Who knew? Guess that explains why they've got those direct Boston-Azores flights. It all makes sense now.
But while we were expecting a remote volcanic wonderland, Bourdian makes the Azores look, well, just not as out there as we were hoping. Sure, some of the scenery is amazing, but they drink gin and tonics, eat sausage, and remark how much it's just like America! Not to be selfish, but when we travel that far we're looking for a place that's a little less American. To be fair, the boiling geyser on San Miguel Island sounded pretty far out, but then Bourdain described its smell as reminiscent of "nibbling egg salad out of one of Hulk Hogan's used Speedos."
Well our appetite's gone, but we're still wondering exactly what the Azores are all about. Remote middle-of-nowhere paradise or little piece of America in the Atlantic? Anyone been? Worth the $800 ticket from Boston? Let us know in comments below.
· Anthony Bourdain Can't Find Non-Touristy DC Eats [Jaunted]
· Azores Express Has a Thing for Boston: More Routes [Jaunted]
[Photo: Travel Channel] ]]>