Anthony Bordain remains the man I want to be when I grow up. He’s a grumpy fellow who gets paid to travel around the world, eat amazing food, and make snarky comments about anything that crosses his mind. I feel like I know Tony and I always enjoy time spend following him around.
His latest show is on CNN, an odd choice since they are not known for their great takes on food; but a good one, since they are known for traveling the world. Parts Unknown is pretty much No Reservations. A film crew takes amazing location shots while Anthony Bourdain eats good food while talking to local people and seeing local sights.
The best parts of the show are Anthony eating food and telling us how great it is-even if it’s nothing more exciting than the salad bar at the Sizzler. Of course, most of what he eats is stuff that the average person has never heard of-oddly named street foods, fast food chains unknown outside their little corner of the world, and home cooked meals that cover table tops. As always, there is a sprinkling of history and how that history has effected the lives and foods of the locals.
Anthony Bourdain usually comes across as a nice laid back guy you wouldn’t mind sharing a meal with. I’ve seen him in a number of shows, most of which he has been the star, but a few where he has made cameos. He made a surprise appearance on the short lived Rocco DiSpirito reality show The Restaurant. When Rocco saw him he sent out pretty much everything on the menu-to which Tony said-What the hell is all this shit? Just bring me what I ordered.
In Parts Unknown Anthony Bourdain drops the occasional f-bomb and freely uses words that newscasters get into trouble for using. He goes to places a normal tourist might not venture and eats foods well outside the usual fast food nation fare. As with most of his other shows, he doesn’t spend much time in fancy eating places, he prefers food trucks and hole in the wall diners to Michelin Five Stars.
In short, this is Anthony Bourdain doing what he has done for the past few years-and that’s a good thing.
