Posts tagged 'food'

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Tube City

By Anthony Bourdain on February 2, 2009 9:19 AM | Permalink | 511 Comments

"There are no two finer words than 'encased meats,' my friend."
--T-shirt for sale at "Hot Doug's", Chicago

In the bad old days of the culture wars, when the "Forces of Darkness" had aligned against the "Forces of Goodness and Light," Chicago was a key battleground and an early, crucial loss for the good guys. Foie gras had been declared illegal and the ensuing ripples of fear spread cross country. Gutless, craven punks everywhere deserted their comrades like Vichy shopkeepers while animal "activists" terrorized chefs' families and children, vandalized businesses, and strong-armed retailers. But even though chefs like Wolfgang Puck -- for instance -- suddenly discovered their preference for fluffy cute ducks over their fellow chefs or their traditions and headed for the lifeboats, a few lone heroes stood tall, proudly extending a stiff middle finger at the advancing horde.

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Tube City

Snarkology, The Sweet Science

By Anthony Bourdain on January 24, 2009 11:27 PM | Permalink | 178 Comments

As far back as the early days of A COOK'S TOUR, that earlier, less good show on that other, crummier network, when it was just me, Chris Collins, Lydia Tenaglia and Diane Schutz travelling around the world together, shooting and scouting, they started calling me "Vic" - short for "Vic Chanko," whenever I'd get testy. The name emanated from a prolonged, alcohol and fatigue, fueled fit of the giggles after an enormous meal of "chanko-nabe," a less-than-light hotpot dish favored by sumo wrestlers. We found ourselves in late night Tokyo, riffing on the word "chanko," conjuring the national film career of the imaginary star of spaghetti westerns, Yugoslavian-Italian co-productions, bad Filipino-Rambo knock-offs, "Vic Chanko". It seemed funny at the time.

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Snarkology, The Sweet Science

Pressure Drop

By Anthony Bourdain on October 22, 2008 11:22 PM | Permalink | 362 Comments

Failure has a stench all its own. It smells like fear ... and shame. I may have been conveniently removed from the burning wreckage inspired by last week's experiment, happily narcotized in a pressurized cabin on its way to Manila, but the odor followed me just the same.

It says something when the comments about a show (on my blog and on the message boards) were smarter, more thoughtful and insightful than the show itself.

The People Have Spoken.

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Pressure Drop

What We Talk About, When We Talk About Food

By Anthony Bourdain on October 16, 2008 5:48 PM | Permalink | 244 Comments

No. It's not a new series.

And no. I'm not suffering from some kind of weird, late-in-life, delusional Arsenio-esque urges . Monday night's AT THE TABLE thing is a one-off (or maybe a two or three-off) idea where I get to sit down, talk about a lot of pretty obscure, insider food and travel-related issues with some opinionated friends--and at the same time--eat for free at a restaurant I respect and find intensely interesting. We may repeat may do a couple more down the road--locally based and with local chefs and guests in other cities, but this does not signify some strange new direction.

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What We Talk About, When We Talk About Food

Envy

By Anthony Bourdain on August 19, 2008 12:02 AM | Permalink | 155 Comments

An interesting visual, phenomonen occurred during the editing of the Spain show. Though Albert Adria had graciously agreed to appear in a scene in the El Bulli "taller" (workshop), and another (since edited out) at a restaurant in Barcelona, like some kind of ghostly optical illusion, or a "Where's Waldo" book, he kept popping up.

The hapless, ZPZ tape-loggers, caffeine-jacked myrmidons who toil away in the filthy sub-cellar of our corporate headquarters, reviewing hour after hour of mind-numbingly repetitive and boring video tape, noticing this spectral apparition, began to lose their already tentative grips on reality. One scene after another, a glimpse here, a face in the crowd there, lurking suspiciously in the background in another scene, down the bar a few positions, pretending he doesn't know me in another -- or front and center; there he is.

It's Albert's very ubiquitousness in the raw footage, his omnipresence -- even in the scenes where the viewer won't see him, that tells you all you need to know about Spain -- and how damn good it is.

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Envy