New season of No Reservations kicks off tonight

by Jeremy Kressmann on

The holidays are inevitably a time of excess. LIke many of you, I spent the last two weeks eating and drinking my way through way too many parties and get-togethers, and I’m feeling a bit of a holiday-induced hangover at the moment. Thankfully, starting today, I can now redirect my guilt at overindulgence away from myself and project it onto somebody else – Anthony Bourdain. Everyone’s favorite badboy chef is back starting tonight with all-new episodes of No Reservations, kicking off what is sure to be another season consuming copious amounts of booze, street food and local culture along the way.

No Reservations enters its 5th Season coming off a watermark year for the show in 2008. The past season’s top-notch content featured culinary hot spots such as Spain and Tokyo as well as some unexpected gems such as Colombia and Laos. This season offers an interesting mix as well. Tonight kicks off with a journey to Mexico, where Tony dines on some of “the best tortillas ever” before making a visit to a Lucha Libre training center to pay his respects. Season 5 will also feature episodes on such far flung locales as the Azores and Sri Lanka as well as more traditional U.S. destinations like Chicago and New York City.

The curious can stop by the Travel Channel site where Bourdain will be posting new insights into season 5 on his blog. And if you’re looking to catch up on previous seasons of No Reservations, make sure to check out Gadling’s summaries in our archives. Keep your eyes peeled for some great No Reservations giveaways courtesy of Gadling and the Travel Channel, coming soon.

A slight book-tour deviation: Away to London for Travel Channel voice-over

by Rolf Potts on

Though you could never tell by looking at my book tour schedule for Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, I had a curious stop-off — London, England — slotted between book events in Kansas City and Chicago. I went there to record voice-over narration for “American Pilgrim,” my first-ever hosting gig for the Travel Channel.

Upon arriving at Heathrow Airport after a KC-Chicago-London transit, I was met at the arrivals gate by a burly Nigerian driver in a pinstriped suit, who chauffeured me via Mercedes to the London Olympia Hilton. That was about as glamorous as the experience got; after that it was all jet lag and hard work.

In fact, not only was it all work, for the most part I didn’t really feel like I was in England. Because it happened so quickly, I felt like my sound-recording experience could have just as easily happened in an underground bunker in Indiana. Apart from a couple of pub meals and a few rainy glimpses of London’s Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush neighborhoods out the window of my producer’s Citroen, I didn’t see much of England. Such is the reality of trans-Atlantic business travel. Indeed, after years of preaching (and practicing) slow travel, it was quite the jolt to try and experience a major world city in 48 work-filled hours.

Travel conditions aside, it was great to catch up with director Peter Wisdom and producer Jamie Broome and go into the studio to put the finishing touches on my debut TV hosting gig. Thanks to these guys, I had very a supportive and professional TV experience — both in shooting the episode in the United States in mid-August, and editing it in London several weeks later.
Though I mentioned in my last post that my journey into the world of television was due in large part to the Travel-Channel success of “qualified insiders” like Anthony Bourdain, I don’t think my Pilgrim show is going to make Bourdain nervous for his star status anytime soon. I mean, sure, my Thanksgiving-themed special looks great on the screen (and I did a decent enough job in front of the camera for a first-time presenter) but the subject matter simply isn’t hip and cutting-edge enough to, say, garner me sacks of mail from adoring female fans who want nothing more than to send me Polaroids of themselves in bikinis. Instead, this history-show about the travel conditions of the Mayflower Pilgrims is more likely to garner me mail from middle-aged male history buffs who take issue with my pronunciation of words like “Massasoit” and “Pokanoket.” In fact, as well-produced as it is, my show is a very old-school documentary rendering of American cultural history, to the point of being a tad sentimentalist in places.

And that’s just fine with me, actually. Instead of trying contrive something uber-hip out of my usual subject matter (vagabonding-style indie travel), I got to cut my TV teeth on a subject that — while fascinating to me — is not tied into some essential notion of who I am or what I’m supposed to represent. If I have any misgivings about the show, it would be (a) TV isn’t the best venue to communicate deep context or nuance (and hence it was hard to show how, while intrepid, the Pilgrims could really be intolerant jackasses sometimes); and (b) though we spent a day and a half shooting Indian perspectives on the Pilgrims, the initial edit didn’t contain much Native American point-of-view (though I’ve been assured that several minutes of Indian interviews were added in a second edit).

As for the sound-dubbing itself, it was actually a really cool process. I sat in a sound-proof booth across a window from my director, who cued me on when to lay in the narration, and how to give the words the right emotive energy. I’ve never worked with such high-tech equipment before, and it was wild to hear my own voice so crisp and resonant in the headphones as I tried to capture the right energy level for each section of the program. Sound editing is done by computer these days, and I could watch as the technician snipped little visual sound-wave chunks of my narration and placed them seamlessly into the show.

After a day and a half of this I was just getting over my jetlag and keen to get out and explore London — which was a shame, since I was due back in Chicago for more book tour events in less than 24 hours. So it goes!

If you watch the Travel Channel, keep an eye out for the debut of “American Pilgrim” on Thanksgiving weekend.

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Goa, the spice of life

by Jamie Rhein on

From the first shot of Goa in this week’s episode of Bizarre Foods, I could smell the aromas. And that’s a good thing. Although Zimmern said that the food in Goa is different than many parts of India, in New Delhi where I lived for two years, every spicy, sweet and sour taste that Zimmern mentioned could be found. That’s because New Delhi was filled with people who started out somewhere else. For those who like taste variety, India is heaven, and Zimmern once again showed how.

What I liked about this episode is that anyone heading to Goa can find the food that Zimmern ate without spending much money. He went to simple places in each location he visited. And, although he did touch on the unusual foods, it was mostly the cooking methods and not weird ingredients that carried the episode. Goa became an inviting backdrop for eating pleasure. Instead of thinking, “Oh, gad!” I wanted a bite– or twelve.

In Goa, a state colonized by the Portuguese, and described by Zimmern as a hippie hangout in the 60s and 70s that still teams with tourists, Zimmern walked through Mapusa Market as the camera panned and periodically lingered on sacks of spices followed by piles of various fruits. Along with the variety in the smells and flavors of the bounty is a vibrant color palate which is probably why camera shots of spices were popular throughout this episode.

First up– a lesson in curry. As Zimmern pointed out, curry is a blend of spices that goes much further than what Westerners know as curry powder. In India, curry is called masala. When the tasting started Zimmern honed in on a couple of dishes that make Indian cuisine unique.

Pickled mango was one of them. Mango, a usually sweet fruit is turned sour by being kept in salt. One of my favorite relishes, mango pickle is often found on restaurant tables similar to how a bottle of ketchup is a condiment in the United States. My favorite Indian restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico when I lived there was the Indian Kitchen. There was always a jar of mango pickle at the ready. I’d eat it like candy.

For his market grazing, Zimmern also sampled bora berry, a small light brownish-yellowish fruit, about the size of a grape that he said was “slimy goo, sour and disgusting.” Must be an acquired taste. As the guide who was showing Zimmern around said, children love them. Passion fruit Zimmern liked.

At a sausage seller, he sampled chouricos, a sausage made of pig meat that includes organs and is mixed with hot spices and stuffed inside pig intestines. Instead of intestines, Zimmern said guts. Using pig intestines as sausage casing is actually not that unusual. Say guts and it sounds gross.

The next dish, mackerel soaked up to a year in masala sauce, is unusual. Zimmern offered to eat it raw, but the guide told him absolutely not. It’s fried first and she sent him off to Republic Noodle, a small restaurant near the market to be cooked before he became sick for sure. “This could have been my last Bizarre Foods,” he quipped.

The cooked mackerel wasn’t fabulous. “This smells like lime soaked in ammonia,” he said before taking a bite. “Wow. That’s sour and fishy. You can’t even cut this thing with a knife.” Sounds like a food to stay away from unless you’re really, really, really hungry. Still, for people who live through monsoons, this method for preserving foods comes in handy.

In Panaji the capital of Goa, the architecture reflects the Portuguese colonial influence–so does the cuisine. Vindaloo, a signature dish of Goa, reflects the influence. I’ve eaten chicken vindaloo many times, but didn’t know it came from the Portuguese. Vindaloo, as Zimmern pointed out, is a way of preparing a sauce that includes vegetables, various spices, vinegar and red hot peppers, making it one of the hottest dishes in Indian cuisine. He ate his version at the restaurant in the Hotel Venite. “Spicy. Tomatoey. Strong vinegar backbone. Boy, that’s some serious warm heat,” he declared. Vindaloo can be made with pork, fish and beef as well.

Zimmern’s meal also included hilsa fish roe. The roe–fish eggs–were in a ring that had been steamed, chilled, sliced, and rolled into corn flour. “This is absolutely the definition of dry mealy food,” said Zimmern before he ate a bite of vindaloo as a chaser. Throw some mango pickle on the roe and it might be good?

At another restaurant, Mum’s Kitchen, there is the concept of making Indian food as Indian moms might make it. The idea is to “make sure the right way to do something doesn’t disappear” by adding a mother’s touch into the dishes.”

Here chicken can’t get any fresher. The chicken is killed on the spot and is plucked, cleaned, cut up and cooking in minutes. Zimmern pronounced the dish, chicken xacuiti delicious. Since it’s from marinating chicken in a masala mixture of cumin, curry leaves, coconut and red chilies, I’d second that. It didn’t sound weird, and besides, moms cooked it.

Even the most unusual dish on the menu, Bombay Duck, was tasty despite sounding awful. The duck isn’t duck, but a type of soft boned fish with lizard qualities. The story goes that the name comes from the British who said the fish’s smell reminded them of a crowded train car of the Bombay line.

Next on Zimmern’s Goa jaunt was a trip to Calangute Beach. Here, wood-fired tandori ovens are used for cooking which gives meat and bread a smokey flavor. At one simple restaurant, 100 yards off the ocean with jet skis in the background, Zimmern ate tandoori-style fish after mentioning that there are miles and miles of beaches in Goa, so fish is a-plenty.

Zimmern’s eating at this beach made me want to head to the Asian food store closest to my house to buy a bag of Indian snack food. After eating a chick pea sandwich, Zimmern sampled a snack mixture of puffed wheat, chick peas raisins and spices.

As he said, “Even the simpliest food are seasoned so well. You feel like the most humble foods have been transformed.” If you’ve never eaten Indian snacks, buy some, but be careful about the hot factor. The packaging will say if a food is hot or mild. If it says hot, believe it.

Another tasty treat with a wicked kick was the deep fried chili fritters with chili puree on top. Don’t do what Zimmern did and glop on the puree. “That was a really dumb idea. In a little while I’ll have to peel my taste buds off that cloud up there,” Zimmern said about his mouth explosion.

To get away from the tourists, Zimmern suggested Arambol Beach where you can sunbath with the cows. With white sand beaches and the ocean offering a place for relaxation, shack-like restaurants were the setting for Zimmern’s fish feast. Fish is cooked up on a propane grill.

The flat spiny pomfret that Zimmern ate is a white fish variety that is cross-hatched before it is grilled so that will come apart in pieces making eating it with ones fingers easy. The king prawns were also grilled. At this point, I’m thinking, shoot yes, that I’m hungry.

Next stop was Sahakari Spice Farm where there are at least 100 different types of plants. This section was a great lesson in where the ingredients in spice bottles come from. As this section illustrated, in addition to jazzing up food, spices also foster good health.

The man giving Zimmern the tour said that black pepper acts as a laxative and cinnamon takes care of cholesterol, for example.

The farm was also a place for highlighting the labor intensive harvesting practices, like when the guy shimmied up coconut and betel nut trees to get the good stuff.

To get to his next eating place, Zimmern took a ride in a rough hewn wooden boat on the Mondovi River where sand bars makes travel tricky and in spots crocodiles infest the waters.

In a private home, Zimmern ate sorpotel, a dish common to weddings. With pork as the main ingredient, it was cooked in a large pot over an open fire nto a dish flavored with Kashmiri chili, onions, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. Yum. (Except I could do without knowing that blood is used for a thickening agent.)

The last part of this episode was my favorite and worth its own post. Stay tuned for Andrew Zimmern’s trip to the Ayurvedic Natural Health Center which made me laugh out loud. It involved oil, heat, a broken chair and cow’s urine.

(photos of market and Zimmern from Bizarre Foods Web site.)

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Sicily. Yep, the food is bizarre

by Jamie Rhein on

Andrew Zimmern seemed positively giddy in last Tuesday’s episode of Bizarre Foods as he ate his way around Sicily’s bonanza of animal innards eats. First stop was Palermo, the capital where butcher shops display all sorts of animal parts, just like they’ve done for centuries. At Mercato Ballero, a bustling outdoor marketplace, Zimmern got busy eating with gusto.

“The cow stomachs are so fresh, you can hear them moo,” he exclaimed as he picked at a plate of intestines and stomach, naming each part to clarify which was what. “They all taste different. A little bit chewy. A little melting. If you like eating the inside of a cow, then this is for you.”

One stall sells fritole, a fritter made from the innards the other vendors don’t sell. If you’ve ever needed a clue about where Zimmern acquired his taste bud preferences, this was it.

“Fritole takes the idea of leftovers to a different level,” he said, followed by a description of eating roasted fat and skin as a boy. Zimmern would dip into the drippings off of whatever meat was being cooked.

The spleen sandwich, another Sicilian specialty, and one that has been served up since the 1800s, was right up Zimmern’s unusual food group alley.

Zimmern had his spleen with a sprinkle of cheese and pronounced the dish, “rank and foul. I love it. It tastes like mud. There’s a lot of gristle in there. This stuff is not for the faint of heart.”

Hmm. I think I’m one of the faint of heart. The more Zimmern ate in Sicily, the more I wondered what I’d be able to eat if I ever headed there.

Then came a stop at one of the best restaurants, Trattoria Ferro Di Cavallo where Zimmern ate something I would enjoy–sardines formed into meatballs. He commented on the raisins as part of the concoction. As he said, these sardines are not the same flavor as the ones found in a can drenched in oil. Canned sardines on saltine crackers remind me of my childhood.

Another dish, the capenata, a relish made of chunks of eggplant and peppers was pronounced fantastic. I would eat that too and like it. But, like a roller coaster ride that gives few reprieves from the steep drops and crazy turns, after Zimmern downed the capenata, he turned and headed for another restaurant Osteria D’Vespry for a gourmet version of the inside of a cow’s mouth. Yep, that’s right. You can eat cheeks.

The dish was delicate and gorgeous, but the description “quivering nerves and tendons” and the “fatty deep and rich with a hint of the barnyard floor,” didn’t sell me on it.

Leaving animal innards, Zimmern headed to Cerda for the Artichoke Festival. Now, we’re talking. This section hit a high mark for showing me how to cook something familiar with in a new way. Fresh artichoke can be roasted over coals, for example.

At the Trattoria Nasca, Zimmern discovered fried artichokes, roasted artichokes, artichoke fritata, and cold artichokes with dill.

Artichoke is also made into ice-cream in this artichoke loving town. The gelato is served up in a bun, handy for a hot climate. Zimmern pointed out that as the ice cream melts it soaks into the bun. That’s clever.

But, one can’t stay with normal food for too long on Bizarre Foods so Zimmern headed to a village on the volcano Mount Etna for a cooking class at Eleonara’s House. In the kitchen of this centuries old house, rabbit was cooked with pine nuts, fennel, carrots, dark chocolate and vinegar. That wasn’t so unusual, sounded delicious even, but when it was done, Zimmern called dibs on the head. He enticed Eleonara to try the rabbit cheek, something she had yet to eat in all her years of preparing rabbit. She pronounced it delicious. I sort of wanted to puke.

The cinnamon pudding from a recipe passed down from the Middle Ages perked me up, though, and gave me the idea once more that if I ever make it to Sicily I won’t starve.

At the fishing village of Marzanemi, Zimmern was up 4 a.m. to head out with the fisherman pointing out just how much work is involved with hauling in nets and what is caught. Afterward, at a fish processing plant, Zimmern was taken through tuna processing. Tuna in a can at a grocery store looks tame for sure.

What about tuna eggs, tuna sperm and tuna testicles? In Zimmern country, those cook up into delicacy dishes. The sperm is considered an aphrodisiac. Ya’ think?

What made this segment the most enjoyable was how the family Zimmern visited gather everything they eat from the sea and from their gardens. One dish I would probably go for is the sea snails grilled with a little olive oil and lemon juice. I’m also quite fond of cuttlefish, but eating it cooked in its ink? Not so much. Give me a pasta dish with just the tomato sauce and herbs, that’s another story.

One of the details I appreciate about Zimmern’s visits with folks is how much he enjoys their company. He gave the fisherman, Captain Corrado Barrone, the man who hosted him, his Swiss army knife, a present that was greatly appreciated.

Tonight Zimmern heads to Goa. I’m hoping he spends a bit more time on the culture and sights and lays a bit low on the bizarre food. I had a hard time keeping up with him in Sicily. I think he must have had a hard time keeping up with himself. His blog has yet to be updated from the Phuket episode two weeks ago.

(Photos (except for the spleen sandwich) are from the Bizarre Foods Web site.)

**This post would have been earlier, but no electricity due to wind storms creates mayhem in a blogger’s life.

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Phuket, Thailand

by Jamie Rhein on

When I found out that Phuket, Thailand was the setting for the kick off episode of the new season of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel, I flashed to images of tourist filled beaches where jet skiing and para-sailing are high on the list of things to do.

Not if you’re Andrew Zimmern who’ll eat anything with great gusto, and who has a penchant for heading off to places not highly traveled by throngs of the beach crowd.

“Bugs, bugs and more bugs.” “Squid, the new seafood jerky.” “Cashew nuts.” “Secret sauce.” “Unbelievably disgusting. I love this stuff,” and “Thailand is hard to pass up,” were within the string of descriptors in the show’s beginning, and Zimmern delivered.

Although Zimmern gave a nod to Phuket’s tourism–1,000,000 or so people come here every year infusing needed moola into the island’s economy, he headed off the beach junket into Phuket City for some market style eats.

As Zimmern explained, Phuket is the pearl of the Andaman Sea where Phuket City is a vibrant town, “devoted to a range of spiritual groups,” where “life is embraced at all levels.”

First stop: The fair at Wat Chalong during the Chinese New Year celebration.

First eat: fried grasshoppers with chilies and salt. “You can eat a bowl of these for the big game on Sunday,” says Zimmern.

At the market, Ko Liang, a tour guide headed Zimmern towards a bowl of noodle soup with ingredients like pork liver, intestines and stomach. “That tastes really clean. All tripe soup should be this good,” Zimmern said and explained how Thai cooking is a variation flavors that combines bitter, sweet, sour and hot.

“There’s nothing like a bowl of hot spicy soup on a 100 degree day. We have thin noodles, fat noodles, little bits of liver and heart. Wow, this is good. This is light,” he added.

My favorite part of Zimmern’s episodes is watching the background around him and his interactions with people since those details transport me back to my own travels. Watching women wash whatever they’re going to cook in a plastic strainer looks familiar. I’m reminded of plastic strainers in stacks for sale at a market and can hear the swishing sounds of water.

Other fair eats were salted fish, dried squid pressed into flat strips similar to jerky and a dessert made from rice flour, rice, coconut milk, melted brown sugar and flaked coconut that sounded yummy. I like the chewiness of those rice ball things, though. Zimmern pronounced all of these ready to eat snacks, “Fantastic.”

Because “you won’t find the best restaurant in touristy area of Phuket, ” says Zimmern, he headed to a small town near Bang Sak, where a mom and pop style thatched roof shack-like place serves up a menu of 100 dishes. Food choices range ran from sting ray to wasps to mackerel and other seafood like shrimp. One hit was the spicy stuffed mackerel which I would have devoured myself.

Not such a big hit was the yellow wasp larvae snack food. “Never ate it before. Oooh, those are mealy–soft–spongy, not a lot of flavor–texture of play dough. Not my favorite in the world,” said Zimmern as he sampled it.

The sting ray, though, was a hit. “Chewier than I thought. Drier than I thought. Got a kick like a mule. Meat is firm. That sauce is killer though,” he said lip-smacking it down.

One interesting part of this segment was the harvesting of sea cicadas. Zimmern happened on a few fishermen catching these small crab-like critters in nets. He stayed through the process of cooking them. One option is to fry them in garlic or in a tempura like batter. Zimmern called them the “popcorn shrimp of the Phuket beach scene.”

If you’ve ever wondered how cashew nuts are harvested and prepared, this episode was one to watch. Phuket has the Methee Cashew Nut Factory. Here’s Zimmern’s camera team filmed the whole arduous process of cashew production–time consuming. In the store, Zimmern tasted a few of the varieties. Turns out, there’s a lot more you can do with cashews then just put them in a jar by themselves or mix them up with other nuts.

There’s even a flavor that uses the same spices as Tum Yum soup. The best cashew seller is the one coated with sesame seeds, sugar and salt. From the Web site it looks like you can order them and have them shipped.

Although you can get the cashews where you are, in general, Zimmern said that you’ll have to head to Thailand for the juice made from the cashew apple. Because the fruit bruises easily, and the juice is highly perishable the tendency is not to export these products. The juice is also fermented into wine, he says. According to him, the juice tastes similar to apple juice mixed with ginger ale–a little sour and sweet.

Because the tsunami devastated much of Phuket, Zimmern talked about it as well a couple times throughout the episode and detailed what has happened since then. In many places, it’s hard to tell there was ever a tsunami, but in other locations, the effects still remain. One interesting result is the people who have moved into the beach area from other regions of the island in order to help the recovery process. Their food is different. To illustrate how different, Zimmern went on a red weaver ant hunt, followed by a lizard hunt.

Hunting red weaver ants involves covering oneself in talcum powder. The powder acts as a repellent against these mean, mean insects, explained Zimmern as he smacked and swatted the ants off him. One place the ant larvae was found was in an abandoned resort hotel.

They were then cooked in a stir fry with fresh green onion, chilies, lime juice. Zimmern said they tasted a like little pudding jelly beans. A whistle technique is used to coax lizards. One way to cook them is into a coconut milk curry.

Pointing out that fishing is one of the island’s largest economy, Zimmern headed to Phang-Nga Bay, made up mostly of Muslim immigrants. Here there were shots of “beautiful, beautiful shrimp” and pulling crabs from nets–a process that can take hours.

At what Zimmern called, (I think) Mrs. Ma’s Kitchen, a simple traditional, non-touristy beach eatery–basically an open air thatched roof hut with a few private tables in their own huts, Zimmern relished the crab stomach curry and waxed poetic about all the various curries to be found. “I like food with big flavors,” he said.

One interesting item Mrs. Ma prepared for him was a sea welt (?) that looked like a huge snail. It can be sliced and eaten plain or also cooked into a curry.

An aspect of Phuket Zimmern mentioned more than once was people’s tendency there to smile big. I’ve also found that true of other places in Thailand I’ve been. I appreciated this episode because from all I’ve heard about Phuket, it’s a tourist hot spot. Good to know that simple authenticity is a-plenty.

One last thing, Zimmern also paid tribute to the Tsunami Recovery Center in Bang Sak. When he went ant hunting an American volunteer with the recovery went along with him.

Regardless of how much the island seems like it’s recovered, there is still work to be done and people who are struggling. The photo is from the Tsunami Volunteer Center’s Web site for anyone who is interested in the latest recovery news. I’m not sure if this is the place to which Zimmern was referring, but it’s the one I found.

(* photos of Zimmern and food from Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern web site)

Next week, Zimmern heads to Sicily for another new episode.