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Travel Lens: Anthony Bourdains World
Posted by Hannah Sheinberg in Taste of Travel on April 24, 2015
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A new season of Anthony Bourdains CNN show, Parts Unknown, debuts on April 26. (Photograph by David S. Holloway, CNN)
Television host, author, and former executive chef Anthony Bourdain has licked his plate clean
all over the world, from soup dumplings in Shanghai to piranhas in Peru.
The New York City natives CNN show, Parts Unknown, heads to locales such as South Korea,
Madagascar, and Scotland during its fifth season, which debuts April 26. Bourdains busy in his
hometown, too: he plans to open an Asian-style hawker market in Manhattan this fall.
Heres a look at the world through his unique lens (and appetite):
Hannah Sheinberg: In your opinion, whats the worlds most underrated destination?
Why?
Anthony Bourdain: Uruguay is an underrated destination. Montevideo in Uruguaythats to
a great extent undiscovered. Everyone from Argentina knows how cool it is because they fill the
place up during the season, but other than them, the rest of the world has yet to catch on. Its a
very laid-back place, the people are really nice, the beaches are incredible, and theres great
food. Tough country for vegetarians, though.
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Which city has it all, and why?
Tokyo. I mean, if I had to die mid-meal anywhere, it would be Tokyo. If you were to ask most
chefs if they had to have house arrest for the rest of their life in one city and eat all of their meals
there, just about everyone I know would pick Tokyo.
So, if you were to die eating mid-meal in Tokyo, what meal would you want to be
eating?
Definitely Sukiyabashi Jiro, Jiro Onos place. Its pretty amazing.
When someone comes to visit
you in New York City, wheres
the first place you take them?
Honestly, I often take them out for
yakitori at one of a couple of places
I likeeither Torishin or Yakitori
Totto.
If Im recommending a place, I send
people to Russ & Daughters or
Barney Greengrass because deli
is something uniquely great that we
do in New York, better than anyone
else by my estimation.
Russ & Daughters opened its doors to New York City in 1914.
(Photograph by Tyler Metcalfe)
For high-end, Ill send them to Le
Bernardin or Marea.
If you werent living in New York, where would you want to call home?
Ive thought about it a lot; I ponder what it would be like to live in Sardinia or [somewhere else in]
Italy. My wife is Italian and she has family thereeven places to live if she wanted to.
But Im kidding myself. Im a workaholic, I love my job, and I think Im hardwired to New York, so as
much as Id like to spend time elsewhere, Id be deluding myself if I thought that Id ever retire to a
hilltop in Tuscany.
But, if everything went wrong in my life and I ended up alone and drinking too much, then Id
probably head to Vietnam.
What made you want to open a hawker market in NYC?
Pride and envy.
Ive always been bitter that we dont have the kinds of hawker centers that Singapore, Kuala
Lumpur, and Hong Kong have. Were supposed to be the greatest city in the world and we dont
have that kind of a food option. Given the opportunity of creating a space like that, I jumped at it.
Do you have any tips for
navigating the street food
scene, regardless of where you
are?
Are the stalls busy? Are they
popular with locals? Are they
moving product? Those
[observations] are key. Hawkers
and street food people are not in
the business of poisoning their
neighbors. Thats a bad business
model.
Often youll see a place selling
exactly the same thing right next to
another place that has no one
Street food from the Kogi BBQ Taco Truck in Los Angeles (Photograph
by lainetrees, Flickr)
there. Theres probably a reason for that. Those are just good rules of thumb.
If Im in a place where the water is not good, Im not going to eat a lot of green stuff. Roomtemperature organ meat is something that, in a tropical climate, I might avoid.
Other than that, if [the stall is] busy, Im eating it. Sinister street tacos, Im there. Ill eat just about
anything in India if the place is busy. They may be washing the plates in the river right next to me
but I dont care; Im eating it.
Whats the most memorable dining experience youve had while traveling?
I had one of the last meals at elBulli [a Michelin three-star restaurant in Cala Montjoi, Spain,
that closed in 2011] and that was pretty emotional. Everyone in the restaurant that night knew
history was happening that minute. Half the people in the dining room were in tears.
And, of course, eating with [legendary chefs] Paul Bocuse and Daniel Boulud at Bocuses
restaurant [LAuberge du Pont de Collonges, near Lyon, France] was an amazing, once-in-alifetime experience that I never dreamed Id have.
In the fifth season of Parts Unknown, youre heading back to Beirut, Lebanon, where
you and your crew got caught in the middle of a conflict in 2006. What made you decide
to go back?
I felt that there was always unfinished business. I was having an extraordinarily positive time
there until the war broke out and I felt that there was, there is, and there will always be a much
more interesting, much more multidimensional, much more positive side to show of Lebanon.
Its a very complex, uniquely
incredible placeits one of my
favorite citiesand for all of its
problems, and there are many, I
think its a place that people should
go and enjoy themselves.
Im fascinated by it and everyone
on my crew loves the place, so to
go back and tell other aspects of
that storyIll do that at every
opportunity. It hasnt been
examined anywhere near as
caringly and as carefully as it
deserves.
Anthony Bourdain on location in Beirut (with the Lebanon chapter of the
Harley Davidson Owners Group) as he films Parts Unknown. (Photograph
by David S. Holloway, CNN)
Which destination surprised you the most?
Iran, for sure. The people you meet, the mood, and the streets are very different than Iranian
foreign policy and the Iran we have to deal with on a geopolitical level. The reality is that its
tough there, but theres a very different Iran out there that most of us dont get to see.
[Experiencing that first-hand] was very confusing and exciting.
How do you and your crew find the balance between being in the moment and
getting the shot while youre on location?
The whole show is very subjective, so were always trying to make people feel the way I felt about
a place. Some might say thats a very manipulative process, but its a show with a point of view,
so I dont delude myself that were journalists.
Did traveling for work change the way you travel for vacation?
Yes, very much. I tend to stay put for vacation. If my familys taking a lengthy vacation, its on a
Long Island beach, and Im driving there and Im not moving. Im letting my seven-year-old
daughter make all of the major decisions about what were doing. You know, are we going to the
beach today, or not? Are we having hamburgers or hot dogs? Im as close to a vegetable as I
could be.
Whats the strangest thing youve seen in your travels?
Ive seen a lot of stuff that I might have at one time called strange, but at this pointI dont know.
Ive had dinner under a bouquet of human skulls, I guess that was pretty strange.
You recently professed your love for Californias In-N-Out chain. Whats so great about
it?
Its not the best burger in the world, but its a fast-food chain that treats its employees well, works
efficiently, and serves you a reasonably healthy, freshly made, decent-quality burger that makes
me very, very happy. Its a not-so-guilty pleasure.
Hannah Sheinberg is an assistant editor at National Geographic Traveler. Follow Hannah on
Twitter @h_sheinberg.
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