The fourth season of No Reservations starts back up tonight on the Travel Channel. No Reservations is one of my favorite shows on television now. It's not quite a travel show and not quite a cooking show. It's more the former than the latter. The premise of the show is simple, Anthony Bourdain [1] goes to cool places around the world and you get to watch him do stuff like eat and argue with the locals. It's like Bizarre Foods but with out all the nasty shit, or Andrew Zimmern [2].
In honor of the start of the fourth season of No Reservations I've put together a list of my favorite Tony Bourdain moments, some of which have video.
It doesn't seem like it's been four years since No Reservations premiered on the Travel Channel. I remember thinking, "Oh boy another Anthony Bourdain show, it's a shame it'll be canceled before I get to enjoy it." Thankfully this series didn't meet the same fate as Bourdain's other shows. I enjoyed A Cook's Tour for the brief period when it was on Food Network. It seemed like it was only aired between the hours of 1am and 4am.
What I like about No Reservations is that it seems real. It seems like this is the kind of shit that would happen if I went to these places, even though I doubt I'd go to most of them without ample persuasion. No Reservations doesn't give you the sense that what you're seeing is all bullshit PR set up for the cameras. When that PR bullshit does make it into the show Bourdain will point it out and make snide remark. Anthony Bourdain is like the thinking man's Rick Steves [3]. Not that Rick Steves isn't great, but he's watered down and definitely appeals to more of the soccer mom demographic.
Anyway, here is a list of my favorite Bourdain moments, some of which come from No Reservations and others are from A Cook's Tour. Enjoy.
Iceland (Hello Darkness, My Old Friend)
This was the very first episode of No Reservations and it was a great way to start the series. This episode is notorious for how bad it is, and it was even re-aired with a commentary where the producer and Bourdain explain how all of their plans fell apart and how they feared this turd of an episode was a sign of things to come from the series. I enjoyed this episode because it's clear that everything was working against the crew to produce a decent episode. They were kinda asking for it though, I mean who goes to Iceland in the dead of winter? My favorite moment was the explanation of Þorrablót and the ensuing dinner. Video of this episode can be found here [4].Québec
Tony goes to Québec to give a speech at a culinary institute to some French aholes. Afterwards we see him treated to dinner at a friend's restaurant. This guy prepares many many many courses which Bourdain can't solo, this is super rich food though not soup and salad. My favorite part is the trip to the syrup themed wilderness cabin... "I smell like I just slept with Mrs. Butterworth." And then there was the poutine... although he describes it as a monstrosity it all looks so good. I could do without the peas and cheese curd but fries with gravy, spaghetti and hot dogs, maybe the French Canadians aren't so bad after all...Cleveland
This episode is full of guest stars. The dude from The French Laundry gets treated to a plate of Skyline Chili [5]. Skyline isn't really chili... it's spaghetti with chili sauce on it and a thick layer of shredded cheddar cheese. But that isn't the best of it, my favorite part of this episode is the Hot Sauce Williams Polish Boy. It's a sausage in a roll covered with fries and barbecue sauce... and coleslaw. Yup, cole slaw and fries on a hot dog...I also enjoyed the visit to the derelict Twinkie factory with the guy from American Splendor. Oh, and one of the Ramones shows up... I don't care which, it was probably one of the dead ones.
Singapore
In the clip on the right Bourdain and a couple of rented Asian girls eat a Aurem, a hospital themed restaurant. This is from last year's No Reservations. In 2003 A Cook's Tour shot an episode here. Singapore, which is basically a totalitarian state, doesn't seem like it'd be an exciting setting for a travel/food show... but it works out pretty good. The episode is split into three parts in which Bourdain takes on each of major ethnic groups of Singapore, the Chinese, Indian and Malay.Who knew Singapore was actually cool and not just a high tech dictatorship.
France
It's clear that France is one of Bourdain's favorite countries. In one of the episodes of A Cook's Tour he says that he spent time here in his youth. In the clip on the right Bourdain tries Absinthe and explores a meat market. It may not sound like thrilling television, but like most of the episodes it's all brought together by the host. I especially enjoy the quintessentially French shit like drinking wine in the meat market at seven in the morning and the restaurant with the traditional open hearth and sleeping dog by the door.What makes Bourdain's shows so enjoyable is that he doesn't take himself too seriously like Rachel Ray and the other aholes that do cliché travel/food shows. Bourdain frequently shits on the franchise culture and cracks jokes about pretty much everything. In my opinion he's just about the best host on television. I certainly can't wait to see the new episodes this season.