"Parts Unknown" (2013-) - CNN Travel Documentary Featuring Anthony Bourdain In Exotic Locales

[Ericandblueboy]

Season 1, Episode 1 of "Parts Unknown" starts tonight - Myanmar is the first episode.

[lion]

Season 1, Episode 1 of "Parts Unknown" starts tonight - Myanmar is the first episode.

 

Got the DVR set.  Looking forward to it.

[jasonc]

Season 1, Episode 1 of "Parts Unknown" starts tonight - Myanmar is the first episode.

 

It'll always be Burma to me

[RWBooneJr]

Good show. Basically No Reservations with a bit more of a "newsy" edge and slightly better budget. It'll be interesting to see how much of Bourdain's social commentary survives as the show matures. None of it is superfluous, and he's generally right, but it was always a bit beyond the scope of the Travel Channel. CNN might actually be a better fit for him.

[johnb]

Good show. Basically No Reservations with a bit more of a "newsy" edge and slightly better budget. It'll be interesting to see how much of Bourdain's social commentary survives as the show matures. None of it is superfluous, and he's generally right, but it was always a bit beyond the scope of the Travel Channel. CNN might actually be a better fit for him.

I always thought No Reservations was a very creative production that justified its Emmy nominations, and enjoyed watching it for the creative aspects as well as the food and travel info. It looks as if they've amped up the creativity for the CNN production, which one hopes will only make it more worthwhile. We'll see.

[jasonc]

Free streaming in case you missed it.

[jrichstar]

I thought the Myanmar episode stacked up very well as compared to No Reservations. Pretty much the same ole Anthony. The news-to-food-and-travel ratio was a little higher on the news but I think it was more a function of the subject of Myanmar than being on CNN. Some of the No Reservation episodes were a little heavy on news like the US/Mexican Border episode and one of the Asian Stan's (Uzbekistan?). One thing that does not get talked about much is the cinematography/production quality. I think it is outstanding.

Plus, ratings were up 32% as compared to last year's first episode on the Travel Channel, so CNN may have finally found something to turn around it's flailing ratings.

[Ericandblueboy]

In one scene (where Tony was in a restaurant), the street noise was so loud I cannot make out what Tony was saying. It improved once I turned on the surround sound which can isolate dialogue from noise. I personally don't care about Myanmar until it becomes a safe destination - including rail that doesn't bounce. So this episode was educational from that perspective.

[cheezepowder]

For those of us who are a little slow, the show is on at 9pm Sunday nights.

Next week is LA. Description from CNN:

Roy Choi created a Brave New World of gastronomy almost single handedly with his LA based Kogi trucks. A Korean American who grew up on the fringes of Mexican and hip hop culture; his food reflects a new American idea of "natural" fusion--culinary influences that grew up next to and with each other. Bourdain examines the meeting point of Asian, Mexican, Latino culture in modern LA.

[lperry]

My favorite part of the show is one of the stills before the cutaway to commercial. He has been photoshopped into a triangular, broad-shouldered guy instead of a skinny guy with a belly.

[lion]

Finally got around to watching the new show. Seemed similar to his other shows except as others have mentioned in this thread, a slightly more political and historical bent to the country or city he visits. Curious to see if he does the historical/political view in LA or other western countries with the few next shows.

Visually I think it's much more impressive than the previous shows, the digital cameras used give better depth of field, and color saturation in low light conditions.

Bourdain was on Fareed Zakaria's GPS and mentioned that he thought of Chinese food as the mother tongue of all cuisines. I was surprised he said that.

[lion]

Episode: Canada

"This is CNN."

Makes me want to take a train trip across Quebec.

[Ericandblueboy]

I think Tony was joking when he said Martin Picard loves Celine Dion, but may he wasn't.

Apparently Picard does love Dion.

Edited May 9, 2013 by Ericandblueboy

[BklynBoy]

Source: Grub Street New York

The eight new episodes of the author and TV host's Emmy-winning show will make stops in Vegas, Lyon, the Mississippi Delta, and Northern Thailand. First up, though, will be the Indian state of Punjab, including a visit to community vegetarian restaurant. This is the episode Tony reached out to Himashu Suri to score.

Read full article >>

Bourdain is a habit I just can't kick. For the past few years he seems to want to talk about everything BUT food. Fortunately, I like Tony's taste in -- French New Wave Cinema, Punk and Alt Rock, classic French Bisto cooking, fast cars, street food, Film Noir, literature, pot and guns -- so I tolerate him and fast forward a lot.

A couple of weeks ago, I was rewarded with the first show from Tony in a long time that was just about food. The show was based in Lyon and his show fixer was none other than Daniel Boulud. No spoilers here ! Watch the show and be amazed at who cooks and what they eat.

One of the parts of the show that I found fascinating was when Boulud took Tony to the school outside Lyon that he attended. The menu that day included:

• Pumpkin soup from scratch, made with in house produced chicken stock
• Chicken stew and cous-cous with wine added to the pot
• Fresh bagette
• House made fromage blanc with orange segments

The entire meal seemed to be made by the cooks from scratch.

The Cook served the children at their tables, where they ate with real plates, silverware and glasses (and where they drank plain old water, thank you very much)

Now for the topper. According to the show transcript, the cost of a French school lunch is $1.50/head compared a US average of $2.75/head. Just what does that $2.75 buy? frozen pizza? chocolate milk? frozen mac & cheese?

Wow, we should fire MIchelle Obama and hire the nice French lady who produced that meal

Seriously, maybe its time to fire all of the US school cooks and outsource our lunches to France.

[MsDiPesto]

American kids would throw it in the trash and wonder where the PB&J was. As it is, school systems in the U.S. are begging for a reprieve from having to serve lunches with veggies and fruit because it ultimately ends up in the garbage can and the cost is endangering their budgets.

Some friends of mine were on vacation in Iceland, and were on a boat with school kids from the U.S., and also a bunch of French kids. At one point, they dredged the bottom and brought up all kinds of those things that dwell there (whelks, whatever, I don't eat that stuff so I'm ignorant about it). My friends said the U.S. kids recoiled in horror while the French kids were eating it like candy!

Different society altogether.

And Tony needs to stop mentioning the Ramones in every show. We get it Tony, you're trying to prove you're still hip, you've still got street cred, you're still relevant. Just show us the food and don't be so preachy!

[DonRocks]

And Tony needs to stop mentioning the Ramones in every show. We get it Tony, you're trying to prove you're still hip, you've still got street cred, you're still relevant. Just show us the food and don't be so preachy!

I hear you. It must be a very narrow tightrope selling out and maintaining your hip (I'm being completely serious here).

Not sure if Bourdain has changed, but mutual friends tell me he used to be a genuinely good guy. I did a radio show with him once, and we chatted for awhile beforehand, and he was quite pleasant (until he said he was going to meet up with José Andrés afterwards - that's when I just internally rolled my eyes (*) because I swear this cadré has an agreement that they will prop each other up, fame-wise. I'm also looking at you, David Chang.)

(*) Also when he threw in, at the last second (on-air), "and it's all about Ben's Chili Bowl" when naming his favorite DC restaurants.

Hmm, writing this post reminds me ... click.

[SeanMike]

I have some friends who ran into in NOLA a couple of years ago and had nothing but nice things to say about hanging out with him.

[MsDiPesto]

I'm sure he'd be a blast to hang with! I like the guy, I just wish he'd stop with the overused cultural touchstones is all.

[ktmoomau]

But on school lunches, there was a study that the majority of schools are handling the new guidelines well. I think it takes time to get kids adjusted to new foods, but worth a try.  So many kids are eating not just one, but two meals at school and for some it's their only meals for the day.  To serve them junk is just something I personally IMHO think is awful.  Wouldn't they have a better chance at eating the foods we think they should eat if they weren't quite so processed, and made to taste good by a cook.  I remember back when both my school and the hospital had real cooks in the cafeteria (I really am not that old am I?).  The food was lovely.  Maybe that was the benefit of being in a small town.  When they switched over to what is now the "normal" lunch I started packing and never looked back.  I luckily had that luxury. But right now we are struggling to keep teachers in overcrowded classrooms and paying them enough, so I think the food has to wait.  Wouldn't it be nice though... right now smelling the leftover homemade pot pie my co-worker warmed up in the microwave, maybe I am just intoxicated with the scent of what could be.   There was an interesting prototype going on in San Francisco that also focused on the dining experience.  I think that is a neat concept.

My Mom worked for a long time on our Board of Education regarding school lunches.  She would love what they are doing there.  Anyway I think Bourdain can be a little overly optimistic and sentimental about certain ideas without seeing the whole picture, but it's never a bad thing to raise questions on if we can do things better in a way that would provide school with cheaper lunches.  I think we are a new generation and re-thinking what and how we do things in this economy that also help our kids develop so they can compete in our future economy is worth exploring. We are moving in terms of the types of jobs people have, and there are social implications for that and maybe there are other benefits in changing school lunch beyond just the nutrition, as well.  But those are all just thoughts and questions.  I don't run a school or school district and certainly am not an expert on any of that.

[TedE]

But on school lunches, there was a study that the majority of schools are handling the new guidelines well. I think it takes time to get kids adjusted to new foods, but worth a try.  So many kids are eating not just one, but two meals at school and for some it's their only meals for the day.  To serve them junk is just something I personally IMHO think is awful.  Wouldn't they have a better chance at eating the foods we think they should eat if they weren't quite so processed, and made to taste good by a cook.  I remember back when both my school and the hospital had real cooks in the cafeteria (I really am not that old am I?).  The food was lovely.  Maybe that was the benefit of being in a small town.  When they switched over to what is now the "normal" lunch I started packing and never looked back.  I luckily had that luxury. But right now we are struggling to keep teachers in overcrowded classrooms and paying them enough, so I think the food has to wait.  Wouldn't it be nice though... right now smelling the leftover homemade pot pie my co-worker warmed up in the microwave, maybe I am just intoxicated with the scent of what could be.   There was an interesting prototype going on in San Francisco that also focused on the dining experience.  I think that is a neat concept.

My Mom worked for a long time on our Board of Education regarding school lunches.  She would love what they are doing there.  Anyway I think Bourdain can be a little overly optimistic and sentimental about certain ideas without seeing the whole picture, but it's never a bad thing to raise questions on if we can do things better in a way that would provide school with cheaper lunches.  I think we are a new generation and re-thinking what and how we do things in this economy that also help our kids develop so they can compete in our future economy is worth exploring. We are moving in terms of the types of jobs people have, and there are social implications for that and maybe there are other benefits in changing school lunch beyond just the nutrition, as well.  But those are all just thoughts and questions.  I don't run a school or school district and certainly am not an expert on any of that.

This recalls what Jamie Oliver was trying to do in the West Virginia school district several years ago.  The results were not encouraging:

Overall, the findings for the initial evaluation of the impact of the Food Revolution program suggest that the new menus were not well-accepted and had a negative impact on meal participation and milk consumption, despite some benefits identified through the nutrient analysis.

It wasn't really a true test of whether from-scratch cooking could succeed in in the cafeteria, however.  If I recall from the TV specials the kids were always given a choice and only encouraged to eat the healthier alternatives.  It's hard to get a kid to take the carrot when the stick is made of fried mozzarella

[ktmoomau]

First, it wasn't a complete failure.  Those schools are still cooking from scratch, they have just modified the meals to be something more familiar to kids in West Virginia.  But the way and where Jamie Oliver did it was horribly objectionable and the fact that the school system is still doing any of it is pretty remarkable.  Any West Virginian faced with some Brit coming in acting smarter them then and being like you're doing everything all wrong was clearly meant to cause controversy.  I think maybe it was Rocks that recently posted a link or maybe I saw it on Twitter on people who are writing a book about the Jamie Oliver school experiment and what implications it had overall. Click Click. It's a great article, worth the read.  

[Pat]

Tomorrow night's episode (9/25) features Bourdain having a meal with President Obama in Hanoi.  

"Talking Hot Dogs with President Obama in Hanoi" by Anthony Bourdain on edition.cnn.com

[Josh]

14 hours ago, Pat said:

Tomorrow night's episode (9/25) features Bourdain having a meal with President Obama in Hanoi.  

"Talking Hot Dogs with President Obama in Hanoi" by Anthony Bourdain on edition.cnn.com

I'm excited for this season.  Sounds like he had a good time in my new hometown: 

"Anthony Bourdain Thinks Houston's Culinary Scene Is Really Going To Surprise People" by Amy McCarthy on houston.eater.com