“Lebanon is very famous for its food,” said Anthony Bourdain in his Emmy nominated episode, ‘Anthony Bourdain No Reservations in Beirut.’
I just had the chance to watch this episode tonight even though it was originally shown last year.
This was an unusual episode because it wasn’t shot in the show’s traditional format. It watches like a documentary and not just the usual food show. Scratch that. Not just the usual ‘No Reservations’ show. Anthony and his crew were evacuated along with the other foreigners when bombings started in the city.
Read Anthony’s interview with washingtonpost.com here.
A mention of Filipino in his interview:
Bowie, Md.: I have a Vietnamese co-worker who says there’s no way that you could have eaten “raw Balut (Filipino name)” when you toured Vietnam. When I watched the show, I could have sworn you ate the raw embryo. Was it raw or cooked?
Anthony Bourdain: Balut (half-term fetal duck egg) known in Vietnam as “hot vinlon” as I ate it can best be described as soft-boiled — very soft-boiled. I found it disturbingly feathery, though the crunchy notes were not unpleasant.
Good timing for me. I am currently reading “A Cook’s Tour,” and today I was just reading on the part wherein Anthony was eating duck chick in Vietnam.
I am currently in an Anthony Bourdain craze. I am halfway through “A Cook’s Tour,” have “The Nasty Bits” and “Kitchen Confidential” standing by and regularly watch “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel. Now if only I could travel like him and eat the most interesting food in the world.
