A Cook's Tour: Anthony Bourdain's Love Affair With Vietnam
About the Author
- Adam Bray
- kanzis_slave [2,430]
[7 ratings]
- Destination: Tokyo | Vietnam | Can Tho | Ho Chi Minh City | Cambodia | Nha Trang | Japan | Pailin
- Topics: Travel | Adventure | Literature | Food | People
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A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines |
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Anthony Bourdain is best known for his groundbreaking book “Kitchen Confidential,” which details his career as a chef and disclosed that the people creating our fine dining experiences in the world’s best restaurants are often "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths." He often ridicules Food Network personalities, yet in the end, his success and notoriety led to his very own show on the same network. “A Cook’s Tour” launched his television career and gave birth to his book “A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines.”
In A Cook’s Tour, Bourdain sets out to find the “perfect meal” (or more realistically, a series of really great meals), not based on opulence and cutting-edge, fashionable restaurants, but rather an ideal balance of great food, atmosphere and people. His search leads him to the Moroccan desert for “crispy, Veiny” lamb testicles; saunas and smoked fish in Russia; kaiseki rituals in Japan; French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley, and a lengthy series of adventures in Vietnam.
In much of his work, Bourdain make a point of explaining how other cultures have learned to make use of every part of the animal, once because of limited resources, but now because they’ve perfected the art, and made ears, feet and entrails into truly great meals.
Bourdain’s humor is irreverent and he pulls no punches, telling us exactly what he thinks about where he is, what he’s doing, and what he’s eating, even if it’s not very flattering. Unlike other travel personalities, he doesn’t sugar-coat his reviews for the sake of political correctness.
The Food network series aired 35 episodes, 10 of which were filmed in Asia (Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand). His book however, narrows down the focus and gives us a look at where his heart truly abides. Five of the book’s 17 chapters (including the intro) are set in Vietnam. A Cook’s Tour essentially details Anthony’s love affair with Vietnam, mingled with other adventures around the globe (other chapters cover Portugal, France, Spain, Russia, Morocco, England, Scotland, Mexico, California, Cambodia and Japan) while filming his show for the Food Network. "I'm in love” he writes about Vietnam. “I am absolutely over-the top gonzo for this country and everything in it. I want to stay forever."
In Saigon, Anthony explores the food offerings of Ben Thanh Market (including hot vin lon, or hard-boiled duck embryos) in-between vivid nightmares induced by anti-malaria medication. In Can Tho on the MeKong Tony drinks rice wine with decorated war vets who would have once considered him the enemy. Later he recounts with heart-pounding fervor, the experience of riding down Highway 1, known for its frequent bloody accidents. Then there is island hopping and fresh seafood dinner in Nha Trang, only to be followed by a revolting meal of bird’s nest soup on an already bloated stomach. Of all of Anthony’s culinary experiences in Vietnam, his most talked about (and most replayed on YouTube), is drinking the beating heart of a cobra in rice wine.
As interesting as Anthony’s food adventures are, the characters in his book are equally memorable. Madame Dai was a lawyer and senator under South Vietnam’s former government, who managed to thrive under the new regime by running a small, unadvertised restaurant in the library of her home, called ”Bibliotheque." She is a colorful character who keeps Anthony and his government-appointed guide, Linh, on their toes with her sharp-witted humor and kind-hearted jabs.
Madame Ngoc is the owner of Com Nieu Saigon, a restaurant famous for its crispy rice cooked in a clay pot, which is smashed in the dining room, and then the rice is thrown across to the waiters at each table, creating a lively spectacle for the guests. Madame Ngoc is a powerful women, commanding respect and obedience from her staff (and even many of her patrons), but her tender-hearted kindness and persistent mothering endear her immediately to Bourdain and his entourage.
Anthony fell hard for Vietnam. Writing about Saigon, he states “I think I've gone bamboo...I've gone goofy on Vietnam, fallen hopelessly, hopelessly in love with the place.”
In April 2005, for the Financial Times, Anthony wrote, “A year from now, I plan to live here. I will move to a small fishing village in a coastal area of Vietnam near Hoi An. I have no idea what I'm going to do there, other than write about the experience. I plan only on being a visual curiosity, the lone westerner in a Vietnamese community; to rent a house, move in with few, if any, expectations and let the experience wash over me. Whatever happens, happens.”
For all his adoration of Vietnam, Anthony still maintains a realistic and discerning attitude. He understands that a foreigner is always an outsider, no matter how long they live in the community, how well they speak the language, or even if they marry a local girl and settle down. In September 2004, for AskMen.com, Anthony talks about the reality of living in Vietnam, “I have never been made to feel more welcome than I have in Vietnam, or been treated more graciously, or with as much kindness. I'm going to try to put this delicately but the fact is, you're talking China, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, these are deeply racist cultures. A Westerner marries a Vietnamese girl, the family is pretty horrified. I think what I'm saying about Vietnam is that I could never flatter myself to think that I could become Vietnamese. I would like to be thought of as a welcome guest and as a true friend. But I could never, I mean, I'm 6'4", I look like a big ugly freak to them.”
Despite his love for Vietnam, Bourdain apparently hasn’t gone through with his plans yet, which may be due to not only his new marriage and baby, but also the success of his show “No Reservations,” for the Travel Channel. Later episodes (including features on Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and once again, Vietnam) and subsequent interviews reveal his more broadened appreciation of the region and less obsession over Vietnam alone.
A Cook’s Tour is Bourdain’s most appropriate entry-level volume for fans of his travel shows, although a book based on his current Travel Channel series, “No Reservations” will be available October 30, 2007. He has authored numerous other books, including The Nasty Bits, Gone Bamboo, Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, The Bobby Gold Stories, and Bone in the Throat. Many are novels and all contain culinary themes.
Published on 7/22/07
