Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown - Houston episode!

This was his audition for an audience with Haymitch and he blew it. My wife got so bored she actually left the room. I forced myself to watch the whole thing but resolved to never again waste an hour on this show.

That's just how I am with TV shows. I don't have enough time to give a series 5-6 hours of my life before I judge it. Either it's good or it's not.

I will do me, hombre.

 

Thats a shame if you judged it on this one episode alone. And if you decide never to give the show or Bourdain another chance, youre doing yourself an injustice IMO. Hes one of the most humble,worldly, and culturally astute guys that finds a way to relate to all of his surroundings and finds a way to explain everything to viewers at home without coming off entitled or pretentious.

 

Easy with the hagiography, he's most often very interesting but not a prophet or anything. He's also regularly prone to the sort of pretentiousness you would get from a guy who grew up in the south of France and NYC.

Love the guy, but ****....

Maybe I never should have read his books, it's hard to take a self-indulgent heroin-addict seriously.

 

Watched it yesterday and enjoyed it.

If the topic of Houston's unique and seemingly out of place yet surging diversity isn't interesting to you, then I can see how the episode may have seemed boring.

 

Exactly this. As a second generationer, I enjoyed hearing the stories of the folks he met with about how they came to Houston to follow their dreams and build a life for their family. This show is called "Parts Unknown," it's a cultural show, the cuisine is only secondary. It's on CNN, not the Food Network. It exposed the world to the aspects of Houston most out-of-state folks don't know. I thought it was well done.

 

i never said otherwise... stop reading too much into my statement. all i said was that his show is typically amazing.

watching the masa episode in japan and the buenos aries episode definitely shone a light on how dull the houston episode was, though. i totally get why he did it and applaud it but it would have been nice to see him show some of houston's hipper side. it's not like you only see diversity on hilcroft or pearland, it's all over the hot spots in montrose and uptown and midtown etc.

 

The yankees are starting to notice what Houstonians have known for years:

http://www.gq.com/story/david-chang-houston-food-city

 

For anyone who missed it like me:

 

Great read, thanks!

But it seems that everyone praises Underbelly and it's owner. I've been a couple times and feel this place is so overated. The food average at best and the crowd is overly pretentious.

I don't get the hype

 

I like Underbelly. With that said, the politics of the Houston food scene cut deep. It seems to be 70% quality. The other 30% = marketing, who likes you, who you know, whose dick you kiss, etc...

 

This is true of more than half the places everybody praises as he next amazing thing, in my experience.

I don't go to all the hot spots or even many anymore with family life but in my 20s we'd hit up the new ones and I've had very few experiences that have just blown me away, sadly.

You so often leave hungry, with an empty wallet, and realizing how you could have gotten some equally tasty food that is more filling in less time and a quarter the price.

Some restaurants do live up to the hype to be sure.

As for Bourdain I've never gotten into him. I can watch bits and pieces but ultimately get bored or turned off by him. I don't hate him or his show but don't make a point to watch in any way.

 

Nice find, thanks.

 

Finally got around to seeing this. No its not one of the more sexy destinations or episodes that he's been to. But the episode reminded me of the traits of Houston that I love the most. It took me leaving Houston to realize how lucky Houstonians are (particularly minorities like myself) to live in such a diverse city. Houston has basically made no attempt to preserve history, it has no zoning, and as a result its a fairly ugly patchwork of streets, highways and neighborhoods. And so visually, there's no way to make Houston look amazing. But Houston's beauty is in its people and communities. A city that not only welcomes immigrants but can brag about its diversity today is something that is very special. And in an era where political movements across the world are openly embracing xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric, I'm proud that Houston continues to buck the trend and show that outsiders can and should be welcomed.

 

i think some people may have been expecting this type of show. a broad overview of the city.

the great canadian show waterfront cities of the world

 

I enjoyed watching this, but really didn't like the political baiting Bourdain kept throwing out. Houston has always been a friendly, tolerant city. You can be friendly, tolerant and right-wing...

 

Houston food is crap unless you spend a lot of money. I don't know who that Bourdain fellow is but he should be ashamed for making that video.

 

So where have you been going in Houston? If anything, the cheaper food outshines the expensive food.

 

Some of the best of Houston food cost $7 or less.

 

That's just laughably wrong.