This is like the best Travel Channel show ever. This guy is great. Humorous, politically aware, food-and-Drink-loving, chain-smoking lol... I'm not sure a younger host could have pulled this off.

He's got the gruff, opinionated attitude you sometimes see in mature travellers but he (or his producers) are smart enough to let the majority of humor be self-depreciating instead of snide. Plus the mildly off-color allusions to sex, drugs and bodily functions are refreshing vs. the sterile Lonely Planet style.

The major flaw to my mind are those tight, cut-off denim shorts he sometimes wears... yech... Tony if you're reading this, please, please, lose the shorts!

Anyone watching this? I love it. I mean, as far as travel shows go, I'm hooked.

I have only seen bits of this show...only while in a place that has fancier cable access than what is available at my house.

But have you ever seen 'A Cook's Tour?' That introduced me to Anthony Bourdain, and have liked him ever since.

Read his Bobby Gold novels? Kinda a gansta cheesy, but in a good way. Might just dig it if you like his style.

Any episodes in particular you reccomend?

hey Jules,

No I havent read or seen anything else from him, save an interview online which someone posted on BnA but I cant find to link at the moment...

I especially liked the Korea, US-Mexico and Indonesia episodes of No Reservations... there was a 2-hour Asia special that focused on Japan and China that was good too; I havent watched them all yet tho. Next up: Peru and Quebec.

Thanks for the recommendations on his other stuff. I didnt know he was a novelist, too, I had only heard of Kitchen Confidential, which I also want to read and I guess is a tv show too?

I wish we got that over here. I'm a fan of Bourdains. I loved his first season of Kitchen Confidential (based loosely on the book), and was so disappointed to find out they've discontinued the show.

Jules, I have "A Cook's Tour" and I love it. It combines two of my favorite subject : food and travel. Have you ever red The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten?

quote:

I had only heard of Kitchen Confidential, which I also want to read and I guess is a tv show too?

Yes, it was a show for a minute. But it was lame. So it went the way of all poorly done shows, TV Graveyard Land.

If you get the chance to see A Cook's Tour ( I have seen it on both PBS and Food TV) it is great stuff -- much more of his personality and his experiences with say, cooking a lamb with the Bedouins and then getting really drunk in the desert, or, meeting up with a fire filled Russian woman in a market and convincing her to make borscht in her tiny bunker style kitchen and then getting drunk on vodka while she tells stories that he doesn't understand. That stuff was genius.

Thanks for the hints on No Reservations -- I'll pester my friends with cable.

If you have a decent internet connection, you could always download the program via bit torrent

all you need to do is put the links given here into a bit torrent client like this one or this one and wait while the show downloads

For playback, the VCL media player is free, small, easy and effective.

the Puerto Rico episode is great, too, even tho the pork-fest was waaaay over the top, I found it amusing

THe new season premiered this week. First episode: Beruit! just as the bombing starts.....