More Nasty Bits from Anthony Bourdain
Dave Weich, Powells.com

Since his first full-length interview at Powells.com, Anthony Bourdain has published "a rude, unpretentious, utilitarian - and hopefully entertaining - field manual to classic French bistro cooking," a crime novel, and now The Nasty Bits, a book of previously uncollected essays. Anthony Bourdain

And all the while he's been globetrotting from the Kalahari to Quebec, documenting culinary culture for the Travel Channel.

During a recent Oregon stopover, Bourdain returned to discuss culture shock, maple bacon donuts, how to read restaurant menus, and more.

Dave: When last we spoke, you were here to promote A Cook's Tour, your first travel book. I asked about the destinations you chose, and you said, "I was looking for places where my enthusiastic ignorance might prove a plus on occasion." Now that you've been doing t.v. for five years, how has that changed?

Anthony Bourdain: I've found the virtues of actually knowing where I'm going. Frequently, when I arrive in a place, I've been there before or I know people there. As the show airs all over the world and the books are translated elsewhere, the list of my acquaintances has grown, particularly among chefs.

But there's still a lot to be said for showing up ignorant and enthusiastic, for learning on the ground. That feels good. Indonesia is the most recent example. Every day that you're forced to learn, even simple things, to feed yourself, to find cigarettes, to get around; overcoming discomfort, the language barrier, a sense of shyness, intimidation, unfamiliarity... The first day you can go out and get yourself breakfast without help, that's a small triumph.

Dave: Do you still experience culture shock?

Bourdain: It's not like I feel culture shock. No, okay, I have a clear example. I spent some time with the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. That was real culture shock.

They're tiny. They don't grow anything. They don't raise anything. They hunt and gather. They don't even have feathers on their bows; that's how primitive it is. They have to get within thirty feet or so of their prey, shoot it with little poison arrows, track this beast for up to two days, often at high speed. They sit there and talk to the animal for hours as the poison takes effect, apologizing for taking its life. And then they eat it. All of it. They don't store food. If they have a lot of meat, they eat a lot of meat. If they have no food, they don't eat.

They sleep outdoors. They don't even really hang out with other tribes. Each group of Bushmen is an immediate family, and they marry within that family - no brothers and sisters, but anything beyond that is okay.

Their cooking skills are dubious. I don't think I ate a single mouthful of food the entire time with them that didn't have either sand, fur, or shit in it. Really. They cook the beast... they scoop it out and throw it in the fire, fur and all.

That was culture shock.

Dave: The Nasty Bits is dedicated to three of the Ramones. Have you listened to Marky Ramone's show on Sirius radio?

Bourdain: I haven't heard the radio show, but one of my many pinch-me moments was in New York when I got a phone call from the restaurant saying Marky Ramone had seen me on the earlier series wearing a Ramones t-shirt. He's a bit of an amateur gourmet, or at least an enthusiastic eater, apparently. He asked if he could come to dinner with some friends and hang out. So I spent an evening talking with him.

My passion for the Ramones is enormous. If there was a great moment in my personal musical history, it was when I saw the Ramones for the first time at CBGB. This must have been 1975.

As has been pointed out - now that they're all dead except for Marky - music was so bad then. Everyone noodling away on guitars, country rock, easy listening music... if I heard "One Way Out" by the Allman Brothers one more time I was going to take my own life. So to see three chords, no pause between songs, nice simple lyrics about... nothing really. Aggression, violence - that's what rock and roll should be about. It was a moment of Thank God, there's music in my life again.

Dave: In The Nasty Bits, you asked Gabrielle Hamilton, "How has kitchen culture changed since you got into the business?" How would you answer the same question? How have things changed since you wrote Kitchen Confidential?

Bourdain: I travel all over the world, and invariably, whether I'm on book tour or making a show, I end up hanging out at a bar at three o'clock in the morning with the local chefs and cooks, so I'm pretty tuned in to what's going on. I think Gabrielle's answer was right on the money. The glamorization of chefs has been very good for the business and probably very good for diners and customers, too.