Anthony Bourdain - dead at 61

I really agree with your description of how he appeared. Joyless is a great term. I was struck by the differences between the Mardi Gras episode that just aired, and an episode I watched last nigh of No Reservations. Definitely a different and darker Tony from previous seasons. It made me feel badly for him.

OMG thatā€™s EXACTLY how I think I"m going to die!?!?!?!?! (no not really, Iā€™m probably going to go alone and drunk somewhere, thatā€™s far more likely)

Without trying to be critical of CNN at an unprecedented event, I really think these last shows should not have aired.

I understand what you are saying, but I canā€™t fault them for airing the last episodes. They were totally complete and ready to go. They were his vision. Now, Iā€™m not so sure about the upcoming episodes that he was shooting, and all that raw footage. I donā€™t think they should air that.

Youā€™re going to have to drink quite a bit. Reminds me of this movie.

Back on topic now, I had no idea Bourdain also had another series called The Layover. I have only 1 episode (Amsterdam). Going to watch it tomorrow. The Dutch donā€™t care about the fact that they live in food hell. They are happy with their rubber cheese, cardboard bread, bratwurst and ā€œrice tableā€ (which is NOT even Dutch, btw).

We had some pretty good food when we were in Amsterdam two years ago. Good fish, good Chinese food, good sandwiches. Pretty good BBQ.

Heading to Houston in a few weeks, and find myself checking with Parts Unknown

Eater review

CNN

Houston Chronicle

"Oh, I loved his restaurant tell-all, ā€œKitchen Confidential,ā€ when it was published in 2000. The irreverence, the inside look at restaurant kitchens, the respect accorded to the Central Americans who were unheralded backbone of operations: all struck a chord, especially the hat tip to the immigrants who I saw working the line at just about every Houston restaurant I covered, then and now.

But as Bourdainā€™s fame grew, I wearied of the macho swagger and schtick. Well, all is now forgiven. His Houston episode is that insightful. It opens with staccato bursts of radio chatter from Indo-Pakistani, Vietnamese and Mexican stations, cut with freeway bursts of traffic and strip malls and signs in many languages. And basically the program never stops driving Houstonā€™s multicultural tapestry home."

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Iā€™ve always wanted to go out in my 70ā€™s/80ā€™s wade fishing off the Galveston coast with nine speckled trout and two redfish looking for limits but instead am eaten by a shark/sharks.

It should be fairly painless as Iā€™ll go into shock quickly, plusā€¦

Iā€™ll make national if not world wide news.

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I like how it shows weā€™re not ignorant rednecks riding horses to work past oil wells while dodging tumbleweeds in the street.

Keep posting on the Houston board before and after your trip.

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I am with you on that. I loved his earlier stuff and then it did get old. But I still miss him!

I found this show boring and it didnā€™t last long.

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What are your food plans? We are rightly proud of our Chinatown and Mahatma Gandhi District.

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Just read this

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I completely agree with the essay, however I would just add itā€™s not unique to the chef/restaurant world. That is fairly universal that the ā€œbad boyā€ image, especially with men who have made it to a certain age is generally celebrated and embraced. (I"m a living example)

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@winecountrygirl. Well-written and a powerful essay. The concept does extend to other fields, especially musicians, authors, actors, poets.

Itā€™s funny how it doesnā€™t work the other way; women are ridiculed when they reach a certain age and still behave like children.

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Thank you, @winecountrygirl - this is so apt.

This paragraph hits on a truth of depression, of mental illness, thatā€™s rarely so clearly stated:

ā€œThe brawny John Wayne-ian solitude of the bad-boy myth is corrosive: Left alone, the mental chaos of early adulthood can morph into full-blown depression, a real and progressive disease. Like cancer, depression has an agnostic disregard for success, wealth, or talent. It can go into remission, or escalate overnight. Depression marinates our brains in despair and etches new neural pathways, rewiring the mindā€™s architecture in ways that research is still uncovering. The effectiveness of treatments like talk therapy, medication and meditation is well documented, but the feverish speculation that follows a high-profile suicide ignores the neurochemical evidence and reinforces a false narrative of weakness and blame: She had everything to live for! What pushed him over the edge? Itā€™s not hard to imagine the added shame this could layer over the listening psyche of another soul in that fragile place.ā€

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Well said, ElsieDee

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Just wanted to make it clear that that was a quote, from a much longer article.

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Iā€™m going for a conference ( you may notce us; most cities do when we arrive), so Iā€™m not sure how far off the path Iā€™ll get to go. But Iā€™ll be with the hubs for a little bit, and he will join me for a few not-too-ā€œweirdā€ things. He says ā€œno Chowhound places!ā€.

Are these fairly mainstream Chinese and Indian communities? My husband isnā€™t a fan of ā€œrealā€ Chinese food in the SF Bay Area. Heā€™s more of a General Tso/ ā€œPF Changā€ and ā€œButter Chickenā€/curry kind of guy, but we can sometimes find common ground.

No, totally authentic. In some of the Chinatown restaurants itā€™s hard to find an English menu or speaker.

Also Houston is a city of 6.5 million, so itā€™s hard to notice a convention! Unless maybe you all wear funny stuff! Haha.

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