BajaNomad - Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown: MEXICO

Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown: MEXICO

Ateo - 5-27-2014 at 08:41 AM

Have you seen the Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown" episode on Mexico?

This line from a blog sums up the episode for me.......

"Body, body, body, Santa Muerte, body, body, tacos, body, body, interview with journalist in hiding, body, body, Mezcal, coiners, body, clever literary reference, body, body…and, wait for the finale…body."

His show, his rules.

Just think it wasn't up to par................

[Edited on 5-27-2014 by Ateo]

durrelllrobert - 5-27-2014 at 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo
Have you seen the Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown" episode on Mexico?

This line from a blog sums up the episode for me.......

"Body, body, body, Santa Muerte, body, body, tacos, body, body, interview with journalist in hiding, body, body, Mezcal, coiners, body, clever literary reference, body, body…and, wait for the finale…body."

I love Anthony's work, but I think he spent way too much time inadvertently bashing Mexico. I know, I'm biased, and I've read his response to those who disagreed with his portrayal of Mexico in the episode.

His show, his rules.

Just think it wasn't up to par................

Who shives a git?

Ateo - 5-27-2014 at 09:15 AM

Thanks Bob.

tripledigitken - 5-27-2014 at 10:28 AM

The charm of Anthony is that he's not afraid to expose the warts along with praise in his reporting of countries and cities.

That said, I would say there is no doubt that his praise of Baja cuisine has benefited the industry in northern baja.

This is some background of the show and his feelings about Mexico and its people

tripledigitken - 5-27-2014 at 03:26 PM

Under the Volcano

By: Anthony Bourdain, CNN

Americans love Mexican food. We consume nachos, tacos, burritos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales, and anything resembling Mexican in enormous quantities.

We love Mexican beverages, happily knocking back huge amounts of tequila, mezcal and Mexican beer every year.

We love Mexican people -- as we sure employ a lot of them. Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes, and look after our children. As any chef will tell you, our entire service economy -- the restaurant business as we know it -- in most American cities, would collapse overnight without Mexican workers. Some, of course, like to claim that Mexicans are "stealing American jobs." But in two decades as a chef and employer, I never had ONE American kid walk in my door and apply for a dishwashing job, a porter's position -- or even a job as prep cook. Mexicans do much of the work in this country that Americans, provably, simply won't do. We love Mexican drugs. Maybe not you personally, but "we," as a nation, certainly consume titanic amounts of them -- and go to extraordinary lengths and expense to acquire them.

LIVE BLOG: Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown

We love Mexican music, Mexican beaches, Mexican architecture, interior design, Mexican films.

So, why don't we love Mexico?

We throw up our hands and shrug at what happens and what is happening just across the border. Maybe we are embarrassed.

Mexico, after all, has always been there for us, to service our darkest needs and desires. Whether it's dress up like fools and get pass-out drunk and sun burned on Spring break in Cancun, throw pesos at strippers in Tijuana, or get toasted on Mexican drugs, we are seldom on our best behavior in Mexico. They have seen many of us at our worst. They know our darkest desires.

In the service of our appetites, we spend billions and billions of dollars each year on Mexican drugs -- while at the same time spending billions and billions more trying to prevent those drugs from reaching us. The effect on our society is everywhere to be seen. Whether its kids nodding off and overdosing in small town Vermont, gang violence in LA, burned out neighborhoods in Detroit -- it's there to see.

What we don't see, however, haven't really noticed, and don't seem to much care about, is the 80,000 dead -- mostly innocent victims in Mexico, just in the past few years. 80,000 dead. 80,000 families who've been touched directly by the so-called war on drugs.

Mexico. Our brother from another mother. A country, with whom, like it or not, we are inexorably, deeply involved, in a close but often uncomfortable embrace.

Look at it. It's beautiful. It has some of the most ravishingly beautiful beaches on earth. Mountains, desert, jungle. Beautiful colonial architecture, a tragic, elegant, violent, ludicrous, heroic, lamentable, heartbreaking history. Mexican wine country rivals Tuscany for gorgeousness. Its archeological sites—the remnants of great empires, unrivaled anywhere.

And as much as we think we know and love it, we have barely scratched the surface of what Mexican food really is. It is NOT melted cheese over a tortilla chip. It is not simple, or easy. It is not simply 'bro food' halftime. It is in fact, old -- older even than the great cuisines of Europe and often deeply complex, refined, subtle, and sophisticated. A true mole sauce, for instance, can take DAYS to make, a balance of freshly (always fresh) ingredients, painstakingly prepared by hand. It could be, should be, one of the most exciting cuisines on the planet. If we paid attention.

The old school cooks of Oaxaca make some of the more difficult to make and nuanced sauces in gastronomy. And some of the new generation, many of whom have trained in the kitchens of America and Europe have returned home to take Mexican food to new and thrilling new heights.

It's a country I feel particularly attached to and grateful for.

PHOTO GALLERY: Anthony Bourdain visits Mexico

In nearly 30 years of cooking professionally, just about every time I walked into a new kitchen, it was a Mexican guy who looked after me, had my back, showed me what was what, was there -- and on the case -- when the cooks more like me, with backgrounds like mine -- ran away to go skiing or surfing -- or simply "flaked." I have been fortunate to track where some of those cooks come from, to go back home with them. To small towns populated mostly by women -- where in the evening, families gather at the town's phone kiosk, waiting for calls from their husbands, sons and brothers who have left to work in our kitchens in the cities of the North. I have been fortunate enough to see where that affinity for cooking comes from, to experience moms and grandmothers preparing many delicious things, with pride and real love, passing that food made by hand, passed from their hands to mine.

In years of making television in Mexico, it's one of the places we, as a crew, are happiest when the day's work is over. We'll gather round a street stall and order soft tacos with fresh, bright, delicious tasting salsas -- drink cold Mexican beer, sip smoky mezcals, listen with moist eyes to sentimental songs from street musicians. We will look around and remark, for the hundredth time, what an extraordinary place this is.

The received wisdom is that Mexico will never change. That is hopelessly corrupt, from top to bottom. That it is useless to resist -- to care, to hope for a happier future.

But there are heroes out there who refuse to go along. On this episode of "Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown," we meet a few of them. People who are standing up against overwhelming odds, demanding accountability, demanding change -- at great, even horrifying personal cost.

This show is for them.

[Edited on 5-27-2014 by tripledigitken]

dasubergeek - 5-27-2014 at 03:35 PM

Just ridiculous. Really, you cannot be pretending you're in the middle of a gnarly cartel scene when you're filming on Reforma in Mexico City. It'd be like filming a show about turf wars in the South Bronx while rolling down Fifth Avenue from 59th to 50th.

pauldavidmena - 5-27-2014 at 03:37 PM

Bourdain does have quite the ego, but his celebrity has given some extraordinary access to some very interesting places. My wife and I visited the island of Bequia in the Caribbean on the basis of one of his shows, and it was a great vacation. That said, an hour show only scratches the surface, particularly when so much of it is about him and not the country he is visiting.

I did see the Mexico episode, and I think he spent way too much time on Santa Muerte and not nearly enough time showcasing Mexico's diverse cuisines. His "No Reservations" episode in Baja was much better in that regard. The show is entertainment, but not much in the way of education.

motoged - 5-27-2014 at 03:40 PM

TDK,
Bourdain is an interesting guy who brings the rest of the world's food and people to our living rooms....and tells the stories in a hedonist's way.

I like his take on his Mexican experience....in and away from Mexico.

Thanks for the blurb :cool:

tripledigitken - 5-27-2014 at 03:46 PM

I thought it was a well written piece. A lot of his feelings on the subject I share. I've read a few of his books and he has always spoken of his Mexican coworkers with reverence.

I'd recommend his recent show on Mississippi for those that enjoy his work.

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged
TDK,
Bourdain is an interesting guy who brings the rest of the world's food and people to our living rooms....and tells the stories in a hedonist's way.

I like his take on his Mexican experience....in and away from Mexico.

Thanks for the blurb :cool:

motoged - 5-27-2014 at 03:50 PM

I watch him as part of my compulsive channel-hopping routine....in-between Cops, Storage Wars, and Pawn Stars :lol:

elizabeth - 5-27-2014 at 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dasubergeek
Just ridiculous. Really, you cannot be pretending you're in the middle of a gnarly cartel scene when you're filming on Reforma in Mexico City. It'd be like filming a show about turf wars in the South Bronx while rolling down Fifth Avenue from 59th to 50th.

Actually whe he said that I thought he was in Tepito, which does have an edgy and rough reputation, although daytime markets there and an emerging art scene are worth visiting. That said, I wouldn't visit at night!

BajaBlanca - 5-27-2014 at 05:24 PM

I think we are lucky to have a person who travels to so many odd places and introduces the foods to us.

There is nothing he could possibly do to satisfy all of us who love Mexico and live here ... and I think his writing on our "perception" of the brother from another Mother was spot on.

I did not see the Mexico program but will keep an eye out for the next time it shows.

Ateo - 5-27-2014 at 05:38 PM

I watched the episode. My only issue is I think it went "over the top" in it's portrayal of the level of violence and death from the cartels. I know I have no right to even have an "issue" over a tv show. =)

The first sentence uttered is "Mexico is a country where people fight to survive..........All to often they lose that battle". It's as if every Mexican is constantly worried they will be kidnapped and decapitated all day every day. Then they queue up some dead body images. This goes on for about 70% of the show.

No one will argue that this happens in Mexico, I just felt it was a tad over dramatized in the program. That's it. That's all. I'd like others opinions that have seen it though. =)

[Edited on 5-28-2014 by Ateo]

elizabeth - 5-27-2014 at 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo
I watched the episode. My only issue is I think it went "over the top" in it's portrayal of the level of violence and death from the cartels. I know I have no right to even have an "issue" over a tv show. =)

The first sentence uttered is "Mexico is a country where people fight to survive..........All to often they lose that battle". It's as if every Mexican is constantly worried they will be kidnapped and decapitated all day every day. Then they queue up some dead body images. This goes on for about 70% of the show.

No one will argue that this happens in Mexico, I just felt it was a tad over dramatized in the program. That's it. That's all. I'd like others opinions that have seen it though. =)

[Edited on 5-28-2014 by Ateo]

I agree that it was a little (a lot?) overly dramatic! Otherwise, the neighborhood and food descriptions were great! It was a little at odds with his stated philosophy of Mexico...

volcano - 5-30-2014 at 06:34 AM

watched it, and my family watched it. now they think the cartel killings are everywhere and bodies everywhere,,,,did not help my cause nor Mexican tourism at all.in fact...really hurt

Genecag - 5-30-2014 at 08:37 AM

The comments made by Bourdain in his 'Live Blog' is spot on and written much better than I could express....

I Love the USA and love and appreciate my 3rd country Mexico. As the old saying goes, "history repeats itself" and in that analogy Mexico is where USA was 80 years ago for political and social culture. For better or worse, Mexico will follow USA's route and become what we are - Mexico will become and wear more makeup to better cover our ugly warts and scars....

I have had the good fortune to travel the world for my work and been to many of the places that Bourdain featured and while those exotic locales been interesting - Mexico is still the best: for me. No other place matches it's unspoiled landscape and diversity and most of all the people.

Bourdain's portrayal of the violence is valid, the war between the Cartels is brutal and savage but even worse, maybe, was the fringe crimes against businessmen and people outside the drugs with it's kidnappings and shakedowns. 5 to 7 years ago, security in TJ was at it's lowest point that I could remember. There was not a week that went by that I did not hear of people we knew that were kidnapped for ransome and or killed during the attempt. We were very close to leaving TJ and going back to SD.....

Things have improved drastically and hope it continues, Mexicans deserve better....

David K - 5-30-2014 at 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by volcano
watched it, and my family watched it. now they think the cartel killings are everywhere and bodies everywhere,,,,did not help my cause nor Mexican tourism at all.in fact...really hurt

Agree... he should spend as much time showing the 'daily' murders in his home state (New York?)!

Bad stuff happens anywhere. Are you going to lock yourself up in your home because crime is outside or are you not going to let fear dictate your life and see new places or enjoy life?

Andrew Zimmern was far more positive in his Baja food shows...

[Edited on 6-7-2014 by David K]

tripledigitken - 5-30-2014 at 09:01 AM

Mexico can be a hard sell to a noobie. Most here are seasoned travelers and know what to expect when crossing the border. We can forget how intimidating it was the first time driving through a military checkpoint.......

Mexico is still on the State Dept. travel warning list as of Jan of this year, including the state of Baja.

motoged - 5-30-2014 at 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

Agree... he should spend as much time showing the 'daily' murders in his home state (New York?)!

Bad stuff happens anywhere. Are you going to lock yourself up in your home because crime is outside or are you not going to let fear dictate your life and see new places or enjoy life?....

David,
Your friends at FOX snooze are doing a pretty good job of portraying Mexico as a dangerous place to be. Bourdain's comments reflect some aspect of reality, but his message was more supportive of Mexican people, culture, and food than not.

While Mexican tourism suffers from the fear-mongering.....I don't mind that the "fearful ones" are staying home and not cluttering up the Mexico we appreciate.

I overheard an American woman in San Jose del Cabo several years ago complain that "They don't speak American down here...."

WTF is with that mentality?????????????????

durrelllrobert - 5-30-2014 at 10:41 AM

I saw Tony at the beach last year:

[Edited on 5-30-2014 by durrelllrobert]

[Edited on 5-30-2014 by durrelllrobert]

vgabndo - 5-30-2014 at 10:51 AM

Fearful ones...
I'm reminded of a couple who visited Campo Sirena earlier this year. His motorhome was SO big there was hardly any place he could park. His "toad" pick up truck had about 50 gallons of drinking water in the bed from the states! The only time I saw him he spoke to me through a tiny window that opened on the side of his rolling castle. I hope at some point he got out of the vehicle and got a little taco juice on his shirt! :lol:

I can't imagine he didn't have a damned laundramat inside that thing.

I'd go hungry if it wasn't for the asado tacos at "Mister Taco", the Relleno taco at Conchitas, and the Shrimp tacos at Don Ramon's. If you catch me hiding from this culture, feel free to kick my nalgas blancas. :lol:

David K - 5-30-2014 at 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged

Quote:

I don't know anyone at Fox News but thank God there is some balance to the leftist propaganda that has fooled people into electing the most corrupt people ever. Do you have friends at msnbc or pravda? I like a Baja with fewer crowds but that hurts our Baja businesses. There is room for all Nomads so no need to lie about conditions to keep unsure travelers away.

Hook - 5-31-2014 at 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K

I don't know anyone at Fox News but thank God there is some balance to the leftist propaganda that has fooled people into electing the most corrupt people ever. Do you have friends at msnbc or pravda?

Wow! I didnt know MSNBC ever supported George Bush.

Paula - 5-31-2014 at 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by motoged

Quote:

Really! She didn't even consider our friends to the north...
she should have said American/Canadian! :lol:

sargentodiaz - 6-1-2014 at 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ateo
Have you seen the Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown" episode on Mexico?

This line from a blog sums up the episode for me.......

"Body, body, body, Santa Muerte, body, body, tacos, body, body, interview with journalist in hiding, body, body, Mezcal, coiners, body, clever literary reference, body, body…and, wait for the finale…body."

His show, his rules.

Just think it wasn't up to par................

[Edited on 5-27-2014 by Ateo]

There were some good parts in the show but he spends 80% of the show eating and telling us how great the food is wherever he goes.