Originally posted by toneart
Only ignorant people who live in fear and have no intellectual curiosity (and probably low IQ) would not put Cuba on their bucket list.
Way to show how illuminated and open minded YOU are. Typical attitude of someone with a low IQ, though "if they don't like what I do, they must be
stupid, or ...".
Are you for real? Never mind, don't answer that, I know you are.
Always enjoyed his show... seemed to end up where most other travel shows do not go.. or even get close... loved the one when he was in Brazil ....
and ended up sleeping with the host and others on one bed after having a meal, with drinks and dancing... all inside this lady's home...
Long way from Samatha Brown's idea of travel and eating.. to each their own.. I like getting out with the "people" .... just me ... so this guys show
was much more to my own way of traveling... and eating... off taco stand's at 2-3 am...
It all good .... and it all helps... thanks much for the tread....
Originally posted by toneart
Only ignorant people who live in fear and have no intellectual curiosity (and probably low IQ) would not put Cuba on their bucket list.
Way to show how illuminated and open minded YOU are. Typical attitude of someone with a low IQ, though "if they don't like what I do, they must be
stupid, or ...".
Are you for real? Never mind, don't answer that, I know you are.
The only thing that I can conclude is that someone put his cranky pants on today.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
I have never seen Bourdain's show and it looks like I am missing a lot.
I also lived in Miami and LOVE Cuban food and love Cubans - music - family - drinks and smiles. i would love to go to Cuba one day .. it IS on my
bucket list.
Originally posted by BajaBlanca
I have never seen Bourdain's show and it looks like I am missing a lot.
I also lived in Miami and LOVE Cuban food and love Cubans - music - family - drinks and smiles. i would love to go to Cuba one day .. it IS on my
bucket list.
Blanca, Yes - You are missing an incredible program. Here is a link to give you a taste of the kind of dry humor that is love vs. hate among viewers.
If Anthony Bourdain was as sugary as Huell Howser, I doubt he would have the viewership that he can boast.
Case in point, he went to Columbia and searched the neighborhoods that were devastated by the drug wars and showcased how they were recovering.
Of course, his attitude may come off as arrogant, but he looks into to the heart of the culture and features this on his show.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
Originally posted by Sidamone
Ken, how's the Commie Paella at that Corona place?
Shhhhh! J. Edgar Hoover is tracking Ken from his grave.
Them pesky Commies are conspiring as we speak, in dark cafes, to overthrow the international food movement. That ferreign food sure don't look like
meat and potatoes...and that's UnA'mercan!
I enjoy Anthony Bourdain's escapes into the very unusual cuisine he travels far and wide to televise. One episode of note I recall was his eating the
heart of a cobra while it was still beating...actually, I've been trying to forget that one! I find him honest and down to earth on his shows which
often prove more to highlight the peoples and countries he has brought his entourage into.
Nice photos, Ken.
Hurts some to see China suceed as they have. Makes some of the same folks glad to see Cuba struggle.
This bottle of Havana Club rum from Cuba is not sold in the US. Bacardi sells a different rum in the US also called Havana Club but it is produced in
Puerto Rico.
IMG code
Havana Club also has a bar in Havana. This is me the morning after (ten years ago)
IMG code
Marc - I first saw bottles of Havana Club for sale in Colombia, and thought nothing of it (being illegal for sale in the USA). In Bahia de los
Angeles, one of the larger markets there sold Havana Club, and it is widely available throughout Baja California. You just can't bring it back across
our border.
Havana Club is a Bar in Havana? Wow! I didn't even know that! What an experience to have gone there. Thanks for sharing.
Say what you want about Castro–(we CAN, after all, Cubans not so much)–he managed, through design or neglect, to keep Havana beautiful.
Run down, crumbling, many buildings barely habitable–even the national baseball team has to play during the day because their stadium lights are
broken and the country is too poor to fix them. Where things barely work, where time is arrested, where a failed ideology wheezes along on life
support long after its inventors and sponsors abandoned it–at least, at least Havana is un-****ed by time. Where Moscow and St Petersburg brim with
newly uglified buildings, malls, and the old cookie cutter concrete blocks leftover from the workers’ paradise, Havana looks like a shabbier but still
gorgeous version of its older self. When it all changes, as it surely shall, I hope Havana’s waterfront, the malecon, the old hotels, the facades, the
Nacional, the Tropicana, the cars–they remain–at least in appearance and design–the same. I’d hate to see fast food signs, the boutique hotels, bottle
service, frat bars and canary yellow Lamborginis of the ****** side of Miami. When everybody’s wired and connected and chatting freely, watching 500
channels of cable and voting their minds, I hope the mojitos don’t start coming in sno-cone form, the old neighborhoods dug up for golf courses or
water parks.
It’s easy, I know, to over-romanticize the unspoiled. Especially when “unspoiled” means “poor”. But look. Look.
Whatever your politics, however you feel about Cuba–look at tonight’s show and admit, at least, that Havana is beautiful. It is the most beautiful
city of Latin America or the Caribbean. Look at the Cuban people and admit that they are proud and big hearted and funny and kind–and strong as hell,
having put up with every variety of bullchit over the years. On these things, I hope we can agree.
In the season premiere of "No Reservations" airing tonight, host Anthony Bourdain visits Cuba for the first time. He spends the hour falling for
Havana's old school charms, from its retro cars and architecture to its passionate baseball fans to its so-called "sleeping" beans, which are eaten
only after they've sat overnight.
U.S. tourists who have long dreamed of visiting the communist country should take note. Now that the Obama administration has issued new rules for
traveling to Cuba, average Americans can visit the country provided they do so with tour operators that provide educational experiences. (See New
rules promise legal Cuba travel for many.)
Bourdain talks to Overhead Bin about highlights − and the politics − of his first trip to the country. "No Reservations" airs this evening
at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel.
Q: You said in the show you expect to get a lot of grief over going to Cuba. Has the hate mail started trickling in?
A: No, but I think I’ve seen some stuff on Facebook. There are Cuban Americans with a zero tolerance policy as far as anything to do with Cuba, as
long as any Castro is alive. It is heretical for any American to visit. It is an emotional position that I understand and that I'm sympathetic to, but
obviously I went anyway.
Q: For the benefit of your viewers?
A: No, because I wanted to go. I don’t know that I have a lot of virtues, but one of them would be an intense curiosity about the world. I think my
expectation is that things are going to be changing in Cuba very soon and I wanted to see it before they did.
Q: Was there anything that you wanted to see firsthand?
An Argentine tourist has his picture taken in a 1956 Buick in Havana.
Q: Is this the most politically charged destination you’ve visited?
A: For some people it’s going to be. I just don’t really care. I’ve been to a lot of countries where we have differences of opinion, to say the least,
or bad histories or even places where they see the world very differently than I do. It was not something that I was looking to concentrate on, but at
the same time, I was very aware that it was worth mentioning often that Cubans can’t leave Cuba, that they’re not free to say what they want. That
even in this incredibly wired age, that Twittering or communicating freely over the Internet are things they can’t do.
Q: Speaking of free expression, what did you make of the legally permitted street corner debates over baseball?
A: I think there’s a lot going on there that I don’t know in the sense that you could argue publicly about baseball, but it’s probably ill-advised to
argue about other things, though I do understand that politics do creep into the discussion at times. I wanted to mention repeatedly in the show
certain obvious facts about living in Cuba, which is something that other travel show hosts, perhaps, did not do and I think got a lot of grief for
it. If you’re eating in a fine dining restaurant it is worth mentioning that chances are, you won’t be seeing any ordinary Cubans there.
Q: You’re infamous for calling people out for idiotic behavior. Did you find any of your experiences in Cuba aggravating?
A: No. We met ordinary people, we met people who had been assigned by a government agency to help us. Right across the board at every level, people
were shockingly frank with us as far as how they thought things would go. We were not shy about talking about these things. I get to come back to New
York and say whatever the hell I want. The people who were good to us and spoke frankly to us, they have to live there. We’re not looking to hurt
anybody with the show.
Q: It looked like you ate well there. What was the best thing you had?
A: I ate some really good food in a high-end tourist restaurant, a Spanish-Basque place, but I have to tell you the "sleeping" beans were really
extraordinary. I’m a guy who is very happy with just some good beans and some decent rice, and that was quite good.
Q: Do you feel like the next few years will be transformative for Cuba?
A: I think everybody there is tangibly holding their breath. They know something has to change. Even the noises coming out of Raul Castro − he
breached the subject of term limits. Just the fact that he would utter those things in public, it doesn’t mean they’re getting any nicer, but they’re
recognizing a changing reality on the ground. It’s not a viable system and I think everybody knows that. People have to struggle and sneak and
improvise and that’s what they’ve done their whole lives. How long can that go on when the they know the rest of the world is talking to each other
having thousand of conversations?
Q: Some people go to Cuba and fall in love with it like some people fall in love with, for example, New Orleans. Do you feel like Havana has your
heart?
A: I feel it has my heart in really significant ways. It’s not my country, where New Orleans is. It’s not my system, whereas New Orleans, for better
or worse, is. But it has my heart in the sense that I’ll always care a lot about what happens. I feel interested in what happens and how it works for
the Cuban people in ways that I might not care in other places. It’s just so damn beautiful. It’s like Venice or Naples in that sense. All of the
things that don’t work, the fact that it is a dysfunctional system … is also what has kept it un-ruined. There’s not a lot of strip malls or the usual
buildings you get for being too close to the Soviet Union; they managed to avoid that for the most part in Havana. It’s still beautiful and that’s
something.
Q: You spend time with people who know the history, culture and quirks of the place. The most efficient way for most travelers to get the same
behind-the-scenes look is to go on expensive guided tours. Is this a waste of money in your mind? Is there a better way to do it?
A: We do a lot of research before we go and we’re looking for local bloggers, people who live there and have a particular interest in what I’m
interested in, which is looking at the world through a food-centric view. Also, we’re looking for someone with a sense of humor. Reaching out to local
bloggers is always a good thing. There’s somebody, chances are, who has incredible and hyper-nerdly expertise in your area of interest. If you’re
talking about a tour of Renaissance art in Florence, it would probably be a good idea. But street food in Vietnam, [go to a] blogger.
Q: Finally, what are the highlights from this season of 'No Reservations'? What did you come home and brag about?
A: Naples was a lot of fun because we were tracking the "Red Sauce" trail. I wanted to know if the Italian food that I grew up eating, does it have
any relation to what they’re eating in Naples? I had a really great time doing that show. The Iraqi-Kurdistan episode, I'm really excited about that
one, too. It was very beautiful and there was shockingly good food. We had a lot of fun this season.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
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