Archive for May, 2009
How Can I Miss You, When You Won’t Go Away?
May 31st, 2009
New York to LA to Palm Springs. Palm Springs to LA, car to Santa Barbara. Back again. LA to New York. Back to Palm Springs via Chicago. Palm Springs to San Franciso to New York. New York to Santiago, Chile … One week in the life.
There’s a heartbreaking bit of business in “The Wrestler” (one of many small, sad and all-too-real touches). Mickey Rourke, playing broken down, way-past-his-prime wrestler, Randy “the Ram” Robinson, finishes up a bout, changes out of his tights and packs them away — then toddles out of the locker room dragging a wheeled carry-on suitcase behind him. That tiny, minor note hit me hard, watching it on pay-per-view somewhere between New York and some where else, a spongy hotel bed with the climate control churning out a jet engine roar, a shaky, trilling sound as the mini-bar’s compressor kicked in. That damn suitcase — looking particularly tragic trailing behind Rourke’s freakish, giant, action-figure bulk reminded me of well …me.
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Not Fade Away
May 31st, 2009
We’re calling Monday night’s show “DISAPPEARING MANHATTAN,, but this is not to suggest that Katz’s Deli, or Keen’s, or Russ & Daughters are going to fade away anytime soon (if ever). What I am saying with this “Special” episode is that these are exactly the kind of old school, hometown places I love; uniquely New York institutions who have survived the brutal caprices of style and changing tastes — and are still worth going out of your way to patronize. Let me make this clear: “Old” does not necessarily mean “good.” Just cause it’s a “New York institution” doesn’t mean you want to eat there. If it did, New Yorkers might actually eat at Tavern On The Green — and Luchows would still be open.
Hierarchy of Pork
May 31st, 2009
I’m very nervous about tonight’s Philippines show.
I’m all too aware of the fact that the country is made up of over seven THOUSAND islands and that I visited exactly two of them. The food is intensely regional … I mean, even the difference between the food in Manila and Pampanga — only a couple of hours away –is striking. So I missed … a lot.
The Money
May 31st, 2009
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “prurient” as “having a mental itching or an uneasy or morbid craving.” Secondarily, as “having or characterized by an unhealthy concern with sexual matters” or “encouraging such a concern.”
With Monday night’s special, FOOD PORN, “encouraging such a concern” is exactly what we were going for. Just swap the word “food” for “sexual.”
Tube City
May 31st, 2009
“There are no two finer words than ‘encased meats,’ my friend.”
–T-shirt for sale at “Hot Doug’s”, Chicago
In the bad old days of the culture wars, when the “Forces of Darkness” had aligned against the “Forces of Goodness and Light,” Chicago was a key battleground and an early, crucial loss for the good guys. Foie gras had been declared illegal and the ensuing ripples of fear spread cross country. Gutless, craven punks everywhere deserted their comrades like Vichy shopkeepers while animal “activists” terrorized chefs’ families and children, vandalized businesses, and strong-armed retailers. But even though chefs like Wolfgang Puck — for instance — suddenly discovered their preference for fluffy cute ducks over their fellow chefs or their traditions and headed for the lifeboats, a few lone heroes stood tall, proudly extending a stiff middle finger at the advancing horde.
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Snarkology, The Sweet Science
May 31st, 2009
As far back as the early days of A COOK’S TOUR, that earlier, less good show on that other, crummier network, when it was just me, Chris Collins, Lydia Tenaglia and Diane Schutz travelling around the world together, shooting and scouting, they started calling me “Vic” – short for “Vic Chanko,” whenever I’d get testy. The name emanated from a prolonged, alcohol and fatigue, fueled fit of the giggles after an enormous meal of “chanko-nabe,” a less-than-light hotpot dish favored by sumo wrestlers. We found ourselves in late night Tokyo, riffing on the word “chanko,” conjuring the national film career of the imaginary star of spaghetti westerns, Yugoslavian-Italian co-productions, bad Filipino-Rambo knock-offs, “Vic Chanko”. It seemed funny at the time.
From Russia With Love
May 31st, 2009
Zamir is a man of many parts. With limited experience in the American heartland, he’s seen a side of this country in Baltimore, Detroit and Buffalo very different from New York City. And apparently, he takes the “land of opportunity” thing seriously.
Rust Never Sleeps
May 31st, 2009
I suspect that our President elect would have serious reservations about the cocktail that bears his name at Mo’s Crab & Pasta joint in Baltimore. It’s a scary blue, sickly sweet coconut tasting concoction with a lethal kick. And yet-and yet; here we were; me, a group of white construction workers, our Iranian-American hosts and Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, a diminutive young black woman who after six years in Jessup for Murder Two, emerged to find herself playing what Steven King called “the most terrifying female villain in the history of television”-a character not too far from her former self. We were drinking our “Obamas” and laughing our asses off-at what, I don’t even remember.
No Reservations: Now With 100% Less Pig!!!
May 31st, 2009
They’ve broken out the Santa hats at the Majestic in Saigon-and at the Galle Face in Colombo, Sri Lanka, hotel staff in cheery red and white caps greet us in the heat whenever we come back from a day’s shooting. They’re a little more incongruous in Colombo, mixed in as they are with cammo fatigues and AK-47’s. Things are made more odd there by an air of general goodwill and smiles – even at the checkpoints. Fingers are never far from triggers – and there’s a gun crew manning what looks like a 50 caliber on the rooftop next door, but even in the armed camp that the hotel grounds have become after decades of civil war, holiday spirit is in abundance.
