Tonight is the seventh season premier of
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, a food show on the Travel Channel that highlights the local culinary scene of various vacation destinations. By now, Tony's unadorned commentaries about worldly cultures are growing on me - he removes the tourist facades and gives viewers a real taste of foreign culture.
This week, Bourdain's travels bring us to
St. Vincent and the Grenadines - a small island nation that lies in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean. Food there is as unique as the population - a blend of Western gourmet and Carib freshness. One moment, he's on a yacht enjoying
Barracuda prepared by five-star European chefs, the next, he's sitting on a park bench tasting breadfruit salad from an aluminum tray.
Undoubtedly, the most intriguing meal is
manicou, or Trinidadian possum - a delicacy that could only caught in treetops at night. The rodent is skinned, smoked, and cooked in stew. This midnight Caribbean snack is definitely not for the faint of heart.
In any case, if you have a chance to travel this summer, be like Tony and do what the locals do. So far, working in SoHo has certainly satisfied my adventurous taste buds; I've had some great
Israeli,
Dominican,
Mexican,
Italian... food, that the real New York is beginning to reveal to me.
Bon Appétit.
