The Insatiable and Unknowable Anthony Bourdain

[elleng]

'Anthony Bourdain devoured the world. That’s not hyperbole. It’s not even metaphor. There was no place that he wasn’t curious to explore, no food that he wasn’t determined to try, no cap on his hunger and no ceiling, or so it always seemed, on his joy.

In his writing and especially on his TV shows, most recently CNN’s “Parts Unknown,” he exhorted the rest of us to follow his lead and open our eyes and our guts to the wondrous smorgasbord of life. He insisted that we savor every last morsel of it.

It turns out that he himself could not. Bourdain, 61, was found dead on Friday in a hotel room near Strasbourg, France, where he was shooting an episode of that CNN show. The cause, according to the network, was suicide.

His death ends a blazing career that contributed as much as anybody else’s to Americans’ increased fascination with, and knowledge about, food in all its multiethnic splendor. If we’re savvier to the ways of banh mi, bo ssam and dim sum than we were two decades ago, we have Bourdain in large measure to thank. With television cameras in tow, he showed us Asia, Australia, Africa — and he tasted all of them for us.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/opinion/anthony-bourdain-suicide.html?

[hlthe2b]

1. I love this quote from Bourdain:

“If I am an advocate for anything, it is to move,” he once mused. “As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.”

[TEB]

2. That is ashame

If it was suicide

[BigmanPigman]

3. I learned so much from his shows and books since 2001.

We have/has a lot in common in many different ways. He influences and educated me. I happily tried a balute (Asian street food, an 18 day old duck or chicken embryo in its shell) when offered one from a first grade student's parent from the Philippines. We bonded over that. He will be missed. He said the best way to spend an afternoon off from working was to "have a gallon of Fleischmann's (vodka or whiskey) on the floor, watch the History Channel showing Russians stacking up dead Nazis like firewood, have no shoes on, eating a bowl of mac and cheese and smoking a big "fattie" that he twisted up". I think that is a damn good idea Tony! Here's to you!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. ❤️

I listened to his first book on cd years ago. It was SO great. He amazed me. Always wished I could Eat My Way Around the World someday.