Posted on 05/25/2009 1:35:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Texas cuisine is not only big, it’s bizarre.
At least that’s the word from the host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Zimmern is a chef and professional eater with an infectiously amiable nature and, as The Soup likes to point out, a penchant for entrails, eyeballs and other strange edibles.
He found the Lone Star State, and especially its food, not only “larger than life,” he said in an interview, but unusual and interesting enough to fill an entire episode of his culinary show. Bizarre Foods: Texas premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the Travel Channel.
During the hour, Zimmern stops by San Antonio’s LibertyBar for a funky appetizer; Houston’s Johnson Space Center for a freeze-dried shrimp cocktail; a Hill Country roadside shack for cabrito burgers; a Laredo ranch for “skunk pig”; Uvalde for gorditas filled with tripe; and a Western bistro in Fort Worth that specializes in rattlesnake and rabbit sausage.
Probably the most unusual fare is found at the Texas State Fair in Dallas, where we watch Zimmern dine on an alligator kabob, a frozen liquid nitrogen dessert that releases cold smoke from his nose, and fried everything — even Coca-Cola. One of his favorite jaunts, he said, was to the Johnson Space Center, where he and four astronauts find out if they have “the right stuff, or right stomach, when it comes to space food.”
“Talk about a grown-up kid’s dream come true,” he said. Space food
Their mission is to rate freeze-dried foods from the best (broccoli au gratin and chocolate pudding cake) to the worst (irradiated beef steak).
In space, he learned, taste buds are a little duller, and astronauts like spicier foods in orbit. So they make good use of Tabasco sauce.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
He is also certifiable. Wow.
First time I saw him reject something was from Chet’s Seafood near Pensacola, FL.
Of course I don’t eat fried mullet roe either.
He is low class, y'all.
Low class? Because he travels the world and eats things that would make a billy goat puke?
I've eaten many things in my years. I haven't seen him eat many things that I wouldn't try.
None of that sounds bad - just wash it down with a Lone Star beer
Thus, I categorize him in the column marked "Low class".
If you want someone that will wait till he's out of sight of the vendor to make fun of them watch Anthony Bordaine.
Are you sure you’re not confusing Zimmern with Anthony Bourdain?
Anthony Bourdain’s show last night featured him going to Ted Nugent’s ranch for some full-auto target practice with some wounded vets and some deer backstrap Bar-B-Q. It was great!
No longer being able to see Bourdain and Zimmern’s shows are the only sore spots with me since we gave up satellite TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_aSglGw88U
Anthony Bourdain and Ted Nugent Shooting Machineguns
Just a smidge, though.
While we're on the topic: Has anyone seen the food program where they drive around Spain and eat? I 've seen a few episodes and the pettern is this: Food expert drives around Spanish countryside with hot, skinny Spanish model/TV star. They eat stuff. Then, for a about 5 minutes, they are joined by Gwyneth Paltrow, of all people. She is a fount of wisdom, but she leaves very soon: "Mmmm this tastes really, um, bacon-y. Alright, I gotta go".
The show is surreal solely due to the entrance and egress of Miss Paltrow. Will she arrive BEFORE the tripe, or should we expect her for the sorbet? The only pattern I saw was her departure before the check comes.
I can't stand the guy - he doesn't like spam, but he'll eat giraffe entrails and call it good...I don't get it.
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