Uzbek Massages & Still-Beating Cobra Hearts
(Bentley School)
San Francisco, CA 94549
+1 510 843 2512
http://www.commonwealthclub.org
Review © 2009, Wcities
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Uzbek Massages & Still-Beating Cobra Hearts |
1000 Upper Happy Valley Road (Bentley School) San Francisco, CA 94549 +1 510 843 2512 http://www.commonwealthclub.org |
Adventure chef and author Anthony Bourdain walked into the maximum capacity filled room on November 19, 2007, with a graceful confidence that only comes with age and much, much personal experience with what we would call "the ungraceful." His speech, hosted at The Bentley School in Lafayette by the Commonwealth Club, could be summed up as an informal reminiscence of his many adventures across the world with a merciless camera crew of close friends. Bourdain has embarked on beautiful, exotic, and often times unknown hot spots of culinary intrigue and although some of his adventures have been tumultuous—like the time he had to eat unsanitized, undercooked, furry boar foot that was adorned with sand and fecal matter—his audience is always entertained. "Most viewers like to see me in a position of discomfort," Bourdain said. "Which is why the Uzbek massage scene was such a hit." The freeze frame of this traumatic scene in his book No Reservations is of a half naked man straddling over his listless body in a sweaty, massage parlor in Uzbekistan. "It looks like a scene from Midnight Express," Bourdain said. - - - For those who haven't seen the show, Bourdain plays the role of himself; a witty, verbally uncensored chef on an extreme eating quest. It's like watching the Crocodile Hunter inspect an endangered species—with a fork and knife. Bourdain will eat just about anything that can be grilled, fried, roasted on a spit or even in the raw, swimming in its own fluids. He lists his number-one culinary epiphany as a "live, still-beating cobra heart, washed down with its own blood and bile. Not bad at all — though I could have lived without the bile. I produce plenty of that myself." That being said, he has major issues with vegetarians. During his five-minute, pro-omnivore rant, he accused vegetarians of "cutting relationships short" and only experiencing a very limited selection. "It's like going to go to a museum and saying 'I only want to see the red paintings,'" he said. Bourdain only has one virtue: curiosity. He believes that eating should be an entirely submissive act and would never turn down a meal in order to keep an extra-clean colon. - - - A member of the audience asked what scares him most and the response was delightfully predictable. "I have nightmares of TV personalities with enormous heads and low quality cookware screaming catch-phrases like "Sammie's" and "EVOO." Since most of the audiences questions were aimed at his openly critical view of Rachael Ray, he divulged a few scenarios of Ray being indestructible. "I am an insect on that woman's radar screen. She could have me killed with the money she spends on Triscuit's every week…if a nuclear bomb was dropped and one person crawled out of the rubble alive, it would be her." - - - His popular all-see/all-tell show "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" on the Travel Channel has surpassed three seasons of highly acclaimed popularity, including one Emmy-nominated episode in war-stricken Beirut. In that episode, Bourdain and his crew witnessed the Beirut airport explode into flames after a bombing by Hezbollah. His crew was stuck in the city and had to be rescued by the U.S. Marines. Aside from this distressful experience, Bourdain still believes in the universal leveling experience of food and will continue to eat his way through Laos, Singapore, Spain, New Guinea, and Colombia next season. -- Britte Marsh See website for full calendar of Commonwealth Club events. Review © 2009, Wcities |
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