Happy Aloha Friday!
We used to watch Anthony Bourdain indulging in the most curious cuisine, from falafel food truck to catfish in Katmandu. Always, the shabby sheik, nonchalant, (shall I, dare I, say, male version of Holly Golightly) freeloading across the globe on someone else’s dime; making every moment look as sumptuous as the fare he was set to partake in! Anthony had that, cleverly escaped brushes with the law, feel about him. I imagined him at the bow of a ship, sea spray glinting his gray locks, as he pointed toward shore, calling out, “Land Ho!” Ready to pounce as the hull struck the crunchy sand, ragged pants sloppily curled up in the sloshy trudging to dry land. There he would meet with a native fisherman to catch and cook his next exotic meal.
Anthony was kind. Once correcting a young boy for claiming Michael Jackson suffered from vertigo. Others were not as kind. Bourdain, once accused, by a protester, of eating dog, a claim he vehemently denied, went on to joke that he might be forced to eat dog if the protester didn’t cease and desist. I’d venture a guess, Bourdain would rather bring a cat to work than a dog. Bourdain was like the fifth Beatle, an amalgam of all the eccentricities of the original fab four. Phil Spector eat your heart out. Whomever was actually the Walrus, Bourdain WAS the Lion! His “Christmas in July” special, featuring a particularly French strawberry dessert, was a tip of the hat to both the Beatles (for their 18 day stand at Paris’ Olympia Theater) and Erno Rubik…Rubik, who by all definitions is the greater success of the two, will live on in infamy, much to the chagrin of Bourdain, as the most famous name whose name you don’t actually know. It’s like his own invention Catfished him and Nev Schulman wasn’t even contacted to pursue the caper. As Bourdain once said, if you can’t spot the riddle…then you are the riddle.
