There is no lack of television travel shows for the armchair vagabond.
Pick your passion, whether you be a pampered five-star hotel traveler or minimalist outbacker who carries little in the way of amenities.
Think high thread-count sheets and in-house spas as compared to the latest in freeze-dried foods and high tech water filters.
Add to the mix whatever particular playtime avocation you hope to pique and you might be packing a lightweight $800 Orvis fly rod or $3000 Nikon camera.
And then, there are those of us who find fascination in foods we have the opportunity to savor along our adventure’s path.
Apparently I am not alone with an ardor towards exotic travels and exotic foods or some combination of the two.
That is probably why I thoroughly enjoy watching Antony Bourdain while he transects the globe with No Reservations as to where he travels or what he puts in his mouth.
While not all of his shows are equally entertaining, some are more “memorable” than others. I am sure many of you have seen the debacle in Romania that was “mentioned” by my buddy over at Killing Batteries and later “defended” by A.B., himself.
But, love it or hate it, you will have to admit it, a T.V. show spotlighting crazy people, weird foods, drinking to excess, and far-off locales, all make for pretty good television.
As you may know from my previous post, my wife and I just got back from a quick trip up to Vancouver, B.C.
On our drive from the airport into the West End of town we noticed one particular street corner with a food cart of some type that had an unusually large crowd gathered around.
Upon arrival at the Barclay House Bed and Breakfast, we got our briefing for local food and entertainment recommendations from our perennially smiling host, Dennis.
When we mentioned the apparently popular downtown food cart, Dennis knew immediately we had witnessed the food phenomena that is Japadog.
They have a self-professed lack of perfection with the English language (I know the feeling);
“Our English is very poor. The followings may make mistakes. We are sorry.”
But, they have nothing to apologize for, when it comes to their dining fare.
You can clearly see from the list of ingredients in the dog I selected, there is nothing in there that looks bad, at least to me.
And it tasted exquisite, indeed.
But as fantastic as the food tasted, the biggest surprise of the day was that I got to eat with nobody less than Mr. Bourdain, himself.
While he didn’t say much, nor did he offer to pay, it was a pleasure to have covered the same ground as someone who knows his way around a non-English menu.
While some of you may question if this stop to sample street food lead to our later antics, I believe the timeline does not support that supposition.
Translation: it was almost 24 hours later before the s#!t hit the fan, so to speak. (Might as well have hit the fan—we hit just about everything else within range!)
Besides, if it was good enough for Anthony Bourdain, it should damn well be good enough for me.
Although…..look at that picture of him in the lower left; is it my imagination or he does display at least a slight look of anguish?
