Anthony Bourdain is a popular American chef and author. He used to host the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” and “The Layover” before joining CNN in 2013 to host “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”. I love Bourdain’s shows, his take on a country’s cuisine and culture and how he visits the most random and “undesirable” places and makes them look awesome. To Bourdain, “meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself”, and he’s absolutely right.
The first time Bourdain visited Beirut, it was two days before the Israeli War had started in 2006. Almost 10 years later and after a short stop in 2010, he is visiting again our beloved capital and featuring it in the season finale of #PartsUnknown.
I couldn’t find the full episode online yet but I noticed on Facebook that a lot of people didn’t like it and claimed that Bourdain focused too much on religious and political issues rather than focus on the food and culture. Many stated that the episode wasn’t representative of Beirut and Lebanon as a whole, which is quite surprising to be honest, specially after his 2006 Beirut episode which I enjoyed a lot.
I will watch the whole episode as soon as it’s available and update the post with my take on it. If anyone has seen it yesterday, please do share your comments.
Was waiting for this thread to become available… My dad and I were waiting for a week to watch this episode while sharing the news with friends and family to watch. Extremely disappointed that the only message portrayed was how the refugees, Syrian or Palestinian, live such a terrible life in Lebanon. Although he has such passion and love for Beirut, so he claims, he didn’t bother to show anything from Saida to Tyre, Jounieh to Tripoli or any other historical yet touristic locations. Applaud him for going to Lebanon but was portrayed in a highly inaccurate picture.
Here’s a link in which he says the complete opposite of what he showed on the episode: http://anthonybourdain.tumblr.com/post/122071979918/back-to-beirut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXWKDN5kJ2s
It was superficial, cliche and the editing was terrible. He exoticized Beirut so much, it was disgusting.
For 40 mins, he just went on and on, asking the exact same question to everyone, stayed extremely superficial and never talking about the food.
It’s like he was trying to be this big political expert yet there was 0 depth to what he was saying. The intercutting of footage of ISIS, Bikinis, Burkas, Nightclubs and Hummus was used with terrible music and like every 5 minutes.
I don’t have a problem with him showing bad parts in Lebanon .It’s true that these parts exist and it’s stupid to want to only focus on the beach and the snowy mountains, but this show was just annoyingly reductive, and superficial. The fact that it was all happening over food that no one talked about, in no way made it an interesting culinary travel show. Anthony Bourdain should stick to what he knows.
People in Lebanon are so happy that he wrote that he loved it. But fuck him for using Lebanon to give the American audience exactly what they want: controversial images intercut quickly with bad music and no depth.
If u find lebanon so disgisting just put ur huge Country in its place with 2 million refugees demanding to live work eat and getting shelter .what would the big america do with this ? Plus pur into ur consideration the 17 th year of war that has put lebanon ib a very bad sitution politically ecconomically and socially more over the occupation of syrian and israeli troops ,let me just mention a little of the many misfortunes lebanon really living the past and the present days from terrorism to assasinations passing through explosions from 2005 to 2012 and more and more .hezb allah wars with syrian opposition and its very bad impact on lebanon ,the black comedy of missing presidential electons wich paralyses the whole country .these were the bad view .nwhat abt the good ones ? Religously everybody is practising religion without fanatism .the society is coilliding again .respect is highly appreciated .lebanon’s name is wkrld wide known by its people love to live .hosting the most famous festivals abd international singers all through lebanon .the safety u feel and the content when u have a walk in itz streets and meet its inhabitants.lebanon is the icon of life .every place is vivid with life .inspite of everthing happening ,u can enjoy its touristic places for exame jbeil takes no one rating in tourism in the middle east 2016.if ur so bothered with refuggees .gather ur efforts and ask the international community to take part in this problem and find a way to insure their dignity .may they alll leave lebanon in peace.