I don't think I have ever gone to the video store by myself to rent movies, it would be pointless because I fall asleep after the first ten or fifteen minutes of almost every movie.
Out of all the movies we own I think I may have bought five of them. I am not a girl that likes "chick flicks", I love movies like Hotel Rwanda, Gladiator and Constant Gardner.
I certainly don't consider myself to be a TV person. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't like to watch television, I just can't sit through a whole show without getting up at least once because most shows just don't keep my interest.
Truthfully, I would much rather read a book.
So you can see why it is really hard to admit or even consider that I "could be" addicted to watching someone on television.
He is sometimes crude, drinks too much for my personal taste and could be called a "potty mouth".
The first time I watched his show I was laughing so hard I was crying and had to get up out of bed because I started choking.
He was in Vietnam, another place I would love to see.
A week ago I had no idea who Anthony Bourdain was and I had never watched "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel.
Now I was spending hours on a Tuesday morning with Dan watching back to back episodes of this tall, thin, salt n pepper haired man travel to Chile, Spain, Greece, Jamaica, Russia and Mexico.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I laugh at things that aren't funny to most person, I always get stuck in "wound care" when we do clinic and don't think it is worst job ever.
He is a writer and was a chef in New York city for twenty-eight years.
He takes trips to places I would personally love to visit, trying all the different foods and bringing to life the richness of the cultures. He loves the odd and strange things about each culture. He isn't caught up in the arrogant stylish food you see on so many other shows and he sits down with people bringing out the really wonderful parts that you would miss on some big tour bus type vacation.
He admits that his life hasn't been pretty or perfect and when he had his brother on the show he admits he doesn't know all that much about him and that made him regret the way things turned out. His brother was upbeat and positive, admittedly not things he is gifted with.
A common theme in his shows seems to be how all cultures eat organ meat and shop for meat in open air markets, also common in Haiti.
Many cultures eat meat that is pickled in jars, cured in salt or just left hanging in the sun baking in the heat for days.
As I watched I was suddenly sitting in Waffle House and could hear the waitress yelling to the cook,
"Ahh, yeah, that will be scattered, covered, smothered, topped and chunked".
Chunked is always where my gag reflex turns on.
As we traveled with him and wished we had the chance to have dinner in all these different countries, I was jealous of his travels and noticed something hauntingly familiar about each country. It was the fresh meat markets, again something that activated my gag reflex.
I am not sure when organs that function as filters in an animals body, intestines that move waste, brains, blood and feet all became "meat". I have shopped in these markets and have been "blessed" with meals prepared with these meats.
When my now new favorite host mentioned that fact that he may need to start taking Imodium ASAP and that the taste of his beverage was the same as turpentine and his face was turning inside out, I started laughing uncontrollably.
Ah, yes, the new found art of being gracious to your host! What to do when you have been told you must eat everything given to you and you can see what you have been given has been given out of much labor and sacrifice.
Thus, the argument with your gag reflex starts and you hope that you win this one.
So maybe it isn't that I was addicted to watching Tony on television, it is that I was a little home sick for Haiti and the things I love and find fascinating about Haiti and it's people.
Maybe I should write and invite him to come to Haiti to do a show, after all, Haiti has many of the same things all of these exotic different countries have including the beautiful beaches.
Hopefully he hasn't read the articles about people eating mud pies and I won't mention the crazy emails that come out from the U.S. Travel Department advising Americans not to travel to Haiti.
I wonder if he would think Haitian spaghetti with hot dogs or eggs is a good breakfast food.
I am sure he would agree that the smell of fresh garlic cooking is killer, it gets me every time.
I am also sure that in no other country other than Haiti would you find ketchup as a food group - it's true.
