Regarding the Travel Channel

I'm really happy about the upcoming new episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods because there's just something inherently fascinating about watching Westerners (i.e. white people) eating mysterious and exotic Eastern (i.e. non-white) cuisine. Like the Sun revolving around the Earth, the product of a whole integer and zero being anything but zero, and a panda bear playing a violin, that just goes against all accepted scientific wisdom. It's so unusual and out of the ordinary. Watching someone from outside the native culture eat scorpions and chicken embryos and goat brains makes for remarkably gripping television...I can't stop staring. I've already seen so many episodes of these two traveling (and eating) their way across Thailand, the Philippines, Korea...and it never gets old. And really, all of the extreme gross-out food only makes up about 1/4 (or maybe 1/3, tops) of the whole episode. Clips of them devouring steaming bowls of pig guts are what make the commercials, but that's only the work of shock-value producers trying to reel in as many potential viewers as possible to spike their Nielsen ratings. Otherwise, the rest of the 3/4 (or maybe 2/3, at the least) of the food looks delicious. All of the bugs and rodents are what makes travel shows like these fun, but it's all of the noodles and seafood and fresh produce and suckling pig and spicy sauces and roasted duck that really makes it worthwhile. I always get so hungry watching it.

Even ol' bubbly, white bread Samantha Brown (Girl Meets Hawaii, Passport to Europe, Passport to Great Weekends, etc.) is starting to visit far east locale now. There was a time when she only went to places like Rome and Britain and Paris -- really conventional, touristy First World places; basically, cities that aren't typically known for kidnapping their visitors and selling them into sex slavery. That's all well and good, but it's kind of boring ho-hum TV. Nowadays, though, she's branching out. Just today I saw an episode of her traveling to China -- mingling with the locals, visiting Buddhist temples, getting Szechuan cooking lessons, practicing tai chi, exploring the underdeveloped countryside. It was fun watching her interact so enthusiastically and so sincerely with a culture that she obviously has no natural affiliation with. And I guess I'm just automatically appreciative of anyone who wants more than McDonald's burgers and fries. I can definitely support that kind of culinary ambition.

With that being said, there's just something inherently less interesting about watching Easterners eat typical Western food. I'm not sure a weekly TV show of Cambodians eating bologna sandwiches would be nearly as profound or engaging.