The Nasty Bits, Anthony Bourdain

This is my second read of this book from the only man I’ve ever bothered to watch an entire series, beside my own, that’s reality-based. My first suggestion is to read his commentary in the back after each short story you read. These are a collection from such publications as Gourmet, various British magazines, and else. If you have never read any of his books or viewed any of his series I suggest you do. The thing that made Bourdain authentic was that there was no B.S. so often seen within all the crap that’s out there. The candidness, worldwide adventures, eating escapades, and everything else. His ability to translate what he experiences to the written page was extraordinary. Who made my fellow Americans obese-if not morbidly obese? How did the age-old equation that poor equals thin and rich equals fat change so that now our working poor are huge and only wealthy can afford personal trainers, liposuction, and extended spa treatments required, it seems, to be thin? In whose evil snail tracks across the globe can we watch thighs expand, bellies pooch out over groins, so that fewer and fewer every year of the flower of our youth can even see their own genitals without the benefit of a mirror? Who is making each new generation from once normally proportioned countries swell up like grain-fed steer? America’s greatest export…. Always will be our fast-food outlets.” He knew he could teach people to cook, but can’t teach character. “What’s with society that even a son of a bitch like me gets a damn TV show? Why should people even care about chefs? Cooking was something you did between other jobs.” A man who could laugh at himself, be humble, and knew he was the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world. Yet some people’s pain extends beyond experiences. He committed suicide 2 years ago.