Splitting his television career between two popular documentary series—No Reservations on the Travel Channel, and Parts Unknown on CNN—Anthony Bourdain has spent fourteen seasons trotting the globe, devouring every noodle, chile pepper, and porcine morsel in sight.
With countless stamps in his passport, Bourdain has popularized restaurants, food carts, dive bars, and farmers markets all over the world. (Our contributor Justin Charity planned a 2012 vacation to Beirut inspired by Bourdain’s tour of the city in 2010.)
Now that Bourdain is in his fifth season of Parts Unknown, we found ourselves wondering: what are the very best destinations in the history of both shows? Bourdain has visited a few favored cities and countries more than once, which accounts for the heavy representation of Southeast Asia in our countdown of the 10 best Bourdain destinations so far. Let’s dig in.
Thailand
Show: No Reservations
Season 5, Episode 16
The episode opens with reports of violent clashes in Bangkok, evocative of the tensions that scuttled the No Reservations crew’s first shoot in Beirut. Peace is restored, however, just in time for Thailand’s annual Songkran festival, which the locals celebrate by brandishing high-power water guns at every leg of Bourdain’s journey, from Thailand’s capital to the Gulf of Thailand, via trains and rafts. After a slippery attempt at shucking cockles in the mud, the crew backtracks to Amphawa Floating Market on the Mae Klong river, where they feast on heaps of green papaya salad, barbecued pork, and deep-fried shrimp cakes. N.B., everything tastes better with bloodshot chili paste.—Justin Charity
Vietnam
Show:No Reservations
Season 1, Episode 4
This was early in the game. Here Tony travels by land and sea with his old friend Dinh Hoang Linh, who acts as his guide. They visit the streets of Hanoi, the farms of Montagnards, and Tuần Châu, aka the Island of Mr. Sang, to enjoy bun cha (porcupine) and lots and lots of rice liquor (of course). The real treat happens towards the end of the episode when Tony finally meets Mr. Sang. The mysterious figure pulls out all the stops for Tony, including a banquet which features a dance routine and food cooked by Sang himself.—Angel Diaz
Tokyo
Show:No Reservations, Parts Unknown
NR: Season 2, Episode 7; Season 4, Episode 16; Season 8, Episode 5. PU: Season 2, Episode 8
In Bourdain’s fourteen televised seasons of global tour stops, Tokyo is the most popular metropolis by far. “To come here,” Bourdain announces, “any excuse will do.” A city of fresh soba and delicious fish galore, Tokyo is a miracle of culinary patience and precision; soba noodles are precisely 1.6 mm wide, and don’t you forget it. (Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto laments “the younger generation’s hankering for hamburgers instead of rice.) Beyond Tokyo’s kitchens, Bourdain seeks discipline and inner-focus via the study of kendo (in No Reservations) and Kyokushin (in Parts Unknown) martial arts. Bourdain’s latest Parts Unknown episode covering Tokyo focuses less so on cuisine, and more so on the underground abundance of kink and rock—which provoke a broader discussion of the Japanese psyche. “I’ll never really understand the Japanese or their preoccupations,” he concedes from the onset. “But I don’t care.”—Justin Charity
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