Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations - Jamaica

[Annie S.]

Eh, a love-hate AB fan, I was both delighted and taken aback by the dancehall segment - I think it's neat as hell that they would choose to focus on the subject like that, but sheesh - what would it take to inject a food segment in that ten minutes? You know they are eating amazingly tasty stuff between sets! (Guess that's a common complaint with so many episodes: end up sacrificing some food-culture for other-culture.) Watching the Sunday Dinner segment right now, the young boy explaining the shellfish is awesome.

[adew]

the young boy was actually explaining ackee, not shelfish. ackee is the national fruit and composed the dish that looked a little like scrambled eggs. it was prepared both during the sunday dinner spot and the interview with mutabaruka.

[trentyzan]

I thought the episode introduced itself as aiming for an off-the-beaten-track premise, and largely succeeded. Whether you felt like watching that at the time is another matter. It may not have shown viewers how many local places cook, or how to do it yourself. But it did give a decent primer on how to not be such a turista and actually find and try different things. Given it's limitations and goals, it wasn't bad.

[Docsknotinn]

How did it give you any ideas how not to be a tourist? If your not a local that's exactly what you are when you travel. I very much doubt AB would have been in some of those places with out security and a film crew. Not exactly a true life representation of Jamaica IMO.

[irishnyc]

Clearly, you are a tourist. trentyzan is exactly right about this epi being a primer about not being a tourista, something many people try for when they travel. How many people can say they've been to Jamaica and have set foot off the property of the all-inclusive they're staying at? How many tourists come back from Jamaica and tell you what a beautiful place it is, and what a lovely culture they have? How many people have been to the market? As AB showed us, it's not always a lovely place, in fact it can be downright dangerous.

[currymouth]

Forgive me folks, But has anyone of you been to downtown Kingston? I have . and it is not pretty.it's hot,dusty, overcrowded, smells like smoke, petrol and rotting garbage. and what you don't see in Tony's show is the hired body guards that is required in order for him to walk around without him and his crew been acosted or even kidnapped.He did try to give a fair repasentation of the Jamaican people and their capital, but in my opinion the show missed it's mark.

[adew]

i totally disagree. i lived in kingston for three years and worked near coronation market at a livestock stand. i'm american and was clearly identified as such. anthony could have easily visited the market without worrying about being accosted. jamaicans are in general very friendly towards americans, which may partially be due to the fact that 2.5 million jamaicans live in the united states and ties to the united states are strong. although it is true that there is a lot of violence in downtown kingston related to gang activity, it would be extremely rare for it to be directed at all towards a tourist. jamaica is a very welcoming nation, even in the poorest of areas.

[Miss Needle]

My friend (who grew up in Jamaica but lives in NY now) actually says what currymouth said about Jamaica. He says the situation is pretty bad, and not an area where tourists would want to go. He goes back to Kingston every year because he has a lot of relatives and friends there. But outside of that, he said he has no reason to go back to Kingston, preferring to spend time in other parts of the country.

[adew]

p.s. i think it's unfortunate that you focus so much on the crowd, garbage, smells etc. jamaica is a developing country and the colonial situation and past slave society have fostered development challenges for the nation, but i really appreciated anthony's focus on mutabaruka, rastafari, coronation market which holds a special place in many jamaicans' hearts, and rae town, one of the safest inner city communities in kingston where every two weeks an old school reggae dance is held and people from all over the city and of all classes come together to enjoy old time ska. i thought the cultural anecdotes he chose to focus on were very appropriate

[currymouth]

Welcome to Chowhound adew.How is Jamaica any different than Trinidad, Granada,Barbadoes or Guyana for that matter in terms of their developing country status or colonial history? I too lived and worked in Jamaica for a too brief 7 Months and fell in love with the island and people. But having a west indian heritage and being brought up in the islands perhaps gives me a different perspective as to the typical "American in Paradise" view, I do appriciate that you went native but I will also venture that you were not fully accepted and in turn had to watch your back. anyone would be a fool not to, and not just in Jamaica.

[dagoose]

As a huge AB fan, who normally is really annoyed by the cultural segments, I found this episode very good, even though it was not mouth-watering, the way that some are. Admittadly I majored in Latin American/Caribbean studies, so I'm familiar with the subject, but the public beach thing was great. Finally someone actually talking about htat--you DON'T normally see that on the travel channel. I think he actually got down to the root of what Jamaica is, and why it is how it is, without letting the tourism industry interfere, which is how I feel most travel shows portray it...

[rozz01]

I just find it wierd to glamorize a place w/so many human rights violations. Romanticizing gangs and crap... I usually love AB, but parts of this just left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Davwud]

I didn't think he was romanticizing it. He was presenting it as "It is what it is."

DT

[linguafood]

Yeah, I didn't get the impression that there was any romanticizing going on either. And the bat cave, as tedious as it may have seemed to the viewer, seems to have been quite a traumatizing experience, at least according to AB's blog. I doubt they'd go through all that shit (literally) and then edit it out of the final cut.

[adew]

the gang network is indeed a serious detriment to development in kingston, but i didn't see any focus on gangs at all in AB's piece. correct me if i'm wrong, i only caught the second hour, but none of his coverage of rae town or dancehall music covered or romanticized gangs. there was footage of the inner city and of black men in poor areas . . . perhaps you are unfairly making an association where none exists? . . .

[adew]

p.s. rozz01, are you suggesting that the travel channel should never cover a country with human rights violations? that would discount almost the entire world. why not highlight parts of a country that host nationals are most proud of, such as AB did in his jamaica piece?

[rozz01]

I dont feel that, I'm just so sad that all of the travelogues never seem to even put the point out there...

[Docsknotinn]

Well it may be a travel show of sorts who doesn't watch AB expecting the focus to be on food? Why not tell us about some of the local produce and spices? How about here's a Jamaican meat pie. That's nice AB but what exactly was unique about it? So far we have a non smoking, snarkless Emeril kissing AB that slips in bat droppings. What's interesting about that? I thought the best part was the Rastafarian who asked him twice if the food was good and "not just for the camera" LOL I guess that's rasta for don't blow smokeup. It would have been very interesting to hear a bit more about the Rasatafarian diet.

[irishnyc]

Like someone above said, it's a travel show on the TRAVEL channel. Yes, he's a chef, but that's not what the channel is geared towards.

[Docsknotinn]

Worst episode ever. More bizzaro travel channel rubbish. Who cares about the public beach? Maybe AB thinks his audience are locals? The whole bit on the market and he tells us nothing at all about the food. Starting to think AB is a network sell out. What a complete dissapointment. I took geat pleasure watching him fall flat on his azz in bat guano for making me watch some of the drivel on his new shows.

[jaydreb]

I agree that the episode was a little light on food and heavy on culture, but I thought it was interesting. It showed a side of Jamaica that I didn't know much about.

[Miss Needle]

I actually liked seeing a part of Jamaica that I probably would not see. And I love dancehall!

P.S. It was a bit funny seeing him suffer a bit in the cave. He's definitely not the most graceful person.

[bubbles4me]

I liked this episode quite a bit. I love learning about the culture, street food, and the dance hall. I thought it was a good mix of people and food.....it is the Travel Channel not a food channel so I like the balance.

[mumblety]

Definitely. I think we forget that it's a Travel show first just because Anthony is a chef. I think you can easily expect a lot of food info in an episode (and it's worth noting that, despite some asides in the NOLA episode, it was still food-centric), but it's not a crime if it's not all food.

It wasn't an amazing episode (I got tired of the cave whining VERY fast) but I thought it was nice to talk a little more about culture in Jamaica.

[Davwud]

I think people confuse this show with "A Cooks Tour" which was a food show.

I certainly liked the episode and thought it had quite a bit of food.

I did not however understand leaving the "Bat Cave" segment in. It seemed pointless, didn't work and became useless filler.

DT

[Otonabee]

I missed htis episode but there is a VERY amusing blog by AB on his webste about the bat episode.

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelch...

[DezzerSF]

I started laughing hysterically when he said "Why does this matter?"