The World Is Andrew Zimmern’s Oyster. Or Headcheese.
Somehow I get the feeling that as a kid, Andrew Zimmern never snuck anything off his plate to the dog. The sometime restauranteur, radio personality, television host and prolific blogger, it seems, will eat anything that crosses his plate.
But that isn’t what makes “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” (on the Travel Channel; check your listings) must-see viewing. Some of us can’t stomach even the thought of head cheese (oh, the stories I could tell…), or eating rodents, regardless of how they’re prepared, so you’ve got to give props to a guy that can walk into a restaurant that specializes in dishes consisting of various animal penises and sample half the menu without batting an eyelash.
The real draw isn’t the food so much as the man himself. Zimmern is the polar opposite of many other chefs, foodies, and other culinary enfants terribles that currently clog the airwaves and the blogosphere. I don’t think that Jamie Oliver, for instance, would happily stroll into someone’s backyard to sample homemade chitlins, or that Gordon Ramsay would enter an ages-old soul food joint in a barely-traveled corner of the South without trying to change the owner, the menu, and darned near everything else about the place.
To many people, the measure of a man is whether or not you’d want to have a beer with them. Zimmern’s the guy you’d want as your wingman in an all-you-can-eat oyster bar, the roach coach on the corner that does the dirty water dogs, or some open air market in Marrakesh. Best of all, he’s appreciative to his hosts, wherever he finds them, without ever stooping to condescension.
As if all that weren’t enough, his blogs are also great reading. Chow And Again is a sort of Barefoot Guide to the food of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; andrewzimmern.com contains yet more blog entries, plus a press kit, recipes, and a ton of other delectable stuff; and there’s also a site for Bizarre Foods with yet another blog, FAQ’s, games, and other culinaria. You’ll find posts on everything from tube steaks to headcheese to why you really should avoid farm-raised salmon.
Tags: Andrew Zimmern, Bizarre Foods, chow, eats, Food, grub, grubs