Just got back from seeing Anthony Bourdain in in the city, and it was an absolute treat. He is every bit as much fun as you would imagine him to be. Lots of good and useful stuff in the talk, but two stick in my mind:
1. Truffle oil is the ketchup of the newly affluent.
2. To find good places to eat, provoke the nerds.
#2 showed a remarkably precise understanding of the internet. The question at hand was how to find good restaurants, and his answer was to take the city you want to go to and just google up some restaurant names that serve the dish you're after. Then got to chowhound or another foodie site, and rather than asking about restaurants, you put up an enthusiastic post talking about how you just had the best whatever you're looking for at one of these restaurants.
At that point, what
drivingblind likes to call the nerdfury will begin. Posters will show up from nowhere to shower you with disdain, tell you how that place used to be good but has now totally sold out and - most important to your quest - will tell you where you would have gone if you were not some sort of mouth breathing water buffalo.
I suppose this isn't really news to me, but having it laid out so simply and so practically had the dual effect of leaving me laughing and giving my fourth eye (the third being spiritual, that requires a fourth for the internet) a good squeegee-ing.
1. Truffle oil is the ketchup of the newly affluent.
2. To find good places to eat, provoke the nerds.
#2 showed a remarkably precise understanding of the internet. The question at hand was how to find good restaurants, and his answer was to take the city you want to go to and just google up some restaurant names that serve the dish you're after. Then got to chowhound or another foodie site, and rather than asking about restaurants, you put up an enthusiastic post talking about how you just had the best whatever you're looking for at one of these restaurants.
At that point, what
I suppose this isn't really news to me, but having it laid out so simply and so practically had the dual effect of leaving me laughing and giving my fourth eye (the third being spiritual, that requires a fourth for the internet) a good squeegee-ing.

Comments
My wife and I had planned to go see him, but our sick daughter had other plans for us.
Anthony Bourdain is the brightest star in my very small constellation of contemporary culture.