Bourdain in Singapore

[click for Anthony Bourdain's NYT article on food in Singapore]

As if we don' love the man enough already- Jude and I just watched the new season premiere of No Reservations and guess where Anthony Bourdain was today? Singapore! It was the most enjoyable hour of TV in a long time- so comforting, so joyous and just watching him visit and eat at all the familiar places from home truly truly warmed the cockles of this girl's heart :) From his foray into chicken rice at the Maxwell Road Market to his sucking and slurping experience with sup tulang (beef bone stew) at the Golden Mile Hawker Center (where he described the color of the stew as a "eerie, lurid, not-seen-in-nature red"), we were completely and utterly transfixed. And really, I never thought hearing Anthony Bourdain say "bak chor mee" could move me almost to tears... :)

What we liked best about today's episode was how Bourdain really got his finger on the pulse of Singapore's obsession with food. Especially how everyone has a different idea of what to eat, and how to eat it. Like in what order or combination does one deal with the chilli, ginger and dark soy sauce with chicken rice? (I personally prefer the dark soy sauce on the rice and dip the chicken in the ginger and chili separately...) Or the one segment at the Grand Hyatt Singapore's Straits Cafe where for the second time in 24 hours, Bourdain was given unsolicited advice about food, in this case, on the best way to eat roast duck (ask for a whole leg, un-chopped). It was hilarious seeing how truly flabbergasted he was at this exacting, almost pathological relationship Singaporeans have with food, to which the duck guy responded, "It's the only freakin' heritage we have!" And that, ladies and gentleman, in Jude and my opinion, is the best line on television in a looooong time! :)

The episode ended with Bourdain sitting with a group of retirees and Singapore food expert, KF Seetoh, creator of the Makansutra (a guide to Singapore food). Over copious amounts of ice-cold Heineken beer, a huge plate of roast pork and idle chitchat at a hawker center just a stone's throw away from Jude's parents' place, Anthony Bourdain waxed lyrical about how some day, he would be fortunate enough to spend his golden years just like that- with good food and good friends, hopefully somewhere close to Singapore :)

Oh, and testimony to how much we enjoyed the episode, we were all ready to watch all over again the re-run that came immediately after.

And we did :)