The Travel Channel: The Layover with Anthony Bourdain – Taipei

http://youtu.be/bhmGf55ELRQ

I’ve watched on-and-off The Travel Channel’s show, The Layover with Anthony Bourdain, after reading a review of the television series in the New York Times when the show first premiered in the Fall of 2011. Recently, I saw my fellow Taiwanese American friends and acquaintances posted the YouTube-hosted episode on Taipei on Facebook (with no commercials) and watched the episode immediately.

The episode made me *so* hungry and made me long for beef noodle soup and Xiao Long Bao. I knew that even before watching the episode, any Western television show on food in Taiwan would have to mention Din Tai Fung, which is profiled starting around minute 35:25. Bourdain is also quite entertaining and I learned a few things about Taiwan and Taipei that I didn’t know. As my friend Roger put it:

“OMG. Great Taiwanese food overview – I’ve eaten most of the things he talks about (but not in those specific places except for Din Tai Fung)… but then I haven’t lived there since I was 8… I saw this while eating dinner and now I’m still hungry. Plus Anthony Bourdain is somehow foul-mouthed and composed at the same time… it’s ridiculously entertaining.”

The premise of the show is that Bourdain flies into and out of a city for 48 hours and tries a lot of different foods in different neighborhoods with locals who help show him around the city. I particularly like it when Bourdain visits cities I’ve been to before or places I want to visit.