This week, Tony heads to the Azores. Now if you're anything like me (Read: geography-deficient), you are probably saying to yourself, "Where are the Azores?!" Well, never fear, I've done your homework for you:The Azores (Portuguese: Açores pronounced [ɐˈsoɾeʃ] or [ɐˈsoɾʃ]) is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km (950 mi) from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,400 mi) from the east coast of North America. (Source: Wikipedia)Sounds beautiful, right? Tony is sure to be in fine form, smiling and chatting with all the locals, even carrying small infants. A good time for all.
Yeah, not so much, according to Bourdain's blog. The source of his displeasure in this episode? A water scene, which you can see in the picture above. (Note Tony's defensive posture.) Here's what he had to say about the now infamous scene:
Water scenes - minutes of air time spent looking at me tasting water, or water dribbling out of a faucet or even water emerging from a hole in the ground as steam does not strike me as riveting entertainment. "Know thyself," the saying goes, and I just KNEW that this proposed scene was not going to hold my interest. I swiftly sent off a memo saying "KILL the water scene." Yet, weeks later, arriving in the Azores, I look down and there it was on the schedule. "Sacred Water Scene. Blowholes."Heh. He said blowholes. Ahem, sorry about that -- you can blame my sophomoric sense of humor on the fact that I -- well, I teach sophomores.
Despite the water scene, the rest of the episode promises to be great. Here's what Ingrid thinks of it:
Some of my favorite episodes of No Reservations aren't always the well known locations, but places like The Azores, because of the food, the people, the culture and of course, Tony.
Having worked in kitchens alongside many generations of Azorean Portuguese immigrants, Tony decides it's time to find out more about their motherland and explore the culture that molded so much of New England's heritage. He hops from one island to the next while on the archipelago, dining on potatoes, pork, sausage, cabbage, shellfish, Portuguese soup and washing it all down with Gin and Tonics.If you've never seen Bourdain at his snarky best, it is a sight to behold. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's episode. It airs at 10 PM on the Travel Channel. Here's a small taste of what to expect:
From the hot springs in Furnas on Sao Miguel to one of the most remote locations in the world on Sao Jorge, and onto the beautiful wine making region of Pico, Tony experiences the best of Azores.
I laughed out loud at many points during this episode and am convinced you will too. Simply put, it's Tony at his best. The scenery is fantastic, the food looks incredible and Tony is his rawest yet this season.
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