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for a more indepth discussion of this particular no reservations episode y'all might wanna drop by the USA/Canada thread.

 

 

id say -- the first half of the show was good ... even if i still maintain that pampango cuisine is in no way the best representation of philippine cuisine.

 

 

aling lucing's though -- is sisig nirvana!

 

 

the second half was crappy ... trying to relate augusto's angst over his filipino-ness to lechon was a bit of a reach, even for tony bourdain.

 

 

there are outtakes of tony's tapsilog experience in the travel channel website, in case anyone is interested.

 

 

all told, the episode could have been way better.

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Here's AB's blog entry:

 

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel...erarchy-of-pork

 

Hope someone uploads the show.

--------------

 

Hierarchy of Pork

By Anthony Bourdain on February 16, 2009 6:55 PM | Permalink | 226 Comments

 

I'm very nervous about tonight's Philippines show.

 

I'm all too aware of the fact that the country is made up of over seven THOUSAND islands and that I visited exactly two of them. The food is intensely regional ... I mean, even the difference between the food in Manila and Pampanga -- only a couple of hours away --is striking. So I missed ... a lot.

 

I'm very aware of how many Filipino fans we have -- and how enthusiastic they are about us (finally) covering their country. I wanted very badly to do a good job on this one. But I fear there's no way we got it "right."

 

Not that I didn't have a great time. I did.

 

For one thing, I settled a karmic debt of sorts: Augusto Elefano, who'd argued so fervently for his country of ancestry on the previous season's FAN-atic special had been sent home short of the prize after a brutal interrogation at my hands. Impressed by his zeal and feeling guilty about smashing his hopes and dreams I felt that Cebu would be good to see through his eyes. So we packed him, his wife and baby daughter onto a plane -- and sent them off into TV Land.

 

What we did get right, I'm quite sure, was making sure that the amazing, porky delights of "sisig" got plenty of camera time. If you've never had this divine mosaic of pig parts, chopped and served sizzling and crisp on one side on a screaming hot platter, then you've yet to have one of the world's best beer drinking dishes. And speaking of pig? It can now be said that of all the whole roasted pigs I've had all over the world, the slow roasted lechon I had on Cebu was the best. This puts the standings in the Hierarchy of Pork as follows:

 

#1. Philippines

 

#2. Bali

 

#3. Puerto Rico

 

If nothing else, I hope that homesick Filipinos living abroad get a glimpse of some of the food and scenery they've no doubt been missing. And for viewers who weren't previously familiar with the wide and tasty spectrum of flavors available over there, I hope the sight of me shoving a lot of very tasty stuff into my maw provides -- if nothing else -- inspiration to look further.

 

Closer to home, I have a problem: My obsession with the HBO series "The Wire" is taking an unhealthy turn. I recently bought the DVD boxed set -- all 60 hours of the show -- as well as "The Corner" the previous six part mini-series by the same writer/producers. I'm rewatching them all from beginning to end and just can't stop. It's like if I watch them closely, I'll somehow figure out how writing can be so good -- how an ensemble of mostly little known actors and a mammoth, wildly ambitious progression of story arcs can make a whole city come vividly, tragically alive. It's funny, exciting, excrutiatingly sad and always, always feels real. I can't tear myself away.

 

Gotta go. Omar and Brother Monzon are making their move on Stringer Bell ... I love this part.

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meh .... the tapsilog outtake was hell of a lot better than the whole fil-am arc... im pretty sure the dude in the tapsilog scene is filam .. or somebody who spent time here.. in last weeks teasers they were showing him eating some pandesal concoction.. and really .. im proud of our lechon .. but its not the holy grail of filipino cuisine ... wheres the modern take on filipino cuisine? he showed traditional stuff .. are there no young upstart chefs back in the PI?

 

<-- still ranting

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im a fan of the show and i enjoyed the sariling atin episode and i was proud that i really think tony enjoyed the food especially sisig and lechon(who wouldnt) on the national identity regarding pinoy cuisine i think tony summed it up when he said you guys should pick 3 dishes and just go with it.... and he acknowledge that he only visited 2 islands out of 7000t so there is no way that is the representation of pinoy foods..

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they couldve at least tried .... i mean it was obvious that the augusto section was a fail... check the site .. theres the tapsilog piece and i think it would work .. from what i hear he tried to explore the spanish side ... like most his shows i think the 1 hour isnt enough to show the culture as a whole.. ive even seen episodes with no cohesion but it was still good.. this episode was good .. better than greece.. but i still think it couldve been better...

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not to discount the issue but I honestly don't think that it was the most pressing thing on his mind i.e. Filipino identity.

 

the boy was a new dad---he was younger and probably single when he sent the video entry a year ago.

he's dealing with more real, immediate s@%t right now---raising his daughter and being a dad and breadwinner.

he's trying to grow into a new, meaningful role so if he seemed a bit detached, reserved and serious for most part, it's `coz he's got a bit too much on his mind.

Edited by gift_of_game
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bottomline, the show would've been better without the angst hanging around like a thick gray cloud.

if MarketMan can't quite get why people are griping about it, he's the one who needs to get a grip.

 

 

 

MarketMan's post was so defensive.

 

 

Lol about him and Augusto being among the select few to hear Tony say "best pig ever" in person -- that comment is so pedestrian. Ugh.

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