Back in May when I saw this circulating Twitter, I knew the new season of “Parts Unknown” was gonna be good:
At a time when the majority of establishment food critics and personalities seem woefully out of touch (Eddie Huang for the people!) Anthony Bourdain consistently holds it down (he and Huang are friends, for the record). Bourdain’s show manages to do “white guy exploring ‘exotic’ things” in a respectful, insightful way, and the guy really does his research.
The fourth season of Bourdain’s Peabody Award-winning “Parts Unknown” premiered last Sunday, and in this week’s episode you can watch him in the kitchens and dining rooms of the Boogie Down Bronx. This includes a trip to boricua spot 188 Bakery Cuchifritos, which serves up chicharrones worthy of the gawds:
Most excitingly, however, is Bourdain’s foray into the cuisine of the Garifuna, a community of Afro-Latin descent, who live mainly on the coasts of Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. There is a community of 200,000 Gariganu in the Bronx, mainly from Honduras, and though there is no restaurant that serves their cuisine, you can find it being sold by street vendors and people grilling in St. Mary’s park.
Bourdain can be heard talking about his experience eating the food, which mixes West African influences with Latin Caribbean flavors, in the WNYC interview below — highlights include: ”I’ve been saying the neck is the next big thing for years now…still waiting,” as well as his concerns over potentially contributing to the “hipsterification” of the Bronx.