Anthony Bourdain

I was deeply saddened to hear of Anthony Bourdain’s passing. I love his food/travel books and TV shows, and his love of the Ramones and old school New York City spoke to me.  His TV shows are my go-to for getting ideas for places to visit when I travel to new cities and even for trying out restaurants in my home town, New York.  The “Disappearing Manhattan” episode of No Reservations introduced me to the great Hop Kee in Chinatown.

In some ways Anthony Bourdain inspired this blog. When I was planning a work trip to Shanghai I watched Bourdain’s Shanghai episode of No Reservations to help plan my eating priorities.  The episode featured him eating soup dumplings at Nanxiang dumpling house in Yu Garden.  The soup dumplings I had at Nanxiang were eye opening and as delicious as Bourdain described. But later my hosts in Shanghai told me Nanxiang was a restaurant for Chinese tourists from other cities, not for true Shanghai-ese.  My hosts then took me on a tour of their favorite local dumpling spots.  Those dumplings at Nanxiang, the subsequent Shanghai eating tour and then some trips to Seoul, Korea served as the foundation of this blog.