On the second attempt to watch this show, several months later, I tried to ignore everything from above as I tapped away on my computer and my wife watched the show. Then she asked me if maybe they'd have Michael Symon on there, to which I responded, "I don't think so, I've seen this one and the food was pretty scary as I remember". Then, moments later, Bourdain is talking about going to Lola, Symon's restaurant with the remaining living member of the Ramones. COOL! Symon brings out all kinds of interesting things, many revolving around his favorite meat (and Tony's too), PORK. After watching this, Crispy pigs ears actually sound pretty good to me. Tony then visits a German butcher, has a southern / eastern european fusion meal with Symon at some BBQ restaurant, and finally goes to a farmers market with Ruhlman. Bourdain and Ruhlman then cook up a feast at Ruhlman's house, including a pate made by Ruhlman and Cassoulet made by Bourdain. Looked like very good eats. So I guess on balance, Cleveland might have some good food, but it took watching it twice to get past the crap.
I'm not sure of all the history between Ruhlman and Bourdain, but they seem to give each other a fair bit of crap in good fun. Also, one of the funniest blogs I've ever read was posted by Bourdain as a guest on Ruhlman's blog. It is an irreverent assault on Food Network personalities.
|