The story of much of french cooking. i mean, correct me if i m wrong. eric: no, for sure. but we when you can achieve refinement and you keep the soul food in the process you don t have only pretty food, you have amazing food. fuchsia: ah! anthony: wow, beautiful. fuchsia: this is a really amazing dish. i specially requested this dish, which is one of his specialties. so it s sea cucumber from off the northeastern coast. so that s a very expensive, rarified banquet ingredient. but it s done with a typical sichuanese sour and hot dressing, or sour and hot seasonings. like, on the street you d get just these seasonings with slippery sweet potato noodles and a load of offal. anthony: right. fuchsia: this is a banquet version. eric: ah. fuchsia: yeah.
That i decided to go back to school, to make the ultimate sacrifice for my friend, to return to that place of childhood torment. stop trying to suck up to teacher, i saw that. apple polisher. so that my friend might learn, might, just maybe, better himself, and hopefully bring some of that knowledge to the hungry and the needy people at le bernardin. you got that right? good machine, no problem? eric: yeah. anthony: okay. whoa! doing good. [ teacher speaking chinese ] girl: it s a little thick. eric: yeah. anthony: little thick, man. eric: okay. anthony: in order to get to the top in the harsh, competitive world of professional cooking, sometimes you gotta use sharp elbows. girl: more. eric: more? girl: more starch. anthony: get your own, man. anthony: it s a cold world out there, better he learns it here than on the street.
xiao: this is now boiling. anthony: oh, that s good, man. that s good. xiao: that was eric s first bite of hot pot. anthony: awesome, right? eric: yes. anthony: and it only gets better, my friend. gao: oh, this is nice. anthony: oh yeah. seven: tofu. eric: oh, this is tofu? seven: yeah. eric: oh, it s the skin on top? seven: yeah. anthony: common ingredients like tofu and seaweed, various meats and fishes, are stirred in along with ingredients that are, shall we say, less familiar to the western palate. they got the duck. eric: yeah, yeah. anthony: then they reach inside, they grab the, grab the intestines, and yank em out of a live duck. eric: no! seven: yeah. supposedly that s the bit that gives you, like, the most fresh. eric: but it s a bit cruel, right? anthony: well, you want em fresh, eric. i mean seven: yeah. i think we should drink some beer. anthony: yes, i think so. all: cheers. seven: how are you doing
So, in china, premium baijiu means a lot. anthony: at a business dinner, a banquet, one can reasonably expect to drink quite a lot of the stuff, especially when your hosts are in the business of making it, and my french friend has concerns. man: do you want to know how we drink? anthony: yes. of course. yes, that s very important. man: in chinese tradition, um, we start three cups, so we drink together. after three cups, everyone will with each other one by one. man 2: welcome to china, welcome to sichuan. eric: thank you. anthony: i have told him what might be expected of him and the futility of resisting. eric: the aroma is very distinctive. very, very special. anthony: there will be food, i told him. a lot of food. and baijiu.
Expected it? eric: yes. it is exactly what i expected it. [ laughs ] seven: more beers, guys? anthony: yeah. definitely. eric: i cannot think anymore. so i m gonna eat and drink. anthony: but the baijiu comes out and everything is fine again, for me, anyway. i m not so sure about eric. anthony: you re out of it, man. it s all good, though. it s all good. eric: okay. anthony: don t say okay. the evening s just beginning. xiao: everything you just had was appetizer. anthony: it s all good, though. it s all good. eric: he s the devil. look at him. seven: let s drink baijiu. anthony: all right, eric. yeah. you re getting into the spirit of things. eric: do you know he took me, he took me on this trip to make me suffer. seven: yeah.
Like, in the street? anthony: he kind of like a doctor. more of a technician. a caregiver. and you can do it right here in the park while enjoying your tea. who needs a doctor, bro? oh, here you go. my man needs a cleaning, yes, yes. [ man laughs ] eric: oh, he s laughing. anthony: enjoy your therapy. you might want to put that down. if he hits the sweet spot, just relax, dude. keep your head forward. eric: what he s doing it, scraping? anthony: well, he has a number of devices. it s a very eric: but he s using those devices on everybody else here? because anthony: no, no, no. they re thoroughly sanitized after every customer. stay in place. if you move you re, you know don t try this at home, folks. one wrong move to the right or the left and the patient could lose all memory of life before 1985. which, if it includes kenny loggins, might be a good
Guy. go: most of the traditional, very famous dishes of sichuan cuisine are not made from chef. it all comes out from the family. eric: uh-huh. go: so, family dishes is the key of sichuan cuisine. anthony: in my quest to set eric s perfect hair on fire, i have arranged dinner with this man, go sa, who runs the sichuan cuisine museum here. he takes us to a neighborhood favorite for some typical local dishes, like pickled chicken feet, cartilaginous little bits of gnawable goodness. eric: how do you eat this one? go: just bite it and don t eat the bone, though. eric: no, no. oh, it s good. anthony: it s delicious. eric: it s spicy also, yeah. go: yeah. very spicy. have some beer. eric: but the food is really good, but the spice is a little bit of a challenge, i have to say. anthony: oh yeah.
Transcripts for CNN Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown 20211226 00:00:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
eric: hands up! i win the prep. teacher: green on there. anthony: the wok is intensely hot, things cook quickly in there. a few seconds too slow and things swiftly turn from the sublime to the ridiculous. teacher: okay! finish. anthony: et voila, cheese eater. [ teacher speaking chinese ] woman: overcooked. a little. only a little. anthony: and what about this guy? [ teacher speaking chinese ]
Thin hand-cut noodles made with duck egg yolks, a western sichuan specialty. [ chef speaking chinese ] fuchsia: okay. [ chef speaking chinese ] fuchsia: okay. so he s saying, um, first have a smell of this and then a taste of the broth. anthony: oh, that s beautiful. fuchsia: and just gently press the noodles and then lift them up and eat them. eric: yeah, very refined. fuchsia: you know, some of these dishes, the character is very similar to what you d get on the street, but it s just done so beautifully. anthony: well, we were talking the other day that so many of the dishes we were eating in the restaurant started out, these were not invented by chefs, or even cooks, they were invented by farmers, uh, and hungry people. i mean, that s the, certainly