Come back Tony, come back!

I am a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel television show, No Reservations. I first saw the show when we were stuck overnight in Cortez, Colorado after I seriously miscalculated how long it would take us to get from Taos to Mesa Verde. We didn’t reach the park until after the last tours of the ruins had already departed, so we needed to crash for the night. We got a hotel room in Cortez and then I went out to fetch food and new gatkes. As we were eating our take-out and channel surfing, we came across the first episode of No Reservations. I was immediately hooked. The show has everything I like: travel, food, and amusing snarkiness. I have watched the show ever since that first episode (Paris). Bourdain’s mantra, “Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist,” inspired one of my High Holiday sermons two years ago.

So I had huge expectations this past week for Bourdain’s episode on the American Southwest. This is holy ground for me. After watching the show on TiVo when we were collapsed from packing I say to Bourdain: Go back Tony, you missed the good stuff!

There was a good segment on the town of Hatch, N.M., home of the best chili peppers in the world. It was fitting that Tony ate some “red” and some “green” while in the Land of Enchantment. But where was the appreciation for New Mexico’s rich Native American or Colonial Spanish culture? How can you do a show on the cuisine and culture of the Southwest and miss Rancho de Chimayo, the family owned restaurant that introduced New Mexico’s unique food traditions to the world? Where was the Horno baked bread? Why no visit to one of New Mexico’s incredible farmer’s markets? I expected to see Tony sampling chokecherry jelly or heirloom apples or biscochitos. And let’s face it. Going to New Mexico and not eating heuvos rancheros at Michael’s Kitchen in Taos is just tragic.

The real heartbreaker was the whitewater rafting segment. I started screaming to the family to look closely at the screen at this point. There was a shot of Bourdain driving up the red dirt road along the Rio Chama. I had high hopes that Bourdain was going to drive to the end of that road. The Monastery of Christ in the Desert was there waiting for him-- a real traveler’s oasis. But it didn’t happen. It was just fun and sun in the Chama canyon.

Even though I was disappointed by the superficial treatment of New Mexico, my Michigander’s soul did respond to Bourdain’s visit with Ted Nugent at his place in Waco, TX. Still, the episode left me with an empty place that will only be filled when Tony returns to New Mexico. I know he can do better. After all, he is a traveler, not a tourist.