Posts tagged 'travel channel'

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Survivor

By Andrew Zimmern on June 16, 2009 2:52 AM | Permalink | 68 Comments

Welcome to the final blog and final episode of Bizarre Foods.* What a great choice for subject matter as well. Take one 240 pound, 47 year old, hypochondriacal Jewish New Yorker and drop him in a jungle for 48 hours and see if he doesn't die.

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The Best of Puerto Rico

By Andrew Zimmern on June 9, 2009 12:07 PM | Permalink | 116 Comments

Why go to Puerto Rico: Well, because it's the best secret hiding in plain sight in the Caribbean! ...and due to massive migration to the US over the years, it is said there are more Puerto Ricans living in New York than in San Juan. Growing up in New York City, I long ago got a big taste of Puerto Rico's culture and cuisine but not the full flavor of the island's diversity. I wanted to visit the "real" Puerto Rico - and believe me, this Caribbean island is no West Side Story. Steeped in an amalgam of complex influences, the cuisine clearly reflects the island's history: from original Taino native tribes to its Spanish occupation and subsequent influx of African slaves, to its current status as a Commonwealth of the United States. Nothing reveals the history of Puerto Rico more than the impact it has had on the cuisine. Spanish, African, and native Taino influences can be tasted in nearly every traditional Puerto Rican dish. Sound intriguing? I thought so.

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Nicaragua

By Andrew Zimmern on June 2, 2009 12:00 AM | Permalink | 53 Comments

Nicaragua is a nation of rebuilding, where people and cultures constantly reinvent and re-imagine themselves to overcome the hardships and disasters that shaped this country. No one I have ever met says "Hey honey, its vacation time, lets go to Nicaragua!" but the facts are just this: They should. Nicaragua is called "the land of lakes and volcanoes" for its stunning geography, but the people and the food are what I love most, and on the Caribbean side of the country are some of the most beautiful islands you will ever see, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg to see them. Fly into Bluefields and then on to Corn Island and you will be amazed. While I was there I also took in a pro baseball game in Managua between Managua and Grenada. I also attended a night time Ortega rally but I digress ... here are some other fun things to do while you are in Nicaragua.

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Texas-Size Adventure

By Andrew Zimmern on May 26, 2009 12:00 AM | Permalink | 32 Comments

Texas is the state where everything is BIG, and where personalities are larger than life. It's a state made rich by oil ... and as home to the nation's space program, it's given the state and its food a reputation that is literally out of this world. But at its very heart, Texas is cowboy country. A cowboy heart beats strong in its wide range of cooks ... from down-home barbecue legends to five-star chefs catering to Texas billionaires. That cowboy spirit is infused in every dish from goat meat gorditas to rattlesnake and rabbit sausage and, of course, barbecue. Spanish, Mexican, Eastern European and French influences in the 19th century have made the cowboy culture all the more precious to the Texan mindset. They are ferociously protective of it --Texans see themselves as Lone Star Staters first, and Americans second.

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Singapore

By Andrew Zimmern on May 19, 2009 12:00 AM | Permalink | 9 Comments

Ever since Thomas Stanford Raffles founded Singapore as a trading post for the British East India Company, this precious island nation has been at the crossroads of food, commerce and culture, capturing the imagination of the world. Singapore is one of the three remaining City States in the world: Monaco and Vatican City round out the club. Raffles set foot on this island back in 1819, in hopes of creating a British trade port that would rival the Dutch settlements in the surrounding areas. What resulted from that is a hybrid food culture that encompasses the best of Asian cuisine. Positioned off the tip of Malaysia, this small island nation has built itself on being an ideal, a clean, crime free country which through centuries of trade with surrounding nation has now become a place where eating has literally become a national pastime.

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