I write, I travel, I eat...I AM ANTHONY BOURDAIN!

So, rewind to July 5th, 2010. That is our anniversary. We are in Kauai, about to do some snorkeling. But first, it is a gift exchange. I gave Amanda a gift card to a local spa. She was pleased. Amanda gave me Anthony Bourdain's newest book, "Medium Raw" AND tickets to see him live September 18th in San Diego. Saturday was the 18th, so we saw Anthony Bourdain!!!

Amanda's edit: I have to thank Mama Pea for this one. I saw her blog about seeing him live and bought the tickets immediately after reading her post.

I love Bourdain. I love No Reservations, and I love his thoughts on how to travel and eat local. I try so hard when traveling to eat like the locals, but he makes it look way easy than it is. I find him hilarious on top of it. I love him on Top Chef. I love Kitchen Confidential. I love that if he read our blog he would think we were morons. I love his hate for vegans, equating them to terrorists organizations (I, of course, don't believe this true... just funny). I love his hate for Rachel Ray, Paula Dean, and Sandra Lee. I want to be Bourdain, minus the drug use. Ok, I have a man crush. Whatever.

So we were in the back, and the pictures didn't come out great, but that's ok.

Highlights:

1. The woman in front of us. So, we are sitting down and she sits down in front of us. Then she basically looks at us and others around us and sounds way too loud "I am surprised so many young people are here. I wouldn't think they could relate!" Amanda and I got the biggest laugh of the evening before the show started. Has this woman seen the show? He talked about The Ramones and the New York Dolls, which the woman was confused about. He talked about many sex acts that you don't bring up in polite company. He talked about eating the "poopchute" of a wild boar. The woman feel asleep about 20 minutes in. I'm not sure if she knew what she was getting into. I think she wanted Paula Dean's deep fried mac and cheese. She sucked, we laughed.

2. He talked about a few chapters of the book. McDonald's being evil and Ronald killing children. How fast food establishments might serve meat treated with ammonia. Sandra Lee molesting him. Funny, even if I knew the story.

3. His thoughts on all sorts of food personalities and shows. He likes Giada, even if she has a giant head. He likes Adam Richman, even if he is probably one more buffalo wing away from a massive coronary. He like Andrew Zimmern, who has had similar substance abuse issues as Tony. He likes Alton Brown, despite his hacky Iron Chef America show. He doesn't like Bobby Flay so much.

4. He took audience questions. I asked him a questions. I asked "So, I love Top Chef, but it appears to me that Padma hates the contestants, hates everything she eats, hates Tom and certainly hates you. Does she?" He replied that he doesn't really know her well enough, but that Gail is lovely. Read: "I can't say, because I like that gig and they pay me well. But yeah, she is a Bitch. Gail, however, is super attractive and if I wasn't married we would have a nice relationship."

5. Bad audience questions. I hope mine wasn't stupid. But compared to the 3 people asking him for jobs, the guy that asked why there was a viewer discretion advised warning before each episode, and the woman asking him if he ever smokes pot, I have a feeling I didn't suck so hard.

6. I love his thoughts on travel. So he shared how to get into other cultures and eat what they eat and live how they live. Makes me instantly want to travel more. So we will.

This is the back of my head, Tony listening intently.

After, we went to a local brewery which we have raved about in the past, Stone, and enjoyed a beer.

I look way too happy. I love you Anthony Bourdain. Thanks for a great evening. If I was a shameless self promoter I would have mentioned by blog to you. I didn't. I don't suck.

Weigh-in #1

Hey everyone!

So I weighed in yesterday and was down another 2.6 pounds. I'm pretty excited but also nervous since I tend to struggle after the first couple weeks. Wish me luck this week!

We'll be back with more updates soon. We saw Anthony Bourdain last night!

Food Obsessed

Andy again...I am going rogue. Amanda has had some family issues so fooding (did I just create a word?) around has been limited.

So I am obsessed with Anthony Bourdain/No Reservations. If you have never seen the program, it is amazing if you love food and travel. Bourdain goes to various cities/countries and samples the food, talks to local chefs and foodies, and tries to understand the food culture of whatever place he is at. On our honeymoon in Italy, we went to one of the little shops in the Rialto Market that Anthony went to on his Venice episode and I had perhaps the best salami I have ever had. In short, Bourdain rulez. With a z.

His program last night was on obsessions. Part of it was talking to food bloggers on their obsessions with food. You have to be semi-nuts, if not full on nuts to take pictures of your food, right? Yet we do this. His comments to them are: why? What is it about food that makes us so insane? The answers were basically food is like a drug. Many people refer to this as food porn. I don't know if I want to go there, but it's probably true.

My question then to you is why? Why did you start a food blog? What is it about food that hooks you? Would you say you are obsessed with food? If so, why?

For me (I won't speak for Amanda), I know I am totally obsessed. I want to try everything I can. There is nothing I won't try. I was ridiculous when I was a child. I would only eat microwave cheeseburgers, pizza, and chicken nuggets. I was always a very large kid. Now I just want more of everything good and I want to try everything I can. I got the idea of trying to food blog because I want to share what I love with people and also to find new and amazing things from the blogger world. So far, so good. Food is awesome.

So if you are up to it, I want to know. Are we just all nuts?

"I'm hungry for more"

How cool would it be to have Anthony Bourdain's job? Andy and I are settled in for the night watching his show and wishing we could be him for awhile. Imagine eating and travelling for a living? FANTASTIC?



Alas, I lead a normal life. Today I planned on going to the gym after working (!!!) but my knees were killing me so I made today a rest day. After filling out tons of paperwork and watching gag-inducing bloodborne pathogen videos, I made myself lunch. Raw veg and hummus.



Veggie loaded spinach pasta with a dab of pesto and some turkey sausage. This pasta was killer. I added tomatoes, zucchini and crookneck squash to a 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and mixed it in with the pasta.



Dinner was junk food, made a bit healthier. For the burger, I used lean beef. Each burger was 190 calories, 8 grams of fat and 23 grams of protein. I used a whole wheat bun and a slice of pepper jack cheese to make it tastier.



With chipotle sweet potato fries. I use the frozen Alexia brand. Each bag hhas 7 servings but I split it into 4 servings. So I probably ate about 1.75 servings. (ok I'm a nerd!)



And a pickle.



For dessert, I'm having a mini margarita. I used one shot of tequila, one part Trader Joe's Margarita mix (it's lower in sugar than most! loooooove it!) and one part Simply Orange juice. I love making margaritas on nights like these. And the low-sugar mix doesn't spike my blood sugar like most mixes do.

As for the job, it went great because all I did today was watch that horrible video. I am completely freaked out by needles and this video was chockful of them. GAG GAG GAG!!!!

Are you freaked out by needles?