Being stuck at home during this Covid19 crisis got me thinking about Anthony Bourdain’s Canadian episodes. I never really paid much attention to it before, and now with all this free time on my hands, I re-watched all the episodes that featured The Great White North. I decided to write a blog about these episodes and share some of my favourite quotes and quips he made which either made me laugh out loud or made me think and reflect on what it must be like to be able to witness these things. Apart from all these, I would also share my thoughts on each episode and my personal takeaway.
No Reservations S02E04 Quebec, First aired April 16, 2006
First episode on our list takes us to the French city of Montreal. Anthony Bourdain starts off this episode introducing Canada as a country, asking “Who are the Canadians? They talk like us, they look like us, they walk among us, they live next to us, but they’re different.” Screen cuts to a random guy in a bar saying “That’s a good thing.”
In this episode, Anthony Bourdain visits a duck farm with his chef friend, buys some chef supplies, eats poutine, visits a maple syrup themed bed and breakfast, joins an Inuit family in the north to be their guest, teaches a class in Montreal Culinary Institute and ends it on high note playing hockey.
On eating Foie Gras: “As soon as you taste it, any concerns you have about Daffy and Donald go right out the window.”
On visiting a duck processing plant: “Duck dissection at sector 7G.”
On eating at Chef Martin Picard’s restaurant: “Notice the redness on my face, the glazed look the blissed out expression, only now slowly beginning to give way to fear. There’s more and more and it’s so good. My liver now beginning to resemble the principal ingredient in this post-apocalyptic onslaught of all things delicious.”
On eating poutine:
- “I’d like to introduce you to that indigenous and magical dish for which every Quebecker holds a rightly special place in their heart. It’s called poutine. To experience this conceptually nightmarish yet thoroughly wonderful gastronomic train wreck, my friend takes me to La Banquise.”
- “Food that’s thematically disgusting and isn’t pretty yet is utterly desirable and delicious. Its one of the classics of the genre.
- “Meat, cheese and fries, all on one fork, I feel so dirty and yet so alive, it’s like forbidden love, a clandestine sex in a public place, you know you shouldn’t be doing it but it feels so damn good.
- When he tried the Three Amigos poutine in La Banquise: “Yet the most disturbing of the bunch is the three amigos, which surprisingly combines four types of non-premium meat in one type of dish, are they really amigos?
On visiting Sucrerie de la Montagne, a maple themed bar/resto/factory/bed and breakfast by Pierre Faucher: “In my twisted imagination, I’m imagining a cult of maple worshiping followers, shallow graves, vats of Kool-aid, hidden meth labs and a film shooting lumber jack facials too somewhere in this very compound.”
When he visited an Inuit family in Northern Quebec, he took a chartered plane, where he quipped: “I love these safety lessons before take off. Try to avoid vomiting with terror during violent turbulence in the pitch freaking black hundreds of miles from anywhere where there’s nothing but ice flows and permafrost down there.
When he put on a fur coat: “I look like Robin Williams in a Speedo.”
When he partook in an Inuit family’s seal meal he described it as: “At the same time, both horror movie and heart-warming, a mix of blood spattered butchery and nourishment. He was offered the best part, the eyeball, which he described as “An act of pure generosity and kindness to an honored guess.”
When he was asked to be a guest lecturer at the Montreal Culinary Institute he asked the students what he said was a great conversation piece for chefs whenever they’re drinking: If you knew this was going to be your last meal on earth, what would it be?
I thought about this long and hard and came up with something very simple: A steaming bowl of Pho on the streets of Saigon, with a bottle of my favorite beer, San Miguel.
The final scene of this episode was him ignoring all good advice and good sense, played ice hockey. It was horrible, but it sure made for great TV. His take on hockey? “I think this is a sport better enjoyed at a bar rather than from the ice. (Last scene was him being dragged off the ice.) Funny enough, I’ve left a few bars this way too.”
I found this episode light, funny and full of witty jokes only Bourdain can deliver. The way he described poutine as something that shouldn’t be but is incredibly delicious is also something I found amusing. I also love how he connected with the Inuit family and how he went outside of his comfort zone and ate the seal eyeball. He showed respect and I always loved that about him. The last quote about leaving bars this way too was especially funny to me because I can relate to it.
No Reservations S04E03 Vancouver, First aired January 21, 2008
Season 4 takes us to the beautiful city of Vancouver, which Bourdain calls one of the coolest cities in the world. “Sure it rains all the time and there’s no shortage of vegetarians and they have a public beach filled with albino leaves. Yet it recently ranked the most livable city in the world. The list makers have their reasons and of course, I have mine. It’s a restaurant town, a foodie town, a chef town. A proverbial melting pot where the elements don’t melt too much and lose distinct flavors.”
In this episode, Bourdain tries Japadog, goes to EA Sport’s HQ, tries snowboarding and plays an extra in a movie.
On Japadog: “Seaweed sprinkles wasabi mayo and daikon radish. The reason for Japadog’s name is crudely obvious yet gratifying. If life has taught us anything, mystery meat in a tube form, mark of quality.
When Anthony Bourdain visited EA Sport’s headquarters, he asked if he can be in the FIFA Street game. I like the concept of this game because the characters’ facial features are exaggerated, resulting in a more cartoon-y version of the players, mixing part Dr. Seuss, part Tim Burton.
Tony then made a remark on Vancouver being Hollywood North. He visited a film set, where he played a medical technician in Uwe Boll’s Far Cry, a German film based on a video game.
Also worth noting is Anthony Bourdain hung out with three prominent Vancouver chefs and ate at each of their restaurants. Rangoli by Chef Vikram Vij, Tojo’s Restaurant by Chef Hidekazu Tojo, which included a tuna toro steak with freshly ground wasabi that took a huge amount of self-restraint on my part not to lick the computer screen and Chef Pino Posteraro, who he visited and had a home-cooked meal.
The theme of this episode was what made a city cool? A few visits from this New Yorker certainly adds cool points to any location.
I’ll be honest, I found this episode a bit boring. I’m not a big fan of him going to fine dining restaurants because it doesn’t feel accessible. The acting scene was cheesy and self-indulgent. I loved the EA HQ visit though and the fact that they turned him into a video-game character.
The Layover S02E05 Toronto, First aired December 17, 2012
Without a doubt, my favorite episode on this list, Toronto. I’ve watched this episode countless times and even visited some of the restaurants on this list. I look forward to visiting it all once this Covid-19 thing ends.
On the city’s Hog Town nickname and the slaughterhouses that used to be there: “If you listen you can almost hear them screaming through the ages. I’m hungry.”
The New Yorker visited Tosho Knife Arts (934 Bathurst St, Toronto), a specialty store that sells beautiful steel knives.
“That’s a personality altering knife. Movies are made about knife like that. They talk to you: ‘Don’t leave me in the drawer, Tony. Use me. They’re talking about you Tony, they don’t respect you. Teach them a lesson, Tony.”
Tony spent the afternoon on a patio in Ronnie’s Local 069 (69 Nassau St, Toronto) at Kensington Market.
“Do not Instagram this place.” 
Being a child of a record executive, Tony has a general passion for music, more specifically punk music. One of his stops in the city was Hits and Misses, which has since closed.
“For me, you’d get the album, which, chances are, you’ve been waiting for. You’d sit there and look at it, ‘What are they trying to tell me with this picture? There’s an entire story in the cover art'”
“Evening approaches, like the slow crawl of the wounded bonobo dragging himself across the jungle floor with a knife between his teeth and a bad attitude.”
At Black Hoof, Bourdain took shots of bourbon from a bone marrow. Sadly, The Black Hoof has closed down since this episode aired.
After eating at the Black Hoof and taking in this ungodly practice, Tony retorts, “I’m gonna wake up tomorrow all drunk and hungover and covered in fat. Again. I hate when that happens.”
“Extremely anti-social and against all standards of decency so I guess we should probably do it.”
Tony goes on to drink at Cold Tea in Kensington Market (60 Kensington Ave, Toronto) and eat poutine with Toronto local punk band Fucked Up at Poutini’s on Queen West (1112 Queen St W, Toronto). Poutine, he says, “Oohh that’s good. Morally wrong, but good.”
He then got asked which was better, Montreal or Toronto? “I’m not getting involved in that.” says Bourdain without hesitation. I thought this was hilarious.
Following day, after a night of heavy drinking:
“The hangover scene. So, here we go, let’s play out this dreary sham of a scenario one more time, just in case we haven’t beaten it to death for like eight years.”
“Oooh, I’m so hungover. What will I do to mitigate the results of my hilarious chronic alcoholism?”
He had his hangover meal in Parkdale, at a shawarma joint called Bacchus Rotti, which like a lot of things on this episode, has already permanently closed down.
Show ends with Bourdain saying. “Hogtown. Hogtown, eh? Fuck your town, and my town, and Funkytown and Flavortown for that matter, bitches. I want to go to Hogtown.”
I’m a little biased but this is probably my favorite episode just because it’s set in Toronto. I tried Carousel and I wasn’t a fan of pea meal bacon in general. I find it dry and boring to eat. I still love my regular bacon. I find the Tosho Knife Arts fascinating. One of the books Tony’s written is Get Jiro, which is a graphic novel. It is sold in Tosho KNife Arts as well. Taking shots from a bone marrow appealed to me because it looked dirty and decadent. I still go back to this episode from time to time. The quotes are still unbelievably funny no matter how many times I’ve heard them.
The Layover S01E06 Montreal, First aired December 26, 2011
“This is a great country because of this city. Without Montreal, Canada would be hopeless. It’s where the cool kids hang.”
Tony starts this trip with a hearty breakfast at Beautys Luncheonette (93 Mont-Royal West Montreal). This restaurant has been open since 1942 and claims to have invented breakfast in this city. Breakfast was not served in Montreal before they opened.
Bourdain then went on to suggest also trying the bagels at the famous St-Viateur Bagel Shop (263 St-Viateur O, Motreal). Before taking a hilarious jab at cafes with laptops, “If you are a citizen of the people’s republic of Laptopistan, and like sitting for hours, sipping a latte, listening to Tracy Chapman, and twirling your soul patch while perusing your Twitter feed, maybe Club Social works for you. Personally I’d rather dunk my head in boiling duck fat.” He really despises hipsters, with burning passion.
Of course, Bourdain, being an author, first and foremost, capitalizes on the opportunity to endorse an independent bookstore. “Hey, like books? I know I do. In fact, I recently became a publisher of fine books and hopefully some of them will be sold at fine independent bookstores like this one.” Appetite Books (388 Victoria Ave, Westmount, Quebec) is a small, independent, niche bookstore that offers an extensive collection of cookbooks and food-related literature, in both French and English, to satisfy the everyday cook, the passionate gourmet, and the professional chef.
It’s worth noting Anthony Bourdain is a huge fan of food-related literature as evidenced numerous times in his various shows.
Uncle Tony then went on to indulge in his deep love for cheese. If there’s anything he loves more than food porn books, it’s cheese (“You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.”)
“”The greatest, single crime against food is they make it so fucking difficult to make cheese as good as it should be.”
He suggested La Fromagerie Atwater (134 Atwater Ave, Montreal), where they sell over 850 different kinds of cheese.
AB: “I hate those people. Elbowed a mime on the way over. The human statues? Get a job. GET. A. JOB.”
Tony then went on to meet up with his friends, chefs David Mcmillan and Frederic Morin. “Known and remembered, often with damaged brains, by chefs everywhere. These guys are legendary for putting the hurt on visiting chefs. And their restaurant, Joe Beef (2491 Notre-Dame St W, Montreal), is the perfect place to do that.”
The two chefs took him boating, which clearly he didn’t enjoy. They then took him for a drink, pea soup and pork knuckle to Brasserie Capri (2687 Wellington St, Montreal) “A pub, a Canadian pub, a Quebecois pub and exactly, EXACTLY, what I like. Get rid of that clock. You’re ruining my buzz, man.”
The main event: sucking down oysters and good wine at Joe Beef. “Mention their names to any chefs who they have ever hosted and there will be an embarrassing anecdote. Unconsciousness, public nudity, scandal, deliciousness.”
Bourdain then went to Big in Japan (4175 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal, Quebec), which according to him is the premiere service provider for drunk-ass chefs after work: “It’s like going into the doctor’s office and he’s got stirrups and he’s putting on the gloves and some machine starts whirring, you’ve got a pretty good idea what comes next.”
He then went on to get some tacos at Grumman’78 (630 Courcelle St, Montreal, Quebec) When he found out he had some vegetarian taco, he hilariously said “I’m so ashamed. I feel so dirty.”
After tacos, it was back to drinking into oblivion. “There was, to the best of my recollection, no karaoke, no lap dances, no drunk dialing of my fourth grade social studies teacher.”
“You can’t not do this when you come to Montreal. Not just Canada’s oldest but arguably, the best at this magical pastrami like substance.”
Anthony Bourdain drinking scenes never gets old. Hungover and body aching, Tony ends the show on a high note and soldiered on to the legendary deli, Schwartz (3895 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal).
I felt Tony enjoyed this episode because he got to hang out with his friends. Not included in my write up was his knee-slapping drunk conversation about Celine Dion with Chef Martin Picard in the back of a pick-up truck.
AB: “So you’re saying, Celine Dion, she’s a revered national hero. An expression of Quebec aspiration and pride.”
MP: “She’s the greatest all over the world.”
AB: “In maybe some alternate Canadian universe. Would you fuck her?”
MP: “You don’t have to fuck her! Why would you want to fuck her? That doesn’t make sense!”
I’m a big fan of old school restaurants that have been around for decades like Schwartz and Basserie Capri. I’m a sucker for halcyon days and nostalgia and I guess that is why this episode appeals to me. Plus, Bourdain getting drunk makes for great TV.
Parts Unknown S01E04 Quebec, First aired May 5, 2013
The show starts with a warning in French. “The food you are about to see is of high grade quality and deliciousness. Served in portions unfamiliar to the average diner. It may be dangerous for average human consumption. The host is a trained professional. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.”
And off to the races we go.
Bourdain travels to the Quebec accompanied by chefs Frédéric Morin, David McMillan and Martin Picard, who you remember from such shows as the one before this The Layover and No Reservations. This time, their focus is on excess. How much foie gras, truffle, sweetbreads, maple syrup, duck fat, sausage, astoundingly ripe cheese, caviar, beaver, and donkey can they eat? Only one way to find out.
Bourdain goes ice fishing with Chefs Frédéric Morin and David McMillan and goes back to their seemingly ramshackle cabin with their catch, where, upon entering inside, you realize the set up is as impressive as any five-star dining restaurant as anywhere in the world. Here, they indulge in the first of many, many gourmet meals in this episode accompanied by many fine wines and liquers. Exceptional food like oysters, ox-tail, chilled lobster ala Parisienne, topped with truffles and Lièvre à la Royale, which Tony mouth wateringly describes as “devilishly difficult, boneless, wild hare in a sauce of its own blood, a generous heaping of fresh black truffle, garnished with thick slabs of seared foie gras.”, cheese, Cuban cigars and “a dessert as rare as it gets, a dinosaur-era monster long believed extinct” – gateau marjolaine, layers of almond and hazelnut meringue, chocolate and butter cream.
“Without getting too snobby or elitist, eating off vintage tableware is one of the great joys in life.” 
“Really, is there a billionaire or a despot anywhere on earth who at this precise moment is eating better than us?” 
“The seared foie is perched atop an ethereal suspension of potato puree.” 
Introducing Martin Picard to the Ride of the Valkyrie, Bourdain uses an amalgamation of hyperbole and epic references saying “Once every few decades, maybe every century, a nation will produce a hero. An Escoffier. A Mohammed Ali. A Dalai Lama. Joey Ramone. Someone who changes everything about their chosen field. Who changes the whole landscape. Life after them is never the same. Martin Picard is such a man. A heretofore unencountered hybrid of rugged outdoorsman, veteran chef with many years of fine dining experience, renegade, innovator. He is one of the most influential chefs in North America.”
Him and Tony went beaver-trapping and caught one within a few minutes.
Post pick-up hockey meal. 
Bourdain then travels by rail and romanticizes the experience.
Tony then proceeds to eat at Le Continental 26 (Rue Saint Louis, Québec)
“Shrimp cocktail. Not a deconstructed shrimp cocktail, mind you, but shrimp cocktail. The way Jesus wants you to eat them.” 
Across town, he goes to another thing entirely, the younger, wilder L’Affaire est Ketchup (46 Rue Saint-Joseph E, Québec). “At this point in my life, I just don’t know any more. Are these young cooks, young servers, these dedicated entrepreneurs…are they hipsters? Or am I just a cranky old fuck who thinks anybody below the age of 30 is a hipster?”
As a show, I think Parts Unknown has best production value in terms of budget, execution and storytelling. It wasn’t always about food, but more about the culture, the politics and history of a particular place. This all culminated in the Hanoi episode, where dad, sorry, Uncle Tony had Bun Cha with President Obama.
With that being said, I think this episode isn’t really for me. Too much high-brow cuisine, which I appreciate but it’s not as accessible. I find the cabin scene cool though. And the way they indulged inside that cabin was amazing. Of course, seeing Tony reunited with his chef friends also had the makings of great TV. I loved the nostalgia of taking a long distance train ride. I feel it’s one of the best things you can do in life.
Parts Unknown S011E03 Newfoundland, First aired May 13, 2018
Bourdain once again travels with terrible twosome of Frédéric Morin and David McMillan, who you may remember from such shows as this one, or the Layover or No Reservations.
Bourdain asks questions about the 1992 shutdown of the cod industry by the Canadian Government and the impact it had on life in Newfoundland. This is what I love about Parts Unknown. It not only shows the food porn but also the issues surrounding the destination.
They then went on to go fishing in the Atlantic and it was a triumphant scene. If you’ve been following Anthony Bourdain’s shows for a while, there is a long running joke on the fishing scenes to which he hilariously remarked “Well, I think that’s the most successful fishing scene I’ve had in many years.”
They go out into the wilderness to hunt for moose. The moose hunting was unsuccessful but as with any signature Bourdain show, eating well is a given, even in the badlands. Their menu consisted of raw Beausoleil oysters; moose prepared in a variety of ways; cured ham; jellied foie gras; terrine of wild hare; terrine of pheasant, wild duck, and guinea hen; terrine of wild boar; canned and fresh truffles; wild mushrooms and grilled Scots lovage; and roasted chestnuts, bacon, and pearl onions.
Just the bare essentials. 
Lucky bird.
The trio then went on to have a delicious seafood dinner at celebrated restaurant Raymond’s (95 Water St.) in St. John’s, which serves highly localized, wildly creative menu. They start off with seafood tower, which consisted of snow crabs, razor clams, museels, capelin and sea urchin. Followed by crispy cod bladder, cod fillet and Jigg’s dinner reinvented into a pasta dish.
They then head to St. Pierre and Miquelon. Bourdain asks how long the flight was, to which the ticket lady says 45 minutes. “45 minutes? That’s enough to see all the good films Michael Bay ever made.” Classic Bourdain wit. High. Lar. Rious.
Upon his return to Newfoundland, the three friends went to a local dive bar and participated in a tradition of kissing a cod fish before taking shots with locals and being declared honorary Newfoundlanders. In a poem said before the shots, there’s one poignant moment where the bartender says:
So here’s a health to your company, and one to my lass,
Let’s drink and be merry all out of one glass;
Let’s drink and be merry all grieve to refrain,
For we may or might never all meet here again.
That last line hit me pretty hard.
This episode for me started slow at first but gradually picks up and finishes strong in the last scene. I love the ending. Looking back it was fitting, beautiful and poignant.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. It was fun re-watching these episodes. On that note, I’ll leave you with some more of my favourite episodes of Anthony Bourdain:
- All episodes in Vietnam. It’s not secret Anthony Bourdain loved Vietnam. He always said it was his favourite place.
- No Reservations S06E21 Back to Beirut – When they filmed in Lebanon in 2006, they found themselves in the middle of a conflict. This is a special episode because it provided insights on the uncertainty of the time and the danger. Despite this, he has nothing but love for the city. In this clip, he speaks to Larry King about the experience.
- The Layover S01E02 New York – Bourdain in his home city. It was pulsating with so much energy and though he hated the Layover format, he was home.
- Parts Unknown S11E05 Hong Kong – My favourite city in the world. Bonus was he got to work with legendary cinematographer, Christopher Doyle.
Resources: CNN Parts Unknown, Eater.com
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