Bingley in Beirut
Whoops! Sorry! Typo. Wrong “B” guy. Well. Same thing, really.
CELEBRITY chef Anthony Bourdain was stranded in war-ravaged Beirut yesterday after Israeli forces bombed the city’s international airport and blockaded all of Lebanon’s ports.
The best-selling author of “Kitchen Confidential” flew to Beirut on Sunday with a camera crew from his Travel Channel series, “No Reservations,” to do a show on the local cuisine. But after the thunderous assault on the city in response to Islamic extremist group Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers, Bourdain and his crew holed up at the Moevenpick Hotel while they waited for evacuation instructions from the State Department.
“Our network, our friends and our families just want us out of here as soon as possible,” Bourdain told Page Six yesterday afternoon, as Israeli shells exploded in the distance. “We’re not getting a show out of this . . . I just wanna hang out and drink at the bar. The mojitos here are great.
Fun | tree hugging sister | 
July 14, 2006 10:35 am
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OMG! I am so behind on stuff, but I just finished reading “KC” two days ago. I loved it. Particularly his story about when his boss (who was going crazy) suddenly wanted no tattoos in the kitchen:
“Every one of my cooks was festooned with prison tats…the guy who right now was loading trash cans with hundreds of marinating chicken parts in the cramped, stifling, unrefrigerated cellar on his twenty-second consecutive double shift was a goddamn Sistine Chapel of skin art. And where am I going to find a convict without a tattoo? The Watergate burglars weren’t, to my knowledge, available.”
Are there any journalists covering the war from that bar, I wonder?
He is an utter and complete degenerate pisser. I would LOVE to run the roads with him just once. now that’s he’s older, I might oughta be able to keep up. At least he’d have a designated driver/bail poster. Great book, eh Susanna? The part where he wants burn plaster/ointment for a boo boo and the gnarly guy silently pulls the saute pan out (of the salamandre?) withOUT a mitt is unbelievable ~ probably my favorite part. The “when NOT to go out to eat” advice is good, too.
Jeff, I think Bourdain’s probably already drunk them under the table, stood outside to watch with Israeli fighters going over a la Patton, eaten the snakes that were scared into the streets by the bombs, gone back in for refreshments and filed new reports to cover all of them. And he’s bored, I’m sure.
That seems a fairly accurate description of the Bourdain I’ve come to know through the past few days’ reading.
He may have brushed his teeth with sand and rinsed with diesel, too.
I am not as brave as you. I could’ve lasted about three to five courses in the sushi bar with him (but only about two sakes). But dinner at Les Halles? Any time. We used to eat there in DC quite a bit. Excellent, simple, hearty fare.
Yes, that was the story of Tyrone (?) in Provincetown. One of the heaviest hitters on the pirate ship!
ARGH!! KNEW I loved it! It’s weird how that book influences you, too. Read it shortly after it came out (major dad’d gotten ahold of it first and read me so many bits, I read it as a beach book in record time.) Like Tyrone ~ years later we (me, major dad and the lovely Kcruella who PAID for dinner ~ we are eternally grateful.) sat AT the counter (Per Bingley and NJSue’s WISE instructions ~ I am again eternally grateful.) at Emeril’s in New Orleans. AND all we could do was watch the grill chef’s hands ~ They were meat blisters on bones. His name was Eric and major dad told him he was his hero.
If I with my Dad and Mom (max party of three, too hard to chat with four) we will belly up to the “chef’s counter” at any good restaurant and watch the show. It is well worth not sitting at a civilized table to see the goings-on.
Yes, it’s a little hotter, and a little louder. It’s a little messier, nowhere to put the purse. Waa waa waa. But the action can’t be beat.
But NOW? NOW?! Now I will know even more so what to look for. The meaty paws. Listen for the ethnic slurs and degrading language. All in good fun, of course.
By the way, I think the horse (the other B – Barbaro) is doing a little better today. So sad. He is a real beauty.
When NJSue and I sat at the Chef’s Bar at Emeril’s Emeril himself was there. Way way cool. He kept looking at what we were eating it and how we were eating it. If we were a little slow he’d say “You don’t like that? Try this” and put a plate of something else in front of us.
Er, “what we were eating” not “what we were eating it”.
PIMF
Have another mojito.
I will in a few hours; Bride and daughter are comiing in to the City and we’ll be having dinner somewhere on the lower east side.
Suggest in honor of Bourdain perhaps Les Halles?
15 John St.
or Park Avenue
http://www.leshalles.net/menus/LHD_Dinner.pdf
Something for all the carnivores in the family.
The 15 John st location is not that far from my office, and I’ve eaten there several times; quite yummy.
We’re going to an Italian place somehwere in the Bowery with a fairly large group of old friends.
Let’s see…the steak frites are excellent, as are the moules frites portugues, oh and the choucroute garnie is tres yum, as well.
bring the hubby to ny susanna, and we’ll go!
It is a plan. He is also a carnivore.
Don’t tell THS; she gets very petulant when she hears about these things.
She may sic the clown on you.
Are you kidding? It’s my good-luck charm that keeps her away.
Her silence… it is deafening, no?
You should probably be nicer to someone who can kill you with her thumbs. Or one of those Scottie dogs.
You may be right.
The THS needs to use her thumbs to kill? I thought she just cast a spell.