My appointment television, the non-basic cable edition

I forgot to name two shows previously when doing the appointment TV post, mainly because they are not on a major network. The other one will the post piggybacked to this one, for reasons that will make themselves clear shortly enough.

During the Writers Strike of last year, I was tiring of watching the same reruns and decided to use the digital cable to find something else to watch. I ended up on the Travel Channel, which for those of you who know will elicit something like the following response ("Jeff, you do know that there is no sports or concerts on that channel right?"). What I found was a show called No Reservations, hosted by author, chef, and big time Rachel Ray hater Anthony Bourdain (which is what even drew me that far up the dial in the first place. I'm not going to lie, I can't stand that women or her voice. And, end tangent.)

The show is about food and eating, which runs a close second to having a beer on the list of things to do with my free time. It's a simple concept, Tony sees the sights of a particular area of the world or U.S., and dicussed the local cuisine with a friend he has there, or with a connection of someone else he knows. If nothing else, watching the show will make you hungry. Oh, and the sarcastic wit of Bourdain will keep you entertained.

By far my favorite episode of this show was the one about Lebanon. Tony and his crew went there to film a show about the cuisine of the ecountry and how it is rebounding from its crippling civil war of the 80's. Unfortunately, their timing sucked, as right around the time they arrived, Israel started bombing Beirut in retaliation for a Hezbollah raid on the border with Israel. This led into a month long war between the two and a forced evacuation of all American citizens ordered by the State Department. A show about food quickly turned into a show about getting out alive.

New epsiodes of the show start again on July 13, and the show's normal time slot is Monday nights at 10pm on the Travel Channel. Repeats air every weekday at 1pm. All Times Eastern. Check with your cable or satellite provider to find out what channel they carry it on in your area.