The worst meal in the world, according to Anthony Bourdain
No matter what setting viewers found him in, Anthony Bourdain was always honest. The chef imbued his documentaries with an authentic sense of his New York upbringing and incisiveness as a writer, which made for a potent pairing. Yet, for every moment of genuinely moving insight he produced, there were those of abrupt honesty, which were, more often than not, comical. These instances would see the outspoken nature of his native city rear its head as a host of thorny locals, delicacies and environments challenged him.
These rank as some of the most memorable aspects of his TV career, and occurred on No Reservations, The Layover, and, of course, on Parts Unknown, the show that allowed him to plunge headfirst into areas deemed as cultural hinterlands by uninformed Westerners. From terrible ploys that sent him into states of drunken depression to being escorted by armed militias in treacherous warzones, Bourdain went to great lengths to bring his shows to life, and, despite his immediate reactions to them, knew that the occasional nasty surprise is inherent to diving into the eclectic spheres that are largely untapped by the Western masses.
Given that he had been to more climes than most, the question of what the worst food Anthony Bourdain ever ate would often come up, as he was famed for his honesty. He openly explained that Namibian warthog rectum ranked up there with the worst things he had ever eaten. You can’t blame him; it looked like something from the cantina in Mos Eisley.
Elsewhere, when speaking to Bon Appetit in 2016, the gastronaut also revealed that he thought one of the worst culinary creations known to man came from the West: plane food. He claimed that he never ate the food offered by airlines when travelling for 200 days a year. “Never,” he said. “No one has ever felt better after eating plane food. I think people only eat it because they’re bored. I don’t eat on planes. I like to arrive hungry.”
He maintained that he would refuse it even when travelling from his hometown on long-haul treks to the likes of Japan – one of his favourite countries – and New Zealand, and much preferred to pair cheese and port and drink himself into a coma. “For a super-long flight, I’d order cheese and s**t load of port. I’d eat some cheese and drink myself stupid,” he claimed.
Even without the actual fun of sampling a warthog bunghole, which sounds beyond the pale to the uninitiated, let alone the late Bourdain, his pick for the worst meal in the world is one that many who have sampled it would agree with. The dish is a traditional þorramatur cured Icelandic shark, which he ate in 2004 during season one of No Reservations. “That is, I think the word, unspeakably nasty,” he said before going on, “This is probably the single worst thing I have ever put in my mouth.”
Watch a clip of Anthony Bourdain eating cured shark below.
