6/23/2009

in

Anthony is on happy islands

Gina Ferrara

This week on "No Reservations," Anthony Bourdain continues his journey from South America to Europe by visiting the Azores, the group of small islands off the coast of Portugal. St. Miguel, Faial, and Pico are just some of the islands that he visits; each with their own distinctive identity.  
  
In St. Miguel, Anthony spends time with a family who oddly enough had settled in America half a century ago, only to return to their homeland in the eighties yet still have a better appreciation for the States. At the table Bourdain eats fresh goat cheese made by the animals raised in the Furtado family, kale soup made the traditional "chunky" way, blood sausage and all sorts of marinated pork parts.  
  
Although the Furtado family would like to explain to Bourdain how much their country has changed since they've returned, Bourdain is still impressed by the serious governmental control over St. Miguel which allows the island to be clean and well cultivated, unlike the Mediterranean and touristy Portuguese mainland.  
  
He is not enthused by every cultural nuance, however. A trip to the hot springs in St. Miguel with boiling, sulfurous pools of water from a resting volcano inspire no wonder in the jaded chef, although a fine snack of boiled eggs cooked in a bag placed in the springs between he and friend Dalia has his appetite sated for at least a little while.  
  
Later in Faial, Bourdain enjoys some pasticcios (the Portuguese version of tapas) in a bar that used to be a mariner's port, where he and his two local Azore buddies eat fried cod and runny cheese and down the best gin and tonics in the southern hemisphere.  
  
In Pico, the land of winemaking, the same three guys sit down for a feast of eel, tuna, barnacles, and octopus soup cooked in vino over open kettles of fire amongst the aunts, uncles, and cousins of the native Azores. Before the meal is over Bourdain mentions that a culture with food in the social tradition, good simple food, even poor food, is better and infinitely more interesting that a culture with none of that culinary intrigue.