I don't carry around a bracelet with the initials WWABD. I do ask myself lately how Anthony Bourdain would have dealt with a pandemic such as COVID-19?
Can't really travel, can't celebrate food in restaurants, can't produce intimate television such as the great shows Bourdain produced.
I suppose Bourdain would have picked a remote spot, eaten well locally, managing to do that without cameras or voiceovers. Those that move at a fast pace find slowing down to be difficult. Anthony Bourdain would have been 65 today. He might not have liked the idea of slowing down even at 65.
Many of us are discovering cooking during the pandemic. You often saw Bourdain eating out: when he could, Bourdain would eat in people's homes. He really enjoyed eating at home with people and learning how to approach certain dishes.
Eating and sharing with people has also gone by the wayside in a pandemic. Pick the people you are with and make the best of it. So many people are alone during the pandemic; some would rather be alone.
Being alone heightens anxiety and depression. With food, you are not alone. Then again, you can feel alone surrounded by people, even with social distancing.
Bourdain might tell us to reflect on our food travel memories. Ours aren't as spectacular or extensive as his were. We have the books and TV shows of his adventures. We can only imagine what happened off-camera.
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We do have food travel memories. Eating raw oysters for the first time at the Ferry Building farmers market in San Francisco. The local canned tuna fish I bought in Victoria and ate on an Amtrak car traveling from Seattle to Chicago. The late night Belgian frites in Amsterdam. The dark chocolate gelato in the outdoor seating at the bar in Rome. The strawberries and raw milk snack in Santa Monica.
The childhood car rides through the U.S. South: pecan logs at Stuckey's, grits at numerous diners, the hockey-puck like hard chocolate chip cookies we got from my grandma's friend and how the warm Southern summer made those cookies edible from the heat.
Bourdain would likely tell us to explore "ethnic" grocery stores and aisles to travel the world without leaving your city. He would suggest ordering out from family-run restaurants and ignoring the greed of restaurant delivery apps (more money in the pockets of the people making the food).
He also would spend a lot of time cursing in several languages about how all of this sucks.
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Eating outdoors is a part of summer. Some cities will close off streets to increase social distancing. Shop well and set up a picnic in a nearby park, keeping your distance. Take a dish that you learned and eat it outdoors. Not the same as food travel but the best we can do during a pandemic.
BalanceofFood.com travel coverage
As we noted last year and worth remembering: "Anthony Bourdain's legacy lives within us. Travel more to learn about people through food. Read one or several of his books. Write your own book and dedicate that book to the spirit of Anthony Bourdain."
photo credit: Instagram Anthony Bourdain