“No Reservations” — Cleveland
This week: Cleveland. I think Liz Lemon said it best when she asked, “What smells so good?” Cleveland. I like that this show can go from Tahiti to the industrial midwest in a week’s time. I especially liked that Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comics provided the glue for the episode, even if that glue started to wear a little thin by episode’s end. A stop-by-stop recap after the jump…
First stop: Skyline Chili. Honestly, it looks a little horrifying, and yet I can’t deny that it is precisely the type of food one should be eating on a show called No Reservations. The basic idea is you take something, say spaghetti, and then cover it a really creepy chili and about a pound of shredded cheddar cheese. Sounds amazing, right?
Second stop: Winter surfers off Lake Erie. I’m kind of amazed by these people. They are surfing in the dead of winter in sewage-infused waters. Brilliant. Tony doesn’t take part, but he does manage to ice-down a twelve pack readying himself to play barkeep once the near-frozen boarders get out of the swill. One guy could barely talk. He even had the little ice-crystals in his beard.
Stop three: Harvey Pekar. Unfortunately, by this time in the episode the comic-to-video transitions were starting to drive me a little bonkers. Visually they were fine, but the time it took for us to go from one panel to the next was very un-comic book. Comics are great because you control the pace. Television is great because THEY control the pace. Combining the two is proving to be not-so-great.
Stops along the way: a massive used book store, a giant FREE stamp whose origin was told to us by the great Toby (see: American Splendor), some Polish food (complete with fresh head-cheese). Once they started eating the pace picked up. It always does. Again, food on television is the perfect match. It makes people start talking (just ask Jon Favreau), and brings out personalities. At one point in the meal Tony’s friend, Ruhlman curses which causes Harvey to remind him that they’re shooting a family TV show. But of course.
Next: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bourdain rightfully questions whether rock and roll should really be put in a clean museum – specifically a museum that doesn’t allow smoking. Here he meets up with Marky Ramone, who is apparently a foodie. The two gawk The Ramones display (which underwhelms) and then go eat some gourmet.
Then: A steal mill, and a sausage shop. These two places were paired together as dying institutions. The steal mills closed leaving thousands of Cleveland’s workers unemployed, and the sausage shops are dying to a world of processed cold-cuts. There’s something inherently charming about literally watching the sausage get made. The thing is, if its quality sausage seeing it made looks utterly delicious. I could really go for a brat right about now.
Three-quarters of the way through the episode Bourdain rightfully points out that Cleveland’s population is 54% African-American but that he’s having trouble representing them. Hey, at least you can point out when you know your show is getting a little too white. To make up for this, they hit an area soul food establishment. It’s always a soul food establishment. Still, it’s always the type of place that feels more real than just about anything else on the planet, so I suppose it works.
The episode ends with them more or less butchering an entire pig (the pig was all ready quartered, they just had to butcher the individual cuts) and then cooking what I can only describe as the fattiest dinner I’ve ever seen in my life. Mmmmm. Pork.
Next week: Hong Kong.
Tags: No Reservations
