Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

So we begin at the end.

After a wild week in Seoul,

there was, I believe, something called... involved.

There were many strange and delightful things to eat.

Things might have spun slightly out of control.

the biggest difference between Korean fried chicken and

American fried chicken... I feel like chicken tonight.

Next, we'll be performing a medially from flavor town.

Who is everybody here?

Come to me, come to me.

Powerful in a small girly way.

Whoops.

Oh, yeah.

You shouldn't be surprised I'm

in a happy place right now.

Maybe the best way to tell

this story is to start at the end.

Like a dog returning to its own

vomit, I keep flashing back to was it last night.

The night before, I smell fried

chicken on my clothes so perhaps... hello.

We meet again.

Am I glowing with health and pink, freshly scrubbed?

You look like a better version of yourself.

Why is that?

Because I've lost about eight pounds of dead skin.

Koreans like the idea of optimal cleanness.

We like to be the most clean possible.

I'm okay frankly with soap and water.

I like beer.

Let me see if I can pour this properly for you.

There you go.

Do you know about this?

No.

The Koreans have many eating traditions.

If you have a very big production or big event, you

celebrate that in a proper way.

What are we celebrating?

We're celebrating the end of this Korea show.

This is important.

This is the most important thing you've ever done.

There's nothing involved with salt.

I don't have to rub that into my raw, thick skin.

I'm a broken man.

I seem beneath the shame and

a headache to be missing a few

layers of skin, as if I've been rubbed somehow raw.

I believe in clean, really, but this is beyond clean.

This is sanded, stripped, filleted.

The beer is not helping.

Well, maybe it is.

I think I've had enough.

The gleeful embrace of mixing

whiskey, rice wine, beer, and oys

oysters, it seems to tempt the fates.

Ooh.

Ooh.

Yes.

Let me ask you one more question.

Uh-huh.

What do you think about Han now after your trip?

I'm brimming with Han.

I mean I could never actually

have a Han because I'm not that Korean.

This is a genetic over cellular thing.

I understand.

But it's something I feel I can really relate to.

I'm definitely a revenge is a

dish best served cold kind of guy.

You eat a lot of chicken.

You didn't eat all day, did you?

No, I did not love myself this morning.

But you felt better after your scrub down?

It was like punish the evil.

This social contract, the confusion hierarchy of age

before everything, fades away.

We are no longer Mr. Ha, Mr.

Park, Mr. No, and Mr. Tony.

We move as one, a band of bros

through the night, the world our oyster.

I feel like a boy band.

Johnny cash.

Johnny cash?

Yeah.

Thank god there was no karaoke.

All roads lead to here.

No escape, just embrace.

I'm acutely aware of my role as

big brother, my new friends

looking at me to set an example.

All right, guys.

Let's party.

Nice to meet you.

So correct me if I'm wrong here.

It is dried squid, m&ms, and mixing your alcohols?

Yeah.

It seemed like a good idea back at the office.

Next we'll be performing a medley from "mama Mia."

We got a low score.

We only got 44.

Mouse?

Mouse fish.

Tony?

You got to go somewhere else.

You got to go somewhere else.

Squid treats and m&ms?

Sure.

Makes perfect sense.

In fact, there were oysters somewhere along the route.

A tale that becomes increasingly

worrying with our alcohol intake.

Oysters, awesome.

Nice.

Competitive drinking and shellfish.

Have you ever played in Korean drinking games?

No.

Well, they have a lot of them.

It keeps the energy up and keeps

everyone kind of drinking.

Stop two.

All right.

We're going to play a little game first.

Tony, we're going to let you start the festivities.

You have to use a chop stick,

hit everything forward, it's going to splash up.

What?

A strike or a push?

A push.

There's a lot of games.

We're not going to go through

them all because it would take

forever and we'd be really, really drunk.

But this game is called the bottle cap game.

We're going to pass this around

in a circle and you're going to

flick it as hard as you can.

No one wins or loses.

We all get drunk.

Very good.

That is brotastic.

Okay, this is chop sticking.

Don't play this game with engineers.

Oh, don't hurt the man.

He's been hitting those oysters hard.

See you in flavor town.

One, two, and three.

It's pretty good.

That's good.

We got to go somewhere else.

Yeah, we're going.

Let's hit the street, guys.

The idea that only an hour

earlier we sat like gentlemen and had barbecue.

A rapidly fading memory.

Tony, how many bottles can you drink?

We'll see.

Yes, I remember now.

Somewhere near the start of the

evening, the moment little

brother grabbed the reins of our

soon to be careening chariot

unfettered by good sense and the

reality of work tomorrow.

Eat the egg, eat the egg

before it gets cooked too much.

That's good.

It's good.

You like the marinated one, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is being Korea, beer is

a must as is apparently soju.

What seems to define Korea as I

know it is it anticipates the future very, very well.

This is a country that's famous

for looking forward, looking into the future.

Where does one go to see Korea's

past, and are these guys sentimental about it at all?

Younger brother?

All right, younger brother.

My mission for purposes of

television is to ingraciousuate

myself with a total group of

strangers, insinuate myself into

their lives and insert myself

into an expression combining the

concepts of company and meal.

In Korean culture, this would be a regular thing.

A one night corporate retreat, if you will.

Which is how I ended up at my

appointment with the fates, a

barbecue joint popular with the salary man.

How did I end up here?

Mr. Noh.

Tony.

I think they like me.

Do you drink soju?

I do.

This is Anthony Bourdain, CNN.

Good night.

Notice the totally blissed out happy look an my face.