Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

You know what I like? I like Sichuan.

Man, I love the food here.

You know what else I like?

Torturing my friend Éric Ripert.

I don't know why. Maybe it's

because he's so damn nice.

- You high, man? - You look high.

I am.

- But I like it. - Yeah?

You could pretty much tear his toenails out

and he'd still find something nice to say about you.

He's so polite, yet if you look closely,

and I do, his discomfort can be exquisite.

He's the devil.

Look at him.

It's the spicy, sensualist heartland

of all the things I love about China.

The collision between very, very old and very new,

an exploding middle class, a lot of history,

and food that could burn you down to a charred,

smoking little stump.

Sichuan province, located in the southwest of China,

over a thousand miles from Beijing.

A region so fertile and lush,

that it's been referred to as "China's breadbasket."

And it's capital, Chengdu.

Despite its ever-growing skyline,

it hasn't lost its deep culinary roots and traditions.

- And I figured, if I'm going back to Sichuan

I should bring a friend.

Someone unused to the... How shall I say...

Level of heat commonly found in the food here.

Someone who's never been to China before

and is unused to its ways.

I'm talking, of course, about chef Éric Ripert

three star Michelin restaurants

as New York's Le Bernardin.

So welcome to China, Éric.

Thank you.

- First time in the mainland? - Yeah, yes.

And I'm very surprised already about, uh, what I see

in the city here.

I was expecting like, uh, kind of a gigantic Chinatown

that we have in New York.

That's some racist shit right there, I'm tellin' ya.

No, it's very surprising.

The streets, they're very clean.

Just... it almost looks like a European city.

Except for the air.

The air quality, I mean, - maybe you've noticed

that haze... - Yeah, - it's like the fog.

That's not... that's not good.

But I'm definitely out of my comfort zone.

- Really? - For sure, yeah.

- Well, good. - Well, I'm hungry, you hungry?

Yeah.

- Noodles, that's where you should start around here.

Chengdu is famous for little spots like this.

Don Don Chen Shui Mian, named after a much beloved

Chengdu noodle snack.

Oh, yeah, now we're talkin'.

I've never been good with chopsticks.

Really?

Never.

This is not bad.

I can grab it.

Kind of.

Oh, yeah.

That is awesome.

So it's all spicy.

The peppers get on you I'm... I'm like... whew.

Yeah, well, this is just day one, man.

I'm surprised you don't drink beer with that.

Dude, it's only 11:20 in the morning.

What kind of an animal do you think I am?

- Well, 'cause there's nothing - to soothe your taste buds.

This is a good sort of, uh, intro.

- So we're gonna have fun. - Oh, man.

We're gonna eat well.

You're gonna drink -a little more than you like.

Okay.

And I have to stress this to you now, Éric,

you cannot refuse.

Don't look at me with eyes like that.

I'm saying it's... drinking

culture is very important here.

And if we go to, like, a formal meal,

your ability to drink leads to a number of assumptions

about you, you know?

Your general manliness, penis size.

Your worth as a human being.

I'm comfortable with my size.

Think of yourself as an ambassador

not only for America, but for... for France, Éric.

But I am an ambassador of Le Bernardin as well.

Of the people who work with me and so on.

- Right. - You don't want people, uh,

On the other side of the world

thinking that Le Bernardin sends pussies out there

to represent.

You know what? You're scaring the shit out of me now.

Seriously.

Yeah, you can't let the team down.

To me... to me it's more insulting

to be shit-faced at the table.

No, no, not here.

It's perfectly okay to be shitfaced at the table.

That's completely acceptable.

It's gonna be a wild week.

Yes, I have the sense of that.

Here's something they talk about a lot in Sichuan

when discussing food.

Two elements of flavor personified by two ingredients

that are integral to so much

of the cooking around here.

The Sichuan peppercorn, known for its flowery,

aromatic flavor and its tingly, mind-deranging,

mouth-numbing effects... a phenomenon called "ma."

And the spicy chili peppers like anjing chow,

or the even hotter facing heaven chili

provide the "la,"

pure heat.

So if you imagine like, Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS,

tormenting you with nipple clamps as the "la,"

the "ma" provided by the pleasantly deranging

peppercorns, would be like the naughty nurse

with the ice cubes.

What's your, uh, what's your feeling on MSG?

- I don't mind MSG. - Yeah, I think it's good stuff.

I do not react to it.

Right.

No, no, me too.

Nobody does. It's a... It's a lie, man.

But you find a lot of natural MSG in tomatoes.

In breast milk and parmesan.

- Yeah, in a... in a lot of products.

Yeah, you know what causes

Chinese restaurant syndrome?

Racism.

"Ooh, I have a headache. It must've been

the Chinese guy."

Most of the traditional, very famous dishes

of Sichuan cuisine are not made from chef.

Our comes out from the family.

Uh-huh.

So family dishes is... is the... the key

of Sichuan cuisine.

In my quest to set Éric's perfect hair on fire,

I have arranged dinner with this man, Go Sa,

who runs the Sichuan Cuisine Museum here.

He takes us to a neighborhood favorite,

Tiantian Fang Tian, for some typical local dishes

like pickled chicken feet, cartilaginous little bits

of gnawable goodness.

How do you eat this one?

Just, uh, bite it and, uh, don't eat the bone,

though.

- No, no... - Oh, it's good.

- It's delicious. - It's spicy.

Yeah, very spicy.

Whew.

Have some beer.

Well, the food is really good,

but the spices are little bit

of a challenge, I have to say.

Oh, yeah, now we're talking.

You're gonna love this dish, my friend.

Yeah, let's, uh, find the chicken

in the pile of chili.

Pile of chili.

"Laziji" literally means spicy chicken but the dish,

in practical terms, is a game of finding

the bits of chicken in the mountain

of ass-burning goodness.

Come on, it's fun for the whole family.

"Is that a tiny nubbin of hacked chicken,

or a nuclear cluster of chili seeds?"

The Sichuan peppers are the... for me, like... the really

super-addictive.

- Oh, yeah, I feel them now. - It's all tingling.

Yeah.

Like that, right.

There's a scientific name for the process,

- for what happens, it's san chul... - Mm-hmm.

Is the biological agent that causes confusion

in your nervous system.

- Confusion? - Tingling. Confusion, yeah.

That's what I feel right now, yeah.

You're gonna love this dish.

I'm totally confused, I'll tell you that.

- Oh, mapo doufu. - Oh, my favorite.

That one, I have the feeling, is the killer.

Look at that, man.

That is some goodness right there.

For me, the apex of Sichuan food.

My absolute favorite, improbably enough,

is a tofu dish.

This tofu dish, the legendary mapo doufu,

or pock-marked granny tofu.

Ground pork or beef, cubes of bean curd