Have you seen the whole program? I wonder if anyone else disliked that guy as much as I did. He seemed cool at first, like he had a genuine interest in exotic foods; but then he just started needling at me. Maybe it’s just my prejudice against fat people, but I felt that he was subtly mocking everyone he met. Just something about those sneaky round eyes.

Like, when he goes to that jungle village to eat the bats. He’s walking through the jungle and seems to be rolling his eyes, like, “These people live so far out in the jungle. They’re like monkeys.” Then he messes with the pan the bats are in, and he spills some. I would have thrown the guy out right then.

Then he goes to a plant where they harvest spirulina. Spirulina, if you don’t know, is a miracle food that’s sort of Soylent Green only not made of people. We could feed the world with this stuff, but it’s under-publicized and only makes it to U.S. stores in expensive pill form. If there were more public awareness, we might have bags of the stuff in our kitchen cupboards, but what’s this guy do? He rolls his big round eyes and makes like he’s drinking swamp scum.

Finally, he goes to a durian farm where this Original Gangsta–like, the Asian [1] Iceberg Slim in a pimp hat and everything–puts him in his place. He lectures him about his flippant attitude towards Asian culture, and I could tell the fat guy was shamed. He reiterated in his defense that durian fruit tastes and smells terrible, but he was sorry for his attitude and clearly felt a little bit smaller (inside).

I don’t know. Those programs in general are a little offensive to me. I think they perpetuate stereotypes and are a product of xenophobic Orientalism. I mean, you don’t see this guy going to a black-owned grocery and laughing about all the pigs feet in jars and shit. Or to France where they use innards in day-to-day cooking. No, it’s always “exotic Asia” where people use available ingredients in ways that shock the average white home viewer. It makes it hard to ask anyone from any culture to prepare you their authentic cuisine, because they expect you to make fun of them after seeing all these stupid-ass shows.

1 – I don’t remember what country he was in. It was either Thailand or Singapore.

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Do you know where frog sashimi is served in Japan?

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