Travel Channel

I wish that horrible ad campaign on outdoor kiosks featuring skewered guinea pigs would be removed. I am horrified each time I see it. My guinea pig passed away yesterday and seeing those ads is even grosser than usual. Andrew, could you have a little sensitivity to your own culture. Are you going to go to China and do a show on eating dogs? Cmon.

Personally I wouldn't be offended unless I saw him eating guinea pigs in Cleveland. The title of the show is sort of a spoiler as to what the main focus of it will be--he is going to go to different countries all over the world and eat what is acceptable, available, and indigeonous to THOSE countries. This is one of those cases where, if something on the tube just isn't your bag, you need to switch channels. We can't water down all these shows on every station so that nothing is offensive to anyone anywhere. Fade to black--that's all you'd be left with. I love this show as well as Anthony Bourdain--if I personally found the content of either show offensive, I would pick up my remote rather than demand that a show bend and cut its content until it falls within my own personal bubble. If I live in a certain country and the choice is to eat guinea pig or starve to death, I will be dining on fluffy. In that country, guinea pig is normal, acceptable fare. All countries do not have the same sensitivities and taboos that we do and as far I know, none of them are tripping over themselves to adopt ours. They eat what we eat--whatever is available to them and scampering across their yard. There are people in America who eat squirrel, horse, and beaver--I find them all adorable and am offended at the concept. That means I don't go to someone's house who IS eating any of those things and try to throw their food away. I stay home and eat my beef, pork, and chicken. I am extremely offended at people who eat lamb, veal, and suckling pig--animals grown only for food and killed while they're young--they don't even get to have lives. I refuse to eat shellfish like lobster and clam--I morally object to the way they're prepared. I consider it torture to boil something alive. I will also sit in the chinese restaurant next to my son while he's eating crab legs and lobster. All of these foods are considered very acceptable and non-offensive.

It's subjective. It is illogical for Andy to do exactly the one thing that would defeat the expressed purpose of the whole show.

i can see why people get offended or upset by some of the things he tries but are u that closeminded that you believe what you eat, probably as an american, is universal to EVERYONE else in the world?

how bout u be a little more sensitive to THAT idea?

That was exactly my point. What we eat as Americans is not universal to everyone else in the world. It is our own arrogance as a nation that seemingly gives us the impression that we have the right to impose our sensitivities and taboos on other cultures. Many of those other cultures consider us downright vulgar. We need to practice more the gentle art of minding our own business.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yvette88,

Leslie, please don't be offended. I must side with Yvette88 on this issue and suggest that you let us watch the show. One cannot censor everything. I happen to enjoy the show a lot & hate about 90% of all other programming. I simply don't watch shows I despise or find intellectually deficient. I suggest you do the same according to your own measure. Your freedom ends where mine begins.

People may eat what they want and watch whatever shows they want. I've had too eat too many unsavory things during my life to want to watch someone eating disgusting things. All I ask is not to have the announcements for this show during some of the really fine shows on Travel Channel. More than once I've turned to other channels because of this and other disgusting commercials. Have a little sensitivity to those of us who find eating bugs and snot stomach turning.

Huzzah, Yvette!! I have eaten some pretty bizarre stuff, and enjoyed it. I was talking about hunting rabbits once and one of the gals in the group said I was so horrible, why did I need to go out and shoot poor animals when I could go to the store and buy beef, pork or chicken? I responded what do you think people did before there were supermarkets? Many enjoy the flavor of something that hasn't been farm-raised to be mediocre and shot full of hormones and things, then processed with carbon momoxide to make it nice and red. I must disagree with you on the lobsters. Lobster's central nervous systems are so simple that they do not have pain receptors. They do not feel any pain. If you are that squeamish, Alton Brown on 'Good Eats' showed a method of putting the lobsters in the fridge for about an hour and that puts them to sleep, as they are cold-blooded, then you drop them in the pot, Or you could use the method where you drive a French knife through what little brain they have. Believe me, a lobster dropped in a pot of boiling water suffers much, much less than a cow in a slaughterhouse being shot in the head with a captive bolt gun.

I am very Sorry that you lost your pet and friend.
We must remember that the world is filled with many cultures that have different values and culinary traditions. It is the oafish host that offends and degrades the traditions of other cultures by labeling them "Bizarre." Ban such culinary debasement and its author.

Bizarre Foods is a lame attempt at original programming for the Travel Channel; Mr. Zimmern would probably eat chocolate-dipped Thai fingernails if the producers scripted it and paid him a bonus to do it -
Come on, this show is a cross between a "Billy Mays Here" commercial, and Fear Factor - showcasing the supposed indigenous palate of our "global" community.

Mr. Zimmern, have you visited provinces in China where the corrupted poor are trading in cats, dogs, bears, foxes, badgers, raccoon, and any other animals they can get their greedy hands on to supply exotic and completely unnecessary foods and medicinal remedies to restaurants and apothecaries catering to the emerging wealthy class? Oh but look, here's a plate of chicken feet delicately prepared in a Szechuan chili sauce! China's O-KAY!

And Hey Yvette88, being a global citizen means being informed about the suffering of animals all over the world (including our own violations that are improving, but slow to reform), not just "accepting" that China is the worst offender of animal AND human rights because we should respect their culture.

No one should have to eat guinea pig. Vegetarian and/or vegan diets could sustain every corner of the earth, if it came to that.

This show is not enlightening, it's diversion for diversion's sake - just more dumb American TV. Living with the Kombai Tribe is also wrong; why should the Travel Channel & Company insinuate themselves on a previously untouched native people?

These are troubled times, and the money spent producing bullsh**t shows could surely be better spent feeding people something more nutritious than rodent.

quote:

Originally posted by anight60:

This show is not enlightening, it's diversion for diversion's sake - just more dumb American TV. Living with the Kombai Tribe is also wrong; why should the Travel Channel & Company insinuate themselves on a previously untouched native people?

BINGO!!

to anight60:

You actually expended time and effort to come in and bash China and people who eat meat. Boggles the mind. American arrogance and vanity at its best. People in other countries eat other food. Period. Grow up. Why in God's name would such an intolerant, ignorant person be watching such a show to begin with? Are you having a problem understanding all the buttons on your remote?

Vegan and vegetarian diets are notoriously UNhealthy. They're only slightly less unhealthy than diets that are almost all meat. If I hear of one more Vegan lunatic's child dying in a hospital because their parents don't realize you can't support your health and,in particular, your nervous system on only salads, sprouts, and cardboard shavings, I'm going to snap like a rubber band. Let go your dreams of imposing that way of life on people who have chosen to maintain their health by balancing their diet between all four food groups. Our bodies are designed to require meat as well as vegetable and grains--eliminate a group and there are problems.

A friend of mine has four kids. This woman has them on a strictly vegan diet. One of the kids is an infant. The other three have attention and behavior problems. Wow. Doesn't sound too dire. THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH ELEVEN BABYSITTERS IN A YEAR AND A HALF. They act as though they were raised by wolves. All the protein a body needs can NOT be had through nuts and soybeans. No meat, no milk--three kids whose nervous systems are shot by the age of seven.

Another thing--plants feel pain. Let me repeat that--plants feel pain. Do your research. No less than ten years ago, scientists rigged a sound system of special microphones to detect sound at frequencies that humans can't detect and they proceeded to cut down trees, harvest garden vegetables, snip flowers. Get this: there were high pitched squealing sounds that they determined were "screams," presumably reacting to pain. You self-righteous psychopath, you've been murdering turnips all these years!

It is impossible to exist as a human being alive and sucking air on this particular planet and sustain yourself without killing something. Swallow that.

It is egregious to eat guinea pigs in America. I presume that's why you live here--well, that and having the right to beat people up for seeing things differently than you do. In other countries where guinea pigs are a food staple or ready source, it is acceptable, ethical, and commonplace to eat them. All those animals you're supposedly rallying for? Guess what--they eat each other! Any human being that finds themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and doing something stupid, that human will get eaten by the animal. You people only go to bat for the cute ones anyway--that's flaky.

Who are you that all shows on TV must appeal to you??? They don't. Change the channel.

Why on earth would a vegan be watching a show called "Bizarre Foods" ?? Please have your nervous breakdowns in the privacy of your own home. I'll tell you what--my 19 year old son has a guinea pig in the next room. One more addled, random outburst from you and the guinea pig gets it! GI-Joe is holding a bayonnet to his furry little throat even as we speak....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: yvette88,

I AGREE WITH ALL OF YOU HERE THAT LIKE THIS SHOW. I AM IN THE MILITARY AND HAVE EATEN LOTS OF THINGS I WOULD HAVE NEVER EVER THOUGHT I WOULD EAT. SOMETIMES IT IS NOT ABOUT WHAT LOOKS GOOD AND TASTY, BUT ALSO ON SURVIAL. LOTS OF COUNTRIES HAVE FOODS WE ARE NOT USED TO. MAYBE BECAUSE MANY AMERICANS ARE CLOSED MINDED, THEY FIND THOSE FOODS "BIZARRE" OR EVEN GROSS. BUT, IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE SHOW, CHANGE THE DAMN CHANNEL AND GO WATCH SOME LAME ASS SHOW LIKE THE HILLS OR SOME CRAP LIKE THAT AND STOP BASHING ANDREW ZIMMERN'S SHOW.

Ah, cripes. Open those minds. This is a food chain thing. We're near the top of it, guinea pigs, etc., are near the bottom of it. Get used to it.

Gone swimmin' lately? Recently, we've been demoted a couple of times.