On the Sao Paulo show, Anthony Bourdain made a comment that Minas gerais is one of the poorest parts of Brazil. He's wrong. Minas Gerais is one of the four states along with Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo that make up the Southeast region, which is the richest region of Brazil. Minas Gerais, which means general mines in Portuguese, is a state resource rich in resources, makes the best cachaca, grows more coffee than anywhere else and, like every state in Brazil, has poor areas, but compared to the Northeast or the North of the country is hardly one of the poorest regions.

I live in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais and I’m also shocked with Tony’s comments. I love the show, but I think that they should research more about the country. I think that Tony would love Minas Gerais, we have the type of food that he loves and the best cachaça of the world.

I've sent Anthony Bourdain, trough The Travel Channel website, this email but never got an answer. Hope Bourdain can make up to his horrible mistake. The text is below:

Hi.

Only 6 months ago I was introduced to Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and since then I've watched pretty much all episodes. And that's a lot because I barely sit down to watch TV. And one day I saw one episode of my home country. I believe Anthony Bourdain has been in Brazil a couple times and I refer to the time he went to Sao Paulo.

Well, in the "feijoada" part of the show (and in another scene which does not come to my mind now), Anthony Bourdain says that the poor people, because of lack of resources, had to learn how to use all parts of the animals they ate and some vegetables as well and that it improved the overall flavor of food, an argument which I entirely agree with. The use of all the pig's parts they use in feijoada is simply amazing.

But when he said that, he sad a very, very incorrect thing, which seemed like either his production didn't do a good job or he was just talking about something he knows nothing about. He said that food of Minas Gerais state was great because Minas Gerais was “one of the poorest regions in Brazil”.

That's completely nonsense and kind of gives a very bad image of one of the main Brazilian states - historically, culturally and economically. Minas Gerais is simply the third Gross Domestic Product of the country, only "losing" to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. But, there's more: of you consider the incoming taxes of the state government (called "ICMS", a kind of tax in Brazil) Minas Gerais only gets behind Sao Paulo, which is the economical center of Brazil and perhaps of South America. So, second place in the wolle country. How’s that for “one of the poorest regions”?

I am from the capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. I study and work with tourism development and planning and it really bothered and kind of offended me that Anthony Bourdain referred to my state in such way. I mean. I am not ashamed of the poor people of my state but I don't want people all over the world thinking very wrongs things about my state.

Regards,

Marcos Felipe, No reservations viewer and fan

i also whatchet that episode! That was a shame! I'm a big fan of Tony but his comment about Minas was so wrong!! He needs to step out of the turistc ways and vist by him self the real Minas!! "Paulistas" have an old revery against Minas, that comes from our history, and that comment definely came from one os them and tony just took it at his! Like everybody here already said we are not one of the poorest regions in Brazil! Not even close!!

Come visit us Tony, you will see the amazing food heritage we have, the beatiful citys, the "mercados", beautiful and very kind people.

Don't be a turist, be a traveller!

That’s true Mari, the two paulistas girls didn’t correct Tony when he said that Minas Gerais is one of the poorest regions in Brazil, when it is the second economy of the country. I have no problems with paulistas, I think that his crew should research more. They should, at least, have googled Minas Gerais. We are the second state in population and economy. But I still love No reservations.

About Belo Horizonte (New York Times article) :

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007...o%20horizonte&st=cse