Dear Mr. Bourdain,

My family and I enjoy your show, including my young girls (parents’ warnings be damned, as if there isn’t so much more on TV that needs parental warnings than your few cuss words or racy comments merit). The food is fascinating, and as quite a good cook myself, I often garner ideas to put on my own table. But even more I greatly enjoy the anthropological and cultural aspects of your show. I have not had much of an opportunity to travel, but the vicarious experience the show provides gives me an encounter with people and places I have as yet been unable to explore personally. I was deeply moved by the show in Cambodia, especially the family where the father had lost a limb to landmines left by America. I am particularly happy to have my girls see how people from around the world live differently in some ways, but are more like us than not in most ways. My children learn that all people love food, love families, and gather around the table to commune, to celebrate life and each other just as we often do in our home.

However, I must call you to task about one of your shows. I am a fifth generation Baltimorean still living in and teaching high school in Baltimore City. I was very excited to see that you were doing a show in Baltimore. That is until I saw the show. I did not recognize my city. Now, I admit that the images of urban decay are indeed a part of my city, but they are only a part. There are many other beautiful and interesting and non-touristy areas in my city.

But the worst part of the show was that you totally missed the traditional food of Baltimore. The most glaring absence was the crab; both crab cakes and steamed crabs. I am not talking about that garlic mess you had at Mo’s that has nothing to do with Baltimore or the two-second mention of their crab cakes (and who goes to Mo’s anyway?). Where was the pile of steamed crabs dumped on a brown-paper-covered table with mallets and paper towels and cold, cold beer?

The best place to really see Baltimore is Lexington Market, the oldest indoor market in America. Faidley’s Seafood inside the market is the heart of Baltimore seafood. There you can lean on the elbow bar while balancing on the sloped floor, slurp back raw oysters followed by a Natty Boh, then finish off with a true Baltimore crab cake. All strata of Baltimore society bump elbows at Faidley’s. There’s Ostrowski’s Polish Sausage on Washington St. in Patterson Park; there’s Cross St Market with Nick’s seafood and sushi; there’s Trinacria’s, an Italian deli in the same place for over a century. These represent the ethnic nature of Baltimore’s neighborhoods from which the name “Charm City” hails. I wont list them all, but little of what you showed represented my understanding of Baltimore.

Additionally, you chose to tour Baltimore not with a native who knew and loved the city, but with a Russian guy who'd never been here. You say you worked here briefly earlier in your career. Surely, you got to know the true foods of Baltimore, none of which really includes lake trout, which is a southern, but not a specifically Baltimorean, dish. You gave only slight mention to Pit Beef, a true Baltimore delicacy, but what of the marvels of Maryland turkey and of the other Chesapeake seafood delights, such as rock fish, and the seasonal local delicacy, shad roe, which is almost iconic in the American sense of humor, and which most people outside of Baltimore don't even know.

I still look forward to future shows and I hope one of those shows brings you back to Baltimore some day. This time let a true Baltimorean be your guide.

Sincerely,
Dana R. Casey

PS: I never watch The Wire, which has exploited the troubles of this city and thereby perpetuates the image that Baltimore is nothing but a drug-ridden slum when there is so much more to this thriving city which includes such things as the best Matisse collection this side of Paris and hands down the finest medical school in the western hemisphere, period.

I am a native Balimorian for most of my life and in a sense, it is a joy to see Anthony pumled with threads. I love the guy but felt that he was less then genuine with us. It did seem to me that his being here was a promo for the Wire. I haven't seen the show myself, but considering I walk back and forth to work on John Water's land of Harford Road, I figure I live enough of the wire.

In previous threads I offered up the following poem. Baltimore's Delights!
http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=255559

I would love to hear you opinion on the contents. In a sense, I udnerstand Anthony's disdain as it has been increasingly harder to enjoy good restuarants in the area. Many are removing their signature dishes from the menue that attracted me to them in the first place. They cite economics, but really I know of many people that won't go to them now. Also, there is a attitude problem towards customers these days. Being a poetic writer, I want to create a mini online book called, "Dinning Without Tony." What is Baltimore most noted dish? Steamed crabs, I wanted to creat an iconic photograph with me eating a ripped bag of steamed crabs with beer and include one live one escaping. NO one wants to help out and it is now a major production and expensive to create that shot. I wanted the live one to show what they really look like. When I find a restuarant to help me, the rejected one's will have an attitude that I didn't mention them.

I enjoy the constant drone that may bring Anthony back. I love his show!