I had no interest in Libya whatsoever and wouldn’t have watched except for him, but I was fascinated in spite of myself. I think the way he’s behaving now indicates he IS “growing up.”

But I guess if you watch the show filtering everything through a “he’s an asshole” mindset, he’s going to look like an asshole.

I think his writing for his shows is often Emmy-quality. He’s got the gift.

I haven’t watched Samantha Brown in ages (does she even still have a show? You never see any ad with a woman in it on Travel Channel) and, although I liked her personally, she seemed kind of empty-headed. But in some of the last shows I watched, she was growing into the job and losing the “Oh, boy, golly gee, this is wonderful!” attitude toward everything.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to buy bushels of clams (this was up in Mass.) and steam them, then we’d dip them in butter. So I developed a taste for nondescript lumps early on that served me well when I dived into my first plate of escargots.

I can’t recall if I’ve ever actually eaten a raw oyster, but I have no objection to them cooked pretty much any way. I wouldn’t be adverse to trying them.

Were the chops really moist after cooking?

Over the weekend, I had brunch out with a friend, and she ordered fried chicken and waffles, and said the chicken was the best she’d ever put in her mouth. I asked, “Do you think it’s brined?”

She didn’t think so, but she asked the waiter what the secret was:

He said, “We brine it overnight, then double-coat it with egg, crumbs, egg, crumbs before we fry it.

Brining is amazing.

It seemed kind of inevitable that he’d come to a bad, early end, given his track record.

Trisha, your a good communicator and tho I may not agree with all your dietetic predispositions I agree you are probably correct in your assumptions. Thus while I gorge on ribeye steaks and bracciole and sausage and peppers, I will not forget your description of cooked shrimp as fetuses!

My mother eschewed sea food, didn’t even see a shrimp till I was 14. My father loved all crustaceans and would regularly take my brother to the boardwalk for fresh clams and oysters, while I stood by and gagged. Dad would fish off the dock with the grand kids for crab (and invariably tip the bucket with the days catch and watch them scatter under the porch of our beach house.) Nevertheless my mom would do a crab boil for him while muttering under her breach that they were nothing more than sea cockroaches.

I came to seafood later on through my ex husband a devout non meat eater. It is my favorite, but I can’t make it. I am flirting with the idea of a fresh oyster mainly because of Bourdain and other food personalities ……but as yet I remain timidly on the side lines.

Yes Karen, even your resident Jersey chick can be timid about some things!

I will do it again, but if tomorrow I wake up with a condition I call “ojos de Jamon” which means pink swollen eyes that I get whenever I eat a delicious salty ham, then all bets are off!