Tuesday, January 27, 2009

the travel channel

I got sort of a taste of Crete tonight, watching Anthony Bourdain in several locations in Crete.  he is profane, irreverent, and a kind of goofy madman... but does put on an interesting show and doesn't just go to the known tourist spots.  he gets out and has some interesting adventures with the locals, wherever he goes.  although a lot of it is staged just for his show, there were "features" on tonight that were totally new to me... for instance, i've never been to a lamb roast where they shear the sheep, slaughter it and prepare some dishes that he calls delicacies involving intestine and spleen and other "goodies", then roast big chunks of lamb in a quite rustic manner over an open fire.  of course, the raki was flowing freely (Tony had some choice names for it, like paint thinner etc), and he did over-indulge in that and the local wine!  after the meal, some of the men dressed in the traditional garb did a rousing dance and shot off rifles... part of the ritual, i guess, tho not something i've seen there.  and the Travel Channel is likely the closest i'll get to Crete for awhile.  we are in a limbo waiting for the house to sell so we can move north to Duvall and get a new little house built on Chris and Kate's 5-acre lot.  my preference would be to skip all the intermediate steps and be living there right now!  i've always been in favor of instant gratification, and wish that were the reality... but it's not.  in the meantime, i've been knitting and working on a nap quilt, and enjoying both!

1 comment:

anne said...

hi Sandy!!!
I met Tony here in Hoi An a few weeks ago, he was very excited to talk to me about living here, he said that he has a book deal about living in Vietnam and he wants to move to Hoi An!!!! I hope he does it would be cool to have his food knowlage close at hand!
Ill be back in May for one week!