Going to Southeast Asia for the first time and tasting that spectrum of flavors - that certainly changed my whole palate, the kind of foods I crave. A lot of the dishes I used to love became boring to me. Anthony Bourdain More Quotes by Anthony Bourdain More Quotes From Anthony Bourdain I'm really good at sleeping on planes. I mean, I smell jet fuel and I'm out; I'm asleep for takeoff. Anthony Bourdain smell sleep mean I wouldn't want to compare myself to David Byrne whom I consider a genius, but what I think what we have in common is that he's also a guy who is very interested in the world and who has a lot of passions beyond singing and playing guitar. Anthony Bourdain guitar passion thinking Turning your nose up at a genuine and sincere gesture of hospitality is no way to travel or to make friends around the world. Anthony Bourdain gestures noses world When my father passed, I was still an unsuccessful cook with a drug problem. I was in my mid-thirties, standing behind an oyster bar, cracking clams for a living when he died. So, he never saw me complete a book or achieve anything of note. I would have liked to have shared this with him. Anthony Bourdain oysters father book In my house, neither my wife nor my daughter are impressed that I'm on television, and they remind me of that frequently. Anthony Bourdain wife daughter house When I cook, I generally stick with what I know, what I'm comfortable with, and what I feel I've paid my dues learning, and am good at. Anthony Bourdain cooks sticks feels If I were trapped in one city and had to eat one nation's cuisine for the rest of my life, I would not mind eating Japanese. I adore Japanese food. I love it. Anthony Bourdain cuisine cities mind People everywhere have been very, very good to me, whether I'm with or without cameras. Anthony Bourdain very-good cameras people Just because I like sushi, doesn't mean I can make sushi. I've come to well understand how many years just to get sushi rice correct. It's a discipline that takes years and years and years. So, I leave that to the experts. Anthony Bourdain discipline mean years You'd have a hard time finding anything better than Barcelona for food, as far as being a hub. Given a choice between Barcelona and San Sebastian to die in, I'd probably want to die in San Sebastian. Anthony Bourdain barcelona hard-times choices I wanted to write in Kitchenese, the secret language of cooks, instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever dunked french fries for a summer job or suffered under the despotic rule of a tyrannical chef or boobish owner. Anthony Bourdain summer writing jobs If I'm in Rome for only 48 hours, I would consider it a sin against God to not eat cacio e pepe, the most uniquely Roman of pastas, in some crummy little joint where Romans eat. I'd much rather do that than go to the Vatican. That's Rome to me. Anthony Bourdain pasta rome littles I'm not going to get off the pony as long as they let me ride it. Anthony Bourdain ponies let-me long My daughter takes pride in showing up with stuff that other kids envy or are freaked out by, so I send her to school with grilled octopus. Anthony Bourdain daughter kids school Look, getting bullied in school and coming home crying in the rain and my mom making me a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup with some oysterettes. It was comfort food; that is what food should be. Anthony Bourdain mom rain home I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered. I feed my daughter almost exclusively organic food. Anthony Bourdain organic-food daughter people A good, stinky French cheese or a good Stilton. These are things I really, really love. Dessert I can obviously live without. Anthony Bourdain stilton dessert cheese When you're training for jiu-jitsu, particularly if you're training for a competition, you have to be pretty prescribed in the variety of what you eat. Anthony Bourdain jiu-jitsu training competition If I'm training I'm cutting weight for a competition. I'm hard. I'm pretty much eating animal protein and that's it. No rice, no beans, certainly no sweets. Anthony Bourdain cutting animal sweet If you're training in a combat sport, deliciousness takes a backseat. Anthony Bourdain combat training sports