This is one of the truly great treats in the food world. The fresh blood pudding. Onions, chilies, raisins you say? Raisins. Oh. Nikki Noba here for Young Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, with Mr. Delicious. Andrew Zimmern. The shirt says so. The shirt says so. And I think, I think you are.

Well, thank you. You flatter me.

You're well, you're a popular guy.

Thanks. Thanks. I'm lucky.

The food, the food thing has become such a phenomenon in America. Your show is a phenomenon. When did food become so sexy?

Oh, gosh. I think food has always been sexy. I just think it hasn't been talked about as being sexy. For those that were serious about cooking, you could actually record cooking shows for the first time and play them in your kitchen. The first 10, 12 years, you know, that, uh, that folks like me were doing what we were doing, it was all dump and stir shows. Dump and stir, dump and stir, dump and stir. And then the people who were doing the cooking in the home said, you know, I want more for my TV personalities and most importantly, from where I'm concerned, what happened to that whole other piece about eating to travel and traveling to eat? What about going out into the, into the field to see what's going on. And at that point, the talking head behind the cutting board became essentially irrelevant to the point now that, you know, Food Network has, you know, shoved all of that stuff onto a whole other station called Cooking Channel. I think because of my particular angle on things, I've, I go around the world, I go into the terroir where this food is found and I define culture through the food. So there are a lot of chefs that are extremely accomplished, who are some of the, you know, my great heroes, who, you know, sit down with me for an hour at a time and just want to pick my brain about an island of food, a people of food style because I've seen stuff and seen technique in the tribal world that nobody else has had the opportunity to take part in. So there's that hidden knowledge kind of piece that I love.

That's right. So you know, you went to Syria, were your expectations different than the actual when you were there and experiencing it?

Yes, dramatically so. Um, because you can only learn so much about those countries by doing research and talking to people and we have a fairly sophisticated, uh, research and pre-production, uh, format, but it pales in comparison, pales in comparison to, uh, what happens when you get there. Syria, even, even more so. Syria, one of my favorite eating countries in the world. They're markets there that go back, you know, predate Christ, streets in Damascus and the market there are in the, are in the Bible. And so to sit there with an olive vendor in Aleppo, for example, and say, how long have you been selling olives here? And he looks at you and says, well, since before that mosque was built, and the mosque is 1700 years old. And that's, that's powerful.

And they know their stuff too.

And they know their stuff. The food is food is so fantastic and it saddens me greatly. Aleppo is one of my favorite places in the world to spend time.

So I want to talk to you about your book and I may have to read the title because it's the longest title of any book ever. It's it's a it's a long title. Andrew Zimmern's Field Guide to the Weird, Wild and Wonderful Foods and Intrepid Eater's Guide. Yes. Let's

And it's a children's book.

An Intrepid Eater's Guide, yeah,

along with, uh, Molly Mogren who, uh, works with me at Food Works, we created, um, a, uh, basically an encyclopedia of funky foods for kids and they're travel and food stories. Uh, it's got pictures, it's illustrated and every chapter has a, a three stage story arc. So we'll start out talking about like squid ink. And I'll discuss the, you know, I'll tell a story about what I like about squid ink and maybe there's a recipe and there's some fun food stuff and it morphs so that by the time the chapter ends, all we're talking about is famous ink on chefs as in tattoos.

I want to point out that we're we're shooting in your hotel room. Very nice of you to let us in. We walked in, I walked past a room service tray and I'm like, I'm wondering if he's a room service kind of guy. And we are shooting very early this morning. What did you eat for breakfast? Because I know you don't like oatmeal, so there was no oatmeal involved. I mean you like the word. I'm sorry for saying it like a curse word.

Correct. No. Orange juice, fruit, coffee. If it was up to me, every morning would start with a with a bagel and smoked salmon and cream cheese. I'm like a French prostitute. Coffee and a cigarette but I don't smoke cigarettes anymore. So it's just coffee.

Are you ready for a rapid fire round of the interview?

Okay. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah. Rapid Fire portion of the interview. Okay. All right. The movie version of yourself, who is playing you? The story of your life, who is playing you?

Stanley Tucci.

I was gonna say Stan because I know you just did a podcast with him. I know. Bring's young. Who plays the young Andrew? Zimmern?

Giovanni Ribisi.

Oh, that's a good one. That's a great choice. He's a great character actor. He really get into the whole thing. Okay. I ate a bland piece of toast for breakfast. What would you have put on it to jazz it up for me?

Griddled blood sausage and a coarse mustard.

That'll spice it up for sure. On a desert island, stranded for a month, you can only bring one food to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner the entire time. You have to eat it. Every meal for a month. What would it be?

I wouldn't have to bring it with me. Uh, I would, I would go get the, uh, behind, if you're on a desert island, there's rocks on one side of the island where the, the bigger water is. You go to the back side of them and you have all the different limpet families and all those little baby crabs. You have everything you need on the far side of those rocks. Sometimes dangerous to get to. If I had to bring it in with me, it would be mussels. Mediterranean black mussels. I could live on those breakfast, lunch, and dinner for years. My favorite food.

What is? In what country are people most passionate about food and eating?

Most passionate about it? Italy. I've never been in a country and look, there's South American countries that come close, but I have never been in a country where the discussion of the food takes place almost the exclusion of everything else.

And last but not least.

Yes.

We talked to Adam Richmond recently in our studio. And we asked him, in a hot dog eating contest between yourself, Anthony Bourdain and Adam Richmond, who would win? But before you answer,

Yes.

I have an iPad here.

Sure.

And I have his response. Are you gonna play it for me first? I'm gonna play it for you first. Interesting. I love this. It's interactive. In a hot dog eating contest, Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern or yourself, who's winning that challenge? Has Tony been drinking the night before? I'm because the thing is he's as by his own description in no reservations, a grizzly little thing but I bet I've seen him eat on the show and I I ate with him a couple of times. Um, I don't know it's not the size of the dog or the fight and the fight and the dog. If Andrew wants to win, if Andrew wants to win, Andrew will take him down but I think that if it's the day after Tony's been like, you know, bending elbows. I think Tony may have an extra like turbo boost for like the last three hot dogs. He's got more one-liners than anybody ever had. You're still not gonna change your answer?

No, absolutely not.

Okay, what is it?

Uh, I'm probably the most competitive person that I know. So I don't think either of them would stand a chance if I chose to.

So should we go eat?

I'm absolutely. I'm psyched.

Where you taking me? I'm hungry. We're in town. Oh my God. Where would you if you had to take me for one meal in Los Angeles, where would it be?

Um, to Jolina. Although I've never been to Jolina. I like Pacha. Do you know Pacha?

I don't. What do you like most about it? Let's go.

It's pizza.

Oh, fantastic. Should we go? Perfect. I love that. Where would you take me?

Where would I take you? I would take you to, uh, Jetza's restaurant and go into the back room for the secret pork fest night and have him do 10, 12 different courses all from the same pig.

It's a pig thing going on here. Oh I like it. I just think it would be fun.

I do too. I think we should go do it. We'll try one and then we'll try the other one.

I would love that. Thanks. Thanks for chatting. It was great.