Inquiring Minds Want to Know about Andrew Zimmern!

(Photo from Bizarre Foods’ Slide Reel)

Shut Up, Foodie! had a wonderful opportunity to ask Andrew Zimmern, host of The Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, some really pressing, investigative journalism kind of questions.  These are HARD-HITTING!  In turn, we answered some of his questions – link to follow soon.  Enjoy!

SUF:  Pepto-Bismol: Liquid, Caplets, or Chewable Tablets, and why?

AZ:  Liquid. The Pink Moustache rocks.

SUF:  We read that you volunteer at the Wayzata Retreat, a low-cost residential addiction treatment center. What’s the food like there? 

AZ:  Pretty awesome as residential facilities go. Its easy to poke fun at food in commercial environments, and not a plane ride goes by for me where someone doesn’t make a joke about what I do for a living and the fact that I am pushing my tray away as fast as it comes to me, but food plays a serious role in the recovery process. The Retreat understands this and has full time chefs on site to ensure the food is of the best quality possible. I hope some of your readers will go to www.theretreat.org and make a donation to the Andrew and Rishia Zimmern Scholarship fund there. It helps those in need when they need it most.

SUF:  You were on the Tyra Banks Show: Tell us everything. You might think of a detail that we wouldn’t care about. You would be wrong. 

AZ:  Tyra Show was scary. I was told I would be chatting with her, demoing some foods from my trips and so on. I walked out on stage into a strange alternate universe discotheque. There was loud music, dancing, screaming teenagers, model search wannabes all gyrating and getting their freak on. Then Tyra comes out and the place goes nuts, she asks me one question, cuts off my answer and segues into letting her pre-selected audience members sample the food with me. She tasted nothing. Very strange lady. Oh, and before the taping began she was talking to me in an odd vaguely British accent.

SUF:  When you first wrote about us, you said that our anger is “spot on.” What did you mean? And what are you angry about in the food world?  

AZ:  You guys get it. You see the irony and insanity in the world of food with an accurate lens. I am angry that eating well is a class issue in this country, that children go hungry, that middling restaurants in my state pretend to embrace “sustainable” and farm direct foodpaths and in reality do nothing of the kind and so on. I am pissed off that much of what is passed off in our country as great food is really an emperor with no clothes and is in fact just savvy purchasing or PR spin. I like intelligent real food that is well-cooked and that is still in short supply.


SUF:  If you had to choose between staying in Minneapolis forever but getting to eat food from all over, or traveling all over but eating the same thing every day, which would you choose and why? 

AZ:  The former, because I love my life in Mpls and eating foods from around the world is a great way to teleport yourself into another culture.

SUF:  Do you ever get cravings? What’s comfort food for you? 

AZ:  Sure, all the time. My wife makes a mean tater tot hot dish.

Thank you Mr. Zimmern!  We look forward to seeing what on earth you’ll be ingesting next.