hi. we're live back in the middle of shooting new episodes but taking a break here at atomic liquors in las vegas to look back at the filth, the fury, the weirdness, and deliciousness of season two. including our disturbing psycho classic, tokyo. we're talking about issues raised and maybe looking forward a bit to what's next. from the crowded multi-layer pinball machine streets of tokyo -- >> it was the greatest show in the history of entertainment. >> to the overgrown lots and empty factories of detroit. what the hell happened here? the season has been a wild ride. big game in south africa.

small rodents in new mexico. you got a lot of them in new york. a less than gentle thrusting into my nether regions by a bull in spain. this is the story of my life. i hate this. i drank. how drunk can you get here? i ate some more. it is really delicious. from sicily, israel, west bank, gaza, copenhagen. i usually try to avoid clean, orderly countries. is that a rattle? but tonight it's the end of the road -- for now. "parts unknown: last bite." here we are, here we are in the fine establishment atomic liquors to watch the mushroom crowds over the desert. hopefully, we won't be doing that tonight. joining me to sift through the entrails of last season and discuss some of the issues raised, i'm joined by the dangerously funny writer,

filmmaker, comedienne, bonnie mcfarlane. owner of the red rooster in harlem, marcus samuelson, actor, activist. from the greatest television of all-time, "the wire." wendell pierce. and he's probably getting more angry mail at cnn than i do -- don lemon. good guys. this party has started already. >> salud. >> in detroit, people are pointing to an influx of artists, galleries, popup restaurants. there's no doubt, i don't doubt, that in the future, sooner or later, hopefully sooner, detroit will improve. things will get better. it may contract, it may be different. but it will get better. >> it will and it's going to look a lot different, though. >> who will live in the detroit of the future? that's -- that's the question i'm sort of asking here.

>> i kind of figured where you were going with that. i think detroit will be even more diverse. it won't be as dark a city as it is now, right? so there's going to be a lot of gentrification and people with money, younger people as we saw in your story, people who like, you know, these unique kinds of foods are going to move into detroit. >> well, look -- >> same thing that's happening in new orleans. >> -- should thin crust pizza, hipster salumi, whole foods cupcakes, should they be the right of every american or are these signs of life or destructive influences? >> no, a sign of life. who would be against, you know, uplifting economic insurgence in a community? or artists? as an actor, artists coming into a community? that's the lead on a lot of the the gentrification. by water, new orleans. that was on display in your show. at the same time, you have to remember that for your good fortune is at the expense of a whole bunch of people's misfortune. you know, like in new orleans, there were a lot of people who did not get paid when it came to their insurance policies.

so that's why you're able to buy that house for little to nothing in bywater. i don't think that we just walked away from our homes. we literally paid insurance companies for 50 years, who like my insurance company gave my parents after 50 years, $400 after katrina. if it wasn't for me being able to give them the financial wherewithal to rebuild, they would be like our neighbors who had to leave. so this young, progressive, thin crust pizza loving young couple coming in, we appreciate it. but don't think we didn't have people who wanted to build that business, reconstitute that market. >> i'm just saying, how many hipster baristas do you want in your neighborhood? >> they're trying to become brooklyn, right, is basically what you're saying. >> i live in harlem, i work in harlem. so for me, it comes down to creating jobs, right? and can you do this urban evolution, inclusive, and really not throw out what's there before but really create something new? >> are you part of the problem? you opened a place in harlem.

you're bringing a whole lot of different businesses. no doubt there will be cupcake shops because of you in your neighborhood. >> i agree with that. >> you're charging higher prices than the neighborhood used to charge. are you part of this? >> i think about it all the time. and it's about inclusive versus exclusive. so we employ 160 people. 70% of them comes from harlem. right? and that matters in a town, in a community, where 90%, when we have 90% unemployment. and 39% unemployment among african-american men. so after red rooster, 15 new restaurants have opened in harlem, right? and brings in s about 2,000 people every night. >> i can testify to that. because i moved to harlem in large part because of the red rooster and marcus samuelsson. i walked into his restaurant two years ago after doing a story on the apollo and i said, is this harlem? immediately, i went out and bought an apartment. i was sitting in the restaurant with the real estate agent. it wasn't -- a restaurant called lido.

i looked around and i said, is this harlem? she said yes. it was an african-american real estate agent. i said, where are the black people? i'm not kidding you. we were the only two african-americans in a restaurant in the middle of harlem. >> i want if ask you, you saw the pop-up restaurant scene on the show. >> yes, yes. first of all, let me say that i don't know what those guys are talking about at all. i haven't been following. but i will -- it was a lie, it was a lot to comprehend., it was a lot to compreheno, it was a lot to comprehent, it was a lot to comprehend. i didn't know it was going to get that serious, i really didn't. but i feel like the episode you did on detroit was so great because you really focused on the rich white people. when you think of detroit now, you think of rich white people. >> and the collareds and barbecue -- >> nobody wants to look at poor people, i get it. >> oh, man. >> you were very passionate about detroit. why were you so passionate about

detroit if what was your -- what did you come away with? >> detroit as a sense of humor. it's a lot like the marine corps. no matter how relentlessly screwed over, there's this unit pride to anybody who's come up in detroit. a ferocious sense of humor. a toughness. i don't know, i just thought -- i just admire it. >> you said it's the most beautiful city you think in america. chicago would take exception with that. new york city would as well. >> it's beautiful. look. >> ruined porn. >> ruined porn. do you like ruined porn? >> i like ruined porn. i think they could actually merge it with real porn and have something major. >> oh, yeah. >> real ruined porn. they're packing at the packers plant. >> there's two -- location, location, location in both real estate and porn, i think. and so those two work together. >> i think we could revitalize detroit. all right, marcus. bonnie, you guys can go grab and drink till later in the show. next up, we love them.

we buy them by the millions. let's talk guns. without shooting each other, all right? ♪

30 rounds per magazine of steel jacketed destruction, as fast as your finger can pull the trigger. you might well ask yourself why the hell would anybody need a weapon like this?

>> we're back with wendell pierce and don lemon. and now joining us is chef roy choi. he's the author of the book "l.a. son." >> you're not a bad shot, actually. >> no. >> you were really good, i was surprised. >> it seems nowadays somebody with a gun is shooting somebody. or a lot of bodies. these people in the segment, as many people in red state america and gun country america, these are nice people. they like guns. i have to admit. i like guns. i like holding guns. i like shooting guns. i'm not so sure that i necessarily want my neighbor to have a gun until i know a little bit about him. but i'm -- i'm ambivalent. can the two -- this is more than anything else, i felt as i've traveled and come to know my own country late in the game -- can the two americas be reconciled? this is a cultural thing more than really about the issues.

there are now 2.5 million ar-15s in america. we clearly love them. add similar weapons, add similar weapons, similar-type weapons, and you've got 4 million. is that necessarily a bad thing? i'm going to ask you, roy choi, because i know of all the people i know you are the most good hearted, peacenik, socially conscious -- i suspect you of leftism. i don't think you're a buddhist, but you live a buddhist-like life in that you wish people well. yet i happen to know you were there for the '92 riots. your dad, your family, your friends, your neighbors got up on the roofs of their businesses and defended koreatown against an all-out assault with semiautomatic weapons and shotguns. you had no support from city government, the police, or law enforcement.

this was a clear example of the right to bear arms preventing utter devastation. how do you -- what's your opinion on guns? should i be able to get an ar-15 easily and keep one? you okay with that? >> i mean, like -- i'm from los angeles. so, like -- the numbers and the semiautomatics aren't really like -- for us it's more about protection. whether it's the korean community or down in the inner cities, it's really the guns are a part of the california culture in los angeles. whether we agree or not. they exist because in a lot of times -- in the korean community, they exist in stores and they exist as protection. and they exist in the inner city and there's no jobs. maybe we shouldn't be talking about guns. maybe we should be talking about human rights. we should be talking about investing in healing our people instead of worrying about the result of it. >> but wait. that's pretty much what the gun lobby say. they say guns don't kill people, people kill people. isn't there an element of truth to that? >> the gun lobby is really about marketing. you know? most people in this country realize the government is not

coming for their guns. if anything, under this administration, obama has opened up the opportunity to carry guns in national parks and actually lifted more gun control. so they're really about selling guns. you know? because everyone knows you can walk into a gun show and then do a background check at one table and then at another table and say it's a private sale and i don't have to do a background check. but everybody wants a background check. >> in a perfect world, is it okay with you? this gun culture goes deep, deep, deep in this country. >> guns are not going away. >> they're not going away. nobody's taking them away. they shouldn't. >> listen. similar to you, i did own an ar-15 after covering aurora. i bought an ar-15 in colorado because i wanted to go through the process of seeing how quickly. it took me 20 to 30 minutes. to get an ar-15. i wasn't even a resident of colorado. i have since sold that gun. i don't want to own a gun. but i have evolved on my stance on guns over the last year and i

think many people can. i don't want to be a sitting duck if other people have guns and they're not going away. i'm wondering should i be armed myself if everyone else on the block is armed and i'm the only one that's not. >> think the problem here -- >> the americas, it can be reconciled. we actually share a lot more in common than we differ on. >> it's not just a lobby either. people like having their guns. it's not just the gun lobby. >> you don't want to deny that opportunity to people. >> you don't feel people should make the case, i need it for protection or i need it for hunting. what if i want to hold it and have it and blow holes in stuff in my backyard. is there something wrong with that? >> there's nothing wrong with that. but let's do background checks. we know that behavior is what we need to look at. everyone knows that. and that's the barometer by which -- >> but there will be a lot of common ground here if the level of discourse became more civil. >> yeah. >> i don't think it does anybody any good to be comparing great britain or europe to our situation. it's not going to help. it doesn't help. we're not them. >> right.

but it doesn't do any good as wel to compare people who go into shopping malls. you said it in the new mexico episode. those people who you were out shooting with, those were law-abiding citizens who were trained for guns and respect them. they're not the people going into malls shooting people. there are two different ways to look at this. yes, it's mental health. but for the most part, the people who have guns and carry ar-15s, most of them are not shooting up people. >> but the people that stir the pot to have that raised discourse, they make money if the discourse is raised. >> to the left as well. >> yes. across the board. yeah. >> people tend to get shrieky when something awful happens. >> listen. i don't own a gun, but the discourse got so crazy in california at one point after one of the last shootings, i wanted to go out and buy a gun. >> right, exactly. >> they had me believing that they were going to take away guns.

so much, i thought i have to go out and get one. i probably should get one before it's outlawed. >> would you own a gun? >> i've owned guns my whole life. but this high level of talk doesn't affect what goes on in the streets. i represent the streets. they're not even worrying about gun control. it's just life. it's just a part of life. so, you know, i don't know. you've got to look at the american culture and look at ourselves. in truth. >> we talk about -- >> the culture from the very beginning we admire the cowboy, the lone guy on the horse, the guy who solves problems simply and quickly with a blunt object or, better yet, a gun. >> if the people who have guns illegally on the street, they're not even thinking about it, they're not going to go for background checks. they're not going to do it. they're going to get them illegally. they are just going to buy them. >> what i'm saying is we all agree if we could talk in a civil way, in a non-threatening way with really your hard core gun right person and say, look. there's got to be some common ground about straw buyers, for instance, about, you know, limited amounts of rounds to a straw buyer who is clearly up to no good. there's got to be some common ground. >> there's got to be regulation. >> if we stop talking about every gun owner like they're extremist, a lunatic, necessarily right-wing.

i don't think we're doing ourselves or anybody else any good. >> i agree. >> so you would own a gun? if you lived in montana, would you own a gun? >> absolutely. >> if you lived in montana, would you own a gun? >> yeah. i probably wouldn't go through a background check, though. >> i would definitely own a gun if i lived in montana. >> i wonder why you're saying that. >> that's protection. >> i don't know if i'd necessarily own a gun living in the city. but yeah, if i lived in montana, absolutely, i'd have a gun, why not? >> that was an authentic laugh. because people understood where i was coming from. and i think roy brought up a great point which is if we look at it at all the contributing variables, that if we look at the underground economy that so many people are forced to live in, which if you were going to

do that underground economy, you're going to have to have a gun. we have to look at trying to eliminate that. >> will do. when we come back, we are big and getting bigger. it is getting to the point that the pentagon has had to make allowances for a general unhealthiness when recruiting for our armed forces. what is going on here? are we addicted or are we just fat bastards?

maria jose is preparing recipes that go back through the family so far that nobody knows exactly where they even came from. migas, another iconic dish of andalusia. informally referred to as the shepherd's lunch as the story goes. worn born as a way to use all the hard bread and combine all the week's leftovers. i'm told that every household in spain has a variation. what changes is what you put on it. today, it's sardines, cod, chorizo, melon and peppers. >> oh, man. that's a lot of good stuff in one bowl. so how often do you eat this well? >> every lunch is like this. >> every lunch of your life? >> every day i'm here.

>> welcome back. with me are wendell, bonnie, roy, and marcus. what the hell is happening to us? between 1995 and 2008, the potential -- the percentage of potential army recruits who failed physicals due to weight increased 70%. diabetes, morbid obesity are skyrocketing. at what point, bonnie, is it okay to make fun of fat people? >> well, i think there's a lot of thin people, you know, that are actually really unhealthy. so i don't like to just point the finger at fat people unless i'm with my friends and we're laughing behind their backs. you've got to get the word out that it's -- you know, that you've got to eat better. and i was thinking of a really great way to get the word out.

there's a lot of space on the backs of fat people. we could put some really good messages there. >> signage. >> yeah. an apple a day. you know? >> look. i'm not suggesting that we raise our children to look like the freakishly thin people in magazines or fashion models, but, you know, we got a problem here. it's a security problem. you know, if you're in a plane, it goes down and you're blocking my exit chute -- >> oh, my god. >> this is not a lifestyle choice, okay? you're clogging a fire lane, burning building. again, this is a national security problem. who do we blame? marcus samuelsson, you are a celebrity chef. >> yes. >> should i blame you? >> go ahead. you blame me on everything else, so it's okay. >> for fetishizing food, for making it look luscious and desirable, being part of the horrible, monstrous conspiracy of foodies. well, i guess that would include you and me. >> roy as well. you know, i think the problem is that we have to look at food and culture.

in your programs, whether it was south africa or spain, people ate a lot, but it was constantly a culture around it, right? and it wasn't around junk food and processed food. it was always -- in the spain program, it was constantly around family values and eating well and getting not -- i never saw processed food. even in the fast food. there's a bit difference between fast food, street food, and junk food. >> right. so food never is a force for good or balance? you had an emeril epiphany early in your life. you were sitting there at a low point in your life, and you saw emeril lagasse and it changed your life. right? >> it did. i felt like he was talking to me. that was before the whole bastardization of the whole network. >> before he was fat? >> oh! but have you seen the place down the street, the heart attack grill? it's down the street from here. if you're over 350 pounds, you eat for free. i mean, is that right? are they on the side of the terrorists, that's what i'm trying to get at here. >> yeah, they are. that's offensive. and being the fat bastard at the

table, all right? a struggle that i've had my entire life. i realize -- i'm from new orleans. we live to eat instead of eating to live. but there was a time culturally where that wasn't true. my mother grew up on a sugar my mother grew up on a sugar cane farm in assumption parish, louisiana, and there was a difference between supper and dinner. you know? and supper was a late night, something small, but dinner was like that large meal in the middle of the day and you still had a lot of living to do. it was similar to the meal you had over in spain. so we actually, culturally, you know -- we ate our meals in a regulated way that we burned the calories off also. even though we were partaking in the great food of louisiana cuisine and culinary world. >> you were talking about burning the calories off, right? there was spontaneous playing. there was people -- kids were playing outside. there was also -- >> my mother left school to cut cane. you know? on thanksgiving day, they would

go out and work the garden and work the farm animals and then came home and had the thanksgiving meal. this is what we're thankful for, that we were able to produce all this wonderful food. >> yes, but it was not processed food. >> absolutely. >> processed food that is completely catered a lot towards being the cheapest food and it's also catered towards -- >> it's convenient food too. look. we work harder as americans. it is very compelling. it is very compelling argument to drop the kids in the box full of balls out front, go in, see the colonel or the king or the clown and get a quick meal. how do we undo this thing? how do you convince people to essentially pay more for food? spend more time preparing food? that's a difficult argument to ask of people. >> you do it through culture. our culture is too young. we're only a few hundred years old. >> what about mockery and demonization? >> well, that's where i come in. >> work two sides. >> i don't know. i feel like i, you know, can

speak on this because back in high school, you want to talk about fat, i was friends with somebody who was really fat. so i get it, you know? we had to walk slow in the halls and stuff. it's tough. but i feel like what people do is they try to fill that hole from childhood. you know, where they didn't get enough love and attention as kids. then they use food as a drug to sort of numb those feelings of abandonment. i look back on my own childhood, i feel so lucky because i had access to real drugs. you know? i didn't have to eat a bag of sugar in the raw every night. i had cocaine. so maybe that's the answer. although i will say this, and i know i'm talking a lot and i'll shut up after this. but the mayor of toronto is very fat and a crack addict, which is so sad. if he can't lose weight on crack, what hope do the rest of us have? you know? >> yeah. >> it's impossible. >> pick one. you know? >> it's also about choice. you know? listen.

if you only have access to those fast food places in your community, that's all you're going to get. that's all you're going to pick. and that's why i started a grocery store going into underserved communities where there weren't grocery stores. sterling farms. people said how are you going to get people to change and make the right choice? i said, first of all, i'm going to give people a choice. they don't have a choice now. if they only have that fast food place to go to. where they've demonstrated loyalty to their store by traveling outside the neighborhood to get a decent bag of groceries and all they've asked you to do is come into their neighborhoods and you've stood on the sidelines. so that's why we're stepping off the sidelines and up to the plate and that's my plug for sterling farms. >> is it wrong to tell your child -- [ applause ] would it be wrong as a responsible parent to tell your child, if you eat at one of those restaurants, you'll go bald and be mocked in school? and you'll be demonized and marginalized at school. basically, is it okay to lie to your kids to keep them away from that?

>> i think it starts with actually teaching the parents. when i do cooking classes across the country, only 6% of americans eat enough vegetables to begin with. roy touched on culture. all your programs were essentially about -- it's about food but also about culture. and we have to put a value proposition about food in this country beyond just calories and salt, sugar, fat. we have to bring up the culture fact. we have to bring up the fact that the other values of food. and until we deal with that, this will be something we'll talk about even more and more. >> i'm okay with getting fat, but i like to do it on good food. you know? >> exactly. >> so if there's a solution, we'll talk about it after the break. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cold symptoms. you give them the giggles. tylenol cold® helps relieve your worst cold and flu symptoms. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more.

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to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels without a prescription. cardioviva. growing your own food, finding your own food, that was life in macedonia. >> yeah. >> but for a lot of people right now, it is an affectation. >> the worst moments, the worst meals, are when people are just following sort of a culinary trend. and they will see others unedible, it tastes like [ muted ]. but it's edible and it's foraged and it's on the menu. it's going on the fish no matter what. >> but i think even at its own ludicrous manifestation, surely it is a positive thing that people are actually starting to look around and see where -- grows. >> it still is good. because people are being connected to the place they're in. what's edible and what's not. what is there to eat.

>> welcome back to "parts unknown: last bite." with me is actor wendell pierce, comedienne bonnie mcfarlane, chef roy choi, chef marcus samuelsson. local, sustainable. should we even be talking about this stuff? look. alice waters awhile back said president obama -- wrote an open letter to president obama saying, we should basically free up $27 billion -- i forget the number. but it was a lot. to make sure that every student in america in public school gets a healthy organic meal. you know -- that sounds nice. but i personally would like to see that little timmy can freaking read first before he gets an organic chicken. i'm okay with him eating frozen meatloaf until we can competently figure out how to raise literacy rates. until we can get little timmy to school. is this something we should care about?

local, sustainable -- is it important at all in the full spectrum of things we should worry about? wendell pierce? it's clearly something you think about -- >> i think -- first of all, it shouldn't come down to economics. but it makes economic sense. you know? it creates an economic engine right there. first source hiring. it actually mines the wealth and talent that you have in your community and also mines the resources that you have in your community. we were actually an agrarian community in louisiana, in new orleans. you would go at any hour of the night -- one of the greatest moments i had as a child was to make up in the middle of the night and say, can we go to the french market? that was just to buy some creole tomatoes or some zucchini or watermelon or apple. >> i feel bad about your childhood. >> no -- >> making me hungry. >> but that was like christmas to me. the idea that produce got you that excited in the middle of the night, i'm glad i grew up.

but it showed you that we actually had a sustainable system that was already there. and that has slowly gone away. and i think what she was attempting to say is let's tap back into that. let's exercise our right of self-determination and best practices. >> well, i think more to the point when you're talking about local, what's interesting in keeping business local. it costs taxpayers over $7 billion a year because 52% of fast food workers have to put their families on public assistance. so essentially we're subsidizing these major corporations. for a minimum wage of $10.50 an hour, mcdonald's would only have to increase the price of their big mac 5 cents. in order to put every mcdonald's employee on $15 an hour to be close to a living wage, $1 more for a big mac. now is that a hard thing?

is that an unreasonable thing? >> again, we just don't value the food conversation enough. i mean, if you're on food stamps today, you spend about $3 for your dinner. and that's clearly not going to be enough for a great meal. i think like this. the key is, and it's very difficult to say, but we need to eat with a spiritual compass. right? we need to start thinking about our meals in a completely different way and value it in a completely different way. again, going back to the show -- >> we should think like italians. >> we should think like italians or maybe even japanese or even in south africa. in your south africa segment, people eat great. they don't eat fast food. they eat great in those inner cities. >> it's the history of cooking. the engine of great cooking has always been poverty. okay? it drives people to have to take the tough, the inedible, the not so good, and through skill, repetition, turn it into something good. this is an issue you think about a lot. you're very involved with school kids. >> but the difference in american poverty versus other countries' poverty is that we

have nothing in our inner city -- in poverty-ridden neighborhoods. there are no tougher cuts of meat. there are no -- >> what we have is processed food. >> processed food. that's our toughest kind of meat. >> i'll never forget in "the wire" when they're sending kids off to school giving them bags of ho-hos and cheetos and things. are you into foraging? >> i forage at night in my left crisper in my fridge. a lot of weird things in there. listen. we have fat homeless people which i think means this is the greatest country in the world. i don't know if we should be complaining. >> but look, let me go back that to theme. what are people eating? i mean, it's true. >> we eat local. >> where people are impoverished, they're eating absolutely the worst, most abysmal fattening stuff on earth. and if you go to india or you go

to all across africa, southeast asia, south america, poor people tend to be rail thin. though that is changing with the vast -- with the spread of sort of processed food. >> the poverty is different. if i were to look at poverty in africa, comes down to getting clear water. in america, you have clean water as much as you want, but you also have junk food in your community. >> it's about getting access to a vegetable. any vegetable. >> any vegetable. so this is something -- >> using that word local. >> i also feel as the chef, we are not doing our -- taking our responsibilities. we are only thinking about local and organic. that's really thinking about 10% of the population. the other 10% living on the total opposite of that that don't even think about local or organic, they think about putting food, you know, for their families in front of them. so i think as chefs, the next 21st century chefs, we have to think about how can we think about the poor people as well and bring them into the conversation. and creating farmers markets that are affordable, culturally relevant.

you know, in harlem, we did that -- >> and desirable. >> desirable. >> who created falafel? these are fighting words in jerusalem. who owns the food we love? does authenticity matter and should we care? we'll try to sort that out when we come back. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cold symptoms.

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with the end of apartheid and the emergence of mandela,

south africa became a beacon and a refuge for millions of africans from all over the continent. >> that's when i took the food. that was the first way to engage. >> sanza has no formal culinary training. he's completely self-taught. picking up bits and pieces where he can. often from the women in the neighborhood. so you're plucking the best of everybody's culinary culture? >> every day. every day, i learn. the smell, the color. what are you eating? where are you from? i've been taught by some men. it's not how it's cooked at home. go to that aunty. some dingy club, at the back, there's a small kitchen. she'll teach you something. then that's me. hey, aunty, you know, i'm really keen on how you're making your sauce. >> and they'll show you? >> they'll show me stuff.

>> we're back with wendell, don, roy, and marcus. all right. authenticity. a "new york observer" article, basically an op-ed piece awhile back, accused you of being perhaps not authentic enough to cook soul food in harlem. as an ethiopian who grew up in sweden, maybe you weren't even black enough. >> they said he wasn't black enough. >> the suggestion was clear. does authenticity -- i mean, look, that piece couldn't have felt good. but in general, does ownership of food, does authenticity have any meaning anymore? >> i know, i mean -- as a black person, we're constantly used to people telling us in our community what it's supposed to be. or what it is. and i just don't live in that moment. for me, opening the restaurant was never about saying this is what soul food is. i looked at harlem as my canvas and it's completely latin, diverse, black, caribbean, chinese, jewish.

and that's what i wanted to pay homage to in the restaurant. so if "observer" didn't understand it, i understand it's way above their comprehension level. >> oh! >> but i get it, it's all right. i understand that. >> i'll put the same question to you, roy. you were born in korea but you grew up in l.a. you sort of broke out with, for lack of a better word, korean tacos. does authentic have any meaning? and should it? do you feel any obligation? of all of the cuisines, of all the cuisines that came to america from somewhere else, korean food stayed true to the original model and didn't change so stubbornly over the years. do you feel any responsibility to honor that stubborn tradition of purity and, quote/unquote, authenticity? >> no, man. >> okay. >> i only have a responsibility to my city and that's los angeles, california. you know? i'm korean by blood, but i was raised in america and i don't fit into either. you know?

so, like what becomes authentic when you live in purgatory, you know? so like we created our own identity and our own food which expressed what we're going through right now. >> and we should celebrate this. >> yeah, we should celebrate it, it's a new day, you know? >> we bang up in american culture in terms of food a lot. this is something where america is leading. you know? the fact that we have, you know, andy doing like thai food and doing it fantastically. harold's doing thai food and doing it great. and what rick bayless started when he started to do mexican food in chicago. so i just think america's always been this place where we've had other chefs doing different food and doing -- from their passion. >> but we used to mock people for bringing korean food to lunch. you know, i mean eddy wong who wrote that piece talks about growing up, going to school, having kids pick on him for bringing stinky, smelly, foreign food.

now, in a way hipsters, are lined up around the block to buy the same food. >> that's a testament though to authenticity. right? that you should always remain authentic and you shouldn't worry about whether someone calls you not korean enough or npt american enough or not black enough. it's ridiculous. >> you raised, i believe, a side issue of the paula deen thing. i don't want to get on paula deen. >> right. >> let me rephrase that. >> can somebody take this, please? >> is ownership of food, here's a case where ownership of food really has some -- are we getting closer to the bone here? >> i think it is important. you talked about -- we talked about gentrification and about diversity of neighborhoods. yes. there is such a thing as ownership of food. you have to live it in order to be it sometimes. and i think what people got upset with, as i said many times on cnn, people didn't really get upset with paula deen for saying the "n" word. they kind of got it, okay, she

said the "n" word. it was her not understanding how she sort of insulted people. because the food that she was talking about is authentically black southern food. >> right. >> it's not food that was handed down from generations in her family. it was black southern food that she is making millions and millions of dollars on. and that's what people were upset about. >> people just want to be respected. >> right. >> people want to be respected. listen. i'm from new orleans. we're from the south. for 300 years, black women cooked for everybody. >> right. >> now all of a sudden, the chef is now in front of the cameras but there are no black women. >> right. >> and saying y'all. okay, y'all? >> who talks like that? we just want to celebrate the authenticity. that's what people ask. >> can we agree that, okay, maybe we don't know how we feel about authentic, but do we feel we should at least know the classics, respect the classics, know where they came from before we, for lack of a better word, mess with them? >> there's also a major shift in this country, right? we've always had european narrative in terms of our food, especially on the east coast.

and guess what? this country is changing. i think about where food is today, especially on the west coast. it's two places. it's asian and latin. and it's not going to change. >> i think most people -- completely off topic -- i think most people agree that our recent tokyo show was some of the most difficult, lurid, unsettling stuff! it's all about me! that's right. it's all about me. what does this mean? we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] if you can clear a crowd but not your nasal congestion,

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we are back with all my guests, wendell, bonnie, don, roy, and marcus. i got to ask you something. >> yeah? >> what is up with all the porn in the tokyo episode? it was the kinkiest thing i've ever seen. you creeped me out in the beginning. and then tentacle porn, what the hell? >> this is cnn. i'm anthony bourdain and this is cnn. >> look. i was really, really proud of the show. it was some difficult material. i had serious worries about whether we were going to get this through. people really enjoyed it. it's a difficult subject, but it's there. it's exactly -- it's everything

that we try to do. >> who's kinkier, americans or people from tokyo? >> look, you only need to look at how enormous our porn industry is. you know? >> i'm glad you said porn industry. i didn't know where you were going. >> i think it's something like 52% of people who check into any hotel in america, within like seven minutes, they've bought in-room porn. >> there you go. >> it's like by your own sheets kind of a situation. >> please. >> i don't like porn. >> tell us what was left out. >> probably what was left out was just as important what was left in. >> my camera crew were deeply deeply traumatized. >> by what? by the -- when the woman is beating the man in the bar, there's a guy -- a creepy guy behind her smoking a cigarette. >> yeah. >> what the heck is going on there? >> parts unknown. >> i think it was touch and go. >> look, it's -- i'm not saying that's -- what we wanted with the show is whatever worked last week, whatever didn't work last week, we want to do something

different next week. we just want to keep pushing it, keep pushing it. get stranger, weirder. but we want to stay interested and we want people to stay interested as well. if we're not having fun, there's no reason for anyone else to watch it. >> this is the bourdaini. the anthony bourdaini. >> so listen. there is a method to your madness. if you can reveal to us there's a reason why we're here in las vegas and the reason we're at atomic liquors. why is that? >> because there's alcohol in this. that's in. that's it for this evening. thank you to all of you for being here. check out podcasts. you can see don on cnn every weekend. wendell is on nbc on "the michael j. fox show" thursdays at 9:30. roy's book "l.a. son" is in stores now. and also pick up a copy of marcus' autobiography. good night, guys. thank you.

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