The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones

by Anthony Bourdain

Bullying for its own sake, for the sheer pleasure of exerting power over other, weaker cooks or employees, is shameful.

the organics mob, so fervent in their recitations of the dangers of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and genetic manipulation, often sound as if their agendas are driven by concerns far from taste or pleasure.

But at the end of the day, if I can find a genetically manipulated, irradiated tomato from the other side of the country that tastes better than an Italian vine-ripened one from Granny's backyard (not likely, but just suppose), even if it causes the occasional tumor in lab rats, I'll probably serve it. It's how it tastes that counts.

America's cool, if you look hard enough, if you wander far enough from the strip malls and theme restaurants and Starbucks and Mickey D's.

it can be said that deep inside every good cook, be they French, Italian, or American, beats the heart of a Chinese.

In fact it's better than most sex. There is no risk of disappointment.

I hate all-you-can-eat concepts to start with. Few foodstuffs, in my experience, are actually better festering under heat lamps, or growing oxidized on a buffet.

Maybe once in a very great while, everybody who deserves a break gets a big fat one.

There really is nothing more loathsome or shameful than some miserable prick who walks into a restaurant determined to have a bad time,