2021-07-12

Japan is a paradox. The low birthrate, the dedication, the conformity, and the life of a salary man are well known. There is also a competitive and rigid culture that gives way to some unique subcultures. Bourdain has traveled to Tokyo countless times, but on this trip he is in search of the city’s dark, extreme, and bizarrely fetishistic underside.

Once considered the most dangerous city in the world, Johannesburg now barely makes the top 50. But the end of the apartheid has led to vast changes in the city. In this episode, Bourdain visits the suburb of Hillbrow (which remains a dangerous locale), spends a day in the life of a taxi driver and discovers the culture and food that make up modern day Johannesburg.

Bourdain explores the Brazilian heartland, known as the region where all the best cooks come from, and namesake to the country’s mining history. Home to baroque architecture, lush hillsides and mineiro cuisine (influenced by Portuguese, African and Indigenous people), which includes frango ao molho pardo (broiled chicken served in a sauce made using its own blood), that the host samples during a traditional country meal.