Location: It's about time, Mr. Bourdain. Tony makes a culinary pilgrimage to one of Europe's, and arguably the world's, most famous culinary destinations of the moment: Spain. It is a country that is thoroughly grounded in the cuisine of tradition yet remarkably forward-thinking in its gastronomic outlook.

Episode Rating: Four and a half bloody meat cleavers (out of five). I'm sorry, perhaps I'm biased, but it's hard to characterize an episode that features such fascinating, delicious, forward-thinking food as anything but awesome. If you've seen any episodes of Bourdain's previous show, A Cook's Tour, then you'll know why this works so well. It's enjoyable without trying too hard.

Summary: Spain is a country with a cooking style that is thoroughly traditional - we are talking after all about an area of culture that dates all the way back to the ancient Romans, Greeks and beyond. Yet recent years have seen the rise of a very different and highly original brand of cuisine that defies easy convention. Famous chefs like Ferran Adria have pushed what was once one of Europe's best-kept culinary secrets into the pantheon of global "foodie hotspots." in much the same way that people have long romanticized France or Italy, Spain is now arguably just as well-known for its local and delcious food culture. Tony comes to Spain expecting to be wowed and rediscovers a country that does not disappoint.

Next week, an estimated 70,000 out-of-towners are expected to descend on Denver, Colorado for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Thousands of political activists will arrive hungry for change and hungry for dinner. And what better appetizer than the official food of American politics: freedom fries. (But they're still called French Fries everywhere outside of the Capitol building.)

Denver Westword has just announced its 2008 Best Of Denver awards, including the category for Best French Fries in the city. The winner is Encore Restaurant located at 2550 E. Colfax Avenue. Encore's eclectic menu features mid- to high-end American fare, including the townspeople's favorite fries: "perfectly cooked, heavily salted shoestrings that are unbelievably addictive - particularly hit with a drizzle of spicy mustard that's just one step (heat-wise) below that stuff you get in Chinese restaurants and about ten times more delicious than a squirt of French's could ever be," according to Westword.

For more dining favorites in Denver, view the entire list of Best Of winners here, or check out the DNC's dining guide here.

L.A. might be a sprawling and frustrating city, but one thing is for sure: when in the City of Angels, you will always be within walking distance of a fast food joint.

These bastions of greasy cuisine have spread at such an alarming rate that, last year, some people were considering stopping fast food expansion by denying licenses to would-be restaurants.

Well, the unthinkable has come to pass. Recently, L.A.'s city council decided to put a stop to the growing fast food restaurant industry in South Los Angeles by not allowing new restaurants to open.

The council cited health concerns as the reason for their decision. They hope that the temporary ban will lead to more healthy eating options. These are currently lacking in many of the South's poorer neighborhoods.

However, the numerous fast food shacks already in operation will remain open. So the law will stop the spread of fast food eateries, but it is not a quick fix.

Some people are quick to criticize the decision, saying that the city should not try to control people's dining choices. Others say that the moratorium might also stop the expansion of restaurants that are branded fast food even though they don't even have a deep fat fryer. Apparently, the council's decision will affect storefront taco stands as well.

Don't expect the debate to stop anytime soon.

Have you ever heard of Clearfield, Pennsylvania? Neither have I. But it's not much of a detour off Interstate 80, right in the center of the state, and the little town has a pretty amusing claim to fame.

Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield is the home of the world's largest hamburgers. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, here is where you'll find the "largest hamburger commercially available," and if you can finish it, you'll have a place in the record books, too.

Owner Denny Liegey has been challenging customers with his behemoth burgers since the early 1990's. The pub challenges begin with a 2-pound burger, which seems tiny compared to 3, 6, and 15-pound versions. Those who finish their burgers (one challenger per burger, or two for the 15-pound "belly buster," and there's a time limit, of course) get their name and picture in the restaurant's hall of fame, as well as a t-shirt, certificate of completion, and a discount on their bill.

According to Denny, only one person has ever conquered the "Ye Olde 96er," which is 6 pounds of beef and 9 pounds altogether. This challenger was just "a little, skinny college girl from Princeton!"

The largest burger ever cooked at Denny's was the 123-pound monster pictured above. Read more about how Denny makes his giant burgers here.

So, do you think you could eat the world's largest burger? Perhaps a better question is why would you want to try?

The big burgers require several hours of preparation time, so if you're going to take on the challenge, call ahead. Good luck!

Yesterday afternoon I was on a WiFi quest with no luck, so here's the
Take FIVE a day later.

While I was on my WiFi quest with no luck, Gadling welcomed a new blogger. Meg Massie has an interesting way to get around the world. Her husband is a professional bridge player. Meg travels for other reasons too. Bridge is just one of them.

Along with the welcome addition of Meg, there have been a mix of culture related posts from entertainment to food, plus, there is a new feature thread called Gadling Covers the Olympics.

From the humor angle: If you missed Jerry's post on Stephen Colbert's tour of the Cantons of America, here it is. Along with poking fun at Canton, Ohio (on the list of the top five cities that are dying in the United States), Colbert also pokes fun at other towns called Canton.

• From the gastronomic angle:Jefferey lamented the absence of his beloved döner, Turkish kebabs from Concierge.com's list of the world's best street foods
• From the cinematical angle: Josh pointed out the popularity of Indian musical movies in Africa and wonders how much Bollywood will take over Hollywood's place here.
• From the musical angle: Aaron pointed us in the direction of Asian music that has gained a following
• And, from a capturing an aspect of culture yourself angle: Scott posted on great price on a Fuji camera.

Canton, Youngstown and Dayton are on the list of the five fastest dying cities. Dying sounds terribly grim. How about shrinking? I can't imagine that no one will ever live in these places one day. They are all on highways for one thing. Still, as industries have become smaller and have all but disappeared in these cities, the economy is not holding people in large numbers or attracting more.

Each place does have decent offerings and worth a shout out. I've been to Canton and Dayton and driven through Youngstown. I went to Canton specifically for the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. A Japanese teacher who stayed with us a few years ago wanted to go there so we obliged. It's a lovely drive through Ohio's rural countryside. Our teacher friend was quite the football fan so this was a thrill for him. I enjoyed myself as well, and I am most certainly not into football. I don't dislike it. I'm just not a fan.

I went to Dayton twice. Once to take in Wright brothers and Katharine Wright historic sites for an article I was writing, and the other time to do a restaurant review of Jay's Seafood in the historic Oregon District. I found it to be a lovely small city and can't imagine that entrepreneurial types won't find solutions to the shrinkage problem. I have plans to head to Dorthy Lane Market in the near future.

Youngstown has been on the radar as a struggling city for awhile. The town has been doing some work to revitalize itself. Before BloggingOhio ended there were several Youngstown related posts, mostly by Chris Barzak, a writer, and now professor who lives in Youngstown that highlighted these efforts, as well as the interesting things to do there.

As people are looking for places to go closer to home for a quick get-a-way, maybe tourism could help--at least a tad.

Location: it's Tokyo time! Bourdain finally makes his pilgrimage to every food host's favorite culinary destination, the capital of Japan and one of the world's largest cities.

Episode Rating: Three bloody meat cleavers out of five. Bourdain made a concerted effort not to do the traditional "this is Japan" food show. It made for interesting subject matter, but the episode also seemed a bit disjointed as well.

Summary: In Anthony Bourdain's mind, Japan is all about the relentless pursuit of perfection. No matter if it's food, art or sport, the Japanese are almost religious in their attention to quality and detail. It is through this lens that Bourdain takes us on a tour of Tokyo, one of the most famous but also most confusing places to visit on earth (after visiting earlier this year, I would have to agree). After an earlier No Reservations visit to Osaka, where Tony proclaimed he was not going to "do the traditional" Japan visit to Tokyo, it was interesting to get an entirely different Bourdain perspective on the country, one which was noticeably more subdued than his previous visit.

Because the Olympics are in China, you've probably noticed an increase of stories and news segments with a China focus occupying the airways. For example, The Today Show on NBC is looking at China from a variety of angles.

One story, presented Monday, illustrated just how fluid the world's economy can be and how there is an interchange between cultures as a result. For example, if you head to China, you can find an Auntie Anne's, an American franchise that specializes in soft pretzels.

The Auntie Anne's in Beijing was started by a Chinese American couple whose parents had immigrated to the United States as a way to make a better life for themselves and their children. This couple moved to China to open China's first Auntie Ann's after researching what would work in China and realizing that the enterprise was a way to seize a profitable opportunity. They discovered that one way to make money in another country is to export a popular, established brand.

As the segment illustrated, some Chinese Americans are returning to China as a way to make a better life for themselves. One motivation, in addition to making money, is to learn Chinese and also to learn more about the culture of their heritage-something they often pooh-poohed as they were growing up.

As the segment noted, most plan to return to the United States once the money has been made. It's not that they have an issue with life in the U.S., they are going after financial opportunity in the country where their parents were born.

If you look at the history of the Silk Road, and how goods and services moved from Asia to Europe and from Europe to China centuries ago, the pattern in similar. Now, though, soft pretzels are part of the scenery.

While staying with a friend's family in Barcelona last year I was shocked when they told me about the stereotypical British traveler often talked about in Spanish media.

"They [British travelers] come down on cheap flights and they don't even make hotel reservations," said my friend's father.
"You mean they sleep on the street?"
"No, they just stay out drinking all night and once morning comes they just take a nap on a bench. No need to pay for a hotel I guess."

He pointed out that obviously not every British traveler behaved in this manner, yet it was unfortunate, because it gave all of them -- even those with hotel reservations -- a bad name. But apparently he wasn't all that wrong. According to the annual "British Behaviour Abroad" report by the Foreign Office, excessive drinking has led to the increase in arrests of Brits traveling abroad. In Spain for example, arrests have gone up by 32% to 2,032 in the period reported.

With a powerful British pound, drinking in other countries doesn't make a huge impact on the average Brit's wallet, so holidays can easily turn into drinking days. In response to the report, the British tabloid the Daily Mail pointed out that "drunken and loutish holidaymakers have sent Britain's reputation abroad plunging to new depths." Again, we should not stereotype -- I have met many Brits while traveling that don't behave in such a manner -- but maybe it's time to consider whether or not to down that last pint. You don't want to get arrested...

If you are traveling from China and want to replicate some of the tastes at home, Jen Lin Liu, author of Serve the People: A Stir-fried Journey through China, has some tips.

She presented them in a very speedy cooking lesson segment on The Today Show that I caught yesterday morning. Lin-Liu is a Chinese American living in China who moved there to learn more about Chinese cooking.

Here's what Liu said. For spices, the staples are salt, pepper and sugar. Sugar is an important ingredient because it balances out the salt and pepper. Liu said it's a yin and yang kind of thing.

Also there are two kinds of soy sauces that she uses: light and dark. The dark is actually a lighter flavor than the light, but both are used-from what I gathered, in the same dish.

Her main utensil is a meat cleaver which she uses for everything-even paring apples. As Liu demonstrated, the cleaver is handy for picking up food and dumping it into the wok for stir-frying. She also uses it to smash vegetables, a technique that releases some of the flavor. A spatula is used for turning whatever is cooking.

The corn starch that is used to thicken the sauce was put into the meat marinade.

One question that came up was the way Chinese food tastes different in the United States, than in China. One reason she gave was that the ingredients were fresher in China. People go to the fresh market every day and buy only what they will cook that day.

My husband's greatest pleasure when we lived in Singapore was going to the market in the morning on Saturdays or Sundays. He would come back, arms full. Unlike me, he loves to cook.

One thing I enjoyed about this segment and Jen Lin Liu's brand of cooking is that it looks easy to replicate. The cook book just came out just last month. I'm tempted to buy it. After all, I think we already have a clever tucked back in a kitchen drawer somewhere. I'll recognize it when I see it.

Here's a link to the video where Liu demonstrates her techniques.