Apartments and Sports Bars

It is official. We've put money down on an apartment in Nashville. We'll be spending (at least) our first nine months in Nashville living in an area of town referred to as Germantown. As I ascertain more photographs of the new living space, I'll post more. I say more pictures, because yes, we put a deposit down on an apartment, we have merely seen 5 pictures of. So, after our upcoming visit, I'll have more information for you.

On another note, the other night, Tim and I were watching Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations. Now, I adore Bourdain. I can't quite remember what distant land he was visiting, but I do remember him making a comment about an individual from the US that had relocated to this foreign land. He commented about the fella moving to this area and how his restaurant features food from the native land that he was currently inhabiting. He offhandedly mentioned how it was good he didn't move to this new land and open a sports bar.

I thought to myself that this comment seemed odd. It almost felt like to me that someone from the US moving to open a restaurant that represents "America" would undoubtedly be a sports bar. Really? Then I started to think about how here (in the US) we enjoy when new immigrants arrive and open up a restaurant that provides food from their native land.

So, then I begin to think that perhaps the comment was more about what "American" food consists of. I think I even felt a little offended. Now, I enjoy food from all around the world. At the same time, I don't believe that all "we" have to offer is sports bar cheese fries and mini-hamburgers. It seems to me that what is great about food in the US is that it is often an amalgamation of the various folks that live here currently. Of course, the food here has been shaped by the immigrants that make our country what it is. And this is why when I watch the Ken Burns' documentaries- I actually start feeling extremely patriotic. Burns discusses how baseball and jazz became what they are because of the very nature of this country. It is a country of immigrants. It is a country of various influences.

I'm absolutely the wrong person to be getting into any details about this....as Tim is better suited for this discussion, but there was just something about the comment that made me love Bourdain just a little less.