squirrels and bunnies.

Anthony Bourdain has the type of life that people like me would kill a human for. Traveling, writing, filming, eating, and drinking. Throw in fishing and it's my picture-perfect existence.

If you're not familiar with Anthony, he has a show on the Travel Channel called "No Reservations". It's based on his travels around the world, sampling real, local culture and cuisine. No touristy crap. No Samantha Brown, Rachel Ray, or Guy Fiero crap. It's all fairly real, really raw, and rarely disappointing.

While normally filming in exotic overseas locales, his latest episode really leaped out at me and I just had to DVR it. It was entitled "Ozarks". My first thought was, "Hmm, wonder if it's Missouri or Arkansas?" My second thought was, "Why the hell would he go to either?"

I'm from the Ozarks. And this particular episode was eerily familiar. Sure, they really sought out the hillbilly stereotypes, and it sort of got on my nerves. That is, until I realized that it's sort of difficult to get away from them.

First thing they did on the show was skin and cook squirrel. I've eaten squirrel. Thought everyone did. That's how I was raised...Grandpa, though second generation German whose family settled just South of St. Louis, would always go hunting. Yes, he would go deer hunting and turkey hunting, but what I remember him hunting for most often was squirrel. My very-German Grandfather was quite far from being a hillbilly, but that's how he was raised--hunting and gathering what you can and feasting. There wasn't a Taco Bell down the street from his one bedroom house. There wasn't a HyVee nearby. So hunting whitetail deer, gathering morel mushrooms, catching trout, planting a rich, beautiful garden...and eating squirrels was how he did it.

My Granny, who was also extremely German--but definitely had a "Granny, from The Beverley Hillbillies" quality to her--was the one that always cleaned and cooked the squirrel. Years after my Grandpa passed away, Granny saw a squirrel get hit by a car in front of her house. She walks out to the street, assess the situation, scoops up the dead squirrel, cleans it, cooks it, and eats it. Admittedly nostalgic and missing my Grandpa, this was a meal she hadn't had since his passing. Still, though...it's roadkill. So when I playfully take a jab at her for eating roadkill, while fully knowing that it was actually a sweet gesture and tribute to her years with Grandpa, she replies to me like she always did, "Nothing wrong with it! They only ran over the head!"

God, I miss those two.

But aside from this particular Grandpa of mine, most everyone else in the family hunted squirrel. I don't really recall eating it all that often--it was probably hunted more for sport or extermination.

Sucker gigging and raccoon hunting was also featured in this "No Reservations" episode. I don't gig fish, but I have eaten sucker...which in my opinion is properly named, because they suck. Not a big fan. I have never, and will never hunt for raccoon. But I know my dad used to as a kid. So, it probably wasn't too difficult to find these Ozarkian stereotypes.

I was brought up in the third largest city in Missouri, so you had a pretty broad spectrum of people types. We definitely had farmers and country folks, but not too many spooky, "Deliverance-type" hillbillies. I have certainly seen them though, and Anthony Bourdain was dangerously close to them. No offense, Arkansas, but the closer you get to your border, the less teeth and more tattoos you see.

Anthony Bourdain was in the Ozarks because of Daniel Woodrell, author of "Winter's Bone". Supposed to be a great book and equally as entertaining movie, and I'm sure it is.

But not as entertaining as "Hillbilly Hare" starring Bugs Bunny.

Enjoy.

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