Bourdain brings writer's flair to uncommon travel show

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription) - Milwaukee, WI, USA - Yes, Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" is a travel show that focuses on the host eating his way through various exotic locales.

But the series - which returns tonight at 9 on the Travel Channel with a China trip that begins in Shanghai - is much more than that description hints at.

It starts and ends with Bourdain, a chef's chef, whose Kitchen Confidential" offered an insider's look into the New York restaurant biz. The book made him a celeb and got him a Food Network show.

This Travel Channel series stands out from much of food and travel television because Bourdain is a rarity among TV hosts: He's a true writer, something like a postmodern Charles Kuralt telling tales of a far edgier road.

And while television tells its tales in images, this show is equally about the writing.

"There are a few different types of shows, ones where I pretty much know, as much as could be expected, I know what I want to say about a place . . . and a lot of writing is done before we even arrive," Bourdain explains. "There's a sort of a pre-existing theme, or explanation or theory or I'm going someplace I've been before."