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Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Ethiopia. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 01, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:18:00] ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST OF "UNKNOWN PARTS" (voice- over): Where is home? Most of us are born with the answer. Others have to sift through the pieces.
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(INTRO MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Addis Ababa (Speaking in foreign Language)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Admit it. You hear the name, Ethiopia, and you think starving children with distended bellies. You think just and famine and despair so awful you frankly do not want to even think about it anymore.
But take a look, Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. A cool high altitude urban center that will both confirm and confound expectations. Fueled largely by direct foreign investment and a returning Ethiopian Diaspora eager to be part of the new growth, things are changing in Addis. It is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
It is not the first time the place has gone through a growth spurt. In the 1950s, Emperor Haile Seassie known as the king of kings embarked on a similar program of massive public works. This was supposed to be legacy of the Ethiopia. The future.
But the next time Ethiopia found itself in the headlines, it was for this. And, for many of us, that was the end of the story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, I am looking forward to this week. MARCUS 'JOAR' SAMUELSSON, ETHEIOPIAN-BORN, SWEDISH-RAISED CHEF
AND RESTAURATEUR: I cannot wait to show you Ethiopia.
BOURDAIN: I have been waiting for you. I tell you right now.
SAMUELSSON: Yes. I could not have picked a better time, because we have old Ethiopia right here and we also have new Ethiopia right here. And, that is like - that combo is going to be so cool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Marcus Samuelsson. Maybe you know him from such shows as a lot of them or his many restaurants, his bestselling memoir, his status as America's most recognizable black chef. But, Marcus is not African-American.
He is Swedish-American or Ethiopian-Swedish-American or -- look, it is complicated. What is true to say is that Marcus Samuelsson like his wife, Maya, was born here in Ethiopia.
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BOURDAIN (on camera): So, when was the last time you were in Ethiopia?
SAMUELSSON: Four years ago, and you can tell it is changed. It changed a lot.
BOURDAIN (on camera): I am interested in seeing an African country that was never colonized. It was never taken by Europe.
SAMUELSON: No, that sense of pride -- and you really hit the nail on the head. I mean, that sense of pride is also the sense of that everyone wants to come back.
BOURDAIN (on camera): How does it feel coming back? Is it weird at all? You feel like you are coming home?
SAMUELSSON: It is weird, but end of the day, I always love it. I miss it. One foot of me is like, just Ethiopian, but then the other foot is just so Swedish or American at this point, right?
BOURDAIN (on camera): You do not speak the language here or any of the dialects.
SAMUELSSON: No.
BOURDAIN (on camera): You have -- since you come back here, you reconnected with family.
SAMUELSSON: Yes.
BOURDAIN (on camera): But it must be weird to, I mean --
SAMUELSSON: It is.
BOURDAIN (on camera): To -- you need a translator.
SAMUELSSON: No, but -- I need a translator. My wife is not my translator in life and in culture and so many things, but I think when -- when you are a black man, when you are an immigrant, when you are an Ethiopian, when you are a Swedish, I have been put in so many situations that I put myself into. So, I am actually very comfortable enough being uncomfortable.
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[20:05:20] BOURDAIN (voice-over): In the 1970s, Ethiopia was hit with a tuberculosis epidemic. Marcus, his older sister, Fantaye, and his mom were all stricken with the disease. With no possibility of medical attention in their village, facing the almost inevitable death of both her children, Marcus' mom set out on foot with her daughter at her side and 2-year-old Marcus on her back walking 75 miles to the Swedish hospital in Addis.
Against all odds, they made it. Marcus and Fantaye recovered. Their mother did not. Marcus and his sister were adopted by Ann Marie and Lennart Samuelsson, and raised from that point on in Sweden. Ethiopia, it's language, it's food, it's cultures was largely a mystery.
Marcus traveled and trained, apprenticing in some of the great kitchens of Europe. He moved to New York. Ad, at the remarkably young age of 23 received three stars from "The New York Times" at his groundbreaking restaurant, "Aquavit." It has been a pretty stellar rise since then. And, in 2010, he opened "Red Rooster" in Harlem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMUELSSON: I always find, I was born into very little food, but yet sort of I made my whole life about food. My sort of structure and pragmatism comes from being raised in Sweden, and my sort of vibrancy and warmth to cooking and feel-based food that I love comes definitely from here.
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Weirdly enough, the single aspect of Ethiopian culture most westerners do know a little about is Ethiopian food. So, maybe you have this.
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BOURDAIN (on camera): Oh, wow. That looks good. That -- that is exciting. What is it?
MAYA SAMUELSSON, MARCUS SAMUELSSON'S WIFE: This is a typical Ethiopian vegetarian, they make it really nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): At Katanga restaurant, they do it classic. Injera bread, that is Ethiopian 101.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I mean, when you think about Ethiopian food, right, the foundation is really the Injera bread.
BOURDAIN (on camera): That is not just food, it is an implement.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): We are having beyaynetu, with selection of stews or wat sauce they called around here. That is Gomen, sauteed greens. Shiro Wat, which is a chickpea stew and Tikil Gomen, sauteed white cabbage. Many, if not most of the dishes, spiced with the magical mysterious flavoring of the Gods, Berbere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Can I -- Can I get you one that nobody would do it. May I?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: You have to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): This -- This stuffing of food in your fellow diners' face is called gursha, and it is what you do to show your affection and respect. Try this at the waffle house sometime and prepare for awkwardness.
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BOURDAIN (on camera): Now -- you were born here?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: I was born here.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Left at what age?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: 13. I grew up in Holland. And, after that we all went to London, Germany. I am in New York now. So --
BOURDAIN (on camera): I do not want to say it is a rootless existence, but it is -- you know, where is home?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I think for us now, Harlem is really home. But when I have been gone for two years, I am like, I got to go back. Because the beat is just so different than what Sweden can offer me and definitely what New York can offer me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): The median age in Ethiopia is under 18. That means most people here do not remember live aid or any of that. Coupled with a recent economic boom, this might be the first generation in decades to enjoy a future with real hope. Things are, indeed, happening. In this case, at a vacant bus stop.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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MARCUS SAMUELSSON: They are Dog Town, man, they are the next generation Dog Town in Africa.
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): A few years back, a couple of Ethiopians who had living abroad returned to Addis with some skateboards. Today, there are couple hundred skaters of Ethiopia and more on the sidelines waiting for their chance, waiting for a board, waiting for a pair of sneakers.
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[20:10:00] BOURDAIN (on camera): It is funny that, it is like skater board culture came from white southern California's suburban -- if you could pretty much track all the skater culture back to one parking lot.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
BOURDAIN: So, what is coming out of this parking lot?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): There are no skateboard shops in Ethiopia. None. They have to come all of them from abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Woo! Nice.
BOURDAN (on camera): The little kid is good.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: The little kid is amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): For those lucky enough to have them, progression seems to be fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: This gives me hope. Honestly. This can be a really cool town. Not just a great town with big buildings, you know? but a cool town, too. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): For skater boys and television hosts, alike, the thing to do in late-night Addis is something called turbo and tibs.
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MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I feel like a college party or something like that. It is perfect.
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Turbo is a mutant concoction consisting of gin, beer, wine, and sprite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): What is the first rule of drinking?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Do not mix.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Abenezer Temesgen, Addisu Hailemichael, and Bezueyo Julien founded Ethiopia skate. The grassroots skating community that grew up in the parking lots around Addis. Sean Stromsoe was a founding member who has been documenting the group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): All right, man. My first -- my first turbo. Cheers.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Cheers!
SEAN STROMTOSE, A FOUNDING MEMBER WHO WAS DOCUMENTING THE GROUP: Cheers!
ABENEZER TEMESGEN, ETHOPIAN SKATE COFOUNDER: Cheers!
ADDISU HAILEMICHAEL, ETHOPIAN SKATE COFOUNDER: Cheers!
BEZUEYO JULIEN, ETHOPIAN SKATE COFOUNDER: Cheers!
HAILEMICHAEL: Like apple juice.
BOURDAIN (on camera): You are right.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Sweet.
BOURDAN (on camera): It is like apple juice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Shekla tibs are chunks of beef or lamb fried in oil and served in a charcoal heated clay pot called a Shekla.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Nice! I like the fat. I love that. They do not add the fat.
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Every tibs house has their own version, but here, at Mesai (ph) Grocery, it is served with a spicy dipping sauce called Mitmita. And, of course, Injera bread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): Yes, that is good. That works.
TEMESGEN: Gursha!
BOURDAIN: Thank you.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BOURDAIN (on camera): How did this skating community form? I mean, did people watch what other people were doing around the world?
HAILEMICHAEL: Definitely.
TEMESGEN: Some of them, they go to the internet cafe and they just see videos. That is how I started.
HAILEMICHAEL: Back in the days, no internet for me.
(LAUGHING)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Oh, wow!
HAILEMICHAEL: I had to do it, like, the hard way, man.
BOURDAIN (on camera): I would tell you right now. If I were Ethiopian, if I even lived here, I would open a skate shop tomorrow. Tomorrow.
(LAUGHING)
So, what is the best thing about Ethiopia right now?
TEMESGEN: I mean I think back in the days, you know, people want to get out from this country, just leave. But, now they are like, they just want to work and their mind has changed. And, everybody is working together. And, working for the better. We are doing this for the next generation, because the next generation is going to take this.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Did we drink all that turbo? We are terrible people, man.
(LAUGHING)
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[20:13:18] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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[20:16:28] BOURDAIN (on camera): So, time to catch a bus.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: You guys need to be me bodyguard.
BOURDAIN (on camera): No problem.
This place is awesome!
(LAUGHING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): This is a charming Ethiopian Institution called a "Tejbet." They serve one thing and only one thing, Tej. An alcoholic beverage made from fermented barley and honey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): It is not highly alcoholic, though, right? You got to pretty much hammer back a lot of this stuff --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
BOURDAIN (on camera): -- to get a buzz. So, basically, the people around here -- they have been working on this for a long time.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: All day. This is a working class. This is where the workers go.
BOURDAIN (on camera): With a chief buzz.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: With a chief buzz.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Cheers. You just knock it back.
BOURDAN (on camera): All right.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: It is good. You feel the funk?
BOURDAIN (on camera): Oh, yes! It is working, man.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I have never seen a woman in a bar like this.
BOURDAIN (on camera): This is sort of a guy thing?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: It is my first time. Yes. Guys after work or the farmers.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: You are breaking major rules here.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: And, you have all like decent, speak to them and drinking.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: And, there is a lot of Jesus in the bars.
BOURDAIN (on camera): That is the last thing I want to see in the bar, with disapproving gaze of a saint.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): In 1992, Addis emerged from the stifling 17-year grip of a hard line old school Maoist regime called the Derg. Since then, the town has been enjoying something of a musical renaissance.
But, the story of Ethiopian music all the way back to the beginning has been about finding ways to skirt authority, to mock it even. To say what you want to say one way or the other.
The Azmari are Ethiopia's original freestyle rappers. They have been around for centuries voicing criticism, dissatisfaction, dissent, even when others could not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, how old?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Maya, how old is Azmari been? I would say what? 2,000 years?
MAYA SAMUELSSO: Yes, like the first music we that had, right?
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): The trick is they have always used a system of lyrical double meanings referred to as wax meaning. "The apparent meaning" and gold, which is "The underlying or real meaning." Poking fun at the audience is fundamental to the form.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER (singing): Anthony is quiet and not saying much, not because he is uppity. It is just that he finds the language quite hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER (singing): Oh my dear Marcus, my endearment. He is the one, Obama's cook. Now, we can say we saw him with our own eyes.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Maya, you got to help him out. Maya, go, go, go.
[20:20:05] MARCUS SAMUELSSON: She can move and I am like, Oh!
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
The Azmari influenced Ethiopian popular music, too. The use of lyrical double meanings carried through into Selassie's time. They called it swinging Addis, a golden time between 1955 and 1974. Before those fun-hating comis came and ruined everything.
Post-World War II, Ethiopia was in the delirious thrall of American big band and swing groups like Glen Miller and against the backdrop of a traditional and official obsession with military marching bands, Mahmoud Ahmed, has always been at the forefront.
(BAND SINGING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): When you look to the west, were there American musicians who spoke to you?
MAHMOUD AHMED, MILITARY MARCHING BAND: Back then, the ones I used to listen were Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, James Brown, and then there was Nat King Cole. There was this music I played inspired by Elvis Presley's music "Jailhouse Rock." I used to dance and move my legs just like Elvis Presley. When I performed fast tempo music, I used to shake my legs just like him.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Combining elements of jazz, swing, R&B and distinctive Ethiopian scales and time signatures and an always killer horn section, well, listen for yourself.
(BAND PLAYING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:27:44] BOURDAIN (voice-over): The Shola Market in Addis Ababa. It is where you come for what you need.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BOURDAIN (on camera): What are we here to buy, by the way? What
is the plan?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I want to make Doro Wat, really, the king of chicken dishes in Ethiopia.
All right. So, we are going to head down here, get some good butter. Smell the fermentation.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Uh-huh.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: The funk.
BOUDAIN (on camera): Funk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Kibe, an Ethiopian butter in various stages of fermentation depending on what you like. It is a primary ingredient in much of the cooking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: So, there is between one that is really fermented and another one is a medium. So, she says we should use the medium one --
BOURDAIN (on camera): Right.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: -- for chicken soup. And, you use all the spices. It is the most important thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): People from Gurage, Maya's tribal area run the market. So, she knows the language and how to negotiate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): I can smell a frightened chicken --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
BOURDAIN (on camera): -- a mile off. Here we go. So, how many do we need?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I just think we need three is fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): My mama then told me get something for dinner. In this case, chicken. Fresh, please.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): See yah, would not want to be yah. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Oh, that is fresh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I love all the sounds. Like, it is like chicken there, music there.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: How is he get the skin off?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: One move. He did it.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: We used to use like a hot boil water --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: -- after killing it.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Right, dip them in.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Dip it there. That is how I grew up.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Morocco has Ras el hanout. India, garam masala masala. Ethiopia has this, the brightly colored Berbere.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[20:30:11] The color is amazing and those guys who grind the stuff are covered with it, breathe it, all day long.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): Still warm. Wow! That is sort of magic, man.
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Marcus left Ethiopia at age 2, so finding and reconnecting with his family has not been easy. Tracking down a mom who died in similar circumstances on the right dates following a thread to a dusty village in the Oromo region where Marcus found the man he has come to accept as his biological father. He also found Theus, Solem, Sebani, Ashu, and Daniel (ph), presumably his siblings by another mother. Together, Marcus and his sisters make Doro Wat, a classic Chicken Stew.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: In the '90s, if we go back to New York to be the chef I have to be, I really need.
Welcome to our Tsegai family meal. Tsegai family meal. So, we start with the Injera bread, right?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Besides the Dora Wat, we have cabbage, beets, and collards. Root vegetables finished with the livers and giblets of the chicken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Actually, it looks spicier than it is.
BOURDAIN (on camera): But very good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Though a continuing bone of contention with his father, Marcus and Maya have sponsored the girls moving them all to the city and getting them into school.
In the countryside, these girls faced the likelihood of forced marriage, even abduction and very little chance of the kind of future they might have now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, how would that go over with the family when you said, I am going to try to help you?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I mean, my dad was, like, "Absolutely not. We need them on the farm."
BOURDAIN: Right.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: It could not have been done without Maya, really not only translate but also understands the culture.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Yes.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Because I felt also bad coming in as the, quote/unquote, "American," saying "OK, everyone should move to the city." I have to be gradually two by two by two.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Right.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: So, when I had to pick which two, I picked the girls, because otherwise she would have been out of school by second grade. If she would have followed the tradition of the country.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Second grade. That is it.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
BOURDAIN (on camera): What after that?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: You stay -- you work at home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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MARCUS SAMUELSSON: It has been very enriching and loving, you know, for us, and we have a purpose. You know, we know what our goal is. Our goal is to get them through school. You are looking at a chemist in a couple of months.
Whatever new Ethiopia you see, they are it. Farmers coming in, and going to school, and now have options.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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[20:37:31] BOURDAIN (voice-over): Addis is one thing, a city experiencing a renaissance of sorts, an economic boom. Outside of the city, the farther away one gets, one is reminded that, in fact, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
Marcus and Maya come from two completely different tribes, two completely different regions of Ethiopia with distinct languages and cultures all their own. Maya comes from the Gurage region, a more fertile, green agricultural area than Marcus'. It is about three hours out from the city, and it is beautiful.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Maya, it should be noted, left home at a much later age. There is no question of identity. She is African. She is Guragen. And, she retains close ties to her family and to her village.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Welcome to Gurage.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): She was here just last year. It has been four years since they have seen Marcus. Maya's mother, Bezunesh and de facto grandmother Ahl, welcome us.
When visitors come, everything starts with coffee. Traditionally, it is served here with a bit of salt, not sugar.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): It is good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Maya's story differs from Marcus' in a lot of ways. It was not disease or famine or poverty that drove her and her brother, Petros, to Europe and a new life. It was the brutal reality of politics.
(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, who was your father?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: My dad was my hero and everyone's hero, -- I do not mean everyone, but my brother could explain a little bit more.
[20:40:00] PETROS HAILE, BROTHER OF MAYA SAMUELSSON: He was a local chief, and also a member of the supreme or the highest court, you can say. During the Haile Selassie period, he was engaged in more innovative and experimental and mechanized farm. During the communist period.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Yes.
PETROS HAILE: You know, something unexpected happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): In 1974, Emperor Haile Salassie was deposed in the very unpleasant general Mengistu and a hard line communist regime called the Derg, took over the country. As in China, all agricultural property was taken over by the state and broken up into small parcels.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETROS HAILE: Everything what my father had, the land, the property, is confiscated. And those who had the authority, they had the chance to work together, to cooperate, or they were enemies.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Anyone deemed an enemy of the state, and this could be a very dangerously loose definition, but usually and typically included the educated, the well-off and anyone associated with the former government were hunted down, shunned, jailed, harassed and often straight-out killed.
Maya's dad was all those things. An educated landowner and part of the rural tribal administration from the Selassie time. Most people who had the means left the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETROS HAILE: I know this guy who is appointed, you know, as the governor of the region. He has 60 people in the region in three years' time.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Nobody knows where he is coming.
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, he would just knock on our door and my mom, she gets every time he comes. He leave her bullets. He tells her, this bullet next time is yours if you do not bring your husband. So, my dad always came to visit us in nighttime. So, he never been really home around during the daytime.
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, for most of that time your father had to live in hiding?
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Yes.
PETROS HAILE: Yes. And, then we all survived by the grace of God. We are blessed for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BOURDAIN (voice-over): Morning in Maya's village. Marcus is a runner. Every day, wherever he is, he runs a few miles. Me, not so much. But, what with my cardio shockingly improved of late, I figured I would give it a try.
Maya and Marcus' return, not to mention the invasion of a big foreign television crew is reason or maybe excuse for a big party. And, preparations have already begun.
Maya slips seamlessly from her other life as a high fashion model backs into a more traditional role in village life, working along with an army of other women to prepare what looks like a massive feast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): How do the ladies feel about you cooking?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: This is --
BOURDAIN (on camera): Causing serious problem?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: No, you already caused it, because you are the first foreigner ever in that kitchen.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BOURDAIN (voice-over): A lamb, of course, must be slaughtered.
Actually, in this case, two lambs because here as in much of Ethiopia, Muslims and Christians live side by side. One lamb gets the halal treatment. One for the Christians.
It is a peculiar history of peaceful co-existence here of which Ethiopians are quite proud. The Christians came here during the time of the apostles from the very beginnings of Christianity as a religion.
And, the belief is that Muhammad after being persecuted and driven from Mecca by the Quraysh fled to Ethiopia where he found refuge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Dog is happy.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Yes.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Nice and blood in his face.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Oh, yes. It is awesome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): The production continues. Women in the kitchen except for Marcus who looks most comfortable there, though his presence is a befuddlement to the others. Men taking care of the meat. Oh, bro food traditions, you are everywhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: You know, none of the people have cooked today. All of them are like --
BOURDAIN (on camera): Like in rural communities, if you kill a big -- couple of animals, everybody in the village has sort of like -- chosen specialty? Like, you Bob, over there, he does the crack.
[20:50:00] He over there does the budan. Somebody else over there is good at scraping the fur of. Somebody else -- like everybody got a function, you know, it goes back to the first fire. I will bring the dip, you know?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: Normally, you hold it like this and then you put everything you want over here.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Got it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: Take it around.
BOURDAIN: Perfect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Gomen and Ayeb are greens like collards with a berbere and ayeb cheese.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): I like the cheese. It is like ricotta.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Lamb Kitfo prepared Gurage style. Laboriously diced, amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: This is all our dinner.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Yes. I got some of that vegetables. That is delicious.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-overs): This you love without reservation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (on camera): Barbecue. Now we are talking. Man, what a meal. Pretty impressive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Then whisky, and music, and the party really starts going.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Thank you for coming to Ethiopia.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:55:37] BOURDAIN (voice-over): In 2004 at the prompting of his sister, Marcus began an exhaustive search for his lost family. Who was he, after all? Where exactly did he come from? Who in his family had survived, who was left? Where were they?
He was told that his father was still alive living here in the village of Abru Gundana (ph) Southeast of Addis. For adoptees looking to return to reconnect, the journey is complicated. For Marcus, each trip is always raised more questions than it is answers. This trip is no different.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Every time that last five-minute drive, right? It just makes me nervous. Make me really, really excited and nervous at the same time, right? But, it is just, take the American hat off and take the Swedish had off, it is just a different grid.
BOURDAIN (on camera): You are on --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: It is not. I come from a dusty place.
(LAUGHING)
BOURDAIN (on camera): You are not kidding.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Oh, they changed it.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: They change it. They make it big.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): I leave Marcus alone with his father. This is between them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Marcus.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Abru Gundana --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Abru Gundana. I like it. I like Abru Gundana. .
MAYA SAMUELSSON: He want us to see how you guys look-alike. MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I was not ready for this.
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Where is the link? It does matter.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Proof! Proof.
(LAUGHING)
MAYA SAMUELSSON: Good idea. He has a better foot than you.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes, he does. He does. I was not ready for this.
(LAUGHING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BOURDAIN (on camera): So, how does it feel to be back? I have to tell you, if I can be honest, you seem conflicted.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes. There is a thousand thoughts going through my head. I feel a little guilty that I got out.
BOURDAIN (on camera): If you stayed, what do you think you would be doing right now?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I would have been a farmer or dealt with some type of cattle.
BOURDAIN (on camera): I am pretty sure you would be a sheep farmer --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: I would --
BOURDAIN (on camera): You would be the best-dressed goddamn farmer, that is for sure. Where is home for you, man. What do you think? Looking back on it all --
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Yes. That is an internal question for me, you know? I feel at home in New York. I feel very much home when I am in Africa. But I also feel out of place, and coming to this very place, Abru Gundana, it gives me a lot of humility, but I cannot say it is home. I cannot say it is home.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BOURDAIN (on camera): Happiest moment in Africa?
MARCUS SAMUELSSON: Happiest moment is I think is when we were at the Maya's village for me, the whole village comes together -- music, food, culture brings everybody together. The eating together, being together, it is by far the happiest to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:00:00] (MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
