Hulu’s ‘Eater’s Guide to the World’ presents foodie experiences you never considered
If you want to know where you can eat alone in peace in the Pacific Northwest or how to get a delicious meal after the bars close in New York City, then “Eater’s Guide to the World” may be for you.
Premiering Wednesday, Nov. 11, on Hulu, the seven-episode series is more than your typical travel/ foodie show, not only going to different cities and restaurants but also putting a specific focus on the culinary experiences. So in addition to the above destinations, viewers can learn where they can eat well in neighborhoods near airports, what the big deal is over the snails and tagine in Casablanca and all about the flavors that can be had in the Costa Rican jungle.
It’s an outside-the-box idea that came from Eater, the online dining guide, and has Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) as its narrator. And just how out there it is is illustrated in the opening episode in the Pacific Northwest, where solo dining is in vogue and a practice called “mindful eating” is big among those in the know.
“It’s about slowing down,” explains executive producer Lauren Cynamon, “really meditating during your (meal) but slowing-down, smellingyour-food, taking-a-moment appreciation ... the kind of visceral moments of how it can be really profound if you kind of let yourself linger in that moment. But I had never heard of it before and I think it’s really interesting as a new kind of small meditative practice you could do with your food.”
Conversely, there is the episode titled “The A– Crack of Dawn in New York City,” which follows hungry and presumably well-lubricated bargoers post-last call as they seek out delectables such as
Korean barbecue, empanadas and birria tacos just as the City That Never Sleeps is getting the new day underway.
“How nostalgic it feels now,” Cynamon says with a laugh of the episode that was filmed before the pandemic in December 2019. “Whether you live in New York or have just traveled to New York on vacation, I feel that there are only a few cities in the world that feel like that, where you really can get the best meals at any time of the night. ... So yeah, from doughnuts to like a drag queen and this amazing diner that’s been in the neighborhood forever, just all these different vignettes (about) all these different lives that could be happening in New York that you sometimes never think about.”