Anthony Finds his Happy Zone in Cologne | Full Episode | S07 E04 | Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

coaches at s be S at good be good [Music] his but I took a walk through this beautiful world felt the Rain on My [Applause] Shoulder found something good in this beautiful world I the rain geter [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sh they say and by they I mean people from around here that cologne is an ugly City this is quickly followed by the proud statement that the people are nice that they're welcoming tolerant kind open to new things I never saw cologne as ugly at all I always saw it as well Charming in the least patronizing sense of the word I mean the city charms you it takes you in it makes you feel welcome maybe it was the non- douchy beer culture here that appealed I don't mean beer culture and a judgmental neck beard hovering over you waiting for you to decide between craft beers way either I mean me decent beer is a way of life it's a Birthright you don't talk about it too much you freaking drink it beer here means more often than not [Music] kulch heines gruna has lived in Cologne his whole life po he does marketing for several German breweries so kulch is an integral part of both his social and business lives K is not a brand what is this anyway let's call it a style it's a pale ale and people love to drink it in high amounts Mal mola Brewery has been slinging beer nonstop for the last 150 years Democratic utilitarian welcoming to all people with a powerful thirst I love the whole style of the little glasses is this unique to Cologne other regions of of Germany you won't find such small glasses right they start with 03 205 to the giant you know if you have a giant thing of beer it's like piss War by the time you get down to the bottom right but here it's necessary because it is not very carbonated and the foam disappears in minutes there are guys who drink it in one ZIP I'm not sure of the exact blood absorption rate of alcohol but I would think that if you're hammering these things back it's hitting your bloodstream the perfect R maybe we have to name them alcoholic but uh they are to you there are certain iconic accompts to beer drinking when in Cologne like met hoen which is minced raw pork with onions on a roll or halan which is simply goua cheese on [Music] Ry this is really good now now you see how it goes no you get the C without ordering I don't like this custom though I this I don't want to know how many beers I've had this is okay but he has to know that's fine Kenny do his own little system somewhere around here I'm thinking geez I've got I've got a [Laughter] problem it's when the himl UN Ed or Heaven and Earth hits the table that I start getting deep into my happy Zone that's blood sausage fried onions and mashed potatoes with applesauce which if you don't like by the way pretty much removes you from my will say from drowning list and then there's this the dish that almost alone brought me back to Cologne it was sweet sweet memories of this stegasaurus siiz shank of cured pork boiled and boiled until it literally Falls away from the bones steaming and moist a symphony of meat and gelatin and good good stuff God is hiding in there somewhere cologne is a worker town you know so the kitchen is definitely a worker's kitchen and yet it has a pretty liberal Progressive worldview where did that come from it has something to do with the river occupation here was trading so the colom people from the beginning were interested in other people and they took profit of other people we are not afraid of influences from outside but therefore it's also important to have some traditions that are lasting for a long time and one of those would be culture one of is c one of is the dish and people know that they can come here and it won't change this place will not change in the next 200 [Music] years cologne is or was a predominantly Catholic City perhaps more Mediterranean in temperament than those fun hating Lutheran and Calvinists it's Germany's Fun Zone and from November to February colonar celebrate Carnival partying here has a whole [Applause] [Music] [Applause] season Carnival here is an exuberant anarchistic batshit wild 40-day celebration leading up to lent it can be absolute Mayhem my completely rational fear of clowns mes parades public dancing and crowds in general really prohibits me from taking part these days Brian Jones could come back from the grave for one night only with the stones and Janice and Jimmy and Jim they could all be there and you know what I ain't going but the colonar God bless them they love it [Music] byom Kleinman handles enormous crowds of revelers fortunately the madness is still a few weeks away and this is my old friend Tracy who had the good or bad fortune depending on how you look at it to travel and produce shows around the world with me for many years Ana is from cologne and makes me feel better about my Carnival phobia Carnival you like Carnival I do and I'm not ashamed to say it will jesters and Bs and medievally attired pranksters be popping up during my stay here you're missing out you really mes no mes troubadors jugglers uh human statues all of them are wearing Bonkers costumes and look like chid day I don't like it no I always get embarrassed about those people yeah I hate Carnival I hate Carnival too are there parades yes I hate parades okay are there clowns hate clowns I hate clowns okay gestur yeah occasionally festive attire uh I have beer right now I don't need no stinking Carnival to drink beer man and as I understand it I'm urged to drink beer as part of a community of beer drinking with other Bros I hate Bros it's not just Bros it's a whole community of people speaking in dialects singing songs and dialect singing I forgot to mention that I hate that too there is another side and if you open your heart you would see it my heart is a cold cold place and there's no room in it for [Music] jugglers what did you think when you heard that I want to come to Germany and go to Cologne that's awesome because cologne is like the other city in Germany that I can really identify with it's like I have this love affair with I often say that the places I go there's a a feromon decision made very quickly you step outside the airport terminal and you go and you know right away there's something about this place that's that I think I'm going to like a few weeks ago a friend of mine from Berlin came to visit me and after 3 days he just looked at me and said Uncle what is this why are you all So Satisfied why are you all so happy why are you all so relaxed I said I don't know maybe it is because everybody's telling us that our city is ugly and Berlin is the big thing and maybe we have to show with our hearts that we are good people and that we are having fun and I think the co is helping us for some reason every time I arrive here I always feel like somehow that people are more open here to me being American and speaking German and and part of it is this Carnival thing really maybe it's my own self-discovery of like being in another place and finally being accepted maybe because I'm in costume and they don't know right away that I'm not German right it's kind of like an eyes wide shut kind of a thing [Music] this is what I came here for though surfboard size slabs of ve and pork filled with many wonderful things dredged in breadcrumbs and fried in magical magical Deep Fat now that's a carnival I can get behind [Music] wow wow that is unbelievable supposedly you can split your schnitzel in half take the other half home and it's really good for breakfast it's like the German equivalent of Pizza in the morning which is a tradition I totally [Music] support considering it's a beer drinking culture at the end of the night will there be two or three or five or 10 people all hanging out like way past the point that they should have gone home or does everybody reach a sensible point of intoxication and say well you know what I'll see you tomorrow you're forcing beers on us I didn't order a beer another one just keeps coming do you know how to make it stop face plant into my schnitzel there's an easier way this that means like I'm done yeah but nobody's doing that not yet I'm not doing that [Music] so let's talk about the elephant in the room we know that cologne is a proudly tolerant fun-loving beer drinking pork happy and friendly little city but just a few days before we arrived cologne became the focus of the whole argument over Europe's Refugee crisis cologne of all places is now the example for both sides of an increasingly bitter argument over whether Europe and by extension the world should turn their backs on the millions of refugees spilling out of Syria Iraq and a Middle East spinning into chaos and Slaughter with the bodies of children washing up on Greek beaches and few other countries willing to help Germany has taken in 1.1 million people fleeing Isis Russian and Syrian bombs and War one should I believe be admired and even celebrated for doing the morally right thing over the probably wise thing Saker al- Muhammad is one of many who found his way to Cologne Han zun helps refugees as they try to integrate into German Society this is unsurprisingly easier said than done getting to Turkey no problem yes turkey to gree problem getting to Turkey is now a problem right but that time it was not a problem next went from Greece to Macedonia correct welcome there no Serbia no were you welcomed here yes very welcome so here we are cologne one of the most liberal if not the most liberal cities in Germany a city doing the right thing and on New Year's Eve the whole attitude towards refugees not just European policy but the whole moral question was thrown into doubt cologne found itself the test case both example of tolerance and hope and worst case scenario here's what was reported on the night of December 31st 2015 Witnesses saw crowds of up to a th000 men described as predominantly Arab and North African near cologne's Central train station some broke off into small groups assaulting hundreds of women as they left the train station police were completely unprepared the situation continued reportedly for hours 3 weeks after the incident the official numbers were as horrifying as first reported 766 criminal complaints of which 381 are sexual offenses including three rapes many across the world of course saw this as the perfect I Told You So moment a sadly understandable reaction there is no minimizing 381 sexual offenses in in one night how big an effect is this going to have on this situation all syrians that I knew were totally condemning what happened and we absolutely cannot tolerate something like this because it's it's not a part of my culture it's not a part of what you think it will change the political climate is what I'm asking before it was relatively easy for a German politician to say look have a heart here let let's do the right and moral thing and it is being used as a club to beat any politician or leader who would like to have a more consolatory or more welcoming attitude towards people who clearly need help refugees are human beings and some of them are good and some of them are bad there is 500 refugees who did this and they're pretty bad it's the fault of those who did it but it's not the fault of the refugees it's not the fault of the Germans the infrastructure exists more or less this enormous influx an integration of 200 300,000 would be easier than integration of 1.1 million that entered in 2015 this is a challenge not only for the Germans but also for those who came to integrate in the community it's something that have to be work work on from both sides not only the the syrians but also the Germans the Germans are are willing to because they're pretty well organized [Music] [Music] ah I live in a par Germany and cologne had reason to believe they could pull this off absorb all those refugees from a culture very different than their own here in Cologne the Turkish presence is larger than than any other in the country as I understand it during the' 6070s the German industry essentially recruited in cooperation with the Turkish government huge numbers of Turkish workers was that the beginning of the sizable Turkish population yes it was like my grandfather and my grandmother they came here in the ' 70s my parents they started to work in a company like in the wool company everybody has almost the same story in the third generation pra's Grandparents were among the first wave of Turks to arrive in Cologne and to a great extent nowadays Turkish food is German food the way Italian Eastern European Jewish and Chinese have become American food Rocky to start course that brings me back yeah this brings back Ean to us when we go there we have always raak and the bosos and here this is like e feeling for us yeah me too and Mez spicy mashed vegetables ziki hummus beet Rood and olive dip fried eggplant pastries with feta meatballs with tomato sauce and mint W that looks really pretty I don't think that you have any problems with spice no no no I like very much since you were born here how Turkish do you feel and how German do you feel and when does that equation change are there times when you feel like I'm not part of this there other times you feel oh I'm definitely part of this that's a question I'm thinking about all my life in my heart I'm I'm Turkish in my hat I'm German I'm glad that my parents wanted to have a good education for me but still at home they were Turkish like Turkish traditions and Turkish thinking so it I was always on both sides and now I'm adult enough to pick the best ones from both sides growing up here as the child of Turkish immigrants how did you feel if School you felt German yeah yeah so why do you think Germany's good at that the Germans are very correct people they want to have everything on the point they don't like surprises so they organize everything before it's almost a cliche that it's organized it's not a cliche it's organized grilled minced lamb basted with hot tomato sauce and slathered with melted sheep butter and yogurt roast lamb with feta bulgar and roasted veg vegetables oh that's beautiful than so if you graduate from University here and choose to live in Cologne could you afford to live here yeah so it's reasonably affordable yeah but because of the refugee situation I think living space is becoming less like every do you think this is a pretty town every most of the people I speak to say well you know we're a very ugly City but I I don't think so I think it's very pretty everything was destroyed after the second world yeah but it's not the most beautiful city in the world but it is not an ugly City I mean at all M I think I'm more with the ugly City you think it's ugly the buildings are new ugly gray like made up after the second world war there's only a small old town right I miss old buildings like in uni so 20 years from now will cologne be the same I don't know I don't want to think about it because now it's fine I love it as it is now I don't hear that a lot if you go to San Francisco Rio there are pressing problems or that the character of the city is changing the character of the city does not seem to be changing no it stays as it [Music] is if there's one musical movement or one band that represents cologne better than this one I don't know what it could be created in 1968 with hogar chukai Jackie levite Michael coroli and this man man Schmidt K was at the Forefront of what was called inevitably the Crut Rock movement combining the sounds and attitudes of classical Avant guard Rock and Funk so you moved here how old were you when you came 64 interesting time 64 it was a very interesting time it was the time of where cologne was really blossoming it was the art town in Germany man studied with Carl hin stockh housing but it was a trip to New York City where he was exposed to what Lou Reed and the similarly classically trained John kale were doing with the Velvet Underground that would prove to be the Catalyst for Camp 64 was still pretty early days for cultural ferment I guess we but not here not here so so the question is why here what what was it about Cologne well I think it's this generation which were like me We Grew our in this after War terrible destruction and that was the generation which started to create something new there was bubbling from everywhere we're having dinner at ox and Clay part of the new cologne dining scene where Chef Daniel gotle plans to kill us with deliciousness grilled scallop with black Sala feet a consum of burned hay lemon galet and walnut oil when you began can what was the initial reception in the beginning they said that we are not able to play music we were diletant but I mean you were all technically proficient accomplished musicians we were all except the guitar play who was the youngest but H jaie and me had a musical career already behind us for 10 years for us it was important to create something by more or less listening to the other and intuitively trying to create something spontaneously we didn't even plan to become a rock group was there precise moment in which you crossed the line and which you all looked at wow I guess we're sort of I guess we're a rock group now I'm not sure we ever said we are rock grilled lobster with a dashy of eel marinated algae fermented kale and Yuzu froth if people were to draw directly line forward to bands and musicians who are influenced by your music for instance you know people mention the Bowie Iggy Pop a Berlin period and a lot of other great work what about EDM do you do you share the blame no is it good or or bad good it's a positive thing it's positive electronic dancing yes sure I mean you can't any way classify any style or any kind of music at good or bad but it excludes the music traditionally is it the opposite of what music should be is it all okay I have no idea uh what music should be because whenever you start knowing what should be you are already starting a new do M yeah I hear you there are DJs which make fantastic music and they make it for a certain purpose I mean there is the purpose of this environment and they fit neither the purpose nor any Dogma can be used as a judgment for music brazed Ox cheeks with marrow beetroots with mustard gretan potatoes black [Music] truffle you don't get paid for the influence you have on the culture no I wouldn't complain about that I mean we never consciously did something intending to make money with we still have fans which are 16 years old and think this is a music created yesterday and it's 45 years old does that feel good that's s satisfying [Music] too an amazing meal but you know the heart wants what the heart wants and baby I'll always come back to you and if history teaches us anything it's that chefs no matter how elevated their food how fine their restaurants chefs at the end of a long night want this build ratw worst with curry Daniel and his friend Dimitri come here the fresh food for the brw and spice Bren which is just what you need at this hour marinated rotisseri shoulder of pork Oh yeah oh I feel so a shame drun or sober good is good and I want this you want this we all want this right where did Curry worse come from this is a truly fish idea it sounds like a really bad idea nobody knows really nobody knows it just appeared one day ordinarily I'm totally against mayonnaise on fries yeah they don't even ask you sometimes they just put it on there and they put like a 50 Cent for the mayonnaise man that's good the legend is cologne is a very accepting of new cultures accepting of new obviously Cuisine why it's a good question I guess we have a lot of gay people here mhm people say it's like the San Francisco of Germany it's a very Catholic Town Catholics are not notoriously you know Pro you know gay friendly what happened here that's a that's a very good question huh yeah I don't know the answer it's sort of a nightmare scenario a conservative you're you're saying it's a basically immigrants homosexuals and artists have made the town what it is can I find work here as a chef yes as a good Chef yes what if I were a MIM there's actually a lot of them here prostitute work here yeah a lot of them this is like the biggest uh broth in Europe you know that doesn't sound like a good thing smallest and most discreet might sound like sound you know biggest yeah well it's also famous for its parties so you can probably undercover go to brothel you say like oh yeah just I'm just partying why of all the places in Europe with the largest brother will be in here basically every month there's like a big convention here so I guess if you're looking for a company maybe that's why it's a city of contrasts I mean on one hand it's very it's very Catholic you you would think conservative if you look at the menus of a lot of the places here very traditional some pretty much the same menu in a lot of the places and yet then there's your place they're all doing well it's very confusing I need more beer yeah three more more one that's what I like to hear Cheers Cheers Cheers guys [Music] [Music] cologne you got to love it they support artwork that might get you punched in the face elsewhere performance artist painter and cooking Enthusiast Renee stessel works and lives here his current project is called the restaurant of the egoists where you dine alone with a fulllength mirror across from you at the table which is weird right oh wait let me get a selfie did I Instagram my food [Music] yet the resturant of EG it's a question if egoism it's a bad thing or it's also a good thing I found out or or it's it's fact that it's also a good thing because simple example uh if you help a guy sitting on the street needs money you give him the money you helped him of course but you help yourself feeling happy feeling lucky because you helped another it's a kind of energy a kind of engine who makes people helping other people Klein Glock has been a hangout for cologne's artist Community since the first world war which seems like a bad business model but it seems to work they like artist in colog you can feel free with with the way how you think and it's all about the coloni I don't know why the colonial are like the coloni but they are the most tolerant and open people I met and that makes it easy for artists because you can go onto the streets and and really make experiments on the street with your art and no nobody sends you to police are chefs artists no no there is a connection between painting a picture and doing a sauce because you have to find a balance and this is the only one one connection I I happen to agree with you as much as we might like to think of them as artists I think chefs are proud Craftsmen or Artisans I think there's one Chef who I would argue was an artist I would hold up Faron Adria as an example of an artist as I know he he don't believes he's an artist no he says I'm a cook yeah but uh I think he's [Laughter] wrong Roser SAU Broten traditional sour Bron good sour Bren but morisy is going to Brown out his shorts he sees you eating this cuz it is how shall I say equin in origin old Bessie didn't quite make it to the soap Factory you like hor Smith yeah I I do like it actually this is one of the few places that still does it the arbitrary decisions we make about what animals we're going to eat even I do you know for 15 years I've been eating all over the world I've never eaten dog if you are cute as an animal you are lucky I think it's the eyes big eyes it's not food too bad they're out of panda today that would piss some people off I kid I kid no Panda Renee is hitting the Schnitzel hard and I see he has opted for the egg on top so colog proud of its attitude towards art artists different cultures Germany's accepted somewhere in the neighborhood of a million refugees how do you realistically say welcome to Germany and we're all going to learn to live together can that be done it could be done of course but I hope that all the rightwing people will not develop and this is for example a job for an artist maybe we we should go out 100 beers with Nazi uniforms and walk through the city maybe this kind of actions will just make the people remind on that time and what our grandfathers did wrong we really have to take care that we don't fall back in this structures but we kind of are we are on the way here necessarily we're well on our way I'm allowed to be naive I think talk about Utopias it's a kind of Utopia just the fact that the whole world will mix up with each other that in I don't know 70 80 years there will be no white people anymore and only cappuccino color look look that's the only way that's this is the only solution my way of think it's our only hope is our way out of this it's going to take some time but it's really the only way this the sort of Singaporean model where everybody's so mixed up that you really don't know who to hate because everybody's so hopelessly intertwined but we're a long way from that [Music] [Music] l [Music] [Music] the tortured relationship between cologne and its sister city dorf is a study in differences most notably the beer is different the attitudes are different it's if you listen to partisans from either side a short trip but another planet do they speak a different language here or something yes it's it's a different dialect it's not an accent the actual words are different yes the words are different the spelling is different and also the meaning of some words is different W and the beer most importantly the beer and the beer yes in Cologne we have a a pale beer light beer and here we have a very dark beer it's called Al but it's not old as the word Al means it's surprisingly fresh fresh I would like some fresh beer yeah Ura Obara is another one of those old and awesome German institutions designed to serve maximum number of people the maximum amount of beer and pork products with maximum efficiency look at [Music] this opened in 1862 and able to serve hundreds of people day and night it's a Marvel of orderliness in an uncertain world Hines and his friend Judith introduce me to out the completely different beer these dorians drink it's quite good and and me as a cologne person I must admit there is a lot more taste in this beer than it is in coach unfortunately after three or four of these beers I'm full so as a utility everyday beer coach is definitely got it advant you could just drink it all day yes but the the this of people they are accustomed to it so I think they do 10 or 15 pickled eggs peel cut in half remove the yolk add mustard and a bit of oil and vinegar return the Yol and go perfect for beer drinking it's work but it's worth the effort they make you do this yourself I thought it was a colog there supposed to be you know working class yes this is working there's not a lot of love between dorf and kov why can't we all get along there was a battle in the uh 13th century and dor won the battle and that was the moment dorf got a city right theity right the city right yes they have a different history of course they are a little bit more ATM Administration more a little bit Posh much more Posh how would they describe each other oh all those people in they're all stuck up they're they care about outward appearances and they're all administrators and uh They Don't Really Work or or I don't know I mean that was a perfect explanation cabbage and meterse which is simply kale and sausage and delicious and spicy pork goulash with Ry bread that looks healthy well kind of there's one difference as well when I was a little kid in Cologne I never heard the word dorf what do they do they say the other place no no even not that was not part of our conversation of of our thoughts of our your world of of our world really the first times when I came to dorf I learned that the the dorf people they look to colog because it's the it's a smaller town and uh yeah cologne is more in the media which city's better yeah only one answer that's true cologne for sure [Music] why what it counts for cologne some would say unerman relaxed and open style one explanation might be the dead Roman Theory I have suggested that the presence of long dead Roman Legions enriches the soil making for good wine and a propensity for frolicking and drinking that wine it is I hasten to add an idiotic Theory but I want it to be true cheers Moro ARA here is German Italian sort of you've been represented to me as Italian but you're Sardinian yes I am now this is a whole different thing it is definitely my father-in-law and his whole family are from nuro really so I am well familiar with sardia and I know that you know this is not a dialect this this is a language and there there is some ambivalence about whether they even consider themselves Italy they don't consider themselves as Italian because they always been left alone by the state and I don't know ital you know I've been in Sienna I've been to Rome I've been to Milano but that's it so Italy is a is is more far in country than Germany yep you couldn't find me in Italian I mean what the man Tratoria bar chelentano doesn't look like much but what they're serving is deceptively good anti pasti Grassi kpacho tomatoes with pepper parmesana grilled iini Mortadella the Italians came during that period I guess in the' 70s work in factories along with the Turks and Eastern Europeans and everybody else who who came in like my dad did for example he worked in a car factory near uh AA Brook was your neighborhood Italian or mixed or German it was mixed there were were like the these homes made for the guest worker program you know all immigrants were like sted in there and integrated yeah meaning the Italians didn't all live together not all Italians but lots of immigrants like Turkish people Italian people surrounded by Germans what did they think of the food your parents like when they first they look at all the cabbage and the potatoes and the giant hunks of uh they love potatoes that's for sure but all this other stuff like haon they don't like that stuff when you came home from school what did your mom cook for you Italian or German just Italian just Italian that's just no surprise and spaghetti alang so life is good as far as I'm concerned give me a good spaghetti with white clam sauce and I don't need much more maybe some wine everybody here says the same thing we are open-minded we try to be fair to everybody we are welcoming we're proud of that that will never change do you think that the refuges who are coming here that they will be integrated into German society as efficiently and as gracefully as your family was I'm not sure because times are so different to the'80s but look are organized organization is just one fact you need to control uh to handle this but um look all of the people who were involved on New Year's Eve do you think that if they get work that if people are kind to them if they're given housing you think eventually Germany will figure it out I'm not that optimistic to be honest because I'm convinced that it's not a German problem it's a world problem it's a European problem we're all stuck in the same boat [Music] [Music] [Music]