Forms of identification: Andrew Zimmern

Andrew Zimmern travelling through Tanzania. (courtesy of Travel Channel)

Irreverent responses from our favourite travel ninjas.

Name: Andrew Zimmern
Title/bio: Host, co-creator and executive producer of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. 2010 James Beard Award winner for TV Personality of the Year, author of The Bizarre Truth and Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World of Food.
Twitter/website: www.andrewzimmern.com and @andrewzimmern
Born in: New York City
Currently living in: Minneapolis, Minnesota

1. Where would you rather be right now?
At home.

2. Famous person (dead or alive, real or fictional) you’d most like to go on a trip with:
Teddy Roosevelt.

3. Your most stranded, “oh-my-[deity]” travel moment:
Sitting in detention in the Hanoi airport being interrogated about my gifts I was taking home, and watching them smash the bottles of fish sauce at my feet one at a time, bottles given to me by their government the day before.

4. Best (or worst) person/people you’ve had to sit next to while travelling:  
The guy who tried to take an iPhone video of me getting ill on a plane to LA last year. He was stopped by fellow passengers who were more appalled than I was.

5. Strangest meal abroad:
Where do I begin, have you seen my show? Putrefied food. Maggot infested dishes. Fresh blood. Bats. Want me to stop?

6. If someone was visiting your town, what’s the one thing you’d show them?
The Lakes. It makes Minneapolis one of the greatest cities in America.

7. Travel-related invention you wish existed:
A comfortable seat on an airplane or a machine that decapitated anyone bringing something larger than a carry-on bag onto a plane.

8. Your most embarrassing travel faux pas:
Thrilled that I made a nice bistilla in a kitchen in Fez, I tried to kiss my teacher on the cheek. She was a devout Muslim, and she freaked. I made it all good but it was rough.

9. Material thing you miss the most when away from home:
My TV system.

10. Most unique souvenir:  
Poison arrows and bow from Botswana. Don’t come into my house unless invited. I also have a wildebeest scrotum. That’s a long story.

11. Best celebrity encounter while travelling:
Mel Brooks in the bathroom of Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda. He leaned into my urinal, gazed down, looked back at me and said, “Nice flow”.

12. Most unusual item you have travelled with:
A dead goat in the back of my car. Schlepped it halfway across Morocco.

13. Coolest mode of transport you’ve taken:  
Dugout canoe with small sail attached, out about 22 kilometres into the Mozambique Channel to fish. Craziest thing ever.

14. The place you don’t want anyone to know about but are willing to divulge here:  
Lalumanu Beach in Samoa or Cottage #3 at the Jamaica Inn.

15. Travel-related film or book that inspires you to pack your bags:
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz

16. The travel story you’ll never stop bragging about:
Jumping off a 10ft pontoon boat off the coast of Iceland onto a hanging rope as the boat pulled away. Miss it and you’re dead.

17. Lay on us a priceless bit of travel advice or wisdom:
Travel can challenge you, test you, in ways you never dreamed of. Don’t mess that up by practicing contempt prior to investigation.