After more than a hundred episodes, Travel Channel darling and weird food aficionado Andrew Zimmern finally made a pit stop in the nation's capital.
"Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" makes its seasonal debut Monday night with a D.C. tour de force featuring Salvadorian street food, scrapple and, of course, a hearty helping of snakehead.
Zimmern, who filmed the episode last summer, visited the high-brow (world-renowned Jose Andres hotspot Jaleo), the low-brow (Takoma Park's La Chiquita, which serves up some of the best pupusas this side of the Potomac) and the activist-brow (urban farm Common Good, which benefits low-income residents).
Ever the culinary warrior, Zimmern didn't shy from the chance to promote the idea of turning snakehead into food as a way to fight back against the invasive species, which is known to cause damage to local ecosystems. "Why not let fishermen and fish companies take as many snakehead as they want and sell it into our senior centers and school systems, prison systems and anywhere the public dollar intersects with food," he explained to the Washington Post. "Why not?”
But not before he gets a chance to sample the controversial fish himself, of course.
Take a look at some of the places Zimmern features in the episode below, and be sure visit the Travel Channel for more photos and behind-the-scenes tidbits. Then, take a look at a clip from Zimmern's earlier visit to D.C., during which he explored the district's food diversity.
