What better way to ring in the new year than with the launch of the third season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel?

For those of you not immediately in the know, Bourdain is the enfant terrible of chefs/travel writers/food writers, a recovering addict and unrepentant bad boy famous for blowing the lid off of what was really going down in the kitchens in his bestselling book Kitchen Confidential. He's a sarcastic (and at times caustic) personality with a genuine love for food, from fine cuisine to street food to what's traditionally thought of as peasant food, offal and all. He's a god among foodies, and he's back on the Travel Channel with a slew of new episodes.

No Reservations is not your average food/travel show. For one thing, Bourdain (or Tony, as I like to call him) isn't your average host; he's prone to making snide comments as often as he is effusive ones, and he's sincerely jaded and pessimistic about some of the places that the show's producers send him to. But give him an artisanal sausage or some much-sought-after delicacy (say, geoduck clams in the Pacific Northwest) and he's in heaven. Tony is a food explorer, a Cortez of cuisine, a Magellan of munchies ... you get the idea.

The Travel Channel was kind enough to send me two upcoming episodes to review of this third season of No Reservations, which launched last night. This season, Tony will travel to such diverse locales as Ireland, Ghana, Namibia, the Pacific Northwest (i.e., Portland and Seattle), Russia, and Los Angeles. On last night's episode ("Ireland"), Tony travels to the heart of The Troubles, namely formerly war-torn Belfast, the site of numerous bloody skirmishes between the city's Protestants and Catholics. Since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Accord, Belfast has become, quite surprisingly, a city on the move, a new culinary star in the new Europe, and Tony embarks on a quest to explore the burgeoning scene in Belfast, attempts to get a handle on the divisive relationship between feuding Catholics and Protestants, and visits a heartbreaking sight at the wall, now covered with graffiti echoing sentiments of peace, that runs through Belfast.

It's a moving and intelligent sequence that shows both humanity's capacity to destroy as well as to create and a reminder that bloody war is not the domain of far-off lands, but perhaps even in our own backyard. But this is a food show, after all, so bring on the grub: at white-hot Belfast eatery Cayenne, lobster-chicken wontons in lobster jus with tomatoes and spinach; Irish beef fillet with wild rice potato pancake and Asian herb salad; Irish lamb with potatoes and kimchi. It's a blend of fresher than fresh Irish ingredients and some Asian fusion influences, resulting in a mix of cultures that's not unlike the cross-cultural mix that Ireland has become in recent years.

After Belfast, Tony heads out to the Republic of Ireland, where he encounters a Dublin that has exploded into a modern metropolis in the last ten years or so (after all, there's a reason why U2 opened their famous Clarence Hotel there). Unsurprisingly, Tony encounters a burgeoning culinary scene, some rough-and-tumble rugby, and the freshest fish you could ever imagine at King Sitric. (Just take a look at those razor clams, prawns, periwinkles, and lobster.)

Plus, the mere sight of gastronomic god Anthony Bourdain wearing a lobster bib is enough to send anyone into paroxysms of laughter. Seriously. Which might just be the perfect antidote following a rough night of New Year's Eve partying.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations airs Monday nights at 10 pm ET/PT on the Travel Channel.

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Jace is an LA-based television development and acquisitions junior exec who watches way too much television for his own good and would love a TiVo for every room in the house. (He’s halfway there.) His blog, Televisionary, can be found at televisionary.blogspot.com.

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