(Rudy Maxa) I'tasting my way around the globe, exploring how food and drink express culture and bring people together.

[glasses clinking] From the perfection of sushi to the barbee that's the end all of barbecues, asado.

Join me, as I chow down on food, drink, and place.

[rapidly strummed sitar and percussion play] ♪ ♪ (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

From custom vacation packages to in-depth mobile tools your trip begins on Orbitz.

Take vacation back!

[Korean janggu drums play in bright rhythm] (man) Korea, be one with earth and sky.

(woman) And by Delta, serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your nex trip available at delta.com.

[piano plays in bright rhythm] (Rudy) The most direct and intimate way to get to know another culture is to taste it.

While there are a myriad of different religions and ways of life, we all share food.

To taste the symphony of flavors of Thai cuisine, or place the freshest tuna nigiri on your tongue, or sit with friends and share a tradition thousands of years old, is to know the world in a profound way.

Food is an art, a ritual, a pleasure we share together.

Whether it's a fine meal or a street-side snack, tasting travel is one of the easiest ways to understand a national character, not to mention wandering markets, smelling spices, ogling local produce, or watching a fish auction.

My food frenzy reveals the world's most beautifully crafted cuisine, the best street food and markets, the most ancient national dish, as well as the most mythical.

And to drink, well a taste of Scotland and the most beautiful place to discover wine.

Japan is the place to sample some of the most delicate artisan food in the world.

From the simple yet painstakingly precise preparation of sushi, to the parade of tiny crafted delicacies called tiseki, food preparation is serious, thoughtful, and linked to nature and the seasons.

Tokyo is a foodies' heaven.

Michelin star-rated restaurants rub shoulders with tiny specialized eateries, noodle shops and yakitori joints.

It only takes one tour through the food section of a department store tonderstand how important fresh, seasonal, exquisitely prepared food is in Tokyo.

The ultimate sushi experience is Tsukiji Market in Tokyo.

The daily tuna auction starts early as bidders inspect the tuna.

Afterwards, there are little sushi bars surrounding the market that serves today's catch.

What are the inspectors with the flashlights looking at, when they're looking so closely at the tuna?

(man) More fat, more expensive, and sometimes it's touching and pushing and scraping, and sometimes licking their finrs.

About 2,000 tons of seafood pass through Tsukiji Market each day, most of it headed for Tokyo's restaurants.

Tuna is the star here.

Japan consumes one quarter of the world's tuna.

The second tuna there says it weighs 74 kilos.

What might that fetch in the auction?

That would be 13,000 U.S. dollars.

13,000 dollars for this one tuna right here.

Yes, that one tuna, yes.

And that's why a piece of fatty tuna on a piece of rice costs $4.00.

Exactly.

[men yell bids] (Rudy) Shinji, what's going on here?

I mean these tunas are flying out of the door here like it's a fire sale.

What's happening right now?

(Shinji) The bidders, as soon as they bought it, they just bring it and cut it and ready for sushi.

And then it's put on ice and taken to an airplane or to a restaurant?

Uh to get ready for the restaurants.

Does this happen every day?

Every single day.

(Rudy) Originally, the word sushi referred to fermented fish in rice.

As a means to preserve fish, people packed it in cooked rice in jars.

Later they added vinegar to the rice, and began eating the raw fish immediately.

The traditional cloth that hangs outside sushi restaurants, evolved from a cloth that hung on the sushi stall for people to wipe their hands.

It wasn't until the 1800's that someone invented nigiri, the hand pressed rice and fish that we know today as sushi.

Oh that's beautiful.

This is proper way, and he put the special sauce on that so you don't have to dip in the soy sauce.

So take this and just turn, like 90 degrees.

So that the fish is on your tongue?

Yes, fish is on the tongue.

Right.

Oh yeah, that is like... Just melts.

It's like filet mignon of tuna.

(Rudy) It may seem simple, rice and raw fish, but sushi apprentices often spend years perfecting the rice alone.

Its texture must be firm enough to stay together, but loose enough to crumble in the mouth.

(Rudy) Do the sushi chefs here traditionally work here their entire career?

(Shinji) Their entire career, yeah.

[speaking Japanese] The master has been in this career 18 years.

Eighteen years.

[speaking Japanese] He says at least 10 years making sushi.

Also, he has to entertain the customers, making a conversation, making a joke; it means a great chef.

Japanese lime... Lime, is this mackerel?

This is...[speaks Japanese] This is snapper.

Snapper.

And little, sprinkle of salt.

Little salt, little lime.

And the Japanese lime.

Is there a little bit of wasabi underneath?

Um-hm, yes.

(Rudy) A high-speed train links supercharged Tokyo to traditional Kyoto.

This is the ancient capital of Japan.

Kyoto is especially evocative when draped in cherry blossoms.

While sushi has taken the world by storm, and can be found in supermarkets everywhere, Kaiseki remains uniquely Japanese and inimitable.

Kaiseki is a series of tiny sculpted wonders that began as a prelude to the tea ceremony.

Each dish is a delicate work of art that reflects the season.

Internationally acclaimed chef Kenichi Hashimoto and his family invited me to their restaurant called Ryozanpaku for a traditional kaiseki meal.

Typically the meal is a small parade of dishes, but Mr. Hashimoto's creating a one-dish masterpiece for me.

Oh my goodness, it's a kaiseki ode to spring.

This looks like a garden and these are the cherry blossoms.

Yes.

And what is this?

[speaks Japanese] It's beautiful, and these are stones?

Yes, stones.

I'm getting it slowly here.

Logs, wood.

Yeah, yeah.

And this side is a railway we go to see.

In the cherry blossoms we take our lunchbox.

Yes and a, we, lunchbox and the outdoor uh, looking and uh eating.

Oh so someone is having a picnic outside, I see.

Yeah, and this uh landscape, this is lunchbox.

What is kaiseki?

Kaiseki is other like a music, musical and opera, same.

So you mean it has a beginning, a middle, and an end like a symphony or an opera.

(Kenichi) Yes, totally.

I can feel the nature, every, it's a basic, and I go to market and the market, another fish, another vegetable, and other foods, so I inspired, spring has come.

So your kaiseki story to me today is about spring and the cherry blossoms in Kyoto.

Yes!

[woman laughs] Mm, hm, hm, hm.

This makes me very happy that it's spring.

Yes!

[laughter] (Rudy) From the delicate beauty of Kyoto to Thailand for some of the world's best street food and markets.

This is a city to devour.

You're rarely more than 100 yards from food in Bangkok.

Streets are lined with makeshift stalls and well-worn carts that proffer hot and cold dishes assembled on the spot.

There are markets everywhere; markets on boats, markets at night, even markets that fold up so trains can pass through.

Bangkok residents think nothing of crossing town to try a new dish or enjoy a perennial favorite, and in this city, street food has been raised to a fine art.

There's no better place to try it than right here on Yaowarat Road in Chinatown.

How do you know it's good?

Simple.

You see a place packed full of locals, you know you're in the right spot.

At its best, Thai cooking is thrilling.

The presentation is often beautiful, with artfully and intricately carved fruits and vegetables accompanying main dishes.

And nearly every Thai dish is a delicate balancing act of powerful flavors, a sophisticated interplay of sweet and tart, cool and hot.

Sometimes the food's so fresh, it jumps off your plate.

Two little details about the Dancing Lady Salad.

Number one, you've got to put it in your mouth fast, because sometimes it'll jump right off your spoon.

Another is that as I hold the bag in my hand, they're inside this bag twitching around and I can feel it in my left hand.

There!

[laughs] Southern Thai food just gets hotter.

If you can't handle the heat, you can cool off in the beautiful waters of the Island of Phuket.

Pat Tienthong takes me through Phuket's market.

Now Pat, do you generally go to the market every day?

(Pat) Yeah, and most often come every day, 4, 5, 6.

(Rudy) Most southern Thai people go every day?

(Pat) Uh huh, yeah, yeah, most often like that.

And they buy the food just for that day.

Yeah, just the day, yeah.

So, what are these big boys?

And these are red snapper.

These are huge!

Yeah, very new from the big ocean sea.

From here, just off the coast?

Sure, okay.

So this will all be local fish.

Yeah, all local fish.

And this market is open from midnight until 10 in the morning only, 7 days a week.

Yeah, yes, 7 days a week.

So they make sure it's fresh.

Uh huh, yeah, they keep it fresh.

This are the curry paste.

The curry paste Yeah the curry paste, yes, this the plain one that we will do today.

Okay, and what are these here?

That's for the south people.

For the south people, that's special for the south people who can take it really hot?

Really hot and yellow and a lot of spice in there, really strong.

Southern food has a reputation for being the hottest in Thailand.

That's 'cause every dish is laced with extra chilis.

It's believed chilis from the Americas were introduced to Asia by the Portuguese in the 1500's.

These fiery peppers took Asia by storm.

Okay, what are we making here Pat?

Uh, chicken green curry.

In Thai they call it, Gang Kio Warn Gai.

Okay now, we put cream.

So the cream is on the top, the cream rises.

Yeah, we put the cream for instead of oil, we use cream, okay?

Coconut cream instead of oil.

Uh huh, and then now it boiling, we put the curry paste.

There goes the mother of all curry pastes.

Yeah, then you stir the paste.

[coughs]That is spice... Strong, uh... ...spicy, whoo!

Yes, that's the spice.

So we're pressing the curry powder, in the chicken.

Here it is, oh it's gorgeous, gorgeous colors.

Yes, hm, yes.

This has got more colors going on here, orange, 18 shades of green.

Uh-huh.

Red.

And really strong taste.

Mm-hm, and it has that Thai blend of sweet and sour, hot and cool, that's Thai cooking isn't it, the 4 words.

Yeah.

Pat, this is fabulous.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) Now to Central Asia, in search of one of mankind's oldest dishes along the Great Silk Road.

The Silk Road was actually a network of caravan trade routes that stretched some 4,000 miles from China to the Mediterranean.

The Town of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, lies at a main intersection of the Silk Road.

The ethnically Persian Sagians who lived in the city, were renowned in China for their talents as merchants.

Their national dish, plov, appears on family dinner tables as well as at weddings, celebrations, and even funerals.

What is plov?

Plov is uh, first of all it's national dish of course, but it's not just a meal, it's an idea.

The main idea is to collect your close friends, relatives at the same table, to talk, to discuss all the problems, sometimes it's not just eating.

You can discuss everything.

If you look back at this tradition, people go to the mosque in the morning and after the prayer, they go for their jobs, very early because the daylight is very hot weather.

That's why they after the mosque, they eat plov and go working.

(Rudy) Legend has it that Alexander the Great wanted a meal that could be fed to his men for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

And his Asian cook whipped up plov.

Some variation on plov exists everywhere, from Africa to China, but nowhere is it more revered than in Uzbekistan.

How do you make it?

Is there one recipe for plov?.

The different regions of Uzbekistan, they have a different, little bit different recipes of preparing the Plov.

Like Samarkand Plov or Khorezm Plov or Tashkent Plov or Ferghana Valley Plov.

Does each region think its plov is the best?

Sure, sure, it's normally.

All the peoples considering that their recipe of the Plov is the best Is only right.

Yes.

Oh here comes the, this is the Samarkand presentation of plov.

Yeah, that's right.

It's very wonderful.

It looks okay from a couple Tashkent guys' viewpoint?

Wonderful, yeah.

Oh it smells wonderful.

So how do we serve it?

There is a special way to begin.

The older man should start eating.

The older man.

Yeah.

At the table.

Great!

(Rudy) From Central Asia and plov, to meat-mad Argentina for its romantic national dish, asado.

Argentina was sparsely populated before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s.

Vast areas of the country were grasslands or pampas.

The Spanish introduced cattle to the pampas.

The plentiful cattle spawned a tough breed of nomadic Latin cowboys known as gauchos.

Expert horsemen, admired for their skills in the saddle, the gauchos' military valor in times of war, further cemented their place as Argentine icons.

These macho cowboys famously kept a knife in the back of their belts.

The gauchos herded cattle hundreds of miles and ate meat grilled over a fire on the pampas.

The national dish, asado, is grilled meat.

It sounds deceptively simple, but everything from the wood and coals and the accompanying chimichurri sauce, is carefully planned.

These gauchos don't mess around.

They generally allot about one pound omeat per person.

Sausage appetizers are passed before the main course, while the steak sizzles on the grill.

If vegetables are offered, it's usually in the form of a salad, which is simply a palate cleanser before your next carnivorous undertaking.

Gracias.

Like plov, asado is more than a meal.

It's a chance to gather with friends and family and celebrate the heroic gauchos and their romantic way of life.

Asado may have been born on the plains, but it flourishes in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires.

It seems contrary to logic that these slender people, with their penchant for dance could chow down on so much grilled meat.

Beef, 35 ways, and by way, this is the appeter, the starter.

They do sausage very well here in Argentina.

Chorizo.

We're still in the appetizer part of this lunch.

Oh, oh, gracias.

What a surprise, more meat.

I think this is the main course.

So I'm going to put a little chimichurri sauce on the natural meat sauce of Argentina.

It's red peppers and herbs and olive oil.

Here you go, medium rare steak with chimichurri sauce.

Mm... hm.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) From Argentina to Scotland for a wee dram after the asado.

Talk about taste, if there's any place in the world that you can drink in the scenery and the heady smell of peat, and then literally go drink it, it's here on the beautiful Isle of Skye in Scotland.

Single malt whiskeys were, for the longest time, the only whiskeys made.

Then in the 19th century, a smoother but blander drink was made by blending whiskeys.

Single malt bottling all but stopped.

In the 1960s the robust, unique personality of single malts was rediscovered and today's sales are through the roof.

So right, I'm going to pour you the town's great 18-year-old, which in 2007 was voted world's best single malt whiskey.

No small honor.

What is the difference between whiskey and scotch?

Well basically, both are made very similarly, but scotch has to be made and matured in Scotland to be called Scotch whiskey.

And then of course, it's into the aroma.

Peat.

Absolutely.

Legally, we can't call it whiskey until it's been matured in warehouses in oak casks for a minimum of 3 years, and then after that we can start to call it Scotch whiskey.

And so the color comes from the wood casks.

(Georgette) Absolutely; different types of casks will give a difference or richness of color and also the activity of how many times we've used the casks.

(Rudy) And why is older Scotch more expensive than younger Scotch?

(Georgette) Well during the time of maturation, there's obviously a lot of interaction happening with the wood, and also a lot of it's going to evaporate out.

We lose 2% of each of our casks volume.

(Rudy) That has a name.

Yeah, we call it the angel share.

Year up year we lose this 2%.

The angel share is the alcohol that evaporates while it's while it's aging in the cask.

Absolutely; we like to believe you know, the angels above Talisker are obviously getting a good dram and during the time the whiskey's maturing here, so we've all got a safe place up there afterwards.

This is very peaty, there's a lot of peat on Isle of Skye, isn't there.

It's really lovely when you get whiskey, which is very representative of the place that it's made, this has got a wild twist, it's got a lot of peat smoke in there, it's a bit stormy and tempestuous, a bit like Skye is.

Stormy and tempestuous, I like that!

Cheers!

Cheers, slange.

Slange.

[people sing a cappella in an African language] (Rudy) There are many places around the world that taste wine, but none as beautiful as South Africa.

I like some dramatic scenery with my wine, and this place has it in spades.

You can safari, bungee jump, whale watch, or hike a thrilling coastal trail.

Then you can hop in your car for an hour or two and land in Franschhoek Valley.

Franschhoek means French Quarter in Dutch, and into this stunning valley in the 17th century came a group of Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France.

When did grapes start growing here in this valley?

Obviously it all started way back in 1656 when the first grapes were planted by Jan van Riebeeck.

A Dutchman.

The Dutchman who found the Cape.

And he started a little colony in the Franschhoek area.

But then in 1698, the French arrived.

There was the Dutch settlement here and they were literally placed in between the Dutch, so the French couldn't make really a colony, they had to sort of really meet the neighbors next door type of thing, and obviously the French had brought a little bit of tappings, and they started with the wine industry in the Franschhoek Valley.

Today Franschhoek is a gorgeous valley.

It's locations, having very cool, cool slopes, having warmer slopes, depending on which side of the valley you plant your grapes.

(Rudy) And how many wineries in the Franschhoek area?

There's 26 vineyard members and they sort of day by day, there's somebody starting up a small little boutique winery.

(Rudy) Not surprisingly, this broad valley has become the gourmet capital of South Africa, with all its wineries and plenty of fabulous restaurants.

Pieter, what grapes do very well in South Africa?

I think any grape that loves sunshine will do well in South Africa.

In terms of white grapes, we definitely would classify chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and chenin blanc to be the whites of South Africa.

And obviously in terms of reds, our mainstay I think for South Africa is shiraz, followed by cabernet, merlot, and then obviously our unique little varietal called pinotage.

And sparkling wine is a specialty, isn't it?

It's a specialty; my nickname is bubbles.

[laughs] I don't know if for a guy if "bubbles" is what you want for a nickname.

Hey man, wait till it's in your blood, it's like.... always gives me lots of inspiration.

I really aspire to make the perfect sparkle one day or the perfect bubble, and um, you know, on the palate, this is an aperitif, this is made from chardonnay and pinot noir.

A little bit of pinot noir.

In actual fact, 50%.

This is 50% pinot noir?

We don't have any skin, so it's dictly off the skin, so we don't have anything, in actual fact, the pinot noir just makes the chardonnay look more attractive in the glass.

That's lovely.

That's such a gorgeous drink.

Very, very nice.

This is available in the States, this is going for 16, $16.

No!

Yes, get up and go and find it, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

♪ ♪ From Southern Thai spice to a dram of Talisker, every taste seals the place I've been in my heart and mind.

And later, when I taste a curry, or smell a peaty single malt, the scenery rushes back in all its Proustian glory.

Travel to eat, then eat to travel.

Sushi will never be the same after Tsukiji, and a glass of Cape Classique will forever recall my first glimpse of the Franschhoek Valley.

I'm Rudy Maxa, bon appetite!

To travelers who love food, Asia is one big banquet.

Each city, region, and country has its specialties.

Don't worry if you can't read the menu, just look around the room, or look in the kitchen to see what's on offer, and then just smile and point.

I never hesitate to eat street food in Seoul, Tokyo, or Bangkok.

Watch where the locals go and don't be afraid to eat with your fingers.

Street food's not only some of the best food on offer, it's also the cheapest.

(woman) For links and photos of the places featured in "Rudy Maxa's World," and other savvy traveling tips, visit maxa.tv.

♪ ♪ To order DVDof "Rudy Maxa's World," visit maxa.tv.

♪ ♪ CC--Armour Captioning & TPT (woman) Orbitz salutes the neverending spirit of adventure and as a proud sponsor of "Rudy Maxa's World" Orbitz offers comprehensive information on the world's great destinations.

From custom vacation packages to in-depth mobile tools your trip begins on Orbitz.

Take vacation back!

[Korean janggu drums play in bright rhythm] (man) Korea, be one with earth and sky.

(woman) And by Delta, serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

[orchestral fanfare]