'Parts Unknown' Miami: Just the One-Liners

Anthony Bourdain partied in Miami during last night's episode Parts Unknown, a city for which he seems to have a begrudging affection. On the surface, Miami is all sex and seduction, but Bourdain goes backstage, and it takes him almost no time to find the soul of Miami in both its food and music. There is only one shot of Bourdain in a Miami club, which today makes up a lot of the Florida city's image. Instead, Bourdain finds a motley crew to help him understand the many-layered city.

In this episode, Bourdain meets up with Michelle Bernstein — "one of Miami's most iconic, influential chefs, born and bred here" — the 100-year-old bartender and bar proprietor Mac Klein, filmmakers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman, producer and Tonight Show band leader Questlove, legendary record producer Luther Campbell, and "godfather of punk" Iggy Pop. Here now, the 19 best quotes from the second episode of the award-winning CNN travelogue's fifth season — featuring some bonus quotes from people, oddly enough, not named Anthony Bourdain.

Luther Campbell and Anthony Bourdain. [Photo courtesy CNN]

1. On Miami's image: "It's the kind of place you say, 'That could never be me,' and then it is. It's a temptation that's almost irresistible... but across the causeway, there are other worlds, older worlds, I think it's safe to say, better ones."

2. On the legendary Cuban restaurant Islas Canarias: "Way out west, 20 miles from the airport, tucked in another strip mall is Islas Canarias... and you go there because, well, you need coffee. And because: Cuba. Respect."

3. On coladas, or the Café Cubano: "It's basically like the caffeine version of a one-hitter. So, I'd have one of those, and then at the next place I'd have another, and basically, you know, get increasingly jangly, as I make my way towards work..."

4. On the medianoche sandwich: "Many of you watching who are dimly aware of Miami and this sandwich thing they call a Cubano that you may or may not have had before, you're thinking, 'Yes, a Cubano sandwich.' But you'd be wrong. This, is not a Cubano sandwich, strictly speaking. This, my friends, is a medianoche. Close. A cousin. Like a Cubano, it's got roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and a little mustard. And like a Cubano it's pressed until hot and runny inside. But:"

5. ...Bernstein, interrupting, on the medianoche sandwich: "You see the bread? It's darker and it's sweeter, so you have a real contrast with the salty pickles and the pork, and the bread."

Anthony Bourdain and chef Michelle Bernstein [Photo courtesy Parts Unknown]

6. Bourdain, breaking hearts, on dessert: "I don't care about sweet things. If I had to give up one course of the meal, cheese over dessert any day."

7. Bonus quote from Mac Klein, owner, proprietor, and regular bartender at Mac's Club Deuce: "You know the amazing thing about being 100 is? A year ago, I was 99, nobody paid attention to me, they didn't care. I became a hundred? My god."

8. On the influence of drugs on Miami: "Say what you will, cocaine altered the skyline of Miami. For better or worse, it made Miami sexy again."

9. To Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, aka Questlove: "The old joke was that James Brown was the hardest working man in show business. You make him look lazy... Every time I check Instagram, you're eating with one of my culinary heros. You've eaten at Jiro, also he seems to like you better than me..."

10. On the food at Miami's Yardbird: "Deviled eggs with fresh dill and trout roe will be so over next year, but right now, I want like 10 more. Delicious."

11. On the history of Miami and its settlement: "If you're looking for old Miami, original Miami, you're looking for black Miami."

12. On his love of crazy burgers: "If you know anything about me, you know I love few things more than big, new, unusual, comes from somewhere else, mutant versions of the giant hamburger."

13. On Miami's changing landscape: "Another day, another country. Miami's like that. You could eat your way across the Caribbean and through all of Latin America, and then over to Africa if you'd like. It's all there."

Anthony Bourdain and Iggy Pop [Screenshot courtesy Parts Unknown]

14. On Iggy Pop: "When I was young, this man was a role model, an ideal, a road map for bad behavior... His music, it turned out, was the soundtrack for most of my life."

15. On dining out with Iggy: "I wouldn't have thought back then, in my dorm room, that I'd be eating healthy with Iggy Pop. Barbecue shrimp for the godfather of punk. I get wild and crazy with roast pork."

16. Bonus quote: Iggy Pop, on his perfect day in Miami: "It's a clear morning. Hot. Hot and humid... the sun comes up, then a hazy tropical orange orb, you're not working, you're not on a schedule, and you have no meetings, but you have somebody fun to spend the time with... and then you would go to the beach when the sun isn't quite overhead yet... the beach sparkles."

17. Bourdain on being curious: "It's my only virtue."

18. Bourdain on life and meeting Iggy Pop: "And I guess that's what it comes down to, all of it... right here. I write a book, I get a TV show, I live my dreams, I meet my hero, two old men, on a beach."

19. Bourdain on why he loves Miami: "Is Miami America? Is it a state? Is it the South? ... I love Miami for the same reason I love the places I love most around the world... it's the mix here, this big, messy, dysfunctional hell broth of people from all over the world that make it so awesome and make it a place I want to keep coming back to. Also the food's good."