You know by now that I have a love-hate relationship with all things Anthony Bourdain, including No Reservations show. I love the guy, except when I don’t.

The times when I love his work is when he’s doing what he does best: haunting small out-of-the-way places, talking with locals, treading the unbeaten path. Sometimes the discrepancy between his voice-over commentary and the actual expression on his face as he tries, say, wiggly bean gel, are hilarious.

Other times, though, I can’t help feeling the show is becoming increasingly self-indulgent. Take, for example, the NYC episode during which viewers were treated to five long minutes of watching a spandex-clad Tony Bourdain desperately try to swing on a trapeze while looking oddly like one of those leggy insects that darts about the surface of stagnant pools. Five minutes. Five very long minutes. And why? No reason in particular: he just wanted to do it. M’kay.

Aside from lulls, I do like that the Travel Channel gives him such leeway to choose his destination and itinerary. Lately, in fact, they’ve been soliciting viewers for suggestions: perhaps in an effort to balance out Bourdain’s fascination with all things Asian.

Personally, I’d like to see him do a show in Trinidad. Considering that Bourdain retreats to the Carribbean for a break in his increasingly busy life, he might be a bit hesitant to turn his playground into paid work but I hope not.

Oh, I don’t want to see him do the tourist-y stuff at Carnival, poked by Jab Jab’s pitchfork or buried in Dame Lorraine’s ample cleavage. That’s not Bourdain’s style, anyway.

But I would love to see him explore the island’s eclectic cuisine. With Trinidad’s history of Spansh conquest and its conflicts with the Carib and Arawak tribes, one would expect a cuisine bearing heavy European influences. One would be wrong, though. The island has actually — since its failed cocoa crop in the early 1700s — become a “melting pot” for Indian, Chinese and African migrants. Sure, there are plenty of Spanish dishes to be had — but, after all, isn’t Spanish cuisine the “new thing” in food trends these days? They’re rivaled by the island’s Indian and Carib cooking, and the fusion of the various influences has created its own very special, very different style, too.

Besides which, I can’t help but thinking that if Bourdain wants to continue with the self-indulgent episodes, what better way than by extending his annual Carribean vacations by another week to do some paid work. I, for one, would love to see him explore Trinidad’s famous bat caves — where he’d look quite at home in that black spandex bodysuit from his trapeze-swinging episode.

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