I'm here with Andrew Zimmern, the wildly popular host of Travel Channel's hit series, Bizarre Foods. He's a personality that needs no introduction--at least around the Gadling water cooler. You could even say he's our Paris Hilton.

His show--which is about what it sounds like--has just finished its second season, with episodes spanning the globe from Iceland and Bolivia to St. Petersberg and Delhi (check out our episode guides here). Beyond the tube, he's a celebrated food writer, dining critic, radio talk-show host, and chef. For more Andrew, check out his blog.

In this exclusive interview, Andrew dishes on everything from director Ang Lee's stinky tofu fetish to his NYC School of Hot Dog Consumption Theory.

What are the top four worst foods you've sampled, ranked by terribleness?

• My aunt's meatloaf. Horrific. Each slice ringed with an orange pool of fat, spreading out on dirty plastic plates. I was six at the time and it traumatized me.
• Stinky tofu at Dai's Sisig in Angeles in the Philippines. It's a quick hash made with meat and cartilage from chopped pigs faces. It was really nasty.
• Raw pigs balls sliced and served with raw egg yolks. I ate it at a getemono bar in Tokyo, and texturally and aromatically, it was a real challenge to eat.
  
• And I guess to round out the list I would have to choose all the bad versions of dineguen, which is a Malaysian blood soup that I adore, but bad versions of it are just hideous.
  

I'm here with Andrew Zimmern, the wildly popular host of Travel Channel's hit series, Bizarre Foods. He's a personality that needs no introduction--at least around the Gadling water cooler. You could even say he's our Paris Hilton.

His show--which is about what it sounds like--has just finished its second season, with episodes spanning the globe from Iceland and Bolivia to St. Petersberg and Delhi (check out our episode guides here). Beyond the tube, he's a celebrated food writer, dining critic, radio talk-show host, and chef. For more Andrew, check out his blog.

In this exclusive interview, Andrew dishes on everything from director Ang Lee's stinky tofu fetish to his NYC School of Hot Dog Consumption Theory.

Before Bizarre Foods, how much jet-setting around the world did you get to do?

Plenty! I was lucky enough to come from a family that always traveled and placed a premium on pursuing singular experiences, eschewing resorts in favor of spending weeks skiing in Europe, driving ourselves around and eating in local restaurants and in homes with people we met along the way. I am a paler version of my Dad, the original "food freak" in the family, who introduced me to the concept of a tasting menu at Paul Bocuse in 1974. I am eternally grateful.

I'm here with Erik Buell, a former AMA racer and engineer for Harley-Davidson who now runs his own subsidiary, Buell Motorcycle Co, which produces the only sportbikes made in the US. He's also happens to be an avid road-tripper--of the two-wheeled variety--and has cruised almost all the back-roads of America.

What got you interested in motorcycles?

Freedom to explore and experience the world at low cost! I grew up out in the country on a farm, and although it gave me a great work ethic, it also gave me a great need to see more.

Is a cross-country roadtrip by motorcycle possible? How would the logistics of that work? I'm assuming step one is lose the suitcase.

Cross country trips on motorcycles are the very best. When you are inside your Hummer with tinted narrow windows, a big GPS screen, dashboard and controls, face it, you might as well be at home on the couch. On a motorcycle you roll through valleys and hills and your senses feel the changes in temperature, you smell new-mown hay, and as you idle through little towns you listen to kids playing and maybe get splashed by a sprinkler as you ride by. And you can either use a backpack to travel light or get saddlebags, top box and tank bag and have all the clothing you could want in case you want to go to a fancy restaurant in St. Louis, or go to a play in Seattle, or even pull out your backpack guitar and sit in with some guys jamming on the street corner.

I'm here with Rudy Maxa, PBS's "Savvy Traveler" and host of the awards-winning series Rudy Maxa's World. His sixth season is currently airing, featuring locales such as Estonia, Argentina, and Thailand (he's already done a whopping 65 episodes).

He began as an investigative journalist at the Washington Post and then became the "Savvy Traveler" 15 years ago for public radio. He's now a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and his work has appeared in GQ, Travel & Leisure, LA Times, and Forbes, among other publications. If you're interested in more of what he has to say, check out his blog.

Read part 1 here.

What has been your greatest adventure?

"Adventure" is a big word. Watching the northern lights from a lodge in the countryside of Iceland was magical. Safari in Kenya really made me understand where in the food chain we rank-which is well below lions unless you're talking "zoo." Surfing in a wet suit down a white-water river in New Zealand--on my stomach with just a little board to keep me (mostly) upright--certainly got the heart pounding.

Worst travel experience?

Waiting before dawn in a tiny, freezing waiting room at what was then Leningrad's airport for a flight to the States. The room was cold, my fellow passengers were largely drunk, and we boarded the big, old, lumbering Soviet jet through the cargo belly. The plane had to make two refueling stop before it could make it to the East Coast.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dale Moss, the managing director of OpenSkies, the planet's newest airline flying between New York City and Paris. After test driving his airline out last week, I had a few questions about the airline and Mr. Moss was kind enough to call me personally. Here's what he had to say.

Gadling: For the lay person who's getting into the transatlantic market, what's the big difference between OpenSkies and a legacy carrier?

Dale Moss: Well, I think there is a whole load of difference. If we got into the market with the same offering as a legacy carrier, it certainly would have not have fulfilled the mission that we were given to by British Airways: to take advantage of new legislation called Open Skies that gives a company like British Airways an opportunity to fly directly, non stop from European cities to New York. So OpenSkies the airline is a manifestation of that mission. And we said to ourselves, "How do we want to be different?"

We want to be predominantly a premium kind of carrier. We're not going after the masses – we never want to be a large airline with huge airplanes, because that defies what our mission is. Our mission is to go after an intelligently priced product for customers who are discerning.

I'm here with Rudy Maxa, PBS's "Savvy Traveler" and host of the awards-winning series Rudy Maxa's World. His sixth season is currently airing, featuring locales such as Estonia, Argentina, and Thailand (he's already done a whopping 65 episodes).

He began as an investigative journalist at the Washington Post and then became the "Savvy Traveler" 15 years ago for public radio. He's now a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and his work has appeared in GQ, Travel & Leisure, LA Times, and Forbes, among other publications. If you're interested in more of what he has to say, check out his blog.

How did you make the transition from investigative journalism to travel writing? Did you always have the travel bug?

The switch was gradual and unplanned. While a senior writer at Washingtonian, the monthly DC magazine, I was asked to do political commentary twice a week on a new, national public radio show called "Marketplace." I didn't want to do political commentary, but the producer of the show persisted. He asked if I had any hobbies, and I said, 'Well, I travel all the time, and I'm always surprised at how fellow travelers don't know how to read an airline ticket. Or don't know their rights when they arrive at a hotel with a reservation to find the hotel if filled."

So I suggested a segment on consumer travel issues. I asked my friend Peter Greenberg, then writing a column in the LA Times on travel called "The Savvy Traveler" if I could use that name for radio. He kindly consented. Over a couple of years, my Savvy Traveler segment grew in popularity. I began getting writing assignments on travel subjects for national magazines. Then the every-other-week radio commentary turned into a one-hour, weekend show on public radio, "The Savvy Traveler," that I hosted for four years. Then came the television series that I own as of this season, "Rudy Maxa's World."

John Lopinto is one of those savvy frequent fliers who always manages to yoink that last upgrade from you (he racks over 100,000+ miles each year). But he also happens to be a top flier guru who helps travelers make the airlines work for them through his award-winning site, ExpertFlyer.com, the #1 destination for frequent fliers. He's here to give some exclusive tips and insider info on getting the best deals on your next flight.

What Are the Most Effective Ways to Work the Upgrades Game?

The Holy Grail of air travel is flying in business or first class for the price of a cheap coach ticket. Short of "squatting" in a first class seat and hoping you won't get caught (you will, so don't try it), there are ways to use your frequent flier miles to score that seat in the front. If you are an "elite" status member in your favorite frequent flier program, you have a better chance than the average member, but if you are at the program's very highest elite level, you have more options and better odds at getting that upgrade that sometimes can be free.

For the rest of us, however, using miles to upgrade is usually the easiest and can be booked at the time of ticket purchase. They also offer a better value for the miles used compared to using miles to "purchase" a coach award ticket. But upgrade inventory is always limited so it is best to book as far in advance as possible and for mid-week travel if possible. But if you can't upgrade when purchasing your ticket, go on the wait-list. Most upgrades don't clear until days or hours before departure.

I'm here with Charles Veley, who's considered the person who has been to the most countries, territories, islands, protectorates (you get the picture) in the world. By one popular list, which is used by his global club for country collectors, he's been to 630 distinct places. Check out his travel history here for easy stalking. His blog can be found here.

I've read your dispatch for International Herald Tribune from Bouvet Island. Was that the most difficult place to get to?

Bouvet is definitely one of the most difficult places. Of course, the MOST difficult places should be by definition the ones I haven't been able to do yet. Most frustrating of this group include Paracel Islands and Nicobar Islands.

Any new territories / speck of land you've traveled to this year?

I was home for the first 5 months of the year, due to the arrival of our 3rd child under age 5 (Caroline Vanessa Veley), but did manage to land on Rockall in May. A short writeup of that trip is here. For the past couple of years, I've kept a very brief, high-level blog.

When I headed to the West Hollywood Book Fair last September, I didn't know which writers I would meet or what to expect. The scope of offerings was impressive, and one book in particular caught my eye. Sacred Places of the Goddesses: 101 Destinations pulled me in for a chat with the author, Karen Tate.

Tate, who lives with her husband, Roy in one of my most favorite towns, Venice, California, is a world traveler, tour guide and an expert on goddesses. She knows exactly where to see their traces and influences.

Her book--part travel guide, part spiritual guide and part chronicle of history, includes each section of the world. [See earlier post review.]

Since we chatted in the shade of her display booth, Tate has been busy launching her weekly Internet radio show "Voices of the Sacred Feminine" and promoting her new book, Walking an Ancient Path.

We talked on the phone last fall, and I've kept up with her various activities ever since. As a person with a lens focused on travel and spirituality, Tate offers a unique perspective about how one can experience the world.

For anyone traveling this Fourth of July weekend, Ted Ray is the guy you'll need when you touch down at that beach resort--with the worst headache in the world. He's a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist who's a travel consultant to high-powered Silicon Valley execs, especially on how to get over jet lag. (He's designed an all-natural concoction to help do the same, which has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Time Out, and Business 2.0).

Giveaway: Ted's been nice enough to offer five free bottles of FlyRight to Gadling readers (including shipping). Each bottle is enough for a one-way international flight or roundtrip domestic flight, and valued at $24.95. Go to the bottom of the Q&A for contest details.

What's the longest flight you've been on? How bad was the jetlag? Do you ever get it these days?

I flew to Adelaide, Australia which took around 18 hrs. I may still be jetlagged from that trip. Not sure as it was many years ago. Now, I don't get jet lag because I actually take the advice I give my patients: I stock up on sleep in the days preceding, drink plenty of water, avoid alcohol, and religiously take my Jet Lag Formula. There is no "magic bullet", but if you do enough things right, you can arrive feeling pretty good.