Bourdain is somewhat of a pioneer in the genre of food & travel shows as his No Reservations was one of the first shows that combined passion for food with the need to Travel. That show was essentially Bourdain traveling to new places in search of good authentic food. He obviously knew a lot about food as he used to be a chef. No Reservations appealed to both food lovers and travel enthusiasts, but it was still very much centered around food (and Bourdain of course). It held the show back a bit in my opinion as Bourdain would travel to all these great places with lot of history and wouldn't really get to talk that much about the place and would instead focus on food.

In Parts Unknown, Bourdain is not only traveling to some of the lesser well known places (at least to Americans) but he is also exploring their culture, heritage and the current politics along with food. Heck, given the coverage of international news on CNN and other news media here in the US, this might the most informative show you could watch on TV (that pertains to international affairs).

Bourdain mentioned in an interview that in this new show (hardly new anymore) he had more freedom to do what he wanted and explore more and it shows. A lot of times he just meets an old friend in some country and they bar hop all night leaving Bourdain craving for even more food. But it also depicts the culture of the place he is visiting in a fashion that only few other shows would. And then, in some other places, like Libya and Congo, he interacts with locals who tell him what it is like to live (or survive) there day to day, all while having a meal of something exotic and making us drool.

I understand that this show may not appeal to hardcore food lovers, but in my opinion, this is a better show in every way to No Reservations and Bourdain is a lot more himself (which makes it even easier to watch). It's kind of like when Top Gear went from being a strictly motoring show to being a comedy/adventure/celebrity/motoring show. It ended up being better!