The host of the Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods America" took a few minutes to chat with us about his new show. 

"I think what's really interesting is we have a country here that's so varied and so diverse, but yet mainstream America eats at fast food restaurants and big box supermarkets, so their protein choices are very limited and they eat from a very small pool of what's available," Zimmern said. "When you go into ethnic communities, when you go into traditional communities - like the small towns we found in West Virginia, in the mountains of New Mexico, and every place in between - you see that people are still eating the way we did 80 to 100 years ago and that's when it gets really fascinating. You couple that with the incredible explosion of the food culture here in our country, and ordinary Americans are now dipping their toes into a more adventurous food pool." 

Zimmern explained one of the more bizarre foods he came across while in Michigan - muskrat pate. 

"Muskrat is trapped all over our boarder states in the north, and there's some cooks who are trying to figure out new ways to present and prepare it," Zimmern said. "If you take muskrat and you braise it low and slow for a long time it comes out like a pork or duck confit. Muskrat takes very beefy and is low in fat." 

While no episodes feature Colorado foods, Zimmern hopes to visit soon. 

"I'm dying to come to Denver, and there's only so many places to go in one season," he said. "I think we'll be making this show for many years to come and we're going to get to the great state of Colorado very soon."

"Bizarre Foods America" airs Monday evenings on the Travel Channel.

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