Seattle is about to get another moment of fleeting food TV glory. You know, something to tide you over between November’s sad four-way elimination of our local Top Chef contestants, and the debut of Check, Please! Northwest on March 8. Food guy Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods America series premieres January 23 on the Travel Channel, and the Seattle episode airs on Monday, February 6.

Zimmern is usually described as a guy who spends his days eating opossum entrails and whatever other grossout oddities his producers can scare up in a particular country or region. But he’s also an articulate champion of local food cultures. Before joining Seattle Met, I interviewed the TV host on the heels of his Seattle visit and listened to him rave about a variety of spots, including Canlis. Though Zimmern dined there off duty, he did recently deem it one of his best meals of 2011.

The affable host recently did a conference call for reporters (dude is media savvy) to discuss the upcoming season, the first time Bizarre Foods has focused entirely on domestic destinations. The Seattle highlights he hit in the call included spending time in the kitchen with Modernist Cuisine mastermind Nathan Myhrvold and planting and harvesting geoducks with Taylor Shellfish Farms. Honestly, did you think Andrew Zimmern was going to visit our part of the world and not tangle with a geoduck?

His other Seattle stops included Seattle Coffee Works, Vashon Island’s Sea Breeze Farm, FareStart, and Maneki. It will be interesting to see which local favorites get screen time, and in what proportions. As always, air dates are subject to last minute changes.