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"When Bourdain visited Iran in 2014, he said he came back with a confusing picture of the country, as what he experienced was so at odds with what he understood of the country from the vision portrayed by the US government. He wrote: "What we saw, what we came back with, is a deeply confusing story. Because the Iran you see from the inside, once you walk the streets of Tehran, once you meet Iranians, is a very different place than the Iran you know from the news. Nowhere else I've been has the disconnect been so extreme between what one sees and feels from the people and what one sees and hears from the government." He went on: "I have said that Iran is the most outgoingly warm, pro-American place we've ever shot, and that's true: In Tehran, in spite of the fact that you are standing in front of a giant, snarling mural that reads 'DEATH TO AMERICA!,' we found that you will usually be treated better by strangers — meaning smiles, offers of assistance, curious attempts to engage in limited English, greetings and expressions of general good will — than anywhere in Western Europe." He added: "This is not a black-and-white world — as much as people would like to portray it as such. That's not an apology for anything. I'm just saying that the brief, narrow slice of Iran we give you in this episode of Parts Unknown is only one part of a much deeper, multihued, very old, and very complicated story. Like anything as ancient and as beautiful as the Persian Empire, it's worth, I think, looking further. But it's also a place that can warm your heart one day and break it the next." Iranians, including some living in other parts of the world, praised Bourdain on Twitter for capturing their country in a different light to the usual Western media reports and government rhetoric."