The Travel Channel? Its decent, but No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain is the best show on the channel by far.
I roughly have to agree with you, and even then the show is about as much about "Food Around the World" than it is about traveling per se.
There's such an opportunity for good material with the network concept of "The Travel Channel", but unfortunately the programming is loaded with crap like "10 Best Beach Resorts" that runs like a series of 5-minute infomercials.
Wanna know a food show I've gotten into lately? "Cooking in the Danger Zone":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/cooking_in_the_danger_zone/default.stm
It's a BBC production and airs in the U.S. on Link TV, if you get that. The host is a real mild mannered guy, compared with Bourdain. But as much as Bourdain likes to think of himself as a hardcore badass, the "Danger Zone" host, Stefan Gates, is typically dodging SCUD missile attacks, hostile government troops when hiding out with rebel soldiers, etc., while eating rice made in impromptu bamboo cookery or eating UN food rations.
It's serious hard core. Not an intentional gross-out like that Zimmern dude (though that show is fortunately more about non-gross-out foods than it brands itself). But an in-your-face "Third World" experience of how people eat in the world.