Back to Sara; now we’re doing fish. She said, “You may be surprised to know that some of the freshest fish in NY is in a train station.” Sure enough, in Grand Central there’s a great looking fish shop (now I forget the name). Maybe I’ll buy some housewarming fish there upon my arrival.
In other news, I’m wimping out: this marathon will end at 5:30. I feel like I may die if I watch another cooking show.
I will miss your posts :-(
Thanks for making me laugh today!
Haha! Well, AG, I don’t blame you for stopping short. Many of these shows are downright painful.
Perhaps you can tune into Good Eats later this evening and offer your perspectives on that? I’m curious about your opinions on Alton Brown.
Hey M. Bean (are you Mr. Bean? Rowen Atkinson?) I’ve come to Alton Brown late in life and I really like him. I don’t salivate over his recipes the way I do over Mario’s or Tyler’s, but I do appreciate his advice the same way I appreciate Sara Moulton’s. I think his show is crazy informative, and I do watch it quite often. Just not tonight. Because my eyes are bleeding.
No, don’t stop! We don’t get some of those shows here on Food Network Canada. Are they really that painful?
Well… at work I am Mr. Bean, because that’s my name, not because I’m Rowan “Zazu from the Lion King” Atkinson. The ‘M.’ is for Matt. I don’t use the initial because I’m pretentious, I use it because I’m a lazy typer.
I feel similar to you regarding Alton Brown – his recipes are not as awe inspiring as some other hosts (particularly Batali, and I must admit to being won over by Tyler Florence lately), but that’s because his show is more about the how and why of cooking than about specific recipes. That’s why I like his show the best — it’s so information dense, and you can apply the principles he talks about in a huge number of situations.
I really got into cooking because of Alton Brown. Sure, I cooked before, and I even hosted dinner parties semi-regularly, but I never thought food could be a passion until I was exposed to Good Eats. I think of it as kind of a Food Network “gateway” show… because of Good Eats, I was exposed to Molto Mario and Mario Eats Italy and Ciao America and Food 911 and Tyler’s Ultimate and Sara’s Secrets and so forth.
Good Eats hooked me unlike Julia Child and Graham Kerr, both very talented chefs, but I always watched their shows with a kind of alien distance… like “yeah, I don’t really know why they’re doing that, but they’re the chefs. I can’t do that anyway.” Plus, I’m pretty sure Graham Kerr was drunk more than half the time on the Galloping Gourmet.
And Sara? Yes, many of these shows really are as bad, or worse, than the AG is letting on. I don’t know how he lasted this long, honestly.
I love this entry. It reminds me of how those marathon hot dog eaters must feel right before they cram the last bunch of wieners down their gagging throats.
I miss David Rosengarten. I miss Taste.
I watched Sara on Thursday, April 14, I
think it was. She gave a recipe for jickma, carrots, scallions and some other ingredients. We love jickma and would like the recipe but missed part of it. Help!!
Geez, Marilyn, just go to FoodTV.com or type “Food Network” into your search engine, and the Food Network will hook you up! You can look up specific episodes, see what the shows will be cooking, even sign up for a weekly newsletter with recipes and features. A great resource, but it’s no Amateur Gourmet… he’s got bigger things to think about than what Sara did with jicama on the 14th. Like what to feed Lolita (smoked salmon, I think, with mousey confit…)