Man V. Food

I'm not sure why they even show this outside of America.

It paints such an unfavourable view of American food as mainly it is grotesque fast food. The worst part may be the fact when they mention cheese in any of the madeupnumberillion burgers he eats they refer to those shitty plastic slices as cheddar.

Slightly less terrible is the obscene portion sizes, really is there a need to even eat that much in a meal, let alone a day.

On the other hand it's the only food programme I can watch without being made to feel hungry.

I like it. Remember a lot of people take "all you can eat" as a challenge.

I may make an about the all you can eat later.

However I admit it is entertaining in a morbid curiosity "will he die of heart attack on air?" kind of way.

Also I don't expect all american food to be like that, just tell me at least you do have some real cheese over there.

Yes but it's generally sold in blocks. Most of the stuff that comes out of wrappers was done that way for convenience. If you know the right store, you can get it done fairly quickly.

If you know the right store? Can you not get real cheese from supermarkets?

To counteract my dislike for the series/presenter/fastfood, I have to say I saw the one in I think Puerto Rico and some of the normal sized meals there looked delicious and well seasoned.

It depends on how large the supermarket is. The larger ones with their own deli will cut it off a block and wrap it for you. A convenience store type will carry little that isn't prewrapped and ready to go.

I'll admit that I also have a morbid fascination with the show. Some of the stuff he tries for challenges does look good, like that one challenge where he had to eat the five different kinds of steaks. Those steaks looked awesome.

But at the end of the day, I can't help but shake my head and wonder why anyone does this. Not to sound cliche here, but it really does strike the difference when you realize he's eating enough to feed like, two entire families half the time.

Except when he does the hotwings. Then it's more like what could be used to keep a family warm during the winter.

Yeah, those spicy challenges look painful. Mind you I don't like spicy food to begin with, but when you can see his mouth swelling and his entire face start to puff up and burn, you know that it can't be anything but pure pain.

And the ones where he as to wear gloves to make sure he doesn't get any on his skin, man that shit looks painful.

It paints such an unfavourable view of American food as mainly it is grotesque fast food.

On the other hand, shows like Andrew Zimmern's Bizzare Foods doesn't exactly do much for other cultures either.

It's on over here in the UK, I love it.

Yeah but at least Adam is a decent person and a nice guy. Andrew is just an a-hole. And as for cheese, as someone who grew up on kraft singles, even though we get block cheese in my house fairly often, I just don't think it tastes as good. It really is a convenience thing; I can grab some bread, put a slice in there and some ham and I'm done. We usually use deli cheese for recipes, not casual use.

Just one note: The fact that the cheese is pre-sliced does not automatically mean that it's processed American crap. There's one very easy way to tell by looking if it's American cheese or the real stuff: if it melts, it isn't processed American. All that does on top of a burger is soften and sag a little bit. It will not lose its sharp, clean edge and perfectly square shape.

Oh no not all square slices are processed American crap, we've got processed UK crap over here.

However they are in the minority, most of the cheese is not like that.

After looking at the other wiki, one of my biggest questions has been answered:

It makes me feel better about my bad eating habits.

Hmmm this seems to be a discussion of cheese. Why, when I read this thread, do I hear the discordant strands of a bouzouki...

I love the show! It's a Gulity Pleasure to the max. Plus, host-guy Adam is just so cute. Your Mileage May Vary.

I don't watch Bizarre Foods. I don't want to watch a guy eat disgusting excuses for food, like fried tarantulas or something. Sometimes, Is It Something You Eat? is not a question that always needs an answer.

edited 31st May '11 6:28:22 PM by BearyScary

I know why!

Anyway, what me about this show, apart from the reasons mentioned above, is the Network Decay it represents; it seems the Travel Channel is nothing but “eating challenge” types of shows. We already have Food Network, do we really need a whole other channel devoted to eating?

edited 3rd Jun '11 5:55:09 PM by Bananaquit

I keep up with the show online; I just wish they'd cut the "carnivore chronicle" crap and get back to the challenges.

I haven't been in the US for nearly 2 years, but the Travel Channel decay both saddens me but does not surprise me.

I thought that Carnivore Chronicles was crud, in comparison to the main show.

...I fail to see the problem with Bizarre Foods. I think it's fascinating (and causer of mouthwatering).

I do have to say about this show being overseas. This show being in America, we obviously uses pounds, so when I was showing clips of this show on youtube to my cousins girlfriend, I had to convert the pounds to kilos to show her how heavy the food is.

I did like the episode in the New York curry house, where they had to stop and explain what a curry was before getting on with the challenge.

The thing is, usually the "normal"*-sized portions look quite nice, but the huge challenge ones look absolutely horrendous. Even if I had an appetite that big, I wouldn't want to eat one of those things. I'd just have four normal ones instead.

As for cheese, in the UK every supermarket sells cheese in blocks - about 1lb blocks individually wrapped. Half a dozen kinds of cheddar (from several different brands), double gloucester, a big edam wedge and a selection of soft and blue cheeses. That's before doing to the deli counter for the "good" stuff, and things like cheddar with chillies in, wensleydale with cranberries and whatnot. :) This is in Asda ( = Walmart), so if that's not the case in whichever bit of the US you're in, that might explain Ian Ex Machina's different point of view.

Mind you, from the episodes I've seen, most places seem to use what looks like half decent cheese and other ingredients - even if the end result looks like they've been wasted. :)

I'll admit, this show makes me want proper American (non-chain!) fast food even more.

I do love me some fast food.