Fourth of July Friday Five: Food Television

Good morning and Happy July 4th to my American readers! No better way to celebrate FOUR big days off than with the Friday Five blog filler…”Food Television”

(great, it’s about cooking. I don’t cook.)

1. If a traveling food show were to visit your neighborhood, what are some unique, regional foods it would spotlight, and where would it go to get them?
Well, I can see Philadelphia outside of my window, so I suppose they’d get the obligatory Philly area foods: cheesesteaks, scrapple, water ice and Tastykakes. And maybe Herr’s potato chips for extra flavor.

2. On an American cable show, a celebrity chef surprises people by challenging them to a contest featuring their own specialties (he usually loses). If he challenged you to your specialty, what dish would you prepare? If he challenged someone you know, what would that dish be, and how might the competition turn out?
Bobby Flay beat the Pop Shop back in May in a Griilled Cheese Battle. If he battled me, I think I could beat him when it comes to making Jell-o. He’d put some crazy ingredient in it – like jalepeno peppers – and I’d beat him by loading up lime jell-o with banana slices. Mmmm…

3. What are your feelings about cooking shows on television?
I miss the older style cooking shows, when the food was the star and the chef showcased the food. Starting with Emeril, the chefs became the personalities, and the more they buy into their own hype (Emeril, Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, etc) the worse the shows become.

4. What kitchen gadgets have you purchased because you saw someone using them on television?
Back in my days of being addicted to QVC (last year) I purchased some kitchen knives, non-stick pots, and a waffle maker, all from watching “In the Kitchen With Bob.”

5. You get to (or have to, depending on how you feel about it) host your own food show on television. What will it be called and what’s it about?
Wheedling other people into cooking for you. Co-starring the Wandering Minstrel, since he is Top Chef here at the Dee-luxe apartment in the sky.

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Have fun and be safe today, and if you’re in the US…yeah…it’s not optimal right now. But there are a lot of worse places to live. And we have the ability to change what we have. It takes thought, and it takes voting at EVERY LEVEL, not just for president. Change happens from your city council upward.

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Happy Birthday, Odin!