Despite the fact that I had two recent weekend getaways to blog about (Rhinebeck with Judd and Punta Cana with Ciara), each of which involved lots of good food, I would instead like to tell you about my favorite new show: Man v. Food.
For those unfamiliar with this show, I will summarize it in the words of its inspiring host, Adam Richman: Man v. Food is "a mouth-watering journey to find America's greatest pig-out spots and take on the country's most legendary eating challenges." Essentially, this mildly overweight Jewish guy goes from city to city to attempt some famous local food challenges. And it's all caught on film. Sometimes the challenges involve quantity (e.g., the meter-long bratwurst - aka "meterwurst" - with two sides at a German restaurant in Minnesota), others, it's spice (e.g., last week's episode from San Antonio in which Adam attempted to eat a burger with 4 very spicy chiles in under 25 minutes without a cooling beverage during that time or the subsequent five minutes). It's kind of surprising to see in which challenges man can triumph over food. 17 North Carolinian chili dogs were no problem for Adam Richman. But he couldn't even come close to slurping down 15 milkshakes in St. Louis. Go figure.
I am not sure why I like this show as much as I do. Thanks to Top Chef Masters, Wednesday night is the only night of the week when I am not new-programming deprived. I'm sure spending 9 months on a bride diet helped make over-the-top pig outs look tempting. But the show is also cute and fairly informative. Did you know that the ghost chile was the world's hottest pepper? Or that you could get a 5-pound breakfast burrito in Denver? Now you do.
And now you know how to find this delightful reality show-travel show-food show hybrid -- it's on the Travel Channel at 10pm on Wednesday nights. Or you can probably find a marathon on a weekend afternoon. Enjoy!
