One Sec...
Feasting on Waves - A Review
Earlier this summer the wife and I were talking about how much we enjoyed Alton Brown's feasting on asphalt last year. It was a good show, full of Americana which sometimes I like, sometimes I don't. I did spend a lot of time out in different parts of the country years ago eating at diners and general road food restaurants so the idea holds a soft spot in my heart. We did some searching, probably in June or something, and couldn't find mention of this years season. Then yesterday we saw a commercial for the new version entitled "Feasting on Waves".
The basis for this show is kind of the same but set in the Caribbean. Alton and his crew take a boat from island to island searching out non touristy food.
I have to say that when we saw the commercial, I was pretty disappointing with the idea, Anthony Bourdain already does this show! Basically Alton is doing exactly what Anthony does, well, not really but it is being pitched it the same.
For the first 10 minutes of the show I was convinced that it was just going to be a rip off of Anthony's show, but as luck would have it, Alton brown just cant get rid of his geekery.
Case in point: Alton and crew go to a stand somewhere in the country to taste the food of a woman who cooks for all the locals and workers. He gets three plates of food, spends about 5 seconds talking about the food and then gets obsessed with the lemon-aid that came with the meal. He tries his best to figure out why this lemon-aid tastes unique and ends up finding out from a local that it contains something that they call "essence". Upon further interrogation of the local woman, he finds out that it may be lemon, almond, vanilla, pear or any combination of these essences. Alton isn't sure what essence is, is it an extract? Who knows, so he sets off on a typical Alton mission to figure out what this essence is. He ends up in a local super market and finds the bottles of essence, discusses the different flavors he found and then purchases them for further investigation.
That may have seemed like a long paragraph, but it leads directly into my review of the first episode of this show. After the build up, I was very interested in what essence was and couldnt wait for him to put on his lab coat, NHS specs and figure out exactly what essence is all about. Instead, he simply dropped the issue. It was never brought up again.
And so goes my review of (the first episode of) Feasting on Waves. I believe now that Alton didn't feel like riding his motercycle around the country again and that this time he just wanted to go on vacation. The difference here is that in America Alton can speak as an expert, letting his true geek shine through. In the Caribean he is a fish out of water and has lost his essence. Alton, please prove me wrong.
PS. I really do want to know what essence is, and more specifically where I can get it so that I can make this lemon-aid. It looked great.
The basis for this show is kind of the same but set in the Caribbean. Alton and his crew take a boat from island to island searching out non touristy food.
I have to say that when we saw the commercial, I was pretty disappointing with the idea, Anthony Bourdain already does this show! Basically Alton is doing exactly what Anthony does, well, not really but it is being pitched it the same.
For the first 10 minutes of the show I was convinced that it was just going to be a rip off of Anthony's show, but as luck would have it, Alton brown just cant get rid of his geekery.
Case in point: Alton and crew go to a stand somewhere in the country to taste the food of a woman who cooks for all the locals and workers. He gets three plates of food, spends about 5 seconds talking about the food and then gets obsessed with the lemon-aid that came with the meal. He tries his best to figure out why this lemon-aid tastes unique and ends up finding out from a local that it contains something that they call "essence". Upon further interrogation of the local woman, he finds out that it may be lemon, almond, vanilla, pear or any combination of these essences. Alton isn't sure what essence is, is it an extract? Who knows, so he sets off on a typical Alton mission to figure out what this essence is. He ends up in a local super market and finds the bottles of essence, discusses the different flavors he found and then purchases them for further investigation.
That may have seemed like a long paragraph, but it leads directly into my review of the first episode of this show. After the build up, I was very interested in what essence was and couldnt wait for him to put on his lab coat, NHS specs and figure out exactly what essence is all about. Instead, he simply dropped the issue. It was never brought up again.
And so goes my review of (the first episode of) Feasting on Waves. I believe now that Alton didn't feel like riding his motercycle around the country again and that this time he just wanted to go on vacation. The difference here is that in America Alton can speak as an expert, letting his true geek shine through. In the Caribean he is a fish out of water and has lost his essence. Alton, please prove me wrong.
PS. I really do want to know what essence is, and more specifically where I can get it so that I can make this lemon-aid. It looked great.
Comments (1) · Want to Comment? Log In!
WheresTheGrub · So. basically what you are telling me is "alton, either start eating scorpion tails, sauteed in venom, or boar rectum in deep Niger, or get your tail home and entertain us!"???
