"Cooking in the Danger Zone" :: SBS 7:30 Wednesday

[James]

"Cooking in the Danger Zone" is a new cooking show starting this Wednesday 7th March, 7:30 on SBS.

British food writer Stefan Gates tackles dangerous food in dangerous places, traveling to destinations like China, Afghanistan and South Korea to eat everything from yak penis to scorpion kebabs to silk worm larvae to deer penis juice (which apparently isn't very good).

It's a BBC production and the show has been very popular in England. Gates has a cool "gastronaut" blog and some of his videos are also on youTube.

Might be worth checking out.
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“Blessed are the Cheese Makers!” - Jesus, in the Life of Brian

[James]

I watched this last night and found it interesting but more than a little bit depressing.

It's not a cooking show, it's really a travel show where the host tries food in each location he travels to.

Last night he went to Afghanistan and tried flat bread, authentic kebabs, US Army rations and sheep testicles.

Some of it was interesting, like the soldier showing off how their rations are heated through a chemical reaction - apparently a far better method than preparing everything fresh like the local soldiers do.

However some bits were just plain depressing. The opening scenes had the host eating flat bread from a plate that hadn't been washed beside a dirty, rubbish-lined canal with a backdrop of sand and blown-up buildings. Later he visited the home of a woman who lives on UN handouts - her family of four or five eats not much more than lentils.

While compelling enough, this sort of thing left me a little uncomfortable - here's a gourmet going around tasting and assessing food that to the locals isn't luxury or fun or good times, it's a matter of eating to live. Tasting food in a dirt hut where the woman just told you she lives in hunger much of the time, turning to the camera and saying "it's surprisingly good" didn't taste good to me at all.

I'll watch next week again anyway, if Gates goes somewhere not quite so poor it might make a better impression. Or he could turn more of his focus to the people rather than the food.
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“Blessed are the Cheese Makers!” - Jesus, in the Life of Brian

[James]

I liked it much more last night. Gates visited Uganda and spent time with people living in refugee camps, displaced by the civil war that's been going on for over a decade. The African people seemed happier than others he has visited, and despite the hardship of surviving on meagre UN rations they smiled to see the host and looked like they were enjoying showing what they cook and eat. They also pointed to what they could do if they were able to return to farming their fields - it's currently too dangerous to do much outside the camps.

There was nothing quite as weird this week as the last couple of episodes - no testicles or stewed dog - but I felt the show was better for it. I left with the warm feeling of experiencing others' lives, and even though these people were very poor I felt the host showed much more compassion and union with them.
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“Blessed are the Cheese Makers!” - Jesus, in the Life of Brian