Balance of Food

Finding great burgers means eating some lesser burgers

Failure is when you don't try. — somebody famous, probably

If you recall our column from 2 weeks ago, we profiled an amazing burger, a rarity in our travels. If you are kissing princes, you kiss a few frogs (all with consent, of course).

So let's talk about another Cooking Channel and Food Network burger we found in Santa Monica, CA.

Texture is a primary reason why you might or might not like a food. Sauteed mushrooms taste good; raw mushrooms, not so much.

The Plan Check Burger may look like a regular cheeseburger but plays with the idea of texture: ketchup leather, schmaltz onions, and a crunch bun.

The burger includes mixed pickles and Americanized dashi cheese.

I discovered this burger thanks to Hayley Duff's obsession with hipster food. She acted out her obsession on The Real Girl's Kitchen by replicating the burger right down to the ketchup leather. (You can find her recipes). I remember that her Finnish model friend Laura was there to help.

I had the Father's Office burger in my head even before I made it down from San Francisco. I didn't think about the Plan Check burger until I accidentally walked past the Santa Monica location of Plan Check Burger at Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd.

One characteristic that I don't normally put on burgers that both Santa Monica burgers had was cheese. I prefer hamburgers to cheeseburgers but had to try each one as is. Dashi cheese sounded intriguing even if the cheese was Americanized.

When you meet real bravado and a damn fine burger

Unlike the Father’s Office burger, the Plan Check burger was about familiar tastes but different textures. Let's see what we got.

The burger did look like a regular cheeseburger even if the ketchup was square. Biting into the burger revealed a taste of a regular, above average cheeseburger.

The burger was juicy (greasy?), which was good. I couldn't taste the ketchup leather so I tried a bit of the ketchup leather separately. The ketchup leather was wonderful by itself but lost in the burger.

The Americanized dashi cheese dominated the taste without any visible dashi taste element. The cheese wasn't as bad as actual American cheese but there was no zing or flavor to be found. The other ingredients might have shined minus the cheese. Schmaltz onions sounded wonderful but you couldn’t spot them in the overall taste. The pickles were apparent and good. The crunch bun was invisible except for a negative texture experience.

The point of the Plan Check burger could be that the burger is supposed to taste like a regular cheeseburger. Guessing is fun unless you are hungry.

The fries were average, too salty, and not worth finishing. The fries come with the burger at Plan Check while the fries were extra at Father’s Office. The better fries were worth the extra money.

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The Santa Monica locations aren't the flagship for either burger, but that shouldn't matter too much. Both burgers offered unusual tastes and flavors. As someone with a fussy palette, I liked the idea of a burger to dazzle my taste buds. Father's Office won this battle because I could sense the tastes. The cheeses were a huge plus in the Father's Office burger and a gigantic minus in the Plan Check burger.

If I were going to pull a Hayley Duff, I would modify the Plan Check burger with a new plan.

Keep: Ketchup leather, Schmaltz onions, mixed pickles
Add: Mustard, preferably stone ground
Switch: Simple potato bun in for the panko-laden variety
Toss: the cheese, dashi or otherwise

This may sound like I am defeating the point of the Plan Check burger and showing I can do this better. This misses the true message of the Plan Check burger and the Father's Office burger. Applaud those who are rethinking food, whether we like the end result or not.

I wouldn't have thought about ketchup leather or Schmaltz onions. I might like dashi cheese if I ever have it. I was tantalized and tempted. The Plan Check cheeseburger was still an above average burger. Your tastes may vary.

The quest is the important task to discover new and exciting ways to make food fun and tasty. The Father's Office experience was a really nice stop in my burger search. The Plan Check burger was good but not great. They both was inspirational for what we can do with food.

photos credit: me

When you meet real bravado and a damn fine burger

I have not found the perfect burger. I thought I saw the perfect burger on television. I’ve seen a lot of "great" burgers on television so I was skeptical.

My obsession with the Cooking Channel and Food Network leads me to see lots of attempts at burgers that I would never eat. Odd combinations, mostly trying to cram too many ingredients, distracting us from what was supposed to be the primary point: the meat.

When I travel, I try and do food/restaurant research to pick and choose nice spots. When I was trapped a few extra days in California due to the polar vortex, I decided to spend a few days in Los Angeles.

I ended up staying in Santa Monica. I didn’t have much time to do research for either Santa Monica and Los Angeles.

I reached into the deep crevices of my brain and remembered an odd combination that I liked for a burger in Culver City.

The Office Burger at Father’s Office was the only burger that combined my favorite cheeses: blue and Gruyere. The arugula seemed fine. The burger also has a bacon caramelized onion jam cooked for a long time. The bun was more of a roll with the sides cut off. This seemed like a burger for adult tastes.

Sang Yoon was also known for having no exceptions. Most places don’t care what you do with their burgers. Yoon cared. This intrigued me. False bravado is horrible but real bravado is exciting.

I first found out about Father’s Office through Bite This with Nadia G, goddess of Bitchin’ Kitchen, who is from Montréal, one of my favorite eating cities.

I didn’t have to go to Culver City for the burger since Father’s Office has a Santa Monica location.

The route to Father’s Office went through the Third Street Promenade (think outdoor pedestrian mall) through quite suburban streets before you get to 10th Street and Montana.

Walking into Father’s Office, you realize you are in for a dark environment. You also have to order at the bar. I did not care since I really wanted this burger. The upsell to skinny fries with garlic aioli was not on my mind, but I couldn’t resist.

The burger arrives in a basket with a good size portion of fries. The burger is cut in half.

The burger felt more like a sandwich than a burger. The tastes were a lovely but odd blend of sensations never before accumulated. They felt like adult tastes for a sophisticated palette.

It was a bit dark to tell if the burger was medium-rare. The first half felt a bit overdone but the second half had a better temperature. I realize that isn’t logical but it was so dark, I could only rely on my tongue.

Yoon was correct; no substitutions were needed.

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The fries turned out to be a lovely choice. Some of the best fries I’ve had in awhile. Thin and crispy was a good combo and the garlic aioli was well-made.

The Father’s Office burger is a gourmet gem of a sandwich, much less a burger.

The Food Network and Cooking Channel can lead you to above-average fare when you are traveling. Your mileage may vary on what you find appealing. I was thrilled to find a burger that matched my sophisticated tastes where I didn’t have to put it together. Sang Yoon managed to come up with something I enjoy that I didn’t have to imagine.

photos credit: me

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LIII ads

The Burger King Super Bowl ad used footage from the 1982 film 66 Scenes of America from Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth. The fact that the Heinz ketchup doesn't pour well lends authenticity since Heinz promoted the thickness of its ketchup throughout the 1970s. The Whopper is also very minimalist, so if there are other ingredients, they aren't visible.

We are invited in the ad to #EatLikeAndy, which would be inviting if we could consume the product from that time. The bun Warhol eats likely didn't have high-fructose corn syrup and the ketchup would have been free of high-fructose corn syrup. That burger would taste better than the current model.

Leth said in an interview that Warhol initially suggested they use McDonald's.

Unlike most companies who use dead celebrities, you could likely conclude that Warhol would appreciate the idea of using the footage in an ad.

The target audience of younger people may not be that familiar with Warhol. If people are going to #EatLikeAndy, they will eat a small bite of a Whopper and not eat any other Burger King food.

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Kristin Chenoweth was in the latest Avocados from Mexico ad with a reverse play on dog shows where human performed the tricks. The guacamole was incorporated in the ad unlike a lot of food ads. This ad was closer to the best than the worst of the Avocados from Mexico ads. The hard part is that avocados haven't looked as good in the stores and have gone up in price. Then again, the avocados I saw in the Santa Monica farmers market last week looked gorgeous. I would pay more to get the avocados of old.

Chenoweth added sparkle to the ad and nice on the part to have a female lead in the series of ads.

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Super Bowl ads can be good to publicize a little known company. Devour frozen foods from Kraft Heinz have been around for about 3 years. That was literally news to me. The ad features a couple where the husband has turned into the "3-minute man" — a double entendre that ties into the food porn mentality of the company. The entrees are more exotic than typical frozen food.

The ad was rather good to spark curiosity. However, frozen food doesn't inspire food porn IRL.

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Chance The Rapper combined with the Backstreet Boys to remake I Want It That Way for the new Flamin' Hot flavor for Doritos. I remembered the song but had to look up which boy group did the song. Yes, I recognized Chance better than the Backstreet Boys. Flamin' hot snacks have a certain niche appeal and this ad will help out that flavor. That said: Cheetos (fellow Frito-Lay product) does it pretty well. A good ad for the target audience for the product.

Super Bowl ad analysis in recent years

2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

Corn syrup came up in a non-food ad for Bud Light. The Budweiser product noted that Miller Lite and Coors Light had corn syrup while Bud Light did not. Corn syrup is different from high-fructose corn syrup but having corn syrup in a beer does seem odd. Then again, there are beers outside of the 3 listed options that taste better and don't have corn syrup.

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Pringles had another stackables ad. The concept hasn't changed, incorporating jalapeno, cheddar, as well as sour cream and onion. The problem is that people aren't going to buy 3 different canisters to produce these combinations. The ad hits the target audience but will get lost in the wave of Super Bowl ads that were more clever.

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Planters had a really good ad, complete with a Planters peanut-shaped vehicle and a funny Charlie Sheen cameo. Mr. Peanut saves a guy from eating kale chips, giving him mixed nuts. The only drawback was having Alex Rodriguez in the ad. Planters promotes protein; Rodriguez is known for (allegedly) using steroids. He didn't get strong (allegedly) from eating nuts. Rodriguez doesn't add anything to the ad and is a detriment.

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Drink and candy ads were:

• Michael Bublé for Bubly. This felt like a spin-off on the Bai Super Bowl commercial with Justin Timberlake and Christopher Walken. The latter ad will be better remembered than the 2019 spin-off.
• The Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer ad was a bit muddled in the beginning and kept thinking this was a goof ad. If this ad keeps running, the ad may improve with more visiblity.
• The Pepsi ad with Steve Carell, Cardi B, and Lil Jon fell within the Pepsi ad spectrum where the ad is about visual distractions. I've never seen a Pepsi ad to this day that reflects on the quality of the actual product. The commercial also likely suffered being at the end of the first quarter when people are running for the bathrooms.
• Christina Applegate was in a cute spot for the M&Ms chocolate bar. This ad actually incorporated the product since the M&Ms were stuck together in the chocolate bar. Was fun watching the actress who played Kelly Bundy be the mom. A good ad that will need more exposure in the coming weeks.

photo credit: Burger King

Salt Fat Acid Heat provides impactful cooking advice

Most cooking shows are about how to cook a specific recipe with a few tips along the way. Good Eats and the new Good Eats: Reloaded are grand exceptions though consumed a bit about the science of how cooking happens.

Salt Fat Acid Heat is a 4-part series on Netflix from Samin Nosrat, author of the book that inspired the series. The series helps you to understand cooking breaking things down to the 4 core elements.

The series takes us around the world as each episode is devoted to a region suited to the element:

Salt	Japan
Fat	Liguria, Italy
Acid	Yucatan, Mexico
Heat	Berkeley, CA

 

Salt

Nosrat tells us salt is prevalent in every world cuisine. We seek salt not just in crystals but in foods that contain salt, such as olives, cheese, pickles, and capers. Salt also provides umami to dishes. She shows us how in Japan, they make salt from seaweed.

Nosrat teaches us there are 3 basic decisions where salt is concerned:

• when to salt (Salt meat in advance and do on all sides. Season meat on the bone the minute she gets back from the butcher.)
• layering salt (Use less salt on the meat if you are going to marinade with salty ingredients. You can get other flavor benefits from salty ingredients.)
• how much salt (The less time food spends in the water, the saltier the water has to be.)

The third decision gets us back to a battle we have had over time about the absolute need to salt the pasta water.

What's Tempting: Salting the pasta water

What's Tempting: Salting the pasta water Part II

Taking seasoning advice with a grain of salt

Many cooking shows told of the need to have a lot of salt in the pasta water, but no one explained the concept as well as Nosrat did. In our earlier experiments, perhaps we didn't use enough salt to be able to tell. If you do something because a TV chef tells you to do something, you aren't really learning but doing. With Nosrat, you are learning why to do something.

Fat

Nosrat shares with us that fat provides flavor and texture as well as amplifying other flavors. The key is how to harness its magic.

She points out fat has 5 distinct textures: creamy, flaky, crispy, tender, and light. Fat transforms simple ingredients into a great meal.

We see the collecting of olives that are turned into olive oil. We see the foccacia become buttery and crumbly thanks to the olive oil.

The parts of the pig are on display and how the fat from the pig produces wonderful pork products with that glorious fat. We learn about the milk from the red cows that is sweeter and fatter ultimately turned into Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

We see in a simple ragu dish of the number of fat options, including soffrito (olive oil), beef, pork, and beef fat. Nosrat let us know that fat can transform simple ingredients into a great meal.

Acid

Nosrat teaches us that acid brightens food and balances flavors in dishes. The episodes focuses quite a bit of sour oranges and sweet lemons.

Fermentation also adds acid to dishes such as pickles, vinegar, and red wine. Browning also produces acidity. Marinating a food in acid is more effective in a short-term burst and produces distinct results as opposed to cooking in acid.

Nosrat points out that atypical foods such as coffee, chocolate, bananas, and honey qualify as acidic. She tells the story of her first Thanksgiving dinner in the United States and working cranberry sauce into other dishes to get that acid effect.

Heat

Heat takes us to where Nosrat got started at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA where she was taught to pay attention to the food not the fire. There were no settings on the ovens so you had to learn to use other senses.

We see steaks cooked at Chez Panisse over a fire with the steak cooked more than halfway on first side and browning all over not just doing it for grill marks.

This also happens when Nosrat cooks buttermilk marinated roasted chicken. Since the heat is in the back of oven, put the legs toward the back. When the legs are relaxed, the chicken is done.

Nosrat makes a rice dish with her mother: Persian-ish rice with tahdig. The dish involves steaming and frying, producing the rice at the bottom that is crunchy in a very good way.

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

Even if you are watching an episode of one element, the other elements make cameos in the other segments. Fat will be in the Salt segment while salt plays a part in the Heat segment. We learn in the Heat segment that the same saltiness comes from 1 tsp. of Morton kosher salt and 2 tsp. of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.

The cuisines are defined by the fat and salt that they use.

Nosrat shares her own personal story having grown up in Iran and working at Chez Panisse. Her ability to speak Spanish and Italian (she used to live in Italy) help her help us gather more information. She is very personable, curious about food no matter how spicy or unusual. There is a lot of laughter and all of that laughter feels natural and warm.

She talks about how you don't need fancy ingredients to cook good food. The salad she makes in the Heat episode is white beans with a bunch of roasted vegetables, a few herbs, and a simple dressing. Most American kitchens aren't serving that kind of a meal. Salt Fat Acid Heat is trying to change that dynamic.

video credit: YouTube/Netflix
photo credit: Salt Fat Acid Heat

The food system is also about who is involved in your food

Do you love food and eating food but hate the idea of undocumented immigration? As Full Frontal with Samantha Bee points out, if you feel this way, you will starve pretty quickly.

Samantha Bee, a documented immigrant herself (she's from Canada) guides us through a path of undocumented immigrants in kitchens. We stop in Philadelphia where Cristina Martinez runs a popular barbacoa restaurant. Martinez is undocumented but was willing to go on camera. (Bee talked later to other undocumented restaurant employees who didn't want their identity revealed.)

Martinez explains in Spanish that she came to the United States to escape her abusive now ex-husband.

Bee also incorporates fellow immigrant Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef. Lakshmi talked about the importance of immigrants to restaurants and how they want the same things everyone else wants.

"I think the food landscape in this country would be completely different without immigrant labor," said Lakshmi. "We all have a responsibility to reach down and pull up the people who really break their back for you day in and day out."

The financial reality is that restaurants rely on undocumented immigrants for success. So do farmers to help pick the crops that you enjoy in the grocery store and the restaurant.

You can certainly choose to disagree on what to do with undocumented immigrants but you should acknowledge the realities of the current food system and the impact if these people weren't here.

At the end of the segment, Bee mentioned thegivingkitchen.org, the recipient of proceeds for a T-shirt filled with "thank you" in multiple languages. She noted that the organization provides financial assistance to restaurant workers in crisis.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee airs Wednesday nights at 10:30 pm Eastern on TBS.

video and photo credit: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS

Anthony Bourdain legacy: Find your own food adventure

Anthony Bourdain tells the story of saving certain steaks for those who like their steak well-done. The steaks aren't the best but since the steak is being cooked beyond recognition, the customer isn't likely to know or tell the difference.

One of the few food writers that I came across when I started this blog many years ago was David Shaw, who wasn't really even a food writer. Shaw would write on occasion for the love of a rare burger. While my love is for a nice medium-rare burger, I always loved Shaw's take on properly cooked meat.

In one of Bourdain's books, he extolled the virtues of cooking meat to be medium-rare. I feel certain he loved the approach in Florence with how little steaks are cooked there.

Cook to 160°F minimum a sign to look elsewhere for meat

The philosophy of cooking meat

Medium-rare burger a rare find in Canada, especially buffalo and elk

North Carolina holds on to radical views on medium-rare burgers

David Shaw, R.I.P.

I could talk about Bourdain's TV shows and how he explored scrunchions in Newfoundland and seal meat in Quebec with bows to our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com. His sense of food, travel, and adventure made you want to be him. Most of us are not that brave to jump in and eat just about anything. It was fun to watch him do all those things.

Anthony Bourdain takes CNN's Parts Unknown to the mysterious land of Newfoundland

Anthony Bourdain left us far too soon for his own reasons. His death was a punch in the gut, which is part of why this tribute isn't all that timely. We can't be him even if we did want to be him. The question is how to live to honor the chase he had with food.

Find your own food adventures. Try something you haven't tried. If you get invited into someone's home when traveling, take that chance. I had a story in Paris with a traveling Italian family. They barely knew English and my Italian came up way short, but they fed me like one of their own.

If you aren't that adventurous, take one of Bourdain's recommendations. I'll offer up a place that I discovered thanks to Anthony Bourdain. The Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco is now on my list thanks to his recommendation. The place is not in a tourist area and not even open for dinner. The seating is one long counter. There is usually a long line to get into the restaurant. The menu is fairly simple and absolutely delicious. Even if your seafood is not your thing, there are literally hundreds of recommendations for other places.

Be gracious when you travel. Don't be the ugly American. Bourdain was loud and brash on many levels but always humble before someone making food.

Anthony Bourdain had wondrous travel adventures that we can retrieve through the written word or on video. Take advantage of his wisdom to enhance your food life.

photo credit: Instagram Anthony Bourdain

Peterborough Farmers Market loses perspective on the value of farmers markets

Know your farmer.

That was our opening line last October when CBC Marketplace went undercover to discover that several vendors at the Peterborough Farmers Market in Ontario were lying about where their produce is grown.

Justice should have been served as the vendors who were deceptive would either be kicked out of the market or required to post signs that stated the truth about their produce.

Turns out the farmers who were deceptive got to stay at the Peterborough Farmers Market and the 5 vendors, who grew all of their food on their farms, who complained got kicked out of the market.

CBC Marketplace story reminds us to be diligent about farmers markets

The Peterborough & District Farmers' Market Association (PDFMA) sent out a letter kicking the legitimate farmers out of the market: "speaking publicly about the PDFMA and portraying it in a negative manner" was a factor.

They spoke up to make sure the farmers market had more credibility and that consumers weren't being deceived.

"The opportunity to sells goods or produce at the Peterborough Farmers' Market is a privilege," the association said in a statement. "It is of paramount importance that vendors work as a team and treat each other with respect, courtesy and fairness."

The farmers spoke the truth. They didn't want the deceptive vendors to be kicked out, just to have signs declaring the honesty of the source of their food.

The association branded the farmers who spoke up as "dissident members" and that not kicking them out meant the "campaign of malice continues."

The PDFMA's overreaction has led to what they didn't want, which was more bad publicity.

Peterborough wasn't the only place in Ontario that had deceptive vendors. That was the point of the CBC Marketplace episode last October. Our steps back then included asking farmers about how their food is grown.

Balanceoffood.com Canada food policy coverage

As perfect as farmers markets might seem, they are run by human beings. Most decisions most farmers markets make are positive and help make things easier for consumers. Sometimes, a farmers market makes a poor decision. The PDFMA certainly made a number of very bad decisions that may permanently damage the reputation of the market.

"We contribute to the sustainability of agriculture by enhancing access to fresh, local Ontario produce and goods, and by fostering a lively and diverse market that inspires relationships between farmers, entrepreneurs and the community."

That is from the PDFMA Web site. Kicking out actual farmers and keeping deceptive vendors does not foster "relationships between farmers, entrepreneurs and the community" especially when you aren't sure all the produce is "fresh, local Ontario produce and goods." 

Due diligence is not an ideal way to shop, but even at a farmers market, you still have to ask questions.

photo credit: CBC Marketplace

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LII ads

Food advertisers aren't rising to the occasion for Super Bowl ads of late as we definitely saw last night during Super Bowl LII. Still, there were a few intriguing ads.

Avocadoes from Mexico had a nice comeback from last year. The secret society concept was adjusted to have a self-contained universe where they had everything they needed, including avocadoes from Mexico.

Someone discovers that the chips are not in the self-contained universe. Panic ensues. A woman at the buffet table points out that you don't need chips to enjoy avocadoes.

This ad was reasonably clever, and light years ahead of last year's ad. This ad also told us something about the product, a trait rarely found in a Super Bowl ad. Since most of the play of these ads is well past the date of the Super Bowl, the 2018 ad should have a larger impression through February and March.

Doritos Blaze gave us an idea of how hot their new chip flavor is in the taste spectrum. We don't know what kind of hot Blaze is but it's hot. Having Peter Dinklage mouth the rhymes of Busta Rhymes looks good in a Super Bowl ad but not sure how well the ad will translate beyond the days after Super Bowl LII. Consumers will have a basic idea about Doritos Blaze but may be more clueless about what make Mountain Dew Ice distinct. Morgan Freeman mouthing Missy Elliott was interesting to look at but might not play too well come late February.

Wendy's reminded us for the second year in a row that its beef is not frozen as opposed to McDonald's burgers being frozen. Pounding a point home can be a good way to use a Super Bowl ad but this difference may not be the reason why most people pick Wendy's over McDonald's. This ad was slightly better than last year's ad mostly because this year's edition didn't use a lame version of a classic rock song.

Bill Hader is not someone I would think of as being Super Bowl ad material, but the Pringles ad was pretty decent. Reminding consumers of the many flavors is a smart choice. The ad uses that variety to sell different flavors of the standard chip. The visual is also about the stacking of the chips, showcasing their unique shape. The ad should play better beyond the Super Bowl timeframe. The exotic flavors also appeal to younger audiences, a key snacking demographic.

Super Bowl ad analysis in recent years

2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

Kraft had a nice ad that didn't mention food at all, but showed us how you family. There were a lot of endearing ads this year. The Kraft ad was very nice but could get easily lost behind ads such as the Hyundai one with cancer patients.

We won't spend too much time on ads that involved candy and soft drinks. The Danny DeVito M&Ms ad was clever and will last well beyond the Super Bowl. "Do you want to eat me?" might exist in your nightmares but you will remember.

The Coca-Cola ad was cute about different likes and loves, but this pattern neglects why someone would drink a Coca-Cola. The company might want to spend some money on that topic. That ad makes a lot more sense than what the company is doing to Diet Coke. The twisted mango ad might be the worst Super Bowl ad I've seen in awhile. The young woman didn't seem to understand what the product was, a similar thought to diet soft drink consumers everywhere. If your spokesperson is bored, trust that we are bored too.

videos credit: the companies behind the ads

How well do farmers markets do on Farmers' Market Flip?

Farmers markets and television don’t mix too well. So when the Cooking Channel came out with Farmers' Market Flip, I had hope that the two finally found an ideal mix.

The network launched the show a few weeks ago, but aired a pilot episode last year. So we actually have a pair of versions. We'll illustrate the best and worst of each version then we’ll present a more ideal version of the concept.

Each show has 2 teams of 2 chefs and they compete for $5000.

The pilot that aired in 2016 is, as a lot of pilots are, kind of a mess but also nice. There are dual hosts, Lara Spencer, who introduces the segments, and Chase Ramsey, who is involved with the contestants.

The chefs are given a $200 budget and 30 minutes to shop. We get to see them shop at various vendors and there is a lot of time devoted to what farmers markets offer to them.

They make a main dish and side dish and have 1 hour to prepare. We are talked through what they are doing. Even in rushed time, we get a real sense of what is going into those dishes.

The teams are asked to price their wares and get 1 hour to sell as much as they can. Since this is a reality show, we get a dumb challenge to make things tougher on one of the teams. The pilot invokes the lame short-straw ploy where the team with the shortest straw has to sit for 5 minutes.

The team that didn’t have to sit sold out of their food. That team also priced its food lower than the team that, though they sat for 5 minutes, outpaced the other team to win. The losing team sold out by underestimated the output. We got actual money totals, $429 to $294.

The 2016 pilot and the 4th episode of the 2017 version has a team with a male and female. Interestingly, the first 3 episodes of the 2017 version fell purely along gender lines in a male-female matchup.

The 2017 version went down to a single host: Jeff Mahin. He doesn’t have the hipster beard of Ramsey but has lots of arm tattoos. Mahin is more intense than Ramsey or Spencer but has that in rather good control. He doesn’t really add anything other than walking the audience through what is happening.

The new version adds a preliminary challenge involving a ingredient from the market. The vendor of that product from that market ends up singularly judging which team best pulled off the challenge. The best dish doesn’t always win but it’s more about how well the team did to keeping true to the ingredient.

Winning that challenge gives a team an advantage. The losing team is punished by arbitrary fashion such as being limited to 6 vendors in the next challenge or using main ingredients that started with A, B, and C. While better than short straws, the show needs to spend more of its budget coming up with less arbitrary punishments. The teams still get $200 but only 20 minutes to shop.

The teams don’t set prices but the consumers voted with large disks placed in the pot of their favorite choice.

Mahin will tell us how close the vote has been. One episode had a 1-vote difference; another had a 3-vote contrast. He does interview consumers as to what they liked or didn’t like about the dishes.

Narrowing down the hosts was a smart move. I thought Spencer would be the best host in the narrowing down (Spencer remains as executive producer). A farmers market needs a softer host; Spencer isn’t too soft. Mahin isn’t really friendly but fits in well as the kind of host you find on the other Food Network/Cooking Channel reality shows.

Having 2 challenges takes away from time spent in the farmers market but does give the viewer an extra opportunity to see a finished product. We could lose some of the prep time footage to show more shopping. 22 minutes isn’t often enough time but that is the time you get.

Speaking of which, the viewer could use some good farmers market shopping tips either from the host or the chefs. Teach us as well as show us about the farmers market.

On Junk Food Flip, we have a running count of how the votes went in the final challenge. That drama feels more real plus we know how many votes each team got. You don’t want to spend too much time on the counting. It does seem like Junk Food Flip does a lot with its 22 minutes.

In reality shows, the individuals become the “stars” of the episodes. A show involving farmers markets should make the fresh food be the stars. Given that California markets will carry produce not found in most markets, such as the blood oranges below, the food should speak for itself.

Farmers' Market Flip does an overall good job of presenting what farmers markets can offer. The show could use some improvements and better time management. But the show is worth investing time and energy to see what farmers markets can do for people not participating on the show.

Farmers' Market Flip airs Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern on Cooking Channel. You can find more information about the show here.

photos credit: Farmers' Market Flip/Cooking Channel

Subway Canada chicken comes up short on chicken, according to CBC Marketplace

Americans might remember the case against the Taco Bell Beefy Crunchy Burrito where the allegation was that the taco filling contained less than 35% beef, below the ridiculous low USDA standard that taco filling "must contain at least 40 percent fresh meat."

Stephen Colbert opens up can of sand as Taco Bell lawsuit gets more publicity

By those standards, the chicken at Subway Canada is "meaty" by comparison.

Marketplace, a CBC-TV investigative show, conducted research on fast food chicken in Canada. The other major fast food chicken scored between 84.9% chicken DNA (McDonald's Country Chicken) to 89.4% chicken DNA (A&W Chicken Grill Deluxe). Tim Hortons Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap (86.5%) and Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwich (88.5%) were the other major contenders.

The Subway samples scored considerably lower than the others; the Marketplace team got more Subway chicken to sample.

Marketplace sampled the Subway Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich: its average chicken DNA was 53.6%. The average of the Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki chicken strips was 42.8% chicken DNA.

With other ingredients and marinating, 100% isn't viable. The other major fast food chicken scored in a reasonable range. The Subway chicken ended up with a lot of soy, according to the Marketplace research.

Still better than the Taco Bell taco filling allegations but not likely what Canadians want in their fast food chicken.

"SUBWAY Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted. However, we are concerned by the alleged findings you cite with respect to the proportion of soy content. Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled. We tested our chicken products recently for nutritional and quality attributes and found it met our food quality standards. We will look into this again with our supplier to ensure that the chicken is meeting the high standard we set for all of our menu items and ingredients." — Statement from Subway Canada to Marketplace

Subway Canada says it plans to sue the CBC for $210 million. The company issued its own tests after the Marketplace finding, though those findings did not address the issue of chicken DNA. CBC posted its findings online on the tests.

CBC Marketplace chicken episode (CBC News)

The CBC television show noted that the fast food chicken overall had about 25% less protein than in a home-cooked equivalent and 7-10 times the sodium levels of pure chicken.

Registered dietitian Christy Brissette noted on the show that most of the fillers are variations on salt or sugar. The sugar adds carbohydrates to a product that, unadulterated, has 0% carbohydrates.

BalanceofFood.com Canada coverage

BalanceofFood.com fast food coverage

The show pointed out that the soy protein filler and other fillers were designed to bring the cost of the product down. You think you are getting chicken in your fast food chicken or beef in your fast food taco filling. They start with 100% chicken or 100% beef but starting isn't finishing.

Fast food in the United States and Canada is a game. We will trick you into thinking you are eating what you think you are getting. You will get us not too much money for stuff that contains food. 

As long as you know fast food is a game, then you know the rules. If you are going to do fast food, know the rules. Or pick places that are less likely to play the game.

The 4 people the show gathered as taste testers were fast food aficionados. They seemed surprised that what they were getting was not 100% chicken. Those who frequent fast food the most should be the ones that really know how the fast food game is played.

The best way to "Eat Fresh" is to buy quality ingredients and make them yourself. The home-cooked chicken scored best among the taste testing. The chef used a few herbs and some salt. No carbohydrates, no fillers, no soy. Just chicken and spices. 

photo credit: Marketplace/CBC