This week I have been

Reading

The 2011 Tour de France race guide.

Watching

An Idiot Abroad

Listening to

The xx

Discovering

(Or rediscovering) Hamlet - Nicki Greenberg's beautiful new version, thanks to the fabulous Snarkattack, who invited me along to see Nicki talk about the creative process behind the book.

Eating

  • An enormous serve of bangers'n'mash and a nourishing pint of Kilkenny at the Town Hall one dismal Tuesday evening.
  • A "Chachi" - chianina meatball sandwich - another brioche donut and some amazing chocolate tart at Beatrix, which Essjay has reviewed.
  • A lazy Sunday lunch at The Crimean. The Polish hunter's stew (bigos) was just the thing to revive me after a chilly bike ride.
  • Generous piles of fried food with oodles of chillies and sichuan peppercorns at Sichuan House
  • Succulent suckling pig at Liberteene.
  • An array of bright, zesty flavours at Chin Chin, where the only problem was having to choose only some of the items from what looks to be a menu that is all hits, no filler.

Links

Food and television: a match sometimes made in heaven…

… and sometimes not.

Channel Seven’s new “food” show, touted as their response to the ratings bonanza reaped by Ten with Masterchef, is My Kitchen Rules.  I think it might have been developed using the following equations:

  • Come Dine With Me x 50 = $100,000 MKR prizemoney
  • Come Dine With Me x 2 = 5 MKR couples
  • Come Dine With Me x 2 = 60 MKR minutes
  • Come Dine With Me – entertainment factor = MKR

After watching the first episode, I wasn’t inclined to persevere.  On Tuesday, however, Reality Raver had her hands full with the Survivor finale, Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance, so I watched it on her behalf.  Unfortunately, I’d forgotten my severe personality flaw that means two episodes in a row leads to fatal commitment, so I think I’ll probably watch the rest of it.

4 comments to Food and television: a match sometimes made in heaven…

  • Keith

    Your re-cap on Realityravings.com was a very funny and informative read. Congrats!

  • Keith – I agree fantastic.
    .-= reality raver´s last blog ..So You Think You Can Dance – The Top 20 =-.

  • sourkraut

    Injera
    As i refuse to pay for my tv “entertainment” I cannot comment on come dine with me, so your equations remain an x factor to me.
    But I think you are a little harsh on MKR as it has potential if edited right. What happens after week 3 when teams are eliminated? Perhaps an inejction of an arch villain couple such a s Chris b coupled with Julia could bring back that good old LOATHING factor for the girlies to watch, although I am already finding myself disliking more than 50% of them already, so watching and waiting for their fall holds a definite lure to my warped mind! I like the Qld girls, even though they seem to be a bit ingenuous)
    The format is a bit dull, the dinner parties could do with some pissed guests and a bit of pot stirring on some controversial topics to get a bit of aggro up.
    The cooking so far is a disappointment, as are the menus (how many more Italian meals are we going to see?). A bit of coaching from some other chef would be good but not the two Gs, and the judges are a bit innocuous. By the way WURSTSEMMEL how do you women determine if a man is HOT, some of the ugliest creeps seem to get gurnseys for that title and Mrs kraut refuses to give me the answer!
    The idea of the other competitors judging is a bit of a waste of time as they are all going to be 5 or max 6 no matter wot, and anyway their opinions are really irrelevent to the end result. Do the judges deduct marks for the time it takes to serve up a dish? and wot about the general ambience etc?
    Cmon 7 lets see more cooking and get some NON drama queen Asian cooks on the show.
    BTW INJERA, good recap of the last ep thanks

  • sourkraut – I agree completely with your suggestions for improvements. If seven took them all on board, though, they’d have CDWM (except that there are no chefs involved. Not even ones whose names begin with G)! You can check out the British version on seven’s Two channel, I think. It’s not so much about the cooking – more about the… vibe!

    Mrs kraut is a wise woman, keeping her counsel about the definitions of hotness. All I can say is that it would be almost impossible to break down into a set of standards.

    Keith and Raver (and sourkraut, of course) – thanks for the comments!

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