2004-05-05 - 2:10 p.m.
Okay, some inane, disjointed stuff here. Primarily because I’m feeling inane and disjointed these days.
I watched the Iron Chef America programs weekend before last, and had a great time with them. Most of the reviews I’ve read gripe about how they aren’t as good as the original Iron Chef, that they lack the high camp and bombast. Yeah, they do. Mark Dascasos just ain’t no match for Chairman Kaga in the wardrobe department, although I’d put my money on Mark in a fair fight. Of course, I don’t watch Iron Chef for the camp element. I watch to see master chefs working under pressure. These guys aren’t working in some safe studio kitchen, playing to the camera. This is Kitchen Stadium, man! The program was serious stuff in Japan; reputations were made and broken on that show. The campy stuff is fun enough, but ultimately it’s about the cooking.
And if there’s one question that an Iron Chef fan has, it’s: who in the States could handle this game? Who could bring their mad skillz to throw down with Sakai, Morimoto and Chen? After all, only two or three Americans appeared on the show, four if you want to count Bobby Flay, who proceeded to make an ass of himself twice. The other guys were very good, but they weren’t household names. So, Food Network scared up these showdowns, including one final tag-team match. On the one hand, you had Hiroyuki Sakai, Iron Chef French, and Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef Japanese. On the other hand, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, and Bobby Flay. Chen Kenichi was supposed to be on as well, but he couldn’t make it. (Too bad; I would have given a pretty to see him up against Batali.) I didn’t catch all of them, as they were on rather late at night and I kept falling asleep. Most noteworthy was the battle between Morimoto and Wolfgang Puck. Egg Battle. Hen’s eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, even ostrich eggs. To be frank, it was something of a mismatch. Hell, it was like watching a mugging. Wolfgang Puck jumped all over Morimoto, bitch-slapped him, stole his wallet, and then bitch-slapped him some more. After all, Puck is one of the originators of California cuisine, and a supremely talented chef who specializes in egg dishes. Things were weighted in his favor, just a bit.
Was the whole thing fair? Maybe not I did notice that Sakai and Morimoto were holding back a bit, making more traditional Japanese food rather than some of the weirdnesses they’d make on the original program. No doubt they were relying on the essential exoticness of Japanese food to carry them. Also, the American palate tends toward bigger flavors, and so the American chefs played more towards that. None of the Japanese chefs won a battle on their own. They were still cool, though.
On another culinary note, I have discovered the secret to good homemade Thai food. Maesri makes these little cans of curry paste. Green curry, red curry, massaman, tom yum, chee chew, you name it, they’ve got it. They’ve even got recipes on the side. Stir fry your veggies and meat, add half a can of the paste and some coconut milk, and BAM! (Sorry, had to.) All kinds of goodness. Made some chee chew curry with tilapia last night, and I was a very happy boy. J doesn’t like curries, so I only get this stuff when she’s working late. (If I want Indian food, Patak’s is the stuff for me. Hoo doggies.) I can’t make this stuff from scratch; just doesn’t taste right. But for spicy, coconutty goodness like this, I’ll flex a little.
