FOODIE FRIDAY II

A couple weeks ago my husband and I restarted our tradition of “Foodie Fridays” where we watch food-themed programs on a Friday evening. This came about when the new season of “Somebody Feed Phil” became available to stream. Before that we were just watching episodes of the newest season of “The Great British Bake-off.”

I’ve talked about both these shows previously, but in case you missed those posts, here’s a bit more about them:

“The Great British Bake-off” has been on for what seems like forever as they’ve had 11 seasons of approximately a dozen or so episodes each. The premise, like a lot of these shows, is to gradually eliminate one baker a week until the final episode in which three are left and a winner and a runner-up are chosen.  

The winner gets an engraved glass cake stand and the fame and notoriety that go along with it (possible cookbook or television show contracts too sometimes). They also have a nice party in which former contestants and family and friends are invited to attend (and eat all the leftovers). 

Besides being star baker, the highest honor you can achieve is a hand-shake from Mr. Blue Eyes himself, Paul Hollywood. Failing that, I’ve heard that Paul will sometimes ask for seconds to eat later, which is also somewhat flattering.

This week’s episode (we’re behind a week in case you’re also watching) was 80s week and the showstopper (the final challenge of the week) was to make an ice cream cake in which ice cream is one of the elements along with some sort of sponge. The extra element of excitement for us, less so for them, was horrendously warm (80+ degrees) temperatures inside the tent. How they all didn’t end up with a puddle of cake and ice cream is a testament to their skill and speed. Of course some did better than others with the loser going home due to a poorly executed idea.

She tried to create a cassette tape-shaped cake using ice cream around the outside instead of covering it in frosting or something a little more durable. She even admitted it was a rather new idea, so perhaps she hadn’t had a chance to give it a trial run before that day.

This was one of my favorite cakes in its creativity (though I would definitely have chosen Laura’s chocolate cake if I was lucky enough to sample one):

If I had to choose the winner right now, I think it will be young Peter because he’s usually successful in his efforts, so he’s either a natural-born baker, or has the best instincts out of the lot of them, or some combination. 

Our other favorite food-themed program is “Somebody Feed Phil” which is in its fourth season right now and we’ve watched the first couple of episodes. The premise is pretty simple, Phil (Rosenthal*) travels all around the world sampling various kinds of food from what you might buy off a food cart or a street market vendor to high end Michelin star restaurants. It’s this combination that makes it interesting as there’s something for everyone.

It’s not just Phil sampling food. Besides speaking to the chef and staff, sometimes they have him help prepare something with varying results and lots of humor. Lucky for us Phil doesn’t take himself too seriously and always has a smile on his face. 

In the second episode we just watched Phil was in San Francisco and visited a variety of restaurants, most I had not heard of. It was enjoyable because he met up with food celebrity, Alice Waters, who is responsible for the farm to table movement, among other things. I had suggested to my uncle (who lives near SF) that maybe we make reservations to eat at one of her restaurants on my last visit. He told me you have to make reservations months in advance, so we ate at a local (in Walnut Creek) organic hipster restaurant (True Food Kitchen) instead.  

Phil also made an embarrassing confession to the camera that for the first time ever something he ate took revenge on him as he spent the entire evening in the bathroom. I think he still carried on the next day as you know what they say in Hollywood, “the show must go on!”

*Phil Rosenthal is the creator and producer of “Everybody Loves Raymond” and he has the most enviable waist-line and metabolism to eat as much as he does and still stay fairly thin. We should all be so lucky.

While enjoying the various cuisines on the screen, this evening we had an extra treat of citrus honey-flavored pumpkin muffins. This was the second time I had made pumpkin muffins and wanted to give them a little more flavor by adding an assortment of chocolate chips I had leftover from previous baking expeditions. I was short on golden syrup (which I used in place of regular honey), so I padded it out with a little citrus-flavored honey I had on hand (figuring blueberry honey would be just too weird). That’s definitely the one outstanding flavor, but it’s not unpleasant. My husband agreed with this assessment, so it’s not just my opinion. 

I look forward to a few more weeks of this combination until we finish one show or the other (though we could also substitute in James May’s “Oh Cook” or Nadiya’s “Time to Eat”).

All the above programs are streamable on Netflix.