This is, undoubtedly, the greatest show on television. Adam Richmond, a white, rather lardy, self-educated food expert and trained sushi chef, yank eating his way through America's food hot spots, devouring whole cows and phall chillies for sheer entertainment. "i'm just a regular guy, with a serious appetite" and takes on some of his countries greatest gluttony challenges. He has me salivating over meaty goodness- something that as a peskatarian I should NOT be doing! You can see the pure joy Adam experiences as he eats the most delicious looking foods. There's no etiquette spared for the camera, he literally shoves it down his throat as if he'd never eaten before, then rolls his eyes and head in Ecstasy and groans in an almost sexually suggestive way.
It's not just greasy foods, although this does make up the majority of the foods, there is much emphasis on quality. One memorable meal I witnessed was crab cakes, made with literally just crab. There was no potatoes or vegetables filling out the cake, just crab, crab, crab and some seasoning. Adam makes an effort to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how the food is prepared and cooked and the history behind the dishes and restaurants. He's not visiting commercial, fast food, microwave filled kitchens, these are REAL kitchens with unique methods, family recipes and proper ingredients. Often the diners look like run down shacks, not the sort of place I would visit, but it proves that my preconceptions are wrong. It goes to prove there is more to america than corporate, mainstream, processed food. Okay, none of it is healthy, but it sure looks delicious. There's no avante gard or a la carte menus. It's all about size, layers, fillings and mightiness rather than delicate, small portions like we prefer over in England. We can't pretend that these foods won't give you a chronary heart attack, i'm surprised Adam isn't fatter than he is! Although research tells me Richman exercises twice a day while he is on the road. and When the schedule permits, he does not eat the day before a challenge and he tries to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water or club soda and forgoing coffee or soft drinks. It's quite sad that in america, the healthy option is probably subway.
The highlight of the show is the challenge at the end where he attempts to eat either a ridiculous quantity of food or something unbearably hot withing a time limit, it's barbarically and highly entertaining to watch Richmond intensely struggle with food. Examples include 13 pound pizzas, where one slice alone is the size of a baby, a 72 pound steak and curries where the chef has to wear hazard protection when cooking, with the heat of 70 phall chillies. He doesn't always win, but the crowd is always freverently cheering him on in a way that only America could. The boyfriend and I have decided to have Man v Food days, we are going to attempt to re create some of the challenges and will be posting photos online just to brag. Going to make giant burgers and ridiculously hot burritos. I will be starting with the crab with extra crab cakes...
