My dear wife Karen and I are relaxing in front of the wide screen with some easy-to-watch TV, as we like to do, and a previously DVR’ed episode of “Guy’s Grocery Games” from the Food Network is winding down.
I’m splitting my attention between the contestants and my iPad Air and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, as is my habit here in the living room of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Reading some of my friends on BloggyVillge. Patting some rescue mutt. Watching some chefs from Washington, D.C., Cleveland and Seattle.
The guy from Cleveland made kielbasa in the first round when they were ordered to cook foods to represent their hometown, and I started cheering for him. The dude from D.C. made beef tartar, causing me to pay even more attention to the flat scree, enough to shout my opinion that streak tartar had absolutely nothing to do with the culinary traits of our nation’s capital. The fourth contestant was eliminated for some other faux pax.
I concentrated on you all and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle until the final round, when I noticed that called to cook something two ways, D.C. dude chose one of those dishes to be lamb tartar.
Enough!
The dude.
The dish.
I announced to MDW Karen how nobody I knew ordered uncooked meat when I lived down there, grabbed my iPad Air to snap this chef’s picture, and actively started rooting for the west coast chef who was preparing cooked fish two ways.
The panel.
Guy Fieri and the judges ate and deliberated.
The winner is announced. (Photos from my flat screen)
The cooked food won. Guy said it was because he gave them tartar twice.
I didn’t try to get either contestants’ name, figuring the only people who cared were friends and family. If you are friend or family, please feel free to comment below with a name.
Have you ever cooked, or eaten, a tar dish? Have you ever washed ‘Guy’s Grocery Games’ on the Food Network, and if so, what do you think of the show? If you’re cooking to win and the final round is ‘two ways,’ what’s your final two dishes??
Mark Bialczak 
Maybe the raw meat represents all the pork being thrown around Washington these days.
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Could be, Cat!
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How have I not seen this show, Chum! I will have to investigate over the summer. Sounds so good. Give Ellie a scratch for me.
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I think you’d enjoy this one, Red. It’s got something going on every second. And consider Ellie B scratched. 🙂
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Guy was at our house the other night showing us downtown SYRACUSE! I took some pics – may post them and you can let me know if you’ve been there 🙂
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I remember when he was here, they made a big deal of it, Rachel. Of course!
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Next time you and karen need to get in the diner and wave to us. We would probably see the show a couple of years later 🙂
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A little sign, Hi Rachel and Steve!
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I would be cheering for the kielbasa, Mark, too! Yea!! Go Cleveland and hometown foods. We claim to be the home of pierogi’s but mainly have a lot of past Polish ancestors settled here. So, onions, peppers, sauerkraut, sausages and those potato stuffed fried pierogis are some delicious foods available in homes here! Did they ever figure out why he chose steak tartare? I have never tried raw meat but my friends tease me since I like a lot of my steak and other meats, medium rare. Smiles!
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Yay for Cleveland Polish food, Robin. I want some kielbasa and kraut and pierogi now that you mention it. Or steak, medium. But tonight we are having meat loaf, and that will be yummy, too. 🙂
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No raw meat or fish for me. It’s a generational thing i think. My Mum and Dad lived through WW2 and they always taught me about bacteria, how easy it gets into food and how if the food wasn’t properly cooked, i’d likely die from food poisoning. Ha! Yikes! I never had pork that was any color than black until I left home.Trichinosis, you know. I was 50 before I dared try pork with any pink in it. I’m starting to wonder if either the risk was over stated or the bacteria control has gotten much better. What ever, my programming is done and it precludes any meat or fish that is not cooked – although I can tolerate and even enjoy rare now.
So much that is on TV now is about competition and winning. I’m a collaborative type guy and usually just change the channel when i get to the competitions. The dialogue and set ups are so fake and forced and corny on the competition shows- like every tiny detail could be the make or break. I do watch the occasional trucking show that is competitive and i would fire every one of the reckless bast**ds for jeopardizing others’ lives as they race about the countryside trying to get there faster or deliver more loads. We used to call them super-truckers in the biz and they were dangerous. Your luck just will not support a focus on speed for any length of time. I’ve fired better guys than those on the shows many times.
I do enjoy non- competitive cooking shows like Rachael Ray. She makes some wonderful stuff and i enjoy her guests.
I have to say Mark those were great pictures especially since many were screen caps. Your flat screen has to be 1080 dpi to get that kind of quality. Nicely done.
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I was the same generation of food poisoning fear as you, Paul, and I cannot get over the pork and lamb variety, especially. Chicken and poultry, too, obviously. It’s just me. So, raw, no way. Those trucker shows are really wild. They are so dangerous. I can see you yelling at your TV at the foolish souls. And, yes, our flat screen is top of the line. However, I don’t think our cable company broadcasts in 1080 dpi, because the Blu-Ray movies look so much crisper than the TV broadcasts. I know I probably could click something and check, but … Anyway, thanks, I think the photos look pretty good for me using my iPad Air for capturing a TV show. 🙂
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No to the raw meat dishes – though a medium rare ribeye might be considered such. That, my friend, I would eat any day!
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Yes, cook it medium rare and I will dig in, Michelle, for sure. 🙂
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No tar dishes. But I do love Guy! 🙂
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Decades ago, while studying in Paris one summer, I accidentally ordered steak tartare. The French words for “cooked” and “raw” are remarkably similar and when I did my best to ask in French if the meat was cooked in this dish (the menu was in French and I wasn’t sure how to translate that word so much like “cuit”) the waiter apparently thought I was saying raw. He was SO unhappy with me when I refused to eat it… For some reason my friends and I really liked this restaurant — well, mostly the best onion soup of my life — and this, sadly, was not the only time one of us upset the wait staff… It was 1972 and the French were mad at the US over Viet Nam–and possibly just in general– so it wasn’t all that unusual that summer to have French people mad at us… Thank goodness that animosity toward Americans finally calmed down.
I’m with you though, I think the tartare thing is from over there and I’d hazard a guess that it isn’t deep in the culture of any area here so I’d find it an odd choice to serve in the circumstance you describe. And that one does look especially yucky!
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Hey Yoga! I was in Paris in the spring of 1972. You are right – they hated Americans. As Canadians we were often mistaken for Americans so we got these little Canadian flag pins and wore them on our lapels – they loved us (a few Americans we met bought them from us but we had plenty more). My friend Peter and I went out for a walk one day and a black mariah came screaming down the road ( A large black police van use to transport either prisoners or police special forces). It had the siren going and the blue lights flashing. Peter stepped off the curb and started taking pictures. The van veered towards us and came to a screeching halt right in front of us. The back doors slammed open and eight heavily armed special forces jumped out and ran towards us and surrounded us.. We were scared shitless. The front two doors opened and two officers got out and walked over. They started to speak to us in French and we replied in English (our rudimentary French being completely lost in the fear). Then one of the officers spotted the small flag pins and went “Ahhh, vous etes Canadiens!” Everyone relaxed after that and the guns got pointed at the ground. He switched to English and explained that it is illegal to take pictures of police or police vehicles in France. Apparently organized crime is a big thing there and the police did not want the gangsters building dossiers on their policemen. Anyway, he was very nice, said he had to take the film, which he did, but then he got out his wallet and paid Peter for the film – which I am sure was his own money. We learned a lesson that day.
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Wow, what a story. Yes, there was a hierarchy of likes. Although I’m wasn’t fluent, my accent has always been good so the French are generally surprised when we hit the point where it becomes clear I’m not French. On that trip their next, hopeful, guess would be Itaiian (I’m dark-haired and vaguely Italian-looking). By then I’d usually spoken enough for them to catch the English accent so next they’d guess English, then Canadian. Then with great disappointment, “Ah, vous etes Americain” and our budding friendship would wither…
I did not know that rule about photographing police — glad I never pointed a camera in the wrong direction as I’m pretty sure in those days when they found out I was American I’d have been locked in the catacombs or something 🙂
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That’s a great talent, to master a foreign language to the point where the natives cannot guess your ethnicity, Leigh. I’m impressed!
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Sadly, not so much mastery. I have a very good ear for the sound of a language and can match the accent quite well but I have little talent for actual fluency… C’est la vie 🙂
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Asi asi. Como se como sa. 😉
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Another amazing life lesson from Paul Curran. Yikes! Pays to be Canadian abroad, my friend.
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o.m. gosh, Paul!
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I saw part of that show bro Mark. Raw meat topped with a raw egg? Time out for the porcelain goddess. I switched channels at that point. Guy Fieri isn’t one of my favorites to begin with, and Alton Brown with his dumb and dumber show is even worse. Give me the Food Truck challenge any day. Or the Food Court, next Food Network, next Iron Chef, beat Bobby Flay, but I can live without GGG and Alton Brown. And I can definitely live without raw meat and raw fish. No sushi for this geisha unless it goes into the flame first.
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I like the shows but not the raw meat, sis. Oy.
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Especially with that raw egg on top. The shows would be okay without Guy and Alton, Just tired of them.
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They are over the top — Guy, Alton and the egg — but that’s how the Food Network wants them to be, sis Angie. I like Guy and Alton but not the raw egg.
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I confess: sushi is a huge weakness. Raw cow or sheep? Not so much.
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At least you draw the line between yeesh and yuck, Barb. 😉
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That looks disgusting. There is nothing about that dish that’s even remotely appealing.
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I know, Me Who. Gack!
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i’m not a fan of raw meats, only raw fish on some sushi pieces. dumb and easy choice on his part, in my opinion. for my dish, i would make cupcakes two ways, or pasta, or pizza. oh, i’ve just named some of my fav foods!
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Your choices: Smart, tasty, cooking! His choice: dumb, not cooking. Beth wins! Beth wins!!
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Um, I’m a foodie, but I’m not a big fan of meat, overall. I don’t eat much of it, and when I do, I eat tiny portions. But, I’ve had several kinds of steak tartare, and it’s alright. I wouldn’t eat the whole thing. One bite is enough for me. I think that lamb tartare above looks VILE, and I would not taste it. It’s like it’s been pureed! (And other gross stuff.)
I think it’s totally stupid to do tartare twice in one competition. That’s not showcasing ability.
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Yeah, the whole process of how he made it turned me off from the start, Joey. I’m so ignorant to it, I didn’t now how to spell tartare properly, apparently. Live and learn! 🙂
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Steaks from the grill for you, then? 😛
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Well, sure, Joey. But my palate is more sophisticated than merely that.
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I have had tartare. It’s okay, in small doses.
I guess you’d never go for sushi, either?! Now that, I could eat all day. Alternating days with hot, cooked meals, though.
Never seen this show and now, with your heads up, never will.
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No, VS, I don’t care much for cooked fish, so sushi is out, too. 😦
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I don’t eat meat so the thought of raw dead sheep being served on a plate is way over the top! Tuna tartare, on the other hand, a definite yes! The more I hear about cable TV’s reality shows, the happier I am that my TV is hooked up to an old fashioned antenna (actually a state of the art antenna, to be truthful!).
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You have to hook up state of the art to get the high def shows over the air, Ros. I know you must like your network news in high def on your flat screen, right?
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Raw meat. Hmmmm. I prefer mine to have been somewhere near a heat source.
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Yeah, Fannie. Raw is for vegetables and the winter weather and language when I stub my toe. 😮
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Meat is meant to be cooked…. and to my taste, generally charred. I’m surprised the show wasn’t canceled due to an outbreak of salmonella…
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Lamb, raw. Ewwwwwwww. I with you, Bill.
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I’ve never seen that show, but it sounds like a cooking show, which makes me wonder why someone would go on a cooking show and not cook anything.
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I know, Scott. Tartar. Really? Impressive to the judges. Not!
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I don’t know how to make anything tartar without producing food poisoning… But I do love me some food network. I also like the cooking channel. I’ve been known to watch the food network all day long on lazy Saturday’s…except that Ina Garten bitch, I can’t stand her.
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I’m such a product of now-and-wow TV, Hollie, all my Food Network show guilties are the ones that have a competition element to them. food trucks, food courts, next food stars, Triple G. Cutthroat, Chopped … you get my drift. The thing about tartar is, to my, personally, YUCK!
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Why yes I have eaten tartar before. Beef, lamb and tuna. I do think tuna has almost become a cliche. No I have never watched “Guy’s Grocery Games” before. Whenever I came across it while channel surfing all I saw was some guys rushing down grocery aisles so it didn’t grip my fancy. I may have to check it out now. As for the two way cooking challenge. If I were to pick a food representative of Indiana I would pick pork loin as a smoked loin Manhattan, what folks in the east called open faced. Meat on bread with mashed potatoes and gravy. And a breaded.tenderloin sandwich. I agree with you on the whole steak tartar thing. Washington DC? As for the lamb form of it I automatically think of Kibbeh nayeh. A very middle eastern dish. Now what state was that supposed to represent? DC? Laughter and slow head shake was his response.
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I can relate to the open-faced sandwich, Benson, and Syracuse can reflect Midwestern/Indy tendencies in a lot of ways, so there we go. I the winter, an open-faced roast beef, gravy on the meat and mashed sure makes a warming lunch. 🙂 Yes, the carts ‘a flyin’ part of the show is pure spectacle, but the cooking portion still fascinates me as well. Same with the show is backs on Sundays on The Food Network, ‘Cutthroat Ktichen.’
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