5 posts tagged “iron chef”
The Featured Ingredient on tonight's episode of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...
Sole
Once again I am pleased to report that the Featured Ingredient was dead, so it did not try to run away. Nor did we have to have a Reader Advisory at the start of the program warning viewers that scenes might be "distressing to some viewers".
I have also commented in previous posts on Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") that Chairman Kaga is no Bert Newton. He might be a great actor but he is hopeless at improv. A sample.
-----
Chairman Kaga (to Challenger): So you have heard about my show i n San Francisco? (where the Challenger works)
Challenger [waxes lyrical at great length about how the show is famous amongst all chefs great and small].
Chairman Kaga [after a pause, looks deep in thought]: Really?
-----
Admittedly these are the sub-title renditions of the conversations. But ... really?
Unfortunately, no sooner have I got back into the Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") habit that SBS announce that it is going off for a few weeks. Oh well.
- Earlier reviews of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") may be found on The Mount Kembla Chronicle.
The Featured Ingredient on tonight's episode of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...
- Sardines
- Ham
Ingredient # 1 was straightforward (and it was already dead, so it didn't try to run away).
Ingredient # 2 refers to the bad acting of Iron Chef Michiba Rokusaburo. Now I do not doubt that he was, at this stage of the series, ill. Indeed, he did have to drop out soon after. But the bad acting was so bad that it put me off the pendin gSardine Battle.
And he didn't look like he was in hospital, unless Japanese hospitals are particularly homely.
This man is one of the Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking" !!!! He shouldn't be showing weakness like this (and in such an unconvincing manner). His opponents will rub his nose in their sashimi.
By the way, the propaganda-style poster of Michiba san comes from Dashiell Dunn's website www.maestrosync.com. His posters and his website are well worth reading.
Previous reviews of Iron Chef may be found at The Mount Kembla Chronicle.
The Featured Ingredient on tonight's edition of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...
Tomatoes
This was a tag-team event between Iron Chefs Michiba and the .. um .. the Italian one, against 2 Italian chefs.
I was hoping that the match might end up like the famous Tomato festival in the Spanish town of Bunol - where everyone basicaally throws tomatoes at each other - but no such luck, I'm sad to say.
The featured ingredient on tonight's edition of Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking") on SBS Television is ...
Umeboshi (Japanese plum)
It was good having our own Japanese guests explaining how this is used in cooking - how it can taste salty, how it can reduce the fishy smell in fish, and so on.
This was the first program where Iron Chef Michiba returned after his spell in hospital (which, if Chairman Kaga is to be believed, was partly due to being previously beaten in challenges twice in a row).
No prizes for guessing who won this challenge. The betting shop closed as soon as we saw who was being challenged.
Readers of the California Chronicle would have thrilled to the weekly posted installment of the Featured Ingredient, as featured on Iron Chef (Ryōri no tetsujin - 料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking").
What was it this week? Chicken? Turkey (the fowl, not the country)? Horse Mackarel? Bird's Nest?
It has been quite a surprise to me to realise that I kept my readers on the edge of their seats for about 2 and a half years with this information.
However, times roll on, and blogs roll on (so to speak) - so its time to introduce a new weekly spotlight on an obscure SBS Television program.
Kommissar Rex (link to German-language website) (re-titled Inspector Rex in Australia) brings us the adventures of an Austrian version of Rin Tin Tin.
The plots are wafer thin, and the story lines have holes that you can drive the number 10 bus to central Wollongong through. But who cares? Rex is a beautiful dog who is smart, funny, cute (he has this tilt-the-head-sideways routine that melts the stoniest hearts), super-fit (after getting out of shape with bubble baths and too many ham rolls from his previous boss, Moser), and he absolutely hates bad guys
This must be why he has something of a cult following in Australia. Apparently people ring up SBS and, forgetting that Rex lives in Austria, ask to talk to him; a former staff member said in a recent newspaper interview that he (the staff member) would bark down the line, and the caller would be satisfied.
Rex is employed by the Vienna Police Force (and I use the term "Force" rather loosely). He has a good-hearted handler, Brandtner, as well as 2 offsiders who broadly qualify for nominations in the Doppelgangers series.
Rex's current handler (Brandtner) is, in my view, a vast improvement on his previous slovenly boss Moser. Moser was an ugly bloke (despite being peddled by the show's producers as some sort of heart throb) who drank a bit, was embittered about his messy divorce, and often slept in or had bubble baths before work (but was still boss of his work unit); Brandtner, on the other hand, is genuinely handsome, extremely fit (despite being given terrible scripts by the writers, involving a lot of running after Bad Guys' departing cars), self-deprecating, has a sense of humour, and genuinely respects ladies without having to chase after every bit of skirt that crosses his path.
Despite watching this program for some time, I regret that I have not yet learned much German (the program is sub-titled in English) - except for WURSTSEMMEL, which means "ham roll". They are all (Rex included) fixated with wurstsemmel in this workplace - they eat them, talk about them, and toss them about at tea break in some sort of odd male-bonding macho display.
But like I said, who cares! We watch this purely because of Rex (who is a better actor than the others, anyway).
Our American friends Barbara and Ingrid though Rex was wonderful when they sampled a movie-length episode here at Christmas 2004. Also, Ingrid (who is originally from Germany) was amazed that a German-language program rated so well in an English-speaking nation.
And so to tonight's episode - entitled
GIFTGAS
which the SBS caption people helpfully subtitled "Poison Gas"; I'm glad they did, otherwise I would have thought that this was some sort of gas used at birthday parties. (The episode titles in Inspector Rex lack subtlety; the episode showing the death of Rex's previous boss, Moser, was entitled - surprise! surprise! - Moser's Death.)
This was a very loose story about 2 Russian Bad Guys (Bad Guys in this program seem to be inevitably from Russia or eastern Europe) who plan to let sarin gas off in some big jewellery exhibition in Vienna.
What for? Its not really made clear. But again, who cares? Rex
- has some horse play with his boss over wurstsemmel for breakfast (ugh)
- advises the team about the biochemical reactions of the body to sarin gas whilst making them all tea to go with the yummy wurstsemmel
- tackles the chief Bad Guy despite being wounded by him in an earlier shoot-out
Is there no end to this dog's talents???? I think not.
- Inspector Rex is shown on SBS Television (Australia) on Thursdays at 8:30pm. Wikipedia publishes a list of other countries where this is screened.
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