AB is God

I cant believe I have written like 17 entries in this thing and not mentioned another of my favorite programs and its amazing host. I refer of course, to Alton Brown and the entertaining, informative, and delicious Good Eats. I started watching this show occassionally before I was really even into the Food Network. I remember last Christmas at my Grandparents' house in St. Louis staying up until like 3 in the morning with my bro, both of us pissed that we were not able to land any smoke before we came, debating whether to ask our Uncle James if he had any, and switching between Comedy Central's Roast Week and Food TV.

Look, I shouldnt have to describe to you what Good Eats is. Since I am actually only writing to Katie I can say definitively that you do know what Good Eats is, but if I avoided saying anything on here that Katie might already know, I would really have no point in doing this in the first place. I will describe it, but you should watch the show, its incredible. Really is one of the best programs ever made. The fact that I still dont have the dvds is ridiculous.

So here is the deal, you can check out ABs website (www.altonbrown.com) if you want more specific biographic details, but basically he is trained in both cooking and science. He knows his shit when we are talking food and also fills in a shocking amount of scientific explanation to back all that up. I was decent at chemistry way back when, so I roughly understand what he is talking about, but I would imagine that for people more knowledgeable of the physical arts, this show would be even more interesting. Likewise, I can easily see AB going over certain people's heads, no matter how much he attempts to dumb it down. There is actually a really cool pattern to his explanations, he says it in complicated speak pretty quickly and makes some witty comment about how no one could understand that, then breaks it down into more regular language, and finally illustrates the whole thing with some wonderfully absurd and comical puppet show.

I havent thorougly explained enough how fucking hilarious my man AB is. Seriously, he has a very intelligent sense of humor while at the same time being sort of wacky enough to appeal to the lowest common denominator. His fascination with those little rubber googly finger puppet things rocks, they tend to represent the micro-bacteria which have to be killed in one process or another. His relationship with W, his sort of boss and antagonist who helps him in the more spy-themed shows (which there are alot of I should note), is always fucking hilarious. When he brings in his evil twin brother (obviously just AB with different hair color), for instance in the pickle episode (an overly fantastic episode, even by Good Eats standard) is equally hilarious.

There was also an episode whose name I can't remember (the names of the titles are also fabulous, the episode I just watched on mayonaisse was, of course, "Mayo Clinic") which was an hour long special mocking Junkyard Wars and other shows of that ilk. AB was in competition, as he often is, with some other cook. They were both put into a junkyard bringing with them only a few necessary ingredients and had to utilize the junk around them as cooking implements. I dont remember what his competitor did, but AB converted some old lockers into a smoker and made some incredible-looking smoked bacon. It may be my favorite episode, but there are just so many to remember, its hard to choose.

In my continuing theme of sharing with Katie (and theoretically others) things that she already knows that I like) I wanted ya'll to understand and tune in to the magic that is Good Eats. Unfortunately it typically runs up against the West Wing (9 Eastern Wedsnesdays) so I dont get to see it much anymore, but whenever they bring back the Good Eats marathon, I am fucking there. Rock on.

Peace,

MB-K