God Bless America!

I have a new guilty pleasure. I blame unemployment entirely, but it is here now and I think it may be to stay. It is a rather minor television programme, found all the way down the Sky Planner along with Homes Under the Hammer and the various channels that show nothing but World War II documentaries. On the Good Food channel, usually in blocks of two or more episodes at once, dwells a small televisual treat entitled "Man VS Food" and it is just amazing. In a country absolutely swamped by cookery programmes and exposés on food and eating on general, all of which tend to lean towards Michelin star style cookery, it is such a shake up to find a programme as completely insane as this one is. And who do we thank for this crude, nearly pornographic food adventure. Yes, of course, the Americans. And so I do now thank them from the very bottom of my heart.

The premise of the show is fairly simple: One man, one giant of a food warrior, traverses the huge stretch of land that is the United States of America exploring all that the nation has to offer in terms of eating establishments. The twist is that all the restaurants he visits are the kind of kitsch, fun-themed type places that America is famous for. And, as such, the food on order is less "haute cuisine" and more an experiment in testing the limits of structural mass. If you have ever visited the quite superb website "This Is Why You're Fat" (http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/) and perused through the gallery of delights posted there, you'll have a fair idea of the kind of food I'm talking about. Big, messy and probably lethal monuments of decadence, typically full of cheese.

Anyway, the presenter, Adam Richman, visits a few of these diners each episode, climaxing in an all-conquering gastronomic challenge and the basis for the idea of Man against Food. The dishes in question are either sickeningly large in size; such as the sixteen inch long, six pound burrito in Las Vegas, or are so hot they could power small towns; such as the "Fire in your hole" chicken dish from somewhere in California. Typically, these are accompanied with some kind of prize and honour and that's pretty much the show. A thirty-minute insight into middle America and the quite bizarre food practices that rage throughout the land.

So what makes this series so good? Aside from the comical foods that are uncovered each episode to a range of reactions from guilty salivation to straight out revulsion, it is pretty fun to watch the guy take on and struggle through these mammoth food challenges that are put in front of him each time. Also, it's nice to have really genuine approaches to how food should be. Regardless of how ridiculous the result, you do feel that, behind each of the "day-to-day" dishes that he introduces, there is a real connection to just serving food as what it is; a big messy luxury that should just taste good and be fun, as well as getting your money's worth, in contrast to the more refined culinary shows which often feel like they know what's best and that they need to tell us what is good. In a way, Man VS Food is more about how we should just enjoy food and not try and over think it, whereas more traditional cookery programmes are more of a battle as to making food be art, which it isn't, really.

But what I really find best about Man VS Food is that, in it's insane way, it completely captures the spirit of America. Where, on the face of it, you may just see an 20 foot long sandwich filled with 18 burgers, 30 slices of cheese, two types of bacon, half a chicken and a portion of extra spicy chili (I made this up, but it wouldn't surprise me if I saw it on there), if you look deeper, really deep, into what that sandwich is, you can see just what America is about. That sandwich is a symbol, an act of defiance against the perceived limitations of sandwiches. Against the perceived limitations of ANYTHING. And that's what America is. That's what the American Dream has always been. It is looking at what there already is and proclaiming, as loudly and, maybe, as obnoxiously as possible; "Fuck that! Lets make it eight times better and paint it bright neon and then make it fly!" That sandwich is America standing up to the world and telling it that, quite frankly, the world just isn't trying hard enough when it comes to sandwiches.

This becomes even more true with the food challenges we are shown. That there are so many episodes, each with at least one restaurant with a challenging food on the menu, shows that food challenges are part of the American culture. That every one of these diners has the belief that they need a beast of a dish so that they can stand out in some way from the rest of the world, as well as calling out the wannabe Food Heroes to prove themselves truly worthy. And I think this is just fantastic! There is clearly something insane about it, but the underlying driving force of it all is that desire to leave a mark; to have, in some small way, shouted out to the world that you were there. It's the mentality that built skyscrapers, put men on the moon, moved Chicago brick by brick and made a hot sauce out of a ton of Habanero chilies, chili flakes, Cajun spices and Ghost chili essence.

It's all insane. No-one would ever have thought to do things like this. Not many would even think they should be done. But, dammit, they did do these things. And they're proud of it and rightly so. Because any nation that strives to take the very perceivable limits of human ability and shred them into confetti, regardless of how impractical the result may end up, is gonna be onto a winner. So here's to the USA; you may make some completely bat-shit crazy food that I would never, ever want to eat, but damn if it isn't hugely impressive anyway!