Bizarre Foods

My wife and I have an ongoing battle over the television. I have a lot of common sense, while she somehow has come to believe that watching sports all the time is not that much fun. While it's obvious she's wrong, I am trying to find some common ground on shows we can both enjoy. Our current favorite: "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" on the Travel Channel.

Andrew Zimmern is a chef, writer, and traveler. He's also a middle-aged, bald, slightly pudgy dude. The show is as simple as this: Zimmern travels around the world, and eats the grossest food he can find. We've seen him in the U.S., South America, and all over Asia. Bugs, scorpions,lamb faces, all manner of organ meats, rotten meat, semi-hatched hardboiled eggs, and still beating snake hearts are just some of the crazy shit he's wolfed down. This show is fascinating on several levels. First and most obvious is the grossout factor. Watching him eat something no one should ever put in their mouth has a certain Fear Factor charm, and he's able to enthusiastically describe it in a way that you know what it tastes like. Beyond that, he really does a good job of showing the traditions behind the gross food, to show us why people actually eat those things. It's interesting to learn about other cultures and their history, and how food is a real reflection of that.

Zimmern has a geniunely genial way about him, and you feel like he's doing this so you don't have to. He's gracious to his hosts, even when the food is not to his liking. That's kind of rare though. He really likes some bizarro stuff. Overall, this is a really engaging show. I don't know the regular time it's on, so you'll have to check your local listings. Clips of the show are also available on demand through your cable box, so that's a nice, easy way to get a sense of the show at your convenience.

Overall, I give this show six deep-fried scorpion tails.