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Jan. 6th, 2011 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sherryillkLOL!
Tonight's episode of Top Chef was amazing! Hilarious!
Being Chinese, you kinda get it, maybe a bit more than the average American (white) viewer. I personally had a kick in seeing them all shop at Hong Kong Supermarket -- my Chinese supermarket when I lived in NYC. But Grand Harmony being one of the top dim sum restaurants in Chinatown? Uh, what? I've never eaten there so I can't speak to how they are but I've eaten at the other "top" places in Chinatown (though everyone knows if you get better stuff out in Flushing or Brooklyn) and I've never heard anyone even talk about Grand Harmony.
Anyway, I kinda agree with what that guy said "gweilo dim sum." The way the Top Chef people translated it as "Caucasian dim sum" was a bit misleading since it was definitely an insult. That salad cabbage thing? How is that dim sum? And even before Susur said anything about the chicken feet (which I adore in dim sum), I already knew Casey cooked it wrong. My dad does chicken feet, and he's been trying to perfect the authentic Chinese dim sum Phoenix Talons and I can't say he had ever cooked them the way Casey tried to cook hers.
Dale has my props for doing a cherng fun, seriously. I don't know about others, but my family use that dish to rate a restaurant when it comes to dim sum. How well you can balance the noodle with the filling, how thick the noodle is, how sweet or salty the soy sauce is -- it's difficult to get right. And having made them before, I can tell you it's an extremely labor intensive dish. Cranking a lot takes a lot of time and a lot of hands...
But I was thinking about how hard it's been watching this All-Stars version of Top Chef. Each elimination has been a "WHAT?! NO NOT THEM! THEY"RE AWESOME!" moment...but that's because this really is an All-Stars competition! They're all great chefs! They probably deserved to win their seasons if the person who had won had an off day or weren't there. It's not like other competitions where some contestants are "All-Stars" simply because the public liked them and they had a good social game. These people have skills and it's hard seeing them go knowing that.
But going into this episode, I knew it was probably either going to be Dale or Angelo who won it. And hey, who won it? Dale! I'm happy for him, especially with his bad Quickfire. And it doesn't hurt that we saw his cute girlfriend and even more adorable baby. Oh, Top Chef producers, you really know how to make us pull for a guy...
Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I mean, who doesn't love seeing chaos and mass failure? They were all fish out of water but really, just look at Fabio! He was probably the most fucked going into it and he ended up on the top! So yeah, it's doable! It's possible! Sure they're all freaking ass slow when it comes to making tiny dishes but you can still be slow with a good dish rather than a crappy one.
And why isn't Jaime going home? I don't understand... Seriously, I am starting to hate her making it through every single episode when she is clearly the weak link in this cast. What screwed Casey was the choice of chicken feet. They need to be fried and then stewed for hours -- they were not. Or at the very least, stewed for hours to break down the connective tissue because that's all they really are -- that and skin... *sigh*
I do love Top Chef though. I'm so glad to see it back! Don't leave me again!
...but I still don't think it's as good as the Amazing Race.
Tonight's episode of Top Chef was amazing! Hilarious!
Being Chinese, you kinda get it, maybe a bit more than the average American (white) viewer. I personally had a kick in seeing them all shop at Hong Kong Supermarket -- my Chinese supermarket when I lived in NYC. But Grand Harmony being one of the top dim sum restaurants in Chinatown? Uh, what? I've never eaten there so I can't speak to how they are but I've eaten at the other "top" places in Chinatown (though everyone knows if you get better stuff out in Flushing or Brooklyn) and I've never heard anyone even talk about Grand Harmony.
Anyway, I kinda agree with what that guy said "gweilo dim sum." The way the Top Chef people translated it as "Caucasian dim sum" was a bit misleading since it was definitely an insult. That salad cabbage thing? How is that dim sum? And even before Susur said anything about the chicken feet (which I adore in dim sum), I already knew Casey cooked it wrong. My dad does chicken feet, and he's been trying to perfect the authentic Chinese dim sum Phoenix Talons and I can't say he had ever cooked them the way Casey tried to cook hers.
Dale has my props for doing a cherng fun, seriously. I don't know about others, but my family use that dish to rate a restaurant when it comes to dim sum. How well you can balance the noodle with the filling, how thick the noodle is, how sweet or salty the soy sauce is -- it's difficult to get right. And having made them before, I can tell you it's an extremely labor intensive dish. Cranking a lot takes a lot of time and a lot of hands...
But I was thinking about how hard it's been watching this All-Stars version of Top Chef. Each elimination has been a "WHAT?! NO NOT THEM! THEY"RE AWESOME!" moment...but that's because this really is an All-Stars competition! They're all great chefs! They probably deserved to win their seasons if the person who had won had an off day or weren't there. It's not like other competitions where some contestants are "All-Stars" simply because the public liked them and they had a good social game. These people have skills and it's hard seeing them go knowing that.
But going into this episode, I knew it was probably either going to be Dale or Angelo who won it. And hey, who won it? Dale! I'm happy for him, especially with his bad Quickfire. And it doesn't hurt that we saw his cute girlfriend and even more adorable baby. Oh, Top Chef producers, you really know how to make us pull for a guy...
Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I mean, who doesn't love seeing chaos and mass failure? They were all fish out of water but really, just look at Fabio! He was probably the most fucked going into it and he ended up on the top! So yeah, it's doable! It's possible! Sure they're all freaking ass slow when it comes to making tiny dishes but you can still be slow with a good dish rather than a crappy one.
And why isn't Jaime going home? I don't understand... Seriously, I am starting to hate her making it through every single episode when she is clearly the weak link in this cast. What screwed Casey was the choice of chicken feet. They need to be fried and then stewed for hours -- they were not. Or at the very least, stewed for hours to break down the connective tissue because that's all they really are -- that and skin... *sigh*
I do love Top Chef though. I'm so glad to see it back! Don't leave me again!
...but I still don't think it's as good as the Amazing Race.
