Feasting on Asphalt

[bobman0330]

My Tivo recently captured this 4-episode miniseries starring Alton Brown, of Good Eats and Iron Chef America fame. (Disclosure: Alton Brown is my personal hero.) The program follows AB and his crew as they motorcycle from Isle of Palms, SC, to Los Angeles, avoiding interstates and chain restaurants in search of traditional and authentic road food.

When I first heard about this program, I was a bit skeptical. Sounded like 40 Dollars a Day on motorcycles, but without the cute alcoholic. Thirty minutes into the first episode, I was forced to completely revise my opinion. The show is astonishingly good. Although the primary focus is on individual restaurants, AB uses these discrete places to really illustrate the history of traveling and road food in this country. Learn all about this history of the diner, Colonel Sanders, and how Duncan Hines (the cake guy) started his career as the country's most influential down-market restaurant reviewer. There are also a number of affectingly genuine (and satisfyingly in-depth) interviews with some of the entrepreneurs and employees of the road food industry. And, of course, AB himself is his typical fount of nerdy humor and wit.

Bottom line: I can't recommend this show enough. Ten stars. Watch immediately.