Has Adam Richman jumped the shark?
Maybe, if the Travel Channel's increasingly portly celebrity face-stuffer had some help, a pair of really springy shoes, or a trampoline and a really small shark.
That's at least a pretty fair conclusion after watching his rather odd sequel to Man v. Food, dubbed Man v. Food Nation, which last night traveled down to the Keys to find new candidates to embarrass themselves and eviscerate their intestinal tracts on national television.
The episode kicked off with Richman swooning over a vicious assault on
what is easily the best-eating fish on the planet, the delicately
flavorful hogfish, at Stock Island's Hogfish Bar & Grill. In an act
of culinary sacrilege equivalent to smearing ketchup and peanut butter on
a slab of perfectly seared foie gras, the "chef" obliterated the fish's
subtle, lobsteresque flavor (it uses its tusk-like teeth to feed on
tiny crustaceans in coral) by smothering it with sautéed mushrooms and
onions and molten Swiss cheese. Oh, the horror!
Then there was a
segment at Blue Heaven, a Key West institution that really is worthy of
the name. (Try the luscious shrimp 'n' grits or, in season, the killer
lobster eggs Benedict.) There, Richman inexplicably gobbles Key lime pie
with a surly looking Vanilla Ice, a never-was who clawed his way up to
the status of has-been and has not only jumped the shark but beaten the
poor animal to death, filleted it, eaten it, and shat it out again.
Following
that, our hero journeyed north to Key Largo, where he and his protégé du
jour, a comely (and very tiny) UM student named Cassie Glenn, hit up
the hugely mediocre Key Largo Conch House to join a handful of other
suckers... er, contestants, in a conch-fritter-eating competition.
Though
anyone who's eaten this supposed delicacy knows that conch fritters are
essentially burnt and crusty globules of undercooked batter threaded
with tasteless rubber bands, little Cassie managed to choke down 26 of
the suckers before her gag reflex kicked in, unfortunately not enough to
win the title of fastest trip to the hospital for an emergency stomach
pump.
Watching the ever-more-bloated Richman and seemingly
ever-shrinking Cassie together was like watching the Goodyear blimp
hovering over a flea. I have no doubt that in top Man v. Food shape, he could have eaten seven or eight of her, providing he first dipped her in water to allow for smoother gullet action.
In
any event, if you want to see for yourself, the episode will be
repeated Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 9 p.m. There are a bunch
of other dates too; to see them, go here.
And watch out for sharks.
