If I give you $40 will you leave?
Aug. 15th, 2002 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenI've posted before how I didn't get the concept of Food Network's $40 a day show and that was before it even aired. Since then I've tried to watch snippets of it and decided it still makes no sense. As far as I can tell there are no secrets, no hidden clues, no nothing. The host, Rachael Ray, just goes to places and eats meals that cost less than $40 when the day is all told. So what we have here is not so much secrets of frugal eating but really remedial math with, I guess, cafe recommendations thrown in.
It doesn't help matters that Rachael Ray grates my nerves like nobody's business. Trying Too Hard Tarot doesn't even begin to describe this girl. Have you ever met someone who wasn't quirky so much as they'd decided to be quirky? That's Rachael. She is clearly someone who sat down one day and made the active decision that she was going to be the wacky neighbor of life and therefore everything she does is not only A) faux quirky but B) comes complete with her smacking you over the head and saying "Don't you get how wacky and off the wall I am???" so it's C) doubly obnoxious.
She had an interview in TV Guide maybe 2 months ago or so and it was just as bad there. Every answer she gave was designed to show off her quirkiness - often with her saying how quirky she was just on the odd chance we'd missed the point somehow. As an example, she told a story of how growing up she and her family always ate exotic (for her neighborhood) foods so that by the time she hit kindergarten she just couldn't wrap her little quirky brain around the idea of juice and crackers at snacktime because she was so used to squid (and even asked her teacher when it was going to be served). Do you get it? No, really, DO YOU? She's quirky! She's a squid-demanding child! She's unstoppable!
She's got another show called 30 Minute Meals which apparently never airs when I'm flipping past Food Network b/c I wasn't even aware of it until a month or so ago. I caught it completely by accident and watched a few seconds just to see if here, maybe, she had a reasonable personality but no. Also she used salad in a bag as part of the meal.
Now I've actually got nothing against premade salads. I live alone so sometimes for me it actually is more frugal to buy the mix of greens I want in a bag rather than get the full heads of lettuce, cabbage, bag of carrots etc. which is only going to rot in my fridge before I get around to eating a 1/3 of it (and this is with me eating at least one or two salads a day). So that's fine. But on a cooking show?? Even if we assume the cooking show is for beginners, how hard is it to tear lettuce and throw it under the water? Plus, this is the same thing as my problem with $40 a day - there's no trick here. Yeah, if I buy premade food it's not going to take me a lot of time to prepare it because it's premade. So this isn't a 30 minute meal so much as it's not much different than me getting a TV dinner and heating it in the microwave. How did she get this show? Moreover, how did she get two of them?
The inspiration for this rant came from a commercial that aired last night while I was watching Good Eats. Apparently she's traveling now for $40 A Day. The commercial showed her saying "When in Rome, eat where the Romans eat! [quirky and overly proud of herself for the witticism smile]"
SIGH. And shut up, because it's Rome, ass. Everywhere is where the Romans eat, provided you avoid the Hard Rock and the Planet Hollywood. This is like how in China they just call it food.
Rachael Ray has officially become the burr under my saddle because I just can't get away from her. I don't watch her show, but her commercials keep airing during the shows that I like and it's just annoying. I want to go to the Food Network offices just so I can meet her in person and ask if she'll leave me alone.
I've decided what I need is the anti-Tivo. Instead of programming it to find me every movie starring Tobey MacGuire, I'm going to program it to help me avoid Rachael Ray. That way if I'm relaxing and enjoying Naked Chef goodness and one of her commercials comes on my anti-Tivo will quickly whisk me away to MTV or some such before the commercial even starts to play, thus saving me the .5 seconds of having to deal with her.
It doesn't help matters that Rachael Ray grates my nerves like nobody's business. Trying Too Hard Tarot doesn't even begin to describe this girl. Have you ever met someone who wasn't quirky so much as they'd decided to be quirky? That's Rachael. She is clearly someone who sat down one day and made the active decision that she was going to be the wacky neighbor of life and therefore everything she does is not only A) faux quirky but B) comes complete with her smacking you over the head and saying "Don't you get how wacky and off the wall I am???" so it's C) doubly obnoxious.
She had an interview in TV Guide maybe 2 months ago or so and it was just as bad there. Every answer she gave was designed to show off her quirkiness - often with her saying how quirky she was just on the odd chance we'd missed the point somehow. As an example, she told a story of how growing up she and her family always ate exotic (for her neighborhood) foods so that by the time she hit kindergarten she just couldn't wrap her little quirky brain around the idea of juice and crackers at snacktime because she was so used to squid (and even asked her teacher when it was going to be served). Do you get it? No, really, DO YOU? She's quirky! She's a squid-demanding child! She's unstoppable!
She's got another show called 30 Minute Meals which apparently never airs when I'm flipping past Food Network b/c I wasn't even aware of it until a month or so ago. I caught it completely by accident and watched a few seconds just to see if here, maybe, she had a reasonable personality but no. Also she used salad in a bag as part of the meal.
Now I've actually got nothing against premade salads. I live alone so sometimes for me it actually is more frugal to buy the mix of greens I want in a bag rather than get the full heads of lettuce, cabbage, bag of carrots etc. which is only going to rot in my fridge before I get around to eating a 1/3 of it (and this is with me eating at least one or two salads a day). So that's fine. But on a cooking show?? Even if we assume the cooking show is for beginners, how hard is it to tear lettuce and throw it under the water? Plus, this is the same thing as my problem with $40 a day - there's no trick here. Yeah, if I buy premade food it's not going to take me a lot of time to prepare it because it's premade. So this isn't a 30 minute meal so much as it's not much different than me getting a TV dinner and heating it in the microwave. How did she get this show? Moreover, how did she get two of them?
The inspiration for this rant came from a commercial that aired last night while I was watching Good Eats. Apparently she's traveling now for $40 A Day. The commercial showed her saying "When in Rome, eat where the Romans eat! [quirky and overly proud of herself for the witticism smile]"
SIGH. And shut up, because it's Rome, ass. Everywhere is where the Romans eat, provided you avoid the Hard Rock and the Planet Hollywood. This is like how in China they just call it food.
Rachael Ray has officially become the burr under my saddle because I just can't get away from her. I don't watch her show, but her commercials keep airing during the shows that I like and it's just annoying. I want to go to the Food Network offices just so I can meet her in person and ask if she'll leave me alone.
I've decided what I need is the anti-Tivo. Instead of programming it to find me every movie starring Tobey MacGuire, I'm going to program it to help me avoid Rachael Ray. That way if I'm relaxing and enjoying Naked Chef goodness and one of her commercials comes on my anti-Tivo will quickly whisk me away to MTV or some such before the commercial even starts to play, thus saving me the .5 seconds of having to deal with her.
