Netflix Made Me Hungry

Here's one of my pleasures -- on weekends, I love to watch food/cooking shows. I used to watch Food Network shows. But now the programming on that channel seems to be all competitive cooking shows, each with a trio of judges. I love cooking shows that present a dish you'd love to eat plus some history and people on the show that you can relate to. That plus lovely visuals. Such shows, for me, are a relaxing and informative pastime.

I recently went to Netflix to check out some food shows and found a couple of treasures I'd like to share.

In STREET FOODS: LATIN AMERICA, a person in Argentina says "We love cheese. A lot of cheese." That hooked me right away because I love cheese too. The Argentinians also love futbol (soccer), dance and they're passionate about politics. We get some appealing visuals of Argentina, some of its history and then we're shown a stuffed tortilla that had me drooling immediately. It was stuffed with ham and cheese.

In Buenos Aires, we go to the CENTRAL MARKET to see chefs and non-chefs purchase fresh produce and to connect with friends. There are popular food stalls in the market. At one of them, we meet Pato. She's the working class whiz behind that popular stuffed tortilla.

From her, we learn there was some sexism in the cooking game there. She was 14 when she realized she wanted to grill, barbecue and cook. But there, in Argentina, the males did the grilling and barbecuing. Girls made salads and set the table. Pato learned the art of that kind of cooking and pushed her way through the sexism.

One day, while playing soccer, she met a woman and fell in love. Eventually, her partner helped her in the kitchen  Coming out to her family was not easy for Pato. Neither was having her partner behind the food counter at first. Their Buenos Aires food stand is called LAS CHICAS DE LA TRES. The food visuals in this episode made me want to be sitting at the counter with a mouth full of a stuffed tortilla. Here's a taste of the show.

Because I adore tacos, I sampled TACO CHRONICLES to see the tacos al pastor. This episode was male-driven. The voiceover narration is a man speaking as a taco as he gives you history of the hugely popular taco there in Mexico City. Over a shot of meat being sliced, the taco tells us that we're seeing "perfectly golden pork meat" with "badass flavor."

We get some history of the taco al pastor with lots of favorable comments from customers and others. And I did want a platter of those tacos. But the history we get is minimal, there's not one person we can hook into -- like the fabulous Pato in Buenos Aires -- and the TACO CHRONICLES food visuals in that episode are pretty ho-hum.

I revisited the episode of Netflix's SOMEBODY FEED PHIL wherein host Phil Rosenthal goes to Rio de Janeiro during carnival season. Phil is tall, lanky, chatty and extremely friendly. He engages people in this food/travel show. This particular hour-long episode in Season 4 made me want to pack some toiletries, casual clothing and a fork so I could fly to Brazil and eat my way through Rio.

This entire hour is like segments of THE DISH that you see on the CBS MORNINGS Saturday news show. It's not just about the gorgeously presented food. It's also about the people who make it and their location. Speaking of CBS, Phil Rosenthal is the person who created the hit CBS sitcom, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.

The Rio episode is lovely to look at, we learn things about the culture and the food looks sensational. The photography on the show is great. We see parts of Rio we don't usually see. One of my favorite segments in it is when Phil finds great foods in the lower-income part of Rio. He goes to an eatery in the favela neighborhood. There, Phil eats at a place and meets the chef. The chef, who grew up in a favela, opened his restaurant to provide opportunities for down-on-their-luck people in the neighborhood. In other words, he's an excellent chef and a mensch. Phil gets him to tell the story -- as he samples the food -- and expresses the spirit of why we dine out and why we dine with others. I love this episode. Here's a taste of Phil's show.

Phil made me want to fly to Rio for the spareribs with pineapple alone. They look delicious!!!!