So I’ve been watching the original Iron Chef episodes again (not the Bastardized Abomination that Shall Not Be Named) on FLN–today’s theme ingredient is Anglerfish.
What a quirky little show this is. And oh gods are anglerfish U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi UGLY fish! Strangely, that makes me more curious about how they taste. Anyone ever had it?
Anyway, if anyone’s checking it out, let’s discuss.
Fukui-san!
OK. I want to try that Anglerfish Liver Stew. I admit it, I’m perverse.
I love that Iron Chef is on regularly again but for some reason the change of the music(no longer the music of Backdraft) REALLY bugs me.
I can’t stand the new one, it really tries way to hard. Even the presence Alton can’t compel me to watch an entire episode. 
The real Iron Chef is one of the greatest TV shows in history. The American version makes me hurl.
It’s like The Munsters Today, or the New Leave It To Beaver… you just can’t recapture that kind of magic. Even the loss of dubbing makes the American version just… wrong!
Know when I knew the new episodes would suck? The nebbish “Chairman’s Nephew” introducing the concept of the new episodes, and biting into an apple. PUSSY!
A challenger victory episode! Wheeeeee!
I missed tonight’s ep, but I’m also really excited FLN plays it. It seems like Food Network sent off their good shows that were actually interesting (including Molto Mario) to FLN. I’d be worried about Good Eats popping up there (to make more time for Sandra Lee and Food Network Challenges) except Alton is crazy popular. So he’s safe. For now.
The problems with the new one are legion. They don’t need that douche reporting from the floor (Kevin? I even watch the show and I can never remember his name). Ota is necessary on the original because Fuki-san and the other guy don’t catch everything that’s happening and something don’t understand everything that’s happening. Alton knows more than Douche-Reporter-Guy, so that makes him entirely redundant (and did I mention he looks like a douche)? Second, all of the judges know something about food. Who cares if they’re qualified to judge the competition? Where are the giggly actresses, the self-important politicians, and that old lady who is either a food critic or a fortune teller depending on the season? I want celebrity judges! Third, Bobby Flay is also a douche, but he’s never the villain of the piece. Which also gets to the larger issue of a storyline. The original Iron Chef always has drama packed in. You are really invested in who wins because they take five minutes setting up who the challengers are, plus it’s easy to become invested in your favorite Iron Chef. Who cares if some guy you never heard of before loses to Booby Flay and his Amazing Blue Corn Chips? I sure as hell don’t. I’d be genuinely surprised if anybody did. But damn am I riveted when I watch the original. So basically, the food network stripped it of everything that makes Iron Chef fun and interesting and turned it into another lame cooking challenge that’s neither.
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but I needed to get that off my chest. It’s been simmering for awhile.
That was a great show! I haven’t seen it for awhile though. I loved it for the sheer bizarreness, not only of trying to promote cooks like pro-wrestlers, but the more subtle things. Like the translations for the judges were often totally different: one voice-over, one straight dubbing, one with sub-titles. Why? No idea.
Both the original and the American versions have the same harmless schadenfreude of watching vaguely annoying judges forced to ingest totally inedible concoctions of the special ingredient. Did they feature a dessert with chocolate-covered anglerfish faces sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar for dessert? Possibly sitting in a bed of rare (but poisonous) berries picked by virgins and flown in from Addis Abbaba?
We started with the real original Iron Chef, fully in Japanese with English subtitles on the Japanese language station in San Francisco - complete with cute ads, in Japanese, for Japanese products and restaurants in San Jose. Alas, they got taken off when the Food Network ones began.
While the ones with dubbed English weren’t bad, listening in Japanese was even better. A friend of ours, a professor of Japanese history, said the real Japanese was more over the top than the translations.
When we cook, we still say "the contents of the pot are… "