French Fry Diary 420: The Supersizers Go... Victorian

I caught this one on The Cooking Channel. "The Supersizers Go..." is a BBC show unfortunately inspired by Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me. The hosts, food critic Giles Coren and radio personality Sue Perkins, pretend to visit a specific time period each episode and basically bitch about the grossness and nutritional non-value of that era.

I discovered the Victorian episode while flipping through the channels and discovered them talking fish and chips. I was hooked, pun unintended. I set the DVR for record when it was repeated later in the evening so I could write about it for you fine folks.

I liked Sue right away as she was also a fussy eater, maybe not a catastrophically picky one, but still a non-adventurous pain in the butt after my own heart. The first mention of the favorite fried food was regarding breakfast. The Victorians ate fried potatoes for breakfast, among other fattening items, fun stuff like mutton cutlets and smoked mackerel with anchovies, all of which they noted the calorie counts.

Among the oddities and goodies I learned in the show include that despite her horrible diet, Queen Victoria lived to the grand old age of eighty-one. I guess fried potatoes every day are a bad idea. I also learned, and this one's for the "Doctor Who" fans, that jelly babies, at least according to this show, date back to Victoria's era. Maybe The Doctor introduced them early.

Something else I've gotten from the episode is that in Victorian England, despite the fried potatoes and jelly babies, they ate a lot of disgusting crap. I'm talking cow's brains, heads, and ears, and that's just for starters. Luckily though, after dinner, Giles and Sue went out to a chippie for fish and chips, a street dish that originated at this time.

Fish and chips, again, according to the show, comes from Jewish immigration to the UK from Poland and Russia. Jewish families could not light a flame after sundown on Fridays so they battered and fried their fresh fish to make them last longer for the weekend. Again, Sue steals my heart by saying fish and chips is one of the greatest inventions of all ages, even over and above the electric lightbulb.

Probably one of the few dishes they actually enjoy throughout the episode, they sit and happily eat their fish and chips, from newspaper cones, with their hands. Yeah, baby. Potato croquettes pop up later, as do many courses of garbage dinners, a trip to a pub, and a Christmas meal. Trust me, the fish and chips were the highlight of this fairly educational romp.

French Fry Diary 192: Freaky Eaters on TLC

There's a show airing on The Learning Channel called "Freaky Eaters." In this American version of the original BBC series, the emphasis is on the freak. No one should as picky as these picky eaters are seems to be the point of this series. It's bad for you, and the Health Nazis are coming for you if you're like this.

Case in point - Amber the so-called French fry addict in the episode called, appropriately enough, "Addicted to Fries." It is mentioned early on, but never again, that Amber's lifelong eating of French fries, and only French fries, has not affected her heath at all. She just wants to know if there is anything wrong with her that that is all she wants to eat, and if there is anything wrong with her daughter who seems to be following in her footsteps.

The show hosts, Doctors Dow and Virgin, who try to help Amber are like a cross between rabid dogs and those shrinks on "Hoarders." They think there's something wrong with her, and that they have to fix her. Even though the fries have never impacted her health, they have to go.

Just for the record, and for those folks who do like the favorite fried food, Amber's weapon of choice is Ore-Ida crinkle cuts, deep fried in a pot of oil. Hmmm. Not the best way to do it. Unless of course you like greasy fries.

It does turn out that Amber does have something wrong with her, genetically. Her system can only tolerate French fries and a few other foods; anything else will make her sick. So it's genetic, and extremely rare, so she can't help it. Her daughter on the other hand has no such anomaly. So I'm watching this show, waiting for the two genius doctors to help the daughter expand her range of foods.

Nope. These Health Nazis won't let Amber be and insist she try new foods anyway, even if they make her sick. They basically ignore the daughter, who does need help. The doctors start by making Amber try French fries in different colors, which is absurd. Picky eaters have trouble with other colors and textures of foods, but they already determined she doesn't fit into that category, and yet this 'therapy' is forced upon her. What about her daughter?

On a side note, the rainbow fries do remind me however of those Funky Fries that Ore-Ida made for a while.

I love this. It's just like those darn Health Nazis when they complain about McDonald's and other fast food places. They would be happy if all the restaurants shut down and French fries were made illegal. Mind you, I have no doubt that cigarettes and alcohol would still be legal in their world. Wake up, people, blame the behavior, not the food.

The doctors finally do incorporate the daughter into the treatment and they got both mother and daughter to try a cucumber. The epilogue mentions that Amber has added fifteen new foods into her diet. There's no mention of her daughter.

Baked Potato Song

From the BBC series, “Shooting Stars.”