For my first food media review, I will be talking about a show that is streamed on Netflix called  Nailed It! This show has had two other versions of it, Nailed It! Mexico and Nailed It! Spain but I have never gone out my way to watch them Nailed It has five sessions to keep you very occupied. This show is presented by Nicole Byer, a television host, and Jacques Torres, a French pastry chef. On the show every episode they have as well a guest judge. Who helps them judge the masterpieces that are recreated by the contestants. Byer and Torres are very funny together as judges/hosts, they try to interact with the contestants and as well with each other trying to show a good time during this hard competition that it may be for the contestants. 

Nailed It! is about home bakers who don’t have good baking experiences in the kitchen and are very inexperienced when it comes to pastries. They go to this competition to seek redemption and cash on this series. In each episode, three contestants try their skills at re-creating edible masterpieces that have been done before. The re-creations do not always turn out great, but whichever amateur baker comes closest to a successful dessert by the end of the episode takes home the $10,000 price, which they might want to use on baking lessons or do other dessert related things. For each recreation, all the judges taste the masterpieces created and that is how they decide who wins or not, is not a lot about looks it is about the taste and which one is better and closest to the original one. 

I have watched every season of the series and for this assignment, I decided to focus on the last season that came out, season 5. This season is called Double Trouble it is within the same concept as the previous ones but the thing that changes is that instead of three single contestants there are due contestants. They could either be siblings, friends, or somehow related or connected, they both go into the competition to prove their pastries skills. For me, in a way, this season has been more interesting to watch because you see the connection between the contestants together and how well or not they work with each other.  I think this show is very entertaining and fun to watch with your family. I usually watch it with my family or alone in our free time. The episodes are not too long they are about 34 minutes long and every season has about 6-8 episodes, which you can probably binge-watch. But I do have to say that as entertaining as it is as you continue to watch it, it will continue to feel a little repetitive and you will get kind of bored of it. But as you continue to watch the show it will get better because the theme and the masterpieces change every episode and the pieces the contestants try to re-create keep getting more and more interesting. The show has this different and original concept because is not about perfection and being the greatest is mostly about effort and trying to do a good job to win and learn from this experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTPpKQ6wrLA

The first media post that I will be reviewing is Kids reacting to trying Brazilian food for the first time. In this video they are given different Brazilian dishes and they comment on whether they like it or not. I enjoyed watching this because kids as we know are very honest. They don’t hold anything back. As a kid I used to  love a lot of things that I hate now and so I think it’s important that as a Kid you try different things as much as possible. 

The kids that tried the food were surprised that they liked certain dishes that were very out of their comfort zone. Watching them try the food made me want to try more stuff because maybe I would end up liking something I think sounds weird or looks weird. Brazil is actually a very beautiful country and every time I watch Rio I wish to be there. 

I personally have been to a Portugese church and I have tried Brazilian foods. One food that the kids tried was pao de queso which is bread that’s baked with cheese inside it. I personally do not like it because of the aftertaste it leaves. The cheese tastes like swiss cheese personally for me so it is a bit like bitter in a way . Some of the kids commented that the bread was chewy which it is because of the cheese inside it. The bread is also made with cassava dough so inside it’s very doughy and chewy.  

Another food item that they tried was coxinha which is a piece of fried dough with chicken meat inside. At first glance it looks like a weird ball but after trying it I really enjoyed this one. It’s almost like an empanada but softer and more fun to eat because it’s shaped into a ball. When I tried this I absolutely loved it. The kids trying it in this video also ended up liking it as well even though it didn’t look so appetizing.  If you ever get the chance to try Brazilian foods I would certainly recommend trying coxinha. 

A dessert that they tried was Brazilian moqueca is a Brazilian stew made with white fish, onions, garlic, tomato, cilantro, and sometimes coconut milk. I haven’t tried this before and the kids in the react video absolutely loved it. I think that in this video the kids at first didn’t know what to expect and some of the food items they got were very weird looking but they ended up liking it so I am going to be more open to what I eat and if I haven’t tried something before instead of saying I don’t like I will try it and really see whether I do or not. 

Think Veganism, is a video that explains Kerry McCarthy her own personal path of veganism. After watching this video I realized and took note of many things that McCarthy mentioned throughout the video.

One thing I did realize was that I was able to compare what McCarthy said to the article of Michael Pollan, Power Steer. McCarthy spoke that many vegetarian eating choices are due to the way they think or perceive things. For example, she explained that she can’t see herself cutting or cooking a chicken or any other animal kind. Which shows how her way of eating was due to humane reasons. She says that imagining the blood of the animals causes her to have a moment of self-consciousness. Her speech relates to what Michael Pollan argued in his article. Pollan mentioned how the steers would panic if they noticed that they were going to get killed. This generally relates to some sort of existence in humanity. 

Throughout her daily life, she notices how her thinking is the principal of her reasoning. McCarthy says that many times society’s interpretation of food consumption is what deprives you of choosing your own food choices. We let others’ thinking affect our own. They say that oh “fish is good, a perfect vitamin”. However, McCarthy argued how society uses certain phrases to emphasize or encourage people on eating things. In the video, she explains how vegetables or fruits are also well for your health and how in many circumstances that is not being told to the world as much as meat consumption is. Many times meat food is the one that’s being more popularized in society. Meaning it’s being more advertised towards people so then many would decide to consume it. Though, it’s fine not wanting to eat it. Meat does have many benefits as well. However, once you imagine eating it and feeling not good about it then the decision is up to you to choose. 

Adapting to veganism isn’t hard nor easy. It all depends on how hard you make it for yourself. Mostly McCarthy points out why she chose to become vegan. She explains how she heard many negative comments from other people regarding her becoming vegan. She realized that the market and businesses also have to do with the influence of food consumption. She believes that if many people did not consume meat then those meat food businesses would not have enough consumers. Therefore, for those businesses, it would be convenient for them to have many people who arent vegan. McCarthy mentions how society wants people to believe things that they say instead of letting the individuals chose their own choices. From her own personal experience, she explains why it was hard to become a vegan. McCarthy says that yes, the flavor of its meat is tentative but yet just imagining the animals as she pours the meat into her mouth then, that’s when she feels disgusted. She truly can’t hold watching herself eating the meat of an animal that was poured out of blood while being killed in such an inhuman way. 

Candy From Around The World | Around The World – YouTube

Candy around the world is a small six minute video that talks about different candies. Even though this video is not long it is packed with information that has me wanting to search up more. Sweets are all around us and they all taste good, but we seem to forget that everyone eats different sweets and candy that we normally might not see and eat.
The video starts by stating that humans have craved sweets since around 6000bc. I searched up if this was a fact and it turned out to be true, there is a cave painting of a humans collecting honey to eat. I was surprised to see how long the history of sweets was. The first candy the video introduces us to is gummy bears which according to the video was invented in Germany in 1922. To be honest, gummy bears were my childhood and I did not know that they were invented in Germany. Then it talks about haw flakes that are made with hawthorn fruit which is eaten in China. I’ve never heard of this candy. According to the description it’s sweet and tangy. I would like to try this candy, it seems to be something I would enjoy the flavor of. After China it talks about a candy in Mexico called salsaghetti in the video they say that it is watermelon flavor gummies and it comes with a tamarind sauce packet. The video describes the flavor as sweet and spicy. Then it talks about Turkey, and the candy Turkish delight which is made of cornstarch and sugar, it is covered in powdered sugar and comes in various flavors. Later in the video it talks about Ukrainian toffee. It describes it as caramel with fruit fillings which makes it a delightful sweet, which isn’t too sweet. The video does not point it out but there is a reason why they describe the taste of the different candy. We all expect candy to be sweet, but this video points out not all candy is sweet and not all candy is bitter or tangy. Every country had their own preferences of what they want their candy to taste like, and I found that very interesting.
In the video it talks about the candies eaten in the Netherlands, Iran, Indonesia, Croatia, United States, Spain, United kingdom, Jamaica, Canada, Japan, Argentina, New Zealand, Nigeria, Italy, Belgium, Columbia, and Finland. I think it does a good job collecting information about the candy and giving a small summary about each candy. I do wish it could have been longer and would have talked about more than one candy for each country. I really enjoyed this video, I learned a lot and it inspired me to do my own research of what candies different countries eat.

https://www.eater.com/2017/7/6/15925940/instagram-influencers-cronuts-milkshakes-burgers

The article I chose to review is about instagram food culture. The main argument presented is that instagram food never has anything to do with the actual food. It is all about getting the food itself and posting about it. It can’t just be any food also, it has to be something completely original that is meant for a nice picture rather than actual consumption. Most of these food trends are some far out combination of food that most of the times is packed with sugar and just looks pretty. The elusiveness of the instagram food is whether or not you can actually obtain it. It also says a lot because the fact that you spend a sizeable amount of money on something so frivolous says a lot. People spend like 20$ on a sugar filled donut just to say they got it. Most of the time they dont even actually eat whatever it is they purchase. It is all a matter of showing off that you were able to get it and also bragging that you have the time to even seek out something so frivolous. Most of the times the food itself is too sugary and should not even be consumed at all. In addition, it isn’t only about the food on instagram but about the person eating the food. You have to eat food that has way too much calories while also making sure you look like you’re in shape, it sounds almost impossible. Most influencers create a facade so that they are not criticized too harshly online. They try to post to cater to their audience more rather than posting for themselves. Posting such an indulgent purchase while also maintaining an instagram worthy body just proves that the influencer can have the best of both worlds. They can indulge in such junk food while also showing restraint. The author interviewed instagram influencers and asked how they stay fit while also indulging in foods as such and they claimed they workout more to compensate. However, the author claims this may be possible but not likely and believes that about 75% of instagram food goes into the garbage. They also argue that the attraction to such a lifestyle is the idea that a beautiful woman can eat what ever she wants and still stay fit. Overall, I think this article provides thoughtful insight into the instagram food culture. It made me question when I focus more on a picture of an exciting food i try rather than actually eating the whole thing. I think the conclusion that we have started to eat mostly with our eyes and not with our mouths is a  plausible one. I do however think the argument was one sided and the author should have offered multiple perspectives. It felt like they were bashing instagram food culture rather than seeking to understand it.

For this first post I will be reviewing a video I watched on youtube. It was published in VICES’ channel called Munchies. It follows a man who goes by the name Banana as he tries the best fried chicken sandwich in Rome, Italy. This fried chicken sandwich is served in a restaurant called Legs. Legs is a restaurant originally located in Nashville. The owner felt like Legs needed to be brought to Italy and be given an Italian twist to it.

In this video, we were shown how the famous classic burger is made. What makes this classic burger so special is the fried chicken. The fried chicken is made with a special batter created by the chef. The batter consists of a water base, with flour and cornstarch. This batter is much more different than the traditional bread crumbs and eggs many Italian households do. It gives the chicken a much more rich flavor along with the dry rub marinade given to the raw chicken beforehand. The dry rub marinade consists of coriander and black pepper. Once all the ingredients are placed on the chicken, it is then fried for five minutes.

Another important part to the classic burger is the coleslaw sauce. In Legs, coleslaw is very simple. It consists of white cabbage, apple cider vinegar, carrots, salt and a bit of sugar. It also consists of their classic Legs dressing which is just mayonnaise with rosemary oil. Once the fried chicken is cooked, it is placed in between a Brioche bread. Brioche is very similar to Pandoro, an Italian sweet bread. Then, the classic Legs sauce is placed on the other bun along with the coleslaw that was just made. The final touches of these sandwich include more classic Legs sauce, pickles and red cabbage. Once all of these ingredients are placed, it’s time to eat.

Banana tries this sandwich and amazed by the rich flavor. He describes it as his favorite sandwich. Although I am not there to physically try the sandwich, I can taste the rich flavor by the video I just watched. I enjoyed watching Banana and Franchesca the chef, because they were able to take their audience step by step through the process of creating the delicious sandwich. They mentioned all ingredients and how the ingredients build on one another to create the overall rich taste. I wish this video existed back when I went to Italy in 2019, I would have loved to go to Legs and try their classic sandwich.

Although I am no where near Rome, Italy, the chef Franchesca, made the making of this sandwich so easy that I felt like I could recreate this myself at home. I can’t wait to have some free time so I can recreate this sandwich and see what all the hype is about.

Link: Netflix: The Platform

 The movie “The Platform” directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia is an eye-opening movie that does a great job explaining the flaws of society. However, I don’t advise people that are sensitive to violence to watch the film since it does contain gruesome scenes. The movie takes place inside a prison in Spain, people who have committed all kinds of crimes are placed here. The main character Goreng was one of the few people who willingly went into this prison. He made a deal with the administration, which was that he’ll go into the prison for 6 months in exchange for a college degree. Little did he know that 6 months in this prison would feel like an eternity. When he arrived in the prison he was placed on floor 33 where he meets his cellmate Trimagasi who explains to him how the prison works. Trimagasi described how prisoners are distributed into groups of 2 and placed on different level floors. The floors range from level 1-333, in the middle of these floors there is a big hole where food will go down once a day. Since there were many levels the food platform will only visit each floor for 10 seconds. The staff would put enough food in the moving platform to feed every single prisoner only if everyone rationed the food. 

Nevertheless, no one followed this rule and would eat more than they needed which lead people who were located all the way to the bottom to starve for a month until the staff would change their floor number. Goreng was horrified when he found this out because he thought it was inhuman and unfair that people were left to starve for a month while others would dine like kings. As the movie progressed his mind did not change and still found it unfair even when he was in level 6. When he was placed in this level he decided to make a change and go onto the food platform and telling everyone to only take what they need to eat. His new cellmate Baharat also believed that it was unfair and went down with him to try and make people change the amount they eat. 

Despite the violence and gruesome content, this movie will leave you viewing society in a whole new way. In today’s society, people tend to be very money hungry and will find new ways to make or save money. For instance, there have been many scandals that involve big corporations not paying their taxes properly while lower-class people that make minimum wage pay the right amount of taxes. This relates back to the movie because everyone that was on top will eat more than they needed and not ration the food leaving people to starve for a month. In all, this movie did an amazing job demonstrating how greedy people can be and even if they don’t need it they’ll take as much as they can.

https://time.com/5942290/eat-insects-save-planet/

Most people would pass on the opportunity to eat an insect. Who would want to eat cricket? However, eating insects might save the world from natural destruction. In this article, it tells a story of Sylvain Hugel and Brian Fisher, two insect experts that noticed a problem in Madagascar. Much of their research was disappearing as Madagascar’s forests were being cut down each year, leaving smaller amounts of trees. The reason they are being cut down is for farmers to make more room for livestock. To prevent deforestation, Fisher suggests giving the people another form of protein. Otherwise, the trees, along with the ants Hugel was studying, will be gone for good.

Fisher proposed insect protein as the solution. Two-thirds of Madagascar’s population already ate insects as a snack. If they could somehow make it prominent in their everyday meals, it could greatly relieve the problem. Hugel was squeamish to the idea of eating insects despite knowing that they were high in protein, iron and vitamin B-12. He slowly incorporated them into his life and found himself enjoying them. Now, he adds them in most of his meals. Hugel also helped Fisher establish a cricket farm, where several pounds of ground cricket meals are produced every day. The farm aids in the famine problem surrounding local communities and ensures kids to get enough nutrition.

Fisher and Hugel may have found a solution to one of the world’s most pressing issue. According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) agriculture production will have to increase to feed a global population of 9 million by 2050. Unfortunately agriculture is one of the most threatening forces of natural destruction and could potentially risk 28,000 species. FAO suggests insects such as grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms are rich in protein, magnesium, zinc, and copper. In fact, they contain more of those nutrients than beef. Additionally, insect farming and processing produce less greenhouse emissions. The only thing standing in the way of the practice would be the cultural view on eating insects. Most consider it nasty and dirty which is the main reason deter from the idea. Surprisingly, two billion people already consume insects with no shame.

I find the article interesting and informational. I had no idea the nutrients insects had or even thought of it as an alternative dish to beef. I enjoyed reading how two insect experts came to a solution for smaller problem that could be applied to a world scale issue. The author had described how Fisher and Hugel came to the conclusion by using descriptive details. In addition, the evidence they provide in the article help it become more well-rounded. Overall, the article was both interesting and educational for people who were not aware of eating insects.

Your mom is driving back home when you spot a Wendy’s on a red light. You tell your mom you’re hungry and want to eat Wendy’s. She responds with “we have food at home”. At the time, you probably threw a fuss, but as we get older, we understand how much money is spent on fast food. Fast food is marketed as fast and cheap. But is it really? According to the Business Insider’s YouTube video, “Sneaky Ways Fast Food Restaurants Get You To Spend Money”, Americans spend around $1,200 on fast food every year. A big mac meal in New York City costs approximately $11, if you were to feed a family of 5, the total would be $55.

I was interested in Business Insider’s video because I am currently researching fast foods marketing and their thumbnail made me want to click it. Just like how their thumbnails drew me to watch their video, fast food restaurants use various attraction methods to make consumers buy more. In their video. They describe how fast food restaurants make pictures of their food big and the pricing or description small. The main focus is the juicy burger in front of you. This makes the consumer come closer to the menu and check what they want to order. Some usually are on the line while doing this and once they get to the cashier, they quickly pick a number on the menu and order it. Those numbers are usually combo meals. Most combo meals include a beverage and some food items. This attracts customers into buying these combos because they get a lot of food for a low pierce like $9.98. You might question why fast food restaurants rarely round their item to the nearest dollar? This is because the customer mentally feels like they are buying their meals for a cheaper price. If you were to add the items within the combo, the overall price would be less (Business Insider). However, consumers are hungry and don’t got the time to do that.

One major marketing tool many fast food restaurants use is coupons. I will admit that I have fallen for these. For example, I love coffee! Especially when I did not get enough sleep or I have a lot on my to-do list. Dunkin is currently selling 2 medium coffees for $5, and since my sister likes coffee, I get this deal. Since this deal has been out, I have been buying more coffee. This is what fast food restaurants to want, to make more money. Make customers come back and become addicted to their items. Yesterday, I went to Target and a 4-serving cold brew was $5, which is $1.25 per serving. I added French Vanilla creamer, which costs $3.59. Since I put a dash of cream on, it usually lasts for a long time. My coffee at home would be around $1.50, compared to the $2.50 I would spend at Dunkin. Now, I understand why my mom always said there was food at home.

https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/143569/myth-breakers-spicy-food/

For my first food media review, I decided to pick an article from New Food Magazine. The article titled, “Myth Breakers- spicy food helps prevent foodborne illness” talks about Darwinian gastronomy and why spicy food is more common in the hotter countries rather than the colder countries. I decided to pick this text because in the past I have heard that spicy food helps with your body so it would interest me to read an article that talks about the connection between spicy food and foodborne illnesses. While I was reading this article, I found the part of Darwinian gastronomy the most interesting. Darwinian gastronomy in other words is when food from each culture/cuisine is thought to help with adapting to our natural environment. For example, in this case, the article mentions how spicy food is common in  more hotter countries such as Thailand and India because it can prevent you from getting sick. However, this text proves that this is not the case. The text states, “We found that hotter countries do use more spices per recipe, but this is largely due to patterns of similarity between related and neighboring cultures.” This quotation from the article proves that spices do not actually help with keeping people healthy but instead it tends to be more culture related. To prove this, an experiment was conducted where they collected 33,000 plus recipes from 70 cuisines. To conclude, their hypothesis that spice could prevent airborne illness was proven wrong. As I continued reading, one thing that shocked me was that spice could lead to poor health outcomes and lower a person’s life expectancy. This shocked me because rather than being helpful to foodborne illnesses, it actually could lead to a higher risk of infection from diseases such as malaria. That being said, it is found that spicy food is much more common in places with lower socioeconomic status. In my opinion, being in lower socioeconomic classes ties in with a lower life expectancy because people in these areas are not consuming enough nutritious intake daily. After reading this text, it made me wonder if there is an effect of the spice that many Americans consume daily. 

I think that this text was really interesting. I never really thought about the fact that spices came from the much hotter countries or how eating spice could have health effects. It was something that I never paid much attention to. I feel that after reading this text and knowing about how spicy food decreases life expectancy, it makes me not want to consume too much spice. Like mentioned before, I found the Darwinian gastronomy super interesting because I also always thought that eating spicy food could actually help you when you’re feeling unwell. Although it is proven that spicy food doesn’t actually connect with preventing airborne illness, I think that this text from New Food Magazine was overall really interesting. It allowed me to have a better general understanding of spice from other countries and the effects that it poses.