I’m enough of an Alton Brown fan to catch his short-run series, Feasting on Asphalt, but I can’t say AB’s trips across the country and up the Mississippi River really engaged me all that much. But I’m absolutely digging the third incarnation of the series, Feasting on Waves.
With the other two series, you essentially had fat Americans frying shit to holy hell. It really got boring after a while. But Feasting on Waves actually features foods that are new and unknown — indigenous fruits, local cocktails, exotic locales and colorful people. (Or people of color, for that matter.)
I find that far more interesting. If anything, Feasting on Waves is much like Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, minus the hard-boiled tone, plus AB’s self-deprecating humor.
If AB never travels across the US for the next installment of this series, it will be too soon. (Although Feasting on Waves II ought to focus on Hawaiʻi.) I’m wondering, though, if a trip through Mexico or Canada is the next order of business.
I wasn’t as into this series as the first two. But I’ll watch anything with Alton in it. I love his goofy, snarky sense of humor. He seems like a completely different person on this show than on “Good Eats”.