Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I love "Lunch Lady Land" too, by Adam Sandler. "Sloppy Joe, Sloppy-sloppy Joe...." classic.
But, in a nod to a post I did a few days ago, who can forget Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang?
"like a can of beer that's sweeter than honey
like a millionaire that has no money
like a rainy day that is not wet
like a gamblin fiend that does not bet
like dracula with out his fangs
like the boogie to the boogie without the boogie bang
like collard greens that dont taste good
like a tree that's not made out of wood
like goin up and not comin down
is just like the beat without the sound no sound
to the beat beat, ya do the freak
everybody just rock and dance to the beat
have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just aint no good
i mean the macaroni's soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood
so you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin that you're full
and then your friend says momma he's just being polite
he aint finished uh uh that's bull
so your heart starts pumpin and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there's plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate
while the stinky foods steamin your mind
starts to dreamin'
of the moment that it's time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin'
into something that looks like cheese
oh so you say that's it i got to leave this place
i dont care what these people think
im just sittin here makin myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks
so you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate
and then you call your friend two weeks later
to see how he has been
and he says i understand about the food
baby bubbah but we're still friends..."

Spam monty python
If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake Andrew sisters

Peel Me a Grape - Diana Krall.

A second vote for "Cheeseburger in Paradise!" It's my dad's favorite song---I've always told him we'll dance to THAT at my wedding!

Come on a-my house (Rosemary Clooney)
Party on the Mountain (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

I love the food network and I watch Almost everything on cooking. I am sad to say watching "Chopped" is a joyless experience...There is nothing fun about this show! Ted Allen always seems like he wants everyone to have a sweet and wonderful time, but not here ! I think in these times we need some lightness and FUN!! This show should be exciting and inspiring..not ridiculously unfair in judgment and bland..It is not too late to change the format..hopefully!

Lemme see if I got this straight... we are hammering a TVFN show for sucking?! This is akin to judging hitler to be evil..... Where's the weenie? These people have already put in stone that they could F$%@ -up a one car funeral!

I cannot bring myself to watch this. Fake drama does nothing for me. And as for Ted Allen, he's sometimes insightful on Iron Chef but it seems that in every other appearance he makes he's simply reading off the teleprompter. What does Food Network see in this guy?

I thought Ted was brilliant on Top Chef, and I'm sad he left to do his food network shows but I understand that he wants to break out on his own as a bigger personality.

With that said, Chopped is pretty boring.

The way it's formatted now, the show could have been a brisk, fast-paced half hour. Instead, we have a bunch of boring, repetitive recapping and guest judge/chef blabbering.

I don't HAVE to know the competitors - they're gone after one ep anyway, but if the show is going to be an hour long, why not steal from Iron Chef (they're doing so already) and produce a two-minute bio package for each competitor, showcasing their current work/achievements.

I agree with what someone above said about the too-dark set, and yes - Ted Allen needs some hosting lessons. I don't need him front and center, but I'd like to see him a bit more refined and...host-y.

Anyone besides me feel the mystery baskets didn't present much of a challenge? The ingredients were all pretty complimentary and straight forward. Wouldn't it be more of a challenge for them to throw in a really off-the-chart ingredient for a twist?

Sure, they all seemed thrown by the baby octopus, but oddly - for chefs - though they all seemed flummoxed by it, not a single one of them tasted it first to see what they were dealing with.

Anyway. I'll give it another chance next week, but I have concerns with how long it might be around.

While Ted Allen may have been able to lend culinary panache to Queer Eye, I don't think he's got enough chops to be taken seriously when tossed into the unforgiving Bermuda Triangle that can be culinary media. Witness the beating Giada takes for her cleavage and Ina for her fussing over her husband and/or her weight - and these two ladies are amazing cooks!

As for the lack of drama, I found this to be a breath of fresh air. I got (what I thought was) permanently turned off of cooking "reality" shows by Rocco DiSpirito and "The Restaurant" debacle. I was waiting for the focus to be in the kitchen where it belongs. Instead, we were treated to the trials and tribulations of the love lives of the waitstaff and the drama that is FOH. Ugh.

I've also noticed that if a show doesn't WOW 95% of its intended audience, it's unceremoniously yanked before it even has a chance to spread its wings. For crying out loud, M*A*S*H took about 3 years to catch on and wound up being a legend. If TVFN is willing to do a show about REAL cooks, let's give them a chance to work out the kinks before we riddle it with bullets.

...aren't animal crackers really cookies? I always found the idea of eating a box of Barnum animal crackers in a bowl of Campbell's pretty rank...
A detail that never sat right with me either. Maybe there were savory or plain animal crackers at one time?

PS, I know that joint and I'm not 90 ;)

I don't have cable, so I didn't see it.

However, I have seen "Curly Top"--from watching it with my grandmother and mother on TV as a child. Perhaps that was the case with the person who mentioned it, hence the prunes/animal cracker reference.

One thing that always bothered me about that song: aren't animal crackers really cookies? I always found the idea of eating a box of Barnum animal crackers in a bowl of Campbell's pretty rank.