Wednesday night, Travel Channel show Man V. Food Nation aired the episode they shot in Dallas. Our ace reality TV food reporter, Harrison Smith, dutifully watched the show and turned his report on time. I, however, failed to post it in a timely manner. My apology to Harrison. Below he recaps the show and incorporate lots of pho-ny puns in the process. And yes, that’s pronounced “fuh,” not “foe.”
Adam Richman lives the life I dream of: traveling the country, eating lots of food, acting silly, and getting paid. Richman hosts Man V. Food Nation, which, if the show doesn’t sound familiar, is to Man V. Food as tomato bisque is to the tomato. It’s the next step, naturally.
After traveling the country, eating lots of food, acting silly, and getting paid to do Man V. Food for three seasons, Richman now does the same thing—but invites seemingly normal eaters (like Pete McGillis of our own Dallas, Texas) to do it with him. Adam coached Pete to take down the Super Pho Challenge at Sprout’s Springroll & Pho. Pete had to consume five pounds of the Vietnamese noodle soup in 30 minutes.
Jump.
What the pho, you ask? Why is this guy Adam Richman coming to Texas and eating Vietnamese soup? Maybe he reads too much SideDish.
Before heading over to Sprout’s in Arlington, though, Adam took the time to make a pilgrimage to Kuby’s and Sonny Bryan’s. Will Christopher, Kuby’s executive chef, demonstrated how he cooks the house made sausages. He begins by boiling the sausages for 10 minutes to contain their flavor. Then the chef puts them on the grill for a few minutes to add color for presentation. Dave Rummel, Sonny Bryan’s “Baron of Beef,” got to show off the barbecue joint’s hickory wood smoker, the secret to Sonny’s 9-hour, slow-cooked brisket sandwich. And even JD’s Chippery got a few seconds of screen time (though I still don’t know how it is that they make their semi-sweets).
Finishing off at Sprout’s, Adam coached financial analyst Pete McGillis, a self-described Food Avenger, in taking down five pounds of pho. Chef and co-owner Alex Nguyen’s phu-king huge bowl is filled with over two pounds of noodles, eye of round and brisket in a brisket and oxtail broth seasoned with cilantro and green and white onions. Pete was drinking the broth like cereal milk seven minutes into the challenge, and 8 minutes 12 seconds after he began, the financial analyst was able to call himself the Pho King.
There were some nice shots of downtown from across the Trinity, good looks of Reunion Tower, the longhorn sculpture in Pioneer Plaza, and a Red Line DART train, but where are the shots of some of Dallas’ other fabled eateries. Maple Avenue enchiladas? Wingfield’s burgers? Fuel City tacos? Wingfield’s doesn’t have a seven-pound burger challenge. But Kenny’s Burger Joint does.
So I’ll cut you a deal, Mr. Richman. You come back to Dallas, and I’ll eat Kenny’s El Jefe Grande Burger with you. Together. Two stomachs, one burger, victory assured.
