Lazy Sunday: In Which I Try To Explain My Affinity For Cooking Shows

Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon.
Call Parnell just to see how hes doin.
Hello?
What up, Parns?
Yo Samberg, whats crackin?
You thinking what Im thinkin?
NARNIA.
Man, its happenin.- "Lazy Sunday" by The Lonely Island

Another Lazy Sunday is here! The day in the week where you sleep in and spend your day doing what you want, at your own pace, and just taking some time off from life. Sundays, for me, can be valuable for catching up on TV from the week. Today I was catching up on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (US Version). He really is a brilliant chef and restauranteur. Also, he's FEARLESS! He's ventured into so many smelly, disgusting, cockroach infested kitchens in an attempt to bring restaurants back from the dead. Watching the shows today got me thinking about culinary shows in general. I'm sure most of my readers don't know this, but I've been a Vegan since July 20th, 2009. I haven't had any meat and only the smallest bit of dairy since. While in Pittsburgh last week, I took advantage of my Grandmother's FIOS to enjoy cable's most exciting channel: Food Network. My Mother didn't understand why a Vegan such as myself would love watching cooking shows so much, since its all food I don't eat anymore. The answer is a simple one. Food is a marvelous thing. Even though I don't eat a lot of it anymore, I still love seeing what people can do with it. For instance, I love watching Guy Fierri, on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives, showcase amazing, fine dining food going on in--a local bar. Its amazing to me that I could walk down some street and see a normal looking, everyday bar thats serving up the towns richest, best food. I love seeing the brilliant chefs on Iron Chef: America take food and make it into more of an art form. Whether you can eat it or not, beautiful cooking and sensational food is still something fun to learn about and watch.

My favorite show about food isn't even on the Food Network. Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations, on the Travel Network, showcases all sorts of food, normal and exotic, all across the world. What I absolutely love about the show though is that Bourdain also shows the culture and his appreciation for it. The show proves that here in the US, or even in hostile or third world countries, food is a universal language.

Thats it for this Lazy Sunday. How are you all spending yours?