Round Rock is mostly a bland, conservative suburb of Austin. Dell is based there, as are numerous malls, car dealerships, and the local IKEA.

The oldest part of the town has some nice "Old West"-looking limestone buildings. Famous train robber Sam Bass was ambushed and killed by the Texas Rangers in Round Rock in 1878, which until Dell moved there was probably the town's biggest claim to fame.

The little ballpark for the Round Rock Express is nice. I've gone to see a few games there. There's a big lawn above a lot of the outfield instead of bleachers, which makes a very pleasant place to watch a baseball game as long as the sun isn't beating down on you.

Generally, though, the cultural difference between Travis County and Williamson County (where Round Rock is) is vast. My wife and I make jokes about hiding your drugs or entering the Black Gate of Mordor every time we cross into Williamson County.

I haven't thought about Two Rock, California, in a long time. I know I've seen the two rocks that give it its name, though. Did Christo's "Running Fence" go through there, I wonder? I have a vivid childhood memory of driving around with my parents to see some of the "Running Fence," and I think that may have been when we passed through Two Rock. But I've probably jumbled memories together.

I don't know for sure, but it probably did, because Two Rock straddles the road between Petaluma and Bodega.

It must be the cynical New Yorker in me, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there actually were two large rocks in Two Rock.

Epic review of Fieri's latest Times Square venture from Pete Wells.

Ha ha, that's great! I'm kind of surprised the usually po-faced New York Times let the writer run wild like that.



A friend of mine posted another good review, from the New York Observer, of Flavortown NYC HQ on Twitter: "The Crispy Crimes of Guy Fieri: Junk Food T.V. Star Takes Times Square"

Regardless of the merits of the restaurant, I would not eat anything covered in "donkey sauce". WTF?

This is a little thing, and you can call me names and think poorly of me for it--I don't really care--but the way he pronounces his name annoys me.

It's like people who don't otherwise speak Italian, but who pronounce mozzarella like matz-a-RELL. Yeah, my sister does this. It's annoying.

So fuck off, Guy FIEDI.

OK, I feel better now.

I've eaten donkey. Well, saucisson sec made out of it. But that's different.

FF, according to Wiki, he was born Guy Ferry. Maybe he just wanted to take his surname 2 Italian Flavortown.

That makes it even more egregious.

I always pronounce it "mootzarilla" in an hommage to Do The Right Thing. Keepin' it real, you know what I'm sayin'?

This bloke sounds like a cock, by the way.

That's an insult to cocks.

Ginger Yellow wrote:


Ever had a burrito?


I like Guy Fieri, his show is very good. It really does an excellent job at highlighting the quality of American cuisine in a pretty lively and condensed package. BBQ, brunch, diner fare, burger joints, X-Mex, SWern, ethnic dives, southern... it's all there.

Of course he's a bit over the top, but the subject matter lends itself to this style. The chefs often are characters too. To his credit, he's quite knowledgeable about food preparation. His show as well has gotten progressively better, because the scouting (which seems to be viewer-initiated) is better as is his editing, they have good flows.

There are many thoroughly loathsome figures on the Food Network: Zimmern, Ray, the bald guy with the square glasses who does the dessert contest show, off the top of my head, totally unwatchable crap. Many others aren't quite as loathsome, but quite annoying without being interesting like Giada (horrendous soundtrack), Gordon or the English princess who's just incredibly fond of herself. It's a pretty cringe-worthy cast (ever see Ramsay or Zimmern on their patronizing prick tours overseas?)

Fieri is on the verge of jumping the shark with his cooking show but Triple Dee is still one of the best things on the Food channel, where even good shows like Bourdain's are starting to drown in a precious sea of emulsions and liquid nitrogen.

Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins is okay. His cooking show is not.

Zimmern is on Travel Channel, Reed.

I just got here. I didn't mention Zimmern, but the Travel Channel seems to be 95% about food, so it's aneasy mistake to make.

I read that review too. Disappointing. I imagine Fieri had nothing to do with the food - he'd never have succeeded in his other restaurants with shit like that. He fucked up badly putting his name on that. As with his promotion of Applebees, etc, he's promoting the exact opposite of what his shows do so well. Another enormous shitbox in Times Square is a terrible representative of American food culture and one if the reasons the rest of the world thinks we don't have a food culture.

That Fieri guy* might be a great epicurean and perhaps even a nice man, but he doesn't talk; he shouts. Relentlessly. It is so stressful. Not everybody needs to be like that phlegmatic Hugh Doublebarrel-Name fellow in England, but don't shout at me when I'm trying to kick back.

And, while I'm at it, that Cake Boss guy in New Jersey with a not made up Italian name: Calm the fuck down, too, you unpleasant into-own-hype-buying prima donna. There's another cake guy who talks as though he is permanently stoned and is not an asshole. Can't we put him and shouty hype guy into a blender and produce a normal person out of that?


* Oh, I just saw what I did there. Totally unintended, sorry.

That's Ace of Cakes, based at Charm City Bakery in Baltimore. It's not on tv here anymore (or at least, they aren't making new episodes) but his shop is still going. I'm surprised that there's that much demand for fancy cakes that cost $1000 and up, but there is.

There are a lot of shouty people in New Jersey--most of them seem to be of Italian descent. Coincidence?

'Cake Boss' is currently the kids' favourite TV show. I think they like the screaming family antics - I don't.

Guy Fieri sounds like a guy who decides that subtlety and grace in food and life is gay and being gay is creepy.

I certainly know he believes the second to be true.