OK, I want Alton Brown’s job. His latest TV show is a four-part series on FoodNetwork called "Feasting on Asphalt." Alton and his crew ride from the Isle of Palms, SC, to Los Angeles, sampling the local cuisine along the way. AB and crew have tried to make this a true "blue highways" experience by shunning interstates and and anything that remotely looks like fast food.
Alton’s quirky nature is instantly appealing, and his approach to the traveling food critic genre is much mcuh more palatable than anything else FoodTV offers. I don’t think I could stand another episode of Rachel Ray’s whiney voice as she undertips her waiters. The show also combines three of my favorite things:
- Travel and exploration
- Sampling local food
- GPS technology
In addition to the first two, which are obvious, "Feasting on Asphalt" gives the lat/long coordinates for each of their stops. The FoodNetwork website has a list of the locations and addresses, but the coords are hard to find. There is a chart on Wikipedia that does a much better job of listing the coordinates. I keep searching to see if someone has created a Google Earth KML file for the show, but the closest I can find is a site that uses Microsoft’s new Virtual Earth. I’m sure the KML file won’t be too far off. Garmin is also getting some promotional mileage from this by equipping the team with GPS technology.
So far I’ve caught the first two shows. Episode 4 airs this Saturday, August 19, and supposedly features Alton wiping out on his bike and breaking his clavicle.