The Gourmet Channel

     A few months ago the cable network added some channels and took away others. It happens every so often. I am not the type of person who avoids an adventure. Look I moved to Mexico. I am however a guy who tends to fall into routines once I am established. Change, it is true upsets me at first, but I get over it. It was necessary and a pain to learn all over again the channel placements. To all of my millenial aquaintances it  grates on me pushing buttons, no matter how natural it seems to all of you. 
     One of the "new" channels, El Gourmet, kept attracting my attention. It's not violent and it's based on a sensual principle, eating. Most of the other channels feature people shooting other people or zombies chomping faces in furious flurries of meaty gore. The only one flinging flanks of meat on El Gourmet is Christian Petersen in his show Maestros del Asado (Masters of the Grill). He and his mute assistant hail from Argentina. They make the most simple plates using huge slabs of meat, fire, lemons, and salt. They are practically the only cooking show on this channel set outdoors in what seems to be a backyard. Chef Petersen does all the talking with a thick argentinian accent interjecting "ehh" after every four words. All the other shows are set in a studio made to look like a kitchen in Mexico or Greece even. There is always an oven, a sink, and a  window through which one views a happy patio populated by plants in pots.I am certain everything is a prop on wheels ready to be moved or rearranged for the next ethnic chef. .
     I find myself seeking out El Gourmet channel more and more.Perhaps because food preparation is so contextual it is easier for me to understand the spanish. A far flung cast of characters whip up mouth watering plates accompanied by soundtrack that sounds as though it was lifted from a porn video. The music deliberately sounds like genre imitations yet non interruptive,,, like it comes from nowhere so as not to detract from the main act,, the making of food. I have become hypnotized by the people on this channel. They smile all the time and in the course of an hour assemble one or two perfect meals or an elaborate dessert that looks like the crest on a Hoopoe parrot. In each viewing I tensely await the moment when they have finished and bring the spoon laden with an elixir of the Gods to their lips to sip or to bite. Of course I cannot smell it or taste their concoction and it may just be too salty or too bitter yet I am right there with them as they tickle their own palates at the same time a broad satisfied smile appears. They have woven me into their gastronomic web and unlike a fly trapped by a spider, I feel myself alive living a perfect sensual moment with them,,,, even if off camera they are spitting the sour mouthful into a bucket.
     I watched Adam Liaw, one of my favorites, a Japonese-Austrailian eat traditional Sami food like raw reindeer and brown crabs in beer with brown butter mayonnaise in northern Norway, and Paulina Abascal the princess of desserts, who talks like a little girl and creates things like Tarta de fruta de la passion con merengue crujiente (Passion fruit tart with crunchy merengue). Maru Botana (What a perfect last name for her. It means snack in spanish.) a perky mother of eight who makes desserts like Arbol de Trufas (truffle tree). And then there is Sonia Ortiz, a well preserved Mexican Grandmother, whose soothing voice and motherly presentation create dishes like Tacos de tinga de res ( Beef tinga tacos). Lately I have salaciouly watched her movements,,, as her left hand is squeezing the masa. She always keeps one hand clean so as not to soil up everything,, or perhaps to slap her unruly grandchildren when they visit.
     There are so many more characters on this culinary stage,,,, which to me has become a welcome relief after all to Sylvester Stallone mowing down an army of asians.