Nashville. Aka Music City. This town has certainly earned a reputation for music and with a music scene comes hungry musicians looking to eat cheap and well. And that we found my friends but I would be flat out lying if I didn't tell that I had one thing on my mind when we came here: Nashville Hot Chicken. In my 20s, those jovial and carefree years, yours truly was a bit of a hot head. I craved, sought out and created the spiciest food imaginable. If Man v Food was running in the early 2000s, I would have been primed to take on that gig. But that volcanic appetite eventually would settle, becoming almost dormant if you will, unless a particular hot wing or Thai curry happened to come my way. Now I wasn't looking to become the next Adam Richman on this episode of Cheap Eats, in fact I tried that once on an off day shooting in Jackson Hole last season and the lesson I learned is shooting 12 hours a day on a weak tummy is a bad idea. Still, I wanted to at least experience some heat. And if you saw this episode, I certainly did. But Nashville is more than just spicy chicken, it is a land of Cheap Eats so grab some napkins and lets dive in!
(more…)
Spokane on the brain! Yeah, I definitely has Spokane on the brain. If you caught this episode you would have also caught on to the fact that the crisp air caught me for a bit of a cold. I give props to the magic of television and the amazing people serving up Cheap Eats in Spokane, who helped me pull through what was the toughest shoot of my life. I think this episode flowed and the energy I found here was surging at the thought of this food scene getting some of the National spotlight. But that's all TV talk, and we are here to talk about some Cheap Eats, on the EASTSIDE of the Pacific Northwest. So let's go get into it!
(more…)
Virginia is for lovers, or so the cool t-shirts say. When I think about how Cheap Eats has hit up the Commonwealth three times in two season, I think the t-shirt could be tweaked to say "Virginia is for Food Lovers". I love Virginia and I say that thinking about the terrifying events that unfolded in Charlottesville over the weekend. I'm yearning for love and healing while dealing with the fear and anger that has enveloped us with the events of Charlottesville; a city we also visited this season. It seems trivial to want to dive back into the Cheap Eats episode of Alexandria while so much more is happening in Virginia and as a nation, but I am also reminded that food brings people together and I think that is what we need to do right now: come together. So with Cville on my mind and lots of love for my friends there, let's check out the killer eats and celebrate the great peeps in Cheap Eats Alexandria.
(more…)
If someone was to ask me for a good Indian restaurant recommendation, my first thought is a divey curry joint. Not one in particular really, although I think back to the four or five blocks of LA's Koreatown that became designated Little Bangladesh, and the ideal spot has a row of steam trays to be avoided, Bollywood videos blaring off a cheap television set, members of the Indian sub continent diaspora lounging about for most of a hazy afternoon, and of course one regional specialty, like a goat biriyani, that really brought you here in the first place. Expect your china to be chinet, your silverware to be plastic and your appetite to be truly sated. Portions will be generous and the powerful aromas of the dining room will also be found on your plate(and your clothes). If you order wisely your meal will be most certainly regional, "authentic" if that words suits you. Legit is how I like to describe places like these.
(more…)
Portlandia. PDX. Or just plain Portland, Oregon. Whatever you call it, we all know this city has a rep for food, style and weather. This was not my first visit to the PDX. In 2014 I was sent all along with an army of food bloggers(vloggers) armed with the now defunct Tastemade app to shoot and eat the heck out of this venerable food town. I discovered loads of young chefs taking fried chicken seriously, farm to table tacos, plenty of killer hip Asian eateries and of course food carts. In 2017 not a lot had changed. The food carts were very much a part of Portland's food culture and the chefs I met were as energized as they were in 2014 and their dining rooms packed with happy customers with insatiable appetites. If you don't know, it takes three days to shoot an episode of Cheap Eats and frankly that just ain't even close to enough time to check out the bounty that exists here. Still we found some damn fine grub so let's just sink some teeth right into it!
(more…)
Nashville. Aka Music City. This town has certainly earned a reputation for music and with a music scene comes hungry musicians looking to eat cheap and well. And that we found my friends but I would be flat out lying if I didn't tell that I had one thing on my mind when we came here: Nashville Hot Chicken. In my 20s, those jovial and carefree years, yours truly was a bit of a hot head. I craved, sought out and created the spiciest food imaginable. If Man v Food was running in the early 2000s, I would have been primed to take on that gig. But that volcanic appetite eventually would settle, becoming almost dormant if you will, unless a particular hot wing or Thai curry happened to come my way. Now I wasn't looking to become the next Adam Richman on this episode of Cheap Eats, in fact I tried that once on an off day shooting in Jackson Hole last season and the lesson I learned is shooting 12 hours a day on a weak tummy is a bad idea. Still, I wanted to at least experience some heat. And if you saw this episode, I certainly did. But Nashville is more than just spicy chicken, it is a land of Cheap Eats so grab some napkins and lets dive in!
(more…)
Spokane on the brain! Yeah, I definitely has Spokane on the brain. If you caught this episode you would have also caught on to the fact that the crisp air caught me for a bit of a cold. I give props to the magic of television and the amazing people serving up Cheap Eats in Spokane, who helped me pull through what was the toughest shoot of my life. I think this episode flowed and the energy I found here was surging at the thought of this food scene getting some of the National spotlight. But that's all TV talk, and we are here to talk about some Cheap Eats, on the EASTSIDE of the Pacific Northwest. So let's go get into it!
(more…)
Virginia is for lovers, or so the cool t-shirts say. When I think about how Cheap Eats has hit up the Commonwealth three times in two season, I think the t-shirt could be tweaked to say "Virginia is for Food Lovers". I love Virginia and I say that thinking about the terrifying events that unfolded in Charlottesville over the weekend. I'm yearning for love and healing while dealing with the fear and anger that has enveloped us with the events of Charlottesville; a city we also visited this season. It seems trivial to want to dive back into the Cheap Eats episode of Alexandria while so much more is happening in Virginia and as a nation, but I am also reminded that food brings people together and I think that is what we need to do right now: come together. So with Cville on my mind and lots of love for my friends there, let's check out the killer eats and celebrate the great peeps in Cheap Eats Alexandria.
(more…)
If someone was to ask me for a good Indian restaurant recommendation, my first thought is a divey curry joint. Not one in particular really, although I think back to the four or five blocks of LA's Koreatown that became designated Little Bangladesh, and the ideal spot has a row of steam trays to be avoided, Bollywood videos blaring off a cheap television set, members of the Indian sub continent diaspora lounging about for most of a hazy afternoon, and of course one regional specialty, like a goat biriyani, that really brought you here in the first place. Expect your china to be chinet, your silverware to be plastic and your appetite to be truly sated. Portions will be generous and the powerful aromas of the dining room will also be found on your plate(and your clothes). If you order wisely your meal will be most certainly regional, "authentic" if that words suits you. Legit is how I like to describe places like these.
(more…)
Portlandia. PDX. Or just plain Portland, Oregon. Whatever you call it, we all know this city has a rep for food, style and weather. This was not my first visit to the PDX. In 2014 I was sent all along with an army of food 
