No, You Didn't

Here's where I decide to break down every episode of a series. I'm not sure why, but I have nobody to talk to about this show: Dinner Time Live with David Chang.

For the last few months I've been trying to make my way through it. First, in the most frightening days of mrguy's illness. I didn't want to eat, so I really had to stop during episode 5, which was my first episode and was super gross. Do I love the show? Do I hate it? Do I find myself watching it on Sundays as a treat at the end of the week? The last point, definitely. Do I find myself describing it below in a super snarky way? Yes. I think I am getting something out of my system. Hold onto your hat.

Readers of mrsguy may recall that on our ill-fated cruise last year I spent most of the trip by myself in my stateroom while mrguy had Covid in his stateroom. Thank goodness I brought a book, Eat A Peach, by David Chang, which I'd found on the free table at work. 

Here's celebrity chef David Chang and I, eating dinner:

and celebrity chef David Chang and I enjoying the blue waters of the Caribbean from the veranda of our stateroom:

As far as things go, we had a good hang. Without mrguy, and suffering through my own wicked chest cold, celebrity chef David Chang was there for me.

That said, in his memoir he was pretty open about his douchey behavior, and by the end of the book I didn't like him very much. Back to the free table, Eat A Peach! But when mrguy was first hospitalized in February I needed a friend and I started watching the new show by my former shipmate Celebrity Chef David Chang anyway.

My first episode (#5) featured guests Ike Berenholz and Seth Rogan, who were being treated to a "high-low" dinner. The "high" part of the dinner was Osetra caviar -- in a container as big as a fez. Urp. Seth Rogan is not my cup of tea, and the sound of his laugh makes me violently uncomfortable. But together he and Ike Berenholz are amazingly funny. By the fifth minute of the show, Ike Berenholz's napkin looked like something you'd see on the subway tracks if you mistakenly looked down. He needed a linen intervention. Seth Rogan? Turns out that he has a lifestyle brand called Houseplant, which has some beautiful ceramics for the smoking of the potses, which is something I do not do. But hey.

The food was silly. Caviar on various kinds of Pizza. Osetra on Pizza Hut pizza? "This should be on Onlyfans". Did they say that? Or did I say that? I wrote it down. Here's a recipe that made me feel ill:

In a low-slung serving bowl, layer salt and vinegar potato chips. Followed by a layer of wilted onions. Add a few sunnyside eggs, and cover with a half inch layer of Osetra caviar. Finish with a few snipped chives and some cilantro. Poke the eggs and stir. Eat with trepidation...and spoons.

Later, they eat caviar on a Chris Bianco pizza. The guy is supposedly making the best pizza today. I dunno. I grew up on the Coast and ate at Chez Panisse in 1984. How is Bianco's pizza different? Don't get me wrong. The guy himself seems so sweet, but the pizza looks kinda similar. The guests really preferred the Hut pizza as the best demonstration of high/low.

They continued to eat an insane amount of food. I actually stopped watching this episode for a few weeks because of the potato chip, pot and napkin grime, but after I had binge-watched everything else on Netflix imaginable I returned, expecting to continue to hate it. I did not : )

+++

Episode 1: With Rashida Jones and Steven Yuen. They were the perfect guests. Rashida Jones asks a LOT of questions about the food. AlotaLotaLOT. It's fun to see her, as herself, talking. She's super charming, and I've only experienced her be really quiet, trying not to be seen. My final comment on this episode is that it should have been subtitled: These People Have Wicked Clean Soles.

Episode 2: Iliza Schlesinger and Paul Scheer. Bad camera work leads to several shots cutting from Ilana to Paul Scheer's hairy arm wielding a spoon. Fun for you, maybe, but I found it off-putting.

Episode 3: Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. Hilarious. So good.

Episode 4: Fortune Feemster and Terry Crews. So charming and delightful.

Episode 5: No, You Didn't. The previously-described fish egg fez.

Episode 6: Bert Kreischer and Bill Simmons. Dave makes a timpano and it is really impressive.

Episode 7: Sebastian Maniscalco and King Bach. I want to check out King Bach's comedy, and Sebastian Maniscalco is dishy but needs to dye his hands to match his face. Didn't we learn this during the Trump presidency? Maybe we'll learn during the second Trump presidency (sigh). I mean you have two choices: dye your hands to match your face or don't put your hands near your face. Oh wait. I learned nothing. There was a third option: don't care. Maybe that's it.

Episode 8: The meat episode. Nicole Byer (loves ranch dressing) and Joe Manganiello, who is the ex husband of Sofia Vergara. Not to be confused with her ex partner who may still be suing her for custody of their frozen embryos. They ate Chicken Bacon Ranch Larb, and talked about Primanti Bros, in Pittsburgh, which I thought I wanted to visit until I stopped watching to look at the menu. Seems like you need a ladder to eat the sandwiches, which kinda grosses me out.

Episode 9: No meat, no problem. Sarah Silverman and JB Smoove, two vegans who have different attitudes toward the subject. Sarah Silverman seemed soooo uncomfortable and joyless in her veganism. JB Smoove bursts with love for the vegetable. I always try to give Sarah Silverman the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she's a person who needs to have her material worked out beforehand? 

I hope this is the episode where they learned that their strength in casting dinner guests is pairing people who already have a relationship or even a passing acquaintance before inviting them to eat with Dave.

Episode 10: Speaking of perfect casting, witness Aziz Ansari and Cord Jefferson, that gorgeous man who won an Oscar. So good. They are themselves, and they have such good rapport. Aziz Ansari's story about how the production made him bring his own alcohol, glasses and lemons to the shoot was super funny. This pairing lets both of them shine. 

Episode 11: Ditto. Ron Funches is adorable and Maya Rudolph is funny, knowledgeable and queenly all at the same time. As an aside, the new episode of Loot is available. Wooooooo!!!!! Who cares what they ate?

Episode 12: Nikki Glaser and Pete Holmes, who is definitely better as a single. His opinions about vegetarianism are filled with menergy. Nikki Glaser, on the other hand, would have been better paired with a different guest. She is delightful. 

A thought: maybe they should stop putting vegetarians and vegans together and find a compatible pair of people where maybe one is a vegetarian and maybe the other person is a meat-eating non-asshole who is down to eat a vegetarian meal.

Episode 13: Lil Jon and Jay Pharoah. Adorbs! Please invite them every episode.

aaaaaand then Dave had to have back surgery and there was a pause in production.

Thank you for listening. 

This has been mrsguy on Dinner Time Live With David Chang.