Food & Filmmaking

Scott F

Scott F

Pug Life
This steak thread got me thinking......who better to be exposed to different foods from around the world than those in the film/video industry? Although most of the time we are working, every once in a while we take a break and eat.

What kinds of foods/dishes did you experience while working on a film, documentary, TV show, commercial, etc that you never tried before?

For example, several years ago I did a commercial for an Indian restaurant. After spending all afternoon getting jib shots of food, we got to eat. I've been hooked ever since. Before that, I'm ashamed to say I knew absolutely nothing about Indian cuisine.

So my story is pretty boring, but what about those of you who have travelled the country or the world? Any interesting dishes that you still eat/wish you could eat?
 
I'll try almost anything once. I have friends who will only eat pizza and cheeseburgers and I hate that. I love Cuban, Indian and Thai, not the biggest fan of Japanese food, but I keep trying it with the hopes I'll find something in it I'll love. My favorite meal is Cuban roast pork....Mmm.
 
I'm like Battuta, except I enjoy Japanese, but avoid Thai... that stuff is scary. I hate the way it tastes sooo good and innocent one second, then set's fire to your internals the next. I'm really loving Moroccan cuisine these days.

And the closest I have come to World Travel is EPCOT.
 
I ran a switcher for an "International Concert" a couple years back. As part of the event, each country had tables set up in the lobby with little native trinkets and food. The client gave the crew food tickets to go eat form the tables. I didn't want to be too experimental since I was working, but I recall having some middle eastern food, and it must've been some kind of dessert that was VERY sweet. Too sweet in fact. I think I had some Cuban pork or chicken and that was pretty good.

Most of the time my directors/clients get pizza or Jimmy Johns.

I hear you Batutta about having friends that only eat cheeseburgers. Very annoying... never will go get thai or even chinese. Not only is that bland, but it's jsut not healthy at all. My friend is well over 225 lbs too. :-/
 
I never tried any Thai food before, knowing next to nothing about it. One day while going down the Ethnic Foods aisle, I saw this little box of "Add water and Microwave" Thai Peanut Noodles. I thought that sounded pretty good, so I grabbed a box. I fixed it according to the directions "Add water and Microwave", and it smelled fantastic! I took a big mouthful, and it tasted fantastic as well... for all of about 4 seconds. That is when the burn kicked in. Now, I used to like spicy stuff in my younger years, but too many years of abuse, spices and Tequila mostly, have made eating anything hotter than Medium Spicy Buffalo wings from Pizza Hut a real nightmare. I'll never trust Thai food again.
 
There is this great little hole in the wall Thai place a few blocks from work that I frequent... but yeah, I have to make sure the spiciness is "two stars" (scale 1-5) or else I'm hurting in the morning.
 
I eat horribly spicy food on a regular basis. If it isn't spicy, I have tons of smoked habanero powder on hand that I put on just about everything I eat.

Buffalo wings are a staple. There's a great Chinese place about six blocks from my house. I hit that place a couple times a week. Also, the best pizza I've ever had is five minutes away (and I've had pizza all over the country).
 
Well-budgeted projects frequently have a very international/exotic menu come meal breaks. Ostrich, shark, bison, goat and other somewhat-unusual meats on the menu, Thai, Indian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan and there is often a choice between two or three entrees, one or two of which tend to be exotic.*

The absolute best food I've had on-set has been on commercials and music videos. The budget-per-minute on those projects evidently extends to the catering, too.

Even Babylon 5 - which was kind of a shoestring production - maintained very good catering until around the middle of season 5. First time I ate ostrich, as a matter of fact...



* since G-Force revolves around the adventures of a bunch of talking guinea pigs, and since guinea pig is in fact a delicacy in South America, I spent a lot of time trying to talk the caterers into serving guinea pig for lunch, at least once. Didn't happen.
 
Sad Max said:
* since G-Force revolves around the adventures of a bunch of talking guinea pigs, and since guinea pig is in fact a delicacy in South America, I spent a lot of time trying to talk the caterers into serving guinea pig for lunch, at least once. Didn't happen.
Click to expand...
It might have helped keep the rest of the Guinea Pigs in line though :)
 
I tried to sell Hoyt on a throwaway line while walking through G-Force HQ, something about an operative sent on a covert mission to Brazil who's been out-of-contact for a distressingly long time...

...that didn't fly, either.
 
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