The first season of a food documentary produced by Netflix has 8 episodes, focusing on the eight types of foods that Americans are most accustomed to. From pizza, tacos, homemade dishes, crawfish, barbecue to fried chicken, fried rice and buns.

"Ugly Delicious" is a food documentary produced by Netflix launched at the same time as Tip of the Tongue 3. The first season has a total of 8 episodes, focusing on the eight types of foods that Americans are most accustomed to. Themes range from pizza, tacos, home cooking, crawfish, barbecue to fried chicken, fried rice and buns. Starting from its name,

is destined to not be an ordinary food documentary. Ugly Delicious is named after a hashtag frequently used by Korean-American celebrity chef David Chang on his social media. Compared with the familiar " on the tip of China ", this food documentary seems to be less professional, stable, and even a little "irregular".

David Chang

The reason why this is a food documentary that does not involve eating is because compared to those food documentaries that use a large number of lenses to focus on the food itself, "Ugly Delicious" seems more like a taste of David Chang and his friends. A record of a food culture journey, showing thoughts on food and people.

It neither uses a large number of shots to show the beauty of food, nor does it provide detailed annotations on which ingredients or which delicacies are made. More often, it is the person who appears most in this documentary - David Chang. , and his friends, a group of people who deal with food are communicating and expressing their understanding of food and self, and sometimes it is even just a chat between friends and family, casual and real.

David Chang and food writer Peter Meehan

In the first episode, they feature pizza, a delicacy that is very popular around the world. This also started a discussion about authenticity.

Pizza originated in Italy. After being introduced to the United States, it was improved and became one of the most beloved fast food takeaways in the United States. According to statistics, Americans eat 100 acres of pizza every day, and eat an average of 350 slices of pizza every second, which is equivalent to an area of ​​​​one and a half football fields.

For most people who eat pizza, apart from knowing that pizza is delicious, they probably know very little about "authentic pizza".

Orthodox Neapolitan Pizza Association

To make an authentic pizza, you need: Aquinto oven, San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

After the pizza comes out of the oven, it must be visually and olfactoryly inspected:

• Break the crispy edges to see if there are alveolar structures inside, so the pizza will bulge slightly;
• Smell the crispy edges, a good pizza should smell like bread It has a refreshing fragrance and no sour yeast smell;

• Finally, when eating, you should fold it like a wallet. When you bite it, you can feel the dough melting in your mouth.

Only this kind of pizza is the authentic Neapolitan pizza that has been certified for quality. Don’t you think it’s a little weird? However, can authentic pizza really be called truly good pizza only if it meets this series of specifications and is made with the specified ingredients?

Later, in an interview with Anthony Pace, chairman of Naples Orthodox Pizza, it was also confirmed that these regulations are actually a kind of local agricultural and business protectionism in order to sell more local agricultural products.

The transportation process of these locally produced ingredients often takes five or six days, and the freshness of the ingredients themselves is inevitably consumed, thus affecting the taste of the food. Blindly pursuing "authenticity" may not make delicious and good pizza.

Authentic Neapolitan pizza is certainly delicious, but for different countries and regions, only the one that is suitable for it is the most delicious.

Just like the pizza that David Chang ate in Japan, the pizza chef at the Meguro restaurant went to Kakinuma. This pizza does not use any ingredients from Naples, but it allows you to enjoy the local flavor while eating pizza, which is delicious and innovative.

In the opinion of Shingo Kakinuma: Fresh flour is the best. If you are in Japan, you should use Japanese flour. Everything from music to food starts with imitation, without exception. Learn from it, then internalize it into something of your own, and then turn it into something original.

Jingo Kakinuma

started by imitating what they liked, and then as time went by, they formed their own style, and then continued to evolve and surpass.

If we can let go of some inherent prejudices, be more patient and tolerant of food, we may find surprises beyond our taste buds.

hopes that by watching this food documentary, more people will be more curious and think about food.