So, you know how the guests talk about delicious food and then we cut away to shots of that delicious food, all in the hopes of making you drool, faint, or die of hunger? Well, in order to get that reaction, we have to go on a series of "remotes" to the featured restaurants. Let me tell you, it's a hard, delicious job talking to chefs, watching them cook, photographing the food, and then getting to eat that food, but hey, it's all in the great name of public television.
Miller's East Coast West Delicatessen on Polk was my first remote. At first I stayed out of the way as the camera and sound guys were maneuvering around the tight quarters of the fully-stocked and glistening food case and sizzling, odoriferous kitchen. However, during that down time, I picked up one of the greatest phrases. Randy, our stage manager, was sitting in on the remote, and we started talking about San Diego's relative dearth of San Francisco-ish restaurants.
Sometimes you can come across some really great food in the strip malls that define certain neighborhoods -- heck, Edo Sushi in UTC is worth getting on or off the 805 for -- but more likely than not, you come across what Randy calls, "cheese sauce restaurants." You know the kind, right? Not to name names, but they're the types that think everything tastes better drenched in melted "cheese," be it overcooked steak, fried chicken, shrimp, salmon, or doughnuts. I'm all for cheese, but not when it's simply used to cover poorly prepared food.
ANYWAY, while "that's definitely a cheese sauce restaurant" has now entered my foodie lexicon, it's not necessarily on topic of the Miller's remote.