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S05.E02: Hot Doggin' It in Tucson


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Tyler greets the teams in Tucson, Ariz., where they must come up with a creative marketing campaign. Later, they must put their twists on a local hot dog favorite, with the top sellers winning bonus cash. The next day, the teams must create and perform a catchy jingle at the Tucson Folk Music Festival.

 

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I was hoping for the jingle that the moms would do a better military "cadence" type thing....call and response, I guess?  

 

Also, I have a friend who re-wrote the song "Santa Baby" with the new lyrics being, "Santa Bacon." (Long story) But it got me thinking...."Bacoon, Bacoon....the whole night through....just that old sweet pork, keeps Bacon on My Mnd....."  I guess it's not a jingle--sorry, getting carried away there. 

 

I had a feeling the Grads would not make it through this week, but their food looked pretty tasty.  

 

ETA:  Fostersmom: very good point about the processed stuff.  I was just looking at the finished products....didn't look too closely at their shopping.  

Edited by gryphon
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I think the grads aren't really good cooks, no matter what school they attended. I rewatched part of last weeks episode today and then saw the new one later. In both weeks they relied on prepackaged tortillas for multiple dishes and their chicken wrap used American cheese slices. At least buy cheddar slices. They used a lot of processed foods and nothing even looked good. Plus we had a hissy fit, running around instead of cooking and selling, deciding to just pack it up. Yeah, they deserved to go. 

  • Love 4
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The right team definitely went home.  Those boys need to grow up a lot before they can run a business successfully.  I could forgive them for being disorganized due to lack of experience but not for being lazy, leaving the truck to look around and then shutting down early.  Even worse was fighting within earshot of the customers.  No excuse for that.  I agree with Fostersmom that their food didn't look like anything I'd expect from culinary school grads.

 

I liked the bacon guys a lot better this week.  I don't have high hopes for the Israelis.  They just don't seem like they're enjoying anything although I did feel sorry for them having to use pork when they apparently keep kosher.  The military moms can leave any time AFAIC.

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The Israeli's could have kept Kosher. Hebrew National kosher hot dogs are the best and no one forced them to use bacon or they could have used turkey bacon. BTW, Costco sells some very good kosher hot dogs at a good price.

Edited by Lillybee
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Do we have to see the huge SPEED BUMP sign smothering Arkansas every time they have a challenge?

I knew the green guys were goners. And good luck getting a job in a restaurant with your attitude. I was waiting for him to yell "No hotdog for you! Cheeburger!"

Venice lady can stop whining about what they are forced to cook in challenges any day now.

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I'm a prude.  I know it.  No matter how good the Cali hot dog or fish tacos looked, I'm not buying them from a woman in a bikini top. 

 

Leaving early is the kiss of death on this show.  Can't believe the grads didn't know that.  And their marketing -- yikes!

 

Impressed that Madres got a tv station out, but why didn't they reach out to Spanish radio as well -- I think Arizona would have a high percentage of Latinos and their 'made-by-Mom' food would possibly be highly popular with Latinos who may not have their mothers nearby.

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I'm a prude.  I know it.  No matter how good the Cali hot dog or fish tacos looked, I'm not buying them from a woman in a bikini top.

 

I'm not a prude and I, too, would walk right on by someone in a bikini hawking her food truck. And I like fish tacos and the Cali hot dog sounded tasty, too.

 

The only thing entertaining about this episode was the opening, where there's the chorus of yelling "FOOD. TRUCK. ROAD. RACE!" I find it entertaining to yell back "SPONGE. BOB. SQUARE. PANTS!"

 

But that happens every episode, so I guess this ep. just wasn't such a much.

 

The home cookin' Mexican truck just makes me sad. They seem nice, and I don't need a bunch of whooping and hollering schtick to get me interested, but these guys seem to be comatose. Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, people! Also, did one of the women actually say "So...our stragedy is..." instead of "strategy." Because, that's kind of a tragedy. Or a travesty. But it is definitely NOT a strategy.

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The Israeli's could have kept Kosher. Hebrew National kosher hot dogs are the best and no one forced them to use bacon or they could have used turkey bacon.

 

Good point.  I buy Hebrew National myself even though I'm not Jewish and that didn't even occur to me.  Not sure about the bacon though.  I think the description of the local hot dogs (already forgot the name) specified "wrapped in bacon."  I've never had turkey bacon but it doesn't appeal to me.  I don't know if the idea would turn customers off or be a big selling point to health-conscious crowds.

 

They were in Minneapolis-St. Paul just last season.

Edited by mlp
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I'm a prude.  I know it.  No matter how good the Cali hot dog or fish tacos looked, I'm not buying them from a woman in a bikini top. 

 

Back when I spent time at the nude beach a young couple would take a cooler of sandwiches around to sell.  They put on shorts and t-shirts to do so.

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Kind of a meh episode for me.  Probably because I hate hot dogs.

 

I like the grads last week, but they really showed their asses this week.  They definitely needed to be taken down a peg, and were.

 

Going to Texas next week, and the chuckwagon guy cackling about how they have it made, makes me want them to get smacked down.  I cannot abide smugness.  And he was totally smugalicious.  I hate smug as much as I hate hot dogs.  *LOL*

 

Cali fish-face Gretchen bugged.  Her whole "yeah, we only like fresh, natural, organic, not processed, blah, blah, blah" with her vocal fry and her Valley girl-esque ending every sentence with a question mark is already old. 

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I'm not a prude and I, too, would walk right on by someone in a bikini hawking her food truck. And I like fish tacos and the Cali hot dog sounded tasty, too.

 

The only thing entertaining about this episode was the opening, where there's the chorus of yelling "FOOD. TRUCK. ROAD. RACE!" I find it entertaining to yell back "SPONGE. BOB. SQUARE. PANTS!"

 

But that happens every episode, so I guess this ep. just wasn't such a much.

 

The home cookin' Mexican truck just makes me sad. They seem nice, and I don't need a bunch of whooping and hollering schtick to get me interested, but these guys seem to be comatose. Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, people! Also, did one of the women actually say "So...our stragedy is..." instead of "strategy." Because, that's kind of a tragedy. Or a travesty. But it is definitely NOT a strategy.

Yes, yes, she did say stragedy, and I too perked up my English-teacher ears.  

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Leighdear- Texas guy annoys me big time, and I live here. He's too stupid to realize that he will be at a disadvantage by selling stuff already available on every corner. That's prob why the Malibu Barbies didn't take the beach by storm.

I posit that food truck patrons are a tad more adventurous than most, so the novel menu should do better. I know when I have a choice, I lean towards something different.

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Going to Texas next week, and the chuckwagon guy cackling about how they have it made, makes me want them to get smacked down.  I cannot abide smugness.  And he was totally smugalicious.  I hate smug as much as I hate hot dogs.  *LOL*

 

Hopefully it will be one of those things that bite them in the bum.  I think they switch trucks next week. I wonder which truck would mess them up the most.

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Besides, they are going next to Austin.  Not Dallas, not Houston, not El Paso, but Austin.  It's almost not even a Texas town, more of a Portlandia place.  *LOL*  That's the reason you see all the bumper stickers & t-shirts emblazoned with "Keep Austin Weird".   I agree that the more eclectic menus SHOULD appeal to their citizens, but you never know.  

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Two teams - gourmet grads and military moms have ridiculous names. The name of a new food truck, one not familiar to people, needs to have a name that says WHAT they're selling. I'm not going to buy food from you because you graduated of because your kid's in the army. I buy food because I think the food will taste good. Those names don't even hint at what the food is.

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Why do they always travel to the south? Have they ever gone through the north states?

Last season they started in LA, went north to San Francisco, then to Portland (?), to Boise, and on to the mid-west (Chicago, Cleveland, etc.).  So, yeah they do.  It's nice that they take different routes each time.

 

It's weird when they go someplace I'm familiar with - spend a lot of time at UA campus.

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Hebrew National kosher hot dogs are the best and no one forced them to use bacon or they could have used turkey bacon.

Tyler said they couldn't sell anything until they had a Sonoran hot dog on the menu, and being wrapped in bacon is the key defining feature of a Sonoran hot dog. So, I guess they could have refused to do that, but they would have forfeited the competition.

"Turkey bacon" is not bacon.

Edited by In Pog Form
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"Turkey bacon" is not bacon.

 

No, but it's not bad, either.  They had a quick shot which I went back and froze of MiddleEast's priced menu.  They had shwarma for $15 (it's $7 for a big one at a sit-down cafe near me) and $20 for a fish taco, with no indication that it was more than one.  At those prices it's no real surprise that the restricted to $5 hot dog that they didn't want to put on the menu supplied about a third of their weekend's income. 

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No, but it's not bad, either.

I'm not commenting on whether it's good or not. But rather that it wouldn't meet the terms of the challenge. If I were a judge, and they had a challenge to make this particular regional style of hotdog, that is not a substitution I would accept.

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I'm not commenting on whether it's good or not. But rather that it wouldn't meet the terms of the challenge. If I were a judge, and they had a challenge to make this particular regional style of hotdog, that is not a substitution I would accept.

 

Tyler specifically said that if they felt like it, they could make a couple of twists to the local recipe, as long as they didn't go crazy and held it to under $5.  I suspect that was actually for MEast's benefit - if one or more of them had strong religious strictures against handling or selling pork they had an out.  I'm halfway surprised the beach bunnies didn't whip together a "healthy" veggie version, the novelty alone may have sold them some. Maybe the costs for veggie dogs and bacon would have made it too expensive.

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It was driving me crazy because I knew the Cali food truck guy Shane, looked very familiar and then it hit me. He was on a show last summer on the WB called Capture. It was a hide and seekHunger games type show where teams of two outfitted in team colors would hide in this restricted wooded location for two rounds of hunting (maximum time of each hunt  4 hours) to avoid capture by the designated hunt team. He and his partner were the blue team douchebags, who quickly painted targets on their backs by talking much shit and sabotaging a communal food supply just for kicks and giggles, while vehemently denying any wrongdoing. Later in the season Shane began to see the error of his ways but it too little too late as they were public enemy number one and were soon captured (two teams would be up for elimination) and got voted out by their peers.

 

It's really interesting to see him in a different light, I for one am a little shocked to see him vying for any type of employment opportunity that meant he had to actually  roll up his sleeves and work.  Time will tell if he reverts back to his old ways.

Edited by Boo Boo Kitty Girl
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Whaddya mean former? :-)

Lol. I love ya WalnutQueen! It's hot here in California. As soon as my husband and I walk in the front door, the clothes come off. We are on a few acres up on a hill so I water my garden topless all the time. If anybody should happen to come up my private road and see me, that's their problem. My neighbors are far away and can't see me.

Wow, that's way too much info ain't it?

Anyway, I would buy food from a woman in a bikini. Why not? Its just the human body, I don't see the big deal.

I would buy food from a naked person as long as it was good food. Naked doesn't mean dirty.

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I had expected/feared that every week the strategy of Military Moms would be to sell to the local VFW, American Legion, or other veteran or military related organization. We've seen that kind of marketing before, where, say a Hawaiian food truck will connect with the local Hawaiian community. But in virtually every town or city in the U.S. there are organized veterans groups, and so the MM have a huge advantage. I hope that the producers are going to somehow prevent them from every parking at a VFW hall, or calling local veterans groups to drum up business.

 

Beyond the potential for repetitiveness, I hate to see the concept of military service being exploited as a marketing ploy. I dislike the quasi-military outfits they wear, and I really hate the cutesy play on word of their slogan: "proud to serve...comfort food."

 

These women are trying launch a money making venture for themselves, like every other competing team. Buying their food is not a patriotic act, nor a way to honor people in the military or dead or disabled veterans, past or present.

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I just want to know where someone wearing pink camouflage plans to hide.

 

I usually get annoyed when someone opens a whole response just to say LOL but...................... That cracked me up.  LOL

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I thought the Gourmet Grads really showed their inexperience and youth.  Strolling around checking out the competition instead of selling?  Leaving before anyone else? I thought they lost at that point.  I wish them well, but too many poor decisions.

 

I am so over Gretta.  I wish she wasn't the chosen 'narrator.'  

 

Bluepiano, I really appreciate your insight as to the Military Mom's depending on the support of military families when the Moms are creating a business for themselves.  

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