S06.E04: High Steaks In Texas

[cooksdelight]

In Amarillo, Texas, the final four teams are in for a steak-filled day: The seed money is determined by a steak-eating contest, and all the teams must add a steak dish to their menu. The team to sell the most of their steak dishes earns $500, as will the team with the best tasting dish. Prior to elimination, Tyler Florence makes each team send two members to pick up essentials, leaving their chances at the top three in the hands of their remaining teammate.

[mlp]

I wish they wouldn't do gimmicky things like the steak-eating contest.  How fast you can cram food into your mouth without choking to death has nothing to do with your ability to cook and sell and it's gross to boot.  Obviously, I haven't seen the episode yet so maybe it won't be what I expect from the description..............but I'm not holding my breath.

[gryphon]

Actually, the steak eating contest didn't bother me--and I'm happy that the Pho girls won.  They're the team I like the most of the teams remaining.  I wish they would tell the audience of the actual prices that the trucks have....How much do those waffles go for?  

[Amarsir]

I'm new to this show and not a frequent food truck visitor ... no one seriously waits 2 hours for a hamburger from one, do they?  Would I be correct in assuming it's the cameras and crowd effect making people think it's worth waiting for?

[sportsgirl]

Tyler can keep claiming that the Waffle boys ignoring the weekly challenges will be determental, but that won't make it true. When you sell a waffle that costs under $2  in ingredients for $12, you are going to win this thing going away.

 

I wish the show would talk about why the big crowds were lining up while the boys weren't even there; does the truck have a significant Twitter presence? Are they tapping into an LDS network? In the early seasons, this type of information was part of the story narrative.

 

gryphon, the show is maddingly unclear this season on the details, but based on random pieces of dialogue (I believe GD, Pho & Waffles all mentioned the steak dish was $10) and on past season rules, it's probable that the teams were all told that they had to sell a steak dish for $10.

Edited September 14, 2015 by sportsgirl

[In Pog Form]

Jeez, they're recycling titles from last season already? And for the same episode number, even? (S05E04 - "High Steaks in OKC")

[GaT]

 Hated the eating challenge, is this turning into The Amazing Race? (actually, Tyler should be so lucky). Other than that, nothing interesting to me. In fact, I came here to read the posts after mine, & realized I never posted in the thread. I just want the waffle guys to be gone, I dislike them more each week.

[In Pog Form]

Oh, poor waffle boys. You have to take a waffle out of the iron, and then cut it in half, and then put some filling inside, and then put it back in the iron? What a horrible ordeal! It's almost as much work as cooking food must be.

I'm getting pretty damn annoyed at Tyler continuing to pronounce it "Pho"-nomenal Dumplings, when the word is actually pronounced more like "Pha" - which actually more like the word "phenomenal" is supposed to sound. The GD Bros seem to be the only ones who pronounce it anything close to correctly.

Edited September 14, 2015 by In Pog Form

[Writing Wrongs]

What was the weird thing with GD Bro being asked to leave their spot?

[DeLurker]

I thought Postcards handled the elimination with great grace.

[Gbb]

What was the weird thing with GD Bro being asked to leave their spot?

 

Looks like all the trucks in the shopping center parking lot had to pack up and move.

[Grandma Saracen]

*sighs*

Why do I let the GD bros annoy me so much? If it comes down to them & Waffle Love in the end, that's going to be a meh finale for me - may not even watch.

I always love when they have a mystery diner, but the gorge yourself challenge was gross.

I was more pleased than ever with the Pho-nomenal truck, though. 

I like Postcards as people, and that counts for something 

[xaxat]

Tyler can keep claiming that the Waffle boys ignoring the weekly challenges will be determental, but that won't make it true.

 

Especially since there are only two episodes left.

 

 

What was the weird thing with GD Bro being asked to leave their spot?

 

Yeah, that was strange. Since it's probably production that does all of the licensing and permitting ahead of time, I assume they were the ones that screwed up since it was the city that told the trucks to shut down.

[Totale]

Was GD being asked to leave in that like one minute of show that they stick halfway through a six minute bank of commercials, to try to fool those of us who are zapping through the break into seeing some?  I'm on to that trick now and don't fall for it, but I remember seeing the GDbros flash by.  What happened?

[bluepiano]

I'm new to this show and not a frequent food truck visitor ... no one seriously waits 2 hours for a hamburger from one, do they?  Would I be correct in assuming it's the cameras and crowd effect making people think it's worth waiting for?

 

As has been discussed on this forum in the past, the producers promote the taping and bring people in (sometimes even hiring extras) and give them money to spend. But in this episode they went WAY overboard, with hundreds of people lining up and waiting as much as an hour and a half. In real life THAT NEVER HAPPENS, even at food trucks I've seen in crowded downtown areas at lunch time.

 

I guess it's still a legitimate completion if all the trucks are benefitting equally from the manipulation, but it still makes the whole thing seem really fake. I get that it would be boring TV if the trucks parked somewhere and only a handful of customers showed up. But in the past the producers have been careful about at least creating the illusion that what we're seeing is "real." This episode was a complete joke. When one of the Waffle Love guys announced to the crowed "Tyler just gave us a speed bump" it really let the cat out of the bag as to the fact that everyone had come down there  to be part of a TV show. (I'm amazed that the producers didn't edit that out. Are they really that clueless?)

 

In other news, I wish Waffle Love had stayed at church, because they bug me to no end, and I hate the advantage they have over the other trucks in the fact that they really do no cooking. I don't call pouring batter into a waffle iron cooking, even when you slice open the waffle and throw some crap in the middle. Of course Postcards lost, because they took two hours to prep their steak dish. Someone should have told them they went they signed up to be on this show they needed to stop caring about the quality of their food. It's about moving "product." Just ask the guys from Waffle Love.

Edited September 14, 2015 by bluepiano

[Lillybee]

Waffle Love annoyed me when they asked their customers not to order the Philly Steak Waffle.

[jcbrown]

Go away, waffle weirdos. Shut up, bro boys. I am rooting for the dumpling truck to win, anyway, and now there is no question.

 

What is the weird wooden thing that one of the GD Bro bros has hanging around his neck at elimination?

[gryphon]

 

What is the weird wooden thing that one of the GD Bro bros has hanging around his neck at elimination? 

I was wondering the same thing! It's been there every week during elimination.   

 

Thank you, sportsgirl for the pricing stuff--when they show the food, some of those portion sizes look really small for the price...Postcards' food actually looked like a good portion for most of their stuff.  

[In Pog Form]

When one of the Waffle Love guys announced to the crowed "Tyler just gave us a speed bump" it really let the cat out of the bag as to the fact that everyone had come down there  to be part of a TV show. (I'm amazed that the producers didn't edit that out. Are they really that clueless?)

They've never edited stuff like that out. Previous seasons were even more explicit about the social media aspect. They don't hide from the customers in any way that the trucks are part of a TV show.

How could they? There's a whole camera crew there. There's no way anybody thinks this is just a regular food truck doing its normal business. And how clueless would a viewer have to be to not realize that? It's the actual premise of the show.

Edited September 14, 2015 by In Pog Form

[Crucial]

Waffle Love annoyed me when they asked their customers not to order the Philly Steak Waffle.

 

I was kind of hoping Tyler's secret shopper was in line when they said that or when he was in line they would have told him not to buy that waffle.

 

I like all of the teams left but wish Postcards was there over the Waffle guys. 

 

I hate the food eating challenges because eating that much food in a short time is not good - especially 72 ounces of steak. 

[Monty]

Especially if immediately after you eat your huge pile of meat, you have to work for twelve hours on camera.

[SingleMaltBlonde]

If I was reading our local food critic blog and they said the Great Food Truck Race was going to be near by I would go...spend my own money.

 

I do think a bigger challenge would to be in our downtown area (or similar) and compete for the hungry lunch crowd.

 

If "Dumplings" is out next week so am I.  

[akr]

What is the weird wooden thing that one of the GD Bro bros has hanging around his neck at elimination?

I had thought it was some sort of weird stylized cross pinned to his Tshirt (it is OC, home to many of California's more ostentatious Christians), but on closer examination, I think it's a kendama (Japanese ball and string toy, with double-sided mallet and a spike the ball lands on on top) - note the ball hanging on the other side of his neck.  

 

Google ball and string toy, and voila, kendamas. It might be this model: http://www.amazon.com/Ozora-Kendama-Premium-StickyWhite/dp/B00FH4DOP2/ref=pd_sim_21_14?

 

Edited September 15, 2015 by akr

[bluepiano]

They've never edited stuff like that out. Previous seasons were even more explicit about the social media aspect. They don't hide from the customers in any way that the trucks are part of a TV show.

How could they? There's a whole camera crew there. There's no way anybody thinks this is just a regular food truck doing its normal business.

 

Yes, I get all that, and in the past they've shown teams posing on social media to try to get crowds. But my point is that this episode was different, because I don't ever remember literally hundreds of people showing up and standing in the kind of lines you see at Disney World. I think that reality TV shows are most effective when we can forget that there's a camera crew just out of frame, and in this episode the machinations were so apparent that it turned the whole thing into a farce.

 

I think the producers created a mob scene so we would have the drama of the trucks running out of food, and contestants having to run to the supermarket for supplies. (High fiving people in the crowd on the way). But for me, it's more interesting when the show approximates the actual food truck business. Like the frustration of parking at a location where there are no customers.

 

Regarding the initial steak pig-out challenge, I did not need to watch people using their hands to shove massive amounts of cow down their mouths. And not because I'm a vegetarian. I love steak. But it was still gross. And I'm sorry if I sound like a bleeding heart liberal, but I can't watch something like that and not think about the starving people all over the world (even in the US) who would love to be able to eat even a small portion of one of those monstrous steaks.

 

The only thing that even slightly redeemed that segment was the fact that the all-women team beat out two all-male teams. (If that was real and not scripted).

Edited September 15, 2015 by bluepiano

[Tee]

What was the weird thing with GD Bro being asked to leave their spot?

Best guess? It's a deleted scene that accidentally aired in one the the commercial breaks.  Sometime for foreign distributions shows need to be longer than here in america, so they have extra scenes that will be added to the show. It's probably one of those. HOW it got in the middle of the commercial break is anyone's guess. Somebody screwed up!

[biakbiak]

Best guess? It's a deleted scene that accidentally aired in one the the commercial breaks.  Sometime for foreign distributions shows need to be longer than here in america, so they have extra scenes that will be added to the show. It's probably one of those. HOW it got in the middle of the commercial break is anyone's guess. Somebody screwed up!

No, it's a common practice on reality shows, they intentionally have a short scene during the commercial break to make people go back and view it. BRAVO shows all do it and the hour long competition shows frequently do it. It is definitely not a mistake.

[spiderpig]

I agree there's something about this season that is just off.  The steak competition was weird, especially with that annoying waffle truck.  When they announce the challenges I find myself going "huh?"

 

Glad Pho is hanging in there.  Now get rid of Waffle Barf please.

[windfall]

Tyler is going to have to offer some major 4 digit prizes for the next cooking challenge if he wants that warning to the waffle truck to mean anything.

[biakbiak]

I do wonder if it means the finale might be settled by a cooking challenge and not a foot race.

[DeLurker]

Glad to see I am not the only one who finds the Waffle Heads annoying.  I haven't been able to put my finger on why they bug, but they do and all three of them do.

[GoMocs]

Tyler is pissed because the Waffle boys are ignoring his little games and still doing great. Unless he does have a HUGE prize for winning one of them or unless they did some really special editing how does he know that more or less ignoring his games will come back to bite them? Aren't they doing what a truck is supposed to do, maximize profit and pump out the food? Oh, this is a reality show, it isn't real life.

[Jersey Guy 87]

How could they? There's a whole camera crew there. There's no way anybody thinks this is just a regular food truck doing its normal business. And how clueless would a viewer have to be to not realize that? It's the actual premise of the show.

 

The out of state license plates might be a clue as well.

[Maverick]

Something's going to bite waffle boys in the ass. It may not take them out but it wI'll come into play. The show is in the can before it's edited so they wouldn't leave that in if there wasn't a payoff coming.

[jcbrown]

 

I had thought it was some sort of weird stylized cross pinned to his Tshirt (it is OC, home to many of California's more ostentatious Christians), but on closer examination, I think it's a kendama (Japanese ball and string toy, with double-sided mallet and a spike the ball lands on on top) - note the ball hanging on the other side of his neck.

Oh--I think you may be right, thanks! I originally thought it was a stylized cross, too. So that leaves an unanswerable follow-up question: why does he wear that around his neck at every elimination? Wonder if it is a good luck charm or a message to someone in the audience.

 

Agreed that Tyler has to put his money where his mouth is with regard to the waffle boys not taking any of his games seriously and still doing well. I hope he does--not really fair if the other teams are mired in the silly games and don't do as well as the team that ignores them. They may have to tweak the rules for this if there is another season.

[mlp]

I still don't see what annoys so many people about the waffle boys.  They've been playing a smart game by emphasizing sales of their easily made, high profit margin dish and, as far as I can tell, they haven't broken any actual rules.  However, they lost me when they went out to the crowd and asked people not to order the more time-consuming dish.  Now I'm rooting for the pho girls.  They've worked hard and I like all three of them.

[cooksdelight]

Telling potential customers what they can and cannot order -- not due to you being out of ingredients -- is not right, in my eyes. And I'd move over to another line if I can't order what I really have a taste for.

[biakbiak]

I know plenty of places that limit the amount of a specific item you can order/buy what annoyed me is the just didn't set a hard limit but we're passive aggressive about it.

[Gbb]

Oh--I think you may be right, thanks! I originally thought it was a stylized cross, too. So that leaves an unanswerable follow-up question: why does he wear that around his neck at every elimination? Wonder if it is a good luck charm or a message to someone in the audience.

I suspect it has something to do with the hurry up and wait nature of filming a tv show. They probably have to be at the winner/loser announcement location for hours and on camera filming for just a few minutes. It probably something he keeps around to while away the boredom and when it's time to film he just slings it around his neck.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Gbb

[needschocolate]

Telling potential customers what they can and cannot order -- not due to you being out of ingredients -- is not right, in my eyes. And I'd move over to another line if I can't order what I really have a taste for.

 

A few years ago, we tried out a new restaurant with another family.  It was dinnertime, but the kids all wanted breakfast and the menu said that breakfast was served all day.  Every time someone asked for a breakfast item, didn't matter if it was eggs, pancakes, omelet, or french toast, the waitress said, "Okay, but it is not our regular breakfast cook."  We asked her if that meant it wouldn't be good and she said, "it will be okay, but I just want you to understand that he isn't the regular breakfast cook."  My husband was the last to order, and when he ordered the salmon, the waitress said, "No, you don't want the salmon." He asked if they were out of salmon and she said that they had salmon, "but you don't want to order it."  We had a good laugh about this, but we never went back, and we didn't leave her a very nice tip either. 

 

There are ways the waffle boys could discourage people from ordering the steak sandwich without literally telling people not to order it - just don't list in our your posted menu, or raise the price so that it wouldn't be worth it to most people.

[NewDigs]

I might have considered a good tip for the server. Who knows what horrors she might have saved you from?

Good points re: Waffle Boys' lack of promo consideration. Lots of options beyond, Please, we're dying here...".

This is the first week I did not want to order from Postcards. And, as another first, the burger the GD's made hit my virtual taste buds just right.

Can't answer question about why the Wafflers' have such a high annoyance factor but they annoy me.

[cooksdelight]

The Wafflers have gotten consistently more whiney, for me. That might be why you're annoyed, NewDigs. I liked them in the beginning, then they started with the "we're going to sell our easy-to-make-waffles, so push the strawberries and Nutella!" I think fatigue may be making them whiney, I don't know. But they annoy me too, now.

[HunterHunted]

I'm new to this show and not a frequent food truck visitor ... no one seriously waits 2 hours for a hamburger from one, do they?  Would I be correct in assuming it's the cameras and crowd effect making people think it's worth waiting for?

Austin, Texas is the exception that proves the rule. I have waited up to 40 or 50 minutes at a couple of food trucks. Not during special events and just on random days. During events like South by or ACL, lines can get ridiculous. Austin loves a food truck. Many trucks transition to brick and mortar location here. One of my favorites used to have a bonkers wait when it was a truck because they let it be known that they could only serve 200 meals a day. People would line up early and wait maybe an hour or more. As to this show, I'm fairly certain that people are only waiting because of the cameras.

The Waffle boys annoy me to no end. I think the thing that probably irritates me the most is that everything they make is barely more creative than Waffle House or IHOP. There's a place here in Austin that offers breakfast, but isn't really known as a breakfast place. They do a:

1. CRISPY BLUEBERRY WAFFLE WITH SAUSAGE AND SCRAMBLED EGG;

2. POTATO AND LEEK WAFFLE, BRAISED OXTAIL AND OVER EASY EGG;

3. SESAME SEED WAFFLE, SEARED APPLE, SOY SCRAMBLED EGG, GINGER SYRUP; and

4. POPPY SEED WAFFLE, FRUIT AMBROSIA, SCRAMBLED EGG.

I would stand in line for those because those aren't just variations of things you can find anywhere. But a Belgian Waffle filled with nutella, covered with strawberries and whipped cream is something I can not only get anywhere, I can also make at home.

[BW Manilowe]

Regarding the Speed Bump. The point of it was supposed to be for the person left in the truck while the others went shopping to keep selling product, right (a "pressure test")? I'm a bit surprised that 1 truck shut down entirely for the whole time the others were gone, used it for prep, & yet Tyler never called them out like he did the waffle boys for avoiding challenges & doing stuff like discouraging customers from buying the harder to make steak waffle.

[arime]

I have a lot of friends in the Amarillo area and judging by their posts, it seems that the large crowds were due to advertising from the city and news station and just the insanity that is the Texas panhandle. Plus it filmed there before and people who missed it the first time were not going to miss it this time. It seems that area goes nuts for anything new and food trucks that sell more than the usual fare are a new thing to that area.

 

That said, the Waffle guys are getting on my nerves. I don't know why. Maybe the not wanting to play the game. The Pho girls are great. The secret shopper thing was stupid. 

[cooksdelight]

Regarding the Speed Bump. The point of it was supposed to be for the person left in the truck while the others went shopping to keep selling product, right (a "pressure test")? I'm a bit surprised that 1 truck shut down entirely for the whole time the others were gone, used it for prep, & yet Tyler never called them out like he did the waffle boys for avoiding challenges & doing stuff like discouraging customers from buying the harder to make steak waffle.

Was that the burger boys, the team who wound up winning? I missed that they shut down completely. Because yes, one person was supposed to stay behind and continue selling.

[BW Manilowe]

Was that the burger boys, the team who wound up winning? I missed that they shut down completely. Because yes, one person was supposed to stay behind and continue selling.

I'm honestly not sure. I've been ill for awhile & can't comfortably lay on the side where I can actually see my TV now, so I have to go by voices. And, of course, telling who's who is easier on a show that lasts 20-something eps a season instead of less than 10 like this show is.

But the ep was on again a couple hours ago, as I write this. After everyone got the Bump instructions & decided who stayed & who went, it seemed like they went around to all the trucks to see how they got along with only 1 crewmember. I think about the third truck, if I remember right, the voice I heard was male & talking about spending the time prepping so they could sell when the others got back. But the others were definitely selling--stressing about getting orders out, hopefully fast, & apologizing to people waiting for their order to even be taken because they were one-handed, as it were. The only thing I'm pretty sure of is it wasn't the waffle boys. I wish I could be more helpful & I apologize I'm not.

[cooksdelight]

Don't sweat it, it's on again tomorrow evening and I can catch it to watch that portion of the show then. Because now I'm curious.

[DeLurker]

The burger boys were out of meat before the speed bump and were planning a re-stock dash when the speed bump call came in. The guy remains in the truck couldn't cook/sell as they were out of product.

[cooksdelight]

Thank you, DeLurker! :)

[BW Manilowe]

Yes thank you! That definitely explains it. I somehow missed whenever they mentioned they ran out of groceries before the Speed Bump.