S06.E06: Showdown in Chi-Town

[cooksdelight]

The two remaining teams arrive in St. Louis, ready for their final big sell. Tyler Florence challenges the teams to create three different dishes in 30 minutes to serve to two of the most renowned grill chefs in St. Louis, with the winner getting a valuable head start on the finale weekend. On their way to the Chicago showdown, they hit Springfield, Ill., for a Lincoln-themed sale. Once in Chicago, the teams have to hit three different ethnic neighborhoods with three different ethnic dishes. The team that first sells 50 dishes in each location will be crowned the champion of the Great Food Truck Race and drive away $50,000 richer.

[mlp]

Darn.  I wish I'd known ahead of time that they'd be in Springfield.  I live about 70 miles from there and I would have driven down just to see what goes on during filming.  Bummer.

[cooksdelight]

I think they advertise it on Food Network's website and/or Facebook page when they are filming different shows. I am signed up to be an extra on any of their shows, so I usually get emails in advance about the L.A. or Atlanta area (two places I asked to be notified about).

[xaxat]

Once in Chicago, the teams have to hit three different ethnic neighborhoods with three different ethnic dishes. The team that first sells 50 dishes in each location will be crowned the champion of the Great Food Truck Race and drive away $50,000 richerI guess we'll finally find out if Tyler really meant it when he told Waffle Love that they would have to stop finding ways around the challenges.

I guess we'll finally find out if Tyler really meant it when he warned Waffle Love that they couldn't keep ducking their way around challenges.

[Lillybee]

Waffle Love didn't win. I think the dumpling truck won because they had much better food. Waffle Love was not very creative with today's challenges.

[scenicbyway]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

[Janimo]

WHEW!! I'm glad the ones who won won. :)

[HunterHunted]

Waffle Love didn't win. I think the dumpling truck won because they had much better food. Waffle Love was not very creative with today's challenges.

The Wafflers have terrible palates. Their personal food experience seems to be pretty provincial. I just wish that the show had sprinkled challenges like this earlier because we could have kept a couple of teams with more exciting food.

Edited September 28, 2015 by HunterHunted

[Fostersmom]

Well, that was anticlimactic. This, out of all the episodes, should have had some sort of "who will it be?" feeling and yet they managed to make this the most boring episode of the whole run. 

Edited September 28, 2015 by Fostersmom

[Gbb]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

Really?? When The Pho girls had to sell 100 items in Greek town instead of 50?

What exactly did they do to "submarine" the Waffle truck?

[Sew Sumi]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

Tyler doesn't make the challenges up on the fly, in a vacuum in an attempt to "submarine" a particular team. 

 

Waffle Love's own limitations were bound to send them down when any type of diversity in the food was required. Aside from the chicken and waffles last week, they were hellbent on keeping it sweet. As I noted elsewhere, they really needed to compete against other dessert trucks in a like vs. like competition. 

[LittleIggy]

Yay for the Pho-nomenals! :-)

[Lillybee]

Really?? When The Pho girls had to sell 100 items in Greek town instead of 50?

What exactly did they do to "submarine" the Waffle truck?

 

Perhaps having competitions based on the way their food tasted. That's all I got.

[HunterHunted]

Tyler doesn't make the challenges up on the fly, in a vacuum in an attempt to "submarine" a particular team. 

 

Waffle Love's own limitations were bound to send them down when any type of diversity in the food was required. Aside from the chicken and waffles last week, they were hellbent on keeping it sweet. As I noted elsewhere, they really needed to compete against other dessert trucks in a like vs. like competition.

They were a sweet on top of sweet truck and they needed to be matched up against a dessert truck. However, they had such limited food experience. Look at how badly they did with the barbeque challenge and that was stuff they reasonably should have had experience cooking in their regular life. In Chinatown, they could have had a sweet red bean paste waffle with bananas. I've had a fantastic five spice chicken and waffles.

[backformore]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

Wow. I sure don't see it that way at ALL. The Pho team was FAR ahead, and was guaranteed a win until it was discovered that their spot was just outside what Tyler had given them as the border of Greek Town. (Which, by the way, is a bit arbitrary, but rules are rules). If they had wanted to make sure the Pho team won, they would have counted those first 50 dishes, nobody would have known the difference. Instead , they had to sell 50 additional plates, making it a lot harder for them to win.

[CouchDweller]

Darn.  I wish I'd known ahead of time that they'd be in Springfield.  I live about 70 miles from there and I would have driven down just to see what goes on during filming.  Bummer.

I live in Springfield, and never had a clue they'd been here till I saw the preview for this week's episode.  I wish I'd known, as we definitely would have gone!

[biakbiak]

If anything Pho could have had a better advantage if they were given a choice of which neighbourhood they only needed to sell 20 because I bet they could have done 50 of those spareribs in Chinatown.

[mlp]

That worked out well despite the extra selling the girls had to do.  The waffle boys seem to have a good product but it didn't sound like they really needed the money as they have a very successful business in Utah.  They got a lot of publicity and the girls got that plus the big win.  I'm happy.  The ending of this show always feels somewhat anti-climactic to me.  After all the time and effort and tension the teams go through, it seems like there should be a little more fanfare for the winners than just Tyler and a card table.

 

I was a bit shocked to hear Tyler say that Springfield is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  Apparently, no one fact-checked that.  Lincoln lived and worked there before he went to Washington but he was born in Kentucky.  

 

There is no way a random food truck just pulled up across from the old state capitol and started selling.  That building is downtown in a tourist area and close to the government buildings.  I saw that as further proof that all that is pre-arranged by the show and and competitors making phone calls about sites is just phony.

[Lillybee]

There was nothing special about the waffle guys hamburger. It seems as though the didn't use anything different from any other burger joint. However, Pho's burger seemed to be very original. I am happy that Pho won because I thought that the waffle boys were very whiney.

[rhofmovalley]

Did anyone else notice the large banner advertising the appearance of Tyler Florence right in front of the Pho truck in Little Italy?

 

Yeah, the locals know they're coming, which is why I don't buy all the attempting to sell drama.

 

One time I was at the location of an episode of this show on filming day (I was a customer).  I knew ahead of time the trucks would be there, and there was a good sized crowd waiting long before filming started.

[calvinshobbes]

I am not sure I wanted to know that the tater tots were just store bought frozen ones.

I must have missed it but selling the fastest/most doesn't make any sense. What is to prevent them from selling the items for $1 or $5? It should be the most money sold over the course of x days.

[GaT]

I am sooo glad the waffle guys didn't win, the pho truck kicked their asss since they had to sell double the amount in Greektown. I would have been very unhappy if Waffle Love had won. I'm also not thrilled that they made the end a real race, the winner shouldn't be determined by who gets stuck in traffic.

 

I guess we'll finally find out if Tyler really meant it when he warned Waffle Love that they couldn't keep ducking their way around challenges.

It didn't make a bit of difference either way, & it should have. There should be penalties for a truck that doesn't do the challenge.

[bluepiano]

Well before the end of this episode I was certain that the Dumpling truck was going to win, because the Waffle Brothers were being shown as arrogant jerks with a very limited range of food expertise.

 

We get one of the brothers saying that their deep fried banana rolls were better than real Chinese food, which did not taste good. It showed an amazingly condescending and dismissive attitude towards one of the great cuisines of the world. And when one of them says that they could not see themselves losing to a dumpling truck, it also showed a real lack of respect for the efforts of a competitor, and the kind of food they were making. I also got a bit of a "no way we lose to a bunch of girls"  vibe.

 

Clearly the producers were not giving Waffle Love a positive edit, which to me was a signal they were not win the winners.

 

Well, I guess if you only do one thing that doesn't prevent you from being a great food truck, if you do that one thing well enough. But if cooking skill is supposed to be an element on this show than Pho deserved the win. Not even close. (as the final wouldn't have been close had Pho not had to sell twice what Waffle Love did in Greek Town).

 

When Waffle Love said they were going to put whipped cream and strawberries on their "Chinese dish" I just started laughing. Really? Talk about a one-trick pony. So many of the dishes Pho made this season I would've loved to try. They sounded really creative. I can pour batter into a waffle iron and slice strawberries myself.

Edited September 28, 2015 by bluepiano

[biakbiak]

I am not sure I wanted to know that the tater tots were just store bought frozen ones.

I must have missed it but selling the fastest/most doesn't make any sense. What is to prevent them from selling the items for $1 or $5? It should be the most money sold over the course of x days.

Though Tyler might not have stated it on air (I often zone out during this show),both teams were selling their dishes for $10 and given that didn't change when WL realized they were far behind or when Pho made their error I have to imagine the show set the price point.

[GaT]

The Pho truck one the burger challenge because Tyler helped them.  The stuffed burger was HIS idea.

No, they were already making the stuffed burger, he just told them to put them cheese inside also instead of on top.

[biakbiak]

No, they were already making the stuffed burger, he just told them to put them cheese inside also instead of on top.

And seriously the dudes burger was just sad, we are putting lettuce and tomato on it!

Plus, even they admit they lucked into the pork steak being cooked right and the judges thought the Pho women had a better tasting pork steak.

Edited September 28, 2015 by biakbiak

[Lillybee]

I think that if the Waffle boys could come up with some decent plates that were out of their wheelhouse they would have had a good chance of winning. For the Greektown challenge, they did claim that they made the best fried chicken ever but if there were serving to a Greek crowd they should have stayed away from using pre-packaged seasoning from the supermarket and at least made it their own.

[cooksdelight]

My sister finally hit on what it was about the Wafflers that made me have this song running through my head every time they were on screen.....

"Ooompa Loompa, doopity do.... we've got a waffle to sell to youuuuu...."

[biakbiak]

It's weird because they are not aggressively Orange, short, or look that much a like but I get it!

[cooksdelight]

No, it's no reflection on their looks, it's the attitude... "Oh, let's just doompity doo along and slap some waffles together..."

[biakbiak]

Which is why I listed all the ways they don't physically look like an Oompa loompa but still embody the spirit.

[radiochik]

The Pho truck one the burger challenge because Tyler helped them.  The stuffed burger was HIS idea.  

 

I didn't have a problem with that.  They asked him if he had any advice, he gave it. The waffle dudes could have asked for Tyler's advice but didn't. 

 

I never liked Waffle Love.  They seemed lazy about the whole thing and I just couldn't see how they were selling so much with a mostly sweet menu.  The dumpling truck always appealed to me foodwise so I was glad to see them persevere and win the whole thing. I still think the finale shouldn't be a race. Instead it should come down to who made the most money like all the other cities they were in. 

[cooksdelight]

If I could change anything about this show, competition... let the winner of each leg be the one who embraced the challenge and sold the most of the key ingredient. Not who made the most money by selling a $2 item for $15. I want to see people who can sell whatever is thrown at them without sliding back into comfortable territory.

[xaxat]

I really wonder how "slightly" under cooked Pho's pork dish was. Because I suspect the judges found it was just enough to keep them from getting a clean sweep.

 

It was an interesting episode in that I thought the show addressed some of the complaints we have had. There was an actual taste taste designed to show versatility and the five dollar challenge introduce pricing parity. And I thought plates sold was an interesting change from money made although I wasn't sure how pricing played into that.

 

Unfortunately, because the show wasn't structured like that prior, they wound up with a team that was ill prepared for the finale. I think GD and Postcards might have put up a better fight. 

 

Tyler, you are evil! "Oh, you completed the challenge in Greektown? Mwah ha ha!"

[DeLurker]

Missed watching the ep, but very glad that Waffle Lost.  I suspect I'll just be annoyed if I do watch, so maybe I'll just skip it.

 

The Pho girls have impressed me most of the season with really throwing themselves into it. 

[Jersey Guy 87]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

 

I didn't see any attempt to "submarine" the waffle truck other than to make them cook outside their limited range.  They failed on their own merits, not because of some sort of attempt to sabotage them.  Although I didn't particularly like them (more on why below) I respect their business sense - they have a simple, low cost food that they can probably sell for a very good profit, they seem to execute on waffles really well.  Based strictly on their ability to generate profit from their sales they had the best truck.  However, the show also requires competing in challenges and cooking outside your comfort zone - they did poorly in this area.

 

There is no way a random food truck just pulled up across from the old state capitol and started selling.  That building is downtown in a tourist area and close to the government buildings.  I saw that as further proof that all that is pre-arranged by the show and and competitors making phone calls about sites is just phony.

 

I suspect that production probably gets permits, etc. for a number of places, more than they need.  The contestants know they can choose from, say, seven spots and so all the phone calls, etc. are about figuring out which of those spots is optimal.

 

Well before the end of this episode I was certain that the Dumpling truck was going to win, because the Waffle Brothers were being shown as arrogant jerks with a very limited range of food expertise.

 

We get one of the brothers saying that their deep fried banana rolls were better than real Chinese food, which did not taste good. It showed an amazingly condescending and dismissive attitude towards one of the great cuisines of the world. And when one of them says that they could not see themselves losing to a dumpling truck, it also showed a real lack of respect for the efforts of a competitor, and the kind of food they were making. I also got a bit of a "no way we lose to a bunch of girls"  vibe.

 

Clearly the producers were not giving Waffle Love a positive edit, which to me was a signal they were not win the winners.

 

Well, I guess if you only do one thing that doesn't prevent you from being a great food truck, if you do that one thing well enough. But if cooking skill is supposed to be an element on this show than Pho deserved the win. Not even close. (as the final wouldn't have been close had Pho not had to sell twice what Waffle Love did in Greek Town).

 

When Waffle Love said they were going to put whipped cream and strawberries on their "Chinese dish" I just started laughing. Really? Talk about a one-trick pony. So many of the dishes Pho made this season I would've loved to try. They sounded really creative. I can pour batter into a waffle iron and slice strawberries myself.

 

This sums up a lot of what I didn't like about the waffle truck - they had an obnoxious air of arrogance about them, they felt they were somehow above the other competitors.  As I said above they have a great business model - sell simple, cheap food for a good profit.  They execute on it really well, and I have no doubt they're successful in real life.  However, that's not the competition they got into - they got into a competition knowing there would be challenges to cook outside their comfort range and decided to not do that.  They didn't try very hard in most of the challenges and really weren't penalized for it at all until the very end - when they had to produce three different kinds of cuisine and failed.  Their "banana spring rolls" were really poor, IMO.  They acted as if cooking Chinese food was beneath them.

[Skyfall]

So glad Pho won! Also I wish each episode was like the finale, where an actually race is happening. Race through one city and then the time they get to the next city is when they can start the next day of selling. So a weekend an episode like normal but selling quickly has more advantages than selling the most

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

Are you kidding?!?!?!!? The production team could've easily told Pho they were out of bounds. They did everything they could to make it a dramatic finish.

[HunterHunted]

I feel like the ideal prize for the Wafflers would be a food tour of the various ethnic cuisines of the US. They seemed very dismissive of ethnic cuisines, but it seemed to come from a place of ignorance rather than actual experience or taste. They are doing very well, I think in part, because the cost to produce their signature item is so low, but their palates are so limited and so bad. They could have done a Chinese inspired waffle with sweet red bean paste, a cannoli or tiramisu inspired waffle, or a Greek one with a baklava inspired nuts and honey topping. However, that could only have happened if they were receptive to other cuisines, which they never seemed to be.

[NewDigs]

Wafflers, a banana spring roll? Really? Ick.

Pho played to the challenges, prevailed, and for that I am very happy. The Greektown tater tot thingy kind of made me go, Huh?, but the corn dog thingy they did in the beginning did too. Maybe these carny-type items are part of their repertoire? At least they were able to adapt to the competition.

And I think that Jersey Guy 87 found the word I had been looking for re: wafflers, and that word is arrogant. They seemed to think that their business's successes could carry them through this competition. I was surprised to see the grace they displayed at the finish line. They had been pretty sour grapes this entire leg.

[illini1959]

I was a bit shocked to hear Tyler say that Springfield is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  Apparently, no one fact-checked that.  Lincoln lived and worked there before he went to Washington but he was born in Kentucky.

 

 

Exactly!

 

I even tried to see if there was a FB page for the show to see if anyone else picked up on this. Surprised not to find a page :/

[scenicbyway]

The finale just seemed anticlimactic.  Tyler warned the wafflers that not trying or winning the cooking challenges all season would come back to bite them.  The thing is, all season they didn't need the cooking challenges to win, because, like it or not, people like dessert.  They like strawberries and nutella and waffles, it's something completely different (yet incredibly simple) from what other food trucks are selling.

 

They've been promoting for weeks that Pho was the last all female truck left on the show and had the chance of becoming the first all female winners (which is great).  I just think it would've been more interesting to see them cooking their food in these different neighborhoods around Chicago, vs. trying to cook based on the neighborhood.

 

At the end of the day, they are a Dumpling truck and a Waffle truck.

[cooksdelight]

I'm going to throw another monkey wrench into the Abraham Lincoln story, since the season's ended... :)

 

He was very likely fathered by a man who is buried in my hometown, in Harshaw Chapel Cemetery.

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=70761799

[NewDigs]

The finale just seemed anticlimactic. Tyler warned the wafflers that not trying or winning the cooking challenges all season would come back to bite them. The thing is, all season they didn't need the cooking challenges to win, because, like it or not, people like dessert. They like strawberries and nutella and waffles, it's something completely different (yet incredibly simple) from what other food trucks are selling.

They've been promoting for weeks that Pho was the last all female truck left on the show and had the chance of becoming the first all female winners (which is great). I just think it would've been more interesting to see them cooking their food in these different neighborhoods around Chicago, vs. trying to cook based on the neighborhood.

At the end of the day, they are a Dumpling truck and a Waffle truck.

It doesn't really bother me that the trucks can be described so easily. Seems to speak to an easily understood point of view. And the wafflers just did not succeed in that think-out-of-the-box thing.

I think their successes had come more easily because as scenicbyway said, people like dessert. I still remember a freshly made Belgian waffle topped with freshly sliced strawberries and smothered with a more than generous dollop of real whipped cream that I ate years ago at a place in Fort Lauderdale.

That nothwithstanding, I still think I'd go Pho.

Or Postcards. Or GD.

Edit to add quote

Edited September 28, 2015 by NewDigs

[Totale]

Are you kidding?!?!?!!? The production team could've easily told Pho they were out of bounds. They did everything they could to make it a dramatic finish.

 

 

This was such absolute bullshit.  The taping locations were set up weeks in advance, they had to be for permitting, etc. as we've said before.  I almost think that Pho so humiliated the wafflers that after they won production came up with the scenario where they had to go back, just so they could get enough to fill out an hour of television.  NDAs mean we'll never know, but congrats to the ladies.  Good acting!

[cooksdelight]

Totale, from what I know about reality TV, I think you are dead on the money.

[backformore]

 

 

There is no way a random food truck just pulled up across from the old state capitol and started selling.  That building is downtown in a tourist area and close to the government buildings.  I saw that as further proof that all that is pre-arranged by the show and and competitors making phone calls about sites is just phony.

Same thing with Chicago.  Finding a place to park a CAR is tough enough.   But a food truck?  That's why I agree that the whole "You sold outside of the area I designated as Greek Town"  to be bogus.   The locations HAD to be set up in advance.  You can't just park a food truck on any street in Chicago and start selling. (first, you'd drive around for hours looking for a big enough parking spot)  They could not have sold from food trucks unless the show set up the locations and permits ahead of time. So how does the show get to say they got the location wrong?   

 

I feel like the ideal prize for the Wafflers would be a food tour of the various ethnic cuisines of the US. They seemed very dismissive of ethnic cuisines, but it seemed to come from a place of ignorance rather than actual experience or taste. They are doing very well, I think in part, because the cost to produce their signature item is so low, but their palates are so limited and so bad. They could have done a Chinese inspired waffle with sweet red bean paste, a cannoli or tiramisu inspired waffle, or a Greek one with a baklava inspired nuts and honey topping. However, that could only have happened if they were receptive to other cuisines, which they never seemed to be.

Agree.   They took their basic waffle-berries-whip cream and divided it.  In China town they subbed bananas for the waffle, wrapped it in a egg roll wrapper, served it with berries and whip cream.  Not Chinese at ALL, except that they used the wrapper.   If they had put something else in with the banana - I'm not sure what, but something Chinese - and served it with a plum sauce to dip, that would have worked. But putting something in an eggroll wrapper does not make it Chinese food.  Then in the other two locations, they ditched the berries and cream and served the waffles with other ingredients.  Not very creative, and not really embracing the ethnic ingredients. 

 

I think the waffle truck had a huge advantage over the other trucks in a way.  Most of us have a kind of schedule for meals. If you've already had lunch, or you're heading home to make dinner, or you have dinner plans later, you're less likely to spontaneously get a burger or other main course.  But  a waffle?   waffles can be dessert, snack, lunch, breakfast.   You can grab a waffle any time of the day, outside of meal times. 

Edited September 28, 2015 by backformore

[BensBritches]

First, congratulations to the Pho ladies!  I think they won in a pretty handy manner, so good on them. They were a likeable group of woman from the start, so I'm happy to see them win.

 

I also have to agree that the winning truck was telegraphed from the beginning.  Tyler had to warn WL to "try" with the cooking/taste challenges, WL's talking heads came across as so cocky and like they never even considered they could lose (always the kiss of death on reality TV)... During the BBQ test portion, it seemed like the one brother wanted to be in charge of everything.  Wasn't there a talking head with another brother (I never learned who was who), where he said "_____ wants to do it all on his own and he's my older brother so I have to respect him."  It seemed like the other two brothers sat around slicing tomato or something all during the challenge. They didn't seem to working as a team, which Pho was excellent at.

 

The brothers really didn't seem to have any sense of ethnic foods, or even various cooking techniques.  Didn't they "run out of fire" during the BBQ challenge? Like did they not know how to add more wood/coals and light it to keep going?

 

Having said all this, I have NO issues with the Waffle Truck being good at one thing and one thing only in the grand scheme of things.  I think they are successful not so much because of their price margins, but because people do love waffles, or sweet things and as was noted upthread, eating a relatively small waffle can be done any time of the day or night, as opposed to a full-on main dish.  Their selling only a few varieties of waffles on their truck seems like a good business strategy.  You want a waffle, you go to the Waffle Love truck.  You want a burger or Chinese food, you go somewhere else.  Many food trucks out there have extremely limited and on-point menus.  I've eaten at Middle Feast and they only have about 4 things on the menu, all of which is Middle Eastern.  There is no reason for them to sell any other kind of food, because you go to their truck when you want Middle Eastern food.

 

A part of me wishes the finale on this show was a simple, make what you're gonna make for real in your truck and do a head to head battle to see who can sell the most (price point being equal).  Keep the "go here, sell this many, go there, sell this many..." idea.  I just think it would have potentially been more "fair" (not the right word) to have the trucks selling what they will be selling after the show to compete against each other, rather than having them make a variety of ethnic cuisines that they will never (likely) sell again.  I enjoy the different cooking challenges along the way, but not in the finale.  I think it would be interesting to see each truck cooking/selling what they generally do to see which one can sell the most.  More 'authentic" to me. But still, I'm glad Pho won I think they will benefit from winning, while WL will benefit from just having been on the show.

[In Pog Form]

Why would you cook Chinese food in Chinatown, and Italian food in Little Italy? You're competing against local cuisines, of which there are plenty of choices.

And isn't one of the key benefits of food trucks that you can get different food in places where you wouldn't normally get it? Cooking the local food defeats the entire point.

Edited September 28, 2015 by In Pog Form

[needschocolate]

I am glad Pho won, mostly because I tend to root for the underdog (if I have no loyalty to any participants) and Waffle Love had it too easy (dessert is easier to sell, IMO) and had enough success without the show to be an underdog. 

 

However, last week, I noticed Sophia's vocal fry and then I couldn't help but notice it - she doesn't seem to do much "valley girl talk," but the throaty/raspy fry was there.  Vocal fry annoys me, so I found myself more in the "I don't really care who wins" category instead of the "Go, Pho, go!" category.  

 

Why would you cook Chinese food in Chinatown, and Italian food in Little Italy? You're competing against local cuisines, of which there are plenty of choices.

And isn't one of the key benefits of food trucks that you can get different food in places where you wouldn't normally get it? Cooking the local food defeats the entire point.

 

I think the rules Tyler gave required them to cook Chinese in Chinatown, etc.

[SingleMaltBlonde]

Wow, they really wanted the "all female team" to win.  It just seemed like they tried to do everything they could think of to submarine the waffle truck on this one.

 

So unfair to make them cook to win....