The Great Food Truck Race - General Discussion

[Leeds]

1 hour ago, Colorado David said:

i'd have not not no shenanigans ths time

but ballpark does favor against vegans..... so parity? i do not wish to go down sponsorship  but feel i need to. i do love the stadium mindset but am i wrong here?? 

?

[leocadia]

Not sure why they are doing it, but the editing for both episodes has made it seem like the Paisani boys are strong frontrunners while the Vegan truck was a struggling underdog.  Then the results come in and it's the opposite situation.  Are they trying to make us like the Vegans more?  Are the Paisani a production favorite?  It's all just very confusing.  Also, my brain may explode if I hear the phrases "coconut wireless" or "chicken parm slider" one more time. 

[jcbrown]

Color me surprised to find the Paisani team is my favorite so far. I expected to hate them when they were introduced but they seem compassionate (response to the accident, loaning food to other teams) and I have really warmed to them. Still not crazy about their schtick, however.

I'm glad the truck with that bitchy woman went home this week. I'd had too much of her in only two episodes. Not sure why the blue-bearded guy wants to hang with her, he seemed so chill.

Edited June 28, 2023 by jcbrown

[Maverick]

 I don't think the Paisani guy's schtick is a schtick.  I think it's just who they are and that's why it's not as annoying as one may initially suspect. 

[Maya]

So two different teams run out of their most important ingredient and Paisani graciously saves the day? Feels fake. Along with the weird commercial that features them as rookies. Something is off, I’m going with production plant to create chaos, bring the drama, etc. 

[Leeds]

3 hours ago, leocadia said:

 Also, my brain may explode if I hear the phrases "coconut wireless" or "chicken parm slider" one more time. 

Also, "coconut wireless" makes me think India/southeast Asia so my brain is doubly irritated.

[LexieLily]

The two Khana women firing Jake out of nowhere and just so happening to have another team member (from an eliminated truck) waiting in the wings was shady as fuck. 

Why were they allowed to bring in a new member? They chose to have a two-person team, they should have had to stay that way. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by LexieLily

[LEILANI2]

I'm shocked ... i really thought they were getting the winner's edit.

[cinsbythesea]

I'm done.  Said I wouldn't be back after last season but here I am .  But the Khana truck lost me.  Plus I really liked the kindness, generosity and passion of the Paisano truck guys.  I won't be back for another season.  

[tinkerbell]

3 hours ago, LexieLily said:

The two Khana women firing Jake out of nowhere and just so happening to have another team member (from an eliminated truck) waiting in the wings was shady as fuck. 

Why were they allowed to bring in a new member? They chose to have a two-person team, they should have had to stay that way. 

I agree .It seemed very disrespectful to kick off their former teammate without trying to work things out. Seems to me by the time they kicked him off the team, they had already contacted the other guy and got permission for the switch. Think about how long that whole process would take, including airline ticket, transportation to and from airports, etc.  There's a big part left out of the show. I am rooting against khana for this.

The never explained how the teams are suddenly able to come up with new menu items and magically have all the ingredients.  Create a dish inspired by another dish, then copy a competitors dish. Oh sure, I just happen to have all the ingredients I need for making a dish I never planned for!  A big part of the competition used to be budgeting, shopping, buying enough but not too much of what you need. I don't have to see them shop, but an explanation of how this was done is needed.

[MerBearHou]

7 minutes ago, cinsbythesea said:

Plus I really liked the kindness, generosity and passion of the Paisano truck guys. 

I kind of Hate Watch this show because I don’t care for or care about at least 50% of the people cooking.  Had to miss a big portion of tonight.  Did something happen to the Paisani truck guys?  

[LexieLily]

1 minute ago, MerBearHou said:

I kind of Hate Watch this show because I don’t care for or care about at least 50% of the people cooking.  Had to miss a big portion of tonight.  Did something happen to the Paisani truck guys?  

They got eliminated in the first hour. For some reason tonight showed as two one-hour episodes (two eliminations) opposed to a single elimination/two-hour episode.

[tinkerbell]

Just now, MerBearHou said:

I kind of Hate Watch this show because I don’t care for or care about at least 50% of the people cooking.  Had to miss a big portion of tonight.  Did something happen to the Paisani truck guys?  

2 hour episode. Paisani truck got eliminated the first hour, the Jamaican tacos truck was eliminated the second  hour.

[MerBearHou]

Thank you both.  Well, that stinks — they were one of the only groups I actually liked.  

[Salacious Kitty]

So now we have a war between Lisa and the Khana chick. The latter can lose me. 

Looks like Da Bald Guys will have to screw up big time to be in the bottom, and so far the coconut wireless is coming out for them. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Salacious Kitty

[potatoradio]

Must have missed whatever horrible terrible awful thing Khana guy dude did to become, like, impossible to work with. Seems the Khana women had decided they didn't want him on their truck a while ago and just started going all Mean Girls on him. At least, that's how the editing made it look to me. 

So, if this show is about a personality contest and not food truck business/cooking, then yeah, good job, show, with the twist that I now dislike the Khana women and ended up being bummed that the Paisano guys went home. I liked them. Wow. Dude bros can be decent. The more you know....

Crepe woman made me laugh when she said, when it was announced that a magical third team member would of course be available for the Khana truck, "oh, I didn't know that was allowed, but whatever..." 

And word to the poster who pointed out that we no longer see how they get ingredients or have any sense of how they're budgeting for buying stuff. 

Considering how many douches have actually won this show, I'm concluding that, in a food truck teevee show, being a douchebag will take you much farther than actual cooking  skill or business acumen. Fabulous. Sounds exactly what I want to watch. 

 

[seacliffsal]

I am almost speechless regarding these episodes.  Khana women resented any kind of questioning/suggestions from their third member.  And then an executive producer comes out when nothing startling had occurred?  I get that they didn't like the guy and wanted him gone, but I don't get why they were allowed to bring someone else in.  In previous seasons if the trucks were down to two members, they stayed with two members.  Why all of a sudden is an exception being made for the Khana truck?  I am so very dissatisfied with this development.  I really wanted Khana out during the second elimination, but no such luck (but am glad that their strategy of trying to get out the crepes truck didn't work).  It seems like the Khana woman decides to target people for very little reason.

Was really sad the Paisani truck was eliminated.  Not surprised as it looked like they really struggled to sell, but they were friendly and enthusiastic.  I so wish there was some kind of rule like if you fire a member then your truck is eliminated-that way Khana would have left and Paisani would have stayed.  Sigh.  I have lost interest in the remainder of the season.

[Salacious Kitty]

I'll hate watch until Khana is eliminated. 

[GiandujaPie]

So very very unfair that Khana got to bring on a replacement when they voluntarily kicked off one of their own teammates to make themselves into a team of 2. They should have been forced to decide if it was worse to be dealing with a passive aggressive team member or be short staffed. I'm glad they ended up on the bottom 2 and had to sweat it out, despite being given all of the advantages. Their glee at being able to shut down the crepe truck for an hour was disgusting and seemed personally driven as opposed to a business decision which made it seem tacky. I'm really hoping they are eliminated next, although I did like Karl, their new team member. I knew the Jamaican tacos truck was a goner when they couldn't seem to get any sales in front of the dispensary. 

I'm glad the Crepe truck seems to be doing better. Not sure why they struggle so much. I've had crepes from mobile vendors multiple times and it's always very good. Their dessert crepes would be far and above better than almost any other dessert that the other trucks would sell, so they really need to be pushing those. Or, they could learn from the pairings challenge and start selling combos of a savory crepe with a dessert crepe, but maybe in smaller poritions, to try to get people who want both lunch and dessert to only have to make one purchase. 

It's too bad that Paisani got eliminated. They seemed like genuinely nice guys who just enjoyed talking smack in a good natured way. For the big ticket challenge, the trucks should have focused on setting up outside of an office or business and convincing a business owner or the manager to buy meals for the entire staff. Paisani set up around college campuses which wouldn't work unless you could convince a group of people to go in one ticket and then pay one person back for their share. 

Count me as someone else who wants to know how to get in on the cocount wireless! Da Bald Guy always seems to make gourmet upscale versions of Hawaiian food and I would love to try it!

[Chyromaniac]

1 hour ago, seacliffsal said:

I don't get why they were allowed to bring someone else in.  In previous seasons if the trucks were down to two members, they stayed with two members.

Iirc, there was one other situation where a team lost a member (I believe due to either illness or injury) and a person from an eliminated truck was allowed to sub in.  I don’t think that team was fined the cost of a fake plane ticket either - but again, I’m fairly certain that those were circumstances beyond their control.  Regardless, it’s not a great look in this case.  Like, I don’t think it’s fair to judge anyone based on their reality tv edit- but it’s hard to ignore what the other trucks are willingly saying about Khana.  It’s just sad that so far, this has to fill the drama gap that has been sorely lacking from the actual competition. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Chyromaniac

[meep.meep]

19 hours ago, GiandujaPie said:

 

Count me as someone else who wants to know how to get in on the cocount wireless! Da Bald Guy always seems to make gourmet upscale versions of Hawaiian food and I would love to try it!

Join a church with Polynesian members.

Back in the olden days of this show, they used to show how the used social media.

Kumail Nanjani's Urdu was so much better than the Khana truck gal's.  She kept sticking in English words.

[Salacious Kitty]

I just figured there wasn't a translation in the language. 

[seacliffsal]

After thinking about this (I know, I know-I shouldn't put so much thought into this show), I think the producers set a horrible precedent by letting Khana bring in someone else.  What's to prevent future contestants to "fire" a weak team member and bring in a stronger one from an already eliminated team?  It could really open up a strategy that is inherently unfair.

[chessiegal]

I doubt the producers care about what's fair. They care about making a show that gets eyeballs and ratings.

[bluepiano]

On 7/2/2023 at 9:33 PM, tinkerbell said:

Seems to me by the time they kicked him off the team, they had already contacted the other guy and got permission for the switch. Think about how long that whole process would take, including airline ticket, transportation to and from airports, etc.  

The whole thing was a set-up by the producers and so phony, including Tyler pretending to be surprised when Karl suddenly showed up. Give me a break!

I hope that the producers realize this was a bad plot twist and we don't ever see it happen again.

On 7/2/2023 at 9:33 PM, tinkerbell said:

They never explained how the teams are suddenly able to come up with new menu items and magically have all the ingredients.  Create a dish inspired by another dish, then copy a competitors dish. Oh sure, I just happen to have all the ingredients I need for making a dish I never planned for!  

All the food just magically appears now. We used to see teams shopping and having to figure out their budget. I guess the producers decided that was boring. So now we have more time for the fake drama of finding a parking space, which in reality is something food trucks never do, since permits and permissions are required. 

The only redeeming thing this season is that the food actually looks really good. No prepackaged ingredients, or mac'n'cheese every week with a different topping. I would happily eat everything Da Bald Guy and the Puerto Rican food truck make. And Khana's leader is obnoxious, but they do make some creative dishes. 

Petty comment. I hate the other Khana woman's neck tat. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by bluepiano

[mlp]

1 hour ago, bluepiano said:

Petty comment. I hate the other Khana woman's neck tat. 

Between that and her piercings, she actually gives me the creeps.  I can't wait until that truck is gone.  The producer machinations were too much for me.

I really liked the Paisani boys so I was sorry to see them leave.  

I think there must be a lot of time we don't see between the assignments and the teams running to their trucks to start cooking.  There was no reason for the Bald Guy to suddenly have packages of pork chops for example.  The teams must plan their dishes and determine what they need and then someone goes shopping.  That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

 

[bluepiano]

15 minutes ago, mlp said:

Between that and her piercings, she actually gives me the creeps.  

Yup. And she has no personality of her own. She's just Maryam's puppet. 

Obnoxious that after firing Jake they have to passive aggressively put him down by talking about how much better the team is with the new guy. We know that the producers use the "villain edit" to create drama, but the other teams genuinely seem to not like Khana. 

Count me in with those missing Paisini. Their Italian food was a nice contrast to the other cuisines, and I liked their no BS east coast personalities. I wish they'd gone further in the competition, but think they have bright futures in the food business. 

[Lurk]

The only thing I can say good about the first episode..... Glad that the Crepe truck won the biggest ticket challenge. Khana thought they had it in the bag. Just started watching second episode. Any other truck that lost a member had to limp along to the next elimination and go home a man short. I was trying to think if there had been a team with some issues and they self-ejected from the competition or if they just imploded and lost that week?

 

Did you know Khana is a Pakastani food truck? 

Have you ever seen a Pakastani food truck before?

Did you know they cook Pakastani food?

Have you ever eaten Pakastani food from a food truck before?

Did you know Khana is.....

 

[roseslg]

They really need to expand where they go. LA is boring. If the Bald Guys will just rely on  the coconut wireless and Khana will just go to the coffee shop, what's the point?  Where is the actual race?

[Gramto6]

13 hours ago, roseslg said:

They really need to expand where they go. LA is boring. If the Bald Guys will just rely on  the coconut wireless and Khana will just go to the coffee shop, what's the point?  Where is the actual race?

I agree, I liked the show a lot better when they drove to different cities. I think that almost more than anything leveled the playing field. No one had any advantage of known contacts to rely on all the time.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Gramto6
dumb random period, don't know how I keep doing it

[chessiegal]

Staying in one city has to be cheaper to produce.

[Gramto6]

4 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Staying in one city has to be cheaper to produce.

True that, but doesn't make for a more interesting show...

[Starry-Eyed]

On 7/4/2023 at 12:12 PM, meep.meep said:

Join a church with Polynesian members.

Back in the olden days of this show, they used to show how the used social media.

Kumail Nanjani's Urdu was so much better than the Khana truck gal's.  She kept sticking in English words.

I wondered about that. She was so quick to say "fluently" when he asked, and then it seemed to me like she was hesitant and there was a lot of English (and they weren't proper nouns or very specific nouns either. I think one was "community" which I'm SURE has a translation). I don't speak Urdu so I would love it if anyone can give a more informed opinion, but it sure seemed to me like she overstated her ability.

The one-two punch of losing Paizanos, who I was really rooting for, and all the unfair Khana shenanigans has really soured me. I will finish the season, but I don't know about the next one. It's a shame because up til now this season was starting to win me back.

[LexieLily]

Wasn't it also so convenient that Khana won the Antonia Lafaso taste challenge and the $300 prize that immediately wiped out the $219 plane ticket for The Block guy?!

[seacliffsal]

55 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Wasn't it also so convenient that Khana won the Antonia Lafaso taste challenge and the $300 prize that immediately wiped out the $219 plane ticket for The Block guy?!

Especially since they won with a 'deconstructed' eggplant parmasian-the eggplant was grilled and sliced and the cheese was separate.  

[Ellee]

1 hour ago, seacliffsal said:

Especially since they won with a 'deconstructed' eggplant parmasian-the eggplant was grilled and sliced and the cheese was separate.  

And wasn’t the plating set up by the newest member?

[Lurk]

22 hours ago, Starry-Eyed said:

I wondered about that. She was so quick to say "fluently" when he asked, and then it seemed to me like she was hesitant and there was a lot of English (and they weren't proper nouns or very specific nouns either. I think one was "community" which I'm SURE has a translation). I don't speak Urdu so I would love it if anyone can give a more informed opinion, but it sure seemed to me like she overstated her ability.

The one-two punch of losing Paizanos, who I was really rooting for, and all the unfair Khana shenanigans has really soured me. I will finish the season, but I don't know about the next one. It's a shame because up til now this season was starting to win me back.

Each season, it seems more and more like they already have their winner picked out before they even start taping and then mold the rest of the season to fit.

[meep.meep]

As if the episode wasn't bad enough, my DVR has decided to record it three times!

[Fostersmom]

On 7/3/2023 at 5:02 PM, GiandujaPie said:

I'm glad the Crepe truck seems to be doing better. Not sure why they struggle so much. I've had crepes from mobile vendors multiple times and it's always very good. Their dessert crepes would be far and above better than almost any other dessert that the other trucks would sell, so they really need to be pushing those. Or, they could learn from the pairings challenge and start selling combos of a savory crepe with a dessert crepe, but maybe in smaller poritions, to try to get people who want both lunch and dessert to only have to make one purchase. 

It's too bad that Paisani got eliminated. They seemed like genuinely nice guys who just enjoyed talking smack in a good natured way. For the big ticket challenge, the trucks should have focused on setting up outside of an office or business and convincing a business owner or the manager to buy meals for the entire staff. Paisani set up around college campuses which wouldn't work unless you could convince a group of people to go in one ticket and then pay one person back for their share. 

I think the issue with the Crepe truck is exactly what you said, you can get crepes pretty easily these days. They aren't different and new anymore. There was even a Crepe place in the next town over from mine for quite a while, they recently closed that location but still have another one not too far away. I don't know if they closed to lack of business, they were oddly placed given the rest of the eateries in that particular area are known for their many, many booze options, or if they lost their lease for another bar to open. Their other location is much better suited for crepes instead of drunken bar crawls. 

I think Paisani missed the mark with Italian food in sunny California. If I was outside in the heat, the last thing I would want is heavy saucy Italian. Honestly, I wouldn't even stop to look at the offerings if I had walked past. Nothing says beach food or California like a bunch of kids in hoodies doing their best good fellas impressions. 

[Maya]

What is Khanas problem with Lisa? Honestly that ugly attitude is gross to watch. I wonder if there would be that much bullying if the crepe truck was run by three men instead of three women.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Maya

[Salacious Kitty]

19 minutes ago, Maya said:

What is Khanas problem with Lisa? Honestly that ugly attitude is gross to watch. I wonder if there would be that much bullying if the crepe truck was run by three men instead of three women… 

I think the Khana chick is picking on Lisa because all the other trucks, other than the vegan one, are run by men. She doesn't have the balls to take on the guy from Da Bald Guy. 

[MerBearHou]

The two Khana chicks are so ugly in their behavior — cannot stand them even one bit.  Can’t wait till they’re gone.  I hope Da Bald Guy wins the whole competition, such as it is.  

[Mondrianyone]

50 minutes ago, Maya said:

What is Khanas problem with Lisa? Honestly that ugly attitude is gross to watch.

It may work as a short-term strategy, bully one of your rivals and get them eliminated from a contest, but it doesn't bode well for the long term. Who'll want to associate with someone as nasty as that in a real business relationship?

[Lurk]

Can Kanah be the next gone-uh? I'm going to have to just fast forward through the rest of the season.

[Ellee]

7 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

The two Khana chicks are so ugly in their behavior — cannot stand them even one bit.  Can’t wait till they’re gone.  I hope Da Bald Guy wins the whole competition, such as it is.  

Or Easy Vegan.  I like them both. 

[potatoradio]

It appears the Khana woman with the neck tattoo (El? Al?) figured out that you really have to show off what a childish turd you can be to get more camera time. Well, good for her, I guess?

Look, I know this isn't The Great American Recipe where winners are based on how much "love" and "home" you put into your food, but dayum, Khana, ya'll need a medic to get some of that venom out of your system because I, for one, wouldn't touch your food, even if it looks like one of the best offerings there is. Maybe Easy Vegan can offer you some "whirred peas" for visualization? Calm down or bite a stick or scream in your pillow or something. Wow. 

Nice touch, too, being all "love ya!" and huggy with the Crepe women and then the jeering "au revoir!" in your talking heads. You all stay sweet and never grow up, k?

12 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I think the Khana chick is picking on Lisa because all the other trucks, other than the vegan one, are run by men. She doesn't have the balls to take on the guy from Da Bald Guy. 

Agreed. Placing bets now on whether they go after Easy Vegan next, because EV has a woman heading that truck. 

If there is actually a contest and not just a lot of free publicity for the preordained winner, I'm team anybody but Khana. I like all of the other trucks and it would be nice to like a winner from this.

Also, seeing commercials for both disappearing tigers and children's cancer made this a really depressing AF show. 

[lavenderblue]

In all the seasons I've watched of this and other food competition shows, I'm not sure I've ever seen contestants who evoked a more visceral reaction in me than the Khana truck women. There's editing, and then there's giving the ammunition to begin with. There's no context missing here that would make them appear to be anything other than a nightmare of middle school mean girls. 

To that end, I feel the show's also manipulating things in their favor, and for the life of me I don't know if it's to keep them on for the ~dramzzzzz~ or because they're inexplicably meant to be finalists. The previous incidents have been covered upthread, but the example of it last night for me was D'Pura Cepa shutting down Lisa's Creperie. Da Bald Guy was smart strategy (and what Khana would've done last week if their motives were competition, not pettiness). But why aim for Lisa again based on a prior week's finish instead of Khana or Easy Vegan, two trucks that appeared to be greater threats at that moment (and, indeed, proved to be)? Hard for me not to feel like they may have been "encouraged" to do so by the PTB to ensure smooth sailing for Khana.

ETA: I'm also tired of how staying in one location allows trucks to develop support bases. One advantage of the earlier seasons (besides just being more entertaining) was that advantage was based more on having genuinely good marketing skills that traveled. Here you can be a Khana and just go to your security area with, I guess, people who love buying food from terrible people, and rake it in. It also disadvantages people whose cuisine may not be as popular in one area (Lisa's, Paisanos here) but would do and does do well in other spots.

Edited July 10, 2023 by lavenderblue

[seacliffsal]

The show just doesn't seem fun this year.  I agree with others about the attitudes of the Khana truck (I include all 3 of them as the new member was shading Lisa's Creperie in the interviews along with the others).  I would like to try Pakistani food, but not from them.  And for them to mock the creperie team after they were eliminated was just low and uncalled for.  

I miss the Paisanis and how they actually helped other trucks, not these 'mean girls' antics for no reason.

[Maverick]

 I find the Khana crew distasteful.  No wonder they pulled someone from The Block truck.   They were loud, obnoxious and went after other teams for no good reason.   A perfect match.  This team is definitely being helped along because they're the villains of this season.   They can't deny it, even the commercials are playing into it.   'We've never had a team fire someone before.  But wait!  There's more drama!'   Cue scenes of Khana and Crepe truck.    When it became obvious the Crepe truck was out i thought maybe it would be over but nope, according to the previews they're still being just as ugly.    I guess they have to have a hate on for the vegan truck now.  

[jcbrown]

I don't know why this is the angle the producers think we want. I love the Great British Bake-off, I love the Great American Baking Show, I love the Great Pottery Throw-Down--I much prefer to watch shows where people who are good at something support each other and compete fairly. If I want to see trashy shit-stirring, there are no shortage of options to tune into (TLC, anyone?). Why must this one center on creating villains? The Paisani truck was good guys helping their competitors so they got sent home and episodes have to center around the Khana truck and their petty leader and her minion with a godawful neck tattoo.