Discovery Channel

If you have a television, you have probably seen or at least heard about Shark Week. (And if you haven’t, it’s the week Discovery Channel dedicates every year to sharks and all things shark related.) This year’s Shark Week was legend… wait for it… dairy. Definitely worth watching. It really provided a fantabulous, ubiquitous insight into a shark’s life and anything and everything regarding sharks.
However, Shark Week could have been better with a few minor adjustments. If Ryan Gosling and a Real Housewife of Atlanta had co-​hosted one of the many shark-​themed specials, it would have been the bomb. Also, if Justin Bieber had been fed to a shark, and and that scene was captioned with «omnomnom» it would have added a great deal of humor to the entire extravaganza. Well, for me at least.

All in all, Shark Week was entertaining, informative, and enjoyable.

The Discovery Channel is full of great shows, and I turn to it when I have exhausted my usual programming, such as that critically acclaimed, The Chef Knows. One show that has increasingly captured my attention is «The Deadliest Catch?» I’m not moving from restaurant reviewer to TV Critic mind you, but there is something about the show that just keeps my interest. I have no idea who the stars are but it appears to me the treacherous weather is one of them. The entire show is dedicated to life threatening pursuit of catching Crabs off Alaska and the Russian Border, the Baltic Sea to be exact. The ships are equipped with every technical gadget in the business, but like so many things in life, it comes down to instinct and in this case it is the captain’s instinct that directs the ship to fortune, failure or even death. Unlike the «Bachelor,» here I don’t have to wade through 10 episodes for the count or the discard, as nearly every episode they are pulling up Crabs in five minute intervals. Crew members battle the crippling Eskimo like conditions and sheer walls of mountainous sea to bring up a treasure chest of crabs that is as welcome as gold to the pirates of a distant age. The season is brief so each mistake, each lost moment of time is magnified as the crew must force themselves through fatigue and lack of sleep to race against the ticking clock. Maybe I find a special delight in the show since I love King Crab but it is more, as the show turns my stomach in knots as I watch with childlike fear and anticipation as the crew of the boats challenge the harshest elements of nature. Here is a sample of the shows description.
«Relive the dangers, adventures and disasters of the original miniseries. Meet the salty sea captains and greenhorns who risk their lives on the job to earn part of a 90 million dollar King and Opilio Crab payoff. Set sail and learn all about crab fishing.» Yea, that’s the whole premise and I can’t get enough of it!!! If they are willing to risk their lives for this, I feel obligated to support these courageous soldiers and their imprisoned catch? This week is dedicated to those crews and their delicious prisoners, so let’s see where we can catch our own crab and not lose a life or wallet in the process.
King Crab Legs can be very expensive, so I suggest checking out Albertson’s. Typically, they have a great selection at a very reasonable price. If you are a Costco member they have some of the freshest crab and some of the lowest prices anywhere. On sale you can expect to pay about ($ 11.95) per pound. How about Crab Cakes? If done right they can be very tasty, but many restaurants do not use the traditional method or lack a quality in their crab cake to capture the heightened glory that this dish can achieve. The traditional method is done with Dungeness lump crab meat. Some places in our region are: Cameron’s Restaurant, McCormick and Schmick’s, and Ruth Chris’. For this crab lover though, the very best Crab Cake by far is at The Front Runner Restaurant located at the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia. There they use real lump crab meat with a light breaded cover. With this dish all those thoughts of slow horses disappear in a Heaven filled plate of Crab Cake. What’s your favorite place for Crab Cakes? Send me an email to the

Join me every Saturday afternoon at 3 PM for The Chef Knows TV Show on KJLA as I skipper a million and one adventures, doing battle with only a knife, fork and spoon.

I had difficutly sleeping a couple of days before I gave birth to my daughter. All I would watch from night to day was the Discovery Channel. They have the most interesting programs on.
I especially love it when they do shark week. You can never learn enough about sharks!!!

So, apparently, the Backtree Camel in the Gobi desert mates during the winter season. His mating call is to squat his hind legs (he looks like he’s needing to take a crap) and swat his butt w/​his tail…
Men… lol