The Great Food Truck Race 2.0

Last year, Food Network introduced us to The Great Food Truck Race, where 7 food truck operators competed for a chance to win $50,000. The show's theme song would be best described as an attempt at sounding like the Beastie Boys that results in something that is just beastLY instead. Nothing makes me want to watch reality TV quite like having the subject of the program yelled in my face a half dozen times.

The host is Tyler Florence, one of the Food Network's "personalities", who is about as edgy as Adult Contemporary radio. I find the Food Network's approach to their talent can be broken down into two categories:

1. The "blank slate"- This includes Tyler Florence, Al Roker, and Marc Summers, among others. The network uses the blank slate mainly because the food can't talk about itself.
2. The caricature - Examples of this type include Guy Ferry (yes, that is his real name), Giada de Laurentiis, and Paula Deen. With the caricature, you have basically a hyperbolized, larger-than-life personality. Giada overstresses her Italian pronunciation, makes lots of pornographic faces, and frequently shows off her rack. Paula is a retired Southern belle who deep-fries everything, including butter. Guy....well Guy may as well be wearing a "Summer's Eve" t-shirt.

This season features 8 trucks, each with a different type of cuisine, though most of them could be considered "California cuisine" if you want to get technical. 5 of the 8 trucks are from California. Anyways, my general impressions of each truck are as follows:

• Devilicious - trying way too hard. Deliberately unhealthy food.
• Cafe Con Leche - fairly standard Latin fare. Cue angry conversation in Spanish and vintage hats reminiscent of Havana 60 years ago.
• Sky's Gourmet Tacos - we have tacos!!
• Korilla BBQ - we're from New York and really playing up the 'urban' thing. Sometimes we also have tacos!!
• Hodge Podge - I'm awesome, watch me cook things! Here are some girls in short dresses to look at, too.
• Roxy's Grilled Cheese - I am biased to like these guys because they are wearing Red Sox shirts. I do find it hilarious that they're really playing up the Irish/Boston stereotype.
• The Lime Truck - douchey headbands, douchey fauxhawk, douchey long hair, douchey hipster-y Jonas Brother lookalike. Tight purple pants and shitty mustaches, everything I don't like about male hipsters.
• Seabirds - hipsters, hipsters, hipsters!!! Why on earth are they all wearing huge ugly grandma glasses? The blonde one seems a bit derp-y, which is kind of amusing. I'd like this truck better if they weren't all raging female hipsters, and if the name did anything to suggest veganism to me. Seabirds eat fish....

This concludes my first impression of Season 2. More smart-ass comments to follow.