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Good Eats :: If It Ain't Broccoli Don't Fix It (11x16)
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Episode Information |
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| Title: | If It Ain't Broccoli Don't Fix It |
| Episode #: | 11x16 |
| Production Number: | EA1116 |
| Original Airdate: | Monday February 18th, 2008 |
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Episode Summary |
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Over the years, many of the exhibits that once graced the Food Gallery's Vegetal Hall of Horrors have disappeared, eliminated by Alton's attempts to remake them into delicious entrées. But a few remain, and one of them, brassica oleracea – broccoli – is stubborn about leaving the Hall. It has earned the ire of everyone from presidents to small children and has been the subject of many untruths. Whether it's Pan Steamed Broccoli, Oven Roasted Broccoli or Fresh Broccoli Salad, Alton intends to show that broccoli really is Good Eats. He's sure he can get it out of the Vegetal Hall of Horrors, but as for Air Force One? Well, one thing at a time...
| | There are no foreign summaries for this episode: Contribute | | English Recap Available: View Here |
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Guest Stars |
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No Guest Stars Found (Add Here)
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Episode Notes |
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Cards- Broccoli made its triumphant return to the White House with the 1992 election of President Bill Clinton.
- Over 90% of the broccoli grown in the United States hails from California.
- A study in The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that microwaving broccoli reduced its anti-oxidant compounds by 74-97%.
- The first clear description of broccoli or “Italian asparagus” occurred in a 1724 English gardener's dictionary.
- Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing the first broccoli seeds to America from Italy (personally, I ain't buying it).
| Locations: Harry's Farmers Market (Marietta, GA)
| The episode title comes from a popular engineering aphorism, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” It refers to the tendency of engineers to try to make what works, work better. While often a laudable goal, sometimes in pursuit of it engineers lose sight of the fact that the existing system works well enough to meet the need, and in the process of upgrading it they expend enormous resources (and possibly create inconvenience) towards an objective of questionable value.
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Featured Songs |
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| Artist | Song Title | Played When | | •Edvard Grieg | In the Hall of the Mountain King | as Alton sneaks around | | •Mike Oldfield | Tubular Bells (excerpt, rearranged) | musical bed |
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Episode Quotes |
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Alton: Over the years we've managed to shut down many of the exhibits here in the vegetal hall of horrors – spinach, peas, beets, dark leafy greens, don't live here any more. But there is one inmate who seems determined to remain on permanent display: brassica oleracea – broccoli. Falsely accused of being bitter, limp, bland and boring, this flowering body has garnered the ire of presidents and pubescents alike.
| Alton: Simply prepared, broccoli can be every bit as tasty as apple pie – different, but delicious. It may have once been banned from Air Force One, but that doesn't mean that broccoli is not... (Good Eats theme plays)
| Alton: And you have some of the strange but wonderful broccoli romanesco.
Florist: Now this one can't be a vegetable! Look how pretty it is... all those tiny little cones... looks like a magic fairy sandcastle...
Alton: (sharing a look with the viewers) Yes... doesn't it...
| Gnome: If you want that broccoli to have a chance at survival, you'll put it in this drawer, which thanks to higher humidity keeps veggies crisper, fresher and firmer!
| Alton: Broccoli contains nearly as much calcium as milk. It has more vitamin C in it than an orange. It also contains vitamins K and A; it's an excellent source of dietary fiber, folate, riboflavin, iron, potassium, manganese and phosphorus. It also contains some very special anti-oxidants that can jump start what's called “Phase II Detoxification Enzymes” which have the power to kind of flush potentially harmful free radicals (the camera pans to a bearded character in a fatigue style jacket and sporting various protest buttons) from your body. And that qualifies broccoli as a bona fide superfood.
| Alton: (noticing that Thing is presenting a tray bearing an envelope) What's this? An invitation! To my neighbor's party! Today!! That's funny, I never get invited to... (Alton notices the address on the envelope) Thing. This address is down the street. You know that stealing mail is a Federal offense? Ah, well, maybe they'll just let you by with slap on the wrist!
| Alton: If you ask me, the best way to make raw broccoli palatable is to think “coleslaw.” In other words, we are going to cut the broccoli wafer thin and dress it in a sauce tangy enough to keep the salivary glands engaged throughout the eating experience.
| Alton: And so broccoli, vindicated at last, is released from the Vegetal Hall of Horrors. Although we can never erase those lost years of loathing, we can hope for a new day in which children and presidents alike brightly beg for broccoli. Are there still plenty of edible monsters lurking out in the darkness? Indeed there are, but they'll have to wait for there own episodes of good eats.
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Cultural References |
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Alton begins this episode as he has a number of others – in the Food Gallery. The subdued lighting, spaced displays and odd music clearly suggest Rod Serling's Night Gallery. Like Serling's original, episodes of Good Eats that begin in the Food Gallery start with an exhibit that launches the show – typically some food generally considered unpalatable by many, but which Alton will show is actually Good Eats.
| Alton mentions that broccoli was once banned from Air Force One. The forty-first president of the United States, George H. W. Bush, once remarked that he disliked the vegetable, providing comics with several days worth of material and prompting growers to send several tons to the White House (which were donated to a local soup kitchen). Air Force One is the name given to whatever plane transports the President, so if Mr. Bush banned the vegetable from the presidential table during his tenure, it may well be that his Air Force One never flew with brassica oleracea aboard.
| Alton tells The Gnome (as he shuts the refrigerator door) that he needs to spend a little time in the cooler. Alton's accent mimics that of Colonel Klink, the bungling commandant of Stalag 13 in Hogan's Heroes. Klink routinely threatened to send one or another of Hogan's men to the cooler, a solitary confinement cell used to punish prisoners who broke camp rules, who were normally quartered in barracks.
| Mystery Food Science Theater (the set and the concept) owe their origin to a popular television series, Mystery Science Theater 3000. It featured old movies with a framing sequence shot around them and humorous commentary from the host and his various robots injected into the film. The play on science and food science highlights part of Good Eats's distinctiveness: the scientific explanations Alton provides that grant viewers a good general understanding of food preparation.
| Alton's Thing, a disembodied "helping hand," is the son of Thing who appeared in The Addams Family (1964) (a fact not revealed until season nine's Behind the Eats).
| Alton once again uses the term “wafer thin” in a way that recalls the scene featuring Mr. Creosote, the enormously fat diner, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The sketch concerned Creosote's prodigious appetite, and how it eventually betrayed him, fatally and messily, when the maitre d' convinced him to eat a chocolate wafer for dessert. Creosote initially declined, but the maitre d' convinced him by claiming the candy was “wafer thin.” Alton emulates this delivery when discussing how he'll prepare some broccoli.
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Episode References |
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Alton mentions several former exhibits now departed the Vegetal Hall of Horrors: spinach, peas, beets and dark leafy greens. American Classics I: Spinach Salad covered spinach, while Give Peas a Chance dealt with those legumes. Beet It covered the sugary red vegetables, and Field of Greens chronicles the evolution of the monstrous Mean Green, a monster made of leafy greens, into the friendly Deep Green, a wonderfully nutritious meal.
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Analysis |
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The narrow focus of this episode plays to the strengths of Good Eats. Alton offers several ways to prepare broccoli, briefly touches on its history (occasionally the historical pieces create a padded feeling, as if there was too little other material, but not here) and discusses its extensive nutritional benefits. Given that broccoli brings so much to the table (as it were) this episode was probably overdue. Even those who find the vegetable bitter may find they like it after following these recipes.
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Episode Goofs |
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