It’s gonna take a lot to take me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

I started watching a new show on Netflix called Ugly Delicious. It’s a food documentary series with chef David Chang as the host.  I’m already addicted, which isn’t hard for me and food docs. I get sucked into these shows quickly. They are one of my many weaknesses. Anything that combines food, travel, exploration, and amazing cinematography is something I’ll devour, pun intended. It showcases multiple things that I’m so passionate about in a beautiful way. Anthony Bourdain’s shows, Mind of a Chef, Chef’s Table, Phil Rosenthal’s shows, even Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Guy Fieri drives me nuts, but I love that show for all the quirky places he visits. When I travel, I often seek out places that were featured on many of these shows. I want to see if the allure of viewing an amazing food experience matches the actual experience of eating the same food at the same place. Often it does.

The first episode of Ugly Delicious is about pizza. The crew travels from Brooklyn to Naples to Japan and back to unlock the mystery of what makes pizza great. Along the way, Chang takes a detour and extols the virtues of Domino’s Pizza. He even goes so far as to, somewhat un-ironically, travel with a Domino’s pizza delivery guy as he makes his rounds. He’s honest in his appraisal of their pizza, but I give Domino’s credit for going along with this. He could have very easily shit all over everything they’re about, but he holds back. In turn, they seem to understand where he’s coming from and don’t hold it against him.

Ugly Delicious isn’t breaking any new ground.  You’ve seen versions of this show before, but there’s nothing wrong with that.  However, Chang takes a moment during the pizza episode to explain that one of the reasons he enjoys Domino’s pizza is because so many people have told him how uncool it is to like it. In other words, if you’re trying to tell him what’s cool and not cool, you can go fuck yourself. He’ll like whatever the fuck he likes, thank you very much. It was at that moment that he had me.

He feels the way I feel, not only about pizza, but about almost everything. Sure, I stretch the normal boundaries when it comes to my taste in music and movies, but at the end of the day, I like so-called shitty food and shitty music and shitty movies just like everyone else and I will not fucking apologize for it. Big Macs are goddamn delicious. Weekend at Bernie’s is a comedy classic. And “Africa” by Toto is a great song.  It’s my musical Domino’s.  There, I said it and I’m not ashamed.  Eat up, boys and girls.