With self isolation and social distancing being a necessity currently, traveling and restaurants are among the things being quickly missed in these situations. So where else to go in order to fill that void but reality television? It's clearer now more than ever that Netflix especially has plenty of food and travel-based shows waiting to be watched. Season 2 of David Chang's documentary series Ugly Delicious, released at the start of March, is a quick watch that perfectly fits the mold of what many could be craving at this time.
Ugly Delicious is a different type of travel show in that it doesn't follow a strict path. It doesn't focus on a specific area, city or country. Instead of choosing one area or one culture, it focuses on a type of food and the travel will be wherever the food and the casual, friendly conversation about it takes them. A talk from season 1 that starts in New York and is based around what toppings would make a pizza not even a pizza anymore, soon splits off and leads to a quiet pizzeria directly in Naples, Italy, but also a late night walk to a restaurant in Japan, where tuna and mayonnaise is placed on the dough and made to be delicious despite being so unorthodox at first glance.
These talks zero in on a specific dish and go over the differences between its respective place in multiple cultures while also going through what links it all and how it should be bringing people together. The show ping pongs effortlessly through history and the world and every episode is such a pleasant experience that goes down easy. Going from New York, to Lebanon, to Syria, to Germany so fast is never as jarring as it seems like it should be on paper. Instead it's delightful and consistently paced about as well as possible.
The show is almost a conversational video essay each episode and still ticks all the boxes of what viewers would be looking for in a show remotely similar to it. The gorgeous food to get people's mouths watering is obviously there to start. To expand on it, there's plenty of food that people may have not been exposed to, so it has the chance to be enlightening and informative as well. Of course that's also the case in it with exposure to specific aspects of cultures. Plus the travel aspect is plentiful, used uniquely, and an especially appealing aspect of the series when real opportunity to travel is limited. In Ugly Delicious, there are absolutely no limits on where in the world each discussion may lead.
On top of all that, it's not a major commitment. The original season, which is also excellent, was merely eight episodes and the follow-up is half of that. It doesn't overstay its welcome. With so much time to spare currently, there's little reason not to jump around the globe in less than four hours alongside David Chang and occasionally his celebrity friends in the second season of Ugly Delicious.