Food Tripping with Molly

I don't have a TV, so if I'm watching a food show, it's generally at a friend's house or, far more commonly, on YouTube.

YouTube recently recommended a new video show for me: Food Tripping with Molly. The Molly of the title is Molly Moker, editor for Zagat. The connection with Zagat gave me a false sense of security, so I watched a couple of episodes.

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I thought it was horrifying. Molly is traveling all over the U.S. to check out regional specialties. Down South, she picks up a sandwich with pimento cheese, asks what it is, and then says she's not going to eat it. Her crew talks her into trying it at a few high-end restaurants, and after making a few more snarky comments, she decides she likes it well enough.

Next episode I saw was for scrapple. She starts by declaring that she had done absolutely no research on the food of this region, says it looks nasty, but tries it and says it's good. Then she reads the ingredients, and recoils when she discovers that, in addition to pork, it contains liver, heart, and tongue. Um, hasn't she ever had liver sausage? She says she's from Wisconsin, so I figured that would not be so alien. And how do you get to be a food editor if you don't a) study stuff in advance and b) know that people eat tongue, liver, and heart.

I just wondered if anyone else has seen this and has any theories as to what audience they were targeting. And why would you have someone doing a regional survey of U.S. food who didn't know what to expect anywhere and was grossed out by everything. Just strikes me as being strange.

Don't want to say never watch it. If you're 16 and don't know much about food, you might find it entertaining. Molly is cute and bubbly, if ditsy, so I'm sure she'll appeal to someone. But I can't imagine anyone seriously into food not cringing.

So if YouTube suggests it to you, you might want to skip it.

I'm 44 and watched some episodes with my boys. I find it entertaining, at least for what it is. Light, easy to watch, vlogs about some kids taking a road trip and learning about regional foods. I don't remember her being grossed out by everything and she mentioned at the beginning of the scrapple vid why she didn't do research.

It sounds like the Zagat name set some different expectations for you.

I'm guessing their "target" audience is people born after 1980.

jvalentino wrote:I'm 44 and watched some episodes with my boys. I find it entertaining, at least for what it is. Light, easy to watch, vlogs about some kids taking a road trip and learning about regional foods. I don't remember her being grossed out by everything and she mentioned at the beginning of the scrapple vid why she didn't do research.

It sounds like the Zagat name set some different expectations for you.

I'm guessing their "target" audience is people born after 1980.

I had guessed I wasn't their target audience. And while she did say in the scrapple vid that she didn't do research because she wanted to be surprised, she gave no such excuse as to why she'd never heard of pimento cheese and had no plan as to what she would be trying in the South.

But if they're targeting the "whatever" generation, they appear to have nailed it.

I watched part of a video where Molly tries cocktails in New Orleans. The subject matter did not interest me. The videos document "discovery", shows a persons reaction to something that is new to them. It looks like she has two cameras and several mics set up for sound. I am not sure the views generated match the amount of time or resources to put the videos together. Many name brands for older people pay young smooth talking thinkfluencers to create content to give the brand exposure to younger people. Success could be measured by new visitors to a website or new followers from a younger demographic.

I watched a few minutes of Molly at Prince's in Nashville, when she asked for chicken tenders I was reminded of this skit about ordering Vietnamese food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQafdIVfR4

G Wiv wrote:I watched a few minutes of Molly at Prince's in Nashville, when she asked for chicken tenders I was reminded of this skit about ordering Vietnamese food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQafdIVfR4

Painful and hilarious. Thanks, G Wiv.

The title created an entirely different expectation for me.

Could not tolerate her vocal fry for more than a few minutes. Ugh.

I've known people who order non-ethnic food like that. Everything on the side, anything the least bit "exotic" substituted. So much ranch dressing. We're not friends anymore.

There seems to be a proliferation of young, enthusiastic, travelling/eating Dumbkopfs, willing to go anywhere, act amazed at the weird local habits/eats, encircling everything around their own narcissistic host-cool for the camera. Take a look at Globe Trekker sometime. Your jaw will slacken. Maybe not as badly as it does with Gary's video above, but it *will* slacken. Ouf.

Geo

Since she is a millennial, I wanted to hate her, but I couldn't...
I am nowhere near being a part of the target audience for her videos, but I still found her to be engaging and energetic.