Food Network used to broadcast a show from Japan, dubbed over by Canadian voice actors. This show helped introduce western audiences with the finer points of Japanese cuisine via ingredients... in addition to other styles. For me, the allure is in the ingredients not used in American cuisine, such as swallow's nest-- not that I have any desire to try it, but the culinary heritage tied with the culture. It's a fascinating glimpse into another society.
On the other hand, it's awesome to get inspiration for ingredients I do have access to, and give them the Iron Chef treatment myself.
Discovered a great YouTube channel with a whole bunch of Iron Chef episodes .. so if you love cooking shows and crave something unusual, give em a watch!
The American version of this show seems to fall flat, imo. The saving grace is Alton Brown.
Here are some of my favorite episodes:
Chocolate and Pears
Corn
Asparagus
Natto
