Rick Stein's Seafood Odyssey (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	232:33 (Case: 262)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Pritchard
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rick Stein
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

    Rick Stein is an English celebrity chef who is most famous for cooking seafood. I have already reviewed his most recent television series, Food Heroes, and this one which was made a few years earlier in 1999 was released on DVD at the same time. Unlike that later series this one is pretty much totally focused on seafood and it features Rick travelling around the world looking for 'simple dishes that stand the test of time' and then cooking them mostly in the outdoors on beaches, wharves and jetties. Filming and cooking locations include Australia, India, Thailand, the US, Spain & Italy along with Cornwall and other UK locations. There are 8 episodes in total each running for just under half an hour, spread over two discs. This is a bit more formal in tone than the more recent series with less of the Grumpy Old Men banter from Rick about the state of the world as he focuses more on the cooking and dishes. To my mind that makes it slightly less entertaining overall, however, it is certainly still a very good cookery show. As normal, Chalky, Rick's little dog appears in the show but only in the UK based segments.

    The eight episodes cover a wide variety of seafood and locations and are as follows:

1. Naples (29:07) - Italy /UK. Spaghetti Puttanesca, vongole, prawns, cod & potted shrimp.
2. Turbot (29:02) - India/UK. Turbot, prawn marsala, curry and lobster.
3. Percebes (29:05) - Spain/UK. Fish pie, percebes (Spanish shellfish), hake, Octopus, clams, cockles.
4. Goa (29:11) - UK/India/US. Nasi Goreng, Goan curry, shark vindaloo, oysters, blue swimmer crabs.
5. Noosa (29:02) - Australia/Italy/UK. Squid Salad, oysters, snapper, crabs, Italian mussels, squid & crabs, tuna steaks.
6. Striped Bass (29:02) - US/Thailand/UK. Bass fishing, succotash, oysters, gumbo, crabs, Tom Yum & Lemon Sole.
7. Dreams  (29:02) - Thailand/UK. Herbs, Papaya Salad, horseshoe crab, BBQ prawns, John Dory curry and a recipe which the director had in a dream!
8. Whitby (29:02) - US/UK/Italy. Seafood BBQ, soft shell crab, Singapore Chilli Crab, Monkfish, antipasta, salt cod & Fish & Chips.

    Recommended for food lovers and cooking show fans.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite sharp and clear, however there was some light grain throughout. There was no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was very good. The only issue was some very occasional cross colourisation.

    The only noticeable artefacts were some minor spots of aliasing here and there and some bits of edge enhancement.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read but includes a few minor changes from the spoken word.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music by Crocodile has aged better than their music on the other series.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included music and the ability to select episodes, scenes and subtitles.

Disc 2

Rick Stein Cooks Fish (30:01)

    This extra seems to be a complete instructional video which Rick Stein issued a couple of years before this series. It is very technique focused rather than specifically trying to be entertaining. A very worthwhile extra. It includes six main sections as follows:

1. Moules a la Creme (Mussels).
2. Removing Meat from a Crab
3. Filleting Flat Fish
4. Filleting Round Fish
5. Salmon marinated in Dill
6. Grilling Fish

     This series is available in the same format in Region 2 and is not currently available in Region 1 .

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The set has a 30 minute fish cooking instructional video as an extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall