On TV while I'm writing this, an American rugby playing guy, named Connor, is trying to eat 15 hot dogs in 30 minutes. Doesn't sound too hard, but the hot dogs are pretty big and covered in loads of minced beef and piles of chopped (raw) onions. Since I wrote the last sentence, he failed in the challenge and only managed 12. Obviously Connor is not the Highlander of movie fame - he'd have managed to eat 16.

Next the programme went to an all you can eat sausage buffet and they tasted "Unparalleled deliciousness" a chilli con carne, made from ground beef, tomato purée and secret spices. Now they have moved on to butterflied sausages, deep fried and then grilled. These are served (4 to a portion) on a very big bun, with fried onions, peppers and a load of home made tomato sauce. There's even a breakfast pancake with sausages in the pancake.

Am I going to get all snooty and have a go at the people doing this? Is this some sign that society is dying and we are all going to degenerate into obese, lazy slobs, slurping down mounds of fatty foods until our livers and kidneys give way?

Not me, I love this stuff.

It's easy to feel superior watching Man vs Food. The initial idea where the presenter went around America trying his hand at food challenges - eat this giant steak in an hour and we'll give you it for free, - was just a hook. This is really a well crafted celebration of locally made, traditional food, prepared by people who really seem to care about what they are doing.

None of the places they eat at are chains. They are all, independently owned, with individual recipes that have been worked on and perfected for years. This is good, solid and inexpensive food. It's unpretentious and multicultural. It's everything that we should celebrate and my only critisism is, that I wish it were me.