A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Are Sushi Restaurants Scamming You?

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole reveal the real costs of going to a sushi restaurant and what your omakase dinner is actually worth. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. All fish is a scam, Nicole. Nothing is what you think it is. What are you talking about? The perch is catfish, the escolar is albacore, the calamari are pig buttholes. You're a pig butthole. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what?

That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is Your Sandwich. I'm your host, Pig Butthole. And I'm Pig Butthole. And today, we are dispelling the myth that calamari are not, in fact, squid, but are actually pig anuses.

I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. Here's the thing. I think that's a lie. How much profit really is there in the calamari industry? That's what I'm saying. I'm sure there's tons. Yeah, but if there were like calamari only restaurants, if it was like Buffalo Wild Squid out there dominating the game,

then I'd be like there would be an impetus to shave profit margins. But if you really think that like the Olive Garden is skimming profits by finding a supplier of pig intestines, no, they're skimming profits on everything else. But they're also just giving away free bowls of pasta after you've already had pasta. I've always wanted to try the never-ending pasta bowl, actually. It is.

After two and a half bowls of pasta, you really don't want to be there. You really don't know my life. You do not want to be there. You really don't know my life. I don't know, Nicole. Do you know the Olive Garden doesn't salt their pasta water? Yeah, I was just about to say that.

Did you know that? Did you know that? I was about to say that. No, did you? Did you know that? I was about to say that. No, did you know? No, today we are talking about are sushi restaurants scamming you? And before we really get into it. This is so silly.

I know, it's silly, but no, there's a lot of really, really interesting stuff to get into here, revolving fish mislabeling and who are actually opening sushi bars and why in America and the history of it. But is it fair to say are sushi restaurants scamming you or is it just all restaurants that serve fish are scamming you?

Okay, that's a great point. I want to preface this by saying almost anything you buy is some sort of a scam. Okay. No, we enter into the social contract. We enter into a social contract. Okay, when we go to a restaurant. Yeah, when you go to a restaurant. You want to, yeah, when you go to a restaurant,

that you are like paying for things simply because you like them, not because there is an intrinsic value associated with them. Right? Do you know what I mean? Of course there's intrinsic value in food. Like even if it was pig butthole, if you are enjoying the pig butthole as much as you would squid, like why is that wrong? Do you think enjoying the pig butthole as much as you would squid who like why is that wrong do you think with the pig well tell me if you don't eat pig if you're a practicing jew or muslim i get it well let me well my question is the pig butthole do they like because the texture

of pig butthole it takes a long time for it to get soft no you gotta just baking soda treat it you think so i think if you baking soda treated and then, one, I've gone to some like pig intestine specialist, Kopchang, like the Korean. Okay. You know what the Agassi Kopchang? Is that an intestine specialist? Yeah, Kopchang means intestines. I did not know that.

And when they're done right, they're very delicious. But I've also had some dirty intestines and you feel the poop. You do. There's poop in it. Oh my God. What do you mean you feel the poop? It's like a gusher. No, I've been to some like

it was just like a real crappy restaurant that was serving intestines. No pun intended. If you're going to eat intestines go to an intestine specialist. Go to somebody who's been doing it right

for many, many years. No, the calamari pig butthole thing I believe is a myth. I don't think that was ever substantiated. There's no way in hell that they're doing that and if they're doing that

shame on you. If you get calamari just make sure that it's the type that they serve with the tentacles because you can't fake that. They're not just fraying the buttholes into tentacles, right? You know what they might do if they're really scummy? The rings are buttholes. And then in order, if they have like smart diners, they put some tentacles there. Maybe. That's like a really scummy thing to do. So it's like, oh yeah, well, I'm checking, you know? What we are talking about today is the fact that a ton of fish is mislabeled in America.

And also the term sushi grade does not mean anything. Yeah, that's a lie. That was the impetus behind this whole podcast is because people were like, that better be sushi grade fish that was eating raw and sushi and sashimi grade are literally not legally protected at all. I think people just slap it on there to sell it, right?

A hundred percent. So there's actually this really incredible quote by, he was a fish shop owner in Brooklyn. His name is Yuji Haraguchi. Brooklyn based Osaka. He just says he used the term sushi and sashimi grade for marketing purposes when he worked as a sales rep for a wholesale fish distributor. He said back in 2004,

the company was trying to expand its customer base beyond Japanese restaurants, and Haraguchi's mission was to convince other restaurants to serve their customers raw fish besides tuna. The term sushi-grade fish was very effective in terms of making sales, but at the same time, I had to provide the right product and the right information, he says. Sure, fair.

So it's one of those things where you go to a sushi bar and you sort of assume that they are using higher quality fish than you would get at home. Go ahead. You say sushi bar, not sushi restaurant. Why is that? Do you not say sushi bar? I say sushi.

People at home? I say let's go get sushi. Well, I mean that... Bar implies bar stools. Yeah, but every sushi restaurant has a bar inside of it. Can we get a fact check comment? No, no. Okay, so this is a great point.

This is a great point. In Japan, sushi restaurants are more just a sushi bar. It is a counter that you go to to eat sushi. And the difference in japanese and american cultures when it comes to raw fish is really really going to come into play here okay okay right i just had to interrupt you continue your story so the history of sushi they believe it dates back about a thousand years and there's an old wives tale that is not substantiated at all but it kind of rules it's like a woman wandered up to an osprey's nest. Osprey, a bird. An osprey, yeah. And like she

had a clay pot of rice in an osprey nest or something and the rice was fermenting and the osprey dropped fish in there and she was like yum and ate it. And that kind of doesn't make sense but it's a fun Japanese old wives tale. Cute. But no, people have been eating like fermented fish and rice as a method of preserving it in clay pots

throughout East Asia for a thousand years. Now, this is interesting. Fermented fish. Now, people don't normally associate fermented fish with sushi. They sure do not. But that's how it was, right? That's how the OG way was to eat it. Correct, yeah.

And that's where, like, the origins of, like, the etymology of sushi in Japan come from, right? But if you want to get back to, like, modern-day sushi, a lot of people credit it to the late Edo period. Edo period was, like, 1600 to, like lot of people credit it to the late Edo period. Edo period was like 1600 to like mid 1800s. And so in 1830s, they say that the first like modern-ish sushi bar, which is old as hell, right? Yeah, it is. There wasn't no hamburgers for another like 80 years after that.

Like this is pretty damn, you know, old in comparison to a lot of American foods. But Edo style sushi, the fish isn't technically like fermented, but it is typically some lot of American foods. But Edo-style sushi, the fish isn't technically fermented, but it is typically some sort of vinegar cured. And I've been to some Edo-style omakase restaurants. Omakase means as you like it. As you please. As the chef please. As the chef pleases.

Whatever the chef says, eat it. I'm in your hand. The chef's going to make you whatever the hell they want an omakase meal. And I've been to an Edo-style omakase meal and it was fantastic. Was this at Q? This was at Q, yeah. Big date, yeah. Yeah, wherease meal. And I've been to an Edo-style omakase meal, and it was fantastic. Was this at Q? This was at Q, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Big date, yeah. Yeah, where I accidentally went on like a third date and spent $1,000. You spent $1,000 on a third date? Any money. She ordered a $300 bottle of wine, and I didn't know how to say no thank you. She was mistaken.

$1,000 on a third it was it was we got in a fight too it was bad at the restaurant no after okay good okay good you're ignoring me i don't have to tell you i was talking so what i'm saying is 1830s modern like nigiri is sort of invented so yeah dude i had like no money i was broke too It's when I was living in Glendale with two other dudes. I remember, I remember. Yeah, yeah. Weird times in both of our lives. So anyways. Most of yours.

Okay. 1830s, modern nigiri sushi that we think of, which is sliced raw fish on rice. Sure. Could be treated with vinegar, but the person. Really? I feel like in LA or like the US, it's not that common. No, true, true, true. But a lot of times in preparation, the fish can be salted, it can be cured, whatever.

But a lot of it is basically like, hey, now we're just taking fish and we're slicing them fresh and we're putting them on rice. Which I love. Which you love. I love it too. Again, I have to preface this with like, I don't care if fish is mislabeled. I don't care that a vast majority of sushi restaurants in America are not owned or operated by a Japanese person. Who cares about that? Give me tasty fish on

rice and a cold beer and I'm having a great time. First sushi restaurant in America, Kawafuku in Little Tokyo, LA. Is it still open? No, it shuttered many decades ago. This is 1966.

And also... First sushi restaurant in the US was 1966. 1966, actually from a former imperial court chef from Japan opened it with a Jewish business partner. I love America. I love America. For reasons such as that. Like, honestly.

And so 1966, that happens. And all this cultural context really does come into play because during the 80s, especially 80s and early 90s, we see this what I call the sexy sushi boom in America. Sure. You've spoken about this before. The sexy sushi movement. It's like early 90s. Think like Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, Guns N' Roses is playing. You just hit big on the stock market and junk bonds. and you want to take your gal out on a night on the town you go to the roxy theater you see slash all you know drugged up out there you go to dorsia you like you know he like throws a chair through the window then you go to

uh what's it called a katana sushi or something yeah i know so sushi had this really big explosion um and culturally in america we had this both japanophobia and japanophilia happening yeah i i i understand the japanophilia not so much the japanophobia well so the phobia was simply like the japanese people are too good at manufacturing electronics and cars okay that cars. Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. Not valid, though. No, I mean, like, listen, Japan had like a great economic rise post-World War II. And also, one of the reasons there weren't enough Japanese people in America to open sushi bars for the demand is because wages were really high in Japan and not that many people wanted to go, right?

So you had a lot of Chinese and Korean immigrants in especially Los Angeles opening sushi restaurants. Yeah, some of my favorite joints are owned by Korean people. I love it. I love getting a side of kimchi with my California roll with fried shrimp and spicy mayo on it. It's truly one of my favorite things. And one of those things that makes LA what it is

and how much I love it. So anyways, there was this kind of attitude that like the Japanese people must be doing something culturally that we don't understand. And in came this sort of Orientalism and fetishization of all Japanese culture where it's like, well, they're very respectful to their elders and they, you know, have the shokunin, like the artisanal master. And there's almost this like religiosity to it.

And we have put that into sushi where in america we're like sushi is sacred because i'm paying if you go to an omakase restaurant i'm paying 200 for it and so oh every single thing this sushi chef does is intentional right from the way and it's right oh and there's wrong ways to eat sushi no you never dip it right side down you never put the wasabi in this don't't rub your chopsticks together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All that stuff. And so we have this sort of like vaunted idea of what sushi should be. And in actuality in Japan, it is not treated as such. Like we see Jiro dreams of sushi. Yeah, that's what I was going to say right now.

I'm like, they really do revere it highly, don't they? Because we've seen Jiro dreams of sushi. Neither of us have ever been to a sushi bar in Japan. No, we should go. Right? I would love to go. And this is all actually written about in a fantastic book by Sasha Isenberg called The Sushi Economy. He says, all the religious connotations

about sushi that Americans project are simply a form of Orientalism. And he goes in to talk about how eating sushi in Japan, he's like, it's a big boisterous atmosphere. Like he likens sushi chefs more like a bartender or like a barber where like you're shooting the crap with them. You're shooting the crap, you know, the old saying. Where in America, a lot of people are like, oh, this is a very special experience. It's serious. Yeah.

It's very serious and it's very almost solemn in a lot of ways and so we start to think of things like oh all the fish that they're using these must be the most pristine product because we don't eat fish raw in America but if this Japanese person who again is probably not Japanese not that that matters whatsoever but it's we don't have the same thoughts necessarily about Chinese

or Korean culture that we do with Japanese culture and when I say we I mean a lot of white Americans, right? The collective white American, yeah. The collective white American that is represented by this one white dude sitting right here. Now, how does that feed into our sushi restaurant scamming you? That's a great question, Nicole, because somebody did a study. It was actually a group called Oceana.

They're an ocean preservation group. Are these the people that snuck the whale meat? Oh my God, are they? I don't think it's the same people. Are they? No, it's different people? I don't know. Okay. But anyways, they found, and this is actually the lowest figure that I've seen

because there have been so many studies about fish mislabeling. Quote, that one in five seafood samples tested worldwide. Dudes, whoops. Excuse me. One in five seafood samples tested worldwide turns out to be a completely different species than what the menu packaging says. One out of five?

And so... Shut up. One out of five. And when I first heard this, I was like, well, there's not a lot of scientific delineation about what makes a certain fish a certain fish. Huh, okay.

The best example of this is Patagonian toothfish. You mean... Chilean sea bass, okay. So the best example of this is Patagonian toothfish. You mean... Chilean sea bass, baby! And so again, this isn't sushi restaurants scamming you. This is any restaurant that serves fish and an entire large fishing industry. Yeah, I feel like it's the industry. It's not the guy behind the counter. Yeah, so if there's a garbage fish that is ugly and has an ugly name that you want to sell,

you just name it very similarly to another fish. So you have Mediterranean sea bass, right? Just sea bass. Just sea bass, right? Or branzino, right? Is branzino sea bass? Branzino sea bass. And it's a Mediterranean sea bass.

I call it branzino. And so you have that. And so then, you know, fishermen in Chile are like, yo, we got this big fish that gives a lot of meat, easy to fish, called Patagonian toothfish. Big, ugly-looking mother effer, right? Nobody wants to buy it, though, because it's called Patagonia. Nobody knows what Patagonia is.

Americans are ignorant. Everybody knows what Patagonia is, the sweaters. Do you know what Patagonia actually is? Yeah, I do. What is Patagonia? What's Patagonia? It's in Peru. Dang it.

No, it's not. It's like southern Argentina, right? What? I mean, Chile is also certainly represented in Patagonia. Patagonia is a large region near the south of South America. Does it include Peru? Peru is certainly not.

I need to know if it includes Peru. No, Peru is definitely more north than Patagonia, right? I need to know before you make me look dumb on this podcast. Patagonia, Peru part of it. Oh, man, there's no Peru. Why did I think it was Peru? But the point is, there's this fish that nobody wanted to buy, and so they renamed it something.

And so Patagonian toothfish is not a bass, has nothing to do with sea bass, but it's labeled a bass. But there's no actual protection on what is a bass and what is not. And a lot of these things don't necessarily cross cultures too. So in Japan, there's certain things that like they have their own names for fish. Obviously in Japan, they don't use the English names for fish. So they may not have the same delineation such as this is a bass and this is a bass. So like we got our own Japanese names for this because we're in Japan. Yeah. You know what I mean? Sure. And so with all of the

fish mislabeling, one, you're likely paying more money for a worse fish, right? They tend not to mislabel. What does worse fish mean? Well, that's a great point. A fish that at market price would not be at the price you paid for it. Okay. I agree with you though that I've eaten a lot of fish around the world.

Most of it tastes really freaking similar. I mean, there's a difference between... I will never pay $30 for a halibut. That's insane. Like a... Halibut's not that good. Cooked or raw. Do you eat halibut? Yeah, you can eat halibut raw. I've a halibut. That's insane. Like a... Halibut's not that good. Cooked or raw. Do you eat halibut?

Yeah, you can eat a halibut raw. I've had halibut raw before. Is it worth the market? No. Over any other fish? No. No. But what I'm saying is like,

there has to be a difference between like a firm white fish and like a... There's differences. There's differences. But not in... You don't see this any other where, in any other place in the meat industry, right?

I guess you do, and you can talk about, I was going to say there's not like a competing animal to a cow that you can sort of like pass, you know, beef off as. Yeah, fair. You can mislabel, here's another point. Go ahead. God dang it, USDA, right? I was just about to bring up the whole

USDA Prime choice whatever. There's none of that for fish, is there? There's none of that for fish. There should be. And so the USDA, this is a great thing that I only found out from watching the Netflix documentary Poisoned as Nicole puts on the plus. I do not want to see that. You should watch

Poisoned. It's really interesting. Is it like food ink? It's all about food safety. Yeah, it's kind of like food ink. No, I don't want to watch it. It's all Poisoned. It's really interesting. No, is it like Food Inc.? It's all about food safety. Yeah, it's kind of like Food Inc. No, I don't want to watch it. It's all about food safety and the E. coli outbreaks, the Jack in the Box, which I remember in the 90s. Okay. But the most interesting thing I found out,

they're interviewing two people from the FDA and USDA, and then they go to the USDA person and they say, what do you regulate in America? And they go, we regulate all beef, poultry, and catfish. And then the FDA is like, we do everything else. And I was like, hold up, hold up. Why catfish? Then I learned why.

So the U.S. catfishing industry, which is a lot in like Arkansas, Mississippi Delta, that area, right? Catfish is a fresh river fish. Not kosher. Not kosher, but delicious. Big in the South, big also in Vietnamese food. Sure. There's a lovely dish called Banh Can.

That is a delicious catfish soup. Sometimes they call it Vietnamese gumbo. Anywho, there's now a huge infiltration of Vietnamese farmed catfish coming to the American market, and American suppliers don't like that. So they thought that

the one thing they can beat this imported fish from Vietnam from is standard safety and regulation. Wow. It's because so many Americans' livelihoods are based off of catfishing? Exactly. It's very much just like a protectionist sort of policy, right? Which America's been doing for a lot of years. And again, I have nothing against fish being imported from wherever. I tend to eat a lot of years and again i have like nothing against fish being imported from wherever i tend to eat a lot but one of the main culprits in the fish labeling scandal is farmed catfish

coming from asia because it's packaged somewhere that's not in america okay uh and then they found out that catfish uh farmed in asia was mislabeled with 18 different fish species shut they're just passing catfish off as anything. Do you think it's like different parts of the catfish? Probably, yeah. It's like the tail is more tender, so let's say that this is a, I don't know. This is Escalar.

This is whatever. Oh my God, Orangethe. Orangethe, you know? That's really crazy. Sure. 18? 18. That was the biggest find from this study.

I couldn't name 18 fish if you paid me. And so a lot of the fish mislabeling stuff, you know, me as somebody who I have no dietary restrictions, I have no allergies, no religious exemptions from anything, right? I don't care very much because I just love going to sushi restaurants in any fish restaurant and just shoving fish in my gullet. Yeah, I ball out at sushi places too. So for me, it's whatever.

But if you are, say, pregnant, there are fish that pregnant women are not supposed to eat because of high mercury content. Oh yeah, which ones are those? I don't know. No, I can't.

I'm not pregnant, Josh. You haven't been drinking. Everybody at work wants me to be pregnant so bad, but I'm not. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to let you guys down. Not yet.

Not yet. So that's one of the things. You can't eat catfish, Nicole. You're Jewish. You're not going to get into Jewish heaven if you accidentally eat catfish that was mislabeled. I have a friend who's OBGYN. She's pregnant right now. Said, yeah, go ahead.

Eat raw fish just as long as it's from a good place. I agree with that. Can I explain why I should be able to have opinions about your pregnancy? Mine in particular? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just mine though. Correct. No one else's.

No, everybody. I think I should be sort of the main advice giver for anyone who's pregnant. Just imagine me, imagine me, I tell you I'm pregnant. Now what are you going to tell me? So the whole thing about pregnancy, right? Do I know what it is or how it happens? Not even a little bit. I'm'm gonna give you a hint come here yeah you have to put that in where

no no no this is okay the reason you're not supposed to eat things when you're pregnant it's basically just all the things that you're also not supposed to eat when you're not pregnant if you want to minimize risk if you want to minimize risk of you can eat capicola no but deli meats have a like high percentage of listeria cases right yeah that's that's like what this is all about it's just like hey don't put like raw cheeses and stuff yeah you're at risk for it for any other sort of infection and you got a little thing grown inside your tummy the tummy is the anatomical region where the baby the seed grows hangs out um but no that's what it is and so it's all about trying to minimize risk of food infection well is there a high, well, with raw fish, is there a high infection rate? I'm so glad you asked, Nicole.

This is fun. Because the main thing, so this is now we're getting into sushi grade and sashimi grade. Which is a lie. Which is an absolute lie, right? The FDA has released guidelines on fish when it is safe to be consumed raw. And this is not freshwater fish because freshwater fish have a high degree of bacteria and not bacteria, parasites are the main issue. Oh yeah, is there a lot of instances

where wild and farm-raised salmon are kind of like mislabeled? Does that happen often? Oh, that happens almost all the time. That's really annoying. Yeah, which I don't even know what's better for the environment or myself anymore. I don't care.

I was told that farm is bad because they dye the fish and then the dye makes the kids go crazy. Listen, life is really complicated. I have no idea. I just eat the fish. Like I go to a fish and I eat the fish. I go, hey, can I consume you? It goes and I eat it. But I'm happy you asked permission of the fish. Animal sovereignty. I believe in it. So parasites are the biggest risk when it comes to eating raw fish. That's what people always get worried about, right? Sure. If they're bad raw fish, you're going to get parasites. And the Anisakis worm, which that just sounds like the Greek hammer thrower,

Michael Anisakis. Okay. But the Anisakis worm is the biggest risk for that. America, we eat such little raw fish, especially in our homes, that there were hardly any documented cases of this. There were 13 cases in the last 24 years on anisakis worms. And part of that is when we talk about sushi grade and sashimi grade, the FDA released guidelines that are like,

there might be parasites in everything. Just freeze it. Just freeze it. Just freeze it. It'll kill all the parasites, and that's it. And so almost like all fish is now just deep frozen as a means of like, okay, FDA, you want to put out a blanket statement. We're going to freeze everything. You know what's so funny?

I actually saw a TikTok about people eating frozen Costco sushi. Yes. Did you see this too? Yes. And then everyone's like, that's not sushi grade. There is a warrior out there among us on TikTok.

I can't remember their handle. Maggie, if you want to find him who is literally just taking Costco salmon and going, here's how I make my Costco salmon sashimi. Yeah.

And it's perfectly safe. It's an uproar. People are still upset. And so when you're talking about like, you know, as long as the fish is from a good quality place, there's no such thing.

And again, 13 cases of Anisakis worm. There are, I'm sure other risks out there to eating raw fish. Um, Oh, we found it. Okay.

This is photo. Yeah. Photogamy. Thank you. $30 Costco salmon. Shout out to photogamy out there. Um, but yeah,

so your, your risk of getting any sort of foodborne illness or parasite from raw fish is so, so much less than like eating lettuce. Nicole, okay, pregnant people. Pregnant people out there, stop eating bagged lettuce. Bagged lettuce, look this up. It is literally like one of the least safe foods to consume in America. There are always listeria outbreaks. There's salmonella outbreaks.

Even the triple wash? There's E. coli. Washing it does nothing. This is another point. Washing it does nothing. What do you think? Bacteria just doesn't survive in water? Bacteria loves wet ingredients.

It doesn't just like ride away on a wave. No, the only way to kill bacteria is through temperature change. Right? And so heat and cold. Are you telling people? Which would destroy the lettuce. So that's one of the reasons E. coli is now more common in lettuce than it is in beef. So are you telling people to freeze their lettuce or to cook their lettuce?

Both. I just asked you earlier if I can braise red. Oh, I thought you were just saying that for kicks and giggles. No, I have like spinach at home that I was going to saute, but spinach wilts down to nothing. And I was like, I can cut it with other greens. The only other green I have is red leaf lettuce. And I don't know. I might do that. It'll kill bacteria. But another point. When it comes to raw fish. Yeah. Ceviche.

People are like, the lemon cooks the fish. It does. It does nothing. Are you kidding me? The main concern with eating raw fish. Are you kidding me? The acid. The main concern. Acid. It can preserve it. Okay, wait. Acid. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It can preserve it wait acid way way way way it can preserve it so good me me so whenever you have acid yeah and okay so this is gonna be make a really dark turn but you know how people like they pour acid on people like when they do

something are you talking about like acid like acid attacks against women and yeah yeah so like it like stop stop doing that like don't don't eat capicola when you're pregnant and don't kill people with acid i think you should eat capicola when you're pregnant though but don't do the second one go ahead you were talking about acid it's like doesn't it like it like cooks the skin but acid is like those that is like acid like meant to harm people like lemon juice is acid ceviche is lemon is lime juice okay okay so so okay so you're saying like acid bad for life no no no listen to me so it's like saying a match and like a forest fire is to lemon juice as is acid to battery acid yeah yeah don't make battery

acid ceviche and uh don't don't you know light a cigarette with a forest fire correct mundo yeah you're right although i did do that sometimes with uh just a home gas burner just it's in your mouth you just go yeah that's how you sing your eyelashes yeah i've been there done that college man um but no so if the main concern behind eating raw fish is parasites okay it seems to be uh the anisakis worm and that's the main parasite that you find in fish, it thrives in acidic environments. So it would do nothing. But again, 13 cases in 24 years in America.

So wait a second. What the acid does is you can eat it over a long period of time. So say you want to enjoy your fish three days from now without it getting the normal amount of bacteria that would build up on any sort of fresh, wet product. Acid will help preserve it. So you're trying to tell me that the malic acid or the citric acid, sorry, the citric acid in a lime or lemon does not cook the fish in ceviche?

It's an etymological and semantic debate, right, on what the term cook means. You know, acid, it'll structure the proteins in a way that is similar to it being heat treated. However, when it comes to bacteria, it does, or not even bacteria, when it comes to things like parasites that will get killed by cooking. It will not kill it. It will not kill it in terms of curing with acid. Unless you freeze the fish beforehand. Freezing the fish to negative 31 degrees, which a home freezer cannot do, is what the FDA recommends to avoid parasites. Then how are people supposed to enjoy sushi and ceviche at home? Enjoy it. Do it. 13 cases in 24 years. I know sometimes I can be, listen,

listen to me. Just please, please listen to pregnant people. Just everybody, but everybody also listen. I don't have to listen because I'm not pregnant. I know people have gotten mad at me about being cavalier on certain food safety issues, such as cooking a chicken breast to 155 degrees instead of 165. Oh, my God. Get me out of here. Please get me out of here. Please look at the science and the numbers.

Bagged lettuce is out here murking people. 27 people died from cantaloupes. Lunch meat, hot dogs. I love cantaloupes. Yeah. Oh, man. The cantaloupe disaster in like, what was that? 2014 or something like that? It's utterly insane.

There's so many things that are outside of your control in food safety. The things that you can control, like don't wash your chicken to spread salmonella around, you know,

your kitchen, like wash your hands often. But when it comes to fish, 13 cases in 24 years. That's nuts. Chicken. Undercooking your chicken by 10 degrees, all it has to do is stay at that temperature for 17

seconds to kill all the salmonella. These are things that are documented by science. You cook a chicken breast to 155, Nicole. 17 seconds. Okay, I have one question. Why sometimes when I eat sushi, my tummy hurt? I don't know. How much sushi are you eating? Honestly,

me? Once a week. Is that too much? I don't know. How much sushi are you eating? Honestly, me? Once a week. Is that too much? I don't know. Your stomach also hurts when you eat Senku chicken. Your stomach also hurts when you eat cheese, dude. Your stomach hurts all the time. That's another point. Sometimes we eat certain things and we attribute us feeling crappy to that.

It might be stress. You know what I mean? I guess hot girls really do have IBS. I get bad farts when I eat a steak but that's because methane build up in conclusion there are scams abound

to be seen within sushi restaurants fish is always mislabeled sushi and sashimi grade are not real things again I don't consider this scamming people but a majority of sushi restaurants in America are not real things. Again, I don't consider this scamming people, but a majority of sushi restaurants in America are not owned by anybody Japanese. And none of that matters whatsoever. It really doesn't matter. None of that matters. Enjoy your life. Eat the raw fish. Have a spoonful of spicy tuna. Have a sake. Live your life. Spicy tuna tends to be the meat that's

stuck to the tuna spine and they just take a knife and they scrape it out. That's my favorite. And it is great. And it's a delight. Food is not a thing that should be feared. Food is a thing that should be enjoyed. Okay, I got another one. Spicy tuna is to sushi as bulgogi is to Korean barbecue. Yeah, now we're getting analogies. All right, Nicole.

Hi. We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. Well, it's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casseroles! All right, y'all. Before we get to your opinions, we want to check in on the poll we posted on our Spotify page.

It's poll dance time. Nicole, if you feel so inclined, you can do your best poll dance while we review the poll. We asked y'all, what is she? I'm starting. Okay. Well, anyways, we asked you, do you think aliens are real?

And 74.4% of you said, hell yeah. 25.6 said i'm with josh on this one i don't i don't think like they're they probably exist but they're not like what we consider aliens also like unidentified flying it's such a vague term i'm unidentified and i'm a flying object i'm an unidentified voguing object. Oh. Guys, we've had now zero days since the last voguing accident in the Mythical Kitchen. Can we change the sign, please? Change the sign? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Nicole needs medical attention. All right, Maggie, play that first opinion.

Craft singles are disgusting. Come at me, bro. This opinion is disgusting. I love Kraft Singles Wait, hold on, hold on Did they raise a good point? If Martha Stewart's

One of her favorite snacks in the world Is a single Kraft single Straight out the fridge It's not disgusting Well, let's I don't know that Martha Stewart Should be our guideline I love Martha Stewart

I love Martha Stewart I just don't know that like She's perfect Anything Martha Stewart does Like if Martha Stewart does X Ergo X is good just don't know that anything Martha Stewart does like if Martha Stewart does X, ergo X is good. I don't know that that's a good framework. I never said that. I never said that. We talk about not

idolizing celebrities, not deifying them. Exactly. She's a human being and she made a mistake and now she's best known as a Snoop Dogg. That's what I want out of life. How is insider trading not like almost every trade? It's like in the NFL. So it's like in the NFL they say that like holding happens on every single play It's just only called like 4% of the time

Insider trading, right? I don't know what insider trading is It's like, say I work for Caterpillar The company that makes the tractors And I'm like, hey We are about to get a massive contract From Thailand to go clear debris You, my buddy, invest in Caterpillar

Because their stock's about to go up You can't do that Why? invest in Caterpillar because their stock's about to go up. You can't do that. Why? I don't know. Watch Billions like once. Bob Giamatti is like, you can't do that.

I'm watching Suits right now and it's great. Yeah, oh my God. Are you watching Suits? Dude, I watched like three seasons of Suits. Love Meghan Markle. Meghan Markle is one of

the most beautiful people alive. She's gorgeous. And what the crown did to her. Season four. What the crown did to her. Okay, whatever happened at season four, the hair and makeup

in season four, I mean, the budget. I have no idea what's going on with Meghan Markle and is it Prince Harry or Charles? I don't care.

I know I've avoided that entirely. I just like see a couple tweets. But if anybody is mean to Meghan Markle, shame on you. Most beautiful woman in the world. Talk about craft singles.

Come on. Craft singles. I'm more of a Donna girl. You're a what? Donna girl. shame on you most beautiful woman in the world talk about craft singles come on craft singles I'm more of a Donna girl personally you're a what? Donna girl I like Donna stop talking about suits

we gotta talk about cheese I like Donna craft singles are great they melt really well sodium citrate is in there yada yada but like it's not quite

it's in the uncomfortable middle ground between nacho cheese and proper American cheese that's fine and I would prefer both nacho cheese and a good processed American cheese that Kraft does make too. Kraft Deli Deluxe. No.

Higher percentage of cheese to other ingredients. The taste of a Kraft single is iconic. It is solitary. It is the only thing that gets me through the day of working at Mythical. Do you hate your life that much that you need pasteurized processed cheese product yeah hey listen we all get through our day somehow we all have our coping mechanisms and that is what we can all agree on mine's cheese if that doesn't get nicole a craft sponsorship what will i used to tell my parents i wanted to work for craft i used to say i wanted

to work for taco bell that was the only way my parents let me go to culinary school. They said, oh, you're going to go work for Kraft? Okay, go. Nicole, I want to do this podcast with you forever until the day I die. Really? But if you do end up leaving like this, God, I hope to see you in like a white lab coat trying to make, I don't know, Chipotle flavored Kraft singles.

We'll get there one day. But I do want to do this podcast still, even though I'm doing that too. Is there like a workaround? My people will talk to your people. I want Chipotle flavored American cheese now. Come on, that'd be so good. Hi there, Josh and Nicole.

This is Logan Ringham from Williamsburg, Virginia. I love your name. I'm a chef in the area. I've been doing this for about 10 years. I respect you. And my general hot take is that despite the exponential growth and consumption of culinary content, there is still a really bad perception or misconception, really, of what it means to be a chef. They romanticize.

People get into it. They have a bad time when they find out you know the ugly parts of it and i was just wondering what your guys's take on it is and why we can't seem to send the right message to the public i'm aware you guys don't have the same grow up as uh an everyday working chef but i'd love your input i you know you guys stay and uh let the man finish keep doing cool stuff i can't believe i even interrupt a recording that's how much of an a-hole i am god um this is so interesting and i feel like it could be its own podcast if we really wanted it to but um what was the question well okay so so he was

saying how culinary content has exploded and it's romanticized the idea of being a chef. But an interesting thing you said is how do we get out the right message? But what is the right message you want to get out, right? That's a great point. Chef Rick Bayless, who is somewhat controversial, he said some things about Mexican food that pissed me off a little bit. He said, LA doesn't know the true flavors of Mexico.

It's a taco town. So yada, yada. But he is a very accomplished chef. Very talented. Has opened tons and tons of restaurants. And he was talking about the show The Bear.

The Bear on FX, which we love The Bear. Did you know it takes place in Chicago? Do you know they drink out of deli cups? And smoke cigarettes. But anyways,

that show, people like Lily, who she spent the most time in professional kitchens in our little kitcheneer club here. She was like, I can't watch that show because it gives me

work anxiety. I couldn't watch that show. I had to watch a few episodes with my hands covered behind my eyes because I felt it too. It shows how crazy a restaurant is, how almost all restaurants are doomed to fail. Working as a chef, you're going to work long hours. It's going to be hard, back-breaking

work and all this. People were like, wow, that's such a realistic depiction. No one should get into this line of work. And then Rick Bayless came in and I actually kind of liked his comments, despite me having a little bit of personal beef with him sometimes. He was like, we shouldn't, if you love this industry, sure, things should change about it. But like, don't try and drive people away from it just because it's hard. Like, it's a very rewarding industry. I love food and feeding people more than anything else.

And we should all be working to try and change this. But I sort of agree with that. And again, I'm speaking from the outside looking in. I've worked in restaurants very briefly before going to media full time. However, most work is hell, right? Yeah. Sitting in, I'm, God, I'm so lucky that we have this job. Of course.

Where, you know, half of it is cooking, half of it is sitting in a desk writing emails, half of it is doing stuff like this. It's really great that I get to do that. But I have never been more mentally and physically tortured in my life than having to sit in a desk for nine, 10 hours

in a place that told me not to take my lunch break. And I was just staring at a screen, having to type things into it. I would so much rather peel a Devane shrimp for 12 hours. There are certain people and a lot of people who work in restaurants or people who cannot exist in a desk job. In a cubicle, yeah. So when you're saying things like it's hard backbreaking work and you don't make a lot of money that's great and i agree but for some people that is

a much more rewarding way to live than just i mean the mental torture of sitting in a cubicle i couldn't physically do that anymore if i tried my brain does not function that way right it's sending the wrong reward messages to it. Yeah, do you call your, I know your name is Mythical Chef Josh, but how do you feel when people say, oh, this is my friend Josh. He's a chef. I had a really funny incident. I had one too.

So I was at the gym and this dude was eyeballing me. I was like, you're stealing my weights. Anyways, he comes up to me and he goes, hey, are you a chef? And I go, yeah, why? I thought he recognized me from the internet. It turns out he did not.

And he says, oh no, I saw your tattoos. I have a brand new tattoo of a leak on my forearm by the way uh and then he goes oh i'm also a chef and he shows me his chef tattoos oh my gosh what is it is it a whisk i don't even remember what it was honestly i think it was kind of it was very like uh what do they call it classic american style cool tattoo style but uh anyways i was like i was like he was like oh where do you cook and i? And I was like, oh, no, here's the thing. If somebody who's not a chef asked me what I am, I'll just say chef. If somebody who is or anybody in hospitality, I'll say I work in media. And so I'm not actually a chef. And this guy was.

He worked at a, shout out to Mirabel Wine Bar in the Valley. Oh, cool. I know exactly where that is. And I went in there for dinner and he cooked me a hell of a meal. Nice. So now I don't. But what happened with you? You know, in my circle,

you know, a very insulated Persian Jewish community, everyone's either a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or failure. So whenever people are like, oh, this is Nicole. She's a chef.

I've learned to say only on the weekends. That's funny. Because I don't know what else to say because I'm deaf and I could not toe to toe.

I could not work at the same level pace uh clarity and freedom that a that a chef in a restaurant does yeah I'm very much in food media yeah and the word chef is like auxiliary it's like it's not necessary to call me a chef because I don't feel like I'm a chef I'm more of a producer on screen talent person you know what I mean no 100% yeah the word chef is just thrown around so loosely. It's like,

if you're a line cook, are you a chef? I don't know. I don't think so. Yeah, and I think chef means boss in French, right? Yeah. Like a chef d'industrie

is like a chief of yada yada. Yeah. And so, I don't know. Some people are very protectionist about that term. Yeah. I'm whatever. They say most chefs

want to be called a cook and most cooks want to be called a chef. Sure cooks want to be called a chef. Producer. I was faced with a crossroads in my career where I was offered a position at a very good restaurant in Los Angeles by a lovely chef. Shout out Chris Morningstar, who really took me

under his wing. He loved hiring athletes because athletes... The work ethic. A lot of people are not cut out for the desk job life and a lot of athletes need that intensity and I am one of those people. And a lot of military people. And a lot of athletes need that intensity. Yeah. And I am one of those people. And a lot of military people. And a lot of military people, you know, order, structure, intensity. And you know how to get stuff done and defaulting to hierarchy.

Sure. I always wonder what would have happened if I would have chosen the other path. And honestly, I would have chosen that path had I not been in a relationship at the time where I was doing a lot of things based on what this person wanted me to do or what I thought they wanted me to do. You know what I mean? Um, and I think I really would have loved restaurant life. And it's very easy to say as somebody who's like, yeah, I played quarterback in high school, man. If I didn't blow out my elbow, I could have been out there on the Raiders, you know? But, um, it's hard and it's grueling and you, you know, listen, every industry is really messed up. Yeah.

Again, you could pick your grueling. You could pick your heart. You could, you know, be a chef. You could be a brain surgeon. You could be a daily bird. There's so many things you can do. It's all going to be hard. 100%.

Just decide what kind of hard you want to do and what kind of challenges you're going to face. And food is just interesting because you need it to survive and sustain a life. But there's so much within that because not everyone's going to eat porridge and water. Yeah, and it's only very recently sexy to be a chef, which is what our caller was talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That now it's one of these cool new things.

It's a cool job. It's not, let me tell you, it's not always cool. It's cool when the cameras are on you, but when the cameras aren't on you, it's less than cool. And also, cop shows are generally about like, you gotta solve a murder and there's people, mafia, hunting you down. Whereas food shows are like, I'm

having fun in my kitchen. But no, that's a really interesting point. We've talked about that for a long time. We're probably gonna talk about it on a podcast later. And we'll credit you if we do. Thanks, Logan. Hey, yeah, this is Trevor. i got a bone to pick um with uh with the sandwich uh place called uncle paulie i was i was i told him to call in actually put sesame seeds on top of their bread and i don't really like it i think it's kind of dumb i don't like really a thick amount of sesame seeds being the first thing

that hits my palate as i buy it into a nice Italian sub. Um, and it's just, it's really been, it's really been ticking me off lately. Um, so I'd like to get some opinions on it. Um, and, and if there's any way that you can help me, that'd be awesome. Okay. Thank you. Have a lovely day. Bye. What do you mean? What does he mean help them? Literally? I need you to know, I need you to know he came up to me. He's like, I don't like the sesame seeds on the bread at Uncle Pauly's. And I said, you should call the hotline

and we'll talk about it on the podcast. This is a great example. Anybody who wants to get into content creation, stop interacting with people in real life. Turn everything into content. Stop. Yeah, yeah. Nicole could have had a normal human conversation.

No, never. That would have gone five minutes over our runtime on the podcast. And now here we are. Nicole, what do you think? Just eat it. Yeah, eat it, you weirdo. And also, what do you mean help you?

You want me to come scrape the sesame seeds off your butt? Scrape our own sesame seeds off. That's weird. Yeah, fine. No, Trevor, you bring me your Uncle Pauly sandwich and I'll scrape the sesame seeds off myself. I do think he raises a good point. I don't love the sesame seeds, but I don't mind it because inside it's so good.

Well, I want sesame seeds on the outside of every sandwich. Like, anytime my bagel order is just sesame. Do you like sesame seeds with your sushi? Yeah. Me too. But sesame is a really interesting thing because it is used in so many, it's used in Middle Eastern cooking. It's used in a lot of East Asian cooking. Also, there's, I believe, an indigenous form of sesame.

It's similar, called benne seeds in America. Cool. Sesame, I think, is a fantastic flavor. I love the crunch. I love that roasty, toasty flavor that it gets. I want sesame seeds everywhere. I do agree that it's a very strong, aggressive flavor to have on all of your subs. I like it, though.

I just happen to love it. I love it. I love it. Well, Trevor, I hope that solved all your issues. I like it though. I just happen to love it. I love it. I love it. Well, Trevor, I hope that solved all your issues. I know you're listening. Y'all gleaned something.

He doesn't listen to the damn podcast. He's never going to hear it. He's going to know. We're going to make him. Well, on that note, thank you so much

for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We got audio-only episodes every Wednesday and the video drops on the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel on Sunday. That's right.

And if you want to be featured on Opinions Like Casseroles, hit us up at 833-DOG-POD-1. The number again is 833-DOG-POD-1. Nicole, you just said that like you were writing an essay to meet a word count in high school. You're like, henceforth, heretofore, we can even surmise hypothetically that... What do you mean?

You're trying to stretch it out. This has already been a long-ass podcast. Let's see if we can hit an hour for more mythical... Kitchen, check out our other videos. We launch new episodes every week. We'll see you all next time. I couldn't keep it up.