A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What's The Best Donut?

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

Today, Josh and Nicole weigh in on what makes the perfect donut! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://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. I sure am nuts for donuts. And I'm donuts for nuts. Like nuts. 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 a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scher. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And Nicole, today we are taking on the most important subject matter we have ever covered here.

Because what is the number one problem in America? I think there's a lot of division within the nation right now. I think it's causing a lot of stress and difficult times ahead because the unity is just gone. No, that's stupid. It's when you walk into a donut shop, you don't know which one is the best. And what is the solution to all of America's problems? Podcast. So we're going to tell you.

I was going to say TikTok clips of podcasts. I will say correlation is not causation but if you were to graph i learned that in law school i didn't go to law school david learned that in law school and i learned by by osmosis you can't say that you learned it in law school if your husband who is going to law school just told you it that's like saying i went to harvard because like someone at a bar yelled at me and they went to Harvard. Is anyone going to fact check you about it? No. Correlation is not causation.

But the number of problems in the nation and the number of podcasts seem to have a positive correlation. They just keep going up. But we're here, just two podcasters, arguing about what the best donut is. I'm not a podcaster and neither are you. We really aren't though. We're people who podcast. We have so arguing about what the best donut is. I'm not a podcaster and neither are you.

We really aren't, though. We're people who podcast. We have so much other things. We contain multitudes. Podcaster is a slur. I don't think so. Oh, my God. It is. Absolutely.

Well, when you meet someone and they're like, I have a podcast. Do you hate them? I spit at them like a llama, like an iBax. I go, tch, tch. Get out of here, podcaster. I love an iBax. No, mine's actually. Tch.

Get out of here. Mine gets like. I do ads. I'm sponsored. Get out of here, podcaster. I love an Ibex. No, mine's actually. Get out of here. Mine gets like. I do ads. I'm sponsored. Donuts. Donuts. What are your thoughts on donuts? You said you go nuts for them earlier.

I actually don't really like donuts. I thought that you lied right to people's faces in the first minute of the podcast. That girl's a liar. Sorry. I guess we're just in a silly, goofy mood. Everything in America is getting worse. Why are we so silly today? And I think the data would verify that.

Music is getting worse? That was the number one song for a long time. It's a good song. Have you ever danced to it like how I dance to it? If you just move your body the way I do, it's a pretty good song. I've never done that. No. Oh, but donuts.

I like don't, I don't like search out a donut often. When it comes to like the canon of desserts. Cheesecake. I'm taking a big old spoonful of a cheesecake. But when it comes to donuts, like crispy cream donuts has never like enchanted me. Or like things like that. The one, I'm going to save this for later. I'll tell you what my favorite one is. I'm going to tell you right now.

But I do like a filled ethnic donut. You say a filled ethnic donut? What is an ethnic donut to you? As an ethnic American woman, what does that mean? I like ponchik. Oh, interesting. Are the Poles? No, ponchik. Oh, interesting. Are the Poles? No, ponchik is Armenian.

Armenian. Armenian. Yeah. So it's just, it's the most beautiful, like yeasty, yummy donut. And they fill it with this eggy, stunning custard. And it's warm on the outside. Well, when we get it. So my dad really loves them, actually.

It's my dad's favorite. Aside from Napoleon's, cream-filled Napoleon's. But like we, he loves custard-filled ponchiks and we like to microwave it a little bit to get the chill off of it.

And it's like the cream is cold and the ponchik is hot and it still has that like matted powdered sugar on it and it's one of the most delicious foods. My mouth is watering. Like ever.

I don't like donuts. I don't like American donuts. Interesting. But geez Louise a custard ponchik from Papillon Bakery Papillon Bakery does incredible work.

Incredible. I know what you mean by ethnic donuts. Yeah. Every time I go to like a like if I'm like having a Shabbat or like my sister's

hosting like a party I always bring Papillon because it's a crowd pleaser and my dad really likes them and I love my dad. I love you. I love your dad too. More, shout out.

I guess we should like define our terms here when we're talking about donuts because a lot of people- Fratto. True. But a lot of people like for our American listeners,

you know, we grew up going to donut shops and you probably saw the same can of donuts in most of those. I didn't do that because my mom… You're in Los Angeles.

We're like one of the… I know, but my mom was like very anti… Like, she was very diet culture-y. So, like, we wouldn't do that. One time I got a McFlurry and my mom threw it out the window. What other childhood traumas do you want to talk about? I always… I dump on you.

I dump my childhood traumas on you. So, if you want to talk about… I don't have as much as you. But that was the one. My mom was very diet culture-y. Like sugar is bad. Fat is bad. Like bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

So. But so you never. Do you remember the first time you went into like a donut shop? Do you have any salient memories of going to a donut shop? I have no memories of going to a donut shop. It wasn't a place marked. Yeah, it wasn't like marked as sacred for you as an experience. Not even a little bit.

But what we would do is we would go to like like middle eastern bakeries and that was it for me with like the little petit fours and like little cakes and like with like little fruit tarts so that was more of my exposure to like going to a dessert shop and seeing all the beautiful little did your mom make you get the fruit tarts that had fresh fruit in it and she said that was healthier? I mean, we were more, what's the almond paste? Frangipane? We were more pear tart with frangipane people. I'm sorry, Nicole grew up in Beverly Hills. She did not grow up with donuts. She had pear tart with frangipane. So if you all could just get that through your heads. She's just like you. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I know.

Out there in Lexington, Kentucky. My take is very unique, but I think that's what makes me so special is because I'm so unique and nobody else is like me. Right, Joe? I agree with that. Talking about childhood trauma. Talking about childhood trauma. My earliest donut shop memory is when my dad lived in Oceanside and my mom lived in Orange County. You can Google map it to find out how far.

Okay. The midpoint was in San Clemente, California. And my parents, when it was time to hand over partial custody, we'd meet outside of a donut shop next to the Denny's in San Clemente. The one that's off the freeway, the 405. You know what I'm talking about. You know the one. You know the one. Old faded sign just past San Onofre, the power plant that looks like boobies. And then you drive past. Oh, yeah, the boobies, the boobies, there are boobies.

You got blinking little lights on top. But anyways, we would do the handoff with the kids at a donut shop. And I would always walk in and I'd get a donut and my parents would argue about who had to pay. You didn't pay child support, so you get the donuts, you know, that whole thing. So what I'm saying is I associate donuts with comfort. And I would always get a different donut because I wanted to try it. There was one that really stuck out to me when I was a kid and I don't know if I would consider it a proper donut. Maple bar. No, that's definitely a donut. So when you talk about donuts, we've talked about this before. They're mostly two kinds.

Donut generally refers to just a fried leavened dough. Sure. And even when you, generally refers to just a fried leavened dough. Sure. And even when you, God, is it pronounced yu tiao? Yu tiao, yeah. The Chinese, they will just call them donuts. They put it in congee.

They'll put it in congee. They will also serve it with fresh soy milk, which is a really delight. Yum, yes, yes, yes. And so people even call that thing a donut, which obviously has nothing to do with the American, you know, donut shop culture. Sure. But any sort of fried dough here.

Yeah. There's cake donuts, which are a batter that's baked and then fried. And we did figure this out. So it's baked and then – They're baked in a mold and then they're fried. So we were both right. We're both right. They're both a cake and a donut.

But anyway – Who says we can't get along? So the donut that I always gravitated to when I was a kid because I thought it was like fancy and cool and I still – Bubba, get it. You got it. Get it. Okay, cool. The donut that I always gravitated towards when I was a kid because I thought it was fancy and cool and very epicurean.

Okay. Apple fritters, dude. Ooh. Ooh. Dude, a dense – and I'm not talking about like – so bear claws. Some people will call an apple fritter. What is a bear claw? I actually don't know.

Some people will call an apple fritter a bear claw. Apple fritters, I'm talking about they are dark, they're dense, they are gnarled and knurled. Yeah. Filled with actual apple chunks that probably came from a can. And they're deep fried and they're heavily caramelized, super sugary. They're twice as dense as any other donut. Is a bear claw with almonds?

I believe a bear claw is a donut that is leavened dough that has marks in it like a catcher's mitt almost. And then it is most often filled with apple. Oh, really? So it looks like a catcher's mitt. We're looking at a Google image right now. Almond paste. See, Fran Japan. Almond paste. Interesting. Ooh, fancy Nicole with her pears and Fran Japan. That's just a bear claw, bro! Bear claws aren't- The Google says it's often filled with almond paste. The donut shops I was going to-

Usually! It doesn't say often, it says usually filled. I don't know about usually. You measure the amount- The total amount of bear claw age in the United States, no, usually there's not gonna be above 50% are filled with almond paste? God, they cost $1.79.

Okay, so do you know how high of a concentration of Germans live in the U.S.? A lot. A lot of them. Especially in the 50s. Do Germans love almond paste? Yeah. What do you mean, yeah? Almond paste is a very, like, European thing.

It's not... Yeah, European. I would... Germany's in Europe. I guess Austria, like, invented a lot of the modern patisserie. Yeah, why are you being so weird over today? So, yeah, that's interesting. Croissants are invented in Austria

yeah that's why they call it viennoiserie the general canon of laminated pastries in France it's easy just say Nicole

you were right Nicole you were right okay everyone grew up eating French and pan almond tarts you're so normal you're right

but as I've gotten older and given your answer of the ponchik from Papillon Bakery, I think you and I have the same king donut in mind. Are you going to say sufganiyot? No, no, no. Because that's not my favorite. It's one of the donuts that comes from a common American. Boston cream pie.

The Boston cream pie donut. Far and away the greatest donut of all time. I haven't had one in a really long time, so I actually don't remember what they taste like completely. Dude. I'm sorry. I'm so mad that we don't have these in front of us right now. I'm kind of happy about it. Dad's Donuts, which in Burbank, California,

they do a great Boston cream pie donut. That's a bummer, but it's perfect. And it has to be custard, not cream. I see. I firmly believe. I just got back from not cream. I see. I firmly believe. I just got back from New Orleans. Everybody knows. Everybody that listens to this podcast knows that.

I bought an ankle bracelet. Everybody knows that too. I took a bunch of jello shots. Yeah, you talked about it in the last podcast. Another thing I did is I ate a bunch of fried dough because beignets are very common. Oh, I love beignets. Yeah. I went to Cafe Beignet.

I went to Loretta's. I went to Cafe Beignet. I went to Loretta's. I went to Cafe Du Monde, which was Cafe Du Monde. I just waited in line at like 45 minutes at like 7 in the morning drinking my coffee. Julia was still asleep because I'm an early riser. I was like, let's walk a mile. And it was just, it was bad, like straight up. It's a tourist thing. I was glad that I went, you know, but literally nothing about it was good.

Also, just a funny fact about Cafe Du Monde, there's like a series of benches, maybe a couple hundred yards away that overlook the water. A lot of people take their beignets in a bag and they go eat the benches. There's a man who was paid to come wash away all the powdered sugar that drops

underneath the benches. And I saw him do that and then somebody was like, why are you doing that? And he's like, the birds will eat the powdered sugar and die. So that's a funny little local economy story. God bless. Point is, I ate a bunch of fried dough. And beignets, a lot of people are like, they're the lightest. They're the best.

They're whatever. Most fried dough is damn near the same. And it's always good. And it's always good. But then you start really figuring out what the best is. And I have decided that there is one best iteration of fried dough that has ever existed in the world. More than Boston cream pie? Well, so, so, so, so, it's a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut.

Okay. I don't think from a culinary perspective straight up, you look at the dough structure, the crumb. You look at everything. And I'm not just doing this to be like an everyman. No, I've become like a real bougie piece of crap. I just ate a Cheeto in the kitchen, and it's like, ugh, tastes so artificial. So I'm at that point in my life now. Krispy Kreme, I still love hot Cheetos, Krispy Kreme donuts, I think they figured it out. It's the lightest. Yeah, it's consistent, and it's delicious. The glaze dries to the perfect level of hardness.

It's perfect. The rest of their donuts are not good. You put anything else on it and it kind of… Do you like old-fashioned donuts? Because that's my second favorite. Wait, wait. Can we go back to Krispy Kreme real quick? Yeah, sorry.

Can we go back to Krispy Kreme? Of course. No, no. I do want to talk about that. Krispy Kreme, if you get a Boston cream pie donut from Krispy Kreme, it's filled with a cream filling, not custard. Which you don't like. Which I don't like.

But even if they filled that with custard, I think it wouldn't be as good because the dough wouldn't have the same integrity. Sure. You put a chocolate frosting on it, that's like fine enough. It's still good from there. But anything else that requires a heavier coating than the glaze you're putting

strawberry toppings on it all that Krispy Kreme is never as good. But the original glazed donut is really good. The single best iteration of fried dough. Nothing is lighter.

Nothing has a more perfect texture on that first bite. It is really special. I don't even want it fresh out of the fryer. I want to sit it sitting out to let it like air dry

that glaze a little bit more. Yeah. Oh my God. They roll. It's really good. to sit it sitting out to let it like air dry that glaze a little bit more yeah oh my god they roll it's really good if i were to go to a donut shop like a regular like a la pink box place i find myself gravitating towards the old-fashioned ones but i don't know why I think it's because they look a little craggy and silly, and they're not perfect. They're fun.

So maybe that's why I picked them. Describe an old-fashioned donut to people who don't know. Is it sour cream or buttermilk? It can be either. Okay, so it's just a donut made with sour cream and buttermilk. My favorite in LA is a buttermilk, old-fashioned. From Sidecar? No, it's a spot called Primo's.

Old school, 50's a spot called Primo's. Old school. Yeah. 50 years old spot, but. Yeah, I just love the, the crumb of an old-fashioned donut is so luxurious and unctuous and delicious. Is an old-fashioned donut yeasted or not? I don't know. I don't think it is, dude. Hold on.

Is an old-fashioned donut technically a cake donut? So an old-fashioned donut, if you've ever seen the donuts that, it's not a cruller. We'll get into that because I'm fascinated by certain things in the donut industry.

But an old-fashioned donut, it typically has these sort of ridges around the end. It's stamped into a circle, but then you see this almost like creste de gallo. Yeah.

It's like a rooster's, a coxcomb on the donut, right? And so it gets these craggly edges. They'll typically put, like sometimes there's a sour cream glaze on it or whatever,

but they'll put a sugar glaze on it and then it almost gets into the crags and the crags become extra crispy. Hold on. 19th century recipes for old-fashioned donuts are made with yeast, but modern donut shops, an old-fashioned donut is usually a cake donut.

It's beautiful. And a glazed old-fashioned is really good, but I don't like chocolate old-fashioned is really good. But I don't like chocolate old-fashions. Me neither. What chocolate donuts... Oh, I have one. Do you like a chocolate cake donut?

Very rarely do I like it, but I used to work at this chocolate shop and we used to do a chocolate stout. Oh, that's fun. Oh, that's fun. And it was a cake donut

and then we would put a really beautiful like vanilla chocolate glaze. Like an icing and then cacao nibs on top. And that was pretty funny. Oh, sorry. I said that first. And that was pretty good.

But yeah, no, not really. I'm starting to realize I might have like a holy triumvirate of donuts here. What is a triumvirate? A triumvirate. Make a Google triumvirate. It's like a ruling party of three. You could just say trio, I feel like. You could have just said like trio.

Yeah, but this is the beauty of language. Triumvirate in ancient Rome, a group of three men holding power. Like, I don't understand why this difficult. Like the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yeah, the office of triumvirate. So anyways, my holy triumvirate of, you know why I like it? It's because it's hyperbolic. Is that a word?

Do you have like a calendar where it says word of the day is blank? No, if you want to get me one, though, that'd be pretty cool. Okay. Really? Yeah. Okay. I need to be quite resplendent. You were saying?

Sorry to interrupt you. I think it's a triumvirate for me because I was very convinced that the Boston cream donut with the custard filling is my perfect one. And I still do love that, especially when the custard's like cold. You know what I mean? Sure. But the Krispy Kreme, that light, that perfect,

that quintessence of what a donut should be. Sure. But then also, that really dense buttermilky old-fashioned, there's nothing that hits like that. Wow, it's so good. Especially with coffee. Wow, it's so good.

The dense pastry stays in your mouth. Yeah, hot black coffee with it. Hot black coffee. It's like, ooh, did someone put a half teaspoon of salt in this? Why does it taste like that? That's what I want. Yeah, I know. That's what you get at Primo's, baby.

Me too. You know, when I was growing up, I always thought donuts had to be like that big pink Homer Simpson-y donut. Yeah, yeah. And then I had one and I said, meh. It's not that good. The pink donuts are a trap. Yes. I had one and I said, meh. It's not that good. The pink donuts are a trap. Yes. Iced cake donuts. Let's just run

through some donuts right here. Okay. Because you got like your iced cake donuts, which to me are always just fine. It's never what I want. Yeah. Then you got the iced yeasted raised donuts. Also never really what I want. Chocolate icing. Perfectly fine. Chocolate icing on a glaze is good. What about powdered

sugar donuts? Out. What about sugar donuts? Sugar donuts, kind of out. Sometimes, I don't know why, I feel like a little French girl.

Oh, the sugar's on my little hands, mommy. I feel like a little... Oh, the sugar's on my little hands. Mama, mama, the sugar is in my hands.

Oh, mama, stop blowing the cigarette smoke in my face. Mama, I do not want one with my dinner. Mama, there do not want one with my dinner. Mama, there's a little rat under my hat and he's telling me to burn things. You know how the French are. But anyways, no, I hate sugar donuts.

Even, I was thinking about churros, which people could consider a churro donut reasonably. I love churros. Well, hold on. We got to get to that. Give me a sec. Speaking of ethnic donuts, I love churros. You know Costco does... Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. We got to get to that. Give me a sec. Speaking of ethnic donuts, I love churros. You know Costco – hold on, hold on, hold on. Go.

Costco is discontinuing their churros. Okay, now I go. I just made a bombshell statement. You don't even care? Are Costco churros even churros? What are you talking about? So most of the churros that I think if you go to like an amusement park, right, they're like three-foot-long hard sticks covered in sandpaper sugar.

If you have like an actual Spanish or even an actual like Mexican churro that's been like cooked for you, they're so worlds apart from the freezer aisle. Like the Spanish circular ones where you dip in hot chocolate. Those are different. Yeah. I mean, even like Mexican churro, you know, same style. And it's like a very intricate light dough. It's pate a choux. It's pate a ch different. Yeah, I mean, even like Mexican churro, you know, same style. And it's like a very intricate, light dough. It's pate a choux.

It's pate a choux, yeah. It's choux pastry. But then you go to Disneyland or Costco or whatever, and their churro is like a baseball game. It's like there's a dill pickle filled in it. It's just, they're hard. They're great. It's like a salt lick is to a deer as me is to this churro. I'm just gnashing at it with my teeth throughout nine innings.

I have one question. One more churro question. Why are you so tired? Because I feel like I was talking about something and I lost my place. I'm so sorry. It'll come back to you. What was that one place? It's like a fast food restaurant that had churros that were stuffed with stuff.

Was it Jack in the Box? Was it? Was it stuffed with dulce de leche? I think it was Jack in the Box? Was it? Was it stuffed with dulce de leche? I think it was Jack in the Box. That is my... Do they still have it? I don't know. Can I just say,

that is my favorite fast food dessert of all time. And if you ever want to make it on fast food, I would freaking love that. I feel like Jack in the Box used to have stuffed churros. I don't know. Someone write in the comments. Continue.

I'm so sorry. Crullers. I don't care for them. What is a cruller to you? It's like an old-fashioned, but it's a little bit more tame. What's the dough on a cruller? I don't know. Well, no, this is why I asked,

because we're talking about the actual cookery of certain donuts, and I'm fascinated by what American donut shops have done to these names. They kind of did a little bit like what Starbucks and Chipotle did, where Starbucks is like, this is a macchiato. And you're like, how's that different from a latte? And they're like, it is not. And then you find out like a real macchiato is a real thing. Or Chipotle, when they call it like carnitas, and it's just kind of wet pork. And then you find out that carnitas is an actual thing. That's how I found out what an eclair was and what a curler was. So do you, when you think of curlers, do you think of a circle or do you think of a long

pastry? I think of a circle, but that's been piped through a star tip to give it ridges. So to me, a cruller is ridged. So this, so a French cruller is this. So a cruller is made with pâte à choux as well, like a proper French cruller. Is it? It's a choux dough. Are you?

And a choux dough is what you like. Pulling my chain? No, a choux dough, you're cooking milk with flour and butter. Mm-hmm. And then you add egg to it when it's cold. Yes, yes. That's what I'm thinking. That's pâte à choux.

And then you have to pipe it while it's still warm but pliable. It's like a really intricate dough to do. I remember I tried making it for a home ec class when I was 12, and I royally screwed it up. You had a home ec class? Yeah. All the dudes were taking wood shot from a basketball team, and I was like, I'm going to make lasagna in home ec.

And I did. I'm like, I'm going to meet girls. I was like, oh, I'm too scared to talk to them. Anywho. I'm sorry. I just totally disassociated. What did you do? Did you talk to them. Anywho. I'm sorry. I just totally disassociated. What did you do? Did you talk to a girl?

Is that what you're saying? No, I was scared of them. Of girls? Yeah. I thought no one would ever love me. You were scared of girls when you were 12? I thought I was undeserving of love because I wasn't messaging my whole life. Aww.

You know? But you're okay now. You're 31. Yeah, and I have no problems. Anyways. So let's think about donuts again. So you go to an American donut shop and you can find an eclair, which is made with choux dough. I like eclairs. You can find a cruller that is made with choux dough, except they're just made with normal ass donut dough. So an American donut shop eclair is a long john donut, which is just a bar.

And then it is filled with custard and iced with chocolate so the same thing as a boston cream donut they were calling an eclair at least in the shops that i would go to when i was a kid okay that might be the only one that can compete with the boston cream because easier to eat phall. Long foods that fit in your mouth are better. I think so. I'm a fan. Curlers are the same thing. They would just be made with braided donut dough, which is what you found when you googled.

I like curlers, but I don't love them the way that I love an old-fashioned. Let's talk about fancy donuts. A lot of new school donuts doing cool things. Blue Star Donuts had this beautiful donut. It was a passion fruit glazed yeasted donut with cayenne pepper honey. Was it really good?

It was good? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Well, I think passion fruit is one of my top three favorite fruits. Again, very relatable young woman. And I, like, whenever I would, like, I'd bake. I used to bake a lot more than I do now But um I used to make instead of lemon curd I would make passion fruit curd

That's a good curd so I would always like gift people jars of passion fruit curd I would make passion fruit tarts or use fresh passion fruits for it I know I would have to well sometimes I would but I would prefer to use a passion fruit puree From surface from a French company 16 ounces cost me about 50 bucks so i had to stop so i had to stop you had to stop i had to stop you know when you have to stop your passion fruit addiction because it's been costing you too much money too much money um but passion fruit especially like curdy icingy like yeah these beautiful like expressions of passion fruit with a little bit of cayenne pepper. Just sitting on a pillowy, gorgeous, fresh donut was one of my favorite culinary experiences.

I actually went in front of the show. Mitchell Frieder and I with two other students went to Blue Star Donuts together because he wanted to open like a little donut shop with us. I don't know if I signed an NDA. Sorry. And we just sat there and we tasted like 15 donuts together. That's a fun time. It was a fun time. I feel like to me, I remember the fancy donut boom.

Blue Star from Portland was a big one. Sidecar Donuts from Orange County was a big one. Did you ever have the egg one? The Eggs Benedict one? There is a, they have a, I love it. It is a savory donut and fried dough is a great savory application, but it is a savory unsweetened fried dough filled with a poached egg. So crazy.

Some sort of ham product. It's probably prosciutto. And then a basil hollandaise. Wow. And I remember eating that donut, and that is a special donut. It's outside of the canon of normal donuts, but I ate it, and basil hollandaise just went right into my crotch when I was driving in Santa Monica, California. But they had a bunch of really cool inventive donuts. I am all for a creme brulee donut.

It's a great idea. You fill a donut with custard. You torch the sugar so it's glassy. That's fun. That is – A lemon meringue donut. You fill it with lemon curd. Little ways to improve the old canon of donuts because you could always get the kind of of like gross, just goopy, lemon-filled donuts that are like fine.

But you make like a proper lemon curd. You put a little bit of meringue on top and torch it. Like that's an awesome donut. Wow. But I feel like 99% of the time these fancy donuts are bad. They had a margarita donut at Trejo's Donuts. But let me tell you, a creme brulee donut is pretty damn good. It's pretty damn good.

For new school donuts, that's probably my top one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm going to throw out an international donut real quick. Throw it. Shout out to Cook Sisters

from Cedifrica. It's a, there's two kinds of Cook Sisters. So Cook Sisters is, we didn't go into the origin of donuts. I think people are sick of the food history for me. But I believe it's a Dutch yeah, there's two kinds of Cook Sisters. So Cook Sisters is, we didn't go into the origin of donuts. I think people are sick of the food history for me. But I believe it's a Dutch invention that originally called Oil Cook. I've never heard of it.

And Cook is how we got the word cake. I believe it's C-A-K-O-E-K. Okay. You know. Tracks. But anyways, it went to South Africa and they have things called Cook Sisters. And they're, you know, cake sisters. And the, like, white Dutch Cook Sister is a normal ass kind of fried dough donut

covered in sugar and there's like two pieces and you pull them or they're intertwined or something. But Cape Malay cook sisters. So Cape Malay are people that generally descended from India. I believe it's actually Malay maybe is the region. Don't take my word for it. But they've been in South Africa for hundreds of years

and very much developed their own food ways. A lot of it rooted in a lot of different Indian cookery. But they have their own version of Cook Sisters that are these dark, spiced, molasses-y fried dough balls that are almost swimming in a syrup

similar to Gulab Jamun. Which, if we're talking those donuts, that's the best donut.ulab jamun, which if we're talking those donuts, that's a donut. That's the best donut. Those are the best donuts. Gulab jamun. But it was really cool to see the sort of Cape Malay somewhat Indianified version of the Cook Sisters donuts that had all those incredible warm spices that we might associate with masala chai or something. Wow.

That was a great donut experience. Wow. California donuts, ube donuts, panda donuts, matcha donuts. A lot of mochi donuts. Mochi nuts. I like mochi nuts. I love a mochi donut. Fried mochi.

Got a nice chew to it. Yeah. That's good. The cronut. I don't. I love a cronut. I don't love a cronut. I love the construction of it and the ideation that went behind it, but sometimes they're

hit or miss for me. So cronut invented by Dominic Ansel, Trevor used to work for him, but when that happened, he was sending cease and desist to anyone calling anything a Cronut. Wow. He couldn't stop people from layering croissant dough and frying it, but he could stop the usage of the name. From calling it. So local

donut shops, they took it upon themselves to you know, they'd call it a dosant instead of a Cronut, but I'll never forget, SK's Donuts, and I believe Hollywood, call it a dosant instead of a cronut, but I'll never forget SK's Donuts, and I believe Hollywood called it a scronut. And there is nothing more appetized to this gobbler than a scronut.

And that's my official answer for best donut. He is donuts for nuts. They call me the scronut gobbler. Gobble your scrunuts. I'm nuts. Okay. All right, Nicole.

What the hell are these on my head? We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky opinions are rattling out there in the universe. Sound pretty like what we call... Opinions are like donuts. Donuts. Like donuts. You're so cheeky.

You're so cheeky. You cheeky little monkey. You cheeky little minx. Well, Nicole, it's time. Did you know that a minx is an animal that you can turn into a coat? We talked about this already. Did you know that your favorite segment and everybody's favorite segment is called Review a Review? I love this.

It's the best part of my whole day. Now who's going nuts for Review a Review? So what happens? People review us and we review them, influencing you to go review us on Apple Podcasts. It's a trick. We got the Allie has five stars. It's very long, so I'm going to speed read it. Fun for the whole family, almost. Just a fabulous experience every week spending time with Josh and Nicole, We got the Allieist five stars. It's very long, so I'm going to speed read it.

Fun for the whole family, almost. Just a fabulous experience every week, spending time with Josh and Nicole, learning about the history of food, hearing amusement anecdotes, and the odd special guests is a must for my family, except for my ex-wife. We were so happy in the beginning,

always laughing, spending quality time. Then you came along. I thought your little program was irreverent and cute, but my wife didn't appreciate the prurient jokes and inane banter. She let it go for the most part because it was innocent enough until the discussion turned to the title of your podcast. She insisted that a hot dog was not a sandwich

and would not hear any idea otherwise. It all came to a head when you declared that a hot dog was a sandwich and ultimately agreed with me. Besides bad grammar, people who put up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, and mangoes and everything, she despised me being right.

This was a straw that broke the camel's back. She could live with Die Hard being a Christmas movie, and she accepted that we landed on the moon, but this was too far for her, I guess, because she divorced me the next day. My kids and I still love listening to you. Keep up the good work. No notes.

I'm going to give that three stars. Overshare. Yeah. I'll say four stars. Pretty well written. Love the usage of the word prurient. I Googled it. It means voyeuristic.

I love the fact that you still have a relationship with your kids. That's important. Yeah, proud of you for that. Yeah, ultimately, don't trauma dump on us. We'll do the trauma dumping. We do it to you. That's our job. And that's the relationship that I like to have.

I'm kidding. Please trauma dump. Use our Apple podcast review page as a diary of all the bad things that have ever happened in your life. I use my Twitter that way. Fair enough. Let's get to that first opinion. Hi, this is Sunny from Kansas City. I wanted to share one of my favorite comfort meals that I've had ever since childhood.

Chili and cinnamon rolls. This is day-old cold rice with buttermilk and crushed up pringles. And I suspect that this has to do with what I used to eat when I was a very, very picky eater as a toddler when I went to India to see my grandparents for the first time, which

was essentially rice with cultured yogurt and poppadom. I wonder if she's talking about kadhi. If you were to try it, I'd recommend using sour cream and onion Pringles. And I think it's a really great comfort food. Love the podcast.

So funny. Thanks for doing what you do. Bye. Sunny's so funny. That's- So you say, what is it called? So I don't know where y'all's family's from in India, but my best homie Deep's family's fromjarat, and they would always eat kadhi, which is like a very thinned out cultured yogurt.

It's not dissimilar from buttermilk at all. Lots of curry leaves in there. Really fantastic. They would always eat that with rice, and he would eat it cold as a snack all the time. And I remember going to his house after basketball practice or something and eating that. Yeah, when I was a kid, my mom used to make something called kate most. house after basketball practice or something and eating that. Yeah. When I was a kid, my mom used to make something called kate most. So kate is like a very like dense rice where like you don't drain it. So you know, like an Persian rice,

you like drain it al dente and then you steam it. It was just rice cooked with water all the way through. So it was like kind of like thick and like glutinous and then some mountain high yogurt and salt. And like that was like my food I would eat if like my stomach was bothering me or if I just like needed something to like eat yeah that was like my dish of choice there's one part of your comfort meal that's really really beautiful right that you these are like very American convenience foods Pringles buttermilk and then there's like the other part of me that I always see stuff like that. And I'm like, I guess this is just an inevitable cultural shift and change, right?

This is what happens within diaspora. And it's great that there's free movement of people so we can move wherever we want. Yeah. And there's a part of me that's like, man, are those cultural traditions just eventually going to die out to Pringles? You know what I mean? Die out. Die out, shift. Shift.

Die out. There's books. No, sure. There's books. you know what I mean die out die out shift I mean die out there's books there's no sure there's books but I mean we are inevitably losing a lot of significant cultural

especially foods you think about like Hawaii right when people are like oh spam such a Hawaiian thing it's like no that's I mean

that's a mainland America thing that was exported to Hawaii for the same reasons that native foodways there have been being erased. They're not, you know, they exist simultaneously and because of each other. I don't necessarily think like appropriation of food and foodstuffs for the Americanized palate is like the worst thing in the world. Oh, no, no, no, no.

And again, it's like a rad comfort meal and, you know. Yeah, I think it's a good thing. I think you adjust flavors and textures and ingredients to your own preference. And that's the beauty of living in a… Living in America. Living in the U.S. It's fun. No one's going to like judge…

We'll judge you, but like you're not going to be judged or like seen as less than because of these food preferences. And a lot of unique foods come out of that. Deep's mom used to throw a bunch of masala, different masalas in her lasagna and stuff when she would make it. Masala lasagna. Masala lasagna. Damn, girl. Sounds good. That's great. What up, guys? I'm currently holding a hydro flask full of some

dozens amount of ounces crystal light. I want to know, is crystal light going to kill me? Because I still have the palate of a nine-year-old and can't have raw water. Yeah, chemically, what's going on there? Can I survive? Am I being hydrated?

Yeah, you're experts. Thank you. So I never got into the Crystal Light game. I'm also not in the Water Talk game. I'm also not, like, I've never been a Mio person. I've never been a sugar-free crush in my water. I drink water. I don't drink a lot of water, but I drink water.

And something about the Crystal Light ads, like, were always, like, a little bit weird and, like, I don't know. Crystal Light ads are very diet-cultury, right? Yeah, it's very diet-cultury. We never got into that part of it, thank God. and like, I don't know. Crystal Light Abs are very diet-cultury, right? Yeah, it's very diet-cultury. We never got into that part of it, thank God. But I just never liked it, and I'd rather just eat Country Time Lemonade,

the pink one. So what's interesting, think about the volume here. Country Time Lemonade, you got to put, say, I'm just estimating here, but like two tablespoons of that for 16 ounces. Crystal Light, you're putting a half a teaspoon in for 16 ounces, because Country Time Lemonade powder is sugar, right? I love it. Crystal Light, where you're

asking if you're going to die. The reason you're asking if you're going to die is because it ain't sugar. It's the fake stuff. Oh, okay. I Googled it to see exactly what sweeteners are using. I used to drink, up through college, I did it when I was a kid and I stopped drinking. I used to drink a half gallon of cranberry juice cocktail a day when I was a child because I was like fruit healthy. Did you have a UTI? No, and I never did because of that. Well, I had it once and it was non-ST anyways. But at some point when I was in high school, transitioned to drinking crystallite because like you said, I don't like blah water. I want some flavors. I continued with that through college. I would keep like an empty milk gallon. I'd fill it with water, crush some crystallite packets in there, shake it up. And that was all of my hydration.

Are you getting hydrated? Absolutely. Right. Think about, um, just the amount of water that you're drinking. There's no amount of aspartame and a sulfame potassium, also known as ACE K. It's the sweetener that really revolutionized Coke Zero. No amount of that is going to take away the fact that you just drank a ton of water. You're doing good stuff for you. Are you going to die? Maybe. We need an answer. We're all going to die. Oh, well, Josh says

it best. Say, we're all going to eat. We all got to eat and we're all... Say it with me. I don't know what you're going to say. You know what I'm going to say. Well, then I say we all got to eat and we're all going Say it with me. I don't know what you're gonna say. You know what I'm gonna say. Well, then I say we all gotta eat and we're all gonna die. And it's true. Yeah.

And so you are hydrating yourself on your way to death. Will you die faster because of the aspartame is probably the question to ask. I don't know. My personal beliefs say no. And I think the scientific consensus is no. We would need an actual doctor and or scientist to talk about this. Because we're neither.

Yeah. And I think we do want to do that episode soon. So keep an eye out for that. But from what I know, there was one famous study in the 90s from the Ramazzini Foundation

that linked aspartame to, they said cancer, but it turns out it was just growths on lab rats. But the amount of aspartame they were, they said cancer, but it turns out it was just growths on lab rats. But the amount of aspartame they were pumping into these lab rats intravenously, which is not the way that we consume aspartame, was the equivalent of 1200 Diet Cokes a day. And so I believe they officially had to recant. Look it up for yourself, Ramazzini study on aspartame.

But I believe they had to straight up recant and unpublish the study. But it's still shockwave. So people associate aspartame with cancer. There was a recent study that came out that linked it as like a potential signifier of something or other. I don't believe that's true. I also don't believe you can cheat God.

And as like a probably atheist, saying God is a weird thing but I think. You don't believe in God? No not really I just kind of believe in vibes. Omnipresent source? Nah not even a source just like we're here and that's good enough. Continue. But yeah

you can't cheat God like you can't get blood from a stone something bad has to happen to you because you're enjoying all that sweetness with none of the caloric intake of sugar. We all reap what we sow. Something bad is coming. It's like in the 50s,

and they're like smoking cigarettes. This is cool. Surely nothing can be bad. It was like, no, you're gonna, something's gonna happen. So I also kind of believe that. I just don't know what the it is, but far as I know,

all of the current scientific evidence points to, this is just a safe thing to consume, and you are definitely hydrating in crystal light raspberry ice is delish. I think you're going to live forever. You're pickling your body in so much aspartame, you're going to live to be 230. Yeah, you're basically mummifying yourself like an Imhotep. You're like a pharaoh from the inside out. Imhotep. Good reference. Is that a The Mummy reference?

Died bright red. That's The Mummy. Good reference. Is that a The Mummy reference? That's The Mummy. Brendan Fraser Mummy? Rachel Weisz. Next opinion. Hi, this is Isabel. My hot take when I was a child, I would put lima beans

in strawberry yogurt. I get it. I have not done it since I was a child. So maybe I should try that and see if it actually does still taste good. But you know, I probably had a very, you know, cool palate for an eight year old. I agree. Yes. Why do you know why? What do you know why? Lima beans, specifically the frozen ones that are no longer frozen, have this very interesting texture. It's almost like, not ubelec, it's like two steps away from ubelec. It's almost like chewing on like foam. And it's like a very specific, like, has this very specific, like, grain. But you're talking straight out of the freezer. You're not cooking them. You're popping them.

No, no, no. They were in the freezer, but now they're not. So they're room temperature. Because my mom cooks with frozen lima beans all the time. So when you isolate a lima bean, it has this very specific grain texture that's almost like solidified split pea soup. I know I'm getting very technical with this but lima beans don't always especially if they're frozen have that funky texture like say a fava bean does sometimes fava bean is very like aromatic and like like very strong yeah lima bean is a little bit more tame and if you and it has this like velvety u ubelecky, spit-piece soupy like texture. And if you pair it with strawberry yogurt, it cancels out the flavor of the lima bean.

But it still is a little bit different, but it's more velvety than the yogurt. So I understand you. Isabel, I get it. I understand you. I haven't done this, but I know what it tastes like in my head and it sounds really good. I just want to advocate for more bean-based desserts. We need to eat more lima beans. Also more lima beans. More butter beans?

I'm a big bean guy and I think they're very versatile. When you go to the Heidi Lau Hot Pot, chain of hot pot spots in China come to the States recently. They have the whole bar with about 60 ingredients that you can make sauces from, but one of the big vats on that bar is just labeled dessert.

And it is a very thin soup with beans and jellies. And it's hot. And there's a whole lychee in there sometimes. And I like it. Have you heard about people that have lima bean allergies? No.

My brother-in-law has a really hard... I think it's either lima beans or fava beans. If he eats them, he'll die. It's like a gene mutation. It's really cool. Thanks so much for stopping by the podcast. Don't die, Mikey. I love you.

Hope you had a good time. I've met Mikey. He has spiky hair. That's why I call him Spiky Mikey. We got new audio only episodes every Wednesday. Hope you had a good time. I've met Mikey. He has spiky hair. That's why I call him Spiky Mikey. Mikey, he's going to end up. We got new audio only episodes every Wednesday. New video comes out every Sunday. That's it.

If you want to be featured on Opinions or at Castrols, hit us up at 833-DOGPOD1. We love to hear your voices and we love to hear your opinions and we love to hear your stories and we love to hear your drama. I can put this whole thing in my mouth. I know I can. Do it. From our Mythical Kitchen. I can do it too. Check out her other videos.

Off camera. We launch new videos every week. I'll go under the table. Yeah, me too. He did it. He did it. He did it. All right, go for it.

I sure am nuts for donuts. I'm just a little nuts. I sure am nuts for donuts. Nice to meet you, nuts for donuts. I'm dad. This is a hot dog. That's not what was written. I know.

It's better. Is that better? I sure am nuts for donuts. And I'm donuts for nuts. This is a hot dog and a sandwich and I'm Randy Newman. You hit me again with the video. Okay, one more. One more.

I messed it up. I messed up the script. One more. I messed it up. I messed up the script. One more. Are you recording all of this? Yes. I sure am nuts for donuts. And I'm donuts for nuts. This is...

Josh. I sure am nuts for donuts. You have to say something. You have to say something. Josh, stop. You're scaring me. and i'm just a little nuts this is a hot dog is a sandwich