A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What's The Best Ice Cream Flavor?

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Today, we're discussing: what's the best ice cream flavor? Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Pre-order We’re Still Good, our new party game that laughs in the face of disaster here!: https://a....co/d/301Bd6C 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

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This, this, this, this is Mythical. I scream, you scream, we all should probably use our inside voices or else the podcast levels will start peaking. 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.
Starting point is 00:00:22 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 Anaidi. And, Nicole, I never want to talk about hot dogs ever again. Yeah, never again. It would be really nice if we just completely disregard hot dogs for, like, at least six months. Yeah, yeah, and I respect the fact that you've put up real boundaries because a lot of people in the office, you know, they'll come around and be like, so is a hot dog a sandwich?
Starting point is 00:00:47 Which God bless them. They're trying to make conversation. And then I watched you stare a coworker in the face who we all love and say, excuse, do you not remember this? No, who did I do this to? You can say their name. I think it was Matthew Dwyer. And you were like, with all due respect, I've put a lot of emotional energy into this and a lot of time at work. And I'd like to not have this discussion right now.
Starting point is 00:01:04 And I was like, good for you, Nicolele set your boundaries girl look at me i'm telling you therapy works therapy works all right today we're talking about the best ice cream flavor uh i feel like we're both gonna have the same answer because it's the correct answer really well you go first okay well i'm gonna get a lot of flack for this and i already know it but the best ice cream flavor it's vanilla yes ma'am yes ma'am it is the most feel the same way it is the underdog it is disrespected it is synonymously used with boring missionary sex which is very strange i credit 50 shades of gray for doing that but it is utterly vanilla is incredible vanilla is fine more people should be okay with vanilla and it's the best way to because that way it doesn't so
Starting point is 00:01:52 you have the highest you have the highest chance you have the highest chance of also pro which is the you know the reason for it oh really i didn't know that i had no idea it's yeah and if you drink them out and do afterwards uh we probably shouldn't be giving uh reproductive advice on the podcast but speaking of vanilla if your reproductive advice includes mountain dew you need to go back a few lessons was that not a rumor that you heard in like high school no no nobody knows this this is only me that you can't get preggers if you drink a mountain dew afterwards it's like the worst It's like the worst of the rumors and it's certainly not true. Okay, vanilla ice cream. Vanilla is, again,
Starting point is 00:02:30 people have considered it synonymous with boring, which I get why because a lot of people think vanilla ice cream is just like the plain white ice cream without a flavor. And we have diluted the quality of vanilla over the course of like centuries by using artificial extracts. Vanillin, which is literally just, they recreate the, like, what is it, like the aldehyde or something that is, they all have names like titradioxalmethylene-4. They're the actual
Starting point is 00:02:57 chemical components. Thank you. But actual vanilla bean ice cream, vanilla is a freaking, But actual vanilla bean ice cream. Vanilla is a freaking, it's an orchid that only has like a 24-hour blooming period if it's not pollinated and then it wilts and dies. The fact that vanilla exists evolutionarily is almost a conundrum, if not a miracle. And we have harvested it. It goes back to the Totonac Empire who the Aztecs conquered in the 15th century. And then European colonizers got there and started planting it wherever they could figure out how to get it to flower. And then it was just like, it's still the second most expensive spice only to saffron in the world. And it's unreal that
Starting point is 00:03:34 we get to consume this miracle plant every day in the form of briars and people disrespect it. It really is so special. And I believe one time, Josh, you've said that salt is the flavor with which. Salt is the baseline from which all flavor harmonies are written. It's a bastardized quote that I read in a Jeffrey Steingarten book. Yeah. And I feel that way about vanilla and ice cream. You can't have any base. You can't have any ice cream without the procreator.
Starting point is 00:04:03 I believe I'm using that term correctly, which is vanilla. We gotta stop talking about procreation. But it makes sense. I mean, there is no ice cream without vanilla. And if there is, it's called sweet cream and it's from Cold Stone, which is delicious in its own right. But vanilla ice cream is the base of all delicious flavors. You can't have mint chip ice cream without a little bit of vanilla. You can't have chocolate ice cream without a little bit of vanilla. Chocolate chip cookie dough, if there's no vanilla,
Starting point is 00:04:30 what's the point? Okay, wait, I have two things. One, Cold Stone, that is one of the biggest cultural coups, if not scams. Because one, I love Cold Stone. Cold Stone, like, not to brag, my high school girlfriend worked at Cold Stone. I used to bring her weird stuff and she'd, like, mix it in for me. Like, there was a Greek cafe across the street and she mixed baklava into their sweet cream base.
Starting point is 00:04:48 Oh, that's badass. And that's like, that might be my answer for the actual best ice cream flavor, if not vanilla. But Cold Stone, when it opened up in my hometown, it was like the new cool. And I thought of it as a fancy thing. And so when I saw they had sweet cream as their base instead of vanilla, I was like, oh, vanilla is lame and dumb and low rent because they got it at the 99 cent store. And sweet cream, that's fancy. But now I know it's literally vanilla ice cream without the vanilla, you know. And so that was a big coup.
Starting point is 00:05:18 But number two, you're talking about vanilla being used as a flavor base for everything. That's actually rooted in history. Vanilla being used as a flavor base for everything, that's actually rooted in history. So the initial use of vanilla was in the Aztec Empire, I believe, at least according to my research, was used to flavor like chocolatel, like the OG chocolate drink that the Aztecs would make. The drink, yes. The one that's like it was flavored with agua de miel and then made into a kind of like bittersweet, frothy, hot caffeinated drink. And vanilla was used to flavor that. You would use a Molonino. You'd use a Molonino and go like this.
Starting point is 00:05:49 There was a spot that was serving like the OG Aztec chocolate drink in Boyle Heights, and then they shut down, which I'm bummed about because I really want to try it. That'd be a fun thing to make. We should make that on the show. Nicole, we have the capability to do that. Sure. We run a damn cooking show. I've made it before.
Starting point is 00:06:02 I've made it before many times. I used to work at a chocolate store. That used to appropriate all kinds of chocolates from all kinds of places chocolate and vanilla two most common ice cream flavors right like those are both the OG stories of like colonization and appropriation throughout history
Starting point is 00:06:16 because like that was taken from colonizers and spread and planted literally everywhere and so now you get you know arguments between Italians, Dutch, Belgians, and French on who makes the best chocolate confections. And it's like that stuff's all
Starting point is 00:06:29 OG Mesoamerican. But then now a lot of it's grown in Africa as well. Really fascinating story. And chocolate and vanilla both, I mean, drove world economies into globalization. Really incredible stuff.
Starting point is 00:06:41 And the fact that we get to eat that every day in ice cream, it's pretty gnarly. The fact that... Okay, go we get to eat that every day and ice cream it's pretty gnarly the fact that okay good eating ice cream every day dude i had a period working at this office because we had so much ice cream here that i every single day for like three months i ate a burrito for lunch and then chased it with ice cream and that was the happiest time of my life i will eat like a bite of ice cream every day because I'm a huge ice cream fan. I stock at least six, seven flavors in my own freezer at all times.
Starting point is 00:07:09 No way. You have room for that? I wish I had room for that. Pints, only pints, no quarts, only pints. And I drop cash, Nicole. I'm wearing dirty three-year-old vans right now and a t-shirt from Target. I drive a used Nissan because I spend all my money on $9 pints of ice cream. Wow.
Starting point is 00:07:26 And I love it. What are your top? Give me your, okay. So vanilla, obviously like unreal miracle plant. And if you have a really good vanilla, it's transcendent. What's the best vanilla ice cream you've ever had? I just love Tillamook. Really?
Starting point is 00:07:40 I just love, yeah. Tillamook vanilla is just perfect. There's nothing to add. There's nothing to add. There's nothing to subtract. It's just delicious. I feel like I'm getting real vanilla without being punched in the face with artificial vanilla. I think it just tastes delicious. And it's fresh and creamy and beautiful.
Starting point is 00:08:00 And just the perfect amount of fat to like sugar ratio, in my opinion. I love Tillamook vanilla ice cream. tillamook is one of those brands it's like um kettle chips tillamook and like uh health aid kombucha where it's one of those brands i'm just like i like you better than other brands and i'm going to support that it's like those kind of trusted brands for me that said like tillamook um farm style shreds cheese game changer oh yeah yeah if y'all don't know if y'all don't know about Tillamook farm style shreds they take the convenience of shredded cheese but it's a lot bigger and it doesn't have the anti-caking agent on it so it melts really well Tillamook cheese really fantastic I visited the factory I had the
Starting point is 00:08:40 best milkshake of my life there it was like a salted malted butterscotch milkshake. Wow, you went there? Dude, yeah. It's like in between. I was at a wedding, Kevin Riggs' wedding. Shout out, Kevin. Oh, sweet. At his wedding in the Oregon coast. And we drove back to Portland, I believe, to take a flight. And the Tillamook factory is there.
Starting point is 00:08:56 And it is like Disney World for dairy. It's incredible. They had like cheeses they were experimenting on. They had like a 10-year cheddar and stuff like that. Rad. That said, their ice cream is the only product that I don't like i also like haagen-dazs side note i really do like haagen-dazs yeah ben and jerry's not really tillamook to me is too creamy because i prefer a slightly icier colder ice cream because you get and i believe tillamook
Starting point is 00:09:20 has a fair amount of i could be wrong here if maggie wants to look at the ingredients on tillamook ice cream real quick i feel like they have a fair amount of, I could be wrong here. If Maggie wants to look at the ingredients on Tillamook ice cream real quick, I feel like they have a fair amount of like guar gum, carrageenan, what's the other? Hell yeah. Which to me, they use that instead of say a custard base to make a really thick, rich, creamy ice cream that doesn't melt. Yeah, it has tarragum, guar gum, and like that literally comes before vanilla bean. Yeah, but those are good. And it's not like a moralistic thing of like, I don't like these artificial ingredients.
Starting point is 00:09:48 To me, it just doesn't make as good of a product. Interesting. And also, it allows more air to be whipped in. So you get a creamier product, you get a fluffier, lighter product, but that's not what I want with ice cream. I want dense flavor, and I want cold. If there's a little bit of ice crystals in there, that's totally fine because that's what I want. So Haagen-Dazs to me. Yeah. Haagen-Dazs has a weirdly simple ingredients list for how big of a company they are.
Starting point is 00:10:11 Also owned by Jews. Oh, okay. Brooklyn Jews, baby. Shout out. The Brooklyn Jews are the minor league baseball team of Brooklyn. You're so funny. They have a very offensive Hanukkiah mascot. Who does?
Starting point is 00:10:24 Wait, wait. I'm sorry. It was a joke. It was a weird, mascot. Who does? Wait, wait. I'm sorry. It was a joke. It was a weird, distasteful joke. Oh, okay. But Haagen-Dazs, to me, is the best mass market vanilla ice cream out there. If I'm going, like, if I'm not at a specialty food store where I get all my fancy boy pints of ice cream, Haagen-Dazs is the one that I go to. And their vanilla is absolutely perfect.
Starting point is 00:10:45 But there's one. You know what else is really good? Huh? Bluebell. Bluebell. Bluebell. I don't know if I've had their vanilla. Their banana pudding ice cream now.
Starting point is 00:10:53 Hey there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fun. Hey, that's good. That's good. Smooth banana goodness. Can you, because Bluebell's a Texas-based company. And I know it's like very, has a huge regional following in Texas.
Starting point is 00:11:06 And I remember going to Austin in college and everyone's like, you got to get the Bluebell ice cream. And we would. And it was great. Can you get it in California now? Has it made its way out to our stores? I think I've seen it in a few Walmarts. And then I believe it might have been pulled, but I'm not 100% sure. I remember seeing it.
Starting point is 00:11:23 I remember maybe we just had it shipped to us because we're fancy and mythical. We definitely did. But yeah, I do remember having it shipped over to us or maybe we just had it on there. I think we hit up corporate, dude. I think we straight up emailed Bluebell corporate to get it. But there's another regional ice cream company that I just in the last couple of years
Starting point is 00:11:39 have seen pop up in California. Yeah, it looks like Bluebell's. Looks like Bluebell ain't in California yet. It's called Graters. G-R-A-E-T-E-R-S. It's from Cincinnati. And their signature is like a black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream, which isn't my go-to, but it's very fun.
Starting point is 00:11:56 And Graters makes a really high quality chocolate ice cream as well. And they manufacture their own chocolate too. Did Lily teach you about that? No, why? Does Lily have a connection to Graters? Yeah. And they manufacture their own chocolate too? Did Lily teach you about that? No, why? Does Lily have a connection to Grater's? Yeah, I believe she said her favorite ice cream is Grater's Raspberry Chocolate Chip, question mark? Oh, she did, she did.
Starting point is 00:12:11 She wanted that for her birthday. Oh, that's right. And we failed to get it for her. Yeah, I'm like, hey, what's your favorite ice cream flavor? She's like Grater's Raspberry with chocolate chips. It has a huge cult following. Can you be a little bit more like, I don't know, like simpler? Okay, wait, hold up though.
Starting point is 00:12:26 I got to talk about, and you've heard me talk about this because it's annoying, but I was recently looking it up. The best vanilla ice cream I've ever had, which it might be the best ice cream I've ever had, was this company that I've talked about before. They did single origin vanilla, single origin chocolate ice creams. And they had an Indonesian vanilla ice cream that literally it almost tasted like cherry blossom and it was like fruity packed with vanilla it was like 13 a pint which probably explains why i believe the company's out of business now because i could like never really
Starting point is 00:12:55 find them i found them in like one random whole foods that i stopped in because i had to pee you know what i mean and then found them they're called choktal c-H-O-C-T-A-L and I their ice cream was just fantastic you could taste the difference in vanilla beans and not even in like a hipster foodie annoying way of like I this wine tastes like vegetable ash and this wine tastes of green onion and silt like this was you tasted the ice cream you're like holy smokes that is an entirely different flavor that I've ever had before. And that showed just like the power of how awesome vanilla is. But aside from vanilla, Nicole, if you're buying like right now, you need to stock five pints of ice cream in your freezer. What are you going with? I don't think the average person stocks five pints of ice cream in their freezer. Did people not have five pints of ice cream?
Starting point is 00:13:42 That's crazy to me like i don't think dude live a little it i have like nine hot sauces five ice creams and like that's that's how i stock my fridge okay let me think definitely a nice tillamook vanilla or maybe briars depending on where i'm right briars is a good uh vanilla no i just said that's stupid um mint chocolate chip for sure has to be green i don't like white people are like oh white mint tastes so much better liars no it doesn't no i need to taste the green i need to see the green the green is the color of mint but also no no real mint should be in there because real mint ice cream i do not like obviously
Starting point is 00:14:19 yeah i need the i need that fake stuff yeah Yeah, yeah. Chocolate chip cookie dough. Yes. Love that. Something with a caramel ripple, something with a caramel ribbon going through it. Maybe a butter pecan with a little bit. Sure. Not Jenny's. No, no. Salt and straw. Salt and straw.
Starting point is 00:14:35 Salt and straw is too dense for me. So I get something from McConnell's. Something from McConnell's that has a caramel swirl in there with a little bit of salt would be nice. And then maybe a nice black cherry from Thrifty's. Thrifty. Okay, let's talk about Thrifty. I love black cherry.
Starting point is 00:14:51 Black cherry ice cream is an underdog. It's like rum raisin or like butter pecan. It's like, oh, that's an old lady ice cream. So what? Old ladies have their stuff together. I love that kind of old. Like, I'm tasting the same ice cream as a person in like the 40s and that's rad you know if you're going cherry you're tasting
Starting point is 00:15:11 the same ice cream as like a persian dude in like the like 1300s because let's talk about the freaking history of ice cream because i want to do this it's hilarious talking about american ice creams but if you want me to talk about Persian ice creams, that's another scenario completely. Well, so Persian ice cream is, I mean, it's my go-to when I go out for ice cream. I go to Saffron and Rose. There's a war in LA. It's Molly Malone's. Mashed Malone's.
Starting point is 00:15:36 Mashed Malone's, sorry. There's Mashed Malone's and Saffron and Rose. I've always been team Saffron and Rose. I think they use less food dye in their things, which for some reason I prefer that. But you go there and they have, I mean, saffron pistachio lavender which is always my favorite orange blossom cucumber ice cream not sorbet talking heavy cream ice cream baby and it's got salep mixed in it ground orchid root powder that makes it like extra stretchy and chewy and i love persian ice cream but like the most interesting thing to me about ice cream which
Starting point is 00:16:04 what god damn i have to i have to do this nicole i have to do this i'm sorry so ice cream. But like the most interesting thing to me about ice cream, which what God damn, I have to, I have to do this. Nicole, I have to do this. I'm sorry. So ice cream was invented originally using Buffalo milk, uh, in the Chinese, I believe it was at the Tang dynasty. And it was made with a chemical called salt Peter. That's the thing that changed the game, right? Nicole, you ever make rock salt ice cream? I was going to say, isn't salt Peter used a lot in like a corned beef production? I don't think so. I think it's a different thing. Saltpeter, I believe, is used in gunpowder manufacturing. Oh, that's it.
Starting point is 00:16:29 I always mix up corned beef and gunpowder. But they basically found a chemical that reduces the freezing temperature of ice. So it drops it even lower. So you can like add saltpeter to literal water. Or no, sorry, it doesn't reduce the freezing temperature. Saltpeter literally cools down water. And so they found out they could use that to cool down cream and make it frosty on demand, which is pretty incredible. But then we found out that you can also just use NACL classic table salt to, you know, make the temperature of ice drop and make that. But
Starting point is 00:16:59 anyways, the term sherbet comes from Sharbot, which I believe is a Persian word, right? And like one of the OG flavors was sour cherry. And so I love being able to go to like, like you go to Persian ice creameries and you get like faludeh, which is like the ice with the noodles mixed in it. That's right. That's cool as hell. It's a piece of history. Food history is fun, folks.
Starting point is 00:17:20 The man screams. I'm so glad you're telling people. It's nice. Also, saltpeter was totally used in meat production was it really meat curing yeah i know what i'm talking about like 50 of the time i believe you i know yeah it's used in like charcuterie boards and stuff but yeah ice cream has a really interesting history and i'm glad that persians did most of it hey what's your dream means winter what do you wear in winter a robe kimono is greek um what's your dream sunday josh what's your favorite like you gave me five
Starting point is 00:18:03 flavors which is way too much just tell me your dream sunday, Josh? What's your favorite? Like, you gave me five flavors, which is way too much. Just tell me your dream sundae situation. Wait, but I want to talk about my five top pints. Fine, I'll go dream sundae. Okay, no, no, no, fine, fine. You can tell me your five pints, and then I'm going to make my dream sundae. All right, five pints. We got to talk about, one, vanilla plum beer from Moloco.
Starting point is 00:18:23 Moloco? Josh, you're getting really insular Nobody knows what the frick you're talking about I'm gonna explain Nicole That's what we do It's very cool The world of ice cream is fascinating and beautiful And and and
Starting point is 00:18:34 We talk about USSR and food standards all the time There is the top Nicole The USSR they broke down ice cream to three different designations There was low fat, medium fat, high fat Plum Beer was the highest fat with egg yolks and heavy cream in it. And there's a company that is remaking it's a dude from St. Petersburg who now lives in California.
Starting point is 00:18:52 He gets all his dairy from Oregon. Probably the same cow as Tim, like you, Nicole. And he's recreating Soviet standard plombir using egg yolks and cream. And that's really fantastic. Number two, I'm going chocolate malted crunch from Thrifty. You got the malts in there. You got little balls you got all the flex that's a good that's a good ice cream the best part of that ice cream is it had a little mascot do you ever remember
Starting point is 00:19:13 like it had like a little like uh like a little guy with a sword yeah it was like a knight with like a sword why i don't know maybe he's the guardian of thrifty's ice cream if you like come at 10 31 they're like no more ice cream If you like come at 1031 They're like No more ice cream Dude maybe Number three We have like a cut off point
Starting point is 00:19:28 Number three Local ice cream purveyor Bergamot Genmaicha Shout out to Mercedes Saucedo At Casa Coco She does incredible work Very hyper local Also the fanciest
Starting point is 00:19:38 I will get But you need one Really fancy pint of ice cream Nicole Number four Jenny's Love me some Jenny's. You get the peach buttermilk cobbler.
Starting point is 00:19:49 Nice, a little bit of acid, a little bit of salt running through that. Good as hell. Number five, my last one, McConnell's. McConnell's is the single best creamery, single best ice cream manufacturer. They were saved from bankruptcy several years ago. Santa Barbara native used to get Stoney Bologna and go to the scoop shop originally to get their special flavors. Absolutely love McConnell's.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Their sea salt cream and cookies is the best ice cream out there probably right now. Probably my most consistent pint. That's the one that I go back to the most. It's like cookies and cream, but they use chocolate chip cookies where they blend it pretty well and there's a lot of salt in the ice cream.
Starting point is 00:20:22 Those are the top five pints that I'm going. Ooh, that sounds good. God dang. Josh, I was going to ask you, what kind of ice cream did you have in your house growing up? Because I always had
Starting point is 00:20:32 strawberry cheesecake in my house for some reason. The thrifty one? The thrifty one? It doesn't matter. Any kind. Maybe it was thrifties. Maybe it was, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:20:40 Ben and Jerry's. Maybe, who knows? It was some other random one. My house was fully stocked with strawberry cheesecake ice cream my whole life what about you do you wait do you still like it or did you like it back then um it was it was morris's favorite and like we would just have to have a bite every now and then if my dad brought it out he's like be a bubba and he'd give me a spoon but like that wasn't my favorite ice cream it was like cheesy yeah, bubba, and he'd give me a spoon. But like, that wasn't my favorite ice cream. It was like cheesy, like jammy ice cream.
Starting point is 00:21:08 It wasn't like my gig. But I respect it now. Yeah, but I respect it now. But back in the day, that was all we had in the house. We only had one kind of ice cream too. And it was, I don't even know if it has a name. I'm sure it does. But they sell it in the five-gallon plastic-handled buckets.
Starting point is 00:21:25 Yeah. And it is the lowest quality iceallon plastic-handled buckets. Yeah. And it is the lowest quality ice cream. We would get the Neapolitan because that way, Nicole, you save money by only having to buy one thing ice cream and you get three flavors. Yeah, but I'm not the biggest. I don't understand the point of Neapolitan ice cream. It just doesn't do it for me, you know? We've evolved as a society. We don't need to do chocolate, vanilla, strawberry anymore.
Starting point is 00:21:42 We can put some fun flavors in there. We can put some pistachio. We can put some rum raisin. Like, I don't like. do chocolate vanilla strawberry anymore we can put some fun flavors in there we can put some pistachio we can put some rum raisin like i don't like we should start a company where we get to make our own neopolitans for the people like literally like imagine like it's like oh the neopolitan like newpolitan you know what i'm saying yeah but it's like but it's like the new Neapolitan trio Ice creams and like we just do that Polyamorous ice cream Let's do it
Starting point is 00:22:13 Okay So we went to so the OG The OG Neapolitan ice cream right Is Spimoni and you and I Oh which Together we went to We went to What is it L&B Spumoni. And you and I Oh, which Together we went to Tell them about Spumoni. We went to
Starting point is 00:22:27 what is it? L&B Spumoni Gardens. Spumoni Gardens, yes. In New York where they have the big In Brooklyn. Yeah, in Brooklyn near Coney Island
Starting point is 00:22:35 we were there for the hot dog eating contest. We were both like sunburnt, dehydrated and ate way too many clam strips and drank way too many beers. And we're all like full.
Starting point is 00:22:42 I was dead that day. And I'm like I will be damned if we leave New York without getting a pizza that's been on my bucket list for a while and l and b spumoni gardens was there and we stopped on the train on the way back and we got just a giant brick of a pie that nobody wanted to eat and i was just chowing down and then everybody's like we're so full we're drinking like 90 degree red wine in the middle of the day and we've been up till up from 6 a.m and i was like we gotta get the spumoni it's called we're at spumoni gardens and then we got the spumoni which like
Starting point is 00:23:12 i said og neapolitan ice cream it's got it's a pistachio cherry and chocolate right whatever it was it wasn't very good i'm sorry new york god god bless lmdumoni Gardens. I loved the pizza. The salad tastes like it was just with heavy cream. Why was that salad so damn creamy? I don't know. It was like it was literally heavy cream salad. It was crazy. I had a great meal and I loved it.
Starting point is 00:23:37 But no, Spumoni, Neofal, and I'm not the biggest fan. What would you combine? Like your top three flavors in one. Because strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, they don't go together. Like, you know, you would never want to dip in the same bite.
Starting point is 00:23:48 Yeah, they don't go together. They don't go together. I'd say we just do a salted series. Okay? Hear me out. You made a really good salted cookies and cream milkshake, so let's do a salted Oreo.
Starting point is 00:24:00 Yo. Salted Oreo. And then we do salted Oreo, and then we do some sort of nut. We just go crazy and we do like an almond butter swirl. Like a salted almond butter swirl. Nicole's gyrating back and forth in her chair right now
Starting point is 00:24:13 saying salted almond butter swirl. It helps me think. It helps me think. And then the last one, Josh, take it away. Come on. I need something alcoholic. What do we got? Ohbon. Oh, my God. Ugh, yeah. Like a smoked bourbon.
Starting point is 00:24:28 Use Warbringer bourbon. Alderwood. Alderwood smoked bourbon. Bro. A little bit of molasses. Some blackstrap molasses in there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, ginger.
Starting point is 00:24:38 Oh, got it. Get that little spice. Alderwood smoked bourbon ginger snap ice cream wait hold on can somebody write well i'll listen to this podcast later write that down and then try and make that because that sounds so good i have alderwood smoked salt in my pantry because of course i do wait speaking of which have you because you have you made any ice creams for pleasure or just for work because like you've got a lot of question well i mean you've made a lot of ice cream at work because like we do that for job but like do you ever make it at home never no i got into a really
Starting point is 00:25:10 big ice cream never in a million years make my own ice cream when the store is just five blocks that way it's fun i mean i mean no it's not fun for me but i will i will frick around and make a sorbet every once in a while, but that's not real. You're talking about like do like a blender sorbet, like a food processor sorbet? Yeah, but like that's not real. But when it comes to ice cream making, it's just such an art form. And I really respect people that can make a delicious ice cream. I just don't want to bring that energy into my house.
Starting point is 00:25:42 I'm not here to be a pro. It's a witchcraft. No, it's, I mean, it is in a way. It's incredible. Making creme anglaise is a beautiful, you know, feeling of, and you know, it's just hard. I don't want to temp things in my house. Nobody's making you.
Starting point is 00:25:58 I'm just curious. I know. I'm just saying, like, I'm not here for that kind of life. I'm going to go to the corner store and get me a cone and I'm just gonna live my life i'm not gonna bring the energy of an ice cream maker in my house no but there's aren't there like flavors that you want to exist that don't exist and you're like i i nicole hendy zadeh and naity the fourth can make this myself because i'm a powerful woman yeah i mean i just what i do is i talk about it on the podcast that I have with you, and then it never happens.
Starting point is 00:26:29 It never happened. But it's nice to know that these ideas exist and they're in my mind. And I'm sure that there's some incredible ice cream maker that has done something similar, if not better than my idea. And they have an R&D team that tests and tests and tests it and does it better than I ever could i'm gonna make what like i was like an ice cream on my on my kitchen table what the what the
Starting point is 00:26:50 frick i don't have time dude the ice cream maker is annoying too like you're trying to watch a movie and you're like like four hours and then you're like oh it turns out turns out you can't just substitute buttermilk for milk in an ice cream base because then your buttermilk Thai basil ice cream turns out like crap, Nicole. And that happened to me. Yeah. And have you ever like seen those like ice cream makers that are like handheld where you like roll a ball? Oh, go frick yourself. Dude, those are so annoying.
Starting point is 00:27:16 I hate that stuff. Those are so stupid. I mean, leave it to the professionals. I will say there is one ice cream flavor that I made that was maybe better than any store-bought ice cream I've had. And I didn't write anything down because I kind of believe in the ephemera of food and I think it's fun. Um, but I did a, like a sweet corn, like fresh corn ice cream where I, I used, I basically made a corn broth by like blending the corn, simmering it, reducing, getting the starch out, straining it, all that. And then I added malt powder and salt to it and then i did a smoked salt
Starting point is 00:27:45 caramel ribbon in the fresh corn malted ice cream and to me that was like that was what dreams are made of that's why i like i want to chase this i think if i were to do if you were to sell a food if you were to say mythical the offices burn down and they collect the insurance money and decide not to revive anything you know in Shala, it doesn't happen. Um, but what would your like one food thing that you'd actually sell be if you were to go that route? You're like,
Starting point is 00:28:12 what's the food that you make better than anyone that you could sell to the public? Customize. Sharkoochie boards. Yeah. Yeah. I would just make beautiful curated meats, cheeses,
Starting point is 00:28:23 crackers, and maybe a few flowers on there. Like Harry, was it Harry and David's? Do you know what I'm talking about? They do like the gift. Who you calling Harry? They give you the, certainly not me. I tried to grow out my mustache today and you can't even see it.
Starting point is 00:28:38 They do like the beautiful gift baskets. You would do that, but for like cured meats and like, like edible arrangements for the new generation. Yeah, that's what I would do. So it would like cured meats and like, like edible arrangements for the new generation. Yeah, that's what I would do. So it would require, again, no real cooking. And I would just, I would just curate things because what am I if not a curator, you know? If I had to cook something, it probably would be cookies.
Starting point is 00:28:57 Yeah. Or cakes. Ice cream, baby. Well, I already knew that about you. You just talked about corn ice cream for three minutes. All right, Nicole, I'm sold on your charcuterie idea. But tell me, tell the people, this is proof of concept. If you were to make me a charcuterie board, what's going to be on it? How's it going to look? Who's it going to impress? I'm going to make you salami ice cream. And I'm going to put scoops of salami ice cream and then i'm gonna make a
Starting point is 00:29:25 mustard and then i'm gonna make a sweet mustard to put over and i'm just gonna give you a crap ton of carb-free crackers and then you could just have a party a bunch of like almond almond parmesan crackers that you can buy at the bed bath and beyond yeah yeah yeah yeah the little parmesan crisps yeah because we don't do carbs. I just ate a bunch of ice cream slathered in mustard. Yeah, I think that's what I would do for you. I think I'd make it like a fun little ice cream sausage party because that's what you deserve. I do love a sausage party.
Starting point is 00:29:55 All right. So let's vanilla best ice cream, right? Like it's almost incontrovertible. The people even say that democratically vanilla is the best ice cream. And I would implore people to go out there and explore more vanillas. Think more deeply about the flavor that's in your mouth. None of us discussed plain chocolate ice cream. You don't mess with chocolate ice cream?
Starting point is 00:30:13 If I'm like with my niece and nephew, I might have a spoonful of chocolate ice cream. But no, I don't search for it. I'm not a rocky road girl. I do like chocolate frozen yogurt though Oh really? What ew I love chocolate frozen yogurt It's delicious
Starting point is 00:30:29 That's the opposite of the time to get chocolate It's a little No it's not It's like a little tangy And like it's a little sour And it works really well with the chocolate Ew You don't think so?
Starting point is 00:30:40 No those are the opposite of adjectives I want in chocolate specifically It's like chocolate is the opposite of tangy But it's so good with fro-yo I mix Nicole Chocolate is not the opposite of adjectives I want in chocolate specifically. It's like chocolate is the opposite of tangy. But it's so good with Froyo. I mix, Nicole. Chocolate is not the opposite of tangy. Have you ever had dark chocolate before? I don't think there should be acid. I think acid would be like a negative byproduct.
Starting point is 00:30:55 Chocolate is acid. No, no, no. Dark chocolate is naturally acidic. I'm saying but so is coffee. But like acidic coffee is not something people seek out. You know? You know what I mean? Why are we having
Starting point is 00:31:05 why are we having this fight now why did this i didn't think i was gonna drop a bombshell by asking you about chocolate ice cream and i'm talking about chocolate for you there's not even a real chocolate in there you know and like half the time you go to yogurt land you pull the freaking lever and like it's just a melted thing of goop just spray farts into your cup and you're like okay so you know so you know how that your first girlfriend ever worked at cold stone my best friend debbie worked at a at a frozen yogurt place called toppings toppings and we used to just we used to just go and i'd be like hey debbie and she would just look at me like what are you doing here i'd be like give me some samples and i would know what's
Starting point is 00:31:41 up the chocolate froyo was really good there i don't know it was like a little tang oh i also like chocolate from pinkberry too ew ew ew i hate the chocolate from pinkberry are you a crack it's greek it's greek yogurt it's not good i make so much chocolate protein powder with so much greek yogurt and i hate it i hate it i choke it down because i have to and it's there so no i don't it doesn't need to be chocolate protein powder you can get vanilla protein powder it's like it's like an austerity thing it's there, so no. It doesn't need to be chocolate protein powder. You can get vanilla protein powder and stop being a B-word. It's like an austerity thing. It's like you don't want that. What the frick is austerity? Give me the luxurious,
Starting point is 00:32:12 the bitter, the beautiful, the harmonious, the creamy, the earthen chocolate. I don't know what 10 is. What does austerity mean? What does austerity mean? Austerity means like, uh, austerity measure is like when you're poor and can't afford the good stuff. You know, you're dialing back. So you got to get the cheap crappy fro-yo instead of the ice cream.
Starting point is 00:32:28 And I love fro-yo. But time and place. Get like a honeydew fro-yo from, because I made you when I hurt my back. Ew! When I hurt my back, I made you take me to yogurt land. So it felt better. And I got. Honeydew fro-yo?
Starting point is 00:32:40 Ew, Josh, that tastes like fart. You put the mochi in it. That tastes like fart. I like the fart. I like farts. All right, Nicole, we've heard it. You and I have to say, now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse.
Starting point is 00:32:59 It's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casseroles. Sometimes you let the talent around you shine. You know, like I'll sing backup vocals to Nicole's main. You know, she's the star and I can accept that. You know, she's got the range. Frankly, she's got the range. Some say she doesn't have the range. She has the range.
Starting point is 00:33:25 I'm so glad you noticed that. Who said that? Who says I don't have the range? I'll fight them right now. Oh, special announcement. I was waiting. We've got ourselves a podcast voicemail. Yeah, we want to stop hearing our own voices.
Starting point is 00:33:42 We want to start hearing your voices for a change. So if you've got a question, concern, nice compliment to stop hearing our own voices we want to start hearing your voices for a change so if you got a question concern nice compliment to puff up our egos uh if you leave a voicemail preferably less than a minute because if it's over a minute we just get bored we have so much adhd in this podcast room uh we'll play it on the show and talk about it and whatnot so yeah call the number yeah uh so if you want to leave us a voicemail call us at 833 dog pod one that's 833 dog pod one when you write it out it looks like dog poo one and i was like no way we got there was nobody else that had dog poo one we got it's dog pod one yes yes yes uh before we get into opinions like casseroles are there any ice
Starting point is 00:34:19 creams that we left out that people can be mad about are Are the Italians going to be like, oh, but gelato. I love gelato more than ice cream. Really? Yeah, and I love... Spot in the mall. Westfield Central City. The mall that you and I are always at at the same time. There's that gelato spot.
Starting point is 00:34:34 That's the only chocolate that I like. No, no, no. We're never there at the same time. Or we are there at the same time, but you never wait for me to come meet up with you. You always leave. No, I'm there to check
Starting point is 00:34:43 the long-sleeve shirts at Zara. I'm there brazilian barbecue and a cup of gelato and then i leave i just want to hang out with you for five minutes outside of work and you never wait for me never uh all right first up we got at neutral love mixing applesauce with craft mac and cheese is the best yeah i don't um i've never tried. They also, okay, dipping a grilled cheese into applesauce. I can see that. A mild cheese, cheese and apples, a combination that some people like. I find it vaguely disgusting. I don't even, I don't love
Starting point is 00:35:14 fondue very much and dipping the fruit into the melted cheese. That's not really my game. There's something about the fat in the fruit that I don't love. The applesauce is, oh, here's an opinion. It's like an unseasoned ketchup. It's like a sweet unseasoned ketchup. Uh, sure.
Starting point is 00:35:31 What would happen if you just mixed? Let me tell you. Let me tell you what this person is saying. They're saying to dip a Kraft grilled cheese mac and cheese into applesauce, which I don't dig. But I would be down to do it with like a brie with like maybe a little prosciutto. You know what I mean? I think I could get down with that. Hold up.
Starting point is 00:35:49 I realized on Julie and I's second date, I had a very fancy version of what they're talking about that I kind of didn't love. Bertie G's restaurant in Los Angeles, very fancy. They do a lot of sort of Ashkenazi Jewish food. Jules and I both grew up on Ashkenazi Jewish food. Kugel is a dish that I grew up eating. It was a fat, dense brick of egg noodles with like eggs, milk, cinnamon, and raisins in it. So weird.
Starting point is 00:36:13 And then you ate it. This dude makes like a fancy kugel, but it's with cavatappi noodles and it has like acorn squash or something and sage. But then he puts like a spiced apple thing in the middle and it's like a good dish but it you know it just doesn't no thanks yeah you know it's fine it's almost not really cool that but but his play on haroset now that's good oh girl give me some haroset my mom makes good haroset we call it what do we call it halak in farsi really good it's
Starting point is 00:36:41 better than ashkenazi oh then fighting words okay next food opinion rachel tater tot says a bowl of honey bunches of oats with oat milk is technically confit okay okay let's break it down let's false the technique of confiting uh is i think they're talking about duck confit which is probably the most popular form of confit, whereby you cook a duck, mostly hindquarters in its own fat, very, very slowly. But I believe confit is technically just a term
Starting point is 00:37:14 for slow fat cooking in anything, right? Confit garlic, confit tomato. You can confit anything with fat, yeah. Yeah, and it's just a method of preservation. But they're talking about if you take honey bunches of oats, primarily oat-based, and then you're submerging that into oat milk that that is a confit of sorts no making oatmeal with oat milk is confiting it correct yeah because if
Starting point is 00:37:37 there's no heat you're not cooking it no no yeah is endemic yeah they were close they were correct also honey bunch but still incorrect honey bunches the votes mostly corn uh what people don't know honey bunches of oats we we talked about this a while ago uh talking about cereal but honey bunch of oats was four different post cereals individual cereals that they just combined so it's like the uh it's like a trail mix of cereals it's just a combination of four cereals most of it's corn i do love that cereal so much. I would be the nut clusters in a Honey Bunches of Oats. I like the ones with almonds in it. Yeah, same, same, same. Oh, God, I want some Honey Bunches of Oats.
Starting point is 00:38:10 What would you be? Which Honey Bunches of Oat piece would I be? Yeah. The glazed flake of corn. Because they have normal flake of corn and then glazed flake of corn. Can't call it corn flakes. That's right. You sure are a glazed flake of corn. Can't call it corn flakes. That's right. You sure are a glazed corn.
Starting point is 00:38:26 At KobeTurner54, the only way to make mashed potatoes with a big spoonful of mayo. Let's go. I love mayo potatoes. Absolutely rule. You can't add it in when the potatoes are too hot because the eggs are going to scramble and the mayo is going to separate. I love it. This is where I want a little bit of tang, a little bit of tang with potatoes, Nicole,
Starting point is 00:38:47 a little bit of acid in your potatoes. Oh, so it's weird whenever I want a little bit of tang in my chocolate fro-yo, but whenever you want it in your mayonnaise taters, it's fine. Get out of here, Josh. What I do with my mayonnaise taters is between me and God. All right. Next up on our controversial food opinions sheet cheers for fears hoisin sauce is pretty legitimate dipping sauce yeah yep i love hoisin sauce i have
Starting point is 00:39:16 a bottle of hoisin sauce in my fridge right now always keep it on i always keep oyster sauce on hand always keep hoisin on hand uh love it. The combination, this is a very Southern California Vietnamese food. Well, probably all of California Vietnamese food thing. When you get pho, you get the hoisin and sriracha, and you kind of put them in the same bowl. And so for me, that combination of hoisin and sriracha is such a beautiful, nostalgic thing for a lot of the restaurants I went to growing up. Yeah, hoisin's great.
Starting point is 00:39:43 It's made from plums? I don't know what it's made from, but it's so sugary and deep. Sugary, deep, dark. Has the consistency of ketchup, but like a much deeper, more tart, caramelized flavor. Very good. Very good. Yeah, is there no plum in hoisin? Why did I think hoisin was made with plum?
Starting point is 00:40:02 Can you search hoisin plum? Plum sauce? Plum sauce, yeah. Oh, no, there is no plum in hoisin. Oh, I think hoisin was made with plum? Can you search hoisin plum? Plum sauce? Plum sauce, yeah. Oh, no, there is no plum in hoisin. Oh, I'm just dumb. And I learned something new today. It's fun. You know what it is? The container is normally purple, so maybe you had some sort of, like, association
Starting point is 00:40:15 with, like, plums and purple. That makes sense. I generally get Lee Kum Kee. That's a brand that I enjoy. Lee Kum Kee. I believe mine is Lee Kum Kee as well. Yeah, yeah. Alright, at ZestVK, after eating Chef Boyardee for the first time in years, I never realized how effing sweet it is. What do they sprinkle sugar on? It's like
Starting point is 00:40:31 a tomato smoothie with pasta. It really is, dude. It is. I've never had it. Same with Campbell. You've never had Chef Boyardee? No. Like ravioli? Why would I? I don't know, dude. We were around it at work all the time. It is, it's very corn syrupy. It's almost like Campbell's tomato soup, like much more than like a pasta sauce.
Starting point is 00:40:52 And it is just, it's sugary. It is acidic. It is unreal. It's one of those things that when I ate it as a kid, I loved it because kids have massive sweet tooth stray. And then as you get older, your palate develops. Bitter things start to round out. You don't taste things as intensely. And so sweet things don't agree with you as much.
Starting point is 00:41:10 Yeah, I can't do Chef Boyardee. And the canned pasta, it's so soft. Like there's a lot of nostalgic foods that I absolutely love. Man, I'll slam bagel bites and ranch all day. Kraft mac and cheese, delight. Like Chef Boyardee is one of those things that I cannot do as an adult. It's oddly orange, isn't it? Yeah, it doesn't look like tomato sauce.
Starting point is 00:41:30 It's creamy. I think there's probably fat emulsified into it. Yeah, it's a bizarre experience eating it as an adult if you haven't had it in a long time. I can't do it. All right. Real Phil Games says slap Big Mac sauce on any sandwich from the Golden Arches and it'll make it better. Hmm. All right.
Starting point is 00:41:48 Let's think about sandwiches you can get from the Golden Arches. A McChicken with burger sauce. Sounds good. Filet-O-Fish. Better. I mean, it's just special sauce. I mean, there's no ketchup in it at McDonald's. It's mustard, mayonnaise, spices, pickles, and then some other stuff.
Starting point is 00:42:07 I think the paprika extract. Paprika extract. Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. And so that's just a better tartar sauce, in my opinion. So that's better on the Filet-O-Fish. Even breakfast sandwiches.
Starting point is 00:42:15 I love a good spiced mayonnaise on my breakfast sandwiches. I feel like it'd be dank on a freaking sausage muffin with egg. Maybe. I've had a big fan of mayonnaise on my breakfast sandwiches, but I'd be willing to try it. Why not? That's the sentiment. Man, I can't get enough of it.
Starting point is 00:42:32 I think this is a great opinion that I've weirdly never thought about, and I'd be one of the few people in the world who would think about these things, and I haven't. And so that's fun. Heck yeah, dude. Yeah, shout out Real Phil Games. You rule. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:46 All right, last one alright last one last one one more one more alright let's do it at Hannah Schobert can't believe y'all are sleeping on Taco Bell nachos
Starting point is 00:42:52 nachos bel grande sub beef for black beans plus chipotle sauce plus pickled jalapenos one way ticket to flavor town you know how I know this is a good order
Starting point is 00:43:02 from Taco Bell how cause they got three additions and or substitutions in there, meaning they have curated this to their own palate in a way that I really love. When did we sleep on nachos? Must have been during the what does your Taco Bell order say about you? I don't know, but there's something about getting nachos from Taco Bell.
Starting point is 00:43:21 It's just so messy, you know? Like, I want to eat it at a restaurant. Yeah. I like the way it looks at restaurants. It's just so messy, you know, like I want to eat it at a restaurant. Yeah, I like the way it looks at restaurants. It's like a mountain. It's like a big volcano that I can climb. But Taco Bell is just like a dune. It's like a plateau that I just kind of like walk over, you know, I like my nachos to be a conquest. And I don't feel that way when I'm at Taco Bell. And I'm sure they're delicious. I'm sure they're yummy. I just don't want to do it in my car at like three in the morning. I don't want to do that. Okay. So when I go to Taco Bell, I always eat inside the restaurant.
Starting point is 00:43:57 I love it. I love eating inside an air conditioned Taco Bell, getting a refill on my diet Baja Blast, as many fire sauce packs as I want. I don't know why I never order nachos. I've eaten plenty of nachos in Taco Bell, but it's not like in my regular order. And I don't know why, because they are great. It's all of the flavors that you want just on crispy chips. You know what I mean? A little crunchier, yeah. I think Hannah Sjobert, I think you're correct.
Starting point is 00:44:22 And I need to start adding all of these now because I probably haven't ordered nachos there since they came out with the infinitely customizable app menu and now I need to I can take my destiny
Starting point is 00:44:31 into my own hands in one chip you are the master of your own destiny Josh you go get those Taco Bell's McGrind day is that what they're called like James Joyce's
Starting point is 00:44:41 Ulysses I mean truly nachos but you are you you are Ulysses thank you well are truly. Nachos Belgrano. You are Ulysses. Thank you. Well, are we done? Do we do it? Do we do a podcast? I forgot what a normal podcast is like when I'm not sweating from talking about the ontological implications of a hot dog hood.
Starting point is 00:44:55 And on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. If you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions Are Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or and hand these out with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. Or if you want to leave us a voicemail, give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833-DOGPOD1. That's 833-DOGPOD1, not DOGPOO1. But really use the voicemail thing
Starting point is 00:45:20 because we really want to hear your voice. And that's the thing that podcasts that I like do. It's like, we should start doing it. We have original ideas. We have original ideas too, but that's cool. That's the fun thing. Listener submissions, we get voicemail and we can yell at them. You do this, I say that. You know what I mean? It's a fun time.
Starting point is 00:45:36 And for more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week. We'll see you next time.

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