A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Are Air Fryers Overrated?

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Did air fryers actually change the game, or are we just dumb and forgot that toaster ovens exist? 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. Did air fryers actually change the game for good, or are we just dumb and forgot that toaster ovens exist? 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 Err. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And Nicole, today we're talking about the new hot invention. Oh my God, what is it? Oh my God, it's so new, Nicole. Everybody has one. It will change the game for good. It's called a little toaster oven that you put stuff in, then you heat it up.

It has a fan. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Has a fan. No, we're talking about air fryers. Air fryers are everywhere. We've seen so many viral TikToks. Everywhere. Everywhere.

Easy, easy. The air fried cauliflower, Nicole. They got the air fried buffalo wings. They got the best way to heat your pizza. Again, it's an air fryer. The best way to read. You ever made an air fried omelet, Nicole? You can make air fried cupcakes.

You can make air fried shrimp potatoes. Air fried shrimp salad. Air fried shrimp soup. You can do air fried cupcakes, you can make air fried shrimp potatoes, air fried shrimp salad, air fried shrimp soup. You can do so much with an air fryer. You can do so much with an air fryer, except for fry things. Yeah, it's not a fryer. Not a fryer. It has nothing to do with frying.

It's a misnomer. It is a misnomer. Yeah, that's a good word. I love the word misnomer. Haven't heard it in a while. Really love that. No, but I mean, tell people about the air fryers and why you think they like them.

Okay, I think people like, well, should we explain what an air fryer is? No, air fryers didn't explain what an air fryer is. Why the hell should we? Okay, you're right. It's not my duty to do so. Neither is it yours. But you just love information. I do.

Okay, okay, okay. So an air fryer, an air fryer, an air fryer. The first mass market one marketed under the name air fryer. And that's an important distinction. Came out in 2010. Okay. Philips had been working on this for like, you know, five, six years apparently. Comes out at like a culinary product trade show in Germany. And then it spread over Western Europe for a couple of years.

And then in 2015 is where I believe it like first officially came to the States as a mass market good. Okay. And I remember hearing about the term air fryer around that time, 2015, 2016. And I heard, you know, it fries food with one fifth the oil or whatever. Yeah. And I was like, oh my God, this is an incredible invention. What it must do is take a small amount of oil in a central cartridge and then like spin it around in the air.

So less, I literally thought that's what an air fryer was, like an oil tornado. And I still don't know if that can exist. But anyways, so I thought that's what it was. And I was like, that's a very cool invention. And I learned what it actually is, is a tabletop convection oven. And you have to add the oil to the food yourself, which is the same process as oven roasting, right?

Correct, yeah. If you want to make, you know, oven roasted broccoli, whatever, like, yeah, you add oil to it. Of course. And so all it is is a tabletop convection oven. It works with a fan. I should explain what a convection oven is. That was invented in the 40s, Nicole.

But anywho, it's an oven that blows hot air around, effectively, like, reducing the amount of moisture. Because if you think about the way that moisture sits on food hot air hits it kind of blows it off and then also um think about the idea of wind chill right if it's like a cold day and it's windy it feels colder hot day it's windy it feels hotter yes there's more air rushing at you and so that's what an air fryer is um and people ate it up and now there's all these healthy air fried blah, blah, blah recipes. And that's it. Yeah.

I don't know. I think the subject is if they're overrated. Yes. And I'm just going to say yes, they're overrated. It's tough to say they're not just because of how many freaking people own these things. I know. But it's like saying it's like an Instant Pot overrated. Ooh.

I don't think Instant Pot's overrated. I think Instant Pot's rock my socks. Okay. So Instant Pot is a really good comparison because to me there are three main home cooking gadgets over the last, like, say, I don't know, seven years or a decade that have made such a huge impact, right? First one, air fryers are the kind of soup du jour. Ironically, can't make soup in an air fryer. But air fryers are kind of the big thing right now. I think a couple years before that, instant pots were the big thing. Sure, yeah.

And so air fryers, what they are is a very, very good, effective convection tabletop oven. And a lot of toaster ovens have convection settings. I love toaster ovens. I'm a toaster oven stan. I'm so happy that I bought a toaster oven versus an air fryer. But what can a toaster oven do that an air fryer can't? I don't know. I just like the shape of a toaster oven more.

I agree with you. I think air fryers are like aesthetically very ugly to have. They're so ugly. They look like they're from like the Jetsons. Yeah. And not in a good way. You know what I mean? But like seriously, what do you make in a toaster oven?

A toast. That's all you do? You don't have a toaster? No, I don't have a toaster. Like a standalone toaster? I don't know. I also agree because I hate having unitaskers in the kitchen. I use it for toast.

David uses it to warm up his meat. I like to use a pan. What do you mean warm up his meat? Like for example, if you like a- What do you mean his meat? Not like that. I didn't mean like his meat like that. It's meant like you imply that David has special meat packs that he warms up no no no so for

example like uh let's just say i had shawarma uh for lunch at work and i say hey honey i made i got shawarma from work i'm gonna leave half of it for you and i'm gonna be okay because i am i'm full he takes his meat and he warms up the shawarma meat in the toaster oven which I was like what is going on here? But he's like, yeah man, this is the best way to do it

and honestly, it came out really good, kind of crispy. I liked it. What have you air fried it though, Why are you looking at me like that? I'm just saying it's weird to use,

your toaster oven is literally used as a duo tasker for toast and David's warm meat. No, let me keep going. My toaster oven is cool because it has multiple settings. It has a bake setting.

I think it has. Which is to say the oven is on. That is the bake setting of an oven. No, no, no. There's like a toast setting. What's the difference between toast and bake and a toaster oven? No. Do you know the differences?

Yeah, I think it gets hotter faster. But does it have? No, let me tell you. So I have a really great toaster. This is not sponsored. It's a Breville toaster oven. And I'm obsessed with it. And it has like multiple settings on it.

What is the problem? Well, no, I'm saying like what are those settings? I don't know, but I like them. You have these like microwaves that have like, you know, the 900 settings where it's like baked potato, popcorn, cup of beans. And it's like, who's microwaving a cup of beans enough to have a cup of beans setting? And also, how do you know how big this cup of beans is? There's a lot of things that have a bunch of like useless settings that don't necessarily correlate to anything you need. Well, I don't think it's useless.

It just helps. And also like the settings. I'm not going to hover over my toast. I, I don't think it's useless. It just helps. And also like the settings. I'm not going to hover over my toaster and be like, ha, yeah, that's looking real nice and toasty. I'm just going to come back when it's toasted. But like, okay, so most toaster ovens, in my experience, the settings that they have, right, they'll have like broil, toast, bake, something else. And they're all.

Defrost. And it all just depends on like which like electric grid is on top or bottom right okay yeah so baking is heat from below broil is heat from above toast is heat from both above and below and keep warm is low heat from below but i don't know if mine yeah like they're not like settings really you know it's just like which well i'm not gonna put my hand in there and just say oh i want to turn that one off or that one on. It's helpful. No, sure, sure, sure. I get that.

I get that. Okay, but what do you think that you could use that toast for that you couldn't do an air fryer better? Nothing. So why don't you get an air fryer? I don't want one. I don't want one either. But why? I don't know why.

Is it because we just want to go against the grain, Nicole? We just want to be deliberate. Have you ever had like air fried toast even? It's so much better. I've never had, you can air fry toast? Bro, you can, okay, so air fry. Do we have an air fryer at work? We definitely, we have used them on camera and we must have saved them.

They're in storage somewhere. I think I stole one and it's at my mom's house. Oh, sorry. Was I not supposed to say that? I've air fried a whole cake at work, but I've never used it at home for cooking. I've like air fried things before and I've always been very impressed with how they turn out. Yeah. Right. And I also like, I roast vegetables so often at home and I'm always mad and I crank the oven to 550 degrees. I try and get it as hot as possible. I will preheat the cast iron pan.

I will chop up my broccolini or whatever, toss in the oil, throw it in the cast iron pan, throw it under the broiler to try and get it crispy. And it never quite does. I just get a damn air fryer. You know what it is? You know what it is? I think it's like a weird like chef thing that we have. It is. It's like a chef thing where it's like, I'm going to use the oven because my forefathers

used the oven. I don't know. I guess that's maybe my mentality. I'm like, it's just a super small countertop oven. Yeah, we want to feel better than people. Yeah, I think that's what it is. It is. I think I should just get one. But here's. Yeah, I think that's what it is. It is. I think I should just get one.

But here's the thing, Nicole. Here's the crazy thing. What? What is it? Is that we went through the first generation. Everyone went, oh my God, air fryers are my life. They're so amazing. And I went, you're so stupid.

Didn't you know that that's just a convection oven? And they were like, but it makes my food really good. And it's gotten me to enjoy cooking. And I go, actually, but now the people like me have overtaken the people like them. And now more people are like, it was just a convection oven. And then in come me, Nicole, with actually, it's a convection oven, but it works at a specific rate. And so now I've come full on the other way where I'm pro air fryer. You have egg on your face.

I have egg on my foot, but I'm just a pawn. I'm just a sheep that reacts to the rest of the world. And if they say jump, I go, actually, jumping's bad for your face. I have egg on my foot, but I'm just a pawn. I'm just a sheep that reacts to the rest of the world. And if they say jump, I go, actually, jumping's bad for your knees. And if they go how high, I go, actually, altitude sickness. And I'm just going against the grain just to go against the grain. Yeah, man. That's a deep seated problem. You gotta work out. You put a little hot

sauce on cauliflower and put that on the air fryer, Nicole. Air fry buffalo cauliflower wings. Good. I don't know. It's like this weird thing. Everyone was, buffalo cauliflower wings. Good. I don't know. It's like this weird thing. Everyone was like sensationalizing. I'm like, I don't want to be a part of that sense. I don't want to be a part of it.

Yeah. Because I did it with the sous vide machine. And I'm like, oh, I already went through this. And like, do I really want to go through this again and have another gadget? Because I grew up with my house being full of gadgets. Like my mom would just go, like my mom literally has a drawer. She goes, this is my gadget drawer. And it's just filled with stuff. And she never really uses it.

I remember one time I was like maybe 12 years old and she bought a curly fry maker. Yes. And I'm like, mom. Wait, but not a spiralizer. It was a spiralizer. It was like a big stand, like stand up spiralizer. Was this like pre, because the spiralizer boom, that was big like six, seven years ago. This is pre that.

This is when I was like a kid. Yeah. She had this big white spiralizer and it was always in a box. And I'm like, mom, why did you buy this? She's like, you know, maybe one time I'll make curly fries. Never had curly fries in my home as a kid. Dude, yeah. That's how I feel about air fryers.

But maybe it's also like such like a millennial thing. Like, oh, like, you know, I'm going to go get a $7 latte and I'm going to make air fried salmon. Yeah, it is. It's a certain like aesthetic, you know, that I have always like wanted to rebel against. Right? Like there's that certain idea that like, oh, if I have this $60 gadget, then it will finally make me cook. And I'm like, you don't need anything to make you cook. Oh, you think our grandparents

going through the Great Depression needed a gadget to cook? No, you don't cook because you have to. But that said, so many people have, like the air fryer cookbooks, right? They're giving people all these ideas for foods they've never made before. Julia's mom, what up, Susan?

If you're listening, she was like, I've never made a little fried shallot garnish before. But one of my favorite restaurant at the Jersey Shore, it's called, I can't remember, but they do something called Ugly Tomato Salad that has fried shallots. She's like, you know what? For the first time ever, since I feel confident with an air fryer, I'm going to make fried shallots and put it on the salad. That reminds me of a nostalgic time in my life. And you know what she said?

The fried shallots didn't turn out good, but that's okay. The restaurant's called Can't Remember? Good one, Nicole. What was the name of that restaurant? It's just so funny. I don't remember. Oh, but they do this salad where they just cut a beefsteak tomato in half, and then they just put a balsamic dressing, a bunch of blue cheese, and fried shallots on it. That sounds dang. What a delightful thing. That sounds really delicious.

Jersey tomatoes, too. Anywho, what about the other gadgets? The other big gadgets. Let's go through the big three. Okay, we have Instant Pot. How do you feel about an Instant Pot? I think Instant Pots are great. My mom really wants me to buy one, but I kind of want to buy Crock-Pot. You just want to rebel against the current. Literally, this is another thing with your toaster oven versus air fryer.

Anything a Crock-Pot can do, an Instant Pot can do, like nine times better. And then there's all the other things that it can do. I know. I know. What's wrong with me, Josh? I don't know. What's wrong with me? I was against don't know. What's wrong with me? I was against the Instant Pot, too, because I was like, oh, it's actually just an electric

pressure cooker, which has existed since 1992, actually. And then I actually used one. I was like, damn. It's awesome. This made good soup. We have two at work. Oh, my God. They're incredible.

We use them all the time. Anytime there's anything, we go put that in the oven for five hours. We actually put it in Instant Pot for 20 minutes. no they deserve silence it's the same thing that's the point nicole that's the point is it can do that and what a marvel of modern technology the fact that these things exist nicole and you and i are rebuffing them for what yeah i don't know it's we're like what's it called like uh we're uh what is it called gatekeeping gate we're gatekeeping we're gatekeeping and i don't know why we are. I don't know. Open up the gates. Yeah.

What's the worst thing that could happen? Oh, we get to enjoy delicious, crispy. Faster. Faster? And better. And better? No. You sound like a weird priest.

I'll just hop up on the Holy Spirit and like quick lentils. Your voice was really high for a second. I'm like, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the God. The God. He brings you down. Down to a chili that only took 17 minutes to finish the pot.

And I will say, the new generation of instant pasta, Nicole, the saute function, oh my god, so much hotter. Is it? Oh, so much hotter than the first generation of instant pasta, because I've had both. I've had both, Nicole. I've seen the mountaintops. I've been where the angels drive the chariots. You are unhinged.

Yeah, a little bit. That half can of bang really did you dirty. Oh yeah, no, I did chug. Not a sponsor. Yeah, Bang Energy, the official energy drink of manic podcasts.

But no, Instant Pot is something that like has genuinely changed the way I cook at home. I think I need to just get one. Yeah, I do, I do still kind of like

cringe at the trickery that they use, right? Because they have all their presets, right? Yeah. Where they're like, it's so easy. Yeah. Like you just click beans. You click stew. You click soup.

There is no difference in the time and temperature and pressure between a soup and a stew. But can I ask you a question? Because what is a soup? Nicole, what does a soup and a stew have to do? They don't know what kind of stew you're making. Yeah, we literally did. Oh, we did that. Yeah. They're the same, but they're different. They're just trickier. But I'm saying, like, the Instant Pot

does not have the technology to know that, oh, they have loaded two pounds of chicken and this many pounds of carrots, and that means this is a stew and it needs to be cooked at different pressure. It's literally just like, ah, one goes for 20 minutes, the other goes for 28 minutes. Well, yeah, they do a lot of testing. Do they?

QC? Quality control? I'm saying if you put ones for beans, right? There are some beans that are real big, some beans that are real little. Yeah, I understand that. You know what I mean? Of course I understand that. But I think what we need to do is do a test and make beans on the stew and make beans in the pudding and make beans in the beans.

Oh, wait, that's a good idea. Which Instant Pot setting actually makes beans? Yeah, and find out. My guess is all of them. Yeah, me too. And then there's even a setting, which is kind of insane, that every gadget that comes out now, they want to prove that they're not a unitasker. In fact, they want to be the opposite, right? They want to be the—

Multitasker. Literally, like, because there's a setting on the Instant Pot called yogurt. What is that? What is the yogurt? The yogurt setting, like, you literally have to, of course, add your own cultures and dairy. And the way you make yogurt is you just gently heat something for a long time. And so the yogurt setting is literally just a crockpot, right? A crockpot is also a yogurt maker.

They just didn't think to advertise that because no one was making their own yogurt in the 80s. Wow. yogurt setting is literally just a crock pot right a crock pot is also a yogurt maker they just didn't think to advertise that because no one was making their own yogurt in the 80s wow yeah and so that's cool i want to make my own yogurt i think the reason that i try and like act like i don't love these new gadgets is because i feel like they're trying to trick people you know into being like it's a yogurt maker it's like no it's just a pot that gets warm yeah but you can do anything in a pot you can do anything in a pot. You can do anything in a pot. Yeah, even like in a regular pot.

Your voice is getting high again. I don't know. I don't think it is. I don't think it is. You can make rice. You got a helium pack somewhere? Beats? So we talked about air fries. We talked about instant the pots what's the other one sous vide

oh stupid oh sous vide machine i you little rascal you have you how do you feel about that about the home sous vide machines that's the exact noise that comes to my mind this like breaks my heart because when i first got it i was like i am a chef honey i'm like i am cooking i know my settings if i wanted to make elk i could if i wanted to make carrots sous vide carrots i could yeah i could salmon beef i did sous vide carrots once and i was like those are good carrots and i never did it again yep me too it's like it's such a great concept but who has the time say if anybody doesn't know, sous vide. Also, there are a lot of pretentious people who, if I say sous vide machine, they'll go, actually, it's an immersion circulator.

And I go, I used to be just like you. I used to say that. No, it's called a sous vide machine. You know how I know that? Because I bought one and it said sous vide machine on it. And that's how I know what it's called. But anywho, what it does, it's a stick that you put in water, Nicole, and it makes the water temperature. A move.

And then it moves around. It's a jacuzzi. Yeah, it's a jacuzzi. Except jacuzzis in America aren't allowed to go over 104.25 degrees because otherwise people get heat stroke and die. Or their bacteria like hangs out, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so this is a jacuzzi that you rig the little mod on it and get it up to 180 or whatever.

You know what pisses me off about sous vide machines? What pisses you off? All what pisses you off. That you have to buy a vac sealer or else it's a no-go. Wait, no, no. That's not true actually. I know you can do the water displacement method and all that stuff. But like if you really want to like, you know, do it like for real.

You don't look like you're on an episode of Top Chef, which is the reason people buy sous vide machines. Yeah, exactly. It's like you got to buy this additional equipment to get the full effect. Yeah, and so that's what you see. No one said that in, like, the small print of, like, the emergency circulator. It's true. You know what I mean? But if you go on Amazon, they'll sell it as, like, a package deal.

But then, no, then you're spending so much money. Who has time to put that stuff on your countertop? For real. There's so much stuff. You got to buy the Lexan your countertop for real there's so much stuff you gotta buy the lexan you gotta buy like a lexan you know what a lexan is? it's like a clear it's like a clear cube

it's like a vessel it's like a container you pour the water in like a cambro like a cambro yeah cambro follows me on twitter and I just want to say they make a lot of, like, memes, and they're kind of, like, delightful. Cool. Yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think it's funny that a brand like Cambro won great equipment.

I just think it's funny that they have, like, a content strategy. Yeah, those are, like, very specific, like, food things, like a Lexan and a Cambro, very, like, food people things. But, yeah, you got to, like, buy so much stuff. You don't just buy a sous vide machine. But that said, there are huge payoffs to sous vide, right? We did this ourselves. So to get back to what sous vide cookery is, it spins the water at a certain temperature. And its best application is you take a big old steak that you're afraid of screwing up and you put it in to exactly, say, 120 degrees, which is perfectly rare.

Then you sear it off, get it up to like 125 for mid-rare or whatever. You can very easily temperature control your steak. Yes. Or any protein, right? You want to do that with fish. Or any vegetable. You can still cook. Yeah, but any, yeah, I mean, you know.

Are people like that particular about the internal temp of the rutabaga? You know what I mean? If you want, I mean, it's, again, it's one of those things where it's like, okay, it's like incredible cookery. And if you can make a rutabaga taste like a burger, cool. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Like there's people out there that do that.

It's not the vast majority of like home cooks, but still like there's people out there that are like experimenting and doing cool things like texture, temperature, you know, how long you let something sous vide for. Like the only reason I would have a sous vide machine is if I had a large cut of steak or pork or. Like a tomahawk. Like a tomahawk. And I'd done this before. I got like a really nice steak for Valentine's Day or whatever. And I was like, I don't want to screw it up and just sous vide it. We have tested sous vide versus reverse sear side by side. We found that sous vide just makes the best steak. It really does.

Right? Really does. But when the sous vide machines came out, I remember the early brands, Namiku, Anova. God, what was the other one? I have an Anova personally. You have an Anova? I had a Namiku. I like Namiku.

They were all trying to be like. Namiku was expensive. It was like $300. Oh, yeah. Well well because i had an app i think namiko came first and then anova like undercut them and then a couple other ones undercut that but anyways they were trying to like you know turn it into like a very techie invention they were like you hook it up to this app and this app gives you these ideas and you can you share recipes with your friends you tell friends when you put the carrots in the baggie You tell friends when you put the carrots in the baggie. And the friends, you know,

put the carrots in the baggie, Nicole. And I was just like, this is so annoying. Just, you know, like this isn't a new invention. The immersion circulators have been around since the seventies in restaurants and it's just an easy way to hold food. Didn't they do it back in like Escoffier's time just without the technology,

but they would have like the water. Well, you would have like a Bain Marine. You'd spin it and circulate it. So they just replaced, they found a machine to do what like a a french peasant used to do in a restaurant novas are just french peasants they're just french peasants yeah uh but that said i don't know do you do you own a sous vide machine now i do you do of course when how often you break it out never right once we were literally just talking about the idea of you know asking what is your favorite restaurant and the only answer is whatever restaurant you go to most yeah you know there's no such thing as a favorite restaurant for me at least yeah and so this is the same idea of like

you know it's like oh my god i love my sous vide it's like when's the last time you used it don't remember but there's some people that are like diehards but are they still doing it because that was the thing in the early days where people were like they were literally someone making a sous vide omelet and they put a freaking omelet in a bag and then waited for the water to heat up and then cooked their omelet to the perfect temperature and went

and squirted it out of a bag. Yeah, I remember doing that in culinary school actually. We made an omelet roll within the bag. Wait, like you flattened like you you like flattened the egg you flattened the egg and then and then when it was at a certain temperature you would squish it down and then it would make a cylinder we basically made the egg roll what is that the egg rolly all right oh the egg rolly but but you made a sheet of egg and then you rolled it up

no no no so what we did is we could we we took the eggs we scrambled them we put them in the sous vide bag we flattened out the sous vide bag and once it got to like a certain temperature. You just made an egg log. I made an egg log. Dude, you know who also does that? Like fast food restaurants in a microwave. That's how like Dunkin Donuts makes their egg. And so for me the sous vide thing was always just a little bit like

it was way more smoke and mirrors and it had one good use except they were trying to get people to use it for all sorts of things yeah that never made sense to me so i i don't think that like sous vide machines have the utility that something like both instant pots and air fryers do because instant pots the other thing with that is pressure cookers have always been a thing electric pressure cookers are somewhat newer but like a stovetop pressure cooker been around for forever have you ever used one no

because they scare the hell out of me oh my god me too they're so the ones on the top oh my god so any whistle yeah any appliance any appliance that is commonly used in like terrorism like in like in homemade bombs that's the thing uh i don't want to like use i don't know if someone's you know out there making spiralizer you know uh mortar shells i wouldn't use a spiralizer. It scares the hell out of me, man. That's so scary to think about. I don't want to do that.

Yeah, I don't like that. Which of those three? So you own a sous vide machine. You don't own an Instant Pot or an air fryer. Are you happy that that is the one of the three big main gadgets that you own? No. I wish I had an air fryer. I do too.

Let's order an air fryer right now. I'm just going to take the one I stole from work from my mom's house and take it to my house. Yeah, that's probably a better idea. You know what's funny? Right when I said let's order an air fryer right now, I thought about going to Amazon and typing it in and then ordering it. And I got anxiety. Why? And I was like, I don't want it.

Oh, why? Where are you going to put it? It's another thing. Where am I going to put it? Yeah. Because I already have my bamboo. Nicole, I already have my bamboo steaming baskets for dumplings. You still have those? Yeah. Oh, my God. I love them. Nicole, they're my favorite steaming baskets For dumplings You still have those?

Oh my god I love them They're my favorite cooking piece of equipment No way Ask me the last time I used one Year and a half ago But what the hell am I going to do Put an air fryer there instead of the bamboo steamers The bamboo steamers are more like

How often do you steam stuff? Never I think I'm going to buy an air fr i think i'm gonna buy an air fryer i'm gonna buy an air fryer it's just gonna happen air fryer yeah what's the first thing you're gonna air fry when you buy an air fryer famine i was dude i was literally just thinking that because i'm tired of using heating do you think it's more expensive to heat up the oven or to plug in the air fryer this is a big question for me this isn't me um just coming from like a place of privilege or irresponsibility i think those costs are like very very minimal compared to anything

you deciding to eat salmon is way bigger of an expense than you running the oven for an extra eight minutes is it well now my whole life is you know what i mean like it's it's you know there's other ways i like to save money than thinking about heating an oven. That's where I come from on that. You know, I'm trying to buy a house one day. I feel that. I'm trying to pinch pennies when I can. An extra 89 cents of electricity from your oven.

That's what you think. Oh, you take that 89 cents and then you start an LLC, Nicole. Oh, my God. Then you put that into high yield bonds. I knew you were going to go into this. And then crypto, baby. Oh my gosh. How many crypto ads did you see at the big game?

Oh, dude. That was so cool. Did you see that Coinbase ad where it was like do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do? I really did not. I actually didn't. You didn't watch the big game? No, I recorded the big game and then I fast forwarded through all the commercials and then Julia would go, stop, stop.

I want to watch it. That's the best part. And I was like, no, I want to see. You didn't see the commercial? I want to see T. Higgins slap Jalen Ramsey in the face and catch touchdown would go, stop, stop, I want to watch it. That's the best part. No, I want to see. You didn't see the commercial? I want to see T. Higgins slap Jalen Ramsey in the face and catch touchdowns, Nicole. Cooper Cup.

Cooper Cup, yeah. I like Cooper Cup. I thought you were trying to say Cobra Kai and you said Cooper Cup. No, I know, I know the terms now. Cooper Cup looks like

the third Paul brother that they like don't show on camera. Well, reference just went over my head. Let's keep talking about air fryers. Yeah, I'm buying one. First thing you can air fry, salmon. Yes, and the second thing...

Hold on, what is the problem with the salmon that you're making currently? There is no problem. Why do you think there's a problem with it? Well, I don't know. I'm saying if an invention is there to solve a problem or to make something better... It's just faster. Than baking salmon. Yeah. Because I take a whole sheet pan, got to clean the sheet pan.

And then because I'm eco-friendly, I don't use parchment paper. I use Silpat mats. So I have to go through cleaning up the Silpat mat. But what I could do is I could just take the Silpat mat and put it in the air fryer and then just put the salmon on there and then lift it up and use it and then just clean the Silpat. But you also have to clean the basin of the air fryer.

And also it gets kind of like messy when you think about it. Doesn't it kind of give you anxiety right now? Because then you'd have to change how you do things normally. And I don't know if I like that. You know, I'm probably going to buy it. Doesn't it kind of give you anxiety right now? Because you have to change how you do things normally and I don't know if I like that. You know, I'm probably gonna buy it. I'm just like, so many exacerbated sides in this. I don't know what kind of air fryer to buy.

Can someone just tell us what to buy, please? We're not equipped for this. Hit us up on Twitter or something and just tell us which air fryer to buy and we'll do it. We want you to like us. We want to be like you. We want to understand why you love air fryers. If your dad has an air fryer company, just tell us what it is so we can buy the air fryer. Yeah, give us some free air fryers.

Oh, free ones? Yeah, give us free ones. Yeah, because here's the thing. We don't like who we are. I love myself. Talk about yourself. Yeah, but like, okay, listen, I hate myself. Nicole loves herself. No, I'm saying like I want to understand the air fryer thing and I'm generally excited about it. There's just certain hangups that I have.

Let's buy it. Because I'm a creature of habit. Let's buy an air fryer, come back, revisit, maybe do something similar in this podcast again and see where we're at in like three months. I'm going to make Brussels sprouts. Make the crispiest Brussels sprouts. Nicole, Nicole, these Brussels sprouts. No, no, no, Nicole, listen to me. These Brussels sprouts.

Nicole, they're going to have 70% less oil because they've been air fried. Stop making eye contact with me. It's really interesting. All right, Nicole, I've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casseroles. Oh, you whispered it.

Yeah, I'm different today. Fuck on it these days. I love that for us. Put some fuck on it. All right. At Lars underscore twee, putting cinnamon powder in a hearty umami dish actually makes it really good. Mm-hmm. Bro, what?

What are you talking about? Yeah. In like certain Persian foods, secret ingredient in a lot of the red stews is a little itty-bitty sprinkle of cinnamon. Oh, no. I certainly agree with that. I'm just – is he saying that like every like hearty umami dish or is he just saying that the possibility of cinnamon in savory foods is good? I don't know. I think they're specifying hearty umami dish.

Yeah. Which is like let's think about some like curry. Oh, there's tons of cinnamon in like I mean tons of different curries. I mean cinnamon is a huge part of pho as well. Cinnamon in like there's a dish called – Beef bourguignon. Beef, yeah. Should they put it in there

it's a hearty umami dish actually probably yeah that'd probably be really good there's a um there's a dish that's similar to beef beef bourguignon called kapama from uh i mean similar to beef bourguignon the fact that it's like you know meat and red wine and tomato and stuff like that um from like northern greece i think that is super cinnamon heavy with the red wine and it is a delight uh i agree with that i think it's i think people with the red wine in it is a delight. I agree with that. I think it's, I think people just think of cinnamon when it comes to sweet stuff. I think it's cinnamon toast crunch, cinnamon sugar churros,

stuff like that. Put cinnamon in savory things. Yeah, I agree. I think it's a great addition. Chili. Mole. Mole.

Mole Oaxaqueño. Mole. Mole Colorado. I love mole Colorado. Mole Amarillo. I don't care. Mole Estofado. I don't know what that one is. Mole Verde. I agree. Mole Amarillo. I don't care for that. Mole Estofado. I don't know what that one is.

Mole Verde. Green? Mole Negro. Okay. Yeah, no, I'm in. Oh, have you read Mole Blanca? No, but I heard it's an elusive queen. It's an elusive queen.

She sure is. Hard to find it. Hard to find. I saw someone on Triple D make it. I was watching Triple D recently, and I'm like, this is such good television. Oh, yeah. Diners, Drivers, and Dives is the greatest show.

I believe he was in Cuba. With the Molly Blanco? No. Oh, just the one you were watching. I've watched the Cuban one. He goes to a Russian restaurant in Cuba.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, she makes Bill Manny. Yeah. He goes, Bill's very hard to find in Russia. Delight, man. Okay.

Jadalyn.grill says, chicken flavored ramen noodles with canned chili and cheddar cheese on top is fire. I believe that a million percent. Yeah, I don't know how this has never happened to me. I don't know how I've never

managed to combine those three things. You are a canned chili man. I mean, this is just spaghetti bolognese, but better. Can we all agree with that? Chicken ramen noodles, better than spaghetti. Canned chili, better than bolognese. Ch Chicken ramen noodles better than spaghetti. Canned chili

better than bolognese. Cheddar cheese better than parmigiano reggiano. This is it. This is the pinnacle of food. I think this probably tastes really good

but I'm just not going to do it. No, I can't see a situation in which I ever would. Actually, the situation would be at work when like, you know,

because a lot of times I'll root through the fridge like a pig. You know, looking for truffles, just looking through the fridge. And normally I find like pickles and lunch meat. Yeah. But one day, Nicole, I'm going to find ramen noodles, canned chili and shredded cheddar. And I'm going to have myself a time.

Good luck, Josh. Thank you. At SeaPearls09, Wendy's 4 for 4 is the best combo of any chain. Can you explain? Because I don't do combo meals. so wendy's four for four it is okay let me let me back up a little so the history of the american combo meal no this is actually going somewhere right combo meal typically fries a burger sandwich or another entree like chicken nuggets and a drink okay right it's an entree a side of generally fries

and a drink okay uh and then the american people simply entree, a side of generally fries, and a drink. Okay. And then the American people simply demanded more. McDonald's had the supersized menu, which literally they had to get rid of because of Morgan Spurlock. Good. I like Morgan Spurlock a lot. Yeah, I, you know, he complicated, like, see, any of them. Oh, sorry. No, not, I mean, not. I just, I think that

that movie, Supersize Me, was very sort of misleading, I thought. But anyways, he's probably good. He does something with chickens now. I think he's making another movie about chickensersize Me, was very sort of misleading, I thought. But anyways, he's probably good. He does something with chickens now. I think he's making another movie about chickens. Anywho, so there's that. But then the American people, Nicole, they just continued clamoring at the door wanting more. And so they had to start making combo menus that now turned more burgers into sides.

And chicken nuggets became a side. And then they started having to come with dessert. So now Taco Bell came out with the $5 big box box where they're like we'll just give you a box of food and you eat it in your car and that's an appropriate meal now so the wendy's four for four is that so a combo used to be three items now there's four now you can get like mix and match you can get like a fries 10 chicken nuggets and a burger you can get two burgers a chicken nugget and a fry and maybe like a chicken sandwich or something that's really a lot of food for four dollars which is great i yeah wendy's wendy's value menu one like wendy's used to always have

four for four it was called the dollar menu and you just bought four things off of it and that was your meal and i used to get like a side of chili, baked potato, and two junior bacon cheeseburgers. Wow. And what a meal for a hearty growing boy. Yeah, yeah. A million percent. I've just never been a combo meal person. Like whenever people are like, do you want like a drink and fries?

I'm like, no. Yeah, yeah. I just get the sandwich. Let's Google what's on the Wendy's 444. Okay, go for it. Yeah, it's basically a combo of chicken nuggets. That seems to be what you do. Yeah, just not a big

combo meal person. Never have been, probably never will be and that's okay. Unless it's a happy meal. Love happy meals. I'm in it for the toy. All right.

Gifford0720 says, chocolate chip cookies dipped in Dijon mustard are a sweet tangy delight. That's for you and only you to know. Yeah, there's some. Never gonna do that. We did something in GMM where we took

chocolate chip cookies and we tried to put various things on them and get them in various things to see if they were good. Uh-huh. Did we do anything similar to mustard? I don't think we did. Was it Oreos and mayonnaise or Oreos and mustard that was big recently? Someone did it on the TikTok or something. Maybe mustard. I can like... Lizzo

keeps putting mustard on stuff. God bless her. She's out there. I can't imagine this being good and that's okay. Yeah. I would probably rather go ketchup than mustard. I think I would find that an enjoyable thing. I can't imagine that like Dijon white wine. Barbecue sauce.

Yeah. I mean we did sesame oil. I like that. Yeah. I mean, we did, um, sesame oil. I like that. Yeah. I'd put mayonnaise on a cookie. Certainly. I know you would. Why not?

Why not? Why not? All right. At Matt, Matt, two, two, six.

A slushy is a scam. Just watered down juice. Lol. They hit you with the lol. They hit me with the lol. They hit you with the lol. I love when I see lol at the end of comments. Uh,

no slushies. All right. It depends what you mean by slushie per se. Yeah. But one, I'm not basing the value of a food off of its percentage of juice, right? Of its percentage of purity of ingredient. I'm basing the value off of how much I enjoy it. Yeah.

Do you like slushies? I like Slurpees if that's what they're referring to. Okay. I think what's happening is it's either a Slurpee or an Icy. Yeah. So Slurpee and Icy are just two competing brands of the same thing. They are. Yeah, yeah.

I love Icy. And what they are is just an extra sugary soda pop that they pour into an ice cream churner effectively. Right? Like a soft serve machine, something that is cold but keeps it moving so it never clumps up and it remains nice and soft. But there's like, you know, slushies could just refer to juice blended with ice. I don't like slushies. I love icies. I took my niece to the movies and I got an icy for the first time in maybe like 10 years.

Dude. And we enjoyed it. I felt like I was a kid again. I prefer, icy has to me a more iconic branding because they got the polar bear. Oh, yeah. It's really cute. And the blue and red little cups. Yeah.

But Slurpees, Nicole. Free Slurpee Day. Now, they have whole Slurpees at 7-Eleven. They have come out with some flavors. They also used to have a line of Crystal Light Slurpees. Oh, that's all you. That were sugar-free. Oh, that is all you.

And boy, do they make your stomach hurt. Oh, no. No, thanks. But I mean, they have like Dr. Pepper Slurpees. They have like monster slurpees yeah they're very creative there's some really cool flavors out there you ever go to fat tuesdays in vegas i've always wanted to go and i've always wanted the cooler bottles but sometimes life just doesn't work out for me in certain ways and that's okay i don't want to talk sometimes you can't just

get a half gallon of liquored up slushy. I want it so bad right now. Oof, oof. So good. I would love that right now. I went to a bar once in Austin, Texas where they made slushy like blended drinks, but out of like actual classic cocktails. Oh, so like a Manhattan? Yeah.

So they would literally make like a Manhattan. I got a last word slushy, which I think is last words what? Like lime chartreuse in gin? Was it good? Yeah. I mean, I. Did they add sugar? Yeah, they must have added sugar.

Okay. You got to be a little bit lit to already get a last word slushy. Okay. And so I was, but I remember enjoying it. I think I wrote a mechanical bowl. Nice. It was good. It was good.

All right. Another. Okay. Chloe Chuan says, add ketchup to jornt pasta sauce for flavor boost sometimes yeah yeah yeah sometimes yeah or just you know pinch a little bit of sugar a little bit more sugar than you think listen ketchup it's just it's just what tomato paste sugar vinegar i like i like really acidic pasta sauces yeah i like sugary bosses this is i mean this is a very filipino move yes you know know, Chloe, don't know if you're Filipino.

You got any Filipino friends? You're Filipino in a past life. But ketchup and spaghetti, big Filipino move. I just think it's really delight, man. I think it's good, too. I recently had Prince Street Pizza. Sorry. I recently had Prince.

I can't even say it. Prince Street Pizza. Prince Street Pizza. Prince. Prince. It was really good. It was, it was like their sauce was really sweet though, but it worked so incredibly well. And sometimes a sweet tomato sauce is like the business. I agree.

I mean, we made a tomato sauce that was so sweet that we use it as like an orange chicken glaze. And that was a delight. That was a delight. Yeah. Put sugar in your tomatoes. Yes.

All right. Next up we got at unhandy underscore gosling baked laser a delicious and valid form i can't even read this with a straight face valid form of potato snack they don't deserve the shade y'all throw on them i don't like them i want to believe this i know they exist but i don't like them i want to believe them so much and i just i just don't i uh i don't know is there any way you can like reframe it in your mind to not think about their much more delicious fried counterpart they taste like fabric you know what i mean don't they taste like fabric to you yeah it tastes like if you air fried a lint sheet yeah that's a baked lace exactly yeah the only way i could imagine

if you crushed it up and like battered like a chicken you know what i mean yeah yeah it's you know kind of taking on the flavor of it. That's the only way. Other than that, get it out of my face. Baked Lay's tastes like if somebody tried to make like a kosher chip for Passover. Oh my gosh. You know what I mean? Yes, but kosher for Passover chips are really good.

But yeah, I know what you're saying. I understand. It's like if an alien was like potato chips. Yeah, yeah. And then they printed it out on a sheet. That's what this would be. We had something in the kitchen the other day that was it was like a maple flavored pancake syrup, but from China. And it was like it was

like your Google translating a sentence four or five times and it comes back kind of unrecognizable. It was almost like I see and I'm sure there are tons of examples like this in America. And I've watched a lot of like TikToks and stuff about people, you know, crapping on the international foods in American grocery stores. But that's what this tastes like to me. And that's what Lay's tastes like to me. Yeah, I'm not a fan. Not a fan.

Not a fan. Maddie Ice 778 says, fried pickle spears taste better than fried pickle chips. I can't explain it. Yeah, this is like dead wrong. This is like the exact opposite of what's correct, right? Have you ever had a fried pickle spear? No. It's brutal, man. Have you ever had a fried pickle spear? No. It's brutal, man.

I don't think I would enjoy it. Oh, it explodes with just boiling hot. And then there's so much. There's so much. I know, right? There's so much moisture inside of a pickle spear. I can't. That like the breading just immediately soaks it up.

There's no good way to do a fried. I'm happy that you love this because the restaurants that have fried pickle spears on the menu, they're apparently doing it for someone. And that someone is you, Maddie Ice. But fried pickle chips make a fair amount of sense because you're getting enough of that liquid evaporating. No, thanks. In steam.

Give me a good hard battered fried pickle chip to the point where the pickle almost like dissolves. Yeah, I don't even like pickle chips that much. I'm sorry, but like, no, I can't. I love pickles more than anything else, but like, can't get my head around it. Can't wrap my head around it. I'm into it. I really like more than anything else, but like can't get my head around it. Can't wrap my head around it. I'm into it. I really like this one.

This one is interesting. I'm going to try this tomorrow morning. At TK Fade says hot honey and plain Greek yogurt. Yum. Does it sound good? Yeah. I need to take you to this Greek yogurt place called Go Greek and you need to just have a field day.

What's Humphrey Yogurts? You mean like Humphrey Bogart? Yeah, yeah. There's totally a yogurt chain in LA called Humphrey Yogurts? You mean like Humphrey Bogart? Yeah, yeah. There's totally a yogurt chain in LA called Humphrey Yogurts, and I've never been. There's no way that exists. I swear to God, Humphrey Yogurts is a thing, but I do want to go to the street yogurt bar. Oh my gosh. Yeah, Humphrey Yogurt.

Where's it at? It's probably in Hollywood. Can we go? You never take me anywhere. Josh, I'm going to take you to Go-Gart. Oh, Van Nuys Boulevard, baby. Let's go. Oh, it's inside Gelson's.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. Humphrey Yogurt? I hate that name. It's inside Gelson's. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. Humphrey Yogurt? I hate that name. No, I'm into it. I'm into it. Unless Humphrey Bogart's children pay to do that, I don't like it. I think they would have to probably pay Humphrey Yogurt's children.

Whatever. I'm taking you to this place called Go Greek, and we're going to see celebrities there, and you're going to get your Greek yogurt, and it's going to be so good, and you're going to love it. What kind of celebrity? What's your best celebrity food moment in LA? Oh, my gosh. Have you ever had a good one?

Well, yeah. I used to work at a chocolate store and uh pierce brosnan winked at me what yeah wait what era what era appears uh like thomas crown affair era i don't know what that means you've never seen thomas crown affair no he he he was like a little bit he was like a little bit like larger he was like more like burly and he had like a beard and his wife was there too and she was really pretty and uh yeah he just like he gave me change and then he like winked at me in a very sultry way and i was like nice i was like maybe like 20 nice i remember what i was wearing i was wearing combat boots and like a short like a blue dress with yellow flowers on it pretty exciting that's exciting stuff i saw the original uh Millionaire in Johnny Rockets. Joe Millionaire? Yeah, you guys remember Joe Millionaire?

Oh my god. He tricked all his ladies and didn't believe that he was rich, but he was a... Construction worker? He was a guy named Evan. Yeah, I remember Joe Millionaire. He was getting fries in a Johnny Rockets. Nice. You said hi?

Yeah, yeah. I was like, hey man, big fan. He goes, alright. Yeah. What? Alright. 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 or Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or at Henny Zotto with the hashtag OpinionCasseroles. And for more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week. And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at Mythical Kitchen. See you all next time. Our air fryer is actually a game-changing culinary invention. Did we all just forget that? I kind of forgot what the sound of my voice is. Yeah, I noticed that.

Did we all just forget? You keep slurring somewhere. I know. Our air fr fryers actually... Something doesn't sound right about it. Today we discuss... Are air fryers overrated? Yeah, Nicole, you do it.

You want me to do it? Yeah, yeah. Are you sure? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Are air fryers... My voice is very annoying right now. Today we discuss...

Are air fryers overrated? One more time. More fluid. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Okay, same fluidity, but a little bit slower. Okay. Are air fryers actually a game-changing invention, or did we all just forget about it? Are air fryers actually change the game for good?

Or are they just dumb? You'd say it. Did air fryers actually change the game for good, or are we just dumb and forgot that toaster ovens exist? This is a hot dog is a sandwich.