A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Chili's vs. Applebee's

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Today, Josh and Nicole are showing once and for all that Chili's and Applebee's are NOT the same, and there is one clear winner. Which restaurant will take the top prize? Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this is mythical. I want chilies. I want applebees. Isn't that the same thing? How dare you? 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 we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host Josh Sherer. And I'm your host, Nicole in IED.

And Nicole, that was a very controversial and brave thing that you said. There's no difference. Okay. What we're about to find out is if there is a difference. Literally no difference between the two restaurants. Let's break down why we have all of this stuff in front of us, right? So we did a podcast about a month back. We did a podcast some time back.

Who knows how time works anymore? I don't. About how Gen Z. About how Gen Z saved Chili's. You were sick for this one. We had Trevor coming and sub in as the official. Gen Z representative that we have here and Chili's has been on this

massive cultural wave and renaissance lately. It really has been. It's so impressive. Literally like up 30% over the last year, up 50% over the last three years. Which leads the question, why no apple bees? No one talks about apple bees. It's all

Chili's all the time and maybe we need to change that. Why no manzana bees? No, how do you say bee in Spanish? How do you say like a bumblebee? Megita, por favor, translation on Google. I say bumblebee in Spanish. But because in my mind,

Applebee's and Chili's are a little bit the same thing, but this past... Abehoro, Abejoro. Abejoro. Abehorro. Abejoro. Abojoro, manzana de abhorro.

I also kind of view Applebee's and Chili's as the same thing. Aren't they both like Tex-Mex? Applebee's does not rep Tex-Mex per se. Chili's does, but they do, obviously, because they have quesideas, but that's also just kind of like American food at this point.

At this point, cassidia is a cassidia. You know what I mean? But there's a reason that when Valentine's Day, 2025 rolled around Julie and I never thought about going to Appleby's, we thought about going to Chili's. So this, I think, will answer the question of, is the Chili's Renaissance merely because of marketing?

Is it because of Gen Z's weird post-ironic kind of fake nostalgia for the early 2000s? And Chili's just happened to, like, be the one that they chose? Or is there an actual difference? because Chili's did some menu revamping and a lot of quality control. But you don't see if it pays off. You don't know if Applebee's did any of that? Not to my knowledge, or at least it wasn't as heavily publicized.

Because they've been running their own specials, right? The 2 for 25 at Applebee's. I just saw, I saw an ad for that last night, and it was, what a great ad. 10 out of 10 ad on that. Right. Yeah. What are you seeing from the visual differences? Because tell us about the food that we have.

So I will say this out of all of the portions, I will say that the Applebee's portions that are on Josh's side are much smaller than the chili's portion sizes. What we have in front of us is appetizers, a rack of ribs, a burger and fries, and a dessert. Before the food gets completely cold, we should... It's cold. It's ice cold. I'm sorry. I heated it up. Let me tell you what happened. I was heating it up. I had a hot flash, had to take my shirt off. Literally, our former director, Ben, had to help me microwave stuff because I was literally suffering. Oh, I'm sorry. I should have been there. I don't know where you are you ever

I don't know. Where are you now that I need you? I don't know the song. Let's take it to the appetizes though. Let's jump in. We have Chili's triple dipper over there. Yes. Tell us about what we got in the triple dipper. The triple dipper, it has boneless buffalo wings. Are you okay?

I dipped my arm into chocolate icing. I triple dipped my whole forearm into the fudge icing. Let me shalack it off. Do you want me to eat it? Did it make it worse? No, I don't want you to do that. Nicole is scraping chocolate frost

off of my forearm with the blade of a dull knife. Tell them about the appetizers while I wipe myself down. Okay, so from both places. So from Chili's, we have boneless buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, their southwest egg rolls, and then on the Appleby side, we have mozzarella sticks, boneless buffalo wings, some celery, and a cassidia. If you look at the mozzarella sticks from Chili's, these are not sticks. These are gigantic logs.

These are planks. And when they're actually hot and fresh at the store. But can I tell you something? I think mozzarella sticks are so overrated. I love the planks. The planks do a good job. I agree. And the planks give you such a massive cheese pole.

Yes. And such a satisfying dunk. These are one of those things that is like a very, a very, it's become a hallmark for the Chili's car eating social media posting experience. I will say the thing about mozzarella sticks that irks me, is that the cheese doesn't taste like anything. It's a very, very bland cheese. Good stretch, zero flavor. Now, what I want us to do is one day

come up with a cheese that's flavorful that has the same amount of stretch as mozzarella. Oh, that's interesting. What have you marinated a mott? I feel like we talked about doing this one day and we never did. Like, heavily marinating a mott's. I think we made a show about it.

Did we? Oh, no. Mmm, I don't like it. Monsorilla stick from mozzarella stick. Chili's, it even looks better. It looks handbread. I don't know if it is. I'm not sure if this is being done in the story in a factory.

Yeah. The Chili's one looks like something homemade. You go to your Italian-American friend's house, right? His mama. They're not doing this. Mama Giuseppe Domino, right? Giuseppe Domino. That is such a fake name.

That's one of my favorite Trevor bits. It's where he talks about Mama Domino. Mm-hmm. How she makes a good pizza. And her first name is Giuseppa? I've named her Giuseppa. The mozzarella in the Chili's one, and it feels like more of a proper, like, whole milk, low moisture moths,

whereas the one inside Applebee's tastes like free and string cheese. It tastes like Costco. It tastes like string cheese to me. This seems like string cheese is obviously bredded. Really disappointing. That's interesting. Really disappointing. Okay, move on to the boneless wings.

Okay. These are boneless buffalo wings. Right. Sorry, there's no ranch. That's kind of butter around dipping it and mariner. There is ranch. I just don't know where it is. That's fine.

Mm. What are you tasting in the Chili's boneless wings? Nothing. I mean, boneless buffalo wings, I could just eat all day. To me, it's like the perfect seasoned food. Really? That is so underwhelming for me. In what way?

The chilies, it has no sauce. It has absolutely baked into the actual, like, outside crust. I like that. I don't like that. I need a little bit of, I need a little bit of, I'm down with the sog. I have no problem with the sock. It's the flavor of said sock. There is no flavor in said sock.

The applebee's ones look more heavily seasoned. They look so much better. And they have a little bit, they have more of a buffalo taste. Much more of a buffalo taste. Which one of these tastes more like it just came out of a freezer bag? Applebee's. It does, right? But the seasoning is better on it.

The seasoning is better, but it kind of tastes more... The chicken is better. Processed? The chicken is better at chilies. The seasoning is better at applebees. Which one of these boneless buffalo wings would you rather eat? I would rather eat applebees because it tastes better. I would rather eat chilies.

I disagree. It feels like there's better quality control. feels like a person made it. And you care about that? We don't... A little bit. You do. A little bit.

When you go to a restaurant, right? Like, if you are just getting Applebee's and Chili's work on such massive scales, right? I remember maybe the worst restaurant meal of my life was at the College Station Applebee's. Do you know College Station? Never heard of College Station. It's where Texas A&M University is. There is, forgive me for all the College Stationites out there. Nothing else in the area other than College Station, Texas, and Texas A&M.

Wait, it's a city? College Station, USA? The city is called College Station, Texas. That's our Texas A&M as the Agricultural and Military University. Okay. And I went to when Appleby's there, and I ordered, I was trying to get some, like, protein. It was when I was on the tracking field team. And I ordered a steak, and it was just an unidentifiable cut that did not exist anywhere. Meat glue galore.

I cannot explain to you. So, like, when you're working at those scales, it's so hard to get this consistency without it just being, like, a factory, shipping frozen stuff to a store. So you're kind of like working in this weird dynamic where by definition, if you want consistency, it has to be pre-made. But also, people don't just want to show up to a restaurant and feel like they're being given something that was heated up out of a bag. Apparently, the chain's wings are voted America's favorite boneless wing in a blind taste test in early 2020. Chili's? No, Applebee's. Applebee!

I'm telling you, the Applebee's flavor knocks it out of the park. You just don't like the texture of it. Maybe I got a kind of grisly one. Maybe you got a grisly one. You can see how much more, like, white meat there is, which normally that's not that important to me. It's not important to me in any sort of boneless buffalo wing. But for some reason, you think it's important. I don't know.

Let's move on to their, what would you call this? This is an egg roll. Well, it's not an egg roll. So chili southwest egg roll, it's in a tortilla, right? Is it? What a fun food. This is a tortilla. This is called a chimichanga.

Oh, what a fun food. And then a southwestern chimichanga is renewed. This is just a little chimichanga. It's filled with what? Spinach, cheese, corn, black beans, all the delicious things. This is a hallmark. This is OG chilies. This is like what made chilies.

Absolutely delicious. It reached so heavily of cumin, I love it. So cumuling. Whatever R&D chef made this, brava, delicious. You know what it is? It's the roasted red pepper corn and black bean combo. That was like every single 1990s. Southwest something. Taco Bell even had a Chalupa that had like black beans and corn in it.

Southwest Chalupa. Santa Fe Chalupa. That's so funny. Back in the day. R. IP. This is delicious. What do we have here from the Applebee's? It's a cassidia stuffed with tomato, onion, cilantro, and chicken. Do you remember what they call this? Just like Southwestern Delight Cazadea? I'm going to look it up right now. It doesn't hold a candle. It can't. Completely different. Entirely different. Absolutely. Warm tortilla with Chipotle line chicken. Blend of melted cheddar cheese. And I see tomato onion and cilantro in here. So the triple different combo from Chili's. Also, do you know there's no combo? It's customizable. It's customizable, too, which is fun. That gives people, like, a feeling of control. Mm-hmm.

You know, it was responsible for something like 16% of their entire store sales, which is crazy considering they have 100 items on that freaking menu. There's a lot of liquor sales. Mm-hmm. And I understand why. Like, it is really well done. The mozzarella sticks are fantastic. I think the Buffalo, the bonus buffalo music is great.

it's also good. The Southwest egg rolls and icon, nothing to me from Applebee's. The bonus wings are good. I'll give you that. Sure, yeah. Like they're tasty. But you go like tortilla Southwest product, four tortilla Southwest product. Mots for moths. Chilies, to me, like, smokes it. The triple dipper is the truth. There's so much care and detail

that went into this. And you can taste it, which you don't always expect from a joint like Applebee's or Chili's, but Chili's knocks out of the park. The Triple Dipper absolutely beats out that Applebee's appetite. What a treat. Appetize a round. Chili's wins far away. It's always really heartening to me. Okay, put that over there. When someone, when a big fast food chain, like, tries to make

sweeping food changes and it pays off. Sure, yeah. It's always impressive. Talk a lot about the Domino's 2008 menu revamp. Sure. Should we eat some burgers? My body is ready. So the burgers were another part of Chili's revamp. Right.

Where they were like, we want to compete with fast food because fast food's so expensive. So Chili's really attacked the fast food industry saying like, hey, come into Chili's for a sit-down meal. We'll treat you like a human, and our burgers cost $10, and a fast food burger costs $8 now. Right. You know what I'm him? The Chili's burger is called the Old-Timer burger, and the Applebee's burger is called the Neighborhood Burger. Isn't that so sweet? I'm going to cut this Applebee's burger and a half. Go ahead.

It looks like the Applebee's burger is a double patty? Double smash burger at Applebee's. Look at that. Who would have thunk it? Chili's also is a smash burger, but we didn't get it right? No, we got, I went off of names. I went off of names because I'm sorry, old timer burger and the neighborhood burger, that's the same burger. I agree with that. I agree with that.

Yeah. It also kind of looks a little smashy. The Chili's burger looks nice, man. The Chili's burger is wide. Bring back wide-ass bar burgers. It is a wide-set burg. Okay. What are you going to eat first? I'm going Applebee's. Okay. So they tried to smash. They got the heavy lace on the outside, but the paddies aren't smashed thin enough. So to me, you kind of get a little bit the worst of both worlds,

or you're smashing all the juice out of a thick patty. And it's only the outsides that are crispy. Not only that, look at this, like, weird crust on the bottom of just, like, old grill. It's giving graze. It's just... I'm not going to laugh. It's gray and beige. Still tastes pretty distant.

I like the pickle pop. I like the pickle that they use. Mm-hmm. Meat tastes fine. There are these funny things in food? Mm-hmm. Where, like, it's in the margin. Right? It's in, the devil's in the details for certain things. Like a smash burger. The reason you love a smashburger isn't just because you're like smashing it and getting the lacy crust, whatever, but it's because you're then smashing it thin because a smash burger by definition is going to lose moisture. So that like crispiness needs to like overcome it.

More press. There's not enough press. Not enough smash. It's in between. It's in a, it's in a bad middle ground, right? It's a bug state. Yeah. Hey, Applebees. Smash them down a little bit harder. What about the fries? Because Chili's put a lot of time into revamping their fries. There was a whole story about the salt. Those taste pretty good. Applebee's fries taste delicious. Not a bad fry? Not a bad fry. They do look very similar.

I don't like that. You don't like chili's fries? Chili's fries are bigger, and I think they cut down on their amount of fry options. But doesn't always mean better for French fries. No, it doesn't. This is what I'd want, though. This tastes like a freshly fried fry. It's actually less salty, which is funny because they, they changed up.

The way they salt their fries, too, get more salt on them. You know what I'm learning about me and you? I like the flavors, and you like the pure expression of the food. Are we sure about that? You just, yeah, because the seasoning on the Applebee's fry is much better than the seasoning on the Chili's Fry. But the cook on the Chili's Fry is better than the Applebee's cook. I think, to me, you know what I'm actually looking for? What?

I'm looking for a difference between this and fast food. Why? Because I think the fast casual restaurant, like the thing that it occupied for me was to be that fancy sit-down restaurant where you're treated like a human, right? Where you can walk in for, if you only have a budget of 20 bucks a person, you can walk in for like a graduation, right? For a pre-prong dinner, for a birthday when times are tight. And you can have somebody come up to you and smile at you and say like, hey, would you like to try our special? And go, oh my God, it's two for 25. Yay.

That's a different relationship than going into like a couple. Morales, Jr., I mean, like, let me eat my burger alone in this corner or in my car. Sure. And so for, like, a fry, like, I want, like, a big, thick fry. I don't want it to taste like fast food. I don't know. I'm so, like, torn because I understand where you're coming from, but I don't, I don't love the thickness.

I don't need my fries thick. I don't need them to be, like, this thick potato-y center. Yeah, yeah. I kind of appreciate the light crisp of a smaller fry. Different strokes for different folks on that one. The burger is interesting because the double-suffles. Smash is very much meant to be a fast food burger, right? This is like a proper, like, diner bar burger at Chili's.

I just got a huge bite of tomato. I could have juicy that. And it ruined my whole day. What do you mean? Oh, my God. It was all tomato. No seasoning. No flavor.

The cook on the burger is really nice of chilies. The cook is good, but there's no seasoning on it. Zero, zilch, not a. The human error, dude. That's the human error. Like, if you're cooking your food fresh... And you like that? No, no, no, no, no.

I'm saying this is bad. It's bad. The burger's not good. I think if this burger patty was seasoned well, I think it'd be solid. Yeah. But yeah, there's not announced the seasoning on that meat. That's really disappointing. It makes the whole thing fall flat.

Would you take that Applebee's burger over the Chili's burger? Yes, any day. That Chili's burger was disappointing. Absolutely disappointing. I think it's better constructed. I think it's a better constructed burger. No way. Are you going to give the point to Chili's for an unseasoned burger patty right now?

We give it to Applebee's. Give the point to Applebee's. It belongs to Applebee's. No, be real. The salt factor and the taste factor I would rather eat the Chili's burger than the Applebee's burger Stop it

I don't how are you like this Dude try this burger Okay It's not a good burger Neither of them are good burgers Neither of them are good But I just taste like meat I just taste like burger

That's a fair point That just tastes like cow What do you mean this tastes like burger That tastes like cow Burger is cow No way Applebee's takes this. I accept.

I accept that Applebee's taste it. Dude, there's an after-tasting that burger. Literally, you bite this and you're like, I just ate a big bowl gray. I don't know why gray is on my mind so much. Chili's baby back rams. I want my baby back, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, I want my baby back, baby, baby, baby, I want my baby back. Chili's baby back ribs

A barbecue's There it is This is what they're known for I don't think I've eaten baby back ribs at Chili's I don't think I've ever had ribs Like this Oh my God Oh my God

What are you doing? I'm trying to cut the ribs But they're tough Oh no Grab a double boner ribs Jesus A double boner for Nicole Her favorite

Oh my god it's so dry Because of how iconic The Chili's Baby Back Rib song is. I don't know anyone that goes to chilies for ribs, right? That, the moment in time has passed. When do you ever go to a restaurant for ribs? I only go for barbecue. If I'm at a barbecue joint, I'll go. There's a couple, like, old school spots near me that are, like, the sit-down steakhouse style that are, like, known for their, quote, oven-baked spare ribs. Are those pork or beef? Pork.

Glacian barbecue sauce, and I would never order them. I think it's, like, of a different era. Yeah, I agree. The type of person who's like, oh, we're going out to this nice steakhouse for their oven-baked spare ribs. No one does that. Like, what is this, a Korean war? Like, in 1953, you know? Looking forward to the nuclear age, this is bizarre. No, if you want ribs, you go to a barbecue spot.

Exactly. Are these... Love the flavor. Flavor. That's good. That sauce is dimensional, multi-dimensional. Applebees has a good sauce. Applebees knows what's doing.

How much better do the chili's ribs look in the Applebee's ribs? 20 times better. So much better. So much better. They're not like desiccated. Yeah, will they rip? Oh, huh. That's how ribs should rip.

Another double bodee. I mean, chilies. Another double boulder for Nicole. Mmm. Okay. This is where the cook absolutely trumps any sort of flavor. Yum.

I do agree that apple bees are better seasoned. The apple bees is, dude, their seasoning game is on. lock. Their cook time is just all wrong. It's so wrong. The applebee's ribs are so tough. But they're dry and tough, which means they're both cooked for too short and too long. Again, just like missing that

sweet spot where food is great. Wow, the Chili's baby back ribs on barbecue sauce. Maybe we should be eating Chili's ribs. That's fire. I think we should go to Chili's get their oven-baked spare ribs. You know? Drink an old-fashioned.

Are we going into war any time soon? Uh-oh. It's America going into war. Right in the comments of America's going to war soon. If it is, buy stocking, oven-baked spare ribs. Because that's the time they boom, maybe. Easy win for chilies, right? Wow, chilies.

These ribs were crazy. I don't love ribs that, like, fall off the bone, and these don't. This is something that I've learned about you. You like your ribs to have some integrity. Yeah, you've got to be able to pick up a rib and actually, like, eat it like a corn cob. It's too easy to make rib meat fall off the bone You're right Anyone can do it, right?

It's an art form to be able to get it the way It's tender enough to rip off of the bone With a little bit of action from your teeth The ribs at chilies are damn near like my ideal cook on it Applebee's too tough It's like you're just like ripping at it Trying to rip the flesh off the bone Chili's good job

Great job Chili's Chili's is two for one right now Excuse me Chili's has two points Applebee's has one point Yeah Yeah yeah Now he's got dessert left

Time for desserts. Time for desserts. I'm not eating my ribs. The ribs are kind of like dessert. I was in the middle of eating my lunch, and then I remembered that we were doing this. Oh, yeah? And I immediately just threw it in the fridge. Said, nope, that's litter.

That's litter. That's dinner, linner. I think all the trans fats in the ribs are going to my head. Are you sure it's not wiping your body with Lysol wipes? Oh, this podcast brought to you. podcast brought to you by Lysol surface wipes that I've been using on the surface of my body Well, I'm using great value ones

Because I like to ball on a budget Those ones were bought after Mythical Company budget cuts Like no more name brand surface wipes For the surface of Josh's hands I don't think wiping our hands With Lysol wipes is good for us Ah, can't be

But we keep doing it What are you going to do? Nothing Why these look so different These are the same dessert. Yeah, they're molten chocolate cake. Both companies decided that a... I did not get it Alamode.

Sorry, Josh. No, I don't... I think Alamode desserts are kind of really overrated. Okay, that's ugly of you. That's my hot take. That's your hot take? That's my hot take. Okay.

Alamode is almost never as good as you wanted to be. That's disgusting. Let's see if this Applebee's molten chocolate cake is, this looks like it was... You ever get the desserts at Carl's Jr.? Never. I have a family that I'll see. I'm just kidding. I've eaten every single dessert at Carl's Jr.

So they've, one, I think they have the best hand spun shakes in the game. Carl's Jr. did a really good job on revamping that. They've done some fun desserts, like the Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich is good. But the old school Carl's Jr. desserts are just like a piece of chocolate cake, and it's just like in a plastic unmarked bag, and they're just like throw it at you. They have like a strawberry cheesecake, and it looks like this. Maybe it's made in the same facility. It might be.

But this looks like this was made in a factory that they put in a microwave. We've put some sauces on, right? Yeah. Why doesn't the Chili's cake look the same? Am I being too generous to Chili's right now? I don't know what's wrong with you right now. I birth from the inside. It was a weird feeling.

I feel like me and you are on drugs. We're not on drugs. We're on chilies, baby. I don't do pot. I do triple-dipper combos. You're out here free basin? Well, I'm out here free baking up. My chili's molten chocolate cake.

Having a great time with my friends That's what I'm doing When's your birthday? June No, April Damn, man I have no idea when your birthday is It's in May, your birthday's in May

May 19th No You're Gemini Yeah, but you're a Torres But you don't care about that We should have your next birthday At Chili's Oh, I won't go Jackie cheese

You want to shut down Chili's for your birthday That would actually be really cool How much is the cost to shut down in Chili's I'm sure you can find it Why don't you just tell corporate Corporate who? Corporate Chili's. What do you mean?

I just tell corporate Chili's. Who do you think I know? Info at Chili's.com. Would like to shut down a whole restaurant near Encino Commons for birthday, please. Yeah. Yeah, the one near the Michaels. Close mouths, don't get fed. What do you think of the cake?

Yum. Right, yum. Why would I complain about that? Big yum. It's the only thing it's missing? Vanilla ice cream. Yeah, it's a fair point. Chili's, this one looks...

It looks like a British pudding. It does look like a British pudding. Is this a caramel sauce or is this a chocolate sauce? It is both. It's a caramel chocolate sauce. It is separate both. What? It is a caramel sauce and a chocolate sauce.

Interesting. This cake looks... It looks for homemade. Why? Oh, yeah. Not even a question. No, so much better. Oh, it's so much better.

It looks better. It tastes better. It tastes better. There's, man, there's something that happens to restaurants where, like, I'm sure, sure every single person at Applebee's when they were first starting out had the intention of like we're making good food for people right at some point it's like it's what happened to Chipotle you know we're all one norovirus and Listeria an E. coli outbreak and suddenly it's over our whole our whole ethos was we cook everything

fresh in store suddenly you got to start pre-cooking your steaks at a commissary facility in Long Island really disappointing and you got to start just sending them out pre-cooked because you're like we can't take that risk at some point you kind of like Look back at all the foods he made and went, God, this is all just factory food. But I think if you're like, Chili's, you can try and reverse that. I'm sure all of this, I'm sure between Chili's and Applebee's, they're probably getting equal amounts of food that are just shipped in frozen and bags or from other third-party bakeries, whatever.

But Chili's made you feel like the magic is still there. Absolutely. And it's that trickery and chicanery that I'm really looking for in a chain restaurant. I mean, I would go back for the ribs at a triple dip. and this cake. I would go back for those things I really would

which is crazy because remember how everyone was like oh, did they say Gen Z was killing chain restaurants? No, millennials we killed all the chains

They said we killed the chains but now as a millennia I think it's our job to bring them back I think it's only fair I won't go to Applebee's because they lost abysmally Chili's you deserve

all the hype you really do you know what I was thinking about the other day Um, that one time in 2015 when there were random clowns running around, uh, scaring people. Oh, I was. Yeah, I know you were. I was, but I'm not, I'm not afraid of clowns.

I'm not afraid of clowns either. I'm afraid of the people dressing up as clowns terrorizing people at night. Same. If anything, I'm, I'm disproportionately attracted to clowns. Yeah? You think clowns are hot? Some. Like, hot clowns are hot.

Krusty? Not Krusty, no. I like him because he's a good business man. But, um, maybe Andy's just. Jewish. I was going to say it. I was going to say, like, our parents' generation lamented the fact that mom and pop stores on Main Street, on Main Street's were losing out to the big chains. I thought about this when the Joanne's fabrics near me closed.

And I was like, oh, not Joanne's. That was my childhood. And then realized how weird it was that I was lamenting, like, a large chain that was responsible for closing out along a lot of local fabric stores, right? That our parents hate it. And then now our generation is like, not Joanne's, my sacred sin. safe space losing out to online giants like Amazon or whomever, you know? And so it's kind of weird to like feel this affinity for these gigantic chain restaurants who are doing literally $4.5 billion in sales as like underdogs. But I would rather root for them than a, what, a

ghost kitchen. No. Yeah. I think I think as we are getting further and further away from God. I was going to say hospitality. Yeah. And I guess it's, is it D to C? Is that direct to consumer like it's becoming more like that or is it becoming what I'm trying to say is the humanness of sitting down at eating at a restaurant is an important thing that I don't want to lose and eating foods from places like chilies applebee's cheesecake factory CPK I don't want to I don't want it to miss I don't want it to leave I can't have it leave you know it breaks my heart to think about the fact that someone saying hey can I take your order today oh you're back again like I really I feel like I'm really going to miss that in like 15 years

whenever I'm getting my food to go from Mr. Beast's Emporium Sigurium. You know what I mean? It's really upsetting. But this food made me realize that we can find those moments of like true human interaction and we can enjoy it. Mr. Beast Gorium's Wonderburger Porium. That's what it's called. That's what it's called. Yeah. I found God in this Chili's tonight, Nicole. Okay, Pam.

All right, Nicole. Herbert, you and I have to say. Now, it's time to find out whether the wacky guys are like other than the nearest. Time for the segment we call. Opinions are like casserole. That's right, Nicole. That's right. I spit.

I spit everywhere. I don't feel so good. I feel bad. What the people missed was outside. So we cleaned up the table. We had a lot of chilies and apples here. And then what I went ahead and did is outside, we have a cart with all the stuff. There's a little tub of spinach artichoke dip that we didn't use.

I decided to not put it in there. No, no, it was a good move in. So we'll eat it. We give it up. But what I did is I took a corner of the burger, the unseasoned one. I said, well, maybe we can season it with spinach artichoke dip. And so what I went ahead and did is I dipped that whole burger into the tub of spinachardichoke dip. Then I bit into it and then I went

And I suck the spinach artichoke dip through the Listen, I'm down with the spinach artichoke dip burger Just season your damn meat Okay, ready for the first opinion? Let's do it Hey, Josh and Nicole, my name's Rocco, Colin from Madison, Wisconsin I have a question for Nicole

What's a dish that you are looking forward to teaching your child how to cook. For me, I cannot wait to show my two-year-old eventually how to make homemade bread and homemade pasta. So cute. But yeah, what's something that you're looking forward to teaching your child how to make at whatever age you might be? Love you guys and love the show.

Hope you guys have a great day. Bye-bye. Wow, great question. I've never thought about this at all. I'm going to go ahead and say lemonade stand. Is that bad? What? Lemonade stand?

You ever did a lemonade stand as a kid? You're excited to teach your child how to make the dish lemonade stand? No, no. I literally, I thought lemonade stand was like a regional dessert that I wasn't familiar with. You were so mean right now. I'm not being mean. No, I want to teach, because I grew up in an apartment and my mom wasn't always like, hey, go, like, she wasn't like, hey, hang out of the corner. Like, you know what I mean?

So I would like my kid to have a lemonade stand outside of their house and to understand, like, dealing with people and talking with people and making a good cup of lemonade. Is that stupid? No, that's really sweet. That's literally my instinct. Second answer is spicy tuna crispy rice. Your three-year-old child? You're saying you put sticky rice into a deep air. Exactly.

I love that. Chop it up. Faster. Faster. No, I thought they were going to ask, what am I looking forward to eating once I'm done being. pregnant. Spicy tuna crispy rice.

Let me tell you what I'm going to do. Let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a margarita in one hand. I'm going to have a deli sandwich in the other

hand. And with my left foot, I'm going to hold a cigarette. And then with my right foot, I'm going to hold another cigarette. Just a bowl of spicy tuna,

spicy salmon, and spicy yellow tail on a bed of rice with some avocado and some cucumbers. Literally. Literally, those are my four vices.

and I'm just going to be passing through each one every 15 minutes. I need the camera to come here because I want to tell you a little bit about my lemonade stand-based trauma. So we had a really incredible racket going on. My dad worked at a 99-cent store in Oceanside, California. And what he did is, well, he would shoplift a bunch of stuff from there. And so he would shoplift the country-time lemonade. He would give it to me and my brother, pink lemonade. And then we would mix that with the appropriate amount of water.

And then we would put that in a giant gallon pitcher. And then we would sell cups of lemonade for a dollar outside of the 99-cent store, that he stole that from in the first place. Wow. So he was stealing that 99 cent thing of Countrytime Lemonade. Me and my brother were turning that probably into about 32 bucks, and that's pure profit right there, baby. But then the owner found out, and he got really mad at us because, yeah, we were, like,

stealing from him technically. So I'm probably never going to teach my kids that I'd do a lemonade stand. Hey, but what if you buy the Countrytime Lemonade Powder? Yeah, but also I would want them to make it fresh. I would want to be like, hey, here's how you do. Maybe fresh. Okay, yeah, maybe it's fresh. I don't know. I don't know where I'm going to be at in. When do you sell lemonade as a child?

Four, seven? I'm saying the probably like eight to eleven range. Eight to eleven. Yeah. Younger, no, no younger. Maybe that's when you started. Younger, yeah, we were probably like, seven. I was probably seven. My brother was probably 11. I'll probably stand and watch them. I'm not going to just let him hang out next to the 99 cents store. Yeah, we were there. No supervision. My dad was working inside, you see. And so we were outside. I don't think that's how I'm going to do it.

it. You shouldn't. I don't want to. Every time I see a lemonade stand now, I get a little bummed. Aw. Well, how about this? I'm going to make a really cute stand. I'm going to teach my daughter.

I'm having a girl. I'm going to teach her how to, like, build it out and stuff, and she's going to handwrite the sign and all that stuff. And then you can come get some lemonade from her, and it'll heal all of your wounds, if not one of them. Aw. It'll work. One by one.

It'll work. Just have an open mind. I will. therapy without paying anybody that's what this is the only person I'm paying is your daughter for her lemonade yeah and she's not going to like upcharge you she'd be like okay uncle Josh you know it'll be fine next question that's longer than I thought it'll be point two eth hi so me and my sisters I have three sisters too and growing up we used to get those uh TV dinners they were like the banquet ones where it was fish sticks mac and cheese and chocolate pudding and my

sister, she would mix all three of them together and she would insist that it was the best thing that she's like ever had. And of course, me and my other sister were very skeptical and we're like, ew, that's so gross until we tried it. And it's amazing. And I was just wondering if there's any sort of like food science behind that. If those like complement each other in some odd way, or if we're just freaks who like goop. Thank you. Well, I'm a freak that likes goop, but that's Gwyneth Paltrow's macrobiotic deli. Would you call it a deli?

I think it's more of a restaurant. What did they say? I totally blacked out. So the banquet fish stick meal, one, I grew up eating a ton of banquet TV dinners. Fish stick was not, and we were close to my top five, country fried steak. Okay. That was in the top five. They had something just called rib.

meal that was like a McRibstile patty sitting in barbecue sauce but the fish steak my problem was there were equally cheap fish sticks that were better that you could just make as a standalone dinner like Gortons. Yeah or Gortons? Yeah, or Gortons? Gortons. Is it

there's a tea in there? Trust the Gortons Fishermen. No, Vandy Camps was the quintessential fish stick brand but the banquet fish stick meal came with chocolate pudding, macaroni and cheese and fish sticks I cannot imagine maybe a objectively, and I think even scientifically, a worse combination of foods. This person would mix fish, what would they mix? Tell me.

Fish sticks, mac and cheese and chocolate pudding. Listen, man, whenever your cool sister does something and you're like, she's cool, man. You have no choice but to accept it and also think it's cool. Like when my sister used to wear body glitter, I was like, I want body glitter. It's very normal. It's very normal. So like chicken strips meal, right? Let's look at banquet chicken strips meal.

Let's look at it. Not all of these came with the dessert. For some reason, fish sticks did. But chicken strips meal. Because they felt bad because the fish sticks were probably gross. And like, here's some chocolate with so you feel better. Chicken strips meal is corn, mac and cheese chicken strips. Little fried, just patties that got super soggy, but they're super well salted.

You mash all that into a paste. I think that's almost a perfect paste. That's a really, really good paste, right? Okay. Because you get, like, the salty, protein-rich brined chicken, right? Sweetness of the corn. And then you get this, like, pleasant carbohydrate chew and the glutamates of the cheese. Like, there's a lot of science going on in there that makes it very good.

Okay. To me, it's the aromas of fish, chocolate, and cheddar cheese that, to me, none of those three things go together at all, right? I agree. I think that's gross. But maybe it's like when you mix the entire soda fountain together. No, man. You know, and it's like the fun you had doing it. No, no.

It's just older sister hype. If you had an older sister, you would get it. Yeah. There might be a scientist who's smarter than us who can tell you, like, well, actually, the phenols of the chocolate, blah, blah, blah. We're not that smart. We're not smart enough to mash fish sticks with chocolate pudding. Not smart enough. Oh, my goodness.

That was funny. It's not funny. It's sexy. I just wanted to say that I like your show. And I just wanted to get your take on what is more – Get it together! More spicyest food in the world. I think the spiciest dishes I've ever had were at Thai restaurants.

And I used to think that Mexican was kind of spicy, but not anymore. That's my take on it. Banquet, sweet and sour chicken, sorry, and so on the banquet, That was deceptively a banger. Just have this kind of, like, sweet corn syrupy sauce in it. God, so good. Spiciest cuisines in the world. This is very interesting.

Laotian is the spiciest I've ever had, and I'll stand by it. It's really interesting because I've talked. Everyone knows the idea of, hey, do you want, let's say, mild, medium hot, or Thai spicy? Yes. And if a waiter says, Thai spicy, that means, like, this is the real way. that Thai people eat this dish. Normally we wouldn't even offer it to a non-tie person, but you're there, we're going to do it.

Recently, my white friend tried to order Thai spicy at a restaurant, and he was there with my Indian friend. Shout it to Deep Nyak, love you just got married. But the Thai waiter, like, shot a look to deep as just like a non-white person to be like, hey, is your white lying? Can he actually handle his stuff? Is your white lying like a pet?

What I have heard from a couple Thai sheds, chefs, it's almost the opposite, where they are making their food almost spicier than it would exist in Thailand just because white people will taste very, very spicy Thai food and go, oh my God, it's so authentic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? And so I've actually heard it pressured that way, which I think is really interesting. Yeah.

And a lot of Mexican chefs I've talked to, you know, talked about how, like, chilies in Mexico, they're not meant to really be like spicy, spicy, spicy, spicy. They're meant for, like, fragrance. For fragrance and flavor in hell, they started as medicine. And so I've had certainly a ton of spicy Mexican food, a lot of spicy Thai food. Sure. But I think a lot of this, like, ooh, this is supposed to be very spicy in everything is a little overblown in certain ways. Sure, I agree with you.

But do you have an answer for them? Thai. Thai. I had a funny experience, though, at, speaking of Deep, at Deep's wedding, right? We were eating just tons of delicious Gujarati and Punjabi food everywhere. And there's, of course, you know, the sweet tamarin chutney and the green chutney everywhere. As a little, when we were doing choreographed dance practice, they ordered a bunch of Middle Eastern food, and it came with the Schug.

And all of the old relatives see Schug, which looks almost identical to the green chutney, and they're like, cool, and they're just kind of splashing it all over their falafel. And it was really, really spicy. And so every Indian relative that ate the schug was warning mostly the white people, hey, watch out, that chutney is hot. Yeah. So, yeah, I've had a lot of really hot West African food. My aunt from Senegal makes this just, like, incredible.

Scotch bonnet sauce. Yeah, I'd say Ty still probably takes it, though. Hi, Josh and Nicole, long-time listener, big-time fan, and I don't really have an opinion. I'm more of have a question. My name is Madeline from New York, the state, not the city. And you guys always have the most interesting book recommendations. And I would like your all-time comprehensive list of all the very, like, influential books about food that you guys have read in your larger adults.

post-team life. Thank you. Wow, wow, wow. I'm so sorry. I don't read books anymore. Yeah. I try to. Something's wrong with me. It's an attention span thing. I think I might have undiagnosed ADHD. I have to figure it out.

I'm on my phone 10 to 11 hours a day. It's really bad. And I don't read anymore, but I miss reading. I bought books to read. I bought two books that I thought I'd be very interested in, and I read only 20 pages of one of them. The other one is collecting dust next to my freaking bed.

What's it called bed stand? Bed stand table? I don't know if you read books. Maybe you know what it was called. I didn't say that in your TikToks. I hate you. But yeah, I don't read anymore, so I'm going to let Josh take this. I hate myself.

That is very flattering. I recently went back and re-read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain. And like, it's such a fantastic moment in time. He actually shouts out in Medium Raw, one of my favorite books about not food, restaurants of all time, down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell. Another book that is incredible is How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher.

And these are all different points in times. Like George Orwell is written in, I think, the 20s, MFK Fisher, I believe, was written. God, was it during World War II? I think it was, but kind of back in that era, one of my favorite modern food history books is Taco USA, How Mexican Food Conquered America by Gustavo Ariano. That's an incredible one. I think maybe the most beautiful prose about food is written by Ruth Reischel.

I love Ruth Reischel so, so much. God, garlic and sapphires is incredible, but her newest book, Save Me the Plums, I thought was really, really beautiful. And then for food and politics, food politics by Marian Nessel, really, really great. What else do I like?

What are the books? Sci-fi, the coffee book. The Monca of Moka. Did you say that? By Dave Eggers, Robert Eggers, which one of them directs horror movies. Robert Eggers. He's a horror guy.

Love Robert Eggers. This is the other Eggers. It's the Dave Eggers in. You also read a book about Cod that you liked? Oh, Cod by Mark Kirlansky. Come on, that's great. I'm in the middle. I'm reading Salt by Mark Karlansky right now.

Consider the Fork is a great book. I know the book. What is wrong with me? I don't read a book, but I know the books that you read. Blood Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton is fantastic. Think Like a Chef by Tom Colicchio is fantastic. Surely there are other ones. I think you said enough.

I'm trying to think of, because I feel like I have, I'm like trying to picture my bookshelf. Oh, fresh off the boat by Eddie Huang is a fantastic member. It turned into a show. Crying in H-Mart? I don't know. Crying in H-mart? Michelle's honor.

People say that one's good. You didn't read it, you just know it. Yeah, because I have problems that I need to address soon. Yeah, that's fair. I'll leave it at those books for now, but if I remember any, you'll just yell it on another podcast for a future day. date. And on that note, thank you so much

for that Matt. The podcast you're currently listening to. We've got new episodes, audio platforms, on Wednesdays, the new episode Sundays on the video platforms, but the way that people consume content now is just in one giant, strange molasses flood where it either reaches you and you're subsumed by it or it doesn't.

If you want to be featured in a pinies or cast rolls, don't ask me about books because I won't have any recommendations. give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833 dog pod one oh my god the uh the third plate by dan barber we had dan barber we had dan barb on here omnivore's dilemma michael paulin fantastic book see you next time food food ink