A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Do Expiration Dates Really Matter?

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

Expires on, best by, use by, best before-- are these food labels really helping, or are they just there to scare us? 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. Expires on, best by, used by, best before. Are these food labels really helping? Are they just there to scare us? Today we ask the question, do expiration dates really matter? 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. 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 Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi.

And Nicole, this podcast is all stemming from an office dispute that we had. This is now like, this is our functional HR. Actually, we have a lovely head of HR, Esther Rolls. Hi, Esther. What's up, Esther? You're listening to this, I'm sure. But we're going to be hashing out this dispute right now because you threw

away my yogurt. I didn't throw away your yogurt. V threw away the yogurt. Under your orders. You ordered V to throw away the yogurt. Don't you dare pass the buck to V on this one. I said throw the crap away that's no longer good. Okay.

But everybody knows. Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second. We all know that some things have expiration dates, but they don't really like, you know, comply. Like we don't really like adhere to those expiration dates. Like yogurt never goes bad. I agree with that.

Ketchup barely ever goes bad. Ketchup does go bad because I have had expired ketchup. So your official stance on do expiration dates matter? Sometimes. Most of the time. A lot of the time. No. Literally never. Literally never. They are an absolute scam from the get-go. You just said ketchup goes bad. It goes bad

not according to the expiration date. The dates don't matter. Food certainly does expire. I think the health risks. The dates don't matter. Food certainly does expire. I think the health risks are overblown by people. I think for whatever reason, people started thinking that if you eat food that is expired, you'll get sick. That was the messaging that I always grew up with. Was that like, oh, the milk's past the expiration date. You're going to get sick if you drink it, which rarely ever happens.

The most serious forms of foodborne illness have absolutely nothing to do with the age of the food. And they especially have nothing to do with the expiration dates. Yeah, most of it happens in processing and in the preparation, things like that. But the actual expiration date doesn't matter. The only reason I know that ketchup goes bad, you've heard this story. You've heard it. Nicole's heard this story. What story?

I'll tell it anyways. So my lovely girlfriend, Julia, is a bit of a food hoarder. She does not throw anything away. When I first went over to her apartment, maybe like the fourth or fifth time that we ever saw each other, I don't even remember what I—it might have been breakfast. That sounds salacious. But anyways, I like to put ketchup on my eggs. What is this?

Okay, keep going. Anyways, I like to put ketchup on my eggs, and I go into her fridge, and I see a bottle of ketchup. And the ketchup is like a little bit brown. It was Sir Kensington's. Okay. So you just Anyways, I like to put ketchup on my eggs, and I go into a fridge, and I see a bottle of ketchup. And the ketchup is, like, a little bit brown. It was Sir Kensington's. Okay. So you just thought it was, like, organic. Yeah, I thought it was, like, a new fancy balsamic ketchup, right? Yeah.

And I put some on my plate, and I ate some with my eggs. And immediately, it was, like, a really tannic wine. The way that almost kind of takes your breath away and, like, sucks the moisture out of your cheek. Like, it tastes like I was being poisoned. And I was like, what the hell is this? And then I looked down at the expiration date and it was like four years expired. Okay, that's a little gnarly. And so that, in that sense, that expiration date, it didn't necessarily matter.

But it was nice to know this ketchup was bottled roughly five or six years ago. That's just gnarly. I don't know how to help you. That is to say the expiration date doesn't matter. Trust your palate. If something tastes really, really terrible, it's really not great for you, but it also isn't going to get you sick, which is a thing that a lot of people think. I have a story for you about expiration dates.

So one time when I was working on a photo shoot, as I used to do, we were hungry. We were, you know, we were just a little bit, what is it, peckish. Good use of peckish. Thank you so much. So, uh, we had these snacks that we were photographing, okay. And, uh, I, I told the photographer, I'm like, yeah, pop one of those open. Let's see what it tastes like. And then she's like, it expired like two weeks ago.

And I'm like, don't worry about it. I work as an R and D chef, which I used to do. And I'm like, it's not a big deal. Expiration dates are kind of just there. Just open it, eat it. No problem. And then we ate one. And then we were like, that's really good. Let's open another one. And then we saw it had mold on it. But what happened? Nothing. Exactly.

I felt gross and I was ashamed of myself. And I told her that, hey, don't listen to me anymore. I'm kind of stupid. Okay. So I was actually reading this report from a gastroenterologist who a journalist was asking what actually happens if you can consume food with mold on it. And he's like, you might get sick, but it's not going to be getting sick from the actual mold. You're literally going to be getting psychosomatically sick from your reaction to it, right? Interesting. So I have a mold allergy. Like if I have penicillin, I can like die.

Oh, oh, God. Okay, well, that's serious. I was actually going to talk about that. So mine's a little bit different because I have an actual penicillin, I can like die. Oh, oh God. Okay, well that's serious because I was actually going to talk about that. So mine's a little bit different because I have an actual penicillin allergy. That makes sense.

Well, have you ever eaten moldy food and gotten... Well, I love blue cheese. I think that's a different... I don't know if it makes me itchier if it's psychological. Well, no, I mean, there's different strains of mold, right?

What are they called? Mycotoxins that develop from mold. And so, you know, like the strain that's used in blue cheese has a long history in cheese making, etc. But these kind of free-floating molds that can develop on foods, because there have been a couple cases of deaths from moldy food.

Pancake mix, there were a couple cases of death, but that was from people with severe mold allergies that cause respiratory anaphylaxia or whatever. I'm just kind of using science-y words that indicate bad things for people. So that has actually happened, but it has nothing to do with

the actual expiration date. Interesting. Because expiration dates mean nothing and there's no standardized system to put them on your food whatsoever. And this all kind of started, one, there's a weird report that Al Capone's brother Ralph is the reason that we have expiration dates on milk ralph capone i like that better than al capone sounds better i feel like he didn't get nearly as much publicity which meant he probably had like a better more stable life okay you know what i mean but anyways there's like a weird story

in the 30s about how ralph capone's child or friend's child got sick from expired or from tainted or bad milk. But none of that's actually verified. It was from like one granddaughter's memoir that was like, you know, Ralph's the reason we got dates on milk. And everyone's like, who paid you to write this book? But the modern movement of putting these labels on food came in like the 1970s. Okay. And grocery stores would literally just have their own labels. They would put on food. They'd be like, ah, probably eat this cheese by this date.

I don't really know. There were a bunch of bills that Congress tried to pass through to really consolidate everything and being like, hey, we should like actually test this and consolidate it and do a federal system for how long foods last. And everyone was just like, nah. And so it just never happened. And that's the craziest thing. And the biggest evidence that

expiration dates mean nothing because no one can decide what they are or the language used on them and it causes like really bad things to happen right okay like you throwing away my freaking yogurt i didn't throw it away v threw it away i keep five zero percent greek yogurt in the fridge because it is a great high protein snack and i'm and I'm a big boy. I never throw away the yogurt. I know that you don't throw away the yogurt, so I don't throw away the yogurt. Yogurt never goes bad, right? I think yogurt never goes bad. I've had yogurt that's been sitting in my fridge for like months.

I've scraped the mold off yogurt. Well, I've never done that. I've never done that. That's a little bit too far. And I feel absolutely nothing about that. Do you scrape mold off of any food? No. No?

You see mold, you're done? Because I have a mold allergy. Oh, that makes sense. I'm scared of it. I forgot about that. I forgot about that. Do you scrape mold off of any food? No. No? You see mold, you're done? Because I have a mold allergy. Oh, that makes sense. I'm scared of it. I forgot about that. Toxic mold is a thing. You have asthma. Yeah, exactly. My, my, my Do you have the note that got you out of PE? No, my parents never did that for me, unfortunately, but

toxic black mold and asthma is not a good combination, let me just tell you that. Yeah, I've never, like, taken the mold off of food before, because if I see mold on it, I just throw mold and asthma is not a good combination. Let me just tell you that. Yeah. I've never like taken the mold off of food before because if I see mold on, I just throw the whole lot away. If you never scraped mold off of your food growing up, you're bougie. That's my official with that statement. Nicole, you must declare. I, my name is Nicole.

Hi, my name is Nicole and I, and I am bougie. Thank you. My name is Josh Sharon. I ate a lot of old cheese. I guess I just bougie. Thank you. My name is Josh Sharon. I ate a lot of old cheese. I guess I just never leave, to be honest, I just never try to leave food in the fridge.

Once I see like, once I see a like, like mold or like a spore or like it kind of like wilting, I just know like, hey, this isn't good anymore.

I don't want to consume this. I don't want my loved ones to consume it, so I'm just going to throw it in the garbage. But expiration dates, if the milk is like three days past the expiration date, I'm not throwing

it away. I give it the old sniff test, you know? Yeah, the sniff test is the most important test. Yeah, but you can't only do the sniff test. You've got to pour the milk in the glass and see if there's chunkety chunks in there. Disagree. Disagree. No, no, no. Seriously, if the chunkety chunks don't smell, I'm a

stranded now. You drink curdled milk? I'll drink curdled milk. I hate you, sir. You ever had buttermilk? Buttermilk's literally curdled milk. Of course I've had buttermilk. It's not straight from the jug. Like a monster. It's just homemade buttermilk, baby. No way. It's halfway to cottage cheese. It's basically a ricotta in a jug. You realize how expensive ricotta is?

You're throwing away that fresh milk ricotta. Ew, dude. No, no, no. I can't do that. I'm sorry. There's like limits to my grossness. You ever like smell milk and go back for a second smell and know that it smells bad and just decide to drink it anyways?

No. No? Never, never, never. If it's bad, it's bad. Nah, I disagree. What are you talking about? Okay, so my, and maybe you can fact check me on this.

Okay, go for it. I don't believe that I've ever had a foodborne illness. Well, again, knock on wood. I've never had food poisoning. Knock on wood, knock on this. Okay, go for it. I don't believe that I've ever had a foodborne illness. Well, again, knock on wood. I've never had food poisoning. Knock on wood, knock on wood. I believe that I likely take more risks than other people on my food. And this isn't, you know, to say that that is necessarily evidence of anything.

But I think people, we've been taught to play it very, very, quote unquote, safe. Okay. With our food like that. As in, you know, if it's past the expiration date, throw it away. Your pork has to be cooked to like 165 degrees, things like that. And, you know, even the things that don't actually help people stay safe at all, including I remember growing up and watching my mom wash chicken in the sink, saying you got to wash the bacteria off of it.

A lot of people wash their chicken. I think that's another debate. Should you wash your chicken? Yeah. That's a whole thing that I've learned gets toxic so fast on the internet. People like to wash their chicken with like vinegar. And a lot of those are like cultural things, right? My mom like cooks her salmon, not cook.

She cleans her salmon in salt water. Interesting. So like there's like a bunch of different, like people do what they want to do. But yeah, it doesn't like the health, what is it called? FDA say like not wash your chicken. Yeah, every health organization out there is just like, don't wash your chicken.

You are spreading water droplets with salmonella around. And if you actually look at how people get sick from food, it has nothing to do with consuming mold. It has nothing to do with following expiration dates. It has everything to do with consuming mold. It has nothing to do with following expiration dates. It has everything to do with just like contaminated water droplets sitting near your food.

That doesn't get heated because heat kills a lot of bacteria. Not all of it. There's certainly cases. But if you look at the biggest food, the biggest and deadliest food outbreaks in history. Hold up. I was making a little list kind of just from my memory because I am fascinated by this. In history, hold up, I was making a little list kind of just from my memory because I am fascinated by this. 2011, a listeria outbreak from raw cantaloupe killed 33 people.

It was from a farm in Colorado. In the United States of America? In 2011, under Obama's watch, 33 people. And I only say that because a lot of people, not to get political on this, but a lot of people when, you know, Trump sort of was gutting the FDA and people were saying that food safety standards are going to drop, et cetera, et cetera. And it's like our food safety standards are really high. They're kind of really high, but they still, you know, a lot of it's decentralized in a way in the way that even now different states have different labeling laws required for expiration dates, etc., etc. And a lot of things have been slipping through the gaps for a long, long time, including 2011 was like the deadliest food outbreak. And I think 100 years, the last one was like typhoid in the oysters in New York in 1915,

which killed 150 people, which is wild. Typhoid in the oysters, eh? There's typhoid in the oysters. But yeah, this cantaloupe outbreak killed 33 people, and it all had to do with just corroded, moist factory equipment that had listeria introduced into it from a dump truck, essentially. And no one knows where the original listeria came from,

because listeria, if you look at all these food outbreaks, most of it just comes down to poop. There's poop in the food. The poop got in the food. i'm dead serious if you are concerned i don't like this nicole if you're concerned about food safety you have to worry about where the poop on your food is do you mean like the manure or like people poop people sometimes it's people poop sometimes there was an e-coli outbreak in bagged spinach back in 2006 and the origin was people poop because we don't pay farm workers a living wage they get paid by how much they pick and so if

they don't have time to go to the bathroom they poop in the field and then so you know literally like i mean raise wages for farm workers and we won't have as many people die from e-coli in this finish. A lot of it does come from animal poop as well. And things are supposed to be washed and treated, especially treated with radiation, I believe. Yeah. And sometimes it just don't happen. So there is just mysterious listeria poop bacteria that ended up in a factory, maybe through a dump truck.

They couldn't find it in the original soil on the farm that the cantaloupes come from. But that's what it is. It's just like crappy factory equipment that isn't cleaned properly. Stagnant water that was sitting on the conveyor belt of the cantaloupe truck, whatever. And then 33 people are dead. Meanwhile, not a single person dies from like, oh, there was some mold on my Prego. Can we pivot really quick? To what?

I love this conversation. I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about the time the hot dogs killed 22 people in 98. Okay, fine. Talk about the hot dogs. Hot dogs killed 22 people in 98. That's it. It was listeria again.

Listeria is like the biggest killer. Everyone's so worried about raw chicken and salmonella. And it's just like poop-based listeria on raw vegetables. What do you mean poop? As a body count. What do you mean poop on the hot dogs? It was poop at some point. And again, a lot of it's coming from factories.

And then the thing with hot dogs that's unique, or at least packaged vegetables have, or unpackaged vegetables can have an opportunity to breathe. You get poop in a hot dog. There's so many preservatives in it that that's sitting there. You could have, right, there's hot dogs in our fridge

that have been there for like four months. And I'm like, well, it's a hot dog. I throw them away. And then you say, where are the hot dogs in our fridge that have been there for like four months and i'm like well it's a hot dog i throw them away and then you say where the hot dogs and i say i threw them away and then you're like why did you throw the hot dogs away give me the poop hot dogs where's my hebrew netties i need my hebrew natty lights that's what i call the low-fat hebrew nationals we should make a beer out of hebrew nationals and call it hebrew natty light i'm fully sold uh but anyways the hot dogs are sealed and then most people don't eat them for a long time because they're so well preserved. So there's just like five months of poop bacteria spread.

I have like a creeping itch from like the base of my spine to like my hair right now. I'm hoping our listeners do too because I want people to wake up from this idea of like, right, people call into question my food safety practices in the kitchen. Sure, yeah.

And they're like, Josh is wearing gloves. That's crazy. They're also my mom. Wait, did she say that? No, she doesn't watch our, my mom doesn't even have,

my mom has no social media. I don't know. I thought maybe you were showing her a video or something. No, no, no, no, no. But no, like for instance, I was cutting

raw chicken on a cutting board, put that into a soup, and then was cutting vegetables on the same cutting board and put that into the soup. People are like, you can't cut vegetables on the same thing as raw chicken. I don't recommend that either. It's going into a soup. Josh, I understand. It's cooking for five hours. I get that, but I just don't recommend it either. It's the poop

hot dogs. Also, we... Not me, Nicole. It's the poop hot dogs that are killing people. Also, you know, we use wood and we cut chicken on the wood cutting boards and that's a big no-no. Yeah, it's porous. It contains, again, I'm not a hero. Nicole, you shouldn't do that. I agree. Can we talk about expiration dates again with your poop hot dog, man?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. I like the poop hot dogs. It's just a funny phrase. You have to stop. Okay, let's talk about expiration dates. Can I have tangent you already have one okay i'm so sorry one of the last negative reviews we got for this podcast on apple was just like great podcast about food but i think they talk about like poop and vomiting and their negative experiences the spicy food too much so please negative experience the

spicy food we must have been talking about i may have been talking at the time i ate spicy food too much. Negative experience of spicy food? We must have been talking about, I may have been talking at the time I ate spicy food and threw up because of it. Oh. And so they were just like, we don't need the gross talk. I'm like, welcome to food.

It's disgusting. Food in general is disgusting. What about, have you ever been to like the store and you see, okay, have you, okay, so you pick up a bag of lettuce, okay? Speaking of lettuce. Yeah, yeah.

You take a bag of lettuce home and then it like turns pink the second you see it. But the expiration date says it's good for another two weeks. Then what do you do? What do you do? Oh, I eat so many bruised, battered, disgusting vegetables. No, you, oh my God, do you return fresh food to, disgusting vegetables. No. Oh, my God. Do you return fresh food to the store?

You would. You would do that. So not since COVID because they don't take it, but I have so many gift cards. I have so many gift cards from so many stores. Is it like worth the gas money and time? Yes. You always listen. For $2.79 an iceberg?

Let me tell you. It's not just one iceberg. It might be something else. Maybe meat. You might have bought like $40 worth of brisket and then you open it and you're like, that is stanky. Yeah, that does happen. That does happen. No, it doesn't matter if it's $2.75 for the romaine or if it's $40 for a brisket. It's the principle of the matter.

They're putting food out there that's not safe for people to eat. So, yeah, I'm going to say, hey, I can't consume this. But lettuce that has rust on it is safe to consume. I mean, pinking is fine. The proper term is pinking. Oh, the proper term is pinking, not rust. Are you sure that's the proper term or just something that one person told you once? So I used to work at a salad place, a research and development lab for salad.

So, yeah, we called lab for salads. So yeah, we called it pinking. So either take it or leave it. I'm Nicole. I'm a scientist. I work in a research development salad lab. I did for like five minutes and they called it pinking.

But yeah, I mean, it's not that it's not safety, but like when I open the bag and I see that there's like, you know, there's wilt and there's like little holes

in the lettuce. You better believe I'm returning it. You think I have time for this? there's certain things that do freak me out I'm not just a monster who is out here consuming things like hungry hungry hippo style me either and like I'm not a monster that returns everything that has like

a little like boo boo on it I'm not a monster if I see holes that bugs have eaten through vegetables I get freaked out naturally as you should one of my biggest fears that I bite into an apple and there's a worm. Well, like in the movies. Like in the movies.

But has that ever happened? Please, someone tell us on Twitter. If that has ever happened, I will Venmo you $2, but I need photo evidence. Have you ever found something truly terrifying in your food like that? Like a bug?

Probably. Yeah, some sort of bug. Like one of those big banana spiders you've seen this oh i was i was eating cereal i was eating cereal and there was spider in my cereal really yeah oh my i thought you're gonna say there were uh shrimp tails in your cinnamon toast crunch no um i don't think i have in packaged food i mean mean, like, restaurants, obviously. Like, once I pulled, like, a three-foot hair out of my mouth, and it kind of went down my throat from KFC mashed potatoes. That was a little gross. It kind of ruined KFC mashed potatoes for a little bit. Like, did you complain?

No. No, I don't complain. Why would you complain? We just had this conversation earlier where I was talking about how I will never complain at any restaurant. earlier where I was talking about how I will never complain at any restaurant. The one time I did, if it is a fancy restaurant where I've spent a lot of money, I won't even complain. I'll just like raise it to their attention. Last time it happened was like really sandy clams that I paid like $26 for this beautiful clam dish. And it was just covered in sand. And I was just like, yo, y'all got to let someone know that they're not cleaning the clams properly.

Okay. That's good. And so that was about it, though. That's it. That's the most I've done in a decade. Nice. Otherwise, I will just eat the bad experience, and then I will even feel obligated to go back to that place

where I had the bad experience to give them a shot to redeem themselves. That's nice of you. Yeah, thank you. Do you do that with people? Do you give people second chances? Yeah, yeah, yeah, constantly, constantly. People and sandy clams?

People and sandy clams. But you get two. It's like once the second time happens, then it's a trend and we understand. For sure. But definitely two. Do you smell your meat? All the time. You do, right?

Yes. I always make the people around me smell it too just to make sure. Yeah. Always. I get that. That to me is one of the bigger things. People will try and look at, you know beef will sometimes get that rainbow shine on it. Do you know what I'm talking about?

I think that's, yeah, I do. And I feel like that's related to like silver skin maybe, but I don't know. I know what you mean. There'll be some like weird kind of browning on it and you'll see like a little like rainbow prism sometimes. Yeah, I don't know what that is. But people kind of worry about the color of their meat and that kind of just has to do with exposure to oxygen, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, right? Like brown steaks don't look as attractive, but people know that. And so they will add, they will carbon monoxide gas, like things like steaks or ahi tuna to look more red, to look more appealing.

So it has nothing to do with the actual like date that that product was manufactured, whatever. You know what I hate? Smelly meat. You know what I hate? I hate whenever I open a package of meat and there's like a little sticker on it and the little sticker underneath it is brown meat. What do you mean? You know what I hate? I hate whenever I open a package of meat and there's like a little sticker on it and the little sticker underneath it is brown meat. What do you mean? You know what I mean?

Like whatever. You ever buy meat? I buy so much meat. I buy too much meat for the planet. Okay, ground beef. You buy ground beef, okay? And there's a sticker on it that says 90%. And then.

Oh, it's hiding. It's hiding. It's hiding. You can't tell the quality of your beef because of the ad. Isn't that the worst? It's especially insulting when the picture on that sticker is a fresh red ground beef. And then you take that sticker off and there's just this brown weepy crap underneath. Why?

That's not nice. But does it make it taste worse? Does it make your eating experience less enjoyable? I think we actually did a GMM test on that. Like red meat versus brown-er meat versus like, you know, grayish meat. Yeah. And I think the test was inconclusive. Yeah. A lot of things are inconclusive sometimes.

Every time I open a package of meat, regardless of if I just bought it from the grocery store, if it's been in my fridge for three or four days, every single time beef, pork, chicken, fish, whatever, I cut it open and I put my nose within a centimeter of it and I smell it. You have to.

You have to. Because that's the only way to tell if it's gone bad. I've had meat that smelled absolutely putrid that I bought at the grocery store that day. And it's so funny because every time I do that, Julia, she typically sits on the couch and is like doing productive things as I cook. And every time I smell it, she looks over and goes like, what's wrong? What's wrong with the meat? What's wrong?

And I'm like, nothing is wrong. This is how I tell you nothing is wrong is by smelling it like that. And then she was like, no one does that. I'm like, everyone does that or should do that. No one. Go ahead. And I didn't have validation until we're watching an episode of Succession. And they're catering.

This is going somewhere. They're catering this giant meal. They have this fancy catering company. And in the B-roll shot, there is a chef opening up a pack of steaks, picking it up to the nose. He's going. And I was like, yes, finally vindication smell your meat folks my mom does at the butcher she says bring it here and they can't get in front of her and she smells it yeah that's baller yeah i think i'm gonna start doing that now i think she's patched past the torch to me like you should i'm married now i should probably do that my household you know that's the biggest way that

your married life is influencing yeah i think i think I'm going to start doing that now. I think, yeah, I've decided. Yeah. I've decided. Another great point about why expiration dates don't matter, or not even expiration dates, but why— They kind of matter, though. A little bit. Where is it coming from?

It's literally just a way to sell more food. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just blindly trusting. It's like believing in God, okay? Yeah. You just kind of have to have faith. Like that date is Bible.

But I mean, don't just sometimes question your faith. Like how is it? Every day I wake up. If God is truly benevolent, Nicole, then how? No, I'm kidding. God, everyone had that debate when they were 15, right? And they were reading that Richard Dawkins book in English class. Just trying to piss off the teacher.

Who's Richard Dawkins? Oh, some able. But anyways, you don't know how long the like produce, how long the meat, how long anything in your grocery store was spent in transit, right? That's true. So when people like these apples have been in my fridge for a week, I don't know if they're so good to eat. It's like, do you know how long they were sitting on the truck?

Do you know how long they were sitting on the grocery store? You have no idea. You only know from your experience. And people not having a good read on that, which is to say, trust your ears, trust your eyes, trust your nose. The reason that America wastes between 30 to 40 percent of food, a lot of it is because of that, right? Yeah. Just people throwing it away for the sake of throwing it away because they're like, well, I don't want to chance it. And then that, you know, causes climate change because we're talking about greenhouse gas emissions on calories that could have gone in your body.

We're talking about ending world hunger by developing better, you know, supply chain systems that could take all that potentially wasted food, give that to somebody who needs it. And we don't have any of that. So, like, food waste is a real problem. And I know we run a cooking show. We compost. We donate what we can. You know, we do that. In my own personal home, I, like, refuse to throw food away.

Like, I am the ultimate we have food at home. I have, like, canceled a date night dinner. I feel like anyone who listens to this podcast thinks I'm a terrible romantic partner, and that's fine. I've, like, canceled a date night dinner because I'm like, we have a cauliflower. We have a cauliflower at home, and it needs to be cooked. No, I've done that before too. And I just think that's being a responsible person. I don't think that's being a bad partner.

I think you're irresponsible. You're wasting money. You're throwing money down the toilet when you do that. I agree. You're throwing money down the toilet and then that has a massive ripple effect. Like it's estimated that, what, $165 billion a year goes into wasted food just from American households. billion a year goes into wasted food uh just from american households there's a study in britain that said that 20 of all food waste was literally avoidable based on solely the uh expiration dates well there you go uh and so now there's a big urging from the fda to companies to start

using the term best buy which is why i feel like i've seen that a whole lot more yeah me too yeah best before exactly yeah or you know, even used by, now they're going for best by just to try and reduce the amount of food that's thrown away because it means nothing.

I appreciate that. So I respect that. Yeah, me too. That said, you should not care about the best by date. Care a little bit. Care a little bit.

Just use it as a guide. Don't use it as the law. Just use it as a gentle reminder like, hey, if this is in your fridge and you know it's a few days over, give it a whiff. use it as the law just use it as a gentle reminder like hey if this is in your fridge and you know it's a few days over give it a whiff give it a look see give it a whiff use your best judgment don't throw it away just double triple quadruple check have your friends

smell it have your neighbors smell it have your dog smell it maybe your kitty it's like how you can't smell yourself right if you ever like i can smell myself well i just think you need to put deodorant on this is kind of awkward we're in a closed room this is what 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's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casseroles. First up, we got at DJ underscore Ventropy. Sweet red bean paste is just Asian peanut butter. Yeah.

Yeah, like basically, right? That's good. That's a good one. If you look at it, if you look at it, one, peanut's very popular across East Asian, South Asian, heck, Southeast Asian cuisine. Like, it's really popular. Peanut butter is, like, very uniquely an American thing that a lot of people hate. Yes. Right?

I agree with this statement. Europeans all universally hate peanut butter and root beer. Why? It's something I have, because it's weird and gross if you kind of, like. But they, like, marzipan. Yeah, it's very different gross if you kind of like. But they like marzipan. Yeah, it's very different. Like almond, like the Nutella, stuff like that. It's so different.

If you ate peanut butter in a vacuum, it's wild. How can you fit your body into that? God dang it, Nicole. What do you mean? You ate peanut butter in a Uber? That's weird. See, outside of context, in a similar way that a lot of, let's say, white Americans try like adzuki red bean paste. And they're like, beans for dessert?

That's weird. Yeah, it's a little bit off. It's a little bit confusing for the American palate. But once you try it, it is delightful. I am a huge fan. Also, both peanuts and beans are legumes technically. So this makes sense for it to be a legume puree. But yeah, I literally just ate a sweet red bean bun for lunch dessert.

Yeah, I gave it to you. And what a freaking treat. Do you know what my favorite lunch dessert is? I wasn't telling you. You know my favorite. I was telling them. I know, but I gave it to you. You should say Nicole.

Nicole gave me. Well, it was in the kitchen. I had like the department heads. Nicole asked me if she could give me one, and I said, yes. That's how you phrase the statement. It was good. Point is, I love bean-based desserts. Okay.

Michelle the Fast says, burgers are overrated. My partner could eat them every day, but I just don't get it. I am the same as your partner. I love burgers. Cheeseburgers are actually my favorite food of all time, and I love burgers. But yeah, I do agree they get a little bit annoying if you eat them too many times. I don't know if I could call them overrated because I also love them. I love them.

I love them. I high-key love them. I love all kinds, too. I love cheeseburgers so much, dude. Cheeseburgers is like my favorite. Cheeseburgers is my life. No, but I mean like every kind of cheeseburger. I love the big old thick boys

with the fancy stuff on them I like the little thin boys with the crunchy iceberg on them this is like a little Kim's dog I love I like the thick ones but it's weird cheeseburgers are weird

it's weird that a food less than a hundred years old we have had thousands upon thousands of years of food history think about like hummus right okay

hummus I don't know why I'm putting so much emphasis. Hummus. Hummus has been. You're trying to impress, buddy. You know, I end up on Arab TikTok a lot. I love Arab TikTok.

It's the best form of TikTok. I love Arab TikTok. And so I got hummus on the brain. But anyways, that's been around for like thousands upon thousands of years, right? So much history behind that dish. Cheeseburgers have literally been around for like a hundred. So what? That doesn't mean they're not hundred if that doesn't mean they're not good it doesn't mean they're not good i'm just saying it's like really fascinating that a food that is less than 100 years old in a wealth of thousands of years

of food history has taken over the globe have you ever wanted to try the place that made the burger with the cool little contraption yes i won't go there louie's lunch can we go there it's like one of the other negative reviews in our podcast is mad because we said that Louie's Lunch invented the cheeseburger what I don't know

if it's cheeseburger or burger but I want to try it and also I do too so they steam their burgers in this weird contraption they steam the cheese in a little tray

oh yeah yeah yeah so cool and they put it on like white bread oh yeah it's on I want that really bad and there's like raw onion on it

yeah I want it right now right now I don't know why I'm focused really bad. And there's like raw onion on it. Yeah, I want it. Right now, right now. I don't know why I'm focused on negative reviews. This person was like, Louie's Lunch didn't invent the cheeseburger one star. And I was like, who did? No one can prove who invented what.

Like literally in any single food history, we saw the Flamin' Hot Cheetos debacle, the Caesar salad debacle, all this stuff. Who cares? You just pick a place and go them. Philippe the original invented the French dip. Did they? Probably not.

Oh, no, I guess not. I want to eat this burger so bad. Well, okay, next. All right, we got at Gristle McThorne body. Toasted English muffins make better burger buns than burger buns. It's highly plausible that they do. Have you ever had an English muffin burger? No. The only time I did. Who has it?

This one, it was called like Devil Burger or Diablo Burger in Flagstaff, Arizona. What am I going to be in Flagstaff, Arizona? I didn't insinuate that you are. I just said that that's the only time I've had it. I'm sure I made one. Was there an egg on it? Yeah, probably.

No, actually, it was like a hatch green chili. It was kind of like umami burger-esque. It was around that era. Thick burger patty, like melty white cheddar cheese, hatch green chili,

some sort of aioli. Yum. And it was on an English muffin. The problem with the English muffin was that it was like way smaller than... Yeah, you have to account for your burger

to be the same size. Yeah, I can see how like a nice spongy stovetop cooked English muffin could be really nice. It's kind of got a similar crumb structure to like a ciabatta. Did you know that you cook English muffins on a griddle? Yeah, I just said that. I didn't know that until we made them. Yeah, you don't bake them.

My whole life. It's cooked like a pancake, but it's a yeasted dough. So crazy. Yeah. Everyone should try to make their own English muffins at least once. I a pancake, but it's a yeasted dough. So crazy. Yeah. Everyone should try to make their own English muffins at least once. I agree with that. That's a good recipe to have in your back pocket. Where do you stand on the burger bun debate, though?

Because brioche is out, sister. I don't like, I don't care. I like sesame seed bun. Just normal? Sesame seed bun. Normal bun? You don't get down with pretzel buns? I mean, sometimes.

Martin's potato rolls? I'm sure. King's Hawaiian? Well, when you put that potato rolls. I'm sure. King's Hawaiian. Well, when you put that guy in the mix, I love King's Hawaiian just because it's like eating cake. Yeah. It's like cake. I love it.

I like to advocate. I mean, I do love King's Hawaiian, but sometimes it's a little too sweet and cakey. Sure. I don't like proper brioche. A lot of places started calling things brioche, so I don't think. They're not brioche. Yeah. It's just like a nice glossy bun.

Umbrella term. Yeah. That said, I'm an advocate. This is controversial. I'm an advocate for the sesame-seeded Kaiser roll. Give me a good crusty Kaiser with a big thick burger and the juices kind of take out some of that crustage on the Kaiser. You know what I don't like?

Chalabun. Chalabun. Don't like Chalabun. You leave it for Shabbat. No, I don't like the Chalabun. JeroIC says, Breakfast cereals are overrated. Korean fried rice is the real breakfast MVP.

So I've had Korean fried rice before at Republic, and it was really damn good. You had Korean fried rice at the French restaurant? Yeah, they like to do that sometimes. With two poached eggs, and when you jiggle it, it looks like boobies. I can't take it. This is why we can't have nice things. I love cereal. I think Korean fried rice

is probably the best fried rice out in the game, right? A little bit of kimchi, a little bit of gochujang. Yeah. I freaking love kimchi fried rice. That said, that is not a substitute good

for breakfast cereal. I mean, like, congee. Sure, no, no. I think, but I'm saying we need to flip the association of mind. Breakfast cereal should not be eaten for breakfast. We need to get that out of our heads. Would you consider rice a cereal? Right.

I mean, Rice Krispies are literally, it's one ingredient and it's rice. So yeah, I think there, I know there are substitute goods per se, but like you could potentially do a savory breakfast. I agree with this person. Yeah, I guess congee is just the same as Rice Krispies with milk on it, right? Kind of. You know? They're related. Yeah, they're both a form of porridge.

One's just a quick porridge and the grains have been puffed. Yeah. I do think it's weird that we eat such crazy sugary confections for breakfast. Yeah, I'm not a sugary cereal girl at all. I am, but I'm like late night sugary cereal. To me, that's a munchie treat. So I agree with this. Eat your Korean fried rice in the morning.

A bowl of congee sounds great. I know, right? All right, here we go. This is going to incense Nicole. At ClaireBell07, hear me out. We're hearing you, Claire. Scrambled eggs with cinnamon. What does incense mean?

Like you're going to be like worked up. You're gonna be in a fit of rage. Mmm, cause when I Google it, it says, uh, a stick that smells good. That's incense, not incensed. Oh my god. You're gonna be incensed. God dang it, Nicole. God dang it. No, I see. Didn't you like want to be an English professor? What happened? Yeah, I still can if I try

real hard. You ever think this job's making us dumber? All the time. Oh my gosh. I mean, I'm getting smarter I try real hard. You ever think this job's making us dumber? All the time. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I'm getting smarter in a different way. Yeah, yeah. In an unorthodox way. In a way that most people will understand and won't necessarily bring. No, I think we're doing great. We could always, you know, improve our intelligence.

Are you still Googling that word? I put a D at the end of it, and then it's like, did you mean incensed? And I said, yes. Okay, am I supposed to respond to this? Ew. I don't like this. Ew. Is that good? Is that good? Was I incensed enough for you, Josh? We need to hire a wrangler without ADHD to anytime we get off topic, just hit us with a cattle prod, like handmade sale style. Oh my God. One time I was a wrangler for a kid's shoes photo shoot. Wow, I did so good. Those kids, I was like, hey, you want to go play on the seaside? They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then one kid was just like not responsive to me at all. I was like, hey, child, let's go play. And he would just look at me and turn around and be like, who do you think you are, ma'am? And I was like, come on, let's go play over there in the jungle gym. And then he was just like, no. Was he a diva? Like he was like hot stuff in the child shoe commercial world? I guess.

He told me I'd never work in this style. I could end your career, lady. Now get me a juicy juice. Pretty much. Yeah, cinnamon scrambled eggs. I've never had it. It doesn't sound good. I like sugar and scrambled eggs. I don't want it. It doesn't sound good. I like sugar and scrambled eggs.

I don't want it. Cinnamon countered with the eggy smell sounds bad. I love like all forms of curry powder and scrambled eggs. Give me that eggs burgy. That's a great dish. Um, cinnamon. I'll try it. I'll try it.

I eat so many eggs, like too many eggs. Probably gonna kill me one day, but you know, we're out here. I like eggs. I could eat. My mom, my mom told me that there was a study. Actually, my dad. My dad told me that there was a study done in Italy that says, Baba, if you eat two eggs every day, you never go to the doctor.

Dude, I. But literally, like, a month later, he goes, Baba, don't eat eggs anymore. It's bad for cholesterol. So I was like, what is it, Dad? What do you want from me? My favorite genre of those stories, they always generate massive headlines. One, so that study probably wasn't a very complete thing.

It was studying correlation. My favorite are when there's just like an old Bulgarian woman. She's like, this 108-year-old Bulgarian woman shares her secrets on life. How have you been so old? And she just goes like, Dr. Pepper and cigarettes. And I was like, there it is, folks. The secret to living a long life is Dr. Pepper and cigarettes. And everyone's like, there it is, folks. The secret to living a long life is Dr. Pepper and cigarettes. And it's like, I don't know, maybe it's just a statistical outlier.

And maybe you shouldn't just drink Soviet-era Dr. Pepper and cigarettes. Maybe there are other causes. Maybe the telomeres or whatever. Anyways, at Devour the Flower says cream cheese and Doritos are good. Yeah. I think that's accurate, but itour the Flour says cream cheese and Doritos are good. Yeah? I think that's accurate but it has to be room temp cream cheese

or else it's all screwed up because your chip gets stuck in it. Whipped. Oh my god. I love whipped cream cheese. I hate whipped cream cheese and I hate you.

Why? What did I do to you? I've done nothing but be nice and simple to you since the day I walked through the store. You said to me,

hey, you want to be on a podcast? I said, sure, boss man, whatever you say. Nicole showed up to her job interview in like a full pantsuit and I was wearing like flip flops and shorts or something. And then the next day I came in a t-shirt and jeans and shoes like ready to work. I'm like, what am I going to do? And you're just like, hey, just fill out some forms. Like, oh, we're not doing anything

today. And you're like, no. Onboarding forms are important. I'm like, I'm ready to get in there. How many bull testicles can I fabricate? Okay. Oh, this has a bad word in it. I can't say it. Which one? Susie Who said a bad word?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Susie Fukookin Homemaker says. Susie Fookin Homemaker. Susie heckin Homemaker. Susie Fookin Homemaker says. It sounds like a Japanese last name when you say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fookiho.

Susie Fookin Homemaker says, Grilled cheese goes best with cherry jam. Although a good tomato basil soup will do in a pinch. Cherry jam and tomato basil soup are very different. And I believe you, the grilled cheese, it depends what kind of cheese you use. Like a brie? I'm all about that.

Put the jam in the soup. You put the cherry jam in the soup. And that way everybody's happy. We no longer have problems, Susie. You seem like you're having problems. Put the jam in the soup. Next case. I want to start acting more like Judge Judy on these.

Because normally we just kind of talk about the opinions. I want to give like a ruling like there's a problem to be solved. You're so funny sometimes. All right. Like, here we go. At Melissa.leffer, peas should be eaten mashed with butter, fresh lemon, salt, and pepper. No, they shouldn't stop doing that. I think we should give real judgment rulings. Can I be the bailiff?

Give people something. Wait, what's the bailiff's name? I don't know, but sometimes she'll, like, invoke the bailiff. She'll just be like, Craig, Craig, you ever seen anything like this? She'll be like, no, Ms. Judge Judy. No, no, no, no, Judge. Me neither. Me neither. Me neither.

Bailiff Bird. No, yeah, the peas with the lemon. That sounds good. I like peas. Okay, I don't care for this opinion. It doesn't matter how you like it. I'm proud of you. Isabel Malzi says, mint chocolate chip ice cream is the ultimate refreshing ice cream.

Yes. Ten points to Gryffindor. Ice cream's not meant to be refreshing. Oh, my God. Who's eating ice cream to be refreshed? Oh, my God. It's so good. Drink Listerine if you want mint.

What do you mean drink Listerine? Swish it in your mouth for 60 seconds, then spit out. And then every ice cream's mint chip. Did you know that you're supposed to... This is the craziest thing I've ever learned about oral health. So did you know that when you... So glad you said health. So whatever. As opposed to care no never mind so you have to brush your teeth and you don't need to rinse it

out with water you keep so you brush your teeth okay and then you know you're supposed to like like switch water what are you talking about josh what are you you talking about? Josh. Nicole, what are you ever talking about? You're supposed to leave the toothpaste on there like a mortar. Like bricklaying mortar. Yeah, I saw that on TikTok. There's like a big dentist with like curly hair and like he's like super like. Is he hot? Is he like that guy like Mike, Dr. Mike?

He's like a 7.6 out of 10. Sounds hot. But you know my standards. Sorry, was that too off? He's an LA4, but the fact that he's a doctor makes him like a 6. No, I'm not doing that. Try it for a week. I'll do it.

I'll do it. If TikTok tells me to do something, I'll do it. They've sent me to some weird guy. I went down to that cult in Tennessee. I joined it for a couple weeks. What are you talking about? There's a cult in Tennessee? You've never seen that?

Yeah, they ate a cat. All right. On that note, thank you for listening. They didn't actually eat the cat. They killed a feral cat that attacked their chickens, and then one was wearing it as a hat, and that caused a big kerfluffle. 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've got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions Are Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or at AndyZada 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

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