A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Flour vs Corn Tortillas ft. Gabriel Iglesias

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

Today, we're joined by Gabriel Iglesias to discuss: which is better, flour or corn tortillas? 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 is Mythical! Tortillas are the best thing since sliced bread, especially considering America bought more tortillas than sliced white bread back in 2010. But not all tortillas were created equal. There's a war brewing under the floppy surface and you gotta choose a side. Flour for corn. This is a hot dog as a sandwich.

Ketchup as a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog as a sandwichwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates.

I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Hendizadeh. And today we're joined by comedian and actor Gabriel Iglesias, known for his shows I'm Not Fat, I'm Fluffy, and Hot and Fluffy, as well as co-starring roles in the Magic Mike movies. He's one of America's most successful stand-up comedians, performing to sold-out concerts around the world and over 19 million fans across social media. He executive produces and stars in his own Netflix comedy series, Mr. Iglesias, where he plays a high school teacher working at his alma mater to help

students reach their full potential. His hilarious sense of humor and Southern California roots make us eager to discuss tortillas together. Welcome, Gabriel. Hello. You could have just said he's a Mexican dude who likes to eat. We're going to talk about food. And I would have been happy with that. Hey, man, wait, hold up. Okay, okay. So that was like our official bio, right? That's like the approved by outside people bio we copy and pasted from your website. But the real reason we wanted to have you on is a bit that you did when you were doing a show in El Paso, Texas. And you were talking about Chico's Tacos.

That's the real reason I want to have you on. Do you know what I'm talking about? Chico's Tacos? Yes. Yeah. Chico's Tacos is very much an El Paso thing. You know, every city has their go-to spot. And Chico's Tacos is an El Paso thing all the way.

I don't classify it as, like, legit Mexican food, Mexican, Mexican food. It's more so like, you know, we're going to play with this and see what happens kind of a deal. Like, if someone said, what's a good Mexican restaurant in El Paso, I could recommend a bunch of others. But Chico's is more so like, it's late, I'm drunk, I've got $8, what do you want to do? Those are the best spots. Yeah. There's too much like shredded yellow cheese on top of that to like really classify it as like traditional Mexican food. Well, it's like they put stuff in a tortilla, they fry it, then they pour like soup on it, and then they put cheese.

There's like all kinds of different food, Mexican food thrown together. And it's, yeah, it is. I tell people it's the only time I've ever been able to drink a taco. That's amazing. It's funny you mention that because like, I mean, in LA, we have Tito's Tacos, which Tito's Tacos, I mean, kind of the same deal, right? It's that like crispy fried corn tortilla. It's got that shredded beef inside, all that yellow cheese.

And then the salsa that they got is just so watery that you can basically drink it. It's like a gazpacho salsa, you know, but it's delicious. And like you said, you're drunk, you got eight bucks, you go to Tito's Tacos. Yeah. And here's a good rule of thumb too. If you want real legit Mexican food, the restaurant either has wheels under it or no permit. Correct. Yes. Correct. Yeah. If when you get out of your car if if you're concerned for your safety or if your car's still gonna be there when you get back that's when you know that's better than a yelp review that's when you know the restaurant is that good like it's so good i'm willing to risk my life and this new car that i you know don't know if i could pay for the safer the restaurant the worse the food yo having been to that that vegan Mexican restaurant in the nicest part of West Hollywood, Gracias Madre.

Oh, I've been before. Nah, man. Nah, that's not the vibe you want. You don't go for the food. I mean, there's no flavor. You go to look at people. It's in West Hollywood for a reason. You go to go look at all the beautiful people.

The food is secondary, tertiary when it comes to Gracias Madre. And by the way, the word vegan and Mexican restaurant don't go together. Thank you. I found that out when I spent 80 bucks at Gracias Madre for some cashew cheese. That's like having a diet Twinkie. It just does not, it just does not. No, don't do that. There's a market for diet Twinkies. I think we, okay, okay. We got to get, we got to get to the topic at hand, the whole thing we're discussing. So you're talking a lot about legit Mexican food versus non-legit Mexican food. And there is a stigma attached to flour tortillas that they are not legit Mexican food.

Although like the historical accuracy of that is totally up for debate. But I'm curious, Gabriel, your stance right now. Corn versus flour tortillas, what are you taking? Well, if you're from the motherland, you more than likely are going to go for corn tortillas, which is traditional. But see, I was born here and I grew up having both. And yeah, which is traditional. But see, I was born here and I grew up having both. And yeah, flour for me, I prefer flour for quesadillas. I prefer flour for a burrito. But for a straight up taco, yeah, corn.

Corn is the way to go. Interesting because it depends on what I'm going to eat. At what point do you prefer like corn to flour? Because you're right. Like there are so many things that a flour tortilla can do that a corn tortilla can't do. Mainly bend, right? Like corn tortillas, they can't bend because they don't got the gluten structures in them. I'm getting all scientific on you with the gluten structures.

But like you said, like quesadillas, flour, burritos, flour. But what about tacos? Like are there tacos where you prefer flour tortillas over corn? I'll tell you right now. I had a taco two days ago. There was a chef that's, he's known for making uh fish tacos that's his thing and he made me a swordfish taco on a flour tortilla and um i didn't know that they made the flour tortillas that same size it was like it was taco taco size yeah and by the way that's

another thing too the reason why i prefer flour tortillas is they're bigger and you can do more the quesadilla you don't got to make eight little ones you can make two big ones you know same thing with a burrito you can't you know you can't really roll up those uh the corn ones wait who's who's the chef you're talking about because i mean we're all where are you podcasting from are you in long beach i'm in long beach nice who's uh who's his name chef west uh i can actually look up his whole thing it's all i know him as chef west but please look him up. We can save it for later, but I'm really curious. I mean, we're like always on the hunt in LA for the best tacos. Which like for sure influences our decisions.

Nicole, I'm curious about you. I don't know if we've ever like talked about this casually. You know, I do love a good corn tortilla. I love a good fresh corn tortilla as much as the next person. But for me, it's always been flour. Just because it's accessible it's easy and the flavor of the flour tortilla does not compete with what's inside of my little vessel albeit a burrito a taco a quesadilla whatever it is whoa it ain't got to compete

though it can accent corn can accent sometimes let me tell you sometimes the corn does not accent for me the first thing i taste is corn and the last thing i taste is corn not that that's a bad thing all the time i like it i enjoy it but i prefer flour because it's a little bit more muted and that way i can taste the beef better that way i can taste the salsa better that way i can taste the cheese better that's how i feel that's my stamps i do love corn and i respect corn but i like flour just a little bit more i'm there with you i found them oh what's his name i found him uh if you go to instagram uh look under dj west i think he had an another career choice in the beginning and then said uh i'm clearly not mixing these records the way they should be mixed.

Let me try tacos. He's got over 14,000 followers. His name is Wesley Avila. Wesley Avila of Guerrilla Tacos. He is, yeah, I've had his food a ton of times, man. Okay, awesome. He started with a freaking taco truck. Like you said, the best tacos are coming in on wheels.

So, yeah, so we did a little thing together the other day that's going to be coming up pretty soon. I don't even know what streaming service, but he made me some amazing swordfish tacos on flour tortillas. And I was very much like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Because when he told me we're going to use flour, you know, I love flour tortillas,

but I also know that tacos, I always go corn. And I'm still like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And then I started judging him like I was from the mother. And I'm like, what is this? This is a disgrace. What are you thinking? And then I bit the taco and I'm like, oh my God, this is so freaking good. Yeah. Well, dude, I mean, there's, there's one, Nicole, thank you for speaking your truth. Gabriel, thank you for also speaking your truth. Thank you for being vulnerable with me about your tortilla choices. But no, I mean, there are a couple of chefs, Chef Wesley Avila. I mean, he's absolutely fantastic. I mean, there are there's another dude, Ray Garcia. He owns a spot called BS Taqueria in Broken Spanish. There's people like Carlos Salgado at Taco Maria. There

are these chefs and especially their Mexican-American chefs that grew up in California who grew up in these sort of fine dining kitchens who are now like raising the bar on tortillas, both flour and corn so, so much. So we're getting like the best, dopest product that I've ever had before because I grew up eating like I don't know what you could probably just call white people tacos, right? Like with the El Paso stand and stuff, you know, the hard taco shells that you buy. Yes. You don't heat them up. You leave them stale. You put in like the seasoned ground beef with the Ortega taco seasoning in it. And so that's the stuff I grew up eating or the Mission flour tortillas.

But now, I mean, like, Nicole, we just have in the kitchen right now, like heirloom organic stone ground nixtamalized blue corn tortillas where you taste the notes of toasted corn and then also thinking about like our friends at burritos la palma which gabriel i don't know if you've been man burritos la palma there's one in santa ana and there's one in el monte to me single greatest flour tortilla in la it's my single favorite bite of food food they do the chicharron guisado burritos and they do like the birria de res as well and it's like unbelievable and so my heart says flour because of people like burritos of palma and sonoratown you get that beautiful stretchy chew but then in my head i'm like corn tortillas been around for 10 000 years you know they were offered up as like gifts to the gods you know and then flour

tortillas you know kind of came in through colonial colonization, all that. And so I don't know, it feels weird for me, you know, especially as a white dude who grew up eating El Paso stand and stuff taco shells to say flour or better. So I don't know. Let me tell you the, the, the food also, uh, one thing that has a lot to do with it is the, um, I guess the, uh, the guilt that comes with it. Like, you know, let's say you're at a, you go to a Mexican restaurant, you, you place your order. I want this guilt that comes with it. Let's say you go to a Mexican restaurant. You place your order. I want this, that, the other thing. And then they ask you, what kind of tortillas would you like? And depending on the waiter, if you have a white waiter, he's like, what kind of tortillas you want?

You say corn, you say flour, not a big deal. He writes it down, and then he brings you what he brings you. it down and then he brings you what he brings you however if you if your server is like is like mexican mexican from the motherland and they ask you you know what uh what kind of tortillas would you like you know or they'll say in spanish tortillas yes you know and if and if you say flour if you say flour there's a little bit of like there's a there's a feeling you can tell you're instantly you're instantly judged for asking for flour tortillas. You know, because like, fine. Like, you know, it was a test.

It's always a test whenever they ask you that question. Yeah, for sure. That's how I feel. I feel that guilt when I'm ordering El Pollo Loco on an app, man. When I order my grilled chicken at El Pollo Loco, which one, El Pollo Loco is an authentic Mexican restaurant. They started in Mexico. They moved to America later. It's delicious pollo al carbón.

Anyways, when I order from the app and it says corner flour tortillas, I don't want the app to think that I'm like a colonizer getting flour tortillas. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. El Pollo Loco via Postmates. I want the authentic stuff. And so I feel like, honestly, there are bigger meanings behind all of this and by the way uh mexicans don't really consider

pollo loco to be a mexican restaurant it's just uh it's just a restaurant that sells chicken that has a lot of mexican employees at it makes sense that makes sense i do love that because they will i will tell you the pollo loco and maybe a couple of little smaller chains they'll offer you salsa they'll offer you salsa or they'll have certain menu items and you're like oh okay they sell churros here as a dessert and uh i'm sure a lot of it has to do with the price point because churros are cheap to make yeah very cheap to make and cheap to buy in large quantities and and the salsas at the El Pollo Loco, I do got to admit, they are pretty hit or miss. Yeah, it's water.

It's tomato water. They're watering down the salsa to hit the margins. And I respect that. It's the devil's bargain that I play and I'm fine with it. For example, I prefer Del Taco's Del Scorcho hot sauce over Pollo Locos salsa. And, you know, it's like, really? But it's a better kick for me in the taco. It is, man.

And I don't consider Del Taco a Mexican restaurant either. Just FYI. Well, I mean, it's just, it's open. It's open at 2 a.m. I don't have to get out of my car. I am very safe. I once, okay, well, I mean, agreed about everything Del Taco. Because, I mean, Nicole and I both grew up in Southern California.

We did. Del Taco was like the only thing near me that was open 24 hours. So, you know, you're like a 17-year-old kid. You know, you pile with all your friends at one in the morning and you go in to get the 59-cent chicken soft tacos served on just the most plasticky flour tortilla that sticks to the roof of your mouth when you eat it. And they got the white mayonnaise sauce on it. Yeah, but it's good, though. It's good, though. Yeah. When you eat it and they got that, the white mayonnaise sauce on it. Yeah, but it's good though. It's good though.

Yeah. But also. There's something about that plasticky, like, uh, I call it a wavy tortilla because there's so much BS in it that you just moves like a wave whenever you fold it around. There's something so nostalgic about that taste, that mission flour tortilla taste for me. I don't know what it is. It's just so nostalgic. It's like me making a quesadilla when i come home from school

that is that flavor and that structure of of gluten or whatever you want to call it is just so familiar to me which is why i think i prefer it to corn most of the time you know what i mean that's it the nostalgia i grew up with the same thing the same the packs of either the mission flour tortillas or whatever they sold at the mexican market they same, the packs of either the Mission Flour Tortillas or whatever they sold at the Mexican market. Yeah. They had their, the pack of tortillas. It just said tortillas

and blue writing. And I'm like, all right. Yeah. I recently got my mom into tortillas, actually corn tortillas because I buy them now

because I like to have them. Breakfast tacos belong on corn tortillas. Can we all agree on that? Oh, not even a little bit. No. That's one of the few things that i think strictly belong on flour tortillas whoa whoa whoa breakfast talking about mr man

i'm not trying to start anything here i'm just taking it back nicole i'm shocked but no so i mean this this comes down to a big regional thing right like growing up socal breakfast burritos for me are where it's at nicole we've talked. You like tacos. I'm typically a burrito guy. But I love the big honking breakfast burritos just chocked full of like hash browns or even use the tater tots straight out of the bag. To me, that's the absolute best. But then breakfast tacos, that's a big Texas tradition. And they make them on those like thick, puffy Tex-Mex flour tortillas, which is why I typically I don't really mess with Texas breakfast tacos because I'm a SoCal breakfast burrito guy. Yeah. Texas definitely has a different way of doing things. I do love Tex-Mex though. I actually prefer Tex-Mex over traditional Mexican food.

Interesting. That's a shame. Whether it's a breakfast taco or taco in the afternoon or taco at night. Yeah. The consistent, it's like having three regular tortillas fused into one and then they shrink the size of it and you could just, yeah, you could put anything in it. So whether it's, and by the way, some of the best breakfast tacos I've ever had were at a gas station in Texas. Gas stations are the go-to. There's a, there's a lot of different, like the laredo taco company amazing uh gas station tacos and you wouldn't think that's where you'd find them but there's lines outside the door like yeah yeah can i get 50 on pump four

and you're like oh shoot okay gotta go to texas gotta go to texas strictly for the for the gas station the gas station tacos man I've had the gas station tacos in Oklahoma and I can't remember the company, but I think I know exactly what you're talking about. We got there at like 6 a.m. It was just in this gas station. It might've been a Bucky's. I can't really remember what the big chain is.

They got a few different ones. Yeah, Red Stripe. I'm trying to think of some of the other ones. It's been a while since I've been there. I haven't been out in about a year. Yeah, oh, did something happen about a year ago that would prevent you from doing that? I don't know, just, you know, I've just been staying home a lot't been out in about a year. Yeah. Oh, did something happen about a year ago that would prevent you from doing it? I don't know.

Just, you know, I've just been staying home a lot. We're saving toilet paper. No reason. We're hoping this podcast is evergreen so people in two, you know, like they don't want to hear about the pandemic. They don't want to hear.

We're all just having fun eating tacos out there. No, I always ration toilet paper. I've been hoarding TP for you. Actually, no, Nicole just bought me wet wipes because that's the type of relationship we have as co-workers. That's the kind of co-host I am, Gabriel. Wet wipes are amazing, but then you get the environmental people that

come after you. Oh, no. You can't enjoy anything anymore. It's like, you know, it's like, oh, shoot, all right. That's a whole different guilt. I'm just going to get the arrowhead water bottles with the sport tip so you can squeeze it. That's what I'm going to start doing. That's like a ghetto bidet. Yeah, I'm ghetto bidet yeah it's an efficient bidet it's cost effective and I'll reuse the same bottle it's fine as long as you don't let the

tip touch anyways what we're talking about gas station tacos yeah no dude I've had those exact ones as it's 6 in the morning in Oklahoma in like a county where they didn't sell alcohol so or they didn't sell cold beer even though we're trying to go to a tailgate for an Oklahoma football game. And so like, I went to this gas station, all the coolers were just turned off because they had to sell warm beer

to try and prevent people from drinking it. I don't know, but I remember having a brisket breakfast taco at there as I drank a warm 40 of malt liquor in six in the morning. And it was absolutely fantastic. So that's right. I mean, they got,

they're like tortilla products that they got elsewhere that we don't got here and so there could be a cultural regional bias between all of our answers that's a very good point yeah no you know you'll definitely like for example um barbacoa uh here and in california it's more of a soup whereas in texas that's like you know more uh dry meat yeah yeah you know it's more of a soup. Whereas in Texas, that's like, you know, more dry meat. Yeah, you know, it's like the same meat, but like one goes in a taco, one goes in a soup. Yeah, well, it's funny the way the way people talk about, you know, Mexican food is quote, unquote, authentic or not authentic, like flour tortillas. I mean, they're still dating back 500 years in Mexico. So in you know, like the Baja, you know, Baja, California and in Sonora, like flour tortillas

are really big. I mean, you go to Juarez, and you'll get big old burritos, you know, Baja, California and in Sonora, like flour tortillas are really big. I mean, you go to Juarez and you'll get big old burritos, you know, served in a flour tortilla, obviously. But I mean, flour tortillas, they're like 300 years older than the foundation of America, you know. So like this sort of like and they put down roots and also, you know, Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, places where flour tortillas are big were just Mexico 150 years ago. And so these foods have super deep roots, which is why people always say this thing. They go, Taco Bell isn't really Mexican. I like how I'm a white guy and I'm using a white person voice to say this. I don't know. I didn't want to say anything, but cool.

I can just use my normal voice because I'm that person. But anyways, people say Taco Bell isn't real Mexican food. It's Tex-Mex. And it's like, even if you don't want it's not even it's not even tex-mex it's not tex-mex is a real thing and tex-mex has all these dishes like uh like you're talking about you're like i remember the first time i had carne guisada and that was the first like regional tex-mex dish i had i had it in college station texas i was at texas a&m for track and field meat and i ate two pounds of carne guisada before track and field meat. And it was the best breakfast I've, like, ever had.

And it was on those thick, puffy flour tortillas. So that's the case. Exactly. And you won't find that in California or anywhere else. Texas is very specific to Texas. Why don't we bring it? Well, I know that there used to be some Texas-style restaurants, like real, real, like san antonio there was a

restaurant in west covina many years ago called taste of texas okay and i had a buddy of mine who came to visit me from san antonio and he goes man he goes i can't find my food out here and i go i think i know a place and he goes this place is legit and it's because the owner was from san antonio so he would order two pork guisada tacos and then he'd order a brisket taco and then he'd order some bean and cheese taco with guacamole. And then he'd finish it off with a Big Red. Yes. Big Red is like their version of a Coke. Okay.

Okay. It's a soda. It's 10,000 calories in a bottle. Nice. It's pretty awesome. It's Big Red. It's, you know. I've never it's it's you know i've never heard of it i'm learning so much yeah you gotta go google big red uh soda after google big red

soda that's it up wait that's very specific gabriel how how would you describe the flavor of big red i'm curious if you got an answer it's man it's like a a mixture of, it's like a, it's like a Fanta, you know, it's like very fruity. Uh, but at the same time, it's like, there's no,

it doesn't taste like a cola. It's not like a Mountain Dew. It's not like, it's just, I don't even know. It's like a, is it fruity? I was hoping you'd have an answer.

I'm going to buy a case on Amazon and I'll let you know what the flavor notes are. Big red, big red soda. Big red soda, you got it. You order some breakfast tacos at the gas station and you finish it off with a big red. Nice. Yeah, so everything with tortillas, it's so like context dependent, right? Depending on like where you go.

Because like you said, like those Texas tacos, they don't taste right in corn tortillas, you know? But then likewise, I don't know if you get like, you know, I mean, we grew up going to the taco trucks in L.A. Like Leo's Tacos going there at 2 a.m. and you get like, you know, the al pastor shaved right off the spit, you know, and then kind of finished in its own grease and put right into the corn tortilla. That wouldn't taste. Not only would that not taste right on a flour tortilla, that wouldn't taste right on like a nice corn tortilla. You know, you need that like the. So y'all talked about the tortillas you grew up eating. corn tortilla. You know, you need that like the, so y'all talked about the tortillas you grew up eating. I grew up eating, my dad worked at a 99 cent store in Oceanside, California, and they sold the Guerrero 30 packs of tortillas for 99 cents. So that's three cents per tortilla. And so like my go-to snack growing up, you'd take the tortilla and you'd wrap it around a hot dog,

and then you'd griddle it off in a pan until it's a little bit crispy and you dip it in ketchup. And so for me, that's like the nostalgic flavor is that like griddle toasted Guerrero corn tortilla that you know costs less than a penny to manufacture because they're cutting it with all kinds of stuff. But it's so nostalgic. And I really love that. That's funny. You've made like five references already that sound like you're talking about drugs. Like earlier, you're like, yeah, this is a certain kind of product that I like. And I'm like, ooh.

And right now they cut it with something else. I'm like, man, I think a certain kind of product that I like. And I'm like, ooh. And right now, they cut it with something else. I'm like, man, I think he has another podcast that he's not talking about. I'm just saying, you're the one interpreting it, man. I'm just saying words out here. Put that on yourself. You know, these are key words. I've been watching all these Netflix documentaries. There's a new one called Dope.

And so there's like 10 episodes. And all I keep hearing is product and it's cut with. and in order to make a better profit and a better product and i'm just like right now that you're mentioning though cutting like mixing certain uh elements in order to make the a specific kind of tortilla i don't know if you guys have ever been to new mexico uh i've had mexican native american fusion type uh they have a few restaurants out there like that when they and they have a fry bread, native fry bread. I've seen it and I've heard of it. It's like a tortilla and pita bread had a baby.

Yeah. That's kind of the best way I can describe it. And yeah, they don't care. They'll make it small. They'll make it big. But it's native fry bread is really, really good. Yeah, man. One of my best friends growing up was Navajo.

And the first time I ever had menudo was actually from his dad. Because, I mean, so many, like, you know, native people in that region obviously have, like, roots in Mexico. And so the first time I had menudo was with fry bread. And it was, like, fan-freaking-tastic. Getting that spicy broth soaked up in that crispy bread. And that was just, like, an experience that I'll never forget. Like I said, man, we're not even limited to corn versus flour there's just a whole world like you're thinking i'm thinking about like tacos arabes right it's literally like lebanese immigrants in mexico in the 1800s

tried to like everyone has their version of a tortilla everyone has 100 man maybe the best tortilla is is lavash from from you know like the levant area you know maybe it's it's john bing from china maybe that's John Bing from China. Maybe that's the best tortilla. Tortillas have spread around the world, and I think that's beautiful. Because, like, when I went to India, they have the naan bread. The naan bread is so freaking good. So good.

And that's pretty much like a San Antonio tortilla, you know? Like, it's got the same structure. Exactly. You know what? It all just keeps circulating. But to answer the age-old question, flour, corn, I'm still going flour. Nicole, have you been- I'm with you.

No, no, no. I'm with him, man. I'm with him. My heart says one thing, my brain says another, but when I come together and I really break it down, really, really, really break it down, it has to be flour. I'm trying to think of the best taco experiences I've ever had. I'm trying to think about if there is one discernible can, I can take over another one that would explain this. I'm thinking about my favorite flour tortilla that I've ever had. That's Burritos La Palma.

Sonora Town is a close second. Low Key does good ones in LA as well. But Burritos La Palma. You said that, which is the one that's in Santa Ana? So I can actually, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to document this one here. Burritos La Palma. It's so good. Burritos La Palma in, in Santa Ana. Yeah, yeah, it's correct okay i don't i don't know i don't know very many safe places in santa ana i got family out there so something tells me this restaurant's legit hey man it's orange county

it's safe uh burritos i wanted to say it with an accent like you'd freak it out why did i do that anyways uh but then there's also some fantastic corn experience I've had at Broken Spanish. Ray Garcia was doing this like Alta California cuisine taco where he's doing clams in whipped lardo. And like he specifically put that on there on this extra toasted blue corn tortilla where like the corn was an actual character of the dish. And that was such an incredible experience. And so I don't know how to weigh those two. I'd like to think that the ceiling of a corn tortilla is higher, but the floor is also lower. Because I've had some bad corn tortillas, you know, like you get the ones that are just like kind of brittle and dry

and don't taste like anything, you know, especially when they're not cooked right. So I don't know. I'm not going to take a stance. This is maybe the first time that I won't take a stance because I love both of them so much. That's special. Ah, never mind.

Corn. Corn wins. I'm taking it. Corn. Screw it. You both had flour. I need to give corn a win. Fine.

Nice. Fine. All right, Nicole and Gabriel, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casseroles. All right. All right. First up, we got at bulky Sam.

As a Texan, I've gotten over Whataburger versus In-N-Out. I've only tried the latter once, but it was at a Texas location. I will say, though, Shake Shack lived up to the hype. Got Shake Shack versus In-N-Out versus Whataburger. Okay, I don't have a dog in this fight because I've never had Whataburger. So I'm just going to... Shake Shack versus In-N-Out versus Whataburger. There's no comparison.

Okay, you can compare In-N-Out and Whataburger all day. Now, I mean, I've been to Texas a million times. I consider Texas to be a second home. I've spent many late nights at Whataburger. Whataburger has an incredible menu. You can eat breakfast. You can have lunch. You can have dinner.

It's a big, big menu. Big menu. Shake Shack is not part of the same conversation. Shake Shack meant that the guy didn't have money for Whataburger. That's what I think is going on there. Or he can't find a Whataburger. Or Shake Shack is across the street. Shake Shack is okay.

But to compare, to try to put it in the league of Whataburger in and out, no, you can't do that. No, no. That's like trying to put Weber's bread in a conversation about corner flour tortilla. It just does not belong. I agree with that. Plus Shake Shack's like four times the price of any of these spots. I grew up on In-N-Out.

I love In-N-Out. I've been to Whataburger probably a half dozen times just traveling through Texas. To me, the quality doesn't live up. Like you said, Whataburger, it's got the great menu. I love their Chipotle patty melt sauce that they do yeah they got that spicy ketchup too yeah and the spicy ketchup like i like that stuff but to me whataburger quality wise is on the same level as jack-in-the-box which is a regional california thing and i mess with jack-in-the-box i like me a good jack-in-the-box i like the breakfast jack uh but to me whataburger the quality doesn't compare to in and out but i'm

also biased also in and out is very specific to a burger. It's not 20 different things. You know, and anytime you focus on one specific thing, you're probably going to do that much better. Whereas if you spread yourself too thin. So, yeah, if we're talking about just the burger itself, definitely In-N-Out all day, every day. It's always fresh. It's always crisp. The cheese, everything about the burgers is incredible.

But if you want variety and, you know, I could eat at Whataburger every day, whereas in and out, two, three days max, unless there's influence. And then I can continue to go. But that's a different conversation. But yeah. All right. Our next opinion is by Colorfulifo one jerky is just meat raisin jerky is just meat raisin uh-huh you know what you i go for some reason that would sound so much better in an accent you know jerky is just meat

raisin now i get it you want me to do my mom's accent really quick jerky is just meat raisin. Now I get it. You want me to do my mom's accent really quick? Jerky is just meat raisin. Just meat raisin. There you go. Like someone discovering it for the first time. Yeah, you took all the moisture out of it and that's what you get. So that actually makes sense. I can't argue it. That's what I'm saying. Jerky's a meat raisin. This is incontrovertible truth.

You nailed it and it's a good thing. I agree. Alright, at Will C. Pitt, crab salad on pork rinds is a great low-carb snack. Crab salad. You know what? I'm a big fan of imitation crab. Yes, sir. I love imitation crab more than I love real crab.

I'm one of those guys that would go to Sizzler. They used to have a salad bar, and they'd have the little seafood blend and it was mostly, you know, it's imitation crab. Oh, but they got little carrot shreds in it too. You're talking a little English. You know, I'd always push all that stuff to the side and it goes straight. I'm that guy that would mess up the display. You know, I just pull out all the imitation crab and I'd leave all the other whatever is in it on the side. Yeah. Ooh, that sounds really good on pork rinds. And yes, it's very keto. I guess if, uh, if you want to say that it ain't kosher. Wait, I'm curious about your sizzler buffet strategy. What, what

is your strategy to hit a sizzler buffet? Cause, cause I got thoughts. Uh, sizzler buffet, man. Uh, first of all, I miss it. Um, sizzler buffet. Uh, I know they say it's a salad bar but man i think i think lettuce is the last thing that wound up on that plate uh they'd have they'd have the really good uh they had the little taco station they'd have the the chicken wing station uh pasta station and then uh you know soups and and then so i do that round first and then in the end i'd add a little corner with some lettuce and uh you know, a little cottage cheese. But that's usually when I'd find the imitation crab. And then you'd see a big old mountain of imitation crab on my plate.

Man, I grew up going to the Sizzler buffet all the time because kids used to eat for 99 cents. And I feel like I talk about this all the time. But even as an adult going back, like they would have the dino nuggets. And then they have the whole taco bar. So you can load up the dino nuggets with like the carnitas and the nacho cheese. And they got the salsa that has been sitting there for so long that it gets a little fizzy from the fermentation, but it's still probably fine. They got rid of their corn fritters though. I don't know if anyone knows what the heck I'm talking about.

The corn fritters were so good. Bro, they're gone. I went like two years ago with my grandma, not a corn fritter in sight. So I made spaghetti hard shell tacos and that was it. Bring back the corn fritter. We're going to make a Facebook page for the two of you. Gabriel, you got way more influence than either of us, man. If anyone can bring back the corn fritters to the sizzler, you got it.

You know what? That's one of my biggest flexes is keeping something on a restaurant menu. That's a big flex. That's power, man. That was one of my biggest flexes right there. It's just like, wow, I saved it. And here in Long Beach, there's a restaurant called Lucille's Barbecue. Yeah.

I love Lucille's. It's a really, really good barbecue restaurant. It's been here for like 20 plus years. Really, really good. And one of the things that they had on the menu, it was like a tester item, which was, we're talking about pork rinds they had uh chicken skin uh so it was like chicken skin like uh like chicharron basically pork ring but it was it wasn't pork it was chicken and it was spicy so they mix this the spicy oil and it was like you swear you're

eating just regular uh pork rinds but it was chicken skin. And it was on the menu for a few months. And then I showed up one day and it was gone. And I sent a, I sent out a, not a tweet. I went on Instagram and I told a story and I, and I tagged him and I said, Oh my God, that was my favorite thing ever. That's the reason why I always come here to the restaurant. I can't believe it's gone. And what they wound up doing is they, they said from now on, when you come to the restaurant, you can order it. We're not going to, we're not going to put it on the menu the restaurant you can order it we're not gonna we're not gonna put it on the menu but you can order it and it's in the back just for you and i'm like oh my god so uh yeah absolutely flexing on that that is some clout i am in color me impressed gabriel that is next level that's going that story is going on my mood board

and that's that's that's the main reason why i keep going back to lucille's i mean they're always they've always been awesome. Good barbecue and stuff. But that was awesome that they did that for me. That customer service, that's wonderful. I would just go for that great customer service, honestly. That's amazing. Also, this opinion of the crab salad and the pork rind gave me indigestion. I cannot.

This is too fatty for me. I think I would. But you know what it's not going to give you? Carbs. Okay, but you know what it would do? I would need to suck on. Let me tell you, I would need to suck on a lemon after I eat this. This is too much for me. No, there's carbs and lemon. There's technically like two carbs and a lemon. You can't have them. Get out of here. You can't have them. There's sugars and a lemon. You're not going to be keto anymore.

The funny thing is though, a lot of these keto snack hacks, whatever, like I know some people are doing it for health, but for me, like this is the most indulgent thing in the world you're eating fried pork skin and crab and mayonnaise which is where i intersect with the keto community where i'm like you're making a whole sandwich out of a brick of cheese i'm into that for different reasons bell pepper sandwiches those keto bell different thing that i'm not so into let me read this next opinion uh alex underscore cord says bread pudding is just a french toast cake bread pudding is just a french toast it's like a riddle to get into the the mine in lord of the rings wow uh you you blew me away with uh with you know uh beef raisin but this actually yeah that's pretty good that's i gotta agree with that that's

yeah this is the level of high-minded philosophy you get in the opinions are like casseroles yes and we have fans are big brain we have thousands of these it's unbelievable the type of stuff someone sends us uh but yeah i've taken bread pudding i've put that in a bundt cake mold i've put it into cupcake molds big on bread pudding because it's like lazy man's cake and i always have old bread and questionably old eggs and so that's that's going into bread pudding cake baby i agree with this this is a great opinion and this is brilliant whoever wrote this is probably a genius they're probably like a doctor like a phd from yeah they probably have a phd or something from like at least like a like Northridge. Go Matadors. At least. Go Matadors. Dominguez Hills, man.

Alright, at Wacko Bastard PB&J white bread creamy peanut butter strawberry jam dipped in Campbell's chicken noodle soup is one of Earth's greatest gifts. What is the person's name again? This is Wacko Bastard. Wacko Bastard.

I don't even know how you guys picked this guy when you had those first two that were so just next level like mind-blowing and then you you brought it right back to the trailer park multitudes we can do it multitudes it's like wow i'm gonna have to disagree with this one okay but did you grow up doing like a weird thing with food that people would have that opinion about well let me see uh you know i i grew up eating stuff like top ramen, spam, you know, beans, rice, shoot, you know, different kinds of tortillas, breads, nothing really that like, oh, wow. You know, I mean, if I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I didn't try to dip it

in anything. I mean, I put bologna on certain things, but not really nothing that, you know, sweet and salty together. And that just, you know. I had my thing, like, but not like, not on this level. This level, to me, this is not an appealing textural flavor contrast that I would enjoy.

I don't think. But like there were little things like that meant a lot to me as a kid. Like I would microwave a ham and cheese hot pocket every day before school. And I would put in a single scrambled egg in the middle and i would just push it in with my fingers so i'm just kind of fingering a hot pocket every i don't know what was going on with with 10 year old me that sounds 10 times more tempting than wacko bastards yeah it does fair enough i'm trying to

give them because if you took out if you took out the peanut butter and jelly jam whatever and it was just the bread bread and that campbell's soup together yeah absolutely when you mix those other things it's like yeah yeah no i don't get it this is like probably a weird thing that they did from childhood that they still like revert back to when they're feeling sad this is what i think this opinion is and that's beautiful in a way that to me that's what food's about you know that no but based on that mixture he is really sad yeah you need some help some help, Blacko Bastard. Maybe, you know, find someone to talk to. You can talk to us.

We're friendly. The grin ate me. My husband adds Alfredo sauce in his spicy ramen. The seasoning packet mix is into the creamy Alfredo perfectly. I don't know if you guys are big on TikTok and stuff, but recently they started doing mayonnaise in their top ramen and it's been like a crazy viral thing this is the same exact concept except it has a little bit of cheese in it and and no egg like this is like a little bit different than because mayonnaise

hot mayonnaise is the thing that people did not seem to enjoy i i'm i'm fine on it gabriel you seem like you got opinions. Yes, yes, I do. You know what? I was doing that way before TikTok. So, and I remember earlier I mentioned Top Ramen. I didn't mention the ingredients. So yeah, sometimes I throw mayonnaise or sour cream or, you know, mix it up

and then maybe add a little bit of tapatio to it to give it a little spice. And, you know, that was a meal in itself. So Alfredo sauce mixed with Top it's it's basically ghetto pasta it's it's ghetto pasta yeah makes sense and uh i don't see i don't see a problem with it that sounds actually really good that sounds it's very very macgyver ish i mean i grew up making trailer park pad thai where you take you take a little bit of sugar and peanut butter oh my god sugar and peanut butter and mix it with the top ramen i would get the spicy shrimp flavor because that got the most

citric acid in it and then i realized that's what i craved as a kid it's got that sour bite i would do the peanut butter and a little bit of sugar in there uh i think i used like sweet and low one time when i was because i don't know i was just laying around my dad put it in his coffee and so yeah like we all have our little ramen hacks and that's good eating right there the peanut butter that's very inventive Thank you very inventive. Thank you, sir. I love Thai food, especially that that one in particular and I'm like, okay I never thought to try to invent that myself Josh It never ceases to amaze me how different we are in our lives

But our foods are almost parallel because I used to put I submit peanut butter and tapatio in my top ramen. And that's just crazy how similar that is. I can't believe it. Again, my mind has been blown. That's so funny. I mentioned my dad worked at this 99 cent store and we would get this. It was a Thai sweet chili sauce,

but it was like more corn syrup than the real Thai sweet chili sauce. And I would put that in there sometimes too. Yum. That's awesome. At Micah J. Martinez, in my town, there's a combination Chipotle and Panda Express. Let me tell you, orange chicken and chow mein in a Chipotle burrito will change your life.

Yes. And that needs to happen. Where do I invest in a restaurant that would do that? Chipotle and Panda Express. Chipotle and Panda Express, two of my favorite go-tos uh i love both of them and the idea of uh of having a fusion of of asian and and you know mexican style you know uh orange chicken burrito with some uh with some noodles and some rice i mean i haven't seen your eyes your eyes lit up when we read orange chicken chow mein burrito i saw the joy physically just explode out of you.

The glint in your eye. That was beautiful. I don't know how to tell you this, but it's happening right now at the Panda Express Innovation Kitchen in Westwood. Nicole, you know what I'm talking about? I sure do know. Oh, I thought it was in Rosemead. Is it in? Oh, you're right.

You're right. You're right. It's in Rosemead. I'm Googling it. I have my expert fact checker here. What city is it in? It's in Pasadena. Pasadena. We were both wrong. Wait, my dude fact checker here. What city is it in? It's in Pasadena. Pasadena.

We were both wrong. Wait, my dude, you were wrong. It's in Pasadena off Foothill. Well, now we know. He's already Googling the directions. See you there. Is that Juan? See you there.

Is Juan doing your fact checking? Yes. Man, Juan, you're the best, dude. Since minute one, you've just been crushing it on this podcast. Juan is the unsung hero of this podcast. But yeah, dude, they're making orange chicken and chow mein burritos at this Panda Express Innovation Kitchen. I'm salivating. Okay, they're good.

There's something about the texture of noodles inside a tortilla that, like, I don't love. But the fried rice with the orange chicken, and you get some sort of, like, veggie thing in there. That sounds good. You know what? Juan has already pulled up the video. Oh, Juan. Oh, my God. Do they griddle the tortea?

Because I feel like you have to griddle the tortilla so it doesn't get all mushy. Oh, my God. Yo. Dude, they're also making a boba at this Panda Express. God, look at that. My mouth is watering. This is great.

Oh, man. So Chipotle, though, tried to open up their own like asian restaurant called shop house yeah they did but they weren't doing burritos they were doing bowls and there was only one shop house where you could get it in a burrito it was on west third oh i was gonna say i went there yes uh i wanted to check it out because um years ago uh and here's another i'll throw a little flex out there for you i did a tweet it out because um years ago uh and here's another i'll throw a little flex out there for you i did a tweet and i talked about how much i love chipotle and chipotle sent me an actual celebrity card that allowed me to go to any chipotle in the

world and get free food wow and uh when i found out that this restaurant the chop house had opened up i i you know i researched to see if i could use my card there i would have paid but i was just curious because chipotle chipotle the fact that it was chipotle based i wanted to see what what was all about yeah and so i went uh and it was it was it was a you know you could you could see the vibe the chipotle vibe but it was very much uh you know a different experience um i only ate there once. So it wasn't like they put the two together. It was its own separate thing. And I just wasn't feeling it.

It's funny the way that the whole time we've been talking about, you know, what's authentic versus what's not versus what's nostalgic and what we grew up on. Like, I have so much love for, you know, authentic Sichuan cuisine and Cantonese cuisine and all this Chinese food out there. But, man, Panda Express, it hits. Like orange chicken, there is nothing better on the face of this planet. And so like you get a company like Chipotle that's like, we're doing authentic Southeast Asian food. And it's like, I don't know, man, I kind of just want the fried chicken with that candy sauce.

That's good stuff. They did have wraps. But again, it was a little bit it's a wrap a burrito if it's a Chinese place I need a little bit of authenticity like unless the cook the staff is getting yelled at by the server

I need to hear the staff getting yelled at there needs to be some violence in that kitchen and then the food comes out nice and steamy and then it's quiet and then you see the gold cat with the paw that's going up and down. I want a grandma to start yelling at me when I try and take a picture of the food. That's happened before. And that's an experience that I want.

You know, they come out of the back and they start yelling at me. And I'm like, I apologize. Did not mean to offend. It sounds like we all just need to go get some burritos together. I mean, to me, that's the natural progression of this. I know, you know, something in the world has happened to which people cannot freely travel, et cetera. That's over soon.

We got to go travel. We're all in the same area. Gabriel, we'll come to you, man. There's some great spots in Long Beach. I'm fully vaccinated as of now, and I will be returning to touring very, very soon. Yeah. But let me tell you, though, it's, you know,

some people are going to argue about the whole vaccine thing, but I will tell you, I have a different level of confidence now. I'm not afraid to go outside. Yeah. Same. A hundred percent. I mean, Nicole, Nicole, you were the first of us to get vaccinated.

Mazel tov. Yeah. I threw, I was like, get vaccinated now. I was like, take advantage of it. Honestly, you were the driving force. Uh, yeah. I mean, I don't know if this is the time to, to spread some pro-vax messaging, but geez, go get vaccinated.

I had, I had a great time. I had to wait around the CVS for 15 minutes after they stuck me to make sure that nothing bad happened. And I bought a pint of ice cream and I ate some Haagen-Dazs butter pecan, not a sponsor, in my car in Echo Park. And I had a lovely time by myself. But yeah, I mean, on that note, I mean, thank you all for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. And to enjoy more Gabriel Iglesias, you can make plans to see him on stage in Texas this June. Tour details at fluffyguy.com. Gabe, you got anything else to plug? Where can people find you?

All that good stuff. I am the easiest person to find on the internet. All you need to do is Google the word fluffy. If you Google the word fluffy, I own the word. So I'm the first thing that pops up. So I challenge you. Just Google the word fluffy. I own the word. So I'm the first thing that pops up. So I challenge you. Just Google the word fluffy. I come up before bunnies, quilts, comforters, cotton candy.

I am the number one fluffy thing on the internet. And that took a lot of work. You sure are. That is epic. What about furry? If I Google furry, what happens? Don't Google furry. Furry, that's, yeah.

That's not you. Whatever you do, don't Google fluffer. That yeah that's not whatever you do don't whatever you do don't google fluffer that's a completely different job description so they need them but they're in demand and now that the they are very much in demand and and very much underappreciated uh-huh but you know uh but hopefully they'll unionize and and and there'll be uh you know more work for everyone but But whatever the case, you guys, thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. Anytime I get to talk about things other than just stand up, it's always an experience.

I stand by my flower choice and I look forward to trying out some of these restaurants you talked about. I'm going to reach out to my buddy, Chef Wesley now, since we got the confirmation right here and I'm going to go see if I can get me some more of them swordfish tacos. Oh, please do, man. I'll be right behind you. All right, Gabriel. Thank you so much, man.

I mean, honestly, we could tell how much you love food and everything that's the light in your eyes was absolutely beautiful. And if you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we've got new episodes for you out every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions You Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at Mythical Chef or and Hendy Zadit with the hashtag Opinion Casserole. And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at Mythical Kitchen and please Google fluffy and not fluffer. Although thank you, Gabriel, for taking half your time to plug your new tour

by just plugging the fluffers of the world unionizing because that's important too. Both are really important. Special. Thank you, guys. you