A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Love Really An Ingredient?

Episode Date: October 27, 2021

The secret ingredient to this podcast is love, which begs the question: Is Love Really An Ingredient? 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. A dash of heated debate, a pinch of irreverent personality, a skosh of Nicole yelling at me. But the real secret ingredient to this podcast? Well, it's love. Which begs the question, is love really an ingredient? This is a hot dog as 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. 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 Scher. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi. And Nicole, today we're taking on a topic that is near and dear to all of our hearts. We're taking on the topic of love. Do you believe that romantic love and sexual love are one and the same or can they be separated? They can definitely be separated. Right.

That's what I'm saying. Hondo P. It's like you can. No, no. We're talking about. Sorry. Rhett and Link just did the whole podcast series about sex and I've been listening to it a lot.

What did you learn? What? What did you learn? I learned that they haven't experimented with each other. They have not? They have not. That was. Dorks.

Missed opportunity. And he wins today. My thoughts exactly. So today we're talking about the idea of love in cooking. What it means to transmit love into cooking is love in ingredient because it is the most common secret ingredient in everybody's recipes, right? Yeah. The secret ingredient to my muffins is love.

It's like, no, it's cream of tartar. It helps you get a bigger muffin top when it hits a height. It's cream of tartar, not love. That's a chemical. It's like tartaric acid in there, not love. Okay. But what do you think it means to show, either show love through cooking or to put love as an ingredient into your cooking?

There is so many definitions of love that it's hard to necessarily explain in one sentence, like a thesis. I don't think there's like a thesis statement to this podcast. Sometimes it's two friends who host a YouTube channel exploring each other's bodies. Excuse me?

What? They started it. If they can say it on their podcast, we can talk about it on ours. All right? You know, different audience and demos. Are we in trouble, Maggie? Okay.

Well, again, love just has so many different definitions. I think it's a case-by-case basis of what love means to you, what love means to me, what love means to anybody. But whenever people say they put love in their food or love is an ingredient, I think that means dedication. I think that means time. I think that means an experience that with your food i don't i i people say oh it's like the best quality ingredients that's not true i don't agree with it people are like oh i use like this salt i use this tomato i use this basil like i don't think that's what love is i don't think love equals great increase i think love is taking the time and

appreciation of what you have and presenting it in a very just honest way. Yeah. I think that's what it is. Like there's a way to take a dollar steak from Walmart and put enough love into that to make it into something that will bring somebody more joy than, say, a more expensive ingredient. Yes. Some people will say that's maybe sous vide-ing it. Some people maybe say that's putting a bunch of cool spices on it. Chemical tenderizer.

Yeah. It's good sometimes. Some people might say that's putting a bunch of cool spices on it chemical tenderizer yeah some people it's good sometimes some people might say that's what love is but i i do think it's time and preparation is what it it means to me at least which which is to say sacrifice sacrifice like not to get this is gonna go down a deep rabbit hole but that's all you do when you put extra time in your cooking right it's the opportunity cost of i could be playing video games i could be watching football yeah doom scrolling through twitter yeah so whatever but instead you're taking extra time in your cooking, right? It's the opportunity cost of I could be playing video games, I could be... Watching football. Yeah, doom scrolling through Twitter. Whatever, but instead you're taking that extra

time to put that into a dish to bring somebody else joy. And to me that's the sacrifice, in a way. Yeah, sure. And I think that's one of the essences of love in a way. Love in general. Your willingness to sacrifice. Well, sacrifice and compromise are like one in the same, right? They're cousins. They're kissing cousins. They love to kiss. Kissing cousins kissing you never heard that term wait hold on that's a term

right what does that mean though because that's i've never heard of that's like a crime that's like a relative known well oh oh it's not a romantic kiss oh oh the term kissing cousins doesn't mean romantic kiss what does it mean oh this podcast is off to a weird start, Nicole. I guess. It is a relative known well enough to be greeted with a kiss. Oh, so all of my family members. I was going to say, that's culturally dependent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My family's South African.

Everybody kisses on the cheek. Yeah, we kiss on the cheek too. Yeah. Well, anyways, point is, yeah, sacrifice, compromise, love, all those things are into it. Would you say you cook with love? Often. And you cook often for your husband? I do. uh point is yeah sacrifice compromise love all those things are into it do you like would you say you cook with love often and you cook often for your husband i do do you cook with love for him more or less i try to all the time but also i it's one of those situations where it's like i cook all the time anyways and it's like do i cook at home now and then do i transmit the same

energy and the food that I do for a show and the food that I create for my romantic partner? It's like, where's the line? Like, there's different energies when I cook. I do agree with that. Like, there's like, like I say all the time, intent matters. I want this food to be good for the bosses that sign my checks every day.

And then I also want the food to be good for my husband, but I also don't want him to die of coronary heart disease. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't want to put too much butter in it. But also he, like, has his dietary restrictions, and, like, he always says it's good, but, like, sometimes it's just, like, not. Like, I've come to terms with that, too.

What do you mean sometimes it's not? Like, do you think he lies to you? Do you think he butters your bread just to butter your bread? Of course. Well, that's what partners do. Oh, true. Sometimes you give, like, little white lies to like keep each other. But would you like intentionally serve him a bad dish that you knew like, hey, this is messed up.

I'm not going to take the extra time to try and figure it out, fix it, pivot it. I haven't done that yet. Yeah. I mean like I've done things where I like overcooked a steak before and like there's nothing I can do at that point. I mean I've done the same thing. There's nothing you can do. And then what I do is I hack it up. I find like, you know, a jar of salsa in the fridge.

I saute up some like peppers and whatever else I got. And then you kind of pivot that dish to something else. No, I still like present it as is. And I just, I'm just really apologetic. And the whole time I'm eating it, I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Is it okay? I'm sorry.

Are you going to be okay with this? I'm sorry. So that's what I do. No, that, okay. So I cook dinner for Julia, I mean, almost every night. That's nice of you. Like pretty much every single weeknight I cook dinner. That's really nice of you.

And on Sundays, depending on how hungover I am, I will do like a fair amount of meal prep and all, you know, get sauces, marinades. Like literally this Sunday I marinated like four pounds of chicken that I'm going to go out and grill. I made like a slaw, you know, doing a kind of little classic barbecue chicken. Nice. Also, you and I had a conversation recently that when we cook in our own homes, and this is not a sponsor, but we make what we called hello fresh ass meals. Oh, all the time. Yeah. We have to.

I feel like every weeknight meal that I cook is like a hello fresh ass meal. It's like this is my spicy turkey bulgogi sliders on whole wheat rolls. You know, it's like it's healthy. It's flavorful. It has to be healthy on the healthier side, I guess. Yeah, but it's still like creative and has some, you know, some oomph to it. Yeah, unique flavor combinations. Yeah.

But when I cook for Julia, you've seen me cook for myself in the kitchen. For you? Do you remember what I told you I'm going to make after this podcast? No. We have boneless, skinless chicken breast and we have cabbage. And I'm going to put both of those in a pan and I'm going to bash it up. And I'm going to pour some salsa and yogurt on it and I'm going to eat it with a spoon. And when I'm left to my own devices, like before I was in a relationship, that's like how I would eat a lot of nights.

It's like a really tasty mush of food. But it's like, look, I have a lot of stuff to do. I just need nutrients and flavor inside of me. Yeah. But then now I'm like going out have a lot of stuff to do. I just need nutrients and flavor inside of me. Yeah. But then now I'm like going out of my way. Is that love? I think that's love. It's like sacrificing that part because that's what I sacrifice.

When I put love into my food, to me, that means I'm taking the extra time to like yesterday, I made perfect matchstick cuts on the apples to go into this lovely little champagne vinegar slaw. Okay. With whole mustard seeds in the vinegar. It's so yummy. But you know what I mean? It's little stuff like that that I would never do if I'm just eating for myself. And it's not just to like impress somebody, right?

Yeah. It's to show them that like, hey, this is something you do a lot of things for me. This is the thing I can do for you is give you matchstick cuts. But that's what I'm asking you. Is you eating the chicken salsa yogurt cabbage, is that love for you? So I'm, oh, oh, that's like self-love. I'm asking you. Is you eating the chicken salsa yogurt cabbage, is that love for you? Oh, that's like self-love. I'm asking you, is that considered, do you put love into that meal? I don't know.

I think it's self-compassion in a way. Because for me, what the chicken yogurt cabbage meal is to me, that's me saving my energies for somebody else. Okay. You know, that's me saving my energies for somebody else. Okay. You know, that's what it is. It's like, I don't, I don't want to like burn out cooking for myself because I can like save that energy. Nicole, our bodies are like batteries. We only have, I mean, I feel like in a way, right?

You only have so much emotional energy, so much physical time to give. That's very true. In terms of cooking, like you said, we're cooking all the time here. We're constantly thinking about food. Sometimes for me, if I'm cooking for myself, it's so lovely to turn my brain off and just be like, this is protein. This is flavor that my body responds well to. This has dietary fiber in it. I'm going to just sloop it into my mouth. And so for me, that's me saving up my potential love that I can give to somebody else, whether it's my partner

or whether it's cooking for friends. Sure. You know? But now. Sorry, your voice kind of got a little. I was looking at the water. What do you think, like, did you grow up eating food cooked with love? Of course. Like, would you say that? All the time. Tell me about it.

We're here. I ain't got nothing else to do. Well, my mom's just, like, she just spent a lot of time in the kitchen. She didn't. She was a full-time, like, mom. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen. She didn't. She was a full time like mom. She stayed at home mom. Like her job was just nourishing the kids, keeping a clean house and all the things that go with it. So I had a lot of home cooked meals that were very much full of love.

Do you think that like really informed how you view your own cooking now? Like for other people? No. No? Not really. Now it's just like different generation, different time. I got stuff to do. Yeah.

Unfortunately. I mean, yeah, I wish that I had the bandwidth to like sit at home, chop my own greens, put it in a food processor to make it finer, fry it up, remove it from the fryer, let it cool, make a stew base, cut my meat myself and like sit there for four and a half hours and make a stew i don't have that kind of time god that sounds so awesome i know i wish i wish i did sometimes but also i'm like i'm so blessed that i get to wake up and do what i want every day and like not have like expectations at like my home at the same time can we can we just turn this entire podcast into like advocating for more single income households?

Because like, and this is not a thing on a gender bias because I'm trying to be the stay at home parent here. You are? Wow. I would love to just, oh my God, you could make your kids little bento boxes. It's my dream, yeah. Cut the crust off the sandwiches and carve it into like a shape of their favorite ninja turtle or whatever. Honeydew flowers.

For the little porcupines, little hedgehogs. Strawberry stars. Rice balls. Come on. So cute. All I want porcupines, little hedgehogs. Strawberry stars. Rice balls. Come on. So cute. All I want to do. If I could devote my entire energy, I love my job. Let's just say that.

Me too. Don't get it twisted. Yeah, I do too. But like if I could devote my entire energy to just the thing that I am good at, which is cooking. I'm good at throwing heavy metal balls and cooking and showing people my love through that task and skill. I could devote all of my time to just doing that for the people I care about most. What a cool existence that would be. Yeah. Some people, but some people don't like that. That's also an expectation for people to always be the person to like give love through food is also probably quite taxing at the same time. No, true. It sucks if you're – and especially people who like don't want to do that.

Like I didn't grow up with a ton of food cooked with love per se, which is maybe like why I feel that very strongly inside myself that this is something I should give to other people. But I'm trying to think of like moments from my childhood. One of my mom's signature dishes, we would boil cauliflower and then you'd take a single Kraft American single, but not Kraft. It was like bootleg shoppers value American single.

And you would lay it over the hot cauliflower and it would just kind of curl over the top and then you'd eat it. That sounds good to me. Is that love? You tell me. Maybe. You tell me. But I think it's like those memories where it's like now I want to be able to like take that and give that to somebody else.

That makes sense. What happens when the FDA gets involved? Oh, that's a good question. And love is an ingredient on a prepackaged good. What do we do then? So we're talking about the idea of like how people show love through food. When people very casually say

the secret ingredient to my stew is love, right? Like obviously there's no little sprinkle, sprinkle powder of love. It's probably MSG. It goes by the name of accent. Accent. Accent.

Yeah, it's called accent. It's like they call like, they don't call seasoning salt, like flavor enhancer. Flavor enhancer. Flavor enhancer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is the, one of the few American brands of pure MSG on the shelves today.

And again, MSG, not bad for you. Not bad for you. I guess like everything you need in moderation. MSG is love. I'm not even going to front. Also, when people talk about MSG being bad for you, like, have you heard about all the other stuff? So many other things are bad for you too, like chill. Seriously.

Chill. I don't know. Sugar, whatever. Didn't the FDA say it's more addictive than cocaine? It's highly plausible. I don't know. Anyways, actually, that was a headline that came out a while ago. That is, boy, is that really a misunderstanding of the data.

But any whom, yeah, so there was a really famous case, and that was one of the things that inspired this podcast today, where there was a bakery in Massachusetts. It's called the Nashoba Brook Bakery. Ooh, what is the origin of that? I don't know. Nashoba? Nashoba?

Nashoba. Nashoba Brook. They're based in Concord, Massachusetts. Massachusetts? Maine? Concord. Where's Concord? Something tells me Maine.

I don't know. Somewhere in New England. Does M-A mean Maine or M-A mean Massachusetts? M is Massachusetts. M is M-E. Look at us remembering our second year of education. I don't know. Somewhere in New England. Does M-A mean Maine or M-A mean Massachusetts? M-A is Massachusetts. M-A is M-E. Look at us remembering our second year of education. I don't remember. Maggie had to pull it up.

I'm not going to front it all. Anyways, it was a bakery that literally listed love as an ingredient on their label. And the FDA actually had to send them a thing being like, you need to reprint. Yeah, they were like, you need to reprint all these labels because love is, and there's some actual language they used. Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name. Love, quote unquote. I love that the FDA with a quote unquote

is denouncing the idea that love might possibly even exist. Love is not a common or usual name of an ingredient and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of an ingredient and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient. FDA, open up your heart, man. They can't. Let me in, FDA. They can't.

I just want to love you. Deeply, darkly, deep. No, what's that song? It's called Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden, I believe. Savage Garden, please write the FDA a letter. Tell them to have love as an ingredient label. No, I'm very grateful for the fact that there are regulatory agencies that allow, that have standards. I think so.

I do love that this is the first time because so many companies, right, they use love as a marketing tool to be like, our crap's made with love, not like Kind Bar granola or whatever. They're not made with love. Ours is. They're made in a factory yeah and then like yours isn't hater like what are you trying to say uh no speaking of kind bar have you had the new frozen no but you tweeted about it and you need to bring it into the office so i can eat it i don't i don't like a snickers bar it's exactly like a snicker the snickers ice

cream bars are one of the greatest confections of all time so good but like how many times have you just wanted to casually eat one of those on a weeknight? It feels weird. It feels irresponsible as an adult. Yeah, as an adult, you can't do that. Right? Yeah. But then Kind Bar comes out. This is not a sponsor.

I'm just enamored with it because there are so few times where I see a new product and I'm like, that is good. I want that. That is a good product. Well, shout out the Nature Valley nut butter biscuits. Those are awesome. Oh, I just had one and it was fire. Pretty fire office snack. There's probably love in there. Yeah. Oh, shout out the Nature Valley nut butter biscuits. Those are awesome. I just had one and it was fire.

Pretty fire office snicker. There's probably love in there. Yeah, there's definitely love in there. But the kind bars, they take the structure of the Snickers ice cream bar, but then it's like

all made with almond and dark chocolate and like a little bit of sea salt on there. Oh my God. Like the Haagen-Dazs ones? Yeah. And you don't even notice

that it's not like real dairy ice cream because- It's not? No, it's almond based. Wow, wow, wow.'s not? No, it's almond-based. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah.

Bro, you got to get on these. Okay, I'm good. Anyways, point is, FDA officially said that love could not be used as an ingredient, which is good. Good. My favorite thing, this is actually something I did not know until Mindy wrote it in our research packet. Shout out, Mindy. This is something that I did not know. Also in the factory, there were, quote, remnants of pepper jack dough, which has a dairy allergen observed on the inside of the lip and outer edges of stainless steel mixing bowl for granola.

And then also approximately a one inch long crawling insect underneath exposed ready to eat foods in the pastry area. I didn't know that about this bakery that used love in the ingredients. So they're using love as a smoke screen to cover up the fact that they got bug infestations in their actual facility. It's not as uncommon as you think. No, I know. I used to, I will... You don't have to call anyone out if you don't want to.

Oh, I'll leave the name of the company disclosed. But when I worked for them, we had a little red alert when the health inspector would come. And we just had a closet. And we'd just take all the crap that wasn't safe and we'd throw it in the one closet and then have someone stand guard.

Sounds accurate. I mean, the best restaurants do this. Remember the Squirrel? Squirrel? Yeah, the jam? It's one of the most popular restaurants in LA. Very, very fancy. Charged like $13 for a piece of toast and it's an incredible piece of toast.

Never had the pizza toast there. You never had the toast? I've had the toast. I've had the ricotta toast with the jam. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Oh, we called it pizza toast. I said pizza. Like a piece of, a piece the toast. I had the ricotta toast with the jam. Oh, that's what I'm talking about. Oh, we called it pizza toast. I said pizza. Like a piece of, a piece of toast.

I thought you said pizza toast. No, but that's the thing. But then they found out that this place was charging $13 for a toast. They just had these giant buckets of jam covered in mold in their walk-in. And they were instructed to scoop off the mold. And, like, there's some, you know, debate on whether or not that's actually unsafe or not. Like apparently they had mycologist consulting and they're like, yeah, that happens. Whatever, you scoop it off and go on.

Yeah, it's like a touchy subject for people. Most of the time the secret ingredient in restaurant prepackaged foods is just that there's bug infestations and mold literally everywhere in food production because that's how it happens. No, it happens. It happens. You can't – it's just a reality of mass-produced food. Even like micro-produced food, it happens sometimes. You can't blame the reality of food.

Food is gross. Do you think companies can cook with love? No. No. I think it's impossible. You think it's solely a human-to-human transaction? Yes. In the way that a brand can't love you on Twitter.

Well, have you seen the movie Her? No. You haven't seen Her? Oh, so let me, but I love where this is going. Let me kind of like, like spoil it for you.

So, uh, Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his phone that sounds like Scarlett Johansson, but also the phone is in love with like 55 million other people or something.

And so, and like, they're probably in love with the phone too, but like, that's the thing. Like you can learn love. I don't think factories can recreate love and put it in food. I think they can recreate time. I think they can recreate processing. But I don't think they can recreate like a pinch of cinnamon that my grandma used to put in her porridge. Like, you know what I mean? I think you can. No. Well, okay, hold on.

If we talked about the idea of putting love in cooking as sacrifice being sort of the essence of love, right? Taking time away from you that you could be doing something else and trying to give that joy to somebody else. What if that's like one of these companies where the CEO now, no, this isn't going anywhere, but I'll keep going with it.

Where the CEO, they're taking a monetary hit, Nicole. Oh, no. Because, oh, well, hold on. They're like, hey, hey, hey. $17,000 gone? If we don't wash the oats, if you spend an extra $30 million a year washing 8 trillion tons of oats, then we know that this product is going to be 2% better. And we know that the returns aren't going to hit us.

We know that we're taking a hit by washing the oats. I don't know what recipe they're washing oats for but just play along here. And the company like deliberately not making as much money as they could because they want to make their food with love.

That's like a sacrifice just on a corporate scale. Well why are you equating corporate why are you equating monetary loss to like sacrifice of time? Well because I mean

that's you know extra time for they got to spend to wash the oats. Love is special. Love is sacred. Love is different on a case to case basis.

Yeah. And the brands will never love you. Brands will never love you. No, like I don't think like corporations can recreate food made with love. I think they can recreate food made with sustenance and delicious flavors and being able to replicate. That's really cool, but I don't think that equates love at all. Yeah.

I just don't. Sorry. Your point is moot. That's from the song Jenny's, Jessie's Girl. They say your point is moot in that? Yeah. Remember that one time we did a GMM episode about how we cooked with love?

Yeah. Did we find anything? No! Out in that episode? No! Yeah. Well, that's a whole, people don't,

doing a real scientific study is a lot more difficult to do like on a, in the middle of a YouTube show, you know, than it is, say, like in a laboratory. Well, I'm saying, you know,

like there were certain, we do the best we can, but, you know, I don't know if like Trevor wanted to make sexy time with that apple pie and me. Of course he did.

You know, quoting the cure lyrics to it. There's someone who i've watched cook who i think really exemplifies the idea of like putting love in your food and if we're talking about love in those like unseen moments where you're doing the extra things adding the extra time into your food even though say science couldn't necessarily explain that right what's that what's that quote from the movie Thor that is actually a quote from history? Never seen Thor.

Magic is just science that hasn't been explained yet. Natalie Portman says it. And speaking of love, love Natalie Portman. What a career she's had. She's like really smart. Did you know that? She went to Harvard while they were filming

Star Wars Episode I. She's brilliant. The point is I think love in cooking is like the science that hasn't been explained yet of cooking. Okay. People talk about cooking as chemistry and it's like, yeah, everything's chemistry. The voice you're hearing right now is happening because of chemical reactions. Is it?

There's an intangible, of course. That's it. That's all the world. There's a chemical that makes you talk? I think it's like vocal. It's a combination of. Josh, I think it's more like motor skills. No, I mean, it's the chemical synapses that are firing in your brains are happening.

Yeah, I guess. Anyways, point is, I think cooking, it's of course chemistry, but it's also there's a lot of unexplained sort of chemistry going on in a lot of things. I remember watching Korean chef Jong Kwon cook. She is a Buddhist monk who cooks, you know, vegan food according to this Korean Buddhist diet. Cool. And I watched a video of her making, it was actually with chef Eric Ripert, of making this braised mushroom dish. Wow. And every single ingredient that she had was like, this is from a 300-year-old tree, the ginkgo nuts that she was using was from a 300-year-old tree. And Eric Ripert tasted salt and she was like, what is this?

I've never had salt like this. And she goes, oh, it's like a five-year-age salt. And he's like, why do you age the salt? And she's like, if you age the salt, it draws out the impurities and then also it removes some of the bitterness. And, like, I don't know if you could actually measure that with the speculum or whatever the – is that a very – A speculum is used in... Wait, hold on.

Yeah, but what was I thinking of? Spectrometer? Oh, God. Oh, no. I meant spectrometer. What's a spectrometer? Maggie, look up spectrometer, not speculum. It's like when you mix up kabuki and the other word.

Spectrometer. I don't know if you can measure the impurities with a spectrometer or a speculum or whatever other tool you want to use. But, I mean, every single thing she does, there's like, you know, an extra 12 steps that I would never think about. But it's learned, you know, through one, she believes cooking is an act of meditation. That's very nice. Wow, what a pleasure it must be. Right?

To think of food as meditation. Oh, my God, yeah. Instead of just it being your daily dose of stress. It's not stress. It's just like it's nice to know that she's taken something that is so necessary for life. That's like saying drinking water is meditation. Well, I mean, that's – God, I took – hey, I'm a white guy who's going to talk about what Zen Buddhism is. Welcome to California.

But no, I took one class in college about the history of Zen Buddhism. That's cool. It was really fascinating. And apparently that was a really big thing. It was like literally meditating while doing simple tasks, like sweeping a floor. Cleaning and prepping leaks was a big one, which is why I want to get the leak tattoo on my arm.

I love, do you know that I'm obsessed with teaching about people how to clean leaks? Really? Oh my God. I like talk to Trevor and V all the time. Like, these are so dirty. This is the best way to clean them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.. It's a big thing.

There was there was a Buddhist teacher that like believed in cleaning leaks as like the best form of meditation. Nice. That's a big thing. But I think, you know, it's those unseen steps, the things that you are sacrificing for, you know, that you can put in your food that really is a form of love. I think you're right. I think you're right.

I think you're right. I think you're right. All right, Nicole, I've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casserole! First up, we got a guy in babies. You got a bunch of babies running this Instagram account? He's a guy with a bunch of babies.

Kids shouldn't have Instagram until they're at least three. If you make something and it's not as good as you hoped, make sauce slash dressing and hide it. We literally... Josh literally says he does this. Yeah, you don't do that? I try not to. Why? I don't know.

Don't own your mistakes. Lie about it. I know. I know.'t do that? I try not to. Why? I don't know. Don't own your mistakes. Lie about it. I know. I know. I do that. Yeah, I do this all the time. You know what the single best ingredient you can keep in your pantry or fridge is?

Yes. What? Jar of salsa. Heck yeah, it is. I don't feel like people know it enough as like an ingredient to add to things. I think it's just a condiment to dip chips in. Mine's hummus. You just saucing it up with hummus? I always got a lot of, no, I don't do this.

I'm just saying the one thing I always have in my fridge is. Dip it in hummus? Hummus. Brush your teeth with hummus? Johan style? Stop. So embarrassing. Yeah, this is true.

When in doubt, ranch it up, baby. And pass with the Q instead of an A says, mayonnaise is gross and doesn't belong on anything unless as a butter substitute. I like mayonnaise. What are you talking about? Yeah, this is a very common opinion. Not to shame this empath. Also, for an empath, like... You're not being empathetic to the mayonnaise loving community.

I'm just curious about what... how special butter is to you that you think mayonnaise is gross, doesn't belong on anything unless it's a butter substitute. What are the things you're substituting? Grill cheese sandwiches. Yeah, like I've- That's it.

I remember going to a fancy restaurant when I was like 18. It was the first time I took- Which one? It was called Te Amo Ristorante in Laguna Beach. I took my high school girlfriend there. Laguna.

And I spent like three weeks worth of, you know, like camp counseling. She had cold stone money. I had camp counseling money. Oh, nice. Which is to say like not enough to cover the gas in my 95 Ford Taurus. But I like, you know, dropped all the money I had on that dinner.

And they served grissini. I know what that is. No, breadstickies. Yes. Instead of butter, mayonnaise. Dipping breadsticks in mayonnaise. And you liked it? Right there on the beach.

And I loved it. She was reared up by it. But I kind of dig using mayonnaise instead of butter on like most things. I don't love butter that much. What is whipped butter if not mayonnaise? Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. Whipped butter is literally...

A lot of people think mayonnaise is dairy. Ain't got nothing to do with dairy. I sometimes used to think that when I was younger. Why are eggs kept in the dairy section? That's a great question. I don't have the answer. You should ask people that own Ralph's. They're kind of like Reaper.

Kroger. Ask Ralph. Why? People think eggs are dairy. It's weird. People think eggs are dairy? Well, yeah. Just because they're in the dairy section?

I feel like that's a Twitter poll worth asking. Is eggs dairy? Eggs are not dairy. Of course they're not, but I feel like that's a Twitter poll worth asking. Is eggs dairy? Eggs are not dairy. Of course they're not, but I feel like people think they are. No, they don't. It's like how they think that normal milk is vanilla because chocolate milk is chocolate. Josh, you just have past trauma about that, and I'm sorry. Oh, that makes sense.

That makes sense. All right, next one up. We got at emmeline underscore P. Cottage cheese and applesauce was the best snack of my childhood. Did you grow up in a retirement home? No, no. Hold on. One, we don't know what era they are, but how many like boomer to Gen X parents.

I grew up with cottage cheese. I did too. My mom was trying to lose weight in the 80s. The newtsons with the pineapple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so this is a very common. I take a little bit of jam, throw that on some cottage cheese and just eat eat it and now i haven't stocked cottage cheese in my own fridge ever as an adult either i don't like dislike it i just what am i gonna eat cottage cheese i'd rather

have the yogurt oh i love i've started getting more into greek yogurt like i try to eat at least a greek yogurt a day because i have such good probiotics oh my god i've started doing what dude when we have kids uh kids, they're gonna be recording the same podcast. They're gonna be like, Greek yogurt and like, honey, what did you grow up in a retirement home? Do you think our kids are gonna continue the legacy of our pod? Of course, well, I don't know.

I mean, like, inshallah, but you know, but no, like, everything cyclical in terms of diet, right? Greek yogurt is for sure the stupid thing that we eat that our kids are going to go, you're so stupid for eating that. But it's not a diet thing, it's just good probiotics. It's a diet thing for me. Well, it is for you, yeah.

I mean, not like a diet thing, but it's got like 20 grams of protein in three quarters of a cup. Like, of course, I'm just going to add that to my random chicken-cabbage mixture. Chandler Q02 says, foods that taste like chicken, in quotes, have zero right to be prepared if chicken exists or is made poorly. So this is like fake chicken.

Like, have you ever been to like a vegan restaurant and they have like faux chicken on the menu? Yeah, it's great. Yeah. I don't love it. Why? It tastes just like chicken. It's kind of spongy. Yeah, but like some of my favorite chicken is spongy.

Yeah, but that's a huge thing. You love McNuggets. Oh, I love McNuggets. You think you couldn't make a perfect vegan McNugget substitute? I could try. Beyond's doing it right now. Or maybe it's impossible. Eh, one of them.

Those companies wouldn't like that I'm getting it mixed up, but screw it. That's okay. One of them is at Panda right now. Wow. And they do a vegan orange chicken that is fan-freaking-tastic. Wow, really? Yeah. Good for them.

If you order Panda for lunch, they got a new almond chicken that I want to try. Yeah, you told me about this almond chicken like 15 times. Yeah, I'm pretty high on this almond chicken. I know what it's gonna taste like. And I want you to taste it. It's gonna be sweet, it's gonna have some almonds on it, and I'm gonna love it. I think it's gonna be marzipany. Really? Like melted marzipan, and that doesn't do anything for me. I'm not opposed. Not opposed.

Alright, we got at KaylaBug8, ground meat, especially ground beef, is disgusting. The texture is repulsive and the taste is too. I think people get a lot of bummy ground beef. Yeah. I mean, I eat one of my most common meats to be eaten, and I kind of recognize it as a little bit disgusting, are the three-pound bricks of ground turkey. The Jenny Owens?

Yeah, it's not a name of brand, but, like, probably. Sorry. No, I mean, you know, Jenny O, come sponsor our Thanksgiving episode. It's disgusting name a brand, but probably. Sorry. No, I mean, Jenny O, come sponsor our Thanksgiving episode. It's disgusting and I love it. But it's like wet and gray. You know what I mean? And I just eat this wet gray ground meat and it doesn't even have texture to it

almost. You can give it texture. I've cooked with it too. You gotta really cook it hard. You gotta cook it hard. Why is it so wet? I don't know. It's so wet. But it's good for you. And it comes out in lines. It looks like spaghetti in the package. You gotta cook it hard. Why is it so wet? I don't know. It's so wet. But it's good for you. And it comes out in like lines. It looks like spaghetti in the package.

I like, oh my God. I like, there was like this whole thing where like I was a food stylist and I like got into fights with the director because they're like, take the ground meat and shape it into a ball in a bowl so the lines don't show.

But I'm like, the lines are cool. That's how you know it's ground meat. And they're like, no. And I'm like, no. I think I agree with you though. It's ground meat. And they're like, no. And I'm like, no. I think I agree with you, though. It's like, that's what, if you were to draw ground meat in a cartoon. Yeah.

Like, that's what it would look like. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I try to explain. I support you on that entirely. Thank you. I don't work there anymore,

so it doesn't matter. I also see how people would find, like, industrial ground meat a little bit disturbing, especially, like, if you grew up in a household that didn't eat a ton of meat, and you see that. Like, this was once an animal that's pretty wild. Yeah, it is. That said, a good bit disturbing, especially like if you grew up in a household that didn't eat a ton of meat and you see that, like this was once an animal that's pretty wild.

Yeah, it is. That said, a good like, you ever see how they make like Japanese, not Tsukumen, what's the other one? Tsukune. Tsukune, not Tsukumen.

Well, they're like hand chopped the meat. That's good. Which is fun. I like like really- A lot more texture. Like every time I go to like a good butcher

and I see that like big die, like big die cut, like ground beef. Coarse. Coarse, yeah. Coarse, coarse ground meat. And you can see the pebbles every time I go to like a good butcher and I see that like big die like big die cut like coarse coarse coarse beautiful and you can see the pebbles of the white fat with like this beautiful like like red and sometimes like ruddy red oh we got we got we got that ground beef from a local butcher called Gwen that

owned by Curtis Stone friend of the show I've always wanted to say that I've always wanted to say that ground beef is the best we have friends of the show now If you go on Spotify it shows who the guests have been It's pretty rad I know Elizabeth underscore Sasha says

Stale Doritos actually slap So I have a friend who loves stale Cheetos Is it Elizabeth Sasha? No Maybe Elizabeth are we friends And they love stale Cheetos I don't like stale chipsetos, but stale Doritos. I don't like stale chips.

Some people love stale chips. I'm not about that life. No, I like stale Peeps. I like stale store-bought sheet cake. I ate a bunch of stale graham crackers last night. I enjoyed that. It gets soft. Stale graham crackers are good.

Yeah, it gets nice and cakey. I like that. Stale caramel corn is great because it hardens the caramel even further. That's not good for the soft teeth community. No, it's not, but we thrive on. Okay, we're allowed our indulgences. Sometimes you got to take a risk, you know. I ate a gummy candy the other day.

Wow. Chewed it very carefully. I'm sure you did. You chewed in the front like this. Yeah, yeah. No loose crowns in the front, baby. No loose crowns in the front. Stale Doritos, though, it. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. No loose crowns in the front, baby. No loose crowns in the front. Stale Doritos, though.

It's not my particular jam. It's just the crispness of a Dorito is the most pleasant chip texture of all the chip textures. Uh-huh. Oh. You know? And so I think sacrificing that is rough. I like ridges. You like ridges?

Ruffles with ridges. I like the extra thick ruffles. Oh. You remember that one time we had that? Dude, it looks like aluminum sheeting. It's amazing. Oh, my God. The really crazy ruffles, it looks that one time? Dude, it looks like aluminum sheeting. It's amazing. Oh my God. The really crazy ruffles,

it looks like... It's like jagged. It's amazing. It's like you get tetanus from it. It's so good. And then it's the Buffalo Ranch flavor. Those were the best chips I've had in a long time.

It holds so much powder in that. Aluminum siding freaking bridges. Dude, I am gleeking. I haven't heard the term gleeking yet. I am gonna gleek right now. Oh, wait, hold on. This next one's exciting to me. We got, at Mr. Dirton, melted cheese on toast with curry powder is god-tier breakfast, and you can't change my mind.

Heck yes. Something special happens. Okay, so. Is this chaat? Is this chaat? Yeah, this is toast chaat. Speaking of classic Indian cookery, right, there's a method of making a tadka or tarka. Yeah.

Where you express the oils and the spices. You're making a bootleg version of this. When you melt the cheese with the curry powder, then you get the expression of the hot oil from the cheese on the curry powder that's like elevating it up just a little bit more. Like I say, it's a janky bootleg version. It's not a tarka by any means. But heck, if it doesn't make the curry powder that you're getting from McCormick's taste better. And I agree with this. I've done this before, and that is a delight.

I don't, I've never had the wonderful, I already know it's a wonderful combination of cheese and curry powder. But I'm going to very soon, and I'm very excited about that. Sam.Kube says, chocolate ice cream is the worst ice cream. It's usually bitter and tastes like a shovel full of cocoa powder. Preach. I'm not the biggest chocolate ice cream fan either. I do love a good Rocky Road. I do have a good malted crunch from Rite Aid slash 50s.

But yeah, I like vanilla ice cream. I like vanilla based ice cream. I like strawberry. I like mint chip. I like cookie dough. But I don't necessarily love chocolate ice cream. Are there chocolate ice creams that you do love? I mean, chocolate malted Crunch from Thrifty.

That one. What a treat of an ice cream that is. I like Rocky Road. That could compete. If you put Chocolate Malted Crunch in a Jenny's or what's the other one? Talenti Gelato, like one of the fancy $9 pint ones. Yeah. No one would know the difference.

They'd just be like, this is one of the best ice creams I've ever had. Malted Chocolate is a wonderful flavor. Yes. Malt Chocolate rocks. Malt is the MSG of desserts. I love malt. I love malt. Yes. Malt chocolate rocks. Malt is the MSG of desserts. I love malt. I love malt. There are some chocolate ice creams.

Like, I think you got to go. I don't really love dark chocolate that much, especially if it's in a dessert where it's like, I'm here for something sweet. I'm trying to end my night. Give me something pleasant. I don't want to think about it. I love dark chocolate desserts, though. But occasionally, like a dark chocolate sorbet. I was going to say dark chocolate sorbet.

Dark chocolate sorbet is a trip because you don't get the kind of like dairy distracting you from the chocolate. That's true. Just pure, just ice chocolate and whatever, like almond, whatever you're putting in it. Non-dairy chocolate works almost better for me than chocolate ice cream. Nice. Okay. We got at ratchet underscore Rach27. If a hot dog is a sandwich, which it may or may not be,

is the banana that I stick in a slice of bread with peanut butter a sandwich? Of course. Yeah. You're making a peanut butter and banana sandwich, one of the greatest sandwiches of all time. Even if you're not slicing up the banana, you're folding the bread around it. That's the same as a hot dog bun. Yeah, of course it's a sandwich. This is an ice cream.

What? This is ice cream. Oh, I thought they said the banana's on a stick. I don't know how to read. Never mind. Yeah, this is a sandwich. No, this is one of the... This is probably my breakfast on like 30% of days.

Yeah, you eat a lot of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good for you. I take a single slice of bread and I put the banana in it so you can fold the corners of the bread together at the top. That's nice. Thank you for showing me with your hands. I'm showing Nicole with my hands like a steeple. You know what I... Because you could do it so you fold it down the rectangle, but no, no, I make it like a triangle because then you get to hold it at the top.

That makes so much sense. You know what I like to do? I like to go... So I don't like to do this. I like to take my banana and I take a chopstick and I carve out a trough. Oh. And then I put banana... I mean, I put either Nutella or peanut butter in the trough.

And then I feed it to people. And then I take the chopstick and I cut it up and I feed it to people. And that's love. And that's love. That's love, baby. Banana trough. Banana trough. That's the essence of love, I think.

Ring, ring, ring. Banana trough. God dang it. Oh, man. At Aman Naveed says, protein powder tastes like chalk, but I still eat it for the macros. Lol. I feel like he was probably addressing this to me, Nicole. Yeah, is that true?

No, it was to my IG story. Uh-uh. Okay, you got it. You got it. You got it. I don't do this. Nicole, what's your macro breakdown, right? Josh, take it over.

You going like a 40-30-30, or what's your split? What do I look like? Do you do one gram protein per pound of body weight like what's your split if i did that i would be carb cycle or not do you carb cycle bro i i don't do anything i just see food and i eat it literally uh yeah i think i said a joke once it was like i'm on the seafood diet like i get it you see it was like, I eat scallops till I throw up. That's a good joke. That's a good joke.

I don't track macros. I eat a ton of protein powder. And if you, like, trick yourself enough, like, I drink a thing most nights. Trick yourself? Yeah. I feel like if you retrain your body, like, when you were young, you didn't like black coffee. You know, you probably didn't like the first sip of beer that you had. But you trick yourself over a long period of time into thinking that it tastes

good even though it's poison for your body much like protein powder um and so eventually you'll get to a point where like me you can toss banana ice protein powder and a tiny bit of peanut butter into a blender and then uh with a little bit of dark cocoa powder in it a little bit of cinnamon did you say date what throw a date in there yeah throw it in there what are you doing i use prunes i use prunes uh and it tastes like a milkshake. So I think with the right, I think people who are just slamming pure protein powder with water or milk, it's not great. But honestly, protein powder, I get the chocolate malt flavored protein powder.

Got actual malt powder in there. Smart, smart, smart. Iced banana blended up, you know, maybe a little bit of milk, a little bit of water to thin it out. And that's a treat every night. I really enjoy it. I'm happy for you. Yeah, I started tricking Julia into drinking it too, getting her yoked.

That's love. Trickery. Tricking people into getting yoked. Oh, yes, yes. A lot of people ask me, did you trick David? I'm like, no, he tricked me. All right, we got MJ McD. Tejina belongs on every food.

Not every food. Dude, you know what I did last night? I do like it, though. I love tahini, and I think it should be used in a lot of things. I'll make a little tahini ranch. Pop that on a nice salad, dude. That sounds good. I made kind of like a very American fried chicken fatouche.

Made a tahini ranch. Yeah. Fried chicken Fatouche Made at Tahini Ranch Mmm Mmm Mmm Yeah

But I did something yesterday That was really disgusting To the point where I had to Kind of revamp the dish I like to eat strawberries A little bit of whipped cream And some graham cracker on top And the other day

Sounds sexy Oh my god It's so sexy Julie and I We ate it while playing Scrabble By candlelight When the power was out

Last night That's so cute That's sexy When she beat me in scrabble by 120 points. Two times used all seven letters. Good for her. That's the game right there. She's awesome.

I had a couple 66-point plays on triple word score. I was pretty proud of that. Okay. You know, hit the S runner on Invalids. It's pretty solid. You seem really proud of yourself. Yeah. I'm happy for you.

It was a big play for me. Anyway, the point is I put tahini on strawberries with whipped cream and it was like really bad. Oh, because tahini is very bitter. Tahini straight is really, you almost can't eat it straight with like anything. You need to prepare it properly. Yeah. Whatever that means. But like tahini preparada, as I would call it in Spanish, is like, yeah, you know, the water, the garlic, the lemon juice, the salt, maybe yogurt.

Some people do that. Water is the important ingredient. A lot of people don't know water. It thins it. It mellows it. And it combines with the fat in a way that still makes it like nice and thick. Correct. Yeah.

But what's the sweet version of that? You see like water and a little bit of powdered sugar? Sugar. I could have. Yeah, dude. Are you kidding me? Tahini. Oh, my God.

Tahini and like desserts is like very good. Just buy halva. Just buy halva. Well, I didn't have halva. I had tahini. Josh! Josh! It wasn't like desserts is like very good. Just buy halva. Just buy halva. Why don't I have halva? I had tahini. It wasn't like a premeditated thing. My God. Anyways, on that note, thank you for listening to a hot dog is a sandwich.

I love how we precursored this with Nicole yelling at me. I know. If you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on opinions or like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or and Hendy Zada with the hashtag OpinionCasseroles. And for more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week. And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at MiaFaculKitchen.

See you next time.