A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is MSG Actually Bad For You?

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole talk about the magical flavor dust, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and its various uses in the Mythical Kitchen and their personal recipes! Is it actually bad for you? Check out the full episode now! The Strange Case of Dr. Ho Man Kwok - https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2019/02/06/the-strange-case-of-dr-ho-man-kwok Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich 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. Is MSG actually bad for you? Madison Square Garden? No, monosodium glutamate. You're telling me the Knicks play at monosodium glutamate now? This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what?

That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. I'm your lovable idiot host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your lovable idiot host, Nicole Inayati. That's right.

We're internet chefs over at Good Mythical Morning and Mythical Kitchen. That's right. When we're not cooking up, what do we do? Mountain Dew Twinkies and stuff like that? Yeah, Mountain Dew Moon Pies is a big one. We did that. Moon Tendoon Pies. Well, the point is we're over here taking on the world's biggest food debates.

That's right, Josh. And we're going to talk about something that is shrouded in mystery and racism. It's not even like, it's more just shrouded in racism, but there is a lot of mystery. And the reason we want to talk about this, we're talking about MSG, a.k.a. monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. magical flavor dust, is that we've talked about it a lot very colloquially on the podcast where somebody will bring it up in an opinion and we'll just casually be like, hey, by the way, MSG is not actually bad for you. It's a weird racist myth that took off back in the 60s.

But we've never actually devoted a whole podcast to talking about it and we still get comments all the time. We'll use MSG in a recipe. Somebody over on the old TikTok, which that comment section, wow, what a nightmare morass of society is worse. Almost bad as YouTube. Oh, my God. I'd say worse. It's a little bit more unhinged over on the TikTok.

You know, you got a bunch of young people. Brains are all scrambled from all the content. Okay. Anywho, so we still get a lot of questions. And so we wanted to take that on today. That's right. Well, I don't. The question is, is MSG bad for you?

A long story short, no, it's not bad for you. OK, so I made a face. But in the way that like is salt bad for you. Correct. Is pepper bad for is capsaicin bad for you? Is I don't know. Is anything bad for you? All food makes you die eventually.

Right. That's the good news. Makes you die eventually right that's the good news uh yeah like literally your body you need food for fuel for life but just the more your cells are sort of changing over and expending energy you're just gonna die um that's the reality of the fact but like you said shorthand is msg bad for you absolutely not right especially when you consider every single other thing that we eat and consume there is is no there is no peer reviewed research that indicates that MSG is bad for you at all. And everything that springs from the MSG being bad for you myth, it boils down to this. It's actually a story that sounds too crazy to be true, right? Let him know. Let us hear it. Let's just go back to what is MSG, right? So it was originally created in the early 1900s by a Japanese chemist. They wanted to

isolate effectively the taste of umami that you get from Japanese seaweed. So you make something like dashi kombu, right? Sure. Which is a broth made from dried seaweed. You have this flavor that just lingers in your mouth. Yeah, it's literally sodium and an amino acid and they like fused it together to make monosodium glutamate.

Bang it. Bango? Bingo, bingo. That's a bango. So like you said, it's an amino acid, and it's effectively stabilized using salt. So there is, of course, sodium in MSG. It's about one-fourth the amount that's in table salt,

which is just sodium chloride. Sure. Right? All right, so early 1900 1900s Japan that spreads all around East Asia and people find that it's just a great way to add flavor to your foods totally uh around that time we had the Chinese Exclusion Act that basically limited the amount of Chinese immigrants that were coming to America when was this like 1900s late 1800s railroads? Exactly. And so it's basically just much of American racism being like very orientalizing of Chinese culture. Even Mark Twain wrote about how Chinese people eat rats. Just like a really dark time for anti-Asian racism in America. That sort of coincided with the rise of MSG. And also in America, there were a lot of Chinese restaurants springing from the early

1900s through to like the 1950s, right? Makes sense. Of course. And there was a rise in popularity of Chinese cuisine. And then in 1968, this is when the big racist MSG myth was perpetuated. There was a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine by a biomedical researcher named Dr. Robert Ho-Man Kwok. They came, they claimed to be Cantonese. And they said that every time they ate Chinese food, they would experience numbness and tingling in the back of their neck and their arms would get numb and they would have crazy inflammation. They'd get headaches, Nicole.

They'd start shivering. They'd start sweating. So a doctor says that his patients were doing this? No, a doctor said himself. Oh, okay. Okay. And this is supposed to be a peer-reviewed letter that actually appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, a real medical journal. It wasn't a study, but it was a letter, and it was supposed to be peer-reviewed for evidence.

Turns out it was not, and the reason you know this is that Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok is not a real person. It was a guy named Howard Steele, a researcher who was playing what he called a practical joke that launched decades of racism. Oh my gosh. I just got chills around my body. Dude, it's really bizarre. We'll link to the story from Colgate Magazine that really blew all this out because to me it's one of the most fascinating stories ever told. So this guy Howard Steele, he was a scientist and his buddy was also a scientist his buddy goes hey i bet you 10

bucks you can never get published in a major medical journal and the guy said bet and then that's literally how this started and so he literally did this as a joke you're kidding me and it gets published in a real medical journal the name ho man quok is human croc, as in human croc of S-H-I-T. No way. That's so crazy. He literally called the journal's editor, who he knew professionally, and said, hey, that was me. My bad. Please retract.

And the guy just hung up the phone on him. He tried to send letters. Nobody would respond to him. I don't know how much that is verified or if it's just told from his perspective but the point is this literally just became a um it it was a meme before memes were a thing because then people started sending letters to new england journal of medicine saying yeah me too but it was a bunch of doctors trying to be really clever so there was one doctor who wrote another letter saying yeah i also get what they dubbed chinese restaurant syndrome which like sounds racist right okay and a doctor said yeah i also get this and he used a bunch of scientific terms he was like yeah i

experienced lacrimation which means crying and like he just started like throwing out all these stupid medical terms and then he like was writing obviously tongue-in-cheek as a joke that like oh it may have been the fact that I drank like a quart of beer during that meal, too. And he was he was taking the piss out of these letters. But people didn't see the joke in it. And journalists just started publishing around it, which is absolutely crazy. It's not it's not often when I'm like speechless on the podcast but i'm like upset that this happened i know and then setting do you remember the killer clowns thing sure oh my gosh yeah

there were all these killer clowns that were hiding out in uh the woods in what virginia they were cited not really because it was one story and then everyone's like okay guys i'll be a killer clown now correct well it wasn't even it was like somebody dressed up as a clown and was photographed and then the news started publishing it and then there ended up being like killer clown hysteria yeah and so other people go i got nothing to do on a friday night i'm bored i'm gonna dress like a clown walk around kids would have like phantom killer clown sightings where they just wouldn't see anything and they just go i don't know i'm scared there's a clown whatever and so it just became this situation where that it was put out into the ether. Washington Post wrote about it.

New York Times wrote about it. And so other people, they start eating 3,000 calories worth of Chinese food. A lot of American Chinese food does happen to be deep fried and covered in a sugary sauce because they sort of adapted, restaurateurs adapted to an American palate. They're like, y'all love KFC? That's fried chicken barbecue sauce? This is general shows. This is orange chicken. This is cashew chicken. And so you eat 3,000 calories of anything,

you're probably going to feel like trash. Which, the hilarity of all this is that if Chinese food wasn't so damn good, you wouldn't have been eating 3,000 calories ever, right? I totally get not being able to stop eating Chinese food. It's not because of this magical flavor chemical. It's because it's good.

The magical flavor chemical makes it good. Yeah, I mean, what's the magical flavor chemical plus, like, aromatics, right? Being a good cook, yeah. But it's like, if you grew up, growing up in a, I said a majority white household, it was all white with me, my brother, and my dad. But anyways, like, we didn't know how to cook.

We didn't know what ginger, scallion, garlic, oyster sauce. We didn't cook with any of these ingredients at home. So you go to a Chinese restaurant, yeah, I'm not going to be able to stop myself because it's so damn good. I think the one thing that sucks now is that, for example, packaged goods, like when you go to the grocery store in the in like the quote unquote Asian aisle. Yeah. They have to write no MSG in these big red lettering to let consumers know. Like it's still even though it's been like debunked, you'll say there's still so much like BS around it because people are just conditioned to think MSG is bad for you.

Like restaurant banners, like if a new Chinese restaurant opens up around the corner, they have to put a banner up that says, no MSG. And I just think that's so shady because I like MSG. I know. I never cooked with MSG until I got here, actually, like mythical. And, you know, it's like these little flavor crystals. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, what is this? And then you put it on your tongue. It's like drinking a quart of chicken broth. It's an incredible, incredible thing. It's a marvel of culinary excellence. And I think if people just put their racism aside and just try it and cook with it, it's accent salt. Also, it's packaged in different ways, too. Yeah, it's also just a white thing marketed to Americans as well.

They just call it accent. Flavor enhancer is pure MSG in the grocery store. Yeah, it's just disappointing because if you learn how to cook with it, it can enhance any meal

or any food like times 20. Like anything, if you over salt a dish, it's going to taste too salty. If you put too much sugar in a dessert, I mean,

I got a pretty high sugar tolerance. Like, I'm just kind of built different, but it's going to taste too sweet, right? Yeah.

In MSG, people are like, scientists distilled it from seaweed, and they used badass science. That's the way all food production has gone throughout history. We had to use- Corn syrup. We had to use science. Not even corn syrup. Sugar, dude.

Yeah. People didn't have refined sugar. Honey? We had to take sugar cane juice and figure out how to boil it down and refine it. That's right. Flour is the same thing. Of course. Olive oil.

We've got cooking. We've got oil, a fuel source from little olives. Cooking is science. It's science. Yeah. And you can't be afraid of it. You can certainly be critical and dubious. Which is fine.

We recommend that on the podcast. So this whole podcast is about being dubious to certain things. But just try it. It just pisses me off when people are just like, ugh, thatsg in it like what are you talking about it's good it's fine it's like saying salt or sugar or oregano you know what i mean and so a lot of i there's still a lot of people who self-report symptoms of like oh well i personally get headaches yeah when i have msg in excess there's allergies we're not denying that there's humans out there that might or might not be allergic to MSG. That exists, I'm sure.

But I think it's a little bit inflated. Or even just like a sensitivity to it, right? That's fine. We see the same thing with gluten is the big one. Yeah. Where I do not have enough of a scientific background. I took part in a couple weird psychological studies. They got paid 20 bucks for in college.

No way, really? Yeah, dude. It was weird. They just like, you'd sit in a chair and for like three hours, they'd just like show you a bunch of images of people and then you'd have to like try and remember them. And like, I don't know.

It was a whole thing. They put electrodes on your brain and stuff. Whoa, like that book we both like, A Clockwork Orange? Yeah, just like A Clockwork Orange. Did they tape your eyelids together and put drops in them? No, I asked them to, and they were like, sir, that's not that kind of party. But anyways, like any food, you can have a sensitivity. There's people with gluten who are like, when I go to Europe, I can eat all the bread I want to.

Josh, what is that? Why do they say that? Why do they lie? Bro, I don't know. I don't know if they're lying or not. That's one of these crazy things. This is all relying on, um, people are not very aware of how they actually feel.

Hmm. So, okay, so gluten intolerance is a great metaphor for MSG. Okay. People suddenly saying, yo, MSG gives me headaches is going to influence other people to every time they get a headache, they think, oh, crap, did I have a bag of Doritos? Did I have Panda Express?

Did I have something else? And they're going to falsely attribute it to MSG. Gluten may or may not be the same thing. I don't know. All my celiac homies out there. Sorry about it. What up, Dan? Hasn't drank a beer since like 08.

Caroline, sorry. We got to go hang out at cider bars, which you know what? Honestly. I love cider. When Dan was living in Portland, some great cider bars out there. I prefer cider to beer sometimes. But people who say they have sensitivities to stuff like gluten, it's like if gluten allergies didn't come onto the mainstream scene in the rapid way that they did, would you still think you had that? Or would you just think, yo, I got the tummy gurgles sometimes?

See, that's the crazy thing about bad for you or allergic or intolerant so i say every food bro i i eat three pounds of grapes to poop my pants does that mean grapes are bad for you no it means i eat three pounds of grapes because i just didn't want to put them back in the fridge and i want to get off the couch yeah you know what other foods do you think not food like ingredients you think get like a bad rip the way that msg does i can't think of one other than sugar oh yeah caffeine sugar is one of those when i say every food is bad for you i it's like almost if every food is bad for you, no food is bad for you. You know what I mean? There's data to support things like red meat.

World Health Organization comes out with a study a couple of years ago that says that eating processed red meat once a week increases your risk for colon cancer an insane amount. Damn it. I know. I ate so much of it. I love mortadella. You and I just ate some mortadella right before this. I ate a hot dog before my mortadella as a snack. Me too.

So I get it. So it's very strange when people worry about something like MSG, which, again, glutamates, these amino acids are found in a lot of, damn near every fermented food. A lacto-fermented pickle is going to have glutamates. Tomatoes naturally have glutamates. I was going to say Doritos if those are natural. Then we scourge them from the earth

like potatoes. And so reports of this negative feeling of MSG it tends to be higher when people eat Chinese food because that was the original association with Chinese restaurant syndrome. So whack. To this day it still bothers me. I get Italian restaurant syndrome. You start talking in an accent and your hand does the pinchy thing?

Molto bene. No, I'm just talking to the idea that conflating variables of, oh, the MSG is making me feel like trash versus I just significantly overate because I'm a lush. The pounds of chow mein and the orange chicken. And also because it's so good. So we used to order lunches in the office from a place called Pinocchio. We never do that now. We never do that now because everybody, this wasn't like the corporate overlords being like, you're not productive enough. We literally all banded together and we're like, hey, we all hit a hard food coma after Pinocchio day because their baked ziti is so good that you can't physically stop eating it.

Holy crap. This is a weird, both dark and proud day in Mythical Entertainment when we're all like, y'all, we got to stop. Because we're just eating too much eggplant parm and it's slowing down production. And so I understand this general idea. I understand. I just hate the fact that to this day there's labels on stuff and there's people that are parading around and saying, to this day, if I go out stuff and there's people that are like parading around and saying

like to this day like if i go out to like chinese food with my friends yeah like does that place put msg in their thing and i'm like probably you guys yeah but they just don't get it they just don't understand it i think more and more people are becoming hip to that fact though and i think it's gonna say podcasts like this help no we, we're not. We're reacting to... No, they help. Sure. I mean, that's the reason we want to do this, right? It's because people are still asking us this question.

And in fact, I kind of thought that we were like done with this. Because I mean, David Chang had talked about this on, you know, on Ugly Delicious. Sure. And so, I don't know. I suppose, though, information systems are very fractured. That's very true. You know what I mean? So might as well just spray this in the rooftops anywhere we can go.

And one thing that actually made me think that we were maybe a little bit done with the MSG thing. I'm glad you brought up the idea that like, oh, sugar and salt. Those are also bad for you. There was a research study done that was percentage of people who claim they avoid certain foods. So MSG, 42% of people claim they avoided MSG. No way. But 43% claim they avoid certain foods. So MSG, 42% of people claim they avoided MSG. No way. But 43% claim they avoid artificial colors, 45% artificial flavors,

50% quote-unquote preservatives, which, like, what does that even mean? 53% said they avoid sodium. 61% said they avoid added sugars. So, yes, Nicole. I have a question. Oh, I'm so sorry. Wait, do we have any others before you? Maggie, do you want to answer yes, Nicole. I have a question. Oh, I'm so sorry. Wait, do we have any others before we make it?

Josh, I have a question. Any of you out there, if you had a question? There's no one else here. I know. I just don't want to keep calling on you because then it shows favoritism. Josh called me his favorite. Okay, how do you avoid sodium?

No salt, Mrs. Dash. Yeah, I was literally going to say, we all grew up, if you had a boomer or boomer-adjacent dad, you grew up with salt-free Mrs. Dash. So much. And it tastes like nothing, man. It tastes like nothing. Like dry wood chips.

Yesterday, Julia asked me, can you not salt our food so much? And I was like, I'll under-season the salad. I'm telling you, it's hard. I get it. Like as a person who knows how to cook when I go home and I make something delicious, it's salted right on the edge of too much. I agree. That's how we're supposed to cook. That's restaurant cooking.

Yeah, it sucks. Season every layer of my salad. Season the dressing. Season the vegetables before they go in. I want some under seasoned white chicken. I don't personally ascribe to the idea that salt is bad for you. We should. Can I tell you something? Go ahead. We need to

because one day if we're gonna explode like a balloon, we're gonna come up in here looking like Shane from Smosh. No offense. Just big. We're gonna come in big. Is that your perception of Shane from Smosh? That he's just like big? Is he that much bigger than me? I think he's just...

Wow. I didn't know that like you had that person. Now I feel self-conscious. Now I need to eat more salt so I can be bigger than Shane. No, no, Josh, don't compare yourself to Shane. Well, I know, but I naturally do. Like you're just gonna come in and you're gonna come in like salty. Like, do you ever like have really salty food and then you wake up in the morning and your face is like three sizes bigger than it should be? No, I have no...

Like truly, the only thing I notice is that if I eat spicy food, the poops truly the only thing i notice is that if i eat spicy food the poops in the morning they hurt and then if i eat like too many stone fruits then the poops start running if that's all i know if i have too much sodium the face it just it just balloons and my ears go up past my shoulder that's hot you're looking like a trick um so they're okay so let's talk about that right like there are studies that they did with MSG That did say they included things like Face swelling

That's from salt I know well it's one salt does that But the studies that they were doing with MSG The ones that had the strongest react To any of it Was intravenous What? And so yeah they were just injecting MSG into people's veins.

Where can I go And then every researcher was like, hey, but like, here's the thing, that's not how food is consumed. If you like injected like Jell-O into your veins, that would also do really badly.

Probably don't just do that when you're trying to test out an actual digestive. These are doctors doing this? Dude, I don't understand. I freaking hate doctors. Listen, man, I think a lot of research,

it's people trying to get more research funded. And so if they can just like show something. By doing it wrong? Yes. What do you mean? Dude, this is wrong. The academia is a nightmare. Everyone's a fraud, Nicole.

Everyone's a fraud. I mean, it's just, I understand avoiding caffeine because it makes your heart go thump, thump, thump. Yeah, oh, but I love it, Nicole. Oh, I love the caffeine. It makes you go right. I understand that. And studies, it's weird. It's so weird. But at thump, thump. Yeah, oh, but I love it. Oh, I love the caffeine. I understand that. And studies, it's weird.

It's so weird. But at this point, stop listening to me. At this point. I like the coffee, you know. Are you just going to mumble to yourself like Sling Blade?

Go to Starbucks, you get one of them big old venti macchiatos. You know what I mean? I like that. Gorgeous. What do you like to get to start? You like coffee? Josh, this is a video podcast. They will see you not letting me speak and they will get mad What do you like to get a start?

Josh, this is a video podcast. They will see you not letting me speak and they will get mad in the comments. Write in the comments how mad you are. You like frappuccinos? Okay, like I was saying. Rude. You know what else I find funny about this? 32% of people avoid GMOs.

Oh, that's a heck of a... GMOs are everywhere. That's a heck of a... I'm a genetically modified organism. I've been genetically modified myself with pre-workout and beef jerky since I was 16 years old. Beef jerky has MSG. Beef jerky has a lot of great MSG in it. Like naturally?

When you dry meat, does it get... I guess, yeah, meat has glutamate in it, right? It certainly does. Certainly does. If it's an amino acid, right? Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Okay, this is what our list says. Adenosine triphosphate.

This is what our list says. Anchovies, cured ham, mackerel, clam, scallops, oysters, egg yolks, shrimp, chicken. Leucine. Mickey, how much longer do we have to do this? sign. Mickey, how much longer do we have to do this? I think GMOs are a good conduit for this because it's people looking at

the wrong variables with MSG, right? These are buzzwords. I bet you the average person don't even know what these things are. We stopped even talking about saturated fat. That's not even on this. Why? Do you know what saturated fat is? coconut oil lobbyists they won okay if you get anything out of this insane rambling podcast

one the crazy story about how msg even became to be known as bad for you in the first place which is not so two all food is terrible for you and will kill you that is what people say all the time and all the studies show that. I know my grandma died, and she ate food. Think about that one. But for real, if all these foods are bad for you, which they are,

salt, sugar, meat is bad for you. Oh my God, eggplants. Tom Brady doesn't eat eggplants because they're nightshades. Nightshades. Yeah, he doesn't eat tomatoes. Paleo, paleo. Yeah, you gotta go paleo.

No, no, no, you gotta go keto. Wait, but I've heard you gotta go vegan, and in fact, have you done the fruit go paleo no no you gotta go keto wait boo but i've heard you gotta go vegan and in fact have you done the fruitarian diet nicole so what it is you eat raw testicles and papayas and that is what they ate 3 500 years ago the point is all this stuff is complete bs you eat in moderation that's right you eat things that you enjoy uh-huh you eat things that make your body feel good preach and you ignore all of the stupid noise because you know why this shiksa is going to change in 10 years anyways. There's going to be a new list of new chemicals that people are afraid of. And then we publish articles going, is sodium citrate the thing that's given you, I don't know, butthole aids?

Butt pimples? Butt pimples? That's a good one. Yeah. Is sodium citrate the thing thatole aids? Butt pimples? Butt pimples? That's a good one. Yeah. Is sodium citrate the thing that's giving you butt pimples? And I'm like, nah, my butt pimples are just genetic. They've been there before. They're not pimples because they don't weep.

You know what I mean? They're boils. You can't pop them. They're boils. I have butt boils and it's because of sodium citrate. And we're going to do another podcast in 10 years about sodium citrate. You think we're going to do this in 10 years time? Yeah, definitely. We're still do this in 10 years time yeah definitely we're still gonna be here in 10 years 40 how old are you gonna be 39 oh my god we're so old and wise now long story short msg's not bad for you

eat it in moderation baby agreed and get some for your kitchen. Try it out. And we're not being paid by the big MSG lobby. Nope. Although they did open an MSG cafe in Portland, which is really cool. Oh, cool. Yeah, they call it the Umami Cafe. It's at the Rose Garden. I don't know if it's still there. I've been to the Rose Garden.

Really? Yeah, it's owned by Ajinomoto, which is our preferred brand of MSG in the kitchen. Correct. Yeah, Ajinomoto. Go support your local Japanese chemical company. Bye, Ajinomoto go go support your local Japanese chemical company by Ajinomoto all right Nicole and all you others in the room 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 universe it's time for a segment we call opinions are like

casserole! Graphics card! I can't believe you think I can't sing. You've never shown me anything. Nicole, show me something. I can't believe you. Just show me anything. Right now. Show me anything. What do you have? Do you have another song maybe? Maybe that first song wasn't for you. Just show me anything. Right now. Show me anything. Can you

what do you have? Do you have another song maybe? Maybe that first song wasn't for you. Do you have another song that you've prepared? What is this American Idol? Yes I am Simone Coel.

Play the opinion Maggie. Too much pressure. Who are the judges now even? It's like Paula Abdul. She's still there. I thought it was like Katy Perry and Blake Shelton.

Do you know that Paula Abdul is Jewish? No way. Yeah. You know she was the first Laker girl? Ever? Yeah. There's only one? she's still there it's i thought it was like katie perry and blake shelton is jewish no way yeah you know she was the first laker girl ever yeah only one well like she was they like i think she's i don't know man opinion please i don't know what this is for opinions are like casseroles i've had one for so long but i can't figure out twitter and how to submit it it's hard so my like favorite quarantine snack was lightly toasting and everything bagels and then putting um banana peppers sour cream and sour cream and onion chips on this and smushing it down and then eating it

it was the greatest thing ever thoughts i love your I love your show. It's so good. It's so entertaining and I'd be learning things. My mom got a trivia question right the other day because of one of your episodes. What was it? About how like on Carbonara, however you say that word, it's like the heat of the pasta that cooks the eggs a little bit.

Hey! So fun. Thanks for all you do. My name's Amber, by the way. Hey, what's up, Amber? That's really cool if nothing else i want people to be able to get better at jeopardy from listening what was the question though like the jeopardy question oh about i'm wondering if it was like this pasta is made by warming egg yolks with black pepper and guanciale i would guess that that was probably the question yeah i love it yeah yeah i thought it was going to be about the root word of carbonara coming from coal miners. Maybe, maybe.

But I think that's like sort of unverified. It's weird how so many of these words- I know, but that is like actually where it supposedly comes from. Frick. Right? But like, it's weird how a lot of these words don't seem to have traceable etymology because they're like, ah, there's this source that says that, and then this source that says that, like hot dog, who knows?

Lightly toasted everything bagel, sour cream, sour cream and onion chips, and banana peppers. Sign me up. Sign me up. Sign me up. I love it. I love it. And the sour cream, to me, works better than cream cheese in this application. For sure.

Because you have one salt from the everything bagel, salt and a lot of good MSG from them chips. So much. And then you got the pickles with the banana peppers. So, like, to me, you want that just pure creaminess, unsalted from the sour cream. That's right. This is a chef's snack right here. Deserves a chef's kiss. Hey, guys.

Love the podcast. This is an opinion that I get judged on a lot. If you take a Triscuit, a dollop of grape jelly, and an anchovy filet. That's a top tier level snack. You get the sweet from the jelly, but it has to be grape jelly. Now, I'm biased because I can eat anchovies right out of the can,

but I'm telling you, it's a top tier snack. Thanks, guys. Go, Nicole. Get it. I know this was directed towards you, but I do this except I use orange marmalade instead of grape jelly. You do orange marmalade and anchovies? Sometimes strawberry. No way.

Sometimes strawberry jam. But yeah, it is Triscuit plus anchovy plus whatever else is normally really good. Triscuit and anchovy has a beautiful flavor,, flavor, like, texture situation going on. And then you just put a little bit of something sweet. Ugh, all it's missing is a nice little parmesan piece. You know what this is? Umami? It's umami.

I mean, like, really, this is the science that we're talking about at play right here. Because I was about to bring up the fact that more sea products, more fish, need to be— I thought you were taking like sea grade. No, more like products from the sea need to be cured in the way that we typically do pork, right? So bacon, ham, we love those because, you know, you are adding salt, you are generally aging it, you're intensifying flavors. There's fat, yeah.

There's fat too. And so the fat is just carrying the glutamates and the salt and the protein across your freaking palate and it makes it delightful yeah anchovies are salt cured fish there's a lot of oil in anchovies does the same thing but you get that pleasant fishy funk i love a good funky fish i we were just talking about how much i i don't care for one of those like oh it's such a mild flaky white fish i'm like no i'm eating a fish give me the fish stank dang it that's what i'm here for give me a anchovy. Give me a mackerel. Give me an anchovy. Give me a sardine. Give me a

smelt. I can just eat them out of the jar. Isn't that crazy? Why did I just sound like Alex Jones on that? I'll eat me some smelt. Anyways. Sorry. This is a great snack, though. Yeah, a good snack. Good jelly? I don't I don't like it. Triscuits, I'm

always on the fence about. I love Triscuits. It's like a savory mini wheat. Yeah, a good snack. Good jelly? I don't like it. Triscuits, I'm always on the fence about. I love triscuits. It's like a savory mini-wheat. Yeah, and? I don't know. That's good. I guess. I think I need to revisit triscuits. I'm so sorry. Actually, mini-wheats are naturally savory. You're just used to the frosted ones. No, but it's salted. A triscuit is salted

in a way that mini-wheats is not salted. Maggie, he's ranting again. What do you mean I'm ranting? I'm not ranting right now! Alex Jones next. The fluoride in the water is turning into the freaking fish! Never mind. Josh, Nicole,

this is your favorite pro-wrestler-slash-home-cook Guapo Grande from Netflix Battle. Guapo Grande? Guapo Grande! Oh! I have a hot take.

Mashed potatoes are a scam. Oh, why is that? Why is that? The best part of a potato is the Mashed potatoes are a skin. Why is that? The best part of a potato is the skin. And it's nutritious. So why not just extra bake your potato?

Add some sour cream and butter. Whip it all together. And you got potato skin whipped mashed potatoes. It's delicious. You don't need to make just mashed potatoes. Use the skin.

We use the whole vegetable in this kitchen. Guapo Grande. Guapo Grande. Coming in hot. Pro wrestler. Coming in high flying off the top ropes, hitting you with that swanton bomb, hitting you with that controversial opinion. I'm sorry. I have something in my eye.

I would like, okay, the idea of putting it back into the skin, 100%. Yeah. I'm sorry. I have something in my eye. I would like, okay, the idea of putting it back into the skin, 100%. Yeah. I love that. 100%. So good. I know.

I was about to tell them about a crazy dish that exists called potato skins. Twice baked potatoes. No, potato skins. Oh. You go to TGI Fridays. What they do,

this is really smart, they hollow out the potato and they make their mashed potatoes out of the insides and then they use the outsides to make a stuffed potato skin, little boat filled with cheese, bacon bits, and a sour cream.

That is correct. They do that at the TGI Friday. And so, guapo grande, what you can do is split in order of mashed potatoes and potato skins. Somebody, they get the mashed potatoes. It's like my brother used to only eat the inside of a loaf of bread that's my man right which is which is great because i just love the crust i don't need the crust i don't need the fluffy inside the crust is the interesting part

hashtag josh's crust i'm crusty the crust has a more interesting texture it has that my uh reaction flavor no no no give me the white the'm in the crust Don't say white with that accent It gives off the wrong give me the white You can't say it like that Nicole You know what you do you go to Cheesecake Factory And you just take your two fingers and you just go in the bread Like this with your thumb you just go Yeah how do you do it

And then you just kind of pull it all out And then you roll it into a ball and then you go It's like you're performing a cesarean On a dolphin You just put it in there and then you roll it into a ball and then you go It's like you're performing a cesarean on a dolphin. You just put it in there and just grab it. Did you know that my fingers do this weird thing

where they kind of like get stuck like that? Yeah, I do it too. Yeah, check it out. Check it out. Check out the finger. Check it out. Alright, let's do it.

Let's listen to another one. Sorry, we're just in silly mode right now. We're having a little silly fun time. Hi, I'm Austin down from Florida. I'm a biology teacher. And leftovers. I think they're the best breakfast.

You get a handful of cold leftovers out of the Tupperware in the fridge at 5 in the morning. And that's the perfect way to start the day. You don't need to reheat them. You don't need to do anything with them. Just cold leftovers hand to mouth. Or Tupperware to start the day. You don't need to reheat them. You don't need to do anything with them. Just cold leftovers, hand to mouth, or tough wear to hand to mouth. And that's the way leftovers were meant to be eaten. That's what was intended when they were invented in the 1800s. This person is educating the youth of America or Canada or some other English nation.

He's from Florida. Oh, he's from Florida. His name is Austin from Florida. I thought his name other English. He's from Florida. Oh, he's from Florida. His name is Austin from Florida. I thought his name was Florida and he's from Austin. Sorry. Teaching the youth good things. It's a good habit. Like,

like zygotes and, um, chlorophyll. I always thought zygote was pronounced zygote. And so I was in like a biology class and I was like, and I was like, the thing about human zygotes is that

did someone make fun of you and say that's not how you say it dork I don't remember dude okay how about now that's not how you say it dork

yeah thanks you're bringing me back to high school no I leftovers I fully disagree and I personally for my own life

you disagree with cold leftovers at five o'clock in the morning I do not think I eat what leftovers do I eat cold do I eat any leftovers leftovers do I eat cold? Do I eat any leftovers cold? I like cold chicken a lot. I eat a lot of cold chicken. I'm a big fan of like bone-in

chicken cold. When you go to the restaurant and then you go home and you bring home like a slice of pizza and like a handful of Brussels sprouts. Never. Never cold. What are you talking about? Never cold. I will never, Nicole, I'm the person who has leftover sushi. It's rare, but it happens. You have leftover? And I put it in the

microwave to take the chill off no way because I want I wanted to get back up to sushi bar temp no like I like to eat what are you doing stretching you're like it's like you're caught you're like dolphin caught in a net no don't do that you're like now you're like a turtle with a straw in its nostril I have I

have a lot of friends who eat leftovers cold yeah it does not personally suit me I'm a big fan of what i call the um what are the mc escher stairs the stairs by mc that yeah where it's like the stairs and if you follow your eye pattern they keep going around the loop but they look like stairs yeah i do i call it the mc escher leftovers theorem where i have say a, a roasted chicken, right? Okay. And then I eat half the chicken. I put it back in there.

Then it's like, well, cool. I'm making chicken salad from this. And then I'm making stock from the bones. And then you take – Are you really making – No, I'm not. This is a bad example. You never make stock from the bones. This is a bad example.

You're lying. But the point is I have literally had – and this is probably a food safety issue, so nobody take my advice on it. But I have found a new dish of leftovers in my fridge and if i trace back the first ingredient from that it was like two weeks ago i cooked it but like you'll make a bunch of so you'll make a bunch of chorizo and you'll have in the fridge then use that chorizo to make a hash then use that hash to make a soup and then use that soup to make a sauce and then you use that sauce to make like a chicken salad um no and i just keep going on it and i don't know how I haven't gotten listeria or that yet.

I don't know either. I like to freeze most of the stuff in my fridge if I don't use it after like a week and a half, unless it's a cured product like a smoked salmon. No, I think if you, it's like at Puyol, Chef Enrique Olvera. I knew you were going to mention the mole. I knew you were going to do that. He's been cooking the same mole for over 10 years, Nicole. You don't think he puts it in a Tupperware container at the end of the night?

No, they actually do not. What do they do? They leave it heating, which kills the bacteria, so that makes sense, but, which I'm not doing. Exactly. I should just keep a pot of, I'm going to start doing that. Just keep a perennial pot of stew. You're moving. You can't do that. Oh, shoot. Once I move into my new apartment, I'm going to start the perennial stew. Perennial? It's not good when you have a cat. Is that the same thing as stone soup? I don't know what stone soup is.

One more, one more, one more. Maggie, Google stone soup, please. What is stone soup? Google. You've never heard of stone soup before? Look up infinite stew as well. Dude, it's whenever you put a stone in the soup to keep it hot. Is that what it is?

That's like they do that in some Korean soup. Or maybe it's like an old wives tale where they're like, oh, the soup is good. And you just put a stone in it. My laptop died or else I'd be looking it up too. Infinite stew. Perpetual stew. Perpetual. Also known as a forever soup.

A hunter's pot or hunter's stew is a pot. Let's see. Let's see. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah foods that can be cooked for decades or longer if properly maintained yeah it's a common element in descriptions of medieval inns they used to have perpetual stews we just have the same pot of stew just boiling and going yeah i guess if like i still believe in leeching pretty strongly me too it just makes sense You know what I believe in?

When the maggots go, when they go and they put maggots in the scar and then it eats. It eats the bad. It eats the bad out. Yeah, I saw that on an episode of Taboo. I used to watch a lot of Taboo when I was like 12. Screwed me up. Weird show, dude. Weird show.

All I'm saying is I got bad blood in me. I need to get the blood out. There's a creature that sucks blood out. Josh being Charlie. I feel like, no, but I just blood in me. I need to get the blood out. There's a creature that sucks blood out. Is Josh being Charlie? I feel like, no, but I just, to me, being Charlie from

It's Always Sunny. Everyone's like, people back then were so stupid. It's like, I don't know, man. I still don't see a problem with it. I'm down to,

let's start leeching. What? I'm down. We're in. I'm so down. I've been trying to leech in the office forever. I'll make it happen.

I'll make it happen. Thank you. Hey, my name is David. I love your guys' show. The Cheez-Its versus Goldfish made me think of something else. In the same way that Josh loves really wet food, I get a simple joy out of having a mouthful of really small food. Some Cheez-Its are better, but a mouthful of Goldfish is more fun to chew through.

In the same way Fruity Pebbles is better than Fruit Loops. Thanks so much, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, this is a really good opinion that I haven't thought about. I've never thought about small format foods. Yeah, well, think about the difference in experience between eating an old Dorito and then taking all the little small baby Doritos at the end of the bag and shoving them in your mouth. It's something I've never thought about, but I will continue to think about

for years to come. It's great. Makes you think. I'm going to start thinking about what you're doing. Makes you think. I'm doing a little finger tap for emphasis. It makes you think. All I'm saying is I'm thinking about it. You're in such a silly, goofy mood. Orzo pasta. I hate Orzo. I hate it too.

That, to me, sort of disproves his theorem. I'm wondering how he feels about Orzo, because to me, it's absolutely yes. Please call back and tell us how you feel about Orzo. But you know what I love doing? Check this out. Grapes. What's that? I'll take grapes.

Stop talking about grapes today. I love grapes. Grapes, to me, are the perfect... Gosh! To paraphrase Demetri Martin, they're the fruit of opportunity. You get a bad grape, your day's not ruined. You can eat another grape. You can eat another 70 grapes.

You still quote Demetri your day's not ruined. You can eat another grape. You can eat another 70 grapes. You still quote Dimitri Martin? It's 2023. For kids, kids these days are like, John Mulaney is the Messiah comic. We had Dimitri Martin. God must have named oranges before he named carrots. He got to oranges and said, well, that's orange. Let's call it

an orange. Then he got to a carrot and he went, oh, crap. That was the funniest joke we'd ever heard in 2008. You know what was the funniest joke I heard? Laugh quietly to myself. That was a big one. Which one? When he's like, there's so many LOLs, LMAOs. Oh, yeah. LQ...

How do you spell laugh quietly to myself? LQTM? Yeah, something laughing quietly to myself. Yeah, that was a big Demetri Martin joke. And he was hot. That's what we considered hot. Okay, okay. He had the kind of emo hair. And we loved... was a big Demetri Martin joke. And he was hot. That's what we considered hot. Okay, okay. He had the kind of emo hair. And we love, I still love Demetri Martin.

I still think it's very funny. His little sketch pad. Demetri, come on the podcast. I'm sorry it's 2023, but like just come anyway. He saw a guy, Nicole at a party with a leather jacket

and he said, that's pretty cool. And I saw a guy with a leather vest and said, that's not cool. So you know what? The key to coolness must be leather sleeves.

Funniest thing we'd ever heard. Anyways, what were we'd ever heard. Anyways, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, grapes. I like to shove a bunch of grapes in my mouth. That's all I was saying and then we started

talking about Trisha Morton. So this person must like spoonfuls of rice. Maybe. We don't know. We haven't asked him. He likes Fruity Pebbles.

I'll tell you what. I think Rice Krispies as a cereal are pretty good. Really? You like Rice Krispies cereal? Yeah, I was making Rice Krispies treats with my lovely fiance,. Really? You like Rice Krispies cereal? Yeah, I was making Rice Krispies treats with my lovely fiance, Julia, the other day. And we both just enjoyed, while we were waiting for him to set, a nice bowl of Rice Krispies cereal.

Small. No way. Fits a lot in your mouth. You ate that? Plain. No sugar. No additional sugar. Shocking.

Nice. All right. Well, on that note, thanks so much for stopping by a hot dog as a sandwich. If you liked what you heard Why? No subscribe Of course we're on YouTube now If you're listening to this On an audio only platform

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