A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Tinned Fish Overrated?

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Today, Josh and Nicole explore the tinned fish hype and determine whether this trend is overrated or not. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Josh, are you a tin fish girlie? Please, Nicole. I'm a tin fish woman. Give me those sardines. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. This is... Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. I'm sorry.

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Mmm. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Mm. This. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. 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. Hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, a hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Anaidi.

And today, Nicole, we're taking a little throwback to the mid-19th century, where they first started packing fish into cans and sealing them up to be consumed later. Women didn't have rights. Women. Yeah, they had certain rights, not for a while. They still are lagging.

They couldn't open credit cards. Couldn't open credit cards in 1854 when they canned the first sardine in Portugal. That's true. They couldn't vote. Um, they couldn't vote in, I think it's not nice. They couldn't vote in Switzerland until like, I think the late 1950s. Are you kidding me? Luxembourg, I don't believe they could vote until like 1971.

Pretty incredible stuff actually. But anyways, we're talking all about the tin fish movement. And when I said I'm a tin fish woman, Right. That was a reference to the fact that hot girls eat tin fish. Now Nicole, can you explain that to our audience? Can you explain, are you calling me a hot girl who eats tin fish? I feel like you are, I didn't, I'm not commenting on your looks. I'm merely asking if you identify as a hot tin fish girly. I'm a hot seafood girly.

Okay. So I just like to eat, go out and eat seafood. Interesting. So, I mean, tinfish falls into that category. I think a lot of hot restaurants in LA right now do have a bit of a tinfish craze. I mean, there's Found Oyster, there's Salty Girl, there's all these great places that have like, conservas and like, tinfish, aside from like, the classic, you know, raw bar stuff.

So I think tinfish is having a little bit of a Renaissance right now and people are Obsessed with it. Oh big-time Renaissance. Um, I Have a question to pose to everybody everybody in the room way and Meggie you're included in this When we say tinned fish, are we referring to a simple can of tuna? No Are we referring to a simple can of salmon? Well, when you say simple, what do you mean by simple? Because when I think of like the tinned fish movement, it's like the hot girl brands like Fishwife. Fishwife is the hottest girl brand as of right now.

Fishwife is the hottest girl brand. So it was founded by Becca Milstein in God, I think 2020. And a lot of this actually did weirdly coincide with COVID. COVID saw a big rise in tin fish. Canned salmon spiked like 300% or something and I don't 100% know how to explain that. Oh, yeah I forgot we were doomsday preppers for a couple months, huh? Oh, yeah, I was a bit Do you know how many cans of salmon and tuna and like packets like those starkis?

Delicious those like starkis packets I bought insane insane you buy the packets instead of the cans I Thought it's and cans the packets are so much less cost-effective. There was an emergency Well, you know we got whatever we could but I'm asking like wait when you say tin fish girly that does not refer to like I eat Can salmon or can tuna that refers to I am somebody who takes? aesthetic and cultural value From a fancy or exotic seafood that has been preserved in a can many times with other flavoring agents added. Well, that's not to say that there aren't delicious cans of canned salmon and canned tuna, but we're not talking about like chicken of the sea, starfish. That's another, I would almost consider that another food category.

I agree entirely. Completely from like the tin fish craze that we're handling. That's canned fish. Canned fish. This is tin fish. That's a really, that's a great point. Right? Yeah. So now there's this big movement of people like spending a fair amount of money. Yeah. I mean, yeah, what is it? A fish wife variety pack. I think it's like six cans for $72. It's expensive. 12 bucks for a tin of fish, but I'm saying it's now become a luxury thing, which is really interesting because of course the Genesis of all this was, I mean one, it was trying to get food to troops, right? Yeah. And so cans of sardines were just sent out to troops in World War II. Can of sardines in like a packed factory workers lunch was super super common back in the day.

But now we seem to have superseded that, but it's almost this like ironic flip back. Right. In time. So true. I think it has a lot to do with kids. Well, the way that I see it is I think a lot of the times we were raised on like PB and J sandwiches or ham and cheese sandwiches.

And the fact that we can make our own lunches and make it aesthetic, like you said, like make a little bento box and like you, you can eat a can of sardines and like, I don't know, there's like a level of like aesthetics and like cuteness that goes with it. And then I also think there's another side where people are talking about eating more protein in their diets and a can of sardines has like 20 grams of protein. I don't think it has anything to do with the protein.

Really? I do. Well, that's why I eat it. That's why I started eating sardines more recently, it's because they're an easy source of protein and they don't taste bad I used to think they tasted bad, but I think I'm 31 now and I'm okay with eating sardines I don't think this has anything to do with convenience anymore. I don't think it has anything to do with nutrition anymore No, not no this has to do simply with Instagram with a hot girl aesthetics, right? I think this is like post ironic What does it d dime square like? dimes what hot girls wearing the

Harley-davidson thrifty girls Like come no, but this is post that right. This is now like the Gen Z post ironic I'm wearing a 90s band t-shirt That I've never seen You know not to put not to name any co-workers, but someone was wearing a tulle crop top in our kitchen. And they didn't know three songs by tulle.

Well, no, and that's fine. That's fine. Because I know if you say that, if you ask, hey, if you actually listen to that band, then you're like the worst person in the world. I have a rule that I don't wear shirts of bands unless I actually know their music. That's my rule. I think the tin fish craze is somehow connected to ironic late 90s new metal band t-shirts.

Like deftones? Correct. I think they're same, I'm dead serious. Wait for me. The deftone girlies are eating tin fish. Correct. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay.

Absolutely. But can you break that down? Cause you're around a lot more like hot girls than I am. And I don't mean hot girls as in like I find them physically attractive. I mean... The hot girls I hang out with do not enjoy tinned fish. No, no, the hot girls I'm around don't enjoy tinned fish. They don't.

Fascinating. I'm sorry. I know I give off that vibe that I'm around those kinds of people, but I really don't. I'm the only tinned fish enjoyer out of my hot group of girlfriends. You're kind of currently wearing, this is like an ironic... Name three songs by YouTube. Gangnam Style, Baby Shark, Despacito.

That's right, that's pretty good, that's pretty good. What has been your favorite tin fish experience? Like, sell me on your fancy tin fish that you have really loved. Okay, so recently I went to Sprouts the other day, and it was my day off and I'm like, I am going to be the coolest stay at home mother of none right now. And so I literally bought one can of Fishwife Preserve Lemons.

It's sardines and preserved lemons. And I'm like, okay, I've never tried this before. It was like $11 and I'm like, oh, fine, I'll spend $11. And then I also bought some anchovies from another company. I was like, oh, the can looks cute. Whatever, I'll just get it. Because I use a lot of anchovies when I cook. But I was like, I'm going to have a sardine salad today, okay?

So I go home. I make myself a salad with these beautiful butter lettuce greens. I make a really beautiful, like, mayonnaise-y, lemony dressing with, like, sumac. I mandolin some radishes. I put some cornichons in there. And I had some leftover potatoes, so I almost made, like, a pseudo-nisoise salad. I made it with the preserved lemon sardines. And I just ate this salad, and I was sitting in my balcony, and I'm like, this is what life is about.

Like, this is what life should be. Like this is what life should be. I should be able to do this every single day of my life, eat salad with sardines at a balcony. I think one, that sounds beautiful. Doesn't it? And I love this stay at home mother of none. And I was with my kitties, meow meow. I have this obsession with like trying to make

nostalgic foods as good as possible, right? That's kind of the impetus behind shows like fancy fast food that we do. Sure. Where it's like I love the Western bacon cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. Who doesn't? I think it's iconic. I love that. One of the best like architecture burgers in history.

And then you ask yourself what if you use the best possible bacon, the best possible ingredients for barbecue sauce and try to do that. Right. I think the tin fish thing for me, because I have enjoyed it, I don't mean to poo poo it here, there are tinned fishes that I've had that are like utterly spectacular, and I will do stuff like I'll make a tuna melt or a tuna melt

sort of form with a really good tinned fish and it adds something very different. In a way. The best tinned fish I've ever had is from Fish Wife and it was a collab which this is awesome! It's like crossover events It was like when audio slave was formed after Chris Cornell RIP. I visited his grave this past week

Oh my god, I was listening to him on the way to work today. I was listening to Doesn't remind me of anything on the way to work today You know Chris Cornell boom hooking up with the band from Rage Against the Machine Tom Morello going WAP WAP WAP On Like a Stone, Incredible. That was this tin of fish for me. It was Fly by Jing and Fishwife. This isn't sponsored by Fishwife by the way. No, it's not. No, but they're responsible. They're the epitome of hot girl tin fish. They're the epitome of Hyper Bowl. Is it epitome? No, I'm kidding. It's a tin. Anyways, they are yeah, like you said they're the the epitome of like the

Hot Girl Tin Fish movement because they have really aesthetic cans and they make a really premium product. Really delicious. And they understand their branding, they understand their audience, which is why when they collab with the hottest chili crisp maker, Flyby Jing. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hot smoked salmon with chili crisp, tucked in a can, and it's not like the same as if I were to have just taken smoked salmon and mixed it with chili crisp because it all infuses in there. It infuses the oils in there. It was almost candied, right?

It was almost, yeah, it was just like, god, super sweet and nutty but aromatic. Sweet, nutty, firm, spicy, yeah. I get it, that was the tinned fish that made me believe in all tinned fishes. That's awesome. And I, you know, whipped it up with a little bit of mayonnaise had some I don't know like a fontina or something that wasn't Gonna be too salty and overpowered to smoke cheese and fish is an incredible combo

I made a little freakin salmon tuna melt with it and it ruled but similar thing with like a nicoise salad But here's an ultra premium ingredient that rules. Yeah, that's right. That's right You know I've been seeing a lot on the internet. People have been, have you seen this where people light paper towels over their tinned fish to smoke it? No. Have you never seen, we actually did this ourselves.

Lily, V and I made a TikTok where we literally lit a paper towel on fire over the oil of some anguillas, which we can talk about anguillas after this. We can talk about anguillas. But it literally like, it's like this slow burn, and I don't know if it's safe. I'm gonna be honest with you.

You're just lighting paper towels. Yeah, we're lighting paper towels on fire and then consuming the food that is inside of the tin that the paper towel was burning over the top. But to be fair, paper towels are just bleached wood pulp. I didn't know what paper towels were. Oh, you didn't? No.

I taught you something today? Yeah, well look at me But yeah, we did that and let me just say the the virality of this Thing of lighting paper towels on top of tinned fish has also made it incredibly popular too for the algorithm That's all I wanted to say. It's not that I dislike deftones sure But there's like a couple other bands that like I don't know any deftones songs I want to My own summer also known as shove it shove it shove it shove it Cole chamber why I feel like more people should care about Cole chamber

More people should care about snot you know snot by snot of course That song yeah, I told you of course I do it's a good song I Got a question about the tin fish movement. Oh, but can you tell course I do it's a good song I Got a question about the tin fish movement. Oh, but can you tell people and gilas before you go and gilas and gilas? Are Josh's favorite tin fish or the one he likes to talk about most it's my favorite tin fish They're the one I like to talk about most mostly because they were featured in the season 2 finale by chef Ilan Hall of Top Chef He broke them out, and they are tiny baby eels from Spain I think we mentioned

them once on a TikTok and someone said that they're bad for the environment. I don't know about all that. Sorry. Oh my god, I apologize. Oops. Big oopsie from us over here at Middle Castle. I don't think it's the biggest deal in the world. But anyways, they're baby eels and they're like tiny, tiny, tiny. They're the size of like little maggots and you can see- They kind of look like pinworms. They look big pinworms you see the little eyeballs, and that's it It's an eyeball and a slightly translucent thing of flesh right it's like the size of a grain of rice He put it on some toast some crusty bread olive oil and eat it and like they're pretty good I liked it. I don't think the best we had it together

No, they sell imitation and gilas as well nice Which is just like sirimi that they've sort of riced up to be the size of Anguillus. And then they put little eyes on them like beep beep. But it's very expensive and you and I went to a restaurant. We went to Salty Girl. And to Salty Girl. Salty Girl is, it has a wine list of tinned fish like all the regions broken out all the types of fish. There's probably a hundred different tins of fishes. Right. It is really cool, but we got three tinned fishes probably all at an average like $35. Which is highway robber I mean robbery we were balling we were balling. We were having a good time. We were having a good time

We're gonna spend money Josh. You know drinking a little bit part of life sometimes. We all shared a single bowl of clam chowder Did any of the do you remember the tin fishes that we had I don't they tasted like I don't remember anything from that night Do you remember the tinfishes that we had? And what they tasted like? I don't remember anything from that night. I remember we went up to the house of the Hollywood Hills. That's all I remember. And I just kept asking for Cray-Shawn to be played. Oh my god.

But what I'm saying is like I don't remember how any of them tasted. I don't think even had you been entirely sober, I don't think you would have remembered any of them. They were all somewhat unmemorable bites. And they were served with like a fun little herb salad and grilled bread and little pickled thingy things. That was fun, yeah.

I remember that part. But to me, like, I am never again paying for a restaurant markup on tin fish like that. I don't think I will again. I don't think I will again, unless it's like a special occasion. What special, like Arbor Day? What do you mean?

Jacques Cousteau's birthday? Like if someone's like, oh. The Gordon Fisherman died. Right, so I was like, oh, for my birthday, I wanna have like a tin fish birthday. You're the only one that would do that. You just established that. You're the only friend who would do that.

Are you planning on doing that? Maybe, my birthday's May 28th, don't forget it. But maybe it's, I mean like, hmm, that's right. If I do go out with, yeah, no, I'm just being crazy. Don't listen to me. I'm just being a silly, goofy girl. Nicole. What's up, buddy?

I got a trip coming up. Where are you going? Five days across the island of Sardinia. Stop. And here's the thing. No way. I know nothing about Sardinia. I've never been to Italy at all. I took one semester of Italian in college. I had roommates that were from Italy for a couple months, but I've completely lost any language. But I really want to at least be able to do the basics. I want to be able to ask for a

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Now that's some smart shopping. Conditions apply. See in store or joefresh.com for details. How much do you think the advertising of tinned fish not only affects you, but also has affected a soul? 100%. Almost a thousand percent. Almost a hundred percent. Tell them about fish wife's aesthetic.

If fish wife's beautiful freaking containers did not have those wispy things and they didn't look like tattoos from like the 19-4, like sailor tattoos. They do, they look like Americana tattoos. Is that what they're called? I think there's like a style, it's like American classic or something. Yeah, American classic. Like pinup girl style. As someone who watches a lot of, what's that show with Dave Navarro? Oh, like Ink Masters.

As someone who watches a lot of Ink Master when she's like doing her makeup in the mornings. I don't watch it, I just listen to it. Let me tell you, the packaging sells me every single time It does I don't even care what's in it half of the time. It's the packaging that really sells me You're listening to Ink Masters reruns while doing your makeup. It's just it's just nice to listen to in the background Isn't most of the value seeing their tattoos? Yeah, sometimes I glance over. I'd like something, you know, you know I'm like, I'm like I'm like mid-eyeliner and I'm like, oh, that does look nice. How long have you been doing this? Years, like two years.

You're telling me that every morning you wake up and you just listen to Dave Navarro's excellent hosting. Not every morning. He's an excellent host. I also listen to Dead Meat. What do you mean? I have something, I need to have something to do. There's actually a fascinating history behind designing canned fishes.

Oh really? Which is incredible. A lot of the canned fish stuff started in the late 19th century in Portugal or all along Iberia. And when we think of tin fish, we think a lot of Portugal in Spain. Me and you do, yes. You and I, when we all think of tin fish. When you think of tin fish, you probably think of chicken in the sea.

But in like the 1920s, there was one like advertising visual artist dude in Portugal that started designing custom labels for fish canneries, which is really rad. And so it kind of became known for the style and a lot of fish wipes products kind of harken back to that. And you'll still see that all across Europe with these older brands. Yeah, Ortiz has really beautiful, it's like yellow and it has like a little sail ship, right? A little blue sail ship. Yeah.

Ortiz is great. If tin fish is of the moment in 2024 right now, and sales are projected to rise like north of $10 billion going into like the 2030s, but there's gonna be something else. I know what it is. Triple A. So what is it? Potted meat. Potted meat? Bring it back.

What's your favorite potted meat? I don't have one yet. Not yet, not Hormel corned beef? I've never, let me tell you, I haven't delved into it because it's scary. It scares me. Do you actually think potted meat, I don't think potted meat's actually gonna be.

I think if it's sold the right way, anything is possible. I think if you slap the right label on it, anything is possible. I think maybe like liver pates could come back. Well, isn't that like potted meat? It's like potted meat but potted Oh, oh, yeah, I guess you're right because you could do like What's that one thing that I don't really like the one that always tastes like tuna salad even though it's made from pork Riet's Riet I love Riet you do like yeah charcuterie because that's what like this stuff We're talking about right like you would go to a fancy restaurant

And you would get some sort of smoked trout marinated in chili oil blah blah blah served of stuff But then now they're doing that and they're put into cans Yeah, things you also used to get a fancy restaurants people just simply aren't going out as much I think that's you know why we saw canned fish Yeah, really blow up during the pandemic and then people kind of realize oh I can sit in my home a lot more and do stuff like that um Entire charcuterie board stuff just yeah tucked in a can maybe people are gonna start, you know doing their own sausages People are doing that whole homestead or thing

Do you like make their own sourdough now? Damn people like like to make their own cookies with sourdough discard and whatnot Maybe people are gonna start making their own like saloon salumi in their house Not even making I'm saying like brands that could do it really well. Yeah, make it cool. And market it that. I feel like I would be very liable to buy that. You don't buy salami in your house, do you?

No, but I'm not even saying salami. Like I'm saying stuff like a liver pate. Yeah, it's possible. But in a can, so it's cool. You design the cans all nice. You have an anthropomorphic pig on there. You know, it's kind of like cutting out its own belly. Oh, that's a little Bessayade.

Oh no, I think it's cool. But I do think, I think potted meat and liver pates will probably make a comeback. I think we need to make canned vegetables cool again. I don't see that happening. But like, you can do cool stuff with canned vegetables that you couldn't do. It's expensive though. What do you mean it's expensive?

I'm saying like, people would, the markup for the canned vegetables being fancified, a la fishwife, I don't see that. You don't think people would spend money on vegetables, but you do see them spending money on fish. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Because I think fish can be seen as like almost a luxury to some people. It's really interesting how canned tuna is so cheap.

It is. Right? For the amount of protein and nutrients and fish flesh that you're getting. It's so incredibly cheap. It's shocking that Fishwife, and there's other brands, I've just been, Fishwife has been my Roman Empire for quite a minute now, but they were able to take a product that was incredibly cheap and then just really make it expensive without people completely dropping off and going, hey, that's canned fish,

that should be cheap. It's incredibly turned something that was commodity to luxury. Yeah, have you ever seen the glass bottle tunas? How do you feel about glass bottle tunas? Oh man, last glass bottle tuna I had was really good, dude. I know, I buy it on sale. There's a big quality difference.

I swear it's like night and day. Damn. Like the thick, like you can literally take the tuna out of the glass and it's like, you see the actual like flakes of fish. Whenever you get it. They keep the loins kind of whole. It's gorgeous. The slices.

It's gorgeous. Whenever you get the canned stuff, sometimes it's just like mush. It's pulverized mush. It's packed up. It doesn't really, it doesn't really hit the same. Like I would feel comfortable putting a glass tuna out on like a board, like a food board, like not a charcuterie board, but like a tinned fish board. I'd feel comfortable doing that, but I wouldn't do that with like, stargaz or whatever.

Should we throw a tinned fish party? I think it's only fair. Meggie, would you come? Of course. We should do that. I think, I think the problem is, is I haven't fully leaned into it. Because I'm obviously tinfish curious, right? I've had like meaningful tinfish experiences, but I don't know if I'm really ready to

do it till the end. You know, I just think I need to like really dive in fully into the deep end of this tinfish. I mean, V, Lily and I, whenever we have an extra can of tinned fish, we go absolutely feral for it. Like gargoyles come to life. Truly, you should see. We get bread, we get lemons, we get whatever we have, and Calabrian chilies and crackers, and we go ham, and it's the best, and we eat with our hands.

It's feral and it's, you can come next time. I would love that. You're invited. What are your top couple favorite tinned fishes like in terms of the actual animal that they tend because there's a lot that they're doing Out there. We've had some terrible like tinned uni. I don't know why that exists Tinned razor clams just tastes like rubber bands to me They're so tough, but what are like the good things to tend the bad things to tend I think anchovies are great to tin. I love eating them, I eat them out of the jar.

And those are heavily salt cured, right? Yes, yes, yes, salt cured ones. I don't like the bocureños. Boquerones. I don't love boquerones that much. I like the really salty, oily, like blackish dark ones. Yeah, boquerones are like fresher and whole, right? And they're meatier, which some people like,

but to be honest, I just love that salty, oily, umami anchovy flavor paired with like a cracker or like a piece of cheese or something like that. Yeah, so I love anchovies. I love mackerel, canned mackerel. Mackerel. I love, there's this great one I forgot that Brenda put.

Mackerel keeps the skin on, but like. I love it. Mackerel, you can eat the bones too, which is fun. Yeah, yeah. I love mackerel. I got this, I don't even too, which is fun. Yeah, yeah. I love macro. I got this, I don't even know what brand it was. It was like a Mediterranean macro with olives and like tomato and sundried tomato.

I don't even like sundried tomatoes, but sundried tomatoes, olives, oregano, really good quality olive oil. That was great. And then honestly, I just love that lemon preserve sardine that I had. I still think about it. And I'm like, do I really want to spend $11, $12 on this?

Yes, I do. So that's probably my other favorite. Can, I had a really great canned smoked oyster the other day. I've never actually had a canned oyster before, or smoked oyster. You know what I think what tin fish needs to accomplish is it has to be something that can like

only be done in a tin. Cause otherwise like, you got a can of tuna. If we're talking about superseding the idea of convenience into luxury, right? Because convenience, I don't have to buy a tuna fillet and cook it and chill it and shred it, whatever. I can buy a can of that, open it, mix it with mayonnaise, slap it on bread.

That's convenience and it's like delicious enough. Right, right, right. But with like the fancy tin fish, this needs to be something like I can't do on my own it only can happen in it I see what you're saying So something like tinned smoked oysters are incredible because you get a smoked oyster that like is sort of Dehydrated from the smoke and then you pop that in a can with oil with flavorings and it creates just like This perfect smearable thing that you can put on bread that is unlike any other experience. That's a purely unique experience

It's not just like a fancy You know anchovy or whatever from a different region and there's been like craft and strategy into this can I really want I've never tried like Smoked shellfish. I think I've only tried fish. I've never had the luxury of trying Gobbling down the cockles that salty girl. I went there I've never had the luxury of trying. You weren't gobbling down the cockles at Salty Girl when we went there? Oh yeah, I had cockles! We were all gobbling cockles that day.

The cockles were really good. The gobbling of the cockles, my God. The cockles were gobbled. We went on a cockle gobbling rampage. That's right. No, we were really fighting. Cockle goblins, it was crazy. We were fighting over the cockles.

Oh my God, we were. We really were. I don't remember. I just, flashback, those were like brined nicely. They weren't like typical tinned in oil. Those were like brined nicely. They weren't like typical tinned in oil. They were like brined in like seawater. And it was good, right? Did you enjoy it? Yeah!

I sure gobbled it like it was. It was chewy. It was a little chewy for me. It was a little chewy, right? Chewy for me. Canned clams are really common and you make a clam chowder at home, you dump in a can of clams, but it's never actually good. Canned clams are never actually good. They're always too good. Well, I don't, again, like, I don't go searching for clam chowder the way that you think I would. I'm sorry. I am, I am-

I'm different now. Like you said you're a seafood girly, like, I'm also, I'm more of an untinned fish girl-y. I'm telling you, I'm a seafood girl, but I'm not the biggest tinned fish girl. Like, tell them what we did like last week or last month when we went to eat oysters by the beach. Oh my God, we went to the greatest place in the history of the earth. We were up in Napa for the Cookbook Fest, which is a fantastic event.

Josh's fiance was there too. My fiance was there too. I was third wheeling. Yeah, we were all third. It felt right. Anyways, Nicole made it weird by saying that. It wasn't weird, it's the truth. We took this incredibly romantic drive up the coast to Tomales Bay.

I was in the back. And it was a place called the Marshall Store. It was good. And we got a dozen raw oysters, and you can see them dragging in oysters from Tomales Bay. It was so good. It's right next to a more famous spot called Hog Island, but I like the Marshall Store. And then we got six barbecued oysters Rockefeller

with the spinach and with the cheese. And then we got six, what were they called? Oysters kill Patrick. Oysters kill Patrick. They like changed, I think that was like one of the best things I've had this year. Barbecued with Worcestershire and bacon. And they served it with crusty grilled garlic bread.

And you take the barbecued fresh, fresh oyster with the Worcestershire on it, and you just take the bread and you smear it on. You get the oyster liquor on the bread and you, and we got, oh my God, we got that lovely sparkling Albarino. Oh my God, that was really nice. Ugh, so good, right? Everyone goes for champagne.

No, give me a sparkling Albarino. It was dry, it was crisp. Same thing, same thing. It was beautiful, it was 11 a.m. That's right, we had that salad, the smoked salmon salad. The little smoked salmon salad. We were living.

It was smoked trout, smoked steelhead trout salad. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry But the point is like seafood fresh seafood seafood It's one of the most beautiful things on earth right that was one of my favorite meals I've ever had do you think if we had like an a set of a melange of tinned fish that would Expand our experience or miniaturize our experience. Oh, that... Yeah, if they had it. I think it would have taken away from the experience because that's like one of the things about seafood, right? Is that it's so much better fresh.

It really is better fresh. Tin seafood, right? Convenience, all that, but we've now superseded the idea of convenience in society. We're post-history, right? We're at the point where you can get sushi in the desert that's really high quality due to deep freezes and all that. So I guess that might be like my only initial issue with tinned fish. Again,

you're making a different product when you smoke it and you preserve it and yada yada, but like nothing is going to beat just raw oyster fresh out the bay. A raw oyster versus a smoked oyster? Let me tell you, I've never had a smoked oyster, but I'm gonna pick the raw oyster almost every single time. We gotta answer the question, is tinned fish overrated? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

We have not reached the inflection point. Nope, not yet. We're almost there though. We're at the apex. Anything can happen. Again, I think we're seeing a bunch of the tinned fish curious climb up to the ledge and decide if they really want to take the plunge. And I think we haven't reached that point yet, but we're definitely rising to it.

Can't wait. And I'm curious to see where it goes. And until then, we're banking on potted meat 2030. That's right. Coming to town. We should start our own... Oh, dude. What?

Starting our own potted meat brand? I don't think we're allowed to. Hi, I'm PJ Vo we're allowed to. Hi, I'm PJ Vogt, here to tell you about my new podcast, Search Engine. Search Engine was one of the very best new podcasts of 2023, according to Vulture, Vogue, Time Magazine, and The Economist. We answer fascinating questions about business, tech, and history. Questions like, why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything?

Who should be in charge of artificial intelligence? How did ADHD medication get so popular so fast? Listen and follow Search Engine with PJ Voet and Odyssey Podcast, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Whoa, all right, Nicole. We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out whether whack yetis are rattling out there in the universe.

It's time for a little segment we call, Opinions are like casserole. Opinions are like casseroles. You always ride my coattails. Why don't you let me shine? Just let a woman shine. You think. Opinions are like casseroles. Was that so hard?

Do you want to do another take? No? You're satisfied with that? That was your your what you consider to be your best effort Don't laugh Maggie don't laugh before we get to a bidding to like cast roles Which as we all know is people's third favorite segment We're gonna jump straight to your fifth favorite segment, which is called review a review This is we're trying bait you into writing more positive reviews on Apple reviews, which might help the podcast. We don't exactly know how.

I don't know. This one is written by Akachandis and they gave us five stars. They said, great podcast, great hosts. In each episode, you're guaranteed to laugh, be entertained, and learn something new about food science or history. One of my favorite podcasts. I give this a three and a half. Stop being so obsessed with us. Three and a half as well, but this sounds like it was written by an AI bot that I programmed to write a positive review once every three weeks.

No, but really, thank you so much. We appreciate it. It means a lot. Still, you're getting only 3.5 stars. Hey, Josh and Nicole. It's Alex from Tucson, Arizona. Dirty tea. And my hot take is that no one really likes candy canes, the peppermint candy canes. Oh, yeah. Does anyone actually eat them? I don't think so.

I do enjoy the other flavors, like they have Sour Patch and Skittles and all these other flavored candy canes, but the peppermint ones, no, thank you. Bye. Yeah, yeah. Someone's propping up the peppermint ones, no, thank you. Bye. Yeah, yeah, someone's propping up the peppermint candy cane industry. Oh, interesting. Well, I like how you can whittle it into a shiv with your mouth.

It's one of the best stabbing candies. What that mouth do? Make a shiv out of candy canes. And it does, I've seen it. A great stabbing candy, a pretty bad eating candy. I just, but the thing is, I love peppermint things. Like, I've always loved, like, little peppermints, like the little pillowy, you know the little pillowy ones that you get from the MGM Grand?

The buttermints. I've never been to the MGM Grand. That's a weird reference. That's the only place I've ever had them. I love them. The ones that you can crunch there and they kind of- Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're so, and they're just like,

mm, I love that. I love the little pinwheels. What about the starlight mints? The ones that are the sort of no They're like the red and white ones with the stripes They're a circular hard candy. Yeah, the round ones. Yeah, I like well, that's the thing Here's the thing round things can fit in your mouth pretty easily. Yeah at that size. Yeah Yeah, this long cane structure. It's one of the worst structures to try any I know but it's it's meant for hanging on

The mantle with your little stocking. That's great. I know but it's meant for hanging on the mantle with your little stockings. That's great, don't make it edible. Make enough inedible candy cane shaped and colored things out of plastic, hang them on your tree and then never eat them again. They don't need to exist, I agree with that. But it's so fun you can go like ahh, it's funny. Yeah, you can fish hook your own mouth with a candy. Again, none of this is appealing as far as something to consume on Christmas. This is a great take. I listed two fun things to do with it.

That's pretty good, that's pretty good. And they're like, we made the sour candy canes, and it's like, give me something I can fit in my mouth. What are we doing here? I agree, I think that we built a ziggurat on false promises. Okay, you sound like the Grinch. Sorry Jim Carrey, I did an excellent portrayal. Hello. My name is less from Cedar Rapids. I My hot take is that all melons and anything that tastes like melon is a terrible time They all taste like crunchy rotten water.

Watermelon, honey melon, or honeydew. See, I don't even know what they're called. Teawee, cucumber, it's all trash. Throw it away. Maybe cucumbers are not melons. Crunchy rotten water, bye bye, love the show. My guy doesn't like fruits. My guy got a mellifluous voice though.

What a gorgeous voice. You should do voiceovers. What are you doing calling us? You should be calling all the agents in Los Angeles and Hollywood, baby. Nicole make you a big star You have to be willing to do anything. I'll make you a star, baby, you know I was gonna bring back the candy canes, but I decided against it. Yeah, no more talking about candy canes Melons Cucumbers kiwis. I think those are all different things. I

just think he doesn't like fruit. I think he doesn't like fruits. But no, melons do have a specific, what he talks about like tasting like kind of dirty water. I like it though. Rot water. I like the rot water. I would bet that you probably don't like papayas either. Papayas also have these tropical fruits that like produce ethylene. Dead body taste. They give you the dead body taste dead bite is durian is the I love durian. That's a very equatorial fruit Yeah, I like all those some people you might be a super taster You might be someone who has a very sensitive olfactory or senses, right? Which would cause you to not want that but I love when I bite into a sweet melon and I get that little rotten corpse flavor

I think it tastes delicious and I love melon like ice cream bars. Have you read them from the Japanese market? I love little mandolin, mandolin little melon fizzy candies that are also from the Asian market I just like melon flavored things all the time. The honeydew flavor at Yogurtland is maybe my favorite flavor of all time I love. It's been a long time since I've had it. Love melons There's nothing better than ripe honeydew and there's nothing harder to find in the world than a ripe honeydew. Well, I wouldn't say honeydew is the best, but also I was raised in a cantaloupe home. Like my mom would, like this is how my mom showed her love. She would literally chop up cantaloupes and then she would make little bite sections for me to eat the cantaloupes.

Incredible. Isn't that cute? Like she would like, it would literally like, she would be like Nicole look, and then I would just laugh and laugh. What was it like to feel the love of a mother? It's great, it's great. Incredible feeling. Sorry, sorry. So I feel bad.

What's that, there's some new melons, Sugar Kiss melons, those are great. Go out there, try it. Give melons an earnest chance, I say. Hey, Josh, Nicole, just recently found your podcast. Thanks for stopping by. I just wanted to say, I got two words for ya. Buffalo chicken Alfredo.

Sorry, my Danny DeVito isn't quite on point. That was Danny DeVito? Anyway, thanks. That was the best Danny DeVito impression I've ever heard. Was it? Or at least the third best Tommy DeVito impression I've ever heard. Was it? Or at least the third best Tommy DeVito impression I've ever heard. Tommy DeVito started a couple games for the New York Giants and he played his football, I believe it, Syracuse. He may have transferred to Illinois, but anyways,

Italian American kid, and this is the best part about the story, is he grew up like eight miles from the Giants stadium, So he literally lived at home with his mom Nice because quote she made the best chicken cutlets. Yeah, why would it and then he commuted to his professional football quarterback job There's nothing wrong with that and I love that Tommy DeVito American here I'm sure he was saving his money to buy him and his mother a nice place later. Absolutely. I like that now We got talk about Buffalo chicken, Alfredo. Yum, give me that. Yum yum, eat it up. Give me that all day every day three times a day. I think we need to completely divorce ourselves from any Italian food traditions. Okay, right. Go ahead. Basta, like I heard somebody the other day go like I would die for Cacio e Pepe.

It's like Cacio e Pepe. Would you? I don't think they would. I think they're bluffing. I think they're bluffing. I wouldn't die for any food dish. Carniçada burrito San Diego style. I'd die for it. Like die for it? I'd lay down my life. Yeah. Oh You know my priorities have changed. Just a little. No, but you know what I mean like these Pasta dishes like chicken fettuccine Alfredo. They're good. I love and they have nothing. I love it nothing to do with Italian food I know Alfredo was technically invented in Rome yada yada, but not the kind that we make and especially you take buffalo sauce Which is just acid heat and like cream fat, right? And you put that on the chicken it plays with everything it cuts through the starch It gives some zing to the protein that is absolutely incredible

I would make a buffalo chicken Alfredo and I would like toast up some garlicky bread crumbs and I'd put that on top almost giving it like a half a chicken cut like kind of vibe. Mix that throughout the pasta maybe put some parsley little chives in there to lighten it up a little bit. Damn. I would love to eat whatever you just said but I would probably do it a little bit differently but that's okay. Do we think though that buffalo alfredo is better than Cajun alfredo?ajun Alfredo. Yes. Why because of the acid? Yeah, the acid the acid and the tang the spice needs the as Mary's with the sauce of the the Alfredo sauce and the starch of the pasta And it's just perfect. I truth now, you know, I don't love Cajun Alfredo

What I don't love it. I thought I knew you You don't know anything about me. I I don't know. I think buffalo and you know what I would do to make a little bit crazy I would add a little bit of Hidden Valley Ranch packet to my outfit. Oh Shoot, dude. Oh my god. That's what I would do like brunoise pickled carrot. That's what I would do That's what I would do. Do a little like, brunoise of pickled carrot and celery. That's what I would do. That's what I would do. Crazy old me, I would add half a packet of the Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packet to the Alfredo, and then I would take my chicken and I would fry the ever-living F out of it,

maybe with corn flakes, cause I'm crazy. Chop it up and then just like squiggle, squiggle sauce, and then just put like a crap ton of chives on the top and then a little bit of like I almost want to shave carrots on it. I almost want to shave carrots on it. Shoot, shoot, shoot. I take 12 pounds of chicken bones, right? Not the meat.

The meat you're going to come feed the bones. You're going to roast off. You're going to turn that into stock. You're going to reduce that stock to about a cup. That's going to get you a chicken demi. You take that chicken demi, you pop that in the saucepan, you deglaze it with a little bit of cream, you toss the pasta in there, finish with a little bit of sweet baby Ray's new buffalo sauce. Oh!

Not to eat baby Ray's barbecue sauce, sweet baby Ray's buffalo sauce. I like that one, I like that one. You're gonna take all the skin from all that, the meat and the bones that you removed, you're gonna take that skin, you're gonna lay it out flat, you're gonna put that in a low oven until it crisps up, you're gonna take that, you're gonna blitz it, Nicole, with a little bit of panko and a little bit of parmesan, frico, you're gonna add those bread crumbs on top of that chicken jus with a little bit of panko and a little bit of Parmesan. Free kill. You're going to add those breadcrumbs on top of that chicken jus with a little bit of that confit in the buffalo pasta. Boom.

That sounds pretty good. So passionate. So intense. That was really intense. I'm also really hungry. I want to make dinner. White chocolate is better. Yes!

Yes! Is that it? I agree. I love white chocolate. White chocolate is, well. I love white chocolate is better yes yes is that it I agree I love white chocolate white chocolate is well I know about better but I think white chocolate needs more respect than it gets why chocolate tastes so good and it's like decent do you think white chocolate is chocolate I don't think you've ever talked about the podcast yeah we did no we didn't yeah we really we did is white

chocolate we did his chocolate candy certainly I'm pretty sure we but we've definitely had a tangent or two if we haven't had an actual podcast I think white chocolate as someone who's worked at a chocolate store white chocolate definitely frickin chocolate. Yeah, yeah It's it's the same for me. It doesn't have the actual what like cacao Or something that's okay. It doesn't taste like cacao certainly. It doesn't have to taste like cacao It tastes like white chocolate, and it's so good. I agree entirely Yeah, and I think it's versatile and I think you can use it you make like a white chocolate ganache And you can sort of like flavor it with anything you want no I don't know cinnamon and a white chocolate ganache a little cinnamon ganache

I don't know I just like white chocolate like a bar of white chocolate a good one It's so much better than milk chocolate so much better than dark chocolate I like white chocolate as an ingredient not as like a plain eating thing But I don't just like eat chocolate plain never I never just like want to eat plain chocolate I love using it in things. I like plain chocolate. I love chocolate drizzle on a homemade rice crispy I did a little white chocolate ganache mix some matcha powder in there drizzled that Drizzled that on a matcha rice crispy with shaved pistachios on top. That's nice. It's a treat. That's nice. What a treat I like it. You ever had that cocoa not a cocoa the the red berry. What is it? Yeah, a ruby chocolate ruby chocolate

You ever had it's my chocolate. It's white chocolate with like red stuff in it. Got some fun. Yeah, it's nice Okay, I got a new chocolate. You go. No, you go. So I had a new chocolate that was made with dates. Oh. Have you ever had caramelized white chocolate? Yeah. I love caramelized. That was a trend. I love caramelized white chocolate. That was a trend like seven, eight years ago. It's the best. Caramelized white chocolate is like, it's like chocolate and caramel, but not like the one, not like how I'm describing it. It's like, it's the best. Caramelized white chocolate is like chocolate and caramel, but not like the one, not like how I'm describing it. It's like unexpected. One time I made a white caramelized white chocolate gelato. Golly.

Oh my god. Bring it back. Bring back caramelized white chocolate. Let's do it. You just put the chips on a baking sheet and I remember making it and I remember making it. You put it in the oven and it bakes and then you smear it around and then it starts to get a little color.

You smear it two more times. Damn. Yeah. You know what? Have you ever read Let's Eat? baking sheet and I remember making it and I remember you put it in the oven and it bakes and you smear it around and then it starts to get a little color you're smear it two more times. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. You know what?

Have you ever had leche quemada ice cream? Yeah. Okay. Leche quemada ice cream with, imagine this, leche quemada ice cream with caramelized white chocolate ganache on the top. So leche quemada is scorched milk or burnt milk. Yes. Or smoked milk.

Smoked milk ice cream. Yeah. Damn. Yeah. Sounds great. I want to eat that right now. A little salt in there? Yeah, a little salt. Okay. Well, thanks so much for stopping by our podcast, The Hot Dog and Sam. We got new episodes out on audio platforms every Wednesday, new videos out every Sunday. Nicole, tell them what to call. If you want to be featured on opinions or like cast rules, give us a call at 833-DOG-POD-1. Our number again is 833-DOG-POD-1. That's 833-DOG-POD-1. If you like watching us on a little device like an iPhone or maybe you could be watching on a smart fridge,

you can do more of that on our YouTube channel, Mythical Kitchen, where we make funny little cooking videos and stuff. I want a TV in my bathroom. I want a TV on the bottom of my bathtub. I want a TV right in front of my face. I want a TV right in front of my face. I want to put a giant TV above my bed so that way when... Never mind.