A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Ube Overrated?

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Today, Josh and Nicole are joined by Mythical Kitcheneer Tony Manlutac to decide: is ube overrated? Does ube taste good on its own merits? Is modern American “ube” actually ube? Let’s dive in!Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1Check out the video version of this podcast:https://www.youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich

Ube this, Ube that, Ube to listen to this podcast to find out all about Ube. We're definitely not doing that. Why not? I don't know. We didn't like that one? I didn't like that one. I thought it was pretty good. I like Ube this, Ubi that.

Everything is purple. Everything is purple. Everything is purple. Nicole. Nicole's off that purple Ube again. Off to purp. This is a hot dog is a safe. A hot 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 to Hot Dog is a sandwich the show. I'm the only one in headphones, huh?

Oh, sorry, Josh. Is this your first day on Earth? What is going on? Hey, my name is Josh Sharab here. I'm the podcast. First day on the job. I'm taking over for Roddy on the Rock. And we got Tony Monloo talking.

Welcome, Tony. My name is Nicole Iniety. I'm so sorry, this is my friend Nicole. I'm the co-host of the show. My besties. You know, some days, it's a Friday. It's late. It's literally Thursday.

God dang it. It's only Thursday. I thought yesterday was Friday. Today we're talking about all things Ube, though. Because I don't like reducing things to a trend. I also don't think you introduced our guests properly. I said Tony. Sorry, this is big tone.

This is tone logg. This is Tony. Tony is one of our incredible. Incredible chefs and culinary producers at Mythical. He is behind the scenes doing this, doing that, doing over here, a little bit over there. And he is our coolest Filipino co-worker. And he's going to talk to us about Ube. Sorry, that was a proper intro, Josh.

He's a guest dinner. I don't like that you said that he's cooler than Raymond. I feel like we need to bring Raymond. Oh, Raymond's pretty cool. Raymond's pretty cool. Tony's, Tony's like. Heikas Filipino? Yeah.

Who did you say? Emica. Is that how you say? I think so. I'm like an amica. Yeah. No, she's great with me. I'm so sorry.

She works with her own. She works with her own. I'm so sorry. Let's talk about the org chart here and all the Filipinos at work at Midsicler. Okay. Who else do we go? Shout out. Mindy used to work here.

Yeah, yeah. Right. I love Mindy. I went out. I think Jackson's a half like me. Oh, Jackson's half? This is all good. No.

For strict educational and non-profilely person. Caleb. Caleb? Caleb? Yes. Hawaii. Yeah. Yeah.

Any other people you want to... To out them? You know Caleb once open for this kind of like legendary punk band called Otoboke Biva? No. Yeah. You know them? Okay. Never heard of him.

Okay, guys, sorry. We love hanging out together so much that we get so distracted. But today we're going to talk about Ube and if it's overrated. What are your thoughts and feelings, friends? Well, how rated do we think Ube is, right? now? And have we seen its rating change? Apparently, it's on the rise, but I think anything in a fad is overrated because it's a fad. By definition, it's going to be overrated simply because it's rated so high. And we see things come and go like this. Like, you grew up in L.A., yeah?

I mean, you've also been Filipino, have, like, eaten Ube for a long-ass time. Yeah. It's just been around since I was, like, it was, you know how you have chocolate and vanilla ice cream? They also have Ube as an option. Like, it just always been a flavor. And some people Is it called Magnolia brand? Yes, there's Magnolia Brown Bakery. There's Red Ribbon. There's Goldilocks. Goldilocks, I think, isn't in L.A.

anymore. But, yeah, there's a bunch of different spots that had cool little pastries and stuff. Yeah, I remember, like, I lived in Koreatown, like, God, it would have been like 10 years ago at this point. And so, like, not only, you know, awesome Korean desserts and Korean dessert trends, but all sort of like East Asian, Southeast Asian dessert trends, like run through Korea Town in the St. Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles. And that, like, genuinely informs. what a lot of the rest of the country does in certain ways.

I mean, you even see that in other foods, like the hot chicken boom with howling rays, right? And like whether or not it's sort of deserved trends stems from there, that's kind of how it works. Filipino food, I think more than any food in the world or in the United States has gone through this cycle

of the last 10 years of people going, is Filipino food the next big trend? People have been saying that for so long. But it's like, I wonder why. Why? Yeah. Like, do you guys have any answers? My take is, it's like at this intersection of like Chinese food and Japanese food and Korean food, which has had a really, really long history in L.A. And Filipino food is kind of like the cool older brother of all of those cuisines.

Not that it is, it's just marketed that way. Like, oh, you've never heard of Synagon before. You've never heard of these macupono. Is that how you say it? Macapuno, like you've never heard of these things before. And I'm going to show you all about them. It's like an exotic way to eat Asian food is how it's been marketed to me, at least. And that's how I've been seeing it on, like, food blogs and all these Instagram posts and stuff like that.

Because, I mean, there are, there's such a massive Filipino population in the United States. Philippines has had a big relationship with the United States. It's, like, kind of very neo-colonialist because, like, Spanish-American War in 1900s. Sure, yeah. It was kind of new. But it does feel like there's a bit of, it was Korean food. Yes. We've done that.

They've got... Exactly. I've had the spicy fried chicken. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, they've done. So they're looking for the next thing. And I think Filipino, like, fits that little mold for them. Yeah. How have you...

It's not going on for 10 years, though. It's exhausting. But, well, that's what I'm saying is, there is no, like, next trend. Like, you have, I don't know. I mean, I remember watching Filipino restaurants, like, Risenpola. Mams, sir. Charles O'Lali, I think, is one of the most talented chefs. From Kui-il-Loy?

No, so that's... God, what's his name? I don't know. What's the Kui-lord guy? I don't remember him. Have been to Kuya Lord? I haven't been. Oh, it's great, man.

But this is Charles O'Lalea. He was head chef at, like, one of the big, like, Terenaya, one of the big resorts. Okay, okay. And then he opened a spot called Rice Bar in downtown that he was doing legit, like, Filipino rice bowls with, you know, heirloom rice. It was wonderful. He did this, like, DeLis rice bowl with the fried, like, little anchovies on it. Shit was incredible. And then he opened Mamsar, which, like, their C-City was one of the best things ever had.

Good times. But it's weird to this cycle of, like, what's next? And then it's almost like there's like this weird onus on Filipino people to be like, teach me about the culture and stuff. Have you felt like other people, I don't know.

Like they don't have the same relationship with like K-pop. You know, there's not a lot of like Stan culture as far as I know. Yeah, I think there's like there's a girl group I think right now that has some fans and stuff. But Filipinos are so like they just let things happen.

I feel like. So it's like yeah, whatever. you want. Like, if this wants to be your new fad, then yeah, we'll support it. And we'll put, and people are super proud of anything that comes from the Philippines. And Ube specifically, I think, is native to the Philippines. So that's why it's been pushed for so long. One thing I notice is kind of like with the Halden Race thing you said is 10 years ago, whenever I started saying Ube pop up more, it was also the time where Instagram was popping. Yeah, yeah. The color. So the color of Ube is such a gorgeous selling point for like the masses to look at because there's not a lot of naturally purple foods. Like there's like blackberries

I have a note. What's up? That ain't natural. That's not. I agree with you. Like Ube is naturally purple. It ain't that purple. No, it's not that purple. And that really comes into play. Well, I think that's also something important to to mention too. Like we, I mean, we as Josh and I as the we, the way we were introduced to Ube was Ube flavored things. And that's condensed into a small little purple bottle that has a very strong, like, musky vanilla. You're talking about the actual extract. Yeah. Like, Ube extract.

Yeah. I don't think the way that Josh and I were introduced to Ube was people pounding the yam and presenting that to us in a boba drink, which is the first time I ever had Ube was an Ube boba, not a taro, which was I prefer taro, but the first time I had it was in Ube. It was an Ube slush boba from a Ktown spot, funny enough. And it's just one of those things where it gets introduced to the U.S. and Americans as this highly processed, super condensed, little jar of extract. And that's how we know about the food.

That is how we're introduced. Whereas you, you've grown up with it. It's been in your face your entire life. Your mom, your grandma, everyone in your life has consumed this food. But Americans are like, purple thing, I must have now. Why Ube and Not Tara? I'm going to eat here You guys grow up with taro?

I like both. I grew up with taro more than Ube. Same. My grandma would like steam taro and Ube and we'll eat it with like butter and sugar just on the street. Oh she would do both? We'd just mash it up. God, that sounds good.

Yeah. But I think for even for most Filipino, it is the extract and this like extra purple coloring that is more prevalent like in every day. Yeah. You go to the bakery and it is what most people aren't eating the potato. The actual root. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I probably would have had.

it for the first time in like an encemaata. Mm-hmm. Yes. Have you read the Encemaa project? Yeah, yeah. That's my favorite thing. But did you like grow up like eating proper raw cooked ube? Not too.

The crazy thing is my grandma really hates cooking. It's like opposite to most Filipinos. Their Lola usually loves cooking for them. My grandma hates it. Let me give you a long boy actually. You deserve it. But yeah. This is what I was surrounded with.

Was the coloring and the pre- packaged things. It wasn't the natural. I think a lot of Filipino stuff is that way, though. It's Island Pacific or Seafood City has things that are super sugary and super preserved because it has to travel, I guess. I don't know. I like Seafood City because they have, what's Crispy Town?

There's a fried chicken joint inside the seafood city called Crispy Town. The one in Eagle Rock? Yes. They will sell just a bag of fried chicken skins. Mm-hmm. Yes. My grandpa would bring some home all the time. That's a bomb-ass snack right there.

The first time he brought just a bag of chicken skins, I was so amazed. Like, where do you get this? Where's the chicken girl? Do you guys think Americans would consume Ube if it was beige or white? No chance. Do you think Ube would have lasting power if it wasn't purple? To me personally, yes, I love sweet potatoes and tubers and Taro and Ube, even if it was just regular color. Regular style, normal style.

I would love it. Because even then, it would be even more impressive how fragrant and how powerful the taste is. Because it really comes through it. It's very unique to it. We just all ate a pirouette cookie. And for me, if I closed my eyes and you told me that was vanilla, I would believe you. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I don't get that. I mean, again, this is a, I don't know about you guys. I grew up with pirouette cookies. This was the cookie in my house. You just, you Kleenexed that. Oh. Oh, you're right. You know what I mean?

Pirouettes, like the name brand from Pepper's Farm? Yeah, but we would never buy pirouettes. No, they'd always be like a Costco and alcohol. Oh, I would never buy the actual name brand of the pirouettes. That means they won the branding one. They should get it. My God, these, when I would, I would pretend I was smoking a long cigarette. Yeah, it was just doing.

A fancy, a fancy. Crow was couching the bleasy. A fancy old lady in a 1930s film with her long cigarette holder. This was what I would do. I have an idea. And this is, hey, we can. keep it, we can cut it, but could you, hear me out, put an actual lit cigarette in there? And then kind of smoke it through the Zagraud thing.

Now, what you would have to do is create a little hole here, Josh. I just had a flashback. I used to get Ube Vap Juice. Whoa. Did I tell you guys? Oh, I remember this, yes. Oh my God. Ube birthday cake?

Yeah, yeah, correct. There is a wonderful... Josh used to say Ube Vasea cake to me. About three and a half, four years ago, Josh would say the words Ube birthday cake to me. Shout out to the Filipino vaping community. I'm like a sleeper agent, it would like trigger me because I remember that.

There's a local dude. I think he studied chemistry at UC San Diego. Filipino dude started a vape juice company and he would have like coconut pundon and Ube birthday. Ube cheesecake. Obe cheesecake. Obe cheesecake.

Obe cheesecake. Vap juice, which ridiculous. I couldn't pass that up. If I saw that on the shelf, there's no way. Dude, I mean, you would start start vaping just to do it. But like that is,

just the extract that's going in there. So actually like Ube, it is it's not related to taro at all. It's not related to Japanese purple sweet potato at all. It is uniquely its own yam. And like the term yam is really confusing, not even in

America around the world, because we use it kind of randomly. So America, for instance, we use the term yam to describe like candy yams, but that's a garnet sweet potato. It's like almost if you go to a standard American grocery store, there's almost nothing in there that's botanically a yam. You go to like an Asian grocery store and you can find, they might have fresh Ube, they might have like African yams.

It's also separate from cassava, I believe. Mannyana is entirely different. But like then there's a Japanese mountain yam that's like kind of related to a West African yam, but not really. Is that the one that you like grind and it gets really foamy and sticky? Yeah, yeah. But then you cook it and it's kind of just starchy. But the like wild world of yams out there is crazy. And a lot of them, I think that a lot of them were cultivated originally in like the, what is today,

New Guinea and then ended up in a lot of like, you know, Southeast Asian Pacific Islands. And then ended up in West Africa after that. It's time for Broke versus Boogie brought to you by Klarna. Same dish, two price tags, one blind taste test. Does the expensive one earn it or is the cheap one about to embarrass everybody? Now, Josh, what's your favorite broke food that you take over the fancy version any day? Okay, there's almost nothing such as broke food anymore on account of all food is expensive. But what I'm about to say, what I'm about to say, the cheese steak.

Oh. Because the fancy cheese steaks, they're costing a lot of them. They're costing $30, $35, which is absolutely crazy. But you get me like a good old fashioned cheesecake. They're never cheap because it's made with a lot of beef. But you go to your classic spot. Like you're going to like a gyms, a Johns, you know, one of those spots of Tony Luke's. Your normal neighborhood cheese steak with whiz on it, I think cannot be beaten.

A little amorousal roll. It's classic. It's simple. You don't need to boogie it up. Nicole, what's the boogie splurge you defend to death? Oh, wow. Honestly, don't laugh. A nice, fancy box of chocolates, like chocolate truffles made with, like, a lot of love and specialty ingredients.

Absolutely worth it. I find it to be so special. Those are almost not even like a food. Those are an event. That's what I'm saying. You know what I mean? Like the theatrics of opening the box and removing that, like, wax paper. Oh, there's nothing better.

That, like, insulates it and keeps it, like, at room at the proper temperature. Can I tell you. what the best thing is with the mixed box is when you get a little code and it's like, oh, the key, the dimple swirly. Oh, now that, a cherry amaretto buttercream? Get the heck out of here. Wait, what's the broke food that you'd rather have

than the bougie one? I honestly, I find myself always preferring cheap bean and cheese burritos to the expensive ones. And I'm not sure why, but there's something so delicious about a cheaper bean and cheese burrito. Also, you know me, I'm not a rice barrito.

and my burritos kind of person. And I just love the simplicity of those ingredients kind of marrying into one delicious slurpable food instead of like the fancy stuff. I feel like they might not use the right or their beans just aren't right. So definitely burritos. Yeah, you need like the liquidy beans,

the yellow mild shredded cheddar and like a little bit of sauce. I'm like a white cheese person. You're a white cheat. I like the white like Monterey Jacks. It's so funny because I love good expensive Mexican food. Like a fine dining Mexican restaurant is incredible. But yeah, bean burrito, that's something, that's like a working man's lunch. Yeah, I would like fajitas from anywhere is a good time.

100%. But bean and cheese, give me the cheap stuff. I made the claim that a $6 taco served in a taco holder is always going to be the worst taco of your life. You're probably more expensive. Probably a $9 taco now. But the ones that are served in the taco holders, nowhere have I ever gotten a good taco quote in a taco holder. I've had some good, I've had some good taco holder. I don't know.

The actual spots are making good tacos that wrap them in paper or they're throwing them on a plate. That's just laying down. The taco holder, to me, is an affectation that this is about to be a bad, expensive overpriced taco. So no bougie tacos for you. Well, I love bougie tacos. There's never served a taco holder holder. I see, I see, I see. The clam and whipped lardo taco from chef Ray Garcia is one of the best white food I ever had.

So you mean to tell me if that was in a holder you would be upset? No, he never would have put it in a holder because he knows that no good tacos are served in a holder because he's actually from Mexico. Okay, Josh, that's all fine and Danny. But what I want to do with you is do a little blindfolded taste test. So put on your blindfold for just a moment. It's right over here. I got you. I got you.

It's right over here. I don't like being blind. I know, I know. But I'm going to do a little test for you. You're going to keep your glasses on? What a choice. I can't see nothing. I swear.

So one of these sushi is a grocery store sushi. And one of these is from a fancy schmancy burbank spot. I'll tell you what, I tend to not. I'll cheap out on sushi. And I know some people don't think that might be shocking. Not shocking for me. Shocking for a normal person. Josh, I'm going to have you taste a,

No, don't touch it. I got chopsticks and I'm going to feed you with chopsticks, okay? I'm going to have you taste tuna nigeri from these spots. And I'm going to give you the whole entire thing to shove in your mouth. So keep that in mind, okay? Open up. And if you ever want to spit it out or anything, I will offer you my hand. Do you have any soy sauce?

No. I did that on purpose. I wanted you to... No, I wanted you to taste the rice and the fish and tell me how you feel. I can watch you do this forever. I am only going to give you the tuna nigeri, not the salmon, because that's for me. Do you need to fish? No, I got to give you the rice, too. It wouldn't be fair.

Again, take you back. That one too easy. I don't want a grocery car. I nailed it, right? Yes, Josh. You were correct. Very, very good. That's crazy. But great taste isn't about your budget. And Karnas' whole point is that you shouldn't have to pick a lane. Simple, flexible money management works on broke days and boozy days alike.

With Klarna, it's always money on your side. That's Klarna, K-L-A-R-N-A. CA resident loans made her arranged pursuant to a California finance law license NMLS, number 135-3190. Clarned balance account required to be eligible for cash-track points, limitation, terms, and conditions apply. Is my poop going to be purple? No. No. So is there artificial dye in this?

100%. Yes. Yeah. We are eating something called hopia. It has. Oh my gosh, guys. This is literally. called Hopia Ube, but taro is the first ingredient.

It's taro, and then they colored it with red and blue food dye. Which is purple. Which I sure happens. But let me tell you, when I ate it, I was like, this is actually really pleasant. It's not even real Ube players. We got scammed. Make sure you're checking your product out there. That's crazy, though.

That to me signals we don't want Ube, we want purple. That's what I'm trying to say Because one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my life Was fresh pounded taro on the side of the road Like it was so goddamn good when I was in Hawaii I was on the big island And there was a dude just pounding taro And it was literally raining

And I was talking to him and he's like Yeah, this is great because I don't even need to add water He's like He's literally like the earth is telling me how much water I should add to it And he's pounding fresh rainwater into the like steamed taro You're shitting me And just the fresh poise is like so sick

And it reminds me of a lot of West Africa It's like a pounded swallow, you know what I mean? I grew up eating a lot of taro in Little Saigon because they have a thing. It's like a taro. There's a category of desserts called like J. Or CHE with some diacriticals on it. But you'll have it'll be like sweet potato or azuki bean or corn or taro just steamed with like condensed milk. And it is just like a warm, comforting porridge at the end of your meal.

Somebody say porridge? Nothing better. You guys, I have some ube champorado. Champorado. Now, tell the people what champorado is. Champurado is rice porridge. Usually it's chocolate and you do, I love it with the little fried, the delis, the fried fish in it. It sounds crazy, but it's one of my- Wait, you're eating the fish with the chocolate?

Yeah, it's a nice little salty bite, and they're so crispy because they're so small, and it's a nice little texture change. Hey, if people can put malden sea salt on a chocolate chip cookie, you can put little dried fishies in your chocolate rice pudding. I want to try that. I've never had it. Because I'm typically not like an umami with sweet. Guy, I love savour. I love the taste of like tubers and grains. Hmm.

You know. I'm about that. I like that. I'm about that life. You know what it needs? A hefty squirt of sweet and condensed milk. Yes. Yes.

Like the picture shows. Oh my God. Give me like a nice and I will be a happy camper. That's delicious. I got Ube protein powder. Ooh. Ube everything. Had Ube oatmeal?

Everything. I'm trying to think of all the Ube things that I've had. There's a, there's an, I think a lot of this, Eddie Wong writes really beautifully about this. Food and food culture is one of the places in the early 2000s where Asian Americans specifically

found a way to make a big cultural impact. A lot of people like Dave Chang with Roy Choi with Eddie Huang. I don't know, does that resonate with you at all? Yeah, absolutely. My confusion with like how things go, why was the fried chicken sandwich,

or the hot chicken sandwich, such a big thing for such a long time? Like, that existed before the hype. Like, were you guys not eating? Before a white dude with good branding, like, for real. That's all it takes is just a marketing push. At the right time, though. And the food's good.

No, the food's great. Nothing matters if the food sucks. You're right. But at the same time, it's like, yeah, the hot chicken was great, you know, in Nashville, you know, where it was being made initially. Like, the hot chicken was great at princes. And also when Kim Prince, who, there's no need to, like, pit people against each other. Of course not.

I think he's done really great stuff. But, like, Kim Prince, part of the Prince family, came out to California to open a Prince's hot chicken in the wake of Howlin Reyes. Yeah. And I believe they closed down. Brutal. I know. Like, super brutal. But I don't know.

I'm curious, like, who is sort of running the Ube trend and like benefiting off it? Right? Like, you kind of... You know, right now? It's kind of like a double-edged sword because it's almost like the traitor justification of things, right? Yeah. Because I remember whenever I saw Ube pancake mix at Trader Joe's, and I'm like, oh, they got him. You know what I mean?

It's like, it's a double-edged sword because you're introducing Ube to a completely new market and you're showing them. This is a really cool product. This is a purple sweet potato, a purple yam you've never seen before. Look how delicious it is in this flapjack in America. And then it's like, it gains notoriety. but at the same time who's benefiting Trader Joe's The owners of Trader Joe's

Or Starbucks. Or exactly. Starbucks at Ube? I think they had like a unicorn latte It was purple. Can you look it up? Yeah. Well, this like I think

Ube I was listening to a podcast is hosted by like a father and daughter And the father was asking a daughter Like what she's consumed with Ube And she's like well I really love Macha Ube And she like said that in one word As if it was like a proper noun

That you would know You know it's like I really love Catholic on Leitch. I really love And I was like, what the hell is machoube? How you get a potato and tea? Those are different. One's a leaf, ones are root. But you're not consuming.

That's the thing. We don't know Ube as a root. We know, in America, we know Ube as a flavoring agent, similar to Pandan. Well, I mean, Pandan's another thing that I think. It's really interesting because Ube, Ube by itself, it's got so little flavor. It's a root.

It's a staple food. Like, Ube is the calorie-dense, starchy thing that people, like, form the basis of a society off of, right? You are correct. Like, it is not, like, vanilla. Vanilla is, like, a hyper-potent, perfumed stamen of, like, a flower. You know, not stamen, but a seed pod of a little... That, like, it's incredible how potent of a flavor vanilla is, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Saffron, you know, stuff like that. Crocus. This is a root, you know, but like putting it in that extract, branding it as the purple from the anthocyanin that's in it. I only know that from the purple tomato guys. Well, how did you know that? Yes, yeah. Is my tongue purple?

It's antisianans. Oh, ew. Did anyone even notice that my eye shadow is purple today? I noticed. Josh? Don't look at your eyes. What does that mean? I try not to look at your eyes.

Why not? They're beautiful. They're enchanting. I don't look at anyone's eyes. Do you look at the forehead? No, mouth. That. I didn't know.

Tony, if I've ever talked to you, it could be a really serious conversation. Only looking at your mouth. Do you want me to look at your mouth? No, absolutely that was creepy as up. Wait. I didn't know that. I didn't know that until COVID. Because people started wearing masks.

And I suddenly, like, my eyes couldn't focus. Yeah. You and your iPhone struggled to focus on a hamburger? That was me. I was like, why is something different? iPhone struggling to hamburger? I'm trying to take a burger? your iPhone struggling to find the focus.

And you're trying to like jam your phone kind of at it to refocus? That was such an odd like a sim. Is that a simile? Like that was a weird. Your mouth is like a hamburger in my eyes are like an iPhone. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a simile. We just ate in Ube Baoban.

The center was delectable. The outside, I could live without it. Could we address them? I feel like I need someone smarter. to talk about this. I'm right here. What's up? You're all right.

Please look to your right. It looks like 30% than either of you. Maybe two of us combined. Yeah, we can work together. Bow bun, right? So like bow means bun. Correct. Right?

So it's like a double talk. It's like a double talk thing that a lot of people like chai tea. It's like saying chai tea or not bread, right? But like, Peterbread is the same way. But like we got a lot of different kinds of bread. You know? And so when you. you say like pita you're referencing like pita which is greek for bread um you're referencing like

a popular style of bread in greece yes that mean the chai tea thing is like well that style of tea yes is the one that's popular in india where they likely call it chai or chah in some dialects chai mean something else so to me what like chai like chai in farsi is a specific kind of tea it's persian tea well how do you say the general term for tea in farci well that's what i'm saying right So when you're saying, like, come over for a cup of chai, there's an understanding of what kind of tea it is. Yes. With the people, with my like-minded people. Yeah, 100%.

But you're communicating, it's an in-group communication type of thing. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. A ditto where I imagine if you were to say tea in other areas where there's one dominant regional tea in America, we have no dominant regional tea. Yeah, yeah. If you say a cup of tea, you're probably referring to English breakfast. A little lipton. A little lipton.

That's true. But you could be referring to raubis. Yeah. Could be referring to chamomil, which isn't even has nothing to do with tea. You know, the term chai tea, it's like, it diddo with non-bread and peanut bread, but they are, to me, like, very communicative terms. You know what I mean?

The same way that Bow Bun is like, that's like, that's reasonable, man. We have different kinds of buns. You have a pineapple bun again? Hamburger bun? Hey, everyone's learning all the time. Everyone's learning all the time. The British, they're calling everything burgers.

Chicken burger? Disrespectful. I hate that. Like, imagine, you want to go to Hall & Race for a chicken burger, Oh, I would kill myself. Disgusting. Disgusting. I would grill marks on it. Come on.

Guys, we have another Ube thing to try. Okay, yeah, I got this specific. This is fun. So this might be an absolute perversion slash neuter. I had never heard of it. We're all perverts here. I'm a little bit of pervert. If you don't know, now you know.

I got Ube goat cheese. I got Ube goat cheese. Why you look so upset? What is? Wait. Okay, so there's natural Ube flavor to do to all this is just extract. And this says red radish. and appears to say

Red Ratch. Huito, H-U-I-T-O. For color. Can I see? What is Huito? No, I want to see the packaging before you open it. I'm so sorry. Hey, can you Google?

Can you? I want to put that in that. H-U-I-T-O. Huito. Powder. It's like a not-o, but purple. Watch it be. Again, I hate speaking about food in like reductivist terms like this.

But I'm going to start with that. And then I'm going to use the phrase, what's the next to a baby, baby? What are we doing? That's what we do. You know, you have the red beans, the assailles. Asailles, you still got a whole freestanding. Asailles. They launched a whole new food.

They launched smoothies, but put in a bowl and eaten with a spoon instead of a cup because of assay. I remember the first time I had assay. I remember the first time I had assay. It was about 2,000. Here you go, Josh. I'm sorry, I want to make a go-chee sandwich. Can you eat it on its own and then make a sandwich? Fine.

This ain't even right. The colors are crazy. The color difference in all these products. The palette. This is blue. What is blue if not kind of purple? Ooh. It tastes like ice cream.

What's sweeto powder? Can you find it out? Yeah, it's a natural plant-based blue black dye made from the dried, unripe fruit of the Genipa, America. Honitree native to the Amazon. Cool. All that to make that black gray. All that to make the gray jeans.

Hey, if you didn't have, it also helps create tattoos and body art. Whoa. So you guys, this, so if you saw this without all of the other purple things around you, you would say this is purple. Oh, yeah, you're right. Well, yeah, but if there wasn't purple on the packaging. Yeah.

Do you think you'd still say it was purple? I don't know, it's pretty gray. This looks like silt. It looks like that. What's silt? It looks like some of the. the bottom of the river. Fine sand, yeah.

Like you're going to mine for gold? In a little pan, yeah. What do you think the most successful applications of Ube actually are? Because it's goat cheese to me, I'd call it pretty up test. Not the goat cheese. Not the goat cheese. I think... It's not the worst thing in the world.

For me, not what I want Ube in. Cheesecake. I love Ube Cheesecake. Yeah? Because who doesn't love Ube and cheese? I mean, and the ice cream? You don't like Ube and cheese? Ubae ice cream is really good.

Ube cheesecake is fine. me it's not the best applicant. Like, I don't know. I don't think I've had the texture of Ube. I don't think I've had Ube Cheesecake. I love Ube Cheesecake. That was one of the Ogie things to go like super viral. At B Sweet, I believe.

I think it was B-Sweet though. I think it was a place in NorCal. Oh, maybe I'm a lot. B-suite was doing like Ube bread pudding, like. Oh, really? Ube everything, yeah. Tony, what do you think the best application of Ube actually is? I think Hollow Hollow and they cracked it a long time ago.

Oh! You're right. That's the best of the best. Tell the people who look, uh, um, Hollow Hollow is ice cream and ice and beans and jello and it doesn't sound that great but it's really good defiantly you described it there's beans it has to have beans oh is like it's one of the world's best desserts that's how I like to eat dessert too yeah there's a there's a Vietnamese dessert well it's like Thai well it's it's called jatai but it's like you eat it in a

spoon it's like pondon flavored sweet and coconut milk with ice cubes and a bunch of like it'll have fresh jackfruit, it'll have not that it cocoa, which is you know what I'm talking about? The coconut cream gel cubes. The coconut gel cubes that have this kind of like hard. It's like cartilage. It's like cartilage. It's like cartilage. Yeah but like

delicious every coconut. Legitimately. One of my favorite things are. Same same same dude like all of those jellies and like those are thrown in there. There's like green grass jelly light chi and like oh I just love eating that man. Pondon to me similar maybe flavor to at least Ube extract.

Yeah. Totally. It's got this like kind of vanilla quality to it in the sense that's very perfumi but most extracts are. Have a vanilla quality rate? No.

I don't agree with that. Not fruit extracts, but things like almond. Almond extract, I'd say it's not particularly vanilla. I find, I don't necessarily agree with you. Like if I'll see you something like like a cream cheese additive, maybe.

Or like some sort of, or like maybe a butter extract additive. But for the most part, extracts are pretty true to the essence of what they are. But maybe not Ube and Pandan. Maybe Ube and Pandan. Maybe how they're extracting it. But yeah, I do see a overlap between the two, though. Yeah, yeah.

I think they taste kind of similar. I think a little bit of coconut too, a little bit of roostiness too. Sure. I think in order to create that Pandan flavor, it might be a mix of mixing other things. It's like perfuming, right? Yeah, no, really is. You can't always get like something like ambergris, which is whale vomit. Like, it's so hard to get.

But if you mix a bunch of different, oh. Ambergris will vomit, and it's one of the most expensive ingredients to make perfume. And so if you can't find ambergris, what you do is you take synthetic ambergris, or you use a bunch of extracts and distillations of scents to make it smell like ambergris, like a bunch of different things. So that might be what's going on with Pandan and Ube whenever you can't really source that much Ube. Yeah. Can I tell you what I think the most best flavor is that I wish there'd be more of?

It's not love. No, it's misogaru. Close. Misugaru is literally, and it's so fitting of me, it's my favorite flavor profile. What is it? Roasted grids? Gochugaru and miso? No, that'd be fine.

No, it's Korean. It's a mixture of like roasted, I believe fermented or malted grains. Oh. And so it'll be like a proprietary, but so it'll be between, it could be up to like 20 grains. They use it in the candy in Jorme or the treat in Jorme. It's not like powder. kind of like just super like savory, roasty powder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just love it, man. It reminds me a lot of like malted milk, but like even better. Interesting. I love Musugaru, man. And I think, hey, do you like, do you like K-pop demon hunters? Yes. Then maybe they could do like. I was talking to Tony on that one.

Oh, you were making eye contact or mouth contact or face contact. He doesn't look at my mouth or eyes. You were literally like you were doing this. Do you like K-pop demon hunters? Like you were jutting your chin out at him Address our guests by looking at him Don't you do that K-pop demon hunters? Yeah

What's it about It's about music and dancing K-pop demon hunters I've never seen it Wait can I ask you a question Oh you can ask me whatever you want Because I used to think that saffron was overrated But I think I've changed

Because it's such a cultural significance And has such a Within like a family and the culture It's so important So how do you feel about it? I love saffron and I think everything needs to have saffron in it. Truly, I think everyone needs to try saffron at least once in their life. My vote is ice cream, surprisingly enough.

Someone needs to make a saffron-Ube swirl situation and let's see how that tastes. I mean, think about Dubai chocolate. What a crazy export that is. The Filipino chef came up with the- There you go. The Filipino chef in Dubai chocolate? There you go. There you go.

So I think the next Dubai chocolate I don't think it's Ube But I want something to be the next Dubai True And I don't know what that is And I don't Is it macha?

Is it macha? I feel like we've been through so many things Like the Tang Hulu And so many different like There's just like These street carts near me That are just telling Dubai chocolate There's like weird street carts

On Ventura Boulevard There's one selling Wagi Sloppy Joe's. Whoa. And I never stopped. And I just, there's never anyone there and I feel bad for him.

But yeah, one's just something Dubai chocolate strawberries and it's just strawberries with melted chocolate on it. And I don't understand what's going on. They're like 14 bucks. No, Katavi. No, no, none of the other things

that make it do by chocolate. Do you guys think that maybe it could be like a Pennsylvania Dutch staple that becomes the next? I would love that. Apple pie? Birch beer? Birch beer.

Birch bark flavored burt. Mm-hmm. You know, you get like a little Filipino You know, meets Lehigh Valley, Lancaster crossover, you know. More fusion, I think, is the next thing. Yeah, yeah. More fusion. Yeah.

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Yeah, let's get to that first opinion. I'm just for my champorado cola. This is Josh from Central Illinois. Hey. I'm listening through a bunch of your old videos because I haven't been watching for too long. And you said something on your burritos and raps video about like, you know, the chicken Caesar style like not being a burrito. Yes, I said that.

that one guy. And I would like to say that a chicken Caesar salad wrap is 100% a burrito. It has Mexican ingredients because the Caesar salad was invented in here on Mexico. He's one of those. He's one of those. That is the technicality. Okay, are we going to base? Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait.

You mean to tell me we're going to base all of our everything we've known our entire lives on technicalities now? We're supposed to change the way that we know. I you know what That got me f***ed up I don't want it I don't agree I don't agree I'm gonna walk out right now It's a vetting by an Italian

This pissing me off It's a vener by an Italian Mm-hmm It's an adian What is this accent? It's an adian in Mexico It's a dying Do you have thoughts and feelings?

It's definitely not a burrito And I'm not sure why But it cannot be It cannot be It's cold It's cold It's cold It's cold

We did, if you'll stumble up on this video, if you keep watching them. We did one about kind of like whether Caesar salad is or isn't like Mexican. I mean, we never come up with an actual answer. It's all... Do you ever go to a Mexican restaurant and they have Caesar salad on the menu? Maybe sometimes. A lot of times they'll call it like a Mexican season. We put caesia on it.

Oh, pepitas in that? And they're called a Cesar. Yeah, Encelada Cesar. Come on. Which like... More technicalities. The guy who invented Caesar salad. His name is Chesaire.

You know, that he was, he lived in San Diego. There were bootleggers, bootlegan brothers, the Cardini brothers in San Diego. And they opened up an Italian restaurant in Tijuana to skirt, you know, prohibition laws. And so it's like, is that Mexican? It's, um, Tika Masala, right? Tika Masala was invented either by a Bangladeshi or Pakistani line cook in maybe either Scotland or England, depending on what story you believe.

Yeah. And it was literally made using Campbell's condensed tomato soup. Oh, shoot. But if you put Tika masala in a burrito, I'd eat it. Oh, heck. We've had it. You brought me a burrito with... Oh, yeah.

And that was one of the best burritos I've ever had in my life. I was on the way home. Dude, it was so sick. I was on the way home from somewhere in Hollywood. I think he had a meeting there. And I was just, I was starving. I thought they provide lunch. They didn't.

And I think I was on a shoot, actually. And I just saw a place that just said Indian Mexican food. I know exactly the corner at saw it. And it is a... Indomax. Yeah, yeah. I like swerved off the sunkenks. off the side of the road and just like almost crash landed into the spot.

So good. I go in and they literally have, you know, the entire, you know, list of, uh, Rogan Josh, chicken, Karahi, Samosas, 100, 100 menu items long. Yeah. And there's one section that says Mexican. It's, do you want, like a chicken ticket burrito or a lamb curry burrito? Yum. And I said yes.

And I, it was the fattest burrito. I ate half it and I gave the other half to Tony. And it was just perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So good. I think I actually wrote a story about that place for LA Weekly like seven, eight years go.

Nope. Yeah. I don't think you're right. Sorry, Bessie. Yeah. I love the technicality. I would love to come up with a whole list of foods. Technicality foods.

That like, yeah, things like, you know, Caesar salad kind of being, it's a de facto, like, Italian food, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know? That would be a good year, but I'm sorry, I'm biotic. Orange chicken is a great example of like, you know, very American Chinese food, but really uniquely invented here. Remember when they wrap them in burritos, they called them binges? They were taking...

Oh, at the... Do you ever go to the Panda Express... In Westwood? In Westwood? They're making, like, Boba and Burritos. Westwood, yeah. It's fine. You kind of just don't need the extra starch.

Yeah. I personally don't. Next one. Next. Hey, Josh and Nicole. My name's Rachel from New Orleans, Louisiana. Hi, Rachel. I just wanted to share a fun restaurant fact that I think you guys would enjoy.

There is a small town in Illinois called Matun, and they have a restaurant called Burger King. It's not the chain, it's a mom and pop restaurant. Cool. And actually in like the 1960s, the chain Burger King sued the mom and pop shop for rights to the name. But mom and pop had all the receipts to prove that they had the name first. So now even in 2006, there can be no chain franchises of Burger King. in this town because of this lawsuit

and because the mom and pop Burger King burgers slap if you're ever in the middle of nowhere Illinois driving through Matun it is absolutely worth a stop but love the podcast

love everything you'll do it mythical thanks so much for all the laughs bye awesome incredible awesome story you love mom and pop being up the big guys

you know the restaurant that Glenn Bell of Taco Bell like stole the recipe from. It's called Meat La Cafe. It's still like exists in San Bernardino. Yeah.

And somebody was interviewing a member of the family like, you know, does it, does it suck that a white dude stole your recipe from Halisco and made billions of dollars off of it? And they were like, we have like a multi-generational very successful business. Yeah. That's beautiful. They're like, I don't know. And obviously it's very complicated.

But like, you know, people who make billions of dollars, I don't know if you know this, aren't always the happiest. So right. Grass is always greener. And I think Glenn Bell, I think he did. I could be wrong at this, but I think he did like die a lot. Oh, beans.

And so like you kind of look at this Burger King like, dude, if they have an awesome, successful family business. Yeah. Right. That's incredible. What's the next one? Logan? Check that.

Okay. Okay. Oh, I'm showing Tony. I'm showing Tony an old article that I wrote 10 years ago. Oh. There is a, they might have taken out. There's a guisados. There's a guisados that opened in the fifth.

Philippines, and they, like, they, like, copied everything about guisados in L.A., including gisados used to be known for their, like, yeah, they're, like, sampler, their taco sampler, like many. Gisado's lovely, uh, L.A. Takaria, probably started 15 years ago, and now it's expanded to be, like, a chain, but they used to gisado means stew in Tagalog as well, right? Yeah. And they would put, like, gisados, they love chicken with moulet, chicken tinga, chichoronas, whatever, on, like, six different tortillas, and there was a spot.

I randomly stumbled upon it in the Philippines. that, like, copied every single thing about quisados in America. I think there's a few spots over there. Iran does that because they don't want any American businesses in there. So instead of subway, they have, like, streetcar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. China does a Chinese called Callie Burger. There you've been saying out.

Because they didn't realize that you couldn't use the term animal style, even though it wasn't on the menu. It's, I'm assumed. That's crazy. But, yeah, I want to go to the gasadas. Hey, Josh and Nicole. And Tony and Logan. It's real. I'm from Iowa.

Love the name real. It has been food culture, so it's not really relevant. Cory Taylor begs to disagree. My hot take for food is that savory oatmeal is the superior way to eat oatmeal. And in general, I feel like savory food is almost always more satisfying as a meal to me. And it's very alarming that, like, in the health and fitness space, especially, like, protein snacks. And other types of like healthy, I don't know, hack foods, health foods, whatever, are always sweet. Like protein bars, that's a long mar by the way.

Protein bars, yogurt bowls, all those things are always so sweet. But I think that the superior way to eat food is usually favorite. I love barbecue oatmeal. Hate on me all you want. Barbecue sauce and my own is good. That's sweet. Barbecue sauce is sweet. So that's my hot meal.

I don't eat sweet oatmeal ever. Interesting. What if I told you barbecue sauce was sweet? Barbecue sauce is probably about as sweet as most things you'd put on oatmeal. Barbecue sauce is just maple syrup. True. There's onion garlic. There's onion garlic and salt and spices and a little bit of onion.

You know what I mean? But that's a lot of sugar going in there. My thing, which is where more I thought they were going with it, The whole protein snacks being sweet. You think you want a saviour ginole bar until kind comes out with savory gurnal bars, and you're like, ew. Yeah. And also, like, half the stuff holding that stuff, holding it together is sugar.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah, it's, uh, and if you want to save your protein bar, it's a meat stick, right? Like, you did it. Um, they tried to do, Vital Farms tried to do the egg bars, the, like, pre-rapped egg bars and no good. It went bad? You seal up eggs and, like, just smell bad.

Yeah, smell bad. But my big take on this is that, like, all grains are about equally good sweet and savory. Yeah. I think any grain that you – the champorado that we just had, like, it's rice – Othewan. You're so right. You know, that you can do – if you go Caldo – Caldo de Pollo? No, not calledo.

Arros Caldo. Like the Filipino congi, you know what I mean? Sure, yeah. But yeah, man, I love like a barley pollo. Yeah. Yeah. I made I made Eve Kinoa porridge. I made a sweet barley pork. Do you did? Why am I eating like a 16th century peasant? I made a sweet barley porridge with dates. I made a date barly. I literally for my daughter, I make her a quinoa oatmeal and ancient grain porridge sweetened with dates and cinnamon. And she freaking loves it. She's all that she's peasant maxing too. Dude, my daughter's, she had a fig the other day, you guys.

that girl went to town on a fig. Did you cook the millet? I did cook the millet, yeah. I love millet. Did you like at home or here? Oh, here, here, here. Did I love millet? Millet's great, dude, get yourself some...

The world used to run on millet. Not on Dunkin. America should run on Dunkin. Ben Affleck. She'd been on millet. Like, I... My aunt from Senegal, like, she, like, Millet was their staple grain.

You read any ancient history, and like before rice got to, like, mainland China, they were eating millet. China insists that they were able to make noodles out of millet. The world used to run on millet, not thunkin. Get your millet chino. Got your millet chino.

Thank you so much for being on this podcast with us. Tony, where can the people find you? Do you want them to find you? It's okay if you don't want them to find you. At Pinoi Poppy on Instagram. You heard it here first. You got to do that, but hold still so the campus. It's like a civil war photo.

You got to hold still for about 30 seconds. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. to our podcast, the hot dog is a sandwich. You know where to find us. You know when to call us. And you know when to listen to us. 1833 Dog Pod 1.

That's where you call. Have you ever called it? I have not called it. Dude, you got to call it. You got to call it. Oh, my God. We have the sexiest voices. Do you want to call it?

Did we ever re-record that? I don't know. What's your number? 1833, dog pod one. Hello. You've reached the hot dog hotline. Leave us a message. We might just play in an upcoming episode by leaving a voicemail.

Hugh acknowledged that you read and agreed to the term shown at mythical.com slash disclaimer. Whoa. That is a re-record. That's a total re-record because we had to add a-up. We had to add that. Why'd we have to add a legal disclaimer or someone? Do we get sued?