A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Olive Garden vs. Buca Di Beppo ft. Angela Giarratana

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

Today, Josh and Nicole are joined by singer, actor, and Smosh cast member Angela Giarratana to decide once and for all, which low cost American Italian restaurant reins supreme – Olive Garden or Bu...ca Di Beppo. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen Get 40% off your first order with Trade at drinktrade.com/HOTDOG 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This, this, this, this is Mythical. You know what they say, when you're here, you're family. You know what they should say, let's go to Buca de Bebo instead. And I'm just here for the free chicken parm. 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.
Starting point is 00:00:21 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 Inayati. And today we are joined by actress, singer, and member of Smosh, Angela Jaratana.
Starting point is 00:00:39 Thank you. How did I do on the Jaratana of it all? I think you did fine. I think I've heard my dad says, Gier, my mom says Geritana, everyone says their own version. Right, right, right. We did not only ask you here to eat all of this deliciously authentic Italian food from Olive Garden and a bocca di beppo, because you are Italian, but you do exude a certain
Starting point is 00:01:01 amount of Italian-ness. Thank you so much, but it's very funny that I think I exude this type of Italian-ness. Correct. Is it real Italy? It's corporate America, affordable Italian food. Our favorite. Okay, so Olive Garden definitely, I mean both are. This is a very specific lens through which to view the thousands of years of history
Starting point is 00:01:24 of Italy, right? But the founder of Bucca di Beppo actually did that like very very intentionally where he was like this is the culture I grew up with I grew up with you know The Frank Sinatra version of Italian-Americanist and he straight up designed Bucca's the way that he did Because he wanted to like show that kind of corny good-natured side Yeah, of Italian-Americanist, which I think is really rad and like when I think of corny good-natured Italian-Americans, Angela, you are the top of the list. Do I come to your mind? Dude.
Starting point is 00:01:49 You genuinely do. Josh knows how to woo a woman, doesn't he? He sure does. We were going over something earlier that you and I have a long food history together because I likely delivered you yogurts and stale muffins in college. Okay, so walk me through that. I don't even understand. I worked for ASUCLA Catering, the second best catering company on campus.
Starting point is 00:02:09 UCLA Catering, they wore the polos and they were way better than us. But we would deliver, like, cold coffee and stale muffins in warm yogurts to the theater building. To the theater department. And you and I would have overlapped by at least like two years there, yeah. So if you ate a stale muffin, it was likely delivered by my unwashed hands. Oh my gosh, that's the beginning of our story, our food story. Romantic.
Starting point is 00:02:31 Wow, that's crazy. And look at us now. Do you have any other memories of that? Maybe the sandwiches with the brown lettuce? Don't remember those. I did something crazy over there where near the UCLA, near the theater department, they had the like a hotel for like guests and professors.
Starting point is 00:02:51 And they always had a continental breakfast every morning at 9 a.m. No you didn't. And you bet your ass. I didn't know that. Me and my best friend, we would walk over there because it's like pretty undercover. You don't even know it's like a hotel.
Starting point is 00:03:03 It's like very small. And we'd always get a coffee and a muffin, always from there. So maybe you drop stuff there. I probably did, I'm sure. I thought you were gonna say you just like macked on the entire continental breakfast. You were like making yourself omelets and waffles.
Starting point is 00:03:14 100%, no 100%. Yeah, and then at some point they'd always go like, what room number are you guys? And we're like, my mom's upstairs. And then we'd leave and then go to class. Nice, my biggest memory from that catering company is we would serve the football team, you know, breakfast and lunch. And so there's a bunch of, you know, future NFL draft picks. But Deshaun Foster, UCLA legend, now the head coach of UCLA,
Starting point is 00:03:32 he stared at the greasiest pulled pork you'd ever seen in front of me and said, what is that? And I go, oh, this is pulled pork. And he goes, man, that's not pulled pork. That's pulled grease. And I was like, I loved watching you in that 2003 season and I thought that the Panthers cut you way too early, Mr. Foster. He was correct. It was just untenably greasy pulled pork. So Deshaun Foster, if you listen to this,
Starting point is 00:03:57 still loved your play style, vertical slashing running back, different breed back then. And that pulled pork was too greasy. We gotta get at this. Do you have any initial thoughts about Olive Garden and Bucca di Beppo? I know Smosh has a unique connection to Bucca di Beppo. Yeah. They do. Which was alarming to me when I first started working there because my family hates Bucca. Nice. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:17 And kinda likes Olive Garden, but like for some reason I think my mom, and I called my dad this morning, and I was like, why do you and mom like hate? Bucca and he goes one bad meal That's all it takes that's all it takes one bad impression you're done Yeah, and my parents are very specific if the sauce it like is a little too sweet. Okay, they're out But they're not snobs. They're like New York at town My dad's very New York Italian, very, just bought like shitty cheese, like the Kroger cheese,
Starting point is 00:04:47 what I grew up on, like not really sophisticated stuff. But for some reason. You're talking about the green shaker bottle cheese? Yes. Aw, extra chewy with the wood pulp. 100%. It's the one Snooki uses all the time. But they, yeah, so they hate buka,
Starting point is 00:05:00 but Olive Garden, not too far off, but at some point in my family, we started going to Olive Garden, like towards, cause I think my parents wanted cheap Italian food. Cause in LA, there's like expensive Italian. Yeah, the spectrum's crazy. Yeah, and there's not a lot of like mom and pops that I know of that are like, yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:19 Yeah, Italian and Chinese, like there aren't a ton of mom and pops. Like we grew up with Olive Garden and Panda Express for our Italian and Chinese like cheap options. Yeah, I was more of a Sabaro girl You want to know the truth? Because you were at the food court? Of course I've only had Olive Garden twice like I went and sat down there twice and I did get food poisoning both times I went there. No way. But I'm feeling good about this, you know, I reheated this up to 165 So we're hoping we're not gonna poop a lot from this.
Starting point is 00:05:46 We'll see. We were a straight up Bucatabebo mixed family. So my Vietnamese stepmom, Bucatabebo was her favorite restaurant in the entire world because I think for her, she like saw Americana in it. And this, this was the prize jewel of the Bucatabebo table for my Vietnamese stepmother.
Starting point is 00:06:03 A half pound meatball. The big one. The big one. They served you just a giant meatball and for her that was like, oh this is American opulence. Because it's big? Because it's big, it's too big. So like literally in Italy like you have, these are pretty standard American size meatballs.
Starting point is 00:06:19 This is a large ostentatious caricature of a bucce di beppo meatball. In Italy like polpette or polpetine, they're tiny little guys. Yeah, little guys. You know, just little guys. And so this is the Pokemon evolution of meatballs. So you eventually get the buca de bepo over here. But Olive Garden, like growing up in Orange County,
Starting point is 00:06:37 that was birthdays, it was basketball team banquets. After prom, pre-prom. After prom, we would go there. When they did their soup salad and breadsticks for $8.99,prom after prom we would go there when they did their Supesal and breadsticks for $8.99 me and my buddy would go there after skim boarding at the beach for six hours We'd walk in in like wet board shorts and wouldn't tip because we only had a $10 in our pocket So I'm sorry Laguna Hills. It's a board shorts problem. It's not them You can't put a wallet in your board shorts
Starting point is 00:07:02 So I have a lot of history here. Should we start? Should we dig in? I'm so freaking stoked. I'm putting my laptop down. Same here. Same, same. I was going to use it as a plate. Okay, where should we start here?
Starting point is 00:07:13 Angela, you are the guest. We got meatballs, chicken fettuccine Alfredo, and then the chicken parmigiana. Wow. And there's bread. There's bread. Maybe we start with the bread? Is that crazy? Sure we can. Do it the way the waitress would intend?
Starting point is 00:07:28 Sure. So we got garlic bread from Bucatabepo and then we got the breadsticks from Olive Garden. Bucatabepo did not give us a side of marinara. Demare it. But Olive Garden did give the option of a side of marinara. So go ahead and dip. Go crazy. We're dipping in. Okay, so Olive Garden is obviously known for their breadsticks.
Starting point is 00:07:44 Here, grab one. Take one, pass it down. Olive Garden known for unlimited breadsticks and salad, and that was like a huge draw when they opened in, gosh, Orlando, 1982. It was like a massive success. Right. But don't you have unlimited bread at the table for like other chain restaurants? So what's the big deal? We definitely do. I think maybe they were one of the first to really start it. I know what the salad they definitely were. The ironic thing about their breadsticks, so we've talked about this before in the show. Olive Garden was like massively failing. They were heading towards bankruptcy.
Starting point is 00:08:15 And it's a massive business. There's about a thousand locations of Olive Garden. Right. A company did a 250-page audit on all of the Olive Garden's practices, a consulting firm. And they were like, here's what you could do better. They were like, 73% of respondents said that your pasta is, quote, tasteless, and we noticed you don't salt your pasta water. What if you did that? Olive Garden execs went... I learned to do that at six.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Dude, Olive Garden execs said, well, it would degrade the pans faster, so we're not gonna do it. And then they went, okay, okay, okay. 89% of people said, if the breadsticks sit on the table for longer than 90 seconds, they get cold and stale. A little like these. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:48 What if you just serve people one breadstick, and if they want more, you grab them. And they're like, no, there's gotta be six in a basket. Stop trying to change the olive garden. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this breadstick has like a sponge.
Starting point is 00:09:01 Mm-hmm. Very spongy. Like a napkin substance-y. Right, and I will say it's perfectly salted though. I will say the salt levels are kind of incredible. It's right down the middle, not too salty, not under-salted. Run your finger across the top.
Starting point is 00:09:16 There's a patina, yeah. It's interesting. There's a patina. There's a glaze. It is glazed with margarine-like substance. But then there's a bit of a roughness to it. Oh, yeah. Like a cat's tongue, like a sandpapery cat's tongue on it.
Starting point is 00:09:29 It's the garlic powder. That's very pleasant for me. I cannot start my morning routine without a delicious cup of coffee. It has become such a ritual to me that the thought of not having it completely disrupts my day. And if you know me, you know I'm always trying to upgrade my coffee experience. Have it be a cool new mug, a delightful new creamer, or my personal favorite, a new exciting bag of coffee beans. And there's no easier way to do the latter than with trade.
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Starting point is 00:11:37 It's like based on eggplant parmesan or melons on the... Chicken fettuccine Alfredo certainly does not exist. No! What? Maybe it should. Really? Wait, did you know that? No, I don't know any of this shit.
Starting point is 00:11:45 Oh my gosh, I don't know any of this shit. Oh my gosh, I don't know. I just assumed your native, latent Italian-ness was... I only know the Jersey Shore. Wait, tell me, tell me, this isn't a dish in Italy? No, so Alfredo technically was invented in Italy. It was invented in Rome by a chef. His name was just Alfredo.
Starting point is 00:12:01 And his wife was pregnant and he wanted to kind of give her like something comforting to eat. And so he mixed butter, parmesan, a little bit of pasta water with pasta, I called it Alfredo sauce. That then came to America via the silent movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. I was gonna say that. Yeah, me too. Mary Pickford. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely Douglas.
Starting point is 00:12:21 You ever been to Musso and Frank in Hollywood? Yeah, of course. So Musso and Frank has been serving the original Roman Alfredo dish because Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks wanted it there. However, Alfredo sauce just got like bastardized over time, just turned into some like cream emulsion in a jar. I love it. Like cotton candy. In Italy, it's like, in Italy, they don't really eat chicken like that.
Starting point is 00:12:40 They say chicken is for like the old and the sick. Oh, really? Like they don't do chicken pasta, they don't do chicken on pizza. Especially no chicken pasta. They'll roast chicken certainly. But no chicken on pizza, no chicken on pasta because chickens are better used to lay eggs. To then mix into the pasta and then use for carbonara and stuff like that. Now that you're saying that, this is crazy because I think I grew up ordering Alfredo because it was the closest thing that my grandma would make for me.
Starting point is 00:13:04 She never made Alfredo. She always made me like when I was sick or anytime I was over, she would always make me pastina which was just like literally like a milky soup almost. And I think I started to be obsessed with fettuccine Alfredo because that was the closest thing at a restaurant you could get. You're 100% right.
Starting point is 00:13:20 I always viewed fettuccine Alfredo as like fancy for some reason. Me too. Why did we think that? Because my mom wouldn't let me have it. She's like no cream-based sauces in the house. Why? Like some almond mom stuff? Almond mom.
Starting point is 00:13:31 But when I had like 18, when I was 18 and I had my own money, I'm like let's go to Olive Garden. So I definitely associated cream-based sauces as fancier. Anytime we went out, I was like I'm gonna get the cream sauce, I'm gonna get the Alfredo. I'm still like that today though, honestly. When I go out, I try to get a cream sauce when I'm gonna get the Alfredo. I'm still like that today though, honestly. When I go out, I try to get a cream sauce when I'm feeling super fancy. Me too. This is true.
Starting point is 00:13:49 It's really a treat yourself thing. It is, it is. But it doesn't treat you well at all. I'm a lactose intolerant baddie, but that doesn't bother me. Should we eat? Hell yeah. Should we eat our chicken fetichel?
Starting point is 00:13:59 Wait, where are we feeling on the bread right now? Oh, oh, I'm so sorry. The garlic bread. Let's judge some bread. The garlic bread from Bucatepepo is better. Yeah. Why do these breadsticks have such a chokehold on the nation for now. Oh, oh, I'm so sorry. The garlic bread. Let's judge some bread. Yeah. The garlic bread from Buca de Pepo is better. Yeah. Why do these breadsticks have such a chokehold on the nation for like 25 years?
Starting point is 00:14:11 Okay. Had America never had a breadstick before? Because these don't hold up. I'm actually thinking now, I don't know about a lot of breadsticks at chain restaurants, a lot of bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But where do you see like a nice packaged
Starting point is 00:14:24 little guy like that? I mean, it's beautiful. I'll give it that. It's yeah, yeah. But where do you see like a nice packaged little guy like that? I mean, it's beautiful. I'll give it that. It's beautiful, it's uniform, it's even, but it doesn't taste that good. Yeah, I love how easily it fits in the mouth. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:14:33 I want to just shove like a little hot dog in there and kind of use it like a... It shines incredibly. It's kind of a beautiful product. It just doesn't taste very good. It's the only problem. Yeah, it tastes very good. Looks like it's made for camera and camera only.
Starting point is 00:14:44 You're so right. It does look like a camera ready food. Looks like it's made for camera. And camera only. You're so right. It does look like a camera ready food. Alright, we're jumping into the Angela Jarrettana special chicken fettuccine Alfred. We've banned saying any Italian words with a vowel at the end in our kitchen. You've done that. Which I love that you said Spaghetti completely unprompted. I don't do that.
Starting point is 00:15:01 I meant to say me not we. Yeah, you do that. Spaghetti. I say Alfredo. This is fettuccine Alfred. Alfred! Chicken parm. I've never heard Alfred. Never heard Alfred? I'm used to spaghetti and spaghetti only. Why is this good? Which one? This is... Bucarabepo. Bucarabepo. I want to try their chicken. I'm curious to see if they're using any actual like techniques to make their chicken less dry. I think the chicken might be steamed.
Starting point is 00:15:25 Oh. I think the chicken might be steamed. Oh. I think the chicken might be poached or steamed. Interesting. When Smosh gets buccato-peppo catering, I just pack it up, and then I just have it the next morning when I'm, like, hungover. So good.
Starting point is 00:15:40 It's good hungover food, but I don't... I don't know. Is there chicken fried in an egg batter? You know what I'm talking about? It's like aover food, but I don't... I don't know. Is there chicken fried in an egg batter? You know what I'm talking about? It's like a weirdly Italian technique. I feel like the chicken is poached in a liquid and sliced. Maybe. That could be it. Do you taste that?
Starting point is 00:15:54 Do you see the texture on the chicken, how it's a little spongy, a little streaky? I do, but there's also a little bit of kind of goo on the outside of it, and I can't tell if that's just Alfredo sauce clinging to it, or if it's an egg batter. Or is it a separate goo? I think it might be a separate goo. A separate goo?
Starting point is 00:16:09 They have a dish at Bukit Abeba, we would always get the apple gorgonzola salad, still holds up. I couldn't even get that. Ah, Angela Marie Jaratana! You always gotta get the chopped salad with the salami and the pepperoncini. Thank you! You're welcome. Thank you! No, I love the way the mustard, the apples,
Starting point is 00:16:26 and the blue cheese interact before my meal. Let's just not, no. Vom, vom, dot com. There's a dish called chicken saltimbocca from there that I think absolutely rips. It is so good. We couldn't get it because it doesn't fit with the milieu here, but it's like a pounded chicken breast.
Starting point is 00:16:41 They do the egg batter. Okay. So there's no flour and it's not crispy, but it's this like egg battered chicken. It's a very Italian, southern Italian cooking technique. And then they put like brown butter, sage, crispy prosciutto, and lemon. And it's just a great, it's a good standalone dish that could hold up anywhere. And what do they call it?
Starting point is 00:16:57 Chicken saltimboc. Saltimboc? Saltimbocca, but we dropped the A. Oh, saltimbocca. He's got to keep on dropping the A for summer isn't it? Little Saltimbougue, come on. Drop the A, why don't you? My grandma adds A's to everything and says it's Italian,
Starting point is 00:17:10 but it's English. Like I grew up thinking a purse was a pocchebucco. And then we're like, you mean a pocket book? Or she'd say, no joke, she'd say ice scrammo. Oh, that's so sweet. Really embarrassing. I love grandma's, dude. I love grandma's, it's the best.
Starting point is 00:17:24 That's right. This is really good. Bucca's really good. It's creamy, it's dreamy, it's so sweet. I love grandma's, dude. I love grandma's, it's the best. That's right. This is really good. Pooka's really good. It's creamy, it's dreamy, it's good. It's not too heavy either, which I like. Something we need to get to is Olive Garden's gone through their financial troubles, certainly. Pooka Di Beppo is officially bankrupt.
Starting point is 00:17:38 I know you know this. I was gonna say. RIP. It's so sad. I think, I mean, their decor alone, it's like, they're really, they're really serving in those little rooms. The little pope table, the table with the pope. My favorite table.
Starting point is 00:17:53 Yeah, I love the pope table. You gotta sit at the pope table. Olive Garden's giving, like, Airbnb art everywhere. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, Tuscan, like, kitchen circa 2000. Like, it's art of a window Yeah, you're so right. This isn't doing anything for anyone You see the same like sailboat picture in two corners of the restaurant
Starting point is 00:18:15 Meanwhile buko de beppo I feel like is gay. Yeah Straight. What about that? Beppo's very gay Maggianoiano's Little Italy, uh, asexual demiromantic, actually. Maggiano's. They're out here reppin' for the arrow, not ace crowd. Okay, this rips for me harder than that one all of a sudden. You're so right. I'm thinkin' cause of the cheese.
Starting point is 00:18:38 You think this one's better? You think Olive Garden's better than Bucco di Beppo? I don't know, but having it side by side, this one hit harder. I don't know why. I'm tasting no seasoning from the pasta in here. Do we taste the pasta again? I'm getting no seasoning. Maybe I had a bad bite. Taste the chicken. Eat the chicken. The chicken's great. This chicken.
Starting point is 00:18:52 So you can tell. Okay, see how the chicken is like smooth like lunch meat? Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting, right? So that means that this has been like a salt brine for a long, long time. This has just been sitting in a saltwater solution,
Starting point is 00:19:03 which kind of makes it taste better. It makes it taste a little more processed, a little less homemade. I've got that snap to it. Yeah. I'll say this. The noodles and the sauce, completely flavorless and tasteless.
Starting point is 00:19:16 The chicken though, is the saving grace. If you eat everything all together, a piece of chicken, a little sauce, a little bit of noodle, it tastes good as a bite combined. This is a dish. This is a dish. You need to eat each part of it together, but if you have like leftover sauce, a little bit of noodle. It tastes good as a bite combined. This is a dish. This is a dish. You need to eat each part of it together,
Starting point is 00:19:27 but if you have like leftover noodles, you won't like it. With the bucce de beppo one, it is a more homogenous, uniform, delicious, pleasant flavor combination. You don't need to eat the chicken to say, oh, that's yummy. You don't need to eat the, it's good. You know what I mean? Are you picking up what I'm putting?
Starting point is 00:19:44 Buce de beppo tastes like something. Olive garden tastes like nothing. That putting about both tastes like son Olive Garden tastes like nothing that's all I'm getting this is nothing nothing special and this is nothing nothing really come tasting salt I'm tasting garlic I'm getting the cream this book and a Bebo listen they they were like owned by the planet Hollywood family of restaurants for a while and then went through all these troubles and change hands and now that they're going bankrupt. They're not like a little mom and pop shop. However, this tastes like a person cooked it.
Starting point is 00:20:10 You know what I mean? All of Garden, this tastes like this was run through a Rube Goldberg machine system, and it ended up on a plate. Does that make sense? Yes. Am I so effed up that... that I like stuff made by a machine because I grew up here mmm and I or I just grew up in America yeah you're F'd up like I'm like whoa that is crazy and I could taste that but why do things like is it some weird like like backwards like now things that taste processed my body's just used to more and
Starting point is 00:20:41 it's more familiar I think it's it's the science of the processed foods that makes you love it so much. You know, there's like people in like, there's R&D research and development where there's like chefs and scientists sitting there trying to make you crave this food and try to make you obsessed with this food. And I listen.
Starting point is 00:20:57 That's fine, me too. I mean, it's very, very human to like love processed, more salty, more sugary, more like MSG foods. It's done that way by design.ary, more like MSG foods. It's done that way by design. Yeah, like fall for it. We're like lab rats. You ever read those studies?
Starting point is 00:21:09 Like we gave a rat cheese and we gave the other rat cocaine and we saw how many times they could hit a button, you know, and then they're like really. We are the cocaine rats. We are the cocaine and cheese rats. And I'm just here to listen and respond. Exactly, that's all we're here for. No, I was talking to Julia.
Starting point is 00:21:23 We had some cherry flavored dessert, and she tasted and goes, oh, this tastes like cough syrup. I'm like, no, no, the cough syrup tastes like that dessert. They made the cough syrup taste like the dessert, because people like the dessert. But she didn't grow up eating processed food. She didn't have like a crazy almond granola, whatever mom. She was just like, oh, I love my kids.
Starting point is 00:21:40 I'm going to cook nice foods for them. So she only associates artificial flavor with medicines. That's the only time she would've really had them. And so you and I grew up with a little garbage kids. Yeah. Yeah, just drinking Slurpees all the time. Like a fricking adult. I know.
Starting point is 00:21:52 Eating like processed stuff. Going in the Walmart, getting a 99 cent icy so I'd shut the hell up. 100%. While my parents are trying to find the best deal on batteries. Oh, sweet. Now look how great you both turned out.
Starting point is 00:22:04 This is, the chicken is so wildly over-seasoned, the pasta is so wildly under-seasoned. Take half the salt in the chicken, put it in the damn pasta. Yeah, you're right. And it's fine. I will concede if you two think that Olive Garden should win. No, no, no, I don't know. I don't know. I'm torn because I think you're right. Having this chicken alone, the Olive Garden chicken alone, was better.
Starting point is 00:22:24 Yes, I agree with you. If the chicken from the Olive Garden chicken alone, was better. Yes, I agree with you. If the chicken from the Olive Garden was with the bucce de pepo sauce and noodles, I would have been a happy camper. But the bucce de pepo noodles feel like so much work has been done. I feel like they got botoxes in these noodles.
Starting point is 00:22:41 Versus this, I taste like it's pasta. Does that make sense? And maybe that's because it's bland, but I can like literally taste the noodle. All I can taste is like junk. I think we should give it to Buka. Yeah? I think I'm gonna give it to Buka. Officially give it to Buka? Yeah, this is a better...
Starting point is 00:22:55 Yeah. Okay. We should talk about Buka de Beppo's name, by the way. Do you know what it means? I keep saying Pepo. You keep saying Pepo, which is... And it's Beppo. Buka de Beppo.
Starting point is 00:23:05 Beppo is shortucca di Beppo. De Beppo. Beppo is short for Giuseppe. Beppo is a nickname for Giuseppe. And so Bucca is like a Tuscan slang for little hole. So it's Giuseppe's little hole. We're eating Giuseppe's little hole right now. I'm happy to be here. I'm just happy to be here.
Starting point is 00:23:20 So let's walk that back. No, no, so it literally does translate. That's what saying no no no no keep going because um who's what? No, but like little hole meaning like cozy little room, so you'd like retire to my dad my cozy little not Your hole is a cozy little room Buddy Not your hole is a cozy little room. It's the big for yourself, buddy. You can't say the F word, but you can make silly little jokes. It's the big for yourself, buddy. Giuseppe's little hole is so much more vulgar than the F word.
Starting point is 00:23:55 We need to get through that. Giuseppe's little hole, I couldn't move on to these meatballs before we talked about it. Should we do meatballs first? Okay, meatballs first. Oh, hell yeah, hell yeah. Look at this big honking ball. More people say it's Giuseppe. Should we do meatballs first? Okay, meatballs first. Oh, hell yeah, hell yeah. Look at this big honkin' ball. More people say it's like Giuseppe's basement
Starting point is 00:24:08 or Giuseppe's den, but I like little hole better. Yeah. Okay, I'm diggin' into this. Sorry, everybody. The meatball, this is a huge part of my childhood. It just sits on a gigantic nest of undressed spaghetti. I remember it being very big. I don't ever remember it being good.
Starting point is 00:24:23 Also, it is kind of like a medium. It's like a pink medium in the middle, which is interesting. It's like a sunset in there. Technically, this shouldn't be allowed. Nicole, you and I, knowing what we know about food safety. I was about to say the same thing. Were you? No. USDA guidelines say 165 degrees for any ground meat.
Starting point is 00:24:42 This is not 165. You don't get that pink with anything over 155. You know what? Like, it's fine for us to eat, because we're professionals. Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well. There you go. And it's content, okay? Yeah, yeah. Just suffer for content like you usually do. Literally. It tastes really good, though. I kind of like the texture of it.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Am I crazy? Am I crazy? Angela, how do you feel about the size? Okay, I'll tell you, the size is, what I know from just making meatballs on my own. I don't know much about, you know, fire and, you know, elements and what that does and what it does to meat and how, you know. But it being bigger makes me feel like it's drier.
Starting point is 00:25:22 I feel like in the beginning, in the middle, it's really dry. And I feel like smaller meatballs, am I just like,'s drier. Mmm. I feel like in the beginning, in the middle, it's really dry. And I feel like smaller meatballs, am I just like, is that wrong? Yeah. Okay, cool. It just feels dry to me. No, I think this isn't...
Starting point is 00:25:36 I think it's dense and dry. It's a dense and dry meatball, but the flavor is good. Yeah. Well, maybe the size, because I know what you're saying, like on these meatballs, you're getting a harder sear on the outside. Like the Olive Garden ones? You know what I mean? On the Olive Garden meatballs, you're getting a harder sear on the outside Olive garden ones, you know what I mean? On the olive garden meatballs you're getting a harder sear on the outside because they are a lot smaller Yeah, whereas this one it's it's this is a meatloaf, right? We can all agree on that. Exactly. Like what's this meatloaf?
Starting point is 00:25:52 It's a personal pan meatloaf and that's that's sort of my problem with it, which I guess yeah meatloaf Probably is denser. Is it a problem though? But like when you go to Bucurebepo, it's family-sized portions anyways, right? And like you're going there you're going with like a big group of people You're trying to share things and I think think that's the general vibe of the place. So the meatball reflects the vibe. Yeah, I agree with that. But I also think size is a really important thing. I think like, could you imagine asking for cupcakes
Starting point is 00:26:15 and you get a cake? That's what this feels like. Good point, Point Angela. Point Angela. This feels like, whoa, excuse me, little hole, I didn't order this, Mr. Man from the hole. I ordered a smaller version of this, because it's different.
Starting point is 00:26:28 Imagine just a little Italian hobbit, you know, coming out, big old hairy feet. I have, ironically, seen full-sized cakes that are decorated like cupcakes. So this is one of those things where meatballs, we talk about this, balls are sexier than loaves. I agree. Meatballs, you would go to like-
Starting point is 00:26:43 Have you guys had that conversation before? We've talked about a lot of stuff. That balls are sexier than loaves. I agree. You would go to like- Have you guys had that conversation before? We've talked about a lot of stuff. That balls are sexier than loaves. Actually, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We've decided. I love you guys. How many, okay, I want to talk about broccolini later on because I saw your TikTok about it.
Starting point is 00:26:55 Oh my god. At the restaurant that you went to, they probably had like meatballs on that menu. If they had rest of broccolini, there's probably some like $18 plate meatballs. That's an acceptable sexy date night. Yes order for the table Sure, would you ever order sexy broccolini sexy broccoli and sexy meatballs? Yeah. Yeah, that's like my go-to order Would you ever order like a sexy meatloaf on a date 100%? No, the word meatloaf is inherently unsexy loaf equals unsexy So no if I'm trying to be sexy on a date, of course, I'm not gonna get a meat
Starting point is 00:27:21 Yeah, I'm honestly thinking like how could meatloaf be sexy if it's like sliced really thin? We have to change the name. Razor thin ribbons of loaf. Like really like really thin little. Let's see. Do they have chefs in person in Olive Garden anymore? Oh my god. This is so good.
Starting point is 00:27:42 You guys love it? No. I love it. What's crazy is putting these side by side and now I understand the show. It's crazy, oh my gosh, I love it. Well, there's a lot of bread in the Olive Garden one. Yeah, is that what I'm tasting?
Starting point is 00:27:57 The ratio to breadcrumb to meat is much higher in the Olive Garden one. The bucce de beppe one is like a meatball. I taste meat here, I don't taste meat over there. You're tasting like this sausage-y kind of snap. It tastes like a breakfast sausage that they would serve at school lunch. So true. And so what that snap is coming from
Starting point is 00:28:14 is the salt sitting in that meat and it literally changes the protein structure as the longer salt sits in there. This is five times saltier than Buka. All of the meats at Olive Garden are so, so salted. So salty. I'd say 10 times. And the rest of the food's not. Yeah. These are different. They're so different.
Starting point is 00:28:27 Yeah. I give the edge to buka. A hundred percent. I don't care if it's big, dense, dry, dumb. It's America. At least I taste what it is. You're right. You're right. At least I know. At least she's being an honest woman. Exactly. It's a meatball while over here it's a breadball.
Starting point is 00:28:41 The Olive Garden is more like a bready. It looked factory. Like it was made in a factory. But like my initial, like my like carnal brain was like, ooh, good, yum, more. Exactly. Which is, we need to fight against that. And I felt for that in the beginning. And now I'm like really tasting it.
Starting point is 00:28:57 No, no, no, we can't allow this to happen any longer. We must be, we must be good women. Must be good women. Must be good women. Buka right now is like, they're up three nothing, right? There's no... And here's the thing, it makes sense why they're bankrupt cause they're using, I don't know, real ingredients.
Starting point is 00:29:11 So it's so sad that this one is successful. It's like bumming me out to realize that reality of like, well, there's probably 30% less meat in this ball, which means it's probably gonna be 28% cheaper, right? Which means you can open three more franchises. Yes! Like Pacoima. Oh, and then Ghost Kitchens.
Starting point is 00:29:30 All of Garden's got the Ghost Kitchens now. Yeah, it's pretty depressing. Alright, dig into the Chicken Parm. This to me is the king. Are you a Chicken Parm girl? Um... Ah, God, I love that question. Are you a Chicken Parm girl?
Starting point is 00:29:44 Um... Hold for two. Um... Oh god, I love that question. Are you a chicken parm girl? Um Hold for chill Never been at the top of my list right I'm just not like I love chicken. I love meat, but I'm always pasta forward Okay, this is a good chicken parm I feel about chicken parm how I feel about pancakes. You get them for the table. Oh. You get chicken parm for the table.
Starting point is 00:30:09 I don't want to eat old chicken parm. You get it for the table? Everybody gets a pasta, you get chicken parm for the table. You get chicken parm for the table. My brother, since I was little, always gets a sandwich for the table. Like almost as an appetizer. How do you share a sandwich?
Starting point is 00:30:24 I don't even, nobody always goes, you guys mind if we get a sandwich for the table? And I. How do you share a sandwich? I don't even know, but he always goes, you guys mind if we get a sandwich at the table? And I'm like, it's not a flatbread, John. What are we gonna do with it? I'll take a bite out of it? Do you think me and your brother would be friends? 100%. I feel like we would definitely be friends.
Starting point is 00:30:35 Does he lift? No. Does he wanna learn? No, probably not. He's super Italian and only wants to complain about food. I think he does. Do you wish and only wants to complain about food. I think he's just complaining about food. It's like, it's pretty bad. You don't like it? I don't like it.
Starting point is 00:30:52 It tastes burnt. Oil's old. I think the bottom is burnt. Chicken, wildly chewy. Couldn't really find the chicken, it felt. Well, I gotta eat the plain spaghetti with the tomatoes. I did. I was there.
Starting point is 00:31:03 You enjoyed the spaghetti? No. No? I don't like it. Hey, there. I was there. You enjoyed the spaghetti? No. Finally. Hey, do you know that Olive Garden stopped using the phrase when you were here with your family 12 years ago and we've just all kept saying it as a nation? What? Well, we're gonna keep saying it.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Do you know their new phrase? No. Just go, it's just go Olive Garden. It's worse than eat. Go Olive Garden. I'm starting to think all of these places are dropping like any type of food references in their things. Have you heard Burger King's? Whoa Sorry almost fell off my chair there during that slurp felt like a slip and slide. I'm kidding
Starting point is 00:31:33 I'm just kidding. I'm really excited cuz no cuz Not Burger King, but the general idea that we're post food. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, what's Burger King? Okay, don't make fun of me for going to Burger King cuz I just brought this up in a squash video And everyone stopped and went you went to Burger King. We would never judge you. I love their ham and cheese croissant thing when I'm A croissant sandwich show I'm going through and the guy looks at me and I say one croissant sandwich in a sprite, please He goes you got it you rule Then I went to the second window gave my money was handed his sandwich anyway you rule And I was like that has nothing to do with the product you just handed me It's just building me up. Oh the product was never there the product was all how you feel
Starting point is 00:32:12 You don't want the Chris sandwich because it's like a croissant and ham you want it because of the way the Chris sandwich makes you Feel when you're hungover. No They have this crazy ad it's the guy who sings la la la la la la la la la then says you rule at the end yeah yeah yeah yeah it's because of the ads Taco Bell's just live moss that's do they say live moss? That's basically carpe diem like that's the same phrase we're just actually like giving each other like encouragement and that's it yes yes our parents couldn't give us self-esteem but the Burger King can you know know, no one, everyone said, you know, you should go to school and get a job. No, Taco Bell told me, you should live mass, man.
Starting point is 00:32:51 Live mass. Come on. You're so right. We were so, I was gonna say F again. We were so messed up. So messed up. As a generation. So messed up.
Starting point is 00:33:03 We're post pandemic that people are like, don't worry about the product, just keep going. You rule. Right. Okay, I'm falling for it again. I'm falling for it again. This chicken kind of hits for me. I know. And I know it's not chicken.
Starting point is 00:33:17 No, it's post chicken. This is all the saltiest food I've ever had in my life. The one I just had, it's doing its work to me. Olive Garden. The Olive Garden one is good. I like the Olive Garden one more. I'm sorry. I have such a high salt tolerance. This is taking me out right now. I feel like I'm just going to Benjamin Button
Starting point is 00:33:39 and all the moisture is going to leave. I'm going to shrivel into an old man right now. My fingers are getting fat. This is nuts, dude. It feels like I put moisturizer on my face today. It's gone. It's gone. It's been soaked up by itself.
Starting point is 00:33:47 It's gone. One bite of this chicken. The size of Olive Garden's, it's like 30% bigger, but that's not because- You wanna know why? It's waterlogged. It's just waterlogged. It's because-
Starting point is 00:33:57 It's waterlogged? It's over, they are overcooking their noodles. Even if you look at the side by side fettuccines, you can see it's not because the noodles are thicker, it's because they've absorbed so much water because their timers are probably from some corporate office and the heat is from somewhere else sorry you are the smartest people I've ever met they're waterlogged. It's waterlogged wow. Listen I have such fond memories the Olive Garden taking my grandma there
Starting point is 00:34:22 basketball team you know my buddy from skimboarding after the better skimboarding teens made fun of us. All of this really bums me out from a sheer taste perspective, right? Like this tastes like microwavable spaghetti, and this tastes like a prefab, pre-breaded, microwavable chicken cutlet. You know? But it's better than the bukkawen because human error, let me speak, the human error, cause I know you're about to give me a little tirade, a mini tirade.
Starting point is 00:34:50 The chicken at Bukkure Beppo is dry. It is burnt on the bottom. The noodles are completely flavorless. The sauce is sweet, but also acidic. It doesn't do anything. The factory settings on this one, on the Olive Garden one is more delicious. The robot cooked better. Yeah, the robot did better. The robot did, on the Olive Garden one, is more delicious. The robot cooked better.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Yeah, the robot did better. The robot did better on the Olive Garden side. And I'm gonna give this point to Olive Garden personally. Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves. I'm doing it too. I'm doing it too. I'm going with Olive Garden. Just because I tasted something in my bite, this was just nothing. I couldn't...
Starting point is 00:35:23 Buka, it was hard for me. I also... I... Buka's sauce never hits for me, like Olive Gardens does. Probably because there's so much junk and like, I don't know, like cocaine and Olive Garden sauce. Yeah, cocaine rats. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:37 That should be the name of our band, cocaine rats. I'm just stalling for time before I have to admit that Olive Garden is better in this instance. But you know that one of Olive Garden's founders name is Gino DeSantis and he's from Orlando, Florida. And I can't find any proof that he's related to Ron DeSantis. He scrubbed it. But I feel like he probably has to be. How many DeSantis's are in... Orlando.
Starting point is 00:35:59 You know, maybe that's misinformation. Maybe I'm out here being the problem. But anyways, yeah, this Ron DeSantis chicken's better. Last time I went to Olive Garden, it was my uncle's birthday. He was like this really old man, and he insisted on his dessert. We brought in a box of donuts for his dessert. And the people at Olive Garden were like, upset. I was like, you guys aren't really baking anything back there that we can order for dessert. We can bring in donuts. Yeah Olive Garden
Starting point is 00:36:29 also is I believe rated the worst restaurant to work at by servers. Okay Debbie Downer. I know no listen I'm just as I think the food coma's hit right I have like post Olive Garden clarity and I'm looking at all of this with such shame I'm like sticky, my mouth hurts. Ultimately, we have to decide a winner. Do you two have the final champion? I'm going to give it to Buka. I think they did a good job.
Starting point is 00:36:55 I'm going to give it to Buka. I think they're healing, but at least I was fed. Buka, I hope you can come back from the dead like Lazarus. You rise to nourish us once more. But until then, I'm glad we come back from the dead like Lazarus. You rise to nourish us once more. But until then, I'm glad we could give you the send off. Giuseppe's little hole, you will always have a place in my heart. Love that little hole.
Starting point is 00:37:19 Josh, I think 2025 is a year for personal growth. How do you feel about that? Speak that into existence, sister. Yeah, I mean, like everyone's like, oh, I'm going to start working out. I'm going to start eating better. But me, I want to learn a new language. I think it's just going to expand the way that I see the world
Starting point is 00:37:35 and the way that I can communicate with other people. I think it's really important. Well, how do you plan on learning that new language, Nicole? Rosetta Stone, obviously. Obviously. The thing I love most about Rosetta Stone, listen, I took foreign language in high school. Same. You did.
Starting point is 00:37:49 You listening out there probably did. I'm not great in a classroom setting. I need an actual immersive experience, and that's what Rosetta Stone gets you. You can actually practice as if you were a native speaker. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app, and it truly immerses you in the language you want to learn. They offer Spanish, French, Italian, German, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Arabic, Polish,
Starting point is 00:38:15 and so much more. There's no English translation, so you really learn to speak, listen, and think in that language. It's an intuitive process that's designed for long-term retention. With Rosetta Stone's built-in true accent feature, you can get feedback on your pronunciation so you can perfect your accent. Mmm, estabien. Their lifetime membership has all 25 languages for
Starting point is 00:38:34 50% off. That's a steal. Start the new year off with a resolution you can reach. Today, a hot dog is a sandwich. Listeners can take advantage of this Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. That's a heck of a deal, Nicole. Visit rosettastone.com slash hot dog. That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash hot dog today. All right, Nicole and Angela, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe.
Starting point is 00:39:09 Sound for a little segment we call... Opinions are like casserole. We didn't tell you there was a singing portion. It was fun. Pretty good singing. Before we get into our listeners' hot hot takes you had a hot take about Broccolini tell me about your broccolini experience barely a hot take I'd say But I just I think it's just been like the last year and a half eating out in LA
Starting point is 00:39:36 It's all exclusively only broccolini, and I just want to know And I know it's like been around forever like I had broccolini like for some reason my grandmother called it broccoli rob. Broccoli rob? So broccoli rob is actually not broccolini. It's like rapini is what they call it. And there's actually a weirdly specific reason why it's called rob because it should be spelled with a P. Okay.
Starting point is 00:40:01 Oh, okay. Yeah, right? So it would be broccoli rapi is what they call it, but rabe in English is pronounced very differently. And so the B is actually Southern Italian affectation. The same reason Capicola becomes Gabagool. So that's why we call it broccoli rabe. It's really funny. Interesting. So yeah, I've had broccolini all my life. I just think I'm like, it hit like maybe like the 100th time I paid for like $24 broccolini. That was incredible, don't get me wrong.
Starting point is 00:40:25 But I was like, since when is this the chicest vegetable at these places? So chic. I don't know why either. I mean, I'd rather just have regular broccoli, right? Same. Fully agree. That was why I called it a hot take
Starting point is 00:40:36 because you said broccolini is infinitely better than broccoli. I disagree. I think it's infinitely better because these places are making it. Correct. I wonder if this same chef at, I don't even know, like, stinking like Mother Wolf, brings out the same thing you did with the broccolini to broccoli.
Starting point is 00:40:50 I bet I'd be like, this is awesome. But why is it just only broccolini? It's just a little bit fancier than broccoli. That's the thing, it's like, it's familiar to you, because you know what broccoli is, and they go, oh, it's not broccoli, it's broccolini. Broccolini. Brussels sprouts, they had their sexy moment in the sun. It's still kind of riding out. That's just a mini little cabbage, right?
Starting point is 00:41:06 Right, right, right. We pick a new hot girl vegetable, like every couple years. It was beets for a while. They're serving it with burrata. Yeah. Especially the candy stripe or kyoja beets. Oh yeah, yeah, people were obsessed with that. Oh my God, they loved that sexy little beet.
Starting point is 00:41:18 Right, you had Brussels sprouts. Romanesco is another one. Jerusalem artichokes. Jerusalem artichokes. Okay, you're so right. Yeah, and broccolini's the newest one. Hot girl veg. Stocks are too big.
Starting point is 00:41:30 They try and grill it, they're undercooked. I've never had a properly cooked broccolini stem. Oh yeah. And they don't absorb sauce. Broccoli, the florets absorb sauce in such a beautiful way. You're 100% right. You're so right. Broccolini doesn't absorb.
Starting point is 00:41:41 But it's not like more expensive than broccoli. Oh, it is. It is. A bunch of broccoli. But I meant like actually. Yeah a crown of broccoli from like the grocery store, what four dollars? A bunch with like three to five stems like six seven eight dollars. But it's the marketing that also makes it more expensive. That's what I'm saying. Sexiness is what's yeah. I know what you mean it's just like dirt and carbon. Yeah would like a farmer make it more expensive or is it these places that are just like rebranding? Well, here's the thing, if a farmer makes broccolini less expensive, suddenly it becomes less cool and then you're gonna have a new vegetable like a white asparagus is gonna come back.
Starting point is 00:42:14 Oh my gosh, 90s! White asparagus. Whoa! That's my broccolini dig. We should get to some calls. Okay, sorry. Hey y'all, this is Scott from Falls Church, Virginia. Hi Scott. So today for lunch I picked myself up some MacDagnalls and I asked for sweet and sour sauce packets. They didn't give it to me. That's fine. So when I got home, I just made my own
Starting point is 00:42:38 condiment. I mixed in hoisin sauce, some tapatio, and a French onion dip, kind of like a door sauce. And it wasn't good, but I feel like I was on the brink of something that could have been good. So what would y'all have done to make that better? Anyways, much love. I'm a huge fan. Keep rocking. And yeah, that's about it. Peace. Interesting. Whoa! Poisson Tapatio French Onion Door Sauce. What's door sauce?
Starting point is 00:43:12 Door sauce is the random sauce. This is a great usage of that term. The randomest sauces that you just have in the door of your fridge. The fridge door. Okay. Yeah, it's door sauce. Okay. Okay. Okay. I have, I have...
Starting point is 00:43:26 If you want to make a sweet and sour sauce at home, you just need a little bit of soy sauce, ketchup, honey, vinegar. That's going to get you 95% of the way there. You can mix that, microwave it to get the honey, to dilute, that's a perfect sweet and sour sauce. What do you, if you were in that situation, you didn't get your sauce, what would you go to in your own fridge door?
Starting point is 00:43:41 I'd turn back around and go, hey, bud, where's my sauce? No, in my fridge door, I'd, I think the same things you just said. Those three, right? Yeah, what Josh said. I would do a hoisin. I would thin it out with a little bit of water.
Starting point is 00:44:02 I would add a little bit of honey and then a splash of soy sauce and I would just, and a squirt of Sriracha and I'd call it a day. That's what I would thin it out with a little bit of water. I would add a little bit of honey, and then a splash of soy sauce, and I would just... And a squirt of Sriracha, and I'd call it a day. That's what I would do. That's what I would do. I think there's a lot more ketchup in East Asian foods that we like than we think. You're so right. But I'm going to forego the ketchup,
Starting point is 00:44:17 because I have enough sweetness coming from the hoisin and the honey. Fair, fair, fair. Boom. I was gonna... Yeah. You were gonna say the same thing? No, you were gonna assault a McDonald's employee is what you were gonna know. I wasn't going to assault them. Okay, Josh I was just gonna say we have a misunderstanding here. Yeah, I asked for sauce Yeah, right stand up for yourself. Nothing says I'm not gonna assault you by going we have a misunderstanding She's standing up for herself. Do you have a problem?
Starting point is 00:44:43 Sorry when a woman stands up for what she wants. I'll leave. I'll leave. It freaks you out. If I just leave the room, I can't get canceled. I'll just like... Come back. Come back. I'll just walk away slowly. One more, Maggie. One more. Two more.
Starting point is 00:44:53 Hi. This is William calling outside of DC area. I'm a little bit hopped up on some pre-workout. So... Hell yeah. ...that my fragments of my mind are just all over the place. But my opinion is wine with a meal is a condiment or a sauce, but wine by itself is a beverage.
Starting point is 00:45:17 And this comes from somebody in the wine industry who's also WSET certified. So, I'm not trying to say that this is a validated opinion, just my opinion. And the best wine and snack food combination is actually Grand Cru Riesling, maybe out of all sauce, and Bak Bokki. All right, thanks so much.
Starting point is 00:45:35 Okay. Angela, you're champing at the bit. No, I just, I want to come back on and drink wine. Oh yeah, let's get to that. I love wine. Okay, we can do that. Okay, now keep going. Oh me, okay's go do that. I love wine. Okay, we can do that. Okay, now keep going. Oh me, okay one.
Starting point is 00:45:46 New creatives, new creatives. I feel like there was a big Alsatian Riesling marketing campaign for spicy food. Because you go to any Thai restaurant that has any sort of wine program, everyone is slinging Alsatian Riesling that you can pour spicy food. I was gonna say, we've had Alsatian Rieslings before.
Starting point is 00:45:59 Yeah. With spicy food, so. And so that's the thing, so it makes sense. Because they pair well. Yes, apparently. I'm not a big wine snob, so I don't really know stuff. Okay, especially wine pairing me either I just see it in my future I just drink it if it's in front of me. I'll say yeah, it's good
Starting point is 00:46:10 I'll drink it, but I don't really care about calling it a condiment or a sauce I don't love I think I think if you really break it down philosophically right right because no I think Wait wait wait wait so the entire I drink with my book at a Beppo the La Croix was a condiment No, because how many look right how many look Roy pairings are you paying like $100 for to pair specifically with dishes? I mean, give me 15 years and I can make it happen. That's what I'm saying though, it has the potential to be a condiment, but is not currently in its form, we're wine. Right, what does a condiment do? A condiment is a general, a general wet that accents the taste of your food. That like kind of brings us all in the same story.
Starting point is 00:46:43 Yeah. So you mean to tell me ketchup and red wine are both condiments? Yes. I'm gonna leave now, I'm gonna leave. Angelina, your new host, how about you stay on the second verticals chair? Okay, I'm obsessed with the fact that like,
Starting point is 00:46:56 it's such a pairing type of drink that it has a bigger seat at the table than a La Croix or like a soda. I... It's an accompaniment if that's the right way to say it, but I don't, I wouldn't call it a condiment. It accompanies the meal, but it's not a condiment. A condiment is something you dip or pour over. It is... I don't... No. It is giving like the most wino said this.
Starting point is 00:47:21 Definitely, definitely. I don't mean to be that kind of like edge lord reddit kid But I have like upsetting opinions about wine especially when he's talking like the best pairing is a grand crew Alsatian Riesling with topoki You know what's existed for hundreds of years without ever meeting fermented European grape juice is Topoki but I'm saying like Korean food and there are tons of Korean liquors There is tons of soju and makgeolli and Korean beers out there, right? Like what the hell does fermented European grapes got to do with you know, nam prik in a Thai restaurant You know
Starting point is 00:47:55 I understand that they're like great and you've you've put thousands of years right into the importance of grape wine And I'm gonna call it grape wine because there's rice wines out there that are fantastic, right? Oh, I love their rice wine. So if we gave the same amount of attention to soju or shochu or sake producers, and certainly in parts of the world and in places there are, but I just hate that everything is viewed through the lens of such a Eurocentric drink. Wow. Right?
Starting point is 00:48:22 Right? Can we get down on this? Sure. How many specifically Thai restaurants in? LA have gotten elevated to such this like exorbitant status because of just their wine program Where is there other spots that maybe just serve Chong beer and have food that is just as good yeah, can we say that? Can we say that you say that can we have an honest conversation? For once you want to save that for the we say that? Can we have an honest conversation? For once. You want to save that for the next pod that you're on? For once.
Starting point is 00:48:49 I got pasta this time. Let's hope I get a sauvignon next time. We can make that happen. Angelina, whatever your name is. Angelina, Jarretana, Marie, Faguzo. I walked in here and Angela, I'm leaving an Angelina. Thank you so much. This was an absolute pleasure. You are a wonderful dining partner. Thanks for having me. Of course. Do you want to tell the people where to... Yeah, we should probably do that. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram,
Starting point is 00:49:14 Angela Giovanna Giotana. It's my middle name. I didn't put that. It did sound more cool. It's because Angela Giotana is taken by some woman in Sicily, and she won't give me the handle The idea of a Sicilian grandmother just blocking you on Instagram. I'm like you don't need it. She doesn't need it. If you like listen to this podcast keep it keep it up
Starting point is 00:49:35 Yeah, if you want to be featured on opinions or like cast roles hit us up at 833 dog pod one Please call us we love to hear you. New audio episodes every Wednesday, new videos every Sunday. Check out the Mythical Kitchen channel. We launch stuff there all the time. Check Angela for being drunk on Sauvignon Blanc next time. It's happening. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. See y'all next time.

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