A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Pro Chefs Debate The Best Comfort Food ft. Alix & Zoya

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Today, Josh is joined by food influencers and Shark Tank alums Alix & Zoya to discuss their ultimate comfort meals. This one is for you, Celine Dion lovers (you'll see). Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this is mythical. Man, there's nothing like eating a gigantic California burrito over a trash can. Shirtless, of course. Is that really comfortable? You do that in public? Define public. This is a hot dog as a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. 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 Sherin. Joining me today are cooking content creators, Alex Biglari and Zoya Biglari.

Now same last name. Well, I still go by Alex Trager publicly. That's a private thing. Sorry, Alex Trigger. That's for the bedroom. Oh, my goodness. That's why I was going to call each other Ms. Biglory. Two Mrs. Biglorys are better than one.

Both Biglory is in the house. One Trigger. Author of the cookbook scratched that. And Zoya, you are the founder of Plant Base. seafood company, Finiato Fish Foods of Shark Tank fame. Finiato, otherwise don't is finito, but Finiato is better.

It's more like Italian. I like it. Hey, welcome to the pod, y'all. Thanks for having you. Of course, fresh off of marriage, fresh off of vlogging a lot of the process. Yeah. How are we feeling? I feel like I'm on I'm on like a Bravo

reality, like a reunion show right now. Yeah, I mean, like Bravo meets the office meets I don't know, lesbian, like It's like lesbian sitcom. Lesbian sitcom. We're feeling so good.

I mean, over, like, we're in the hangover stage, I guess, of marriage. Like, freshly married. Wedding was a blast. Bit depressed. It's over. Yeah. Feeling to come down the crash. But it's the holidays.

So we're just eating good and, like, trying to get on with our lives, I guess. Did you have, did you physically have a hangover after the wedding? Was this a drinking wedding? Definitely. Actually, I had a- It was in Wauaca, Mexico. This is a mescal. This is a mescal wedding, yeah.

We had three days of celebrations, a lot of celebrations. But on that first night, I was so excited and I wasn't eating that much because I was on adrenaline. And I drank like 15 cocktails and threw up the whole next day, the entire next day. Wait, but that was supposed to be a day of celebration, the second day that you were thrown out. Yeah. Yeah. It was our welcome party. But actually, I feel like it was a blessing because that means the day before the wedding I literally could not drink.

So by the wedding day, I was. Spick and Spam Spick and Spam. Spick and Span. You know, like spam, the comfort spam. I was spick and spam like Missoubi. I had a really similar cadence to, so two days before my wedding, we got married in L.A. All of like my friends from the town came in and I never really had a proper bachelor party and I kind of didn't even like want or need one.

We do enough hanging out and did enough debauching in college to last a lifetime. And so we didn't really do that. It was like an NFL Sunday, and they were like, hey, a couple beers with the boys, meet at a sports bar at 10 a.m. All see each other. And we did that and then started drinking at 10 a.m. at the sports bar. And then we, yeah, we closed out a karaoke bar at 2 a.m. Okay.

Well, better than a strip club, I guess. Oh, my God. And like, oh, my God. Caryoke bar or strip club? Me and two buddies left and went to like an omicconcer restaurant, hammered drunk in football jerse. He was very wholesome, very fun. We were taking tequila shots at islands. But same thing the next day.

It was our welcome party. and I was so hungover that I was like, well, no, I'm not going to drink. Woke up, worked out, sauna, boom, ready for the wedding. Ready to go. You know? How was your experience? I didn't drink as much as you did. So I was good.

The actual wedding night, though, I sent it. So I was feeling violently ill. We got our pictures back and you can see the picture where she's gone. Like, she starts to lose it. And it was kind of early. Like, it was like at dinner. Like her eyes are starting to It's just like

The soul wasn't there anymore Yeah yeah That's how I like it's gone now So I was still like present I checked out of listen I was there for the ceremony Yeah she was fun You were a lot of fun Then we changed

Yeah legally did you consent to like a legal document In that state? No Are you technically married or? We got married before Yeah Okay smart smart smart Actually you can see it on our YouTube channel

It's hilarious we got married With 24 hour marriage.com No one hour Oh no yeah 24 out 24 hours I can wait 24 to get married. It's called one-hour marriage.com. That was a joke, but it's real.

And this guy shows up and literally marries you at your house. He showed up within 30 minutes. And he married us and we got married at our house. It was hilarious. We had our first dance to Celine Dion. He held the cutout. We had a cardboard cut out of Celine Dion in front of him. You already had that before.

Oh, yeah. I've had that for a decade. We'll come back to that later. But I'm interested in one-hour marriage. One Hour Marriage.com. His name is William. He was great. He came over.

I don't know if he belongs to some sort of cult. Sure. We might have gotten married under a cult. I don't know. It's something... Cult plus time equals religion. Was it the universalist? The universal church or something?

No, they're like the ones that do non-religious ceremonies. They're like a secular thing. Okay, because they were very accepting of us, you know? Yeah. That's technically what I was married under. Because we didn't want to get a rabbi. We wanted like my brother-in-law who was just kind of like a... a Jew.

Jake, you're so much more than just a Jew. But yeah, we were like, this isn't like a Jewish, we're stepping on a glass, but we don't need a rabbi. And so he got ordained under the Universal Life Church. Okay, I think this is it. Okay, good. So it's not some weird cult. We were like, oh God, because he kind of mumbled through that.

And we were like, what did it say? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We were like, what? But no, he was great. He was amazing. He was amazing. And he was awesome. He did everything.

Such a good sport. Really quick. Definitely like making funny jokes during it. under an hour, I think. We filmed the whole thing. He was totally cool with it. And then when we said, we want to do our first dance to Celine Dion. And I said, will you hold this up in front of you? The cardboard cut out? Like, the cardboard cut out. I've had for 10 years. This is life size? Life size. What era of Celine Dion? Like Eurovision? Like 19... No, no. Titanic. Titanic. She has a big. She actually had the whatever hard ocean. She's life. She doesn't have legs. She doesn't have legs. She had gotten her legs kicked out at some point during her lifespan with me. So she was actually a half... What were you doing to the Celine Dion cutout?

I didn't do anything. It was actually... This is a great story. It was an ex-girlfriend of mine that was upset about how much attention this cardboard cutout was getting from me and my friends while we were at a bar one day. And she was mad at me, but then she kicked the cardboard cut out and broke its fucking legs. She kicked her legs off. She kicked its legs off. And I said I would never do that.

And that's why she married me. Yes. Yeah, I'm not to say the bar was on the floor. floor, but you cleared that. You jumped over that. As long as you're not so jealous of cardboard. The issue is here, though, we brought Celine to our wedding in Oaxaca

and she was her last trip. She was, you know, left there. You sent her out to sea? Yeah, she's gone. She actually, she was all ripped up so I think the servers were like, this is trash and threw her away.

And we were like, no, can't find her again. We're so sorry, sleep. But we were like, you know what? She was laid to rest there and it felt like the step into our marriage that we needed. Like, we needed to let go over. the past and step into like, like, she did her job. Yeah, it's like a, it's almost like a, it's almost like a Viking funeral. It's like you send Celine out to see. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

You got to let go. You got to make new traditions. You're the universal light search. But she was great. She was a good time. Well, speaking to the wedding hangover, Lizin, you're a little, uncomfortable. What meals? Great segue, Josh. Do you reach to to get comfort from? Because that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about ranking the best comfort meals. Do you have any strategy? and like who cooks for whom if you're like needing to be comforted. We both cook for each other when we're in need of comfort.

We have a few different, like, I source most of my comfort through food. Same. I think that's how we... I need comfort so I eat. I have this one weird phenomenon, which is, which is rare, whenever Zoya leaves me alone

in the house to my own devices. Again, which is very rare. I get a burrito and I eat the burrito alone. Alone. As if she's not allowed to when I'm there. I know. But there is something special about eating a burrito alone. It's a very intimate self-experience.

Do you eat it over the trash can shirtless? No, no, no. That's not my, I want to be on the couch, like, watching a thing. Okay, when you're eating a burrito on the couch, one, paint me a picture. What kind of burrito? Where is it ordered from? And, like, what's on the TV? paint me the novel.

You know what's funny is that like where I'm from, I'm from next to a town called Rubwood City in Northern California. And the president of Mexico just named Redwood City. I forget what she coined it, but like literally like little Mexico or something. And I had no idea because I grew up with amazing Mexican food. Yeah, yeah. But I was like Redwood City. Like who knows Robwood City?

No one does. but come to find out recently that I was eating some of the best Mexican food you can get in America and Carlita's taco shop I mean this is not where I'm ordering from in L.A., but it is phenomenal. That was my go-to. Carnitas burrito,

carnitas super burrito, extra sour cream. That's what I like. Yeah, Mexican President Claudia Shinebound said the best Mexican food in the United States is in Redwood City. How is that possible? I grew up. Just going to Redwood City.

I didn't even know. I've never been to Redwood City. It's the town next over for me. I'm literally like across the street from Redwood City. So I, yeah, you got to go to Redwood City. There's not much to do there, but there is amazing Mexican food. And, uh... Like in L.A.?

It's better than L.A.? No, no. I have always thought that Redwood City is better than L.A. Always. The Mexican food. Okay, well, like Redwood City, like Redwood City, like Redwood City isn't comparable to L.A. Redwood City would be comparable to like a specific neighborhood in L.A., right? because Redwood City is sort of just in the larger context of, like, the

I just haven't found my spot in L.A. Sure, sure, sure. I grew up knowing where my spot was. So, like, when I'm in L.A., sadly, I hate to admit this. I'm just ordering, like, a Chipotle. Oh, how dare you? I know. Oh, that bums me out.

I know. I'm sorry. So deeply. Sometimes it slaps more than, like, we've tried so many spots, though. And it's like, fine. No, I do like El Zarape. Have you had that? Z.A. Zarape?

Z-A-R-E. Z-A-R-E. I was like, wait. How do I spell? spot. El Zarapa is pretty good. What part of town are y'all in? Don't docks the address, but like, give me a clue. We're Hollywood Hills-ish. Okay. Facing Studio City. Studio City. So you guys could make it up to like, make it up to like Casa Vega, which the food

that is not actually good, but have you been to Casa Vega? I have not. No. It's a, it's, is there is Don Cucco's? Because I've been in Don Cucos, which is like a Studio City staple. Don Cucos, it's, it's, uh, contemporary, so sweet. But, but Casa Vega has like so much history. It's like Christmas lights everywhere. It's been there for like 100 years. Like Joan Didion and like Joni Mitchell used to like leave the hills, like leave Laurel Canyon and like go hang out there and drink tequila at the bar. I think the Manson family hung out there a little bit. Not as cool, but you know, historical nonetheless.

But they're great up there. Salsa and beer is despite the name, like truly one of the best like Cali Mex, Mexican restaurants I've ever been to. See, but I'm not going to be ordering a burrito from these places. Fair point. Fair point. Like, if you give me one that, like, is like, you need to have a burrito from this place, then, like, I will absolutely order it tonight if Zoya leaves me alone. But, yeah, some of, like, the Mexican restaurant ones are not the same, like, burrito vibe. I agree with that, yeah. It has to be, like, a takeaway spot. Yeah, yeah, I want the taco stop. Rob Wood City, that's where it's at. There's actually a spot right over here that I, it's so funny. Give it to me. Casita, tacos Casitas Al Carbone.

Okay, that sounds legit. I know, right? In, like, the Al Carbone. And you taste the actual mesquite on the meat. But it's, like, kind of just been our local lunch spot that, you know, you kind of order. It sits at a front desk while you're on a call. And then you go grab your burrito and eat it mindlessly. I didn't realize how good it was until we actually had a last meal's guest who was like, I want to, my last meal would be a steak cassidia from cassita sacos al-carbone. And I was like, our lunch spot?

And then he explained, he was like, my dad used to work in like sound production in Ciocity. So I was an eight-year-old kid and used to always bring me by him. He made friends with the grill man. and then I fully tasted it through new eyes and I was like this is elite I never tasted the carbide I never tasted the mesquite wood You need the respect you know? You really do

And so I don't know I'd recommend it Totally I'm down to try That comfort food it like reminds you of home And then you're eating it on the couch You know don't have to worry about Like in peace like nothing's way is not like she always jokes What do you mean peace like She's the most peaceful person

I'm the chaos But like I want alone I want to be alone I want to like gnaw into my burrito I like to dip my chip in the burrito, get some of that, like a little macho. Like, and be watching my trash TV. And that is

an amazing form of self-care. I love it. So Zoya, you've been holding Alex back from really I've been really holding back. A new year really does feel like a clean slate. In learning a new language is one of those goals that actually feels exciting, not overwhelming.

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go to Rosettastone.com slash hot dog and start learning today or in French, Ojourdie. What's she holding you back from doing? Man. I don't hold her back from anything. From nothing at all, no.

I'm kidding. No, but what's your version of comfort food? Like, does it have links to home? Honestly, yeah. For me, comfort food is definitely more like Persian food. Yeah, yeah. It's always going to be Persian food. I do, I would say that Mexican food

is a hair below it, though. Like, I love Mexican food. so much. I'm actually not a big burrito gal. I'm more of a taco gal. Where did you grow up? Did you grew up in SoCal? Yeah, in Orange County. So I'm born and raised there, which like, Annam Hills proper is not the best Mexican food, but like we're very close to like San Ana and Anaheim, and there's some really good spots, really good taco trucks. In L.A., I know it's like very popular already, but I do think Leo's tacos is great. I mostly eat chicken tacos, which like nowhere does great chicken tacos, I feel like everyone's. Yeah, no one puts in the effort to the chicken tacos.

Everyone eats a chicken. You know who does, though? There's a place called Mid-East tacos in Silver Lake. Armin, Marterosian, dude. Yeah. So that's such a cool fusion. And that's Minnik Kabab, right? So it's Minibabaab's sun?

Yeah, the sun, yeah, yeah. So obviously, being Middle Eastern, I'm going to have a soft spot for this really interesting fusion. And usually I don't like fusion. I want to clarify. I don't like a lot of fusion foods. But I do think Middle Eastern and Mexican food is just such a beautiful combination. And even, like, looking at a flour tortilla versus, like, lava, or something.

Like, it's one ingredient away. And even the equipment is similar. Yeah. Yeah. No, love it so much. They did a great job with their chicken specifically. 100%. So that's what's really hard with law Mexican food is I feel like beef and pork gets all

the love. And then for chicken, it's like this afterthought of like just like random scraps of shit. And you're like, what is this? Chicken's beautiful when it's done the right way. No, agreed. But yeah, love that. Comfort food, though, for me is Persian food, like without a doubt. And I want everything.

So what's hard is that it's hard to order. Persian food for just yourself? Yeah. Or even just for the two of us. Because first of all, it is like a $200 order. After you get all the things you want to get. She wants a whole steak shebang, either a

kebab or just like chunks, or whether it's ground or, you know, then it's the rice. Then there's the salads. And then I want the yogurt. I want the solid shrizzi, like a little salad. I want a couple other things out in Kashkabana, June, which is the eggplant dip. I want some extra herbs.

I want so many things because it's not just like eating rice. the kebab. I want the grilled veggies. And you need the torsci. I need the horsey. I've been so many times. Yeah. You know. So it's like it truly becomes like a $200 order. And I'm like, I can't fucking do this. It's a four day commitment. Like you're like this is it. Exactly. So I mean, I am spoiled to have Persian parents. So I get to have access to this way more often. And my mom, I mean, we're very much in our 30s. Nothing can match her mom. Nothing matches my mom. And I'm not just saying that because it's like, oh, it's my mom. It's like, no, my mom's actually a really,

really good cook. That's a really funny thing. finding out is like whether like I didn't my parents didn't cook but my best friend is gudrati from from india and I grew up eating his mom's food and it's a very specific regional cuisine that doesn't make its way to restaurants a lot um so she would make these dishes I'd never had before like like something called like um idra um it's like a steamed like chickpea fermented rice flour cake um or like dokri or docla they call it but like really awesome stuff and I remember being mind blown by it when I was a kid but that's because I didn't have a lot of people cooking for me and I never had this stuff and so I came back like as an adult who'd work

as like a food critic for magazines and, you know, written cookbooks and all this stuff. And then I literally had one bite of her simple-ass dish, a green mung doll curry. And I took one bite of it and I was like, no, she's like a world-class guy. Wow. And 100%. And even like among his family, like, no, everyone like comes and learns from my mom. Yeah. But that's a funny thing to realize.

Like, no, my mom's really good. That's her mom. Actually good. Yeah. She's very famous amongst her friends. And she just is like a whiz. Like we can go anywhere, eat anything. And she can taste it and, like, know exactly what's in it.

She can recreate it. So she's really cool is that. It was really cool. I'm like one-tenth of her power and I'm a pretty decent cook. So we're very lucky. And our ripe old ages of early mid-30s, she will still bless her, bring over like Persian stews, Persian soups and be like put in your freezer and have it for later. And then when we do have it later, it's just like so fucking. We are rich in that regard. It's like you feel like you're just, you're so rich because it's just, it's not something, I don't know. It's something that's so much love. And then not only does it taste good and it's like so nourishing, but then it's just like, oh, people don't often get this level of food at home. Did you get that level of food at home?

No. Like, do you have anything that you can compare that to? Because that isn't really like unique. It seems unique now, but that it was kind of the history of the world was people showing love generationally through food. Totally. And then a lot of things sort of got in the way of that. be a modernity and whatnot. But, like, yeah, did you have any of that grown up?

My parents, my mom's an awful cook, but she wasn't like super, she had her meals that she stuck to, and that was, like, what we did. And I was the one who was actually, like, the one who loved to cook, even as a kid. And my dad, he's not a great cook, but he loves to experiment. So he'll, like, get into, like, hyperfixations with, like, I'm going to learn how to make sourdote, and then I'll burn himself out. And then he's like, I'm going to learn how to make pizza, then I'll burn himself out. But I was one who loved to cook, and my aunts loved to cook as well.

So we had a love of food, but I've never gotten to closely experience such a cultural, like, emphasis or just like a knowledge. And watching her mom cook as well is like someone who is, it's in them. It's not a recipe. It's in, it's in her. And I love that. It's so cool to see. It's so cool to witness. It's so cool to eat.

most of all, and then learn from, of course, because that's the goal. I mean, like, even just like, we are both cookbook authors, but at the end of the day, it's like the real cooks don't use that. They have it within them. It's a confidence. It's a spirit. It's love. Yeah.

I asked my buddy's mom for a recipe in my first cookbook. I was like, hey, if you're open to it, like her, it's called powbudgee. That's, like, not necessarily a grotty dish, but it's this, like, spice potato curry that they serve. she would get the like San Francisco French rolls from Costco like super like processed like sub rolls because it's actually very close to

Pav which is like the Portuguese influence Indian bread and then me and my buddy just like come home from basketball practice and just like scarf down 2,000 calories of that and she was like yeah no problem and then like a couple weeks passed and I kind of like hit up my buddy I'm like

yeah is your mom cool with that recipe yet he's like yeah she's working on it like give her some time and like a month passes like hey dude like low key Like deadlines approaching. And he sends me like pages and pages of written notes. She'd never written down anything. And not that I expected her to have, but like I thought she'd just kind of like jot it down and I could figure it out.

And she like made it like 12 times. And she was like, I didn't even realize that I did half this stuff. It was just normal for me. She's like, yeah, you have to like boil the potatoes whole for like two hours and then you have to dehydrate them. And then you have to like, you know, let them sit in an ice bath and then wait the next. And she's like, that's just how my mom taught me. And I tried to take shortcuts and it didn't taste the same, you know? And so there's all these, like, kind of things that come from feel over years that lead to how good a dish actually is.

Yeah, totally. Come from the feel and experience and pass down through that community versus now we're disconnected and we pass it down through writing recipes and you lose some of that magic, you know? Yeah, yeah. You lose it because also you're outsourcing how to do something. And then, you know, it's not quite the same. Yeah. It's one thing to read a recipe, but I learned to cook by sitting on the counter and watching my mom. Because my mom worked for most of the week.

So when she was home and cooking, I was just hanging out with her. Also, this is, you know, the 90s. There's nothing else to really do. So it's like you hang out and you sell the counter. Yeah, we had no scrolling. There was no scrolling. Daytime TV was Price is right. And that was it, man.

I already watched the show. So I'm like, all right, I'll sit with my mom. And so I would watch her do all this stuff. And besides just cooking phenomenal food, there's another phenomenon that is related to comfort because besides just cooking multiple dishes herself, solo, no one helping her, she would then prepare the most gorgeous table you've ever seen. And she still does this. We were there a week ago. The most gorgeous table with the prettiest dishes and everything's perfect and hot at the same time. And again, there's nobody helping her.

And I'm talking 20 person parties, 30 person. person parties, you don't see that. Like, I'm able to do it to an extent, but I learned that from her. Yeah. Whereas most people, even a lot of us know them, really incredibly talented chefs, they could not do that. Yeah, yeah. They can do it with like a big staff and a big kitchen and all the little stuff. She would use like the same two or three pots and then just like make the craziest shit you ever had. And that's just a crazy skill that you can't, you can't learn unless you're watching someone. Yeah. It's so funny that we were even like talking. about restaurants earlier and kind of like occasionally go out and have a disappointing meal and it kind of reframes a lot of things in your mind.

But the history of so much food has been written about in either the industrial way or like the restaurant commercial way. And I think a lot of people have neglected like the historic value behind specifically home kitchens. That is where 99% of the world's meals are produced and eaten. There's a really great book I'm reading now called Forks or it's not Forks Severnines. consider the fork. That's all about the history of domestic kitchen technology because that's what I do for fun in my spare time. But they kind of go through all that

and how we sort of lost a lot of this intrinsic cooking knowledge. Because if you read old recipes, it'll just say like, take some butter, add to flour, when it looks good, put in pan. And like the reason people weren't idiots back then. It wasn't like people didn't know that you could write descriptively. No, that was a meaningful thing. And also as a cook, you know that the amount of butter

It doesn't really matter that much. Yeah, exactly. You know, yeah, you put some butter in it. I literally ran into this last night when we had our friends over and I wanted to make fresh pasta like on a whim. So I was like, maybe just use the box pasta. And I was like, no, I want to do it. But I, you know, I couldn't find the kitchen scale and I didn't have like my right measuring cups because they were in the dishwasher. And I was like, what the, I know when I put this ratio plus this, I'll see if it's too dry.

I'll add another egg if it needs, you know, to be working. wet and then I'll see the dough come together and I'll know, you know. And that's exactly what happened. It was like, it was too dry. It was crumbly. You add another egg. It came together. I needed it. Like it was, you know, so sometimes remembering, oh, wait, I don't need to outsource that, those rules. 100%. And then trusting, you know, your intuition and trusting that, you know, we all have, at least, I can speak for us all. We all have skills in the kitchen at this point. And so remembering that you can just kind of use that. Arsenal instead of like always being like, okay, well, what was that exact recipe that someone said the best pasta ratio was?

It's like, whatever. I know. And even like me, like, you almost like, it's what's I call? Not the Dunning Kruger effect per se. Have you ever seen the meme that's like the bell curve where it's like the kind of idiot on the left tends to believe the same things as the person on the right? Yeah. Like for me, I was trying to make fresh pasta today and we didn't have any eggs.

The eggs were bad. And I was like, you just use water. And my wife was like, no, like pasta is eggs in flour. I was like, no, that's only like, um, that's only like, um, that's only like Bolognese-style pasta, that's pure egg, and you actually get a higher protein concentration, which is something that you would likely want with fresh pasta, but not with dried pasta.

So if you look at Saudi in Italy, you really just see a lot of, like, semolina mixed with water, especially like the local cavitate. And like you can kind of, things are done so differently in so many different regions that you can kind of just as long as you make a little doughnub and boil it, it's going to be good. And you can just say, well, that's Siciliano style,

like that or whatever. Make your own style. Make your own style. This is SoCal style. So-Colos burritos. Oh, my gosh. Oh, that would be so good. Yeah, but definitely Persian food has, you know, has stolen a place in my heart as well.

I hadn't really eaten much Persian food. What's your, like, if you had to pick one, probably, I'm curious in both of you, if you, like, had to pick one Persian dish, what would it be? Like, what's going to be the Big Lari family household signature? Mine would be chicken, no, chicken, tachin. Tachian. Tachian. Just such a. It's just such a complete perfect dish.

Yeah. I love the stews. So it's hard about to pick a stew for that. Wait, describe Tatching for people who don't know. Tatching is a famous big, it looks like a big rice cake, but it is saffron, yogurt, and eggs mixed with rice, barboiled rice, with a layer in the middle of shredded chicken that's cooked with all of our good spices and usually barberries, pistachios, and then another layer of rice over. and then when you cook it in the oven, you oil the bottom. So when you flip it, it's like very crunchy. So it's like crispy rice.

But then every bite is just phenomenal. And it's like so hard to describe how good it is. And the ingredients in it, I mean, there's obviously some butter and stuff. But it's a very good dish, though. It has a lot of good things in it. Yeah. And it just feels so complete. And it's just like it's really hard to mess with that.

It's delicious. It has everything you love about the taudi egg, like the crispy rice. but then it has like an extra layer of chicken. Yeah, yeah. That's like a latehirtierly. Not in a whitewash. It's so right. You're tatting supreme.

It's tatting supreme. Oh, it's so good. And beautiful too. It's a beautiful day. It's a showstopper. It's just like great. Showstopper. It's just like great.

For me, the most, I mean, I am so, I feel so lucky to have gotten to explore Persian food in such a intimate, like again, getting to Interval. That one's a minute Are we talking here, Alex? Wow. Very sexy.

No, but literally. Kuku sobs you over the garbage disposal. Her mom is truly probably the best cook I know. And also getting to eat her Persian food is just so, so great. But I would say the, so there's really nothing I don't like is what I'm trying to say.

But one of my favorites is kebab, kebab, um, kebab nights. And specifically, Kubide, which is like... You still let her pronounce it like that? Cabob. Cabob. Cabob.

Cabob. Kabob, Kubuede. And specifically, the... Yeah, Kubide, which is the ground beef. Sometimes beef and lamb, but they... Cabob. And it is to die for. Like, mostly actually the men cook this, which we like because, you know, the women get

to relax. Yeah, put them to work. They're absolutely not relaxed. They're absolutely not relaxed. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We're not relaxing. But, like, watching the men cook the kabob over the charcoal grill. And then you don't even get a chance to sit down.

You just take the piece of lavash and then you slide it off the thing, eat it with the herbs right then and there. Like, you're not waiting. That thing is juicy and hot, and you burn your mouth on it. And it's, like, the most comforting, amazing thing. We've started inviting our friends to come join our kabob nights with her family. And everyone is like, it's a hotest. ticket in town, honestly. We should start having like kebab night, like restaurants. Ticket an event,

right? But man, that is, that's some of the best food in the world. We just had my family in town for the holidays and we went over to her house for a kebab night. And as a quote for my brother is, this is my favorite way to eat meat. This is now my favorite way to eat meat, which is very funny way of saying it. But we understood that he really likes kebabs. My bio for a while on all social media was just local meat-on-a-stick enthusiast. Yes. There you go. And so I'm saying,

get me on the wait list for kebab night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay, you're invited. Everyone's invited. He grew up in SoCal. So if you're in Orange County, too,

you had a lot of Persian food, huh? Oh, so especially growing up Jewish in SoCal. Like, I just, I remember going to a bar mitzvah and tasting like a gourmetzabsy for the first time and just being like, what is this? Why doesn't our food taste like this? Why are we eating pickled hairy?

Yeah. I was in Redwood City eating burritos, but I didn't have much. We had a lot of Mexican food. We didn't have a lot of Persian food there. I didn't know many Persians. I mean, it probably is. You just wouldn't know.

I just didn't know. We'll have to check it out next time. But, yeah, I mean. And can I pitch you both on pickled herring? I mean, I did leave. I lived in Sweden for a bit. Oh, yeah, you're really glad to. So I'm not.

Maybe the next venture for fish, a vegan pickled herring. A vegan pickled herring. I am the whole market. The NFL playoffs are here and heed the call NFL podcast with Dan. Hansis and Mark Sessler is your destination for coverage of every round from wildcard weekend to Super Bowl Sunday. Heath the Call covers every game, every storyline, everything that matters, and we have fun. No fake hot takes, just entertaining football talk from your favorite buds at the bar. Wait, Mark, which bar?

Well, like the typical neighborhood bar. We're the witty sports guys at a place like that. Ah, I like that. Follow and listen to Heath the Call, wherever you get your podcasts. Alex and Zillai have heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas around. out there in the universe. Side for a little segment we call

opinions are like casserole. Hi, my name is Emily and I'm calling with a thought. If peanuts are beans, then is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Really just a bean bun if you steam it?

This is going a couple different directions here. It's a legume, huh? Yeah, they've made some claims here. Yeah. Peanets is not a bean. No, but the term bean is... So there's like, is a tomato, a fruit or vegetable? You know, the whole thing.

But it really depends on what lens you're looking at it through. Because we have a culinary term for vegetable, but there's no scientific term for vegetable, right? Like celery and broccoli would both be considered vegetables. One of them is a flowering body of a plant, and the other is like a stem. Yeah. You know, and then rootabag is a vegetable, and that's a root. And so, like, fruit is a botanical term for the fruiting body, you know. But we also, you know, we wouldn't put zucchini in a fruit salad unless you're getting real crazy in there.

You know, so, like, there's equivocation on those terms, you know. So, like a peanut, it's not a nut. We use the term nut because it kind of functions as a nut. But it is a legume, which isn't a bean, but other beans are legumes. Yes, yes. So they're making some claims here. It's, yeah, it's a legume, but it's not all beans are legumes. Wait, what you say?

Not all... Right, wait, wait, wait, hold on. This is correct, right? Like, legume is like a botanical term for thing. I don't know what it is. What is a legume? Beans are... Isn't it particular, like, are like lentils legumes?

Yeah. They're like little... I think lentils are pulses. What? I've never heard of a pulse. I don't know. I've never heard of a pulse. Camerin is a legume, and I don't know how that works.

Cameran is a legume. I mean, it looks like, yeah, it looks like a bean pod. Beans and peanuts and like little things that are like pods. Like if it's in the pod, it's a legion? Like, do they sprout? Legumes Sprouting? Like, do they sprout? Okay, so lentils are both pulses and legumes. Here we go. All pulses are legumes, but not all legumes are pulses.

Who's making these rules? Not all legumes are pulses. All pulses are legumes. Okay, so what is a legume? Okay. It sprouts? Let's see what actually defines a legume. A legume is a plant in the pea family, so all legumes are also peas. but also peas not like green pea, peas and field pee.

We use a lot of terms interchangeably here. Field pee. So a legume is a plant in the pea family or the edible seed slash fruit it produces characterized by growing in pods. So beans, lentils, peas, and peanuts. So peanuts and tamarin kind of looks similar in their like... Right, Tamarin has a pod. They're like kind of lumpy and potty. You know what I mean?

Okay, so like lumpy pod things. You got to have a pod. Yeah, so in theory, you know, it's not a bean. But also if you like boil peanuts and puree, and the texture does get more bean-like. Because if you eat like a roasted crispy chickpea versus like a roasted peanut, it's kind of close.

Same, same but different. Honestly, hummus is not that far off from, not flavor-wise, but like texture-wise, like a peanut butter. Also, how do you feel about dessert hummus when people started adding? I'm upset about it. I just had it recently for like some shoot.

But it did taste like a brownie. It was like a chocolate one. I kind of enjoy it. It tasted like a brownie. Yeah, I mean, I've put, some in my day put some chickpeas and some cakes and try to call it. Just don't call it hummus, because that's just a very bizarre. But also like hummus is just Arabic for chickpee though, right? So it's like they're not lying. They're not lying. They're not lying. Yeah. You know? So yeah,

no, not a steamed bean bun, but not that far away from it. How's it going? This is Matt calling in from Waco, Texas. So I got a pig. I think that we, I think that we, I think that we, we should just have a restaurant dedicated to just appetizers. Because every time I go out to eat, I'm full before the food even comes. Smart. So let's just enjoy the best part of the meal, and that's the appetizers. And let's face it, when we're at home, you don't usually eat appetizers before your meal. Once you're eating something like Thanksgiving.

You have like some deviled eggs or something. But anyway, what do you think? Appetizers only restaurants, all apps. Thank you. I just made a ton of deviled eggs for things. I cooked one Thanksgiving for, like, the homies, like for the people who were down with me doing crazy experimental stuff, like turkey thy biria. Oh, wow. Nice.

And I went crazy with it. But then I had to cook like a normal one for family, you know, for the in-laws and stuff. And I just made a ton of deviled eggs, like pretty classic. But I planned on making something like 18 total eggs, so 36 pieces, but only like 28 fit on the platter. And so I was like, I need to fuel myself throughout this. So I just ate like eight eggs worth of deviled eggs. And then was subsequently not hungry for Thanksgiving. So I- Oh, no. That's the problem with appetizers that help us.

You suddenly get eaten. I've always said that. That is the problem with eating eight eggs. That's the problem. Always with the eggs. Well, wouldn't this kind of be like basically like a top-lost restaurant? I know that those aren't technically at, but like they're small plate. Because technically what is the difference between an appetizer?

It's all food. I don't know what makes something a big main dish. Sure, sure. There's appetizers that have, like why are chicken wings an appetizer? Biteable. Bite a finger. Yeah. But they're not always.

Like a salad can be an appetizer. Like it actually makes no sense. 100%. What we call an appetizer. Because wings are an appetizer. But then if you eat the other bar of chicken, it's a main. Also, entree is French for appetizer. Oh, interesting.

Like, entree literally means like entree, like the entrance to a meal. It's French for appetizer. And appetize, what would appetize? Appetize is obviously like a Latinate word. But yeah, I don't know any country that uses that. Like, the idea of an appetizer is very American in that sense. Definitely. If here's like a giant fried chimichanga filled with like corn, black beans and chicken,

just to get you hungry or for your next food. It was the idea of how do we milk more money out of these people coming to eat? Like, we need to give them a whole other meal to buy. It's like, okay, you need to eat the meal before the meal. I love an appetizer, though. So I'm down for an appetizer restaurant. Well, they are the best food. Kind of like the cheesecake factory.

Like, you want to eat all the appetizers. But it's nice that they also have mains, I guess, so you could have both. Again, consumerism. One's the last time you've been more excited for the main than for the appetizer? It's rare, yeah. Never. Because we're more like wine and small. bites people anyway. We love the small bites. Even if we get a main, it's like being shared

for a couple people. Like, I'm not going to eat half of a chicken by myself. Like, it's just a bizarre thing. And if I do, it's over a trash can shirt. Exactly. Exactly. In public. And then you get kicked out and you can't come back to the restaurant. It's awful. Yeah, thanks, Chuckie Cheese. I didn't know I needed a child. Although at Persian food, I'm definitely more excited for the mains. Yeah. Because we're less of an appetizer culture. I mean, we put out appetizers. But that was kind of more of a learned behavior. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The appetizers at Rafis is a breadbasket of lavash.

Yeah. And then cold butter and a radish. And you eat it like that. Some somag. Yeah, sumach. And maybe some herbs, but like that's, that is the appetizer. Our appetizers, they're actually more like side dishes. They're meant to be eaten with your kebab.

Yeah, exactly. Which is like kind of my favorite way to eat, right? Like all of like the yogurt and the salad and the pickles and all that. But the idea of having like a fully standalone. Just bunch of, you know what part of it is, I think, that an appetizer doesn't have to be a balanced meal. Whereas you go to, let's think about American chain restaurants, the cheese cake factory. Like, generally these things come with like a starch, a meat, and a vegetable, which became a very sort of like American thing post-World War II. You should eat these three things separately.

You know, you get a steak, you get broccoli, you got a baked potato at a sizzler or something. But the appetizers, oh, that's fair game. to just eat a bunch of deep fried stuff dip in mayonnaise. Like, here's 12 mozzarella sticks. Yes, correct. Whereas in a main that would make no sense. This is a part of the pyramid. Appetizer.

Yeah, I don't know. Truly. I support that. It would be highly, highly indulgent. Yeah, I agree. Hi, this is Leah from Buffalo again. That never gets old. A huge congratulations to Nicole and family on the birth of the baby.

Oh, Nicole had her baby. My son had a little pre-me girl six months ago, so I've been enjoying. kind of being on the same way of length. I have an opinion for you guys. I don't think it's been brought up before, but I personally lose

my mind every time I see people post charcutory boards that do not include any kind of meat. So like a frosting board or a cookie platter, just like a bunch of candy thrown on a dish. I would love to hear your thoughts. Go bills.

Go bills. Mafia. So, charcutory board without any shakutery on it. Is it still a charcutory board? I don't think most people use it the correct way. I think you just think, oh, stuff on the board is a sarcudery board. Yeah. I'd agree with that. At what point do we think about the feelings of the French?

Never for me. Kind of same, but maybe. As often as they think about our feelings, which is never. That's honestly so fair. I think just people don't know what to call. You know, they're just calling it something because they need something to call it it, but they're not meaning that it's actual.

No. No. So, like, shirkutri, I actually didn't know the etymology of it. So apparently, like, it comes from the words for flesh, which is chère, and cooked, which is quay. So, like, chercruis would be charkoutre. Chacrutri, yes, it's very well. Just means cooked flesh.

Ironically, a lot of sharkoutherst is sort of raw. That makes me never want to preserve. So, yeah, maybe good ridden. cooked flesh. But is there any better term? Because, like, I've heard grazing board. I don't like that. I have heard grazing board.

Grazing board. Or just, like, a board? Anything that's on a board? You're like, oh, I made a... I put together a board. Yeah, someone came to my house instead of, I put together a board. I'd be stoked, no matter what it is.

I'm like, I don't care what's on the board. I love that you did that. Well, I'm going to say charcutory, if it's... If I believe it's a charcutter... But I'm putting cheese. I'm not putting cookies... Yeah. Cookies and candy.

Are you putting, like, actual, like, sharkouterie meats on it, though? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. I mean, you got to have it all. I love doing that. I mean, you got to have everything. It's like Persian food. You got to have a little bit of everything. You need some of the nuts.

You need some of the cheeses, the jams, the quints. Oh, wait, do you do quints? Like the membrillo? I love the quince. I love a little, no, honeycomb on there. Got to get that. Figg. It's delicious.

I like to have a little bit of us. Like olives are great, but I actually love a little bit of the spicy element, too. I like to have something that has a little bit. of a punch. So I think it all goes together beautifully. I don't think that's super traditional, but pickles peppers. Pickles peppers. Spicy pickles are great. Spicy olives are great. Olives. Neat olives. I love just spicy salty things like all the time. So it can me like any olives covered in any amount of it. You put like the fennel pollen and the calabrian chili and the orange rind. But I feel like we all grew up in an L.A. restaurant. We're like roughly

the same age. But like we all grew up in an L.A. restaurant culture, especially when we're younger and probably left the house more where everybody was doing charcutory. everywhere. That was like the name of the game. The nose, you go to animal, the nose to tail cookery, all that. Everyone had a patte. There was a product that I thought was going to be the next big thing. Induya. Is that enduia?

Yeah. It's a little bit spicy for me. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, it can get a little bit hot. But it is delicious. It's great. But it's a salami spread. I miss that. Give me that. Give me some funky thing. Give me some pickled fennel that's thrown on there. And I can...

I was going to say, speaking of the appetizer restaurant, Like, I'm totally cool with just wine and a cheese plate. 100%. Like that, in fact, I hope we eat that tonight for dinner when we go see our friends. Like, that's what I want. I have a pitch. I have a pitch that I think this is maybe just me getting older and thinking about longevity and just getting the results of my physical back that I think I have been eating too much protein that is starting to affect kidney function.

So are you on like the team? So I know like protein intake has really gone up for people because like the whole fat has been like you need how many. 1 gram per pound per pound, yeah. Even though the science actually says 0.7 grams per pound of lean body weight and that's high. Yeah.

So no, it's not a fad for me. I was like a, I was a shot putter in college. And so I got like a, you know, if I was under 260 pounds, my coach would threaten to cut my scholarship. And so I like, you know, it was like squatting 500 pounds

and all that stuff. So I've been doing like 200 plus grams of protein for like, since I was like 15 years old. It's bad and I should stop. And so my, solution. Crudite.

We're bringing it back. Crutete. I do love a crew. I love a crudite. Make it sexy. Yeah, me too. I love crudite. Crudite is amazing.

You can get fun with the dips. You know, don't need to tell that to a Persian household here. Absolutely. And you know what I was going to say when he talked about the appetizer restaurants is my friends and I've always talked, Sidney, it was always talking about a dip restaurant, a dip centered restaurant. Because we love dips. I agree entirely. Whole dips, hot dips, crudette. I'm really good to throwing stuff into a bunter.

I made a cranberry Muhammad for Thanksgiving for my little Thanksgiving crew to tell. I love that. Some roasted pecans, a nice American nut. You know, getting old crazy little goat cheese, like goat cheese Lebna Ranch. Watermelon radish, come on now. Don't even need the charcutory on the poor. I love that. This is what I can bring to the table.

To the house parties. This is what I bring. This is what you bring. I bring. And they'll go fantastic on the table next to the eggplant dip that our mom makes. I bring dips. Yeah, yeah. This is good.

Everyone loves dips. Everyone loves dips. Everyone loves dips. And I need to get more fiber. Alex and Zoya, you two are truly, truly lovely. Thank you so much for Stam by the Pod. You got anything else to plug? We have a really cool YouTube show going on right now.

It's called from A to Z. And it's like we had the first season that just completed. And it was us leading up to our wedding. And it's truly just, we're sort of playing characters, but we're actually kind of not. I think people think we're really playing characters. One of the most fun of you playing. No, it's just a really funny exaggeration of, like, her getting ready for the wedding, me getting ready for the wedding.

And I think people see themselves in the dynamic a lot. So we had a great response to that. And we're going to do another season soon. Oh, hell yeah. When's season two dropping? We have to record it. I mean, we need to get on our, it's going to turn into like newlyweds now. I mean, it was like preparation for the wedding, which was really chaotic and fun.

And then since our wedding, we've kind of taken a break. But we're going to hop right back into it because. now it's just our life as a married couple, which, you know, is just as chaotic as it was before. Yeah, more. Even more chaotic. It's a lot of fun. I mean, it's just, it's a different creative outlet aside from the cooking videos. And we like to share a lot of our lives beyond just our recipes, but still like to do it all, really.

But it's so much fun. Oh, it's had a cookbook come out this year called Scratch That, which is amazing. Yeah, it's worth buying it. It's worth buying for all the recipes, but especially the one called Zoe's lasagna, I will say. She'll buy a book just for that alone. Actually, a couple of your recipes in there. I have a couple in there. I have a copy.

I have to make your lasagna. It's quite good. And then I have my vegan fish brand, Finito Fish Foods. And we're in a few LA restaurants and we actually just expand to New York as well. So it's just a cool option. I'm not a vegan, obviously, during our conversations. But I can't have raw fish. It makes me sick.

I develop some sort of allergy. That's where it all came from. and it's just a nice option to have. Actually, tonight we're going to Santo Sushi and Silver Lake and they serve it there. And it's just nice. Some people just don't eat raw fish for whatever reason. Maybe they're makes me sick or they're pregnant or whatever it is. And so it's cool to see people

really enjoy something instead of just like, here's your avocado roll, you asshole. You know, like it feels nice. It's so good too. It's really, really good. Dude, hell yeah. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure. And on that note, thank you all for listening to a hot dog is a sandwich. If you want to be featured on the opinions or like casseroles, give us a ring

and leave a message at 833 dog podcast. one you've got to call the number okay uh and for more mythical kitchen check out our other videos we'll launch new episodes every week see all next time thanks guys bye