A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Protein Pasta is Fake

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Today, Josh and Nicole are talking about protein pasta, whether it makes an actual difference, or if you're just getting overcharged for a worse tasting pasta. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this is mythical. Pasta is the best. I love it so, so much. Yeah, but what kind? Red lentil, chickpea, black bean, Shirotaki miracle noodles, kelp, heart of palm. Whatever happened to regular, schmegular pasta. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense.

A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, a hot dog. Hot Dog is a sandwich to the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. Well, I'm your host, Josh Sherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Anady. My chair is squeaky today.

Your chair's squeaky, and we're going to be squeaking. Great segue, Josh. Boom, got it. All about the scam of protein pastas. Right. And we're not talking about alternative pastas. We're not talking about the red lentil, the black bean, the heart of palm, the Shirtaki miracle, the garbanzo bean pastas.

We can get to those. I mean, they all fall under the same umbrella. I don't think they do. Oh. I think... I think sure, Taki and Heart of Palm don't, but whatever. Sure. Well, we can talk about the protein federation because we're getting to that.

But there has been a new kind of pasta. Oh, yeah? You called it regular schmegular pasta. That is, it's masquerading as regular schmegular pasta, but it has protein in it. You mean, like, things advertise as protein pasta. So when we're talking about these alternative pastas, banza was the biggest one, right? That's the one that I knew blew up. I don't know if it's banza or bonza.

I call it bonza. Bonza? We'll call it Bonza. Because a garbonzo bean. Garbanzo? You don't call it a garbanzo beans. You go out to the sizzler buffet, put some of those garbanzo beans on my salad. Get some of the little corn fritters. No, but the bonza pasta, right? That was revolutionary because they made the whole thing basically out of chickpea flour. So you are not eating milled wheat mixed with water and then extruded and dried. You're eating dried chickpeas mixed with water through a miracle of science. And it doesn't taste that that much like pasta. it tastes a lot like chickpeas. If your sauce, if you have a powerful sauce, I think you can do a bunch of things with powerful sauce. I agree with that. And like, I enjoy it. But to me, that's like, that's a good, like, casserole noodle.

The bonza pasta is a good cassero. When you're mixing it with a bunch of chicken and a slop and baking it, if you want to make a nice baked bonsa ziti, that's cool. But if you're trying to have just like a nice bowl of pasta that maybe reminds you at the time you went to the nice Italian restaurant, that's not what you're doing it for. But that's why I want to look at a different category. here that barilla is the one that I saw in a grocery store recently that are just making a wheat pasta that is infused with protein and they're calling it protein pasta but it is just made a wheat and it is like 50% more expensive than the normal pasta is it just the box small I don't know if they've shrink flated it or not I don't know I feel like it could be well I buy it from amazon fresh.com but you're getting the protein pasta I mean I used to before I got pregnant I see it all the time oh my god But like the burrilla wheat protein pasta. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would get that.

And then, well, I would get whatever protein pasta was available. I would try the Trader Joe's. I would try the Bonza. Does that include Bonza and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah. I would get Bonza a few times. Why are you doing that? I think it's, it's something tells me this isn't true or anything, but like white carbs bad.

100%. Brown carb good because fiber and added nutrition. We were raised on that idea of like white rice. white flour is like the worst thing you can possibly do for your body and there's like a little Oprah did Oprah say that no I actually in in this book Revolution at the table he kind of traces it back to this countercultural revolution in the 60s actually where you had a lot of these kind of hippies who were making the like brown rice lentil you know patties and stuff like that and there was this kind of like big move to question all of the foods that we have been fed all

of the refined foods, this like kind of back to Mother Earth type of movement. Mother Gaia. Mother Gaia. She would not remove the germ. Why should you? And there is like a little bit of truth to do all that, right? Like brown rice is going to have more fiber because white rice is just brown rice that has had the the chaff removed. Yes.

The whole and the chaff. It takes longer to, isn't it take longer to like process through your whole entire body because it's full? Yeah. Which is maybe good. Which helps satiate you longer. glycemic index and all this, but that stuff to me is just like so, so, so, so small in terms of total nutrition, which I guess gets to the reason why the protein pasta rubs me the wrong way so much, because a regular serving of Borilla spaghetti has 200 calories

and it has 7 grams of protein. Correct. Protein pasta from Borilis, the same spaghetti, 190 calories, and it has 10 grams of protein. So that is, you know, it's about, I guess, 40% more protein. But that's the difference in one serving that has 40 grams of carbs, which is a full serving. This should be your whole meal, right? So this is probably two ounces of pasta is a serving. That's only three grams more protein.

Three grams more protein is like a thimble full of protein powder. And I understand that there's this idea of, well, you know, I love eating pasta and I like to get protein where I can. but, like, you're getting scammed by it. Three grams of protein is literally, like, a tiny bite of a chicken breast. Isn't it better to just, like, fry an egg and put it on your pasta at that point? Or, like, have a hard-boiled egg on the side? Sure. It's better.

It's just, you can get that protein from so many different sources that aren't upcharging you and aren't changing the fundamental chemical makeup of your food. You know what I mean? Because... Yeah, sure. You know what I see all the time that, like, confuses the hell out of me? the idea of net carbs. Can you explain, Josh, can you explain?

Because I've always been told it's the total carbohydrates minus the fiber equals net carbs. Is that an accurate? We got to do an actual podcast with the nutritionist to talk about this fiber issue. Okay. Because one, we could bring back fiber dad, Noah Galutin, co-author of the mythical cookbook in front of the show.

I would love to have them on. I would love to get an actual doctor. But Noah is huge on the fiber kick, but he's also a big whole food's guy. guy. He's the closest thing we have to a doctor. Sure, sure, sure. I let him check my pulse when he comes through the office. That's strange. I don't like that. I was wondering why he was tenderly holding your wrist,

but now I know it was a medical thing. But he's also like a bean dad. He's like the best way to get fibers through whole foods. You get a lot of these like low carb tortilla companies. Yeah, and they taste fine. They're like, there's zero grams net carbs in here. And I was like, oh my God, what are they using?

What does that mean? Some creaky sauce sort of like tapioca, cassava. But it's not that. Mania. Not maniac. What's the cognacu out of Japan? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Konyak news.

But it looks like they're just kind of artificially adding a ton of, God, what is it, Inulin maybe? Cillium musk. Effectively, there's dietary fiber and then there's like undigestible fiber, basically. Okay. And they're adding... What does Inulin fall in that?

I think it's the undigestable type of fiber. So why do they put it in? From what I've heard, I'm probably wrong. This is what I know from like a Jimbrough aspect. Is that the idea of a net carb, is that when you are consuming carbs with fiber, the fiber does not allow you to sort of process those carbs and digest them. Because there is the nutrients that you're eating, right,

that you can track if you're one of the people that's on the, you know, My Fitness Pal or RP app and you're... Terrible times. Terrible times. Terrible times. Terrible times for a girl like me. But the frustrating thing about all this, and people who talk about calories and calories out as well,

because you can track all of these things. You think your calories out, there's no way to actually tell unless you find your basal metabolic rate by doing a very extensive medical test. You have no idea how many calories you're actually burning. There are estimates that you can use. The crazy thing is you don't even know how many nutrients you're absorbing. Yeah. Isn't it by, isn't a person by, well, isn't there like some sort of like baseline? Like every human is from ages like 25 to 35 with this like metabol, has this metabolic rate? Uh, you know, yeah, but that's, that's such a wide range actually. It's too

wide to like even consider. I mean, you can use it as a baseline for sure. The best thing is to listen to your own body, right? If you're eating 2,500 calories, whatever, and you feel like you can't physically function. Then that's, you know, um, pertaining to you specifically. But even like in terms of the amount of protein or the amount of carbs, the amount of fat that you're actually absorbing, we don't exactly know that. Which is all to say, there are so many complex factors that we could take into account with nutrition that it almost gets too complex and you get back to the point that it's like, eat a variety of foods. Yeah. You know, eat the rainbow, eat things that make it feel good, eat a balanced diet, eat a lot of vegetables.

That's kind of it. So there's protein pasta stuff. Uh-huh. They're just taking, like, pea protein and stuff, and they're adding it to wheat flour, which makes the pasta taste worse. Yes, it does taste worse, but does all food always have to taste good? What I would propose is that if you are sacrificing the taste of your food for dietary or nutritional reasons, You are going to end up resenting that. Okay.

Whereas if you are taking joy out of your food and eating it in a balanced way, then I think that's something, the ultimate diet, right? And I don't use the term diet in terms of something restrictive that makes you lose weight or change your body. Just what you consume. I use diet in terms of your daily habits of consuming, right? I have found a structure in which I am like really, really enjoying. every single meal that I eat, and I've definitely changed it to a way where I, you know, I lift weights a lot, I go to the gym a lot, but I don't generally like cut crazy amount of corners and make the food taste worse. Okay. You know what I mean? So you don't omit. So you don't,

so you don't substitute that omit? Or do you substitute that no mit? I do sometimes. I guess everybody does that. Yeah. You know, so maybe I'm just lying here. Maybe. Because I know, because listen, I think joy with food is something that is very, very important. Are you implying that things like protein-infused pasta are less joyful? I mean, you're... Yes. But is it... Low-carb tortillas, yes.

Okay. The bread that's just made out of insoluble fiber, yes. Insoluble is the word I was looking for earlier, by the way. But imagine like, okay, imagine your happiness is a spectrum, right? Of course. And you got your angel hair with, you got your Capolini. Why am I saying Capulini, worst pasta ever? Capelini.

Let's say penny. I think, bring it back. I think Capelini is about to make. huge comeback. Such a boomer. Let's say, let's say Pene. So you have your Penae Arabiata, okay? No, no, sun-dried tomato, spinach, and feta, Capolini. Cappalini, primavera. Okay, Capulini. It's 1992 up in here. I'm drinking a Cosmo. Whatever makes you happy. So you got your Capulini Primavera, and then you got your protein, Capulini Primavera, and then you got your, I'm just going to go ahead and put the Heart of Palm Capolini Primavera further on the spectrum, less joy. And then at the end, it's just the sauce, just the primavera.

a sauce, which is technically a bowl of vegetables, and there's no, like, carbohydrate source on there. Do you think that your happiness is correlated due to that spectrum of what I just explained? I don't want to say happiness because happiness is such... Joy. Joy with food.

Because you said joy of... Joy of food. Yes, the first bowl of the Durham wheat Capulini made by the Barilla Pasta Corporation normal style, regular smegular pasta.

is going to taste the best and bring you the most joy. I would say second is going to be the one with protein in it. The noodles are a little bit tougher. They don't quite taste right because there is that pea protein in there

and then you get to the heart of palm. You know, let's say a bowl of spaghetti squash too with that freaking sauce and stuff. Oh, your spaghetti squash house. I think we used to be. I haven't done spaghetti squash. Also, I'm a total hypocrite.

I substitute things all the time. I know. That's why I asked him this question because I'm like, you need to be honest right now. I don't think you're being honest. No, you're right. I dump artificial sweetener into stuff all the time.

Putting you on the spot. You're 100% correct. I know. As I look back to my actual life. Yeah, I know. You do something. Because listen, I think, well, you have to decide, right, with happiness and joy. Is it good for now?

Or is it going to be good in 10 months from now if I'm eating a bowl of spaghetti primavera every day? You know what I mean? 100%. I would, though, posit that if you're somebody spaghetti squash versus, let's say spaghetti squash versus that bowl of cappolini. Durham wheat. Durham wheat, Capolini. Normal style. Spaghetti squash.

I love doing it normal. I don't, I kind of enjoy it. I call it coleslaw potato. It doesn't taste like spaghetti. It doesn't taste like no squash. I like spaghetti squash. It's fine, but I think spaghetti squash and tomato sauce is like a really bad combination. What are the macros of half of a spaghetti squash?

I don't know. It's probably a ton of fiber. I've never looked up the macros. I refuse to track anything. Look out, look out, look out, just for the sake of this conversation. Keep talking. But I imagine it's a lot lower in calorie because there is a lot more water, a lot more fiber, or whatever. But if you were to eat that spaghetti squash versus that pasta every day over the

course of nine months, say your goal was to, I don't know, lose a little bit of body fat, you would likely do that. And then your happiness is correlated, you know, vastly. What's the world is Von Miller, Super Bowl MVP, chicken farmer, and now host of Free Range. This is a show where I go off the field and off the script. We're talking what's hot in music, film, trending news, and everything blowing up your feet. If you love football, you'll feel it home. But if you're here for the vibes, the internet deep dives, the conversation, this is your podcast. Join me every Wednesday.

Follow and listen to Free Range with me, Vaughn Miller, everywhere you get your podcast. Hey, it's Christopher Kimball from Mill Street Radio. Sounds like I'm bragging, and I am, we're the number one most downloaded food podcast in America. You know, Mill Street Radio travels the world in search of the very best food stories. You'll hear about smuggling eels on the black market, the secret intelligence of plants, and insider tips to eating in Paris.

And every week, listeners call in with their toughest culinary mysteries. Discover a world of food stories by searching your podcast app for Mill Street Radio. Let me, can I tell you something? Hold on. Sorry, sorry, sorry, pause. Two ounces of cooked spaghetti squash contains approximately 15 calories. It's just, it's like. Is that right? I don't know, man. That's crazy. That's so low. There's no such thing as cooked spaghetti squash. How long did you cook it? How much moisture did it lose?

Did you add oil to it? Everything's a lie. Um, but anyways, if you were to then eat that bowl of normal Durham Wheat spaghetti Spaghetti Spaghettiini Cappellini versus the protein

durham wheat spaghetti over the course of nine months every single day you had three more grams of

protein your life would not be changed at all but don't you think nothing would happen

three grams of protein doesn't do anything in the grass I think that's fair

but don't you think the idea or the illusion of the healthier choice or making the choice

like oh I had protein pasta today I had pasta with pea powder. I diversified my dish for the day. Yaddi yadi. I had three vegetables

on there. I used a fat source that's from like, I don't know, olives. You know what I'm talking about? I substitute things all the time for less joy in my food. Oh, I'm such a hypocrite. It's okay. I used to be... Bro, I blended a bunch of cashews into my sod. That bowl of pale green slop that I sent you? That's what it was? That was a sog with a bunch of shrimp. Dude, I literally... Put up the picture of my pale green slop. Julia's been out of town and so I'm just making

delicious slops. So you're going wild stuff. I bought a bunch of bulk Indian spices to cook for a deep spatula party. And so I was like, well, let's make a dent in these, baby. So I made a bunch of butter chicken, and then I made a bunch of shrimp sog.

I thought it was chili verde with shrimp and yoki, but apparently... The yoki was probably just broken shrimp somewhere in there. It was so good, man. I said, can you give us a hit? Radio silence for days. Yeah, I didn't feel like texting.

I just been sending the group text pictures of my slop. Happy slop day. Thank you so much. But do you see what I'm saying? It's like the illusion. Maybe it's the illusion. Maybe those three grams of protein that are on the box that are like, wow, it's advertised that there's protein on the front.

I have made a good decision for lunch and I'm going to keep making good decisions or I'm going to go completely the other way and I'm going to eat three donuts. But that's my question, right? Depends on the person, huh? Depends on the person. Also, the thing you're describing of like, well, it's the illusion of somebody making a healthier choice brought about by advertising. I was like, yeah, what we're both talking about is you getting completely scammed out of your money for false promises by illusory marketing. But is calling... I'd say that's a bad.

But you're pushing dough out of a dye, you're drying it, and then you're telling the people to cook it in water. So that's not fake. No, but I think it's like when companies started putting... And it's not a scam. I think it's a scam based on the amount they are charging extra... That's okay. for what they are promising. Yeah.

You know, which is more protein, but such a negligible amount. I think it's because it's advertised on the front and you see it and you're like, oh, this is the smarter choice. Instead of just very simply flipping the box over at the grocery store and doing a side-by-side comparison, the average person isn't doing a side-by-side comparison. They're trying to get the cheapest crap possible. Oh, man, read your nutrition labels. But who does that?

Go to the grocery store. This is a thing that I didn't know. Not a lot of people do. go to the grocery store and don't just look at the price of the package. Look at every grocery store underneath will have a price per ounce or price per unit. That's what you actually need to compare. That's true. Because there's shrinkflation, you'll have places that are selling a 16 ounce with one pound box of pasta,

which is very standard, say for $4, then you see another one for $389. You go, I'll buy the cheaper one. And you don't even notice that it's 14.5 ounces. Yeah, that's true. And you're getting bilked out here. You got to play the game, baby. Got to do more research. Well, in the words of your late father, he would say, if they're real, I can, what is it?

If I can feel the touch in the real. If I can touch in the real. If I can touch in the real. I think this is a perfect. The legacy that is left this show. I bet you think that was funny. I bet you think that was funny. But see, like, it's a real.

It's in front of you and it looks pretty damn close to the pasta. That's next to you. I will say this. I've had some pretty crap before. Fusili's, some red lent of Fusilies, I open the box, I'm like, you call this Fusili Ptoe? It's definitely not. But is it a bowl of starch

and carbohydrates that I can put a sauce over, mask the flavor, mask the texture? Yeah, and does it make me feel better for making that choice? Maybe for the time being, yeah. Because I can, like, eat as, like, even like, I don't know, there's something about the protein fetishization

that is just so intense and it's so ingrained in my brain. I know. It's really hard to unlearn. It's really hard to unlearn. 100%. So Drew Gooden actually made a really incredible video that this is partly inspired

by we started chatting about it. It's called the internet made me obsessed with protein where he just orders basically every single protein-filled food he can, including Chloe Kardashian's clude.

Did you put your hand in front of me from Chloe Kardashian? Yeah, you're like a Kardashian sympathizer. I don't love the Kardashians. You're all just like, say what you want. They're so smart. You say that like all the time.

And like, sure, do any of them need more money shill chloud chlude protein popcorn What is chlude

Clude Cloud? Clude It looks Clude Why is there an H in front of a K

Why are you Armenian Why are you putting such an M to the chl That's what the KH That's what

The transliteration is It's Hluid protein popcorn I think it's cloud Shai Chlood And But anyways

Call it's great video About Calling me at Kardashian Apologist Is the most radical thing You've ever

said on this podcast Is it wrong? I don't know. You're all saying about smart Chris's. Like, she built an empire. She took lemons out of lemonade. She took Kim's lemons and honey.

She squeezed the ever-living hell out of them. Okay, fine. Don't squeeze Kim's lemons. I'm proud of Chris Jenner's ability to pimp out her daughters. Is that fair? But anyways, I think a lot of these products are acting as carbon emission write-offs for people. Okay. You know what I mean?

Okay. They have a carbon emission right off. For people that don't know, it was like you have BP oil who is just shipping petroleum and giant tankers across the seas, just killing manatees, just dumping oil into bays. And then the seagulls get covered with them. You got to scrub them with donned dish soap. Those were little nuckies. But what they'd do is they'd then plant a couple trees.

And they'd be like, hey, actually, for the amount of trees that we've planted, We've offset the amount of carbon emissions that we've put into the air. But then meanwhile, there's still just a duck with oil in its eyes. That don't care about the damn trees. Those ads used to break my heart into 50 million. The little baby ducky just like shalact in oil. And then the gloved hands just wiping the baby ducky. Wow.

Honestly, so sad. But I see what you're saying. I understand. I agree with you a million percent. We'll use, oh, I ate the protein pasta in this diet, there or go. I can do anything I want to, right? It's acting as that right off. And, like, to be clear, you can eat anything you want to,

but I think you've been sold a false promise by marketing execs in there of charging significantly. And I think I know where this is coming from. This might be conspiratorial. What's up? Big bean. I think the big food corporations, right? They're constrained.

Mary Nessel wrote about this. I quote the same three books. They're very influential for me. But Mary Nessel wrote about this idea that every large food corporation that's publicly traded is just beholden to all of their investors. They need to raise profits and revenue 10% year over year. The problem is people cannot eat 10% more calories year over year. They can't? Well, they historically have been, but now we've gotten to a breaking point.

We reach the apex? We're like, this has caused diet-related disease. in America, it's straining the health care system, this is bad, you also can't keep charging people 10% more for the same products year over year. So you've got to give them something else. So, so, so, you have to give

them something else that you can significantly upcharge for that is doing very little extra to increase margins like that. And I think where it's coming from is fear about GLP1 agonists. Oh, okay.

I would love to hear your Your take on that. You know there's things called GLP3s now? We're already on GLP 3? I miss GLP 2. It's like the fast franchise. So like what is it?

Wagovi and Concerta and Vance and Osamaic. I'm kidding on Concerta. I was like, what? I don't think that's right. No, and OZempe and the GLP 1 Agon is the way that they function, right? It's not like you continue eating the same diet

and it just sheds weight off of you. That was what I think fentany. Termine did in the 80s, and it was causing holes in people's arts. Shouldn't laugh about that. But what it does, it gets you to eat less food, right? It cures that amount of, like, hunger and desire that is effectively a hormonal level, I believe. And so people are going to be eating a lot less food on mass should these drugs become very, very prevalent and cheap in society, which they might be. I know a lot more people in my life who are on it very casually.

And power to you, man. And you use the tools that are around you to increase what you think will make you happier. And not get sicker and die earlier. 100%. And so if people are eating significantly less food, that 10% increase in that people are eating, it's going to drop significantly. Then you have to increase margins by a higher percentage. So you think it's going to happen that dramatically. And I think these companies are going to need to come out with new products that are significantly more expensive than their stuff before.

But everybody's poor. Also, everybody's poor, but also Americans still, despite the fact that everybody's poor, Americans still spend less of a percent of their disposable income on food or not disposable. Yeah, you were telling me about this. Americans still spend a significantly lower percent of their income on food than almost any other nation. Right. And so there's like, they obviously see more room for that. And the egg companies prove this during the avian flu. Johnny Harris made a great video about this during the avian flu where we saw an egg plant.

prices shoot up like crazy, right? Crazy times. Gubbling and tripling. $13 for $1,000 for $1,000. Oh, bird flu. The birds are dying, so there's less eggs, supply of demand, I understand, whatever, I'll pay it. And then the egg prices never quite dropped to the levels that they were at.

Right. And they found that the amount of eggs that were actually produced never really dropped. It was the company's lying to you. Straight up, there's an egg conglomerate. Watch the Johnny Harris video about eggs. It's incredible. And so I think they're testing the markets for who is willing to pay what. Wow.

Insane. You're fine. People are spending $28 to get a bad day did bowl a burrito deliver to do them. You're right. No, you're 100% right. I think that's what the companies are sort of bracing themselves for.

And I think the protein is the perfect it's the perfect cloak to hide under to just raising the prices like crazy. By going, yeah, sure, old pasta had 7 grams of protein, but don't you want 10 for an extra $3? What? I don't think that's like.

What do you feel about like miracle noodles? Like zero-calorie noodles. Miracle noodles. My favorite thing. Like Shirakis, you got your heart-upon noodles. Good talk about white people for a second. I've been itching to talk about. Can a white boy speak a little Spanishol?

White boy. Speak a little truth to his fellow whites here. Yeah, why not? What the whites have done is forever. We've taken something that is a traditional food in another culture. Right. And then we've renamed it something super white and then sold it back to the fellow white. also controlling some of those means of production.

I'd say, yeah. Yeah, the quinoa, Gwyneth Paltrow, Selantaf, Shirataki is the perfect example because we called it Miracle Noodles. Right. It is just a common Japanese food that has been around forever.

White people, we did the same thing. I'm talking to you directly, whites. We did the same thing with tofu, and then people go, it doesn't taste like no meat. No one ever said tofu was supposed to taste like meat. It is a thousands-year-old,

delightful Chinese staple food that is really delicious when you cook it in the manner that it's been cooked for thousands of years. Tempe, Saitan, all of these things. We really try to do it. Chirotaki is, I believe it's cognacu, right? You call it conch. I call it coniac.

Conjac or conjac. It's Koniaku in Japanese. I only know that because there's an episode of Terrace House, so they go to Konakku Park. There's a theme park dedicated to Konakku. Are you for real? That's awesome. It's a starch. I can't remember what it's made from. It's from a yam, I believe. YAM is a really vague term

in the terms of the world. I think it's a mountain yam, right? Is what they call it? Japanese mountain yam. And so it is just like a traditional Japanese food that I don't believe was meant for any sort of dietary purpose. A species of flowering plant in the family are Saisay. Is it similar to like a cassava situation? It is sometimes referred to as devil's tongue, voodoo lily, snake palm, or elephant yam. Elephant yam.

But yeah, and then we've just taken it to rebrand it as a diet food. And people will try and make spaghetti with cognacu noodles. And I don't think it tastes very good. but if you have cognacu noodles in like a miso-dashi soup, it's a really nice little textual edition. So it's like, depends on the context in which you eat it. Similar with people trying to just like... I eat in hot pot.

Cook tofu and slice it and put ketchup on it. It's like that's not the best way to consume tofu. Because you thought it would taste like a hamburger. Gross. But if you put tofu with even just scallion and soy, a little bit of grated dicon on it. Then it's a good time. That's a nice time.

That's a nice time. Because people figured that out a thousand years ago. And what about Heart of Palm? What about Heart of Palm pasta? Does it make you recall? I don't think I've ever had a Heart of Palm pasta. Really? I've seen it at the Whole Foods.

I love Hearts of Palm. I eat Hearts of Palm. Oh, you go to a Brazilian buffet. You get marinated Hearts of Palms? It's a great time, baby. It's like a staple in my salads. But let me tell you, in pasta, it only works well, it only works well with a putineska sauce. Because it's kind of, can I tell you what?

It's a little briny. It's a little briny, it's a little pickly. Even though you rinse it like 30 times. It doesn't matter. It still has that base, that base. the base of pickle and then you just put a little bit of

olive caper tomato sauce and it's actually pretty good but again all of these things it's a give and take right? All of this is a given take it's at the end

you're the one who's putting your money where you want it to go I don't think calling them fake is appropriate I think calling them an alternative choice is better

calling them fake isn't right I just think it's a choice you don't think it's a scam you don't think a protein post is a scam charging people that much extra money for three extra grams of protein? When I was eating a lot more protein than I am now, like I was like, what is it called? Maxing?

You're your protein maxing? I guess I was protein maxing. It looks maxing. I was eating like 250 to 200 grams of protein a day. Yeah, the one-garing-protein per pound of body weight thing. So yeah, I think I was protein maxing. I felt better about my choices and my decisions therein later. Yeah.

like as a whole as a grand when I was looking at my life like looking at the past year I wasn't looking at it as a bad choice or a good choice it just was the choice I was making to meet my goals yeah and that's fine and I'm allowed to do that I 100% agree but I think it also behooves all of us and again massive hypocrite I eat 200 grams of protein a day I'm in the gym two hours a day and I'm constantly questioning why I could be learning Spanish during that time I think it behooves us to question if those goals were intrinsically our own or if those goals were coming from societal pressures that are relatively new and maybe we don't actually like where they're coming from if we look at it. And can we work to change those within our own communities?

Sure. And do I think it's better to eat black bean pasta or just a bowl of black beans? Probably just the black beans. Make some Fejoada. Maybe it's just better to eat a bowl of black beans. You look cooking large bowls of black beans with a bunch of pork parts in your house. Well, all right, Nicole. We've heard you and I have to say. Where do I look? I don't know, man. Now it's time to find out.

What other act are ideas for the other living in the universe? It's time for the segment we call. Opinions are like casseroles. rip. Hey, Josh and Nicole. I love you guys so much. I love you to see you guys pretty much every day.

Oh, I love you. Somebody who grew up with two immigrant parents, one from Mexico, one from South America. I'm listening. I've had the battle between two delicious soups. Pozzolet rojo and Encebollado Ecuadoriano. I don't know what that is. Both are a little tangy. one has pork traditionally

one has fish they're both fantastic to have but I have no idea which one to choose over the other only because I fucking love both of them just wanted to hear you thought if you said the F word

either these just let me know your thoughts love you guys so much I love you too man and Ceboiado Equatoriano I've never enjoyed this beautiful stunning soup but

I probably should quite soon. You said it was a little tangy? He said it was a little tangy. I'm trying to find... I love tangy soups. I'm trying to... But I don't like Tomka. Fine.

Yeah, I've never been the biggest fan. I'm trying to find recipes for this right now. But here's the thing. One, Pozole Oroho... Dang. That's tough to beat, bro. I love Posolet. That's tough to beat.

The Homony... I love canned Hominy, dude. I love harmony. Homony is just nxtomelized, ungrounded corn. So good. So it just has this lovely little little. chew to it. It's like a sponge and it soaks up all the flavor too.

And then like the crispy, like the cabbage on top, you got maybe some rabano up there, some radish, you got some fresh lime. It's like not quite like you eat the biria and it's got the red grease on top, which is great. You did tortillas and it or whatever but like the consummate can be greased here.

To me like Posole, it's like thinner and lighter. The pork is just delicious. That stuff. This Enceboiato Ecuadoriano Dan, this looks good. Can you explain what some of the ingredients are in that so our listeners can know because Posoli is pretty

prevalent. Well, for us at least, I'd love to know some of the ingredients in the breakdown if you can find it. So it looks like and Ceboiato means like Saboyas is onions. So this is like an onion based soup. Looks like a lot of people are using tuna for it but also traditionally something called billfish.

Damn, look at this. People use fresh tuna. Oh, this looks good. Oh, I'm going to make that this weekend. Not this weekend because I'm going with I'm going to my fantasy football draft with the boys. Oh my gosh, David's doing that too. I got on the biggest fight with him about it. Why?

Because it takes up too much time. No, fantasy football is the only way that men know how to communicate their feelings. People always tell men that they need to share their feelings more, but when we want to escape with the boys to Pizmo Beach, to waste a third overall pick on Ashton Genty and crying each other's arm, you say we can't do that. Men can't win. That time could be spent building a crib.

Oh my God, you're fine. I know. I was so mean today. And Ceballiata, we'll deal with your problems later. This man has a problem. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's got two immigrant parents and he has to, for some reason, choose only one soup to eat. You don't need to choose one soup. You can have both. Have your passolet on Wednesday and have your insubay on Friday.

Let me break down this insubilada though. So it looks like tuna, but traditionally billfish will also be used. Red onion, cilantro, tomato, green pepper, cumin, red, red. pepper flake fish stock in yucca which is cassava yeah which i think is great in soup a little bit like more kind of fibrous and starchy than a potato soaks things up really really well and then it is uh dressed typically it can be like plantain chips some cilantro toasted corn nuts which is a very south american thing and then a lot of pickled marinated red onion on there i've never had a soup that looks like this me either and saboyato dude that looks incredible yeah because no los dos man eat

Eat both soups. Eat both soups. Have a good time. But thank you for introducing me to this, this Ecuadorian dish. We don't eat a lot of, when I say we, I mean, you and I and a lot of people in Southern California, I think. Tons of Peruvian food. Tons of Brazilian barbecue. Mm-hmm.

Get the occasional Argentinian empanata place. Not a lot of, like, Ecuadorian, not a lot of Bolivian, not a lot of like... There was a place called... Sabor... Sabor... Frank, where was it? Is that not Honduran? There's a Honduran spot called stuff.

Subor is probably a pretty common name for a... Spanish-speaking restaurant. Oh, it's Colombian. I'm sorry. There's another place called La Maria. That's Colombian Venezuelan. Yeah, we'll get some Colombian-Venezuelan food. Yeah, very randomly.

Aungo, Banca Paisa. Yeah, very randomly. But it's tough because there's such a large Mexican population. They just kind of overtake all the cuisine. But there's little pockets. Ecuadorian food. I've never really taken. I think...

They're at Costa Rican food. Yeah, they have that one dish. Gallo Pinto. I've had Gallo Pinto before. It's good. Stabian? See? You should go to Costa Rica.

with your wife. I should learn Spanish instead of going to the gym. Or doing fantasy football. I spend like 10 minutes a week on basketball. That's why I'm not good at it. That's what all the men say.

And then they're like, my guy got injured and now and like so much of your mental load is on it. And it's like, so much of your mental load is on it. Stop it. I blow my mental load on fantasy football a lot.

I listen to a lot of fantasy football. You blow your mental load. I listen to a lot of fantasy football podcast. Yes. To The Ringer, Fantasy Football podcast. Yes. I am also a fan of the ringer by Osmos.

this, not because I want to. Oh, do you listen to the fantasy football podcast of David? Yes. Dana-Fitts, Andy Kelly, Craig Holbeck? Yes. Oh, my God. That's so funny. Like, it's on in the background of my life.

Oh, that's incredible. Is it? I think it is. I'd rather be watching, I don't know, something else. I think it is. Sorry, guys. I'm sure you do great work for the fantasy football podcast world, but I just, I'm losing my mind here.

Josh, Josh, my mind. I'm selling it all out for the rate is this year. Ashton Genthe, 1400. I don't care about Cooper Cups Injuries. Jacobi, well, Cooper Cups washed. We all know that, Nicole. Can he assume a veteran leadership role in that

with Jackson-Sippon, Jake, and Jake Boba? The amount of times I heard Cooper Cups' name, and I'm like, why am I hearing this guy's name in my sleep? He's just a quirked-out white boy who tries to, he wants to play the slot. Now he's got a situation in Seattle where he can do. That's all I'm saying. And then meanwhile, sorry to be a big B word.

There's Cooper Cup and Pooka Nukua. There's Cooper Cup and Pooka-Nooka-Cup's spot. Yes, yes. Now they got Devante Adams. Devante Adams was just in hell for the last three. Where was Devante Adams before? So he was on the Packers. That's where he did his best work.

But then he went to the Raiders with his old college quarterback, Derek Carr. Anyways, the point is... I know all these names. It's actually a problem. I really want to eat this Ecuadorian soup. Yeah, okay. Next. But now Devante's on the Rams.

It could be a good situation. Wait, pause. Maggie, I have more football. I'm more football I'll talk about. I literally don't want to do this. You just think about the Rams. Matthew Stafford, right? I don't want to do this.

I don't want to do this thing? Just like back broke. What's his name? Matthew Stafford. Right. So check this out. It takes out all through preseason. And I know I'm proving your point.

All through preseason, people are like, houses back. And the coach would be like, he's ready to play. Yesterday he walked for the first time a couple days. And we're like, what are you talking about? He walked? He walked. He's got to run as fast as he can to avoid 300-pound men trying to take his head off before processing all the route trees, you know, getting the ball out to Devante.

Please stop. That's it. I'm done. I'm so sorry. Hey, it's Brian, I'm calling from a small town outside of Augusta, Georgia. How's going, Digital Josh? How's it going, Mystical Nicole? And most importantly, how's it going, Mythical Maggie?

Oh, that's so good. I have a comment about somebody who called in asking about Will Crystal Light Kill me, commented on it. I forgot what it is that you said. But here's a fact. Crystal light will eat kidney stones if you're having trouble peeing and you're all clogged up and stuff

drink crystal white or something similar to the citric acid in the crystal light will eat the kidney stones and clear your chest them out me and yours. Pretty chill. Love listening to it. Have a great day. Bye. Crystal light for kidney stones.

Crystal light for kidney stones. Okay. That sounds like a charity. Endorse. Come on. Let's not Popshot, put your thumb up. We endorse this message. We are giving out unfettered medical advice that you should take as doctrine because we have followers on the internet. That's right. Listen, I don't know. Recently, both of us have had people in our lives affected by kidney stones. We're not naming who. We're not naming who. It's not right to get. It's a HIPAA violation because we are doctors. But it is hilarious. It's really tragic, really painful. Also kind of hilarious in a way.

Apparently, this is from At the Kidney Dietitian Crystal Light Lemonade has more citrate in it compared to regular lemonade Which helps with kidney stones That is... So why not just take citrate pills? The urology associates of the Central Coast I love...

Where's the Central Coast? Central Coast is Pizmo Beach, baby That's Pizmo, that's Morrow, that's Oceano. That's San Luis Obispo Oh, that's close to here. That's A.G. Baby, Royal Ronde Where are you at? Love the Central Coast. But anyways... So you can just take dietary citrate as a pill and it can help dissolve your kidney stones? Or yeah, you could...

Or you could drink and you can dry scoop crystallite. No, no, no. Okay, well, that's very interesting. Another great use for a great product. We love crystal light. The red raspberry flavor? Sorry, Megan, I'm done. Shut up, John.

Hi. I think fish is the mango of meat. And I don't know if I really want to elaborate. I know this is kind of like a hot take. But that's just how I feel. and I'm out here living my truth. Thank you. I agree. I concur. You're 100% right. You know what's the banana of

the protein world? Chicken leg? Chicken leg? Chicken leg? Chicken leg is banana. Yeah? I see that. Yeah. She'd call in again if we want to hear her actually elaborate. Yeah, let her elaborate. Josh has allowed to

clarify. I was the one who just said that fish is a mango of meat. And I just mean that as like I think fish is really great. I love the versatility. It's my favorite form of meat out of all the possible meat. And, like, my whole argument as to why fish will be considered the mango of meat if you were to compare different types of meat to different types of fruit is because you look at fish.

And for the most part, like, the average fish that's, like, you know, maybe, like, 13, like, 20 or so inches. And you're like, wow, like, God made this for me to eat. This is, like, I could maybe hold it in my hand. It's, like, soft, slippery, wet. I could bite down on it to be fine. I don't feel that way about a cow or a pig. And in the same way, I feel like if aliens came to Earth and asked for an example of fruit, mango will be the go-to example because it's just, like, I'm talking about the round yellow mangoes.

They're like shaped like a dewdrop. They perfectly fit in your hand. They're smooth. Alphalo. Alphons. Is it a lot of the best examples of fruits and fish is one of the best examples of meat? Thank you. Alfonso.

Alfonso mango. Look up afalu. A talo? A talfo, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. Atholfo? That's doodrop. So were Alfonso mango?

No, they weren't. Those are round. Alfonso mangoes aren't round. Fine. Yeah, they are in that. No, they're not. No, they're not. These are not, no.

You consider that less? Do you think that's a doodrop shape? Well, yeah. No, maybe you're right. I am right. Wait, but I go to the store and the ones that you're saying are Athalfo are labeled Alfonso. but I swear.

What about a champagne mango? Sure, we'll do a champagne mango. What's that called? Champagne mango. I know, but what kind? Yeah, champagne mangoes must just be Athalfo mangoes. Okay, so. And they rebranded them.

Yeah, so they rebranded champagne mangoes into Athalfo. I thought they were Alfonso. Nicole. I thought they were Afuolo. I know, I know, I know. We got there. We got there. We eventually got there.

Also, I would like to hear by state for the record that Nicole was right, and I was wrong there. Atholfo mango is not Alfonso mangoes. I love it. I love being right. This idea of a divine creator sort of intelligent design. Do you believe in God? The more I get older. The more I start to see it as irrelevant.

You think God is irrelevant? No, no. I'll tell you what, my personal belief in God is irrelevant. However, I would rather exist in a society where people believe in God than one where they don't. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I think there's something powerful to that. Yeah. I believe in an omnipresent source up there. I do believe. And maybe that makes me believe. Good for you. I don't believe in an intelligent design, which is a little bit.

You don't believe in intelligent design? What's intelligent design? Intelligent design is, do you ever see a video called an atheist's worst nightmare? Sorry, it's called Banana, the Atheist's Worst Nightmare. No, but you can send it to me and I'll watch it. I'll send it to you. So what they argue is that the banana is an example of intelligent design because it has like five sides. on it that your fingers can perfectly wrap around

and it's a non-slip grip and that's because people cultivate it. And it's a peel, correct. And it's a peel that keeps the flesh from getting damaged. So there you're like, look, God created this beautiful thing. It's like, no, this is a great example of bananas didn't used to be like this. Man is God.

Man is God in this sense. And we cultivated the banana to look like that. So yeah, I don't know that the mango would be my go-to source for convincing an alien that like this is I'd do an apple

Apple? Yeah what's the alien's teeth situation I feel like I'd want to... That's not up to me. That's up to God. I feel like I'd want to adjust for maybe the alien only having like a sucker thing. You are such an empath. I'd give it like a

really right banana. So you'd give it a banana. I'd give it a banana, yeah. An atheist worst nightmare. I would give it an apple which would also be an atheist worst nightmare. If they read the frickin' Torah. Can we Can we move on? The guy who speaks in a really heavy Australian accent He was like, a banana!

I love Australian accents. I'm really bad at them. I'm... I'm really good. I'm from Popper Spit. You know where that's from? Muriel's Wedding. Who's Miriel's Wedding?

Tony Colette, one of the best actresses in the universe, I might say. I've never seen it. Great movie. I've never seen it. You got a hot take, Josh? This is my hot take of the week. I recently deleted my Twitter because it was an absolute nightmare over there. It just shows you the worst version of humanity.

But there was one tweet on there that went viral that I didn't get a chance to respond to, so I'm telling it to you here. It was a tweet that said the song, Home is the worst song ever made, right? Let me go home, go home, it's Stomp Clap Hey, and they said that it's the worst song ever made. I need everybody to realize that when we look at whatever current moment we are in with 10 years of future vision, we are going to cringe so hard out of our beholes and we cannot ever imagine the fact that in 2025 we were into the same things that we are currently into in 2025

in the same way that we cannot imagine the fact that we were into stomp-clap hey music in the 2015s but we were because we believed in things it was in the middle of the Obama presidency and we had a hope damn it and that music sounded like hope and right now all of this weird post-ironic brat summer 2025 stuff we're going to look at in 2030 and we are going to say,

how the hell were we into Pink Pony Club in 2025? This is the nature of what it means to be human, is enjoying Nickelback in 2005, then looking back on Nickelback and going, that sucks. And the same thing happens with food trends as well. So any time you are thinking, how could we possibly have been into those things 10 years ago,

remember that 10 years from now, we will look back at today and think the exact same thing. That's my hot take. Brilliant. You agree? I love Edward Sharp in the Magnetic Zeros. Alabama, Arkansas.

I love that song. Yeah, he was doing a bunch of shrooms in Joshua, Tras. It was what people did in 2015. It was great. It was a great song. It was a great moment. It makes me happy. That whole album is actually really good.

Yeah, man, because we're old now. All the young kids just listening to... But I listen to that stuff, too. Yeah, I listen to a lot of the weird, like, horror-core trap metal that's coming out now. I love it. I listen to, like, I listen to a lot of music, so. It's good, good for you. I'm a big music person.

Yeah, you like music? I do. I also like food. I like music and food. Yeah, me too. Those are kind of some of my favorite things. Well, that's about our time today. Thank you so much for having us at your lovely home.

I really love what you've done with the, the armoire. The armoire is looking really incredible. Looker looking armoire. If you enjoy this podcast, you can go ahead and rate it on Apple Podcasts. We're pretty cool. Why are you doing the NPR? voice. I hate when you do NPR voice. I don't think I'm doing the NPR voice. It's literally the worst. Josh's NPR voice literally, it's like a nightmare. When we set out to do this podcast, first we thought

that we were really looking into, and I'm in a nightmare of my own creation. We thought we were looking into lesbian, Norwegian folk music, but really what we found is that we were, what we were looking into a mirror of ourselves. It's so irritating. I'm Avishai Artsy and anyways, you big Avashai Artsy fan? I have no idea who that is. You know who Avishai Artsy is? You crazy. She's crazy. I love her, but she's crazy. New podcast, Wednesdays, you know where it is. If you want to be featured on opinions or like casseroles, hit us up at 833 Dog Pod 1.

And if you want to watch more mythical kitchen, your laptop was closed. We launch new episodes every week, so make sure to check us out over there. We make some really cool videos and we do some really exciting stuff. So don't be a dork. Click subscribe. I was at a party with Avishai Artsy one. I don't know who that is. You are crazy!

Why am I crazy? You don't know. Aveshai Artsy. I've never seen this person before in my life. You know who Avershyi Artsy looks like? That one guy that did that video that goes, so you want to live long, so you want to be free? What?

This is our divide. We have a lot of division within us, but this is the biggest one. Like, you just don't care. my references anymore. I feel like I'd go. It hurts my heart. I think we need a break. I think we need to break, Nicole, you and I.

Why? I think we, I think we should take some time off. I'm leaving. I'm leaving for like, like six. Good, fine. I'm leaving for like six months. I know, and I think it's going to be really good for us. That's a meanest thing. I'm kidding. No, I, I, I, I think I, all right, well, I'll see it.

I don't know.