A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Ranking Trader Joe’s Frozen Snacks

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

Today, Josh is joined by Mythical Crew member Annaliese Kassebaum to taste and rank frozen items from Trader Joe's. Check out the full episode of Last Meals: youtube.com/watch?v=uEQ6z0rbn30 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. Is it flirting if they tell me they like my taste and produce? Were they wearing a Hawaiian shirt? Yeah, and they told me I need to taste their jojos? This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Catchup 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 a hot dog is a sandwich. the show we break down the biggest food debates in the world. That's what we always say. Sorry, I was really stuck in the Trader Joe space. And I was thinking of one of their employees telling me I need to taste their jojos.

And I've had that recurring dream a lot of times. Uh-oh. How do you get out of it? Oh, you taste the jojos, if you know what I mean. Welcome to the show, Annalise Casabom, longtime caller. Yeah. First time guest. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Anytime. You may recognize Annalise from the Cook Food Good Chicken Parmesan episode from I'm going to guess April 2001. No. 2001? I was like I started 2019. I'm so hungry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would have been nine. 2021. No, it probably would have been late 2020. Yeah, I think so. Wow. I was so nervous and excited, but it was so fun. I remember we made chicken parm.

I remember I made a really, really dumb joke about separating eggs where you're like, you could separate those eggs. And so I had two eggs and I just like moved them beside themselves. I do remember that happening. And I remember not understanding the joke. I was like, and I couldn't help but laugh at the joke. I was like, yeah, that's great.

Can you separate them now? Why'd we hire her? Since then, you've become executive producer of the show and the single jar of crazy glue that holds everything together around here. Thank you. It's an honor to be a team with you. I feel like we, we yin and yang,

well and have a lot of fun. And yeah, I love the podcast. I can't wait for Nicole to come back. But I do love the podcast. I'm very happy to have you as a guest, but it is becoming an issue. Yeah, yeah, having to book new people every time. Having a consistent co-host, it has its merits. Real quick, to do a little bit of house cleaning here.

Earlier when Lily was on the podcast, she said that our office always smells like fart. So I want to, and I told her straight up. Yeah, I did. unprompted. I didn't like hint at anything. I wasn't making self-depriening jokes. She was just like, you know your office and I was like fart and I wanted you to know that I took all of the blame. I took all of the blame and said like that's me. What happens is I sit on a couch with the cushion and I think it's fine to fart into the cushion. But then I get up and it's sort of... Do you know what's my worst fear? Go ahead. You have the fart office? No, no. It's my worst fear to be in a place that stinks because of me and not know it. Like, you know. Yeah, not because of you, but you know, you called us a team earlier and we are. So, yeah, because of us, it smells.

There was one day you farted in the recent past and we were like, I wouldn't usually. I'm usually the person that's like, eh, who cares? Everybody farts. But I was like, for some reason worried there would be vagueness on if it was me and I needed to insist that it wasn't me. So I was like that was you. But other than that, I feel like I don't, that's the thing. I don't smell anything. There was another day where I went up.

I got up to like get a Diet Coke or something and I come back and you apologize to me for the smell in the office. Do you remember this? Was that that day? That was that day because I think I was like. You needed to name the feeling. I was like, hey, it smells like parts in here and I'm the only one in here, but I know that it's not me. The way that I remember, no, is the way that I remember is I walked in and you go, I'm sorry it smells like farts in here, but it wasn't me. But there seemed to be a genuineness in you that also didn't believe it was me. There's a ghost fart in here and it's none of our faults.

Anyways, we're about to eat a bunch of trainer jokes. I would really say that. Why would she say that? And also, like, we need to fix this. There's no this. Sometimes I eat lunch in there and I worry that, like, we don't have ventilation to, like, air food smells out. We don't need to fix this. We need to fix me.

This reminds me of white men can't jump where she goes, it. It didn't happen again. Billy, you, you happened again. This is no, there's no fixing it. It's fixing me. I just, Lily apparently was going into the bathroom to fart. That's a workflow issue. You know, that's inappropriate.

That's effectively time theft from mythical. You know, walking to the bathroom to fart off. You could say that. At some point, you got to get your work done. Did you ever see the video that went viral years ago of like a lady who was walking through a crowd, but they had like a heat sensor camera on it? And you could see that she was like crop dusting. Is that real?

Is that a real video? I don't know. But any time I like crop dust or I'm on a walk and a fart comes out, I'm like, they better not have those cameras on me. right now. It's like my fear of peeing in pools. The thing of to stop me from peeing in pools is the mythical die that turns it. I don't think that technology exists at all.

Anyways, let's eat a bunch of Trader Joe's fried appetizers and then go back into our and closed office and see what happens. We are making the podcast studio smell like something right now. Yeah, well, so what we have today, we have a bunch of Trader Joe's is appetizers. And, Annalise, you've made the selection of yourself. You've hand curated these. Yes, I consulted spork.com for a few. I consulted my own experience for a few.

And I also just looked at what sounded nice. We were talking about this before, but in the origins of Trader Joe's, the person who started it was picturing an ideal audience. And we have a quote, this person who got a full Bright scholarship went to Europe for a couple years and developed a taste for something other than Velvita,

ordinary beer, and Folger's coffee. Whoa. I didn't realize he was that explicit about it. it. Yeah, I didn't either. It feels a little uppity. This was a long time ago. That's 1981. But anyway, Trader Joe's likes to present a well-traveled experience, whether or not it's the most authentic of all that. But I mean, like, so many of their, their Andres, a lot of their frozen Indian food is, like, legendary for being so much better than, say, like, a mainstream supermarket and the frozen Indian brands that they might have. I eat those in our office sometimes. Why does our office smell so bad? I think it's fine. It's because I'm not vaping. anymore. There's no mango there's no mango lichy airflow through there. You know, when I was

vaping the office, it smelled like vape, not fart. Do you want this in the podcast? Yeah, yeah. You do? Yeah, I think we can just say that. I think I can be honest about it. I talked about quitting smoking. I'm done now. I'm down to the smallest patch. That's amazing. And I've replaced nicotine with

sugar as almost every former smoker has ever done in history. But we're then replacing cardio with lifting so it's bulking season in here. We're doing it. We're doing great. I can't stop talking

or else I think about smoking. Anyways, should we? Yeah, we should eat something? Okay, great. And Lisa, before us, we have seven of the best and brightest, the full bright scholars, if you will, of the Trader Joe's frozen appetizer realm.

We'll be eating them, ranking them, judging them. This is not an anyway derivative of what Good Mythical Morning does. This is its own thing and totally different because it's us. We get to eat. First up, we got Trader Joe.

Ropa Vieha empanadas, but this is in a cassava crust. I haven't had these. Reckin this is gluten-free. Ropa Vjaha translates to old clothing, I believe. Delicious shredded beef dish from Cuba.

Did you grow up eating this? We didn't make Ropa Vjaha too much in my family, but it's what I order when I go to Portos. I love poros. But I haven't made it at home. I'd like to try. It's like a stewed beef, tomato-y, garlic yummy.

Robavilla is like probably my favorite Cuban food. Just a big plate of Robavihaha, especially when they'll throw some like olives in there. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Rice, beans, botanos. This is good, but it's,

is this that many steps above, like a Jose Olay mini taco. You know what I mean? I do like the cassava. It's making it like a chewy, almost dumpling experience. Yeah, yeah. The Robaviah flavor is like,

I can find it, but it's a little muted. It's still really, I haven't had these before, like I said, so I really wanted to try it, but it's really yummy. But yeah, it does remind you of the meat mush inside of a little taco. I have a problem with the ingredients. Okay. Does it read kind of sweet to you?

A little bit. Maybe because of the tomato. No, it's just sugar. Oh, whoa. Literally the ingredient, there's more sugar than garlic powder. Whoa. And more sugar than vinegar. And, like, I mean, a lot of things, but like it literally goes onion, bell pepper, salt, sugar, garlic powder.

So that's, like, not a negligible amount of sugar. If you imagine seasoning with some garlic powder. Yeah. And then just putting that same amount of sugar into, like, Ropa Viejo. Yeah, that's strange. It's kind of weird. Yeah. And it's not like...

The tomato could make it sweet by itself. Yeah, yeah. I don't know why they did that. Hmm. You know the food. And the cassava is fun. You're right. It is like it...

This feels like something from a country that I've never been to. Mm-hmm. You know? Like, you go to like a Bolivian restaurant. You're like, what are they doing down in Bolivia? I don't really know. You know? And then they give you this.

You know, like, that's awesome. That's awesome. This is fun. I mean, solid offering. I put them at like a seven. I'd give it a seven as well. That feels very fair. It feels like your standard Trader Joe's thing.

I remember Trader Joe's is really special for me because there was one right across the street from the apartment that I grew up in. Like, you could see the glow. There was like the TGI Fridays and then the Trader Joe's and a weird strip mall with like a pasta bravo, pick up sticks. All the clock. Pick up sticks. Hey, pick up six hits, dude. Pick up six is the best. It wasn't Panda Express.

It was pick up six. Panda's fair, but pick up six still hits. Yeah, the house special chicken, man. Yeah. But anyways, I would like, being able to shop a Trader Joe's is when we went from, like, poor to, like, lower middle class. Not the Trader Joe's is lower middle class, but, like, Trader Joe's, that was our big step up. And to me, like, the difference between Trader Joe's and a big box grocery store is, like,

Trader Joe's is almost a wants versus a needs thing, right? You're going there for treats. You're going there for, these are all treats. And these exist in other supermarkets, but like, I don't know, it's almost still the reason I don't shop a trader does. This is my primary grocery store. We go there for treats. Yeah. I want to get those little mini ice cream cones.

Mm-hmm. Hold the cone. Is that what it's called? I think so. Hold the cone. Right. Yeah. Wait, there's two separate products.

There's the one, the freezer. You're talking about the freezer aisle one. Yeah. What are you talking about? Yeah. Yeah. There's another one that they sell that I think is like a chocolate cookie confection treat. That is a mini ice cream cone filled with chocolate, but there's no ice cream in it.

Oh, I haven't had those. I really like the mini cone ones in the freezer section And I like how many bites would you say you eat one of those in Four I think I go small bite You do? Okay, that's great Because I do too I bite off the little tip

And then I can do like maybe three around the edge But I want like the top eaten with a little bit of the crust Or the crust The cone And then I'm gonna eat the bottom Because I don't care for the chocolate chunk at the bottom as much I prefer the cone and ice cream So I'm saving that section as the last bite

That's so funny I take the top in two I go, I go nibble, nipple, one, two, and then I just dissect that cone in two. I just get the big part that's the fun. Yeah. And then, yeah, the last bite, might as well be thrown in the trash, but the trash is my mouth. You know what I mean? It's really the three bites are enjoyable.

And then the last one, how privileged am I to not enjoy the chocolate and cone? But I'm just like, ah, now it's done. It's like ceremonial. I get particular about last bites of things. Like when I'm on a plate of food, I'm assessing where I want my last bite to be in reserving. I think about that, but then I take several more bites after that. There's never a last bite. Okay.

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slash hot dog today to explore Rosetta Stone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to Rosettastone.com slash hot dog now and begin your language learning journey. Hot dog in French is Nope, I gotta get back to Rosetta Stone. Okay, these are exciting. Let me grow up the box.

This is very exciting. I haven't had these either. Chautom. This is, is this a lemon. This is a lemongrower, right? Yeah. Or not a lemmgrass You're a sugar cane skewer

Oh yes It says savory Savory and sweet Sugar cane skewered Fried shrimp shrimp and vegetables Dude sugar cane So this is one of my favorite Like Vietnamese appetizers

Here you get the biggest sugar cane Thank you Yeah shrimp paste with aromatics Wrapped around sugar cane Typically deep fried Could be roasted Could be grilled Yeah bud

Yeah bud I like that You could That's so good This literally just tastes Like, you took your leftovers from a Vietnamese restaurant and froze them and then, like, reheated them. Mm-hmm. Right?

Whatever factory they're getting it from. And that's the funny thing about Trader Joe is, like, you have no idea where it's coming from because it's all just branded as Trader Joe's. Mm-hmm. I know, I think Spork's done an article about this, but people do their slew thing trying to find, like, are the Pita chips the Simplipita same brand or, like, things like that. Like, Kirkland is a lot more kind of transparent about that. Even though they do the same thing. It's awesome. Like, it's not as good as going to a restaurant and just getting this delicious dish,

freshly grilled or fried and throw nacho. But, like, it's pretty damn close. Here's the thing. The fact that I could air fry all of these things within, like, 15, 20 minutes while using the air fire, the oven, and the toaster oven. That's amazing. Do you want to split the last one? Sure.

There's more in the box. We'll make more later. Oh, yeah. This is the best day ever. Thank you. These are like a nine. I don't know what would stop me from giving this a 10. Okay.

We have a lot of other things to go. I'm fine with leaving this at a 9.5 between us. But this is just a delight, man. You can get the, like, shrimp is in a chunk still more than a mush in some parts, and the ginger comes through. And, yeah, is the authentic version better? Most definitely, probably. But it's kind of fun. They have actual sugar cane skewers in here.

I know. That's great. Man. Crayed jokes. All they're probably, they have, what, like, one-tenth? God, maybe even? less. I mean, you got it? Yeah, thank you.

So we got a Jamaican beef patty now. What were you going to say? What kind of looks like? I think Trader Joe's has one-tenth the skews, which are like one-tenth the amount of products. I think even less in some cases than your like standard big box grocery store, which means they do such a good job of curating it. So basically like if you ever go to, like I shop at Ralph's night, I love Ralph's. That's my primary grocery store. But you'll go through a freezer aisle and just be like, who the hell?

Well, with all due respect to tabotchnik brand frozen borscht cubes. Yes, all due respect to them. And they deserve that respect. The hell is buying those, man. That's funny. You know? I learned something in prep for this. I listened a little bit to Trader Joe's podcast.

They have called Inside Trader Joe's. Inside Trader Joe's and a hot dog is a sandwich for a while. We're duking it out for number one in the food podcast ratings. Oh, my gosh. Well, I hope we win. but great to be in a category among you. But they were saying how they, all the products,

all the skews get to be determined by the captains of each store. So it's not that like big Trader Joe's saying, you need 100 of these, 10 of those, whatever. Yeah, yeah. They get to know. That's why you see those shoppers who get, go up to an employee and say, when will you get these back?

And like that could work to get them back because supposedly each store gets to decide what they want more of. Man. Yeah. Did you ever, You seem like you could have worked at a Trader Joe's. Totally. But I didn't.

I worked at Jersey Mikes. That makes sense. I feel like no offense. I feel like your talents are wasted at Jersey Mikes. I don't doubt that you did a great job. Thank you. I feel like you should have been in a Trader Joe's. Here's the thing.

I do think I would have thrived there. Tell me why I got so nervous to talk to them. Because they're cool. I think that's it. Right? But they're cool in the theater kid way. Like in a way that I think you give off like an approachable cool like you're almost cool because you're inviting.

Sure. Thank you. Because they're not like, they're not like the baristas that are actually intimidating at like a third wave crazy coffee shop. They seem relaxed and like settled in themselves and trying to be cool. They're not even trying to be cool. They just aren't cool. You're right.

Yeah. Yeah. And I get intimidated. I'm like, oh, don't want to waste any of their time. Let me make sure I bag my stuff up really quick. Whereas I just think all the Whole Foods butcher's hate me. I can't shake this feeling, man. That's their fault.

I can't shake this feeling. It's a bite. The fish guys are even worse. Man, I don't know, maybe I need to go to Trader Joe's more just for the vibes. Yeah,

they don't have like a butcher counter, but for the vibes of other employees. My Ralph's cheese, cheese homies, Carmella and Josh. They're cool. Yeah, the Murray's Cheese Counter Ralphs,

big fans of them. That's awesome. Big fans of them. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out. What do you think about this? Did you make a meat fatty?

It's good. I like the color. The meat inside has a little bit of spice, which is nice. I might not have prepared it the best. It has, like, it's not as, flaky as I'd want it to be.

No. Well, I don't know. It's not as flaky as you want to be. Jamaican beef patties are, if they're like homemade, good, like you go to Bridgetown Roti, chef Rashida, like, making her own patties, awesome.

But a lot of the patties that you eat, say, like in New York that are like bodegas or even pizza shops, like, yeah, they will be like the frozen patties that are, you know, about as good as a frozen patty you'd expect. And they're all, they're always, like, perfectly solid. this feels pretty true to form of a frozen patty.

The meat is that kind of almost like fully blended. Think about like Taco Bell beef where you hardly have to chew it. You know what I mean? Which I do generally like. The pastry isn't the flakiest thing in the world, but it's got that nice little turmeric crust on it. I think it could be spiced a little bit harder. But in a way, it's still like, this is still very good. Yep.

What do you think about Trader Joe's? I don't have to get political here. Whoa. But I had a product that I can only describe as Laugan Ma for white people. Laugan Ma's a delicious Sichuan chili crisp. And Trader Joe's got big on like the chili crunch kind of thing. Yeah. But this was like chili crunch without the chili.

And it was just like it was called like crunchy onion and garlic. Oh, yes. I've had this there. I don't care for it. I didn't realize it didn't have chili in it. I just thought, oh, the chili crisp at Trader Joe's is not good. I think they made chili crisp without the chili. And I think they have chili crust with chili as well.

But I think this is a big innovation of like, what if we took which one chili crisp and took chili out? Huh. And so they do get some flack for kind of like white washing and white coating. Oh, 100%. Certain things. Oh, yeah. 100% I get it.

I said this Jamaican beef out of you. Like, you know, I've had patties all across New York. It's pretty solid. I give it a solid, seven and a half. Yeah, this one gets a seven from, uh, yeah, I think it gets a seven. It tastes, yeah. If I were faced with the empanata and the beef patty, I'm like, these are two great Caribbean pastries that Trader Joe's made absolutely fine.

Let's go to a Greek pastry that they've made absolutely fine. Let's do it. Spanacopita. I grew up eating this exact Trader Joe's Spanacopita. Oh, really? I have literally been eating this exact box for like roughly 20 years of my life. No way. What are the memories that come with it?

Being alone, a home. Is this the same one? I think they've changed the formula. I think it's a different Spanacopio. Yeah, the old one's better. Oh, man. This doesn't taste how I remember. Whoa.

Weird. I think I used to even old traders. Drop in the comments. Tell us, give us the scoop. The old one used to be heavier on the spinach and heavier on the dill. Whoa. When I was, I remember my dad, like, you know, being out late at night, he worked multiple jobs. He would be, like, driving a limo.

And, you know, I would just be watching probably like Comedy Central late at night, like South Park, Celebrity Death Match, something, something that kids weren't supposed to be watching. You know what I mean? Like 11 years old. And I'd pop an entire thing of Trader Joe Spanacobita in the toaster oven. Amazing. And I had a signature dipping sauce that I would make. It was sour cream, probably store brand low-fat sour cream.

I would make to a Trader Joe's still the best Parmesan and Pecorino. Oh. And the little deli tubs. Yeah. The little deli tubs, they have it. It's like a restaurant grind on. It's awesome. Yeah.

I would mix that with the sour cream. Dry dill somehow. We just had a thing of dried dill in that last year for years. That's awesome. And saraja. Oh. Mix that together. That was my signature dipping sauce as a kid.

For Perogi, Spanacopida. Wow. Take the chow tom out of the equation. Yeah, that's in the league of its own. Spanacopida, Jamaica, Dau, Jamaican patty, and bonata. I agree with that. I like this a lot. I like the spinachy taste.

I'm not comparing it to an old version, but now I'm curiously. what that would have tasted like. But I like this a lot. Great little appetizer. Throw in the air fryer, like I said. It's tough to get, like, this is not a flaky pie dough, right? This is its own little, like kind of pizza rolly, cassava, that like thing. But, like, true, like, flaky pastry from frozen, stuff to stuff in a touch shop, and that's tough.

Or in an air friar. Yeah. That's hard. They do a pretty damn good job. To me, these three filled pastries, it's so tough to distinguish which one of them actually does a better job. I think I'm just going for Spontocopy to that. I think this I put a 775. Yeah, I'd give this an 8.

I think I would have even... These were the first thing I made, so the fact that they still held their crispness the most is good. So I'd give them an 8. Although, for control, I've been dipping everything in Nando's medium berry-peri sauce, which is there a good table sauce. Are you familiar with the term table sauce? Mm-mm.

They use it in the CBG world. I mean, like, a sauce you can just kind of keep on a table and put on everything. It's not like a specialty thing. It's not an aggressive flavor. It's got to be shelf's stable. Yeah, shelf's just a table sauce. What are some other examples? Arizona Gunsling is a favorite table sauce, but like...

That's not a hot sauce? That's a table sauce? I'd call it a table sauce. But like Crystal, Tabasco, those are like table sauces. If it can go in the little caddy on the table. Bingo. On the table.

On the table. But I'd say, but when you get into like, you know, I don't think Melinda's or Marie Sharps would be a table sauce because it's like a little too hot. I don't know what those are. Oh, there's a little too hot. this great Belizean hot sauce. Oh, cool. We got to do a whole story about that.

Yeah. Because they're the same company, but a woman, I think her name is, is Melinda Marie Sharp, I can't remember what her real name is, but she started one company and then kind of got the company stolen from her. And she said, screw it,

I'm going to start it back up from scratch with that same recipe, and she did, and now they're like competitors. That's cool. I know, right? That's really cool. I can't remember which one, the real one is. All right.

And move on. What have we got? Minikish? I wish I got mini kish These are mushroom cartlets Oh I think they're mini kish I have a great embarrassing story about mini kish

I might have told you already before Picture this Annalise is like 12, 13 years old And she's with her fellow Home School friends and families And it's the holidays and we're going Christmas caroling We're meeting up at someone's house to go Christmas caroling

And they've got the mini kishish that everyone loves that you get in the Costco big pack with the like egg one the spinachy one. Hell yeah. I liked both. But I think I liked the egg one slightly more. Anyway, this is anti-comactic. But fast forward, I'm concerned that we're going to be caroling for too long and I'm going to

get snacky. So I'm putting kishes in my pockets. I've never heard this. I'm putting kishes in my pockets. And when we're out caroling, I was right. I was hungry. And I get a kish for my pocket to eat it. And then I wish I could remember who called me out on it,

but the sense of shame and dread that I felt all over my body, like I'd done the worst thing in the world. Now I can laugh at it, but in the moment it was like, that's so sad. So many Keesjas have a warm place in my heart for, you know, sneak yourself the little snack. And we shall today. Christmas carolish, put the chowtholm in your pocket. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, all these great pocket food. I don't like the feel of it. Feels dry. It tastes good. It tastes not dry, but. I don't like the look, the look of it as much. Shallots dried shataki mushroom. The bones are there.

Yeah. You taste the ricotta. Nice mushroom shallow flavor. What this needs, though, and this is important, this needs to be twice as big. It needs more filling per crust ratio. Yeah. And then also, when is this small, it allows it to dry out easier.

You're trying to ASMR the tart lip? I'm trying to see the bottom was soggy. But it's not. It's pretty good, but yes. No, it's crispy. But, like, it needs to be able to hold more moisture. Isn't something that is that small and has that much pastry, it can just sort of dry out. Yeah.

You know? And when you're talking about the appetizer game, you know what I mean? Wetness is really, is really your friend here. I perfectly, still perfectly good. I give you 60 of those, you know? Totally. Nothing's dropping below a six today, but that's the six. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. It's a six. Last two. Let's run it. Parmesan pot. Hell yeah This is such Pastry puffs

Excuse me sorry to interrupt This is such a Trader Joe's thing Taking a pig in a blanket And just like making it a little Oh I got a two pack And just making it a little bit fancier With the puff pastry And then cheese on the outside

I know That little bit of plus up from Trader Joe's man Yeah It's like the employee Like that little plus up with a dangly earring I'm like I see you I see you working on your MFA out there Oh that's good

I see you with your gender ambiguous name. Robin with a Y. Working on your MFA. Dangly earring at Trader Joe's. Selling me the Trader Joe's Joe's. That's your like intimidation at grocery store archetype. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. Pretty damn good, ma'am. I'm good. I got to have an 8.5. There's something about I love undercooked puff pastry. Yeah, yeah. If it's only this much. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. There's a perfect amount because any more, this little tip gets too brown. Yep

But any less, this is fully raw? Yep. No, no. Got a little bit of kind of chew to it? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Really good. And you'd think, like, is this the same thing as just a pigs in a blanket with a crescent dough?

But, like, this did level it up a little, like, in a way I could tell. Like, in a blind taste test, I could tell. Yeah. Excited. Wow. Man, okay. All right, one more. Let me have some shrimp.

Let me up some shrimp. We got a classic here. Coconut shrimp. I'll be up on my hot sauce. Um. I don't know if there's any food that I could eat more of than fried shrimp. I can really take on some fried shrimp. Remember at Coney Island?

Didn't we eat fried shrimp there when your arm wrestled that guy? Yeah, Bartley Weaver. Yeah. Bartley Weaver? We were there for the hot dog eating contest on the hottest day. We got invited by Ed Crazy Likes Conti, professional eating legend, to the secret after party at a Coney Island Shore Bar. and we went there and all of the Nathan's Hot Dog

contest competitors post-eating 60 hot dogs were just there pounding beers some of them even eating clam strips which I thought was awesome and I was there and so I started pounding some beers and Bartley Weaver I believe

it was his name I challenged him to an arm wrestling match and we filmed it and I never saw that footage Yeah We got a great habit of filming things and never known what happens to it Yeah Yeah, we got to get that.

Figure that one out. Scour the web. I don't know a shrimp. I forgot to try it. It's good. It's good with the hot sauce. I'm not getting as much coconut as I feel like I can handle, but it's still, of course, a fried shrimp, which is a good thing. They're devaning and kind of half-butterflying the shrimp.

There seem to be some consistency issues. But that said, the good news, if you get like a bad chicken breast, meals ruined, you get a bad shrimp? This is the food of opportunity. That's so true. You got at least, hopefully, 12. 13 more shrimp, you know, in that one meal for you. So that's pretty awesome. Yeah. This was a blast. Wow. Seven and a half. Six and a half for me.

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. It's still great, though. It's a thick breading. All of these are both, like, presenting a flavor of their own and ready to be a vehicle for any sauce. No coconut. I don't taste any coconut, and that's why it's a six point five for me. I just saw a little solitary pub of coconut right there, and that's the only, yeah, I agree. You should tell them about it.

And that's the only coconut pub that I've seen so far. And I want... If I'm eating coconut shrimp. I love coconut. I want a full bush. All right. Okay. Where do we rank these?

How do we officially... Number one, say it again? Chow Tom. Chow Tom. Number two, for me, Pups, Spanacopata. Paddy impanata shrimp... Ah!

Yeah, Patty Impanata shrimp, Tartlet. I agree entirely. For me, easily one, chow tom, and then two, the little pigs in a blanket. Then for me, there's like all of the pastries. They could be completely interchange. Whatever. And then the shrimp and then the mushroom tart was last. I didn't have a bad bite of food today. No, I'm so glad. You don't always go to Trader Joe's, so I was excited to show you some of the things that are there. There's so much more. You can tell us in the comment the favorite thing that I didn't get, but this was awesome.

All right, Annales, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky eddies are rattling out there in the universe. It's time for the segment we call. Opinions are like casserole. It's going to ad-lib that one. Hey, anyone who might be listening to this. So I was a bodybuilder once, and I've retired now. But I developed some very odd habits from doing that.

And one of them is my breakfast, which I've been eating for like two years straight, because I love it for some reason. And everyone thinks it's really disgusting. If you're blending chicken. 15 grams of oats and a bowl. And then put some water on top and then crack three eggs inside and mix it all together. Pop it in the microwave for three minutes with paper cow on top so it doesn't explode. And then I put 100 grams of blueberries on top.

Mix it together. This is such a bodybuilder for a breakfast. Five grams of salt. The salt is the most important part. Weighing the salt is crazy. And then top it off with 35 grams of peanut butter on there. Oh, wow. And I think it's the best thing ever, but everybody thinks that it looks really disgusting,

but they won't even try it. So, Josh, I feel like you might understand this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I get it. But one more thing that I eat is baby carrots pickled in banana pepper juice. That's just smart. That's just smart. Reuse your pickle juice.

That's really smart. That's how we come back climate change. Reusing pickle juice. We'll finally get there. It's got to do more good than the tote bags ever did. You've seen the statistics on like if we just never manufactured reusable tote bags. You've told me about this. I cannot stop.

Tell the people. You had to find it. If we never would have manufactured a little bit of. reusable tote bags and just kept using the plastic bags and recycled them as you can. We would have had significantly fewer carbon emissions on that. The tote bags are killing the world. You know, it's not reusing your pickle juice. So what she's talking about, right, is bodybuilders don't see food as food.

The foods are merely... What are they sneaking in their pockets? What? They're sneaking macronutrients in their pockets as evidenced by my good friend Nick, who was, like, training for the Olympics at the time. we went to an XFL game together, and I will never forget seeing him, like, take out, like, a Tupperware of white rice from his, like, jacket that was covered in yellow mustard and just eating it. And I was like, what the hell is going on? He's like, well, it's 1.30 p.m. I need to get 100 grams of carbs. He was a big boy.

And mustard is like, it's a free for all. Yeah, mustard is zero. Mustard zero calories, you know, zero carbs, whatever. So is like soy sauce, so is lime juice. You know what I mean? So is hot sauce. a lot of different things you could have put on rice with a mustard, but he just saw macros. You know, in the same way, if you were to take these eggs with oats, microwaved, blueberries, salt, peanut butter on top,

you could reconfigure this. The oats, what you're seeking is carbohydrates, right? And you can just make a bread out of oat flour if you want to do, oat cakes, whatever, if you're not trying to get, like, gluten because oats are gluten-free, right? But, like, you could have a little piece of gluten-free bread in the same...

weight in grams of the oats, and then put peanut butter and berries on that. That's normal. Right? Right? Sure. Then you could have a little, you know, a little couple like two egg omelet on the side of that. That would also not discuss people. People of the, no, because you said.

I think they were looking for solidarity. I know. I'm giving it. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to tell you that I'm giving solidarity. But you said that people are looking at what you do with disgust, where you're microwaving oats within. eggs and then topping it with peanut butter and blueberries.

If you wanted other people to look at you without that, you could just reconfigure that. However, the macronutrient, like, bodybuilding mindset, it kind of gets you to reframe everything and you end up with a lot of, like, really cool discoveries like this, you know? Because you've seen through the Matrix, right, that there's no such thing as omelet and toast. It's merely the macronutrients of oats, eggs, berries, and nuts that you need inside you.

So now you can sort of Rubik's cube these things together. What I would say is blend the eggs and the blueberries, microwave that, top it with crispy oats, and then just put the peanut butter directly in your mouth. Try every configuration that you can do. Just sprinkle a salt directly under your tongue. I love it. Hi!

Hi! My name is Elle, and Josh and Nicole, I love you so much. Nicole, I hope you're recovering well. My only question is, when you make anything with like mayonnaise. Yeah, I'm listening. Anything at all. Do you always, like, go over or do you go under?

Over. Wait, what? Meaning like in like an egg salad or chicken salad, do you add a little more meal or less mail? Is that what they were asking? Yeah. Okay. Oh. I was going to say a little over, but I have gone too far on an egg salad where I'm like,

oh, I don't have enough eggs to counteract this now. No, I've been in that exact same thing. situation. Yeah. Because there's times when you go, I've never added too much mayonnaise to an egg salad. And then you keep adding more and more. Eventually, you will add too much to mayonnaise that egg salad. I did that same thing once.

I made the claim that you can't oversees in fried chicken because I had never had a fried chicken that I made. Where I was like, yeah, I'd never had a fried chicken that I had made where I went, this is too salty. And so I was like, I'm pushing. I'm pushing the limits today. And it was, it was good. It was still on the edge. Yeah. But that was the first time that I was like, and it was a metric ton of salt that we added to.

It was crazy. You found the edge. And it was well-spiced. It was balanced. But yeah, you can over-manay something. What I've started doing, though, in an effort of health is anything I make with mayonnaise is almost always, unless I'm making a special occasion food, which mayonnaise generally comes into play, I'm cutting it with Greek yogurt. Oh, yeah. You're a big Greek yogurt guy.

Big Greek yogurt guy, good macronutrients on it, less fat. So if I'm making like a chicken salad at home, I'm going to do probably like one point. part mayonnaise to two parts Creek yogurt. And then you can afford to go a little bit over on that. Because the yogurt is good for you. It's wet. And I like yogurt. Hi, my name is Josh.

Whoa. Big fan, first time caller. I've got all kinds of opinions. Oh, I'm from Pittsburgh, by the way. And we don't just put fries on everything. That is partially true. Yeah, Pittsburgh salad.

My audience take is on coffee. I'm a recent part-time barista. Ask your baristas more questions. People like to just order whatever nonsense and ad this and take away that. And that's fine. Order what you want. Get what you want.

But I feel like there should be more dialogue. It shouldn't just be a drive-through situation, get it real fast, like figure out what goes with what, talk with your baristas. They're teasing things and testing things and testing concrete. Uh, yeah, that's it. Love the pot. Why did I get a little defensive about this? How do you feel?

I don't know if I would use the word defensive, but I feel like, that's not true, Josh. I felt like you must be the exception. I feel like most bristas don't want to have a dialogue. Well, that's why I got defensive. Because I was like, well, talk to your boys. Right. Talk to your boys. Yeah.

Because they're not, they're not happy when I ask questions. They're not being inviting. Do you remember? I'm remembering another travel story. Go on. You and Link getting in line for coffee on the way back from Austin, Texas. And what was the dialogue where you were trying to get a cup of coffee? Do you remember?

It was just this stall. And you were being so friendly, but they were like clothes or something. If you don't remember, I can't remember anymore. No, it was like, oh my God. No, it was, yeah, Link is also a funny person to have funny social interactions with. We got to like a coffee shop. It was like a bagel shop or something. And it was like maybe like 4 p.m.

I was super tired. And I think they closed it four. And it was like, hey, can I get coffee? And they're like, we're closed. There's no more coffee. And then Link was like, oh, can I just like buy this banana that was on the shelf? And I was like, yeah. And I see the coffee machine and there's like coffee dripping out of it.

And I was like, is there still coffee inside there? And he goes, yeah. I go, well, wait, if he can buy this banana, like the register is still working. I think you could see him actively empty. He was like emptying the head of coffee in the background. I was like, can you do? just put a cup underneath that? And he was just like, no, coffee.

We're closed for coffee. And I was like, but in theory, humor me, humor me, would it be physically possible to grab this cup and put it? I'm open to being wrong here, but also I would love that coffee. And did I get it? I don't think I got it. I think I grabbed a five-hour energy shot from inside my backpack because I also have 10 in there. So yeah, see, Josh, we can't have dialogue. I only

I only order black coffees or a red eye and I'll try and start a conversation where I go, do you call that a red eye here? Because I know some people call it like a shot in the dark or like some people call it, you know, whatever. And most of the time they're just like, it's a red eye.

That's fantastic. It's a nice meeting of you. You should see how the Trader Joe's people lack because they're nice. And they make you feel funny in a good way. I did have one good breast to interaction. I was in Columbus, Ohio, and it was the tiniest coffee shop

ever, I went there with my sister and brother-in-law, and it was one guy with his machine, and he was so nice and also so, like, skilled about coffee. And you could tell he was someone more down for a dialogue. Yeah. And he made me a cool cortado that had, like, a special, like, pumpkin spice, like, essence to it, which I hadn't seen before. And that felt nice, and I did feel like I could talk to him. But otherwise, I don't know.

Yeah. This is, like, this is how I feel when Dr. Mike is kind of advocating for, like, better doctor-patient relationships. And I'm like, listen, I've had some doctors right. I can do that, and I've had some doctors where I can't do that. And I don't think it's the bristice's fault. I think there's obviously more customers than baristas, but for us, we don't trust bristas yet. I do say, Julia, she always orders something complicated, right?

Okay. Like, a dirty try. That's not that complicated. No, but you do almond milk. I don't know. But what's the more complicated? I don't know. But anyways, and she'll ask, you know, question.

Oh, do that the thing with the thing? I always get very heartened seeing their response when they're nice to her. So it gives you hope. It gives me hope. Yeah. And especially when it's somebody at like Starbucks. Like we were on a road trip driving, you know, up the grapevine, up the five. California and then, you know, stops at a Starbucks.

And there was like a Starbucks employee that took the time to like really listen to my wife. You know, I'm trying to think about her needs. And I was like, good on you. In a society that does not reward you for this. Yeah. You've chosen to do it anyways. Good on you, mate. Good on Yin's.

Yinsers, Pittsburgh. Yins. There's Dawn. No, Nurse Dana? The intake nurse in the pit. I think it's Dana. It's Dana. It's Dana. Charge nurse.

Yeah, I love her. Gosh, she's the best. Hey, Josh. Nicole and or guess. You're and or chance. I'm allergic to mustard. What? We were just talking about mustard.

But I really like mustard. Oh, no. But I don't know if I actually know what it tastes like. Can you describe the taste of mustard? Oh, my gosh. This is interesting. Oh my gosh This is interesting

Because because Wait hold on He loved We gotta break this down He's allergic to mustard But he loves mustard But he loves mustard But he doesn't know what it tastes like

It's like a riddle The horse was named Friday The doctor was the boy's mother Mustard When a lot of people describe The taste of mustard What they're actually describing the taste of Is vinegar and salt

I was going to start with vinegar That's where I was going to start That's a lot of like prepared mustards but like the actual the plant, the crop, the mustard seed, which comes to many different varieties, is not, it's like, it's like describing the taste of a chili pepper

versus describing the taste of Tabasco. Sure. Because Tabasco is, the vinegar's carrying the chili pepper. Yeah, Tabasco is literally just chili pepper vinegar salt and a lot of other Louisiana-style hot sauces or that exact formula.

And mustard is mustard seed vinegar salt. Yeah. So they're kind of just the same thing. So you're getting a lot of vinegar and salt. off the mustard, which is great. People crave. Yeah. The actual mustard flavor of it all.

I know. He, maybe he's had pepper. Maybe he's had pepper. That, for me, feels like a step sideways from mustard. Like if pepper, peppercorns were mixed up in vinegar, but then make it different. Yeah, is this one of those things where the word can only be defined by itself? I know. Right? Other things are described as musterty.

I could say certain things. Like, I think mustard is naturally bitter. It is naturally spicy in a way that is not reminiscent of a chili pepper because mustard doesn't have capsaic. It's something where you can feel as essence rise through your olfactory senses and your nose. Almost closer to sour, but also not sour, but it's not like a spicy feeling. It's a little astringent, tantalic, but like really musterty. is the base adjective that you kind of come down to. Oh, I'm sad for you.

What are you going to put on your pocket rice? Good call back. It's a great callback. I forgot when it came from for a second, and then we got right back to it. Yeah, I think you can live a pretty full life without mustard. You can. Yeah, you can.

Yeah, if you can do horseradish, check out some horseradish, because they'll put some horseradish and some mustard and you kind of get halfway there. Mm-hmm. You know? I like that. You know, taking a negative,

spinning that right into a positive. I think we gave them hope at the end of the day. And that's what people call in here for, at least the little dose of hope. Yeah, yeah. Or to know the best way to cook a hot pocket. You know, it's one of the two. Microwave in the sleeve.

The sleeve does matter. It does matter. They don't give you the sleeves anymore, right? What? I haven't bought a hot pocket in a long time. They kill the sleeve? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Lose some money on the sleeves? I don't know. Is the air for a hot pocket in a long? because people are air-frying their hot pockets now? Hot pockets don't taste right unless they're microwaved. You ever bake a hot pocket is weird. I think we might need an episode about this. Yeah, I do an episode about it.

Well, until then. Until then. Thank you so much for stopping by a hot dog is a sandwich. We got new episodes out every Wednesday. We got our own YouTube channel called A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich now. If you're not already on that wave, you can get on that wave, or we've been using Annalise as the collaboration tool to tell them about the YouTube's new collaboration tool, Analyze.

Yeah, well, it's really cool. We can just, you know, from the mythical kids, channel say this podcast we like it it's good you're gonna like it too and and that's and we're gonna post more behind the scenes content over there we and logan are and maybe we'll take a little selfie and post it over there when this episode's out would dream big dream big if you want to be featured an episode call one eight three three dog pod one see you next time