A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Tacos vs. Burritos

Episode Date: March 24, 2021

Taco: a really good food involving a tortilla. Burrito... also a really good food involving a tortilla. But which one reigns supreme? 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, this is Mythical. Taco, a really good food involving a tortilla. Burrito, also a really good food involving a tortilla. But which one reigns supreme? 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 is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Handizadeh. Today, Nicole, we're taking on a discussion that means a lot to both of us, I believe. Yes.

And you and I both grew up in Southern California. We are huge fans of Mexican food. We grew up eating it on the regular all the time. All the time. But every time you go to a taqueria in LA, well, or is it a burrito? Burrito. Yeah.

I mean, you're all space for the choice, right? I mean, there's obviously a panoply, a panoply of options in the Mexican food canon involving tortillas. But we're not getting into vampiros or mulitas. Or taquitos. Or machetes. Have you ever had a machete?

What's a machete? Oh, it's like this taco oh it's like this it's this taco it's like three feet long um uh patricia patricia escarcega uh the la times wrote about this place that serves machetes and i got one they're like this three foot long folded quesadilla anyways burrito versus taco that's that's a classic case study it's classic for some but it's clear for me it's clear for you what's always tacos wait for real though all those tacos what do you think the percentage is uh like whenever i like personally yeah like talk okay so i consume much more tacos than i do burritos but that's only because you consume like

three tacos per one burrito if not more no yeah that's that's the normal uh mathematical equation three to one a three to one ratio three to one ratio of times you're ordering tacos not total tacos consumed no total tacos consumed but to me that's a one-to-one what because what i just said i eat three tacos for like three tacos satisfies me the way one burrito does no for sure but i'm saying like if you go to a restaurant that offers burritos and tacos of roughly equivalent quality right so you're not going to like a taco specialist or a burrito specialist. You're going to, you know, what's the spot? Pink taco. Oh God, pink taco.

What a terrible example. I don't know. Well, yeah, but so, okay. God dang it. I don't know what else to say. You said the one over there and I know that way sunset. So I said, okay, pink taco.

Okay. Alfredos. I was talking about Alfredos in Burbank. You've never been to Alfredos. Alfredos. It reminds me of like the San Diego County style taquerias that do like the carne asada fries. I don't hang out in burbank you've never been to alfredo bro alfredo's it reminds me of like the san diego county style taquerias that do like the carne asada fries i don't hang out in burbank i don't i don't explore burbank no offense burbank i love the local burbank maxine seat okay say um

what's the pablitos pablitos tacos in burbank we we have we enjoy them we enjoy them yes are you going tacos or burritos always tacos always always oh. Always. Oh, that interesting. Okay. Let me tell you why. Please. Okay. Number one, when I like the individuality of a taco, it fits well in my hand. I enjoy it. I savor it. It drips a little bit, whatever. It's a little bit messy, but it's perfect bites each time, which I really enjoy. It's normally my taco order is, is taco, meat, salsa, a little bit of onion, a little bit of cilantro. That's my typical taco of choice. I'm soft.

What were you gonna ask me? Sorry, I just interrupt people. It's okay. Well, it's not interrupt. It's fine. You can interrupt me. I was gonna ask if you're ordering the same type of taco or if you always go for the variety because if that's important to you, I totally understand the argument.

Sometimes I'm a variety girl. Sometimes I just, you know, I just want straight up carne asada. Sometimes I straight up Just want chorizo When you Okay so um Tacos 1986 Is a great example Yeah

Of like they I mean they have multiple Good tacos right They do that That like mushroom asada Oh my god Their mushroom tacos Are the best thing

I've ever had In a long time It's really Or uh Sonoratown Where it's like Their carne asada Is like what you go to get

Yeah Like do you Do you veer off I'm trying to suss out If you are someone Who variety just means A lot to you, or are you just getting like four carne asada tacos and just hammering them home? Most of the time.

Okay, so my typical taco truck. Can I give you my taco truck order? What taco truck? Shout them out. Shout them out. I love El Chato. El Chato. El Chato is my number one.

Taco Zone is number two. And Leo's is number three. Those are my favorites. I always get a carne asada. I always get a pollo, and I always get a lengua. Those are the three I always get. And then I get cilantro and onion, and then I get a lot of radishes on the side, a lot of lime on the side. I love the escabeche.

Yeah. I don't always get the escabeche. I don't always do it. That's an appetizer for me. Yeah. The escabeche is that pickled carrot, jalapeno, onion. Correct. With the oregano in there. Dang. Yeah. It That's an appetizer for me. Nescafeche is that pickled carrot, jalapeno, onion. Correct. With the oregano in there.

Yeah, it's a good appetizer, but I don't like it to my, I don't think it accentuates my tacos. I think it takes away from my tacos. Fair enough. But yeah, I just get three of those and I'm satisfied. I'm sitting on the corner of the floor. No, I'm sitting in my truck. I'm sitting in the trunk, not in my truck. I'm sitting in my trunk.

I'm enjoying myself, listening to music, whatever. Like, a burrito does not happen. I can't do that with a burrito. Even if I'm at a restaurant, I can't just pick up an even helping baby and shove my mouth around. It's an eight-pound newborn burrito wrapped in foil. Yeah, I can't do that. Like, even like a burrito with, what is it called? Like, wet style?

Mojado style? Yeah, burrito mo style mojado yeah burrito mojado like there's no elegant way to eat that either there's no elegant way to eat a taco either but it's a little bit more it's it's easier to eat for me personally it's easier for me to consume it's easier for me to eat also a burrito is a lot of food taco it's a commitment a burrito is a commitment a burrito is a commitment and i you know's a commitment. And I, you know, I'm a Gemini. I have commitment issues. Everybody knows that anyways. And it just makes more sense for me to eat tacos.

Just makes like, maybe I want a little bit more hot sauce on this one. Maybe I want a little bit more lime on this one. Maybe, you know, I'm just going to go crazy and just eat it the way it is. Like, I don't, the burrito is too much for me to handle. I feel like when we started this out, you should have said, I like tacos because I'm a Gemini. And that's it. That's it. You're done.

Nicole, I used to be like you. And I need to know that. I used to be like you where I valued this variety in my life. And I would go to my favorite taco truck. And my favorite taco truck is Tacos Tomics. They used to park out in Palms by the Smart and Final. And I had a ritual. I would go. Taco Tomic, they got the best al pastor in the city. Oh my God, by the smart and final. And I had a ritual. I would go taco Tommy.

They got the best all pastore in the city. So much better than Leo's. I love Leo's. Leo's is fantastic. This is a bunch of insular LA taco knowledge, but know that Leo's, uh, they're open till like 3am and you would stop there after the bars and they would have this giant spit of all pastore on the open flame fire roaring. You can hear and smell the pork fat and pineapple sizzling on it.

There'd be a line of 50 people, but it's such a well-run operation, which is to me a huge part of like taqueria culture. It's gotta be really well-run. They got it just, I mean, the tortilla. The tortilla comes off the flat top, meat goes inside immediately. You're at the salsa bar in 30 seconds,

shoving it in your mouth. Yep. It's absolutely lovely. The weight should be eaten. But Tacos Tomics, they don't have all thelair uh and they don't have all the fanfare but they have the best al pastor marinade it is just so much warm spice in chili and pineapple and pork is beautifully fatty and stained red but i used to go there every wednesday after uh going to was it bigfoot lodge west here we go that's a bar Yeah, the one that is a cabin.

Yeah, it's like cabin themed. The one that is a cabin. It's a cabin. I have been there three times. So they used to have a trivia night that I would go to every single Wednesday. Shut up, really? It was so awesome. And they had $5 happy hour before like 8 p.m.

So you'd like load up on $5 old fashions in Manhattan. Sounds like fun. So I'd be a couple cocktails deep just on a Wednesday night doing the thing. And then we would always go to Tacos Tomics and I would get, you know, four Alpa store tacos. And so they're not quite as clockworky because they're a food truck. They don't have the outdoor operation. And so I would notice I would eat the first taco, beautiful, hot, styled to my liking. And then the second taco, a little less hot, you know?

And so you're eating through it. And then by the time you get to the fourth taco, it's just cold. One, you're like three, five dollar Manhattans deep. And so you don't really care. Yeah. But I made a decision one day, a very fateful day that I would get the Alpha Store burrito. Okay. Which is like, so in LA doesn't have, I mean, we obviously have a huge burrito culture,

but you know, people mostly accredit say the mission style burrito, which is what Chipotle copied, you know? Okay. You mean like mission, like San Francisco mission? Exactly. Yeah. So this was started at like El Far... Great Mexico know exactly oh my god that's my favorite yeah oh my god that is the best burrito i've ever had yes i ate a burrito there it was so good yeah so san

francisco in the mission district they have el farolito la taqueria there's like el toro bravo there's a couple other really big great burrito meccas in san francisco yeah but they put the rice the beans the sour cream the avocado all the sauces all that yep it's what chipotle copied they copied the mission style no idea yeah and so now that's become really popular but la like we don't necessarily have that and even if you go to san diego they got their own burrito culture um and i i do too i i grew up in uh oceanside for a time my dad lived there parents divorced spent summers there. You know, that whole song and dance.

But anyways, you know, I'd take $2.49 and I would go down to a place just called Toe's. Because in San Diego especially, there's like Alberto's, there's Albertacos, there's Albotros. There's all these Mexican restaurants that- Albatross. Yeah, I mean, it's Albatross. But this place is called toes and i and i would get you know they're like carne asada and potato burrito with the guac smeared on it it was dang point is la doesn't have like a huge burrito culture if you go into a taco truck you're

typically getting tacos yeah the you know i understand what you're saying but i still think there's a few restaurants that are like burrito well one of my my favorite restaurant and uh friend friend of the show uh burritos la palma yeah oh my gosh but anyways i got this al pastor burrito and i was worried that you wouldn't let the al pastor meat shine because it had rice and beans in this burrito and all this except every single bite of this was the best bite of anything i've had in my life and you can add hot sauces to the different bites. And then the rice just gives it like a warm hug. I know you're anti-rice in a burrito.

I am anti-rice in a burrito. But the rice just soaks up the hot sauce. You know, they got the four different salsas in the salsa bar. It's soaking up the habanero. It's soaking up the arbol. It's soaking up the tomatillo. Right, you're getting the crunchy onions in there. The beans are just this little velvet blanket

making the al pastor marinade travel across your palate. Nicole, what I'm saying is burritos are king because they are a warm hug inside your mouth hole. You don't even like hugging. Let burritos hug your mouth hole. You don't even like hugging. It's true. Every time I say it's like a warm hug,

it's just like in theory for me. Yeah, it's like in theory. Don't like human contact. Yeah, you hate hugs. Yeah, yeah, I refuse. We've known each other for like two years. I think we've hugged like once. I've never hugged you.

We've never hugged. I've only held your hand by force. Now it's too late to start. Now it's weird. I only forced you to hold my hand one time. Yeah, when was that? It was on the show. Yeah, it was weird.

It was on a show. I don't like it. It's sticky. Okay, let me. I'm the sticky one. I'm the sticky one. I'm always sticky. Yeah, you're transferring the sticky. Let me. Okay, let me. I'm the sticky one. I'm the sticky one. I'm always sticky. Yeah, you're transferring the sticky.

Let me. Okay, what about this? Okay. What happens whenever your burrito is an uneven burrito? Have you ever had an uneven burrito? Doesn't that anger you? Don't you just want to punch a wall whenever the guacamole is on the bottom and it's cold and it's making everything else cold?

I'm a bit of a pacifist. As far as like punching walls are concerned. No, but that is a very fair point. But I think with tacos and burritos, there's a certain amount of trust you need to have with the maker of it, right? Okay. Because things can ruin a taco like that. But I will say uneven burritos, I have a technique.

You ever seen the Karate Kid? No. Okay, so Daniel-san, right? So he raps Ralph Macchio. In the All Valley Karate Tournament, he gets hurt. And then this is a bit of- The crane? Well, there's the crane kick.

But before that, he gets hurt, and then this is a bit of... The crane? Well, there's the crane kick, but before that, he gets hurt and he can't go on, so Pat Morita, Mr. Miyagi, he kind of rubs his hand together in a mystical way, which this gets into some weird, like, orientalization stuff in movies in the 80s and Japanophilia. Okay. So, you know, it doesn't age that super well, but anyways, he rubs his hands together

and he kind of places them on Daniel, and he, like, magically heals him. I have a technique to do that, but with burritos that are uneven where i rub my hands together and then the like a pretty offensive japanese music plays and then i massage the insides of the burrito until they're even i swear to god i do no you don't i swear to god i've never seen you do this you never seen me burrito massage that's because i'm doing the bathroom fine i'm massaging my burrito in the bathroom i have three carne asada burritos right in the fridge and you can massage your heart chipotle i'm sorry they had to be they had the king asada burritos right in the fridge and you can massage them to your heart. Chipotle, I'm sorry.

They had to be. They had the king of uneven burritos. Also, Chipotle, I think, does give burritos a bad name and I would like to introduce the theory that Chipotle serves wraps and not burritos.

Okay, well, I don't have time for that. But you know you can ask for the Chipotle burritos mix. You've got to say, can you mix it a little bit? And they physically pick up the tortilla

and they go, we ma wobble. I know this because my friend's brother used to work there and he used to be like, yeah, sure. And then he would just like shimmy up. What else are you going to do? Mash it with your hands? I don't know.

What else can you do? What else can you do? But tacos. Okay. Let me tell you what it is. When you are a homeowner versus you rent an apartment. Okay. Yeah.

Burrito home. Big investment. True. True, true, true. Big big investment so anything can go wrong you know tacos smaller easier to manage so you're saying that you're you're gonna rent your whole life no no no no i'm not saying that i'm not saying that at all what about like a like a like a shared co-op townhome situation is that like a mulita it's a mulita okay that makes sense i understand i understand no no let me tell you it's just it's a commitment a burrito is a commitment and it's just too much and if i get a

burrito i'm gonna eat all of it i will eat yes from tip to toe i will eat every single i will suck the foil i don't care i'm crazy tacos uh it is a little you know it's a little bite i know what i'm doing i know what i'm getting and i'm not gonna overeat i don't have an off button when it comes to burritos when it it comes to Mexican food in general. I like even if I get like a plate, if I get a chile relleno with all of the rice and the beans, I'll eat all of it. And like tacos create a world where I don't need to overstuff myself with Mexican food. I can get however much I want and enjoy it and savor it. I know that, OK, I'm good.

Tacos are like a nice, light, healthy meal. Honestly, like when I'm like eating in my, what I consider my healthy phase, which is actually now I'm going to go home and I have flat meat marinating in just like a delicious carne asada marinade. Good. And I'm just going to eat just three carne asada tacos sluiced with guacamole. And to me, that's like, that's like the most, like the closest I come to a diet meal. Yeah. Are carne asada tacos.

Tacos are like your go-to. Yeah. I've noticed. I mean, like when I am just super hungry, like I'm a bigger person. I'm like a 215-pound gentleman. There is no burrito in the world, Nicole, that can stop me. I'm serious. I ate a six-pound burrito from El Tapayac in under 10 minutes.

That's crazy. That's six pounds of food. I mean, it was just. Did you get your picture on the wall? No. They gave me a t-shirt, I think. That's nice of them. I ate a pound of Yogurtland after.

Oh, did you throw up? Yeah, but also because I drank. Josh. I didn't throw up. I didn't like binge drink. I just like, I had a couple of beers. I was like, I was trying to calm my stomach down. Oh my God.

But then you had the pound of dairy, six pounds of burrito, and like a couple of Modellos on top of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's just gonna, because the Modello starts. Vomitar. Vomitar. Because the Modello starts frothing against the Yogurtland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's just gonna, because the Modello starts- Vomitar. Vomitar. Because the Modello starts frothing against the yogurt land.

Yeah, yeah, it makes total sense. It was actually, as far as the throw up experience, it was more pleasant than it could have been. Yeah, sometimes that happens. You need the yogurt land to coat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally know what you mean.

Okay, another point I have against burritos. Okay, until I started working here, I did not know the art of rolling a burrito. So also like sometimes my fingers get like weird and like stay in a certain position don't know is that arthritis i don't know but like it's hard does nicole have arthritis this is a hot dog sandwich my stance yeah i think so you look like you get what have arthritis you're so embarrassed i embarrass myself and then you allow me to become more embarrassed but like it like, it's just the folding and like, it's an effort.

Like the taco, all you got to do is, okay, so this is how I warm up my tacos before I dress them. So I literally turn on the flame. I put the taco down and then it gets hot. On open flame? On an open flame on the burner. On the burner. And then I flip it and then I eat it. Like the whole burrito takes a lot longer.

You got to put it on. You got to griddle it. You can't grill it too much because then it gets too crispy. And then what happens when it gets too crispy? You got to start all over again. What happens whenever it's not griddled enough? It starts to break because it's still raw.

Like what is that? I feel like there is, I think, a deceptive skill to burrito rolling. And I think anyone who has been to, I mean, we just talked about the whole Chipotle thing. But anyone who has seen the quality drop in Chipotle rolling skills. Oh, big time. Right?

Knows, I mean, people are just wrapping it into these like square diapers. So there's a skill to it. But I mean, that's why I do love specific like burrito specialists. Like you go to La Azteca Tortilleria and you get the Chile Rano Burrito. And to me, that is a masterclass in burrito architecture. And something that has, I mean, as much skill as, you know, say the best taco and the people who are making the best, you know, organic, freshly nixtamalized corn tortillas in LA.

To me, I have so much reverence for the burrito artisans of the world. And burritos La Palma is actually funny. I mean, one, we have to talk about the fact that there is a, when I say a large subset of people, I mean, Bill Esparza, a dude who we used to write together at LA Magazine who very strongly believes that a burrito is a taco. I think belief is even an understatement. Like, he will just state it as fact that burrito is a regional name for a type of taco. Okay. I mean, I'm not going to argue that.

Like, I think they're similar enough that, I mean, he seems like if he was a writer like no I mean I know you're a writer too but like if he wrote books about like Mexican food in LA this is who he is and like if he states it like I have no choice but to believe him agreed because it's it's what he knows and what he knows best but I like Josh it's just so hard for me to roll the burrito myself have you been to burritos La Palma yes so burritos La Palma I mean those are they're they're quite small for what we would consider burritos yes and Have you been to Burritos La Palma? Yes. So Burritos La Palma, I mean, those are, they're quite small for what we would consider burritos. Yes. And I actually used to think that they were doing a regional style of burrito because a lot of people think that the burrito is like an American invention, which it's not. I mean, the name, the etymology is all kind

of shady. Burrito, obviously, it's the diminutive form of burro, which means donkey. Some people think it's because an early vendor who was serving agricultural workers rode in on a donkey and carried, you know, these bigger meals and a flour tortilla. So they stayed warmer for the workers and whatnot. Interesting. Okay. Some people think it's because it looks like the rolled packs on a donkey. What was I talking about? Well, you said a few things. Oh, burritos at La Palma. Oh, burritos at La Palma.

Yeah, burritos at La Palma. Yeah, we're talking about etymology. ADD work and overdrive today. Yeah, you were talking about etymology, and then you started talking about burritos at La Palma, and you were like, did you have it? And I said, yeah. That's right.

I was saying that a lot of people think that burritos are an American invention, but they were. They're not. No, they were invented in Mexico, and they've been growing wheat in the state of Sonora for the last 500 years. Correct. And then different parts of Mexico. I know in Baja, in Ensenada, flour tortillas are really big.

One of my favorite burritos, they actually call it a burrita. It's from... Feminine? Burrita, si. Happy International Women's Day is what we're recording today. Josh gave me $16.50. Yeah, I didn't know how to support women on today because everyone on Twitter just seems to be really bungling it,

so I just Venmoed Nicole and V. Yeah, that was a good idea. I don't know. Support your local women out here. I'm going to get some. Maggie, I'll Venmo you too. I'm sorry. This is the first time we've seen each other today.

Point is, burritos are authentic Mexican food in a lot of regions. Some people in Mexico may not have grown up with them, of course, but they've been like co-opted by the taco bells and the del tacos of the world yeah however burritos de palma is my single favorite bite of food nelly they're chicharron burrito chicharron just the chicken tinga with the potato changed my life that's my fourth favorite burrito burritos de palma and it is still one of the best that's my fifth favorite burrito in fact i will show it shall we rank them yeah okay number one chicken tinga number two birria number three don't remember number four i don't know number five bean and cheese bean and cheese bean and cheese the bean and cheese is okay yeah it's chicken tinga it's birria con queso it's the

bean and cheese and then it's the chicharron desabrada is their other one i i didn't care for it yeah yeah i'm gonna be honest i didn't really care for it but the point is they they originally came from um zacatecas mexico and i always thought that they were doing that's where their original restaurant was located okay i always thought they were doing a regional style of burrito okay that was from zacatecas but it's just like their own thing pretty much they kind of just like invented these small little like rolled burritos on their, you know, homemade flour tortillas

which are freaking fantastic, but they are the size of tacos, right? If you just unfurled those, it would be a taco de guisado. You go down to another taqueria like Asadero Chicali, which also makes some of the best flour tortillas and guisados. God, I'm, God, I love tacos. You ate my guisado i just yelled i

love tacos as i'm arguing pro burritos yeah i don't know what you're talking about man me neither but anyway what i'm saying is like the forms are indistinguishable sometimes a small enough burrito is very indistinguishable from a taco it's only the tuck tips just tuck the tip just tuck the tip nicole why is this confusing to you it's not confusing to me I just I have a preconceived notion of a burrito and a burrito is a burrito a taco is a taco man and the two things

are different for me but I understand they fall under the same umbrella and they can be used interchangeably if you choose to believe so if you choose to believe so yeah

I just like tacos man they're easier for me I'm a I know I love I love effort I love putting in a little extra bit of pizzazz i just it's tacos it's always tacos it's always been tacos the thing that a burrito can never

hit because a taco can be on flour or corn tortillas right a burrito like by definition you can't actually i just read a story about it on a corn tortilla yeah like a corn there's just no there's no gluten in corn so like a pure corn tortilla won't make the full fold. Although I just came across a headline that said someone was doing a corn tortilla burrito. Maybe it's a fusion. Maybe they put a little bit of flour, a little bit of corn to give it a little bit of derp. I don't think it's cheating. I think it's ingenuity.

It's ingenuity, Josh. Ingenuity. Ingenuity by Nicole. Is that my perfume? Yeah. It smells like trunk tacos. What are trunk tacos? are trunk tacos trunk tacos trunk tacos

not Trump's taco salad which was one of the most the funniest the only truly funny thing to come out of that whole presidency was the taco salad

at Trump Tower with him thumbs upping saying we love Hispanics and eating the least Mexican dish in the world

that's probably like a $25 salad yeah you know exactly what that tastes like do you know how much sour cream is on that thing yeah it has no business And eating the least Mexican dish in the world. That's probably like a $25 salad. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know exactly what that tastes like. Do you know how much sour cream is on that thing? Yeah, it has no business being $25. No, no, no.

Let me just tell you that. But yeah, if I wasn't doing this, I would probably be an abnormal sexual psychologist. And if I wasn't doing that, I'd probably be in the perfume industry. I'd be a paranormal sexual psychologist. I'd be hunting down sexy ghost stories, you know. Why? Trying to find out what I'm saying is

always bullying me I'm saying that the only thing I truly miss in terms of tacos or spritos is the beauty of the best corn tortilla you've ever had

which can be otherworldly and there's so many places doing awesome corn tortillas sure in LA I mean from the high high end

you guys go down to guys like Carlos Salgado at Taco Maria who are making these like beautiful blue corn tortillas. All the dudes at Masienda at Colonel of Truth. But I mean, even before that, I mean, I remember eating Guisados was like one of the first just like fresh made corn tortillas that wasn't made from like Maseca, which is like the pre-made masa stuff. And it was like otherworldly.

And that beauty of the corn is something i miss with a burrito but god they're just so satisfying like what i imagine people experience when they hug other people because i don't but what i imagine they experience that's what my mouth experiences no no i don't know what it is it's over have you ever been hugged by someone and it's overwhelming that's what a burrito is to me when someone hugs you too long you're just like and your hands like the shortest of hugs are overwhelming no no it's like someone's hugging you for a long time and they're like they're like they're like squeezing their nose in your eye and you're just like oh my god like and your hands are to the side you're just like get off of me like that's what a burrito

is to me sometimes it's overbearing it's too much for me to handle but a burrito is a palma burrito isn't for too much for me to handle because it's in a cute compact size. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's just I'm talking about like the ease of eating. Well, also some people would disagree with me and say that a burrito is much easier to eat than a taco. I do believe that. So I mean, one, we should talk about like fast food burritos and tacos. Yeah. One time I had an El Pollo Loco burrito that had the french fries in it.

And it was really easy to eat. And I really enjoyed it. And I ate in my car and I was just like to eat and i really enjoyed it and i ate in my car and i was just like zoom zoom and i was eating it was great yeah el pollo they started doing tapatio flavored french fries have you had them that's the one i had that's the one you had is it good so i had chicken i think i think i said no rice it was chicken it was beans it was tapatio french fries and nacho cheese bro and and you couldn't get that in a taco it wouldn't make sense it wouldn't make sense it was wouldn't make sense in a taco. It was a fantastic.

But the bottom, what happened to the bottom, Josh? What happened to the bottom? Did it unfurl? Did it roll? Did it get sawed through? All the sour cream was located in the butt. Sour cream was on the butt. And I didn't like that.

Well, have you ever had someone really screw up a taco, like griddle the tortilla for too long? So it's almost like, and it's like a mission pre-made tortilla. So it's kind of waxy and crappy. even at that point i can soak it in salsa and it fixes itself it's a fair point it fixes itself burritos don't have that ability to to to you know be versatile enough to fix themselves once you screw it up you screw it up and that's it and you can't open it and refix it you've you've made your bed now you gotta lie in it burritos are about consistency for better or worse.

Tacos are about innovation and variety. Yeah, and I'm all about innovation and variety. What's funny is I typically am too, but I think I find enough innovation and variety

within my own burrito eating experiences. Nicole, you've seen me eat a meal. More than once. It's probably pretty upsetting sometimes the way I do it. The way you ate your egg

this morning, you made soup egg and it was great. Yeah, I made a, I toasted toast in a pan and then that got scorching hot. And then I just threw some eggs in there and I very unceremoniously flopped them on top of a piece of bread. I folded in half to all the yolk exploded, but I put a hot sauce on it and I soaked it all up. Yeah. Anyways, what I'm saying is I really enjoy playing with my food in that sense. So every time I sit down to a meal, especially a burrito, I literally will take

six to seven bottles of hot sauce and I will just unload different hot sauces on each bite so to me i'm almost creating that variety within a tent pole of consistency right and that's what i want yes yes yes yes yes yes so i think nicole you and i are more similar than different i don't think so i think we're very different you just like people hugging you and my body goes through like physical convulsions when it happens. I love being hugged. I love a reassuring touch on the shoulder. I church hug.

I've been informed that I church hug. I hook around, and I do not let my body touch anyone. But why? Hugs are so lovely. Nah, it's gross. Hugs are so nice. I don't want people to feel my heat. Yeah, what do you mean?

You share the warmth. It's nice. But you ever hug someone, and then they hug you, and then they push you in? Have you ever hugged someone, and they go like, ugh? No, I don't like that. Also, people tend to shy away from me when I try and hug them. So it's created a sort of whirlpool effect of neither of us wanting to hug the other. And that's the way I prefer it.

Just the way I prefer burritos over tacos. I don't know, man. I like tacos and I like hugs. So if you see me, don't give me a hug. Just ask and then also give me a taco. Yeah, if you ever think about hugging me, give me a burrito instead. That'd be really advisable, I think. I think we'd both get out of that one feeling better.

I don't know, man. I mean, at the end of the day, like, I am staunch in my waist. Is that the right word? Staunch? Yeah, yeah. I'm staunch. I am staunch. You're a staunch taco supporter.

I'm a staunch taco supporter. Are there any other because we mentioned like mulitas okay because that that i mean like julia is a quesadilla fiend i cannot that's how i courted that's how i courted julia was i would like i remember once i was going under going over to her apartment it was maybe like our fourth or fifth date things had started to get a little bit serious yeah and we're planning on going out out with our friends and I brought over just a thing of tortillas and a pound of shrimp and a block of Monterey Jack cheese.

Wow. And she was like, why do you have raw shrimp with you showing up to a person on like the fourth time? And I was like, you're going to see, you're going to see later. And then like, you know,

2 a.m. rolls around and I'm in there frying up shrimp. In her house? In her house, yeah, in her apartment, deglazing with Chipotle. You cooked shrimp in your house? Yeah, dude,

I made her like a Chipotle shrimp quesadilla at two in the morning. Sheila, you cook shrimp in the house? In her house, yeah, in her apartment, deglazing with Chipotle. You cooked shrimp in your house? Yeah, dude, I made her like a Chipotle shrimp quesadilla at two in the morning. Sheila, you cook shrimp in the house? Yeah, I always cook shrimp. Yeah, that's a special moment we have. Love you, Julia. I don't know if I went on a date with someone for the first time and I said, hey, honey, here's a bag of raw shrimp you'll see in a few hours when this is about. Yeah, Nicole.

I would run, I'd be like, get the heck out of my house and I'd keep the shrimp. You use physical intimacy like hugs to show love. I use a pound of shrimp. And that is where we really differ. I love quesadillas. There was a period of time

during culinary school when my palate was just so overloaded with foods and like different things that I would just go home in like a daze. I smelled like cigarette smoke and I had stains all over my shirt and I would just go home and like a daze. I smelled like cigarette smoke

and I had stains all over my shirt and I would just literally take a tortilla, flop it, put cheese on it, flop it, put it in the microwave, put it back into the toaster oven. Oh no. And I would eat it and then I'll go to bed. Like I did that ritual for about three months.

I went through a weird phase where all I would do is get um organic corn tortillas just because i really like them like the the good quality stuff yeah and i would get like refried beans in a can and i'd add a couple dashes of hot sauce and water microwave them and then just use the tortilla as a claw to swipe beans and just suck it down and i was eating that like three days a week yeah just just out of like you said your palate gets overloaded we're cooking so much crazy stuff here yeah but sometimes it's like i don't need anything but the promise of, like you said, your palate gets overloaded. We're cooking so much crazy stuff here. Sometimes it's like I don't need anything but the promise of just like bean and tortilla or cheese and tortilla. Totally.

I think it's beautiful. Yeah, I think in the tacos versus burritos battle, quesadillas win. Really? Oh, my God. I love quesadillas. No, I think to me, I think you're limited by the, oh, God, I do want a lobster quesadilla right now. I love quesadillas. All right, quesadilla, you are officially crowned the champion.

You can put anything in a quesadilla. You could put avocados in a quesadilla. You could put squash blossoms in a quesadilla. I've been on real big quesadilla. You're going to do that. Shrimp and quesadilla. I knew it. I knew it.

I knew it. I do think, okay, I don't know. I love quesadillas, but I'm still a taco girl through and through. I will hold fast in, I don't know. I love quesadillas, but I'm still a taco girl through and through. I will hold fast in my varied burrito relationship. There are so many burritos that I love. Shout out to Cilantro Mexican Grill up

in North Hollywood. Shout out to Pablito's Taco. Shout out to the Carne Asada Burrito at Corner Deli and Grill on the west side. The one that's in the Chevron? I don't know what you're talking about, dude. I got a whole list of gas station burritos that slap in LA We'll talk after Slack it to me

We'll talk after Nicole you No you say it this time Nicole we've heard what you and I have to say Now it's time to find out what wacky ideas Are rattling around there in the Twitterverse Twitter in the Twitterverse It's time for a segment we call

Opinions are like casserole i'm sorry i i had it i thought you crushed it twitter voice twitter voice hey nicole we heard what you and i had to say all right all right first up we got the real shamil craft mac and cheese should be outlawed for crimes against cheese. I'm all for outlawing things that you don't personally like. Like, I think we should ban raw celery. I think anyone who eats raw celery in the home, you know, should just be sort of like rounded up in a paddy wagon. What about celery juice?

Oh, celery juice as well. I love celery juice. It's got to be cooked. It's got to be braised celery juice. No, I understand, though. Kraft mac and cheese, it has a very chemical taste. Like if you're someone who's only eaten real cheese and then you eat that, obviously there is, quote, unquote, real cheese in there.

It's dehydrated and powdered, et cetera. But it's got a very unique, like, nutritional, yeasty, chemically taste. Absolutely. Along with the food dye, which I believe now is just paprika extract and turmeric because they got the food dye out of it. I can see how someone would think this, but also it's such a nostalgic flavor for me that I love it. Yeah, I love Kraft mac and cheese.

I don't think it should be outlawed at all. I think it should be given a Medal of Honor. So, opposite. Chop up some Hebrew natties in there? No, I never did that, but I did put a lot of buffalo sauce on it and green onions. Oh, that's smart. That's smart. Okay. Mariah wears cook socks, says chewy chips ahoy suck.

I love these. I ate so many chewy chips ahoy at my best friend Deep's house in high school. They're like, they're addictive. And the way they do it. So good. Have you really Googled how they do? No, I don't care. I want the mystery.

I want the mystery. I don't care. I don't care. You don't want me to tell you? Fine, I'll leave the mystery. No, no, fine. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.

But I'm saying you make a cookie that's chewy and then you wait a couple days and then it becomes like hard, right? Like that's, you know, cookies, they'll like harden as they dehydrate and stuff. Yes. Yeah. But these, it's literally a different type of sugar. It's like using dextrose versus sucrose versus fructose. Yeah.

One of them like will maintain a chewy texture. Very cool. For a long time. Yeah. I, again, this is another very chemically food to me that is also very delicious. Chewy Chips Ahoy. What a lovely texture. Delicious.

One of my favorites. Also, Normal Chips Ahoy. They're good, man. I don't like Normal Chips Ahoy. No, too crunchy for me. Tate's? Yeah, Tate's are crispy and buttery. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Famous Amos. Oh, my God. Debbie used to bring Famous Amos to every day, and I would steal a cookie. Favorite prepackaged cookie, though. Ginger Snaps. And also. You're alone on that one. Smart and final.

They got a great brand of Ginger Snaps. First Street Ginger Snaps. I'm a big Lotus Biscoff cookie. Oh. Those are good. Yeah. One time, Mint Milano. Oh, Those are good. Yeah. One time, mint Milano. Oh, yeah.

Sign me up. Well, I resent Milano's because the rich pretty kids in my school would bring them. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that. All right.

We got at Natty Moore. French toast is best eaten smothered with cheese whiz and maple syrup. Well, this makes me vaguely sick to think about. Yeah, me too. It makes my tummy go,

woo, not a good way. French toast is is well nicole we talked about doing this for the podcast but decided there is no great way to sort of communicate it and we don't think anyone cares but us no no no but you know i'm talking about the french toast thing french toast is custard no i believe french toast the bare minimum is let's have this let's have this argument right now let's do it okay fine i don't care i don't know me this is my whole day yeah i think yeah do it not hugging yes so the bare minimum is is is bread that has been dredged in whisked egg that's it yes why that's the bare minimum okay but i realized what about milk okay it needs to be with milk or cream or half and half or almond milk and egg i i think that you may be right. And I realized I have a skewed version on this because my family

is from South Africa, right? And apparently South Africa, they eat, someone correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm sure I am, I believe called eggy bread, which is literally just, you know, egg and bread. But I grew up eating that and my grandma called it French toast because that was kind of like her American translation. But eggy bread is served. And we used to eat this eggy bread. I would put maple syrup on it because I thought it was French toast. But then it's really just bread, eggs, and maple.

But I was talking to, shout out to Grant Muirhead, my old gym buddy who's from Durban, South Africa. And he was talking about this and he was like, yeah, mate, we put ketchup on it. That's not how Grant sounds. I just wanted to say that. But they put ketchup on eggy bread. And he told me about when he went to New York for the first time, he put maple syrup on, or someone served maple syrup with French toast, and he was so confused because he was like, this is eggy bread.

You're supposed to put ketchup on it. No. Yeah, so I now understand that this is just a cultural mix-up on my bad. Yeah. Say sorry. I'm sorry. Venmo me a dollar. Oh, Venmo you another dollar.

God, jeez. I'm broke out here. Okay. Yeah, this. Venmo me a dollar. Oh, Venmo you another dollar. God, jeez. I'm broke out here. Okay. Yeah, this does not sound good at all, and I wouldn't do this. I just wouldn't do this. No. No, cheese with maple syrup. That does not appeal to me at all.

T.S. Hokita 95 says plain Lay's chips. Wait, hold on. Plain Lay's chips dipped in mustard. Okay. Yeah. No, I've done that before. That sounds like a nice little low-fat, low-carb dipping sauce. I don't get it, but okay. It's funny. I know a lot of athletes and bodybuilder-type people, and when they're

trying to cut and stuff, if I'm ever looking for a calorie-free condiment, hot sauce to me is the way to go, right? Citrus, herbs, chilies. It's great, calorie-free, you know, healthy old thing. Totally. But I know a weird amount of people, a buddy, Nick Scarvell, he's a pro shot putter. He would just carry around a thing of mustard and he would like squirt mustard on his rice.

But anyways, I started just doing that. I started dipping weird things in mustard because I saw him putting it on rice. Yeah, it's pretty tasty, you know? A lot of people do that. A lot of people that are health conscious and they're trying to like cut, do that. Mustard is nice. Yeah, mustard is good. I dig on mustard. Yeah, it's pretty tasty. A lot of people do that. A lot of people that are health conscious and they're trying to like cut do that. Mustard is nice.

Yeah, mustard is good. I'd dig on mustard. Dip some chips in mustard. Also mustard is like, it's one of those things, it gets paired with ketchup and hot dogs so much that people sort of denigrate it for how complex of a condiment it is.

Totally. There's so much more than just yellow American ballpark mustard. Yeah. Yeah. Grey Poupon. All right, we got a fun, a fun leashed, our cake donuts, donuts, or just mini Bundt right. We got a fun leashed.

Are cake donuts donuts or just mini Bundt cakes? I've talked about this before. I don't know. I don't know where I stand on this anymore. I used to say that cake donuts are not donuts. That a donut has to be a yeast risen dough. And that cake donuts satisfy an entirely different thing. But then you get into crullers, right?

Because crullers are pate a choux. But they're all served at donut shops. So cake donuts, which is like a wet batter that's fried i don't know i consider a cake donut a donut it's in the shape of a donut what's the shape of a donut uh round with a hole so so you're telling me a maple bar is not a donut uh it's a bar you're saying a maple bar is not a donut but a cake donut is yeah gtf the all the way out of here i can't i work here here. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, actually don't leave. We have a lot of stuff to do. Yeah, I got a lot of stuff to do.

Please stay. Please stay. But no, this might be something where we have to go a whole podcast into because, I mean, you don't think so. I mean, there are all these different types of dough. What links them all together? I mean, it's just fried dough.

It's all fried dough. A donut. Then you're talking about elephant ears. What about a funnel cake? Is a funnel cake a donut? You're not letting me speak. Sorry, I'm sorry. Happy International Women's Day.

I think a bar, I think a maple bar is fried dough. I think a donut is a fried dough. I think cake donuts are a sect of donut. Do you think the shape of a donut has to be round for it to be a donut? No, it doesn't have to be, but I prefer it to be. So the donut is like the phylum. Oh, no. I just realized I don't know science.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know where you're going and we should talk about this on the podcast. Elms 7346 says, scrambled eggs taste better with peanut butter, salt and pepper mixed in to give creaminess. I think we tried something similar like this with sriracha and it didn't really work.

No, it's something that I love putting peanut butter in a lot of things. And recently I've just started putting tahini in a bunch of things because I. Oh, yeah. It's so hard to buy a small amount of tahini. Yeah, possibly. Got to buy the big jar. You got to buy the big $14 side F1. And so I've just been tossing it and everything.

I made like a tahini hot sauce. It was really lovely. So I'm down to try some like tahini and fine herbs scrambled eggs. But the peanut butter and eggs didn't really work for me sounds gross um yeah it's not my thing but i i do love the fact that people will put peanut butter in anything yeah and peanut butter hot dog not bad i would i would want to thin the peanut butter out with a little hot dog water first though at noel underscore vitality you think i'm kidding i ain't kidding boiling hard boiled eggs for too long doesn't actually matter do you want to take this? You go.

Okay. You're talking about the gray? Okay. Yeah, we're talking about the gray. The gray little, what do you want to call it? The ring of death. It's a gray ring of death. Yeah, the sulfur-y ring of death.

So it does matter because the sulfur, I believe, releases, and it creates this ring, and it makes an unpleasant eggy smell and taste. I grew up in a home that all of my eggs, all of the eggs had a gray film around them. All of them. Every single darn hard-boiled egg I had had a gray freaking film on it. But then I learned, oh, my God, like you can take it out in like 10 minutes and it's like totally delicious and beautiful and yellow and perfectly cooked in the center and it tastes good. Wow. I used to think it didn't matter until I had a perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg.

And then I was like, oh, that's what this thing is supposed to taste like. Yeah. I don't know. I'd have to, like, actually double-check the Googling on the science of the thing because I feel like there may be something that we don't know about egg chemistry and whatnot. But from my personal experience, yeah, just boiling them forever and ever. It's almost like meat. Like, you can over-braise meat to the point where it's so tender

that it almost becomes dry in a way. Yes. You know, it kind of turns into like chewing gum in your teeth and you suck all the liquid out and you still got this like meat pulp. So I think you can't over cook hard boiled eggs.

At Urban underscore Hobbit, as a former New Jerseyan, I just want more anger about Tony Bologna's. What is Tony Bologna's? Tony Bologna's makes the most viral food on Instagram. Really?

Like Insider, you know, Food Insider, Thrillist, all these places that traffic in food virality. Oh, this guy with the crazy pizzas? Yeah, they'll make like, they were the ones that made a pizza box out of pizza crust. Oh my God. They put like 50 tacos and a bunch of guacamole on a pizza. Yum. We talked about him in our food Instagram video. I think, I don't want to speak

for you but i think we probably both look at him and be like good good job you did it like this is the hustle i really appreciate the work he does and also a lot of it looks really freaking good he did the thing where he like wrapped and the semantics of a lot of his things get a little bit murky because he's like taking a whole pizza and he's like wrapping up like a chicken parm sandwich in it and he's calling calling it a burrito and stuff. But that said, he has a sandwich right now that is a bone-in beef rib in a hoagie roll. That's his sandwich?

That's his sandwich, and you remove the bone. Oh my God, what a satisfying sandwich. Genius. Tony Bologna, I mean, love him or hate him, genius, makes very craveable-looking food. Really does. You may think it's leading to the downfall of Rome. I just think I want to put that freaking beef rib sandwich in my mouth.

Me too. But I'm mad too, as someone who's heard of New Jersey. Yeah, me too. I'm mad about it. Oh, this next one's good, Nicole. Irvina A6 says imitation crab is the most underrated protein. Yeah. I think it's underrated too.

I will snack on the sticks. I snack on the sticks. I eat them like a string cheese. Surimi does not get enough love, man. It doesn't. It really doesn't. What is it? It's typically like pollock or a fish. A very heavily fished, yeah, pollock.

That's like, you know, pretty much like ground down and processed with like sugar and salt and delicious things. And yeah, food diet would give it that kind of orange. But God, is it just delicious. It's really delicious. And it's what keeps my California rolls at $2.49 from Sushi Stop. I love Sushi Stop. So I agree. Yes, this is a very, very good opinion.

Well done. No food's imitation. No food is fake if I can eat it. If I can eat it, that's real food. This ain't imitation crab. This is kanikama. Just call it, what's kanikama? I think kanikama

is a more accurate name for it. I think that's the mixture that you'd put in a California roll. Oh, okay. I just call it surimi. Just don't call me late for dinner. My dad always said that. I never knew what it meant.

I'm hungry. You just ate a salad with your son? Exactly. Salad isn't food. You know, it's like drinking coffee doesn't hydrate you.

Like eating salad doesn't make you less hungry. It does. Salad's not food. Next time on the podcast, salad's not food. It's like, it's like drinking coffee doesn't hydrate you. Like eating salad doesn't make you less hungry. It does. Salad's not food. Next time on the podcast, salad's not food. It's like a water. It's like going to a drinking fountain. And on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich.

If you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions or Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or nhendizadeh with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. For more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube at Mythical Chef or nhendizadeh with the hashtag OpinionCastro. For more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week.

And of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at Mythical Kitchen. See you next time. Let's go get tacos. Yeah, oh my god. you