A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Tenders vs. Nuggets

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

Not all crispy fried chicken bits were created equal, but which one comes out on top? 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. Everyone knows that not all crispy fried chicken bits were created equal, but which one comes out on top? Today we discuss Tendi's First Nuggets. 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, 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 Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaiti. And, Nicole, today we're discussing two monoliths in the fried chicken industry. Why are you pitting two queens against each other?

Because we have to, because that is the entire point of our pointless podcast. Yeah, but, you know, why you got to make a girl pick? Well, no, but I mean, between nuggets and tenders, I will never forget the first time I was actually faced with this practical decision. I was at a it was a Chinese Navajo restaurant. Chinese Navajo restaurant? Yeah, I don't know exactly. Where'd you find that one? It was somewhere outside the Grand Canyon in like one of those little towns on the way.

And gosh, I wish I could like go back and actually interview them and write some sort of story because it must be a very fascinating tale. However, I ordered the sweet and sour chicken and they asked me, would you like tenders or nuggets? Oh, yeah. So what I think what was happening is that they were just taking pre-made chicken nuggets and pre-made tenders and then kind of tossing them in sweet and sour sauce with maybe a bell pepper or two.

premade tenders and then kind of tossing them in sweet and sour sauce with maybe a bell pepper or two. But I had never I had never been faced with this decision before in my life from a practical standpoint until then. And I will never forget my decision. I said tenders and I never looked back because I from this day forward and that day forward have always chosen tenders and will always choose tenders. But I don't know how resolute I am with that. I feel like I am maybe looking to be a chicken nugget convert. I love chicken nuggets so much. You're the nugget queen. Chicken nuggets is like my family.

I love chicken nuggets. Okay, I mean, why though? Can you break down the difference between chicken nuggets and tenders? Sure, definitely. Probably linked to my childhood. Good times after dance class, my mom would take me to McDonald's and I would get a Happy Meal and I had four had four piece chicken mcnuggets and you know that sparks joy and uh i don't know it's just the texture of it i love the spongy texture it's like a meatball but breaded and fried well it's not like a meatball it is a meatball it is pretty good a chicken nugget is a meatball that's for

another podcast another time it's just it's just flat it's crispy it's crunchy and the meat is so soft because it has so many other things other than meat inside of it. And sometimes they come in star shapes. Sometimes they come in round shapes. And sometimes they come in boot, bell, ball, and bone shapes. Wait, if people don't know the boot, bell, ball, and bone thing, please explain because I didn't know this until you told me. McDonald's has four stamps, and it is the boot, the bell, the bone, and the ball. And those are just the shapes of the chicken nuggets, man.

It's so funny because looking back, you look at a four-piece of McDonald's nuggets, and none of them are uniquely shaped. And like you said, they are, but they aren't almost. So you said Carl's Jr. has the star nuggets. You look at that and go, that's a weird, that's a star. But then you look at McDonald's and you think, oh, these were hand-formed. You know they're not, but they're all just slightly misshapen. You're like, that one a little bit looks like the state of Indiana. That's a star. But then you look at McDonald's and you think like, oh, these were hand formed. You know they're not. But they're all just like slightly machimed.

You're like, that one a little bit looks like the state of Indiana. That's intentional though. You know what I mean? I know. I think that's like some weird, like they probably hired a psychologist that specializes in like food nature. Because, you know, my friend actually, Debbie wanted to do that for a second. She wanted to work as a psychologist for brands for like Fortune 500 companies and be like the psychologist behind it. And I'm pretty sure

they were like let's make it look like they're hand shaped so people think that they're hand shaped. Not that I don't know if that's true or not. I mean one you should have been a food psychologist. That would have been awesome. Maybe that's like a second act for you. Are you telling me I'm

fired? No I'm saying like when the time comes we'll have an amicable step. No, but no, there is so much psychology that goes into stuff like that. And that to me speaks a little bit to why I've always chosen tenders over nuggets. Okay. Because nuggets are these mass produced things. Anytime there's psychology involved in food, it is typically preying on children. You know what I mean?

Of course. I mean, I've seen supersize me. I know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a big thing. It's like using bright colors to attract kids. You know what I mean? Of course. I mean, I've seen Super Size Me. I know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a big thing. It's like using bright colors to attract kids. You think of certain breakfast cereals.

They do that. And so for me, I always associated nuggets with like child food. And ever since I was a kid, I wanted to break out of that. Right. I was never the kid that like leaned into kids menu stuff. Interesting. So I would see something on the kids menu and be like, no, I am seven years old. I am probably the size of an adult person because I was a large kid.

I would like the steak or whatever. Interesting. And so for me, when I was presented with that fateful choice that one day this Navajo Chinese restaurant that looking back, I really wish I would have asked questions. But again, I was a child and I chose tenders. I was making a political choice, Nicole. I guess. political choice, Nicole. I guess. I was making a political choice saying that I am of age to enjoy

non-processed chicken that is from a whole breast strip that is again tossed in your delicious sugar sauce with maybe a bell pepper. But like the thing is like the option of chicken nuggets versus tenders are never on a menu. I've never seen it on a menu. But I mean now fast food restaurants a lot of them are getting into both.

Okay. And so you're kind of like a McDonald's I'm thinking about like sit down casual like when are you ever at a restaurant they're gonna make would you like chicken like on the menu there's either chicken tenders or there's chicken nuggets they're never both on the same menu unless you had a chinese navajo restaurant outside of the grand canyon i guess that is true i always wonder why because there's such a big lean into nostalgia right sure especially i mean not like fancy fancy restaurants but you know kind of upmarket restaurants where, you know, places will charge $15 for a bacon jam, grilled cheese, whatever. Yeah. Type of thing like that.

A lot of people have gotten into sort of like fancy, well-made chicken tenders, but not a lot of people are doing nuggets. Because nugget, you can't mess up a good thing, you know, like chicken tenders. I think you can and you should. I mean, the burger. I mean, chicken tenders, they're just and you should i mean the burger i mean chicken tenders they're just it's just all white meat natural chicken like when i think of chicken tenders on a menu i think of a fast food restaurant trying to you know get the parents to go yeah i think they're all white meat no additives and then the kids are just like i want the processed meat goo give me the nuggets give me the nuggets nuggets. So there's like this weird, like, again, psychology where chicken tenders are more high class.

Chicken nuggets are more low class or for kids. But as someone who is a low class individual, you'd think that I would be more into nuggets than I currently am. Not a low class. I am a low class, what we would call a low value individual. Not like a ton of like the food psychologists who target me, they would be like, well, he doesn't seem to have a lot of self-respect. And I feel like he could probably spend money on anything. So if we're really talking about the difference between nuggets and tenders, right? So chicken tenders, literally the term tender comes from the tenderloin, which is a small part that is technically part of the chicken breast.

But it detaches really easily. It's a hanging part. Yeah, it's like a little hanging vestigial organ. There's a little bit of connective tissue that keeps it to the breast. But how many times have you tried to like butterfly a chicken breast, say cut it crosswise, and then the tenderloin just falls off? Never falls off. What? What do you mean?

It falls off for me all the time. You try and butterfly a chicken breast, the tenderloin falls off. Huh? I don't cook much anymore. I haven't butterflied a chicken breast in maybe like three years. I'm sorry. I don't remember. But how many times have you asked for chicken tenders?

And it's not chicken tenders. It's just chicken breasts cut up into tender shapes. Well, no, that's a good point, which is why there's like a difference between what is it, chicken tenders, chicken fingers, chicken strips. I mean, there's not an actual difference. Chicken strips. The noise, the sound of chicken strips sounds good on the ears. Chicken strips to me is the most pleasant sounding of them. Chicken fingers to me is always very strange because I imagine eating a large man's finger like Andre the Giant's finger.

Yeah, I think of the chicken growing fingers and I don't want that in my mind. Imagine a chicken with human-sized palms. That'd be weird. That's my sleep paralysis demon. I think Raising Cane still uses chicken fingers as their thing, but they use chicken tenderloins, I believe, which is interesting. But the point is a lot of butchers back in the day, some people only credit the invention of the chicken strip to 1974, which to me seems pretty late. Like people were obviously cutting up breast strips before that and frying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that said, that is when it- Before the term. Exactly. At some restaurant in Massachusetts. Cool. But it didn't really hit like ubiquity until the 1990s as far as like being on menus and stuff. But a lot of the root of it, it's the same as the root of chicken nuggets, right?

Here's a little crappy part of the chicken that is like a little bit inconvenient for butchers and, you know, we can't sell to make a ton of money. So let's cut it off, season it really heavily, deep fry it, serve it with ranch dressing and barbecue sauce, and then charge a premium for it. And that's the same with nuggets, right? Nuggets are all just the off parts of the chicken. Yeah, there's probably some beak in there. There's something.

There's some sort of cartilaginous crap in there. But I don't care because I am an environmentalist and I'm eating the parts that no one wants to eat. Oh, now Nicole cares about the earth. You're welcome, climate change. Nicole's eating all the gross chicken parts in her nuggies. Did you know that, what's her name? Grimes actually said that she's a vegan other than eating hot dogs or something because of that exact reason.

That's, uh. Which is false. Yeah, that's a tough. Yeah, yeah. I don't agree. I don't agree with that statement. But like, yeah, you know, like, what are you going to do with all the weird chicken bits? I don't know that Grimes and I would get along really well.

I don't know. I would love to just sit across from her and have once, like, like, I want there to be a situation where we're across from each other at, like, a dinner table. And there's, like, a mediator that says you have to talk about this one subject for the next 40 minutes, whatever subject it may be. And I really want to do that with her. I would love to do, like, a one-on-one improv show with Grimes where the audience yells us suggestions and we just have to go at it. You mean Whose Line is it anyway? Yeah, just me and Grimes on Whose Line with Elon moderating, making the...

And Wayne Brady. If you thought that the content we make on Mythical Kitchen is, quote, cringe, wait until Grimes and I host an improv show with Elon. No, but what I'm saying is both have the same roots, right? Of trying to use the part of the chicken that was wasted. And the thing about that that is most interesting to me is that like

you go back to 1962 and it's something like 83% of all chicken meat in stores was sold as a whole bird. Which is interesting. That's very interesting. And then flash forward to now and that is less than like 9%. Yeah, people don't, the idea of a whole bird kind of sickens people.

It does. My sister. I met a girl in college who we were at the dining hall sometime early in freshman year, and they were serving teriyaki chicken quarters, which is a great fail-proof thing for a dining hall to serve, right? Yeah. And so I went and got them, and this girl is sitting next to me. I just met her in the dorms, and she's staring down her chicken.

She just goes, what is this? And I was like, oh, it's like, you know, teriyaki chicken quarters. That's, you know, the leg and the thigh. And she goes, are these bones? Stop it. I swear to God. I swear to God. I didn't know these people existed.

And I was just like, yeah, it's the whole leg of chicken. She was like, that's disgusting. I was like, I don't know how to tell you that chicken is an animal that exists and we eat its flesh for sustenance, which is controversial to some. And then she was like, well, I've just never seen chicken that had bones in it. And she straight up said that she didn't know it was related to the animal. That's a lie. She's lying. She's pretending to be dumb.

I don't know what to tell you. To what end? There's no way. She's lying. She's pretending to be dumb. I don't know what to tell you. To what end? There's no way. Qui bonum. Who benefits? Nicole, who benefits from her pretending? I don't know. I don't know. That's just weird. What do you mean? Like, she never learned that in life? I feel like, because I mean, I've told this story before. Two plus two is

four. I thought ground beef grew from the ground until I was like nine years old. Okay, well then. Nicole, we are so disconnected. Was this in a college dorm? Yeah. Shut up. That's different. But we are, this is a point.

So 1962, 89% or whatever, or 83% of birds were sold whole in the market. Okay. But now it's literally less than like 9%. Also, about half of that bird meat is going to production facilities for processing into things like nuggets or like Tyson any Tizer's, you know, Adele's chicken sausage, things like that. So we are getting so, so far disconnected from the actual animals that we eat. And Nicole, nuggets are the single reason why we are that disconnected. Ergo, chicken tenders, they are a whole muscle cut. They are good for society.

They will bring people back to the land and then we can start the agrarian revolution. What's agrarian? Like, ever relating to agriculture? Oh, I always wanted to be a part of a hunter-gatherer society and I've always said I would think I would really, like, beast it out because I'm really good at finding the little berries and stuff.

I feel like you and I would make a good, like, gathering team. I think so, too. I feel like in one of those societies, I would be pressured as like a large, roughly, what is it? Mesomorphic shaped man. Yeah. That they would pressure me to be like a hunter.

And I'd be like, I'm really more about berry curation. You know, I'm really more, I can create a lovely condiment. Fine. How about this? How about you stay and you get the nuts and seeds.

Yeah. And I'll go on. Oh my God. I'll like mortar and pestle those nuts and seeds. Yeah. And I'll go hunt buffalo. Oh my God. I'll like mortar and pestle those nuts and seeds into like a beautiful piece, like a wild huckleberry piece stew. I'll just drag it away. Yak. Because here's the thing.

I think the thing about hunting, if it was about strength, again, I have no actual experience in this. I've never hunted. Yeah. Right. I don't think it would be about strength, right? If it was like, Josh, go put this buffalo in a headlock. It's about stealth.

Yeah. And it's about patience. Yes. I have none of that. I have more than you, but I still don't have a lot. We would be terrible at hunting large game. If it was a game of strength where it's like, Josh, hit this buffalo with a tree. I'd be like, I got it, boss. I don't want to hit a buffalo with a tree, to be clear.

It's just in this fictional hunter-gatherer society. Okay, back to nuggets, though. I think nuggets are easier to eat than tenders because sometimes you get that little connective tissue thing in the tenders. And that kills you. Ugh. That kills you. What a horrible eating experience that is.

Also, I would say that more nuggets taste better than more tenders. Correct. I have had, in Helen Rosner's seminal essay for Guernica Magazine in 2015 on chicken tenders. Guernica Magazine. I think it's like a- Guernica is an art piece chicken tenders. Guernica Magazine. Guernica is an art piece. Yeah, it's a Picasso. I think it's like a kind of like artsy lit magazine. Interesting, okay. Anyway, she published this great essay,

this ode to chicken tenders. And she used this phrase, it was like, the faux elegance of Panko. And I agree. No, the disappointing faux elegance of Panko. And I agree with No, the disappointing faux elegance of Panko. And I agree with that. Anytime I get, say, like a Panko crusted chicken tender,

I'm a little bit disappointed. Anytime I get a wet battered chicken tender, I'm a little disappointed. Anytime I get a chicken tender that was not properly brined and soaked in salt, I'm pretty disappointed. I've been burnt by more chicken tenders than I have chicken nuggets

because most chicken nuggets, it's codified, right? It's just blended with a bunch of salt and spices and starches. So you've had, see, like whenever I eat a chicken nuggets, it's codified, right? It's just blended with a bunch of salt and spices and starches. So you've had, see, like, whenever I eat a chicken tender, I'm not looking at it for, like, a beautiful dining experience. Like, that's sustenance, dude. Like, I'm trying to shove chicken tenders in my mouth because I might be under the influence of, I was going to say one thing, but now I'm going to say alcohol. Like, chicken tenders don't equate elegance to me.

Neither do chicken nuggets, though. You know what I mean? Like those foods are not meant to be like introspective. They're not meant to be analyzed in that way. So you don't even like, if you eat a chicken tender, you're not trying to look for the crunch on the outside of the double diced. It's a chicken tender. It's not like a freaking London broiler or whatever. That's what I feel about nuggets.

Interesting. Also, London broil is like one of the worst. I feel like it's a freaking London broiler or whatever. That's what I feel about nuggets. Interesting. Also, London broil is like one of the worst. I feel like it's the thing our parents grew up eating. Oh, maybe I meant Beef Wellington. Oh, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. London broil is what a trash can of meat. Sorry.

But no, I feel like that's me with chicken nuggets. Interesting. Where it's just a pure sustenance food. And so many of them are so similar. Like we've talked about this before. I believe that McDonald's does have the best nuggets in the game. True. Just because I think their batter, it's technically a tempura batter and it is incredibly crispy and light but that said uh i would easily take a say burger king nugget or a wendy's nugget uh next to a mcdonald's nugget and like not feel

any type of way about it but there's certain chicken tenders where i'm like the difference between a good chicken tender and a bad chicken tender, to me, is a gap miles long. Yeah, I guess I've just never looked at chicken tenders in that way. I'm just like, this is kid food. We've got to dig deeper. No, but this is like kid food. You're saying Nuggies ain't kid food? Of course they are.

But I don't look that deep into chicken nuggets either. I just like eating them more. Josh, talk about World War II and the chickens. Please, I really want you to talk about World War II and the chickens. I mentioned this earlier. No, the thing about World War II and the chickens I was talking about has to do with the fact that in 1962, the stats about when chickens were sold whole versus when chickens were sold in their component parts. And after World War II, we get into the space age when convenience foods really rose in America. And a lot of canning and processing food technology was literally just made for wartime.

This already dates back to Napoleon, actually. Oh. Which is really funny. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You thought we were talking about World War II. We're going back to the Napoleonic Wars. Wow. But no, like a lot

of canning technology was literally for Napoleon's army as they were invading Russia because like they just needed, you know, foods. And so after every war we kind of get this

big tonal shift in what foods people eat and no more do we see that than in World War II when people came back and I mean one, spam spreads around the globe,

corned beef hash spreads around the globe. It's the reason that Americans don't eat mutton, apparently. OK. It's because they were given like canned mutton in the rations and everyone came back hating it. And so Americans tried to really rebrand mutton as lamb. Interesting.

And then they dropped the legal distinctions on what lamb and mutton is to be like. So there's a lot of really funky stuff. But a lot of that was also going into the 50s and 60s into like the early parts of, you know, the like, what is it, the women's sexual revolution. Okay. Where a lot of these foods were seen to like free people from domesticity. And so that's when you get a lot of these like, you know, the start of these processed meats. How many times have you heard that like the biggest skill you can have as a cook is know how to break down a whole chicken? Fabricated chicken?

Fabricated chickens. All the time. All the time. Such BS because whole chickens are more expensive than a broken down chicken in a supermarket. Yeah, but whenever you work at a restaurant it's the quantity, I think. I think when you buy mass quantities

of chicken and you break it down yourself, it's cheaper. That makes sense. And then you're also using it for stock and whatnot. But like in a grocery store, which is where 99% of people, I've just heard so many Food Network chefs being like, every home cook should know how to break down a chicken. I don't think it's useful at all. No, me neither.

No. Someone did that for you and they did it at scale because it was literally cheaper because of supply and demand economics and they do it better and cleaner. Exactly. You know, it's fun.

Occasionally I'll do it at home just for like nostalgia's sake. Interesting. But literally the whole chickens that I find at the grocery stores are consistently more expensive than say just buying legs and thighs. Yeah.

No, I agree with you. I think fabricating a chicken is whack. I think it's absolutely whack. I think telling people that it's important is whack. Yeah. Oh, it's like fun to do if you want to use the bones for stock, whatever. It's 2021, honey. Like, what, you're going to save the wingtips?

Yeah. You never save the wingtips. I like naan on the wingtips, though. Oh. What do you think is a better vessel for sauce? Because this is somethingtips, though. Oh. What do you think is a better vessel for sauce? Because this is something. Oh, shoot. This is something.

Well, I did teach you how to properly dunk a chicken nugget in that video that we were in. Yeah, you go front and back, right? I go front and back. That's interesting. Now, a chicken tender is too long to do that with because the way that gravity works and physics work, like you're holding in the middle and the sauce would just drip. So it depends what kind of saucer you are. I am a pretty, no, I was about to say I stick to the same two, but I realized I have at

least four to six. I think I know what you do. You take the ranch, you open it, you put hot sauce and or ketchup in the ranch, you swirl it with the chicken tender, you eat it. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, no, you're right, you're right, you're right. And then it kind of soaks into the chicken tender like a French dip.

You leave it? Well, no, it's just if you stir it very. The stirring soaks. Soaks. Yeah, yeah, correct. Okay, got it. And then I do barbecue sauce. But then McDonald's, I do honey mustard with the chicken nuggies.

And I'll do that with chicken tendies too. Yeah. And then sometimes I do like a kind of like real mishmash situation like, you know, like a Thousand Island-y but with other things added to it. I'm trying to think like what's the better. I have a sweet pink sauce, a spicy pink sauce, a barbecue sauce, and a honey mustard. I love honey mustard and chicken. Match made in chicken heaven.

I don't know. Gosh, again, it just depends on what kind of dipper you are. Gosh, I do love dipping chicken tenders in ketchup, though. Very passionate about that. It's like little schnitzel bits. Like, just long schnitzels. I love that stuff.

Maybe, I think, chicken tenders are better for dipping. They are. They are. And I think, so my reason behind that is after the first bite, you have to bite it and go and spit it out like you bite it off a cigar tip. Yeah, yeah. Shut up, please. Because then, no.

You've never done that before. I've never done that, but I eat it. But then what I do, I ate a banana like that once, So I just bit off the tip and spat it out and peeled it. That was for funsies. That was to mess with people. But anyways, the chicken fibers within the breast, right? They're absorbent. Okay.

They're absorbent. Think about it. The chicken fibers in the breast, you bite it open and then you dip it in and then the sauce soaks in between the muscle fibers and then you can bite it and go and suck it out. No way. I fully believe that. And then with nuggets, nuggets, Nicole, nuggets, I can bite it and go and suck it out no way i fully believe that and then with nuggets nuggets nicole nuggets i can oh i can suck the sauce out of a chicken tender you think i can't suck the sauce out of a chicken tender whereas nuggets they're

so emulsified but you're not getting any sauce so i can't suck on the nuggets that's not true you said it yourself that it's a tempura fried batter and you know a little bit of air gets stuck in between there so actually you're wrong because there is definitely a pocket of air which the sauce goes into with the chicken nuggets and then it gets stuck and then you can suck it out. So you're lying. I will say sometimes, I did not perjure myself. Let the record show I did not perjure myself.

I will say some of the bell, no not the bell, the ball nuggets, which to me are the best. All nuggets should just be circles. Some of them will have a little divot in it and it becomes like a Tostito scoop. And then I could use that to really load it. And the honey mustard is so kind of gooey from all the, like, you know, maltodextrin added to it. It's not from the honey?

No. How much honey do you actually think is in McDonald's honey mustard? Four percent. I'd say even less. Because KFC's honey, they legally have to call it a honey sauce, and it's something like 12%. And that's in their pure honey. I think it's 4% actual honey and then like 30% honey extract. Okay, there is actually more honey in McDonald's honey mustard than I would have thought.

How much is it? Well, you can't exactly tell, but the main ingredients, water, sugar, soybean oil, vinegar, which that's going to be any sauce at a fast food restaurant, and then mustard seed, and then followed by honey, and then corn syrup solids. See? Which is interesting. Of course you have solids. There's just straight white wine in it. Like not white wine vinegar, just actual white wine in McDonald's honey mustard.

Get you drunk off of me. Getting slithered off. Getting slithered off. Getting slithered at McDonald's on the honey mustard packets. But that goes back to my point. Yes, tenders are better for dipping, but

the eating of a chicken nugget is very enjoyable. More so than a tender because like two, three bites, you're done. Chicken tender takes too long to eat. It's too big. It's like, no, you're done. Chicken tender takes too long to eat. Too big. It's too big. It's like, no, you're the reason that sliders became so popular in America.

I love sliders. I hate sliders. Sliders ruin. What? They ruin the ratio because the burger, the outsides cook so quickly. It's the exact same ratio. Have you ever had a slider at a wedding? Do you have sliders at your wedding?

I don't know. I barely ate at my wedding. That makes sense. I was the opposite. I was only eating at your wedding. Did you? so many people tried to talk to me and I just had like

a mouthful of yakitori skewers and I was like hi Nicole's dad but no what was I talking about I was talking about the idea that

on one hand you can call chicken nuggets kind of gross because they use the awful or whatever I mean I don't think they're grinding livers and kidneys in there

but they're taking just like the meat that's coming off the bones of the chicken, scraping and putting it in there. McDonald's actually blends skin into their nugget mixture. That's why it's so good. That's why it's so juicy and delicious. Yeah. However, if you look at like, you know, blending offal

and other unwanted parts into a meat and then you know, formulating that into something else, that's called charcuterie, right? Sure. That's what all charcuterie is. Yeah. You're taking the weird parts of the animal like think about a terrine, think about a pate de campagna right sure all this stuff i would love to see like a fancy french charcuterie version of a chicken nugget i want to see chefs like play with this idea of chicken nugget hood and make it something truly spectacular now to

this i know exactly how that would happen. So you have a plate of food. It's just a white, big plate, okay? And then you take a terrine, a chicken terrine, and you shape it into the chicken nuggets. Like you have a boot, bell, ball, bone, okay? And then you just add a little bit of like, you like make little divots in the paste. Yeah, I like that.

And then you spray it. Talk to me. And then you spray paint it. Tell me we have these fancy nuggets. Stop. I'm trying to be serious. And then you spray paint it, and it looks just like a nugget, but whenever you go into it, it's just like this mashed thing inside.

You know what I mean? And then you have a little piece of toast on the side. It's like, was it Heston Blumenthal did that? Exactly. The meat fruit. Exactly that, the tangerine. Yeah, it's a ball of chicken liver or mousse or maybe it's foie, some sort of liver pate.

I think so, one of those, yeah. Does he wrap something around it or does he just paint it? I actually saw a video of someone doing this at home and it's incredibly interesting. I don't remember how it was. But it looks exactly like a tangerine, complete with the stem and the little leaf. Beautiful. I want to do that, but with McDonald's chicken nuggets

as the visual. Yeah. Oh, that'd be good. Now we're launching a whole like, spin-off concept. Yeah. You know? Where it's just things that are disguised to look like fast food items, except it's like, oh, it's actually a cake, or like, that Big Mac's actually a doorknob the whole time, you know? Or something like that?

I don't have the artistry nor the bandwidth to do that right now. But someone else can. And if you're listening to this, I'm giving you my blessing to do this. Okay? If you're listening. Have you ever made chicken nuggets yourself? No. Outside of like fancy fast food.

Like we did that. No. You've never made it? Why would I? No, I've never made it. I've made it before just because I like to, I don't know, it's a thing that I do for a hobby at home where I just try and recreate fast food things. I wouldn't say that, but I have made chicken tenders at home multiple

times. Yeah. Yeah, but never nuggets. So nuggets are something that you would, would you ever even want nuggets at a fancy restaurant or are you fine completely leaving them pure, unadulterated, forever night in the tired hands of dusk at these fast food restaurants? Forever and ever. Interesting. Always. Yeah. I don't need it.

You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You know what I mean? I guess that might be... Is that the saying? Is that it? Sorry. That might be an endorsement

for Chicken Nuggets because I'm someone who I'm constantly chasing the perfect chicken tender. And I do it at home a lot. I love chicken tenders. I crave them very often. It's something that I make at home.

But I love the idea of having a food that you already think is perfect from an establishment that you know where to get it from. Yeah. And that you don't want to change anything about it. I don't need to chase that high because I'm never going to find it.

I found it when I was seven after dance class. So this is like, you know, the person who was always into you, you know, and you always rebuffed them. But you know that they're going to be a steady rock throughout your entire life. Sure. Versus the person you put up on a pedestal you know it's an idea you don't respect them as a person i don't respect chicken tenders as an individual i don't care about their wants are in life or their goals i'm never going to be able to connect with them on an emotional level you know i just need to realize that chicken nuggets have been there for me all along is that problematic no weird metaphor i mean i don't know where it came from i't know. I feel like this is like getting deeper than it has to be.

Do you like chicken nuggets or tenders, sir? Yeah, I still like tendies. I do too. I'll always like tendies, but I'll always love chicken nuggets. I think we can agree to disagree, but know that I hate you and I think you're a bad person. All right, Nicole, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Cassifers. This is the ASMR segment.

Do people still watch ASMR videos? Is that still big? Is it still a sex thing? Was it ever a sex thing? Are you into that? Mr. and Mrs. Listener? Because this is a thing for somebody. I love ASMR.

I like soap cutting videos. They get me tingly behind my ears. I'm trying. All right. First up, we got at Thomas Landoni, potato chips, Lays with a piece of hard cheese on top like pecorino sardo is a godsend. That is a salt bomb. That's a salt bomb for me.

I like to do this with Ritz. I was going to say, I, oh, Keebler Club. Keebler Club, baby. Oh, my God. All the structure of a sartine, all the butteriness of Ritz. I was going to say, oh, Keebler Club. Keebler Club, baby. All the structure of a sartine, all the butteriness of Ritz. I went to the grocery store with David and I said, you see those right there?

Those are the best darn crackers you will ever eat in your life. And he's like, can we buy some? I said, no. Don't keep them in the house. I'm like a gremlin when it comes to Keebler clubs. No, there's a reason I love cheese on top of crackers. And that is the cracker gives it a more neutral profile to let the cheese shine. And so I respect your potato chips with hard cheese on top.

There was some restaurant that was like doing, they would fry fresh potato chips and then put like jamon serrano just in between layers of hot fried potato chips. Where was this? I can't remember. I don't think it was in LA. I just kept seeing this pop up on Twitter. And then they would shave, I don't know if it was like an aged manchego or something. I think it was a Spanish restaurant. And that looked like a delight to me.

That's a little bit, yeah. That looks like a delight. But I'm kind of a cheese on cracker guy myself. Me too. You know what? Cheese on cracker guy myself. The most underrated cracker out there. Chicken in a biscuit.

I don't like that. It is. I don't like it because it honestly makes me feel like the chicken is stuck in the biscuit. And it makes me feel. Get out. Get out, chicken. It's just MSG and onion powder. And it is a tasty.

Okay. Next up. Murder Mark says, people who don't shop at Asian grocery stores are cowards. They are the best stores around um i've never understood this mentality of not shopping at a quote-unquote ethnic grocery store because you're scared what is so scary about entering a store yeah there should be nothing scary about they want your money as well like that's the point of a store existing yeah why are you scared like i don't even know how that mentality works. Like, I don't get it. I just don't get it.

I have heard that sentiment from people though who feel intimidated or something. Go to your local Mexican butcher, go to your local carniceria, go to your local Asian supermarket, go to your local Middle Eastern market. You'll find so many foods there that you've never had before maybe and things that are absolutely fantastic if anything i feel like people that work there and the store owners would love to educate you about stuff if you ask them like hey what is this i'm sure they'll like talk your ear off and love to educate you about stuff i love talking to the butchers at 99 ranch yeah and at like vallarta supermarkets so it's what's really fascinating to me is things like the new york steak ribeye, sirloin, that's like uniquely a sort of American

way to look at a cow. And then you go to some place like Verita or Mexican Carniceria and you get all these different cuts like arachera and, you know, all this stuff that are really fantastic. Even think about like suadero. Everyone kind of says suadero is just brisket. It's not. It's like an adjacent cut that's, you know, used differently. So we get a lot of cool products.

Or like I was at this Indian market recently and got, God, it was a ghost chili mango pickle. Yum. Oh my, holy crap. Yeah, I think I went to. What a tasty thing. I think I went to a Pakistani store and I just got some cool beans. And I just like. Yeah.

Bought them for my mom. I said, hey mom, look at these cool beans, cook them. And she's like, okay. Yeah, support your local international immigrant run market. Please. At Jojo Girl 1991. That is a great like A-run market. Please. At JojoGirl1991. That is a great AIM screen name. That is an AIM screen name that survived.

What was your screen name? Big Ball of Chubs because I was fat and I played basketball. Tina's Burritos are the best frozen burritos. I think the frozen burrito market needs a bit of a rehaul. Not to abandon the date that i brought to the dance right because tina's burritos have always been there for me nice tina's red hot beef i will tell you is a very that flavor profile still holds up okay and i used to like i would cut it in half to let it steam out so it didn't just burn you immediately and

then i would just basically fill it like a soup dumpling you know you bite off soup dumpling you feel it's a black vinegar sure i do that with tap off a soup dumpling and you fill it with black vinegar? Sure. I do that with a tapatio. Nice. And that is a heck of a meal. So I do love Tina's Burritos. Also, El Monterrey does good. I was literally going to say El Monterrey is great. They do the chimichangas that are really great.

Yeah. Tina's, though, are a mainstay. Still delicious. But I do think the frozen burrito market, I think they need some new players in the game. I used to work with and for Tina's Burritos. And they were really nice. That's great. Yeah, but I do like El Monter Burritos. And they were really nice. That's great. Yeah, but I do like El Monterey more.

Hee hee. Ooh, girl. Oops. Bad Donut says mayo instead of butter on grilled cheese. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, man. It's good.

I don't know. I love butter. I do too. Sometimes the mayo, you know, I don't want to wait for my butter to be soft enough for me to like think the mayo's just there. It's ready. It's good to go. That's a good point.

I mean, I always take butter and I just put it directly in the pan. I don't spread it on the bread. And I fry my grilled cheese in the pan, like in the melted butter in the pan. Okay. That's like not that successful though all the time. It is. I mean, it becomes tougher to manage your heat. Yeah.

I will say the difference. So what they're talking about, you spread mayo on the bread and then you griddle it with the mayo on there. And mayo is just a combination, right, of basically eggs, which has protein in it and oil. And so that protein kind of makes it just sear up really nice and crispy. Butter, though, it's all fat and it's going to get your bread just as crispy. The difference is butter allows a little bit of soakage because there's moisture in butter and you don't get that protein to really crisp it up. And that is either a good or bad thing depending on who you are. Yeah.

I love my grilled cheese just saturated in butter. I don't. You don't? I like there to be a hard crisp edge softness and then hard crisp edge. You know what I don't like though pretty unanimously is the cheese crusted grilled cheese that people are doing these days. It's not for me. I don't like these cheese crusted things. I don't want my hands to be cheesy afterwards.

And to me, it just kind of, I mean, I love a good, you know, Parmesan crisp or cheddar crisp, whatever, added in the right context, but I don't just want this giant blanket of cheese leather. I'm the same. You know? Yeah. You know? I'm on the same team as you.

All right. At Mel underscore Ryan, frozen TV dinners are pretty much American commercialized bento boxes. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. It's really funny, like, reframing certain things in your mind. Yeah.

So, I mean, it makes sense. There's like compartmentalized foods. You get, you know, the little dessert, the little vegetable side, a little maybe a condiment like some sometimes you get the turkey TV dinner and it's got a little apple cranberry compote and the gravy and all that. I was thinking the other day I went to a steakhouse and they have a side that is just, this is actually Peter Luger Steakhouse in New York, very famous spot. And they have like a side dish that is literally just a sliced tomato and onion.

And I got it. It's like $11 and it makes no sense. But I just really wanted it to see what it was. And it was just a slice of tomato and a slice of red onion. Unseasoned? Unseasoned, yeah. And you're supposed to like put their steak sauce on it. And I mean, it was a really good Jersey tomato and a very sweet red onion. Unseasoned? Unseasoned, yeah. And you're supposed to put their steak sauce on it. It was a really good

Jersey tomato and a very sweet red onion. I mean, it doesn't really justify a price tag. That's so weird. That's a little weird. It is a little weird, but I was thinking about it.

It's panchan. Pretty much. So panchan are the Korean side. Some of them are fermented. Some of them are in that kimchi family. And then some of them

are fresh that you get with your Korean barbecue. That's what this was. This is panchan for American steak it's American panchon and every

and more places need panchon I agree I want free food panchon or like salatim I want free food before I eat my food

I agree with that jorbin underscore west says white bread ketchup purple onion sandwich equals my childhood go to snack I've heard of people

doing peanut butter and red onion sandwiches. Have you heard of that? Peanut butter and onion sandwiches? Yeah, I have. I don't know if we tried it. I tried it once. It needs sriracha.

Oh, okay. My friend Brandon used to eat that, and I would just look at him in awe and disgust and impressiveness. Like, what are you doing? He'd be like, try it. And I'd be like, no, I've never tried it. I have a very high tolerance for raw onion. Yeah, me too. I love. I have a very high tolerance for raw onion. Yeah, me too. I love when I have warm asabzi.

I always have a side of raw. It can't be yellow onion. It has to be white onion. Very, very good. Yeah. The raw white onion that you get at a lot of Persian restaurants where you just get the white onion, put some sumac on it, eat that with the bread. Fantastic. So I love this idea.

I had a lot of ketchup sandwiches growing up. Sometimes I would just do iceberg lettuce ketchup and white bread. Fantastic. So I love this idea. I had a lot of ketchup sandwiches growing up. Sometimes I would just do iceberg lettuce, ketchup, and white bread. Sorry. What do you mean I'm sorry? That was a great sandwich. So I agree.

This sounds lovely. All right, we got at Sir Kirsten, the tray bake pancake is superior to traditional pancakes, especially for a crowd so much easier.

You know what a tray bake pancake is called? A cake. That's called a cake. That's just called, that is an uns? A cake. That's called a cake. That's just called an unsweetened cake. Yeah. It's cake. Which I don't doubt is probably delicious.

However, I love the irregularity that you get with traditional pancakes. You have the little burnt edges in the butter. To me, you need that. Also, aren't they like square? Yeah. Or triangular when you do it like this? Yeah, yeah. I need my pancakes to be circular. I agree. Yeah. Can't enjoy it. I'm trying to think of a square pancake. It makes it like this. Yeah, yeah. I need my pancakes to be circular. I agree.

Yeah, can't enjoy it. I'm trying to think of a square pancake. It makes me deeply uncomfortable. Yeah, it doesn't fit the narrative of my life. No, it doesn't serve me. It doesn't bring me joy. Yeah, imagine. Yeah, no way. Weird, weird.

Don't like it. What are like a Star of David pancake? I've made those before. Really? Yeah, of course. Edean319 says, For popcorn, try adding natural maple syrup to the pan once the corn starts popping. I don't want to because it's going to burn. Well, isn't that how you make caramel corn?

I don't know. I don't make my own popcorn. He said add it to the pan and I was like, do you mean microwave? I don't believe I've ever made stovetop popcorn. My husband does all the time. He loves it. He finds. Does he get Jiffy Pop or does he just have popping kernels he puts in a normal.

Popping kernels and then there's a whole method to the madness. He has a whole ritual around popcorn. He has a whole ritual. That's so adorable. He loves popcorn. Like his one snack of choice has been popcorn for like his whole entire life. He loves popcorn. Oh, funny.

So I just let him make popcorn all the time and I just watch him. I'm like it's good for you to do this. I'm happy that you have this. Yeah, I mean if this person does it and they don't think the maple syrup burns then I trust that you can do it without it burning. Because if you get it like popping right at that time, the maple syrup is going to kind of just cover it. I'm going to try this. I'm going to tell David to

do this. You should do this. I'm really curious. I'd add a little cayenne to it. At KyleBTT11 Blue cheese crumbles do this you should do this i'm really curious yeah i'd add a little cayenne to it at kyle btt 11 blue cheese crumbles are the best cheese option for a hamburger i think i think blue cheese crumbles with a slice of white american cheese blanketed on top is really good because then you get the meltiness and the texture of that white american plus the flavor punch of the blue cheese yeah i think that's fantastic. That said, I think there needs to be a product where people blend blue cheese into American

cheese and then create an American cheese, blue cheese, hybrid craft single style cheese. Oh, yum. No one will buy it. I know. I know. I would. I have a lot of great- You're the only person that would buy it.

I have a lot of really good food product ideas for me and nobody else. Yeah, I figure. I'm going to waste a lot of money later in my career trying to bring one of these to life. It's okay. And my artisanal pancake syrup business is just not going to go well. I really wanted to do compound butters with Debbie. Yeah, someone,

oh, there's a guy at the farmer's market doing compound butters. There's cacio e pepe butter, everything bagel butter. Oh, he's already got your game. Those are literally my ideas. He's got your number. He has my Google Drive.

Joy U88, fried chicken in any form is delicious dipped in peanut butter. No. You mean to tell me you're taking chicken nuggets and or tenders and putting them in peanut butter? What is wrong? No. I can see a peanut butter based sauce.

A peanut butter based sauce, yes, but peanut butter, no. That's tough. Unless you melt it a little bit. Well I mean the latent heat of the chicken should melt the peanut butter. No no no the peanut butter needs to be hot enough. Do we have any fried chicken in the kitchen? That's very plausible.

Yeah right. It's highly plausible. I want to try this because I'm curious because I can see a nugget being dipped in peanut butter. I can see a tender more than a nugget. Interesting. Yeah. The texture though

of peanut butter is a little too fatty but it's like taking like pure tahini and then turning it into like what in Spanish would be tahini preparada.

You know what I mean? Like you make the You make the tahini with the tahini. But people will just call it tahini, right? But one of them is a sauce mixed with

you know water maybe yogurt garlic, lemon, salt etc. If you had that with peanut butter, you know, mix that with literally the same thing you would make tahini sauce with. But I'm just trying to take this opinion and understand the way that they're doing it. And it sounds like they're just doing it with peanut butter, which I don't agree with. But if you heated it up, maybe.

How do you even dip? How do you even dip into? You have to heat it. I'm telling you. You just microwave the whole jar of peanut butter? Not the whole jar. You just take like a thimble. Just heat it up.

This is wild. This is the first opinion that has truly got me to gasp in a long time. Yeah. Which I love because this is exposing me to new food ideas. All right. We got at Nat.Francesca. Kinder Buenos are underrated in the U.S. Most of my friends don't know what they are.

Kinder is a German chocolate brand that primarily uses a Nutella-like hazelnut chocolatey filling in things. I also don't eat much Kinder. My sister-in-law loves Kinder chocolate, and she would, like, import it from Germany, or she would be there for work and just bring back tons of it. Wow. Because I think you can't, what is it, Kinder Surprise Eggs? Kinder Joy Eggs. They were banned in the U.S., right, because of because of choking hazards yeah because kids don't know how to eat government government doesn't want

people to have their kinders i love kinder i love kinder happy hippos i like the the brioche i like the chocolates i love everything kinder 90 of the time though when somebody from another country goes like your chocolate sucks our chocolate is the best and you try it try it and you're like, it also just tastes like crappy chocolate. It's just like ours. You're not that different. I like the Kinder that has the white stuff inside of it. You know what I'm talking about? Is it just like a white goo?

Yes. I do love white goo. It's the milky. Yeah. It's like sweetened condensed milk, maybe. It's like thickened a little bit. It is so good. But I don't eat Kinders often Because it's like a little treat

You don't want to spoil yourself too much I like Reese's sticks Because I'm an American, dang it I ate Reese's sticks I ate a Reese's stick the other day And I was like, ew, what is this? Reese's sticks taste like a bald eagle They're so dry

Well, yeah, yeah You gotta dip them in Pepsi Alright, 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 Are Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or nhandizada with the hashtag OpinionCasserole.

And 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 all next time.