A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - The Greatest Food Invention Of All Time ft. Adam Richman

Episode Date: February 17, 2021

Today, we're joined by TV personality, culinary traveler, cook, and author, Adam Richman to discuss: what is the greatest food invention of all time? 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. Human civilizations create a lot of amazing inventions. You got the wheel, the light bulb, airplanes, computers. But last I checked, Gutenberg's printing press couldn't turn a burrito into hot lava in 30 seconds. Today, we're talking about the greatest food inventions of all time. Because 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 sandwichwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Handizadeh.

And today we are joined by TV personality, culinary traveler, cook, and author, Adam Richman. Adam's traveled the globe on his quest to highlight local food culture on a national stage and uncover the world's hidden edible treasures. Adam's now featured in season two of the History Channel's documentary series, The Food That Built America, and is the new host of the network's returning series, Modern Marvels, and he has had near every job in the restaurant industry.

Nicole, Adam, welcome. Thank you for coming, Adam. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, so, you know, you are, I've been watching The Food That Built America since season one, and you have been a mainstay on that. And I think it is a really incredible show because I love that like dramatic history channel treatment of stuff and food is such a huge part of history. So I thought today we would sort of like break down what we thought the coolest, most important food invention of all time was. And I think this

is a fantastic topic. I would love to open the floor to you. I figured we could all just go around, say what we think it is, and then just get into a discussion. I'd love to know what you guys think, because to be fair, and it sounds like a canned response, but in all candor with each successive episode, I find something new. And I admit that it's always that balance. You're like, damn, is the modern mechanization of the food industry taking that wonderful human element out? Or is the fact that a human mind had to conceive of this, has to operate, service, implement this high technology, is that the new manifestation of the brilliant human mind at work in culinary production? So it varies, you know, I mean, I'm still amazed that

I've got one of those OXO can openers that takes the whole top of the can opener off. So it doesn't leave that jagged death edge on the edge. But like, I'm easily impressed and an only child who didn't date much in high school. So it's like a 50-50 blend. So I'd love to know what you guys think. Because, you know, I think that if they ever invented a to-go container

that properly kept French fries crispy, for example, that would be brilliant. They're trying. It sure would be brilliant. They're putting holes in the boxes. Right. Yeah, I've run a delivery kitchen back in the day.

I worked at a sushi restaurant on the Upper West Side, and I ran the delivery kitchen a couple days a week. And, yeah, you had to remember to crack the lid on those things. Yeah. And you have to also place things in the bag in a very specific order as heat rises, so on and so forth. That's like the OG. Like, you are a food inventor. You are stacking foods at different heights and intervals to control the steam release of French fries.

I respect that. You give me a lot of credit. But I was also deeply impressed when a friend of mine from, God, this was like 98, 99. I remember she's from South Dakota and she had made popcorn like in a pot, like in a kettle, not with like a hot air popper. And then to melt the butter, I just was like, she was just, it was like so staggering to my friends and I. She just threw the butter in the pot that she had been cooking with

as opposed to using a whole other vessel to cook it. And it kind of embarrassed me terribly that I was like, wow, what a good idea. And it was like, oh, really? Use the vessel that's already hot to melt the butter, what a good idea. It was like, oh, really use the vessel. It's already hot to melt the butter. You schmuck. How groundbreaking is this? I think there is some like pure pleasure in being mystified by the technology that people take for granted, which is a great segue into what I believe is, I don't know about the most important.

I'm saying the microwave. Okay. And here's why. That's a big one. The microwave is a really huge one, right? So the way it happened, it was 1941. Percy LeBaron Spencer, he's a self-taught engineer working for Raytheon at the time, and he's working on a magnetron vacuum that goes into radar systems. 1941, develops a much more efficient process to increase production volume. And while he's testing out these magnetron vacuums, he's got a Hershey bar in his pocket. Okay. Or was he just happy to see you?

I love these food myths because they all involve some sort of accident and all of it is complete BS. Yeah. Like there's like the French dip. They're like, I dropped the roll into the braising liquid and then the officer was named French and he said, I got to go arrest a bank robber. Give me that sandwich. I think it's all a little bit BS, but it's great marketing. So he's got a Hershey's bar in his pocket, and he is near all these microwaves that are emitting from the magnetron tube, and it melts the Hershey bar. And so he goes like, wait, if this can do this to food,

maybe we can sort of harness that power. And so he starts on this whole legacy of experiments where he tries doing it to an egg, and it explodes in a co-worker's face, and everyone laughs. And then he figures out you can do that with popcorn kernels because the microwave, it actually vibrates the water molecules at a very high frequency and causes it to explode. So Raytheon pays him like $2 for this patent because that's just what they did. How much is that in now money?

I don't know, like $8? Okay. Something, probably a little bit more. Probably, I mean, probably like $25. But I mean, he was, you know, he ended up dying as like an executive for Raytheon. And so I'm sure there was a lot of money in there. But anyways, the first commercially used microwave, it was tested at a restaurant in Boston, weighed 750 pounds, cost five grand.

And then Raytheon started licensing technology to manufacturers like Whirlpool and Westinghouse. 1967, the first widely available home microwave comes out and costs $500. And then fast forward to now, 95% of American homes have a microwave. The thing that I find very interesting is that it is the most disrespected piece of incredible technology. Restaurants brag about not having microwaves. This is going on at the same time that the Manhattan Project is going. You got Einstein and Oppenheimer is becoming death destroyer of world

while this homie is working in the same industry, melting Hershey bars in his pockets, and now it is disrespected, and I believe that the microwave needs to be respected. It needs to have a comeback, and we need to start trying to innovate more with the microwave, because sales are down.

If I may, I think the microwave is very are down uh if i may of course the microwave is very much like the actor john ratzenberger that we may not give him well so he's like the voice of kind of everything in pixar people my generation may remember him as cliff clavin the postman on cheers now i think when one scans the canon of great actors, they'll come up with the Pacinos and the De Niros and the Redfords and the Nicholsons. They won't come up with John Ratzenberger. Yet, we've all had a very moving or wonderful experience at the hands of Mr. Ratzenberger. Therefore, he may not get his respect, but he is an essential component in anyone's movie watching canon. If you've watched any pixar thing he's been in it

and i think that it's easily overlooked and the thing is i know from having worked in restaurants the chefs call the microwave the jukebox and things like this but sushi restaurants use a toaster oven yeah so i think that it's people don't look at it as a skill set because it's pressing buttons but people also never looked at playing video games as a skill set because it's pressing buttons, but people also never looked at playing video games as a skill set till people started making millions of dollars in e-sports. So I think that it's, what's the old thing from Sesame Street? It's where do you put your eyes? That becomes the size of it. So I think that you're a hundred percent right. I think that for people who don't have a profound degree

of culinary skill, don't have a lot of time, don't have the ability to invest in pots, pans, knives, and other cooking technology, and also for people that are doing things like tiny homes, living in a trailer, living in vans and stuff, it's portable. I mean, look, I'm down in my office. And what do I have down here? I mean, my office level is my old apartment. So I have like a little mini kitchen. But to be fair, having a microwave here is essential because it can do everything from cooking things to reheating things to even storing things you've cooked elsewhere, because it's a heatproof box. So I think that there's myriad opportunities to use it other than, you know, lean cuisine and Hot Pockets.

I agree. Although Hot Pockets don't taste right in the oven. I will say, I will say. Hot Pockets to me, who's got 45 minutes? A hundred percent. But it's really interesting. I mean, the way you talk about, you know, you think about the Pacinos and the De Niros

and like the sexy guys. You don't think about the Ratzenburgers out there. Like right now, there's such a huge movement in all these gadgets, right? Air fryers, which people could argue are a glorified convection oven, right? That's what they do. I love my air fryers.

It's not a crazy, air fryers are awesome. They make dank, dankity dank chicken wings. They really do. But like the tech isn't very impressive, but they're still marketed as tech. Ditto with immersion circulators, right? That's the same technology that's in a freaking jacuzzi. That's all it is.

But they're marketed, you know, they'll have Bluetooth hookups and all. You can connect this to Twitter and tweet out your soupy recipes. But the actual tech in it, people are marketing these as like a tech gadget as opposed to a normal appliance, which is what they are in my book, but the microwave actually laid the groundwork for that marketing strategy because they initially marketed microwaves in like back then when things were very split among gender lines in the early seventies, they marketed them primarily to men in the electronic section and then realized that that wasn't working. So they switched marketing strategy to now, you know, as there were more dual income families, women entered the workforce more, they were like, this can liberate people from domestic strife and you can have dinner on the table in two minutes by microwaving TV dinners. And I grew up on the banquet boneless rib and patty meal, which I still think is fire.

You slap that in some toasted garlic wonder bread and that's good eating right there. And so I just think the microwave is this very fascinating tale. All that is new was once old. And I think we're seeing that play out now with the new sexy Al Pacino sous vide machines. He should voice, Al Pacino should voice the new Innova sous vide machine. I think he should voice a microwave in a Pixar movie. I actually. That would be amazing. Al Pacino is the hockey microwave.

Oh, you got gotta cover the shoe you gotta split all over the room you gotta put a paper towel put a paper towel on the shoe oh that is not the way you fold the hot pocket sleeve oh have either of you seen a little show

called flavor of love oh come on have you guys ever seen the episode where Hottie cooks a whole chicken in the microwave? No. No. What? No, I actually, this is interesting.

I have my tonsils out. And I was actually, this is back in the day pre-show when I was convalescing at Casa de Mama. And my mom and I would watch TV together. There have been two times I felt profoundly uncomfortable watching television with my mom. One was Taxi Cab Conventions Vegas.

How did that happen? We were watching HBO and it came on. I didn't anticipate a couple boning in the back of the cab. You're sitting there watching people doing it. I'm next to my mom trying trying not to breathe trying to crawl under my shadow like i i just don't want to be here the second one was watching flavor of love and watching that the character like that yeah and that's the way it is yes yes it was the same episode where

something else pooped pooped on the floor. Oh, that's a famous, that is a famous moment in reality TV history. And then I remember because Flavor Flav was like, it was like a dog, but I don't have a dog. And she was like, I have a fine. And it just pushed itself out. It's like it didn't push itself out. But yes, I remember that show. I don't remember the microwave cooking a whole chicken thing.

But yes, I remember that show. I don't remember the microwave cooking a whole chicken thing. But I do remember like that going, couscous and rib tip pointing to her ass. And my mother's like, what on earth is she talking about? Okay, segue into my. Is it about couscous, rib tips or poop? It's not about couscous and rib tips. I'm sorry. Mine is refrigeration or like the refrigerator.

So I don't know if you've watched my Big Fat Greek Wedding, but there's a part where the dad thinks that Greeks invented everything. And that's really pertinent to my life because Persians invented the yakhchal, which is a subterranean ancient evaporated cooler that was first used to collect ice to keep people colder. And then they started putting food into the same exact vessels. And then from that, it led into the wonderful world of using coal to store food. And then artificial refrigeration began in the mid-1750s and developed into the early 1800s.

Multiple reiterations led to the home refrigerator in 1913 with a big-ass ice cube on top, and now we got what we have today. So I think refrigeration is really important because initially I was thinking fire was the most important invention, like, of all time with food. And then I was like, no, not really. But you found out persons didn't invent fire. Exactly. So I had to rep for my country. I love that. And then I did a 180, and I thought about how cool it is that humans realize that we can store food in a way without compromising the salt content, the water content, or the acid content of keeping food safe, like drying, salting, and pickling food. So I personally think refrigeration is the most important.

Because you didn't have to start relying. Because that was the big thing. Even with the spice trade, right? Yeah. Which I mean, cause like a worldwide age of globalization. Yeah. That was all just because like our meat tastes like booty. We got to put some cinnamon on the steaks because there's no way to like keep them fresh. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of like launch just literally everything we know about modern cookery and all that. Yeah. So I just think keeping food cold is like the greatest food invention of all time. And there'd be no need to microwave a Hot Pocket

if that Hot Pocket wasn't very, very cold. Was it IQF'd? For me, I would agree to a very large extent with refrigeration because ultimately it's that transition from pickling, potting and preserving. And it was funny. I was talking with a friend of mine

how that fascination in the past decade with old is the new, new, artisanal, small batch, everything, people curing their own bacon, people smoking their own meats and such. And it was kind of amazing how it almost prepared us all for pandemic. That transition from the pickling, potting, and preserving

to means of sustaining a food-safe product, a shelf-stable product. So I'm going to piggyback on your refrigeration. And I might say something like pasteurization, just by virtue of the fact that it has implications greater than that of milk. And you realize that, okay, Louis Pasteur introduced this technique in the 1860s. And again, just for clarification's sake, it's thermal processing deactivates unwanted microorganisms in wine, and spoilage enzymes are also deactivated during pasteurization. But if you realize it's used in dairy, it's used in beer, it's used in wine, it's used in even sauces. And so I think

that when you think about how dairy is a perfect substrate for bad things to occur, for bacteria, for fungus, and also the dairy industry was so rife with corruption that while doing my research for The Food That Built Americaica season one there were cases of dairy farmers augmenting their milk using water and water from spirit like spurious spurious sources that um they used pond water there was like a case in ohio of a family seeing little wriggly things using chalk dust to whiten the milk because tradition like fresh milk sometimes has like a faint bluish tint to it and i got a chance during modern marvels at an amazing cheese place uh cheese menu i can't a cheese maker facility i guess because i don't want to say plant because though it has high tech it's a husband and wife and a few employees but they do a blend of different

raw milks in their cheese, all from central Pennsylvania dairies. And, you know, you taste the raw milk and you understand that, you know, it's a flavor that I'm not likely to try again, but I also understand, which doesn't mean it's bad, but it also, you understand why and you understand, know because dairy has so many applications and now we live in a world with powdered dairy and dairy extracts and shelf stable dairy that you can have a can of condensed milk on the shelf for months at a time craft singles um or cracker barrel cheddars like the large company mademade cheeses. Cracker Barrel Cheddar was the fanciest cheese.

I thought that was the fanciest cheese in existence up until maybe two weeks ago. I found out there were other ones. But the fact that you mentioned Cracker Barrel Cheddar, specifically the sharp white, that one, my nana would mess that up with some Kukana cheese balls, and I respect that. And that's the thing that's kind of beautiful, beautiful though is that though clearly you guys have profound food knowledge and elevated palates, that that's the nice thing also about the mass production of foods and the availability of them

that I think is kind of cool for me as someone who's right where the rubber meets the road with having done the research for Food That Built America and now hosting Modern Marvels is, you know, you learn about the sort of innovation and invention and then it's like, well, how does that speak to us today? And so craft, knowing how many pathogens could affect cheese, if you go back to the way cheese was sold, gigantic wheel, you'd cut into it and it would begin to desiccate it would begin to dry then the shopkeeper would have to cut off the dry crack bits give you the next fresh slice and then again

it was massive amounts of loss yeah and even crackers that were in fact held in barrels had everything from mites and bugs and mold and this and finding ways to shelf stabilize them for safety which was really his main motivation and adding melting salts to different cheeses and things to get that consistency it's fascinating how something that nearly started as a food safety innovation became something that increased its transportability its salability its broad. And yet, though you and I probably have access to like fancy artisanal small batch cheddars from the English countryside, I still love that when I go to Austin, Texas to one in a million for one of their legendary breakfast tacos, they use Lando Lakes cheddar, my guy. And lando lakes has absolutely nothing to do with the lovely native

american woman who adorns its back they're changing that i believe that was a recent thing lando lakes was like yo we uh we're gonna just go ahead and take the l on this one we'll change uh it was like yeah it was about time yeah it's about time like after you know the washington football team and now the cleveland indians i feel like lando lakes was just sitting there sweating just like oh is anyone to come for our label? And then finally, I think they decided like, maybe, maybe let's just put a lake on there or something. Yeah. I think, I think it's really fascinating that there's such shared cultural experience with these like big mass market products. And that's, I mean, one of my favorite parts about,

um, about the food that builtica are the stories of seeing the origin of someone like i was watching an episode the other day and uh they it was about uh hershey's chocolate uh but they mentioned you know nestle who was a like swiss businessman chemist all that and you know i associate nestle with like the consumer facing bunch of crunch nestle bunch of crunch was like my absolute favorite thing what What are you laughing? It's good. It's crispy rice and chocolate. You shove it in your mouth, it melts all over you. I like it too. But it's crazy. I imagine like this

dude 200 years ago who's starting this massive what turns into a conglomerate that is I mean everywhere. And Nestle has been like embroiled in scandal and all this. Of course. You go back to the water stealing crisis with Arrowhead Water. You go to like the infant formula thing in Africa in and all this. Of course. You go back to the water stealing crisis with Arrowhead Water. You go to the infant formula thing

in Africa in the 1980s. And then that just gets transmitted to like Bunch O' Crunch. We all love Bunch O' Crunch to these mass market commercials. And I think it's really fascinating seeing the origin of this and all these cultural touch points

that we all know and how it's distilled down into one dude's just crazy idea. And I think that also also to be fair you know i'm blessed to sort of be in this tv food world but i'm surrounded by multi-millionaires like you know i i'm on basic cable for the most part like if you get the weather channel you get my entire oeuvre you get my whole puzzle top and uh but the thing is you know i'm surrounded by people like guy and bobby and rachel and gordon that really have created proper enterprises around their brands and i think we take for granted the people like heinz and the people um behind campbell soup

because it hasn't been owned by a campbell run by a Campbell in ages, but how many entrepreneurial efforts Hines had that failed. Of course. He leveraged, he used his in-laws' furniture as collateral on a business that failed. And he wrote about and talked about the humiliation he felt when they came to collect when he had failed and having to sleep on the floor of his parents' home and people weeping because he couldn't pay and all these different things. And then suddenly, because meat, as you said, didn't taste so great and you needed something to cover the flavor,

there were walnut ketchups and different things. And he found this recipe and he worked to perfect it and then suddenly became a juggernaut and actually changed the fortunes of pittsburgh and of the whole region and i looked at to me the other story that i found really uh kind of galvanizing is reese's the guy behind behind reese's peanut butter cups worked for hershey people don't know that he was a dairy guy he had a dairy background and he worked in one of the hershey dairies and they liquidated the dairy um so he lost his job and he was a fledgling entrepreneurial confectioner in his basement and was always trying and he had a few different clients customers that he would hand deliver treats to at different because it was a general store system generally speaking um if there weren't like the little kind of corner confectioners.

And he would basically, to be fair, steal chocolate from work. And really he did. He would steal chocolate from work and he had molds and different kind of melting bowls and apparati to make it happen. And he had a purveyor say to him, listen, do you know how to do any kind of chocolate peanut butter candy? Because I have a guy who does it, but he's too inconsistent and I can't fill my orders. So he went and stole a little more chocolate. He was like, how do I do it? He's like, do I enrobe it?

Do I make a log and then dip it? And then he was like, oh, peanut butter. I could put it in a cup. So he inverted it like a muffin tin, poured it over the back of it to create the cups, put the peanut butter in and then pour the, which is similar kind of to how the process is done now. And then he then filled it, poured the thing on top. And this is right at the cusp, right at the beginning of the Great Depression. And he had this one candy and it took off to such an extent that number one,

he was able to support his family during the Depression when everyone else around him was going under. But it was such a hit and I guess Hershey caught watch and acted like, my guy, you're stealing my chocolate. And so he acquired the company,

kept Reese's in charge of that division and he was able to exert quality control and have security. And the thing is, with all this melting of chocolate, they should have melted his zipper. I think the guy had like 18 kids. But you think about these massive, massive Depression-era families and to be able to support them with just a little bit of ingenuity and a little bit of necessity being the uh mother of invention i think that's the thing that has both made me and some of my friends happy and some of my friends really not want to hang out with me is the amount of uh like nickel knowledge and like random factoids i've acquired while hosting the show like why the hydrox is named the hydrox and i and like so Oreos will come up in conversation.

I'm like, you know, the Hydrox actually. Hydrox came first. Hydrox came first. Hydrox came first. It did. It did. And what was the big difference with the Oreo? That the guy who was running the National Biscuit Company.

Nabisco. The good old portmanteau. Galaxy Brain stuff, got Hershey's chocolate. And the Hydrox got its name because the guys from Sunshine Bakery were trying to find something that evoked purity. Water came to mind. Hydrogen and oxygen became the Hydrox. And, you know, I can't speak to why the you know dutch german village print on it or anything but i think that that's that is fascinating and i i hope that people really do go to the supermarket and notice different things notice the keystone on the hershey label and realize the link to pennsylvania or you know can see re Reese's for something a little different now,

or M&M Mars for something different now. And the other thing is I have to say that I'm so proud to be attached to the food that built America. And it's an element that I had absolutely nothing to do with, but I, and I take no credit for, but you know, kind of just like happy to be here. Hope I love is most reenactments suck. Yeah. And these are profoundly cinematic and like really well acted. Totally agreed. And that aspect I dig. Like the Kellogg's one from season one. And that's, you know, it's a dicey subject

because the elder Kellogg who ran the sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan was a nut bar. He was a bit like, he was crazy. And yet like when we're done, I'm going to go upstairs and have some special K Redberry.

Yep. And that, and like the Kellogg that is now on the box is his brother. Right. So like essentially his brother's signature and his brother's signature. Yeah. The Coca-Cola logo is Asa Griggs Candler's accountant's signature. Yeah. With a fountain pen. That's that's or that was his handwriting when he came up with that ribbony cursive for Coca-Cola. And yet Doc Pemberton, who had been wounded in the Civil War and, you know, needed that little extra bit of Bolivian marching powder in his soda to get through. We all have our vices. You know, we all need something to get through the day. Yeah. I mean, cocaine and soda is a very strong vice.

That's literally a Miami vice. Vice. That's literally a Miami Vice. One of my favorite things about the show is that it, not to be too dramatic on it, but it kind of like, you know, all of us, we are all in this food entertainment space and all of us have this audience and this opportunity to create some awesome product like this. And it kind of like, you know, infuses you with that entrepreneurial spirit, like, holy crap, I'm one good idea away and that's why i think all three of us i would love your investment for 10 equity in my company eight thousand dollar investment snacking mayonnaise here's the thing it's gogurt but instead of yogurt in the tube it's flavored mayonnaise it's a low carb it's keto friendly and you slurp down the mayonnaise out of

a tube but it's also shelf stable thank you louur and Pasteurization, so it's meant to be eaten hot. You warm it up in your glove box in your car. You forgot to say sharks. Sharks. You forgot the most important part. So, Adam, if you, my Venmo... Wait, wait, sharks. Oh, oh, oh, like shark tank.

I'm sorry. When you said that, I was thinking, for God forgive me, because I was thinking about eating mayonnaise, I thought you were saying sharks. Oh, no, hold that, too. And I was thinking for God forgive me because I was sitting there eating mayonnaise I thought you were saying sharts oh no hold that too and I was like yeah she's not wrong the amount of

spray fartery the Jackson Pollock that would ensue then I ask would there be flavors or protein or it's just straight mayo so it's there are flavors so the snacking mayonnaise are designed to be flavored and I mean here's the great thing is because you can get intro in the markets all across the world, right? And we're talking, I mean, you go to Laos and Cambodia.

You put some galangal in the snacking mayonnaise. I'm thinking global, Nicole. I'm thinking global. You got your like kochujang. Wow, that's a deep cut to go for galangal. Yeah. You jumped fish sauce, lemongrass, and palm sugar and went to galangal. That's 2023, those flavors you're describing. I'm thinking 2035 flavors down the road. You jumped fish sauce, lemongrass, and palm sugar and went to Galangal.

That's 2023, those flavors you're describing. I'm thinking 2035 flavors down the road. This is our sixth generation. So I look forward to all our entrepreneurial. Adam, we had you sign a release form that was actually a contract for snacking mayonnaise. Oh, I knew I should have read it. You know, now I get his hot dog his sandwich is very much like the itunes like terms and conditions yeah that's how we get you and then boom a u2 album is on your phone in two weeks right exactly i've agreed to be part of a human centipede without knowing i'm like god

damn it not again our surgeon is gentle it's fine you'll be the middle one that's the best part actually i do want to make mention of one thing, though. I do mean this in interest. In the food, excuse me, in modern marvels, we went to the army lab in Natick, Massachusetts, where they develop the MREs, the meals ready to eat that our war fighters across all branches of service eat. And it is so fascinating because both of the means of technology that you both spoke about, refrigeration and microwaves, are essential. And also because it's the government, they have all the cutting edge technology, ultrasonic knives and things like this.

Amazing. Where they cut stuff with sound waves. The reason I interject this fact is because we actually did an entire segment for the pilots of the U-2 spy plane that are flying at 30,000 feet plus, where it's incredibly cold and they have to sustain a sense of alertness, I suppose, for 12 to 14 hours. They have myriad meals, full meals that exist in tubes, but they're kind of purpose-driven, but they have to still have texture and flavor. So what they actually created are these metal tubes that kind of exist behind the pilot's seat. And they're all purpose-driven.

So, for example, they'll caffeinate certain foods that are otherwise not caffeinated to give them a sense of alertness. But also, these are grown adults that don't want to be eating pablum, don't want to be eating baby food. So what they've done is they had to create because so and it has a there's an attachment in their helmet and there's like a straw holy crap straight in and they actually squeeze it and there's even um it's about that big i guess like a pint container of milk kind of size it's a little oven to heat these tubes up and they have truffle mac and cheese. They have spaghetti with meat sauce, pasta bolognese.

They have beef stroganoff. They have like cold ones like fruit and key lime pie and whatever. And what's fascinating is they've kept, and they did it through R&D, they kept elements of texture in there. did it through R&D, they kept elements of texture in there. So when you do the truffle mac and cheese, it's real truffle oil and real truffles that are used in it, real bits of pasta. But when you squeeze it, there's still bits of particulate that you can chew. So there's a mouthfeel. And it's the trippiest thing because it skips out the cutting of the bite, the mastication, the chewing of the bite. So you go from nothing in your mouth to having already been chewing pepperoni pizza for two seconds.

That's amazing. They use whole ingredients. They add calories because it's meant for the forward infantry and the Marines and the SEALs. And it has to be light enough to carry, but shelf stable for three years. Holy crap. And they use freezing and microwaving and different means of desiccation to get any kind of spoilage out. And it still tastes like coffee. Amazing.

And it's incredible. I'm just saying that you said it struck a mnemonic device and it's not feigned enthusiasm. You will see things that I'm just so profoundly impressed that they think to add omegas for brain health. They think to add probiotegas for brain health. They think to add probiotics for gut health, but in an imperceptible way. And then finding means of like chemical reactions. So there's a powder that reacts with water and it becomes an oven. And so it's in this pouch. They tear it open, pour the water in, you throw the pouch of food in, and it heats up everything from a pizza to chili mac to like a taco bowl,

and it's all done in a pouch. So if you want to talk about the food vanguard, the episode The Future of Food will break your brain a little bit. I am definitely checking that out. Me too. And then next season, if they need a stool softener up in the U2 plane, we got mayonnaise in a tube coming right up. Mayonnaise in a tube,

baby! Stop huffing the tube coming right up. Mayonnaise in a tube, baby! Stop hucking the tube, Mayo, man! If you run out of bombs, you got something else to drop on around me. Hey-o! Alright, Nicole and Adam, 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 the time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casserole. We're going to go ahead and we are going to start with At Jocelyn's Life, tater tots are superior to french fries in every way. Adam, you kick us off, man. This is a big one. Yeah, I know, right? off man it's a big it's a big one but yeah i know right um hmm it's so fascinating because

a bad french fry is really bad and a bad tater tot is even worse in those regards and i will here's what i'll say i can't turn my back on the french fry because if they're both executed well a belgian like a really good belgian twice fried frite or like a good potato wedge oh yeah in england are very very hard to beat however if on a menu i see that the burger place i've gone to offers tots or fries i always go tots tots to me is like catching a double rainbow. You don't see it often, but it fills you with wonder. It fills you with delight.

It fills you with nostalgia. And it's a different experience, but I think you can't dip them as easily. And then you can't, I don't think it's as versatile. Like I could do French fries with breakfast. I don't see tater tots. Tater tots are the supreme breakfast burrito potato.

You're a New Coast guy. I agree with you. You got your bacon, egg, and cheese out there, but we both grew up in Southern California and breakfast burritos are a part of life. And the tater tot will never fail you. And also speaking of good food inventions, the Ore-Ida Corporation, who has

some of the strongest IP laws on the freaking term tater tot. And so you go to the store and all the invitations are like, tater crowns, tater rounds, and no one can use the term tater tot. And I absolutely love that. If you go to the Man vs. Food episode in Boise, one of the men that I interview married into the tater tot family. Wow.

I was just like, guy you are set yeah don't mess this up and forget about the money my guy is set for like the waffle fried potatoes for life like waffle fries tots he's got it on lock and like I I will say this for again breakfast burritos amazing like sonic the biggest reason because they're they're far superior in my opinion fast food burgers not dissing sonic but they have number one they have the good ice yes they have pellet ice dank ice and they're like snow almost that it makes and they got tots they got tots but don't you guys think sometimes tater tots are really dry have you guys ever had a really dry tater tot?

Like, I've never had, like, a dry fry. Buh. I've had the unduly moist collapsing star, like, tater tots. The ones that are like a bean bag. They've been steamed. Just barely held together like a membrane of the crusted potato. It's one strong punch away from being mashed potatoes. Literally. Yes.

Yeah, you'd palm heel strike it like Basarutin does to the livers of his enemies. rusted potato. It's one strong punch away from being mashed potatoes. Literally. Yes. Yeah. You just, you'd palm heel strike it like boss root and does to the leaders of his enemies. Opinion because French fries are so much better. Oh my God. Josh loves bathroom. And all he ever talks about, you got her. I've been trying to get boss rooted on the show for years.

That's all he talks about. There's a great boss root and clip on how to defend yourself and like bar fights and stuff. And he's talking about like, if someone like touches your girl, defend, ba-ba-ba-ba. And he has this clip where he like,

the guy's got his legs crossed and shows he had to like shatter his knee. And he goes, right, right straight, left straight, grab the head. You don't ever do this.

As he's like, slamming the guy's head on the table with like each syllable. I mean, yeah, he's, he's the bald bull, man. Bas Rutan.

Love him. Can't beat it. The Dr. Toxic says ranch is the best sauce. For what? That's all. That's all we're given. We do a de facto. We are like constitutional literalists that we analyze the question as it is written.

Okay. It is not the best sauce categorically because I feel it has more limited applications than other things. So it is the best for things like fried zucchini rounds. Carl's Jr. I used to work at Red Robin, so that was like my go-to thing.

But like when it comes to like buffalo wings, it's blue cheese uber alice. Like you can't thank you can't mess that up if marinara has so many more applications my god chimichurri has more applications so and and in a world where queso exists is this even a real conversation where barbecue exists where i mean it's more of aiment, but like sriracha or peanut sauce, peanut sauce. It's just I think ranch is a very great flavor. I agree. But the best sauce for everything?

Absolutely not. If you think that the applications of ranch are limited, you have never. OK, this is a little bit embarrassing. You know, you get sushi, right? The next day you got some leftover. One, I like to pop it in the microwave for about eight seconds because sushi should not be served with cold rice, and I believe in that. But you don't have any soy sauce in the house. You need to liven it up.

I might have dipped it in ranch once or twice. Oh, no. I'm just saying. What I'm saying is think about it. I mean, think about spicy tuna, right? It's just sriracha. It's just sriracha mixed with, you know, literally the scrapings off of a tuna's spine. Yeah.

And Kewpie mayo. Exactly. I mean, ranch is 90% mayonnaise as it is. You know, you got some extra flavorings in there. You got a little bit of acid with the vinegar, which is already coming in like ponzu. Sushi and ranch is what you're trying to tell me right now? I'm trying to sell you on sushi and ranch.

I'm not interested in being sold such a line. What I'm saying is ranch, I don't know if it's the best sauce. That's a very hard thing to judge. My man, you are talking out your casserole. Thank you for calling him out, Adam. Thank you. But still, ranch is delicious in the correct application.

Certain fried chicken sandwiches, fried zucchini, even just crudités. All right, we got at Dean Feldman 99. How do you guys feel about ground turkey? I like it, but my family doesn't. Okay. Big fan. Yeah. Big fan.

I make a pretty badass turkey chili. I venture to say one of the best turkey chilies. I think there are so many other ways to add fat. And I think that if you're making good chili, you're sauteing onions, you're browning garlic, you have enough sort of fat to emulsify it. And I think that where sliced turkey or white meat turkey is so easily dried out in the cooking process, that it can take on moisture and bring a little bit of that flavor. I am a big fan of ground turkey. I think that the moment that the little teddy bear and Ted, upon hearing that Mila Kunis was making turkey burgers

said something less than flattering about it. People were like, oh, I feel so seen. But I think ground turkey is wonderful. I love it. I eat turkey meatballs like three, four days. So good. It's so good.

It's not my favorite, but I will use it once in a while when I'm like, you know, I got to stop eating so much red meat. I feel like it's no one's favorite, which I think there's a beauty to that. You know, it's like it's sustenance. It's like when you find the really good cold drinking fountain with like the mechanical refrigerator and you're like, you know what? It's not my favorite beverage, but damn, is this nice right now?

Yeah, no, I agree. But I mean, as someone who is perennially fighting my body's own tendency towards moving towards a panda bear-like physique. I hear you on that. That finding things like ground turkey and ground chicken. Yeah, really helpful. And then just using culinary acumen to bring it up. I quite like it. And I think that now as companies are finding more ethical ways to raise turkeys and also, you know, let's use the term process them.

I think that you're dealing with a more whole and wholesome product in many cases. Yeah, that makes sense. Agreed. And I'm a big turkey bacon fan. Oh, you got two Jews right here, man. We grew up on turkey bacon. Nice. Three more, we have a minion.

I'm very excited about this. No, I can't be in it. I'm a lady It's 2021 I'm progressive Please come on faith knows no genitalia God that is the most beautiful thing Except at eight days old

That's right The only turtlenecks I have are in my closet And on that note Thank you for listening to us Let's go back to sauces. No, no, no. This is... Perfect segue.

We've transitioned into the wrap-up beautifully. Wrap-up? Oh, my God. Do it, do it, do it. And on that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich.

We got new episodes for you every Wednesday. And Adam, thank you so much for joining us. You can catch all season two of the History Channel's hit nonfiction series, The Food That Built America, on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and Pacific Time,

and returning series, Modern Marvels, will premiere on Sunday, February 21st at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. Did I nail the plug? You did. There's one thing I do want to mention, if I may. Of course. Obviously, this is a really, really hard time for our restaurant industry. So the History Channel has actually paired with the James Beard Foundation and they are working to save the restaurants.

So if you have a great food memory, food image, food story, if you just tag the History Channel with the hashtag SaveOurRestaurants for every post, they will donate a dollar to the James Beard Foundation's fund to save the restaurants. And so it's going to places like Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C., famous for their half smoke. And I got to film there and everything. But we can't forget that place fed people that were there for the 1963 March on Washington and so on and so forth. So if you, like me, love the restaurant industry, worked in it, love it, may still make your living off of it, tag at history, hashtag save our restaurants, and or hashtag save our history with your favorite food memory, image,

or just a little anecdote about a place you love. For every post, $1 will go to that fund. I am absolutely doing that and plugging El Tepeyac because that is... Hell yes! If you want to be featured on Opinions Are Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or nhandizade with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. 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 y'all later. Adam, you rule, man. This was fun as hell. Adam, come back in like a week. What are you doing next week?

This is wonderful. No, you guys are great. This is fun as hell. Adam, come back in like a week. What are you doing next week? This is wonderful. No, you guys are great. And I have to say, the only thing better than hanging out with really fun people is hanging with really fun, smart people. And that's what I did today. Aw, thanks. So thank you both. No, seriously.

I hope we get a chance to do it again. I appreciate that, man. Thank you so much. Oh, and bye, bye, bye mayonnaise in a Tube.