A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - The Problem With Fancy Grocery Stores ft. Gwynedd Stuart

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Today, Josh and Nicole are joined by our very own Sporked's Managing Editor, Gwynedd Stuart to talk about the problems with fancy grocery stores! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Back in my day, we didn't need to pull out a loan to go to the grocery store. Who does Hailey Bieber think she is? Yeah, the smoothies there don't even have real Bieber in them. Never say never. 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. 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, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And today we have a very special guest joining us.

We have Gwynnad Stewart from spork.com, the grocery store Empressario herself. Welcome to the podcast. Hi. I'm so happy to be here. We're so happy to have you So you are a recent Erewhon convert. You have not yet been there until today. As of today. Crazy. I'm I was yeah, so I'd never been on principle almost. Interesting, okay. And then I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna be on a podcast about it,

so I'm gonna pop in. And I wound up walking around and finding so many snacks, it seemed fine. What did you end up picking up from there? Well, we should tell the people what Erewhon is if they do not yet know what Erewhon is. Erewhon is, to our knowledge, Why are you saying it like that?

Erewhon, that is how youriwan? Is that how you say it? Arohwan! Fancy people say ariwan. I think just saying ariwan is fine. Yeah, so ariwan now Oh no! Ariwan is to our knowledge the fanciest grocery store in Los Angeles Which is a place that has some of the fanciest little cities in the world I occasionally pop into the studio city Erewhon because it's right next to the gymnasium that I go to and I will pay an extra two dollars for the

normal Faye Greek yogurt and blueberries that I would normally get from another grocery store because then I don't have to repark my car and I can just come straight to work so that is my main relationship to Erewhon. Yes Nicole. Does your Erewhon have valet parking and do you utilize it or is it like a ticket system? I'm so glad you asked. My car is already parked for the gymnasium you see and I get to validate the parking so it is free. And what gym do you go to? I'm not going to tell. There's only one. People are gonna know. It's like go to Equinox. I'm a fancy boy. I go to the Equinox. Josh has, you have to understand Gwyneth, Josh has turned into such a fancy boy.

That's correct. He goes to the gym at Erewhon, he groceries stores at Erewhon. I'm sorry, he gyms at Equinox. I'm lifting the cantaloupes at Erewhon, don't bother me. He gymnasiums at Equinox. That's right, and now he shops at Erewhon. What else are you going to get? Are you going to get a Capital One card with Equinox? I got a massage.

I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I got me too. It does good work. So fancy. I got a massage for the firstred, not the small one. I had me too! I had it back at restaurants. It does good work. So fancy. I got a massage for the first time. I paid money for it. You paid someone to touch your body?

Yeah, that's how bougie I have become. I can't even touch my own body anymore. I have to pay somebody else to do that. I can't believe it. Did you enjoy it? I did actually. It was not like too much. But I did know I had a good time, But it was in Italy and there was a language barrier

And the thing that I'm always worried about with we'll get back to everyone in sec The thing I'm always worried about massages is the cultural coding of when I'm supposed to take off my pants, you know There yeah, and so in Italy I didn't speak much Italian and she didn't speak much English. And so I was just having to gesture like do I take off my pants now? But anyways, it turned out good so Erawan It kind of came out of like the macro biotic macro biotic fad diet movement right it was founded by Two Japanese people in Boston actually about 60 years ago It's a reference to a James Butler nor sorry Samuel Butler novel a satirical novel about a place in the future where illness is punished.

I had no idea about any of this. I just thought it was Nowhere Backwards. It's not even backwards, it's an anagram of Nowhere. But no, there's a Samuel Butler, it's an anagram of Nowhere, it's not Nowhere Backwards. Right, Ere? It's not Nowhere Backwards. What are you talking about? No, that's not how you spell Nowhere Backwards. It's N-O-H-W-E-R-E, Nowhere is N-O-W. It's true. Yeah.

I just can't win. Anyways, but the point is, The cards are stacked against me. The point is, this was like, this is the classic thing that happens with like Whole Foods, right? Whole Foods used to be the crunchy granola, kind of weird old store where you'd get wheatgrass shots, and then now it's owned by Amazon it's a

multi multi multi billion dollar business. Arowan is kind of that but even smaller and even fancier and even more expensive. So how was your first experience there? So I went to the one in Silver Lake and I thought it was small. I thought that everyone there seemed very busy and like they had a lot to do that day while I was trying to like they had a lot to do that day while I was trying to like be kind of cash and just like kind of like browse. It didn't seem ideal for browsing. Okay.

That's a criticism. Yeah. But other things about it were, okay, I think that grocery prices have gotten just so crazy in general. Ridiculous. That when I look at Erewhon prices, yes, some things are completely ridiculous, but then other things it's like, yeah, I don't know.

That's probably what that costs now. Who knows? Maybe spinach dip costs $15 and comes in a jar. Who am I to say? Right. Our brains are so scrambled now. But you get, oh my God, but you actually get a, you get money back if you buy their spinach dip in a jar and then you bring your jar back. You bring the jar back.

How much you get back? A loophole. A quarter? No, I think it was actually like 250 or something. Oh really? That's significant. That's pretty awesome. It's like bringing a growler, like a growler of beer back to a brewery. It's like that, but with spinach artichoke dip and they just have a tap and they pull it and just goes and the spinach artichoke dip comes back in the a tap and they pull it and just go And our chip that comes back in the jar I didn't even think about how they were dispensing spinach gotta be refillable that I love that and everyone should start Telling people that they have a spinach chip on top because I agree people would really like that Normally, we wouldn't just talk about a local regional LA grocery store because we have a global audience here But but but Arohaan has now superseded its little geographic radius

Primarily because of the Haley beam or smoothie hence the intro. Yeah, and there's only ten locations, which is insane How much traction this little grocery store has has gained? Yeah the amount of tiktoks people coming in from out of town I've seen tiktokers shooting at the Studio City location. I'm just trying to buy my Whiteman's Wild Blueberries because they have double the antioxidants and they're small, Nicole. They're small and they break up better in the blender. They're great.

They sell them in three pound sacks. I love it. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, yeah. Nicole, you can probably speak more to the Hailey Bieber smoothie because I think it has chemicals in there that you like to put in your body.

Well, you know, I actually have only had it once before and I think there's like maka roux and things like that and like coconut yogurt, which I do dabble in, you know, I'm you know a young lady that grew up in LA So of course my finger is going to be on the pulse of these fabulous newfound Things you put into your smoothie. I do think the pricing is absolutely abhorrent. I think spend- $19. Right now it's $19? Yeah, as if there's like surge pricing.

I mean, I think it started out at, I think it was $17.50, but now it's like, however much it is, I think the Harry's berries is also what makes it very expensive. I think you can get like a pound of Harry's berries for $20 or something like that, which is also exorbitant. They're delicious, I love them very much. But so it's $20 for strawberries? Like, what are we doing? But the smoothies, they're too expensive and they don't even taste that great. I just get it just to get it, just to

say, Hey, I tried it at least once. Like I got a little tick mark on the box, but I'm not a repeat customer by any means. Uh, it's, it's got the collagen in it. It's got the collagen. That's why it's the strawberry glazed skin smoothie or strawberry skin glaze. Don't talk about glazed skin. She has a skincare slash makeup line called Rode, which is her middle name. And so I understand why.

And she also did a Krispy Kreme collab too with strawberries. So strawberries, skincare, Krispy Kreme, Erawan, they all make sense. Hailey Bieber's just getting richer and richer every second we talk about it. But I'm not the biggest fan of the smoothies at Erawan, but for specifics, like, I don't know, like they're vitamins and stuff, sure, purchase them.

They're deodorant, sure, I understand the appeal. The vegetables are, I will say they're produce and stuff, way too expensive. Like I'm not going there to buy a banana, not happening. I took a peek at some like golden raspberries. Okay. And it was a very small container of them and it was about $6.

And I was like, I think that's what I expected. Sure. A kind of odd sort of produce to cost. Specialty items, things like golden raspberries and coconut yogurt and fermented kefir like from the Himalayan mountains like I'm down to pay a premium for those products but whenever it comes to everyday grocery shopping the idea of doing that at Erawan or even Whole Foods or even Bristol Farms sometimes yeah I just can't get behind. What I want is more Piggly Wigglies.

I want more Aldi's. You've never been to a Piggly Wiggly? I love Aldi. Do you actually want more Aldi? I do love Aldi, yeah. Yes, I've never walked into a Piggly Wiggly, but I've always seen like extreme couponers and stuff on TLC Do It.

God, I love that show. I know, me too. And it's like, I've always wanted to step foot and just experience that kind of rush of getting like 3.99 for a pound of beef. I've never experienced that before. I know you stop laughing. I'm being so serious. Like is it at Smart and I shop at Smart and Final. I shop at Ralph's. I also shop at these places too. And other discount like grocery outlet and stuff like that. But piggly wiggly

man. I don't know what it is. If you shop in there, why not just go whole hog at Walmart? Because I mean, honestly, Walmart, like we've, we've just go whole hog at Walmart Because I mean honestly Walmart like we've we've all whole hog at Walmart don't buy a whole hog at Walmart I'm saying go all the way and shot do your grocery shopping at Walmart Walmart has Yeah, but I'm like is that Walmart does have low low prices every day. They really do When the Aldi in Burbank opened up I'd never been to an Aldi before There are a lot more popular in different parts of the US, and they like split from a German company. There's now like Aldi Nord. Anyways, they're now making like a bigger play in California.

I was very excited because I heard, you know, all these great things, and then I went in there, and it like kind of really bummed me out. Because like, oh my God, it's like, it's like if somebody shrunk a Costco down. It's not an uplifting experience. Not for the Aldi I will say but you can find such fun things there a lot of seasonal fun Products and everything so cheap. It is really cheap Um also I now understand like hardline conservative opinions that make no sense because mine want to go into Aldi is Cashier shouldn't they shouldn't sit of course they should Why are they sitting down it's weird what do you mean I wish they would put their feet out I'm saying I agree it's nonsensical it makes no sense for

me to think that but it creeps me out I'm absolutely the bad person here and if I think if I think it no do you think I go to library you want the library to stand up what are librarians doing most of the time? Sitting down and reading! What is their function? They're sitting down and reading! Somebody's like, I need to find a book and I don't know how to use the internet. Like that's what a library- I know librarians do a lot. We're gonna get a lot of mad librarians. No!

I know everyone- You do not want that. Boo Josh. Boo Josh. No, I'm kidding. Cashiers absolutely should sit down, but I will say it's jarring the first time you're just like- Sure. Get a little chair back there I mean to be fair I grew up shopping at a lot of like ethnic grocery stores like like Jewish markets Persian markets and like Asian markets and people be sitting cashiers be sitting. Oh, yeah, so I'm all about comfort. Me too. Me too.

Do you guys know that speech in Devil Wears Prada where somebody's like These clothes all look very silly and they're stupid and expensive and then Meryl Streep or whatever I I've seen this movie once like 15 years ago, and then Meryl Streep goes like That Pantone blue 0495 was seen in the Tom Ford 1995 collection eight years later It sold 80% of the clothes that TJ Maxx or said you know I'm talking about. It's not blue. It's not even Cerulean It's lapis. Oh that one. Yeah that one. Yeah, that one was trying to say. Yeah. Yeah I feel like that's like a row on that you walk through a row on and you see like what is this weird? Fermented kefir cultured coconut yogurt and then three years later you're in a Ralph's and you see like

Faye has made their own coconut yogurt, right? It's like the ends of the extreme that end up trickling down and you can actually like see trends like that I went to Erewhon saw Calabrian chili hot sauce never seen that before my life. It was $15 for normal hot sauce bottle. You bought it and you brought it to work. Do you remember where it ended up? The trash. No it did not it ended up up in comedian Trevor Wallace's home. Because we shot, we got that and we tried it and we're like this isn't very good. And then he was shooting an episode with us and he was like I really love this hot sauce dude. And then we're like, it's your souvenir. Wow okay. So Trevor if you still have that hot sauce let us know. But like that might be, Frank's Red Hot might be coming out with a Calabrian

Chili sauce in three four years. So that's like, you said it is terrible for browsing because there's so many rich people with large and small dogs. Rich people hate medium sized dogs, you know? I will also say, I feel like I've been a real Ero-One apologist since I got here. I got an adaptogen drink, so I'm just really high on that right now. But my plan was to get a smoothie just because I wanted to do it once. I feel like that's like we're saying, go get it once just try it. I was too intimidated

to do it. It's so freaky. I know. Like to get a smoothie? Yeah, I didn't want to interact with any employees or as few employees as possible because they seem like they would judge you. Did you walk past the hot bar at all? I did not. Okay. Next time walk past the hot bar. It's so scary. Really? I'm so scared to talk to them. Well, there's like Titans of Industry waiting to get a little scoop of tuna salad.

You know, it's weird. Seriously. Like actually, yeah, I don't like it. Rich teens with Harvard Westlake shirts on. Do they have any good stuff on the hot part? Because that's Whole Foods. Well, their buffalo Cauliflower is incredibly delicious and quite popular.

I've gotten their Steelhead Salmon before and their White Bean Avocado Kale Salad. It set me back about $44. Jeez, that's a real price tag. And I will never, let me tell you, again, I've only done it once and I will never do it again because I can truly make all of those things at home.

There's nothing on that menu other than the kelp. There's like this weird kelp noodle thing that I cannot make. I just don't want to make it and I have no desire to make it. I'm willing to pay for that but things like white bean kale salad that costs maybe a dollar fifty to make them charging that much is insanity. It might be organic. It might be fair trade. It might be made by someone who really knows

what they're doing, but I'm never ever gonna do that again. No. Well, I mean, even the stuff that they're not spending extra money on, they are charging extra premium prices on it, like the Faye yogurt, they sell that at Ralph's, and they sell that at Erewhon, it is literally like 40% more expensive at Erewhon. So crazy.

So yeah, there's just massive markups, and a lot of that's probably just you know They have certain margins that they hit from the business and they can sell it for that much I was gonna say and some people want things to be more expensive It's true. Silly. It is but it's true. Trader Joe's to me had one of the most interesting Phenomenons and they actually found this in studies that people thought Trader Joe's was healthier I Thought it was healthier and I thought it was fancier because of their marketing and

how the whole, well, it's whenever you walk into Trader Joe's and the way that it's set up, you're like, oh, bounty. The first thing you see is their flowers. And that is strategically placed there to make you think you're walking into a beautiful, bountiful grocery store. And the way that it's set up, the aisles, how big it is, how grand it is, and the fact that all of their snacks are white labeled and it's only trigger-to-specific makes you feel like it's this fancy, cool world that you're walking into.

And it's something that, unfortunately, Aldi and Smart and Final, I just don't think they think about because it's not worth it to them to invest in that kind of storytelling. Absolutely. Yeah. But Erewan has that in spades, right? The first thing you see when you walk into the location that I end up in sometimes, and also a product that I happen to love and I found out because of Erewan was Ollipop, there's this giant, they've actually switched to Poppy, Jarama.

Oh, I saw that. They had a lot of Poppy. The giant Poppy wall. How did that happen? Wouldn't you love to know? You probably switched to this. Giant poppy wall. How did that happen? You know wouldn't you love to know? It's big bright cool packaging everything feels very cool all of the their white labeled stuff, right? It's very sleek logos feels very silicon Valley And they're trying to impart that aesthetic for people who would gladly pay three dollars more for the same yogurt somewhere else

So that's really interesting, but I think these sort of trickle-down effects like Bristol farms is another very fancy grocery store Gelson's yeah, Gelson's those are I say both those are like a little bit like 15 20 years ago Can stuck in the past but trickle-down effect Bristol farms the first time I saw friggin poke bar Inside oh, yeah, something that is I've still never seen that really so Now the Kroger is the largest seller of sushi in the world. I believe at least in America Wow Yeah, groceries are who would have thought grocery store sushi like I remember being in college And there'd be like a little sushi stand inside the the Ralph's out there And I was like that is new and strange now every Ralph's has like a big sushi counter and the first time I saw that was at Bristol Farms. You know and ditto for the Ralph's in Westwood where they had to compete with Whole Foods so they put in like a bar inside the Ralph's.

So a lot of these fancy grocery stores right it's things start out as fancy until they can scale and then they end up dropping down to the normies. Yes. until they can scale and then they end up dropping down to the normies. Yes. Nicole, I'm going to Italy this summer. Oh well, sounds fab. Can I come? Absolutely not. But you know that sense of anxiety you get when you try and order food in a different country and you don't know the right words? Oh my god, of course. Happened to me on my last international trip.

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I hate that. It's just food. It's sustenance for our bodies Food has never just been food food has never just been food. It's always been Marketing right it's always been for for cultural reasons for just straight entertainment reasons like yeah especially for a one when you have Expensive sweatsuits and you want the tote bag Yeah, what is this thing that they have where it's not a, you have to be a member or something? Do you know anything about the Erewhon membership?

I do, I am an Erewhon. You are? Who are you? That is wild to me. And what have you done with my job? You're full of surprises. I don't like this man, I don't like him. He wears linen pants now.

These are old Navy $20 at old Navy Erawan if you spend tooth am I know I am a member but did I did I get fooled? It's like being a VIP Rouge member for all my girls. I must have been fooled because it's Is it I think it's $200 a year, but it's a straight cash back system. And so I think it's if you spend $1,000 a year, you win? Or is it $2,000? You win what?

You win back your money. You win the math. If you, it's just simply, do you want to pay $200 now to get 10% off going through? I think it's either 10 or 20, I can't remember. And then you just get a discount. So it's like if you join the app and spend $2,000 a year at Erewhon But like I don't think I do so I think I'm I think I just gave him $200 for nothing Do you does a sweatsuit come with the I got no I got no something

I got no sweatsuit a membership card even that you could flash at people like a pretty good Yeah, it's just an app too. It's just and I can flash the Erahuan app. You get one free smoothie, I think. I know. Am I starting to realize I don't like the person that I've become? Mmm... Yeah. I think that's happening. I think it's happening. Well, you're growing. You're growing. You can just determine which way you want to grow.

You are your own sun. You are a sunflower, and you can determine where your sun should be. You're not in the dark... You're your own best invention. Is that a song? You guys remember asparagus water? I do. I feel like we have a connection to asparagus water. Oh my god you do. Explain. Do you remember who discovered asparagus water?

I certainly do. Name her on three. One, two. Name her, shame her. Maryelle Joaquim. Joaquim, yeah. What? What are you guys talking about?

How do you know this person? She, I worked with her at Los Angeles Magazine. And then I worked with her at Los Angeles Magazine. But we never worked together at Los Angeles. I got fired. I got fired pretty hard. And then. You got fired hard?

Locky. Got fired so hard. But anyways, no she walks in one day and she's like, hey I've found this at Whole Foods and she shows me a picture of asparagus sitting in water for like eight dollars and it's like asparagus infused water and she was like,

do you want to like run this? And I was like, I'm busy, leave me alone. You talked to your coworker about that? No I didn't say that. I was like, oh busy leave me alone and then You talked to your coworker about that? No, I didn't say that I didn't say I was like oh, it's interesting, but I have no but that was the spirit I was like you're like not right now. I was like I don't really want to write about it right now and then and then She like texted to a friend and then the friend ended up like stealing the picture and posting it and then everybody like Blogged it and got millions of views and my dumb ass passed on it.

No. Yeah. For no reason. It went very viral. Um, Mariel still like kind of posts about it every year. Like, remember when I went viral for finding asparagus water. I had, okay. So I was telling Justine, sporked Justine about this yesterday and I recognized that

I needed to go ahead and Google Google what the deal with this was. Do you remember what their excuse for this was, the asparagus water? I do not. OK, well, it was like Whole Foods corporate. This was a mistake. This was supposed to be, the way they explained it did not make sense to me.

It was supposed to be, they were like, it was supposed to be vegetable infused broth that you would use for soups and things like that. Okay. But I was like, why was there like a label and a skew for asparagus water then? Yeah, that does not add up. I don't think it adds up! I mean, this would have like predated by a couple years the celery juice trend, but like where like spa water is really big at the time,

you know, you put a couple slices of cucumber in a water and you sell that like the whole foods have that Were they just trying to find? What happened like a manager at the store? Yeah was probably like just throw some throw whatever in the water and charge Dollars for it, and they'll buy it. Oh my gosh But sometimes you innovate and you girl boss too close to the sun. And I think that's simply what happened there. And I think that's totally fine. I remember that picture vividly on my Twitter timeline. I remember it vividly.

I'm like, it's gone off the deep end. Right? But that was like, yeah, that was like everyone's example for like Whole Foods is completely ridiculous. And they were like, no, why not? Which is funny because Whole Foods seems so very tame now compared to AeroLon. Totally. Yeah. And I think that you have a point when you're talking about how bad inflation has gotten I had a very depressing

It's not inflation. It's corporate greed. It's corporate, but how bad corporate greed has gotten? I don't know shit's expensive now It sucks but I went to Ralph's and I you know bought like a Normal amount of food to make a couple meals and it was like pretty small and it was just like $77 and I I think I had a couple things of like dried mint for $7 so small things the price didn't really surprise me That's how expensive stuff is the cashier just goes This is $77 now and I go has sucks and she just goes how are we supposed to survive?

Oh my god, so true. I don't know imagine The cashier supposed to survive. Oh my gosh. So true. I don't know. So true. Imagine kosher food. Imagine buying kosher meat. It's like $15 for a pound of ground kosher meat. It's like so much more expensive. But you know what? I don't have an answer for it. I don't have a solution. All I know is that I hate fancy grocery stores, but I can't stop going to them. I think I'll be pumping back in too. Yeah. For special little fancy chips.

For sure. Did Whole Foods used to do samples? Oh my gosh, you mean like- They did. I feel like- They did. Oh my god, they did. You mean like in the bulk with the bulk stuff?

The Flippy Dome. I have a memory of being- The Flippy Dome. Living in Atlanta and being very poor and like we were just like, let's go to Whole Foods and get samples. Yeah, peanut butter. They had the peanut butter machine too. Oh, yeah. I borrowed a few pints of peanut butter. Good times, good times.

Weasel juice. That's a Polly Shore reference. I feel like that's really timely. It really is. I think he's eternal. You know what the grand irony and real depressing fact about this is, oh here comes Josh to make people even sadder, right? Americans spend less of their disposable income on food than most developed nations. Okay. And we also have some of the most egregious farming practices, right?

To try and artificially make those foods cheaper with things like monoculture corn that is just absolutely tearing up the soil and we need to spray more and more glyphosate on it. No seeds, right? No seeds. The the the fruits don't make seeds. Self self terminating seeds. Yes. I think it's a myth but No, but I'm saying like we should be spending more money on food But the problem is is people don't have money. Right? Yeah. So that's the ultimate. So if we're just saying like, well, make the food cheaper, then it's like, well, we're already cramming the hens so close together to get them to poop eggs. We're growing chickens in three months and their breasts are so big, their heads are dry.

What more can we do? Like, where is the actual solution here to making cheaper, more affordable food for people? Gwyneth. I'll tell you right now. Just kidding. We were locked in like, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh. No, but I think about that a lot, especially with produce, when you think about, like, oh my god, I can't even imagine what, like, if I grow, like, one plant in my yard, and like, oh, I got five tomatoes a year, and it's just like, whoa, there's so, there's

so much going into this that it actually does, like, it's like, it kind of should be, food should be kind of expensive. People need to pick it. Oh yeah, I'm just saying we need to pay fair way for labor. Water's expensive, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, so it's like a little bit of a conundrum for sure. Yeah, things are too expensive, but wages are too low. Yeah, UBI.

And we're gonna find ourselves. UBI, Buckminster Fuller. Now one day we'll solve the world's problems, but for now we can just pay $19 for a haley-beeber smoothie. Oh this sucks As we watch the Rolls Royce's drive by the Aero one There's a dude that has like a Rolls Royce and there's like a like a Hulk like this rap on the car He's like I'm a man. Oh, man. It's freaking cool, dude. He drives real fast through the parking lot You know what? I think he should start doing huh taking his Rolls-Royce over to the Piggly Wiggly Where's the closest Piggly Wiggly probably, Nevada?

All right, Nicole and Gwen it's time for everyone's fourth favorite segment on the podcast. It's where we put our food knowledge to the test. That's right, it's time for... Yummy in my tummy got some trivia for you. So Robot Maggie has three questions prepared. Nicole and Gwennett, you and I will yell the answer once the question is done. You must wait for the question to be done.

If the first gweesser is incorrect, the other person will get one chance to gweys and earn the point. Sorry, I only read phonetically. Let's hear the first question. What famous serial mascots first and middle names are Horatio Magellan? Oh, I know it! I know it! I know it! We all know it! One, two, three... Oh, I know too. I know it, I know it. I know it, I know it. We all know it. When did you say it? One, two, three. Captain Crunch.

The correct answer is Cap'n Crunch. Cap'n. Cap'n. We have more questions? Two more? Who won that one? Don't yell it to the mic. Why I yelled that I know it.

It's too loud. I'm so sorry, I needed people to know that I know it. Therapists recently told me that you should work on thinking that people need to know that you know things. And I agreed with that. What did you say? I agree. Why express that sometimes I get myself in a hot water because I'm like, I need this

person to know that I know that thing. You don't need that. I don't need that. I don't think it serves me anymore. No, it really doesn't. Oh my God, your therapist. I'm proud of you. I don't think it serves me anymore. No, it doesn't. You're a therapist. Proud of you. Next one.

Come on, I'm all jazzed up. I kind of slipped up because I screamed, I know it in the microphone. What ice cream brand and amusement park staple was born in the 1980s when Kurt Jones used his knowledge of cryogenic technology to create ice cream? I know. I know. I know. We all cream. I know, I know! I mean, I don't, I'm leaning back and opening up space for others. One, two, three, Dippin' Dots!

The correct answer is Dippin' Dots. And then Dippin' Dots declared bankruptcy in 2009, but then it was taken over by a private equity firm who found out that it wasn't the ice cream that was actually making the company successful, it was their technology and cryogenics, and now they're actually selling cryogenic technology and their giant freezers to industrial tech companies. If Josh's therapist is listening. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha They're like, yeah, no one wants your ice cream that burns the roof of your mouth, but

you've made the world's best gigantic industrial cryogenic freezers and that can be used for like medicines. Oh, okay. I was, okay. I immediately thought of dead bodies. Yeah, naturally. That too. Naturally.

That was a thing in like, growing up with 90s culture. Yeah, we were like, we thought we were all going to be frozen. I think Futurama had a lot to do with that. Probably. The documentary Futurama. One more. Translated into English as Ram Don, the Korean dish Japaguri is made by combining the Chapaghetti and Neoguri brands of what food product?

I know the answer. Does anybody else know the answer? Actually don't. One, two, three. Ramen. Ramen. But, wait, but it said- The correct answer is noodles.

Is ramen noodles? I mean, men is Japanese for noodles. I know, but it's the ramen packets. We call it colloquially ramen packets. But what is it called, Ramdon? It's because it's, it's, it's because it because it's neoguri and, and shin black, right? Is that the combination? Don means bowl, right?

So is it just ramen bowl, Ramdon? It's from Parasite. It's from Parasite. What, it's not from, it existed before Parasite. Parasite used the product. I know, but the reason why it became popular is because everyone was making it because of Parasite, because you combine the two noodles and then you add steak to it, which explains poor and rich combining the two. God, Greta f***ing Bulk Out.

If Nicole's therapist is listening. Just kidding. Oh, so no, it's udon. The don is udon. But it's not, Neo-Guri is not udon, is it? I believe it is. Is it chopaguri? I don't know. I've never actually had it, I don't believe. Well, okay. But the answer was noodles, and that's what I was gonna say.

Glennon's the official champion. Good win Jeopardy! Oh, got us here. Yummy, yummy. We got some trivia for you. Now everyone's sixth favorite segment on the show. Let's get to the opinions like casseroles. Nicole, you said you'd like to sing. Opinions

are like casseroles. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. I legitimately forgot how seductive that voicemail out message is. How could you forget? Never forget.

Thank you guys. Um. Seduction. I have, I don't know if it's a controversial opinion, but it's just something I've been doing for a few months and I've lost some weight and I feel good about it. Hey. I've been putting literally cabbage in every Meal prep and taquitos burritos Alfredo situations red salt situations and what have you I just been putting like a half head of cabbage and all of my meal prep

The people are waking up killing it and also it is Shoot I should have swore. Alright, well you guys have a very good day. And... I love the pod. Bye! The revolution happens the same way the Bolshevik revolution happened in 1918. The cabbage fuels the people. Are you talking about war again?

What? No. Um, a little bit. Here's the key to solving all these crises and corporate greed and inflation and mass agricultural upheaval. Cabbage, man. Here's the thing, 30% of groceries in people's homes are thrown right in the trash because a lot of them go bad. You know what doesn't go bad?

Cabbage. I've gone on vacation two weeks. Come back, cabbage still there, great. That's very true. Okay, let me tell you, I remember when I used to go grocery shopping, cabbage was 89 cents, now it's 3.99. Wow. And it really bothers me.

I love cabbage, I eat a lot of cabbage, I make a lot of cabbage salads, I braise my cabbage, I put it in stir-fries, what have you. But the thought of me spending $4 for a head of cabbage drives me absolutely up the wall. But that's like less than, that's like 50 cents per serving. Do you like an eighth of a cabbage? That's a pretty damn good serving of vegetables, you know what I mean? A lot of fiber and an eighth of a cabbage. I know, you get used to paying a certain price for it, so and then it's just like, really, what do you want from me here?

I'd rather spend the $4 on like leafy greens because I think that tastes better and I use it more frequently than I do ahead of cabbage. But maybe I just need to switch my way of thinking and realize that like, it's okay. It's okay. I'm gonna get a lot of use out of the cabbage. I wanna see the stats of like nutrient per dollar

on cabbage versus leafy green. Cause I would swear that cabbage is- More nutrient dense? Not even more nutrient, but I mean, I think cabbage is like heavier and heftier and doesn't break down as much or wilt as much when you cook it, adds more body to it. I would bet it has more fiber.

Cause that is like wood, man, it's that tasty wood. But I do buy like dark leafy greens. I'm not buying like iceberg and romaine. So I don't know. But I will say switching out your Carbs for the cabbage is a great way to feel healthy and good about yourself I wasn't even familiar with that strategy and I love it now so smart truly so smart So many of my favorite foods come on beds of cabbage, you know what I mean?

Big fan big fan great job coleslaw proud of you Spicy voicemail. Hey guys, I'm a big fan of the podcast and I just got an opinion for you. There's always a debate between Twizzlers and Red Vines. Man, they're both trash. I want to know why Australian licorice is never in the conversation. It's a better flavor, it's a better texture, it's just wildly underrated when it comes to this debate and I want to know your guys' opinion. Also, I hate black licorice but boy howdy can I suck

down some Jagermeister. What do you guys think? Boy howdy. This is so timely for me because I'm about to do a licorice take- home just sucking it down. I actually had Jägermeister this weekend. Yeah. I had two shots of Jägermeister. Isn't that cool of me? I'm going to have some this week in your honor. God, I know. It sounds fun.

I want some right now. But I'm also doing a taste test of liquorish for sports. Red liquorish, black liquorish? I'm going to do it all. Oh my gosh. That's incredible. I think I'm ethically opposed to the red and the black mixing in that way. Okay.

That sounds so messed up, but I can explain. I don't want to betray your ethics, but... No, but they're entirely different. So licorice is like a plant, right? I know. It's a nice pink rose, and the flavor of it, black licorice is a retro-nym, right? It used to just be called licorice because that's the plant. And then people were like, hey, we love the sticks of sugar, but we hate this gross root that you flavored it with.

And they're like, what if we put artificial cherry flavoring and red food dye in it? And they're like, that's the ticket. Now there's red and black licorice, right? It's like when the electric guitar was invented, we had to start calling it the acoustic guitar. Before it was just called a guitar. What's, what is the difference between Twizzlers and Red Vines? I actually don't know the taste difference. I think they're dramatically different. Really?

The amount of lead in it. I don't even think, let me tell you, I don't even think about it. I just think about like red, red licorice. Like if it's in front of me, I'll have a bite of it and I don't have a preference. I'm not, I'm not obsessed with either one. So Twizzlers are strawberry flavored,

unless you're buying Twizzlers nibs, which are cherry flavored Okay, how interesting red vines are red licorice flavored? Okay, which is much I think it's much different tasting but it's also with it's a flavor that I couldn't like describe Are red vines shinier and twizzlers are less shiny or my man twizzlers are shiny red vines are matte. Okay red vines are matte. Okay, god. Red vines. It's just the dust that is collected on the factory.

So much research. Red vines have a much bigger hole. Okay, good to hear. If you like a big hole, then you'll like red vines. Big ol' goatsie red vine, yep. Ew, he said goatsie in 2024, loser. And, well, okay, do you remember going to the movies as a child

and you would get Twizzlers and you would attempt to use them as a straw because they have a very small hole in the middle? No, I had an almond mom growing up. Okay. It didn't. No snacks. I'm sorry about that.

It's okay, it's fine. But it doesn't work, but a red vine can be used as a straw. Got it. Because it has an ample, ample hole. And also hard. Ample hole and rock hard. So you put it in the drink no for real though because if it's not this I'm being serious I am trying to talk about the structure of candy as it is used in your mouth so it's if it's too soft the hole collapses yes you know like a like a mine shaft but red vines rock. Especially you put it in a cold drink, it gets harder. And then the hole's big, and so it's a nice straw. Do you prefer red vines because you grew up in California?

So my interaction with red vines in California is that every teacher would have the Costco-sized 500 giant... Good memory. It's like how they transported ammo to Vietnam. These giant drums of red vines. And they would just put them out and you'd, you know, I don't know, not miss a day of school for a month. They just hand you a single dusty hard red vine. It was the best time of the month.

I know. I would be like, no, thanks. I'm a Twizzlers guy. Never really dabble in black licorice. I mean, I'll eat it if it's in front. Again, I'll eat it if it's in front. Again, I'll eat it if it's in front of me, but I'll never like look for it. I like it. I really like black licorice.

Like licorice? It's Australian. Like licorice? Aussie licorice, it's much softer. I love it. You do love it. I don't know if I've had authentic Australian licorice, but I've had Wiley Wallaby.

I was gonna say Wallaby. That sounds authentic to me. But you said Wiley Wallaby. I'm pretty sure it's not That sounds authentic to me. But you said, Wiley Wallaby. I'm pretty sure it's not. I bet it's made in Wisconsin or something like that. Australian inspired. But it's meant to be Australian style licorice. It's squishy.

I'm simply out of the gummy adjacent candy game because of the amount of crowns in my mouth. I have given up. Soft teethed community. Given, yeah, but that's a proud member of the soft-teethed community. I think we have a great fellowship. We have a group that meets on Wednesdays, and we just eat marshmallows.

Good for you. Yep. This is the most we can handle. Good for you. Glad you found your people. Thank you so much. It's tough making friends as an adult, isn't it? I think in these days, people rely too much on measurements.

I think recipes should look more like, add a glob of this, add a square to that, you know, a pinch, a handful. People care about measurements too much. And that's it. Thank you. How do you feel, Gwyneth? I actually, I just, I personally disagree with that because I'm not a very good cook. So I need specificity in a recipe. But I think people who are good cooks can go off, baby. I agree with you.

Yeah. I think if you know how to cook a glob, everyone knows what a glob is, a squirt is a squirt, a handful is a this, a pinch is a that. So I agree with you a thousand percent. But if you need guidance and if you need assistance, and if you just don't have that intrinsic knowledge of how to do it, a recipe needs to be specific, either in weight or cups or whatever, grams, what have you. If it's a baked good, forget about it. Oh yeah, baking, you need a recipe. It's a science.

No way, man. No way. I'm with this dude. You gotta glob it and squirt it, you know? There's no measuring. I think this is a real tenet of my general cooking ethos here. There are way too many variables to ever give anybody any sort of accurate information. Your oven is not actually at 400 degrees. If you are in, if it is it, exactly calibrated to 400 degrees, then the material of the pan

that you are using is likely different than the material of the pan that this person used, right? Using one ceramic versus another, it's going to hold heat differently. Your oven heats from the bottom versus the top. If person used, right? Using one ceramic versus another that's gonna hold heat differently. Your oven heats from the bottom versus the top. If you say, measure in a quarter cup of water and cook it for five minutes at medium in a 12-inch pan, what's the material of the pan? How hot is your medium? What about altitude? And altitude. That quarter cup of water is

gonna evaporate immediately. But a lot of recipes allude to that, allude to all the things that you just said. They try, I don't think they can ever completely cover it. And so I think it is, again, if you're not like a seasoned cook, the only way to get better at cooking is to cook and to get a feel of it, right? But like, dude, you ever like go to an Indian friend's house and watch their mom cook? Yeah. And then like watch that friend cook and they're just you throw a dash a gob you just throw some butter That's how people learn how to cook from their parents

I'm one of them my mom never wrote anything down But I'm still learn from watching her and learning but still if you don't have that I think fingertips You can still learn from measurements and an understanding that a scoop of this is equal to a quarter a quarter cup I don't think you're learning when you're using exact measurements I don't think you're learning. I think you're following So disagree, I think you're following like rote sort of knowledge, right? Like you're following rote instructions as opposed to actually learning the why So I know people that have cooked. You don't need to learn the why. I think you do

I think you need to know how to say something because something's eventually going to go bad And I think you need to learn how to problem solve within that. It's like, um, what's the common core math? Common core math. You gotta learn the building blocks of math. You don't just have to learn the answers and then everyone is mad about it. I don't know. I know nothing about math. Please. None of us have kids. None of us. None of us have kids in school. So we shouldn't be commenting on that. It's a general. It's a general theory. It's like, but okay, so it's like why we learn. It's why we learn algebra, right? We don't learn algebra because we're Josh. It's a general theory. It's like, but okay, so it's like why we learn, it's why we learn algebra, right? We don't learn algebra because we're gonna use it in our everyday life to, you know, calculate variables.

It's so it can teach you a Tenet of how to think and how to problem solve. I don't use algebra. I think you do though. I think anytime you're substituting one variable for another you are using an algebraic thought pattern. And that would be nice if it were true. She's not, listen, she just, she hates me. I don't hate you, I love you! How could you say that?

You know what I'm talking about? I loved watching you give up and turn to me. I don't hate you. Hey, maybe this lady likes what I'm saying. Opposite. I, yeah, agree to an extent. Measurements are good. Measurements are good. Measurements are good.

You should use them. You mean to tell me that you haven't memorized a recipe due to measurements, like in your head? I have no measurements in my head. I have all vibes. Okay, well, let me tell you who does. I do. Colby does.

Lily does. V does. Most of the people you... You're just special! You're so special, Josh. You do everything so good and so unique. It's like jazz, baby. And just the people you, you're just special. You're so special, Josh. You do everything so good, so unique. And just the way you do it. It's like jazz, baby.

Pharrell doesn't even know, he doesn't even read music. Are you comparing yourself to Pharrell Williams? We both have an excellence. We both have the Arby's hat. To be fair, Pharrell is my favorite producer, but that's neither here nor there. Are we done? Yay, we're done.

And on that note, Gwyneth, thank you so much for joining us. Tell the people what they can find, Jeff. Go to spork.com. Eventually you can read my licorice ranking. And I'm sorry that it's red and black. It's pretty messed up. Thank you for the apology, though. I appreciate that. If you want to be featured on opinions or like casseroles,

call us at A33DogPod1. It is a very sultry message. And make sure to tell us how sultry it is. And if you want to see more of our sultry messages, head over to the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel. Statistically, a majority of you are watching this on the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel, but head there anyways.

It's like saying to somebody in your house, hey, you should come over to my house. You should follow sport.com, well, not sport.com. You should follow Sport on YouTube. Or YouTube, yeah. We do taste tests and it's fun. You should get a- Very fun. Badged salad.

Badged salad. It's pronounced bagged. The cop of salads. Bagged, bagged. It's pronounced bagged salad. Bagged salad. Yes. You get a hat.

I've gone bagged. See you later. Bye. Bye.