A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Trying Every Indomie Instant Noodle Flavor

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Today, Josh and Nicole taste every Indomie flavor and Indo-MY were their noodle-loving hearts filled! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yeah, man. said, this is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What?

Welcome to our podcast to Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show you break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host Josh Cher. And I'm your host Nicole Inniity, and that was me speaking Indonesian just a little bit. Guess what I said? You said, where is the library? No, that's Donde is Sassel of Biblioteca, but close. I said, let's try into me, and I hope my accent was acceptable. I'm still working on it.

Okay. I speak zero Indonesian. I only know that Ayam means chicken. Yes. And that's about it. That's about all I know too. Why do we know that? Well, because we eat a lot of food.

We eat a lot of, not a ton of Indonesian food. I love Indonesian food, and it tends to be, at least for us, like, really one of the less represented foods, especially in terms of how large the country of Indonesia is. Very, very true. Indonesia is what, the fourth biggest country is. I don't know. Talk to them all like Google. I'm pretty sure it's fourth biggest country is going to Google.

Indonesian food, there are a few very, very iconic spots. There's Sinapang, I think is what it's called. Simpong. Simpong, very delicious. Indonesia's fourth. It goes India, China, U.S., Indonesia. Where's Russia? Is Mother Russia 5th?

Russia's way down. No, Russia's not big? Russia's big is 144 million. But it's below... In terms of area or in terms of population? No, population. Oh, you were doing it by population. Yeah, Indonesia, not that big by area, too. It's an island, well, series of islands.

But yeah, 287 million people. It's like pretty much the closest country to the size of the U.S. That's awesome. Yeah, and I don't know why there wasn't a big Indonesian migration to the U.S. A lot more Indonesian people ended up in Australia. Probably this closer. Probably this closer, yeah, yeah. But still, like, you know, Los Angeles and New York are such big hubs for so many different communities.

And every time I've eaten Indonesian food, I have had a wonderful time. Agreed. There's a level of complexity that I love with Indonesian food. I feel like they hit all five senses. Yeah, very similar. I'm sorry, all five... Dimensions of taste. Dimensions of taste.

That's what I was like, they don't squirt lime in your eyes. Sites, sounds, spells. But they do touch every sweet, salty, umami, there's bitterness. It's a very complex, delicious cuisine that more people need to eat. And of course, we're going to try the most processed version of that with Indomie. We are, but also Indomie, the first time I had Indomi, I was like, oh, this is easily the best. It's so dank. It's the best, especially the pan-fried noodle or...

Right. Mi-Gorring? Yeah, Nasi-Goreng is fried rice in Indonesia, and Mi-Goreng. Me-Goreng are pan-fried noodle. Noodles. Nasi rice. Yeah, yeah. I'm a big Rundong guy.

Yeah. Come on, man. It's because it's cooked down for so long. Kind of peanut-y, peanut-y, red meat, curry. It's also the combination of, like, the oil separating from the fat. It's literally... That is such a delicious. It's not to, like, essentialize.

Curdle. It's kind of like in between the, like, Thai food and Indian food, right? It's a lot of techniques and flavors used in both. Yeah. Same with Malaysian food. Yeah, same with Malaysia food. You know, Malaysia is like, I think it is about only like one-tenth of Indonesia.

Indonesia's huge. So Indonesia, huge, very multicultural. The islands, they're all very, very... Yeah, you're not seeing like Sumatra and Bali. Obviously, Indonesia is the biggest Muslim country on Earth. Correct. I think I had a female president before America. That's really cool.

But anyways, let's get into trying Indomee. And Indomie, I believe, is the largest instant new... manufacturer in the world. That's crazy. This day. And they started in the 1970s. What are you eating first? What flavor?

I'm eating with classic megarine, the pan fried noodles. Also, one thing that I love about Indomie is the amount of sachets that they put in their product. If you don't mind, I'm actually going to pop open this one right over here and show you aside from the brick that is located inside this guy. Look at these. Look at these. There's one, two, three, four,

five points of flavor going on in here. That's crazy. There is Bahuan Gorang, which means fried onion. There's a seasoning packet called bumbu.

There's chili sauce, samba. There's ketchup. I mean, we call it ketchup, but ketchup. Soy. No, it sounds ketchup. Okay, good.

Yeah, there's a little ketchup. Yeah, yeah. And then miniak bumbu, which is seasoning oil. Also, that word, Ketchup is the same as our word ketchup. Yes. Yes.

Correct. That's crazy. And it's... More people need to realize that. And it's a very... It's a very jammy version of ketchup. Like, Kekap Manis is a version that many people know. It's like this thick...

Ketrapi. Oh, Ketchup Manish. It's just ketchup. Okay. We took their word. Okay. You know what I mean? It sounds weird.

I should catch... I mean, I'm sure there's an accenture that's different. So good. But it's ketchup. Like ketchup sambal, ketchup. Delicious. Mm. I keep ketchup sambal in my fridge.

Ketchup Sambal, man, I sure brought it in today. It's this very, very thick sweet soy. Mm-hmm. That's what's in here, I think. So ketchup Manny is, I believe, is a thick, dark soy, but this ketchup samba, sombal's a term for, like, a chili condiment. Right. Right over here.

There's so many of a regional sambals in Indonesia. But ketchup samba has dried, roasted chilies that are ground up in this sweet soy. So it's super chunky with dry roasted chilies, but super dark and sweet. Delicious. It's a combination of like dark, sweet, dusky, bitter, like that kind of like dark soy, almost like this iodine-y kind of like inky quality to it. But that's why I like it. No, same.

It's so intense, dude. And I just, I love it, man. I love this. The ketchup sumball. Man, go to your local. If you have an Asian market near you, they typically, like, we have a lot of 99 ranch. Some people call it Ranch 99. Which I respect.

Which I respect. From what I've heard, people from Northern California call it Ranch 99. people from Southern California called it 99 Ranch, depending on where the signing was. Well, do you call it the 99 cents store or the 99 cents only store? One's a brand name. The other is... Just a 99 cents store. Yeah, yeah. But the 99 ranchers, Ranch 99, because I grew up with it where there's like a laurel leaf or something, but I grew up with it where it was 99 above ranch market below.

I only started going to 99 Ranch once I started working here. We had one in like Irvine. I wish I had more access to it. I would go to Nigeo market. That was the closest, quote-unquote, Asian market. But if you go to 99 Ranch, which is, I think, one of the bigger chains in the U.S., they always will have one, like, Southeast Asian aisle

and go there and just get as many sombal as you can. That's their international. Like, legitimately, yeah. It's like if you go to a Mexican supermarket and they have one kind of like South American where they're like, we got some Peruvian pepper paste. Right, right. Oh, my God, that's so accurate.

Guatemala products, yeah, yeah. So accurate. What are your thoughts on feelings about that? I just want to eat, like, four bowls of that right now. All of the sachets. do a job. Exactly. You know what I mean?

Because it is a dry noodle. Also, the oil, like, lubricates it, you know what I mean? It really helps because it's not a wet noodle. No. And I love a dry stir-fried noodle, man. Me too. It's delicious. Especially in Southeast Asian cuisine, dry stir-fried noodles, man. It's a phenomenal.

You know what? Also, I love that they put a bunch of stuff on the packaging, like an egg and some other like stuff on there. Because, to be honest, it's not plain by any means necessary. But they're telling you, hey, you got to put a lot of stuff on this. You had an egg, you add some like achar, you add, you know, some grilled meats on there. That's a full delicious meal.

That's really good. Shoot, I got to think that at nine, man. I can't even get a nine. Starting off strong. I give it a nine too. Classic endomi is really great. Now, we're eating soup noodles as well. We are because they're known for their dry noodle, but I'm like, you know what?

It's time to eat some soup noodles. Let's see what we have. Hold on one second. Soto ayam. I know I am is chicken. Soto is soup? I don't know. I don't know.

Only know languages from... Can you Google Soto Ayam? Can you put that there? I can't... My arm doesn't move like that. What does this say? Onion chicken. Get the heck.

My favorite kind of chicken is the chicken with onions. Should I have the first bite? Boiocon saboya. That's what it is in Indonesian. Boioconzeboa. Incredible. Again, multiple sachets in here. I'm having a lot of fun, by the way.

Anytime I eat noodles on this show, I have a good time. I'm just not eating in some noodles that much these days. You know what I mean? We've done it on the show like four times. Oh, the on the show, but in my personal life. I'll tell you what, my go-to, I've really crystallized in my own beliefs and traditions, whereas my go-to cheat meal is always going to be some sort of, like, bean burrito.

Okay, that's your cheat meal. Yeah, yeah. But my, like, I just keep a bunch of tortillas, burrito-sized tortillas in my house. And I always have some sort of can of beans. I brought a can of chickpeas with me today to work for lunch because I forgot that we were doing this. Not that I forgot we were doing this, but I was like. What would you have done with the chickpeas? Mashed him and put him in a ton of.

tortilla, dude. That's what I do. My wife is allergic to beans. I'm sorry about your wife's allergy and how that affects you. I often like to make barbecue baked beans. I'll do a nice little coleslaw, barbecue baked bean, and grilled chicken set dinner. It's nice. I hate barbecue at home.

But check this out. I make barbecue baked chickpeas. You are so brave. You're so brave. Because she's allergic to other. She's not allergic to chickpeas because they're botanically different. And so ditto, I'll make chickpeepie. I'll make chickpeepure and use it and be maritos.

I'm proud of you. Keep up the great work. Make sure she feels loved, respected, and understood. No, my God. I literally need to go to the hospital. God, that's salty. It's one of the saltier ones. Shit.

It's spicy. It's onion-y. It's really good. It's garlicky. It's got a ton of MSG in it. So much allium flavor. I think this is better than a marich than like a marichon. Mm-hmm, okay.

But I don't think this can touch any of the Korean or Japanese brands. In soup. In soup form, right? Well, yeah, I don't know what they're doing down in Korea. It's down to a freaking science, man. Their sauce, their, like, soup base is out of this world. There's not a lot of sugar in there. I was hoping for more sugar.

I equate, like, onion ultra-processed foods to have sweetness. I would agree with that. I wish it was a little bit sweeter. I blame Subway's sweet onion chicken. terriaki. You know what I mean? I love that stuff. Because the chicken terriaki, for people that remember the sweet onion chicken

terriaki, there was no sweet onion on the chicken. No, it was the sauce. The terriacchi was on the chicken. It was the corn syrup sauce. Yeah, the sweet onion was the corn syrup sauce. That was just a gloop. I mean, it was a gloop. It was like, you know the song that's like gloop?

Blah blibbleep. There was no color to Subway's sweet onion. sauce. It was just like Vaseline with some brown specks in it. It was delicious. It was so good. It was a different time. It was a different time. And like I... Don't you love sweet onion? Don't you love not sweet onion? I'm sorry. Don't you love like sweet chili sauce now because of that? Oh, no one had to convince me to love sweet chili sauce. I needed some convincing. It was a sweet chili sauce without the chili. I know without the little orange flex. You know like the tie like the May ploy brand sweet chili sauce? Of course. Yeah. Imagine if that was like just in black and

white. I see what you're saying. You know what I mean? Without the chili. Like you're colorblind. You're colorblind and you're seeing sweet chili sauce. God bless you. It's just a gray gloop.

So if I put that's sweet onion sauce. If I put sweet onion sauce next to sweet chili sauce and I blindfold it you, do you think you would know the difference? Yeah. You're not tasting chili. Are you sure you can even taste the chili? That's a fair point. I think you really can if you think about it.

I don't really think that much. I don't know, dude. I'm not to my best quality. Do you remember going to a Tway to Bay's restaurant? Yeah, is it still open? Didi? I hope so. Can you Google if Didi is still open?

But she made her own sweet chili sauce from scratch, like using fresh chilies and whatnot. Well, that's different. That was awesome. But that made me like appreciate it was still like super sweet and goopy in a great way, because that's what sweet chili sauce is. Good goop. Yeah, I think you can really taste some chilies more than you think. I don't think I can taste any chilies whenever I eat sweet chili sauce.

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Sorry. Okay, next up, special chicken. chicken so special? It was in the gate program. Oh, God. For those of you don't know, GATE is short for gifted and talented education, and it was what our, like, the gifted kids who grew up to be insufferable, that was us. It was me. I was there. I was in the gate program. Did you have a secret book? Secret book. What kind of secret book are you talking about? Did the gate people give you a secret book that you would, like, draw and write in? That only, that was just for you. I don't think, is that what your gate kid?

Were you a gate kid? I was not a gate kid. I went to one gate class. And then they were like, never mind. I literally went to one gate class and they're like, sorry, big mistake. Now this guy has a literal bucket of MSG in it. And that's what makes it so special. It is drowning in MSG.

Wow. Drowning in an MSG. I've never tasted so much MSG per capita or whatever. Give me the onion one back. Give me the onion one back. Like these aren't bad, but I don't think there's any reason to buy a soup noodle from Indomie. Fair.

You know what I mean? Unless it's the only thing available to you. Reach for the Indomie if you can't find the shin. Do you think it's better than like Maru Chon? Like, Lion or like the soups, I don't know. Are they... I feel like these are almost in line with like a Marochan or Nisun. They're a little bit.

I'll say they all have a certain level of spice, which I really, really like. There is a level of spice, which I appreciate. I do appreciate that. But like, the... My dad worked at a 99-0-0-0-0-0-0. He was 99 cents only. He didn't work at 99 cents only? What store did he work at?

No, my dad worked at a proud independently owned strip mall 99 cents store. That was definitely a screen for drug running. Really? Yeah. No chance he was making money off this 9.0.C. But anyways, they got a bunch of discontinued like cup noodle slavers. Yeah. And a lot of them were like, there was like Mexican drinks.

Well, yeah, it was like cheddar and stuff. But then just like Camoron is Caliente with Limon. Bro, I was eating I was an 8-year-old child just exclusively eating Mexican cup noodles and that spicy chili lime shrimp So good So good

All the packaging was just in Spanish Was he working with the cartels? What was going on? Was it like tens? Was it like tens? There's simply so much for my childhood Yeah, it's 10 for a dollar There's simply so much my childhood

That is 10 for a dollar? Ten for a dollar Yeah, there is And you know what? One day we're going to unpack that We meaning you And I'm so excited when you do. You know what's going to happen?

It's going to be like an ecstasy kind of come down. Where you're going to be like, I know so much and I feel so much. And then you're going to slowly descend into super duper sadness. My dad knew a guy with the tiger. Tiger King? His name was Jim. Is it the Tiger King guy? He's the Tiger King?

No. He owned a gas station and car wash. And he just had a tiger? He would bring the tiger out. Did you touch the tiger? I didn't touch it. So like... Were you close?

close to the tiger? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because everyone was close to the tiger. We lived at the corner of somewhere in Santa Margarita Parkway and maybe Buenos Aires. You're saying words. And there was a gas station across street and a court wash. Was this in Carlsbad? No, this is when we moved up to RSM, rancho Santa Margaret, yeah. What's RSM?

The next to Mission Bayo, like Southmoreridge County. Okay. And we moved up there and my dad just, like, walked across the street and was just like, hey, can I have a job here? He was like a substitute teacher at the time. Wanted to make more money. So my dad was just like. work nights at this gas station that was literally like 50 yards from our apartment.

That's so awesome. Yeah, it's cool. And their main source of the money there was their car wash. And the guy who owned it had a tiger. And once a year, he would, like, they would bring in animal trainers. They'd, like, fence off part of this car wash. This is insane. And he'd just, like, bring the tiger.

And there would just be, like, a 500-pound Bengal tiger. And then once, like, they had this big fountain water fixture thing. And the tiger just, like, destroyed the fence. Mountain. That is terrifying. Yeah, man. Did the tiger attack anybody ever? No, I don't think a tiger ever attacks anybody.

Did they remove the tiger from the home? I brought that guy in for my middle school career day. Because it's like, I don't, I know, I was ashamed to my dad or whatever. And so I was like, let's get Jim. I've got the guy with the tiger, dude. He brought the gas station owner with the tiger. Yeah, he was sick, dude. He had brought pictures of the tiger.

Oh, my God. Yeah, he gave all the kids coupons or car washes, dude. Hey, do you love to? Tigers, do you love gas stations? How about you like this video? I'm going to get really good at doing this organically, Josh. Make sure to like this video, because if you like the video, we get happy and you get to watch us eat more things.

Are you looking for him? I'm trying to see if I can find a picture of this damn tiger. Josh, focus, please. I am focused. You would bring in a tiger. That's really cool. Are you sure you're not making it up to block out other memories? I don't think.

I don't think the tiger was like a metaphor, like how we all have a tiger. No, Josh, the metaphor is in us. In you, there are two wolves. Not in you with one tiger. I can't find any evidence of this tiger. I swear it existed, man. Anybody who is in Rancho Santa Margarita, near a corner of Buenos Aires and San Margarita Parkway,

sometime between, let's say, like, 2002 and like 2012, let me know if you know what I'm talking about with the tiger. It was there Holy crap All right what are we eating now Chicken curry Chicken curry is this a soup Fudge yeah man

Is it great This better be the best name of her head I wish it was more yellower I wish it was yellower It smells really sinmany Which is what I want Go ahead and taste it I wish I had more turmeric

If I had more turmeric I'd be happier Yeah but that costs like an extra two cents You can't have that No but like fake turmeric Like, whatever, food coloring. You know what I mean? Lie to me. Indom me, lie to me.

End of me. Barely know me. The spice palette. It's a lot of cinnamon and clove. Yeah. Which I like. This kind of tastes like I had a bunch of their normal chicken flavor, but I kind of like got bored and started tinkering it with it myself. I had like a little too much garam masala.

It was like, well, we're eating it. It is just garam masala. It is just garam masala, right? Which is to say like very warm winter spices. kind of a crazy way. But it's unexpected. Like, I was really expecting, like, some yellow-ass, like, highlighter-style curry. But it kind of, like, you know, this excites me.

It's a little different than I was anticipating. Rarely do you have those curry flavors with a clear broth. Really exciting. You know what I mean? This never happens. Those flavors and the smells should exist with a yellowy gravy. Mm-hmm. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

I get exactly what you're saying. That's great, though. I'd rather have that than the other, too. I have to take the other soups. I think that's a solid eight and a half. There's also a really nice black pepper finish to it. There is. A lot of pepper.

I don't even get black pepper. There's like different peppercorns in there. It feels like. I'm having a lot of fun. Just drinking from the bowl. Dude, do you remember the Bulldog day? Yep. Is your last day before having a baby?

People, oh, sorry, that was my email. Yeah, apparently people say it puts you into early labor. Yeah, yeah. But I didn't have that problem. Didn't you come pretty early? Well, I was induced. By the Bulldog? No, by my doctor.

Oh, your doctor's name is Bulldog? No, and then I was induced, and then I had to have an emergency C-section anyways. Because of the Bulldog? No! I'm very confused how the ramen fits into this. My husband's FaceTiming me. I'll ask him about your C-section. Say, baby, I'm talking about my C-section on the podcast.

No, that's really good. That might be my favorite. That's probably my favorite soup. It's my favorite soup. That curry? If there's sort of ever, An option between normal style and curry. I'm going curry.

I'm going curry like nine times a 10, and I don't know what's going on in that other one time. I'm going curry style. You know, it's very rare that I don't want some sort of curry. What do we got here? Hot and spicy? Oh, yeah. No, you go first.

Come on. Okay. You go first. It's hot and spicy. Give me the original. Say please. Give me the please original. Think.

You know what I? is there is such a strong fried onion flavor in all of these. And I think it's because fried onion is such an important flavor of meagering. Wait, fried onion, very important flavor in a lot of Indonesian cookery. Fried shallot, garlic chili. Shout out to Bunkas Bagus. Bungas Bages makes an incredible condiment. Are they still around?

That's awesome. Yeah, I think they've been making this jarred condoment. It's like fried chilies, shallots, garlic, and it's so G.D. good. The original one's better. Okay, let me see. Because it's not... The original one tastes more... You get more sweet and more onion.

And there's still some spice in the original, right? It's not like it's devoid of spice. The flavor when it hits your tongue is instant with the classic. Mm-hmm. The hot and spicy is using the hot and spicy as a crutch. Because they're using less other kinds of seasoning. There's literally not as much flavor in there. So true.

Yeah, the original Indomime. Yeah. Migoring is better. Yep. Fascinating. Well, I'm loving the megroring. And I'm loving the chicken curry. We got one more.

Are we on the same page? We got barbecue chicken, yeah. This is the one I was most excited to try. Why? Because what does barbecue mean in Indonesia? I'm about to find out. We, we done an entire, like, exhaustive podcast on what barbecue means? Yes.

Did we? What is barbecue? Yeah, we did. I think we did that. I think we did that maybe four years ago. Josh, we've done this for a long time, dude. I know, man. I haven't done this for six years.

Six and a half. I mean, this is the best way possible. This tastes like a Yankee candle. I'm sorry. I don't know if I know what a Yankee candle is. You mean to tell me you've never, like, put your finger in a Yankee candle? Listen, I put my finger in a lot of things, Nicole, and none of them have ever been a Yankee candle. You've never been to Bedbath and Beyond, and there was a section of candles, and there was a Yankee candle.

I was like, this tastes like pringles. Like a whole tube of barbecue It's literally like a tube of barbecue pringles And instant ramen body swapped You know what I mean? Well for me it tastes like just straight up It tastes like chemicals and char Yeah, oh they're probably using a charred meat extract in here

Probably Oh, I forgot to change it out, sorry Yeah, this is less good than I wanted to be Yeah, I'm not a big fan That's really disappointing I was so hyped to try it I think what we've discovered is OG megring is the way to go. OG megrang is the way to go.

Also, Indomie, I think this is probably the best, well, I don't know. Bulldog's been doing a lot of really great work, man. Bulldog has, I feel like, cornered the market on new school instant ramen. Yeah. Indomie, though, as far as, like, their original flavor goes, I think that's pound for pound the best instant noodle in the game. I really love the dry noodle. The soup noodle, I could take it or leave it. The original meagering, it's just really damn well balanced.

The thing about Bulldog is they're experimenting with different noodle shapes. They're experimenting with different flavor profiles. I never thought about doing a spicy carbunara with corn or whatever. That was never even a thought to me. What's up? You like the sugaryness? It's sugary. It tastes like sugar.

It's onion. It's burnt soy. It's the way that the oil coats your water. It's not greasy, though. It's not greasy at all. The oil absorbs into the noodles, and it gets them to just separate enough. Which makes a really pleasant eating experience when they don't clump like that. There's certain, like, ergonomics to specifically noodles, I'd say.

I think a lot of people don't think about. One of my big knocks on a lot of Thai restaurants is a lot of the times, right, like, they're noodles completely. If you get like a really good Thai noodle chef, you know, the noodle. You know, the noodles are, like, they should stick together a little bit, but, you know, so many times you'll go to a Thai restaurant and the noodles will be super broken and they'll be clumped together. Of course. It's still a delicious dish, but like a really great Thai noodle experience, proper pat Thai, patthi, patkima, whatever is like, you know, they're slicked with oil, but they're still burnt into the walk. They still hold their shape. It's a really tough thing to do.

That's why technique matters as a cook. I know. I think I've only had two pad ties before in my life where the noodles were. separated and the eating experience was incredibly pleasant, which actually turns me off to pat-tie because I feel like it deserves respect, you know what I mean, to actually create a delicious pat-tie noodle. The dish deserves time, effort, and energy instead of just slopping it all together, which unfortunately a lot of places do. That doesn't change the fact that it's a delicious dish, like you said. But the eating experience of each noodle being separated, having a slight pull

from the base is really, really important. I feel like pat-tie, to me, you would, we all roughly know the story about, you know, the Thai consulate, giving a lot of incentives to Thai restaurant owners. And I feel like I grew up, like, hearing about Thai food on cartoons and media and whatever. Oh, really? Yeah, like, I don't know. You'd be, like watching, I never watched friends, so this doesn't make any sense. I never watched friends either. We'd watch some show and they'd be like, we're going out for Thai food tonight. Like, I feel like that was the thing that I grew up. Oh, yeah, you're so right. And they were like, you know, I lived in Orange County and we had, you know, Thai restaurants.

We had a local one called rice and spice that was like, I actually went back as an adult. It was great. But what was I saying? I don't know. Pad Thai. Yeah. Pad Thai became the like the dish that everyone seemed to know, right? Right.

You go to Thai food to eat pad Thai. It's right in the name. I feel like since then that was like the cultural peak of pad Thai. And now I feel like people aren't ordering it as much. Does that make sense? Do you feel like patty has fallen in station? I never order pattye anymore. Me neither. I should, though. I always get Pat Sioux. I've been to Pat Sioux. I've been to Patziu girl since the jump. I want to go back to Pati Thai. I think pad Thai is a better, more complex dish than Patuio.

I don't always want complexity. The tamarin and the sweet. My body does not always crave complexity. Sometimes I just need a baseline of good stuff. And the oyster sauce, the dark soy. And the broccoli. So good. But we need to eat more migoring. I think what we've learned from this is actually going out and eating Indonesian food needs to be done a lot more across the United States and parts of Canada. Like it's really delicious. More people need to eat Indonesian food, period.

Vancouver. Get after it. It's probably bet there's good Indonesian food in Vancouver. I bet there is. All right, Nicole. What's up? I think they've heard what you and I have to say. And I think it's time.

You know, we can fly. find out what other, I think the opinions could maybe even be wacky. I think they're rattling out there. Where? The universe. Oh, you know what? I think it's, it's time for a little section. We call.

A little section. We call. The classic section. We call. You and I, we call it. Me and you. Something. Oh, oh, you're talking about. Opinions are like casseroles.

God damn it, we're good at improvving. Let's get to those opinions. Logan, light them up. Hi. I'm actually, Nicole. Hi, honey. Hi, New York. From Florida.

So, first off, first off, I just want to address, this is come up in a number of episodes. Josh, you often invoke the term Socratic forms, but I want to clarify that the forms are actually concepts much more associated with Plato. So, you know. A platonic form? Get dunked on. But also, so I'm an entomologist. I study insects as my career. So I wanted to know what your guys thought on entomophagy was,

about, you know, the consumption of insects. If you've ever had insects as part of cuisine, what you think of it, whether or not you think it should enter the main culinary canon. But yeah. Yeah. Anyway, just, just, I just want to know. Do you think people should eat bugs more? Anyway, thank you.

Bye. Love you guys. Love you too. I will, I will get dunked on. Here's the thing. Socrates was a made-up person by Plato, right? I did not know that. This is the thing?

I didn't know. I thought Socrates was a student of Plato. No, Plato would have been a student of Socrates, right? whatever. They're like students of each other. But I think there's like an idea that maybe it's like, I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know shit. I don't know shit. Socrates was an Athenian scholar and philosopher who was considered a founder of Western philosophy and rational inquiry. He was known for his unique questioning style of the Socratic method, which involved asking probing questions now students reach their own understanding.

Sounds like a rabbi. Yeah, he's definitely a rabbi. There's like a Listen, I don't know, man You're right, listen, I don't know anything I read The Republic by Plato And I read the Socratic dialogues Which I believe were written by Plato

You know what I mean Oh my God And Josh Have some class, please I'll start changing it to platonic forms I don't know anything about forms Socrates, okay What I do know, Nicole, check out

Can you read this this headline and byline? This fast food cricket milkshake Might Save the World Did you write that? By Joshua Sherr. For some reason, Vice, this is a Vice article from 10 years ago. Holy smokes. Wow.

This is about I bought a thousand meal worms. Okay. Socrates was Plato's teacher. I think there's like a fringe belief that Socrates didn't exist. Are you saying like William Shakespeare didn't exist? That thing. Which is that's probably not true either, right? I refuse to look this up.

Entomophagy. Bug eating. I wrote a story about how I. I really wanted... Sorry, I'm reading this old piece that I have, and there's a... Typeo? No, there's an advertisement for a concert that I really want to go to. Knocked loose with Denzel Curry.

Laptops closed. They have a really good song called Hive Mind. Laptops goes. There was a student at Auburn who was cooking and eating bugs every day for 30 days, and I got very inspired by that. I was like, I'm going to do that. I found a mealworm farm where I ordered 1,000 mealworms. And I got...

I was living still in my college. apartment with all my college friends. And I just got like, I come home from work one day because I was living there for a year when I had already started working. And I come home with this a box. And I kind of like reach my hands in the holes of the box and just like mealworm started crawling out on me. And I was like, oh, this is disgusting.

And I was going to throw it away. And I was like, no, you have to follow through on this. And I'd eaten certain bugs before. I was never grossed out by it. But like once they were crawling on me, I was like, this is a little different. I was going to make meal worm out pasta or tacos. And then I froze them trying to kill them.

And then meal worms got out into my freezer, and it all just sort of really disgusted me. And I felt like a fraud. And then I found out that this fast food restaurant called like Jake's Wayback Burgers. Never heard of it. Introduced a, I think it's like a New Zealand-based fast food restaurant. And there was randomly one in L.A. They had introduced a cricket milkshake. And so I kind of like wrote this story about, you know, do we benefit anything from just hiding bugs and stuff like a milkshake

in my own hypocrisy of trying to cook bugs and not doing it. So there's a lot of hurdles to get over when it comes to entomophagy, and I think a lot of people frame this as like Western versus non-Western. Like Western people are freaked out by eating bugs. I think a lot of people around the world are freaked out by eating bugs, and I think that seeing one Thai street market where people eating scorpions on a travel channel show is not indicative of the level of entomophagy around the world.

I love eating chapolinas, which are a favorite mescal bar called Daisy, served chapolina ice with every pore of mescal. It's a nice little salty snack. Those are fried crickets. But I don't know. A couple good Mexican bugs out there, Chiquitana ants, delicious. There's a movie called Snowpiercer, which is one of my top five movies alongside Dumb and Dumber and Life is Beautiful. Great films. And the fox and the hound. And I think those are my favorite movies. And there's a scene where they're giving these people in the back of the train protein bars. And then they find out what the protein bars are made out of spoilers. It's cockroaches. So I think there's a weird mentality or people are grossed out by bugs and the idea of the creepy crawlies and like they're like gross little things moving around. I do think that once they are, you know, kind of severed from that creepy crawley mentality, I think they're a great source of protein. I've eaten bugs many, many, many, many times in many, many different facets.

I've never been grossed out by them once they're dead. When they're alive, it's a little bit different. Like, if your mealworms came, like, freeze-dried, it would be a different story. Like, they were alive and you had to, like, you basically had to, like, fabricate mealworms. Yeah, which is why I was really interested in doing it. And it's not for the faint of heart. Neither is fabricating chickens. Neither is killing cows.

Neither is any form of killing animals for food. It's not an easy job to do. We don't do that because we live. in 2026 in America, and we're not killing chickens in the back of our houses anymore. We're not killing goats for food. We're not doing that. We're not killing bugs for, you know, for sustenance. So I will eat bugs, and I think more people should eat bugs to see how they taste. I think, again, great sources of protein. People have been doing it for thousands of years. I probably won't eat more bugs than I do already. But if I see it in front of me, I'll have a bite.

Do you must get you to do it? Whatever Josh says. Tell me what you eat. I'll tell you what you are. And I don't think that we are bug eaters. As humans? I think, I think, which isn't to say that we shouldn't be. But I think as a society, at least can only comment on American right now.

So much of, I wrote this story about crickets 10 years ago, right? Because I was like, that was big in terms of sustainability. We were looking at the climate crisis going, what can we feasibly do? Let's make burgers that bleed out of scornets. Soy impossible and beyond came on the market. Let's explore lab-grown meat. Let's see if that works. Let's dive so deep into almond milk that the dairy campaign, the dairy companies launch

a sci-op against almond milk to try and say that it's bad for the environment, right? Let's explore alternate proteins like bugs. Now we literally have a steak at the top of our food pyramid. There's such a strong reaction against that culture 10 years ago of this idea of reducetarianism, right? to try and combat the climate crisis and also, you know, moral issues of killing beef, whatever, to where now beef is more highly consumed and fetishized, despite wildly exorbitant prices by Americans because we view ourselves as a nation of beef eaters, right?

And it really is historically very important to America in that way. And so I think the current cultural moment, we are so much farther away than we were 10 years ago in terms of this kind of future where we're talking about eating sustainable proteins. like cricket. I think the empire burns before we become a nation of cricket eaters. For better, not for better or worse, I think for worse, but, you know, that's what it is. I don't know. Fascinated by it.

I'm really fascinated. If you can't tell. It's kind of funny that we've been together here talking with each other, you and I, and with the audience for six years, where, like, there's been a tremendous amount of cultural upheaval. Of course, yes. And a lot that dictates our food. Yes, absolutely. Did you know what a seed oil was six years ago? I didn't give a single f*** what a seed oil was.

We were fine. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's just all of these things. Everything kind of comes out that's new. But it's funny because the cricket eating thing, yeah, I remember writing about that 10 years ago, thinking it was going to be a much bigger part of my life in 2026.

And instead, they're like, you know steak and shig brought back beef tallow? It's like, oh, shit, that's where we're at. Okay. Weird. Yeah. Here we are. I remember the craze. The cricket craze, the cricket.

I remember there was a guy who made cricket protein flour on Shrek tank, seven, eight years ago. Don't know where he's at. Now there's beef bone broth protein butter. Which is just protein powder. Hey, how are you doing? That was one heck of a message. Anyway, Charles here with what I think might be a controversial opinion,

but it's not from the opinion region in France. I guess it's just a sparkling wine. Just sparkling thoughts. Anyway, I think that Coke, as in Coca-Cola, is a criminally underrated ingredient used in recipes of the kitchen. Everything from like a very tenderizing marinade for tough cuts of meat to an actually quite effective leavening agent and some baking recipes. I think people underestimate the amount of uses it has. one of which is probably the best summertime snack you can imagine and that's just taking a bottle of Coke

and a glass bottle if you could find it drinking it down probably quarter to a third of the way and then filling it up with salted and roasted peanuts I had that growing up in Georgia all the time but folks where I live now thinks weird as hell anyway I hope you all stay good all right thanks

Peanuts is such a combo. It's so good, man. It is good. It's like the only two flavors that, like, Coke is missing. You know what I mean? Is that kind of, like, saltiness

and that little, like, roastiness? Sorry, I drink too much diet coke. I agree. More people should be cooking with Coke. I, whenever I was working at a little place in Torrance, we used to put orange soda in our chicken marinade

and Coca-Cola in our beef marinade. which made it absolutely delicious. That's great. What was this place? It was a place I worked at. What did it? Is this a restaurant?

Is this a... No, Joshua was a shoe store. I don't know. Was it like a catering? Was it a wholesale? I worked at a kiosk in Delamomal. Oh my God. What?

You knew this about me. But like what ethnicity were the people? It was Japanese. So it was like sushi. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. So that makes sense that you guys. that like bourbon chicken.

It was not called bourbon chicken. For whatever reason, there was a slate of, I believe it was Japanese-owned, like, terriaki-adjacent restaurants that served something called bourbon chicken and malls. But it was just like sugar and soy, and it was delicious. It was so much fun working in a mall. I bet, man. It was great. I learned so much.

I learned how to be very fast at things. What? I don't know. I'm serious. I was there for like three, four months. And I would drive from freaking, from literally the beverage. Center all the way to Torrance. Every single day for seven days a week.

It was so much fun. I was just a different person back then. I was like very curious. I wish I could have met young Nicole. You would have loved you. You guys would have loved her. I'm telling you right now, 19 year old Nicole,

she was open to every, if you said, hey, do you want to go bungee jumping? I would say, yeah, let's go right now. Like I had no,

my, I think it's because my amygdala or my, my cerebral cortex, My frontal cortex wasn't like fully formed. I don't know who Socrates is. My brain was not fully formed and I was doing whatever I wanted. I was chained smoking cigarettes.

I had a Jeep Patriot and I would just zoom to Torrance and zoom. I'd work in Torrance for hours. My mom is like, Viro to you. I'm like, Mom, I'm in Torrance. She's like, why? You can't get a job closer to home? And I'm like, yes, I can, but I don't want to because I want to try something new. I'm tired of my life.

You're like, I'm smoking a cigarette. I'm smoking cigarettes because I feel cool. God, I was such a dork. Is it that powerful of a tenderizer? Yeah. Is it that powerful of a leavening agent? Have you ever seen the videos where you put a dirty penny in a bottle of Coke? And then after 15 minutes, you pull it out and it's like disintegrate.

But that's acid. That's like the, that's just acid. Acid breaks down proteins and muscle fiber. No, but doesn't acid? Okay, acid and marinade. Like, you wouldn't marinate things in lemon, right? People marry things in lemon all the time. Yeah, but it doesn't make it good.

I feel like we've done that before. I feel like you don't want to marinate things for a long time. And acid, I feel like you want to marinate things a long time in base. Base breaks down protein, acid titans protein. Can someone who's smarter about, I feel dumb? I don't know. Listen up, I don't know, big guy. You ever had chicken hair?

You ever put a bottle of wishbone Italian dressing with some chicken breast and let it sit in your fridge for six hours? That was my brother's special too. I'm sure it was. Okay, was there no acid in the wishbone dressing? Let me answer that for it was rhetorical. Of course there's acid. There was. I also thought it tastes like shit.

It was just corn syrup and oil. I'm not done. Let me reclaim my time. I never liked my brother's Italian dressing marinated chicken. I never thought it was good. But like obviously like, okay, fine. Maybe we need to do a side-by-side test later, whatever. We're not busy.

Of like citrus, citrus juice or like acid versus non-acid. Because there's also certain things like buttermilk that like is acidic. There's acid in there. Milk is a base, right? But then I think the buttermilk, the... Has acid. Acid. But I would think that it's the ends, it's an enzymatic reaction.

Like pineapple juice has acid, right? But it's the bromoline. Bromoline? That's in papaya, kiwi. Papaya has papaya. But it also has bromoline. Maybe. But the papayan, I know, is what breaks it.

It's even more powerful than pineapple. I use papaya in this Indian recipe that I made for Priyanka Chubra, Galacti Kababab. Crazy, dude. Literally made it. I like the way you said that. Galalti. Really nice accent. Thank you so much.

It's my Lucknowi accent. Shout out to the Uttur Pradesh homies. I never had Lucknowi cuisine. I don't even know what that is. Northernmost province in India, but like deep, deep like royal cuisine history. Cool. But anyways, very cool.

But like, yeah, you added the papaya to it and it like literally made it so you didn't have to chew the meat at all. It broke apart. And that was the point of this day. It was like a king. Like Toro. It was literally like a king that had like lost his teeth and he was old and 300 years ago. Ask the royal cook to like, you know, I still want to enjoy your delicious meat kebab, but how do I do it without teeth?

Incredible. Yeah, the Navab. But anyways, agreed about Coke. I just don't know about the specific claims that you've made. Because my favorite part about Coke is just it's got a really unique flavor profile, the kola nut and the spices that you don't find in other things. It's got that deep rich caramel color. that's wonderful, and it's got sugar and it's got acid. And so that's awesome in something like...

Terriacable. Or like a chicken adobo, right? Or obviously, Coke and pork probably goes better together. But there's a... Not Filipino. It's a Vietnamese dish called Titcaul. And one of the... Inexplicably, this is a fascinating story. Canonically, one of the ingredients you put in it

is a coconut soda called Cocoa Rico. Really delicious. I grew up thinking that was a Vietnamese soda or maybe even a Filipino soda that made its way to it to Vietnam because that has a Spanish name, Coco Rico. It's just like a Puerto Rican soda.

Is it? And it was like, yeah, do Coca Rico? If you look this up, I think, I'm pretty sure Cocoa Rico is Puerto Rican. How interesting. And like made its way into like the Vietnamese American canon because they would just have it at these like international markets. Wild.

Yeah. Puerto Rico. It's, it's. I love food for reasons like that. Same. And so, yeah, you make something like that dish, but you put Coca-Cola in it. We used to glaze ham in Coke.

Yeah, Coke and pork is like wonderful. I love cola. I love Dr. Pepper, too. I love Ruby. I love soda. You like cream soda? Cream soda is kind of lower on my list than other. What about cactus cooler?

You know I love cactus. Do you like orange soda? I like grape soda. I like grape soda. I like grape soda, black cherry soda. It's like rare to find a soda that I don't just like love. Black cherry soda sounds so good. Yeah.

Oh my God. Do you remember drinking like, I? IBC, I'd never drink it, but it was a really cool, yeah. Jones soda. Jones soda was the one that I would frequent most. That was like cool. Oh my God. Gosh, it was such like crazy.

We were like Tweed on Tumblr drinking Joan soda, taking photos. I was really offline, man. I don't know what people are talking about with like the Tumblr and all. It sounds so scary. I was playing with a ball outside. And I was getting real good at it. You know what I mean? I'm so proud of you.

Yeah. I played basketball at the park with my. brother. Recently? Yeah, yeah. We're both so... How tall is John? Six-three?

He's taller than me, too. I did not know that. I thought that was his hair. Nope, tall than me. Good at basketball too, but he and I were both, like, our knees hurt, we're just, we're old. And then it was a 50-year-old man who was mean, guarding a 14-year-old boy who was also mean.

And they were just being mean to each other. As me and my brother and the guys you were guarding, we're just like, do we need like step? Are they okay? Like, they're both just talking. so much vitriolic shit to each other. Were they like, six, seven? And the old guy's like, you'll never buy a house.

No, no, this like old guy was just like throwing up the craziest look. Admittedly, you're crazy looking shot in the 14, and he was making a couple of them. And the 14-year-old would just be like, man, that's fucking bullshit. How does that shit even go in? Looks ugly as fuck. You're ugly as fuck. And then this guy would just be like talking shit back to him as opposed to being like, hey, like, listen. You need to learn some.

Which I've stopped a game to go like, young man, you need to learn. learn some respect. You know what I mean? And said this 50-year-old, he was being a to me. I would, like, miss a shot and he'd like throw his hands out to me. You're like, you got to make that. And I would just be like, do you not think I've tried old man?

Do you not think that I tried my best to put it in the, it's a big old ball and a little old basket. And I'm 15 feet away. I'm trying. It's like I'm watching Vanderpump rules. You f***. What is this?

So it's literally, what you're saying, is so boring. Please gain some perspective. We got to go. We got to go. Bye. Thank you for listening to our podcast. Call us at a 3-3-1-800.

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I was like, you won't get a lemon. Toyota of Orange. I would have got a lemon. Bye.