A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What Country Makes The Best Fried Chicken?

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole are going country by country discussing what is the best fried chicken variation ever made! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://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

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Hey there, hot doggers. We just wanted to pop in and give you the heads up that we're taking a short, sweet little summer break. That's right, but fear not, because we'll be back in a few weeks, rejuvenated, well-rested, and ready to dive back into the world of nitpicking nacho strategies and pitting fast food titans against each other. So stay tuned for more food debates coming your way soon. Yeah, and in the meantime, make sure to check out our Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel. We got a plethora of chaotic cooking videos and existential celebrity interviews to satisfy all your cravings except for Milk Dud cravings. Thank you so much for tuning in and leaving us voicemails throughout the year. We love you. I want Milk Duds now.

I love Milk Duds. I give you little keys. Just a little keys. Good job. Do you like the little keys? Good little voice. Oh, yes. little keys. Just a little keys. Good job. Do you like the little keys? Good little boys. Oh yes, little keys. Little keys for you. Hey, I'm Nicole. What's your favorite kind of fried chicken?

Okay, well, I'm a Nashville hot sun, Karagi moon, and schnitzel rising. I thought you were a Gemini. 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. 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. I'm your host, Josh Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And we're internet chefs over at the Good Mythical Morning and Mythical Kitchen YouTube channels. That's right. And when we are not Dorito crusting fried chicken, we're in these seats, Nicole,

and we are breaking down the world's biggest food debates. You are correct. No lies detected. Except I don't think we've ever made Doritos fried chicken ever. Weird as that may be. We've made Funyun crusted Bloomin' Onions. Correct. We've made Doritos crusted Calzones.

Correct. We've made a lot of Flamin' Hot Cheeto fried chicken. We've done a lot of that. We've done Blue Takis fried chicken. Oh, God. What a nightmare. You did. Yeah.

Those are just Blue Takis are a sin against God. I think this time we're coming out as a theistic podcast here. Sure, sure. There is a food god and she does not like blue takis fried chicken. You made salt and vinegar potato chip. That's right. Oven fried chicken. When I was in my house during the

pandi. Yeah, you guys remember when the pandi was a thing? That was wild. Anyways, today's the first time, Yeah, you guys remember when the pandy was a thing? That was wild. Anyways, today's the first time, Nicole, that we're doing something very controversial. Is it the first time? It's the first time. No, we're taking countries and cultures that all have their very proud food traditions that are all beautiful, and we've decided to just pit them against each other. We said we'd never do this, but then we ran out of podcast ideas.

I don't think I've never said I would never do this, but I'm really excited to do it because my heart and soul, I don't have an answer off the bat. Me neither. I didn't want to come in here with an answer. I wanted to go on this expedition with you hand in hand to find out actually what is the best fried chicken in the world. I agree because fried chicken is one of the most universal foods out there. Very much so. We've talked about if an alien landed right in the United States because they would choose the United States to land in because they're like well they got the most chipotles per capita and we're gonna land there but like what would you feed somebody to represent

the entire breadth of the world and to me fried chicken is like the most universal food you talk about rice you talk about noodles all that of course not everybody in the world eats meat but like damn near every single country has some sort of fried chicken tradition and i think it's beautiful sure yeah i think we should go through all the countries okay and decide once and for all who reigns supreme in the world of fried chicken okay i don't think i've met a fried chicken? Okay, sounds like fun. I don't think I've met a fried chicken that I didn't like. If it's done well.

You can have crappy fried chicken from any culture. Chicken plus grease plus breading equals yum. It's a perfect concoction of flavors, in my opinion. I actually think fried chicken is the best food. I was going to say I could eat it every single day of my life, and I, but I would probably die sooner. I don't think I could. I already have such bad genes, dude. I'm at the point, remember when you were talking about how you lie to your doctor? About what? About like drinking habits, about lifestyle, just anything.

No, just drinking habits, but I'm very honest about everything else. I've started lying about family history of medical diseases. That's bad. No, you can't do that. Why? I just say like, I don't think my doctor needs to know that I have like four cocktails on a Saturday. Like that's none of their business. I don't think they need to know all the ways in which my close family members have died that might influence the way that I'm going to die. I just don't want to talk about it. I like don't want to talk about the heart disease in my family.

I'm all about it. Are you kidding me? I'm so honest in that aspect. All right. Let's start running through countries. When I say fried chicken, what's the first image that pops in your head? Okay. I'm closing my eyes right now.

And the first thing that comes into my head is the scene from the help where uh one of the characters i don't remember her name but it's octavia spencer i believe and she's frying chicken and she used a bag to shake it yes but she's frying it in a cast iron skillet and it's just good old-fashioned southern bone in skin on fried chicken same here like uh an image of a bucket of KFC comes to mind, right? Which, of course, is from that very like southern tradition of fried chicken, right? Kentucky is its own nation. And if they secede from the United States, I feel like they would have a very powerful chicken-based economy. But no, Southern American fried chicken, right?

And like a lot of this does come from the black tradition. Of course. Right? Southern American fried chicken, right? And like a lot of this does come from the black tradition. Of course. Right. The first published recipe ever for fried chicken, I believe, was from 1700s in the American South. But obviously it was published by a white lady, but definitely cooked by a black person. Black person. Yeah. But it is.

Some people think the origins of it actually come from Scotland. And I'm one of those people. Really? I'm one of those people that thinks it was from Jews immigrating all over the world. Jews, Jews, Jews. Are there Scottish Jews? Yeah, well, okay, so every country just like

expelled the Jews at some point and then the Jews came circling back. If you're a Scottish Jew, write in the comments, oi. Because I've never met one and I would love to meet one if they exist.

There is a bit of a theory that it actually was expelled English or Scottish Jews, someone from the British Isles who worked on ships and they would fry fish and they would fry chicken to preserve it for Shabbat. That's right. There's also the theory that I tend to believe in that Portuguese Jews invented tempura in Japan. Not all of this is solely backed up by history, but it is what I choose to believe and you must respect my beliefs. Must.

Must. Must. And so they think that that may have influenced Southern American fried chicken because there doesn't seem there's a lot of like Southern foods, a lot of traditionally black foods that do go back to like West African roots. Right. Of course. Like gumbo. Gumbo is literally a Swahili word. For okra. For okra.

And there is some like West African fried chicken. We made like a Ghanainean fried chicken dish i loved that chicken so much that i think about it all the time it's a naked fry right it's a naked fry and i love and respect naked fried chicken a lot because in my household we never fried chicken like that interesting we were naked fried people if and when we fry yeah i okay so so um let's talk about just like culinary technique real quick. American Southern fried chicken, right? You talk about shaking in a bag.

What you do is you take a bone-in skin-on piece of chicken. And the way that we break down chickens in the U.S., we break it down into a wing, a thigh, a leg, and a breast. That's right. Multiply by two. Eight pieces on a chicken. That is not the case everywhere. Different cultures break down animals in different ways. Which is so crazy to me. There's like

no universal standard for breaking down an animal. I know, which is really cool. You go to a Korean barbecue spot and there will be like a cut of meat that they only have it in Korean and then it'll say like, flour rose cut. And you're like, what the hell is this? And then you get it and it's a muscle that you've never seen before. Very cool. It tastes great. Yeah. So anyways,

we break chickens down like that. You might marinate it in buttermilk. True. Right, which helps break it down. Put some salt in there, pepper, season it up with whatever, paprika, hot sauce,

garlic, onion, all that stuff. Season up the dredging flour, which is just an AP flour generally. Right. Shake it up, let it soak in, cast iron fry it.

You get the Maillard reaction from the cast iron. So special. And we tested that, like deep fryer versus cast iron. Cast iron won. Cast iron fry. You get the Maillard reaction from the cast iron. So special. And we tested that. Like deep fryer versus cast iron. Cast iron won. Cast iron won. And I wasn't a believer in it either.

I was like, just get an even fry. Cook the chicken evenly. That's better. The little bit of browning from the pan contact to the cast iron. Yeah. Really freaking special. Yeah. Southern American fried chicken, to me, there's, I was going to say there's a reason that like

KFC proliferated all around the globe. Yeah. That probably has more to do with capitalism i'd say the latter yeah yeah and like americophilia and also the you know modern colonialism and the franchise system which is unfettered capitalism at its absolute best i can't wait to be a franchisor one day oh my god we're gonna own so many long john silver franchises dude let's go let's bring it back okay but southern american fried chicken do you top it with honey or hot sauce or ranch? My favorite is honey. Really? My favorite is honey.

But I always have hot sauce on. Hot sauce is my regular, but I prefer honey. And I need to ask for honey more often. I actually just went to Gus's fried chicken, the OG one in Memphis, Tennessee. Oh, you went to Gus's in Memphis? Yes. How good was it? Oh, my gosh.

It was delicious. So, again, there's's in Memphis? Yes. How good was it? Oh my gosh, it was delicious. So again, there's American fried chicken, Southern American fried chicken, especially isn't a monolith, right? No, it's not. You get so many different varieties and flavors, different techniques. You're talking about Gus's, which is from Tennessee, but they use a wet batter. Do they really? Gus's is

straight up wet batter, yeah. Shut up! Is that why it's so good? Well, that's why I think Gus's is so good because it's so well seasoned so spiced and like it's the um those sort of like cajun louisiana spices i know they're from tennessee but like you get the cayenne in there you know uh and it's so aromatic a ton of black pepper but the wet batter it like creates this very thin shattering crunch on it as opposed to yeah the kind of like doughy craggly crunchy. Yeah. Which is really freaking great.

So for me, I think my first reaction is like Southern Louisiana style fried chicken. I prefer a dry dredge. Okay. But with just like a lot of cayenne in there and then you put extra hot sauce on it. You get the vinegar. I need that vinegary bite from it. What about Nashville style hot chicken? I also had that. Now we're getting, well, I was that vinegary bite from it. What about Nashville style hot chicken? I also had that.

Well, I was thinking about that too. And now we're getting into some American regionalities right here, right? This is fun. This is going to be so unfair. I don't love Nashville hot chicken. Okay. Only compared to all the other styles of fried chicken. I really don't.

Because to me there's no acid in it. It's too much fat, not enough acid. Okay. I had Prince's, which is a very specific type of hot chicken, and it was incredible. It was an experience in and of itself. And the different flavors and just the depth of flavor that was able to be reached from a chicken tender is something that was to be marveled at. I've never experienced chicken in that way before. So Nashville hot chicken is really unique for a lot of ways because one,

if you look at the differences in a lot of fried chickens, it just has to do with the aromatics, the flavorings. There's different techniques, different flours, different oils, different ways to cut a chicken, but so much of it is just the spices and the way they're expressed. So good, yeah. And the great thing about Nashville hot chicken is you take the hot grease and you bloom the spices. Yeah.

You are literally making an Indian tarka. You're making a tarka when you make natural hot chicken it's wild and that's freaking beautiful yeah it's a wonderful bite i almost if i were to put nashville hot chicken and memphis style fried chicken which one would i eat more often probably the memphis style yeah honey the nashville is special nashville style hot chicken is a special type of chicken that you have once in a blue moon. You can't have it every day or else you will die.

No, and it's such a fun time. Yeah. The other American style of fried chicken that we need to talk about. Which one? Nicole, I know what you're saying.

It's basically Canada. Buffalo wings, dude. Oh my God. That to me is a very American invention. I never even thought, whenever I think of fried chicken, again, I said naked, but this is too naked. You think buffalo wings, so not all buffalo wings are naked.

The OG are naked. I prefer a naked buffalo wing. Me too, me too. I just didn't think about it because it's a wing. But if you think about buffalo sauce, that to me is like the quintessential fried chicken accoutrement. You crazy man. It's literally, Nicole, it's like an American lemon beurre blanc. It's beautiful. Right?

Beurre blanc emulsification. If you do lemon in it, lemon juice, water, butter, boom. This is an emulsification of vinegar, pepper, and butter. I know. On fried chicken. That's beautiful. I know. That rules.

Yeah, it does rule. To me, spice, vinegar, fried bird meat, bang, bang, boom. But do you think it's fair to have it aside all these floured chickens? I think so. Okay. I think so. I think any chicken dropped in hot grease gets to be in the ring. Okay, you're right. You know, I'm going against my original saying where I said it was okay.

Because I think once we start going through the internationalists, which we got a hefty list, so many of them are pounded out. We're talking about Polo a la Milanese from Italy, right? Oh, my gosh. Love that. Which I do love. Or it's very similar to schnitzel. It's very similar to Milanese from like Spain and Mexico. Do you think that has any sort of –

Of course. I mean schnitzel. I grew up with schnitzel. Schnitzel. I love schnitzel so much. I love how flat it is and how it could itself be a plate. I do agree with that. No, 100%.

It's like a edible plate. I like fried chicken where you can see a lot of technique in it. Sure. And there's so much technique in a good schnitzel. And if you have a really bad schnitzel or a bad, we would just call it a chicken cutlet. Sure. We had a sandwich. We're not going to name the sandwich place.

Were you there for that? I think V ordered it. It was like a chicken cutlet. Sure. Like we had a sandwich. We're not going to name the sandwich place. Were you there for that? I think V ordered it. It was like a chicken cutlet sandwich. And the cutlet was like so overcooked that it was just leathery. And no, it was like so paper thin. It was fried so hard that it was leathery. But if you get a perfectly cooked schnitzel, and there are techniques, right, when you're pan frying it.

So this is pound it out, either dip it in flour, egg wash, then fine breadcrumb or straight breadcr in flour, egg wash, then fine bread crumb or straight bread crumb flour, fine bread crumb. That's right. And then you put it in a shallow pan so you get a little bit of browning on it. And you got to shake that pan, Nicole. What is chicken parm if not a schnitzel? So chicken parm's American though, right?

Okay, whatever it is, it's good. It is good. It is good. Chicken parm is like polo alla milanesa, which milanesa literally means from Milan, right? Yes, sure. Which is northern Italy? Yeah, Milan's northern Italy. It's the fashion capital of the world, darling. Ever been? Yes, I am wearing jorts with a black t-shirt that I bought from an Instagram ad.

I'm very fashionable, Nicole. But chicken parm, I was going to say, could be in the running for the best fried chicken dish, but it's also very American. So we're talking about countries. America's got a lot of different regionalities. Fine, fine. Gosh. also very american so we're talking about countries america's got a lot of different regionals fine gosh i don't know that a non-bone-in some might call it a bone out fried chicken can ever actually compete with like bone-in fried. But I think it's easier to screw up bone in chicken than it is boneless.

It is. That's true. But I think that when we argue this, it has to be in good faith that any, that any chicken you're eating is done by a good practitioner. I never, ever debate in good faith. I'm going to start now.

What's it called? What's it called? Scarecrow. No, straw man. I am. a straw man. What other straw men exist other than scarecrows? What?

What? I'm thinking a scarecrow is literally a man made of straw. That's a straw man argument. My straw man argument to you would be like, with those burnt ends, know what I call split ends? My brain is fried. My hair isn't fried. I know I was making a straw man argument. You look great

I do What other fried chickens Do you want to talk about? Let's look in Europe Let's look in Europe Trying to think what other Fried chickens there are Right we got all the

Milanese Milanese Schnitzel traditions Ukraine Ukraine Chicken Chicken Chicken Kiev

Chicken Kiev Kiev If you pronounce it Kiev People will now get mad at you Oh really? Sorry Apparently that's a Russian pronunciation And people get mad If you say Kiev Chicken Kiev. If you pronounce it Kiev, people will now get mad at you. Oh, really? Sorry. Apparently that's a Russian pronunciation and people get mad if you say Kiev.

Chicken Kiev. Not to be confused with Lviv. Sorry, I recently got back from the Ukrainian village in Chicago where I had chicken Kiev. And it is just like an herby butter. It is like a giant Milanese. Yeah. Except you

roll it in like herb butter until it's like a tube. And then you fry it. And then, Nicole, when you cut into it. I've had it before. It explodes. I know. It's exposition for the camera. We're hosting a podcast.

It's really good. It's really good. That beats all other European fried chickens, right? No, no, no, no. No? I think German schnitzel. Actually, no. I can't even do German schnitzel because it needs to be with veal.

So never mind. Yeah, that's... That's Wiener schnitzel. Yeah, Wiener schnitzel is veal. Wiener schnitzel is veal. What's Jägerschnitzel? Huh? Oh, Jägerschnitzel is covered in Jägermeister.

What? I'm kidding. Jägerschnitzel is the thing. But the thing is, I just love schnitzel so much that I can't let it go. I can't let it go. love schnitzel so much that I can't let it go. I can't let it go. You think schnitzel

could legitimately, I was throwing schnitzel as a, as like a total non-factor here just to get it out of the way. Oh, man. You think schnitzel could actually be

in the running for the best? No, but I think it's better than chicken keef. Really? Yes. You don't think you get anything from like a delicious herby compound butter

stuffed in the middle of a gigantic fried chicken log? No, because you can have your schnitzel with ketchup. You eat schnitzel with ketchup? You don't eat it with like a nice slice of lemon? Like the classic? Yeah, but- What the hell?

What's wrong with you? It's one big chicken nugget, Josh. Chicken nuggets. Are chicken nuggets fried chicken? I don't know that we can. Well, okay, so let's get into it. Is it? Let's get into it.

Screw Europe. Wait, hold on. Really quick. I have to Google Serbian fried chicken because I think it's a thing. Serbians? That isn't a thing in Serbia, but it became a thing in Ohio or something. Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

So Barberton, Ohio. It's something called Serbian fried chicken. It's just giant chicken tenders. They look pretty bad, and they may or may not have anything to do with the country of Serbia. People don't exactly know. If anybody from Ohio knows anything about Serbian fried chicken, please let us know because I remember looking this up

a couple years ago and I was just like, I don't have the mental faculties to deal with this right now. Ohio has so many weird food things going on. I kind of want to go.

With the Skyline Chili and the Johnny Marzetti. I want to go and eat all those things. I would love to go as well. Where do you want to go? Chicken Nuggets. I like Chicken Nuggets.

They says that Chicken nuggets, right? McDonald's claims to have invented the chicken nuggets. Actually, I think the same guy who did the McRib, which was all a thing from the pork board. Yeah, it's using hot, nasty, badass science to sling more animal parts that they couldn't unload. They say that the invention of chicken nuggets, it's a tempura batter. McDonald's, right?

It's a wet batter. Of course it is. Yes, we talked about this. We made chicken nuggets. Yeah, it's a tempura batter, McDonald's, right? It's a wet batter. Yes, we talked about this. We made chicken nuggets. Yeah, it's a wet batter. You also see that in Chinese little cut up chicken pieces that especially in Chinese American food, thinking about General Tso's chicken, orange chicken, cashew chicken, all that.

Oh, yum. Oh, yum. That's a fried. Those are fried chicken dishes. Of course, orange chicken is fried chicken and it's good fried chicken. A hundred percent. And orange chicken, of course, is a very, very Americanized dish. It's broad. Yeah. But there are a lot of very legit Chinese versions of fried chicken that 100%. And orange chicken, of course, is a very, very Americanized dish. It's broad, yeah.

But there are a lot of very legit Chinese versions of fried chicken that are very similar. Like, the General Tso's chicken is based off of a legit, I believe it's Hunani's recipe. But my favorite fried chicken, and very, very much in the running, Nicole, for best fried chicken in the world, is like

Sichuan, they'll call it like twice-cooked chicken. It is hacked up into very small bits. Toothpicks? Sometimes it's boneless. I think you're thinking of toothpick lamb. Okay. Maybe they serve toothpicks in this too. Maybe they do.

Okay, okay. But it has everything that I love about like American fried chicken, right? Where you get the dry seasonings with the chilies and all that. Yes, I've had it. This is just covered in fried whole dried chilies. Yeah. You're popping chilies, I've had it. But this is just covered in fried whole dried chilies. Yeah. You're popping chilies, little bits of chicken so you get tons and tons

of surface area coverage. It's really good. And then dusted in ground up Sichuan peppercorn where you get that sensation that's called mala, right? Where your mouth is simultaneously, it's getting hit by a chemical

called xanthoxylum that makes your mouth feel like it's being electrocuted but then you're also burning so it's like an electrical fire in your mouth from the chilies and the peppercorns. Yeah, I've had it before. It's a short impression. It's very good. Zayn, I don't know that there's a better fried chicken dish.

What about karaage? Who can beat it? Karaage? Karaage, get the heck out of here. No, I do love karaage. Karaage is delicious. Japanese fried chicken. What about katsu?

Katsu? Katsu? Katsu is a Japanese schnitzel. I'm just on the schnitzel train, man. I love schnitzel. To me, there's something... I don't know how to put it. There's something chaste. There's something prudish. I don't know what that means.

Chaste and prudish. There is something that is not Engaging and sensual About chicken schnitzel It's anodyne It's sterile Are you calling my chicken preferences prudish? Oh yeah a plain piece of battered white meat chicken Served with lemon and ketchup

Yeah Nicole that is chaste I'm over here talking about Chinese fried chicken That's covered in xanthoxylum It makes your mouth feel like it's on fire And you're talking about a giant chicken that's covered in xanthoxylon. It makes your mouth feel like it's on fire and all this. And you're talking about a giant chicken nugget. There's beauty in simplicity, Josh. It doesn't always be pop, zing, wow.

Sometimes you can just have a little bit of normalcy. And when you have a beautiful schnitzel, a really good schnitzel, it can alter your mood. You know what you sound like right now? You're like the guy who's like, I prefer my women with no makeup. And then it's like, no, you don't. You're just saying that. I do not sound like that. I'm covered in makeup. I love makeup. And then it's like, no, you don't. You're just saying that. I do not sound like that. I'm covered in makeup.

I love makeup. That's not true at all. All women is beauty. Shut up. I want the pop. I want this thing. I want the, especially. I get you sometimes after the game.

This isn't like a weeknight simple food. This isn't like you're eating a green salad with some grilled chicken on it. This is fried chicken. It's one of the most beautiful, engaging dishes in the world that has captured the heart of the world, Nicole. But I'm just going to go ahead and circle back right now and say that Southern-style fried chicken is the best. We don't want to talk about karaage.

Oh, my gosh. Because karaage, there's a lot of merit to it. And I do love me some Japanese food. So karaage, you take generally like a chicken thigh, right? Cut it up. Cut it up into really small bits, and then you marinate it in like a very wet marinade, which typically I believe has eggs in it. So like egg, mirin, soy.

You velvet it? I think it's velveted with corn. Well, yeah, so it's effectively velveted. So tell them about velveting. So velveting is whenever you take cornstarch and egg, and you just let it kind of sit with the meat a little bit to tenderize it and give it a little bit of body. And then whenever you cook it up, the texture almost alters in a way that the meat is soft but also succulent. You can also put like baking soda.

It helps tenderize the meat. Yeah, I've never done it. Some people do. I've never. My dad, you know, my dad uses baking soda in his kebab mix. Dude, it makes sense. And I always ask him, why do you do that? He's like, taste it.

And I'm like, it does taste good. So baking soda with velveting, the cornstarch helps. If you want to know what the texture of velveting is, think of beef and broccoli. Yeah, of course. When you eat the beef and beef and broccoli, if it's at like a very standard Chinese American restaurant, it don't got the chew of a steak. Yeah, but that's by design. It melts in your mouth.

That's by design. That's from the baking soda and the velveting process. karaage i don't think they'd use baking soda and chicken to me you don't need to velvet sometimes you do you can if you want i like to velvet my chicken for me it's like best like a tough cut of steak or pork or something like that but uh with karaage it's a very wet marinade and it's like very sweet and aromatic which is is cool. I don't know that, to me, I don't think fried chicken needs sugar. That's where I'm coming on this. Ever? I like sugary.

I love sugary fried chicken. Like, I love orange chicken. I love karaage. And so karaage, it's then wet battered. And then do you toss it in a dry mix as well? No. It's just wet batter. I think it's wet batter and then you pull it out and it has little crispies.

It'll be served with like sudachi lime or sometimes like sancho pepper or something like that. I've never had it with sudachi lime. Did I make that up? I don't know. Maybe it's just a lemon. I don't know. That's okay. That's okay.

But it's a very... What's that word for a Japanese gastropub kind of thing? Yummy. No, what's the... Oh, my. Izakaya. It's an izakaya dish. Delicious. Can you start making up Japanese words? Yummy. It, what's the... Oh, my... Izakaya. It's an izakaya dish. Delicious.

You start making up Japanese words. Yummy. Itadakimasu. Yummy is not a made-up word. What? I thought you were going to start... Never mind. Oishi.

Oishi. Oishi. Oishi. Yeah, Meggy's nodding. Oishi. Meggy, what's your favorite anime? Death Note. Death Note.

Meggy says Death Note. You like anime? I like... No, Shinsengumi is a restaurant that I like. Whatever. My favorite anime is Powerpuff Girls. Neon Genesis Evangelion. Bubbles. She is the sweetest buttercup.

Josh named an anime. Sugar Fried Chicken. Let's think about it. Where else in the world? There's a big country, a huge, huge, huge contender. Brazil? That we have not named. No.

Brazilian. It's a big country. Not like a lot of farmland and people, but I mean, like, there's a big contender in the fried chicken debate. This country does have a lot of people. I believe its capital is the second largest city in the world, maybe. Hmm. Okay.

Hmm. Let's think about this. Let's think about this. Where is it? Asia? Keep going. India? Nope, not India, although Chicken 65,

we'll talk about that in a second. Is it China? No, we've talked about a couple different Chinese fried chickens. I don't know. South Korea. South Korea. South Korean fried chicken is great. Korean fried chicken is probably the sexiest, hottest fried chicken in the world right now,

right? I don't mean to commodify fried chicken in that way. Yeah. But it is. Like a lot of restaurants in America, Shake Shack, right? One of their first chicken sandwich variations was a Korean fried chicken sandwich. Their chicken bites are so good. They are good, right?

So good. Also, Korean fried chicken. So the way it differentiates, Korean fried chicken is supposedly based on American fried chicken. GIs who were stationed there during the Korean War. I saw Alton Brown talking about that. Yeah, post-World War II. They made fried chicken for their Korean homies during Thanksgiving, yada, yada. That's how the story goes.

Korean fried chicken tends to have a rice flour dredge, which means it fries harder and crispier. And then if there is a sort of sauce and lacquer, there's a bunch of different flavors. But the one that we think of is a very thick, very sweet, very fermenty gochujang puree, right? Yeah, it's very good. It's very good. It has a shattering crunch. That's sweet. You know, I know. But I'm saying, like, do you think that could be in the running? Is that in your top three or four? I think the only reason I like it is because of the ritual of eating it. And there's a single word,

chimak. Chimak. Like the ritual of eating fried chicken and drinking beer is fun. I agree with that. And it's a good way to do it. But I don't know if the ritual in itself creates like the best fried chicken experience.

Because I can turn any fried chicken eating into a ritual if I have a bunch of beer and friends with me, which I generally do when I'm eating fried chicken. best fried chicken experience. Because I can turn any fried chicken eating into a ritual if I have a bunch of beer and friends with me, which I generally do when I'm eating fried chicken. Korean fried chicken, I feel like we need a ringer to come in and explain why it's so much better than everything else because I feel like I should love Korean fried chicken more than I actually do. And again, I love it.

I love all fried chicken. I love all fried chicken too. I think it's fun, but I don't know if it's... I think it's top five, but I don't think it's the best yeah uh thai fried chicken is another one okay yeah yeah i've had it once at anajak thai and it was really good thai fried chicken's really good phenomenal right generally bone in uh i would the most most of the time i've had it it's called hatyai fried chicken hatyai i think it's this type of street vendor you forgot something really important what what about the honduran fried chicken from tagus i didn't forget it also

no it's not from it's not from tegus because i said it was from tegus and everybody's like damn i can't remember where it's actually from meg if you want to look up other just look up other cities in honduras and i'll recognize the name but everybody from this other city was just like hold on not that not that san pedro sula okay everybody from san pedro sula commented on my twitter and they were like nah this is sps bro tegu sucks um honduran folks y'all seem to really hate tegu sigalpa and i don't exactly know why but i trust you um so yeah pollo choco in honduras and there's a couple different fried chickens that's the best fried chicken i've ever had that was the craziest explain to the people what it is so it's called pollo chico, which literally

translates to dirty chicken or garbage chicken, and it is a street food. It became a very popular sort of drunk food in metropolitan areas in Honduras, and the way you do it is very similar to American cuts. There's a lot of American-style fried chicken in Mexico.

Sure, yeah. In Central America, Guatemalan chicken chain Pollo Campero is in America now and they're delightful. I love Pollo, that's where I want to franchise. Pollo Campero, I will franchise you. So Pollo Tuca from Honduras, what you do is you take the bone-in skin-on chicken, you marinate it in lemon juice,

in vinegar, in mustard, in oregano, cumin, and chicken bouillon, which you get the MSG in the fried chicken. And you let that marinate for a while. So you get all that acid penetration, all the salt penetration, a little bit of the funk from the cumin, right? The MSG, herbaceousness in the oregano. There's not a single ingredient that doesn't need to be there. And then you dredge that because the mustard gives a lot of body to hold onto.

Yes. Which is helpful. Very helpful. You dredge it in a very heavy, lot of body to hold on to. Yes, which is helpful. Very helpful. You dredge it in a very heavy, again, cumin, oregano, black pepper, salt, dredge, fry it off. And then what you do, hold on, you top it with like a pink sauce. That's just like a ketchup mustard mayonnaise situation. So good. And then you top it with like a salsa roja, like mild red chili sauce. So it's just fried and acidic and spiced and drenched in multiple different sauces, including

a mayonnaise sauce. Then you serve it with salsa chimol, which is like a radish pico de gallo. And then you serve it with like a curtido, like a pickled cabbage. So you get the pickles, you get that like, you know, radish kimchi thing that I love with Korean fried chicken. Something that we don't really have in America with our fried chicken. And then you serve it on a giant bread of fried plantains. Giant bed of fried plantains. What did I say? Giant bread of fried plantains giant bed of fried what

did i say giant bread of dude i don't care josh you just explained that so good and for the average person that is not eating it they're missing out right pollo choco honduras number one fried chicken in the world it's number two for me number one is southern style fried chicken coming right back to where you came from. Southern-style fried chicken, Pollo Choco, Korean. I have like Sichuan. Okay, you say your top five. Go for it.

Top five. Pollo Choco from Honduras, number one. Number two, we didn't talk about it yet, but Chicken 65 from India. Oh, my gosh. Chicken 65. It was invented at the Hotel Buhari. Nobody knows why it's called Chicken 65. There's a lot of rumors about it.

Maybe the person from Room 65 ordered it. No, it was like there's 65 different chilies in it, but it is wet, battered, and fried, and just served with lime and marinated onion, and it's so heavily spiced with Kashmiri chili. Fan-freaking-tastic. Love Chicken 65. I do a good version of it at Mayura in Los Angeles. And then number three, Sichuan.

Okay. Sichuan chicken. Number four, Southern American, like Louisiana, heavily, heavily cayenne. And then for five, like you got to go, I'll throw Korean there. That's a good list. You want to know what my list is? Yeah, yeah. Southern style fried chicken, shenitsel.

Shenitsel, baby. Pollochukko. Korean. And, hmm, let me see. Let me look at this list over here. We didn't talk about the West African naked fried chicken. And naked fried chicken. We talked about it a little bit.

We talked about it a little bit. I talked about it enough. What about Persian fried chicken? No such thing. I found it. Okay, there's one restaurant. No such thing. You're lying.

No, I'm not crazy. You're crazy. There's one restaurant in LA, Nicole, where it was a fried Cornish game hen and it was a very specific regional recipe and there was a pomegranate molasses glaze on it after it was fried and it was like a confit fry. It was like a slow fry. Was it good? Not really, but

I'm really glad. My people know nothing of this food. I'm really glad I tried it. I've never heard of it before. Sounds good, but nope, that would not be on my top. Let's try and scrape real quick. What fried chicken dishes did we miss? I've had a lot of Taiwanese when he's popcorn chicken, which is really great. I do like popcorn chicken. We could talk about like Brazilian coxinha. Meh.

Chicharrón de pollo from Puerto Rico. That's good. Is there any like Mexican fried chicken? I mean, there's like pollo a la milanesa. Not really. Not really. I don't want to mess with. Carl's Jr. Chicken Stars.

It's a chicken nugget, but it's in the shape of a star. That's pretty fun. What else is there? The fries, chicken fries. Chicken fries from BK. Horrible. The Burger King. I don't think I had any fried chicken in South Africa.

I went to South Africa once. No way. I think we exhausted most fried chickens. It says wrap. Josh, it says wrap. What are you looking at? Angola. Mongolia.

Mongolia. Oh, Indonesia. Indonesia. Indonesia. Indonesia. Malaysia. Malaysia. Malaysia probably does, but Indonesia has a really good fried chicken that we didn't

talk about. It's Ayam Goreng, Ayam Goreng. Okay. Ayam Goreng number six. We'll discuss it later. God, I want fried chicken. All right, Nicole. We've heard what you and I have to say.

Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. It's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casseroles. Sorry, I got into goblin mode. I'll be gobbling this fried chicken. Ha! What? Okay.

We need, uh, are we starting the podcast again? Did the music play? The ba-dum-dum-dum-dum and then the graphic rolls up.

Anyways, okay, the Sichuan fried chicken dish, it's called la-zu-chi, which I'm probably mispronouncing. Um,

the six people who always roast me for any Chinese pronunciation, feel free to do it again. I probably got it wrong. And also Ayam Goreng is both Malaysian and Indonesian. Yeah, that's why I said Malaysian. You did. You did. You did. Maybe it was just a happy accident. I know more Indonesian people, Davin, than I know Malaysian people. Not a single person. Do you want something for that information exchange? I don't know. How many Malaysian friends do you have?

Maggie, play the first opinion. I'm open. It's not that I like. Josh! I just never, like, I don't know that I've met a Malaysian person. Hi, my name's Anna. know that i've met a malaysian person hi my name is anna and i was wondering about whether or not you guys know any local isms i don't know a better way to phrase it for example i'm from vermont and i've been transplanted into massachusetts but where i grew up ice cream is very specifically

called a creamy just wondering if you guys knew any other local term thanks love the podcast bye what is this about a creamy so like there's um for instance right like you'll get like water ice water ice is a very weird local term for an italian ice that has become sort of its own thing sure you go in vermont or wherever and you get a creamy. You go, God, I don't know. So the correct answer is no, that we actually don't have that many in Southern California. There may be that I can't think of, but there's an actual reason. It has to do with a lot of older generations, right? People came out to the West Coast later, especially whites.

You know, a lot of again california was part of mexico until the 1800s um but you get like a lot of older generations who settled on the east coast and they're literally like geographical dividers nicole that separate the way that people speak still to this day like if you go something about like the Connecticut River, where if you go to the West, people say park your car. You go to the East, people say park your car. So there's a lot more regionalisms and regional accents on the East Coast and also in the South as well.

Again, a lot more older families there. Whereas the West Coast, you get a lot more cultural interchanging and mixing, which actually creates more homogenization in speech. That's why you look at newscasters, the way that they're trained to speak is in, quote, non-regional dialectical English, which shares most similarity to some people say Southern Californian. Some people think Southern Californian is too much vocal fry and affectation, but like somewhere on the West Coast, like a Pacific Northwest style accent.

Okay. So we don't have that many, but can you think of any? What about speaking in a transatlantic accent? In a transatlantic accent, it's almost British. Yeah, no, it's almost like you don't even know where it's from, but you've heard it before and you're going to hear it again. There's a strange accent called the Boston Brahmin, which has a lot of British affectations too,

and it is very much like an upper crust Boston accent. Boston is probably the most fascinating here from the north end to the south end, you know, Back Bay, all that. Very different accents in Boston. And that, again, is an American city that has hundreds of years of developing the English language and not as much movement in or out. Cool. So there's interest. Like I learned a word when I was in Baton Rouge. The guy's like, y'all want to go get a little lanyap?

And I was like, what is a lanyap? And the way that he used it, I think it's like a nosh. Nosh is a fun little regional Yiddish Jewish, you know. Logma. Something. Logma. Logma is a good one. But as far as like specific food things. I don't think we have any. Somema? Logma is a good one. But as far as, like, specific food things.

I don't think we have any. Like, some people call milkshakes, like, fraps. You go to one region in New Jersey and pizza's called a tomato pie. Okay. I don't think we have that here. What about, like,

with regards to, like, Mexican food? Like, taco, you know? I don't think we have that here. No. I truly don't. I'm racking my brain and I can't find a single ism. I can't think of a single ism either.

And that makes me sad because regionality and speech is really beautiful. You want to start one? Yeah, yeah. Okay, what do you want to be about? Go get some... No, I can't think of one. Okay, let's... Frindle.

What's a frindle? A hot dog? Alambres. Alambres? Alambres. Alambres. You got alambres? What are you... That's a friendle let's friend it

now we're gonna let's go friend it up get friendle let's be serious i don't i don't have one okay whenever we go okay what do we like to do me and you i don't know like what is like talk crap on our co-workers outside of no outside of here watch clips from the idol the worst show in the world uh and close the door so nobody watches us watching clips. And then make fun of the weekend going, open your mouth. This is an HR show. We like to do that. Think about something we like to do.

What's a food that both of us like? Fried chicken. Okay. So whenever we want to go eat fried chicken, we we're like do you want to go have a little crunchy boys let's go get some crunchy boys i like crunchy boys crunchy boys so from now on whenever we want fried chicken we just like to say crunchy boys crunchy boys okay all right we're doing it welcome to the ism hi this is grace Grand Rapids. Your voices were so creepy just now. They're sexy.

Anyways, I wanted to say, or I don't know if you talked about this before on the podcast. This isn't a hot take, but do you guys know about food aversions? I think that's what it's called. One time, I was eight years old. I had a lot of pizza pockets. I ate like a billion of them at my grandma's house. Later that night, I threw them all up in my hair, and my hair is really long. I had to take a bath, and then I kept throwing up the rest of the night.

Ever since then, I haven't eaten pizza, and I'm 23 now. So that's quite a long time, and I don't eat it because of that memory. So do you guys have any foods that are like that for you? I feel like it would be an interesting thing to talk about. Yes, I do. like it would be an interesting thing to talk about yes i do um so when i was maybe like uh 12 13 years old i went to vegas with my family and um i ate a caesar salad and it was the best caesar salad i've ever had i was like oh this is delicious i love caesar salad i'm gonna eat caesar salad all the time from now on i threw up on my bed in the hotel and I didn't eat a Caesar salad for five years until suddenly

I was like, oh, why am I so scared of a food? It's not a big deal. I ate it once. I had a bad experience. There's no way I'll have the same experience again. Life is too short. There's no way that I'm going to vomit in my bed again from eating a Caesar salad. So I ate the Caesar salad and guess what? I didn't throw up. I didn't feel sick. I didn't feel any kind of way. And now Caesar salad is one of my favorite foods. I actually listed on my top hundred that we did together. You sure did. I love Caesar salads now just because I had a bad experience when I was younger. I didn't let it affect me in older age. I did have a moment. I had five years where I did not come near it and I was

scared of it. But I don't have that aversion anymore. That exposure, the exposure helps. Yeah, I'm a big fan of exposure therapy. Whenever I'm scared of something, for example, I used to be scared of driving next to, not boats, I was scared of driving next to like trucks on the freeway. So I was like terrified of it, okay? I thought I was going to die every time I drove next to one. So I was like terrified of it. OK, I thought I was going to die every time I drove next to one. So I was like, you know what? There's no way I can live like this anymore.

So I would purposely drive next to the trucks. That's a bad idea. And I was desensitized and I was fine. Yeah, but like trucks actually have larger blind spots than any other car. But yeah, but I would be safe and I know I would be safe about it. That's like saying like you're afraid of sharks. So instead of just like going swimming in the ocean,

you're like, I'm going to jump next to the shark. Yes. Like, no, there's a real human advocate. That's how I get over stuff. And I'm a very mentally

agile, healthy person. You know, it's like saying you're afraid of raw chicken and then you're just like, well, I'm going to start eating raw chicken. No, no, no.

There's limits. No, there's limits to it there's a reason yeah but pizza's harmless caesar salad thomas i driving next to trucks isn't harmful no it's not like it's slightly more harmful than no yeah it's gonna happen i live in los angeles nobody likes driving next to semi trucks i don't like it either but i had to get over my fear in order to function i'm not gonna tell you get over my fear in order to function, Josh. Because I had to commute. I commute. And I'm not going to take

the side streets. You act like I don't commute. Everybody commutes. It's LA. No, that's what I'm saying. I couldn't allow my fear, my irrational fear

to control me anymore. So I said, screw it. I'm going to be comfortable around it instead of be scared of it. I had a very similar food experience, but a little bit different with light beer.

And I couldn't smell it for five years without dry eating. But I gradually exposed myself to it later. And I got stronger because of it. And now I love light beer. Eat pizza. Just stop. Stop it. Stop complaining.

Eat pizza. I don't know. Does tough love work? Hi, Josh and Nicole. I've been listening to your podcast a long time. Thank you. I just want to tell you, Josh, you're wrong. Laffy Taffy does not taste like gasoline.

What does taste like gasoline is plain-flavored Red Bull. Coconut's the best, obviously, but plain Red Bull tastes exactly how gasoline smells, and it is my favorite thing in the world. Yeah, let's go. Bye. I love Red Bull flavor. I know the Red Bull

flavor you're talking about. I believe it is Guarana. I like the flavor of it, but I know I can't drink energy drinks. They're really bad for me. My heart will fall out of my butthole, but I can't help that. No, no, no. Your butthole's got to stay where your butthole. Oh, no, no, no. Your butthole's gotta stay where your butthole is. Your heart's gotta stay

where your heart is, Nicola. So I can't have energy drinks or else it's gonna end bad. But none of it's real except for the caffeine, right? Like vitamin B12 and guarana and taurine and all this stuff. None of that does anything other than caffeine. And Red Bull ain't got that much caffeine.

But I think it is the guarana flavor. Tastes good. u.s band if i have this right the u.s banned red bull from using guarana based caffeine but it could keep the artificial guarana flavor or something like that interesting yeah i think i remember reading articles but there's a weird reason why red bull has such a unique taste and why so many energy drinks after them also have that weird gasoline taste rockstar is probably the strongest to me, but they all really are like a plain monster, like takes your breath away from that fumey nature of it. Never had it.

Oh God, it gets y'all jacked up, but I do love them. That's an interesting observation. Cook with Red Bull, it's fun. So I love the way gasoline smells. So being able to taste Red Bull, it makes me think I'm drinking gasoline. And it's also the color of gasoline? Yeah, kind of a

deeply leaden unhydrated urine. Or pee. Gasoline or pee. That's a fun guessing game. I was just about to say you should play it on the show. Because you want to drink one but don't want to drink the other. Gasoline or pee, that's fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

First off, those voices made me feel some sort of way. I'm feeling pretty good right now, Eric. Oh, my. This is Eric and Perry from Lexington, Kentucky. It's two people. Hey, y'all. Also part of This is My Bourbon podcast. And we have opinions on the hot brown, which is Kentucky's.

Kentucky hot brown which is oh kentucky hot brown well i guess like not native dish but our our dish yeah that people most know us for but the thing is like we don't think that people i don't talk about it i don't see tiktok recipes for the hot brown yeah there's no like that's a good hot brown hat that's a good point yeah like i mean it. There's so many variations you could do, but when you got a good hot brown, it's magical. I can't believe you never made a hot brown. It's mythical.

It makes you feel something. I love that there's two people on this call. What do you guys think? Is the hot brown not talked about enough? Is that what we sound like? Have you had a bad hot brown? I've had some bad hot browns earlier today. A bad hot brown pretty easily, but a good hot brown not talked about enough? Is that what we sound like? Have you had a hot brown? Have you had a bad hot brown? Because I feel like you can make a bad hot brown pretty easily, but a good hot brown. A good hot brown.

Where is that? Where is that? Pour some bourbon over top of it, too. Whoa. No, just drink your bourbon on the side. I mean, I think you should pour bourbons over food all day long. Anyway, love you guys. Love you.

Love you, too, y'all. Lexington, Kentucky. Hot brown. Hot brown is an open-faced sandwich with, I believe, Maggie, love you guys. Love you. Love you too, y'all. Lexington, Kentucky. Hot Brown. Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich with, I believe, Maggie, if you could look it up right now, but I believe it's a large slice of bread with, is it a cheese sauce? Is it a Mornay? Mornay. The Mornay roasted turkey,

tomato, and cracked pepper bacon. Roasted turkey, tomatoes, Mornay sauce. Yeah. And there's bacon on it is there and there's bacon on it yeah there's bacon on it great sandwich I mean it's a very Americanified version

of like a croque croque madame I'd eat this croque monsieur I would eat it with the bechamel the cheese the pork product

this got turkey in it which turkey Native American bird love turkeys you know what I mean I love me some turkey I would just put another piece of bread on top

and slop on that wop though okay you know I open face sandwiches do you eat this with a fork and knife? yeah you're supposed to but can you pick it up and eat it like a I sure would right there's no reason I shouldn't be able to eat it with my hands I would eat one I don't think

I think we'll do a TikTok about it we absolutely will bread is my favorite starch base for anything I like bread so like to me cover bread in sauces and condiments and other accoutrements, right? So I'm all about the hot brown. We should do it.

We'll make it on the TikTok. Okay, we'll make it on TikTok. One more. Maggie, one more. Uno mas. Solamente uno mas, por favor. Muchas gracias, Maggie. Hi, Nicole.

Hey, Josh. Hi. Hey, Betty. I want to shout out to Gooey Butter Cake. Yes. Gooey Butter Cake is really, really good. Don't knock it until you try it.

Not only Gooey Butter Cake's good, but Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream, Gooey Butter Cake Cookies, Gooey Butter Cake Donuts. Say it again. Gooey Butter Cake is the thing. Yeah.

Get gooey butter cake. Make gooey butter cake. Shout out to gooey butter cake. Shout out. Love gooey butter cake. I love gooey butter cake. Gooey butter cake. Significantly better than angel food, than pound, than Victorian sponge.

Gooey butter cake. Pretty good. The king of cakes. More king of cake than a king cake. I really like gooey butter cake. More people should eat gooey butter cake. Pretty good. The king of cakes. More king of cake than a king cake. I really like gooey butter cake. More people should eat gooey butter cake. You know who claims to be the American capital of gooey butter cake? Cheesecake Factory?

No, St. Louis. Oh. The hell? Does Cheesecake Factory claim to be the American capital of gooey butter cake? Do they have gooey butter cake in Cheesecake Factory? You said that so confidently. Like, there was no other answer other than Cheesecake Factory? You said that so confidently, like there was no other answer other than Cheesecake Factory that could have been, no, St. Louis.

Anyways, this is our official apology to St. Louis and Nicole has officially lost her mind. Thank you so much for stopping by. What are we called? Hot dog. ZocDoc.com slash hot dog. This has been our final episode.

We will not be doing podcasts going forward because bite your tongue. You gotta go like Stop twice. Stop twice. I'm stomping. Thank you.

Anyways, we got new audio only episodes every Wednesday and new video episodes every Friday. Thank you for supporting us on our Patreon. We got a link to the Patreon, Maggie? We don't have Patreon.

Send me money. Stop spreading false information. If you want to be featured on Opinions or like Casseroles, give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833-DOG-POD1. Nicole's on Cameo. Nicole, tell them about your Cameo. I would like a Cameo.

I think I got an email from Cameo to do cameos. For more Mythical Kitchen, check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week. Nicole, what's your Twitch? Trevor Everts. Find me on fancam.com.