A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What’s The Best Food City In The World? ft. Phil Rosenthal

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Today, we're joined by Phil Rosenthal, host of Netflix's 'Somebody Feed Phil' and the podcast 'Naked Lunch' to discuss travel, food, and what it all means to us. Be sure to check out Josh and Nicole on Phil's podcast Naked Lunch here! Pre-order We’re Still Good, our new party game that laughs in the face of disaster here!: https://a.co/d/301Bd6C Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 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. Josh, you seem deep in thought. What are you thinking about? God, Nicole, I'm just, I'm trying to understand the art of pasta, pork, chicken, and lamb. I think I have someone who can help us out with that. Wait, really? Is he a happy, hungry man traveling all across the sea and the land? Yeah! This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwichwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Ayer.

And I'm your host, Nicole Inaidi. And today we are joined by a very special guest, Phil Rosenthal. Phil's the award-winning creator and most lovable host of Netflix's most popular food and travel show, Somebody Feed Phil. He also co-hosts a podcast called Naked Lunch that Nicole and I are excited to be guests on soon. Phim. Phim? Phil. F-H-I-L. Phil. Welcome to the studio.

How are you? Nice to be here. Thanks for that lovely intro. Have you had lunch yet? I have had a tuna fish sandwich. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Tell us about this tuna fish sandwich. Sing us a song. I'm here to say, I'm here to say a tuna fish sandwich is a sandwich.

100%. Right? We can all agree on that. Should we get right into it? Sure. If you want to talk about if a hot dog is a sandwich, you're more than welcome to. We're on your podcast, though. Let's do it.

I think a hot dog's a sandwich. There's objective truth in the world. Right. I mean, let's clarify. A hot dog is a sandwich, but that sandwich is called a hot dog. Phil, I used to be just like you. For anybody who has not listened to our five-part series that we just did, please go back and listen to it because this clarified more things in my life. It is a type of sandwich.

Well, and we call this particular sandwich a hot dog. I'm sorry. I would argue then what? I don't agree with you. I'm sorry. I'm not making eye contact with you on purpose. Nicole is like, she won't look at me. No, she'll stare me out.

I just said I can't. We're done. I can't. We just just give you the sign of the tree all the time? We're done? I can't. We just met and we're finished? Just with this conversation. If you want to talk about something else, you can stare at me. I'm not talking to you anymore. Maggie, can you turn off the freaking cameras?

Jesus. I'm somebody who I just- I've never met a person like this. I'm normally very charming and kind. This isn't even politics. No, this is hot dog politics. I thought this was going to be safe. Oh, you're going on this nice thing?

Hot dog is the same much. This woman's going to kill me. Phil Phil you have no idea what we've been through Over the last five weeks We almost got a friend divorce We had a lawyer We were considering a friend divorce But we reconciled That's sweet

We actually care about each other She's a psycho That's what I'm saying man How did she passed the background check. There was no background check. I just waltzed in and they're like, you're hired. Yeah, she interviewed once for 15 minutes and we're like, well, who else

are we going to give the job? But wait, Josh, you said you had a philosopher weigh in on this. Oh, but he's a philosopher. They're like leprechauns. He keeps calling our guests leprechauns. I don't like it. You can call me one. I'd be very happy. No, you're not a leprechaun. So he didn't land on. He keeps calling our guests leprechauns. I don't like it. You can call me one. I'd be very happy. No, you're not a leprechaun.

I ate Lucky Charms earlier. Phil, you host a fantastic show on Netflix. You do. And what I found in my travels, and one of the great things about traveling the world is finding the equivalence of things that we have here. So I found that every culture has their equivalent of a sandwich. They like to every handheld thing, whether it's in a lettuce wrap or a roll or a thing, it's their sandwich.

Well, let me ask a question then. Why do we need to say sandwich? Why can't we just say handheld thing? Because my official proposal, because all these things. Because it's not as sexy to say hand-held. I say love that. I'd like a word. Tuna and rye hand-held thing.

Yes. Oh my God, I would love to say that. I say love that. Give me a hand food. Simply a hand food. A hand food doesn't sound good either. Although that is in Hawaii. I think they have hand, they literally say hand foods.

I think so. Do they? People, tell me if I'm wrong. I think that would solve the entire problem because the name for a sandwich before sandwich was meat and bread. That's right. Shakespeare writes about meat and bread. You would go to a vendor who's yelling, meat and bread, meat and bread.

You'd go, give me one meat and bread. And they existed for 100 years. In bread or in bread? And, and. And. Not in bread meat. Meat in bread. But meat in bread is pretty much the definition of a type of sandwich, isn't it?

Oh, I thought you were saying in bread. No, no, no. Not in bread. Like in a marriage. Uh-oh. Your meat is in the bread. That's a sandwich, right? Not in bread people.

My mind went, it's also in bread. That's a wild card of the group. Yeah, I don't know. You're not saying in bread meat. Meat in this bread holder i used to write about a lot of animal husbandry and i went and saw some of it in person but they're all related right the pigs wait talk to me about these international sandwiches and talk to me about like finding cultural similarities i love everywhere you go like the bow yeah like

you mentioned the bow that is i thought, but that's their handheld food. It's like their sandwich. A friend of mine recently made me, where was it? Oh, in Portland, Oregon. Peter Cho made a burger, cheeseburger bao. Holy cow, is that good. I'm sure. Wow.

Sounds delicious. holy cow is that good i'm sure wow and it kind of reinvented burgers just because it's a closed end roll yeah well is that a sandwich or a dumpling you know it's both it's both both i think at some point when you try and classify things too much which is the entire point of our podcast yes i think you ruin it you it. It's like, you know what it's like? What you're doing right here? What? It's like the equivalent of explaining a joke. You kill the joke.

Yeah, if you go at it too hard. You've killed hot dogs for me now. Oh, I don't want to do that. And I love hot dogs. I want you to hold

hot dogs on a higher pedestal. That's what I want. Do you have a favorite? That's what I want everyone to do. I am a Hebrew national girl. Nice. Born and raised. I heard they were sold. I heard they're not going to be kosher anymore. I heard that. I heard that too. What want everyone to do um i am a hebrew national girl nice i heard they were sold

i heard they're not going to be kosher anymore i heard that i heard that too what's going to happen i don't know i'm still gonna love them brazilian meat what do you mean you're still gonna love them still gonna eat them they're delicious i can tell you the worst one okay go for it dodger dog yes oh yeah they're bad they're bad in my religion that's called a shanda. A shanda, yes. A shame. I always go to the kosher hot dog line instead. They have the Brooklyn version because people from New York who came here, and many of us did, had their regular Dodger dog and wanted to die. It's a limp. Zero percent beef. It's a limp, horrible, skinless, lukewarm bologna of a product.

I agree. And it has no snap, which is, as we know, essential. Right? Agreed. It's so friggin... I don't want to curse on your show. Phil, don't do it. Friggin is fine.

I'm so close to cursing. Phil, just comment down. Is there anything you can get? It's so terrible. I have a nightmare about cursing. Just comment down. Is there anything you can say? It's so terrible. I have a nightmare about the dog. Do you want an Excedrin? It looks like a migraine is about to take over your body right now. I don't know how these people get away with this.

But that just shows you that a good time is related to a childhood memory, right? Yes. It's like those Pixar movies, right? These are core memories for people. It doesn't matter that the hot dog is awful. It's associated with my first trip to Dodger Stadium with my dad. So I love it. Yeah.

And I love the Dodger dog. And don't say anything bad about a Dodger dog. But I'm telling you, people, don't eat that. Unless you have a memory tied to it. No, even then. Even then. You have to know. I don't want to kill anybody.

I'm not talking about killing gods and stuff. I just want to go eat a good hot dog somewhere. But again, I just think hot dogs deserve their place in the world as being its own standalone thing. And I think putting it into a taxonomy. What is it? Taxonomy? Yeah, yeah. Putting it in like taxonomy is just exhausting.

And we don't need to do it anymore. We don't need it. I once ate 11 Dodger dogs at one baseball game. I sure did. That is absolutely disgusting. Thank you so much. Why don't you go to Nathan's and do that contest? We just got back.

We just got back. Well, I didn't compete. But we went to interview Joey Chestnut about whether or not a hot dog is a sandwich. He, of course, says no. But I also asked Joey Chestnut to coach me on how to eat a hot dog as fast as I could. And it was so awkward and embarrassing that the Nathan's hot dog mascot had to usher me away from him in a way that I've never been lower on a social totem pole than a man in a hot dog suit until that day. And then I was and I saw him him without his hot dog suit later and he was like, hey,

sorry, man. And I was like, it's all good. I probably deserved it. Joey Chestnut had a broken, he had a torn Achilles and he was really suffering. Like a blood vessel popped in his heart. Maybe hot dogs aren't the healthiest food? To eat 70 of in 10 minutes? That's disgusting. I had a great time in this Dodger

game. I hate when this thing I love, food in general, is turned into any kind of competition and oh so you're not a cooking competition no fan at all interesting i uh when they first came out i was kind of interested yeah and i did like uh the the the ones uh you know with padma sure it might be because of her yeah but i like that show very talented i like Colicchio, and I like the whole thing. And for a season or two, I was interested, and that had enough. Yeah. I don't want to disparage that show.

It's just for me, I see cooking and great restaurants and great chefs as artists. It's an art form. Even a hot dog. Sure. Right? 100%. You know when you have a great one. To me, my favorite thing is

when somebody elevates the very simple food from our childhood. Sure. And makes it the best thing you ever had. I think that goes right to the core of my memories as a kid. And it becomes this

the most favorite, the most special thing is taking that burger, that hot dog, that pizza. That's something that we know very, very well. And now it's the best you ever had. Why? Because of the ingredients

and the talent of the person making them. Of course. I don't watch any cooking shows. No? I try to, because I work, because I produce so much cooking content. You do.

It's exhausting for me to go home and click on and see people cooking. And it's tedious, right? To do. It's like make work almost. I sit there and I cross my arms and I'm like, they shouldn't have edited that way. Why did they do the potatoes like that? So they've ruined food for you? They haven't ruined food.

I love somebody feed Phil. I like travel shows like that because it's not as intense. It's not a cooking show. It's not a cooking show. It's an eating show. There's very little process involved. I'm not interested. It's like you like magic. I love magic. How'd you know? What if somebody come out and before they did the trick for you, they

showed you how they make the trick. End of magic. The magic goes away. The magic goes away. The magic goes away. So I would, nothing I love more than you sit down in Bangkok and they give you a plate of food. Surprise. Yeah. But you don't think that, because I've gone through this over and over. I used to be a food journalist. My whole job was to figure out the techniques and the methods and the regions and the history behind everything.

And I was worried that I was ruining food for myself because I would go eat a meal and I'd be like, that plating technique is so four years ago. Oh my God. Oh, you're putting the sturgeon on it. I knew he was going to break up the sturgeon. I knew it, he always does. But it's the overanalyzation.

But I also think that that has heightened the best of the best experiences for me. And it's created a sort of sine curve as opposed to like, I have no room in my life for mediocre food anymore, which has given me a sense of clarity. Nicole, I've gone clear. Wow, you're a nerd. I am such a nerd. But isn't it short? Oh my god. I like it. I like people who get very

into things they like. Yeah. And so I like you. And I like you. I like you. You like me. Stop it. You like me. I do. I'm afraid of you a little. Yeah, it happens. It's fine. Stop it. You like me. I do. I'm afraid of you a little. Yeah, it happens. It's fine.

She's got a nice fear. But I, what was I going to say? I love, I love the surprise. I don't want to ruin the surprise. And if you overstudy and overanalyze, and maybe if I do, if I do so many feet filled for too many years, what if I don't like travel anymore? What if I am so particular because I've had the best of the best that I don't like it? I'm not there yet. Here's how I feel.

I'm the luckiest guy you're ever going to have on this damn show. What's the opposite of a schlamazel? What's a schlamazel? I don't speak Yiddish. A schlamel is the one who spills soup. A schlamazel is the one who it lands on. That's right. Very Jewish of you.

Yes. Oh, this whole room is Jewish by the way. I knew I felt comfortable. Let me complain for a while. Let's come back over here. You know how Tucci says, I'm Italian on both sides. My name is Stanley Tucci. I'm Italian on both sides.

And I'll be on both sides. My name is Stanley Tucci. I'm Italian on both sides. And I'll be exploring my heritage. So I would like to come out once on my show and say, my name is Phil Rosenthal. And I'm Jewish on both sides. And I'd like to spend the rest of the hour complaining. The lights are too hot. Can we turn them down? Yes. We'll send them to us.

What were we talking about? Oh, wait. We were talking about food and how we're going to get tired of food eventually. No, we won't. We have to. And I think the secret to this is to not overanalyze. Okay. But I always overanalyze. I'm a senior culinary producer.

My job is to analyze and overanalyze and expect things to go wrong and to make sure nothing goes wrong. Okay. But then when you go home, don't you want to kind of disconnect that part of your head? Oh, she drinks. Yeah. No, no. That's how we solve it. We drink.

I was so embarrassed to even have my new friend who scared me last week. Oh, she drinks. Yeah. No, no. That's how we solve it. We drink. That's great. I was so embarrassed to see my new friend who scared me last week. Oh, yeah. That was great. By the way, I don't think you're alone in this. Well, I'm kidding because you had a completely separate career from food. That's right. Obviously, showrunner and creator of everybody.

It was completely tied to food. Yeah. That makes sense. I did a show once before I had Raymond. I was on a hit show. I won't name the show. But that show, they sent a memo around. This was a hit show on a big network.

On the official stationery of the show. We noticed some of you were coming in the morning and putting milk on your cereal. The milk is for coffee. The cereals are for snacks. We do not provide breakfast for you. Please do not put milk on your cereal. I don't like that at all. Can you believe it?

And I read this and I said, right then and there, if I'm ever lucky enough to have my own show, we're going to have milk on our cereal. One can dream. And we did. We had the best, ask anybody, the best craft service in town. Because the army travels on its stomach. One can dream. They have the snacks for people during the day. And if there's just crap like chips or candy or gum or whatever it is, you grab it and you go on your way. And you overdo it because that's the only respite from the work. And you do it. But what if the food was fabulous on the crap service? But what if once in a while deli from New York was flown in?

What if Ann Sather's cinnamon rolls from Chicago were brought in and they were hot? Oh, my God. What if when Krispy Kreme donuts first came out, you can get hot fresh ones on the tip? What if taco trucks were brought onto the soundstage during shoot night and people were – this is before the whole truck craze even. I'm telling you, you create such goodwill you literally create a family by having decent food for people i agree so it's a way of showing love i agree right yeah we had bill oakley on the podcast i love him yeah he's great fantastic i mean loves food loves the type of food that I love, especially with all the fast food. And hilarious. Simpsons.

Utterly hilarious. And he showed how food can be a way to show spite because he was talking about how all of the writers room lunches during the Simpsons when, you know, they were famously crapping on Fox all the time with all the jokes in there and Fox couldn't do anything because it was such a hit show. Yeah. And he said he used to just order like 10 lobster tails, five shrimp cocktails, a couple steaks on lunch. And they would just make a game of running up the lunch tab as much as possible until forcing somebody to come in and set institutional sort of limits on that thing.

Ridiculous. I never did that. I never took advantage that way. Although I will say that for a while, for a long while, if you're a writer, you know, I always say that the writer's room is like a veal pen. The only sunshine coming in the room is the menu where we're going to order lunch from. This was so important to me, this moment of the day that I named my production company Where's Lunch. I love that. It's the writer's main preoccupation, right? And so we would order literally whatever we wanted.

We didn't go crazy like overordering like these people for spite. But if somebody said, is anyone getting dessert? Which dessert should we get? I would say all of them because we have to try them all. And then you know what happened? I gained about 30 pounds. We've had certain catering places that we just can't

go to anymore because of lack of productivity. And this isn't coming down from a boss. This is everybody got together and said, hey, when we get Pinocchio down the street in Burbank and just get the penne alla vodka and the most accioli and the eggplant parm. Oh, it's great.

Fall asleep afterwards. It's the type of tray of pasta that stays warm for nine hours like the Hanukkah miracle. There's just so much latent heat in there. That was eight days. Yeah, okay, well, you get a bigger penne pasta. Okay. But yeah, we would literally eat so much

of it that we were just like, we can't simply go back to work after this. We need something. And so now we use a carrot and a stick where we like to introduce lunch austerity measures. And it's like you get a salad from Sweetgreen, no dressing. That's it. Keep working. That's our style here, Phil.

You say that? No, we don't say that. It's just it's encouraged because we work on a cooking show and we make so much food. It's encouraged because we work on a cooking show and we make so much food that is just the most wild, ostentatious, huge stuff you can imagine. Yes. That your lunch can't mirror that because your content that you're eating is just so delicious and so decadent. That's true. Yes. That it's not fair to like do that twice in a day or three times in a day depending on how much content we're shooting.

I was at the – our relationship with food, we just kind of need you to be our therapist here at this one show. Yeah, doctor, whatever name you choose. Can you both lie down? I'm already sweating so much. That's the best. I was at the gym the other day and I was kind of audibly burping up food and the

gym coach was like, well, thank you so much. Some people on the internet find me very attractive. And I was burping up food. The owner of the gym goes like, what did you have for lunch, man? I was like, you know, pretty light day. We had chicken parm, penne alla vodka, beef chow fun, a little bit of rice because I'm going low carb. Oh, orange chicken.

Oh, and then there was a whole wedding cake. Oh, the chocolate lava cake. That was really good. But then the mint ice cream cake, that really cleansed the palate. And a Diet Coke. And that was a normal day, Phil. That was a normal day for us. And so for us, you know, when we order lunch, I don't know, we've almost taken the sacredness out of especially lunch for us because we're locked in here with, there were just 30 breakfast sandwiches in the kitchen about an hour ago. And I just picked one

up and ate half of it in one bite with no regard, thinking nothing of it. Well, you're young yet. No, that's fair. You'll see. That's fair. We'll both see. We'll see.

But I just walked through your office just for 10 seconds and I saw a beautiful spread for lunch for everybody who works here. It looked fantastic. They do provide for us. That's so nice. I will say we used to have a dedicated craft services cook who would just be making food for us all the time and she was from Poland. Her name was Monika.

And she would make, for my birthday, Phil, she made me a giant pierog. Pierogi is plural, as I learned from Monika. Pierog is the singular. That's right. And she put a candle in it. Pierogi is plural, as I learned from Monica. Pierog is one. That's right. And she put a candle in it. It was filled with bacon

and mushrooms and cheese and potato. It was the, Phil, it was the pierog supreme. I think you gotta marry this lady. I go, where's Monica?

If you're listening, baby, come back. I know she was following her dream of being a florist. I married a Monica. Yeah? I did,

yeah. Is it the same? She don't make that for me. Is she? No. How's her body? Phil. She has other things. It would be incredibly stupid to ask you to rank countries.

So here we go. So here we go. If you had to. My favorite? What are your favorites? Italy. Top five. Italy.

Number one. Yeah. No question. I say it all the time when people ask, what's your favorite? Italy. You been? Okay. I've been once, but I went on a Contiki tour, which is like a trip I went with like girlfriends.

So I went to Italy for like one day. And then I also went to- A day? Yeah. I only went to Venice. Which part? Just Venice. Just for one day.

Were you on a cruise ship? No. It was a big bus full of 18 to 35-year-olds. And we went on like a big tour of like Europe for 12 days was it a bachelorette party no it was a it was a young people tour

and I went with some girlfriends so Italy gets a day yeah I'm gonna go back I promise you I'm going back next summer I've already decided I don't want to talk to you

until then why what do you mean no I want do you have to I've been other places tell me your favorite I'm a well traveled young woman

tell me my favorite place well I don't know if I have a favorite place my last place um well i don't know if i have a favorite but my last place was costa rica costa rica was really nice i haven't been there so you win and i loved it you did yeah i did and are you still married oh yes it's actually my anniversary in like a week my one year anniversary oh one year that's so cute you have no idea what's coming um yay and you what's your favorite country oh I thought you were asking if I'm married.

No, I have a fiance. My favorite country, I mean, I think some of the best food I've ever had was in Tel Aviv. Yeah. I got to say, that's up there. Oh, my gosh. The food in Israel, not only is it some of the best in the world, it's now taking over the world. You see the food influence everywhere. I was in Copenhagen.

They had a falafel stand. I mean mean it's really it and it's tremendous people lose their minds when they go to israel they can't believe how great the food is one of the best things i've ever eaten and this sounds like weirdly pretentious in the most way but it's just picking a cherry tomato off of a tree or what is it a bush a vine that's what it was going on that's not pretentious it was unreal. It was nature. The agriculture there is incredible. Yeah, I guess.

Yeah, the agriculture there is incredible. And they're so incredibly proud of inventing the cherry tomato in this week. You know, Israel invented a triple irrigation and the shechiz tomato is what they kept calling it.

And so the shechiz tomato in Israel. But also, I mean, I had the Jerusalem mixed grill. One of the most incredible. Incredible. Unreal, man. Steakiot hot zot, I remember. I had the Jerusalem Mixed Grill. One of the most incredible. Incredible. Unreal, man. Incredible. And they were putting-

Steak Yacht Hot Zote, I remember. Yeah. It's the best chicken in a pita I've ever had. Chicken in a pita. A sandwich? Sandwich-like. No, no, no. The proto-sandwich.

This is a proto-sandwich. You're right. It is a proto-sandwich because it predates the Earl of Sandwich. Thank you. I fully believe this. Correct. Nice. I have one last question.

My fiance and I, I have a bit of travel anxiety. Yeah. We've talked about all this being Jewish. I've gotten a little bit of the neuroticism where I don't want to feel like a burden on somebody. You know what I mean? And so I feel nervous when I don't speak the language that everybody hates me. Right.

And so I am trying to plan a trip with my fiance. Yes. Another Jew How about a honeymoon? Well He has to get married first He has to get married first Because she won't marry me unless we go on a big international trip together

To know that I can hang That's a good rule That's a good rule By the way, that's You're marrying a very smart person I know Because it's the true test of a relationship Is to travel with someone

I actually agree Because you think about it You're never thrown together more with someone Than when you travel Because even if you live together it, you're never thrown together more with someone than when you travel. Because even if you live together, see you later, honey. I'm going to work. Of course.

I'm going to work. And then you meet up at night and that's it. Yeah. Right? But traveling, your job is to be with that person the whole day and be with them at night and every meal. How do I not screw it up?

I'll tell you. When you go on this trip, at least one day, at least one, maybe two or three, depending on how long the trip is, you go off by yourself. You guys have to split up for some time. It gives you a tiny break. And when you meet again for lunch or dinner, you got something to talk about. Oh, that's smart. You see?

What'd you do? What'd you do? That's very smart. I say, I met a talk about. Oh, that's smart. You see? What'd you do? What'd you do? That's very smart. I say, I met a beautiful woman. Goodbye, Monica. Julia, you heard that from Phil Rosenthal. We got to see other people. Baby, I love you so much.

Oh, no. No, it's very important. I think Monica would be the first person, my Monica, would be the first person to tell you, oh, yeah, you need a break. I agree entirely. Right. Well, thank you for saving my relationship, Phil. I'm glad I could be of use. It's not all hot dogs here.

That's right. Hot dog is a sandwich. That's right. All right, Nicole and Phil, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the Twitterverse. It's time for a segment we call... Opinions are like casseroles! Sometimes crazy stuff happens.

That's called a cold open, Nicole. We're talking cockroach infestations, bowling balls on fire, aliens abducting puppies. We've all been there. In those situations, a positive outlook can be a game changer, which is why we're excited to tell you about Mythical's new card game called We're Still Good. That's right. Grab a group of friends and see who can play the best missing words to ridiculous disasters and find the most positive spin on the terrible scenario.

Phil, did we sell you on the card game? All right, tone it down a little. I know, but you know what it is? Trying to be genuine. High energy. It's got to be high energy. The people got to know. Yeah, don't get so excited.

It's a card game. Yeah, we'll do another read. We'll do another read. Okay, a little bit slower. All the show running. A little bit slower. The show running is all the show running, you know what I mean? All right, Nicole, you want to kick this off?

You brought out the Don Rickles in me. I'll go ahead. So Austin F. Wheeler says, margarine is a better condiment. Butter is a better ingredient. How do you feel about that? That's stupid. Roast and fail. You see me as a margarine.

But under no circumstances is margarine better for anything than butter. I think people know that. I feel like, Nicole, our ancestors suffered through enough margarine so that we could eat butter. That's true. Yeah, we grew up on it. Yeah. You know, I'm older than you, so that was like a thing. And then this thing about trans fat came out and, you know, it could kill you.

Yeah. Why is anyone having margarine anymore? Unless they really have an anti-dairy thing, right? Allergy, yeah. Or they're like vegan. But I'm a total butter hardo. I love butter more than margarine. I don't even touch margarine anymore. Olive oil if you have a problem, right?

I like margarine if you think about it as like grape Jolly Ranchers are to grapes as margarine is to butter. I like it for that. It has that extra butter. You shouldn't eat those either. Fair enough. Alright, we got

at spiciest nugget, tomatoes are the most offensive ingredient to a standard vegetable salad. The last thing I want in my mouth full of crunchy, crisp veggies is a wet pocket of pulp goo.

I love them in other contexts, though. Anti-raw tomato in a salad. That's stupid. That's stupid, right? That's what I'm saying. You don't want a bad tomato, obviously. You know what the worst thing you can do to a tomato is? Put it in the fridge.

Yeah. Yes. Did you know that? You should never put a tomato in a fridge, even if it's half sliced. Never, ever. Because what happens? All the flavor goes away. Really?

Wait. I just. So I know you shouldn't put it in a fridge if you want it to ripen, of course. But I had perfectly ripe tomatoes I'm using tonight and I put them in the fridge last night. What are you, crazy? I don't know, man. No one told me. I'm telling you now.

If they're on the vine. Look it up. Look online. What's your producer doing? I think any good chef will tell you never put a tomato in a fridge. We're not good chefs. If we're being honest, we're not good chefs. I think you are.

I think we're all right. Don't take my word for it. I want you to look on the, on the worldwide web. But do after they've already ripened. Yes. Because a perfectly ripe tomato in season is, and I had a, I actually had a Jersey tomato in Jersey for the first time. Yeah, beautiful.

Unreal good. When you pick that off the vine and it's still warm. Yeah. Right? I mean, is that beautiful? It's, it's sensual. It's like, I, man. Is that beautiful? It's sensual. It's like, I think, you know, the essence of a fruit, tomato being a fruit, depending on your definition, of course.

Nicole, is a tomato a fruit? Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Like, the essence of it is that squishiness. It's the ripe peach with the juice dripping down, lean into it. Yes, that's right. Yeah, the decay is sexy.

I love a good tomato. I love a good tomato. I have a peanut butter opinion. You guys want to listen? Please, I love peanut butter. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. What's it say?

Are you pointing? What's it say? How to store a tomato? What does it say? This is serious eats, Phil. They're serious about eating things. And what do they say? They say refrigerate any unconsumed, fully ripe tomatoes, but allow them to come to room

temperature before serving. So they're saying once they hit ripeness, put them in the fridge. But don't never put them in the fridge if they're underripe. And that's what I've been going off. I see. Even if I'm a good chef, Phil? You're a great chef. Thank you, Phil.

Nicole, you're... I'm going to speak now, if that's okay with you, Josh. Just the Chip underscore Jake says, peanut butter is the bacon of the dessert world. Used as a crutch. That's stupid. You can't just say that's stupid to everybody. I can.

You can and you will. It's Phil Rosenthal. What the hell are you talking about? You've got to extrapolate. You have to explain why. Peanut butter is phenomenal. One of my favorite, favorite combos in the world is peanut butter and chocolate. Right?

Yeah. I actually helped collaborate on a flavor of ice cream in New York. Have you ever been to Cafe Pana in New York? No. Let me plug this place. You go to New York? We just got back from New York, yes. I'm dying.

I'm dying. You can't believe it. I can't believe you went somewhere for more than a day. Dude, I've traveled plenty. I'm so excited for you. Next time you're in New York, you go to the village and you go to Cafe Pana. My friend, Hallie Meyer. Okay.

Her dad's Danny Meyer, the famous chef. Oh, sure. Restaurateur. He sent her over to Tuscany to learn about making ice cream when she was a teenager. And she learned all about gelato. And she came back. She took that knowledge of how to make artisanal ice cream and gelato in the service of her, I'm going to say, six-year-old brain that loves Ben & Jerry's.

Yes. And so it's this artisanal mix-in ice cream that's so crazy. And we collaborated on a flavor called somebody scoop phil yum and it's chocolate peanut butter twix bar based delicious oh my god it's so good anyway peanut butter is not a crutch it's an essential is my point it's great you have a favorite yeah i'm a big laura scutters fan oh very nice i love laura scders. I was raised in a Laura Scudders home. But I'll also eat Jif if it's there. Yeah.

Not Justin's. Can I turn you on to one? Yeah, of course. If you haven't had it. Sure. And I'm going to guess that most people would not gravitate towards this because it's so ubiquitous, the name. And they're not really known for peanut butter. Ready?

Yes. I am. Smuckers, all natural. I want you to taste it. Is it glass or plastic? I think it's glass. I think I've had it before. I just happened to see something online where this thing won like some kind of competition.

I was skeptical, but I ordered- And you love competitions when it comes to food. I ordered- Famously. I ordered a jar of it. There's a picture of it. We're looking at it right now. I'm telling you that one, the first one on the left The one that copied Laura Scudder is very

obviously in all the packaging. Meggie, order six. One click shopping. Order a pallet. I'm telling you It tastes like just fresh roast peanuts in a very delicious way. I love it. I want you to taste it.

Okay. Peanut butter is one of the few foods that gets me really patriotic. Yes. Because it's a very American thing. And it's a lot, it's like root beer where a lot of Europeans will come over and be like, I don't understand. Why would you like this thing? I'm a terrible chef.

I don't have the talent, the temperament, the patience, anything about cooking. I'm terrible. So when my kids were growing up, I would say, would you like me to make you something? And they'd say, oh, yes. And would you like daddy's famous peanut butter and jelly? They were stupid. And I believe that this was famous. And I would make, or daddy's famous eggs, or daddy's famous, you know, hot dog. Famous. Yeah, famous.

Or just say famous to your children. They'll believe you. I'm learning so much about relationships and parenting. And then they'll be terribly disappointed when they learn things. Yeah. All right. At Buckeye Knight says, the Yum! Brands combination restaurants were the definition of wasted potential. Denying the public a Taco Bell burrito battered and fried in KFC's 11 herbs and spices is a crime.

You've seen the Taco Bell KFC hybrids? Yes, in New York. They have like, you know, three or four of these fast food places together. So you can get whatever. But they won't let you exchange the ingredients into individual. So you can't get a fried chicken burrito. Too confusing. I mean, don't you want it? I guess. Don't you want it, Phil? I'm not going in there. Too confusing. I mean, but don't you want it?

I guess. Don't you want it, Phil? I'm not going in there. Fair enough. You know, because I'm over 20. So I'm not going. Fair, right? That's fair.

That's fair. I have a very soft spot for Taco Bell and I think they do very good cookery there. Oh, I'm sure you'll live a long time there. Their beef sauce, Phil,

it's a bolognese. It's a ragu. Ragu de Taco Bell. And it's beautiful. It's basically Italian food.ese. It's a ragu. Ragu de Taco Bell. And it's beautiful. It's basically Italian food. Wow. Nicole? I mean, I already do this at my job.

Like, I don't need to eat this. You know what I mean? We do this all the time. What do you do? We combine things. We mix things. We mash things. I love a mashup.

I don't need to see this in the wild. It's already been done in our heads probably. Don't crap where you eat, huh? Exactly. It saves time in the morning, though. Do it at the same time. I'll tell you about my special K Redberries incident. Don't tell the guests

about it. It's a good... Well, on your podcast. On Naked Lunch. It's called Naked Lunch. This was a naked breakfast. Okay, yeah, you can talk about your naked breakfast with the KFC Redberries. Okay. Not right now, but later. I don't think I want to hear it at all. No, he's going to tell you. Ali Sa says, shallots are to onions what

poblano peppers are to green bell peppers. I will not be taking any questions at this time. This is what Ali says. Alright, enjoy yourself with that knowledge. Shallots are to onions are what poblano peppers are to green bell peppers. Yeah, so they're saying

shallots just have more flavor and therefore more use potential than onions. Ditto with poblano's agreement. This is how I cook. This is how I cook at home. I agree. I use shallots all the time.

I use poblano peppers all the time. Phil makes famous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That's right. And that's beautiful. I don't even have the intellectual capacity for this argument. I like shallots.

More people should eat shallots. Pickled shallots, fried shallots, shallots in everything. Jean shallot? Jean shallot, yeah. Nice mustache. You know who he was. Yeah, I understand references. But do you only know that from a Family Guy reference?

Phil, we only know that from a Family Guy reference. It's a reference nonetheless. I'm old enough to know who Gene Shalit was. Not only that, I managed a deli in New York when I was 21 years old. Yes, in 1981. That's how old I am. And Gene Shalit lived in the building and would come in and talk to me. Cool.

And we'd talk about movies. Do you remember his order? No. Do you remember your order? I. Do you remember your order? I ate everything. I gained 15 pounds there. That'll tell you how dangerous

a writer's room is. I gained more weight as a writer than I did as a deli manager. Wow. Twice as much weight. I want to see your weight

tracked by your current job. And I want to gather the data. Do you know that I don't gain a pound when I do the show? I do not. Because I'm running around so much. I don't finish anything. And I'm working out every day. But when I'm home and I'm off duty,

that's when the pounds come. Because I'm not doing it. And I'm off the clock. Nobody's watching. I think a very good diet for people is to have four cameras following you around at all times. Yeah, you're right. Then you wouldn't stuff your face so much because people are looking at you. You should write a diet book.

You should write one of those. You have the one simple trick. That's it. Travel with a film crew. Yeah. Wait, we have a hot take that we actually need you to weigh in on because Nicole and I did a podcast. Pastrami versus corned beef. Yes.

Where do you stand on this? Pastrami. More flavor. For me. I understand the corned beef. I understand people might not want the pepper on there. But the best sandwich maybe in L.A.? Talking Langer's number 19?

Yes, my friend, Josh. Yes, you, Nicole. Yes. Yes. I like it. Yes. We've come together. The, you, Nicole. Yes, yes. I like it. Yes. We've come together. Tapping on the shoulder is good. Just in time for the end of the show.

We've joined in an agreement. We did it. Isn't that nice? I feel like you should say a prayer or something. Nicole, you kick it off. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Which one do you think it is?

It's a prayer for the sandwich. Probably Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Hamotzi. Ham the prayer for the sandwich. Probably Hamotzi. Hamotzi. That's the bread part. I did it. Maggie, I did it. Yeah, I was right. It was Hamotzi. There you go.

I am the most Jewish out of all of you. Yes, Nicole is queen too. You might have just gained or lost a ton of listeners. Yeah, we'll find out. We'll check the numbers later. It's not important. Oh, God.

On that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. And Phil, thank you so much for joining us. Where can our listeners hear from you? There's the podcast. That's Naked Lunch Podcast. There's the little TV thing called Somebody Feed Phil. There's the book that's coming called Somebody Feed Phil the Book. You can pre-order that now.

Do me a favor. Yeah, but what else? Is that all you got going on? You can see me in my house where I live with Monica and the dog Murray. You can see me on Instagram, phil.rosenthal.

We put Phil's home address in the description. No, we have not done that. I'm going to start a TikTok. Oh, yeah. That's right. I can't wait. I'm excited about this project.

Savage by Megan Thee Stallion. If you want to come see Phil dance I go to his home And if you want to hear more from us here in the mythical kitchen We got new episodes for you every Wednesday if you want to be featured on opinions are like casseroles You can hit us up on Twitter at mythical chef or and handy Zada with the hashtag opinion casserole, but don't be stupid Check us out on YouTube over at Mythical Kitchen. We launch new videos every week. You know the deal.

And of course, if you want to share pictures of your delicious dishes, hit us up on Instagram at Mythical Kitchen. And don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. One last time. I love you both.