A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - What's The Best Sandwich? ft. Jeff Mauro

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

Today, we're joined by Jeff Mauro, the author of his recently published cookbook, Come On Over, and the co-host of the Food Network series, The Kitchen, to discuss: what's the best sandwich? 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 Nicole, what's better than a tuna sandwich? I don't know, what? A three-na sandwich. I'm not happy about it either. Anyways, we're talking about the best sandwiches. Because this is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie.

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

And today we are joined by Jeff Mauro. Jeff's the author of the recently published cookbook, Come On Over, 111 Fantastic Recipes for the Family That Cooks, Eats, and Laughs Together. He co-hosts the Food Network series, The Kitchen, and he is no stranger to the divisive definitions of what constitutes a sandwich, making him the perfect fit for today's question. Jeff, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me on. This is very exciting. I was expecting this call, so I'm glad it came now. I'm so glad we didn't just catch you on the toilet or something with the call. No, no podcasting from the toilet, getting the Tushy Bidet sponsorship. I mean, there's a market, I'm sure.

Is that an automatic bidet? An electronic? Smart bidet, as they say? No, it's not a dumb bidet. What's a smart bidet? I have one. I got it off Amazon like three years ago. Like automatically?

You sit on it and it works? I have told people this. For like, it was like $169. Stop. An unbelievable piece of equipment and machinery. Beyond. Send me the link. I will. I don't think you can find it now. I think the price has increased, especially during the pandemic, because the papes, people couldn't find the papes. And I'm sitting there on my throne upstairs, and I'm the only one that's allowed to use it. Nobody refuses to, because it literally shoots

water up your pooper. And some people might be shocked by that feeling sensation i'm not saying i love it but what i do love is the after effects and the cleanliness and the fact that i'm eco-friendly and i'm telling you you just plug it in and you put it on the line and within five minutes you got something that would cost you you know a seven thousand dollar japanese toilet e-bidet or smart bidet. Is it hot water or cold water? Control tap? Hey, heated seat and heated water. There's even a pressure grate. And then there's a posterior feminine wash. I'm telling you. My fiance has that one.

Yeah, there's the front feature. Then there's two back features. There's a soft back feature and a classic back feature. But should we talk about sandwiches now? Okay, we should talk about sandwiches. We should talk about sandwiches. So Jeff, if you are the self-proclaimed Sandwich King, I am not sure if you are still using that moniker, but it's something that can never die. Yeah. Yeah. It was, you know, I got that moniker when I was competing on Food Network Star season seven. And then, you know, towards mid-competition, Bobby Flay dubbed me Sandwich King.

So I owe it all to him. And then it was my title to lose during the course of that competition. But luckily, I did win. And I had five seasons of Sandwich King, where I tooled around Chicago and the Midwest and then brought it back to the kitchen. It was very fun. And people still be like, hey, Sandwich King. I'm like, my name's Jeff.

I have an identity beyond sandwiches. But yeah, I love it. If Bobby Flay bestows a nickname on you, I feel like he's got that New York accent, so it's like, hey, Jeff, you're the Sandwich King. It's like, when someone hits you with that, you can't get rid of it. You know, I was very shocked,

right? You want Bobby to like you. I mean, he's like that kid in the schoolyard who just owns it. He's a nice kid, but if you're on his bad side it's probably gonna be a bad four years you know what I mean yeah I want him to like me so I wanted him to like me and luckily I eventually convinced him um but he's been instrumental in everything you know he's he's awesome but it was like during that competition when he didn't like what you did it hurts so bad that frightens me so much so I I mean, I was, I've been a huge fan of Food Network Star for a long time. I remember your season very vividly. When I learned that sandwiches were

the entire lens at which you looked at food, I was initially like, well, how many sandwiches can you make? And then I saw what you did and I was like, oh my God, the possibilities are infinite. So you were a huge part in my personal sandwich journey and like genuinely informed how I look at food and how I cook today. So like, thank you for that. Well, thank you, Josh. That's a mighty fine compliment. And that was the big, you know,

criticism I got throughout that competition was, is there enough? Will it be enough to sustain a show for hopefully several seasons, but also as a platform to launch a career and all this stuff? You know, people always have these POVs or point of views that say, you know, I'm the healthy cook or I'm the crazy cook and I'm the one who cooks from home.

And it's like these. I have a bow tie. I have glasses and use some Xanthan gum. But, you know, so you got these, you know, kind of tropes that you find throughout the reality food competitions. And nobody put their flag in sandwiches for seventh season. Wait, was it? Yeah, season seven. For seventh season, I was like, I'm the guy.

I go, I've been in the deli game my whole life. I worked, owned, lived in delis since I was 15 years old on up. But I'm also classically trained and I went to culinary school. So it was like, plus I'm a performer. I go, this is like, this is mine. I got this. And I go, sandwiches is the engine, you know, driving this train. And I can always rediscover new ones, right? Reinvent classics. Every continent, country, culture has their version of a handheld piece of food that could qualify as a sandwich and be categorized as that. No, I mean, it was obviously a super smart gamble.

But I mean, now that you have established yourself as the sandwich king, we need to ask you the question. We need you to go on record right now and tell us what is the best sandwich. Okay. Number one, no hedging. You want my top three or the number one sandwich? Go top three. I like top three.

I think we should all do top three. Let's do top three, top three. All right all right this is right this is not set in stone it changes but my number one never changes okay top three always it vacillates a little bit right depending on you know if my eba day is working at a top clip okay i feel that on a soulful level number three might be controversial patty melt i I think to me, a well-executed patty melt satisfies the melt category. We can get in the taxonomy of sandwiches later if you want, if you ask me other questions regarding hot dogs. But in the taxonomy of the sandwich kingdom,

it is to me, it fulfills both a melt and a burger, which I have a very hard time choosing, especially at a diner when you want like that bacon grilled cheese or that turkey melt or whatever, but a good, a well-executed patty melt with good beef, just salt and pepper, tons of gooey American cheese, good rye, marble rye, thick rye, buttered, slathered, the beef cooked to medium and everything else gooey with those caramelized onions. Forget about it. Dunk it in some yellow mustard, sweat, eat the crispy fries, chase it down with the Diet Cherry Coke. That's number three. I tasted all of that in my mouth.

Didn't you really? I'm salivating. That was beautiful. Thank you. And I have a recipe in the cookbook, but I'm not just gratuitously plugging the cookbook, but I'm just... This is the key though. This is what I mentioned. This is what my father Gus taught me growing up when he would order patty melt or a Reuben.

You tell, you ask the waitress, please, when the chef, when the cook is in the back plating the sandwich, can he put the sandwich directly on the French fries? Right? What? What does that mean? It creates like almost like a rack, right?

Like a cooling rack to let the air circulate, let the heat circulate. Oh my God. Because you're right, when that bread, when that perfectly crusty, griddled bread hits the flat surface of the ceramic plate, it compromises the texture instantly, starts steaming. So a lot of times, by the time it hits your table, that bottom piece of bread is soggy. But if you put it on the fries, allows for movement of air, ensures crispiness, and the fries stay crispy and warm. Boom. That speaks to one of the beauties of sandwiches. And one of the reasons I love sandwiches so, so, so much is that it's so like architecturally based.

Of course. Yeah. You know, like that's the skill in making sandwiches. People don't, you know, ascribe that to sandwich making. I know you do in terms of like exalting the sandwich as like a beautiful food, but people think it's like a simple food, but it's not so complex because there's so many levels to hit. In culinary school, we had a full week dedicated to sandwiches and sandwich architecture. I swear. It's very true. That's amazing. I love that. We had that in culinary school and I was like, this is my week, baby. You know what I mean? It was like was like you know it was just my week and what i loved about it too is you you look at a lot of menus right especially chef driven sandwich or burger

offerings and they're just so overblown and i think it was like that for years ago i think people are now scaling back which is you know i'm gonna put a little pickle on this and a little schmear of that and some cheese and maybe something crisp. But you can't overdo it. You can't build the sloppiest world tallest skyscraper without falling and without getting lost in the realm of what is art and architecture. And same thing with sandwiches. You put too much stuff on there.

It doesn't work from a mouth standpoint and getting your mouth around it. But everything gets muddled in there and everything. We're going off on tangents. I'm sorry. You want me to get to number two? Oh, yeah. Number two. We got a lot of sandwiches to get through. Let's start doing that. Deli classic. I got to represent the deli phylum here, and that would be an Italian sub.

A good, crusty, yet still very light bread, right? Enough very well-shaved Italian cold cuts. It doesn't have to be the most imported, most artisanal, local, small-batch Italian meats. It could be good deli meats that are just well, right from the wrapper, shaved mortadella, right?

Genoa salami, a little thicker, like translucent prosciutto. You get a little capacola, a little thicker on that. And then provolone, a cheese that really stands up, right? Something that, you know, makes you sweat when you eat it. And a little good oil, like saturated in oil and vinegar, shaved iceberg lettuce. Shreddice. Shreddice. Very thin tomatoes. Let me put some hot jardiniere on there. That's what we do here. And boom, you wrap it up in white deli paper or butcher paper. You pour the chips on there. You got it.

It's like, oh, it's like, you know, it seeps through the paper. So you got like, oh, and you have, again, a nice diet pop with that. Obviously, I'm not an animal. I have some semblance of control. The look in your eyes as you describe the layers. People cannot see this, but the look in your eyes, it was like intensity. It was like when Indiana Jones, you know, like sees the treasure finally, it just pops through the screen and that's beautiful. I got to ask about your pronunciation

of Capicola because as someone who the first, in the first three words of your book, you use the phrase Maron. Maron. I expected to hear a Gabagool. Gabagool is more like, I think East Coast is more Gabagool. Like here in the Chicagoland area is Gabagool. Show me, but I didn't know. I barely know you two. I can't go that deep just yet. You might push the cough button. We're about to start speaking Yiddish.

I say Copacola. I don't know. You know, who knows? Like my dad says Gabagool, but like me and my brother say Copacola. I say Copacola. I don't know. You know, who knows? Like my dad says Copacola, but like me and my brother say Copacola. I say more to Del. I try to take as much vowels off the ends of words as possible. We both grew up in LA. So like, I'm only referencing the Sopranos when, when I say that. And I need you to know that to me, it's, it's not, I've never heard anyone say it in the wild. In the wild. Come to my neighborhood, man. It's fun. It's great. You

know what? There's some good delis in the LA area. There sure is. When you were saying that in my brain, I was like Bay Cities, Bay Cities, Bay Cities. Bay Cities was good. The godmother sub. They got to stop putting mayonnaise on that. They put mayonnaise on it? Yeah.

I never noticed. On the godmother. Mayonnaise and mustard on the godmother. I never noticed. Which is like, whoa, that's sacrilege out here. That's like so much. I never thought. Which is like, whoa, that's sacrilege out here. That's like so much. I never thought about that. You know, I mean, to me, like the Italian meats

need that acid to cut through, not like more fat on top of it. For me, it's like, oh my God. But my dad would like sit there. I remember, oh God, if you, I'll take video of my dad eating mayonnaise on a sub. It is out of, it's like right with the, with just the coated butter knife dipping back into the jar with each

bite it is it is oh it's a scene it's a train wreck but la here we go i'm gonna get to my favorite the best sandwich oh let's do it on the planet pastrami on rye shmira deli mustard that's it yes sir and which which la which la deli are you specifically referencing so i mean of course i think we both have our pick it's it's it's most definitely langers um and and i know that's like become the thing but i don't think it was a big i lived out there in the mid 2000s right and i it was like twice a month i'd go there on a saturday afternoon you go to buy macarthur park you park your car everybody's trying to sell you fake ids and then you walk in the thing and you sit there i go give me my hand cup pastramami on rye.

I don't want, you know, sometimes I would get the, what is it, the number 13 with the rushing, the 19 with the rushing, but I like the purity of that, and I'd smear my own mustard, I get a little horseradish, I get extra crispy fries, I love just like the pile of fries with that. Of course, it's like a diet pop. Diet soda kills me. I'm the same, I'm i'm the same she does not she drinks a regular cola i hate diet soda and i think that's bizarre that you drink right like you're correct yeah i can't the thought of aspartame makes like my lymph nodes like swollen so you know it's working oh stop i

get done like pounding a diet pop of any sort and i like i feel worse than like pounding you whatever it's nine natty lights or something right so like i i'm like what did i just do to my body but it was so fizzy and good going down and i and they're still like that thing was like i'm healthy yeah i've saved calories it were only a moment like if they start doing you know like diet pop now with protein i'm in i'm in i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do one like on the treadmill just be like mentos eating all over the the treadmill because of the you know the overactive okay so hand cut that's the best i've had it everywhere chicago's pastrami scene is very lacking people are trying here and there east coast is great i love i'm in new york all

the time still i've been traveling there even last even last six months and stuff. I love it. Second Avenue Deli, Katz's, Pastrami Queen is good. That's a new addition. But man, Langer's is the freaking best. If you were going to be like, we're going to inject you with the thing. You did some bad things. You're going to put to death. You get one last meal. I'm like, I'm going to kill somebody in LA because at least I can get some Langer's before i die nice i'm i'm surprised by an omission nicole any of those surprise you uh no none of them i had a feeling those would be your sandwiches she's an empath the patty melt, I think... She's an empath. The patty melt did put me for a little bit

of a loop because I was thinking, does a hamburger patty exclude it from being a sandwich? A lot of people would say that, but a lot of people also say it excludes it from being a hamburger. Well, there you go. As far as sandwich taxonomy, and this is regionally based because people in the Commonwealth, the thing that I can never get over is they eat a fried chicken

sandwich on a round bun and they call it a chicken burger and i'm like no no chicken burgers made from ground chicken meat and also may or may not be a burger depending on who you are yeah but so a lot of people the patty melt to me i i man i'm always torn in the patty melt because it's something that people think i would love based on my personality but for me i think i'm almost getting the the the patty melt ness is taking away from the burger patty melt-ness is taking away from the burger-ness and the burger-ness is taking away from the melt-ness. Interesting. Yep, yep, yep.

It's its own thing. You know, it walks the fine line. Let's just call it what it is. It's the platypus of the sandwich kingdom. It is. Oh, wow. It's a platypus. It lays eggs.

It's got a duck bill. It's got a spur that has venom in it. A venomous spur. It's warm-blooded, but it's covered in feathers. And did I mention it has a duck bill and swims? That's the patty now. And they're very loving house pets. You know they're out there. All you gotta do is Google.

Just Google platypus house pet. You know there's at least 16 people across the world. And they're all in Florida. They're all in Florida. Okay, I was surprised by the omission of the chicago beef i love it i had one last night i swear i have my own beef now i sell it it's good my in-laws came over we i had two beefs by myself i did combos because i grilled up some of my sausage too but it's i love it i do i love it but like i mean i, but I'm just, these are the ones I can't, you know, these are the first three born, I guess. It's, it's a good list. Nicole, do you have any

criticisms? No, I loved your list. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being vulnerable enough. Nicole, I'm curious about yours. I'm curious where you're going here. Okay. So we're going to start with number three. It's called the Bobby. Do you guys know about the Bobby sandwich? Is it British? You've never heard of the Bobby sandwich? You've never heard of it before? Oh my gosh. So there's this place called Capriati's.

Also, I don't travel much, so I've never actually gone to like Delaware where it's from. But it's basically a Thanksgiving sandwich where they have stuffing, cranberry sauce, hand chopped turkey and mayonnaise. And I don't know why I love this sandwich so much. Also, there's a disclaimer that says there might be bones in the sandwich, which I love because it makes me look like I'm going to live dangerously today. Might choke on a turkey bone, whatever. I just love the way it tastes. And I love that it's perfect. It's always perfectly seasoned, their turkey. I don't know how they do it's like this beautiful unctuous turkey and you never use the word unctuous with turkey you know it's a trip i don't know how they're able to make it so delicious and so mouthwateringly good with just

simple simple stuff it's just the construction of the sandwich is just gorgeous i just love it so much and but i can't eat it all the time that's like a once every six months sandwich seasonal it's not an evergreen sandwich it's not an evergreen sandwich but when i eat it all the time. That's like a once every six months sandwich for me. Seasonal. It's not an evergreen sandwich. It's not an evergreen sandwich. But when I eat it, I'm like, yeah. This is good, good. You've criticized me for putting rice in my burritos because it starts on starch. And here you are eating wet bread inside your bread?

I just told you. It's once every six months. Don't be a hater. Now, you said you had this. It's a place called Capriati's, does it? But you make it yourself every six months? a place called Capriati's, does it? But you make it yourself every six months? Or where's Capriati's at?

There's a Capriati's in Beverly Hills. I grew up in Beverly Hills slash Century City. So there was this one. It was just the only one I've ever seen, ever. And I would just go there like once every six months as a severe craving of mine. You guys want to hear number two? That's a wild card pick. That's a good number three pick. That was a good number three because it's left field.

Okay, number two. I'm going to say it's a shrimp po' boy. I love po' boys. I love fried shrimp. And I go, there's this place where they thinly shave lemon and they put the thinly shaved lemon on the sandwich. That's a rich boy.

That's a bougie boy. I don't know what, I don't know. I don't know. But it's the most, it's just such a transcendent experience and the remoulade is just perfectly spiced. Do you eat the thin lemon? Yeah, with the rind.

Wow, that's funky. It's so thin and it just works perfectly with the, it like cuts through the fried, like seafood aspect of everything. And it's just beautiful and bright and delicious. But somehow it's still light and I can like do stuff afterwards. You know, when I eat a po' boy, I can still be active. Like I don't need to take a nap. Like after the Bobby sandwich, I need a nap.

After a po' boy, I can walk around and shop. That's a good point about sandwiches. Like they are utility food. Yeah. You know, they're for a person who's got stuff to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? For sure.

And then my number one sandwich of all time is Philips. It's a French dip sandwich from Philips. I go maybe once a month. I go there. I get a beef dip i get it with american cheese i get a pick i get a pickled egg and i eat it in my car with some hot mustard and i'm the happiest girl in the world man i'm just a happy girl beautiful yeah take some video of that post some video of you eating the pickled egg and the french dip and the mustard in the car thank you

in the chair thank you so much beef Chards everywhere. Beef everywhere. Yeah. But turn it into a YouTube mukbang video. Yeah, exactly. I ate 68 pickled eggs in my car. If Jeff wants me to mukbang, I guess I got a mukbang now. You put it into the universe, my guy. But yeah, that's my favorite sandwich. The Philips French dip.

I'm a single dip girl because I have to consider eating it in my car. Have you ever thought about not eating it in your car? Stupid question. No, no, no. They have indoors. You know, no. I think there's some, well, because there's something about like exploring LA and like whenever I'm in Chinatown, I'm like, oh, there's this great new spot.

I'm going to go there. Or like, oh, I'm going to go try this spot. I'm going to go there. And then I always, always, always end up at Philips. It's crazy. I don't know why. It's like this magnetism. I'm like, i know what i'm

getting there it's delicious it's consistent i have to pay in cash like i enjoy that you know yeah enjoy it it's the scene it's everything that that's i mean like as much as i love sandwich innovation and you you know i do and i especially love restaurants that that innovate so much but there have been so many times where there has been a new sandwich that pops up and it sounds very enticing i remember this one place I went to was actually in Austin, Texas, but they were doing like Chinese American food, but in po' boy form. So it was like honey, walnut, shrimp, po' boys. I know I made the same faces. I was so excited. And I think they've closed by now, but I went there and it was just a bad, it was bad. They made bad food. I mean,

because the architecture wasn't there, right? The bun was cold. It wasn't soft enough. I got the sense that it was this like artisanal roll, but it was too crusty to hold the fillings. I hate that. So you bite in and then the honey walnut shrimp is so heavily dredged that it's squirting out of the crust. Oh, yeah. It slips out of its cocoon. Mm-hmm.

Slips out of the cocoon. And it's one of those things where it was like all the things weren't thought through. And a place like Philippe the Original has had 100 years to think it like philippe the original has had a hundred years to think it through yeah they've had 100 years to perfect it and so many of these like sandwich artists not the subway subway they do good work they do good work he's got his own hundred year uh thing going on over there i'm just shocked you get american cheese on it why are you shocked at my american cheese i don't know i don't know i can't imagine i've never had i've never gotten american cheese at philippe yeah i've never i love it i made my

when i did the italian beefs last night right to say you know i think it's a little more seasoned a little more um you know crushed red chilies italian dry herbs in in the italian beef preparation and real good shave prime beef we love boom we dip it two minutes let it steep same thing right is the dip minus you sir on the side. But my son, I make him a cheesy beef and I did two slices of American cheese on the bottom. And then I made the beef, right? It's wet, it's there if you ever had a good,

but then this is the key. And I love this about like, you wrap it, right? You wrap it for like, yes, two minutes. Just wait. It's the steam. He's like, oh, but I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop.

And then the cheese melts and everything kind of, you know, becomes homogenous. I love it. I love the homogenous sandwiches, man. I love the homogenous sandwiches. I love that.

Uh, Nicole, I, I'm so excited to hear this. You don't even know. I'm very curious. Okay. My,

my top three, if anyone's asking, if anyone's asking, this is what the podcast is about. I initially had a top three, but I'm, I'm now going to change it up a little bit to get some more variety. And then I'm going to, what they got. This is what the podcast is about. I initially had a top three, but I'm now going to change it up a little bit to get some more variety. And then I'm going to go over what I'm talking about.

Okay, number three, number three, number three. I'm going to go Philly cheesesteak. I'm going to go classic whiz whiz. I'm going to go classic. There to me, I mean, I go birds, fly eagles fly, families from Allentown, PA. I love that so many people have such strong opinions about cheesesteaks and what should be on them.

And it varies so regionally. I got into a tiff with the Lehigh Valley Tri-City area and a bunch of their local radio stations because I mentioned an Allentown-style cheesesteak. And I was like, yeah, I think they put cream cheese on it. And people are like, no, Allentown-style is marinara sauce with pickles. And I'm like, well, of course it is. Is that really what it is? There's no cheese involved in the Allentown? No, it's provolone, I believe.

Provolone and then pickles and marinara. But then we're going to get a bunch of people commenting on this saying, no, it's not. They only put pickles on it in the Easton. Yeah, exactly. But I love that part of it. But to me, it's the ribeye. And I think so many people don't understand how difficult it is to make a good Philly cheesesteak. One, gotta start with the hoagie roll. The

Amoroso roll is so key to it. The perfect amount of chew. The onions shouldn't be caramelized, in my opinion. They should be translucent, soaked in the beef fat. And then the beef, it shouldn't have a hard sear either. A lot of people think you gotta hit the beef super hard, and you don't. You don't want the crust. You want that steam to create

from the beef that starts to render the fat and then if you're doing white american cheese is also close second i just i'm i'm a softy for cheese whiz but you put the white american cheese on it and then the steam from the beef creates a sauce from the white american cheese because it's so melty and like jeff said when you wrap it it all just comes together and just becomes so copacetic and beautiful uh and you got to eat it with some UTS chips and a couple of tasty cakes afterwards. But of course, with a large diet root beer. There you go.

Just give me a regular Barks and I'm happy. No diet root beer. So Philly cheesesteak number three. And the pickled cherry peppers got to go on it. Sure. Or popping it after each one. I respect that. So that is a beautiful sandwich for me.

Number two. I'm going to fudge the pronunciation, but the banh mi dak biet. This is the how special banh mi from any place. And I grew up partly in an area called Little Saigon in Westminster, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove area in Orange County. And there's a place called Banh Mi Che Kali that would have buy two, get one free nine-inch banh mi sandwiches. And each banh mi was $2.75.

So when I was a large, hefty shot pudding teen boy and I was trying to get my bench press up so I could get a scholarship, I would go and I would get three banh mi every single morning before school. And I would just eat them throughout the day in classes. I would eat 27 inches of sandwich before 2 p.m. What?

No, this is like the classic version with the pate and the, right? So you were like eating this and you're just like stanking up the whole room, aren't you? Yeah. The kid in the back of the class eating the banh mi sandwich. I would eat it in the weight room. No air conditioning. Weight room under the bleachers. That's actually

15 times worse that it's in the weight room. I'm so sorry. That was in the classroom. It was both. But the banh mi dac bie, yeah, it's got the Vietnamese cold cuts. One's called the weight room. I'm so sorry. I thought it was in the classroom. It was both. It was both. But the banh mi dac bie, yeah, it's got the Vietnamese cold cuts. One's called cha lua. That's like this almost sort of bolognish. It's like a four-speed that's very springy. And then you have the pate spread on there.

You have that super rich, I believe they use a combination of butter and mayonnaise, actually. It's that super egg yolk rich yellow with the Maggi seasoning sauce in it. You have the pickled vegetables, the do chua, you got the daikon and the carrot. You got the fresh jalapenos, which are a very California edition. They say from Mexican line cooks working at Vietnamese restaurants, the fresh cilantro, the cucumber. To me, it's undefeated. It's got also the Vietnamese baguette, which a lot of people think is cut with rice flour, but it's not. It's the dough conditioners in it that make it so light.

I wish more French sandwich places would use that bread. You know what I mean? It's always way too dense or way too crusty. You carve the roof out of your mouth. But any Vietnamese preparation, any Vietnamese banh mi sandwich is always, even if it's got a real kind of hole in the wall joint, the bread is on point.

Oh, it's fantastic. It's funny, in my is on point. Oh, it's fantastic. It's funny. In my French class in high school, Madame Keith, when we would cater these like French club events, and she taught us to make jambon beurre, which is a fine sandwich in itself. She started using baguettes from this French place. And then she comes in, she's like,

I found this beautiful place called Lee's Sandwiches. It is the Vietnamese, I believe, and their baguette. Oh my God, it is the best I've had since I It is the Vietnamese, I believe, and their baguette, oh my God, it is the best I've had since I was in France. So I love that. So, pan-mé,

absolutely undefeated. But the number one, the number one sandwich in my book, I thought that we were going to go three for three on wet sandwiches. Jeff, I thought you were going to do the Italian beef,

but you didn't. And so now we're only two for three on absolutely wet sandwiches, but it is the torta ahogada from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Wow. Amazing. Single greatest sandwich. It is like a French dip from Phileps. It satisfies all those cravings, like the Italian beef, where you get the meat that is soaked in sauce and the bread just kind of coalesces in all that. Except

in this, instead of a French roll, you get birrote salado if they're doing it right. If they're getting their bread from Guadalajara and my favorite spot in torta ahog from Guadalajara and my favorite spot in Tortas Algarra, Guadalajara in North Hollywood, they get their bread imported. It is this super salty sourdough, very crusty bread. And the salt actually gives the bread a ton of structure. Yeah. And so then you cut that open and you stuff it with carnitas, which, of course, has been, you know, kind of boiled in its own fat, slowly confine, getting crispy yet fatty. And you put that inside this crusty, salty bread. has been kind of boiled in its own fat, slowly confine, getting crispy yet fatty.

And you put that inside this crusty, salty bread and then you drown it in a chili de arbol and tomato sauce. And then it just sits in there. And you gotta get it bien ahogada. You gotta get that well drowned. And then you top it with just lightly marinated, vinegared red onions. And then if you talk to Selena, the owner,

and then she says, you like it extra spicy? And you go, yeah, I like it extra spicy. And then she takes just straight chili de arbol and shoves it on there. And then you eat it with your hands and then the chili soak into your hands and then your mouth is on fire, but there's so much fat from the pork

and that the bread still is holding up to the last bite, Nicole and Jeff. It does not waver. Wow. The torta hogada from Guadalajara, Jalisco, best sandwich in the world. Good choice. None of us put Reuben in our top three.

I don't know. I'm like having a change of heart a little bit because I feel so bad for not including any like Jewish deli food because it's so connected to my culture and like LA and everything like that. So I don't know. I don't know. I kind of want to maybe switch my Bobby and have it as like LA and everything like that so I don't know I don't know I kind of want to maybe switch my Bobby and have it as an honorable mention and then maybe put in like I don't know a corned beef sandwich I don't know I don't know there's something I feel bad that I

didn't include a deli sandwich I will say when when I got sick uh over over the holidays and I was really craving comfort food my girlfriend Julia um wanted to order matzo ball soup and then I was looking over the deli menu and my like comfort food from the del julia um wanted to order matzo ball soup and then i was looking over the deli menu and my like comfort food from the deli that i wanted to order was a chopped liver and corned beef sandwich not pastrami either corned beef the smoke it overtakes the liver and it was really bad that was just this one deli was really bad but i will say like the instinct in my mind to go to that chopped liver and corned beef combination as like, I am in distress. I need a food to comfort me. I think that shows a lot, you know? Yeah. I feel you.

God, that was a bad sandwich. All right, Nicole and Jeff, 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. It rhymes with acerol. All right, starting with atpollardgym3. Uh-oh.

Please tell me I'm not the only person who eats the skin on a mango, but it has to be perfectly ripe. It's like fruit leather, and I love it. Jeff, what do you think about that one? That's like, you know, primal. I mean, if that's your bag. I don't think I could... Does he eat it like an apple or a pear? I mean, is he just

going in with his teeth? I get it. I feel like we need a disclaimer here that this is dangerous. I was going to let you handle this. Mango skin's straight up poisonous? Well, I mean, he's not not dead i don't think he's trolling either i believe him i i think i think uh to some people mango skin is poisonous it's because it's related to uh poison oak is that what it is i'm not sure what it's related to but i have heard on multiple occasions that people have gotten sick from eating mango skin they literally call it mango mouth i had a um i had a co-worker go to the hospital with mango mouth shut up from eating mango skin

or just eating too much mango so it was something crazy it was uh he was grilling mango and then i guess he was grilling it skin on you know kind of did the whole like scoring thing and grill it and i think it was something to do with the heat sort of like getting whatever toxins are on the outside of the skin into the mango. Scary. And then, yeah, he just, he ended up at the hospital. Yeah, don't eat mango skin. If anybody else is out there eating mango skin, use this as a PSA. This is the first time I will come down harshly on an opinion.

Yeah. Yep, not safe. Sorry, I concur. All right. Nina P528 says, shredded cheese is just cheese zest. No, it's not because the zest is the outside of something. The shredded cheese is just cheese zest. No, it's not because the zest is the outside of something. The shredded cheese is all of it. Cheese zest does exist though.

You know what cheese zest is for me? You get to like the end of the parm where you're like close to the rind. And you're like, you're like, there's just, there's just enough flavor left for me to get something out of this. Yeah. I was going to say if you're zesting the rind and it's an edible rind then that's cheese zest so this is an incorrect opinion yeah yeah but they're on to something a little bit a little bit all right at yeah you better run there does not exist a better salad dressing option than whatever hot sauce is in one's fridge

they're almost always healthier tast, and cheaper than a dressing. My favorite is Green Dragon Trader Joe's. I mean, but that's more than a hot sauce. That Green Dragon, I think it's really good, but it's a little more complex than Cholula or Tabasco or Crystal. But dousing just greens in straight-up small-bottle hot sauce, I don't know. I mean, you need a little more fat to carry it around, I guess. Yeah.

That's heavy. That's just straight hot sauce on greens. That's a bit much. That's too much. Yeah. I need something to cut through that. It reminds me of a very bodybuilder thing to do. Yeah.

Where it's like, I need to get the greens in me and I can't have a single other macro. And so Trappies Louisiana hot sauce is zero carbs, zero whatever. Yeah. That's like a bodybuilder type of thing. Mustard and hot sauce is zero carbs zero whatever yeah yeah that's a that's like a bodybuilder type of thing mustard and hot sauce and a little bit of water watching my yeah bodybuilder uh salad watching my buddy just put mustard on white rice and eat it i'm like why not soy sauce soy sauce is the same amount of calories and then it's like they're chased by like eight poached chicken breasts that they just tear through. Oh, gosh. Like a hyena.

And they're just like, I don't know. I did cybergenics when I was in like, I forget, 16 years old, which was like this program you used to get at GNC.

It was like two weeks and all you would eat is like whole chicken and marinara sauce and like nothing else and iceberg lettuce. It was horrible. And drink shakes.

That's what it reminds me of. And we just coat the greens in just balsamic. No oil. And we'd just be sitting there dripping. Oh, my God. I'm very lucky that I practiced a thing called dirty bulking, which is what it's called in the community, which is eat as much as possible as often as possible and lift as much weight,

which is how I was able to enjoy so many delicious bun me. Dirty bulking, huh? Dirty bulking. I just bookmarked dirty balkan.com oh yeah yeah don't don't don't go to that one don't go to that one oh no dot edu is the one yeah yeah yeah dot gov bone say says any dish that is made using beans can be vastly improved by not including beans i don't i go ahead ahead, Jeff. Wow. This is upsetting. Okay, so we're looking at chili.

We're looking at burritos for sure. Like a black bean burger, obviously, would just be whatever binding and whatever other grain you might fit in there. But I think I'm going to kind of agree with this because I like beans. I like chili beans in my chili, right? Like the big, bright red kidney beans glowing. But I love chili without beans as well. I do not like beans in my burritos, nor do I like rice.

I'm like steak, lettuce, avocado, sour cream, hot sauce per bite kind of thing. I like that. So yeah, I'm going to agree. What was this person's name? This Twitter one? Bonesay. I think they're right. We'll DM you them so you can connect and just talk about it.

Bean hatred. Share likes, fears. I love beans. I think beans are a fantastic addition to meals that don't include beans. Like throw it in a salad. Throw it in your rice. I actually love beans and I think they should be celebrated more so this hurt my feelings have you heard about the bean diet like it's supposed to like be do

wonders for your skin and you're the bean dye yeah it's like you eat you incorporate beans in like every meal and it's supposed to like clear up everything i can't not that i'm saying your skin i'm going to you're glowing as we speak through this small Google Hangout screen. But it's, I don't know, my wife, she like read about it. Beans are making a lot of appearances in our meals these days. I'll put it that way. Nice. I've never glowed harder.

He's smizing, folks. He's smizing. I love beans. Beans, I will answer this hot take with an even worse hot take i believe any dish that includes a non-crispy potato would be better if it was beans instead of mashed potatoes hit me with them refritos uh instead of any potato in a soup might as well be a big old cranberry bean i think that beans are a more perfected form of potato french fries hash browns everything else potatoes rule supreme that's their core competency but not if you're going soft potato, give me a bean.

That's what the heck I'm about. Like a mashed, like refried bean style, you know, on the Mexican-American kind of platter deal. Instead of, you'd rather have, not that I'm saying the mashed potato, but that's what I'm judging. Those two would be, no, I'd rather have mashed potatoes swarming in gravy than really. No way, man. Give me the yellow cheese on the silky refried beans. Silky. And that, what?

Oh, oh, oh, I'm the villain here. No, I'm the villain. Oh my God. When they're made with lard though, there's nothing better. And they're like, you eat it and they're like, oof. Gotta put the lard in there. It's not even a bean. I can feel the texture.

All right, we got at S. Neely. A sprinkle of sugar on top of scrambled eggs is chef's kiss, and you can't change my mind. I'll try it. I don't know. I'm intrigued. You should. You've had it?

It's good? I have done it. It's not good, but it's one of those things that reminds you of food that is good. So Japanese tamagoyaki. Yeah. That's where I was going to. If you ever had it, you know, it's got that sweet mirin in it. And so that's the first time, that's the first thing I thought of, except it's like without

the other nine ingredients that make Japanese tamagoyaki good, but you still taste it and you're like, oh, I see where their brain made the connection or like a scrambled flan that you screwed up, but you still eat it. Cause you know, they're your ingredients and yeah. No, you guys, you guys, you guys toss it. I don't even like, uh, you know, successfully made flan that you screwed up but you still eat it because you know they're your ingredients and yeah no you guys you guys you guys toss it i don't even like uh you know successfully made flan i couldn't even imagine scrambled flan sounds like a good punk band yeah it is like hardcore post-punk yeah but i would also never eat scrambled flan i would also never put sugar on top there's something about the texture of scrambled eggs and how sometimes they're like a little bit like crispy sometimes. You know what I mean? That crispy egg with sugar

sprinkled on it instantly makes my gag reflex. You two are weak. No, this reminds me of, I like, now this might be controversial as well, might be a future hot take. I love like egg McMuffins or anything, you know, sausage patty, scrambled eggs, American cheese, English muffin. And then I always smear a little bit of that little thing of grape jelly or strawberry jelly if I'm at home. That's good. Like a smear. I'm not saying gobs of it. That to me always, even the hash browns, I would do a little plastic knife with each bite.

I'd put a little grape jelly on there. I still do it. I'm down with that. I'm down with that. I'm down with that. There's something about the granule of sugar that makes me like, whoop. That makes sense. The last time I had grape jelly,

it was actually grape jelly and mustard on a breakfast sandwich. And this is a great honorable mention for my Philly regional sandwiches is the Scrapple Egg and Cheese. That's a classic. Is that Scrapple related? It is.

There's so much fat and funk in the Scrapple that you need the confusion of the purple and the yellow on there. Great. The old purple yellow. Kenzie Reinhart says, caramel belongs on pizza more than ranch on pizza. Ugh, stupid.

What does that even mean? We've broken Jeff. Well, I mean, who's had caramel on pizza before? You've had it? You both have? Is this an LA thing? Is this like a... No. Well, I mean, who's had caramel on pizza before? I don't, you've had it? You both have? Is this an LA thing? Is this like a- No, this is a mythical kitchen thing.

Yeah, we got a weird job. Yeah, we got a weird job. So wait, so what, tell me, so I, so you, is it good? What do you, I mean, I guess I could see. So we had an episode called What's the Best Pizza Dip, okay? Yeah. And it's our job to test things before they go out on on the show you know we test and we make sure we perfect it so we had a every single

dip you could imagine we had nacho cheese we had caramel we had this we had that we had the other caramel isn't horrific hear me out it's not disgusting it's not horrific it's like hot honey yeah almost just like hot honey colorado mountain, their whole thing is you dip it in honey. They serve every pizza with honey. Might as well have caramel. You get that little extra burnt notes on it. I think caramel works. It's not as good as ranch.

I don't think anything is better than ranch on pizza. But it does work. And I'm going to give Kenzie that much. I love ranch. I mean, you swipe swipe it you swipe it right through that ranch just per bite or wait for the crust you still got that and then you re-puddle up and then you go right in the thing and then you let it sit there and then you squeeze the crust so it absorbs the ranch like a sponge that's the move all day when you when you bite

into the pizza crust soaked in ranch and you make the sucking noise to suck the ranch out of there with the pepperoni grease. That, my friends, that's a lochme. High five. High five for the Farsi reference. Thank you. Josh likes to sprinkle in some Farsi because he's Persian. She's teaching me Farsi. So every now and then he throws it in.

I'm like, hey. Well, Josh, from my record here, Josh has spoken four languages this podcast. Wow, you did. French, he's got Vietnamese. This guy, don't let the headband fool you. He's edubacated. You went to culinary school. I was studying international relations and also failed.

Shot putting. You were a shot putter in high school or college? Yeah, so I went to school on a shot put and discus scholarship, but then I ended up becoming a hammer thrower was my biggest event. So I threw hammer at UCLA. That's amazing, man. What a path, right? Yeah, man.

That direct hammer throwing the podcast pipeline. It is. Everybody's doing it. Everybody's trying. All right. And on that note, thank you for listening to a hot dog is a sandwich. To enjoy more from Jeff, you can check out his new cookbook, Come On Over, 111 fantastic recipes for the family that cooks, eats, and laughs together.

You can also catch him on his podcast, also called Come On Over, where he and his sister Emily talk about food, their upbringing, and tons of lively family stories. Jeff, where else can our listeners check you out? Yeah, Come On Over. I'm really proud of it. We're like 50 episodes in, a couple seasons. It's fun. So do that and go to moralprovisions.com.

We just came out with our honey giardiniera yesterday or on Friday. So it's the first ever cured in honey and agave, and it's packed in oil. It's so bright. It's so beautiful. When is this podcast air? I think we just sold out, but just do it. Sorry. I don't want to set people up for it, but it's good.

Go to moralprovisions.com. I got Italian beef kits prime Italian beef kits our sausage made locally it's the best like Italian food we're going right there I'm buying I'm buying some stuff

from the Honey Jardinier it's got that like bread and butter alright 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 or Like Casseroles you can hit us up on Twitter at Mythical Chef or and Hendy Zada

with the hashtag Opinion Casserole and of course if you want to share pics of your dishes hit us up on the instagram at mythical kitchen see y'all next time jeff thanks again man thanks for having me guys on thanks for having me guys on i'm gonna go we'll go get on the ebit day it's a smart bid day i gotta go cleanse my mouth you you you