A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Wtf Is Australian Food, Mate? ft. Curtis Stone

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Today, we're joined by Curtis Stone, an Australian chef, author, and the host of Fox's Crime Scene Kitchen to discuss: What Is Australian Food? 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. Did you know that Australians don't even eat shrimp on the barbie because they're actually called prawns? Crikey! I wonder what else we're going to learn today. This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Curtis, I'm sorry for the crikey. 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? Hey, 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 Hendizadeh. And today we're joined by Chef Curtis Stone. Curtis is currently a judge on Fox's new food game show, Crime Scene Kitchen, premiering, well, tonight, May 26th, depending on when you're listening to this podcast, I suppose. premiering, well, tonight, May 26th, depending on when you're listening to this podcast, I suppose. He's also an internationally renowned chef, TV host, entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and chef-owner of Maude and Gwen, both in Los Angeles. He grew up in Australia and discovered a love for cooking while making fudge with his grandmother at a young age. He once hosted what I consider, personally, the greatest cooking show of all time,

Surfing the Menu. Curtis, welcome to the pod. Thanks so much. How are you guys doing? Not too bad, man. I guess Surfing the Menu, it came out in 2003, I believe. That's right. Yeah. That to me is such an iconic show. Nicole, have you seen Surfing the Menu? I have not, but I'd love to hear about it. Tell me a little bit about it. I mean, Curtis, please tell us. I was working in a basement kitchen in London at the time and I was riding my scooter, a little moped home, and I got a phone call from a producer in Australia. And I stuffed my phone in my helmet while I was riding in a freezing cold night. And I was a

little fed up with working in these, you know, hard ass restaurants. And I got asked whether I'd like to host a TV show where I would cook and surf and travel around my native Australia and sort of rediscover what Australian food was all about. And it took me all of two seconds to make my decision. I was like, yeah. And she said, can you surf? Which I couldn't really, but I was like, of course I can. All Aussies can surf because I really wanted to go back to Australia and be paid to do it. And that was the show. It was literally me and another guy, Ben O'Donoghue, who's a great mate of mine now. And we would travel and surf and cook our way around the country.

That sounds fabulous. I read a quote. It's funny you mentioned copping to not really being able to surf. Because I remember reading a quote from Ben O'Donoghue who said, let me see if I can paraphrase this correctly. Curtis makes me look really bad on land, but he makes me look really good in water. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Both parts of make Ben look really bad in water. Yeah, it's true. It's true. Both parts of make Ben look really bad on land

because he's hopeless at most other sports apart from surfing, which he's amazing at. So, um, yeah, no, we had a lot of fun. That's awesome, man. So, and we, we wanted to bring you on here to, like you said, you did in, in surfing the menu, sort of rediscovering what Australian food is all about. Uh, Nicole and I think are super curious about what Australian food is all about, especially cause there's so many new, new Australian restaurants opening up in Los Angeles, especially. And from what I can see, they're mostly breakfast burritos with kale in them. Seems to be the tone. Lost coffee shop-esque meals. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So I have an entire list of Aussie food slang that I kind of wanted to go through with you because another thing that happened to me, my older brother, who I grew up with, he is huge into food and wine as well. He moved down to Adelaide for three years. And then he came back and he started talking all crazy. He came back and he was like, I went down, I got some stubbies from the Bottle-O. And I was like, John, that's not English. Did you have a stroke in Australia?

He's like, no, no, no, you got to get some dim sum from the Servo. And I'm like, well, I don't understand. You have to clarify. So I'm just sort of running through some Aussie food slang. Okay, let's do it. What is a senga? A senga is a sandwich. Is it an R at the end or an A?

Is it senga or senga? Or is there any difference in Australia? You know what? I don't even think we ever write it down. It's just the spoken word. S-A-N-G-A would be my best guess. Nice. Okay, so our sandwiches like

we mentioned you know kind of coffee shop culture seems to be like the big thing that we have seen translated in la is this saying is something you get from a coffee shop and does a coffee shop have a slang term like a coffee oh um well yeah first of all we just give everything a different name i'm not exactly sure where it came from or why it exists, but Aussies do give everybody a nickname and everything, sort of an abbreviation, or we add an O or an E. You know, if your name's John, you're either a Johnny or a Jono. You'd never John.

You know, like that would just be way too formal. I'm not sure why. It might have something to do with our convict heritage that we like to break the rules and do something slightly different but yeah we we do change the words of everything so a cafe is a coffee shop which could even be called a milk bar which is my favorite endearing term and a milk bar was sort of more a corner shop but these days you can go to the milk bar and get a coffee and maybe a sandwich so you know you know, it's – or a sangha or a sambo. Sambo?

Sambo is another shorthand term for a sandwich. Yes, yes. One wasn't enough. One sangha wasn't enough. You had to switch it up. Exactly, exactly. Does this mean that we'll get nicknames at the end of this? I'd like that.

Curtis, at the end of this, you have to give Nicole and I nicknames. It would mean a lot. Don't think about it. Just marinate on it. Oh, no, I don't need to think about it. Nicole, you're straight away knickers, which is sort of a funny, endearing term. I love that. Do you have a nickname to your Australian friends? Well, my last name's Stone, so my nickname's Stoney. That makes sense. You look like a Stoney. That's not to pass judgment on your lifestyle choices of course i mean it's okay okay back to more abbreviations um so there seem to be several forms of pounded out and fried meats that go by many names the first one i've heard is

schnitty yep so schnitty is short for schnitzel correct where do you eat schnitties and why you can also have a schnitz. Schnitz is another short term. Are they different? If you order a schnitty and a schnitz, are they different? No, same thing. Yes, same thing. Okay. Can you tell me the differences between parmy, parmo, and parma?

Well, they're all schnitzels, but then you put tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese over the top. So that's a parma. And it's a staple in the Aussie pub. Okay. So a parma, a parmy and a parmo are all schnitties, which are also schnitzels. Correct. In theory. I've heard, I've heard legend of ham. I feel like an anthropology professor who could like, you know, I don't know, was in a coma for 15 years. Can you explain what is Korean pop music? I've heard legend of ham being added in at least one regional derivation of Parmy, Parmo, and Parma. Correct. But they're all got the same name, which is the funny part. Because yes, you can put ham underneath the tomato sauce

and the mozzarella of the schnitzel to create the Parma, which I guess is some sort of version of how you would have eggplant Parmesan in America, right? So we do a chicken Parmesan, I guess is like what Parma is short for. But now that I stop and think about it, I think if you wrote chicken Parmesan on a menu, no one would order it because no one would know what it is because we just call it a Parma.

That's incredible. I mean, Italian food is really big in Australia, right? And there's like a huge wave of Italian immigration, which I mean, for at least what we've heard here is why espresso culture, cafe culture is really big in Australia, right? And there was like a huge wave of Italian immigration, which, I mean, for at least what we've heard here is why espresso culture, cafe culture is really big. So, is there a lot of Italian food that's sort of, you know, big history in Australia? Yeah, there's tons. You know, the Italians and the Greeks were probably the two major European countries from Western Europe, at least, that sort of migrated to Australia, probably back in the 40s and 50s. And there's still, it's funny because I have one of my best mates, Tommy, we grew up together

and his parents were from Calabria. And then when we went back to Calabria, Tommy and I went traveling when we were 19 years old, three years or 20 years old. And we went to Calabria and it's funny, he was like, the Calabrians in Australia are more Italian than the Calabrians in Calabria and it's funny he was like the Calabrians in Australia are more Italian than the Calabrians in Calabria because it's almost like there's this moment in time that's frozen right because this Italian culture came to Australia and then they preserved it in the way that they knew and of course back in Italy things continue to evolve and move on but there is a funny part of that

first generation immigrant that came to Australia that really holds very true to the original culture that they, you know, know and love from back in Italy. And, yeah, so it's a very rich, the Italian community in Australia. And it's very authentic. It does feel, you know, having traveled a lot through Italy, it does feel very much like you're back in Italy in some ways. That's interesting because, I mean, you almost see that sort of purism in you know a lot of Italian Americans from New York City right especially compared to LA because their community has like deep deep roots there. Correct. Even though most of them are generally from like Sicily right so it's a very very specific type of Italian food culture but you get like a ton of purists even about New York style pizza you know even

about red sauce Italian do you have that like element of purism in Australia? Cause like you said, you got that convict culture, you want to break the rules, but is there a lot of like purism in the food? No, there really is. There's still a lot of authenticity in the way people prepare stuff. And I think similarly to New York, a lot of the immigration to Australia was from the South, you know, probably, um, not, not, um, uh, only from the South, but know, probably not only from the south but mainly. So, yeah, there's a lot of that sort of Calabrian, Sicilian that, you know, traditionally I guess back then some of those poorer neighbourhoods were the ones that were like looking for a new start in life

and looking to go to somewhere else and that sort of, you know, and it usually goes that that's where, excuse me, to all the people from the north of Italy, but a lot of people would say the south of Italy is really the heart of Italian food. You know, that sort of, it comes with that peasant style kitchen where, you know, food sort of develops its deep roots. And yeah, we certainly have a lot of it back in Oz. That makes sense. Hey, sorry. Rhett and Link here. We just had to interrupt

Josh and Nicole just for a minute. Because we're so excited about a new scripted podcast we're starring in called Ronstadt. My name is... Hey, Ronstadt.

Ronstadt? Ronstadt. I'm the one with the bright blonde hair sticking out in every direction like electrified Link Weenie. Oh, is that your real hair? I walk the dark with the bright blonde hair sticking out in every direction like electrified Link Weenie. Yo, is that your real hair? I walk the dark, hear the danger, see the damned if I know.

I call it my Kradar. My ability to detect and observe all things crazy. Right. Kradar. So, what are you gonna do? I became a phone jockey for 911. But I don't answer calls of broken bones and brush fires. I handle the 911 what's your freaking. Sir, this is important.

I am becoming the invisible woman. The reason I can't eat vegetables anymore is because when I fight into one I can hear it say ouch. Like, ouch! It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't even have a face, but it can see me. It can see me! You ever get the feeling you ordered about 15 too many items off the value menu?

You can find Ronstadt now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to follow so you can be one of the first to listen. How do you feel about Spag Bowl? Because us two love some Spag Bowl. No, Nicole always says it. You say it with the Essex accent, though. Spag Bowl. Spag Bowl. She watches a lot of British reality TV. I. She watches a lot of British reality TV.

I don't watch a lot of British reality TV. I watch snippets of British reality TV. There's a big difference. It comes up on my Facebook feed, and I watch about 13 minutes of it, and I go about my day. It's quality television. It's not an indictment. Yeah, but how do you feel about spagbol?

Because I love it, just for the name alone. Look, it's almost our national dish. Spaghetti bolognese is what you're referring to. And that is probably the most common dish found in Australia. A bit like in America, how you have meatloaf or meatballs as sort of one of the iconic dishes of America. Of course, you imported it from somewhere and we certainly imported spag bol from Italy. And it's a meat ragu sauce with spaghetti. I mean, what's not to love? Would you say there's any stylistic differences between a bolognese we'd get in America versus the spag bol in Australia? Do you put ham on it?

Do you fry it like a disc? Why do you keep talking about ham? I'm fascinated because ham is the perfect addition to a chicken parmesan. You get all the benefits of chicken sauce. What about the spag bol? Who's putting ham in spag bol? In the Philippines, there's diced up ham in their version of spag bol.

You got me there. You got me there. You got me there. No, we haven't. We make it pretty in Bologna where it originates from. They don't use tomato in the sauce. In fact, they use a little milk in the sauce, and it's very rich and very dense.

In Australia, they put quite a lot of tomato in it, so it's sort of more of a Sicilian or a Campania kind of a version of that sauce. So yeah, it's not authentic in its nature, but it's still really good. Okay. So you've used the term tomato sauce. I feel like I have to say tomato sauce because I, tomato sauce, why do I say tomato? Tomato sauce in Australia does not necessarily refer to strictly a sauce made from tomatoes, correct? It is more of a ketchup. Yeah, that's right. When we ask for ketchup, we actually ask for tomato sauce.

So when you have a sausage roll or a pie, which is sort of a part of our national treasure, you would always have tomato sauce with it, which is ketchup. But then what does passata mean? Passata is a tomato sauce that you actually make from the beginning. Yeah, so that's not sweetened. Tomato sauce is not the tomato sauce. Passata is the tomato sauce. Correct, yes. Okay.

I learned this recently on my own travels, tomato sauce purchasing, because I saw a jar and I'm like, what's passata? And I'm like, oh, my God, it's just legit. Just like tomato sauce before you add all the fun stuff to it. I was like, whoa, what a trip. Well, it's like a very pure just like crushed tomatoes, which to me, I think a lot of it's kind of like how in America we refer to everything, every tomato based sauce that would go on pasta as marinara. Yeah. Which marinara.

Totally incorrect. every tomato-based sauce that would go on pasta as marinara. Yeah. Which marinara- Totally incorrect, right? That literally refers to a specific like Neapolitan style of cooking, like marinara literally meaning like of the sea. It was like a fisherman's wife dish. And so like we do our own crap here that just doesn't seem, you know, we're so used to it. We're so used to having 19 kinds of marinara. And then an Italian person would go to an American grocery store

and be like, none of that. None of that is marinara. When I first came to America marinara and then an Italian person would go to an American grocery store and be like none of that none of that is marinara when I first came to America I went to an Italian joint and I ordered the spaghetti marinara and it came out with tomato sauce on it and I was like no no I ordered the marinara because I was looking for the clams and the squid and all the delicious seafood that is normally in a marinara sauce where I come from and they were like that is a marinara and I'm like you know, whatever. Did they run out of seafood? It took me quite a while to figure out that what you were talking about was what we would call a Napoli sauce or, you know, a tomato sauce. Yeah. So it's very confusing, isn't it? Were there any other big, big, like food culture shocks when you first came to the States? Also, when was the first time that you came to the States? I got here about 15 years ago and I came,

well, actually I came here totally by accident if I'm being really transparent. You know what? I decided to have my 30th birthday in Las Vegas because I'd never been here. I lived in London. Half my mates were English, half of them were Aussies and I figured Vegas was in the middle

and I could have a big party. So we'd sort of arranged it, but I hadn't booked the flights. And then someone rang me and asked me to do a show called Take Home Chef, which I thought was the most ridiculous idea I'd ever heard. But I saw an opportunity, you know, maybe I can get a free flight for my birthday. So, and you know, these TV people, they usually fire your business class. I was like, all in. And I agreed to come and film this pilot. And that was in Los Angeles, of course. And then I just jumped on a little, you know, flight out of Burbank for 49 bucks to get to Vegas for my big bash.

So I did that. I got home and somebody called me and said, you've, you know, you've got a, they've picked up the show that you filmed this pilot for, which I hadn't really told many people about because I never thought that it would see the light of day. And I was like, oh, cool, that's fine, you know, I'll go and do it. Because I had, you know, my whole life was organized in London. I had a girlfriend and an apartment and a job. And then, you know, the person that I was talking to said, yeah,

they've picked up 60 episodes. And I'm like, 60 episodes? I can't do 60 episodes. That would take a year. And they're like, yep, but you signed the contract and you've got to go and do it. So, yeah, I had to break the news to my landlord and girlfriend that I was leaving town and I've never gone home. So, you know, it sort of happened as a bit of a shock. A good shock.

Wow. Good surprise. What a great origin story. I love that half your career so far seems to be you kind of wanting to accept a free flight out of a place and then ending up with iconic TV shows. Great mentality to have, honestly. Right. That's the way you do it. I'm going to start doing that. Just got to grasp opportunities when you see them.

All good things in life start at the Burbank Airport. Okay. I wouldn't say that. Guy Fieri has a restaurant there now. I'm saying Burbank Airport is on the come up. It's on the come up. How was that 30th birthday bash in Las Vegas? Because if there's one thing that I think we both know about Australian food and drink culture,

it's that the drink does play a big role in it. It sure does. Yeah, look, it was a lot of fun. The bits that I can remember. It was, you know, my parents were there, so we were well behaved to a certain extent. And, you know, it's an interesting, I still think this, you know, when people talk to me about America that haven't been here, I always think it's quite a strange introduction because people that come to America usually go to New York or Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

And that's kind of it. You know, they see a bit of Disneyland, they get to a theme park where everyone eats those giant turkey legs. So I think everybody leaves America kind of thinking, oh, my goodness, that's such a strange place because, you know, you don't really get a sense of what America's really like until you spend a bit more time here and you get to really experience all the, you know, like it might sound strange to say, but I think to really experience America, you've got to experience a bit of the Midwest.

You've got to experience a bit of the South. And you sure see a big city, but, you know, to really understand the American culture, there's way more to it than Disneyland and Las Vegas. That's for sure. Thank God. Of course. I mean, would you say the same thing about Australia?

Like, cause I mean, most people, you know, we know go to Australia, you know, they're going to Melbourne, they're going to Sydney, you know, maybe Bondi Beach seems to be a big, you know, kind of like their version of Venice Beach. But I mean, what would you say about, you know, where to actually like see the real Australia? Look, I think the same sort of thing. You should try and get out to a country. You know, if you want to enjoy your first ever chicken parma, you've got to go to a

country pub and have it and drink a beer with the locals and um the outback is an extraordinary part of australia that's you know really quite untouched still and um we have an incredible indigenous um population of of aboriginal people that just have so much to offer and and you know have sort of shaped what australia is and um you know there's there's so much to experience outside of the cities. But, yeah, we've got beautiful beaches and you should probably see those too. So it's a big country. So it's a hard one to manage in a week. You know, you've got to break off a bit more time to go there, I think.

So I'm going to take about 15 days off from my honeymoon to go to Australia. Put it in the system. I accept all day-off requests. I don't even check. Thank you, to Australia. Put it in the system. I accept all day off requests. I don't even check. Thank you, boss man. Nice job, knickers. Thank you. Do me.

Do my nickname. Do my nickname. Oh, I need a bit longer to think about. Yours is a bit trickier. It is. I mean, Joshua just doesn't seem. I like Joshua. I call you Joshua sometimes.

Sherry. Joshy. Joshy just sounds diminutive. I'm offended by Joshy. I'm sorry, but I like it. You call me Joshy occasionally. Only Nicole gets to call me Joshie sometimes. Sherry. Joshie. Joshie just sounds diminutive. I'm offended by Joshie. I'm sorry, but I like it. You call me Joshie occasionally. Only Nicole gets to call me Joshie. What's your last name, Josh?

Scherer. It means sheep farmer in German. Does it really? Yeah. Interesting fact. I thought it meant sheep shearer. Yeah, not sheep farmer. I was just the one giving the sheeps the haircut.

So it's literally like to shear a sheep, a shearer. Just call him sheep. We didn't own the farms. We just cut the hairs of the sheep. Have you ever shorn a sheep? No. I really want to. I would love to do that. It's not easy. That'd be a fun activity for me to do. When you and I accept a free

plane trip to Wellington, New Zealand or wherever, and we get offered 60 episodes to shear sheep on like, I mean, it'll be like an extreme makeover challenge thing, except it'll only be for sheep. And inexplicably, it'll be, it'll be like an extreme, you know, a makeover challenge thing, except it'll only be for sheep and inexplicably it's hosted by you and I. Okay,

great. And we can like, uh, dye their fur different colors. Yeah. Oh my God. Like make them look like Lady Gaga. I mean,

Curtis, you got the hookup at, at tons of networks. I mean, we, we need a partner to pitch this with. And so far you're, you're the leading man.

I got you. I got you. Let me, let me make some calls. I have a question for you. Why are shooies something that exists? Shooies? What's a shooie?

You don't know what a shooie is? You've never done a shooie? No. Oh, God. This might be a harmful Australian stereotype that we have. I want to let you know. So I went on a Contiki tour maybe when I was like 24, okay? And I had a bunch of Australian people

on the trip with me and they looked at me and they said, Nicole, by the end of this trip, you're going to do a shooey. And I said, okay, I don't know what that is. And because I'm annoying and very curious, I Wikipedia'd it. And it's basically where you pour a beer

in a shoe and they make you drink it. So this is something that if you've never heard then i don't know what the people on my contiki tour were saying maybe they were just trolling me they might have been from queensland oh i don't know queensland is a bit like our florida so you just never know what's gonna happen you know it's it's an amazing place but they have some strange traditions up there like drinking their beer out of a shoe yeah okay so i was hazed by people from queensland is what you're gonna tell me i had a good friend from queensland from uh from brisbane and uh this all seems to add up to uh to what y'all are talking about okay there seems to be a lot of beer slang

uh and this is something i heard which something that i'm actually fascinated by is beer is more like codified in australia legally based on like how strong it is and what sizes you serve it in. Does that, does that ring a bell? Does that make any sense? It does. Yeah. It's, um, well, we have quite strict drink driving laws back there in Australia. You know, I think in America you can be 0.08 and in Australia you can be 0.05, um, which is like one or two drinks. So, you know, if you're going to drink a full strength beer, um, it's, it's a, you know, it's a dangerous game to play if you, if you're going to drink a full strength beer um it's it's a you know it's a dangerous game to play if you're going to drive your car so they have what we call

light beer or now mid-strength beer they have those too and a light beer actually means that it's much lower octane in terms of you know a normal beer would be point would be 4.6 percent alcohol and a light beer might be 0.5% alcohol. So you can drink half a dozen of those and still drive your car because it's hardly got an alcoholic effect. But here you call a light beer, it's the same strength, which I learned that lesson the hard way. But you're like, I'll have a couple more of those light beers.

And before you know it, you're like, this doesn't feel that light to me because I think the beer here doesn't feel that light to me. Because I think the beer here doesn't really change in its alcohol level, right? So the laws are state by state, which is absolutely crazy. And I think this is a huge problem. I remember taking all these alcohol education classes in college. I went to a big party school. Yeah, UC Santa Barbara, so many kids died every year.

This is about to take a weird turn. But like, no, it was a huge party school that was on the beach by a bunch of cliffs. And so kids would drink and they would fall off the cliffs into the beach and they would die. So we had really strict alcohol education classes. That makes sense. But I remember getting a card that said, how many beers you can have before you reach 0.08? And they were like, this is when you can still drive. Go ahead. Is it three?

Well, it depends on your body composition. So I was a 270-pound athlete at the time. And they were like, yeah, you can have eight beers in two hours and still drive a car. And I was like, no, sir, I cannot. That is bananas. That is bananas. Why would you tell me that? That's crazy.

That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. And so light beer is typically about 4% in America. However, it depends on the state. So the breweries have to reformulate their beers. So like Utah, I think they can't sell anything over like 3.5%. Interesting.

There's that whole scene in the movie SLC Punk where they have to drive across the border to get different. So yeah, everything's state by state. And it's like really not codified. And our drunk driving laws are so strange and lax that i think like codifying in australia is super important and like makes so much more sense especially when you get things like for loco oh yeah i don't want to talk about for a little decorum don't talk about okay okay what what is a slab of beer a slab of beer is a case of beer that has 24 stubbies in it. So a stubby is a 12-ounce can.

A stubby is actually a bottle. It's like a shorter bottle. I'm thinking like a red stripe. Well, a long neck is a 750-milliliter bottle, and a stubby is 375 milliliters. Yeah, red stripes. We would consider that a stubby. Wait, but a long neck is you said it's it's twice that size wait so 500 milliliters i'm trying to do the metric conversion

500 don't ask me anything about it's just over a pint it's about like 17 ounces okay and so then a long neck would be like 20 about 30 almost a liter yeah no i don't know i don't know three quarters of a liter. Three quarters of a liter. The math is hard. Okay, okay. What is a tinny? A tinny is a can.

Okay. How many milliliters is a tinny? 375. Okay, okay, okay. So it's a stubby but in a can. Correct, yeah. Okay, okay. What about, is a coldie just a cold beer?

A coldie is a cold beer, yep. Same as a frothy. And what's a coldie just a cold beer? A coldie is a cold beer, yep. Same as a frothy. And what's a roadie? A roadie is a frothy or a tinny or a stubby that you would take on the road. Okay. Is that legal? Open container. Nowadays, you are not allowed to drink while driving, but you used to be able to, as a

passenger, have a roadie in the car. Now, I don't know whether they've changed that law or not, but when I was a kid, you sure were. When you were a kid, you were just slamming coldies and frothies? Well, no, I wasn't. I just remember the adults in my life leaving a party and taking a roadie. A nice cola. Young Curtis was having a cola.

Okay, we had some other slang to get through. What are bum nuts? I have no idea what a bum nut is What is a bum nut? This seems to be That's like a Like a mean thing to call someone What are the ducks nuts?

If I say the bum nuts Are the ducks nuts The ducks nuts are great I mean if someone says to you Oh that's the ducks nuts That means that's pretty special That's pretty amazing Oh like you are the ducks nuts

Yeah From what I've read Bum nuts Apparently Allegedly Means eggs but that could not be confirmed by many in-person sources and i was trying to figure out the etymology of bum nuts they sound dangerous and where they could come from do people actually eat shrimp on the barbie was my opener correct when i said they were called prawns we call them prawns and we do cook prawns on the barbie. Was my opener correct when I said they were called prawns? We call them prawns and we do cook prawns on the barbie. And of course to us, a barbie or a barbecue is a grill. It's not actually, it's a hot, intense heat that we cook quickly over. So you would definitely cook prawns

on a barbie, but it's not super common, but more and more common. Yeah, we do. We cook prawns on the barbie for sure. But no one would ever call them a shrimp. Stupid knickers. Sorry, I don't know why I said that. Well, I think in America we don't even know what the term barbecue means. What makes you say that? Because we don't. Because we will have a barbecue, right?

Hey, come over to the barbecue. Where I could just be grilling up hot dogs on a propane grill. Well, it's the adjective. What do you mean? adjective barbecue is the adjective you're barbecuing but what does it but what does it mean like like if you have like barbecue sauce grill hot heat but then you go out to eat barbecue if that was cooked on a hot heat grill you'd be pissed off no everybody knows when you're barbecuing at home you know what that means but what if you make an actual slow low and slow barbecue doing that needs my number because i'm

gonna go there but no everybody knows what that means. Who invented avocado toast? And why was it California? Well, I remember having avocado toast when I was just starting to like drive a car and go out and visit mates. And I'm 44 now. And, or am I 45?

I'm 45. I beg your pardon. I just tried to steal a year back i'm 45 and you know when i was 17 or 18 it was it was definitely something it was definitely a thing so i don't know i can't say when it started in california i always sort of felt like it probably kicked off first in oz but you know like we can both invent something together. That's okay. Well, you already have fairy toast. It's fairy bread. Fairy bread, sorry.

Fairy toast, that could be something for the current day. We could do that. Why not? Fairy bread is actually horrible. It's white bread that's been buttered and then has, we call them hundreds and thousands. I think you call them Johnnies? No, you're thinking of Jimmies, but that's an East Coast thing.

We just call them sprinkles. Sprinkles, right. So it's got sprinkles and then sandwiched, and then you cut it into triangles and we give it to kids. I mean, it's child abuse. I can't imagine why that's ever been a thing. I've had it before and I didn't like it either. I don't understand the appeal.

It tastes very plasticine. It's just fake on fake on fake. I grew up spreading canned frosting on white bread and just eating it for snacks because I was left alone in the home. One of my wife's favorites is, you know, you could get invited to a barbecue, but you could also get invited to a sausage sizzle. And a sausage sizzle is... Hey, now. Okay, so you forget about what you're thinking of. This is actually a sausage off the grill on a piece of white bread that's been buttered, and then you put ketchup or tomato sauce on top.

And I've got to tell you, it's really good. It's the opposite of fairy bread. That sounds good. That sounds delicious. What is like the one underrated Australian dish that you want to pitch to Americans? Like imagine you are the head of Australian travel and tourism, which you might be, you're the de facto head of Australian travel and tourism, as far as I'm concerned. What's the one dish that you'd sell to Americans? Well, it's a meat pie. You know, we have that as our staple. And in that family is a thing called

a sausage roll, which is basically ground pork that's been spiced and seasoned. And then you put it in puff pastry, roll and and bake it in the oven and they're both so good and it like that's our hot dog you know that sausage roll or meat pie i actually just opened a pie shop in um beverly hills while maude was closed our little restaurant over the pandemic and watching people come in and try these pies for the first time and uh and seeing them come back like they'd buy them and take them home they'd come back in the next day and be like oh my god that you know and it's like of course we stole that from the british because they've been making pies for centuries but we've sort of put our own little

twist on it and it's it's um it really is something to behold it's delicious man i've been seeing those pies pop up on instagram they look fantastic nicole and i actually the whole reason we invited you here is because we we wanted to hook up for some pies. Because I know they've been selling out. I know the orders are big. Curtis, we need the pie hookup. Okay, you got it. Anytime you want a pie, you just text me and I'll have them ready for you. This is a legally binding contract. Maggie, we got this recorded. It is. We're rolling. We're holding you to that. all right nicole and curtis we've heard 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

that was really good. That was the best one we've done. You haven't been, like, pitchy. What do you mean? I'm flat now. I've had laryngitis for three weeks. I wasn't prepared for American Idol. Okay, okay, first up, we got,

at Rush Over Me, habanero pepper powder in a mimosa makes it a mean-mosa, and it's pretty great. Curtis, how do you feel about habanero mimosas? You know what? That sounds kind of, I don't know if the raw habanero powder would be too aggressive,

but I kind of like the idea of mimosa having a bit of a kick to it. I don't mind it. I think it sounds sexy. Yeah. I think this is a very sexy cocktail. It takes the mimosa up another notch and I would love to do this, but I don't want to touch my eye afterwards. Oh yeah.

Nicole had an unfortunate incident with habaneros a couple weeks ago. It was bad. Yeah. But I'm okay now. It got under the contact. It got under the contact, but now she's fine. I'm fine now.

Yeah, I question the use of it because a habanero powder, I think a lot of people in cooking, they will crap all over garlic powder and say fresh garlic's always better. But it's like, it's just different, right? They give you different taste sensations.

Yes. Ditto with like fresh mint versus dried mint. They're wildly, wildly different. Something like dried habanero powder, to me, takes away a lot of that fresh, beautiful brightness that habaneros have. So putting steeping orange juice and fresh habanero, then hitting that in the mimosa,

that's my Mimosa that I want. I like it. Or you could cut the habanero in half and just rub it around the rim of the glass. So you just get that little tingle. Yeah. Get the little tingle. Mean Mosa.

I like it. Great name. Angry Mosa. This is going to show up on Gwen's brunch patio over the next. We want royalties. JuanDMO6 says Oreos soaked in black tea tastes amazing. Well, Juan, I'm not sure about that because I don't like Oreos to begin,

but maybe the tea. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why is that? I don't know. I mean, I didn't grow up with them. So the first one I had, I was like, for real, this is the cookie that you say that you like? You know, like-

It's America's favorite cookie. Milk's favorite cookie. But America has lovely cookies. They're not one of them. What is your problem with Oreos? Like, specifically. Like, get down to the nitty gritty. I think that there's too much cocoa powder in them for me.

They're too dark. Bitter. Yeah. Yeah, it's almost like it goes beyond chocolate. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah, it's just a cocoa cookie. It's like a black hole.

It's a sablé. Yeah, I mean, they use like... It's called black cocoa? Right. Yeah, it's just a cocoa cookie. It's like a black hole. It's a sablé. Yeah, I mean, they use like, it's called black cocoa, right? Yeah, it is. Because we tried to recreate Oreos from scratch, and you can't get there using any normal amount of chocolate or cocoa powder. You need the black cocoa. You need the black cocoa. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. It's like a black hole. I love Oreos because I grew up eating them. Those are the things that like, if I have a glass of whole milk, ice cold whole milk in Oreos, I will keep eating them. Those are the things that like, if I have a glass of whole milk, ice cold whole milk and Oreos, I will keep eating them until the package is gone. The way that water fills the shape of its container, I drain the shape of Oreo containers,

no matter how many are in there. You know what was that cookie for me? You ever had the Hello Panda chocolate filled candies? That was like my Oreo cookie. That makes sense. I don't know why. Curtis, there's like a big Bicky culture, I believe, would be the term in Australia, right?

What are your favorites? Well, we call cookies bickies or biscuits. And we have a thing called a Tim Tam. Yes, I just pulled it up on the Google. You know, the Google is pointing you in the right direction because they are delicious. And we'll actually bite the end of the Tim Tam off, both ends, and then you'll

drink your tea through it. Yes, I have heard of this before. We're buying Tim Tams, Josh. We're buying Tim Tams. We have to. Forget about the shooey. Do the Tim Tam tea suck. I feel like Oreos would kill.

Tim Tam tea suck. Wait, is that a real term, the Tim Tam tea suck? No, no, I just made that up. It is now. God, that's good. Again, as the head of Australian tourism, Tim Tam tea suck is now the full australian tourism slogan great yeah yeah all right at harry's underscore jabrini thickening oats with protein powder

needs to be a thing huh um okay i've i've never tried that so i don't know do you know what i don't i don't even know what kind of protein powder, like a pea protein powder. Well, it depends. So I call this broatmeal. It's oatmeal for bros. And I have made a lot of broatmeal. And cooking with whey protein powder is deceptively difficult because you almost need to temper it like a custard. Because the protein in whey will actually kind of scramble.

That's interesting. I never thought that. It's protein in heat, right? So it seizes when you're mixing with other things. And so I will occasionally put a scoop of protein powder in my coffee in the morning, but you have to literally temper the protein powder with cold water before adding your hot coffee and then re-heating that back up. Interesting. So similar with broatmeal, you have to let it come to room temp or else it'll scramble the proteins but this isn't like such this isn't a unique thing i think i've seen this like before i knew you like this is a thing that people have done a lot they put i'm not saying i invented it yeah yeah people like put a scoop of protein powder in their

oats a lot it seems like a uniquely american thing is obsessed with protein consumption well not surprised but i don't know okay next up jane abbott 369 says a grilled peanut butter sandwich is much better with tomato soup than grilled cheese huh that's interesting i mean it sounds horrible but when you stop and think about it peanuts can be used in all sorts of cuisines you know like thai curries have peanuts roasted and crushed over the top of them. And you can also put them in a chocolate bar. So, like, peanuts are really quite versatile, big fat content. And it might be quite delicious with the tomato soup. That might make sense.

It reminds me of the tomato peanut soup that your aunt makes. Oh, the West African dish, mafe. Yeah, this takes me to mafe town. Yeah, there's one of my favorite dishes in the world. My aunt Hawa is from Senegal, and she makes this. We grew up just knowing it as peanut sauce. I believe it's called mafe across a lot of West African countries. And it's a lot of aromatics, tomato paste, typically made with beef, onions, all that stuff.

And then a ton of peanut butter. And then their version of like, it's called like Maggie sauce, which sauce which is you know like the kind of browning sauce in there and it's just this savory you know tomato meat peanut butter dish and i mean you're kind of getting halfway there with this peanut butter sandwich dipped in tomato soup but is grilled cheese and tomato soup a phenomenon in australia or is that uniquely american i think that's uniquely american yeah god bless the campbell's corporation all right at chris nicole 29 here we go love this one microwaving ice cream is necessary to obtain perfect consistency but not so that it's soupy huh um okay yeah look i would just leave it out of the freezer for a couple of

minutes before who has that kind of time chris who has that kind of time not me not this lady if you're too i like to microwave it do you yeah well it does soften it up and it does you know ice cream is very important to get the texture right so freshly churned ice cream is always it's when it's at its absolute best you know because yeah but yeah that's that makes sense i get in fights with my girlfriend this is what i use this podcast for it's to air out my dirty laundry with my beautiful girlfriend julia who i live with um but she prefers her ice cream super super hard which to me is like it's flat out wrong to eat it at that that like hurts my like teeth back here but then i put it in the microwave to soften it up and she insists that it doesn't freeze right when you put it back in which i think is probably true if it's

probably true and then i'm constantly melting and then unmelting and then freezing. So what I do is I just give her first go at the pint. That's nice of you. And then let her enjoy for 10 minutes. And then I swoop in and I eat her leftovers while it's soft. You are a man that understands compromise. That's called compromise. Okay.

Well done. Allison Nicole Francis says IHOP tastes better between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Proven fact. Curtis, are you a fan of the IHOP? I can't say I've eaten there and I'm trying to figure out why it tastes better. I mean, the only logical reason to me is because you've drunk too many stubbies and then you go into the IHOP at those times and everything tastes better after a couple of drinks. Too many is a relative term.

But it's like, you know how Taco Bell tastes better after midnight? Yeah. You can't eat Taco Bell in the light of day. Yeah. Yeah, you can, but why would you? Exactly. It's like McDonald's. You have to have it in the morning.

You can't have it in the afternoon. Why would you do that to yourself? You know what I mean? I understand. There are certain times where you eat things and they taste better. The cover of night shields your shame. Maybe that's it. You know what I mean? I understand. There are certain times where you eat things and they taste better. The cover of night shields your shame. Maybe that's it. Yeah. I enjoyed my birthday for four straight years at the IHOP. And this is after I'd already gotten into food and I had, you know, kind of developed some sort of a palate, I suppose.

But what I love about IHOP is they provide a very unique mix of foods where you can get jalapeno poppers, chicken strips, New York cheesecake, pancakes, and a chicken fried steak, all with an expired Corona light. They have beer at IHOP? At the one in Santa Barbara, they did have beer. They did have beer. And I respect that very much. Well, you know, guys, I just did this show, Crime Scene Kitchen, where Yolanda and I would

eat literally six pieces of cake or six desserts in a row. And we would often talk about like, is it fair, you know, whoever comes up first, when you're really hungry in that first bite of cake tastes amazing as opposed to the last bite. And I do think you need to have a certain level of professionalism where you're still, you know, taking all of those factors out of it. So I think it's got more to do with hunger. You know, if she's saying that IHOP tastes better in the middle of the night, I really do think it's got more to do with hunger because I would think the opposite were true in terms of,

well, here's the thing. If they're not busy during those hours, maybe the cooks in the back have got just a little bit more time to put their love and attention to detail on every last dollop of whipped cream. I disagree with that assertion. I think you need to go to a high volume IHOP because I think the less time you have, the faster they're cooking with intuition. And that's what I want. So you think it's better to cook with intuition than it is to cook with time and attention?

Yeah, for short order, for slinging eggs and hash. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to be going fast. I and hash. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You got to be going fast. I don't trust low volume restaurants for that reason. Interesting. Yeah. Okay.

We got the last one, Josh. Take it away. I love this. This is at a lip. Replace all water with pho broth and life would be at its peak. With what? Pho. Oh, okay.

Vietnamese noodle soup. Can I just tell you a little story? There was a noodle shop in Beverly Hills and it was called Beverly Hills 9021 PHO. I used to live in Beverly Hills

and I used to work in Beverly Hills and I know exactly what you're talking about. Continue. Every time I drive past it, I want to walk in and say, it's not pronounced pho. It's pronounced pho. But anyway, they named their restaurant that way. I don't physically know how to pronounce the restaurant.

Is it 9021 Pho or 9021 Pho? I used to say 9021 Pho. Yeah? I guess you got it. Anyway, look, I agree. Pho is one of my favorite things in the world to eat. It's so delicious. And I don't know if I of my favorite things in the world to eat. It's so delicious.

And I don't know if I'd replace water with it because- Me either. You know, that's an extreme way to go, but it really is delicious. I mean, I don't know if I'm going to replace all water with it, but putting a bunch of ice in a big gulp cup with a straw and then putting pho broth in that and just trying it out throughout a day. Let's try it. Just trying it out. Just sip on a half gallon of that throughout the day and to me it seems like a good way to start no why i don't want it cold i don't why are you shutting

me down i would just enjoy it in a nice warm 16 ounce koozie that was called koozie right i think so yeah take a roadie of uh yeah that's the way to do it also curtis man tell us about crime scene kitchen i meant to bring it up naturally throughout the podcast, and I didn't, but I am really excited to see the show because it is, I mean, honestly, it's a heck of a concept. It's so much fun. And you've got a YouTuber in it as well, right? We sure do.

Well, Yolanda is, she's so talented, and she's got millions of YouTube, are they followers, friends, subscribers? I don't know. We call them friends. We call them family here. That's right. They're friends, and they're don't know. We call them friends. We call them family here. That's right. They're friends and they're all of that. But she's incredible.

She's an amazing cake decorator. But the concept of the show is the contestants don't know what they have to bake, right? So we have these bakers and they walk into what we call the crime scene kitchen and they have to try and figure out exactly what happened in there. So there's clues, culinary clues, that lead them down a path. So then they run back to their kitchens, they work in teams of two, and they all start baking. Sometimes they all bake the same thing.

Sometimes they go off in totally different tangents. And then, of course, we show them what they were supposed to make and there's jubilation and distress all at the same time. And then, of course, Yolanda and I taste everyone's dessert and tell them what they did right and what they did wrong. And somebody goes home each week. And then at the end of it all, there's a team of victorious bakers that make themselves a cool hundred grand.

Dope. Really fun. Are you done with casting or can Nicole and I throw our hats in there? Well, listen, if it goes well tonight, there'll be a season two real soon. So go ahead and submit. We'd love to have you. Curtis, we're just going to exploit this relationship because we already got you on the record

saying that we're cast members on season two and you're at least going to give us a coupon for two free meat pies. No, no, I never said they were free. Yeah, I was talking about, see, you're overextending yourself. You can't do that to a guest. You've got to ease into it a little bit.

Say 30% off. I'll tell you what. You take me to IHOP and get me an Oreo soaked in tea, and I'll give you a free pay. Sold! And on that note, thank you so much for listening to Hot Dogs as a Sandwich, and thank you so much, Curtis, for being an amazing guest. Curtis, other than Crime Seat Kitchen, you got anything else going on you want to plug? Oh, God, I've got a million things going on. You know, we're reopening Gwen, which

we're very excited about. And Maud's going to turn back into a restaurant at some point, you know, once we get back to full occupancy in restaurants. So that's keeping me busy. But yeah, no, it's all fun. All gravy, as we say in Australia. Tying it back into the Aussie slang. All right, and if you want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we've 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 MythicalChef or nhendizadeh with the hashtag OpinionCasserole.

And, of course, if you want to share pictures of your dishes, hit us up on Instagram at Mythical Kitchen. We will all see you next time. Thanks again, Curtis. Bye, Curtis. Thanks again. Thanks for having me, guys. That was fun. you you