Doughboys - Bonchon Chicken with Ed Zitron

Episode Date: August 13, 2020

Ed Zitron (EZPR) joins the ‘boys to talk about Las Vegas eats and South Korean-founded chain Bonchon Chicken. Plus, another edition of Pie In This Guy.  Sources for this week's intro:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/world/asia/korean-war-history.html https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/korea-the-korean-war/  https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/dining/07fried.html http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160527000733 https://www.todayonline.com/world/other-kfc-how-korean-fried-chicken-became-huge-hit-south-korea-and-then-worldhttps://foodworthwritingfor.com/2020/03/06/the-history-of-korean-fried-chicken-the-other-kfc/ https://bonchon.com/our-story/Advertise on Doughboys via Gumball.fm.Want more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Forgotten War. This is how American media refers to the Korean War, a conflict between North and South Korea fueled and funded by communist Chinese and capitalist American military might that took place between 1950 and 1953. It's an unfortunately accurate characterization of how the wars perceived stateside, despite it resulting in the deaths of at least 1.75 million Koreans, a large portion of whom were civilians. In fact, the Korean War might have been fully memory-hold if not for one lingering after-effect, an American military presence in South Korea that continues to this day, ostensibly to protect the country from its neighbor to the north, the totalitarian state ruled by cherubic

basketball enthusiast Kim Jong-un. And it's that presence in South Korea that led to the creation of a dish now beloved the world over, Korean-style fried chicken. During and after the war, American service members deployed in Korea introduced fried chicken, their national dish by way of Scotland and West Africa, to the local population who more commonly cooked chicken and soups. While high post-war food prices put the dish out of reach for many, by the 1970s a booming economy cratered domestic cooking oil and chicken prices, leading to the explosion of a distinct Korean variant of the breaded bird, usually double-fried and sauced. In 1977, Yoo Si-ok Ho, a Korean national

who'd spent time in the U.S., founded Lim's Fried Chicken in Seoul, the first of what would be many competing standalone and chain restaurants serving the dish, often accompanied by pickled radish and beer. Not even the arrival of American Sector Kingpin KFC in 1984 could stem the tide of Korean fried chicken's prominence on the peninsula. In 2002, restaurateur Jin Duck Seo founded a Korean fried chicken outlet in Busan, which in short order expanded across South Korea, Asia, and ultimately North America, with its first U.S. outlet opening in New Jersey in 2007. Today, with over 300 locations worldwide, this deep-fried poultry eatery whose name translates to My Hometown has seemingly come to everyone's hometown. This week on

Doe Boys, Bunch on Chicken. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, nap king Cole, the Spoonman Mike Mitchell. That's not even that, I mean, that's not really, doesn't hurt my feelings, Ellen. I like that angle, though. People don't talk enough about you being someone who takes a lot of naps, being asleep together. I don't take a lot of naps. I think you're pretty nap, I think you're pretty nap prone. Okay, sure. I've been on the road with you. Oh yeah, no, you're sick of them making fun of my weight. You want them to move on to something else about me. That's cool. That was

courtesy of Forrest. Love the show, have been a fan since birthday boy days. Hope you guys are staying safe. Wow. RoseSpoonMan at gmail.com. That's specifically me. That's not you, Wags. I was in an episode. All right, fair enough. I was gonna say, don't pretend that you were one of, you would blend in perfectly with the 17 boring white men that we were. Mitch, we have discussed the This Week's Chain a little bit on text, and I just, I feel like I want to give a disclaimer for our listeners that there's a hot take alert. I want to give people a hot take warning because you gave just a searing take. That's true. Just a scorcher of a take. I did. That I was, I almost dropped my phone when I read it, and it'll be coming in the second half

of this episode when we get into the This Week's Chain Bonchon. What'd you almost drop it into? Right into the toilet? Like I was, I was standing over the toilet urinating. Jacking off. Oh, no, I'm not a fucking animal. Fucking shooting ropes directly into the bowl. It's disgusting. Jesus. You made it even, I mean, you didn't have to say shooting ropes into the toilet. All right, I'm sorry. What do you think goes on there? That's what you're implying. Wags. Yes. Oh wait, I shouldn't say this because, you know, I'll talk about a different thing. Because we're going to save it for a double, something that I, something I sent you. Something that I sent you. Little tease for an upcoming Doe Boyz double.

All right, good. I didn't know if that you even knew what I was talking about for God's I don't, but I got, I got, Wags, I got some, I got sent something. Yes. I got sent two things this week and I'll quickly, I'll just quickly talk about them. One was a mystery letter that we didn't understand what it was and it seemed like some sort of threat. Yes. And then it was, it was like a weird coded thing where each letter, the start of a sentence was highlighted. And we were trying to figure it out. The Doe's Court figured out it was from this, these people, Hockamock Press. And, but we thought that someone was basically threatening my life when we first read it. Yes. Yeah, it did look like something that was, that came from a serial killer.

I thought it was from you, honestly. I really did. I thought, I mean, but, but I thought it was like a joke. Right. But kind of sad that it wasn't, wasn't a person that was trying to get me. You're disappointed by that. It was just, it was just kind of a, it was a publicity thing. You know what I mean? Right. And then also I got the, the, the male woman came by, she gave me a bag and she said, this package came damaged. She gave me a bag that was basically just a bag and a plastic bag, like a bag of soup. Like a, like just like a, like a Ziploc bag. It was, it was in like a plastic bag. It was just soup. And it says, so here's this letter. Doe Boys July, from July, 2020.

I love the podcast. I've listened the whole quarantine. Thanks for all the laughs. I'm sending you my favorite salsa from a small business in Brooklyn. And these CVS brand theater mix gummies that I think are so much fun. Take care and joy. Stay safe. Hashtag Nangang, hashtag Spoon Nation Kim. I got sent some relish, like some red relish salsa. And it was, it was just destroyed in a bag. It was a bag of goop I got. You can ship, this is what I'm confused by. You can ship salsa across the country in a bag? No, it got damaged. It was like in an envelope. Oh, okay. I was so confused. It was in a padded envelope. So it was like a jar. It was a jar. It was a jar. Yeah, but the jar was smashed,

but I saved the gummies. I'm going to eat the gummies myself. Why? Because you don't get any gummies. I got a bag of salsa. The male woman basically just handed me a bag of salsa. It was fucking nasty. She probably just didn't bat an eye. As far as stuff that's, I'm sure a number of food stuffs have been delivered in bags to your apartment. I will say that I just ate with chips. I just ate it right out of the bag. Anyway, it's out of Spoon Nation. We're going to get to our guests, but here's a little drop. There's a running current on this show that Liger might be horrible at a fire. I mean, it's fun to kiss kids.

Well, that's that, Nick. Could you hear it? It sounded like it was playing on a TV across the street, but I could kind of make out a Mario sound at the end. Well, for our listeners, there's been an issue. Emma is gone. We've lost Emma. She's the host of our Zoom, and she's gone. She heard that salsa bag thing. She's like, I'm fucking out of here. I couldn't share the screen for Nick and our guest to hear, but Nick, you'll listen to it later, I'm sure. I'll send you a link. It was another Oonga Watchka thing, and then I made fun of you for being a pedophile. I mean, it's classic stuff. Classic stuff. Hey, guys, this is my first time making a drop. I'm curious

why there isn't an Applebee's episode. Also, Super Mario Odyssey is better than Breath of the Wild. Kyle McDonald. That's from Kyle. Thanks, Kyle. Good drop. A hot take, Kyle. Not as hot as Mitch's take coming in the second half of this show. Geez, you're really building up my take. It's a hot take. And, hey, we got a hot guest. He's the CEO of EasyPR, appearing on the show for the first time. Ed Zittron. Hi, Ed. Hey, Dewin. I really want to hear this hot take. Is it about the food? Is it about the ownership of Bonchon? There's a lot going on. It's like a Ghislaine Maxwell joint. Ghislaine Maxwell owns Bonchon. It's just completely off the rails immediately.

I think Epstein is alive and cooking chicken in the Bonchon kitchen. Wow. No, I, Nick, I won't say, I'm not going to say it now, obviously, but. Yes. I will say that it has a bunch of caveats to it, I feel. I mean, I'm standing by what I said to you. Yes. I'm interested to hear it. All this lead up. This better be bloody good. Yeah. It's not. Ed, he fucked up really bad. No, it's not that good. It's not that good. Ed, thank you for being here. I realize as Mitch was talking, because you are a PR professional, and Mitch was talking about what ended up being a PR debacle. I don't know if you saw this, I assume you have, where they had mailed out to a bunch of different, I guess, influencers, and Mitch is counted among them somehow, a weird coded message

that people took as Mitch did as a threat, and it was to promote some upcoming book. Yeah. That's great, though. The best thing to do with the media, I find is to make them scared or upset. People love that. Right. I had no problem with it. Other people were, seem to be terrified, but I. You enjoy bag salsa. Yeah, you already have a death wish. It's like, you just like, you know what, this red substance that I just received. Ed. It's probably not poisoned. Ed, don't knock it till you try it, my friend. You got to try some bag salsa yourself. I would try it with the full intention of dying. Well, I think that's kind of what I, you know, like, if I opened my door and there was someone there to kill me, I think I would probably say,

like, it's about time. Let's do this. Can I take a piss first? Right. Much like Matt Damon at the end of the departed. Yes. A lot like Damon. He just sort of like, okay, he just sort of accepts it. You know what's coming. That's a great moment. You're Boston colleague. Yes, we're colleagues. We're Boston colleagues. You know, it's funny. We don't talk ever. Me and Damon and like, me and all the Boston guys, we never talk. Really, the three of you don't ever hang out? He's probably intimidated. Yeah. Hey, speaking of cities, Ed, you are living in Vegas right now. Wow. And I am. You've been there for a bit. I'm curious because it seems like Vegas has really, I mean, it's, as everyone knows, this is obvious that it's so it's super reliant on tourism. And I'm curious

what it's like being there during a lockdown during this current COVID crisis. So a lot of the people here, well, I don't know one Vegas local who actually goes to the casinos in general. Like for the most part, people here stay home. They're all like weird shut-ins like me at one of Matt, which is great. But there is a, it is no weirder than California felt. So it was in California first. Well, it's California before this at least. People here were just kind of like every moment the casinos opened, everyone went, they're going to close immediately. This is a stupid idea. Let's close them down again. And then everyone working at the casinos basically went, well, guess I'll die then. This is like, off I go. Jesus. Right.

Everyone's pulling Matt Damon's. It's the new thing. Yes. You realize this country is never going to get its act together where, yeah, we're just going to Matt Damon our way to the end. I had, the footage I saw early on of Vegas reopening and then just like swarms of people going into the casinos was nightmarish. And I guess they've, they've ratcheted things back a little bit where now everyone has, you have to have a mask to go to any of these places. But it still seems just like, like just breathing in recirculated air while you're gambling for hours just seems like such an awful place to be. Well, I moved months ago and I've not been to a casino yet. Wow. Because I'm really attached to not dying painfully and killing all my family. And

basically no one I know has gone either. I had a friend that he brought his kid with his kid went to the, the strip and I found that out yesterday. This was a month ago they visited and I immediately got on the phone and said some deeply unkind words to him. Wow. Wow. Because I was not informed. My wife intentionally did not tell me knowing exactly what I would say and do and to her credit she was 100% correct. But wow. For the most part, I felt no great need because the thing that people don't realize about Vegas is it's incredibly residential. There is a lot of housing. There are a lot of things to do that are not related to the casinos. I've been near the strip because I wanted to go and look at the Radar Stadium because I have season tickets. And for some reason they

won't let me in. Keep arresting me when I go inside. I am the coach but they won't believe me. Wow. Wow. It's just ridiculous. Honestly, if I find John Gruden and just buy him like a few quarts of milk, I think he'll let me have a go. But I think the, but it's really interesting because traffic is fairly, we're still getting traffic. People are still out and about. And for the most part, I haven't seen anyone without a mask. Everyone is masking up. Everyone is taking it fairly safely. And from what I understand, the casinos are all demanding masks. They have mask stations. And the big difference is with Vegas and everyone else is you've seen all these horrible things. Those people wearing like Nazi, Nazi regalia as a mask or screaming. Vegas is used

to people being insane because people lose money. People lose money. They start screaming and threatening you. Someone being like, I ain't wearing a mask. You know, those like, fine, get the fuck off my property then. Oh, you want to fight? Great. Cool. I will kick you out the door. Right. They used to it. And from what I understand, they should never have opened at all. Everyone should still be closed and they are still open somehow. But it's actually quite hard to gauge residentially the effect of tourism because these two things are quite separated. People, well, at least I visited Vegas a lot in the last 10 years or so. I've been in America 12 years, and I've been quite a lot. And you don't really go into the residential area. So

it's not like even when the protests have been happening, they've been happening in downtown Vegas and on the strip, I've not seen them. I've not heard them. Right. Like every, it's weird how Vegas that the rest of the world knows is so separated from the Vegas that I know. And that's just because I live there. It's a small stretch, like the actual, you know, it's a pretty compact area where all the casinos are. You're right. And then there's, you know, like the sprawling suburbs, like much of America, it's just, you know, the greater metropolitan areas is so large. But it is, the thing I'll say, because I visited Vegas, I actually like Vegas a lot. But part of what I like about Vegas is it's a really good food city. And I don't just mean like the fancy

ass restaurants inside the casinos, the white tablecloth joints from a celebrity chefs. But there are some good ones there. But there are like, you'll go off strip like 15 minutes to a strip mall and there'll be a Thai restaurant that'll have like mind blowing food. Is there any, any Vegas eats in particular or any places that you particularly like? I mean, there are a bunch of local Chinese places I've tried that I do not remember the name of because I keep them all on DoorDash and I'm a piece of shit and I really shouldn't use DoorDash. But I also, yeah, I tip very well and I'm very sorry. But one thing I found is the, there is just, I'm a chain person. I'm not going to pretend like I'm fancy. I'm British.

Every American chain is better than every Michelin star restaurant in England. Wow. Wow. Now that's a hot take. That's a hot take. That's the hottest take. That's way hotter than my take. I know someone's going to be really upset about that. Someone's going to. And the answer is I moved thousands of miles to get away from London. I don't care. But in all seriousness, there's like every chain there's a grimoldies. Yeah, just in Vegas specifically. Yeah. And everyone delivers and everything here is around 20 minutes away. What's, what's your favorite? What's your favorite thing to get at the, at a Vegas buffet? Do you got a thing? You got a choice for a Vegas buffet? It depends what I've been doing. If I've,

if I've been drinking heavily, it's straight to the pizzas. Breakfast pizza time. That's a good call. Breakfast pizzas. As in like it's not special pizza. It's just I'm eating pizza at 9.30 a.m. If they have it. Some of them do. They used to be this truly, maybe it still exists, truly gluttonous thing. You could pay like 50 bucks for the buffet of buffets. You could eat at like five or six different buffets either all day or for like half the day. And I used to, yeah, I used to eat way too much. And that was part of it. I would say, I usually always test the waters with the, the sushi. I'm yet to get sick. Knock on wood. People like, like sushi people will do crab, there's a lot of different things. Me,

I go straight for the bags also when I'm there. You got any, you got any sauce in a bag? I see you got plastic. Am I bagging that off me? The guy's just like, I don't, sorry, sir. It's Vegas. They'll do it. They'll do it for you. I've got the ziplocks in the back. It's a gold member. Get them the gallon ones. Ed, you, now living in Vegas during Corona, it does seem, it does seem nerve-wracking, but on top of that, do you ever live in fear because of the movie Mars Attacks? Takes place in Vegas. Great question.

As I've established, I pray for death. So, and, and bug-eyed, balding white, white creatures that I dislike. I've moved away from England. But no, I, with Vegas, mostly I fear falling into some sort of deal that with someone who turns out to be Satan himself and having to risk my life in a game of Jhans. That's my biggest worry. Yeah. I guess that's maybe above the Mars Attacks fears. When you, when you go to Vegas, the things that you should fear most, I guess, is getting into a deal with the devil. Yeah, because you're not necessarily going to lose your eternal soul if you are, you know, evaporated by some sort of alien ray. Yeah, you may still go to hell, probably for me,

or heaven. Yeah, so I guess top three fears just to get them out of there. Gambling with the devil, one. Mars Attacks, two. Nuke. Nuke's up there. Oh, Nuke. Yes, yes, yes. Somehow, like the Nevada testing site decides to shoot one upwards. I don't know how that would happen versus downwards. That's three. Even though it's shut down. Yeah, that's three. That's three. Four is getting trapped on a roof the day before.

Yeah. Or for your bachelor party, I guess. That's rough. And, you know, hopefully. Oh, I just thought you meant like dehydrating up there. That's what almost happened to Bartha. He was sunscorched. Oh, God. He was parched. Poor Bartha. I'd like to see, they should do, I'd like to see the hangover guide in where we just get to see Bartha's side of the story.

Wow. Like two hours just on the rooftop, just one setting. Just a performance piece for him. It'd be like a Gus Van Sant thing. We'll just sort of like, you know, just alone time with Bartha as he's trying to survive. You know what it'll be like? It's going to be directed by Gus Van Sant. Yes, yes. I'm recruiting him. Here's what I want. I want an Ocean's 11 or 12 or 13 sequel, where it's just Don Cheadle doing different other accents.

After he just completely ruined the British one. He's just doing like a bunch of other, or he's just playing every other character. Wiger, it's just, God, he's accent. I watched all of those movies before moving and I was like, this is so good. And then Ren and he's like, you're all mine. We thought that was, Americans probably thought that he just was British. This British guy sounds weird. And what's crazy is there are so many good British actors they could have gone.

It's not like the movie was cheap. Yeah, it's, I think that is though. I think that is that cartoon is what a lot of Americans think British people sound like. And it is always fascinating when someone like completely butchers a British or conversely like an American accent, you'll see that a lot. You'll, you'll, you'll run into the guy who's like the esteemed British actor gets cast as like, I am a Brooklyn guy. Hello there.

It's me. It's me, America man. Have you seen Tom Brady? That's pretty good. Yeah, I always get asked to do an American accent the moment that happens. I just can't. And even that was like, I can't do an American accent anyway. But the moment they try, they like, go on, do one.

I'm just like, I, I'm in America. Now I can't do it. I bring just shuts down. Wags quickly to get back, to get back to Gus Bay and St. Wags. Yes. Did, did you, did you find, did you find his movie Elephant to be factually accurate? All right. Hey, and I did want to, I did want to return to Vegas being kind of the ultimate chain restaurant.

You didn't like it. Just right by him. I, I'm not an authority on, I'm not an authority on mass occurring your fellow students at a high school. So I can't speak to its accuracy, Mitch. Well. Now, now, Ed, you brought up Tom Brady too. And Nick, we're going to get your question just one second.

But I got to say, I don't know if the NFL season is going to happen, Nick. A lot of opt-outs are happening. I don't think, I feel like it's just not going to happen. Aaron Hernandez, he opted out. Yes. Sorry. He's self, he's self Matt Damon DeWile backed. Dear Lord.

No, I actually have Raiders season tickets. So I'm like, I'm watching the season get cut down. It's not going to happen. I don't think it's going to. I feel like it's not going to happen. And then Brady's whole choice is just a year, a year, a year gone. So were you a Raiders fan prior to the Vegas move? I was.

I've always loved shit teams or mediocre teams other than Washington or just find despicable. I've always enjoyed kind of mediocrity. Right. I guess it's the British in me. I've always been like, I really wanted like Ghana Minshu to do well just because he is, he looks and sounds and is Florida. And I wanted the Raider.

I want the Raiders to do well now because the owner looks like Tweedledee or Tweedledum. And this is a Nokia 30 to 10. And he's just the opposite of honestly, even like a middle class guy. He doesn't look like any, he just looks, he looks like someone who lives in Vegas buffets. Yeah, Al Davis is like he'd be walking around with one of those like, like four foot long drinks, those four foot tall drinks that you get with a giant crazy straw. Or like a big lollipop.

So it's Mark Davis, right? That's Al Davis's son. That's the owner. And yeah, he has this. If you don't follow the NFL, he has, which I don't, but he, but I am aware of him. He has a, he has like this bowl cut and he apparently famously flies, I think, to Sacramento, to his barber to get that exact same shitty haircut. He is like, he is like the, he is the, like the ultimate fail son, I feel like.

But at that level, you just, you're just our, it doesn't matter. It's so much more charming than guys who have been given spurious jobs at hedge funds or right, or think, think tanks that churn out 90 different papers a year about why four year olds need a handgun. Right. Yeah. Give me a, give me a Mark Davis over a Robert Sarver any day of the week. Oh yeah. Here's some, he's showing, Mitch just screen shared photos of the late Al Davis, the former Raiders owner. This is Emperor Snoke.

Yeah. This, this is really, this is a failed Snoke clone for sure. He does look like a failed Snoke clone. I don't want to, I don't mean to speak ill of it. You will fail to be Antonio. He was dead before that. Sorry. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but the, this is the first image in his Google search. It's the first one that comes up. Looks gnarly. He's one of those, you compare him to like, as far as decaying octogenarians go,

it's like him versus Sumner Redstone versus who's the other, who's the fucking Vegas mogul? Oh God. Not Stingwin. Total piece of shit. Well, Stingwin looks pretty awful. Stingwin, both was and is awful, sadly alive. Yeah, I know. Yeah. That's a, you know, it's a rare, it's a rare instance when someone actually, someone that rich and terrible actually suffers any consequences at all. I think that's why people are so gratified by like the Harvey Weinstein thing.

And he's not suffering enough. Yeah, it's true. There are so many ways he could suffer more. Just come up with a new one every week, have a, have a competition for it. Give away his money to people for the good ideas. Make wagers. So it's time to do the convention. Make wagers sell me.

God. What would he do? Yeah, what would I do? Just annoy him. Yeah, pretty much. I think I'm a pleasant conversationalist. It's just a really awkward Doe Boys episode. Yeah.

Yeah, people would walk by and be like, Hey, the Doe Boys are locked up together. I said, you know, I set myself up for that one. I'll think of that monster I'm thinking of later in the episode and it'll just. I'll tell you a monitor on. Was that the question that I interrupted before? Was you going to ask him what his other favorite sports teams are? I felt like you were saying something different.

Oh, did I like the Raiders? Yeah, I was asking about the Raiders prior to relocating to Vegas, but earlier I just I did want to talk about Vegas as the ultimate chain restaurant hub, because this is the thing you and I talked about before Ed. And it's a like you mentioned there's a grimoire, but they have literally everything. And I've thought about just like for practical purposes in terms of doing this shitty podcast, it's like the best possible place you could live because there will be a place that has, you know, like a Chicago area chain that has, you know,

20 outlets in Illinois and then one in Vegas. And that's it. That's the that's their only one out of there. They don't have what a burger that I'm surprised by Ed. It's they didn't have Shake Shack until fairly recently, which they have now and I love. And I think that they'll probably get a what a burger eventually, because my theory with Vegas is maybe it won't be this your next year. But I think you're going to see a lot of California people jump here, because it's better weather, better housing, cheaper cost of living,

less people from California. I mean, what else could you ask for better weather? I'm surprised by it's like 50 percent humidity where I was in NorCal. Wow. And and everyone's like, oh, it's too hot there. Almost everywhere I've been has shade and or AC. Right. Everywhere has AC, pretty much.

And it's not like California's weather is reliable or necessarily nice all the time. It's very good, depending on where you are. It's just I love Vegas, whether it's always sunny. Yes, a bit hot, but quite like that. It's like the erotic dream for any British person. Everyone has a pool. It's always hot and sunny. You can get food and it's affordable.

No British people. It's all you could ask for, except me, I guess. I don't I don't love Vegas. In fact, I kind of was rooting for the I was rooting for the Martians and Mars attacks, Nick. I wanted them to take down Vegas. I guess that was the world, too. I compare that to being like living here now and having been here for a few months.

I compare it all the script to almost being like living in Oakland or Alameda and not liking San Francisco. The strip is so removed from everything and it really like you can if you were teleported here from California and not told where you were, you wouldn't necessarily think Vegas. You might think Arizona. You might even think like Southern California because the residential areas are so removed. And I think it's by design.

I don't think they wanted to be on top of the strip. I don't think anyone wants that. You can see the light from the Luxor and that's about it. And maybe maybe I'll change on that in a few months or a few years. I don't know. But it is you're removed from it all. Yeah. It's kind of like judging all of New Orleans by Bourbon Street or all of Los Angeles by

Hollywood Boulevard, the Hollywood Walk of Fame or all of New York City by Times Square. It's like, yes, there is this central sort of, you know, tourism hub, but it doesn't define the city. There's a lot more going on than that. You know what actually the worst one of those we've been to was Broadway in Kentucky in the fucking, or Nashville in Nashville. That's what it was. Yeah.

Nashville, Tennessee, Broadway. That was so fucking gnarly. Just like it was like a worse Bourbon Street. People were so drunk and so mad. Sounds like the epicenter in Charlotte. Oh, what is that? Like the middle of Charlotte. Oh, it sucks.

It's like, imagine if Vegas had no gambling, it was more expensive, was in that climate, that horrible like humid. I used to live in North Carolina. Bojangles is about the only good thing. It's and it's just this big, loud, garish shopping center with like really hard to get around streets and then just the city feels incomplete somehow. Right. Every city, every major city has one of those, has just that obnoxious like commercial district

where no one who lives there wants to ever go. But that's the thing with Vegas is they've separated it out and then they have other commercial districts that are clearly like, look, you want normal shopping? We got this. Just go here. You're normal. Right. If you want the weird thing we got it, you can't miss it.

I just want to say that I'm still mad that you compare me to Harvey Weinstein, but I wanted to say that also. Why did you not do that? Oh, no, no, no, I'm saying, I'm saying to Nick, Nick. Oh, okay. But I'm also saying that you missed a joke opportunity that you could have said that he was more hung than I was. Oh, there you go with his famously mangled genitals.

Someone says like they looks like they dumped bleach on them. He's got some condition where basically he doesn't have like a dick. He's just got like a scrotum. It's fucking. Yeah, it's really gross. He is a monster. He's a literal monster, but the detail about it that really that sickened me more than his fucked up junk is just he has like all these blackheads on his back

and every multiple witness witnesses described just like these clusters of like in some cases like dime sized blackheads and his back was like hard like a turtle shell. Oh, cool. This is fucking disgusting. Cool. This is the guy you compared me to your piece of shit. It's nauseating. It's so gross.

What pivoting from that to back to chain restaurants. So you mentioned you mentioned Bojangles, which is a fried chicken place. I've actually never been to but famed and famed in the in the south. And we're reviewing a fried chicken chain this week. I'm curious about your fried chicken preferences and also where does fried chicken rank in your tiers of in your in your in your like indulgent food hierarchy. It's really really good fried chicken is near the top. I read like Joe.

I agree. Jollibee. Jollibee I have to be in the mood for because it's a certain kind of greasy. Like I need it to be like a really intense workout day so I don't feel too bad. Not the fried chicken is ever good for you. But Jollibee has a particular squidge to it. I guess you'd call it. Yeah.

And you make you make a great point about the the types of greasy. Yeah. Um, which I feel like I could be like a like a grease. Is it Somalia? The same thing with grease Somalia. Just just just in that sort of thing of we I mean we even just noticed at this last in the last couple of weeks. Why is that thing of Albertson's fried chicken and that the greasiness of that compared to

the greasiness of the Ralph's fried chicken like 100 percent. It's huge. Grease is huge. Grease makes a huge difference. And I know exactly what you're talking about with Jollibees just immediately like right away. I could I know exactly what it makes you kind of tired. It is exhausting. Yeah.

And but it's still good when you're in the mood. And it reminds me of the greasiest fried chicken I've ever had, which was for if they do like whole chicken legs. It's mixed fish bar on North Pole Road in London. I grew up on Bracewell Road, I believe. Go there now if it's still open. No idea. I'm never going to find out.

And they used to do like that was like the skin would just slip off. Wow. Yeah. Not not good for you. I used to be a very heavy child, putting the pieces together in that local umbo now. But my favorite fried chicken place is actually in Vegas. It's a place called Yardbird. OK.

Oh yeah. I don't know if it's a chain or if it's just like a local thing, but it's really good. It's in the Venetian. I love that place. It's just the right level of grease. Is that is that is that is that from a celebrity chef? I don't know.

I assume everything in there is. Yeah. I might be wrong. But Yardbird is very good. I really like raising canes is OK. I wasn't like super blown away by it. And we'll get to I assume we're going to get to Bon John later. But I'm trying to think of other like KFC is just like I especially here.

I have so many other options. Right. Yeah. And bottom of the barrel is Black Bear Diner. Wow. Shots fired at Black Bear Diner. No, they're fried chicken. They're fried chicken specifically.

Yeah. That's one of those things where I feel like the places sometimes just have it on their menu. But it's specialty. And that's just like stay away. There's there's no reason to get fried chicken in that place. Ed, you don't like raising canes, you said? It's OK.

The chicken tenders are pretty good. But again, when I have all these other options, it becomes much harder to be like, oh, yeah, let's get raising canes. Yeah. And I I've never had raising canes. I raising canes rather. I will go in with raising canes. Raising chains.

Raising canes I will go into with an open mind when we do ultimately review it for the show. But I will say I have some inherent skepticism towards tendies. I feel like I'd rather get that chicken on the bone versus the chicken strips. I feel like it's never quite as good. I don't like that you call them tendies, though. Yeah, me neither. It's not cool in the chicken nuggies.

All right, fine. For Ed's sake, I won't say tendies on the rest of the show. Tenders. Yes, local coach. Tenders, please. Tenders, sir. I was going to say that for me, the greasy. I like tenders and I like fried chicken.

I like them both. But for me, when there's a bad grease to it, it can taste like dirty. It tastes a little bit. Yeah, exactly. You can get that dirt flavor. I'm looking at my doordash history as well. My postmates history to see what I can dig out. Sheldon Adelson, that's the guy.

That's the ghoul. That's who I was thinking of. That guy looks like shit. That's our ghoul. That's the ghoul of the week. We'll put that back there. He looks fucking awful. And a terrible man looks as bad on the outside as he is on the inside.

So yes, you mentioned, Ed, and we've talked about your article on the show before, where you talked about how super into peloton you got as someone who, like Mitch and I, your weight is fluctuated over the course of your life. You've had heavier periods and leaner periods. And you've struggled finding an exercise that connected for you. But for you, it was peloton and like the gamification of it. And you're keeping up with it, because this article was from a few years ago. Yeah, it was from like the end of 2018.

Something like that. But it may also have been 2019. All the years kind of blended together. The before time. So yeah, I'm still doing it. I did it just before the show and I was off it last week because I injured myself. And actually when I moved, I lost a bunch of power. And I had like a madness period where I thought I got the coronavirus.

Because like a bad loser, I was like, I got the coronavirus. That's why I'm weaker. Not just like I got weaker. I was just like, tried to, and I like nearly tweeted that. And I was like, no, that's, I sound insane. And I did. So I didn't do it. Uh, yeah, I still do it.

I still do it. I, and actually when I moved, I got a, I have a rack like a squat right now. So I actually lift five times a week and Peloton four times a week because the Peloton got me used to just tick boxes again. Yes. So now I just like, I have to do it. Otherwise I go insane. But yeah, the whole gamification is partly that and partly just the average wattage

and the miles and all that. I need something to look at that is more than just I worked out for time. Because if I work out for time, that's boring. I have no idea why I'm doing it. But if I work out and have to reach a goal or hit certain numbers, I could do that. And it's really good. Yes. It's been really good.

And it allows me to keep eating like complete shit, which is one of my favorite pasties. Cause I, you know, the, the, the expression I hear is you can't outrun a bad diet. But, and I've, I've had times when I've like, like for me, what's worked best in terms of losing weight, even though I like to exercise and, and I, I remain pretty active in general, I still can, can be exercising and still just getting fat as shit. But if I like dial in my nutrition, like the period where I lost the most weight in my life, where I lost about 40 pounds, um, and, and kept it off for a while, I was like, it was, I was just walking.

That was the only exercise I was doing. And then I just had a very, very strict diet. I can beat that. I lost a hundred pounds when I was 17. Wow. And it was only at Kins. Absolutely. I was a sedentary as ever.

That's amazing. Wow. And I actually, I've had like, I have like a fully a minute. I have like genuine like mental problems with my weight. Like I feel fat no matter what. The only time I've not felt fat was when I was like 19 and I weighed 130 pounds. I had a similar. Yeah.

I looked like, I looked like Sarah could Sarah Jessica Parker. I was just not, not good, not a good look for me at least. And that was the only time I didn't like feel fat. So right now when I work out, it's to maintain. And when I lift, I just lift and it's awesome. And I love it. Peloton, Peloton, I enjoy less than the moment because I'm coming off an injury, but it's, you can't, you can't outrun a bad diet, but you can work out so much

that it kind of evens out. Right. I am not a nutritionist. Do not. What works for me does not work. My wife eats worse than I do. And she is 90 pounds. Nothing changes.

We similarly have my, my, my wife as well, she, she can, it seems like she can eat whatever she wants and she doesn't gain weight. She's naturally very, very lean and I'm envious of that. But of course, you know, not being able to put on weight. Then I watched her though and her portions are much smaller. Oh, is that what it is? I only look at my plate when I'm eating. Yeah.

I don't need to look. I just know it's going to be gone. But that should in front of me. Why is when I, when I rode crew, which maybe people, listeners don't know about when I rode crew in college, I, uh, I, uh, I did not eat a special diet in that. And I lost a ton of weight just because it was so much activity all the time. But looking back on that, I'm like, oh, if I had just eaten healthy at all, yes, it would have, it would have made like a huge difference.

Yeah. Oh no, my whole thing was when I was post-divorce in 2014, I was like, if I had done pellets on then, I'd have been like just ripped as shit. I did it when I was happy. No, the weight. Hey, life is hard and it's bad. God damn my fucking wife making me happy. That's what they do.

They make you happy. You get a wife, all of a sudden, you're happy all the time. Oh, way to rub it in. Oh, I love you. I love you. Get married to me. Oh, let me tuck you in. Give you a good night kiss.

Wait, what? I love you and I want to make sure you're okay. Fucking Jesus. Unbelievable. Oh, let me change your diaper and powder your bottom. Oh, I get it. You're my wife. That's what you do.

There we go. There it goes. So you're exercising a lot because the same thing with me is that I have like exercising to maintain. I feel like it works for me, but because I'm heavier than I'd like to be currently, like I feel like I'm driving myself nuts because I know that I have to restrict my diet in order to actually drop some poundage. And it's, I don't know.

I mean, like the Peloton thing is intriguing. I guess a lot of people just like, like, like a lot of people do respond to just like the numbers increasing like you were saying. I should also be clear. I do it a lot. Yes, you do it like almost obsessively. I burn a lot. I do it like at least an hour a day, four days a week.

There's one day where I do it at least an hour and 45. So I do lose weight because at some point I am overwhelming my system. It's just giving up, which is a very me thing to do. And it's like there is a difference between, because I know I have friends of mine who are struggling with weight loss too, who are like, I do it every day too. I'm like, how much? And I don't mean it judge mentally. I'm just like, compare the caloric burn, compare time on bite.

And it's nothing like, if you want to do it, but they're like, I want to really lose weight. I'm like, how are you eating too? And they're like, well, you eat badly. I'm like, I know I'm aware. I'm also not talking about, I'm not texting you and being like, I need to lose weight. Right. And it's, it's one of those things where it's just like weight, I understand intimately how much weight can like mess with your brain and how even like the reward system with weight is very

strange because you want to lose the weight and you have the intention of losing weight. But the amount you actually have to do to really lose a lot of weight is mental and physical on quite a huge level. And I don't think people realize that. But I also know every lie I've ever told myself about losing weight. Like every, like every time I've been like, well, I worked out to their burn like 1500 calories. So I eat 3000. Like that is not right.

Like that is the reason I put on weight there is because I ate a great deal. And it was not good. And I hope this doesn't come off as offensive, but it sounds like you're friends with a bunch of dumb ass fatties. You're friends with a bunch of Doughboys listeners? So do I call them fatty, fatty nomades? Yes. I call myself, I've never insulted it.

Well, that's probably not true. I remember the last time I insulted someone for their weight other than myself, which is literally every time I look in the mirror. Like every, every, oh yeah. I'm like, I definitely have some kind of long set tropics. I was, I was like, made fun of for being fat for like seven years of high school. Like, right. Whatever you call like the period between 11 and 17.

And also how many years that is, because that is not seven years. Edgy, you got to do what I do. Don't look in the mirror. Like, like beast from beauty and the beast. It's, it's like, I was going to go great expectations. Because, uh, because we have a British guest. I was going to go Dracula. I want shallow Hal, but for myself.

We'll take a break. We'll be back with more Doughboys. Welcome back to Doughboys. We are here with Ed Zitron. This week's chain, Bon Chon Chicken. Founded in 2002 in Busan, South Korea. Bon Chon means my hometown, apparently. And now has about a hundred locations in the U.S.

So Ed, there is a, there is a Bon Chon in Vegas. I'm curious how you became a fan of Bon Chon and why you want to discuss it on the show. Weirdly enough, because when I was moving, we had like a month in Pleasanton, California. A truly featureless place. And I was like, I want some fried chicken. I looked up Bon Chon.

I hadn't had green fried chicken in years. I had it when I was in New York. And I was like, I want some of this year. And it's incredible. I love it. And it's in Vegas as well. And so I kept having it. My wife bloody hates it.

She says it's too greasy. Oh, interesting. Yeah. The big thing, because talking about the grease factor, the big thing with Korean fried chicken is a style in general. And I believe it's true for Bon Chon is it's generally double fried.

So it has a different sort of texture to it than a lot of fried chickens. I love Korean fried chicken. Anytime I can have it. It's always so delicious and delightful and crispy. And I like the sides that you get with it. You know, I like that you could, I like the pickled radish you generally get with it.

I like having fried chicken with rice. I think it's a great combo. Mitch, are you a big Korean fried chicken fan? I like it. You know, I believe I went to Bon Chon once before. I think there was one down south of where I live in Korea town. I think there was a Bon Chon at one point

and then I closed. But I could be wrong. It could have just been a, but I'm almost sure I went to a Bon Chon. Yes. I also feel like there are a bunch of places that are like, that have names like Bon Chon that are like, you know, trying to, like the.

It's kind of like Benihana. They were just like Benihana-esque. Right. Yes. And I don't know. It might have been a place like that, but I think it was a Bon Chon. But yeah, no, I mean, I have very limited experience with it,

but definitely a fan. Yeah. And so I went to the San Gabriel location, which I think is where you went as well, Mitch. That's correct. Yeah. And by the way, I should tee it up again. We are now in the thick of discussing Bon Chon.

Mitch's hot take is coming. So I hope you've adequately, adequately mind, warmed up your brains to take this level of heat that's going to come out of Mitch's mouth and into his microphone and into your ears. It is, it is quite a take. But I went to the San Gabriel location, which is about, which is about a 30 minute drive.

And I was little worried about the chicken traveling because that's always, you know, that's always a thing with something fried. I avoided fries as part of my order, as an anticipation of that. But I will say they do have a good-to-go set up there. The restaurant, the one we went to, I'm not sure is the Vegas one have a huge floor plan

because this seemed like it had a gigantic unused dining space. I literally ordered delivery. Oh, OK, got it. I'm sorry. No, you're fine. We can't, we can't go in there anyways. Yeah. Right now it's that that's a.

I went in there and took my mask off. I was like, I was, I was just surprised. Like I didn't, I didn't expect it to be such a big. I thought it was going to be more of a takeout place, but it had a pretty good, pretty good square footage there. That was completely unused. Did you go inside Nick? No, this was going to say is there to go set up was they had,

and I like it when places do this, they move the register basically to the entrance and then blockade it with some tables. So you're not even going inside the restaurant. So I got the Natalie and I ordered the family meal, which is 12 wings and six drums, got them half spicy, half soy garlic, which are the two, their two flavors. And I should clarify the wings and drums thing,

because I was, I thought that the wings were all going to be flats and the drums were going to be drumettes. Wings includes drumettes. If you get wings there, you are getting some flats and you're getting drumettes. The drums are actually big honking drumsticks. They are chicken legs and they are massive. Yeah, they're a bit expensive.

They are expensive. But also, yeah, that's one thing I'll say with Bondron. It is expensive, but also it seems more expensive than it is because the drumsticks are big boys. They are big. Even for my voracious appetite, but I love the drums. I'm a drum boy. I, I, I love wings in general.

Like I'm a wing. I love ordering wings, but for this specific restaurant, the drums are fantastic. And you can, for the small, you can eat a fairly good dinner. Like you'll be just fine. And I'm, but I always get the drums because it's not like the drumettes. They're like full scale, size of your hand type things.

Yeah, they're huge. I'm, I'm surprised actually, I was surprised with them because I didn't know I was getting drumsticks until they showed up in my, until I opened up the box and they were in there. But I, it made me surprised that they don't offer like just fried chicken. Like they don't have thighs or breasts or anything.

They just have wings and drumsticks. I don't need that shit in my life. I'm glad someone finally cut, cut to the quick. Wow. I always, I want, if I could get drumsticks with every fried chicken place, I'd be just happy as a glam. I don't need any thighs. The thighs always get left whenever we have fried chicken at home.

Drumsticks go quick. There's always thighs left over. You eat the thighs and like it, like the skin kind of pulls into your mouth. You're like, ah, well, that's all the skin gone. That's it for the skin. No more skin. And then you just have that shitty bit underneath

that you're like grisly. Just a mess. Just, Nick is, Nick is livid right now, by the way. I love, I love thighs. I like eating thighs. I get what you're saying that they are the, a little bit higher degree of difficulty in terms of consumption, but I think they're meaty

and delicious if done right. You know what? With a really good fried chicken place, that great. Yeah. But I just find consistently, thighs are a let down in most fried chicken places. Got it. Like I'm happy.

Like Yardbird, for example, thighs, they're fantastic all day, every day. I don't think they're open at the moment, which also really bothers me. I moved to Vegas pretty much only toward a Yardbird. Anyway, but this is about Bonchon. Right. But Bonchon also delivers in this like lovely little box thing.

I think travels really well. Yes. That's what I was going to say. And, and, and, you know, I mentioned earlier that, that, that it was a 30 minute drive and, and our order, we got a notification that our order was ready while driving over there. So this food was sitting for like 45 minutes before

we actually put it in our bodies. But it, it, in that little box, it traveled well. And, and it was still crispy and, and actually warm. And, and delicious. It wasn't gross after a long delivery. No, not at all. Also really, and it has that lovely, I don't get spicy food because I'm a little baby boy.

It hurts my tongue tongue, makes my tongue tongue hurt. But the soy garlic, that's brilliant. It's like crunchy and tangy. Oh, Bonchon's brilliant. It's, it's really good. It's one of the few places where I want like sauce. Like I, I actually wish they gave me a little sauce on the side. Yes.

Kind of. And the, the wings, the only comparable I've seen is, you ever hear a Koja kitchen? No, I'm not familiar with that. It's a Korean place. It's, they've got a few chains, at least in California. With them, they do soy garlic wings, no more on the garlicky side.

But it's the same kind of, kind of the same texture, but not quite as fried. I love the crunchy Bonchon though. Yes. Kind of crunch. The crunch, but it isn't like super greasy. It's got a grease to it. I don't know what my wife's going on about.

She has poor taste. Look at me. But it's, it's greasy enough that you feel like it's like, Ooh, lovely. But it's not overwhelmingly, it doesn't make you feel like you're going to go into a coma. Yeah. And, but if you order too much and you do that thing

where the food's really good and you keep eating, it punishes you. Yes. Is a punishing meal when you push it a little too far, when you order a medium, when you should have got a small? You got to cut yourself off. That's what I, I, I thankfully was able to exercise self restraint as I was going through this.

I liked both the sauces. The soy garlic that you mentioned, delicious. It reminds me of a local place in Culver City, Honey's Kettle, which is like a, a, you know, it's a very different style of fried chicken, but it's got like a little bit of sweetness to it as well. And, and, but the soy garlic I thought was delicious. But I really, you know, I do like spicy.

I'm something of a heat seeker, as I've said on the show. And I like, I really love their spicy. I was just devouring it. It's not overwhelmingly hot. It's just a little tangy, but it is so flavorful. And, and that sauce, that, that ample sauce combined with the crispness and texture of that skin, I just thought was delightful.

I, I was the chicken I loved. I could not say enough good words about it. What, what, so you, you just got drums and you just got the, the, the soy garlic. That was your order, Ed. I mean, I've got the other stuff. And I've never liked anything else I've got other than like the pots. The pot stickers are fine.

Yeah. But it's kind of, yeah, it's kind of like going to an NFL game and getting pumped up to hear the national anthem sung well. Like it's, I'm not going there for this. I don't need this. I'm not, I'm not here to get pot stickers. Don't get in my way. Yes. I will say on that note, I got, we got the shrimp shumai,

which were steamed. It said they were drizzled with a honey Dijon dressing. I did not see the dressing or maybe it was just very, very light. And it was just like, it was thoroughly unremarkable shumai. I was like, there's, there's no reason to, to ever get this. And, and we got another dish just to try it, which was the, I'm going to butcher this pronunciation. It's spelled T-T-E-O-K-B-O-K-K-I.

Tokuboki, something like that. But this, it was rice cakes and fish cakes simmered with scallions and onions. Oh yeah. We had that. It was just like, eh. Yeah. It was, there was no reason to get it. It was kind of textureless. It was just like a, it was just like a gooey sort of mess. All of this stuff feels like the equivalent of other Italian shit that pizza joints sell.

Like when a random pizza joint is really good, just has meatballs and they usually are cold or just not good in general. And you're like, oh, I could have got more pizza. Right. Or just not spend the money on this. Yeah. I don't need this year. Yeah. That's a really half-assed eggplant parmesan you've got on the menu just to fill it out.

Exactly. Mitch, what is the, what was your order? What did you get? Well, I, Nick, you're right. I drove out to the same location San Gabriel as you did. A bit of a drive, like you said, and I was worried. And I said to you, I was like, what are you going to do? And I said, did you just bring it home? He said, yes. My plan was just to go eat it in the car in San Gabriel.

So I did. I went, I went to San Gabriel. I, I ordered online. You had a bag of salsa in the passenger seat. They had to move that aside. Drove to San Gabriel. The pickup, I agree with you that the pickup is, there was a tent there. You drive your car basically under a tent and, and, and they, they bring your,

they bring the food out for you. You put in the, the make and model of your car and they bring the food out to you. It was a good system. I ordered combo six wings and three drums. So I did half and half the half soy garlic, half spicy. And with the drums, I think I, I believe I got two soy garlic drums. And then also, uh, that came with pickled relish. I'm sorry.

Pickled radish. Pickled radish. Yeah. I was thinking relish from earlier. Um, that's embarrassing. Then I got myself some seasoned french fries. And the fries are good. The fries were great.

Wow. They, they came with the fries came with it. Those were actually pretty good. That, and I got spicy mayo and, uh, and what was the other dipping sauce? Japanese mayo for dipping. And they, that also, they also came with some hunts. Why is hunts ketchup packets? Interesting.

A hunts sighting. Hunts over holidays. Uh, I got my, I also got, forgive the pronunciation. Is it bibim, bibim bap? Is that how you say it? It's close enough for comfort, I think. And, and I got so glad I wasn't the first to have to say that. To hit land that grenade for me.

I got a book. I got a bulgogi bibim bap. And I, I, and I, and I also got a chicken katsu. I got two. So I got two different, uh, entrees. Yeah. Chinkatsu. Is that wrong?

You know I've been a bonchon. K, K, I went to the, I went to the same exact one that why I go on to. K, A, T, S, U. It's just chicken restaurant from other restaurants food. Chicken, chicken katsu. And that came with, um, that came with coleslaw. Oh, they're coleslaw. I forgot about that.

The coleslaw was really good. Also, well, I'll get, I'll get to all of this in a second. And then I got two Diet Cokes as well, Nick. Uh, because I thought I just might need a second one. No, you got, no, no, that is, but that rocks. You got to get like fountain soda is. It was great. And so a huge order.

I was starving. I had not eaten the whole day. Um, and I got to say every single thing I had was good. Wow. Every bulgogi, the steaks thing. Yes. It's like, it's, it's like steak kind of like thin steak. That's like, I think this was sauteed with like onion,

I don't know how they make it. I thought maybe they grill it and then saute it with, with the onions and mushrooms. Nick, you might know more. That's exactly the menu description is basically verbatim. What you said it's thinly sliced ribeye beef with a homemade sauce sauteed with mushrooms, scallions and onions.

It was kind of a letdown when I had it. I'm happy you're happy. Hmm. Uh, everything I had was great. Ed, I completely agree with you that the star of the show is this fried chicken. I mean, there's no, there's no doubt. This is, this is the stuff you go there for.

I was, I was, Nick, I was like, you, I did not know the drums were that big, but Ed, I was nervous about them because I usually think like a bigger drum like that. I, I, I usually worry about quality, but Nick, my spoon man bite of the night was a soy garlic drum that I bit into and just had so much crispiness. Yeah.

And the, and the, and the drum meat was so juicy and so good. Oh yeah. It was fucking fantastic. You can really take a king's bite out of that. Like you feel like you're sitting on a throne for a second. It feels like when it's one of those restaurants you, it feels like a treat. Like it feels like something a little bit special versus just like,

I don't know, like shake, shake where I'm like, Oh, this is always good. I feel good eating it. Like there is like a heft to the bonchon. I like. Yes. Yeah. No, it was every, every, every, every, everything, everything was,

I mean, the chicken catsu was great too. It was just one of those things of, Oh, this is, this is great. There was some rice. It was on a bed of rice. It was great, but it was that sort of thing of like, Oh, it's just not as good as the fried chicken is still quality entree. The, the be even back, Nick, I don't have a lot of experiences with it. Are you supposed to put like sauce on there?

Because it's a combination of you got this bulgogi in there and then there's like rice and then there's like a, there is also like, kind of like cabbage or slaw in there and it kind of is dry. And I was like, Oh, if you put like sriracha on this, it would really come together. But yeah, I mean, it's usually, it oftentimes come with like a little sauce. You can use either for dipping or, or dumping on it. I don't know if the, what the right protocol is though.

I'm far, far from an expert on Korean cuisine. I did not, I did not have any sauce with it, but, but it was still great. The seasoned fries were great. They almost forgot my two diet cooks, but I asked for them and he said, Oh, my bad. And he got, brought them, everything was perfect. I pulled over to a little side street in San Gabriel. And I was just eating this food in my car, like a fucking maniac. And I was having the time of my life, Nick. I fucking loved it.

Yeah. A good car meal can really hit the spot sometimes. It definitely stunk my car up for sure. I think the pickle radish, where I was in Pleasanton the first time I got bonchon, I threw that food away in the garbage, took the garbage out, and it did hang around. Wow. Like it, it, it did. He had a stank to it, but a good stank. It was, my car, I think still does have a bonchon stank going on.

But you know what? It eliminates some of those other stanks that's in there. Nick, I'll save, I'll save, I'll save my thoughts for when we wrap up. Wow. But, but the take is coming. The take's coming. Well, you know what? What is the hot take now? You said you loved it. I mean, it's not, it's not as hot anymore, but, but I, but I have a hot take.

He still, he still has a take that's pretty hot and that may not resonate for you, Ed, but it will definitely resonate for our listeners. Because it is, I mean, I, I, I just, I, I don't feel like I can oversell it. This take's going to really be something. But hey, we should get to our final thoughts on bonchon. So Ed, here's what we'll do. We'll each go around, we'll give sort of a summation of our, of our review. We'll give like a closing argument, if you will, and then end it by giving a fork score

from zero to five forks based on your affection for this chain. Ed, you are our guest. We will begin with you, your thoughts, your fork score on bonchon. So my thing with bonchon is, is it, it's not necessarily a meal I would go to if I wanted fried chicken proper, but the tanginess, the crunch, the fact it's still like juicy chicken and the fact it travels so well really is something. I'm not a big fan of all the sides. I think the coleslaw's good.

I think the fries are good, but I think there were like garlic fries as well. You can get there. And those were just, they're always a bad call unless you know the place. But my general thing is with them is it's pretty good value and it's significant. It doesn't feel, it's significant without being overwhelming. I'll give it a four out of five personally for forks. Four forks, very good score from Ed Zichron. Mitch, I'm going to go now and I'll let you close things out.

I really like bonchon. A couple of items that I didn't mention that we, that we also got as part of the family meal, you get their house fried rice, very simple fried rice. It's just eggs, red bell pepper, onions, and some of that soy garlic sauce. I just, you know, this is Ted's point earlier about like the, the stuff that's not the chicken being kind of unremarkable, which I know is different than Mitch's assessment. That's kind of how I felt. I just want to add one thing.

It was the zucchini fries I had, not garlic fries. Got it. Sorry. Oh, no worries. I, I, I, you know, the fried rice, I was just like, this is nothing special. There's no reason for me to ever get this. And honestly, I would have rather just had plain steamed rice, which I wish came with the, the, the family meal.

I think that would have been a better accompaniment. I'm bummed I didn't get to try the fries after hearing they're good. The pickled radish though, I love. And, you know, if you're unfamiliar with green fried chicken, my understanding this is a traditional accompaniment with the dish. And I think it just works out, works so perfectly. It's just, it's nice and refreshing and light. A great palate cleanser.

We also got, you know, both styles of cabbage. We got some kimchi and we got some coleslaw. I thought, you know, again, both good. I like, I actually preferred the coleslaw. It may just be because I'm a slaw man. I'm more of a slaw dog than a, that a kimchi enthusiast. But I, I thought it was good kimchi as well. But the star is the chicken.

The, the chicken is the reason to go. And the chicken is fantastic. I think it's some of the best chain restaurant fried chicken that you can get. Certainly at this scale for a place with a hundred locations. The, the, the chicken is fantastic. Both sauces are dynamite. You got your sweet, you got your spicy, whichever way you go, you're going to, you're going to be in, in, in, you know, as, as say hog heaven,

but this is chicken. So I'll say poultry heaven. You're going to be in poultry heaven with Bonchon. I, I'm, I'll go higher than it. I think this is a five fork chain. That's my, that's my assessment. Five forks for Bonchon. I, I like the chicken that much, despite my, my lack of enthusiasm

for the sides and accompaniments. All right, Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. Let's hear it. I had, this sucks. Fuck you. I, I had a different experience with the sides. I liked everything. I, and I really, I really liked those french fries.

I liked dipping them in the mayo's. Like I said, the Spoon Man bite of the, and the salsa. Like I said, the Spoon Man bite of the night was a, was definitely that, that drum, that, that chicken drum with the, with the soy garlic on it. Oh man. Just the, the might of skin and the, and the crisp skin biting into it and the juiciness of the chicken. It fucking ruled.

Oh yeah. Um, Nick, what I said to you after I tried this, and I also, I just want, I want to point out too that the spiciness, because when I got there, I was like, is there no like any sort of like dipping sauce for the, for the, for the wings? And there's not. And, but it's, they do such a good job of the spicy and the soy garlic kind of balancing each other out.

You have a couple of this, the soy garlics, then you go to the spicy and you have a couple of spices, then you go back over. It's great. Uh, and it's just fun, it's fun to mix, mix and match it and kind of cool your mouth down after a few spicy wings. It's great. In my feelings when, when I tried it, I said this to you, Nick. Hold on.

This, is this the take? Here's the take. Okay. Everyone, everyone get ready. Everybody just like say, if you're, you know, if you've maybe been doing something else, you're folding clothes or you've been cooking dinner. You're on your commute. You might want to pull over just take a second and repair yourself for this take

that you're about to hear from the Spoonman, Mike Mitchell. Outside of some of the local chains we went to, like my beloved pizzeria Regina, which is my favorite thing on earth. I said to you, Nick, that I think this is maybe the best chain restaurant we've visited on the show. Wow. The quality of the food I got on that day was, was phenomenal. Yes.

It was, it was, it was, it was incredible. I was sitting in my car eating this food and I was, I had a big fucking dumb smile on my face, which in this year of hell, it just, it, it warmed my heart, Nick. And I said to you that if there was a way to give it a sixth fork, the sixth fork, I think it should be awarded a sixth fork because the food was so good. Now I feel like a prick giving it four because I love it. Four is fine.

Four is a good score. Add no, add no offense. You fucked up. It should be, this is a, I blew it. I blew him. I mean, needless to say, this is a five fork restaurant. The, the, the quality of that chicken, Nick, is, is so good.

And for like a single chain item, yes, it's hard to beat that spicy in that soy garlic chicken. I mean, and honestly, one thing to add is I've had it from two States. Like I had it in Nevada, had it in California, and it was great in both. And in fact, thinking about it, I had it in San Francisco and Pleasanton. And it was still consistently good. So yeah, I'm going to raise it to a five just because I didn't think about the consistency across chains, but yeah, it's usually that just consistency across

chain just means the place sucks. And it keeps the level of shitty versus actually being good consistently across places. Yeah, this, this is, this, this is a five forker. This is a, this is a five forker. If we've ever had one, Nick, this is, this is, this is a place that if it could keep it, if it could keep, if it could keep this quality, yes, it deserves the sixth fork. If you keep this, if it could keep this quality across the country, it would be one of the best chains.

There we go. Ed, Ed, you should play, you should play the, you should play the sound drop that's appropriate for Weiger. You remember it. You played it before. Oh, the shotgun one for the Harvey Weinstein one. The shotgun one. Oh, sorry.

It's just, there we are. How's that good? Is that good? Jesus Christ. How about that? Is this the right, is that the right one? That good? I'll turn it off now.

Nick, take that shotgun out of your mouth because this place is worth living for, Nick. Bonchon. Take that shotgun out and put some bonchon in it. 100%, five forks. Really depressing bonchon catchphrase. The six forks, Nick, it gets six. Wow, six forks from the Spoonman, Mike Mitchell, unprecedented. What a scorcher of a take.

And hey, that was our review of Bonchon. If there's one near you, definitely check it out. It's time for a segment. I've chosen a pie and Mitch and Ed must divine a series of clues to guess what it is. The winner gets an IOU for a pie. The loser goes home empty stomach. This is another edition of our beloved segment, pie in this guy.

Started singing pie, pie, which one is in this guy. Baked a pastry that was tasty, but a mystery which kind. And Mitch and Ed, given it their best try, guessing this will be the type of this pie. This will be the type of this pie. Okay, so you'll, uh... Not a dry seat in the house. So you'll take turn solving increasingly obvious clues. And they start out more obscure.

They get more, uh, they get more obvious as we go. You have two lifelines. You can ask our engineer Emma Erdbrink, who is a non-video participant in the Zoom call, or the eye test. I will screen share a close up photo of this pie, and you can see if you can figure out anything from that image. Ed, you are a guest. You get to choose if you go first or second in pie in this guy.

And keep in mind, the clues get more and more obvious as we go. The first one is the most obtuse. I'll go second then, because I'm extremely bad at games of chance. No, you made the right choice. Usually the proper calculation. Besides the last time we did this, where Weiger had the easiest clue ever for the first clue. All right, well, we'll see.

Is it just like, it is become pie. Well, do you think it is? I had an obvious blueberry pie clue. Okay, I fucked up. Get off my back. Here's the first clue. I hope this isn't too obvious. Much like Hink in Breaking Bad, this pie is affiliated with Marie.

I got it. Go ahead, Mitch. Nick, the pie is Shepherd's pie. Shepherd's pie is not correct. Wow. It's also not a type of pie. Yeah, no, but Nick is tricky like that. It's kind of stuff from my home country, kind of.

I mean, that's exactly why. It probably is something from England, just to let you know. Don't let him misdirect you. All right, next clue. This is for you, Ed. All right. Some pies are sweet. This is of the savory sort.

It could be like any kind of pie, really. Some pies are sweet. This is of the savory sort. Remember, you have two lifelines. It'd be the side clue, then. I'm just going to blow this whole thing. Okay, hold on. Actually, I should have prepared an image in advance.

Give me a second. Mitch, a vamp a little for me. What the hell? You're going to Google search? I forgot about the lifelines. You're going to Google search? Yeah, I'm going to Google search something. Hold on.

Okay, hold on a second. I mean, now I just wish I had done the visual clue. So it is some sort of meaty pie is what I'm gathering. Some pies are sweet. This is of the savory sort, is the clue. So I'm almost sure it should be shepherd's pie. So now it's going to be, oh, you know what it's going to be? Beef steak pie.

Ed, it's going to be like a kidney pie or something. It's going to be some bullshit like that. I'm going to wait for him to get it so I can. I always lose this. I won last time. So this is... I think you'll get a second win today, don't worry. All right, hold on.

I think I got a good one. This is the thing I'm dealing with is, I'm realizing if I just share the tab, you'll see the image title. Yeah, I should have planned for this in advance. You know what you got to do is you got to pull that image to the side, Nick, onto your laptop or your computer, your desktop. I'm on my desktop.

And then you got to just save it as an image and then open the image and then share that image. Come on, Nick. Well, you know what's happening now is that the fucking windows isn't opening the files. Oh, Jesus. Hold on. I'll get this resolved.

Make it your background. Okay, hold on. Can you make it your background? All right, we're seconds away here. We're seconds away here. This is riveting pocket. This might win a potty. Okay.

I'm not editing any of this out. As I was saying, a potty. Like the toilet. All right, the screen share of the mystery pie is coming. Here we go. Wow. Wow, this is like my hot take. As exciting.

Oh, it's a chicken pot pie. Ed, you have one pie as this guy. That's such trash. Well, you just have to win one question. You showed him the insides of the pie. What was I supposed to do? You would have gotten it on the box before, right? Yeah.

I should have. I forgot about the lifelines. You know, we usually have a smell test. They get a physical pie, but because we're socially distanced, I can't do that now. What would I smell it? That's the thing. In a normal situation, you would be in studio

and you'd be able to take a nice hefty whiff of it. Now, hold on a second. What was the first clue? Yeah, what was the first one? Much like Hank in Breaking Bad, this pie is affiliated with Marie. Marie Calendars having the most famous frozen chicken pot pie brand. Jesus. Also, you're like, I put in a lot of work for these things.

All you ever have to do is make two clues and it gets figured out. I came up with four clues, actually, just through clues three and four. Why? Spend less time on clues three and four. We've had ones get to the fourth clue before. Dear God. I'll start putting the image directly into the outline. That will help. That was pie in this guy, just like a restaurant with all your feedback.

Some more fucking robot work for you to do. Congrats, Ed. You won a voucher for a future pie. This is new. You didn't give, you didn't, you don't, you owe me a pie. Yeah, you have an IOU for a pie. As well. If we were in person, you'd get the physical piece of pie.

But because we're doing the socially distance, because you bested Danny Fernandez on that episode, where you guess blueberry pie, I'll get you a blueberry pie next time I see you. You know what I do? If you gave me that pie, fucking put it in your face, you clown. What if it was Hall? You'd scold him.

Yeah, it's true. Fucking good. He'd have a red nose like a clown when I was done with it. Just like a restaurant, value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes from Adam in Portland. Adam writes, I'm trying to get a cottage bakery off of the ground,

baking bread and croissants every week. Thursday nights are set for mixing the doughs, and I will usually listen to the dough boys. What do you listen to while cooking or being productive? Adam's Bakery, crustalmightypdx.com, if you're in the Portland area. Do you have a, like as someone who you exercise a lot, any sort of tasks that you're doing that you can have some audio going,

what is your, what is your audio diet? Are you a podcast man or are you a audiobooks man? If I'm working out, I cannot listen to podcasts, because I need rhythm and just like podcasts do not have that. Right. And I've tried before and it just does not, like my legs just stop and start. I have endless playlists and it's depending on my mood.

Sometimes I can go like weirdly like hop rock bullshit, like fallout boy if I'm embarrassing myself, all the way to like death metal. Like I have an entire in flames playlist that I pop today, because I was pissed off. Wow. But when I'm cooking, depending on if I'm alone, no, if I'm alone, of course, podcast, that's great.

Perfect for cooking. If I'm with the wife and she's like, who the fuck are these guys this time? That's like her podcast question. Yeah. I'm like just immediately turning that off. Just, just that shit. I don't need to explain why I'm laughing at something

that is an esoteric reference to another reference to another reference. Right. Where a guy claims he sat on a spoon. I am fucking. That seems like a fucking. Yeah. That's one of our bits, I think.

And she's just like, it's obvious it was that pie. No. Mitch, what's your audio diet when you're doing a task? Ooh, audio diet when I'm doing a task. I have, you know what, I've said on this podcast before that I don't listen to podcasts much. If I have a long ride, I'll listen to podcasts more so. Or if I'm going for walks, I can do,

I can do a podcast on a walk. Yes. But if I'm in the kitchen making something, or if I'm back home, if I'm back east and my mom is prepping a dinner and I'm helping out or something, go with the classics, Nick. You turn on some Ben Morrison or you turn, you know what I mean?

Or you play some Billy Joel or some bullshit like that. Scenes from a Italian restaurant where you're making up some spaghetti. That's fun. There you go. So just some classic. I go with the classic, the classic rock radio station. You know, whatever they play, I just kind of go, I kind of go in that direction.

Driving, driving is classic rock time. You got to put on like a gold nearing radar love. Um, I don't like, I don't like driving. And I've mentioned before that I do, I will sometimes just drive in silence. Yes, we know. That is insane. Psychopath.

Yes, no. Just the, just the sound of the tire. It's one of the many reasons that he's fucking out of his mind. It's what I get thinking. It'd be so much funnier if you had an electric car as well. So it was just completely, at least. Just he has a hybrid. Yeah, wait, actually I do.

Oh God. Of a Chevy Bolt. Oh, you do have an electric car now. Yeah, releasing a bolt. So just completely silent. Yeah, just silent. Sometimes, but you know, sometimes I'll listen to it. Just alone with my thoughts.

I will listen to, but you know, podcasts for me would be a, sometimes a commute thing. If I'm, if I'm commuting by public transit or, or if I am driving and I just need something to keep my mind occupied, I'll, I'll, that's, that's podcast time or audio book time. Um, I, like working out, I, you know, also podcasts for, for like, like household chores,

that's a big podcast. Like I feel like that's like the, the best, the ideal time for me, for it to listen to a podcast. But for like, as, as far as working out goes, I, I, you know, I vacillate because there are times when I do want some music, I do want some thumping tunes,

but then there are other times where I also will just like listen to something that there's just people talking. Cause I'll find that'll pass the time and I can really disassociate from the, the strenuous activity I'm doing and just sort of listen to, you know, someone talking about basketball or whatever. So I don't know.

I feel like I'm generally kind of a podcast man. But let us know what you use a hashtag audio diet while you're cooking or otherwise being productive. And again, crustalmightypdx.com for Adam in Portland's new bakery. If you, if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at dopeboyspodcasts

at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail to 830 Godot, that's 830 4636844. And to get the Doughboys double our weekly bonus episode, join the golden or platinum plate club at patreon.com slash Doughboys. Ed Zitron, thank you so much for joining us, for joining us for this episode. And thank you for, for sharing your thoughts on Bonchon with us.

Do you have anything you'd like to plug at this time? I'm on Twitter, I'm at Ed Zitron. If you need public relations, you just find me there. I'm not going to pretend like I, like anyone's going to like listen to this and be like, that's a guy I want representing me. No, but if you're in the Vegas area and after the quarantine, we can hang out because everyone here is friends for some reason.

But yeah, we're just very happy to have been on. Thanks for having me. Such a great chain restaurant on top of that. Yeah, right. The sixth fork was busted out. The sixth fork. Wow. This is without precedent.

Nick. Yeah. It's clear that today, Doughboys has changed forever. This is the day Doughboys changed. This is worse than the time I made Vincent D'Onofrio Twitter on my podcast. That'll do it for this episode of Doughboys. Until next time, for The Spoonman, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating.

See ya. Want more Doughboys? Check us out on Patreon. Join the Golden Plate Club for an extra episode every Tuesday, The Doughboys Double, which you can listen to on your favorite podcast app. Or join the Platinum Plate Club and get access to our Discord server, TheDoughScore, to connect with fellow Doughfans and me and Mitch. Subscribe for the price of a combo meal only at Patreon.com slash Doughboys.

That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Doughboys. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description. That was a hate gum podcast.