Doughboys - Din Tai Fung with Farley Elliott

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

Food writer Farley Elliott (Eater LA, LA Street Food) and the ‘boys discuss how the pandemic has affected the restaurant industry before a review of Din Tai Fung. Plus, a winter-themed Slop Quiz.Sources for this week's intro:https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/john-cena-issues-groveling-apology-to-china-after-calling-taiwan-a-country/ar-AAKno7w https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/world/asia/john-cena-taiwan-apology.html https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/daryl-morey-tweet-controversy-nba-china-explained/togzszxh37fi1mpw177p9bqwi https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html https://web.archive.org/web/20140905160410/http://dintaifungusa.com/about_us.html https://dintaifungusa.com/us/about-us.htmlWant more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up, everybody? It's your boy, The Spoon Man, and I want to talk to you about today's sponsor, UberEats. At UberEats, we've helped more than 400,000 restaurants across the U.S. reach new, hungry customers and deliver growth quickly through new orders. Uber's global platform can help you grow, reach new people, get valuable sales data, and unlock ways to expand with flexible delivery options. Put your business on UberEats. Get access to the UberEats platform, including valuable sales data to grow your business.

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Coming up today, that link that you want to click on is down there in the episode description. Right down there. Check it out. There it is. Move your cursor. Go ahead and click, or if you're on your phone, use your finger and click that link. Click that link in the episode description. Taiwan is the first country that can watch this quote delivered in Mandarin in a promotional

interview for the ninth Fast and Furious film, given with Taiwanese media outlet TVBS, provoked a PR disaster for the man who said it, WWE superstar turned movie star John Cena. The seemingly innocuous acknowledgement of Taiwanese sovereignty stirred a massive backlash in mainland China, leading Cena to ensue an emphatic retraction and apology, also in Mandarin. This gesture ignited its own backlash in the US, which saw the video statement on Weibo as a craven cave to the Chinese government in exchange for international box office revenue. It's hardly the first China-centric free speech controversy in the West. Sports fans saw the NBA and its stars cower in silence after China financially retaliated

for then Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests. And while easy and fun to condemn celebrities for failing to speak up when their wealth is threatened by a totalitarian state, such as a feature, not a bug, of multinational capitalism. Businesses of the recent past predicted the internet would lead to a global free speech movement, whereas in reality the opposite has happened. Nations have more effectively throttled communication by holding hostage the revenue of multinational corporations.

Apple, publicly emphatic about its commitment to user privacy, but reliant on both Chinese manufacturing and China's enormous customer base, agreed to host user data on government-controlled servers as a cost of doing business in the region. But while capitalism has been ruinous for freedoms, worker rights, and the environment worldwide, it has been an incredible boon for dining. In 1958, Bingyi Yang, a refugee from mainland China, opened a cooking oil shop with his wife Pen Mei Lai in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei. In 1970, the couple began selling Xiaolong Bao, literally translated as little dumpling

in a basket out of their shop, and by 1972 it pivoted fully to being a restaurant. The concept quickly drew long lines and expanded locally and in time internationally, opening a Tokyo branch in 1996 and a U.S. outlet in the majority of Asian-American city of Arcadia, California in 2000. Today the chain has 170 outlets in 13 countries and is revered for its quality of food and service and its staggering consistency across multinational locations. And while the geopolitical status of Taiwan remains unresolved in a public relations third rail, the status of Taiwan's most famous restaurant export is above reproach, the rare chain to

be awarded a coveted Michelin star. This week on Doe Boys, Din Tai Fung. Welcome to Doe Boys, the I Heart Radio award-winning podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, Dolly Farton, the Spoonman Mike Mitchell. Dolly Farton, the hell? Dolly Farton? That's how we win the hardware, baby. That's the kind of stuff that gets us the gold.

You know what? I Heart, I Heart Radio. Wow, what a thing to say. Daniel Schlosser sent that roast in with comment, Mitch has big boots. I get you, do you have big feet? I do, size 14. Size 14, okay, roastspoonmanageemile.com. You know what they say about big feet?

It's not true. That's the saying. Dolly Farton. Dolly Farton. How about I Heart Radio? What do you think of that? That's pretty good. We might see that in a subsequent week.

I think I take back our fucking award, huh? You're gonna take back our award? How dare you? Wags, how to spoon nation. Wow. And slice nation, I guess. Not I guess, I know. What's going on, Wags?

What are you up to? What's happening? You know what? It's the Bowl Weekend, baby. As of this record, we are coming up on the Super Bowl, which is happening right here in the city of Los Angeles, Sophie Stadium. The boys. When the season releases, we will have, we will know the victor.

It will be in our past. You know what? This Sunday, you gotta give the Sunday back to the boys. You gotta give it back. You know what, Wags? That's kind of my mission this year. We talked about it a bit with Ghostbusters. Give it back to the boys.

Yeah. Yeah. So Barstool Sports has Saturdays for the boys. Saturdays for the boys. Yeah, but that's not what it's about. No, no. You're saying Sundays give back to the boys. I'm distancing myself from...

You're saying Sundays give back to the boys. Sundays, you gotta give it back to the boys. You're gonna go to church? Yeah. You gotta give it back to the boys. Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm about this year.

Saturdays is Barstool Sports thing, but Sundays is Spoonman's thing. That's right. You gotta give it to the... Okay. This year, I'm gonna... This year is about giving it back to the boys. You gotta give it back. You gotta...

The boys are due. The boys need a break. The boys need a break. Give it back to the boys. Are you... You got any plans for Super Bowl weekend? Yellow jackets. Mm-hmm.

And like a lot of... You know, it's like a lot of female cast. Give it back to the boys. Make a... Make a... Make another B show with all the guys. I wanna see all the guys in the show. You wanna see Hornets with the cast of Deals?

Yeah. Hornets. Yeah. Give me Hornets with all the... With all the boys. Oh, boy. What? No.

I think... I... Hey, you know what? If it works out, it works out. I think that the... I enjoy yellow jackets. I know it's not your cup of tea, but I had a great time watching it. You know that song, You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman?

Uh-huh. Give it to the boys. You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Man? I actually did... I did actually have a parody of this. Ready? You do? You make me squeal.

You make me squeal. You make me squeal like a pink little piglet. What does that have to do with giving it back to the boys? Give it back to the boys. We like to talk about pigs. Boys do like pigs. They do that. You know, boys like to get it up in the muck.

They like their farm animals. Song should be about the hogs, baby. Good Lord. That's what's happening this year, Y's. We're giving it back to the boys. Giving it back to the boys. So, prepare for this bit to carry on for another three months, till it's... We love it, yeah!

Where's my For the Boys t-shirt? The song was good. You have to admit that. It was good. I just was not sure of the connection to your thesis, but you explained it, so... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Taking that song back for the boys. Makes sense.

It's good. Speaking of which, we got a... We got a... All guys... You know what, with Emma, it's not... There's never all boys, but Emma's kind of like one of the boys. Sure. Women like to hear that.

You're not like other girls. Yeah, I'm one of the boys. You're one of the boys. All right, I'll stop this bit. No, I'm going to keep it going for a while. Keep it going! Oh, wait, I got to do a drop. That's right.

Likes. I already said howdy-ho. I already sang. Before I get to the drop, I just want to tell you, it's a long one, but it's good, okay? You said this last time, and I agreed with you that it was a long one. Yes. This one is good. Okay.

You know, a little stretched out drop for the boys. That's what it is. Here we go. Here is a little drop wigs. Mitch, I just got an email. Our iHeart radio award has been melted down. Wow. Yeah.

Wigs, if you're wondering why that drop was so good, it's because it comes from a professional band. Wow. That's right, wigs. Dear Doughboy's Media Conglomerate, dear Doughboy's Media Conglomerate, after going through the whole main feed in nine months, I finally gave in and made a drop. I teamed up with my Doughboy's guru, Jared, from Pears. Wow.

Wow. And another friend that is uninitiated, we wrote this song to honor you and your work, and in the process, got another future fan quite interested. Please feel free to check out our other projects, Loose Tooth and Brown Rainbow, and they give a couple links, which we will post in our socials, Spoon Nation for Life, Loose Tooth and Brown Rainbow. Hell yeah. How about that?

And also, Jared from Pears. Keon, Jared, and Sean, Sean, that's, and hey, that ruled. I mean, that sounded great. Very good. It was great. And then you came in and said we should melt the iHeart radio award for a fucking great song. I like the song.

There's the lyrics here too. Nick Weigar is full of cum, big mouth and a real long tongue. Yeah, I think we heard all these. His brain's a circuit board. He's gonna spill some more. They're pretty clear. He's got a big cog and wants to work at a store. Uh-huh.

Wow. Mike Mitchell's full of cum. I don't know if that's true. He wants to date his mom. He likes oven fries, thinks cupcakes are pies. He's a big, big man with little beady eyes. Also true. Yeah.

The Doughboys are the ones who eat tons of shit for our fun. And if Nick and Mitch can't get it together, this fork score won't get much better. Hmm. The Doughboys are my friends. That was great. It was good. It was well done. I liked it.

Great little ditty. God, you show no enthusiasm. You suck. That's me showing enthusiasm. Get our guests in here. Pears, thank you. You rule. Thanks Pears.

Hell yeah. And Brown Rainbow. Really? Brown Rainbow. Who's the other one? Were you quizzing me? That's what it was in the email. You had the email in front of you.

Brown Rainbow and Loose Tooth. Shout out Loose Tooth. Shout out Pears. Shout out Brown Rainbow. Thanks so much. Lovely. We've got talented bands that listen to us. I mean, I gotta beg for them to not listen anymore.

They shouldn't listen. No, don't do that. Pup. Pears. Mm-hmm. It's great. It's great. Thank you guys for listening.

Can I say the joke I made at the Philadelphia Live show that I told you backstage and you told me I shouldn't say, and then I said it on stage? Let's hear it. Pup. Pears. What's next? A partridge in a pear tree? Wait, that wasn't how it went.

Oh, no, this is what it was. This is what it was. Wait, Pup. Pears. It was a freaking five days of Christmas. That's what it was. 12 days. And I told you not to make that?

I can't imagine why. Yeah, I think so. I didn't want to start our show off with fucking crickets. Our guest today is senior editor at Eater LA, an author of the book Los Angeles Street Food. Farley Elliott is here. Hi, Farley. Hello, hello, hello.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for making time for us. This episode, in particular, is a long time coming. We talked about this before everything shut down. I know everyone has had this conversation about so many things. And we finally were able to pull it together, which we're very, very excited about. Very excited to talk about this chain and excited just to talk about you in general

because I can't imagine your professional life over the last two years has resembled anything you expected it to. No, you're absolutely right. I got into food writing and the idea at the time was like, I like hot dogs. I wonder if anybody agrees with me. It's one of a million shitty ideas. You guys had a shitty idea that became a podcast and you know what I'm talking about. And so it really was for years, a lot of just fun and you break news and you get to tell

restaurant stories. And on my best days, I like to say that I'm helping small business owners reach a wider audience, which is really, really cool in Los Angeles, where there's 30,000 restaurants and 10,000 more street food vendors. During the pandemic, obviously that was not the case. Thankfully a lot of local people really continue to care about restaurants and their neighborhoods and their communities. And I think that did help specifically to save a lot of restaurants.

We still lost about 20% of our independent restaurants in the state of California over the past two years. So it's been really hard. I never thought on the reporting side that I would have to like make inroads with the governor's office to figure out how many people died that day or something. It was a darkest timeline kind of shit. But the reality is that the restaurant industry is as resilient as ever and the people who make it up are some of the most beautiful and hardworking folks that I can imagine ever

having the privilege to talk to. So they really made my life better even during such troubling times. That's rad. Wow. Yeah. I actually, Farley and I actually discussed this while we were waiting for you to arrive at the restaurant. That's right.

Yeah. You were a couple of minutes late. I was a little late. Yeah. So we went over some of this. You got there like 10 minutes later, but it's fine. Yeah. Mitch and I are actually rehashing this because I don't know if Mitch was specific and I could

say you were late. That's true. I was a little late. Which is not, hey, not coming for me, but I was. I want to get a couple of things out of the way right up top. Mitch, I'm insulted, Mitch, that you didn't say that you were afraid to do the howdy ho in front of me because I'm not a good enough guest. That's fine.

I know you too well. I know you too well. I'm not afraid anymore. I would like for you guys to note in the chat that I did officially change my name to the Whammer senior. We noticed that. That's because your dad's Quincy nickname famously is the Whammer and I'm taking grandparents back for the boys.

So I'm now. Wow. Yeah. Canonics. It's about time. Farley, I got tough news for you. My dad's dad was also William Anthony Mitchell. No, no, I had to go Whammer senior too.

Yeah. You got to go a couple back. That's a double whammy. This is incredible. He maybe wasn't William Anthony. I think he also maybe was also a Whammer. I wasn't a Whammer, MDM. Your dad took one look at you and he said, this kid isn't Whammer material.

Yeah. I mean, basically, yes. There was a story about my dad where he would go into a bar and my dad isn't like this at all. Very, very nice man, but he would get punched in the head for beers. I shouldn't tell the story because I don't really know. Jesus Christ. Like the side of the head?

Yeah. They were like, give him your best shot and he wouldn't go down. I think he was strong. But not punched in the face, punched somewhere on his skull. Yeah. I think in the skull face, I don't know. Jesus Christ. This also wasn't what my dad was like at all.

You met my dad, Wags. You met him before. He's just a very nice man. Lovely man. Yeah. Did not seem like the kind of guy who punched in the head for beers. You do seem like that. Yes.

Well, I would do the lineup. We talked about the lineup. We've talked about the lineup. Yeah. But you can recap. The lineup was a shot of Jaeger, another shot of Jaeger and a Jaeger bomb, a Guinness. And then a Bud Light. And I drink all of that in under 30 seconds.

People would, it would be a show. They'd line it up. Disgusting. Don't do that to yourself anymore. Disgusting. You don't do that anymore, do you? I mean, I'll do it for a live show. Stop doing that.

I'll do a lineup for a live show. I'll do a lineup for a live show. Stop punishing your body for people's amusement. Then someone, then Dean Coughlin from North Quincy High School was at the bar. Ooh, that lousy Dean. No, Dean Coughlin was great. Let me sign out all the time. He was a good guy.

Okay. But he was like, do I have to go down the hall and check with your mom? If I'm, I was like, I need to like sign out and go home for the day. He's like, should I check with your mom? I was like, oh, don't do that. And then I would just leave and go to Pizza Hut. But he saw me doing, he saw me doing a lineup and he, he told my mom. And then my mom, like, it was like a big thing where my, my mom, like they bought, like

they put a gold slogger in my Christmas stocking because they thought gold slogger was a part of it. And like the, like they were, because they had heard about this and my dad said, don't be the village idiot. That's what he said. They would, they were trying to encourage this behavior. No, it was like a joke because they were mad at me about it. And my dad was like, don't be the village idiot boy.

You know, that sort of thing. Like season one Homer. Don't be the village idiot boy. Miss, you ever, you ever walk into a bar and people are like, hey, let me punch you in the head and you're like, for a beer, right? Yeah, yeah, sure. For a beer, I drop. If, um, I, if someone were to punch Mitch in the head, I don't feel well about their

hands, I think they're going to take the worst of it. It's like punching a bowling ball. I got that juggernaut skull. Yeah. We punched this marble statue. That guy's wearing a peacemaker helmet. Look at it. It's the juggernaut bitch.

That was our introduction to, to the live action juggernaut. Was he said it's juggernaut bitch? Is that what it was? There was a meme and they, they referenced the meme and it was like too early to be referencing a meme and a movie and for people to like it. Nowadays people like it, but back then it was like, like, oh, this sucks. And everyone was upset. Yeah, it was bad, bad news.

It was bad. Uh, Farley, back to food. I, I, we, we talked a little bit of the meal, uh, and you have been, because your, your professional life requires you to go out and eat so much and eat, you know, at a lot of different places and you've talked to before, I think even on the podcast about how like, you know, part of the job involves not just sampling a lot of food, but also you don't want to be rude to people who are giving you food. So it's not like, like, oh, I'm going to take a taste and then throw this in the

trash. Um, sometimes you end up eating more than, than, than you would like, but you have been mitigating that by eating vegan at home. And, and what has that experience been like and how long you've been keeping that up? Yeah, it's been fun. You know, I, like a lot of people spent, uh, almost a year not really eating out at restaurants, doing takeout and stuff.

I'm very blessed. You know, I'm not a food critic. I'm not an anonymous person. I have a dining budget. My job is to go out and have relationships with people in the restaurant industry and help to tell their stories. And so I was still doing a ton of takeout, but I found in those really, really dark days where you would go to a grocery store and felt impossible and

scary and entire like aisles were empty. That I just didn't want to elbow old ladies for like loose bags of chicken. I was like, this doesn't feel good. I gotta tell you, I'm still doing that. I did that pre and post pandemic. Give loose chicken back to the boys. I can watch it. Yeah.

Just, just soggy bags of chicken. It just never felt right. And so eating vegan at home has been pretty transformative. I'm not a super stickler for it. You know, if, if I end up picking up a packet of cheese or somebody brings something into the house, it's not that big of a deal. And I still eat anything when I'm out, but I think it's really transformed my recipe game.

Usually, you know, three, four years ago, I would just be putting the piece of meat down on the plate that I cooked, maybe a vegetable on the side and you know, some of their carbohydrate. And that was if I was even eating at home. Now I'm looking up recipes. I'm, you know, getting more in depth with spices and things like that. It's been really, really fun. And I think has helped me in some ways, being a little more lazy at home

to continue to stay healthy in other ways. Right. Do you have a, are you like an instant pot guy? Or do you make a lot of stews? What, what's kind of your go-to? Bit of a soup not for sure. Um, I am a huge part of the, of Alice in Roman stew and a verse. I know she's been partially canceled.

Um, but the chickpeas do slaps and there's just no denying that. And that's been a really big savior for me. So the instant pot does come in handy. I've been doing more Indian cooking at home, a lot of dolls and things like that, which has been really great. Yeah. That has just broadened the repertoire unbelievably. And now I feel like I'm kind of at that place where you've got staple

ingredients and things that you know, you like, and you can kind of pull something together on a weeknight without having to go down the rabbit hole. Um, I don't need to follow directions in order to lead a successful life. Like you do Nick. So it's a little bit easier to just kind of whip something up. Also successful life. Wait a minute. Yeah, I should have stopped there.

Farley, you can't go, here's the deal. You can't go full vegan though, right? Just with your job, it would feel like it would be impossible, right? Yeah, exactly. I would have to probably leave my job. So I'm, I basically at this point of the pandemic, I'm still eating out somewhere between, you know, four and nine times a week. And maybe that's takeout or maybe it's on site dining or whatever.

And there were times previous to this where it would be in the, in the dozens in a given month. So that's still definitely a big focus of the job. It's a lot of fun, but man, it will, it will kill you if you let it, you guys know me for a long time. Like I was really heavy for a while and if managed to keep off a bunch of weight and I'm just trying to balance that sort of work life situation. And to be perfectly honest, it's something that you guys have to do

with eating out as much as you do too. So there's no wrong answers. There's no right answers. It's just about trying to figure out what works for longevity for yourself. Right. Well, you're looking great. You're doing a good job. Uh, we're, we're not, uh, we're, we're, we're sucking it up over here.

Uh, but I, but I, uh, Farley, I wanted to get from you a little in a, a little restaurant in memoriam. Other, are there, are there specific, are there some restaurants that, that we've said goodbye to in this last year? Like for me, I know this is kind of like a, a little more basic one. And, and, but cafe one-on-one going down was, uh, was, was sad news. And there was now, I'm not going to forget some places that went down, but there were, there were some closures that were, were a complete bummer.

Um, but yeah, yeah, I mean, there's, there's really too many to name. And honestly, a lot of the closures that hit the worst for me are just kind of the most personal. There was a dive bar in Culver city called the tattletale. That was one of the first like drink spots I used to love and they closed during the pandemic. I actually still have in my car, a wooden token from the tattletale, good for one free drink that I'll be cashing in, in heaven, I guess.

Um, but a lot of the, the real shameful stuff is in a small independent street food vendors, people who never even got the chance to make something bigger out of themselves. And, and there was a period during the pandemic when literally the most dangerous job from a life expectancy standpoint that you could have in the state of California was to be a line cook at a restaurant or any other profession. So, um, anybody that managed to make it through the people that you think are doing well, probably still aren't, or have a lot of shoes to fill when

it's on the staffing side or supply chain side or money that they owe and back rent. And so as much as possible, any restaurant that is still out there, you know, continue to try to support them. If you can be beautiful restaurants, Auburn, Bon Tom's kind of fine dining places in Los Angeles, they're no longer with us. And I think they have set back Los Angeles in a way it's going to take us years to recover from the overall, like landscape dining visibility that

you would have gotten with finer dining places like that. But like I said, the ones I really feel for our street food vendors and workers who are never going to get the chance to really grow. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, it's awful. It is, it is a, obviously that we talked about this a little bit too far before Nick got there, uh, about just the, the world's going into,

well, I can't do it. You're the only one who can do it, uh, about the world going into delivery mode, apps, um, and, and the numbers still that, you know, the numbers right now as the world is slowly getting better, but kind of going back and forth, you know, like, uh, you know, and which will happen for a long time. But right. The numbers of people eating out still quite low compared to pre-pandemic, like, like very low.

So do you think that, do you think that this is like going to be a new way of, of eating is just like pick up delivery apps? Is that here to stay? Is that the new way? Or do you think that it will go back to the numbers that have before people going out? Like, I know that people want to get back out again, but what are your thoughts on all that?

Yeah. I don't think that we'll ever truly recapture some of the, at least for Los Angeles, I'll speak specifically the, the dining numbers that we saw 2018 into 2019, where there was so much attention on the city and so much energy and building and people wanting to come and experience it. There is right now a moment and has been for a little while of excitement of people wanting that connection and craving group activities and public spaces when they feel safe to do that.

But the reality is that for two years of apps and delivery and ghost kitchens, which is its own ball of wax, that that stuff is here to stay. I mean, the convenience factor, even when you're getting mediocre food is really too strong, I think, to ever fully go away. And I would also add companies like, say the McDonald's or the, you know, the Guy Fieri kitchens and things like that, they're artificially deflating their prices on the app. So you get a burger that's, you know, say $6.99 for McDonald's, even if it's

getting delivered to your front door and it costs a little more than if you're doing the drive-thru. And over time, you start to think that a burger is worth $6.99, that your dinner is worth $6.99 and restaurants in other spaces cannot compete with that. And so it really drags down the entire operation from a hospitality standpoint. I think that's the long-term bummer. Damn, yeah. Yeah, that's a, yeah, no, that's, that's, that's a, that's a huge bummer.

I, I, like, uh, I got lunch delivered today because we were doing records and, uh, I posted it and there was, there was a note in the bag. I didn't post me, I grub-hubbed it, but there was a note in the bag that was like, don't use these delivery services. And I was like, they're right. And I was in a situation where we had about a half an hour window between, uh, between recording. So I scheduled to come and I was like, this is exactly right.

I should go pick up this food more often. And that is kind of like, uh, going out to eat with you and Nick, uh, to this restaurant. I was like, I love this. I, this is a part of my life that I truly miss, uh, is just getting dinner with friends and it just, it's great. It's one of the best things there is. You go out and you have a different company with some friends.

Wait, wait a minute. Farley and me and someone else. No, we, I, of course we had fun, but, but I got Mitch and I actually, Mitch and I went to lunch separately after that with just cardboard cut out of you, Nick. And I got to tell you, we had a better time. And you were more talkative, more charisma for sure. I, Farley, I wanted to ask you about, about Taipei because this is, we're

reviewing a Taiwanese restaurant, a restaurant founded in Taipei this week. And you actually spent some time there and there's a pretty comprehensive, uh, Taipei travel guide, which Eater put together that, that, that we'll put, we'll put on our social media, uh, that you had a hand in. Yeah. So that's part of the bonus of my job is occasionally I get to go travel around the world and, and talk about dining in other places. The beautiful thing about how we try to do it is that it's not, you know, let's

send some chubby white guy across the world for 10 days to talk about definitive ranks of restaurants or something. It's really about getting on the ground and working with local folks there, writers, stringers, photographers to help kind of assess what our needs are from a storytelling perspective and to help them show us things that we might otherwise miss. So we got to go for a 10 days, myself, Leslie Souter and some other folks and really just be in the world of Taipei, that street food.

That's like high end fine dining. We got to go to the Taipei one building. We actually got to go down south of the island. Um, and if you don't know Taipei is capital city of Taiwan, which, um, by many countries, they would say that they are technically a part of China. Taiwan largely considers itself independent, almost no way that Hong Kong is. It's very complicated. Getting into it here is, um, you know, your listeners are probably already

bleeding out of the years, but it's, there's structurally and politically, there's a lot going on, but it's an amazing, amazing city and an amazing place. And it's now kind of my default for anybody that I know that is traveling to Asia once it's safe to do so. I really recommend flying directly into Taipei, spending a couple of days there and just experiencing it from breakfast, Taiwanese breakfast all the way through dinner and night markets. There is nothing like it.

It is so singular and beautiful and absolutely delicious. Wait, what, what is Taiwanese breakfast? Taiwanese breakfast is a lot of, uh, tofu, crawlers, and they have like soy milks and things like that. Um, Lu Ra fan, like rice wrap, eggs, sometimes in it, sky and pancakes, chan beans and that kind of stuff. Um, you'll have street food vendors just everywhere. That'll be parked up, flipping, John Bain's little, you know, almost

crispy thousand layer pancakes and cheese, some egg and you can grab those on the go and then they have, you know, like what they would affectionately call wet markets, you know, neighborhood community markets, almost like pop-up farmers markets that happen in, in alleys and other areas and you can grab stuff from them. So it's really an all day affair and food. Like so many of the places in the world is sort of central to so much of what they do.

And they also, and this will speak a little bit to our restaurant today are not afraid because of the density of Taipei to put a restaurant anywhere. It can be on the fifth floor of an office building. It can be down an alley somewhere. And I think that that's something that we could do a better job at is just really embracing restaurants wherever they're at. Instead of saying, Oh, it's got to be this, you know, standalone parking lot, uh, that has space for my car and I'm going to drive 20 minutes to restaurants

can be everywhere and everything. I, I, you know, we're talking about politically charged stuff here with, uh, with, with China and Taiwan. Uh, but I just want to go on the record and say the dough boys are in favor of zoning reform that allows for restaurants to be more places. It is always fun when there's like a restaurant down a little alley, you know what I mean? I love it.

Like, uh, whatever. Um, we went to this place and we went to, uh, real quick on that note, but like, like, like, first off, that makes me think in San Francisco, there's that, there's that Tiki bar you've taken me to a few times that's just in the, the basically the lobby space of a, of an office building, uh, feels the Tonga room, it's like, it's like off of a hotel ballroom basically. And then they, and then the, but it feels like another, another world when you enter into it.

But the other place I was thinking of, we were in Charleston, South Carolina, we went to this great restaurant, uh, fuck, I think it's called Shane new, uh, Natalie would know, but we went to, uh, and it's just in a house. And it was just like a great restaurant space, just a house in a neighborhood. I remember when I was like a teenager and I was down the Cape, like, uh, I think a lot, like the, one of the last times I was down the Cape as like a kid, like a, well, as like a preteen slash teen. And, uh, we went to like a restaurant in a house.

And I was like, this is, this is fascinating. But finally, I wanted to say, I wanted to say that, uh, and there's some places like in, uh, in downtown and little Tokyo and stuff that has that have like, uh, bars down a weird alley and stuff like that. Um, but I want to say that the idea of, uh, we don't want to send, uh, chubby white guys around the world to eat food. Kind of sounds like the decision that Netflix came to when it came to the Doughboy show.

They were like the, uh, the, they were like the, the, the freight charges would be too expensive, shipping the Doughboy's internationally. Fucking ship us like dumb. We're waiting to you from a steamer ship. They got to go the long way. Probably we did, we did, we back, back to like the delivery world, but we were talking, we were talking go, a ghost kitchens and Nick and I kind of are not for them, uh, we're not, we're not a fan of them, but the, the crazy thing Nick

was when you were talking about sales recently and Mr. Beast burger was like one of the top places. Wasn't it? Wasn't it like one of the top burger restaurants or something insane? It shot up the charts in terms of, and, and you know, I think this is, this is in terms of locations, not overall sales, but it's, it's, it has so many locations now it's like, it's like, you know, up in the, the four digits in terms of numbers of, of places where you can order Mr.

Beast from, I mean, obviously they got to be doing something right. As far as just making the burgers, you know, like they're making burgers people like, but that is so strange to me that, uh, that a ghost kitchen places rose through the ranks like that or whatever. It's also some really rosy math. Like they're saying that they have a thousand Mr. Beast locations or, or on the first day that they opened, he said, I opened 300 restaurants at once.

Anybody who actually opens a restaurant will tell you how hard it is and how challenging finding the space and doing the build out and all of these things. They didn't open 300 restaurants. They essentially built an app and, you know, rebranded some back unused kitchen space of restaurants across the country to package on pieces of paper, you know, little stickers from Mr. Beast and sell the same burgers they were selling everywhere. It's like the kind of nefarious thinking that I think is, is bad for

workers and independent restaurants a lot. Sure. Yeah. That's, that's, uh, it was, I told Nick this, but my, I missed my Mr. Beast burger was in, uh, Bertucci's, which is a, uh, East coast chain. And I was saying to Nick, like it's a sad spot to be like rooting for like smaller chains in America. Like, I'm like, I'm rooting for independent businesses, obviously

first and foremost. And then it was like, this is a sad world where now I have to like root for the little guy, Bertucci's and Puppa Gina. Yes. These places, I lens doesn't go out of business, which is also a chain, but it's like, you know, they keep closing. Yeah.

Which is such a crazy spot to come to. And I think a lot of what they try to pitch themselves as is this idea that you take a smaller independent restaurant in a smaller town that doesn't have from a branding or reach or app perspective, the ability to collect enough audience to do delivery or take out. And so they say, Hey, we're going to give you all the tools and all the packaging to create a, a Mr. Beast just to use an example.

And then you'll cook our burgers and then you'll sell them out of the back of a Bertucci's or whatever underneath that branding name. And that is additive for them. They can also sell their own menu items elsewhere on the app if they want to. But the reality is they're getting pummeled 10 to one, not only with delivery fees, but all the branding and money and marketing that goes behind Mr. Beast that selling their burger against the Mr.

Beast burger doesn't really stand a chance. And then when you get into Mr. Beast is also using labor from a Bertucci's or a random Bucadabepo, then it's corporate money from the top to bottom. And all you're doing is feeding billionaires and keeping the low class workers underpaid as a result. Right. Yeah.

Grim. Very grim. Yeah. Very grim. Well, and I just, I want to like, I feel like a lot of well-meaning listeners are probably tuned out by now. I think there has been a ton of beautiful stuff that has come out of the pandemic from a restaurant perspective.

The ingenuity pop-ups, not just here in Los Angeles, but across America, people who have part of the great resignation left their jobs and are going to do more meaningful and more financially fulfilling things. There is so much brightness that is still on the horizon and people who are more creatively inspired than ever. And so it is really important to say that your local restaurants might be struggling, but your local restaurants are also in some ways more heartened by the people who choose to come and patronize them than ever before.

Wow. Yes. I, that's, hey, I mean, we're not going to put better than that. I will say that that Pertuchis was just filled with so many, so many ghosts kitchens. It was filled with a bunch of ghost kitchens, how to get itself to a fucking stress test with Scientology, a Theten test.

What are they called? Get some of those alien ghosts, Sadiya. There was like seven different ghost kitchens. What are those tests called? We took one when we were there. We did a Scientology episode that we'd never told people about. I think we can now talk about it. It's on the Patreon.

We've talked about it. It's on the Patreon. Yeah. I'm saying we, on the main feed, we never talked about it too much. Yeah. We went to the Scientology brunch during our religion month. What the fuck was that called? What was that called?

Praise, praise, October, blessed, October, blessed, okay. Rocked over blessed. We did. We went to, I don't think it was rock. I don't think we were rocking it. I think it was just October blessed. It was just October blessed. Okay.

Yeah. October blessed. We went to, uh, I like that month because instead of writing intros, I just read from a religious text for each intro. It saved me a lot of work. Anyway, uh, we, we went to the Scientology brunch. What the fuck is it called? It's not a dousing rod.

That's the thing you use to find water. Is it a stress test? Personality test? Is it a Thieton test? I don't know. Anyways, the, the, as you look that up, I will say that like every place we went. Stress test. It is a stress test.

E-meter is the device for a stress test. Yeah. Every episode we did that people would be like, that religion's like really bad. You know, remember we went to like the, we want, we like, when, we, we went to like a Buddhist church or something. And then they were like, that place is bad. Like every place we went to was bad. We found out, but you know what?

We're mad about organized religion. Yeah, I don't think that's exclusive to your religious month. I think every place you guys go to is bad. We'll take a break. We'll be back with more dough boys. You know, Mitch, you're about to take a little trip abroad. You're going to Costa Rica. That's right.

Why? So I'm going to Costa Rica with the family. It's going to be a lot of fun. Going to maybe see a monkey. Oh, that's fun. Going to maybe see a bird. Just that, just a one monkey, one bird. That's it.

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your first box. Do it. Welcome back to do boys. We are here with Farley Elliott discussing this week's chain. Din Tai Fung, which was founded in 1972 in Taipei, expanded internationally to Tokyo in 1996 and expanded to the US in 2000 in Arcadia, California. I've been to the Arcadia location. That's where my grandparents lived, uh, for many years.

Arcadia sounds like a fun city. Like it sounds like a Nick Arcade sort of deal, but it's, uh, but probably boring is my guess. It's very suburban. I mean, it's fine. Yeah. It's fine. I had, I had no beef with Arcadia.

It's hot, very toasty out there. Once you start getting a little east of LA, a little bit more inland. It's so you get that desert heat. 1996. You go and check out Independence Day. You walk into a newly opened Din Tai Fung. Imagine that in Tokyo. Yeah.

Oh, I thought, I thought you said the first one here is in 96, 2000 in Arcadia. 1996, 2000. Oh, in Tokyo. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like listening to you. 2000.

You would have been, wait, wait, what are the movies of 2000? I don't even remember. Well, good luck. The Siege. The Siege. You saw the Siege with Bruce Willis. Nick, I guess, I guess I'll ask you, Nick, what is a 50 year old man seeing the movie theater in the year 2000?

Remember the Titans, of course. Oh, 50 year old man would have eaten up. Remember the Titans back. That's a road trip. We got road trip. There you go. Castaway Wags. Gladiator.

Gladiator is a big one. Best picture winner. Wow. And you know what? We were talking about it earlier. It's not in this one, but the first X-Men is 2000. Wow. Here, highest grossing films of 2000.

We have so much to discuss about this chain. This is complete bullshit. Highest grossing films of 2000. Number one, MI2, the Mission Impossible franchise. Wow. Number two, Gladiator. Number three, Castaway. The weak link.

Yeah, it's my it's my least favorite of the franchise. Number three, Castaway with Tom Hanks. Number four, What Women Want with Heartthrob Mel Gibson. Yeah. And number five, Disney's Dinosaur. Remember Dinosaur? Completely forgot about that fucking movie. Wow.

Yes. That animated Dino movie. Not the good dinosaur. There was another one just called Dinosaur that I think is real locations. More about, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How the Grinch's Christmas, Meet the Parents, Perfect Storm, X-Men, What Lies Beneath. What Lies Beneath did great and did boffo box office. I had no idea.

What Lies Beneath, a fun movie. Kind of an interesting, those are the top 10 movies. Kind of interesting. You know, if I could go back in time. Fucking Zemeckis. Two in the top 10 this year. Alpha shit. Fucking Zemeckis.

Yeah. I mean, that was some, that was a 90s run right there into 2000. Um, if I could go back in time, I would be like, male, don't go to dimples. I'll try to. Let the flash and the justice league warning male not to go to dimples. Mitch, do you think if you, if you find yourself in a castaway situation, that when you got rescued on the Wilson ball, there'd just be a tiny little hole cut over.

Farley, I like it. Must have been jabbing his pinky in there or something. It must have cut this on a tiny rock. I'd be puncturing that thing from all over the place. How long, how, how, how long was he alone for? He was alone for a while, right? Yeah. It was a while.

Enough time for his, his, uh, girlfriend, fiance to remarry and have kids. Yikes. Yeah. Rough stuff. Wise if I come back after four years and there's some fucking new fat guy on the show, I'd be fucking ripped shit. You think I continue the podcast? I'm looking for any excuse to fucking bury this thing in the earth.

Uh-oh. Mitch disappeared. Well, don't boys is done. Bye. I, why, we would spend, we would spend one October looking for you. We would call it like, where's Mitch tober fast? A month of episodes trying to find you and then we would give up. I appreciate that.

Honestly. Our server was Chi, uh, and he was a fantastic. He, I thought it was so, so great. So attentive, uh, just, just like, you know, it's the service there. I feel like it's always, is always top of the line. Yeah. Let me, let me get into something here. First of all, the dope boys can't be bought.

Second of all, Farley did not cause when Farley, when you visit a restaurant, they will try to put their best foot forward, which makes sense. You wanted, you did not want that treatment. You don't, you want the, you wanted the regular treatment. And we got, we got there. You, you told me immediately, like they're on to me. They kind of, they know I'm here. Uh, yeah.

Yeah. So my, my job is not to like take money out of people's pockets. That's bad for business. And it's not who I want to be. My company pays for me to eat at restaurants. So if I'm just out demanding free meals, that's like journalistically bad. And also just not who I want to be as a person, but they do have an incentive in some ways to want to be nicer to you or

whatever the case may be. And so yeah, it's in Typhoon has a usually pretty strict set of regimented rules, like you're not allowed to go sit at your table until your entire party is there. And they were like, you can go sit down whenever you want. So I knew the jig was a little bit up from the beginning, but that being said, you know, they, they tried to be nice about the bill and we made sure to pay.

And so we, we definitely did as much as we could to not get bought. That's for sure. Yes. But great, great service all around. And also in all my experiences at didn't Typhoon, always good service. I've never really had a bad experience there. I'd say if anything for people who have never been or are going to go after listening to this episode, it is a little chaotic.

A lot of people want to eat at this restaurant. It can be a long wait. Uh, and there can be a lot of people. Uh, it was funny because it didn't even seem that way when we were there, but I think that they were all booked up, right? They, it was, uh, they, I think they just kept empty tables, right? Out front is, is basically. We also went in the late afternoon on a weekday.

So, you know, there were factors in our favor in terms of avoiding the lunch rush or the brunch rush, but it is, it is a high volume restaurant, a lot of tables. Yeah. Yeah. High volume and, and, and, and just like high, just large real estate. It's like a big dining room. And so for that, considering just like the scope of what their, their

operation, the services is very, very impressive to the chaos factor, Mitch. The other thing to keep in mind, if you haven't dined there is just. The way dishes come out and then come, like come onto your table, you can very quickly end up with a table that's just like completely full of food. And you know, you kind of have to, it's a little bit of, of, uh, of a Tetris, uh, operation to kind of move things around so everyone can get what they want to eat. Nick, good video game.

Irvin's, I'm going to say you have to turn yourself into a little bit of a curbie. And suck down all the, all the dumplings to clear away. You know, you gotta, you gotta put dumplings on your plate to just clear off some baskets and get new stuff in. Although in that analogy, you would acquire the powers of the dumpling. Oh, I'd be filled with liquid. Yeah. Nick, don't worry.

I saw that dump where you were walking with. I know you're a choir in the power. Water, Vigor's dumpling ass. I'll take it, which is funny. If you eat a dump, if you eat it, if you get it, if you get the power of the dumpling, that's containing food, like a liquid in food within the dump, like that, that power is basically what you're eating. That's kind of just being a, a, a living being, being an organism with a digestive

tract. This is a Kirby conundrum. Yeah. What would happen with Kirby? I think you'd get a little dumpling suit and it would be very cute. I think that's what would happen. Yeah, it would end up being cute is the answer. Let's, let's start with drinks.

We have so much food to get through. I tried to course it out as, uh, about as we arrived at, as about as we received it, but it's possible I missed something. Uh, but, but drink wise, I got myself a milk tea. I told you Farley that I've been on a milk tea kick for like the past two weeks. I like just got into it and I've been getting it basically every day. I, I, I'm so into it. I get a quarter sweet, so I'm not having too much liquid sugar, but man,

it, they did a good, they did a solid milk tea there with some boba. It was great. Yeah. Real quick, I just want to interject now that we're into the food portion of the show, I would like to make a, a challenge to the both of you right now that every time on this episode that you refer to an item of food as quote, good, the most meaningless term in food that you will, we will tally it up at the end of the episode and you'll donate $2 for every instance you said good to the

independent restaurant coalition to try to help save small independent restaurants. How's that sound? Happy to do it. Don't boys bank accounts going to be fucking depleted. Listen, I'm, I hope, I hope we don't donate any money. I hope you guys actually use words other than good, but I know you're not capable. No, no, we're not capable at all. Food is good or bad.

I'll keep a good tally. I'll keep that tally. Emma. Thank you. Emma doesn't count. Emma doesn't, that didn't count. Uh, no, we'll do, this is going to be good. Just to toss it out.

Oh. Um, so Nick, Nick, you thought your, your drink was good. My drink was good. Not only is good a, uh, for us, like, uh, probably as good as we can do, uh, just intellectually and with our vocabulary, but also it is, it is to me, that's a high ranking, good as a high-ranking for, that's what you're looking for. It's good. And there, and there are different goods for you guys.

Sometimes it's like, it was good. And then sometimes you're really hitting the second. Oh, it was good. And then people know to kind of adjust their pre-fork ratings accordingly. Yes. Well, I, I had a couple of different drinks. I went with a cocktail first wise. You did, uh, you, you did not, uh, you did not, did you not get an alcoholic drink?

No, I had a drive. I've been at a long drive. I don't like driving with any, any inebriation. I don't like driving period. Well, I just had one drink. Now you're making me feel bad that I, yeah, but I had a longer hole. All right. All right.

I'm going to go all the way across town. I got the Yuzu, Yuzu margarita. Did I say that right? Yuzu margarita, I believe so. I was between that and I was looking at the, the, I said it wrong there too, but the, how do you say lychee, uh, leechy, leechy, mojito, and then also that pear leechy martini. I started eye at the end there.

Farley, you ended up getting that, uh, and I got that, the margarita, the margarita was good, but I had a sip of your, your, uh, martini. And it was really great. It was, it was, it was sweet, but it was fantastic. Yeah. And I think these guys, you know, the, the part of the appeal of Din Tai Fung is that they're doing Taiwanese food, but Taiwanese food is obviously in many ways also encompassed in Chinese food.

And there's a long history in Chinese food, especially Chinese, American food of introducing a Pacific Islander, sort of drinks, like Tiki drinks, things that can be a little sweeter, play to a broader audience. And this is definitely in that realm and had a little flower in it and the leechy ball on the stick. And I think it was definitely sweet, but it hit the right notes for that kind of like settle in. We're having a good time, a couple of buds, getting ready to like do an

afternoon drink. It's, it's not, it's definitely not mad men like hardcore drinking. It's kind of more on size. Right. Yeah, for sure. And I also, by the way, I, there's the restaurant Quincy Cathay Pacific been open for a long time. There's karaoke there and that is very much like a Chinese food, American

Chinese food, East Coast American Chinese food. We're talking to poo poo platters and chicken fingers, steak, teriyaki, which, which people are beef teriyaki, it's called, which people are like, that's Japanese. I'm like, that's always in Chinese food in the poo platters on the East Coast, uh, chicken wings, all that stuff. Uh, and I love it. Like I truly, truly love it because they have my ties, scorpion bowls.

It's, I love, I love, I love that like aesthetic. I love, I love the, like, uh, like East Coast Chinese food with a big fruity cocktail drink that reminds me of the islands. I love that more than anything. And it's just funny because didn't, didn't Ty Fung isn't that type of place. You know what I mean? Like it's not, it's like, you were saying it's very clean. It's almost the Apple store of like, of, and I say that in a nice way.

Like, I don't, I don't think that, I don't think that it's like mass marketed like Apple store, but it's like, it's very clean. You see, you see everything that's going on. And Farley, you made a point about like they, they want to make it clean. They want, they want to show the chefs in the kitchen, making dumplings. They want to be very transparent about everything. And I think it is. I don't think that like, I don't think it's like a dark, uh, you know,

like a, like a, like a little cavern, like feels like a boat where you're drinking, uh, where you're drinking, uh, fruity island drinks. I just doesn't feel like that sort of place. That being said, the cocktails were good. I enjoyed both of them, but it just doesn't feel like that sort of place. And to recap, my milk tea was also good. Sorry, go on. No, no, no, you, uh, Nick, you'll know this from the original location out in

Arcadia, it was a little dingy or a little more ad hoc. It started as a single space and strip mall expanded to an adjacent space. And what's happened over the years, there are maybe 175 global locations. Now is that on the US side, they're now as a company attaching themselves with larger development brands, whether that's Caruso here in Los Angeles at the Americana or Westfields, they'll do mall locations. And so they are bigger, a little bit more opulent, a little more stoic, like an Apple store inside.

And they also are trying to appeal to a much broader and bigger audience places like the Americana or, uh, the Grove here in Los Angeles, also owned by the Caruso company, these are some of the highest traffic tourist destinations on the entire West coast. And so they really want to go out of their way to present service, to present style. And like you said, Mitch, they've got a window into the kitchen where you can watch them making the dumplings.

And it's always 18 little pleats on each dumpling. There's a process and a standardization that has come with their quote that is very fun, but can also be a little bit sterile if it's your first time there. Sure. Yeah. And you know, I had no idea about that history. I, uh, I also got a non-alcoholic drink. I got the honey lemonade, which was good.

And, um, and our server, what was his name again, Wags? Chi. Chi, uh, he said, he said, uh, you should put a, you should do an add on. You should do an, he suggested the aloe add on. And I was a little nervous about doing an aloe add on. And guess what? Yeah. It was good.

I liked it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was fun to suck up the, uh, it was like kind of, but you know, it's Boba adjacent. There was not a lot of taste to it. Like it was, uh, he said it would cut the sweetness a little bit. And it, and it, and it, and it did, it was great. Uh, Farley, what, tell us about your cocktail.

I had that lychee cocktail and I thought it was a delight. Like they said, a little bit sweet, but also really nice. And you know, we got that sort of chewy lychee ball on it as well. I was just going to say the, the aloe, you know, Boba having the balls in there. Like that kind of stuff is much more, uh, texture is much more relevant to a lot of dining outside of America. So, uh, Nick, I know that you'll never fly across the water to go experience it yourself, but if you were to get over your insane fear, then

maybe you would be able to understand that like texture is just much more of a component for a lot of other international cuisines. And it's nice to see that on display where they're not afraid to drop a little aloe in your drink and have you love it. Right. Uh, let's, uh, let's talk about the food because, uh, and I guess we'll go course by course, but first up, we had the cucumber salad, the sweet and sour pork, baby back ribs, which were already on the table.

When I arrived, uh, uh, as was mentioned, I was perhaps a little bit late. And the wood ear mushroom in a vinegar dressing. Now, I was going to say this, yes, we, we actually didn't, those were brought out as, uh, right? Farley, those, they kind of just brought those out for us. The baby back ribs and was it the cucumbers as well? Did they bring them both out for us? I think they did.

Yes, I think we were going to get them. And I think that they brought, they just brought them out. Oh, okay. Yeah. And I actually, to be fair, I think they saw you round the corner and started heading towards the restaurant, Mitch. And I heard a cheese say initiate rib protocol until they brought out the ribs. Sounds like some metal, metal gear, metal gear, solid.

Yes. The ribs we didn't, we weren't even talking about them or thinking about them. They brought them. I thought the ribs were good. Uh, that cucumber salad is, is the cold cucumber salad there is like one of their, I feel like that's every time I've been there, I feel like I've gotten it. Great. And as someone who doesn't, I'm not a huge cucumber fan.

I'm not crazy about the QQ swags. Yeah. QQ makes you puke. QQ can make me puke unless it's in the pickle form. But, uh, the rhyme really just goes down to the second half. QQ can make you puke unless it's in the pickle form. That's it.

Um, which is not the norm. Uh, but the, uh, big fan of pickles, not a huge fan of cucumbers. Uh, but that salad is, you know what? It's undeniable. It's a good, it's a nice app. It's a nice, cool app. A little spice to it. It's, it's, it's great.

It's got, it's got like a Fresno chili peppers and some garlic. It, this is, I will say, and I'm pretty, I'm pretty able with the, with the chopsticks, you know, I'll use them at home sometimes. Very hard, yeah. This is a, this is a high degree of difficulty, chopstick item, uh, the circular form factor, these little cylinders that are coated with oil. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's just, uh, keep that in mind. If that's your starter and maybe you're not as, as chopstick proficient or,

or you're with your parents who maybe are, are more fork and knife people. Yeah. Very, very good point. I do love that they will drop some of the light, uh, either room temp or slightly cold vegetables right on the table first. You get the wood ear mushrooms and stuff too. They're just nice little kind of nibblers, warm up the palate. You get to have something that is a little bit spicy before you get into

the, the heavier stuff. And that's not to say that when you're eating huge steaks or anything, but it is a great little palate appetizer. Those mushrooms are fucking delicious. I love those with the, with the vinegar dressing. They're so good. Now let me tell you, not a, not, not a crazy mushroom guy either. Uh, kukes of mushrooms to like, so two apps right off the bat where I'm, I was

much more like excited about the, the, the baby back ribs there. Right. Or what were they beef short ribs, whatever they were. And those were good. They were tasty. Um, they're tasty ribs, but the star of the show were those, those wood ear mushrooms. They're, they're as a wood ear. Um, damn, they were good.

Don't love mushrooms, but if you're a vinegar fan, they were just fucking sitting in some delicious vinegar and it wasn't overpowering. It was just no, so, so, so good. Little gingery. Well, as you took down the, the, basically the, when, when, when Farley and I had had a few pieces of it, you said, are you guys going to eat this? You're not eating any mammal. That's right.

Yeah. I didn't need any, any red meat this meal. So yeah. So I finished off the mushrooms. Very annoying reveal for me when I, when there, it's a very pork based restaurant. Why is that annoying? You got to eat whatever. No, I know it's not really annoying.

I was just trying to give you a hard time about it. Um, but, but I was ready for like, I was ready to go all in on pork and stuff. And yeah. And, uh, but man, the star of the apps, those mushrooms. And I, I, I never, Farley, I don't know if that was your wreck, but I never would have gotten them. I, I loved them. I loved them.

Yeah. That was mine. We've got a few great Taiwanese restaurants here in Los Angeles, including like joy and, uh, pine and crane, and they'll have little front sections that have a cold case and you'll get a lot of these same kind of cucumbers and wood ear mushrooms. So I'll get them a lot there when I go to those restaurants. And it's just always, especially on the day we're eating outside in Los

Angeles, it just always feels like perfect as a little starter of the light, the vinegary, they kind of get your mouth going. It's perfect. Uh, Farley, you'll like this wood ear mushroom. I call them good ear mushroom. They're good. Ring the bell. That's what you wanted.

Uh, we got some more vegetable dishes. We got the sauteed green beans with garlic or I'm sorry, sauteed string beans with garlic and the sauteed bok choy. I admit you like the bok choy. I went with a, I like the string beans, garlicky, delicious, both good though. The string beans are good. I like, uh, I don't know. I think the string beans are definitely popular.

That's like, uh, right. Farley, I feel like that's like one of their big dishes and it, it's good. Don't get me wrong. It's very, they're very good. Um, it's just, I don't know, not a huge string bean guy. I think, uh, like, uh, the bok choy was just kind of more interesting to me. And especially for, uh, for something where I, when I think of bok choy, I usually am like, it's usually like in a soup or something.

And it doesn't have much flavor. And here it just had so much, it had such a nice flavor to it. Um, but the string beans were still good. I still, I still enjoyed them. Both good dishes. I was just team bok choy. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You're a choy boy. That's all right. I'm a choy boy. What can I say? I am a choy boy. The choy brought me joy. What I, what I think about the bok choy is that, and this is something I've

been cooking a lot more at home since I've been eating more vegan is that you get that really quickly, kind of high heat, wilted green edge. But if you cook it fast enough, the center is still really texturally firm. Right. So you've got a little bit of both worlds going on at once, which is nice. Yeah. We'll, we'll make bok choy at home on occasion. I should make it more frequently, honestly, because yeah, it's, it's a very

solid vegetable and yeah, you're absolutely right. It's very, it absolutely holds up to that kind of cooking. Uh, and then we got into some, some soups, a braised beef noodle soup, which you guys had a hot and sour soup, which you guys also shared. And then a, uh, a jidori chicken soup, a bone in. That was your order. That was my order. You got the loser of the soups, which is okay.

How dare you? It was a good soup. It was the loser of the soups. I mean, there's no doubt about it. I love, here's the thing. I love a brothy soup. I love a bra, a brothy soup with bone in chicken. That's like a good, that's like so solid for me.

And you get, you get that at a Mexican restaurant. You can get that at, at, you know, at a Taiwanese restaurant. But like there, there's different, Natalie will make that sometimes. It's, I, I, I'm always into that sort of soup. I'm always into, to just some, it's very messy, but, uh, but like the soup, the, the meat is so tender. And then I just think that broth gets super flavorful. It's good.

To open up these wounds again, I ordered myself that sweet and sour soup. Very excited about it. And, uh, at the end of the meal, uh, why grass for a box? Cause he wanted a box up the sweet and sour soup, take it home with him. And, uh, uh, you know what? I was fucking pissed off. Here's the thing. You didn't, you guys both said this was both of you and, and, and, uh, that,

that you weren't going to take anything to go. And so I was like, great, I'll take this home to Natalie. She's going to love it. It's going to be a surprise. And I, and everything else, I just kind of packaged up by instinct. There was one dish, Mitch, which we'll get to, which you said, uh, actually, I'll take this one for my dinner. And I was like, great.

If you'd set up that about the hot and sour soup, you could have had it. It was too late. You would already staked it. You're still going to take in it. And I was like, Hey, actually, could I get that? I liked Natalie. I wanted her to experience the soup too. So that's why I didn't say anything, but I wanted the soup.

Yeah. I wanted to take the soup home. Yeah. And I should actually, I should tell you, Mitch, I took the, I took the soup home and then I saw Natalie just pour it directly into the toilet. So sorry about that piece of shit. I actually remember it slightly. I remember the interaction slightly differently.

I remember saying, no, Nick, please don't punch me in the side of the head. You can have the soup. Just Nick fucking stake and claim on everything. Like fucking Napoleon, putting this flag up on every fucking leftover. How dare you? I bit my lip. I bit my lip, but you know what? We could have shared all of it.

You said you didn't want any. Look, as much as I love that, that hot and sour soup, sweet and sour, hot and sour, hot and sour. You loved it. You can't even remember what it was. Farley's soup was number one. Farley ordered that, that beef, the braised beef noodle soup. Yeah.

God, that was so good is awesome. And this is a great example of going back to, to going to Taipei. I really didn't have an understanding of just how pervasive braised beef noodle soup is in a lot of neighborhoods in Taipei. And it can be served on the street. It can be in a simple corner shop. You can find it, find it in high end restaurants. It's really just an unbelievable standard dish for the city and the country

as a whole, and it is so, so delicious. Chewy noodles, that, that beef broth, a little bit of spice. And again, they sort of tell you like to mix it all together because they want to show you that they're layering the flavors as they put the soup together. So once it's all mixed and you've just got a nice and warm at your table, it's, it's unbelievable. Dear Lord, it was so good. Look fantastic.

The hot and sour, great. That soup just knocked out the part. Nick soup. Okay. I was fine. Your soup was fine. It was just very, it was a very basic, good chicken, like a chicken, not noodle, just a chicken soup.

Yeah. Gingerly, a little, had some onion in it. It was good. You got bone in, you freak. They asked if you want to bone in. You said, yeah. I said yes. And he said, it's better that way.

So he backed me up. They said, do you want to bone in? You got up and you started to like undo your belt and they're like, no, no, no. Yeah. Some noodles. We had the shrimp, the shrimp fried noodles, which I had some of, uh, and I thought they were, they were good. We had leftovers of, and they'd be shredded Kuroboda, uh, pork fried noodles,

which you guys shared. That's the one I took home. Uh, I liked both. I, I, I, the, so the, the shrimp fried noodles came with the, those thicker noodle. I love those thicker noodles there at, at, uh, at Din Tai Fung, the, the, those thicker fried noodles that they do are so, so good. Um, the, that, that, the, the beef noodle. What was the other one, Nick?

The beef noodle. The, the, well, there's the shrimp fried. And then there was the, we're just talking about the noodle dishes. Did we get a third noodle dish? No, no, that was, I'm saying, what, what is the beef, what is the beef noodle dish? It wasn't a beef one. It was, it was, uh, uh, Kuroboda pork. Oh, pork, the pork noodle.

Uh, that was great too. That one was interesting in that it was like, uh, not super sauce. It was kind of lightly sauced, right, Farley? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think this is like a, a staple Chinese dish. A lot of times you'll find it like knife cut noodles.

They can be a little thicker, a little chewier. You'll find them really long sometimes they actually cut ours in half cause they knew that we were going to be sharing it, which made it a lot easier for us. Otherwise we all would have been three way kissing over the table. But, uh, I was disappointed that it didn't happen. And that's, you know, I brought it up with them over email. It'll be a new Patreon tier. Uh, the, the, I'll say this, I think part of why I like so, I like this restaurant.

I like this kind of food and I like, you know, the dishes we got in particular. There's so much green onion in this. I love green onion. And it was, it was very present in these noodle dishes or at least the noodle dish that I had. They also had cabbage on there, which is just great for texture. Cause, you know, the, the noodles can get a little, a little chewy, even gummy. Although these were, these were very well made noodles.

And it was just, uh, I thought this was delightful. Good dish. Like when you're at Tintai Fung, I think it's safe to say send nudes. N O O D S. That's right. Hashtag send nudes, send them over, send all the noodles. Those, the, the, the, the pan fried, the, the, uh, the pan fried noodles or whatever it is, the, the, the, the, with the shrimp, I love those.

They're great. I mean, like every noodle dish was, was great, but still to me, not even the best of, uh, the best of the bunch, which we got to in a little bit here. Is that the first time you've ever used the phrase send nudes and gotten a response? I think I've happily never said send nudes and never will. I never got an asked of me either, except for maybe from a doctor. Are you just sending tasteful doctor recommended photos where you're like a little shadowed and coy photographer.

The, the black pepper beef tenderloin camera, exactly what order this came, but this was a, this was the beef dish with mushrooms and bell peppers and onions, which I think was new to their menu, new to their menu. They added it on for us. They wanted us to try it. Yeah, it was good. Very, very tender beef. I liked it.

I liked it more, Farley, as I said, as I, as I went down and got the beef that was in kind of sitting in the sauce for a while. Yeah, it really, really peppery, almost like a classic peppercorn steak or something you would get, but the big square chunks of red and yellow peppers. It's a, it's a different unique dish that probably plays a little more for the American audience than it does in Asia, but it was pretty successful. And I think if you're at a mall location like this one is, and people are looking for something that has some heft and they don't feel like they're seeing

it on the menu, this is a great add on. I would have no problems recommending this to your dad who otherwise is afraid to venture into noodle territory or whatever. Yep. Uh, we also got, uh, the, the, the Shaolongbao. So if you're eating, not eating red meat, then you're kind of out of luck here, which, which is a bummer because I think these are the showstoppers, at least in terms of what I think of it at, at Din Tai Fung.

I, the, the Shaolongbao is just so, so good. The kind of their pork soup dumplings. Uh, and you guys got the one with the truffle in pork, which you only get five of. You get a smaller portion. Yeah. And let me tell you, worth it. So, so bite of the night. So good.

You have your spoon, you bite a little hole in the side of it. You drink some of it. This is Farley in the, in the, in our waiter telling me how to do it. You drink a little of that soup broth, then you put the whole thing back in your mouth and you, you chow down. Uh, so, so, so good. Emma, you just made soup dumplings, didn't you? I did.

Wow. Wow. It's quite the process for sure. Mine definitely did not have 18 pleats on them. They did not look nearly as perfect as they do at Din Tai Fung, but they were good. They still photograph very well. Yeah. Yeah, they're great.

What'd you put in those bad boys? Um, it was a, it was just pork and soup broth with the green onions and ginger and pretty simple ingredient wise. Like the, the filling, you just need the agar to get the, the, uh, broth to jelly status so that you can wrap it up in the meat and wrap it up in the dumpling. Otherwise it's a big old mess. That sounds so complicated. How would you rate the degree of difficulty versus other dishes you've made at

home? Um, get an eight out of 10. Where, where would you put it? Yeah. I mean, ingredients wise, pretty easy. And it's like cooking it wasn't hard. It's the, it's the folding of the dumpling and like getting the dough rolled out just right so that it doesn't rip, but it's thin enough that it steams properly and

everything inside cooks. Like there were a few big dumplings that we had that we cut them. We were a little worried they weren't cooked all the way through and then so we cut them open and they weren't. So like you have to be careful with the thickness of the dough and then the pleating has to be just right. Otherwise they open up and all the soup spills out. So like forming them was definitely on the more difficult side, but

ingredients wise, super simple. This is just eye opening, just hearing like all of that. And then just thinking about how this place pumps out like thousands of these and they're, yeah, it's amazing. That used to be one of my favorite parts of going to Din Tai Fung was like watching them through the window. It's like, it's like a watching of how it's made live. It's so fascinating.

Yeah. And these are like, these are like the Rolls Royce of dump. I mean, they're so good. Why? Cause those, those truffle ones are just the ones we got were just top tier dumplings. I mean, I don't know, Farley's is that sort of thing of like, would, would some people be like, like a, you know, dumpling experts, would they be like,

do you can't get the best dumplings at Din Tai Fung? Or are they considered like up there with some of the best? No, I think this is kind of like a, a Houston's when you talk about service. I think everyone universally agrees that, that the Chao Leng Bao at Din Tai Fung are absolutely a worthy inclusion into the greater soup dumpling pantheon. You are not losing anything by going to Din Tai Fung. That is for sure. The quality, like Emma said, watching them through the window, they had groups

and teams of chefs whose entire job is to move location to location, either doing R&D or making sure the process is staying the same. And they also have to open new locations when they go to Seattle or Vancouver or whatever. It's pretty remarkable to see how consistent they can be. And I'm with you Nick a little bit. I think that it would be good for them to have. It doesn't need to be a vegan option necessarily, but definitely a vegetarian

option for a city like Los Angeles. It's a little bit of a bummer that they don't go further in that world. But I think with the amount and volume that they're doing, it might be one of those things where like McDonald's is not allowed to run out of French fries. Everything takes a long-term course. And you just, it's going to take time for them to get there. Yeah. Well, they do accommodate vegans a little bit and vegetarians a little bit with

their, the bun and wonton side of their menu and as well as their dumplings. Although we didn't get the veggie dumplings. They, we got some vegan buns and some vegan wontons. We got Emma's dumplings in the chat here. Also, I got hermit out, hermets now on my lap. I can't really move. Um, but, uh, oh yeah. Emma sent a picture of these dumplings.

They, they do look restaurant quality. If we click on this link here, we can post these on social if we haven't already. Very impressive. Thank you. Don't send a photo of your dumplings, Wags. Only I'm allowed to share my dumplings in the chat. That's an endless exclusive. We also got the, the pork buns, the chicken dumplings, the cod dumplings and the, uh,

and you mentioned the vegan wontons and the vegan buns. I was a little mad that we, like, I wanted to get like, like, you know, like some pork dumplings or something. I mean, we already had enough pork, so I can't complain. But then I really liked those chicken dumplings. I thought the chicken dumplings were pretty great. Those are great. Those are honestly one of my favorite things I had.

I really get the cod dumplings were interesting. I didn't like them as much as I wanted to like them. Still good. Don't get me wrong. Still good. I just, it just was, uh, you know, a lot, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of cod. A lot of, a lot of cod taste in there. They are very fishy and it's, it's interestingly a chicken broth.

So if you are, if you are a pescetarian, unfortunately these are, these are off the table. Yeah. I think that their cod dumplings are, are nice. And if they were your only entrance into that world for whatever reason, I think they're totally serviceable. It's just hard to go from the pork, salad and bow or even those chicken dumplings and feel like you're getting the same experience.

There's just not as much, uh, pure burst of flavor, but there's still well done. Absolutely. Yeah. I like the vegan buns quite a bit. A lot of mushroom in that. Yeah. I thought, I thought they were, I thought they were very flavorful. Uh, the vegan wontons were also good.

I think a big part of that was just the sauce they were in. They have like the, they have a, you know, I'm, it's not, they're a heat seeker. So they have some, there was, there's some real spice to that sauce. And that, that helped it, but I thought flavor wise, as far as the filling, I probably would, would give the, the nod to the, to the vegan buns. Yeah. I love those, those puffy buns, those big fully enclosed bars you bite in and just sort of all the flavor is packed right into the middle.

And they'll say, you know, there's kind of no wrong way to, to have an experience at the entire phone, you can do whatever you want. I like to add a little chili to it or add even a little soy sauce just to kind of help soak it up a little bit more. But I think those are the kind of staple foods you could get at any corner or even like Asian grocery stores across America that they'll sell on the hot food section and they're so simple and so satisfying. Yeah.

I, I, I, I tried the vegan bun and I was like, Hey, this isn't too bad, but then the pork bun was great. And, you know, I loved it. I mean, like it, it was that sort of thing. If it blew the vegan bun out of the water, I, you know, I couldn't, but I will say the vegan bun did a great job. Why is it was like, if you're going there and you're getting those vegan buns, you're, and you're vegan, you're going to, you're going to enjoy yourself.

They're good. They're very good. This, it's good that this stuff exists because I think of how people eat at these restaurants. So like if you're there for junior prom or whatever, or dad's birthday and you're the vegetarian or the vegan and the party, then it's, you have stuff you can eat and stuff that will taste good and you won't feel like you're left out and stuff that other people in the party can have and be like, Hey,

this is pretty good. Yeah. Especially with the vegetables up top. 100%. No. Yeah. 100%. Great point.

But besides that, not a, not a ton of vegan hot food options, right? Just a, just, just a few. Yeah. There's the dumplings, the wontons and the, and the buns and I don't know if there's a, there's, I think there was a veggie noodle, but I'd have to reopen the menu, which I accidentally closed my tab. Uh, and that takes us to dessert, which we got the chocolate bun, which is a, a chocolate truffle in that same sort of bun form factor.

Uh, nice dessert. It was good. I thought there were dumplings. Wait, no, wait, this wasn't the bun. This wasn't the bun. You're right. This was the, it was like the, the, the, uh, shallow on bow. Yeah.

You fuck. Yeah. We got the chocolate shallow on bow. We have the chocolate shallow on bow. That's what it was. Yeah. It was good. So in, in lieu of, in lieu of adding the agar, like, like Emma was saying,

they'll just kind of like make it with a more mochi texture. So it's still got a little bit of, uh, stiffness to it. When you bite through, it's not just leaking chocolate all over. It's still soft on the inside, but that's a really nice, fun little presentation. It looks sort of the same, but when you bite into it, it's got this kind of surprise little chocolatey flourish and finish to it. It's really nice. And I would say, frankly, to use a phrase, good.

It was quite good. Thank you, Farley. Now you're speaking. You know what I would say? It was like brownie batter inside. I mean, it would, they, they, they, they were, they were, they were fantastic. And, and gee, our, our server was saying that, uh, that we were in for a nice surprise with the end.

He was, he was saying that we would really enjoy the dessert. And I did. I think I ate a, I think there was like, everyone else had one and I had two, possibly three. I loved them. I, I, I really, uh, it was a nice surprise because they're also strange. It's unlike anything I really ever had. Um, but a fantastic end to a, to a good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good,

good, good, good, good meal. I did not count those, but I will impose. It was good. Well, we should get to our final thoughts here on Din Tai Fung. So how good was it? We're going to find out. Farley, we'll each go around, give our closing argument, if you will, and end by giving it a fork score from zero to five.

You are a guest, the Whammer senior, take it away. I think it's hard to beat Din Tai Fung as a staple restaurant, not only for Taiwanese food in America, but Taiwanese food in Taiwan. I'm not an expert in, in diving deep into the politics of it is surely going to get me assassinated or kicked off the internet. That's fine. That's what we all deserve. Um, I just want to say it is, it's not only an approachable mall restaurant.

It is a beautiful translation of Taiwanese food for America. I'm glad to see them expanding across the country. I hope that they continue to grow and experience the kind of dedication to not only the quality of the food, but the service, everything in between. You can find small faults. I wish that they had a fully vegan version of Xiao Long Bao. You know, I think the drinks are a little bit sweet, things like that, but as an overall experience, dedicating their lives to something

that is so particular and so beautifully done. It's a five fork restaurant, full stop. Wow. Wow. 100%. 100%. Um, to me, there is just our restaurants that you go into and you're like, I'm experiencing something that I like.

Look, I'm a plebe, you know, I'm a fool. Uh, you can call me a lot of different things. Uh, let's do it. Yeah. And let's, uh, real blow hard. What else, Nick? Big head. He's got a big head.

It's a big head, a tubby fucker. Uh, don't forget his small dick. Don't forget that little tiny wanker. There's a lot of things you can call me. Right. I've experienced sloppiness. Uh, what else? I didn't realize we were done.

There's a lot you can call me, but I, I, I have experienced some stuff with food. I, I'm not a, uh, I'm not a guy who, like, uh, gets grilled chicken. Why? Cause we eat stuff and I will eat anything. I, there's some stuff I don't like. Um, a regular Kirby, but this is one of those restaurants when I went in and I'm like, I'm experiencing food that I've tried before, but in a way that I've like never had it in that.

And, and, you know, like, and that's, that is, you know, that's maybe a testament to not eating enough Taiwanese food or whatever, but didn't Ty Fung is just one of those places where I'm like, this is so good. It's different. I'm eating stuff that's, that's just fantastic. That's fantastic. And I want to have other people try it. And this is opening my eyes to, to different cuisine.

And, and that's what didn't Ty Fung is to me. Wags and I, and I mean, five forks is a given, but I think we're going boncha on territory. I think it's getting that elusive sixth fork, six forks for the spoon. I mean, how great is didn't Ty Fung? It's, it's so, so, so, so good. It's pretty great. It's, it's very good.

And, you know, to, to, to, to borrow Farley's comparison, I definitely have thoughts of, of Houston's parent company, Hillstone, when dining at didn't Ty Fung, just in terms of the way it's scaled, the way that it's consistency from location to location and from visit to visit, the high level of its service, the presence of signature dishes that you crave just like that they, that they do so well. And Hillstone is an easy five forker for me. And this, there's no reason to deny the same to didn't Ty Fung.

This is a, this is a five forker. And here's a little bonus for didn't Ty Fung. You get to make a DTF joke if you want. That's fun. Dear Lord, I get to remember not to do that. Welcome to the Platinum Play Club, didn't Ty Fung. Mitch, I will slow it down for you and explain off pod what being down to fuck means, because I'm not sure you get it.

May need to walk me through that too. I just know the acronym. Platinum Play Club, well deserved. Well deserved, well deserved. Six forks from Mitch. A juggernaut. I mean, like, come on, if, if Bonchon gets it, so does didn't Ty Fung. Yeah.

I, I, I wanted again, just talking through this, that this is like the mark of a good chain is that we're, when we're talking through it in the episode, when we're talking about how good everything is, and we're saying good incessantly, and I'm reminded of how good the meal was. I'm like, I got to go back. That, and that's what I was thinking this whole time. Like I got to go back to didn't Ty Fung and I will. I want to take my mom and sister there.

They're coming out. They're coming out again. Uh, and I, and I want to say them to didn't Ty Fung. They're going to love it. No, your mom is visiting you again. Get out. Fuck you. We'll take a break.

I love my mommy. We'll be back with more toe boys. Hey, you. Be craving fresh, delicious, easy meals, try wild grain and get their baked from frozen sourdough breads, fresh pastas and artisanal pastries delivered right to your door. That's right. Why is wild grain is the first ever baked from frozen subscription box for

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You heard me, free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box. When you go to wildgrain.com slash dough boys, that's wildgrain.com slash dough boys, or you can use promo code dough boys at checkout. Do it. Welcome back to dough boys. Our guest Farley Elliott. Wise. I just checked with my mom.

She's DDTF down to Din Tai Fung. Oh God. Awesome. Can I come? Of course not. Hey, it's time for a segment. I've got a food related exam and Mitch and Farley must compete for superiority. It's slot quiz.

Wow. And in honor of the Winter Olympics, this is a Winter Olympics themed. Wow. Slot quiz. Ice try. That's right. Ice try. Are we not doing a Olympics?

Find room for it in the calendar. I don't know when we'd slot it in. Susser really fucking dropped the ball here. That's all I got to say. Well, he helps us out with the show. It's not his responsibility to schedule. We could have figured it out. I think we're going to have to still do one.

Anyways, go ahead. Again, with the whole the months already booked up. I don't know where we could find room for it. April, you can do it in April. Any other day. OK, I got got played as recording that day. Shut up. Just fucking record it on another day for God's sakes.

It's an hour. We have our schedule. You have the boys as our schedule. My other podcast has its schedule. We got to make these things line up. You have your own things you're doing. Yeah, like you could. Farley, you idly tossing a lemon.

What's going on there in your frame? Yeah, I am. This is me just trying to let you guys work through your bullshit. It's really what it is. Wow. That's my method, too. Just distract yourself for a few minutes and then throw whatever you're distracting yourself with directly at them.

I thought it was kind of like an old school throw tomato at us or a thing that was going on, but we deserve it. Why is this? Let's get into this. Let's get into the slop quiz. Slop quiz for the Winter Olympics. Ice try all name a chain restaurant. You buzz in with your name and guess if the establishment's ice

comes in cubed or nugget form factor. So you're going to buzz in and say cubes or nugs. OK, we buzz in with our name. Yeah, buzz in with your name. OK, all right. Here we go. First up, McDonald's Mitch. We're a senior.

I heard Mitch first. Wow, well, well, that nickname isn't so good anymore. Too long. Oh, my God, cubed. Mitch, you get it. It is. They do have cubes there. I got scared for a second there, though.

You overthought it. We'll try not to overthink this one. Sonic drive in. Mitch. We're a senior. I heard Mitch. Wait, what's the second option again? It's cubes or nuggets.

It's two nuggets. Nuggets. You're right. They do have nugget ice there. Next up, Chick-fil-A. We're a senior. Farley. Nuggets.

You are correct. It's two to one. Wow. Mitch has two. Farley has just took that point. Just people know this. Human beings know this. This is fun.

These are our worlds. Starbucks. Mitch. Ooh. Mitch. It's cubed. They are generally considered to be cubes. Yes, you take that.

Three to one, Mitch. Next up, also in the coffee realm, owned by Jollibee, coffee bean and tea leaf. We're a senior. I know this one. Farley. Cues. No, it's nugget ice.

Oh. Farley, I knew that. They have the nice, my sister loves coffee bean, and they have like their almost crushed ice. Yeah, it's pretty good. All right, we got, it's three to one, Mitch. There are five left, so it's still anyone's game. Next up, Raising Canes.

We're a senior. Farley. Nuggets. You are correct, three to two, Mitch. Farley, have you had Raising Canes? I have, only once, though. What'd you think? You know, I thought it was fantastic.

I think there's already a lot of fried chicken in that universe. It's not, they haven't reached me at my doorstep yet, to where I feel the need to make like a daily part of my life. I'm still much more reasonably considerable to go to like a McDonald's or something like that. But if the lines are not long,

stopping in off the highway for Raising Canes is a great option. Emma, you, that's what you binged off of, right? When you were traveling cross-country? Yeah, that's, we ate that. We drove across country in a week. We probably ate that four out of the five days we were driving.

It was so, and it was so consistent. Like every single one we went to was the same, and it was good, and it was hot and fresh, and it was great. Yeah. And their sauces are awesome. Yes, great sauce. Great sauce.

Now, there is Raising Canes. I ate it in Boston, I think, is what I finally took, and well, I think you took a trip for yours too, but there's one in, I believe there's one in Burbank. A lot of, it feels like a lot of Southern Chains have not cubes, nuggets. Nuggets? Yes, yeah, I think there is some regional bias there.

Yeah, I went down to the Raising Canes and with our buddy Matt Selman, we reviewed it last year when I wasn't eating meat, so I didn't have their fingers. Oh my God. I didn't have the whole thing that they're there for. I just had the sides, but I did like their sauce. But I gotta try the proper chicken now,

now that I'm eating chicken. You do. All right. Now, Mitch, you mentioned the Burbank location. Are you close to it now at your new house? Why don't you share your full address, just so I know? Your social security number would be pretty helpful too if you got a moment.

Yeah. No, no, no, no. Any details you want to offer? I'm still on Palmerston. The three digit code on the back of your credit card? No. I'm still on Palmerston. All right, it's three to two.

Mitch has three, rather. Farley has two. We just did Raising Canes. Next up, five guys. The Whammer. I hear Whammer. That's bullshit. No, it is.

Five guys cubes. Oh. That's bullshit. Three left, still anyone's game. Next up, 7-Eleven. Mitch. Yes, Mitch. Cubed.

Mitch, you are correct. It's four to two, Mitch. Farley, you need these last two to tie it. Last two also convenience stores. Tie goes to the guest, too, Farley, not to put pressure on. It's true. Tie does go to the guest. Circle K.

Whammer. I dropped my fucking like. That's bullshit. Cubed. No, it's Nugget Ice. Farley. Mitch, you're going to take it. The last one, see if you guys can get this one.

AMPM. Oh, I really don't know this one. I'm going to go with Nuggets. Both cubes and Nuggets. K goes to the AMPM. They have one for the AM, one for the PM. That's insane. They switch ice?

They what? Actually, I don't know if that's true. I just associated it with you. I am the Ice King. Wow. Mitch, you are crowned Ice King. Congratulations. Quick, somebody make a gift of the Ice King

getting stabbed in the heart, but instead of Sansa, it's like the last wafer you ever eat. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, be a good little gift. We should, honestly, that's what we should do late see, like give Doughboys a really unsatisfying payoff. Like, oh wait, they just killed Spoon Man that easily? Oh.

All right. Little ways to go. Last season of Doughboys, they kill me off? Is this real life or what? What happens in this scenario? We'll talk about it. The Ice King, waiting for my Ice Queen, why, it's one day I'll find her.

Congratulations, Mitch. You are the Ice King in this Winter Dough Olympics edition of Slop Quiz. Ice try, just like a restaurant value feedback. Let's open up the feedback. And we have a voicemail today. Emma, if you can roll that out of you. Hey, guys, it's Stinky from the Dough Squad.

Why are you Stinky? Have you ever had any misunderstandings or miscommunication when ordering food in another country? Since I know Nick hasn't crossed an ocean, this question could also apply to just visiting other parts of the US, for example. I have a personal example, because much like you saw when I studied abroad in Paris.

And whenever I would order something from a sandwich shop or a bakery, they'd always ask me a vixen-soussi. And that simply means with this, do you want anything else? But for the longest time, to me, it sounded like they were saying a vixen-soussi, which means with sausage. And so I would keep answering this question

by saying, yeah, of course, why not? So it took me several times of getting weird looks and not actually getting any sausage before I realized what they were actually saying. All right, that's my question. Thanks, guys. Merci. Merci.

Feels like kind of a long road, just a stealth brag that he was living in Paris, honestly. Stinky. Stinky. So I had a recent interaction here. This was just an English as a second language situation, but I went to get a milk tea from a local place. And the gentleman helping me, I asked for chamomile

because it was later in the day and I didn't want to have caffeine. So I asked for chamomile, and he thought I was saying caramel. And there was like a back and forth there. And then there was a third thing that he thought I was saying. I wouldn't be surprised of any one thing that you were just requesting caramel. Can I get a mug of caramel, please?

Can you just get a large hot butterscotch? And then we had fun about it. And then he remembered next time. And he was like, hey, chamomile. I was like, ah, you remembered. It was great. We're friends. Oh, god, he's probably on your top 10 list of friends, too,

sadly. I definitely have had a situation like this, and I can't think of any off the top of my head where anything's gone wrong in a way that it wasn't just resolved a moments later or whatever. So I don't really have one. Why is I've traveled to Italy? And ordering there was tough as far as the other places I've

gone, Cartagena in Colombia. I'm just thinking of where English is not the native language. And it's never been too much of an issue for me. I don't have a good answer. I just don't have a good answer. I have a friend who went to a place that has a ceviche and was trying to order two margaritas, two cocktails, and inadvertently got two shrimp cocktails.

That's what we did. And so he got two huge shrimp cocktails like, well, now what am I going to do with this? Fucking eat them. But yeah, yeah, that's what you got to do. Yeah, no, Italy, Italy, Mexico City, no. No, I mean like. Italy just kept getting mistaken for Wario, right?

No, I'll tell you what the truth is. Leave a Mario alone. No, I told you that they came up and they said Amore is a brandy from love. That's right. Which was a nice moment. But for the most part, I will try to explain. And I'm like very, I'm also like a dumb guy in the way

where if I'm in Italy and I'm trying to order something in English and then I'll start being like, and I'll have an Italian accent. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm not helping by trying to like sound Italian. And so like, I eventually just get to like gestures and trying to explain myself. And eventually it just ends with the person laughing at me.

Like this big guy is like jumping up and down, trying to explain in a friendly way, trying to explain what he wants. And they eventually get what I'm trying to say, but they end up laughing at me because I'm a big goofball. But nothing to the point that's ever, like I'll always get there. With food, I'll always end up getting what I want.

So I've never had a situation like this. Unless I've told one on the podcast, I'm sure it's happened. I don't know, I forget everything. What the fuck am I supposed to say? Yeah. Well, the good news is that it's a very visual medium, especially if you're traveling around and you can point at stuff.

It's hopefully not that big of a deal. Mitch, I know you love going table to table and sticking fingers into people's food and just saying, I'll have this. It's a table once for you. In Italy, jumping around from table to table. Exactly. I was similar though, you were talking

about you're being mislabeled while in Italy. Years ago, I was in India for a separate work project. And a lot of the young Indian kids, like I'm 6'3", large adult American man, everyone would come up to me, these short little Indian kids, and they would say, good fitness, man, good fitness. Because I'm just like a giant compared to them. And they would sort of squeeze me in the middle.

It's like walking around. And I'm like, man, I just, I think you guys have a very different definition of fitness than I do. Farley, that is a thing as a big guy. And I heard that we were going to go to Japan this last year. And I heard that I would have gotten it a lot in Japan. But it's a thing where, I told the story on the podcast

where we went to a restaurant in Italy, which was, damn, it was such a good meal too. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant. Oh, Roma Sparita, that's what it's called. Just popped into my head. Roma Sparita, we went there. And the waiter, we were waiting. And he helped us out big time, because we

were getting into a big Quincy fight about what to order. And then the waiter helped us out. And then after the meal, he just jumped on my back, like I was Yoshi. I told you this, he rode me around like I was Yoshi. Yes. And so so often, they'll be like, big guy. You know what I mean?

But for the most part, yeah, eventually, I'll get to where I want to go. Mexico City, like I'll research ahead of time. I went to a famous restaurant down there, Pujol. And there's like a taco tasting menu. And so that was kind of crazy, because they were explaining to you that I was eating like Aunt Larva and stuff. And I'm not usually into the bug world as much.

Not Bugbane. Everyone relaxed the Bugbane listeners. I love Bugbane. But when it comes to insects and stuff like that, I'm a little bit more weary. So when it was coming to that, it was like, what is this exactly? And then I'd find out that it was like Larva or whatever. And I would still eat it.

Or what's the crickets that they mash up, probably? The chapeleines? Yeah, chapeleines. Chashire chapeleines, stuff like that. But nothing to where I've gotten a comical shrimp cocktail when I'm trying to order like a Mai Thai. Sure. Farley, anything come to mind?

No, no. I think that the Indian thing is probably the closest that the common. You're not wrong, Mitch, in going to Mexico City and just not really having an understanding. And no one is expecting you to be a fully well-versed person, not only in the language, but in the depths of the cuisine. And so I think, especially in my job,

like I'm a tall white dude who grew up on a dairy farm and have the job that I have in a city that is 50% Latino, I'm never going to know as much as there is to know. But as long as you approach it with an honesty and a willingness to learn and share and be grateful for what you're given. And like you said, eating the Eskimo, the larvae, and things like that, I think you'll be treated well. People really want to serve you great food

and have you come back. When we think about street food, not only in America, but globally, these are places that don't have young reviews or big public accounts for the most part on Instagram or whatever. So their entire business model is prefaced on the notion that they're feeding the community exactly where they're at. And they are offering you a quality meal at a decent price

so that you do come back. Because if work got out that they were making you sick or whatever people are afraid of or serving you food that you didn't like, they would simply go out of business. So it is in their best interest to cater to you just like any other restaurant. So just having that open mind, I think will get you really far.

Wow. Put it great once again. Yeah, great. Sage words and some great insight. And it feels like some much needed optimism from our guest side. If you have a question or comment with the word of chain restaurants,

you can email us at doboyspodcast.com or leave us a voicemail at 830-GODO. That's 830-4636-844. And to get the Do Boyz Double or Weekly Bonus episode, you can join the GoldenEar Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash Do Boyz. What a good episode. Farley Elliott, thank you so much for joining us.

Good to hear you guys. What a treat. We had a great time having you here. And we have an upcoming Patreon episode we are going to do with you when, again, things settle down. But that's a destination sort of thing that we're pretty excited about. So hopefully we can make that happen in the near future.

Anyway, right now, tell us anything you'd like to plug. Yeah, you can find me everywhere online at Over Over Under. My book is Los Angeles Street Food, a History from Tomolero's to Taco Trucks. It deals with the history and growth of street food dining in Los Angeles from the 1800s to today. And you can read all of my stuff at la.eater.com. And honestly, IRC, Independent Restaurant Coalition,

donate money if you can. Restaurants still need your help. We'll be doing that. Yeah. It sounds like a good cause. Sounds like a very good cause, Mitch. We said good on purpose. I don't believe that they say good on purpose.

Mitch was mad about it at first. They didn't know. It was a mistake. They know they're not going to give them money. They donated, I did the math and they left out two goods. There were some incidental goods they forgot about. I love Emma, but they should fire Emma for missing the goods.

No one can fire me, I'm unfireable. No, yeah, Emma's in charge. Farley, thank you so much. An absolute delight to talk with you. Thank you so much for giving us so much your time. Thanks, guys. Thank you. A six forker.

A six forker in your head, Cannon. Five forks for me, Platinum Plate Club regardless, and that'll do it for this episode of Doe Boys. Until next time, for Mr. Slice Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya. On the next Doe Boys Double,

we're reopening up the Biggie Size Feedbag. Use song glue returns to help Mitch, Emma and me answer your questions and probably make fun of you. Get the Doe Boys Double every Tuesday only at patreon.com slash Doe Boys. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description.