Doughboys - Domino's 2 Jamelle Bouie

Episode Date: December 10, 2020

Jamelle Bouie (The New York Times, CBS News) joins the 'boys to talk Forrest Gump, cereal, classic candy and Domino's. Plus, the debut of the new Flank Check segment.Sources for this week's intro: https://www.pagat.com/domino/history.htmlhttps://www.dominorules.com/chickenfoothttp://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/domino-s-inc-histoy/https://www.dominos.com/en/about-pizza/https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/uncover-the-history-of-pasta/#:~:text=While%20we%20do%20think%20of,Polo%20during%20the%2013th%20century.&text=Noodles%20existed%20in%20Asia%20long%20before%20Polo%27s%20trip%20to%20China.Advertise on Doughboys via Gumball.fmWant more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you think of a Chinese tile-based game, your mind probably goes to mahjong. But there's another tile game that's in fact Chinese in origin. One with dotted, rectangular, generally monochrome pieces that traces its history to the 12th century Song Dynasty. In the US, the oblong tiles are perhaps less likely to be played in a game and more likely to be lined up on end so they can be toppled in rapid succession in a useful visual metaphor. But regardless of whether you know the intricate rules of chicken foot or just like to watch them tall boys tumble, the pieces themselves are as recognizable as dice or playing cards,

and they also serve as the graphic and brand name for the largest pizza chain in the world. The chain began in the college town of Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1960, when the monohand brothers along with pizza cook Joe Quasarano took over operation of Dominic's Pizza from previous owner Dominic D'Varti. Powered by its innovation of pizza delivery and vast clientele of starving students, in 1965 the monohands added two more locations. But when Dominic D'Varti refused permission to use his name for the additional stores, the monohands rebranded to the similar sounding name of the competitive tile game of Chinese origin.

Today, what began with three men, a pizza oven, and a Volkswagen Beetle used for delivery has 17,000 locations and over a quarter million employees worldwide. And just as Italian food in all likelihood has China to thank for giving it pasta, this Italian-American chain restaurant owes its billion dollar brand name to the game designers of the Song Dynasty. This week on Doughboys, we return to Domino's. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, the statue of David except thicker and with a

tinier penis, the night spoon Mike Mitchell. That's not… come on. Now I picked that one because it's from Alec and he emphasized this in his email, Fiorentino in Boston, subject line roast from a pissed off Italian-American. Wow. RoastBooMan at gmail.com, very, very enraged by the broad sides you took against the Italian-American community on our recent episode with don't stop or we'll die. I've taken it up against Italians.

Yes. I don't like Italians. I think they're wigs. Yes. To use one of your favorite movies to explain my feelings, I think they're despicable. Wow. Like Grew himself? Like Grew himself.

The thing about Grew though is that Grew is responsible for the minions and the minions are cute and funny and also Grew ultimately comes around. So you know, it's not like he's an irredeemable character. Remember when Furio almost pushed Tony into the helicopter blade? Oh yeah. Yeah. It would have been good. Man, Sopranos is so good.

You know what? There's a scene, there's a one-shot scene which I think people will forget about but I think is maybe- I was going to say that I wish I could do that to all Italians and then it sounds- Good God. It sounds too bad. Yeah, that sounds genocidal. I love Italians.

I don't have to say I love Italians for God's sakes. I love Sopranos. Nick, I'm with you. The Sopranos, great show. I'm watching Mad Men with my mom and then we're going to watch Sopranos afterwards. I grew up- I'm Irish but then the kids on my street, the two foes were Italian and then Justin, my other best buddy, he was half Italian.

So I was kind of the only of all my close friends. I was the only old Irish guy. Wow. Can I jump in and say that as a kid growing up a black kid growing up in the south that the different flavors of white people were something I did not know about until I was like an adult. You're all the same to me. Well I would used to go over like the two foes house and they'd have like big Italian

dinners. Yes. And then I'd load, it was like the stovetop commercial wigs where I would just load up on food probably even after I had already eaten. It's like you were a cargo loading before a half marathon. That was just like your regular dinner. No marathon was run. Nope.

That's a good epitaph for me. No marathon was run. Always ate like he was a 10K was on the horizon. I saw, Mitch, I have to say before we started the episode, so first off you were eating a pre-show bowl of chowder. That's right. That's your pre-show meal. You logged on and you had a big bowl of chowder you were eating and then while this was happening,

your cat Wally, your very adorable cat Wally who was in the room with you as your recording jumped onto your back and so you had a bowl of chowder and a cat on your back, you could not be more on brand. There was a cat on my shoulder, right on my back, back and shoulder area, showing off his butthole, very inappropriate. Yeah, that was pretty graphic. I saw a big smile come across your face when you saw the little cat butthole. All right, play your drop.

That's it. Just play your drop. All right, fine. I'm not going to entertain this. Fine. You know what? I will play my drop. Howdy-how to Spoon Nation.

Embarrassing for our, in front of our guest. Our guest, Nick, let's be real. He shouldn't have put up with this bullshit. I agree with you wholeheartedly, but he's a prince for being here. All right, here's the drop. Little drop. Go to Duncan for my coffee, sugar and some cream. What are these crazy questions, why you guys asking me?

This is the craziest podcast that could ever be. Don't open the door, because I don't want to see. Mama told me not to peek. Mama told me not to peek. I'm not the sort of sick freak. There we have it. What was that source, what was that based off of? Mama told me not to come.

Oh, okay. Which also probably just would have worked. Yeah. All right. What do you mean, all right? It would have worked. Hey, Doughboys, it's Adam, the music therapist from the Wendy's Breakfast episode, back with another song parody.

Wow. Thank you guys for your kind words and your interest in music therapy. If you want to learn more, feel free to let me know or check out musictherapy.org. Much love, Adam. Adam really scored a primo URL there, musictherapy.org. I feel like since it's an org, we won't bleep it. Do you know recently, I said to bleep something and then we did bleep it and then I felt, and then I heard in the pot, someone was like, oh, they bleeped.

Someone was trying to promote something and we did bleep him. Emma, that is funny. I think that is. You said to bleep it, so I bleeped it. I'm never serious, but as it happened. I'm just following instructions. I can take the bleep off. That's so funny.

I didn't mean to really bleep him, but that's funny. PS, I recently learned that although Mama told me not to come was made famous by Three Dog Night, it was originally written by Randy Newman, and that's why it's titled Randy Newman Drop. How about that? Someone tweeted me with what episode I bleeped that in and I'll unbleep it. No, it's bleep forever. It's Canon. Spoonman drops at gmail.com.

Don't you dare promote my email. You want more drops coming in? No, that's fine. You think you have enough? Drop King's in charge of the drops now. Right. Drop King, our associate producer, Robert Bersinger, but you still need to get new blood into the drop game. Speaking of blood, I just got some taken out of me yesterday.

Everything all right? Wow. Everything all right. I'm having a surgery. Was it taken out by a Dracula? Jesus Christ. I wasn't bitten on the neck. Okay.

There's still sun out right now. Wouldn't I be having some sort of adverse reaction to it? That's true. Unless you were a day walker, if you were half vampire blood. Hey, maybe I'm loving it. Adverse or averse? Adverse, right? Adverse.

Adverse effects. Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did I got it right? I should have said you guessed myself. I'm having a surgery wigs in a few weeks. It's fine. Nothing's wrong.

Yeah. There's a couple lumps appeared on my abdomen. Micah thought they were chicken nuggets. We all know you're just getting a chicken nugget pocket installed, right? I got a CT scan. Everything's fine wigs. Just got to get a couple lumps out. Benign.

Everything's benign, I guess. I think so. That's good news. Well, hey Mitch, we're praying for you. I hope everything works out. Why didn't you have to ask if I was all right? I just was going to say that I got some blood taken. That's all.

Just tell a story about how I got some blood taken. Well, you volunteered all this information. Do you like needles wags? Do you have a hard time with them? Do I like needles? No, I don't like needles. I don't have a fear of them, but I don't like it. I jumped a little bit when I got blood taken yesterday.

I jumped. I squirmed when it happened. And you're sure it wasn't a Dracula? Wait a minute. I looked at his tag and it said, Dr. Nosferatu. Oh boy. And then you looked in the mirror and it was just you. The doctor was not in the reflection.

And a stethoscope floating. He had nothing else on. Wow. Weird. All right, let's introduce our guest for God's sakes. We're thrilled to have him back. A columnist for the New York Times and a political analyst for CBS News. Hello, Bowie is here.

Hi, Jamal. Hello. Hello. Nosferatu, just quick note on Count Orlock, the character's name. Gives me the heebie-fucking-jeebies, I'll say. I saw that movie over quarantine and it's really weird. It freaks me out. You're talking about the original back in the-

The original, like, 1923 silent movie. Wow. That's some good movie watching. That's what I would... That's what we call a homework movie. Oh yeah. But sometimes those are going to be fun viewing experiences. Is that a Bella Lugosi or a Boris Karloff?

One of those guys? No, no, neither. Neither? It's a German expressionist movie. It's super weird and strange. I just so happen to watch, like, Nosferatu and then... What's the other one? The Captain of Dr. Caligari, like, back-to-back.

Oh yeah. And then watch Batman Returns, which when you do that, you're like, oh, Batman Returns is Tim Burton's kind of like, I love those movies, Love Letter. It's super funny how many similarities there are right down the Danny DeVito looking like the gross villain of Dr. Caligari. That's all. Right. Wow.

Yeah, there's just... I just Googled it. I know of the cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I can't say it. Caligari. More like Dr.... Hey, Wags, I'd like to get into the cabinet of Dr. Calimari, wouldn't you? A Squid Man?

Is that a Squid Man doctor? What's the alien race and start with the... What's his name? Who died, unfortunately? The actor or just like the character? No, the character died. Mon Calimari. That's right.

That's what their... Yes, Mon Calimari, yes. Admiral Ackbar. Admiral Ackbar. God, how did I not think of Ackbar? A top George Lucas isn't like, what do I call my squid, my squid alien? So do I give him a cool name? No, they're like the Calimari.

Yeah. Yes, Mon Calimari. You fry them up. Love it. They're recurring in the Mandalorian season, too, which is nice. Fun to see those creatures back. Now, you know, a lot of issues with the Star Wars sequels, but the fact that Admiral Ackbar just got killed off, kind of off-screen, kind of bummed me out, why?

Because I thought he... I think he deserved a heroic death in some way. An ignoble death. My pitch would have been that he gets to be the guy who does the suicide ramming mission. I feel like that would have been in character, because he was such a heroic figure in Return of the Jedi, and yeah, he just kind of gets blown away. Which happens sometimes in war, but this is a space opera. He should have flown back.

He should have flown back like Prince Leia. Like Leia? Yeah, like a voice. He should have flown back in. Well, Jamele, you did two homework movies, two very... Those are old school films. Are you a big film watcher? Are you a criterion channel person or...?

Yeah, I'm a big movie watcher. I'll watch anything. We have the criterion channel, and we watch a lot of stuff on that, but I also watch a lot of trash, so don't mistake that for any sophistication. On the movie note, I know that you... Our buddy's The Blank Check podcast did a Robert Zemeckis filmography series. We went on and did Who Framed Roger Rabbit. You went on and did Forrest Gump.

That's right. And I was curious about your take on the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, the spin-off restaurant if you've ever eaten there. I've never eaten there. I may have mentioned this the last time I was on. I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia, so right on the ocean. And so there was a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Virginia Beach, but there's no reason to go to one because you were sort of surrounded by seafood.

So I've never eaten in one. I don't really have any desire to. I find the whole thing kind of weird, honestly, to name a restaurant after the character. Yes. Yeah. I will say though, I will say, and I think I said this on Blank Check, my favorite scene in that whole movie is the scene when Bubba Gump's mother has the white servant bringing her a shrimp boil.

I think it's hilarious. That's great. It shows her after she got the check or whatever. Right, right, right. That's a great moment. She's like more or less, she's like the tables have turned whitey. I don't care what kind of white person you are. You're all the same to me.

I got a question for you. Everyone should go and listen to that episode, but a lot of Forest Gump haters, how do you think it holds up? Does it hold up all right? So the thing we talked about, this is more or less the whole thing we talked about on that episode. It is an extremely well-made movie. It's not like a poorly put together movie.

I think the thing, especially if you are, if you're the age where you weren't an adult when you saw, you're sort of like a kid, and so it was this weird sort of family movie, you remember it as being much more wholesome than it is, and also, it's a very strange movie in a way that I don't think is fully appreciated even now. For example, one of the opening scenes is you learn, you know, Forest is introducing himself and he's like, I was named after this general, and it shows a shot of Tom Hanks's face superimposed from like a Klantzeman. Jesus, I did not remember that.

I don't remember that at all. I completely forgotten it. When we watched it, I was like, what the fuck, like what is this movie? But the movie's full of stuff like that, like sort of, it's maybe too much to call it satirical, but certainly very abiding and arched in a way that isn't, it sort of conflicts with the very kind of sappy and saturine stuff that people know the movie for. And so, you know, everyone knows Run For Its Run, or they know, you know, I'm saving Bubba, but prior to the Vietnam stuff when he's in basic training, there's this great

little scene where Gump, who is an idiot, is assembling and disassembling a gun very effectively and rapidly, and his drill instructor yells at him in kind of a reverse full-metal jacket like, you are genius, you are the perfect soldier, if I could make you a general, I would. And it's totally this little sort of like, oh yeah, to be good at this, you kind of have to be an empty machine. It's a very sharp kind of observation that's then immediately kind of undermined by all the sappy stuff.

It's a strange movie. I totally, people should watch it again because it's a weird fucking movie. Zemeckis also does his like, back to the future thing of like, Elvis didn't learn to dance from black people, he learned to dance from a little white boy. Yes. I don't think that stuff is intentional, but it is very funny that it's consistent. It's like, yes, yes, yes, white children are the genesis of American pop culture. It even made its way into Beowulf somehow.

Yeah, when the crow did the twist, it was really strange. It is weird that the legacy of that movie probably to a lot of young people, too, is the fact that it's a restaurant, that it is bubble gun, sure, that's just so bizarre. But I had the same thing, Jamellan, in New England, it's like, we don't go to Red Lobster around here because there's a lot of, in fact, it's like most seafood chain, like there was no Long John Silver's grown up, and the only thing, Am I, as you know, is legal seafood, which is kind of like a step up, you know, it's a step above any of that stuff. So no need to go to a place like that when you got all of it right there.

Why is it would be like having an in and out knockoff right in Southern California, which there are plenty. There are plenty of, but you also see that, yeah, it's interesting where you've got the local thing, and you've got like your local cuisine, I guess the equivalent of Southern California would be Mexican food, although there are Mexican chains still everywhere. And I think it's just because there's just also a design, it's like a different itch to be scratched, you know, Taco Bell versus a great taco truck. It's like having like, you know, you go to the big city, you got a dough boys, and you

go out into the suburbs, and there's a deli boys instead. Would that make the deli boys in the upscale dough boys? Good question. I guess so. I guess so. That's the, those are the Romney Biden voters or the deli boys audience. Now, Jamel, I got a question for you. Yes.

Joe Biden is president-elect. Did the dough boys calling Trump the orange buffoon have anything to do with his defeat? Well, let me, let me pull up my exit polls right here. Turns out, turns out that 0.5% of voters, you said they were dough boy listeners. Wow. I agree that it was the orange buffoon that did it. Too high. Too high.

They still broke 3070 for Trump, of course. Oh, man. Before we started recording, you guys were talking about Coke Minis. I want to talk about Coke Minis a little, because this is a subject we haven't really discussed much on the show, but these are the 7.5 ounce cans, and this is, you guys were saying the perfect amount of soda. Yes, they are. I was, I was upset because we didn't have any Diet Cokes, and look, I shouldn't be drinking

any soda. I'm trying to, I'm trying to get my life on track, and especially I don't, I don't drink full sodas. I don't wigs. And then I just wanted to have a- It's too much. I want, I just wanted a little, a little treat, and I got to say that Coke Minis, my mom is downstairs, Boz is over, a family friend, Boz is here.

So- Boz? Yeah, Boz is here. He always comes before Thanksgiving. Brings us a pie. He's a good guy. Jammer. Yeah, he's a good, good man.

What are you, what are you, what's your problem with Boz, Lager? I know, that's a perfect kind of friend, someone who brings you a pie. A pie guy, Boz. So I had to grab a drink quick. I got a thing of water here, but I wanted just a little sweet treat, some caffeine too, and there was a Coke Mini, and guess what? Jamel and I both agree, it's great. It's a, it's a perfect size.

It's, it's, it's 90 calories wags. It's not like a, the regular Coke I think is like closer to, it's, it's about 200, right? I think maybe over 200. Maybe 210. I think, I think that the 12 ounce cans are like, like 160, 170. Oh wow. Which, which just feels like, I don't know, for me, in addition to just physically not being able to drink that much sugar anymore, just like if my body has lost its tolerance

for it, it's like, if I'm going to consume 160 or 70 calories over, of a beverage, I want, I want to be getting drunk. That's sort of the point of that. For beverage, it's like sub 100 calories, if I'm going to be just drinking it to drink it. And that's why sometimes you have a taste for Coke, or they have the Coke Mini Ginger Ails, or the Mini Such Ginger Ails. And those are, those are like a perfect size for just like, I want, I want a soda.

I don't want to drink a lot of it. I don't want to waste a soda. And I don't want to diet soda. So there you go. That's the exact. I messed around with the, I didn't really even realize they had the ginger ails in the Minis. That sounds great.

My wife loves those. She's a big ginger ale drinker, but again, doesn't want to drink like a full bottle, but the little cans are perfect. That's exactly what was available. They were Canada Dries and Coca Cola Minis. Those are the two. Irma came in, now she's leaving. But those were the two options, Wags.

Coke Minis in Canada Dries. Canada Dries being, I think, the best ginger ale. You leaned back to open your door, and to, I guess Irma was trying to get in and you let her in and then she came in and then quickly left. That's what happened. Yeah. She came in and she's on. Oh no.

Doe boys. And she walked out. Well, you know, Sam Richardson will be mad at me because that the Vernors, the ginger ale from the Michigan ginger ale or the Detroit ginger ale is, he says that's number one, which I don't, I don't get Vernors enough. So I don't really know it as well. I can't remember if I've had Vernors. It is good.

I feel like I have it at some point. We drink a lot of ginger beer in this household. Ginger beer is great. Yeah. Ginger beer is that thing where I, when I was younger, I had it and I was like, this, I hate this. This is not like, this is, it's one of those things that you grow into as an adult. Or more so, it was like, maybe in 1930 when ginger beer was a treat, it worked, but not

when you're a kid in 1990 or whatever. Right. But ginger beer and alcohol. Back in the days, you would go to the picture house, watch Nosferatu and enjoy a ginger ale. Ginger, ginger beer. Oh, ginger beer. I'm sorry.

Go to the soda shop, walk over to the colored only counter, order up a ginger beer. Oh, God. I, my dad is, my dad is a, my dad was born in 42. He's passed away, but he was, when he, when he, he, he's like a fan of like black licorice and he likes like kind of all the, like those shitty, right? He loved black jelly beans and, and, and like black licorice and kind of like all that, like stuff I don't even really consider candy. That's just fucking trash.

Yeah. My favorite candy bar is the payday. Like the peanuts over the caramel, which is a depression era candy bar. Like it literally referred to, you know, you, you're a laborer and you need like a lunch and it's like, you know, a nickel for this pretty cheap candy to make and it was kind of ironic. This is your payday. Right.

That's. Wow. I like that. It's kind of like being dunked on every time you eat your lunch. That is a really good candy bar and I feel like an underrated, underappreciated one because I think people so often think that there has to be a chocolate coating of a good candy bar, but the payday is great. It's simple and it also will like fill you up in the way that like a protein bar will

like an energy bar will like, I've, like I've had that as like kind of a makeshift breakfast and you know, it, it, it gives you some energy because you got a lot of protein in there. Yeah. Mitch, you like a payday? Yeah, I like a payday. What are you, why are you smiling? Oh, well, I, I, I, I, I, nothing. I know.

I'm not going to get into silly stuff. You're, look, you're a protein fiend. I know you are. Why? Cause I know you're a protein guy. I, I, I, I like a little chocolate on top of mine. I like, I like a Reese's peanut butter cup is my favorite. Is probably one of my favorites.

And then a Snickers bar. I'm a Snickers. Snickers is great. Snickers. Snickers. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, that's the tagline.

Yeah. But it's true. It's based in truth. So beyond the payday, where do you, what candy bars do you fancy? Again, I like, I like sort of old, old timey candy bars. So like payday, what's some of the call it? Some of the big fan of peanut chews, which are like totally like a night. Chews.

Yeah. They're like an old man candy. They're just like chocolate and peanut, like kind of the consistency of caramel. I don't really know what, I, I don't know what it is. I'll be, I'll be honest with you, but it's pretty good. Uh, what else? Uh, and, uh, as far as like, I, I do like, uh, the Reese's fast break bars, like the Reese's.

Oh yeah. That's a good one. I like fast breaks, but then, then take fives came around and then I became a take five fan. If I'm going to get one of the kind of the weirder ones, um, take, Kit Kats are perfect. Kit Kats are, you know what? Kit Kats are good.

They don't get a, they, they, they really don't get as enough praise because when you get, when you get the little Halloween candies, a Kit Kat is great. It's fantastic. Have you ever had any of like the, the flavors from Japan, like the Japanese Kit Kats flavors? We've sampled a number of them on the show and they are, yeah, I, I like all of them. I mean, I'll take the macho one. There's a, there were some, there were some, uh, some fruit based ones that were also really good.

Kind of like a, I'm trying to remember what they were. Um, some berry ones, but yeah, I like all the, the, the Kit Kat varietals. Not enough protein though. Right. Wags, right? Isn't that an issue? I looked up peanut chews, officially Goldenberg's peanut chews and celebrating 100 years. It really is an old school candy.

Wow. Yeah. Uh, it's a chewy chocolatey bite sized pieces loaded with crunchy roasted peanuts. So yeah, little, little, uh, little chunks of chocolate with peanuts inside. I was, I was going to go to Japan this next year and I want to do Doughboy's live in Japan. I mean, if we can, if we can travel. Yes. Well, I mean, who knows?

I'm reading more about peanut chews. Uh, they were first introduced in 1917, originally developed by the military as a ration bar during World War I. So you could have your, your moldy bread tack, your peanut chew, and then you can go charge the crowds. Wow. Stick it to the Kaiser. Wags, what was it like when the, on release day, when that dropped?

All right. Did you do the two years older than you? I'm looking up, I looked up famous candies made in, in Massachusetts and I, let me tell you, I don't think we, there's not, we don't, we don't, I mean fluff was one of the things that came up. What is fluff? Yeah. Marshmallow fluff.

Oh, okay. And the slide show, Neko, Neko wafers was first. And they, they, they are, as everyone knows, the worst candy that there is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I always think of the Boston Baked Beans candy. I don't know if those are Boston in origin. That's probably Boston too.

Those are pretty gross. Yeah. Ocean spray. These are, all right. Junior Mints. We got Junior Mints. Hey, Junior Mints, that's something. That's pretty good.

That peppermint chocolate flavor is polarizing. Some people don't like it. Natalie really doesn't like it, is she has like an aversion to it. But I, I think it's pretty good. Sky bars. We got sky bars. What's a sky bar? You don't know sky bars?

No. They're kind of old school candy. Do they even make them anymore? Emma, do you know sky bars? Do you know sky bars? I know sky. Are you asking if I know them? Yeah.

Oh yeah. I've seen those. Yeah. Oh, it's, it's made by Neko. So that kind of makes sense. Discontinued in 2018, they don't make them anymore. That's why. Wow.

Oh, reintroduced in 2019 by the Sky Bar Confectionery Company. There we go. There you go. It has four sections in each bar, each with a different filling, caramel, vanilla, peanut and fudge all covered in milk chocolate. It's a little variety bar. But you can't get them anymore. It says they were reintroduced by the Sky Bar Confectionery Company in 2019, but I can't

say I've seen them. They exist. All right. I'm a sky bar skeptic. Do you guys ever mess with an Abba Zaba? An Abba Zaba. Abba Zaba. That's an old school candy.

I just, I know it from Half Baked, because he says Abba Zaba, you're my only friend and he takes a bite out of it. But it's, it's a, it's like a white bar. It comes in a, in like a checker cab, a black and yellow wrapper. Now if I'm wrong, is it like peanut butter covered with white taffy basically? Is that what it is? That's exactly what it is. Wow.

It's white taffy with a peanut butter center and it sounds gross and it is delightful because it's basically just a peanut butter delivery mechanism. Here's Wikipedia and Abba Zaba. According to the Candy Rapper Museum, the first Abba Zaba bars were manufactured beginning in 1922 by Colby and McDermott. Before Annabelle Candy Company started manufacturing Abba Zaba, the packaging featured racially insensitive imagery. Oh my God.

Why? Oh no. I would have found that original packaging. Why? Oh my. You said this was your favorite? Uh, look. That's not the Abba Zaba, I know.

Just give me some old fashioned salt water taffy. I'll deal with some salt water taffy. Is salt water taffy more of a New England thing? It is. You know, we'd see it around the, we'd see it near the ocean in Southern California. I think it's just kind of wherever. You see it near the ocean? Do you think this is something that just washes ashore?

I mean, it would be like a tourist attraction. No. I don't think it's like a natural resource like kelp. I understand that there's some human, uh, curation involved, but that there used to be salt water taffy shops like near the shore. That's what I'm saying. Jamelle, was that your experience at Virginia Beach? Yes.

Uh, on the, on the boardwalk, there are salt water, uh, taffy shops, um, and we would occasionally get some whenever we were down there. Virginia Beach is weird in that it's a geographically quite large and extends all the way down to the North Carolina border and then all the way, like pretty far into, uh, the interior of Virginia. And so I lived like 30 minutes from the beach, but like, if you were to visit where I'm from, it would be like on the edge of a rural Virginia, like kind of in the middle of nowhere. Right.

Well, I just, I just want to quickly say that I did something that you would think is funny. You didn't see it. When you, when you said kelp, I started licking my lips. Like you want to eat kelp? Isn't that the whale treat? Isn't kelp the whale, the whale treat? Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I mean, I think they eat everything.

Whales? Right? They just kind of have their, they're kind of just kind of like trawling the ocean with their mouths open, their mouths of gape and just consuming whatever flows in there. I thought they eat kelp. Well, krill. Oh, they think krill. Yeah.

I mean, maybe they eat kelp too. I don't know. Are they omnivores? Well, guess what? Maybe it wasn't worth licking my damn lips. Okay. It was a castle. No, it was good.

I liked it. I'm sorry I missed it, but I liked hearing about it. I'm, I'm about to send you guys a Abba Zaba wrapper. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Oh, no. I just put it in the chat.

All right. I'm downloading it right now. Let's take a look. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Yes. A couple of a, a couple of mascots flanking the Abba Zaba logo that are definitely frozen in time.

This is a, yeah. This, this is not the sort of a. It also says Los Angeles on it. Weird. Oh, no. Why? Is this Long Beach Polytex mascot? No more mascot is the Jackrabbit.

Perfectly unproblematic. The North Quincy one is problematic and they probably would pull shit like this. This is, this is very, very, very bad. It's a, it's, it's, it's a, it's very problematic. I don't think it's considered. It's not too bad. I've seen worse. Okay.

That's, yes. There are things worse than that, but that's for a candy wrapper. That is, that is, that's a bit shocking that that was a, that was just on candies all the time. And remembering now, like on the Forest Gump Blu-ray, there's a deleted scene where Forest designs this logo. That's weird. We were robbed of the, the Gump Sequel Logs Gump and Company.

That's right. The, the book was published, but the movie was never made and the, the author has passed away. Would have loved to see Forest Gump in all kinds of new modern situations like. Yeah. Right. He's like the janitor at Harvard. He gives Mark Zuckerberg the idea for Facebook or something.

And that's when I accidentally became Q. I said to a man named Trump, you might make a good president. I wanted to ask a, Jamel, we were talking about sweet treats a little bit, but you have a cereal eats column for serious eats, the website where you review various sweet confections for breakfast that are usually when I read these, it sounds revolting. Yeah. It's pretty good. But the, the most recent one as of this record is what you call the 2020 of cereal, Kellogg's

Applejack's Caramel. Yes. It is, it is Applejack's, which are a fine cereal. I haven't, I haven't eaten like a bowl of plain Applejack's in a while, but I remember my like taste memory of Applejack's said they're pretty good with like, I guess it's, it's going for sort of a, like a candied Apple vibe. And so there are these caramel flavored cereals, but the problem is that like caramel flavor doesn't really work in cereal.

I tried earlier in the year, the caramel macchiato Duncan cereal, which doesn't really have much of a caramel flavor at all. They are caffeinated, which is super weird for breakfast cereal. I don't advertise children. Not sure that's a great idea, but this Apple, this Apple caramel cereal just tasted, it tasted like garbage. Wow. And I wasn't even like, I had no preconceived notion.

So I was just genuinely curious and I put a spoonful in my mouth and just sort of like, this is like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Wow. That's, that's a, for someone who used to love Applejack's, that's hard. It's sad for me to hear because I, that was one, that was of, of, of my big go-to cereals back in the day. There was a, I had a fruity pebbles phase. I had an Applejack's phase.

I even maybe had a Froot Loops phase, but for me, it was mostly instilled to this day, the two big ones for me are Raisin Bran one is, is I still, I like Raisin Bran. I don't know if, do kids dislike Raisin Bran? I think it's delicious. And then Depends on the kid. Some, for some kids, I think it's, if you don't like raisins or if you, if you expecting just a lot of sugar in your cereal, I think some kids don't like it.

A lot of what you would call wigs, the, the wood. Yes. Mm-hmm. The, the bran, the bark. You call it wood, right? Right. The wood, yeah. Like, I, I, I think of it, this was my friend, David, and who would, who characterized it

as such in, uh, what's the cereal? Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms has the marshmallows, but then you've got the other part that's just like, uh, they're just flavorless, you know, wood chunks. Mm-hmm. My number one is, is Frosted Flakes. I love Frosted Flakes. Great cereal.

Quality cereal. Toast Crunch Guy. That's my, that's my sort of, that's a great one too. I'll, always solid, uh, yeah, I mean, that, that, that's a winner. I, I really like tiny bunches of oats. I feel like that one delivers consistently, but I also was just like a, uh, just like a straight ahead Captain Crunch Guy, not Crunch Berries, not Peanut Butter Crunch, but Captain Crunch was a, or Cap'n Crunch, I should say, was my treat of choice as a kid.

Um, my, when I was young, my grandma, I would, when I was over my grandma's house, I'd have a bowl of Corn Flakes, and then you take a spoonful of sugar and pour it on, and, and, and put it on the Corn Flakes. Is that normal? Do other people do that? No, my, my, that, that sounds familiar to me. I remember seeing my grandfather do that, like a spoonful of sugar on Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies.

Yeah. Yes. I, that was actually my, my grandparents, uh, my mom's parents, they, their regular breakfast was a bowl of Corn Flakes with just sugar, not poured on the spoon, but poured in the bowl, and they'd just like, they'd have sweet Corn Flakes. Oh no, I was saying a spoon of sugar just like, like I would, you would put it over the Corn Flakes, you know what I mean? You, you would sprinkle it over.

Oh, I thought you were sugaring each individual spoonful. No, Jesus Christ. I was going to say, it seems inefficient. You guys know the story of Corn Flakes, right? Like where they came from. No, I do not. Uh-oh. Um, oh no.

It's nothing, you know, it's nothing, I've, I've, I've, I've been heavy on the racism talk this time, but it's not, nothing, nothing race related. No, Kellogg, the guy Kellogg was like a, a fitness and health freak in the late 19th century. Oh, this I do know. Yeah. And was a, you know, was a, was a very, like very Victorian type and developed, they didn't believe people should eat meat, thought it was bad for like your humors.

And so, uh, Corn Flakes were kind of his invention to give people blender diets to kind of control their urges among them, jacking it. You didn't want people to do that anymore. Wow. You eat, eat Corn Flakes was the idea, and you just lose the urge to crank off. Wow. Now, Mitch, was that your experience? No, man, I get home from grandma's and I go jack crazy.

Um, yeah, I remember the movie, The Road to Wellville has a, is, is like a fictionalized account of Kellogg's, what, what he called a sanitarium for, for sanitation purposes, which was like a, a spa retreat where everyone would, yeah, abstain from anything unhealthy, including any sort of a carnal desires. Yeah. That's a guy who hates, who doesn't want people to jack it. Why? Cause that's like,

I think he was against sex in general. I think he was just like a straight up like prude, like it was very Puritan of just like you deny your body, uh, any pleasures, you know, how, and I think that was just like, and then you just exercise and, and eat Corn Flakes. This, I, I, I, I kind of appreciate him. I like it. But, uh, why, he's the, he's the sever to Wiger's ex. He's the, he's, what?

X versus sever. X versus sever. I'm saying he's, he's your, that's your reference. If you're under the age of like 35, you can't, you're not going to understand that reference. A movie that wasn't even popular when it came out like 20 years ago. I was, I was, I was trying to, I was, I was trying to think of actual historical examples, but I didn't want to make a fool of myself. So I said, so I said X and sever.

Ballistic X versus sever, uh, starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas came out in 2002. Do we intrumin, see? Did I get it wrong? No, that was fine. That's, that's right. Yeah. I do intrumin. I think X versus sever was better.

I think that was the right choice. All right. Good. A legendary bomb. Who was Citizen Kane's adversary? That's who I was trying to think of, but I couldn't, doesn't he try to beat some, doesn't he try to get elected against someone? And I just forgot to remember that.

Oh yeah. He runs for governor and at some point and loses. Look, X versus sever was the way to go. I'm showing you the other areas I could have gone in. What would you have said, Wiger's? I think it was, I think X versus sever was the right choice. It grossed just $20 million, uh, over a 70 versus a $70 million budget. Legendary bomb.

Uh, wait, legendary pictures or just a legendary bomb? No, just like a, just like a, a, in the annals of film bombs, it's a fabled one. We were talking about nineties bombs, uh, last night and, uh, and, uh, on a text chain with bug main and, uh, and nineties bombs were ruthless. That could destroy people, a nineties bomb. If you're in a nineties bomb. Yeah. You get like a cutthroat island or something and that was just like the end of a career.

Yeah. The end of the career or like specifically they'd like pick one actor from the movie and be like, you're the reason this didn't work and you're, and that would be it. You know what I mean? Like, it was fucking ruthless. The stars and actor jail or the directors and director jail and doesn't get to make something for a while or in some cases ever again. Doesn't happen anymore.

At different times. No, not really. No. I think barely at all. I just keep doing stuff. I think the stakes are maybe a little bit lower because there's all these other ways you can make money, even if, uh, even if something bombs in the box office. Maybe it should happen more, which why it's, we'll get you in and out of the show, the

show biz quickly. You know what I mean? You'd have, you'd have a bomb and then you could get out of here. It's true. Um, yeah. I mean, uh, though that would be the thing, like, you know, you got your, your upcoming film, the tomorrow war, you could all be writing on that. Are you saying that?

Okay. Oh, great. Bring it back for tomorrow war and then I get that one. You're going to be a hit, baby. I think it might be Mitch draw, uh, Buffalo box office. Oh, fuck. I couldn't come up with a fake headline. Mitch draws Buffalo box office.

That's how I should say it. That's what I should have said. Mixed. Yes. Mitch draws. Uh, Mitch draw box office. The X versus seven of 2021 tomorrow is not the X versus seven of 2021. Hopefully it does much, much better.

And hopefully it's a much better picture. Um, I have confidence in you, Mitch, but we should pivot to this week's chain dominoes. Yes, we should. But can I just quickly say like, you see me out there, you see me drowning and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm basically, I'm, I'm, I'm with all my life. I'm just trying to stay afloat. I'm, I'm, and then you never, you don't, you don't throw me a life jacket. Huh?

You just, uh, you sit there and watch me drown constantly. When your rival is drowning, toss them an anchor, I say, it was like a Ray Kroc quote. Yeah. It's very, very grim. I think Carl said it later. Yeah. Maybe I'm the X to your sever then. It might be.

I don't even know what that movie is about. Yeah. There might be friends. I'm not sure. Yeah. I think, yeah. I think they, I think it's like a Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

I think it's like they start as rivals and they end up being working together against a greater foe in the third act. That's my, that's my, I mean, that's my suspicion anyway. I don't think the movie ends with Antonio Banderas killing Lucy Lou, I guess. Who knows? Oh, that's, that's who X and sever are. Yeah. All right.

All right. Well, let's, let's get into Domino's. So I'm sure did an X versus ever promotion with at the time, most likely. And Mitch is opening his door to let a cat in or out as we are transitioning to the chain. I let Wally in. He's in here now. Irma's in here as well. He was crying outside the door.

I thought you could hear it. I couldn't, but I'm glad he's hopefully a little bit more content now around his proud papa. Domino's was founded in 1961 near Eastern Michigan University. It was the winner of the tournament of champions. The slice is right. Wow. Where we crowned our best chain pizza.

Today has over 17,000 locations and it's the second largest pizza chain in the US, but the largest in the world, a lot of success internationally. Wow. Yeah. So Jamal, it sounded like you hadn't been, you hadn't been to Domino's. You hadn't gotten Domino's for a while before this episode. That's right. We don't, we live like right down the street from Domino's.

We don't normally get Domino's pizza very often. There are a couple of actually pretty decent pizza joints in Charlottesville, so we always just pop into those for the pizza itch. But we saw, I saw the promotions for the chicken fajita and cheeseburger pizzas and figured, you know, why not? Why not get some Domino's, give it a shot, see how these, how these would land. What is your, what are your pizza preferences in general? Like how do you, do you like it thin?

You like it thick? What kind of toppings do you like? Thick baby. No, not really. Yeah. I like thin slices. Like I like, I'm like big on simplicity for stuff like pizza or like hamburgers. Like I want to enjoy sort of the sauce and the cheese and maybe like a topping or two.

Nothing too crazy. So like, you know, my, my ideal slice of pizza is, is probably like New York style, I guess. Right. But sort of like not a ton of cheese, but sausage and peppers and that's sort of, I'm happy with that. Solid combo. Yeah.

I, I'm with you. I like it. Usually a little bit simpler is you is a little bit better and simpler is not what they went with for either of the promotional pizzas they are doing right now, the chicken taco and the, and the cheeseburger. Before we get into it, I'm just going to say that these pizzas, I saw the promotions for them so much weirder than I would have ever thought. Yes.

Both of them are like, what was the Korean pizza chain we went to? We went to Mr. Pizza Pizza for Women. Mr. Pizza, oh, that's what it became. Was pizza for women? No, Mr. Pizza, it's, that's its tagline. It's Mr. Pizza Pizza for Women, at least in Korea. Mr. Pizza, like these two pizzas feel like they would maybe be at Mr. Pizza. They're very, they're much stranger than I ever imagined.

I thought, I thought they were pretty, I thought they were kind of going to be more straightforward and like, oh, like cause Domino's has had, has had like a bacon cheeseburger pizza before and this is, this is really, really different from what that was. You know, it kind of reminded me, I don't know if you guys have ever been, but it kind of reminded me of like something you get from CC's Pizza. Oh yeah. Yeah. The Pizza Buffet.

The Pizza Buffet. Yeah. They were all over the place in Virginia Beach and as a teenager, I, my friends and I would go to them all the time, which I feel like it's just what they cater to, teenagers. Right. And stoners. Stone teenagers. But they always, they would have like your standard pizzas, but they always have like

weird flavors. And this very much reminds me of some sort of like weird CC's pizza flavor dreamed up probably by sort of like, you know, a dirtbag 19 year old. Right. Now, why did you say you were going to say you use the app to order? Is that what you were going to say? I was going to say I use the Domino's app, which I really like, you know, among the, among the pizza apps, I think it's one of the better ones and it has the pizza tracker

on there, which I really like. I think I'll declare it the best pizza app of all the chain pizzas. I think it's kind of, right? I think that's fair. It's, it's, it's really slick. It's very easy to customize and, um, and, uh, you know, the pizza trackers, just a lot of fun. And I'll say this.

So I did in-store pickup, uh, cause like Jamel, I live pretty close to a Domino's location. So I just went over there and when you go inside, they put your name up and the Pete, your pizza tracker on a monitor in the store. Wow. Which, so you kind of go there and it feels like you're the star of the show. Wow. This is, that's, you feel, you felt like the star of the show? I don't know.

I thought it was pretty exciting. Go up there, see my name in lights and know that my pizza was, uh, being prepared as I arrived. This sounds a little bit like the end of Sunset Boulevard. So let's start with the chicken taco pizza. I didn't do any modifications. Should we say that we all got, we all got these specialty pizzas. Yes.

The chicken taco and the cheeseburger pizza. And then I got a couple extra items, which I'll talk about in a bit, but the, but the, let's start with a chicken taco pizza. I didn't make any modifications to either of these, but I did change up what the crust was just a, so this, the chicken taco, I got on thin crust, uh, cause I thought that might work for it and the cheeseburger I got on the pan crust, but I kept all the ingredients normal. So the chicken taco has onions, green peppers, what they call premium chicken, diced tomatoes,

cheddar cheese, American cheese, and shredded provolone cheese. No sauce as far as I can tell. All the tomato flavors coming from the diced tomatoes kind of splayed on top. Um, what did you think of that taco pizza? I really liked that taco pizza. I got it on the regular crust because we, we just, I just got two smalls. Um, my wife and I both tried them. Uh, I was curious to see how it might taste in the thin crust.

So I'll be curious. We just know what, what did you think of that? We also, one of the items we got also was just a regular thin crust pizza. Um, and we'll talk about that later, but I, I thought that the chicken taco pizza tasted like, like a Taco Bell collab, right? Like it tastes like something that you could, that Taco Bell would have made. Um, it's sort of, I don't know. I can't even, it's sort of hard to describe exactly how much it tasted just

like a chicken taco, even if there's no corn flavor from like a tortilla. It still has that flavor profile. I thought it was very good. I, I actually like, wow, legit enjoyed it. Um, I, I wrote in my notes, I agree with you, surprisingly scrumptious. I was like caught off guard by how good it was. And I thought it worked well on the tier point about it being like a, a Taco Bell menu item, you know, Mitch, young brands, uh, has reduced the menu of Taco Bell

and our, our dearly departed Mexican pizza is no longer an option. But this may be a pretty good approximation, honestly, especially if you subbed out the protein, cause I think the chicken was the weakest part, but I thought all the other components worked really well. And I liked how it worked on that, that cracker thin crust. I thought, I thought that felt more like the, the Taco Bell Mexican pizza. Um, but yeah, I was surprised by how well that blend of cheeses, including the American cheese work to kind of simulate a taco, like a vaguely, you

know, taco flavor. I don't know, Mitch, what did you think? Well, weirdly, this was our, our least favorite pizza of the night. Wow. You and your mom. My mom and I. Yeah. Mm hmm.

Ma. Did you hate the, was the chicken taco pizza your least favorite? Ma. Yes. She said yes. The chicken taco pizza was, now this is how you knew the two of you normally communicate. Yes.

I mean, yes, a hundred percent. What? No, she didn't say anything else. Uh, I don't think at least you like, you liked that one, right? Okay. Uh, all right. Sorry, everyone. Uh, so look, the chicken taco pizza came well done for us.

We got, we got, I got the regular, I got the regular pizza. What is it called? The, the regular handmade pan or whatever. Just there. Yeah. They're, they're tossed handmade crust, I think. Yeah. Hand toss.

That's right. Yes. The regular hand toss pan pizza or it's not, it's not even pan, right? It's just, uh, no, it's not pan. Pan is its own thing. The, so, uh, yeah, I got the regular, the right, the, the, the default crust. And it was the chicken taco one was, was, uh, was, was pretty well done. Um, and it was like, uh, it was pretty like the cheese was pretty brown on top.

I'm going to say this, I used the app as well. And this is the, this is a bad thing is that it said your, your delivery is, which was, it was a big order and it said your delivery is leaving and it said expected arrival and it was 39 minutes away, uh, which is a long time to be traveling around and, and like, and it was, yeah, it ended up being like 40, 40, 40 minutes just in the car, not even wait in the car alone. Yes. In the car alone.

They dropped, I think they dropped off to two places before. Um, and so. So that's, I think that was a part of the issue is that look, luckily the chicken taco pizza was warm, but there was a couple issues with, with, uh, with the heat, heat levels of the other ones, but I thought it just tastes like a bad taco. Like, like it, it tasted like the, um, and we'll get into this too. But like, I think that I got a bad burger and a bad taco and what would I rather have is like a shitty taco or a shitty burger.

And I think I would rather have a shitty burger, but hmm, but yeah. So I got that hand-tossed crust and we'd got medium size. Cause I wanted, I wanted to see how it would do on a bigger, but I don't know. I don't know if that, if that will change it, if you have a large one or a small one or, or the thin crust, maybe if that would change it. But my, my main issue with this is that there was like the taco seasoning was just kind of thrown on it. It felt like to me where, and, and that is just like, that is like the

cafeteria taco, it's like the taco seasoning that's like just I associate with bad tacos always. Like the, it's that, it's that powdered taco seasoning that just felt it was, it was, it was just like sprinkled on top of the whole pizza. And, and that's like the, the biggest taste I really got out of that. And besides that, I thought it was just kind of bland. Well, the chicken is unseasoned and, and not good quality. Um, the, the, the onions, the peppers and the, the blend of cheeses are

what's really doing the work to make it seem like a, it all, at all south of the border. And I, and like I was saying, my cheese, the, the cheese were pretty browned, browned over. So I don't know if that was, maybe I lost some of the flavor in that. You know what I mean? Like that could have been what it was, but this was, this was, this was probably the loser of, of the entire.

Wow. Munch. Yeah. Uh, it, it sounds like you maybe had just a, that was maybe just an execution issue for you, but, but who knows? Maybe just a, maybe just a difference of palates. Mitch is holding up his phone screen to the zoom call. And yeah, that does look pretty scorched.

Yeah. I'll, if I can, I think I have a picture of mine on my phone that I will pull up for comparison sake. Um, yeah, it looks like you get that kind of the ring around it all looks like it's pretty, uh, it's pretty blackened. And so maybe, so maybe some of the, uh, yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe some of the, uh, the cheese flavor that you guys were getting. I just, I just didn't get as much.

I roasted some bok choy last week and I, I, I did it. I overdid it for like an extra five minutes and it was just like burned to shit. And I was like, I don't know. I ruined this bok choy. Jamel is holding up his book. That looks great. That looks like a textbook pizza.

That looks as advertised. So my, my did. Yeah. Look, you know what this, this Wikipedia for pizza, that's the thumb nail. That's like a perfect pie. Looks like it's a fucking bizarre pie. I mean, we'll submit it. Both of these pizzas are weird.

They're weird. They're, they're, they're weird. They're weird pizzas. Yeah. Let me finish my riveting bok choy anecdote. I got this bok choy out. It was burnt to shit. I was like, oh, this bok choy is going to be ruined.

It was great. Like just like the burnt bits of it tasted really good. And I was like, oh, this kind of works. I kind of just charring it to shit kind of worked out in its favor for whatever reason. Sounds like a bok joy. It was a bok choy. Thank you, Mitch.

Uh, let's talk about the cheeseburger pizza. So the ingredients here, I got this on the handmade pan crust. The ingredients here are onions, beef, diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese, American cheese, shredded provolone cheese. And here is the big one. Ketchup mustard sauce. Yeah. That's what you got instead of marinara, what they call a ketchup,

hyphen mustard sauce. So ingredients wise, it's very similar to the chicken taco. There's no green peppers and they sub chicken for beef. But other than that, everything is the same, except for the presence of the ketchup mustard sauce, which I thought was gross. I don't know. What did you think, Jamal? Yeah.

I mean, so it tasted, it tasted like a cheeseburger. I'll say for both of them, there is too much cheese. I don't know. Like I don't, I don't have like the highest cheese tolerance in the world. And so, uh, having a slice of both was like putting me close to sort of like, I can no longer, I can no longer consume cheese for the next several days. Cause it was just like a lot of, it was a lot of cheese. Um, but it, the hamburger pizza, it tasted like a cheeseburger,

but that sauce was just sort of like not, not great. My, my wife had a slice as well. And it was her least favorite of the pizzas that we ate. Um, I think that what, if they're going to go down this route, I think it should have come with pickles. Yes. 100% agree. That was, that was, that was what I, the exact same thing I said to

my mom and also make it a cheese, a bacon cheeseburger pizza. Put some bacon on there too. I think, I think anything to kind of add to the sauce is, the sauce is strange. The, but my first note was pickles, add pickles. Pickles would have gone a long way a little bit. Sorry. I, I have written in my notes. How about pickle chips or something?

Question mark. Yeah. It's just, just, I mean, there are, you're already, these are, again, these are weird pizzas. These are not like, these are, I mean, they kind of feel like something. Again, a 19 year old stoner would dream up. And so if you're already going down that road, just, you know, no, the kind of person who buys the hamburger pizza because they think it's delicious is

not going to be turned off by pickles on the hamburger pizza. 100% yeah. That, that, that's, that sauce is, that sauce is the most like Mr. Pizza sauce. Like it is, it is, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a really crazy. And why, cause I did the medium and I did the, the, the, the hand toss, the handmade pie or whatever again, hand-tossed pie. I did, I did, and I just kind of, I try to do like the most basic version

of it, just like, like as advertised. And this was my mom's favorite of all the pizza that we had the entire night, which is, won't make sense once you hear what else we got. But now Mitch, do you want to, is this like a recurring segment? I hope it is. It's just, I mean, he's yelled to his mom before, but was the cheeseburger pizza your favorite of all? Notice the Boston accent come out.

Yeah. You think you'd like to just yelling to his mom down the hallway. You'd like the sausage more? Oh, the same. Okay. All right. So it's tied, it's tied for her favorite. The cheeseburger pizza was tied for her, for her favorite pizza.

Interesting. Um, and it was, the cheeseburger pizza was not my favorite, but I think I did like the cheeseburger pizza more than the taco pizza. I know that's strange, but again, it was that sort of thing of these are two, it's a shitty taco and a shitty burger. And maybe I just have more tolerance for like a shitty burger. Like it, like it didn't, it didn't bother me as much. Like the, I just thought that the chicken taco one was so bland.

And like I said, just like, just that fucking, that taco seasoning package, which I like when it's mixed in with taco meat and I, and I'm making tacos at home, but I just, I was not, I did not enjoy it in the, in the, in the cheeseburger one was a little bit better, but that sauce is fucking, that sauce is something else. I would maybe order that pizza without the sauce, like just do tomato sauce instead. Uh, Natalie pitched if this was, if this was barbecue sauce or even just marinara, it would have been better than this ketchup mustard sauce.

I sort of want to know who's idea of this. I mean, I guess if they were going for, we want this really to capture the flavor profile of a cheeseburger, then you have to have the ketchup mustard sauce, but I'm not, I'm just not sure that you do. Or if you, if you need that, have it on the side as a dipping sauce. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. That's, that's, that's a great call. I liked it. Maybe just, maybe it's just a, a sauceless pizza or like a, like a, some sort of white sauce, like a white cheese sauce. Yeah. Right.

And then, and then you have, and then you have the, the dipping sauce. I, you know what? I did like, I did like kind of like the hint of mustard. I'll say that much. Like the mustard didn't bother me. It was more so when I got like the sweetness of the ketchup and I think, and the, the just, I just don't think that we've said this before wise, but I just don't think pizza and sweetness mixes that well.

I'm not, I'm not, and I don't like buffalo. I don't think I would like the buffalo, the, I'm sorry, barbecue sauce either. I don't like, I don't like a sweet pizza almost ever. But the, the ketchup is just, you, you really, you really, you can really taste it in moments and it's, I think it will gross out a lot of people and you can't eat this pizza cold, either of them really. Like I had us, I went back and took a bite of it when it was cold. And it's like eating like a refrigerated burger that had ketchup on it.

You know what I mean? You don't want to do that. Yeah. The, the, the cheeseburger was the one where we didn't save any leftovers. We're just, we don't want any more of this. It was, and I, I hate wasting food, but it was just like, it was so bad, I didn't want to have any more of it. But the chicken, actually I did have the chicken taco pizza later cold.

And I thought it was pretty good. Uh, the thin crust might have helped that. I think the, so the other pizza we got was just a Domino's thin crust pizza with pepper, onion, sausage, tomato, sauce, link, light cheese. And I kind of think that's, I think that thin crust is the single best thing Domino's has on their menu. Like that, that to me is the reason to get it down those pizza is exclusively to get a thin crust pizza because I'm not sure any other pizza chain does it

as well. And you can't really, it's not thin crust pizzas don't really a thing that like many regular pizza joints sell, right? It's not like a thing. So, you know, I, I think that if I could have gotten either of his pizzas and the small size on the thin crust, I probably would have liked certainly the, the chicken taco one much more, which I already like, but I think even the cheeseburger one would have been really improved by being on the thin crust.

Yeah. I agree with you there. Their thin crust is great. The other pizza I did was not on a thin crust. I did, I think the other crust that I like is their Brooklyn style crust, which is like their, it's like their hand toss, but just a little thinner. And I got this one with the subbed the, the hearty marinara sauce instead of their default robust inspired tomato sauce.

Hearty marinara, I believe is their old sauce. This was Natalie's wreck. And I do think it's a better sauce. Onions, jalapenos, pepperoni, and extra cheese because Contra Jamel, I am the dairy dude. I like that cheese on there. This I thought was great. We were, we were, we, we got Domino's Mitch.

You and I had just recorded a, a Patreon episode with, with Quincy's own Dano, where you guys had gone on a pizza tour and I just heard you guys talk about all these pizzas you'd had for 90 minutes. And I was craving pizza so badly that I was like, I need to have just a straight ahead pizza when I get this Domino's. And this was, this was exactly the pizza I wanted. It was just like a great, great, great pieces of chain pizza. I had it cold the next morning with coffee, which for me is a real treat.

When you get it, when you have leftover pizza, have it as an indulgent breakfast. Um, and, uh, it was great. It held up great. I thought this was a, it was a great slice of pizza. Uh, Mitch, you got any others? Oh yeah, I did. I, and I got, I got a couple more things, but in one, which was a surprise, which, which I'll tell you in a second, but like I said, the delivery took

from the time it left the place to the time it got there. It took quite a while, which they had two other deliveries on the way. He can't help that. Domino's usually does a pretty good job of, of keeping things hot. But, uh, sadly, the pizza that I like looked forward to, which wasn't one of these two fucking monstrosity pizzas was the one that came in cold wags. That was the, that was the sad thing about it was, and I, I did a wags. I, you told me what you ordered and I, uh, and I, I followed suit cause for me,

I didn't get the same exact thing, but I copied your crust. I went Brooklyn style crust. Yeah. And for me, usually I either do the handmade pan, which reminds me of the old, which reminds me of pizza hut when I liked pizza hut that has kind of the, the fluffy crust and a buttery bottom. And then, uh, uh, just like me and then, uh, and then the, and then, or I'll do the thin crust like Jamel loves, which is a great, which is great.

I think those, those are the two reasons to get to Domino's. The hand tossed, they were like regular, they're preset crust is, it's fine. You know what I mean? Like if you're at like, uh, if you're at some sort of event and they order 10 Domino's pizzas and it's usually all the hand tossed crust, I'm fine with it. It's no biggie. You know what I mean?

Like, uh, and it's, and it's got like the, the garlicky crust or whatever. And it can be fine. But if I'm going to Domino's, I'd rather do the, the handmade pan in the crunchy thing trust and the Brooklyn style. I'll say I, I enjoyed, but the pizza was just cold. This was not like a good version of it, but I, but the Brooklyn style reminds me of like old, like an old large Domino's pizza. Cause we got a medium, uh, or I think actually we got a large because I think

you have to get larger, extra large for Brooklyn. Yes. There's no medium Brooklyn. It starts at large. So we got the large, the 14 inch and this reminds me more of the Brooklyn style reminds me more of old Domino. I think like the hand, I think that the, the hand tossed is like thicker than it used to be, right?

Like I feel like it's just as a thicker pizza. Might be. Yeah. And the Brooklyn style just reminds me of older Domino's. Maybe, maybe it's a little in between that, but we got a sausage pizza. And on one half we got onions because I like onions. My mom doesn't like onions. And, uh, it was just too cold.

Why is it was just a, it was a cold, it was a cold pizza. It was a, it was a bummer boy. You know, what can you, what can you do? And then, but we also got a, I got myself a diet coke. And then also we got a, we got, you have a, you have a surprise, right? There, there was a surprise. We got, so we got some, um,

wait, I want to, I want to hold your surprise. We're going to tease your surprise. Wow. And, and have it come back after we'll come back on the other side. We'll hear your surprise and we'll hear our fork scores. Wow. We'll be right back. Wow.

More dough boys. Wow. Welcome back to dough boys. We are here with Jamel Bowie discussing Domino's taco pizza and cheeseburger pizzas. Mitch, you got some other items. It's time to reveal the surprise. It's not time for the surprise yet.

Because we were going to, we were going to finish our order with, should we take another break before the surprise? We might have to take one more break before the surprise. Got it. Wise. I was trying to do some stuff that I hadn't had before. So that's why I went with the Brooklyn and we got the, and I think the sausage at Domino's is actually pretty good.

The Italian sausage. Agreed. And, and, and the onions that I like, but, but I went with some stuffed cheesy bread and I went with one that I, that I don't usually get because I like the stuffed cheesy bread. It is just a, it's so bad for you. It's just a loaf of bread stuffed with cheese, but it's fucking, it's good. It is.

It's a lot of fun. Man, I, I don't know. Anytime I have like the, the sort of, any sort of bread sides from a pizza place, I'm just like, I'd rather be eating more cheese or eating more pizza rather. Even, even if it's like a cheesy bread, I just like, I'd rather have another slice of pizza versus this bread stick. I don't know, Jamel, uh, you ever, you ever mess around with them breadsticks? Uh, very rarely.

There's a place in town that has pretty good garlic knots that we'll sometimes get garlic knots from, but if we're going to our usual, uh, local pizza place, we get a pizza and then like they sell big Greek salads and that's like a nice thing to have with the pizza. I love counterweight. Uh, can you, look, this is, this is the sausage pizza. Can you tell it's cold? Mitch is holding up his.

Does it look fold? I mean, it's hard to tell that a pizza is cold from a photograph, to be honest. So I don't, you don't see the sizzles. No, yeah. Hashtag, can you tell it's cold? It was cold. We'll see if, we'll see, we'll see if, we'll see if our, we'll see if our listeners think it looks cold.

Can you tell it's cold? Sounds like a broke ass Christmas song. Oh, like the kids, Bob baby, it's cold outside. Right. Oh Santa, can you tell it's cold? Can see my naan. I'll listen to that fucking shit. But then if you actually look at this, go through the subtext of the lyrics.

It's all about a guy being self-conscious about his hog. This song is dark. And it also takes place in the summertime. I went with a cheesy bread that I don't usually get. Why is I went with the stuffed cheesy bread with spinach and feta? That's the cheesy bread I got. I got a pretty good. It does sound good.

It was good. You know what? This is probably my bite of the night. I think that this was this was probably the best thing I had. I like this the the the sausage pizza too was was good, but it just was it was too cold. I had I had a I had a nuke a slice of it. It just didn't it didn't work out. But that the the feta and spinach cheesy bread was good.

But I'll say this on top of everything. This isn't this isn't too much for the bite of the night. Couldn't really taste the feta too much. It was almost it almost was non-existent. It just it was cheesy, but there was just not a lot of feta flavor, right? Which I thought you'd get from that. And so that that was everything that we ordered. But why?

We got a little surprise. We brought everything in. We laid it all out and then I realized what's this extra box? It was the wrong delivery. They gave us a they gave us a pasta. We didn't order a pasta. They left us a pasta. So there was a pasta there, which they put it outside.

They just leave it on the contactless delivery. They just leave it. They left it on the chair outside and we got a pasta primavera as well. Which surprise pasta, which we did not order. But that was that was in there and it was bad. It was it was a bad surprise. It was not a it was not. We tried it for the sake of the pod.

But the pasta primavera has like onions, tomato. Let me let me tell you exactly. It's got mushrooms, onions, diced tomatoes, spinach and alfredo sauce. The pasta itself was actually cooked. OK, but it just there was just for the amount of calories that I'm sure this thing has, there was just not enough taste in it. It was just it was it was just kind of 100 percent. Yeah, I totally get that to me is it's like the bread thing where it's just

like I'd rather get more pizza from a pizza place than get up side a pasta generally, unless it's like a thing they do. I mean, the other thing is that like these veggies on a pizza, they're not like there's not a lot of them. They're kind of just like an accent more than anything else. And so, right, right, all blended with everything. But a pasta primavera is vegetable forward. That's the whole point is the best.

Yeah. And so you're yeah, they're having a bowl full of low quality vegetables. Yes. And like low quality alfredo. It's like everything's low quality. And so putting it together in a single bowl doesn't doesn't make it better somehow. Yes, it does. It does not.

It puts a lot of those low quality ingredients forward. And I was saying if this was like a baked ziti sort of deal of like if it was just cheese and some marinara sauce in there, which was I didn't know that that it's the old marinara sauce is the hearty one is that's that's the deal. Yes, I believe that the their their default sauce is their new sauce, which is the the robust inspired tomato sauce and hearty marinara is their old sauce, their legacy sauce. Wow.

But but I think that if that if it was that if it was like maybe some meat in there, maybe sausage and cheese and sauce, I think it would be a different story than these kind of the vegetable forward pasta that I got by mistake. But not worth the calories. I think that their pastas though could work if you were doing like a big spread. If you got like a bunch of pizzas and you put out a few pastas for people who didn't want pizza, I think it works like I think it works for like big work functions or whatever, like put out a few ziti's.

But the but the pasta primavera, sadly, it thumbs down when I tried it. There was like big mushrooms in there. And they just tasted like canned mushrooms, which, you know, whatever. I'm sure that they're they're not fresh picked mushrooms. So the Domino's pasta primavera sounds less like an interesting sort of like concoction from the food lab and more like some executive is like how we're losing two cents, you know, right every month from extra vegetables. So how can we shovel this in the people's faces?

That is that is a great call. Yes, that's it. It feels made for like no one. I don't know anyone who was asking for this, but hell, someone got it delivered. Someone in Quincy, Massachusetts was looking for a wags. I have no idea who probably live it. They're probably going to kick my ass. Can you imagine the week they've had first Trump loses and then and then

their pasta doesn't arrive. And then just a few minutes earlier, they found out that that Abu Zaba mascot is gone. Cancer culture. What are you going to do about it? I'm going to get my ass kicked wags. It's going to happen. There's a level of guilt you feel when you get someone else's delivery where it's not even your fault, but you're like, there's nothing I can do.

There's no way I can get this to this person. The best I can do is tell them that this is for the wrong person, but especially now it's like, well, what am I going to do? Not eat this like it's just like no one's going to take this back. So yeah, yeah, that's a weird that's a weird feeling. I wasn't going to call them. I mean, it was already by the time that I found out it was already it was not worth it to them, I would think to come and get it, especially with COVID

and everything. I feel like that's not what you want to do. But because I opened the box, I didn't know what the hell was going on. But yeah, what do you do in that situation? I think that if like someone if someone drops food off at my house, that's not mine. I guess I would I would say something. But but for when it's mixed in with your order, what are you supposed to do? I think I think you just got to like I think depending on the size, you can let them know the error.

It seems like if you got one extra item, that's maybe not a thing you need to go out of your way for. I might do it anyway, just because I'm I'm weird like that. But I think if I got someone else's completely complete order, I would definitely inform the rest because also I want the food I ordered. Yes, of course. I mean, that this didn't ruin everything. So that was but I mean, obviously, someone else's was upset that they didn't get their meal.

But what would you do when you call them? What would you say? Come and get it? Like what what is the what's the point? I wouldn't say come and get it. Come and get it. Come and take it, motherfuckers. No other context. As soon as they answer, come and get it.

They fucking freaked out. What would what what is what would be your point in telling them? I just don't what? I think just to give them a heads up in case like and I don't know. I mean, if I get someone else's, I guess if I get someone else's completely complete order, I was like that you had to be the wrong bag. Then then that would be an instance. I would definitely let them know.

Hey, you be brought over the wrong thing because someone else is going to be mad to your point. I think you're just trying to make yourself look good. Your piece of shit because I did the opposite. I want and ate it. Maybe I am. Yeah, you are. After all, I am the X to your sever.

It was it was it was bad. I saved this person from from having the pasta primavera. It was it was it was not good and definitely not worth the calories. Right. You know, if it was a local pizza joint, maybe I would make local pizza joint. Who the fuck am I? I maybe would have. I sound like a Tony Soprano Wags.

I maybe I maybe would how what do you mean by saying local pizza joint? Local pizza joint just didn't sound like it worked with me. I didn't like when I said it. I didn't like it. But if it's like a local pizza place, then I would probably tell him. But if it's Domino's, I just who I mean, you know, who cares? It was it was already it was already past the time. But that being said, it was bad.

But maybe there's a spot for for pasta lovers. I don't I don't know if it feels like that sort of thing to me of what Jamel was saying, but also Domino's being like, hey, we can make like an extra dollar by because this local business offers pastas and now we can do it too. And and try to wipe them out instead. And I think that's maybe a part of why they do it. So it's the same thing with sandwiches. They I've always it seems like needless.

If you're going to Domino's, you're doing going down as a pizza primarily. And so it's sort of like offering sandwiches or pastas just in case people might want them just seems like you're just extra inventory that you don't need. It seems like a bad business decision to start with. Like if I yes, like if you know, I became king of Domino's, which is the position that's that's actually what they call it. Yeah, that would be the first thing to get rid of. Like there's no need to have.

Sandwiches and and pasta like pizza and pizza and wings is basically all you all you need from a place like Domino's. I fully agree. And speaking of wings, I did get an eight piece of bone in hot buffalo wings. I'd had Wingstop for lunch. This is the kind of diet I'm having lately. And I just wanted to compare and I think they're not bad. I will say I got all drums and I don't know if that's just how Domino's

does their wings now. It's not my memory of how Domino's does their wings. I didn't I just ask for ordinary wings. I didn't ask. I didn't specify all drums and I don't know if that's all they do now or if that was a kitchen error or what. But I think they're good. I just wish they had you know, I'm something to be heat seeker.

I wish they had a hotter, like truly spicy option because you've got either hot, which is kind of like medium hot or you've got mango habanero, which is like a hot sweet. And I just like something with just a little bit more of a of a, you know, like a four or five star heat factor. I've never liked Domino's wings, but. They're not bad. I vote I I liked Domino's a lot more when I was a kid.

I liked it. And then when I went out to California because I was in LA, I feel like your pizza options can be so so. And like we said before, Nick, it's like getting Taco Bell. If you sometimes you want Mexican food and sometimes you want Taco Bell. And sometimes you want pizza and sometimes you want Domino's. Yes. And but you know what, there might be less of a reason for it

when I'm back on the East Coast. I think that's a part of it with me right now. I don't I wasn't craving Domino's. And when I'm back in LA, I do crave it. And when I'm here, I it just hasn't even crossed my mind. There are fewer of the that that is a thing, you know, the East Coast, of course, has over the West Coast is that there there are, you know, some really good pizza places, but they're more like high end,

like fancy pizza places where you're going to be. There aren't a lot of budget friendly. Yeah. And in LA, there aren't a lot of budget friendly, like like independent pizzerias that do really good work. There's a million like sub shops that serve pizza here. That's that's just like what so many places are. But you know what, a bad outing.

If I when I used to order Domino's with Koalic, I remember we we got a thin crust one time and he took a bite of it and he went yuck. And he went and he went into the other room and he called Domino's and he demanded a refund. Oh my God. And I was eating the pizza. I was like, it's good. I was just in the other room eating it and being like, it's fine.

And I wasn't going to pull a Koalic on this one. Yeah. But also like, I'm just going to gnaw on this wedge of cheese. I want a piece of drywall, please. You are sir. You're a man, not a rat. Or is he a rat? We don't know.

We don't know. We can't tell. But he but he demanded a refund on the pizza that he thought it was too cold and and that's just the risk you run with Domino's on the on the West Coast. Usually they're pretty good. I got a shit order Domino's. I got to say it.

Yeah. I got I got I got my local Domino's in LA does the job right. And I guess this one I got here just didn't it was pretty bad. So my outing. It was it was not a great one this time around Wikes. Well, we'll see how that reflects in your fork score. It's time for our final thoughts on Domino's. So Jamal, you've done the show before, but just a refresher.

We'll each go around, give our closing argument, if you will, and end it by giving it a rating from zero to five forks. You are a guest. We'll begin with you. So my my Domino stand by is that thin crust pizza and we got it again and it was great way. I have no if I was just reviewing the thin crust pizza, it would be this would be an easy four four forks.

But the chicken fajita or chicken taco and cheeseburger pizzas are very strange creatures. And although the chicken taco pizza that captures the taste, I think of a of a of a of a sort of Taco Bell taco pretty well. And I did like it. It's not something I probably would get it again, but it wouldn't be sort of an automatic thing would be it would still be fundamentally a novelty. Not kind of like we're getting Domino's we're getting this.

And the cheeseburger pizza just wasn't very good. And so if I'm going to like average this together, right? Let's say that the thin crust pizza is a four. No, no question. The chicken fajita or chicken taco pizza is three and a half spoons forks rather. And the cheeseburger is like two. Wasn't like it wasn't even retro anything, right? So that's my if I take a bite of something and I'm like, I can't eat this

again or I will I will vom then it's a sub is a sub two fork thing. Let's say four, three, two, right? So that's that's well, like it's nine. So that's a three. Wow. Wow. Mitch, do you want to yell at your mom? Make sure that math checks out.

I should ask her her for ma. What would you get on a scale of one to five forks? What would you give Domino's? Five is high. Well, not one isn't high. I wonder for any of our listeners think one is high. Just been confused all these years. I mean, I guess I guess in certain combinations of binary it is, but yeah,

that's true. My mom gives Domino's two and a half forks. Two and a half forks. Wow. From from my mom and Mitchell. Um, look, I got a bad Domino's. Maybe the Noid, you know, the Noid maybe got a grab. We got a hold of my pizzas.

Wags. Yeah. Koalic speaking of Koalic. He is the Noid in our employees. Canon. I like this idea of the mascot sort of like forming sting operations. So the interfere with other customers orders and other chains. He got a hold of ours because it would look the the the my the some

pizza came cold. We got the wrong thing, which was a surprise for me. I'm not going to complain that I got an extra thing. But like you said, Wags, you feel bad. Someone didn't get their thing. It got fucked up a little bit. But but more so maybe the Noid's in the test kitchen because I don't know if not to use internet slang, but this ain't it as they say it for

the for the cheeseburger pizza. That's what they say. Definitely. For the cheeseburger pizza and the chicken taco pizza. This ain't it. This is they they got to think of something they get they got to think of something better than this. I mean like one don't get into this area.

If if this is what like I if I'm going to get tacos delivered, I'd rather get the cold tacos from Taco Bell than the cold taco pizza from Domino's that also tastes bad and and so make a make a bacon cheeseburger pizza. Put some put some pickles on there, but give it a normal sauce. Give it a marinara sauce or or or get a little more creative than that. And with the chicken taco pizza, just give me something more. I just it just wasn't enough for me. Wags, it's tough to do it, but this is dropping out of the Golden

Plate Club for me. Oh, no. For if I if I'm on the West Coast, I'm giving Domino's 4-4 because I know what I want. I'm getting that I'm getting the the the Pizza Hut pan one, whatever it is the pan pizza or the thin crust and it's coming to me hot and I'm and I'm putting the toppings on that I want and I'm split splitting the pizza up one way or the other and look my Mount Rushmore, even though

there's only three of them of delivery apps, it's Domino's, McDonald's and Taco Bell. I think those are the three and you know what the Duncan app is your Triforce if you will my Triforce. And maybe Duncan runs rounds out the Mount Rushmore, even though it did fuck up a couple times when we used it, but I just think it's pretty usable. It's pretty decent.

It's pretty usable. The interface is good. So those I think those are the four best apps. I don't know if anyone has any better ones, but I'm going to drop it out. I was almost going to say 3.25 or so. I'm going to go three and a half just because I know in the past it's been good, but the Quincy Domino's when I'm on the East Coast, I guess I just don't I don't crave Domino's and that's something my mom said to

me. She's like, I never get Domino's ever. Wow. And so this this was not this time around was was just not worth it. Yeah, I mean it's and I know you are a Domino's fan and so for you to be that down on it is it must have been a pretty disappointing experience. I mean, overall I liked my Domino's. I'm going to go a little little higher than the consensus here because I thought the chicken taco pizza worked out pretty well and the only bad

item I had was the cheeseburger pizza. I thought that was just conceptually it just a failure, but I thought the chicken taco was was a good was good and well-executed and I could see myself getting it if I wanted to mix things up and I love that that Brooklyn style pizza with the onions, jalapenos and pepperoni. I thought that was great wings were fine. Dip in sauces, I think are solid. Got some blue cheese, some ranch and a honey barbecue dip in a cup just to

mix it up and so I'm going to go. I'm going to say this one still skates in by the skin of its teeth into the Golden Plate Club. Wow. I'm going to give this four forks based off of this experience because I think the the whole ordering experience and the food absent to the cheeseburger gimmick pizza was all was all pretty good. Was all pretty good to quite good by chain standards.

Well, maybe it's just East Coast, Mitch versus West Coast, Mitch. That could be it. It's like the night spoon versus spoon man. It's two different sides of the coin. You know what I mean? It's like your own personal X versus sever. It is. Within each man.

There is one X and one sever and who knows who will triumph. I'm being maybe I'm being a little severry today and why I might be again. I'm pretty sure none of this discourse has any connection to the movie itself. And why is I got to say I'm with you. Yes. I I am a cheese guy. I like cheese on the pizza. I like to cheese it up.

That's an option on the app. It says cheese it up. And I chose yes to cheese it up on the on the Brooklyn style. And it was not extra cheap. There was no extra cheese for sure. It was thin on the cheese. It's it's marginal. I don't I couldn't really detect a huge difference.

There was a little bit more than the other pizzas. But I've ordered it before and and and I've noticed it. And this time it just it just was not extra cheese. There's no way it was it was like the cheese and the and the marinara were basically mixing together and I want you want just a little more cheese in that scenario and it just didn't it didn't happen. So yes, it sounds like a bad outing for the Quincy Domino's bad outing bummer. Well, hey, that was our review of Domino's.

It's time for a new segment. I have an animal and Mitch and Jamel must identify its various cuts of meat. This is flank check. Yeah, flank check with Mitchell and Wyger flank. She's Mitchell and Wyger. Don't know what cuts of meat to expect. All you need to know is that the name of the segment's flank check. Is producer Ben going to like murder you're in your sleep now?

I just get a call from producer Ben. That's just a come and get it. So so we've got a so here's how this works. There's an animal that I've selected for today. It is cow beef and I've shared with you a silhouette of that cow divided into numbered sections of those sections flank is already filled in. That's the free space on your bingo card. But all the other ones are empty.

You can take turns and fill in the numbers in any order. So, you know, we got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Say what number you want to pick and try your best to name it. And you each have two hints you can request at any time. Are we clear on the rules? Any questions? Rules? No, sound clear to me. OK, great.

This may be challenging. As I was trying to do it myself, I was like, oh, this is a little tougher than I anticipated, but we're going to find out. I know Jamel is an avid home cook, so perhaps he'll have this one nailed. We'll see. I'm going to be embarrassed in this. Jamel, as our guest, would you like to go first or second? I'll go second, actually.

I'll have Mitch go first. OK. All right, Mitch, go ahead. You can start things off. Which section do you want to name? They're going from the front to the hind quarters of the cow in order roughly. Oh, God. And remember, you have two hints you can get at any time.

I would like to name number four. We'll share the silhouette on social media so people can can play along. Number four. Number four is kind of the midsection underneath part section of the cow. Just adjacent to the to where the flank is number four. And Mitch, do you want to do you want to hint here or just want to take a guess? Hint. OK.

This one, this one, I will say this is not the hint, but this one, I was like, oh, I didn't realize this was the name of this. Oh, fuck. Your hint is a style of armor common among knights. A style of armor common amongst knights. But now you have one more hint. Would you like your second hint? Yeah.

OK. Your second hint is what you might eat food off of plate. Mitch, you are correct. It is the plate. That's what that's called. Really? That's right. It's the plate plate mail, you know, like like the the sheets of metal for armor.

Yes. Wow. This is so so. I've used both of my clues, correct? Yeah, you're you're out of clues now. You're out of hints. That's OK. You got one.

You're on the board. I so I clearly just this shows how bad I am at this is that I thought for what and I thought with one hint, I'd be able to know what for was because I thought I knew for and I don't hmm. I thought this was I think you you actually ended up inadvertently picking one of the harder ones because I didn't know I didn't know the name of this. Yeah, I had no idea what that was. All right, Jamel, your turn.

Which number would you like to tackle? I'm going to tackle seven. OK, seven. Seven is the the rearmost time quarters of this animal. Do you have a guess or would you like to hint? I know what it is. It is the round. Jamel, you are correct.

It is the round. And my hints were this is a tip top cut because this is where tips and top round comes from and also like a pizza or tennis ball or the earth. So there you go. That's probably what I've been illuminating. All right, Mitch, it goes back to you. Um, hmm. We have the underbelly and the rearmost section that have been tackled.

Um, let me go three. OK, Mitch is going for number three just above number four. This is kind of the the front midsection of the cow. Now, I'm not going to get it right. I mean, I just know I'm not. I don't know what the cut is called. Hmm. But I'm going like ribeye or rib.

I'm going to give it to you. It is. This is where ribeyes come from and the section is is called the rib. Whoo. So there you go. Mitch, Mitch, two for two, doing well so far. Well, your second clue is pretty much a giveaway. But that was the only one that I thought maybe I thought seven would maybe be

called the rump, which is wrong. Yes. But but but I think that maybe I could guess one more, but I'm running out of I'm running out of ideas. OK, well, we'll see if you get, you know, there's four four clues left. So you can you can still you're still very much in the game and you're in the lead right now. So we're butchering this cow.

We've got four sections remaining. Jamal, what would you like to tackle next? One number one. Number one is the foremost just behind the neck section of the cow on this silhouette. Do you have a guess or would you like a hint? This is the one I have. I think I know what this one is as well.

I think this is the Chuck. You are correct. It is the Chuck or by my hint an NBC sitcom starring Zachary Levine. If that would have illuminated things. That would not help me at all. Wow. All right, Mitch, it's back to you. It's it's not it up at two.

This is a tense contest. You know, sections two, five and six remaining. So kind of the the middle rear of the cow is five and six or two. The front underneath of the cow. This is like when like a fool makes it like a little bit like there's like a guy who's great on jeopardy and then like a fool has somehow made it close to the finals. Right. He's in the race, which I should not be.

There's a cheers episode where Cliff Clavin like double jeopardy like every category is just something that he knows and he makes it all the way to final jeopardy. I'm going to go I either want to go two or five. And I and but just thinking of like what the beef is, but I don't know. So I'm going to go. I'm going to go five, but now I don't have any fucking hints left. So I'm going to be in trouble. You're going number five.

I will say this is this is a, you know, a hint for both of you. Five and six are linked, I will say. Well, then that makes me feel like one of these is there some sort of like filet or something that comes from one of these or is that or is that too? I have no idea. I'm going to guess for this one. I'm just going to guess and I'm going to get it wrong is a strip for number five. No, it is not strip, Mitch.

Jamel, your guess and you have two hints remaining. Do I have to guess number five or can I choose? No, you can pick any of them. Yeah, I'm going to pick six. Okay. Wow. Um, and six, uh, I think six is the sirloin. You are correct. Wow.

As allegedly, but not truthfully named by Henry the eighth. Um, so yes. All right. I did. Jamel has three, Mitch, you have two and they're two left. Number two, which is the front underneath and then number five, which is just be situated between numbers three and six above the flank. Wait, what was six again?

Six was the sirloin sirloin. Yeah. So it's one of these, a filet is one of them a filet. Is my question. All right. You know what? I'm just going to say it. Yes.

But would it be five be the filet or would it be two? I don't know. Or I mean, it might not be either. This is just could be fake. Hmm. You know, but I'm going to say, you know, both of these. These are both terms that you know. Yeah, I'll probably be mad at myself.

Of course. Do we see big a section, please? Okay. Wait, hold on a second. Do we say tenderloin yet? We did not say tenderloin sirloin was said. All right. I'm going to say five tenderloin.

Hmm. I feel like the judges aren't going to give it to you. Damn it. Because technically the tenderloin is not on this chart, but technically it would come from the same region as six. So yeah. So tender tenderloin comes from sirloin, huh? You're in the right ballpark though.

If I can say that you said they're connected. You said it was connected. So I thought that maybe that was what it was. They are, but you're maybe overthinking it. All right, Jamel, sections two and five remain on the board. You can clinch it right now with one more correct answer. Remember, you do have two hints, uh, two, and I'll use my hint. Okay.

Your hint is Texas style barbecue. Oh, brisket. Damn it. Brisket is correct. Jamel, you have won the first edition of flank check by a score of four to two. Mitch. You kicked my ass. Number five is loin, which is where I had no idea.

I had no idea what that was. Yeah. It's where the T-Bone and Porter house come from. You did pretty well. Yeah. That is harder than I, that is, that's hard. I should know that. I go to a butcher for all of our meat and just spend a lot of time like looking

at, you know, the little diagram. Right. We, you know what? We host a food podcast. There's nothing. We continually have guests on who are, uh, who know more about food and are more entertaining than we are. God damn it.

It's a real problem. Why? How did you do on it? I, you know what? I honestly, uh, I did. Okay. I would have lost this, but I think I probably would have gone like three for seven. Yeah.

I wouldn't have four and four and five and three. I don't think I would have gotten. I am not plate. I never would have gotten. Yeah. Plate. I had no idea. Our Texas listeners, listeners are going to get mad about the brisket.

I just completely forgot about that. All the way to is actually like shaped on a cow. It looks like the cut of brisket that you get at the butcher. Like it has that. Right. How's that shape? That was fun. Wags.

That was, I thought it was a lot of fun. Yeah. I'm glad it worked out. Uh, you know, I will be murdered by producer Ben, but that's okay. It was worth it for flank check. Uh, just like a restaurant value feedback. Let's open up the feedback and hey, we have a voicemail today. Wow.

Hey there boys. This is Garrett Adam Brooklyn. I was wondering what your favorite ingredient is. Not your favorite food, but your favorite ingredient for food. Mine is tomatoes. You get pasta sauce pizza. I'm from New Jersey originally, so I love that it represents our state. Look forward to hearing your answers.

Wow. Favorite ingredient, a lot of tomatoes. Mitch, anything come to mind? Well, this is going to be funny because can you, will this, will you count it? I don't know. Hmm. But for me, it's the basic thing of like, I would, I would probably say wheat, even though it's something that I shouldn't like have.

Wheat. Just like any, I love bread and I love like pastas. That's good. And so like, so like wheat is a big one, I guess, you know what I mean? If we're boiling it down that much, but then the other thing I was going to say, which maybe we could bring it down even further from this, but I was just going to say cheese. Hmm. I think that's fair.

I think cheese works. Would it be milk? Okay. I think cheese is up there as well. I love cheese. I love. I love cheese. I love cheese.

I'm a regular oracle. I love anything cheese wise. I'm, give it to me. I like, I like cheese and a salad. I like cheese on a pizza. I like cheese on my burger. I love cheese. But if, if you're going to like break it down even more, like ingredient.

I think you've broken it down pretty far. I feel like wheat is pretty far broken down. I mean, in terms of like a, like a recipe, like if it, if it, if it be a bullet item on a recipe, then that counts as an ingredient. You know what? I have, I have a new answer. Okay. And it's my number one answer.

Butter. Wow. Good answer. Butter. Good answer they'd say on family feud. Butter is the best ingredient. What is better than butter? There's nothing better than butter.

Yeah. Butter is great. I was recently making my a two year old a grilled cheese sandwich and he saw the butter and it reached out for it. And I was like, well, you can't, you can't just eat that. And he looked at me and he was like, I want the butter. And he had a mouth, had like a temper tantrum mouth down because I wouldn't let him eat the stick of butter.

This sounds like something that Mitch would yell to his mom down the hallway. I want the butter. Yeah. What are you about? Do you have a, do you have a favorite ingredient? Something that the base level you feel like is important to a bunch of food stuffs. Yeah. This might be too broad.

So yeah, this is probably too broad, but like I love beans. Like I'm a huge, beans are one of my favorite foods. I have like a pantry, you know, with like eight or nine pounds of different kinds of beans, but that feels, that feels too broad. You know, that's a very big category. So I'm not sure that quite works. You know what, let me see olive oil. Just, just jumping off of a butter, olive oil.

We have a shop in town that does sort of like a small batch of olive oils. So that's where I get most of our stuff in that regards. And they're really wonderful. They all smell great and have like really strong distinctive flavors. And you cook with them, dip bread in them. Yeah. If you have a soup or stew, you can like finish off the dish with like a drizzle of a good olive oil. Yeah.

It's a kind of, it's a really, we go through a lot of olive oil and I use it a ton. So I think that might be it for us. I hate wax. That deserves another good answer. Good answer. Good answer. Show me olive oil. It feels like there should be like a good answer, bro.

What kind of, how do you rank your beans? What are your favorite beans? My, so my, my favorite like type of bean. I forget what the exact, uh, exact sort of like category of bean falls under, but basically the kind that like a pinto falls into like a small brown bean that usually produces a lot of starch in the cooking. So like after they've cooked down for a bit, you have sort of like that, uh, that like, I hate the word thick. The thicker beans too or whatever, but I love pentose. And then, um, runner beans, which are sort of larger beans that are like starchy or they're very starchy.

And like you'd use like a salad or something like a lime of beans or runner bean or like, uh, yeah. So those are my two, those are my two favorite types of beans. And then like a lot of different beans that fall into that category. Man, real bean head. We should have you on to just talk beans for a bit. I mean, I would totally do it. Not sure, not sure. Not sure there'd be very many listeners for it, but.

One hour, all beans. All beans all the time. All the time. We don't get to stray at all. It's all, it's all bean talk. Laser focused on the bean. Refried beans and baked beans. I love quite a bit there.

I'm a big fan of both. Yeah. Just a bean soup is great too. I'm a huge bean fan myself. You know, I also, I love Indian, I love Indian dishes that are bean based. Yeah. Like a, you know, like a, like a Rajma, like a kidney beans. It's delightful.

Good answer. Beans are good answer too. Beans are good. I think beans absolutely qualify for accepting wheat. Uh, my answer. I mean, I like, you know, butter is a good one. I was going to say eggs just cause I feel like eggs are a part of everything. They're a part of baking and then, and they work so well in so many things.

Great answer. Um, but if I was going to be a little bit more, a little bit more specific than that or, or, you know, to try to go a little bit off the beaten path, I might say avocado. Wow. Because avocado you can have in all sorts of different contexts. It's very flavorful. Avocado oil is a versatile oil with a high smoke point. Um, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a big avocado guy.

So I think that might be my, you know, my less, perhaps less conventional pick. Wow. Although eggs are certainly more useful. Avocado too niche for me wise. I, I think, uh, I, hey, I'm going baby Yoda. I'm, I'm after those eggs. I like, I'm, I'm, I think eggs is eggs is a great answer. I want to, I want to give a little shout out to where, which one that I thought of quickly,

but then I, but I turned on was, was sesame seeds or sesame. Like, uh, because with sesame, you can make a lot of, there's a lot of, I know you can make middle, middle Eastern dishes and stuff, but then also, uh, soy sauces, right? Is, is, is sesame and, and isn't that, is, doesn't that come from a sesame seed or no? Soy sauce comes from a soybean. Don't beat yourself. Mitch took his headphones off. He's leading.

He stood up. He's walking out. This is, this is unprecedented. He left, but I can see a cat ear in the corner. Yeah. Wally is popping into frame. Perhaps we'll grab the microphone and take us home. Don't beat yourself up.

It's a thing you know, you maybe don't think about. It was so stupid that when I heard it, I got so mad at myself. Well, but, but to Sesame, you can make tahini with Sesame's and tahini is like one of my favorite kind of condiments. We always have a ton in the pantry. Soybeans. God damn it. You're fine.

Let us know. Let us know your favorite ingredient. Hashtag. I neediant. Let us know on social media. And if you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants. All right, I'm going to get up and leave. Take my headphones off.

If you have a question or comment about the world of chain restaurants, you can email us at dopeboyspodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 Godot. That's 830-463-6844. And to get the Dope Boys Double Air Weekly bonus episode, join the Golden or Platinum Plate Club at patreon.com slash Dope Boys. Jamel Bowie, such a treat to have you here. We know you are a very busy man. Thank you for making time in your schedule to talk Domino's with us.

Anything you would like to plug at this time? I guess I'll just plug my column. It's every Tuesday and Friday from New York Times. And then I'll plug my Instagram where I'm always sharing dumbass TikToks. So my Instagram is just at J. Bowie. Congrats on maybe four closer to normal years. Who knows? Maybe it will be insane.

Oh, probably not. It's going to be awful. Yeah. Well, in that note, that'll do it for this episode of Dope Boys. I know next time for this food man, Mike Mitchell. I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya.

On the next Dope Boys Double, Paul Rust returns to discuss a holiday classic starring the orange kid himself, Garfield. It's a Garfield Christmas special with Mitch and Weigher and Rust. Will Azanya be involved? We'll find out. Get the Dope Boys Double every Tuesday only at patreon.com. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description.