Doughboys - McPlant with Eric Edelstein

Episode Date: December 9, 2021

Eric Edelstein (Jurassic World, We Bare Bears, Green Room) joins the 'boys to discuss dining alone and meeting your heroes before a review of McDonald's new McPlant burger. Plus, another edition of Sauceton Powers. Sources for this week's intro: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28409704 https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-announces-plant-based-meat-mcplant-burger-chicken-substitute-2020-11 https://investorplace.com/2020/11/mcdonalds-gives-beyond-meat-stock-the-cold-shoulder/ https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/beyond-meat-ceo-ethan-brown-on-early-naysayers.html https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-01-08/beyond-meat-founder-ethan-brown https://www.eater.com/22761665/mcdonalds-mcplant-burger-taste-test-review-beyond-meatWant more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up, everybody? It's your boy, The Spoon Man, and I want to talk to you about today's sponsor, Uber Eats. At Uber Eats, we've helped more than 400,000 restaurants across the U.S. reach new, hungry customers and deliver growth quickly through new orders. Uber's global platform can help you grow, reach new people, get valuable sales data, and unlock ways to expand with flexible delivery options. Put your business on Uber Eats. Get access to the Uber Eats platform, including valuable sales data to grow your business. Dig into your data. Really dig in there anytime to monitor your performance and customer order trends. Wow. Wow. Yikes. Restaurant owners enjoy 0% commission for the first 30 days on all orders,

offer subject to change per the terms of the restaurant agreement. Wow. 0% on the first 30 days. Sign up today. That link that you want to click on is down there in the episode description. Right down there. Check it out. There it is. Move your cursor. Go ahead and click. Or if you're on your phone, use your finger and click that link. Click that link in the episode description. Founded in 1948 by its namesake brothers and later expanded nationally by Ray Kroc, the burger chain known for its golden arches and golden french fries is inarguably the most iconic brand in fast food. And while the company today has fewer stores than Starbucks or Subway, in terms of sales, it remains the largest chain restaurant in the country. That's reflected

in its economic impact. The brand is not just America's, but the world's single largest purchaser of beef. And this bountiful beef buying is reflected in its ecological impact, beef requiring on average 11 times as much water to produce as pork or poultry, setting aside the methane impact from commercial feedlots and the ethics of industrialized slaughter houses. So in October of 2020, when the chain officially announced its own plant-based burger, although other sector stalwarts like Burger King and Carl's Jr. Hardee's had gotten there first, it still caused a massive ripple in agribusiness. Speaking to the irrationality of the stock market, plant-based pioneer Beyond Meat Saucer shares plummet on the news amid speculation as to the

supplier, until it was confirmed the fast food chain's veggie patty was in fact made by Beyond Meat. In September of 2021, after nearly a year of hype, the company rolled out its plant-based product in the United Kingdom. And then in November, they debuted at stateside in select markets. Unlike its UK counterpart, the US sandwich is not fully vegan, as it includes mayonnaise and American cheese by default, reportedly after pressure from the domestic dairy lobby. Still, the nation's largest hamburger offering a plant-based protein is a seismic event in the history of fast food. And for Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown, a dream come true. As Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, an early investor in Beyond, said of Brown to the LA Times, quote,

this was a guy who from the beginning was saying, we are going to be in McDonald's. This week on Doe Boys, we return to McDonald's for the McPlant. Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Nick Weiger, along with my co-host, The Deli Lama. Mr. Slice, Mike Mitchell. The Deli Lama. The Deli Lama, that came courtesy of Brandon, who writes, I love you, Mitch. How about that? Wow. Yet you call me the Deli Lama. RoseSpoonMan at gmail.com. I don't think that's that insulting.

No, I actually almost think it's a compliment in many ways. I think a very peaceful Deli man. That's, I think of you as peaceful. That's a very tranquil man. What does the Deli Lama do? I mean, the Deli Lama is peaceful, right? He's a spiritual leader, I think. I don't know that much about Tibetan Buddhism, but I think it has a lot to do with mindfulness and everything being in the moment. Good job. I like a nice job to have, I feel like. I think it's probably a stressful job, because anytime you're like the moral authority for hundreds of thousands or millions of people, that's just a lot of pressure.

Can I then say that the Deli Lama is a good job? That seems nice. Yeah, that'd be a pretty good job. It's just brisket or some, wow, stuff you haven't had in a full year, I'm just realizing. Oh yeah. Which plays into this episode. And our guest. A full year of no pastrami? Yeah, I guess it's been, honestly, one of the last things I had at the end of 2020,

and here in the year of our Lord 2021, no meat shell I eat, I have not had any potentially had any meat or fish this entire year. One of the last things I had was a big sloppy pastrami sandwich and from Johnny's pastrami in Culver City. And it's the perfectly kind of, there's objectively better pastrami in the city and certainly in the country, but it's just like the perfectly scratch that edge. Was Johnny tearing up saying goodbye to you? Yeah.

Johnny pastrami. He put up our foreclosure sign on the business. This is the end of the road. Put two kids through college, but that's it. I took care of them. I took care of Johnny. Have you done any vegetarian or vegan pastrami wags? Have you tried anything like that?

Have you tried any of the meats? We talked a little bit with our friend Avital on the Mendocino episode, that I got the one of the, it's not an impossible ruben, it's the real ruben, which I think is a, I don't know if it's a fake pastrami or a fake corned beef. It's just, it's more sort of a fake deli meat. And I think it was pretty decent, you know, but that, and that version of the cheese and the sauce is doing a lot of the work, which again, maybe ties in with this week, with this week's episode.

Wow. Little hints. Yeah. Uh, anyway, little hints that you might, you might also pick up from the title of the episode. Oh, that's right. Why do we do this? Why do we pretend wags? I was up till about four AM last night for something for the podcast.

Does it happen yet? It hasn't happened yet. Has it? It's happened yet. No, it's happened. It has happened. Okay. This episode's coming out in December.

The one that we, you're talking about would have already released in. It was the fucking pie. It was the damn pie off. That's right. For the mash, for the mash off. The fucking, the mash off. The pie, which was your suggestion, by the way, which anyways. You're so angry about this.

We've probably already thought about this enough on the episode that I'm referring to. So I'm just going to say, howdy ho to Spoon Nation. I'm always sad to just do it in front of people I care about, like our guest. And Emma and your co-host. I mean, Emma knows, I mean, no, you guys know that I'm an idiot. What am I supposed to do? Our guest is a good man. All right.

Here we go. Here's a little drop, Wags. Welcome back to Doe Boys. I'm here with my good friend, Mike Mitchell. So Mitch, yeah. So I had to, I did a McDonald's web app. Wags, oh my God. That's so fun.

Yeah. So it was, well, I mean, you've done, I feel like you've done more ads than I have probably. No, not really. But I sure hope to, I love this industry. Wasn't that funny boys and girls? Well, wasn't it? Wow. Is that drop mocking our, is the drop mocking us?

It was like, wasn't that funny? Is that just like, is it mocking that pet that we were doing? There's a layer of, okay. So we were making fun of ourselves in terms of how our sort of NPR voices and how delicate we were in the first few episodes of Doe Boys. And then, so is the comment that they're making, is that like talking about how, like, are they taking the piss out of how our early Doe Boys episodes, or are they taking the piss out of our bit that we just did making fun of ourselves?

And saying that we weren't even funding doing that. I think it's making fun of us. Yeah, I think we're, I think we're not even funny then. All right. So that's just insulting. Nice pick, DK. How about some drops to take the piss out of Drop Game? Hi Mitch, Nick, Emma, and DK.

Love the show. All right. Out here in the sticks, I don't have access to about 99% of the restaurants you cover, but I have listened every week since your very first episode with Gabriel. Wow. Wow. I think the passion you share for both eats and entertainment is an obvious, is as obvious today as when you first started.

Thanks for the last over the years and not letting success change you. Yeah, right. I've changed. Much love, Jake E. Also success? What the hell are you talking about? We both changed. We've gotten so much fatter since the show started.

We've gotten fatter, but we're not successful. Yeah, still toxic to the industry. That's from Jake E. And Jerseyville, Illinois. Wow. That's the sticks, Jerseyville, Illinois. Jerseyville. It sounds like a,

sounds like a Sopranos, like a, like a, it sounds like a, it sounds like a Jersey theme, theme park, like Jerseyville. Right. Like a, like a musical that would be, have a long run on Broadway with an audience. I gotta get back to Jerseyville. Yeah. And then it would open in Vegas run for a decade. Our, our, our, our first episode with John Gabers was our fourth ever episode

Outback Steakhouse. Also not the first episode. Not the first. Now the first episode was Chili's with Hiva Anderson. Yeah. Yeah. So I wonder if that person, I wonder if, if, uh, sorry, the, the, the person from Jerseyville. Yeah.

Jake E. Jake E. I wonder if Jake E ever listened to episodes one through three. Hmm. Probably not. Probably not. Not worth listening to either. Yeah.

Don't do it. Why is, we got a great guest today. Let's, we should, we should get him in here. That's right Mitch. I want to hear his thoughts on Jerseyville. To have today's guest, an actor, comedian, and voiceover artists from Jurassic World, We Bare Bears, and Green Room. One of the best horror movies of the 2010s.

Eric Edelstein is here. Hi Eric. Hi friends. It's a damn honor to be here. Thank you so much for making time for us. Eric, you, we were before we were talking, before we were going to record while we were waiting for Mitch to show up, you were talking about your, one of your recent jobs is, you are daddy shark on baby shark's big show.

Yes. I'm thrilled. It was one of those gigs that got during the pandemic when I did not have employment. Things were getting bleak over here. And yes, I'm very grateful to be daddy shark. And I get to sing, which has been profoundly humbling. But I've learned about a magical thing called autotune. It's great.

So Natasha Rothwell, amazing from, from insecure and white lotus, she plays mommy shark. And she's an amazing singer, like one of those Broadway people. And they'll play it in my ear and I'll just start sweating. And I'm like, oh no. And then I'll do it. And it's a lot of heart, not a ton of in tune. But then they just are fine with it. And then I hear it and I learned this on We Bare Bears.

I'm like, I know I didn't hit that note. I'm like, no, no, no. We fixed it with autotune. I'm like, bless you. So that's a wonderful thing. So I'm very grateful for autotune friends. I just got to say that I, any booth you put me in, I'm sweating. Oh, Frank, it's just the worst.

And like the one that they had me make here was not ventilated. So they've actually said a couple of times, Eric, if you want to change your shirt, they just see sweat pouring down. And of course, you know me, I'm just trying to fit in and please. And like, I'm not going to say that I'm uncomfortable, but they've eventually like, Eric, if you want to like change your shirt and like take a walk around, this isn't that important. Yep.

Yep. You've been reading my mail, friend. This is why we're brothers, man. And then my best credit is I was Mitch's brother-on-love. We were brothers. So day one, I loved him. I'm like, we got to play brothers. And then they had me play his brother-on-love.

And I'm like, sometimes Hollywood gets it right. It was a great day. So fun, friend. I had a blast with the old, what a day. I want to see more adventures with Randy and his brother. It's a spin-off. We're available, friend. Someone listening here, give us 60,000 Canadian, we'll give you content.

I'll tell you a booth that I sweat the most in getting into. A tight diner booth. I don't like the tight. Sure. Diner booths, too. I got the Shove Perfected. We're all shove. I just did this at Bordner's, where I'm like,

I guess this was built for people in the 30s. But I just don't feel seen when I get in those booths. And then I'll push it. But there's the rare one. We can't do it. Or sometimes a smaller person doesn't realize. So they'll take the smaller end. We're now at least in modern America.

They have a bit. They won't do that. And then you have to be like, do you mind switching? I'm getting asphyxiated over here by my own self. Yep. Yep. Yeah. It feels like it never feels good when it feels like you're wearing the booth.

Like I get in and I'm like, oh, it's like- No. The table is at the front of my chat and then at the back. This happened recently at Umami Burger with my mom. And I was like- Oh, yeah. And I was like, this is two, these are new booths. And these are just far too tight.

Because look, we're big guys, but we should be able to fit into most booths. You know what I mean? Like a booth should be roomy. Well, a restaurant should be accommodating people who like to eat too. That's like another thing, you know? You would think that would be a natural accommodation they'd want to make. But yes, you're right, Eric. It is to some degree discriminatory.

Because like, yeah, people are different sizes. Everything should be accommodated. I think so. And people just, you know, I think as much as our culture is gaining empathy, kind of bigger people are the last group you're allowed to make fun of and jump on and pile on. And I mean, Mitch and I have had auditions where you read the character description like, really? Are you trying to crush my soul here, friend?

Yeah. And, you know, it's a little different. So I'm hoping, you know, things can slowly come along and people can have some love for our bigger people as well. 30-something, slob, not human. Face it makes it look like he should want to die every single morning. With heart! Let me ask you this about dining in. Do you ever go, do you ever opt for the counter?

Because I know oftentimes the table is preferable to the booth. But how does the counter work for you? I don't do the counter because those are often wedged in, too. And the seats are really hard, especially I've got this weird body and long legs. So I can't ever quite put, if I put my foot up, I'm wedged in. If I put it down, it dangles and like then my foot starts falling asleep and like, you know, you're standing up, but it interrupts your patty melt. And like, it's just, it's not great for me.

Yeah. Would you, Mitch? No, I'm with you. I don't like the, look, if it's a big comfortable space at the front counter, sure, but a lot of the time, like you're saying, it's chairs that you can't move and you get stuck in. Why? Because I can't imagine that.

Do you like it? Are you a kind of man? Oh, I like the counter if I'm dining by myself because I think it's a great place for like one like lonely man. And so that's like, that's a great like sort of solo option. Uh, but that's more just sort of like a comfort and service sort of thing. I feel like I'm less of an imposition taking up one seat at a counter versus, or at a bar top versus, you know, taking up a whole table by my lonesome.

Even with that big Mac behind of yours, Wags, you're, you like that? Well, and what you're really right about is the counter is great for dining alone because I love, love, love, love dining alone. I get my newspaper or a book. I sit there a lot of times. You can find me at Ricewalk on the corner of Laurel Canyon in Moorpark. Wow. But it's gotten a few times where I'm sitting, you know, please, there you go.

Ricewalk, that's for Eric. Um, I'll sit there and a couple of times it's come up where somebody will come in and take the seat across from me as an invitation. And it's never anyone that I want to sit with. And I, and I had the moment where I'm like, oh man, I'm sorry. I really like eating alone. No, no, no, just sit here. No, well hang out.

We'll catch up. And I'm like, um, I'm sorry. I'm, I'm sorry. And it's a thing and they get offended. I'm like, no, I love eating alone. I'm working on my deal here. There's nothing lonely about this. This, I could eat with someone choosing not to.

And if I could choose someone, it definitely wouldn't be you. And they'll really try and kind of winnow in, but, but it's the rare time to kind of see the prickly side of me because I'm like, oh no, this is my, this is my sacred time. Let me inhale this moosh shoe and really figure out what life's about today. Eric, Eric is saying this, but this is, this just happened with me. I sat across from him. I got told to get the hell out of there. He did.

He did. It was, I felt horrible too, buddy. And, you know, the way your mom looked at me, uh, I can never get that quite out of my head. Eric, I got to say something. You, you, you have a lot of cool credits that daddy shark, but also you have, you're one of the few, maybe the only guest who was here to discuss food, but it also was food. You were, you were eaten.

You were eaten by a dinosaur in Jurassic Park, which is, which is, that's the, that's the, uh, that's the dream right there. That's the American dream. It's hard to beat somebody else's story in a bar. It's got to be like, I was a pro bowler in 93 or something like that. It's hard to beat getting eaten. And it was one of those things where I'm like, if I don't do anything else, which is crazy actors, you're always worried.

That's a possibility, but I'm like, I was a dinosaur's lunch. And also as we can well say, I did parks and recreation for four episodes with Chris Pratt, when he also had a stomach like us. And I was like, man, he's the best guy, but I really want, he's a movie star now. He's got abs. I'm sure, but let's just see. And then man, he was just still the sweetest, coolest guy ever. And it, I was actually, I'm not even acting in that movie because they really put you in a

crane apparatus. So I really got shot up and all the stunt guys are betting I wouldn't do it, or I'd grab it. So when people talk about me acting, I'm like, uh, I was just really terrified. And it was people pleasing. I didn't want to look, look bad in front of the stunt guys, but it meant a lot to have Pratt there filming it. Like you got this buddy.

No, it's great. And like, you know, I love that. Like a lot of actors don't want to play weak. And I'm like, once you kind of go for it and just start really balling and praying with a rosary that I happen to have on, the director's like, what is that? Like, would he hold that? Would he pray? I'm like, yeah, I'd pray if the dinosaur was there.

Sure. I, uh, being scared, that's like, uh, that's my only mode. I mean that in life and in acting, I, there's nothing, there's no other. It's the motivator, man. There's nothing else. Yeah. No. Man, to get eaten by a dyno, that's, it's, it's, it's next level.

It's, it's, uh, I can't believe it. And I'm the one that lets out the dinosaur. So, and in the dough boy's spirit, I eat a chip right after I realize I've let him out. When I realized he's missing, I eat a chip, which I would really do. N, nervously. I, you know, there's a chip there. Oh my God.

And to me, I'm like, who put this guy in front of a dinosaur and also with me? God bless. The movie made a billion dollars without me letting it out. It's 22 minutes short. Someone's gotta be that idiot. And when I was a kid, I don't know if you guys remember Poggs, but they, Oh yeah, of course. And I was always very self aware of where I stood as a character actor,

but I cut a Pogg into my first ever driver's license of Dennis Nedry. So I would show people my ID and then it would be Dennis Nedry. Of course, the great Wayne Knight run into him at the studio city Ralph's name drop. And I had Dennis Nedry's picture. And even as a kid, I'm like being eaten is the way to go and screaming. And like, I know I'm, I know I'm not Jeff Goldblum. I know I'm not Sam Raimi. I know I'm not Laura Dern.

But maybe, maybe in a dream world, I can be Dennis Nedry. And somehow wonderfully worked out. There's so many moments like that that sustain you. You're like, I'm playing with house money here. How in the world did this happen? I can't, I can't believe it. And I'm not casual about it. I still, I'm like, I got eaten by a dinosaur.

This is the best. Yeah, no, they're fucking rules. You should be. You should be. Also, just I'll generally say, because we know so many people, Mitch and I, and I think Mitch and I are also guilty of this ourselves, who are like kind of jaded and cynical about things. And then just to hear the attitude of just like,

I mean, on occasion, we can be a little negative. Yeah, sure. Once in a while. But, but yeah, just the, like the, there is something just to, just to hear your positivity and just to hear your sort of like, you know, that you're just sort of like, hey, this is kind of cool that I get to do this stuff. Because it is cool. No, well, and I feel lucky, like I moved down here from Spokane,

and I did not expect it to end up like this. I thought it'd be back there doing weather on the weekends. Very happy. And I'm like, I gave it the old college try. But there's so many little things like that. And I just, we all have rough days and we all get cynical. And it's the toughest business and Mitch and I have bitched about this and all that stuff. But it's kind of like, once you get to that point where you're really like,

oh my God, something kind of magical will happen. The other one for me was doing Twin Peaks. Because that was my favorite show as a 12 year old. And David Lynch was my hero. And then getting to do that show. And then he wrote this part for me only because I laughed in my audition nervously. And so then he wrote me this part as a giggling type is like, okay, in your head, you are an ace detective and you're a sweetie and your brothers are not.

So, and then that was another one where I'm like, I'm going to, I'm going to wake up. I'm going to be back at the Starbucks on Highland and Franklin, which I got fired from and the pizza place next door. Got them shut down by the health department. I'm like, this is just a dream. And oh yeah, the, the, the rare. You're going to hear these stories. They were shocked.

That was on the free agent market because there was such an affable nice guy at Starbucks. They didn't know how to screw in people's drinks all the time. So I went to the pizza place and then someone got fired. So I was closing and opening. So I'm like, who am I cleaning for myself? The dough's on the floor. It's fine. And then I showed up one day and there was health department tape.

Everywhere. And then one of my employees came to one of my first second city shows. He was like my boss there. I worked for two illegal Canadians named scumbag and junior pizza bell in the back of Highland and Franklin. It's still there. Stop by after the Hollywood Bowl. They've cleaned it up now, but he came to one of my scumbag, came to one of my second city shows,

which meant a lot. I really thought scumbag was cool. And he's like, can I talk to you? I'm like, sure, Dave. What's up, man? He's like, you're good at this. I'm like, awesome. Thank you.

He was like, no, no, I was really worried. How are you going to survive humanity? Because you were such a horrible employee, but you were so nice about it. And I think you might have a future here and I'm real happy. Eric, I gotta tell the world too, just recently with the Tomorrow War, the Premier coming out, this is what a nice guy Eric is. I said, hey, how does a big man look good on the red carpet? What do you do?

And he said, I got you. He said, we're going to have a fun day. We're going to hit up a big man's store. We're going to get you a suit and we're going to look nice. And we went together. We went big man shopping. And he looked incredible. You did look great.

Well, that is because of you. You really helped me get this nice suit. And you really broke it down for me as a guy who you knew what to do. You'd been there and you'd done it and you helped me. And I hope to pass that on to somebody else someday too. That's it. It was great. We just, well, I feel like we're a small fraternity of the big guys.

And just even before we really talked, I just know we kind of are similar. And they make this stuff really hard sometimes and you don't know. And I didn't even really know until the green room premiere. And I asked Anton Yelchin, who was like 15 years younger than me, like, do I get a suit? What do I do here? And he kind of walked me through it. And there were so many times that, you know, you wear stuff that doesn't feel comfortable.

And then I was sad because I want to take you to Rochester, big and tall. It was shut down. That's where Farley went. And that's where Farley do his bits. Rochester, big and tall, dressed by. And, you know, we went to this fantastic place in Topanga Canyon. We won't give out the name until they pass to, but they should. My only big bummer telling you the show is the Topanga Canyon,

Red Robin is the third of my Red Robins that has closed. And that's a giant bummer for me because I used to go there, drive through Topanga Canyon, go to the ocean, go to Dan Blocker Beach, whose house from, from, you know, was that what? Bonanza. And, you know, you have a whole big guy day. And so the Topanga Red Robin closing hit me hard because I used to go to the Calabasas Parkway Red Robin. That was the good one.

Then they closed and I went there on the last day and mourned it. Then I would go to Glendale, which was not quite at the level of the Calabasas Parkway Wyrm, but it was good, but it also got closed. Then Topanga was holding on and it got closed. But friends, I can report I was there Sunday with my wife and mother-in-law. The Northridge Red Robin is thriving. Wow. Oh my God.

They are on it. I was so thrilled to get there and I had to put my name in on the wait list for Red Robin. And I was so worried it was going to close. And then I got, I went to Red Robin every year on my birthday. I went to Red Robin a lot besides that, but. Which we, we, we were going to talk about Red Robin. That was the plan. That was the plan at one point.

No, but, but I'm, I'm, I'm just want to keep this alive because the Northridge is the last one until we venture down to the Orange Curtain. So I'm here to report the Glendale one. You'd start to get the bun and it wasn't as squishy. It maybe felt a couple of days old. The fries were not coming. It's bottomless fries. And is that a metaphor for things that are maybe a challenge for America right now?

Sure. But I want them. I want the Red Robin seasoning on it. The Northridge Red Robin is soaring above all expectations. It is a flagship for that Red Robin. I guarantee if you went there, you'd find a very special leader in charge of that team. Because what they're doing is impressive. And it made me thrilled to be a Northridge fashion square on a list for Red Robin having

it texted that there's a weight because I was really worried that that one might be in danger too. That's great news. What an endorsement. And, and I will say, you know, my, my sit down burger chain of choice that has suffered during the pandemic and Natalie and I, my wife would go there pretty frequently or with some frequency at least is fud rockers and the fud rockers keep shuttering. There's fewer and fewer fud rockers, fewer and fewer Red Robins. It's, it's a bummer.

And I get it that people are like, you know, the appeal of going to a Red Robin is the bottomless fries or, you know, the appeal to going to one of these places is the, the, you know, the cocktails, the stuff you get from sitting down there. And so the to-go experience isn't, isn't quite the same. But it's a bummer because I like a sit down burgerie. Well, and talk about big booths. They know they're trying to tell. Sure.

I've never once had to squeeze into a Red Robin booth. If you're bringing somebody bottomless fries, you're going to have a big old booth for a girthy gentleman. And I thank you for it, Red. Thank you. One, one booth takes up an entire wall. There's just one wall. That's why they're closing.

Can't turn over enough tables. While we're talking about, because, because you've talked about your being a man of size a few times here, Eric, and your IMDB, I don't know if you know this, but you know, list your height at six, four and a half, which I assume is accurate, but also says under trademark, towering height, muscular stature. And the muscular stature's new. And I really want to have a sit down heart to heart with my mom. There's no way.

There's just no way. Even green room where I'm like at my toughest. There's just no way. That is, you are, you are terrifying in green room. Yeah, you do look scary. I'm terrifying in green room and I understand and I'm strong, but there's no way I'm muscular. And I'll give a little big man secret. This is a like a nineties baseball player admitting on steroids.

Those one where I have to be like tough and svelte. I will, I'll, I'll throw on some spanks for men. That's, I've never revealed that. I've never revealed that before, but I'm a huge proponent of it. Cause sometimes you'll do a fitting and this is like, you know, it's again, how, how they treat big people. Sometimes you'll do a fitting and I'm like two XL, tall shirt, three XL. You know, shirt, and then you show up on set, especially to play a police officer

and all of a sudden your wardrobe's an extra large. You're like, oh, they want me to look bad. Well, I'm going to drop spanks for men on them and fit into this thing. And then they'll kind of be confused a little bit. Like God, he should really look more like a sausage. What's happening? And it's seriously, it's like Mark McGuire with that first bit of HGH. I'm like, uh-huh, muscular stature.

And now I've fooled some of the extendants on IMDB, but that's what I love. It's a whole character actor thing. There's that great Patton Oswald bit about seeing Brian Dennehy at a buffet. And then a couple of years ago, I got to have Brian Dennehy play my dad. And, you know, you can eat what you want. And then I asked Brian Dennehy about the bit. I'm like, have you heard that Patton Oswald bit he does about you where he's on a diet? And he's like, yeah, I heard it.

I tried to talk to him about it. He ran away from me. I saw him at another one of those premiers and he ran away. You tell him he didn't get me. He didn't get. And he goes, oh, wow. Thomas Kelly, the seniors got some bite to him. Wow, that's so funny.

I wore Spanx last week when my mom was here, just to... Dude, what a safe place this is. Are you kidding? I never told anyone I did this. I didn't know you did it, but man, just when I need that little bit extra. And no, this is not muscular stature. God bless. I'm a character actor.

But those parts where I'm like fooling them and being scary, Spanx for men. They even have a store at the Los Angeles airport. Wow. There you go. Oh, yeah. I got a bad beard trim recently and I've been wearing my neck gaiter just constantly. Like I've just been wearing her... My neck gaiter is just doing a lot of work in the lower chin area.

Like it's just covering up a lot of stuff, which is great. This is a thing that you're very self-conscious about, but I don't think is that much of an issue. To me, it is though. I mean, it's grown back a bit now, but I did not like how my beard trim was. So the neck gaiter helps out. By the way, Eric, we had a pie competition, a mash off. And Eva Anderson made a Twin Peaks Cherry Pie.

That was the pie that she made. Fantastic, Michael. That sounds just amazing. That's great. As long as there's a little bit of darkness lingering underneath and tear, because that's what the world really is, bucko. You make Lynch seem like such a great guy to be around. He seems like a side guy.

The kindest, nicest man ever when they say, don't meet your heroes, that's a big pile of shit. Because David Lynch is the nicest man ever. And my number one hero is Neil Young. And he was so nice to me at In-N-Out Burger, you wouldn't believe that. So they say, don't meet your heroes. In-N-Out Burger, Neil Young meeting. I'm at Neil Young In-N-Out Burger.

And it's an amazing story. I'll try to be brief. But he does shows that infuriate people. He'll play whole albums that haven't come out yet. So he did the Greek Theater Tickets Were Expensive. It was like 2003. And he did this Greendale album, which was a whole album about this town called the Green Family in Greendale, California.

And the crowd was furious. I rate it. And they're screaming for Cinnamon Girl. And they're listening to an hour of the stories about the Greens. They're so pissed off. But my buddy and I, I always loved wearing artists as at now. Like I just went to Bob Dylan's first two tours post-pandemic. And he did eight new songs.

And I was in heaven. I was loving Greendale. This was also in my party era. So I was feeling no pain sitting there loving Greendale, telling people to shut up. You ain't playing Cinnamon Girl for you clown. And if you're yelling 40 for sure won't play. You don't deserve it.

Listen to the story about Sun Green. She's trying to save his planet. And so afterward, my buddy was a designated driver. And I'm feeling no pain. I'm like in and out, in and out, in and out, dude. And we'd only been in LA like a year and a half. So it was still this huge thing to do in and out. I'm like in and out, in and out.

So he's like, God, fine. So we pull up and then I see Neil Young's iconic tour bus, which has two skylights at the top of vintage Buick Roadmaster cars. And I go, and my buddy Scott went, he's not in there. He's probably sent a roadie in there, or he's already on the road. There's no way Neil Young's in there. Calm down.

We walk in there. Neil Young is at the counter. And wow, man, this is real corny, but part of me moving down to LA was Neil Young's songs. A 23 year old mind that's not formed yet. And I dropped all this on him at the In and Out Burger on Sunset. I'm like, Neil, we moved down here because of you. On the way home, Sunset.

And then I said the magic word. I'm like, we love Greendale so much. That stuff with Sun Green and Carmichael and Jed. And God, be the rain. Oh, Neil, that was one of the best things I've ever seen. He lit up like a Christmas tree. He just been booed by the whole Greek theater lustily. And then here's this giant kind of terrifying man

saying how much he loved Greenwell. I was like, all right, huh, okay. Well, thanks, guys. Then his manager comes up and I'm like, is he going to taze us? And then he's like, guys, okay, let's just do a quick picture outside, huh? And we happen to have a throwaway camera.

We went outside. Neil Young is beaming, grinning ear to ear. And he's like, all right, guys, well, thank you. And he could not have been cooler in and out burger. And he asked for this show specifically. He goes, huh, animal style. What's animal style? And this road he started explaining to me animal style

is like, well, they actually fry the mustard on the grill. You're kidding. Yeah, I'm not a don't meet your heroes guy. Every single one I've met has been amazing. I don't know about you. I don't have one bad story of any hero I've met down to working with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Puerto Rico and working out with him.

Like he was magical. Like, no, it's just, I mean, have you guys met your heroes? Like, where are we at? I met Grimace at McDonald's once. God, it's not being a burglar friend. Grimace is difficult in person. He drinks, you know? It's all the day you catch him.

It's all deep into pills. Like it's a, you know what, poor guy. I met, I met a bug main and I talked about it on the podcast. I met Sandler at Uncut Gems screening. And he was, and he was so cool and nice. And we like, we intentionally were stopping our conversation early because I, because we didn't want to bother him, but he was like so interested in comedy.

You could tell like, it was like a WGA type screening and they were like, there's no nicer way to put this than there was a bunch of like old ghouls at this screening that were taking advantage of the free screening. And then also like, like asking strange questions. And probably being annoying is my guess. And me and bug main were two comedy guys. And he like, he latched on and we talked for, you know,

we talked for five minutes. And it was, I cut it short because he, because I didn't want to like bother him. And he was so nice and like down to talk and was awesome. So I'm with you there on, that's a hero of mine. And he was great. So amazing. I saw Shigeru Miyamoto at E3 once.

Wow. And I like looked over at him and I like just sort of waved and he just sort of like gave me a look and I was like, it's good enough for me. Wow. I don't want, I don't think I'd be able to sustain a conversation.

I'd be too nervous. He probably thought you were an NPC. For the non-nerds, that's a non-playable character. They know, they're hard listeners. We'll take a break, we'll be back with more podcast, with more Doughboys. More podcast. More Doughboys podcast, get off my back.

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source 100% renewable energy for our production sites and offices, and feature sustainably sourced seafood in our meals. Head to factormeals.com slash doughboys50 and use code DOBOYS50 to get 50% off your first box. Welcome back to Doughboys. We are here with Eric Edelstein discussing the McPlant this week, but before we get into that,

McDonald's McPlant, Eric, you mentioned your fandom of Red Robin, you mentioned going to In-N-Out Burger, but my understanding is that you are these days vegan. How long have you been vegan? You know, about three years, and I'll be honest, especially kind of as a little bit of a people-pleaser wanting people to think you're cool, but you're not.

You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not.

You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You'll think you're cool. That's not anything I was ever looking to come on, the Doughboys podcast.

This is the damn big league's friends. Let's not dance around it. Last thing I ever want to do is come on here and say I'm a vegan. Last thing I ever want to do when Mitch and I are lucky enough to be doing a video with John Hamm, and a PA comes up and says, Eric, we have you down for the vegan meal. That's wrong, right?

No, I'll take this as a king's price. Thank you. But I got to give the quick preamble here. I got super sick a few years ago, ended up in Cedar Sinai, and you have one of those conversations with whatever higher power you think exists. And I made some bargaining to get out of Cedar Sinai,

and I was like, I gave up booze, and I'm like, I'm just going to try this. And just so, just to make sure it isn't this, because nobody has made more vegan jokes than me. My poor sister made my mom make a field roast one Thanksgiving, and I was awful. My wonderful college roommate was vegan. I made vegan, we did dinner at a vegan,

the only vegan restaurant Spokane. I made awful jokes the whole time, then I made him take me to Arctic Circle drunk afterward. So I did this just as kind of a last resort, and then out of nowhere, all my inflammation went away. And I had arthritis, I had like Crohn's, I had all this stuff, and I was absolutely shocked my inflammation went away.

And I just had a horrible feeling in my pit of my stomach, like, oh no, don't tell me that I have to be vegan. No, this is the last thing I want to be on here. Here's the thing with Red Robin, you want the burger where? You want the bacon? But here I sit, and also we talk about how maybe bigger people aren't treated well.

I've been surprised the only time I've ever gotten bullied or really mean comments online, because I'm most known for being a lovable cartoon bear. All I get is love. And Doug Benson busted me on his podcast for being vegan. And the hate that I got from people, I mean the meanest soul crushing, like if you're trying to hurt someone saying it about your body,

like something like, I don't think people are noticing this, oh, they are noticing this, and they're bringing it up. And I was shocked. Truthfully, I think there's a lot of well-intentioned vegans out there, but you can't win people over with shame. And they've pushed a lot of people away. The example I use, and it's amazing that the Dalai Lama came up, it's kind of what the Dalai Lama said

when they asked about Christianity and Jesus. He's like, man, I'll read the New Testament, I love everything I hear from Jesus. I really think I'd be a Christian if it weren't for all the Christians. And I think the vegans are the same. They're pushing people away from a good message that for some people can really help them.

And especially I see my big guys, and I've had two friends from my big guy auditions now pass away. And I would just love to see more people trying this, even just for a few meals. And also I think it's really important to eat delicious food. Because you can't think of it as a death sentence so that it's not fun, you're eating legumes. This is, friends, this is a Montes cheeseburger.

Wow, yes. Look at that. Love the Montes. Now, is it good for you? Hell no. But this is the kind of thing you should eat if you want to start trying to eat this way, because it's amazing and it tastes like a real burger

and you fool people. And getting into the McPlant, there's no way you would know that it's not a real burger. There's just no way. I was completely blown away by it. Yeah. That's a, go on, Mitch. I was just going to say that just incorporating that into,

you know, people incorporating that into their diet. Just a little bit. Try it a couple days and I would just love people to try it because I see so many people out there struggling with inflammation and not really knowing it. And also I get it. They think that, God, I'm going to be eating seeds and grains and I'm going to buy Birkenstocks.

And this is going to be an awful life. But when you kind of start to really eat well and you realize there's these amazing meals, and dude, you can't tell the difference. There's this place called Hope Vegan on Ventura. I listened to Jackie Johnson. I went to her wedding and they had amazing food and it was cool seeing all these Texans.

You know, like, ah, this is pretty good. Wow. And I would just love for people to know it's not a death sentence for fun. And I never, ever thought I'd be this guy, wanted to be this guy. But I see so many people out there suffering. I've kind of decided to talk a little more about it, but it's only really because Doug Benson busted me already.

I'm like, oh, no, don't tell. Don't do the V-word. Not now. No. Oh, God, here we go. Well, you look great and you showed me a picture of you. If you remember this, you showed me a picture of you when you were like at your worst.

And I think Google Eric Edelstein Green Room Premier. And you'll see how I used to look. Yeah, it was not good. And it was, I think, kind of a dead man walking. I was drinking and I was not eating well. And I really did this as a last resort and it changed stuff around. I could not believe it. So even if somebody tries this for a few meals a week,

I think you'll be surprised because all these little aches and pains, I was taking, I had packets of Tums in my pocket in high school. I thought that was just how you were because my grandfather had a ton of Tums. And he was my hero. I'm like, oh, I'm like my grandfather. I'm like, man. And then sure enough, I recently did an allergy test and it ends up, I'm allergic to beef and I'm allergic to barley.

So I'm like, oh, of course, drinking a ton of beer and eating all these burgers is inflammatory. And there's inflammatory foods. So now I don't have to take any Tums and it's a really kind of wonderful life because I can still eat really damn well. Yeah. You're in the right city for that specifically too. Amen. Totally.

That does seem to, definitely LA is pretty accommodating. That's where you can find Monty's Good Burger. And we had Jackie Johnson on the podcast recently, The Jackster. I love her so much, Jackster. She's great. And I think like to what you're talking about, how in terms of evangelizing, veganism or eating more plant-based just in general, it's like, I feel like she, and then also you, as you just did, do a great job of like it being like a,

coming from a place of positivity and inclusiveness, not gatekeeping. Because that's I think is probably one thing that makes people so recoil and get so, and have such a virulent reaction to someone saying that they're vegan or they're plant-based or they don't eat meat is that they think that they're like, oh, you're judgy. Oh, you're a gatekeeper. Oh, you're going to say that that's the only right way to eat and that, and you're calling me a bad person because of my dietary choices.

Yeah. And there's a lot of people that have done that. So I mean, I went to a Dodger game and some guy in the dugout club, unfurled a giant banner of a dead cow that had been skinned alive. And I'm like, we have forgotten how to win hearts and minds in this country. Do you think any person in that stadium is going to stop eating meat because you interrupted a game to show a horrible image? If I were a father having to explain to my six year old, what's that daddy?

Oh my God. I would stop and get a T bone with the side of Porter house on the way home just to do the of what that guy did. They got to learn how to win hearts and minds. You don't do it with shame. Also another thing it is not for everyone. Some regular blood work. And when Jackie talked about like to eat a little bit of fish,

there's a lot of people that do veganism and it's real easy to fall into the vegan junk food trap and not eat as I show the grease on the bottom and not eat nourishing food. So do your blood work. You may well be low in omega threes. There's other things that you get just from cholesterol thing called DHEA. So you got to do it responsibly. And some people, they just need meat and they'll turn feather me for saying that. But you can just add me to the list.

There's some people that need it or and it's hard to get from supplements and be open to it. And I think everybody, you know, it's the same as putting ketchup on a hot dog. My super liberal Chicago friends or conservative Chicago friends will yell at me for putting ketchup on a hot dog. And I'm like, what do you care? What do you care? And all the people bullying me about being vegan had freedom and liberty in their Twitter profile. I'm like, what do you care?

What about my freedom and my liberty to eat like this, man? My knee doesn't hurt anymore. What's going on, friend? The ketchup on hot dogs, I love people. I look and I like a Chicago dog. It's great. A lot of people have their ketchup. Come on.

Well, why do they care? They'll get so mad. I'm talking enlightened, empathetic friends that this a nerve. Well, no, but you can't put ketchup on a hot dog. And I'm like, well, scientifically I watch these cooking shows and you need sour and sweet and acid, sugar, blah, blah, blah. That's a ketchup. No, not not a Chicago dog.

I'm like, well, I'm putting ketchup on my Chicago dog and this doesn't affect you. And they get furious. And I'm like, go to hell. What does Chicago have against ketchup? I know. The Heinz family do something into Chicago? I don't know if it's like an old rivalry or something. I just don't understand what happened, why they hate ketchup so much.

It's an old beef with John Kerry. Here to the Heinz fortune. I think the, I don't think Doe Boyz fans will, and if you are listening, you're planning to do this. Don't do this, but I don't think Doe Boyz fans will come at you for being vegan because I think we actually have a lot of listeners who are plant-based and or vegetarian or vegan and listen to the show partly for a vicarious experience of what it's like to eat garbage as we often do. So I don't think you're going to have any of that pushback. I hope you don't.

I think also if all the Doe Boyz listeners came at you even physically, I think you'd be able to handle yourself, Eric. Maybe. I mean, a muscular stature. It's on IMDb. IMDb doesn't like it. Hey, and also here's the thing. If they want to bring it, please bring it.

Hell yeah. Because I engage them all with love and it's really interesting to get somebody saying the meanest thing in the world. You'd be like, friend, why do you care what I eat? If you got freedom and liberty there. Second amendment. Like, you know, I understand that. What's your issue, your friend?

I'm not forcing you to eat soy. They'll call me a soy boy. They'll call me a soy boy. I'm like, well, they're doing amazing thing with fried soy now, friend. But a bigger issue is why do you care that I'm eating soy? I admit it. I'm a soy boy. I'm a soy middle-aged man.

Not hurting you with any of my decisions here, Pizarre. Let's talk. Now, I like the idea of you giving them love. But I also love the idea of seeing you beat up every doughboy's listener. Just like, let's go. Like a Hulk scenario just destroying me with a gun and see if you still want to dance. Let's bring it. Let's bring it.

A bunch of wet paper towels of men just trying to lumber at you. Breaking apart. Yeah. So let's talk about the McPlant. So the McPlant was launched in the UK in September of this year, 2021. And the UK version is vegan. The UK version has a vegan cheese and a new vegan sauce that they developed just for this. The US version is currently being tested at eight US McDonald's,

including two in California, one that we went to. And this is from McDonald's website. The McPlant is a plant-based patty with a- Your homepage? Developed by him. My lock screen. That it's a beyond meat. It's a version of the beyond patty that's exclusive to McDonald's made from peas,

rice, and potatoes. Sesame seed bun with tomato, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and American cheese. Now, it's not vegan. It has mayo and it has American cheese. And Eater says that this is because of the American Dairy Lobby, which is a little bit of a bummer if that's true, that they just were able to use their economic muscle to say like,

no, this burger can't be fully vegan. You can't be the biggest food chain in America and present, or the biggest burger chain in America. I know Subway and Starbucks are technically bigger. Get off my back. It can't be the biggest burger chain in America and be serving a delicious vegan burger. So that apparently is partly why this one includes cheese and mayo. Well, it's amazing how we've allowed money and politics to intermingle.

And these lobbyists are really kind of in charge of everything right now. So I would say I think a lot of the ills in America would be solved if we took away the lobbyist power. But that's a whole other Oprah because I just got it without cheese and mayo. And I want to say this for all you Doughboys listeners that think you know, imagine like he seems like a sweet guy. However nice and how amazing a human being you think he is, just light years beyond, just like the greatest soul you could imagine.

Because this incredible human dropped off two mcplants, no cheese, no mayo to my front door yesterday from the Manhattan Beach McDonald's. Just I can't wait to give him a hug for this because I went. I very easily got my vegan cheese, threw it in an air fryer, and I got my follow your heart vegan mayo. I threw it in there. I wish I was kidding. I got so emotional eating this.

Because you know, emotionally, God bless. I have not had that feeling of eating McDonald's for so long. And there were a lot of days where I would have a rough day in Hollywood and go to the McDonald's right on Vine, South of Sunset, have a big man, fries, potentially a filet of fish, filet of fish on Fridays, Catholic school, I'd house two of those extra tartar always. McDonald's, there's just something about it that is so comforting for the soul.

And to sit here yesterday, what it reminded me most of was the McDLT. Dairy Lobby, you completely suck. You're lame. They're also trying to sue to say that you can't call oat milk, oat milk. Nobody's ever going to stop drinking milk, but let people have one vegan burger. And it's really lame you're not doing that. Because that's also the thing with Carl's Juniors.

You also, they're beyond burger is phenomenal, but it's the same thing, cheese and mayo. So Dairy Lobby, one day we're going to get money out of politics, and lobbyists aren't going to be running things. So we're coming for you. But sitting here eating that burger yesterday, I was just so goddamn happy. The McDLT is the exact same thing. We're on the same wavelength a lot of the time.

The exact same thing I thought I was like, and I also was like, man, it would be great to, you know, not in the same containers that they were in, but to separate the cool and the hot. Keep the cool side cool and the hot side hot. It would have been super helpful, especially with the travel from Manhattan Beach. But I also want to just point out that,

Eric, that was extremely nice. But the reason I even thought of it was because you were trying to figure out a way to meet up with me and then even offering up to get it, bring it back to me. And then I was like, I had to bring my mom down to LAX yesterday. I dropped my mom off at the airport. And I was like, wait a minute, I'm going there. I'm going to bring it back.

But because of that, it was an early morning McDonald's. My receipt said 10.50 AM was my receipt. So Michael, are you stopping at McDonald's before you drop me off at the airport? It's for work, mom. I can't take a Big Mac on the plane, Michael. I'll just hold on to it for you. I'll keep it safe.

I went down to Manhattan Beach. I drove my mom down for her flight. And it was not too far from the airport. But a very interesting place to keep it. I mean, I get it. Manhattan Beach, the beach life, I think maybe more, you might find more vegan or kind of health conscious people down in that area.

Is that the reason why it's down there? I don't know why they did this exactly because the markets that it's being tested at, it's being tested at, I had the full list here a second ago, but there's like a couple in Texas, the two in California, both in SoCal, El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are both pretty close to each other, actually. Like the two locations are practically a stone's throw.

So I think they, yeah, I don't know how much of it is targeted at just like these are high volume, high volume, high performing stores, or how much of it is we want to see how it sells in these individual markets. I have no idea. Let me tell you, if it's based on locations, that Manhattan Beach McDonald's is fucking great.

I mean, you went there too. That is a great McDonald's. I went to the El Segundo one, but it was also good McDonald's. Yeah, I went to the El Segundo one. Fresh, nice tomatoes. Yeah, good produce. The lettuce was still crisp. Like these are the things, it's like that Northridge,

Red Robin, these are the things that put something beyond. Oh yeah, you could tell, I mean, it's one of those newer modern McDonald's, but then also like, look, I got a side of fries. I got a meal. I made one of a meal. A meal, but why isn't El Segundo further down? Isn't it, look, we can't review it as a meal

because we're not reviewing the main plant. We're not reviewing McDonald's as a restaurant. That's the last episode. Yeah, but we can touch on our fries and our drinks we want. Isn't El Segundo a further ride down for you? El Segundo, no, it's, I mean, they're about the same distance from where we live. Okay, all right.

Yeah, but the- Where you live exactly? I live in the Palms neighborhood. Hey, speaking of notable places to live, Eric, we were talking about this before the podcast. You live pretty close to the Universal lot. It's amazing. It is, it is amazing.

Yeah, my front door is 20 feet from the Universal fence. So you look down, you see the Bates Motel, the cycle house, the plane crash, more of the world's- Fucking rules. The trams going by, and for Halloween Horror Nights, they put up these sound barriers because so many neighbors have sued. So now what they do is, when they sue, they pay, you know, complaining about noise, we're like, it's not loud.

And I used to live in Hollywood where the screams were real. Like, it's not any bother with Hollywood Horror Nights. But now Universal just buys up every house in the area just not to deal with people. Oh, wow. So our next door neighbors, they moved out and Universal just snapped up the house and bought it. They buy all these houses. It's also an amazing historic- So Chucky lived there now?

Oh, yeah, Universal. Actually really cool in real life. A lot of times people play the bad guys are really the most mellow you'll find. They got their yaya's out. Right. It's these really narrow roads, and it was the first ever Universal houses. So Tom Mix, the singing cowboy, would take his horse down. The head of Universal Security was a cowboy star that they promoted to be the head of security.

So she, that's right, she would take her horse down to Universal with two guns on her. And then big news in our neighborhood, my neighbor two doors down, Marilyn Manson, just moved out. And you know, I'm a pretty- Marilyn Manson. Yeah, I tried to be a positive person, but it was not great for the energy of the neighborhood having the Mephistopheles of Hollywood live here. I only saw him twice getting out of an Uber like 3 or 4 a.m. and it looked like a vampire.

I was scared of him, but one time doing drunk history, I wanted to go knock on his door. But yeah, it's a much mellower neighborhood because you would never see him. And then when all the stuff started coming out about him, all these fans started showing up, parking in front of our house. And then for whatever reason, he started walking around the neighborhood. Like this was something he did. And it was like watching a vampire walk around a neighborhood. And then we're like, and it was for paparazzi.

And I'm like, man, this is character actors and grips and electric. Dude, no, no. So it's a really funny Hollywood neighborhood, but we love it. My wife found the house on Craigslist. Our landlord's grandfather built it. It's hilarious. Well, so funny. So you say it was a nice guy for dropping stuff off, but it was actually not that far

of a ride because when my mom was in town, I was staying at the psycho house with her. I was going to ask, I thought that might be a sundress. You pulled it off wonderfully, pal. You know, you can't teach hard. Why do you should move into that Marilyn Manson house? You both, I know, have a thing in common. Hey, so the locations that are being tested out for the McPlant, eight in the U.S., Irving in Carrollton, Texas, Cedar Falls, Iowa, Jennings and Lake Charles, Louisiana, and El Segundo

in Manhattan Beach, California. So it feels like they picked a few locations that were like close to each other. And then, you know, but just kind of dotted around the country. So I'll say that I went down there and I ate it at the El Segundo McDonald's. I got the McPlant combo with the medium fries and a medium iced tea unsweetened. I told, I texted this to you, Mitch, that when I was handed my drink, the McDonald's worker said, be careful with the drink. Like she knew I was going to spill.

That's insane. Eric, Nick is a huge spiller. He's a big spiller. I spill constantly. You said unsweetened, very weird. You very much pronounced that. I just wanted to point it out. Unsweetened.

What did I say? What did I articulate? Unsweetened. You said it very strange. Unsweetened. You said it very strange. You said it strange. Unsweetened.

I hit the T too hard. I think so. Look, you're doing a great job. Unsweetened. No one suspected you of being an alien here to take over the world yet. So. I was told to be careful with my drink. And I did not spill it.

My one issue with it. My main issue with it. You know what? I gave you props, why? Because to get that warning for you to not spill it is wild to me. That just feels like something you would 100% would do. Yeah. I didn't choke, but I did.

Like they had the Eternals toys, the McDonald's Eternals Happy Meal toys. And I wanted to try to get a Kingo. But I got too scared to go up and ask again after it ordered. So I didn't get a Kingo someday. So I got the cheese was not melted. You're like our listeners. If Natalie was there, would you have asked Natalie to go ask? Will you come go ask them for a Kingo?

Ugh, fine. So the cheese was not melted, which was a bummer. The, that said, everything I thought came together very well. And you mentioned the McDLT for our younger listeners who may not be familiar with it. McDLT was discontinued in the 90s, but it was a burger that came. The hot stays hot, the cold stays cold. Was the tagline of the vegetable side came in a different container.

It was one container with two sections. And it had one section for the, the veggies and the cheese. And the, and one half of the bun, another section for the hot bun and the hot burger. So like you can buy these on your own. Jason Alexander was excited about it. With Jason Alexander dancing through it. It's, it's, it's a lot of fun. So it is, it is kind of reminiscent of that because it is, you know,

it's basically a McDonald's burger, but with also with extra veggies, the, the tomato and lettuce notably, which I have a theory for why, and I wonder what you guys will think of this, please. I think that, because I think the taste is there and why you said this, and this is your point. This is why it's pointing out, you said this first, you had it before I did. And you said, I don't know what they're doing. They, this should just be a big Mac. They should do this with a big Mac or a quarter pound or why are they doing,

why are they making it this lettuce and tomato burger? And I 100% agree. And I think the reason why is texture. I think it is, I think they're trying to hide the texture a little bit because I think the taste is there. And I think that maybe with the quarter pounder, so that's such a beef forward burger. And maybe I don't know, I don't know what the deal is with because the, the big Mac is just kind of a different burger patty altogether.

But I think that that's maybe the reason why. But I don't know why they, they aren't, I don't know why it's the McPlant and you can get it with any burger. And that was your point and I 100% agree. Yeah. I think eventually being able to get that their version of the beyond patty, the McPlant patty on a quarter pounder or on a big Mac, being able to make that substitution will be nice.

I think that, I think that's a good theory, Mitch. I think it's also possible that they were just like, well, there are going to be vegans ordering this and it still needs to have some flavor without cheese and without mayo. So we'll throw some extra veggies on there. That's a good point too. But yeah, but, but I'm curious to, Eric, I want to get your- Then why, they load it up.

Like not only is there mayo, it's loaded with mayo. Lots of mayo, heavy mayo. There was a ton of mayo on mine and, and the cheese- It's mostly mayo. My cheese was actually all right. It was, it was not, it was not like cold or on, it maybe wasn't completely melted, but it looked fine to me. I didn't, I didn't notice it.

But the mayo was the thing that I noticed like biting into the burger and then like mayo getting on your fingers. Like it was, and like, I don't think of mayo with McDonald's. Like besides the chicken, the McChicken sandwich, I'm like, I never even think about the mayo there. And it was such a mayo heavy burger for a thing that's supposed to be, you know, vegetarian or vegan, which is just very bizarre. That's what's suspect about it.

Actually, now that you mentioned it, Mitch, because they, what, what of their sandwiches, what are their burgers even come with mayo? Do they have anything on their menu by default? Or were they like, well, we got to get some mayo on this thing? Or else we're going to get yelled at by our suppliers? Maybe, yeah. Is that what happened?

You don't want to know what happens if you cross the dairy lobby, dude. You don't want to know. Cow's head in your bed by nightfall, dude. Just trust me, eat the mayo, move on. Maybe, maybe it's, maybe it's a supply chain thing. And it's just, they have tons of mayo. It could be that. There's just a lot of mayo hanging around.

They're trying to get rid of it. I have, I have an, I have an idea for a campaign for the McPlant. But I know we get to get into more thoughts. But Hamburglar steals one, and Hamburglar doesn't, can't notice the difference. That's great. You just gave away a million dollar idea, friend. That's perfect.

It's perfect. Hamburglar steals it, doesn't know the difference. And then you say, hey, that's a McPlant. And he goes, rubble. Like he doesn't, you know what I mean? After pitching that idea for our, for our listeners on our video chat, put his hands up, like he just landed a vault at the Olympics. He did.

Yeah, pretty good. So the, I'll say this, and I'm curious about your perspective, Eric. For me, the impossible whopper is a home run. Like I love the impossible whopper. I've gotten it, I, you know, I, I'll get it with a, just fully without, you know, without the cheese, without the mayo sometimes. And, and I love that. I think that's like the perfect simulacrum of a fast food burger without meat.

This I feel like is not quite at the same level. But I'm curious your perspective, because to me, it was like, this is, this is hidden. Like this is good. I like this as a McDonald's burger. Yeah, this is a, this is very effective. But it's just still not quite the same as that impossible whopper. By the way, same issue with the impossible whopper with the, with cheese.

And is there mayo on the, is there? I feel like we've gotten this wrong before because we got mad at us. There is, yeah. But there is mayo. Okay, yeah. And, and they put heavy cheese on that. I think, I think by default, you get maybe two slices of cheese on the impossible whopper. Like it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of cheese.

But Eric, I'm curious, like how does this stack up against the, the impossible whop for you? Well, the impossible whopper is very good, but I'm also in no way above bringing my own condiments. So Jess and my mother-in-law did not understand why I was wearing a hoodie on Sunday to the Northridge Red Robin because like it's hot out. Well, then I started, the burger came and then my whole thing is to not break eye contact with someone so they don't see I'm putting on vegan cheese. And then I also bring my own secret sauce. So I grew up in Vancouver, Washington by Portland, Oregon.

We have the greatest burger chain ever there called Burgerville. I love it so much. I worship at its altar and they have a thing called Burgerville spread. So during COVID, I learned to make my own Burgerville spread. So just follow your heart, mayonnaise, mustard, sweet relish, dill relish and some sugar. So I pulled out a small Tupperware container to dip my fries in and just drench my burger in. So if I'm getting an impossible burger, all I do is plan ahead. So I'll bring a couple of slices of follow your heart cheese and then I'll bring my own

Burgerville spread and I'll dump it on there and it's amazing. Now melt. The only thing of vegan cheese is the melt is a challenge because what you have to do is you need to do a wet melt and that is you take the burger on the grill. I watched them do this at Monty's and it blew my mind. It tastes like real American cheese once you learn how to do it. So for anyone at home, put the burger on the grill, put on the follow your heart cheese, the American cheese that looks like craft singles and you're about to turn it into

a real craft single won't taste the difference. Then you pour a little bit of water in there, cover it for whatever reason, the wet hot moisture melts this cheese perfectly. So I actually did that on my McPlant and that's what they're doing in Europe because in Europe they're not controlled by lobbyists. So it'll all be in my manifesto. Trust me, I'm going to the woods and write it soon. But I was stunned by the McPlant just because it's that McDonald's grill flavor.

It's something I hadn't had in so long and I seriously almost got choked up because I was so happy about it. For me, the absolute best in show is the Carl's Jr. Beyond. You can't believe how good it is and I think with the char grilled, it's just perfect. And where a lot of places screw up with the vegan burgers is they do the big thick beyond patty, which you're going to just know it's fake. This is why a Big Mac would be perfect if it were not for the dairy lobbyists

because you should do two thin patties, do the wet melt and you do them crispy. And you can't taste the difference. I brought dumb friends, say make fun of me constantly for being a vegan. I brought a Monies burger. I'm here. Kids to do the single, don't do the double. The double you're getting into a lot of vegan. You're getting into a lot of vegan meat.

You give them a single with extra cheese, which they've done the wet melt on, extra spread and extra grilled onions. They can't tell the difference. I've done it with three different friends. Make fun of it. They can't tell the difference. So McDonald's could absolutely do a McDonald's cheese burger. It's such a thin little patty anyway that people would not know the difference.

Let's be honest. McDonald's meat is McDonald's meat. Bless their hearts. You could do a Big Mac with this wet melt method that would taste exactly. You could do the Pepsi challenge on people. I'm willing to bet one of my dogs you could not tell the difference on these patties. So I just love that McPlan is a great step in the right direction because I love you drive up to San Francisco and now I can pull over to Carl's Jr.

So I just get the beyond famous star, no cheese, no mayo, ad guacamole. I'm getting the big thick fries. Wow. And it's an amazing feeling to be on the road in a rental car eating that kind of meal again. And that's where I'll be with the McPlan. And then again, when I was a starving actor, relatively starving, whatever, big guy, I would, when they have the 99 cent whoppers, my buddy laughs. I would keep craft singles in my center console because it's like 179.

If you get the Whopper Jr. with cheese or the Whopper with cheese. So even before I was eating plants, I would add cheese. So now it's just a variation on that. You just bring your own condiments and the whole world opens up to you. Yeah, that's, I love that. How are we? Yeah. Just having a bottle of, having a bottle of your condiment by your side.

It's just a man on a mission. You know what you mean? Oh, no, I'm not here to get cheated friends. No. And it's always, you know, when it's those cool people that you're around in this business and like, I went out to dinner with David Keckner who played my brother on Twin Peaks and I'm like, I brought in, we went to the smoke house and I went to the primavera and I'm like, it's missing cheese.

So I snuck in my own cheese and I'm like, I'm going to make such eye contact with him talking. He's not going to see me dropping a massive dollop of vegan cheese into this primavera. And he didn't. I dropped the whole thing in and I stirred it and he did not see because I did not want him to start teasing me. And so then I have this primavera of cheese and like cancel Christmas. It was amazing. Do you see William Shatner there?

One of his favorite spots, right, Wags? Oh yeah, Shatner loves it. What? Yeah. There's a great smoke house William Shatner story we'll tell you after the episode. Oh, I need it. Did you see him when he came back from space? No, I didn't.

Oh, not in the media aftermath, no. Oh, you got to watch it. It's a five minute monologue of him just talking to Bezos and rambling in the best way. And he's a hero. We went, my wife is the same. On our honeymoon in Maui, we went to a William Shatner Dog the Bounty Hunter show. It's a whole other story for next time. Yeah.

What a combo. No, there was a heckler and I moved in as a former person that faked my way through bouncing for two years. And so then the bouncers thought, the Hawaiian bouncers are so nice, they didn't move her. And she was out of her mind drunk. And then I'm like, man, you have to go right now. This is William Shatner, you got to go. I'm like, oh, thanks, brother. Oh man, she was crazy.

So then afterward, there was like an $800 meeting greet and my wife and I just like kind of snuck back there. And at each realm of security, we would go to the bounce. Oh, they know us. They know, oh, that's the guy. He got her out. And then finally, the last line of defense to see William Shatner, the last piece of security, is no joke.

Dog the Bounty Hunter. And dog looks at us and no one thinks that a couple on their honeymoon is sneaking in to avoid paying the $800. And dog looked at us and I'm like, I'm like, guys, dog, tell him I helped. And like, that's a guy. He got her out. He got her out. I said, God, thank you, brother. Sorry, we had a little security incident.

We're so glad you could help. I'm like, hey, former bouncer dog, totally I get it. I'm just here to help, you know, be that light in the world. It's like, thank you, brother. All right, we'll see you now. And then we went in there and Shatner was incredible. Like if you pay that amount, we didn't. But if you pay that amount, I don't know how you, my God.

Johnnie, man. Oh, it's incredible. Molly, way better. But watch him ramble to Bezos for five minutes because it's glorious. And Bezos is clearly wanting to do other things and attend to other. But he's like, Jeff, I went up and I saw Doug. Is it death? Is it light?

I don't know, but it's amazing. I can't thank you for this gift, Jeff. Watch it. It's glorious. Man, that guy is, Shatner is like 80 something too. And he's just, he's very with her. He's up there. Yeah.

He's a hero. His one man show is so good. The only hilarious thing is he's 90. And he seriously like trolls people on Twitter. He's 90. He gets in fights with people on Twitter. And there's something amazing and a weird insight into his psyche. What are you doing?

You're Shatner. You're a legend. Why are you so upset with these fighting with the Outlander fan base? Why? Right. Keep some, keep some, keep some young. I never knew how much of that is like him or is it a hand? Is it like someone who works for him who's writing his account?

I have no idea. It's him personally. Wow. He flirts with getting canceled all the time, where if he's paying someone to do that, it's not. But he'll like get paid to promote Outlander. And then people come in and he's like, Oh, Dan, you said it.

Why? And I'm like, Bill, what are you doing, man? Just be cool. You're on the two best Twilight zones. You're Danny Crane. Who cares? It's the Outlander fan base. God bless them all.

Social media. Social media, friends. Respecting a nine-year-old. Yeah. I want to give a shout out to the great Jess Rona, your wife. Oh, yeah. The queen, please. And the dog groomer, the dog groomer extraordinaire,

the best dog groomer around. And, uh... Yes, everybody watch your show Hot Dog on HBO Max and say dog grooming competition show, and she's the queen and she grooms the biggest dog of all, which is me right here. She cuts my back here, not the name drop. You shouted out Burgerville,

and I do want to say this, Eric, which is that Burgerville and the workers union reached a contract agreement recently as of this record, which is great news. They've had like a two-year struggle, and this would be the, you know, purportedly first labor contract, first union contract in the fast food industry,

at least in some time. So that's great news. Yeah. Oh, I'm even more proud. Big ups to George Propstra for founding Burgerville. Big up to the Holland Inc. for having unionized employees. Happy union employees.

We're all going to be great. Yeah, it was funny. We almost did Burgerville live. We were going to review it in Portland, and then they were in the midst of a lockout. The strike was happening. Yeah, so we end up not honoring that. They're at Cheeseburger.

The simple Burgerville Cheeseburger is so absolutely perfect, and you could easily fit into a pocket as a kid for movies or just for walking around, but it's the spread, which I've now completely perfected, but like I love Burgerville so much. It's always my parents laugh. It's my first stop getting off the airport, and I'm thrilled to hear that Burgerville union employees,

because they also do like all local Northwest ingredients. They've got a really good black bean burger. I mean, everything they do there is just amazing and perfect, and you know, reminds me, you know, those awkward days growing up, you may not have the best day, but you go to Burgerville and somehow you feel better. Wow, you made me think of,

I'm wondering if there are any mummified pocket burgers up in my house in Quincy. I saw mummified pocket burgers at the Coca-Cola Tees in 2003. Pretty good. Well, let's get to our final thoughts on the McPlant. So, Eric, this is how this will work. We'll each go around, give a closing argument, if you will, on this particular item,

and then give it a score from zero to five forks. You are our guest. We'll begin with you. The McPlant, as it is, is a three and a half forks. You bring your own condiments, and you want that feeling McDonald's when you're a kid, making you feel a little bit better? Guys, I'm giving it five forks. To sit yesterday and take that McDonald's grill experience,

it's something I've missed for so long, and yes, I slathered on my own mustard. Yes, I slathered on my own mayo. Two slices of cheese, and I was in heaven. So, yes, there's room for improvement. I'm sure the European version is a lot better, but it's a lot better on a few things right now. Wow. There you go.

Mitch, so look, I drove down to LAX, which as we all know is one of the worst experiences living in LA is just going to LAX in the morning, and traffic already heavy for the holidays. Dropped my mom off, said goodbye, gave her a hug, gave her a kiss, and she was on her way, and then I went right to McDonald's from LAX, and I'm not an early lunch guy, so obviously.

So, a 1050 lunch is especially McDonald's, ordering McDonald's at 1050 AM, like that was on the receipt, and just eating a McDonald's meal while it's still AM. I think McDonald's is a PM thing. Unless you're getting McDonald's breakfast, of course, but if you're having the burgers and fries. So, I was expecting not to really like this,

but I gotta say, that Manhattan Beach McDonald's, a great new modern McDonald's, the staff was great. I pulled up, I was clearly one of the first people there to order lunch, and they said, can you pull over to the side, and we'll make your order and deliver it to you. And the fries were hitting wigs, the fries were really good. I had myself a Coca-Cola.

And just a meal to see if it would nail that McDonald's experience, with the fries and the drink and the burger. And I'll tell ya, it did taste like a regular McDonald's experience. I mean, I'm sure that the mayo and cheese go a long way, but it was really hard to tell that this was a vegan burger. You know, I really could not tell the difference.

And my complaint is what you were saying, is that give us that in the quarter pounder, give it to us in the Big Mac, and I think it will be popular. I feel like we're in a real in-between time right now, where a lot of these places aren't going all in on it, and then some are trying it and then taking it away, you know. And some of that is the price drop. I think it is a little bit more expensive, right?

But I got two, I got Eric two, I got two plain ones, and I got a meal, and then another one, because I wanted to see how it traveled. And it traveled okay. I didn't heat mine back up, but you heated yours back up. And I think that it would have helped it taste much better. But it traveled okay. But the thing that bothered me about it, again,

is just that this lettuce and tomato, like you got the taste of McDonald's down, don't give us this weird burger, this weird lettuce tomato burger. Give us what we want. Give us the Big Mac. Give us the Quarter Pounder. That's what we want. Eric was talking about that experience of he got emotional eating McDonald's.

Like, people want that McDonald's taste, but they want it without the beef. Do that. So I think there's a lot of potential there. But I'm going to go for forks for now, because I think that it is, it's good. It's not as impressive as the, I'd say I'd give the Impossible Whopper probably five forks. I think the Impossible Whopper is great.

And it's something that I'll go and be like, oh, I'll get an Impossible Whopper. But they got a little bit of things to work out with the McPlant. But it's a great start. I mean, it tastes really good. Yeah, I agree. Absolutely a great start. I think it's encouraging that they have this on the menu.

And at least from what I read, they have taken this like nationally in the UK. At least that was what I read. I'm not sure how accurate that is. So we should probably expect them to scale up, you know, hopefully in 2022, and we'll be able to see this maybe first, just the McPlant,

and maybe eventually like you'll be able to get a Beyond Patty on anything. A McPlant, isn't it? That's a, that's a, that's Emily Kay. Oh, McPlant. And this is a dairy-free chain. Sir, Sir Ronald McDonald. He has a monocle.

Eric, to go on the hacky thing you were saying, they should have like a, like a Ronald McDonald with like a hook and necklace and... Completely, man. This is pretty good, man. It's coming to dead and company, man. It's going to be great. You know what I'm telling you,

Mary plays tasty licks, man. And you know what's tasty is the McPlant. Bring them back. Bring back Ronald. Oh, please. Yeah, I'd like to see Ronald at the front of the marketing again. I will say that the, that the,

the fries were good. The, the unsweetened iced tea was very tasty. And very thirst quenching. And overall, just a very satisfactory burger that, I don't know. I mean, like even though the cheese wasn't melted, even though this wasn't a perfect execution of it, I just found it like a, like a,

this, this was just like eating McDonald's. And if this is going to be the level that, you know, plant-based patties get to with fast food restaurants, then maybe I don't, you know, maybe even after this year is over, maybe I don't need to be, go back to eating beef burgers. You know, maybe that's not a thing I need to do to be able to get that fast food experience.

Because it absolutely scratches that same itch, even if it doesn't scratch it as specifically as a, as a vegan big, as a veggie Big Mac or a veggie, a quarter pounder with cheese would. So I'm going to be in the hand holding club with the spoon man. I'm going to say four forks. And that means that the McPlant

is in the golden plate club. So how about that? The golden arches club, if you will. Wow. Yeah. I got, I got, I got, I also, I got, I also got to give props to my, I mean, it was probably the first fries that got dropped

in the fryer that day, but the fries were, the fries were, were fantastic. And that Coke was hitting, they were, it was a, they chose a good McDonald's. That may have Manhattan Beach McDonald's, if you're down there, it's a good one. So it was, it was, it was, it was a good performance by them and also I do think,

obviously the patty is different in these things than the, than the big, like it's a thinner patty with the Big Mac. So I'm just wondering if like a, if there, there'll be different size McPlant, you know what I mean? Like I wonder what, what the deal will be if there's different types of patties

of McPlants or whatever, but who knows, we'll see. I would guess if it's a prefab patty that's specially made for the company, that that'll probably come in one size. That's, that's, that's my assumption, but, but who knows. But I'll also say that like I, this, this, this burger didn't necessarily like, like wouldn't necessarily have tricked me,

but I've also become like acquired a taste for a beyond patty. Like I like how beyond patties taste now. So I got no problem with that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there you go. Hey, that was the hamburger though, remember?

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ZocDoc.com slash DOBOYS. ZocDoc.com slash DOBOYS. Welcome back to DOBOYS. We are here with Eric Edelstein. And hey, it's time for the return of a long dormant segment. Mitch, Eric, we're going to find out who on our panel is the sauce boss. O-B-H-A-V. It's Saustin Powers.

What the fuck? Yeah, baby. Yeah. This was a segment? Yeah, it's a segment. When was this a segment? We've done this segment before. One million sauces.

Can't teach that. Good, baby. Very good. There you go. Let me know if you guys can hear this. Oh, I can hear it. It's iconic. So I'll list the ingredients. Oh, I thought you were going to sing or something.

Of a sauce. No, there aren't any lyrics to Soul Boston. I thought you were going to sing like, It's Saustin Powers or something. I thought you were going to do something. But he did nothing. I am a guy. I'm going to like it too.

I'll take it again. Okay, hold on. All right, take two. I'm going to keep this in. It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers.

It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers. It's Saustin Powers. We're going to guess what the sauce is. It's Saustin Powers. Okay. Yeah, good.

No, why wouldn't you sing? Do you sound like an elementary school kid asking his teacher on a date? Root causes. So I'll list the ingredients of a sauce or a condiment one by one. Once you think you know what it is, buzz in by saying,

get in my belly. So that's how you'll buzz in. This couldn't have been a segment. You're fucking with me that this was a segment. We have absolutely done Saustin Powers before. You know who we did it with? Jesus. Who?

Bug Main. Oh my God. Okay. We did Saustin Powers on iHob with Bug Main. Oh, that makes sense. My mind was blown that episode, so it makes sense. All right. Let's get into Saustin Powers.

In today's category is Saustin Powers in Green Member. All of these sauces are green. So we're sauces that are green in color, green in hue. And again, I will list the ingredients one at a time. And as soon as you think you know it, you can buzz in with get in my belly. All right. We clear on the rules.

Let's get into it. First up, avocados. Get in my belly. Salt, Eric. Guacamole. You are correct. I was reading off the ingredients for guacamole. That was fucking-

You have one point. Wow. Wait, let's see. Can you guys hear this cue? Yeah, baby, yeah. Yes, yeah, we can. Unfortunately. Okay, so you'll hear a yeah, baby, yeah, if you get it right.

All right, so the first question, first question, famous sauce, guacamole. Yeah, baby, yeah. I think it qualifies as a sauce. Okay. In fact, in the original translation, the origin of the term guacamole, it literally translates as avocado sauce.

So there you go. God damn it. God damn language. Fucking language. Next up. Eric has one. Mitch has zero. Next sauce.

Basil. Garlic. Mitch. Oh, shit. Get in my belly. Uh, oh no. And now I forgot the- I got too scared.

It goes on pasta. I'm just gonna give it to- I'm gonna give it to Eric by describing it. Ah, fuck. I don't know. I forgot. I forgot. Get in my belly.

Mitch, go ahead, Eric. Pesto. Thank you. Yeah, baby, yeah. You are correct. It is pesto. How did I forget pesto? How does that happen?

How do things like that happen to me? I think you just panicked. I told you. It goes on pasta. I knew. Yes. I knew what it was. You knew you just pan-

You like you had it and then you panicked when you- When the spotlight was shown on you. It's okay. You're still in the game. There's four more to go. Next up. Twice.

You know what? It can only be one thing. I've lost my mojo, baby. Pesto. Next sauce. God damn it. I'll list the ingredients one by one of this sauce. Tomatillos.

Onion. I'm getting my belly. Salsa Verde. Mitch, you are correct. Mexican style salsa verde is the answer. What happened to a yeah, baby response? I wanted the yeah, baby. Oh shit, yeah, sorry.

Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Yeah, baby, yeah. There we go. It's a lot of tabs to manage. I apologize.

All right, Eric has two. Mitch has one and Sausten powers. Sounds like an 80s. You sound like an 80 soda jerk. An 80 soda jerk? Yeah, a lot of tabs to balance like a- Okay. You've now lost all the credit for the hamburger pitch.

Undid all the goodwill you accomplished. Next sauce. I liked Eric when- Next sauce. mayonnaise, sour cream, chervil, chives, anchovy, tarragon, lemon juice, salt, pepper. Man, I maybe just don't know this sauce. Am I bleeding? Let's figure that out.

Yeah. Oh, it's also- I think I'm okay. I had like a big red splotch on my notepad. I was like, where the hell did that come from? But I don't think I'm bleeding. Okay, sorry. 80 soda jerk was pretty good, actually.

I used to drink a ton of choc too. I liked it. There was new ones. Yeah, come around. Mayo, sour cream, chervil, chives, anchovy, tarragon, lemon juice, salt, pepper. I'm throwing out there, guys. What's chervil? What is chervil?

I think it's from American Tale. It goes west. It's a whole thing. Chervil goes west. It's a French parsley. So it's like parsley. I really don't know this one. Anyone want to take a stab at that?

I'm a sauce guy too. I'm surprised. No, I don't know. Can I try? This one. Emma, please. Is it tartar sauce? It is not tartar sauce.

Oh, okay. Tartar sauce, not a characteristic of it is having a green hue, which all these sauces have. This is after all. Get in my belly. No, this is wrong. Yes. This is wrong. Go on, Mitch.

No, it's wrong. I'm not even going to try it. I'm not even going to try it. Come on, now you've got to guess. Ectocooler. It's not Ectocooler. We were looking for green goddess dressing. A California original, green goddess dressing.

Chervil. Chervil. Still two to one. Chervil. We should have gotten it with chervil. Who knew? Somewhere out there. All right, next up.

Two left. Eric has two. Mitch has one. Chopped parsley. Minced garlic. Olive oil. Oregano. Red chilies.

Red wine vinegar. Oh, man. I think I know what this is. Mitch, get in my belly. Mitch. Tomatillo sauce? You're syllabically have the right cadence, but your Tomatillo is not a, yeah, it's not the sauce.

It's a base of a different, it's a base of the salsa verde. It's not the name of a sauce. It's something Eric can't do. Eric Emma, want to take a stab at it? I don't have it. No. I said syllabically you're adjacent because it's chimichurri sauce. Chimichurri, that's what I meant.

Chimichurri sauce. Love a good chimichurri. On an empanada, ridiculous. Damn. A lot of my brain is just not, right? All right, Eric has two. Mitch has one. You're doing great.

Chimichurri sauce. I knew it. Damn it. This last one will determine it, whether it's a tie or whether it's an outright win. I was thinking, I was thinking of the sauce that went on, on steaks. Like a chimichurri. That's what I was thinking. That is, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's exactly what you're thinking of. I fucked up. All right. One left. The listeners won't believe that. They'll be like, you're an idiot. But Wags knows. Wags knows I was thinking of it.

And Mitch didn't know that a chimichurri was a sauce. He actually, he forgets he's from Boston. He doesn't know that he's from Boston. They say bullshit like that too. Tab was actually most popular in the 70s. Fucking assholes. We hate our listeners, don't we? All right, final one.

I'll read the ingredients as soon as you know. Buzzing with getting my belly. Wasabi root. Getting my belly. Oh wait, no, no, no, no, no, no. I jumped the gun. Do you want to take a guess? Yes.

The stuff that comes with sushi. Mitch, I'm going to give it to you. Because that is what I was looking for. Wasabi. Wasabi root is just wasabi. So there you go. And by the way. You're giving that to him?

As far as low when you get to the end of the show, I guess. All right. The stuff that goes with sushi. Sure, Mitch. This is rigged. It's rigged. Wags, do one last one. Do one last bonus one.

Come up with another one. I'm going to give it to you. Come up with another one on the spot. Okay. You can't come up with a string of sauce. I'm great being tied with you. I'm great being tied with you. I mean, we're brothers.

But it was rigged. It was. It was. I do want to say this. I think this is a fun fact. 95% of wasabi in the U.S. That you'll get it like your average strip mall sushi bar is actually horseradish with natural coloring.

So you have to go to a pretty high end like Omakase place to get actual wasabi because it's a pretty expensive ingredient. Sushi house on Ventura has it and I've seen Fabio there and they don't charge any extra for it. It's the real wasabi. Sushi house on Ventura, go in there, get a frame made and then the fresh wasabi, I get high off it. It like clears everything out and you feel a difference

from the dyed horseradish. Wow. You know, where else I've seen Fabio? On a date with Mitch and a great birthday boy sketch. And he was very nice. And you know what, it ties into a bit. Wags, you should check your text by the way. But it ties into a big guy moment where we were in bed together

and because the whole sketch was that Fabio and I were married and we were going to have a baby and they were going to use my sperm instead of Fabio's sperm, which was, you know, like and then Hanford is like, why are you going to, you know, that's the whole sketch. But we were in bed together and I'm reading like a Nintendo Power and the bed broke. Like the bed actually just like gave out under us.

And Fabio very sweetly was grabbed my arm and went, are you okay? And after it happened and it was very, it was very, it was a very sweet moment. What a hunt. So props Fabio. Big ups Fabio. That rules. Yes, I lived like a, yeah, many, maybe housewives from the 80s,

I guess, their dream scenario of Fabio grabbing my arm and asking me. After breaking the bed. After breaking the bed. I just blew your back out. Bed broke in a different scenario, but yeah. So Mitch texted me, I don't know how am I supposed to do this and how is this supposed to be fair? If you just texted me, which bonus question I'm supposed to do

and you're competing. Really? Wow. I texted Weiger, I texted Weiger, do relish. That's amazing. We didn't have relish before. I'm like, no, they got all the green sauces, nothing left. There's sweet and dill.

You can take it either way because somebody buzzed in too early and it's dill or it's sweet. Which are both. That's true. We'll have to save it for next edition of Saustin Powers and Green Member. Just like a restaurant, move out your feedback. Let's open up the feedback.

I love, is that what it is? I love green. Is that what it would be? I love green. Yes. Today's email is from atitsrobbeals on Twitter. Rob writes, my son and I would go to a local chain pretty regularly and enjoyed their chicken nuggets.

Probably due to the pandemic, the place changed to a nugget that we find inferior to the point where we don't go there anymore. This also happened to me years ago when Carl's Jr. changed their chicken strips and I never really went back. Can you think of any items you loved that were replaced with a new version that just lost you? I mean, my mind goes to fries.

So many places like a Wendy's or a Burger King have endlessly tinkered with their fries and it always just seems to incrementally make things worse. But anything in particular come to mind is like an item where they change the formulation and you're just like, ah, it's just not the same. Well, yeah, I've talked about this with Duncan a lot. You know, the Duncan decline, as I call it.

And I love Duncan, but there's definitely changes to, like there's no more onion bagels. Their bagels kind of got, there can be rock hard now sometimes. I still love it if, you know, if it's hitting in it, it still can taste really great. But yeah, no, this has definitely happened. I'm trying to think of a couple. I know that KFC, there was a Zinger sandwich I really love

that they maybe just took away or discontinued, but they now have a Zinger sandwich. It's not the same exact thing. But why is it happening currently right now? And look, we've gone over Taco Bell bean assholes and taken away so many of their good stuff, like their good products over and over again. It's insane.

But right now it's currently happened with Wendy's. Those fries, they changed up those fries again and bring them back to the original Wendy's fries. They've changed their fries twice. And they've just are inferior versions of the original fries, those crispy yellow Wendy's fries that they were just much better. And I heard, well, I've heard there's some rumblings online of the spicy chicken sandwich being changed.

And that to me would, I mean, that's, it's game over, man. If that happens, like that's it. Yeah. Well, well, they try, you know, I mean, they offered their, they were doing the kind of a plus stop chicken sandwich, you know, when after the Popeyes craze and everyone came out with their Popeyes chicken sandwich clone, they had kind of their own version of that coexisting

and harmony with their old chicken sandwiches in the same way that Burger King has theirs with their long chicken sandwich, the classic chicken sandwich. That's not what's going on. I was just reading online, I think on the, maybe on the, either the dose court or maybe the Reddit, I don't know, wherever it was, but. Yeah.

One of your main news sources. One of my, yes, this is where I get all my news. That's how I found out Biden won, was on the Doughboy. I also found out about January 6th on the Reddit, but it was long before January 6th. That was like a meetup thread. It all began on our Doughboys. I'll be there in a hot salad t-shirt.

See you guys. See you guys in the Capitol. I think that there's rumblings of it, of it changing wise outside of that. Like I think that there's, that they maybe have changed that, which yeah, like I said, that's, I'm done. I'd be done with you. I mean, like I still like Wendy's burgers, obviously,

but like, what are you doing? I don't like this whole thing about like, we're focusing on like takeout because of the pandemic. And I'm like, ugh, Wendy's was such a great sit-down restaurant. It was like of all the fast food places, it was just such a great, it's just, I know the world is different, but like sometimes, the thing that you're known for and the thing you're great at,

you should just stick with it. Like I mean, like oftentimes, it's just whatever. Well, like Eric was talking about earlier with, with, you know, Burgerville or, you know, my version of Burgerville in and out burger, it's just like, these are places that kind of have their thing that they do when they lean into that. They're, they're, they're, and maybe Burgerville

has evolved more over time than, than in and out has, but I mean, like it, it does feel like some of these places just tinker for the sake of tinkering, some of these larger chains. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Eric, you got, you, you haven't, you have anyone? Oh, why is he going? I mean, the, the Mexican pizza is,

is devastating that that left Taco Bell. And I'm, and I'm shocked they did that. The other one, and I'm not proud to relate this anecdote, but I don't know if you guys remember the Arch Deluxe when McDonald's dipped a toe into the premium burger world years ago. Not proud of this, but I was like 15 or 16 years old and my buddies, Nick, Ben, Chris and I in Vancouver, Washington,

they were giving out promotional Arch Deluxe coupons in the beginning to get people to taste like, this is what a premium burger is. Well, they were just on yellow card stuff. So we started photocopying them. And we ate, I'm not proud of this. I'm a different human being now. We ate so many Arch Deluxe's.

At one point we ordered so many, we got an Arch Deluxe fight, like a snowball fight with Arch Deluxe's in a Vancouver, Washington, McDonald's. And we ate for free for a summer. And I don't know how we're alive eating Arch Deluxe's for lunch and dinner, but when they took that Arch Deluxe out the menu and quit honoring our coupons,

because we would just hit different McDonald's. Again, not proud of this. Don't do this at home, kids. Now they would never allow it on basic card stock. It's a much less trusting America because of people like my friends and I. But when they took that Arch Deluxe off, it was like, oh, God, I'm going to have to start

spending money for food again. Eric, I'm now wondering if you and your friends are the reason they discontinued the Arch Deluxe. I wonder, I'm wondering. It might have been. I don't feel good about this, but yeah, we ate so many Arch Deluxe's. We would like bring our own toppings and like, you know,

the saddest thing is it wasn't a great burger. They did like a cracked wheat bun, if I remember correctly. So it wasn't even as good as a quarter pounder with cheese, but we still just kept eating them. It also had like a, they had a new sauce for it, and then they had like, it had bacon on it. Yeah, the bacon was great. This one actually came not too long after the McDLT, I think.

I think the McDLT kind of like, that was a burger for grownups. And then they tried the Arch Deluxe afterwards, and then they realized grownups just want to eat Big Macs. Yeah, McPlant is in that world, for sure. And that Arch Deluxe world. I was thinking of Arch Deluxe when I was down there, but for the Arch Deluxe, for me, it was like, there was like a premium patty.

And I remember I got a piece of like, gristle or fat in it. And then that was as like a 13 or 14 year old or whatever age we were when that came out. That was it for me. I had never experienced that in another McDonald's burger. And so that was like, I didn't like that at all. And like now I wish as an adult, I could try the Arch Deluxe just to see what it was like,

because I would love to try it. But yeah, it would be interesting if they brought some. I mean, I think that's maybe the new era of, that's maybe an untapped avenue of a nostalgia is like the limited fast food item from 20 years ago. And then just being like, hey, we're going to bring this back in the same way that we occasionally bring back the McRib. We'll bring back a McDLT for a limited time.

And you guys can want this. Why not? People would go crazy for it. Same styrofoam containers they're going to bring those back to. My answer is the, you know, obviously a lot of things have been removed from menus and that always sucks. But as far as one that changed the jack in the box sourdough jack,

over time they have changed the bread. The sourdough bread used to be very good. And now it's like a, it's like a bread shaped, sourdough bread shaped bun. It's not really the same thing at all. You don't get the same texture from it. You don't get the same crispness. And this is a schedule Natalie,

because she also liked the sourdough jack. And now it's just like, not a thing you want to get anymore. I'd rather get a jumbo jacket or rather get an ultimate cheeseburger because just the bun's not the same, which is a bummer. Because that was like a little, hey, that was a little, not quite nice in the whole, but a little something they had that other chains didn't have, you know. So that one, that one bummed me out.

Yeah, that's, I know you're a big jack guy. And I did not mean that as a joke. What do you mean by that? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's more examples. It's going to bug me because I know that there's more stuff out there where they, where they've slightly altered. And to me, it's always just that thing of like,

oh, you're altering this because it's like, it's a money saving thing. It's going to save you 10 cents. So don't do it. Uh, hit us up with your answers. Hashtag shortchanged. And if you have a question or comment about the word of chain restaurants,

you can email us at doeboyspodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 Godot. That's 830-463-6844. And to get the Doughboys double, our weekly bonus episode, you can join the Goldenware Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash Doughboys. Our guest today, Eric Edelstein. Eric, what an absolute treat to talk with you.

Please come back to the show. This is so funny. What a dream. Thank you so much for being here. We got to do Red Robin. Oh, we got to do Red Robin. Northridge, friends. Oh, made me so happy to go there.

I cannot tell you. What do you do as a vegan at Red Robin? Oh, they've got the Impossible Burger, and then I sneak in my own cheese, and then I bring my own Burgerville sauce. And my wife looked at me with such embarrassment that I was un-pulling sauce and cheese out of pockets in front of her mom.

But her mom loved it. And she's thrilled because she lives near Northridge, Red Robin, named up. And so, you know, I can't recommend enough. So we'll go out there and you can watch me pull my trick of talking to you, not making eye contact. And the time you look down,

I got vegan sauce and cheese on my burger. Eric, I might be one of the few people that doesn't work on because once your food comes, my eyes will go directly towards it and not. Perfect. That's all I want. I'm just trying to live free of judgment from others. That's it.

That's it. Bigger they come, harder they fall. Paper mache skin here. Eric, anything you would like to plug at this time? I want to plug the Doughboys podcast because I love them and I had such a nice time and everyone should just keep listening. And also, if you have a small child,

have them listen to Baby Shark, or I'll be on the upcoming HBO show, Minx. Oh, hell yeah. You're not playing one of the worst pieces of crap I've played yet. No spoilers. But yeah. Hell yeah. For such a nice guy, you can play such assholes.

It's so fun, right? And I also feel like guys who play assholes are usually the coolest in real life. It's like, you know, when you ask like a leading guy to be a dick, they don't really want to. But if you're like, yeah, go for it. And then my trick is I just do it as me. You don't act.

You just say horrible things as you. And people think it's acting. And then you're like, I'm just saying it as me, but it's a cheat code. There you go, kids. You too can put on Spanx for Men and say horrible things and get paid in this town. And be on the Doughboys podcast.

We live inside a dream, everybody. I'm going to probably toss on some Spanx right now, actually. Dude, should we do it? Dude, let's go to Big Beach. I'm going to bring vegan cheese. Let's throw on Spanx for Men. Troubles are over, dude. You know what?

I'll say this, too. Northridge, we go up to Northridge, go to Red Robin. Also can hit up Lazy Boy, where I got my couch. A great spot. Go to the Big and Tall, which we're not going to mention, because they have to pay Mitch and I to endorse them, but we're ready. We're willing.

We're a big and tall empire waiting to happen. Please. Agreed. You're the best. Thank you for doing this. We're going to have a back soon. This was a joy, friends. Thank you so much.

A delight. And hey, that'll do it for this episode of Doughboys. Until next time, for Mr. Slice, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating. See ya. On the next Doughboys Double, it's a Muppet family Christmas. Mike Carlson and Scott Gairdner from Podcast the Ride

joined to discuss this holly jolly 80s TV special featuring Kermit and the rest. Waka, waka, waka and ho, ho, dough? Get the Doughboys Double every Tuesday only at Patreon.com slash Doughboys. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description. That was a hate gum podcast.