Doughboys - Sweetfin Poké with Payman Benz

Episode Date: May 9, 2019

We're joined by director Payman Benz (The Last Man on Earth, Brooklyn 99) as we travel to a California-native chain serving their take on a traditional Hawaiian dish: Sweetfin Poké. Plus, a Koreatown-inspired edition of Snack or Wack.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. In 1959, the same year the territory became a state, James A. Michener released his epic novel Hawaii, a sprawling work of historical fiction that spans 1,000 years and pages to trace how the island chain went from uninhabited archipelago to thriving hub of cultural convergence. The first humans on the island were Polynesians who arrived by canoe, and, over the centuries, their descendants would come to self-identify as Native Hawaiians. But as with the Americas, the fate of Hawaii was forever altered by the intrusion of the West, after British explorer James Cook made landing in 1778. As is the pattern, missionaries and

colonists subsequently brought Christianity and capitalism, subjugating much of the Native population to work on sugar plantations and killing off many others with foreign-born diseases. In the 19th century, to meet the labor demands of Hawaii's massively profitable cash crop industry, immigrants came from China and Japan, further influencing the island's identity. And it's the coexistence of these disparate cultures that helped make Hawaii and its food so unique. Fusion cuisine from before the time existed, leading to fare like Spam Musubi, which is grilled Spam over rice wrapped in edible seaweed.

But it's one of the island's oldest dishes that has perhaps become its most iconic, a portion of raw, chopped, and seasoned seafood with a two-syllable name from the Hawaiian language. For centuries mostly the purview of islanders, in the 1970s the once traditional reef fish and octopus were replaced by the more visually pleasing and toothsome ahi tuna. The food would become a destination delicacy for Hawaii's many tourists, and decades later would begin to secure a beachhead on the mainland. In 2015, former Top Chef contestant Dakota Weiss opened a quick-service eatery selling a California-inspired version of the dish just a few

blocks from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. An immediate hit, in part due to the quality fish provided via its trademark pole-to-bowl philosophy, the island chain-inspired restaurant has itself become a chain, now with nine locations across the greater LA area. And while the raw fish dish's staying power in the contiguous 48 has yet to be determined, it will no doubt remain a staple in Hawaii for many centuries to come. Centuries to be chronicled by the Michners of tomorrow. This week on Doughboys, Sweetfin Poke. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants.

I'm Nick Weiger, alongside my co-host, Ruth's Chris Farley, the Spoonman, Mike Mitchell. I mean, that's a great compliment. I picked that one. Ruth's Chris is great. Chris Farley rules. I thought you'd like that one. I do like that one. Ruth's Chris is great. Chris Farley rules. I thought you'd like that one. I do like that one. We did Ruth's Chris Christie before, which you did not like. Yeah.

Because that's a condemnable man. Oh, what a surprise. Which is a legendary comedian. But I thought that one was nice. Do you remember you and I went to a wedding? And we went to a wedding together. Think about a wedding we went to. Okay. And there was a girl who was calling me.

She was like, you're like Chris Christie. Do you remember that? Who was saying that? There was a girl there who was saying that. Neither of us knew it before that day. Anyways, fuck her. She sucks. Fucking asshole.

I find out later it was Natalie. No, Natalie rules. Yeah. Natalie and I get along better than you and I get along. You guys get along famously. That roast was courtesy of Josh Sasson. She should fucking leave you. She should.

Hey, look, I can't explain it. Josh writes, I'm a type 1 diabetic and can't eat most of the food you guys talk about on the pod, but Doughboys is my favorite. I submit to you a roast for Mitch that I'm not sure actually works, but it did make me giggle when I was stoned. That sort of backstory kind of put it over the top for me. RoastSpoonMan at gmail.com is the address if you have an insult you'd like me

to use on Mitch at the top of the show, or a nice little compliment that you'd interpret. Do you know when I was younger, people would they were like, I told you when Angus and Babe were out. The kid who I used to think was the chubby kid was like, you're in two movies at once. I was like, I'm the fat guy.

Like it was like that sad realization. Oh, wow. Right. It kind of hit you. Helicopter flying overhead. Is that what that is? I thought it was a motorcycle. It's rattling the house.

Jesus. We got a chopper overhead. It's like the end of Goodfellas, your favorite movie. Yeah, I was stirring the sauce earlier the gravy that is that's a great that's a great that's a great that scene that whole sequence is awesome it's a great sequence that's a great sequence the first time i saw it i was like oh he's just paranoid that helicopter's not actually following him but then it was but then it was and he was paranoid too because he was on he was doing coke and running all around uh anyways

uh what were we talking about? The girl called me Chris Christie. Oh, yeah, yeah. You were mad at the woman at the wedding. When I was younger, people would be like, that's like you, Chris Farley, making a fat joke. And I'd be like, no, it's not. And now, as I'm older, I'm like, oh, he's the funniest man ever.

That would have been a compliment to be as funny as that guy was. I think he's the funniest there ever was. He's up there. He's he's my favorite i think he's the funniest there ever was he's he's up there he's definitely up there i think he's the funniest there ever was it is a totally a thing you can't argue with yeah he's he's a uh just who who would you put who's your kind of top three funniest people top three funniest um i think i gotta go uh bob kevin and stew. My three favorite minions. Oh, fuck you. Kevin, you know, I think is more, he doesn't get as much time to shine, so I'd kind of put him third. Bob is probably the cutest.

I think he's probably two, and then Stuart probably gets the most jokes. Know who we were just talking about who's really funny? You and I agreed on this. Whoopi is very funny. Whoopi's hilarious. Yeah, Whoopi's really good. Super funny. A favorite of our good friend Nicole Byer. Yes. Loves Whoopi, and yeah, Whoop whoopi is very funny whoopi's hilarious yeah whoopi's really good super funny yeah a favorite of our good friend nicole byer yes loves whoopi and uh yeah

whoopi is very very funny uh a mitch uh we should uh we should introduce our guest i just want to mention something to you know what's funny because real quick yeah is that like when whoopi's parents like they're like let's make whoop. And then they actually did make whoopie. Good God. Is that the only reason you brought her up? No, it's not. I thought of this joke right now. I thought of this joke right this second.

You came in with that in the chamber. I swear. You know what? I swear on my life. You had that locked and loaded in the drive over from the restaurant. I swear on my life. Why? Because it was so good? Yeah, it was really good.

I swear on my life that I did not have that in the chamber. I swear. What do you want me to? I mean, I never want to swear on Wally and Irma and I won't. I just thought of that. It's good as hell. Mitch, if you honestly came up with that in the moment, I think the Chris Farley comparisons are apt because that's very,

very funny. Wait a second. I got to say how to school nation. This is as good as Farley. He played drops people made for him, right? Yeah. Here we go. This is a longer one.

Nick. I drink scissor. I drink scissor. I drink. I drink. I drink. I drink. I drink.

I drink. I drink. I drink. I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, I drink, okay our guest is a lovely man. I know I've never gotten more of a sense from reading someone's face that their time was being wasted. I do. I just want to say I play this for a couple reasons. It was like 45, 45 or 47 seconds long. Yeah, and I said, look, I'm going to give this one a pass,

but you got to keep it 30 or under. You got to keep it. There's a lot of people were saying, why are you playing the drops? You got to keep it 30 or under. Yeah, there are quite a few in there that I should have, but I just did this because if your drop doesn't get played, it's got to be 30. It's embarrassing for me.

Listen to me. It's embarrassing to me to play these drops, and the people are looking at me like I'm some sort of asshole. It's got to be 30 or under. So you did that to publicly shame whoever sent that in. Yeah. Anyways, that was sent in by Noah. Noah J. Landers.

No, it was good. Noah Weiger leaning on scissor drop. Hey, Nick, you song and Mitchie Two Spoons, my old school name. Your podcast slaps. i'm a big fan no shout out to emma no what the fuck uh i chopped and screwed weiger expressing his affinity for leaning on that's his herb i hope you like it long live spoon nation on twitter at gumby doofus that's a good handle slaps chopped screwed i don't know this newfangled slang oh my you've never listened to the choppedped and Screwed things?

No. People take old songs and stuff and they just fuck them up and they play them really slow and they remix them. It's actually kind of cool. You should look it up. Sounds, I don't know. Sounds worrisome. I feel like the kids that listen to that are going to get into trouble.

Nick, we should introduce our guest. We absolutely should. There's something stuck in my teeth. Something stuck in your teeth you felt we had to touch on. We have to touch on. There's something in my tooth. Emma has told me this. You can go get a piece of floss at any point.

Your restroom is like five steps away. It'll work its way out. Just floss it. That's my stance on a lot of things. It'll work its way out. Our guest today is a director whose credits include last man on earth brooklyn 99 and ap bio payment ben's is here hi payment hey guys how's it going it's going great we just had a we just shared a meal we shared some conversation and now we're here to record

what a day this has been it's nice and sunny we you maybe hear the low hum of the ac going we're having a great time it's all great i'll be the thousandth person to say that this is a dream come true. This is my favorite podcast. I think it's so funny. It taps into exactly who I was growing up and the way I ate and the way I talk about food. We've had conversations about the animal that I was growing up. We absolutely have. Yeah, rough.

I should not be alive. But let me say about that drop. I have panic disorder, and I almost had a panic attack listening to that thing. Wow. That was the best portrayal of... If someone was like, what is it like to have a panic attack? You should just listen to that really loud in your ear. So that's what you were internalizing.

I was sitting there being like, yeah, this is the feeling. This is what it is. I almost ran out of here. It was that bad. It was panic-inducing. I apologize. It was well-made It was. It was pain and confusing. I apologize. It was well made, though.

It was well made. Do you think that our podcast slaps? Yes. I think it slaps. I think I know what slaps means. If it's positive, then you guys fucking slap. Hey, all right. You guys slap hard. I'll take it.

I don't think it slaps, Nick. I don't think we slap. I don't think it slaps, Nick. I don't think we slap. I don't think it slaps. We've been very clear about how we feel about our own show, but it's very nice when someone says something complimentary. Payment, I want to talk about food. Okay. We got a lot to cover, but I think we can start with,

you are wearing an LA Clippers hat. Yes. You are a Clippers super fan. Oh, that's a Clippers hat. I didn't know that. Great style onippers hat. Yes. You are a Clippers super fan. Oh, that's a Clippers hat. I didn't know that. Great style on that hat. This is like their city edition hat for this year. They finally got a good logo, and it's just for 10 games and then never again.

Quite a season that your team has had. We're recording this just before the playoffs start, but it looks like your guys are going in with somewhere around the six or seven seed. How must you be feeling right now uh excited because i mean i i i knew they were gonna have a good year uh i mean they're not contenders they're not gonna win the championship but this year was all about enticing a free agent and i think they did that uh we're finally the team is likable i say we the team is likable it's just a bunch of gritty overachievers right guys that have been overlooked so like the the blue collar vibe of the team is just fun it's

just like a fun environment it's a game such a flip from the lob city era in terms of likability yeah egos are gone doc a frustrating coach but then he can be good sometimes he can be sometimes he can pull it off i feel like like Austin Rivers was the problem. Wow. He finally is with young guys, and he's doing a good job. And we thought he bailed on Boston because he didn't want to rebuild. It turns out he's actually really good with young guys. Yeah. But yeah, I didn't like him for years.

And now I'm like, hey, don't do that. I never thought he was good with young guys when he was in Boston. I think he is a guy who can get you a championship, though. Doc Rivers? Yeah. Clearly. He has a proven track record. I know. I know.

He won with us. But I always wonder what type of team Doc makes better, and it's clearly this type of Clippers team. Like with that Boston team, we were stacked. They should have come close to winning no matter what,

no matter who the coach was. Here's what I'd like to say. None of the guys have the nickname Doc anymore. Yeah. That's a great nickname. It is a good nickname. There was an era when there were lots of doctors and docs around, and then I feel like that's kind of faded.

I mean, the last of that generation is what? Doc Rivers, I guess Dr. Dre. Where are the doctors? Yeah, where are the docs? You don't have to go to medical school to have that be what you're called. should i call you doc wiger yeah i'll go i'll go by doc pretty good you know my dad was a has a had a doctorate in chemistry he was technically a doctor was he really yeah technically he could put he does he didn't do it because he thought it was stupid but he could have put dr is he is that what is he who driggles is based after? Come on. That's my father. Is he the guy who Dr. Giggles is based on?

No, he's not the guy that the murderous Dr. Giggles from the Stephen King story is based on. All right. I was just wondering. Okay. I'm glad I cleared that up. He did actually, though, he did look a lot like the Unabomber. Not actually Ted Kaczynski, but the famous composite drawing of it like look like my dad wearing a hoodie and sunglasses like a dead ringer for that did he get stopped at all was it

was there a moment where they thought he was the unabomber i think you get some laughing like you really look a lot like that guy you know kind of but kind of also like a little bit like maybe he could be you know because he's kind of got my energy. Did it give you pause? Like the first time you saw it on TV, you were like, oh, shit. I was just proud of him. Proud of the old man. Unabomber and his son was the, oh, no. I was going to say his son was the Unisucker. Come on.

No reason for that. Oh, boy. Jesus Christ. That's good. I'm on fire today. You got that and whoopie your fans are firing up photoshop logo yeah someone should photoshop you as the unabomber guy in the hoodie that's fun yeah i think i mean you know who else the guy has that look i think uh little mac from uh from isn't there also a doc and punch out yeah i think so oh yeah doc lewis right yeah man doc was what a great affectation why didn't they make a movie of punch out probably a rights

issue nintendo is very protective of the rights like like like uh mario doesn't even appear in the record ralphs but that's one of their weird yeah wait mario does appear in the record ralphs no he doesn't no he's referenced as him. Sonic is in there. Sonic is in there, and that was a big thing. Mario doesn't make a single appearance? No, he's not. They had Donkey Kong, and they had Donkey Kong in pixels, but I think Mario they're very, very protective of.

So I imagine it's a similar sort of thing with Punch-Out! Yeah, Punch-Out! would be a good movie, and it'd be fun to cast, too. They don't really care that much, right? Yeah. Wait, what are you looking up? I'm looking up Mario in Wreck-It Ralph. No, I don't think he's in it. Let's just watch it.

Okay, well, we're going to... Let's just watch it right now. We're going to take a break. We're going to watch Wreck-It Ralph and its sequel, Ralph Wrecks the Internet. Breaks the Internet. All right, we're back. Yes. Mario, along with his brother Luigi, do not appear in the first movie because the writers

generally couldn't think of a suitable way to incorporate them. It was a rights issue. And I guess, I don't know if they're in the, oh, he is the inspiration for Fix-It Felix. For Fix-It Felix. Yeah. You don't like The Wreck-It Ralph, right? All right, let's take it easy. Isn't this one of your, you have a big stance about The Wreck-It Ralph movies?

My old boss is the voice of Vanellope, and so i have to be delicate with this i had an issue oh she's gonna be so mad that you don't like this children's yeah she definitely listens to this podcast you know i my issue with the record ralph is this um it's a candy movie and i've said this before the the start of the movie we go to video the like the the Grand Central Station for video games. Payman, have you seen the record? I have not seen it. I have not seen it. They're worth seeing.

They're well-made movies. But my issue is... I don't think you hate them. My issue is... The Game Central Station, like Grand Central Station, you say, this is where all the video games connect.

And it feels like such an act where I'm like, oh my God, when we come to Act 3, we're going to have a chase sequence through every video game and we're gonna get to see all these you know ralph jumping into uh asteroids missile command excite bike yeah he's you know he's he's in balloon fight he's in contra now exactly we're gonna see all the video games he's in kid icarus he's in kid icarus he's flying around oh he's hanging out with alex kid and miracle world how about that He's flying around. Oh, he's hanging out with Alex Kidd in Miracle World. How about that?

He's slipping around in ice climbers. Oh, boy. Bubble Bobble? There he is. He's riding on Echo the Dolphin. There we go. There we go. That was a Genesis.

So. Oh, he's in Moonwalker now. Watch yourself. Oh, boy. Careful. Watch it. Careful. So you set this up, and then Act 3 is all in the candy video game.

And it's more candy stuff than video game stuff. Like, the big ending of Act 3 is, like, they're just in the one candy game. They drop a bunch of Mentos into Coke to, cause the big explosion that like leads to the client like it's like it's all candy stuff it's more candy jokes than video game jokes i was like it's just a candy movie i heard that's my issue you were at a mummy and me screening for that and then the usher had to come over because you were crying the most of anyone it's a candy movie shoving candy into your mouth. You are a candy guy when you go to the theaters, right?

I'm mostly a drink guy. I'm mostly a beverage guy. We've talked about this a lot. He's a popcorn skeptic. I'm popcorn averse. Are you a popcorn guy? What's your movie snacks? Yeah, every time popcorn. Yes.

I have to. Like normal. And if I feel particularly like mixing it up, I'll get Reese's Pieces or the peanut M&Ms. And then I sprinkle them in the popcorn. Oh, man. So they melt a little bit? Melt. And then you get both.

And you're just a big animal. It's fun, man. I can't not eat popcorn. I get mad if I go late and I can't get popcorn. Because then I'm like, what am I supposed to do? I like eating the whole time. It's great. Popcorn is great.

It's the movie theater snack. Nick, you're so whack on this, I can't believe it. By the way, speaking of things caught between your teeth, what gets between your teeth more than popcorn? That drives me nuts. If I get something between my teeth during a movie, that's all I can think about. I can't concentrate on the plot.

Why? Because I got something stuck in my teeth. I already told you the thing. It will work its way out yeah and then it's a reminder of the good time you have yeah it's great a little rarely is it a thing where it's like a shell that gets stuck in your tooth for like a year or so like where i mean like i mean that has never happened to me but i'm saying like it's never a thing where it's a really bad situation like it will come out within a day or so if it's even like that's the

worst case scenario is that like the next day you going to get a little kernel out of your teeth, your tooth, and that's fine. I found I had one come out once and I couldn't remember when it may have happened. I was like, when did I have popcorn? It was bad. It was bad. Are you guys flossers? I'm a flosser. You're a flosser.

Yeah. Recently I'd stopped and then I was like, wait, this is going to be bad. Right. I go back and forth on flossing. Now everyone and everyone's gonna be like gross online or whatever it just it's not a thing i do nightly i should do it nightly um i really i definitely don't do it twice a day fucking no way i don't do it twice a day that's i do it nightly and i do it as needed like if i have a if i have a situation like you have now i would resolve that with some dental floss i'll probably floss later i own floss for god's sakes i keep floss in my car because and and in if i'm working which i'm not currently but if i'm working i'll keep

that in my desk drawer at work because it's a big shift makeshift you can make a little makeshift noose like i gotta duck a duck out into the restroom for some autoerotic asphyxiation on the job what are you talking about no i uh yes so i that would leave a visible mark using dental floss oh jesus um i uh no like like if i have like a salad at lunch or something or if i if i'm out on the go and i have something in my teeth, between my teeth, it drives me nuts. I got to take care of it. I got to have that floss on call. Well, we won't jump into our restaurant yet.

Yeah. But I guess the today's one is maybe a little bit of a, of a flaw. If you get certain stuff on, on, on, if you get certain things included in what, in what we got today, it's a floss. That's for me. You can see it right now. Yeah. I got a little something in my tooth, Nick. Let us know

what your most flossed foods are. Hashtag floss leader. Let us know. I feel like steak is a big one. Steak is a big one. You get a big piece of meat in there. You can have a similar sort of thing with barbecue. Yeah. I mean, a lot of crunchy treats. Corn nuts, I feel

like. Corn nuts more than we just sort of crunch. Crunch it up. Jerky. Yeah. Jerky is a lot of crunchy treats. Corn nuts, I feel like. Corn nuts more would be just sort of crunch. Crunch it up. Jerky. Jerky, yeah. Jerky's a big one. Popcorn. I feel like something thick like a steak is, and I'm trying to think of other floss. Ribs.

You get some ribs. That can be an issue. Pulled pork is a nightmare. Oh, yeah. In between. Oh, man, yeah. I can't live with it. I can't.

I got to take care of it. I got to get flossed right away. Then go to the bathroom and floss or something. That's what I do. I'm saying in a movie. Is that why you don't like popcorn? It's part of it. But I also just don't like the taste that much.

I feel like the taste is kind of nothing. That's like what growing up is. You have a bowl of popcorn and you watch a fucking movie. That's some butter and salt. I mean, it's not as good now. I mean, the Arclight's good because they have real butter, but popcorn in the movies hasn't been good since the 80s when it was coconut oil and it was real good

before everybody realized how bad it was for us. Coconut oil specifically? Yeah, and then they realized how much saturated fat was in it, and then there was this big thing where Americans didn'ticans didn't know what saturated fat was right we're trying to figure out how to explain it to them so they did this big press conference where they had a bunch of like big macs and fries and they were next to like a thing of popcorn and they were like this is how much saturated fat is in that and then people stopped buying popcorn wow and then they changed what they use and then it wasn't as good after right because i like the days of uh i call those those are my glory days

the days when people didn't know what saturated fat were it was a great time it's a happier time now we know all the bad stuff it's terrible it's because that was also what led from they changed from using beef tallow and fries to cooking them in vegetable oil like it yeah did a lot of movement towards unsaturated fats which i'm not even sure are like is that even the problem like is this the food science shifted to now saturated fat is maybe okay i don't know didn't we do it we did did we not do a double on when we listened to the didn't we listen to some episode of the malcolm gladwell one yeah we did right did we talk about it i thought we talked about it wait we did we did an episode of this podcast where we listened to another podcast and said what we thought oh That's the latest shit I've ever heard.

We've been bad for a while. Malcolm Gladwell was like that. He went and had the beef tallow fries and but he kind of annoyed me in that podcast too because he was like it's perfection and like it can't even touch it. I think McDonald's fries are still fucking really good. Gladwell

can be annoying. Yeah, but the beef tallow fries that is that is that that is sad that you can't experience that anymore unless i guess you go to like a mcdonald's test kitchen or i don't know where you can get it right or you go to some like you can't get the mcdonald's version but you can get other there are places that fry their their fries in in animal fats yeah you can encounter that um are you so let's talk about because while we're in this kind of this trashy food area payment uh you are someone like as you mentioned that has a history of some indulgences involving fast food yeah should we run run through it what would you say or like what was your your low point what was like the the worst you ever got the worst I ever got was Well I was So when I

First so I used to be the Type of person I could eat anything My body wouldn't change I mean you're still a very slim man But this takes a lot of work I have to have a lot of really boring meals through the week But I have a lot of like fun meals But anyway and I have to work out

Because it just what happened is I started smoking pot right when I was 20 And I broke the seal something happened like fun meals uh but anyway and i have to work out because it just what happened is i started smoking pot right when i was 20 and i broke the seal something happened and then all of a sudden it was like i couldn't eat what i wanted um the first night i got high i literally ate an entire bag of doritos and thought i had just started the bag when i finished it yeah that's weird yeah i was also high when I did that. It was, I literally thought I just shot it. Like the $2.69, like the big boy.

The big one. The one you bring to like a party. Right. For like a lot of people. But it was, so, and that when I first got, would get stoned, I would, there was a jack in the box really close by. Hell yeah. And I would go there.

This is two in the morning.'ve had dinner right and i would get um yeah you don't have to explain to doughboys listeners the concept of getting an extra meal i would get a sourdough jack combo yeah and and then i would get their buttermilk ranch sauce and their taco hot sauce oh yeah i put both of those in the sandwich then what that would do is drip a very buffalo chicken wings kind of sauce on the wrapper that i would dip the curly fries in and i'd also have two tacos and plus the big drink that was the thing i would do a lot another thing i started that is so close to my standard yeah jack in the box two tacos plus a sandwich plus curly fries the other thing i started doing was having uh a thing that i would just call ultimate meal where i would create a combo by going to different places oh yeah so i would go

i don't know if carl jr has this anymore but my favorite sandwich they ever had was um i like the double western but they had this other one called the Bacon Ranch Swiss. And it was a chicken sandwich. Oh, yeah. I've had it before. Yeah, it was like fried chicken. Oh, the chicken sandwich. Okay. Yeah, it was like, it was ranch, Swiss, bacon, lettuce, tomato.

It was so good. I would get that. Then I'd go to Jack in the Box to get their curly fries and two tacos. Then I'd go to Taco Bell to get their Pepsi. There was a Taco Bell in Sunnyvale that just had the formula of Pepsi down. Sometimes I would just get a Pepsi there. And then usually I would get like Nacho Supreme when I was at, I mean, I'm not going to not get a thing at Taco Bell.

Right. Taco Bell was like my main thing as a kid. And I would just eat like an animal, even if I was at home. It was another one I told you about is I made, I used to make a tombstone pizza and then I would make pizza rolls and put them on top of the pizza that's good yeah and then eat all of that and like a whole two liter of pepsi in one night like it was it was and this is after three meals right like I was fine I should be asleep and I just went crazy I would eat that stuff like and yeah it's bad the two liter days are very

funny to me because I because we were a two liter family. And then I think like pretty. And then like we went over to cans like. Yeah. Yeah. We got a fridge in our basement. That's what happened. My mom got like a fridge from someone who died in the family or something like that.

What? Why'd you have to make that so grim? I mean, it's just the truth. It is. That is how we got it. People die. Face it. They didn't die in the fucking fridge.

It was a clean fridge, Nick, is what I'm trying to say. And we had a fridge in our basement. Oh, man, that was like I remember the scare days of there were the old style fridge that would lock. The ice boxes? Yeah, the ice boxes that a kid could get trapped inside and suffocate, which I don't know if that ever actually happened or if that was just a fear. When I was little, we used to play this game called The Game in the Dark, which sounds...

I know that you're trying to make this seem sexual or something, you piece of shit. Why'd you think I would just... Because you were smirking. You had a Mr. Grinch smirk on your face. No, exactly where my mind was. And we used to turn off the lights, and then it was like hide-and-go-seek in the dark.

And I used to get in... I mean, this also shows the size of me, but I used to get in the dryer. I used to get in the lights, and then it was like hide and go seek in the dark. And I used to get in. I mean, this also shows the size of me. But I used to get in the dryer. Like, I used to get in the dryer. Uh-huh. And I remember my friend turned on the dryer when I was in there, and I flipped around. Oh, my God. And I was like, oh, yeah, I guess that is what the kids can get trapped in stuff like that.

That's crazy. Yeah. Did you burn? No, I didn't burn, no. Oh, jeez. Did you just wear extra fluffy? No, I didn't burn, no. Oh, jeez. Did you just wear extra fluffy? No, I didn't come out like a big fuzz ball. I was also a thin child at this point.

Oh, right. I mean, I fit in a dryer, Nick. I fit inside of it. I couldn't even fit my leg inside a dryer now. Yeah, I wonder if I could... Because it's one of those things where there's more space inside there than you think. You're trying to think if you could get inside a dryer? I'm trying to think if I could fit inside a dryer.

Oh, God. I know we could stuff YouSong in there. That would seem like we were hazing our employee. We can't do that. We'll make it a double. God, this is worse than the Malcolm Gladwell one. Put their producer in a dryer and do YouSong. We'll test different dryer

sheets. But we turn into a can family. Yeah, turn into a can family pretty early on, like I would say, like by the time I was in middle school, we were like I think we started to become a can family,

but the two liter soda days are just funny to me because now if there is ever two liter soda days are just funny to me because now, if there is ever two liter soda, I'm like, doesn't it go flat? Like within a day, like, like it's fast.

Yeah, you really have. It's for parties and there's still it, right? It is for parties, but then you go to the grocery store and it's still a huge. It's is it is also just a cost saving thing. Are they cheaper?

I think it's more economical to do the two liter. It's crazy how on display they are, though. Two liters still in the game big time. But that used to be the thing for people who are younger. Like, right? I mean, that was what it was. People didn't really have cans at their house.

Well, it was exciting, too, because you could get, like, a glass of soda. Like, for me, I always just like, oh, you'd have some ice, and you pour a two liter onto the ice, and you like a cold ice cold soda like in a restaurant i i felt that was that was exciting to me when i went to a two liter family's like friend's house yeah um a payment what was your soda situation growing up i was pepsi growing up all pepsi you're a pepsi family yeah wow i still am i'm like if i mean a pepsi man i still prefer pepsi but i mean they're not that different but but but if of all of them i would i would take i would take a mexican coke over uh oh yeah any day but all right but pepsi yeah if there is a pepsi and a coke i'm when i go to a restaurant that has pepsi i'm like excited i'm like i can't believe they have pepsi i get really pumped are you one because i knew a fucking

your unabomber family of course you're fucking pepsi drinkers it's insane i knew a i knew a way you were pepsi i was a bad we were growing up oh yeah coke okay gotcha i mean we would get pepsi occasionally like uh when pepsi felt like when it was like gen xe and pepsi felt cool i'm sure that we had we got pepsi for a while but we were we were mostly a coke family do you remember there was a pepsi thing for a time when time when they had these commercials with old people, and I don't know how to describe this hand gesture, but they'd wave their hand in a circle. It was like Pepsi's, the cool new choice,

and they'd take their hand from kind of pointed down and outward and then make kind of like a clockwise circle and then land in the same position. No, I don't remember that at all he was he was doing it by the way and now emma is you emma emma is doing it too i don't know i remember i remember just just old fucks in this commercial like doing that and i was like this is i thought it was so funny and awesome and then i like practiced doing it while i was like drinking pepsi like 100 we had footage of you practicing that. That's so amazing.

No, this is like a year's worth of practice to get this muscle memory down. Do this simple gesture. That's how uncoordinated I am. That's insane. And also like you thought that the old people doing a hand gesture was cool. Well, because they were like wearing beach wear

and like holding surfboards and being like, surf's up, we're drinking Pepsi. Like that was like the whole thing. And it's like, oh, that's cool. It makes old i don't but i don't get how the hand gesture is cool i don't remember the hand gesture had some significance it was like the it was called like the cool wave or something like that but i wish i could bring wave because that's a coke thing go back in time or bring little me to beat up little you and you know what if little me failed i'd just do it for a. Keep the shit out a little while.

Disney's the kid. That's the thing. Bruce Willis meets his shitty kid version, and I think teaches him to beat up the other kid. It's got a weird layer to it. Weird, violent angle. So were you an avid soda drinker? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was your consumption?

Was this a can or two liter situation in the home? Well, it was two liter at first, and then we just started getting six packs of Pepsi. Oh, yeah. Right. And then I was drinking them at such a clip that my dad would hide them. Oh, wow. But I knew where he'd hide them. We didn't have a big house, so I just knew where to look.

Yeah. It was like if there was a, you know, behind the curtains there was just like pepsi cans i would just go get them uh but i would like nor i would come home from school and i would have one after school and then maybe a second one and then one for dinner i mean i was having a lot of pepsi as a kid man god that after school soda is the fucking best that was the best one go home have that with some like sour cream and onion pringles like that was my life for me for me i was just taking bites off of a block of like cheddar cheese jesus oh god yeah my parents were like find the cheese like a big block of sharp cheddar uh with like a bite mark in it so like was there a cartoon mouse in our house

that's fucking awful yeah it was disgusting yeah and i mentioned the other snack i would have after school snack i'd have a lot was um uh croutons just dipped in blue cheese oh i remember hearing that in the podcast i still haven't gotten over it that's like rough yeah it was disgusting yeah it's not a gross one but that's so like because you were a gross child i was gross but get like i because there was a time that was like my first soda of the day because you would have like milk at school like that would that at least was my beverage i'd get at school and so like mother's milk i was taking my mom's breast milk in a to-go container sure you're not

she'd come i figured she'd come to school. She was working. And so I'm not going to nurse as an eight-year-old kid of my mom, like a fucking Game of Thrones character. Yeah, but I didn't really ever have soda at school until middle school,

maybe. Even then, I'm not sure. There was a time when i was like i had cactus cooler i remember i switched from like juice to like cactus cooler which is a soda i think a somewhat regional soda that i had for a while like an orange pineapple soda uh but i don't know were you guys having sodas with your school lunches i remember the fruitopia machine came when i was in middle school which is probably worse than the soda and i had those for a little bit. But like I feel like if you bought lunch,

they'd like give you like a little drink that came with the lunch or whatever. Yeah, that was always chocolate milk for me. I ended up with chocolate milk, sometimes the vitamin D milk, but which was just what they called the whole milk, the 4%. I would just take. What are you saying? Vitamin D stands for vitamin. No, I wasn't. I wasn't. the whole milk, the 4%. I would just take... What are you saying?

You're going to say what the D stands for? No, I wasn't. I really wasn't. You were thinking it. I would take lunch. My mom would make a sandwich and I'd go to school. It used to be like Squeeze-Its and Capri Suns. And then around sixth grade,

it just changed to a can of Pepsi. And I was like the talk of the school. that's delightful man it was like that yeah it was it was fun it was the coolest i've ever been in my entire life how did you keep that bad boy cold throughout the first part part of the school day i didn't you didn't i didn't oh but oh that's what i would do in the morning so it'd be in the fridge and then in the morning when i'd wake up i put it in the freezer oh that's a good plan for 20 minutes right and then just to give it a little something and it usually would wear off but like if it was like not you know if it was like around december january it would hold it would hold a little bit um i would we'd do the wrap and foil thing which i found worked with some success but it didn't keep it completely i never i never really would get they wouldn't they wouldn't

give sodas to me, but they would... If it was like a field trip or something, if it was like a trip, they'd sometimes give me... Here's like a little treat, and you get a soda, but I don't think they would ever give me soda. Is they being your parents? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, but then I came home, and I would just go wild.

I would drink six sodas in a day. Oh, bless you. Oh, my God. Maybe I sneezed that thing out of my tooth. No? No, it's a day. Oh, bless you. Oh, my God. Maybe I sneezed that thing out of my tooth. No? No, it's still there. Oh, shit. Wait, there's a second one now.

So outside of school lunches, home soda consumption, you touched on some of the chains that you would indulge on as a weed enthusiast. But what was your chain restaurant uh habits like growing up it was i mean i i loved mcdonald's i loved uh taco bell was always my favorite yeah i was just obsessed with it and my grandpa would always take me to taco bell my family would sometimes go to like a nice persian restaurant and he knew i didn't want it because we i had enough of it at home. I was like, I don't want this crap. Now I'm like,

what are you doing? He would take me to Taco Bell and then I would get food and then go to the Persian restaurant. And like a brat, I would eat Taco Bell, like on their silverware, like on their plates and stuff. And I'm eating it before they're ordering like a shithead.

And now it smells like Taco Bell. And then like like i'm done eating because you eat it so fast and then they just order and then i'm like what the why are we here at this restaurant like why i was such a brat but it was taco bell was oh always my favorite it's still my favorite i you know there's one i just discovered one really close to me and i don't remember what delivery service one of them had these commercials where they're like we'll deliver free oh yeah and i took such advantage of that last month where i think i was like three nights in a row at one point and wow and it's so close one night was great i was

uh i was stoned and there's a common theme here and and i ordered it and i swear to god it was at my apartment eight minutes after i ordered it that's crazy because i because like i was like i'm gonna order i'm gonna go on the balcony have a little smoke so it tastes better and i eat more and then uh and then all of a sudden i get a thing like the dude's here and i was like what the hell and i'm like i'm not even okay and then i like opened the door and i and it was hot the bag was really hot and i was like dude this is like really warm and the guy goes yeah man i tried to get here as soon as i could like he understood it was like 11 o'clock yeah he knew what was happening he was being supportive and he got me like way more sauces than i asked for and like the shells were still crispy like it's great

so taco bell's might that was always the one one. But the Bay Area was just kind of basic chains. Right. I'm seeing a West Coast Pepsi theme with the... Maybe Pepsi took over the West Coast. Wait, Emma, were you a Coke or a Pepsi family? We weren't allowed to have soda, but when we did, it was Coke. Okay. Interesting.

East Coast checks out. Interesting. You song, who now... I've noticed lately during our records, he just sits in the other room. He wants to be pretty far away from these shenanigans. He just raised his hand. He's upset with you. Yusong, do you have a Coke or Pepsi?

Do you have a dog in this fight? I also wasn't allowed to drink soda, but Coke whenever we could. Have you noticed the two most well-adjusted people in the podcast didn't drink sodas growing up yeah i think i noticed we were eating whatever the hell we wanted um yeah and i want to i want to talk about persian food a little bit in in a second but but what is your taco bell like order what are your what are your favorite menu items i always get at least one or two of the doritos tacos oh yeah um do you go

cool ranch you go a nacho Do you go Nacho Cheese? I kind of go back and forth. I started getting the Fiery because that seems to be the one that the shell is the hardest. You have the best chance of the shell not breaking. Oh, interesting. Because there's just something firmer about it. I don't know why.

I love the Fiery. I have not noticed that, but I'll look for it now. Yeah. In fact, in fall of 2010, they were testing it at the Taco Bell in Sherman Oaks on Ventura before it was out. Before it was out.

Right. And I went there one night when I was editing and I was stoned. Oh man, I'm coming off like, I just do it at night to decompress. I fully support you. Thank God. I'm just saying, I'm not,

everything I'm saying, it's not like I do it like all the, anyways, whatever. I'm, I'm, I, I have my life together,

but, uh, I, I was eyes are bloodshot right now. And I, uh, I go there and I'm ordering and there's just like this one thing they've like taped up. It's like Doritos shell talk.

And I'm like, what the fuck is that because that's like and then i was like how high am i because that's exactly what i want yeah i want a taco bell taco made of a drink i just i literally thought i was that high and i wasn't that hot thought you were hallucinating a perfect taco bell menu yeah i was so i go i'll never forget this i was like the guy's like you ready and, hey, man, what is this Doritos taco? And as quick as I finished the sentence, the guy goes, it's bomb, like really fast. And I was like, understood.

So I got has never been more right. Yeah. So I ordered them. I ordered my order plus a few of those just in case they weren't good, but they were great. And then every day, every night on my way home from work from work from editing i would get one because i didn't know if it would ever go national right and and then it did and i didn't have to have like 30 of them in a month uh so i usually get one or two of those i get a crunch wrap i always get a not some kind of nacho whether it's a supreme or regular i always like to get a the burrito i used to like the

grilled stuff the new one i'm not a fan of um my issue here is that you haven't said a cheesy or gordita crunch oh i was getting there i'm a big fan of that uh lately i've been getting back into the double decker taco but then i have them with the cool ranch shell in there okay oh that's a power move it's fun oh so you know you you go all over the you know it's funny because we we did munch madness recently taco bell one i was very much hands down i mean yeah right i mean the of all the competition i feel like this was just the one that taco bell kind of ran away with it no it was it was preordained from the beginning it was a fait accompli what the hell does that mean i think partly because i didn't rig this damn competition i don't think you rigged it

i think taco bell earned its spot as to be engraved at the on the the dave thomas cup at some future date i think taco bell won it fair and square however i think you could pretty easily predict this outcome like i think that this would have been one of those ones where that the odds would have been like three to two or whatever you would have not gotten faith and everything else would have been a comparable long shot. I knew it was going to win, but I was very happy that Paquito got as far as it did, just because it's not like –

Paquito's great. It's not so known. I love it. It's like my – of all the L.A. chains, that's my favorite one. I became – I got more into Taco Bell later on, like when I got to kind of like high school and then college was when I got more into it. But there's still stuff over there. You're talking about them like they're Pink Floyd.

Dude, it's a good restaurant. And people always are like, you get sick. I've never gotten sick. I've only had good experience. Oh, yeah. We used to say that that was a thing that the hacky joke of like, good luck with the diarrhea. We were like, that's hacky and fake it's like yeah my honest take on that is that i think a lot of the people

who are like taco bell gives you diarrhea are people with very bad diets who it's the only time they get dietary fiber and so they're having like they're having beans and they're having that sort of reaction because most of the time what what everything else they're eating is so starchy and so carb heavy um that nothing's getting through that was like a that's like a leno staple for like two decades oh yeah like uh that's my impression that's about it that's all i'll give you that's true jay i'm happy wagger got to do his kevin new yeah kevin eubanks reacting i get to see it in person what am i you know that he plays he used to play at the baked potato up in uh right near where the birthday boys old house was Eubanks reacting. I got to see it in person. What am I? You know that he plays, he used to play at the Baked Potato up in,

right near where the Birthday Boys old house was. Eubanks rules. And you know what else? We should go see Eubanks at the Baked Potato. I'd love to go see Eubanks. You never would do this, but.

He's an amazing magician. I said magician. He is a magician on the strings. He's an amazing musician. But, and also. Kevin's Country is a great song. Yes,

that's the the one at the end of a of a tonight show episode i'll do it i'll sing it for everyone yeah it's so great like you you watch all the tonight show and that hits and it's just kind of melancholy and you're just sort of likeancholy, and you're just sort of living in it, and you're like, oh, man, that's so cool. And then Conan comes in. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. With Andy Richter and the Max Weinberg 7.

Is that Joel? That's what Joel used to do. Yeah, man, Joel had a great voice. Joel was great, and he was such a funny guy that they used in, like, he would be He would be shirtless. And they did very weird things with Joel. Let's watch some old Conan bits right now. Yeah, sure.

I'm on board. That sounds great. We're back. We just watched a bunch of old Conan bits. It was great. Much funnier than this show. Stop telling people that. You guys make a good show.

I'm telling you. This is good. I'm starting to question your taste. This is better than most TV shows. You brought Jack a good show. I'm telling you, this is good. I'm starting to question your taste. This is better than most TV shows. You brought Jack in the Box. When I first moved to LA, Nick, do you know that the two biggest, actually the three biggest fast food chains for me were Jack in the Box, Subway, and 7-Eleven.

What would you get at 7-Eleven? I guess you can get anything there. But I would like that was just, you know know what we would do is I didn't know anyone in LA. So I had this roommate that I met like I had three roommates that I met on. I just got in there with Craig list and one was like my close to my age and we would go and we would walk over like at night when we would just drink beers in the house and then we would go over to 7-11.

We get not we get the nachos at 7-11 and then we will go over to Jack in the box and we it was like a on the same and then we would go over to 7-Eleven and we get the nachos at 7-Eleven and then we would go over to Jack in the Box and we it was like on the same block and we would just walk up to we were those people who walked up to the drive-thru window. Oh wow. Which is fucking pathetic. I'm surprised they'd serve you because a lot of places don't for liability reasons. Well, this is back in the day to maybe

I mean this is 2005 or six or right? Yeah, pre 9-11 pre not it is pre YouTube so no one thought they were up to anything bad. Yeah, they This is 2005 or 2006 or whatever. Pre-9-11. Pre-9-11. Pre-YouTube crackers, so no one thought they were up to anything bad. Yeah. Back then, you knew that we weren't the impractical jokers. Yeah.

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I want to talk about it in just one second, but first we touched on Persian food. I wanted to get your POV on this because it's a cuisine that I have enjoyed when I've had it, and there's a lot of great options here in LA. What are your Persian food go-tos in terms of dishes? I know you had different feelings about it growing up, but how do you feel about it now?

Now I'm okay with it because it's been a while. I mean, I generally just get kebab and rice every time I go. Oh, yeah. I can't go wrong there. Koubideh is the ground meat, so you can get beef or chicken koubideh. Beef koubideh is kind of the main thing. I've had that before. Yeah, that one's outstanding.

It's always so good every time I have it, but I never order. I mean, also the great thing about kebabs and stuff is that it seems healthy. It's just the protein on a stick and some rice or whatever. And so that feels like a little worse. But then every time I eat it, I fucking love it. Like even from Zankou. Because Zankou, doesn't Zankou do? They do.

Yeah. No, they do one. Yeah. Or Zankou? Zankou. Zankou, yeah. Zankou do? They do. Yeah. No, they do one. Yeah. Yeah. Zankou? Zankou. Zankou, yeah. How did I say it wrong? You got in your head about it.

I got in my head about it. Yeah, it's okay. But Zankou, that's not Persian. No, I think it's Lebanese. Lebanese. Yeah. Okay. And a wild history of murder.

Yes. Really? I really is. We've never really talked about it on the podcast too much, but there is a crazy story behind it. Yeah, that LA Times story is crazy. We should read that LA Times story as a double. We'll just read it aloud. Yeah, all right, good.

I thought you were telling people to read it. I was like, no, we need that. We need that content, you fool. That's our content. We'll paywall it. So I would get the kebab. There's a couple different types you can get. And then there's the other two very famous dishes are,

they're called gheme and gorma sabzi, and they're just stews that you put over rice. Okay. And they're like vegetable-based. Gheme is like an orange one that's got, it's like lentils and stuff and eggplant. And then the other one is like, gorma sabzi is like green and it's just full of herbs.

And there's a meat in both of them. It's usually like a very tender like beef that just falls apart. And then the other thing people get is, it's called tadig, which is just like the crispy rice at the bottom of the pan. That is like, as a kid, you fight over that

because there's just a little bit of it. Right. And you put the stew like over that stuff. Those are really the main things I get. It just sucks to think of how I would never get that. I would get my ass kicked. I never get that rice. Well, the good thing you go to a restaurant and just order it.

It's great. Right. Um, uh, and then, you know, with the kebab, you get this thing called, uh, the Shirazi salad, which is like cucumber, tomato, uh, and, and, um, onions. And it's like in this like, I mean, it's just like makes everybody better. Those are the main things you'll see. There's a few other ones. The majority of really authentic Persian dishes

take so long to make and are so labor-intensive and expensive that you will never find them in a restaurant. You'll only get them if you know someone that's from that region. So that's why when you go to the restaurants, everybody kind of has the same three things. Cause somebody gave me a Persian cookbook and I'm like looking through it.

I'm like, I don't know what any of this stuff is. And I talked to my mom and then she was explaining that I did some more research and it was like, yeah, most of the food you'll just never seen a restaurant. It just makes no sense. But that's the,

just get the kebab. It's good. It's just like simple. Like it works. It's great. I go wrong there. This all reminded me, this is, this is there. This is a U-turn here, but one of my first favorite computer games,

Prince of Persia. Nick, did you ever play Prince of Persia? Yeah, I played Prince of Persia. Yeah, it was a great game. I played the... Because the 2D one is the one with the really intricate animation. Yeah. The timing is a little tougher than

a lot of games because it's not as a lot of platformers because you have to anticipate the animation a little bit. Yeah, with all this great food, I'm surprised he's not thicker, the Prince of Persia. He's thicker, all right. Check out Jake Gyllenhaal. That dude is jacked. Oh, yeah. Gyllenhaal played the Prince. They made a Prince of Persia movie.

I didn't watch the movie and I didn't play the game as a protest as a kid. I'm not interested. I'm an American. I don't care about this. Wow. Kids would call me that and was like, I don't even know the reference. Oh, it doesn't hurt. Oh, for real?

It doesn't hurt. They would call me that, and Balki was the other one. Because he was the only like- Is Balki Persian? No, he's just like an immigrant, and I was an immigrant. So they were like, you're like that. Right. But Balki was hilarious, one. Balki. Because he was the only like. Is Balki Persian? No, he's just like an immigrant. And I was an immigrant. So they were like, you're like that. Right. But Balki was hilarious.

So I was on board. That's lazy bullying. I don't like that. Lazy bullying. Get more specific. The bullies were not. Like none of them were funny. So I never like heard.

I was just like, I'm funnier than you. You guys suck. Like whatever, dude. Balki's dope. Like Balki's so good. Balki is dope. Oh man, that guy is such a good actor. Yeah.

Bronson Pinchot. Yeah, but he's really good. He's a huge asshole. He's a huge monster.y's so good. Valky is dope. Oh, man, that guy is such a good actor. Yeah. Bronson Pinchot? Yeah, but he's really good. He's a huge asshole. He's a huge monster. He's an asshole. I heard he's a prick and he's super eccentric. What a sack of shit. Very good on camera.

Wait, did he do something monstrous? Or just like, like he didn't do something like criminal, right? No, I think he's just a dick. He's just a dick. No, he's just a dick. Okay, I just want to be clear about what kind of monster we're dealing with. Because there's two different tiers. He gets his ass chomped in Langoliers.

He sure does. Yeah. You know, I remember there was this kid, Cote, who became my friend, Sean Cote. And I remember we got into talking about bullies, how they're not funny. I was like, can you just... You're like an asshole like stop being an asshole and he's like well and like we're gonna fight yeah and he was like well you made me stop being an asshole and i was like can't you just stop and uh it made him laugh

and it made him laughing at like because he wanted to fight me at school it distracted like he laughed and like gave me just enough time that a teacher came by and broke up the fight so I didn't have to get my ass. That's amazing. Yeah, he laughed at how pathetic I was and then you guys were cool after that. We became friends. Yeah, we became we became we became friends. He's like Bane. He's huge. I

think he took. I shouldn't say that. We'll bleep that out. Okay, he took we'll bleep that out to go. What did... We'll bleep that out, too. But if you bleep out... What did he take? I don't know. That's funny. It should be a mystery.

He took the Bane serum. Yeah. Hey, from Cote, on to Poke. Oh. Sweet Vin Poke. Oh, man. This week's chain.

That was going to kick my ass again. Hang out with that loser. So, Poke, if you don't know what it is, speaking very, very generally here, it's a Hawaiian dish of raw fish and various mix-ins. The authentic version is very different from what Sweet Fin Poke offers and what chains in general offer. It's an Americanized version. Poke literally translates to cut crosswise into pieces.

So it's describing a preparation method um not ingredients um the original location of this chain is in santa monica my my home my well not my hometown my adopted hometown and it's created by top chef contestant dakota weiss um payment you are well well mitch you you've never had poke which will never had a second but payment what is your poke fandom uh this chain beyond this chain like how do you feel about this dish i just i because i sushi is like generally my favorite food so i right raw i just feel really good when i eat raw fish uh and uh like good like good in terms of like uh just how you feel afterwards physically yeah just like i just i feel great when i when i have it and i

you know i started having poke here and there and then then like, um, about four years ago, I took a trip to Kauai where poke is just everywhere. Like when you go to the delis, like instead of like meats, there's just like different types of fish that are seasoned different ways. Wow. And I got way into it and you know, there you can get rice, but generally people just get the fish. Right. Um, and there's no mix-ins like we do here

um and i got way into it and then basically right when i came back is when like that this like poke boom happened yes in la and i'm sure the rest of the country and so there's a lot of them and a lot of i think the bubble burst because there was a lot of them you would see ones open up and you're like in two months that's gone's gone. Oh, yeah. They're going away. It's just a specific thing to have a big... For it to be a craze, it's just such a specific thing. Yeah, you have to think a lot of these chains aren't going to have staying power. Like burger craze, I get it. Everyone in the United States is going to want to eat burgers.

Yes, who doesn't love burgers? There's a lot of room for that, but poke is just very specific. Yeah. The pink berry rip ripoffs that were around for a while just kind of like oh these are red mangoes not going to be around anymore and look it isn't yeah no fucking red i mean we could have told them that day you could have just walked in and be like dude just get out of your lease right now this is bad it's so bad uh but yeah and sweet fin is is yeah they're just solid so's, yeah, there's quite a few out here. Right.

Is this a meal you have with any, you have frequently? I mean, I generally, probably every couple of weeks at least. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, it's just, if I want something kind of feeling light and only lunch, I don't recall ever getting it for dinner. Yeah, it's a weird dinner for some reason. It feels like a lunch. Right.

But I get it for dinner. Yeah, it's a weird dinner for some reason. Yeah, it just feels like a lunch. Right. But I get it pretty regularly. And Mitch, this was your maiden voyage to Poke Town. This is the first. I got the menu open, so now I see what I got on it. I've never had it before. That's amazing, because you didn't even tell us until the end of the meal. I know.

It's so exciting. I know. I've had sashimi, which is like close to I mean like that's the closest thing I've had to to pokey I guess yeah although that's not like this this is I'm trying to think I really don't think I've even like had a bite of it or something I don't I can't think of a time I've done it I'd say poke is maybe closer to ceviche kind of like because it's treated with a little bit of a, generally a citrusy sauce. Yeah.

I've had all the components to it, so it's not like it was a crazy thing that I've never had. But it was new. It was a new experience. Yeah. That's awesome. I have not had Sweet Vin's version of poke. And which I should, I could, the location, I didn't realize it was the original. The one in Santa Monica on Broadway, right by Bay bay city's deli that's so close to me

i could have gone anytime i never went you you fucked up what do you want me to say but i'll say this i'll say this i may have fucked up in terms of what my job is in terms of being aware of chain restaurants but in terms of my own personal consumption for whatever reason i like like like ceviches and and poke is like like uh i i those kind of those kind of raw fish dishes are things i don't get outside of sushi which i can have whenever uh that sort of stuff is like a special occasion it's like an occasional thing for me it's not something i will have with any frequency. I don't know. It's just a lot to take.

I will say this. I told you this at the restaurant. Yeah. Before we get into actually what we got and what we thought of it, is that the idea of Pokey, it's just a lot of raw fish. And even like sushi or whatever, well, if I go to Sugarfish or whatever, which I love Sugarfish. We talked about it on the podcast before. Yeah, Sugarfish is great. Sugarfishfish is great i like to do it but like

i only like to do sushi every so often like you're saying right and then i think poke like poke bowls are like another level of like here's just a lot of raw fish in a bowl did you say poke balls poke balls gotta catch them all i was upset that when i that there was nothing inside my poke ball yeah um where's my squirtle um yeah no i i i think it's a it's a lot there's two things yes there's two things with me one raw fish like when i eat that it's one of those things that that is a full meal but then it doesn't register as a full meal in my head right like i'm always like i want something i like even if i eat like kebabs like chicken and rice or whatever like that feels like a meal to me right

we're rough like raw fish and it just is like maybe it's the texture of it or something like that but one it doesn't feel like a real full meal to me even Even though I'm stuffed and everything, I don't need anything else. I'm just saying in my brain. That's how I think of it. And then two, the idea of eating a lot of raw fish like that is it gets to me. I don't know. It's in my head. It's not

a bad thing necessarily. Yeah, totally. I'll get that sometimes about like I can only have so many oysters. I know people will get like 30 oysters and they'll just shoot them all and I'm just like, man, yeah i i feel i'll get that sometimes about like like i can only have so many oysters yeah i know people will get like 30 oysters and they'll just shoot them all and i'm just like man i i can't do that yeah that's just excessive oysters i'll have them but every time i'm like it's gonna i'm this is gonna kill me yeah something about oysters that scare the crap out of me i don't know why

i can have like four and then i'm just i gotta be like all right that's that's as as much as i can handle yeah yeah i can do i can even do six of them but then also i'm like going to be like, all right, that's as much as I can handle. Yeah. I can even do six of them. But then also, I'm like, it's like I didn't eat anything. You know what I mean? I mean, those specifically. But I mean, you got a rice bowl. This is obviously like it's substantial. But another thing about this place, though, I drove by it twice.

I thought it was down the street. I thought it was across the street from the Fah Cafe. Do you know what that is? Yeah. Great. That place is great. That place is amazing. But I think there's another pokey place there, just even across the street from the Fah Cafe. Do you know what that is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. That place is great. That place is amazing. But I think there's another pokey place there, just even down the street. Possibly.

Yeah, no, there is. Yeah. And so I thought that's where it was. I drove by and then drove by it again. It's in a bad location. It's bad. That location is bad. And luckily, it has parking.

The parking is also bad. But that place needs parking so badly. and they have it luckily uh but i drove by twice it's in a kind of a business section of sunset boulevard yeah the uh the the one in uh the one in santa monica you could get to pretty easily by public transit but i think the parking situation is probably also not great over there uh i will say that it makes me want to go just for how easy it is to get to. Do you watch? Is it Thomas?

What's the train? Yeah, Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas the Tank Engine? He's not a train. He's a tank engine. Okay, do you watch Thomas the Tank Engine? I mean, he corrected you. I think he does. Listen to it.

Yeah. I'm familiar with it. You're familiar with it. Okay. Not my favorite. You should write that movie. Hey, man. Anything that'll get me money at this point.

You don't want to do the damn Doughboy show. Admit it to the listeners. I don't want to do a Doughboy's TV show. Why? What am I going to do? You guys have to do a Doughboy TV show. They're selling shows left and right, you fool. You think we could easily sell a Doughboy?

We did sell one. 100% you guys could sell this show. We did sell it and it didn't go anywhere. We should go back in there. No, I don't want to get it. I'm done. I'm done. You know, Seinfeld was originally pitched five different... I made that up. But you guys just... I don't even know where I was going. I bail on bits before I finish up.

But, uh... No, it'd be a great show. I've always... I've told you that. I think it'd be great. We need this show. We got, you know, much like Seinf seinfeld we got our we got mitch's our own michael richards dear god no that was too that that would you of course not a fair association to make with you uh i don't like i'm not comfortable i'm not an actor i feel like i look like shit on camera i don't know you're right you're right okay well there we go you're not helping the i look like shit on camera what the hell is your problem look great people love you just do the

damn show what what like it's a thing that i like i'm think i'm turning down it's a thing that doesn't exist i'll sell the show in a second I'll go in there like a carnival barker. Yeah. Step right up. Check out the Doughboy. I don't know how pitches work, obviously. I've never... Is that your carnival barker?

Sounds like a Peter Griffin cutaway. That reminds me of the time i ran a guess your weight four pounds i don't know what the punch line for that joke is but that would work it would be he'd be like he'd be he's very dumb he'd be super bad at it yeah yeah that works but anyways i we i would we could we only pitched it once to netflix yeah i know and they we got we got over this and we sold pitched it once to netflix yeah i know and they we got we got over this and we sold it to them and they stabbed us in the back you should everyone should can't do you think we can get a thing where we can get everyone to cancel netflix

hashtag cancel netflix everybody cancel your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend's netflix account that you use forget your parents log in yeah just yeah i'm gonna say again i really mean it it would be a hit the show would be i'm not even kidding this i like it's crazy to me that it's not a show thank you for saying that uh nick doesn't want to pitch it ever again i don't know like i don't even know where we begin we're gonna start from scratch what do you mean where you begin you go into a place and you pitch it we could go back to netflix you'd spill a coffee again did you spill the coffee in the bench yeah yes i started the that the perfect on brand right in there.

He's I don't even know that bursley. I just know from listening. I don't know the executive came out to us and he had fucking coffee towel hands like he like used a paper towel to clean up and he had these fucking paper gross paper towels in his hand. Yeah and then you ran to the bathroom. I remember. No, I don't think I did yet.

You did it. No, I just powered through it. Oh Jesus, if I'm that exact, I'm buying it I did. Yeah, you did it. No, I just powered through it. Oh, Jesus. If I'm that exact, I'm buying it in the room. These guys are good. So we, uh, we changed the subject. Doesn't want to talk about it.

We've gone over. We've gone over this in private. Okay. I mean, we can type out the treatment after this. If you guys want, I can get some references. Nick is sweating bullets right now.

I'm doing fine. Um, his nose is bleeding. What's happening? So we went to the, you mentioned the Silver Lake location has some parking issues. So I got the, I'd never been here before. Should we say also there was another guest. Yes.

Our good friend, Evan Susser, who's texting me back what his order was, joined us there. And he seemed even more frustrated by the parking situation. He was later than I, we saw him circle a few times. Yeah. I took a picture of him at the stop sign at the stoplight. And I don't know if he, cause he had thrown his hands up to me like,

where the fuck am I supposed to park? And I may have captured that moment. I don't know if I quite got it, but, um, Susser was on the, we were in the ultra Omega dough boys text chain. I didn't have to tell people the names of our text chain with Emma and you song and and me you and and susser yes and we mentioned that we were going to get poke

and uh and susser was like were you guys doing it and we were like we're like uh like uh whatever and nick gave the address he's like i'll be i'll be there well he first said like uh it's kind of far and he's like all right i'll be there yeah he said first he said uh it's kind of far to guilt us yeah i don't know what the fuck the point of it was he's like there's one closer to me you guys could come to and then we then we we give him a free lunch and then uh on the on the way out the door i said hey i'll see you friday because i'm supposed to see him friday and he's like no thursday i'm going to fogo to chow with you oh that's right he's going to another one of our he's going to another one of our feet goes's going to another one of our... He goes to all the fucking restaurants.

No, that's Fogo de Chow. That's a good one to tag along to. I mean, it is. He's smart. He's got a good scam going. He's brilliant. He's shit. So, I got the build your own...

You can either build your own bowl or you can do something prefab. I went with a build your own even though I'm usually a prefab guy. I can't believe it. I got a prefab veggie option, but here's the build your own I got. I got the salmon, creamy togarashi, which is you get one protein and one sauce. I went with the creamy togarashi sauce, which is a spicy mayo.

You get it over your choice of you want it over rice or um i think you can get a noodle am i wrong you can get it over a rice a slaw rather a bamboo salad bamboo rice kelp noodle slaw citrus kale salad forbidden rice yes so i got the citrus kale salad um and then you get five add-ons i got the blistered shishito peppers, which are $1 extra, cilantro, cucumber, market radish, and wasabi peas. And then I also got us the ponzu lime sweet potato to share, which we will touch on in a second. I thought this was quite nice. I mean, Mitch, you've touched on my main complaint, which is that the salmon, and I think this is so contingent on the quality of fish. And I think this particular salmon I got was very fishy.

It was a fishy salmon. I tried a bite of fish. And I think this particular salmon I got was very fishy. It was a fishy salmon. I tried a bite of it. Yeah, you'll sometimes get like, because I love like a, I'll get like a salmon sushi a lot and you get that and it's just like buttery smooth at times if it's a good piece of fish. This was not that.

The spicy mayo, you know, did a little bit to cover it up, but it was overwhelmingly fishy. The citrus kale salad was like a nice, like, you know, vegetable base. And I thought the ingredients were very fresh there. It was like a pretty substantial salad as these things go. And then the shishito peppers were nice.

I thought the add-ins were good. The cucumbers worked really well. The wasabi peas were kind of – I thought they were fine, but maybe that was on me for picking something that maybe was a little – that the horseradish sort of flavor maybe didn't quite sink in with uh with this uh with this particular combo but it was a good bowl um payment what was what did you go with uh i got one of their signature bowls but then i may i added stuff i got some mango albacore so it's got albacore tuna mango ponzu lime sauce macadamia nuts and ginger and then i wanted to add one thing and then he made me feel like i had to add five things it was i felt scared yeah so he was very emphatic about you get up to five you get

five complimentary add-ons you can use them all yeah i don't want it all but i so i got uh edamame cucumber um seaweed salad crispy onions and then wasabi furikake so i wanted a little crisp in there right this is a lot of soft elements in there and then wasabi furikake. So I wanted a little crisp in there. Right. Because there's a lot of soft elements in there. And then I did it over bamboo rice, which is one of the reasons I like Sweet Fin, because they have like, their rice is different. It's not just white or brown.

Yes. They've got the- It's green. It's green. Green or black. It's green. Yeah. The forbidden rice is like, it's like mysterious.

It's supposed to be like antioxidant. It's supposed to be really healthy, the black rice, that stuff. Yeah, and we had the black rice on the, whatchamacallit? The ponzu lime sweet potato. Yeah, ponzu lime sweet potato. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was good.

I liked it a lot. That was the big question to me. And I thought sometimes those black rice can be like a little like crispier. You know what I mean? It can be like not as soft. Sometimes it's like a chunk. It's be like a little like crispier you know what I mean like it can be like not as soft sometimes it's like a chunk it's just like a big sometimes they cook them in like plastic bags and then they just

drop them so they're just kind of in the form that they were in the bag so yeah that's really bizarre I don't know why they do that and I think I'm not sure how they did it here but they had a big they had a big serving of it that they were they were dishing out of it so yeah I think they got some not sure how they did it here, but they had a big serving of it that they were dishing out of it. Yeah, I think they got some rice cookers in the back.

It looks nice. The name Forbidden Rice, I think, is like a little much. Sure. It's forbidden rice. Like, it's like you're breaking a law or something by having it. It's just like a little too... It's a little too sexy? It's a little too sexy.

I will admit, when I took a bite of it there was there was a thunder roll lightning struck nearby um yeah the uh yeah that would be like a joke in kung fu panda like like oh he's a poe is having the forbidden rice uh the uh yeah and we'll touch on this real quick because you you brought it up mitch this is what the forbidden rice was was the base of the ponzu lime sweet potato so they do have some veggie options here this was honestly my favorite thing i had the ponzu lime sauce avocado carrots edamame cucumbers and the serrano peppers and then the the the sort of cubed uh sweet potato takes the place of the fish they would have in the the fishy ones um i thought this was delightful and i thought this was one where i was like eating this i was like oh this feels like something i would get like sweet green

you know it this feels like i could have a whole one of these and this could be my lunch and it would not feel like shit or i'd not feel like i would i ate something that was out of the ordinary for me normally you know what i mean like like like i i really like that quite a bit i thought the the flavors all worked together the edamame was was nice and i thought the avocado was like there was the it was like diced really well. Like it was like the right portion to be picked up with chopsticks. So that worked for me. What did you guys think of that Ponzu Lime Sweet Potato Bowl?

I liked it. I thought it was good. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I don't know if it would be – like if I got a large bowl of that for my main meal, I don't know how I would feel. I think maybe I would need to add some components to it to make it feel a little bit different. be like if i got a large bowl of that for my main meal i don't know how i would feel i think maybe i would need to add some components to it to make it feel a little bit different like a like maybe some crunch like you were saying yeah which i think is a big part of i haven't said what i got

yet but i think a big part of it is like adding some texture to it because it can be right just rice and raw fish is just kind of like it's kind of soft soft and almost mushy yeah yeah yeah so so i think that bowl had that but the the taste of it was really nice i i i i think i like i was surprised by how much i liked it yeah same here i thought it was really good but i do feel like if i had a whole thing of it maybe like five six bites in i'd be like oh man i wish I got something in addition to it. But it did surprise me. Yeah. That sweet potato was really good.

I'm surprised. You should just... I mean, I guess you probably can, but putting fish in that bowl would be pretty nice. Right. Yeah. I guess that's just then two proteins because it's a sweet potato or whatever. I mean, sweet potato is not a protein, but that's in place of the protein. It would be maybe it would just be too heavy at that.

I got you. Yeah. Should I say what I got? Please. I got myself. I was between the creamy togarashi. I went with the what are they called? The pre-made bowl like the help me out here.

What are the prefab? What are the signature signature? Yeah, yeah. Signature bowls. I was between the creamy togarashi and the sriracha ponzu. pre-made bowl like the the help me out here what are the prefab ones signature signature yeah yeah signature bowls uh i was between the creamy togarashi and the uh sriracha ponzu and i want sriracha ponzu because he just he just told me that oh wait i'm sorry the sriracha tuna and the spicy so the spicy tuna had the creamy togarashi on it and then the sriracha tuna was like basically the same thing except there were sriracha ponzu sauce um just the idea look i know that like that the like the mayo sauce it's just it like i know that's in sushi

and you get it you eat it a lot i know that it's a normal thing yeah in a spicy tuna roll that's what you get but just the idea of it in a bowl kind of was a turnoff to me and so i went with i went with the sriracha tuna because of the ponzu sauce is like lighter and not it's not like a mayo based thing and that yeah it has sriracha ponzu sauce. I don't know how to say this Nick. Hijiki?

I don't have it in front of me. An avocado. I maybe botched that but oh well. No you probably nailed it. Then I also added blistered shishito peppers which was a dollar extra like you said uh i also got cilantro i got bean sprouts and i added edamame uh and then i also added two two of the crunch two from the crunch category crispy garlic and crispy onions, which are probably the worst things you can get there, right?

Because these are a little... Those are fried, right? Yes. Like you do mean in terms of like health-wise. Yeah, I mean... Two of the least healthy things. They're obviously... It's not like getting like fried onions from TGI Fridays or something.

Right. But I need that crunch. I needed to add those in there. You need it, yeah. And I think it helps the bowl significantly. You got to have that crunch. You got to have the crunch. And I really enjoyed the bowl as a whole.

I did a good job. I was very overwhelmed. I've never had this before, like I said. I didn't know what to add. I went with the other rice for my base. Yes. What's it called? Not the forbidden rice, but the bamboo rice.

Yes. And I thought it was just a really, really nice taste all around. It was pleasant and light, like you said, where it wasn't weighing you down. But it was substantial, and it was just a nice taste. It was great. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was good. It was good.

I will say that we have a – the ordering experience, I would say, is intimidating for a neophyte because you're not sure what you're supposed to be getting, and then even if you get a prefab bowl, there's modifications to make to it. It'd be nice if there were more things where it was like, this is just how it comes. Here you go. It's ready to go. Like Sweetgreen has those on their menu.

They have a few that are just completely just ready to go as is. Get it with no alterations, and you'll be set. I was surprised that you didn't get a prefab signature bowl. That surprised me. I decided to mix it up. You're a brave man. You are a brave man. You are a brave man. I am a brave man.

I've been there a million times, and every time I go, I'm nervous when I'm ordering. Right. And I'm like, I usually get this mango albacore, and even when I add stuff, I'm always like, should I get a different thing? It's intimidating. There's too many options. Do you guys ever practice your order before you get into a place? Yes.

I do that all the time. Like saying it out loud? Yeah. Like I'll say like, okay, I'm going to say it, and I'm going to... That's insane. Yeah. I do that too. I do that too i do that too i told you guys that i wanted to go in and look at the menu early because i really did not know what i was gonna i did not know what i was gonna do and in i think

that there is maybe too many options i think there i think there is a there's a lot going on there's so many add-ons toppings there's too many i wish that what too many toppings. I wish that what I ordered, I wish that was just the thing that you could get, but it all worked out. I'm happy it worked out. I think that there's a scenario where that wouldn't work out at all, and I'd be upset. If I put fruit in that bowl, I don't think I would have liked it. I don't think it would have worked. You can definitely

go awry with some of these combinations. We also got the ponzu chips, or no, they weren't ponzu, taro chips.o chips taro chips yeah yeah uh which i thought were were good you know speaking of the of something that tends to be absent crunch these had some some nice crunch to them um and uh you know like like they kind of work for a little bit of scooping you want to scoop some of your stuff and have it off of that chip i thought that was fine yeah i love taro chips yeah and they they season it really

specifically there but i i freaking love those. Yeah, what is it? Because it seems like a seaweed slash spicy. I don't know what that seasoning is. I don't know what it is either. It might actually be, it almost tastes kind of like the furikake. It's got a little bit of seaweed. Yeah, it does have a seaweed flavor to it.

A seaweed flavor, but then also it is like a little bit spicy. They're great. I like to, what is taro? Is that like a? It's kind of like a sweet potato. Okay,'s like a uh uh ancient uh card reading art which you can use to predict someone's destiny

yeah fuck you um i i thought also we should do drinks yes i got the guava lemonade i got that too it is was the sweetest. Way too sweet. It's insanely sweet. I loved it, though. But it is fucking sweet as hell. I had a sip and I was like, this is so sweet. It's the opposite of Mitch, a famously sour man.

I'm leaving. I'm leaving. This is bullshit. Why? Rhetoric. Rhetoric. Sorry. I couldn't even say the word right.

I just give up. Fine. Whatever. I'm sour. I'm sour. Okay. I'm a sour baby. Hey, you got it on tape.

I'm sour. I'm sour. You got it. I'm like a sour patch kid. What do you want from me? I'm a warhead. I'm a human warhead. You have more than enough.

You just gave a solid gold. There's, I mean, the drops that are going to be made off of what you just did. I make fucking faces pucker, Nick. How's that? This is bullshit. It was, and I like to, an opportunity to use this word, it was cloyingly sweet. It was too sweet. Like me.

Like you, Mitch. Oh, fuck you. I'm sour to you. Yeah, you are. You're sour. You make me pucker up. Oh, you're saying it's on me. Yes.

I'm the reason for the way you treat me. Does anyone else have a problem with me ever? No. No one's ever had a problem with me ever. I'm a new song. You remember that you're employed by me. What do you think of me? else have a problem with me ever? No. No one's ever had a problem with me ever. MNU song? Remember that you're employed by me. What do you think of me?

This would seem more authentic if you hadn't given that preamble. If you just said, We like you, Mitch. Yeah, we love you, Mitch. I don't know why they sounded like Disney characters. Yeah. It's pretty accurate accurate you song. I'm not a sour man. You can be sour about certain things. Fuck you.

You suck. People don't know that Nick is a piece of shit. Come on. Oh, you're not a piece of shit? I am. Of course I am. But people do know that. This is great.

I feel like I'm watching LeBron and Kobe play one-on-one. In person. In person. That's great. We've thought about it, and now I'm here. LeBust. Oh, boy. He was hurt.

Look, I'm not even a Laker fan. That guy was hurt. He was hurt, and also he averaged 27-8-8 on 51% shooting for the season. Those are insane numbers. Those are MVP level numbers. The million dollar mile or whatever that is fucking sucks. What the his reality show? His game show? You're putting

that on him? I'm just saying Shaq would have done something better. Come on. What? Maybe. Look, LeBron is not retired. He can't give it his full attention. He's got other things going on. What? Maybe. Look, LeBron is not retired. He can't give it his full attention. He's got other things going on. He should retire.

He's playing great. He's still an all NBA level talent. People think I'm sour. This is your fault. Payman, you got yourself. Payman, you got a different drink. Payman doesn't think I'm sour. Thank you, Payman.

Yeah, you're a sweetheart. I got the coconut banana chai. I mean, you got a different drink. See, Payment doesn't think I'm sour. Thank you, Payment. Yeah, you're a sweetheart. I got the, it was a coconut banana chai. Oh, that's right. Yes, yes. Susser got that as well. It wasn't very good. It was strange.

Yeah, it was like more chai than anything. Like, I was hoping for more banana, more sweet. That's what I was, and it just, it was like barely there. It was like, okay, I guess I'm drinking drinking this and then i just kind of kept drinking it but the sip i had of uh of sussers it was kind of like reminded me and that is like a fresca it like just had like a little bit of a little hint of flavor yeah it was very it was very subtle and yeah for something that seemed again as the the complete opposite of the guava lemonade it was just like at the complete opposite end of the spectrum um it looked like it was gonna taste like a horchata we thought and that it didn't really taste like of the guava lemonade. It was just like at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The drinks were kind of

a whiff, unfortunately. It looked like it was going to taste like a horchata, we thought, and it didn't really taste like that at all. It was super duper diluted. And then we also got

them pops at the end. Yeah. I mean, I wish you didn't say it like that, but we did. We got some pops. We also got them

pops at the end. I don't mean pops in the Midwestern soda sense, and I don't mean pops in an affectation that you would use for your dad sense. I mean pops in the Midwestern soda sense, and I don't mean pops in an affectation that you would use for your dad sense. I mean pops in terms of frozen pops. Yeah, we know. I don't mean frozen pops in terms of a Midwestern soda you put in the freezer.

Or a frozen grandpa. An affectation you have for your frozen dad. Grandpa who fell into the icebox. Man, imagine if that's what happened, if your grandpa passed away because he fell into the ice box um man imagine if that's what happened if your grandpa fell passed away because he fell into the ice box oh i'm sure it's happened to somebody do you so you mean like what we were talking about earlier would be people getting trapped in fridges yeah that would be crazy that'd be so there's like in the winter time like my mom would always warn me about this yeah if she's like don't get like don't get too drunk

and then fall asleep in the snow. Oh, yeah. Because that happens to people. They just like will pass out in the snow. I really wanted to do that in Saskatoon. I was like, man, this would be the perfect place. I was so ready. I think that honestly,

the way that you are with weather, I think you could do it in LA. If it was like 49 degrees, I feel like you could pass out and freeze to death. No, I wouldn't be able to handle it. The pops, we got the, they don't have it on the menu online, but we got one with the... You took a picture of it if you need. I took a picture of the pop. Hold on.

Let me see if I can get the exact ingredients here. I've seen this company at like farmer's markets. It's a thing. Part of it if you need. I took a picture of the pop. Hold on. Let me see if I can get the exact ingredients here. I've seen this company at like farmer's markets. It's a thing. Part of it is the shape. It looks like three blocks almost. Yeah, it's a fancy. It looks like a 3D printer made it. Yeah, it does.

You mentioned Sega Genesis games earlier. Are you thinking it looks like Vector Man? Okay. I was going to say it looks like a column from the game Columns. You remember that? It was like a Tetris ripoff where it had three different jeweled... Crazy enough, Emma does remember. I don't know this at all. Do you know Columns?

Yeah, I remember it. I don't know why I remember it, but when you said that, it popped into my head. I don't know if I do know this. I don't remember it. But they kind of look like Columns, if anyone knows Columns. We'll tweet out an image I do know this. I don't remember it. But they kind of look like columns, if anyone knows columns. We'll tweet out an image of columns. You guys will get it.

Oh, cool. So Dream Pops vanilla... These are not unique to Sweet Fin Poke. Dream Pops vanilla matcha and berry dreams are the ones we had. The vanilla matcha was mine, and I thought it was fine. I mean, I thought... It doesn't have a lot of calories for a sweet treat, which is nice. And,

and, and it was very frozen and refreshing, but I didn't have any reason to get it to, to, to cap off this meal. What did you guys think? I had the same one. I felt the same way.

It just like needed more vanilla. It just like, I understand why it was healthy. It wasn't sweet. It wasn't right. It was okay. I didn't hate it. I was just like,

yeah, I'll probably never get that again. Kind of insubstantial. Yeah. I had the very dreams. I loved it. Whoa. I fucking loved it. I thought it was a yeah, I'll probably never get that again. Kind of insubstantial. Yeah. I had the Berry Dreams. I loved it. Whoa. I fucking loved it. I thought it was a nice little tasty treat to the end.

They're under 100 calories. It was good as hell. I really, really enjoyed it. You think when you drift off to Slumberland tonight, you'll have Berry Dreams? Oh, hell yeah. Huckleberry, strawberry, blueberry. They're all here. And they're all sucking me off

I wake up with a wet bed I pissed my bed I got so horny I pissed in my fucking bed Well let's get to our final thoughts on Sweet Fin Poke Payment in bed. Well, let's get to our final thoughts on Sweet Fin Poke. Wait, you think I would be turned on by like the curves? Like two cherries next to each other or something? Yeah.

Dear God. No, I'm just saying that's what happens in dreams. It sometimes goes someplace you didn't expect. What? We've all had that dream. Wait, have you had fruit wet dreams? Every one of us has experienced that on a recurring basis um so uh so payment you know the show we'll go around we'll say our final argument on sweet fin poke and then give it a rating from zero to five forks even though

chopsticks are the utensil of choice here um so got a fork. You did use a fork. They gave me a little wooden fork, which was great. Poke bowls seem hard to eat with chopsticks. I feel like it's tough. I wanted a fork as like a backup, like at the end where you're scooping. And then when we said it, he just took all the other chopsticks away. And I was like, all right, I guess I'm going to just use the fork. The fork is easy.

Chopsticks are... I'm also very bad with chopsticks. I've always been. I have fat fucking fingers. Go ahead. Make fun of them. I got huge monster hands. Nick, you know this. Yeah, you get a built-in baseball mitt.

Yeah, you say this all the time, you piece of shit. No, I use the chopsticks. I'm quite good at it. Oh, cool. That was your follow-up? Payment. Payment, your thoughts on Sweetfin Poke. I mean, I love love poke i get it

pretty regularly i think i think sweet fin does it of all the places i've had in la it's they do it better than anybody it's their fish is a good quality i don't feel like i've ever i mean the salmon you had was fishy but um it didn't feel rotten no no but like you know like poke bar which is like national that's like in a lot of states now that one the meat is weird like sometimes you go there and they have like those tiny shrimp like like not like cup of noodle shrimp where they it's like they killed a baby shrimp yeah but it's like so small that you're like there's no way that's good i feel like all the fish is like cut better it's better quality there i love the bamboo rice i feel like that makes it stand out compared to everybody else i wish there were less options i think not letting the guy pressure me would

probably be better next time and i would have less stuff in my bowl sure um he did he said he was like you got more you got more stuff to put in there i know i will say that he was a he was very helpful he was helpful he was a hell he was he was he was great but he he he was like, you got more stuff to put in there. I will say that he was very helpful. He was helpful. He was great. But he was like, you still got like three things you can put in the bowl. He had to use it or lose it POV towards the five items. Which actually helped me, but I could see it hurting too.

Yeah, it really threw me off where I was like, I just want one other thing. But it was all good. All the ingredients were good. I had the combination other thing. But it was all good. All the ingredients were good. I had the combination of everything. I love taro chips. I love that they have them there. I know that's not really part of poke. I love this place a lot.

I would give it five forks. Five forks. Wow. Hot out of the gate. That's a good rating. It's a very good score. What's your thoughts. Not having had poke before this is so it's my

it's a this is a I was a sweet poke virgin going in and just a regular version. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not shaming by the way. Oh, I'm a classic late bloomer. Relax, everyone.

Why did I get scared here? Um, um, also, I was thinking monster hands is like a good. That's a good movie. Someone gets monster. It would make a great goosebumps book. Nick, look, we shouldn't pretend here. We know we just stopped down for like five minutes. We mentioned monster hands.

We mentioned monster hands in the Zoom shut down. The Zoom shut down. Wow, scary as hell. It was spooky. And you told me that there was Idle Hands. That's literally the only thing that we lost is that there was Idle Hands, which I remember Idle Hands. Right.

But you say Monster Hands is different enough. I think it's different enough. Also, by the way, shout out to our guest, Payman, who noticed the Zoom and stopped recording randomly and saved Mitch from having to give his whole fork rating thing again. And Payman, I can say this, and I mean it. This makes you our best guest ever. Fully agree. Everyone who follows has to top that.

Payman saved an episode, the back half of an episode at least yeah we could have we could have gone for like a good 30 more minutes right i mean we we we have about 20 or so minutes left and if we just did that for no reason i will fucking suck what a waste uh you sung you're fired um anyways the the i liked my uh guava it was guava right guava lemonade um the chai what was it the chai uh banana coconut chai banana coconut chai all i can say for that is chai man thank god we didn't lose that can you imagine nick also just made it actually that was i had

that in the barrel for when from the time you went you went and used the restroom i did i also heard my shower turn on i would do that after every dough boys record feel so unclean uh uh yeah to that uh by the way i think you've just hit for the cycle you had whoopee you had what was your other one whoopee was good whoopee was really good my second one which is so good that we can't remember yeah that one was really good and then and then chai chai less hit for the cycle more hat trick you get a little hat trick there yeah all right. Okay. Maybe I'll hit for the cycle before this all is. The I was the Toro chips were good. My bowl was was good.

Yeah, it was really good. The parking situation over there was frustrating. It's in a bad location. I don't like that location. It's just it's just in a like a very busy part of I went past it and then i was trying to turn around on sunset boulevard it took me like six minutes right it was crazy um it's low visibility on a very busy street yeah and and so but i mean is that really going to take to it there's other locations i can't i'm not going to take points off for that sus said minus two forks uh for yeah he did yeah he was harsh. He's going to hate my rating. Well, he's maybe going to hate my rating, too,

because first time poke haver, and I liked it a lot. I'm going to go four forks. Four forks. Nice. Very good score. Right now is in the Golden Plate Club. I think that it goes... I mean, I could almost go four and a half. I was trying to think of what I should do

because before I like really started trying this place I was like like I mean like after like the first bite or so I was yeah it's gonna be like a three nine or four am I gonna put it into the golden play club and I think it a hundred percent deserves to be a golden play club member it's really it's good it does it does what it's trying to do really really exactly yeah um but but that between four and four or five i think that maybe just comes down to personal preference i don't know if i would get this a lot but maybe you know like it is a healthy option yeah it's it even even adding the crunchy stuff in there it's still going to be pretty healthy for you right so maybe i maybe i would get it again i like i like maybe i would get it you know every so often yeah yeah mitch where your head's hat is approximately where mine is which is that

you know poking out a thing i get with any sort of frequency i'm not i i'm not sure if this is a chain i would ever go to outside of it being part of the podcast outside of it being a place we were going to review yeah um but then again maybe again, maybe. I enjoyed my time, and maybe I'll make a return trip. It was a good quality product. Do you know what this is? Yeah. If payment or somebody, if someone was like, hey, you want to grab lunch?

Let's go to Sweet Fin. I'd be like, sure. You know, like, hey, that's a fun... That's... It wouldn't be my idea, but if someone offered it, I would yes and it yes. Oh God. Now together now together we've hit for the cycle. Life is a

herald after all. Life is a herald after all. Oh God, we studied that stuff for 10 years. Yeah, that like it's a nice right now. Up so bad. You don't get the whoopee

overnight. Yeah, no, I it's it's it's tricky. I like a I think this is a place if I'm like thinking of dinner or something. Am I going to get

something delivered to my house? I don't think I'm going to go sweet then. I know I just don't think that's going to happen. Not going to my house? I don't think I'm going to go sweet, Vin. I just don't think that's going to happen. Not going to travel well, I don't think either. Yeah. Go on, Nick. Oh, shit. It's my review. It's your review. Fuck.

I was waiting for you. That's even why I went on this fucking other thing I was doing here. I thought it was your review. You said Life's a Herald, and then you stopped talking. I'm thrown out of sorts because the resume fucked up because we brought up Monster Hands. Don't say it again. Monster Hands.

Did it stop? We're back. It stopped again. Okay. If you only say it twice, it's fine. It's like Beetlejuice. Susser's review is this. He has texted it to me verbatim.

This doesn't count. Okay. If I were going on my own, I would have created my own bowl with multiple fishes, but for the podcast, I thought I should try... With multiple fishes? That's what he's saying. What? But for the podcast, I thought I should try a pre-made one. Then I proceeded to not tell anyone what I thought of it and just drove away. So that's

his review. It's almost like he just came and got a lunch and left. He got a free lunch and hovered nosey. There's a lot of poke places where you can get multiple proteins. That's interesting to me because I don't know if I would like that. I feel like that's kind of crazy. Some stuff does not work with each other.

You have to be really careful. If you start tuna, you got to be real careful where you're going. Yeah. You can really go awry. To sum up my thoughts, to Mitch's point, yes, the mission statement of this podcast, how does this chain do what it's trying to do? I think this chain does what it's trying to do very well. Yes, it could streamline.

Yes, it could simplify its menu a little bit. To me, I was operating from a floor of three and a half forks. However, while we were seated there in the patio area, a gentleman walked in wearing a Minions Poupaille sweatshirt. Wait, really? And that's good for another half fork. Four forks. Wow. Was it the surfer dude sitting next to us? It was not the surfer dude. It was an

older guy. He went and used the restroom. Oh, man. Yeah, he had a paille with a bunch of different minion figures in the back. It was a lot of fun. That put it up to four forks? Yeah, it gives it four forks in my eyes. You loser. That sucks. You can't do this. Four forks. I hired that guy. It was from Central Casting.

Because I knew it would help looking for minions man welcome to the golden plate club sweet fin poke they do a good job there it's good they do it's good and there was a surfer i'm shocked that you didn't bring up the surfer dude. Yeah, I felt like I was looking at a mirror. So we that was our review of sweet pin poke. It's time for a wish. It was an us situation. Man, I'd love to get murdered with scissors just after eating a full meal. The new agar, you know, all I could do was i would still enjoy him more uh we've got the food stuff we're gonna decide if it's worth putting in your mouth it's snack or

whack now payment we had something planned but you threw us a curveball and brought us some of some of your own treats and we're gonna dig dig into these. We got some Nick started hyperventilating when you when you when you change stuff. I didn't know I'm terribly sorry that I started crying and now but this is good. Here's what I have to say. Here's what I have to say about these treats there. There's one brand that has

two different flavors and it's insane to me. Yeah, but we but we can talk. You can talk us through all these right now. So I was at the korea town plaza last night which is a like a korean mall in k-town uh because i was eating there and then i went to this they have a little grocery store and i was just getting stuff and then i found these things just looked so interesting so one of them is called uh corn chi and what it looks like a cheetos puff with actual like liquid cheese inside like it's

filled with cheese uh and then there's also or is it or is it topped with g i'm confused by it i'm on board it could be like i i don't know if it's topped or if they're like showing you what's inside yeah i'm not sure what this oh yeah i can't you know it could be either actually you're right yours makes more sense mine like what i thought it was is so crazy i had to get it um and one of them they are crazy by the way what's crazy is there's a picture of one of them that's saying i want more like it wants itself yeah uh and then there's a hazelnut version of it's like wagger come on cold there's one called corn show that's a hazelnut version. And then I tried to find a third one, but they only had two.

And then I have this other thing called Bing Bing. And so the way they describe it is it's a cone snack with strawberry flavored filling. So it's like this twisty, what looks like an ice cream cone. And then just this like pink substance. And I don't know what it is i'm assuming it's just sugar that is i mean it's supposed to maybe look like ice cream i don't know they had like green tea as well but this seemed to be maybe the one that's tastiest it just looks fascinating it looks like an ice cream cone that you've eaten most of the ice cream and

it's just got that little nub remaining. That's kind of where it is. Let's dig into these. I think we'll start with the savory ones, then we'll work our way over to Sweet Town. Do you know that story about Fan Bing Bing? It just reminds me of Fan Bing Bing. Oh yeah, the Chinese famous actor and she disappeared.

Yeah, the actress who disappeared because she's a Chinese actress and then she she like she basically didn't report her taxes correctly and they and they found out and then she's like she disappeared for months uh which is crazy do you know this story oh it's a very interesting crazy story but being sounds like we got another double, it's such a depressing double. But Bing Bings, they remind me. Remember Harris had that, I think it was a tweet, Whittles.

Yes. Twittles, where he said that the end of the cone, like the bottom of the drumsticks. Right. That's what those look like. That's what Bing Bings kind of look like. Am I wrong, or did he call that the proposed snack cone tips? I think they were cone tips. Right. That's what those look like. That's what Bing Bings kind of look like. Am I wrong, or did he call that the proposed snack cone tips? I think they were cone tips.

That's funny. All right. With these corn cheese, just the fact that they're cheese ones and then chocolate ones are just fucking bizarre to me. Well, did you taste these yet? I have not.

Taste them, because it might go in a different direction than you're thinking. There's a little smudge on there. What are you thinking as you're biting into that? Because I got like a strong cream cheese flavor with like a little bit of sweetness. Yeah.

They're strange. I mean, they're much sweeter than I thought. They're very sweet. They're super sweet. Yeah. I kind of like it. Yeah. It's not bad.

It's not what I thought it was. No. I also thought there'd be more of this cream cheese stuff in it. I'm going to have another one. Can I say this? I'm trying to understand it. This is what I got from it. A crunchy Danish.

Mm. It's like the flavor of a cheese-based dessert sort of thing. They are good. They seem wrong. They seem like a, why has God created these sort of thing. They are good. They seem wrong. They seem like a why has God created these sort of things. Well, I mean, they do want to eat themselves.

They are pretty, they are abominations. It says the cream cheese is from Denmark. Wow. And this is a Korean snack, right? I cannot confirm. Oh, yeah.

Product of Korea. There we go. And the package is all English, too. Thank Oh, yeah. Product of Korea. There we go. And the package is all English too. Thank you, Emma. Those are strange. I wonder how these ones will be. Okay, so the corn

shell, to give you a little bit of context, the back of it says what is fondue? So it's like a fondue tutorial. So I think that's what it's trying to achieve here. That's what it's trying to do. This one says fondue on the back, too. Okay.

I'm not sure if I'm loving the aftertaste in my mouth. It's weird. It lingers a little bit. All right, here we go. So this one is a lot easier to see what's going on. This makes more sense to me. They have a discreet chocolate layer on top. This is what Mitch thought it was.

Yeah. It looks like a curved eclair. You saw me of that, Trini? This one's also good. It's different. It's more clearly a dessert. I think I like this one more. It's clear what it's supposed to be.

It's strange to have a cookie like cheese puff which is basically what this is is the exact same texture texture as a cheese puff i don't know what do you think of this one payment um i like this one more too i feel like i could eat i could eat a lot of these yeah um it's also yeah that that texture and then a little bit of chocolate is so interesting it's like i Yeah, it's very unlike anything else. Yeah, I like it. I really like that one.

Yeah, I'm fully on board with that. I mean, I'm not on board with both of these, but that one I think really works. And then we got the Bing Bing. This one says best by date, and then there's no date. Okay. So that's great. I'm going to take a picture of this as I'm talking here

because this I think really evokes exactly what we're dealing with. Okay, so... Strawberry flavor. Very strong strawberry smell. Boy, it is very strawberry. And it kind of is trying to have kind of an ice cream texture at room temp. It's kind of got that astronaut ice cream sort of... I'm not a big fan of astronaut ice cream.

Me neither. I always felt bad for the astronauts when I would get it. The Museum of Science in Boston, Emma, you know what I'm talking about. In their gift shop, they used to have astronaut ice cream. Oh, yeah. That was such a memory of me. By the way, this is such a fat kid thing

of you go to a museum and then astronaut ice cream is all you remember. That was disappointing. But yeah, definitely. Leave that stuff in orbit. thing of like you go to a museum and then astronaut ice cream is all you remember that was disappointing but yeah definitely i i like it leave that stuff in orbit we don't need it back here yeah we got we got the real stuff um this is uh this is nasa was upset because i i ate uh a whole mission's worth of astronauts apollo 20 is canceled This is I like this actually I don't know how I feel about it

I think the strawberry flavor is like a little too Like a strawberry gum for some reason It's a little too artificial What do you think of this one, Payman? I love it Wow This is fun Because it's really small

It's like very skinny It is But then it's dangerous Because then I feel like I could eat four of these before realizing. I like it. It works. I like it. I like it, too. The wafery texture of this.

It's weird as hell. It's weird. So weird. It's very weird. The wafery texture of this is nice. What wafer is this reminding me of? It evokes a very specific wafer. An reminding me of? It's very... The Vogue's a very specific wafer. An ice cream cone?

No. It reminded me of those flat sticks that you would break off. Yes. Those, yeah. It seemed like the strawberry version of that. That's basically what this felt like. Pocky. Is that what I'm thinking of?

Not quite Pocky. It's the other one. No, they're like the wafer... Yes, I know what you're talking about. ...this flat wafer cookies, and they're like in little triangles, and you snap them off. Yeah, right. I don't know what they're called, though. They're like a wafer. Yes, I know what you're talking about. They're like cookies, and they're like in little triangles, and you like snap them off. Yeah, right. I don't know what they're called, though. They're like sweet taquitos.

Aren't they in big, long rectangles? The cigar ones. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Wait, am I wrong? No, you're wrong again. They're flat. Bugles? No, those, no.

Bugles, no. Maybe you mean bugles. No. Wait, wait, wait. Bugles are like a corn sack. It's bugles. I. Bugles are like a corn snack. It's bugles. I don't know what exactly you're describing. I'm just finding it.

I know exactly what you're talking about, too. The wafer. It's like a wafer cookie snack. Vertman? Something is coming up, but I don't think that's right. She just has a shirtless picture of George Harrison on the computer. I don't know what's going on right now. They look like these things, though, right? Yes.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's maybe a more brand one. Okay, I remember these. I know what you're talking about. I love those. Yeah, that is what I'm thinking of. I am pro wafer. Yeah, those are good. I think these are all snacks.

If I was going to rank them, I think I'd go chocolate corn show, cheesy corn cheese, and then I think I have that Bing Bing in third place. What about you guys? I think I go maybe chocolate corn show first, too, but that Bing Bing is right there after it, and then the corn cheese is last. Yeah, they're all snack for me, and man i really like the bing bing um yeah you can be first i think i'm gonna go bing bing first then chocolate then this cheese one but those two are very close it's just because that one you have one is very good i feel like if you have too much of the the hazelnut whatever this thing is corn show it might get weird after a while should we also eat your mentos now too yeah i had mentos in the bag just for myself and then realized they were still in the bag we can

you guys want to taste some uh i haven't had a strawberry mentos in a long time and i want one all right we'll steal your is that is it really yeah i mean i don't this is what the mentos are about is that you steal them from people yeah we'll have these i just pop it yeah i think so but let me say this this is not part of the segment. No, we're just enjoying Mentos. This is just fun. We can't say if strawberry Mentos are snack or whack? No, we can't say it.

We've never done classics like a Hershey's candy bar or the chocolate bar. Oh, we should do some snack classics. Snack classics. You guys should. Snack is a beautiful area. Yeah, we always do like. Well, here's a snack or whack classic. Yeah, we always do like a weird like the gingerbread house

like seasonal Oreo or whatever. We've never done like an actual like Oreo. We should just do like the right... We've done so many Oreos. We should do the classics. They had a bunch of like different flavored Oreos last night and I figured we know what half of this thing tastes like. Why am I bringing that in? Strawberry Mentos are great.

Oh, these are like fresh. Sometimes you get the hard ones that you're like, they've been there for a couple years. You know what I say to this one? Nothing's better than fun. No, the entire tune and like three of the words. What's better, the Mentos jingle or Kevin's Country? I think Kevin's Country.

I think Kevin's Country wins. Yeah. It's on fucking rules. Yeah, it's especially great when they play it over like stills of all the jokes that didn't work through the episode of The Tonight Show. It's really good. Yeah. Always a Pyrrhic victory to be one of the writers. Jokes that bombed the credits. Mentos is funny.

Like, what happened? Like, a limo got in the way, and the guy went through the limo? Is that one of the scenarios? Oh, yeah. There was a really crazy one in there. Like, the limo, like, blocks him off, and so he, like, walks through the limo? Oh, that's right. That's right, yeah.

The one I remember is... Is that what it was about? Was it always getting around things? Was that the Mentos commercial? Yeah, it was about innovative problem solving. Like, you're in a jam. You don't know what to do. You have a Mentos.

You cool yourself off. You figure out an innovative solution. The one I remember is... I don't know if I like mint Mentos, though. I think I like... I think I just like the strawberry ones. I like the strawberry ones. The fruit mix one is really good.

Yeah, yeah. The Mentos I remember is there was a woman who was or she couldn't get her car out of a tight parking space and then four hunks came over and lifted her car and you remember this as a boy watching this that four hunks come and rescue her yeah i may have taped it on a vhs hey nick we have 90 minutes of a mentos commercial taped it every time it came on? That's right. It's a compilation.

Thank you for those snacks, Payman. That was a lot of fun. Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email comes to us from John Iattesta from lovely Santa Monica. John writes, First, I started the pod from episode one in September, and today is the day I finally caught up. Shout out to Bo Wolf for singing the pod's praises.

That's quite a binge. That being said, I don't think I've heard anyone ask how you like your ketchup stored. I keep mine in my cupboard and have my whole life and find this to be normal because who the hell wants cold ketchup on a hot food and every restaurant has warm ketchup, so it seems to be the standard. However, I know people that call me a freak for having room temp ketchup and insist it must be refrigerated. Where do you guys stand on the issue? This is great.

Yeah, this is a good question. Payman, your ketchup temp, what do you do with this? Mine is in the fridge, but I never thought about it until right now. And now I'm like, this guy might be right. Yeah, because it's got vinegar in it, right? When it's too cold,

you're like, there's something weird about it. Right. Wow. You look shaken shaken i'm shook i am shook this is wild well the question the we're gonna we're gonna be doing some condiments uh in an upcoming episode and i wonder look can i just say what it was that it was on the table today that i saw yes there was a thing of crunch yeah this is a branch this is crafts uh concoction and it looked fucking monstrous i'm like that would have to be in

the fridge and emma and you song and i were and maybe you said this too payment i'm not sure who said it but it was like how is this i think emma was maybe you how is this not refrigerated this looks so fucking right nasty it should be refrigerated my family growing up did not refrigerate ketchup they they kept it in the cupboard wow uh and so i had ketchup like that my entire life then as i got older and i went off on my own i refrigerated it i agree with you that when it's cold that is an issue that's why when you order food or you're gonna have food you put it out a little earlier something like that right a Right. A lot of times, though, it's like you grab it because you don't know you need it. Then you get to use it and it's cold.

I, my mom is like, oh, it's fine forever. But you can like see ketchups that like I'll go to her house and she obviously hasn't used the ketchup in like a year. And it will be like just like a browner color. Oh, it won't be as like it won't be as vibrant in red. Right. So I've changed. I now i now put it in my fridge um i'm i'm a i'm a fridge guy with it unless this is what i do now lately nick which is crazy if i go to taco bell del taco or mcdonald's or something and i get extra packets i have like a little thing in my cabinet with extra packets and that

i don't i don't i don't put those in the fridge because those those are good forever so you gotta have extra packets you gotta have yeah you gotta have them because they short you sometimes yeah yeah i love the extra package i think i think ketchup can go bad even in the fridge i think it can go bad it can go bad i thought there was an expiration date yeah it doesn't have an infinite shelf life uh i don't i we were we refrigerate ketchup. That's what I've always done. I think I like it better when it's not cold.

I like it better room temp, but I just don't think to just have it in a cabinet for a long stretch. So I don't know. Mustard is supposed to definitely be refrigerated. Mustard we refrigerate. Mayonnaise, of course. Yeah.

Wait, what? Jesus. Dear God. God. Let us know what you Jesus. Dear God. God. Let us know what you do with your ketchup. If you like cold ketchup, hashtag catch cold. And if you... Dear fucking...

You have it warm, hashtag don't catch cold. That was it? I only had one or two. If you have a question or comment about the World of Chain Restaurants, you can email us at doughboyspodcasts at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830-GO-DOUGH. That's 830-463-6844. And to get the Doughboys Double R weekly bonus episode,

join the Golden or Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash doughboys. Payman Benz, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Anything you would like to plug at this time? I guess just I'm on on twitter just on twitter there you go i'm bad at this just my name payment bends at twitter and then i talk a lot of shit on there and i'll mention if i have something uh but yeah that's probably where there you go check it out i love it we love we love all of it we love everything that's going on that's all right yeah we do we love everything that's going on i'm the fucking sour man

uh mitch just pulled a gun out that'll do it for this wait what were you what were you gonna say i don't know i can't beat that all right i thought you're gonna say something sincere to me. No. All right. How about one nice thing about Mitch? One nice thing about Mitch. Mitch is a generous man, a generous friend, and a very talented actor. What the hell?

Those are all great and true. Mitch, something nice about Nick Nick you're a talented actor too because you're full of shit until next time for this movie I'm Mike Mitchell I'm Nick Weigel happy eating

see ya that was a hate gum podcast