Doughboys - Taco Bell 7 with Lorne Balfe

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Lorne Balfe (Mission: Impossible - Fallout, The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War) joins the 'boys and talks composing and London chains before a review of Taco Bell. Plus, a candy bar edition of Jingle All The Whey.Commercials featured in the Jingle All The Whey segment:WhatchamacallitAlmond Joy & Mounds "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut"Payday "Payday Is Almost Totally Nuts!"Take 5Caramello "Stretch it Out"Sources for this week's intro:https://www.catholic365.com/article/8819/pope-sabinian-the-despised-pope.htmlhttps://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-taco-bell-got-its-name/https://www.grayflannelsuit.net/blog/logo-evolution-taco-bell#:~:text=1962%2D72,retains%20a%20decidedly%201950s%20aesthetichttps://www.tacobell.com/blog/demolition-manhttps://www.tacobell.com/historyWant more Doughboys? Check out our Patreon!: https://patreon.com/doughboysSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Even among Pope Freaks, Pope Sabinian is a fairly obscure figure. Succeeding the influential and popular Pope Gregory I after a lengthy reign, Sabinian's brief, controversial papacy recalls that of a modern papa, Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Ratzinger. But Pope Sabinian made one lasting contribution in his two-year tenure, officializing the tradition of the church bell. Bells would become forever associated with Catholicism and Christianity at large in the Western world.

Flash forward a millennium and change to 1962, when San Bernardino restaurateur Glenn Bell opened a Mexican-American restaurant using recipes either borrowed or more likely stolen from the town's Meatla Cafe, giving their eatery his last name. Serving what was then a novelty even in Southern California, the chain had 100 outlets by 1967, and by 1978 it had sold to Pepsi, the beginning of the Triforce Unification with KFC and Pizza Hut that would become Yum Brands. In 1984, as the chain launched a promotional glassware giveaway tied to the film Star Trek III The Search for Spock, the first version of a church bell logo appeared in its marketing,

with a taco shell as the bell clapper as an Easter egg. In 1993, another sci-fi movie tie-in with Demolition Man led to another logo redesign and the bell would come to resemble its current form in 1994, though it's been tweaked since. Today, Pope Sabinian's legacy is seen and heard on houses of worship across the globe, as it is in the signage and advertising of the world's largest Mexican-American chain, with its logo and signature sound, DONG. This week on Doughboys, we return, for the seventh time, to Taco Bell. Welcome to Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants.

I'm Nick Weigher, along with my co-host, veteran of The Sparrow War, the Spoon Man, Mike Mitchell. Okay, so I served in the Sparrow War. Another angle on a tomorrow war rose courtesy of a lot of people had this, but Mary and Sean from Baltimore had it first, roastspoonman at gmail.com. Keep them coming, see if we can do a whole month's worth. It feels like they're just gonna make a riff on the title and put like some sort of food in the title. Maybe there's other variants, we're gonna find out. That is like 97% of what our show is anyways, it's just making a food pun. Yeah. So I mean, I'm not really criticizing it, it's good, honestly it was good. We'll get the tomorrow

next week, and it'll be good. Why is how you doing? It's a scorcher over here in Boston, in Quincy Mass. It's a little toasty in Los Angeles, the city of Angels, where the climate is usually lovely. We're all over the map today, as we'll get to when we introduce our guests, but first, Mitch, I know you got a little drop. What is this shit? You're trying to play my drop for me? No, I'm just queuing you up for what comes, what progresses naturally next to the show. I thought we were gonna, I want to talk about how you just talked about how you wanted to get plugs before this all started. Oh yeah, I was thinking of getting hair plugs. I've got this high angle camera now, because I got a mount that goes over my monitor, and so you can really see how

much forehead I have, and my hairline keeps moving backwards. And I've got this longer look now, which I think is kind of working for me, but you can, if my hair is pulled back at all, you can just tell how much my hairline has receded. So yeah, I'm thinking about getting hair plugs. Why not? Who's that guy in coach? Remember that actor in coach who had like a, you have that hairstyle. Dabber? Was it Dabber with a very, I think it was Dabber. Yeah, it's Dabber, yeah. You got a Dabber look going on. Also the voice of Patrick on SpongeBob. Same act. That's right. Oh yeah. Oh, that's great. Nick, you know what? You said you want to get plugs, and you know what? I'm right there with you. I want plugs as well. We're going to make it a

double. We're going to go. Wow, very exciting. We're going to go in. We're going to get plugs. Can you do this? This is a little dirty, but can you do, can you do pube plugs? Is that possible? I'm sure, I'm sure they could probably ask why. I need a little bit more to work with down there. I think I might do, I might do, I might do, I might do a combo set of plugs is the plan. You're asking on behalf of a friend, right? We got to get our guests in here because he's a blast. And here's a little, let me play a drop first, which will now make our guests log off. They're not going to want to hear this bullshit.

But here is a little drop. I go upstairs in the bathroom, right on the counter, a bottle of Gugon. Gugon. A bottle of Gugon on the bathroom. Gugon, Gugon, Gugon, Gugon, Gugon, Gugon. My mom's trying to drop some hints. There's too much goo, Mitchy. Floors are too sticky. You need Gugon. Michael, take care of the goo. Your goo is as good as gone. It does as advertised. There we go. Wow. The original Mario Brothers music? Is that what that was? That was Dr. Mario. Dr. Mario. I was trying to post a video game podcast. Not Super Mario Brothers, Mario Brothers, the progenitor of that. I was trying to remember what the stage music was for that. Dr. Mario, yes. It's Dr. Mario, Wags. Dear Mitch, here's a drop, first one ever, and almost certainly not worth it.

Agree on that. Love the podcast. Keep up the great work. Chris S. PS, if it comes up, the song is from Dr. Mario, the Super Smash Brothers version. All right, so. Got it. It is the Smash Brothers. Thank you, Chris. And you know what? It was worth it because that one was good. Well done. Well crafted. And hey, we'll see if it gets the seal of approval from our guest. That's right, Mitch. I was laughing. I was laughing. Wow, all right. Our guest is a composer whose many credits include Mission Impossible Fallout, the Lego Batman movie and Assassin's Creed 3. His new film, The Tomorrow War, is streaming July 2nd on Amazon Prime. Lorne Balf is here. Hi, Lorne. Wow. Hello from London. Hello from London.

Hello. Hello from. Hello from. Thank you for joining us when it's what it is. It's 7 p.m. over there. It's bedtime. It's bedtime. You know what? Last week, last week, I actually was in bed by 730. Isn't that sad? Wow. No, that's great. This is Nick Weigertime. Nick likes to go to bed this early. Love an early bedtime. The worst of all is I keep telling everybody about it. I'm like, you know, I had a great night last night and everybody's thinking, well, you went out because we've just locked down. It's kind of finished in London now. And no, no, I just went to bed. The simple pleasures. It could be great. Absolutely. And I take what even the cherry on the cake was, I brought a Kit Kat with me to bed.

Wow. Wow. There you go. My mom does something similar. I've been watching movies in her room. I mean, this is embarrassing. The 40-year-old man who's watching movies in his mom's room. I'm back for COVID. Why? Because I've been hanging out with my mom and you know, I've loved it. But to clarify, you are lying in bed together. It's a heating problem, for goodness' sake. We are lying in bed together in a king bed, but we are huddled on one side. And she brings out junior mints. She has a little hidden box of junior mints. She eats junior mints. You want a movie snack. Thank goodness it was just that. It's her little late night snack. A little mint. You know, a little minty. It does feel close to

the mint on your pillow type of snack. So she's refreshing. Michael, you should eat a junior mint before you go to bed. She gives me a junior mint. Lauren, is Kit Kat your favorite candy? What do you rank your candy bars? The fact is, I will use children as my excuse for every single thing. And it's fantastic now. Because now there's a legitimate reason to have chocolate in the house. There's a legitimate reason to have biscuits in the house. Crisps, hula hoops, whatever. It's great. And I can blame it. I can literally say, well, I think it was one of them ate it. It wasn't, you know, it obviously wasn't me. But the worst is, is that when it's like, if I work, I work long hours. And it will be until

two or four in the morning. And it's just, it's when I wake my wife up with the sound of the foil rapping on the Kit Kat. And all I hear, I'm in pitch blackness. And it will just be, are you eating a Kit Kat? I still don't know whether I should lie or not. But it's been, I've been caught out too often. The argument is I should just eat it before I get into bed. But it's just, it's tranquil. Yeah, that's right. It's fun. That's a fun ritual to have a little. I don't do that regularly. Don't get me wrong. I'm not entering diabetes land, but it's just, just once in a while, it's fine. I think a night treat is a good way to, you know what? And doing something like that is a lot better than, you know, me who will,

you know, I'll pull down the covers and there will be a 12 foot Italian sub in my bed with me. Eating in bed though, there's a very, very British to have cup of tea in bed and toast. Not a full English breakfast. That would be too extreme. But toast with marmalade or jam. That seems to be a very common thing. I can't, I do my head in the crumbs everywhere. It's just, that seems like a very British like toast and tea in bed sounds like, I could see the queen doing that. It seems like a very, it seems nice. My big reason for no food in bed is exactly what you're saying is the crumbs. If I get crumbs in there, it's game over and I got to change my sheets, which I told you why this was an issue with Wally and Irma when they were tracking for a

little while. Yeah. And then I would feel litter in my bed, which is the most disgusting feeling on earth. But crumbs, I can't do any crumbs. I try not to eat in bed because if I do, it's game over for me. It means that I'm just going to, that's where I'm going to stay, maybe for the rest of my life, if I just start eating food in there. I actually, I felt, I once, I'd worked for two nights straight, one time, no sleep, just a lot of Diet Coke and Marlborough Lights. And I just kept working. And I went back home and I thought, there's a great restaurant, there used to be one in Santa Monica called the Gate of India. It's opposite the king's head. Yes. Oh, okay. And the Gate of India was fantastic because it was Indian, obviously,

thank you. But they sold hummus as a starter. How unique is that? Wow. That is, that's, that's Santa Monica right there. Yeah. So anyway, I took it and I went back home and I was so tired. I thought, I'm going to take this to bed. That's how tired I was. And I, I fell asleep, sleep after one mouthful and I woke up and it looked like I'd had an accident. It was, it was horrendous. It was, yeah, just never do a curries in bed. It was everywhere. No. That is, that's, that's my thing with junior men, or any chocolate in bed. I'm trying not to get that on the sheets. You know, I don't want, I don't want chocolate over with sheets. No one's going to believe me if they see that. No one will believe you. The boy who cried wolf. I can't do it.

I got to have each, each room for me has its own purpose. Even eating in front of my desk, I feel weird doing. I'm always like, I'm always eating meals in the kitchen sometimes in front of the TV, but I don't know. I'm very rigid in terms of my room usage. Oh man. I don't even take my phone into the bedroom anymore. Really? No. I make sure that you never show me the jack closet when I come over to your house. Okay. I'm thinking, I'm still thinking about the plugs. That's interesting. I'm intrigued. I want to get them. We're thinking plugs. Why not? Why not? Because it's painful. It's painful. Oh, is it really? Really? From friends of mine that have done it. Yeah. It's like getting your wisdom teeth pulled out times 20. You're getting.

Oh my God. It's knitting. It's knitting into your skin. Lauren, you just hit on something. We like the idea of this, but also more than anything, Nick and I are huge cowards. Yeah. Maybe enough. This may never happen. Lauren, I got to tell you. I told you this beforehand. I'm telling you now. The score in Tomorrow War is fantastic. The music is just so great. You did such an awesome job. It's really badass. Nick is a big fan of yours. Nick has been a big fan. Big fan. I listened to your scores a lot. You and my mum pay for my Spotify life. Thank you. Lauren, he listens to you when he's in his music listening room in his apartment. The lights off rocking back and forth. Not only are you, if you give us some great scores,

but you also wrote the score to what I consider my favorite movie, Mission Impossible Fallout. It's such a great movie. It's such a great film. I love it. It's endlessly rewatchable, and your score is such a huge part of it. But I'm curious, from your perspective, as someone who worked on the film, at what point were you like, oh, this movie is really something? At what point did you feel like you were a part of something, a big part of something that was going to be such a sensation? Probably before I even watched it. Oh, wow. Just knowing the franchise. Well, the thing is, Chris, you just look at the movies he's made. The usual suspects, it's his perfection. You may watch that every year, and it stands

time. As soon as I met Chris and talking, we were having lots of going out for breakfast meetings and talking. You just knew that, the point of view of this new story, I knew that you got a tingle just listening to it. Very like Tomorrow Also, started before they were finished, so you're getting to see little snippets of scenes. The first scene I saw was the Paris Escape scene. Oh, wow. That's great. The reason I got into music was because my films that I loved were Crimson Tide, The Rock, Corner, these action movies, where right at the beginning it would be Brookheimer, Simpson, and the Crack of Lightning, and then that was it. This is why I would sit there and watch these

movies. I love those opening sequences, and the same with Mission When You Hear The... You're off. You're off on an amazing journey. I kept saying that to the other Chris. It's just a great Hollywood action movie. It's fun. It's escapism, and God knows, we all blooming need escapism at the moment. It's a great story. There's quite a lot of Chris's, aren't there? Chris Pratt is fantastic in it, but no, McKay is... I've known Chris since like a Batman. He's fantastic. I went over to Australia to record it, but I was there writing it whilst he was finishing the animation. He's a great sense of humor, and attention to detail, and most importantly, fun to be around. It's not often that.

That's very true. But you bring up a great point of just... You brought up many great points, but when you look at Chris McCrary, I'm stuttering over my words here. McCrary? Chris McCrary's... Jesus. I do this a lot, Lauren, by the way. You're talking to at least one fool. Wags is fine. You're doing great. When you look at Chris McCrary's career, and then you follow it back, and you're like, oh, he's been a part of so much good stuff. And so much stuff that doesn't get credited. Sure, yeah. He's really fantastic. I wanted to ask you, and so is Chris McCay, so all the

Chris's are great. All the Chris's are great. And Nolan is great. We love the Chris's. We try to keep that under wraps here. People who get mad in our Twitter mentions. So, Lauren, I wanted to ask, when you were creating music, when you saw my character on screen, did you want to kind of do like a do-do-do-do-do-do-do? Did that ever? It was more... I shouldn't say this, but let's just say Kenny G was booked for a week. But the thing is, during the test screenings, the audience couldn't take it. If there was... Every time, every time Cowan showed up, there was sexy sacks, that would have been... Yeah, and it wasn't... It wasn't tenor sacks, it was base sacks.

Oh, man. People would be like, what the fuck are... What is going on? I guess I'm horny now. Who has saxophones in film schools, for goodness sake, a bit? Another complaint about thing. No, but, you know, I started with Chris. We started again, it's like last year. Last year is a void for everybody, but I continuously always say, last year, I did a do-do-do-do-do, and it's not. So, we have to go further back to that, because it would have been not last summer, but a summer before. Yeah, that's insane. So, like 2019? Yeah, I think that's when I started and Chris moved to Atlanta. And so, it was a long journey

and starting to write then, and sending things back and forth to him, and, you know, doing Dan's character, and Murie's character, but then the whole world of the Tomorrow Wolf, the Tomorrow Wolf thing. And of course, it all changes when you start seeing the visuals, because I just sit at green screens half the time. So, then it's a whole different ballpark. So, but yes, the saxophone ended up not being harmed, unfortunately. No, the music in this movie just carries through so many great moments. It's great. I can't, when I'm talking to people about the music, I'm like, about the movie. I'm like, the music is great, and the aliens are great. The aliens are awesome. But yeah, I got a new

soundbar just to watch it in my basement, and I blasted it in the music, the music kicks ass. Yeah, I was just going to ask, because, you know, scoring the Tomorrow War, and it's an original IP, which you don't see a lot of, certainly not with big budgets in Hollywood. Like, you know, so much it feels like I'm sure of film composing is working on existing IPs that sometimes have an iconic theme that you're working with. It seems to be. Yeah. There's always a number. There's always a number for somebody. But yeah, you know, the thing is, is that the, yes, it is about the original IP, and I think that's, they all have their challenges. It helps if you're privileged enough to kind of work on a film like

Mission, where it's somebody wrote one of the most iconic themes of all time. Right. You're very thankful as a composer, because it's like, well, everybody whistles it anyway when they go into a shop and they're running out of time. It's like, it's kind of, you know, it's in commercials, and it's like, it's, yeah, like Star Wars. It's so iconic. And weirdly, I've worked on quite a few franchises where you look at the back where they've not used them, the themes. Yeah. Terminator. There's quite a few where it didn't, and I think Bad Boys 2 didn't use the Marc Mancini theme. And that was the first thing, that was the first thing I did on three was record the directors doing the whew. Yeah. Lauren, Lauren, do you think that you could

Yes. make the make the Doughboy theme more badass? Do you think Michael Cassidy who composed our theme, a great guy made a great intro song. Do you think you could you think you could mission impossibleize our theme to make us? Do I have to do it on the spot? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, of course, no. Yes. And you must use saxophone. No, I tell you what, I'll give you, I'll do you before you interview the next person that you're going to interview. Wow. I'll give you a, I'll give you a, I'll give you a, no, I'll do a tomorrow wall version. How about that? Wow. That's more appropriate. Wow. Unbelievable. How long is it, by the way? It's, it's like 30 seconds. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'll get around that. I'll get

that. Now I'll get, I'll throw in, I'll throw in some cut downs also. 10. Wow. Lauren, Lauren, now let us, let us ask you some very stupid questions. When you're, when you're composing, when you're, when you're, when you're creating music, are you snacking? What are you, what are you eating? What are you, what are you eating during the day? For the last year, for the last year, it's been trying to be healthy, which is utterly pointless for stashiers, ginger shots. And it's just, it just fails. I had a medical a few months ago and it was just utterly brilliant. So it's made me more cocky than ever. It's like, well, there's no issue there. Don't eat no green juice now. But the snacking, no, you know, I keep being told by like, you know,

dietitians and health wise, you should be snacking, you should be doing great seeds and grains and all that. And snacks might, might, you know, my, my, my, my evil head that whispers in my ears, hummus. And again, we should be with carrot sticks and cucumber. I get all that. But no, it'll end up being kettle crisps or, or children's, children's hula hoops. Oh, wow. I love it. When, when, when, when you're over at the stage, I believe that you were, this, you, you, you, you recorded the score at the Fox lot, right? Unfortunately, because of COVID, I couldn't be there. Oh, all right. So, so I witnessed everyone else snacking on the stage. Oh, I was gonna, I was gonna ask you about spreads. Usually there's a pretty good

spread. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's the same as the dub stage. It's literally just wall to wall of, and then it's the afternoon when they bring in like cakes and pastries and they keep everybody's sugar levels nice and high. But the scoring stage, yeah, scoring stage is just continuous. The wise one, when we score, whenever I'm recording in London, and I'm either at Abbey Road or Air Studios, and at Air Studios, there's a fantastic Rory, is a fantastic chef there. And he knows that I love banoffee pie. So every time I go, I'm trying to have good intentions in, in, obviously having the green juice in the morning or something. And uh-oh, it arrives and it's sitting behind the mixing desk, banoffee pie. That's, oh boy. Are you, Lauren,

you're gonna, what is, what is this pie? I don't know. Oh, you don't know banoffee pie? I do not. No, we do out here. It's bananas and toffee, right? Oh. Yeah, yeah, with cream and then ideally flakes of Cadbury's milk chocolate on top. Wow, that sounds fantastic. Why, good pie recall. I don't really know banoffee pie, but it sounds, it sounds good as hell. I think it's not everywhere in the US, but it's definitely out here. I gotta ask you, what are hula hoops? They're like chips. That's what, I was, I was going to say this because you'd said hula hoops a couple of times. Do you know what I've not, I don't think I've seen them in America. They're basically baked, they're baked circular crisps. So they're, they're about half

an inch in length, circular and they're baked. So that's why, that's why they appear in children's lunchboxes because they're healthy, you see. Oh, okay. That is the reason. I look them up and they kind of look like a, a, a funion, Mitch, with like a, yeah, like less circumference or like a tighter funion. But yeah, when you were saying hula hoops earlier, I was picturing like a, like a full-sized hula hoop that you were dredging through hummus. No, no, no, it's slightly large, slightly large penny. Yeah, it's a larger penny. But yes, but again, thank goodness for children. You can just constantly... That's Weigert's sketch phrase. Okay.

Now, I'm sorry, Weigert. Lauren, is there, is there anything, I told you that we were stupid. We warned you this is a very stupid podcast. I want to ask you about food, you eat in London. We got to get to that at some point, but I also want to know, before we get into that, what is the music you listen to? Nick listens to you while he's working out while he's doing whatever the hell else he's doing. That's true. I can tell, Nick. I can tell. But it is, what, what do you listen to? This is probably the hackiest question and I apologize, but what do you, what do you listen to for music? Do you listen, do you listen to your own music? You're like, Hey, that was pretty damn good because... Yeah, basically, it's as soon as I wake up,

before I open my eyes, just to remind myself my talent. And then before I go to bed, just so I don't cry. No, absolutely. I do not listen. I do not listen to my own music. But you know, I'm, I don't know what happened the last, last five years. It is continuous 80s radio. Wow. I like it. And it is, I don't, I don't, I don't have certain streaming programs, mainly due to the fact that artists don't get any money from them. And, but the, yeah, something happened five, six years ago. I think because I'm 45, so I kind of missed 70, I was born in 76. So I kind of wasn't fully appreciating what the 80s was. And, and it was kind of, it was there for the school discos and the stuff, but I,

but I didn't really approve. But so the music wise, it is just, it's continuous, continuous, continuous 80s. Is any, any, any bands, any bands that stick out to you? Some Mike Scott and the water boys, uh, any, any, uh, very, uh, okay. Go West. All right. West. Okay. All right. Go West. Aha. All the time. Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode at the end of the 80s. Then again, end of the 80s, the Smiths. But it's mainly more electronica. And it's just, it's, it's, it's, yeah, just absolutely. I, I, I, I've been reading books, um, on Stock Aiken and Waterman. And Stock Aiken and Waterman were the writers that wrote all the Kylie Minogue songs, Rick Astley. Um, and for about after the 80s until the 90s and 2000,

they were regarded as a joke. Really? And everybody thought, oh, it's cheese, it's popcorn, it's just rubbish. And I think everybody's kind of, you, you, you look at commercial music down, the 80s, a massive influence to it. Yeah. Yes. It's, it's, it's, um, so thankfully they're, they're getting recognition, recognition again, which they absolutely did. You know, at some points, I could be wrong, but at one point they were, they had Stock Aiken and Waterman five or six songs in the top 10 in Britain. Wow. Wow. They, they, they were just, um, machines at writing, I should be so lucky. And, you know, the, the Rick, it was a good Rick rolled, rolled, it was all over YouTube. And you'd kind of, it's never going to give you up. Yeah. You'd click on it.

Sitting there. So, um, no, a lot of that. And, but no, I don't self-dine myself. Oh yeah. You're missing out. It's, it's really great. I mean, uh, Nick, you work out to that fallout score, don't you? You're, you're, uh... That's true. Yeah. Um, listen, I hope you start working out to the Tomorrow War school. Yeah, I'm excited to. Track seven is some heavy lifting. I guarantee you. All of my resentment of Mitch's success being channeled into my deadlifts. God damn it. It starts so slow. It's, it's slow, but then it really starts building up to really fast tempo. So you can use that one. Right. We'll take a break. We'll be back with more dough boys. Welcome back to dough boys. We are here discussing Taco Bell for the seventh time. There

are now as many Taco, Taco Bell episodes as Mission Impossible's. Our guest is Lauren Balfe. Which, which is also, by the way, an all equal quality to the Mystery and Impossible films. Yeah. Um, this is going to come, Taco Bell seven's coming out before Taco Bell six, which is just the dumb. Yes. Just shows you how dumb our podcast is. Shows you how bad we are at this. Lauren, Lauren, we gotta, we gotta ask you, you, you mentioned Abbey Road and like a fool. I was like, wow. Um, but is that, is, is it crazy to work? Is it, is it crazy to work in that place? I mean, just going to, it's like, I'm sure it's like the White House or something. I mean, it's, it's a mecca. It's, it's the best.

Yeah. It's the, it is the, I don't want to be favorite to a certain studio. Um, uh, but it is, it's the history. It's the, it's the sheer history of every studio you walk in. And also when you, when you're in Abbey Road, you, um, the, the instruments, uh, there's the, there's the piano that the Beatles used literally sitting there that you're allowed to use. And the microphones were recorded the Beatles and, and the stones and, and it's, it's, it's the history that, that you kind of absorb. And also the, wait, look at the film schools and, um, I was there. I think I had the last, I had the last, um, music session there before COVID shut down. Wow. Um, for Black Widow, which also comes out around the same time. Um, uh, but it was, uh, it was the last, yeah, it was the

last time people worked in that studio. I don't know, half a year, probably an orchestra. It was, it was crazy. Um, but, but yes, it is just the sheer history. And then of course you see all the photographs on the wall and you see Sinatra, all these people. It's just true. It's truly, um, amazing. And they've got a great canteen. It works out well. That's huge. That's, that's, that to me, that to us should be the most important part, Nick. Lauren, have you, have you ever been on the Astoria? That's, uh, the David Gilmore's recording. It's a houseboat recording. Oh, no, no, no. But I have, I have, I have, uh, I have watched shows about it. It looks fantastic. It looks, it looks cool as hell. Yeah. And also Ian,

God, what's his name? There's a bank of the lightning seeds and he's got a house, uh, a boat with a studio on it also. I want to, I want to visit the Astoria. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be the person who sinks the Astoria, but I want to go on. I want to check it out. Oh, Lauren, we, we got to get, we got to get into food a little bit. Um, you got to tell us just about your favorite places to eat in London, just in general, but also you brought this up to us while we took a break and we didn't think of it, but we need to talk about it. We got to talk about British fast food. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very important. It's very important. It's very important. It's, it's, it's, you know, some of the fast food, some of the fast food has become

kind of parts of, of, of vocabulary in Britain. Um, there's a chain called Nando's. Yep. Yes. Now, is that reached America? I can't, I think there's like one in New York City and yeah, there's, there's, there's a few of them, but not, not too many. Yeah. No. Well, no, but that's kind of, there's a whole expression, do you fancy it? It's a cheeky Nando's. That's what everybody calls it a cheeky. A cheeky Nando's. I love that cheeky Nando's. So that's kind of, that's kind of started taking over Britain and also just, it's kind of, it's, it's somewhere. Yeah. It's, there's an infamous black card apparently that they give, they give to kind of famous footballers or famous celebrities. Wow. Um, that means you get free indefinite food.

Man, if I got, imagine if we got one of those bikes and maxed it out. Yeah. It's supposed to be indefinite. So there's kind of, there's that, but also there's a massive, a chain called, um, Greg's and Greg's, Greg's specialized in sausage rolls. That is, that's the funniest. Burger King McDonald's in Greg's. Greg. It's not as bad as, it's not as bad. There's another chain actually that I, I, so I'm from Scotland and I, it's called Spud, uh, Spud You Like. Spud You Like. I like that. Spud You Like. You Like. Spud You Like. Yeah. Spud. Spuds. Spuds, uh, potatoes. Yeah. Yes. And is it, is it basically like a French fry? No, no, no, no, no. No, no. It's just jacket potatoes. Oh, all right. With different fillings,

but Spud You Like is a, yeah, that, that's kind of a, um, a famous one. Um, but then the, yeah, but Greg, but Greg's is just famous for the sausage rolls and also now they're vegetarian sausage rolls. So it's always in the news with like, I think Piers Morgan was doing a campaign to try to get it, um, closed down or something because, uh, it shouldn't be a sausage roll. Um, but, uh, I don't know. I can't keep up with, um, and then there's, what is he doing? What? I, uh, I don't know. I think he's coming over to America. Is he really? He's been in the, yeah, he had a show in the U.S. Piers Morgan tonight for a while. Yeah. And CNN. And then I don't, I just know that he's been, he had a reputation for being annoying on Twitter,

but I don't know what particularly. I think he just likes to pick fights. Shutting down. He's shutting down fast food restaurants. I don't like, I don't like that. He's becoming, yeah. Well, yeah, I think it's just the fact that it's vegetarian, but anyway, but there's, um, but no, there's other ones that's a great, there's an old chain called Wimpy, um, Wimpy, and, and they used to kind of, their specialty was the big bender, which was a Frankfurter and they, they kind of, they vanished and they started coming back again. And then there was little chef, which was purely motorway stations. See, Lauren, if you, if you tell me what does the big bender mean in, in like, in London,

if you say the big bender, I would for sure think it means some sort of fornication. I would think it means some sort of sexual act. Good God. Oh dear. Oh dear. The big bender, it doesn't sound like a hot wise. You gotta, you're, you're, you're on me with this one. No, you're not, you're not being a cheeky Nando's right now. You're definitely, you're definitely not. But anyway, but the, the ironic thing is, I don't have a driving license. I never get to experience things like little chef because I can't go motor ways. So it's kind of dull. But that, so that's our kind of, and then there's new ones now, like Leon, which is very healthy, healthy food, very healthy.

And then, and then sandwich chains, Pretta Manger, which kind of, I like the fact I put an accent on there by accident, Pretta Manger. You sound beautiful. But it's, it's, it's like when somebody says, oh, I went to Paris and I visited the, I did, it's, it don't have the accent. Right. But, but Pretta Manger, I think they're in New York now also. Okay. What about fish and crisps? Sorry, what? Wait, you just call them fish and chips, right? Fish and crisps. So Mitch is over-correcting because he knows the chips are called, American chips are called crisps. They are still called fish and chips. All right. Well,

after I, after I had a big blunder with a big bender, I wanted to try to, I wanted to try to over-correct. I thought I was, I thought I was doing a good job. But I, but I, I'm in New England. So we have fish and chips. And I thought maybe it was fish and crisps. Oh God. Fish and crisps. You're doing fine. Yeah. There's a big, there's a big chain over here, could Harry Ramston, which is a fish and chip chain. But I don't eat fish. So don't even ask me about how that is. Oh, wow. You don't eat fish. No, no, no, no. But do you eat meat? Yes. Yeah. So is this just a, an aversion thing? Like you just don't like fish? I, I, I used to, and then one time there was a Guinness and Oyster bar.

And it was free. And I just drank Guinness and being Scottish, I was like, it's free. I'll take it. And I, yeah, I couldn't walk for like three days. Oh my God. So, so I've never gone near anything from the ocean. And I'd definitely never, never gone to the Guinness either. Wow. Guinness done too. Damn. That's a, but you know, the funny thing is, is that with, with like, I kind of spend a lot of time back in LA and back and forth. And the kind of, the, I ended up, I still end up always going to the king's head in Santa Monica. Yes. And even if it's been like three or four days, I go back to LA and it'll be like, oh, I've really fancy shepherd's pie or something. I'll never eat that in Britain. That's the weirdest thing. Wow. You

don't eat that or, or Cornish pasties or things like that. I'll never eat that. But go over to LA. There we go. The E owed king's head for cuisine. Wags. Have you, have you frequented, Wags is down that neck of the woods. Have you frequented that, that spot? Oh yeah. I know the king's head. I'm sure you do. Yeah. There's another spot. Oh man, I think it's closed now, but there was a, there was another, because there's, I've heard there's a, the largest percentage of British expats in the US is in Southern California. I, where I'm from Long Beach, there was a, there were a bunch of British pubs and British tea, tea shops, I guess you call them, but there's like a tea and sandwiches like tea rooms. Yes. Yeah. So there's one of those right

around the corner from the king's head for many years. I think it's sweet green or something. Yeah, that's right. I think it closed, I think it closed down and it's, and it's the fact that they, all the expats, they just, they go into the shop. There's the ye olde shoppy, which is next door to the, and everything is like seven times the price. Yeah. Oh wow. That's, that's the American way, baby. Yes. You want your hula hoops pay up? They do, they do have hula hoops there actually, but it's about $9.50 for a packet or something. It's insane. But God, they taste good. Well, Lauren, today we, we ate it, by the way, I'm going to say this, well, I'll introduce the restaurant and then I'll tell this story, but we ate at a place you've never eaten at before.

This is your first time eating there. Yeah, absolutely. And this is, this is, I mean, we love the fact that you hadn't tried it. This is an honor to have someone trying this restaurant for the first time on the podcast. The thing is, is that I think that the suggestion of another place got mentioned. I was like shaking my head with anger. It was like, no, this is why I thought, I thought I need to get something that you guys can get also. So it was kind of trying to connect it. And, and yeah, I'm still alive. So cut me that bad. Well, Lauren, Nick and I actually love this place. We're big fans of it. I'm not sure. I've never been to Taco Bell outside of the, the States, but from the pictures you, you showed us some pictures before we started. It looked

very similar, but we're, of course, we're talking about Taco Bell today, your first visit. And Nick and I, I can't even count the number of times we've been there, but probably more days than we've lived. But we all, we all went to Taco Bell and I just had to say that before, last night when I was getting talked about, my mom came back with steamers. She came back with, with steamers or just clams, you steam them in a pot. And so last night I had a dinner of like I had a bunch of clams and then I went over to Taco Bell and I ate Taco Bell. And let me just say that it was a weird night. It was a strange night. It was not a good idea. It was not a good idea at all. And then you lie down in bed with your mom and watch pans labyrinth. Man, this is a weird

feeling. She was eating Junior Mints and I was still eating clams. But, you know, a strange combo. But I got to say, Nick, once again, I had a really good time. I had, I had some fun stuff. Right now there's a promotion in the States. I'm not sure if it's over there, Lorne, but the naked chicken chalupa, which we've never talked about on the show, which, which is a very haven't that's what Drop King was saying. And if he's wrong, because we've gotten it before and I really enjoyed it. If he's wrong, he's fired. But he said that we've never, we've never, he said, he said that he said that we've never talked about it on the podcast before, which is basically a fried chicken sandwich. But the chicken is like the shell of the taco. They fill up the cheese, the lettuce

in the sauce are all within this, this shell of chicken, which you eat. A lot of people like this. Nick, I got one last night and I think they're, I think they're pretty good for, you know, for, for Taco Bell. I went to the Quincy, the same Quincy Taco Bell slash KFC that I always go to that's on Hancock street. They're pretty good, but I don't, I'm not blown away by these things. I don't like the fact that the chicken is the shell. I like a, like, what's the, you know what I mean? Like I like to have the meat in the sandwich. You know what I mean? Like I like, But for the size of it, what, where do you get these chickens that have got that amount of skin to make it into a shell? That's, you know, questions that we should probably think of more

often on the show. But that's a, that's a great question. I think this is like, maybe you shouldn't think about it. It's, oh yeah, we probably shouldn't think about it. It's a nightmare. I mean, it's, it's either a pressed chicken patty. It's either a pressed chicken patty where it's just like, it's assembled from the ground meat of a bunch of different birds. It's just holding up a picture right now. Do you see it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It looks quite thick though. How thick is the skin? Yeah, it's pretty thick. It's pretty thick. It seems like a, it seems like a chicken breast. I think there, there are just, there's, there's kind of the top, that's the top view. It is hefty. It's not, it's not small. A lot of fixings in the, in the middle there with,

with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and whatever the sauce is. That chicken has like got pork belly fat in it or something. It's thick. There's something going on with it. My, my, my gastro experience was, there wasn't that unfortunately on the menu. Yeah. It's probably, my guess is, it's like probably like illegal outside of the States. They don't let people eat it. You know, the funniest thing is that I lived in, I lived in California for 15 years and it, it wasn't until the last four years I had Mexican food. Wow. How about that? Never, ever had it. The best. And there is a great restaurant called Taco Porfa Vol. Oh yeah. Wow. There's one in Pico in Santa Monica and one in Venice.

And, and basically now it's like, I think about it all the time. It's, it's, it's fantastic. But, but yeah, never tried, never tried Mexican food until, until, until recently. And then again, until tonight. Wow. That's, and you know, a lot of people, they get, they get mad at us when, like, uh, you know, we'll say like, is this, you know, Taco Bell is classified as Mexican food, but it scratches that itch of sometimes you want pizza and sometimes you want dominoes and sometimes you want Mexican food and sometimes you want Taco Bell. You can crave Taco Bell specifically, but California, Nick, you know, you say that I'm mean to LA a lot, but I've said it plenty of times. Mexican food was lower, lower on my list of favorite foods. And then when I went to Los

Angeles, it's, it's near the top. I mean, it's right up there with Italian, which I love Italian food forever, just because I love pizza and spaghetti and stuff like that. But, but that and Mexican food are like hand in hand for the, the 1a and 1b spots and no one, and no one does it better than Southern California, except, you know, if you're in Mexico and, and, but that's the best. Some people say Texas, which I think is fair. You're just, you're, they're wrong. They're wrong when they say that. I love it. They're going to be very mad at that, but they're wrong. Southern California has the best burritos, tacos that you can, can you can find in, in the States. But this, this is obviously a different ball game.

Taco Bell is a different ball game. Laura, what did you, what did you get? Started off. So, so there was, there was something that looked like an octagon that, that seemed to kind of had fit layers in it. Crunchwrap. Crunchwrap. That was it. So that was, that was, I was thinking about that. And then the one thing that we can't get in Britain is hard shell tacos. Wow. Really? So anytime the, the Mexican restaurants that are here just seems, they doesn't seem to exist and you can buy the tacos. So now they're bringing them in, in the supermarkets, but in the restaurants, nothing. You can't. But I put, so the Crunchwrap looked, that looks troublesome. That looked like that could take a,

take a while. And then so basically to go straight for it, I wanted, I just wanted a hard shell. So I got a crispy taco with beef. And then, but then also I thought, I just like the name. I got a beefy nacho griller. Hell yeah. Which I, which I, which I said to you, I believe have been discontinued in the States. Nick, I don't know if you can, if you can do some research on that, but I, I'm looking through the menu. They took away a lot of the lower grillers. Maybe that's the one that remained, but that, I think that that's maybe gone. What did you think of it? Did you enjoy it? Yeah. You know, the thing, the thing is, I can't remove the fact of the price from, from it all.

I just can't believe that, that something that costs the same price as my Kit Kat did. Yeah. It's not far from it. You know, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's crazy. Two pounds, two pounds something. So, so just to clarify, so in the US, Taco Bell is known as like a budget friendly option. Like everything is very, very cheap here. Everything is very affordable, but you're saying in the UK, there's a huge premium, a huge markup. No, I thought, no, he's saying, no, he's saying the opposite. It's saying it's close to the price of the Kit Kat. Yeah. Oh, I thought you, okay, I miss her. I miss her what you were saying. You fool.

Now I'm not being a cheeky Nando. But then the thing is that the concert, and then the, you know, and then I got some Natchez Bell Grande, Grande, Grande, Grande, and then the fact, I really did put thought into the fact that I wanted to make it kind of a, the complete it. I'd never also, churros, churros. Churros, yeah. Churros. Which you showed us pictures of that, that looked, looked very good. Apologies about my co-host. He's a, he's a big bender. So. But also I like, I, I, I hope you appreciate the fact that I kind of, I, I styled the food for you. Yes. It looks good. I put it onto plates and I actually used portrait mode on my phone and, and layered it and positioned it just so it kind of looked,

it looked, you know, a higher presentation. You got, you got, you got to, you got to forward those photos along to us because we're, we are truly fascinated by the churros. The churros looked, the churros looked legit, Nick. We, in, in, in the States we have, they have like synestic desserts. Cinnamon twists. Cinnamon twists. Yeah. They're not like a proper churro. They're not a proper churro. Those looked proper. Yeah. The one you showed us, Lauren, was twisted like a pretzel. Is that how it comes? That's right. They're very small. Very, very small. Okay. Very delicate. But, but you know what? The whole, I'm glad I tried it. I, I don't, I couldn't, I don't feel that I had Mexican though. Yeah. No. Yeah. It's, it's,

it scratches a different itch for sure. It was, I have, I now have an itch by, due to the beefy nacho grillo. But, but, but yes, it was, it was, I didn't listen. The itch was the, the crunchy taco because it's just something I've, I've just missed in a year. And that's when I get at a taco por favor. It's, we, we, we all, it's, it's near our studio. So, you know, the breakfast burritos, but it's the, the crunchy taco shells. It just, we, we all miss it so much. I, I'll go, I'll go sometimes when I'm flying back, I go in just to get the sauce they do to take back. Wow. I love it. That's, that, that rules. I also, I also liked that you stayed away from trouble. You were like, oh, the, the, the, the, the crunch trap looks like trouble. So I stayed away. Nick

and I, you might as well call us Chevy Chase and Demi Moore because we're nothing but trouble. We look for trouble. Demi Moore, which one's, which one's Demi Moore? Demi Moore is, she's, right. Was she in nothing but trouble? Or am I wrong? Is that who the cast is? I think it's Chevy Chase and Demi Moore. And then Gabriel always says that me and him look like the two baby twins in it that are played by Dan Ackroyd. Dan Ackroyd's in like a gross old, is it? I think Wow. You were right. Yeah. It was Chase. It was Chase and Moore and then John Candy and Dan Ackroyd and supporting roles, but uh, but we, we, we miss that one. We, we, we seek out those, we seek out those things that look awful and try to eat them. I did not have, I did not have a

crunch trap this time, but I got quite a few items, too many for already having a plate of steamers, but um, I got, I got myself wags. I got the naked chicken chalupa, which I, which I, like, I enjoy. I don't think it's bad. Um, but, but, but you know, like, I think it's a little bit overrated, I guess. But I, I, I, I like the fact that they, they, they make, they, they seem to design things for parties. It's like, this is the plan. We are having a crunch wrap craving meal for 10. And it's, it's, you know, there's thought, there's thought put into the fact that it's, you are going to have, you know, I was reading this, there's a very famous, so famous, I can't remember her name, food critic in Britain. And she was, she, she, she, you know, goes to mission

and star restaurants and she, um, she does TV shows and, and, and she writes about the food, not being great or sometimes it's good. But she was talking about the most important thing that they, they said, oh, well, it must be hard because when you're with friends, you're sitting there moaning all the time and it's like, there's going to take out. Oh God, it's not going to be good enough. She's saying that the most important thing is, it's the memories and, and it's the connection you have with the people with takeout food. And, and, um, and, and it is that when I, when you were young and everybody would order a Chinese takeaway, you kind of, everybody kind of bonded around this, this in the room, not necessarily around a table

because you knew that you were going out that night. So you just quickly eating it. But it is the memories of, um, the, the memories that you have. And that's, I suppose not to go too deep, but I suppose that's the kind of the whole thing that they, they're branding with the, with the packs. To me, when I, when I saw the photo, it looked like it would feed about 500 people. Layers of, layers of food. It says, it says in parentheses, 500 people and then parentheses or one Doughboys podcast. I have, I have a lot of memories of fast food with me and Wally and Irma, my two cats and that's pretty much it, the three of us eating together. But you're right that like late night McDonald's or Wendy's runs and stuff like that. There is a lot of nostalgia

and memories tied into that stuff. And Lauren, we've said this before, but if you bring a party pack, if you go, if you swing by McDonald's and bring 25 cheeseburgers to a party or you bring a thing of, of, of Taco Bell tacos, the crunchy tacos, you're a hero. People love it. People really love it. It's a, it's, it's, it's a great party move. And there for sure is, there is for sure a bond over that. I, I, I, I, I get accused that I'm a feeder because basically what, what I do is that with my team or whenever we're working projects, it's always bad hours and it's kind of anti-social. And I just, I kind of go onto those postmates or delivery or Uber, whatever it is and shop, shop, shop. I just, I love knowing that everybody's like fed. So, you know, they,

Kris, Krispy Kreme donuts. Here we go. Five o'clock in the afternoon. Boom. Ordered. And it's, it's, it is, it is a funny thing that it's the same with the pizzas. It's, it's, it's just great to know that people kind of looked after and food, food is just a great bonding. It's, I used, I used to kind of, when I first started, I didn't, there's a few, a few years I didn't get paid, but I got paid and food basically. It was like, there's your lunch and there's your dinner. And, uh, it was, you know, there was no talking during the meal, obviously. It was a quick, quickly, quickly, um, quickly get it in, in you. But, um, but yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, I'm, I'm with you in the, in the fact of I love, I love ordering up a big

order of food at night. Like, uh, when, if I went on back on the East Coast, I'll order up some Chinese food or Wags. Our friend, Harris Whittles is the guy who I remember having McDonnell, like that was the first person I ever saw pull that move of having a plate full of McDonald's. And our friend, Jack Allison had nuggets in a sweet and sour fountain. Do you remember he did that? I do remember that. He had like, like a chocolate, like you would have like a fondue, like a chocolate fountain, but it was sweet and sour sauce. It was the most grotesque thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It looked absolutely revolting. I was, it was a rare social gathering I attended, partly because I just wanted to see this abomination. But I got to say, that was,

it was good. It was a hit. It was a hit. Dipped it in there. It was fun. It was a hit. Do you get over in Britain, we get curry, they get curry sauce now. Oh, no, but that sounds great. At McDonald's? Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's my, because my children have just, I don't know, but they're at the age of the happy meal has just, yeah, has just entered the house. Yeah, that's big. And it's just continuous talk about the happy meal. It never stops. It's like, at Christmas time, you know, what do you want from Father Christmas? Happy meal. It's just, yeah. And it's so clever. It's so clever. They're branding and everything, but they've, I think they've removed all the plastic toys now in Britain.

Yeah. That's gone. There's some that are still in my house from 1986. So they last a long time. Yeah. They last, they last too long. I got, I got a couple, I got a chicken chipotle wrap, which is a, which is a new, oh, I'm sorry, chicken chipotle melt, which is a new one that I really like wigs. And I got a beefy five layer burrito. I'm not sure if they have that in London, Lauren, but it's a, it's, it's, it's very good. It's one of my go-tos and a cheesy gordita crunch, which I, that's my favorite. And I don't, I hope that's in London. I'm not sure if it is, but what's it called? A cheesy gordita crunch. Oh, is that the thing that looks like it's non bread? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. There's a crunchy taco inside of the soft bread.

What's, just so I understand, what's the point in that? It's, you know what, a lot of people may ask that, but the thing is, is that it works so well together. You get like, you get the soft shell on the outside, then you get a nice crisp, you get the nice crisp bite of the taco when you're going through it. Nick, you got a, there's a layer of cheese in, there's a layer of cheese in between. There's a layer of cheese in between. It's, it's fucking delicious. It's really three of the chicken skin in the chicken skin. The chicken skin, the chicken skin is just on its own. It's just in a, it's just in a little, uh, it's in a little sleeve. That's it. And then, uh, all chicken skin, there's nothing, this, this has layers. This, the, see the, the, the naked chicken chalupa,

it's fine. The cheesy gordita crunch, this is like the Big Mac of Taco Bell. I think this is like, this is, this is, this is their crown jewel. This is the best, this is the best, this is the best thing that they got. So I tell you what, the worst thing about this is that I now feel hungry. And I literally ate about, not necessarily related to anything you've just talked about, please know, but the fact is, is that I now, uh, I'm now just, yeah, I'm now dreading. Yeah, I shouldn't, I shouldn't have eaten so early. This podcast will do that. It's, it's a bad podcast in many ways, but this is also one of the ways is that it gets people hungry. I, I, I also got the, the, the, the signature item of Taco Bell, which is the Abaha

Blast Mountain Dew. I got a large one of those and why is I got a soft taco supreme, but they gave it to me non supreme. There was no, there was no white, that's a bummer. I opened it up. There was no white sauce in there, no sour cream. So it was just, it was just regular. I should have gotten a Doritos Locos taco because of, because of tomorrow or a month. And we, I had a whole, the whole thing with Pratt back in the day with, with parks and on parks and rec. So I should have gotten Doritos Locos taco. I did not get one and I was sad to see my, my, my taco was not supreme, but I had a good outing at Taco Bell, especially after eating steamers. It was more It sounds it. The list is continuous. It is, it is, it is, it is finally done.

It is, it's finally done. It was an embarrassing amount of food I still got after having steamers, but they, it was great. It was good. It was good. Once again, I don't have to say that much more about it. Nick, what did you get? I know. So I, Lauren, we're disgusting. We're, we're, we're, we're truly pigs. I probably would, I probably, I probably would have overordered also, but the portions are small though. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. They are, they are, I mean, they, they want you to try a lot of different things at Taco Bell, which is a reason that we like it. It's, it's, it's the, it's the, that fun aspect of it of trying a lot of different things. Okay. Well, that, that I didn't know. I literally, it was just like unwrapping this thing smaller than

my hand and go, okay, this is, this is delicate. So we gave you both a not great tasting small dinner. So we apologize. That sucks. Sorry about that. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. It's, it's kind of a Taco Bell kind of has the and a factor when you're ordering where you're just like, you always want to add one extra thing because for that same factor, Mitch. And I went for, because we've reviewed Taco Bell twice in recent succession, I went for breakfast. Just to mix it up. And here's what I got. Sounds like you're writing fucking Taco Bell copy. That and a moment. Sounds like a horrible Taco Bell fucking commercial. Get me in that room. I would love, I'd love to write Taco Bell copy. So the key, I ordered from the in-store kiosk.

And the kiosk has a toggle for veggie mode now. This is new, which is a great feature because, you know, as you know, Mitch, no meat, shall I eat, including a fish, Lawrence a version. I'm not, I'm not, I'm my, all my protein or plant sources are plant-based or dairy. And so you toggle that veggie mode and it displays you a different menu with all the items filtered. It's great. I got the cheesy toasted breakfast burrito potato with potatoes, which is eggs, potatoes, nacho cheese sauce and tomatoes. This was good. I just think that the nacho cheese sauce didn't work well with the acidity of the tomatoes. Like it was just like not a great, not a very toothsome combo and not enough egg. That said, I did get the breakfast version of the crunch wrap.

The aforementioned hexagon and that is, which is eggs, hash browns, cheese and creamy jalapeno sauce with no bacon. Cause that's how it comes. If you get it veggie style, this was Mitch, this was, this was a home run. I don't know if you've had the veggie, the breakfast crunch wrap before. I've had it a couple of times, but if, if Taco Bell is your breakfast option, this will do you proper. It's delightful. I loved it. Every bite was great. My learning curve of the breakfast burrito with taco puff of all, I, I remove everything from it. I, I remove potatoes. I remove cheese. I keep, it's like, there's nothing left in it for some reason. You know, the potatoes just make it already the size of your head. I never understand that.

And then cheese for breakfast, I suppose it's German, German, Germany, you eat cheese, but yeah. In the States, I feel like if I had eggs without cheese and I might be mad, I think that that is it's a pretty American thing. We'd be livid. Yeah. Cheese is, I guess we probably just eat too much dairy in general, I'm sure. Yeah. There's cheese on the wafers when you, when you, you know, go to church. It's just everywhere. Man, I'd love that for communion. It's no, but I get, it's like bacon though. My God, it's everywhere. Yes. Not enough pigs, are they? We're making them. We're pumping out the pigs. You can take that in any, any context you want, but we're pumping out the pigs and wags. If there was cheddar in the communion wafers, I think you and I would be

signed off to be altar boys tomorrow. How old are you? I also got the layered vegetarian burrito, Mitch, which is the vegetarian version of the beefy five layer burrito. And let me tell you, without the seasoned beef, I substituted the, I substituted some jalapeno peppers for the seasoned beef, which is beans, cheese, and then nacho cheese sauce. That's a great, still a great menu item. It doesn't need the beef. It still works. It was delightful. The thing they have for breakfast is the breakfast salsa, which I'm not sure if you've tried it, Mitch. It's kind of a variant of the mild sauce. Okay. The breakfast salsa. I have not had it, but that's, that's, that's good. I wouldn't get it. I mean, I would, I would rather have mild sauce. I definitely

prefer the fire sauce I got to it. I also got a Cinnabon delights two pack. The Cinnabon delights are great. I just can't have them because they're just too caloric, but they're delicious. I love the little, the little pop of cream you get and the, the, the cinnamon coating is so great. And I also got the Mountain Dew Kickstart Orange Citrus, which was a great pop of cream and then the weirdest, I don't know if you've got it in America, but they, they, they had, they had literally a tortilla just with cheese. That was it. Oh wow. Oh yes, we do have that. Is that the cheesy rollup? Why? Oh yeah. Yes. Cheesy rollup. That was it. Nothing else, just cheese. That's, and you know what? It's fantastic. It's actually really good. Yeah, I love it.

If you dip it into a pot of cream. All right. I said that a little inelegantly. I also got these, as I mentioned, the Mountain Dew Kickstart Orange Citrus, which is like their breakfast. I would get this at Taco Bell over their orange juice. I think it's just a better breakfast beverage there. And it's like, it's, it's just like, because it's a little less thick, it feels a little bit more energizing. I tried it once and I didn't love it. I thought it was a little too energy drinky, but I, but also that was the first week they had breakfast. So I don't know if it was like a bad version of it, but it's, it's pretty good. Mine was good. Mine I liked. All right. And like I said, I get it over the Taco Bell orange juice.

But we should get to our final thoughts on Taco Bell. So Lauren, I forgot, I forgot, I forgot, actually I got a side of, which I've never, nacho cheese. Wow. That's, yes, that, that's, you did it. You did it right. That's that you did, you did it the American way to get that side of nacho cheese. That's, that's, that's the way to do it, which is a thing, you know, I don't take advantage of, I, for my meal, I got a bunch of mild packets, Nick. I'm a, I like the mild sauce at Taco Bell. It's my favorite sauce at Taco Bell. But they will just give you sides of sour cream, sides of nacho cheese, whatever you ask for, they'll give it to you at Taco Bell. Well, they, they give us ketchup here.

Yes. Your picture, your picture, you showed us a picture of a taco in a ketchup packet, which someone at Taco and at the London headquarters, Taco Bell, someone needs to be talked to about this. What is, what is happening? We'll have ketchup on cereal. No, I sent, I sent, I sent the photograph to Samantha, who worked on the film. And, and that was the first thing she pointed out was, what did you choose the ketchup? Samantha knows what's up. That is, that is such a strange bizarre. That is such a strange thing. I didn't think anything odd of it. I didn't think anything strange. I thought, thank God,

thank God there was some ketchup. Did you use it on your menu items? No, I focused on the nacho cheese instead. God, good. Thank God. And also, you know what? I was about to produce some jalapeno sauce or chili flake. And I thought, no, I need, I want to experience what the, what the spice levels were. I like that. I should have, but I didn't. It's, it was a worse meal for you, but you did it for the dough boys. I did it for the dough boys. And I did it. I did it. I did it for Chris and I did it for

Samantha. And I did it. I did it for the tomorrow wall. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Well, on that note, we should get to our final thoughts on Taco Bell. So Lauren, here's how this will work. We'll each go around, give a summation, a close of our thoughts, a closing argument, if you will, on this chain and then end that by giving it a score from zero to five forks. So your thoughts and then your fork score, you are a guest. We'll begin with you. Oh, I think I didn't get to experience it in house. So I can't, I can't comment on the surroundings. I think that I'm going to give it three forks. Three forks. Okay. Is there a possibility of half a spoon or not?

Yes. Yes, absolutely. I'm going to have, I'm going to have three forks and a teaspoon. And a teaspoon. I like this. This is, we now have a London rating system, which is... And well, I've been planning it for my new podcast show that I'm starting. And yeah, you know, the thing is, is that it's, it's, I'm, I am really glad I tried it. Not, but again, three and a half, because I think, my God, it's, it's a great price for people. And, and I made, I may try, I definitely, now I know I can get hard shells. I think the next time there's a, there's an itch, but I'm never going to go, I'm never going to go near the, the octagon. It just... No. Crunch wraps.

Lauren, I gotta tell you, you, you should enter the octagon. I think you should enter the octagon and try it. I think you will enjoy it, but the cheese, the cheese you go to the crunch, you would, you would, you would like. I think that, that's one, that is one that it's worth trying. The octagon, entering the octagon, I don't think you'll, I don't think it will do you wrong, but cheese you go to eat a crunch if you go back. That or the chalupa. Chalupa, one of the two, that will, that will, will go. But anyway, three, three, three forks and a teaspoon from me. Three forks and a teaspoon, which seems like it translates to two tines from Lauren Balfe. Mr. Slice, what do you think? Well, you know, there's, there's

obviously differences. We haven't been able to try the, the, the London, the British version of Taco Bell Wags. And I think that that's something. Not yet. That's not yet. I think it's, I think it is our duty that we have to try it at some point. But you know what, the American version, as you know, Wags, I love, even after a plate of steamers, even after feeling terrible all night because I ate the combo, I still loved it. And I will go back and I would do it again. It was worth it. It was worth sweating like I ran five miles for the rest of the night. It was, it was, it never really lets me down. We've been critical of Taco Bell because they've taken off some of those menu items. And I'll tell you this, last night, the, the drive-through was

out into the street of Quincy, Quincy High graduated last night. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Quincy High School, which was the rival high school, I went to North Quincy High School, but Quincy High graduated last night. So I don't know if a lot of kids celebrate and in the line of Taco Bell slash KFC or what it was. But big line, like I said, I covered everything that everything was honestly was good. I, I gotta, and the, you know, put, I, I covered my stuff in that mild packet, the mild sauce and I, and I love it. I was on cloud nine while I was eating it. And then, you know, cloud one or two after I was eating it, I was, it was a whatever cloud the toilet's on. I was,

I was on that cloud. It was half the menu. Come on. It was, it was, it was far too, it was far too much food. And I should, I should deduct some points for the, the, the soft taco not being supreme, but I'm going five forks again. Why? Cause what the hell can I do? It's, I love Taco Bell. I feel bad now. I love it. No, no, don't, don't feel bad. You shouldn't feel bad. I basically ordered, I basically ordered for a drinks party. I basically just had canapes from the sound of it. It was just. That falls to us not giving you more guidance. I will say that the, I had a great experience going to Taco Bell for breakfast. I love Taco Bell. I think it's great. You know, I'm Southern of a heat seeker and I think their fire sauce delivers with a great amount

of heat, a nice amount of heat, but also good flavor that they, the, the tier above that doesn't quite deliver, but the fire sauce is a great sweet spot or spicy spot, if you will. I, I, and let me just say this as a, as someone who's not eating meat, they're, they're the most accommodating of veget, to vegetarians of basically any chain. I mean, like, like if there's another one that's up there, it's like they're, they're 1a or 1b, but they're definitely, I sound like Bill Simmons for a second. Taco Bell is like 1a. Del Taco is like 1b. I said that earlier too. I said 1a anyway. Simmons is creeping into the podcast. He's creeping into us. Oh God. We're going to be talking about how, how the, the Celtics would have repeated without

Kendrick, if Kendrick Perkins was healthy in a second, which is true, but go on. I was going to say, but it's, it's a great vegetarian option, great to indulge and I think it's all really flavorful. So I'm not going to go below five forks. Why would I? Five forks for Taco Bell. Lauren, no, don't feel, no, look, it is a different experience. I'm sure there, there's, there's, there's got to be a difference with, with that, that Atlantic ocean. I'm not sure how it travels over the, over the Atlantic. So, and I have heard that it is different, like a, when we, when we have Canadian guests on the show and stuff, there are usually big

differences between restaurants in the States and outside of the States. So. Listen, I, I had once I went to, I was in, in Vanessa in Scotland, right at the top and we went into McDonald's and we ordered a Big Mac and I remember we got home and there was no meat in it. Oh no. So it's a sure taste difference then. It sure tastes different. Can't drive back for that one. Yeah, that's, that's rough. Maybe they know that. They know when no one's coming back. Great profit margin though, isn't it? Yeah, get out. Nobody will know. Going home with a barrel of meat every night. It was at like 2am in the morning. So.

Yeah, they probably just thought you wouldn't notice if you're ordering at 2am at that time. Yeah. They probably thought I wouldn't notice either with my, with my Taco Supreme, but I, I notice why. So I'll never forget it. No. But a good score once, a good outing by Taco Bell once again. Always love me some TB and hey, it's got the plate club. It got the international treatment, which is, which is cool. There you go. There you go. Global. It's pit bull. You see, it's global. We'll take a break. We'll be back with more dough boys.

Welcome back to dough boys. We are here with our guest, Lauren Balfe. And hey, it's time for a segment. I've got a set of jingles and Mitch and Lorne must guess what year they released. It's another edition of jingle all the way, spelled W-H-E-Y. Yeah. Now here are the rules. Whoever guesses closest to the year without going over gets a point. And if you guess the year exactly, you get two points. That's the art and marine rule. Can I just once again say that the way is bad? Who eats whey? What are you talking about?

Look, it was W-E-I-G-H. Oh, Emma got mad at me when I said who eats whey. You eat curds and whey? No, but like whey protein, like it's a, it's a kind of like whey, like protein shakes and stuff. I don't know. I've never even heard of whey. There's also a guest suggestion, I believe, to change it to W-H-E-Y. Oh, which ever, so I'll say this, just not knowing who it was, they were true dipshit, whoever suggested it.

I looked it up, Mitch. It was First Lady Michelle Obama. God damn it. You might be in trouble. So, Lauren, here's how this all, we'll play a clip, Emma will play a clip, and then you both can watch it and yeah, guess which year it came out, try to get it exactly right or at minimum, don't go over. And you may be at a little bit of a disadvantage, because some of these will probably be- Because I'm Scottish?

These will probably be mostly- What? No, I meant to- A day. I didn't mean to like that. A day. These are mostly American commercials, I'd wait. I thought the game was branding, but dates, this is going to be difficult. Come on, that's- Well, we'll see.

Lauren, I'll tell you this, you're probably going to, my ass is probably going to be handed to me. I think you're going to kick my ass, but we'll see what happens. Don't count on it. Don't count on it. We'll see what happens. All right, Emma, let's play the first of these commercials. This is good.

Sorry, what's it called? Watch it. Watch it Macaulay. Watch it Macaulay is the candy. I'll watch it Macaulay. And Lauren, I will say this. I do specifically remember this commercial as a child, so this is maybe- But there are a lot of clues in this, just in how stupid that commercial is.

Yes, it is an animated commercial, kind of a Lickenstein kind of aesthetic. To the characters. So yeah, there's maybe some clues in there. Yeah, the clue I'm going to go, you see, even the piece of music sounds very like Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm McLaren, so it's a copy of that album where they were jumping in- What's it called? Where people jump up and down around a rope.

Jump rope. Jump rope. Jump rope. There we go. Gosh, that was complicated. His jump rope. Buffalo girls. Okay.

So that's Michael McLaren. Do you say Michael McLaren? Malcolm. Malcolm McLaren. Malcolm McLaren. See, I would hear Malcolm McLaren song and say, that sounds a bit whatchamacallit. Like that would be the exact opposite.

Malcolm McLaren. So with that date, okay. You get the first guess, Lauren. Why? Okay. I mean, you can pass. You can have a minute. Yeah, you could.

If you want, if you want to pass to me, I can take a first guess as well. Yeah, first guess, just so I just want to think for a second. So my guess is, and this is just going off of like memory, when my sister was getting, like my sister liked watching McCallott, since she got to watch McCallott. I'm thinking this is early 90s. I don't know. I'm not sure if that's what you thought, Lauren.

And I think that this is 1993, is my guess. I think it could be 94, but I also could be a surprise and be 1990. I really don't know. Like it's, it's 1993. But 11 years old for me, I would be all about around 11 in 93. I turn 11, a 10 or 11. And so I think that this is, I think this is 93. But I have no idea.

I truly don't know. This could have been in the 80s, like 80s. And it could be, you know, early 90s or mid 90s. So Spoonman guesses 93. Lauren, what do you think? Oh dear. I'm going to say, I just think 95 is too late. But it's just based on music nerd over in London.

I'm trying to kind of, I'm trying to think, well, it did sound like a Fairlight Series 3 being used for the backing track. So I'm going to go for Right Dead on 1990. Wow. 1990. I love it. Yeah. Amazingly, you both overshot it.

This came out in 1987. Wow. Yeah. Seemed early to me too. Lauren, you were right with the early, you were right with the early, earlier prediction. I mean, that, that seems like such a 90s commercial. It does.

Yeah. But no, Fred, 87. There you go. Emma, let's move on. Let's play the next one. We've made, the first question we've made our guests mad already. What are we doing? This whole podcast is an exercise in agitation.

We just, see how far we can push someone before they snap. All right, Emma, let's play the next one. 87. I noticed that because it said copyright and I, and I was trying to, I was trying to peer at it. Oh, hey, that's fair game. Fair game. Fair game.

It's in the commercial. All right. I could not read. It was too, it was too staticky, I think, for anyone to pick up on. This is, this is, this, this seems earlier to me, but Lauren, we're going to let you guess first on this one. Oh dear. Okay.

I think 70, 77. Wow. That's a great guess. 1877. 1877. There's just something to do with the attire of, of, of the young people that I probably was, my, my parents were probably wearing. So I'm going to say 77.

Not even 77. I'm not even going for my own, my own birthday. I'm just saying 77. 77. Yeah. 77 is a great guess. Wow. Mitch, do you remember this jingle?

This was, this was a jingle I thought they got a layer of airplay in the 80s. Of course I do. I do remember that this and, and I do remember in the 80s. In the 90s. And so, so I'm wondering too, but I do think that it was around in the, I do think that 70s is the good guess here because I do think it looks. It's not a guess. It's.

There was also a very interesting, they were going through everything and then there was like a big group shower scene here, Nick. Did you notice that? There was a. Yeah. That was, which was very interesting. I'm going to go. I'm going to be just kind of snuck it in there.

They snuck it in there. Slow mo. It was very, it was very, it was very strange. I'm going to go, my guess is going to be right on the dot. The turnover into the 80s, 1980, exactly. No way. No. No.

No. I can't believe that. Lauren says no way, but it actually is exactly 1980. You get two points. Oh my God. Oh, we're getting it on the dot. Nineteen and Lauren. 1980.

I guess 1980 because you brought me down lower. I suppose I'm more, I'm more looking at it from when was the concept created, you see? So they probably, they probably were thinking about it around then. Okay. Yeah. Fine.

There was a nugget of an idea for this that they were like, we need to do like a, sometimes they feel like a nut, like a big shower scene at some point. And then it was. Created in fact. Let's do the next one. Let's, uh, let's look at the next one. Oh my God.

Damn me. This is tricky. Now, I got to say this, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm at an unfair advantage on this one because it was my first acting role, um, as you saw in the commercial. Yes. There's a big orangutan. I was the king ape.

So that's not fair to Lauren, but, uh, am I, am I the, I'm first guest on this one, huh? Oh God. Uh, yes. It falls to you. And you said maybe some early, you know, some clues possibly it's, it was either stop motion or could have been some early CG. We had an ocean made of peanuts.

This, this is funny to me because I think it looks it looks good even though it looks shitty. Like it looks, right. It looks like Sega time. Yeah. It does look like Sega time. I agree with that. Around Sega time.

I'm, I'm, I'm going, I might go a little late here and it might get me in trouble. I think I'm going to go 1998 just based off some, some weird feeling I have about it being later in the, in the, in, I almost went 2000s. Honestly, I almost went the year 2000, but is that too, is that way too late? 21, 20 years ago. We'll, we'll, we'll stick with your 1998 Mitch. Okay. For your guests.

It's times like this. This is where the sequel is for the tomorrow. You wish you could go back in time to find out what it is. Tomorrow or two has the most low stakes. It's the most low stakes sequel of all time. You go back in time for the dough boys podcast to get the, the answer right for the most amount of money spent on a podcast created. So what, uh, uh, can I just, can I just, can I just see the beginning?

Just, can I just hear the beginning again and just see the beginning? I just want to see that animation because that's, There goes Emma's pulling it up. We have an orangutan wearing a scuba mask and a snorkel swimming in a sea of nuts. There's a good transition. There were peanut turns into a volleyball. It's like, we get another shower scene. This was like a theme.

You know what? I'm now starting to think that 98 is maybe, I may be fucked up. Well, you're locked in. Lauren, what do you think? You're locked in. Um, I'm just, I just can't believe animation was like that 20, 20 years ago. Oh, I'm going to have to, I just, I feel such a failure. I can't, uh, um,

1990, 85. Wow. 1995. Wow. If I can, if, yeah. Wow. Lauren, you came awfully close, but unfortunately you just overshot it. 1994.

Oh my God. It was the year. You, you were completely onto something with Sega times because that's kind of the heyday of the, the, the genesis moving on to the Saturn. No point for that. Yeah. There's no, there should, there must be a point for getting one point, at least a teaspoon, half a teaspoon.

Come on. Okay. I will give, this is the Lauren Balfoural. You get half a teaspoon for coming within a year. If you're. Wow. I love it. All right.

We've got a couple more. Emma, let's play the next one. 1994. Jesus. It looks good on the set. Yeah. Yeah, really? It does.

So, we've got a group of different people popping into frame. I'll enjoy on a colorful background. It's pretty straightforward. Now, whenever this was, it should have been assigned to wrap up the universe because it just isn't good. No, it's kind of a. It's just a bummer. Kind of a dull ad.

It's, it, it bums me out. We, the society has run its course at this point when you're seeing this commercial. But I, this one, now Lauren, I'm going to let you in on this. I'm going to, I'm going to give, because I, but I don't know. This might be bad intel, but I think that take fives came out when I was in Los Angeles. Is that, like, I feel like they're a newer candy bar, which is 2005, but. Yeah, it's definitely, but also it's, it's kind of like the quality of the pictures. But it looks like that guy from, uh, Saved by the Bell.

You know, the one that got done with the video with the. Oh, Screech. Screech. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. RIP. It, it, it looks, it looks like across.

It's like Saved by the Belly and also a little bit of friends. Friends. Friends. Yeah. It looks, wait, am I guessing first or second? No, you just keep talking. Keep giving me your reasoning. Keep running down the list.

So friends, you see, I thought friends and friends to celebrate 21 years, wasn't it? Or something for 20 years? I think 17 years was the, uh, they've been off the, it's been 17 years since the finale. Yeah. Um, I need to write down, uh. Wow. Only 17 years for friends, which is, which is crazy. I'm going to say, uh, um, tooth, uh, God, wait a minute.

A tooth, mm, 2000 and, uh, 2008. Wow. 2008. That's a good guess. That's a good guess. Yeah. Hmm. Now here's my question for me.

Now, Lauren, I'm in a good position because second is a good position to be in. Do I go after, am I betting this is 2009 or later? Or am I guessing before, or am I guessing before, or am I guessing before, which would be, I would guess like 2000. Um, maybe you're right with that. You're probably right with that. Or I could guess year zero statement. Yeah.

That's what I'm going to say. All right. Lauren, I'm going to guess zero AD. Yeah. To be a huge asshole. There was no year zero, right? Oh, God dammit. From one BCE straight to one CE or AD, if you will, if you will.

What does that mean? Do you try to, are you trying to give me a DQ? I'm saying there's maybe, there's no year zero. So I think you got to have a different guess. All right. One AD. All right. I'll allow it, but I don't like it.

Fine. Here, here, here's, here's what I'll say. Try a real guess. All right. A real guess. Do I go 2009 or do I go before it? God, I've forgotten already what my number is. You said 2008.

2008, yes. Yeah. That is dead on. Fuck, I don't know. I really don't know. Then. I'm going to go 2000 and, I'm going to go 2009. Mitch.

Wait, is that fucked up? That is low. You, you went from one, you went from one AD to 2009. So you were trying to go before and then you jumped to right after. I think that, I think that it's, I think it's like 2000. I think in my head it's, it's earlier, but I don't know. I think that it's like, I want to guess the year I graduated college, which is 2005.

Okay. But I'm just. Is that you, because you've got, you already guessed 2009. Now you're going to 2005. I was going to, all right, I'll, can I, am I locked in or no? I'll just, just give me your guess. This will be your final guess. 2005.

Mitch, you are going to get a point here because this take a five ad came out in 2006, one year later. Oh my god. Amazingly predating 2005 by just a little bit. All right, we've got one final one. And I'm not going first. I'm not going first to this one. All right, Mitch, you'll go first for this last one.

And Lauren, you're, you're playing for practice. I get all the information. I give the clues. Say, uh, for it's, it's. Lauren, you know what? I feel the last one I don't feel right about. So I'm going to say this wigs. This last one is worth three points.

Wow. This final one will be with three points, whoever comes closest. I mean, I still want to win. Yes. But this will be the deciding one. I assume you both don't overshoot it. So Emma, let's play this final one. Let's play the fifth one from this list.

So an interesting aesthetic there. We've got a guy kind of mugging to the camera a lot. And the film is sped up with a lot of frames taken out, taken out. So it feels kind of stop motiony, although it's live action. And we've got a guy who's physically stretching apart various household items. So like a mirror, his TV and, uh, and a couch. Yeah, it was, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was unfair the way that I had my guests last time.

It was fucked up. That's fine. I should not just because that, but listen, it's wool. It's wool. That's right. Well, Lauren, I'm going to just go flat out, say my guests this time right now. I got one locked in and this is just based off feeling. It's based off the feeling that I used to watch this commercial

and I know this commercial and I, and I'm not sure when it was, but I think it's 1989. That's what, that's, I'm going to go in the 89, not too early in the 80s. Give myself some room in the 90s. But I, but I think I, I'm guessing it's the year 89. I really think it's, it might be that year, but I don't know. 1989 for the Spoonman, Mike Mitchell. Lauren, what do you think?

It's, listen, we know it's, it's definitely 80s. It's, it's, it's doing that, that most slow, the animation motion with that, that, you know, like Peter Gabriel's big time was done. And it looks a bit like a go west video. I'm going to say, I would say 1990, but my odds aren't good. So I'm going to say 89. I'm thinking, I do think 1990, I didn't, no, 1990, no. But it's, I'm going to go, I got to go for 89.

Also going for 89. Is this allowed? I guess so. Yeah, why not? No, it's not. Go ahead and get a priority on the date. Okay, I'll say 88. 88, it's not 90s.

It's 88. 88 for Lauren. Well, I mean, you both, I feel like deserve the three points because you both got it right on the dot. 1989 is the year it came out. Well, I never. So how about that? So I guess this ends in a draw.

Yeah, but I can't date the credit for copying. I simply. No way. This is, this is, I think this is a beautiful ending. I think that is, I think there's nothing more beautiful than that, that we both had the feeling of 89 and it was 89. I followed you, I followed your intelligence and wisdom and basically just repeat and repeated it.

Lauren, you are, you are, you are, you are such a talent, a billion times more intelligent than Weiger and I combined. And thank you for playing the dumbest game on earth. That was very stupid. But you both win and you both get a teaspoon for your trouble. So how about that? Wait, what were we betting on? What was the bet originally?

Oh yeah, a voucher for Taco Bell. A voucher for Taco Bell. We both get, Nick now has to send both of us vouchers for Taco Bell. All right, fine. I'll do it. That was Jingle All the Way spelled W-H-E-Y. And by the way, those were compiled as always by the drop king, Robert Persinger.

Just like a restaurant, we value your feedback. Let's open up the feedback. Today's email is from Mitchell from Arkansas. Mitchell writes, I know, like your name. Do you guys have any knockoff snack items that you think are better than the original? I've been really into the Trader Joe's rolled corn tortilla chips lately

and find them superior to Takis. TJ's version has maybe slightly less heat but are just of a higher quality version of Takis. Love the show, PS What's Up, Drop King. Hmm, I feel like I know why Drop King picked this email. I'm curious, Lauren, do you have the equivalent that we have in the U.S., you lived in the U.S. for some time. But is there the same sort of phenomenon

like your local grocer will have its own store brands, knockoffs of existing snacks, and other foodstuffs? Oh, like Trader Joe's stuff, no. Yes. Yes, there is a little, there's a chain where it'll change the words on things. So if, like, hula hoops, it'll be, like, cooler, cooler, cooler hoops. It's literally changing the first word and everything. But yes, oh yeah, no, there's, yes, yeah, yeah, there's little and,

God, what other one? A little bit, little's the main one where the word, instead of a Kit Kat, cat, cat, I don't know, cat cock or something. No, it wouldn't be called cat cock. It's cat or something. I'm buying those bad boys. I want some cat cocks. This is a great question, and it's one of those questions

that I sadly feel like I don't have a great answer to. You know what I really like is I always like the store version of a restaurant salsa, when it's like restaurant style salsa. Sure. And it's like the stop and shop, which is a grocery store here, or, you know, like the Vaughn's restaurant salsa. That's one that I can think of off the top of my head. But there's no, like, knockoff of, like, Coca-Cola.

That's better than Coca-Cola in my mind or anything like that. Nick, do you, does anything come to your mind that, like, a brand that you like better? That's the thing, it's like. I was going to say better, maybe not, but, like, I also appreciate. For me, I was thinking of the all the doctor, the myriad Dr. Pepper clones. Oh, those are good, those are great. The Pepper Soda.

I think those do a better job of simulating Dr. Pepper than the Coke clones do. In particular, the one I remember getting is Dr. Star. We'd get Dr. Star because it was a value over Dr. Pepper. And Dr. Star would always do you proper. The other thing I was going to say is, and I like them alongside the name brand that they are a knockoff of, but the Trader Joe's Baked Cheese Crunchies, which are their version of the Cheetos. Those are great. Those are really good, and they're a little lighter than Cheetos.

I still like Cheetos. Give me Cheetos, especially if Lamin' Hot Cheetos any day. But if I'm at Trader Joe's, I'll pick some of these up, and you know what? I'll enjoy them. I'll enjoy the whole bag. Yeah, those, that's, I mean, Trader Joe's itself is, like, to me, is, like, the answer. Like, Trader Joe's is, there's so much stuff from Trader Joe's that they make. Their hummus is the best.

Yeah, how? So much stuff that is just fantastic, like, you know, their oven pizzas and stuff like that. They have, like, an Italian, like, all that stuff is great. But does that count exactly in this scenario? Why, because I don't know. Well, I'd say that if it's a straight up clone, like, that's intended to be the clone of the Cheetos. It's tended to be their version of a Cheetos. I think that qualifies for the purposes of this question.

Lauren, is there anything that comes to mind, whether in the U.S. or the U.K., any sort of a grocery store brand that you've fancied? What do you mean? As in the concept of the brand or individual items? Just more like the individual item. My God, I sound addicted. Yes, the Marks and Spencer's hummus. Everything's going to end up being hummus, unfortunately.

I love it. I just think, Trader Joe's, didn't they used to do, was there something called one buck chuck or something? Oh, yeah. Two buck chuck. Their cheap wine, Charles Shaw wine. That's right. Yes, I always, yes, I always remember that.

No, God, no, you know, it's kind of, we're very limited with our kind of, everything is, well, look, since COVID, everything just turned to deliveries in London, especially in London, it's just delivery. So everything kind of, there's the main chains, Marks and Spencer's and Waitrose and everything's kind of, but, you know, we've got Whole Foods now. Yeah, we, oh wow. Yeah, we've gone well up there now. So it's, and Whole Foods, it's just too healthy.

Yeah. Just, you know, black seaweed nachos. I just don't, don't get excited over that. I can't, I could, those sound horrid to me. And also, Wax has a saying about Whole Foods. Wax, you want to let everybody know? Yeah, this is a thing I came up with. More like whole paycheck.

Yeah. All right. Lorna signed off. Yeah, Lorna left. I just like the fact that, I like the fact you laugh at it still though. By the way, I have the answer and it has come to me. The best knockoff product are Oreos. They're knockoffs of Hydrox cookies, Wax.

Wow, wow. Hydrox came before Oreos. That's right. Oreos are second. Yes. Not quite a store brand, but I think fits for this question. Yeah, why not? Store brand, no, I mean like, I love a store brand pizza sometimes.

We've talked about some of these like the 365 or whatever. They're all good, but like, I don't want the fake version of Coca-Cola over Coca-Cola. You want the Coke, you know what I mean? Come on. You generally do, unless it's just so cost competitive, you can't resist. We've actually got, there is one. There is, there's a very famous TV show called Peppa Pig. Oh yeah, Peppa Pig.

Peppa Pig. And there is a supermarket that created their own brand. They go into competition to it of confectionery. And they've just called it Percy Pig. Wow. Wow, wow. And it's obviously pig related, but I just, but that's very close on the nose, that. Yeah.

I'm actually suing both those companies over likeness rights. It doesn't be the questions and comments about the world of chain restaurants. Doe boys podcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 830 Godot. That's 830 463 6844. And to get the Doe Boys Double, our weekly bonus episode, you can join the Golden or Platinum Play Club at patreon.com slash Doe Boys. Lauren Balfe, what an honor to talk to you. Truly.

Sorry. Sorry, we had to talk about something so stupid, but we loved having you. Actually, there's another one, Tuck Shop Pig. It was called Tuck Shop Pink Pigs. That's another kind of, Tuck Shop Pig, Pink Pigs. Yeah. Anyway, there's so many, there's so many pink knockoffs. It's insane.

I know. Yeah. The film is the Tomorrow War. It's streaming on Amazon Prime July 2nd. Your score is great. And Mike is brilliant in it. Oh, Mitch is great in the movie. Lauren, your score is so fantastic in it.

In it. It's, it just makes the movie so much better. The movie's great. And then your score is so fantastically good that, that I'm going to be listening to it on, on, on my phone forever. I love it. It's, it's, it's so good yours. And you, and me and Y's are such big fans of yours.

It was truly an honor to have you on the podcast. I love, I love, I love your show. And I was quite, I was quite nervous with the whole concept of, of, of, of, of remembering fast food change. But then it hit me, like Gregg's and, you know, it's just the, there is a fountain of fast foods. Britishness that is yet to be discussed. Oh yeah.

And I mean, we're, we're, we're, once, once the world settles down, we owe, we owe a London live show. So we, we got to, we got to come out and try, and try, and try some of those. Try, come over, come over and try out a little chef. We got to, we got, we, we, we, we got to try everything. And Bleecker burger that you mentioned. Oh yeah. Blee, yeah. Bleecker burger, but then it's, it's, it's, but you know, it's, it's costly.

It's, it's restaurant, kind of professional, but yeah, Bleecker burgers are the best in Britain. We're cheeky Nando's, we can afford that. Cheeky Nando's, yeah. Listen, you need to get some of your guests to see if they can get a black card at Nando's. That would, that would be fair. Yeah. It'll be funny when, if we try to request one, we'll just get that big old denied.

We'll get black listed. Yeah. Lorna, the tomorrow war, anything else you would like to plug? Anything else you get coming up? No, my, no, no, focus is tomorrow war guys. The focus is tomorrow war and our sequel and our, and our prequel for the show. Where we travel back in time to get the answer to the food quiz. That's what I did.

I didn't tell you guys that I had, I had my arm band on the entire time. But no, Lorna, truly thank you so much for doing this. My pleasure guys. It's so lovely speaking to you. Yeah, you rule. And hey, that'll do it for this episode of dough boys. Until next time for Mr. Slice, Mike Mitchell, I'm Nick Weigher. Happy eating.

See ya. Want more dough boys? Check out the dough scored, our discord server. You get dough scored access plus the dough boys double when you join the platinum plate club at patreon.com slash dough boys. That's patreon.com slash dough boys. Want to see the sources for this week's intro? Check the episode description.

That was a hate gum podcast.