Fine Dining - Jollibee Is a Filipino Treasure

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

🍗 Jollibee Is a Filipino Treasure 🍗 This week, we dive into the sweet, crunchy, culturally iconic legacy of Jollibee, the Filipino fast food chain with a bee mascot, a cult following, and a spaghetti recipe that would confuse most Americans. But to millions of Filipinos, it’s more than just a restaurant—it’s home. Joining me is Jason Patrick Galit (JPG) from InterMyth, who grew up with Jollibee and has the love to prove it. From his first spaghetti to a fried chicken hand towel, this episode is deeply personal as he offers a lot of amazing insights into Jollibee's cultural significance. 🍝 Sweet Spaghetti with Hot Dogs: Where It Came From 🇵🇭 Jollibee = Cultural Ownership & Diaspora Pride 💃 A Bee Mascot That's Slightly H*rny 🎤 The Chicken Outage That Brought a Country to Its Knees 💥 A Deep-Fried Hand Towel Can't Ruin Jollibee's Image 🍞 Michael's Garlic Bread Spaghetti Sandwich Recipe (!!!) 📱 Benny Blanco Got Dragged for Disrespecting the Bee 🤝 How Jollibee Connects Families Across Generations 💬 COMMENT BELOW: What was your first Jollibee experience? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, full Yelp segments & more): https://www.patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@finediningpodcast 🔗 All links: https://www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 JPG on IG: @SpeakerJPG | Website: https://www.intermyth.org Patreon Producers: Sue Ornelas & Joyce Van 👉 NEXT WEEK: We taste the real deal—fried chicken, spaghetti, palabok, and more—as we visit Jollibee in-person to see how it stacks up to Chili’s.

Jollibee, a cultural touchstone from the Philippines, Jollibee has expanded to the US, Europe, and beyond, and it is having a moment. Looking to establish itself as a top dog in the pantheon of successful restaurant brands, Jollibee owes its growth to the deep enthusiasm it inspires in its fans. If you've ever wanted to know how many Filipinos live within a 30-mile radius, open a Jollibee somewhere entirely new. With a Jolly Ass Bee and a chef's hat for a mascot, this little engine that could has won over the hearts of many with its themes of happiness and joy. And it's not just Filipinos.

Seemingly, everyone not named Benny Blanco gets excited over what's considered to be some of the best fast food fried chicken out there. In fact, it's so beloved that not even an accidental deep-fried hand towel can deter patrons from rolling the dice. Jollibee's other offerings look slightly more unusual to those with Western palates, most notably a sweet spaghetti with hot dogs in it.

I ate it, I tried it, that's all I'll say for now. This week on the show, I'll deep fry my peaches of knowledge and stuff them into your hand pie of curiosity so that you too may become an expert on all things Jollibee. Then we'll turn our focus to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the Jollibee that we went to. Stay tuned. This is the Fine Dining Podcast. Your table is ready, take a seat The flavor of the day is mediocrity

Wouldn't you like to try a bite? Guarantee it'll be the perfect bite Fine dining, better than you thought, worse than you hoped Fine dining, we don't treat mediocre as a joke Breaking every single place we've been Compared to the perfect five out of ten I'm going to tell on myself here And I don't know the hand towel reference

That you are talking about right now You will? No! Okay, because I thought this was like, oh, this is gonna be like something cutesy that we wrote for the teleprompter. This is a thing that happened? This is a thing that happened and it made no dent

in people's opinion of Jollibee. They were like, well, you know, sometimes you fry a hand towel, you move on. So we'll talk about that later. Hello and welcome to the Fine Dining podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornelas. And in this show, we dive deep into the history of our favorite chain

restaurants one week before seeing how they compare to Chili's the next. Why Chili's, you ask? Because the original premise of this show was a search for the most mediocre restaurant in America, and Chili's you ask? Because the original premise of this show was a search for the most mediocre restaurant in America and Chili's won the crown. And now that we know what's exactly average, we can deduce that anything better is objectively good while anything worse is objectively not.

This week on the show, we will be learning about Jollibee, a treasured fast food chain from the Philippines that has expanded into the United States. Joining me today is an amazing speaker on the convention circuit, a content creator, a tabletop role-playing game performer, and a geek educator. It's Jason Patrick Gallat, aka JPG. How's it going? Thank you so much for having me on.

Yeah, of course. It's fun to get to do something that is outside of the pop culture circuit, but then it also involved eating, so I was very excited for this. In a weird way, I would almost argue Jollibee is having its time in the pop culture. I feel like it's growing. More people are hearing about it. It's very present on like social media and stuff. People kind of trying the more, at the risk of sounding like ignorant or racist. Not racist, but like the things that to an American sound weirder.

Sweet spaghetti with hot dogs cut up in it. Sounds like something that it's just not offered, especially at fast food. The spaghetti and fast food, you go to a sit down restaurant when you want spaghetti usually. And I've heard, okay, I do in the place that I live in Southern California, there is one drive through Italian restaurant.

Is it Fazzoli's? It's not actually. Okay. Yeah. But it's still confusing, right? Because like, you think like, oh, like Italian food, that's gonna take like time and love and like somebody's known it back there, right? Nope.

Like, they've stripped it down. And it's so, so I do get the apprehension when it comes to people's first time at Jollibee itself. I haven't done a fast food Italian place. One, because Fizzoli's is the only one I know of. But two, I am part Italian. And I was born in Chicago, where there is so much authentic. There's a lot of Italians in the Chicagoland area. So every Italian restaurant that you want to go to is like

a mom and a pop. So it's like fast food, Mexican and Italian are just like the two things that I don't really do. I do mom and pops everything else. I guess Chinese food, but like even then, it's it's just Panda Express in like the fast food around. So, yeah, anyways, Jollibee is the point of today's episode. I didn't have a history with Jollibee going in other than this Jollibee that we went to

is at the end of the first street that I ever lived on in Los Angeles. I was crashing on a friend's couch for about a month and a half, and there was a Jollibee right at the end of the street. I'm talking, I was a block away. And then just no itch to visit. I saw it and I was like, ooh, I like...

Anything with a mascot kind of gets my attention. Okay, okay. It really does. And then I proposed the idea of, oh, is Jolly be any good to the people that I was living with? And I think they were just underwhelmed with it or they had been or they heard it was weird or whatever. And I was just kind of like, okay, whatever. And I just didn't go. I was only there a month and a half.

Yeah. And then I started hearing about specific things on the menu and I think my reaction was fear. Okay, but like I get it, right? Because there's kind of like a cultural street cred when it comes to trying places like this, right? Like, I liken this to the idea of being invited to the cookout, right?

Sure. A Filipino that you trust has to let you know how good this place is, and then you feel more comfortable in order to share that experience. And a recommendation goes so far, especially when it is from someone of the culture that the cuisine matches.

Yeah, because if I walk into a P.F. Chang's and there are Asian people, I'm deeply confused. I've seen it and I'm just like, come on. Yeah, like, what are you doing, right? You know? Don't you know? Did nobody tell you? And so, Jollibee for me, and I think just culturally,

as a Filipino-American, it's one of those things where, like, you can't tell somebody that wants to try American barbecue to go into a McDonald's to get a chicken nuggets and the sauce. Or a McRib. Or something. Yes, thank you. McRib, much better comparison. Thank you for that.

But... But that's not barbecue. Yeah. Yeah. But you can tell a person that, hey, if you don't have any other Filipino food places in the area, you can go into a Jollibee and get an incredible sense of what you would be experiencing culturally. Yes.

Like you had mentioned in the intro, this has been a, it's kind of a cultural staple in the Philippines. And having gotten to spend some time there at a much, much younger age, you know, it's one of a cultural staple in the Philippines. And having gotten to spend some time there at a much, much younger age, it's one of my first formative memories. Like, oh, it's like, is there McDonald's? It really is. I mean, when you even talk about it

from a marketing standpoint, right? Because a lot of my business has to deal with brand management and it uses all the colors that you would experience from from McDonald's, right? Like studies have shown that red and yellow are always going to be very appealing to people's appetites, right? We have a whole bee that's red and yellow and ready

and just ready to dance at any moment. Because if you've seen the Jollibee TikTok, right, it is you can tell first and foremost, there's a Filipino person in that suit, right? Because with the Filipino kids, you can either sing or dance, okay? If you can do both, then you're famous. But all of us can do one or the other.

You can quote me on this. Okay. Um, amazing. So that's your history with Jollibee, my history with Jollibee. Do you want to hear the history of Jollibee? Oh, God, I'm so excited for this. I specifically didn't study because I wanted to hear it from your perspective. Great.

We're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eatery Details Jollibee started as a family-run ice cream parlor in Manila founded in 1975 by Tony Tan Kak Tiong. In 1978, the business pivoted to hot meals and officially became Jollibee, opening its first restaurant in Quezon City. Tan's small venture quickly transformed into a popular local fast food outlet, laying the groundwork for an emerging Filipino fast food empire. It's wild that we started with ice cream.

Shake Shack started as a hot dog cart. And I say we because, and I made this joke during lunch also, that if one Filipino makes it, we all make it. Yeah. Right? So I feel just as responsible for Jollibee's success than like Bruno Mars' success. Yeah. Manny Pacquiao.

Right? Yeah. We all won those times. You're all really good at boxing. You can sing or dance or box. But that's why it makes... It does make so much more sense to you because we are an island nation and known for having very hot seasons. So it does kind of make sense that, you know,

we were like a little sweet treat spot in order to start, right? Of course. 1970... 1975, so 50 years. Whew. I'm glad we're doing the episode this year too. Right, he said 1975. 1975, so 50 years. Whew. 50 years. I'm glad we're doing the episode this year too.

Right, right on around. Well, but technically 78 is when it became Jollibee, so. I mean, no. But we're gonna fudge it. We're getting there, we're getting there. In the 1980s, Jollibee experienced rapid growth in the Philippines and managed to outshine even McDonald's when the American giant entered the country in 1981. Jollibee's strategy was to cater to Filipino tastes

with a menu quite different from U.S. fast food. Think sweet, jolly spaghetti with hot dog slices, savory burger steaks with gravy and the now famous chicken joy fried chicken. This localized approach summarized by the catchy tagline Langhap Serap, meaning delicious aroma. Did I say that right? Or was I even close? We got there. How would you say it?

Well, let's leave it in. Let's... You say it though. So it's langhap. Langhap syrup. Langhap syrup. Yeah. Okay.

Which means delicious aroma, endeared the brand to Filipino customers and gave Jollibee a winning edge on its home turf. So McDonald's moved in three years after they became Jollibee a winning edge on its home turf. So McDonald's moved in three years after they became Jollibee. I think they felt threatened. There's a hierarchy of how you are experiencing food, right? One is fast food, then it's a restaurant,

and then somebody's grandma makes it for you. Right? And so I kind of understand that. I understand why McDonald's would be so threatened, right? Because there's a cultural touchstone that Jollibee really capitalized on when they first opened up. There's a lot of cultural baggage and a lot of cultural triumph

when it comes to Filipino food in general. Do we know why, you know, about the sweet spaghetti stuff or anything like that? Are we ready to get into it? No, no, if you know something about, like, why. Okay, so, we're gonna look at the... just like kind of the basic ingredients right now, right? When we were ordering, it was a burger steak that was available.

It was fried chicken that was available, and it was spaghetti, right? Mm-hmm. A lot of Filipino cuisine comes out of necessity. And a lot of that necessity was a lot of food that was left over after World War II. Okay. And so, what's the big thing, right?

Is that my spam? Yes, yes! Was it like ration, like canned food? Yes! Interesting, I didn't know that. Yeah, so it's, you know, a lot of U.S. military logistics, right, that it's not gonna come back with you after an enormous war. So you leave it with the people and out of...

It's beautiful to me. Out of resourcefulness. Out of resiliency, right? Another thing that you're gonna leave is just mounds of pasta and noodles that you're just gonna leave there. But sauce is not probably gonna be in strong supply. Yeah. So you use the things that are around you.

And the sweetness comes from a banana ketchup, which is gonna be a staple in Philippine cuisine and Asian cuisine in general in the area. And the burger steaks as well, right? You have these patties. Well, okay, but now you don't have the bread with it or anything else, well, what are we gonna do? Oh, we're gonna pair it with rice and then make sure to season it in the ways that we are...

We're... What your palate prefers. Yes, yeah. Something that we recognize. And so I love that tidbit because it shows the resiliency and the adaptation that Filipinos really kind of embody. Like, as soon as you said it, I was like, that makes so much sense,

but my brain would never have made that connection without it. Are you a spam fan? I am scared of canned food. Look, I'm just scared. I'm a timid boy. Okay. But, okay, is there any scenario where you would try it?

Yeah. Okay. Because the one thing that I was like, we were at the restaurant and I was looking and I went back in the restaurant, I was like, oh, hey, like, give me a second. I was trying to see if spam was on the menu. Oh. Because I was like, I have to grab it. I thought you were just doing like a drug deal.

You were like whispering to employee. You like you passed something to them in a handshake. I'm not sure what it was. It was for the mango pies, I'm not gonna lie to you. Yeah, I mean, I look for this show, I'll try pretty much anything unless it's like, I just, I don't like cheese. My palate doesn't gravitate towards cheese,

but also there is some conceptual issues I have with cheese, like just kind of like, how it's achieved, it's kind of, hey, we just left milk out for a really long time. I know I'm simplifying. Yeah, but like, who figured it out? That's the thing. Who is the... Look, there were kids in middle school

who, and look, bless their hearts, they're, uh, they're able to eat whatever. I was never the kid who could be like, give you 10 bucks to eat that. That's just not me. You know, the kid who puts like 15 salt and pepper packets in his chocolate milk and then dumps a scoop full of like cafeteria pizza or spaghetti or something in it and mixes it up. Those are the people who are finding cheese. Those are the minds that take, well, actually with cheese,

it's like, oh, this went bad, but we're starving, so let's try it. Necessity, I appreciate that. Necessity. And then I just have some other things with cheese that, like I've highlighted before on the podcast, but just like, how many guests have been mad at you for your cheese takes?

Mad? Not many, but also- Surprised? All. Every single one. It's like, huh, really? Okay. You're, you're a food guy. You do a food podcast, but yeah, long story short, uh, other than cheese, I will try anything for this podcast. Spam is a thing where it's like it doesn't entice me but Especially if I go to a place that has like a spam dish like is it span musubi?

Is that a spam musubi would be yeah would be more Hawaiian. I guess okay. Yeah, yeah, so I Like I would try that I would absolutely try that or like spam on rice But when I go to a restaurant, and I'm not doing a podcast thing and someone's like, hey, here are your eight protein options for this rice dish. And I see spam on there, I'm choosing pork. I'm usually choosing spam. If it's a choice, I'm choosing spam. Okay.

Yeah, it's just wired differently, but I'm willing to try it. So I mean, at the end of the day, willing to try it, willing to like it even. Well, now we have to find a place in order for you to try it. So, I mean, at the end of the day, willing to try it, willing to like it even. Well, now we have to find a place in order for you to try, Spam. Yeah. Now I have to think of like an actual chain restaurant

that does this for you now. Jollibee introduced its iconic mascot in 1980, a big red smiling bee sporting a blazer and chef's hat, which was deliberately designed to embody Filipino optimism and fun. The mascot, inspired partly by Mickey Mouse's friendly persona, became the centerpiece of Jollibee's marketing, especially aimed at kids and families.

With cheerful TV jingles and a warm homie vibe, Jollibee positioned itself as a family-friendly brand, turning kids into loyal fans, and making the bee mascot a beloved cultural symbol in the Philippines. I'm really glad you brought this up, right? Because I think there is a difference when we talk about family-friendly ideals, right? When does the cross happen between something being family-friendly and infantilization,

right? I liken this to say, Miss Rachel, right? Like, specifically caters towards like babies and toddlers, right? But then we have something like Bluey, and that kind of caters to all ages. It is still family-friendly, but then it's not... It's not making you... It's not simple.

Yes! It's not simple. Thank you. And I think that kids can handle complexity much more than people assume they can. For instance, my girlfriend, she and I took her niece and nephew out to play Pokemon Go for an event yesterday. Yeah. And they conceptualized ideas very quickly

when it was like, oh, you do this to like do X, Y, and Z and like, you know, multi-step processes to like, hey, here's how you optimize winning this type of battle. Here's what you do to like catch things better or whatever. And like, I know it's not a super complicated game to an adult, but it's also not like Candy Land or it's like, here's a color, go to that color. But we also see that this is the first time

that kids are gonna be experiencing these ideals, right? There has to be an introduction at one point so you can get used to understanding tropes and have that pattern recognition for kids. And this is why I love that you've made this comparison between McDonald's and Jollibee, right? Because McDonald's has a cast of characters. You don't see them a lot anymore,

but there were storylines behind it, right? Like, for example, right, there is a... Grimace was sleeping with Ronald McDonald's wife. What? No, I'm kidding. Oh, God. Wait, I was like, wait, did I miss something in the lore? Yeah, you didn't miss that episode? Just Mayor McChese full of corruption, right? Like, just bribing the DA every day, right? Yeah, just taking nuggets under the table.

But my big one, even as a child, I was like, wait, there is there's a burglar type character. Yeah. Oh, gosh. The Hamburg. I couldn't remember his name for the life of me right then, right? Yeah. Like there is this concept that no, this person steals food and money and is a felon. deals, food, and money, and is a felon? But we're kind of infantilizing this to the point of the Swiper No Swiping levels, right? It's like, oh no, they're doing something bad,

but it's still kinda cute. No, Jollibee has no compunctions about that sort of stuff, right? Jollibee, I feel like, would stop a murder in the street. And we've proven this time and again, if you've seen the TikToks. I was gonna say, this is so one-sided because I haven't seen like the Jollibee commercials

and like stuff like that. First and foremost, there is a lot more suggestive dancing than you think. Really? I'm not gonna say it's like, it's not like stripper on a pole or anything like that, but it's very like... That flash dance, they're in a chair flinging their head back.

That Filipino... Water pours down. That Filipino feeling of like, smooth and sexy and... They very much tap into that R&B sort of soul... Oh, great. ...with Jolli Bees marketing on TikTok. I love that. It is so good.

And the eyes move on the suit, which makes it even better because you can make a seductive look now if you close the eyes enough. Yeah. Oh, it's the best. So we're not infantilizing it, right? Jelly Bees can be fun, Jelly Bees can dance, Jelly Bees can do all this stuff, and it's funny for it.? Jellybee can be fun, jellybee can dance,

jellybee can do all this stuff, and it's funny for it. Jellybee can be a little horny. Yes! Okay, but... Food is a little bit horny in general. Oh, yeah. You know, it's going into your mouth at certain times of the day, and you need it. It's a little... Food is a little bit horny.

You need it. Yes, thank you! Right? We can... And food is such a big thing for us culturally, right? Like, Filipinos and Filipino Americans, we have this deep cultural fear of, if you come and visit me and you leave and you're hungry, we failed. Right?

And it's... Jollibee kind of embodies that too. It's somebody who is friendly and engaging and a little bit spicy and funny. And at the end of hanging out with him, you're full, you're satiated, you're a little sweaty for some reason. I don't know. But it really does embody that sort of... that sort of service and that sort of service field that we have for other people. Sure.

Yes. I did feel very welcome there. Good. I'm glad. Just less than a decade after its founding, Jollibee began testing international waters. In 1985, it opened its first overseas branches, including an outlet in Singapore and a foray into the Middle East and Guam. These early ventures were learning experiences. The Singapore store, for example, closed after a year, but they taught Jollibee how to serve Filipino expatriates and adapt to foreign markets.

This expansion strategy of opening where there are many overseas Filipino workers would become key to Jollibee's later international success. I love that you're mentioning OFWs right now. Mm-hmm. OFWs are Overseas Filipino Workers. This is a big thing for us culturally, right? We have full industries that are built around these. For example, have you ever heard of a Balik Bayan box? Mm-mm.

So this is the type of box where it's flat rate shipping. There's certain lower fees for shipping and you fill this huge cardboard box and you send it back and forth between wherever the diaspora is back home to the Philippines in order to make sure that your friends and family and loved ones are taken care of. This is a big thing for us, right?

Because like we pack these boxes of love, right? And with overseas Filipino workers, the number one export that the Philippines does have is its people. And, you know, there's this encouragement to go out there. Do they fit into those boxes? I know! I mean, honestly, okay. As somebody who can't touch the ground right now in this...

Of, like... We definitely fit in these boxes. You could give it a college try, you know? Yeah, we can fit in these boxes. No, but it's this idea that we are encouraged to go out there and build better lives for ourselves and our families. And for better or for worse, there is kind of that expectation to send money back home when you can.

You know, for older generations, this has been kind of the status quo. For newer generations, there is a little bit of a pushback when it comes to that sort of stuff. But I love that you mentioned overseas Filipino workers, because they're really the lifeblood of a lot of different places. Case in point, they just opened a Jollibee at the Vatican.

Hell yeah. Yeah. Hopebee. And there was like, you know, when we were... When we were recording this, right, just a little bit ago, they had just chosen the new pope. And one of them in the running was a very progressive Filipino bishop, I believe, or cardinal, cardinal.

Yeah. And we're all like, oh, is that why they opened up the jelly bee because they were setting us up? Right? Now it's closed. Yeah, right? Now they're like, there's... It's replaced by a Portillo's.

It's just a conspiracy now. Yeah. There's no signage or anything. But it makes sense, right? It's a predominantly Catholic country Yeah, you're going to one of the most beautiful places Yeah, and I was actually just there a year or two ago as well And although I'd missed the Jollibee opening there isn't there are some really good Filipino restaurants out there. Yeah

By the early 1990s Jollibee was one of the Philippines' top corporations, prompting an initial public offering in 1993 on the Philippine Stock Exchange. Flush with new capital, the company expanded aggressively. It acquired rival Greenwich Pizza in 1994 to broaden its offerings in pizza and pasta, and later added other local chains like Chowking, in 2000 to its portfolio. These moves strengthened Jollibee's dominance at home and set the stage for a larger corporate structure, Jollibee Foods Corporation, or JFC, that would own multiple restaurant brands. I was a little bit confused because I was like, wait, wait a minute. They should be serving pizza and pasta.

I mean, they're serving spaghetti. They are serving pasta. Yeah. OK, sorry. In my brain, spaghetti and pasta, two different things. Oh. Is that wrong? Yes, it is. Okay, cool. Okay, because I need an Italian person to tell me that. It's like squares and rectangles.

All spaghetti is pasta, but not all pasta is spaghetti. Ah, okay. I think that's where the disconnect is, right? Yes, spaghetti is the literal noodle shape. Like there's bow tie, there's linguini, there's fettuccine, there's spaghetti, there's angel hair, there's penne, there's, yeah. Okay, I did hear this one time, but I hear that with different shapes,

it catches different amounts of the pasta sauce, so they make it taste differently? Well, I think they pair it with different sauces depending on like the concentration of sauce they want you to have, like the balance. But like, you know, when you think like shells, I think they pair it with different sauces, depending on the concentration of sauce. They want you to have the balance. But when you think shells, you're getting little pockets of sauce.

Or ravioli, literally sealed inside with whatever it is. Yeah, I don't think anything fully ends up sauce-less because of its construction. Usually you do want to catch, but bow tie ends up not being super covered because of its construction. Usually you do want to catch, but like, you know, bow tie ends up not being super covered because of like the ridges and like stuff kind of like falls off a little bit. I'm just, I'm a big fan of noodles and my wife only will eat shapes.

Like exclusively eats the shaped ones. I don't get it. Interesting. She says it's texture, but she's also wrong, right? No, actually the texture texture, I think, is almost the defining thing of the different shapes. They're all a little bit different. They're, like, different levels of chewy,

or, like, the number of layers you get. Like, I'm thinking, like, the little, like, the wheels. You know what I'm talking about? Like, that you only use for, like, macaroni art when you're in, like, kindergarten. You know what I'm talking about? I do. I do. But if you cooked that and you chewed down on it,

you would get compressed pasta at multiple layers, so it's a much chewier experience. So I actually agree with her that texture is kind of a defining trait. Do you sometimes regret that you do this show instead of reviewing pasta shapes? You know, I'm gonna run out eventually Oh god, just it's like the the Sophie's choice of

Podcasting right? You know, you're gonna have to make a bad choice at one point if you're making content. Yeah Jollibee's American Journey began in June 1998 when it opened its very first U.S. restaurant in Daly City, California. I'm sorry. Of course it's Daly City, California. And my next sentence is the location was strategic. Of course it was Daly City, California. Daly City sits just south of San Francisco and has a large Filipino-American community

from the outset. This first U.S. Jollibee catered to Filipinos craving a taste of home, serving up familiar comfort foods like chicken joy and sweet spaghetti. The Daily City store marked Jollibee's foothold in North America and was the springboard for further expansion in the United States. I love that that immediately, you're just like, yup. Yeah, it has to, right? California has the largest, I believe has the largest Filipino population in all of the 50 states.

And of course it's Daly City because it's the Bay Area, right? I think culturally it makes sense too because a lot of Filipinos, especially in the early 1900s came through the San Francisco Bay Area. And this is kind of a fun fact, but not a fun fact, right? There have been two times where the U.S. has made exclusionary practices against specific races

when it comes to coming into the country. Number one is the Chinese Exclusion Act. And number two was against Filipinos because of how good they were at marrying white women. It was a male Filipino workers moving here with the promise of work and with the promise of citizenship who stayed here, loved the country, and started marrying their white women.

They'd started meeting these women in these dance halls. And just like I said towards the beginning of this episode, if it's a thing that Filipino people can do, it's dancing, right? And... Can I ask? Singing or dancing? It's singing for me.

Cool. So with those cultural happenings, right? It makes sense that the very first one is in Daly City and I love that, right? It makes sense that the very first one is in Daly City, and I love that, right? It's cultural. It makes it so we are honoring the people who came before us. And I get it, right? And rewarding them with a Jollibee.

Exactly, right? I get that it is ridiculous to say, oh, we're honoring these people with a Jollibee, right? Here's a bucket of fried chicken. That's how we feel, right? Like any triumph, you know, like when we have these little triumphs, those little triumphs turn into even bigger ones for us. Yeah.

I'm sorry that I passed in the middle of Daly City. I love that. Yeah. Through the 2000s and early 2010s, Jollibee built a loyal following in the U.S. primarily among the Filipino diaspora, but gradually curious non-Filipino locals started to trickle in as well, some won over by the ultra-crispy chicken joy, often touted as one of the best fried chickens, and others bemused by the sweet-style spaghetti. The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain notably described Jollibee's spaghetti as deranged

yet strangely alluring, capturing how perplexing yet satisfying this Filipino spin on pasta can be for the uninitiated. By cultivating this niche appeal, Jollibee gained a cult-like status even before mainstream Americans really knew its name. The spaghetti, okay, I'm not gonna lie to you. Deranged. The spaghetti is a lot. Okay? And it's tough for me, right? Because culturally, we grew up in different ways. That's the first spaghetti I ever had. So having Italian spaghetti was a weird experience for me.

Interesting. Yeah. And... I always think that just what you have first is will... Like, it will always be what you think of when you think of that food. I will say though, right? We did we had mentioned this before. So, you know, y'all have the meatballs. We have the cut up hot dogs, right? Add a necessity and resiliency. I do have to say meatballs are a revelation when you've had when you had Filipino spaghetti first and then Italian spaghetti second. Meatballs are a game changer. I'm always a, I prefer a meat sauce.

I like whatever the meatball is ground up in the sauce. I like it to have like a nice thick spread over the full spaghetti. That's my go-to pasta. A bolognese is to me the pinnacle of a noodle dish for my taste. Okay, I'm a little bit of a heathen when it, to me, the pinnacle of a noodle dish for my taste. Huh. Yeah.

Okay, I'm a little bit of a heathen when it comes to this, right? Because if I'm hitting an olive garden or something like that, I want the meat sauce, which is already gonna be that sort of- And then you get meatballs on top of it? And I get meatballs on top of it, right? It's not a heathen.

Yeah, because I didn't get this when I was younger. Sure. I want all of the smoke now. Right? Yeah, yeah. Also, a meatball sandwich is objectively the best sandwich. My, uh, this is my I'm unhinged, but I stand by it and do it as an adult.

My mom would always make, you know, like boxed and out of a jar pasta growing up. Yeah. And would get like the Texas toast brand garlic bread that you put in the oven. And I unapologetically would always take my pasta with meat sauce and I would put it on that bread and I would put another piece of bread on top

and I would make a sandwich. So it's not a meatball sub, but it is a garlic bread spaghetti bolog make a sandwich. So it's not a meatball sub, but it is a garlic bread, spaghetti bolognese sandwich. And that, to me, you can't beat it. You could have, like, like, 10 years ago, in some old brick gastropub, you could have sold that for $85. Yeah.

And still be the store-bought, like, boxed ingredient. Yeah. You could have... Nobody would have cared, and everybody, boxed ingredient. Yeah, you could have... Nobody would have cared, and everybody would have bought it. Yeah. It's, if you haven't done that before, do it once for me. It sounds like a revelation. Just do it once.

Just like a deconstructed meatball sub. All of you at home, do it. Texas Toast is the brand. Make pasta, meat sauce, put it in. Don't worry about your dignity. Don't worry about it getting all over your face. Turn off the lights. Like unplug your wifi. Don't let anybody watch you do this.

Or if you have the willingness to stream yourself, there's a lot of freaks online. In 2014, Jollibee faced a major operational crisis in the Philippines when a new computer system messed up its supply chain, leading to a shortage of Chicken Joy, the chain's signature product, in many stores. The issue was so severe that Jollibee temporarily closed 72 branches in Metro Manila while scrambling to fix the glitch. Frustrated fans took to social media

with the tongue in cheek hashtag chicken sad to lament the fried chicken outage. The incident highlighted how central chicken joy was to Jollibee's identity and forced the company to improve its logistics. Fortunately, Jollibee resolved the crisis in a few weeks, but not before learning a valuable lesson in managing a growing enterprise's supply demands.

How many homes burned because of this, right? Like, Filipino people... Probably not zero. Yeah, right? Like, Filipino people don't... They don't play about their loved ones. They don't play about food, right? And so, how many riots happened during this point, right? I didn't find any. Like, in terms of the LA riots, like, was it like three LA riots was it six let's let's pull out the scale

Food related right yes, I'm gonna have like three little surfboards here on the wall each tracking different things. Yeah As Jollibee spread its wings globally its parent company Jollibee Foods Corporation also grew by buying established brands overseas in 2018 JFC completed a 210 million dollar takeover of the US based Smash Burger chain and then the following, Jollibee made an even bigger splash by acquiring the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a Los Angeles founded coffee chain for $350 million. These acquisitions expanded Jollibee's portfolio beyond its own Filipino fast food brand and were part of an aggressive strategy to become one of the world's largest restaurant companies.

Coffee Bean? They are owned by JFC now and Smash Burger. Oh, Smash Burger, I'm like, okay, I can kind of see that. Coffee Bean? Yeah. That's, oh, that's mind blowing a little bit. Especially because it's LA based,

that you wouldn't think of it as something that even would be for sale in that way. I do appreciate that they kind of just let them run their own business though. Yeah. There's some takeovers where they'll change certain things and you would notice it, right? Yeah. I wish there was a little bit of a Filipino flair in some of these places. You know, like if you can give me like an ube latte.

I've had like ube ice cream, I know it's good. I love ube. No. No. In June, 2021, an incident at Jollibee went viral globally for its sheer bizarreness. A customer in the Philippines claimed that her takeout order of Chicken Joy

turned out to be a deep fried towel coated in batter. Photos of the blue towel chicken horrified the internet and garnered tens of thousands of shares within days. Jollibee's management acted quickly, shutting down the particular store for three days and retraining its staff. They issued public apologies and emphasized that this was a rare extreme deviation from their food preparation standards. The fried towel fiasco became a cautionary tale

in corporate damage control, but ultimately, it did little to dampen Jollibee's momentum. Many loyal customers chalked it up as a one-off fluke, and the brand's fan base continued to grow. If you're putting all the spices, a chicken joy, onto a towel, I'm still eating the hell out of it. And if you look over there, you can see the towel. Okay.

It's so obvious that that is not an edible thing. But it doesn't look bad. Okay. No. Spices and breading? The fact... I would have eaten it so quickly, I would have never been able to tell that it was a towel. It's a blue shamwild.

Yeah, it's a hundred percent, everybody is right in the scenario. I know me, I would have never caught it, right? I would have eaten- You end up in the hospital before you realized you ate a towel. I'd eaten the hell out of it, right? And so, but also, I mean, I,

my unpopular opinion, okay, this is gonna be mean, I... My unpopular opinion. Okay, this is gonna be wild. I love wild. So please follow me here. You know how some countries have compulsory service, right? Two years in the military or government or anything like that. I think America should be forced to eat a tap. No, no, no.

They should be forced two years compulsory service. When you're 16 to 17, you have to work in a fast food place. When you're 17 to 18, you have to work in retail. Maybe like clothing or like something close to that as well too. I think it would teach everybody to say their pleases and thank yous more, and it would build a more empathetic American culture. I agree. to say their pleases and thank yous more, and it would build a more empathetic American culture. I agree.

But I've worked in food, and I have definitely messed up this badly with food. A hundred percent! Whose finger did you beat for? No, I mean, okay. Uh, oh, man. I don't know if I want to share this story. Makes me want it all the more.

Let me give you those Jollibee eyes. OK. I'll do it for the Jollibee eyes. OK, so my very first tax paying job is I worked for a very popular smoothie conglomerate. Cool. So Jamba Juice. Great. You said it. I didn't. OK. So there are times where you shouldn't be serving some of this fruit, but then you're like, oh, well, the box says it's with an XX breaking tape. And my boss told me not to throw this away.

So what do I do as a 16-year-old? There's an actual Petri dishes worth of mold on the side. And you listen to the adult when you are a child at a job, right? But all of us have messed up to an almost catastrophic point if you've worked with food. I will die on this hill. Have you not worked in food service before? I worked as a bellhop at a hotel for three years.

But not directly with food. But I was the overnight room service guy. So the kitchen would make stuff, put it in a fridge, and then I would reheat it. So that is my experience of running food. I did that for about a year and a half. So anyone hungry in the middle of the night, I would bring them something that was cooked,

but it was microwaved by me. But it was cooked earlier, but like. All this time I just thought there was like a chef on staff. Not at this hotel. And it was not a... not small hotel. Oh, okay. So I really... I... because you clocked me.

I really wanted to clock you at that point. It was a big enough hotel that there is a convention center attached. Oh, no! So like, you would think there would be a chef, but we cut in corners. Yeah, I just, you know, it's a mistake, right? It's just a mistake that went viral, right? I mean, I'm sure your parents or grandparents

have some wild stories about things that they found in their food before. Those, they just didn't have the benefit of social media. Look, whoever put that towel in there, I got your back. OK, when when one Filipino succeeds, they all succeed. Jollibee's recent years have been marked by bold expansion and increasing visibility in the Western mainstream. A major milestone was the August twenty twenty two opening of a flagship Jollibee

in New York's Times Square, the symbolic heart of American commerce and tourism. This high profile location, greeted by hundreds of excited fans in line, underscored how far Jollibee had come from its Manila roots. As of 2025, Jollibee operates on a much larger scale, with 76 stores across 14 states in the U.S. and 28 in Canada. The company isn't stopping there.

It has announced ambitious plans to reach hundreds of North American stores in the next few years, all part of its vision to be among the world's top five restaurant companies. In short, what began as a single burger joint in the Philippines has grown into a global phenomenon. Go back. Yeah. to the Times Square one. Culturally, Filipino people have always been kind, right? When you think about Filipino people and the Filipino people in your life,

culturally, they are a kind and caring people. What I wish for my Jollibee brethren. Yes. My Jollibee kuias and atas, if you will. I wish that they got the same toughness, demeanor, like toughness, like a connotation, that Waffle House had. I don't think they're going to end,

I think the ship has sailed. But, like, but I see what you mean. And that's why I wanted to mention the New York one, right? Because if it's one in the middle of Times Square, I just think, mandatorily, we should teach all of them how to fight. Yeah. We have to.

How to at least catch a stool that's been thrown at you. Okay, thank you. Because there's been that that that stupid argument online about the 100 Americans versus 100 British people. Have you seen this? Okay, so you put a hundred American people, a hundred British people and they fight. Who wins, right? No weapons or whatever. Depends on what kind of Brits. Okay. So that's the thing though, a lot of the discourse that I've seen has been, oh, just put 10 Waffle House employees in the room. They clear everybody. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what I'm saying though. You don't have anything like that in the UK. That's why I wish that for Filipino companies. Yes, to toughen them up. Two years mandatory service at the Jollibee Waffle House. Yeah, the Jollibee Waffle House combo. Jollibee, if you're trying to buy somewhere else, buy the Waffle House.

Yes, and that'll do it for this week's Eat Deets. Jollibee Waffle House combo. Jollibee, if you're trying to buy somewhere else, buy the Waffle House. Yes. And that'll do it for this week's Eat Deets. JPG, I hope that you were listening to all of that and got some good advice on how to become a major player in the world of casual dining, because the next few minutes are all about you and your vision for a themed chain restaurant dining experience of your very own.

But we have to intro this with a theme song and you're singing line two. Okay. This is the restaurant of your dreams. And you should really have more dreams. I don't know. The improv is not my strength. Doesn't have to be about the Philippines.

This is the restaurant of your dreams. Boom. Yeah. Yeah. Crushed it, crushed it. JPG, tell me. Why do you do that to people? Why?

Because I'm sick. Cause I'm sick and there is no cure. What is? That has to be a fetish. That has to be that has to be a jolly seductive eyes fetish. Yeah, yeah. I don't get off on it right

now, but in post in post and God. Peyton, the editing room ceiling with this right now. JPG, tell me all about a restaurant concept that you think needs to happen and simply hasn't yet. Something that only you have the imagination to create. It must be practical, delicious, and memorable.

3, 2, 1, go. You had mentioned in my intro that I work in tabletop role-playing games. Yes, you do. So if you're not familiar with this, things like Critical Role or Dimension 20, there's a whole community that puts out these incredible shows, and I'm part of that sort of like indie sort of scene. I've worked on some bigger productions, and something that I absolutely love about this space is the ability to tell your own superhero stories.

Ooh. In DC's Kingdom Come by Mark Wade, it's a comic from the 80s, you see all of these DC superheroes kind of like age up into much older individuals. And they have a Planet Hollywood-style superhero restaurant. Love it. I want to do like a full superhero restaurant.

Yes. Okay. Yeah. I would do like, and I mean like, and we're, this is going to be a chain restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. A hundred percent I would want to do a superhero restaurant, not just focusing on the heroes that you know, like Spider-Man and Batman and all those other ones,

but I want to make sure that, like, local artists are involved in this as well. I have a lot of amazing friends in the comics industry that have these incredible, meaningful properties that I think should have, like, a burger named after them or something like that. Yeah, yeah. If you go all out in the way that Planet Hollywood's used to,

I think this could be a huge attraction And almost in a way where I'm like surprised it doesn't already have this in like a universal or something Like to me this shouts theme park IP themed restaurant, but if you can kind of zoom that out and put it More excessively in chains and then you know have some locations that go a little bit more all out. Yes, yeah, like, I'd want it to be, like, system agnostic. If that makes sense, right? Like, have, like, Spider-Man, Batman in the same room, right? Like, let us do that, right?

Now, my question for you is, are we doing, like... like, standard American fare? No, I'll tell you what you're doing. Oh, I love this. You have a corner. We call it the Bat Cave. There's no lights, I'll tell you what you're doing. Oh, I love this. You have a corner. We call it the Bat Cave. There's no lights, no one sees you, and you eat on Texas toast, a garlic bread

and spaghetti sandwich free of judgment. Like, well, we have to like call it something edgy, right? Like, like, like blood in the alley or something like that. Oh, sure, sure. Yeah, because... Yeah, the killing joke. Yeah. Yeah. Because... Yeah. The killing joke. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's... I just... I want that sort of experience, because I think there is... I think restaurants, and especially chain restaurants, if you can kind of standardize it, right? Because one of the best things about chain restaurants is the standardization of it. If you have food here and you go halfway around the world,

it should taste the exact same. the same, other than, like, where your ingredients are sourced from, which is why places in, like, Europe end up tasting pretty different from their American counterparts, because they let us poison our food here. So, I love that idea of standardization, and that's why I kind of wanted to make this, like,

system agnostic, right? Yeah, yeah. And, uh, I, you know of standardization. That's why I kind of wanted to make this like system agnostic, right? Yeah, yeah. And, uh, I, you know, it's one of those things where I... I would think American fare, but I feel so boring saying that. But the theme of the restaurant feels so Americana... Yes! ...that it really does feel appropriate.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. There's a big argument in pop culture spaces on if superheroes are the American mythology, right? It is the, you know, with the Greeks, they have the Greek gods and stories and all that. And I kinda lead towards the idea of yes, and I can understand the arguments for no, right? I'm just, I was racking my brain about

what would the dishes' names be? Yeah. Right? Like the, um... Spider Menastroni. Oh, God. That was so fast. That was so... How did you do that? I don't know. Talent.

I don't know. Oh, talent. I don't know. Oh, I was also gonna say, I want an element of play within this as well. Chicken noodle Superman. Oh my God, what? But then chicken noodle soup and minestrone are very close, so like, you know. At the end of the day, you know what?

Is this all gonna be soup themed? It's all soups. Oh my God, if this is all soup themed, I'm so about it. Uh, okay, uh, there is an element of play when it comes to certain chain restaurants. Yeah. Rainforest Cafe is a...

Kitchy paradise. It is this experience that if you go as a child for the first time, it's a pretty unforgettable experience. Yeah. Akin to visiting Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. There is something unforgettable about those experiences because we have the concept of play in there. As somebody who is an educator, right?

We, play is so important to conceptualizing and... Remembering. Yes, yeah, just digging deep into the psyche of how children form memory and repetition and to be quite honest, just good personalities in order to be good people going forward, right? Yeah. What could we do?

Like, do we give them like little masks and like have them eat in them? Do we put on little shows? I think you have people playing villains doing things that the kids need to foil... I love that. ...throughout the restaurant. It's just like, hey, this guy looks suspicious.

What's he up to? But then we're also teaching them profiling, so I don't know. Oh, no. Oh, no. We'll make sure that they look like... Like, so clearly villains. Like, so I don't know. Oh, no. Oh, no. We'll make sure that they look like, like, like, so clearly villains. Like, so clearly bad guys off this. There is another thing. I'm just a chimera with a heart of gold.

I just want to open a library. Don't judge me for my big scorpion tail. My big one, though, is something to incorporate education again, is that we would have our own reading at home program. Do you remember how you'd do the reading and then you'd sign off on it and then kids would get the personal pan pizzas? CHUCK There was a summer where it was like, I was obsessed with like, I want to come in first place.

And I think I read like 35 books in a summer or something like that. Yeah, Chuck E. Cheese used to do a coin system where if you brought in your report card, they gave you a certain amount of tokens and it was free plays, right? It was something that really affected me as a kid because coming from a single mom household,

if I worked hard, I could make this easier on my mom with a trip that I knew she was gonna spoil us with, right? And so, you know, you bring in straight A's that give you all these tokens. Yeah, yeah. I want that same feeling. Yeah, I genuinely, I'm into all of that. And like, it also sounds like it has plenty for adults.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? But like no seductive mascots though, right? Like we can't, I can't have. You don't know what kind of mask I'm bringing in. I know. I know.

So, you know, I'll make it my own. Yeah, I was trying to think of like, how can I add that, how can I add that Jollibee flair into this? Yes, yes, yes. I don't know if I can or not. Well, thanks for going over all of that with me, J.P.G. I now have a better insight into what you dream about. One last time, that last line of the theme song.

This is the restaurant of your dreams. Now let's bring things back to reality and see what other people think of the Jollibee that we went to in this week's Yelp from Strangers. Oh, this is going to be wild, isn't it? and see what other people think of the Jollibee that we went to in this week's Yelp from Strangers. Oh, this is going to be wild, isn't it? We need a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. A one star, two star, three star, four or five. So get a little yelp, a little yelp,

a little yelp from strangers. A little yelp, a little Yelp, a little Yelp from Strangers. A little Yelp, a little Yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally white and die. Yelp! This is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite. One, two, three, four, and five. Star Yelp review. It's crazy to me.

It's so crazy to me that all I'm doing is counting to five and implying that the other person should join me and no one has been able to nail it. I got, like, I got nervous. I got nervous on that one. What comes after four? I specifically, my whole job is speaking in front of people. And I, and I, like, clenched up on that one.

I love putting people on the spot. I hate that. I know. This is a fetish. 100% this is a fetish. I, yeah. Anyway, we're gonna read out, uh, Yelp reviews of all ratings, uh, and go and go over them. Do you mind if I start us off with the first review? I love it.

Five Star Review Alright, this is a five star review. This is from Armando L. from Los Angeles, California, October 28th, 2010. I came here last week because I had a craving for my mom's spaghetti. Jollibee comes close to my mom's. It just needs more meat sauce and hot dog slices, but the taste is very close to home. Yes, hot dogs and spaghetti. It's not weird, it's fucking delicious.

Don't judge me. This is this person's review. I 100% agree with them. Passionate. The closest thing we have to magic is Finding a meal that we love that doesn't come from the source of original love. Oh That's it. Right and and if you can find if you can find somebody's spaghetti that gets close to your mom's spaghetti Oh my god, right? Yeah, a lot of people make spaghetti better than my mom a lot of people do

Lot of people do I better than my mom. A lot of people do. A lot of people do. I'm sorry, Michael's mom. She knows it. She was the one who told me that. She was like, look, this is not the best. I was like, oh, okay, well, I like it. I do like it. I do like it.

That wasn't convincing for me in the room. How is that gonna be convincing for all of them out there? I told you about my garlic sandwiches. Like, look, the groundwork was laid. My mom built the foundation upon which other pastas have succeeded on for me. Your mom was the gateway pasta. Yes. Yeah, gateway pasta.

Yeah. Anyway, this day I went, I discovered Truly Filipino, AKA Bonerific on the menu. Ooh. That's their word? Okay. Okay spam and corned beef sliders Automatic five fucking stars. Yeah, are you kidding me? I grew up on canned meat add some cheese on these bite-sized pieces of heaven and get in my fucking belly Everyone compares Jolly B to McDonald's,

but if you're from the Midwest like me, I like to compare it more to White Castle. I would like to just stop and take a moment and point out the lowest scoring restaurant in my entire run is White Castle. Oh, ever is White Castle. Is White Castle. Wow, is it really that bad?

Have you had it? No, it's not good. Ooh, it's not good. Anyways, I like to compare it more to White Castle. Much like White Castle, it's an acquired taste. Well, if you think this is Filipino cuisine, it's not. It's crap fast food that tastes like home to Filipinos. BTW, the regular burgers are shit covered in Jizz sauce. Do yourself a favor and just go to father's office if you want a good burger,

but if you like shit covered in Jizz Sauce, try the burger. My friend Matt M gave this place two stars, but he's white. So there's that. My friend Jason Z, who is gay, has not eaten here. The end. Okay. There was no reason to bring Jason Z into this. There was a lot happening into that. There was a lot happening into that.

There was a lot happening. That, to me, is the definition of a Yelp review that kind of just punches you in the face. The... Like, he had me in the first half. And, okay, so, okay, you're... You're white friend reviewing a Filipino fast food restaurant. Okay, valid. Yeah, that's valid. Okay. The gay friend catching a stray fast food restaurant. Okay, valid. Gave it two stars. Yeah, that one's valid, okay. The gay friend catching a stray on that one.

Kind of weird. Honestly, not even a stray. That was a direct hit. It just had no context or relevant. Yeah, just no context whatsoever. It was just like, hey, I have a gay friend and he hasn't eaten here. What?

As somebody who is specifically known for talking about very graphic sexual things in an objective and educational way, the gist sauce part, not my favorite. Yeah, I don't think it was... Like, you know, Yelp reviews, in my opinion, are supposed to be somewhat helpful. Because it's a review, so other people are like, Yelp reviews, in my opinion, are supposed to be somewhat helpful.

Because it's a review. So other people are like, oh, I would like to see if I come here or not. Yeah. That was the five star review. And you. It tells you whether you come here. Yeah. And and then now it's telling you specifically to not come here because of come. Yeah. And it's five stars. But you, but you're comparing this to ejaculate. Yeah. It's confusing. You're sending a lot of mixed signals here, right? Don't yuck as yummy.

Mmm, might be a fat issue, right? Yeah. Three-Star Review. So this is from James D., Las Vegas, Nevada, for three stars. Just because a restaurant has B in its name doesn't mean you can expect them to have honey available to give you. I'm sorry.

I'm gonna stop a lot in this cause I'm real confused. Yeah. This dude also took the photo of like, I'm in my car with like, with what looks like Oakley sunglasses. Yeah, so I immediately don't trust his opinion on food. Oakley's are an automatic disqualifier.

I'm gonna be real. Okay, the bee doesn't carry biscuits either, unlike KFC, churches and Popeyes. Those are kind of different things though. Different things. Still, occasionally I enjoyed fried chicken with honey on it. The trip to the bee involved me picking up

a six piece bucket of original style fried chicken. He already lost me because spicy chicken joy is the way to go. Mm-hmm. I paid $8.89. The staff was not all that polite this time. I know that's an outright lie. Okay. You're telling me a Filipino person wasn't nice to you there? That is, that, 100% that is.

At some point it's on you. A Filipino person not being nice to you automatically? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I ordered it to go, took my photos and left when my chicken was done. I was not asked if I would care for any hot sauce for my original style chicken. That's because there didn't get the files

There are two styles. Yeah, if you want it hot maybe get the hot chicken Yeah, or the half-and-half bucket which I which I didn't know is the thing I wish I would have gotten just so just to try more In a way, I'm kind of glad because half the little packets of Tabasco usually squirt all over my hands and even my clothes That's a you user errorot-lum dude. That is also, we're calling Tabasco hot sauce? Come on, who are we trusting here? All right, by the way, they have always had that cute cartoon logo B,

but they have never had honey. Okay, you know what? That last sentence... I don't think he's entirely off base. Uh... I think he is mostly off base. You know that scene in Captain America and the Winter Soldier where they're talking to Baron Zemo in the plane, and Anthony Mackie's character, the Falcon, turns to him and he goes,

he's out of line, but he's not wrong. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's what I feel like for that last sentence. Okay. That is confusing. But that's also like saying, oh, well, this is a McDonald's. Why are there no balloons? Because you have a clown mascot.

That might not be the same. I might not be being fair. To me it's like, oh, it's McDonald's. Why isn't it more Irish themed? Oh. But they did do a Shamrock Shake show, you know? And Grimace's uncle is Uncle O'Shaughnessy, Grimace O'Shaughnessy or something like that?

Or Grimacy? What? The lore, man. You're out of the lore for McDonald's. Have you not had a Shamrock Shake? No, I've had the other part with an Irish uncle. Grimace has an Irish uncle. Okay, why?

Like, lore-wise, why? Because you have to sell an Irish shake. You have to sell a Shamrock shake with something, and none of their mascots could fully appropriate it, so they were like, why don't we make Grimace green? 100% Italians and Irish people take their racism in stride. Yeah. Did you ever notice that, like, you can, like,

it's, like, completely acceptable to make fun of Italian people in, like, certain can, like, it's, like, completely acceptable to make fun of Italian people in, like, certain media and, like, nobody bats an eye? Yeah. And I always feel like it's kind of racist, but then, like, even Italian people take it as pride. They're like, we're cool with it. I don't care. They're right.

Like, I have more power to you, but anyway. Sorry, that was a tangent. Yeah. That was wild, by the way. Did you like those two Yelp reviews? You can get three more over at my Patreon. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. In addition to that, I do an exclusive episode every single month.

Recently, I did an episode on A&W, A&W root beer, ahead of the Septembergur Tournament. It will be one of the competitors, so you can see how that stacks up. They have an amazing root beer float as well. I also covered the Halal Guys for the month of May. It's my first time dabbling in Middle Eastern food for the podcast. And for the month of June, I will be going to Boston Market.

I have to fly all the way to the East Coast to cover it, but I did find a Boston Market that's still existing. So you can check out all of that and more at my Patreon. Hope to see you there. And that's part one. Tune in next week as we tell you all our thoughts about today's visit to Jollibee. In the meantime, JPG,

where can people get more of you online? Oh, okay. So once again, I'm JPG. I am a pop culture educator and consultant on the consultancy firm, Intermyth, where we help content creators either launch into the pop culture content space or to help content creators jump over hurdles that they're experiencing in the industry as well.

You can find out all of that information on intermyth.org, and you can find me on all social media at speakerjpg. And you can follow the show at Find Dining Podcast on Instagram, TikTok, or finddiningpodcast.bsky.social on Blue Sky. I never use it, but I am there. I do have a Discord server that actually you encouraged me to make.

You were the one who was like, hey, why not do one? I was like, you know what? And I've got a few people there. And I like it and I'd love for it to grow. So go check me out there. I'm very accessible. I chat. We talk about the show. We talk about food. We talk about, you know, we show pictures of dogs. I don't know. We don't yet. But you know what? I'm going to go post a picture of my dog.

You should put a pets channel. Yeah, why not? That's that's a thing in all discord I'm taking your recommendations for all of it So you heard it here first a pets channel just opened in my discord and then I have a patreon if you want an exclusive episode every single month or if You would like to see the full all five yelp reviews, Yelp from Strangers segment versus just the two that you get for free. In the meantime, thank you so much for joining me. We will be back in one week.

We're just gonna be sitting here waiting on our table before we review next week. Have a fine day. ["Waiting on Our Table"] Waiting on our table, waiting on our table. The step is done and we had some fun. Now we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table. Join us next time, we're stuck in line. Waiting on our table, waiting on our table.

We're so hungry, tummy's grumbling. Waiting on our table, waiting on a table We gotta continue our search for mediocrity Waiting on a table, waiting on a table We'll be waiting and dissipating Waiting on a table, waiting on a table Shrimping in the tweak or digging in Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table We've got an appetite for just sit tight

Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Search will continue when we see you next week He-he-he But a million is waiting on our table Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Waiting on our table Waiting on our table Waiting on our table

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