Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 176: Paul Mescal

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

The Dream Restaurant reopens its doors for series 9, and our first guest is Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning actor and star of 'Normal People', Paul Mescal.Paul Mescal stars in 'Aftersun' which is available to stream now on Mubi.Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, listeners of the Off Menu podcast. It is Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu podcast. I have a very exciting announcement. I have written my first ever book. I am absolutely over the moon to announce this. I'm very, very proud of it. Of course, what else could I write a book about? But food. My book is all about food. My life in food. How greedy I am. What a greedy little boy I was. What a greedy adult I am. I think it's very funny. I'm very proud of it. The book is called Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy. And it's coming out this October, but it is available to pre-order now, wherever you pre-order books from. And if you like my signature, I've done some signed copies,

which are exclusively available from Waterstones. But go and pre-order your copy of Glutton, the multi-course life of a very greedy boy, now. Please? Welcome to the Off Menu podcast, taking the ice cream cone of conversation, filling it up with the soft serve of great humour, sticking in a flake of friendship and showin' down. Yes! Best one you've ever done! The best one! That is Ed Gamble there. My name is James A. Caster. This is the Off Menu podcast. We run a dream restaurant, and we invite a guest every single week and ask him their favourite ever, start a main course, dessert, side dish and drink, not in that order. And this week, the first episode of series nine

is Paul Mescal. Paul Mescal, of course. Wonderful actor, James. Wonderful actor. Phenomenal actor, one of the first. We all watched a lot of box sets, a lot of TV series and binged TV a lot during the lockdowns. One of the first series that we did at My Flat was Normal People. I was completely engrossed in it and completely engrossed in his performance. What a performance! Sexier! Yep. You were unable to watch it? Yes, because I'd already watched quite a lot of sex-based drama, the first series of Bridgerton and industry, both quite heavy sexual content. And there are a lot of people delivering parcels, a lot of neighbours walking past, and I'd already had to shut my blinds, and the last thing I wanted was to pop the blinds open

and then whack on Normal People, or indeed, quack off Normal People. Yes. Well, I would definitely make you retell that story to Paul when he comes in the dream restaurant. Oh, good! That'd be great. It's a double whammy of having to say something embarrassing, which also has the underlying sentiment of, I've not watched what you're most popular for. Yeah, which I can't wait. Well, I've seen him in interviews. I saw him in his BAFTA for his role in Normal People, and he seems like a very humble, very nice, down-to-earth guy, so I think he'll be okay with you not having seen it. I think he'll be fine with it. And also, I've seen him do one of those Lad Bible videos where he eats different types of snacks. Oh, that's good. I like those videos

a lot. Yes. When are we going to do one of those videos? We need to do one of those videos. We need to, like, you try snacks from Kettering, and I try snacks from Buckingham Palace, where you were born. I don't know where you were born. London. Yes. London snacks. Yes, I love the snacks, Tower of London snacks. But we, you know, Normal People might come up, but we're very excited, because Paul Maskell's in a new film, James, called After Sun. Yeah, really looking forward to this. It's a stunning debut, apparently, from Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells. It's a coming-of-age story with a poignant, intimate family portrait, and the film debuted in Cannes, where it's the winner of the French Touch Jury Prize at Cannes 2022 Critics Week.

Very exciting. That's no small feat. That's no small feat. I'm looking forward to this a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing the film. It does look brilliant. And it's available on Mubi. It's available on Mubi as well. Go and get Mubi and watch it. Here's the thing. I'm very glad we got Paul Maskell on the podcast. However, if he does say secret ingredient, an ingredient which we deem to be unacceptable, we will kick him out of the dream restaurant. He won't get any dinner. And this week, the secret ingredient is Maskell. Paul Park. Paul Park. No, we had a conversation beforehand. And we said it was going to be Maskell or pulled pork. Paul Park.

Both good. Both good answers. But we can go with Maskell, if you want. Yeah. I think it's an acquired taste. I personally can't really drink much Maskell. Now, after me and you, you got wammowed on it with Professor Green. Oh, my God. We got absolutely wammowed. Test Kitchen, Santiago Alastair's Test Kitchen, before he opened the wonderful restaurant, Cole. And here's how wammowed James was, Benito. Get your ears around this. I went to the toilet. James left. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got to wait for him to go to the toilet, because otherwise he'll make me stay. Soon as he went to the toilet, I was gone.

Time into my Uber. The front door opens. Where are you going? Drive! Drive! Get the fuck out of here! I'm very glad you did that, because, oh boy, that was a big night. Yeah. It only looked like it could get bigger if we had another drink there. It looked like this could turn into everyone's staying up all night. And I could already feel my hangover headache starting, and I was still drunk. So, Maskell, I'm quite happy to put Maskell as the secret ingredient, because it does bring back bad hangover memories. I like it, but that's fine. It fits with his name, doesn't it?

Yeah, it fits with his name. I mean, probably highly unlikely. We'll see. But we'll see. I hope he doesn't pick Pard Park. If he says Pard Park, we might have to say to him, Now, Pard. We fortunately might choose Pard Park. We nearly had to kick you out there for choosing Pard Park. Yeah, like, well, maybe you have a Maskell. This is the off-menu menu of Pard, Maskell.

Welcome, Paul, to the Dream Restaurant. Welcome, Paul Maskell, to the Dream Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. This is amazing. This was a dream come true. Well, this is perfect. Perfect was this dream come true. You're in the Dream Restaurant. Exactly.

You can make all of your dreams come true now. That's the plan. How many dreams you've had have already come true, and how many do you think you'd still like to come true? This is the main dream. This is the flagship dream. This is the flagship dream. It's good to be flagship dream.

I've never been a flagship dream before. I bet you have. Yeah, yeah, probably have. I bet you're loads of people's flagship dreams. Yeah. The flagship is actually a reference to the Tim Key episode. Listen to this. Oh, that is good.

You've outdone us already. I mean, I'm prepped and ready to go. That's why I did this. Yeah, you remember? You did that to us. And I thought, that's nice. I thought you were just being nice. Nope.

I was referencing Tim Key's episode. That's good. Not realizing that after we record an episode, our brains just dump it immediately, Paul. But that won't happen with yours. Don't you worry about that. Yours is going to be the only one that I save. I always remember who ordered trifle.

But that's about it. I don't really remember anything else. So, Paul, don't give it away now. But if trifle is your dessert, then you can do the point to us, and then we'll know exactly what it is. Trifle? Yeah, yeah.

And then I'll be like, right. What layer do you want to be? Head on. Battle left or not. Thanks for listening, Paul. I love it. It's my favorite podcast. Yes!

Yeah. Hands down. Means a lot. That doesn't mean a lot. You've taken that in. You've taken that in, haven't you? We haven't had a guest come on and say that yet. No, it just is.

It's the big deal. I listen to it all the time. It's such a comfort. It's fantastic. This is my flagship dream. That's flagship dream. Yeah. Matt, now all we need is for the cast

to save by the bow to come in here. And we've all had our flagship dreams. Yeah. Well, I feel like that's a bigger dream for all of that cast to come through the door. I don't think that I'll fit. No. No.

And some of them aren't with us anymore. So that would be crazy. Western power. Yeah. But like, hopefully. I've met Slater. Put that out there. Wow.

I've not met any of them. It seems unfair. Yeah. I have not either. Well, bad luck, guys. Yeah. If they rebooted it, Paul, and set it in Ireland. Or anywhere.

Well. Any accent, you can do accents. Yeah. You can do any accent. But I would like it set in Ireland. OK. OK. Who do you think you would play out of the original lineup?

This is, I don't know, save by the bell. Wow. I was just going along with your flagship dream and being like, yes, and. I felt that. Yeah. And I really, I really respected you for doing it. And as soon as James went with a more protracted question,

I was like, Paul's in trouble here. Oh, no. What were the flagship TV shows when you were a kid? Oh, I watched a lot of Winnie the Pooh growing up. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be a flagship dream. If Winnie the Pooh came in with Tigger,

I'd lose my fucking mind. Dude, have you ever been to the real 100-acre wood? No. You've got to go there. You've got to go. OK. I went during lockdown twice. Two Sundays in a row.

Wow. I went because it was so good the first time and I wanted to go back again. And then we went again. Actually, I went three times because I went with my mum and dad to visit it. It's three Sundays in a row. No, that was like that.

That is a bit of a gap. But like, I went three times. And it is like one of my favourite places in the world now, 100-acre wood. It was my fine background for a while. Nice. You've got to go, man. I will go.

I will go. I will go. Yeah, Winnie the Pooh and then like Dexter, like the Cartoon Network stuff. Not Dexter, the show about the murderer. No, Dexter, the animation. I know the one. Yeah, that one.

Dexter's Laboratory. Dexter's Laboratory and Ed Ed and Eddie. Yeah, Ed Ed and Eddie. That stuff. Ed Ed and Eddie. I'm pointing. I'm pointing. Yeah.

Which character from Winnie the Pooh would you play in a live action remake? Ah, probably Eeyore. Oh. Yeah, stick to the sad stuff. Yeah, yeah. I guess you can really show your range with Eeyore, right? Yeah, I feel like he's the dramatic centre

of Winnie the Pooh. I feel like I tend to play a lot of sad characters. So I feel like that would be the casting. That would be where I'd be. That's what the internet would put out there. When they discovered there was going to be a live action when it would be played. All the fan casting would be.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You was Eeyore. I was in the Tigger group at nursery, so I'd probably take Tigger. You were in the Tigger group. Yeah. I feel like James would be Tigger.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like you'd be Pooh. Pooh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It would be a great cast. Yeah, he would be, actually. Yeah, I do walk around at home with no trousers

or pants on, so that's absolutely perfect. Don't we all? Yeah. We have a little pig. Oh, we're all pooing it. We're all pooing it every now and again. I want to see that now. I want to see that.

Yeah, yeah. I want Spike Jones to do it like he did where the wild things are. Yeah, that's right. I want them to make it like that. You'd be a great Tigger. Well, you've done live, have you done live action? You've done Cinderella.

Live action. Oh, yeah, just a little bit. No, no, because... Just... Don't make it a big deal, but hopefully, yeah. Absolutely, yeah, I've done it. And that was in many ways live action and animated because my character was animated to begin with

and then live action. Did it one best film in 2021, didn't it? It was in the Oscars. It was in the Oscar montage. That's the best bit. Yeah, yeah, that's in the montage. It was in the... Guys, we've got the montage.

We've got in the montage. Nothing else. Specifically, specifically me. I was in that montage, played at the Oscars and then someone slapped someone and no one talked about the montage after that. Oh, mate. Ah, yeah.

That overshadowed it. It's the worst year to have been in the Oscar montage. But headline initially was James A. Carr's features in the Oscars montage and then what happened. As soon as that slap landed, just everything changed. Yeah, it just happened. No one cared anymore. No.

But that was great. Did you see Cinderella? Did you watch it? I haven't seen Cinderella. On your watch list, though? Yeah, it was number one film in 2021. So, yeah, I just need to get to that. Yeah, yeah, it's very good.

Similar to normal people, actually. Yeah, I think it's in the same genre. Yeah, yeah. Very similar. Fantastic. My character is... Yeah, exactly. We should talk about After Sun.

Yes, we should do. Your new film, After Sun. Yeah. Very exciting. Indie film? Yeah, firmly in the indie film. But it's just won loads of awards today. It's just got nominated for five indie spirits today.

Amazing. Well, congrats. Yeah, it's really exciting for like a small film to... Just helps it along. So, I am always imagined that for an actor, the coolest thing is to be in a successful indie film. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's like...

Yeah. Well, it's the films that I like going to see the most. So, to be a part of one that is doing that to a certain extent this year is kind of exciting. Yeah. I'm getting kind of like vibes from it. Like lost in translation if it was a father and daughter. That's what I'm getting from it.

James is basing that on the press shot that's happening. Right, yeah. The one photo of the day. I made the blurb. Yeah. I made the blurb, which actually doesn't sound anything like... That at all. No.

But, you know... But the photo, I would go with you on the photo that it would... It looks like the end of Lost in Translation. Yeah. Doesn't really, man. How old is your co-star in this? She is 12. She turned 12 on Seth and she's just like black belt actor.

Wow. She's amazing. Did you turn up being like, I'm going to have to really take her under my wing here and talk through the process and then she was brilliant. I didn't really think about it until I was like sat on the plane and then I was like, what if... What if she's bad?

Yeah. Yeah. What if there's like... Because it's just pretty much the two of us for the whole film. But I didn't think about it until I sat on the plane and then it was a long four and a half hour flight where I was like, this could be rough. And then once we started working together, I was like, whoa.

First time I've ever worked with a child and they have this like access to like fun and play that it's just really eye-opening. When a kid is like really good at acting, do you think they have to like cram in as many films while they're a kid still? Yeah, like a friend of mine like, search her own and you like see that she has kind of navigated

being like a child actor and all the way through to like being one of the biggest film stars in the world. So I like, I don't know. I just like, you look at somebody like Frankie and I imagine she's on every list on the planet now and just hoping that the industry looks after. It's like, but fingers crossed that happens. I would have turned up on set if it was just me and a kid

and that was the whole film about, cool. I'm definitely like going to be in charge as I can bully them. That was my initial plan. And then I decided. And she bullied you. Yeah, she bullied me. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You can talk about it on this place.

This is a safe space. Safe space. If you want to admit that she was a bully. I'm working. Yeah, I'm going to give an exclusive that I've bullied on set when I'm 12 year old. And she's bullying me to say nice things about her in public. Not like you're trying the door.

Mascar, that's the fuck out of here. I'm like, I'm going to say, right, read it out to me again. Black belt in acting. That's what you're going to say. What the fuck was that scene? Would you consider yourself much of a foodie? Look, this podcast, as I've said, is my favorite podcast. But it kept me up at night because I listen to people's menus

and I'm like, wow, there's some fancy people eating some fancy food. And I feel like that has started to happen to me in recent years, eating fancier food. So I'm going to say yes, but on the cusp of being a foodie. But very much wanting to be a foodie. You're taking the first steps on your foodie journey. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's good.

That's we like to catch people at that point. Yeah, this is actually the best point. You're not jaded. Not jaded by a nice food. You're not like, goddamn Jay Rainer and his jaded palate. He doesn't appreciate anything anymore. He now thinks that rubbish food is good. He's gone all the way around full circle.

He's been to the shit of Claire's. His dad bought home a nice... I mean, shitty Claire's are the best he Claire's. Yeah, fair enough. So before you took your first steps on this foodie journey, did you appreciate food or was it just like a just get it in? It oscillated between like, I played a lot of sport growing up, and a lot of that was just about getting food into you so that you had enough energy.

But like, like a lot of my favorite foods are like comfort foods, like big portions of like food, like chips. Like, and I love that your first thought was right. Wendy, the size of what the food is. Yeah, size first. Big portions of food. Big portions of, for example, food. Chips, chips, chips, chips.

Yeah, and then the potatoes. The original food and then the chips. Big hunks of meat. You can't go wrong with that to be fair. No, it's a classic. What sports were you playing growing up? I played a lot of Gaelic football and rugby growing up. What's the difference with Gaelic football?

And what? And football. It's no good. Yeah, it's no good. Well, Gaelic football, you can like pick the ball up in your hands. There's a lot less kind of like jumping around and pretending to be hurt. It's... What, do you have a sports in Ireland?

You've got ones where you're slaying things at people's heads that could kill them. Yeah, we run around and hit each other with sticks. It's like Quidditch kind of, except are firmly on the ground. No one's got ideas about their station. They're like, see that flying shit, that's not for us. Keep it grounded. So yeah, it's like a kind of mixture between rugby and soccer. But it's like an amateur sport, but it's like Ireland's national sport.

And it's very kind of parochial and you play for your parish and you represent your town. And it's all pretty hardcore. Would you look forward more to pre-Gaelic football food or post? Because when I used to play rugby very briefly, I would very much look forward to my Mars Bar and a Mountain Dew. Oh, do you remember the Jaffa Cakes at halftime or the like fruit path? Did you ever get like sweets at halftime? I was usually subs bench for the whole of the first part.

Just munching on the Jaffa Cakes. I'd get a little bit. Just looking at a Mars Bar going on. Can't wait for the final whistle to go in. Do the final whistle. Good game, guys. Why are you eating at Mars Bar? Well, you got kicked out the team weeks ago.

We got orange slices at halftime. I mean, that was like the budget version, right? And then as you like, if you were like playing a final or a semi-final, Jaffa Cakes, Mars Bar, fruit pastels. Fruit pastels or fruit pastels? Pastels, but I love. Yeah, I'm going with pastels. I love fruit pastels.

Fruit pastels. It's because I'm on my burgeoning like fancy food journey. It was pastels before. It was pastels. Yeah, I like it. The first step on the foodie journey is simply changing the names of things that you're eating before. Yeah.

Fruit pastels. Yeah. Ships. Ships. I'm trying to think of other podcasts to do. Lamb. It's not pronounced the B in lamb. You've got to pronounce the B now.

Well, we always start on the food podcast with the food podcast. Why don't we just call it lamb? Well, it is the food podcast. To be honest, it's because I just thought I referred to it to people outside of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I don't want to say to everyone off-menu, I assume everyone knows it.

So I'll say the food podcast will do with it. So I could have nearly said that to you just now. That's also like a massive flex though. Like just being like we are the food podcast. The food podcast. We are the food podcast though. Let's do the other ones. They are shit.

I can't. Yeah, yeah, I can't. I think they're all pretty bad. I listen to a lot of them. Listen to good ones out there. They're shit-ed. We always start with still or sparkling water. Do you have a preference?

I'm going to not do either of those. I don't want. This is rare. I know. If I'm allowed to. Oh yeah, of course. Because like I've heard it all. It's like sparkling feels a little bit fancier

and it feels like a treat and I want to treat myself. But if I actually want to treat myself, what I want to go for is Mexican cola. I want that throughout the meal all the time. Like Coke is my favorite thing. Uh-huh. Like that's the cornerstone of my menu. It's Mexican cola.

Like I had it recently and or not recently, like a year ago in LA because they have it everywhere there. And I was like, this is eye-opening. So why is it the best? It's made with like cane sugar or something. That's the like difference in the ingredient and it just and it normally comes in a glass bottle

and it feels a little bit special. And it's I don't know. I just love it. It tastes better. I've never had it before, but people are like absolutely like they're so into it. Yeah. It's got a cult following this Mexican cola.

I highly are you like fizzy drinks people? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the other day Ed told me not to drink fizzy drink. We were offering fizzy drinks at that Comet Relief photo shoot. And I said yes and you went no. And I was like, you don't want a fizzy drink? You're like, it's bad for your teeth James.

Like you were the first person who knew it. Yeah. Yeah. You told me off. It's supposed to be horrendous for you. It's bad for you. Yeah. You told me.

Why did I say that? You told me. I didn't say that. Comet Relief photo shoot. You told me it is bad for you. And then I made fun of you because you smoke again. I don't. I vape now.

I'm trying to give up smoking. And that's very quick. I vape now. Nice. Tell you, you'll love this. I've been smoking a cola flavoured vape. There you go. If I was a vapour.

Yeah. That would be my go-to. Yeah. Yeah. I've tried the cherry cola and the cola. But the specters. If they released the Mexican cola vape though, you'd be into that, right?

That'd be like number one. I would start vaping if they brought out. Yeah. But that makes you quit smoking. Like I've been able to give up smoking for periods of time. But I'm always looking for the excuse to start again. Like I'm always like, God, I hope something fucking bad happens. So I can just start smoking.

Yeah. So I'm smoking again. Which, read into that, what you will. I'm like that with food as well though. Yeah. Honestly, like I'll try and eat healthily. And then I'll be like, it feels like a takeaway night.

What event can I hang this takeaway on? Is it good? I'm having a takeaway. Is it bad? We're having a takeaway. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So if something happened,

I can't even remember what it was recently. Something happened. It was stressful. And then I thought, this is the perfect excuse to eat an entire tub of Ben and Jerry. And I was so happy walking to the shop. I was like, that bad thing happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you guys have addictive personalities? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just vaping constantly now. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Do you not miss cigarettes? I don't because I smoked for ages and then gave up for 11 years.

And then for some reason, a few months ago had a cigarette in my mind. I was like, I think I'm just going to be the sort of guy who has one now and again. And then I have a pack at my house. And then when people come over for dinner parties, I can say at the end, would anyone have a cigarette? That's so chic.

Yeah, so chic. I like it that way. Obviously, that's not true. Because I put the pack in my house and two days later, I had to smoke them all. Standing in the garden in my pajamas. I was like, oh, this is not good. You need to poo style.

No treasure. Yeah, I was pooing it. Is that a clamp between my butt cheeks? Just pulling them out one by one. Yeah. Let's go, boys. For some reason, I'm picturing your penis as a cigarette. I know all of this.

A little smokey thing. Same. Yeah, it's there as well. How far is it burnt down in your mind? Oh, not far, man. It's a big block. It's like those ones with those long sticks. Don't worry.

Yeah, definitely addicted personality, for sure, yeah. Yeah. Not me. Not you. Unless it's ice cream and sweets. And then I'm like, yes. 100% yes. Yes, yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I've tried to cut down on the desserts and stuff, but. I mean, if you're going to cut down on that, like, what's life for? Yeah, thank you. That's what Simon Amstel, and then he told me something that made me feel stupid. Which was?

That you've got to, if you're not in the moment while you're eating those things, then what's the point? And that you should spread them out. And of course, if you do eat too much of those things, life isn't very long anyway. And I was like, shut up, Simon. Shut up, Simon. Which made me feel bad, so I went and poured a tub of Ben and Jen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got to. This Mexican cola is coming out of the top. Yeah. What size glass is it? I kind of want it from the glass bottle. You want it to keep the bottles coming? Just keep the bottles coming.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably with each meal. If we're at a dream restaurant, so my belly's not going to get full of coke, so it's just going to be, like, as it's empty, just, like, have it there on the table. And I just like the glass bottle. But if it's sitting there for too long, I just like a glass of ice on the side,

that I could just top up if the glass got too warm. And you want the bottle before anything else? Yeah. Yeah, just sit there in a restaurant by myself, just sipping on a Mexican cola. Why are you waiting for a big? What about a big ice bucket with, like, loads of bottles in? Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you can just keep pulling them out, cracking them out with my teeth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Working. Like, cores. Yeah. Cores light.

Oh, not the band, the cores. They were never in an ice bucket. As far as I know, they've never been in an ice bucket together, and I think they were irrelevant by the time people were doing the ice bucket challenge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they never got a look in there. Good album cover for the cores.

Doing the ice bucket challenge. No, all of them in an ice bucket. All of them sitting in an ice bucket. Jim with a big ice cube on his head. It was an alternative. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you do the ice bucket challenge when that was a thing? I did, yeah.

And I did the, well, do you remember the, like, we had to, like, drink a pint of, like, crazy shit? Or, like... I don't remember those, actually. No, it was like, it was four charity. No, there was the cinnamon one. I've done them all. I've done the cinnamon challenge, the ice bucket challenge,

but then there was this one that you had to, like, pour or, like, fill up a pint glass. Am I right? So it's a little bit, we're a bit looser with our charity call-outs. It's like, we saw the ice bucket challenge, we were like, that's fucking tame. Our friend of mine did, like, beetroot, milk, eggs, crushed up garlic, like, in a full pint, nailed it, and then you had to call out your friend.

Like a dirty pint, sort of thing. Like a dirty pint, yeah. I mean, that was the exact same thing, that they tried to make another pint that was disgusting. You would have to make another pint that's disgusting, and then you had to be braver. So you had to be, like, well, you're not going to be the coward that comes in and just does, like, a pint of milk and a couple of eggs,

and you have to go above and beyond. What a coward that would be. What a coward, yeah. What a coward, yeah. What did you put in your one? Fire. Yeah, fire, just flames. Little on fire.

Seven human foot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't remember. I think there was definitely, I think the eggs is something that people just immediately got, like, oh, that's disgusting. So that went in. I think there was some, like, carrots.

There's some, like, because it's bit, like, bulky. It needed to, like, you needed to show the glass, and it looked like shit. Yeah. Or like a foam on the top, like a scum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I feel like that's the, like, that is peak, like, toxic masculinity. Just being like, watch this.

Watch me inflict pain on myself. That's the coldest. That's why I love being a man. Best for you ever. Eat this. Pop, lobs, all bread. Pop, lobs, all bread. Pop, lobs, all bread.

Pop, lobs, all bread. I always thought I'd be ready for that. Yeah. That was a very good one. James getting so good at this. Only when I know they've heard the podcast before, I really have to think the advance. What do I do?

Yeah. Yeah, that was good. Surprises me as well, Paul, you know? Yeah. Got you that time, mate. Yeah, got me. So to know from Pop It, for Pop It Dance for me, it's going to be a, like, sourdough.

Do you know the restaurant Brass, in short? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do this, like, I think it's the sourdough bread with the anchovies on top. Yeah, yeah, it's so good. I'm so glad this has got a shout out. Yeah, it's the best piece of bread I've ever eaten. And they do everything in, like, the flame grill it and stuff.

Yeah, and it's a little bit burnt on the top, and the saltiness of the anchovies and that. I can't remember, do they give, like, olive oil and butter and stuff as well? I think it's just all on there. All on there, yeah. The butter, I mean, if you just get bread and butter there, the butter that is said now is phenomenal as well.

I think I'd probably ask for the butter as well. But it's, because I wasn't a big, like, anchovies fan, but again, on my foodie journey, I've begun to accept it as something that I like in my life. Yes. So that's the, I just think it's a perfect bread course. And I mean, like, why would you choose Papa Dom's over that?

I mean, do you know what I mean? There's a time and a place, right? But I mean, you've picked one of the absolute best breads. Yeah, it's a great bread. It's great. It's a great restaurant as well. Great restaurant. There's no misses on that menu, I don't think.

I'd say you're pretty far along a foodie journey if you're shouting out brat in the opening course. It's just downhill from here. Yeah. That's the start. That's where I'm at in my journey. That's just McDonald's. That's the pie of carrots.

I mean, yeah, that is, it's always fun when someone says a thing I've actually had from a specific place. Very exciting. And that is, the last time I had that bread, it's impossible to eat that bread and not think, maybe I'd have this on my dream menu. Yeah. But when you're focused, do you remember like

if you poke it, it kind of deflates? Like it kind of goes... Do you poke all your food? Just to check it out. It's just with suspicion. Just like, is it? Yeah, what's the texture? But am I right?

Like, it's like a puff set and then it goes like... Yeah, it's like a flat bread that's all puffed up. Yeah, it's delicious. Pitter style. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so yeah, but then the other type of bread, so the bread and butter there at Brad, it's also amazing.

Yeah. Because that's what I thought we were talking about. Yeah. I know what you mean now. I've had both. I've had both. Yeah. And they're both...

They're both. Like, I assume, I would love for the restaurant to make a mistake, right? They go like, could I get the... Could I, like on my brother's, could I get the anchovies and bread and then they bring out the bread with the butter and they're like, oh no, sorry, I thought I said the anchovies thing and then I get both. Yeah, yeah. I think in the dream restaurant, I don't have to do that.

Could I just ask for both things on bread? Is that what makes it feel great though? Is that they've made the mistake and now you get both? Would it not feel great if you ordered both? Yeah, you're right. I think it would be, like if my plan, the plan that I concocted worked, I'd feel like a champion. I'll tell you what, something similar actually happened to me the other day.

Nice. I went to Roe v, which is the Otolengue restaurant. I just sat up at the bar, I just had something to do later. So I was like, I'm going to go for a solo lunch. Sat up at the bar, ordered one, a couple of small plates, and then they arrive, very nice. And then the waiter came over with two more plates and went, the chef apologizes that they didn't have any poppadoms.

And it was just all the bread they did. Oh, that's the ideal. I mean, it is ideal, but also it was a lot of breadboard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like pitta breads with tahini dip and then sourdough with butter. I was just sat there like, this was supposed to be a light lunch before. I had to go to a meeting and I just had to eat about eight loaves of bread. I'm trying to stay away from food.

I'm on a low cup diet. And also one of the dishes I'd ordered was the Celery Actrauma, which has a pitta with it as well. Okay, yeah. It's a not ideal, but kind of ideal. Like on a different day. On a different day. To be fair, I also had two glasses of wine,

so obviously I didn't care about the meeting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a similar thing recently. I was in an airport bar and I ordered a Bloody Mary. Oh, why did you do that? Delicious. No, no, no. I don't know whether your life is cool or really sad.

I'm trying to figure out what was so sad about that. Just a Bloody Mary. I think like that's like your pint challenge. That's like tomatoes. I have a fear of tomatoes. Like, I know like, Well, it's actually, it's a fear of tomato, like Heinz ketchup and easy singles.

Yes. So when I was used to go to a child minder after school, and she was lovely. But then one, like one day she decided for a snack that she would put a like easy single out, spray fucking Heinz ketchup on it, rolled it up and went, here you go. And I was like, no, thank you. I'd rather not have that.

And she thought I was getting cheeky and then she slapped me. Like it was actually pretty traumatic. Yeah, yeah. So then I told my mom and like, I never saw that child minder again, but it has taken me a second to go back to easy singles and ketchup. Like the cheap ketchup I still can't do. Can't do it.

I can do like the kind of relishy stuff and easy singles. Like, I mean, like that's just a shit snack. Like imagine giving somebody... It's a terrible snack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cheese and ketchup cigar. Yeah, I mean, what are you doing that? Yeah.

Oh, look at this. No, thank you. Anyway, I also ordered a quesadilla. Yeah, that's nice. And he made me my Bloody Mary. I haven't paid for it yet. Waiting. Some of the people order, they all get their food before me.

I'm waiting there. I'm drinking my Bloody Mary while I'm waiting for it. I realize I forgot my order and I just left. Free Bloody Mary. Very good. Is that your cocktail of choice? No, but it was the morning. So that in my head, that's a morning cocktail.

Yeah. So that's fine. Is it a similar story to the one I told? Yeah, that's similar stuff. We've got free stuff. Yeah. It doesn't feel, it feels like I was brought some bread because of the podcast.

Very lovely gesture from the chefs. We love the gesture from the airport stand. I got my free Bloody Mary. And you stole a Bloody Mary. Very, yeah. Is it stealing if you drink it in front of them? I feel it's morally questionable. In plain view, it's like your one, Paul,

when you stole the bread from the... Yeah, mine is also morally questionable. It's like I planned to guess both of those things. Like with, like, it was a trick. Yeah, and then you eat it in front of them. And mine was like, you know, also didn't feel bad because like he made four people Bloody Mary's at the same time.

And the other three, he was making conversation with them. He really got on with them. He didn't give a shit about me. So I was like, that's what you get. Serves them right. That's what you get. Now that's my Bloody Mary and you don't get the money. Similar stories.

Everything all right, mate? Look, I love free Bloody Mary. I don't know about you, but my life's great. I think that's a great... Do you want both breads, then, if we... Yeah, yeah. But the priority, the priority would be the anchovy. You've ordered the anchovy one.

We've bought you over the bread and butter by accident. Yeah, by mistake. We've let you keep it and bought the right one out. And just sipping on my Coke just like, happy as Larry. Oh, you're loving life. Very good stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm there, I'm there mentally.

Yeah, emotionally, I'm there. Yeah? Yeah, I know the feeling of getting that freebie while you're drinking your favorite drink. This sounds great. And the bread course is always, I think, the most exciting because you're just... It's the anticipation. Yeah.

It's like... And you're hungry and you're ready to go and that first bite of bread. Yeah, it's great. Your dream starter. Here we go, the meal proper. Yeah, so this is kind of in the comfort category of... So at Christmas time, my mum normally goes bananas

and loses the run of herself and fills the fridge up with stuff that like nobody in the family really eats and is like constantly sending my dad out for more things that none of us eat. And there's no space in the fridge. But there is one thing that she makes this broccoli potato onion soup, which I know doesn't sound particularly,

but it's just to me, I would eat buckets of it. Great. I would literally go through it for a shortcut. And it's like one of the things that I anticipate most about Christmas. Yeah. Is this soup. It's like salty, hearty.

And then like I'd have more bread. I'd have O'Donnell's brown bread with Kerrygold butter. And just be... I probably wouldn't even use a spoon. It would just be like spooning it off with the bread. With the bread, yeah. I know I'm walking into a tricky situation with the amount of bread, but it's fine.

No, but like you say, this is your dream then, you know. Yeah. If you want to put in the loophole of not getting full, we allow people to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go with that. I think at this point we're at a stage where any guest from Ireland who has not chose Kerrygold butter at some point is probably going to be in trouble when they go home.

Or not Irish pretending to be Irish. I get suspicious now. Yeah, yeah. When we got through that bread course with that Kerrygold, I was like, better watch your passport. It's not looking good. It's not looking good for your mind. Oh, it's okay.

It's a soup course. Someone's going to have to start queuing the non-EU part of the airport. Yeah. And what's the bread you just said then? Sorry, you were going to say talk through something. I was going to talk through the soup. I actually like getting talk through stuff.

Yeah, talk through the soup. I'll turn to Ed's question. So as far as there's double cream, there's an hour time. Never have I seen him get on board or something like that. Yeah, well, I'll take it. One bowl, please. One ingredient in double cream. Yeah.

That's it. Is it? Great. Bring it over here. Warm double cream dipping bread into double cream and loving it. With Kerrygold butter. Yeah. Dropping cream on my naked thighs.

And stop winning the booing at your own soup. You're going to put out your cigarette dick. Be that careful. I mean, it would be the perfect thing to put it out with. Double cream. Throw it straight on the dick. Well, I had to know it. Oh, Jesus.

You're just eating dinner with me. You just say, oh, fuck. Then we've got a lighter. Don't give it to me. Don't give it to the lighter. Not again. Yeah, there is double cream. There is potato, broccoli, and onions.

And there's probably some other stuff in there. A stock of some sort, maybe? A stock, a vegetable stock, I think. But it's just pretty, like it's a thick heart. It's like not, it's not a gentle soup. Is there chunks in it? Yeah, I was thinking how chunky is it? A little bit chunky, like the potatoes.

You know they're there. Yeah, you know they're there. Yeah, yeah. They're not hiding. I'd be very interested to hear what you think a gentle soup is. A gentle soup would be like a Baxter's. Yeah. Or like a cream of tomato.

A broth to me is a gentle soup. Yeah, or like a chicken noodle soup without the noodles. Yeah. Do you know that kind of brothy, like chicken soup? Yeah, chicken soup. Yeah, chicken soup. But this is like a. This is like a meal.

Like it's a full on. This is a soup that'll slap you in the face. Sorry to bring back bad memories. I'm sorry. How long has this soup been family tradition every Christmas? It's a new thing. I think it's one of those that like, my mum tries so much stuff and 95% of it fails,

but this is just one that has really worked. I really feel for your mum in this situation, by the way, because she's buying new stuff every Christmas, trying out new recipes and you're all just going, just make the fucking soup. But she goes absolutely like, mad. Like she called me when I came back last Christmas.

She was like, the fridge was just full of the cheese. Like we, not a big cheese family. Like I like a board of cheese, but she didn't know that a charcuterie board was called that. So she called it, now I got you a shootery board. It's lovely. I love my mum dearly, but like pronouncing things is not her forte.

It's like Chicago. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. What was on the shootery? The shootery board, it was like some, like Bree, I'm not a fan of like the like stinky cheeses. Like Bree's pretty like mellow, right? Good, pretty mildly. That's my go-to, like cheddar.

Again, beginning my foodie journey. So it's like Bree, cheddar, a little bit of relish, just tons of crackers. Grape's hanging out there, mate? No. No, that was a straight no. But that sounds great. I love a Christmas tradition, like food

that you look forward to each year. And we don't eat it during the year, otherwise it's just a Christmas thing. It would ruin it. Yeah, it would. Yeah. Do you foresee a year where your mum's experimenting so much that the soup just won't allow us?

You just won't allow it. What happens if you turn up for Christmas and you look in the fridge? There's no soup. Well, I wouldn't want it to be in the fridge. I'd want it to be hot. But it's probably starting the fridge, right? Yeah, probably, right.

But this year there probably won't be a, we're not going to be at home this Christmas. So there will be no soup. I think you just realized that live on the podcast. Yeah, I thought to joy leave your eyes. I'm actually pretty sad about that. Yeah, any enjoyment you were getting from being on this podcast is banished.

Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. I'm going to leave now and talk to my mum. Do you see yourself making the soup? It just wouldn't be as good. I've tried it once and it's not the same. Well, that's good. Yeah.

That makes up for everything else that your mum has attempted. So at least she nailed this. She's smashed it, yeah. Big terrine full of it. Do you want loads of it or just a little bowl? I like a little, a bowl that I can just keep topping up. Yeah, yeah. So next to the, you can have a bigger bowl.

Bigger bowl that I'm just ladling in. Grabbing a coke, slamming in some more shit. Fucking teeth ripping off the caps, coke in one hand, like a pile of bread in the other, smashing it into the soup. This is fantastic. Yeah. What was the type of bread again?

It's like O'Donnell's, it's like a brown country style bread. Who's O'Donnell? O'Donnell, he's a good friend of mine. It's just a brand of like supermarket brown bread. I imagine there's like a local O'Donnell on the packet, but is there not? No, there isn't. It's like a, like a barn with like crops and stuff around it.

He wanted his anonymity. Yeah, yeah. He's in that barn though, right? Yeah, he's in the barn. He's in the barn. He's in there somewhere. In the crops. Yeah.

That's the crops. It's like, where's Wally? Yeah, yeah. Where's O'Donnell? If you find O'Donnell, you get free bread for life. There he is. I see him. Oh no, just see what he's doing in the crop.

Oh dear. Oh, we're not getting O'Donnells anymore. I wish I'd never found O'Donnells. Oh no. That would be bad if it is that sort, one of the words Wally's was. Stunned the whole page. Oh, Jesus Christ.

Oh, Wally. No, look away, look away, look away. Oh, Wally, you've let yourself down. He's winning the poo in it. At least he's got his top one. Yeah. That would be funny if Wally was just walking along doing his normal pose, where he's just waving at you,

but he's just completely winning the poo in it. Throwing cream onto his, like, secret penis. One of the other characters is chucking a bite of double cream on it. I think Wally would have a stripy dick there, right? He would, I mean, he has to have. He has to. He has to.

Oh, he has to have it matching his walking stick, one of the other. Who knows, little curvy at the end, little handle at the end of it. Hand glasses. Yeah, who knows. Yeah, wait, look, let's leave it up to the listeners. You tweet us, tweet the great buddy,

and let him know what you think Wally sticks with. Is it stripy or is it like a walking stick? Yeah, I know a lot of artists listen to us as well if you want to do a little drawing of what you think Wally did. Where's Wally? Where's Wally? How have we not said that yet?

Oh, my God. How do you take your bat lock? Your dream main course. My dream main course. This is the one that I'm most nervous about because I feel like it's too simple, but it is just the main course that I want is a spaghetti carbonara that I had

in a restaurant in Puglia that was just, I've always loved carbonara, but I've never had it in Italy. Like it was always the thing that I would like get and like restaurants in Dublin and London and it's different. It was just the most simple kind of perfect ingredients, the right portion size,

the pancetta was just like salty deliciousness. And the restaurant that we were in was like this cave in Puglia with like sunset and bats were flying around and I was like, this is pretty perfect. Incredible. Oh man. I've never heard bats were flying around and it was perfect in the same sense at all.

Because they were like small bats and they were like kind of far away. Yeah. Yeah, you can see they weren't just going like pancing. They weren't saying pancing. They weren't pancing about it either. Massive sweep and downbats. This is delightful.

Paul, I don't know why you enjoyed this video, Dave. Now, if memory serves, Joseph Quinn had a lot of food from Puglia. He did. Include in pasta, do you want to be eating your pasta dish with Joseph Quinn? Because he can fight those bats off. He can fight the bats off. He's easy.

Oh my God. He couldn't actually in the end. Spoiler. That was his undoing. So that might be the end of your pasta course, hold it in as he dies. He could be playing outside the restaurant. Yeah.

He could be playing. And then he could just come in for some pasta. Yeah, yeah. He sees the batting. He's like, oh fuck no, I can't be here. Yeah. Oh shit. I met Joseph recently and he's a legend.

So yeah, I think I'd like the rest of my meal to be by myself. But because of the kind of serendipitous nature that we both wanted pasta from Puglia, maybe we just bow checked into the dream restaurants at the same time. You're like, oh, whoa. Hey, just for that course. That's nice, isn't it?

When you bump into someone and you both realize how long you want to spend to get the social. And there's just an agreement, an unsaid agreement of we'll just sit here and have a chat and then we'll both go and do our own thing. And it's normally accompanied with like a nod. That's enough. I think that's the sign of like being an adult.

It's like picking up on the social cues to be like, this interaction has gone on for the perfect length of time. It's over now. And it is complete. I think if you and Joseph Quinn had pasta together, a certain demographic on the internet would lose its mind. Yeah. That's to say.

Maybe. That's to say that when you guys met for the first time, like you just said, all those people without knowing it suddenly got a feeling deep inside. They were like, something has shifted in the force. Something's happened. Oh my God. How did it finally happen?

When Joe Quinn did this podcast and we put the photo out, someone commented below the photo saying, this is too many soft boys for one photo. How did that make you feel? Great. Great. I felt pretty good because I knew that I was the only one who wasn't soft boy.

But I wouldn't say any of you are soft boys. That's pretty cool. Would you like the pasta and a bat of cheese? That's a very specific reference to another episode. Yeah. You expected a double point. Do the double point. Oh, who said that?

Who said the bat of cheese? Paul Choudhury. Paul Choudhury. Yes. Yes. He did a bat of cheese. Cheese. And did Niels say that he doesn't drink and then ordered a

hot toddy. Hot toddy. Hot toddy. He had had quite recently, I think. Yeah. You remember me? Yeah. He's a constant surprise, that man.

Yeah. I think in honour of the food podcast, I would go for having a bat of cheese. A bat of cheese. So, which on this podcast is Pip Australia to Halloween? So, would you like the Pip Australia to Halloween? Of course. We can throw one in on the top because this actual pasta

sounds amazing. Yeah. This sounds so good. Yeah. Is it because people get really annoyed as well when carbonara gets served here and they put double cream in it, right? Yeah. But it's not initially.

It's not. It's like maybe an egg yolk. An egg, yeah. Yeah. Like I just remember feeling like tasting everything. It wasn't like 45,000 calories. Yeah. It was like a really delicious.

Fresh. Fresh. Like they just do food right there. You know? It gets called like golden carbonara or something sometimes, doesn't it? Because it's the egg yolks and stuff, but it's actually just carbonara that's meant to be. Got the golden carbonara.

Yeah. In recipe books sometimes. That sounds like a trophy in a Wallace and Gromit film or something. The golden carbonara. Yeah. The golden carbonara. Starring James A. Casper in the new live action. Come on.

Come on now. You'd be great in a live action Aardman film. Yeah. Could be a mouse or a tiger. Yeah. That's it. That's my range. Do you want a man to come over and crack black pepper on it?

I'm not a big fan of black pepper. I think I'd, excuse me, I just burped. Like I'd probably go for more like parmesan. We leave burps in by the way. Yeah. We keep certain things out. We do a super cut on the burps. At the end of each year, Benio puts them all together and they play the off-menu theme tune.

The last Irish person we had on was burping throughout and they all stated. Alison's Birtle. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That was... Do you love burping? Gats.

Spit on the burp. Yeah. This is a burp. So no black pepper. No, like maybe more parmesan. Yeah. Just fire it on. Yeah.

Sounds great. I love a simple pasta dish. So Joseph Quinn utilised the little loophole of saying that was a pasta course and then he had a main course afterwards. You're not going to do that. No, I think that's my main. That's my, I'm very content with that. Yeah.

Yeah. Did you make any noises when you were eating this carbonara? It was a lot of like, oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah, that's good. Would you use that in your acting? Say you're in a scene where you're eating an amazing meal. Would you put, would you imagine the carbonara when you're eating it?

Would you go method with the carbonara? It's like smell the fart acting. It's like, oh my God. Like something like a really like important moment. Like a really like revelatory moment for characters. Oh my God. Oh my God. Interesting pasta.

Yeah. Oh my God. Can I get more parmesan? No. Sorry, Paul. You send parmesan out loud. Come on. That's important.

I would think about like food memories if I had to do a sex scene. Food memories. Because I think about really delicious food and how I felt about it, but then that's not going to be sexual. So I'm not going to, because I wouldn't want to be in a sex scene. Thinking about sex. I'm going to have to draw from sex. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because then worst thing could happen and then my life is over. I've been somebody throwing cream on your face. Yeah, I'll get cream from all angles and it's not nice. So I think I would want to think of delicious food I've had, so that my face is showing my absolute pleasure in ecstasy. Yeah, yeah. But everything downstairs is completely chilled out. Yeah, it's just happy as Larry.

I mean, I was doing a sex scene and I have to say, can we get an ashtray? That was one of the things that was deleted from Cinderella, actually. Sex scene. The mouse was having sex and I turned into a human half a foot. Stars. They changed the PG rating. Yeah, yeah, pretty bad.

Well, and what was the reaction of the person that you were having sex with in the scene? Well, remember, it's a mouse at the beginning, so it's another mouse. Oh, so they exploded. No, no, no, luckily. They died. To the director's cause. I don't think they cut that out from the film. They were like, it was too real.

Yeah, yeah. Not real. My reaction was so good. But I was thinking of favorite foods while I was doing that scene. Nice. At the beginning, I was thinking of cheese because that's a mouse's favorite food. And then I was thinking of ice cream when I was a human. Method acting.

I'm very method. We won't ask you about shooting sex scenes, because I'm sure you've been asked it a million times. I mean, I'm always thinking about food during sex scenes. Yeah. Yeah, it's my. Got it. It's an exclusive.

That's what I think about. Yeah, yeah. Well, my next question was do you twizzle or suck? But it was related to the pasta. Oh my God. Oh my God. Do I twizzle or suck? I haven't mastered the spoon fork technique.

So I'm probably just dropping my head to the place and going like just kind of shoveling. And then kind of like sucking it in, inhaling it. And saying, oh my God. That's why I want to be alone for this. Dignity out the window. Tonya, head away, Joseph Quinn. Yeah, back to back for this.

Hearing each other murmur through each other's backs. Passing a pipa straight to Halloween over your shoulder. There you go, Quinn. It's not real. But the guitar down, it's not real. Right, your dream side dish. Yes, so it's chicken wings and it's from a specific place called Elephant and Castle Dublin.

But it's Elephant and Castle circa the 2010s. The chicken wings are not the same anymore. My voice sounded emotional there. You've really gone so deep into this. I understand if you are emotional. There's a lot of places that I feel this way about. They're just skimping. They had us.

It was there. The perfect chicken wing. It was like 18, 19, it was like my first couple of trips into Dublin, like going out for a meal. Chicken wings and chips. And it was just lathered in this beautiful buffalo sauce. No blue cheese dip, no celery. They were there, but I don't go for that.

Just firing them into me. Buffalo sauce is the best. Especially the first time you have it, you like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if I may, I'd have like the double fried chips, like the really crispy brown, almost burnt. But you know that kind of when it's been sitting in the oil for a long time and then just scooping up the buffalo sauce

with the chips. Yeah, this is great. And if they come on a plate together in Elephant and Castle, right? No, they come in, like there's a big basket of wings. They do the half portions and I probably will go for the half portion. And then just like a little, like a round holder of chips. A little holder.

A round holder. It's kind of criminal though. Do you know when you go to a place that you're like, I know what it is and I know what I want. And then they've changed the menu or something, or they've just changed the amount of buffalo sauce that they put on the wings. And it's like the margins of that must be minimal.

Yeah. Is that what they've changed? Have they changed the amount of sauce or is it? I think so. They've been buying the wings from a different place. The wings are smaller, there's less sauce. They're not distributing it properly over the wings at the top. So you're getting like kind of dry wings at the top now

and the good ones are too small at the bottom. Devastating. Devastating. Horrible. Paul, Benito would like me to ask you, if you would still recommend that people go to Elephant and Castle in Dublin, because otherwise he's going to get messages and he hates the fans. He hates the fans of, you hate the fans.

He hates the fans of the food podcast. Yeah. I mean, Benito seems pretty jaded. Yes. He's the J. Maynard producer. Do you know what? I feel like I want to help Benito out, but the truth is with great power comes great responsibility.

And there is a responsibility to say that, okay, this is what I would say. If they go back to the good old days, go in your droves, fix whatever needs to be fixed and leave Benito alone. Yes. Yeah. That's what I would say. But this is great power, you know,

because you know, this will get back to them. Maybe, maybe they'll change it. Yeah. And maybe people could go still now, ordered chicken, and then most make sure you say to the staff, could do a bit more sauce. Yeah, that would be ideal. Bit dry on the top.

And would you say, bit dry? And a bit small. Bit dry, a bit small. Yeah. Just like Benito. If they did change them back to the 2010s heyday, would you like them to be named after you? I mean, that would be too great an honor.

Yeah. I mean, I would name my firstborn. After the wings, after them. Not Elephant and Castle. Both. Elephant and Castle, Mascot. You had twins. Yeah, yeah.

Elephant and Castle. But even if I didn't have twins, it was just my, like, first child being Elephant and Castle. Elephant and Castle. That's all their first name. That's not a first name in a middle name. No, yeah. Next child, Buffalo.

That kid with me pretty really, they got a good Buffalo. Yeah. They're going about with Elephant and Castle as well. On the day that we booked you for this, I walked behind you in the street. When? The day that you booked me. You did that with all the guests.

Yeah. It was pretty weird. Where was this? We'll scope him out. It was Hackney. Hackney? I was on my way to go and see a gig at Earth. Walking over there.

And three people were walking in front of us, and we got to the point where we were, my girlfriend and I, we were walking too close to these people. And I told her earlier in the day, I was like, oh, we booked poor Mascot. I was excited about it. Told her, we're walking to the gig too close to these people. We're going to overtake him.

And then she goes, is that poor Mascot? And I went, you're just saying, it's in your head, because I told you earlier about him, he's right in front of us. And I was going to be like, I should have. I should have. I'd make. We booked you for the podcast day, but I was like,

I don't know. I didn't know you were, you even listened to the pod. So I didn't want to do that. And then you go, oh, yeah, yeah, cool, man. And then the next day, but it was like, guess who just canceled us? And you've got to stop doing these jokes. If we bump into each other in the street, let's say hello.

Yeah, we'll say hello. Well, I feel like if we didn't now, that'd be really weird. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, now that'd be mad. I might just pretend, like I'll do the thing that you said before the podcast started when you went up to somebody and they pretended to not know you. Well, they didn't pretend to not know me.

Oh, we should talk about it. Yeah. Stanley Toochie. We've had the Tooch on the party close out of the last series. This is the first episode of this one. But like, yeah, I was in Atlanta on tour at the desk, checking into the hotel turnaround. The Toochies.

And I'd say it was a fortnight since we'd recorded the episode. Yeah, yeah, probably two days. So I'm like, I can't believe it. But he's looking at the floor and I'm like, Stanley. Like that, like he's an old friend. I haven't seen it. Stanley. So I can't believe that we're in Atlanta at a hotel.

He looks up at me. Absolutely no, he's not acting. There's no recollection. There's no even desire to perform. It's just completely like, and I had to go in front of the whole front desk and stop to watch this as well. And they know Stanley Toochies. They know the Toochies.

Yeah, they're like, we want to check the Toochie. What is this? This limey holding up the key for. And then you have to do the undignified thing. I'm in front of loads of people who don't know the podcast going, it's me from the food podcast. The food podcast they do with Ed. Yeah, the food podcast I do with Ed.

And then he was very nice. It's like, oh yeah, you guys, yeah. Yeah, it was out of context, right? Yeah, it's out of context. You'd expect to see me in Atlanta hotel. But then he did tell me to get some rest and I hadn't told him that I was tired. So that did feel a little bit.

Did you get rest? Yeah, I went in as soon as when the Toochie tells you to get rest. You go and get rest. You do with your toes. Yeah, you feel like if the Toochie thinks I'm tired. You've got to go for a Toochie sniz. The Toochie's seen me twice in my life. That's all.

So if he thinks I look tired, then that means I must look significantly more tired. Then the fortnight would go when he saw me. What if he says that to everyone when he meets them at the end? He's like, okay, get some rest and I'll see you. That's a power play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a real power play.

Imagine just everyone you meet going in the end, like Doritos in the shop or something, and just like chatting to the cashier and you're like, yeah, thanks for that. Get some rest. I think if that was your thing, it would only be a matter of time before people started talking about it.

You know, each other and going, did he tell you to get some rest? Did he tell you to get some rest? You'd be found out pretty quickly. I was trying to make you feel better by saying that he said that because I bet you look great, James. Yeah. Thank you. There was a certain actor I heard about who did a thing

where they used to turn up at auditions and they would turn up a bit late deliberately and then they would have a story where they had, on their way there, they'd fallen off a bicycle and they'd hurt themselves. And they would say, sorry, that this happened to me on the way here. And they made the mistake of pulling it twice

on the same person. Who then was like, that's weird because... Have it the last time. I heard that. I heard you did that last time. And then they're like, ah. Can you imagine though, the ground, you just want the ground to open up and so on?

Yeah. Yeah. But it serves you right. Serves you right. Don't lie. Don't lie. So what was the benefit of that though? Apparently it would almost make people like wow.

To make people remember you. Or both like, wow, you still came to the audition. You fell off your bike and you had this one, but you still came. This is a good guy. So kind of like, endear yourself to them. Because I guess auditions are all about trying to stand out in a sea of auditions, right?

Probably. Like auditions can be just awful experiences are great. And I don't think there's a way, I think there's like a weird alchemy of what happens in a good audition. That is like a form of magic. That I'm just like, I don't know how that happened. But most of them are.

I hear it's like worse auditioning in LA. It's like, it is the thing that you see in the films where it's like everybody looks the same and they're all wearing the exact same clothes and they go in and they say, give me the money or some sort of shitty line. It said give me the money. Worst month of my life.

Learning so many lines. Went into one audition. There was a dog in the room. It fell asleep. Oh. Just watched a dog fall asleep as I was really off the lines. Did you not learn the lines?

I'd learned the lines. Yeah. I'd learned the lines. The show's been cancelled since, which is always a way. Serves them right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's what I get. I'm not casting my friend. Your dream drink. Now we've already had kind of your dream drink that's throughout the whole menu, but have you got a different one? Yeah, I like an alcoholic beverage. So this was actually tricky for me.

It was like the classic, like I love a whiskey sour. I love an old fashioned, but there's one cocktail that I've had recently. And do you know that new hotel, the Nomad Hotel? Yes, I've heard about it. It's like in Covent Garden. And they do this cocktail called the Sargent Pepper.

And it is just stunning. It's like in a little like small little glass. It's jalapeno kind of tequila based, but with like coriander, pineapple, and it's like green and really cold and just like spicy and sweet. Great. Just keep them coming.

I love the sound of this. Yeah, this kind of stuff. Actually, at that Atlanta hotel, there was a guy, the cocktail waiter, who's incredible, the barman there. And on the last day, I just said, just make me whatever you want, because you're really good.

And so I just like go for whatever. And he made me a similar thing. There was tequila and like a jalapeno and pineapple thing. Carrots. Carrots. Carrots. Carrots. Two eggs.

That's what you get in Ireland. Yeah. Make whatever you want. Oh my God. This is a charity. I filmed on his phone. Yeah. You have to drink.

And now you've got to nominate someone. The Tooch. Okay. I'm going up to room seven. The Tooch comes down. I told you to get some rest. I told you. He's like, you've got to get some cocktail.

You've got to drink a bucket of beer. Yeah. But I know, because I had a similar drink recently. I'm there now, as soon as you're described. Yeah. And it's just, it's the perfect amount of spice that you're like, like it kicks your mouth around a little bit.

But then you've got the sweet of the pineapple. There is something, I think there's a bit of coriander or something in it. I'm going to have to go and get one. It's, they've also got a lovely bar in that hotel. It's like a little like library bar. Also, one of the Honorable Munchens was there. They have this burger there that I was like,

it was really close to getting onto the. What's in the burger? It's just like, there's like a mustard seed, kind of like sauce that they put on over the top. But it's just like a perfectly cooked burger with bacon and cheese and this kind of mustard sauce that they have for both the burger and the fries that go with it.

Actually, the fries I would love to have from the Nomad Hotel. So that's on your side dish with the wings? That's one side dish with the wings. Actually, with that mustard seed sauce. Great. Yeah. Always good for a place to get a double, a double shout out.

I think, you know, that happens rarely. Unless your Anthony head and everything comes from the ivy. That guy loves the ivy. Guy loves the ivy, which is crazy because it basically tastes like a bilge. This sounds delicious though. Yeah, that sauce sounds great. So yeah, and I'm not a big mustard.

That's a new thing for me. It was so good. It's a nice complement with the cocktail. And I would like that cocktail throughout the meal as well. Not just at the, like, I assume that's what it is. It's like you get the cocktail whenever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think some people listen to the pod and think,

well, I've got to wait that long until I get a drink. You're going to drink back, yeah. And as a guy, you've got to get a guy to drink. You've got to get a guy to drink. You've got to get a guy to drink. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you said a cocktail from the Nomad, I got a bit excited.

Benito, do you know why Benito? Yes, Disney World, I think. It's because in Disney World, there's a place called Nomad Lounge at Animal Kingdom, and they do great cocktails. And yeah, oh, it was good. Do they though, mate? It was delicious.

They do great cocktails at the Nomad Lounge at Animal Kingdom, are they? Nomad Lounge, yes, in Animal Kingdom. You go there and you get some delicious cocktails. It's a real thing. It was one of the things that got recommended to us by Molly. And we went there and had some delicious cocktails. Disneyland is spectacular.

Yes. It is. I can't argue with you on that, and I don't intend to, but it was the most... I went there recently with friends, and you could just be there for days. Yeah. It's magic.

Yeah, it was life-changing. And I'm definitely going to go back, and I will go to the Nomad Lounge when I go back. To be fair, I had one of the best Manhattan's I've ever had on board a ship at Disney Sea in Tokyo. There we go. There we go. I sat at the front on Splash Mountain and regretted this.

I did the toxic thing. I was like, I'll sit at the front. Soaked. I got churros after it, though. Yeah. Yeah. Would you go on Splash Mountain if it was full of double cream, instead of water?

I mean, it would probably change the consistency of the ride. It would probably be like you just hit the bottom and just get stuck. Or what if it was your mum's soup? A water ride with your mum's soup instead of water. That would be gross, because we'd get cold and get all bacteria-y. Yeah, yeah. You'd still have a little taste.

He'd be like, ah. I can't go on water rides, not with my dick. Doesn't fit. I go on water rides with my dick. Got to wash all the mouse guts off. Oh, god. We're getting to the dessert now. I feel like you're going to bring it home.

You said earlier on you're not a cheese family, so that made you feel good about this. I know we're not going to go. I do have a big sweet tooth. Like it is. My cocktail is sweet. Like, even I would say buffalo sauce is kind of like, there's that tangy.

Yeah. So for the dessert, it's like a concoction. It's like two desserts that I've had that I make. It's like, it's a dream thing that I haven't actually had, but that I'm putting together. It's great. And I was reminded by it. I flew across to America recently,

and British Airways do this like chocolate fondant, like lava cake. And it reminded, so I don't want that, but I want a similar, do you know those kind of cakes that like are barely standing up that when you touch them and all like, like breaks apart and like the chocolate oozes out. So that's the center of the dish.

And then I want a skillet of like, kind of half-baked, thick cookie dough. So it's cooking on that, and the chocolate cake is quite hot, and it's barely saying together. And then you poke it and fire on a load of double cream. Yeah. Nice having a fire at an edge dish.

Nice, some cool bucks for poking and double cream. So the chocolate and the cookie dough is hot, but the cream is cold. And when you said you had a sweet too, so I didn't expect that. Yeah. That is. Captain, my captain.

Like, yeah, it's definitely the heaviest dish of the day. And I want a big portion. Yeah. I want to, like, I want to not be able to finish it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to be, because dessert is my favorite thing. I hate when you go to a restaurant and

they were like, will we do dessert? Yeah, that's why we're here. Yeah. Yeah, but so it depends on the people that you're with. Like, if I don't know them, I'm fine. I don't want dessert. Sold yourself out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like Peter denying Jesus. It's exactly like that. That's what I was thinking as well, actually. When the cock crows fight. The skillet is a great introduction to the dessert, I think. Getting a cookie dough and a skillet. Yeah. It feels proper.

So you're putting the cookie dough in, and it's cooking as you're eating it, but I don't want it to get crispy. I want it to be like, the texture is like very soft and molten. And then, like, when you hit the cookie dough, it's just a bit gooey. Yeah. It's like when you get a good brownie,

I don't want a cakey, I want it dense and kind of, like, sticking to your mouth. 100%. You know, I don't know for the cake brownie kind of feel. Always so disappointing. Oh, yeah. When you get a cookie or a brownie, yeah.

And you go for the- It's brittle. You'd go for the bend on a cookie. You want that sort of gooey bend, and then it snaps in like, oh, what a waste of time. Yeah, yeah. Throw it out. Total waste of time.

Where's the best place you've had cookie dough? Because, like, I find, so a skillet, I know what I would do is that I would order a skillet of cookie dough very excitedly, and I wouldn't- I don't think I've ever been able to finish such a thing. Mm-hmm. This delicious.

Yeah. But I find it very filling very quickly. Yeah. Obviously, one of the best things that ever happened to me, I've definitely seen this on the podcast before, was in a lead shopping centre when my tour manager and I were queuing up for what we believed was fro-yo,

and it turned out to be a cookie dough stand. That's the accidental thing again there, isn't it? Yeah, that's perfection. Because you've gone in with good intentions, and you can't help what's happened, so you just need to go with it. Had to add to the cookie dough, and it was warm, it was a nice slab of it,

and just walked around with it. Why did you think it was fro-yo? Because the way that they had- It was a good codon, you misread it. And also, we were deliberately walking around looking for a fro-yo place, because we were both putting heads, and we're like,

we've had too much dessert every day, man. Let's just get a fro-yo today and be good boys. So does that. We had a Nando's, and the fro-yo machine was down, and we were like, well, god, taste for fro-yo now. Yeah. Walking around the shopping centre, saw this place. It basically, all the photos

of what looked like fro-yo. But it turned out, it's hard to photograph a cookie dough, because it's quite two-dimensional and flat. So it just looked like the shadow of the fro-yo. Gotcha. And actually, what it was, was cookie dough with a massive soft-serve ice cream on the other side of it. That's cool.

I think you were very generous there when you listened to that story, because you used the phrase, got ya, when James said, the shadow of the cookie dough, and I don't think anyone got that. They didn't get it. No. Did I say shadow of the cookie dough?

It just looked like a shadow of the fro-yo. Shadow of the fro-yo. Sounds like an album title. The cookie dough looked like the shadow of the fro-yo. So it looked like... So it was fro-yo. No, well, we thought it was fro-yo, but it was soft-serve ice cream.

But that big mountain of soft-serve ice cream, and then underneath it was this slab of cookie dough. But the way we saw it was just that that wasn't a sum of cookie dough. That was just a shadow cast by the fro-yo that we assumed was there. So when we ordered this fro-yo, that's what we thought we were getting.

So what did you say to the guy? I pointed at the picture and said, I'd like that, because they were all called something that wasn't even cookie dough. It's like, I have the Alabama, please, or whatever it was called. I have the, you know, springtime joy, whatever they were called. And then they would just... Was there cookie dough being called springtime joy?

No, probably not. Depends. Depends. And then they brought them out, and we were like, oh, this is... We have just ordered cookie dough and soft-serve ice cream. And was the cookie dough warm? So good.

Warm, really delicious, walking around, very pleased with ourselves while also being like, this is exactly what we didn't want to have. I feel like it's hard to get bad cookie dough. So like, I find it hard to answer where I would get it from, because I think cookie dough, again, when it's done right, simple ingredients, it's just delicious. I think the key would be the chocolate lava cake.

And again, I don't... Like, there's... Mark's and Spencer's do a good one. That's one of the other things. Mum gets right at Christmas. That's a staple. I feel like I've really gone in on my poor mum. You're trying to read it out loud.

Do you know the question I'm going to ask now? No. Based on that, I'm surprised it's not a question you would ask. What? What if your mum made a chocolate lava cake and in the middle was a soup? Are you touching the soup? Yeah, that is weird.

That's the thing that I didn't think of that question. Yeah, I didn't jump to that. I would be... I would appreciate... I would be like... I appreciate you for attempting... Oh, she's an architect if she manages that. Yeah, yeah.

But as in, they would be together, right? It would be... You tap that skin of the chocolate lava cake and it melts and it's just... That's disgusting. That's vile. Like, I don't want that. But if it could be isolated...

Like, if it could be like... Chocolate lava cake is in the middle. And it looks like it's all part of the same thing. But I'm like eating around and I'm like eating my soup, which I love. But I'm looking at the chocolate lava cake and I'm like, I'm going to be having you soon. Yes.

So I'm like eating away. And then I can lift... When I've finished all my soup, I can like lift the chocolate lava cake out. Pierces. It all comes out, pour on the cream. Shovel it into my face. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. But you... So just to get this straight, you don't want to touch the chocolate lava cake and then your mum's soup comes out and spitting out the cake. Yeah, no, no, I don't want that. Good question, though. I want to come up made...

Thanks for that, James. Something that looks like a bread roll. So it's bread, a very thin layer of bread, and when you poke it, the soup comes out. That was genuinely going to be my next question. I had some. But I don't think I'm into this whole like foods looking like other foods,

because I've been deceived before when recently we were at this like fancy dinner, like an awards show thing. And they brought out this thing that looked like an out-starving. They brought out this thing that looked like an apple kind of salad, like little garnishes around. And I was like, I love apple. Yeah.

And I made a mistake where I like... I put my fork into it, and I thought it was like, oh, it was poached, so it was kind of soft and put in... And it was patty. And I can't do patty. It's just like disgusting. And I was like, I was deceived. Especially not a surprise patty, right?

Yeah, nobody wants to... My whole spoon full of surprise patty. No, and like, and it sticks to your mouth. Yeah. And you're at like a fancy dinner, so you can't be like, what the fuck? I just got an image of you sat there at the awards ceremony, the only person enthusiastic about the food.

Everyone else is so jaded, and they bring over that, and you go, I love apples. I love apples. Apples. I ate potpourri at a Shrankan restaurant once. I don't think we've heard this. I didn't think of it until now when Paul said he's been stung in the past.

I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that. That reminds me of when my entire family went to the Gherkas together. Actually, I don't think it was Shrankan. But anyway, we went to the Gherkas. Nepalese, probably. Yes, Nepalese. Yes, that's right. Yeah.

Went to the Gherkas, and there was some potpourri at the end of the table, and I thought, as a whole family, actually, we all agreed we weren't sure. But you had to test it. What it was, and I was like, well, it looks delicious. I went in, had a mouthful, and I was like, don't eat it. No, it's floral. Oh, man.

On a region menu, back to you now. See how you feel about it. Water, you would like an ice bucket of Mexican cola. Popped on some bread, sourdough bread, and butter with anchovies from Bratz, and you'd also like the bread and butter brought out by mistake, and then they bring out the anchovies and butter. Starter, Mum's broccoli potato soup with onion,

O'Donnell's brown bread, and Kerrigold butter. Main, spaghetti carbonara with parmesan from Puglia, and, on the side, a little Pip Australia to Halloween. Side dish, chicken wings with buffalo sauce, plus double fried chips from Elephant and Castle in Dublin, circa the 2010s, and the double fried chips you would actually like from the Nomad Hotel.

Yes. Drink, sergeant pepper, also from the Nomad Hotel, double shout out, almost unheard of. There's a skillet of half-baked cookie dough with a chocolate lava cake on top, and double cream poured over, and then everything erupts into each other. Yeah.

You get to enjoy it. Amazing. That is a good menu. That's a great menu. I'm very happy with that. I'm very happy that you... A lot of anxiety in the lead-up to this. That's what we like.

Good pressure. We like how that should be really on edge before they come in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Feel nervous. Breathe again. Here's what I'm interested in trying.

The soup, which I guess I'm never going to get to try. Never know. Yeah, can pop over. Yeah, come on over. And the cocktail. The cocktail, yeah. Yeah. But if you're going to go to the Nomad,

do the burger and the chips as well. Yeah. Do it together in the library bar. Perfect. If you ever get invited over for Christmas, Ed. Yeah. I don't know, I guess I'm... If that ever happens with any of our guests,

and you get invited for Christmas, and I don't, I'm going to feel pretty. No, no, no. You're both invited. I can eat the cheese as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get through that fridge for you. Yeah, please do.

Yeah, please do. At the shoot report. At the shoot report. The whole shoot report. The first 10 minutes that shoot report's going down, I'm eating loads of cheese. And we're going, I think we should fill this up with soup as well.

Yeah. My mum would lose her mind, though, if like more people came. We'd have to get another fridge. Paul, thank you very much for coming to the Dream Restaurant. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you, Paul. Well, there we are.

What an amazing way to start the series, James. Yes, a delicious menu. A wonderful guest. Wonderful guest. What more do we ask for? The perfect guest. Yeah, wonderful guest. He knew more about the podcast than we did.

God bless him. That's what I love. So friendly, so funny. Newest stuff. Is trying new foods. Trying new foods. Expanding horizons. And just like one of the menus that, yeah,

someone said to me, this is on the menu tonight. Yeah. I'd eat all of that. Absolutely. I love it. Fantastic stuff from Paul. Thank you very much to Paul for coming on.

And thank you for not saying mezcal. Although, James, he came pretty close. Tequila. It was pretty close. It was in the family. Yeah. You know, and after the record, we did say to Paul that mezcal was going to be the,

was the secret ingredient. And he said they did a mezcal version of that cocktail. At the Nomad as well that you can get. And he had to decide between the two and just went with the tequila one. So it could have very well been our next guest who got chucked out the restaurant. And I'm not sure what the reaction would have been like on that.

That would have been definitely one of the days where I was very glad to be off social media. If we kicked Paul mezcal out of the dream restaurant. I think just the reaction from him would have been bad. Yeah. Yeah. To not say his dessert, to get to say his dessert that he spent so long thinking about.

Wouldn't be bad for me as well to not hear a dessert because at least with Jade, it was the dessert. Yeah. So I got to hear at least hear someone describe a pudding. Yeah. But if I hadn't got to hear that lovely description of a dessert, I would have been quite sad on the journey home tonight.

But thank you very much to Paul. We're very excited about the rest of the series as well. Just you wait and see who we've got coming up. Yeah. And hey, if you loved that episode with Paul mezcal, you did get our movie and watch After Sun ASAP. I can't wait to watch it. I'm very, very excited about it.

I haven't been like excited about a film for a while because I gave myself viewing fatigue during the lockdowns. And it takes a lot now for me to be like, I can't wait to watch something. Buzzing for a film. Very much looking forward to it. It's not called After Sun ASAP, by the way. It's just After Sun.

After Sun ASAP is what I scream on every holiday I've ever beaten on. Yeah, yeah. Ed is like a big tomato. I'm a big tomato. I'd scare the shit out of Paul mezcal if he saw me on holiday. You would. It'd be horrible for me to see you. Yeah.

Running after him going, Paul! Paul! He doesn't recognize me. Get some rest! Get some rest! Ha ha ha ha! We'll see you next week for another Dream Menu. Thank you very much for listening. Bye bye!

And when you sleep, dream of food. Hello, it's me, Amy Gladhill. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu. We spoke to my mum and asked her about seaweed on mashed potato. And our relationship's never been the same since. And I am joined by... Me, Ian Smith. I would probably go bread.

I'm not going to spoil it in case. Get him on, James and Ed. But we're here sneaking in to your podcast experience to tell you about a new podcast that we're doing. It's called Northern News. It's about all the news stories that we've missed out from the North because, look, we're two Northerners. Sure, but we've been living in London for a long time.

The new stories are funny. Quite a lot of them crimes. It's all kicking off. And that's a new podcast called Northern News. We'd love you to listen to. Maybe we'll get my mum on. Get Glill's mum on every episode. That's Northern News.

When's it out, Ian? It's already out now, Amy! Is it? Yeah, get listening. There's probably a backlog. You've left it so late.