Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 47: Ronny Chieng

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

The Off Menu team are in NYC and this week’s guest – ‘The Daily Show’ correspondent Ronny Chieng – is worried about how we’re funding the trip.Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive Productions.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Watch Ronny Chieng’s Netflix special ‘Asian Comedian Destroys America!’For Ronny’s Melbourne food recommendations go to imokwithanything.comFollow Ronny Chieng on Twitter (@ronnychieng) and Instagram (@ronnychieng).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? And if you just warm the spirit of good chat, pour that over the top of the podcast, you can set it alight for a very fancy start to the listing experience. Is that all right? Didn't know when it would end, but that's lovely. Neither did I, and that's why it was a good intro. Welcome to the Off Menu podcast with me, Ed Gamble, and James Acaster over there. Good to see you, Ed.

Lovely to see you. Here in New York City. We're in New York City, of course, and that's why it was a slightly smoother tone to the beginning of the podcast, because we're in the bar of our hotel. We're in a bar. People are around. We're trying to look cool. James and Ed are in a New York City bar. Which sounds cool that we're recording an intro to our podcast in a bar, but actually, we look like absolute dorks because the mics are massive and people are trying to enjoy

a nice drink. We're going to ask our guests what their favourite ever starter main course dessert side dish and drink is. And our guest this week is Ronnie Chang. Ronnie Chang, a fantastic stand-up comedian. So funny. He's on The Daily Show. He's on The Daily Show. He's got a Netflix special as well called Asian Comic Destroys

America. He is excellent. Very funny. I'm looking forward to chatting with him and seeing how he takes to us and the concept. He's got loads of, I know he's a foodie. He's got loads of food recommendations he used to make during the Melbourne Comedy Festival every year. But let me tell you, Ed, even though he's a foodie, if he says the secret ingredient, I'm going to kick him out the restaurant.

That's always the rules. Which would be tricky. I feel like he's really going to dominate us conversationally. Yeah, he might do. I'm a bit worried about that. But look, I'm pretty sure that this week I might have a chance of kicking him out. What's the secret ingredient? And James, you've picked this.

I want everyone to know James has picked this. This is what happens when you leave James with the basic adamant. Ice. Ice is the secret ingredient. It's overrated. It's overrated. It takes up too much room. It's very boring.

I could happily live the rest of my life without ice. What if you want a cold drink? Just put it in the freezer. Put it in the freezer. Just like a cocktail. You get a cocktail and you just put it in. Just chill it for a while. OK, you're a very odd man.

But I do like you, despite myself. But if Ronnie says ice, he's gone. He's gone. It takes up too much space in the drink. I don't like it. Yeah, no. I know why you don't like it. But just saying if Ronnie says it, he's gone.

Which is unfortunate, because he's a very good guest. And he will not be expecting to say ice and then be kicked out. I just think he might say it in the water course. He might say it straight away, straight out the gate. He wants an ice water and then I'm going to chuck him out. OK, well, let's see if that happens. This is the off-menu menu of Ronnie's chain. Welcome, Ronnie, to the Dream Restaurant.

Welcome, Ronnie Chang. I'm an Amused Boosh for you. What? What was that? Yeah, OK, nice to meet you, Mr. Gamble. Amused, Amused Boosh. Amused Boosh. Amused Boosh.

You've got to say it right. This is really, we're really at the bottom. This is the end of podcasting, I think. I mean, we're down to two British guys whimsically talking about lunch now. What more can we fucking do? This is it. We realized that as well when we started the podcast.

We were like, we're really ringing the death knell of podcasting. I never realized that. This is my life now. I love it. And you guys travel, you guys are in New York now. Do you mention that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Listen, there's no reaction in New York. And they came here just for this. I can't believe it. Do you guys get it? Who is funding this? Benito. The great Benito. Benito funds it all.

Yeah, I'm telling you, man. You guys have some big names calling in favors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mish, you have Ben come in. He has the, I mean, I don't know. I don't know Mr. Gamble from the UK. I don't know, I've never had the pleasure of meeting you. We've never met each other before.

Yeah, but these are big names, man. It's pretty big. Yeah. Pretty big. I'm glad I get to be here when you meet Ed for the first time. I always like being around when someone meets you for the first time. Really?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Why is that? Oh, you're enjoying yourself? I've had a lovely time, right? I'd like to see people happy. OK, so when the dream restaurant, I did have an amuse-bouche for you. You didn't sound too impressed by it.

I have no idea what that is. What is that? It's like a little, you know, sometimes you go to a restaurant and before the meal that you have ordered, they just throw in a little something. Let's go, there you go. A little snack. A little snack for you.

What is that? Is that like a British thing? No, it's like they do it here in New York in Melbourne where you lived for ages. Wait, what is a mouche-bouche in Melbourne? It's like they might just give you a little, before your main meal, they're like, oh, just a little amuse-bouche. Here's a little wafer with a little.

Yeah, here's a little dish of tiny little apple. I mean, maybe that's happened once, but that's not enough to have its own fucking nickname. What? You know what I mean? Mouche, what do you call it, amuse-bouche? Amuse-bouche. Amuse-bouche, yeah.

Yeah, dude, no, man. No, I'm not trying to be the dick. I'm specific examples of what, for example, what was one you had in New York? So in New York, I went to Dirt Candy and they gave me this, it was a little tin of vegan, vegetarian caviar. So they've made, they've made like,

they give you caviar just to wet your appetite to start. Yeah, but it was like fake caviar because it was like vegetarian. So it was made of other stuff, like, I think like, what have they got? Like cabbage and like... What have they got? Yeah.

You mean vegans? Well, this Dirt Candy, they were with some cabbage. They got shrunk it right down to these little caviar balls and then on top of like little balls of cucumber and sour cream and it was this and you scooped it out of the tin. And you didn't order this, you just put it in from it, right? It was quite often with like,

if you go and have like a tasting menu or something, they'll have the menu of what you're going to have, but then they'll just throw in a little extra thing on top. It's a little surprise. Dude, I mean, look, it's not unheard of, but it's definitely not like the reg. I mean, I thought you'd be more like you eat out a lot, you're very fast.

Yeah, I do, that's why, I'm surprised. Maybe I just ignored it. The first thing I come to, I'm like, this is some free BS that probably costs, probably costs them nothing. Just send it back. It's probably, yeah, it's probably rejected food from the kitchen or whatever, you know.

Yeah, yeah. So what's the amuse-bouche for Roddy? Glass of milk. All right. Glass of milk. All right. Okay, I can't do that. What kind of milk?

I mixed all the different ones together for you. That should actually be an option. That's not bad, because sometimes you can't decide between the fucking soy or the almond or the oat milk or the full cream half, whatever the fuck. This is ultimate milk. Everything you want. Yeah, yeah.

Normally how we start, we ask if you want still or sparked in water. Right. I'll go, who am I kidding me? So I'm going to go still. Yeah, that's just how I roll. Were you about to say sparking there and then realize that you were trying to sound fancy?

No, no, it was more that I don't, because yeah, I'm just scared of what the hell is going to cost. So I'm just going to go still. It's what I usually do in restaurants, I'm just like, although that being said, there's one Jewish, I don't know if this is a hallmark of Jewish restaurants. I'm ashamed to say I haven't been to enough Jewish restaurants to know, but Russ and Daughters in New York,

landmark bagel place, they have it on tap, Seltzer on tap. So if you go to the Russ and Daughters, don't be afraid to order the Seltzer, because it's free. We were talking about me and Bonito. We're just talking before how we really want to get a bagel in New York. Is that where you'd recommend?

I would say Russ and Daughters, because I think it's one of the best bagels in New York. Everyone in New York gets bitchy about their fucking bagels. Who cares? It's high level, it's New York. I think it's high level, it's NBA of bagels in New York. And more importantly, the decor is super New York. So it's worth going for the ambiance alone,

but the food more than delivers on the thing. It's a nice restaurant, you'll love it, you guys will love it. It's quintessentially very New York, and they kind of played up a bit, but it's still very authentic. In New York, it's a real struggle to find authentic New York places that keep it soul, but have really good food, and have some history, and it's hard to find now. You'd be surprised.

In New York, Manhattan food is, I find it a little lacking. I think Melbourne was the city to go to. Melbourne's probably the pound for pound food capital. Oh yeah, you lived there for how long? I lived there for like 10 years, yeah. 10 years in Melbourne. Anyone? Fine dining.

Whoa, I don't want you to give away any of your pics. No, please. But like, if anyone's going to Melbourne, where would you? I've never been, so. Ed's never been. Are you going this year for Mubba Kami Festival? No, I'm not going, but if I was to plan it, you know me, Ronnie, I'd just plan a podcast trip.

Yeah, I can't believe you guys gave me a full podcast. That's incredible. Yeah, Melbourne, I'm a little out of date right now, but basically, man, I have a website about it. It's called, I'mokayofanything.com. So if you go there, it's a list of all the Melbourne food. Oh, amazing. Yeah, I went, and there's my wife's favorite Peruvian restaurant.

Oh, fuck, what's it called? I'mokayofanything is a reference to one of Ronnie's signature bits. Oh, OK. Where he talks about people eating diarrhea. Wait, is it? Oh, yeah, yeah. I haven't done that in a while. It's a bit about, like, you'll give any of it, you'll give diarrhea.

Yeah, yeah. People saying, OK, we've had a thing to eat, are you saying? Oh, no, not eating diarrhea. Not eating diarrhea. It's like, are you OK with diarrhea after the meal? Oh, really? Yeah, I think that's the implication. I always thought you were saying, like, eat diarrhea.

Eat diarrhea. Maybe I was. Did you like the bit because it was about eating diarrhea? Yeah, I thought the whole bit was about people eating diarrhea. Well, you know what? Art is more than what we make of it, so you can interpret. I mean, it's open to interpretation, unless you're a fucking reviewer from Edinburgh then.

OK, so this is the, this is my map of New York. That is, there is a lot of pins. I can't even see the land. So, red means I've been there, it's awesome. And then blue, sorry, green means it's someone recommended or I read about it somewhere. Do you have a brown pin for diarrhea? Diarrhea, yeah, it's brown pin.

Got here to eat diarrhea. Yeah, Melbourne, so Melbourne, this is the map. This is a shadow of what a shade of what I once was. Melbourne used to be my city, man. I used to know ins and outs, but anyway, if you want some quick recommendations for Melbourne. Pesto is a really nice Greek restaurant. Sorry, Patusso is the freaking Peruvian restaurant.

It's my wife's favorite one. It's an alleyway in an alleyway, literally, as is most good restaurants in Melbourne. You can always go to Ghazi on Exhibition Street. That's a really nice Greek restaurant in the city. My favorite bar is Bar Americano. It's like this little speakeasy bar in an alleyway, in an alleyway, standing only eight people max.

Amazing. Don't know how they make money. Very, very cool vibes in there. There's a whole bunch of brunch places in Melbourne. Man, this whole thing, I mean, you guys know I'm all about this. We know. Yeah. So if you ask me for rex, this podcast turned into just a list.

But that's going to become a listicle. People love lists. Yeah, people love lists. We love lists. Yeah, yeah. Right. Anything on, what's that, little Collins Street? There's a bunch of restaurants,

and that's probably eating street. There's Supernormal on that. All these chinchins on that restaurant. So it's all these restaurants which are like, I would say, what, $50? Yeah. You know, you can eat less, but about $50 a head. That kind of street, where it's like,

it's not super inaccessible, expensive, but it's not like an everyday thing. That's the street for it, yeah. You tell what I always like to get. Go to Tropicana and get the South Americans movie. Tropicana. Do you know what's funny about Tropicana, which is famous in Melbourne, it's got all the oranges outside,

is that the guy who originally owned it, I think he read Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. You know that guy, Tim Ferriss? You know that guy? No. He's like this lifestyle hacker. Basically, the thesis of his book was like, outsource all the shit you don't want to do with other people.

That's basically how you get a four hour workweek. You make less money, but you hire people to do the shit you don't want to do, which is like, apparently, that's some revolutionary fucking business idea. We've hired the great Benito to do all this stuff. For example. So the guys who own Tropicana were like, big Tim Ferriss fans, I think, because they had his goddamn

Four Hour Workweek literally in a framed store. So it's only open four hours away. No, but what happened was that they slowly got more and more like immigrants to work there. So I never see them anymore. I think they just outsource their whole life to them. You know what I mean? They outsource Tropicana.

They're basically like, what do you call it when you, it's called TaskRabbit here, but what do you do in the UK? We have TaskRabbit in the UK. Like gig economy. He basically Ubered out the Tropicana or something. I had a very low moment where I nearly went on TaskRabbit to get someone to come and build an Ikea flat back for me. That's not a low moment.

Just do them. Yeah, but I felt pretty bad about it. Do you have the tools to do it? Yeah, all you need is an Allen key. No, you don't. That's what that's the fucking lie. They make you think all you need is an Allen key. You need more than that.

You can't build, you can't screw a screw into wood with a fucking Allen key. You need the drill to do it. They make you feel like it's your piece of shit because you can't do it. But the truth is you can't execute on the plans without, like there's one instruction where it's literally like, hey, can you screw this into solid wood

and link with this Allen key? And if you can't do it, you're a fucking piece of shit. It's like, no man, no people can't do this. Yeah, so hire people to do it, hire people with the tools. And get it done in like, come on man. I did feel like a piece of shit actually. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you got money to fly the New Yorker podcast.

You can hire someone to make you a table. Yeah, still South American smoothies good though. From Tropicada. Yeah, it's good. I'll give you that. It's good, yeah. I think it's delicious. I love it.

True. The smoothies there are delicious. Like, yeah, it's been, that whole street has changed over 20 years. Tropicana is the thing that stayed so. Here's something that I think will, I don't know what response it will get. Every time I go to Melbourne, you know where I go?

All the time to eat food. Schnitz. Oh. The change schnitzel place. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. They schnitz everything. They schnitzle dark.

They schnitzle like beef. They schnitzle, yeah. The whole thing is, yeah, it's OK. Yeah, yeah. Everyone's always really angry with me that I go there. This is a chain place. Yeah, it's the change schnitzel place. But I go there and get the OMG rap.

It's a chain place, but it's also like a small business. So it's kind of, it's still got a bit of soul in it. Yeah, yeah. It's not that bad. Although I would say if you're eating that all the time, then you have no fucking business starting. Yes. You shouldn't be eating every day.

But yeah, it's a nice place. I don't go there every day, but I'll go probably like day one, I'm straight into schnitz. How much of that is based on the fact that you clearly really enjoy saying the word schnitz? Part of it is that I enjoy saying schnitz. I say I like saying schnitz.

I like saying like an OMG rap, please. I like saying that as well. There's some words you say which you clearly are very pleased with yourself. I agree. It's a good observation by you. All things are good. Pop it up some bread.

Pop it up some bread, buddy. Pop it up some bread. I love Ben in the corner of my eye, making notes as we talk, trying to decide what to keep in and what not to keep. Yeah, that'll happen. You've got to not look at him during the podcast. This is the equivalent of the audience response.

Yeah, it's pretty demeaning sometimes when you tell an anecdote and then you look over and he's scribbling away. At the point. Yeah, I mean, honestly, we talk about Melbourne food. I mean, for white people, high eating, Melbourne's pretty high up there. But I mean, Singapore, you know, Singapore and Malaysia for me kills the food game.

There's no, there's nothing that you can, like in Melbourne, you can't, anyway, you can't find that cuisine anywhere else. Singapore and Malaysian food, there's no one has done it well outside of Singapore, Malaysia. Right, yeah. Definitely not the UK. But I mean, even, you know, Australia or,

even in America, your hard press to find good Singapore, like the way it tastes, actually, the way it's supposed to taste. Right, yeah. Huge shout out to Ronny for completely ignoring the Papa Dom. Papa Dom's all bread! Papa Dom's all bread.

I didn't even know what you were saying. Papa Dom's all bread, Lonny! What is that? What is that? Papa Dom's all bread! What is that? Is that like a meme? Papa Dom's all bread!

Is that like Papa Dom's all bread? I think you're saying Papa Dom is a bread. Papa Dom's all bread! But Papa Dom is technically a cracker, I think. Papa Dom's all bread! Yeah, I don't know what that is. Papa Dom's all bread! Oh, you actually did say Papa Dom's all bread.

All! Oh, all bread. Okay. But where would you yell that? Oh, you're asking me. Oh, okay. Papa Dom's all bread! Why is it there's two fucking choices?

The fuck is this? The magic restaurant, you gave me what you like. I thought this is all about what I like. Well, if there's anything that would usually be at this point in the mail, that you would like instead. Oh. You can have things that apply to that. First of all, this whole fucking thing,

okay, why are you dividing it into goddamn, like, you don't go for, like, the idea of, it must be a, what, first course, second course, third course, this is already imperial colonial mentality. Like, what if I don't eat, I eat like shared plates, man. Bring it out, and then we share it. I don't eat fucking first second first. So you're yelling at me about a problem.

So we're whitewashing food, right? Yeah, right now, you know, the whole concept of what the fuck you're doing is already, in my opinion, is already flawed. Hashtag dinner's so white. Yeah, dinner's so white. Nah, I didn't say white. I didn't say white.

We're the imperial colonialists. Yes, yeah. It's not about race. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not about race. Colonialism's not on the right track at all. It's about nationality. Yes.

I guess Papa Dom's. Yeah. Yeah, I like it's Christ, it's crunchy. I mean, good texture, nice flavor, bread is basically evil, right? We now know that the way it reacts with our body is really bad, so Papa Dom's, I guess. So do you avoid bread?

Yeah, avoid bread, man. Here's a tip, if you eat a sandwich and you just remove one slice, just eat one slice. That's how you eat less bread. Do you have an open sandwich, is he saying? Sometimes I eat the fucking inside of a sandwich, like I'm going down on someone. I'll just open it up, and yeah.

Just to avoid the carbs, yeah. In public, will you do that? Yeah, I do that in public, I do it, yeah. For sure. It's disgusting, people don't want to see like me eating sandwiches around them. If I get the fuck away from me, because I look disgusting, I eat the inside of it.

You maintain eye contact with others. Eye contact, I also take my dick out, yeah. And it's good practice. Yeah, absolutely. And vice versa. Yeah. So something after, yeah. I reject this whole first, second, and third course structure.

Sure. Yeah, it's limiting, and it's also kind of insulting, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. Well, normally we go on the starter. Okay. What your drink started with? You're rejecting the separation.

Maybe you're rejecting it. Yeah, I'm rejecting the separation, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we can just call it your first dish, if you want. The first dish coming to the table. First dish that you would like to order. Okay. Let's go kankong in sambal sauce,

which I think, white people call it morning glory, I think. Right. It's stir-fried with sambal sauce, which is a Malaysian chili, with, I think has shrimp paste in it. And they put some garlic in there, yeah. It's really nice. It's a dry... It's a vegetable, right?

It's a vegetable, yeah. It's like a green vegetable. Yeah, nice. It's a green vegetable, yeah. Where's the best place you've had this? Everywhere in... It's like a pre-standard in restaurants in Singapore, yeah. Love eating it.

Very hard to find. Well, it's not hard to find. It's hard to find done well outside of Singapore. It's very fresh there. It's like, it's got a good, like... I mean, I can't even explain it. I don't know how to explain this. Maybe I should have gone something you guys would know, right?

No. Then you should talk about it. It is quite fun. You can try to explain it still. Don't give up on it. I don't know. Peanut butter. Yeah.

What are the scones? I'll have a scone. Peanut butter scone. Yeah, I don't know. What do you guys eat for food? What's your stand? I'm trying to relate to you people. I don't know.

So you're trying to describe the vegetable morning glory in relation to a peanut butter scone? No, no. I'm just saying maybe we should forget about the morning glory because you guys are looking at me like it's... Yes. Like, you know, it's all scone. I don't know.

I have a scone. No, no, no, no. Don't change it to scone because you're worried that we're looking at you. We're not looking at you. Can we chew something white, please? Yeah. Yeah, I'll have the kankong and the kankong sambal sausage.

Is it spicy? Yeah. The sambal is spicy. Yeah, sambal is spicy. How spicy? Do you like spicy food? I'm actually not great with spicy food. So medium spicy, please.

I'm not. Yeah, I mean, I think Malaysians take their ability to take spice as a source of pride. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability. So do you feel ashamed? No, I'm very secure with my... You're fine with it. Yeah, I'm fine with it.

Yeah, are you guys spicy, guys? I like spicy food. I do like spicy food. Oh, you do? Yeah, yeah. I like the rush. Okay, when we talk, are you at the NBA level of spice? I don't think I'm at the NBA level of spice.

No, okay. Then don't worry about it. Because there's this street cart in New York. It's called the Halal Guys. It's a famous street cart. It's near the Colbert show. So it's like Midtown. It's a famous street cart.

And they have another location where they're actually inside the building. But this is the original cart. And it's open till like... If it's not outright 24 hours, it's open till like 5 a.m. or something. And long lines, the best like... I can't even explain it.

Like the spice meat, you gotta try before you go. That's great pronunciation in New York. All right, we're gonna do that. It's like six bucks. And they have white sauce, which is not spicy and super delicious. And then they have the hot sauce. And that hot sauce, 100% will give you diarrhea.

Just not because it's dirty. That's how much spice will... Straight through. It goes straight through. I wanna go and have the sauce from that. Yeah, you wanna have that sauce. And you wanna have diarrhea. Is there a bathroom near the cart?

Oh, the Halal Guys? No, there's none. So you gotta... I mean, there's a Starbucks nearby. I don't know how... They might be used to it by now. But I don't know how, yeah. Yeah, that poor Starbucks.

It's like, I just been to Halal guys. Open the door. They literally have people lining up the shit in Starbucks. It's outdoors. It's nice. It's a nice New York experience. Every time they're Halal guys.

But don't be fooled. There's a lot of imitators around. The original Halal guys. There's like Halal guys with the Z. Halal boys. I wouldn't normally eat from a cart. I'd be too worried about that. Cause you never know what's legit and what's not.

Really? Yeah. Have you been to Southeast Asia? No. Obviously not. Is this your first time in the country? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've just got a passport.

Yeah, well. In the UK, I wouldn't eat from a cart. I mean, do you eat in Edinburgh? In Edinburgh, do you eat in Edinburgh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's the equivalent of fucking eating from a cart. No, I mean, I don't mean eating in a restaurant. I mean, you know Edinburgh Festival,

they hold the bullshit around here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough. I think I just, but James is going, oh no, he'd eat from a cart. He went to LA and ate a taco from a cart and then he shit himself. Oh, really? Long, quesadilla.

But yes, I had a quesadilla cause I was in a really good mood. And then the next day, I had to do a TV appearance and I was very close to shit myself for the whole thing and then came out and shot myself. Oh, for real, he shows it. Yeah, yeah, after I filmed it and then within half an hour of filming it,

I'd shit my pants. Damn. Yeah, it went really bad. Damn. And you can watch that, you can watch the clip online. Yeah. And you can imagine that James

really needs to shit himself and it really does help. What clip is it? And you can just see a guy performing and just trying not to shit his pants. That's all it is. Damn. You can really see it in my eyes.

You do have that glassy, the glassy sort of far away stare of a man holding in a shit. But to be fair, you look like that normally anyway. Yeah. You could be, I mean, there's not much, you could tell me you're holding a shit in for four Netflix specials.

Yeah. So it looked like that for the whole, oh, four of them. That guy was really holding in a shit. Yeah. Fair enough it was the same year. Yeah. Well, yeah, but it was a pretty bumpy year.

But yeah, so James, you're okay with street cat food. Yeah, I think so if I heard you're not. No, I think I think I am as long as like you've told me that that place is legit. Yeah. Well, hello guys is pretty legit, I would say. Like I wouldn't eat anywhere. Well, you got, you should go,

I haven't done this since I first moved to New York, but you should go, when you go to Central Park, you gotta eat like a hot dog at the, you know, yeah. And they're actually pretty good. Okay. But that's the thing. I got a hot dog from a street vendor in New York and it wasn't good.

And I felt like, oh, I've just gone to the wrong place. And that, like you say, you get really gutted that like you didn't go and get one of the good ones and have the proper experience of having a great hot dog. I mean, then what cats is deadly, I don't know. I don't know where you go for a proper hot dog in New York. Yankee Stadium. Yeah.

I mean, you go Yankee Stadium and Nathan's hot dogs, yeah. Have you been to the sports, the baseballs? Yes, I did. It's basically, it's like cricket. It's like you're there to, you're there to drink and whatever that happens, the game happens to me. It's like an outdoor bar. That's why I always think of like cricket and baseball

as like I would just add an outdoor bar just to drink. And then when you eat the hot dogs, do you like open up the bun and then just like... And suck the hot dog like a gig? Yeah. You're coming to your main course now? Oh, no. Your second dish.

Apologies. This is a flawed system of eating, but for what I'm trying to do, which is in Singapore, we don't go like, you know, we don't... Anyway, so anyway, so is this the main? Is this the... Well, yeah, but if you want like a number of small dishes for your main...

No, it's okay. I'll just do whatever the fuck you guys want. So the second... Other people have done it? Yeah. Is third the dessert? Or... No, cause then you have a side dish as well.

Okay. I gotta go with char kway teow. Char kway teow is, in my opinion, probably the quintessential Singapore Malaysian food. It's like a walk... The description doesn't do it justice, but it's walk stir-fried noodles in dark sauce. Flat noodles.

And that flavor cannot be replicated anywhere other than Singapore Malaysian. Yeah, I've never had it. They have it on the menu. They try to do it, but it's always... I don't know how to make that analogy to you. It'd be like eating fish and chips, and as soon as you eat it, you're like, yeah, this ain't...

But fish and chips is so easy. It's so hard to fuck up fish and chips. Sure. People do it. People manage it. People manage fucking it up. Fuck up fish and chips. Yeah, but it still tastes like...

I know what you mean. It's still fish and chips, but it's like soggy shit fish and chips. Oh, right, right. Yeah, but you can't... You can't fuck... You don't taste some like bad fish and chips, and it tastes like apple or anything.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, so I'll go char kway teow. Char kway teow is delicious. It's extremely unhealthy, I think, and... What's in this? Is it like a sweet sauce? Is it a spicy sauce? It's like Swedish dark soy sauce,

but it's a mixture of sauces. You put a bit of chili in there. There's cockles, which I guess is a form of mussels, although we call it cockles. There's bean sprouts in it. Some people put fish cake in it, but really it's the noodles that's the main. So you're...

It's a one dish. You're no carb, you're no carb-vibes. It doesn't stretch your noodles. Oh man, no, this char kway teow is... I'll always make an exception for char kway teow. Yeah, you're not eating between the noodles. You're not sucking the cockles off. Sucking the cockles off?

I don't know char kway teow. Yeah, I love... I'm saying char kway teow, and again, I don't know if you guys can even conceptualize what it is, but Ed, I would love for you to try it one day. I think you'll seem like a worldly guy, despite never having...

I'd be into it. Why not me? No, you too for sure. You don't want me to try it? No, but I feel like you would have been to Southeast Asia, right? No, but I would love to, and I would try that. Yeah, there's a gig there. You should do it, just for tax deduction.

Do you think we'd do... I mean, do you think we'd do well at the gig? No. But it would... Like, you guys, it would be an excuse to go there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just get the gig out of the way quickly. Yeah, just get out of the way.

I'm gonna die in my ass, fine. You should just bring food to the gig, honestly, just eat one stage. So who'll be kidding? That's what I'm really here for. When's the last time you had this dish? Man, I was in Singapore over Christmas, visiting my mom, so...

Also, yeah. Loaded up on something? I'm loaded up on that, yeah. But I still miss it, it's hard to find, man. So you've not found anywhere in New York that does a good version of it? You can't find, no, I haven't found it yet. For the last 20 years...

Wait, when did I leave Singapore? I left in 2004. Yeah, so for the last 16 years, I've given everywhere a chance to make it. I've never had it good, so I believe it can't actually be done. Have you tried cooking yourself? My wife has, yeah.

And you can't nail it, yeah. She does a pretty good job. She's a really good cook. My wife is a really good cook. She has an Instagram page. Oh, yeah? You wanna plug the Instagram page? Fam Bam Kitchen.

Great. Nice. Loads of pictures of food. Are you in any of the pictures? I'm in one of the videos, yeah. What was the video? What were you doing to the sandwich? Yeah, that was...

Did Instagram block it? What was it? Take a second down. I got reported. I think so. The reason she started cooking is because we couldn't find what we wanted to eat anyway. So she just decided to make it.

We got so angry about it. We just needed it and it turned out to be great. So it's become a whole thing, yeah. That's good. That's great. You maybe start an Instagram food page? Do you think I should? I'm not good at the photos though.

That's the problem. I like cooking. I like eating out. But every photo I take of food is shit. Maybe that's your thing. They may give the shit photos of food. Yeah, I'm sure that would really take off. You're like the entire...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went out last night and I tried to take a photo of one of the dishes. It looks awful. Where'd you guys go last night? Went to Lil Frankie's last night. Yeah, oh, we had a roasted egg machine, eggplant. Okay.

That they bought it and it just looked like a normal just whole egg machine. And then they cut it in half in front of us. The guys had an autopsy on it. Yeah. Sawed it in half, opened it up, and then like scored it, left and right, in little criss-crosses.

Then put salt on it, seasoning, some olive oil, some hot oil as well as much spice oil. Ah, it was so good. All of the flesh just lifted off of the skin so easily without any effort. It was delicious. It was delicious. Are you vegetarian?

No. Okay. But I still eat vegetables. Sure. That's good, yeah. And one thing is that I think Americans or, I don't know if British people do this, but you gotta eat more cooked vegetables, man.

That's why I opened with the cooked vegetables thing. This idea that vegetables is salad or nothing is bullshit, man. We don't eat salads and salads is like it came, it's an idea that was imported into Asia. Like we eat it fricking, we cook it, you stir fry it, you cook it. It's healthier, I don't know if it's healthier,

but less likely to be infected with some stupid romaine disease or whatever the romaine, whatever feces is used as fertilizer on romaine lettuce. So it's sanitary, I think more sanitary, and it just tastes better. Salads is basically like a delivery system for the salad dressing. That's all.

We're just trying to eat salad dressing. We have the fucking salad that's to mix it up a bit, so I'm not chugging from the bottle, but like cooked vegetables actually tastes good. You put ginger in there, some garlic, stir fry it, cook our vegetables. You had good vegetables last night. Absolutely, yeah, we did.

We had a lot of appetizers, and then by the time we came to the main, it was just too much. We were full. It was just too much. It was like I had a huge plate of pasta with like red sauce, and it was like a Soprano's meal. And then I was just like, nah.

That aubergine, I'll dream about it for a long time. And all I wanted was I got a massive plate of anti-pasta. I just wanted some meat, some cheese, some vegetables, and a big glass of red wine. And that's exactly. Also some pasta. I was singing a song about wanting pasta and wine. Yeah, it was.

Do you want to sing the song? I can't really remember it. Good song you were just singing about. No, but I can't remember the how the song went. You were kind of improvising. I was sort of blinded by hunger. I went a bit mad. Do you ever get so hungry

that you sing a song about the food? Absolutely right. No? If you guys have enough money to fly to New York. This has baffled you, hasn't it, Ronny? No, no, no. I'm sorry for the fact that we floated here today in the podcast. To do this, yeah.

This must be something like Edinburgh Experimental. I'm gonna go broke and do this thing. I get it, but like what is the, like can't you guys find sponsorship for eating at restaurants then? Get sponsored to have the meal? Yeah, or not even, just go ahead. Here's some dinner or something.

You guys don't strike me as haters. So I don't think you're going to places and trying to destroy businesses. No, we just want a nice time. Exactly. So I mean, that's, if that kind of positivity I think lends itself to, oh, just cough up an aubergine.

Cough up an aubergine. Just give me an aubergine for free. Yeah. I'll take that. But no, I mean, look, I'm just, because I also, you know, God knows it's hard to open a restaurant. So it's good to kind of support people.

You seem worried about our finances as well. But listen, man. Let's talk about your side dish, even though, I don't even know what that means. What is a side dish? So normally it would be a smaller dish to accompany your main meal, like your big food.

And then this is little food. But if you can really have anything you want, I don't want to constrain me with, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Western notions of what food should be. You can just have another dish if you want. Yeah, I'll just go. Okay, so you got to try the,

I really love eating steamed fish in, they usually do it with, I think it's Teochew style is, you steam it with like ginger on top and you put coriander and sourcing, cooking wine and some light soy sauce, I think. And if you get the right fish, you know, like sea bass is a really nice fish to steam. Yeah, cod is nice fish to steam.

Man, it's one of my favorite things to eat. Steamed fish is light, it's super tasty. I think it's relatively healthy, you know, cause there's no, you're not putting batter on it, you're not putting, yeah. So I don't know, man, steamed fish, have you guys ever had a nice steamed fish before? Chinese style steamed fish?

I've had steamed fish before, it takes on flavor very well. Great texture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you get the right one, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. The bass, any bass is good. You're a fan of the bass.

I like bass, stone bass. Okay, wait, hang on. Have you guys, the Chilean sea bass? Sea bass. Sea bass, how do you, Ronnie's already said sea bass and you got to stone bass and dried up. Forgot. Wait, have you guys had Chinese steamed fish?

I think I've had Chinese steamed fish before. I want to say I have. I think so. You guys want a food park, hasn't? Where are we going in New York for a Chinese steamed fish? My house. Your house? Yeah, my house.

Your wife's cooking? Yeah, yeah. Amazing. What night do you want us to come? Can we be in the video? I don't know what you guys are here for. So, and you have it with Bryce, you know? Cancón goes really well with it.

The first thing I mentioned, chocolate tea was actually his own dish. You would probably eat it like it's own, you know? Right, yeah, yeah. I don't know, it's its own containing, but cancón and steamed fish, you probably eat at multiple course dinner in Malaysia. So, you don't want all of these bought out at the same time?

You can do it, you can bring out at the same time, yeah. All three of them. Yeah, yeah. Good. So, this is a big sharing meal. Who's your dream guest to share it with? Because we can do that at the dream restaurant. I can bring in whoever you like to share all this food with.

Bring with my wife, I love being with my wife, yeah. She's the best, yeah. She said she's not available. Damn. Dream person to eat with. I think I like to eat with Gordon Ramsay. Wouldn't he be really angry? I don't know, I want to see what, you know?

I feel like he's actually, when he's not in work mode, I think he strikes me as someone who's like a pretty chill guy, you know what I mean? I think the two of you would either have a very chilled evening or you would get in the best argument I've ever seen. Right. I think neither of you would back down.

Right, right. I'd really like to see it. Yeah, I think Gordon Ramsay, I'd like to meet him. Yeah. I'd like to have dinner with him, get his opinions on food. Yeah. Maybe, yeah.

Terrifying for you, of course, being the waiter in the restaurant then. I'd be very scared. But Ramsay's in with Ronnie. So, you're going to have the absolute shit ripped out of you all night. Yeah, I'd be like, I'm in big trouble here. What do you mean, man?

From peanut butter scones at me. Telling me I'd love to eat them. Oh, how about Jimmy Oliver? Bring Jimmy Oliver in as well. Bring Jimmy Oliver in. I used to watch a show when I was in high school. Yeah. The Naked Chef, I used to watch all the time.

Yeah, yeah. I find it quite a comfort in show, The Naked Chef. There's a nice little boy making food for his family. Yeah, he was like, he's young. I was like, who the, this guy, he brought on like a scooter. Yeah, he drove to his apartment where there'd be cameras waiting. Yeah, he had that circular staircase.

Yeah, yeah. It was killer. Yeah. It was killer. It was good. Who's the new Naked? We need a new Naked Chef. Yeah, I don't know.

That could be us. Us? We could be the new Naked Chefs. Not happy about that? Yeah. Yeah, okay. No, Ronnie, you didn't speak your mind. No, no, no.

You don't want to be the new Naked Chef. No, do it. Yeah. You don't think we'd be good at it? No. We'd be great. Yeah. What do you think's holding us back from being?

Skills. Yeah. Cooking skills. Straight out the gate, that's the big one. Yeah. We're enthusiastic, though. Yeah, you can be the enthusiastic chef. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That would be a cool cooking show, actually, where both of you fuck it up all the time. But we tried so hard. Yeah, he fucked it up. Positive people. Yeah. Man, how young? He was like 18 years old.

He had his cooking show, nothing made sense. Why was he called the Naked Chef? He was a Naked. Is it some kind of metaphor for being stripped down? But his food was always very heavily seasoned, Yeah, the food was never naked. What is it? I'll never forget this.

This is not a fun fact. But when he was doing the school dinners thing, there was, they met a nurse who'd met loads of kids who had terrible diets, and she'd met a kid with such a bad diet that they did a shit out their mouth. Hahahaha. How did they do that?

Well, they didn't go into details, but she was like, it was so bad She didn't say they did a shit out their mouth. No, it's so bad that, how'd she word it? He pooed out of his mouth. Like feces came out of his mouth. Not even possible. No, apparently it is.

If you eat too many turkey twizzlers, you do a shit out your mouth. Did you guys grow up eating well or was it like? Yeah, my mum cooked healthy. Pretty healthy, I think, yeah. Right, but did you guys eat like varied stuff or was it kind of like the same stuff every day or like? You varied, my mum, yeah.

I was very lucky. My mum was pretty healthy, into healthy cooking and gave us, she didn't let us have the school dinner. She gave us pat lunches. Yeah, I had pat lunches as well, but I was a fat little boy running, so I would eat my pat lunch at 11 a.m. and then go and then sneak in and get school lunch as well.

What would be a typical, he's the dust out of his mouth every day, that was. I loved it though. What would be a typical pat lunch? A scone, a scone would be a typical pat lunch. There's like a scone in there. Why are you even having scones all the time? I don't know, I'm trying to relate to you.

What the fuck were you, or I'm asking, what was in the pat lunch? A sandwich. Sandwich? What kind of sandwich? Ham, cheese sandwich, let me guess. Ham and cheese. My mum would pat my sandwich every day

and she'd go, go and practice your kind of lingkers. Yeah. Sandwich was a great invention. Before the Earl of Sandwich invented it, these idiots were eating stuff separately and they had to carry all that shit around. He was the first guy to be like, yo, we just put this shit in the bread.

And that was the direct quote as well. Yeah, it was like, guys, just put this in the bread and he figured it was like inventing the wheel when he invented the sandwiches. It was pretty huge. I love that it's the Earl of Sandwich. I always forget that it's the Earl of Sandwich. One moment in time.

You seem to really respect, even though you hate sandwiches, you really respect the Earl of Sandwich. You respect the Earl of Sandwich quite a lot. Yeah, the innovation behind it. Yeah, it was the fucking Google of its time and he invented the iPhone, essentially. Yeah, yeah.

He put the two bread, he was like, yo, we don't have to eat bread in a loaf. Stop ripping up this loaf, let's cut it. First of all, let's cut it. Like, no, let's not be barbarians here. Let's fucking cut it. And then you get the meat and you put it in between the thing and then it's done.

And then you can carry, you can do other stuff. You can walk or you can take it with you. You don't have to have cutlery. You can go, you know, into the... I really feel like you're trying to sell the sandwich to us. Yeah. Like, is there people listening out there going like, what the fuck?

Because you hate sandwiches, but you love the Earl of Sandwich. No, I just, the bread, there's too much bread in it, but I love the innovation behind it, the thought behind the Earl of Sandwich, great guy. So my question is, because you love the Earl of Sandwich so much, when you are eating a sandwich and you spread it apart,

do you pretend it's the Earl of Sandwich that you're going down on? Well, I assume the Earl of Sandwich is a dude. Yeah, you can still do that. You can still spread him and go down on him. Do you know how vaginas and penises are different, man? It's a different... But you could flip the Earl of Sandwich over

and go down on his butthole. That's what I was trying to say to you. I didn't even think of that, I'm sorry. I was trying to say... Well, you got to be more direct, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine. You're going down on the ass of sandwich. No, I'm not...

No, I'm not thinking about... But unfortunately, now I will be. Forever, you can get rid of that. But you'll be so filled with respect that it'll be quite a nice occasion for you. Sure, thanks James. Would you come to your favourite drink now? Sure, let's go Teh Tarik.

Teh Tarik is a milk tea drink in Singapore, Malaysia. Tarik means Paul in Malay. And basically the way they do it is... The way they're supposed to do it is... They brew the tea from scratch. And then they add milk at a very specific quantity so they taste the way it's supposed to taste. It's not just fucking putting milk into tea.

And then everything's super hot, so they pull it. They pour it from cup to cup. Oh yes, and they spread their hands apart as they pull it. And the tea falls from the higher cup to the lower cup. And that both frosts the milk tea and cools it down. I've seen that on YouTube. Where'd you see it? People were doing the...

I watch food videos on YouTube and stuff. And I've seen it also on TV. And every now and again, they do a little montage of going around that particular place. And they always do that milk stuff. It's very impressive. They always do a quick shot of someone stretching the milk. OK.

Because it's visually pleasing, isn't it? Sure. It's non-threatening. That's it. Makes me trust the people. And that's my go-to drink. And I recommend that for everyone who visits Singapore Malaysia. Go get some nice tea at that rate. I think it's colonial-influenced.

But a lot of cool stuff, they kind of made it their own. Because Singapore's a British colony. And I think they like the milk in the tea, which is not a Chinese thing. And it turned out to be great, so yeah. Is it sweetened at all? It's sweet. It's sweet milk tea.

I want to learn how to do that milk thing. I did one for a photo shoot two days ago, yeah. Really? How did it look? Yeah, most of it ended up on my shoe. Yeah. I guess they have to train for quite a long time to make sure they...

Have you guys drunk bubble tea before? Yeah, bubble tea. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. OK. I don't like the texture of the bubbles. That's fair. That's fair, man. I'm just asking, yeah. I think it's just...

But you like the... Did you get like a sweet... I like tea. I like the tea. OK. But the... Just... It's like... Damn, it's interesting how divisive bubble tea is. With... In Western culture. And I'm not even saying you should like...

I'm not... Dude, I'm not the guy who plays the raised kind. Sure. So... Yeah, yeah, I've met you. Yeah, but... I think it's just a textural thing. Yeah. It's a bit like... A bit slimy.

Right. Did you drink it? Yeah, I liked it. Where did you guys have... Where did you have it, Ed? There's a place... There's loads of places in London, actually. Bubbleology. In Chinatown. Bubbleology.

Yeah, bubbleology. Bubbleology. Who is it? Bubbleology. Bubbleology. Can I say the London Chinatown? Yo, these guys are the angriest. These guys have the worst customer service in Chinese... By Chinese restaurant standards.

They have the worst... Even to elder Chinese people. So it's not just... It's... Don't think it's racial. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These fucking people hate customers. Which is crazy because there's so many restaurants that you would have thought you'd have to stand out.

Yeah. By being the... Oh, the worst service. I literally get abused just by coming into your fucking restaurant. It's... But people start liking it, don't they? Yeah, there's a place...

There's a place you're trying to tackle, Wonky, which is quite famous for its bad service. And people go there for it. People go there and they love getting yelled at. Yeah. Because I went into one and yeah, the service was... Oh my God. I was like, yo.

I'm one of you. Yeah, I was like, yo, what the fuck? What are you doing? This isn't... I feel bad about giving you that milk at the start now because clearly, what a waste. No, no. You've already had loads of milk.

With your milk tea, do you want the ultimate milk? Yeah, sure, yeah. You can make kentaro with the ultimate milk, yeah. Yeah, yeah, the ultimate milk. That's the ultimate too, yeah. Ultimate milk is amazing, man. That should be... Yeah.

You could do something of that. Yeah, yeah. You guys could open a cafe in London. Yeah. Again, you're worried about how we're making money, right? Yeah, yeah. I know that you're seconds away from saying, because you're coming here all the way to New York

to do your podcast, and that's all you're doing here. We arrive at the final course, which is the dessert. Oh, dessert? I don't know if... Are you a big dessert guy? Um, again, I'm not, but I will... If you go to Singapore, Malaysia, have the kueh. Kueh is a steamed...

Man, I've never had to describe it like this before. This is... It's a steamed cake, I guess. If you Google it, it's super colorful. Yeah. It looks appealing. It tastes nice. Very pandan-flavored, you know,

so if you think of pandan stuff, that's what it is. It's... I don't know how to put this in a fucking podcast. It's squished. Usually, it's squished, rectangular-shaped, three-dimensional, but it's small, sliced. There's a color, bright colors, like green and white,

and there's different types of kuehs. There's like kueh lapis, which is layered cake, so there's different layer, and every layer's a different color, and then there's like a different type of kueh, which... Yeah, fuck, just Google it. I feel like this is like a new ASMR category. Man angrily describes cake he likes.

Yeah, I don't even know how to... Do you know the demographics of your listeners? Do you have any data on that? Benito's got all the data. Yeah, probably. What country? A wide range of people, mainly from Britain. Okay, well, then this is impossible, then.

Just Google it. I can't... It's... Fuck! I don't know. It's like an egg tart, but the inside of an egg tart is without the crust. Now I'm confused.

Oh, so it's a steamed cake, but it's like... It's like egg custardy, sort of. Yeah, imagine it's custardy. There's no crust around it. Yeah, it's not even... It's not sponge cake. It's not crispy. It's not sponge cake.

It's not crispy. It's not a sponge cake. It's cube. It's rectangular. Yeah. Bring that as well. I'm ordering that. Do you have anything with that?

Is there ice cream with it? No, no fucking ice cream. Just eat that, okay? You don't put your sugar shit on it. We don't need any more of that. Don't drizzle any of your bullshit. No honey. Just eat it as it is.

We're preferably with Tetra ring. Yes, yeah, okay. No bullshit. Write that down on the order. No bullshit. So, I'm going to read this back to you now. Oh, I can't wait for you to read this back, James. Let me tell you.

I am not feeling confident about this. You know, I'm going to do my best, but you've not been relaxed for the show, and I'm worried that if I get these wrong... No, no, I won't come at you. I respect your... I respect your efforts. I know where you're coming from, man.

First of all, still water. Wait, hang on. Is Seltzer free, though? Huh? Yeah, Seltzer. They're fucking Seltzer than Jesus. Okay, well, here we go. This is what I'm talking about.

Wait, but who would order... Given the choice of free, Seltzer, or still, you got open with... Hey, do you want still or sparkling? They're both free. Yeah. That's what you got to open with. They're both free?

That's all free. Well, if I knew that, I remember I would change my order. What, you want to budget? What have you budgeted for this meal? Whatever, what, a 30 bucks, maybe? Seltzer water. Okay, Seltzer, thank you.

Papadoms. If you must, then yeah. If you must, for some reason, you must eat papadons or bread. You must. Every meal, you must eat this. Fine, then find papadoms. Can I have something else there, if you want?

How about cut that thing out? Cut the whole thing out. We got enough food coming, we don't need food. Well, we'll bring the papadoms then you can just leave them. That's wasting food. That's horrible. Sure.

Okay, bring it, bring our papadoms. First dish, con con. Yeah, you're good. There you go. With sambal, with sambal. With sambal? Yeah. Second dish, char kway.

Yeah? One more word. Char kway teow. You nailed it. Well done, James. I'm actually enjoying this. Yeah. Steamed fish.

Okay, okay. Is that all you do? Teow ju style, steamed fish. Teow ju style? Steamed fish. Steamed fish. Teow ju style steamed fish. Yes, thank you.

Couldn't even say steamed then. Yeah. Well, I'm so panicked about the rest of it. Okay, come on. I messed up my, right, drink. Yeah. Teotaric? Great, nailed it.

Does it... Kway? Cool. No? Yeah. Kway? Yeah. No ice cream.

No ice cream, no bullshit. No ice cream, no bullshit. Don't put any shit on it. No ice cream, no bullshit. Yeah. Well, I think that sounds delicious. So we've learned a lot about these new foods that we didn't know about.

Thank you. Thanks for... Enjoy that. Humoring me with the... Humoring you? Yeah, with the food. I appreciate it. No, no, no, no.

You had to humor us, if anything. Yeah. No, I hope one day you guys actually get to try it. Yeah, I'd like to. I want to try all of this. This is the things that's what's good about the podcast is that we get to discover dishes we've never heard of before.

Yeah, discover dishes and never actually eat them. No, we eat them. Yeah, when the fuck are you going to eat this? Well, when we come over to your house. I don't cook job with you. No, but we can go to... Where? Singapore, Malaysia.

Are you ever going to go? Yeah. Where are you going to go? Well, when they get some good podcasts, guys. Yeah, you can have some good podcast guests there. Who lives there, who's cool? Got a podcast. Who lives there, that's cool.

Who's there, who you would like to be like? That's a good guest. The British guys, they are running from the law, so... They sound cool. Yeah, they're cool. Bandits. Yeah, you get some bandits in. Thank you very much for coming to the Dream Restaurant.

Thank you so much, Roddy. No, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me in. OK, good job. There we have it. Roddy Chang there, an excellent episode. I don't know how he avoided saying ice, but he did. Yeah, he managed to avoid saying ice,

but also what I was really enjoying for the whole episode is every time he said something, I knew that you were going to have to try and pronounce it at the end of the episode. Yes, you were excited about that, I could tell. But you actually did a really good job and Ronny was very supportive of you. Well, I was quite relieved there, yes.

I did my best, and Ronny was very nice to me. Yes, he was. Well done, Ronny, and thank you. And we actually... Yeah, thank you, Ronny, for taking us out for a meal afterwards. We went for a meal afterwards. Ronny said, I'm going to take you to this place Upland. President Obama went there once.

Yeah, he told us Obama went there. It's sort of a high-ish and American food because I know you two don't want any Asian food. Yeah, and we said, no, we would love Asian food. We would love Asian food. We kept protesting, and he was like, no, I'd look at you, you don't want any Asian food. Yep.

Kept refusing to take us to any Asian places. Kept talking about how the place he was taking us wasn't actually that good, and there were loads of great Asian places in the area. Yep, Kept saying, I don't really like this place. It's just a good white person place. You guys could go there. We arrived 50 minutes before it opened,

and we waited outside, despite there being Asian places open at that time. Yeah, we were like, we'll go to one of those places, Ronnie. He went, no, you don't like that kind of stuff. You guys don't like it. So we go here. This is a white person place. And you know what?

It was right. It was so delicious. It was great. We had absolutely delicious duck wings there that if you are ever in New York City, go to Upland and just get those crispy duck wings. They're so good. They were absolutely delicious. What did you say was on the med?

It was like a yuzu sauce, which is the Japanese ingredient. So it was delicious. We fooled him in the end. We got you, Ronnie. But thank you. We got Ronnie's Netflix special Asian Comedian, Destroys America.

It's very funny indeed. But for now, we will see you next week on the Off Menu podcast. Don't be a stranger. Take food. Hello, it's me, Amy Glendale. You might remember me from the best ever episode of Off Menu, where I 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 news 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 Glendale'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.