Video Gamers Podcast - [BONUS EPISODE]: Resolving Our Biggest Food Debates - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan are bringing you a very fun BONUS episode this week! Join us as we welcome AZFOODGUY to the show to resolve all of our long standing food debates! That's right, we brought in a true food expert to finally put to rest some of the longest standing food rivalries we've had, and what results may just change the future of the podcast. Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Check out AZFOODGUY and follow at: https://www.instagram.com/azfoodguy/  Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody, we want to welcome the A.Z. Food guy to the show. He is a local here in Phoenix with us, who has a passion for food that might be rivaled by our love of arguing about food, AZ food guy. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. How you doing today? Doing good. Thank you for having me. This is my first time on a video game podcast.

So I'm super excited. Yeah, we're excited to have you. This is our first time having a food expert on the show. You know, we like to think we know food, but after checking out some of your content. I'm on the show. I'm on the show. Yeah, Ryan. This is the reason we brought AZ food guy onto the show is to finally settle some of the debates that you and I have had over food takes. And your food takes are terrible. All right. All right. So, but it is awesome to have you, man.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. This is going to be a fun little episode here, because we are going to lean on your food expertise to settle some of our longstanding arguments that Ryan and I have had about food. And honestly, people in our community, it's one of those things that, you know, everybody loves talking about it.

We actually have a food channel in our Discord server where people post photos of things they're making or, you know, recipes that they might have and stuff like that. So there is definitely a big overlap between gaming and food. And so we love this kind of crossover that we got going on. I'll be the judge. Absolutely. That's what we want. Yeah. As long as you pick my side,

that's all that really matters. So, so, so, you know, obviously we are a gaming podcast. So before we get into learning a little bit more about, you know, some of the food in the Valley and settling some of these debates. We just wanted to take a second to get to know you a little bit better. And what better way than to get to know somebody to talk about what kind of games they like? So you do play games.

And we chatted a little bit on email before we started this episode and then just prior to recording. So what are some of your actual favorite games? Well, I play a lot of Persona. So I've played Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5. Those have been my three main games for like the past, I don't even know, when did Persona 3 come out?

Like 2006, 2007? They did the reloaded recently, I think that was a year or two ago, but the original one came out a while back. Yeah. So I've been playing that for a long time. Of course, final fantasy. I didn't play all of the final fantasies, but I definitely skipped around and play. Which one I played one, I played six, played 10, played 15.

Um, and then I kind of gave, gave the other ones to try a little bit when I had time, but those are usually, those two series are my usual main ones that I would play. Yeah. Persona games are some of the most beloved games out there. Now, being that the developer is Atlas, have you played or heard of metaphor refantasio? Because there's a lot of people out there that are saying that is actually the best game that they've ever made. I have definitely heard of it. I was at Anime Expo about six months ago and they had this

giant display, not even a giant, well, it was like 20 feet high. That's a giant display. That's pretty big. And so everything was all about that game. They didn't even, they had a little, usually they have a really big persona booth, but six months ago it was all about the new game and the persona section was very, very small. So I definitely heard of the game. I watched some of the reviews on it. It looks, it looks pretty good. Yeah. We have heard from a lot of people that they think it's the best game that they've made. I mean, Persona 5 Royale is widely considered one of the best RPGs ever made. You know, I have played it. I can really appreciate what is in that game. It's just not my favorite

pacing in a game, I think, but I can absolutely like appreciate what they did with that. But maybe just to put it on your radar, metaphor refantazio has gotten a ton of hype. It was up for game of the year, um, as far as some of those awards. So, you know, maybe just check that out in your spare time. Um, so is it safe to say that you're kind of a fan of RPGs? Yeah, I've played a lot of RPGs. It's just more convenient for my life right now, because I can play it, and then I can just forget it for about maybe a month if I'm super busy,

and then come back and play it again. And I like the stories in RPGs. It's more story-based. I also have a thing for, you know, um, kind of like simulations or, uh, dating sims. So, you know, persona is almost like a dating sim. So it's a little bit of everything and the music is great. So, um, yeah, that's how I got attracted to it. Yeah. The art style, all of that. Yeah. It's funny cause I'm, I'm not a, a turn-based combat type of guy. I'm not always a big fan of those

I can recognize the art and the beauty and the style of those worlds just kind of the combat is a little off pudding for me speaking of food pudding but uh So have you heard of another game coming out that I'm gonna Fortunately or unfortunately it remains to be seen. Clare Obscura Expedition 33 is coming out. Have you seen that one? I watched the trailer for it. Oh nice yeah it's it's it looks pretty cool. I will say for somebody who's not super hyped for like kind of combat that style of combat this one does pique my interest a little, not that I have a choice, but I am a little bit excited.

Ryan is being forced to play. We do this thing every now and then where you can force a friend to play a game. And so Ryan can say, Hey, Josh, you absolutely have to play like the uncharted games. I've never played the uncharted games. And so he can actually say like, you have to play it. And then I have to play it.

And then we kind of come back and talk about that. And so John, uh, it, it, you know, he got to force Ryan into this and Ryan's just been shaking his head ever since. Cause he's like, I'm not going to like it. Why am I going to like it? But he, he is at least keeping an open mind about it. Whereas, you know, the rest of the world is super excited for this game. Yeah.

I keep an open mind for a lot of games. I do some board games as well. You know, I like over the years, I've just played a little bit of everything. Um, for example, I was just watching an unboxing and gameplay for metal gear, solid, the board game, and that looked like that looked dinkasly cool. And it mirrors the metal gear solid game on PS1 almost exactly, but just through a board game. Okay, so now you're speaking my language because I am a Metal Gear head.

I got that game when I was, you know, I'm dating myself here, but I think I was 12 years old when it came out and I convinced my grandma to buy it for me and I've played every Metal Gear since a million times. So that sounds actually pretty cool. A board game that mimics actual play style, which I think is one of the few games that could probably work with that bird's-eye view. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I watched, I can't believe it, but I actually watched like multiple unboxings and I watched the gameplay on it. And you know, you have those little figures, a snake going around and then there's also the soldiers figures, and then they kind of move according to whatever card

you, you know, you flip. And so that's how random they go. And you have to like sneak your way through there. And you have weapons and you have all these other little miniature figures that represent other characters. And you basically go through the actual game of the PS1 game. Wow. That sounds pretty cool. Game night, next game night. I know what I'm doing. I was going to say Ryan's automatically looking for this now. He's going to see me on an unboxing video next. He's like, oh, that's him.

Yeah, that's awesome. All right, well, listen, before we get too deep into this, we need to know a little bit more about you and some of your food takes. So let's pick your brain a little bit here. So you live in Phoenix, so you are local to us. And so this might be us really just fishing for some suggestions here too.

But you do try a lot of food in the Valley. You have an amazing Instagram, by the way, like I literally have shown this to like multiple people because we just kind of appreciate, you know, content creation and people that are super passionate about it. We know the work that goes into it. And I mean, who doesn't love delicious food at the same time? So we'll include a link to your Instagram in this episode description also. But I just, I had to give you props there because it's like what you do is very,

very well done at the same time. Um, so what's the worst thing like through all of your content and you go to all of these restaurants and you meet all these people and you try all these dishes and stuff, you don't have to name the place, but like, has there been something where you were just like, Oh my goodness, this is terrible. Like, I can't believe I just tried this. Of course. Although that, you know, the terrible things, usually, you know, I just kind of forget them because I don't want them to stay in my mind. You know, so I don't remember how they taste, but I do remember like the experience.

So for one example, I remember this restaurant, they weren't a ramen restaurant. I think they were just like Asian restaurant. Um, and then they had this ramen and it was just so terrible that I decided that I was just gonna, instead of eating it, I was gonna do something else with it to create the content. I think I like broke a raw egg into it or like comedy content. So that way I didn't have to eat it.

That's amazing. How do you mess up ramen? I know right? Even the worst ramen is still like semi good. Boy, I find out that once you eat enough ramen, you kind of know like what ramen you don't want. Yeah, that's a good point. Uh, yeah. I find that hard to believe that somebody could mess that up, but I mean,

I know apparently it happens too. So let me ask you, what's, let me ask you what's a ramen place that you love. I can tell you the best ramen in the valley and my, my daughter is an absolute ramen fanatic. Uh, there's a place called Utaka that is on, uh, I think it's bell road and seventh Avenue. There is a place called Yutaka that is on, I think it's Bell Road and Seventh Avenue. It's a little place. It is the best.

It's like rated like top 25 in the country for ramen. And their tonkatsu ramen is, oh, oh my goodness. It is some of the best I've ever had. Wow, Yutaka, I'll have to look that up. I'll send you, after this, I'll send you the, uh, the link, uh, cause you should absolutely try that. I, again, it's some of the best I've ever had and it's from us. It's like a 15 minute drive cause it's, um, yeah,

I think it's seventh Avenue and bell, uh, is where it's located. I'll send you the details after this. So, cause I I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Um, okay. And then do you have a favorite, uh, we'll kind of make this broad, but a favorite food, a dish or a specific meal from a place that you've eaten at here in the valley? Hmm. That's, that's a little hard. So many things I I'll tell you like what I really like. I really love pastrami. So, you know, that's something that attracts me towards there.

So any place has pastrami, I'll have to go. I love wagyu beef. Um, so if someone has wagyu, I'll be like, all right, I'll go there and try that. So it's more like, um, you know, just not a particular restaurant or dish. It's more like I'm attracted to like certain categories of food. I get that. That makes sense yeah when you're when it's like this type here you know these are the restaurants I need to search out for this specific you know kind of course if you will. Mm-hmm it's when when people ask me you know what's the best restaurant or what's the best place I'll be like what you know what do

you like what do you want? What do you want? Yeah, there's a lot of good restaurants, but you know, what are you looking for, for sure? Yeah, we'll have to narrow it down before I can give you something really, really good that you might like. Well, I guess speaking on kind of categories, Arizona, ironically enough, does have, I mean, we have pretty solid Mexican food but overall there's a lot of good kind of other types of food in the valley like ethnic wise what is your favorite kind of food along those category you know range broad spectrum usually I really love well I hang out in Mesa a lot so I

usually like the Asian food Japanese Japanese food, Chinese food, Vietnamese food. Um, so I think, uh, that's really one of the more hidden gems around here because everyone can say, you know, Oh, I see a, I see a Mexican taco shop here and there, but I think, uh, the real hidden gems are the Asian spots that are here. Yeah. We just went to a neat one that was again, my daughter loves Japanese, just anything Japanese. And so we found a, uh, what is it a bun and bowel place called uncle Panda? Uh, have you been there?

Yeah, they make like the cutest little, I don't know any, like again, my dad's, my daughter's like, dad, you gotta take me here. And we went there and ate it and she just absolutely loved it. They made the cutest little buns, like in the shapes of cute little animals and stuff. And yeah, I was like, all right, this is kind of cool. So, all right. It's, it's good. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, let's get into, let's get into this a little bit here now that we know a little bit more about

you and some of your gaming tastes as well. Um, so Ryan and I, like I mentioned, we have very different food takes. I love sweets, and he hates sweets. He only likes salty stuff. And so this has caused a lot of debate amongst us. And because we've been doing this show for a while, our community kind of gets involved in that as well.

And we've had wars over this. I mean, they're all friendly, but we've definitely had people take sides on things. So now that we have a professional here, uh, we thought it would just be awesome to get your takes on this and to finally have you be the judge and, and what you say goes like this will actually end the feuds, uh, for us, at least for a little while. So let's tackle a few of these and starting off perhaps the biggest debate that we have ever had years for years, it's been going on and has split the community. This is split social media because we've posted on social

media about this, but, and I won't tell you who's on what side here, but the question is waffles or pancakes is waffles or pancakes? Waffles or pancakes. That's a tough one there. I would have to go with just because I don't have the equipment for it. I would have to say pancakes. Yeah, you hear that Ryan?

Pancakes everybody. I just love the soft, fluffy pancakes, especially the jiggly ones. Like, you know, they have those in Japan and you just cover them in syrup. It's just a great combination of syrup, softness, fluffiness. Yeah, I think I'll have to go with pancakes. Oh yeah, you hear that Ryan?

That's all we have for today. So thanks for joining us. No, I can respect it. I am not a sweets guy, but if I'm gonna eat a doughy pastry covered in sugar, I tend to go with waffles. I just like that kind of, those little pockets just hold all the goodness,

you know, with each every little bite. The decision has been made, Ryan. No, no, the decision has been made. That no decision has been made. All right. All right. I'm not fighting on this one. That's fine. I got others to fight for.

Yeah. Well, this next one might be Ryan's big one here. So, okay. So, so this is, this is the big one. This is the moneymaker here. And I know that a lot of the world is divided on either side and we're going to go with sweet or salty. Sweet or salty food?

Yeah, sweet or salty food. Are you going with the pastries, the candies, the donuts, the treats, or like you said, that pastrami, that beautiful delicious sandwich, that salty ramen, that delicious ramen you're gonna eat, you know, all the good, good stuff. I think, uh, wow. Okay. I think Ryan has me there. I would take the salty, the savory over the, uh, the sweets.

I object. There was, there was bias and persuasion going on. It's just a broader category. I have, I mean, I say I object, but man, like sweets are so narrow and they're delicious. But when you say salty, I feel like you just have this massive pool that you don't get with sweet food at the same time. Yeah. I think so as well. Salty, savory, it could be almost anything. But when you think of sweets, it's more like maybe a snack or something after, or maybe a light breakfast. I don't know. Yeah. I just, I don't know. Yeah, I just I

don't know man. My brain is just sugar. It just wants sugar. All I know is when I'm at a party and I finish dinner and then I look and I see like a pile of nachos or I see a couple cookies I'm just going for more nachos man. That's what I want. Yeah, you're weird. Yeah, I don't really do that many desserts. If I can have more steak I probably eat more steak. Exactly. Man, I knew I like this guy. I don't really do that many desserts. If I can have more steak, I probably eat more steak. Exactly. Man, I knew I liked this guy. I don't know. Well, we're one for one, Ryan. We're one for one. And so now this next one is tough. So, okay, burgers or tacos? Ooh, okay. Oh, that is a tough one.

I do love a good burger, but then there's so many varieties of tacos. Yeah. There's a lot, wait, there's a lot of variety of burgers too. You can put a lot of stuff on a burger. Oh, that's true. The toppings, ooh.

Do a burger. Would any of you like to convince me? A taco, a taco you can have beef, you can have pork, you can have chicken, you can have shrimp. There's all kinds of- You can have bite, you can have elk burgers. This is true. Elk burgers are actually pretty good.

Yeah. Well, I think based on like my, I guess if I just had to go through my content, I actually haven't had a burger in a while. I think I've only done like maybe 1%, 2% of my content on burgers, but I've definitely done a lot of tacos, so many tacos that I, I probably don't want to think about. So, uh, I think if I had to choose, I still probably go with tacos because I've, I've eaten so many variety of tacos from fish tacos to lobster tacos,

to media tacos, to everything. And so that always still surprises me while a burger is usually a piece of beef or, you know, I had a Wagyu burger. I think that was pretty good too, but I think I'll go with tacos just for the variety. All right. I'm going to, I'm also going to recommend a burger place for you to try that is some of the best burgers I've ever had after the show. So here we go. Josh brings that burger place up every time. I'll save it. We'll save it. And then we can come back. We can come back a little later. Yeah. I would like,

I would like a follow-up on this and be like, now which one burgers or tacos? And it'd be like, burgers. I didn't know! I didn't know! Okay, well, since, you know, since the season is here, it's February, and you know what February means? It's Girl Scout time, where these drug-peddling girls come around and try to give us their crack cookies. So, what would you say is the best Girl Scout cookie? Oh, what's that one? It starts with an S. Samoas. Samoas?

Samoas, yes. Yeah! That's two and two now, Ryan! What? I'm a, like I said before, I'm not a sweets guy, but I will, it is, I'm incapable of eating one Thin Mint. I will eat a sleeve every time. No questions asked and I just don't even try to hide it.

If I'm gonna do it, I commit. It's not very often, but yeah, I'm for sure a frozen Thin Mint guy. Oh, that's my number two right there. That is a solid number two. That's fair, like yeah. And I'm sure if I like sweets a lot more, I would try the other ones, but I just have no interest.

So if I'm gonna do it, I'm like, all right, well, this is the only thing I'm gonna eat. So I just, I'm always, I just sweets a lot more, I would try the other ones, but I just have no interest. So if I'm going to do it, I'm like, all right, well, this is the only thing I'm going to eat. So I just, I'm always, I just always do the thin mints. All right. One more in the debate category here, and then we'll move on to some quick fire ones here. Chewy cookies or crunchy cookies. The long standing debate here is like the chewy chips ahoy versus the crunchy like original chips ahoy

You know, I I just love soft Warm chewy cookies. Yes when I think about it. I mean other cookies are okay when it's hard, but like You know when I think of a good cookie that just makes me feel great. It's usually a soft chewy warm cookie Yeah that's fair. Grandma's grandma's homemade cookie. You know, is that that soft chocolate chip just, you know, chewy cookie. That's fair. I'm not going to fight you on that one. Yeah, I was gonna say I just cookies in general. So we may have one more cookie question here later on.

So, all right, well, there you go. That settles all the debates that we have had over the years, but we're not done just yet. We like to do this little thing that we call this or that. And so it's just a quick answer. It's just whichever one comes to mind. There's no context. There's no explanation.

It's just a this or that. Which one do you pick? So let's start off with cake or pie? Pie. Pie. Let's do beef or pork. Beef. Pie. Let's do beef or pork. Beef. Pizza or wings?

Wings. I see, I'm not a wing guy, man. I'm not a wing guy. I know a lot of people aren't, which is why we asked the question. I mean, I love pizza too. It's just, you know, off the top of my head, I was thinking protein.

I'll take the wing. Heck yeah. And all the different variations in sauce you can get and stuff like that. But let's do McDonald's or Burger King. McDonald's. Yeah, that one's, yeah. I waffle back and forth on those two sometimes.

All right, and cookies or donuts? Ooh, cookies. I'm a donut guy. I love cookies, too. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, donuts. Donuts are just like. No, you can make some fancy donuts.

That's true. You can make some bacon donuts. That's true, too. Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah, exactly. The maple bacon ones. OK, and then as we wrap this up, let's ask a couple of controversial questions here.

These aren't just our debates. These are debates that I think a lot of people in the world have. And so pineapple on pizza, yes or no? Yes. Oh, no. I agree. Yes, no, yeah. It's sweet and salty, man.

It's the sweet and salty. No. Yes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, It ruins it for me. So I've never had anchovies on a pizza, but I do like a Caesar, a dressing that's very anchovy heavy in the flavor. But I'd be interested to try it on a pizza. I've never tried it. It's just salty. It just makes the pizza saltier. So I think I like it with mushrooms.

So I get mushroom and anchovies on a red sauce and it tastes pretty good. Get, you know, drink it, drink some wine with it and you'll have a great time. I don't like mushrooms at all. They're one of my like least favorite food. I know, right? I'm just sitting here like, okay. And then this one, I will die on this Hill. So I'm curious as to which side that you were on.

Oatmeal raisin cookies, gross or great? Great. I love this guy, I love you. Arizona food guy for the win. Yes, I love oatmeal cookies, man. Oatmeal raisin cookies are so good. I think it's the raisins that get the bad rap in those, but they're like one of my favorite cookies if they're made right. Okay.

And then one final question for you. The real one. Does anybody actually enjoy eggplant? I do. Do you actually like eggplants like the, like the, this eggplant is delicious. I will eat this all day. He's not eating your mama's eggplant, dude. It's I mean, maybe not specialty like he's eating like high diner eggplant.

Maybe maybe my mom was just the worst cook in the world for like that. We might be discovering something here. Well, my favorite, my favorite eggplant dish is like a Chinese eggplant dish that's like braised and heavy in sauce and has like a bunch of other stuff in it. So I guess I'm not just eating an eggplant with salad or something. Yeah. Oh, I, yeah, I don't know. It's like eggplant and mushrooms are like the two things at the top of my list. But to be fair, we may have just discovered something and that's like,

maybe my mom was just terrible at cooking this stuff, man. I might have to give it another shot at some point. So yeah, try going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering eggplant there. Yeah. We're going to chat after recording just a little bit. Maybe you can give me a recommendation on one and then we'll, we'll trade recommendations too and talk about this ramen and burger place for you also. So, well, listen, this has been awesome. AZ food guy.

Thank you so much for being the judge, the final say on a lot of these debates and these food takes and these controversial opinions. I think I won Ryan. I think he picked more of mine than yours. We're all winners here. Yeah, that's right. He got up there with the quince questions answered and at the end of the day salty over sweet So I'll walk away. I'm feeling good. I can concede to that one. Yeah, you know in the broad scale So AZ food guy, thank you so much for coming on this show and just having fun with us and hanging out

Again, I'll we'll put a link to your Instagram in the episode description But do you want to go ahead and tell people, you know, the best way to follow you and where to find your content at? Yes, it's, you can find me on Instagram, on TikTok, I'm even on Facebook and YouTube. It's AZ food guy, same handle on all of the social media. So if you need to find me on those platforms, amazing content, by the way, I don't say that lightly. You know, it's one of those things where I just wouldn't mention it at all. But but your content truly is really incredible.

So, I mean, make sure you check that out, everybody, because it is very, very good content, it's entertaining, it's enjoyable, and it will make you want some of this. All I do is just sit and like some people will scroll, you know Sports stuff other people scroll Instagram girls I scroll food like I'll just sit and I just look and then I'm sitting in bed at 1030 like man I'm hungry and my wife, you know Really are you getting up? You're going to make more food and I get a hankering for something and that I saw and I go good

Gotta go make it. Awesome. All right, everybody. Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Uh, just so fun to talk about food and gaming and, and just having awesome people on. So again, once again, thank you, AZ food guy for that. That's it for this episode until next time.

Happy gaming. Thank you. See ya!