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Episode 02: Scorchin' Beans
53 Plays2 years ago
Justin and Zack are really hitting their stride, in episode 2 they cover a range of topics from great non-alcoholic beverage options, sous vide pork belly, late night carbonara and review the popular movie “The MENU”.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Celebration
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to Scratch the Hog. I'm Justin. And I'm Zach. Let's get into it. Yeah, we're here. So Justin, this is episode two. We made it. We're officially podcasters. We are. I didn't think we'd make it past episode one. Let the ad revenue start rolling in, right? We're going to make so much sense.
00:00:28
Speaker
So much sense. Got to get that merch line out. I think we had nearly a dozen listeners after the first episode. And to be fair, it only dropped a couple days ago. I'd say that's a good start for two nobodies in the food scene. In the food scene.
00:00:53
Speaker
or it's my feelings to nobody's. Okay. Well, I can say that you're, you're something to me and you are something. This is how it made me feel really good. That's what this is about. Just the warm fuzzies. That's all we're
Platform Presence and Listener Interaction
00:01:07
Speaker
here for. Exactly.
00:01:09
Speaker
Um, so if you're, if you're looking for this or you are listening, you stumbled upon this, we're actually on YouTube, the video version, if you want to see your faces, which I mean, why wouldn't you, right? This is glorious. We're two great looking dudes. We are, we are very, very, um, uh, what would, how would you describe us?
00:01:37
Speaker
sturdy sturdy looking guys sturdy husky uh first of all it's not called husky anymore they're called athletic fit okay so that's that's they're not husky we are formally athletic like husky husky style jeans that used to get a walmart all the time
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah, they can't do that because it doesn't do good things for the self-esteem. That's why they make what they're called athletic fit. Thick boys. We're also on Spotify. We're on iTunes. We are showing up in Google Podcasts at some point, but I don't think anybody listens on Google Podcasts.
00:02:26
Speaker
I think that's just takes time to, after you submit the feed. So at some point we'll be in Google podcasts, but I can't foresee many listeners. So you can find us all over the place. We're everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. And, um, we also have an email, so I feel like we should have people email us questions, concerns, thoughts, feelings, and, uh, we want to hear from all of you. Yeah. And, uh, you can read, you can reach us at scratch the hog.
00:02:55
Speaker
at gmail.com. Scratch the hog at gmail.com and we will read the fan mail. Yes. Please reach out to us.
Cooking Inspirations from Shopping Finds
00:03:06
Speaker
So what have you been up to since we last spoke, Justin? Um, man, let me tell you, I've been cooking, I've been cooking a lot. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I've been cooking, I feel like nonstop for the past two years now.
00:03:23
Speaker
Which is great. Yeah, and it feels good. I've been really creative this month, and it might be because I haven't been drinking since the beginning of January. That might have helped my creative flow, but trying new things that we typically wouldn't do. For example, the other day,
00:03:48
Speaker
We did a sous vide pork belly with a fresh cherry sauce. So I found some cherries at the store.
00:03:57
Speaker
mixed in some red wine, shallots, cherries, a little bit of drippings from the pork belly and reduce it down into like a nice little sauce, which is something we typically don't do. We usually have more savory, unctuous. I know a lot of people don't like the word unctuous and Mandy is one of those people.
00:04:24
Speaker
But sauces that are a little bit more rich, but I wanted something a little bit lighter, a little bit more tart to kind of balance out the fattiness of the pork belly.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah. Just kind of experimenting. So a question. I have questions about the, your sort of creative food process. So, um, did you have the pork belly? Were you like, Oh, I'm in the mood for pork belly. Were you in the grocery store and you saw the cherries and you're like, Oh, cherry sauce. What would you, like, how did this, like, what was the first thing that sort of sparked, uh, all the other things?
00:05:01
Speaker
So we had the pork belly that was leftover from the pork Keta that I made for my birthday. Um, it was about, it was about maybe a pound and a half slab pork belly. Um, and I cut it in half and I used half one half of it to make pork bowel buttons. And I was saving the other half to do cause I know I wanted to sous vide it cause sous vide pork belly is like super, super good and always comes out really, really nice and tender and really flavorful.
00:05:30
Speaker
So I knew I had that pork belly. And when I was at the store, that's when the inspiration hit because I saw the cherries there. And cherries are typically hard to find this time of year, and they were a good price. And so I thought to myself, oh, those cherries look good. What can I do with those? Oh, we have the pork belly. Pork belly is really fatty. Cherries are a little bit sweeter, a little bit tart. So I feel like that's a nice balance.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah. So I would say half of my inspiration comes from whatever Manny and I are shopping in the store. We see stuff and we want to mess around with it. Other times we plan ahead as to what we're going to make.
Zach's Culinary Experiences and Cultural Reflections
00:06:14
Speaker
Nice. Cool. Very cool. Yeah. What about you? What about me? Um, I have not been cooking continuously for the last two years. It sort of ebbs and flows. Um,
00:06:28
Speaker
I hate the kitchen that we have. It's super-unfunctional. It's crappy. Everything about it's crappy, and it's been challenging because we're renovating a house, and it's an old house. The last thing that we're going to do is that kitchen. We're hoping to be able to do it this year, and it's just chaos, trying to find
00:06:51
Speaker
people, appliances, cabinets, like everything, trying to get everything to align is nearly impossible right now. And I've lost a lot of sleep as of late, just stressing over it.
00:07:08
Speaker
But I guess since we last talked, though, I had a really, really awesome food experience. So it was Lunar New Year last week, you know, from when we're recording this. And we were invited to a friend. So a friend of mine moved to China like 10 years ago, met his wife, had two kids, and they just moved back to the States.
00:07:33
Speaker
in November, and they invited us over for Lunar New Year. And like, first of all, it was amazing, like super thankful and appreciative to be invited. But my goodness, the food that they made, I mean, it was like quite a spread.
00:07:50
Speaker
And I have one regret, and that was for some reason the first time in my life I showed restraint when I was eating. All day Sunday and all day Monday, all I wanted was the feeling that I packed myself full of mou pao tofu, kung pao chicken, and dumplings. And for some reason, I didn't. I just wish I would have been a glutton and just ate and ate and ate.
00:08:18
Speaker
It was awesome. Pigs feet. Yeah, just everything was so good. It was really, really exciting. Oh, it's the Year of the Rabbit.
00:08:29
Speaker
And that's my year. So I was told that you're either going to have really good luck or really bad luck. And I should wear something red. So now I'm starting to wear. I'm not a superstitious person, but I can't have a year of bad luck. Like, I don't know. That just freaks me out. It doesn't doesn't hurt. It might help. It doesn't hurt to wear it.
00:08:53
Speaker
So I have this thing, I have, um, I have another thing lying around here too. It's like, uh, Oh, one of these, like, uh, what are these called? Um, prayer bead things, tiger eyes. I don't know. I just trying to layer it on. But, um, lunar new year, you're the rabbit. Great food. Um, as far as cooking, my cooking has been like really weird.
Discussing Cooking Techniques and Ingredient Adaptability
00:09:16
Speaker
Um, I tend to.
00:09:20
Speaker
Like I've been like weirdly stressed lately and sometimes I'll go like all day and I'll just be like kind of in a weird headspace. And really the only thing that's going to like make me feel better is just cooking something. And it's usually like pasta related.
00:09:37
Speaker
So, um, I did a, uh, it's, there's a lot of like 8 PM pasta dishes happening, you know, and the, the most recent one, uh, actually had pork in it too. Man, we are made for scratch the hog, you know, uh, I made a carbonara, all that pork loath.
00:09:53
Speaker
Pork love. Yeah. Trademark. Look for the merch coming. Yes, I made Kabanar. And it's like I love Kabanar. It's really good. It's deceivingly simple. And people have a lot of feelings about it too, you know?
00:10:16
Speaker
Like there's like the right way to make it or, you know, the per this is good. I hate I'm starting to hate things on the Internet. That's like the best thing ever or the perfect way to make something because people feel that way. It's their what they think is the perfect way to make something like that's not my perfect way.
00:10:38
Speaker
to make something like if I'm going to make your perfect carbonara, it has to be the best carbonara I've ever had in my life or the world. It's got to be better than Massimo Buterro's. I think that's how you say his last name. It has to be better than his carbonara for it to be the perfect carbonara. Is that is that how you feel or is that how you think people feel? No, that's how I feel. OK. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's like
00:11:08
Speaker
You know, the thing with Cabanera, it's like what? It's a pork product. Traditionally, buanchale, you can use pancetta. You can use bacon. I had bacon. I used bacon. It tastes really good. It's not going to ruin the dish, but somebody might say so.
00:11:25
Speaker
Absolutely not. It's typically dry pasta. I've used fresh pasta. I do think dry pasta is better for a few reasons. It is better. It's egg and cheese.
00:11:41
Speaker
My preference is like 60% pecorino and, or maybe like 60, 70% pecorino and 30 ish percent Parmesan. I used to go heavy on the Parmesan and it's fine. It's good. It's good. But I do think it's better with more pecorino than parm. Yeah. So I render, obviously you render off your bacon product.
00:12:07
Speaker
get it real good. I start in a cold pan too, because that's, I find that gets the nice, the best crispies. And the dish comes together and the time it takes to boil water and cook your pasta.
00:12:20
Speaker
right? I mean, you know this, but maybe our listeners don't. And I feel like we need to talk about it. Yeah, definitely. Definitely explain it. So I was just telling Jess to this too. I was like, I remember the first time that I cooked Cabanara because I was like enamored by it. I saw, I think I was watching a
00:12:39
Speaker
it was probably no reservation. So an Anthony Bourdain episode in Italy where he, and I just remember he was in the kitchen and the guy was just like whisking egg and cheese together. So I was like, man, I can try this. This looks luxurious, fancy, beautiful. So you render off the bacon. This is how I do it. You get a lot of fond on the bottom of the pan.
00:13:02
Speaker
So I actually do like to deglaze that a little bit with the pasta water. Not a ton, just enough to scrape it. It works. You kind of get this like pork fat sauce happening. You know, this pork fat glaze happening in the bacon and for like one pound and I was using like reggaetonis because I love regs, one full egg and two egg yolks. That's a good ratio.
00:13:32
Speaker
That's what I- A full egg to egg yolk. Yeah, one full egg, two egg yolks, and basically as much cheese as that egg can take, and I whisk it, whisk it, whisk it, and it'll turn into almost like a porridge consistency.
00:13:48
Speaker
And that works for me. When your pasta is, you know, al dente, pretty good. I do think people have a tendency to overcook. I think when people watch TV shows, they don't realize like things are truncated and things actually cook in the pan longer than they do and things take longer to come together in the pan, whatever. Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker
So I turn, at this point, my pan with the bacon or pork or whatever the pork product is, is on low and my pasta goes into there and I reserve the water. I keep at least a cup and a half of water, which is way more than I need, but it helps me. It's like my security blanket.
00:14:30
Speaker
Um, and I might add a little bit of water to the egg mixture, tiny bit, so I don't scramble my eggs, but it's probably cool enough at that point to, um, just add into the, uh, reggaetonian pork mixture. Cause you're on low or no heat. Um, and at that point I'm shaking the pan, stirring the pan, shaking the pan, stirring the pan, uh, and really just trying to get that like glossy, beautiful sauce. And, um,
00:14:59
Speaker
This is something that I have learned over time. I'm a monster. I can't resist myself from eating.
00:15:07
Speaker
By the time I'm on my second helping, everything's perfect in the pan. The reggaetoni cooked a little bit more. The sauce set up a little bit more. It's a little tighter. And so it's really like an extra two minutes that I can't wait. That makes a huge difference. But my goodness. It's good. Yeah. It's hard to wait when you have a cheesy, eggy emulsion with pasta and bacon. Like it's just four ingredients.
00:15:37
Speaker
That come together to make something so yeah yes and sensual dare i say it's such a great dish to like practice like technique on you know because it's it's.
00:15:57
Speaker
You can find everything. You don't have to use pecorino. You can use all parmesan. It's totally fine. Just don't use the green jar stuff. Don't use the shaker stuff. That's just a bunch of anti-caking agents and God knows what else is in there.
00:16:15
Speaker
splurge, get one that you can grate, you know, and it's going to make a big difference. But like you'll, you'll, you're learning curve, like whatever you make will always taste good. It will only start, it will taste better and it will look better. You know, when you first do it, it might look chunky, you know, it might look grainy. It still tastes good. Add a little pasta water, you know, little by little, a little bit at a time, but it's, it's a cool dish.
00:16:43
Speaker
and I recommend people try it if they haven't. I like what you just said about how you don't need to buy the really expensive ingredients. You don't need to buy guanciale because guanciale is not available everywhere. Bacon is perfectly fine, perfectly fine. It's something I've also been thinking about as well. You can take inexpensive ingredients and still make something fantastic.
00:17:10
Speaker
And as far as the cheese, as far as the cheese go, like you don't need to buy $20 a pound Parmigiano-Reggiano. You can buy just like the Bell Giocio Parmesan cheese, just as long as it's like a hard nutty cheese. And you can still make something fantastic.
00:17:32
Speaker
Like, if you think about it, the most expensive ingredient out of all that is probably eggs right now. Right now it is. Yeah. Yeah. It never used to be that way. I think they're like six or seven dollars a dozen, aren't they? It's pretty crazy. Yeah. Yeah, that is true. It's expensive. Yeah.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know for people listening in, because each city is different, but I found that Target actually has the cheapest eggs currently right now.
Affordable Cooking and Staying True to Dishes
00:18:02
Speaker
The last I checked, they were maybe $3 a dozen, and then $18 were under $6, which is the best.
00:18:11
Speaker
place that I found for eggs. I don't know if they have their own distribution center for eggs or their own farm or whatever is going on there.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah. Buying power of target is able to get a bulk rate or something. Something. But yeah, you don't need the absolute best really premium expensive ingredients to make a fabulous dish.
00:18:42
Speaker
You don't. And I'm actually glad you said that, too, because I didn't think that we would maybe dig into this, but I have a lot of thoughts and it kind of goes. We live in this like weird FOMO culture, like I I follow all sorts of food accounts on social media. I'm sure you do. And you get caught up in it. Right. And you're just like, oh,
00:19:08
Speaker
Well, there's a lot of them that are bad. I sent you one earlier that was like dog shit, but some of them are just not real. I think we get caught up in this like, oh, I have to get the best of the best. I have to have a $60 bottle of balsamic vinegar or the expensive cheese. It's like you don't because here's the thing. That's not even authentic cooking. You talk about
00:19:38
Speaker
Cook in like an Italian grandma over in Italy like these dishes are made because they were affordable and The essence of making those things is finding things that are easily accessible regionally so I like to think about like cooking in the spirit of instead of like exact replication so like right you can make a
00:20:04
Speaker
Italian cooking is seasonal and regional. Chinese cooking, all these foods are really about seasonality and regionality. If you do that, then what's more authentic than what you're making? Exactly.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yeah, and a lot of these dishes came from like poor regions of different countries. And like you said, it's whatever they can afford, a lot of these dishes came from people who lived on farms, who grew their own vegetables, raised their own.
00:20:48
Speaker
you know animals just because they didn't have the money to go out and purchase these you know premium ingredients to make a dish it's whatever they had available um and yeah and one of the things that really bothers me is you know whenever you're watching uh say like a food network recipe or bon appetit or whatever and they tell you to find the freshest ingredients possible
00:21:18
Speaker
That's not always the case, you know? Well, we live in Pennsylvania, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have like a three month window of real fresh ingredients that are not imported in. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, it's not about going out and splurging on expensive ingredients just to make this one dish that you've never made before that you could possibly screw up.
00:21:44
Speaker
and then you'll never want to make it get because you wasted all this money. Like that's not that's not what it's about. And it's, you know, get what you can afford what you're comfortable spending, you know, money on and
00:22:00
Speaker
Well, you can get so creative too. Like when you have constraint, like if you have unlimited budget and unlimited access to anything you want, like what are you going to make? Like it's like, but if you have to make something that tastes good and somebody gives you a parsnip,
00:22:19
Speaker
Like, oh, I have to make this part. Just go and find something at the grocery store that typically is an afterthought, a root vegetable. We know you love your weird baked potatoes. Great. Don't make baked potatoes taste good. And just obsess over it and make it over and over and over again.
00:22:42
Speaker
And, uh, you'll get better at it. You know, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. It's cool. And it's like, don't, don't look at it as limitation, like look at it as like a creative constraint or something. Exactly. That's how you get better.
00:23:00
Speaker
It is. Yeah, if you can make dusty old root vegetables amazing and bang. That's cool. When you start nerding out about, oh, okay, sure, go get bonito flakes and whatever. You can go do that. But if you can start nerding out about carrots,
00:23:21
Speaker
Like, come on, that's neat. Start to hydrating them, mashing them, do everything for hunting them. Yeah. Like just dive into the carrot. You can use the tops. A lot of people don't know that you can eat the tops. They taste like parsley. You can make tabbouleh with them. You can make pesto. Like, yeah.
00:23:44
Speaker
That's how I feel about the celery leaves too. That's the best part of the celery leaves. Put those in your salad. Make a buffalo chicken salad. Throw the leaves right on there.
00:23:57
Speaker
It's like you're eating the wing and the celery and the dip all in one. They're great. You're so good. I don't know why stores cut them off and hack them off because they're the best part. I know. Yeah, how about that? Look at us. We're hitting a stride here. Look at us. We are. I love it. This is way more coherent than the first episode. It can only get better from here. It can only get better. It can only get better.
Exploring Non-Alcoholic Aperitifs
00:24:24
Speaker
sent me something this week and I was looking at it, but I wanted to wait and talk about it because it looked like a neat product and it was some sort of non-alcoholic aperitif. Yes, man.
00:24:40
Speaker
It's it was so good. But let me let me let me kind of back up a little bit. OK, OK, OK, OK. So like with my journey of not drinking for January and not not this isn't a oh, I think you should stop drinking because alcohol is poison. That's not the case. This was just a time for me to kind of step back, try to lose some weight, develop a much better relationship with alcohol.
00:25:06
Speaker
But since I started, this whole world of different non-alcoholic options presented itself to me like different types of non-alcoholic beer. It's not just oudules anymore. There's actually craft breweries that are making non-alcoholic beer that taste extremely good, like really, really good.
00:25:24
Speaker
And then there's all these different companies that are making these non-alcoholic apertifs and drinks that are based off of Mediterranean-style apertifs that are amazing. They're so, so good. But this one that I showed you is called Gaia, and it's made with
00:25:46
Speaker
white Riesling grape juice, different botanicals, herbs, like Gentian, all these different ingredients that create this really nice, like sweet, bitter,
00:26:06
Speaker
Drink that it really tastes like a cocktail and it's extremely satisfying and it's like not too sweet Not a lot of sugar in them And they're fantastic That's cool Yeah, I've I haven't I don't typically drink a whole lot and I don't Keep a lot. I like I really do like beer
00:26:32
Speaker
And if I keep beers in the fridge, I probably will drink them. I think I'm just lazy, like I don't go out and shop for beer. But my interests have changed quite a bit too. I think it's just like getting old and like it's harder to function the next day after like
00:26:56
Speaker
a double IPA. You know what I mean? Yes. And I was like all in on IPAs and all the bourbons and the whiskeys. And I thought everything else was stupid. And I'm getting so into gin.
00:27:13
Speaker
like gin drinks and a lot with like apertise. So like think like Negroni's, you know, for net like things that are just like really weird by themselves. But like when you start building these bounce cocktails, like you get like a completely different a different experience. And there's so many different types of gyms. And there's a lot of like craft distilleries that are doing really neat stuff with gyms.
00:27:44
Speaker
So that's been fun. And then like with beers, kind of going back to like loggers and pilsners.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yes. And just kind of like, oh, wow. Like, I mean, I'm not like drinking, you know, Coors Banquet here, but like, you know, like, like still trying to maintain something that's like made by somebody like, you know, in a smaller setting. But they're they're just like, huh, they're way more subtle. Everything's way more subtle. It doesn't have to be like. And I think that has a lot to do with a lot of the things that I'm thinking about lately is just like,
00:28:22
Speaker
the subtlety, and how do you like cling on to that stuff, you know? Absolutely. Excuse me. Yeah, and you can really appreciate the nuances and the flavors of these different, like much lighter
00:28:48
Speaker
drinks where IPAs are so hop heavy and they just fucking wreck your palate. Like absolutely destroy your palate. Literally the worst thing you could imagine eating or drinking when you're having anyone taste whatever you're eating. Like it's so bad. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I right now, like I would definitely have like a Mexican style cerveza or a rice lager or a pilsner with dinner just because it's a lot lighter.
00:29:17
Speaker
pairs much, you know, better with with food. And it, you know, doesn't feel like your tongue is gonna, you know, fucking dry out because it just got assaulted.
00:29:32
Speaker
Yeah, no. So when I was living in Salt Lake, my really good friend and myself used to go to this place called the Beer Garden. And it was it was great because they had everything. And this is like 2010 when like West Coast, you know, Colorado, like Rocky Mountain,
00:29:58
Speaker
IP, like everything was like IPAs, like everything. And I think it might have been Sierra Nevada. A lot of those companies were doing like these limited runs of like bombers and Sierra Nevada. I think it was Sierra Nevada. I have to look it up.
00:30:18
Speaker
Uh, had, had a beer called, uh, Hoptimum. And it was a double IPA bomber. And, um, I drank three of them. Wow. And like I was fine, but the entire next day, the entire next day, I dry heaved the entire next day. Like it was just, it totally destroyed my body in every way. It was so bad. It was so bad.
00:30:48
Speaker
I don't know why I would drink three of those things.
00:30:54
Speaker
It was so long ago. I would be dead if I did that. As much as IPAs are pure palette wreckers, I fucking love them. They're good. I love a good hazy IPA. A juicy, hazy, unfiltered IPA. They are good. They're so good. For me, they need to have a lot of citrus. It's a bit more refreshing and it takes away that
00:31:25
Speaker
a hoppy back of the mouth tart thing that I like a more citrusy one, but not for day drinking in the summertime. Oh, God. No, maybe. I don't know. Depends on gets it. I mean, like if you day drink in the winter, like on a nice snowy day around a fire at like two p.m. Absolutely. Sign me up. Sounds like a nice, nice, nice flannel town. Yeah.
00:31:55
Speaker
All right. But yeah, I think I think there's something to this. You know what I've been drinking like crazy and I can't get enough of our San Pellegrino's just San Pellegrino's and I squeeze lemon and lime in them. It's like the best sprite you'll ever drink. It's funny you say that. And that sounds amazing. I love San Pellegrino and any type of sparkling water.
00:32:23
Speaker
that does sound really nice and refreshing. I actually brought something to show you. This is my little show and tell. Tell me. Currently what I'm drinking in my nice hams beer glass. That's a good nice glass. Is sparkling water mixed with this red bitter soda called Stappy and it looks like this.
00:32:48
Speaker
This is a it's a for people who don't know this product. It's a Italian red bitter soda. And it tastes just like Campari. Mix that in with a little bit of sparkling water with some orange juice. Fantastic. Really orange juice. Fantastic. Yeah. Yep. It's actually inspired by a cocktail.
00:33:15
Speaker
that I got at the Vandal in Pittsburgh when Mandy and I went there a few weeks ago. And it was just those three ingredients, but it was really, really good. And so I told Mandy, we need to seek out this stoppie. And luckily, they had it at Penn Mac in the strip district.
00:33:35
Speaker
So we got it. And then they also had another version of Stappy, which is a just a lime. Yeah, lemon, lime. Yeah. And it's fantastic. It's so good.
00:33:49
Speaker
I'm going to look for that. I'm jazzed. I like, I'm really into, um, I don't love all like the, I'd be interested to try that because sometimes the like, uh, flavored, uh, waters, uh, tastes a little bit artificial for me. Um, you know, it is a really good lime flavored sparkling water.
00:34:12
Speaker
It's what is it called death? What's that like aggressive looking water called? Oh, liquid does liquid death. They have a lime one that's like really good. Yeah. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, that brand is so interesting. That brand is so interesting with what they built.
00:34:30
Speaker
It's purely branding, because it's canned water. It's purely just awesome. Their lime water is really good. Their lime water is really good. Yeah. It's just mineral water and sparkling water. They do have another flavor, too, that I've seen, like a mango. I haven't tried it, though. But I do have a shot. If I'm in the sheets and they got the lime sparkling water, I'm going to snag that one.
00:34:54
Speaker
I want to look out for that. Interesting. Okay. Well, when you guys come down, if you have time, we should go to the strip district. Yeah, we should. We can pick you up some- Stuppy. Stuppy. Stuppy. Nice. Stuppy. I'm into it. I'm into trying different things that keep you sober. That's nice.
00:35:20
Speaker
We're getting old Justin. We are. You're much older than I am. You're much, much older than me. You're 35? I am 35. Many years. You're the rabbit. You're the rabbit. What else? What else we got going on?
00:35:45
Speaker
I watched a movie, finally, that we were talking about.
Analyzing 'The Menu' and Fine Dining Pressures
00:35:50
Speaker
I believe the menu. Yeah, the menu. Fantastic movie. It was so good. It was I had high expectations for it because I had a feeling it was going to be good. And you seem to be pretty jazzed on it. I love that. It was probably one of the one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah. Jess loved it. She wants to watch it again.
00:36:15
Speaker
And not from the fact that it was a movie about food. Really, it was just like an all around like great movie as far as like the acting, the writing, like cinematography, everything was the nice balance of suspense and humor. And it was just fantastic.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah, it it it hit all the marks. And it like you say, it wasn't it was it wasn't I mean, the centerpiece was like food. Right. But it was such a good commentary on society. But maybe before we even get into this, because I was like, man, this movie is so good. So I wanted to do a little bit of research and digging. And I realized, well, maybe one of the reasons why it is it feels so different is because the director
00:37:04
Speaker
uh, mostly directs, um, uh, like TV, like not sitcoms, but like shows, like shows and serial, not movies. And a lot of the cast members, uh, are from, um, you know, like, uh, like series based, uh, uh, shows, not movies, you know? So, uh, I wonder if that has a lot to do, like, um,
00:37:30
Speaker
the gal that played Margot, she's in the Queen's Gambit. She is. And the guy that played, was it Tyler? He was in a show on Hulu that's really good, called The Great. Have you seen that? Oh, yes, we have. That's a great show. It is a great show. It is really super funny, really good character. So a lot of the people on that.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yes, exactly. I just loved the guy that played the sommelier throughout that whole show, like his timing and how he came in and out. He was in probably the top, in my opinion, one of the top five funny shows ever made, Veep. He was in Veep, which is the most spectacular show. Oh, he was in Veep. Yeah, he was in Veep. He was like some smarmy guy in Veep.
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that show was, I loved Vipa, it was great. But yeah, this movie was bang on. It was really good. It was. Yeah. Yeah. I loved like every set of characters were like, oh shit, I know that. Like just, oh, those people feel familiar. Like, oh, those are real people in the food world, you know? Yeah.
00:38:44
Speaker
It was it was pretty good. I like I like I told you earlier, I I relate to Tyler to Tyler's character just because, you know, years ago when I was really getting into food.
00:38:59
Speaker
I really looked up to chefs a lot, looked to chefs as they were celebrities, which I've tapered off from there. I was never the type of person that would take pictures of food at restaurants. I never, ever did that and never will.
00:39:20
Speaker
I mean, that kind of makes me sound like, whoa, look at this guy. Like he'll never take pictures of food ever, but no, I would never do that. And, you know, watching this movie, you know, and watching his character, I was thinking to myself like, oh my God, that was me. Is that what I looked like to Mandy or like other people? Yeah, it was weird.
00:39:46
Speaker
No, I feel you because you definitely, uh, and I did too, idolized, uh, chefs, like even local or regional chefs. Um, and they do, you feel like they're like, you get nervous if you like, Oh, I want to talk to him, but I don't want to talk to him. I want to ask, but is that weird? Like you kind of go through this whole thing and, um, when they're good and the restaurant is good and the service is good.
00:40:16
Speaker
It's such a powerful experience. It's one of the few things that you can actually do that hits every sense of your body. We can go to art museums and we can't go and taste everything. There's nobody going to be interacting with us and having a personal moment.
00:40:39
Speaker
It's powerful to go to a restaurant of a renowned chef and experience courses of what they make. It probably has gotten too much, too big. People have become obsessed with chefs for sure. Yeah.
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I don't want to get too much into the movie because I don't want to give away any spoilers for people who haven't seen it yet, which I recommend. You definitely watch it. It's on HBO Max right now, and I believe it's on Hulu as well. So definitely go check it out. It's a wonderful, wonderful movie.
00:41:28
Speaker
But also too, it really reflects on the status of fine dining as it is currently. In our last episode, we talked about NOMA closing. And there's parts of it where you can really tell
00:41:46
Speaker
the path that the chef took to be the best chef in the world was weighing down on him and you could feel the pressure and it almost consumed his life to be, and the status he has currently. took the joy out of his life. He was chasing something that was the best, perfect, didn't exist, and obsessed over it, absolutely obsessed over it. Yeah.
00:42:14
Speaker
There are chefs to this day that I read about that do that and just completely obsess over it. If they don't get that third Michelin star, they feel like they're a failure because they didn't get that third star.
00:42:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like this is going to be something we kind of touch on ongoing, but in the case of NOMA, it was just like not like economically feasible to rely on basically unpaid interns to do all of that work to turn a profit.
00:42:59
Speaker
over the last few years, people that were treated poorly and people that were not paid fairly, they've been able to get more of a voice and we've really seen kind of like they pulled the curtain back on how shitty the industry can be, right?
00:43:25
Speaker
how shitty some of these chefs can be and how they treat their staff. I understand to a point, if you are trying to create something that doesn't exist, there's an intensity and a drive there, but you cannot
00:43:51
Speaker
do it at the expense of ruining somebody else's life or making them miserable. It's going to be intense if you're working for a Michelin star restaurant and you should know that but it shouldn't literally kill you.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's a touchy subject and I would hope to eventually have a chef come onto this podcast to talk about their experiences and if they've ever worked in a kitchen like that and their thoughts on where fine dining in the restaurant industry is headed because I would love to get their perspective because I'm not a chef. I've never worked in a professional kitchen. I really can't speak to any of those.
00:44:43
Speaker
you know, experiences, but I would love to have someone on, um, you know, or if anyone that's listening as a professional chef, please email us. We love to hear about your experiences, uh, working in the industry. Yeah, that would be great. I'm sure we have 10 emails like by the time this lawyer, um, I, so I didn't, I didn't work
Culinary Industry Insights and Future Guests
00:45:05
Speaker
in a kitchen. I worked, uh, when I lived in New Orleans, I did work in, um,
00:45:10
Speaker
I worked for a confection company, so they made classic French style pastries, cakes, patisseries, cookies, chocolates, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I did the design stuff. I was on the marketing side, but I certainly did
00:45:30
Speaker
would go in the walk-in fridge and eat, you know, cake, um, cake cutoffs and, you know, broken macaroons and all that sort of stuff. But it, the best parts. Yeah. I would totally cake and broken macaroons. Um, but, uh, I have two, two really great friends from that time in my life that I still keep in touch with. I was just texting with them today and, um,
00:45:57
Speaker
It was a very intense, we worked for very intense and shitty people in all different facets like on the marketing side. One of my friends worked in the kitchen and one worked on the fulfillment side, packaging and shipping.
00:46:22
Speaker
It's, I hope it changes. I hope it changes for people. Um, and, uh, I hope we can get some, uh, uh, real professionals in here to be able to talk and interview. How fantastic would that be? Amazing. Like, absolutely amazing. I would love to hear their point of view and their perspective on the industry. Um, they can even like give us some good like tips to do in the kitchen. Like, I hope so.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah, could be. Maybe someday. Speaking of New Orleans, do you like my sweatshirt? I do. It says Deli on it for the people that aren't watching. So this is a sweatshirt from my favorite Deli. Shout out Steins Deli on Magazine Street. It's a good shirt. In Ridgeway? No, on Magazine Street in New Orleans. Oh, OK.
00:47:23
Speaker
I feel really dumb asking that now. I've never been to New Orleans. I've never been to New Orleans. So I don't I don't know. We should go. So let's go. Let's go. We should. We should go. I could just imagine a lot of viewers are probably thinking like, oh, that idiot like. No, no, it just says Delhi. I mean, this is like the place wasn't called Delhi. It's called Steins, but they just make sweatshirts called. Let's just say Delhi, which I think is like the most brilliant thing.
00:47:48
Speaker
Oh, no, it's fantastic. Dude, I just bought a hat that says beans on it that I should have worn today that I'll wear for the next one, but I love it. Yeah, beans. We got to make that pork love swag. Oh, it'll happen. It's gone too. It's going to happen. Yeah. Okay. What else?
00:48:14
Speaker
I don't know. I'm trying to think of a topic that, cause I mean, and we could just go off on anything. Can I, can I tell you where I'm going tomorrow? I'm very, I'm very excited about this. Where are you going?
Ice Cream Course Anticipation
00:48:27
Speaker
So I have the day out, tomorrow's Friday, but we have off for a holiday. And my brother and I are spending Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, it's a three day ice cream making class at the food science program at Penn State University.
00:48:50
Speaker
Oh, that's right. You told me about that, dude. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm pretty jazz. I'm going to be, I'm going to know so much science about ice cream when you see me next time. Oh dude, like please send us any type of like information, pamphlets, any type of instructions. Like, um, that's fascinating. That's really awesome. I hope you have a great time. I hope so. What's your favorite ice cream?
00:49:17
Speaker
Oh, dude, that's tough. That's really, really tough. I love ice cream. I love all different flavors of ice cream. I guess it depends on the season. Okay. Because in the summer, in the summer, I love, love, love strawberry ice cream in the summer. I do love strawberry milkshake is my go to milkshake.
00:49:35
Speaker
Oh, dude, it's so good. It's the best. Fantastic. In the winter, I usually gravitate towards chocolate or like a black raspberry, like chocolate swirls or something like that. Milly's in Pittsburgh makes a sweet potato marshmallow ice cream in the fall. That is amazing. It's so, so good.
00:50:00
Speaker
So yeah, it's more seasonal for me. Gotcha. Speaking of millies, I love their, I don't know if they still make it, but they used to make a Vietnamese iced coffee, ice cream.
00:50:12
Speaker
That was so good. I think they still have like a pistachio ice cream that I really love. I love pistachio gelato and they have a pistachio ice cream. I really like pistachio ice cream. I don't love, this is going to be very controversial. I don't like chocolate ice cream.
00:50:32
Speaker
First you don't like baked potatoes that you like. You don't like chocolate ice cream. Like how are we friends? I like, I like chocolate. I like chocolate in my ice cream, but I don't love chocolate ice cream. I don't, I don't love it. Yeah. So like give me vanilla ice cream with chocolate in it all day, but don't give me chocolate ice cream. It's not, maybe I'll learn to love it. Maybe I'll make one that I like. There's nothing wrong with not liking it.
00:51:01
Speaker
Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Um, I like, I personally am not a vanilla fan. Yeah. I can, I can leave vanilla, not my favorite. I like it with stuff, you know, whether it's like as a base for other things, you know, but yeah, I feel you.
00:51:23
Speaker
Yeah, pistachio almond things with I like that was going to shock it's shocking that I don't like shocking. I am shocked. I am taken aback. I like strawberry. I agree with you there. Now, strawberry ice cream is is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. No, but that that sounds amazing. Hopefully you guys have a great time in Happy Valley. Yeah. Yeah. Should be good. Should be. Yeah. Tell your brother I said hi.
00:51:53
Speaker
I'll do that. I met him once at your wedding. He probably doesn't remember me. He probably does. He has a very good memory. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be fun. It'll be a good time. Um, we've been talking about doing something like this for awhile. So, uh, I feel like the class went up in the summer sometime and it fills up super fast. So I was like checking, checking, checking, making sure I had, um,
00:52:17
Speaker
As soon as I got the email to sign up, I was on it to make sure we got in the class. I don't know, just something to do, something to learn, something to add to the arsenal. I don't know if I'll ... I don't know that we're going to become professional ice cream makers, but who cares? It's just like a fun weekend with a sibling.
00:52:39
Speaker
and what better place to make it than Penn State. Maybe you should explain for people who don't know much about Penn State ice cream and the significance of ice cream in Penn State. Well, so they manufacture ice cream. So first of all, State College Happy Valley is in central Pennsylvania. It's in Center County. It's smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania. It's pretty much surrounded by
00:53:07
Speaker
farms, you know, it's pretty pastoral. A lot of dairy farms and they have historically have always had a top notch agriculture program and food science program, which in hindsight, I probably should have went to school for food science, but I didn't know that was an option. And they have the Penn State Creamery where they make ice cream.
00:53:34
Speaker
Like, I guess, is it still called Peachy Paterno? I mean, that's their thing. Peach ice cream at the Penn State Creamery. What else am I missing? Do you know more? You probably know more about the Penn State Creamery. Well, no, it's just like I, you know, keep hearing that.
00:53:50
Speaker
the, you know, the Penn State cream is like some of the, like the best ice cream in Pennsylvania. It's supposed to be pretty good. The Peach Paterno is good. The Peach ice cream. I don't know if they still call it Peach Paterno. I don't know, but it's good. Peach. I love Peaches and ice cream. That's another one. Peach ice cream is so good. Peaches are so good. They are. They are.
00:54:11
Speaker
It would be fun. I'm going to find out. I'm threading in a segue because I feel like maybe this could be a share cookbook moment.
Dessert Cookbooks and Recommendations
00:54:24
Speaker
I'm super comfortable making savory food and I don't do a lot of dessert stuff. I don't love overly sweet desserts. Chocolate desserts aren't my favorite. I'm shaking my head at you.
00:54:41
Speaker
I don't have a lot of cookbooks, but I don't have a lot of dessert cookbooks. And we were talking about the rise and fall of Bon Appetit, but we'll save that for another time. Yes. But I really, really love
00:54:59
Speaker
Claire, is it Safitz? Safitz from Bon App and now she has her own, yeah, Safitz. She has her own channel and I like how she cooks. I like how she makes desserts. I've made her like cobbler recipe is like bang on.
00:55:21
Speaker
you know, you can make it into biscuits, you can crumble it. But I have her dessert person cookbook and it's like a really it's such a good one if you're not like into or like maybe you feel like a little intimidated by the dessert stuff. Now I will say so much of the dessert for desserts to go right. Just measure and
00:55:51
Speaker
get your mise en place ready. Like it's not jazz. You can't be slinging and flinging stuff while, you know, things are cooking. Just have everything ready and, you know, ahead of time, pre-measured and kind of, you know, work into the, into the dessert. So, um, her channel is awesome. I watch it all the time and I feel like I actually learn a lot of cool, uh, techniques and skills and, and dessert stuff from her. Yeah.
00:56:17
Speaker
And that's a good rule of thumb in general with cooking is just to have your mise en place and all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go. It's just so you're not trying to measure out something while your, your, your beans are overcooking on the stove and the scorching beans and scorching beans. I'm going to write that down. That's another, another merchant idea. Scorching beans. Um,
00:56:43
Speaker
No, I've I've been wanting to get her cookbook for a while. And I think I think I'm I think I want to buy it for Mandy because we both love Claire. She was definitely our favorite. Oh, she does. Yeah, she's got dessert person. And what's for dessert? Oh, OK. Yeah, I love dessert. Yeah, she's so quirky. Yeah, it would be great. Great one. She was definitely our favorite. Our favorite personality on Bon Appetit when she was on there. Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:12
Speaker
Good shows, good production. She would always work through the fluster and the way that they would edit that. It was always well done. I'm glad she still has a channel because it's probably the one soul dessert cooking channel that I follow and I feel like I learn from.
00:57:37
Speaker
It just feels really real. She's like you feel like you're kind of cooking with her, you know, which is cool. And yeah, she's very thorough. She's very, very thorough for for somebody that works in pastry, like very detail oriented. Absolutely. I am. I am not detail oriented. I am the opposite of whatever that is. Same.
00:58:04
Speaker
Um, I don't have any cookbooks with me currently. They're all upstairs, but, um, bring one down next. Yeah. Uh, but the one cookbook that, that we like a lot is, uh, uh, Carla Lawley music's cookbook called that sounds so good. Uh, we frequent that cookbook, you know, a lot, it's a lot of, you know, easy weeknight recipes. Okay.
00:58:31
Speaker
Um, that are, you know, really easy to make. They're, they're unique. They're different. Um, and we just, we just keep going back to it, but, um, yeah, I'll bring it down next time and I'll even bring down another one. Um, I like this. I like this episode part. It's like, it's like, um, reading rainbow for food lovers. That's good. I like this. Look at us. Oh, writing that down, eating, write it down.
00:59:00
Speaker
I'm not putting G's on the end of anything. It's just like hyphens, like scorching, eating, eating rainbow. Yeah. Yeah. Take a call.
Episode Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
00:59:10
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, we're at the hour. Should we call it? Is that a good second episode? I feel like this is a great second episode. I just love seeing your face. And I love seeing your face. So here we are. Scratch the hog.
00:59:28
Speaker
That's what it's about. We're just here to make each other feel better. Build each other up in our husky pants with a elastic waistband. But another thing that'll make us feel better is hearing from you guys and all of you out there. Let us know how we're doing. If you like the show, if you have any questions, reach out. Scratchthehog at gmail.com. Follow us. Rate us. Review us.
00:59:55
Speaker
iTunes, Spotify, I think at some point, Google, don't worry about Google Podcasts and YouTube. If you want to see our voices or see our voices. Oh my goodness. Ooh, hear our faces and see our lovely voices. That's, we're transcendental. You're getting into it. I was always told I had a voice for, no, a face for radio.
01:00:18
Speaker
Yes. Well, hey man, it was always a pleasure chatting. I'm so glad that we're doing this and I hope other people enjoy it too. So until next time, I'll be a professional ice cream maker the next time we talk though. So pretty much cool, man. Take it easy. Oh, what's it, bud? What?
01:00:44
Speaker
Okay, so we're going to, for episode three, we're going to work on, we worked on the intro, like we got the opening. I'm not cutting any of this. This is going to be part of it. We're going to work on how we, how we smoothly just say, say goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. That's it. That's it. That's our end. We say love your face. Goodbye. Love your face. Goodbye. Love your face.