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Episode 1: Testing the waters
58 Plays2 years ago
Just 2 dudes talking about foods. Justin & Zack dip their toes into the world of food podcasting. It can only get better from here.
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Transcript
Dry January and Non-Alcoholic Beers
00:00:00
Speaker
So Zach, what are we doing here? I have no idea. Um, I, I don't know about you, but Mandy and I have decided we're doing like a dry January type thing. Really? Yeah. In fact, I'm drinking a non-alcoholic beer and it's actually really good. Huh? Where is it? Uh, what's that? What's CNA beer?
00:00:29
Speaker
athletic brewing company. Where's that made? Um, Connecticut, I think. Yeah, Connecticut. Um, yeah, it's a hazy IPA. They do like stouts and porters and stuff and like loggers. So it's a, it's a not like an old duels. Yeah, nothing like it. It's like a legit craft beer, but like less than 0.5% alcohol.
Podcast Introduction and Concept
00:00:55
Speaker
Uh,
00:00:56
Speaker
I'm trying to think if I already failed at dry January. Yes, because we had a New Year's Eve wedding. So I rolled into the New Year drunk, literally.
00:01:11
Speaker
Well, to be totally transparent and honest, I didn't start until the third because I was off until the second and I wanted to send off my sobriety off to a great start. I like the cold opener. Should we have some sort of formality, like a little bit of an intro if this is actually going out into the world?
00:01:40
Speaker
Probably, I figured, I mean also- No, I love a cold opener. I absolutely do. That's how they should be. Yeah. I mean, like, I don't know, sometimes like when it's like, oh, hey, I'm so-and-so, it's so-and-so, it can get a little like wonky. I agree. Maybe we should talk about why we're talking to each other on fancy microphones on a Monday night, right? Yes, we should.
00:02:08
Speaker
OK, so this was just like we've been we've been talking about a podcast. Specifically. Surrounding food.
00:02:20
Speaker
cooking all things, really all things food because I feel like passionate is too soft of a word, right? I think obsessive or obsessed, we are obsessed with food. Is that fair? Yes, I'd say that's fair. I don't know how you feel about the term foodie.
00:02:42
Speaker
I'm sure you feel I'm sure you feel the way I do and I'm sure a lot of people probably be mad at me saying saying this but like We're beyond foodies and I hate as much as I hate that word. I agree. I agree and it's um
00:02:57
Speaker
The joy that I have talking to you, and you and Mandy, about food, it's pretty immense. So we feel like every conversation we have, we should just record them. I think so too. Yeah, absolutely. So here we are. This is episode one.
00:03:26
Speaker
This is indeed episode one or maybe an episode 0.5. We'll see how it goes. But yeah, I'm glad we're actually starting to do this. So I guess I will start things off. So Mandy sent me an article today.
The Rise and Fall of NOMA: A Culinary Icon
00:03:49
Speaker
I don't know if you've heard, but the restaurant NOMA. NOMA. I knew that was going to happen. Maybe that was the conversation that was going to happen. Yeah, it's closing. And apparently they're just going to make it into a laboratory. I saw that. Obviously, I'm as familiar as I could be with NOMA.
00:04:12
Speaker
living in Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania and not not traveled to Denmark. But what's his name Rene?
00:04:25
Speaker
whatever his name is, Rene, is kind of the premier chef of the world, right? It's the number one restaurant in the world. I did read somewhere that they kind of relied a lot on volunteer and free work to be profitable. I don't know if that's true, but I was sort of perusing. I mean, it makes sense because
00:04:53
Speaker
If you want to have, if you want to be the number one restaurant, like you have to devote so much time and effort into keeping it the number one restaurant in the world. And you know, I saw something about like he's closing it cause it's not sustainable, which makes sense. I mean, you can't, how long can you keep a restaurant open just relying on the volunteer?
00:05:18
Speaker
work. Right. I mean, the labor that would have to go into those dishes is insane. It's absolutely crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Now, it's the pinnacle for fine dining. I love a nice meal, as you know. Absolutely. I also love a greasy meal, you know? I don't know. I think a greasy meal could be just as good, but it is probably an experience. I wonder
00:05:49
Speaker
if it is as good as it is, you know? Like, if I flew to Denmark to go to Noma, so I'm already thousands of dollars into this trip, right? Solely for Noma. And I'd imagine it's like,
00:06:08
Speaker
a thousand dollars ahead. I don't know, probably. We don't do research on these things. What's that? Mandy actually did. She looked up how much it would cost per person just to like book a seat. And it's like $532 American dollars. That's not as bad as I thought it would be. There's no way they can make money. There's no way they can make money on that.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And like 20 people touch every, every dish, 20 people. Yeah. You're like, there's just like a group of chefs. Granted. I've never been in a professional kitchen before. I don't know what goes down, you know, there, but just somebody just documentaries and there's somebody just dusting
00:06:52
Speaker
arugula leaves. Like that's their whole job all day. One leaf at a time. They're just dusting them. They're putting gold leaf on a petal to then put that petal on your dish. Very labor intensive. I totally agree. Not doubting that for one second.
00:07:15
Speaker
In terms of like if we were to go there, and if it'd be worth it, I guess like it just it depends because depends on like what you're into depends on like, you know, it's everything so subjective and like I know I could I'm probably going to ramble a lot but you know,
00:07:34
Speaker
this is somebody's art. This is their craft. I agree with that. Exactly. Just like you can go to any greasy restaurant, you can go to a really nice burger restaurant and that's somebody's craft, that's somebody's art. And it's like, you can get a really nice well-made burger for like 12 bucks.
00:08:00
Speaker
And I would be just as satisfied with that as if I were to possibly go spend 400 some dollars at a restaurant and be slightly disappointed.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah, I I I would you'd have so much hype like your expectations would be so high. Yeah, I think of all the places I would like to go for like a like a crazy food experiences would probably Muslim obituras in Italy in. Yes, I think that's probably up top of my list because he he sort of exude. He's sort of like a larger in life person exudes.
00:08:40
Speaker
Like joy, you know, like how could you not enjoy that experience? But yeah, I did. I did read some of that, seeing that Noma closed. So he's just going to convert it to like a test kitchen, test lab, do crazy stuff. I think I have the Noma fermentation book behind me. I thought you did. I thought you told me about that. Let me see here. I do. This is a collection of cookbooks right here.
00:09:09
Speaker
All of our cookbooks are upstairs. We don't have nearly as many. No, these are art books. Half of these are picture books. I don't know. It's sad to see a restaurant like that close and to see someone's vision kind of fade away due to it just not being sustainable.
00:09:37
Speaker
I'm guessing people just stashed there to have it on a resume. And that's the quote unquote free labor, you know, just people out of like fine culinary school that wanted NOMA on their resume, which probably puts a lot of people in pretty good restaurants because they worked there, you know? Oh, absolutely. And you know, that gives them the experience to open their own restaurant, their own experience, their own vision.
00:10:06
Speaker
How long were they open? I wanna see since 2003. Oh, I mean, okay. Yeah, so that's a good run. I mean, I felt like- It'll be 21 years, right? They're closing at the end of this year, so. Yeah. 20, over 20 years. That's a pretty good run for a restaurant. Oh, absolutely. I also- Oh, wish them well. I'm sorry, I couldn't eat there.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, that would be, I always talked about going to Copenhagen. I think that'd be really awesome. Beautiful place to visit. Um, but yeah, no, it's sad to see a restaurant like that close. It'll be interesting to see what he does in the future. I know he opened up a restaurant in Mexico. He opened up a Noma restaurant in Mexico. Um, yes. Say it was like a few years back.
00:11:08
Speaker
And I assume that's staying open then huh that's permanently closed too. Oh geez. Yeah Renee red zippy. Yeah, and the Mexico one was $750 American. Yeah Dang. Yeah, that's crazy But yeah, I mean I appreciate what he does, you know using
00:11:37
Speaker
ingredients that are native to- He forages a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is cool. I think there's a chef's table or one of those like made for Netflix shows on Noma. That is really spectacular. Mm-hmm.
00:11:58
Speaker
you know, you're right, it is art. And I think that's why we like making food, right? Like we both went to art school, different, slightly different paths, but I don't know about you, but I feel like today in my life, like, we both work in the design world.
The Art of Cooking and Culinary Techniques
00:12:17
Speaker
You know, I would say relatively similar, weirdly similar paths, I guess. But I,
00:12:27
Speaker
find cooking to be the only time that I am like a hundred percent focused on a thing. And it's sort of like, you know, flow, like when you're actually just like in it and you're chilling and you're moving and there isn't,
00:12:57
Speaker
There isn't a other thing. Hi. Sorry, I'm drinking. I see that. He's drinking San Pellegrino out of a.
00:13:08
Speaker
Like, like you're on the banner. Yeah, we always drink out of those. Jess hates it. Makes us very uncouth. But it's like the only creative. It's like the most creative I've been, you know, in a long time, because it's it's like jazz, right? Just making stuff.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, just scatting. Scatting away. Scatting away. Yeah. Like no recipes, no script, you know? Yeah. He's making food. I don't know about you, but like whenever I see a recipe, I like to skim through it and just like kind of like want to do my own thing. Yeah. Always. I always use recipes as like guides and just kind of like wing it.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, I've been having a couple and then understand how the thing works. Uh, and then do whatever approximation I have with the ingredients I have on hand. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, half the times I do that, it doesn't work because I actually should have like set and read each step. But for the most part, I mean, if you're not baking, it's fine. Oh yeah. Baking. I'm like all in, all in on baking, follow every single step.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. What did you have tonight? What'd you make for dinner? So it was a steakhouse night at Hawthorne Avenue. My mom, my mom got us and I'm probably going to go on a tangent. So she bought us each of my siblings and I boxes of Omaha steaks. Okay.
00:14:52
Speaker
Um, and in each box it comes with like a filet already made meatballs. Was this for Christmas hamburgers? It was for Christmas. Yeah. Um, and then like apple dumplings and like scalloped potatoes and like, and like the whole thing. Um, so I took, you know, two of the fillets, sous vide them with
00:15:13
Speaker
some thyme, garlic, olive oil, for about like an hour and a half or so, seared them off, made some cream spinach, and then baked potato. Super simple, like, yeah, nothing, nothing fancy, you know, but just good, good food. Mandy was really in the mood for a baked potato, so I told her I'd go for it. I never am in the mood for a baked potato.
00:15:40
Speaker
What thing I am we I like weirdly never grab a baked potato. I don't know why man You've never had a good baked potato probably that might be true. Yeah, I don't even cook them because I'm like meh I'd rather have potatoes so many other ways. I think potatoes are amazing. They're unbelievable like yeah But one of the reasons a baked potato doesn't hit for me Yeah, well you should if you ever decide
00:16:04
Speaker
you want a big potato, uh, follow the America's test kitchen recipe. Okay. It's like, what kind of potato are you using? What's the potato arrested? I find it better. You are better for baked potatoes. Yeah. And you're wrapping the foil. You put them in the oven. What do you know? So, so the recipe for America's test kitchen is you, you pierce them with a fork on all sides and then you make a, a brine, like a just saltwater brine. And then you roll the potatoes in it.
00:16:34
Speaker
then you bake them in an oven and the water dehydrates and like basically dries out the skin.
00:16:44
Speaker
And then you brush it with oil, brush the skin with oil, pop it back in the oven for like 10 minutes. And this is all at like a 450 degree oven. And then when they come out. Pretty hot. Yeah. Pretty hot. And so when they come out, the skin is really crispy. Then you cut the skin open so all the steam could come out. So it doesn't make it like really dense, makes it like nice and fluffy.
00:17:07
Speaker
And then the skin is like salty and crisp and really tasty. I think that they're never salty. And I mean, I know they're never salty enough. And, uh, I just don't like dumping salt on things after I eat, but that's, that's a good idea. Like how you can't really effect. Well, I figured he couldn't really effectively solve the potato before you cut it open and cook it. But if you pierce it and like cover it in a salt solution, that's a good idea.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. They just are always like this. You know, in my opinion, how much I am going to try this because I do. I genuinely love potatoes. I love mashed potatoes. I love roasted potatoes, baked potatoes. Not my thing, but. Maybe they will be now. Given a shot. I change my name. I'm going to change that. I think I might. It might might. Yeah, I feel like we can have a whole episode on just some potatoes alone.
00:18:00
Speaker
Oh, without a doubt. Like, just so good. Potatoes. Potatoes. I love to make, so.
00:18:11
Speaker
Maybe we'll save some for episode three, potatoes, but I don't know. I like to take just like the minis and just roast the living crap out of them, like just the small potatoes. Super crunchy. Sometimes I smash them and re-roast them, sometimes I don't, just depends. But for me,
00:18:38
Speaker
I like to make like a gojujang sauce, like a dipping sauce for them that I'd like put on the plate and put the potatoes on top of. It's like a mayo, sour cream, gojujang. Sometimes there's something sweet in there, maybe maple or honey. Ooh, it sounds really good. Yeah, you can use yogurt and mayo too. You don't have to use sour cream. Yeah. You must use mayo though.
00:19:07
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Kewpie, I'm assuming. Actually, I have dukes on hand, so it's usually dukes. I mean, dukes is good too. Yeah, but yeah, no, if you have Kewpie, yeah, it makes sense, yeah. With the goshish on, for sure. I say, can you even get Kewpie in your neck of the woods up there? No. Maybe. I could maybe ask my grocery store to pick it up for me. I'll text him. I'll text Alan. He's my guy. Oh, so you're actually on a first name basis with a grocery store guy.
00:19:36
Speaker
Oh, it's on my first day basis on everybody. It's the smallest town, man. Who do you want me to get a hold of? You know, I text the chief of police here, district attorney, my very good friend, district attorney. You know, these are these are things that matter. Yeah, parks of living in a small town, that's for sure. Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, you can't get Kupimayo, but if you go to jail, you know, you'll have you'll have a way out because you'll know somebody.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah, dude, get out on the phone, get some Kewpie. Yeah, I will do that. I'll just run down there tomorrow morning and say, hey, can we get this? Yeah, be like, what is this? What's the shelf life on Kewpie? I don't know, but I will find out. If it's pretty good, then I'd feel bad if they like order a case. I'm the only schmuck in town trying to buy, you know,
00:20:38
Speaker
but I can't eat all the mayos. 10 to 12 months.
00:20:45
Speaker
I'm just trying to think because it's like the weirdest packaging.
Unique Ingredients and Flavor Profiles
00:20:50
Speaker
It's like mayonnaise with a weird little baby on it. I'm just trying to think of people going in there and being like, what in the hell is this weird baby male? It's a weird package. It's good though. My goodness, it's good. Oh, it's so good.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah. It's like sweeter, a little bit sweeter and like, I dunno, it's hard to describe eggier, sweeter. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. By the way, it's good. Oh, let me ask you about this. So you're, you just had a birthday. You just celebrated your 36th birthday. They say, Oh, I wish. 37. You're 37. 37. Yeah. Why are you so much older than me?
00:21:38
Speaker
I have no idea, I'm not happy about it. What do you do for your birthday? So typically, you know, like we go...
00:21:47
Speaker
somewhere. Like we'll go out to the woods, rent a cabin, go hiking, whatever. Um, but the, the, so we wanted to go to Hawking Hills, Ohio and the prices, Airbnb prices were insane. Yeah. Insane. Um, prices have been real crazy lately. Uh, like it's almost like hotels have been more affordable. Like it's sort of starting to flip a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I mean that, that was pretty unfortunate. So we just decided to have a house party and have people over and, um,
00:22:16
Speaker
I made a porchetta. Beautiful. I have to say though, man, I was a little underwhelmed. I was a little disappointed and I will tell you why. I will tell you why. So like a month in advance, there was a new, let me back up. So there's a new butcher that opened up in Lawrenceville. Okay. I know where this is going. Okay. And I called like a month ahead and, you know, reserved a porchetta cut.
00:22:45
Speaker
So for people don't know the porchetta cut is, uh, the pork belly with the loin attached to it. So it's easier to roll up and, and it's basically like an Italian style pork roast. It's delicious. So I called him a reserved.
00:23:05
Speaker
It's literally a side of a pork. Like if you think of, yeah, yeah, exactly. 50% of the pork, you know, like if you slice it down the middle. Yeah. Yeah. Back to front. Yeah. And so I call it ahead, order this like a month in advance, just like a half slab, still like, like 13 pounds. It was still pretty big. Um, and so I got it and I took it home and they cut the skin off.
00:23:31
Speaker
Oh, but that's the, yeah, that gets the cracklies. Exactly. It's the crispy and the cracklies. Exactly. And so I was not able to get the crackly bits and the part of the fat that rendered and got a little crispy at all just like kind of slid off. Right. Right. And so that's the beauty of the porchetta because when you roll it, you have like the crust, the meat butter,
00:23:58
Speaker
And then the meat and the herbs and it's like an amazing experience because the crust holds it all together. And that like all I wanted for my 37th birthday was that crust. I did not get that crust. So it was a little disappointing. And it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't cheap either. Did you ask them like why the heck they took the skin off or? Um, no, I just, I didn't,
00:24:28
Speaker
Like, I didn't realize until I got home. And so, eh, it is what it is. Like, I'm like- Maybe it's just something that you need to, you know, just ask for, hey, keep the skin on.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah, which I mean, it's, it's fine. Like the meat itself was delicious. Like I'm sure it was a, you know, a humanely raised and, uh, animal. So I'm not gonna, you know, you know, complain about the actual meat itself. Um, just next time I know that to keep the skin on, keep that skin. So what did you, uh, put all inside of it? All the herbs, all the bits.
00:25:13
Speaker
Uh, rosemary, fresh rosemary, parsley, uh, lots of garlic, orange zest and some collaborative chilies. Hmm. Did you make sandwiches or just eat them like by the slabs? So I basically like, I like cut, like slice the whole thing, uh, and just like left it in a crock pot and then people could just like make sandwiches or eat it by itself. Um, but I also made like a nice salsa verde to go with it.
00:25:42
Speaker
Very nice. Yeah. So that was, that was the main, the main event for that. And I made some like crispy roast potatoes, panzanella salad, had like a huge charcuterie board. Um, and I made some delicious, excuse me, Tuscan white beans, like creamy Tuscan white beans, which, um, I've got these beans from a company called Rancho Gordo. I'm not sure if you'd ever heard of them.
00:26:08
Speaker
No, I'm going to write that down. Rancho Gordo. Do they come dry? They're dry, but they are heirloom beans and they have like so many different varieties. And we got like small white beans and like these beans called Royal Corona, which are bigger than Giganti beans. And they're really, really, really good. They're really big, but they're really, really good.
00:26:35
Speaker
So how did you make the beans, the white beans? You have to soak them overnight and then cook them? Yeah, soak them overnight. And it was tricky because we wanted to mix the white beans and the small beans and the big beans together. So I had to start the big beans off and let them cook down until they were like
00:26:57
Speaker
slightly al dente, then throw the small beans in and then cook those all together. And then the smaller beans would like break open and all the starches would, you know, really thicken it up. So they were more of like the, the base for the white beans. And then the big ones would give you like the texture. Nice. Sounds good. It was really good. Really nice. Yeah. Underrated beans.
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh, they're so underrated. Love beans. Love, love beans. Um, yeah. They're just like potatoes. Like they're like, you could just, you could do so much with them. We can definitely can. Yeah. But, uh, what did you do for New Year's?
00:27:46
Speaker
I was at a wedding. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So we were at a wedding. It's fine because I actually hate nears, like generally, I think it's always a bust. So it was actually fun to have plans and have plans with a bunch of big group of the people. It was really fun. It was a long day, you know, like,
00:28:06
Speaker
the ceremony was fairly early and we went past midnight. So it does make for a long wedding, which only means people drink more and you sort of roll out of the reception hall. But no, it was fun. Yeah. And it was nice that I had Sunday and Monday to kind of recover before I had to return back to work. Yeah. It's always the roughest.
00:28:35
Speaker
Like when you have a week off and then you have to go back to work. Yeah, I feel like especially after this.
00:28:42
Speaker
I took like a week and a half or something. And I felt like I needed a vacation from the vacation because we had a big Christmas Eve Eve party here. So we had like a bunch of friends over that Friday, which was like negative 12 degrees and like the real temperature, not like the feels like temperature.
00:29:06
Speaker
the real temperature was like negative 12. It was so cool. But we had a big party. It was fun. Thankfully, we didn't lose power. We had plenty of heat. They're actually in our kitchen. The
00:29:22
Speaker
The original window went like, you know, this is old house and everything. The original windows in this house are so much better than whatever they replaced them with in like the eighties or nineties. So the kitchen has like these crappy replacement windows and there is actually snow building up on the window ledge inside the house because it was like blowing up and in. So that was, but, um, the part was fun. Uh, made a ton of food. Um,
00:29:53
Speaker
People brought stuff, you know, to drink, make cocktails. I'll be getting more into making cocktails too, like different ones, just nothing crazy, some classics.
00:30:06
Speaker
You know, so that's fun. Negroni's are my go-to.
Exploring Gin and Favorite Pittsburgh Restaurants
00:30:09
Speaker
I'm sort of shifting towards gin. A lot of gin drinks. I like gin a little bit less, a little bit more now than, you know, the, the bourbon and the rise, which I used to like. Don't get me wrong. I still, still drink in Manhattan, but I think there's a lot of, a lot of cool nuance in gin that I'm just sort of discovering, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely like a more unique flavor profile.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah. And, and I feel like, like the, like the herbal and the botanical, you know, like you don't really get herbal and botanical, obviously with, with like whiskey just hits you, it hits you. And it's, it's good. But
00:30:54
Speaker
I can have a gin and tonic with six different gins and they can be really, really different, you know? And they're just that simple of a drink, changing the type of gin, whether it's Dutch gin, London dry gin, some other, you know, weird, something gin, like all sorts of stuff going on, you know? So it's been fun and I don't get like, I don't feel like crap the next day either, which helps.
00:31:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Um, you should check out drink masters on Netflix if you haven't already. I did. I watched it. There was a Pittsburgh on that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and yeah, he's, apparently he's a consultant for the de Shants group. Yeah. I think he was at a pull up blue, right? So the group that he was there, is that that group? I think he worked at, he worked at bullet, bullet, bullet. Yeah. Nice.
00:31:47
Speaker
Which are that meal we had there. One of the best meals of 2022. Even though Jess like threw a bottle of wine on your pants. Yeah. Yeah. I still remind her that every time she starts talking real erratically with her hands. I was like, remember that time that you push two full glass. No, one full glass and one empty glass on my lap. Yeah, I know twice.
00:32:10
Speaker
I will have to say that our server was fabulous and he did bring me a drink on the house, which he didn't have to do. I could have rang my jeans out into the cup. Great service there. Yeah, it was good. Good meal. I would probably say that's probably my favorite restaurant in Pittsburgh right now. I probably agree with you. I would agree with you.
00:32:39
Speaker
even though we are going to more Sia for Mandy's birthday in February, which I'm really looking forward to. Yeah. I do love that restaurant a lot. We had a rehearsal dinner there, which they were fabulous to work with. I think it has shifted. I think it has changed from the time it's open to, you know,
00:33:05
Speaker
their previous, I guess they overlap, but Cure, you know, Cure was such a fabulous restaurant as well. And that closed. But yeah, I'm interested to see, let me know what you think. I haven't been to Mercia in a little bit. Makes us to go back to...
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah. Actually, the best pandemic meals, like lockdown, COVID lockdown meals, were Morsilla pickups. Actually, that was our New Year's 2020, 2021 New Year's Eve was Morsilla to go. And it was so freaking good. It was so good. Yeah. We haven't been there since our fourth anniversary.
00:33:51
Speaker
So it's, it's definitely been a while. It's been six years. Um, really it's been that long. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been together for a long time, been married for a long time, 10 years. Congrats. Thanks. What do you get with the 10 year anniversary? Um,
00:34:14
Speaker
I don't even know, man. I don't need to keep track to all this. We did for like the first year. I think the first one's like paper and the second one's like wood or something. A 10 year anniversary gift. 10 or aluminum. Perfect. Reynolds Rap. Or a new All Cloud pan.
00:34:37
Speaker
Oh, did you Oh, so speaking of, did you get any good kitchen related, food related gifts or give any food related gifts this holiday season?
00:34:55
Speaker
So we just got the Omaha Stakes from my mom. That's the only gift. But I did buy Mandy, a all-clad measuring cup kit for Christmas. Oh, like the measuring set? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's just like... They have steel cups? Yep. They're awesome. Nice. Really? Yeah, they're really, really nice. So, I mean, that's basically it. I mean, we went to the all-clad sale with our
00:35:26
Speaker
Do you know Courtney and Alex Bancone? Yeah. So we went with them to the all class sale back in like November. And we got some stuff then, got like a new roasting pan. And then we got ourselves like a little one quart sauce pan, which is like big enough for like two eggies. And yes, I'm going to be saying eggies. You better say eggies.
00:35:55
Speaker
And it's like the perfect, it's like the perfect pot for like one big cup of hot chocolate. And it's like our new favorite pot. That's awesome. Nice. Nice. It's so small. It's so great. Jess got me this. It's actually handy here. I didn't have this on camera, but this is a book. It's called The Spice Companion. Oh. It is so cool because it gives you a lot of background, but it has,
00:36:23
Speaker
It has every spice in this book. Every spice in this book and it gives you a breakdown and explains what it is, explains kind of like what you can pair it with, what kind of blends you typically find it in. It's really, really neat. And there's, I mean, there's spices in here that I never heard of, which, you know, it means I'm going to look and find those things and try to use them. So yeah.
00:36:50
Speaker
Really, really, really cool. Really, really, really cool. It's like a total reference book. It's really pretty. The inside's really pretty. I love books like that. Nice. It's not prescriptive at all. It's just like it's a creative launch pad, so it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, so it's pretty happy. It's like, dang, Jess, this is a good gift. Wow. I got you a blanket, you know?
00:37:19
Speaker
Sorry. Mandy got me an AeroPress for Christmas.
Coffee Culture and Brewing Experiences
00:37:30
Speaker
Oh, I never used one. Do you like it?
00:37:33
Speaker
I do. I love it. It's really awesome. It's really unique because I've heard about them, watched videos about them, but it's actually used it. It's really cool. There's so many different techniques you can do, and it's crazy just by how hot the temperature of the water can drastically change the flavor. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. It's crazy.
00:38:00
Speaker
AeroPress World Championships and you can get the recipes from the winner of the championship and it's crazy. How finely ground does the coffee have to be for the AeroPress? Quite fine. Not as fine as espresso, like a little bit on the coarser side. On a scale from one to 10, one being fine. But 10 being like French press.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So maybe about like a four. Okay. Yeah. So not super, not super fine, but not super course. Interesting. So there's probably some level of pressure. It's not quite as fine. And then are you, you're probably, I assume it's like super hot water, right? Like 200, like four degrees or something. Yeah. I basically poured overall like boiling. Yeah. Boiling. Um,
00:38:56
Speaker
Cool, I never used one. I've been intrigued. I told Jess I would buy any more coffee equipment until we got a new kitchen because we don't have space for it. And our kitchen is absolutely ratchet. So maybe, I am designing our kitchen, like whenever, like, and there's literally a section, like a whole drawer of, like this is the coffee drawer. This is for all the coffee things. So they don't have to sit out and be like unsightly.
00:39:26
Speaker
But that's what this store will be for. And once it's full, I will not buy any more coffee stuff. Go ahead, sorry. I said I told Mandy that I want an espresso machine. I do too. But you've seen the size of our kitchen. There's no way we could fit an espresso machine in our kitchen. You know, they're so...
00:39:52
Speaker
I've been looking at, I mean, are you thinking like espresso machine, like semi-automatic, like a proper, you know, near commercial grade espresso machine, like totally manual? Like a Nuovo Simele or whatever is that what it's called? That's like a super like professional. Yeah.
00:40:19
Speaker
But no, not like that. There was one I was looking at. Yeah, like you're gonna put like a lot of Lumberzoka in there. Yeah, the one I was looking at was called,
00:40:40
Speaker
Maybe I should think. Oh, the rent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's I mean, it's like, you know, a home professional fully manual. I mean, yeah, yeah. No, I'm not. I'm not saying that silly by any means. I'm I'm with you. I'm 100 percent with you. But yeah, it's like, yeah, just trying to find the space.
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, maybe I should think about that because, uh, not that I'm going to get money anytime soon, but it's like, Hmm, maybe I should have like just a little, just, just account for like a, a water line just somewhere. So I don't have to like fill a tank. Like I could just plummet right into the, Oh, I say, I say, yeah, then you're, then you're, you're really looking into like,
00:41:27
Speaker
I think some of those you can plumb in. I think you can plumb some of those in. Oh yeah, you definitely can for some. It is enticing, but I mean it's like you obsess over it, right? Like I'm going to be reading about
00:41:46
Speaker
how to, the correct pressure to like make the perfect cup of espresso and it will consume me. Oh, you know, it's consuming someone that I work with. He just bought an espresso machine and like, he has like a little book that he like writes all of his notes in and we were talking about it the other day and it's, I mean, yeah, there's like so much that you can do to it. It's, you know,
00:42:13
Speaker
Let me paint a picture for you, okay? Here's, and this is, this is what happens. We have a party like Christmas Eve. There's 26 people here, right? Everybody's eating and drinking to have a good time. And it's like, hey, coffee. And I'm like, I got you.
00:42:30
Speaker
one cup at a time. And it just, it's, it's infuriating. My wife is going to honor me because she's like, can we just, can we just get a ninja? Like, do we have to pour, have like individual pour overs? And after like two cups, I'm like, I'm done. Nobody else needs coffee. I have like, I have like
00:42:55
Speaker
and i have the french press that's how i like get coffee coverage for a group of people i have them all going to electric kettles you know yeah just trying to make it happen i was saying like
00:43:09
Speaker
More than eight people, I'm not having coffee. You guys need a coffee on the way home. Yeah, go to the sheets. Yeah, yeah. If you want coffee, you have to stay the night and I will make you coffee in the morning. In the morning. Yeah, but only two of you stay the night. Yeah, yeah. Only two of you stay the night. Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah. That's just so much better, you know, like it is. Yeah. Who am I? Am I going to wake up? I'm not, I'm, I can't,
00:43:39
Speaker
I'm not going to drink out of a Keurig. Like that sounds pretentious, but I don't want hot water running through plastic, low grade plastic. Ain't going to happen. I don't think that's a pretentious thing to say because a lot of people I talk with, they don't like Keurigs. They just don't like the idea of like water sitting in a tank, getting stagnant and also, you know, hot water filtering through unsustainable, non-recyclable plastic.
00:44:08
Speaker
Yeah, and also it's like plastic. Like what happens when you eat a plastic? Like you get weird plastic shit. It makes your food taste weird. Who knows what you're ingesting. You can't clean the inside of those machines effectively. And your coffee is stale. Like it's already stale. Come on. Yeah. It's been ground for months. Like who knows how long it's been ground for.
00:44:34
Speaker
Yeah, I had a Nespresso machine. I had a Nespresso machine. I got it because I had like some sort of weird points to use somewhere and I was like, maybe I'll try this.
00:44:47
Speaker
No, I didn't even like that. It was okay. It was okay. Their, their pods are aluminum. You, you, I literally like put them back in the bag, sent them back, recycled them. So they kind of make you feel bad. They might be throwing them away somewhere. Who knows? They could be throwing them in the ocean. I don't know where they're going, but it's not a part. It's not on my, I didn't lose sleep over it. Right. Um,
00:45:11
Speaker
So they let you send those back and recycle them. And I think that they seal the coffee in there under like a gas, right? So in theory, it's more fresh, but it's not like this was just roasted last week and like you opened the bag today fresh. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The whole idea of them is stupid. I just, I,
00:45:39
Speaker
I can't really distinguish the difference between the coffees either. Like you get different pods and they're supposed to taste differently and they really, to me, they really don't. Uh, not like I got a different varietal of being grounded and did two different types. Like I did a pour over versus a French press. Like those are vastly different. You're going to, you take the same bag of beans and you drink them in two different ways. They taste totally different, you know, and that's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:09
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And then with the curios, like that's why they make so many different flavor coffees is to mask the the taste of a shitty. You know what? I hate the smell of hazelnut. Any I hate the smell of fake hazelnut creamer and coffee. Yeah, yeah, that's what I like. I can't I can't I can't do vanilla Italian Italian creme creme creme creme.
00:46:39
Speaker
Um, yeah, I can't, I can't do this anymore. No, me either. Um, it doesn't really take that long to make a French press either. It's like five minutes, you know? Well, maybe it's depends on how long it takes for your kettle to heat up. But after it kind of heats up, it's done in four minutes. That's it. Yeah.
00:47:01
Speaker
I think I like who's moving that fast in the morning that they have to be running out of the door with a Keurig who doesn't have I need that time to like if my life depended on saving six minutes in the morning I got Keurig's not gonna save anything it's good I'm done you know what I mean I mean
00:47:22
Speaker
I guess I could see it if you have kids and you're multitasking and trying to get them ready for school and all this other stuff. I can understand it. I could see that. Put a thick pod in, press button while you're making your eggies for your children and then doing all that stuff. I get it from that point of view. Well, no. Here, how about this? Make cold brew, put it in your fridge the night before.
00:47:53
Speaker
Done cold brew cold brew in the winter. Are you crazy? I drink iced coffee all year round man. I do it Yeah, I just got one today. Yeah, I like the taste of it. I need the I think it's the caffeine addiction to be honest I don't even think it's anything beyond that But I can't drink I Need the caffeine
00:48:16
Speaker
And I like the taste of coffee. I'll have to drink it out of a, out of a ceramic mug. I like to sit at work in the morning. It's like, it's a nice ritual. Um, if I drank a, like I can't take caffeine another way, you know, like I don't, I can't drink an energy drink. I'll literally feel like I'm dying. Oh yeah. Me neither. That's way too much caffeine. I don't know what those are. Yeah. And weird, artificial,
00:48:41
Speaker
Last time I had a Red Bull was probably when I was 21 and it was a shot with Jagermeister in it. Well, that was probably last time I had any amount of Red Bull over 10 years ago. Man, the things we did while we were young. Yeah. Stupid things. Stupid things.
Culinary Discoveries and Personal Tastes
00:49:05
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. Um,
00:49:10
Speaker
Bear with me one second. You can keep talking. I'm going to grab a beverage. Okay. Go grab a beverage. Justin is off grabbing a non-alcoholic beverage. Not to be confused with the no duels.
00:49:31
Speaker
We can admire the handiwork he's done in his basement. There it is. Thanks. Yeah, we can keep this casual enough that we could just go grab drinks whenever we want. I like your hat. It reminds me of a fisherman's hat. What are those hats called? Fisherman Beanie.
00:49:51
Speaker
Is it really okay? Yeah. Yeah. It seems like you should be on like looking for crabs or something, you know, trying to get trying to go for the, um, uh, Steve Zissou life aquatic, uh, vibe. Um, I just need to get a red one. Uh, I have my red car heart and it does. It's very Steve's zoo. Yes. I, um,
00:50:15
Speaker
So I told you we're going on this sailing trip to Sardinia. And my goal is to get a red beanie to take on the trip with us on a boat. Please, please do that. That'll just be my hat the whole time we're on the boat. What month are you doing that? September. Oh, very nice. Yeah. And we're talking about going to Barcelona. I think after the trip on the way home,
00:50:44
Speaker
Very nice. I just finished the Stanley Tucci series on CNN. Was it Searching for Italy or whatever?
00:50:54
Speaker
It's one of my favorite shows. It's really good. Oh, speaking of, I got another cookbook for Christmas. It's also sitting right here. I didn't stage these, but this was a, we did like a secret Santa. I don't think we called it secret Santa. I think we called it secret holiday person or something to be politically correct, but I'm not even joking. I love it. But my secret holiday person gave me the,
00:51:21
Speaker
Oh, awesome. Yeah, so that's good. That's two cookbooks for Christmas. That's that's a good Christmas. I'd say so. I love them. I'm actually thinking of a space for some cookbooks in the kitchen so they don't all have to live right here. And I think that's I think it's nice to have some cookbooks in the kitchen, you know. I mean, they're right at your disposal. Yeah, yeah. You know what I want to do, Justin? OK, so.
00:51:50
Speaker
I have some, our local library, they were selling like a bunch of books, like old books that nobody cares about. Well, let me ask you, are you on a first aid basis with a librarian? Her name's Rachel.
00:52:05
Speaker
Rachel, the librarian. Jess is on the board, so yeah. I might be catering a white linen event in August. I might be catering a library garden party in August. If you're interested, come and cater it with me and my brother. Just tell me when I will be there. Okay, it might happen. You could use the hands, come up with some cool stuff.
00:52:31
Speaker
for sure. So I went to the library, you know, old musty book sale, and they had some like, just bizarro, like 1960s, 70s, and 80s cookbooks. Like these are like, you know, mom's favorite casseroles or America's great casserole books. And I'm like, these are gems. Like,
00:52:51
Speaker
I need to like recreate these in a different way. And I feel like that could, you could, you could, you could have so much fun doing that. So I'm going to peruse these things and then, um, uh, we can try and make some stuff. Yes. Like that definitely needs to happen. Yeah. There's like a 1980s bone appetite appetizer book. Oh, that's right. Cool. Yeah. The casserole cookbook.
00:53:22
Speaker
There's a Victorian cookbook, the Victorian cookbook. Dude, I meant to tell you, that reminds me. So when Mandy and I went to New England, we went to Salem one day and we went to the Salem Witch Museum and they had a cookbook there that was called What the Salem Dames Cooked and it's all recipes from like the 17 and 1800s.
00:53:48
Speaker
Salem Dames. Salem Dames. That'd be like a really good, like women's basketball team. I really would. Like I just love the Salem Dames. That's a good team name. Yeah. Or like, I could see that as like roller derby. Even better. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be a bad, that'd be a badass roller derby team. I love roller derby. It's underrated. It really is. It's, it's so awesome to watch.
00:54:18
Speaker
Yeah. Um, but yeah, you need, you need to make those recipes happen all day. And I hate, I hate casserole and that's, I'm going to make it, I'm going to figure out how to make it work for me. What's your favorite worst casserole tuna. Oh,
00:54:40
Speaker
Oh, tuna noodle casserole. Oh, get out of here with that. Can't even even think of it. Chicken, like even like anything with like cream of whatever soup. Yeah, cream of mushroom, cream of celery, cream of chicken, cream of. It's like sodium central, man. How do you how do you cream a chicken anyway? I don't even want to know. You got to pay for that part of the conversation.
00:55:10
Speaker
We got to get on Patreon for that. Yeah. A $10 super chat or whatever it's called. Exactly. A cream of chicken. Oh, this is going to be great. I know it. It's lovely. It's flowing. First conversation. So let's circle back around. So if this is something we're going to try and do,
00:55:39
Speaker
weekly, biweekly, whatever. Right. I would say let's start off biweekly and if things go well, we get a nice rhythm, nice flow. Yeah. Yeah. They don't have to be the longest form. We're figuring it out. This episode one. And we have a name for this thing. We do. And it's called what? Scratch the hog. And how did we come up with scratch the hog? So it's a, it's a mashup. It's a mashup of, um,
00:56:09
Speaker
are random side projects. From Scratch, which is you, Zach Pontius, and Heffern Haag, which is me, Justin Gerino, Soft G. Oh, yeah, that's like a thing. Is it really Gerina? I always thought it was Gerino, but it's Gerina. Oh, it's hard to know Soft G, my friend.
00:56:38
Speaker
I'm kind of adapting that persona, soft G. You yourself are a soft G. I am a soft G. Love it. So this is Scratch the Hog, the podcast. This is Scratch the Hog, the podcast. For people that like to hear about people like food. Yeah, two dumpling buffoons talking about food.
00:57:05
Speaker
It works. Maybe some will be more coherent. Maybe some will be more rambly. Who knows? Who knows? I do have an idea. Yes, guests would be cool. Yeah, we could get people join. People that actually know stuff about food, you know, not just us speculating about why NOMA is non-profitable.
00:57:31
Speaker
Just a really good series. Jess and I are totally obsessed over it. It's it's like weirdly good. The acting is really bad, but it's like. Like it's like unsolved mysteries acting, you know, like like like recreated like for historical offense, but it's so it's just like weird, but it's on the history channel. It's called. I think it's called foods that made America. Have you seen this? I think I might have seen it.
00:58:00
Speaker
And it's like the Heinz company, right? Like there's Hershey's it's like, it's unbelievable how these companies come to be, you know, it's absolutely unbelievable. Little Debbie, you know, like all of these, uh, uh, famous Amos. There it's, it's really, really, really good. There's like three seasons and it's just absolutely fascinating, especially when like the way that they create it, it's like, um,
00:58:31
Speaker
Uh, oftentimes there's like a rival company trying to do a similar thing. So like post and catalog where, uh, you know, I won't give anything away, but that was like pretty tumultuous, you know, like at the time. So, um, really interesting stuff. I think I might've watched and Mars, you know, Mars bars. Yeah. Yeah. I think I might've actually watched this at Mandy's parents' house the one time.
00:59:02
Speaker
Yeah, the acting is terrible, but it's so bad. Yeah, but it's interesting. Yeah. And everyone's the same, you know, like the founder, there's like the founder who's like this, like, uh, optimistic, uh, we can do anything. And there's always like a malcontent being like, nah, you know, and it's like every episode is the same one. We should do this, but the bottom line, you know, like that sort of thing. Yeah.
00:59:27
Speaker
I want to make the best cereal in the world. But even the franchise that really came on strong in the 50s and 60s, it's crazy. It's crazy how Subway came to be. The story is so cool. It's so neat. What I want to do at some point, and I was thinking about this because I don't eat a lot of candy bars or anything.
00:59:58
Speaker
I don't know if I should even tell you. Like if you asked me what my favorite candy bar was, you'd never, you would never guess it. It's like so weird and random. And I feel like I want to know like what your top five candy bars are. You don't have to, you can think about it. You can think about it. Okay. Now do M&Ms count? Cause they're not a candy bar. I would say Reese's counts. I guess we can count M&Ms.
01:00:28
Speaker
Do we count M&Ms? It's not really a candy bar. Is it a candy? I don't think we should. I think it needs to be chocolate based. I don't think you can say Starburst. Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? Maybe we can say that your favorite top five candies, chocolate. Primary ingredient has to be chocolate. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now that can it be
01:00:52
Speaker
All right, yeah, I'm overthinking it. I'm thinking of like, oh, well, like, can it be like this fancy chocolate? No, it's got to be candy that you would eat as a kid. It has to be at the Rite Aid register. Like, you know, we're not going to some French boutique here, you know, like I don't want anything with like candied lavender. OK, this is this milk chocolate. No, no, no salted caramel with orange peel dark chocolate.
01:01:19
Speaker
says we're not going to get any subscribers if you keep talking. Yeah. No, I want to know. I want to know. Yeah, we can talk about it. OK, I don't know if they still make these or not, but I think one of my favorites in the top five is the cookies and cream Twix bars because they had them in the 90s. Then they brought them back a few years ago or last year, but I haven't seen them since. So they might be gone. Hmm. Yeah.
01:01:48
Speaker
OK, yeah, mine is. What is Mr. Mr. Goodbar? Oh, what are you like? What are you like? I know. I love it. It's so good. Just peanuts and milk chocolate. It's the it's perfect. Perfect. And I can't I can't fault you for that chocolate and peanuts are I know I really for some reason that the way that Mr. that Mr. Goodbar just hits.
01:02:15
Speaker
in it every time. I love the minis. I look forward to the holiday season because from, from, from Halloween to New Year's, we've got little mini Mr. Goodbars in the house, you know? Nice. They're gone now. I ate them all. Oh, I mean, obviously, of course. I like a crackle. I do like a crackle. Um, but I would say
01:02:39
Speaker
The crackle, it's the Hershey's with the Rice Krispies in it. Oh my God. Wait. Do you mean the Nestle? Oh wait, no. Yeah, okay, yeah. I'm thinking of a Nestle's crunch. Yeah. And I love a Reese's. I think a Twix is great. A Twix is a great bar. Yeah, Twix are awesome.
01:03:06
Speaker
Man, I can't believe you like crackle. Oh, they're terrible. They're terrible. Really? Oh, man. Crunch is lame. I mean, I think it's just... Oh, you like the Nestle's Crunch. She liked the Nestle's Crunch. Yeah. I think it might just be like the Nestle's Crunch is like what I grew up on. And crackle is like what was left in like a candy bowl from Halloween that like, no.
01:03:28
Speaker
Well, I know you grew up in near, you know, gated communities in Beaver County, but up here, we could only afford crackles. Dude, I'm from Farrell, Pennsylvania. Population, a thousand, I think. You know what else I like? The wetchamacallit. I love those. Isn't that a good? I feel like not enough people know about the wetchamacallit. No. And they've been consistent ever since
01:03:55
Speaker
I've had them as a kid. They're so good. It's perfect. Like it seemed like one of those like crazy marketing schemes where it's like, literally we're going to throw everything and make the thing. But I'm like, it works. The vegetable class is good. Yeah. They did try to make it too big. I feel like they used to have the, that's too much, whatchamacallit, like the King sized. Just get the normal sized one. You'll die. Feed the big one. Yeah. I feel the way about any giant candy bar.
01:04:26
Speaker
Um, I'd really like, I don't know why, I mean, M&Ms. Oh yeah. I love peanut butter M&Ms. Those are, those are my favorites. Peanut butter. I like the classic. I love a chocolate, just classic. I'm going to, yeah, you got the, you got the, uh, old soul.
01:04:53
Speaker
I think the Twix is good. I hate I hate butterfingers. I think butterfingers are disgusting. Yeah, they're not my favorite. I mean, I'll eat one if it's like in front of me. Yeah, but I mean, yeah, they're not. It just shows up. It's like, oh, it's like, oh, it's my arm. Here we go. It's the only candy in the house. I guess I'll eat it. What about a Kit Kat?
01:05:19
Speaker
I like Kit Kats. Yeah. They're simple, like, you know, really, really good. Hasn't, haven't changed. It's been the same forever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, I like a good Snickers. See, Snickers is good. That was, I don't love like the Milky Way. I don't love the Snickers. I don't know what it is about those. I actually, I do, I do like a musket, three musketeers. Nougat. Give me that Nougat. Yeah. Just like Nougat and chocolate.
01:05:48
Speaker
There you go. Yeah. I'm trying to think like what else is good. How do you feel about like a bit of honeys? Like you're like 60 years old. Do you like a bit of honeys? No, maybe. Kind of. I mean, they're okay, I guess. I'm more of a Werthers original. Let's get ass feeling Werthers.
01:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if I had a pick, I'd pick the Wart Warthers. They're good. Do you remember when Lifesavers made creamsavers? Justin, I was just about to say creamsavers. Really? Strawberry. Yeah, because like the packaging, I can remember it. Like that white and pink or white and off purple packaging. Yeah, creamsavers. Those things are so good. Like, do you know that they still make them?
01:06:42
Speaker
Oh no. Like we, like we got some, we got some of that candy store up in Boston. Do they taste the same? They do. Are they good? Oh yeah. Yeah. We, they had strawberry and orange. I don't know if I'd like orange. I don't really like that orange. I don't like that creamsicle flavor, but really? No, that's weird. I don't like it. I don't like creamsicles.
01:07:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's not I don't there's some about like orange and cream that just doesn't do it for me. It's weird to me. Oh, man It's like so iconic. I know but I don't like it. I like berries Because I'm gonna have to look for those I'm gonna have to look for those Yep, I'll eat nature's and cream. Yeah maybe I Think you could buy these online. Maybe I'll send you a pack. I
01:07:36
Speaker
Oh, here's another thing I wanted to ask about. Maybe we're burning through all the good asks about. So popcorn. We learned a lot about popcorn in the series.
TikTok, Food Trends, and Content Critiques
01:07:44
Speaker
It was, uh, um, uh, Orville Redenbacher versus, uh, was it called pop smart pop or pop secret or whatever it is? Pop secret. Yeah. Yeah. So did not know this Orville Redenbacher.
01:08:01
Speaker
the person was like this crazy person that did everything he could to engineer what he thought was the perfect kernel, the perfect type of popcorn with the right moisture content. So it popped fully and it was super fluffy and the same amount of weight of kernels popped more volume than everybody else. Did you know that? It's crazy. I had no idea. I hate popcorn. Really? It's not really my favorite thing.
01:08:31
Speaker
But I didn't eat, I never really eat popcorn. I never ate Orville Redenbacher popcorn. And sometimes I like movie theater popcorn, but it's always kind of stale. We got some Orville, it's good popcorn. It's really good. You know, I'm not like getting choked, choking on like those weird husks and stuff that's in like, you know, the other popcorn. So I'm going to say try Orville Redenbacher. We got a, Jess loves popcorn, but we have like the,
01:09:01
Speaker
the air popper. So I got some, some Orville, uh, kernels coming to try the air pop around. See, I, this is where I'm going to sound really pretentious, but I, I, I buy
01:09:17
Speaker
I don't buy brand name popcorn. I usually like some weird boutique popcorn, weird boutique, whether it's like a farm stand, farmer's market, buy some like, like Amish popcorn, cook it in like a, in our big pot with some oil, do it up with like salt and vinegar powder, dill. Yeah. Salt and vinegar powder. The works like truffle oil, Parmesan cheese. My goodness. This is a meal.
01:09:46
Speaker
Dude, all right. So when we come to your house In your kitchen or even if that's not anything. All right, well we come to stay in your house even if in your in your shitty kitchen Mm-hmm. I'll make you some hundred percent call this kitchen shitty. This is I'll make you some good popcorn. I'll make you popcorn that I'll convert you I'm on my morning here. Okay
01:10:11
Speaker
I actually want to try the, um, getting into it. So I'm excited. I, you know, I don't like, I think it's the microwave, the bag, the plastic, the weird stuff. Who knows what's in that. Yeah. But, um, I do want to, uh, come up with some seasoning combos. I think it would be really interesting and cool for popcorn. Yeah. Or just slather it in like cheddar cheese dust. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that either. No, absolutely not. Or just like some steak seasoning.
01:10:41
Speaker
Really? Oh yeah. Steak seasoning and popcorn. That's really good. Damn. Yeah. There's like so many different things you can do with popcorn. Underrated. Yeah. Make sweet popcorn. Like some chocolate and stuff. Kettle corn is okay. It's okay. It's okay. I could take it really good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hmm. Hmm.
01:11:12
Speaker
Boutique popcorn. Gotta go find some person on the side of the road hawking their corn. I mean, like I'm sure like there's plenty of like fancy popcorn up where you live. It's like. I mean, I think like Bob's Red Mill makes popcorn. You know that's like of a higher quality. So yeah, yeah. But honestly, like if you're if you're just getting the kernels from Orville Redmonk, you're like I'm sure
01:11:41
Speaker
They're fine. They're engineered for maximum. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect moisture content inside. It's just a vessel. And then you just throw on whatever stuff you want. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I think popcorn is going to be my 2023 exploration. One of many, but I feel like I've been missing out weirdly on popcorn. Yeah. I think, I think you happen. It's time. Yeah. I like corn.
01:12:13
Speaker
I like corn. I like corn. It's calm. Yeah. Who doesn't like it? What else? What else you got? In terms of thoughts, feelings. A little sore today. A little sore? Yeah.
01:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. Sitting on a computer all day, upper back issues, all that stuff. Neck pain. Yeah. I have not a very, like I'm actually, at least I have a staying desk, but because I keep it at a height, I use like a tall chair and that's like kind of the worst thing to sit in. Honestly, like a elevated chair. So, um, you know, you know, it's been sort of frustrating me lately. Tell me.
01:13:09
Speaker
as a passive content creator from one from one passive content creator to another aspirational content creator to another yes um i like youtube and i like long format content i love it i like to learn i like to get in deep but like
01:13:31
Speaker
people creating interesting stuff and just like seeing it come to fruition in like 20 minutes, like that's short 20 minutes. But
01:13:45
Speaker
Let's talk about cooking shows. There's lots of really good quality cooking that happens on YouTube. There's a lot of it. There's some not good stuff, but there's some really good stuff. People put out really interesting stuff. There's really great personalities. It's pretty good. Now, the influencer world of TikTok,
01:14:09
Speaker
There's like this whole genre of like, I think I know where you're going. Like bullshit recipes that aren't even like real. It's just like slop and it's like kind of like shock and slop in a minute. And I don't understand it. Why? Dude, I, I asked myself that same question. That's one of the reasons why I
01:14:37
Speaker
refuse to get on to TikTok. I don't know what is trendy or what's appealing about someone wasting food and like just piling all this food into mush just for views just to get likes and it's so wasteful and
01:15:04
Speaker
I just don't understand. I just can't wrap my head around it. Like it's, it's so frustrating. Like on, on no lip. So it's, then they all look the same, right? It's, it's, it's, it's usually a woman. It's not always a woman, but it's usually a woman. The, it's everybody's, you know, shiplap white and gray kitchen. That's always looks the same. And, um, it's just like,
01:15:28
Speaker
weird, you know, I'm going to put this thing in, you know, here's raw chicken, here's Velveeta cheese, here's a can of, you know, whatever, whatever, and they just pile it and pile and pile it goes into the oven and it comes out looking like junk.
01:15:45
Speaker
I think we're talking about two different things. Are we talking about different things though? Yeah. But go on. No, no. It's just like, it's, it's like, you're not learning. Like if you're watching this thing, you're not actually learning anything that's valuable about cooking because that's not like recipes are the least important thing about cooking. Like zero, like you don't know any recipes to cook. And to your point, it's just like people, I mean, you're just wasting food.
01:16:12
Speaker
I don't know. People making things in a sink. They're just like mixing shit up in a sink. Yeah. And like people that are piling food on just like a bear countertop and like, yeah. And like, I physically cannot watch those.
01:16:31
Speaker
like videos, because that's like the type of content that is just like infuriating. And it's like, why? Like, why? What's the point? Why are you wasting all this food just to have people like it? Like, I just don't understand. Butterboards are trending. What is it? A butter board? What's that? It's a board you put dabs of butter on.
01:16:59
Speaker
and then you put the butter on your bread. But there's like all these different types of butter boards that are like a thing. My brother and sister-in-law make bang on whipped feta boards. Like this is like, they're amazing. But people are just putting butter on a board.
01:17:30
Speaker
this actually doesn't bug me that much because like if you get like a really nice like cultured french butter
01:17:45
Speaker
that you like to like top everything with and, you know, like kind of use that and to like spread, you know, like toast or crackers or whatever. I can, I can kind of see that because like a really good French, like cultured butter, slightly salted. Nobody's buying delicious. Nobody's, nobody's buying French butter and putting it on nice baguettes here. You know, they're just getting, you know, Lando lakes, nothing wrong with it. Unsalted butter.
01:18:14
Speaker
and put it on their. Pepperidge farm Triscuits. Yeah, I mean, it's just lazy content like it's like that. This is a little bit different than like. It's just like it's a little bit different than like the I made spaghetti in my sink kind of junk, but yeah. It's also just kind of like lazy. I don't know. It's a little bit lazy.
01:18:42
Speaker
Like I'm not too bothered by this as I am by like...
01:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, making a Sunday. I'll send you some stuff you'll be bothered by. OK, so yeah, send me what you see. Like a toilet. I mean, like, yeah, like the yeah. Like, why? Why? I don't understand why. Doesn't make any sense. We're in the wrong business. We just need we just need to give up. Start making sure we're 100 percent in the wrong place. We've been recording for an hour and 20 minutes. Like we could have we could have just made a minute of content, you know.
01:19:22
Speaker
And you know, there's always this like, oh, you're just, why are you disparaging people that are doing it? Like it's stupid. It's not good. Like these, these formats, like tick tock, like they're literally the smartest people in the world are going to work there and they're figuring out how to give you more ADD. So you spend more time scrolling and it's more addictive. It's junk. It's everything about the formats junk.
01:19:37
Speaker
than the toilet content
01:19:51
Speaker
everything about the content is junk. It's all junk because it's all engineered for you to easily make content and for me to easily digest it and for them to make money. Yeah. It's just like, it's just like the, um, the so-called five minute crafts or the, um, hacks, like the kitchen hacks, which I am like so infuriated. That's a good example. That's a really good example. Um, like I hate those like with a passion that
01:20:20
Speaker
I mean, first of all, they don't take five minutes, most of them. Look why they're not really, most of them aren't really solving a problem. They're just making you do more work.
01:20:33
Speaker
And I like, I, I believe that they're just making it just for content sake, that they're not like all these content forms are just like churning out all this, all this stuff. Oh yeah. They're all like Eastern European content farms too. A lot of them are. I think that that crafts one. It definitely is. Yeah. Yeah. I, um,
01:20:57
Speaker
What was I gonna say related to one of those? I forget. Anyway, yeah, they're silly for sure. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. There's like the one trick that I think it looks good, but I've never been able to successfully pull it off. And it's like the cutting cherry tomatoes in between two court lids. Have you ever tried that?
01:21:27
Speaker
No. So like you take, you know, I've, I've seen it. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. And it's like, Oh, how could this not work? I have sharp knives too. Like I'm not running butter knives through these things and I do it and I can't pull it off every time I try it. Like I, it's a dozen tomatoes cut at a time instead of one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. It's like, this should work. This really should work. And it doesn't, it really doesn't work very well. Yeah. Between the lids. I yeah, I've never,
01:21:56
Speaker
I mean, for me, it's like the time it would take to gather up like 10 tomatoes and do the thing that like, I'll just have it done already. Or like, it'll take me like five seconds longer. You know, I don't know. I mean, I just kind of individually, but I was like, that was the one thing I was like, that actually seems clever. And it doesn't work very well. It doesn't. And I don't think people, most people even have a knife sharp enough to pull it off. So.
01:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's I don't know, like techniques like that. Yeah, I'm sure they save time, but they're kind of like taking away from like proper cutting techniques because it's true. I mean, like there is a chance that you could like, yeah. You know, try to cut the tomatoes like that in the knife slips, cut your arm like actually I think you're you're you're kind of on like if you don't have your finger, your fingers sort of up and flat and you roll it over, you really could.
01:22:47
Speaker
Nick it on the other side. It is super awkward. It's not, it doesn't work. I'm just, I'm making it to your point. Just cut things the old fashioned way. Yeah. Like learn how to, you know, use a knife properly, cut things properly, you know, just simple techniques and you won't want to have to
01:23:10
Speaker
you know, buy unitasker things to help you cut like a head lettuce or a zucchini or whatever. I was just talking. So my wife, Jess, she's not, she doesn't have the burning passion to be in the kitchen like I do, which is fine. Like it's not for everybody.
Cooking Skills and One-Pot Meals
01:23:30
Speaker
But she actually, she wants to get
01:23:33
Speaker
She wants to learn more, she wants to feel more comfortable. And we were just doing life skills yesterday, like we were making a soup. And we're just we're chopping, chopping the mare poi, right? Getting our mise chopped. So celery, carrots, like those are great things to practice on different different and onions, right? All different. You approach them all different ways.
01:23:55
Speaker
They're different densities and it's a great way to think about like how you use the tip of the knife, how you use the back of the knife, how you hold the knife here, how you hold it by the bolster, do the choppies. We were going through it all and it was really, it was cool. It was cool to see her get more confident with it too, you know, and start chopping more. Tuck your fingers, don't leave them out, stuff like that. Yeah. Those are the things that make people comfortable cooking nut.
01:24:24
Speaker
gadgets or it is and I actually I think for life hacks a hundred percent and I think like You know, I don't it's always see like these lists of like top ten things that you should have in your kitchen or whatever But like a sharp knife is really like a sharp knife is so much safer. It's so much safer than a dull knife and like I
01:24:49
Speaker
I've seen the barrier to entry to cooking, I think it often starts with knife skills. If you can practice your knife skills and you get comfortable just making simple cuts and chops, you're going to really start motoring. Just get a bag of carrots.
01:25:09
Speaker
you know, chop them up for the week and eat them, um, feed them to your rabbits, whatever you have. Like it doesn't really matter. Right. But just practice just going through them, going through them, going through them because like you actually like push, you push.
01:25:25
Speaker
It's not always a cut towards you, right? You're not doing these sort of fast, jerky motions. You don't use the point of a knife a whole lot. Like you're chopping away from you. Your arm's like a locomotive, you know, whatever that thing is on a locomotive that moves a wheel, right? Anyway.
01:25:51
Speaker
but it was cool to see like confidence grow. And, you know, I would say just over the last couple of months, you know, just with some basic stuff. I got her a book, it's on backorder, but Jamie Oliver has a, like, Jamie Oliver is great. He's a, he's like a wonderful cook. His philosophy is really interesting. And he's, he has a whole, um,
01:26:16
Speaker
uh book coming out that's like proper one pot meals right like and it honestly like a lot of meals are one pot like i know this right but like if it becomes approachable to realize like i only need one pot right like i can do everything in this thing and you really learn like you'll learn how to layer uh um how long things take to cook what you layer in first how you build flavors like that's
01:26:45
Speaker
Cool. Make the one pot menu. Like make the one pot cooking book. Like awesome. Uh, it's going to have some bomb recipes cause Jamie Oliver. So we're excited. So we're going to work through that kind of stuff. Nice. It just feels approachable. Like, I mean, I'll be honest, I'm kind of a maniac in the kitchen. Like it's an explosion. There's pots and pans. There's things everywhere. It happens, but I, I did a one pot meal tonight, you know,
01:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. And it was great. Yeah. No, that's, that's awesome, man. Yeah. I'm excited to see what you guys make. Hopefully assuming you guys post them when you make them. Yeah. Yeah. We'll post them. Awesome. That salad, that salad I made was bombed by the way, the fennel. I mean, it's perfect. Fennel sliced on the mandolin. Didn't use a knife. Nice. Razor thin. Awesome. Yeah.
Conclusion and Future Plans
01:27:37
Speaker
We wrapping. Is this, are we calling it?
01:27:41
Speaker
Um, I mean, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Cause I don't want us to go through, uh, too much content. I got us, I know there's a lot, there's a lot to talk about. Um, all right. So this concludes, uh, episode 0.5, uh, possibly episode one, possibly episode one. And, um, we'll, we'll figure out the kinks, uh, as, as we go. Right. Uh, yeah.
01:28:12
Speaker
but we'll make it happen. Cool, but it'll be rough in the beginning. But yeah, always, always great to see your face. Miss you. I miss you too, bud. Take care. Hopefully we'll see each other real real soon. Yeah. I mean, yeah. First of all, we'll figure out when you guys can come up and I'll let you know when we're in town and let's go get dinner.
01:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Even if we have to stay somewhere else in Ridgeway and just see you guys. Our bathroom is almost done. Ooh, okay. I'm gonna wait for the bathroom. Well, it's our bathroom, but there's a second bathroom that isn't demolished yet, so there might be a good window. Awesome. Have a good scene. You too, Ben. Bye.