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426 — Cucumber 15
39 Plays1 month ago
Ty & Eric tap into a detailed analysis of the Sapporo factory, the fishy culinary scene in Hokkaido, Subway’s excessive presence in South Korea, the origins of Nikka whiskey, reasons to strip down with the boys, ordering the ‘Cucumber 15’, freeing enslaved cattle, live streaming the Subway vegetables, and plating beauty standards in Asia vs. North America.
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Transcript
Introduction and Vancouver Adventures
00:00:49
Think Fresh
What is good? My bread heads, Ty and Eric are back in the booth coming to you live from the downtown east side of Vancouver. That's right, baby. We are posted up. Absolutely geeked off of two tofu Donbury bowls. We got some little little bit of like pickle pickled things in there.
00:01:09
Think Fresh
lot of rice, a little beet. That's right. The Sapporo beer lunch is such an underrated play. when you and your boy consume a cumulative liter of beer at lunch yeah i such a good one cup at a time though you know start with a just a glass of sapporo and then another glass then another glass and just like everything in life if you work hard you persist you'll hit the liter mark before you know it it's called consistency and um and persistency who and hops
00:01:43
Think Fresh
poorest in Steve. That's what we really need because we'd be pouring those glasses. That's right. That's right. I'm no stranger to a poor house.
Sapporo and Japanese City Life
00:01:52
Think Fresh
Yep. And you have been a support a lot lately, haven't you? Because we never even talked about your Sapporo experiences in Japan.
00:02:00
Think Fresh
Japan. That's right. Nippon as I've been told. Nippon. That's exactly it. ty Thank you for reminding our breadheads. um Yeah. We last ended the story with a long segment on the denim hot dog. That's right. That's right. That's where we left off. That's where we left off. But I'm glad to have left that in the last episode.
00:02:19
Think Fresh
um We are beyond the denim hot dog now. We can move on with our lives. We've now flown out of Tokyo and we are continuing our journey. Our... what is it our ah literary journey in Sapporo now.
00:02:34
Think Fresh
um The Sapporo the town you're not you're not deep at the bottom of a pint jug right? Yeah that's right I should specify it is the fifth largest city in Japan um and that was a special little treat to it was nice and cold it was chilly.
00:02:51
Think Fresh
I've been told yeah. um I've been told that it's similar um weather and climate to Ireland. More on that later. Interesting. Sapporo is the Ireland of the East.
00:03:06
Think Fresh
Of the Orient. cor Interesting. There's probably quote about that somewhere. Probably. But yeah, it was ah it was beautiful, man. It's like it's a Japanese city that is way, way smaller than Tokyo.
00:03:20
Think Fresh
a little bit less crowded. um The city makes more sense as a North American because the city is built on a grid. Oh, cool. So you can kind of like find where you need to go and like not turn anywhere. you just go, only need to turn twice to get home. You know what mean? So directions are very, very easy.
00:03:39
Think Fresh
that was a nice, nice little change from Tokyo where it's a bit of a maze and you got to take like seven trains to get home. Right. Right. Which just an experience in itself. So Sapporo is a bit more manageable for the tourists.
00:03:51
Think Fresh
Yeah,
Hokkaido's Culinary Delights
00:03:52
Think Fresh
definitely. And um quite an amazing food scene. I'll be honest. Yeah. There's um a few things that they're known for, which I'll just list off right now. List them off for me. um one of them is seafood obviously i'm familiar japan is an island wokkaido is an island of japan an island on an island that's right so it's very very um it's got water all on all sides so plenty of there's and there's plenty of fish in the sea oh that's damn sure um so yeah it's an island so they got great seafood um If you go to a high-end sushi restaurant, they will likely have uni from Hokkaido.
00:04:26
Think Fresh
Very cool. um Sea urchin for you non-Japanese speaking breadheads. ah Synonymous with idiot. um But yeah, it was quite good. And it's like really affordable, obviously, because it's Japan.
00:04:38
Think Fresh
And the yen is tanking, thankfully. and so you can have as much uri as you want. That's right. so So we were able to colonize at a discount there, which is quite nice.
00:04:50
Think Fresh
All colonization is happening at a discount. ah Yeah, that's true, actually. That's why they do it. You never colonize up. It's a lot harder. It's a way, way harder. It's been attempted, but it doesn't always work.
00:05:03
Think Fresh
Yeah, that's right. Shout out to the French. They've done it a lot. They have. They have. Well, I don't know. You can make the argument that Vietnam is below France on the um hierarchy Yeah, maybe socially or economically, but not in human spirit.
00:05:21
Think Fresh
That's right, dude. They love their communism down there. That's a fact. They love each other. They care very deeply about that. um Some other food that is from Hokkaido. They're known for their miso ramen.
00:05:32
Think Fresh
Miso ramen. That's right. They specialize in the miso... variety of ramen and um they do a couple other things differently with that they put corn in it so you might get a ramen bowl with like a huge scoop of corn more western influence that's right um and the other one is butter dude they they'll chuck a huge hunk of butter in there no way dude this is this is thanksgiving ramen right here honestly yeah dude it's it tastes like a bowl of stuffing it's so good It's like minestrone soup right there. Yeah, it's incredible.
00:06:04
Think Fresh
um And then the third thing, which, you know, subtle foreshadowing, is their dairy. um They have a lot of great dairy products. Like, if you go to any grocery store there, or even at 7-Eleven, they'll have, like, milk products that are, like, sectioned off that'll be, like, made and made from Hokkaido milk or whatever.
00:06:23
Think Fresh
so Yeah, they're very proud of it. And it honestly tastes incredible.
Ramen Love and Happy Cows
00:06:29
Think Fresh
Yeah, i bet. Well, I'm imagining with the lower population density, once you get off that Sapporo grid, grid, grid and headed into the farmland, there's probably a lot more space for happy cows to make some happy milk.
00:06:43
Think Fresh
Yeah, you need to be a happy cow in order to make happy milk. That's for sure. Dude, I saw some happy cows this month. I went to a ah ah in small town, British Columbia.
00:06:54
Think Fresh
Every spring, they open the barn doors and let the cows out into the meadow for the first time. Right. They open the Dutch ovens. Exactly. So even like the baby cattle that have never seen grass before are finally released.
00:07:07
Think Fresh
and i went and i attended one of these like opening ceremonies oh that's awesome yeah yeah and the cows they were just prancing about they were dancing there was like a live brass band performing the whole town showed up for them and clapped and cheered that's awesome it's so awesome you know those cows are just like getting squeezed for the best milk around oh absolutely So I know for a fact that you weren't salivating at the thought of a baby cow running out into the field, but was there some kind of meat auction happening at the same time? or Yeah, for the ones that didn't make it through the winter, their bodies will be auctioned off to support the next session. Right, right.
00:07:44
Think Fresh
Any mad cows or is that just from India? Yeah, i think that's all coming from out of country. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. BC grown cows don't do that. They don't get mad. They get happy.
00:07:54
Think Fresh
How could you be mad when you have so many, so much beautiful scenery, so much space too, but back, back to a space dense environment like Sapporo. yeah Yeah. I mean,
00:08:06
Think Fresh
Very, very beautiful place. I would say miso ramen is by far the best kind of ramen. Like, i don't think it's any question. Well, it's the only ramen where if all you had was the broth, you could still serve that as a meal.
00:08:19
Think Fresh
Yeah, totally. It's its own thing. Yeah, miso soup. Yeah. Um, they also have like, um, show you ramen, which is like soy sauce based. Hmm. show, show you these nuts.
00:08:31
Think Fresh
Damn it. Damn it. I should have, I should have got you with that one. Yeah, you should have. Um, bread heads. Use that on your friends. You can use that on your next waiter. Yeah. the japanese restaurant ah I'll have the, uh, I wouldn't be able even to even say it.
00:08:49
Think Fresh
No, definitely not. Um, But yeah, what else what else happened out there? um After Sapporo Tai, we made our way to Hakone, which is a beautiful like onsen resort town, basically.
Onsen Luxury in Hakone
00:09:03
Think Fresh
it's in get You get nuded up for those onsens? Oh yeah, dude.
00:09:09
Think Fresh
Swimwear strictly prohibited. Prohibited. This is not a GQ party. Wow. You're a... So the the dog was out. Dogs were out, dude. However, Bayonai splurged a little bit on this trip. We did not get the public option.
00:09:24
Think Fresh
We got an onsen um resort thing with the onsen in our room. Oh, that's way better. Because the last thing you want to do is be sizing up these Japanese elders from across the sauna. Yeah, you'll recall that I shaved my chest for no reason. That's right. That's right.
00:09:38
Think Fresh
um Yeah, so we had that in our room, which was such a big upgrade. We've done the public ones before, and it's fine, but you can't really focus on how and relaxing it is when you're clenching your butt cheeks the whole time.
00:09:53
Think Fresh
And you're scared to drop the proverbial soap. Yeah, that's a good point, yeah. was a bit uncomfortable for a Westerner to strip down and hang out with the same sex, unless you're like, I don't know, like maybe if you run in diddy circles, it's fine. You're used to it.
00:10:09
Think Fresh
There were a few, like... boy trips happening there like you could tell that guys had traveling to japan together and they were like sitting naked next to each other in the onsen and i just like can't see myself doing that with any of my boys know i mean that was just like a weird event that's pretty funny um i don't know they didn't like look gay but they probably are they did gay shit that's for sure Well, I mean, I'm all for getting naked with the boys and no homo.
00:10:39
Think Fresh
I just think it should be normalized. But I think you got to build yourself up to that, you know, do a few beach days, do a few other. ba I don't I don't even know what activities you can do to kind of like make that environment more comfortable.
00:10:53
Think Fresh
You mean before you strip down? Yeah, pre-lonsend. Like, surely there's, like, some, like, hazing or, like, practice sessions you could do to get there. Right. Maybe go for, like, a skinny dip together, you know, late at night.
00:11:05
Think Fresh
yeah that's a good option. i mean, you could, I would just say getting drunk as possible. Get as drunk as possible. And, oh, streaking. Streaking is hilarious. It's super normal. It's super straight.
00:11:17
Think Fresh
Yeah. Like no one will question your like sexuality if you're a streaker. know They just, I think it's streakers default hetero. If anything, it reeks of confidence. Exactly.
00:11:29
Think Fresh
um and a specific type of arrogant confidence you only find in a hetero male. And not ah not the people who like hold their junk while they streak. You got to let it swing. Yeah.
00:11:40
Think Fresh
Like an elephant trunk. Mm-hmm. um So that was a great experience. my ah It's called a Ryokan. It's like a traditional Japanese inn. okay um Ours had unlimited Sapporo beer on tap.
00:11:55
Think Fresh
Self-serve. What? yeah Unlimited on tap? Yeah. No They had those like freaky looking machines that like you put your glass down and then it tilts and it serves it perfectly for you. Cool. um So I was...
00:12:10
Think Fresh
loading up on like three four glasses at a time carrying them all back to my room i can't believe that they just got beer on tap take it makes sense like it's probably going coming straight from the factory yeah just run a pipe all the way there yeah i don't see why not and yeah they got the sewage system and then they got the the beer transportation piping system yeah no totally um Yeah, it was it was incredible, dude. I would just like do a fucking circuit.
00:12:38
Think Fresh
Just dip, nap, beer. Dip, nap, beer. Dip, nap, beer. Nice. Just all fucking day. um Between dipping and sipping. That's a great life.
00:12:49
Think Fresh
Yeah, totally. And they fed us breakfast and dinner and it was, yeah, great, great times. Well hosted there in Sapporo. This is in Hakone. This is a little bit further south. even Okay. Yeah, it's closer to Tokyo. Excuse me. Yeah.
00:13:02
Think Fresh
But real quick on Sapporo. before we move off of that completely, um i went to the Nika Distillery. You know, Nika Japanese whiskey. Yes, yes. Nika, of course, Nika.
00:13:14
Think Fresh
Damn, you this was an alcohol tour for you, as it usually is. Of course. And I paid special attention to a special um brew that they had there. it was called the Black Nika Special.
00:13:26
Think Fresh
Nice. There's no way that's what it was called. Dude, I have a photo of it. It was so fucking funny. The Black Special. Yeah. Are they aware that there could be a Freudian slip with that?
00:13:38
Think Fresh
Um, probably. but let me show you this right here. Definitely sounds special. I'll tell you that much. Yeah. First thing I did was send it to the group chat, but look at that dude. Oh wow. And not only that, but there's a white guy on the cover with a red beard. Clearly of Irish descent.
00:13:52
Think Fresh
There we go. Ireland of the north of the east. Exactly. And the distillery is located there because of that exact reason. Like, um, the creator of it learned everything he needed to know from Ireland.
00:14:06
Think Fresh
and then brought it back and maybe it was Scotland. I'm not sure. Probably the same climate. Yeah. Learned everything about whiskey over there. Came back to Japan, created his distillery.
00:14:19
Think Fresh
um Kind of a random fact, which I thought was interesting. Used to be an apple juice company. Really? Because whiskey takes like 12 years to mature. So they made like apple juice for like a decade.
00:14:30
Think Fresh
I guess if you like understand fluid processing and you have some time to kill. Yeah. Why not try other things? Yeah. They need to sell something for the first batch of whiskey was ready.
00:14:40
Think Fresh
I know this is actually a huge risk with most like whiskey companies is that because the time till first barrel matures is so long, so many go out of business before they can even get to a product on the shelf. Exactly. It's very difficult. You need a ton of investment in order to just like wait that time out.
00:15:02
Think Fresh
Or most of these companies have to start as just like a side project by... yeah A very passionate whiskey enjoyer. Exactly it. It's exactly it. It's really tricky. It's kind of like wine. It this is kind of the same too. Like most vineyards are just like an elderly retired couple as a passion project restored the the roots and bottled a ah little bit and then went from there.
00:15:25
Think Fresh
who Yeah, totally. It's an amazing thing because like you also need a ton of space to do it and like infrastructure if you want to create it at scale. um So yeah, very impressive that it was able to be pulled off in the late eighteen hundred so They had a lot more time back then. Think about it. No reels, no Zoom meetings. yeah dude think These guys are just sitting around twitting their thumbs.
00:15:51
Think Fresh
That's true. I would be as passionate as them if I had unlimited time to do anything. Dude, the only glimpse we ever get of that is like when you see a child without an iPad. They're like so bored. and they're just like staring at the trees. Yeah, that was everyone at one point. Yeah, that's a great point, actually.
00:16:07
Think Fresh
So that was Sapporo and Hakone. hmm.
Cultural Shift: Japan to Korea
00:16:13
Think Fresh
And then I made my way over to Seoul, Korea. Oh, wow. This is a tour to Asia right now. Tour to Asia. You're a global citizen. That's right, Todd. I am planting my roots everywhere i go. I am pissing in alleyways, making marking my scent. This dog is marking his territory for sure. A true gender fryer. I'm flicking cigarette butts into the alleyway.
00:16:36
Think Fresh
know, all kinds of degenerate behavior. Okay, so what what brought you to Seoul? Why Seoul? Why Seoul? I need a, I need a soul tie. You're looking for, you're finding yourself. I'm finding my soul. Most guys go to, uh, Southeast Asia, but you found yourself in the heart of the soul.
00:16:55
Think Fresh
that's exactly it. Um, yeah, soul was interesting. Um, very different from Japan. um Their food, Ty, here's my take on their food. It all tastes the fucking same.
00:17:07
Think Fresh
move I don't think you can pick a bad restaurant because you can go anywhere and they all use the exact same sauce, the exact same kimchi that they get in bulk.
00:17:18
Think Fresh
So the bibimbap has been standardized. Yeah, dude. If anything, it's a testament to their system. You know what mean? It's like add kimchi, add the... gochujang chili paste yeah they do love that go to go kujang the gucci gang sauce as i call it um and yeah it's a winning combo that you can make anything taste great in so that's what they that's what they feed us yeah super so super simple and it makes sense that's kind of how they build their korean cars as well they're just like systems of parts that cheap to manufacture accessible everywhere mm-hmm
00:17:52
Think Fresh
And they just rip them off the line. And that's what they're doing with the Korean barbecue, too. Yeah, absolutely. um but Yeah. Great. Great food. That's awesome. Great people.
Korean Subway Adventures
00:18:02
Think Fresh
Any subways over there?
00:18:04
Think Fresh
Oh, dude. Thanks for reminding me. Because like we know that Korea like features Subway a lot in its sitcoms, soap operas and like all these random pieces of Korean media have so many subways as like I don't know if Subway sponsoring them.
00:18:20
Think Fresh
what did What did you learn? What did you discover? Dude, there are so many subways there. It's absolutely crazy. Yeah. um Yeah. You just walk around and every block has one. It's almost as dense as like if you were in like Philadelphia. you know i mean? It's like everywhere you go, there's subway.
00:18:36
Think Fresh
I like how we're assuming that Philly just has like a high concentration of sandwich shops. One would a assume. We can only ah imagine. But one kind of key difference that I noticed here is they have a McDonald's-esque self-ordering kiosk. No way. Like a big-ass touchscreen? That's right, Ty. showing you one right now. Here we are. um You walk in and you can choose six or 12. Actually, they do metric. So it's 15 or 30 centimeters. Oh, that doesn't have the same ring to it at all. it's not even close.
00:19:04
Think Fresh
um but naturally i was like all right let's see what we got here so went with the 15 centimeter yeah um ah dude i love a 15 centimeter for lunch yeah dude they have so many options here uh beef spicy shrimp shrimp roasted chicken pulled pork barbecue subway club chicken teriyaki spicy italian blt mushroom tuna so beautiful kind of the greatest hits but obviously the spicy shrimp and the shrimp are standouts here yeah they're skewing more seafood here instead of a seafood medley they're highlighting some of their like i guess they're like
00:19:41
Think Fresh
more More standout options. We got just the shrimpies in one of these. That's crazy to eat a like a shrimp po'boy from Subway. I think that would be the thing to get here, though. I think so, too.
00:19:53
Think Fresh
I don't know. Traveled all that way, why would you just get the typical egg mayo? I mean, beef would probably be good. Obviously, Koreans know their barbecue very well. But just for some you know sense here, the spicy shrimp $8 for meal.
00:20:09
Think Fresh
for one I think it's a 15 centimeter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's not terrible. That's a good rate. I could eat here every day for that cost. Ty, I just scrolled down and we actually have some more. All right. Okay. List off a few more of these Sammies. Um, I'll just tell you the most interesting one. Yeah.
00:20:27
Think Fresh
Cucumber 15. Cucumber 15. Oh, that's what it's called. It's called cucumber 15. That's right. It's $3. um Three bucks. It's a cucumber sandwich with ranch sauce on white bread.
00:20:40
Think Fresh
That sounds so fucking good, actually. Dude, yeah. look at Look at how much cucumber is in that. Dude, we got to try a cucumber 15 right after this episode. I think we could do it. It'll be easy. We just say, I want 80 grams of cucumber. a White bread, ranch, untoasted.
00:20:55
Think Fresh
Beautiful. So yeah, that's what's offered at Subway. What i really like about this ah digital ordering platform is the 15centimeter.png.com. ah sandwiches like it's pretty cool to see they've like perfectly taken a picture of every single sandwich so that you can see a plethora of toppings just kind of leeching out of the bun like the busted open yeah it's busted the buns cannot contain all that me yeah dude leave it to think fresh to pull apart the bun and show you our meat
00:21:28
Think Fresh
um But yeah, dude, it's pretty amazing how they did all this food styling here. um What I learned recently, though, is that like, food is presented better in this way but when you wrap it and you compress all the sandwich ingredients together you're actually creating a fusion of sorts all the juices start interacting um the sauces mingle with the veggies they soak into the bread and that's what creates that deli flavor that we can't replicate at home the so i challenge you ty to wrap your next sandwich at home and see if it creates a different flavor You got to put it through the compression chamber. Exactly. You to squeeze that thing. Dehydrate it a little bit. Exactly. I think you're right there.
00:22:09
Think Fresh
Just like rinse it out like a rag before you eat it, you know? Maybe have bay sit on it. Kind of like it just needs to be like broken in a little bit before you have that first bite. That's how they do it at the whey and they do it for a reason.
00:22:22
Think Fresh
You're so right. um The next screen on this interface, Ty, is your bread size and toasting options. and bread options. So we got any, i love this notes here I love this UI so much because it just inspires me as a you UX designer to design into something like this, but check it out. You can choose 15 or 30 toasting or no toasting. And then you got your bread, um,
00:22:45
Think Fresh
pretty much the standard affair. yeah, yeah. We got the honey. Oh, we got the Parmesan oregano, the white. What's interesting though is, okay, so you're toasting and not toasting options and your size. Those are binary selections, meaning you have to toggle between the two, which means there has to be a default selection upon loading of this screen.
00:23:09
Think Fresh
I wonder what their defaults. I don't think it was. I think I was, you had to tap it. Yeah. Getting really excited and I was tapping. No, he's ah he's a quick with the fingers. That's right. It was throwing a lot of errors at me as well. I was trying to breeze through this thing to get photos. it Just throwing Korean words in red at you. Yeah. The staff were all looking at me while I was like tapping away at the screen. But like you should be able to navigate a subway digital menu regardless of language because the actual like transaction of information is pretty standard, which is incredible. It's very primitive.
00:23:39
Think Fresh
It's primitive, but it's also ah it's systematic. It's consistent. yeah the only time it should ever confuse you is if you are doing something bad yeah like if it showed you a picture of a forked knife and spoon and asked you to select one of them you'd be like i don't know what to do why do i need this or if i were to ask for extra olives there's no fucking way yeah you know i mean yeah too that's too off menu this point that's right um but let's see here tied next screen we have the veggie selection so you got another png assortment here lettuce tomato cucumber peppers jalapeno dot png those look great this i know they're beautifully arranged like that as much as they've done a good job of actually showing you a picture of a pile of cucumbers i think this is the moment in the ordering process where they could have used an icon like you could use an icon to represent a tomato i don't need to see the high the 4k tomato slice picture here
00:24:34
Think Fresh
Well, that's the actual problem with this is you can't actually see what the real tomatoes are going to look like because this screen is at the front entrance. Yeah. So like you're just kind of guessing at this point. So don't sell me on this fake vision of a tomato. Just show me tomato generally. Right. No, that's good point. Because you can't tell me I can't get a live feed of what tomatoes are looking like. That would be sick, though, if like each one of these was a webcam. This is great for the subway mobile app to Eric.
00:24:59
Think Fresh
every single selection is a webcam pointing down at the bucket at the restaurant you're ordering from so you can see are you getting the bottom of the barrel here are these things fresh yeah dude it's kind of like the spca it's like you can check in on the puppy you're gonna adopt exactly yeah the highway cam kind of vibe is it what are the conditions what are the road conditions at this subway
00:25:22
Think Fresh
Totally, dude. That's awesome. It's live feed. A couple of notable things on this page. um They recommend certain veggies and not others. Wait, really? Is that what that little thumbs up thumbs up is with some Korean characters? Yeah, dude. Maybe I can translate this quick, but there is a little thumbs up icon.
00:25:41
Think Fresh
Let's see what that says. Oh, it can't be translated. oh That's fine. We can only assume it's either like ah loved by the artist or loved by the customer. Yeah.
00:25:52
Think Fresh
So what vegetables are the popular ones? Who's, who's getting a sit at the popular table and which vegetables are the Uggos? Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers, onions.
00:26:02
Think Fresh
Those are the all-stars. Those are the, that's the starting lineup. Okay. Um, kind of confusing description here it says peppers can be provided as paprika or a mix of paprika interesting but what does that make make any sense that was using google translate for sure yeah um there's also a select all and remove all button nice which is kind of nice you can really easily run it through the garden you can efficiently order that sandwich but there are so okay so the unloved vegetables are the pickled things right pickles olives interesting unfortunately for the pickled community
00:26:36
Think Fresh
um and they look they're a persecuted group for sure which is kind of strange because like kimchi is the all-time most e eaten thing in korea yeah dude like every single time you sit down anywhere you can sit down for a foot rub and they give you a bowl of kimchi they love their pickled things over there yeah so like why is of the fermented veggies um highlighted at all something about just like a good old dill is like maybe Maybe that's just American bias. What's the deal?
00:27:06
Think Fresh
What's the deal going on here? um Anyways, Ty, let's move on to sauces. Yeah, yeah. Hit me with the sauces. This is an interesting page here. We got a lot of options, okay? We got egg mayo.
00:27:17
Think Fresh
Okay. Egg mayo. That's just mayo. Oh, sorry. That's an add-on. My bad. I went too far. Actually, maybe at Subway, there is no egg in the mayo. So I do appreciate them specifying. Good point. um Okay.
00:27:31
Think Fresh
Back to sauces. Truffle ranch. Oh, man. oh o heavy hitter it's the first one I would love to put that on my sandwich there is an absolute an abysmal lack of mushrooms on the subway lineup embarrassing it's it's atrocious but the truffle ranch is coming in strong um right after that we got ranch and sweet onion both of which have thumbs ups next to them I mean you could probably just only get those in any country and you'd be happy
00:28:03
Think Fresh
Yeah, it's more consistent than like any other fluid in any other nation. It's like Coca-Cola is the number one accessible, most accessible fluid on the planet. Then maybe be water and then sweet onion sauce. Yeah, beer is coming before water in some countries. I think so yeah. um We got mayo, sweet chili, smoky barbecue, hot chili.
00:28:23
Think Fresh
Honey mustard. Southwest Chipotle, which looks like it's using the wrong asset. That does not look like. so No, it doesn't. It looks like more like honey mustard. It does. Yeah. Horseradish.
00:28:34
Think Fresh
Quite nice. Horseradish sauce. That's right, dude. Creamy. No kidding. What about with some spunk? mustard olive oil red wine vinegar salt pepper classic um well so they're not too freaky down there with the fluids nothing soy first no soy primary sauces interesting no sesame no sesame primary yeah um no like Korean specialty diet. Like no, they didn't really specify whether the sweet chili or the hot chili were using their proprietary Gucci gang sauce. Yeah. The Gucci gang sauce, which tells me that subway, even though it's plentiful in Korea, it's abundant.
00:29:17
Think Fresh
It hasn't really integrated, integrated correctly. It's, it hasn't immigrated, completed the immigration process. That's true. Yeah. It's still trying to get its visa stamped. Exactly.
00:29:27
Think Fresh
Um, Okay, one really bad thing about this page, Ty. They hard limit you to three sauces. What? Yeah. You can't get more than three. And salt and pepper are counting as different sauces.
00:29:39
Think Fresh
So if you want and pepper, you are limited to one more option. Exactly. Wow. So it's not as free of a country as some other subwayly not subway strongholds.
00:29:50
Think Fresh
I'm starting to understand why North Korea is defected. Yeah, I guess so. um So yeah, that's that's the... Wait, hold up. Do you think there's a subway in North Korea? Do they have any help ask you kidding me have any fast food chains there?
00:30:06
Think Fresh
don't think they have the ability to buy things.
00:30:12
Think Fresh
North Korea. I'm just quickly double checking that. You are correct. Not a single international food chain has never made it into North Korean territory. But they do have something called Samtaesong, which is in North Korean variation of McDonald's, but it is domestically created.
00:30:33
Think Fresh
Of course. Their whole vibe is domestically self-reliance. Yeah, that's true. That's the whole point of them existing. They have a real DIY culture up there. Yeah, exactly. um So that is the status I don't know Ty, is this Subway?
00:30:50
Think Fresh
this a demilitarized zone here? The Subway? Because you can't get more than three sauces. I don't know. Yeah, yeah I would be up there. Would be not pricing if I was there. um Anyways, moving on to the add-ons. We got egg mayo, like I said.
00:31:05
Think Fresh
Pepperoni. Oh. Bacon, avocado, omelet. You can add an omelet to your sandwich. That's insane. For $4, you can get two omelets. Two omelets in your... Actually, you know how Subway has the egg bricks?
00:31:20
Think Fresh
It's like a patty of egg that's typically reserved for breakfast. I always have this intrusive thought where I think... I would love to just like slide one of those in with the rest of my lunch. you know ah little added protein.
00:31:33
Think Fresh
That'd be good. um But I don't know. I would challenge you to consider the egg slice instead. Oh, even better. yeah Way more biteable. Totally. You also get double meat, which is...
00:31:47
Think Fresh
great Great option. And that's it, Ty. That's the Italian, spicy Italian that I created for myself and did not convert with at the Subway. You just messed around with the UI and then dipped out. right. And then every time we use the, don't know, the Range Rover car builder. It's kind of like when you, yeah, when you like leave a funny YouTube
Navigating Seoul's Quirks
00:32:07
Think Fresh
video on at the Apple store. Like that's what I did, but at Subway.
00:32:10
Think Fresh
Just the most insane sandwich order. Tap around and then exit. Yeah. So yeah, you're Windows shopping, but you're doing it via a Windows browser.
00:32:21
Think Fresh
Exactly. So I was able to create a sandwich. But yeah, that's, that's my experience. Wow. So they really are subway pilled over there. That's awesome. I'm glad that it isn't just like ah media brainwashing. means It's actually the truth.
00:32:37
Think Fresh
No, exactly. um But yeah, Korea was good. um One thing is like, it's impossible to navigate. Like, as a foreigner, it's just, I use like four different apps to like figure out where I'm going at any given moment.
00:32:54
Think Fresh
um They don't use Google Maps. Many countries, though, they have a landmark or a like in Vancouver, you have mountains and the ocean in Angeles. You of the Hollywood sign. There's always some thing to denote where it is north or west.
00:33:12
Think Fresh
Does Korea not have any type of. mechanism to kind of loosely determine direction well there is a river ah running through the city okay so that's pretty simple if you're able to mean you can never see it because there's so many buildings um there's also smell it right smells like kimchi no it's um there's also a kind of a medium-sized hill in the middle of the city with a tower on it so usually that's like the center gotcha um the city is kind of ah like surrounds this like little mountain cool um but no dude the apps the app scene sucks bro because like they don't have anything on google like google won't even give you directions
00:33:55
Think Fresh
Well, that's because they're that like Samsung is like the mafia down there. They control everything. Nothing's going in or out of Korea without Samsung approving of it.
00:34:06
Think Fresh
No, you're totally right, dude. I couldn't even add my transit card to Apple pay. I'm surprised they even let you bring an Apple phone into the country. could have been thrown in the clink for that sent to the Korean gulag.
00:34:17
Think Fresh
Yeah, i mean, i don't know if you're allowed to bring it to North Korea, if that makes sense. consolation yeah probably not they probably prefer you to bring an apple device than a samsung device i'll tell you that much oh yeah maybe um but yeah korea is a little bit funny in that way but otherwise had a great time dude like cafe culture is strong fourth wave of coffee is like king there oh great yeah dude it's good to know that there are other countries that are still investing in the ah the craftsmanship of the great beverage of coffee like interestingly though japan like doesn't really know how to make great coffee like generally speaking obviously like but they will make some crazy like blend of something and it'll take you like 30 minutes like you'll order a drip coffee there and it'll be like oh we can give you this but it'll be 30 minutes
00:35:07
Think Fresh
that makes sense i think japan is like they care about the details but from a manu manufacturing perspective not from just like a raw ingredient appreciation perspective you know maybe tea maybe their tea heads over there a little bit but i think they're more mixologists they want to mix it up and then show you their proprietary blend yeah know that's exactly it um Yeah, I think they like the European style of coffee more.
00:35:34
Think Fresh
And like North Korea, I mean South Korea, will embrace the like fourth wave North American version of coffee, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. I feel like South Korea is probably where like...
00:35:45
Think Fresh
they they're living in the future as far as the coffee culture we're going to have today North America. Right. Yeah. They got the self ordering machines, but they're and done in a good way. You know, they're like, they're injecting all sorts of lipids and macro nutrients and essences of fruit into their, into their beverages to create fluids. We've just never, never seen or heard of yeah let alone tasted.
00:36:12
Think Fresh
Yeah. Yeah. one freaky little cafe I went to, Ty, was kind of like school cafeteria themed. Cool. They love their plastic trays in Korea, I've noticed.
00:36:23
Think Fresh
Like, everything always comes out in a plastic tray. um And we ordered a couple coffees and showed up on a plastic tray. Mine was an iced cappuccino with, like, tons of whipped cream and a little cherry on top.
00:36:37
Think Fresh
It looked like I was in Riverdale. um Real dessert shit, yeah. Yeah, and I had a fruit sandwich fruit sandwich yeah dude so i've had sandwiches and i've had fruit so what is what is it what is a fruit is it's just a bunch of strawberries between bread i'm freaking out right now actually here's my oh wow that looks so pretty i know dude so this is a thing in japan as well but you can get like this like little triangle shaped white bread um filled with whipped cream and sliced fruit inside.
00:37:10
Think Fresh
And the way they slice it, like just look at that that, like line down the middle. It's a perfect cross section. It's beautiful. I see kiwi, banana, pineapple, and strawberry. But it almost looks like I'm looking at like,
00:37:23
Think Fresh
a png g of banana you know because it's like such a perfect cross-section totally and this angle makes the pineapple looks like an arrow almost it does looks like beautiful oh yeah like a loading screen or something huh but yeah really really cool and um this is such a confusing thing it's like everything has been like cast in whipped cream in the sandwich in order to like good point hold it in place but then you bite down and it immediately like falls apart yeah i bet um Which makes it even more impressive that you were able to cut it like this.
00:37:53
Think Fresh
It doesn't make any sense. it all the hell fucked It's so architectural. Totally. What? Wow. Yeah. Brilliant stuff. And then here's my coffee with a little cherry on dude, that just looks like a child's milkshake.
00:38:07
Think Fresh
I felt like the like smallest little kid everywhere I went because I would order something like this. The maraschino cherry is really the cherry on top of a comical beverage. Totally. We also got this pancake there. What the... So, okay, I'm looking at something that just looks like... It looks like a pancake got a BBL.
00:38:25
Think Fresh
And then it's been like... It is now... the The rump of it is like a podium for a perfect baseball-sized scoop of ice cream. And then, believe it or not, maraschino cherry on top. That's right.
00:38:40
Think Fresh
Wow. Yeah, beautiful stuff, eh? Yeah, that is quite something. Well, dude, take out food plating over there. you know like Food plating in North America is not as
Food Presentation: East vs. West
00:38:50
Think Fresh
important. you know We're not getting that type of integrity in our Subway sandwiches. Mm-hmm.
00:38:55
Think Fresh
Yeah, the food presentation there, dude, is like a different, in a different stratosphere. Like they really take it seriously and they go, and they go into like an almost an art form kind of way. It's like, this is no longer food. It's an art piece.
00:39:08
Think Fresh
hu Places here try to do that, but it doesn't even come close to what they do in Japan and Korea. No. And when they do it over here, it's always like people get, people hate on it for doing so. Yeah.
00:39:19
Think Fresh
They don't do it right. I think so. Yeah. um But also, like, I think there's an important quality of North American food that is, like, people want the food to have this, like, natural attribute to it. So even if you're trying to plate it, you want to plate it in a way that has this, like, organic, free-flowing kind of presence on the plate. don't want it You don't want to pursue too much symmetry. you don't want to pursue too much, like, food.
00:39:46
Think Fresh
I want to say like architectural structuring because so people will just, it'll give people the ick. They want their food to feel like it just came from the earth and just effortlessly presented itself. That is actually ah brilliant observation. think you're actually right on the money because I think we're ultra paranoid here in North America about our food being like deadly.
00:40:07
Think Fresh
Processed, yeah. Processed and like slowly killing us. um So when something looks too artificially put together, we immediately get the ick. um But in Japan and i guess Asia in general, they don't really have that fear.
00:40:21
Think Fresh
They're kind of like, well, the pollution is going to kill us first. They have bigger problems than what's going on in their stomach. Yeah, I might get like hit by a car or something on my way to work. like The food looking like Roblox is not my problem. Right. North Korea has been trying to nuke them for centuries. They're in an ongoing military conflict. There's literally bomb shelters everywhere in South Korea. Really? That's scary. Yeah.
00:40:45
Think Fresh
they They're like, we can if we can find a little bit of joy in our cubic sandwich, then we're happy. Yeah, dude. Just bring the joy back into food by, you know. No, dude, you're 100% right. Like if I sat down at a restaurant and that sandwich was presented to me here in Canada, I'd think like, what did Frito-Lay make this? Like, how did get here? I'm scared of this food.
00:41:06
Think Fresh
Yeah, some big corporation is making way too much money on this like artificially assembled food item. 100%. You're like, you know, like deep pockets are funding this business.
00:41:19
Think Fresh
In some way, big pharma profiting off of this meal. Yeah, because it's going to make me sick and then it's going to provide, provide it's telling me the sickness and the medicine. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The antidote. Yeah, dude.
Humorous Vaccine Speculations
00:41:30
Think Fresh
Advil and Doritos are under the same umbrella corp. Whoa, shit. Crazy. Dude, can't wait to try the new Pfizer flavor. Yeah. I hope they come up with a kiwi mango. Mango habanero Pfizer.
00:41:47
Think Fresh
AstraZeneca's got the strawberry lime. Oh, shit. the scent or the flavor wars of 2025. Honestly, if the COVID vaxes came with dominant flavor profile, think that would make selecting them way more special.
00:42:00
Think Fresh
because They're arbitrarily picked. like I got a little Pfizer in my blood, but it'd be pretty funny if it was like yeah was like jalapeno lime was what I went with. I mean i vividly remember like being excited that I was selected for the Pfizer vaccine and and not the the weird Moderna one.
00:42:18
Think Fresh
yeah yeah Being like, ha fuck I don't want that... like B-level shit. i want the I want the blue chip one. Pfizer didn't kind of ah like come up and come up fast as like the name brand one. yeah I don't want the President's Choice vaccine. but That might kill me. I might get a hernia later.
00:42:35
Think Fresh
yeah i don't want the one that has certified blue check. and yeah Yeah, you're right. fuck That was a weird time. and We'd be excited about which pharmaceutical to inject in our left arm. yeah Weird as a source of pride on Like you you get a little Pfizer sticker after I wish I wish they gave us a sticker to kind of you could proudly show which which pharmaceutical conglomerate you are a legion.
00:43:01
Think Fresh
Yeah, totally. shit. Well, on that somber note, I think we should ah wrap up the pod here and and any closing thoughts, I guess. No, there's a lot to catch you up on, Eric. you've been ah You've been out of country for so long. We have a lot to discuss next episode.
00:43:19
Think Fresh
Pope died. There's a conclave picking the new one. think He may have made some calls. yeah There's a lot to discuss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, well, Brad has, thanks for listening as always.
00:43:30
Think Fresh
Ciao. Ciao.