Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The one where Matt keeps it impossibly bland
29 Plays1 year ago
More food talk. Matt didnt like getting left out of last weeks episode, so hes coming in with some hot takes. Sleeves of cookies, eggs, unseasoned chicken. No one is safe.
Recommended
Transcript
Evolving Tastes and Sweetness Preferences
00:00:00
Speaker
We're gonna talk about food. We might as well get this out of the way. All right, so we're here. Get this on record. Wait, do you do like the single, you know how you get like a package of cookies, you can get just like a single row? Like a sleeve? Yeah. I take it down by the sleeve. Yeah, do you do like a sleeve or do you buy like the whole container?
00:00:21
Speaker
I mean, bind by the sleeve is the way to optimize for freshness, which I do like. Wait, hold up. But just to clarify, optimizing packaged food for freshness, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think if you grow up on packaged food, that you start to develop a palate. But yeah, if you've been spoon-fed caviar your whole life, yeah, who wants chips all the way?
00:00:45
Speaker
You got us pegged over here. Just that Doug Grogg poster child for an area. Wait, did you say a palette for packaged food? We're talking about just sugar and salt and highly processed stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
00:01:16
Speaker
Do you have a go-to cookie? Go-to package cookie? The first one was Oreos, but then I couldn't handle those anymore, and then I switched to Chips Ahoy. Hold on. You can't just... What do you mean? They're too big now? No, it's too much. It's just too much sugar. You don't like all the options? It's too much sugar. Yeah, that's fair.
00:01:39
Speaker
Is there a significant difference in the amount? Oreos way over the top? I don't know about the actual grams of sugar, but some stuff just tastes too sweet to me. I gotcha. Do you feel like in general, you are less, not less sweet than you used to be? Because that's obviously not true, but- Yeah, that definitely didn't happen. Yeah. Now that your taste for sweetness has changed over time?
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think in general, I tend to do, at least in the rest of my family, make fun of me for eating really bland food. As bland as I can get it is what I go for. No spices, no toppings. It's mashed potatoes, chicken, and corn.
00:02:26
Speaker
Beautiful. You and Charlie got the same. Yeah, exactly. Pair me with a 10-year-old. High five. Do you include
Spices and Sensitivities
00:02:40
Speaker
salt and pepper in the spices category?
00:02:43
Speaker
I mean, I can't eat pepper, but I will use, I'll use a little bit of salt on like scrambled eggs. Interesting. On chicken, but not like paprika on deviled eggs. There we go. Cinnamon on apple pie. Yeah. It's too much. Would like human put you in the hospital? Oh, definitely. What happened to him? Give me the human recovery center. Yeah.
00:03:12
Speaker
Wow. Um, taco seasoning may be the worst because it combines chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder. You know, they sell, um, they sell, uh, delicate marinara sauce now where they've taken out the garlic powder and the onion powder. Yeah. So there's this whole like, I mean, when I made the mistake, it's horrifying. When I realized the mistake I made and I looked at like, what is it? This is going bad. And I look and said sensitive marinara.
00:03:42
Speaker
Just a tomato with just teary eyes and a blanket wrapped around it. Yeah Yeah, I think I saw the I haven't seen the marinara But I think that it's not company called like photos or something like they make they make a salsa too for sensitive tummies I think it says a sensitive whittle tummies. Yeah
00:04:10
Speaker
That's my brand.
Childhood Cereal Memories
00:04:15
Speaker
I'm surprised though. Like I definitely know a lot of people in that very, uh, like too much, too much spices, anything kind of was like, no, that's too much. But I'm surprised like this, the sweetness too, it sounds like.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah. Like when I make, so for me, Cheerios is a 75% normal Cheerios, 25% multi-grain Cheerios. Wow. That's like a nice mix. You get a little bit of sweetness, but it's like honey nut Cheerios all over the floor. Yeah. We used to do like a frosted flakes and then put.
00:04:48
Speaker
Spoons of sugar on the front. You know what this needs? It's okay, but it just could use a little bit of sugar. That's where you, uh, you drink the milk and at the bottom you have that like sugar, like syrupy sugar. That's just, uh, I I'm, I've also like, uh,
00:05:14
Speaker
Over time, I would eat way more sugary stuff, way more seasoned things. And I feel like I've backed off a lot of it. Like now my coffee is the biggest indicator when I would drink coffee, milk and sugar, then like maybe one teaspoon of sugar and a little bit of milk. Then now no milk and no sugar. And then like I just all bean, just chew on the ground, on the grounds, then whole beans next time.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm starting to back off a little bit on these on the seat and then when it's too sweet it's like
00:05:48
Speaker
Uh, for me, definitely.
Spicy Foods and Culinary Adventures
00:05:50
Speaker
I mean, most of the spices are okay. And I still tend to eat a lot of like, uh, like Korean and Indian dishes, which are so much, so much spice going on, but I will say, uh, anything, I don't know if it's like tomato or like, uh, there's like a certain category of thing where, uh, while I'm eating it, I'm having like a mini heart attack. Like I just feel my chest.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's just like my chest is just like, I don't I don't know if you should be doing this, dude. I just don't. But I power through and I'm like, you got to eat through that pain. Yeah. But yeah, so less and less of that stuff. But I think I've tried to get away from a lot of processed snacks in general, because yeah, those I don't know, they just feel like such empty calories for the most part. I certainly are. Yeah, delicious, delicious empty calories. But
00:06:40
Speaker
But OK, so it sounds like, wait, so if you were going to make like a like a go to dinner, is a go to dinner for yourself, Matt, versus like you're making a go to romantic dinner, are they still just the most basic plate or is it do you indulge a little bit? Now, I mean, I would say, yeah, I would say it's it's pretty it's pretty basic. And I mean, Elise and I have found things that we both like because we'll
00:07:08
Speaker
I'll make the base like the rice or quinoa and some vegetables and, you know, either if we have chicken, I'll maybe I'll add it in there or.
00:07:20
Speaker
like nuts or something like that. But then I'll just eat that and she'll put, you know, garlic sauce and whatever. She has all these array of sauces that she can put on her dishes so that it doesn't taste like you're just eating nothing. Back in the, the, uh, great school cafeteria. Yeah. So we, uh, we make it work that way.
00:07:43
Speaker
Are you so so it sounds like you guys cook together is that yeah. And we actually got a lot of great recipes from oh this episode brought to you by green chef. I used to have to know so no but we do we did get a lot of good recipes from green chef because they had a veggie option and.
00:08:07
Speaker
I don't know, they just tasted really good, really good combinations. So we got a whole bunch of those printouts and we'll randomly pick a recipe to make or something. That's funny you mentioned the green chef thing. I did just put in, after you hit a certain threshold, you can request to insert advertisements, I guess, to make your podcast worse.
Podcast Analytics Surprise
00:08:29
Speaker
Nice.
00:08:30
Speaker
But we did, we did hit, uh, uh, two, 260 plays, which is like, who, who are these, who are these people? If you're, if you're listening, just email us or call us. Cause we have no idea who you are. Yeah. Uh, there's only so many moms, but there's no way of knowing if that's a, uh, there's no way that's unique, right? Unique, uh, plays.
00:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, so no, yes, you do get, you get unique play data and you get like starts, but not finishes. And also what is the other data point?
00:09:14
Speaker
Something Oh, how they got to how they found your podcast. So some of them are I forgot like where somebody like searches for West Halls or whatever. So there's that and then there's people that are organically shown West Halls like in their recommended for you. And it's something like 90% is through their recommended for you. Nice.
00:09:36
Speaker
Which, again, but the starts and plays, that's the one that's pretty telling because it's like, oh, well, you might have 260 plays, but if only five people have finished it, then it's like they got recommended and they're like, what is this? This sounds like a bunch of guys I went to college with. But anyway, so Green Chef, that's where you, it sounds like you picked up a lot of your skill set from Green Chef.
Creative Pasta and Home Cooking
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just, I think it's like combinations I wouldn't have thought of. Like normally if I make pasta, it's like noodles, sauce, that's kind of it. But throwing in like asparagus and this thing called, I forget what it's called, but it's chives, salt and almonds crushed up and oil. I have salt and almond. Well, I mean, pesto is made from walnuts.
00:10:29
Speaker
Right. Or pine nuts. It's not creamy. It's almost like a really finely diced salsa of- Oh, like a chimichurri? Yeah, kind of. Yeah, exactly. I think chimichurri has vinegar, but yeah. Right. So that on pasta was delicious. Yeah, that sounds- Gremolata, I think it's called. Gremolata. We don't have to make up words for the clits.
00:10:57
Speaker
Oh, that's a Grimulata episode. Yeah, I don't think I've heard of that, but I do agree. There was a lot of stuff. I don't know if we ever did Green Chef, but we did Blue Apron and...
00:11:09
Speaker
one of the other ones for a while. And one, one of the things you notice pretty quickly is they kind of have like, I don't know, some 60, 100 ingredients, and they just remix them constantly to make all
Milk Preferences and Alternatives
00:11:20
Speaker
this different stuff, which makes sense. But two, that helps like your own like your own like cooking mind kind of think through like, Oh, I have this stuff, I can make a riff on this, whatever. So that's cool. But then just like other like techniques like
00:11:31
Speaker
I think before that I didn't really think about making pan sauces very often but now I'm always like if I cook a piece of protein but there's no reason not to make a pan sauce like get that get that fond up. Unless you want it really bland.
00:11:47
Speaker
What is that flavor in there? No thanks. No. Dump it. Or like when we make rice now, putting a little bit of, what is it, like veggie broth? Yeah. It's like, yeah, just like simple things. Slightly adjustments. Are you, I feel like I've asked this before, but are you a whole milk kid, man? Oh, still. Yep. Take a day to die. I've been drinking whole milk.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna have water today. Well, let me see what my milk. Yeah, that's my milk consumption look like. So interesting. So like if you so even though you're you're you're eating water down cereal, your milk is still standing strong with its fat and sugar content.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, because it does have it does have a little bit. I don't know if it doesn't have added. I don't know if it has added sugar, though. It depends on the brand. I think it's just yeah, I think it's just it's sweeter. So like when I make lattes, I yeah, the whole milk gives it that kind of breaks up the the harshness of the coffee a little bit. That's true. Well, whole milk in general is just the best. I mean, I would. Yeah, I agree with you, Doug. No, in no world would I say that.
00:13:00
Speaker
The most effective milk, maybe. I got this milk called, what is the name? I can't think of the brand is like something playful like moo milk or something like that. It is
Dairy Innovations and Lab-grown Proteins
00:13:13
Speaker
not a dairy alternative or like a cow alternative. Instead, it is cow proteins that are fermented in a vat, so there's no cows used to produce the milk. Say that again, say it slower. With passion.
00:13:31
Speaker
So milk milk is effectively like protein and water like whey protein plus water. That's kind of all milk is. But so if you find a way to produce whey protein, like in a vat where you have chemical reactions that just produce protein, then you can effectively produce cow milk without any cows. So you just have like a vat that has like proteins that are just kind of
00:14:00
Speaker
asexually procreating and then so there's like splitting off from each other and then you just add water. Boom, you got cow milk. It's a lot more complicated than that to actually make it work and sustainable. But and and also cost affordable. I think I got like a pint and it was like $13. But yeah, tastes I mean, tastes just like how just just yeah, but what about the taste?
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean the parts that are they have to like control for is because it's just whey protein and water. There is no natural like sugar content or anything like that. So they had to add that in after the fact so that can make it taste different. But but yeah, if you mean that's cool, if you can produce
00:14:47
Speaker
Is it considered dairy at that point? I don't know. I don't know either. Steve, would you eat lab grown meat?
Shifting Protein Choices
00:14:58
Speaker
No. Always no. The answer is always no. Just take a bite here. Take a bite of this. What if it was just a cow that was raised in a lab instead of a field? Oh yeah, for sure.
00:15:10
Speaker
As long as an animal guy. Yeah. As long as animals are suffering, I'm in. I've made my animal stance very clear from day one. Have either of your protein intakes changed over time? I always have. I eat probably way too much. Is it just like a burger for every meal? No, no, no. Just put an egg on it. It's fine. It's breakfast. No.
00:15:38
Speaker
kids don't, they mostly only eat chicken. I would say they were eating turkey, uh, like ground turkey here and there, but even they backed off of that. So they, they really only are doing chicken. So I used to have more pork in my diet and, and, and, uh, red meat, but, uh, those aren't healthy anyway. So I backed off because the kids won't really eat it that much. But, um, yeah, the, um, I wish I was eating more fish, like maybe every, every other week we'll probably
00:16:06
Speaker
But that's still good that you're not doing, I mean, the red meats and the pork are the kind of, that's like the more delicious, I think the worse off, the worse it is for you, theoretically. The more inherently delicious, right? Because even like ground turkey by itself is like so impossibly bland, but you can make it delicious. Yeah, I know, Jesus. You're in my world now.
00:16:31
Speaker
You had me at impossible. But like, yes, but like, you know, any any meat that you can just all you have to do is just heat it up. Now this this can't be good. There's got to be something here. So
00:16:47
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, that's the, um, it like, uh, let's see the, um, I'm trying to think of the brand, the impossible chicken nuggets. I find to be delicious. Like the chicken. I found a lot of the chicken, the chicken nuggets in particular, but yeah, a lot of those are pretty good and are definitely less, uh, questionable than the burger patties, right? The burger patties, they're,
00:17:11
Speaker
I don't know. They're actually, I don't, they don't, they're not like gross or anything, but they just taste, there's something off about them in a way that you can perceive, which is not necessarily true with the chicken patty stuff. Yeah. At least for me. Yeah. And then ground
00:17:26
Speaker
Imitation ground beef, I think also easy to eat. If we make a casserole or something and we need ground beef, we'll use whatever it is, impossible ground beef or something. Yeah, but that's another one. I think the problem with doing it, even when it's ground and possible beef, doing it as a whole patty is you're putting so much focus on just a big chunk of fake meat as opposed to distributed and pasta or whatever. Yeah.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I haven't found a burger to replace yet, but everything else is pretty... I mean, not fish either, but everything else is
Steak and Meat Preferences
00:18:05
Speaker
pretty easy. Wait, do you do fish? You haven't mentioned fish, which makes me think you don't do fish, but... I love fish. Really? Yeah, but I meant imitation fish. I don't even know if anyone's trying to do that. Yeah, that's a few, but yeah, it gets to the point of like, do they even feel anything?
00:18:23
Speaker
Well, don't tell Steve that I'll stop eating fish. What is this salty tears? Oh my gosh. So no one here, no one here is eating steak like weekly. That's what we're saying. I'll have steak during the month at some point. I'll eat steak whatever the fuck I want. You said once a month you'll have a steak? Probably about that.
00:18:48
Speaker
Wait, what is, no, like you make everyone else like some bland chicken and you cook yourself up a steak? No, actually the kids will have like very, very well done steak. Yeah, which is like a crime, right? Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is, uh, I mean, I guess I'm also, I have like Christie's very much on the other end of the spectrum where she's like, I don't even know why you need to heat it up at all. Like just give me the.
00:19:11
Speaker
Give me that, that red piece of flesh. So that kind of grosses me out a little bit. Like I'm a medium. What's the one after medium rare? Medium, medium, medium. Oh, I don't know if there's, yeah. Yeah. I think right after that, like I like a little bit of pink, but I don't like it to just be like, I don't know. That kind of, that grosses me out a little bit.
00:19:31
Speaker
I thought you were off of red meat altogether. Yeah, for the most part. I brought the one time I will have it and check the tape is on Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, I will make a steak.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's about it, pretty much. I will have a burger on occasion, but for the most part, it's either no meat at all, fish, chicken, or ground turkey.
Ground Turkey's Versatility
00:20:00
Speaker
We actually do a lot of ground turkey.
00:20:01
Speaker
I found it's the most versatile as far as like, if you have a dish that's a dish that Matt would hate, that's extra spicy. It's got a lot of spices in it. The ground turkey can really absorb a lot of that flavor. So it works out pretty well. So no complaints.
00:20:18
Speaker
And then, uh, and then no pork because, uh, pigs are wonderful animals. So no, thank you. I could see you getting a pet pig. Uh, yeah, we've, we've talked about, I mean, I don't know about anytime soon, but the idea of like moving out close enough to the city where, you know, you can like drive into the city or whatever, but like having like some sort of like animal rescue place for like, uh, farm animals that have aged out or whatever. The snakes and tigers that people took as pets.
00:20:47
Speaker
Hmm. Was that an excited or? I may. I mean, yeah, no, I don't know. Well, actually, I guess I don't have any issues with snakes that that actually sounds OK, but Tigers feels. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot. One, I think you just need in order for it to be any bit humane, you need like a lot of space, like a crazy amount of land.
00:21:13
Speaker
Um, and then, yeah, I just, I don't know if I have the stomach for a Netflix special about how everything went wrong. Right. Yeah. I ended up killing my business partner. Yeah. It's just like a whole. No spoilers. I actually, I actually never watched Tiger King. Really? Uh, you had a different pandemic than the rest of us. Yeah. I was everywhere. I was playing board games. Um, yeah. Oh, maybe we should do a pandemic episode. Yeah. Don't, don't say no more. Say no more.
00:21:44
Speaker
I forgot what was the other, there was another food
Family Traditions in Baking and Cooking
00:21:47
Speaker
thing. Oh, actually, I didn't ask you this, Steve, but so I'll ask Matt. Is there any dish that your parents used to make that you have tried to riff on that you've either, you feel like you can never make it as well as they did and or you're like, wow, it's crazy how much better I am at this. Oh, cocky.
00:22:09
Speaker
Right, right. Um, I would say my, I don't know, my, my, my mom being a single mom didn't really do too much cooking. She's never really known for her cooking. So there wasn't a lot to try to do there, but my, my stepdad would try to make pumpkin pie. And I think my pumpkin pies come out a lot.
00:22:30
Speaker
Better than his i've become so in our family with these guys got you like what do you think pretty good right.
00:22:43
Speaker
But my grandma always made the pumpkin pies. And man, they were just so good. But now she's like 83 or something like that. And so we were wondering who's going to take over for making the pumpkin pies. And it certainly isn't my stepdad or his brothers.
00:23:06
Speaker
So it's going to be to me. So I've become I've become my grandma's favorite son, even though she has four of them. So they're all real pissed about that. Remember, heavy is the crown. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, baking pies. I feel like I've I've started to become good at that. Is that like holidays only or is that kind of like a whenever you have like a bad day, you go home and you make a pie?
00:23:32
Speaker
or angrily make a pie. I think during this last year of transition, it's absolutely been holidays only, but I'd like it to be a more regular thing. The thing I'm going to try this year is
00:23:44
Speaker
blending the pumpkin pie filling to try to get it like halfway to a mousse to try to make it really light. I think that might go over well. I did a I think I think it was for this past Christmas. I did a pumpkin bass cheesecake, which I've gotten pretty good at making bass cheesecakes. But this one, I like, you know, got the pumpkin filling or whatever and added that. So it was kind of like a hybrid thing. And
00:24:13
Speaker
Not going to lie, it was probably better than your stepper. What makes it a bass cheesecake? So typical cheesecake that you would get like Cheesecake Factory or New York style cheesecake or whatever is cooked in like a steam bath. So you kind of like you put the cheesecake in the oven and then underneath you put like a bowl of water effectively. And so it's like a gentler way to cook it, let's say.
00:24:38
Speaker
a bass cheesecake, you're like, nah, you just put it in the oven and the oven is rip roaring hot and it just burns the cheesecake. But you do it for a shorter period of time and you end up with like this very like crispy exterior and then the inside is like a normal cheesecake. But because of that, you don't need a crust. And typically, I actually don't care for cheesecake crust. So it's just like cheesecake and the crust is just caramelized cheesecake. Okay. Yeah. Interesting.
00:25:08
Speaker
Basque with a key at BASQE. I believe it's from like the Spanish Basque region. Yeah, I'm looking at this now. Yeah, I've definitely had this. It's again, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Yeah. What about you, Steve? Have you have you have you perfected anything? Like my dad would always make for like, my dad would be the cook and he forget togethers for large family events. He'd always do lasagna.
00:25:36
Speaker
and like chicken cutlet with chicken parm. And that was like the big thing. You make it a mass quantity. Like everybody kind of loves it. I've definitely inherited that where I will make it. He would do like ground beef. I'll do like ground turkey with like a sausage. And I played with that recipe to make it not too savory too much. But yeah, it's gone over like pretty well. I adjust it kind of every year.
00:25:59
Speaker
for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But yeah, that's one that I think I've done. I've gotten much better. I like it. And I'll adjust it based on who's coming, maybe a little bit more cheese or less, depending on how it is. And then I'll get it cooked to the point where I could just get it covered and get it ready once it really shows up. Or I'll broil it at the end to get that nice, crispy, that bask. Then yeah, so that's something
00:26:28
Speaker
And then the other, I think it's called a granada, if I'm wrong. Is there a best grimolata lasagna? Um, and then the thing that I, I, I not been able to replicate try as I might, um, is like the soups, like my dad would make, um, his like manudo. Um, and the ingredients are very, um, they don't change like any recipe you look up. It's, it's always, it's, you know, it's pretty common what, what it is, but.
00:26:58
Speaker
the timing and how you get it done. I just remember my dad's being better than what I've cooked. I've cooked it a bunch of times, but when you have to, when you make a large soup like that and it takes a while to process, especially that tripe, they have to eat. It's you're committed to it, you know, so you have now this, it's either a big batch of either good soup or not. And so it's tough to like, I get into a, um, into the, uh, a mood of trying, trying it
Soup Challenges and Experiments
00:27:22
Speaker
out. But then after a while, like after the third weekend in a row, my, my family members can only eat so much. It's mostly like my.
00:27:28
Speaker
My older relatives, like my mom, my aunt, my brother, my sister-in-law, like they'll eat it. The kids, you know, they've maybe had a little bit of it, but it's too much for them. And then there's like this other soup. It's a Dominican soup called cincocho. And it's, you make it with some root vegetables that you blend and including like a pumpkin, like a cassava, and you get it seasoned, then you blend it up. And then that makes it like a thick, hearty, like a winter soup. And you put like, you can make it like spicier, this or that.
00:27:58
Speaker
And there was a time when my dad was living with us in this house before he passed. And it was before he had some medical things going on. And he was with it for sure. He was still cooking. And I don't know why I thought to do it. But I and Betty recorded him all the different ingredients, one at a time. And he got really into it. He was filming a Food Network episode. He's like, OK, now this is what I like to do.
00:28:27
Speaker
chopping it up and he did each part, he was explaining why he was doing it. Yeah, I got all those. The other week I was looking at some of those little versions of it.
00:28:39
Speaker
But yeah, I'm glad I did that. So those soups I have not been able to, but now at least I have some type of a record I can keep on working at it. Yeah, it sounds like those are worthwhile to kind of keep riffing on, but is there anything anybody's made that took a crazy amount of investment or skill or just time and you finished it and were just like, I don't know if I'll ever do that again.
00:29:04
Speaker
Like, like for me was like, I made like a, um, uh, like a French onion soup with like 30 onions. And, uh, it takes like hours, hours of sweating, like cutting and sweating onions. And by the end you just have French onion soup and you're just like, I mean, sure. Like that sounds horrible. All right. Okay. Um, but yeah, so yeah, was there anything that you've ever done like that? The only thing I could compare it to is I don't know why it was a good, it's okay.
00:29:34
Speaker
everything's about soups. And we had a pressure cooker. We just got the pressure cooker like a few months ago, I guess last year. And I got I was like, Oh, you know, I'll just it's healthy. I'll make all these different soups. And I remember Betty and I both really, really enjoy mushroom like sauteing and putting in different things. And I was like, I'll make a, like a mushroom soup. And I looked at different versions of it. And I bought so much mushroom and so different version. And it was I processed it and I like saw
00:30:03
Speaker
I did different things to break it down and get it all, and it was so mushroomy. It was so earthy. I remember thinking it put me off. I was like, I'm not going to do that again. I remember as I finished my third bowl of that soup, I was like, I don't think I'm going to do this again. Yeah, that's probably the right call there.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yeah, what about what about you? I mean, yeah, I don't know if corn and mashed potatoes. It's about getting the right can of corn. You're like sniffing the can and knocking on it. Fresh one.
00:30:43
Speaker
I was reminded that I probably will never be good at making stuff like ramen or pho or stuff that has like kind of deceived the Steve's soup obsession like where you got to get the broth right and you're marinating stuff for hours and hours and it's either like
00:31:02
Speaker
It's you did such a good job in the broth that you could put anything in there and it would taste good or there's no coming back from this this atrocity that you've made. I don't know the patience patience for that.
The Art of Ramen Broth
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, I've done ramen broth once and it took like a day and a half and it was fine.
00:31:21
Speaker
How do you know what you want to eat in a day and a half like I just I don't know. It's yeah, that's tough. I say with I've always wanted to do like a like make like some sort of like birria consummate like at home and.
00:31:36
Speaker
One, it takes like 12 or 18 hours or something. And two, it makes so much like the only thing you can do if it is open a taco truck. Like there's no reason to have, you know, like a 15 gallon thing of consomme. So yeah, I mean, maybe if I throw like a fundraiser or something, maybe that's the only option there.
00:31:58
Speaker
I've never had a birria taco. I hear all this good stuff about it, but I don't know. What about you, Matt? You've had? That's way too spicy for Matt. You look at it, you pass out. There's a bunch of places here that do, they literally, a bunch of taco rias or whatever, and they have the taco section, and then they have a separate section that's the gringo taco section.
00:32:24
Speaker
And I would, I would assume anything Matt's looking for is probably in that secondary. I think they're all like chicken based, uh, like chicken, lettuce, tomato. Yeah. Chicken last matter. You got the American cheese. You cut it in strips and you just put it on top like a huge glob of huge glob of whole milk, sour cream, right? Yeah. You know what? Hold, hold the sour cream. Just pour that. Yeah.
00:32:51
Speaker
This sounds horrible. Yeah. Fold up. You fold a piece of Wonder Bread. Craft single. Crushed up Fritos. That's a taco. Come on. Yeah, there you go. I've never had one of those. You know, they make the what is that? Like Frito pie or something like that. They take the bag of Fritos and they put a hundred percent. You could do that at home. Yeah.
00:33:19
Speaker
I think you could do it in, by the time I'm done with the sentence, you could have it made. Yeah, I don't think I've ever had that. You cut the Cheeto bag the long ways, right? That way it's easier to access. Yeah, I'm not sure. I think so. Yeah, it's like Fritos, chili and cheese. Well, you do it on the side because it's for presentations classier.
School Cafeteria Snacks Reflection
00:33:44
Speaker
You're like, what classy dish can I make today?
00:33:49
Speaker
Uh, they used to have the, I don't think they do that. I would assume they don't do this into high school anymore, but they used to have a, um, along with the cafeteria, there was like a student run snack, like boof room thing. Like you could go and you could spend a couple of bucks and get like stuff like sodas or, uh, uh, that Frito pie or candy, but it was also like stuff that not looking back on them, like what, why was that the only options available to us? It was like.
00:34:15
Speaker
garbage cafeteria food or just just pure processed snacks. Like those are the only two. So you want to do you want to Mountain Dew at 10 a.m. Here you go. Right. So it's like I assume schools aren't doing that anymore, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. At the elementary level, they don't have any of that stuff. But I mean, they try to make healthier options. I think they try. As far as I know, a lot of schools did get rid of soda machines. I was going to say they have diet Mountain Dew, right?
00:34:46
Speaker
Um, yeah, I was at, uh, I was at Chris's, well, I've been at Chris's a couple of times in the last few weeks. And, um, he's, that's what he has. He has a bunch of, uh, I don't even know where he's getting this stuff. I'm like, do they carry this in stores? But it's like, uh, diet, uh, like caffeine free mountain, do Baja blast. So it's not even reg it's like
00:35:08
Speaker
spin off mountain dews that are, that come in like a sugar free caffeine free. I'm like, I don't even know. Just drink, I think it's just drink water at that point. Right. Yeah. Just a squeeze of lemon into water. Yeah. Uh, yeah.
Sentimental Last Meals
00:35:23
Speaker
Um, this does feel like a good, good point to, uh, pivot. I was going to ask like what your last meal was, but I feel like I can guess for math pretty easily.
00:35:33
Speaker
Oh, here you go. Here you go. I ordered a pizza, but a very, very light amount of sauce. So it's just a hint of pizza sauce. Bread and cheese. That's your last meal? That was the last meal, yeah. Oh, well, I meant like before they execute you, but sure. Same answer. Yeah, same answer. Classic pizza. You get your Wonder Bread. Those are real nice. Couple of craft singles.
00:36:09
Speaker
I think I personally prefer light sauce on a pizza slice. I think that's, again, mainly because of the heart, the mini heart attacks.
00:36:30
Speaker
It would be the, what is this called? It's like a, not a rib eye. What's the other one? The cut of steak? Prime rib. The prime rib from Quality Meats and those goddamn rolls that they give you in the beginning. With the butternut squash soup. It's so good. It's one of the best meals I've ever had. Wow. Wait, you got this at Quality Meats? Is that what you said? Yeah, yeah. It's on 57th Street in midtown.
00:36:59
Speaker
I'm rib butternut's white. So would it would be, it would be from there or you want the prison chef or cook to riff on that? No, God, no. I'm not a, Hey, why don't you try to riff on anything with like, I, I've been going to waffle shop in state college for, you know, since I was four years old. And I feel like I've gotten the same exact thing every single time. No riffs need to happen. What is it every time? It's the mini platter scrambled eggs, add an extra egg, one bacon, one sauce.
00:37:29
Speaker
No frills, no fluff, no nonsense. It's so good. Okay, do you get OJ? Yeah, I mean, their OJ is pretty good. Their OJ is pretty good. It is seasonally affected though, which is a sign of good OJ. That's true. Although I will say Whole Foods almost always has good, like the fresh pressed OJ is almost always good in a way that feels problematic.
00:37:55
Speaker
Like there's some part of the machine that's like adding a bunch of sugar to it, but you don't see it. Or they're starting to invade some country. I guess it is Amazon. Wait, does the platter come with the potatoes? Because for me, that's the main thing. People do like their potatoes, but no, it doesn't come with it. I've never had their potatoes.
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah. Those potatoes with Tabasco sauce. That's like one of my favorite breakfast. Oh yeah, I do like that. Yeah. I was like, oh my gosh, so good. I would say that breakfast would be my answer too for the last meal thing. Wait, Waffle Shop, like a prison chef riff on Waffle Shop. How many prison chefs do you know, Dan?
00:38:46
Speaker
I'm saying this is your last meal. I assume you're in prison for insider trading or something. It's this rebel prison chef that doesn't play by the rules. He's got a riff on it. He's got to do his own signature. Yeah. I've replaced everything with beats. Interesting. Yikes.
00:39:07
Speaker
Uh, so breakfast that's your last your last meal is some sort of breakfast, you know, I think I think so I I uh, I do like love really really enjoy like breakfast food and um just as recently as uh Yesterday like I I had this weird I had a horrible schedule this weekend because at my job we're doing dismantling um this huge crane and so I had to I I volunteered for second shift so I had to do 6 p.m to 6 a.m
00:39:35
Speaker
That was Friday night going into Saturday.
Indulgent Breakfasts and Sleep
00:39:38
Speaker
And I also started the day at 4.30 to get the crane to get brought in. And so I had all these crazy hours. So I had to leave at Friday at 9 AM, 10 AM in order to go home, sleep a little bit, and then come back for the second shift. The reason this comes up is because on the way, I'm not going to be able to get humble break. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep unless I was like, should I take some
00:40:05
Speaker
some drug, like some sleeping stuff to make me go to sleep. I was like, and I, I told myself, I'm just going to have a heavy meal and pass out that way, which is probably horrible advice. My answer, my answer was go to the, um, original pancake, cake house in white Plains. And I ordered my last meal, which is what your, your premises and it was, it was, um, biscuits and sausage gravy with a soft scramble. Um,
00:40:33
Speaker
and breakfast potatoes with ketchup and chalua, hot sauce, and then like banana walnut pancakes on the side. Biscuits and gravy by themselves is so much, that's all. It was so, yeah, and I've been like my daily calorie intake, I've been really watching for the past like six, seven months. Saving up, right?
00:41:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And then I, this, this was my only meal basically all day. So I like went all out and I was like, I, this is the only way I'm going to be able to pass out by horrifying my body and my intake. Shut everything down. I got to shut it down. And that's what I ended up having that, that full meal. And it was, did you make it home or you just sleep in the parking lot? You had a pull off to the side. Um, yeah, it was, it was delicious, but
00:41:31
Speaker
Not a not an everyday thing for sure. That is interesting. I feel like mine would probably be breakfast as well. I don't know if it'd be that intense, but that is a salt. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's something just like well executed breakfast items, especially like eggs and pancakes and stuff. It's just like, I don't know. Yeah, it's hard to beat. So what type of egg you go for? What's what's your go to?
00:41:59
Speaker
You know, it used to be, uh, it used to be like a hard scramble. Like, uh, I wanted to sweat them out. No, no, uh, no moisture whatsoever. Now, uh, now it's typically it's going to be either like a soft scramble or like sunny side up. Yeah. Okay. I used to do, um, over, over easy was my go-to and now I'm on soft scramble like that. I love that right now.
00:42:25
Speaker
At home, I do this, they're called cloud eggs, which is like you- Do you bake them? No, you fry the egg like normal, but then instead of flipping the egg or steaming the top or whatever, you scoop the oil on top of the egg, so it fries the top of it, and you end up with this puffy white top, and then the bottom is like a
00:42:51
Speaker
a normal fried egg or whatever. You end up with super crispy eggs, but it's still very yolky. Gotcha. Yeah, it's pretty good. Again, eggs in general, like a well-cooked egg. That's a good last meal for me. Doug's done that at the forefront of cooking technique out of the group. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:43:14
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Well, I mean, I don't have, uh, you know, uh, a home or my, um, or my legacy to worry about. So I'll let you two. I am worried about the horn of legacy. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Yeah. I think it's going to be good. That's right.