All fish is a scam, Nicole. Nothing is what you think it is. What are you talking about? The perch is catfish, the escolar is albacore, the calamari are pig buttholes! You’re a pig butthole. This is “A Hot Dog is a Sandwich”! Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hotdog is a sandwich. A hotdog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, “A Hot Dog is a Sandwich”. I’m your host, Pig Butthole. And I’m Pig Butthole. And today, we are dispelling the myth that calamari are not, in fact, squid, but are actually pig anuses. Nicole? I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think that’s true. Here’s the thing- I think that’s a lie. How much profit really is there in the calamari industry? That’s what I’m saying. I’m sure there’s tons. Yeah, but if there were, like, calamari-only restaurants, if it was, like, Buffalo Wild Squid out there, dominating the game, then I’d be like, there’d be an impetus to shave profit margins, but if you really look at it, like, the Olive Garden is skimming profits. Well, I’m sure they are. By finding a supplier of pig intestines? No, they’re skimming profits on everything else. Huh, I don’t know. But they’re also just giving away free bowls of pasta after you’ve already had pasta. I’ve always wanted to try the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, actually. It is, after two and a half bowls of pasta, you really don’t wanna be there. You really don’t know my life. You really don’t know my life. You do not wanna be there. I don’t know, Nicole. Do you know the Olive Garden doesn’t salt their pasta water because- Yeah, I was just about to say that. Did you know that? Did you know that I was about to say that? No, did you know? No, today we are talking about, “Are sushi restaurants scamming you?” And before we really get into it- This is so silly. I know, it’s silly, but no, there’s a lot of really, really interesting stuff to get into here, revolving fish mislabeling and who are actually opening sushi bars and why in America, and the history of it. But is it fair to say, are sushi restaurants scamming you? Or is it just all restaurants that serve fish are scamming you? Okay, that’s a great point. I want to preface this by saying, almost anything you buy is some sort of a scam. Right? Okay, no, okay, backtrack, backtrack. We enter into the social contract. We enter into a social contract. Okay, when we go to a restaurant? Yeah, when you go to a restaurant, that you are, like, paying for things simply because you like them, not because there is an intrinsic value associated with them, right? Do you know what I mean? Of course, there’s intrinsic value in food. Like, even if it was pig butthole, if you are enjoying the pig butthole as much as you would squid, like, why is that wrong? Do you think with the pig, well, tell people- If you don’t eat pig, if you’re a practicing Jew or Muslim, I get it. Well, my question is the pig butthole, do they, like, ’cause the texture of pig butthole, it takes a long time for it to get soft. No, you gotta just baking-soda-treat it. You think so? I think if you baking-soda-treat it, and then, one, I’ve gone to some, like, pig intestine specialist, Gopchang, like the Korean- Okay. We went to Ahgassi Gopchang. Is that an intestine specialist? Yeah, Gopchang means- I did not know that. Intestines. Okay. And when they’re done right, they’re very delicious. But I’ve also had some dirty intestines and, you feel the poop. You do, there’s poop in it. Oh my god, what do you mean you feel the poop? It’s like a gusher. No, I’ve been to some, it was just like a real crappy restaurant that was serving intestines. No pun intended. Am I right? If you’re going to eat intestines, go to an intestine specialist, go to somebody who’s been doing it right, for many, many years. No, the calamari pig butt hole thing, I believe is a myth. I don’t think it was ever substantiated. No way in hell that they’re doing that. And if they’re doing that, shame on you. If you get calamari, just make sure that it’s the type that they serve with the tentacles. Because you can’t fake that. They’re not just fraying the buttholes into tentacles right? Oh, you know what they might do, if they’re really scummy, the rings are buttholes, and then in order, if they have like smart diners, they put some tentacles there, maybe, that’s like a really scummy thing to do. So it’s like, oh yeah, well I’m checking, you know. What we are talking about today is the fact that a ton of fish is mislabeled in America. That’s true. And also the term sushi-grade does not mean anything. Yeah, that’s a lie. That was the impetus behind this whole podcast. Yeah yeah. Is because people were like, “That better be sushi-grade fish that I was eating raw.” And sushi and sashimi-grade are literally not legally protected at all. It’s non-existent. I think people just slap it on there to sell it, right? A hundred percent. Yeah. So there’s actually this really incredible quote by, he was a fish shop owner in Brooklyn. His name is Yuji Haraguchi. Okay. Brooklyn-based Osakana. He just says he used the term sushi and sashimi-grade for marketing purposes when he worked as a sales rep for a whole fish or for a wholesale fish distributor. Okay. He said back in 2004, the company was trying to expand its customer base beyond Japanese restaurants. And Haraguchi’s mission was to convince other restaurants to serve their customers raw fish besides tuna. The term sushi-grade fish was very effective in terms of making sales, but at the same time, I had to provide the right product and the right information, Sure, fair. He says, so. It’s one of those things where you go to a sushi bar and you sort of assume that they are using higher-quality fish than you would get at home. One question. Go ahead. You say sushi bar, not sushi restaurant. Why is that? Do you not say sushi bar? People at home? I says sushi I say, “let’s go get sushi.” Well that, I mean that- Bar implies bar stools. Yeah, but every sushi restaurant has a bar inside of it. Can we get a fact check on that? Can we get- No, no, no, okay, no, no, no, okay, so this is a great point. This is a great point. In Japan, in Japan, sushi restaurants are more just a sushi bar. Fair. It is a counter. Yes. That you go to to eat sushi. And the difference in Japanese and American cultures when it comes to raw fish is really, really going to come into play here. Okay, okay. Right? I just had to interrupt you. Continue your story. So the history of sushi, they believe it dates back about a thousand years and there’s an old wives tale that is not substantiated at all, but it kinda rules, it’s like a woman wandered up to an osprey’s nest. Osprey, a bird. An osprey, yeah. And like she had a clay pot of rice in an osprey nest or something and the rice was fermenting and the osprey dropped fish in there and she was like, “yum!” and ate it. And that kind of doesn’t make sense, but it’s a fun Japanese old wives tale. Cute. But no, people have been eating like fermented fish in rice as a method of preserving it in clay pots. Yeah. Throughout East Asia for a thousand years. Now this is interesting. Fermented fish. Now people don’t normally associate fermented fish with sushi. They sure do not. But that’s how it was, right? That’s how the OG way was to eat it. Correct, yeah. And that’s where like the origins of like the etymology of sushi in Japan come from, right. But, if you wanna get back to like modern day sushi, a lot of people credit it to the late Edo period. Edo period was like 1600 to like mid 1800s. And so in 1830s they say that the first like modern ish sushi bar, which is old as hell, right? Yeah, it is. There wasn’t no hamburgers for another like 80 years after that. Like this is pretty damn, you know, old in comparison Sure. To a lot of American foods. Sure, of course it is, yeah. But Edo style sushi, the fish isn’t technically like fermented, but it is typically some sort of vinegar-cured. And I’ve been to some Edo style Omakase restaurants. Omakase means “as you like it” “As you please” “As you please?” “As the chef please?” “As the chef pleases?” Whatever the chef says eat it. Or like I’m in your hand, the chef’s gonna make you whatever the hell they want. Yeah, yeah. An Omokase meal. Sure. And I’ve been to an Edo style Omekase meal. Cool. And it was fantastic. The fish was- Was this at Q? This was at Q, yeah, yeah, yeah. big date, yeah. Yeah, where I, yeah. Accidentally went on like a third date and spent a thousand dollars. And I did not have You spent a thousand dollars on a third date? Any money. She ordered a $300 bottle of wine. And I didn’t know how to say no, thank you. She was mistaken. And then she was also- A thousand dollars on a third date. It was, listen, it was, it was, we got in a fight too, it was bad. At the restaurant? No, after, after. Okay good, okay, good. After, she’s like “You’re ignoring me.” I was like, “I dunno what to tell you.” So what I’m saying is 1830s modern like nigiri is sort of invented. I’m shook, now okay, go ahead. Dude, I had like no money, I was broke too. It was when I was living in Glendale, with two other dudes. I remember. I remember. Yeah, yeah. Weird times in both of our lives. So anyways. Mostly yours. Okay. 1830s modern nigiri sushi that we think of, which is sliced raw fish on rice. Could be treated with vinegar. Rarely, I feel like in L.A. Or like the U.S. it’s not that common. No, true, true, true. Yeah. But a lot of times in preparation, the fish can be salted, it can be cured. Sure. Whatever. But a lot of it is basically like, hey, now we’re just taking fish and we’re slicing ’em fresh and we’re putting them on rice. Which I love. Which you love. Eat sushi all the time. Again, I have to preface this with like, I don’t care if fish is mislabeled. I don’t care that a vast majority of sushi restaurants in America are not owned or operated by a Japanese person. I don’t care. Who caress about that? Give me tasty fish on rice, That part. And a cold beer, and I’m having a great time. That part, yeah, yeah. I absolutely love it. First sushi restaurant in America. Kawafuku in Little Tokyo L.A. Is it still open? No, it shuttered like, like many decades ago. But this is 1966. And also- First sushi restaurant in the U.S. was 1966. 1966, actually from a former Imperial court chef from Japan, opened it with a business, a Jewish business partner. I love America. I love America. For reasons such as that. Like honestly, and so 1966 that happens. And all this cultural context really does come into play because, during the 80s especially, 80s and early 90s, we see this, what I call the sexy sushi boom in America. Sure, you’ve spoken about this before. I, the sexy sushi movement. It’s like early 90s. Think like sunset strip Los Angeles. Yeah! Guns n Roses is playing. You just hit big on the stock market in junk bonds and you want to take your gal out on a night on the town. You go to the Roxy Theater, you see Slash all, you know, drugged up out there. Go to Dorsia, You go to Dorsia. You like, you know, he like throws a chair through the window. Then you go to a, what’s it called, the Katana Sushi or something. yeah, I know all about Katana. So sushi had this really big explosion. And culturally in America we had this both Japanaphobia and Japanaphelia happening. Yeah, I understand the Japanaphelia not so much the Japanaphobia. Well, so the phobia was simply like, “The Japanese people are too good “at manufacturing electronics “and cars.” Cars, okay, that makes sense, that makes sense. Not valid, though. And like they must be- No, I mean like, listen, Japan had like a great economic rise post World War Two. Sure. And also one of the reasons there weren’t enough Japanese people in America to open sushi bars for the demand is because wages were really high in Japan and not that many people wanted to go, right? So you had a lot of Chinese and Korean immigrants in especially Los Angeles opening sushi restaurants. Yeah some of my favorite joints are owned by Korean people. I love that. I love getting a side of kimchi with my like California roll with fried shrimp and spicy mayo on it. Yep, yep, yep. It’s like, truly, one of my favorite things. Oh yeah. And one of those things that makes L.A. what it is, and how much I love it. Yeah. So anyways, there was this kind of attitude that like, the Japanese people must be doing something culturally that we don’t understand. And in came this sort of Orientalism and fetishization of all Japanese culture where it’s like, well they’re very respectful to their elders and they, you know, have the Shokunin, like the artisanal master. And there’s almost this like religiosity to it. Hmm. And we have put that into sushi. Off all things. Where in America, we’re like, sushi is sacred, because I’m paying, if you go to an Omakase restaurant, I’m paying $200 for it. And so, oh, every single thing this sushi chef does is intentional. It’s right. From the way- And, and it’s right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and there’s wrong ways to eat sushi. No, you never dip it rice side down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never put the wasabi in this. Don’t rub your chopsticks together, yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff. Exactly. And so we have this sort of like vaunted idea of what sushi should be. And in actuality, in Japan it is not treated as such. Like we see, we see “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”. Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say right now. I’m like, they really do revere it highly, don’t they? Because we’ve seen “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” and neither of us have ever been to a sushi bar in Japan. No, we should go. Right? Well, I would love to go. Okay. And this is all actually written about in a fantastic book by Sasha Issenberg called “The Sushi Economy.” He says “All the religious connotations about sushi “that Americans project are simply a form of Orientalism.” And he goes in to talk about how, eating sushi in Japan, and he’s like, “It’s a big boisterous atmosphere.” Like he likens sushi chefs more like a bartender or like a barber where like you’re shooting the crap with them. You’re shooting the crap, you know, the old saying. Okay. Where in America, a lot of people are like, oh, this is a very special experience. It’s serious, yeah. It’s very serious, and it’s very almost solemn in a lot of ways and so, we start to think of things like, oh, all the fish that they’re using, these must be the most pristine product, because we don’t eat fish raw in America. But if this Japanese person, who again, is probably not Japanese, not that that matters whatsoever. Sure. But it’s, we don’t have the same thoughts necessarily about Chinese or Korean culture that we do with Japanese culture. And I say we, I mean a lot of white Americans, right? The collective white American, yeah. The collective white American. Yeah. That is represented by this one white dude sitting right here. Now how does that, now how does that feed into “Are sushi restaurant scamming you?” That’s a great question, Nicole, because, somebody did a study, it was actually a group called Oceana, they’re an ocean preservation group. Are these the people that snuck the whale meat? Oh my God, are they? I don’t think it’s the same people. No, it’s different people? I don’t know. Okay. But anyways, they found, and this is actually the lowest figure that I’ve seen, ’cause there have been so many studies about fish mislabeling “that one in five seafood samples tested worldwide” Whoops. Excuse me. “One in five seafood samples tested worldwide “turns out to be a completely different species “than what the menu packaging says.” One out of five? And so. Shut up. One outta five. And when I heard first heard this, I was like, well, there’s not a lot of scientific delineation about like what makes a certain fish a certain fish. Huh, okay. So. The best example of this is Patagonian toothfish. You mean, Chilean sea bass. Chilean sea bass baby. And so again, this isn’t sushi restaurant scamming you. This is any restaurant that serves fish and an entire large fishing industry. It’s yeah, I feel like it’s the industry. It’s not, it’s not the guy behind the counter. Yeah, so if, if there’s a garbage fish that is ugly and has an ugly name that you want to sell, you just name it very similarly to another fish. So you have Mediterranean sea bass, right? Or what? Just sea bass. Just sea bass, or Branzino, right? Is Branzino sea bass? Branzino is sea bass. I love Branzino. And it’s a Mediterranean sea bass. Okay. So you have that, and so then you know, fishermen in Chile. Okay. Are like, yo, we got this big fish that gives a lot of meat, easy to fish called Patagonian toothfish. Big ugly looking mother effer, right? Nobody wants to buy it though, ’cause it’s called Pat… Nobody knows what Patagonia is, Americans are ignorant. Everybody knows what Patagonia is, the sweaters. Do, do you know what Patagonia actually is? Yeah, I do. What is, what’s Patagonia? It’s in Peru. Dang it, no it’s not, it’s like southern Argentina, right? Well I mean Chile, is also certainly representative of Patagonia, but Patagonia is a large region near the south. Does it include Peru? Of South America. Does it include Peru? Peru is certainly not. I need to know if it includes Peru. No, Peru’s definitely more north than Patagonia, right? I need to know, before you make me look dumb on this podcast. Patagonia, Peru part of it? Oh man, there’s no Peru. Nah, just Chile and Argentina. Why did I think it was Peru? But the point is. There’s this fish that nobody wanted to buy so they renamed it something. That’s shady. And so Patagonian toothfish is not a bass has nothing to do with sea bass, but it’s labeled a bass. But, there’s no actual protection on what is a bass and what is not. And a lot of these things. And they don’t have? Go ahead. Go ahead. No please. A lot of these things don’t necessarily cross cultures too. So in Japan, there’s certain things that like, they have their own names for fish, obviously, in Japan they don’t use the English names for fish. Yeah. So they may not have the same delineation such as this is a bass and this is a bass. So like we got our own Japanese names for this ’cause we’re, duh, in Japan. Yeah. You know what I mean? Sure. And so with all of the fish mislabeling, one, you’re likely paying more money for a worse fish, right? They tend not to mislabel- What does worse fish mean? Well that’s a great point. A fish that, at market price, would not be at the price you paid for it. Okay. I agree with you though that, I’ve eaten a lot of fish around the world. Most of it tastes really freaking similar. I’ll never pay $30 for a halibut, that’s insane. Like a cooked? Halibut’s not that good. Cooked or raw. Do you eat halibut, yeah, you can eat halibut raw. I’ve had halibut raw before. Do, is it worth the markup? No! Over any other fish? No! No! But what I’m saying is like, there’s, there has to be a difference between like a firm white fish and like a- There’s differences. There’s a difference. But not in, you don’t see this any other where, any other place in the meat industry, right? I guess you do, and you can talk about- What do you mean? I was gonna say, there’s not like a competing animal to a cow that you can sort of- Sure. Like pass, you know, beef off as. Yeah. Fair. You can mislabel… Here’s another point. Go ahead. God dang it. It’s okay. USDA, right? I was just about to bring up the whole USDA prime, choice, whatever. Correct. Is that, There’s none of that for fish is there? There’s none of that for fish. There should be. And so the USDA- What the heck? This is a great thing that I only found out from watching the Netflix documentary “Poisoned”, as Nicole puts on lip gloss. I do not wanna see that. You should watch “Poisoned”, it’s really interesting. No, is it like “Food, Inc.?” It’s all about food safety, yeah It’s kinda like “Food, Inc.” No, I don’t want to. It’s all about food safety and the E. coli outbreaks. The Jack in the Box, which I remember in the 90s. Okay. But the most interesting thing I found out they were interviewing two people from the FDA and USDA and then they go to the USDA person, they say, “What do you regulate in America?” And they go, “we regulate all beef, poultry and catfish.” And then the FDA’s like, “we do everything else.” And I was like, hold up, hold up. Why catfish? Then I learned why. So the U.S. catfishing industry, which is a lot in like Arkansas, Mississippi Delta, that area. Yeah. Right? Catfish is a fresh river fish. Not kosher. Not kosher, but delicious. Big in the south. Big also in Vietnamese food. Sure. There’s a lovely dish called banh canh That is a delicious catfish soup. Sometimes they call it Vietnamese gumbo. Anywhom. There’s now a huge infiltration of Vietnamese farmed catfish coming to the American market. And American suppliers don’t like that. So they thought that the one thing they can beat this imported fish from Vietnam from is, is like standard safety and regulation. Wow, is it because so many Americans livelihoods are based off of catfishing? Exactly, it’s very much just like a protectionist sort of policy, right? Sure. Which America’s been doing for a lot of years. And again, I have like nothing against fish being imported from wherever, I tend to eat a lot. But one of the main culprits in the fish labeling scandal is farmed catfish coming from Asia because it’s packaged somewhere that’s not in America. Okay. And then they found out that catfish farmed in Asia was mislabeled with 18 different fish species. Shut up. They’re just passing catfish off as anything. Do you think it’s like different parts of the catfish? Probably, yeah. It’s like, the tail is more tender. So let’s say that this is, I don’t know. This is Escolar, this is whatever. Oh my god. Orange roughy. Orange roughy, you know. That’s really crazy. Sure. 18? 18! That was the biggest find from this study. I couldn’t name 18 fish if you paid me. And so a lot of the fish mislabeling stuff, you know, me as somebody who, I have no dietary restrictions, I have no allergies, no religious exemptions from anything, right? I don’t care very much. ’cause I just love going to sushi restaurants and any fish restaurant and just, shoving fish in my gullet. Yeah. I eyeball a lot of sushi places too. I’ll eat whatever, yeah. It’s whatever, but if you are say, pregnant, there are fish that pregnant women are not supposed to eat because of high mercury content. Oh yeah, which ones are those? I don’t know… what? You? No, I can’t…like if… I’m just saying… I’m not pregnant Josh. You didn’t, you haven’t been drinking. Everybody at work wants me to be pregnant so bad. But I’m not, I’m sorry, I’m sorry to let you guys down, not yet, not yet. So that’s one of the things, Fish- So then you get, you can’t eat catfish, Nicole, you’re Jewish. You’re not gonna get into Jewish heaven if you accidentally eat catfish that’s mislabeled. Well I have a friend who’s OB-GYN, she’s pregnant right now, said, “Yeah, go ahead, eat raw fish. “Just as long as it’s from a good place.” I agree with that. Can I explain why I should be able to have opinions about your pregnancy health? Mine in particular? Yeah, yeah. Just mine though. Correct. No one else’s. No everybody, I think I should be sort of the main advice giver for anyone who’s pregnant. Just, just imagine, imagine me, imagine me. I tell you “I’m pregnant!” Now what are you gonna tell me? So the whole thing about pregnancy, right? Do I know what it is or how it happens? Not even a little bit. Pregnancy? I’m gonna give you a hint, come here. Yeah. You have to put that in where? But no, no, no, no, no, this is, okay. The reason you’re not supposed to eat things when you’re pregnant, it’s basically just, all the things that you’re also not supposed to eat when you’re not pregnant. If you want to minimize risk. Hum… If you wanna minimize risk of food safety infections. You can eat Capocollo. No, but, deli meats have a like high percentage of Listeria cases, right? Yeah, but… That’s like, what this is all about. It’s just like, hey, don’t put yourself- And like raw cheeses and stuff. Yeah you’re at risk for any other sort of infection and you got a little thing growing inside your tummy. The tummy is the anatomical region where the baby, the seed, grows. Hangs out. But no, that’s what it is. And so it’s all about trying to minimize risk of food infection. Well is there a high, well with raw fish, is there a high infection rate? I’m so glad you asked Nicole because- This is fun! Because the main thing, so this is now, we’re getting into sushi-grade and sashimi-grade. Which is a lie. Which is an absolute lie, right? Yeah. The FDA has released guidelines on fish when it is safe to be consumed raw. And this is not freshwater fish, ’cause freshwater fish have a high degree of bacteria and, or not bacteria, parasites are the main issue. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Is there a lot of instances where wild and farm-raised salmon are kind of like mislabeled? Does that happen often? Oh, that happens almost all the time. That’s really annoying. Yeah, yeah, which I… I don’t even know what’s better for the environment or myself anymore, I don’t care. I was told that farm is bad because they dye the fish and then the dye makes the kids go crazy. Listen, life is really complicated. I have no idea. I just eat the fish, like, I go to a fish, and I eat the fish, I go, “Hey, can I consume you?” It goes and I eat it. But… I’m happy you asked permission of the fish. Yeah, animal sovereignty, I believe in it. So, parasites are the biggest risk when it comes to eating raw fish. That’s what people always get worried about, right? Sure. You eat the bad raw fish, you’re gonna get parasites, and the Anisakiasis worm, which that just sounds like a Greek hammer thrower. Okay. Mikael Anisakiasis! Okay. But the Anisakiasis worm is the biggest risk for that. Okay. America, we eat such little raw fish, especially in our homes, that there were hardly any documented case, cases of this. Oh good. There were 13 cases in the last 24 years. Okay. Of Anisakiasis worms. And part of that- Not bad. Is when we talk about sushi-grade and sashimi-grade, the FDA released guidelines that are like “Ugh, there might be parasites in everything. “Just like, just freeze it, just freeze it, “it’ll kill all the parasites and that’s it.” And so almost like all fish is now just deep frozen as a means of like, okay, FDA you wanna put out a blanket statement, we’re gonna freeze everything. You know what’s so funny? I actually saw a TikTok about people eating frozen Costco sushi. Yes. Did you see this too? Yes. And then everyone’s like, that’s not sushi-grade. There is a warrior out there among us on TikTok. Yeah. I can’t remember their handle, Maggie, if you wanna find them, who is literally just taking Costco salmon going, “Here’s how I make my Costco salmon sashimi.” Yeah. And it’s perfectly safe. It’s an an uproar. People are so upset. And so when you’re talking about like, you know, as long as the fish is from a good quality place, there’s no such thing. I don’t know what that means And again, 13 cases of Anisakiasis worms There are, I’m sure, other risks out there to eating raw fish. Oh, we found it, Okay this is Photogami. Yeah! Photogami, thank you for- $30 Costco Salmon, shout out to Photogami out there. Thank you Photogami. But yeah, so your risk of getting any sort of foodborne illness or parasite from raw fish is so, so much less than like, eating lettuce. Interesting. Nicole, okay, pregnant people, pregnant people out there stop eating bagged lettuce, bagged lettuce, look this up. This is, it is literally like one of the least safe foods to consume in America. There are always Listeria outbreaks or Salmonella outbreaks. Even the triple washed? There’s E. coli, washing it does nothing. This is another point! Washing it does nothing, how do, what do you think? Bacteria just doesn’t survive in water? Bacteria loves wet ingredients. It doesn’t just like ride away on a wave. No, the only way to kill bacteria is through temperature change, right. And so, so heat and cold. Are you telling people- Which would destroy the lettuce? Yeah. So that’s one of the reasons E. coli is now more common in lettuce than it is in beef. So you’re telling people to freeze their lettuce or to cook their lettuce? Both! I just asked you earlier if I can braise red- I thought you were just saying that for kicks and giggles. No, I have like spinach at home that I was gonna saute but spinach wilts down to nothing and I was like, I can cut it with other greens. The only other green I have is red leaf lettuce and I don’t know, I might do that, and it’ll kill bacteria. But, another point. Okay. When it comes to raw fish. Yeah. Ceviche. Okay. People are like “The lemon cooks the fish.” It does. Does nothing. Are you kidding me? The main concern with eating raw fish Are you kidding me? The acid- The main concern- Acid, but wait. Acid preserve, it can preserve it. Okay, wait. Acid, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It can preserve it. So. So. Go ahead. Me? Me? So whenever you have acid. Yeah. And okay, so this is gonna be, make a really dark turn. But you know how people like, they pour acid on people like when they do- Jesus Christ, oh my, are you talking about like acid, like acid attacks against women and ugh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so like, it like- Stop. Stop doing this. Like. Don’t eat Capocollo when you’re pregnant and don’t kill people with acid attacks. I think you should eat Capocollo when you’re pregnant though. But don’t do the second one. Go ahead, you were talking about acid. It’s like, doesn’t that like, like cooks the skin, right? But acid is like, those, that is like acid, like meant to harm people. There’s different degrees. Like lemon juice is acid. Ceviche is lemon, is lime juice. Okay. Okay. So, Ceviche, Where are you going this? Okay wait, so- You’re saying like acid bad for life? No, no, no, listen to me. Okay. So it’s like saying a match and like a forest fire is to lemon juice as is acid- To battery acid, yeah, yeah. Don’t make battery acid ceviche and…uh. Don’t, you know, light a cigarette with a forest fire. The correct motto, yeah, you’re right. Everything- Although I did do that sometimes with, just a home gas burner. With a forest fire? Oh. It’s just, it’s in your mouth, and you just go. Up to a gas burner. Yeah, that’s how you singe your eyelashes Singe your eyebrows. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’ve been there, done that. College man. But no. So if the main concern behind eating raw fish is parasites, Okay. Which it seems to be. The Anisakiasis worm, and that’s the main parasite that you find in fish, it thrives in acidic environments. So, it would do nothing. Oh! But again, 13 cases in 24 years in America. So wait a second. But what the acid does is you can eat it over a long period of time. So say you want to enjoy your fish three days from now, without it getting the normal amount of bacteria that would build up on any sort of fresh, wet product, acid will help preserve it. So you’re trying to tell me that the malic acid. Citric. Or the citric acid, sorry, the citric acid, in a lime or lemon, does not cook the fish in ceviche. It’s an etymological and semantic debate, right? On what the term cooked means, you know, acid, it’ll structure the proteins in a way that is similar to it being heat treated. However. Okay. When it comes to bacteria, or not even bacteria when it comes to things like parasites. Parasites. That will get killed by cooking- It will not kill it. It will not kill it, in terms of curing with acid. Unless you freeze the fish beforehand. Freezing the fish to negative 31 degrees, which a home freezer cannot do, is what the FDA recommends to avoid parasites. But then, how are we supposed to, how are people supposed to enjoy sushi and ceviche at home? Enjoy it. Do it! 13 cases in 24 years. I know sometimes I can be, listen, listen to me. Just please, please, listen, pregnant people. Just everybody, but everybody also listen. I don’t have to listen ’cause I’m not pregnant. I know people have gotten mad at me about being cavalier on certain food safety issues such as cooking a chicken breast to 155 degrees instead of 165. Oh my god. Get me outta here. Please. Please. Please get me outta here. Look at the science and the numbers. Bagged lettuce is out here murking people, 27 people died from cantaloupes, lunch meat, hotdogs. I love cantaloupes. Yeah, oh man, the cantaloupe disaster in like, what was that, 2014 or something like that? It’s utterly insane. There’s so many things that are outside of your control in food safety. The things that you can control, like don’t wash your chicken to spread salmonella around, you know, your kitchen, like, wash your hands often. But when it comes to fish, 13 cases in 24 years, That’s nuts. Chicken. Undercooking your chicken by 10 degrees, all it has to do is stay at that temperature for 17 seconds to kill all the salmonella. These are things that are documented by science. I have one question. You cook a chicken breast to 155 Nicole, 17 seconds. Okay. I have one question. Why sometimes when I eat sushi my tummy hurt. I don’t know. How much sushi are you eating? Honestly me? Once a week. Is that too much? I don’t know. Your stomach also hurts when you eat Zankou Chicken, your stomach also hurts when you eat cheese, dude. Your stomach hurts all the time, that’s another point. Sometimes we eat like, certain things and we attribute us feeling crappy to that. Aw. It might be stress. Aw. You know what I mean? I guess hot girls really do have IBS. I get bad farts when I eat a steak, but that’s because- And bananas. Methane buildup. And bananas. So in conclusion, there are scams abound to be seen within sushi restaurants, right? That’s right. Fish is always mislabeled. Sushi and sashimi-grade are not real things. Again, I don’t consider this scamming people, but a majority of sushi restaurants in America are not owned by anybody Japanese. And none of that matters whatsoever. It really doesn’t matter. None of that matters. Enjoy your life, eat the raw fish. Have a spoonful of spicy tuna, have a Sake, live your life. Spicy tuna tends to be the meat that’s stuck to the tuna spine and they just take a knife and they scrape it out. That’s my favorite. That’s my favorite. To get more out there And it is great and it’s a delight. Food is not a thing that should be feared. Food is a thing that should be enjoyed. Okay, I got another one. Spicy tuna is to sushi as bulgogi is to Korean barbecue. Yeah. Now we’re getting analogies. Cook up your next fire meal with the Mythical Kitchen Utensil Set. Oh yeah, we got three pieces for you. Not two, not four, but three. We got a spatula, a spoon, and guess what? Another spoon, but this one has slots. They’re made with silicone and feature smooth wooden handles with fun engravings. The funnest engravings. Get yours now at Mythical.com. Alright Nicole. Hi. We’ve heard what you and I have to say, now it’s time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. Well, it’s time for a segment we call: ♪ Opinions Are Like Casseroles ♪ Alright y’all, before we get to your opinions, we wanna check in on the poll we posted on our Spotify page. It’s poll dance time, Nicole. Ready. If you feel so inclined, you can do your best poll dance while we review the poll. We asked y’all. Okay. Do you…what? What is she? I’m starting. Okay, well anyways, we asked you, do you think aliens are real? And 74.4% of you said hell yeah. And then 25.6 said, I’m with Josh on this one, I don’t think, like, they probably exist, but they’re not like what we consider aliens, also like, unidentified flying, it’s such a vague term. I’m unidentified and I’m a flying object. I’m an unidentified Voguing object. Oh, ow! My pinky! Uh, guys, we’ve had now zero days since the last Voguing accident in the Mythical Kitchen. Can we change the sign, please? Change the sign. Thank you so much. I think I hurt my pinky. Thank you so much, Nicole needs medical attention. All right, Maggie, play that first opinion. Kraft Singles are disgusting. Come at me bro. Oh, I will come at you. But, to watch us come at her, you gotta go over to our audio -only versions on Spotify, Apple Podcast. That’s right. Wherever the heck you get your podcasts. So for now, this is us signing off for the video folks. We’ll see you all later. Thanks for stopping by, we got new episodes out, audio-only comes out on Wednesdays, video drops on Sundays, check us out. That’s right, and if you wanna leave an opinion, call 833 DOG POD1 Our number again is 833 DOG POD1. And come back to the old Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel. Watch all our stuff. Come on. We do fun things, “Last Meals” with Post Malone, a little fancy fast food with Stevie. We’re proud of the work we do. Come on! Let’s see y’all next time. Nicole, beckon harder. Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Wazzup, oop, oh no. Come on.