I sure am nuts for donuts. And I’m donuts for nuts. Like nuts. 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 Hot Dog Is A Sandwich.” “A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich.” What? Welcome to our podcast, “A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich,” the show we break down the world’s biggest food debates, and I’m your host Josh Scherer. And I’m your host Nicole Enayati. And Nicole, today we are taking on the most important subject matter we have ever covered here. Really? Because what is the number one problem in America? I think there’s a lot of division within the nation right now. I think it’s causing a lot of stress and difficult times ahead, because the unity is just gone. No, that’s stupid, it’s when you walk into a donut shop, you don’t know which one is the best, and what is the solution to all of America’s problems? Podcasts. Oh. So we’re gonna tell you. I was gonna say TikTok clips of podcasts, so. I will say, correlation is not causation, but if you were to graph. I learned that in law school. I didn’t go to law school. David learned that in law school, and I learned by- You can’t say that. By osmosis. You can’t say that you learned it in law school if your husband who is going to law school just told you it. That’s like saying, “I went to Harvard,” ’cause like someone at a bar yelled at me, and they went to Harvard. Is anyone gonna fact check you about it? No. Correlation is not causation, but, the number of problems in the nation and the number of podcasts seem to have a positive correlation. Keep going up. Keep going up. They just keep going up. Keep going up. But we’re here, just two podcasters, arguing about what the best donut is. I’m not a podcaster, and neither are you. We really aren’t though. We’re people who podcast. We have so much other things other than, we contain multitudes. Podcaster is a slur. I don’t think so. Oh my God, it is. Absolutely. Well, when you meet someone and they’re like, “I have a podcast,” do you hate them? I spit at them. I spit at them like a llama, like an ibex. Like a. “Get outta here, podcaster.” I love an ipex. “No, mine’s actually-” “Get outta here.” Mine gets like, I do ads. Mine’s pretty good. I’m sponsored. Donuts, donuts. What are your thoughts on donuts? You said you would go nuts for ’em earlier, so. I actually don’t really like donuts. I thought that, you lied right to the people’s faces in the first minute of the podcast. I’m a liar. ♪ That girl’s a liar. ♪ Sorry, I guess we’re just in a silly, goofy mood. Everything in America’s getting worse. Everything’s getting worse. Why are you so silly today? And I think you would, the data would verify that. Why are you? Music is getting worse. That was the number one song for a long time. It’s a good song. Have you ever danced to it like how I dance to it? If you just move your body the way I do, it’s a pretty good song. I’ve never done that, no. Oh, but donuts. I like, don’t, I don’t like search out a donut often when it comes to like the cannon of desserts, Cheesecake, sign me up. I’m taking a big old spoonful of a cheesecake. But when it comes to donuts, like Krispy Kreme donuts has never like enchanted me, or like, things like that. The one, I’m gonna save this for later, I’ll tell you what my favorite one is, I’m gonna tell you right now, but I do like a filled, a filled ethnic donut is my favorite. Did you say a filled ethnic donut? Is my favorite. What is an ethnic donut to you? As an ethnic American woman, what is that mean? I like ponchik. Oh, interesting. Are the Poles? No, Ponchik is Armenian, Armenian, Armenian. Armenian. Yeah, so it’s just, it’s the most beautiful like yeasty, yummy donut, and they fill it with this eggy, stunning custard. And it’s warm on the outside. Well, when we get it. So, my dad really loves them, actually. It’s my dad’s favorite, aside from Napoleons, cream filled Napoleons. But like, he loves custard filled Ponchiks, and we like to microwave it a little bit to get the chill off of it. And it’s like, the cream is cold, and the Ponchik is hot, and it still has that like matted powdered sugar on it, and it’s one of the most delicious foods, my mouth is watering, like ever. I don’t like donuts, I don’t like American donuts. Interesting. But geez Louise, a custard Ponchik from Papillon Bakery. Papillon Bakery does incredible. Incredible everything. I know what you mean by ethnic donuts now. Yeah, every time I go to like a, like if I’m like having a Shabbat, or like my sister’s hosting like a party, I always bring Papillon, because it’s a crowd pleaser, and my dad really likes them, and I love my dad. I love you, I love your dad too, more, shout out. I guess we should like, define our terms here when we’re talking about donuts, because a lot of people. Fried dough. True, but a lot of people, like for our American listeners, you know, we grew up going to donut shops, and you probably saw the same canon of donuts in most of those. I didn’t do that, because my mom- You’re in Los Angeles, we’re like one of the- I know, but my mom was like very anti, like she was very diet-culturey. So like, we wouldn’t do that. One time I got a McFlurry, and my mom threw it out the window. What other childhood traumas you wanna talk about? I always, I dump on you. That’s the main one. I dump my childhood traumas on you, so if you wanna talk about. I don’t have as much as you. But that was the one, my mom was very diet culturally, like sugar is bad, fat is bad, like bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, so. But so you never, do you remember the first time you went into like a donut shop? I have no. Do you have any salient memories of going to a donut shop? I have no memories of going to a donut shop. It wasn’t a place marked? A pink box. Yeah, it wasn’t like marked as sacred for you as an experience. Not even a little bit, but what we would do is we would go to like, Middle Eastern bakeries, and that was it for me, with like the little petty fours, and like little cakes, and like, with like little fruit tarts, so that was more of my exposure to like going to a dessert shop and seeing all the beautiful little. Did your mom make you get the fruit tarts that had fresh fruit in it, and she said that was healthier? Not all, I mean, we were more, what’s the almond paste? Frangipane, we were more pear tart with frangipane people. I’m sorry, Nicole grew up in Beverly Hills, she did not grow up with donuts. She had a pear tart with frangipane, so if you all could just get that through your heads. I’m sorry. She’s just like you. No, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not. I know, my take is- Out there in Lexington, Kentucky. My take is very unique, but I think that’s why, what makes me so special, is ’cause I’m so unique, and nobody else is like me, right, Josh? I agree with that. Yeah. Talking about childhood trauma. Sorry, how chapped my lip was. Talking about childhood trauma, my earliest donut shop memories, when my dad lived in Oceanside and my mom lived in Orange County, you can Google map it to find out how far. Okay. The midpoint was in San Clemente, California. And my parents, when it was time to hand over partial custody, we’d meet outside of a donut shop next to the Denny’s in San Clemente, the one that’s off the freeway, the 405. You know what I’m talking about. You know the one. You know the one, the old faded sign. just past San Onofre, the power plant that looks like boobies, and then you drive past. Oh yeah, the boobies. The boobies, the boobies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boobies. You got blinking little lights on top, and anyways, we would do the handoff with the kids at a donut shop, and I would always walk in, and I’d get a donut, and my parents would argue about who had to pay. “You didn’t pay child support, so you get the donuts.” You know, that whole thing. So what I’m saying is, I associate donuts with comfort, and I would always get a different donut because I wanted to try it. There was one that really stuck out to me when I was a kid, and I don’t know if I would consider it a proper donut. Maple bar. No, that’s definitely a donut. So when we talk about donuts, we’ve talked about this before, there’re mostly two kinds. Donut generally refers to just a fried leavened dough. Sure. And even when you, God, is it pronounced. The Chinese, they will just call them donuts. They put it in kanji. They’ll put it in kanji, they will also serve it with fresh soy milk, which is a really delight. Yum, yes. Yes, yes. And so, people even call that thing a donut, which obviously has nothing to do with the American, you know, donut, donut shop culture. Sure. But any sort of fried dough here. Yeah. There’s cake donuts, which are a batter that’s baked and then fried, and we did figure this out. So it’s baked in a- They’re baked in a mold, and then they’re fried. So, we were both right? We’re both right. They’re both a cake and a donut, but any who. Who says we can’t get along? So, the donut that I always gravitated to when I was a kid, because I thought it was fancy and cool, and I still. Bubula, get it. Get it. You got it. Okay, cool. The donut that I always gravitated towards when I was a kid, ’cause I thought it was fancy and cool and very epicurean. Okay. Apple fritters, dude. Ooh. Ooh. Dude, a dense, and I’m not talking about like, so bear claws, some people will call an apple fritter- What is a bear claw? I actually don’t. Some people will call an apple fritter a bear claw. Apple fritters, I’m talking about they’re dark, they’re dense, they’re gnarled and gnarled. Yeah. Filled with actual apple chunks that probably came from a can. Yum. And they’re deep fried, and they’re heavily caramelized, super sugary. They’re twice as dense as any other donut. Is a bear claw with almonds? I believe a bear claw is a donut that is leavened dough that has marks in it like a catcher’s mit almost, and then it is most often filled with apple. Oh, really? Okay. So, see, it looks like a catcher’s mit. Oh, nice, nice. We’re looking at a Google image right now. Almond paste. Frangipane, almond paste. Oh, okay, interesting. Ooh, fancy Nicole with her pears and frangipane, that’s just a bear claw, bro. Bear claws aren’t, the Google says it’s often filled with almond paste. The donut shops I went to- Usually, it doesn’t often, it says usually filled. Usually, I dunno about usually. Usually filled. You measure the amount, the total amount of bear clawage in the United States, no, usually there’s not gonna be above 50% are filled with almond paste? God, they cost $1.79. Okay, so do you know how high of a concentration of Germans live in the US? A lot. A lot of them. Especially in the fifties. Do Germans love almond paste? Yeah. What do you mean, “Yeah?” Almond paste is a very like, European thing. It’s not- Yeah, European. I would reserve- Germany’s in Europe. I guess Austria invented a lot of the modern patisserie. Yeah, why are you being so weird today? So yeah, that’s interesting. Croissants, croissants were invented in Austria, technically. Austria, yeah. That’s why they call it. The general cannon of laminated pastries in France called. It’s easy, just say, “Nicole, you were right.” Nicole, you were right. Okay. Everyone grew up eating frangipane almond tarts. You’re so normal, you’re right. But, as I’ve gotten older, and given your answer of the Ponchik from Papillon Bakery, I think you and I have the same king donut in mind. Are you gonna say Sufganiyot? No, no, no. Because that’s not my favorite. It’s one of the donuts that comes from a common American- Boston cream pie. Boston cream pie donut. Boston cream pie. Far and away the greatest donut of all time. I haven’t had one in a really long time, so I actually don’t remember what they taste like completely. Dude. I’m sorry. I’m so mad that we don’t have these in front of us right now. Oh my god. I’m happy about it. The Dad’s Donuts, which in Burbank, California, they do a great Boston cream pie donut, that’s a bummer, but it’s perfect. And, it has to be custard, not cream. I see. I firmly believe, I just got back from New Orleans. Everybody knows. Everybody that listens to this podcast knows that. I bought an ankle bracelet. Everybody knows that too. I took a bunch of jello shots. Yeah, you talked about it in the last podcast. Another thing I did is ate a bunch of fried dough, because beignets are very common. Oh, I love beignets. Yeah. I went to Cafe Beignet, I went to Loretta’s, I went to Cafe Dumond, which was, Cafe Dumond, I waited in line at like 45 minutes at like 7:00 in the morning drinking the coffee. Julia was still asleep, ’cause I’m an early riser. I was like, “Let’s walk a mile to,” and it was just, it was bad. Like, straight up. It’s a tourist- It was? It’s a tourist thing. I really wanna go. I was glad that I went, you know? But literally nothing about it was good. Also, just a funny fact about Cafe Dumond, there’s like a series of benches, maybe a couple hundred yards away that overlook the water. A lot of people take their beignets in a bag, and they go eat the benches. There’s a man who is paid to come wash away all the powdered sugar that drops underneath the benches. Nice. And I saw him do that. And then somebody was like, “Why are you doing that?” And he was like, “The birds will eat the powdered sugar and die.” So, that’s a funny little local common story. God bless. God bless. Point is, I ate a bunch of fried dough and beignets. A lot of people are like, “They’re the lettuce, they’re the best.” They’re whatever, it’s, most fried dough is damn near the same. And it’s always good. And it’s always good. Yeah. But, then you start really figuring out what the best is, and I have decided that there’s one best iteration of fried dough that has ever existed in the world. More than Boston cream pie? Well, so, so, so, so, it’s a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut. Okay. I don’t think, from a culinary, culinary perspective, straight up, you look at the dough structure, the crumb. Yeah, it’s perfect. You look at everything. Yeah. And I’m not just doing this to be like an every man, no, I’ve become like a real bougie piece of crap. I just ate a Cheeto in the kitchen. Yeah. And just went, “Ugh, tastes so artificial.” So I’m at that point in my life now, Krispy Kreme. I still love hot Cheetos, Krispy Kreme donuts, I think they figured it out. Yeah. It’s the lightest. It’s consistent, and it’s delicious, and yeah. The glaze dries to the perfect level of hardness. It’s perfect, yeah. The rest of their donuts are not good. You put anything else on it, and it kind of- Do you like old fashioned donuts? Because that’s my second favorite. Wait, wait. Can we go back to Krispy Kreme real quick? Yeah, sorry, sorry. Can we go back to Krispy Kreme? Of course. No, no, like, I do wanna talk about that. Krispy Kreme, if you get a Boston cream pie donut from Krispy Kreme, it’s filled with a cream filling, not custard. Which you don’t like. Which I don’t like. But even if they filled that with custard, I think it wouldn’t be as good, ’cause a dough wouldn’t have the same integrity. Sure. You put a chocolate frosting on it, that’s like fine enough. It’s still good from there, but anything else that requires a heavier coating than the glaze, you’re putting… Strawberry. Toppings on it, strawberry, all that, Krispy Kreme is never as good. But the original glazed donut is- It is really good. The single best iteration of fried dough, nothing is lighter, nothing has a more perfect texture on that first bite. It is really special. I don’t even want it fresh outta the fryer. I wanna sitting out to let it air dry that glaze a little bit more. Yeah. Oh my God, they rule. It’s really good. I do like it, but my favorite, like if I were supposed, if I were to go to a donut shop, like a regular, like a LA Pink Box place, I find myself gravitating towards the old fashioned ones. Yeah. But I don’t know why. I think it’s because they look a little craggy and silly, and they’re not perfect. They’re fun. So, maybe that’s why I picked them. Describe an old fashioned donut to people that don’t know. Is it sour cream or buttermilk? It can be either. Okay, so. Yeah. It’s just a donut made with sour cream. My favorite in LA is a buttermilk old fashioned. Oh yeah? From Sidecar? No, it’s a spot called Primos, old school. Primos. Yeah. 50 years old spot, but. Yeah, I just love the tech. It’s the crumb of an old fashioned donut is so luxurious and unxious and delicious. Is an old fashioned donut yeasted, or not? I don’t know. I don’t think it is, dude. Hold on, is an old fashioned donut technically a cake donut? So, an old fashioned donut, if you’ve ever seen the donuts that, it’s not a cruller, we’ll get into that, ’cause I’m fascinated by certain things in the donut industry, but an old fashioned donut, it typically has these sort of ridges around the end. It’s stamped into a circle, but then you see this almost like creste di galli. Yeah. Almost like a rooster’s, cock’s comb on the donut, right? And so it gets these cragley edges. They’ll typically put, like, sometimes there’s a sour cream glaze on or whatever, but they’ll put a sugar glaze on it, and then it almost gets into the crags, and the crags become extra crispy. Hold on, 19th century recipes for old fashioned donuts are made with yeast, but modern donut shops, an old fashioned donut is usually a cake donut. It’s beautiful, and a glazed old fashioned is really good, but I don’t like chocolate old fashions. Me neither. I… What chocolate donuts? Oh, I have one. You like a chocolate cake donut? Very rarely do I like it, but I used to work at this chocolate shop. We used to do a chocolate stout. Oh that’s fun. Oh, that’s fun. And it was a cake donut, and then we would put a really beautiful like vanilla chocolate glaze, like an icing, and then cacao nibs on top. And that was pretty funny, oh, sorry, you said that word, that was pretty good. But yeah, no, not really. I’m starting to realize, I might have like a holy triumvirate of donuts here. What is a triumvirate? A triumvirate, Megan, Google triumvirate. It’s like a ruling party of three, right? You could just say trio, I feel like. You could have just said like, trio. Yeah, but this is the beauty of language, triumvirate in ancient Rome, a group of three men holding power. Like, I don’t understand why this difficult. Like the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yeah, the office of triumvirate. So anyways, my holy triumvirate of, you know why I like it? ‘Cause it’s hyperbolic. Is that a word? Do you have like a calendar where it says, “Word of the day is blank” and you have? No, if you wanna get me one though, that’d be pretty cool. Okay. Really? Yeah. Okay. I would be quite resplendent. You were saying? Sorry to interrupt you. I think it’s a triumvirate for me, ’cause I was very convinced that the Boston cream donut with the custard filling is my perfect one, and I still do love that. Especially when the custards like cold, you know what I mean? Sure. I love cold custard. But the Krispy Kreme, that light, that perfect, that quintessence of what a donut should be. Sure. But then also, that really dense, buttermilky old fashioned? There’s nothing that hits like that. Wow, it’s so good. Especially with coffee. Wow, it’s so good. The dense pastry stays in your mouth. Hot coffee? Yeah, hot black coffee with it? Hot black coffee. It’s like, did someone put a half teaspoon of salt in this? Why does it taste like that? That’s what I want. Yeah, I know. Me too. That’s what you get at Primos, baby. Me too. You know, when I was growing up, I always thought donuts had to be that big pink Homer Simpsony donut. Yeah, yeah. And then I had one, and I said, “Meh.” It’s not that good. Yeah, that’s… The pink donuts are a trap. Yes. Iced cake donuts, let’s just run through some donuts right here. Okay. Because you got like your iced cake donuts, which to me are always just fine. It’s never what I want. Yeah. Then you got the iced yeasted raised donuts, also never really what I want. Chocolate icing, perfectly fine. Chocolate icing on glaze is good. What about powdered sugar donuts? Out. What about sugar donuts? Have you ever had- Sugar donuts, kind of out. Sometimes, I don’t know why, I feel like a little French girl when I eat it. “Ooh, the sugar’s on my little hands, mummy.” I feel like a little- “Oh the sugar all on my little hands.” “Mama, Mama, the sugar is in my hands. “The sugar, the sugar.” “Oh, Mama, stop blowing cigarette smoke in my face.” “Mama, I do not want wine with my dinner. Oh, please.” “Mama, there’s a little hat under my hat, and he is telling me to burn things.” You know how the French are. But anyways, no, I hate sugar donuts. Even, I was thinking about churros, which people could consider a churro a donut recently. Oh, I love churros. Well, hold on, we gotta get to that. Give me a sec, we got a little bit of a segue. Speaking of ethnic donuts, I love churros. You know Costco, hold on, hold on, hold on. Go. Costco is discontinuing their churros, did you know? Okay, now I go. So… I just made a bombshell statement, now you don’t even care? Are Costco churros even churros? What are you talking about? So, most of the churros, that I think if you go to like an amusement park, right? They’re like three foot long hard sticks covered in sandpaper sugar. If you have like an actual Spanish, or even an actual like Mexican churro that’s been cooked for you, they’re so worlds apart from the freezer aisle. Well, yeah. Like, the Spanish circular ones where you dip in hot chocolate? Those are different. Yeah, I mean even like- But, that’s okay. Mexican churro, you know, same style, and it’s like a very intricate light dough, and then- Pate a choux. It’s pate a choux, yeah, it is choux pastry, but then you go to Disneyland or Costco or whatever, and they’re churros like a baseball game. It’s like, there’s a dill pickle filled in it? It’s just, they’re hard, they’re great. It’s like a salt lick is to deer as me is to this churro. I’m just gnashing at it with my teeth throughout nine innings. I have one question. Yeah. One more churro question. Why are you so tired? ‘Cause I was, I feel like I was talking about something, and I lost my place. I’m so sorry. No, go ahead. It’ll come back to you. It’ll come back. What was that one place? It’s like a fast food restaurant that had churros that were stuffed with stuff? Was it Jack in the Box? Was it? Was it stuffed with dulce de leche? I think it was Jack in the Box. That is my, do they still have it? I don’t know. Can I just say, that is my favorite fast food dessert of all time. And if you ever wanna make it on “Past Food,” I would fricking love that. I feel like Jack in the Box used to have stuffed churros. I don’t know. Someone write in the comments. Continue, I’m so sorry. Crullers. I don’t care for them. What is a cruller to you? It’s like an old fashioned, but it’s a little bit more tame. What’s the dough on a cruller? I don’t know. Well, no, this is why I ask, because we’re talking about like the actual cookery of certain donuts, and I’m fascinated by what American donut shops have done to these names. They kind of did a little bit like what Starbucks and Chipotle did, where Starbucks is like, “This is a macchiato.” And you’re like, “How’s that different from a latte?” And they’re like, “It is not.” And then you find out like a real macchiato is a real thing. Or at Chipotle, when they call it like, carnitas, and it’s just kinda wet pork? And then you find out that carnitas is an actual thing, that’s how I found out what an eclair was, and what a cruller was. So do you, when you think of crullers, do you think of a circle, or do you think of a long pastry? I think of a circle, but that’s been piped through a star tip to give it ridges. So to me, a curler is ridged. So, a French cruller is this. So a cruller is made with pate a choux as well, like a proper French cruller. Is it? It’s a choux dough. Are you? And a choux dough is what you like- Pulling my chain? No, a choux dough, you’re cooking milk with flour and butter, and then you add egg to it when it’s cooled. Yes, yes. That’s what I’m thinking. That’s pate a choux. And then you have to pipe it while it’s still warm, but pliable. It’s like a really intricate dough to do. I remember I tried making it for home ec class when I was 12, and I royally screwed it up. You had home ec class? Yeah, all the dudes are taking wood shop from a basketball team, and I was like, “Brah, I’m gonna make lasagna in home ec,” and I did. I’m like, “I’m gonna meet girls.” And I was like, “Oh, I’m too scared to talk to ’em.” Any whom- I’m sorry, I just totally disassociated, what did you do? Did you talk to a girl, is that what you’re saying? No, I was scared of ’em. I was 12 Of girls? Yeah. You were scared of girls? I thought one would never love me. When you were 12? I thought I was undeserving of love, ’cause I was in messaging my whole life. Awe. You know? But you’re okay now, you’re 31. Yeah, and I have no problems. Anyways, so, hell, let’s think about donuts again. So you go to an American donut shop, and you can find an eclair, which is made with choux dough. I like eclairs. You can find a cruller that is made with choux dough, except they’re just made with normal ass donut dough. So an American donut shop eclair is a long John donut, which is just a bar, and then is- Maple bar. It is filled with custard, and iced with chocolate. So the same thing as a Boston cream donut, they were calling an elair, at least in the shops that I would go to when I was a kid. Okay. That might be the only one that can compete with the Boston cream, because easier to eat, phallic, long foods that fit in your mouth. It is phallic. Are better. Better? I think so. Hm. I’m a fan. I don’t wanna unpack that. You know? That was a donut. You’re going right in. Okay. And crullers are the same thing, they would just be made with braided donut dough, which is what you found when you Googled. I like crullers, but I don’t love them the way that I love an old fashioned. Let’s talk about fancy donuts. Oh, I was just about to talk about- A lot of new school donuts. Oh my gosh. Lot of new school donuts, doing cool things. Blue Star Donuts had this beautiful donut, it was a passion fruit glazed yeasted donut with cayenne pepper, honey. Was it really good? Oh my god. Oh my god, well, I think passion fruit is one of my top three favorite fruits. Again, very relatable young woman. And I like, whenever I would like, I bake, I used to bake a lot more than I do now, but I used to make, instead of lemon curd, I would make passion fruit curd. That’s a good curd. So, I would always gift people jars of passion fruit curd. I would make passion fruit tarts, or passion fruit- Do you use fresh passionfruits for it? No, I would have to, well, sometimes I would, but I would prefer to use a passion fruit puree from Surface, from a French company. 16 ounces cost me about 50 bucks, so I had to stop. Damn. So I had to stop. You had to stop. I had to stop. You know when you have to stop your passion fruit addiction, ’cause it’s been costing you too much money? Too much money. But passion fruit, especially like curdy icingy, like these beautiful like, expressions of passion fruit with a little bit of cayenne pepper, just sitting on a pillowy gorgeous fresh donut was one of my favorite culinary experiences. I actually went, a friend of the show, Mitchell Frieder and I, with two other students, went to Blue Star Donuts together, ’cause he wants to open like a little donut shop with us. I don’t know if I signed an NDA, sorry, and we just sat there and we tasted like 15 donuts together. That’s a fun time. It was a fun time. I feel like, to me, I remember the fancy donut boom. Blue Star from Portland was a big one, Sidecar Donuts from Orange County was a big one. Did you ever have the egg one, the eggs Benedict one? They have a, I love it, it is a savory donut, and fried dough is a great savory application, but it is a savory, unsweetened fried dough filled with a poached egg. So crazy. Some sort of ham product, it’s probably prosciutto, and then a basil hollandaise. Wow. And I remember eating that donut, and that is a special donut. It’s outside of the can of normal donuts, but I ate it, and basil hollandaise just went. Right into the my crotch when I was driving in Santa Monica, California. Wow. But, they had a bunch of really cool and inventive donuts. I am all for a creme brulee donut, it’s a great idea. You fill a donut with custard, you torch the sugar so it’s glassy, that’s fun. That is, that is- A lemon meringue donut, you fill it with lemon curd, like little ways to improve the old cannon of donuts, ’cause you could always get like, the kind of like gross, just goopy lemon-filled donuts that are fine, but you make like a proper lemon curd. You put a little bit of meringue on top and torch it, like that’s an awesome donut. Wow. You know? But, I feel like 99% of the time, these fancy donuts are bad. They had a margarita donut at Trejos Donuts. But let me tell you. It’s bad. A creme brulee donut is pretty damn good. It’s pretty damn good. For new school donuts, that’s probably my top one. Yeah. I’m gonna throw out, throw out an international donut real quick. Throw it. Shout out to koeksisters from South Africa. There’s two kinds of koeksisters, so koeksisters is, we didn’t go into the origin of donuts, I think people are sick of the food history for me, but I believe it’s a Dutch invention, originally called oil koek. I’ve never heard of it. And koek is how we got the word cake. I believe it’s K-O-E-K. Okay, tracks. But anyways, I went to South Africa, and they have things called koeksisters, and they’re cake sisters, and the like white Dutch koeksisters is a normal ass kind of fried dough donut covered in sugar, and there’s like two pieces and you pull ’em, or they’re intertwined or something. But Cape Malay koeksisters, so Cape Malay are people that generally descended from India. I believe it’s actually Malay, maybe is the region. Don’t take my word for it, but they’ve been in South Africa for hundreds of years, and very much developed their own food ways, a lot of it rooted in a lot of different Indian cookery. But they have their own version of koeksisters that are these like, dark spiced molassesy fried dough balls that are like almost swimming in a syrup similar to like, gulab jamun. Gulab jamun. Which if we’re talking those donut, if that’s the donut, that’s the best donut. Those are the best donuts. Gulab Jamun, but it was really cool to see the sort of Cape Malay, somewhat Indian-fied version of the koeksisters donuts that had all those incredible warm spices that we might associate with masala chai, or something. Wow. That was a great donut experience. Wow. California donuts, ube donuts, panda donuts, matcha donuts. Lot of mochi donuts. Mochinuts. I like mochinuts. Mochinuts. I love a mochi donut. Fried mochi, got a little nice chew to it. Yeah. That’s good, the cronut. I don’t, it- I love a cronut. I don’t love a cronut. I love the construction of it and the ideation that went behind it, but sometimes, they’re hit or miss for me. So, Cronut invented by Dominique Ansel. Trevor used to work for him, but when that happened, he was sending cease and desists to anyone calling anything a cronut. Wow. He couldn’t stop people from layering croissant dough and frying it, but he could stop the usage of the name. From calling it, yeah. So local donut shops, they took it upon themselves to, you know, they call it a doughsant instead of a cronut, but I’ll never forget, SK’s Donuts in I believe Hollywood called it a Scronut. And there’s nothing more appetized to this gobbler than a Scronut, and that’s my official answer for best donut. He is donuts for nuts. They call me the Scronut governor. Gobble your Scronuts. I’m nuts. Get as adventurous as you want in your kitchen with a Mythical Kitchen merch collection. We all need a little adventure in our lives, right? Right, Nicole? Yeah, sure. Available now at Mythical.com. What was that? My art? Okay, all right, Nicole, what the hell are these on my head? We’ve heard what you and I are just saying, now it’s time to find out what other wacky opinion’s are rattling out there in the universe. It’s time for a segment we call opinions are like donuts. Opinions are like casserole. “Like donuts.” You’re so cheeky. I’m a cheeky little. You’re so cheeky. Cheeky lad, oh monkey. You cheeky little minx. Well, Nicole, it’s time. Do you know that a minx is an animal that you can turn into a coat? We talked about this already. Do you know that your favorite segment, and everybody’s favorite segment, is called reviewer or review? I love this. That’s the best part of my whole day. Now who’s going nuts for review or review? Yeah. So when I have people review us and we review them, influencing you to go review us on Apple Podcast. It’s a trick. We got TheAllyest5 starts, it’s very long, so I’m gonna speed read it. “Fun for the whole family, almost. Just a fabulous experience every week spending time with Josh and Nicole, learning about the history of food, hearing amusing anecdotes, and the odd special guess is a must for my family, except for my ex-wife. We were so happy in the beginning, always laughing, spending quality time. Then you came along. I thought your little program was irreverent and cute, but my wife didn’t appreciate the prurient jokes and inane banter. She let it go for the most part, because it was innocent enough, until the discussion turned to the title of your podcast. She insisted that a hotdog was not a sandwich, and would not hear any idea otherwise. It all came to a head when you declared that a hot dog was a sandwich, and ultimately agreed with me. Besides bad grammar, people who put up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, and mangoes and everything, she despised me being right. This was a straw that broke the camel’s back. She could live with “Die Hard” being a Christmas movie, and she accepted that we landed on the moon, but this was too far for her, I guess, because she divorced me the next day. My kids and I still love listening to you. Keep up the good work. No notes.” I’m gonna give that three stars. Overshare. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll say four stars. Pretty well written. Love the usage of the word prurient. I Googled it. It means voyeuristic. I love the, love the fact that you still have a relationship with your kids. That’s important. Yeah, I’m proud of you for that. Ultimately, don’t trauma dump on us. We’ll do the trauma dumping. We do it to you. That’s our job. And that’s the relationship that I like to have. I’m kidding, please trauma dump. Use our Apple Podcast review page as a diary of all the bad things that have ever happened in your life. I use my Twitter that way. Fair enough. Let’s get to that first opinion. Hi, this is Sunny from Kansas City. I wanted to share one of my- Casey mug chiefs. Favorite comfort meals that I’ve had ever since childhood. Chili and cinnamon rolls. This is day-old cold rice with buttermilk and crushed up Pringles, and I suspect that this has to do with what I used to eat when I was a very, very picky eater as a toddler. When I went to India to see my grandparents for the first time. Cute. Which was essentially rice with like cultured yogurt and puffs in. I love it. I wonder if she’s talking about kadhi. If you were to try it, I’d recommend using sour cream and onion Pringles, and I think it’s a really great comfort food. Love the podcast. So funny. Thanks for doing what you do. Probably. Sunny so funny, that’s… So, you say, what is it called? So, I don’t know where y’all’s family’s from in India, but my best homie Diep’s family’s from Gujarat, and they would always eat kadhi, which is like a very thinned out, cultured yogurt. Not dissimilar from buttermilk at all. Lots of curry leaves in there, really fantastic. They would always eat that with rice, and he would eat it cold as a snack all the time. And I remember going to his house after basketball practice or something and eating that. Yeah, when I was a kid, my mom used to make something called Kateh mast. So Kateh is like a very like a dense rice, where like you don’t drain it. So, you know like an in Persian rice you like drain it aldente, and then you steam it? Yeah. It was just rice cooked with water all the way through, so it was like, kind of like thick and like glutenous. And then some Mountain High yogurt and salt, and like that was like my food I would eat if like my stomach was bothering me, or if I just like needed something to like eat. Yeah. That was like my dish of choice. There’s one part of your comfort meal that’s really, really beautiful, right? That you, these are like very American convenience food. Buttermilk. Pringles, buttermilk. Yeah. And then there’s like the other part of me that always see stuff like that, and I’m like, “I guess this is just an inevitable cultural shift and change,” right? This is what happens within diaspora, and it’s great that there’s free movement of people so we can move wherever we want. Yeah. Then there’s a part of me that’s like, man, are those cultural traditions just eventually going to die out to Pringles? You know what I mean? Die out. Die out, shift. Shift. I mean, look at- Die out, there’s books. No, sure, there’s books. But, I mean, we are inevitably losing a lot of significant cultural, especially foods, right? You think about like Hawaii, right? When people are, “Oh, spam such a Hawaiian thing.” It’s like, no, I mean, that’s a mainland America thing that was exported to Hawaii for the same reasons that native foodways there have been being erased. Yeah. They exist simultaneously, and because of each other. I don’t necessarily think like appropriation of food and food stuffs for the Americanized palate is like the worst thing in the world. Oh no, no, no, no, and again, it’s a rad comfort meal. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. You know? Yeah, I think it’s a good thing. I think you adjust flavors and textures and ingredients to your own preference, and that’s the beauty of living in. ♪ Living in America. ♪ Living in the US. It’s fun. No one’s gonna like, judge, we’ll judge you, but like you’re not gonna be judged or like seen as less than because of these food preferences. And a lot of unique foods come outta that. Dieps mom used to- Yeah. Throw a bunch of masala, different masalas in her lasagna and stuff when she would make it. Masala lasagna. Masala lasagna, damn, girl. Sounds good. Stuff’s great. What up, guys? What up? Sup, dude. I’m currently holding a hydro flask full of some dozens of amount of ounces of Crystal Light. I was gonna say, are you driving? What I want to know, is Crystal Light gonna kill me? Because I still have the pallet of a 9-year-old, and can’t have raw water. Oh. Yeah, chemically, what’s going on there? Can I survive? Am I being hydrated? Yeah, you’re experts. Thank you. So, I never got into the Crystal Light game. I’m also not in the water-tok game. I am also not, like, I’ve never been a meal person. I’ve never been a sugar-free Crush in my water. I drink water, I don’t drink a lot of water, but I drink water, and something about the Crystal Light ads, like, were always like a little bit weird, and like, I don’t know. Crystal Light ads are very diet culturey, right? Yeah, it’s very diet culture. Yeah. I never, we never got into that part of it, thank God. But, I just never liked it, and I’d rather just eat Country Time lemonade. The pink one. So what’s interesting, you think about the volume here, Country Time lemonade, you gotta put, say, I’m just estimating here, but like 2 tablespoons of that for 16 ounces. Crystal Light, you’re putting a half a teaspoon in for 16 ounces, a piece of Country Time lemonade powder is sugar, right? I love. Crystal Light, where you’re asking if you’re gonna die, the reason you’re asking if you’re gonna die is because it ain’t sugar, it’s the fake stuff. Oh, okay. I googled it to see exactly what sweeteners they’re using. I used to drink, in up through college, I did it when I was a kid, and I stopped drinking, like I used to drink a half gallon of cranberry juice cocktail a day when I was a child, because I was like, fruit, healthy. You’re crushing it today. Did you have a UTI? No, and I never did because of that. Well, it had it once, and it was non ST- Anyways, but, I at some point when I was in high school, transitioned to drinking Crystal Light, ’cause like you said, I don’t like blah water, I want some flavors. I continued with that through college. I would keep like an empty milk gallon. I’d fill it with water, crush some Crystal Light packets in there, shake it up, and that was all of my hydration. Are you getting hydrated? Absolutely, right? Think about just the amount of water that you’re drinking. There’s no amount of aspartame and a sulfate potassium, also known as Ace K, it’s the sweetener that really revolutionized Coke Zero, no amount of that is going to take away the fact that you just drank a ton of water. You’re doing good stuff for you. Are you gonna die? Maybe. We need an an, we’re all gonna die. Oh, well Josh says it best, say, we’re all gonna eat. We’re all gonna- We all gotta eat, and we’re all, say it with me. Well, yeah, but I don’t know what you’re gonna say. You know what I’m gonna say. Well, then I say we all gotta eat, and we’re gonna die. And we’re all gonna die. And it’s true. Yeah. And so, you are hydrating yourself on your way to death. Will you die faster because of the aspartame is probably the question to ask. I don’t know. My personal beliefs say no, and I think the scientific consensus is no. We would need an actual doctor and or scientist to talk about this efficaciously. Because we’re neither. Yeah, and I think we do wanna do that episode soon, so keep an eye out for that. But, from what I know, there was one famous study in the 90s from the Ramazzini Foundation that’s linked aspartame to, not, they said cancer, but it turns out it was just growths on lab rats, but the amount of aspartame they were pumping into these rat lab rats intravenously, which is not the way that we consume aspartame, was the equivalent of 1200 diet cokes a day. Poor babies. And so, I believe they officially had to recant, look it up for yourself. Ramazzini study on aspartame. That’s so sad. But I believe they had to straight up recant and unpublished the study, but it still sent shockwaves, so people associate aspartame with cancer. There was a recent study that came out that linked it as like a potential signifier of something or other. I don’t believe that’s true. I also don’t believe you can cheat God, and as like a probably atheist, saying God is a weird thing. But, I think- You don’t believe in God? No, not really. I just kind of believe in vibes. You know what I mean? Omnipresent source. Nah, not even a source. Just like, we’re here, and that’s good enough, you know? Continue. But yeah, you can’t cheat God. Like, you can’t get blood from a stone. Something bad has to happen to you, because you’re enjoying all that sweetness with none of the caloric intake of sugar. We all reap what we sow, something bad is coming. It’s like in the 50s, and they’re like, “Smoking cigarettes, this is cool. Surely nothing can be bad.” It was like, no, you’re gonna, something’s gonna happen, so I also kind of believe that, I just don’t know what the it is, but far as I know, all of the current scientific evidence points to this is just a safe thing to consume, and you are definitely hydrating, and Crystal Light raspberry ice is delish. I think you’re gonna live forever. You’re pickling your body in so much aspartame, you’re gonna live to be 230. Yeah, you’re basically mummifying yourself like a Imhotep. You’re like a pharaoh from the inside out. Imhotep, good reference. Is that a “The Mummy” reference? Dying bright red. That’s “The Mummy.” That’s the mummy in- Brendan Frazier mummy? Yeah. Rachel Vice. Ooh. Next opinion? Big Rachel Vice guy, over here. Hi, this is Isabelle. My hot take when I was a child. Isabelle from work? Sounds like her. I would put lima beans in strawberry yogurt. Oh, I get it. I have not done it since I was a child, so maybe I should try that, and see. I know why. You know why? If it actually does still taste good. Why do you know why? You know. I got it. I probably had a very cool palate for an 8-year-old, I guess. I agree. Why do you know why? What do you mean you know why? Lima beans, specifically the frozen ones that are no longer frozen have this very interesting texture. It’s almost like, not ooblek, it’s like two steps away from ooblek. It’s almost like chewing on like, foam. Interesting. And it’s like a very specific, like, rank. You’re talking straight outta the freezer, you’re not cooking ’em, you’re popping ’em? No, no, no. They were in the freezer, but now they’re not, so they’re room temperature. Interesting. ‘Cause my mom cooks with frozen lima beans all the time. So when you isolate a lima bean, it has this very specific grain texture that’s almost like solidified split pea soup. I know I’m getting very technical with this, but lima beans don’t always, especially if they’re frozen, have that funky texture, like say a fava bean does. Sometimes fava bean is very like, aromatic and like. Like very strong. Yeah. Lima bean is a little bit more tame, and if you make, and it has this like velvety, ooblecky, split pea soupy, like, texture. Ooh. And if you pair it with strawberry yogurt, it cancels out the flavor of the lima bean, but it still is a little bit different, but it’s more velvety than the yogurt. So I understand you, where, Isabelle, I get it. I understand you. I haven’t done this, but I know what it tastes like in my head, and it sounds really good. I just wanna advocate for more bean-based desserts. We need to eat more lima beans, Also more lima beans, more butter beans. I’m a big bean guy, and I think they’re very versatile. When you go to the Haidilau Hotpot, chain of hotpot spots in China come to the states recently, they have the whole bar with about 60 ingredients that you can make sauces from. But, one of the big vats on that bar is just labeled dessert, and it is a very thin soup with beans and jellies, and it’s hot and there’s a whole lychee in there sometimes, and I like it. Have you heard about people that have Lima bean allergies? No. I don’t consult with them. My brother-in-law has a really hard, I think it’s either Lima beans or fava beans, if he eats them, he’ll die. It’s like a gene mutation, it’s really cool. All right. Thanks so much for stopping by the podcast. Don’t die, Mikey, I love you. Hope you had a good time, I’ve met Mikey. He has spiky hair, Mikey. That’s why I call him Spiky Mikey. Spikey Mikey, he’s gonna hate that. New audio-only episodes every Wednesday, new video comes out every Sunday. That’s it. If you wanna be featured on “Opinions are a Casserole,” hit us up at 833-DOG-POD1. We love to hear your voices, and we love to hear your opinions, and we love to hear your stories, and we love to hear your drama. I can fit this whole thing in my mouth, I know I can. Do it. From More Mythical Kitchen. I can do it too. Off-camera. Check out other videos. Off-camera. We launch new videos every week. I’ll go under the table here. Me too. He did it, he did it.