Nicole, if you were a kitchen gadget, which would you be? A rice cooker. Is it because you’re a little steamy? No, whenever I finish a task, I like to sing a little song. Do it. La la la la la la. Stop doing it, that’s creepy. La la la la la la. 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 where we break down the world’s Biggest food debates. I’m your host, Josh Sharer. And I’m your host, Nicole Aniety. And today we are talking about the only five kitchen gadgets you will ever need. I will tell you the only one kitchen gadget you’ll ever need is Nicole to come into your home and cook all your things and then sing her creepy little song. Nicole, sing him your creepy little song. Well, I haven’t completed a task yet, so it feels disingenuous to do so. After the podcast, you can consider that a task that has been completed and then you can sing your creepy little song. But my songs are different, you know, it’s like, it’s like if you finish like the rinse cycle, or if you finish like the dryer, like my songs are different just to let you know. I think what you’re doing is preparing for when the robot overlords take over and you are then like chained up in their homes. Do you know I always say thank you to Alexa? Dude, I do the same thing. And like Google Home, I go please and thank you. Yeah. But I don’t think they care, but I think it’s just nice. I’ve been trying to romantically seduce Alexa for the last three or four years, just in case like she wants to keep me as a little, little pet, you know, I for one, welcome our robot overlords. Thank you, Alexa. We love you. What are we talking about? Talking about kitchen gadgets, uh, because we, people come to us for actual cooking advice. Crazy, a crazy idea. No, you and I have both had like a wealth of experience in cooking, both professionally and a lot at home. Mm hmm. And a lot of people, they want to know what are the things they should actually stock in the kitchen because there’s a lot of misinformation out there. People trying to sell you, uh, banana slicers, corn strippers, corn, what’s a corn stripper? You know what a corn stripper is? I think they prefer corn exotic dancers. Nicole, don’t let them take you to the champagne room. Uh, but there’s a lot of stuff. stuff out there. Avocado pitters. Yeah. Unitaskers as we call it. Unitaskers. And I think as chefs like most of our advice is like, get good, get good with a knife. Yeah. You strip your corn with a knife. You pick your avocado with a knife. You slice your banana. It’s so easy to slice with a knife. So easy. Um, I sliced my bananas with a spoon cause they’re so soft. Yeah. You don’t need a knife. I take my yogurt and my peanut butter spoon and I just lick it clean in between. Between dipping back into the yogurt and peanut butter, and then I just go, And I slice some bananas. But, real question, because I consume yogurt a lot, And I’ve learned that whenever I lick my spoon and then put it back in the yogurt, It creates bacteria. And there’s like, it like molds over faster. You shouldn’t do it. The best unit to ask here is also a sponge and get a thing of soap as well and probably wash utensils. But like, if you, but you still continue to do it even though it molds over quicker? I’m the only one that eats it. Oh, you are, okay. And I’m fine with my level of this. Okay, okay, that’s fine. Um, but we’re gonna do a little bit of a fantasy draft of what the actual kitchen gadgets you should buy are. What are the ones that have Nicole actually improved. What do you mean fantasy draft? You’re like, okay, I can’t bring up fantasy football anymore. Even though, oh my god, this year I want Saquon so effing bad, dude. And I think he’s gonna drop because people are worried about the ACL. Yeah, Jordan Love. Yeah, Jordan Love is actually a great player. Jordan Love’s great. In real life and in fantasy. Um, yeah. Quarterbacks have been devalued so much over the last, let’s say like 10 years or so, which is why I like to play super flex leagues. I would rather just play a 2Q league. I was shocked to see Cooper Cupp’s numbers. Yeah, he, yeah, from last, really, down. Yeah, shocking. Yeah, I’m like, great. But the rise of Puka Nukuwa is really incredible. Yeah, the, uh, the line back. Well, yeah, the wide line receiver, wide receiver. Yeah, yeah. Shut up, I’m so bad at this. He’s so handsome. You should look up Puka He looks like, uh, Danny. Yeah, he has long hair. Do you know I have, I love men with long hair. Seriously, look him up right now. P U K A N A C U A. Oh, look at that picture of Bukka Nakua, handsome man. Very nice quality. Uh, I hope Cooper Cupp has a rebound season. I’ve been saying that for, for years. You know what I’ve been saying for years, Nicole? What’s up, Josh? This is probably my number one gadget you should buy in your kitchen. Okay, what is it? I don’t know about number one, but I’ll waste a first round pick on this just because I like it, and that’s why I play fantasy football too. But Josh, I’m not good at fantasy football, so I don’t need to be. You just tell me what gadgets you like, and then I’ll sort out the rest. If we were in an actual fantasy football league, you’d just name a beautiful man with long hair, and I would do, I would put him on your board. You know? Okay, can we do that? David has days where he just sits there in front of the computer with his friends on FaceTime and they have like a digital one. Yeah, yeah, I do that. I do that too. If we can’t get together in person. Huge nerd fest. We would normally get together in person. We used to have a big board that we would have all the players names printed out. Cute. We did that on a carnival cruise once. That’s fun. That’s really cute. Okay, let’s, let’s get serious. Let’s, let’s really lock in. Let’s get serious. Buckle down. Let’s talk about the most important kitchen gadgets. Thermometer. Instant read digital thermometer number one. Wow, that’s a really good tip. That’s something that I don’t think you can substitute for. And especially if you’re somebody that cooks 200 grams of protein per day like I do. You’re making a lot of meat. Something like chicken breast. If you’re talking about, this is the effect of altruism of cooking. Sure. Uh, the idea of effective altruism, right, is like there’s so many problems in the world and you have a bunch of people with money trying to like give to philanthropy, even though maybe it should just be democratically decided, but whatever. So it’s like, how do we get the most impact with our money? And I think they have basically found like, you know, curing malaria seems to be a thing. Okay. A lot of people die from it. So, the point is, a lot of people are cooking crappy, dry chicken. Yeah. Boneless, skinless chicken breast, most commonly eaten meat in America. A lot of people are cooking it dry. The secret to getting it juicy, it, it, uh, Brining helps, marinating helps, all that, but like, the secret is just nailing the internal temp. That’s 95 percent of the battle. I agree. Digital instant read thermometer, you can get one for 12. You don’t need to get the like, 70, you know, Javelin or whatever. No, I’m just kidding. 12 instant read. That’s a great first pick. Yeah, you get that chicken up to like, you know, uh, FDA says 165. I, this is probably the closest I’ve been to getting cancelled is saying that I cooked mine to 155. This is the thing? Let it turn over. Yeah, shockingly. This is the thing? Shockingly. Shockingly. And I let my chicken probably come up to about 152 and then get it to 155. But the, if you let it sit for 17 seconds at 155, it kills all the salmonella in it. The FDA is overshooting because they are incentivized to not get people sick. I’m incentivized to eat delicious, juicy chicken. Fair. 155. If it’s there for 17 seconds, the salmonella is killed. Thermometers, get you there. That’s my number one draft pick. Take me to the championship this year. That’s, that’s a great first pick. My buddy, my buddy Dave, he, he made a replica of the Lombardi trophy using walnut wood. It’s a fantastic woodworker. So talented. Check out Dave’s Good Wood. Dot com? I don’t know. Just find him on Instagram. Dave’s Good Wood. Okay, I’m gonna Google it. Also Crafted by MB. Check out Crafted by I got multiple woodworking friends. You do? What a cool talent to have. These are who I’m friends with. I thought you’d be friends with a bunch of, like, academics. Crafted by MB, that’s Marcus Bagley. He makes, like, incredible cutting boards with, like, resin. Like, uh, so it’s got this, like, beautiful, like, blue river running through it. It’s incredible. I’ll show you his work. Interesting. Okay, nice. So, my first pick, but, uh, again, I just want to, I think before we, we go into this, Do we need to define what a gadget is and what a tool is? Because before this podcast, I like spurted out some things and you said, no, that’s a tool. Well, you said, yeah, a silicone spatula is like a cooking gadget, which I would call that just a tool. It’s a very common tool. Well, hold on. Is not a gadget just a tool that has been improved on for modern use? We need a third party arbiter. I’m too close to this, right? Yes, you’re our arbiter, whatever the frick that means. We’re an arbitrage. She’s an albatross. So, a gadget, a small mechanical or electronical device, or tool, especially an ingenious or novel. Novel, novel, I think is maybe the same. Ingenious or. Ingenious or novel. I don’t, we don’t go off of, don’t, now we’ve just defined tool. Tool, a progressive heavy metal band from the late 90s. I love Tool. Side note. Great music videos, Tool. Okay, how about you just, I’ll be the arbiter. No, I, in a power vacuum, you must step up to lead. I’ll be the arbiter. Okay, Mr. Arbiter man. Meggie’s got this Kafka esque Google definitions on definitions. No, I’ll be the arbiter. What’s your, what’s your gadget? Okay, so my I’ll give you veto power on mine, too. You touched my finger. I didn’t touch your finger. I accidentally touched your ring. Sorry, you touched my knuckle. And I felt, I felt the ring of power. I felt it and I crave it now. Okay, so my tool has got to be an instant pot. I think good one. I use it all the time for home cookery. I use it all the time in GMM and mythical kitchen cookery. I think it is a fantastic way to shave time off when you don’t have time to throw things in a crock pot. When you need something to, you know, be soft and tender with within 45 minutes, you got to do the instant pot. It’s fast. It’s easy. The settings are legible. It. takes a little, I would say it takes a little bit of time to like be able to use it because I’ve used it a few times where I didn’t like vent it properly or I didn’t seal it properly. So there is a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you can do just about anything in it. You can make rice in it. You can make meat in it. You can do, and I made the most delicious chicken tinga tacos yesterday in my Instant Pot. Took 30 minutes. Yeah. Absolutely incredible for the home cook. busy, that doesn’t have time, that works. I think it changed the way that I cook at home so much. And it’s created this environment where I can do whatever I want at home without having to like literally sit over a hot steaming pot and check on it constantly. So I think that’s my first pick. This is exactly like fantasy football, where I picked a player that I like, thinking that the player that I needed would still be there next round, but then it’s always, it’s always Emile or Daesong that always just snake him from underneath you. And that’s the praise of the problem, is I’m talking to Emile, Emile and I are, you know, talking a week before about players that we like, and we’re talking about life, but we’re also like, man, I think Devante Smith is really gonna outshine AJ Brown this year, I think it’s gonna be, and it didn’t happen, but I, You know, and then Emile snakes him from me two pics before it all happens. It’s because we’re too similar, but that’s why we’re friends. So now I really wanted the instant bot. Oh, well, I have it now. You have it now. Well, like, well, why can’t we share? I think because, um, male bonding has been framed in terms of competition and, and sort of. You know, a finite amount of resources, and so it’s really conditioned me. Well, I’m a girl, and this is a podcast. And we can totally, one, okay, how about this? How about we can see our five picks, and then if we want, we can join them together? So I’d really like to use your instant bot to make birria. We can talk about unifying our five to find the perfect five later after this. Because I think our relationship is not based off of competition. It’s based on finding common ground. And it should be, you know. What’s wrong with us today? No, Instant Pots rule. And a lot of people kind of use them as like a crockpot. They have a slow cook setting. The thing with a crockpot, I have an electric oven at home. Crockpots, like, the idea was you leave them on all day, and they’re on like a timer. Yeah, but who’s home all day anymore? Well, you’re not, so the idea was that a crockpot, you leave on and you leave your house. Oh, really? That’s the idea of a crockpot. And it’s on a timer. But can’t you burn down your house with that? It’s just a gadget that’s plugged in. Your TV’s plugged in. Your, you know what I mean? But it’s on and the heat is on. Listen, I know. But it’s so, but people felt comfortable with it. That was like the selling point of the crockpot. You know what I mean? Because otherwise, for me, I’m like, my oven is also electric. I could just make my chili or whatever and pop that in a 250 degree oven. But it’s big and it takes a lot of energy, no? What, the oven? Do you use the oven? I, dude, I don’t know. You don’t know how energy works? Like, no. Could you explain how electricity works? Not even a, what do I look wizard firing lightning bolts. An ICP cloud. I could never. But Instant Pots, they took a problem that was pressure cookers are a rad tool. They’re so great. People are scared of them. I think a lot of negative PR from, uh, terroristic threats using pressure cooker bombs. Is that what led to the downfall? Well, that’s what freaks me out, man, about pressure cookers, is that I, you know. Terrorism? Somebody who was, yeah, somebody who was. Study terrorism, you know, in like homemade improvise explosive devices. Yeah. I don’t want a cooking tool. If they were making Crock Pot bombs, I think Crock Pot stock would have declined, right? You just leave it plugged in for 12 hours, but, uh, no, but, uh, what are the pressure cookers are scary. Instant Pot made a very safe, at least safe seeming, demystified it. You close the door, you press a button, bingo, bango, you got pressure cook stuff. Ditto with making rice in it. I use my Instant Pot to make stock, soup, all the time. Everything. Love it. It’s the best. Yeah. My next one. Take it away. Okay, screw it, I’m gonna do it. This is, okay, if this is fantasy football, this would be like the flashy, high priced wide receiver who was good like three years ago. This is like a wash pick. This is Cooper Cup. Okay, this is Cooper Cup. This is me picking Cooper Cup because he’s a big name and he’s gonna be expensive off the board. Okay. But last year he didn’t really, Perform all that well. Okay. And so this year we’re hoping for a big rebound. Um, Vitamix. Oh. And I ain’t just talking about Blender. No. I ain’t just talking about Blender. I’m talking about Vitamix. Okay, why Vitamix? Or, I got, I got an Amazon equivalent Vitamix for 130 and it’s not quite as good. Okay. Vitamixes can run close to 400 or 500 if you get top of the line models. They are pricey. You can also get some of the, Vitamix is made slightly cheaper ones I believe for around 300. Uh, I got like a brandless one mm-Hmm. Uh, for like 130 mm-Hmm. , uh, all the reviews are like, this is just as good as Vitamix. It is not. Mm. Um, it kinda malfunctions a little bit and also it runs way hotter. Okay. Which well wasn’t, so I’m making a smoothie in my, you know, Vitamix and if you run it for more than like 10 seconds, you just, your smoothie milks, well, wasn’t one of the most. So, the next question is, What is the next selling point of Vitamix? you can make soup in the blender. Correct. So, it does run hot. The motor does run hot. Eventually. 100%. And it’s just because it’s friction and it’s so powerful that it literally goes, Very powerful. So, Vitamix is a blender. They originally, basically started as, you were like, you can make soups and smoothies in here and you can get all your vitamins from Vitamix. And then people were like, well, People are like, we don’t understand the lifestyle angle at all, but you have, against all odds, made the best blender in the world. Very powerful. Every restaurant has a Vitamix in it, right? I mean, not every restaurant, but the fancy schmancy ones for sure do. Yeah, like a, like a good restaurant is going to have like a RoboCoo, a food processor, and it’s going to have a Vitamix blender. TV tea robos, but Vitamix is absolutely incredible. I make a lot of soups. I make a lot of purees. I make a lot of salsas. Mm-Hmm. . You are a pure, you really are. I’m a puree dude. Always been a puree. I love making my own purees. Yeah. Uh, and like sauce, and I love little mee dips and stuff. You are. I am using my Vitamix all the time. Uh, if you really wanted to, you can just put raw ingredients for soup in there. Let it run for like 10 minutes and it heats it up to it’s wild boiling temp. I make my smoothies in there every single day. I absolutely love my Vitamix and. It’s something that like a Hamilton Beach 20 blender can’t do. No, I’ve had them before and it’s incomparable. I make spice blends in the Vitamix. I use it as a spice grinder. Yeah. The problem is it’s big, so you can’t make like small portions of things. Yeah, that’s the one thing. And also it’s very hard to get. If you have like something very thick and tacky, it is very hard to scoop out sometimes because the edges are, they’re corners. Why are they like that? I don’t know. It probably has to do with the ergonomics of it. I can’t tell you, I’m not a, I’m not a, what is it, an engineer? Is that what an engineer does? Dude, I don’t know. Um, but yeah, I, I would still use my money on Vitamix or the like 80 percent as good brainless version that’s like 130 bucks. I know, I, I mean, whenever I bought it, I was like, oh, this is going to change my life. But it didn’t really, I’m not much of a blender person. Like, you know, like, I’m not making smoothies every day. I’m not making soups every day. I’m not a, I’m not a liquid slash puree person. How many of your own sauces, salsas, and meze dips are you making? Not a lot. Is it because factories that make them, make them better than you? Yeah. I feel that sometimes. And I, and let me tell you, at this point, whenever, you know, I’m a 30 year, I’m 31, sorry, year old woman. I work a lot. I have a husband I like to cook for. A lot of the times I don’t have the ability to do all of those things. But with my next pick, this is where I really shine. So I’m going to go ahead and pick the mandolin. The mandolin, the workhorse. Or should I say woman. She’s making herstory. I love my mandolin so much. I have like a crappy one that I got from Amazon. That’s green and white, but let me tell you, it is as sharp as the day I bought it. It’s phenomenal. Anytime I want to make a, a slaw. I just. Anytime I want to shred radish really thin to put on top of tacos. Like, it’s just so easy to use. I use it for, for pickling onions. I use it for thinly slicing tomatoes. Everything I want to thinly slice, I use a mandolin. You’re mandolining tomatoes? Yeah, my mandolin is so good, I can mandolin tomatoes. GTFO, the fudge outta here, man. You’re mandolining tomatoes? Yeah, it’s really easy to use. What, you don’t like the fact that I mandolin tomatoes? I think you’re lying to me. How underripe are these tomatoes that you can mandolin them? I don’t know. I’m nervous now. Maybe I am. Why are you poking holes in my story, bro? I thought you were on my team. You know those like, those like, those heirloom ones that are like thick skinned? Yeah. Or like a beefsteak tomato, very easy. Um, but yeah, I just, I love my mandolin. It makes life so much easier. easier. Again, I think of using a kitchen gadget is something that makes your life easier. Sometimes I don’t want to take out a cutting board and a knife and I don’t want to run through all of my veggies for a salad. I just want to be able to quickly get my work done and do it. And honestly, nothing works as good as a mandolin for, for ease and time. And I just, I just love it, but I will say I have cut my finger. Yeah, what are your safety tips? Um, definitely use the guard. No, don’t believe in the guard. And if you don’t have a guard, one of the best things is just to use like, uh, one of those like chain metal gloves, but I don’t have one of those. Dude, I don’t, you don’t even need that. Julia and I, we just had this fight, um, because I was mandolining. I made a really lovely salad. I’ll show you a picture of it. It’s really great. Wait, Maggie, can I send you a picture of the salad and you, you put it up there? Yeah. Alright, I’m so excited. Um, but anyways, I used my mandolin for a bunch of like radishes and cucumber and stuff like that. Uh, and Julia was like, use the guard. But I was mandolining cucumbers. The guard can’t push down on a vertical cucumber. Yeah. And so I have like, ovegloves, which are like an oven mitt except it has fingers in it, which you should all be buying. And I just use that. Yeah, I use that too. It’s great. You get full tactility on your vegetables and you can run your finger with this thick, heat proof glove over the mandolin blade and it won’t slice through it at all. That’s true. I think that’s a great fix. Yeah, but I, I love, I love mandolins too. This, this was on my draft board as well. Yeah, I will say. It’s like the Zach Moss. I, whatever. I will say, I have had, again, a few run ins. Make sure that you’re using it properly because I’ve gone through, And I’m being, like, I was making chicken adobo, and at the last, uh, I was, like, mandolining, mandolining over the pot. And I sliced my thumb so bad, so bad that I had to call all of David’s doctor friends, like, four of them, and say, Do I need stitches? They’re like, FaceTime me. I’m like, Okay. So, don’t make those mistakes. Like, use it properly. Use it intelligently. Don’t just do it willy nilly. Cause, it’s, it can get bloody. I’ve shaved a fingerprint off, but the worst And when you feel it, you know, and you know you’re cooked. Uh, but one time, the worst is when I felt the blade hit me and then my finger didn’t move. And I had to go and pry my finger out of the mandolin blade. Ay yi yi! Ouch, ouch, ouch. But yeah, it’s still worth it. Use, just use the up glove. It’s, it’s safe. Yeah, use a mandolin, but use an up glove too. My third round pick, we’re going tight end here. We’re gonna do a little change of pace, electric griddle. What? Electric freaking griddles, dude. Really? Electric griddles are my favorite. Here’s the thing. That’s very interesting to me. One, this morning, woke up early, made Julia French toast. You’re so sweet. I am incredibly sweet. We had leftover bread. We’re about to leave for the weekend. Didn’t want it to go bad. It was tartine bread. Soaked it in a little custard. Made it healthy. Um, you know, a little homemade blueberry compote. But! I was like, should I use a pan? Do I really need to break out the electric griddle? And I was like, yes, dude. Yes, I do. Anytime you’re making pancakes, anytime you’re making any like, uh, breakfast food, you can fry up some eggs on there, get some bacon going in there, things that a large pan can’t do. Hash browns on the griddle. I’d probably do that in a pan, but tortillas. I make big ass quesadillas almost all the time. Sure, sure, sure. You know, big tortillas, electric griddles, I think are incredible, especially if you don’t have a gas range and you can’t just buy like one of the griddle attachments that fits on there. You But even then being able to set it up in a different part of your home I’ve gotten so much joy out of my like you’re gonna make a bunch of grilled cheeses Ain’t got to worry about fiddling out of pain get it clean little with a spatty. This is good This is a this is probably your most responsible pick of the whole entire day. I’m saying tight end. They have super Super intelligent. You’re really thoughtful and you’re thinking about other people which Makes me like this. Go out there. You get a Mark Andrews, you get a Travis Kel, you get a Dallas Godder. That way you don’t have to spot start every week. So you have vi I’m I’m writing these, I’m underlining these by the way. So you have, uh, thermometer, Vitamix electric griddle. Yeah, I have instant pot mandolin. And I’m gonna go a little crazy here. Are you ready? I’m ready. Hit me. Nicole. What could this be? I’m gonna say. Citrus juicer. You son of a, you snake my pick every time. Now, you know what that is? That’s like, that’s like, uh, like you’re taking a flyer on like a Keaton Mitchell, right? You’re like, hey, who knows how many years Derrick Henry’s got left? I’m taking a flyer on Keaton. That’s the Devon A. Chan. Okay, let me tell you why. I consume a lot of citrus fruits in my house. Same. Limes, lemons, grapefruits. Well, I don’t really use that for the grapefruit. Dude, but even then you cut it into like lemon sized triangles and put that in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I make a lot of vinaigrettes at home. I do a lot of like citrus over the top, whatever, what have you. And let me tell you, it is so handy dandy. I love it so much. And sometimes, you know, there’s, if there’s a little bit of juice left over, you just Squeeze it a little bit, you know, it’s not the end of the world. It just makes life a lot easier. What does your citrus juicer look like? What kind of rig you got? It’s, I have a yellow one, and I just squit it. What do you mean? And it has like, but it’s the thing where it looks like a kind of big spoon, and you like open the handle. Yes, yes, that’s the one I have. It’s got a compartment, like a strainer it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you just. Squish. So yeah, we, you and I have the same exact model easy. And also my, my mother and my mother in law gifted me a citrus juicer. You know, the ones that you push, yeah, I have those, but I don’t use them ever. I even have one of those little, I even have one of those citrus juicers that have the cone ones too, that you like do that with, I don’t use that either. I have all of these citrus products, but the only one I actually touch is the citrus squeezer. And it’s so easy. It’s. It’s so handy dandy. You can do, it’s, it’s perfect. Citrus can be very annoying, especially when it’s not as juicy, but this gets everything out and you can flip it the other way and get the other ones out, other juices out. So that’s my pick. I know it’s a little cray cray, but that’s a great thing. It’s for me as a home cook, I use it a lot. Um, I, I really do love that pick. I’m, I’m gonna go in, fourth round pick, gonna go with like, a workhorse, like a Joe Mixon type. Oh my god, can you say things that I know? You’re pissing me off! Why do you not know that? Like, the Spangles get rid of him, he’s on the Texans now. It’s like a high powered offense. I think he’s gonna get caught on the couches. BOXGRADER BABY! Box Grater. Four graters in one. I only used one and a half of the size. I was gonna use box grater. Yeah, you steal my picks, I steal yours, that’s how this works. Ugly. You can’t reverse thousands of years of male socialization, Nicole. It sucks, but we’re stuck in hell. Um, no, I love, I love my box grater. I was gonna say microplane because I love grating ginger and garlic on a microplane. Me too, me too. And then like, if you have a tool, you’ll kind of find ways to use it. Yeah. At least if you cook like we do. Yeah. I made some dish to bring to, uh, it’s actually Pesach and I was like, I really want pistachios on this. I can just like chop them and put it on top, um, or crush them in a spice grinder or something like that. And then I was like, microplane. And then I microplane pistachios over and it was just this beautiful, fine green snow. Um, but box grater, you can use the smaller thing on a box grater and get yourself roughly the same over there. Sometimes. Sometimes. Uh, but for like ginger and garlic aromatic stuff like that. Um, I love. Shredding vegetables and doing random stuff with them. And I wouldn’t do that unless I had the box cutter. Like, that’s true. The other day, I shredded a ton of zucchini and then put that in a pot with rice and sort of cooked it together. Because I’m always looking for ways to just like get more vegetables in my life. Because especially when I’m at work, like yesterday, we just ate Probably a pound of steak are me art. My lunch and your lunch was steak and pistachios. Yeah We’re going carnivore. We literally ate a handful of pistachios and eight medium rare steak I had like nine handfuls of pistachios I was sitting like in my little cubicle and I was just watching you and I was like This is the real ad for wonderful pistachios is me and a cold just sitting there Like, we would just, like, switch off. Eight different flavors, dude. I was going savory sweet. What a good meal. Um, but, yeah, so I’m always looking at vegetables. Uh, uh, you shred, because if you can shred a potato, right? Make hash browns, you can do that with any sort of root. Bro, I made beaten potato latkes the other day. Freaking turnips, rutabagas. Just because, sorry, I was sitting on my foot. Bat bat. That’s awesome. Yeah, love a box grater. You know what, I use my box grater for? I use it for shredding cheese fresh. Because I only, I don’t buy shredded cheese, I buy, uh, blocks of cheese and I shred it fresh, or I cube it, but I will use my box grater for that. I was on your side until Tillamook changed the game, man, with farm style shreds, not an ad, just freaking love it. They do good work. They melt so well. They do really good work. And Julia, uh, Loves quesadillas. Yeah. I mean I do too, but she’ll like eat them for lunch every day if I like prep out the stuff So many bags of Tillamook farm style shred Mexican blend cheese I am the kind of person who likes to eat a a cube or a stick of cheese a handful of shredded cheese Does not do it for me anymore But you’ll eat a cube or stick of like of like mid tier like a cheddar like a cheddar I will do it with it. Yeah, sure Cause like, we always got some sort of little nubbin of like Manchego, which does nothing for me. I don’t, I don’t care about it. Love it. What? You know, I mean like if I’m going to a Spanish restaurant and they have a yada yada, I love it. But I don’t just like need to nibble on Manchego at home. Okay. You know, Yarlsburg maybe, but Okay, what does that have to do with anything? What? No, I’m saying I don’t use a box grater for cheese. Oh, because I’m already just rocking unless I’m deliberately making something. Got it. Got it. You know, so you’re box grater. Yeah, okay. I’m gonna say okay This is this is something that I think is very important and it is derivative of one of your picks, but it’s different enough So I’m gonna say stick blender. This is called a handcuff in fantasy football. Oh. You get a running back and then you draft his back up in case he gets hurt. Okay. So in case the Vitamix goes down, especially if we have the brandless one that does malfunction a lot, boom, stick blender. Okay, I love stick blenders almost more than blenders. Let me tell you why. Sometimes, It can get clunky, you know? Like, you have all these gadgets, all these tools. It can get really cluttered. And me, I Do I sound like I work for QVC? Yeah, you’re great. And me, I don’t have time to fill my cabinets filled with more gunk, so I get stick blenders! And I use it for my vinaigrettes, I use it for my Caesar salad dressings, and it’s just glorious. It’s glorious. It’s handy dandy. You plug it in. It has two settings, powerful and more powerful, and I can do whatever I want with it. And it just makes for the easiest, most handheld blending experience. So that’s my pick. And sometimes you don’t know which gadget you’ll actually want to use until you’re sort of in the moment, right? Like you talked about, you have like your handheld citrus juicer, and then you have the, the nicer, like citrus juicer that’s electric, but you don’t really know that until you like kind of have both at your disposal. Yeah. Ditto a stick blender. I don’t even I think my stick blender stopped working and I just never replaced it because I don’t need it. I would rather transfer to a Vitamix and then transfer back to a pot. I don’t know. I guess I’m just a I think I’m learning that I’m just a lazy cook. At home. Yeah. At home I’m a lazy cook. And I’m learning that my strategy of handcuffing running backs really works. Because last year, no, hear me out, I drafted DeAndre Swift and Kenny Gainwell. Turns out, Eagle started Kenny Gainwell, you know, week one. But then, boom, DeAndre took the carry load week two. I’m glad I had both. I’m glad I had both. And this year, I’m probably gonna have to do it at Saquon too, because of injury concern. Kenny Gainwell, I love Kenny, and I also love Kenny Gainwell’s game. Okay, so you, so, so far we have Josh with, with, uh, Thermometer, Vitamix, Electric Griddle, and Box Grader. And we have Nicole with Instant Pot, Mandolin, Stick Blender, and Citrus Press. And with our powers combined! You’ve won, no, no, not yet. You have one more pick. Um, let’s see where I want to go with my last one. This is the Mr. Irrelevant. Oh, bro, Y peeler. A good, a good Y peeler. Not the handheld ones that stick out. We’re talking a vegetable peeler, but it’s got to be a Y peeler because the amount of things you can do with it. One, we haven’t even talked about like, Cocktail stuff. No, but that doesn’t count. Citrus juicer. I love that for cocktails. Yeah, but that doesn’t count. Y peeler, like favorite thing to do with it other than just peeling vegetables, right? Which it’ll do lickety splickety. Uh, like carrot shavings. You take a Y peeler. So smart. You can do it to shred cabbage, dude. That’s what all like the Salvadoran. Cabbage, too. Cabbage, dude. That’s what all the freaking Salvadoran restaurants do for their freaking curtido, I freaking love curtido. You get the freaking capuzes, bro, with the freaking Cortito and salsa, jitomate, and you like shredding the cabbage with the frickin y peeler, dude. what do they like use with like the, the cheese? Loroco. You talking about that flour, Loroco, dude? I frickin love Loroco. I frickin love a pupusa de Loroco. I’m so bright eyed. It’s sick. Dude, you go to the Brentwood Farmer’s Market and get the Loroco pupusa. Dude, okay, and for my last pick, because it’s time to wrap, can opener! Yeah, I guess, man. I don’t know. What It’s so, it’s so necessary. I don’t really cook. Am I crazy? What kind of cans are you opening? Tomato. Yeah, it’s a good can. It’s a good can to open. Beans. I mean, canned beans are good. Coconut milk. Yeah, those are good cans. And, and, and. Every can should have a pop tap. I understand we live in a society. No, can I tell you, stop it, stop it. Nicole, I was going to stop it. I tried to open a can of sardines For lunch at home the other day, there’s something wrong with, I think I might have arthritis. I don’t know. I can’t open them. I can’t open tab, like whatever it is. What did you say? Pop tins? What’d you call them? Pop tabs. I cannot open cans with pop tabs to save my life. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s a, that’s Prehensile, I don’t know what’s going on with my fingers. You never evolved. I don’t know. If you had a prehensile tail, you could How do you know about my tail? Um, but yeah, I, a can opener helps me open all of the lovely canned foods that I feed my beautiful husband. Yeah, I feel that because I And my kitties! I keep my nails really trimmed, ladies. And I My kitties! My kitties! And I want to give them canned food and All right, Nicole, we got 10. Should we narrow it down to 5? Yeah, let’s do it. I, I am willing to kill Vitamix. Okay, I am willing to kill one of yours too, which is Box Grater. How are we going to shred? Oh, we got Mandolin. We got Mandolin. We got Mandolin. Mandolins have attachments. Kill, keep Instant Pot, keep Citrus Press, keep Mandolin. We now need a stick blender because we don’t have the Vitamix. Yeah. Kill electric griddle, you gotta pan. Kill can opener, what do you, uh, pop tabs. Like, that’s not a gadget. Of course it’s a gadget! Josh, I don’t know if you can tell right now, but we have two of your picks and five of my picks. This always happens. The championships are won on the waiver wire, baby. Let’s get rid of the citrus press. Yeah, you got your hands. Well, thermometer? No, I think thermometer is really important. Yeah, right. Okay. Why, why peel it? We kill a white peeler. Okay, so that’s four of them. We just have a can opener! Doesn’t even cook food! So we got four for Nicole and one for Josh. We got a thermometer, stick blender, mandolin, instant pot, can opener. And if you only have these five ingredients in your kitchen, you can become a successful I got good news, Nicole. No, I got great news. I got the best news you have ever heard. The mythical cookbook is officially out. It’s on sale. We, we published it. We wrote a whole damn book and that’s pretty rad. The entire team knocked this one out of the park and we’re excited for you to finally be able to have a step by step guide to make some of the best food the two of us have ever tasted in your very home. It’s so much more than just a cookbook. It’s filled with illustrations, original stories, and photos from the most fun photoshoot we’ve ever done. It’s perfect for any kitchen, coffee table, bookshelf, whatever! Even if you never actually cook a single thing from it. Yeah, that photoshoot was wild. Remember when I passed out on the floor and y’all put a shrimp all over my face? Alright, order yours now at mythicalcookbook. com You passed out? Oh, it was like pretend passed out Oh, pretend, pretend There’s a picture of me, pretend passed out You’re an actor, you’re acting I am a thesbian And I love thesbians I’m a thesbian Yeah, like not just a face This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Comparison is the thief of joy, and it’s easy to envy other people’s lives. It might look like they got it all together on their Instagram, but in reality, they probably don’t. Therapy can help you focus on what you want, instead of what others have, so you can start living your best life. Therapy has helped me set boundaries with the people I care about in order to strengthen bonds and relationships. And yes, that includes you, Josh. Oh, I’m just happy to be included. My therapist has taught me how to unpack the childhood trauma that still drives a lot of my decision making today, which means I can stop dumping it all on Nicole during this podcast. Thanks! You’re welcome. Uh, but for real, therapy has been very formative for me, and I’m very grateful that I started doing it. That’s great! If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. We all get sad sometimes, right, Nicole? It’s entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, I just got back from Japan, and let me tell you, Rosetta Stone helped me so, so much. Being in a foreign country for two weeks could have been tough, but having an understanding of the language helped me and my husband navigate all around the country. Especially at restaurants, I was able to ask for things like Mizu or Gohan Kudasai, if you know, you know, with ease and confidence. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app, and it truly immerses you in the language you want to learn. And right now they’re offering a lifetime membership with access to all 25 languages for 50 percent off. Rosetta Stone has been a trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users, which makes sense because they offer so many languages. And you can switch between languages at any time. It also gives you feedback on your pronunciation with its built in true accent feature. If you screw up, you can try again so you can be sure to get it right. Rosetta Stone is convenient to use and right now they’re offering a lifetime membership for 50 percent off. That’s a steal. Don’t put off learning that language. There’s no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time, A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50 percent off. Visit rosettastone. com slash hotdog. That’s 50 percent off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50 percent off at rosettastone. com slash hotdog today Well, all right, nicole We heard what you and I have to say now it’s time to find out what other wack yetis are rattling out there in the universe It’s time for a little segment. We call Opinions are like casserole Zoom in. Zoom out. Zoom in. Zoom out. Maggie the States. Maggie the States. Um. That was really good, Josh. Was it? Yeah, you did really good. I’ve never really done that. I’m so proud of you. I do it when I like walk. I Josh, as I’ve known you for five years, you’ve always liked beatboxing and I’m glad that you’re, um, practicing. Yeah, thank you. I don’t think I have a future in the sport. I don’t think it is a sport. It’s not a sport. Before we get to your opinions. We want to read your opinions about us. It’s time for everybody’s favorite segment review a review. Where we try and bait you into giving us five star reviews. Five stars, please. For a chance at us reading them. This one we got from At So Con Soak an egg, I don’t know, Steve G. They gave us five stars and said, miss Nicole, I’m gonna put in, if you nasty, you once wrote me a note that said I love you. Like a fat kid Loves Cake. Hey, where’s my Brian Jonestown massacre. DVD. Steve g Nicole. What does that mean, . Okay, so this is . This is from my 11th grade science teacher, Mr. Jankis. And I can now see that his, his, um. His username is his last name spelled backwards. He was a wonderful teacher, one of my favorite teachers ever. So smart, so friendly, incredible. He used to give me, he used to like gift me DVDs and like movies and stuff to watch. And then I’d always give it back to him. But this one I never gave back and it’s called Dig. And I never watched it and I never gave it back to him. But he also made me watch a movie called Butcher Boy that was really good. And then one other one that I don’t remember. But um I guess he listens to the podcast now. That’s incredible. Oh, you had no idea. He wasn’t in contact with you. No, no, no. That’s incredible. Mr. Janakis. Mr. Janakis. I don’t know where this Jonestown Massacre DVD is. Um, I guess I’m not going to Venmo you cause that’s weird. Like, I think this is just a loss that you need to accept, but well, this is what now? Like 13 years ago. Yeah, something like that, but he remembers because he has a crazy memory and, uh, he was a, he was truly one of the best teachers ever. Um, so, if you want to talk to me more, you can email me. Is, is my work email appropriate? People can guess what it is. Yeah, yeah, just guess what it is. And then I’ll know it’s you if you put your son’s name in the subject because I remember your son’s name. So, yeah. And we get an email again! Yay, Mr. Jadakis, you’re the best! Pretty cool that you had teachers that touched your life. Um, if there’s any teachers out there that I had that are watching this, there’s only it’s only a chance of one, and it’d be Mr. Kamling. If Mr. Kamling’s out there, um, sorry, I really phoned it in in your chemistry class, my B, but also, uh, uh, Write me a weird review. This isn’t weird. This isn’t weird. He had no other way of contacting me. He had no other way of contacting me, and I’m glad Not weird in a bad way, like weird in a, he seems like delightfully weird. Yeah, I’m glad that I, I never really look at the reviews like as a whole. Yeah. But one day I was just like, let’s just look at them. But I’m so glad I saw it, and thanks for writing, Mr. Jnokis. You’re the best. You are truly the best. Also, Debbie misses you too, if you remember Debbie. Five stars! Five stars. Oh, five stars. Easy five. Easy five. Easy five. Hi Josh and Nicole. My name is Jared. I’m from Illinois. My opinion is that The spring rolls from the dollar store are actually better than the spring rolls from an actual Asian or Japanese restaurant. Also, the length of your podcast is shorter. For a long time now, since the beginning, love it, keep up the work. Bye. Keep up the work. Not good work. Not good work, just the work. Somebody who would like a dollar store spring roll over an actual restaurant spring roll I think would appreciate work as opposed to good work. Yeah, fair. I think I know exactly why they like it. Go ahead. So, it’s all about the goo to crunch ratio, right? Sure. You get a vegetable spring roll from the dollar store. I just sporked, had a bunch of, uh, spring rolls in house. And I preferred the cheaper ones. Oh, oh god, I went ham. Because the cheaper ones, they’re filled with, you know, cabbage, carrot, and there’s a lot of MSG, white pepper, and soy in there, but the cheaper ones, they got this starchy goo in the middle. And that’s what I’m really after, right? Yeah. You don’t want that fresh bite in a spring roll. No. I’m getting like, if I want egg rolls, I’m getting like, the Vietnamese imperial roll. Like to me, that’s the king of egg rolls. Otherwise, I just don’t really need egg rolls all that much in my life. Sure. Um, so you get a spring roll like that. Yeah. I want, or like Filipino lumpia. Lumpia Shanghai is great. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I want that just veggie goo. Yeah, I think that’s fair. Um, I’ve never had the dollar, dollar store, dollar tree, or whatever, dollar general. I’ve never had them before, but I do like the correlation that the cheaper the spring roll is, and the longer it’s been frozen, the better it probably tastes. More goo. Yeah, I totally agree with you. 100 percent. And I agree with you. Hey, Nicole and Josh, father from San Diego here, huge fan of the show, question I’m hoping you can pick apart or maybe even adapt on. My dad is convinced that all foods can be made better by adding either chocolate or house of saying Szechuan spicy stir fry sauce. First off, anything come to mind that, Breaks this binary or just thoughts on what’s going on here? Second what might you haven’t said is your two options. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, can you repeat? I’m sorry, everything can be made better by their chocolate Which I would hope that maybe that’s on the dessert side and then otherwise a brand that I’ve never heard of was a house of Shang Spicy Szechuan stir fry sauce. Let me look this up. So, um, I kind of agree with This idea that there’s like one ambrosia, right? That you can add to anything to make it better, regardless of where it comes from on the earth, right? So you would say that spicy Szechuan sauce should probably be only added to Eastern Asian, preferably Szechuan or just Chinese dishes. This one, mm hmm. Um, I haven’t had this particular sauce, but like, you’re making a hot dog. Yeah. You simmer that hot dog, a little spicy Szechuan sauce. You tell me you’re not going to have a good time. You got pierogies. You got, you know, pizza rolls, you know, you’re getting sweet. You’re getting spice. You’re getting umami from the soy, probably MSG. And there’s probably like a chili and sugar. That’s going to be a great time. Yeah. So I kind of agree with that. I’ve been putting, uh, Yesterday I had like a, a microwave lasagna. It was actually from CookUnity. It was really good. Put a bunch of, uh, Momofuku chili crisp on it. Great time. Yeah. You know? It’s quite delicious. And so, I don’t know what my version of that would be. Chocolate thing? I just don’t love chocolate. That’s the taste. I’ll take cho I I will remove the chocolate and Raise you with condensed milk. Sweet. Condensed milk. I was, I was gonna say that. Yeah. Just a little wet, a little creamy, A little sweet. Yeah, I agree. Let’s, or malt powder for desserts. Oh, add malt to anything. Yeah. But when you think about it, you have to like use the malt beforehand. There needs, there needs to be a malt sauce. Why aren’t we getting malt sauce? That’s a great idea. Yeah. I don’t know. That’s a great idea. Yeah. Like an all purpose. There’s a brick of malt that you can shave onto something. Why would you need that? You have the malt powder. You malt the, yeah. No, Josh, hear me out. You need to make a malt sauce. Malt sauce. Malt sauce. Malt sauce. Is this a signal of power that people do? I don’t know what you’re doing. You know how people do this like whenever they want people to listen to them intently? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You kind of stand here. It’s like the, the like power stance. You can raise your ROI by 150%. The triangle. It’s an Illuminati triangle, Maggie. It’s, but it looks like a spade. Um, savory. What is to you like the one savory thing that you can add? Spicy mayo. Spicy mayo. Yeah. Spicy mayo. That’s my answer. Spaghetti. Spicy mayo. Grilled cheese. Spicy mayo. Spicy mayo. Uh, just uh, just some shawarma. Spicy mayo. Spicy mayo. And we’re seeing the spicy mayo ification of all food. I’m down. Right? Same. Every, all these restaurants on Instagram, they’re making arayas, they’re making birria, they’re making whatever. Pfft. Just spicy mayo in all of it. That’s all you need. Damn, I think you’re right. The only thing that I feel like would, I don’t agree with, probably raw seafood might not Improve from House of saying spicy Szechuan sauce. What? Oh my god. That’s all I want right now Put a little bit of that on an oyster. I bet you’re having the best time. Really? Yeah, I don’t know I’m not saying like I know not every food people are gonna bring up examples of things that wouldn’t go well on but like That’s a Pretty damn good sauce. Are you getting every single flavor on to your food? I had one opinion and it has been shut down. I think you’re done. No, I don’t know. I’m just saying. I have one thing to say and the whole thing just blew up. Put Tony Chachere’s on everything too. Yeah, fair, fair, fair, fair. Hey guys, Kelsey from Austin, Texas. Love the show. Keep Austin weird. It’s 11 11 at night on a Friday night and I love a tattoo and I really admire Josh’s pork tattoo specifically. Um, Should I get a GMN slash Mythical Kitchen tattoo? I think yes. I think I’m just gonna do it and then maybe tag y’all and we’ll talk about it later. Awesome. Thanks. Love y’all. Bye. What do you think? This is interesting. They’re asking to get a tattoo? Yeah, and now we’re faced with having a fair amount of power over somebody’s life. This is a permanent decision. I’m gonna say no. Um, I’m gonna bring this up, alright? So I have a tattoo of a YouTuber on my lower back. It’s a man named Andrew Ray of Binging with Babish. And Julia, he’s great. He’s good. Julia was like, hey, we know you’re, you’re friends with him and he’s a good guy. What if he gets cancelled? Yeah. Now you’re stuck with a tattoo of Binging with Babish. What if, you know? Rhett and Link? I don’t know. What if they’re indicated in the next Panama Papers? You know? What if Rhett and Link are, they got offshore accounts? And I’m not saying they are, though they don’t. I don’t think they do. They seem to really, you know, give lots of charity and seem to believe in the common good of tech. But like, what if? Yeah. I’m not saying, but you know, things happen. Now it’s permanent. Let me tell you. Your children. I think it’s a good idea to get a tattoo of something that means a lot to you. I think find a way to incorporate either GMM or Mythical Kitchen symbolically. into something else and that way you can look down at it or you can see it and it won’t only remind you of the Show that you love it’ll also remind you of something else that you love You need a good cover up idea cuz that’s what I that’s how I got the Babish tattoo approved by Jules Hmm is I was like If he gets cancelled, God forbid, um, I’m going to put a hat on him and a mustache and then it’ll be Heisenberg from Breaking Bad. Here’s the thing, don’t love Breaking Bad. I watched three seasons, it’s like a good show, it’s just not kind of my, my thing. But then, I would have to watch all of it and honestly, I’d probably really love it if I committed. That’s a great fix. That’s a great fix. My gut says no. But if you really, really, really want one, find a way to appropriate it in a way that it won’t be constantly connected to. Like a bit of a deep cut, like a reference of a reference, you know? Yeah, get creative with it. Get all matching tattoos that I have. Mmm. No. Why? No. Well on that note, Thank you so much for listening to Hot Dog. Stay up to date on new episodes every Wednesday on the internet, the, what do they call it? The internet! The internet, right? Yeah! Yeah! Intranet or internet? Internet and also, uh, podcast platforms. Podcast platforms, yeah. Those are the internet, in a way. Oh! I never thought of it that way. Is everything just the internet? Are we the internet? Meggie, what’s the internet? Am I the internet? Yeah, you are. We’re the internet now. So yeah, anyways, we do it. It’s like that one movie where Scarlett Johansson has that one pill and then she can use a hundred percent of her brain and then she turns into a supercomputer, and then she dies. Spoiler. If you want to be featured on opinions are like casseroles, hit us up at 833 DOG POD 1. And for more Mythical Kitchen, check out our other videos. Bye. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, boop, boop, boop, boop, beep, beep. The task has been completed.