Hey, did you know that when the proteins and gluten are mixed with water, they form a sticky network that gives dough its elasticity? Sticky network was my nickname in high school. Wait, why? Don’t worry about it. 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 best sandwiches. Biggest food debates. I’m your host Josh Sharer. And I’m your host Nicole Aniety. What camera do I look at today? I’m looking at you, Nicole Aniety. Wait, who the heck are you? I am the Mythical Kitchen intern. My name’s Adela. We got Adela in the house because Adela, you I’m about to say this as if you’re, uh, uh, dying. You have a very rare medical affliction that makes you uniquely suited for this episode. Tell them about, uh, let’s hippovilate some things today. Um, it’s, yeah, I just, I’m just allergic to wheat. You’re not just allergic to wheat, you are incredibly brave. Uh, but no, you said that you wanted to take up this project of finding out the best gluten free flours for cookies because you have been living a wheat free lifestyle for, for life? No, I just found out that I have an allergy last year actually. Wow, so you’re adjusting to it. I’m adjusting to it. Wow, how’s the transition been? It’s been tough, um, you know, no bread. Well, I kind of cheat it sometimes but I shouldn’t eat bread. I do sometimes. I eat bread too, even though I’m like on a, I’m like on a fake keto diet. Sometimes I’m just like, fresh sourdough, I need it in my body. So I get it too. I don’t have a So, I don’t have a gluten allergy, I have a gluten sensitivity, and I did like this whole like, I did like a blood test, I did like all these different tests, and they’re like, You kind of have it, but you kind of don’t have it, so just avoid it. And like, it’s very silly how, how they’re, they’re like prescribing these like, uh, B. S. like things, when you don’t even know what’s going on with your own body. Well, I’m curious, when you say you, you went and did a bunch of tests, and they said that you have a gluten sensitivity, Yeah. Yeah. Was that, like, self reported? Like, you told them, hey No. So they, they stuck a needle in ya, or what did they drew my blood, I also did a saliva test, and a, and a poop test. You did a poop test? I did it all, I did, I did a gut microbiome, I basically just did a whole panel. I did all the panels that you could ever imagine. And they’re like, yeah, so it looks like you have a positive sign and a negative sign, so, maybe you should just totally, completely avoid it. And I’m like, okay. But that was gluten specifically. Gluten. And then, oh my god. Also, I did a test to find out what kind of food allergies I have, like, it was over like five hundred foods that you could be allergic to, and I found out I’m allergic to oats as well as, like, wheat bran. How crazy! I’m allergic to B. S., sister, and I’m calling, no, uh, that is exactly what we’re talking about in this episode, though, is all of the various levels of gluten sensitivity, gluten allergies. I’m just explaining what the hell gluten is, what it does to the body, what it does to foods. What was your test like? You just did a straight allergy panel and it said, like, What is it? Do they put lights on there and they light up green if you’re allergic? What? No! I’ve never done an allergy panel. I just feel like crap all the time. Um, no, I was bloated a lot. So I had no idea what was wrong with me. And I went to a bunch of different doctors and they wouldn’t test me for allergies or like anything like that. They were just like, yeah, it’ll go away. And then finally convinced one doctor to do a few tests and we came back positive. Meaning I’m allergic to it, which was surprising because my entire life, you know, I was eating wheat and I was completely fine. Interesting. Did it solve your issues? Yes, it did. And it was a blood test. Interesting. I did the same thing but mine had a thing where it was like, green means you can still consume it, yellow means you should stay away from it, and red is like, don’t ever eat this again. And there were so many things on my Is that called a stoplight party? Where like you go and it’s like, mm, I’m single, I’m like, and you have the green. Oh, the cups! And then there’s like, yellow, which means like, it’s complicated, and it’s like, why would you put that out there, like, yeah, I have a girlfriend, but we seem like we’re drifting apart, and we’re just, I don’t know. Awkward. Um, we should talk about what gluten is because I think people assume gluten just means like wheat But that’s not what gluten is. No, so gluten is a one shout out to Adela who actually did the research for this She did such good research on this you guys. Thank you So, uh gluten is it’s not a single protein found in wheat But it tends to be the name of like the collective proteins that are found in wheat It is also the Structure is the like molecule that gives bread its structure, right? So I was actually, uh, Winnie, our editor, was, uh, editing a cooking video where I’m kneading out dough. And I literally hear her from out in the hall just going like, Yeah, he keeps saying like, elongate the structures of the proteins. And I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. And so I came out and mansplained it to her in the flesh, which I love doing. He loves doing it in the flesh. But no, uh, what you do is when you agitate, uh, wheat or you agitate any protein, you find the same thing in sausage making, right? Yeah. We talk about that all the time. Uh, you like agitate the wheat and you’re physically stretching out and elongating the glutens and by resting the dough, you’re basically relaxing the structures, but it’s that strength in the proteins that gives wheat bread specifically its unique rise in shape. Right? Searches for gluten free diets have increased 600 percent over the past 20 years despite the fact that gluten has been in, you know, diets for literal centuries, millennia at this point. Yeah, and it’s said that celiac disease only affects 1 percent of the population. And so you’re seeing a lot of people, the 1 percent of people with celiac disease, which causes like extreme inflammation once the gluten gets to the intestines. And like, I got homies with celiac, I’m sure we all do. Yeah, of course. And like, oh man, we’ve all seen Dan drink a beer and then just start puking up. And we’re like, Dan, lightweight, bro. Figure it out. Um, but. I’m more fascinated in the people who identify as gluten intolerant. Right, so there’s a difference between like, intolerance and allergy and celiac disease. 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, but to me it’s the, uh, what are they, they use, they use an acronym for it. Non Celiac Gluten Hypersensitivity. N C G H. Which is a relatively new phenomenon. Sorry, I rolled my eyes just a little bit. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It is a bit eye rolly. I Just a little bit. Not a lot. Because we’ve all known the people who I think so many humans are like searching for answers, right? You felt bad and you were like this is probably something i’m consuming you went to a doctor They pulled blood said you were allergic to wheat nicole. You did the exact same thing Yeah, I just poop and spit plus poop and spit I once held a friend’s poop vial not knowing it was a poop vial It was like in their trunk and I like picked it up and I was like, what’s this? And they’re like, that’s My stool my stool. That’s a sample of it. And I was like, jeez, you’re giving out free samples of this Um, yeah anyways, uh, but There’s no, like, actual medical diagnosis for, uh, gluten sensitivity, but you see a lot of people who are trying to sort of find answers to why they feel like crap, and then they’re sort of reverse engineering, um, you know, the conclusions to be like, well, it must be gluten. Especially as celiac awareness became a thing, so many people were like, well, if that causes extreme inflammation in people’s celiac, it probably causes inflammation in non celiac people, too. Ergo, I should stop. Thanks a lot. The crazy thing is, there’s so much anecdotal evidence from people saying, When I eat gluten, yeah, when I eat gluten I feel icky, but when I don’t eat it, I feel better. Yeah. And so who’s to say? So much nutritional science is still kind of up in the air. Um, but at the same time, there’s no actual hard evidence for this. Right. And so, I don’t know, have any of you like, I guess you are now on a fully gluten free Diet, but that’s different because you had a wheat allergy. So you’re going to feel better for very different reasons What are the main things you noticed like after you got that allergy? Yeah, because it wasn’t extreme enough to like cause any sort of anaphylaxis or yeah No, um, I noticed I guess primarily a lot less bloating a lot less like digestive issues Those are the main things and also I can technically have gluten in like rye or barley Oh interesting, but it’s just like the wheat like i’m just allergic to wheat Um So, yeah. Why are you not just jamming on Rye bread all the time? I do at home. I do like it. That’s good. It feels like a very Polish thing as well. Yeah. Adele is Polish. I am Polish. And also, you have a panoply of gluten free cookies in front of us. Can you explain a little bit why you decided to do such a cool experiment? Mm hmm. Um, yeah. During COVID, uh, like many of us, fell into baking. Um, I made these really delicious chocolate chip cookies and of course with wheat flour, so I’ve been searching for a gluten free flour now to make my cookies again, but the mixes at the store either have like a lot of additives or totally gluten free. And I just, yeah, I just wanted, like, that control of, like, controlling, like, if I want to add xanthan gum, I can add it, um, but, yeah, I, I just wanted to figure out what is the closest I could get to wheat without it being wheat. Yeah. Um, so I experimented with a bunch of different flowers. Very cool. I am really excited to eat these. Are we gonna eat these? Should we eat them now? Are these for eating? Yeah, you want to talk more about Josh if you want to talk Okay, here No, you start unwrapping If you want to wax poetic about gluten while I unwrap cookies, we can do that because we are both the hosts of this show. Unwrap cookies, I’m a wax poetic about gluten really quickly. One, gluten in baked goods is interesting, especially like a cookie where you’re not relying on gluten. Those protein structures to like hold rise like in a loaf of sourdough or whatever, right? And so to me it like wouldn’t matter nearly as much in something like a cookie Um, but we do see a lot of varying different sizes and shapes right here. Yeah, uh, and that ball like one is a Oh, the potato one? Potato. That’s potato flour. And then also chestnut did the same thing. Chestnut flour. Why do you think, Josh, as, because we’re both chefs, and I wrote a kid’s baking book, why do you think that potato and chestnut stayed in ball form? Because let me tell you the truth, I could not tell you the reason why. I really don’t know, maybe it’s not, it’s like, it soaks up too much moisture? Because it’s so fine? Probably what it is, right? Well, the chestnut one is interesting because, uh, in the search for so many gluten free things, there’s so many, like, fad diets going around. Which one’s this? This is an oat cookie. There’s so many fad diets going around, and like, one of them is, like, Paleo, right? Yeah, sure. So I remember the almond flour craze of the paleo Lifestyle and diet right you look at something like, uh in oat and wheat right or rye. They’re somewhat similar Yes, you know what? I mean? They have similar, uh structures. They’re both like grains grow from like grass Potato and chestnut are wildly different, right? Especially a nut which is not it’s more protein and fat than it is carbohydrate, right? You And so you must just get crazy different absorption rates from, like, you know, literally the cellular structure of it. Totally. Did you measure these all equally using, uh, you go grams or do you go I went grams with all the ingredients. This is tapioca. Oh, tell me how you feel about the oat cookie. Oat flour cookie. No complaints. I do have an allergy to this, but I don’t care right now because I’m stronger than my allergies. This is just the tapioca. This is tapioca and chestnut. Oh, cool. So tapioca comes from cassava, right? Correct. Or cassava, they’ll call it yam in, uh, Certain, uh, certain parts of the world, manioc, uh, in Brazil, I believe. Right. But it’s like a tuber, similar to potato, and then tapioca is the finely, finely ground version of it, I believe. We also have cassava flour as well. We do have cassava flour. We do? Yeah. So I think that’s the difference between like corn, cornmeal and cornstarch. Correct. I believe so. Damn, this is tapioca? Yeah. Tabioca and what was it? Chestnut. I think you get that really delicious chestnut y flavor It almost tastes like brown butter in a cookie and I think it makes it super pleasant and like baked goods We’re like the butter needs to be nice and brown and toasty. That’s pretty special. Super super fatty. This is fun Yeah, one interesting thing about the oat flour one oats have more of like a grain like taste than flour because all the flour that We get is basically just like bleached. Mill to hell. So flour like You It’s funny when people accidentally spell it f l o w e r Because it’s the same word like they literally called it the flower of the wheat as in like the most choice part of it Basically like the fillet and so literally the root of f l o u r and f l o w e r are the same in Middle English So cool because they had just invented the process of like hey You know all those coarse brown breads that we’ve been making for hundreds of years. Yeah Good news, we figured out how to just get that internal kernel, bleach the hell out of it, and make fine white flour. So interesting. So it’s like a new thing in human history, but it also, we prioritize in America the growing of hard red winter wheat, Uh, which does have a ton of gluten in it, which is one of the reasons people think that, Oh, I can eat bread in Europe and I don’t feel as bad. They grow softer wheat with lower flour, or sorry, with lower gluten. Concentrations. Interesting. Yeah, I remember seeing that all over TikTok. People are like, oh yeah, whenever I went to Europe, like, I noticed I could eat all the pasta I wanted and all the pizza and I never got bloated. We gotta talk about that though, cause that’s, I got a lot of thoughts on that one. What are your thoughts? I would love to know your thoughts. I just wanted to say real quick that like, American flour, uh, it doesn’t taste like much. Right? It’s, it’s the most basic. base, like, pure unflavored starch. If you get heirloom wheat flours or even using something like oat flour, you get more flavor. Like grist and toll? Like grist and toll, right? But the European gluten tolerant phenomenon is something that I am utterly fascinated with. It’s so funny. And this goes hand in hand with the general European vacation phenomenon of, oh, I ate pasta and pizza every single day and I lost two pounds. I go back to America, it must be all the additives. You were walking. You were walking. You were walking around the city you’ve never seen before and exploring the sights. You weren’t at your job. Yes. Where you had stress and you’re just, right before this, I love my job. This is an easy thing that we’re doing. I just ate two Reese’s peanut butter cups outside because I didn’t want to do this. Just because they were outside. Yeah, I love what I do. I’d rather be walking around Italy. You know what I mean? Yeah, well, obvi. That stress is going to like come in, uh, you know, different forms. Um, the gluten thing, I believe, is the exact same. You feel better when you’re on vacation because you don’t have stuff to do. You know? Uh, there’s this kind of general anti scientific idea that, like, any additives are bad. A lot of the additives to American wheat are literally like folic acid and things that the body needs. Vitamins that are meant to fortify. Um, I think it’s simply a calorie density thing. I don’t even think the amount of added sugar. And American foods necessarily comes into play, I think you’re just sort of eating more of it. Yeah, tell us about this cookie you’re trying. This is the teff flour one. How did, what were your findings with teff? Teff was, it came out, like, right when it came out of the oven, it was very tough and crumbly, like, right off the bat, which was surprising. It’s also a very dark flour. Yes. If, um, you can see it’s like, It’s almost like a brownie. Yeah. It looked like I added, like, cocoa powder or something to it. Yeah, teff flour is used, um, a lot in Ethiopian cuisine. Um, it’s used in injera, but they ferment it, so it gets that sourdough, spongy deliciousness. I love it. Do you guys know what happens when you eat non fermented teff? Um, I’m gonna get, I’m gonna take a guess, I’m gonna take a wild guess, um, you will get explosive diarrhea. Yeah, correct, correct, correct. Yes! 10 points for Gryffindor. Did I do something bad? No, dude, only if you hate explosive diarrhea. Um, no, there’s actually a fast. Didn’t this happen with Gwyneth Paltrow? Adele, welcome to the podcast. Didn’t this happen with Gwyneth Paltrow? Yeah, this happened with Goop somewhat recently. So, uh, Teff is in Ethiopian grain that is super drought resistant. And it’s basically one of the reasons that. Ethiopian agriculture is able to, like, raise the country out of famine, I believe, during the 80s, during, like, the, uh, the Civil War, uh, or the military derg, I think it was, it was called. Um, but the teff is such a resilient grain, and, um, Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop were basically trying to, quote, find the next quinoa, which is already an indigenous grain in Bolivia and the Andes. Um, and they were like, you know, teff is the new superfood. You gotta get on this. You gotta get on this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And they were just boiling the teff and eating it like couscous. And then they were experiencing wild stomach pains. And then it turns out that you should ferment teff flour as every Ethiopian cook does to make injera bread. Correct. Because it like breaks down certain, uh, yeah, certain compounds. Compounds that make you poop your pants? That make you poop your pants. Yeah. This is a teff one. Um, the dark one over there. Yeah. I like it too, but. We can’t eat too much of it. Um, what else? Which one was your, um, which one was your finding for the best gluten free flour mix? Can I try the buckwheat one? You can go for it. Go crazy. Hell yeah, dude, I love buckwheat flour. Um. My favorite noodles are made with buckwheat flour. Soba noodles? I think soba noodles are the best noodles on the planet. What?! Have I never said that to you? No, that’s, that’s a thing to say. You ever have soba noodles? I, I haven’t had them, but I’ve heard of them, yeah. Go to, uh, Kaz on Sawtelle. Oh, I’ve had that before. Please, it’s underrated as hell. Underrated as hell. Um, so tell us about the cookie that you found to be the closest to a classic wheat chocolate chip cookie. Um The oat was pretty up there. Right, right. Um, so what I found was buckwheat, oat, and cassava flour all had very similar properties to like a wheat cookie. Mm hmm. Um, and I found that mixing any of those with tapioca gets it the closest to wheat. Interesting. Because tapioca gives it the spread. This was the original tapioca cookie. Right. And it That’s pure tapioca? Yeah. And it’s huge, and it just spread like crazy. Mm hmm. Which we can try it. It’s really good. It’s really chewy. Yeah, yeah, crack this bad boy open dude. This is fun Can we just eat cookies on the podcast all the time? I think this is a great idea. Uh, Adele, thank you for doing this. Yeah, of course. I had a great time. Um, if you do it silently, yeah. I can’t promise that. Ooh, the buckwheat tastes good. It tastes the most chocolatey out of all the ones I’ve tasted. It’s like the flour is just not even, it’s like non existent. It’s like air. It’s just chocolate and butter. Yeah, um, so adding tapioca to any of those three makes a really good cookie, and then you can also add either chestnut or banana flour to those for like a little flavor. Oh my god. Banana flour. Banana flour, yeah. Wow, the banana flour, so I cheated a little bit and I tasted these yesterday, some of them, just not all of them, but just some of them, and the banana flour cookie was so good I could not stop eating it. Eating it. It was an actual problem. We do, yeah. The banana flower cookie was nuts. Like, literally. Let me see if I can find it. This is fun. So there’s this idea that maybe in Europe there’s slightly less gluten in the bread, but it doesn’t account for the anecdotal evidence of people saying they can eat bread there and not elsewhere. That’s chess. There’s also this idea that in America, the flour is milled earlier, so potentially, like, active So it’s a young grain. Yeah, so, sorry, no, no, no, it’s milled, and then it sits for a while, and all of the active, like, um, bacteria in it is killed, so you’re eating dead flour. Um, but most of this stuff is somewhat ascientific and doesn’t actually have any real backbone to it. Yeah. That’s so fascinating, people’s anecdotal claims. This cookie’s about to blow your mind. What is this? Banana flour? This is a banana flour. This, whenever Adela showed me this cookie, I was like, Yo, this is next level. I love this. It’s okay. This is the best day. This is how we get ants. I recently had a banana flour product that I’d never seen before. Was it in a wrap? No, it was um, it was a cracker. Mmm. They’re making Cheez Its with banana flour. I have no problems with that. This tasted better yesterday. It still tastes good though. It’s really delicious. I love banana, so I love it. Are you tasting a lot of banana for this? No. Wait until you swallow. Why does it taste a little bit burnt? I don’t know. Well, okay, so the banana flour Because of the sugar. Because of the sugar content in the bananas. Is that what it is? Like all this has sugar content. Well, the bananas have more sugar. No, I’m saying bananas are sweeter. Well, there is it’s probably green banana flour, right? It just said banana flour. Can someone google banana flour real quick? Yeah. Cause, I had these crackers, they also tasted burnt. And um, they said they were using green banana flour. You’re right, it’s made out of green bananas. They’re starchy, so green bananas are starchier than regular bananas, but they still do have sugar content in them. 100%, but everything, I’m curious what the actual um, Starch to sugar content is from like banana flour because I once had this question of like, are ripe bananas more sugary or have more calories than unripe bananas? Because if something tastes sweeter, it generally means more sugar. But all that’s happening is the starch from an unripe banana is converting to sugar via chemical process. And so there’s no, you know, Energy lost or gained in the system. It’s just converting from starch to sugar right because all Carbohydrates eventually convert down to sugar in your body. That’s like how digestion works But that is a fascinating flavor wasn’t delicious. We have found ways to turn so many things into flowers The cool thing about these cookies It’s like the NBA dunk contest. Oh, he’s bringing it back to sports. He’s bringing it back to sports. No, no, no. NBA dunk contest, the lowest you really score a dunk is a 6 Because if you’re good enough to dunk a basketball, that’s still worthy of a 10. All these cookies, even if they’re worst, we haven’t had some of them, they’re at least a 10. Correct. You can live a happy lifestyle, gluten free. Yeah, I mean, we’re living in 2024, and thank God that there are so many different options for people that, Our gluten free, our celiac, our X, Y, and Z. What do you think the best like gluten free bread alternative is? Cauliflower Thins from Trader Joe’s. Really? What? What is a cauliflower thin? It’s cauliflower, cheese, eggs, and a little bit of tapioca flour, and it’s phenomenal. But it’s like a wrap. It’s, it’s a literal, it’s a literal disc of cauliflower. We just tried the banana chestnut combination. My god. Is that a damn good cookie? It’s good. That is awesome! Mmm. Yeah. You should, uh, Adela, good news since you made this on company property, and I know your internship’s ending soon, that we own the IP rights to this. So if you try and sell it anywhere, we will cease and desist you. Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. This is my favorite gluten free. Tell us about it. Tell the podcast. Tell the people where they can find it. I, I don’t know actually. What’s it called? I, how do you pronounce that? Schar? Schar! Schar! Schar! But we’ve got an umlaut over the A. Which means, Schar! European, what that mean? I don’t know. I, I don’t know, but I actually had it for the first time in Poland, and then I found it here. So this, I mean, it’s definitely like a European brand. Mm hmm. Um, you can get it here. They have really good, like, ciabatta rolls for sale. Um, I don’t know what they use, but it tastes exactly like bread to me. That’s awesome. Yeah. I feel like we’ve really We’ve really improved gluten free. We’ve changed a lot from like the UDs and the UDs of the world, you know? Did I say UDs? UDs? I think UDs. Oh, U U U U U T I. U T I. U D I? U D I. Apostrophe S? Yeah. The, you know, like, I love, I love UDs and I thought it’s, I think it’s delicious, but I think the innovation and the ability to find all of these cool flours and all of these incredible ways to incorporate gluten free stuff into things makes it really, really easy. But I will say this. Nothing’s better than a regular cookie. What am I eating right now? You gotta eat the potato cookie. Maybe this will be better than the regular cookie. I don’t want to. You gotta eat the potato cookie, Nicole. I don’t like this at all. It doesn’t taste like cultured for Passover. Oh my god, it tastes like a canned macaroon. Yeah, like a canned macaroon. There’s no coconut in it. If you let this saliva well up in your mouth. Oh my God. It tastes, it does turn to mashed potatoes. . Wow. It tastes like those chocolate chip macaroons we get for past. It’s so Eastern European tasting. It’s really, it really is. I really don’t like that. This is your heritage. Yeah. C Yeah. I really don’t like that. I’m gonna say, uh, Jules and I were actually talking about like, if we had to go gluten-free, what would we do? Why would you even entertain that we just talk about BS all the time? It’s why we work, but we were talking about like if you had to like choose one Cereal grain only to eat for the rest of your life, right or like one carb for the rest of your life Hmm, you know, what would your guys answers be like one one carb if it was like noodles bread rice noodles corn Corn slop, corn disks. Pasta. It’d be pasta. I love pasta. Stranded noodles. I, no. Rigatoni. Just rigatoni? I would eat rigatoni for the rest of my life if I could. I would, potatoes are a good one now that you said that. Does it have to be, yeah. Is it just like potato or like, does it include sweet potatoes? Like is it all potato? I think tubers are so specific. Tubers deserve to be in here though because that was like the way, no, no, because like they were literally Grown and exported around the world. So potatoes didn’t exist in Europe until the late, like mid 1500s. Right. Cause it was a uniquely American product from Peru and it was literally only exported back. So you’re like, Oh, what a cheap way to feed poor people. And so potatoes deserve to be there. I would, I would say yes, sweet potatoes do count. Cool. Then I’ll go with potatoes. What about you? Just straight bread, man. Simple, like, like strictly flatbreads. You like flatbreads? I give me a flat. I think a flatbread can do anything that any. Rice could do. Really? Don’t need pastas. Give me the sauce and a flatbread to scoop it up, like roti and sub G. No, no, no. I think that is the best. For me, it’s like, if it was my last day on earth, I think I would eat pasta every, for every single meal. I really would. I just love the, I love, is it like durum wheat? Semolina? Whatever it is, it’s just phenomenal. I just, It’s the one thing I miss since I’ve been like, like, Keto ish since December. It’s the one thing I’m like, damn, none of these like, chickpea pastas, none of these like, heart of palm pastas, like nothing really stands up to it. I miss it a lot. Um, have you Have you found any vegetables that substitute for pasta a la a zoodle? No, I don’t zoodle. I haven’t zoodled. Spaghetti squash. It’s neither spaghetti nor squash. I like spaghetti squash, but it is neither spaghetti nor squash. It is its own complete Coleslaw potato. Which I love. I love coleslaw. I love coleslaw and potatoes. I love coleslaw, potatoes, spaghetti squash. With some tomato sauce. I mean, there’s no problem. But yeah, no. Nothing is the same as pasta and nothing ever will be. I think there’s a very good international gluten free bread like product that I actually went to a gluten free, like a specific restaurant for celiacs. One person was celiac in the group and they were like, I don’t trust any other restaurant to just give me a corn tortilla and they had to make it all about them. But anyways, we went to this gluten free restaurant that was pretty packed. It was in Culver City. But And they brought out their bread course that was like grilled with olive oil and served maybe with a bruschetta y thing. And I tasted it and I was like, that’s such a familiar texture. And I asked them and it was cassava, it was pão de queijo, the Brazilian cheesy bread. Oh gee. And they just made a whole loaf out of tapioca and like cheese. And I was like, man, there are so many regions in the world that have awesome products that stand alone that have nothing to do with wheat. Totally. And so you can look at like, you know, so many I would, if I were you, and not eating gluten, I know this is more of like a carb thing. Sure. But not eating gluten and wanting pasta, like, I just eat chow fun all the time, man. I love rice noodles. Yeah. Soba, buckwheat noodles, I think it’s the best in the world. Totally. So there’s so many products out there, but you kind of have to like, search internationally, um. You know, for different things to eat. Green banana flower, what a, what a unique find. My tummy hurts. Oh god, the gluten’s coming. It’s the teff. Nicole, I’m going to Italy this summer. Oh wow, sounds fab. Can I come? Absolutely not. But you know that sense of anxiety you get when you try and order food in a different country and you don’t know the right words? Oh my god, of course. Happened to me on my last international trip. Well, no more embarrassment to be had, Nicole, because I’ve been practicing my Italian with Rosetta Stone. 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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. Alright, Nicole and Adela, we’ve heard what you and I have to say. Now it’s time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there. It’s time for a little segment we call OPINIONS ARE LIKE CASSEROLES! Did you like her singing, Adela? You have to say yes. Yes, I did. There’s so many crumbs everywhere and it’s causing me so much anxiety. They’re stuck to my elbow. There are so many crumbs everywhere. I’m going to start tracking ants inside my clothing. We’ve had ants. Yeah, well, you know, um, I’m also covered in random miscellaneous bug bites. Let’s get to that first opinion. Let’s do it. This first opinion also is coming from, this call is coming from inside the house. It’s from someone who co edits this very podcast and also is a producer on. Another mythical podcast dispatches from Myrtle Beach. I’ll let her take it from here. It’s Logan. It’s Logan. Ayo! Guess who it is! What’s up, Logan? It’s Logan! What are you doing? When I saw that you were recording an episode about gluten, I could not resist having it in a voicemail. I know the title of this episode is something like, What the heck is gluten? I’m not here to answer that because I know that you guys already did it. I also don’t really know what it is. What I do know is that I cannot eat it. TMI, I had to go to the hospital twice in college for constipation. So yeah, can’t eat it. And you know what? I may or may not have shared that story with a couple co workers, but I’m not ashamed. Anyway, I have a little pitch for you guys. As you guys know very well, after kitchen episodes, there’s a ton of food for a crew to eat. And very rarely can I eat it. Which is no one else’s problem, rather my problem. It’s just a little sad. So, here’s my selfish pitch. You do one Miss Cool Kitchen episode involving gluten free food, somehow. I don’t know if it’s like regular versus gluten free challenge, something like that. You don’t even have to air it. Just so I can feel included. This is just me being jealous of everybody else. Anyways, thanks for letting me shout my gluten free grievances into the void. Bye! I love that instead of talking to us, Logan, we have an open door policy. This voice message could have been a slap. Or come talk to us in our office. Yeah, we’re humans. Come talk to us. We literally work next to each other. Uh, how about this? Maggie, on this podcast, we’re gonna comment on our own YouTube video saying, should we make a gluten free episode and if it gets 2, 000 likes, Nicole, 2, 000 likes, then we’ll do a gluten free Mythical Catching episode. Deal? Whatever floats your boat, boss. Deal? We’ll do it. We’ll do it. Also, we love you, Logan. We’ll eat. Logan, we love you. We’re sorry that you feel excluded. You know who else feels excluded? Dylan. Dylan Lloyd. Vegetarian cam op. Dylan’s a chain, yeah. I literally, sometimes, I look at him and I go, Hey. This is vegetarian. You can eat this. I don’t do that for you, Logan. I didn’t Logan, we didn’t know about your chronic constipation problems. I knew you were hungry. And I wish we did know that. I didn’t know that. What a world. Hi. My name’s Tina. Sexy. Love this, Tina. Tina Marie, actually. And what I want to know is my food casserole, um, dilemma is what’s up with cream of soups? Is it jello? Is it pudding? It’s like a savory. Gelatinous. Something that I’m not sure and I don’t really understand, it’s like, Gary, it scares me. But it’s so good. And it makes everything taste better. Like when I dry my chicken out, it makes my chicken nice and moist. And like for vegetables, it makes them so yummy and scrumptious. Anyway, I just want to let Josh know, Oreos dipped in hot coffee, number one. Oh, yeah. Love you. Love you, bye. That rips. Uh, love, love you too. Tina, hurry! I didn’t hear you say that yet, but we’re here. You should go into voice acting. I love all the voices you did. I feel like she should be on Bob’s Burgers. Yeah. Uh, new character, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’d be great. Um, I think Idella should answer this one. Idella, take it away. I don’t know the answer. What is cream Cream of soups? What? Like cream Condensed cream of mushroom soup. Cream of mushroom, cream of celery, cream of chicken. You ever seen these? I’ve seen them, but I don’t know what they are. Okay, tell them what they are. When did your, when did your parents come here from Poland? In the 90s. In the 90s. So they would have missed the golden age of like American recipe writing, which was mostly You dump a can of vegetables into a can of condensed cream of whatever soup. Right. And then you top that with a crispy can of something else. The, the, um, the apotheosis of these recipes is the American green bean casserole. Right. Cream mushroom, condensed cream mushroom soup, can of French cut green beans, and then crispy fried French’s onions on top. So what it is, you take You’re supposed to have a cream of mushroom soup in a can, but to cut down on cost, Campbell’s started condensing it, and you add your own water. Nicole didn’t know that was a thing. I also, my parents also came here in the 90s, and the first time I saw, the first time I ever opened a can of Campbell’s soup was at this job. That’s so funny. So I didn’t know. I also didn’t know. Yeah, so they’re condensed. And so, uh, people found out that. Nobody really wants to eat that as a standalone bowl of soup thinned out with water anymore, but it is just a mixture of fat MSG starch modified food starch or corn starch is probably the ingredient that’s making it like a pudding because that’s literally what makes pudding like a Pudding right And then, uh, just a ton of salt. And it is utterly delicious when you mix it with Absolutely anything. And they have like 15 different creams of condensed version. Yeah. You have cream of asparagus, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom. Um, there’s a cream of tomato as well. There’s everything. You can cream anything. If you try hard enough. If you try hard enough. Um, but I agree that it does make everything delicious. I condensed my own cream of mushroom soup once. I know you did. I had a great time. Took a long time. Tastes like the can. Told me like three times. I know. Do you want to hear it again? Adela, have you heard that story before? I don’t think so. This is why I like having Adela here. She hasn’t heard my stories. I’ll say this. It makes all food taste very American. Yes. It makes everything taste a little bit more American than you think. Um, I don’t use it a lot in my household. Um, but I do use it here whenever I want to make a really like, dank casserole. I’m probably putting a can of cream of chicken in there and it’s good. It’s not the best like ingredient ever, but I like it and I think it serves its purpose. And yeah. That’s how I feel about that. The American flavor profile is condensed cream of mushroom soup and Thousand Island dressing. Oh, yeah. Wishbone. No, what’s what’s Catalina? Catalina dressing. Sorry, I dropped my lip gloss. Great opinion, though. It’s gone forever. Cream of asparagus underrated. Hi, I’m Kayla from Nova Scotia, Canada. And my hot take is that the best dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or chicken strips is mayo, Sweet chili sauce and chamoy all mixed together. Yoooo! Nova Scotia coming out swinging for the fences. Teddy freaking Williams going yard on them right now. I like it. That’s incredible. Sweet chili sauce, mayonnaise, chamoy. Do you know what chamoy is? I wonder what the ratios are. Yes, it’s the red, um, like, hot sauce? It’s kind of a hot sauce. Okay, take a thousand guesses and not actually get what it is. Because I’ve seen Chamoy pickles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, it’s technically like a pickled fruit puree with sugar and chilies in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, uh, a real trip of an ingredient. You’ll get some that are more pasty, some that are more thin and runny, but it would add a unique, because what that sauce is missing, you got the sugar, you got the heat, Yeah, the cream, you’re missing like some acid and tart. I was gonna say it’s tangy. Chamoy is tangy. Really great idea. I wonder what their ratios are. Literally thinking the same thing. Because I’m guessing it’s a three, it’s a three, two, one, probably like a margarita. Three mayo, three mayo, two sweet chili, one chamoy. That’s gonna leave it not very creamy at all, which you might want. You might want. Not all chicken dipping sauces needs to be creamy. If anything, you want a little bit of run. It’s like a, kind of a honey mustard, kind of a honey mustard difference. There’s some people that like the really mayonnaise y honey mustards. And I’m like, I’m here for the horseradish and the honey. icky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh wee, put it in the air. Adela, do you get that reference? Ooh wee? Uh, ooh wee, that real sticky icky, put it in the air. No. Oh god, the kids aren’t alright. Neither do I. What? It’s Snoop Dogg. Oh, okay. Smoke, smoke lean every day. No, nevermind. Hey! I didn’t say It’s legal! It’s literally legal! You can’t say that on the podcast! I didn’t say I don’t think It’s not an endorsement! The children, the children are listening! I heard it in a song! It’s okay! The children are listening! Next opinion, Maggie. Hey guys, love that voicemail. Thank you. This is Taylor, and, uh, I have an interesting food opinion. So, the Tostitos Cantina Chips, it’s the yellow bag, with the ranch dip made with the ranch packet and sour cream, is a top tier combination. Mmm. Do you want to go a little crazy? Yeah. Maybe duck, um, summer sausage, a little Colby Jack cheese on there. Also, uh, popcorn is best eaten with chopsticks. On there. Thanks. You know where. Wait. Okay, so the ranch dip from the packet with the sour cream. Yum. Elite. We can all agree with that. Um, the Tostitos Cantina chips. Uh, I think they’re, they’re good. I think they’re a little thicker than, um. They’re thickums. Which is funny because a cantina is a Mexican restaurant Mexican and they used to be called restaurant style chips that were thinner, but now they’re restaurant and Spanish chips are thicker. Probably. These are probably good, uh, chilaquiles chips. Why am I yawning? I don’t know. It’s the teflour. These, these are good chips. I agree. Ranch dip. I think corn chip and ranch, I think it should be a potato chip, that’s fine. Where is he putting the summer sausage? And if you have to ask that question, you’re about to have a bad time. Where are you putting the sausage? Where are you putting the, tell me what’s in the box? What’s in the box? Do you get that reference? Great. There’s a severed head in the box. What? Yeah. When, when Brad Pitt says, What’s in the bar? It’s his severed head. It’s his wife’s. It’s his wife’s. What is this from? Yeah. It’s a movie called Seven. But the V is the number seven. Oh, okay. I’ve seen, I’ve seen the logo. Yeah. I feel like I should know this. Um, So, um, Popcorn with chopsticks. That’s, how are you going to shovel it? David and I have been eating popcorn every single day while watching House of Dragon and he likes his with salt and a little bit of olive oil and I like mine with garlic olive oil and nutritional yeast and let me tell you, I shovel it. I be shoveling! So good. Okay, next. I don’t like popcorn. Hey Josh, Nicole, and Maggie. And Adela, be respectful. My name’s Finn, I go to UGA in Georgia. Go dogs! I recently discovered that Chinese broccoli is probably my favorite vegetable. What’s Chinese broccoli? It’s the perfect leafiness. And then the, the stock is not too thick. It stir fries so wonderfully, I could just eat bushels. Uh, I just think more people should go out to Asian grocery stores and just stock up on the Chinese broccoli and just only eat that for the rest of your life. Thank you. Well, if you eat it for the rest of the night, you’re going to turn into a broccoli yourself! I’ve had this before. It’s very good, very delicious. I love it. I don’t know if I like it more than broccoli, though, because I buy more broccoli at home, and I order more broccoli at restaurants. I don’t order that much gailan if it’s on the menu. Brother, I’m ord I’m ordering gai lan all the time. Gai lan, um, A choy, yu choy. A choy, yu choy, and then, uh, they call it water spinach. Oh, I lo I love water spinach! We gotta get on we gotta get on the Chinese greens game, dude. Cause there’s such a di I had a friend come back from China, and we were talking about restaurants, and they were like, It was so interesting because you’d go to certain restaurants and in the way that in America it’s divided by meat type, do you want beef, chicken, pork, whatever, he’s like there they would divide it by greens, there were like nine different types of greens that you could get and things that I’d never heard of and they’re all so different, um, man, I am a huge fan, we do need to eat a lot more greens, we do. Americans need more Viber. We don’t need enough vegetables. But we eat the same kind of crappy ones all the time. And wonder why we don’t like them. We don’t know how to cook them. Right. Do you like, do you like these kinds of greens? Are you a fan? Uh, I’ve never had water spinach. I think I’ve had Chinese broccoli before, and it’s very delicious. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. I like my greens. I like arugula. If it’s made, I feel like also, a lot of times when you get it from like a Chinese restaurant, it’s like, I don’t know. Almost, it’s not stewed, it’s just wonderfully cooked, you know, like there’s garlic in there, there’s chili in there, there’s ginger, there’s like, two, probably like two, three different kinds of soy. The way that it’s made in a wok is like, delicious, it truly is. Morning Glory, that’s what they call it. Morning Glory! What’s Morning Glory? That’s water spinach. I love water spinach. Morning Glory. Morning Glory is good. Dude, so many delicious, uh, East Asian vegetables that we don’t eat enough of in America. Banana Blossoms! Have you ever had a banana blo Vietnamese Banana Blossom Salad? No. Absolutely ripped. It’s not quite a green, but just delicious. More veggies, period. Sweet potato leaves, very popular in other parts of the world. We should be eating all of our turnip greens, we should be eating all of our beet greens. We should be eating the top we need we know what we have to do, we have to tell the grocery stores to stop removing the tops off of our carrots and our turnips and stuff like that. That’s what we gotta do. We gotta eat those things. I’ll die before I eat another carrot top pesto though. That was a passing, that was a passing fad. And it deserves to die. One more, Meggie, come on. No, no, no, no. Meggie, Meggie, come on. No, no, it’s done. I didn’t prepare another one. I’m so sorry. Come on. Okay, Adela, give us your hottest take. My hottest take? Yeah. About anything. Food, politics. Yeah, we don’t care. We’re here to listen. Public education system. Yeah, us. Putting me on the spot. Um, I believe that skyr, like the Icelandic yogurt, is the best. infinitely better than greek yogurt skeet is delicious I love skeet and I think that should be like the hype food. Yeah, no more greek yogurt all skier all day Okay, that’s a hot take. Yeah, I I’m a big fan of uh thor’s skier Uh, that is half thor julius bjornsson AKA the mountain from Game of Thrones. He has his own brand of skier. He does. Terry Crews. Uh, one of the Sprouses is an investor. Dylan Sprouse is an investor. Oh, you the Terry Crews research. Yeah, I saw that. Um, yeah, I agree that skier is technically, jeez. Right? The Icelandic government came out and was like, we’re calling this a cheese. Um, incredible. That was a very hot take. I have no responses. I like labneh more than skir, more than, more than Greek yogurt. Labneh is my favorite dairy product that is kind of a yogurt and also a cheese. I, uh, have labneh in my fridge right now. Okay. What do you mean? We’re having a conversation. It’s a podcast. I made, I made, I wanted some sort of like refreshing yogurt y thingy to go on all the kebabs that I make all the time. Um, so that’s all I want to make at home. But I did it like a tzatziki except I added shallot, chive, and cucumber. Tzatziki? Yeah. How did you say that? tki, isn’t it? tki? How do you pronounce it? I say it tki. I say Tki. T tki. Tai, have you seen that name? You take one scoop of your homemade Tai Tki. tki. So, um, Zuki, this is from a Greek person on Reddit that is mad that people pronounce it. He said it’s more like Zadziki. Zadziki. Zatziki. Zatziki! Um, anyways, uh, it was good. Like, that’s the end of the story. Yum, I did it. And on that note, thank you for listening to a Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We’ve got new audio only episodes every Wednesday, and a video version of the same podcast comes out every single Sunday. I added a little bit of leftover, like, roasted salsa verde that I also made, and I stirred that into it. And if you want to be featured on opinions are like casseroles hit us up at 833dogpod1 The number again is 833dogpod1 We love all of your opinions even the crappy ones and it made it worse because I was like you want this cooling refreshing Yogurt and now you’re just adding salt And I thought it would, you know, a little bit of acid, a little bit, a little bit of body from the tomatillo. Thank you for joining us today on the podcast, Adela. You are a great intern and a wonderful person and we’ve loved having you so far. Thank you. I’m glad to be here. And it was kind of just like a murky brown at that point. Cause I, I, again, I, I don’t know if I mentioned this, I roasted the tomatillos. And for more mythical kitchen, check out our other videos. We upload all the damn time. Check out our show. Last meals. We’re very proud of it. We’re going to have some awesome people on very soon, but that’s the next time. It’s the nature of cooking.