Back in my day, we didn’t need to pull out a loan to go to the grocery store. Who does Haley Bieber think she is? Yeah. The smoothies here don’t even have real Bieber in them. Never say never. 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. 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 Ayer, and I’m your host, Nicole Aniety. And today we have a very special guest joining us. We have Gwyneth Stewart from spork. com, the grocery store empresario herself. Welcome to the podcast. Hi, I’m so happy to be here. We’re so happy to have you. So you are a recent Erewhon convert. You have not. yet been there until today? As of today. Crazy. I’m, um, I was, yeah. So I’d never been. On principle, almost. Interesting, okay. Um, and then I was like, okay, well I’m gonna be on a podcast about it, so I’m gonna pop in. And I wound up walking around and finding so many snacks, it seemed fun! What did you end up, uh, picking up from there? Well, we should tell the people what Erewhon is, if they do not yet know what Erewhon is. is to our knowledge. Why are you saying it like that? Erewhon. That’s just how you pronounce it. Is that how you say it? Erewhon. All the fancy people say Erewhon. I think just saying Erewhon is fine. Yeah, so Erewhon, now it sounds weird to me. Erewhon is, uh, to our knowledge, the fanciest grocery store in Los Angeles, which is a place that has some of the fanciest little cities in the world. Um, I occasionally pop into the Studio City Erewhon because it’s right next to the gymnasium that I go to. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I will pay an extra two dollars for the normal FIA Greek yogurt and blueberries that I would normally get from another grocery store because then I don’t have to re park my car and I can just come straight to work. So that is my main relationship to Erewhon. Yes, Nicole? Does your Erewhon have valet parking and do you utilize it or is it like a ticket system? I’m so glad you asked. My car is already parked for the gymnasium, you see, and I get to validate the parking so it is free. And what gym do you go to? Uh, I’m not going to tell, there’s only one, people are going to know, it’s I go to Equinox, I’m a fancy boy, I go to the, I go to the Equinox. Josh has, you have to understand Gwyneth, Josh has turned into such a fancy boy. That’s correct. He goes to the gym at Erewhon, he grocery stores at Erewhon, I’m sorry, he gyms at Equinox. I’m lifting the cantaloupes at Erewhon, don’t bother me. He gymnasiums at Equinox. That’s right, and now he shops at Equinox. Are you going to get a Capital One card? I got a massage. I use the Chase Sapphire Preferred, not a sponsor. Cash back at restaurants. It does good work. Um, I got a massage for the first time. I paid money for it. You, you, you paid someone to touch your body? Yeah, that’s how, that’s how bougie I have become. I can’t even touch my own body anymore. I have to pay somebody else to do that. I can’t believe it. Did you enjoy it? I did actually. It was not like too much, but I did know I had a good time. But it was in Italy and there was a language barrier. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing that I’m always worried about with, we’ll get back to Erewhon in a sec, the thing I’m always worried about with massages is the cultural coding of when I’m supposed to take off my pants. Uh huh. You know? Um. Fair. Yeah. And so in Italy, I didn’t speak much Italian, and she didn’t speak much English, and so I was just having to gesture like, do I take off my pants now? Anyways, it turned out good. So, heroin. It kind of came out of like the macrobiotic, macrobiotic fad diet movement, right? It was founded by two Japanese people in Boston, actually, about 60 years ago. It’s a reference to a James Butler, or sorry, Samuel Butler novel, a satirical novel about a place in the future where illness is punished. Did you know this? I had no idea had no idea. I just thought it was nowhere backwards. I know. It’s not even backwards. It’s an anagram of nowhere. Um, but no, there was a Samuel, a Samuel Butler, it’s an anagram, it’s an anagram of nowhere. It’s not nowhere backwards. Right arrow, it’s not nowhere backwards. What are you talking about? No, that’s not how you spell nowhere backwards. It’s n o h w e r e. Nowhere is n o w. It’s true. Yeah. I just can’t win. Anyways, but the point is, this was like, this is the, uh, the, the, the classic thing happens with like Whole Foods, right? Whole Foods used to be the crunchy granola kind of weirdo store where you’d get wheat grass shots. And then now it’s owned by Amazon. It’s a multi, multi, multi billion dollar business. Erewhon is kind of that, but even smaller and even fancier and even more. expensive. So how was your first experience there? Um, so I went to the one in Silver Lake, um, and I thought it was small. I thought that, um, everyone there seemed very busy. And like, they had a lot to do that day. Um, while I was trying to like, be kind of cash and just like, kind of like browse, it didn’t seem ideal for browsing. Okay. That’s a criticism. Yep. Um, but other things about it were, okay, I think that grocery prices have gotten just so crazy in general. Ridiculous. That when I look at heroin prices, yes, some things are crazy. Completely ridiculous. But then other things, it’s like, yeah, I don’t know. That’s probably what that costs now. Who knows? Maybe spinach dip costs 15 and comes in a jar. Who am I to say? Our brains are so scrambled now. But you get, oh my god, but you actually get a, you get money back if you buy their spinach dip in a jar and then you bring your jar back. You bring the jar back. How much did you get back? A loophole. Uh, a quarter? No, I think it was actually 2. 50 or something. Oh, really? That’s. Significant. That’s pretty awesome. Bring your jar back. It’s like bringing a growler, like a growler of beer back to a brewery. It’s like that, but with spinach artichoke dip and they just have a tap and they pull it and just go, and spinach artichoke dip comes back in the jar. I didn’t even think about how they were dispensing spinach chip, but I love that. I love that and everyone should start telling people that they have a spinach chip on tap because I think people would really like that a lot. Normally we wouldn’t just talk about a local regional LA grocery store because we have a global audience here, but, but, but. I love that. Erewhon has now superseded its little geographic radius primarily because of the Hailey Bieber smoothie, hence the intro. Yeah, and there’s only 10 locations, which is insane how much traction this little grocery store has, has gained. Yeah, the amount of TikToks, people coming in from out of town. I’ve seen TikTokers shooting at the Studio City location. I’m just trying to buy my vitamins, wild blueberries, because they have double the antioxidants and they’re small. Nicole, they’re small and they break up better in the blender. Yeah. Yeah. They’re great. They sell them in three pound sacks. I love it. Oh, that’s nice. Yeah, yeah. Um, Nicole, you can probably speak more to the Haley Bieber smoothie because I think it has chemicals in there that you like to put in your body. Um, well, you know, I actually have only had it once before. And I think there’s like maca roo and things like that and like coconut yogurt, which I do dabble in, you know, I’m, you know, a young lady that goes. grew up in L. A. So, of course, my finger is going to be on the pulse of these fabulous new found things you put into your smoothie. I do think the pricing is absolutely abhorrent. I think 19. Right now, it’s 19. Yeah, as if there’s like surge pricing. I mean, I think it was 17. 50, but now it’s like, however much it is. I think the Harry’s berries is also what makes it very expensive. I think you can get like a pound of Harry’s berries for 20 or something like that, which is also Exorbitant they’re delicious. I love them very much. But so it’s 20 for strawberries. Like what are we doing? But the smoothies? They’re too expensive and they don’t even taste that great. I just get it just to get it just to say hey I tried it at least once like I got a little tick mark on the box But I’m not a repeat customer by any means. Mm hmm. It’s it’s got the collagen in it. That’s got the collagen That’s why it’s the strawberry Glaze skin smoothie or strawberry skin glaze. Well, also Haley Bieber has a Skincare slash makeup line called road, which is her middle name And so I understand why and she also did a Krispy Kreme collab too with strawberries So strawberries, skincare, Krispy Kreme, Erewhon, they all make sense Haley Bieber’s just getting richer and richer every second we talk about it But I’m you’re welcome. I’m not the biggest fan of the smoothies at Erewhon, but for specifics like I don’t know, like they’re vitamins and stuff. Sure, purchase them. They’re deodorant. Sure, I understand the appeal. The vegetables, I will say they’re produce and stuff, way too expensive. Like, I’m not going there to buy a banana. Not happening. I took a peek at some Like golden raspberries. Okay, it was a very small container of them and it was about six dollars I was like, I think that’s what I expected. Sure a kind of odd sort of produce to cost specialty items things like golden raspberries and coconut yogurt and Fermented kefir like from the Himalayan mountains like I’m down to pay a premium for those products But whenever it comes to everyday grocery shopping the idea of doing that at Erewhon or even Whole Foods or even Bristol Farms Sometimes yeah, I just can’t get behind what I want is more Piggly Wigglies. I want more Do you actually want one? Or an Aldi? I do love Aldi. Yes, I’ve never walked into a Piggly Wiggly, but I’ve always seen like Extreme Couponers and stuff on TLC do it. Oh my god, I love that show. I know, me too, and it’s like I’ve always wanted to step foot and just experience that kind of rush of getting like 3. 99 for a pound of beef. I’ve never experienced that before. I know you, stop laughing. I’m being so serious. Like, is it I shop at Smart and Final. I shop at Ralph’s. I also shop at these places too. Other discount like grocery outlet and stuff like that, but Piggly Wiggly, man. I don’t know what it is. Why not just go whole hog at Walmart? Because I mean, honestly, Walmart, like we’ve, we’ve all Whole hog at Walmart? Don’t buy a whole hog at Walmart. I’m saying go all the way and do your grocery shopping at Walmart. Walmart has Yeah, but I’m like is that Walmart does have low low prices every day. They really do Go back to all the real quick when the all the in Burbank opened up I’d never been to an Aldi before they’re a lot more popular in different parts of the u. s. And they like split from a german Uh company, there’s no like all the nord. Anyways, they’re now making like a bigger play in california I was very excited because I heard you know All these great things and then I went in there and it like kind of really bummed me out Because I was like, oh my god, it’s like it’s like if somebody shrunk a costco down You It’s not an uplifting experience to shop at an Aldi, I will say. But you can find such fun things there. A lot of seasonal fun products and everything’s so cheap. It is really cheap. Um, also I now understand like hardline conservative opinions that make no sense because mine when I go into Aldi is, you know, Cashiers shouldn’t, they shouldn’t sit. Of course they should sit. They should stand. I love that they sit. Why are they sitting down? It’s weird. I love that they sit. What do you mean? It’s I wish they would put their feet up. I’m saying, I’m saying it’s nonsensical. It makes no sense for me to think that, but it creeps me out. Really? I’m, I’m, I’m absolutely the bad person here, and if I library? If I think, no, do you think I go to the library? When’s the last time you went to the library? You want the librarians to stand up? What are librarians doing most of the time? Sitting down and reading! What is their function? They’re sitting down and reading! The Dewey Decimal System. Somebody’s like, I need to find a book and I don’t know how to use the internet. Like that’s what a librarian I know librarians do a lot. We’re gonna get a lot of mad librarians. I know. You do not want that. Boo Josh. Boo Josh. Uh, no, I’m kidding. Catchers absolutely should sit down. But I will say it’s jarring the first time. You’re just like Sure. I mean to be fair I grew up shopping at a lot of like ethnic grocery stores like like Jewish markets Persian markets and like Asian markets and People will be sitting cashiers be sitting. Oh, yeah Do you guys know that speech in devil wears Prada where somebody’s like These clothes all look very silly and they’re stupid and expensive and then Meryl Streep or whatever I I’ve seen this movie once like 15 years ago and then Meryl Streep goes like That Pantone Blue 0495 was seen in the Tom Ford 1995 collection. Eight years later it sold 80 percent of the clothes at TJ Maxx. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s not blue, it’s not even cerulean, it’s lapis. Oh, that one? Yeah, that one. That’s what he was trying to say. Yeah, yeah, so much for translating. I got you, buddy. I feel like that’s like heroin. You walk through heroin and you see like, what is this weird fermented kefir cultured coconut yogurt And then three years later, you’re in a Ralph’s and you see like Faye has made their own coconut yogurt. Right? It’s like the ends of the extreme that end up trickling down and you can actually like see trends like that, right? I went to Erewhon, saw Calabrian chili hot sauce, never seen that before in my life. It was 15 for a normal hot sauce bottle. You bought it and you brought it to work. Do you remember where it ended up? No, it did not. And ended up in comedian Trevor Wallace’s home. Cause we shot, we, uh, we got that and we tried it and we’re like, this isn’t very good. And then he was shooting an episode with us and he was like, Oh, I really love this hot sauce, dude. Uh, and then we’re like, it’s your souvenir. So Trevor, if you saw that hot sauce, let us know. But like, that might be Frank’s red hot might be coming out with the Calabrian chili sauce in three, four years. So that’s like. You said it is terrible for browsing because there’s so many rich people with large and small dogs. Rich people hate medium sized dogs, you know? Um, I will also say, I feel like I’ve been a real heroin apologist since I got here. Um, I’m just still, I got an adaptogen drink, so I’m just really high on that right now. Hell yeah. But my plan was to get a smoothie just because I wanted to do it once. I feel like that’s, like, we’re saying, like, people go, get it once. Um, I was too intimidated to do it. It’s so freaky. I know. Like to get a smoothie? Yeah, I didn’t want to interact with any employees. Or as few employees as possible. Because they seem like they would judge you. Did you walk past the hot bar at all? I did not. Okay. Next time walk past the hot bar, it’s so scary. Really? I’m so scared to talk to them. It was like Titans of Industry waiting to get a little scoop of tuna salad. You know, it’s weird. Seriously. Like actually, yeah, I don’t like it. Rich teens with Harvard Westlake shirts on. Do they have any good stuff on the hot part? Cause that’s Whole Foods. Well, their buffalo cauliflower is incredibly delicious and quite popular. I’ve gotten their steelhead salmon before, and their white bean avocado kale salad. It set me back about 44. Jeez! That’s a real, that’s a real price tag. And I will never, let me tell you, again, I’m, I’ve only done it once. And I will never do it again because I can truly make all of those things at home. There’s nothing on that menu other than the kelp. There’s like this weird kelp noodle thing that I cannot make. I just don’t want to make it and I have no desire to make it. I’m willing to pay for that. But things like white bean kale salad that costs maybe 1. 50 to make, them charging that much for it is insanity. It might be organic. It might be fair trade. It might be made by someone who really knows what they’re doing. But. I’m never ever going to do that again. Yeah. Well, I mean, even the stuff that they’re not spending extra money on, they are charging extra premium prices on it. Like the Faya yogurt, they sell that at Ralph’s. Yeah. And they sell that at Erewhon. It is literally like 40 percent more expensive at Erewhon. So yeah, there’s just massive markups and a lot of that’s probably just, you know, they have certain margins that they hit from their business and they can sell it for that much. I was going to say, and some people want things to be more expensive. It’s true. It is, but it’s true. Silly. Trader Joe’s, to me, had one of the most interesting phenomenons, and they actually found this in studies, that people thought Trader Joe’s was healthier. I thought it was healthier and I thought it was fancier because of their marketing and how the whole, well, it’s whenever you walk into Trader Joe’s and the way that it’s set up, you’re like, oh, bounty. The first thing you see is their flowers and that is strategically placed there to make you think you’re walking into a beautiful, bountiful grocery store and the way that it’s set up, the. Isles, how big it is, how grand it is, and the fact that all of their snacks are white labeled and it’s only trigger specific makes you feel like it’s this fancy world that you’re walking into. And it’s something that unfortunately, Aldi and like smart and final, I just don’t think they think about because it’s not worth it to them to invest in that kind of storytelling. Absolutely. But Erewhon has that in spades, right? Like the first thing you see when you walk into the location that I end up in sometimes Product that I happen to love and I found out because of Arowana’s Ollipop. There’s this giant They’ve actually switched to poppy drama. Oh, I saw that. There’s a lot of giant poppy wall. Mm hmm. How did that happen? You know, wouldn’t you love to know? It’s a big bright cool packaging everything feels very cool all of the their white labeled stuff, right? It’s very sleek logo Feels very Silicon Valley and they’re trying to impart that aesthetic for people who would gladly pay three dollars more for the same yogurt somewhere else um So that’s really interesting, but, uh, I think these sort of trickle down effects, like Bristol Farms is another very fancy grocery store, right? Gelson’s, yeah. Gelson’s Those are, I’d say both of those are like a little bit like 15, 20 years ago. Mm hmm. the past, but trickle down effect, Bristol Farms is the first time I saw a friggin poke bar inside Oh, yeah! a grocery store. Something that is Still holds up. I’ve still never seen that. Really? So, uh, now the, Kroger is the largest seller of sushi. Mm hmm. In the world, I believe, at least in America. Stop it. Wow. Yeah, grocery store, who would have thought? Grocery store sushi, like I remember being in college and there’d be like A little sushi stand inside the the Ralph’s out there and I was like that is new and strange Now every Ralph’s has like a big sushi counter and the first time I saw that was at Bristol Farms You know and ditto for the Ralph’s in Westwood where they had to compete with Whole Foods So they put in like a bar inside the Ralph’s so a lot of these fancy grocery stores, right? It’s like Things start out as fancy until they can scale and then they end up dropping down to the normies. Yes, so Erewhon and Um, these fancy grocery stores are the vogue of groceries literally. Yes. They’re the anna wintour And they have so they have all the that it’s just food. It’s sustenance for our bodies Food has never just been food. Food has never just been food. It’s always been marketing, right? It’s always been for, for cultural reasons, for just straight entertainment reasons, like Especially for Erwan when you have expensive sweatsuits and you want the tote bag and all of that. Yeah, what is this? thing that they have where it’s subscript, you have to be a member or something. Do you know anything about the Erewhon membership? I do. I am an Erewhon. You are? I’ll tell you. Who are you? That is wild to me. And what have you done with my phone? You’re full of surprises. I don’t like this man. I don’t like him. He wears linen pants now. These are old navy. I got these for 20 at Old Navy. Um, Erewhon, if you spend two, am I I am a member, but did I, did I get fooled? It’s like being a VIB Rouge member for all my girls. I must have been fooled because it’s, it’s, it’s, I think it’s 200 a year, but you just, it’s a straight cash back system. And so I think it’s if you spend a thousand dollars a year. You win, or is it two thousand? You win what? You win back your money. You win the math. If you, it’s just simply, do you want to pay two hundred dollars now to get ten percent off going through? I think it’s either ten or twenty, I can’t remember. Okay. Um, and then you just get a discount. So it’s like, if you join the app and spend two thousand dollars a year at Erewhon, but like, I don’t think I do. So I think I’m, I think I just gave him two hundred dollars for nothing. Do you, does a sweatsuit come with the, I got no sweatsuit, I got no sweatsuit, a membership card even, that you could flash at people, like a Ralph’s membership card, that’d be pretty good, it’s just an app too, it’s just an, I can flash the Erewhon app, you get one free smoothie I think, I don’t, am I starting to realize I don’t like the person that I’ve become? Yeah. I think that’s happening. I think it’s happening. Well, you’re growing. You’re growing. You can just determine which way you want to grow. You are your own sun. You are a sunflower and you can determine where your sun should be. You’re your own best invention. Is that a song? I don’t know it. You guys remember asparagus water? I do. I feel like we have a connection to asparagus water, actually. Oh my god, you do? Explain! Do you remember who discovered asparagus water? Certainly do. Name her on three. One. Name her, shame her. Marielle. Joaquin. Joachim. Yeah. What? Yeah. What? So she’s unfounded. How do you know this person? Uh, she, uh, I worked with her at Los Angeles Magazine and then I worked with her at Los Angeles Magazine, but we never worked after Josh together. I got fired. I got fired pretty hard, , uh, and got fired. Lucky got fired so hard. Uh, but anyways, uh, no. She walks in one day and just like, Hey, I’ve. I found this at Whole Foods and shows me a picture of asparagus sitting in water for like 8 and it’s like asparagus infused water and she was like, do you want to like run this? And I was like, I’m busy, leave me alone. And then You talked to your cover girl though? No, I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. I was like, oh, it’s interesting, but I have, no, but that was the spirit. I was like, I was like, I don’t really want to write about it right now. And that’s why you got fired. And then, and then, uh, she like texted to a friend. friend ended up like stealing the picture and posting it and then everybody like blogged it and got millions of views and my dumb ass passed on it. Yeah. For no reason. Very viral. Um, Marielle still like kind of posts about it every year. Like remember when I went viral for finding asparagus water, I had, who was Okay, so I was telling Justine sparked Justine about this yesterday and I recognized that I needed to go ahead and Google like what the deal with this was. Do you remember what their excuse for this was? The asparagus water? I do not. Okay. Well, like it was like corporate, like Whole Foods corporate was like, this was a mistake. Like this was supposed to be, the way they explained it did not make sense to me. It was supposed to be, they were like, it was supposed to be vegetable infused broth. That you would use for soups and things like that. But I was like, why was there like a label and a skew for asparagus water then? Yeah, that doesn’t add up. I don’t think it adds up. I mean this would have like predated by a couple years the celery juice trend. Yes. But like where like spa water is really big at the time. You know, you put a couple slices of cucumber in a water and you sell that. Like Whole Foods had that. Were they just trying to find, like, what happened? Like a manager at the store, yeah, was probably like, just throw some, throw whatever in the water and charge people six dollars for it and they’ll buy it. Oh my gosh. But. Sometimes you innovate and you girl boss too close to the sun and I think that’s simply what happened there. And I think that’s totally fine. I remember that picture vividly on my Twitter timeline. I remember it vividly. I’m like, it’s gone off the deep end. Right, but that was like, yeah, that was like everyone’s example for like Whole Foods is completely ridiculous and they were like Which is funny because Whole Foods seems so very tame now compared to Yeah, and I think that you have a point when you’re talking about how bad inflation has gotten. I had a very depressing It’s not inflation. It’s corporate greed. It’s corporate, but how bad corporate greed has gotten. I don’t know shit’s expensive now It sucks, but I went to Ralph’s and I you know, bought like a normal amount of food to make a couple meals and it was like pretty small and it was just like 77. And I, I think I had a couple things of like dried mint for 7, so small things. The price didn’t really surprise me, that’s how expensive stuff is. The cashier just goes, this is 77 now? And I go, that sucks. And she just goes, how are we supposed to survive? Oh my God. So true. I don’t know. So true. Imagine, imagine kosher food. Imagine buying kosher meat. Yeah. It’s like 15 for a pound of ground kosher meat. It’s like so much more expensive. But you know what? I don’t have an answer for it. I don’t have a solution. All I know is that I hate fancy grocery stores, but I can’t stop going to them. I think I’ll be popping back in too. Yeah. Yeah. Like for special little fancy trip on for sure. Did Whole Foods used to do samples? Oh my gosh, you mean like they did like did you mean like the bulk with the bookies? They have little flippy domes. I have a memory of being living in Atlanta and being very poor and like we were just like Let’s go to Whole Foods and get some peanut butter Like you, they had the peanut butter machine too. Oh yeah. Yeah. I borrowed a few pints of peanut butter. . Good times. Good times. Yeah. We that juice, polys, that’s a poly shore reference. I think so. I feel like that’s really timely. It really is. I think he’s eternal. Um, you know what the grand, you know what like the grand irony and real depressing fact about this is? Oh, here comes Josh to make people even sadder, right? Americans spend less of their disposable income on food than most developed nations. Okay. And we also have like some of the most egregious farming practices, right? To try and artificially make those foods cheaper with things like monoculture, uh, corn that is just absolutely tearing up the soil and we need to spray more and more glyphosate on it. No seeds. Right? No seeds. The, the, the fruits don’t make seeds. Oh, you’re talking about self, self terminating, uh, seeds? Yes. Anyways, I think that’s a myth, but, um, But no, but I’m, I’m saying, like, we should be spending more money on food, but the problem is, is people don’t have money. Right? Yeah. So that’s the ultimate. So if we’re just saying like, well, make the food cheaper, then it’s like, well, we’re already cramming the hens so close together to get them to poop eggs. We’re growing chickens in three months and their breasts are so big, their heads are dragged. What more can we do? Like, where is the actual solution here to making cheaper, more affordable food for people? Gwyneth. I’ll tell you right now. Yeah. Just kidding. We were locked in, like, yeah, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. No, but I think about that a lot, especially with produce, when you think about, like, oh my God, I can’t even imagine what, like, if I grow, like, one plant in my yard, I’m like, oh, I got five tomatoes a year, and it’s just like, whoa, there’s so, there’s so much going into this that it actually does, like, it’s like, it kind of should be, food should be kind of expensive. People need to pick it. Oh yeah, and when you just pay, fairway for labor, yes. Yeah, so it’s like a little bit of a conundrum for sure. Yeah, things are too expensive, but wages are too low, and we’re here to find ourselves. Uh, UBI! Buckminster Fuller! Um, now one day we’ll solve the world’s problems, but for now we can just pay 19 for a Hailey Bieber smoothie and just go, That’s so cool! Uh, as we watch the Rolls Royces drive by the Erewhon. There’s a dude that has like a Rolls Royce and there’s like a, like a Hulk like fist wrap on the car. And he’s like, I’m a man. Oh man. And it’s freaking cool, dude. He drives real fast through the parking lot. You know what I think he should start doing? Huh? Taking his Rolls Royce over to the Piggly Wiggly. Where’s the closest Piggly Wiggly to Los Angeles? Probably Nevada. Alright, Nicole and Gwen, it’s time for everyone’s fourth favorite segment on the podcast. It’s where we put our food knowledge to the test. That’s right, it’s time for Yummy in my tummy, got some trivia for you. So Robot Maggie has three questions prepared. Nicole and Gwyned, you and I will yell the answer once the question is done. You must wait for the question to be done. If the first Gwesser is incorrect, the other person will get one chance to Gwess and earn the point. Sorry, I only read phonetically. Let’s hear the first question. What famous serial mascots first and middle names are Horatio Magellan? I know it! Oh, I know too! I know it, I know it, I know it! I know it! We all know it! When do we say it? 1, 2, 3! Captain Crunch! The correct answer is Cap’n Crunch. Cap’n. Cap’n. Do we have more questions? Two more! Who won that one? Don’t yell it I yelled that I know it. I’m so sorry. I needed people to know that I know it. My, um, therapist recently told me that, you know, you should work on thinking that people need to know that you know things. And I agree with that. What did you say? I agree. Well, I, you know, express that, you know, sometimes I get myself in hot water because I’m like, I need this person to know that I know that thing. You don’t need that. I don’t need that. I don’t think it serves me anymore. No, it really doesn’t. You’re a therapist. Yes. She’s really excited, proud of you. Nice one. Come on. I’m all jazz up. Kind of slipped up because I screamed. I know it in the microphone. . What ice cream brand and amusement park Stable was born in the 1980s when Kurt Jones used his knowledge of cryogenic technology to create ice cream. I know, I know. We all know. I mean, I don’t, I’m leaning back and opening up space for others. one. Two, three, Dippin Dots! Josh, say it! And then Dippin Dots declared bankruptcy in 2009, but then it was taken over by a private equity firm who found out that it wasn’t the ice cream that was actually making the company successful, it was their technology and cryogenics, and now they’re actually selling cryogenic technology in their giant freezers to industrial tech companies. If Josh’s therapist is listening. That’s actually a really fascinating business story. It’s, yeah, yeah. You should be on business boards. They’re like, yeah, no one wants your ice cream that burns the roof of your mouth, but you’ve made the world’s best gigantic industrial cryogenic freezers and that can be used for like medicines. Oh, okay. I was, okay, good. And then I immediately thought of dead bodies. Yeah, naturally. Naturally. That was a thing in like, growing up with 90s culture. Yeah, we were like, we thought we were all going to be frozen. I think Futurama had a lot to do with that. Probably. The documentary Futurama. One more. Translated into English as Ram Don, the Korean dish Jjapaguri is made by combining the Chapagetti and Neoguri brands of what food product? I Does anybody else know the answer? I actually don’t. 1, 2, 3. Ramen. The correct answer is noodles. Is ramen noodles? I mean, men is Japanese for noodles. I know, but it’s the ramen packets. We call it colloquially ramen packets. What was it called? Ramdon? It’s because it’s, it’s, um, it’s cause it’s Neoguri and, and Shin Black, right? Is that the combination? Don means bowl, right? So is it just ramen bowl? I think it’s from Parasite. It’s from Parasite. What? It’s not from it existed before Parasite. Parasite used the product I know, but the reason why it became popular I understand. The reason why it became popular is because Everyone was making it because of Parasite Because you combine the two noodles And then you add steak to it Which explains poor and rich Combining the two God, read a f ing book If Nicole’s therapist is listening Just kidding So no, it’s Udon The Don is Udon But it’s not, Neoguri isn’t, is not udon, is it? I, I believe it is, or is Chapaguri, I don’t know, I’ve never actually had it, I don’t believe. Well, okay, the answer was noodles, and that’s what I was going to say. Gwyneth, the official champion, couldn’t win Jeopardy. Oh, goddess here. Yummy, yummy. Hey, what gifts? We got some trivia for you. And now everyone’s super excited. on the show. Let’s get to the opinions are like casseroles. Nicole, you said you’d like to sing? Opinions are like casseroles! Okay. Alright. Thank you so much. I legitimately forgot how seductive that voicemail out message is. How could you forget? I never forget. Um, but I have, I don’t know if it’s a controversial opinion, but it’s just something I’ve been doing for a few months and I’ve lost some weight and I feel good about it. I’ve been putting literally cabbage in everything. Oh my god! Also my meal prep, my meal prep and taquitos, burritos, alfredo situations, red sauce situations, and what have you. I’ve just been putting like a half a head of cabbage in all of my meal prep. The people are waking up. And it’s been killing it. And also it and I’ll see you next time. I love the pod. Bye. The revolution happens the same way the Bolshevik revolution happened in 1918. The cabbage fuels the people . Are you talking about war again? ? What? No. Um, a little bit. But it, here’s, here’s the key to solving all these, uh, you know, crises and corporate greed and inflation and, you know, mass agricultural, um, you know, upheaval. Cabbage, man. Here’s the thing. Cabbage 30 percent of groceries in people’s homes are thrown right in the trash. Uh, cause a lot of them go bad. You know what doesn’t go bad? Cabbage, dude. I’ve had I’ve I’ve gone on vacation. Two weeks. Come back, cabbage still there. Great. That’s very true. Okay, let me tell you. I remember when I used to go grocery shopping, cabbage was 89 cents. Now it’s 3. 99. Wow. Okay? And it really bothers me. And it really I love cabbage. I eat a lot of cabbage. I make a lot of cabbage salads. I braise my cabbage. I put it in stir fries. What have you. I But the thought of me spending 4 for a head of cabbage drives me absolutely up the wall. But that’s like less than, that’s like 50 cents per serving. Do you like an eighth of a cabbage? That’s a pretty damn good serving of vegetables. You know what I mean? A lot of fiber in an eighth of a cabbage. I know. You get used to paying a certain price for it, so, and then it’s just like, really, what do you want from me here? I’d rather spend the four dollars on, like, leafy greens because I think that tastes better and I use it more frequently than I do a head of cabbage. But maybe I just need to switch my way of thinking and realize that, like, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m gonna get a lot of use out of the cabbage. I wanna see the stats of, like, nutrient per dollar. On cabbage versus leafy green because I I would swear that cabbage is more nutrient dense Not even more nutrient But I mean I I think cabbage is like heavier and heftier and doesn’t break down as much or wilt as much when you cook It adds more body to it. I would bet it has more fiber because that is like wood. It’s that tasty wood But I do buy like like dark leafy greens. I’m not buying like iceberg and romaine So, I don’t know. I don’t know but I will say switching out your carbs for the cabbage is a great way to feel Healthy and good about yourself I wasn’t even familiar with that strategy and I love it now. So smart. Truly. So smart. So many of my favorite foods come on beds of cabbage. You know what I mean? Big fan. Big fan. Great job. Coleslaw. Proud of you. Coleslaw. Ooh, spicy voicemail. Uh, hey guys, I’m a big fan of the podcast and I just got, uh, an opinion for you. There’s always a debate between Twizzlers and Red Vines and they’re both trash. I want to know why Australian licorice is never in the conversation. It’s a better flavor. It’s a better texture. It’s just wildly underrated when it comes to this debate and I want to know your guys opinion. Also, I hate black licorice, but boy howdy, can I suck down some Jagermeister? What do you guys think? Boy, howdy. This is so timely for me. Mm-Hmm. . ’cause I’m about to do a licorice suck down. I’m just sucking it down. I actually had Jagermeister this week. ? Yeah. I’ve had it in years. I had two shots of Yeager. Meisters. Isn’t that cool with me? Hell yeah. I’m gonna have some, I’m gonna have some this week in your honor. God, I know it sounds fun. I’m on some, um, but I’m also doing a taste test of licorice for SPOs red licorice, black licorice. I’m gonna do it all. Oh my gosh, that’s incredible. Mm-Hmm. . I think I’m ethically opposed to the red and the black mixing in that way. Okay, well sounds so messed up, but I what I can explain I Don’t want to betray your ethics, but But they’re they’re entirely different so licorice is like a plant right it’s a rose in the flavor of it We black licorice is a retronym, right? You just be called licorice because that’s the plant and then people were like, hey We love the sticks of sugar, but But we hate this gross root that you flavored it with. And they’re like, what if we put artificial cherry flavoring and red food dye in it? And they’re like, that’s the ticket. Now there’s red and black licorice, right? It’s like when the electric guitar was invented, we had to start calling it the acoustic guitar. Before it was just called a guitar. What’s, what is the difference between Twizzlers and Red Vines? I actually don’t know the taste difference. I think they’re dramatically different. Like the amount of lead in it? I don’t even think, let me tell you, I don’t even think about it. I just think about, like, red, red licorice. Like, if it’s in front of me, I’ll have a bite of it and I don’t have a preference. I’m not, I’m not obsessed with either one. So Twizzlers are strawberry flavored, unless you’re buying Twizzlers nibs, which are cherry flavored. Okay. Oh, interesting. Red vines are red licorice flavored. Okay. Which is much, I think it’s much different tasting. Okay. But it’s also a, it’s a flavor that I couldn’t like, describe. Are red vines shinier and twizzlers are less shiny, or am I imagining that? Twizzlers are shiny. Red vines are matte. Okay, got it, got it. Red vines I think it’s just the dust that is collected on in the factory. So much research. Red vines have a much bigger hole. Okay. Good. That’s why I like a big hole. Then you’ll like red vines. Big ol goatee red vine, yep. Ewww! He said goatee in 2024. Loser. And, well, cause you, Okay, do you remember going to the movies as a child and you would get Twizzlers and you would attempt to use them as a straw because they have a very small hole in the middle? No, I had an almond mom growing up. Okay. No snacks. I’m sorry about that. Um, but it doesn’t work, but a red vine can be used as a straw because it has an ample, ample hole. And also hard. Ample hole and rock hard. So you put it in the drink. No, for real though. I am trying to talk about the structure of candy as it is used in your mouth. So it’s, if it’s too soft, the whole collapses, you know, like a, uh, like a mine shaft. But red vines rock hard, especially if you put it in a cold drink, it gets harder. And then the hole’s big, and so it’s a nice draw. Do you prefer red vines because you grew up in California? I, so, my interaction with red vines in California is that every teacher would have the Costco sized, 500, giant Good memory. It’s like, uh, how they transported ammo to Vietnam, these giant drums of red vines, and they would just put them out, and you’d, uh, you know, I don’t know, not miss a day of school for a month, they’d just hand you a single dusty hard red vine, and it was the Best time of the month. I know I would be like, No, thanks. I’m a Twizzlers guy. Never really dabble in black licorice. I mean, I’ll eat it if it’s in front again, I’ll eat it if it’s in front of me, but I’ll never like, look for it. I like it. I really like black liquor, like licorice. Aussie licorice is it’s much softer. I love it. You do love it. I don’t know if I’ve had authentic Australian licorice, but I’ve had Wiley Wallaby. I was gonna say, well that sounds authentic to me. Yeah. W wall, like I’m sure not. I bet it’s made in Wisconsin or something like that. That’s inspired. It’s, it’s meant to be Australian style licor I and squishy. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. I’m, I’m simply out of the gummy adjacent candy game because of the amount of crowns in my mouth. I have soft, I given up community given Yeah. That the crowd number, the soft teethed community. And I think we have a great fellowship. We have a group that meets on, uh, Wednesdays and we just eat marshmallows. , good for you. Yep. Like, this is the most we can handle. Glad you found your people. Thank you so much. It’s tough making friends as an adult, isn’t it? People rely too much on measurements. I think recipes should look more like Add a glob of this, add a squirt of that, you know, a pinch, a handful, uh, people care about measurements too much. Um, and that’s it. Thank you. How do you feel, Gwyneth? Um, I actually, I just, I personally disagree with that because I’m not a very good cook. So I need specificity in a recipe. But I think people who are good cooks can go off, baby. I agree with you. Yeah. I think if you know how to cook a glob, everyone knows what a glob is, a squirt is a squirt, a handful is a this, a pinch is a that. So I agree with you a thousand percent. But if you need guidance and if you need assistance, and if you just don’t have that intrinsic knowledge of how to do it, a recipe is, needs to be specifics, either in weight or cups or whatever, grams, what have you. If it’s a baked good, forget about it. Oh yeah, baking, you need a recipe. It’s a science. No way, man. What are you talking about? No way. I’m with this dude. You gotta glob it and squirt it, you know? There’s no measuring. I think this is a real, uh, tenet of my general cooking ethos here. There are way too many variables to ever give anybody any sort of accurate information. Your oven is not actually at 400 degrees. If you are, and if it is it, exactly calibrate to 400 degrees. Then the material of the pan that you are using is likely different than the material of the pan that this person used, right? Using one ceramic versus another, it’s going to hold heat differently. Your oven heats from the bottom versus the top. If you say, measure in a quarter cup of water and cook it for five minutes at medium in a 12 inch pan, what’s the material of the pan? How hot is your medium? Because that quarter cup And altitude. But recipes That quarter cup of water is going to evaporate immediately. But a lot of recipes allude to that, allude to all the things that you just said. They try. I don’t think they can ever Completely cover it and so I think it is again if you’re not like a seasoned cook The only way to get better at cooking is to cook and to get a feel of it Right, but like did I ever you ever like go to an Indian friend’s house and watch the mom cook? yeah, and then like watch that friend cook and they’re just you throw a dash a gob you just you just Throw some butter in there. That’s how people learn how to cook from their parents. I’m one of them. My mom never wrote anything down, but I’m, I still learn from watching her and learning. But still, if you don’t have that at your fingertips, you can still learn from measurements and understanding that a scoop of this is equal to a quarter, a quarter cup. I don’t think you’re learning when you’re using exact measurements. I disagree with you. I don’t think you’re learning. I think you’re following. I so disagree with you. I think you’re following like, Rote. sort of knowledge, right? Like you’re following, uh, instructions as opposed to actually learning the why. So I know people, I think you do, because I think you need to know how to save something because something’s eventually going to go bad. And I think you need to learn how to problem solve within that. It’s like, um, What’s the common core math? Common core math. You gotta learn the building blocks of math. You don’t just have to learn the answers. And everyone is mad about it. I don’t know. I know nothing about math. None of us have kids. None of us have kids in school. So we shouldn’t be commenting on that. Josh. It’s a general theory. It’s like, but okay. So it’s like why we learn, it’s why we learn algebra, right? We don’t learn algebra because we’re gonna use it in our everyday life to, you know, calculate variables. It’s so it can teach you a, you know, Tenet of how to think and how to problem solve. Um, I don’t use algebra. I think you do though I think anytime you’re substituting one variable for another you are using an algebraic thought pattern That would be nice if it were true. She’s not listen. She’s just she hates me I don’t hate you. I love you. Do you know what i’m saying? How could you say that? I love watching you give up and turn to me. I don’t hate you. Hey, maybe this lady. Opposite. Opposite I I I, yeah, agree to an extent. We, measurements, measurements are good. Measurements are good, you should use them. You mean to tell me that you haven’t memorized a recipe due to measurements? Like in your head? I have no measurements in my head. Okay, well, let me tell you who does. I do. Colby does. Lily does. V does. Most of the people you you’re just special You’re so special. Josh. You do everything so good. So unique Pharrell doesn’t even know he doesn’t even read music You compared yourself to pharrell we both have an excellence We both have the arby’s hat to be fair pharrell is my favorite producer, but that that’s neither here nor there Yay, we’re done! On that note, Gwyneth, thank you so much for joining us. Tell the people where they can find you. for having me. Um, go to spork. com. Eventually you can read my licorice ranking, and I’m sorry that it’s red and black. That’s pretty messed up. Thank you for the apology, though. I appreciate that. If you want to be featured on Opinions are like Casseroles, uh, call us at 833 DOG POD 1. It is a very sultry message, and make sure to tell us how sultry it is. And if you want to see more of our sultry messages, head over to the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel. Statistically, a majority of you are watching this on the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel, but head there anyways. It’s like, it’s like saying to somebody in your house, hey, you should come over to my house. You know? You should follow spork. com. Well, not spork. com. You should follow spork. com. Oh, YouTube, yeah. You should get a Very fun. Badged, badged salad. Badged salad. It’s pronounced bagged. Bagged, bagged. It’s pronounced bagged salad. Yes. Uh, you should get a hat. You should, um. I’ve gone bagged. See you later. Bye. Bye.