They have chicken joy, Nicole. Joy is literally in the name. I was just asking if you had a good lunch break. Even their spaghetti is jolly. 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 Sherer. And I’m your host, Nicole Inaiti. And today we are talking about the real king of the Philippines. You may have thought it was Manny Pacquiao. You may have thought it was NBA player Jordan Clarkson. – You may have thought — – Imelda. Imelda. It’s Imelda Marcos who… with the shoes, she had a large collection of shoes. She was, I believe, evacuated by helicopter out of the country when they rebelled. Anyways, the real ruler, rightfully, of the Philippines is the Jollibee Bee. If you have not seen it, he is a large, anthropomorphic bee mascot with a thick old dumpy. And he has really cool dance moves, and he goes to a lot of the new restaurant openings. I twerked on Jollibee one time. Did you ask Jollibee for consent before you twerked on it? It was a statue of Jollibee, so no. Okay, you don’t need to ask, you don’t need to ask statues consent, do you? No, but if it had been a mascot, you need to know that there’s a real person making $15 an hour inside the suit. What? There’s people inside the Jollibee suit? Jollibee bee isn’t real? No, it is not. Um, I would have said that Jollibee is the most underrated fast food franchise, but there becomes – a point where you — – It’s rated. It’s rated now, right? People respect the Jollibee. As they should. Um, I remember going to Jollibee for the first time. It was, at the time, the only Jollibee location in Los Angeles on Sunset Boulevard. Is that the one, like, next to the city bank that looks like a colonial house? Yes, it is. What’s the deal with that bank? I don’t know. It looks, it looks like it’s from, like, I don’t know, like the, what’s the name? What’s that thing…? The antebellum age. Yeah. Antebellum in California looked a lot different than elsewhere is all I’m saying. But, um, but yeah, there was just one Jollibee and now they have exploded. They’re making a big run on the American market after they opened in the Philippines damn near 50 years ago. Wow. Iconic. I’m so excited. I put my laptop down because I’m excited to eat it if you want to. I’m excited to eat it too. So today we’re simply going to answer the question of what is the best thing on the Jollibee menu. I’ll say this. I think the best thing on the menu is the thing that we couldn’t get which is a spicy chicken joy. Oh the sandwich? No, the actual chicken. Oh just the spicy chicken. They didn’t have it. They didn’t give me the option to order. It was very upsetting. That’s a bummer. I like it because there’s a little flag in it. Yeah, but Jollibee has a fascinating menu. If you look at Filipino food in general, um, you know, Philippines, a very large mix of Chinese influence of Japanese influence, other East Asian influence, and then Spanish influence, and then a lot of American influence, especially after World War II and the Spanish American War in general. So you get a lot of things like mashed potatoes with gravy and fried chicken. You have things like spaghetti with hot dogs on it. But then you also have, like, a whole litany of Filipino stews, right? Mm hmm. Um, and they have some nods to traditional, well, more traditional Filipino food, like the, uh, pancit palabok. We got some of that today. Which we’re gonna try today. Right. They have a lot of different, like, tropical fruits in their pies. Right. Uh, but this is gonna be fascinating. I know. What are we cracking open? Um, I don’t know. I also wanted to preface this that the first time I had Jollibee, I had their sliders. Yes, same. Have you ever had their sliders? Uh huh. It was, um, it was spam, longganisa and something else — Corned beef! Was it corned beef? I like the corned beef slider! Let me tell you that trio — They’re done with the sliders. They got rid of them, right? You’re driving, it’s like 11:45 at night, and you just, you’re like, I’ve never gone to Jollibee before. This will be the first experience, and those sliders saved me. They were 99 cents, they were like one of the last 99 cent fast food items that I remember getting that was an iconic thing and I wish they would bring that back. – Jollibee headquarters in California – Jollibee, bring back Pandesal sliders – They’re so good – They were so — – Oh, and it was pandesal sliders? – Pandesal. So the bread is Pandesal or literally like a salt bread. It was kind of like a little bit crustier salt on top. There’s the gravy. There’s the chicken gravy. I care for you so much. I got you your own gravy because I want you to experience happiness. Oh, you’re drinking it straight off the dome. God, that is a really delightful gravy. Oh my god, that’s good. Do you think, off the bat, that Jollibee’s fried chicken can hold a candle to the bigger American competitors like Popeyes and KFC? Let’s take a bite. Let’s try it, let’s see. Um, are you dark meat like me? – What do you — – I think a chicken thigh is the single best part of the chicken. I would say wing. Here’s the thing. This is neither here nor there, but we need to stop calling the whole wing the wing I think the drumette should not be part of the wing. I think all chickens should be butchered with the drumettes still attached to the breast. Okay. Because I hate drumettes, but I love flats. Hot take. I think the drumette is maybe the worst part of the chicken and the flat is the best part of the chicken. Mm hmm, mm hmm. I mean, just off the bat, like, this isn’t greasy. You get a lot of buckets of KFC chicken where you’re like, yo, you were overcrowding that pressure fryer. For sure. The chicken pieces were sitting on top of each other. This is an incredibly well breaded piece of chicken. You see, like, the skin has stayed flat and intact. That’s a sign of good quality control. Looks really, really crispy. It smells good. What’s the first thing you taste when you eat this chicken? I would say it’s pure white pepper and chicken, chicken juice. I was gonna say salt. Well, salt too, yeah. This is a wonderfully salted piece of chicken. All throughout, true. Absolutely. Yeah, I’m, I’m digging into the, to the thigh. The meat itself is seasoned. Undeniably perfectly. You don’t only get that from the taste you get that from the texture. There’s a certain texture that happens specifically to a dark meat chicken, white meat chicken, too, but it’s more prevalent in dark. You can even see it. It looks cured. I know the stringiness. It’s kind of pleasant though. Oh, it’s great. No, that’s what I want. I know it’s really good I saw this guy online where he removed the chicken skin took a glob of rice and dunked it in gravy and I want to do that right now Wait, you make like – A little almost like an inari – A lokma. A lokma. You know Inari? No, I’ve never heard of that before. Inari is the tofu skin. Oh yeah! The tofu skin that’s stuffed with rice. Oh my god, that’s — You’re stuffing the chicken skin with the white — Dude, I gotta do that. I ate my skin though. Here, you can take the skin off of another thing. It’s okay, you can take it. We got a whole bucket here. We got a whole bucket. This is absolutely incredible, especially with the gravy. But if you’re, if you’re putting this up, oh God, thank you. You’re so welcome. Don’t forget to dip it in the gravy. I would not forget to dip it in the gravy. If you’re putting this up against like KFC chicken and gravy, you think it’s better? I think it’s better, Josh. Hmm. Interesting. This is not about a verse KFC situation. We reserve the right to do that later. I feel like I’m a little bit missing the, the, the, the secret herbs and spices. Really? You know, I do kind of love that about KFC. I’ve always said that I prefer Popeye’s better, but I almost think in a perfect world, where everybody’s operating, you know, under the same levels of stress with the same crew, etc. I found KFC has like much poorer quality control than a lot of other restaurants. That’s fair, yeah. You know, and it’s hard when you’re, you know, hand dredging chicken and all that. Yeah. Um, but I think like their flavor profile is really excellent. But Jollibee’s also great. Let me tell you the thing about Jollibee. It’s, again, it’s the perfectly salted, I don’t know, there’s like, I think there might be MSG or something in there. Oh, definitely MSG, yeah. Phenomenal. I don’t know, I don’t know what it is. I don’t miss those herbs and spices. that much. Maybe if we got the spicy one, we would be, you know, saying something different, but because we just have the original, I think it is a perfectly fine fried chicken. I do think the cook on it and the fry is better than KFC. Hardcore agree. I just think it’s better. This is going to be a tough item to beat. Bone in fried chicken is still like my preferred way to eat fried chicken. Yeah, me too. Me too. Right. It used to not be the case. I used to just be like, okay, time for popcorn chicken. But now. I’ve grown up. I want to eat the bones. I think there’s a level of maturity to that. I really do I don’t mind cleaning the bone. Bone sucker 3000 over here bone sucker. They call me the bone crusher. They call her the bone sucker. Um, I don’t want to stop eating. Out of 10, out of 10, where do you put this chicken? Damn, 8. 7. Right? This is, this is high eights, low nines. This is like really, really, again, this is just, Here’s the thing too, when you have such a pointed international expansion, like Jollibee, right? They’re really trying to hit the American market and they’re doing a phenomenal job. When you do that, you’re sending your best of the best out as emissaries, right? You’re taking the best regional managers from Manila and you’re like, hey, go to Glendale, California. Make sure they know the greatness because you’ve been a loyal foot soldier, right? Like that’s but that’s what they do. Whereas if there’s the millionth KFC opening or something, you know, it’s whatever. This is a franchisee. He bought it. Right now, they care. – Right now they care. – Right now they care. And I hope they keep caring. because the quality is is really delicious and some places really do a good job. I think especially somewhat newer chains. They put a lot more emphasis like I’m thinking about something like a Jersey Mike’s versus a subway. Oh man, Jersey Mike’s had a much later. We did. Yeah. Okay, nice. But like Jersey Mike’s had a much later expansion. Well, they learned. They learned, they learned what can go wrong. And I think they saw Subway’s mistakes of like, yo, quality gotten real low and you’re just microwaving plastic bags and slopping them into some bread. So Jersey Mike’s has great quality control comparatively. Right. How do you feel about the gravy? You think the gravy is, what would you rate the gravy? Excellent. And I think there’s a more depth of flavor than a KFC gravy. I’m going to give it a 7. 7? If we’re judging by, by Jollibee’s, like, offerings, I think it’s a 7 because I think it’s a great dip. But, but, it’s a great dip, but I, I don’t like, I don’t think I would like it on potatoes. Did we get potatoes? We did not get potatoes. I decided to go for rice. I’m not a potato guy. Yeah, rice, rice and gravy also is a delightful combination. Underrated. The rice with the gravy shoots it up to like an 8. 100%. The rice is really delicious too, side note. Yeah, rice with fried chicken. It was kind of where I want to be too. I think it tastes better than potatoes and fried chicken. Especially with white rice. Yeah, yeah, agreed. You know? This rice is also very rice y tasting rice. Let me, let me grab a little. Whatever, you can use your hands, yes. Whatever rice they use It’s very rice y rice. You know, some rices, they don’t taste like much anymore? This does. Tastes like a barrel aged jasmine or something like that. Which is weird. You know? It shouldn’t taste so good, but it does. Okay, anyone who has grown up with a lot of Filipino people, or especially had a Filipino roommate, like I’ve had a Filipino roommate. Yeah, I — What’s up, dude. Um, but like, you know, there would all just be a pot of rice on, and like, it would always be much better than the rice that you would make. Right. And they, you know, cause they likely grew up with a rice cooker. I’m talking to a meal and be like, yeah, I just, I’d wake up before I went to school. I put the rice in the rice cooker and then I’d like come home and especially cause he was a, he was a football player and a track athlete. Yeah. So he’d just be eating like 2000 calories of rice per day. And so like when rice is so important to you, And you know, Jollibee, you get it right. Uh huh. You know, you go to a, uh, you know, get like a fast food, the fast food like dirty rice at Popeyes. Popeyes. I love it with the beans, but like, or even a, an El Pollo Loco or something like that. Right. The rice is always, you never really want it. A little bit of gummy. I will say that they have something called adobo rice. Jollibee, which I did not get, again, but that’s because I wanted, I just wanted to hit the classics, you know what I mean? I wanted to hit the classicos. Oh! You having a good time? Did you do the, did you do the skin, chicken skin thing again? Mm mm. Oh, what’d you do? I rapped, here’s how I eat a chicken thigh. Let me know. That was the one perfect bite. Do you want to swallow first? – Or do you want to do — – No, But for asking. I’m always here to ask. I’d make sure Meggie doesn’t get mad whenever she — I’m just gonna fill up the white noise a little bit while Josh swallows his mouth full of chicken, yeah. I’m like a — Like a toddler drinking a glass of milk after four hours of playtime, just choking it down. Um, the hell was I talking about? Oh, how to eat a chicken thigh. There’s always the one perfect skirt overhang that’s a great bite of skin and meat without bone. That’s where you start. But then I think what you do is you remove the skin and then you pick off the meat across that little top shield layer. And then you wrap that meat in the skin individually so you get a perfectly wrapped bite. And then you’re picking around the bones. So impressive. I know some people find me very attractive. I know, it’s crazy. Me too. Stop. Okay. I want to try okay, so I need to talk about this spicy chicken sandwich from Jollibee I believe I’ve spoken about this before It’s maybe my favorite fast food chicken sandwich. It’s a glossy bun, dude. The reason why I love it so much is that they have fresh jalapeños at the bottom, and that means a lot to me. The fresh, snappy, spicy jalapeños with the delicious crusty chicken. I think there might be a special sauce too, which is a new addition, I think. But let me tell you, something about the fresh bite of the jalapeño, are you done stabbing the sandwich? Dude, check it out. I successfully cut it in half with just a fork. Wow, you’re so strong. Thank you. Oh, he gave me the one with the jalapeno sticking out. Aww, can I have half the jalapeno? Chivalry’s not dead, but it wants half, baby. – Chivalry’s not dead,but — – Equal rights, equal — Yeah, feminism is. Destroyed hundreds of years of, uh, gender abolition work. Alright, great. How good is that? Mmm I’m obsessed with that. With that jalapeno, fresh, green Jalapeno bite is so special to me. It’s pretty incredible that they’re using fresh jalapeno instead of just like a pickled canned jalapeno because that’s what most places would do if they’re trying to do like the fiery Diablo butthole sandwich. They’re throwing canned jalapenos on the air and they’re like, wow. A fresh jalapeno is almost always spicier than a canned. Canned, the capsaicin is literally diffusing into the vinegar, right? Any spice you taste from the vinegar is spice that used, thanks, that used to once be in that jalapeno. The fresh is great. Crunch, grass, all that. What do you think about the rest of the drink? What do you think about like the bun? Because this was, this is a new item at Jollibee. This is them. Entering the chicken sandwich wars trying to go after Popeyes. I think the bun is fine. I like the glossiness of it I thought it was I thought I think it’s pretty mediocre But again, I’m not always in it for the bun. Some people are I’m not I’m not in it for the one I’m in it for the spice and the chicken. I think the chicken cook the cook on the chicken is very nice I think the flavor and of the breading is is very delightful I don’t love the texture, but I do love the flavor. And I think the sauce I could do without the sauce. I’m crazy I think I would get the chicken sandwich without the spicy sauce, extra jalapenos, and maybe squirt some ketchup on it. Interesting. Okay, so, if we’re comparing this, again, sin of comparison, we don’t need to compare Jelly Bean to Popeyes, but this was them directly comparing themselves to Popeyes. The bun, what made the Popeye sandwich so special was it was one a giant piece of like whole chicken, whole chicken breast meat wasn’t pressed wasn’t formed wasn’t any of that crap whole chicken breast that was brined super well super flavorful snappy ultra flavorful breading and then there’s like glossy brioche bun with a spicy mayonnaise and that for whatever reason was revolutionary This is very good. The bun here, it’s a little less fluffy. Incredibly glossy. It eats like a brioche. Mediocre. It’s mediocre. It’s mediocre, but I feel like a mediocre bun is like a McDonald’s hamburger bun. It’s a mediocre brioche bun. Correct. Okay. We can agree on that. Not as good as Popeye’s. The chicken isn’t as big. It is really, really good though. I don’t need a huge ass piece of chicken in my chicken sandwich. If anything, I need a properly placed one for a perfect fit. I don’t know. I don’t like them too big. I like, I like them too big, and here’s why. Even if there’s stuff coming out of the end, I can still put my mouth on it. No, I don’t like them too big. I like them perfect. I like to eat the chicken on the outs that’s overhanging, that’s sticking out of the buns. I don’t, you know, that’s so, I’m so different than you in that aspect. I think it’s ostentatious, and I think it’s, to be quite frank. I’ve always said big ones are just bragging. I’m just saying, it’s a little, it’s a little crass. I don’t need it, and it doesn’t need to be that big. It’s boastful. It’s boastful. Uh, out of ten, what do you, what do you rate this? Okay, well compared to the bone in chicken, I think it’s worse than the bone in chicken, but it is a really good chicken sandwich. So I’m giving these all like high sevens high like low eights, 7.9 Maybe that’s where I’m at. I’m gonna say 7.6. Okay, like it’s it’s good. It’s a good chicken sandwich, right? That’s interesting if you look at like Howlin Rays, right? Sure, Howlin Rays is a spot that makes the best – Nashville hot chicken in Los Angeles – Possibly the world. I mean there are awesome, Chef Johnny Ray’s on your mench. For the longest time, one, they didn’t have a chicken sandwich in the early, early days. I remember, it was all tenders, right? No, all bone in. No tenders. They didn’t have tenders either, it was all bone in. I love bone in chicken, especially bone in spicy chicken. Okay. But I remember there was a turning point where I was like, Oh, their sandwich is so good that I do have to get it. Yeah, their sandwich is so good. Versus bone in chicken. Also the components that makes a sandwich a meal, you know what I mean? Correct. Their slaw’s great, their comeback sauce is great, their bun that they source is great. This is not a meal. This is not a meal, and this doesn’t do anything more than their bone in fried chicken. I agree with you. Sometimes they’ll still go to Howlin Ray’s and just get like a dark chicken quarter, and oh, but even their breast, this isn’t the Howlin Ray’s podcast. It might as well be though, I’m a tender girl at Howlin Ray’s. Really? Those are new too. I love their tenders, I think their tender game is on fleek, as the kids would say. I remember when they didn’t even have wings. Aw, Josh is so cool. He’s, like, so, like, innovative and cool. He got on the ground floor of, what’s, what’s, like, a stock? Um, uh, Rivian. He got on the ground store of, uh, ground floor of Rivian. Let’s eat some starches, buddy! Let’s eat starches! Or, or, we could do this. I saw this, and I thought this was so silly, the yumburger. I’ve never had that. Me either. They also have these burger patties that are just coated in, like, gravy. Well, yeah, that’s their, like, burger steak, right? Yeah, I decided against it because the Yum Burger, let me tell you, it comes with a special sauce. And one thing I love is special sauce. Huuuuh! There you go. This looks… Why is this bun so different than the chicken sandwich bun? It’s softer, right? Or are they the same? I think maybe this just steamed a little bit more. Interesting. Okay, I’m gonna eat it. This is called a, uh, what, burger? A yum burger. A yum burger. Hey, yo, that burger sauce though? Hey, yo! Hey, yo, that burger sauce though? Why that burger sauce so good? Yo! – Why that burger sauce – Why are you saying yo all the time? You’re not a yo person. Hey, yo! It’s a pretty good fast food burger. Why is does the burger patty have onion in it? I think it does. Isolate, isolate, isolate. Okay, wait, we gotta go SOM mode, gotta go SOM mode. The burger’s like really well it’s like a lot better seared. You know, it’s not just like gray. And it’s like, it has like a spongy fluffiness that isn’t off putting. Oh, there’s a bunch of additives in this burger, but in a way that feels, why does this feel homemade? It’s really good. This feels homemade compared to American fast food burgers, right? Yes, yes, yes it does. I’m gonna dip it in gravy because I’m crazy. Okay, you ever have like a, like someone from like your culture makes a hamburger and they put like part of your culture in it? This is yeah, you mean like cutlet? Yeah, cutlet. No, but honestly this tastes like cutlet, right? This tastes like filipino cutlet. I don’t know why phrase it’s so weird You know one of you people no, literally this is ground onion. This tastes like my mom’s burgers. This tastes like a like my mom like “Nicole you want hamburger” and then i’m like, yeah, sure whatever and then like this is the exact flavor profile. No msg though. My mom didn’t cook with msg, but there’s onion in this and it’s good that burger sauce is — It’s like, undeniably sweet. It is quite sweet. And I think it adds to the onion y burger in a very unique, delicious way. That is a treat. That’s good, wasn’t it? I will say, I miss the hot mayonnaise and corned beef sandwiches. But that is a very delightful little, it almost eats like a little dumpling, I could bow, the bun is super fluffy, super soft. I agree with the name, it is a yum burger, Josh. It sure is a yum burger. But like, would you ever go to Jollibee and order a burger? I think I might now. No, I get out of town. I think so. This burger’s, well, if I’m craving this flavor profile, absolutely. And also, I prefer burgers. When’s the last time you just, like, got a fast food and hamburger? Long time — Oh, actually I went to In N Out two weeks ago with Colby. Oh, except for In N Out. Oh, then no. No In N Out, like, no In N Out, no Five Guys, no Shake Shack. Like, just, uh, Burger King, I want a Whopper right now because I’m craving it. I don’t I never crave Whoppers. It’s funny, I’ll crave a Whopper, but last time I almost dropped it because of the grease on my hand. I’ll crave a Whopper, but last time I had one was probably like three years ago. Some of it was Big Mac. Occasionally I’ll just be like, Oh man, I could use a Big Mac right now. I’ve never craved a Whopper or a Big Mac before like that. I’ll occasionally crave a Whopper, occasionally crave a Big Mac, occasionally crave a Western Bacon from Carl’s. Well, it’s cuz like that you were like raised on that but I wasn’t but I was raised on like In N Out and stuff But yeah, I much prefer like In N Out for burgers. I’ll every time Taco Bell comes out with a new item I have to pay homage. Oh, T Bell is, T Bell’s fire, man. Entirely different. I’m changing my whole lexicon. I’m saying yo and fire Like nine years late on the slang. I know, right? Welcome to being 30. What do you give this burger? I give it a 6.7. I’d say 7.1 No. 7.1 seems high though, because this is like, how much did this cost? Do you remember? 81 dollars. To the burger, just the burger. Oh, uh… A dollar seventy-nine maybe? Yeah, it’s like a cheap budget burger. I think so. But it’s a delicious one. Also, it doesn’t have anything on it. But you know they have this new thing where you can put like pineapple on it, and like, I do a hell of a lot of that, dude. They have an Aloha burger or something like that. Sounds pretty good. Damn, shout out to Carl’s who just brought their, uh Their teriyaki burger back. That’s a great burger. You’ve talked about this teriyaki burger. Teriyaki burgers plus live fire. I think do really well you get the char It’ll flavor a gasoline on the pineapple. That’s a lovely time. I don’t like that. I don’t like people love like grilled pineapple I really don’t love grilled pineapple. Love it. Love it. Love it Double patty young with melty cheese grilled pineapple crispy bacon aloha dressing and fresh lettuce on a fresh bun. – That’s pretty good. – Damn man. – Should’ve gone with that one – Damn, damn, damn, but hey, what do you do. I’m glad we’re trying to baseline stuff Yeah, I’d say 6.9. Nice Nice. Okay. Nice. Should we go, should we get into starches now? Get into starches. I’m so excited. Yes! It’s spaghetti time! Filipino spaghetti is one of the greatest joys in the entire world. Tell them about it Josh. Tell them why it’s so damn good. Filipino, okay, Filipino spaghetti is to Italian spaghetti the way white people tacos is to like carne asada tacos, right? Yum. In the sense that it’s created its own regional identity that is beloved by so so many people. And even has, you know, um, uh, an area of commerce like Taco Bell selling that, uh, Jollibee selling Filipino spaghetti, but it is like entirely different. So first of all, uh, ketchup became big in the Philippines, but then there was a tomato shortage, especially post war. And so they started making ketchup with bananas. It was just like sweet, acidic, dyed red, so it tends to be banana ketchup in here along with tomato paste. And then, again, big American food industrial, uh, sort of complex in the Filipina in the Philippines. And so, like, hot dogs, deli meats became big. So it tends to be, um, some sort of, like, ground pork, maybe. Generally, like, a deli meat, ham, slices of hot dogs, banana ketchup, and then a sort of processed cheese that is not dissimilar to, uh, American cheese, but don’t think like Kraft Singles. Think like a Boards Head or Kraft Deluxe, Cooper Sharp, kind of like a shredded processed cheddar cheese on there. Um, that in the Philippines, I believe it’s just called queso. Um, and it is delightful. It’s super sweet. It reminds me of dumping a can of ragu with whatever, you know, meats we had in the fridge on top of cooked spaghetti when I was a kid and I love it. You know what it reminds me of? Sketti Sketti It reminds me of Honey Boo Boo Sketti You’re talking about Honey Boo Boo Proper Sketti Yeah. Tell them about Honey Boo Boo Proper Skitty if they don’t know. Sketti. Equal parts butter, equal parts ketchup, put it in a pot, put some sketti in there, and there you go. That’s sketti? Genuinely sounds really good and kind of halfway to like a Japanese naporitan. Pretty much. You know, not dissimilar to this. How good is that? This is so incredible, but it’s, it’s not just, it’s not sickly sweet. The sweetness, so sweet means a big thing in the Philippines, right? You think of like a, like tocino, you know, like, It was just super sugary, just delicious, uh, grilled, yeah, it’s seen as pork, grilled pork or longanisa is a very sweet sausage, right? Um, this sauce is sweet, but it’s also very balanced by like hefty meat flavor. There’s depth. There’s depth in this There’s maillard. There’s caramelization. There’s glutamate action there. That is rad. You don’t expect that from a fast food joint. Like I almost prefer this like if I were to get fast food spaghetti… Excuse me, I was about to go on a — I would rather eat this fast food spaghetti instead of like tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella. This is so much more pleasant to eat in a fast food capacity, I feel like. What is the level of spaghetti that you would have to — Here, here… What is the level of spaghetti you’d have to get to where you go I prefer that over Jollibee? For real, like think about, because Olive Garden spaghetti. I think I would prefer this to Olive Garden Spaghetti. There’s no thinking, of course I’d prefer Jollibee Spaghetti to Olive Garden, like Sbarro, of course. Yeah. Like what do you have to get to, to where you’re like, Oh, this is actually better than Jollibee Spaghetti. Sbarro’s close because Sbarro’s Big Ziti is also a little bit sweet. Because of the ricotta Big Ziti? The Big Ziti’s different than Sbarro’s. Sbarro Big Ziti, that hits, bro. That’s, there’s nothing to apologize for. Another world. But next to the Big Ziti, there is a giant tray of wet spaghetti that no one is ordering. You never get it. Have you ever tried it? Never, why would I? If there’s Big Ziti, why am I gonna get this pizza? I ran through the whole Sbarro menu. Stromboli, like deceptively incredible Sbarro. Oh, the white spinach Stromboli? The white spinach Stromboli is way better than any of their pizzas. Oh, honey, don’t get me started. Oh! Didn’t they have a white, a spinach white pizza? A white, that’s better, that’s better than the stromboli. Oh no, they have like an Italian, like a capicola stromboli. Um, I couldn’t eat that, cause I wasn’t, cause I couldn’t eat that back in the day. But this spaghetti is so damn good, I’m really enjoying myself eating it. That clears most spaghettis, until you start to get to like, nice Italian restaurants that are like, you know, making stuff from scratch. Gosh, I think this might be a 9. Uh, yeah, I give that, I give that a 9 — 9.2 Maybe a 10. Like what, even the noodles, like they’re not mush. No. They’re well-cooked noodles. And normally, I would like the sauce to be tossed in. This is on the top, but I kind of prefer it. Because I get that little mound of cheese. And it like warms my heart. That is a hallmark of Filipino spaghetti. It’s topped with like a very dense, thick ragu. Yeah. And not like, uh, sauced and sautéed. 9.2, man. Alright, alright. What we got here? The pancit balabop? Yeah, pancit! Hell yeah, brother! They put us lemon juice also to put on it, I guess? Alright, crack open the lemon. So we got the sauce, we got the ground pork here. Open lemon juice. I’m gonna give this a nice little toss. Uh, very, very thin rice noodles. Which is fun. Palabok, uh, it’s a dried shrimp, yeah? I think so. Can I make that up? I’m actually not sure. Someone google pancit palabok to make sure we’re not dum dums. Thank you. Pancit palabok. Meggie, you got this. You grew up in Irvine. I’m not the biggest fan of the, the pancit noodles, I’ll say that. But everything on top of it sounds like I would absolutely go feral for it. What is it? Okay, right with pork, shrimp, and eggs. Okay, so um, there is not a single fast food menu item in America that has as much flavor as that. Not one. I’m so excited to eat it. Not one, try it. And just, just breathe the breath of fire and ginger and garlic and dried shrimp. Oh my god, is that a 10? That is so incredibly good. I haven’t had this in so long, I forgot how good this was. Oh my god! It’s unreal. But like, think about any fast food menu item in America, does it have that flavor? Box Teriyaki Bowl? I don’t, the, the pita? Chicken Fajita Pita? I mean like Taco Bell’s, I think Taco Bell’s Spiced Beef Slop is maybe the only thing that has that level of flavor, but that amount of like shrimp and fire, I think El Pollo Loco Chicken when it’s, when it’s really grilled proper has an incredible amount of flavor. Oh my god! But what else is carrying that level of like aromatic in it? Panda Express, probably. I think they do a great job of keeping the fresh aromatics live and well. There’s nothing I’ve had that is so delicious from a fast food place. Are we, are we about to go crazy and call the Bunsip Palabok a perfect 10? Honey, that’s a 10! We gotta eat the desserts later. Dude, man, what a, they should just open up like a separate pasta house and just do a couple different pancits, a couple different varieties of spaghetti. You know, give me a piece of fried chicken on top. I’m such a happy man. This is so delicious. Cheese and rice. I’ve never had something so damn delicious from a fast food restaurant like that. And I don’t even care for these noodles. I, the sauce on top, the lemon juice. – Oh my god, 10 out of 10. – Dude, this is really… Jollibee! Jollibee, what are you doing? You’re killing me, it’s delicious. I’m here, I’m here for the Jollibee takeover, man. – I’m down — – You know, I’m down to — Jollibee, if you need two employees, we can work in the marketing department. We can just be a little taste testers, you know. We’ll just hang out, I’ll be in the bee. Josh will dress up in the bee and I will ask Nicole, twerk on the bee. I will ask for consent before I twerk on the Josh Jollibee. If that sales pitch doesn’t win you over, Jollibee Corporate. Wow. I don’t know what will. What a note to end on. What a note to end on. We’ll eat the dessert pies in the ol Opinions Are Like Casseroles, but man. Jollibee, a hell of a showing out here. Even the burger slap of that puncit palabok. 10 out of 10. Damn. Wow. Nicole, before we get into Opinions Are Like Casseroles, it’s time for everyone’s favorite segment on the podcast. That’s right. Review a review is back. That’s where we read one of your reviews from Apple Reviews in an effort to goad you into making more of them because we have heard that they help us, although their relationship seems somewhat undefined. Today, we have Lorde Aculis with a four star review. Love the room for improvement. Lovely Nicole and Trash Raccoon Josh. What’s up, baby? Love the pod watch all your Mythical channels and you two together are hilarious. Thank you. However in all caps for the love of food, can someone mute Josh’s mic when he eats something? The amount of noises coming from him when he eats and talks with food in his mouth into the mic is brazy. Love the content overall though. I do. Just so everyone knows, you don’t even know how spoiled you are. I get the nitty gritty. I go in there, I mute his mic, and sometimes it shows up on Nicole’s mic, and I have to go in, and I take all that out. You don’t even know. Is that God? I do try my best to take it out. God, is that you? Why do you sound like Meggie? Can I get a pony for Rosh Hashanah? I’ll think about it. Thank you. I mean, I give this five stars. A five out of five. Constructive criticism. I love that he does appear to be part of the Bloods. Street gang. Yeah, Bombul Brazy. Bombul Brazy, um. Twist my fingers with my hands, I just do my dance, do my dance. You know, men need hobbies. You know, it’s nice to have a group of people you can hang with. So yeah, no, I, here’s the thing. I, me, people have misophonia. I think I have misophilia, where I, I don’t love, there’s some ASMR food creators that’ll like, put the mic in their throat, and you’ll hear like the uh, uh, and I, don’t, don’t give me the glug glug, but, um, I like — You heard it here first, don’t give Josh the glug glug! No, it’s, I don’t need to hear all that, but yeah, I don’t, fine mouth sounds offensive, I understand that some do, and nobody seems to really love them, so we could afford to lose them, I appreciate this, Lord Aculus. 5 out of 5, no notes, thank you for your honest, true, real opinion. I love YG, are you a YG fan? I’m really not big enough to say that I’m like a fan, right? Oh, I love YG. I listen to a lot of YG when I drive through the streets of Los Angeles, specifically West Hollywood. Wow. Just love listening to that. Mean streets. Super mean. Super mean. Once you get like Cantor’s Delicatessen, that’s where it gets real. Alright, well, Nicole. What’s up? Heard what you and I have to say in Lordaculous. Now it’s time to find out what other wackities are rattling out there in the universe. It’s time for a little segment we call, Opinions Are Like Casseroles. Um, alright. Should we eat a pie while this is happening? We got a taro pie and a mango peach pie. Let’s eat a pie. Crack open the taro pie. You crack open the peach. I’ll crack open the taro. Move your mouth from the mic when you eat, okay? Why is everyone picking on me? Is it taro or ube? Taro, I think. Or ube. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t remember. Well, damn, that was sexy. Thank you. So, okay, y’all. I think that was sexy. I got, A really nice snack for ya. You take a Cheez It, you take a dill pickle slice, and you take a piece of Hershey’s chocolate. You put it together like a sandwich, and you eat it. With a big ol swig of some milk. Ice cold milk. That is a good snack right there. Okay, run it by one more time. It’s pickle, cheese, chocolate, cold milk. Cheez-It Pickle, cheese — Pickle, chocolate, Cheez-It, cold milk. Pickle, chocolate, Cheez-It, cold milk. No! I don’t think I can think of a worse combination. It sounds really bad. What can you add to that that wouldn’t improve it? Like you put a sardine on there and it makes it better. Oh, peanut butter. Peanut butter I think makes it better. I think anything you add to that makes it less bad than it was, which I think is a sign that it’s It’s pretty bad. It’s pretty bad. I, um… You know, if this is like a regional thing, are you from like an Appalachia or like, where’s, where’s this, where’s this coming from? Where’s this coming from? Possibly. Possibly. We need more context because — You know what would have been worse? Pirate’s booty instead of the Cheez-It. – That would have just — – Lateral. Lateral. I would love for you to, to, to call back and give us a full story of how this. And if you do call back, we, we will try it on the next episode, but, you know… have to, um, you’re on the clock, you know, like, this is what we get paid to do, whether you like it or not. We could be doing data entry somewhere and we’re not, we’re trying. Thanks for bringing up data entry again. Cheez-it, Cheez-it, Chickle, Chickle Pickles. Um, I don’t know. I can’t, I can’t picture myself enjoying that. Sorry, gorgeous. I don’t love it. You leave the chocolate off. You have a nice little Cheez-It snack. Great. Right. Chocolate comes in. How do you feel about the pies we just ingested? Uh, incredible. These are deep fried. These are so much better than McDonald’s. McDonald’s pies now are terrible. Um, this mango peach one tastes like rugelach. It tastes just like rugelach. Like the apricot rugelach? It tastes exactly like it because of that sanding sugar over the outside. Yeah. It’s literally the most delicious rugelach you’ve ever had in your frickin life. That’s what this is. The taro one, I don’t care. The taro slash ube one, I don’t really care for. It’s tough because I don’t think taro and ube, I think if you’re going to do a pie situation, I think it has to be stodgier. Uh huh. I think it’s a little too loose inside for my own personal taste. I agree. You know, real loose goo in there. I agree. Um, but the fruit one, the mango peach, I think it’s really incredible. The peach probably is in there because the mango would be too expensive to just do by itself. Makes sense. Right? Peach is kind of like the filler. It’s like white grape juice in every single fruit cocktail juice. Mm hmm. This is the OG Apple McDonald’s pie, except with a much better, more tart, more piquant fruit flavor. Very delicious, um, very good. I think, I think it might be the best dessert from a fast food place you can get. Why do I love Jollibee so much? Should we just buy a Jollibee together? Buy a Jollibee! Why haven’t we not bought a Jollibee? We should buy a Jollibee together. How much money do you have? Yeah, first we thought, should we get like an Airbnb in Tahoe? No, Jollibee! I know you’re getting married soon, but how much money do you have? I don’t know, I got, you know, a wedding’s gonna make it a little bit less. I don’t know. No, you’re gonna get gifts, it’s gonna make it more. Do you guys give cash at weddings? I don’t know. Oh, I give cash at weddings. Actually, we should have eloped. Alright, next opinion, please. Hi, I was wondering if you could give a rundown of what is all in different plant based meats. I would love to start eating more plant based. Sometimes I get freaked out by some of the ingredients and I’m just like, I don’t know. What is it? I got it. Thank you. Bye. Number one, we are not scientists. We’re just, we’re just sexy little food freaks that have a podcast for some reason. Number two, you should be scared about what’s in there. Some of them are pretty sketchy. No, don’t, don’t. Some of them are sketchy. No, no. I’m going to be honest with you. Don’t fear monger about food. I am the fear monger of the podcast. I am here to instill fear in the hearts of our listeners, Josh. That is my job. That is my duty as Nicole Enayati of the Hot Dog is a Sandwich Party. It’s a little scary. I get it. Some of the foods, you shouldn’t, you know, you shouldn’t be shoveling yeast extract in your mouth. That’s gross. There’s yeast extract in every bit of the fast food that we just ate today. I know, but I’m saying, but you shouldn’t be eating it every day. You should have a varied diet. Sure. If you are somebody who, it depends on what your goals are, right? If you want to like eat less meat, Um, red meat, World Health Organization came out with a study that found that like, it’s pretty terrible for you. Yeah, it cancer, whatever, whatever. So there aren’t many things I think that you can eat that are like really worse than just shoveling red meat into your body, especially processed red meat. – And processed, you get into – What do you mean by processed red meat? I’m so glad you asked. So, um, Marion Nestle actually heard a great podcast with Dr. Mike Varshavski and Marion Nestle, I was geeked out that he had her on. But she wrote a book called Food Politics that I love, and she actually, she’s written a lot of books, but long time academic. See my bra. And she talks a lot about government lobbying in the food system and how it’s affected the way that we view nutrition. Um, but there is actually a definition of what constitutes processed and ultra processed, and I can’t remember it off the top of my head, but you can do a quick Google search and find that research. But a processed red meat, anything like a lunch meat, anything like a preformed frozen burger patty. Oh, sure. Anything like a sausage that you would buy. Sausage, sausage is a way of processing meat. In a certain way, you’re probably adding certain, um, high, high sodium content to it, maybe adding sugar as a preservative, a lot of different acids. But you don’t think these ultra process things are also in this, in this fake meat? No, they definitely are. But I’m saying if your goal is to eat less meat and you’re would have already eaten a Johnsonville bratwurst, like, yeah, dude, eat, uh, eat some beyond meat. If your goal is to become a lifestyle, vegetarian and vegan. I think you need to find ways to get protein or not. We really overstate the protein goals that you need. Most people only recommend like 30 to 50 grams a day. I’m out here eating 200. I eat like a hundred, I eat like a hundred and fifty right now. Trying to get swag jacked and there are reasons for that, but you really don’t need that much protein. We live in, you know, uh, you know, I know money’s tight for a lot of people, but we are in a very developed country where we have ample source of protein. So, most of it is just like soy protein, right? Yes. Um. Pea protein. Textured vegetable protein. But a lot of this stuff, if you’re scared of that, think about cheese, right? Cheese is an incredibly processed food. You are literally using enzymes to separate the protein from the fat and re coagulating it. Sounds scary. That’s what you’re doing with a lot of soy, right? You’re just, you know, processing it. Tofu is, uh, you know, been made for thousands of years, but it’s like a processed soy protein. I guess it’s not that scary, huh? It’s not that scary. Um, you know. I don’t know. Don’t be afraid of your food. Most things out there are perfectly fine. And also, no one ingredient is going to actually harm you, right? There’s the war on sugar, the war on fat, the war on preservatives. Prog powder. Eat too much prog powder. Yeah, don’t eat industrial nitrate salts that they use in delis across the world. You’re welcome. But the problem with, with health is never one ingredient, right? It’s always a large scale lifestyle sitch. If you’re eating mac and cheese with ground beyond sausage in it for every meal, that’s bad. You, uh, eat. A large variety of foods, and that’s the best we can do. I think it was Michael Pollan who said he can distill all dietary advice into seven words. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. That’s kind of it. You know? Moderation. How many plants did we eat right now? You and I during this? Yeah. Oh, not that many. We had a lot of fried chicken. I don’t feel good. Hey folks, Colin from Northern Minnesota here. Um, I have to know, what is the best bar food? You’ve got cheese curds, and chicken tendies, and french fries, onion rings, jalapeno poppers. It’s basically a cuisine out this way. Love your pod, thanks, bye. You know what’s the best bar food? Handful of olives from the bartender and maybe like a pickle if they have a pickle around because at the bars that I go to onions… Cocktail onions. We got a bunch of olives. They got a bunch of like, uh pickles. – That’s it – I agree with that Torchy. Torchy is the best bar food. I mean all bar snacks are designed to be just super salty to get you to drink more alcohol, right? Right. Olives pickles Best thing to do. That’s my favorite, yeah. You ever have like a fried olive? No, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t care to like delve into that part of it, personally. So I was actually, I was at a wedding, I was in the sleepy San Diego town of La Jolla. So not a lot was open late, but we found ourselves at this kind of like Irish bar, you know, 11:30 and food at the wedding, you know. So we, uh, we, we ate at the bar. And, you know, we’re like drinking pints of beer and, uh, we got chicken tenders and buffalo wings and what they called Irish nachos, which were more akin to a potato skin, except they were like half inch thick slice of potato. They ran big ass russet potatoes through a mandolin skin on and then either baked them or just fried them until they were pale and soggy and wet and then covered them in just cheese, bacon bits, sour cream and scallions. That’s pretty good if the potato was crispier. Even the potato not being crispy, just like wet potato with. Cheese and bacon and stuff on it. Fantastic. I’d put potato skins. I’m normally not a potato guy I would put potato skins up there. You need something that’s easy to eat I love buffalo wings, but that needs to be I can’t be — Gildas. – What? – Gildas you ever heard of a gilda? What’s a gilda? It’s like it’s like a pickle and an anchovy and an olive on a skewer. Fry it? No, why do you, you don’t need to fry everything. You’re talking about poor snacks, everything she mentioned were fried. You’re the one talking about olives and pickles. She didn’t mention olives and pickles once. Talk about fried cheese curds, man. Fine. Conversationally, it’s tough to eat a bone in chicken wing. This is a gilda. I love them every time I go to like a cute little like Spanish bar like Tapa… She’s in Northern Minnesota talk about bar food and you’re talking about Tapa. I’m sorry Okay, cheese curds. Yeah, fine. Cheese curds Dude, honestly chicken tenders are really tough to beat just a classic tendee get three four different sauces… – But while you’re drinking? – Yeah but what do you so this is this is one thing that I never did, like what is like going out and drinking? What is that Can you ask that question in a different way that maybe make this that might make this more productive? That’s what you say in a corporate meeting. You can you phrase that question in a different way? When you’re like, oh, we’re gonna go to the bar and drink like do you guys like pregame before you like talk about what girls? From high school were hot. No, but no I get that but no I’m asking like so How does the plan go like like you and your friends? Hey, we’re gonna go out drinking. What does that mean? Like for you, what does that mean? Uh, you probably like, rip a shot at home and then you take an Uber to like a dive bar, end you sit there and then you drink like six light beers and you eat them. I’m thinking of like going to Spot in Los Feliz at the Chicken Wings. Bar Flores. No, no this like English ass name. Ye Olde Kingshead. It’s not Ye Olde Kingshead, but something similar. Uh, I can’t remember the name, but anyways, you know, they got chicken wings. You go there, you drink like six light beers, and you order chicken wings to the table, and you order some other crap, and you just, uh, you just talk mess. So that’s what going out to drink, going out drinking, that’s what that means. So you eat, so you eat and you drink. Yeah. Okay. See, because when we say, oh, we’re going to go out drinking, it’s just pure alcohol 24/7. Yeah, you don’t always have to eat. It depends on the, the place though. If I’m going to like a cocktail bar, I’m probably not going to get food. If we’re going, if we’re deliberately planning on going to a late night food spot after. Okay, okay. Or if you’re going to like the club after. Yeah, I’m not a club guy much, but, you know. Me, I’m not a club girl, but I’m thinking about the times when I would go drinking, like, what, what, what would lead to it. So I was just trying to gauge, like, what drinking means for you, and what drinking means for me, and what drinking means for our lovely caller. And that’s why I choose pickled fish and stuff. Interesting. I’m just trying to get to the root of it. I’m not perfect. You want to do one more, Meggie? Come on, Meggie. Come on, do one more. Come on, sister friend over there. Yeah. Hi, Josh and Nicole. I am a big fan of yours. I listen to every episode that you’ve put out. I do have a question. It’s not so much a opinion casserole. But Josh, I was just recently listening to your podcast about why we like spicy food and you start pulling all of these fun facts out of your butt, like how Thai chilies came about, um, where does this information live? Is it in your brain all the time? Or when you know the topic of a podcast, do you do some research to spit out these fun facts? Or is this the way that you are all the time? All right. Thank you guys. I love you. Bye. I’m sucking out all the fillin from the mango peach pie. Pretty good. Do you want me to answer this for you? Yeah, do it. Okay. Josh is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life. And, um, his brain is phenomenal. And he can like, What are you, you stretching? He’s just happy, yeah. Um, he’s so smart. And his, the way his mind works is incredible, and he just has a bevy of information, but that’s not to say that, um, there isn’t people that do extensive research on the podcast. And, um, we have like little research packets that are very helpful, no doubt, but Josh is just a very smart person, and he just knows a lot of stuff, and it makes for a riveting, intelligent conversation, and a great co host. Aww. That means a lot. And I love that Nicole is, um, she sucks the filling out of pies. You know, I think it’s really cool. They call her the bone sucker for a reason. Um, no, I probably, depending on the podcast topic that, you know, Jollibee, we’re just kind of sitting here eating a bunch of chicken. You know, you want to know when it was founded and what’s currently going on. It’s helpful. Yeah, it’s helpful. It gives you context. I’ve just always been fascinated with food. It’s what I know the most about in my life. And I remember with the spicy food one, I, you know, formerly was a journalist and I’ve written solo with us. Sola Elueli is with us, um, and I had written a lot about spicy food. I used to write a lot about agriculture, so I knew a lot of that stuff, and I’ll probably spend 30, 45 minutes before a certain podcast just Googling everything that I find interesting, and then my brain tends to hold onto things that I find interesting. So like I failed a lot of classes in school, you know. F in AP chemistry, D-minus in oceanography, but I still passed that one. Um, because I would read it and it would just go in one ear, out the other, but when I learned about the, uh, Hoi Fong Foods Sriracha farm contract at Underwood expiring, and then them trying to find supplemental red jalapeno farms in Mexico, it just kind of sticks with me, because I, it’s the lens that I see the world through. Thank you for stoppin by A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich We got new episodes out every Wednesday on your audio platforms, every Sunday over here on the YouTube. If you want to be featured on Opinions Are Like Casseroles hit us up at (833)DOG-POD1. What did you just do? What did you just do? I tried to Kareem Abdul Jabbar hook shot a wet nap. God, Jiminy Christmas, I missed it in the same exact location. Please keep watching us. Bye.