Hey, dude, what are you drinking? Oh, just this super cool new trendy drink. It’s like really underground down and dirty. You probably wouldn’t get it. You’re just drinking ground up mushrooms, aren’t you? Yeah. Yes, I am. That’s correct. 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 biggest food debates. I’m your host, Josh Scherer. And I’m your host, Nicole Enayati. And I am actually not currently drinking mushroom coffee, I’m drinking Celsius energy drink, because God, do I need it right now. But we’re about to drink a bunch of different mushroom coffees, and this is actually something that I’ve never had before. Me either, which is why I really wanted to do this. I want to experience something new. Same. This is the episode where Nicole and Josh don’t understand something. And so then we learn about it ourselves and then also teach it to you. Yes. Like Harold and Kumar go to white castle, but Josh and Nicole eat mushrooms and go to Erewhon. Not those kinds of mushrooms. No, no, no. We’re not eating those kinds of mushrooms. Darren that it might be the first question to quell here that these are not. Psychedelic, psychotropic, no psychosilaban, psilocybin, no psychosilocybin is in these mushrooms. Um, but some people say that they are adaptogenic, which we have spoken about whenever we did that, like cool new soda taste tests like a few months ago. Yeah, so when we’re talking about mushroom coffee, there are a bunch of new, like, bottled drinks that are out there on supermarket shelves. Uh, there are products like Mudwater that is a coffee alternative. We do have Mudwater. That was the first time, Mudwater is the first time that I heard of mushroom coffee at all. Me too. I love the ad because it was a surfer guy who’s like, people were asking me like, bro, what’s in my cup? Looks like mud. And I’m like, yeah, that’s because it is. Mud water and that blonde haired surfer dude was like the coolest guy I’ve ever seen in like a Facebook targeted ad ever. So I had a buddy that worked for mud water my old college roommate and he sounds exactly like that and so it makes sense but this is part of a larger trend of we’re killing all of our drink idols that we kind of grew up with in a way, right? What do you mean by like Mountain Dew? Yes, actually. Yes, like the new Mountain Dew is Ollipop they have something. Ooh, it’s like, they switch mountain to like slope and do to like rain or something, there’s an ollipop version of Mountain Dew that’s very similar and it’s like I can’t remember the name of it like Hillside Rush or something like that, you know, but yeah but we are going through this big evolution where we’re realizing that maybe all the drinks that our parents drank for decades, right, maybe aren’t the best for us or there are other alternatives and I think mushroom coffee is very much that for, you know, the world’s most popular beverage that’s been a drink for thousands of years. Well, for me, I, all of the like ads and the trends I’ve seen, it’s like it’s 50 percent coffee and 50 percent adaptogenic mushroom powder. Yes. Like that’s, that’s like the through line through all of these, the majority of these products and everything I’ve seen. They say that mushrooms reduce inflammation. They’re anti cancer. They’re doing all these incredible things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, like, do you really think that drinking, I don’t know, whatever this is, Republic L. A. instant mushroom coffee that has focus and energy on it will like help you beat cancer? I don’t think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. No, that’s the absolute key. Well, Okay, it’s like saying broccoli helps beat cancer. It does because broccoli has– Compared to what, like, cheeseburgers? If you ate broccoli instead of smoking a whole pack of cigarettes your cancer rate will drop. No like broccoli has a bunch of micronutrients and sure it has fiber and like fiber is the biggest way to prevent colorectal cancer as far as I know and so, sure, broccoli fights cancer, but it’s like, eating broccoli every day for decades might decrease your chances by a fraction of a percent, which is like, great, you should eat broccoli, you should eat fiber. Broccoli’s good. There are things in mushrooms, so, when we’re talking about mushrooms, these aren’t just like, ground up button mushrooms or cremini mushrooms. These are like chaga mushrooms, reishi mushrooms, turkey tail mushrooms, food, I’ve never seen these mushrooms, like, ever in, like, the wild. Like, I’ve never seen them, like, at the grocery stores, but I know that they have roots in, like, Eastern medicine and stuff like that. Yeah, so a lot of them do have roots in Eastern medicine, also even dating back to the Roman times. Like, mushrooms have been eaten for thousands of years by people. Um, I weep for the people who had to be the guinea pigs to find out which mushrooms you can and can’t eat. You know, yeah, like the berries in the forest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So many people throughout history and antiquity just dead because somebody was like, does this mushroom make you strong? Like, no, that makes you poop your pants until you’re dead. Um, but that for poison later, exactly. Um, but like the Romans believe that mushrooms made you strong. And I do generally think not to get too woo on this to what to woo. I don’t know what term woo. No, what is the term? I’ve heard the term. No, not, not woke. Woo. Woo, as in like, granola, crunchy, spiritual. Oh, okay. Like, not to get too woo here, but I do think if an idea has persisted for, like, thousands of years, as in, say, Eastern medicine, or even in, like, different Western folk medicine traditions, like, hey, this mushroom’s good for you, probably drink it, it prevents headaches or whatever. I think there’s some truth to that. I don’t think that tradition would have stood for thousands of years if there was nothing to it. I, I agree with you. And there actually is a fair amount of modern science coming out that Adapted, adapt, adapted the depth. You can say it. , adaptogenic properties in mushrooms are actually. Great for human health. The science is very, very new, but a lot of this has been done on what they call like the cellular cellular level. So humans are rats because I’ve seen a human or rat. Have you seen rats tattooing them? Rats are out here, pizza rat. The rats are basically humans. Yes, of course. Now, the thing that I want, I really want to dive into is cordyceps because the first time I ever learned about cordyceps was when everybody else learned about cordyceps, which was. It ends with us. Is that what the show is called? Oh, yeah, I never watched it. Is that with Pedro Pascal? Yeah, and uh, come on, Bela Ramsey. Bela Ramsey, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were great in Game of Thrones. So, all I remember is that Cordyceps, and that is bad. But Cordyceps Is good. Now, that’s the thing. Cordyceps are bad in ends with us are what turned humans into the mushroom freaks. Mushroom head freaks. I know there’s mushroom head freaks that what’s that show about? Mushroom head freaks. It’s that should have been the name of the show because it’s a much better. It tells you the story right off the bat of a really cool video game. Apparently not one that I’ve ever played because I’ve never played a video game before in my life. Um, but cordyceps apparently have, again, like, all this anti inflammatory, like, properties and stuff like that. And you can actually buy them dried, and I think we’ve cooked them on the show once before. And they are quite delicious. So out of all the mushrooms that are in these products, the cordyceps are the only ones that are, like, culinary. Adjacent I would say. I think there’s one. No, there’s one more. There’s one more and it’s getting more popular I buy it at farmer’s markets. It’s good I had it at a vegan restaurant and they they roasted it and they just called it. Lion’s mane? Yeah, lion’s mane. They called it a short rib, but it was kind of just a roasted mushroom. Lion’s mane. It was weird. Yeah, I have seen people are like, oh my god, it’s so good for you this and that and the other. Is it really? I enjoy eating lion’s mane mushrooms. I like to fry them like I’d fry chicken. I love Here’s the thing, fried chicken sandwich is one of the greatest food in the world, but if you fry mushrooms, it might even be better. I kinda don’t miss the chicken. I like a fried shrimp. I consider that worse for me than a fried chicken sandwich, so I’m not doing it for health benefits. Because it has no protein. Yeah, to me, the chicken is the medicine I’m after. Right, right, right. Because I believe in the ancient medicine that you eat a bunch of chicken breast and you go to the gym six times a week and you get big and then you love yourself. And so that’s what I believe in. Um, but no lion’s mane mushrooms are the other one that I’m like, Oh, I cook with those as well. Okay. So here is an article from harvardhealth. edu in case you didn’t believe any of this stuff. According to a recent review published in the journal molecules, medicinal mushrooms popular in many fungi infused coffee blends. Do have immune boosting properties and may help regulate metabolism. Oh! Thanks to high antioxidant activity, medicinal mushrooms may also help slow down the aging process. So like, I’m gonna be young and beautiful if I drink this every day? Young and beautiful. Will you still love me? God, I love Lana Del Rey. I had one summer where I really, I listened to Summertime Sadness like every morning. The Techno Remix? Uh, no, actually the OG, but I do love the Techno Remix. Um, so like no matter which way you spin it, there’s probably good things happening in these mushrooms. Will they make a massive difference in your life? Probably not. My, my qualm is this. Why did we decide to, why did we, as a society, decide to mix it with coffee, of all things? Because if there were, like, stands out there that were just like, broth stands, I would probably find myself going more towards the broth stand. That would probably have a mushroom broth, a delicious, savory mushroom broth, and I would just drink that on the go. It’s such a good question. Why? Why coffee? Why coffee of all things? I could’ve never even questioned that. Mushrooms are much better in soup than coffee. Yeah, like, what sort of person or like group of people was like, you know what, we’re gonna mix a savory thing like mushroom powder. Which, is it savory? Yes, I’d say it is. I mix that with 50 percent instant coffee, serve it to you, hope you have a good day. Uh, you know who actually did invent it? The Finns, baby! Finnish people? The kings of Eurovision, the Finns. Fins actually, I know. So mushroom coffee, uh, during world war two and any time, any war time, basically people ran out of coffee and they found different Brown things and roasted it. And so like date seeds, like date seeds, like chits origin of chicory coffee in America, acorn coffee, barley coffee, all this stuff. And in Finland they had mushroom coffee and it likely were, was chaga mushrooms. And so that is like one of the origins of it. Um, but I think there’s another problem where. Americans particularly, one, boy, do we love a health fad. Um, I think it was Michael Pollan who said like, It’s bizarre that like one of the least healthy countries on Earth is the most obsessed with health. I think it’s because we just want to do it quickly. We just want, we want that magic pill. We want that like, we want that ozempic. We want it, something to solve all of our problems. Unreal, and also we love Industry and capitalism and novelty. And so like, here we are with a bunch of mushroom coffee that was developed in wartime rationing in Finland. Um, but also, yeah, we’re super over caffeinated as a society. Finland does drink the most coffee per capita, but there’s not a lot of data on this. I’m going to find out who drinks the most caffeine because if you’ve ever like gone to another country, I have many a time and you get a cup of coffee and the cup of coffee is like three to four ounces or like watered down. Yeah, and then you go to a starbucks. Oh, yeah, and you say give me 24 ounces Of cold brew and they’ll give it to you That’s not like that is baffling to a lot of the rest of the world and coffee’s a tiny thing So we drink way too much caffeine in america. So you cut it with mushrooms And then that’s solving two problems at once. So I think that’s why they do that instead of just making a go gurt packet of cream of cordyceps soup. I think that, I, listen, I’m, I’m so for opening up broth stands in America instead. Because like you said, like, the protein, like, we love protein so much. Like, why not just have broth stands with bone broth? Chicken bone, listen, chicken bone broth, beef broth. Mushroom broth, call it a day, and then you run out, and then whatever. I would, LA doesn’t have the ecosystem to support that because we don’t have enough foot traffic. Not if you sell it the right way, yuh. Anything is possible, anything. If they can be selling mushroom coffee for ten dollars. We can be selling broth stands for five dollars. You’re saying broth stands? Yeah, not brothels. Not brothels, no. Do you want to call them brothels? No, no, they have the, the, what are they called, the bunny ranch? I grew up watching that HBO show. Weird. You know what I’m talking about? Cat House. Cat House, yeah. Why were we able to watch that as children? Um. Josh, the fact that you used to watch that, and so did I, is so telling. I think the head of that legal brothel, like, Reagan for Governor, wasn’t the governor? He was the mayor of Nevada, I believe, and he hooked up with Heidi Fleiss, who was also a famous man. Oh my god, Heidi Fleiss! You remember? Yeah, I watched that TV movie. You watched that TV movie? We had the same childhood. Josh, what? What’s wrong with us? Why did nobody censor us as children? We were watching GAS and HBO entirely too. It’s so funny thinking about kids consuming TikTok today, and now that I’m like a 32 year old man, I’m like, Ah, the kids aren’t gonna be alright. And then I think about the access to the internet that I had, where I was like, that was worse. That was 100 percent worse. Rotten. com, that was worse. Oh my god. Oh my god. Thanks a lot, Rotten. com. Witness the world’s atrocities. But at least then you had to like, He had to wait for five minutes of dial up to see the world’s atrocities. Do you want to drink any of these or do you want to chat some more? Let’s drink them. I’m down for you to chat. I’m enjoying this conversation. What else did we chat about? We chatted about all the things to chat about? Okay, whatever. I’m done talking to you. Do you think that you would actually want to ever drink this as a daily thing? As I rip a Celsius energy drink? I don’t know. You know, I do like, what, one coffee a day, maybe two coffees a day if I’m really feeling it. Like, I’m not really that, like, obsessed with my coffee. I have a fantastic little coffee maker. I love my I don’t even have an espresso anymore. What do I have? I have a, uh Breville? I have a Breville espresso maker, and it really, I, you know, I put my collagen peptides in there, I get 20 grams of protein, my morning is pretty much set, I have some Fair Life milk. If I was looking to expand my vibration I think I would have more mushroom coffee, but no, I wouldn’t do this, we’re doing this because we have free will, but my will isn’t free enough that I would do this every day, also it’s very expensive, it’s too expensive for me, I cannot rationalize spending 8 to 10 dollars on a cup of coffee. Why don’t I just drink more water? Doesn’t that also prevent cancer? In ways, I’m sure it does. Um, I, there’s just a finite amount of powders that I have room for in my life. You have a lot of powders. And I already have powders. I have powders. You take so many powders. I don’t I have the protein powders. I have the creatine powders. I still have half a bottle of ashwagandha pills that I’m determined to finish one day. What does that do for you? That’s an adaptogen. That’s like, kind of like the adaptogen. These are adaptogens. I know, it’s all adaptogens. What’s an adaptogen? We explained it in a previous episode. It’s just kind of a thing. It’s just a thing, it’s nothing really, is it? Oh, a lot of adaptogens come from mushrooms, and they like, might regulate your stress hormones. And I, that’s what a therapist told me, and I got actually done with it. Oh, this helps regulate your cortisol levels? I don’t know! I’ll take 50 right now! As you just doom scroll on your phone, It’s re you know, Maybe the mushrooms will help. You know, Colby was asking me what my vice was, and I said doom scrolling is my vice, Oh no. sad that is because people like I drink, I smoke, I have casual sex, and I’m just like on my phone for two hours and just scroll and see what’s going on. I like to sports bet on Ukrainian table tennis leagues. That’s my vice. So we’re gonna try La Repubblica instant mushroom coffee. Let’s go, I’m gonna read the, um, Instant, not even fresh brewed. I’m gonna read, um, some things on, on this package while you take your first sip and you mull it over, okay? So, this package contains lion’s mane, chaga, reishi, turkey tail, cordyceps, maitake, and shiitake. Now, this has more I know those. These have more culinary mushrooms than I was assuming. Bro, this is soup. But the tasting notes, rustic chocolate, toasted almonds, and rich earth. That do be tasting like rich earth. Yeah, do you have any open sores in your mouth? I have no, I have no HSV 1 flare ups. I have herpes simplex 1, but herpes simplex 1 does not have me. Let me know when you’re done, I’ll have a sip. That is delightful. If you just told me that was a type of brewed coffee from a country that I’ve never been to, if you’re like, hey, this is Eritrean style coffee. I would’ve said hell yeah. I would’ve been like, yeah, I’ve had that before and lied. Um, I’m cultured. No, but there are really deep chocolate notes. There is a bitterness to it, obviously coffee’s already a bitter thing. Right, none of these are sweetened unless stated otherwise. But, When it comes to coffee, a lot of people have their specific beans, and their specific roast, and their specific coarseness of grind, and all this stuff. What I have is a company called Don Francisco, and Don Francisco makes, um, like, a vanilla hazelnut pre ground coffee that I buy for like 7. 10 over at the Ralphs. And I dump it into my Mr. Coffee coffee machine. Actually, I upgraded. I now have a Ninja drip coffee maker that costs like 40 bucks. He has money! 40 dollars I do indeed have. And so, I don’t like, go out of my way to brew nice coffee. To me Coffee is like a nice medicine, and half the time I’m adding protein. Coffee is medicine, and chicken is medicine? Actually yes, and creatine is medicine. Great, I’m happy for you that you’re well medicated. I’m so happy you’re well medicated. Creatine makes me big and strong, protein makes me big and strong in a different way, and then caffeine makes me, uh, my brain catch up to how big and strong I’m getting. Oh my gosh, wow. But that is the way that I think about my own supplementation. And then ashwagandha. Does nothing to calm me down and I have turmeric pills because I saw Tony Hawk in a commercial for him Turmeric pills. Do you know turmeric? Skin is so orange. No, that’s cuz it’s finally been sunny in LA and I’ve been going on more hot girl walks Are you sure it’s not the beta carotene in the turmeric? No, you know, I know that is because I forget to take the turmeric Just on my desk. Oh my god, the pills are so big and I’m like I just could cook with it instead. Okay, so this is culture shrooms, mushroom, cold brew coffee for 12 fluid ounces. You get 175 milligrams of caffeine. Is that a lot, Mr. Josh? That is quite a lot. FDA caps your recommended daily intake of caffeine at 400 milligrams per day. But this is 12 ounces, 175 milligrams. So a cup of coffee is a really weird thing. We’ve talked about this before, a Cup in culinary terms or scientific terms is eight fluid ounces, correct? Um, but when people calculate a cup of coffee, they do it as six ounces I think because That might be the measurement of the old styrofoam cups that were always like at a coffee water cooler inside an office So that’s a really weird thing. So if this is two cups of coffee 175 milligrams Somewhat standard more on the high side i’d say nuts, but 175 like a celsius says 200 Red Bull standard, um, 8. 3 ounce can only has, I believe, 87 or 78. Really? Yeah, Red Bull got sued because they don’t have enough caffeine. Wow. And then these are the three mushrooms, so lion’s mane, 300 milligrams, cordyceps, 300 milligrams, and turkey tail, 300 milligrams. I’m gonna take a sip. Down the hatch you go! The thing with mushroom coffee is, this kind of stuff, like, Only affects the people who have enough disposable income to sort of This is rich people BS. This is rich people BS, right? That’s what we’re going at? This is rich people Etsy BS. These are people who like to go on Etsy and spend their money on crystals, which, I don’t know if they work or not, but I choose to believe that they don’t work. And they’re like, I’m going to drink mushroom coffee instead of regular coffee and my life is going to improve. Definitely. I have a question about your personal finances. Bring it on baby. I don’t know anything about them. I a personal finance podcast host who’s just like Caleb hammer. Oh my god. I don’t like those videos. Oh, they make me so. Oh my god. I love Caleb You don’t know your take home. You don’t know you we we particularly cast you because we think you’re an idiot And we want to make fun of you. You don’t know your take home. They’re sitting there. So go I got a check but anyways Do you think that you buy more little trinkets and knickknacks because it seems so insurmountable to actually save up for a house Do you think that I buy little trinkets and knickknacks? Do you assume that I’m right? You’re out here with collagen peptides and all these little Is that a knick knack? I think it’s a knick knack. I don’t know, does it work? I’m out here drinking protein. Do I consume more protein because of that? And has my diet improved because of it? Yes, that’s not a knick knack. Do I buy things because I think I can never afford a house? Is that what you’re asking? Yeah, so it feels easier just to buy an 8 thing to bring you joy. I feel that way constantly. I’m so, like, optimistic and stupid that I think I’ll be able to buy a house one day. They’re so expensive in Los Angeles. I know, I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Buy an 8 coffee about it and think that it’s improving your life. Just link up with somebody, build a compound, I’ll have one little corner of it. I’ve been asking you for months about this compound thing. I know, we gotta get the compound off the ground. You’re married now, you’re married now, I’m married. I’m still writing the manifesto, I mean Bible, I mean Foundational text of our compound. I’ve told you about this compound for months and it’s not a bad idea and I think it would be more helpful if you just did that. We’d all just live on the, live off the land. I could learn how to farm and milk a cow. This upsets me. I hate that. I already don’t like cold brew as it is. I don’t think it’s the mushrooms, I think it’s the cold brew. Sometimes certain cold brews taste like soy sauce and kombucha and that’s no one’s fault other than the, the coffee. We’ve done a couple Nicole and I aren’t experts on a lot of things, right? Oh, no. Coffee is one of those things that we’re not big experts on. I think we’re experts on taste in general, and generally are knowledgeable about the food space. Um, but like actual coffee brewing isn’t. We did a podcast, like, is cold brew overrated? Where I, I fully stand by my assessment that, um, there was nothing wrong with iced coffee. With coffee that was brewed hot, and then chilled, and that’s enjoyable. Drinking this, it’s not the mushrooms that’s making this taste bad, it’s the cold brew. This is terrible, and it has this like, coppery, sulfuric taste that, I went to like a, I was doing a little hot girl walk around my neighborhood. I know, I saw you put your sunglasses on and go. No, not today, I’m talking about like a couple weeks ago, and I wandered upon a new little coffee shop, and I was like, mmm, yum, I’m gonna treat myself. And it’s like, in like a big antique store that I think got really successful, and they’re like, well, we’re gonna open up the coffee shop of our dreams. And I got a cold brew for like six dollars, and I was like, oh god. And it was just the worst tasting thing. Nicole, for me to not finish caffeine That’s a lot. It’s a lot. I had to throw it in the trash. It was so bad. Did you put any sweetener in it? No, I love black coffee. I love the taste of black coffee. Um, but a lot of cold brews, they just get disgusting and hyper acidic. And do you remember Let’s put Smosh on blast here. Do you remember the first Brand, uh, or the first batch of Smosh’s cold brew coffee. Yeah, of course I do. And it was like, something happened in the industrial process. And we said, did something happen? And then they found out something did. And was like, yeah, something did happen. It was brewed in the same, it was brewed in the same. Um, that, that kombucha was brooded. And like, live culture’s gotten to the coffee or something. And they never washed it down properly, I believe. Again, please, Ian Fact Check us. No, they fixed it. They fixed it. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, then it was good, yeah. Um, but this tastes like that first batch. Yes, I, that’s why I said it tastes like soy sauce and kombucha. There’s something going on in there and I don’t like it. Uh, well, that’s a bummer. Um, okay, well, let’s try Mud? Mud water. Mud water. I’m gonna, I’m gonna read the, give it to me. I wanna read it. Here, you read it, I’ll take a sip of mud water. This is my first mud water I’ve ever had. Okay. Cacao, masala, chai, cordyceps, lime, maine, reishi, chaga, turmeric, and Himalayan salt. So there’s no coffee in here. God, smell this. Okay. Yeah. So Mud Water was sold completely as a coffee alternative, Yu, and if you’re looking for just a brown delicious beverage to wake you up in the morning without caffeine, um, real lifting, lifting heads here will know, uh, the term stem free. This is, uh, your stem free, free. It’s really yummy. You have stem free pre, or are you, uh, going pro stem on your pre. I’m pro sim and map free every morning before I start my day. This is a delight. That was really good. Mud water is great. Really good. This is just masala chai. It’s delicious. It’s masala chai, but it’s great. It’s masala chai advertised for surfer white dudes. Yeah, correct. And it’s really good. It’s called mud water, dude. Yeah. Getting muddy in the water out there drinking your masala chai. Um. This is really good. Yeah, no, this is awesome. Oh, there is a little bit of black tea powder though. That would be the chai and the masala chai. Oh, you’re so bad. Like, this is a cup of masala chai with mushroom powder in it. I’m so stupid. I’m so sorry. I’m so stupid. This was delicious. No ca very little caffeine though, so if you’re not Do they say the caffeine content on there or no? I’m reading it. Just iron, potassium. I don’t see anything related to caffeine in here. This is Here you go. I would drink this at night. This is, this is a lovely beverage that I would sit down to watch the White Lotus with. 35 milligrams of caffeine versus 95 milligrams in an average cup of coffee? This is just enough caffeine. This is the, um, methadone of caffeine that I need where, like, it’s just enough to, like, stave off the itchies that I get if I don’t have caffeine. Can I tell you something? Yes, please. That’s really, um, controversial and it might create a lot of, like, Drama for us on the pod. What? I don’t like the White Lotus at all. Get out. You’re fired. Maggie, you’re the host of the podcast. Do you like White Lotus? Um, I liked the first season. I did not like the second season. Oh my god, both, both of you are fired. I’m running this thing. You have firing and hiring power? Get out of here. I really didn’t like White Lotus and maybe Maybe I just need to, like, reflect on that. Aubrey Plaza, Theo James No Will, what’s his face? Like, the British actor that has like a big cult following, cause he made that show Flowers that a lot of people like on Channel 4, but I can’t remember his last name. He was in a real pain. No, none of it. Megan Faye. That whole quadrangle did nothing for you? No, nothing. Interesting. I also haven’t seen Severance. You’re just doom scrolling all the time. I started Yellowjackets three days ago. Everyone relax. I started Yellowjackets three days ago. Friend of the show, Ella Purnell. Fantastic, congenial in that. Mudwater, really good. I 100 percent would drink this at home. I think, in fact, I, I think I have mud water at home that I’ve not opened for a year. It’s just sitting next to the tea bags. We’ll, we’ll figure it out. Um, yeah, generally impressed with that product, but again, it is kind of just masala chai, so just get some like instant masala chai if you want that. But the mushrooms, I guess, do good stuff. Nicole, tell them about this last one. Okay, so I was looking for a local spot that makes mushroom coffee, because if you’re me, when I’m walking down the streets, everyone’s like, Oh, new Chagachinos. Oh, new, new, like Chagachinos, an upsetting phrase that I’ve heard, like new mushroom coffee infused with adaptogenic, whatever. So they, so Alfred says that they have the OG. Chagachino, I believe is what it’s called, and Josh has a Chagachino. I have the Machaga, which is matcha. Oh! Yeah, so I have the Machaga, and you have the regular Chaga. Um, yeah, this is fine. Try the matcha. I am often asked to go to coffee shops when I have already consumed my caffeine content for the day. Mm hmm. Um, so I, I understand the need for a non caffeine drink, but what I love is getting, like, a nice iced tea. Um, but instead you can get a Chagachino. Yeah. Does it taste good? Does that taste good? Um, not necessarily. I like steamed sweet milk with a little bit of bitterness in it. Um, I don’t like it. Let me try the, the chagamacha. What do they call it? Chaga, Chaga, Machaga? Machaca? Machaga! The Mexican air dried beef dish? Meshuga! Meshuga! Um, the mancha’s significantly worse. Chagatino’s way better. They’re both really bad. Both awful. Um And, wait, wait! They were both 8 a piece! I spent 16 on these little cups! Yeah. Alfred, you’re killing me! Do, do, do these medicinal mushrooms maybe help stave off cancer and have anti aging pro properties? Uh, the early science says like, yeah, a little bit, I guess, probably insofar as broccoli also has that stuff. Is this also solely The domains and whimsies of the absolutely rich with disposable income or people buying trinkets to keep them happy enough to realize that they don’t ever have the ability to afford a home. Um, yeah, I guess, uh, this to me will not affect the culture at large, but is a fun symptom of the fact that there’s a massive title shift in the, like, food and drink space as we question all the stuff that our parents sort of grew up drinking as Diet Coke is gradually supplanted by, uh, Health Aid started a new probiotic soda brand. Sun Aid, or Sun Health, or Drop Do, Do, Doosan. Doosan. Doosan. You know, Nicole, life gets busy sometimes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a new language! That’s right, Josh! And with Rosetta Stone, you can fit language learning into your schedule. On your desktop, on your phone, wherever you are! Rosetta Stone’s immersive method makes learning feel natural. There are no English translations, just real world language that actually sticks. Uh, so I’ve actually started learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone. I programmed it into my Sundays, which is really nice. So now I have like my own little Scheduled learning time. I’m really amazed at how quickly I’ve picked up useful phrases. Es muy facil, Nicole. Whether I have five minutes or an hour. It’s cool because I can learn on my own time at my own pace. That’s so wonderful. I’m glad that you kind of like quelled the scary Sundays. You know, that we all have by learning a new language. Si, gracias. Rosetta Stone is a trusted language expert. With 30 years of experience, millions of users, and 25 languages offered, Rosetta Stone is the go to language learning solution. Their list of languages includes Spanish, French, Italian, German, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Dutch, and so much more. Don’t wait! Unlock your language learning potential now! A hot dog is a sandwich, listeners. Can grab Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50 percent off. That’s unlimited access to 25 language courses for life! Visit rosettastone. com slash hotdog to get started and claim your 50 percent off today. Don’t miss out! Go to rosettastone. com slash hotdog and start learning today. I think I forgot to use our own discount code. Josh! I’m out here paying full price like a schmuck. Schmuck. Well use the discount code. Be smarter than me. I cannot start my morning routine without a delicious cup of coffee. It has become such a ritual to me that the thought of not having it completely disrupts my day. And if you know me, you know I’m always trying to upgrade my coffee experience. Have it be a cool new mug, a delightful new creamer, or my personal favorite, a new exciting bag of coffee beans. And there’s no easier way to do the latter than with trade. Let’s be real, most grocery store coffee, not it. You deserve better. Enter Trade, aka your new bestie in the coffee game. 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I say that’s a win win for me So what are you waiting for go take the quiz get your coffee and start your day the right way Right now trade is exclusively offering our listeners 40 off your first order at drinktrade. com slash hot dog That’s drink trade t r a A D E dot com slash hot dog for 40 percent off your first order drink trade dot com slash hot dog All righty, nicole We’re all filled up on chagachanos We’ve heard what we have to say now time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe It’s time for a little segment. We call Opinions are like casserole All right, let’s see what the First opinion is, it’s gonna be? Hello, my name is Amy. And I wanted y’all’s opinion. Because, I love eating peanut butter and sugar sandwiches. But apparently, it’s an abomination. And it’s crazy. But, you guys try them. And then you’ll see that they’re good. Anyways, good job on the podcast. Thank you. Good job. Peanut butter and sugar sandwich. Sounds so good. It sounds great. Uh, I’m curious if it’s just sprinkled with granulated sugar, because there is a product out there that’s kind of like a liquidy sugar, but it actually comes from nature. It’s made by animals. Honey! Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are like my favorite thing in the world. I like peanut butter and honey sandwiches. I mean, I would almost I would put brown sugar. Brown sugar sounds nice. Brown sugar peanut butter sandwiches sounds right up my alley. Love it. You know what I think they’re kind of halfway to creating though? If you ever just take A peanut butter cookie. No, no, no, no, uh, uh, Reese’s peanut butter cup filling. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is basically you just take peanut butter and blend in a bunch of powdered sugar. Yeah. Then you get that kind of like chalky, salty from the peanut butter, earthy, but also real, real sweet. Right, right, right. Really good. And then you could just, instead of the bread, just cover it in chocolate, you know? I’m down with this. And then you have a peanut butter and sugar sandwich. Who calls it an abomination? Whoever you’re surrounding yourself with is a wee bit dramatic, okay? Tell them to relax. Can I ask you a question? What would happen if you made a peanut butter and sugar sandwich, like, cut out a round of it with the bread, but then coated the whole thing in chocolate. You’d just be having a good time, baby. What you mean? I think that’d be really nice. A little thin chocolate coating on like a full sandwich. We just talk about how America is so obsessed with healthy at wildly unhealthy and I’m like, cover your sandwich in chocolate. Put sugar on the peanut butter. We are the problem and the solution. That sounds nice. Hi, Josh and Nicole. Big fan of the podcast. My thing, like casseroles, is actually a recipe. Okay. If you take red wine and or balsamic vinegar and a little bit of oil and you soak the cheapest garlic and butter croutons you can find in it, you have poor man’s fancy bread at restaurants. That’s all I have. Love the podcast. Bye. Let’s dissect this. Let’s dissect this, Josh. What’s going on. What’s going on? I’m gonna tell you what’s going on. You ever been to a restaurant They give you bread and they give you bread with olive oil and balsamic It’s a feels like a relic of years past in a way that I love this person is saying you ain’t got to do all That just give me croutons. Yeah soak the croutons In that, and spoon it out, do you think they meant red wine or red wine vinegar? I think maybe red wine, yeah, I think, oh, they said red wine or balsamic vinegar, as in red wine vinegar, I see. I thought it was literally just wine, and I thought you were referencing like, a medieval wine sop? Yes. Because what they used to do, so the term Toast literally refers to the piece of toast that they would put in their wine, so I thought you were creating a medieval wine sop. Me too for a second. Um, what they’re talking about is, instead of Croutons instead of bread. Instead of buying fresh bread. Yes. You let your bread dry. Shelf stable croutons keep forever? How many times have you found a bag of croutons in the back of your pantry and you’re like, This is three years old, I’m gonna still eat them. You’re gonna know, you gotta know something about me. I, my household at this point is a crouton free house. No way. Crouton free, but For health? No, we’re just not crouton people. Sometimes I buy them for David, I’m like, here you go, there’s your little tree. But for the most part, we have very Cause in my, in my Salads, my salads are mostly on the fresh, like Heart of Palm, Cherry Tomato, Romaine, Butter Lettuce situation, which croutons, I think, take away from, from that. Yeah, you’re not making like the Sizzler Crouton Side Salad. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. I love to make big entree salads. Oh. I make big entree salads sometimes, you know, just big ass bowl entree? Salad giant. I’m like, Oh, I thought you meant Andre the champagne. Like I’m reducing that vinegar. Um, no. So, but I love toasting panko with like some garlic and oil. That’s a fun time. I guess that, um, this sounds interesting. Cause I do love a dressing. So crouton, I feel like you need the lettuce next to it as a certain plausible deniability. This is odd, bro. I went to, I went to Bob’s big boy the other day and I got there. Like, you know, they kind of invented the big Mac. They have the, it’s called like the Bob’s Big Boy special or something, but yeah, Bob’s Big Boy basically invented the Big Mac. I didn’t know that. Same exact thing as the Big Mac, came out before the Big Mac, McDonald’s kind of copied them. Wow! Um, yeah, but uh, they, it comes with a side salad, and they’re like, what dressing do you want? I said ranch, obviously, and it was almost like a ranch soup with floating lettuce bites. Ew! And it was I threw half my french fries into the salad. Oh, Pittsburgh style. Pittsburgh salad, yeah. Um, but anyways, yeah, this is great. I don’t, I wouldn’t call it like a, like a hack, but I guess you called it a recipe, so Yeah, if you’re happy, I’m happy, dude. Okay, my opinion is Cookies I know it seems obvious, but my family recently got in a very heated debate about this, where I was appalled to find out that my father, who I love and respect, thinks that cookies are not dessert. Cookies are, in his words, a sweet treat. So I really just need you to settle this for me and basically tell me that I am correct, Our dessert. Okay. Thank you. Why can’t they be both? Well, I think her father is saying that they certainly are not both because I think she would argue that if you asked her, are cookies a sweet treat? Certainly. That’s just a fact of life. They’re sweet and they’re a treat. Um, but are they dessert? Father says no. She says yes. Um, what kind of cookies are we talking about? Let’s say a chocolate chip, a chocolate chip cookie. Is that dessert? Yeah, that’s both. Yeah, what do you mean? Yes! I, I agree with you, but like I’m guessing for her dad a dessert is like a piece of pie, a cake with a fruit compote on it, a bowl of ice cream with whipped cream, a sundae, whatever. And then a cookie is kind of like an everyday snack at any time of day. I don’t agree. I don’t agree with your father. This, there is actually a fascinating sort of cultural political history here, um, revolving around, God, what do they call it? Like, like Dine, Dine de Rousse or something, which means Russian style dinner service, which like the French Royal courts, this is dead serious where it comes from. So like at some point the French Royal courts switched to what they called a Russian style dinner service, where dessert became a formalized course in a dinner service. I know why. Why? Because of the Queen, who came from Russia. Yeah, yeah, who was it? I don’t know, I saw the Elle Fanning, uh, Catherine the Great. Was it Catherine the Great? It probably was. Why else would they change just for the sake of it? And even that changed the eating habits of Americans. Right. Um, it, even like, Russian style dinner service had more Individualized plates as opposed to like large roasts and family style, which would have been more popular in Western Europe. So this idea of what dessert is, and it literally comes from the term deservir or to like de serve the table. So basically I’m clearing off the entrees and here’s a little sweet treat for you as dessert. So this is like a pretty new concept. Sweets aren’t people been eating sweets forever, but the idea that dessert is strictly something at the end of a meal. It’s like really new in human history. And so I get why your dad would say that. And I think a lot of our dads grew up with more formalized ideas of what a meal is. Like for my dad, a meal was a vegetable with starch with meat. That’s still my ideal of a meal. But you would eat like a stew for a meal. Yeah, well, the stew is the vegetable and the meat. For my dad, it had to be sepnot, not all the time, we kind of ate whatever. But like, for him, the, the quintessential meal was like a ham steak, mashed potatoes, and peas. Mmm, okay. You know, and a lot of that comes from like these Old timey rules of dining like, that particular one was that, uh, foods were harder to digest if they were mixed together. Hmm, okay. You know, and it was like a kind of high class thing to not have to eat soup. You know, great book called Revolution at the Table by, I think Harvey Levenstein is his name? Um, but goes into all these sort of antiquated notions of dining. Well, I think a cookie is both, so sorry to your father. I agree, I think like Dessert can be anything you want it to be. That’s, that’s kind of sweet. Cheese, cheese, cheese boards are considered dessert. No way, I, cheese boards are not dessert whatsoever. That is weird as hell. With a nice tawny port, with a little cheese course? I get down with cheese and, and fortified wine, but as dessert? Does it satisfy the same thing at all? Have you ever done it before? Yeah, of course I’ve done it. You go to a fancy restaurant. Instead of, wait, hold on. Okay. I don’t believe you. Instead of getting a dessert, you get a che There’s like, on on the menu, there’s a cheese course that you could do instead with a nice tawny porter What’s that one wine you talk about? Sauternes? Oh, Sauternes? Oh, Sauternes or a Tawny Porter. Or like a Madeira, even like a Fino Sherry. A nice a nice Madeira. Like, have you ever done that instead? Yeah, I think it sucks. And you think it sucks? For like I love cheese. I love cheese, but I would rather eat cheese before my meal. After my meal, I do really, like, crave something sweet. With, like, grapes, though? Like, the cheese board comes with grapes. I’m familiar. Like, a fig jam or something. Yeah, what’s the problem? I would much rather eat cheese at any other point in the meal. Okay, fair. I don’t, and they aren’t substitutes at all. Like, a cookie or cheese, a cookie or a pie, a cookie or a cake, that makes sense. Those are both sweet, pastry driven things. Ice cream. Mm hmm. A cookie or cheese? That’s weird to me. And it’s a very, it’s just a very French thing. Well, maybe you should be a little bit more French. I love a dessert that like a clever play on a cheese that’s like, Ooh, here’s a little like a Roquefort cheesecake. I hate that. Really? No, I had it. What it was was a brioche sauvignon cheesecake that I had. Makes me sick to my stomach. We’re so relatable right now. How many times have you had a brioche sauvignon? We just drank mushroom coffee. We are so unrelatable. It’s probably our best quality right now is how unrelatable we are. Give me a cookie for dessert. You’re right. Well, that was a very sensual intro I wasn’t expecting. We’re very sexy. Hi, my name is Chris from Rhode Island. Also, hi, Josh, Nicole, Maggie. So, as I stated, I’m from Rhode Island, so this isn’t so much an opinion, but maybe just a question for anyone who may be there. We can answer. Have any of you experienced any of the delicacies from Rhode Island? Oh, no. Never. Uh, pancakes, New York system hot wieners, Uh, Del’s lemonade, which is somewhere between like an Italian ice and a slushie, No. Um, are pizza strips, No. AKA party pizza, No. Or, uh, also coffee milk. No. Coffee, uh, coffee syrup with milk. Let me know. I appreciate it though. Have a good one. Is that like Bosco? What? Is that like Bosco? What’s Bosco? You ever seen Seinfeld? No. Ah, get out! You’re fired! Not a single episode of Seinfeld. I’ve missed it all. Disgusting. How can you claim to be Jewish? I’ve seen Curb. Okay, fine, fine. But I love Jesse Eisenberg. I consider myself to be one of the more, like, well versed people in terms of American, regional, I’m not a scholar, but you know, I spend a lot of time researching, reading a lot of books. Um, brother, I’ve heard of, like, one of those things. I’ve heard of coffee milk. I’ve never heard of coffee milk. I’ve heard of coffee milk. It’s, it’s a literal, it’s a literal, That’s a coffee flavoured syrup that you mix into your milk. That I’ve seen. But like, that’s a Rhode Island thing? I don’t know. I saw it once. Look at Rhode Island coffee milk. You’ve done that? This is a Rhode Island thing? I’ve never had it, but I saw it on Twitter like three years ago. I know Rhode Island has a lot of like Portuguese influence, because they were like Portuguese fishermen. Yeah, see? Autocrat. That’s what I know. Like this. Oh crap, that sounds like a Russian brand. The coffee milk, it sounds delightful, um, Clam cakes, I’ve never had. Sounds uproarious. Sounds great. Clams are my favorite little sea critter to eat, and I love anything turned into a cake. I have had the red wieners. They’re called something weird. They’re called like New York transit system wieners or something. Look up Rhode Island red wieners, what they’re called. I’ve had those. We, we shipped them from Rhode Island to make like a really specific hot dog once. And they were like perfectly fine. Um, I would love to, I would love to go Rhode Island board of tourism. Please send us there. We need to go to Providence and all your other cities of which I can surely name. Oh, PETA. That’s Rhode Island, right? Pizza strips. I’ve never heard of a pizza strip. I can imagine what it is. This is nuts. It’s like the st. Louis sliced bagel. I’ve oh maybe Maybe I don’t know I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I love your culture. I respect it. It’s beautiful. I just I don’t. Just kidding. I have never tried any of these things, but I got new things to Wikipedia later, and that’s always a good time for me. Thank you. It’s not your job to educate us, but I’m very glad that you’ve taken the time to do so. Love a good wiki hole. Always just get sucked into the wiki hole. Why did you open your laptop? Because I don’t look at pizza strips. Hi Josh and Nicole, it’s Z from Rhode Island. We love the podcast. Not again! My food hot take is that just eat the leaves on the strawberry. It’s really not that bad. You don’t have to deal with the fact of coring it. I think it tastes good with chocolate covered strawberries. It’s a nice, you know, green tasting finish. Okay, I love this. Just eat it. It’s fine. Z, no, I want to go first. Z, let me tell you, I have actively avoided eating the leaves of a strawberry my whole entire life. But now, at this point, let me tell you right now, I’m going to start eating the leaves. Thank you, Z. I’m going to start. I have an update. We did have a couple months ago a caller say something similar, and I vowed that I would never eat a strawberry without the leaves ever again. They were correct, and I’ll change my ways. I ate one strawberry with the leaves and then I went, Ah! No! I missed the old strawberry. Um, yeah, you know, I think it’s one of those things where even, it’s been ingrained for so long. What I do do, here’s what I do to combat food waste. What do you do do? Here’s what I do do, um, cause generally I cook dinner and then, you know, Julia will do the dishes and after she does the dishes, she’ll slice up our nightly fruits. That’s so wonderful. We eat like fun little fruits at night. It’s like our little healthy dessert. It’s always a little cream on it, a little crumbled shortbread. Um, but, uh, I love strawberries. They’re kind of outside my top five favorite fruit, but I eat them because she loves them. Mm hmm. Um, she’ll slice them. And that’s called compromise? And then I get off the couch, and I scurry over to the kitchen, and I nibble around all the leaves. And I make sure that all of the flesh gets eaten like a little rat. You know what my husband’s favorite fruit is? A pomelo. Could he have a more annoying fruit to love? Pomelos are so annoying. They’re delightful. I love them. It’s a big ass grapefruit with a ton of like a hard pit Oh my gosh, it is the most labor Of course My husband loves the most labor intensive fruit to have ever existed on planet earth And of course because I love him obviously I get down in there and I do it all by hand pomelos have a thick, um, when you love somebody styrofoamy rind to them, too When you love somebody you are willing to sacrifice Time energy and your fingernails to make them happy with the pomelo Are you not just carving it with a knife? I do, but then I like to put my thumb in and just, like, get at it. Ah, get the segments out, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like to pre segment it as well, because I love my husband. You know what’s been a great, a great advancement in our lifetime that I think we need to pay more attention to? The peel ability of oranges. I love oranges. Oh, they are more peelable now. So clementines I feel like that was something that’s like a somewhat new cuties halo a couple different brands Growing up with it. If you ever as a kid tried to peel like the lunch line navel orange and you’re like, this is All pith. My fingers are bleeding. This sucks. I have to tell you something. The school I went to, they would like start it for us. God dang it. I’m so sorry. They had the labor to start the orange for you. They would like start the orange. I was just digging with my fingernail. And then cuties. You got to fully peel it. The whole thing is edible. Even seedless. I love cuties. And now, sumo oranges? I haven’t had a sumo this year. Oh my god. Is it still sumo citrus season? It is still sumo season. Please let’s buy one. If you go to your local Ralph’s, I’ve been ripping through sumos. They’re a giant clementine. They have this like Beautiful knobby skin, just loose, you can slough it off and just the biggest, sweetest, uh, internal orange segments that are so fun to eat. Sumo citrus, incredible peelability of oranges, we are living in the future. And I think that’s awesome. I think we’re done. Do it with pomelos. I think we’re done. Pomelos. But how else. Do you ever buy a pomelo? How else can I show my love? . That’s a fair point. I do love cutting fruit for my sweetie. You love cutting fruit for my sweetie. We’re just, you know what our problem is? We’re turning into old men and women. Me and you. Yeah. Where you are aging and I am loving every second of it. Did the mushroom coffee make me feel younger? No. Maybe I’m feeling a little bit. You got a pep in your step. A little ecstatic right now from the mushrooms. Maybe they’re kicking in. I think it’s the caffeine. The walls are melting. You just had a Celsius. I just saw God and suffered ego death. Those mushrooms are kicking in baby. Let’s go to Yosemite. And on that note. Thank you for listening to Hot Dog is a Sandwich, um, we got new audio only episodes every Wednesday and if you want to see your beautiful shining faces, make sure to watch the YouTube clip that comes out every Sunday. Yeah, it’d be pretty cool if you did that. Uh, if you want to be featured on Opinions of Like Casseroles, you can give us a ring, leave a quick message at 833 DOG POD 1, I swear there’s nothing weird in the voicemail. For more Mythical Kitchen, check out our videos, we upload all the time, we have great series like Myth Munchers and Last Meals, check them out, comment, like, subscribe, just do it! We’ll see you next time. Bye.