Look out. It’s the It’s the It’s the match apocalypse. This is a hot dog. It’s a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal. So what? That makes no sense. Hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Uh, welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world’s biggest food debates. I’m your host, Josh. And I’m your host, Nicole. And I And my voice has been gone for roughly what, two months? What do you mean by gone? It’s not gone. It’s just gotten a little bit raspier. I feel like maybe I’m just sort of aging into myself like a jazz singer with a history of opium and cigarettes addiction. I’ve never really clocked the fact that your voice has changed. Really? Sorry. Maybe I’m just not like that receptive anymore. No, it’s perfectly fine. But every time you change your hair and I don’t notice, you get all mad. Uh well, yeah. That’s because it’s like you can tell it’s like instead of like you’re going through like a a decline, your voice is going through a like steady gradual gradual degree. Exactly. It’s beingcoming worse and worse. How am I supposed to recognize until one day I open the door and you can barely call Robert Kenned. Uh so today we are talking about the matcha shortage or should I say the supposed matcha shortage. What do you mean? Because is there fake news going around? It’s not necessarily fake news, but we’ve been hearing about a matcha shortage for the last I mean kind of year or so. What’s happened is these little bad boys right here. This is called a what’s it what’s it called? A matcha latte. Yes. Never had one. You’ve never had a matcha an iced matcha latte before. I’ve taken sips off of people’s and I’ve always enjoyed it. I have never gone to a place and ordered a matcha latte. Why? Because if I go to a place that sells a majate, they probably also sell something called black coffee. And this isn’t me being like a contrarian ‘9s comedian being like, “Back in my day, a small was a small, not a tall Starbucks. Every word there actually means large. I’m Paul Rudd in the movie Role Models. Fantastic movie.” But I’m not talking about that. I just If I’m going to a coffee shop, I I love drinking black coffee. You’re really falling apart in the seams here. I need you to get it together. Okay. How do you feel about the matcha? This is from three. Yeah, I also had a visa. My matcha is also like not Well, I did get it unsweetened to be fair. This is very nonsweet, which I kind of like sometimes. Do you need me to pat your back? I don’t know what happened, man. Come here. I don’t think I need you to pat back. I don’t want to do that. Come here. I can’t move. Turn your chair. just hit me. Um, is that better? Yeah. What were we talking about? Um, matcha lattes and how the ones that we have aren’t very sweet, but that’s not a bad thing. No, you you can really taste the matcha, but um vegetital. It’s a vegetital matcha. It it sure is, which is what people want in matcha generally. Um, but there’s been a massive explosion of matcha lattes and coffee shops that are devoting themselves to matcha. There’s been a massive surge on social media of all matcha based content. But as the Global Japanese Tea Association came out and said in a blog post, they were like, “There’s no shortage. We’re producing like way more than ever. We kind of just can’t produce that much and um people are just trying to drink way too much of it.” So, does that even constitute like a shortage? Well, I think that the matcha business is going to have to evolve and change a little bit. I think we’re going to have to start seeing matcha farms in rural Kentucky. I also other places that as of now, one that’s a great little conduit to the point of like how much do we lose out on culture and like quality because matcha can only be grown in Japan. Why? because that is literally the c the protections on the term matcha. It’s how scotch can only be produced in Scotland. It’s how uh tequila can only be produced in the in the tequila. Yeah. You know, it’s it’s why champagne can only be produced in champagna. Yeah. But like you have champagne and procco in the same glass if you’re not someone who knows the difference between champagne and procco. They’re pretty much the same thing. 100% agree. 100% agree. You’re saying we need like a truffle oil, like a synthetic truffle oil for matcha. We need a fake matcha business and you and I should start it. I don’t want to move to rural Kentucky. I mean, I’m sure it’s beautiful and there’s like a bunch of kudu root everywhere just like growing and growing. But I don’t Let me tell you, well, the fact that people are so obsessed with matcha right now means that the industry is going to have to evolve, right? I mean, the protections on it are fine, and I’m totally fine with there being protections on it, but if there’s a very high demand, which it seems like there is, and it’s not a manufactured demand, I see people literally having a matcha latte every single day. People are obsessed with their matchas. So much so that they’re willing to spend top dollar on their matchas, which I don’t think a lot of people are willing to do that with their coffee anymore because of the like, how do you say, like the fetishization of ceremonial grade matcha and all that stuff, correct? But for something like this, if we want to see the matcha apocalypse dwindle, we are going to have to see places start producing their own matcha. Whatever you want to maybe it’s not matcha. I don’t think you can just do that though, especially a product. What about tobacco? What about something like tobacco? I don’t know. I don’t really know how tobacco is growing. I’ve seen Thank you for smoking. Yeah. Do they they start growing tobacco and other but so the interesting thing though right is like what is matcha right and why is it so hard to grow in other areas and why can’t Japan just plant more is it limited land resources whatever so matcha is it’s just it’s chameleia sinensis right which is we’ve talked about this it’s the tea plant this is the green variety of the tea plant but there are tons of different kinds of green tea in Japan right so there’s like sencha is the I think the most common green tea in Japan there’s other really cool ones Hojicha is my favorite. It’s a roasted green tea leaf. And then there’s ganacha, which is green tea that’s been mixed with like roasted barley powder. Um, matcha is so unique because one, if it wants to be considered ceremonial grade, which is not a real thing in Japan. It’s just a sort of western marketing ploy, which I think is really funny because we tend to have this um I don’t know almost like Japanophilic kind of like the fetish fetishization like whenever sushi first came. Same thing’s happening with matcha. 100%. So, we’re like, “Oh my god, this is used in in real ceremonies and now I can get it flooded with milk and sugar and drink it. I’m just like a Japanese monk.” Um, kind of a little bit that relationship happens. But the term ceremonial grade is is only a western marketing term, but it does typically refer to what’s called a first flush harvest, right? Which is just the spring harvest, right? And also, matcha, the reason it’s so like bright green and beautiful and has a unique flavor is that it’s like grown partially shaded. Yes. while the other kind is grown straight up in the sun. Yeah. So, it’s like a a tremendous like specialty product to grow and they’ve been growing it in Japan for the last like 800 years roughly. Um and so I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a like unique specialty product explode on the global scale like this and then demands in you know uh coffee shops in Omaha, Nebraska being like damn it Japanese farmers grow it faster. Like that’s crazy to me cuz we’ve seen this in other, you know, like Greek yogurt was a good example of an explosion in demand. But that is just a process that you use to treat dairy milk of which we have an absolute abundance, right? We have too much dairy milk in America, right? So everyone was happy to be like, “Oh, you want us to just like add slightly more cultures and strain this for longer? Great. We can do that. Seems doable.” But this is such a fixed amount. But you don’t think that there’s a world in which they it could be cultivated more? I’m sure I’m sure Japan is trying because they’d love to. There’s also only one harvest a year cuz it’s just a spring harvest that but like it’s like it’s like whenever you make wine, right? It’s like whenever you make Normandy wine. Is that a thing? Probably. There’s probably wine in Normandy. And then you find places that have similar soil and similar weather and then that’s how you get something like California apple wine, right? because there’s a there’s a similar enough ecosystem where the fruit can exist. I’m sure they can find something in god knows where in another part of the world where they can find a plot of land and they can start farming it and then the Americans can shut up about it. Well, so I almost don’t even know if that’s if that’s the issue because I think Japan grows enough green tea. It’s just the amount that has gone into processing matcha. I think only like 6% because the processing is then which is but no the wine analogy is good. Yeah. So we have to open more processing plants. We need to do like uh what’s it called? Sideways. Was Alan Rickman the other dude in Sideways? No. I don’t know. He’s a beautiful blondhaired man with a very like lionlike face. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you Google him? Sideways actor. It’s about the the burgeoning California wine industry. We need to do that with MA. Thomas Hayden Church. Am I not right? Lionlike face. He has a lionlike face. I love that. I’ve never seen it. Um but but if if we can’t So so the manufacturing is a problem. Yeah. And even down to like the grinding, right? So the thing that makes matcha really unique, what gives it the green color is part of that is the growing the shade process. Then the other part picking it in spring too. Picking it in spring for slush harvest. Um but also it’s fully ground. The entire leaf is ground into a very fine powder. And they still use stone grinding mills for it. Incredible. So it’s the best way to do it. And also the reason people love matcha is in part because it is such a high quality delicious product, right? And such a like that green color, you know, unless you just dyed some garbage product, but yeah, it’s like it’s a it’s a very arteasonal product that we now want on a mass scale. And so you grind the whole leaf using these stone grinding mills and then you typically would use like a brush to like whisk the water in slowly to almost kind of emulsify it. So I get this creamy delight in it. And so it’s like how much can you massroduce what is by definition an arteasonal product. Well, what people are doing is they’re starting to batch it out. So a lot of places they don’t even do that process anymore. That beautiful Oh, yeah. No, no. That’s not how the coffee shops are making. No, no, that’s not Well, some coffee shops will do that to maintain the integrity of the product. So much so they’ll even temperature check the water, make sure that they’re not burning the matcha, make sure they’re not like steeping the matcha in lukewarm water. They’ll make sure to whisk it properly. They’ll change out their whisks. And are you having a good time with your matcha latte? I really like matcha. Do you really? Like they even strain it through like a fine mesh sie. Like there’s people and places that do that, but on a m like you think Starbucks is doing that? Like get out of your head. They have a pre-portioned powder that has sugar and probably some like milk enzymes in there too just to make life easier. But like some coffee shops that are local, they batch it out like almost a concentrate and then they give you like 90% milk and 10% actual batched out matcha that they whisk with those like little those little airator whiskers. You know what I mean? Exactly. So I mean the the artisal and the dedication that is originally associated with matcha is already dying for the sake of convenience. No, it’s true. And also just like the kind of name listen okay matcha like one is it’s not new. It goes back it was actually originally invented in in China and then production of matcha was banned in China in the 1300s and it went to Japan. It’s like a whole long Chinese dynastic storyline that we don’t have time to get into. What we do have time to get into is me being at the Onami Sushi Buffet in the Laguna Hills Mall in like 2004 and they have just uh they just give you a scoop of green tea of matcha ice cream at the end of your meal. So I remember like the first taste I ever had of matcha at least the flavor was literally green tea ice cream at like a $19 lunch special sushi buffet in Orange County. And I remember just being like floored by it. I was like, “What a delightful flavor.” Even drinking this latte like sends me back to that time of eating green tea ice cream. But as far as like the actual drink blowing up in America, we’ve had we known about it for a long time. Yeah, we’ve had matcha for a minute, right? But kind of like how Goop spread the gospel of quinoa, you know, in 15 years ago, right? Like what is spreading the gospel of matcha? Tik Tok. It’s the tick tockers. It’s always the Tik Tok. My feed is inundated with people, beautiful girls, just saying, “I’m going to try a $15 matcha latte.” And then they try, they’re like, and then their eyes get all big like that’s the best matcha I’ve ever had. That’s literally all my feed is. It’s that and cute little duck videos. Lots of duck videos. But I don’t know what Have you ever purchased matcha and tried to make it at home yourself? I’ve not. No. Have you? What about Julia? No, you guys are not matcha people. No, we’re not. I don’t I think she like actively doesn’t enjoy the flavor of matcha. I I do, but I again for caffeinated bevy. The only beverage that I have a sort of ritual is either pre-workout or black coffee, right? Protein powder as well. I have a lot of various powders that I have to mix in with liquids already with the creatine. You’re just a powder man. The BCAAs. I don’t have time for matcha. That’s in my life. Yeah. Well, I did I did buy a few different kinds of quote ceremonial grade matcha. And there was about a month and a half where I was actively making it at home all the time. You’re the one causing the shortage. No, I was the one being late to work sometimes because I had to make my matcha lattes. I’m sorry. That’s why you were late to work. That literally came up in your midyear review. It’s not the only reason, but it was like that one month where I was like 3 minutes late. That’s why. That’s crazy. I had to make my matcha latte. Had to is an interesting phrase. What do you mean you What do you mean? What do I mean? You had to make a matcha latte and you were late to work. Building habits takes What if your habit was getting them to work on things? Well, that’s not really viable for me right now. And I would like it if you could not just like completely cuss me out in front of all of my viewers and friends right now. Especially Maggie. It’s not that funny. It’s kind of really funny that you just admit this to me. I’ve admitted worse to you. Yeah, it’s a It’s literally not the worst thing I’ve said to you like today. and it’s only 12:30. Um, but yeah, like I was I was dedicated to the matcha thing and the first time I made it, I it was so nasty. Like it was all lumpy and bumpy and it was like a light it was like almost like a like a seafoam green color. I’m like, “Ah, I didn’t do this right.” But I still drank it all. And then I did it again the next day and the next day and the next day. And I used different tools like I used one of those whers. I used my milk frother. I got the bowl with the whisk and all that stuff. I didn’t do the whisk properly. I didn’t let the whisk hang out in water. So, it was just it was such a mess that I just decided to completely absolve myself of all matcha making skills at that point. So, I never did it again. So, it’s just tried it. I tried it for a month. That Well, that’s funny because there is this kind of weird twopronged two-pronged explosion of matcha, right? Where you have the this and this isn’t like this is just a delightful matcha latte from Three Sisters Coffee Shop in Burbank. Great family-owned business, right? Um, but uh there’s, you know, the cream top, the Ein Spanners, the Ein, there’s Ein Spanner. That’s a coffee place that makes matcha. They’re doing all the It’s a type. So, so an Ein Spanner, I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing an Ein spanninner is a type. It’s a It’s a type of coffee drink and it’s literally like like cold foam that’s been whisked to like soft peaks and then you put like a shot of matcha in it and then you sprinkle some matcha on the top and you charge someone like $10. It is so delicious. So there’s that, right? And these very highly aesthetic coffee shops. And then there are also people just buying ceremonial matcha at home, right? To either make lattes or two to actually like do the damn thing. That’s an because as Oh, spinners are delightful. So beautiful because like uh you know the ritual of making matcha is something that like grounds a lot of people in the morning. And I feel like this two-pronged explosion, this two-pronged explosion, Nicole, it mimics exactly what we saw in like thirdwave coffee 10 years ago where you had the coffee nerds, you had me uh going to blue bottle, getting a first cupping of the Yemen coffee beans from Moar Alenali, smuggling them out of the Yemen civil war. You know, you had all these people drinking these what V60 Max pourovers of like these single origin beans simultaneously while Starbucks was just blowing up with like you want butterscotch toffee chips in your frappuccino, you know? And so you had like these two extremes of one being kind of this form of like purity and ritual and then uh you know the other extreme of this kind of like aesthetic and excess and I feel like matcha is just following that. I think you’re right. I think you’re right. I remember whenever I was working at a at a coffee shop, there was like a bunch of other coffee. No, I’m sorry. It was like a coffee and chocolate shop and there were a bunch of other ones opening around. Not the same brand. It was just like a bunch of other like artisal chocolate houses that had like a barista in the back and all of these places would do ceremonial cacao drinking events once a month. Oh my god. Really? People would just come and sit down in a circle. Oh, sick. And the lights would be dimmed down low. And then you would have almost like a shaman-like person talking about cacao rituals like in the ascend mine empires and stuff like that. So I think that we are just we’re two steps away from doing ceremonial grade matcha tea tastings in these crazy niche like matcha houses this close. I I think you’re probably correct if the demand can actually if the supply can actually keep up with the demand. Can you imagine Justin Bieber going to like a ceremonial matcha tea tasting at Community Goods? I Yes, I could. Does he go to Community Goods? He’s the one that unfortunately for those of you that are listening that don’t know what Community Goods is, it is the longest line that you will see in Los Angeles for coffee. Really? I’ve never been. It’ll literally circle around Melrose to the point where you get to the high school almost. It’s like four streets away from the high school. You’re literally The line goes so dummy long. It’s so ridiculous. All for like an $8 coffee drink. I don’t get it. There’s another place called Maru that people like. Maru. Maru. They do match. I haven’t been. I got dragged. Um Why don’t you go anywhere anymore? But I do go places. So cool. You used to go everywhere. I would never go to coffee shop. I would never go to coffee shop. I would go to coffee shops to work, you know. I would go work at Cafe Benet on Wilshire. But they have like But they have like uh like foods there too, like pastries. Yeah, I guess. Do I not go anywhere anymore? I don’t know. Yeah, you sound like you don’t go anywhere anymore. You got dragged to Maru. Maru is a great coffee shop. No, I got dragged to a different coffee shop. Um I got dragged to a place called La La Land Kind. Yes. And I felt I went to high school with your creator, Franuis. He’s great. I Yeah, it’s lovely. I I felt though like Go ahead. What’s up? I was in it’s like if a Laboo opened an Apple store, you know, it was weirdly kind of like So sorry and bright. I’m sorry. But but also very sterile, but also there were like 50 different drinks on the menu and some of them had stuff called things like banana cream and and I didn’t know what it meant. It it would be like banana topped and I’d be like, “You telling me I’m getting topped by a banana right now?” Um but it was very confusing. Uh, it was a very confusing experience for me and I tried to order a thing and they were like, “We’re out.” And I was like, “Oh, I didn’t want it even.” No, I got to say different words. Um, but I got it and ultimately it was pretty nice. Did it have matcha in it? No. Okay. Julia got a matcha thing and she didn’t like it cuz she like matcha. Yeah. But you got it to take a picture of it. Everyone take Everyone loves taking the pictures cuz you get the drink and then you take the picture of it and then that is the experience. My computer decided to restart by itself. I don’t have any autonomy anymore in the world. It’s okay. It’s okay. You get the drink and and by taking the picture of the drink, then it not only sort of becomes real in the world, but you’ve already had the experience. It was like when you told me that you watched that video and you confuse that with actually eating the food. It’s like once the mantra shows up on the picture, then that means that you drink it. So, why would you even drink it? I remember when I was walking by a trendy frozen yogurt shop called Little Damage Downtown. They did a charcoal frozen yogurt. I will actually watch an influencer take a frozen yogurt, take a picture of it, and then just throw it right into the trash can without even trying a single bite of it. And it all kind of bums me out because there’s like actual temples in Japan that now can’t drink their matcha cuz it’s Justin Bieber at Community Goods drinking his matcha. And where are the Japanese temples? It’s called ceremonial grade because it actually corresponds to ceremonies. There’s no ceremony in Justin Bieber taking a picture of the matcha. I think you and Franis were on the Forbes 30 under 30 at the same time actually. Oh, really? Oh my god, that’s really cool. Yeah, he’s a nice guy. He actually just did a collab with Keith Lee and he’s actually making matcha that I believe is Can you Google Megie for me? Keith Lee Laalakind Cafe. Can I tell you what I love about Laakind Cafe? Yeah. They the servers or like the people taking order, they always go like, “Love you. Have a good day.” Did you know that they were very friendly? A lot of them had piercings in places on their faces that when I was growing up, people didn’t tend to have those piercings. Like kind of dermals. Oh, yeah. They had a lot of dermals. What kind of Lo kind were you at? They were all very alternative really in a way that I I like. Okay. You know, I want alternative people to to one alternative people can do anything. You can be bankers if you want. You could be podcast host. You can make coffee. But I I think especially in coffee shops, they thrive. You know what I mean? I’m trying to find this for you. Hold on. There’s a really great Okay. There’s a really great What spurred this? There’s a really great article that was from BBC News, um, where it was a reporter who went to a town in Kyoto, I believe, called Uji that makes the best matcha in the world. It was literally the matcha maker that used to make tea for the emperor is in Uji. And they painted such a vivid picture of Western tourists like physically grabbing matcha out of like a matcha tea shop owner’s hands. to wrestle it away from her because there’s such a shortage and it’s people effectively like hoarding matcha and then this tea shop owner talking about how they’re afraid that they actually won’t be able to supply the temples in Japan because of how fast it is uh going off shelves. So Keith Lee um is doing a Keith Lee latte which is a double this is a double ceremonial matcha secret sauce matcha cloud whole strawberry and flaky salt and 100% of all the proceeds are to go to the Texas flood relief for Kirk County we love that I love these floods were horrific and I love that this is the special sauce the matcha foam is going to the floods but you know what I love about this That’s a really good thing. You know what I love about this? I just get sometimes frightened. It’s okay. You get bummed out by new technologies. Sometimes the humanulture, the point of humanity is to suffer sometimes. And I know you’re suffering by being a little b- word about people posting stuff on the internet and you’re just being a little b- word. But look over here. Look what it says here. It says extreme matcha. 6 to 8 g per serving. That’s a lot of matcha. That’s an extreme amount of matcha. This is double matcha. Do you know what double matcha means? That means it’s twice the amount of matcha that needs to be in there. That what who’s making these categories? Um like if you go to a bar and you ask for a double shot that means thank you so much. I’d like to add some sugar to it. Mine’s with soy milk. Do you think soy milk is just milk and Spanish? Um anyways, no I I sorry for the mini spiral and crash out there. But but no, like culture evolves. We’ve seen these trends in the past, right? We saw the quinoa boom. We saw the Greek yogurt boom. third wave third wave coffee boom. We’ve like seen all this happen. I think culture moves very quickly and one Japan right now there’s some stats coming out. Uh Japan’s tourism industry saw a peak in 2024 with a high of all time 37 million tourists. Okay. Right. And so right now, you know, how many friends did you have go to Iceland like seven or eight years ago? Oh my god. Everyone went to Iceland. Everyone went to Iceland. It’s just like there are successful PR campaigns. So many. How did you know? because I was also there. Everyone went to Iceland. Did you go to Iceland? No, I never went to Iceland. Everybody else. Why didn’t we go to Iceland? I don’t know what’s wrong with $89 flights to Iceland. And it’s all just a PR campaign from tourism industries. Japan obviously has like a lot of awesome cultural exports. People are watching anime, you know, doing all that stuff. One, I don’t know, One Piece is a thing that people seem to like. I have a Japanese hat on. I don’t know. This has been in my office for like 2 years and I don’t know where it came from. Um, but the point is like I think this this matcha apocalypse. It’s not actually something that’s going to be a long-term problem. Your hair’s so big today. Thank you. I think matcha is generally going to stabilize on some sort of demand. I think people are going to find a new drink to fetishize. I don’t think so. You don’t think so? You don’t think yerba mate can come in in 2020? We tried with yerba mate. Remember? What do you mean we tried with yerba mate? The US tried with those cans of yerba mate. Oh, guayaki. I love yerba mate. And no, but like a hot mate one. You think people are ceremony behind mate? Yeah. Back in the gourd, baby. Back in the gourd. Give me the mate gourd. And then moving it to the side and putting their straw. You think people You know what? Maybe you’re right. I think maybe. Yeah, I think we have. But you know what has to happen? The Brazilians have to hyper fetishize it and be like, “This is what sexy Brazilians like to drink.” Acai. Acai is another great example of a Brazilian product that we fetishize. I think mate tends to be more Argentinian. Oh, was it? Why did I think I’m sure it’s all in the Patagonian area. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But yeah, asai used to be a big deal. You It’ll It’ll stabilize. It stabilized. It always stabiliz stabilizes. It always stabilizes, right? There’s like a natural eb and flow to these things. Matcha has seen an unprecedented rise. So 2010 to 2023, Japan literally tripled their uh their production of it. And so like that’s why if you’re from the Japanese like tea association’s perspective, you’re like there’s no shortage. We’re like really making a lot of it. you the demand has just increased so much. It’s not like um the short Sriracha shortage was a real thing because like there was a drought and then the dude like killed his farm connections and so there was an actual shortage of Sriracha where you saw production go down. Production’s never gone down in matcha. They keep making it. It’s just we live now in in a more globalized culture and you don’t like that. It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s um No, I guess I don’t like it. Okay. You sound like my dad. No, I I think there’s I think there’s something really important about the idea of like context and teroir. Sure. Right. The idea of like preservation of some things. Yeah. Of um if every single food sort of gets commodified and ran through, right? I think you lose a fair amount of like specialness in that food, right? when matcha just becomes like the flavor dour that you’re leaving behind for the next big, you know, milky coffee drink, you know, it it to me it’s a little bit of a spit in the face in the last like 800 years of matcha production that really means something to people. Yeah. You know, I think like the perfection of an artisal craft is something and I understand the irony of somebody who every YouTube video we make where we cook food, that’s the only time we’re ever cooking that food, right? I’m not somebody who sits here and I try and perfect one dish, but I think I have fantasies. Well, you did have a video where you did that with uh Yeah, I did that with omu rice and a Japanese dish and a soup dumpling and soup dumplings. Dishes that take years and years and years to master. So, I understand that I am also part of the problem. We live in a society that moves so so so fast because everything around us demands it. But I am just urging everybody to like slow down, man. [Music] If you’re planning a trip this summer, imagine how much more meaningful your experience could be if you could speak the local language. Ordering a coffee, asking for directions, or just having a friendly chat. It all hits different when you can connect in someone else’s native tongue. That’s where Rosetta Stone comes in. Rosetta Stone has been the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years. Their immersive, intuitive method helps you naturally absorb and retain your new language on desktop or mobile, whenever and wherever it fits your summer schedule. What really stands out to me is how Rosetta Stone teaches without relying on English translations. You start thinking in the new language, not just translating in your own head. And their true accent technology gives realtime feedback on your pronunciation. It’s like having a personal coach right there with you. If you know me, you know I’m always on my phone. So using the interface on my personal device like my cell phone was so simple it made the whole process super super seamless. Whether you’re learning for a trip or just challenging yourself this summer, it actually feels fun and effective. 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% off. That’s unlimited access to 25 language courses for life. Visit rosettastone.com/hotog to get started and claim your 50% off today. Don’t miss out. Go to rosettastone.com/hotog and start learning today. All right, Nicole, we’ve heard what you and I have to say. Now it’s time to find out whe out there in the universe. Time for a little segment we call opinions are like casserole. [Music] Megie, shut I’m just kidding. I’m not abusive to the staff. If I was Did you just call Megie the staff? That’s crazy. That’s worse than if you That’s worse than if you were to just like abuse Megie. She just called her the staff. She knows I’m kidding. Megie is my friend, right? Megie. Yes, we’re Maggie is friend, not food. Food. Is that That’s not from Shark Tail. No. Um, finding Neymar. Finding Neymar. Bruce the Shack. All right, let’s get this ball rolling. Bruce. Hey, Josh. Nicole, it’s Dane from Louisville, Kentucky. I have been subbing plain Greek yogurt for pretty much every use of sour cream, three years. I mean, I think it is better for you protein and fish. Um, but every time I tell people that I use Greek yogurt in like a baked potato or I use it as a base of a sauce, they look at me like I’m insane. But I feel like this is a good healthy common practice that I’ve heard other people do. I’d love your opinion on this. The opinion is it’s a good it’s a good job, man. I barely I barely consume sour cream anymore. Only I only have Greek yogurt in my house. It’s a d It’s a dying industry. Sour cream. The sour cream industry. It’s here’s what you got to do. You got to lie. You got to lie to them. You got to lie to your friends and loved ones and they’re going to come over and you’re going to make them uh you’re going to make them a baked potato. You’re you’re going to make them what else do people put sour cream on? You’re going to make them like nachos enchiladas nachos and you’re going to put sour cream on and they go, “Is this is this Greek yogurt?” And you go, “No, no, it’s sour cream.” And then you just lie to them until you suddenly believe your own lie. Because that’s what I’ve been doing to myself. I say, “Josh, Josh, Greek yogurt, it tastes the same as sour cream. It’s healthier.” And then I actually try full fat sour cream and I go, “Oh, oh god, that’s good.” And then I go back to eating my Greek yogurt. So I think that’s what you have to do. It’s Go ahead. No, no, it’s okay. I was going to go on a tangent tange. Go on a tangent tang. No, I don’t want to. Can I Okay. Well, I had I have a tangent tange that you might agree with. Go ahead. It’s like when all them influencers on the Pinterest boards was making like um they’re like it’s brownies except it’s just dates blended with black beans and cocoa powder. And to them that’s brownies. That’s that’s brownies. To them to you that Greek yogurt is sour cream. I would argue Greek yogurt is probably closer to sour cream than this bean date mash is to a brownie. But it like really is the same logic. Um my tangent was going to be um that was great. Thank you so much for your um your cander. Um we we No, wait. When I was little, there was an ad for Daisy sour cream and I remember someone dipping a strawberry into it. I remember to this day I’m like, who the hell dips a beautiful summer strawberry into a daisy sour cream? Why not disgusting? What if you put a little honey on that sour cream? But is there honey being drizzled on the ass? No, there’s no honey in that honey. No, there’s no implied honey. But like if you But you would dip a strawberry into yogurt. And here we are talking about how yogurt and sour cream are interchangeable. But s Josh, what? They’re not equal. They’re not equal. But why? I would argue sour cream would taste better on a strawberry than yogurt. No. No. Why? No. How are they even? No. Julia once, my wife, my wife Julia once just sent me a text just saying like, “What’s the difference between it was like yogurt, sour cream, crema, Mex me, just all these things.” She was like, “What’s the actual difference there?” and I was like at work and I didn’t respond for a couple hours and she was just like I don’t understand in all caps. And so maybe you should do a whole podcast about that because I couldn’t tell you how yogurt and sour cream are actually different. I think yogurt and sour cream are different because of the lacto fermentation process. What’s making the sour cream sour? I think I Well, I think there is lacto fermentation that’s happening but not as much. Not live cultures. I don’t maybe. And I also think there’s more well full fat Greek yogurt We need to research this later. But I’m just mad about the Daisy ad. Like, that Daisy ad pissed me off to this day. To this day, I’m sorry, I spit. To this day, there has never been an ad that has viscerally angered me the way that this Daisy sour cream dipping strawberry ad did. And you know exactly the one I’m talking about. And I always thought it looked so good. I was like, this is what rich, happy families are doing is they’re dipping their strawberries in sour cream. Daisy, you got me on that one. No way. And you know what? To this day, I still do do a dollop of doot do a dollop of daisy. When you don’t, it’s sour cream. Well, when Susan comes over, cuz that’s Greek yogurt. That’s why there’s still daisy in my pantry for your mother-in-law. My mother. Yeah, she came over and I made her a loaded baked potato. That’s a boomer food. Sour cream is a food for boomers. You’re correct. Next. Greek yogurt occupied 0% of total yogurt market share in 2000. By 2010, it was up to 44% of total market share of yogurt, now peaking at 51%. Wow. What kind of neurode divergence is that called? The really good kind. The one the one that helps. The one that helps push us all forward. Even though sometimes we don’t want to. We just want to sit and just I love yogurt. Yogurt loves you, too. Hey, Josh Nicole. Love the podcast. Uh, I just discovered something that I’m eating right now that is basically getting the flavor of crappy American sushi that you get at regular American sushi restaurants, but for almost no money. Pause it for a second. Pause it for a second. I’m going to guess. I’m going to guess. I’m gonna guess that it’s cream cheese, cereami sticks, uh, canned tuna, and Sriracha. Continue for almost no money. Just take the what I have, at least in my place, it’s just called crab salad. It’s the fake crab sticks mixed up with spicy mayo and other things. It’s exactly what is in crappy American sushi. You put that just with rice with soy sauce on it, you have the exact same flavor palette. Pretty close. That’s it. More people should eat this. Okay, great. This is one of those mind readader. I’m a mind reader. I read patterns. This is one of those beautiful things where where if you’re knowledgeable enough, you can kind of like what’s his name? Doctor Strange. You kind like Doctor Strange way. You can Rainman your way. Rainman was my favorite Marvel superhero. You can Dustin Hoffman. Underrated. You can kind of like Rainman your way into different worlds where where you’ve taken you’re like, “Okay, sushi, expensive, cool, elegant food. You get a even a California roll at a sushi bar is still like kind of really cool thing and delicious objectively. And then you have the crab salad that my boomer dad grew up eating. We would go to the Ralph’s Kroger store deli, get a scoop of crab salad. That’s the same thing that’s inside the California roll. Put it on rice. You’re correct. You’ve won. You’ve like solved the You cracked the code. Cracked the Enigma code. Now you can find all the Ubot. Josh is referencing that one movie with Benedict Cumberbatch and Kieran Knightly. What? What? Which one? What? Which about the German Ubot? Yeah, about cracking the code. The imitation game. Oh, I was referencing Well, that was that about Alan Touring. Um, can you go back to the looking? I never saw it. That’s a true story if that’s what you’re wondering. The imitate. Is that about Alan Touring? Go. Go down, Megie. Go down. Scrolling. I was pressing. It’s not scrolling. I’m in the middle of reading. I’m trying. Peggy, I’m kidding. How hard is it to get good help around here? I’m crying. What is this website? Are you on the web? It’s Netflix. It says, “During World War II, a mathematician leads a team of crypto analysts as they work feverishly to break the Germans notorious Enigma code.” That’s pro. Yeah, the the the mathematician is probably Alan Touring. I’ve never seen the movie, but I’m reading Cryptonnomicon by Neil Stevenson. Oh, so you’re reading the book about the movie about literally that’s a weird way to do stuff. Honestly, why would you do it in that order? I didn’t know the movie existed. The book um and it’s a it’s a fiction book, but he’s a character. He was um touring test. Touring test. That’s correct. Also also really big at that movie Ex Machina. Yes. Also a g a gay man who was treated very unfairly. Yes. Being a hero. That’s they they include that in the movie. They include that in the movie. That’s good. What are we talking about? Crab salad. It’s great. I have some crab salad in my fridge right now. Megie, sorry to make you pause it. That was the end of that sentence. I made it. Okay. I got to click play now. I put shrimp in it. Hey Josh, Nicole, and Megie. This is Charity from Virginia. Hot take is that pickle butts and green bean stems um are not gross to eat. My husband will not eat the end of a pickle if it has the tiniest bit of stem um or even a hint of it, even if it’s cut off. So, what do you think? Stems and pickle butts. gross or not gross. Um, I was always raised in a house where my mom would cut the green beans to make Persian food very specifically. So much so that it was also my job to like snap the ends and cut them also. They’re the same size. She literally trained me, my mom, even though she like didn’t like it when I was cooking with her. She like kind of taught me some like really like important skills like she like you trim this on but you leave the tails on this side because it looks better. You know what I’m talking about for green beans. Right here. Do you know what I’m talking about? Why are you so quiet? You trim what? Green beans. But you’re saying like, okay, I got pictures pulled up. You’re saying you trim off the hard part of the stem, but then you leave the pointies some sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. I would always trim them, but I’ve never eaten the pointies or the green. I’ve never eaten the point out of habit, but Charity I believe charities should be correct. I believe Charity’s talking about the stems being edible, not the green pointy bit. Yeah, I don’t agree with you. Cuz sometimes a pickle butt, if it’s a clean pickle butt, I love pickle butt. Arguably better. You get more crunch cuz the skin, but then sometimes there’s a little stem hanging off of it. I’ll eat it. You’ll eat the full stem. I’ll just twist off the stem. I’ll eat it. I don’t care. I’ll eat the butt. You ever How many How many corettes do you prep? What’s a corette? A corette. You Americans call it a zucchini. I I I cook zucchini like once every two weeks. Yeah. I’m probably cooking it like twice a week. Oh, I don’t know why. It’s one of the vegetables that Julian does have to do with anything. I’ll tell you why. So you can picture a corset, right? Zucchini as you Americans call it. Um, and there’s there’s a butt. You are also American. Yeah. So are you. So that’s why you call it a zucchini. And I call it a corset. So the corset, right? It’s got a little butt and it has a little top hat. It has a little top hat. I used to trim both of those off and then I was I realized why, Josh? Why can’t you be more like Charity and just eat the butt and the top hat of the corset? And now I do and my life is better for it. They You know what the butt and the top hat tastes like? I more corette. More corette. I think I subconsciously removed the top and the bottom, too. I think it might be just like a cooking kitchen thing. Yeah. It’s like you’re like, “Oh, square off the cut.” I think it’s where it comes from. No way, man. Eat the butt. That’s a mythical kitchen. It’s a mythical kitchen motto. Eat the butt. Get out. It’s not even a podcast motto. It’s just a mythical kitchen. That’s the ethos of our channel. Eat the butt. Sorry, children. Listen to this. Hello Josh, you beautiful chiseled man. And Nicole, you wonderful mother to be. I’ve only got a few moments you with my food take. So pitter patter, let’s get at her. What is the sauce that goes beautifully with a hot dog when ketchup, mustard, and the like just aren’t cutting it and you want to shake things up? That’s right, applesauce. Oh, hell yeah. It’s got texture. It’s got that little whisper of acidity. And most of all, it’s got convenience, baby. That’s right. Why try to ketchup and mustard out of a bottle when you can bust open a cup of applesauce and be ready for dipping in no time? The applesauce cup is the ideal vessel for dipping foods. Why be relegated to those small paper and metal condiment cups that can only take a few fries at a time at most? Get a cup of applesauce and dip freely. And like I said, it’s fantastic with hot dogs, but it’s also great with its cousin, the corn dog, and much more. I’m talking French fries, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, chicken fries, chicken wings, chicken thighs, pork chops, you name it. If it has an ounce of H, this would be good with a sauce. Applesauce can fit that roll 100%. And a little bonus before I go, fried catfish is right up there next to pizza on the chart of tasty foods that are still tasty straight out of the fridge the next day. Love y’all. Be blessed. Love that. What a great voice you have. Incredible. Uh my favorite part of that was that he said, “I only have a short time to dazzle you.” One, we were dazzled from 3 seconds in. 97 seconds. He That was the short time. But I think he made his point very very clear and I think it’s an incredible point. Um I have never been a lotka and applesauce girl. So I’m going to and I don’t like applesauce in general. Very I don’t think I’ve eaten applesauce more than five times on my own valition. I once drank a quart of applesauce. I just drank it. They sold it 32 ounces at Write aid. I bought it. I drank it. I then I then held the world record. Yes. I then held the world record for most baby food. But if it’s really mostly applesauce, I ate 3 lb 10 oz in 1 minute. I’m not a big applesauce person. I’m not a big like puree. Like sweet purees are almost too vomity for me in a way. But ketchup is okay because it has enough salt. I think equal parts applesauce and mustard. I think that would be a great That’s a chutney. That’s like chutney. But applesauce is most of the way to a chutney. No, it’s not savory enough to be a chutney. Well, I agree with that. Most of the way you just got a little sprinkle of salt, little hit of acid. But I think I agree. I think the hot dog is like salty and savory enough for it to really work with the applesauce. What did they say? Something sazzle. Let’s get a bit powder. Let’s get out of it. We’re stealing that. that approved for stealing. I thought I thought maybe a little too much pos, a little too much logos, not enough ethos behind it cuz when we start talking about the dipability of the cups, I think what you’re looking for is just maybe a wider mouth bowl for your ketchup. Seems like a pretty easy sol. You know what I mean? But but again, I do think it’s incredible. Corn dog, applesauce, perfect. I’m down with corn dog now because corn like cornbread batter is sweeter and there’s like honey in it. Yeah. So, I understand why the the how do I the channel channel the channel the channel like the the river is it’s closer to the bend. You know what I mean? Like like the the the bridge is more a bridge in the gap. Yeah. Bridge in the gap with corn dog make more sense than hot dog and bun. Yeah. But really pretty well well reasoned. Very well very well presented. I applaud you. Feels very German. And on that note, say the thing you said, you know, like you go like a German computer again probably. Well, on that note, thank you so much to stop by Hot Dogs and Sandwich. We got new audio only episodes every Wednesday. New videos out on Sundays wherever you get your videos. The Blockbuster. If you want to be featured on Opinions like Casserles, hit us up at 833 Dog Pod 1, but only if they’re as good as the last opinion. All right, don’t hold yourself up to his standards. You’re never going to compare. Um, but you know what you can compare is the video quality of this podcast versus our other videos, which is say please go watch our other videos over at Mythical Kitchen. They’re really good. Watch them. I promise. Bye. Bye. Tune in every Saturday to Good Mythical Weekend, where the fun continues all summer long. Plus, get to know the crew even more over on the Mythical Socials.