GMM 2257: Frozen vs. Fast vs. Fancy Food Taste Test

Today, our fancy little mouths are taking a trip to the Mediterranean. – Let’s talk about that. (gentle upbeat music) Good Mythical morning! – Oftentimes, for us dense Americans, at least, when we hear Mediterranean food, we think of Greek food. And when we hear Greek food, we think of Mediterranean food. It’s a vicious cycle dripping with hummus and delicious lamb grease. – But Greece is just one of many Mediterranean countries and when it comes to Mediterranean food, different country’s cuisines are all up in that mix! So today we’re trying Mediterranean food favorites that you would commonly find here in the US of A and determining when, if ever, price matters. It’s time for Naked Foods, Naked Mediterranean Foods. Naked. – Yeah, so Mediterranean food’s from all over the place, but also from- – Mediterranean. – Different price points. That’s what we’re gonna be experiencing today. Four different Mediterranean food price points. The freezer or refrigerated section of a grocery store, fast casual restaurants, sit down restaurants, and fine dining establishments. – In each round, we’re gonna pick our favorite from that lineup and then Stevie is gonna reveal where each dish is from, how much it costs, and by the end, we’re gonna know exactly how much our ideal Mediterranean feast would cost. (upbeat bouncy music) – This is hummus. – Oh, it is. – And pitas. – You wanna share a pita? – Yeah. Let’s piece this pita. – This pita’s hard. – Oh, thanks. – You see like, saw dust came off of it. – That’s a good pita when it really gives you some powder. – [Rhett] It dusts up like that? – And then. I mean, I’m more of a pita spreader than a dipper, but I’ll dip for today. This is nothing to brag about. – It’s not bad, but it definitely tastes like something you just get at the grocery store. – Yeah. – You know what I’m saying? Which is where I get most of my hummus. – You know, hummus became a real big part of my life, I would say, about six years ago after the tragedy. No tragedy. It just seemed like there should be a moment. – That was a joke? – I don’t know why that was a joke. (laughs) There was no tragedy and it wasn’t funny. It wasn’t a joke. – Sometimes you go out on a limb and then you slowly walk back. – It just seems like six years ago, hummus became a big part of my life and I don’t know why. – Hummus is taking the world by storm, man. Now, that’s an interesting. That’s an interesting flavor. – A cracker like, salted pita. – Almost fruity . – With a nice hummus. I like that. We’re back over here in what seems to be basic territory. – Super basic. – You want half of that? Now, this hummus here. – That hummus has gone bad. Way more garlicky. – Woo! – Super garlicky. – You’re right about that. – Not bad. Again, I feel like I’m in- – This is special right here, though. – I feel like I’m in grocery store territory. – And what’s happening with this? – This is like a whole wheat pita. Y’all sneaking some whole wheat pitas on us? – [Link] And this hummus looks the same as this one. – But it’s not. Looks can be deceiving. Oh, that’s too much. – It’s a good hummus. Normal hummus, really garlicky hummus, surprising and intriguing hummus, and blah hummus. That’s my favorite hummus out of the three normal seeming hummuses. But there is a standout. – [Stevie] Here we go. Three, two, one. – Yeah, that’s a good hummus. – Yeah, we both liked that one. – [Stevie] Well, we are really off to a strong start today because, boys, it’s time for a three-way dance, that is. – Yes! (gentle jazz music) What you got here? – What is it, Moochelle? Why do you have a giant suitcase? (Moochelle mumbling) You’re upset because everyone thinks that you’re just Chase inside of a cow costume? – I’m sorry that all of this negative fan feedback has gotten to you, but please don’t go. Please don’t go. Please don’t leave. – You’re saying you’re leaving and we can’t stop you and you are leaving forever? You’re taking all your belongings in that big suitcase? – Okay, please don’t leave. (Moochelle crying) See what you’ve done? – Y’all are just mean. Sometimes you gotta think about how mean you are. – You missed out on a fancy pants dance and now we never get one ever again. – [Stevie] Well, things have taken a turn. But I’m gonna use this opportunity to tell you that the hummus you chose is from Avra Beverly Hills for $15.50. – That was good hummus. – That’s a steal for bread and hummus. – Not really. – [Stevie] And then starting from Rhett’s side, we have our fast casual Shawarma King for $3.99. Our casual sit down, Elena’s, for $5.25. – Garlic. – [Stevie] And then our grocery store option, Sabra, for $3.79. – Oh, grocery store? – See, Sabra is the one- – Sabra does it. – They’re actually better than both of the restaurants, but not this restaurant. (upbeat lively music) This is falafel. – Good old fried spice balls of chickpeas or fava beans. – They really don’t look similar in any way. Like, these are donuts. – That’s a dark Oreo colored donut. – You can literally see all the way through that, kind of. – There’s almost a hole. And when I bite into it, I get more of that expected color. I mean, I’ve never seen one this dark. – Man, that’s a little dry. That kinda tastes like something you put in an aquarium to like, feed a lot of fish at the same time. – Yeah, maybe it needs a bunch of other stuff it doesn’t have. – Like treat your water or something. – [Link] What about this one? – [Rhett] These have been dipped in something. – This one is very similar to the first one. Almost as dark, same color. – And I’ve never seen this style. I’ve always seen that style over there. Oh, man. – Tastes so much better. – World’s better! So much flavor in that. – It’s greasy in a good way. – It’s not dry. – Bursting with flavor. – [Rhett] Now, this has got frozen section written all over it. – I mean, I’ve definitely been to petting zoos where this is all over the ground. – You could feed a llama with that. (crew laughing) Oh, you’re saying it’s to dooki? – Yeah. The smaller versions come out of the things that you put a quarter in and the bigger versions come out of the pets at the zoo. – It’s not good, but I’ll tell you right now. It’s better than the first one. And this is what I would describe as just traditional. – I guess I just never knew they could be so dark because I’m eating them in like, a pita usually and they’re covered in some sort of sauce. Some tahini. – That’s a totally different flavor. Not bad. Little spicy, actually. Maybe some of them are chickpeas and some of them are fava beans. I know which one I like the most. – Yeah, this is it. – Didn’t we make it obvious? This one? – [Stevie] Three, two, one. – We’re both agreeing again even in the same slot. – Yeah. It’s always number two for us. – [Stevie] Okay, no dance this time. This is our casual sit down from Elena’s for $7.99. – All right. – [Stevie] The one that you absolutely hated, that was the fine dining option. Tabla by Sophie. – Sophie needs to keep trying. – [Stevie] The one that looks like none of the rest is from Target. It’s $1.63 for four balls, so quite a deal. – Whoa. – [Stevie] And then the one that you said looked more traditional, that’s because it’s from a restaurant we order from for lunch a lot, Rodini Park. – Oh, we’re used to this one. – [Stevie] $6 for four balls. – Okay. (upbeat lively music) These are gyros or gyros. – Gyros! – Or- – Gyros. – Or gyros. (laughs) – Give me that gyro! – And look, there’s nothing. We got nothing on these things. – [Rhett] Tzatziki. Is that how you say it? Tzatziki? – Yeah. – That’s what I like on these, but we don’t have any. – How you wanna say it, Vi? – [Vi] I say tahini. – Oh, tahini’s good, too. But I liked the tzatziki sauce. – Tzatziki or tahini? – [Vi] They’re both good. – Okay. Both good. – I’m pulling it. I’m pulling my meat out. – [Link] That’s what I’m gonna do. – Oh, you’re going straight meat? I’m doing mostly meat with a little pita in the bite. – Christy was telling me one time how much she loved gyro and I told her it was lame, then she started crying. – I was there. – No, she didn’t cry, but she did tear up a little bit. – It was like, 15 or 16 years ago. – That’s good. I love it. I love it. – It’s surprising how good it is, isn’t it? – And I like that I didn’t have to pick off any tomatoes or cucumbers that I usually have to dodge. Now this is obviously some sort of try hard fancy thing. They’ve made it into some sort of like, flattened grilled sausage. – It might just be really cheap. It’s not bad, but- – But it doesn’t have that shaved off of the trompo thing or whatever they call it. – It’s not as good as that. Oh, gosh. – Now, this looks amazing. Looks like the pita itself has been deep fried. – Yeah, it definitely has. – Goodness gracious. – The meat is a little drier. I’m trying to get up here. – But something tells me this meat is of a higher caliber. This lamb was probably cuter. – Please don’t talk about it. Let’s continue in ignorance. – And then this one, straight down the middle. – I guess it’s hard- – [Link] What you would expect. – Oh, there’s hummus on this. They’ve hummus-ed it up. – They snuck in some hummus? – They tried. – I actually don’t love the taste of it. It’s not nearly as flavorful as one and three. I’m a little disappointed in it. It’s still good, but it’s not- – I gotta go back with a couple of meat only bites. I’m sorry because I actually like a lot of these. – All right. I know which one is my favorite. I’m ready to vote. – I’m not. – The thing I love about gyro is that like, even back home in North Carolina, there’d be a lot of burger places where they would have like, generic pictures of all this stuff in the window and they’d always have like, you could get a gyro. It’s so weird, ut I always loved it. – [Stevie] Three, two. – It’s hard to mess up a gyro, so even if it’s. I think that this is gonna be cheap and I’m cool with it. – They’re all pretty good. This one’s not great, but. – [Stevie] Okay, so that’s the surprising story of this round. The one that you both really liked that Link chose, that’s Trader Joe’s for $1.50. – It’s good. It’s good. – [Stevie] Go to Trader Joe’s. The one that you both disliked in between the two, that’s our fine dining pick. – Yeah. – From Le Petit Greek for $14. – Trying too hard. – [Stevie] And then Rhett, the one that you chose is actually our casual sit down from Spitz for $9.95. – Spitz is a great, fun place. – [Stevie] It’s great. And then lastly- – I met a a Mythical beast. They got some really fun wraps there at spitz with a Z. – Oh, it’s like a music venue. – There’s one in Highland Park. There’s one in… – [Stevie] We’re using the term fun loosely, but. And the last one is fast casual from Knight Greek for $8.75. – I think the lesson here is it’s hard to screw up gyro unless you try really hard. – Yeah. Let it be. (upbeat spunky music) – Why don’t you bring in that special, exclusive Mythical Society collectible? Yes, it’s the Rhett and Link Youtooz collectible from prom to red carpet. You know what we like to do on the red carpet. Our little prom thing that we started way back in 1996 and now you could have it in your very own home. – This is a high quality collectible and you know what? It is The last quarterly collectible item of 2022. If you wanna get this thing, you gotta join Third Degree Monthly of the Mythical Society by October 31st. – That’s Halloween. – This Halloween, go to mythicalsociety.com to join Third Degree Monthly in order to get this thing by October 31st, all right? It looks nice. It looks good. It’s going over here. – [Stevie] This is baklava. – This is baklava. – Yeah, it is. How are you gonna say baklava? Am I saying it wrong? – Well, we also say gyro instead of gyro. – Well, yeah. Wbe’re from Buies Creek. – So this one right here. I mean, do you think that cheap is gonna be fine? I kind of think so. – I think I’m gonna have to just pick this up and eat it. I’m sorry. – That’s great. – I remember the first time I had baklava. – Filo dough, I’m feeling so low until I eat the baklava. – I was an adult, of course. Like many things I did for the first time, including intercourse. (crew laughing) – Well, bring that into it. – And I was blown away, man! It’s so good. – Yeah, the layers or what are you talking about? – So many layers. – Look at this one. This one is like, it’s like a little package. What’s this on top? – [Rhett] This like a present. – Some sort of a, do you take this off first? This is too fancy. – No, no, come on. No, you eat it. – Honey. (Rhett laughing) – That’s a great one. I mean, this just sopping with honey. That one wasn’t bad at all. Then this one. – It’s got a layer of something in there. – This is weird. I mean, you expect to have a lot of layers of Filo dough, but this one’s got like, five layers and then a big honking just a strata of- – You’re gonna be disappointed in the texture, but if you’re like me, you’re gonna be impressed with the taste because it still tastes good and I haven’t had any bad baklava yet. – But it, this one’s almost like a pie. – This has more like, a lot of this nut stuff. What they call that nut stuff? Speaking of intercourse. – And then this. You just wanna? Yeah. (crew laughing) I’m gonna go into the back here. There’s a lot of pistachios on this thing. Look at that bed of pistachios. – These are all really good, y’all. – Good gosh, that’s great. – I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. – I can’t even tell which one of these two is the fanciest. This is the definition of baklava. – This is most traditional and it’s so good. Even this one that’s just a bunch of nut stuff is good. – [Stevie] Three, two, one. – Oh, I gotta go with this one. – I’m going with the big daddy. – I almost went with the big daddy. – They’re so good. They’re all so good. – [Stevie] I thought you were gonna go for the second one because you were talking about it so much. – It is good. – [Stevie] And that’s actually a grocery from Jons Grocery. You know that grocery store? – Like Vons but with a J? – [Stevie] A Vons but it’s a ripoff. Yeah. – What? – [Stevie] Yeah! For 50 cents a piece. – It’s good. I mean, it’s good. – They really have us fooled with this frivoly stuff on top. – But it does feel like something that was done like- – In a line? – Like a manufacturing kind of line. – [Stevie] And then the one, Link, that you chose is our casual sit down, Elena’s, for $3.99. – Good old Elena. – Rhett, you sir, have chosen our fine dining pick. (gentle piano music) – See what you did? – This is so sad. I wish I wasn’t so fancy. (crew laughing) – Fancy has never felt so lonely. – I’m upset. – [Stevie] It’s from Avra’s Beverly Hills for $14.50 – $15 for a slice of baklava? That’s a little slice, too. – Oh, man. – And what’s this one? – [Stevie] That is our fast casual from Rodini Park for $2.50. – Oh, we never get that. – That’s because we don’t get dessert for lunch. – Oh yes, we don’t do that. Who do you think we are? – So what are our totals? – [Stevie] So the lowest possible total was $7.42 and the highest was $54. Rhett, your perfect Mediterranean meal total was $47.94 and Link, yours was $28.90. – Hey buddy, you saved some money. – Yeah. – You can go bowling. – I mean, think about how much more money I have than you cumulatively. Like, you’re gonna be, I mean, begging me for money one day because your taste. – Yeah, but I will have lived a long, good life. – Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell. – You know what time it is. – Hi, I’m Anthony. – And I’m Valerie. – And we are on our honeymoon in Greece. – And behind us is the temple of Athena. – [Both] And it’s time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality. – I don’t even think that place exists, man. I think that’s fake. – What, honeymoons? – Athena. – Congratulations. – Click the top link to watch us guess the meaning behind common sayings from Greece in Good Mythical More. – And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality is gonna land. – [Rhett] To get the Rhett and Link Youtooz collectible, join Third Degree Monthly by October 31st. Visit mythicalsociety.com for details.

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