I’m eating pig, baby, let it taste like a pig. Every home cook has that one dish they are more confident in than any other, that one dish that they know can truly blend in with the pros or can it? Today, one imposter chef is gonna take on two very professional mythical chefs to see if they got what it takes to graduate from amateur status. So everybody put your hands together for today’s guest, TV Host and Streamer, the very talented Gina Darling! Gina! Whoo! Hello, hello, hi! All right, Gina, you’ve been talking a lot of smack, you may have threatened some physical violence about today’s cooking battle. What are we going to be making? We’re gonna be making Vietnamese Thit Kho which is a braised pork belly in a caramel sauce with boiled eggs in it. And it’s a very classic Vietnamese comfort food and every Vietnamese child knows this because your grandmother would cook it in a giant pot and that’s all you eat for the rest of the week, until you throw up. I love this so much. I hope I don’t throw up. Is this a dish you’ve made a lot? A handful of times. I’ve only been starting to do it more frequently lately because I’ve been trying to cook more. I don’t cook often, but I want to. I respect that, I respect that. Gina, we’ll see if you got what it takes. We’re gonna be making our own best version of a braised pork belly dish to see if yours can blend in. And it will be blind taste tested by a judge and we’ll see if they can… Wait for this, you ready? Catch the imposter chef! So braised pork belly is one of the greatest foods in the history of mankind and there’s a lot of routes that I could go with this. I was thinking initially do I do something fancy, something chefy, score that up, do some funky technique where I’m splashing hot oil and puffing it? But then I thought, it’s pork belly, man. That’s comfort food. The wiggly, jiggly fat is just so freaking good when it breaks down. So I’m making my all-time favorite pork belly dish. This is Filipino pork belly adobo. I’ve shown you how to do a chicken before. It’s very, very simple. A couple aromatics, garlic, bay leaves, onion, peppercorn, it’s fantastic. So let’s stop talking about it and just get to it. We got a beautiful slab of skin-off pork belly right here, nice little fat cap right there. Again, pork belly is what bacon is made from, so you probably recognize that little stretch right there. So we’re gonna start cutting this into one-inch cubes right here. All right, all right, but hey, before we do that, let me sweat out some aromatics real quick. So we’re gonna get a little bit of oil right in that pot and we got garlic, we’re gonna add in or onions, we’re gonna get the sweating. I wanna do one-inch cubes. Some people they’ll do a whole braised slab like that, but pork belly adobo, all it is, soy sauce and vinegar are the main flavorings in it. And there’s so much fat in pork belly that it can really handle a ton of salt and acid. And the aromatics just drive it all home. We don’t wanna get a typical Maillard reaction on this. I’m not trying to brown the pork too much. I’m gonna sweat it out in those aromatics just a little bit. Get that, that sweating, gonna crank this pot all the way to high. What, I do not have the pot cranked on high all the time. Some braised pork belly dishes, they’ll call for blanching the pork. A lot of Chinese braised pork belly, you blanch it in water. And that they say it gets some of the impurities out, gets some of that pork stink out. But for me, it’s like I’m eating pig, baby, let it taste like a pig. Beautiful, Pork Stink was my nickname in high school. That joke doesn’t make sense because at this point if you’ve heard me talk enough, you know that I don’t have body odor, I got that gene. We talk about it all the time ’cause again I’m fresh out of the gym, no shower. And yeah, so this is just gonna braise for three, four hours. Pork belly, you really want to render a ton of that fat ’cause otherwise you’re just getting mouthfuls of fat that’s not gonna break down. That’s the beauty of pork belly is it has this incredible structure. There’s tons of both intramuscular and subdermal fat. Listen, I don’t know, man. Sometimes, you just use the science words ’cause, okay… No, no, I’m gonna explain this, I’m gonna explain this. Like, you see… Check this out. You see the marbling in there? That’s called intramuscular fat. That stuff breaks down like in a steak, but then you get this stuff right here. That’s the big fat cap, this is subdermal fat underneath the skin. And that’s why pork belly is so good, it’s got both. I’m not gonna apologize for being smart. You’re a nerd, dude! I don’t the… Where’s the… Oh my God! Forgot a spoon. You scared, Gina? I’m so impressed but equally terrified. Thank you, that’s the brand. Simple dish, really fantastic, acid, salt, fat, heat, beans, greens, tomatoes, potatoes, it’s all in there. All right, chuck in the pork belly, beautiful. Get a bunch of raw pork on your hands and then just gonna go right in there. Can I show you something I’m really proud of? Yeah. So I got this knife in Kyoto. Go on. You gotta take a look at it, here, try it. Just take a look at it. So if you hold it up to the light, there’s a sheen to it. It’s only done in Japan. Just hold it up to the light, isn’t that so cool? It is really cool. Right? Yeah. Oh, it smells amazing in here. Is this Damascus steel? Give me this. What’d she do, what’d she put in there? Nothing. Dude, no, no, no, I don’t even care. I don’t even care. I am unfazed, I am unfazed. Okay, so this is a good lesson. What happens when you oversalt your pot? Because this happens for a variety of reasons in kitchens. Sometimes you invite a psychopath into your kitchen and they might just dump something in there. But is that salt or sugar? Oh shit, I just licked a bunch of raw pork on my hands. Typically, you would go a 2:1 vinegar to soy ratio. Soy is gonna be your salt component in this. Now that ratio is completely gone. So I’m gonna 3:1 with the vinegar. We’re probably going half cup on that and then we’re gonna be a little bit lighter with the soy sauce on this one. And we’re just gonna add some caramel coloring to it later to make it look more browner than it actually is. Eat it, Gina, this is cooking! Boom! Beautiful, we got it submerged, like you see rich brown color unfazed by the salt attack. Also, I thought Gina just wanted to show me a cool knife and I was straight excited about that. I thought we were bonding over a cool experience that she had and no, no, it was sabotage and let that be a life lesson to you. Watch Aprons Off, you schmucks, it’s our new show. It’s on Fridays. I’m not gonna tell you anything else about it because maybe the mystery will get more people to watch it. The adobo is done, I transferred it to a smaller pot just to finish sauteing. I wanna reduce some of that liquid. If you see this right here, that is gorgeous. All that thickness is coming from pure pork fat. I can’t talk, my mouth is watering. I ate a bunch of pork right before this, it’s really good. I’m gonna take a little bit of vinegar and I’m just gonna lighten, brighten it up, tiny bit of acid to finish, boom, a couple of splashes right there. Just gonna give that a nice swirl. And this is just going right into a bowl with a side of rice right here. No garnish, let brown foods be brown. The best foods in the world are. Boom, nice bowl, pork belly adobo, yay. Here, got the bay leaf right on top, so people know what the heck this is about. And that’s my braised pork belly dish. Simple Filipino pork belly adobo, truly the world’s greatest pork belly dish except actually my favorite dish is the one that Gina’s making. All right, so I guess it’s my turn now. Listen, I have never actually officially learned how to cook. My family runs a restaurant, but me, I never really learned. However, I’m here because I just wanted to show off this cool knife that I got in Japan. Set your expectations low. I didn’t get this knife because I’m a great cook, I got this ’cause I like knives. This could have been a battle ax if anything. We’re gonna start off with this pork here, good pork there. We’re gonna cut it into nice little cubes. I love this dish because this was cooked at my house all the time for special occasions and we would store it in or fridge for so long. And like I said, we’d cook a giant pot of this and eat it the whole entire week. And the saltiness comes from the soy sauce of course but also the tears of me being yelled at from my grandmother for not being able to cook it properly. Will I cry today? No, I’m in a better place now mentally, but there’s no shortage of tears around here. Just wait till I’m done with Josh. And then we’re gonna throw this into some boiling water a little bit to clean up the impurities. All right, yeah, this is taking too long. I think I have some. Josh! I’m coming, just can you chill? We already have prepared pork. Can we just talk real quick? No, you are not allowed. Don’t look at me. I need to say this is my channel and they respect me. I know you don’t. Welcome to Mythical Kitchen. My name is Gina Darling, the new main host and owner of this whole entire company. Everyone’s getting a raise. You’re welcome and not Josh. So we already blanched this and this is supposed to remove the impurities. We set that aside afterwards and then we’re gonna go and make the sauce. Now that you wanna add the pork to the pot and then all your liquid ingredients here. And then once it starts boiling, you’re gonna put a lid on it and let it sit there. Earlier I said soy sauce, I’m sorry, I meant fish sauce. Oh my God, that’s so blasphemous, I’m so sorry. See, do you see why I got yelled at a lot in the kitchen when I was a kid? You can’t really hear things very well when you’re busy sobbing. All right, so we’re gonna add this to the pot. And then half a cup… Chill. This is really important, I grew up with this. This is coconut soda, specifically this brand we always use for cooking. You can use 7UP if you want to, but this is the authentic stuff. Really great to mix with liquor too. Oh my God, I should be doing this drunk. I’m gonna pour half the can of this. I think that’s half a can. You’re gonna add some fish sauce here and then we’re gonna get some water in here to cover the pork. And once that hits a boil, I’m gonna turn the heat down to medium, let it simmer for a couple of hours. I’m bringing in my sous chef here. I’m not here, so act like I’m not here. Oh okay, just watch my hands, watch my giant muscly hands. We’re gonna make a caramel. And how you do that is you put sugar. Oh shhh! You’re a putz. First, we’re gonna put sugar in a pot and then keep on stirring it. It’s gonna clump up. Three minutes, sorry, I’ll do better. This should’ve been done already. I’ll do better next time. You’re embarrassing me in front of all these people. We have guests. Yeah, you stay down there. Usually, I do the sugar first only, no water. And then when it gets a good brown color, that’s when I add the water to stop the cooking of the sugar, but Josh has to do something. Oh my God, did he just sabotage me without me knowing? I still have half a can left, so why am I not gonna drink this? Okay, so we got the carameling done here. Well, I did, not Josh. There you go, look at that, yeah! We’re gonna add this to our whole mixture here. That’s gonna give it a good color, the caramel taste, a sweet taste to it. Okay, oh my God, that smells so good. Good job, me. And then we’re gonna let that boil. Oh God, turn that off, okay. Listen… Oh God, it’s burning, okay. Sorry, Josh burned that. I’m not the best chef ever, but I’m hoping I can trick them. Look, what I lack in skill I make up in enthusiasm and terrible, terrible bar tricks. I’m pretty sure I can win this. About 30 minutes out, what I like to do is first, we’re gonna boil eggs and then you throw it onto a pan and you blister it a little bit. That’s not really necessary, you don’t have to, but I like to do it. Not every family does this, but I feel like it gives it a good texture. Just throw a bunch of eggs in there. Usually, I cook so much I just throw two cartons of eggs in there. Everybody loves eggs. And this is your end product. Look how gorgeous that is. It’s so pretty and it’s so squishy and soft. Let’s plate this really quick, all right. I don’t know how much the judge can actually eat. Under the rice, I slipped a $20, so I swear to God if I don’t win. So I’m gonna put some pork in there, couple of eggies. How I usually like to eat this is I would take a bunch of the sauce, pour it over the rice, but also I would break the eggs up and turn the yolk into a mush, mix into the rice with the sauce and serve it as that. And that’s what it looks like. I’m so proud of myself. I did it with no help whatsoever. Yeah! That’s my pork belly warrior dance inspired by my brother when he used to do dances before his football games. We’re making pork belly today. I’m gonna be really honest with you guys. I am not a fan of pork belly. And I wasn’t until I got my first date ever when I was in high school and this dude, the homie, he took me to a Korean barbecue and that was the first time I had pork belly and I was like, oh my God, this is so good. Other than that, pork belly tacos is probably about the other thing I’ve had that I really enjoyed. I’m not making any of those things today, but I wanna make something that I actually been wanting to try for a long time, which is braised pork belly over collard greens. ‘Cause Josh wants to make adobo, like oh my God, everybody does that. So I wanted to do something different, not talking mess on them ’cause that’s good too, but this is just a little bit like more in tune with myself. We have this pork belly that I scored and it has been sitting overnight in brown sugar, salt and pepper. And I just want it to be a natural tenderizer ’cause that’s what sugar is for, right, just to make it nice and sweet. I have my pot, I add a little bit of canola oil in there and let the onions and celery cook down first until it’s slightly brown. And then add some spices, add some garlic and then I’m gonna make a braising liquid for my pork belly that I’m gonna let sit in there for a second and then eventually add the greens later. All right, now that we have our onions and our celery just lightly brown, not hella burnt ’cause I do that a lot, I’m gonna add this minced garlic just to give it a little bit extra something. I have some applewood smoked salt, some chili flakes, almost forgot, and the garlic powder. I like when my greens have a little bit of kick to it, just to make you go… But not enough to make your whole throat burn. Nothing too crazy. And then this is chicken broth, ha ha ha. You can use chicken broth, veggie broth. This is just what I prefer, pretty much. And then I have some apple cider vinegar, ha ha ha, that I’m only gonna use half of and then I’ll save the other half for later. I have our pork belly, the main star. Ooh-ooh! We’re gonna get the pretty one. I don’t know really what happened to this one. I don’t know. I’m not gonna brush the sugar off ’cause I just like when the sugar gets into the liquid. So I’m just go ahead and land those with the fat side up. Nice, nice, nice. You know, we’ll put the other one in there. It might get pretty over time. Who knows, a lot of people do when they glow up, puberty. And then add our greens. Yeah, we’re just gonna cover it and make a nice bed over ’cause why not? And then add a little bit more broth over those greens. Yeah, yeah and then we’re gonna put a lid on this, let it simmer for about two hours and then go on to our next step. We’re back and we have greens and some pork belly that smells and looks delicious. So I have this nice cast iron over here that I’m gonna pour some oil in. ♪ Oil it up. ♪ I feel like lately everybody’s been singing a lot and I wanna do the same, but your girl can’t sing. ♪ I have this pork belly ♪ ♪ That I’m going to put in my cast iron ♪ ♪ And I’m going to move it ♪ ♪ And it’s gonna sizzle ♪ I was gonna keep going, but this isn’t America’s Got Talent. It could be. We’d probably all fail. I’m gonna go ahead and plate our lovely greens. I like very simple plating. A lot of people add a whole bunch of accoutrements and extra things to plate. Lily, I’m not talking to you, but I am. Oh, the flowers, I forgot the flowers on the dish. She’s also a Michelin Star chef, I’m just here. To be honest, I picked this plate on purpose because I know Josh absolutely can’t stand it. So it has these weird little ridges thingees and it’s like, “This plate is so hard to clean.” Oh my God, get a sponge and just get in there. It’s not that tough, bro. This is just gonna be a nice simple home, right to the heart dish. And that’s what matters is that you eat it and it goes to your… We like when the butt is crispy. Look, can you see that? Yeah, okay, so I’m gonna just do a very simple plating and add this to the top. Take that little bit off, I’ll eat that later. I really wasn’t gonna garnish it, but I saw this in the fridge. I was like, oh, maybe that’ll add a little something, green on green. And there we go, a nice little Southern braised pork belly with collard greens. Oh, hold on. Jordan Myrick from Sporked.com, before you are three braised pork belly dishes, two made by professional chefs, one by an imposter. Your job is to taste test them and suss out who it is. I’m excited. I’m gonna start in the middle ’cause I never do that. All right, I wanna know what kind of little micro greens these are first. Hm, micro arugula maybe is kind of what it tastes like. I was thinking maybe it would be micro cilantro, but I don’t know. I’m already skeptical of this one ’cause I’m like, so many greens on the bottom why you need a little micro green on top. Tastes good, a little chewy, but still delicious. Let’s taste these greens. Mm, nice and salty. It’s a little one note and that note is savory, but I like that note, it’s a beautiful note. It’s a note in an Elton John song, you know. Okay, let’s move this one. On to this one next. This looks so incredibly delicious. We have a soy sauce egg, it looks like. This is confusing to me. There’s, hold on, I’m getting scared. Okay, there we go. There’s a soy sauce egg that’s cut and then there’s a whole soy sauce egg. And I’m not really sure why you would do that, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s a thing. Maybe it’s a thing I don’t know about. Mm, the egg’s good. Let’s see how this rice is cooked. Rice is pretty good. I’m gonna try this pork. Ooh, extremely tender, wow! Ooh, and there’s so much sauce underneath or oil. Actually I don’t know. Either way, I like it. Mm, mm-hm, mm-hm. Really tender, really fatty, simple, nice, really savory. I like it. I think it could maybe use a little more complexity, but it tastes really good. I’d be super happy if someone gave me that. I love bay leaves and I’m happy that there’s 14 bay leaves in this. I think it’s an underutilized ingredient and I honestly think it’s shameful to take it out before you serve it. I know that typically it’s like don’t serve a thing that you’re not gonna eat. I think a bay leaf is different. I wanna say, I say, oh, that’s a bay leaf. Okay, I know, I like that, I know that it’s been cooked for awhile. Okay, let’s try this pork. I don’t know what’s on this ’cause I haven’t eaten it yet, but it looks so delicious whatever sauce coating this is. Also I like that the chunks are a little bit more manageable than the other dishes. Mm! Wow, this sauce, there’s whole peppercorns in it, ooh! This is the dimension I was looking for in a sauce. I’m not even judging anymore, I’m just eating. Please, give me a moment. It does that thing where everything is so homogenous that it’s hard to pick out individual flavors because it all melds together to make one beautiful song. Why am I talking so much about music? Okay, I think I know which one is the faker. Jordan, I’m gonna give you a three-two-one countdown and on one, you’ll put your hand over the dish that the imposter chef made. Okay. In three, two, one. Oh, check it out! Dissed. That was Vee’s dish. That is not the imposter chef. Sorry, Vee. Your imposter chef dish is in the middle. This is Gina Darling Hi. making a family recipe that her grandma made. You utter piece of crap, how dare you dis us. This does taste like something that a family would serve you in the best way possible. My God, okay, thank you so much. That’s the best compliment. Now I won’t get yelled at ’cause I would never hear the end of it. I would love to come to your house one day. Can you taste the abuse? Yes, absolutely, that’s why it’s so delicious. Yes, thank you. This tastes like greens made by a person who eats greens, which I think a lot of times– Uh! Wait, is that good or bad? Are you okay? Nah, that’s me. I gave it away. But you know what I mean? Sometimes you taste greens and you’re like, oh, this person has never eaten good greens before, so they’re impeccable. Can you explain to me the micro arugula, is it arugula? I did it just to mess with you, I’m not gonna lie. I saw it in the fridge and I was like, Jordan’s gonna be pissed. It was a decoy. I’m so stupid, wow. Gina, you against all odds despite sabotaging me have effectively fooled our judge and they could not catch the imposter chef. To win, you can take home anything on our walls. You can take home any office supplies, take a stapler. Oh, where’s your office? Oh, it’s down there. Analise will show you where it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gina, tell the people where they can find you. You can find you at all socials. It’s @missginadarling. If you can’t remember, I just tell people Gina. No one forgets Gina. No one forgets Gina. I’ve never forgotten Gina. See, yeah. Not even once. Not at all. Wow, that’s smoky. Mm-hm, that’s good. Taste it. How the hell have I never had this before? Josh, taste the rice! Pay attention to the rice.