Hey everybody. Welcome to Aprons Off our new show where we stop cooking and just kinda hang out and eat and talk and stuff. Today we are taste testing the best snacks from Iran or at least Nicole has told us. Take it away. That’s right. So we’re gonna be tasting snacks from my home country. I was not born in Iran, but four out of the five members of my family were. So I. You’re the only one? I’m the only one that was born in America. But we’re gonna start with the most important thing, the cornerstone of Persian life. Chai, aka tea. Hell yeah. And with our tea, we are going to have a saffron rock candy stirring stick. Oh my gosh. Saffron is one of the top five exports from Iran. Yeah, along with petroleum and pubes. It’s a joke from Borat, but this is a black tea. It’s actually a Cardamom blended black tea. You can just have it as is, and then you can add it with a stir stick. Now is this a dirty chai latte? The exact opposite. It’s just. Clean. It’s just tea yeah. There’s an art form to brewing Persian tea. A lot of the times we use something called a samovar, where you put the tea leaves on the top, and then hot water on the bottom and then you let it steep. But we just have the bags. It’s a convenient, good way to drink tea if you don’t have a samovar at home, you know. How many samovars do you have at home? I have none. I haven’t been gifted one yet. I have three. I have a collection of antique samovars. I don’t believe you for a second. Wait so you’re supposed to the, the Saffron rock candy is sweetening the tea? That’s right yeah. Sick. Do you ever eat it on your on? Yeah, I suck on it. Taste that. It’s so saffron. Isn’t that beautiful? That’s a good sucker, I’ll tell you what. Yeah sometimes you can put saffron threads in your tea. A lot of people put rosebuds in their tea, and then there’s actually a debate about dark tea versus light tea. You gotta be able to brew your tea properly, so you can find a good husband. Are you okay? So you can find a, what’s that? No, it’s okay. It’s okay, it’s not important. Sorry I love saffron. And saffron is like one of the most expensive. It’s the most expensive spice. Yup. One of the most expensive substances by weight. That’s right. On earth. It’s like, what’s that one? Unobtainium. It’s like saffron. Then unobtainium and then. I had no idea. You get down into some hard drugs and whatnot. but like, man, this saffron rock candy is great. Yeah, it’s delicious. Should we move on? It’s an Avatar joke. Should we move on to other things? A joke from Avatar. Oh sorry I didn’t watch Avatar. Obviously I care about the Avatar world more than everybody. All right, next up. The Na’vi people are real and they need our help. This is. Sigourney Weaver can only do so much. Oh my God. Move on to the next act. This is gaz. So this is a nugget with pistachios in it. Ooh. And this used to be a gift you would just give to people. Like if you were going to someone’s house, like your second cousin’s, uncle’s, grandma’s house, and their dog walker was there, you would bring this. I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of like candy and sweets culture does come from Persia. Like, and we were talking about not like modern day Iran, but like ancient Persian empire. Yeah. Like you look at stuff like Zoolbia and Bamieh. Yeah of course. That turns into like Indian Jalebi, the term Sherbet. Sharbat. Sharbat Josh is basically Persian at this point. I went to a lot of Persian bar mitzvahs and I was like oh my God, these Jews eat such better food than my Jews. All we have are like bagels and locks. And then to go to a Persian bar mitzvah. Hot food. To eat ghormeh sabzi. And it’s like, there’s flavor in this stew. Yeah hot food. And my grandma’s like, we’re in Lithuania. We couldn’t afford flavor it was cold. Flavor’s a luxury. How do you guys like, isn’t this delicious? I love this so much. The texture is phenomenal right? I love pistachios so yeah. This is my favorite thing in the world. It’s beautiful. And then, and then you have a little sip of tea. Pistachio, another top five export. You did your research. You did your research. I studied a lot of it in school. And then you got, and then when you’re doing this you’re like gossiping about people. Like did you see, did you see Sadaf’s new hairstyle? Ew you know. Yeah I’d go through like a hundred of these. Wait, do you have a friend named Sadaf? I don’t I don’t. Oh, I don’t know. Sadaf is like the tea company. It’s like a famous, famous company. Sadaf makes literally everything. One of the greatest things about living in LA is that you get access to so many delightful international grocery stores. So you go to Jon’s market. Best thing about Jon’s is they took a Von’s. and then they just replaced Put a J. The V with a J, it’s the same exact font. So they could save money on it. It’s Armenian owned and every, you get Sadaf spice blends. They’re so good. You got Golchin stuff. I love Golchin stuff a lot too. Here you go. Thank you. So this is called Sohan Asali. Sohan Asali. Yeah. So Sohan is basically like a brittle. It’s made with a butter. Oh, you took some. I like this man. The nugget’s so good. The nugget texture is gorgeous. So this is like a toffee. It’s like a butter honey toffee. But it’s not what you’re gonna expect. Oh. I love this. The texture has incredible crumble. An incredible mouth feel. It’s not snappy at all. Okay, so in America we talk about like, Danny Palumbo formerly of sporked.com he had a thing where he loved like old crappy candies, like Necco wafers. Yeah. This is old candy but good. Yeah. We had the technology like the nugget, the texture on that almost reminds me, this is stupid but a circus peanut, which is one of my favorite candies. Yeah, I get it. Circus peanuts have no flavor. But then this, you get like the pistachio in there. It’s so good. It’s really, really good. This was something that I would always sneak in my house. Because my mom would bring it from Iran, as like in her suitcase. She would just bring a ton of stuff. This was the one that I would always take, ’cause this was my favorite. It was buttery, sweet, delicious. One of my favorites. Do you guys wanna try some sour lemon almonds? These are the best almonds in the world. They are like citric acidy, lemony almonds that are addictive. You can’t have just one. The top 10 export. I’m just kidding I don’t know. I do know the stuff about pistachios. Rugs, rugs are another big one. We like rugs in Iran. We’re big rug people. These are the same brand. Are these, is this a big brand as well? I’ve never seen this brand before. This is probably my favorite thing. This right here. You know what this was? This is the flaming hot Cheeto Limone of like 800 years ago. Yeah also, all of these snacks are grandma snacks. I tried to not get any like cool modern like chips or, or candies. I tried to do some real OG stuff that you would find at my grandma’s house so. Like so much of like snacking and candy culture back in the day was based on, on fruit and nut. Yeah. ‘Cause that was like the sweet stuff. They had a lot of honey as well. And so a lot of the stuff it like kind of seems basic. It’ll be ground up dates and fruits and stuff like that. But it’s freaking good. There’s a reason that that stuff has stood the test of time. Absolutely. Also the saffron melting into the tea hot damn. I know, it just keeps changing. Isn’t that fun. Yeah. So nice. Okay, let’s move on to some more things. Tastes like a paella. One thing about Persian snacks, a lot of the time you don’t get a lot of salty, you get a lot of sour. So for example, the sour almonds, you’re gonna have a drink. This is Doogh. This is the, my brother is literally obsessed with this stuff. He has like bottles and bottles and bottles at his home. You know what I mean? Doogh the doogh. And this is mint flavor, and it’s just a carbonated yogurt drink. And this with a plate of kebab. Nothing like it. Plate of what? Kebab, kabob. Thank you. Kabob. Thank you Nicole. That, sorry, that was, that was ’cause she, she’s the one, she’s the reason that I pronounce it kabob all the time. And then people will correct me to, Do you mean or if you’re British, do you mean, Kebab. Kebab? No, I don’t mean kebab. Freaking Nigel from Essex. This is like, this is the new Celsius. Yeah. Or this is the old Celsius. I guess. 12 grams of protein. Nicole this is a protein shake. This is a protein shake. Look at that, who needs Ensure. All right. Name your favorite Iranian professional weightlifter from the last two decades on three, one, two, Hossein Rezazadeh. That’s really good. Okay, that was good. Anything else you wanna mention about Persian sports? Oh yeah, wrestling. Wrestling has a big. That’s right. A big culture of wrestling. Good job Josh. Okay, now this is the best snack in the world. All of these are my favorites. I’m not gonna lie. So we got Lavashak. This is one type of Lavashak. And then this is another type of Lavashak. This right here, this is the OG fruit rollup. This is it. This is where it came from. Is it a little old place where we can get together? What? Lavashak it’s a little old place where we can. Oh love shack. Get together. Nice nice. Taylor, thank you for being the only one who actually laughed. That was so stupid. Morgan got a smile on like the second go round. That was a stupid joke. And is this plastic? It’s plastic. Don’t eat the plastic, don’t eat the plastic. Here you go. I would’ve eaten the plastic. I would have eaten. Don’t eat the plastic. So you just rip it and then you just have a little bit then. Hmm, what’s the green? What? I think you have apple. Oh it’s like a green apple. There’s different flavors. Oh there’s different flavors. I was wondering that. Is this just like fruit paste that’s cooked down and sugar it. That’s all it is. Fruit paste, sugar, citrus acid. Organic, good for you. It is though. It’s very good for you, but yeah. One thing I wish more Americans had, is like an in-depth fruit culture. We don’t grow up eating good fruits. Mm no. And I’m mad mad about it. This is good for going to the bathroom. I’ll see you there. Not in like the same, I just meant like on the way. We’ll like, I don’t know. What flavor is this, is this sour cheery?. This is sour cheery. Albalu? Albalu good job. Ah treat. What? I’m like a seal. If I do something good, you have to give me a treat. You’ve been eating treats. Yeah, But now you get more special treats. It’s gotta be like a positive negative attention thing. Oh it’s so sour. It is very sour. I love sour stuff. Do you feel like eating the stuff as a kid has changed Like the way you taste things as an adult? Maybe. Like your taste bud development? I thought about the science of that. My tolerance for sour varies. Like if I eat a lot of sour foods, like in 12 hours I’ll be fine. Yep. But if I eat more sour, like if I try something more sour than this right now. I don’t know, I haven’t. It’s sour. Are you guys having fun? I ate my sugar rocks. Do you guys like the snacks you’re trying? I love the snacks. I’m actually, I’m obsessed with it and it’s gonna influence me to buy one. The nugget. Yeah. Yeah. It was one of my favorite things. Just that I love that texture. Ever since I read that cats love novel food textures. I was like, me too. What does that mean? Cats love novel textures. Like you put a marshmallow around a cat. Cat in the wild doesn’t know what a marshmallow is, but it wants to put it in it’s mouth. ‘Cause cats love novel textures. I don’t know what novel texture means. Like a new, like a new texture. You want a new experience? Oh, you could said new texture. Novel means new. Okay whatever. Okay this is the most intense sour snack that is in the Persian. It gets more sour? This is the most. How you holding up? So this is called Ghare Ghoroot, and it is a black fermented whey product. Don’t eat it without me. Whey. This will absolute, not to like frame it as anything but, it is probably one of the most intense items ever. I feel like we’re at a music festival and you’re like briefing us before some drug. I know I’m nervous. Only has like a, an alpha numerical name. Like you never done AXJ nine. And I’m like, no, and I don’t want to oh God. We’re doing it. So, so this is used as an ingredient, but for the wild mofos up in Iran, they just eat this regularly. I want you to take the smallest piece like this. And just suck on it. Oh, I. Go down the rabbit hole. No, no no. Eat it eat it eat it, chew it. Oh my god. Ugh. Oh some, oh God. I mean it. why did it taste like beef jerky when I first had it? Oh no. There is this intense savoriness to it. It’s so holy smokes it just activates the saliva glands. What? Ugh I can’t stop. This is a snack to some? Drinking my own spit like wine right now. It’s so addictive, once you get. I can’t stop. Is it addictive? I don’t know. Lily eat it. I love it. Lily this is what it is called cultural immersion. My mouth is so. Swallow it swallow it. Chew it chew it, swallow it chew it swallow it. I’m crying. It’s so sour I’m crying. Woo. It’s also sticky so it just kinda stays there. My eye is like twitching right now. Nicole can I have your tea? I’ll give you five bucks for that tea. Five dollars. Make it six. I don’t where my wallet is. I don’t know, I don’t have cash. Who carries cash? Venmo her. What was everyone’s favorite? Did you like this? It’s really intense. What do you use it as an ingredient for? So some people like put in like stews and stuff, but for the most part snack. this is a wild snack. Damn damn damn. But like how long would it take to get through that? Like one sitting? It depends how hardcore you are. My personal favorite, still the the almonds. What was your favorite Lily? I like this one. The Sohan? Yeah it was very good. Great, great. You guys wanna FaceTime my dad? Yeah. Let’s FaceTime my dad. So what’s Morris’ favorite snack? We’re gonna ask him right now actually. I like the nugget. Guys my dad is the cutest man right now. You guys are gonna see him for the first time. Hi dad how are you? I’m with Josh, Salam. And Lily and all the camera people in the world. I was gonna ask you, we’re all good dad. I was gonna ask you, what is your favorite snack out of the ones I’m gonna show you. We have Doogh, Chai, Lavashak, Sohan Asali, Gaz, Ghare Gharoot, and that’s and that’s it. What’s your favorite? Chai, which is tea number one. Okay. Myself, I myself drinking four, five. Everyday for of all my life. Good job dad. Because if I don’t, if I don’t drink tea, my day is not gonna start so. As Americans, I mean other people are drinking coffee, and they start the day. I start my day with tea. So that’s your number one. Yes. Dad, you’re my number one. I love you so much. Bye Mercy. Bye dad I love you, have a good day. New mythical kitchen, chai policy. Four to five glasses of chai a day. We have to. We’re always gonna be in the bathroom. So my dad’s favorite is chai. Honestly, with the saffron it might be mine too. Did you hear that? I did I had a response. It’s the bell Holy crap. How’d it go? Ring ding dong. Ring a ding ding ding dong. Keep a heads ringing. Is that what you heard? Yeah. Okay well it’s advice time and we have a fan, and his name is Pork Moscow, the culture pig. I don’t know if that’s his real name but. Yeah legally. The question is. Can you get the smell of onions out of a wooden cutting board? Nicole, do you wanna start? Yeah so the best way to get smells out of your cutting board is you take a lemon, you cut it in half, you put salt on the board, and then you use a lemon you scrub, scrub scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, scrub, and then you rinse with water. That’s it. Love you Porky. Bleach, a little bit of bleach put it in a little bit of water. I’m dead serious. They actually advocate for doing this. A little bit of bleach in cleaning your cooking equipment. We got all the smells out and then you just wash it with soap and water and the bleach comes out. You can absorb a little bit of bleach that’s not bad. Second option is just get used to the smell of onions. Why is that a bad thing? You ever had strawberry scented onions. Onions scented strawberries is good. No, I don’t agree with that. But I do agree with Nicole’s. If your cutting board is really rank, you can also take sandpaper and sand it down, and then you can get this oil, this like oil for your cutting board and put it on. ‘Cause everything like the onions will absorb into it. That oil’s gonna protect that. No there’s like special like oil. She’s right. Extra virgin. No one listen to Josh, he doesn’t, he doesn’t know anything. It’s true. Everyone say . Amen. The Mythical Kitchen’s favorite way to obliterate garlic immortalized in t-shirt form. Get the Palm Hill strike T now at mythical.com.