Do you want me to pick you up now? Pick me up? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hold me like a baby. Mommy. Well, well, well look who decided to show up. That’s right. My butt boils are fully healed now. Well you know what? Mine aren’t, and that means I’m uncomfortable and that means I’m gonna take it out on other people. And that means today that person is you in Tag Team two v. two taco battle. It was just a headache. It wasn’t actually butt boils. Yeah also, some people are like, “Why wasn’t this person in this episode?” We have five people. We put four people on camera at one time. Like it’s simple math. Trevor’s just sitting over there. Can someone show Trevor? Hi. Hi Trevor. This is how it works. Anyways, you’re going down butt boil girl. No. Butt boil girl. Don’t call her that. It was a headache. Don’t call her that. Butt boils versus basketball. A serious moment. But boils are a real disease and it’s not a joke. And we have a 1-800 number right here that you can donate to to end butt boils today. Or, not today. Also get insurance. Oh yeah. It helps with the boils. Let’s get cooking. Hey everyone, it’s Nicole and Lily. Hi guys. Your favorite Mythical Kitchen duo, right? Yeah. Everyone’s favorite. That’s what they said in the comments. That’s right. They’re all saying it. Some people are saying boo. Oh. That’s shady. Oh, that’s, wow. Okay. Okay. Well, what are we gonna make today, Lily? Tell the people. We are making duck fesenjoon. And it’s a Persian dish. That’s right. Lily said fesenjoon exactly how my mother would say it. No different. So fesenjoon is a really beautiful, incredibly complex dish with very few ingredients. It’s tons of walnuts and pomegranate molasses, saffron and onions. And it is just one of the most difficult, but also most rewarding Persian dishes to make. I personally have only made it once before. Okay. But I know it’s a winning dish if we do it the right way. Yeah. We’re gonna do it right. Yeah. So I just seared off some duck breasts and some duck leg. Okay. And I’m just gonna get rid of some of this duck fat. Tell all the people what you’re doing, Lily. Well, I have some nice masa over here and I’m just gonna break this butter up into here. I have some warm water, some sugar, salt, and some nice saffron water to give it a nice yellow color. And that’s gonna be a really pretty fragrant taco. That’s right. A lot of people like to call fesenjoon Persian mole, but I disagree. Why do you disagree? Because I would consider mole negro in particular to have like 25 ingredients. Yeah. It’s incredibly time consuming. It takes a lot of energy to be able to make a decent mole. With the fesenjoon, all you gotta do is watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn. And then you’re like golden and ready to go. Yeah. But yeah, this is probably the only Persian taco I’ve ever made. I don’t know about you. Yeah. This is definitely the only taco I’ve ever made. So we’ve got some ground walnuts in here that I’m mixing with our onion paste. I pretty much just blended up an onion. Yeah. And I made it into a paste and I told my mom I was doing this. Okay. And she was, you know, a little bit confused as usual. Because it’s a taco? She’s like, why are you making a fesenjoon taco, Nicole? And I said, why not, Mom? Yeah. I said, life’s short. We’ve gotta show the people of the world. ‘Cause I know people are watching all over the world right now. Foods from our culture. Right. Putting it in a taco is just like the easiest and it kind of makes sense. Easiest way. And it just makes total sense. And I also told her what I was doing and she looked at me, she goes, don’t burn the walnuts, Nicole. She did. She was on FaceTime. I can vouch for that. I Face Timed her and I told her what I was doing at work because I love my mom. And she’s like, if you burn the walnuts, I’ll know. And I’m like, how are you gonna know you’re not here? She’s like, I’ll know. So she kind of scared the living daylights outta me. But I’m gonna add a little bit of chicken stock to this. Traditionally it’s water, but we really wanna intensify that really delicious poultry flavor, that really, really nice and umami situation going on. And then a pinch of cinnamon just for a little bit of a kick. Traditionally, you don’t add cinnamon, but you know what, I’m a non-traditional kind of girl. I’m non-tradish. Yeah. You know, I’m not like the other girls. I’m different. All right. And then I got some pomegranate molasses here. And this pomegranate molasses is nice and sour. Sourness is a very important component of Persian food. In American food you don’t get a lot of sour foods unless you’re like sucking on a lemon or something. But this is an incredibly developed beautiful flavor. Do you wanna taste? Yeah, I do wanna taste. So it’s always really important to taste your pomegranate molasses. I did beforehand. ‘Cause you might have to add a little bit of sugar to supplement that sourness. Mm. It’s pretty much candy. Yeah. It’s pomegranate candy. So you’re gonna add this in, and right now it doesn’t look like much, but after an hour and a half with all the duck braising in there and all the molasses just really, really getting nice and concentrated and the walnuts. It turns into this beautiful deep purple-ly brown. It’s just the most gorgeous thing. All you need is a little bit of patience. And you’ll see it in just a moment. I made dough. All right, Lily, here we are yet again. We’re here. Almost done. It’s so funny how fast this show just goes. You know, when you know what you’re doing. You don’t need to like compensate by filling it- No. With random notions and quips and quotes. No. You can see how tender this is now. This dough has just fallen apart, fallen outta my fork. Yeah. So I’m just gonna shred some of the dark meat and some of the white meat. I mean, it’s so insanely tender. Oh my gosh. And do you see how it’s so like nicely cooked in there? Yeah. It’s not like cooked to oblivion. It smells so good, too. Well, how’s our, oh my God, look how yellow they are. Yeah they look just look like super yellow corn tortillas. They’re gorgeous. Saffron. That’s right. Because we’re fancy girls. We’re fancy gals. Fancy gals in the Mythical Kitchen. Wait, can I talk about my boil? Do you also have a boil? Yeah, I just, I don’t have one, but I actually had boils on my head when I was like a baby. Oh my gosh. Ouch. I’m so sorry. When I was on the orphanage- Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Yeah, they, they didn’t pick me up enough. And then, so I was sent to my parents that I have now with boils on my head and my mom had to pop them. And she knew that she had to, but. Was she a nurse? No, but, they were like, the doctor said to do it and I was crying and stuff. Oh, I’m sorry. She was crying and there was just a lot of pus everywhere. Do you want me to pick you up now? Pick me up? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hold me like a baby. Oh yeah. Mommy. Mommy. She’s all cured now. Okay. I was gonna talk about herbs, but now I don’t think I need to. What herbs? Annaliese, do I have to talk about herbs? Okay. She laughed. That means yes. Okay. So I’m just gonna add on some cilantro and a little bit of Persian basil, which I think is a beautiful, very, very fragrant, I would say. Can I try a piece? Of course you can. You can do whatever you want. Don’t let me stop you. I’m your daughter. Yeah, I guess you are now. All right. And then you can put some serranos on there too. Look how beautiful this dish is. Have you ever seen a more colorful dish? No. No. Probably not. See how easy it is when you know what you’re doing and you come into it and you’re prepared and you’re stewing some meats and you’re making some tacos. Look at that stuff, man. Yeah, look at it. You’re on other two. No, you’re on, you’re on. We’re off. No wait. We’re on. We’re way off. Are those all the colors of your underwear? Yeah. I’m wearing mancha manteles today. All right. So Nicole mentioned mole in hers. And said that fesenjoon is nothing like mole. We are kind of being inspired by mole today a little bit. This is really similar to mole verde. Some people call it pipian verde. If you are putting the Peepee. No, it’s not peepee. You’re not putting, don’t put peepee. Peepee. I’ve only put peepee in food here once and it’s honestly kind of a weird dark stain on my career that I’m trying to talk about. Pepitas. Pepitas are pumpkin seeds. Okay. So instead of doing that, we are fusing that we’re making like a Spain meets Mexico. You’re like, yeah, I’m fancy. You go to Ibiza. I’ve never been there. I go to Mexico, I go to Cabo and do that. Yeah. Listen, it’s an easier flight. Cabo’s fun. Two hours. We’re making like a romesco meets mole verde situation. We got tomatillos and poblanos, roasted jalapeno and cilantro. But that is getting blended with marcona almonds as well as sherry vinegar. Very Spanish ingredients. And then a Spanish olive oil. Where’s our olive oil though? We’re missing some. I have it. Where is it? Oh, it’s Jordan from Sporked. Hi. We tried a bunch of olive oil at Sporked and we loved this one because I had a really peppery flavor, that I think will complement this perfectly. Wow. You’re like an oil-malier. Can I try this? Yeah. Drink it. Ew. You ever do Gwyneth Paltrow-ass oil pulling? Mm hmm. Me too every day. But I don’t do it with my mouth. I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take this. Drink some. No, I’m good. Oh. Okay. Oh, that is peppery. That’s actually really good. It’s nice, right? I think it’ll come home with octopus. All right. Bring me one of these tacos at Sporked. I love you guys. Bye. We love our Jordan time. Damn those are peppery as hell. It’s great. Her sweater was hypnotizing me. All right, so you’re gonna get going on that romesco. I’m gonna start peeling these peppers. So we took the octopus and we did a really simple kind of quick braze on it, about an hour and a half in there just to get it tender and all the skin stayed on, which is great cause that’s what’s gonna give us some crisp and dredge it in there. I’m just gonna use some little Crayola-ass scissors to cut off, you know. Where did you get those from? Annaliese’s desk. Oh, I was looking for ’em earlier and you took ’em. Oh wait, you know what was funny in the last bit when Lily talked about her childhood that’s way more depressing than mine? I really love it. Thank you. I don’t know. Their mommy daughter moment was a little awkward. That wasn’t, do you..? But you know what we are? They’re the mommy daughter. We’re the cousins at Thanksgiving. That’d be like, Hey man, you wanna go for a walk real quick? Yeah. The cousins, they’re gonna be outside for about 15, 20 minutes. They’re gonna come in smelling like either Febreze, an orange peel, or what’s Purell? All three work. Wait, can I tell a really heartwarming story about my grandma and fesenjoon, though? Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna know. I wanna know. This is a really warming story. So my grandma’s 101 years old now, right? Yeah. She was 100 last time. Now she’s, she kept going, but she’s, I mean, begging for death. I think that’s aging. Yeah. No. And she’s begging for death, man. She hates living. She’s like, oh, my friends are dead. And she’s like, I can’t taste anymore. Every time we go out, she just goes, this doesn’t taste like anything. I’m like, yeah, you’re 101. Like, good job, you did it though. But we went to a Persian restaurant and I got her fesenjoon ’cause it’s also one of my favorite foods of all time. Nice. And she ate fesenjoon and she almost broke down in tears because she was like, finally, this has so much flavor that I can taste things again. And that was really heartwarming. So like I’m, I’m not saying I’m like rooting for the other team ’cause I think our taco’s gonna be good as hell, but man, do I love fesenjoon and it is a hell of a dish. Nicole, let me- What? No. You wanna help me peel things? Yeah. You want me to eat octopus head? Mm. Kind of. She gonna do it? She’ll rip the skin off. This is like a scene from “Old Boy.” I don’t like that. Take it. You wrestle it outta your mouth like you’re a dog. Geez. All right, cool. We’re gonna wait for this to heat up a little bit and then we’re gonna start. Oh, it tastes like Squidward. What’s your favorite of the seven regional moles from Oaxaca? Jalisco. That’s good. We’re gonna crank that on high. We’re trying to get a nice little crisp on this. We’re not doing a full fried, just a nice little pan shear on this. Oil’s gonna absorb some of that flour. That’s nice. Sherry vinegar. Yeah. Yeah. Dump in all the almonds. Dump in all the almonds. So one of the things that makes like romesco, this is very similar in terms of ingredients to a mole verde. Except we’re gonna use a lot more marcona almonds. And then the olive oil is something where it really differentiates as well. But of course, mole Tell me when to stop. All right, go, go, go, go, go. Just shake it. You gotta shake it. Shake it like you’re at a Korean nightclub and you’re a soji girl. Yeah, Nicole knows what I’m talking about. You gotta be like. This is how I would do it. This is how I would do it. My hips do feel looser now. Yeah. Did you season it with salt yet? Yeah I did. We’re rocking and rolling. Right. This one’s for you, Grandma. I’m happy you lived a long life. Oh, look at that texture. Beautiful. Octopus is bubblin’ and a burblin’. Ooh. That’s great. Octopus’s looking nice and crispy, man. No finger, finger. Finger. Finger. Finger. Finger. Finger. Needs salt. That needs salt. That olive oil is really hitting though, but yeah, yeah. Hey, dump some salt in there. I think a little bit more acid too. A little bit more acid. Yeah. Do we got any more sherry vin? I can go grab some. Grab it. Go. Run, Vi. This is where the athleticism really pays off in the Mythical Kitchen. Vi is opening up that stride. She’s all front side mechanics. Look at that knee drive. Sorry. Outdoor track season is in full swing and I’m freaking in, man. Octopus is looking great. Ooh, that’s not. I won’t do it, but my hands are covered in raw meat. No, give me your chin. How I? You ever put peanut butter on a dog’s nose and they’re like- I think that’s good. Octopus is crispy. Romesco is nice and creamy. I think we’re gonna start building our sam…taco. What the hell are we making? A taco fool. What did you say? A sandwich? I’m gonna go back here. I’m gonna go back here. We’re about to build our taco. While he takes a nap. Two minutes on that gremolata, Chef. Okay. I work hard for the glory of our restaurant, Chef. That’s right. I will not disappoint you, Chef. What? What? I don’t, no, I don’t like that. I don’t even hear what you said. You just be yelling and then I start blanking out. Lily already called Nicole Mommy, I’m not gonna– I’m cousin. What? I’m prima. Remember? We’re in Spain. You just came back from Columbia, but now we’re in Spain. Yeah. Sometimes we’re just spinning a globe. We’re like, we haven’t made some Spanish stuff. Let’s do it man. It’s just fun. It’s fun to cook new foods. Where’s the globe? So gremolata is really delicious. It’s typically made like parsley, lemon, sometimes a nut. You’ll do like hazelnut on it or breadcrumbs. We like nuts. Just some nice little topping. We do like nuts in here. We’re doing simple like lemon. We got cilantro and parsley here. A little bit of serrano and garlic as well. Let’s get a little bit of lemon juice in here. Yeah, we got that. Awesome romesco going down. I want a little bit more brightness. We got some pickled shallots to fold in. Ooh, there’s a like terrifying. In a good way. Yeah. I’m gonna fold in the olive oil and the lemon juice directly. I like the way two looks. That’s pretty. Oh my god. I used to paint sometimes. I want you all to know that I almost blew the cilantro off of the lemon. And then realize that people don’t like it when I blow my breath on their food and I stopped. Don’t blow, you rub. Okay. So I’m just not gonna dignify those with responses anymore. I love the commitment to the bit though. I love the innuendo. We thrive on innuendo here. I have some gourmet shallots. Oh god. I’m covering the supremes in herbs. And then I’m gonna just put these on the side. Yeah. I almost called you Trevor. Wow. I was like Trevor. I’m like two of Trevor. I did my part. What are you doing? I’m just gonna take a little bit of this gremolata. Put it right in the middle. Oh, good blanket. It’s nice. Why’s Nicole laughing? Dude, I hate that. Oh my God. I never know. But she is kind of funny. She’s funny but like why is she laughing at us at just like making a taco. This is weird, dude. What a weird little psy-op going on. Yeah, I’m gonna keep using psy-op by the way. I don’t even know what that means. Doesn’t know what a psy-op is? Oh my God. You are not just chronically online as I thought you were. You told me to put it on the side and then you add it on top. No, I mean on like the side of the taco. You’re like “put ’em on the side.” No, I meant the side of the taco. We’re not communicating well. Put it on the side. Put it on the side. Come on. We’re supposed to be primas. We’re we are primas. Yes. I’ll tell you we’re primas. We’re super primas. We’re so primo. We’re the water. Nobody probably understand that if you have Sparkletts, you’d get that joke. You have Sparkletts in the year of our Lord 2023? First of all, Sparkletts was one of the best investments I made at my old apartment. Sparkletts is the only water that tastes like dog dish water. Like put like one more in there. One more what? One more of that, transparent that. I’m gonna put another octopus right there. Bro, then you’re gonna mess up the whole plating. No, leave it like that. I’m not happy with that. Are you happy with this? No, not really. Yeah. What do we do? What’d you do? Let’s just, let’s start putting layers on. Okay. Say less. Let’s do that. There you go. Now. Yeah. Yeah. Add some more stuff. Okay. Yeah. Make it like a, yeah. Put some more of that green. Yeah. A little bit of green stuff. That herbal. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we kinda like dot it around now. No. Yeah. I Like this. And Lucas is judging and man, his judging style can best be described as a brick to the face. I feel like we add another layer. I’m not super happy with it. No, I’m not either. But let’s add one more. Let’s see how it looks. Just like hold ’em up. Hold it above what, your head? Hold this above taco to see what it looks like. I’m saying don’t actually put it on the taco. And here we have our lovely Spain meats Mexico taco with our roasted octopus and whatever the hell else we put in it. I think it’s gonna be good. The flavors are good. It’s pickles. Pickled onions. Lucas, last time you were here, you insulted us personally, you besmirched our reputations, and you disgraced our kitchen. Welcome back. Thanks. Before you have two tacos that were each made by myself and Vi. And then a team with Nicole and Lily. Do you feel prepared to judge this battle? I feel prepared to judge, yeah. The battle of the foods. Is there any ingredient on either of these tacos that you see that you don’t eat or that you personally hate? Yeah, I immediately picked that one out. I don’t eat octopus. Never have eaten octopus. I don’t like it. I don’t care to, I like ’em. It’s not an allergy thing. I just like ’em. Don’t wanna eat ’em. Like them enough not to eat ’em. Yeah. I also grew up with a pet duck, so. No. Oh, what was the duck’s name? What was the duck’s name? Oh, here he goes. What was the duck’s name? Christopher. Christopher The duck. Alright. So. Can’t even give it a, a name with a D. Well, that’s cool. I wanna get this over with. Lucas, what we’ve made for you today. This is a Spanish inspired taco. It’s got a squid ink tortilla. It’s got roasted octopus, which you just absolutely love. We got lemon supremes. A little bit of cilantro, gremolata, and then a mole verde inspired romesco. Eat it, hate it, whatever. No, I’m not gonna hate it. I’m gonna try it. I mean, I never, it’s the only food that I can avoid, so I have avoided it. But I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to get all of it in there. Do you recommend like a flat faced eat? No. Like, a taco. You eat it like a taco. Like a taco. Eat the taco like a taco. Yeah. So that part’s the octopus. Tentacles. That’s the intel. You know they say they got a brain in each one of those. Remember? They’re intelligent as you eat. Octopuses can’t love. Ducks can’t even feel it. Don’t even think about it bro. Just bite it. It’s talking to you. It’s also the ink of a squid. We get a little quiet on the set? That, that’d be great. Thanks. No Respect. Sorry you’re waking me sweaty. Oh, oh, okay. That’s the nicest thing he’s ever said to me. Yeah, it is. It is. It’s a good start. He’s breathing really hard right now. I’m in a good mood this morning. I love that for you. Okay, I did that. Yeah. What else do you want? Oh, next one. You can try ours next. Put it down. Lucas, for you today we have a fesenjoon duck taco. It’s a Persian stew made out of pomegranate molasses and walnuts. Cool. Topped with some sabzi, which is just a bunch of herbs. Serranos and pomegranate arils as well as saffron tortillas. What was this duck’s name? Ted. It wasn’t Christopher. Ted. Okay. Promise. Nice Anglo names we got for our ducks. All right. Not Ted. I’m gonna try to go ahead and get the whole, the mishigas in there, which, you know, I, a few of those words made sense, you know. So. Also “nooshe jan,” means “bon appetit” or “nourish your soul.” So nooshe jan. Say it. Nooshe jan. Nooshe jan. Nooshe jan. They say “June,” but it’s the wrong month. Got em. Okay. Okay, why’d you guys make three? We just thought, you know, they were smaller and kind of like, have you ever been to Asados or like street tacos before? No. Okay. Well the inspiration was, you know, just small tacos you can eat in two or three bites and then it’s just, more full presentation. Yeah. And we wanted to, you know, present something that would be, you know, considered like a dish at a restaurant. So. Sure. I mean that’s, that’s great. I feel like there’s a lot more confidence on that dish though. What are you talking about? Why? They made one and you made three and I– Because you were hungry. You’re a hungry guy. We’re nourishing your soul. I’m not that hungry. I had a bagel a couple minutes ago. Why did you eat right before you’re judging tacos? You knew you were judging. It’s on the schedule. Why’d you eat a bagel? Why’d you eat something carb heavy? I just like to cleanse my palate with some– Respect. What’s wrong with the bagel? Which taco won? Which taco won? Invite me for the bagel episode. Which taco won? You’re from New York. It’s fine. Three, two, one. No, I can’t do that. Oh, come on. Just tell us which taco won. I really don’t wanna do a three, two, one. Okay. I don’t wanna do a three, two, one. I want Trevor to count three, two, one. Three, two, one. I like that one better. Number one! Number one! To be fair, we haven’t lost in a long time. Mostly it’s ’cause there’s octopus in this one. I don’t like octopus. Yeah, well we know that now. We know that now. You’re a winner. You’re a killer. There’s nothing you can’t do. I freaking love it. Lucas, I neither like nor respect you. But the fact that you’re here showed an incredible amount of bravery. No, that’s cool. And just an utter contentment for all of us. This was, this was fun. I wanna do this, yeah this was great. You wanna come back next time? Sure. Yeah. Whatever. You Gotta bring the duck. The duck? Yeah. Richard? I killed him. His name’s Christopher. He never had a duck. Wow, you lied. He never had a pet duck. I didn’t a duck. I lied. Lucas, that means too lied on this decision. If you want Lucas to be the permanent judge on this show, comment below. Don’t comment. Put a duck emoji. That’s never gonna happen because again, utterly disgraceful performance. People don’t like me. No, we love Lucas. Really? It’s all joshin’. And it’s all for fun, you know? Yeah. Thanks. Lucas, thank you. Lucas, thanks for being on the show. Tell the people where they can find you. You can find me on Instagram. I don’t have a TikTok or anything, don’t look. We’ll see you next time. And I think Josh and I are even right now, right? We’re tied? I still have a lot of wins, so I’m good. What does he know about food. Like do we screen these people? No, I know stuff about food. I just don’t like octopus. He also has a raccoon on his shirt. Yeah, you see Rufus the Raccoon? You guys did a really good job. Thank you. Pleasure. Not so much. You did good, Vi. I’m proud of you. Thanks Lucas. Yeah, no thanks so much. Good job, Josh. Thanks Josh. Are we going away now? I’ll eat this. Your winning tacos. Cool. When’s it over? Hey, you cook up your own feast while wearing a Mythical Kitchen apron. Available now at mythical.com.