Today we’re busting spicy food myths. What’s the best way to experience spicy food? What’s the best way to tone it down? Do you need to char your peppers for maximum spicage? Or do you leave them in their raw, unfiltered state? Do you drink a glass of milk or take a bite of bread when the spice is too much and you just gotta quell it? Are these methods even important or are they just myths peddled from chef to chef waiting to be busted? To find out we’ve assembled a team of serious highly trained culinary professionals, and we’re putting them to the test because this is Myth Munchers! Myth Munchers! Oh my god! As you can see, Josh isn’t here today. His butt boils have spread to other parts of his body. Which parts? Which part? But, he left me in charge, so substitute teacher vibes a little bit. Hope you guys are cool with that. Yeah! Let’s text. You look like a hot teacher. I do? Like a hot, pilot teacher. Thank you so much. Very hot pilot. A pilot teacher? Yeah. Like an aviatrix? Alright, so our first myth. Does toasting your spices or your peppers create a more intense flavor? Myth 2, does the spice level matter if your peppers are charred, cooked, or left raw? Myth 3, spice level, does the temperature of how you eat your food define its spiciness? We’re gonna eat some cold food, some room temp food, and some warm food. And for myth four, which one actually cools down your mouth? Half and half with all that dairy fat, bread with all that starch, or lemonade with all that acid? Now, we’ve done spicy myths before, but I’ve never actually tackled any of these, and I’m really excited to see what we’re gonna find out. I’m curious. Learning. Trevor, pass out these cards, please. Thank you so much. Because we all need one. Thank you. While you’re passing those out, Josh left us a lesson plan, as you can see. But, who wants to watch a movie instead? Yeah! Alright, so, this is a myth that I’m very, very curious about. Because I’ve always thought that toasting your spices does make it spicier. We did learn last time, whenever we did this. Yes, we did. That fattier meat led to a spicier end product. So I’m wondering if toasting the spices, like the Kashmiri chili and the red pepper flake of our curry will make for a spicier end product. I’ve never done this. I mean, I’ve always been taught to toast my spices specifically for Indian food, I’ve never just thrown it in without like any rhyme or reason. Yeah, so don’t toast any of my spices unless I’m making soup. Oh, that’s nice. That’s the only time. But this is a first for me. So I’m actually curious to see how this goes. So I’m going to start toasting my spices. I think you hold on a second. I’m going to wait a second. You just do a little, a little dumpy dump when the time is right. We got these, you can see it’s starting to slowly bubble, which is nice. Beautiful, smells lovely. We’re adding our cumin, our coriander, our chili powder, our curry powder, our turmeric. Garlic and ginger. Yeah, garlic. I’m gonna wait. I’m gonna wait to do that one. Yeah, this is, I think this myth is more for like dry spices to really perfume the dish in totality to see if, if the heat and the oil will express it even more. So you like spicy food? I love spicy food. I actually had some very spicy noodles yesterday with Lily for lunch. Were they the Uncle Roger noodles? Yeah, I still feel it. I went to go work out last night and I could, I almost passed out because my heart, my heartburn was so crazy. Oh no, that’s wild. It’s triggering right now. Yeah, well the spices are definitely toasting. Yeah. You can see they’re getting nice and beautiful bubbly and fragrant, and then i’m gonna add some of my ginger. I know right? Some of my ginger, some of my garlic. I think you can start adding all of your stuff now. I’m gonna add my onions and tomato let that get nice and beautiful. Do you like spices, Nicole? I love spicy food. I can’t eat it all the time because I have tummy issues. I think I have severe GI problems. I’m gonna add my chicken. You add your chicken. I’m adding my chicken. Crazy to think this is the first time I actually ever made curry. This is your first curry experience? I don’t make curry at home. Wow. I’m gonna add my stock now. I’m ready. I don’t think i’m gonna add all this stock. I think I’m gonna add, what’s that about? Half? You know, screw it, pour it all in there. Screw it. And I think we’re just gonna let this cook for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has turned into a nice, thick, luxurious texture. And then we’ll see which one’s spicier. Before we taste our curries, take a look at this beautiful apron. You can get it at mythical.com Do you want to see what’s in my pocket? Show me, Nicole. Let me show you what I can fit in here. Wow! Multiple spoons! Another spoon! Wow! My cellular device! Beautiful. My, my lip liner! What else? My lip gloss! Wow, what else? A Sharpie! What else? I think that’s it. Okay, that’s great. But that’s all you can fit in your Mythical Apron. Buy it today! Good job, Nicole. As you can see, we have two gorgeous bowls of curry that we’re going to, garnish with a little bit of heavy cream. Nice. And a little bit of cilantro. I made a little whirlpool. Okay, let’s see, so we’re here to taste not only which one is spicier, but which one has a fuller, more defined flavor. Yes. Where should we start? Let’s start with untoasted. Okay. It’s so crazy, the untoasted one is lighter than the toasted one. Definitely. You can see, viscosity’s nice. Let me get a nice, let me get a nice. Oh, spicy. Spicy. You get the kick right away. Spicy, delicious, really well rounded. That’s a great bowl of, I wouldn’t be mad if I got that at a restaurant. Oh, shizzle. It is spicy. Oh, it’s spicy. Time for toasted. Okay, this one is a little thicker. I don’t know if that is a spice thing or not, but. A lot less spicy. A lot less spicy. Oh, wait. Did you get it? No, it’s the aftermath of the first one. Oh, is it? Yeah. Wait a second. Wow. I’m actually shook right now. This is so much less spicy. – But. – This one has more flavor. This one has more flavor. A lot more flavor. Did toasting it just mute it? Yeah. I think so. I must lick the spoons. Lick both spoons. Good. Good. Yeah. Sexy. This is more flavorful. Yes. And it’s spicier. This one, tastes a little better. This one tastes better and I like that it’s muted. It’s like comfortable, it makes you feel good. It’s just like, a nice meal. You can taste the raw spices. Yeah, you can taste the rawness in these spices. But, we are testing to see if it has more flavor and it’s spicier. And the untoasted does have both of those factors going for it. So, in an unbelievable upset as our first myth, untoasted wins, which means, This myth has been munched! Let’s feel the burn! Oh my god! That wasn’t even like a joke that actually hurt! Okay, I’m sorry! Oh my goodness! Okay. Those were real punches! I know, it was. And I have my ring on too. Oh my god, crazy energy! Okay, let’s get into it! Can we take a breather? Okay, let’s go. Is everything okay? I don’t know. Are you okay? I don’t know. No, like, I know we do this kind of thing on camera where we, like, are combative, but, like, I’m really asking you as a friend. Yeah, I don’t know. – I’ve just had a lot of. – No, it’s more just, like, I’m worried about you and I care about you. So I just want you to be okay. We’ll talk after the shoot. Okay, do you need anything from me right now? No, I just fake it till we make it. Okay. And then just get through the shoot. Alright. What’s up, everyone? Okay, we are making salsa verde and we are testing if charred chilies milds out the spice. So we have a charred chili that’s been roasted at a very high heat at, on broil, over 400 degrees over here. We have a cooked serrano over here, that’s been like lightly roasted. And then we have a raw serrano, and we’re just going to rough chop it and make some nice salsa. Oh my gosh, are we in space? Dude, that’s awesome. That’s so cool. Okay, I’m just gonna give this a rough chop with this dull knife. Wait, can you start making the salsa? No, no, concentrate. Concentrate. Okay, we’re putting in the garlic. Yeah. And then we’re gonna put the little onion in here. Onion. And then we’re gonna just bash it a little bit. Just bash. I’m gonna add a little salt to express the aromatics. – We’re expressing ourselves? – Yeah. Okay. So this one should be the spiciest, if the myth is right, and then this one should be in the middle, and then this one should be pretty mild. But, what do you think is gonna happen, Trevor? What? What do you think? I believe that raw’s gonna be the spiciest. I think it’s real. I think cooking them breaks down the capsaicin. Can you delete capsaicin? No. It’s a chemical. I think I chipped my nail. Oh my god, dude. So, now we’re gonna add the serrano. Include the seeds and everything. Can you do two? I don’t want to do two. Okay, I’ll, we’ll take turns. Okay. Put the seeds in here, because you put the seeds in yours. Well, the seeds are in the pepper. Well, yeah, so you did put them in. Well, but the pepper is. – Well, you didn’t deseed it. – I put the pepper in. It really depends on how you look at it, it’s more of a philosophical question. Are the seeds in it? Yeah, the seeds are in the pepper, but I put the pepper in, I didn’t intentionally put the seeds in, you know? It’s like the, the, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. I believe that’s from Naruto. Is that an anime? Is Naruto? That’s like. Yeah, dude. Yeah, it’s an anime. Do you know about “Pokéman”? Are you talking about Pokémon the game slash. – No, the game. – Show or Pokimane? Pokimane. The streamer. The streamer. Yeah. Did you know somebody is paying them? Oh, okay. Stop trying to relate to me. Can you go back to punching me? I just want to be your friend. It doesn’t seem like you do. You punched the crap out of me. We’re going to add the tomatillos. These have been roasted all equally. Roasted tomatillos. That was good. I know. I’ve been practicing. Do you like spicy food? Yeah. Good talk! Do you like spicy food? Yeah, I want my, like, butthole to come out of my. Whoa, Jesus Christ! I like feeling uncomfortable. Really? In life. Dude, are you real, I know we had our talk, but are we, do we have another one? Yeah. I’m not, I’m not okay. Just kidding, I am. What’s going on? We use the same amount of limes in all of them, and then we’ll give it a taste. Dude, we gotta have one more of these. Come on. You want me to squeeze 12 lime halves by myself? We’re gonna taste and adjust. What? Taste and adjust. So I’m not squeezing all four? Just start squeezing them. I’ll load you up. – You squeeze something. – Okay. I’ll get a fork and do it. How much? Are we starting with one half? No, no, no, no, no, no. What? Why, what are you doing? It breaks up the lime, it makes it easier to squeeze. Oh, I’ve never seen that before. These limes are dry as hell, dude. Yeah, because you’re scraping it with a fork. Dude, that is not a juicy lime. Look at me and tell me that’s a juicy lime. Well, you’ve got the lime squeezer, of course you’re gonna get more juice. Get a little close up. See if any more juice comes out. You have the contraption, the doohickey, made to squeeze lime juice. Look, we, people watch us because we are accurate on the Mythical Kitchen. Yeah, we do science. We do science. Look, dude. They’re actually learning things. Have fun. This isn’t just fun and games. People are learning things. This isn’t just fun and games. This isn’t just fun and games, everyone. Get it straight, okay? All you out there in the crowd right now, all you out there in the stands watching. So visually, they’re all green. They’re all green. Nothing else. In theory, the charred should be the least spicy, the cooked should be the second, and the raw should be the most spicy. I was thinking something as we were making these and I was having fun with my friend. Let’s delay the tasting longer. When we were doing the cooked one. – Okay. – Maybe, it’s like steaming inside, so it’s like activating. What if this is the spiciest? Well, that’s what we’re gonna do. Let’s taste to find out. Okay, so this should be the most mild. Correct. We got a nice salsa. You get a little bit of a bite. It’s nice. It’s a nice little, little kick. A little something on the back of the palate, as they say. That’s some junk Josh would say. Back of the palate? Always talking about the palate and stuff. That’s spicier! That is spicier. By, I feel like, a significant amount. Yeah, that’s spicier. Wait, should we do a palate cleanser? Sure. I don’t like this. This is bad for your teeth. Okay. Now we’re gonna do the raw. This should be the spiciest. On the back of my palate, hold on. If this is the spiciest one, in my opinion, I can’t, I can’t watch stuff like that. I do like, I do like a, a gag with you. What is that called? Your, you’re sympathy gagging? Jesus. That’s the spiciest. It hits you in the back a little bit more. But also in the front. Not in the front. But the sides. Just in the back. I’m getting it on the side of my palate. Anyone else? Should we do the thing where we write it on the counter? What? Do you remember a long time ago? I don’t think it’s worth it. Come on. Okay. Okay. We’re doing it. If you were. This is for Lily, she needs this everyone. I need it, okay. If you’re a true Mythical Kitchen fan, and you’ve been with us since, like, at least a couple years, you know that we used to write it on the counter. We did this once, dude. No, we used to do it all the time. And this will let them know that what we voted on, even though they’re sitting right there. Do you know how a W looks, dude? I can’t believe I have to clean up our counter writing. That’s beautiful. Okay, so that means, this myth has been munched! No, it munched us. Alright, it’s time to test if the temperature of your food affects the spiciness. So we are going to make three different kinds of noodles. Noodles! Just kidding, they’re three of the same noodles. But the temperatures of them will be different. Sorry about that. One will be warm, room temp, cold. All the spice in my body is, like, making, making me very disoriented. Are you feeling disoriented? Not yet, but I probably will in about 30 minutes. Is this peri, pre, almost menopause? No, it’s just pre toilet jitters. God, yeah, I guess so. Okay, so we’re gonna get started on our sauce. I’m gonna make the warm version, Vee’s gonna do room temperature, and we have a cold one hanging out in the fridge. Yes. So, tell them what’s in here, Vee. We have some chili oil, some Chinese sesame paste, some garlic and scallions, and then what’s this? Chinese vinegar. Nice. We got the extra spicy, chili oil for some reason. Is it? It looks extra spicy. It’s the extra one. What brand is it? It’s Fly By Jing. My favorite. I initially made this quite warm, but I just turned the heat off because I don’t want to fully express all of the heat or anything to change it, I just want it ever so slightly warm. Oh, look at the colors. Nice mix. That looks pretty good. That looks pretty good. It looks like it might kill me. Yeah, are you having troubles right now? Are you okay? I don’t know. I think I just gotta just gotta grin and bear it. You know what I mean? It’s just one of the situations where this is gonna make me stronger like that. Christina Aguilera song What song is that? Makes me that much stronger! Come on. Oh, dang I don’t know it. I only know it goes, most of the time in that song. That’s like almost every single Christina Aguilera song. Christina, come on the show. Sauce is done. Sauce is done. – Okay. – Noodles! I’m gonna go get the cold noodles. The cold one? Okay. I’m gonna move out. I’m gonna scoot, scoot. I need that. These are noodles. Yes, they are. These are noodles. Yes, they are. These are noodles. Yes, they are. Okay, let’s give these a nice little toss. And we are gonna mix, mix. This is gonna ruin my night, oh my god. Not like Uncle Roger would. Oh my god, okay, so those are cold, those are room temperature. We’re moving, we’re grooving. You ever see those videos on TikTok where they’re like, gonna pop a blood vessel in their face just from mixing noodles? I deleted TikTok off of my phone because I’m addicted to it. Yeah, I know, you always ask me for my TikTok on my phone. Yeah, it’s called having a problem. Okay, so. Do you have chopsticks? I do. Awesome. Which one should we try first? Let’s try warm. Warm? Okay, let’s do it. The normal way to eat noodles. Yeah, quite good. That’s really delicious. Wow, wow. Top tier. Oh my god. It’s not as spicy as I expected it to be. Really? Yeah. It’s killing me. Okay. So, that tastes great. This is at room temperature. Oh, room. I taste no spicy. I think my tongue might be blank at this point. Here, we do have these potatoes if we want a palate cleanser. Of course, potatoes, the classic palate cleanser of any sort of food show. Yum, sexy. Good potato. Okay, cold. Okay. Nicole, they all taste the same to me. Okay. Well, I will say this, the flavor of the cold one is more muted than the, the room temperature has more flavor. – And then the warm one. – The warm one is kind of, like. Has the most flavor. The best zone. Yeah. It has the best flavor. And I would say it has the most intense spice. Yeah. I can actually feel it. If you go back and taste them. This one, this one, I didn’t taste any spiciness level. But the warm? Good one. That’s wild. Yeah, the warmth, it’s interesting. It’s not an initial hit of spice, but once it dissipates, it definitely is the spiciest out of all of the three. So, it looks like whenever your food is colder, the spice is less prevalent. Which means, this myth munched us! Myth Munchers, are you fully spiced? Yeah! Feeling spicy? – Yes. – Spicy. My tummy hurts. Anybody else got the tummy grumble? It’s starting to go to my butthole. It will, looking at this milk. Well, now is the time to find out what helps spice quell the best. As we know, oh! You’re just gonna fist it? You’re just gonna fist it? You’re like the kid who puts his hand in the cake, man. Everyone grab a tender. These are extra hot tenders and they’re very spicy, hence the gloves. But we’re gonna take a bite of a tender and see which one of these methods is the best for quelling spice. Which one we starting with? Let’s start with half and half. People say that the casein, A.K.A. the protein in the milk or any sort of dairy products, helps break down the capsaicin. Also the fat helps break it down as well. So let’s see if that’s true. Oh my god. I don’t know. I think I just went numb. Oh my god. Does anybody want a glass? Anyone? You doing okay? Vee? Trevor? You want? You want to go again? Okay. It’s a very dry and dusty of the heat. Shall we try this? Yeah. Bottoms up. We’re all good. Sweet like mama’s milk. We’re all gonna have butt blows after this. How do you even know what that tastes like? I don’t know, I was adopted, so. I hate milk. This isn’t milk, this is half and half. I have no spice in my mouth. I think that works. That works really well. Winner. It neutralizes it. It definitely like, at least like right off the rip, you know. Yeah. Like, obviously spice lingers, but I think it’s good. I agree. It just cooled down my lips, but that’s about it. My stomach’s gonna hurt in like five seconds. Okay, let’s try bread. Whoa, what the junk? That’s crazy. There’s four pieces. There’s one for everyone. Sweet like mama’s milk. It’s just dry on dry. I feel like, it is dry on dry. It’s not as, it’s not working for me as much as the half and half. Not as effective, no. Does, absolutely nothing. – Yep. – I kind of like the bread. You could say the starch in the bread helps break down the capsaicin. It is working, but not as effectively as the half and half is. All right, let’s try lemonade. You guys ready? Have you? I’m good to go. Ready to go? Yeah. Yeah. Everybody looking at me. So people say the acid in lemon and lime juice can help neutralize the capsaicin. Let’s see if that’s true. Well, lemonade did its job. Oh, that was good. It’s refreshing. – That is so good. – It’s so good. Oh my god, it’s so nice. That was really nice. Oh, I’m just having a good time. It’s going down my face now. I will say, this is a much better combo. Bless you. God bless you. But the half and half. That worked great. Did work faster. Yes, I agree. Incredible. Yeah, but like if I’m going now, I’m not gonna have a glass of half and half next to me while I’m downing habanero tenders. I think the lemonade is pretty good. The lemonade is really good. Do we have more? Yeah, you want some more lemonade? We can wait. Where’s your lemonade though? I don’t want yours. It’s got your icky mouth. Okay, how about my icky mouth juice? I don’t want it! Eating chicken and lemonade is so good. I will say this, the chicken and lemonade combo was quite delicious. But, are we looking for deliciousness or are we looking for effectiveness? Maybe we’re, you know, on different spiritual paths. Cause I don’t know if I care. Looks like half and half is the victor, which means this myth munched us! Myth Munchers! Can you believe it? Yes. We did this without Josh. They said we couldn’t do it, but we did it. But we do miss him. Who’s that? Hope you get better soon. All right, so as we learned, myth one, we learned that untoasted ended up giving us a lot more spice and a lot more flavor, but it was not more delicious. But we’re not testing for deliciousness, we were testing for more flavor. So untoasted won this one. With myth two, we wanted to see if the spice level changed if we charred our pepper, cooked it, and left it raw. We were correct to say that the charred pepper ended up being the least spicy one. For myth three, spicy level, we learned that the colder the noodle is, the less spice was presented, even though they were all pretty, like, marginally spicy, you know. But the cold noodle was the least spicy one, and finally, myth four, we learned that half and half, that good, old, creamy, dreamy stuff, ended up cooling us down the best. Let’s see what everybody got. Lily! What did you do? Toasted, charred, cold, lemonade. Let’s go! Spice is life! I got two right. Good job. Trevor? Untoasted, charred, warm, and bread. I Got two as well. Vianai Austin. Untoasted, charred, room temp, lemonade, and this is what happens when you’re drunk off of chilies. Two. How many did you get right Nicole? Thank you so much Lily. Toasted, charred, warm, and half and half. I got two as well! Two gang! Did we all get two? Yeah, we’re losers! We’re so mediocre! Alright. We won because we got a day off from Josh, am I right? Thank you so much for stopping by the Mythical Kitchen. As you can see, this is my new microphone now. Do you want to catch us on other videos? Check us out every Tuesday and Thursday. Also on Sundays, that’s whenever the podcast comes out, but the video version. And if you want to just listen to us and not see us, you can go on Spotify or any other place you get your podcasts on Wednesdays, because that’s when that episode comes out. If you miss Josh, write in the comments, I miss Josh. If you don’t miss Josh, put in a little emoji. You know the one. I’m cramping. Hey, you! Cook up your own feast while wearing the Mythical Kitchen Apron. Available now at mythical.com