Pod Insights The Sporkful How Do You Steal A Truckload Of Tequila? (Salad Spinner Year In Review) About this episode From a moisturizer made of beef fat, to bartenders hating on Gen Z, to tariffs, a lot happened this year. (How do you get away with stealing 100,000 eggs and a truckload of Guy Fieri’s tequila?) We cover the biggest and strangest food stories of 2025 in our Salad Spinner Year in Review!
Transcript 10,378 words · 7 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Dan Pashman? Boar's Head brings to the deli the taste of deep fried turkey. Look, whether or not you've had deep fried turkey, I think you can probably understand that it's amazing. But making it is also a massive production. That's why Boar's Head now presents the Friar's Turkey Breast. One bite and flavor takes over. Perfectly seasoned, deliciously golden fried. A backyard tradition, available at the deli only from Boar's Head. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at your local Boar's Head deli. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. My whole extended family and I went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this past spring. And I gotta say, I came away feeling like, number one, this is a great family destination. Number two, this is a great place to come all year round. The mini golf alone is probably worth, it's like the mini golf capital of the country.
0:45 Dan Pashman? They have the most incredible elaborate mini golf courses. They also have more than 80 championship, full-size golf courses, plus 60 miles of beautiful coastline, all-season sunshine. Of course, you can relax by the beach or the pool. There's also jet skiing, fishing charters, paddle boarding, and of course, food. Oh, man, did we eat well in Myrtle Beach. From fresh local seafood to craft burgers and craft beers to kebabs on the boardwalk. With more than 2,000 restaurants to choose from, from legendary no-frill seafood shacks to chef-driven dining, Myrtle Beach has it all. Plus, live entertainment at the beach, there's always something epic going on. So, summer may be winding down, but in Myrtle Beach, you're gonna find the coastal vacation of your dreams all year long. Start planning your ultimate beach vacation at visitmyrtlebeach.com.
1:41 Dan Pashman? Yasmin, I'm told that you have a hot take about cooking pasta.
1:45 Speaker 01 This is so cancelable.
1:47 Speaker 02 Boy, can't wait.
1:47 Dan Pashman? Let's hear it.
1:48 Speaker 01 You can pressure cook pasta, and you should pressure cook pasta if you are short on time. And you know what? It's pretty good. There is a setting on Instant Pot under pressure cooker.
1:57 Speaker 02 They gave a huge amount of money to the Trump campaign, by the way. As a result, they were exempted from certain tariffs that were being levied about four months ago.
2:04 Dan Pashman? Are you being serious?
2:05 Speaker 02 Yes, absolutely. And they also released a special edition MAGA commemorative Instant Pot.
2:10 Speaker 01 Stop.
2:10 Dan Pashman? And I assume the Trump-branded Instant Pot also has a setting for making Big Macs.
2:17 Dan Pashman? This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. And this, my friends, is our salad spinner, year in review edition. We're covering the biggest, strangest, and most surprising food stories from the past year. From the tariff roller coaster to Gen Z making bartenders very upset, to criminal masterminds stealing truckloads of food, Ocean's Eleven style. We'll also cover what we loved and hated in the world of food in 2025 with two very special guests who are both returning to our show. First up, Helen Rosner is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she covers food and writes restaurant reviews. She also writes the Food Scene newsletter for the magazine. Welcome back, Helen.
3:02 Speaker 02 Thanks, Dan. Hello.
3:03 Dan Pashman? And Yasmin Tayag is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers food, health, policy, and culture. She's also the host of their new podcast, How to Age Up. Welcome back, Yasmin.
3:12 Speaker 01 Thanks for having me back.
3:14 Dan Pashman? Are you two both buckled up and ready to spin the spinner? Yasmin, get in there. Spin that. Hold it up to the mic so the audio people can hear it, too. We're actually spinning a salad spinner. Go.
3:25 Speaker 01 Oh, no. Yeah.
3:28 Speaker 02 Look at that.
3:28 Speaker 01 It's spinning fast.
3:29 Dan Pashman? All right.
3:30 Speaker 01 Some dry greens in there.
3:33 Dan Pashman? Let's get going here. First up, the food story that has dominated headlines in 2025: tariffs. Tariffs have affected a range of industries, including the world of food. First off, let's talk big picture on these tariffs. Now, before they were all announced, the general conventional wisdom that I was reading from economists was these are going to make the costs of goods go up for the companies, and they're going to pass that cost on to consumers, and there will be inflation. Yasmin, has that happened?
4:01 Speaker 01 Yeah. It has.
4:03 Dan Pashman? But it didn't happen right away. I feel like there was a period of time where people were like, oh, it's not actually so bad. But now it just took a while?
4:09 Speaker 01 It took a while, in part because the retailers are shouldering a lot of the costs. But it gets to a point where they just can't take on that cost anymore, and then it starts trickling down to us.
4:20 Dan Pashman? Recently, President Trump reversed course and reduced tariffs on beef, tomatoes, bananas, and coffee in an effort to bring down prices, especially after the recent elections, which showed that affordability remains a top issue for Americans. Now, I want to play a game with the two of you. I'm going to... Name a food. And I want you to tell me how you think the price of this item has changed in the past year. So let's get started. A pound of fresh ground beef. How has, in dollars and cents, how much has one pound of fresh ground beef changed over the past year?
4:53 Speaker 02 I said it went up $2.
4:54 Dan Pashman? Whoa.
4:55 Speaker 01 I said $3.
4:57 Dan Pashman? Wow, okay. We gotta bring that, it's only one year, okay? The correct answer is 78 cents.
5:02 Speaker 02 Whoa.
5:02 Dan Pashman? All right, how about a dozen eggs?
5:05 Speaker 02 That's just like, whoa.
5:06 Dan Pashman? Up and down, yeah. So this is a tough one. All right, Yasmin, what's your answer?
5:12 Speaker 01 $1.75.
5:13 Dan Pashman? $1.75?
5:15 Speaker 02 I'm gonna say down a dollar. Because it was such a big news story. And I think Trump really campaigned on it.
5:21 Dan Pashman? You're closer, Helen. It went down 4 cents.
5:24 Speaker 01 4 cents?
5:25 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
5:25 Speaker 01 For the expert. Wow. I mean, please feel free to tag it, I don't want to do it anymore.
5:31 Dan Pashman? All right, let's do one more. One pound of roasted coffee. Helen?
5:36 Speaker 02 I'm gonna say up 3 bucks.
5:37 Speaker 01 I'm gonna say up 2 bucks.
5:39 Dan Pashman? Technically, you went over, Helen, but you were closer. Up $2.67 in one year for a pound of roasted coffee.
5:46 Speaker 02 Okay.
5:47 Dan Pashman? I mean, that's a lot.
5:48 Speaker 02 That's a lot.
5:49 Dan Pashman? That's crazy. I mean, yeah.
5:50 Speaker 02 Especially for like, an addictive daily substance.
5:53 Speaker 01 This just goes to show. I just, I'm so cheap, everything seems so expensive to me.
5:59 Dan Pashman? But isn't that true for everyone? You're all seeing it. Now, one specific tariff that made big news recently. Pasta. We gotta talk about this. The Wall Street Journal piece on this issue had the headline, "Italian Pasta Is Poised To Disappear From American Grocery Shelves", which I thought was an overly dramatic headline. And then it got picked up by every website. It's gonna disappear, it's gonna disappear. Well, you didn't use, I don't think you used the word disappear in your article.
6:21 Speaker 01 I didn't say, I was measured.
6:23 Dan Pashman? Thank you, Yasmin, for being responsible in your journalism. Because you wrote a story about this.
6:29 Speaker 01 I did write about this.
6:30 Dan Pashman? Nice enough to interview me, among others. What's the deal with these pasta tariffs?
6:36 Speaker 01 So there's a proposed, keyword, proposed 92% tariff on...
6:42 Speaker 01 Not all Italian imported pasta, but 13 manufacturers.
6:45 Dan Pashman? Right.
6:46 Speaker 01 And there's some like behind the scenes drama where for years now, the Commerce Department has been looking into whether these companies have been underpricing their pasta to make it ultra competitive with US pasta.
6:59 Dan Pashman? Right, dumping is what it's called.
7:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:01 Dan Pashman? And they're selling it for less in America than they sell it for in Italy.
7:04 Speaker 01 Something like that.
7:05 Dan Pashman? And this is something they've been fighting for about for decades. There was an issue about this in the 80s, there was an issue in the 90s, so it predates Trump. So there is a new tariff on a bunch of imported goods from Europe that's 15%. So all the pasta imported from Italy has 15%, but these 13 specific companies.
7:21 Speaker 01 Could face.
7:22 Dan Pashman? Could face an additional 92% tariff because they've been accused of dumping their pasta too cheaply in America.
7:30 Speaker 01 Yes, but the twist here is that it's a proposed 92% tariff. According to the White House, the reason that the proposed tariff is so high is that the Italian companies were not sending complete data. They weren't cooperating with the investigation. And the White House said, well, if they had sent more data, we would have been able to recalculate and it might have been lower, but they're not cooperating, they're crying foul, so it's 92%.
8:00 Dan Pashman? I was reading up on this when it happened in the 80s, it was called the Pasta Wars.
8:03 Speaker 01 Wow.
8:04 Dan Pashman? Because like a lot of American companies were like basically petitioning the Commerce Department, saying, we're getting screwed here, you gotta do something. And it got very intense. But to be clear, one thing I think is important to add that it got lost in some of the headlines is that the overwhelming majority of pasta sold in America is made in America. Even Barilla makes almost all of its pasta sold in America in America, except for a couple of products. Almost all of the private label, store brand pastas, you know, Barilla and Store Brand together make up like 45% of the pasta sold in America. Store brand is almost all made in America. All right, should we move on? Helen, you want to give this salad spinner a spin?
8:43 Speaker 01 Oh, sure, yeah.
8:48 Dan Pashman? That's nice.
8:49 Speaker 02 That is nice.
8:51 Dan Pashman? Next story up, 2025 was a huge year for cargo theft. Some big-ticket items that were stolen include Meta, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and Nike sneakers. But the number one target was food and beverages. In February, 100,000 eggs were stolen in Pennsylvania. The next month, 80,000 pounds of beef were stolen in Tennessee. Even Guy Fieri is not safe. He had 24,000 bottles of his tequila lifted. Now, technically, that happened last year, but Guy just spoke about it publicly for the first time a few months ago on 60 Minutes. We have a clip of that.
9:27 Speaker 03 Well, when the president of your company calls you and says, "We have a problem," I'm, "What's up?" And he goes, "You're not going to believe this, but we lost two truckloads of Santo tequila." I said, "Well, wait, wait, wait. Is this a hijacking?" I said, "Are the drivers OK?" I said, "Is this a..." Because all my mind goes to is Goodfellas and, you know, that's what I'm thinking is happening. My mind is swimming in exactly how do you lose, you know, that many thousands of bottles of tequila?
9:51 Speaker 02 I want a movie of this.
9:52 Dan Pashman? Yeah, there could be a good one. So, but yeah, so these are my questions too. How? How do you do this? So, we looked into it. Now, here's how it works. So, cargo and shipping companies are doing more of their work electronically and remotely, and they farm out a lot of the work. So, they post on some online clearinghouse, like, "Hey, we need someone to ship this thing from here to there." And then some company takes that job. What cargo thieves do is they create a fake trucking business. They accept one of these shipping gigs, and once they get the goods, they're gone in a whole other direction. They never show up at the destination. They even use fake GPS coordinates. So, companies think they're tracking the truck's progress, going to the right place. Turns out, the truck is in a whole other place.
10:36 Dan Pashman? My next question is, what happens to the food, then? A lot of this food is sold on the black market, it turns out. It may even end up on grocery store shelves. But in the case of the 100,000 eggs stolen back in February, a police spokesperson says, quote, "The thieves could sell them or use them for vandalizing purposes."
10:55 Dan Pashman? I don't know how you egg 100,000 houses without getting caught.
10:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, also, that's a Halloween activity.
11:02 Dan Pashman? Right, right, right. Helen and Yasmin, if you could steal a truckload of one food product, what would it be?
11:09 Speaker 01 Olive oil.
11:11 Speaker 02 Oh, that's such a good one.
11:12 Speaker 01 So expensive now.
11:14 Speaker 02 I was gonna say Wegmans Chicken Bone Broth, which is my single favorite grocery item in the history of the world. And I spend so much money on it and I love it. It's 12 bucks for a jar of three cups of the most intense concentrated, like mega colagenous chicken broth that tastes like you made it yourself and all that's in it is chicken and water. And it has completely changed my relationship to making stock at home because I just don't know. I just buy this amazing stuff and I would like all of it.
11:43 Speaker 01 12 bucks is expensive for three cups.
11:45 Speaker 02 12 bucks is expensive for three cups, but it's about triple or quadruple concentration. And if you compare it to the aggregate cost of like buying all the chicken over the course of a month or two to make the stock.
11:55 Dan Pashman? Let alone the time.
11:56 Speaker 02 The time and the everything, it's, anyway. Is it a refrigerated truck and do I get to keep the refrigerated truck to keep the refrigerated items in?
12:04 Dan Pashman? Right, like can you just park that truck on the street?
12:06 Speaker 02 On the street outside of my apartment building. All of those are really good though.
12:09 Dan Pashman? Whose truck is this? Oh, that's my bone broth truck.
12:11 Speaker 02 That's just where I keep my stock. That's my, that's my broth truck.
12:15 Dan Pashman? For me, I, I'd probably go with steaks. Not like, not ground beef. I mean, like nice steaks, like vacuum sealed.
12:22 Speaker 01 Yeah.
12:22 Dan Pashman? So they'll last a long time.
12:24 Speaker 02 You also need a truck to be refrigerated.
12:25 Dan Pashman? And then I would get like, you know, 12 freezers in my basement and just fill them all with steaks and like anyone's coming by, hey, here, take some steaks for the road. We're gonna throw some steaks on the grill. Hey, it's the mailman, have a steak, you know? Just, just handing out steaks left and right. We'd have steak every week. It'd be awesome.
12:41 Speaker 01 The dream, the dream.
12:44 Dan Pashman? All right, we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, why bartenders hate Gen Z, new trends in cow-based wellness.
12:52 Speaker 02 Super.
12:53 Dan Pashman? And we'll announce the winners of the first ever Silver Spork Awards. That's gonna be exciting. Stick around.
13:14 Dan Pashman? When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done, the odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes, and then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients. It's 100% free from dyes, perfumes, parabens, and irritating residues. Check out the label and see for yourself, it lists all the ingredients and what they do. We've been using it in my house, we're very happy with it, and let me tell you, family of four, two teenagers, we do a lot of laundry.
13:59 Dan Pashman? So we have put All Free Clear to the test. It's a powerful clean that you can feel good about. All Free Clear is the number one detergent brand recommended by dermatologists for sensitive skin. When it comes to laundry detergent, the choice is clear, All Free Clear. Pick up a bottle for your next laundry day.
14:16 Dan Pashman? Last year, right around this time, I got a new jacket from Quince, a lightweight fall jacket, and it has turned into my favorite jacket. And this is why you need a lightweight jacket, and probably a new one, because it's time to freshen up your look. You need a lightweight jacket from Quince because the beauty of a lightweight jacket is you can wear it in the early fall, you can wear it in the early spring, but also it goes over a sweater, over a sweatshirt. And then suddenly, your lightweight jacket is a great accessory for pretty much the whole winter. Bottom line, when the temperatures start to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on those everyday staples with versatile layers designed to keep you warm and comfortable all season long. They make elevated everyday essentials using premium materials and designs that are timeless, thoughtfully crafted, and made to be worn again and again. So find your next fall favorites at Quince.
15:01 Dan Pashman? Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was this pork full. It's the best way to support the show.
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15:50 Speaker 04 This podcast is supported by Nurtac ODT, Remedy Pant. We know you didn't ask for an interruption, but migraine doesn't wait for the right moment to interrupt either. It just barges in, takes your time, and throws everything off. So when migraine takes your time, take Nurtac. It's for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. Nurtac can provide pain relief in two hours, which can last up to two days. Ask your healthcare provider if Nurtac is right for you, because your time is for you, not migraine. Don't take if allergic to Nurtac ODT. Allergic reactions can occur even days after use. Get help right away for trouble breathing, rash, swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or throat. High blood pressure and Raynaud's syndrome can occur. Get help for high blood pressure, numbness, coolness, pain,
16:34 Speaker 04 or color changes in fingers and toes. Common side effect is nausea. For full prescribing information, call 1-833-4-NUR-TAC or visit nurtec.com. All right, back to your podcast, playlist, or whatever's keeping you going today.
16:56 Dan Pashman? Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman, and I have three quick but important things to tell you. Number one, we have Sporkful live tapings lined up for 2026 in Brooklyn, March 19th, with my special guest, Kenji Lopez Alt, and May 1st in Boston, guest to be announced. Tickets and details at sporkful.com/events. Can't wait to see you there. Number two, we're once again doing a dating show here on The Sporkful, so if you're looking for love, I want to hear from you. We'll be setting up three lucky couples, sending you on dates couples. ...of the Sporkful and recording the dates for the show. If you want to sign up to be part of it, go to sporkful.com/matchmaker to fill out our form. Now, everyone's welcome, but there are a few specific types of folks we are looking for right now.
17:41 Dan Pashman? A man seeking a woman in Houston, a man seeking a woman in Denver, a woman seeking a man in Philly, and a woman seeking a woman in Victoria or Vancouver, B.C. If you're one of those people, we especially want to hear from you. Again, go to sporkful.com/matchmaker. Third and final thing, make sure you stay tuned to the end of this show for a segment all about how to make your holiday baking and cooking even more delicious, brought to you by Better Than Bullion. All right, let's get back now to our salad spinner year in review. I'm joined once again by Yasmin Tayag, staff writer at The Atlantic, and Helen Rosner, staff writer at The New Yorker. Welcome back.
18:17 Speaker 02 Woo-hoo.
18:18 Dan Pashman? Let's spin this. Can I spin the spinner?
18:20 Speaker 02 Yes. It's your spinner.
18:22 Dan Pashman? I never spin it myself. I'm gonna spin the spinner. Here we go.
18:30 Dan Pashman? It's still going. I'm just gonna stop it. All right. More and more international restaurant chains are opening up shop in the U.S., often here in New York. You've written about this, Helen.
18:41 Speaker 02 I have.
18:42 Dan Pashman? As you say, there's Juicy Patties, a Jamaican fast food joint that launched several locations this year. The first American Sangku Mai Otsai, I hope I'm saying that correctly, a hot pot restaurant from Chengdu that has 4,000 international locations, is now here in America. And Mixu Ice Cream and Tea, a Chinese chain with more stores worldwide than McDonald's. You focus in your piece on a new Japanese import called I'm Donut? It's I'm Donut Space?
19:07 Speaker 02 I'm Donut Space? Which I was informed by the copy editor who worked on my piece nearly broke The New Yorker's entire editorial operation.
19:16 Dan Pashman? I mean, these are people that still put, what do you call those two?
19:19 Speaker 02 Diurecys, yeah.
19:20 Dan Pashman? Like, oh, the second O in the word cooperate?
19:23 Speaker 02 Absolutely.
19:24 Dan Pashman? I mean, they do not F around at The New Yorker when it comes to punctuation.
19:27 Speaker 02 And you put a space before a question mark just for the hell. And the D in donut is lowercase as well. So it's I'm lowercase d-donut-space? Which I just, oh, I love it.
19:36 Speaker 01 The chaos energy about it is extraordinary.
19:39 Dan Pashman? So this is a Japanese donut chain that opened up their first spot in America recently, in Times Square. You went, first off, how are the donuts?
19:45 Speaker 02 I thought they were terrific. Their style of donut called nama, which is Japanese for raw. The idea is they're so moist inside and so lightweight that it almost feels like you are eating uncooked donut dough. And I just loved it. I loved the texture. I am a big sort of ultra lightweight Krispy Kreme style donut person, and these are a little bit denser than that, but it really spoke to me. And they're just, I love them.
20:13 Dan Pashman? You said there's some surprising ingredient in them, was like squash or something?
20:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, they have kabocha squash.
20:18 Dan Pashman? In the batter of the donut.
20:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, and if you think about like...
20:21 Dan Pashman? So it's not like there's pieces of squash?
20:23 Speaker 02 No, no, but if you think about, for example, like a potato bun on a burger, right? Incorporating these starchy root vegetables into a dough can create a really squishy, lovely, lightweight texture. So incorporating kabocha squash, and it also gives the dough in the versions that don't have additional like flavorings added, like the cocoa ones or the matcha ones, which are bright green, it gives the dough this amazing sunny yellow color from the squash. So they just are beautiful to look at, and they look delicious, which helps them taste delicious.
20:52 Dan Pashman? But it's a long line for this place.
20:54 Speaker 02 Depending on the time of day, yeah. You know, I went on a weekday morning and it was pouring rain and I walked right in. And then I went on a weekend afternoon on a beautiful sunny day and I was one of probably 150 tourists.
21:06 Dan Pashman? Oh, my God.
21:06 Speaker 02 Like in a winding line of stanchions.
21:08 Dan Pashman? Right. If someone had to wait that long, would you recommend them waiting?
21:11 Speaker 02 I don't think anyone should wait that long for anything, literally anything.
21:13 Dan Pashman? Yeah, I agree.
21:14 Speaker 02 Like nothing, like not even like medical care. Like, no.
21:20 Speaker 02 You know, if you have a good book that you're reading and you'd otherwise spend that hour and a half just sitting on your butt reading your book, sure, spend it waiting in a line, but...
21:27 Dan Pashman? Or if it's your job.
21:28 Speaker 02 Or if it's your job, as is my case. I was paid to stand in the line, so I was happy to do it.
21:32 Speaker 01 Had you heard of it before it opened?
21:34 Speaker 02 So I hadn't. There are only three or four total locations of I'm Donut. There are three, I think, in Japan, and this is the fourth location here in New York. It's also very much speaking to a kind of social media influencer-y, touristy kind of experiential audience, which is different from something like Juicy Patties or Mixway or other international chains like that, which are, I think, not really trying to play the social media influencer game, but are just... Speaking to like the comfort nostalgia, sense of home and deliciousness of the sort of their originating culture.
22:06 Dan Pashman? Right. But one thing I think is interesting about that and this larger phenomenon is that one of these places opens up in America. I'm sure there's some portion of people who have eaten it in its home country and so for them, there's nostalgia, there's a cultural connection. But for them to succeed, they have to bring in people beyond that group. And oftentimes, the food that they're known for making is a food that we already have a lot of in America. And so it's not like we don't have this food. And it's not like we don't even have good versions of it. And yet, when one of these places, this international places opens in America, it creates all this buzz and all this excitement, even for people who had never heard of it before. Maybe they're sort of selling a different type of authenticity. We tend to think of quote unquote authenticity as being like, oh, this is like a really
22:51 Dan Pashman? authentic rendition of this cuisine or this dish. But when you're talking about like a chain that is hugely popular in its home country, then it sort of feels like you're connecting with those people in the present day.
23:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:04 Dan Pashman? In a way like, oh, like if I was in China, this is what I would eat.
23:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:07 Dan Pashman? You know, and it's a different kind of like authentic experience in that sense.
23:11 Speaker 02 That's exactly right. I think it really like explodes outward the parameters of what you might think authenticity is. Because exactly as you said, I think that authenticity, like the big trap of authenticity is that it almost always exists in the past. And especially when we're talking about sort of food outside of the scope of like the white American experience, it is often, authenticity can be frozen when the white American gaze turned onto that culture, right? Like the moment that something became known or like was published in a big food magazine or whatever, that becomes locked in as like the version of this culture's food. And that can be really diminishing. So yeah, it's really cool and awesome.
23:48 Speaker 01 So I recently published a piece about the rise of the Filipino fast food chain Jolly Bee here in America. I'm not just saying this because I'm Filipino, like the fried chicken is so good. It's been voted like best fast food fried chicken.
24:01 Speaker 02 It's genuinely excellent.
24:02 Speaker 01 Like by Eater, all of these like big publications. It's really good. It's like very successful among non Filipinos in America. They're like rapidly expanding across the country.
24:13 Speaker 01 It's just different enough. It's just different enough to a non-Filipino American. It feels familiar. It's like, OK, fried chicken hamburger, sure. But it has that novelty aspect. And what I think is so interesting is that the whole reason that Jolly Bee exists is because America shoved its food culture onto the Philippines when it colonized the Philippines. And the people there were just like, cool, we'll take this, this, and this part. But then we're gonna add our very extreme palate onto it. And so then you get sweet spaghetti and insanely umami fried chicken. And I traveled to the Philippines to the commissary where all of the sauce is made. I saw it bubbling in these vats as big as hot tubs.
24:58 Speaker 01 And you can smell, there's bell peppers in there. There's a lot of onions.
25:02 Dan Pashman? Do they make that sauce in the Philippines and ship it to the American locations? Or do they make it in America?
25:07 Speaker 01 No, they make it in America. But there is one Jolly Bee product that they do only make in the Philippines, and it's the peach mango pies. They make them at that one commissary that I visited because they insist on using Philippine mangoes. And then they ship those all over the world. They make like 100,000 a day.
25:23 Speaker 02 This is gonna be our cargo theft.
25:25 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
25:26 Speaker 02 We're gonna intercept one of those ships.
25:27 Dan Pashman? We need to work together on this. Let's put together a heist crew. What are each of your specialties?
25:32 Speaker 02 I'm the explosives guy.
25:34 Speaker 01 I'm the smooth-talking.
25:36 Speaker 02 Yes.
25:36 Dan Pashman? You're George Clooney.
25:38 Speaker 01 I'm George Clooney.
25:40 Dan Pashman? I wanna be the tech person who hacks into the mainframe.
25:45 Speaker 01 I'm in.
25:46 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
25:48 Speaker 02 Spectacular. We're gonna do this. We're gonna divert that ship.
25:51 Dan Pashman? That's right.
25:51 Speaker 02 Full of peach mango pies.
25:52 Speaker 01 Now, this movie would be good.
25:54 Speaker 02 And then I don't know what we're gonna do with the pies, but we'll have them.
25:57 Dan Pashman? We're gonna eat them, Helen. We'll throw them at people's houses instead of eggs.
26:02 Speaker 01 Vandalism.
26:05 Dan Pashman? All right, let's spin the spinner again.
26:07 Speaker 01 OK.
26:08 Dan Pashman? All right, Yasmin, your turn. Spin the spinner.
26:17 Dan Pashman? It's time now for the lightning round. Salad's been a lightning round. We're gonna tick through some notable stories of 2025. You ready?
26:24 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:25 Dan Pashman? First up, dynamic pricing may be coming for food. Dynamic pricing, of course, is where the cost of a good changes over time. We all see this with airfare, hotels, you know, busy times, it's more expensive. Now restaurants may be interested. According to Food and Wine, some restaurants are exploring the idea of bringing dynamic pricing into restaurant reservations. So you would pay more for a reservation at an optimal time, or maybe even pay more for your ideal table within the restaurant. They're also considering doing this with menu prices. Aaron Bludorn, executive chef and partner of several Houston restaurants, including Bludorn and Navy Blue, envisions a day when restaurants use market data and AI-generated research to give chefs and restaurant owners up-to-the-minute data on where the competition's
27:08 Dan Pashman? pricing is, so the place knows what the market can withstand. Thoughts?
27:13 Speaker 02 This already kind of exists. Lots of restaurants charge different prices for lunch than they do for dinner.
27:17 Dan Pashman? True.
27:17 Speaker 02 And this is a very, very deep cut, but I remember when Tach, the reservation platform, was launched maybe 15 years ago by Nick Kekonas, who at the time was the financial side of the Olinea Group. The whole premise of that platform was that restaurants would be able to charge full-ticket prices for, you'd pay upfront for your meal when you buy it, and it was sort of modeled on theater pricing. And they were charging different amounts for like dinner on a Tuesday versus dinner on a Saturday. So on one level, I feel like this is not new.
27:46 Dan Pashman? And I think that's still true for some of these super high-end places where you're like you're paying in advance per head, like it's like buying a ticket, and the price does change depending on the day of the week.
27:54 Speaker 02 The second thought that I have about this is that is morally reprehensible, and I hope that you get eaten by a lion.
28:00 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
28:00 Speaker 02 Like, that sucks, and it's shitty, and it's bad for everybody.
28:03 Dan Pashman? We'll keep it moving in the lightning round here. Next up, Gen Z is behaving badly at bars. According to the San Francisco Standard, they're going in, sitting down, and not ordering anything. Says one bartender, "You have to go up and explain that they have to buy something. It's embarrassing." Or as my daughters would say, "Embarrassing." Sometimes these Gen Z people are getting one drink to share.
28:26 Speaker 02 No.
28:26 Dan Pashman? One more complaint from bartenders about Gen Z is they don't open tabs. They pay for every round, and they always use a credit card. So that, first off, slows down bartenders because they gotta run these cards constantly. It's also not great for the bars because the place gets hit with more charges every time a credit card is run. Yasmin, thoughts on Gen Z and drinking?
28:46 Speaker 01 As someone who is an elder millennial who has tried to get my Gen Z coworkers to go drinking with me and felt like an alcoholic because they only have one drink, I like understand why this is happening. I remember reading in one of these stories about, you know, Gen Z's bad bar behavior that no one taught them how to be a barfly. I think that's real. I think that like that barfly culture that, you know, I'm looping you in with me.
29:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, no, I'm totally with you.
29:16 Speaker 01 It's just non-existent. And I understand the reasons why. Like, drinking feels bad. Now that I'm almost 40, I too am buying one drink and closing my tab in an effort to drink less. Drinks are expensive. So I understand it. It makes me sad that they won't experience the joys that come with opening a bar tab and keeping it open for the end of the night. I think, though, going to a bar and not ordering anything, that's just crazy.
29:46 Dan Pashman? Unacceptable.
29:47 Speaker 02 I am, I was, like, my hackles were raised at this idea of, like, condemning an entire generation, right? I was like, we're not gonna make, like, it's so fun to, like, crap on Gen Z. Like, what have they ever done? Like, they didn't ask to be born. But like, but then when you said they just sit in a bar and they don't order drinks, or like, they share one, like, that's...
30:06 Dan Pashman? And I'm not talking about one of these giant coconuts with four straws in it.
30:09 Speaker 02 No, no, like, that, I think, is, um, you should know that you are like minor villain behavior if you're doing that.
30:16 Dan Pashman? I would just say that I'm with you, Helen, in the sense that, like, I don't wanna condemn all of Gen Z. I actually will always stand up for younger generations because I feel like older generations complaining about younger generations is just the most tired, trite thing. And by the way, I'm with them on not opening a tab. I quit opening tabs at bars a long time ago because 75% of the time I forget my credit card there.
30:35 Speaker 02 Oh, my God.
30:35 Dan Pashman? I go home, and then I gotta go back the next day. So for that reason, I pay for each round. But yes, you need to order something. All right, next up in the lightning round. In an era where everyone seems to be mainlining protein, dairy is making a huge comeback. People are drinking more milk because it's high in protein and not processed, like protein powder. And listen, this cows are in demand and other ways rendered beef fat, aka beef tallow, has come back into fashion. That's partly because of the same movement away from processed foods, partly because of Maha suspicions of seed oils. But now there's a new development. There's a growing trend of people on TikTok promoting beef tallow moisturizer. Yasmin, you cover this. What's the deal?
31:14 Speaker 01 Uh, yeah, I mean, it's all kind of tied up with the push to like more natural products, more natural foods. And, you know, the same line of thinking that suggests that beef tallow french fries are healthier than seed oil french fries, because beef tallow is natural, also suggests that-
31:32 Speaker 02 As is seed oil.
31:33 Speaker 01 Yes, yes.
31:34 Speaker 02 Like, but I-
31:34 Speaker 01 I get very hyped up about that.
31:36 Speaker 02 Yes, yes.
31:37 Dan Pashman? So-
31:38 Speaker 01 It drives me nuts.
31:39 Speaker 02 No, no, sorry.
31:39 Speaker 01 Same, same thinking. Um, why put chemical moisturizer on your face when you could just put rendered cow fat?
31:47 Speaker 02 Which is not made of chemicals at all.
31:49 Dan Pashman? Did you try this, Yasmin, for your, for your story?
31:52 Speaker 01 I had, I did not. The skin can't.
31:55 Speaker 02 You have an amazing skin.
31:57 Speaker 01 I know, I don't need the beautiful. Yeah, I did, I did smell a beef tallow moisturizer. And you know what? They say, oh, it doesn't smell like beef. It smells like a steak. It really does. It smells like a steak with like some lavender on it.
32:09 Dan Pashman? Oh, man. If my wife, if my wife put that on before bed, she'd wake up missing a finger.
32:12 Speaker 02 So I've, I've used beef tallow moisturizer. I have-
32:14 Dan Pashman? Oh, my god.
32:15 Speaker 02 I have like a, like incredibly dry skin and will try anything that promises to fix it. And for about a week, I slept with beef tallow moisturizer on my hands under gloves because I didn't want to get beef fat all over my bed sheets. And it was fine. It was a fine moisturizer. I did not think it was especially better than many of the other ones that I've used.
32:37 Dan Pashman? Did it make you hungry?
32:38 Speaker 02 Yes, but I'm always hungry.
32:44 Dan Pashman? All right, last item in the lightning round. Dinosaur time. Have you heard about this? We all know, of course, leafy greens like kale and spinach are good for us. But they can be a tough sell on the deliciousness front, let's face it. Which is probably why only one in 10 Americans gets the recommended daily serving of veggies, which is two to four cups per day. Now, people on TikTok have developed a new way to get all your veggies, and it's called dinosaur time. We have a clip.
33:11 Speaker 02 Dinosaur time, so I thought I'd take this opportunity and answer some frequently asked questions.
33:24 Dan Pashman? This woman just took a softball-sized ball of spinach and shoved it into her face.
33:31 Speaker 02 I both love this and think it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, simultaneous, I want to do it and I hate it. And I love it.
33:40 Speaker 01 Is the objective just to just eat your spinach?
33:42 Dan Pashman? It's to get as many vegetables in your body, but like, rather than having to try to cook it or season it or make it palatable, you're just gonna like, crush it up into a ball and just shove it in your face. And that way, in 45 seconds, you just got your day's worth of vegetables.
33:55 Speaker 02 I literally want to, I want to go home, I want to put on the Jurassic Park soundtrack, and I want to shove spinach in my mouth.
34:00 Dan Pashman? You should cover yourself in beef tallow moisturizer first.
34:02 Speaker 02 Oh, God, then the predators will really want me. When you said dinosaur time, I thought it was gonna be about like, eating raw meat.
34:09 Dan Pashman? Right.
34:10 Speaker 01 I thought it was gonna be about dinosaur kale. Delicious.
34:12 Dan Pashman? Yasmin, thoughts on this trend?
34:14 Speaker 01 I hate this idea that vegetables are hard to make palatable. Yeah. It's like, olive oil, salt, a little lemon. Most vegetables, that's gonna be delicious. It's not hard. Why do that?
34:28 Dan Pashman? Right.
34:28 Speaker 01 Why? It's like, not fun, or tasty, or much easier to eat.
34:33 Speaker 02 Adding things like oil to things like spinach and kale make them easier to digest.
34:37 Speaker 01 That's true.
34:38 Speaker 02 Like, eating these things, if you're going to eat them raw, which you don't have to do, it helps you absorb the nutrients a lot better. And in cruciferous vegetables like kale, it can actually give you like, a lot of gassiness and bloating and digestive distress if you eat them raw without neutralizing some of these enzymes, and olive oil helps do that. So like, like, there are reasons we cook food.
34:57 Dan Pashman? All right. I'll take the liberty of spinning the spinner one more time.
35:06 Dan Pashman? Now we're getting to the grand finale of our year in review, and this is big. This is a brand-new debut. I'm so excited that two of you are here for this. It is the first ever Silver Spork Awards. And just like real silver, these awards may tarnish some people's reputations. That's right, we're coming in hot. The first category in the Silver Spork Awards, Most Annoying Food Trend of 2025. We each get to give out an award in each category. Yasmin, who are you gonna give your trophy for Most Annoying Food Trend of 2025 to?
35:39 Speaker 01 I'm giving it to a what? And it is ube in everything. ube, for those who don't know, like the purple yam. I'm Filipino. That is where ube comes from. Most of the ube you see at Trader Joe's, like, they sell cookies, they sell pancakes. It's like all over. You get ube lattes.
35:57 Dan Pashman? Ice cream flakes.
35:57 Speaker 01 Ice creams. It's not real. That's extract and food coloring. It does not taste like real ube. It is overplayed and it is giving a bad name to the true ube.
36:09 Speaker 01 So either do it right, or don't do it at all. I love that.
36:12 Dan Pashman? I like that. That's a good silver spork. Helen?
36:15 Speaker 02 I would like to give this award to the act of scraping a knife against a cooked food to show how crispy it is.
36:22 Dan Pashman? That's a good one.
36:23 Speaker 02 Which I think needs to be shot into the sun. That's so good. I hate that so much.
36:28 Dan Pashman? Are you an ASMR fan in general?
36:31 Speaker 02 It does nothing for me. Like, I get it as a thing, but like, I don't have the brain crawlies that some people get from that. I just, I don't even mind nails on a chalkboard. I don't want to say it's like nails on a chalkboard for me, because that's not an annoying sound to me. This, the... Oh, my god, it just makes me... It makes me dislike you. It makes me dislike the person doing it. The food looks great. I love how crispy it is. You, die.
36:53 Dan Pashman? I'm gonna give my silver spork award to protein in this category. Come on. I mean, we touched on this a little bit earlier, but like, it's just ridiculous. Like, any food that's high in protein, everybody wants. People are just like injecting protein into their veins. They're eating powders. It's like there's no amount of protein. Like, yes, I understand that protein's good for you and it's good to get a certain amount of protein and maybe some people need a little more, but just this idea that there's no such thing as too much, essentially, like, every one of these diet fads that takes something to such an extreme always ends up crashing and burning. There's a secret part of me that kind of hopes they discover that if you have like 10 times the recommended daily allowance of protein, that like something bad happens to you, maybe like your balls shrink.
37:33 Speaker 02 Can I share a protein story?
37:34 Dan Pashman? Please.
37:35 Speaker 02 This happened to me yesterday. I was at the grocery store. My family eats a lot of oatmeal and we usually buy Bob's Red Mill brand oatmeal for arbitrary reasons. I don't think it's just...
37:43 Speaker 01 We love Bob's Red Mill.
37:44 Speaker 02 And next to my usual oatmeal on the shelf was Protein Oatmeal by Bob's Red Mill. And I was looking at it, and do you know what the ingredients were in the Bob's Red Mill Protein Oatmeal?
37:55 Dan Pashman? Oatmeal plus protein powder?
37:57 Speaker 02 Oatmeal.
38:00 Speaker 02 It is one ingredient. The one ingredient is whole grain oatmeal.
38:03 Speaker 01 Is it like a special?
38:04 Speaker 02 It's the same thing.
38:06 Dan Pashman? But did you compare the protein content to the other?
38:09 Speaker 02 It's identical. It is the same product. It just says the word protein on it because oatmeal has a lot of protein.
38:14 Dan Pashman? Well, that makes me extra glad that I'm giving my Silver Spork Award to protein. Next category, favorite social media or online food person of 2025. Helen?
38:24 Speaker 02 Oh, my gosh. My all time favorite social media food person is Black Forager Alexis Nicole Nelson. I just love her. I feel like whenever I watch her content, I learn so much about acorns. I now know so much about acorns. I can be in a horrible mood and one of her TikToks will show up on my phone and I feel in love with the world again.
38:43 Speaker 01 She's so joyful.
38:44 Speaker 02 She's so joyful and she's so funny. And the way that she relates to food and the way that that she lives with food as a person who forages is just incredible to me. I love it.
38:56 Dan Pashman? Yasmin, who are you giving your Silver Spork Award for favorite social media or online food person of 2025, too?
39:03 Speaker 01 I'm a little biased. This is someone I know. He goes by Crispyegg420.
39:07 Speaker 02 She's the best.
39:08 Dan Pashman? Bettina.
39:09 Speaker 01 Bettina.
39:09 Dan Pashman? Bettina Macalintal. We've had her on the show. I mean, I love her writing. She is great.
39:13 Speaker 01 She's so good. And her Instagram is like, I think her tagline is no recipes, just vibes, which is what I want as a food media consumer. Like, I already know how to cook.
39:24 Dan Pashman? And also, like, who's cooking 99.9% of these videos?
39:26 Speaker 02 And also, what she cooks is perfect.
39:28 Speaker 01 It's perfect. It's like elevated, normal person food, just like many variations on beans and greens and toast, but so beautiful. Like, throw some meat on there.
39:39 Speaker 02 She single-handedly got me into tofu. I'm now obsessed with tofu.
39:42 Speaker 01 She's very good at tofu.
39:43 Speaker 02 I spent 40 years of life not understanding tofu. And then Bettina.
39:47 Speaker 01 She can make a crispy and she doesn't do the knife thing.
39:49 Speaker 02 Yeah.
39:49 Dan Pashman? Right. I love both of those. I'm going to give my award to Carolina Gellen. Who I will be honest, when she first came on the scene and I started seeing some of her videos, I didn't want to like her. Because at first blush, she seemed like a lot of food recipe influencer types. Like the videos are very fast cut. She may occasionally scrape a knife against something. You see all the ingredients going into the bowl super fast. It always looks incredible. There's a lot of sunlight. And I just, it was like sort of gut reaction, like, oh, she's another one of 100 million people doing this. But eventually I started following her because some of the things caught my eye. And I think she's really creative. I think a lot of her recipes are interesting and different.
40:34 Dan Pashman? And actually, she is contributing something. That's my biggest problem with a lot of these food influencers is that they're all style and no substance. Their recipes are totally trite. Half of them are getting by on being conventionally attractive. Like all these bros were like shirtless and they're wearing an apron and they're shirtless. I was too quick to assume that Carolina belonged in that category. And I have since come around to that I think she does have, unlike a lot of those people, she has her own style, she has her own voice. There are things that I feel like this is distinctly the kind of thing that she would do. And I always respect that by anybody in any creative pursuit. So Carolina Gallin. Final category for the silver sporks. Food trend you want to see in 2026. Yasmin.
41:15 Speaker 01 I want the whole seed oil obsession to go away.
41:18 Dan Pashman? Not likely, but great.
41:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's, it's gone too far. When Sweetgreen adopted the no seed oil policy, I was like, come on.
41:26 Dan Pashman? Yeah.
41:27 Speaker 01 Come on.
41:27 Speaker 02 It turns me off a restaurant.
41:29 Speaker 01 Oh, 100%.
41:30 Speaker 02 So much.
41:31 Speaker 01 I don't want to eat at Sweetgreen anymore.
41:33 Speaker 02 Like, I love a beef talon french fry. Like, I love it. But I don't want you to give that to me because of some pseudoscience about the health properties of grape seed oil. I want it because it tastes good.
41:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:47 Dan Pashman? Helen, who gets your award?
41:49 Speaker 02 I would like to see more dinner-only restaurants having daytime, particularly breakfast.
41:56 Speaker 02 Pop-ups that are sort of sustained.
41:58 Dan Pashman? Right.
41:59 Speaker 02 There's one.
41:59 Dan Pashman? This is a trend.
42:00 Speaker 02 I love this.
42:01 Dan Pashman? Because like places that only are open for dinner, like they're paying for the rent for that space 24/7.
42:06 Speaker 02 The kitchen is there, the space is there.
42:07 Dan Pashman? They're only making money a few hours a day, so they started bringing in other chefs, other creative people to do like a limited lunch thing in the same space.
42:14 Speaker 02 It's so wonderful. There's a restaurant that I really love in Brooklyn called Strange Delight.
42:17 Dan Pashman? Yeah, Ham and Wally's place.
42:19 Speaker 02 Right, and it's wonderful. It's like spectacular sort of New Orleans-inspired food. And they have started bringing in, they brought in for like a limited run and they've just extended it, which is thrilling to me. The chef Amanda Perdomo, who works at other restaurants and is also a brilliant person, has a cafe within the restaurant called Amanda's Rise and Shine, that is a breakfast and lunch cafe, and it's just genius. I just, it feels so community-minded and neighborhood-creating and such a way of like sharing the wealth and helping solve some of the overhead issues that can arise for like young cooks who are starting out, or people who are trying to really get their footing with their brand building and things like that. I love it. I don't want more of it.
42:53 Dan Pashman? It almost serves some of the same purpose that like food trucks have served in the past. Of like being a better, like a lower barrier to entry. And also, like you said, like if it can help restaurants to keep their heads above water, then great. My food trend that I want to see in 2026, early bird specials.
43:09 Speaker 02 Oh, hell yeah.
43:09 Dan Pashman? Bring those back. This is like the dynamic pricing we're talking about. Like this is, to me, this is really like.
43:16 Speaker 02 This is what dynamic pricing should be.
43:17 Dan Pashman? Right, exactly. Because I like to eat early. I don't like going to bed full. If they didn't frame dynamic pricing as we're gonna raise the prices during certain times, and instead framed it as we're gonna give you a discount.
43:29 Speaker 02 Yes.
43:29 Dan Pashman? If you come at the off-hours, it would sound so much more positive and I would love it. So like, maybe in South Florida, early bird specials never went anywhere, but I haven't seen many around where I live, and I want early bird specials.
43:43 Speaker 02 It's happy hour for dinner.
43:44 Dan Pashman? Yes, yes.
43:45 Speaker 02 The other thing I love about early bird specials, which I would also love to see more of, is I love set menus. Like, not like you have no choice, but menus where like the price includes everything. One thing that's great to me about an early bird special in Florida, which I used to partake of a lot with my grandparents when I was a kid, is that it would be a cup of soup, your choice of entree, it came with a side salad, and then a little cup of ice cream and a cup of coffee. And I was like, I want more of that. I love it when a restaurant is just all in. It's like you pick your entree, however much it is, and it comes with the rest of the meal.
44:14 Dan Pashman? Yeah. All right. Last thing here, as we move towards the end of 2025, I have asked both of you to bring me your New Year's food resolutions. Now, every year around this time, I ask our listeners for their New Year's food resolutions. This is also a great opportunity for me to remind listeners that the deadline is approaching for you to send in your New Year's food resolutions for our year-end spectacular episode, when I will also be revealing my New Year's food resolutions. So, listen up, folks. Record a voice memo with your first name and location, and tell me, what food do you resolve to eat more of in the new year and why? Send it to me at [email protected] by December 16th, and you might hear yourself right here on our year-end spectacular. Now, ahead of that, Yasmin and Helen, I'm asking each of
44:56 Dan Pashman? you, what food do you resolve to eat more of in the new year and why?
45:01 Speaker 02 Me first. I'm resolving to eat more salad. And I don't mean this in a like, health kick, new year, new you kind of way. I love, conceptually, the concept of salad. I love crunchy things in dressing. But I think that salad actually is a quite labor-intensive food to make. To like, do a great salad, you have to have a lot of components at the ready. Which means, you know, if you want to have roasted beets in your salad, you have to have roasted beets a couple days ago and have it in your fridge. And by committing to salad in 2026, I think I'm committing to an entire process that I'm really excited about. About shopping a little differently, prepping a little differently, having things ready to go in my fridge, nut mixes, roasted veggies, interesting things, herbs, potato chips, dressings, and like, thinking like a salad.
45:46 Speaker 01 Hmm, I love that.
45:48 Dan Pashman? Yasmin, year-end food resolution for the next year?
45:50 Speaker 01 This will not sound like a health thing, but it is a health thing. I'm gonna eat more MSG.
45:56 Dan Pashman? Yes! Okay.
45:57 Speaker 01 I have high blood pressure, and I've been told to eat less salt. MSG, for those of you who don't know, not bad for you. Nothing about it is making you sick.
46:05 Dan Pashman? We've covered this in the Sporkful, 100%. This is a safe space for MSG.
46:08 Speaker 01 Yeah, I love MSG. You know, if you, I can take out half my salt, put MSG instead, it'll still be flavorful, and hopefully my blood pressure will go down.
46:17 Dan Pashman? Hopefully. Yeah, just the other day, I made, I got an email from the New York Times saying, "This coconut curry chickpea recipe is like, one of our most popular, amazing recipes of all time." So I said, "Well, then, I guess I gotta try it." So I cooked it up, and frankly, it was kind of bland.
46:29 Speaker 02 I've made that, it's kind of bland.
46:30 Dan Pashman? Yeah, so I added a lot more salt than it called for. It was still kind of bland. So I pulled out my MSG.
46:35 Speaker 01 Hell, yeah.
46:35 Dan Pashman? Hit it with the MSG, came out delicious.
46:38 Speaker 02 It's the best.
46:38 Speaker 01 It's right there next to my salt and pepper and olive oil. I've made it.
46:42 Speaker 02 I'm going to a cookie swap tonight and I put a little bit in my cookie. Ooh.
46:47 Dan Pashman? Interesting.
46:48 Speaker 02 Yep.
46:49 Dan Pashman? Well, you want to hear my New Year's food resolution?
46:52 Speaker 02 Yes.
46:53 Dan Pashman? Then you'll have to tune in next week to the Sporkful.
46:55 Speaker 02 Dan.
46:56 Dan Pashman? Oh, yeah. And listeners, remember, send me your New Year's food resolutions to [email protected] . Get them in by December 16th. You may hear yourself on the show. Helen Rosner, thank you so much. Staff writer at The New Yorker. Sign up for her newsletter, The Food Scene. We'll put a link in the show description. Thank you, Helen.
47:14 Speaker 02 Thanks for having me.
47:15 Dan Pashman? And Yasmin Tayag, staff writer at The Atlantic. Make sure to check out her podcast, How to Age Up. Thanks, Yasmin.
47:21 Speaker 01 Thanks for having me.
47:22 Dan Pashman? And Happy New Year.
47:23 Speaker 02 Happy New Year.
47:29 Dan Pashman? Next week on the show, as I said, it's our big New Year's food resolutions show. What food will I resolve to eat more of in the new year? I think I know what it is. I'll tell you next week. While you're waiting for that one, check out last week's show. I talked with Samin Nostrat, who's released her second cookbook, Good Things. Her first book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, was a smash hit. But even though she got the success she'd been working so hard to achieve, there was still a lot more she had to face. We talk about how dealing with that led her to her new cookbook, in which she does something she swore she'd never do: give us recipes. That episode's up now. Check it out. And hey, did you know you can listen to the Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free
48:10 Dan Pashman? music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. This episode was produced by me, along with managing producer.
48:33 Speaker 02 Emma Morgenstern.
48:34 Dan Pashman? And senior producer. Andres O'Hara. It was edited by.
48:37 Speaker 02 Camille Stanley.
48:37 Dan Pashman? Our engineer is. Jared O'Connell. Our interns are. Morgan Johnson. And. Jasmine Sutherland. Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of SiriusXM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.
48:52 Speaker 05 I'm Jamie Edelman from Las Vegas, Nevada, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.
49:08 Dan Pashman? This next segment is brought to you by our friends Better Than Bouillon. I am in the kitchen getting ready for the holiday season and I am so excited to be cooking up a prime rib. To me, enter the holiday season, I know there's a lot of large cuts of meat, people like, look, if you like lamb, if you like turkey, that's cool, but to me, nothing says holiday season like prime rib. First of all, I just think that a huge cut of beef says special occasion. You go to the butcher, you pick out one that's just right. It looks beautiful and it's just like having a giant roast or prime rib in the oven, it just feels much more different and special than throwing steaks on the grill. You know it's a joyous occasion when there is a prime rib in your house. But how are you gonna cook it? There's so many different recipes out there. Well, I got one that takes 15 minutes of prep and is guaranteed to taste phenomenal.
49:54 Dan Pashman? It's on Better Than Bouillon's website and it's got one secret ingredient, Better Than Bouillon Roasted Beef Base. Cause let me tell you, it's a challenge if you're gonna cook a whole prime rib roast. That is a big piece of meat and I think a lot of times it's under-seasoned because there's not a lot of exterior to put seasoning on in relation to meat that's inside. That's why you need extremely delicious, extremely concentrated flavor, which is what you get with Better Than Bouillon. With only three tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon Roasted Beef Base, you can cook a five-pound boneless prime rib roast to perfection, full of flavor. Just a few other ingredients you gotta add in there and you're a rock star. And when you slice that prime rib up, it is going to be just the right temperature.
50:36 Dan Pashman? Maybe you like it rare, maybe you like it a little bit pink in the center, maybe a little more well-done, however you like it, that's what it's gonna be. And the juice is gonna come in, you're gonna have the au jus to pour on top and it's gonna be juicy, but it's gonna be flavorful. It will not be under-seasoned because you can't under-season when you have so much flavor concentrated in a jar of Better Than Bouillon. Add instant flavor to your holiday favorites with this secret ingredient. Better Than Bouillon is a paste, a base, a flavor enhancer, a kitchen shortcut, a secret seasoning, and pretty much whatever you want it to be. Let me tell you the secret stat, because when I got a bunch of Better Than Bouillon in my kitchen, I was talking to people about it. I can't tell you how many people were like, oh my God, I love Better Than Bouillon, it's the best. Unlike Blocks or Q's Better Than Bouillon. makes it easy to add just the right amount of flavors. You can be more confident and creative with your dish.
51:20 Dan Pashman? And also unlike blocks or cubes, I just think that better than bouillon has an extraordinary depth of flavor. People are going to think you spent hours simmering down a sauce to get just that super concentrated incredible depth of flavor, but you didn't. You just opened a jar of better than bouillon. And with only premium ingredients across a full range of bases, you can trust that meals will be more complex and memorable. And they got a whole bunch of different bases, chicken, turkey, beef, seasoned vegetable base, sauteed onion base, a sofrito base, an adobo base, a pho base. Whether it's a weeknight stir fry, a slow simmer Sunday roast, or a holiday spread packed with family favorites, one simple scoop transforms an everyday dish into something extraordinary. Everything is better with better than bouillon.
52:02 Dan Pashman? For more recipe inspiration or to learn more, visit betterthanbouillon.com.
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