Phil Wang

Food meets comedy this week as we have comedian and Great British Menu judge Phil Wang joining us! Born and raised in Malaysia, Phil is now a local south London resident and he took a break from judging Michelin star chefs to join us for lunch. A real foodie, we heard all about the delicious dishes Phil ate growing up in Asia, his thoughts on a Yorkshire pudding & chip shop curry sauce, the ‘Slurpies’ awards he created on Twitter (rating the best noodle spots), his go to ice breaker of ranking favourite carbs, how he navigated moving from engineering to comedy and we discover Phil will eat absolutely anything in the world - yet refuses to eat cooked salmon! Thank you for joining us for Phil, good luck on the tour! Phil’s brand new comedy tour ‘Uh Oh’ will be travelling across the UK from September-November 2026. Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/ Follow Table Manners on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:35Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware. We're in my kitchen today. Hi Mum, how are you? You look fab. A little polka. What is it?

• 0:42Speaker 02

  I don't know. It's something very expensive.

• 0:45Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 0:45Speaker 02

  That I bought a long time ago and never wore.

• 0:47Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 0:48Speaker 02

  But I thought I'd wear it today.

• 0:49Jessie Ware?

  You're in designer gowns today?

• 0:51Speaker 02

  No, not really.

• 0:52Jessie Ware?

  I'm on food duty today. You are very excited about this guest. You have been asking for this guest for many years.

• 0:58Speaker 02

  About six years.

• 1:00Jessie Ware?

  Why do you love Phil Wang so much?

• 1:03Speaker 02

  Because he's clever.

• 1:05Jessie Ware?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  He's very funny.

• 1:07Jessie Ware?

  Do you fancy him?

• 1:07Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:08Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Quick-witted. I mean, not that he's unattractive.

• 1:11Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Lovely smile, very warm, quick-witted.

• 1:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 1:15Speaker 02

  The one-liners just below. I'm waiting for them. And he's just got the best gig in town.

• 1:22Jessie Ware?

  Phil Wang is a comedian, a very clever comedian.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:26Jessie Ware?

  And he's newly appointed judge on Great British Menu.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:29Jessie Ware?

  Taking Ed Gamble's spot, I think. And they are friends, I think.

• 1:34Speaker 02

  I'm sure they are.

• 1:36Jessie Ware?

  How are you enjoying him on Great British Menu?

• 1:38Speaker 02

  I think he's really good because I like kind people.

• 1:41Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  When people are judging. When people have done a lot of hard work, I don't like miserable people.

• 1:46Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  And I think he's very kind and he's very enthusiastic.

• 1:50Jessie Ware?

  Mm.

• 1:51Speaker 02

  And he's fun.

• 1:52Jessie Ware?

  And, I mean, you can see he's got two Netflix specials. Philly Philly Wang Wang and Wang in There Baby.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  God, it's a perfect surname for a comedian, isn't it?

• 2:03Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  The possibilities are endless.

• 2:05Jessie Ware?

  So yeah, and he's coming on to talk about his new tour and Great British Menu, which is gonna be thrilling for you. I've never watched one episode.

• 2:12Speaker 02

  I've watched every episode I ever could because my cousin Elizabeth and Dennis, that was their very favourite programmes. And so I've watched it and I love it. It's proper chefs making the most extraordinary food. And this year, the theme is film.

• 2:29Jessie Ware?

  Speaking of extraordinary food, I'm on the menu today.

• 2:34Speaker 02

  Oh, is it extraordinary?

• 2:35Jessie Ware?

  Well, I don't know if it's extraordinary, but it's Andy Baragani again, who I've done before. He's a New York Times writer.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Did you find it on the New York Times recipe?

• 2:44Jessie Ware?

  The app, yeah. I've done his recipes before. I couldn't think, we've had quite a busy week. I wanted something quite straightforward and I know his recipes work. So I've done three of his recipes that I think feels very much like something you would get maybe at Kismet. Do you know that place in LA?

• 3:01Speaker 02

  The one in LA.

• 3:01Jessie Ware?

  So it's a one pot zatar, chicken thigh, rice dish.

• 3:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:07Jessie Ware?

  It's really simple. It's only got chicken thighs that you brown off to make it really nice, the skin. Rice, garlic, onion, zatar and seasoning. So it's really straightforward, but it smells beautiful, really cosy. And then I've done this green herb feta dip that he's got, where you put dill, mint and parsley in. It's kind of like a whipped feta. And then you have that as a dip that you can put a bit of chilli on with some pistachios. And then I've done a really beautiful salad with all the bitter leaves that are all kind of in season, I think. Radicchio, Castellararo or something, it's called Franco Castellaro, anyway. And I've got ondive in there and you make this turmeric honey lemon dressing.

• 3:52Jessie Ware?

  And then some candied walnuts on top.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 3:55Jessie Ware?

  So I feel like everything's quite working well together.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  There's no pressure, darling, because he's just been judging Michelin star chefs all week.

• 4:01Jessie Ware?

  Well, I just didn't want to do anything fancy. It's not fancy pants. It's all just quite delicious and get stuck in. And then for pudding, I didn't make it because you know, I don't really give a shit about puddings. So Sweet Rosie, I did exec it.

• 4:15Speaker 02

  I chose Rosie, is that her name?

• 4:17Jessie Ware?

  Sweet Rosie.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  She's the sweet pastry chef.

• 4:19Jessie Ware?

  Sweet Rosie has done me another New York Times recipe, which is called a rhubarb crisp. So instead of a crumble, it's a bit more chunky, the little crisp. And so that's what we're going to have for pudding. With some custard, I thought, because rhubarb and custard, or I've got double cream.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  Okay, great.

• 4:37Jessie Ware?

  Or ice cream. Phil Wang coming up on Take a Minute.

• 4:44Jessie Ware?

  Phil Wang.

• 4:45Speaker 03

  Hi.

• 4:46Jessie Ware?

  Hi, how are you?

• 4:47Speaker 03

  It's so good to be here, where is, it's a pleasure.

• 4:49Jessie Ware?

  I'm surprised they've never seen you about. We live very close to each other.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, when I got in the cab to come here today, the taxi driver said this was walking distance.

• 4:59Jessie Ware?

  That is quite rude, though.

• 5:01Speaker 03

  I think, I don't think he meant it in that way.

• 5:03Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but you're keeping him in a job. Fuck off.

• 5:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, I felt, I felt distance shamed. Um, a new, that's a new category of shame that's been discovered.

• 5:11Jessie Ware?

  Distance shamed. How are you?

• 5:13Speaker 03

  I'm good. I'm quite nervous.

• 5:14Jessie Ware?

  Why are you nervous?

• 5:16Speaker 03

  Because very famous people have wanted me to be on.

• 5:18Jessie Ware?

  Oh, shut up.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  I think I'm only here because I'm down the road.

• 5:21Jessie Ware?

  No, you're not. Oh my god, shut up!

• 5:24Speaker 02

  And you're here because I've been desperate for you to be on because I'm a huge fan.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Oh wow, thanks, Lenny. It means a lot.

• 5:30Jessie Ware?

  Lenny's gonna kill you so that she can get the great vicious menu guest slots. That's really why you're here. You're about to get misery.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  A bit jealous.

• 5:37Speaker 03

  Look, I admire the planning. I admire the strategy. Go for it.

• 5:43Speaker 02

  How did you, how did you get the gig?

• 5:46Speaker 03

  Well, I, a few series ago, the one that was just at the end of Covid, I was a guest judge. Um, for the science series. And then Ed Gamble became a permanent judge. And he, he finished on the last series and they, I got, they got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to do it. I mean, that's kind of it. I've, I'm, I'm a foodie. I like my food a lot. I, I have sort of judged food unofficially.

• 6:18Jessie Ware?

  Wow.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Melbourne Comedy Festival, yeah, the Phil Wang Noodle Awards.

• 6:24Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Can we talk about the Phil Wang Noodle Awards, please?

• 6:27Speaker 03

  They're called, I call them the slurpees. And at one Edinburgh Fringe, I just, there was a fantastic noodle and dumpling shop in Edinburgh called Noodles and Dumplings.

• 6:39Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 6:40Speaker 03

  And it's handmade noodles and wontons and I was blown away by how good it was. And I just tweeted this thing, five balls out of five, everyone has to go here. And I thought, are you just gonna keep doing this all month? And at the end of the month, when the Edinburgh Comedy Festival awards are handed out, I thought, well, I'll hand it out, I'll hand out East Asian restaurant awards as well to kind of mirror them. So when the award was split, I had to split the awards between East Asian restaurants as well. And people started actually going to the places I was treating about. And then twenty nineteen, before Covid, was the last proper one I did in Edinburgh, proper quotation marks. And the restaurant I gave to was one called Macau Kitchen, which is a McNeese restaurant, a small McNeese, newer McNeese restaurant in Edinburgh.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  And then I found out that they'd printed out my little, my little online review and they put, stuck it, framed it, put it in the corner.

• 7:29Jessie Ware?

  Oh, how sweet.

• 7:30Speaker 03

  And since then, they've won proper actual restaurant awards, but mine is still there as the first one in the corner, which is very, very sweet.

• 7:38Jessie Ware?

  Very sweet.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  And, uh, but that is the extent of my sort of culinary judging.

• 7:44Jessie Ware?

  So have you not done that anywhere else whilst on tour?

• 7:46Speaker 03

  Uh, Melbourne, the Melbourne Comedy Festival, because I'm also there for a month and so, you know, I did it there too.

• 7:52Jessie Ware?

  So it has to be a comedy festival that like.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  I need to be there long enough and I can try loads and loads of places.

• 7:57Jessie Ware?

  Would you not just like, you're going on tour soon, aren't you?

• 8:00Speaker 03

  I'm going on tour in September, yeah.

• 8:01Jessie Ware?

  So will you not do a kind of travelling food?

• 8:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, the, but the problem is Twitter's dead and that was the platform for it. So since Twitter died, I've not really been able to do it.

• 8:11Jessie Ware?

  About Instagram, Ben?

• 8:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, I kind of do stories and that, but I need to be somewhere for a long time to actually build it.

• 8:18Jessie Ware?

  So how many times were you going back to like the Macau?

• 8:21Speaker 03

  Macau Kitchen.

• 8:22Jessie Ware?

  Kitchen.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  Oh, like when I was judging?

• 8:24Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 03

  No, it's just the one, one and done.

• 8:25Jessie Ware?

  Oh, you're like Michelin, okay, fine.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's it, Michelin.

• 8:28Jessie Ware?

  So it's got to make a very good impression if you're only going once.

• 8:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely. And then I go once and I, I write up my little, do my little, take my little, took my little photos and I write up my little review and then tweet it. And, and that'll be it. And I would not, I wouldn't go back.

• 8:40Jessie Ware?

  Have you reviewed South London? Because you do live here.

• 8:43Speaker 03

  I do. There are some great places here. I went to a very sweet place last night.

• 8:48Jessie Ware?

  Where?

• 8:48Speaker 03

  In, in Peckham on Bellon Road.

• 8:51Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  Called Lovely House Dim Sum.

• 8:54Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 8:55Speaker 03

  It's a little dim sum place.

• 8:56Jessie Ware?

  Is it new?

• 8:57Speaker 03

  I don't think so. No, not as Megan would.

• 8:59Jessie Ware?

  Chassey would have heard of it typically. No, well, no, I love, my kids love Dim Sun.

• 9:03Speaker 03

  Oh, great. This place is, is very sweet.

• 9:05Jessie Ware?

  Lovely house.

• 9:06Speaker 03

  Lovely house, Dim Sun.

• 9:07Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 9:08Speaker 03

  And we just had some Hakao and Sung Mai and, uh, and Xiaolongbao, the Shanghai dumplings. It's just a simple, nice, cute little family, question mark, run restaurant. It's really nice, like the ideal neighbourhood.

• 9:22Jessie Ware?

  Did you walk there?

• 9:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I did, actually.

• 9:25Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow, good. Where, where, where you, who were you out with?

• 9:28Speaker 03

  My girlfriend.

• 9:29Jessie Ware?

  What's your girlfriend do?

• 9:31Speaker 03

  She, she makes cookbooks.

• 9:34Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:35Jessie Ware?

  Wow, you're like a food powerhouse.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I've always wanted to be in a power couple.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  And I'm in a culinary power couple now. It's great, yeah.

• 9:45Jessie Ware?

  So she makes food, um, cookbooks, but.

• 9:47Speaker 02

  Does she cook?

• 9:48Jessie Ware?

  Does she cook?

• 9:49Speaker 03

  Uh, no, because she's so busy working on the cookbook.

• 9:52Jessie Ware?

  Oh, she's like publisher.

• 9:53Speaker 03

  She'll, she'll have like toast as a meal. She'll like, I'll say, what do you have for lunch? She'll say, mom, I eat on toast.

• 9:59Jessie Ware?

  Delicious.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love.

• 10:00Jessie Ware?

  No, really?

• 10:01Speaker 03

  Tut, tut.

• 10:01Jessie Ware?

  Why? Because, okay, do we need to, I mean, I was gonna save this a bit, but we know about your icebreaker.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 10:07Jessie Ware?

  Carb rating.

• 10:08Speaker 03

  Rank your carbs.

• 10:09Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I mean, it really is divisive.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  It is. At first people go, oh, come on now, really? And then they get into it.

• 10:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Families are torn apart.

• 10:17Jessie Ware?

  So explain for the listener that doesn't know what rank your carbs is.

• 10:21Speaker 03

  I mean, it's very much what it says on the tin, really.

• 10:23Jessie Ware?

  Give the carbs that you're ranking.

• 10:24Speaker 03

  So you, you have, you've got, uh, potatoes, bread, rice, noodles, pasta. You can, if you want, group noodles and pasta, but people rarely do.

• 10:33Jessie Ware?

  Um.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  Oh, you could then.

• 10:34Jessie Ware?

  Okay, give us yours.

• 10:36Speaker 03

  Some people are like.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  Well, that's very.

• 10:37Speaker 03

  For me, at the moment, it's.

• 10:39Jessie Ware?

  Does it change then?

• 10:40Speaker 03

  For me, the top two change.

• 10:41Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  Rice noodles. For most of my life, it's been noodles at the top, but I'm, I'm in my rice era right now, I think.

• 10:47Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 10:47Speaker 03

  I'm really enjoying my rice.

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Do you eat noodles every day? If you're very keen on them.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  I, I could. I could.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  And can you cook?

• 10:54Speaker 03

  I cook all, pretty well. I cook all right, yeah. Um, for, for me now is rice, then noodles, and then pasta. And then potatoes.

• 11:05Speaker 03

  And bread is.

• 11:05Jessie Ware?

  Wow.

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Oh, you see, bread, bread is our top.

• 11:08Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, right. My top.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  It's a lot for a lot of people.

• 11:11Jessie Ware?

  And then mine's rice.

• 11:12Speaker 03

  Interesting.

• 11:13Jessie Ware?

  Then pasta, then noodles, potato, could do without it.

• 11:17Speaker 03

  Really interesting, yeah. Things you love, you love some fries, you love some chips.

• 11:21Jessie Ware?

  I like, yeah, but I want like.

• 11:22Speaker 03

  I'm gonna, you never got, I'm gonna have potato right now.

• 11:25Jessie Ware?

  When did you decide to do like rank your carbs? Was it because you were on a really bad day? Or were you trying to make friends?

• 11:32Speaker 03

  Well, I'm always trying to make friends. I'm always trying to devise new ways to trick people into befriending me. Um, I, uh, when was it? I don't know really. I can't remember. I think I just spawned out of a conversation. I was like, well, noodles are the best. Noodles are the best carb. And someone went, I disagree. And it came out of there, like many great inventions do, just out of the moment.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  How did you cope at Cambridge with the food? I shouldn't imagine noodles were top of their carb list.

• 11:56Speaker 03

  No, there were a couple of East Asian places around.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  No, but when you were in the.

• 12:00Speaker 03

  On halls.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, it was, yeah, it was mostly like random bits, random sort of cafeteria food. But great fry up. I love a fry up.

• 12:09Speaker 02

  Do you?

• 12:09Speaker 03

  I was having a fry up every day, I think.

• 12:11Jessie Ware?

  What's your fry up, like dream fry up?

• 12:13Speaker 03

  Fried eggs.

• 12:14Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:15Jessie Ware?

  How, how like over easy, sunny side up?

• 12:17Speaker 03

  Over easy, a little over easy. It's beautiful. Well, I fry an egg, I go, I started frying an egg in my stainless steel pan.

• 12:23Jessie Ware?

  Oh, do you wait for the little balls of water?

• 12:26Speaker 03

  The little balls of water to spin around. It's very cool. They're very spacey.

• 12:29Jessie Ware?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  And then, so then throw the egg in and it gets all crispy on the bottom. And then I just kind of spoon the hot oil onto the top, just so that it's not raw.

• 12:36Jessie Ware?

  Uh-huh.

• 12:37Speaker 03

  But not good.

• 12:37Jessie Ware?

  It's not smoky, yeah.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  And then what you're having with that?

• 12:40Speaker 03

  Hmm, in a, uh, beans, love baked beans.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  Oh, you like David Baddiel?

• 12:45Speaker 03

  Does he love baked beans?

• 12:46Speaker 02

  Only ha- uh, always has to have them on his, um, breakfast.

• 12:50Speaker 03

  I love baked beans. I, I like them all over. I think they can, they combine the meal. They make it one. They're the cement.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 12:57Speaker 03

  And, uh, sausage, one sausage, one bacon, I think. I actually don't need that much. And fried bread.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  Fried bread, that's gone out of fashion a bit.

• 13:06Speaker 03

  It really has. It's very hard. You don't really get it anymore.

• 13:08Speaker 02

  You don't like black pudding or?

• 13:10Speaker 03

  No, too grisly actually, even for me.

• 13:12Jessie Ware?

  I like it.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  Too grisly. I like a little white pudding. You ever go to like Ireland or Scotland?

• 13:16Jessie Ware?

  Yes. What is the difference? It just doesn't have blood in it.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  I think so. I don't know. It's just.

• 13:22Jessie Ware?

  But isn't it like boudin, the French? Yeah.

• 13:25Speaker 04

  Boudin wrong.

• 13:26Jessie Ware?

  Look at her coming for you, your, your title, mate. Do you see how she just like rolled out the boudin?

• 13:31Speaker 03

  I didn't understand a single word of that. I'm finished. I'm screwed. No.

• 13:36Jessie Ware?

  Can I ask you, how happy were your parents that you changed from engineering to?

• 13:43Speaker 03

  To comedy?

• 13:44Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 13:44Speaker 03

  Well, they were very supportive, to be honest. My mum is like an old, like a sort of seventies hippie.

• 13:51Jessie Ware?

  Okay, good.

• 13:52Speaker 03

  Like in temperament, she's like very, you know, she's very smart. She's, she was an archaeologist, anthropologist, and then she became a doctor. But sort of politically, she was always, you know, do what you want, darling, as long as you're happy. And dad was like, uh, just go to school and pay attention.

• 14:06Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  And so we tried to combine the two. And so I, you know, I finished my engineering degree, which made dad happy. And then I. And I found it interesting. And then I went straight into comedy. Mum, it was actually weirdly then mum who kept saying, maybe you should get a business degree just in case. Maybe you get an MBA, maybe. And it wasn't really until I did Have I Got News For You for the first time, that mum stopped suggesting I do an MBA.

• 14:29Jessie Ware?

  Cause you are good on that.

• 14:30Speaker 03

  Thanks. I do love that show. And that was like my, I, you know, my, when I was living in Malaysia, mum would bring sort of tapes of it. You know, back to Malaysia and, you know, some of the first British satire and comedy I watched was at shows would be on that show was like a full circle moment.

• 14:45Jessie Ware?

  Is it, is it intimidating or are you kind of so?

• 14:48Speaker 03

  The first couple of times, yeah. Now I feel quite at home.

• 14:50Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Cause I've done it a good few times now.

• 14:52Jessie Ware?

  Do you, I mean, do you feel, do you follow the news pretty religiously anyway?

• 14:59Speaker 03

  Too much actually. And one of my newest resolutions this year was stop listening to news podcasts. Cause I was just listening to, I, I just became addicted to them. And I, I would fill every silent moment of my life with another take on what a global event. And it was just ruining my brain. It actually got me really down. And it made me quite bad at my job. Cause you know this thing cognitive offloading?

• 15:22Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  So if you become over reliant on technology with a mental task, your brain stops doing it. So like, for example, putting.

• 15:29Jessie Ware?

  Chat G P T.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  For ICal, for me, the first one was ICal, when I I started putting all my appointments onto my ICal.

• 15:35Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  And I stopped remembering them. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow, I don't know what I'm doing yesterday. And so your brain just goes, I don't have to think about that at some point. So I was finding with.

• 15:42Jessie Ware?

  So you were using, you weren't having an opinion anymore, everybody else's opinion.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  I wasn't forming sentences in my head. Like, I actually started finding it hard to form sentences because my brain had fallen out of practice. And all these sentences have just been placed into my head, ready.

• 15:57Jessie Ware?

  Have you ever done a digital detox?

• 15:59Speaker 03

  No, I would love to, but I can't. What I'm, I I currently, I'm have, I'm being forced to do an hour of it every day. So I I got, I I got tinnitus a couple of years ago.

• 16:11Jessie Ware?

  Oh, shit.

• 16:11Speaker 03

  From a gig.

• 16:13Jessie Ware?

  From one gig?

• 16:15Speaker 03

  Jesse, we're very worth it. It was, it was a dead mouse gig.

• 16:19Jessie Ware?

  Why were you at a dead mouse gig? Cause you're a fan?

• 16:21Speaker 03

  No, a friend got tickets and.

• 16:23Jessie Ware?

  That's so annoying.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. And then it was, we were just too close and it just, and the next morning, my ears just ringing like. Bad and it just wouldn't stop. And it took ages. It is, it got much, much, much, much better. And it's, it's way, way better now.

• 16:40Jessie Ware?

  It never goes completely, does it?

• 16:42Speaker 03

  No, so I started doing a, a treatment, a new treatment. It's kind of wacky, but you have to put on these headphones. And you place a little um electrocuting thing on your tongue and it buzzes your tongue and you're like. It doesn't sound, it doesn't sound real, does it? But, but then for, and I'm not allowed to look at any screens while I do it. I can't do emails, I can't do work, I can't watch T V, I can't, I have, I can only read. And so, so for an hour a day. Yeah, it's quite nice for an hour a day. I have to electrocute my tongue and read.

• 17:13Jessie Ware?

  Um, can we take it back to the beginning? Growing up, who was around the dinner table and what's a very memorable dish from your childhood? Were you?

• 17:21Speaker 03

  Growing up, I was in Kotekinabalu, um, in Malaysia, Sabah, Borneo.

• 17:28Speaker 03

  And you're you're making a.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  Well, I'm trying to work out where it is in relation to Kuala Lumpur.

• 17:32Speaker 03

  Oh Kuala Lumpur is down the peninsula, at the bottom of Southeast Asia. Penang is, yeah, the little island to the west of that, and then East Malaysia, Borneo is the island, the big island east of there. That's where I grew up, in the northern part, hmm.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  And how did your mum and dad get together?

• 17:48Speaker 03

  My mum was an archaeologist and she went out in the seventies.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  God, it sounds so romantic.

• 17:55Speaker 03

  Seventies? It I can I don't I can remember, but she went out to volunteer for the Sabah Museum, the state museum. Uh, and one day a friend of hers said, I've started taking martial, these martial arts lessons. It learns some self-defense, you wanna come? And she said, yeah, she joined, and my father was her instructor.

• 18:13Speaker 02

  Oh, sounds like a good novel. Instructor syndrome, yeah, it's fatal, isn't it, when someone's good at what they're doing?

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, so that's how they met, and uh, and then my mum retrained as a doctor, but that's where I grew up.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  She retrained as a doctor?

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:30Speaker 02

  From being an archaeologist, she just thought, you know what, I'm gonna go back to school.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  Huge nerd, man. My mum, she's very smart, big dog, just love studying, just love studying.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  What kind of doctor was she?

• 18:42Speaker 03

  She did a lot dermatology, but mostly rheumatology, so joints.

• 18:46Speaker 02

  Oh, that's very interesting.

• 18:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, she's retired now, but she still keeps going back, cause she can't.

• 18:51Speaker 02

  So you grew up there till you were fifteen, was it?

• 18:53Speaker 03

  Sixteen, yeah, and then moved to Bath.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  And your dad, besides being an instructor?

• 18:59Speaker 03

  He's an engineer.

• 19:00Speaker 02

  He's an engineer.

• 19:00Speaker 03

  Civil engineer, which is where I where I caught the bug.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, and um, what was a memorable dish from your childhood that was getting cooked?

• 19:07Speaker 03

  A memorable dish, um, like classics, like just like simple fried fish and just oyster sauce. Uh, green vegetables, just simple stir fried green vegetables, and but those like at home. But you eat out a lot in Southeast Asia, you know, hawker food.

• 19:27Speaker 02

  Oh, do you?

• 19:27Speaker 03

  Culture, yeah, yeah, cause everything's so cheap, and most people do that at the end of the day, that's where you.

• 19:32Speaker 02

  I remember when we were in Penang, we used to go to the night market.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, Penang's amazing.

• 19:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  The the the cocker culture in Penang is dying now because the children of all the hawkers.

• 19:43Speaker 02

  Don't want to do it.

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, they're they're doctors and lawyers and, you know, they studied abroad and, you know, they're professionals, which is exactly what their parents wanted. But now there's no one to take over the stalls. So the hawk, the hawkers seems kind of dying in Penang, which is really sad.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  Do you remember that lovely dish we had there? Steamboat, was it?

• 20:01Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, with the the bubbling pot and you put things in.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  And all the fish goes in all different pots. Do you remember it?

• 20:07Jessie Ware?

  And then I went to the, am I saying it right? The Parentian Islands or?

• 20:11Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:12Jessie Ware?

  With my husband when we were really young and we went to this place before and we had that blue rice. That's quite famous in Malaysia.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't know this. Oh, yeah, I've heard of this. Yeah, it might be a West Malaysian thing.

• 20:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, maybe. Okay, well, it was delicious, but um.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  Malaysian food's really good.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  It's the best and it's sort of, it's really getting big in the UK, which is great. I mean.

• 20:32Jessie Ware?

  Yes, we've got some in South London, haven't we?

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Oh, Malaysian Deli?

• 20:36Jessie Ware?

  Janda, isn't it? Well, Malaysian Deli's.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Janda Diner.

• 20:39Jessie Ware?

  Malaysian Deli's in Crofton Park.

• 20:41Speaker 03

  Malaysian Deli.

• 20:41Jessie Ware?

  Janda is Duda.

• 20:43Speaker 03

  Duda Diner.

• 20:44Jessie Ware?

  Is that Malaysian?

• 20:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, Hakim the chef, I know him. We, I, that's literally around the corner from me and he's just opened up there. Fantastic. He does Kalantan food. Kalantan's a state in West Malaysia and I've never had Kalantan food, but it's really unique, delicious.

• 20:58Speaker 02

  So what's it, what makes it unique?

• 21:00Speaker 03

  The combinations of flavors. I mean, he's, one of his signature dishes is, I mean, it's actually crackers. It's oyster, an oyster with a fermented durian topping. You know durian?

• 21:10Speaker 02

  No.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Durian is this, love it or hate it, fruit from Southeast Asia. It's covered in spikes.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  Oh, I've seen them.

• 21:17Speaker 03

  And the flesh, you break it open with a cleaver and the flesh comes in these segments, these little bundles of creamy goo.

• 21:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it's like the custard thing.

• 21:25Speaker 03

  The custardy flesh, yeah. And the flavor is most accurately described as onion custard.

• 21:31Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Some people really don't like it as you're not, you're not used to it.

• 21:36Jessie Ware?

  Is it smelly?

• 21:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's got a real pungency to it. It's really, really.

• 21:40Jessie Ware?

  But I guess if you kind of don't think it's gonna be sweet and you you accept it's gonna have a savory taste, then it's kind of.

• 21:46Speaker 03

  It's delicious. I love it. I love it. But I don't know if that's just because I grew up with it.

• 21:51Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I need to go and try this.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're gonna try some. Really, really good. But he's he's got this sort of topping which is fermented vat on top of an oyster.

• 21:59Jessie Ware?

  Do you like oysters?

• 22:00Speaker 03

  I do like oysters, yeah. You don't like them? Too too sloppy?

• 22:03Jessie Ware?

  Can't can't have it. Jessie's betrayed me. She used to hate them and now you're liking. Phil does talk about this a lot, that like he'll eat anything.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  I eat.

• 22:11Jessie Ware?

  Apart from baked salmon.

• 22:13Speaker 03

  Cooked salmon.

• 22:14Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Ew, I don't know. I don't like it. It's the sting, the smell, the flavour, the colour. I like raw salmon, but cooked salmon.

• 22:23Jessie Ware?

  Do you like smoked salmon?

• 22:24Speaker 03

  I don't mind smoked salmon. Basically, the closer it gets to cook, the more I'm out. Most people don't get this, but I met someone recently, weirdly also Eurasian, who said, yes, I think cooked salmon is gross.

• 22:33Jessie Ware?

  Oh, isn't that funny?

• 22:34Speaker 03

  And in particular, we took issue with the, I call smegma, between the flesh, that kind of creamy thing.

• 22:41Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Are you making me feel a bit funny?

• 22:42Speaker 03

  Exactly. Well, now you get it. And that, why does that, where's that cream come from? I don't like it at all.

• 22:48Jessie Ware?

  Isn't it like fat? No, it's overcooked.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  I mean, you tell yourself that if you need to.

• 22:52Jessie Ware?

  Oh, the cream, the bit that like, that like sweat, yeah.

• 22:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, like the the forms between the layers of flesh.

• 22:58Jessie Ware?

  That's because it's overcooked.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Is it?

• 23:00Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, and it's oozing out.

• 23:01Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 23:04Speaker 03

  But I don't like it. But I love raw salmon. Raw salmon's delicious.

• 23:07Jessie Ware?

  So so yeah, let's talk about the things that you've eaten over your your years.

• 23:12Speaker 03

  Like the weird weird ones?

• 23:13Jessie Ware?

  Well, yeah, like.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  Well, Malaysia, um, it's the Chinese love to eat weird shit, man. We love it. It's our favourite. It's our pastime. The weirder, the better. We I grew up, we did these, you know, you go to banquet and you have these like sea snails, you know, and I remember that be these little curly shells with a very sharp sort of claw, that a single sharp claw poking out the bottom of the shell. You have to grab onto the sharp claw and you. And this wobbly kind of floppy thing will come out. Yeah, kinda.

• 23:40Speaker 02

  And you can't eat salmon, bloody hell.

• 23:44Speaker 03

  No, no, they'd be steamed or boiled or something.

• 23:46Jessie Ware?

  And what what do they taste like?

• 23:48Speaker 03

  Well, like with regular snails, sort of nothing. The taste of the sauce they have with them is it's the Chinese are so textural. They love a um a variety of textures over the course of a dish. And well, I had a grubbing a lot of pig guts, like we call it.

• 24:05Speaker 02

  What's that taste like?

• 24:06Speaker 03

  Rubbery and kind of stinky, kind of pooey, actually.

• 24:10Speaker 03

  But it's like tripe or something. It's like tripe.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  Well, we can't eat tripe either.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  Right, yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  Would you, Jesse?

• 24:17Speaker 03

  The texture of tripe is too kind of frilly.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  Frilly.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:23Speaker 03

  Soup bread's alright. Tri- tri- well, the the pig guts we'd have would be like intestines. So it'd just be segments of intestines.

• 24:33Jessie Ware?

  Like, the thing is, I feel like a prat because obviously it's a delicacy and it's.

• 24:39Jessie Ware?

  Enough people think it's delish.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:41Jessie Ware?

  And we should try it.

• 24:42Speaker 03

  It's classic poor people food. I mean, it was just been like from a time when you couldn't waste any part of a pig.

• 24:48Speaker 02

  And he doesn't like Yorkshire puddings.

• 24:51Speaker 03

  I don't mind Yorkshire puddings.

• 24:52Speaker 02

  It says that you're not.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  Who says that?

• 24:56Jessie Ware?

  My god, yeah, you better.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  I I don't wanna say that this is tantamount to.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  Slander, yeah. In this country, this is like, I I could get.

• 25:05Speaker 02

  We love a Yorkshire.

• 25:07Speaker 03

  I like a Yorkshire pudding, um but it is just batter. It is kind of a batter.

• 25:11Speaker 02

  That's all the point.

• 25:12Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but people do, people do kind of go mad for it and it's just a bit of battery air. I'm with you on that.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, you've got to have the gravy in it.

• 25:20Speaker 03

  You know what it is? It's it's British um patriotism is coloured with so much kind of embarrassment and shame. That it has to come out in these in these pockets, right? In these sort of innocent pockets. So it's something like. A Yorkshire pudding is the receptacle for so many people's suppressed patriotism.

• 25:41Speaker 03

  And so people get really passionate about it when it comes up.

• 25:44Jessie Ware?

  All the taxi drivers are eating Yorkshire pudding through Sunday.

• 25:48Speaker 03

  Well, they don't need to. They're getting it all out in the in the car.

• 25:52Speaker 03

  It's other people who are like shy about the St. George's Cross who are like, oh, no, I don't know about that. But yeah, don't say anything mean about a Yorkshire pudding, you know. Yeah, yeah, but I get it. It's it's nice. The thing about British food is like. It's all the little bits in it. It's the it's about collections of little bits for full English, which is a collection of random bits. And a roast is kind of a collection of random bits.

• 26:12Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but so I love roast. I love a roast dinner.

• 26:15Speaker 03

  Hmm. Yeah, me too.

• 26:16Jessie Ware?

  So what would be your very, very best dinner?

• 26:19Speaker 03

  For a roast?

• 26:20Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 26:20Speaker 03

  A roast lamb shank, finest piece of meat on any animal. I love a lamb shank.

• 26:24Jessie Ware?

  Lamb shank was so trendy.

• 26:26Speaker 03

  Always. It's like the prawn cocktail of our time.

• 26:28Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, and it's really died a death.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  It really has. I'm I'm the last last person flying the flag for the lamb shank.

• 26:34Jessie Ware?

  With a little reduction jus.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  Beautiful. A little grizzle on the end. A little bit of collagen melting out of the meat. I like a roastie, sure. Roast potatoes, some cabbage, um buttered greens, um a Yorkshire, I'll take it.

• 26:51Jessie Ware?

  Okay, even with lamb?

• 26:53Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yorkshire's meant to be with beef, isn't it?

• 26:55Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  That's a classic one. I I don't I don't subscribe to these these rules, I guess.

• 26:59Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, people have them with chicken.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  I'm a bit of a maverick, then.

• 27:02Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. So when I know that.

• 27:04Speaker 03

  You can you can. I didn't need to tell you. You can tell.

• 27:05Jessie Ware?

  No, no. And when you moved over here, you moved to Bath. Did you love the food? Was it so exciting or were you like, what the fuck? Tasteless, I would have thought. Where's my cease now?

• 27:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, it all was a bit orange.

• 27:24Jessie Ware?

  You've got like what's it?

• 27:26Speaker 03

  What's it? Backed fish and chips.

• 27:29Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 27:29Speaker 03

  Chips.

• 27:29Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  Uh, there's a lot of orange and beige.

• 27:32Jessie Ware?

  Chicken nuggets.

• 27:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right.

• 27:33Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 27:34Speaker 03

  Um, but I love.

• 27:35Jessie Ware?

  You're generous saying orange.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  I loved, I, I, I love takeaways. I love fish and chips. I love mushy peas. Curry sauce was completely new thing. Going to like a Chinese takeaway and they're like, first of all, why is the Chinese place got curry? That was our first thought.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  But there's a thing, Chinese curry, isn't there?

• 27:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, well.

• 27:51Speaker 02

  You can buy a jar in the shop.

• 27:53Jessie Ware?

  I don't think it's actually a thing. I think it's a thing that we've created.

• 27:57Speaker 03

  It might be a thing that was created too, but I love Chinese, I love the curry sauce.

• 28:00Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 28:01Speaker 03

  It's completely unique. It's not like any other curry.

• 28:03Speaker 02

  Except you don't get curry sauce in chip shops here, whereas you do in Manchester.

• 28:07Speaker 03

  Oh, you're using down south?

• 28:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, down south, you, you can't get curry sauce.

• 28:11Speaker 03

  Have you been to Broccoli's Rock?

• 28:12Speaker 02

  No.

• 28:13Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, it's great.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  Do they do curry sauce?

• 28:15Speaker 03

  They do really nice curry sauce, yeah.

• 28:16Speaker 02

  Oh, I didn't know.

• 28:18Jessie Ware?

  Broccoli's Rock's great.

• 28:18Speaker 03

  Delish Broccoli's Rock.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  Is it near the ice cream place?

• 28:21Jessie Ware?

  Yes, next door, pretty much.

• 28:22Speaker 03

  Opposite the wine bar.

• 28:24Jessie Ware?

  Joyce, have you been there?

• 28:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's nice.

• 28:26Jessie Ware?

  Do you like a wine?

• 28:27Speaker 03

  I love a wine.

• 28:28Jessie Ware?

  Do you want a wine?

• 28:29Speaker 03

  I brought you, I brought a wine, based on actually what you said.

• 28:31Jessie Ware?

  Oh god, did you bring me a Chardonnay?

• 28:33Speaker 03

  I brought you a Chardonnay, but I know Lenny doesn't like Chardonnay.

• 28:36Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, Phil, fine.

• 28:39Speaker 03

  But Lenny doesn't like Chardonnay because they're too rich. This is a Chablis, which is not oak.

• 28:43Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, I love Chablis.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  This is, should be nice and crisp.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Oh fabulous.

• 28:47Jessie Ware?

  Do you like Chablis?

• 28:48Speaker 03

  I love, yeah. I love it.

• 28:50Jessie Ware?

  Shall we open it?

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Yes, shall, shall we? Chablis?

• 28:52Jessie Ware?

  Chablis?

• 28:53Speaker 03

  Chablis?

• 28:54Speaker 02

  He bought this little, and this little.

• 28:56Jessie Ware?

  You are the most considerer.

• 28:58Speaker 03

  This is so handy. You've got to get one of these. They just freeze, put them in the freezer. And if you need to bring a white wine to a dinner party, put them in there. It's cold by the time you get to.

• 29:06Jessie Ware?

  That's a very thoughtful guest. Thank you.

• 29:09Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 29:09Jessie Ware?

  Thank you.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  I, I, well, for one, I know you like Chardonnay and also I want to, I want to turn Lenny, I want to turn me on to Chardonnay.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  No, but I do love Chablis.

• 29:17Speaker 03

  Okay, well, that's Chardonnay, that's Chardonnay.

• 29:18Speaker 02

  Oh, bugger off. Cheers. What do you say in Chinese?

• 29:23Speaker 03

  Oh, jiangbei.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Oh, jiangbei.

• 29:25Speaker 03

  Jiangbei.

• 29:26Speaker 02

  Jiangbei.

• 29:27Speaker 03

  Jiangbei, yeah.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  What's it mean?

• 29:28Speaker 03

  Um, collide glasses.

• 29:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it's not like good health.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  Or yamseng. Yamseng's a fun one. Yamseng's, you go ya, everyone says ya for as long as possible, before they say sing.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:38Speaker 03

  Ya.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Sing.

• 29:53Speaker 03

  Sing. Oh, the professional singer of one.

• 29:58Speaker 03

  That's a good answer, everyone.

• 29:59Jessie Ware?

  Was it?

• 30:00Speaker 03

  Well done.

• 30:00Jessie Ware?

  What does it mean that we're gonna have like a long life and good sex and?

• 30:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, I guess all of that, yeah, depends on how much shabli.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  That's what you is your mum.

• 30:09Speaker 03

  Depends on how much shabli.

• 30:57Speaker 03

  What do you think of that shabli? Do you like that?

• 30:58Speaker 02

  Delicious.

• 30:59Speaker 03

  Okay, great.

• 31:00Speaker 02

  Absolutely delicious.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  So I think, the thing is with chardonnay is it can be expressed, as I say, in many different ways depending on how it's made.

• 31:06Speaker 02

  I know that everyone tells me, oh, you'd really do because you like shablis, so you must like chardonnay. But I don't like the ones that she calls chardonnay.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  Okay, sure, sure.

• 31:15Speaker 02

  Do you know what I mean?

• 31:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, the kind of oaky, big ones.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  Do you get wine at the Great British Menu? Do you ever get a glass of wine to go with it?

• 31:21Speaker 03

  Sometimes the chef will, will pair the meal with like a glass of champagne. It's a bit of a bribe, to be honest.

• 31:27Speaker 02

  I'm sure it is. Take it, absolutely.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, but no, I love a bit of wine with food.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Are you enjoying it?

• 31:34Speaker 03

  Um, great British menu, yeah, man, it's such a pleasure, such a privilege, and I mean, what a jammy gig.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  Jammy gig.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  Can you imagine?

• 31:40Speaker 02

  Jammy gig.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  I know.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 31:44Jessie Ware?

  Whilst I'm over here prepping, um.

• 31:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, your last supper.

• 31:48Jessie Ware?

  Your last supper, please, Bill.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  Oh, sure.

• 31:50Jessie Ware?

  Starter, main, purd, drink of choice.

• 31:53Speaker 03

  Okay, great. Starter, I like scallops, pan-fried scallops. I just, when I see scallops on a menu, is there anything more exciting than seeing scallops on a menu? Yeah.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  Do you like them, do you like them with anything? Or just fried in butter, like, some people like them with bacon, or some people like monopie kind of bread.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  I think with bacon's lovely, and actually, in this case, black pudding is a classic combo.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  Oh, is it?

• 32:21Speaker 03

  Like pan fried scallop on a little puck of black pudding. Really chic, really nice.

• 32:26Speaker 02

  Very chic.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  But bacon is also really good, just some little salty, greasy accompaniment to the scallop. Beautiful.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  Can you cook scallops?

• 32:35Speaker 03

  Uh, I've tried, but it's always very wet. This is the thing, when you try and cook something you've had in the restaurant, most of the time it's wet. You ever find that it's just very wet? Um. You're like, this is wetter than it was in the restaurant. I think they're just drying things down a lot in restaurants.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  I've found it wet, really. Maybe it's your pan.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  I think, I think, I think you're meant to like pat them down for ages.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think you're supposed to dry them off maybe.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. But I'll try again. But yeah, when you get that little golden crisp on the side of a scallop, oh, nothing better.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  So that's your starter?

• 33:02Speaker 03

  That's my starter. And then.

• 33:04Speaker 02

  Are you drinking with that?

• 33:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, with that, I mean, that, this, this shabli would go really nicely with that. That'd be perfect. And for main, uh, I'd have to go Malaysia, uh, laksa.

• 33:18Speaker 02

  Oh, I love laksa.

• 33:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:21Jessie Ware?

  I haven't had a laksa in so long.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  They were huge for a couple of years.

• 33:24Speaker 02

  I was going to make one from the, the, the sugar club cookbooks, got a great laksa in.

• 33:29Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 33:30Speaker 02

  But what would you have in your laksa?

• 33:32Speaker 03

  Well, so every.

• 33:33Speaker 02

  Fish?

• 33:33Speaker 03

  Every part of Malaysia has its own laksa.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 33:37Speaker 03

  And if you go to some, if you go to, um, Laksa Mania, just off Ox- Oxford Street.

• 33:42Speaker 02

  Laksa Mania?

• 33:43Speaker 03

  They have laksa.

• 33:43Jessie Ware?

  Is it good?

• 33:44Speaker 03

  It's really good. Then they have, and you pick laksa from different parts of the country, which is really nice.

• 33:48Speaker 02

  So what's your laksa in your part of your country?

• 33:51Speaker 03

  Ours is very unique. There's a Kotikinabalu laksa at a place called Yi Fung, which is a little hawker, well, a little Chinese restaurant on Gaya Street, the main strip in Kotikinabalu. And for years and years and years, they were known as the laksa place in Kotikinabalu. And it's kind of, it's kind of like a gritty, earthy base soup with a thin vermicelli noodles, a bit of shrimp, some fried egg, some shredded chicken.

• 34:18Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  And a little bit of lime. And it's just delicious. It's earthy, it's spicy, it's it's comforting, it's rich. And it's such a lovely breakfast as well. You go the first thing and then you have it with like a sweet coffee. Marvelous.

• 34:31Speaker 02

  So is that your main course? Is that your fish course?

• 34:33Speaker 03

  That'd be my main course. Am I allowed a fish course as well?

• 34:36Speaker 02

  You can have that as well.

• 34:36Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 34:37Speaker 02

  Although you're on you're on fish fish at the minute, aren't you?

• 34:40Speaker 03

  I'm on fish fish. Well, maybe scallop will be my fish course.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:42Speaker 03

  And then for starters, I would have, oh god, well, um, maybe just like a load of crackling. Can I have like?

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Crackling?

• 34:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, by crackling of every animal. Pork crackling, chicken crackling.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  I did, oh my goodness.

• 34:57Speaker 03

  Have you had like chicken skin, just like?

• 34:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  You winced.

• 35:00Speaker 02

  Well, the thing is that everyone used to, if you're always on a diet, you always take your chicken skin off. But of course now everyone's eating it because of collagen.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  It's very nutritious.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  And it's very nutritious. So we're now back on chicken skin.

• 35:12Speaker 03

  I'm starting to think there is no food science.

• 35:14Speaker 02

  No, there isn't.

• 35:15Speaker 03

  Every year, there's different.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, they tell you not to eat certain things.

• 35:18Speaker 03

  Things that were gonna kill you last year are now absolutely essential.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  Do you remember when eggs, when we couldn't eat eggs?

• 35:23Speaker 02

  We couldn't eat eggs.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  And they're like, if you eat an egg, you'll die tomorrow. Oh god, I thought they were okay. And now it's like, if you don't eat an egg, your head will fall off.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:30Speaker 03

  And it's like, the the truth must be somewhere between these two.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  Uh, but.

• 35:35Speaker 02

  Chicken skin, pork skin.

• 35:37Speaker 03

  Now that you list it like that, I sound crazy. To pick that as a starter.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  But it's only pork that really crackles.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  Papaya salad, you have like a Thai papaya salad.

• 35:46Speaker 02

  Oh, a Thai papaya salad.

• 35:48Speaker 03

  That that gets the the saliva glands going.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  With the side of crackling.

• 35:52Speaker 03

  With the side of cracking, why not? Yeah.

• 35:54Speaker 02

  Tell me, do you like puddings?

• 35:56Speaker 03

  I don't have much of a sweet tooth.

• 35:58Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  I don't know. Um, and I'd rather have.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  More.

• 36:01Speaker 03

  I'm more of starters mains than mains dessert, you know?

• 36:03Speaker 02

  Would you have cheese?

• 36:05Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 36:06Speaker 02

  You're not a cheese person.

• 36:07Speaker 03

  I'd have cheese if there's red wine to finish. That's really, that's really what the cheese was for.

• 36:10Speaker 02

  Is cheese big in Malaysia?

• 36:11Speaker 03

  No.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Not, I was wondering that.

• 36:13Speaker 03

  Dairy is not big in Malaysia because it's just impossible to keep because it's so hot.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  And also cheese is so claggy.

• 36:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  Like you wouldn't even have cheese in the summer here, really, would you? Because you wouldn't have, would you?

• 36:22Speaker 02

  I would, yeah.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  Would you? Okay.

• 36:23Speaker 02

  I love cheese.

• 36:23Speaker 03

  Okay, fair enough.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  There is fridges.

• 36:25Speaker 03

  There are fridges, yeah.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  That that's kind of changed it all.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  But like getting good cheese to Malaysia and keeping it is just too difficult.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  So what about milk? You don't have milky things?

• 36:35Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, but it's like a lot of condensed milk, powdered milk. It's like milk that can keep.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 36:39Speaker 03

  You know, so if you go, you go to a coffee shop in Malaysia and you ask for milk in your coffee or tea, it'll be condensed milk evaporated.

• 36:45Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 36:46Speaker 03

  So it's always sweet and creamy and delicious, but not very good for you. But we'd get milk, we'd get fresh milk and put it in the freezer.

• 36:52Speaker 02

  And what's your cocktail of choice?

• 36:54Speaker 03

  Ooh, cocktail. I love a Negroni. Love a Margarita.

• 36:58Speaker 02

  Do you?

• 36:59Speaker 03

  I think maybe Margarita to start off with. Margarita at the start and Negroni at the end, I would say.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  Oh, right.

• 37:04Speaker 03

  But either of those. Depends. Maybe Margarita in the summer, Negroni in the winter.

• 37:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:09Jessie Ware?

  So we have here lots of Andy Baragani recipes from the New York Times app. This is his Zatar one pot chicken and rice. Very easy. Haven't made it before, so I don't know.

• 37:21Speaker 03

  Look at that skin, look like cracking, really.

• 37:22Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, well, yeah, I think it's a bit soggy though.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  It doesn't look it.

• 37:26Jessie Ware?

  It was browned, but now I think because it's been steamed with the, anyway. These are homemade, like fennel and cucumber pickles. And then we've got a kind of a bitter leaf salad with candied walnuts and then a turmeric honey lemon dressing. And then this is a green feta dip. It's like lots of herbs with feta and pistachio and a bit of chicken.

• 37:49Speaker 03

  It's so beautiful, my days.

• 37:50Jessie Ware?

  So just help yourself.

• 37:52Speaker 03

  And this is just every day for you.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  He's a chef and a judge and a nerd.

• 37:56Jessie Ware?

  Um, would you, would you, that's, I'm just, they're not, they're not crispy enough.

• 38:01Speaker 02

  No, they're not.

• 38:01Speaker 03

  No, no, no, but they've got the quality, they've got, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:04Jessie Ware?

  Would you like two bits?

• 38:06Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, please. I love chicken thighs as well. This is perfect. And also a good parent for the child.

• 38:10Jessie Ware?

  Okay, great.

• 38:11Speaker 03

  And it's got rice. Oh my god, my ships have come in.

• 38:15Jessie Ware?

  I do feel like sometimes it's always a bit under-seasoned, so I won't be offended if you need to put some more salt in. Well, I'm like really piling up your plate.

• 38:23Speaker 02

  Jesus Christ.

• 38:24Jessie Ware?

  Sorry.

• 38:25Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 38:26Jessie Ware?

  Hope you're hungry.

• 38:26Speaker 03

  I'm making, we're gonna make the most of this.

• 38:28Jessie Ware?

  I'm so sorry. This is actually really.

• 38:30Speaker 02

  Spoonful.

• 38:31Speaker 03

  I've come a long way, so this is.

• 38:32Jessie Ware?

  Okay, great.

• 38:34Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 38:34Speaker 02

  He's walking home, definitely.

• 38:37Jessie Ware?

  I know he's going to bed, isn't he? Um, and then help us have some pickles.

• 38:41Speaker 03

  Isn't this stunning? Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  Jesse, these are good noises. Doesn't make noises like that.

• 38:49Jessie Ware?

  No, I think he's being sweet.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  I'm not at all.

• 38:51Jessie Ware?

  Well, I mean, it's not my recipe, so.

• 38:53Speaker 03

  Oh, my days.

• 38:54Jessie Ware?

  Oh, no, it works all together. It's very nice. Mmm.

• 38:57Speaker 02

  Very delicious.

• 38:58Speaker 03

  The rice is so suffused with chicken flavour. Do you put the stock?

• 39:02Jessie Ware?

  There was no stock. It's the easiest recipe this.

• 39:04Speaker 03

  Wow. The rice is so chickeny.

• 39:07Jessie Ware?

  Because you use the chicken fat from browning the chicken for about ten minutes.

• 39:11Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 39:11Jessie Ware?

  So, and then in the onions and stuff, so maybe that's why. So like, what if we were coming around to yours, what would you be cooking us?

• 39:18Speaker 03

  Oh hmm oh you know what I've been doing um a Sichuan egg and tomato dish. Which is really delicious um a friend of mine called Lizzie Mabbett she she made a cookbook. A few years ago and one of the dishes in it is this Sichuan egg and tomato and you you start off by frying like. Chinese pickles and Sichuan peppers and garlic and and rice wine and. And tomatoes and you turn this tomato into like a slightly gloopy kind of spicy sauce you put that to the side and then you quickly scramble some egg and you mix it all back together.

• 39:53Jessie Ware?

  Yum.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  Get this gloopy um egg and tomato. And then you top it off with laugama you know the crispy chili oil.

• 40:03Jessie Ware?

  Oh yum.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  And have that on rice or noodles.

• 40:05Jessie Ware?

  That sounds great.

• 40:06Speaker 03

  It's so good and vegetarian.

• 40:10Jessie Ware?

  What like how long has it taken you to prep the new tour like. And it did you yeah like you were talking about being quite blue from the news did you have to like. When did you finish writing this tour or is it still kind of a work in progress.

• 40:26Speaker 03

  It it it never really ends we always fixing things up sometimes routines sort of become. Irrelevant as you're doing them you know they kind of they they their shelf life expires and you kind of have to replace them.

• 40:39Jessie Ware?

  Oh that's annoying.

• 40:40Speaker 03

  Yeah but usually by that point you've you've got something else that you prefer and you just push the other the old bit out so it's always it's always evolving. And yeah I don't know really uh how long it takes if I'm given a deadline it'll be done by then usually so.

• 40:52Jessie Ware?

  And do you have a focus like John Bishop talks about his family and his divorce.

• 40:57Speaker 03

  Right yeah.

• 40:58Jessie Ware?

  And things like that do you have focus.

• 41:00Speaker 03

  Well when I started it was very much about being Asian being Chinese in the UK. Because at the time it was like it really was kind of just me I was the only East Asian really doing any stand up in the UK and now there are loads of brilliant.

• 41:13Jessie Ware?

  Are there.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  Yeah which I guess I'm happy about.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  All I could say is uh when you when you preach for more representation be careful what you ask for. Cause it might bite you in the ass. Uh so now it's more now now I feel very British, you know. Now I don't feel very foreign at all anymore, so it's now this shows about. Like millennials and how uh we millennials are are aging now and you know.

• 41:43Speaker 02

  How old are you?

• 41:44Speaker 03

  Thirty six.

• 41:45Speaker 02

  Oh, you're a baby boy.

• 41:46Jessie Ware?

  Oh, you're a millennial?

• 41:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:48Jessie Ware?

  Are you on the cusp?

• 41:49Speaker 03

  I don't think so. I think I'm sort of smack dab in the middle, actually. Millennials are roughly born between eighty five and ninety five. I was born nineteen ninety.

• 41:56Jessie Ware?

  What are you?

• 41:57Speaker 02

  You must be.

• 41:58Jessie Ware?

  I'm eighty four.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  Eighty four?

• 42:00Jessie Ware?

  What does that make me?

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Um, a very young Gen X.

• 42:04Speaker 02

  Gen X.

• 42:05Jessie Ware?

  I thought I was a millennial.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  Well, if you want, there's.

• 42:08Jessie Ware?

  I identify as a millennial.

• 42:10Speaker 03

  There is a term which is geriatric millennial.

• 42:12Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my god!

• 42:13Speaker 03

  I did not make that up and I don't, I'm not saying you should take on that, but that term does exist.

• 42:19Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 42:20Speaker 03

  If you want to take it.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  Geriatric millennial.

• 42:24Jessie Ware?

  That's very sad.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  That's it.

• 42:28Jessie Ware?

  I'm a geriatric pop star and now I'm a geriatric millennial. This is a sad day. So Hawker, I want to talk about more more about the Hawkers. You talked about going there, you know, eating out a lot. What was like. Were you allowed to choose which Hawker you went to? Was it kind of like you'd all just do your own? You'd all have different meals when you were going out with your mum and dad and your sister?

• 42:49Speaker 02

  That's quite clever, really.

• 42:50Jessie Ware?

  Kind of like, it's like going to Borough Market, you know what I mean? You'd be like, you want a sausage roll, go get one.

• 42:55Speaker 03

  A little bit, yeah. So if you go to Hawker Centre, then you're literally just. Budget tables and you're surrounded by all different kinds of cuisines and you just go up and.

• 43:02Speaker 02

  It's like a food court.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, food court, a lot of food courts. South East Asia is very food court-y, for sure.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Are you on the seaside where your family had their home?

• 43:10Speaker 03

  Yes, yes, yes, yeah. I mean, not literally, but the city is on the sea.

• 43:14Jessie Ware?

  So what would be some of your choice Hawker stalls?

• 43:18Speaker 03

  Um.

• 43:19Jessie Ware?

  Or would you switch it up?

• 43:20Speaker 03

  Well, uh, yes, um, yeah, you switch it up. There was one place we'd go to after Kung Fu practice. So we'd then. As kids, we'd go to the dojo, you know, where my parents met and, you know.

• 43:32Jessie Ware?

  Dojo?

• 43:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:33Jessie Ware?

  What's a dojo mean?

• 43:35Speaker 03

  Um, a dojo is where you practice Kung Fu, like in the Lianan.

• 43:39Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  I always thought it was a dojo.

• 43:41Speaker 03

  I was so, yeah, so, so he said, wasn't it that he said that's where he practised his martial arts?

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 43:47Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my god.

• 43:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's why he called it the dojo.

• 43:49Speaker 02

  Okay. And he wasn't practicing his martial arts.

• 43:52Jessie Ware?

  Well, he was practicing something.

• 43:54Speaker 03

  Well, we didn't use our dojo for adultery. We used it for the traditional methods of Kung Fu. And yes, every Saturday, us, me and my sisters and my cousins would go and like do punching. And then we'd.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  Oh, two younger sisters. And then we'd go to a place um that we called lamb chop, because they did lamb chops. There was a western grill. There was um a Chinese hawker bit. And so I would get like char quai tiao as a starter. I got really big as a kid. You know hofan, the flat rice noodles? Char quai tiao is the Malaysian sort of um version of that. That's just fried at really high heat with like dark soy and. Traditionally like cockles and um pork fat and you know, just like really charred and earthy taste. And then on top, then after that, I'd have like a full mixed grill, which is like a lamb chop, chicken chop, sausage.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  But done in sort of an Asian-y style. So good. But like a lot, so a lot of the restaurants, corner shops, the. Uh cafes would would, there would be a drinks corner, there would be like a Chinesey stall, there'd be maybe. A dumpling stall. So there were, it was almost like individual operators within the restaurant and you just hit up which one you want as you wanted.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  That sounds great.

• 45:11Speaker 03

  It's really good, man.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  What is the a a kind of one spice or herb that you can't really get in England and they don't use it commonly, but they use it in Malaysian cuisine?

• 45:20Speaker 03

  My favorite would probably be, my favorite would probably be pandan, which is starting to come over here, but it's quite rare. It's like a kind of cakey leaf.

• 45:28Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, leaf.

• 45:29Speaker 03

  The flavor is very uh dessert-y. It is very, it it's.

• 45:34Speaker 02

  What's it look like?

• 45:35Speaker 03

  It's kind of vanilla-y, I guess. It's it's like a long green leaf.

• 45:40Speaker 02

  Have you cooked with it?

• 45:41Jessie Ware?

  I haven't, but I've had it in Borough Market at um a Malaysian spot.

• 45:45Speaker 03

  And it it imbuses a really lovely green color to everything put it in. It's just, it's just a really lovely comforting flavor, pandan. Everything else like, I mean, UK is so good for food now, especially the cities. You can get anything now, really. I mean, you can get, I mean, we have a a national faux chain. That's incredible. We have a chain of faux restaurants. I mean, even ten years ago, they've been crackers, but. But yeah, I I like the food in the UK has come leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Where's your takeaway spot?

• 46:13Speaker 03

  For.

• 46:14Speaker 02

  When you're at home and you need to take.

• 46:15Speaker 03

  Here?

• 46:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  Um, I get um, I get food from a place called Foodie Cuisine a lot, which is a Chinese. They do lots of Xian stuff. It's off on the road. It's next to Toe Bakery. It's right next to Toe Bakery. And they do like Xian skewers of like.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  God, you'd never think Foodie Cuisine was kind of a.

• 46:35Speaker 03

  It's a weird.

• 46:35Speaker 02

  An attractive kind of option.

• 46:37Jessie Ware?

  Great.

• 46:38Speaker 03

  It's called, yeah, I don't know why they call it Foodie Cuisine. But I love, I love Chinese restaurants.

• 46:41Speaker 02

  But it doesn't sound like Chinese food.

• 46:44Speaker 03

  No, it doesn't.

• 46:44Speaker 02

  Foodie Cuisine.

• 46:45Speaker 03

  Although I think they have missed the E at the end of cuisine, so they're foodie cuisine. In that sense, it's very Chinese.

• 46:52Speaker 02

  What was that place we went to for your birthday where they had the, the Chinese restaurant with the Elvis impersonator?

• 46:57Jessie Ware?

  That was on New, that was on like Old Kent Road.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  That sounds awesome.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  And they're all Chinese, there are a lot of Chinese Elvis impersonators.

• 47:03Jessie Ware?

  I don't think it's there anymore.

• 47:04Speaker 02

  It's really funny.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  I was, I thought I was gonna be a.

• 47:07Speaker 02

  An Elvis impersonator?

• 47:08Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, it's so big in Malaysia.

• 47:11Speaker 02

  Is he big in?

• 47:12Speaker 03

  I'm like my uncles. I grew up with them. So is my, my father and he has five brothers. And the sister. And they were, they were obsessed with the Beatles growing up. And they, my father was in a Beatles. A band that played Beatles songs in Malaysia, um, called The Locusts. They called themselves The Locusts. And so I grew up listening to a lot of Beatles, a lot of oldies, and like Cliff Richard and Elvis and, and I sang a lot when I was young. And I thought I was gonna be a singer for like, uh, for my whole, for my teens. I thought I was gonna be a singer, because we did, because the family did so much music.

• 47:46Jessie Ware?

  So you can really sing?

• 47:48Speaker 03

  I could, I could. I'm a bit out of practice.

• 47:50Jessie Ware?

  Would you like some pudding?

• 47:51Speaker 03

  Yes, I would. I'd love some pudding.

• 47:53Jessie Ware?

  Um, it's, I don't know if it's gonna work, and it's always that thing with rhubarb. It's like rhubarb season.

• 47:58Speaker 03

  Oh, great, yeah.

• 47:59Jessie Ware?

  And I got forced rhubarb, because it's pretty, um.

• 48:02Speaker 03

  Forced rhubarb always sounds cruel, doesn't it?

• 48:04Speaker 02

  It does, because it's not.

• 48:05Speaker 03

  Bad for the rhubarb every time.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  It's not, it's time to mature. They force it under blimmin' glass houses.

• 48:12Speaker 03

  Farmers strangling the rhubarb when he had forced rhubarb.

• 48:15Speaker 02

  Force them into it.

• 48:16Speaker 03

  What are they forcing? They're just making it grow faster.

• 48:18Speaker 02

  Them to be a crumble.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  Poor little rhubarb.

• 48:23Speaker 03

  Gosh, why don't we just have foie gras?

• 48:26Speaker 02

  Would you eat that? Oh, you'd eat anything.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  I'd eat anything. Yeah, I'd eat anything.

• 48:30Jessie Ware?

  Um, but you know that thing where you never know if it's sugary enough?

• 48:34Speaker 03

  Until you try it.

• 48:35Jessie Ware?

  Until you try it.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  And rhubarb's got a tang, so you're gonna upset that, right?

• 48:38Jessie Ware?

  Um, yeah, so I do have three options. I have custard.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  Ah, I love custard.

• 48:43Jessie Ware?

  Do you? And I thought rhubarb custard.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  What, rhubarb crumble, is it?

• 48:47Jessie Ware?

  It's a rhubarb kind of, it's called a rhubarb crisp. It's like a crumble.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 48:51Jessie Ware?

  Um, but kind of.

• 48:52Speaker 02

  Is it streusel on the top?

• 48:54Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 48:55Speaker 03

  What is streusel?

• 48:56Speaker 02

  It's like a crispy bit on the top.

• 48:58Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  So it's like crispy.

• 48:59Jessie Ware?

  But it doesn't look very crispy at the moment, which I'm worried about. Anyway, custard. Do you want your custard cold or warm?

• 49:06Speaker 03

  I have it warm.

• 49:07Speaker 02

  Warm, yeah.

• 49:08Speaker 03

  Warm, if that's okay?

• 49:09Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 49:10Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 49:10Jessie Ware?

  Do you want ice cream as well?

• 49:13Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 49:13Jessie Ware?

  Do you?

• 49:14Speaker 03

  Ice cream. Ice cream might be my, my, my, uh, my dessert, I think, for my last.

• 49:19Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Oh, did we not get that?

• 49:20Speaker 03

  I don't even got that far.

• 49:21Speaker 02

  Cause he said he wasn't interested in dessert, really.

• 49:23Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, this is interesting, Phil.

• 49:26Speaker 03

  You know what I love is ice cream with a drizzle of olive oil on it.

• 49:29Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 49:30Speaker 03

  Have you had that?

• 49:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did the other night at town.

• 49:32Speaker 03

  So classy, so delicious.

• 49:33Jessie Ware?

  Do you, do you want that on the side?

• 49:36Speaker 03

  You know what? What, what, what flavour of ice cream is it?

• 49:38Jessie Ware?

  I've got clotted cream vanilla.

• 49:40Speaker 03

  Perfect, perfect, with a little olive oil on top, like extra verge or all?

• 49:45Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 49:45Speaker 03

  Extra verge all?

• 49:45Jessie Ware?

  I don't know if I've got the sexiest.

• 49:48Speaker 02

  Evo.

• 49:49Jessie Ware?

  Whatever they call it, but.

• 49:50Speaker 03

  In this economy, how could you?

• 49:52Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so, right, I'm gonna do that all. I'm gonna do that now. Um, but before I go and get it, can I ask you your nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 50:01Speaker 03

  Wow, well, you know what? I know I s- I've already mentioned the greens stir fried in oyster sauce. And I remember when I was touring with a bunch of comedians through Southeast Asia and we stopped off in Penang in Georgetown and we went to a restaurant called Kabaya. And it's Buraanakan food. The Buraanakan people are the Malayese Chinese, um, sort of mixed people in, in the straits there. And it was just a really, really high quality restaurant and they brought just a plate of just, of just simple greens stir fried in oyster sauce. And I had one bite of it and it was that Proustian Madeleine moment, you know, it was that bit at the end of Ratatouille where

• 50:39Speaker 03

  the guy goes back in time, he remembers that first, that first Ratatouille he had. And I had this piece of stir fried veg in oyster sauce and I just. Instantly went through this rolodex of all the stir fried veg and oyster sauce I had as a kid. And because it was just the platonic ideal version of it. So that that was it. And it's just like, it's never the one you expect. It's never the dish you expect.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  Just a simple.

• 51:01Speaker 02

  Just simple.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  Just a simple bit of vegetable on the side.

• 51:04Speaker 02

  Evocative.

• 51:04Speaker 03

  Evocative and it just takes you back to childhood. So that that was probably it. Yeah.

• 51:08Jessie Ware?

  I've shown some.

• 51:10Speaker 03

  Olive oil.

• 51:11Jessie Ware?

  Ex- really nice extra with your with your rhubarb crisp.

• 51:14Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 51:15Jessie Ware?

  I should have done it separately and I'm really sorry, but you do have this rhubarb crisp that isn't crispy. So I won't be doing this.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  It feels quite crispy.

• 51:21Jessie Ware?

  I gave you the crispiest bit, babe. Um, you're the guest. And then you've got.

• 51:26Speaker 03

  Little olive oil.

• 51:27Jessie Ware?

  Olive oil.

• 51:27Speaker 03

  And custard.

• 51:28Jessie Ware?

  And you've got everything. It's a shit mix.

• 51:30Speaker 03

  Delish.

• 51:31Speaker 02

  Okay, darling, uh, can I have the smallest amount with ice cream?

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Mmm.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  He's happy.

• 51:37Jessie Ware?

  He's happy. But I think you'd be happy about anything, though. I feel like you're just a kind.

• 51:41Speaker 02

  That's why he's a good judge, because you're kind.

• 51:45Speaker 03

  I'm I'm not kind.

• 51:46Speaker 02

  You are kind.

• 51:48Speaker 03

  I'm actually quite nice.

• 51:49Speaker 02

  Are you trying to be a hard man on it? Cause you're not. You come across as kind. It's all going wrong.

• 51:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, but I was a guest on it once and I was too mean.

• 51:59Speaker 02

  You can't be mean.

• 52:00Speaker 03

  Mmm, the rhubarb, sure is fa- forced. That's one forced rhubarb. I love it.

• 52:06Jessie Ware?

  You're very sweet.

• 52:07Speaker 03

  I love it. The crisp is more of a chew.

• 52:10Jessie Ware?

  It's not a crisp.

• 52:11Speaker 03

  It's rhubarb chew. That's nice rhubarb chew.

• 52:14Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  Orange quite nice.

• 52:16Jessie Ware?

  It's fine. It's totally fine.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Something in it in the rhubarb. Orange.

• 52:20Jessie Ware?

  Mmm, yeah.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  Delicious. Really good.

• 52:24Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 52:25Speaker 03

  Mmm.

• 52:25Jessie Ware?

  And on that note.

• 52:26Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. Thank you so much.

• 52:28Jessie Ware?

  Thank you for being here. Thank you for being such a great guest. Thank you for the delicious wine, the good chat.

• 52:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:34Jessie Ware?

  And hopefully I'll see you around.

• 52:36Speaker 03

  See you around the neighbourhood.

• 52:51Jessie Ware?

  Phil Wang, what a lovely guy.

• 52:53Speaker 02

  Lovely man, really lovely.

• 52:55Jessie Ware?

  Great guest, beautiful wine, very funny, very kind.

• 53:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, likes the food and knew a lot about food.

• 53:04Jessie Ware?

  Very, yes.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I feel I've learnt "Pandam", I didn't even know that.

• 53:08Jessie Ware?

  "Pandam",

• 53:09Speaker 02

  "Pandam", I thought that was a Kylie Malone song. Isn't it?

• 53:14Jessie Ware?

  "Pandam".

• 53:14Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, that's what I thought he was talking about.

• 53:17Jessie Ware?

  Phil Wang, you can watch on Great British Menu where he is a judge and also you can go and get tickets for his new tour, Uh Oh, now.

• 53:25Speaker 02

  Well, I could listen to him wanging on forever.

• 53:29Jessie Ware?

  Thought the recipes were really nice for the mains.

• 53:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:32Jessie Ware?

  But I'll just make a rhubarb crumble next time for fun's sake. That was a big old waste of blood.

• 53:37Speaker 02

  I thought it was quite nice because it was chewy.

• 53:39Jessie Ware?

  It was tasty.

• 53:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:40Jessie Ware?

  I needed more crisp.

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:42Jessie Ware?

  Anyway, we'll see you next week for more Table Rammers.