Pod Insights The Sporkful Sporkful Dating Game: Suitcase Full Of Cheese Edition About this episode This week, The Sporkful plays matchmaker! We put out the call for Sporkful listeners looking for love, and many of you responded. We used our proprietary algorithm (i.e. a producer looking at a spreadsheet) to set up and record two blind dates — one in New York and one in Chicago.
Transcript 7,533 words · 12 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:08 Dan Pashman? What are a couple of moments from the date that really stand out to you that were most memorable?
1:13 Speaker 01 Well, one of the most memorable moments was definitely when he told me that he dissected a cat in biology class, in AP Biology class. I have not stopped thinking about that.
1:27 Dan Pashman? This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for lovers. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to get people to fall in love. All right, not every week, but this week, back by popular demand for Valentine's Day, we are presenting The Sporkful Dating Game.
1:49 Dan Pashman? We asked those of you looking for love to fill out a Google form. Then we painstakingly combed through the entries to find matches using our proprietary algorithm, by which I mean we asked you what age range and what gender or genders you're looking for and where you live. And we match people based on that. Still, it's proprietary. And we did this back in 2021 at the height of the pandemic. We arranged- Two Zoom dates. Unfortunately, neither of those matches led to a second date. So we're already over two in our matchmaking exploits. Can we do better this time? Once again, we set up two blind dates, but this time in person. One in New York, one in Chicago. We recorded the whole dates, then we talked to the daters afterwards. As an incentive, I promised the couples that if either of them gets married, I'll provide cascatelli for their wedding.
2:34 Dan Pashman? So will their love smolder like a kebab on a hot grill? Will they become as inseparable as the two slices of bread in a peanut butter sandwich? Or will they repel each other like oil and vinegar, salad dressing that hasn't been properly emulsified? First up, we have our New York date. Let's meet our daters, Shazad and Stacy.
2:59 Speaker 02 I'm Shazad, I'm 37. I live in New York, grew up outside the city, and I'm a marketing director. So for the past few years, I've been running a business called Zorse, which means say it louder in Urdu and Hindi. And I make what I call like South Asian arts inspired joy wear. So here's a pet peeve of mine. Restaurants that have insane cancellation fees. If I cancel a plan with two days' notice, you guys can fill that table. For a first date, the main thing I'm looking for is, are we laughing? If we're laughing, I feel good about everything else. And I'm, I am curious to explore, you know, future dates.
3:37 Speaker 01 I'm Stacy, I'm 37, and I am a cookbook author. And I wrote a cookbook called 50 Pies, 50 States, where I baked a pie for every state in America when I was applying for my green card. I think that when you visit a new bakery, you have to get minimum six pastries, preferably three savory and three sweet. Because then you kind of get like a full tasting menu. When I go to a new restaurant, I just go in blind. I don't do any social media looking up. I don't look at the menu so I can like immerse myself in the experience. When I'm going on a first date, what I'm looking for is just someone that's like down and mellow to hang out with. And I'm always thinking in the back of my mind, if they can hang out with my crazy friends.
4:21 Dan Pashman? We sent Shazad and Stacy to Leland, a Mediterranean restaurant in Brooklyn. You'll hear highlights from the date, mixed in with each dater's confessionals, which I recorded with them afterwards. Okay, let's get to the date.
4:35 Speaker 01 Are you a sharer, or you like your own main?
4:38 Speaker 02 Oh, sharing.
4:39 Speaker 01 Sharing, okay.
4:40 Speaker 02 Yeah.
4:40 Speaker 01 All right.
4:41 Speaker 02 What about you?
4:42 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm a sharer, because I like, I usually play food captain in my group, so I usually order everything, so, yeah.
4:50 Speaker 02 Food captain.
4:52 Speaker 01 That's like when you-
4:52 Speaker 02 Food captain, yeah, yeah.
4:53 Speaker 01 So, all my friends like to turn their brain off, like during a dinner, and then I'm the one that-
4:58 Speaker 02 You're the only one to listen to the specials when they ever listen to it.
5:00 Speaker 01 Yes, yes, that's me.
5:01 Speaker 02 And you remembered, oh yeah, that thing with Arden too.
5:03 Dan Pashman? How did Shazad handle your food captaining?
5:06 Speaker 01 He handled it very well. He had a lot of input on like, what he really wanted to eat too, and so I included all of those things. So, I had already eaten at Leland before, so I kind of knew like, what the vibe was. So, it was really fun to see what he was excited about, and if it was anything that I was also excited about, or if it's something that I had tried before and really liked.
5:28 Speaker 02 She's a good food captain, I would recommend her. I feel like, if you have that like nightmare scenario of a 12-person dinner party, and people don't really know each other very well, and everyone's being shy and bashful, and no one wants to make decisions, she will make like, the right optimal calls, and not be ashamed to be like, all right, this is how we're gonna do it. We need to get the Gildas.
5:49 Speaker 01 All right, let's do that. Let's do focaccia Gildas salad.
5:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
5:53 Speaker 01 And then, what of the, the mushroom toast is really good. Do you like mushrooms?
5:58 Speaker 02 I do.
5:58 Speaker 01 Okay, we should get, definitely get the mushroom toast.
6:00 Speaker 02 Mushroom toast.
6:02 Speaker 01 And then the potatoes, sounded good. The fish.
6:05 Speaker 03 And the hot fish. Oh my god, this, it's an amazing order.
6:12 Speaker 01 That's what I was actually.
6:13 Speaker 02 Great.
6:14 Speaker 01 So what do you do for work?
6:16 Speaker 02 Uh, I work in tech. Do marketing. Look, it's a kind of a corporate job that does the, pays the bills and on the side I have a fashion company and so they make clothes that I think are really interesting.
6:26 Speaker 01 Cool.
6:27 Speaker 02 I wasn't ever into fashion, but I just like kind of wanted to have a good career platform.
6:31 Dan Pashman? So Stacy was the food captain. Who would you say was the conversation captain? Who took the lead on the conversation?
6:38 Speaker 02 You know, I felt like we split it pretty well. I feel like in a lot of dates, I feel like I'm usually the bigger question asker and like conversation driver. I think in this case, like Stacy is like super thoughtful and she was good at asking deeper questions.
6:58 Dan Pashman? So you felt like in terms of who was asking questions and who was answering questions, it was about equal?
7:04 Speaker 02 I would love to see the data of the transcript of if that's true or not.
7:09 Speaker 01 There was no awkward moments or pauses. He can talk a mile a minute, so it was just, I can probably write a memoir about his life. I know so much about him now.
7:21 Dan Pashman? Wow. Did he ask you any questions about your life?
7:25 Speaker 01 Not as much. I think he was very interested to tell me about all the exciting things he's into, like cocktails and hosting parties and the fashion line he's started. And I was very much happy to listen, so yeah.
7:39 Speaker 02 Actually, like cocktail making during the pandemic made me realize like how I could play with flavors more. And then I was like living in the Hudson Valley at the time and I got a better home bar. And then I was like, oh, I'm gonna like it like next to me.
7:54 Speaker 01 You know, I think sometimes maybe he was nervous and just like, you know, when people get nervous, they ramble. Or he was also just really excited to tell me about him and tell me about his life. And I was ready to listen. I tried to do some like leading questions that would maybe help him ask me more about my life. Like I asked him, um, like what kind of music he really likes, because music is a huge part of my life. Um, but yeah, it never really went that back way and that's okay, too.
8:26 Speaker 02 That's your whole point of view versus not.
8:27 Speaker 01 So is that the kind of music that you like?
8:30 Speaker 02 Maybe like house music is like my biggest like focus, but I just like they're the most accessible shows and accessible artists. That's part of what it is. Like there's like a renaissance of like house music right now and especially in New York. I can like see some.
8:46 Speaker 01 Like relationships and partnerships. Um, there's always a front of house and a back of house person.
8:52 Dan Pashman? Front of house, meaning like in a restaurant. That's like the servers, the host, like the people who are more extroverted. And then you have the people who are kind of doing also very important work, but a little more behind the scenes.
9:03 Speaker 01 Exactly. Exactly. And the back of house person, you know, gets things going, chugs it along, may not want to have as much face time with the outside world as possible. And I feel like he's very much a front of house person. He's very, very extroverted and it's so funny and made me very quiet, but I also like to listen. So that, that kind of worked out too. But yeah, it felt really funny as a front of house person to be the back of house person for the evening.
9:30 Speaker 02 Bluegrass and folk and like pop, you know, jazz kind of at the time band. It was like a very eclectic one.
9:35 Speaker 01 I am very excited for you to try this mushroom toast.
9:38 Speaker 02 It does look very pretty. It is like covered in toast, the cheese and the sauli. Oh, wow. Yeah.
9:48 Speaker 01 Crispy.
9:49 Dan Pashman? You two shared a whole fish. It's whether to share certain kinds of food, but that's really, you're kind of both, you gotta get your utensils in there. There's, there's some work involved. How did that go sharing the whole fish?
9:59 Speaker 01 It went really well. He was not as adventurous in the parts of the fish as I was. The cheek is my favorite part on a fish.
10:08 Speaker 02 I don't think I've even had like fish cheeks. I don't think I have.
10:12 Speaker 01 No? Have the other side.
10:14 Speaker 02 I'm gonna have it.
10:15 Speaker 01 It's like.
10:16 Speaker 02 How do I dig into this? Where am I digging into?
10:17 Speaker 01 Use the spoon.
10:18 Speaker 02 Okay.
10:19 Speaker 01 And it's like right here.
10:21 Speaker 02 You eat the eye?
10:22 Speaker 01 I eat the eye, but you don't have to.
10:24 Speaker 02 No, I'll, I'll try it.
10:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, like all this meat part.
10:29 Speaker 02 One of the highlights culinarily for me was that I had never had fish cheek before. And Stacy was like, oh yeah, like dig in right there. Get that part. It's the tastiest part. And because she was willing to dig in and show me, and I was like, oh, great. And I dug in and it was like a beautiful little, I can still remember that taste really distinctly. The fish cheek is just so smooth and like dissolves in your mouth in a certain way. And I wouldn't have noticed it. I probably would have been like, oh, I'm a little grossed out by the head. And I wouldn't have dug in and she was like, no, no, go for it.
11:03 Speaker 02 I haven't really gotten that too. Is it the spatty, is it the spatty thing?
11:08 Speaker 01 Yeah, eat that.
11:11 Speaker 02 I'll be honest, I'm not like into the food, into like whole food dissection, whole animal dissection.
11:16 Speaker 01 No.
11:17 Speaker 02 Vibe. It's like.
11:19 Speaker 01 There you go.
11:20 Speaker 02 I don't like suck the marrow out of bones, out of like beef bones and stuff like that where it's a very like, not gonna say anything to do to eat that.
11:26 Speaker 01 Oh, really?
11:27 Speaker 02 It is. It is very much so. I grew up seeing my dad do it and I was like, I'm not into this.
11:32 Speaker 01 Not for you?
11:32 Speaker 02 Well, let me just try this first.
11:35 Dan Pashman? So Shazad, how do you think Stacy took your confession that you don't suck marrow out of the bones when given the opportunity?
11:41 Speaker 02 Uh, I don't, I don't, uh, hmm, um, I'd like to think that it came off as like the one off little cute, I think self acknowledgement.
11:53 Speaker 01 You know, I'm gonna be frank, judged him pretty hard.
11:59 Dan Pashman? So you judged him because you felt like he wasn't being adventurous?
12:04 Speaker 01 It's so funny because I felt he was so adventurous in so many other aspects of his life that it was funny that the adventurousness didn't translate into his way of eating. I think just like, at least suck the marrow out once, you know, like at least give it a shot. I'm all for that kind of eating. And yeah, it was like so funny to be, to be just like, this is one thing that I do not do.
12:26 Dan Pashman? At what point in the date did you find out what she does for a living?
12:29 Speaker 02 I mean, I, I made an effort not to ask, what do you do for a living? Because I thought that's kind of like, I prefer to keep it like. On other topics first and if it comes up naturally. Um, but I think it was like three fourths of the way through where more of her job came out.
12:47 Speaker 01 He did not really find out much about me or what I did till dessert. Yeah, I used to bake pies at 420 Blackbirds for a couple of years.
12:56 Speaker 02 Holy shit. Wow. We might have run into each other in that context.
13:01 Speaker 01 Uh, I've never worked in the store, only in the kitchen.
13:04 Speaker 02 Oh, okay, okay.
13:06 Speaker 01 Have you gotten pie from there before?
13:07 Speaker 02 Yeah, but also, yeah, I mean, it was, I was like, there used to be a taxidermy museum right next to it.
13:13 Speaker 01 Oh, yes, the museum of whatever. Yeah.
13:15 Speaker 02 So I would have this thing where I would go to, I would go to the taxidermy museum at the Black, 420.
13:21 Speaker 01 Yes, my friend Sue, who is a tattoo artist, used to teach taxidermy classes there. She taught the, the mouse class. I always wanted to take.
13:29 Speaker 02 My god, the mice.
13:31 Speaker 01 Yes.
13:32 Speaker 02 Did you ever dissect animals in high school?
13:34 Speaker 01 I don't think we, I think we did frog.
13:36 Speaker 02 Okay.
13:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:37 Speaker 02 I did frog, mice, and like cats.
13:41 Speaker 01 Oh, you did cats in high school?
13:43 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:43 Speaker 01 Very morbid. Where did you go to high school?
13:45 Dan Pashman? So he brings up dissecting a cat. That's a choice to bring that up on a first date. Like, what does that do to the vibe?
13:52 Speaker 01 I think it changed the vibe a little bit. I'd say I was just like, I am an animal girly. I'm an animal lover. We had finished, I believe, the whole fish at this point. So there was, maybe that's where the dissection conversation came from, is that we had to, you know, take apart this whole fish together and that maybe triggered a memory of when the cat happened. Yeah.
14:13 Dan Pashman? Right.
14:13 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:15 Speaker 02 I would recommend most people don't discuss dissection on a first date. I, I would say probably generally not a good topic. So, okay, so then did you want to stay in food? Like, did you want to like?
14:27 Speaker 01 Oh, I, I am still working in food.
14:29 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
14:29 Speaker 01 I wrote a pie cookbook called 50 Pies, 50 States, where I baked pie for every state in America when I was applying for my green card.
14:35 Speaker 02 Okay, that's, I think for a sense now, I'm like, oh, is it curious, you have like a lot of affiliation around? Food, food memory, taste, memory. I never like read books.
14:45 Speaker 01 Oh, I read them covered.
14:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, and then my Brooklyn Law.
14:52 Dan Pashman? Coming up, we'll hear Shazad and Stacy's final thoughts on the date, and we'll find out if they'll be seeing each other again. Then we'll get to date number two. What could go wrong on that one?
15:01 Speaker 04 You definitely don't want to make your date sick on the first time that you meet.
15:05 Dan Pashman? That's coming up. Stick around.
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18:27 Dan Pashman? Welcome back to the Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman and our big live show in Brooklyn is fast approaching. March 19th at the Bell House with longtime friend of the Sporkful, Kenji Lopez Alt and comedy legend Judy Gold. What a lineup. It's March 19th. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now at sporkful.com/live. Again, that's sporkful.com/live. Thanks and see you there. All right, back now to the Sporkful dating game. You heard the highlights from Shazad and Stacy's date. Now it's time for final thoughts. So throughout the meal, Stacy, did you feel any sparks?
19:04 Speaker 01 Unfortunately, no sparks. He was a very lovely guy, but he would be, you know, a great person for someone that's like very adventurous in the world.
19:13 Dan Pashman? So Shazad, at any point in the date, did you feel any little bit of romance? Were there any sparks?
19:21 Speaker 02 I think that you can have moments of connection, but it definitely didn't like turn into, I think, a fire on both of our ends. We were in a corner booth and she sat like kind of far off, like further than the like place settings we even were. And, and she didn't like move closer over time.
19:39 Dan Pashman? Has there been any contact since then between the two of you? No contact since the date. Did you exchange numbers or Instagram handles or something? We did not. Okay. He didn't ask. He did not ask. And you didn't ask. I did not ask.
19:57 Dan Pashman? Oh, man. When you combine this result from our last dating game episode, we're now oh for three, which frankly only makes us slightly worse than the dating apps. Now, before we get to our next date, we did actually set up a third date for this episode at one of my favorite restaurants in Philly, Laser Wolf. It's an Israeli style grill house. And the best part is that for appetizers, you get all these incredible little salads, like probably 10 or 12 of them with hummus and pita. There are so many flavors and spices and it just guarantees you always leave feeling like you tried everything. One of our daters, Jacob and Holly, went to Laser Wolf. They loved the food. They enjoyed the date. But they told us it wasn't going to lead to a second date, which means we're now oh for four. So there's a lot riding on this next date in Chicago. Let's meet our daters, Viraj and Diego.
20:48 Speaker 04 Hi, my name is Viraj. I am 38 years old. I work in higher education and I live in Chicago, Illinois. My food pet peeve would definitely be when things are under salted. My strategy for a new restaurant is I definitely want to do my research. I check out social media. I will look at menus beforehand, but I still go in with an open mind. And my favorite thing to do is actually to share a lot of dishes to make sure I can try the most. I'm really looking for someone that feels like a friend first, and then we align on shared values and interests. But someone who's just excited to explore the world, try new things and have someone to do that with along the way.
21:30 Speaker 04 Well, I'm really excited, but definitely a little bit nervous to go on this date with the Spork Bowl. Um, I've been a fan of the podcast for years and so just really excited for a new, a new adventure.
21:42 Speaker 05 My name is Diego. I'm 36 years old. I live in Chicago, Illinois, and I'm an attorney by trade. Truffle oil can be a lot. If there's a lot of stuff on the menu with truffle oil, I start to get a little bit skeptical about everything else that could be there. My ideal first date is a good hang. I like to spend time around people who are thoughtful, respectful, kind of curious about the world around them. I'm excited to go on a date for this portfolio. I mean, it'll be a cool story and maybe it'll be something more.
22:12 Dan Pashman? We sent Viraj and Diego to a Korean barbecue restaurant called Perilla Fair. Now let's get to the date.
22:18 Speaker 04 Hi, Diego.
22:19 Speaker 05 Hello.
22:20 Speaker 04 Hi, I'm Viraj. It's nice to meet you.
22:22 Speaker 05 Diego, nice to meet you.
22:24 Dan Pashman? What were a couple of your first impressions?
22:26 Speaker 04 I thought Diego was super nice and friendly. I felt instantly comfortable when I sat down at the table and we immediately started chatting.
22:34 Speaker 05 I said beforehand, like, um, you know, at the very least hoping for a good hang. And Viraj is definitely a good hang. It's like, wow, this is actually like probably the most interesting person that I've met. Uh, you know, through either the dating app or being set up with somebody. Maybe just hands down.
22:51 Dan Pashman? I should say, we gave each pair of daters some food-related conversation starters, but we left it up to them if they wanted to use them.
22:57 Speaker 04 It did print out the questions that they needed us.
22:59 Speaker 05 I was gonna say, I have, I, I wrote them down and I also have them, uh, right here, so. I don't know if, uh, you want to begin with that.
23:08 Speaker 04 No, well, I'd love to get to know you first.
23:11 Speaker 05 I guess, however you want to do it.
23:12 Speaker 04 Yeah.
23:12 Speaker 05 Yeah. Wow.
23:13 Speaker 04 Or should we start with first, like ordering?
23:15 Speaker 05 Yeah, I don't know.
23:16 Speaker 04 I think we were both maybe a little nervous. Uh, this is definitely a new situation for both of us.
23:22 Dan Pashman? Right, you don't normally wear a microphone while going out on a first date? It seems totally organic to me.
23:27 Speaker 04 Totally. I think it took us maybe a few minutes to kind of find our rhythm and to see how we wanted to approach it. But, um, I found it really easy to even just chat with him about how we wanted to go about having the conversation or making decisions on the food we got.
23:44 Speaker 05 Yeah. When you're looking at this menu or any menu in general. What's your strategy? Where you start?
23:50 Speaker 04 Usually I love sharing things. I have no dietary restrictions, blessed. And so, you know, I'll take that into account if, you know, the person I'm with has any dietary restrictions. But I do love like family style ordering. How about you?
24:04 Speaker 05 I mean, that's the best way to go. If possible, you get a chance to sample everything. But I guess, yeah, if we're both in the family style, this is supposedly a good place to do it for that.
24:13 Speaker 04 Agreed.
24:14 Speaker 05 That'll be nice.
24:15 Speaker 04 Yeah. Are you from Chicago?
24:17 Speaker 05 No, I've been here for a while. There were several similarities in terms of like, oh, like places that we've been to or things like that. I grew up outside of Philadelphia and my family's still there. She spent a lot of time there. She's from the western suburbs. My dad's from the western suburbs.
24:32 Speaker 06 My name is Calvin. I'll be helping you both out tonight. And this is the first time you're free, both?
24:36 Speaker 05 Yes.
24:37 Speaker 04 It is, yeah.
24:38 Speaker 06 Typically, I come over, let you know my name, find out some little tidbits of information, and then let you know about the meal.
24:43 Speaker 04 Yeah.
24:44 Speaker 06 Now, seeing as though it's your first time.
24:45 Speaker 04 The really long spiel at the top, it was definitely a little overwhelming, but the server was also just so passionate about the food that it was hard not to get more excited about the meal.
24:56 Dan Pashman? So Stacy was the food captain. Who would you say was the conversation captain? Who took the lead on the conversation?
25:07 Speaker 04 Thank you.
25:10 Speaker 05 Thank you. Do you look at the menu beforehand or are you more kind of a show up and figure it out?
25:15 Speaker 04 I did for this.
25:16 Speaker 05 Okay.
25:17 Speaker 04 How about you?
25:18 Speaker 05 Most of the time I'll take a look.
25:19 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:20 Speaker 05 But In the Scallion Pancake was one that I was like, oh, those are always great.
25:24 Speaker 04 A hundred percent. I would totally get that.
25:26 Speaker 05 Yeah.
25:26 Speaker 04 I was also looking at the rice cake for help. It sounded pretty good.
25:31 Speaker 05 There's two things.
25:32 Speaker 04 And then honestly, one of the tasting plates probably sounds easiest.
25:36 Speaker 05 Okay, let's do it.
25:38 Speaker 04 And then he kind of sold me on the sundebu, but.
25:40 Speaker 05 Yeah, I would agree. That's, you know.
25:43 Speaker 04 It's really hard to turn. I mean, that was such a. Sincere love he shared for that dish.
25:48 Speaker 05 Yeah, no, definitely. And I wouldn't mind having some sam as well.
25:52 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:53 Speaker 05 Cool.
25:53 Speaker 04 I think that sounds like a good, a good order. I agree.
25:56 Speaker 05 It was quite painless and actually like seemed like we were on the same page and, you know, got a well-rounded experience for what the restaurant had to offer.
26:04 Dan Pashman? Did it feel like the two of you were compatible in deciding what to order?
26:08 Speaker 04 Yeah, it honestly felt kind of like we were doing some improv, like a yes and that we both kind of like threw out things that we were interested in and we were both open to trying some new things, but editing as we went, it worked out to be a perfect menu ordering and I appreciated that he went with a couple of dishes that were not even on his radar that I was like, oh, I really want the sundebu, right? And it, it worked out great.
26:32 Speaker 07 We have our banchan here as well. These are meant to be eaten on the road and not be put on the grill. They're traditional Korean side dishes. So this is going to be our bokki chi or white kimchi. We use Korean pairs, so it's not going to be spicy.
26:41 Speaker 05 I liked the banchan a lot, just like I think we should have, we should have just like more banchan, like an appetizer sampler is, is a lot of fun.
26:50 Dan Pashman? I always forget about the banchan when I order at a Korean restaurant and I'm like, I'm so hungry, I'm going to order this and that and this and that. And then there's like the parade of banchan comes and I'm like, I forgot about this part.
27:00 Speaker 05 And then all of a sudden you're kind of like, man, this table is really crowded.
27:03 Dan Pashman? Right, right. In a good way.
27:05 Speaker 05 Yeah, exactly.
27:06 Dan Pashman? But, uh, yeah.
27:07 Speaker 05 Food is great.
27:08 Speaker 04 It was delicious. I love having sides to complement any dish. It was really wonderful to have, you know, an array of like crunchy, spicy, sweet.
27:17 Speaker 06 Good meat, have a ride.
27:19 Speaker 05 Wonderful.
27:20 Speaker 06 And the first to hit the table would be the LA gobby.
27:24 Speaker 05 Awesome.
27:25 Speaker 06 Were you all comfortable grilling on your own or would you like a little bit of assistance?
27:30 Speaker 04 I would prefer a little bit of help.
27:32 Speaker 05 I would, I would recommend assistance, yeah.
27:36 Speaker 06 I almost felt useless today. Everybody just went like, yeah, I'll do it. I'm like, oh.
27:39 Speaker 04 Oh, no.
27:41 Speaker 05 I feel useless a lot. It's okay. You have a friend.
27:44 Speaker 06 I won't steal the entire experience from you.
27:47 Dan Pashman? The server will come over and flip the meat and stuff for you. So you you let them do that?
27:50 Speaker 05 Yeah. And then while they do a little bit of it, and then they kind of leave you to your own devices. I did the first go around and then she did the the next go around. I don't know. It seems to be fairly forgiving. You're probably not going to overcook it or anything like that. So.
28:03 Dan Pashman? Is that what the concern was? You were worried about if you were in charge of turning it that it would be cooked poorly? And then you would really have screwed up?
28:11 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. I mean, that's that's always a fear, I guess, whenever you're like, you know, on the grill or otherwise cooking.
28:17 Speaker 04 I was definitely nervous that I was undercooking. You definitely don't want to make your date sick on the first time that you meet.
28:24 Dan Pashman? In the end, did you like having the grilling at your table a component to a first date? Or would you rather have not had that stress?
28:32 Speaker 04 I think I would have preferred to not have that stress. It was fun to have it. But then part of the experience in the restaurant is also that the server helped us with grilling the meat. There was quite like several long periods where we were chatting with the server as well. And it ended up feeling like we were on a date with three people.
28:51 Speaker 06 Besides, oh, I used to live in Milwaukee for about six months.
28:54 Speaker 04 Okay.
28:54 Speaker 06 I went to Indiana for.
28:56 Speaker 04 And so it was just a funny, funny addition to the meal. I think that I would have preferred if we could have chatted a little bit more solo.
29:05 Dan Pashman? Without the server?
29:06 Speaker 04 Without the without the server, without and without the additional stress of like poisoning, giving food poisoning.
29:14 Speaker 04 This is fun.
29:15 Speaker 05 Yeah, I've been very lucky in some parts of my life to explore some pretty cool places that had pretty cool food. Like I studied abroad in Oaxaca.
29:23 Speaker 04 Oh, I just went there for New Year's.
29:25 Speaker 05 Very cool. How was that?
29:27 Speaker 04 It was incredible.
29:28 Speaker 05 Yeah.
29:29 Speaker 04 It truly was one of the best foodie trips I've ever taken in my life.
29:32 Speaker 05 Yeah, yeah. The KCO is like, I do think about that a lot. The Oaxaca string cheese.
29:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
29:39 Speaker 05 I am occasionally like, you know, I could just stuff my suitcase full of cheese.
29:43 Speaker 04 Yeah.
29:43 Speaker 05 It can't be that wrong. But yeah, I like that a lot.
29:46 Speaker 04 Sounds like a dream, actually.
29:48 Dan Pashman? Tell me more about this suitcase full of cheese. What kind of cheeses is it gonna be? Walk me through it.
29:53 Speaker 05 Oh, man. Well, it's basically.
29:56 Speaker 05 Like a Wahaque and string cheese. It's like got a pretty mild flavor. They make it into big strands and just roll it up into a ball. You know, a suitcase might be a little much, but like duffel bag, maybe.
30:08 Dan Pashman? A carry on.
30:11 Speaker 05 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, don't mind me.
30:15 Speaker 04 I mean, if I could, I would have also brought back a suitcase full of cheese from my recent trip. So I thought it was a funny comment to make.
30:22 Dan Pashman? So if hypothetically speaking, the two of you ever went to Wahaque together and Diego started packing a suitcase full of cheese, you would be like encouraging him or discouraging him?
30:32 Speaker 04 I would trust him to make the decision that's right for him. Pack his own suitcase. We're not sharing a suitcase.
30:43 Dan Pashman? So you so you don't want the cheese suitcase for yourself?
30:46 Speaker 04 No, I'm good. I mean, listen, if he successfully brings it back, I would happily have some some of the cheese, but you are managing that.
30:58 Speaker 04 Would you like to try some?
30:59 Speaker 05 I'll go ahead. I was gonna say if you want to.
31:03 Speaker 04 Yeah, I can take over. Absolutely.
31:07 Dan Pashman? How did it work out, though, the cooking?
31:09 Speaker 04 It was delicious ultimately, right? We both I think cooked it a little bit differently. You could taste the difference of like when we both took it off the grill, but it was fun to compare notes on this together because I think we were both a little bit nervous about it.
31:22 Dan Pashman? What was the difference?
31:24 Speaker 04 I think I cooked mine a little bit less. So mine was maybe more of like a medium rare and I think he did a solid medium.
31:31 Dan Pashman? Which do you prefer?
31:33 Speaker 04 Um, I prefer medium rare.
31:42 Dan Pashman? Were there any moments in the date that felt a little bit romantic? Any sparks?
31:48 Speaker 04 You know, too early to tell, but I really enjoyed meeting Diego. I would definitely want, like, we have talked about maybe finding a time to meet up again and kind of seeing where it goes. When we connected over some of our other common interests, it was exciting. It was nice to have some really great conversations with someone who I think we share some similar values there, too.
32:11 Dan Pashman? Right, and I have to say, I think that knowing that you're being recorded.
32:15 Speaker 04 Yeah.
32:16 Dan Pashman? Even if the sort of constant awareness sort of falls away, you might still be able to have a great conversation, but that may sort of restrict the romance a little bit.
32:23 Speaker 04 Yeah, sparks are a little hard to figure out in the moment when you're first meeting someone.
32:28 Dan Pashman? And how did you leave it at the end of the date?
32:30 Speaker 04 We exchanged numbers and texted a little bit. It's been just a few days, and so I think we have talked about maybe finding another time to get together, and we'll see.
32:41 Dan Pashman? Get together like a second date?
32:42 Speaker 04 You know, unclear. I think we'll kind of leave that to us to figure out.
32:48 Dan Pashman? Is there one that you prefer?
32:49 Speaker 04 I'd be open to another date or to an official first date.
32:54 Dan Pashman? Right, this was like the pre-date.
32:56 Speaker 04 Yeah.
32:56 Dan Pashman? With the microphone, so like a proper first date without people eavesdropping.
33:00 Speaker 04 Absolutely, and I would also be open to hanging out as friends and then taking it kind of one hangout at a time.
33:08 Dan Pashman? Right, I don't know, go for it, Viraj, just go for it.
33:11 Speaker 04 It was really refreshing to meet someone in person and actually get to know them without having pre-screened a lot or a profile to go off of, you know?
33:19 Dan Pashman? Right, and having been matched by the most primitive algorithm on earth. The Sporkfuls algorithm, which uses only three factors.
33:28 Speaker 04 And I would say they resulted in a lovely evening, so maybe you got something going here.
33:39 Dan Pashman? Were there any moments during the evening that felt maybe a little bit romantic? Any sparks?
33:43 Speaker 05 I don't know, I would say maybe like as things went on, we seemed to really enjoy each other's company. And so I'd say, you know, maybe while not fully romantic all the time, it was just like, oh, this is like, this is really nice. I really enjoyed hanging out with her. I would be really surprised if we didn't hang out again.
34:00 Dan Pashman? Has there been any communication between the two of you since the date?
34:03 Speaker 05 Uh, yeah. I mean, just like she had mentioned, like, oh, it'd be great to hang out again, either a date or, you know, as friends or something like that.
34:09 Dan Pashman? Did she say that? Did she say either a date or as friends? Or she just said it'd be great to hang out again?
34:13 Speaker 05 She did say that, like, you know, or, or as friends.
34:17 Dan Pashman? How did you read that?
34:18 Speaker 05 I took it at face value. I don't know if that was like necessarily like, oh, you know, would it be a date? Would it not? That would probably be something that we'd talk about.
34:26 Dan Pashman? If you saw her a second time, would you prefer that it be a date or as friends?
34:30 Speaker 05 I think honestly, at this point, probably more as friends, but definitely with like the eye towards like potentially having, you know, something more. I thought it was a really good first date. There's somebody that I really liked hanging out with. I'd be curious to see where it could go.
34:45 Dan Pashman? Well, if I can throw in my two cents here, Diego, of course, I wasn't, I wasn't on the date. So you obviously know more about how it went and how it felt than I do.
34:55 Dan Pashman? I think you could interpret Viraj's text saying, you know, if you want to schedule something as a date or as friends, as her kind of like protecting herself. But I don't think she would have suggested the possibility of it being a date if she was not interested in that.
35:11 Speaker 05 That's totally fair.
35:13 Dan Pashman? So I think I would just politely encourage you to be like, let's go on a date and go on a date without anyone recording it and see how that goes.
35:22 Speaker 05 Well, I appreciate the input and, uh, you know, we'll definitely keep you posted.
35:26 Dan Pashman? That's, that's my friendly advice for you.
35:27 Speaker 05 I appreciate it.
35:28 Dan Pashman? Plus I just really want to make a real couple on this show.
35:30 Speaker 05 That's.
35:32 Speaker 05 Yeah, I was gonna say, I know you have a vested interest, but I do.
35:35 Dan Pashman? I am, I am not completely impartial, but yes, that is my honest read on that exchange. Let me just check in with Emma real quick to see if there's anything else I should ask before we wrap up.
35:45 Speaker 05 Of course.
35:46 Speaker 08 I just want to chime in and say that I completely 100% agree with Dan's advice.
35:50 Dan Pashman? Yes. Thank you, Emma. Thank you.
35:52 Speaker 08 I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, if she said it could be a date or friends, like, that means she's open to the possibility of it being a date. So.
36:01 Dan Pashman? That's right. Come on, Diego. Shoot your shot. Let's go. Team Sporkful is speaking with one voice here, Diego.
36:07 Speaker 05 Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll see.
36:11 Dan Pashman? All right, we're counting that one. We are counting it. We are now one for five. Not bad. I think that's a pretty good percentage. Maybe it'll go up in future years. Thank you so much to all of our daters. As Diego said to me in our post-date chat, it was kind of an absurd experiment, but I'll say it was an absurd experiment in the name of love and deliciousness, which is the best kind of experiment. I also want to shout out the restaurants that hosted our dates: Leland in Brooklyn, Perilla Fair in Chicago, and Laser Wolf in Philadelphia. Next week on the show, I talk with a Muslim and a Jew about what to do when meatless pork products hit the shelves. How will it affect how they think about what they eat and about themselves? That's next week. While we're waiting for that one, check out last week's very special crossover episode with the podcast Mike and Tom Eat Snacks. That's the actors Michael Ian
36:56 Dan Pashman? Black and Tom Kavanaugh, and we debate all kinds of snacking, including a deep dive on the science of chip tipping. Very important stuff. 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 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 show is produced by me along with managing producer- Emma Morgenstern- and senior producer- Andres O'Hara- Our editor is-
37:39 Speaker 04 Camille Stanley-
37:40 Dan Pashman? Our engineer is- Jared O'Connell- Special thanks to Chantel Holder, Andrea Quinn, and Sean Ollie. 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.
37:53 Speaker 09 And I'm Rachel Alfero in the city of brotherly love, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.
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