10 Foods You Need To Try In 2025
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Score super low prices on sneakers, boots, and more for the entire family when you shop the DSW semi-annual sale. Save today at your DSW store or DSW.com. Exclusions apply. Hey Josh, my 2025 resolution is to be on the seafood diet. Oh, I get it. When you see food, you eat it. No, Josh, I'm going to eat oysters. Lots and lots of oysters. This is a Hot Dog is a Sandwich!

Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What?

Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Anaidi. And 2025 is the year that Nicole gets... It's the year of the oyster, the moister oyster. Don't say moister oyster. Why not? That is the most vulgar thing that we have ever said on this show. And we've said a lot of vulgar things. Welcome to 2025.

The year of vulgarity and eating oyster. 2025 is the moistest, oistest year that we are possibly going to have. Oist, oist.

What we are doing today, we are looking at food trends in 2025. And we are going to distill all of them down into a list of 10 that you should be participating in. Because, Nicole, we here at A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, we actively shape culture. Yes, I would say that we are the movers and the shakers of the food scene. Absolutely. One of our podcasts was actually taught at a UCLA philosophy lecture. Yeah. You're telling me this now?

Yeah, we have made the rounds in college classrooms and I feel terrible for the youth of America. Wait a second. Go ahead. You went to UCLA. Yeah. I didn't. I had a lot of friends go to UCLA. Yeah. So we are being taught at a course in UCLA. Also recently come to my attention a University of Michigan MBA program. Neither of us have

of us have college degrees. That's correct. This is crazy. But now we should hear me out real quick. We'll get to the trends in a second. We have to tell my mom and dad immediately. Like, you don't understand how big of a deal this is that we are being taught in college courses. I want an honorary doctorate.

Me too, me too. Rensselaer Institute of Technology. Please. RIT, reach out. Why Rensselaer Institute of Technology? Why not? That's your new slogan. Reach out. But again, we're going to continue. This is so crazy. Wait, wait. You can't just spring this on me. I cannot believe.

believe that. Did you not know that? That just springs up. I'll get random DMs from people in like a college lecture. Northwestern it happened at too. Dude, my heart is beating. Like, this is a big deal for me. I don't know. I gotta tell my mom as soon as we, as soon as this, no, I'm not gonna call my mom. She's probably busy. Someone from Northwestern reached out. They were a professor and they were like,

Every year, we do like a silly debate within the philosophy department where everyone has like a party and they just kind of get drunk, but they take it like very seriously. Yeah, sure. And they did a hot dog as a sandwich one year. Okay. And they like asked if I'd want to fly out and I was busy, but that's like my dream. My dream is to eventually be able to do something like that. I hope so. You know what I mean? I hope so. But in that vein, we are continuing to drive culture forward. Yeah, sorry. That was such a tangy-tange. Sorry about that. I live for our tangy-tanges. Okay.

Nicole, do you want to kick it off with our first food trend of 2025? Sure, why not? That you should be jumping on. So I think, I feel like I say this every year maybe.

But you know what? 2025 is the year that it needs to happen. More people need to be eating awful. God dang right they do. Not A-W-F-U-L-O-F-F-A-L. More people need to be eating all parts of the animal. And you know, there are sexy ways to do it. I find kidney to be the sexiest meat out there. I mean, have you ever had a steak and kidney pie? Honestly, have you ever had one before? I actually have. I certainly have. I had it last time I was in London. Oh, great. And in French, kidney sounds even sexier.

Rognon. Rognon. Rognon d'agneau. Rognon. Je voudrais des rognon d'agneau. Well, I just think people need to just start eating more parts because they are truly delicious. If you're able to divorce the idea that it's a body part, the way that we've been able to with chicken breasts and stew meat and all these other ground beef, all these other words we use for parts of the animal, just the parts that are a little bit less attractive, if we just kind of separate it,

There's no way you can't enjoy it. Yeah, I think I have a technique that might help. So a lot of people, they are averse to organ meats because they think of their own organs, right? They wouldn't eat a pig's pancreas because you think of your own pancreas. But every time you eat, say, brisket, imagine someone slicing off your own chest and braising that for a long period of time. You're a vulgarity, baby.

Yeah, and that way you'll be a lot more comfortable eating liver because we all have all the parts. If you eat meat at all, you're just eating the musculature of an animal. Why not eat its organs as well? I think organs are delicious. And aside from like if you want to be more like –

conscious of what you're eating, being a little bit more aware, there's nothing better than eating parts of the animal you typically wouldn't eat, right? 100%. Like, eat every part of the animal. Like, whenever you buy, it's like taking a Costco rotisserie chicken and using the bones for stock. Yeah, yeah. Like, use that same philosophy of taking the meat and the bones, but instead, maybe you buy the meat and eat the tongue

of the animal. 100%. I am currently filled with a bunch of offal. Did you eat offal? I ate a ton of offal last night. Oh, no way. Somewhere between 8 to 12 ounces probably of sweetbreads from an Argentinian steakhouse. 12 ounces of sweetbreads which is thymus gland?

right? The thymus gland, yeah. Sweetbreads also, there's another organ, I can't remember what it is, that will also be called sweetbreads. Interesting. It's not pancreas, I don't believe. But yeah, but most of the time it's thymus gland. But I remember I went to one restaurant and they had sweetbreads and it was a completely different organ. I was like, what the hell? Interesting, interesting. But in Argentina, I went to this lovely Argentinian steakhouse and

I wanted to try all the awful. I wanted to try the, the, the morcilla, the mojajas, which are the, the sweetbreads. But it was a, there was a good price break if we got like the party platter. You were going to get a party platter of sweetbreads? Not a party platter, but it was the parijada mixta. That's for like four people. Okay. Me and Julia got it. And I just kept going back to the sweetbreads. It,

If I could narrow down one awful for you to try, find an Argentinian like parrishada restaurant, like an Argentinian grill. Or steakhouse. Or steakhouse, right? And get the sweetbreads. No one does sweetbreads like Argentinians. And they are one of the best meats. It's just simply grilled over wood, lemon and salt on it. You got some chimichurri on the side if you want. Yum.

But to me, it is legitimately one of my favorite things to eat. Yeah. How do you think – because awful – this could have been written 14 years ago. That's what I'm saying. And it would have been correct. And it was a big trend. Like we grew up in the restaurants where you would go to a restaurant and they would have like –

A fancy restaurant would have pork trotters, like pork feet, and everyone had a chicken liver toast. Oh, yeah. And they still do. I love chicken liver. But what do you think the new dish, like the chicken liver toast with some sort of balsamic-y thing, what is it now? Okay. For me, it's going to be sexy terrines. Nice.

No, sexy Tareen. What? So Tareen's like a layered gelatinized. Yeah, what's wrong with sexy? Well, I love ass pics. I've always been a fan of ass pics. I send Nicole your ass pics. Spelled A-S-P-I-C-S. She doesn't know how to spell. Well,

knows that. I don't know how to count. I don't know how to smell. But no. I think, what's wrong with terrines? I just don't know if they're as marketable as you think they are. Shut up! I saw Jeremy Fox, who is the chef of Rustic Canyon, make the sexiest pig-eared terrine I've ever seen. Yeah. And

If he can make it sexy, so can you. So can I. So can everybody. My favorite sweetbreads were cooked by Jeremy Fox. Really? It was an ode to this freaking steakhouse in Napomo, California called Jocko's. Okay. It was on the menu at Bertie G's. Julie and I second date there. I ate sweetbreads in front of her. Yeah.

And that is just one of my favorite dishes. You gotta get your hormone levels checked. You're eating a lot of thigh. You're eating a lot of glands. I love the glands. We're talking about eating glands. Dude, we should be eating the glands. You got the liver king out here making millions selling liver pills. I'm just out here telling you to eat more Argentinian food, dog. That guy just raw dogs caviar out of a sturgeon like water falling propel out of a water bottle. Do you remember that video? Disgusting. Disgusting. Cave troll that man is. Disgusting. Okay, what's next? So we got awful out of the way. What's next?

I want to jump here. Hibachi. I know what you're saying, Josh. Hibachi. Hibachi's been around for like a billion years. But now it's changing. Also, we have to say that when we say hibachi, we don't mean hibachi. We mean teppanyaki. Teppanyaki. Hibachi is a small Japanese grill. Teppanyaki is cooking on a large flat top. I did that when I went to Japan.

That's incredible. You did teppanyaki or hibachi? I did teppanyaki. That's so fun. That's awesome. Benihana, the largest teppanyaki chain, actually has on their FAQ on their website, like,

what's the difference between hibachi and teppanyaki? And they're straight up like, it's actually called teppanyaki, but so many people call it hibachi that we just say hibachi. Hibachi is the name of the grill? Hibachi is the name of like a small, is it a stone grill, I believe? I don't know. Yeah. And so it's not like the large flat top cooking where you're flipping the shrimp and doing the onion volcano or whatever. But I think the way that this is changing, and I recently went to a restaurant like this, it

It was like a fun, fancy, French-ish take on hibachi. Cool. So you go to like a Benihana and they have their standard menu, right? You're getting the steak, the shrimp, the chicken. There's a sweet soy sauce on it, fried rice, all that. This place was doing like really creative hibachi dishes. That's awesome. Yeah, it was really cool and it was a little clunky. Well, of course it's going to be clunky the first

like maybe year yeah and the chef though was like super super passionate about it and he's you know in front of us I'm asking him all these questions and they had you know cool like oyster mushroom au poivre with yuzu butter whatever yeah it was super fun but the thing that I really want my dream here I want there's a place called Mexihana it's a Mexican hibachi restaurant but they don't do exactly what I want because what I want

Somebody should just be making you tacos in front of you and serving you directly because a taco to me is the best. That's just a street taco. Right off the flat top. Yeah, but it's like a street taco except... You want it in the house of a hibachi restaurant? A little bit. I guess what I more want is just...

Korean barbecue with tortillas. You're just saying so many different foods right now. Like, what do you want? Be more direct. I'll tell you what I exactly want. What do you want? I want a grill in front of me with tasty marinated Mexican meats and then delightful Mexican condiments. We're talking escabeche, jamaica pickled onions, eight different sauces, whatever. Okay.

And I want tortillas I can throw on the flat top because I'm sick of going to restaurants. You get cold tortillas and tacos. You're bringing your own tortillas? No, but there's a great – there's a video of a Mexican family bringing their own tortillas to Korean barbecue. Hell, yeah. I've never been more jealous of anyone in my life. Brilliant, brilliant. But, yeah, what say you? About hibachi? Yeah. No, I mean –

Cooking on a flat top in front of people. I think it's fun. Let me tell you. So the first time I went to hibachi was when I was working at Lush Cosmetics. And this was, I've never been to a hibachi restaurant before. So I didn't know how to eat hibachi. So I thought the second the food lands on your plate, you have to eat it. But it's a show. You thought it was like omakase. Like you're taking it directly out of the show. Yeah, yeah. I agree with that. Literally every time they put something on my plate, I'm like, okay, okay. I'm just going to eat it because it's on my plate.

But then everyone was just watching the show very thoughtfully and like waiting to like… So they had a full plate of food and I was just like, oh… But other than that, I don't really… I'm not a hibachi teppanyaki person. I just… I mean every once in a while it's great. But I…

I don't know. I think putting a twist on it would be nice. Maybe refining the twist. But it's not something I actively search for when I'm going out to eat. I think this sort of speaks to this like nostalgia mongering of the 90s. You know how I got cargo pants recently? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Teppanyaki or hibachi is the cargo pants of food in a way. Right? Where it's like it seemed outdated in the last 10, 15 years. But now it's so outdated that it's like really cool again because people remember the simple pleasures of being able to carry a can of cola in your cargo pocket. Yeah.

Wait until I tell you about what I think is the next food trend. Speaking of nostalgia. So I always grew up. This is a very like deep cut memory that I have when I was little. Me and my sister's 13 years older than me.

So she was kind of like my pseudo mom. So she would like take me to the mall and then we would go to not It's Sugar. It was called Sweet Factory. And we would go and just have like bags and we would fill it with candy and walk around the mall. And that was like a thing we would do. Yeah, that is nostalgic as hell. And I don't know about you, but they don't do that. Like they don't have those stores anymore. Like It's Sugar...

kind of is similar, but not really. But Swedish candy, the self-serve Swedish candy, has made such a crazy jump. Like I live very close to one called Soccer Bit.

Don't find out where my address is, please. And it's like, it's called Soccer Bit and it always has a line outside. And it's just Swedish candy and it has all these delicious candies and you just go in and you just do it. It's a little bit classier and fancier than like the sugar factories of yesteryear. But it's still, I think it hits like this part in the back of like people's head of nostalgia where they're like, I remember doing this too when I was a kid. Let's do it again as an adult, just a little bit more refined. So I think that is going to make a huge, it's going to be like the Build-A-Bear

of now. I really do think that. So you're talking about the self-serve candy where you get a bag and there's just hundreds of giant vats of gummies and you fill it up and you weigh it and you pay for it. Have you ever been to Sugarfina? I was about to say Sugarfina was the millennial version of that. Yes, yes it was. But it wasn't self-serve. So Sugarfina, super fancy in all the fancy malls. They'll have like

champagne-flavored gummies or something, or rosé gummies. The packaging is very twee. It's very beautiful. It's like $12 for a little thing of champagne gummies. And I think that was what the millennial core culture... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now Gen Z looping back on this. Everything that's old is new again. They just want a slightly updated version that speaks more to them. So like the Swedish candy thing makes a little bit of sense, right? And that, I think it's a pretty accurate prediction.

Every time I see those, they remind me of sugarfina. It reminds me of baby showers. Yeah, it's such a baby shower-ass thing. It's such a baby shower-ass thing. It's so ridiculous. There was one of those self-serve pay-by-weight candy spots near UC Santa Barbara, and I was on this specific diet called carb cycling. Oh, what's that? Where the idea is you take –

your heaviest workout of the week and you make that your heaviest carb day of the week and then like your lightest workout for energy purposes so like basically put your put all the carbohydrates to work and it has something to do with insulin blah blah I don't freaking know it probably doesn't work but I was just lifting weights constantly and eating a lot of carbs but one day you would like

load up on a crazy amount of carbs. And so for dinner that day, I would go, I would get two and a half pounds of gummy candies before all my teeth went and the crowns started flying out of my mouth and I ate a lot of gummies. This is maybe why, but I would just drink- I would say that's why. Dog, I would drink a two liter of Mountain Dew and I would eat two and a half pounds of gummies and I would never have a better time in my life. The candy coated grapefruit wedges are like my favorite, you know? I've never had those before.

I was a sour belts girl. I was a sour belts and chocolate covered gummy bears girl. And also nonpareils. You ever have nonpareils? Nonpareils are, it's just like little sprinkles covering dusty chocolate. And what is your problem with it? Fair point. Josh, how do you not have dentures right now? What the hell? My teeth are actually doing really good. A lot thanks to the dentist that you hooked me up with. Oh, okay, good, good, good. He's probably going to recommend dentures for you. No, what do you mean dentures? How much should I...

And I don't eat gaya candy. I just more the grapefruit slices candy. Haruba makes them. Mmm.

Okay, I never really had those, but I'm glad you have a good memory to talk about. Peach rings, sour apple rings, French burnt peanuts, Boston baked beans. Boston baked beans are good. Bulk candy is coming back, but it's going to take a different form in like a Swedish hyper pop. You love Swedish hyper pop, don't you? No, not really, but it was fun. Whenever you had that silly little party with the, what was it?

Oh, Eurovision. Eurovision. You like that stuff. On my Spotify wrapped, I did get a lot. Rimtim Tagidim, the Croatian song. Baby Lasagna? Baby Lasagna, you remember. I have to. Rimtim Tagidim, sixth most played song. This entire...

It's so embarrassing. Julia's, her top like 20 songs are all Eurovision. Well, she's a fan. It's Eurovision and Lawrence the band. It's cool when she does it. It's cringy when you do it. It's chuggy when you do it, but it's cool. Chuggy is F, man. Okay. Why are you laughing? Okay, so we have a personal, I have a personal connection to this one. Robot restaurants.

Okay. We got to talk about this. I love robot restaurants. What robot restaurants do you know of? Robot restaurant. Incredible. That was truly spectacular what you did there. This is about to be a call-out podcast. What? So I'm about to call someone out here. Who are you going to call out? I've had a lot of history with these people. We're talking about Cali Burger. Oh.

Oh, the fake one? Cali is not fake. It's real. They're real burgers. Is it? I thought it was fake. No, they've been sued by In-N-Out for copyright infringement. That's why I thought it was fake. But what they do have is, so it's people, they're from LA, but they opened their first several restaurants in China. That is like very much evocative of In-N-Out.

and they tried to use the term animal style and they ended up getting sued. Okay. But they're opening California now and they now have something called Cali Express where they have a burger flipping robot called Flippy. Oh, okay. And I once challenged Flippy to a race. I reached out to the people of Cali Burger and I said, I make a YouTube show. I would like to challenge your burger flipping robot Flippy to a race. A real modern John Henry type story. And then... Who's John Henry? And then they were like, well, you don't know John Henry? No. Is this like

The only thing I know is like the robot Watson versus other Jeopardy.

Okay, that's the modern, yeah, that's the more modern John Henry. But John Henry was like the, what, steam-powered railroad spike driver. Steam-powered hammer came out. And John Henry said, I can drive railroad spikes faster than the steam hammer. And he raced the steam hammer. And he lost. No, he won, but he died of exhaustion. This is a tall tale. It doesn't exist. He's a folk hero. And he died of exhaustion afterwards. And looking at that, I don't know what the lesson is supposed to be.

Let the robots take over? Maybe let the steam hammer, yeah. Let the robots take over? Sorry to interrupt. Continue. And so Kali Berger was like, well, yeah, but what if you win? And I was like, what if I win? Huh? What if I prove that the ingenuity of the human spirit can still transcend that of machine? Oh my gosh. Okay. And what happened? No, we just never thought of it. I think actually probably like COVID happened. This is what actually happened. Okay, okay. This was in the early days. But we're going to start seeing this more and more.

Do we give in? Do we accept it? Because I kind of teeter on the maybe. Because I do think the fact that it allows for cheaper food costs.

and stuff like that. But also, I would like a human to make my food. It's never going to be cheaper food costs. It's just going to be people losing their jobs. You're right. You're 100% right. I'm just not looking at it from a deeper perspective. As it stands now, it's just a novelty. This is the very 1980s vision of the future. If you watch Rocky IV. Or like, what's that one? The Jetsons? The Jetsons, yeah. It's like flying cars and robot servers at restaurants and stuff like that. I will say, you go to Kurosushi, the revolving...

Is that not a robot? Well, that, and then you order a drink at Kurosushi. You know what comes out? The little robot, dude. The little robot comes out, stops next to you, it beeps, you take your drink, and you go, thank you. Dude, Annalise and I went to Denny's, and a robot came and brought our food, but then a human being put it, like, down. Good.

They got robots at the Denny's now, dude. They got robots at Denny's. It was crazy. Me and Annalise were like, are we in the future or Japan? Where are we? It was crazy. Are they any different? The future in Japan. Yeah, I'm not going to give in. I'm not going to give in. I have tried the one on Sautel, the Chinese restaurant on Sautel. I think it's one bowl of food is $3. Yeah.

two bowls of food are five dollars and then three bowls of food are nine dollars i think i think that's the price breakdown and it tasted fine it was just weird to see robots making my food yeah it was a bit weird it was like it was like one of those can't you know those candy oh sorry sorry it got really dramatic you know those like uh the sugar plum makers the the rolling thing why are you

Nicole's just waving her hand in a circle saying sugar plum makers. No, I don't know what you're talking about. Have you ever seen candies be made and they change colors? Okay, whatever. I hate you. Nicole hates me now. 2025, year of hating Josh. Is it my turn? Yeah. Oh, so this is something I've been saying. You're going to laugh at this. So you...

Every now and... I have a cousin who's like a food blogger and she's great. Every single month on the first, she posts foods in season. You know what I mean? Fruits and vegetables to eat in season. And she posts this on her story and I screenshot. I'm like, all right, we're eating cabbage this month. All right, we're eating tangerines. You're saying that for the last...

Let's say 15,000 years of human agriculture where you had to eat food that grew then. You're saying that now in 2025 is finally the year that you're going to do it. No, let me tell you. So because we live in California and we have access to fruits and vegetables pretty much year round, like we can eat a tomato in July and a tomato in like February. We got tomatoes in Ohio too.

They can eat them. Okay, fine. Shout out to Columbus. You're out here. We live in the United States of America where, here, is that better than California? Where we just have veggies and fruits are available year round. Sure, there's times when they're better and worse, but we have it. Like if we need to make a tomato sauce with tomatoes, we can go like January through December and get tomatoes and they're fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But eating with the seasons I think is something that I personally need to implement more instead of just going to the grocery store and saying, I'm going to make whatever. No, no.

No more. In 2025, I'm going to start actively caring about the fruits and vegetables that I will be putting into my body a little bit more. Fine. I'll do the same. I'll do it. Like, will I always eat carrots? Probably. I probably always have carrots like in my pantry. Will I always have an apple? Probably. But will I try to make it more seasonal when I can? Why not? I have the ability to do so, right? Yeah, I was pretty inspired by talking to Dan Barber on the podcast. Yeah, he was pretty legit. Yeah.

I'm joining a CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. You are cutie. If you have the means to do it, you should do that. Josh is really cute. They deliver you seasonal vegetables, but then sometimes you realize the shortcomings of it. I remember I used to be part of a CSA, and you just get a box dropped off of seasonal vegetables every week or whatever. And I'll never forget just getting like,

Eight types of onions. It was like spring. It was like coming out of winter to spring. And it was like eight kinds of onions. And I was like, oh, it's going to be an onion-y week for Josh. I made French onion soup with all of them. It was good. See, like, I guess also it allows, I don't know, it kind of allows for like less control. Because I always make menus Monday through Thursday because of Shabbat. Like maybe it'll just make me feel less like in control. Like, hey, I'm just going to go to the grocery store and see what's in season. I remember what's in season. I just pick those things instead of like.

giving into like my typical expectation of what I'm going to eat. Yeah, it's a fun – it's a good exercise. Do you have a little creativity exercise? I think so. Yeah. I got to go on. What's up, man? So this is something. I went sober for all of July. I didn't have a sip of alcohol. Good for you. And I was like I still want to feel different because here's the thing. I was sober but I wanted to not be. No. What do you mean? I was looking up –

alcohol-free spirits. And I love drinking fun things. I love cooking. I love, you know, that sort of mixology spirit. Yeah. Alcohol-free spirits, but not in the mocktail sense. Alcohol-free spirits still get you inebriated. Oh,

Because this is happening, folks. Have you seen that place in Santa Monica? That's what I'm talking about. They serve, what is it? It's called Cava, but not the Spanish sparkling wine. It's like a root. They're making drinks with this root. It doesn't have any alcohol in it, but it still, quote, gives you a buzz and makes you social. So it's like, are we out of the fryer, into the frying pan? Why can't Josh just drink a nice juice and have a good time? Who knows? Who knows?

But I think we're going to start seeing this a lot more. Like drinks that don't have alcohol in them or cannabis that still get you buzzed. Whatever buzzed means. What does buzzed mean? Like buzzed can mean like you're a little lightheaded or like you feel a little like you're – what does buzzed mean? I don't know. And I don't know. A lot of these are – what's that term? Adaptogenic based, right? Where they say they give you a little euphoria but then I just drink it and I'm like, nah, it tastes like mushrooms a little bit.

it. You know what I mean? Chaga and all that. Yeah. But I don't know. I think this is about to explode. A lot less people are drinking alcohol. People are sort of finally wising up to the fact like, oh, it's bad. I've been drinking more non-alcoholic beers. Good for you. That's awesome. Making some chicken wings, watching football. You still want to feel like you're cracking open a cold one, but you don't want the alcohol. You're just drinking malt? I guess. I don't know. They're pretty good, man. I like malt. Yeah, I love a good Heineken Zero. Well, I'm down. I

I mean, why not? This sounds like fun. Yeah, experiment. Why not? I mean, I know that there's like a bunch of like new like zero-proof alcohols. Like there's gins that are like zero-proof alcohol. And that's fun. Seed lip, fun little... That's fun. I'm down. I mean...

I mean, to be honest, I just love a good drink. I love drinking as well. It's bad. It's bad. But I love it. It's good. It's a vice. It's thousands of years of history. It's not a vice. It's a vice. Without alcohol, humans wouldn't have been able to collectively come together and share stories and be cooperative with each other. Alcohol made society. Okay. I got a good one. Do it. Okay. So in 2024, we saw a lot of people eating cucumbers. Why? Because sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber.

That is what Logan Moffat has said. That's right. Logan Moffat has said that. So I say we start masquerading eating normal foods as content. You know what I mean? Let's just make it cool. Let's make eating normal food cool. Whatever normal, like more fruits and vegetables, more like lean proteins, just like, but make it cool. Like sometimes you need to eat a chicken breast.

Yeah, that's pretty good. Well, I think the thing that you're getting at is like turning normalcy into an aesthetic. And I think we've seen this. Yeah, well, okay. With like Caesar salad. People have been like, ooh, Molly Boss. Molly Boss is a great example. Caesar salad, french fries. Sea salad became an aesthetic. Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. If that gets more people to eat more salad, I think that's fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We've already turned a lot of other things into it. It's like barbecue is such an aesthetic, you know. Barbecue is aesthetic? A lot of dude bros have the steak guy aesthetic, you know. They sort of make it their personality. See, I'm saying, we have two different trends going on. So you want normalcy to be content. And I'm saying more people need to eat normal foods as content. Is that the same thing?

Are we in a fight right now? Cease out. Are we in a fight right now? No, I think we're saying the same thing. Are we? Maggie, are we saying the same thing? You're gamifying. You're gamifying eating normal healthy foods. Maggie, what are we saying? I don't know. You're gamifying eating normal healthy foods by making. Make it cool to eat blank again. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But do it with content to trick the,

Trick everybody. It's like hiding butternut squash in the mac and cheese so your kid eats a vegetable. We're doing that but for Instagram addicted adults. Yes, yes, yes. So basically make the action of eating a food...

cool via content machine algorithmically. Does that make sense? Be like, I'm a fennel girly. Yeah, like, oh, like, like, like hot girls like soup. Wasn't that something? Yeah, and soup is nutritious. Yeah, people, hot girls, oh, broth girls or whatever. Oh, brothy beans, brothy beans. Brothy beans. Hot girl likes soup. Sometimes eats an entire cucumber. Like,

I like stuff like that. You're saying like speed run the entire vegetable cannon with just commodifying it all into packageable aesthetic. Josh, we reached...

We reached a middle ground. I love that. Jubilee can't do it, but we can. Nine hours, 50 disabled dogs versus one conservative veteran. All right, I got one. I got one. We got to speedrun the last couple. Root vegetables that aren't potatoes. What the heck does that mean?

heck does that mean rutabagas parsnips they're always at the grocery store and i always wonder who's buying them not no one yet i buy them right two rutabagas last year how many rutabagas you eat like six no way you ate six rutabagas yeah get out of town i don't believe it a rutabaga is a shalham in farsi right yeah okay yeah you got me there it is a shalham and you know what i'm

I eat shagam all the time. And I make a parsnip puree sometimes. It might shock you, but I do. I think more people should explore the canon of root vegetables. Eventually, someone's got to make rutabagas parsnips, what, salsafi. Start boiling radishes. Wow, salsafi?

Underrated. Salcify. Underrated. Anytime you go to the grocery store, you see the weird looking roots that are kind of like near the potato. For me, they're next to the endive for some reason at my grocery store. Buy them. Eat them. See what happens. Boil it. Salt, pepper. Start there. I'm making a parsnip puree tonight. Okay. With half a can of leftover pumpkin from Thanksgiving. You know what you should do? Dehydrate the pumpkin. Have you been seeing that on the internet a lot where people take the pumpkin puree and they put it in the oven to dehydrate it so it concentrates the pumpkin flavor and it's not as wet?

I did that recently. I did that recently too. I did that recently. Stop copying me. Josh has been copying me all day today. He literally copied my lunch order. Yeah, you just have good taste. Well, I copied your lunch order, but I said double chicken. You added more protein. Okay, this is my last one. So more collab foods in 2025. Remember when

Oh, yeah. Dolly Parton collabed with cake mixes. Everybody was eating cake. Fred Durst frozen French fries. Get them out there.

I want to see more... Like, I want to see, like, Antonia Banderas, like, hawking barbecue sauce. Mike Shinoda dumplings and Trader Joe's. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, I want to see, like, the most odd, like, random people collabing with the most odd random who's, like, Kefir Water by, like, I don't know. Jake from State Farm. Yeah. Jake from State Farm, Kefir Water. Bulgarian Mountain Yogurt, but, like, with one of those Dagestani MMA fighters. Tyrese, Tyrese.

Like, what's his name? Israel Makachayev or something? Like, get him on my yogurt, damn it. Like, I'm down. Like, I'm down. Why not? And I think we should come up with some collab ideas, like three right now. Like, what should the Mythical Kitchen collab with? Oh.

Oh, Mythical Kitchen? Like weird, like out there foods, like just out there products. Yeah, butter flavored nonstick cooking spray. 100%. That's great because you can just add instant hit of butter. You can spray it on your hot dogs. We have to call it Spray Marge. Spray Marge. Spray Marge. Okay, I'm going to think of another, but it's going to be like an item, like an egg cracker. What about a Mythical Kitchen egg cracker? Oh, that's pretty good. Yeah, and it can help people who can't crack eggs with their hands. Yeah, Vicks VapoRub. It's not a food.

You're not supposed to... Wait. You rub it on your tongue. You're spreading that on toast? I like the jelly. That was actually an episode of My Strange Addiction. She would take a vapor rub and put it on her mouth. Boy, are those addictions strange. You know what my addiction is? Hanging out with you. Oh, my God. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want to. Finally, smash burgers, but with the name of a country in front of it.

That's right. Smash burgers, but with the name of a country in front of it. You wrote this down? I did. I wrote smash burgers, but with a country adjective, which is to say the name of the country in front of smash burgers. Name a country right now. Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan smash burgers coming to a street corner near you. Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan smash burgers. Oh my God, that would be incredible. San Marino. String hoppers. San Marinese? San Marinese?

That's right. That is the adjective of San Marino's San Marinese. Oman. Omanite? No, it's a Pokemon. But I'm saying, like, I've had a Pakistani smash burger this year. Oh, no way. I've had Indian smash burger. I've had a Thai smash burger. I've had a Laotian smash burger. Oh, yum. I had an Argentinian-Mexican collab smash burger that was birria de chivo, but chivo cooked over the asador. Oh, yum. And then broke it. It was incredible. Smash burgers are blank canvas, but everyone's just been doing the ketchup, the mustard, whatever.

Put a country in front of a Smashburger, let me eat it. The Thai Smashburger I had that was at Infatuations Eats Con, a collab between Shake Shack and Thai Diner is one of the better things I ate this whole entire year. And more of that in 2025. Dadgummit. Okay. That's all I have to say about that.

All right, Nicole, before we get to the opinions of like casseroles, we are going to do everyone's fourth favorite segment. That is review a review. That is where we read. No, not yet. We have to review the reviews because you know why, Nicole, this is where we go to people into giving us more views because it really helps keep us up in the charts. If you add reviews to Apple podcasts, this one is from Brayden G. We have five stars titled good. This is the only reason I wake up in the morning. It's just so darn good. Smiley face. Well, Josh, you write that the

The best part of waking up is Josh and Nicole's voice in your ears saying, welcome to the podcast. Hey! Um, Brayden, I give you five stars. Short, sweet, and earnest. I would say I hope you get more reasons to wake up in the morning. But if it's just us, that's perfectly fine. At least you got one. That's perfectly fine. At least you got one. Thanks for listening. It means a lot. Some people don't have one.

All right, Nicole. It's a blessing. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out in the universe. It's time for the last segment we call Opinions are like casserole. We kind of sounded like a beat poet from the 1950s. War is bad. Were we in a war in the 50s? Yes, the Korean War. Cynthia. Right? Died for our Cynthias. All right, let's get to that opinion.

Hi, I'm Erin from Missouri, and I was wondering if there are different types of caffeine and if they affect you differently or if caffeine is just caffeine. I don't know. And there's not a difference between...

coffee bean caffeine or green tea caffeine or like energy drink caffeine, or if it's all just the same, but then if it's all just the same, why do I feel different after drinking tea versus drinking coffee? Ooh, I don't have an answer. I'm here to learn as well with Erin. Okay.

Okay, so I am not an expert in this. I have written about it a little bit in the past because Rockstar came out with their first ever purely organic energy drink. Interesting. And so I went down this rabbit hole. This is a long time ago, so it's probably going to be filled with some scientific inaccuracies, but I can add a little bit of color here. This was a trend that was started, I believe, the first time I saw it, by Starbucks refreshers, probably 15 years ago when they came out. But it was using caffeine from green coffee beans. Okay.

So Starbucks, they're in the business of caffeinating people via coffee, but coffee beans typically are roasted, which when you roast coffee beans, the caffeine quality goes down. So a dark roast, eight ounces of a dark roast is going to have less caffeine than eight ounces of, say, a blonde roast. No way. Okay. He kills caffeine. And so the green coffee beans, they are just chock full of caffeine, and you turn them into a tea or liquid or whatever, and then add that to fruit flavors, and they don't have that dark, roasty, toasty flavor. Okay.

Rockstar was adding green coffee bean caffeine to stick with the organic label into this drink. And I remember drinking it and I felt different. So I started looking it up. And then a lot of caffeine, I believe, is made synthetically by combining urea –

Like from pee? I think it's not from pee, but I believe it has something to do with – I don't really know. I'm not a scientist. Okay. But they combine urea with like methyl chloride, ethyl acetate. But like effectively you can make caffeine in a lab. So if you're drinking like – what is it? Is it caffeine anhydrous, I think? Google caffeine anhydrous because I had a buddy – Can you do what I'm listening? Maggie, Google caffeine anhydrous if you can because I had a buddy that just would take scoops of caffeine and he was doing it in water. But caffeine is – Hey, hey, hey.

A-N-H-Y-D-R-O-U-S. What is this? Because I had a buddy that used to just take this. So it's a dehydrated form caffeine. But yeah, it is made from plants like tea, coffee, and dark chocolate. So I don't 100% know. But I will say the caffeine that gives me the biggest jolt – because I track my milligrams of caffeine pretty much every day. Okay. And the caffeine that gives me the biggest jolt is Celsius. Okay.

And Celsius is, I believe, made from green coffee beans. David loves Celsius. Yeah. It's only 200 milligrams of caffeine. But for whatever reason, I get a little bit more whacked out on that than I do on coffee, than I do on an energy drink, than I do on like five-hour energies or things that I travel with all the time. Nothing hits me quite like a Celsius. 200 milligrams of Celsius feels like I have more energy than 300 milligrams of like a

Do you think that it's because Celsius adds other things that amplify the experience? That could be the case. So it's not just the caffeine, not just what the caffeine is derived from. It's the caffeine, its own molecule that adds to the experience. Potentially. I think that might be what's happening. I think caffeine is like the only substance that's really proven to increase energy on like a concrete level.

Which is to say increasing heart rate, metabolic function, stuff like that. And then everything else is sort of a bit of like, you know, like kind of pseudoscience here. But also in the way that like, yeah, if you're feeling different, something's working. So caffeine from guarana is different than caffeine from coffee beans or it's the same? Yeah.

It's the same. Because if you're extracting... I'm thinking about this like extracting silk. Like extracting silk from silkworms gives you silk. But you could also make silk in a lab and it's the same thing, right? Okay, so guarana is where Celsius's caffeine comes from apparently. The smell of guarana makes me sick. Or just the smell of like... We should talk about this more in depth. This is so interesting. Yeah, this is really fun. We should do this on the podcast. Because I thought guarana was...

Banned at some point? No, is that not true? Sorry, I'm looking up. It was another thing that was banned. What was it? I don't remember. We need to sit down and do some research on this. Yeah, we should do a lot more on this, but that's a really fascinating topic. This is very interesting. Erin, guess what? You just came up with a new podcast idea, so well done. Sorry we couldn't answer your question. I know. But thank you for the brain juice ideas. Yeah, I agree with her.

All right. What's up? My name is Mike. I'm from upstate New York. What's up, Mike? And my food hot take is the best Philly cheesesteak I've ever had. Where's he going with this? Where's he going? It's still worse than the worst burger. What? I'm willing to throw hands over this. Oh. For the show. Thanks. How cool.

How could that be? The best cheesesteak is... Well, I don't understand. The best cheesesteak is still worse than the worst burger. So burgers are better than cheesesteaks? Yeah, but like to a logarithmic degree here.

Logarithmic? Like an exponential. Words I know, please. There is no cheesesteak. He's speaking hyperbolically because you're wrong. I'll give you... You want a worse burger than the best cheesesteak? I'll give you a worse burger. Come to my house. Stop inviting people over your house all the time. I love entertaining. I have had...

I'm trying to think if the best cheesesteak I've had is better than the best burger, but I don't think so. I don't think I've had the best cheesesteak before, but the cheesesteak eating experience as perfected by you is better than burger experiences that I've had.

I've had some pretty transcendent burgers. Yeah, but I would put cheesesteaks still above burgers. But let's look at how much you can screw up both. I've had awful, awful, awful cheesesteaks. I've had less cheesesteaks than I have burgers. Same here, and I think that's true for the entire world except for some Philadelphians. Go, birds. Okay.

But like I've had cheesesteaks where it's like a crappy piece of top sirloin that somebody is just like thick slicing, sweating until it's gray, putting on like mozzarella cheese and undercooked peppers and like a soft roll. And it's just terrible. And so I would agree with that. But going to Philly, going to a place like Angelo's, John's Roast Pork –

Ishka Bibble's, Dallis Andro's, Jim's, but specifically Angelo's to me. They have perfected the cheesesteak in terms of architecture, flavor, cookery. We gotta go to Philly. Baking, dude.

So I don't know. I wonder where you've gotten your cheesesteaks. Like, I want to see the best cheesesteak you've ever had. I do agree that it's easier to screw up than a burger. I just need to... I haven't had the best cheesesteak in the world, I don't think. But I also don't think I've had the best burger in the world. But I think I can make a burger better than I can a cheesesteak. But I enjoy the cheesesteak eating experience biting into the pieces of meat more so than biting into the puck of ground beef. So I...

We'll disagree with you. My favorite food is cheeseburgers. It just is. But a really well-constructed cheesesteak is almost better than a really constructed burger, in my opinion. Damn, I kind of want to make cheesesteaks this weekend now. So good. There's that expensive cheesesteak at Matu Steak. Yes, I've had it, and I thought it was delicious. I've never had it, man. It's pretty good. I've got to cross the 405 more. We can go on a double date if you want. Or it's okay. We don't need to. We can have our separate time, too.

Why? I don't know. So mean. Social batteries drain, bro. Josh doesn't want to be my friend anymore.

Hey, Jessica and Maggie. This is Phil in Idaho. And my personal opinion is that, well, as you know, the Krabby Patty collab burger just came out. Collabs, collabs, collabs. My personal opinion is it's basically just a Dave single with like this very peppery fry sauce. There. I said it. SpongeBob fans, hate me if you want to, but literally that's all it is. Yeah. This is...

So when you talked about collab foods, like the BTS collab at McDonald's was so, so, so big. And they introduced entirely new sauces with entirely new flavor profiles to McDonald's because of it. And I think like that's what you need to do with these collabs. There needs to be some actual value add to the people here. Otherwise, I think they're going to completely water down like the meaning of these collabs. Like, I don't know.

No, I'm down for it to be watered down. You're down for it? You like the crab? I didn't even have the Krabby Patty collab. I didn't eat it either. I probably should have. I like seeing it and I don't think the... Listen, it's about trying new things and maybe under the guise of a character or a group or like a celebrity. Why not? But the Krabby Patty, he's absolutely correct. It was just a quarter pound beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and then a top secret Krabby Patty sauce. But like...

There's not like a... BTS is Korean. Introduce a Korean flavor to McDonald's in America. That's pretty cool. That's really big. We want to put kelp on the burger? I don't know. Something, man. You think anybody would have eaten the kelp on the burger? No. You know what I would have done? You know what I would have done? I would have put a pineapple ring on there because who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Well, they did it. SpongeBob SquarePants. They did do a pineapple mango vanilla frosty. No, it's not the same. They have a new salted caramel frosty that I want to try. But yeah, I mean...

I'm down. I like it. It's fun. And you are correct. No lies detected. I guess what else would you have done? Because a Krabby Patty, is it made – I've never watched SpongeBob. Is it made from crabs?

Because the owner of the restaurant... I can neither confirm nor deny it for it is secret. It's a secret recipe. So they are animals. Which are they slaughtering and to put into their hamburgers? It's almost like if I told you how The Sopranos ended, it wouldn't be fair. So I think you need to just watch the series in entirety and just enjoy the ride. You know what I mean? Gabagool. Yeah, I feel your frustrations though.

Maggie, one more. One more. Come on, Maggie, one more. Hello. Hello. Hi. This is a little family meal choice that I grew up with, and I still stand by it. Alfredo dishes, you know, like a chicken Alfredo, are made significantly better with a splash of soy sauce. Okay. Hey, that's some... It's grossed out some, my friends. Grossed out? I find that little bit of salt and umami really brings out flavors. Yeah.

That's all. It's like putting, please, go ahead. No, Nicole, please. No, honestly, you held the door for me. I think, stop, you're being silly. Uh,

It's like whenever you put like a little bit of Worcestershire sauce in your Caesar salad dressing. It's like making it a little tang, a little umami, a little sauce. I have no problem with it. I think it sounds really good. I'm trying to think if I've ever – because when you're talking about Alfredo sauce, you're kind of talking about a cream sauce, right? Maybe you put garlic in it. You probably put Parmesan cheese in it. Yeah. Are there any –

Of those creamy sauces that like have a brown-ish element mixed in. You know what I mean? Oh, like how a Bearnaise sauce is like from another sauce? Yeah.

Well, maybe. I'm saying like on like a bun me, right? You'll take the mayonnaise and the mayonnaise will typically be mixed with Maggie sauce. Okay, sure. Maggie sauce is kind of like a soy sauce, but it's got like a deeper, funkier flavor. It's like an MSG caramel color. Yeah, and it's good, but you're taking that creamy white and adding deep, dark, dank brown.

Good. It's good. No, I'm saying it's good, but I'm trying to think if I've ever had a flavor like they're describing. Well... With like a cream sauce. I'm trying to think. That's interesting. My brain is saying yes. It's inspiring. Yes, you've had this before, but I don't have like an exact, I don't have like a dish or like a plate. I'm thinking like Chateau Boulard.

Oh, yeah. I know exactly what that is. Those are from Ikea. Those are Swedish meatballs. Does that mean good job? Tack tack means thank you. And then kom igen. Kom igen means like come on. And then wafan. That's a curse word. What the heck? Yeah. In a light way. But like that's like a creamy sauce that has like the stock and then you can like stud that with like Worcestershire or something. Gravy? Gravy?

Yeah, but it's gravy, but there's like a dairy component to the gravy. Yeah. Cream gravy. Yeah. Yeah, but this is interesting. I'm really fascinated to try this. I would love to eat this. I feel like it'd be good on veg too. Those flavors sound great. Yeah, tell your family that we approve. We're part of your family now. Hi, family. Where are we having Christmas this year? Let me know what the political drums is. Let me know which aunt we hate. Let us know which cousin has a drinking problem. We're going to brunch. Let's brunch. Let's brunch about it.

That was genuine. Inspiring. Inspiring stuff there, Nicole. Truly. And with that note, thank you for listening to Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We got new audio-only episodes every Wednesday and a video version here on YouTube every Sunday.

This isn't a video, though. No, there's no video for this. That's fine. But we look so cute. But we generally have videos. Yeah. If you want to be featured on Opinions or like Casseroles, hit us up at 833-DOG-POD-1. We'd love to hear ya. And if you like the things that we do in general, check out our videos over at the Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel. Go there, buy an apron. We got a really sick apron. We got two sick aprons. We got two sick aprons. Two sick aprons. One sick and the other, if you're being honest.