Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Aronger, host of Cooking Issues coming to you live from the heart of Manhattan, Rockefeller Center, New Stand Studios, joined as usual with the Stassi of the Hammer Lopez. Hey Stas, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you?
I'm doing really well. How'd uh how did you enjoy your non-air conditioned ride on eye of 95 coming in today in your uh in your sweet sweet, your sweet sweet uh you like to live like it's the 50s, right? With your air conditioning sitch? Is that I do? Yeah, you love it, you're loving it.
Yeah, so I'm not gonna be here for the rest of the summer because of it. What? I mean, how about this? I might have to do it. Fix your freaking air conditioner.
It's it's way too expensive. It's not just the air conditioner. But let me ask you a serious question on the air conditioner. I know that we've you know joked that we're like, well, well, all right, hold on. Nick Wong is here.
We'll introduce him later. I've got Joe Hazen rocking the panels. How you doing, Joe? I'm doing well. And we got and we got uh Mr.
Mr. Jacques Molecule in the uh there on the uh in the Rockin' A California and all that. How you doing? How you doing, Jack? I'm good.
I also don't have air conditioning and it drives me crazy. But like that's that's kind of a choice you're making. That's like a that's like a hundred and twenty dollar problem. You invest 120 dollars in a room. No, it's not, it's not, it's not.
How big's your room? How big's your room? I have these flat windows, Dave, that the the unit can't really fit into these windows. It would take it would take some like weatherproofing in my apartment. They don't seal entirely.
There's a lot of problems. Hold up. What when you say slat window, give me roughly give me the dimensions of your windows. Um I don't know, like standard window size. Then what's the problem?
If it's a standard window size, then why can't you do look? Are you saying they're too skinny for an air conditioner? No, what I'm saying is it's these flats that you kind of crank open and shut and they don't entirely seal. Okay. Um these like glass panes.
So even if I were to like take a few of the slats out, I would say it's a whole thing. I have a s I have uh this thing for you. They invented. You ready for it? Are you ready for this invention?
Mm-hmm. Duct tape. Cardboard. You just seal everything with duct tape and cardboard. It looks hideous.
But you're cool. I have lived for decades with being like how about some duct tape and cardboard. And it's just keep you cool, man. Who the hell lives in LA with no air conditioning like this day and age? Like if it by choice.
By choice. How about this? If you don't want to do that, uh go buy a s uh a a sawzall, not a sears all. Buy one too. Go buy a sawzall, cut you a hole in your in your wall, stick the air conditioner in the hole in the wall.
Turn it on. Enjoy. You know what I mean? You might have to reinforce the wall. Please don't do that without checking to make sure you're not gonna cut through some structural members, but you know?
That's all messed up. Yeah. Look, where there is a window, there's a way. Are you on the ground floor? All right.
No. That limits you somewhat. Uh a chef friend of mine once was installing an air conditioner in New York City and did the whoopsadaisy and it went all the way down to the pavement. Shaboo. Oh no.
Did not kill anybody. Just luckily. That's why in in our apartments, technically, we're not no one's allowed to install air conditioners. Like technically you're supposed to get someone to come do it and install all the brackets and stuff because like an oops a daisy in a 20-floor apartment, that's like game. Well, frankly, from like two stories, an air conditioner falling is a game over man situation.
Paxton, rest in peace. That was Paxton, right? Game over, man. Wasn't that him? Anyway, you guys don't watch movies?
I know Nastasi doesn't like to watch movies. Thought you guys like to watch movies. Nastasia only enjoy the Nastasi's only form of entertainment is to be on the Connecticut side of the Long Island Sound and listen to Long Island Radio. Is that true, Stas? Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And she calls in and they answer her requests and she interviews, like, you know, 70 stars. Who was that 70 star you interviewed? I don't remember his name. What was his song?
Brandy. And what was your theory about Brandy and what did he say? Uh she lives in your mind. Everyone's mind or his mind? Everyone's mind.
Is that mean he murdered her and she only lives in your mind or she was always a fantasy, like not a real person? Fantasy. Yeah. Creepy. Uh what?
Looking glass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Looking glass? The name of the band.
This makes no sense to me. All right. We are joined in the studio today by Nick Wong, one of our favorite people. How are you doing, Nick? I'm good.
How are you doing? Doing well. So uh you know sorry, I I almost went for it, Nastasia. Oh, so Nick Wong famously to us came on the air, I don't know, like nine years ago or something like this, and said nothing the whole whole time. Just stoned it.
Like 15 minutes. It wasn't. No, the whole show the whole damn show. At Nastasius at Nastasia's behest, no, no, no, no. Nastasi's a bad person.
The first time he did it, it was on his own, and then the second time he did it, it was at my behest. And that was only 15 minutes. Alright. Oh, because he who only do what you want for 15 minutes? I like it.
It's strong, strong. All right. So uh if you're listening on the Patreon, call in your questions to 917-410-1507. That's uh 917-410-1507. If you'd like to join the Patreon, you can go ahead and uh do that.
We have upcoming guest, uh, Greg Baxstrom. I'm not exactly sure of the date yet, but uh tune in for that. And John says he wants to come back and hang out uh for that because this is our first official post. John, he's uh he's getting ready for his new job. Getting ready for his new exec uh exec chef position job.
Yeah. No longer, no longer with the Booker and Dax customer service. So you guys uh who need customer service at Booker and DAX, you're gonna have to give us a little bit of wiggle room, right, Estas? Mm-hmm. Just a little bit of wiggle room.
Have you found in the past that people give us wiggle room? No. They want to talk directly to you. Yeah, that's a bad idea. For many reasons.
All right. So uh Nick, you when did you first come? I I first met you. Nick was one of our uh so when I was at the French Culinary Institute as the director of culinary technology, we had uh a couple of what I would call like really good, excellent, amazing groups of people, and Nick was part of one of the first amazing kind of like hardcore groups of people that are still like Friends this day, like whatever what is it, 12 years later or something like that? Something like that.
Twelve, thirteen years later. Yeah, so when did you come to the to the FCI? Two thousand and eight. All right. And and you were part of the Mindy, right?
You were Mindy, Angela, Eng Su. Right, but you were slightly earlier than them, right? You left while they were there, or no. You were s you were same time as Mindy, right? No.
Mindy's I can't remember. Mindy Mindy was not in school. She was working. Right. So she she was one of the very first interns, and then she started running the intern program before Nastasi.
Nastasi took over for for Mindy. So then you came on again roughly the same time as Ang Su and and uh Angela, and then we had a couple other good people. I forget. It's very hard for me to remember at this point in my life, like who all the people were at the same time. But back then, you couldn't do this anymore.
It's not a good idea. But in order to be an intern, the rules were what were the rules? There's only one rule. You just had to have a talent, right? You had a talent, you had to like supply yourself with a nickname, right?
And you were not allowed to huff the nitrous. Um goggles when you work with LN. Goggles when you yeah, back because that was not my rule. And now that's not really a rule for the case. That wasn't my rule.
That was like look, some of the things that I put the rules I put like, but like we had finagled our way into getting a nitrous tank so that we wouldn't, you know, so that we could do fun stuff with nitrous. And the only way I could do it was to go completely ape hardcore on not using it as a recreational drug. Also, like literally nitrous tanks are dangerous because what they're not dang it's not if you balloon it, it's not dangerous. Like nitrous tanks are dangerous because you don't OD, you just suffocate. So people will put a nitrous mask on and then pass out with the mask on, and they don't have an oxygen tank hooked up to it, and so they they just suffocate.
That's how like basically a hundred percent of people die who die from nitris, right? And so, but that doesn't matter. Like, we just had to have like a zero tolerance on huffing uh the nitris. So uh Nick was there, and we never actually forced anyone to have a special skill, but Nick couldn't come up with his like special talent, right? Stas, you know this story?
Yep. Yeah. So Nick couldn't come up with a special talent. So they had a uh was it hot dogs or hamburgers? Hot dogs, hot dogs.
Hot dog eating contest at the FCI, which by the way, after you left, I had to hold down the FC, I had to hold down the the culinary technology team. I had to beat everyone because you had left. So he's like, This is gonna be my talent. Either I win this hot dog contest or I'm not coming back upstairs. And what happened?
You came back upstairs. One. You won. Yeah. Hot dog's really a mind over matter thing.
Everybody's overthinking it. Like, oh, I'll eat the bread first and then I'll eat the meat and then just go. Pound. Pound. Gotta go.
Pound. Secret? Small bites. Really? You're a small bite man?
Small, small fast. Small, small, fast bite. Yeah. My secret was wearing a luchador mask. Where I had to clip the edges to get my mouth open wide enough to shove all the all the hot dogs in.
Did you like win by a lot or by a little? I think I won by like a good like twelve to twenty seconds. Yeah, yeah. Uh ours was I think just number. The one I won was I think just how many you could eat in the allotted amount of time.
And if my memory serves me, I completely outclassed everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um it's not a good I'm trying to convince my children not to do food bets. As in don't take any food bets from you? Well, Jen, my wife, is a strictly anti-stupid she's kind of ant like strange that she married me because she's kind of anti stupid, like in gen not anti stupid, but she's not pro stupid.
And so like I think like uh all the food bets I used to take, like who could be the first person to finish a gallon of jello, like who could, you know, eat like the full uh, you know, half gallon of m you know, food service container of mustard, who could chug the entire food service jug of crappy paste salsa, like all that stuff. Like, like you know, like how many tea bags can you eat before you vomit? Things like this. She finds this to be not amusing. You know what I'm saying?
And so she doesn't want our kids to follow. I mean, Booker's not gonna do that, but she doesn't want Dax to do that. She doesn't want Dax to be like, well, Dad did it, so I'm gonna do it. She doesn't talk like that. Anyway, so she's not for it.
So I don't I don't do, and I don't think I could do it anymore. I'm too old for for food bets. I think there's like a limit. There's like a limit. The trick with food, eating food is to get past your mental revulsion where you feel like you want to upchuck if you put another bite of that specific object into your mouth, right?
Yeah. So how do how do you get past that? I on the price. Yeah. But like just think this goes straight through it, plow through it, right?
Don't look at anybody else. Don't look at anybody else. There you go. There you go. All right.
So uh after you uh graduated, you went to uh Sambar. Co actually. Oh, oh, how was that? Was that Serpico Days? Yes.
You got me the job. Yes. I don't know if you remember that. Uh yes. Yeah.
Uh I remember I remember there were some issues. Like everyone had issues, like like no one wants to cooking issues. Like cooking issues. No, I'm not even gonna get into it. So you got that job, but then you like were like looped into the Momofuca world for like a long time.
Yeah. You ended up at Som. And then, but there was a for a while you went to Incanto in between, which is uh Chris Constantino's restaurant in California, right? And then you made the big break and you moved to Houston. Why Houston?
Which is where you live now. Which is where I live now. Right. Um the move to Houston was not really thought through all the way. It just kind of happened.
Uh, when I left New York in 2017, I kind of did a zigzag road trip across America. And I had Chris Shepherd's contact info. He is a famous chef in Houston, for those that don't know. Um reached out to him, said I'm gonna be in Houston for a few days, give me some recommendations suggestions, and he rolled out the red carpet for me. Uh got back at the end of my trip back to California, and he just kind of followed up and was like, Hey, we're uh thinking about opening a restaurant next year, and your name keeps coming up.
Is this something that you'd be interested in? And I said, I'm unemployed and I live at home with my parents. In Milpitas. You you keep on trying to make Milpitas a thing, and it's it's not that's not where it is. That's not how you pronounce Milpitas.
That is how you pronounce Milpitas. I want you to be from Milpitas so badly. I know, I know. Let's just say uh yeah, back home in Milpitas. I got the call.
How close are you to Milpitas? Like 20 minutes. Uh it's Milpitas equivalent. Yeah. Okay.
Milpitas adjacent. Yeah, yeah, all right. Um, yeah, and I said, you know, I'll come check out the city. I went out for a week. At the end of the week, I decided I'd, you know, want to give it a shot.
So then went back home to California. Two weeks later, drove out to Houston from San Francisco. Sorry, Milpitas, Milpitas. There you go. And uh we opened the restaurant a month later.
And that was that was you started at UB Preserve or you start somewhere else? Uh UB preserve. All right. So UB preserve, and you did that for a long time until it closed. Yep.
Right. And then you moved, and then I went there, it was delicious. And then I went to uh I never got to go to Georgia James, which was your most recent. That was more of a steaky housey. So there's two of them.
There's a Georgia James, which is the steakhouse, and then there's Georgia James Tavern, which is a smaller concept downtown Houston. And I was there just for a few months and then decided to leave the company and just taking some time off recharging and that's that's what we're gonna that's what we're gonna talk about in a minute. But a few questions. How much of that menu is still uh your menu? Is it been totally changed?
At the tavern? No, none of it's mine. No, no, no. Because I was looking, I was like, what is a ghost pepper caviar? Why would I want ghost peppers in my caviar?
You like spooky caviar? Okay. All right. All right. So my question to you is first of all, like, I don't know, like what's your are you willing to talk about what you want to do next after you recharge or no?
Yeah. Um it's always been kind of the goal to open up my own place, and I think I'm in a good spot now that I feel confident that you know I can open up a spot, it'll be in Houston because it's way easier to open a business in Houston than either here in New York or backhoe and mill Petis. Yeah, yeah. Uh what uh what's your favorite Bon Mi shop in uh is it still California or whatever it's called? Cali Sandwich, pretty good.
Um I also like there's this place called Dawn and Tien On. Those are my three. So what's it like? Because I think this is the thing that a lot of people who are more on the pro side uh who listen are gonna be curious about. Like, you know, uh you didn't weren't that long uh with uh with Costantino, right?
Like six, eight months or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. Not that long. All right.
So we won't we won't include that, right? But you worked for at a very high level for two very famous chefs with very large like media presences, right? Like so Chris Shepard runs uh that awesome charity, you know, obviously, you know, Dave Chang is Dave Chang. Who? Uh yeah, yeah.
Who who's that guy? Yeah. And you know, uh zillions of restaurants, like a lot of stuff, and you work in a very high level for them. And when you're in a position such as yours, you are relied upon and seen kind of part of the at once you get to a certain level, you're part of the DNA of the establishment, right? And then when you leave, this can be I mean, I wasn't there obviously when you left uh, you know, the uh underbelly, which is Chris um Chris Shepherd's uh restaurant group, right?
But I was certainly there when you left uh Momafuku. Uh Do you remember that last night? Oh my god. You came in you came in strapped. Do you remember that?
You you plastic wrapped a smear enough ice to your chest and wore jacket over it and then walked to the pass and smear off iced me. Well, why don't you explain for people who don't know what smear-off icing is? It's a dumb frat boy game. Yeah, but explain. Don't Google it.
It's stupid. It's just like a lot of people. Chug a disgusting smear off ice while you're on one knee. Yeah, yeah. That's basically it.
Yeah. But anyway, it was something you had to do back then. Anyway, but but it's uh it can be challenging, right? Because like you can you need those people's support. What's it like to leave a group like that?
Honestly, I think it's it's fine for me because I again I I feel pretty confident in what I want to do next. And I think leaving the company is gonna allow me a little more freedom. I'm also kind of getting to the point where I just kind of don't want to have a boss anymore. Like I wouldn't I would rather work for myself. If I'm gonna put in the hours and do all the stuff.
I'd rather have that be for me. Um I guess for people, cooks, zoo chefs, whatever working in today's environment, the thinking about branding and things like that is like less of a new concept. I think for maybe my peer generation of cooks, it wasn't something that's consciously thought of. Like, cool, I need to build a social media following and have that be my own thing separate from wherever I'm working at. Well, right, except for like what's messed up from the public's per se per perspective is it's not like the in the 70s, right?
In in the 60s and 70s, I wasn't, you know, conscious, I wasn't alive during the 60s, but you know, prior, the chef, maybe people who knew knew who the chef was, but the restaurator was more important and the name of the restaurant itself was more important, right? So there really wasn't an opportunity to build yourself. Um, you know, really with the rise in the I would say like mainly in the 90s, right? The rise of like the celebrity chef made that kind of a thing. But it in other words, it's hard to build a business without building it around a personality, or it had been hard, right?
It you know, unless you've already been in business eight billion years, you can't build a business around a name unless it has a personality attached to it. But the downside of that is it makes it more difficult for someone like you to get the light shown on themselves unless they're willing to branch out. So I think it's a difficult thing for people to um find their way through because I also think that something that gets lost in the shuffle of people constantly trying to push themselves forward is I think to do a really good job in this business, you need to have some loyalty, right? You need to to to a concept, to a place, to a team. You know what I mean?
So, how do you so it's interesting that and you were Mr. Team player, you know what I mean? Like super team player, you know what I mean? Like hardcore. Like I've seen you take some serious crap from people that you should never have taken.
Like I won't, you know, talk about it, but like hardcore, you know what I mean? Like inappropriate, you know what I mean? And you know, you you took it, which is not right, you know what I mean? But uh, you know, I'm saying about you know my direct experiences with you, not like you know what I don't know anything about Houston. Everything was very pleasant when I was there.
I'm not gonna say anything. Um, but you know, how do you help people navigate that difference? Because I think or that that line, because there is a line. If you're only out for yourself, like you can be lucky and and make it, but I don't think you're ever gonna be great if you're only really in it for yourself. You know what I mean?
Or maybe you are, maybe I'm wrong. I think there's also people in the industry that maybe they don't want that spotlight, and they're totally fine to just work, be a company man, you know, essentially. Yeah, no, I know people who have who are great at that. And so it's like a kind of like a team. There's the person who like is that name that's built around, and there's someone who's willing to do that for like 20, 30 years.
I don't know, people you know who who do it. But I mean, I don't know. It's it's weird. It's like uh uh uh I don't know, I don't know how I how I I feel about that. You think that they're truly happy with the decision?
In other words, like I'm I'm I'm trying to wrap my mind around whether this is something that they are super psyched about. I'm sure sometimes they're psyched about it and sometimes they're not, right? To be in that position. Because there's a certain comfort level to it, right? No one wants to be out there.
I mean, I I think a lot of people who need to put themselves out there don't really want to be out there on the social, having people lob bombs at you because that's gonna happen. Yeah. You know what I mean? No one lobs bombs at the right hand. Yeah.
Everyone always lobs bombs at whoever the face is, and that can be very hurtful for some people. So, you know, me, you know, I don't know. What do you think? Ready to have some bombs lobbed at you? Not right now.
Yeah. Bomb bomb me up. Let's go. All right. So uh when you uh took time off, uh when not time off, when you when you left uh underbelly, you took a car trip uh because a c a friend of yours needed to drive their car from Houston to New York.
Yes, that's why I'm here right now. So the first stop from Houston in the drive was Memphis. What did you eat? Um I've never been to Memphis. Not very good barbecue, not bad.
But it was just from a rando place because this first Memphis stop was kind of last minute, so no researching, no whatever, just spend the night, get back on the road the next morning. Right. O for one. Okay. But uh really like Memphis though.
Good live music. Okay. But you're oh for one. All right. I I'd say zero for zero.
It was not a negative food experience. Okay. But it's not a superlative one. What kind of barbecue? What was what was the meat?
Uh ribs. Okay. And just a goopy, goopy sauce, dry meat stringy? Dry meat stringy, not that much sauce. Is it just at like a random bar?
Okay. It was just sustenance. Okay. Beers. No.
Okay. Okay. Uh then you drove to Nashville. Food. Nashville, pretty good.
Did you have any of that chicken? You know, I've never I've never been to Nashville, so I've never had a lot of their hot chicken? Yeah. Didn't do the hot chicken. Last time I did my road trip, I did the hot chicken.
How was it? Hot. Real hot. Hot, like useless hot? You you're Jack, you co-sign on this?
Useless hot? Yeah. The the hottest is useless hot, and the regular hot is tasty. Yep. You know, you know, tasty in my family means that it's garbage.
That's what my stepfather says when he hates something. Oh, it's tasty. It has taste. It is not, it is not agar and water. It is not tasteless.
It's taste tea. Yeah. Uh the hot chicken is good. What? You you like you're you're you're a fan, but you don't like the useless hot.
No, useless hot is exactly that. Yeah, it's useless. I gotta say I agree with that. I think you you like that there's a reason it's called useless hot, right? Because it's just to show that you can do it.
It's not it's not enjoyable. It's not enjoyable. When I had that useless hot, it wasn't even seasoned. It's just hot. Like they're not even trying to make this have any flavor at all.
It's just there to hurt you. Yeah. Basically. All right. So you didn't have that this time.
What'd you have this time? Had some barbecue. Pat uh Pat Martin. Yeah. Good.
Good. Uh went to Arnold's. Meat and three. No relation. Yeah.
Very delicious. Yeah. That's why it's no relation. Very delicious. Yeah.
Um what else? Went to this place called Lou. It was pretty cool. Uh uh. Yeah.
Good. Good. So you stayed a while there. Yeah, a couple days. Yeah.
Uh what are your thoughts about the Martin's potato roll uh controversy? I know it's not the same, Martin. What do you think about the Martin's potato roll con controversy? Can't I just eat a bun without it being a thing? No, you can't.
Can't. I don't you can't just have a bun. I don't think it's it means it's getting hard and harder to separate, you know. Yeah. That is voting with your dollars, right?
Like so. Were you on the potato roll? Uh were you were you a potato roll man back in the back in the day before this became a thing? Didn't really sell a lot of sandwiches on the life though. In life, I mean I don't get crazy over them.
They're just it's just bun. Are you one of those Hawaiian roll sweet roll freaks? I do like a Hawaiian roll. I don't know if I'm a freak about it though. I don't know.
Maybe freak. Stas, do you have any bun feelings? Are you uh any sort of feelings on buns whatsoever? No. Huh?
Nope. I like, and I know this is dumb. I like the oversized Martins with the sesame on them. I've seen those. I think I've also seen them being used and just watching all the sesame seeds just get all over the place.
Oof. Speaking of sesame, did you know that in January it's gonna get listed as one of the major allergens? So all the bakers are going freaking bananas because all these places that have sesame seeds in their bakery now have to like change all their labeling and all this stuff because it's being added to the major allergen list. I think it's an underreported story, to be honest. I mean, have you heard anyone talk about it?
No, the the sesame cabal is keeping it under wraps. Yeah, the ses the sesame people are really keeping it down. They're hoping to murder everyone with a sesame allergy before the end of the year. So if you have a sesame allergy, like watch out. They're out they're after you.
Joe and Jack, what are your what are your bun, what are your bun situations? What are my bun situations? Like my preference? Yeah. I actually like a good sesame bun.
Yeah. Yeah, but like you don't care whether it's potato, like what do you have a brand you go for? No, I don't. I'm not that like I'm not that worried about it. The baby Jesus invented a bun called Cummelwek.
Have you ever had this one? The cumul the cumul the wet is the the cumul buns. It's it's caraway and salt on top of like a standard like soft bun. That is a great oh my god, that's caraway. Yeah, that's the buffalo.
It's not inside, it's not rye bread, it's a white bread bun. Soft, white bread bun, egg wash with uh with like salt, like flaky salt, and caraway seeds. And with sliced roast beef and horseradish, super money. It's also hyper money with burgers. What?
It's like available in grocery stores. Or not here. No. You have to go to Buffalo. You have to go to Buffalo and Buffalo.
And really, you should just make yourself listen. If anyone wants to try this, go buy caraway seeds. I know nine tenths of you probably don't even have caraway seeds in in your in your house. I have caraway seeds like dribbling out my ear. I have so many caraway seeds in my house.
Oh, what's your most useful? I do. What's your most used spices, people? What's the one you what's which spices do you rip through other than crush crush hot pepper? Everyone knows I ripped through crushed red pepper.
Sumac. Really? Yeah. What brand do you use? I get it from the joint over there on the west side.
No, they um the International Grocery? Yep. Nice. Uh they are Turkish, but they sell no, they're Greek and no, they're Greek, but they sell a lot of Turkish stuff. Uh are they Greek or they forget?
Oh, what about that place over in the East Village too that had a gro on Avenue B or Avenue C. Dual specialty? Wow, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
And uh and Calustians. Yeah, yeah. Those are the those are three good places to buy that stuff. How salty is the one that they have there? Because my issue with uh most sumac is they dope it with too much salt.
So I can't use it in cocktails. No salt, and I add it myself. Okay. Is it brown or red? Uh it's a good question.
It's um I can't remember when we first got it, but it's definitely on the browner side right now. Yeah, yeah. People, if you live anywhere near uh so it's a different sumac that they harvest over there and they bring in. But if you live anywhere near where there's staghorn sumac, the hairy stuff, it's not quite ripe yet where I live, but man, harvest some of that yourself. Nastassi brought it in once.
That stuff's delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. So what do you think about the Portuguese bun?
Ooh, I like a Portuguese bun. What's a Portuguese bun? They're like slightly sweet. Not as sweet as the Hawaiian. No, but doughy or dense.
Oh, yes. Yeah. Really good with like a like a Portuguese sausage sandwich. Like real good. I also uh but but you could take any base bread and and cumalize it if you want.
Just like egg wash and then salt and caraway seeds. That's a family show. Yeah, yeah. My favorite my spices I use the most are cumin and coriander, probably. Cumin.
Yeah. Yeah. I love cumin. You know who doesn't like cumin? This lady behind me.
When pi when Piper. Really? She is like yikes. Well, I don't know whether she likes or doesn't like it, but she and Piper, I'll never let her forget it, made quote unquote chili. With no cumin?
No cumin. That's just stew. And get this. There was cumin in the in the lab. There was cumin in the lab.
Yeah. Yeah. Cumin. Cumin is cumin is a fantastic. Yeah, I've got the coriander too.
Cumin and coriander, like they transcend like every every cuisine tastes good with some like there are recipes that taste good with cumin and uh I like cardamom too. I don't use a lot of it. I blast through Sichuan um peppercorns in my house. Really? Can I tell you a secret that I think I've said on the air before?
Go buy the oil. Okay. It's cheating. Isn't that how Danny Bowen did all that stuff? No idea.
Have you ever bought Sichuan oil? I don't think I've ever seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called prickly called prickly ash oil. And there's a red variety and a green variety, right?
I've tried buying prickly ash because the store was out of Sichuan peppercorns and it was not the same thing. No, but the oil I think is all the same. There's a red and a green. So there's one that's like Sancho like, it's green, and there's one that's red that's more red-like. And it's just like the numbing stuff.
It's mainly like numbing oil. And it's easier to dose in those rancid Sichuan buttons that I hate so much. And I use that in my house, but no one else likes it. I mix it into things. You should try it.
I like cheating. Why not cheat? I'm all for better living through technology. There you go. All right.
So uh yeah, so I'm saying no matter what kind of bun you like, and I I'm gonna say I said this on the air before. I was back in Connecticut taking uh Dax up to I don't forget what I was doing, and um I went to Yukon's dairy bar by the way. Did I try to talk about this on air? No. So UConn, I have not been, I've been to Cornell has an amazing ice cream program.
I've been to their dairy. Good. Uh I've not been to uh I I think it's uh U Pen U Pen Penn State, not UPenn. Penn State, the nitty line, sorry, apologize for uh saying UPenn at all. Penn State has an amazing ice cream program.
They teach a lot of people all over the country how to make ice cream. They have one of the famous ice cream courses. I've not been there. Uh how do you pronounce that place in Canada? Guelph?
Guelph? Gelf? Gel Gelfi Guelph, gu, Guelphy Guelph, Guelph. They have an amazing dairy department, right? And they they do a lot of the internet stuff.
So if you want to research dairy on the internet, they're a good place to go. I have not been there. Uh UConn has had uh an agricultural, it started as an ag school, I think, and had an agricultural thing, including an ice cream uh program, which is the freaking amazing because you can see the cows where they get the milk from while you're buying the ice cream. The single udder ice cream? Single udder ice cream.
It's like it's just like they they milk it right into the like they they just do the on cyclasturize the eggs and then then they milk it right in and then spin it right there. Well, you can see the machines, and here's what's cool you can take it as a class as an undergraduate. And every year the seniors make a flavor. And so like I had the you know, the the senior 22, you know, dash 22 flavor, and it was just like a bunch of chocolate stuff. And so, like, and like, you know, so it uh, you know, Jen got a milkshake, you know, and I got my cone, and I was like, Oh yeah, I got the senior flavor with all the the chocolate.
She's like like 80, 90 years of work, and they're just now coming up with chocolate as their secret flavor. I was like, wow, it's harsh. Their ice cream was very good though. But I also went to Cheese Wings, which I have talked about, Shady Glen. Have you ever you ever heard of Shady Glen, Nick?
So Shady Glen in the 40s, they needed a gimmick. So they have one of those big flat top griddles. And so what they did, they the Bernice was the name of the lady who was like one of the owners. It was the guy in Bernice, and so they they made the burgers, they put the burgers down. It's not like a full smash, it's more like patty and like a little bit, a little bit of a press, not a else, you know, smash.
They let it go for a while, then they flip it to a different side of the grill, and then they put four slices of cheese on top, and then they melt down and they oh my god, Dax timed it. I wish I had remembered. I think he said it was exact it was exactly something, but I don't know what the exact thing was. Let's call it 45 seconds. It's on that order.
And then the guy goes in with a spatula and just goes flip, flip, flip, flip, and lifts them all up into four like like flying nun, like like freecotized like things, and then puts them on the bun, and their buns, which is why I'm talking about it now, are very fresh Kaisers. And I said it before, but as a follow-up, Kaisers are good. Good Kaisers are good. New York Kaisers are stale. I know I've been hating on New York foods recently, but the average Kaiser bun in New York City is a stale sad Kaiser.
But a good Kaiser is good. All right. So you go from Nashville to where? Uh Nashville to Detroit. Now, did you have conies when you were in Detroit?
No. Didn't do conies. Did you have beef or chili? No, why didn't do any of that kind of stuff? Why?
Did you hate, you hate, you hate I I thought I found more interesting things. Okay, like what? Um went to Dearborn, which Michigan? Yeah. Okay.
Well, it's like 15 minutes away. Yeah. Um got some really good Lebanese food. Oh, yeah. What what was it?
Uh got the fool. Um beans. Well, how do they do it? Like, like, well, not beans. What are those things called?
They're like, I thought a full was uh or at least the one that I had was chickpeas. Oh, okay. I think the ones I had was was it favas? I don't remember. It's been a long time.
And so yeah, it was good. Yeah. All right. Really good. What else?
Uh f fate. Fat fatty? Fete. I don't know. I don't know how to pronounce it.
There's a Lebanese dish I had recently, but I forget the name of it, that's cooked like almost like a roti on a tava that's then rolled with like some sort of like lobna like filling, but I can't remember the name of it. But you know what it was? No idea. Good. No, it was good.
Oh. But it was like I was passing by, there's a Lebanese place on my street, and I'm passing by it, and I see this like, you know, upside down like Tava thing, you know what I mean? And there you got the got the fire under it. And so I'm used to seeing that more for like the big roties, right? You know what I'm talking about?
That like upside down walkie looking things. Yeah. And I'm like, yo, what are you making? And then what was the name of it? I forget the name of it.
Now I gotta go look it up. It's like three letters. Nothing? No clue. Good.
No clue. Good. Uh all right. And then uh to New York. You had anything good in New York so far?
Uh had a really good dinner at Bonnie's in Brooklyn. I haven't been. Yeah. You did. Uh now.
Nastasia will be mad at me because last night, what did you do? If I don't bring this up, what did you do last night? I visited some of my old haunts in the East Village. Namely. Drop off service.
My God, do you go to drop off service? Yeah. Oh my god. That's where my uh my brother and my sister in law Ridge and Trav, Trav who shot my book. That's where they had their like uh what like a like engagement party or some crap.
That's where I had my last drinks when I left uh Sambar. Right near what is it, 13th or 12th or something like that? Or yeah, like 12th and A. It's it's in an old laundromat, right? That's why it's called drop off service, because it used to be in a laundromat building.
I didn't even know the place was still there. Also across the street from Zaragoza, which I'd forgotten existed until I got there. I was like, oh, it's Zaragoza. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to have to buy ingredients there when I couldn't make it all the way up to the 40s, which was the old place where I used to get like ingredients because they sell made things and ingredients.
Yeah. What do you get there? I didn't get anything there. Probably should have gotten some tacos. I think good you have never had their tacos.
Very good. Really? Good. For New York. Goat is the one to get if they got it.
Yeah? Yeah. You're a goat man? Yeah. Jack, what do you think about the goat taco?
Yeah, I'm in. What's your least favorite taco? What's a taco you've had that you want to love and you've never had one you that you that you've had that you've liked? No polis. You don't like no polis?
No. Have you had it all the different ways? Have you had how many different ways have you had no pal? How like how many different ways have you tried it and not liked it? Because I can see not liking it.
I'm not I'm not gonna ride you on this. I'm just curious. Well, it's not that I don't like it necessarily. It's my least favorite. Um maybe I've only had it a handful of times though.
I don't know that I've really exhaustingly gone through all the napalis. So I'm not a huge fan of canned napalis because they just I don't think they offer that much. Is it but but my question is is that do you not like that tart? There's a tart greenness to them. And if you don't like that, you're not gonna like Napalis.
But if it's the if it's the sliminess, that you can work around. That's where I'm trying to get to. You know what I'm saying? Nick, you know what I'm saying. Gotcha.
I think it is more textural for me, but I like okra. I like nopalays generally. I just think as in a taco, it's like I've almost rather anything else at any point. But I'm never in a mood for Napalis taco if I have an options, you know. Huh.
Huh. Huh. So back on the thing. So in an onigiri, do you like an Ume on Onigiri or no? Or no, Uba?
Ubike you like the the plum in the in the onigiri? So you don't we don't mind tart things that are tart that should be savory? Okay. All right. It's not that.
It's the the texture of the DePause. No. All right. Now, uh for me, pig ears. I've never had a pig or taco I've liked.
Really? Yeah. Oh wow. I've tried several. I've had them more crunchy.
I've had them less crunchy. And I've never been like, you know what I want today? Pig your taco. And I want to like it. Like real bad.
You know what I'm saying? I went to Mexico City maybe like a month ago. Yeah. Tried an udder taco for the first time. Oh.
Speaking of uh utter to utter to table. Yeah, utter to table. Yeah. It was okay. I don't think I'd order it again.
It wasn't my favorite. And when it's udder, is it part of the actual like like where the milk comes out of? Is it like spongy fat or is it skin? It was muscly. Muscly.
But like organ soft mussly, not like meat muscly. Yeah. Yeah, because like a real dairy cow with like with a full udder, they they look like a bodybuilder. They look like they're all stretched out and veiny and that doesn't look appetizing at all. What about you, Stas?
What do you think about that? No, I don't know about that. Uh surprisingly, uh eyeball taco, pretty good. Oh god, I've never liked eyeballs. Can I say this?
I've had eyeballs plenty of times. I do not like them. Why do you like them? Do they take the lid? I don't like it.
It was all chopped up. It wasn't like a it wasn't looking at you in the taco. It's not the looking, it's just like textually, I think like I would have preferred a better ratio of like let's mix in some face meat or something into this. Is that the name of your restaurant? Face Meat.
Face meat. Yeah. Face meat. I would sh I would go to sh face meat. You wanna go to Face Meat?
Nick Long opens face meat. It's all sandwiches? Face meat sandwiches? Face meat sandwich. Wow.
Classic. Classic face meat sandwich. My uh my favorite meat that I I rarely like the way that it's actually cooked, hearts. Really? I love hearts, but I find that like, for instance, like beef heart chili, it's just ground up too much.
I'm not really getting the heart. You know what I mean? Like, I want the heart. It's more an execution thing for you. Yeah, because like my favorite part of the chicken is chicken hearts.
That's the best tasting part of a chicken to me. Like I could eat infinite skewers of chicken hearts at like, you know, at like one of those like South American barbecue joints. Like I could do chicken hearts. You know who else loves chicken hearts? Booker.
It's one of the few things that he actually likes other than salmon. He eats salmon, like chicken hearts. A man of taste. Yeah. Yeah, chicken hearts.
Uh how did we get on? Oh, so you're out yesterday. You did not get a taco. Did not. Right.
So then where did you go? Left drop off service, went to Planet Rose Karaoke. Ah, this is where the this is where the rub. So Nastasia was there the only time I've ever done. I went with you, and that's the only time I've ever done karaoke, and we we went there.
Wait, that was the only time you've ever done that? Yeah. I've only ever been once. Even though Nastasia came close to opening a karaoke bar. Like that's the that's the I've only been once.
Well, what were you yelling in Angela's face when you were singing? Was it rage or was it? It was killing in the name of, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I have video. It was great. It turned out that I w wasn't in the mood to do what anyone was telling me. You know what I mean? I get that.
Yeah. Uh well, but that brings me what's what is Nick Wong, as it turns out, if you ever first of all, if you live in the in the Houston area in however long it takes, a year or two years for Nick to open his restaurant, uh face meat. It's gonna be called face meat. So like, you know, if you have moral qualms about that. That'll be the second concept, more of a kiosk.
Oh, that's gonna be your kiosk. That's where you're gonna go IPO, you're gonna freaking shake shack that, and you're gonna like you're gonna have your restaurant and then like your chef I'm gonna retire and face meat. Yeah, yeah. So you're sh so you're gonna have a chef who starts a kiosk outside, then that chef's gonna leave, and then after they leave and have no like part of the company anymore, then you're gonna you're gonna blow that up into a huge multi-zillion dollar face meat and pie. Face meat worldwide.
Speaking of face meat, okay. I know this is really old, okay? This is really old. But uh, you know how I'm obsessed with i I I've never been to the north of China. I've only been to like uh uh Shenzhen Guangzhou, Hong Kong, uh you know, I've never been north of China.
But in the north of China they they eat donkey, right? Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, yeah. Like mainly like chopped up, like in like uh not they they call it a burger, but it's not like a burger, but it's like chopped up, right? And and apparently it's real good.
Apparently it tastes real good. And in twenty fourteen, Walmart I think it was twenty fourteen, Walmart in China had to recall their canned donkey meat, the five spice donkey meat. Wait for it. Why did they recall it? It wasn't a hundred percent donkey.
Right. What was it? What was it? Oh, I was just guessing. Oh geez.
Uh dog? Close. Rat? No. Fox.
Horse? Fox. Fox. Fox. But get this.
It gets weirder. Like domesticated foxes? I don't know. I feel like it'd be those Russian pets. I I I uh I I can't tell you, but it gets weirder.
I'm assuming this story that I read is true, it gets weirder yet. What is the telltale taste sign of fox contamination in donkey meat? Oh man. If anybody has this answer, it's you. Holy jeez.
Well, I read the article. I mean, I'm cheating. I would not have guessed it. I don't know that reading something is cheating if it's just learning stuff, Dave. No.
Fish. Fishy. Tastes like fish. As a fishy taste, apparently. Or at least is fishy?
I mean, there might have been some translational errors. Maybe like what they're saying is fox is some sort of fox that eats a lot of like fish or something. I don't know, man. I don't know. Wow.
I don't know. I don't know. Uh speaking of which, uh, I would also be remiss to not mention that Nick Wong does not know how Venn diagrams work and never has, although he poisoned my son Dax about what a Venn diagram is. And literally two weeks ago, Dax was like, Nick Wong knows what a Venn diagram is, and you don't, Dad. Like literally.
Out of boy. I'm still angry at you about that. All right. Uh before I get to the Patreon questions, what's the dumbest thing we made back at the French Culinary Institute? Not the dumbest thing we did, which was probably throwing knives.
Yeah, that was great. When you graduated, you gave me a set of throwing axes and a kukri. Yeah, I did. Yeah. And we went upstairs.
I got you like a tactical hatchet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went upstairs and we're throwing. Stas. Remember on the fifth floor before were you there before they built the fifth floor?
No. So before they built the fifth floor, before like Nastasi and I had the distinct pleasure of having our office in a garbage room, a literal garbage room, like we were literally treated like garbage. Uh my space was in a place where there was no bathroom and like one like electrical power thing in an unbuilt section of the fifth floor because they ran out of money to like to build it, and so they just stopped. I was supposed to have this beautiful lab. That was that's when they hired me.
I was supposed to have this beautiful lab. And then when they were like, We're not gonna build your lab, I was like, Well, am I fired? They're like, No, don't go that far. Instead, we're just gonna put you in this in this hole. So we would go upstairs to this place, and it was how messy was that place, dude.
Appropriately messy for you. Yeah. And I found like a big chunk of wood, yep, and we would just go up there and blow off steam by throwing knives, which is not appropriate thing for a theoretical boss at a culinary school. Bull whip, too. Didn't you have a whip?
Several bull whips and throwing knives. And like the the dumbest thing we did is Eng Su and I and you and Angela and Mindy went to WD-50 together, and we brought the bull whip on the walk from FCI to WD50, and we went into a public park and just started cracking bull whips. Yeah. This is dumb. Sure is.
Sure is. One of their special skills was to do cartwheels between this is how stupid we were. That's Mindy's. That was Mindy's special skill? She did a cartwheel between chairs.
We lined up, we lined up chairs and made like the equivalent of a hallway that was like less than 18 inches wide of chairs. And she's like, I'm gonna cartwheel down this whole line. She did it. She did it. But we should not have been allowed to do that.
It's no wonder, thinking back why everyone hated me. It's no wonder why everyone who worked there hated me. That's not true. Well, they hated working with me. They didn't hate me personally.
That's not true. Do you were you there when I when I hooked up the uh CO2 to the uh ice cream machine? No. I walked up to a tailor once, and uh Sam Mason was like, yo, Dave, can you carbonate ice cream? I'm like, I don't think so.
And then I hooked up CO2 to to the tailor and spun it under like some pressure and like just ice cream was spraying all over everywhere. This is the kind of thing. I think the one of the craziest things, not crazy, but just very smart MacGyvery things I've ever seen you do. Uh there was food and wine festival, and you're doing a demo on the rotary evaporator. The gasket had broken or something like that, and it was like five minutes till your demo, and you're like, get me some softened butter.
And made a gasket using softened butter around the seal. Hey man, gotta make it happen. Wow. Just gotta make it happen. All right.
Uh oh, so at karaoke, what is if you ever have the pleasure of working for Nick Wong at I I suggest you wait for the second concept, face meet. I'm just gonna mean like you can go work for the first one so that you're like higher up in the face meet echelon. Yeah. And like, do I order it by the animal whose face it is? You can order by the animal or you can have a medley.
So like a happy family, like mixed mixed face? Yep. Mixed face. Are you familiar with uh what kind what's where is it from? Where was Miles Davis from originally?
Isn't it from there? St. Louis. He's from St. Louis originally?
I don't know. Anyway, are you familiar with Snoot? No. So that's like crispy pig face. Ooh.
That sounds good. Never had it. I've never had a real one. I've had a BS1 on a way game, never judge somebody on their away game. So I had an away snoot, and I'm not willing to judge Snoot based on away snoot.
But that's fair. But I feel that like you should tack down Snoot for your for your you know face meat. Because that would make a good sandwich. Or do I just skin the whole thing and use the face skin as a burrito tortilla wrap? Well, you know I love that chimichanga.
You know, I love that. So, like when I when I had the joy of cooking folks on here, one of the original joy of cooking like Christmas quote unquote things was taking a whole suckling pig, ripping the skin off of it, and then stuffing it with like meat and rice and stuff, kind of similar to what they do in Columbia in Bogota. And I'm like, that's my favorite. Like just like shape of animal and face, like stuffed with stuff. I'll make you one next time you come to Houston.
When you do face meat, do you put brains in that? Because I'm not a brains guy. I don't eat brains anymore. I stay away from the brains. Ever since the spongiform and cephalopathy, I don't dislike the taste of brains.
I just like it makes me nervous to eat them. Am I stupid? I mean I am, but am I stupid? That's fair. Yeah.
So I will take my face meat without the brains. Okay. Hold the brains. I was made aware that a single small deer brain is exactly the amount of brains required to tan the skin of said deer. Fun fact for you.
Do you like brain tanned leather? No. I have seen someone do it on this uh reality survival series called Alone. I got really obsessed with watching it. Yeah.
It's awesome. Yeah. How was the leather? Good. It held up.
It held up. I should answer some questions, but what is the song that you sing whenever anyone leaves your employee? When they come, you may you take people to karaoke and you sing them a specific song. And Stasia, I don't know, I get chills even just thinking about Nick Wong singing this song. I don't think I know what song you're talking about.
Because I have I have a repertoire. Like I got some that I cycle through depending on the mood. No, when someone leaves. When someone it's like the last thing, the send-off. You don't do it anymore.
The Whitney Houston song. Whitney Houston? You were doing Whitney Houston. You were doing Whitney and you were like, I always I don't know how much you had that night, but you're like, I always sing this, and you did I Will Always Love You. Amazing Reddit.
I mean, that isn't that isn't the repertoire. It's an amazing rendition. You're like, this is how I send people off, because you want people to feel good about leaving and doing whatever they're gonna do next. So you sing them an amazing rendition of Whitney. I don't amazing is a little strong.
It's a rendition. I'm I'm for it. What about you, Stas? Yeah. Uh I will say best low-key hype song to listen to before service, non-aggressive, not a rage against the machine.
Katy Perry's firework. Oh. You crank that before service or any time. Yeah. You just you let it let it wash over you.
It's amazing. Huh. I always mutilate the lyrics to that in my head. It's a good song. Just you just gotta get the boom boom boom part.
Like that's fine. What about any of the Miley Cyrus songs? No. I don't know the catalog as well. Okay.
Okay. Gaga. Good, but to just get you hyped up, ready for the case. Because it's not like that, yeah. That that firework one is like you can do it positive.
Yes, exactly. Yeah. Not share. Share? Oh, yeah.
I love share. Well, it's a good share. Anything off belief. I mean belief. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anyway. All right. Uh let's answer some questions. Uh, obviously, everyone chime in. Uh WizMerd wrote in, I'm evil.
I mean, we all are. Fair. Like, that's the first step, knowing you're evil. Yeah. If you say you're not evil, you're evil.
You're a liar. Yeah, you're a liar. Uh, I stole a miracle berry from a certain botanical garden. It made my glass of wine, a tart natural, a grenache, taste like absolute sweet garbage. You are.
Oh, yeah. So Nick is the king of the UR. Nick is the king of the UR. You are. You are.
Yeah. And and yeah, with Family Shovel Camp. Uh the question that comes to mind is has anyone built a successful cocktail recipe around a palate skewed by these berries? No. No.
There is never like anyone who this is my problem with anything that like alters your palate, is it doesn't alter everyone's palate exactly the same way. And they're they're too broad. They're too broad. And they also like they have an arc to them. So it's possible to make something that tastes good, but like okay, so I'll give you an example.
To make something that doesn't taste too sweet but has acid, you can do it, right? So but then you're consuming so much acid that then your stomach hurts for like the rest. It's just not a good it's it's it's a it's a great party trick. It's something you do. I would not build a menu around it.
Agree? Agree. Agree. Stas? Agree.
Okay. Uh by the way, do you think they really sell those damn berries? Listen, here's what I hate. When things are growing and no one's going to use them, it makes me depressed. I'm not saying you should steal it, you shouldn't, but it makes me depressed when I see that miracle berry there, and I know it's just going to hit the ground and get stepped on.
Where a rat's going to eat. Do you know that at the garden I'm volunteering at here in New York? I'm volunteering in a garden like you used to, Stuzz. Yeah. Uh, they have chickens every year, and they they dug up the ground next to it, and the rat problem was so intense that the rats ate the live chickens.
The rats came in and were like, not just eat usually rats come in and just eat the chickens' food. They came in, killed the chickens. That's New York. That's New York remains undefeated. Yeah, the rats like, I'm hungry.
I want chicken. I'm not going to wait for you to cook it. Yeah. That's a New York rat. All right.
Bift it wrote in. Uh, can you riff on how to clean slash sanitize plastic containers? Stuff I've heard is all over the place. Simple soap and water may soften uh the plastic um and leach into it or out of it or not. Uh what about uh 3% sodium hydroxide at 180 Fahrenheit?
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't use alkaline on plastic. Uh mild bleach solution, is it good or bad? And P PBW, which is the uh powder brewery wash stuff, which has a mildly alkaline stuff. Is that is that good?
Listen, first of all, I will say this to start. There is no such thing as pla as as a unitary plastic that can be treated in in a certain way. Polycarbonate and things that are related to polycarbonate should never be uh cleaned with alkaline cleaners because it like uh and it starts the breakdown of um of the uh of the plastic, and you don't want that. I've heard that alkaline cleaners like dishwashing is okay on uh Eastman Triton, which is a resin that is mainly used so like like the newer stuff that like Vitamix and and and them have, like they say it can handle the dishwasher, although I never put my Vitaprep blender stuff in the in the dishwasher, but alkaline stuff is very damaging to certain plastics, okay. Also, I wouldn't use alcohol to sanitize certain plastics, like acrylics, anything with acrylic in it, if you put high proof uh sanitizer stuff, it's gonna get crazed.
So if you if you ever look if you ever walk into an elevator and you see like the the where you know where the numbers are in the elevator and it looks all crappy, that's because somebody cleaned that thing with alcohol and it crazed it out, right? Uh lowerproof alcohol is not gonna have it. So like there's no one such thing. The nice thing is it's harder to sanitize things like nylon, which can absorb a little bit of water, right? It's much easier to sanitize things like polypropylene and polyethylene, which are like things like quart containers, because they just don't absorb anything, nothing's leaching in or out of them.
That's why polypropylene and polyethylene are such great containers for things. And for that, I would just, yeah, bleach is fine. You know what I mean? And it's gonna, it's gonna go out, or any sandy is gonna be fine on it. Uh polyethylene, depending on how hot your dishwasher is, can be a pain in the butt because um I wouldn't subject continuously polyethylene to 180 degrees because it'll it'll bow out and get soft.
But polypropylene's fine, like what like even over a hundred. You're not supposed to take it over a hundred Celsius, but you can. You can. Right? We agree with this, Nick?
Agree. Okay. Uh Alex Godin. Uh oh, John's not here, Alex. Sorry, man.
You missed it. But uh Jack, you're allowed to, you're allowed to, and but Nastasia, do you have your earmuffs on? Mm-hmm. Like old boy, earmuff? Oh, is it old boy?
No, old school. Old school. Earmuffs. Cool, yeah. All right.
I have a few carbonation questions. Uh can you post a link to the new supplier of parts? I think John did that. We'll look at it. Is a reverse osmosis filter that I I didn't use reverse osmosis filter.
I just use a carbon filter to get rid of chlorine smell. RO is probably not going to make the best seltzer because it's got like no flavor to it at all. I don't know. I don't use RO. Maybe your water's really crappy.
RO is good. If I'm using a cooler instead of an ice machine, should I use roto molded cooler or cheap E glue or build my own with spray insulation uh insulation? I've done all of those. The issue is is that you don't want it sitting in the water filth because ice will float on top, so you need to create such that it'll drain out. So you just gotta make sure it drains and then have a condensate pump.
That's how ice wells work. Ice wells like the plate's not swimming in water. Does that make sense? All right. Is that answer?
Okay. Any recommend Jason Gray, any recommendations on features or brands of pizza stone used for pizza and bread making. Oven goes to 550. All right. I will go with steel.
The temperature of your oven isn't necessarily as important with how quickly the oven dumps energy in and where the heating elements are. If your heating elements are the reason steel is better, steel and stone have roughly the same uh by weight uh heat capacity, but since steel is about twice as dense, it has twice the volumetric heat capacity. So for a given um thickness, right, you need steel to only be half as thick as uh a piece of stone is to get store the same amount of energy. But the steel recharges much quicker than the stone does, and so it can take energy from the bottom of your oven, uh you know, much faster than uh than your stone can. And so that's why in general I would go with steel.
Nick, thanks for coming on. Come on anytime. And you know, good luck in your upcoming adventures. You are face meat. Cooking issues.
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