In short
Podcast Notes: Front and Center - Episode: "A Star is Born: with Liliana Soorin Kim"
Episode Overview
- Hosts: Alex Center and Kevin Batory
- Guest: Liliana Soorin Kim (intern at CENTER)
- Release Date: Wednesday
- Main Topics: Recap of offsite, baseball, food and beverage trends
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Key Highlights
Introduction
- Liliana: New intern at CENTER, enthusiastic about joining the podcast scene.
- Alex and Kevin: Light-hearted banter about podcasting and pop culture.
Offsite Recap and Personal Updates
- Offsite Experience: The team took a break for design work; Kevin showcased his cooking skills with a lot of meat.
- Baseball Discussion: Kevin and Liliana discuss their interest in baseball; Kevin mentions the competitive standings of the Mets and Reds.
Food and Beverage Topics
- Engagement with Food Trends: The episode dives into various food collaborations and trends, primarily focusing on odd and innovative food products. The hosts discuss several items:
- Man Cereal: High-protein, keto cereal targeted at men.
- Nicotina Beverage: A speculative drink combining nicotine and energy.
- Chipotle x Carvel Collaboration: Introduction of avocado milkshake and funfetti dip.
- Heinz Ketchup Smoothie: A unique blend promoting tomatoes as fruit.
- Oscar Mayer EveryBun Pack: A kit combining traditional hot dogs with plant-based options.
Fast Food and Restaurants
- Discussion about Fast Food Preferences:
- Liliana's Mount Rushmore: Popeyes, Wingstop, Taco Bell, and a controversial fourth selection.
- Comparisons between Fast Food Chains: Discussion about the merits of Popeyes, Wingstop, and Taco Bell compared to other chains.
Closing Remarks
- Liliana's Insights: Praised for her contributions and engaging personality.
- Shout-outs: Liliana gives a shout-out to friends and promotes her website.
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Key Takeaways
- Food Innovation: The podcast emphasizes the ongoing trend of bizarre food collaborations and products, with hosts expressing skepticism and humor.
- Cultural Impact of Food: Discussion reflects on how food and beverage trends resonate with consumers, particularly through social media.
- Personal Connections: The hosts share personal insights and experiences that create a relatable atmosphere.
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Conclusion This episode of *Front and Center* showcases a mix of humor, personal anecdotes, and commentary on the food and beverage industry's latest trends, wrapped around a lively conversation with guest Liliana Soorin Kim. The blend of professional insights and lighthearted banter creates an engaging listen, appealing to both design aficionados and food enthusiasts alike.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Wow. Liliana, you're in your podcast era. I'm in my podcast era. Wow. Podcast diva. It's giving podcasts early. Liliana's bringing the diva to the podcast. It's great. Young diva, a.k.a. Liliana. I'm trying to do research. First rule of the show, no research. What? Get that weak shit out of here. Yeah, come on. We asked you to do this podcast, what, 12 minutes ago? I'm doing research. I'm trying to lock in before so I don't make a fool out of myself. A star is born. I'm in the shadows. Is that from the Star is Born? Yeah. Is that from the movie? That's Lady Gaga. Yeah, that's Lady Gaga. Yeah, yeah.
0:43You've never seen a Star is Born? No. I'm in the shadows. Watch as I dive in.
0:55Three, two, one. Caban. What's up? I think that's the intro. Which one? All that. Were you recording? Yeah, we were rolling. Okay, good. Because a star is born here on the podcast. Liliana Kim, aka Liliana, is in the building. Hi, queens. Wah, wah, wah, wah. Queens and divas stand up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The divas are taking over. Yes. Diva up. Yeah. Diva so up. Yeah. How are you doing today, Liliana? I'm doing really good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad that you're doing this. Me too. I, yeah, I watched Talia Cotton's episode. Okay. Yeah. What do you think? I thought it was good. How many times have you listened to our podcast?
1:41Once? Talia Cotton? Maybe twice. I listened to one of Forrest's episodes as well. Shout out to Forrest. You know, shout out to Forrest. Shout out to Forrest. No, Kevin told me that I got a shout out from Talia. That's right. So I had to listen. Did you, you took a course with Talia? Is that how you know her? Yeah. I did a design program at Wix, like in Chelsea a few years ago. And she was like week one taught creative coding. And I've never taken a creative coding class before that. So I got to meet her then. I made a Bad Bunny one-year anniversary party website that was fully coded. Okay. It's still on.
2:27Yeah, it's still up. What's the URL? Yeah, where is it? It's like badbunny.netlify.com or something. We'll put it in the show notes. I don't know. Yeah. Well. Yeah. Here's a photo right here. This one's not video. This is an audio podcast. Oh, whatever. Liliana just used her hand to sort of showcase where it would appear on the YouTube. Yes. Yeah. It would be good if we could do that. Yeah. If we could find a guy who could make a YouTube video. Yeah. Yeah. You're a natural born podcaster. You know, you already know how to show things off. in video format for an audio medium. Yeah, no, I grew up watching YouTube.
3:07That's true. You are a 10Z girly. Yes. I've never seen you nervous. Not a day in my life. Really? Yeah, no, I can't say that I've ever seen you nervous. Liliana doesn't back down. She doesn't back down. Never back down, never give up. Cut the part out where I messed it up. No. Kevin does he'll edit you to sound so good love yeah yeah we'll put I'll put a little effort into editing wow did you hear that he'll do a little effort for you yeah I mean Kevin the show has got to come out thank you tomorrow thank you queen wow thank you Kevin I like your hat thanks it's on fire though yeah also your hat's on fire and her glasses they got pierced did you see these yes I've seen them she got her glasses pierced she's so is that the new thing yeah is that a new trend that we should know about i've been seeing people with those mayhaps i'm not so sure i just bought it because i thought it was cute yeah fair enough no shout out to kith did you buy them not pierce first and then you had to take them to a jeweler are those from kith they're from kith wow yes sir damn fancy ronnie feig is piercing sunglasses now shout out to my mom this is a grad gift shout out to my mom wow and my dad and shout out to college shout out to college yeah i just graduated yeah yeah lulana's been killing it here in the studio we just came off our our off site you know we had to take a break from all this design right podcasting it's not as easy as it looks online right you can attest to this is there's a lot of work that happens here what going on vacation no i'm saying that's the off site no we need to take a vacation from all the hard work yeah you know the designing and the podcasting that we do and the editing.
4:54We do other things. Yeah. Kevin made really good meat. I did. Thank you. Fire grill. Beautiful meals. You saw Chef Kevin. I sustained it. I did. I stood in the pocket through a grease fire. I got a really good photo of you. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. I got a really good photo of Kevin. I ate so much steak. You made so much steak and I was like, it's my job to eat this. It was literally on fire. It's a business imperative. It was on fire like Lloyd as much steak as possible. Oh, did you eat it? I was slightly concerned. We persevered. We got it done. One thing about me is no matter the circumstances, I'm going to...
5:32Yeah, you don't back down, you don't quit. Just like Lil' Ana. I'm going to cook the meat to its desired internal temperature. Medium roar. And what is your desired barbecue temp? Medium roar. No, I mean... Yes, true. You got that. Oh, my desired barbecue, my desired grill temperature? Yeah, that's what people want to hear. I don't know. I mean, if I'm cooking steaks, you know, I want to be pushing like 600, but like a controlled 600. A controlled 600. I was at an out of control probably 800. Wow. Well. To the point where I turned the grill off and it was still going. I mean, it tasted good. It was a good time.
6:05We drank steak. We drank a million beers. We drank steak. We ate steak. We drank beers and we're back. Yeah. We're so back. We're so back. How you could be mad on vacation? How you could. Yeah. No. You can't be. But unfortunately, all vacation must come to an end. So we got to get back to the hard work, which is doing design and watching baseball, Kevin. Yeah. I'm in. You're in it. We're now. I'm now in it. You got me in it. Because as of right this minute in the wildcard standings of the National League, the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds both have the same number of wins. 66. We're coming.
6:44Yeah. Not good for our friendship. Yeah. Or this podcast. It's going to be tough. It could be tough, and I think I have to lock in. Yeah. Liliana, how do you feel about baseball? I love the atmosphere of going to a baseball game. I love the hot dogs and the beers involved, and I love going with my friends. Okay. Hell yeah. And the baseball guys are cute. Okay. This is at least 90 % of why people go to baseball games. Exactly. The beers, the hot dogs. The dumpers. I mean, I was going to say it. The dumpies. Yeah, and the guys. How do you feel about, do you know what the Savannah Bananas are? No.
7:27Okay. That's baby baseball. That's baby baseball. They made baseball for babies. It's called. Like actual babies? No, more like. Pretty much. Yeah, like six and eight year olds. Oh, cute. And they just have a bunch of like hot TikTok guys that can play baseball. And they do like, they actually sing like Taylor Swift songs. Oh. In the game. They put it on a good show. You got to give it up to them. I respect it, but it's also baseball for babies. Yeah, of course. They sell out stadiums. Two things can be true. Like huge numbers. Oh my God, really? Yeah. They're called the Savannah Bananas. I think you would appreciate them just for their creativity.
8:02They're trying to make baseball fun. It's like a whole team. Yeah. Alex, are you going to plug your marathon fundraising? Well, now that you bring it up, Kevin, I'm still running. What are you running from? Summer is winding down here, Kevin. We're in fake fall where we think that fall is here, but it's probably not the last of the humidity. But this weekend was hot as shit, dude. Yeah. It was too hot for me to be running 10 miles out there. Too damn hot. Too damn hot. I woke up with a bit of a limp. Everyone's here for the marathon updates, Lana. Everyone says, like, what's going on with the running, Alex?
8:45Tell me about the running. Uh, and, uh, yeah, no, I'm, I'm in pain. My body's falling apart now. You went for a run during the offsite too. I did. That was, that was a lot of hills. Nope. No pain, no gain. That's true. It turns out this, uh, this New York city marathon thing is a harder than it looks. Oh, sad. Yeah. Sad. But please donate to my car. I'm running for team for kids. They help kids. They help kids. Yeah. Yeah. What is it? Team for kids. Yeah. I'll put a link right here for me, Kevin. Shout out to the kids. Yeah, we love the kids. Shout out to the runners. Yeah, that's why we have Liliana here today.
9:28She represents all the kids that I'm running for. No, she's a resident young person. Are you the youngest person that has ever worked at Center? I don't think that's true. I think Hannah was 21. Was she 21 when she? Yeah. to the day do we know I don't know okay she's never come out on the podcast has she? no so you're the youngest person I mean I got it Kevin fact check I think so yeah wow good job oh my god my debut my podcast debut the youngest person oh actually that's not true Wedge brought their child. Oh, yeah. The baby. That was true. Baby on the pod. It was way younger than you. Yeah. Way.
10:23Right. So much younger. Younger than you. So much younger. We appreciate you being here. Yeah, thanks for coming on the pod. Of course. Thanks for having me. Yeah. We're going to run through some things going on in the world of design and branding. I'll do my best. As we do. And we are here simply to get your opinion. Wow. Just for me. We'll start with Man's Cereal. Oh, God. Man's Cereal is a new cereal brand by the good folks at Dayjob, same people that made high-protein David bars. Right. And Fly by Jang and all sorts of amazing brands. And Hornbulls, Chormbulls. Hornbulls, Chormbulls. They're back at it again.
11:00Man's Cereal, creatine, high-protein, keto, zero sugar. No BS. No BS. Lilana, is this for you? No. I'm not even a breakfast person so I would never really buy cereal well you don't have to eat it for breakfast you know you could eat it for lunch you could eat it for dessert nah no dessert cereal for you I only would do the Kellogg's the one with the tiger the frosted flakes with milk but the milk has to sit in the cereal for a little bit so you can get the juices. The mush is not the point. The milk gets a little sweet. So that's the only cereal I'll eat. But it has to be for breakfast. That's fair.
11:54It has to be for breakfast. You've never had cereal at nighttime? Maybe like once. I think it's a proper dessert. It's not a breakfast. It is certainly a dessert food. Really? I think it's best as dessert. The macros align with dessert. It's like eating a piece of pie or something with all the sugar and the carbs. I could be wrong. Girl, I don't know. I'll stay in our business and say that cereal should be dessert. You just said it with a lot of authority though. Yeah, I trust. I'm following your lead. I'm more of a Lucky Charms guy myself. I've actually never tried Lucky Charms. What? Wow. You're not really missing anything.
12:34What? You're dead wrong. I like Lucky Charms, but Lucky Charms are for babies, though. Have we done a Mount Rushmore of cereals, Kevin? Probably, but we could - Probably. Are you familiar with this concept? Yeah, Lilana, are you familiar with the concept? No, I don't know about this. What is this? Top four unranked. Huh? Top four unranked. Top four unranked. But she only said one. This is where we rank something with our top four favorite things. So for me, it would be Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Fruit Loops. I love Fruit Loops. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I do love Fruit Loops.
13:11That's where I'm going. I'd take CT Crunch, Reese's Puffs, Frosted Mini Wheats, and Special K Chocolatey Delight. Wow. It's just how your cereal's locked in. Special K. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I would do the Frosted Flakes because I grew up on them. Yep. And then I would do these like Oreo O's. It has like a little marshmallow got in front. Those are busts. I'm familiar.
13:37I've never had Oreo O's. I'm looking at them up right now. They're really good. They're really good. They're fucked up. Those are dessert. That's just candy. Oh, and then there's, I don't think it's American, but it's this like brown square rectangle with like almost like mesh looking things. Are you talking about Frosted Mini Wheats? I had them in Korea. Listen, so I don't know what they are. But it has a little icon on it. She's really cute. Brown squares from Korea. That's number three. Yeah. And then Fruit Loops. I do like Fruit Loops. All right, great. There you go. There you go. You did it.
14:15Yeah. And nobody has man cereal on their Mount Rushmore. No. I would try man cereal, though. I'll be honest. I'm sure it's going to taste like shit. I'm sure it's going to be fucking epic with the maple bacon. Oh, my God, dude. Yeah. Classic man stuff. That shit's for man. Yeah, man. Man. That shit's for, I only eat maple bacon. That flavor's so weird. Like, why would they make a cereal but that flavor? Oh, it's for men. It's for men. Yeah, I don't know if you saw it. Right, I wouldn't get it. Man cereal. You wouldn't understand. Yeah, this isn't for you. I'm just not about that man life. Yeah, this is a man cereal.
14:49They also have a fruity flavor. I wake up in the morning, I eat my man cereal, and I wipe with a dude wipe. That's my routine. Is that a real thing? Yeah. Dude wipes. You've never heard of dude wipes? No. Wow. Sorry, guys. Men are getting all the products. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I do know what this is. I just never paid attention to it. Liliana, do you think more products should be gendered? Is that something that you believe? No. Yeah, I mean, I think this is a trend, though, officially. Dude wipes, man, cereal. yeah it's definitely people have been writing about it yeah i think it's just to try to piss people off as many people yeah we're trying to yeah they're trying to rage bringing rage bait to packaging yeah this is the rage baitification of packaging yeah we need to we probably need to start doing some rage bait i feel like i feel like you'd be great at those kevin i feel like you have lots of rage bait ideas oh yeah i'm really good at getting people to rage yeah so my entire personality is uh centered upon rage baiting yeah no you're right yeah i'm i'm i'm curious i would try it if they send it to me um i'm trying to i'm trying to dabble in creatine i've never tried dude if you're gonna dabble in creatine just take the take some powder like get like a trusted source of powder don't be fucking with the gummies don't be fucking with the cereals just like do it correctly yeah but what about the man's real thing you know i don't know man my breakfast i don't know man i get it with my breakfast though i probably wouldn't but you know yeah speaking of a rage baiting nicotina soda or it's energy drink so it's energy drinking yerba Yeah, hot off the press from Snack Shots.
16:23Yeah, shout out to Andrea. The only person, I believe, who's been covering this or got this inside scoop allegedly from a Florida-based founder. Wow. A Florida man. Of course it's from Florida. Yeah, classic. Nicotina, kind of cute though, right? Diva, very diva energy, nicotina. See, I mean, I don't know about nicotine drink. Like, do we really need to do all that? I don't think so. We're just living in wild times here. That's what they said about Zen pouches before they caught on. And look at them now. Yeah. Functional foods, functional bevs. This is innovation. This will certainly not pass regulations and get made.
17:07No. Oh, is this not real? No, this is a speculative drink. I think they are. This is AI, Kevin? No, it's not AI. I think, to my knowledge, I believe it is a drink that's being teased on Twitter to gain. Yeah, I think it's a real idea, real business, maybe. But it's being teased to gain hype and, you know, try to will its way into society, you know. Ah, interesting. So, Liquid Death, like, we create it and then we'll make it later. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure this is going to be like a regulatory nightmare. Well. Not to go there, not to be a lame, not to be a fed. Damn. You really, you're bringing in regulations into this?
17:47Kevin, I believe at least one of the stories in our topics today is AI. And I think it's the Carvel Chipotle one. No, that one's real. That one's real. No. I saw. That's not real. I saw Kit from The Bachelor, Matt James season. She was fire. And she's an influencer. Kit Keenan? Yeah. Is that it? I don't know. Kit Keenan. Okay. What's she up to? She's shilling for the Chipotle Carvel collab, which includes an avocado milkshake and a funfetti chip dip. That's not real. It's real. No. It's real. No. It's AI. No, it's real. I'm confused. Is this AI? It looks AI. The artwork is AI. The artwork is AI.
18:26Yeah, the artwork is definitely AI. But it's a real thing. I'm still not buying it, Kevin. Liliana, do you fuck with Chipotle? I love Chipotle. Yeah, there we go. I love Chipotle. Would you get this a girl? yeah what's your order okay i always get a bowl okay white rice no beans i don't like the texture but um and then i get extra fajita veggies i get steak nice but sometimes i'll do half chicken half steak okay and then i'll do cheese guac lettuce and a little bit of salsa and queso on the side wow um and cheese and a little bit of sour cream but what about an avocado milkshake Yeah, where do we stand on avocado?
19:12I bet it would be good. I don't think so. No, you don't think so? Yeah. I think avocado would pair extremely well with a nice vanilla ice cream. Really? Yeah. I think it'd make it extra creamy and deluxe. I don't like that. It's not a terrible idea. I'm also going to go on a limb and maybe I'm just hungry, but the sprinkles chip dip is kind of intriguing to me. Yeah. A salty chip into a funfetti type dipping. sauce we might have to order some chipotle i i kind of think i could fuck with that really yeah i don't know something about the salty sweet it's weird but it i don't know i don't think it's i i think both these things are gonna taste very good because they've been engineered and designed to taste very good well i'm saying i don't know i like carvel too i'm just gonna say it i grew up in a town that had a carvel i'm a big car it ain't no dairy queen i'll tell you that it's better in Dairy Queen.
20:09No, Carvel is where, is one of the great American fans. DQ is where it's at. I love Dairy Queen. Yeah, DQ is where Dairy Queen, hands down. I don't think we have a Dairy Queen in New York, right? No, there's been a lot of talk online about somebody needing to build one in Times Square. Literally. A Dairy Queen? Yeah, that'd be so far. Who wants to invest? No, Carvel is way better. No, it's not. Carvel is one of the great American institutions. No way. You're wrong here, and I will die. Carvel is old and dusty maybe maybe they invented the ice cream cake but dq perfected the ice cream cake no dq ice cream cakes are so fucking good just chemicals the ratios yum dude they're both they're both that let's let's don't get it twisted like a chocolate vanilla twist alex they're both they're both that but dq is far superior you know what's really gross cold stone cold stone creamer i disagree.
21:05Cold stone's great. I think cold stone's pretty good. That's extra chemical. Dude, they got they got birthday cake. They got they got a lot of good flavors there. Yeah. And don't they have like toppings? Yeah. And they like they get the spatulas out and they fuck it up. Yeah. They mix it up a little bit. It's good stuff. I think it's cute. It's called no cold they got a cold stone that they they mix all their toppings on. I do. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No. It's ice cream with a show. It's like, yeah, the worst off-Broadway show you've ever seen. I'm not seeking it out, but I'm going to stand up and defend.
21:42Oh, I'm going to make this ice cream right in front of you. It's like, I don't need you to make it. I just want to eat it. Just scoop it. You're wrong about DQ. DQ is so good. A blizzard? Agreed. Carvel doesn't even have blizzards. I like their chocolate show. What the fuck does? Yeah. Yeah. That one's fire. No, they have like some sort of shake quake thing. A shake quake is not a blizzard. Yeah, but it's the same concept. Oh, it's called a Carvalanche. A Carvalanche? Yeah. Fake ass blizzard. Fire, fire. Fuck Carvalanche. Shout out to Carval. Carval only in times of need when you can't locate another DQ to get an ice cream cake.
22:18Wrong. Okay, we got to move on. Kevin, it's no secret that summertime is a hot dog season. And this summer, the grilling staple is trending with more than 1.5 million posts across social media. However, for the 20 million plus Americans who identify as vegetarian or vegan, current offerings fall short and hosts struggle to satisfy both meat lovers and plant-based guests. Today, Oscar Mayer debuts the Every Bun Pack offering something for every plate at the party. So I guess the concept here, Kevin, Oscar Mayer, half hot dogs, half not hot dogs. How do we feel about this? It ain't right. Yeah. Really?
22:58Yeah, get these fake ass hot dogs. Wait, so it's like hot dogs on half of the side? No, that would be crazy. It's two four packs. One's a regular hot dog and one's a plant-based hot dog. Wait, that's kind of a good idea for all my vegetarian friends. Shout out to my vegetarian friends. Yeah. Yeah, who knew Oscar Mayer was getting into the plant-based hot dog game? Yeah. Nice. This is what Joey Chestnut got in trouble for, right? Eating these fake dogs. I think it was impossible. but yeah i'm just gonna i'm gonna say something also i still don't like the new oscar meyer branding it just feels it actually looks ai to me and i know it's real but it looks like something about the softness of the typeface i think that's what ai does yeah you know it's like ai has ruined the m dash like if you were ever someone that used a lot of m dashes in your copy yeah you can't know you can't you're fucked i feel like the same thing about this soft ass typeface that they're using.
23:54It feels like it's reading as AI. So that's my opinion on it. Also this is a collaboration between Oscar Meyer and GoPuff. Oh really? Which I'm going to say this. GoPuff came out so hot and hard. They were everywhere marketing. I feel like it's only weeks before they're dead. I don't know why. Are you GoPuffing? No, not anymore. I feel like it's just become something that's inside of Seamless and Uber Eats. Yeah. That's good for them, I think. Is it? I don't know. I feel like there's too many options. Yeah, there's 100 % too many options. Like Instacart, Uber Eats. I say just take your ass to the store.
24:42Yeah, take your ass to the store. True. Walk home with the groceries. Lana, do you do delivery food? what's your stance on groceries and or delivery meal services or meal? If it's like something that I can't get and like when I used to live in Baltimore and I didn't have a car, I would use these apps because it would be such a hassle for me to get to the grocery store and back. But in New York, I'd rather just walk and go get stuff that I need. Baltimore is a car city. Yeah. Almost every city in America is a car. But not New York. So after you get off of work and you're going home and you're going to go do your diva stuff, you're picking up dinner and bringing it home?
25:27Are you ordering dinner in? Are you cooking? I'm cooking. You're cooking. I'm cooking or I have a menu planned out. Like if I'm really craving Wingstop. Like the night before, I'll be on TikTok, right? And I see like a mukbang on Wingstop. And I'll be like, okay. You're the most Gen Z person I've ever met, by the way. You're just the combination of words you put together. Just keep going. So sometimes like if I crave something, then I know that I'll pick it up on my way home, right? Influenced by TikTok. Influenced by TikTok or influenced by myself. Okay. From my brain. That's fair. That I'm craving.
26:04That's fair. But if not, then if I already have groceries, then I'm like excited to cook and I know what I want to cook. How many nights a week are you cooking? Probably like four. That's pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty good. But I don't like to meal prep. So I have to cook every night. That's tough. Got it. So you're going to the store or you just have ingredients? I just buy a week worth of groceries and then I'll just like. And you get that from the store? You go to the store, pick it up, bring it home? Yeah. Okay. I'm just curious. I don't do that. Oh. I do fresh drinks. Listen, I like my groceries to come to me.
26:38You know? Get your steps in though. Get your steps in. I'm getting my steps in. Oh, true, true. He's running. He's running. He's running. I need less steps. um wait you're running shut up kevin okay real quick back to wing stop um i've never been really never once um how are the wings i like it i'm so hungry on this podcast this is such a bad idea to do a podcast right before i know you're just hungry i'm only gonna talk about food so what's your order at wings so i've actually never had a wing stop until my friend said shout out to sydney she put me on shout out to sydney um we got wing stop once and i was like wait this is way better than buffalo wild wings no you don't think so no i think it's i think the wings at buffalo wild wings it's not sauced enough okay there's there's lack of sauce that's fair but wing stop i'm as i'm putting the wings on my mouth that is it's dripping it's juicy and the ranch there is so good yeah it's a certain type of ranch i think they put mayo in it or something my friend told me the secret but i low-key forgot i think there's mayo in all every ranch oh well maybe extra maybe extra mayo i don't know but they do have good ranch is really good and with the fries and the ranch is really good and a little bit of carrots literally buss really yes i'm into this i also you just reminded me of a breaking story that came out yesterday that Popeyes reintroduced their wings with an all new lineup featuring a new mild marinated base on bone just in time for a football season.
28:15So I guess some retooling in the lab in the offseason and they look pretty good. Really? Yeah. So Popeyes is coming for this wing stop throne. I just heard you called. He's so happy. They have buffalo dry rub, garlic parm dry rub, lemon pepper dry rub, ghost pepper dry rub. Honey barbecue now served on a mild base. What does that mean? A mild base? Yeah. A mild. Like classic? It's like a sauced wing, bold. Again, too hungry. Too hungry to talk about all of the food topics we have? Yeah. Pretty much primarily food this week. It's an all food podcast. I will say one thing about Popeyes. I think they need to bring back their nuggets.
29:00Okay. Their nuggets are so good. Do you agree? I've never had their nuggets. Okay. But I respect the take. I think they make very good fried chicken. I agree. At Popeye's? Yeah. They make very good fried chicken. If you go to a good location, then it low-key tastes like Korean fried chicken. Oh, yeah? Yeah, low-key. Okay. Fire. I haven't been to the one in Greenpoint in a minute, but they're okay. I remember the Greenpoint one being solid. Yeah. It's not a great. I mean, the past two Popeye's locations I've been to have been, you know, the ones that maybe you don't really want to go to at times that you probably definitely don't want to go to.
29:35Real. Yeah. Just I had a chicken sandwich. I had probably been sitting out for two hours. Yeah. Under the lamp. Yeah. That's great. But I still haven't had Raising Cane's. I passed one the other day. That's bust. I was. Am I right? I think it's kind of mid. Oh. That's my hot take. Yeah. That's your hot take. I know I'm going to think it's mid. That's why I can't. myself to do it. It's really all about the sauce. It's all about the cane sauce. Oh, you like the sauce? I like the sauce. Yeah. I love a mayonnaise-based sauce. Love. I need like extra sauce. I need like three sauces at Raisin Cane's.
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30:10I'm a dunker. Wow. I'm not a dipper. I'm a dunker. Do you get one of the sort of like soda cups filled with the sauce? Like the mukbang people? Yeah. Why do they put so much goddamn sauce on those chicken fingers? They literally like submerge them. Because the sauce is very that's kind of the sauce is very very good that's too much sauce if you get in a big uh fountain soda yeah that's too much but give me three uh give me three of the little containers i'll be all right we have to change topics otherwise i'm never gonna be i'm gonna have to stop the show to eat lunch um graza the uh famous olive oil brand has uh has done it kevin they now offer glass.
30:52Let's go. Wow. I saw some of their Instagrams, which I thought were quite funny, where they were like, finally, people will stop telling us about, you know, plastic. They'll stop complaining about plastic. Glass is not switching to glass, right? They're just offering glass as an option. I believe so. I think so. So then people should still complain about the glass, about the plastic, no? Yeah, people will find things to complain about no matter what. Yeah. And if you'll remember a couple weeks ago, there was a story about how glass bottles had somehow had more microplastics. Really? Oh, wow. Yeah.
31:27Wow, Lelana. You didn't think you were going to come on the show and learn something, did I? I'm not sure about all of the glass bottles for olive oil, but at least for like beer. Yeah. And beer and soda. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is just to shut up the haters, which I respect, but I feel like 99 % of Graza is still going to be in plastic bottles, which I don't know that that is really doing anything for the planet. Not that I'm a big environmentalist. Right, or anything. I think, you know what they really need to figure out? Squeezable glass. Come back to me when they got a squeezable glass. I think you can put the top on and you don't squeeze it.
32:04You just got to kind of wrangle. You got to whip your hand back and forth. Excuse me? What do I have to do? You got to kind of flick your wrist to get the oil out. In the glass, you're saying? Probably, yeah. Well, all of oil has been in glass, right? Well, but with the nozzle. You throw the nozzle on the glass, and then you just pour. And if you want more, you got to kind of whip your hand a little bit. Oh, wow. You're saying the squeeze bottle on a glass container. That sounds like a nozzle. It sounds like a bad time. I'm just going to say it. It's not going to come out that strong. You'll get the natural flow of whatever the flow through that nozzle is with the gravity.
32:44but I think you could speed it up for sure.
32:49If you really need a lot of olive oil, you just pop the nozzle. Yeah, I think you could just pour it. Yeah, 100%. Pour it. But yeah, I guess I like this, but I think they just don't want to hear the complaints anymore. So they're like, okay, you want it in glass? You got it. Did you see the tomato ketchup smoothie? The Heinz and Smoothie King collab? collab yeah i love possibly collab of the year is that real yeah it is real really it does look like ai which i'm gonna say about every story for the rest of eternity uh yeah smoothie king and heinz in an unlikely collab to release the first ever tomato ketchup smoothie a bold and tangy fruit blend featuring heinz simply ketchup available for a limited time starting august 6th Well, a lot of people will be forgetting that tomatoes are indeed a fruit.
33:41So this checks out. Oh, wait. This checks out. Wow. But why? It's basically a tomato smoothie. It is a tomato smoothie, I believe. Basically, this tomato smoothie is a tomato smoothie. It's basically a tomato smoothie. I would try it. I think, famously, tomato chips are the best. Oh, 100%. Yeah, those. We're not talking about tomato chips. We're talking tomato smoothie. But I'm saying tomato flavoring, if this is even close to that type of experience, I'm in for it. Liliana, have you ever had tomato chips? Yeah. Good question. Canadian tomato chips? No, I haven't. Or ketchup chips? I actually just Googled it.
34:19Yeah. Ketchup chips? Oof. Like dipped in ketchup? No, they're like ketchup flavored chips. They're a Canada special. So like when people say it's like ketchup flavored, it's just tomato flavored. I mean tomato, tomato, am I right? well I guess ketchup and tomato are different flavors yeah ketchup's got some sugar ketchup is sweeter that's true I don't understand why Lay's doesn't have ketchup chips in America they need to bring the ketchup chips and the all dressed to America all dressed chips all dressed chips those are boss you would be such a fan of these chips they're fantastic I don't even like chips I'm famously anti-chip.
35:02What's the flavor? All dressed. Oh. It's like salt and vinegar. Plus barbecue. Yeah. Yeah, they're all dressed up. We know where to go. It's like all the flavors, I think. Yeah. I don't love barbecue flavor. It's not barbecue. Yeah. It's not barbecue. It's a different. It's all of them together to create something different. Do you know that? Let's do a chip. Do you like the Evil Eye? Yeah. Evil Eye chips? I think they're pretty close to that. Oh. But they're different. They're a little different. Okay, okay, okay. I get the vibes. Yeah. Can I order potato chips here? Okay. Yeah, definitely. I'm too hungry for the show.
35:39This episode has the MD foodie boys type vibe to it. Might be good. I think we may need to just switch, yeah, switch the show to just, have you ever had a banana before? Yeah, I kind of like them like ripe before they're ripe. Yeah, dude. I actually like when they're really extra ripe. Yeah. Have you been eating those ones? Have you been eating those ones that are left over from the offsite? I did. Oh. On the ketchup smoothie front, I have a great quote from Angie Madigan, Vice President of Marketing at Craft Hines. Beautiful. You ready? Quote, the idea of a ketchup smoothie is provocative. Sure.
36:16End quote. New quote. Our top priority was landing a delicious tasting fruit smoothie with a distinct yet well-balanced ketchup notes. There we go. Those are the quotes. We have another quote from Smoothie King's Vice President of Marketing, Lori Primavera. She echoes that balance was key. After months of research and development, they land on what she calls, quote, a savory sweet blend that celebrates a tomato in all its glory. I love the R &D that went into this. You can tell. You can tell they put a lot of time and care. Lots of thoughts and efforts. Months. Yeah. We may have reached peak innovation in all brands.
36:56Kevin, yesterday, Snackulator, my new favorite Instagram, you put me on. They were like, we got to talk about all this news in fast casual. And it was like 20 different launches. It was so much stuff. Snackulator's the guy to break the news. Yeah, we might need to get Snackulator on the program. We would be so lucky to get Snackulator. He'd bless us with his presence on our podcast. So, yeah. Crumble dropped a Dubai chocolate brownie. Krispy Kreme is doing a collab with Harry Potter. Chick-fil-A is dropping a new pretzel club chicken sandwich. That sounds fire. KFC has finally brought their potato wedges back.
37:36And Snickers is doing some sort of buntlet. I don't know. Like, we're just. Did you see that everyone was getting all hype about the potato wedges tweet from KFC? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're bringing them. That's what they were doing. Yeah. They had a funny tweet about it. What was the tweet? I think it was just. here, damn. And this picture of a potato wedge. Wow. And then everyone on LinkedIn was like, wow, I wish I was this funny. Wow. Dude, Snack Leader is out here doing the Lord's work. Mountain Dew trolley gummy crawlers. There's too much. I think we just need to shut down the Innovation Labs.
38:17Yeah. What about the$100 IHOP Dubai pancake? What? I'm out on two. Are you in? yeah it's a hundred dollars yeah it was hello who's paying for that shit what you sound so broke right now let me be real let's just say i was in line extra early for the dubai pancake what would you rate it i didn't go i'm just kidding i would never pay 100 i don't even really like pancakes that much i've been to ihop in a minute i love ihop yeah yeah where do you stand liliana i think the last time i went to ihop was when i was in like high school yeah so like a couple weeks ago. No. Nar. Nar. Yeah, I haven't been to IHOP since high school either, which is 100 years ago.
39:02Honestly, I think me too. I don't think I've been since after prom my junior year. Yeah, I was going to say that. Yeah, prom. It was fire. Love it. Something tells me. Dude, the hash browns. It doesn't hold up. You get onions and cheese on them. Oh, yeah. Love. Dude, I bet it does. I bet it does hold up. Really? It's got to. No. I doubt it. But Dubai chocolate is, I get it. It's a trend. I get it's a TikTok thing. But it's like, it just doesn't need to be on this many things. Yeah. She's tired. She's doing too much. Yes. Dubai chocolate is tired. Yeah. Give her a break. Have you tried it? Let her live.
39:41Dubai chocolate? Yeah. What do you say? Yeah. It's mid. Listen, I like pistachio. I like pistachio cream. Yeah. But I just don't really care for it. Yeah. Stop trying to make it such a thing. Yeah, I think I love pistachio, but I'm like, what's the difference between pistachio and Dubai? It's just got those flaky things in it. Oh, that's the only difference? It's like a pistachio cream, but it's also got that crunch. Yeah, it's got that crunch. Yeah, which comes from that shredded doughy. Is it like filo dough? I don't know how to describe it. I like the texture of it. Of the crunchy things inside of it.
40:26Yeah, yeah. See, I kind of disagree. I like the crunchy piece of it. Oh, yeah, you do. Yeah, I thought that was different. Because I like a cream inside of my chocolate, but I don't like if it's just caramel inside of chocolate. I need something crunchy in there for me. Oh, interesting. Yeah, so I like the idea, or I think Dubai chocolate was pretty good, but also it's not like, oh man, I'm going to go back and get it time and time again. I tried it once. The question I have is, are you getting good Dubai chocolate? Are you getting the chocolate that put it on the map? Or the quality of the Dubai chocolate that put it on the map?
41:06And I just don't know if that's accessible to... I don't know if we're getting that when we're having these Dubai chocolates. I got mine from the bodega. I think it's hard to say. Yeah, it's hard to say if that's the highest level of Dubai. You got to go to the exotic snack shops and get the Dubai chocolate with a side of Zaza. I'm too tired to go anywhere. If it's not, I'm going to go anywhere. I'm not getting it. Before we get out of here, one last food story. McDonaldland adult happy meal. It's a quarter pounder with cheese or 10-piece nugget and a pastel blue and pink Mount McDonaldland shake.
41:47I gotta say something here again What flavor? It's blue and pink What's that? It's blue and pink Oh, McDonald's actually said it isn't revealing the flavor Oh And says it's quote, a secret concoction as enchanting as the world itself It's just pure sugar Well, we gotta go get this No We gotta stop with the shakes We gotta stop with the Erewhon dupes We gotta stop stop trying to be creative with these weird bizarre concoctions just what's wrong with a vanilla shake or a strawberry shake i don't know i would love an avocado milkshake from chipotle no we gotta stop with this creativity we just gotta go back to basics yeah okay we gotta we gotta rein all this in rein it in yeah well there you go manifest it this is we're putting it into the universe i just think we've gone too far we've strayed too far from god's life wait what's the cards that's what makes it adult well it's like a it's like a throwback to mcdonald's in the 70s yeah like very very nostalgic which is cool it's a cool idea i mean that's like the heyday of mcdonald's mcdonald land heyday like the game no like i guess they're actual i don't I don't know what's going on.
43:06They brought in Away suitcase and PacSun on two separate collaborations. Like, what the fuck are we doing? Like, we don't need a luggage partnership for this McDonald's, like, 70s throwback McDonald's. I buy so many burgers from McDonald's, I need to put them in my Away suitcase. And they'll never rot. Mount McDonald's Land is driving repeat visits. What the fuck? This collage is kind of cute. Yeah. Yeah, the creative behind this is kind of fire. Yeah, I do like it. The video is really cool. Yeah, it's giving like 70s drug vibes. Yeah, 100%. That's great. That's what they're trying to go for? Yeah.
43:46Yeah, don't love McDonald's, but I like what's going on with the illustration. Okay. The campaign. I think that's cool. You know who really loves McDonald's? Yeah. Forrest. Yeah. Forrest loves McDonald's. Really? Still does. Oh, my God. Shout out to Forrest. Yeah. Where do you stand on fast food, Liliana? Fast food. Mount Rushmore, top four, go. Oh my God. This is so much pressure. I love Popeyes. Okay. Love Popeyes. I love Wingstop. I love Taco Bell.
44:20What other fast food? You got one more. I hate to say this, but I love it. There it is. Liliana on the program. We'll scrub that. We'll scrub that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Listen. Blur it. Yeah, yeah. This is why people don't come on the podcast. They're too afraid of a hot mic, you know, and what they might say. Yeah. All right. Well, let's wrap it up. Period. Liana, it's been an absolute blast. Thank you for representing all of the divas out there. Oh, my God. That's so much pressure. No. Good job. And you crushed it. Thanks, queen. We'll have you back anytime that you want. You're welcome here anytime on the program.
44:58Thank you guys for having me. Anything you want to plug? Well, before you get out of here. My friend Sean wanted a shout out. Oh, yeah. Shout out to Sean. Shout out to Sean. Shout out to Sean. Where can people follow Sean? Susushawn.com. Susushawn.com. You heard it here first. Yeah. What's your website? LilianaSurinKim.xyz to spice things up. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Well, it's been fun. She's private right now. All righty. Bye, queen. Bye.
45:37This one is for the boys with the booming system, top town AC with the cooling system. When he come up in the club he be blazing up, got stacks on deck like he saving up. And he ill, he real, he might got a deal, he pop bottles and he got the right kind of bill. He cold, he dope, he might sell coke, he always in the air but he never fly couch. He a motherfucking drip drip, tell her all the shit, shit. When he make a drip drip, kiss him on a lip lip, that's the kind of dude I was looking for. And yes you'll get slapped if you're looking ho. I said, excuse me, you're a hell of a guy I mean, my, my, my, you're like pelican fly I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving you tall You're like slicker than the guy with a thing on his eye, oh Yes, I did, yes, I did Somebody please tell him who the F I is I am Nicki Minaj, I met them dudes up That coops up and truck the music Well, you tell my heart's been running away Beating like a drum, man, it's coming away Get your head like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom He got his super bass Yeah, he got that super bass, boom bass, boom bass He got that super bass, boom bass, boom bass He got that super bass, boom bass, boom bass He got that super bass, boom bass, boom bass Yo, yo, this one is for the boys in the polos Entrepreneurin' niggas and the mogos He can roll with the crew, he can solo But I think I like him better when he download And I think I like him better with the fitted cap on He ain't even gotta try to put the Mac on He just gotta give me that look When he give me that look Then the panties coming off Excuse me, you're a hell of a guy You know I really gotta think for American guys I mean, sigh, sickening eyes I can tell that you're in touch with your feminine side Yes, I did, yes, I did Somebody please tell him who the F.I.
47:12is I am Nicki Minaj, I met some dudes up That coops up and chug the deuce up Oh, you got my heartbeat moving away Bees it like a drum and it's coming your way Can't you hear that? He got that super face Yeah, that super face
47:46See, I need you in my life for me to stay No, no, no no no no no no I know you'll stay No no no no no no don't go away Hey Oh, you got my heartbeat running away Can't you hear that heartbeat coming your way Oh, it feel like okay Can't you hear that Strawberry Diamond Oh, you got my heartbeat running away Beating like a drum that is pulling your yaş Did you hear that BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM He got that Super bass Yeah that's that Super bass BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM He got that Super bassrupÊNieta Super bass
48:53Thank you.
From the publisher
Alex and Kevin welcome Liliana Soorin Kim from the studio to the podcast! Liliana is currently an intern at CENTER and is in her podcast era! We briefly recap our offsite, talk a little baseball, and discuss Alex's training regimen before diving headfirst into this week's topics (mainly food and beverage related) on empty stomachs (brave). We talk about Man Cereal, Nicotina beverage, Chipotle x Carvel, Oscar Mayer EveryBun Pack, Heinz Ketchup Smoothie, Graza offering glass, IHOP Dubai Chocolate Pancake, the McDonaldland meal, and more!
