558: Righteous Eats on Giving NYC Restaurants the TikTok Bump with Jaeki Cho and Brian Lee

28:38So yeah, like it was, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it was a great community event. I think we had about 30 ,000 plus people show up. No, 14 ,000 people. 14 ,000. That number was a little, was off by a huge margin. It felt like 30 ,000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It definitely felt like 30 ,000. But yeah, it was like 15 ,000, 14 ,000 people showed up. And yeah, it was a huge turnout. But yeah, like, I mean, it wasn't something that we did for monetary purpose. It was really something that we wanted to do to give back and connect with the overall community. Yeah, I really respect that. And what you're saying earlier just about how you do all these different kinds of events.

29:18I think there are so many people who create like virtual spaces for people to gather, but not in person. and we lose so much humanity and common sense and all of these things when we're just like interacting in a comment section. And so I think that's something really distinctive that you guys do, which is cool. Yeah, I always tell people, hey, if you have an issue, you know, come meet me at my run club. Yeah, and I want to point out, we're trying to evolve and constantly spread that utility even further, right? So like with the food festival or a block party, our community can eat literally usually for free and then businesses can make money.

29:59And the brands get their delivery. And the brands can get their delivery. If it's a collab. Yeah, if they're sponsored. With a brand, yeah. One type of event that I think is truly new and novel and something that I'm very proud of is we actually did a seminar at Meta where we invited 200 restaurateurs, small businesses to the Meta offices. And by the way, again, we might be jaded being able to come into a fancy building that has, you know, espresso from an iPad. But for many people, being able to go to a commissary that has unlimited food, unlimited bottled drinks, this is like a new experience.

30:32So that's cool in itself, literally being able to be in that space. But I think what's also cooler is being able to meet with the Instagram product team, the people that are actually making these tools that can be so instrumental to your business. Meeting with them, understanding directly from them what the best practices are, how to use those tools. And then on top of that, we invited in, you know, Chef Esther Troy. We invited in all these people that have leveraged the platform. So it's not just a ephemeral sort of like pie in the sky thing, but an actual case study where people talk about like, no, this is something that you guys really need to pay attention to.

31:07Look how we use it to completely build our empires. Right. Right. Yeah. And to be like, if anything, I realized that I was jaded. Right. Because I didn't realize how much of info that the Instagram team was sharing with the restauranteurs that attended the seminar that I took it for granted. I just look at it as like, yeah, this is an obvious thing. Everybody were so in tune and they were taking notes. And, you know, something as simple as I think one of the things was, you know, utilize your profile bio section as your signage. Like, so you should have your phone number in there. You should have, you know, details about what food you're serving.

31:50Things that is like an obvious thing for us. Your hours of business, yeah. Exactly. Like things that are obvious things for us. Many restauranteurs never even thought about that. Yeah. And I think it's funny with food and mom and pop shops because sometimes like, you know, I'll go to crazy lengths to figure out if the like Jamaican place in my neighborhood that I get takeout from is open because they don't have social media and they don't answer their phones sometimes. Oh, they'll yell at you. Yeah, no, they do yell. And I'm like really trying to be on their good side because I picked up my food a little late one time.

32:18I was like, oh, this is it for me. Like no more oxtail. But I'll just walk over and see because like that's how much I care about eating that food. And I do think like restaurants that have regulars and have a community, like they don't need to be on Instagram to have those regulars show up and go for them. But if they're trying to, you know, reach that next level of business, if they want people coming in who don't know about them, like social media really is the best way to do that. And by the way, it's not that we think that every business should strive to scale. It's just that like when we're in these spaces, it's being able to provide them the access if they wanted to and the understanding of what's going on.

32:55Right. Because I think I think regardless of whether or not they're trying to go from, you know, a single location to a multi-unit franchise with 500 locations, I think them understanding the landscape and what it takes at each level if they wanted to opt in is very important. Yeah, just giving them the options because, you know, one of the restaurants that we highlighted, Avilias Tamales, this young lady, she came to America by sheer will. So she went back and forth between the border physically multiple times. And she, you know, worked at a fast food restaurant. 9-11 happened, lost her job, ended up serving tamales in the streets of Jackson Heights.

33:41Through sheer will, dedication, hard work, a lot of money saved up, she was finally able to open a brick and mortar restaurant. um somebody like that like it's not that they're not willing it's just that you know they just don't have the information they don't understand like they don't even they just don't know what the landscape and the capabilities and the possibilities are so at least give them the information that hey if this is what you want to do this is a possible thing for you i mean because with your work ethic forget about it yeah so so talking to her and her son about oh what do you guys doing around uh delivery oh what are you guys doing around uh national orders and it's like oh gold belly oh yeah we're on gold belly hey do you have any aspirations to do cpg like have you ever thought about distribution through like a large retail all of those types of conversations we want to be able to facilitate not only spark the information if they don't know about it but also potentially spark the introductions to like the co-packers or the distributors or whoever it might be if they're interested if they're interested yeah that's the thing also of what's interesting to me not to bring it only back to social because i appreciate what you're saying about all these kinds of access but there's also the fact that like people don't choose to be the subject of someone else's video sometimes and you guys are saying hey i want to interview you and put this on this channel and this is what might happen after that happens oh yeah we don't do the whole like okey-doke sneakabondom yeah but other people do and then like you don't even know that a video has gone viral and then the next day at work there are all of these people who you've never seen before who are like clogging up the business like things are just kind of wild west out there i think so i was having this conversation with a friend uh so i worked as a you know i worked as an editor a journalist i don't really like to say it because you know the time that i spent was pretty minuscule maybe like four or five years max but you know i i learned about libel like i went to you know journalism school so like like there is a level of media literacy that you learn from that training yeah but with social media like everybody could essentially be their own tv stations but they didn't go through that same training right they didn't understand they don't understand like yo like that's not a fair use case right there bro like you know i mean like i don't think you could just put this person's face on without consent uh it's you know or maybe you should think about it from an ethical perspective.

36:09So, um, yeah, I think these are all like things that I really wish start to get implemented into school systems. You know what I mean? Yeah. And also something that we try to be very conscious of, but, but the, but the reality is I don't consider any of that to be, it's always funny going into, uh, these fancy places and they're like, Oh, we should put you in touch with our social team or we love what you guys are doing on social. And my response to that is thank you, but it's not social. It is the media now, right? It is the platform. You know, people, whether they're consuming podcasts or TikTok, I think more than half of, especially young people, consume their news on TikTok now, right?

36:52And we're millennial. Most of them are consuming that on Instagram. Yeah, Gen Alpha is consuming it on live streams. Live stream, right? Yeah. So it's not social anymore. And so, you know, we uphold and love and honor sort of the standards of it all. But how can you apply that in this new space? That is not a new space. It is the space. Yeah, I really appreciate that. I want to talk about a topic that I've been seeing you guys do some cool videos about on, I guess I'll just say the media now, which is like third culture cuisine and third culture cooking. And I'm wondering if you could just maybe say a little bit about how you would define that for someone who's listening who isn't familiar and what kind of draws you to kind of doing coverage in that space.

37:34I think it's the natural evolution of where food and society are. Right. And food is a microcosm of society. But I think, you know, when food media or when food media first started, it was about, well, food could be more than sustenance. Right. So the Julia Childs of the world, you could say, oh, it's great. And then it became about the next generation came about, OK, well, the people that are preparing it, they could also be food celebrities or like rock stars. Right. And then so now you're getting into that. You got bam. Yeah, exactly. It can be an art. It can be an art form, right? So then you started to get that.

38:10And then it really became, okay, well, not only is it an art form, you can go and use it as a window into all these different places. So then you started to see sort of the next versions of food, which were, hey, did you know, like, you can go to Vietnam, you can go to Italy, you can go to France. And that's sort of what we see. The Bourdain effect. Exactly. Zemmer, you know, going to Mongolia, eating like tripes, whatever it may be. Yeah. But now in this next generation, and this was this is sort of the idea that we had in this next generation. The world is so small for better or worse. And we think for better.

38:46It's so small. So now when you're going to France, right, what are you going to Paris or you're going to Italy or any of these types of places? do you really is that the only opportunity for you to be able to have a really authentic version of a of a of a mackerel no and and and granted and this was one of the i wrote a new york times op-ed about this granted this was one of the criticisms it's like yeah but you live in new york or you're from la yeah like but but i would but but i would argue so so now when you travel and now when you talk about food in its next instance right and by the way the bourdain thing uh so if the bourdain effect was Bourdain going to Vietnam for the first time to expose Vietnamese food for largely an American audience.

39:32Then it became, hey, go to a certain place with someone from that culture. Right. So then you started to see the on the road with or, you know, you go with Batali to Italy. You go with like it was that. And now when you go, you're not going to Italy or you're not going to France with Eric Repair only for, or Jean George or someone like this, you're not only going to have French food. Now, in actuality, when you go to France, I think it's much, you have an opportunity to go to like the 14th district where you're having, you know, Vietnamese cuisine or Chinese cuisine, right? You're having, you know, this all started from an idea where it's not, it's no longer novel and you have access to so many good things everywhere.

40:16Technology and travel are so deflationary, right? You have more modern access to anything in the world than you've ever had before. So now when you do go, why not go into the things that are novel, that are being created right in front of you? And that's what we think third cultures are. Yeah, when I went to Paris, I haven't been to Vietnam. So the best pho of my life I had in Paris, which is probably like the closest I think you could get. And obviously, you know, we can talk about colonization and migration and the reason why there's so much good Vietnamese food in Paris. But I think after having a couple of days of French food, I just was like, no, I need some good pho to reset the vibe.

40:52For sure. You need to get the butter out of your system. Yeah, I had to get like a lot of lime and herbs and stuff in to cleanse it out a little bit. So, yeah, that, you know, and, you know, you mentioned colonization because history, like a plate is history. You know what I mean? Like it's an embodiment of all of these things, you know, like as much as like Italian. Italians like to claim that pizza was always an Italian thing. I mean, you know, yeah, a part of Italy before it unified and became Italy. Right. It was it was it was something that like tomatoes didn't originate from that region.

41:31Like it came from the Americas. So that alone. So like if you're asking somebody a thousand years ago, like, hey, were you eating tomatoes? Like, oh, and that part of the world is like a different conversation. Kimchi didn't always use chilies, right? Right, yeah. I mean, Thai food, they didn't have chili peppers in Thailand. And that's the most essential thing. All these things happen because of history. And I think third cultures as we see it now is, yo, for instance, like when people say Tex-Mex or Mex-Tex, that's a culture of its own. And this is not just like in particular hubs like metropolitan, these global cities like New York, L.A., Paris and Tokyo.

42:13I'm talking like there's these border towns and these specific niches that have this history, this interesting, unique perspectives. Like, for instance, like, why is there so many Japanese people in Peru? Like, why is there, you know, this growing Nigerian and Bangladeshi population in South Korea out of all places? Yeah. So what, and we live in New York where the question is always asked, like, and there's such a deep history and relatively young, but still deep history of like, what is an American, right? Or all of these things, but not only just in America, all over the world are changing. What's it mean to be French?

42:49Go look at the French national soccer team. What's it mean to be French? They're all byproducts of third culture, right? What's it mean to be Spanish now? What's it mean to be, and it's happening all over the world, right? And so we think that not only is that what our society is, that's certainly where in the space that we occupy, which is food, that's also happening. Yeah, I love talking with you guys about this. I could talk about it all day, but I want to be conscious of our time. So I want to hear a little bit from you both about what you have planned for the future of Righteous Eats. So I think it's two parts.

43:23On the content side, we want to get into just different surfaces, right? we've always been very conscious about trying to go to the space where there was an opportunity to do something new so for us when we were doing short form content on tiktok and on instagram reels and youtube shorts it was new people weren't telling those types of stories on that platform now we wanted to continue to go to another space if it's not a new space it could even be an older space where people aren't using that so what's that mean we're going to come out with the tv series called third cultures cool which we just shot a pilot for well yeah see you know wishes luck yeah no you're speaking it into existence because there's a process 100 and i think it's amazing that we're here in this office because with that we also want to do a book um uh what and so that's on oh we're actually launching a podcast too also kind of apropos to where we are that we're actually very excited about.

44:22So the podcast, a lot of people know us right now for being the people that might tell you the best spot to go to in Corona, right? Even though I never said it was the best spot, it seems like they kind of just assumed. Actually, they expect you to push you on. Right, because the curation itself is a process of elimination. Totally. So they ask, is that, yo, you the food guy? Tell me where the best about to go eat dumplings. That's also like the format of video that people consume, right? It's always like, yo, this is the best place for dumplings. I mean, Jakey, you've done six videos on actually I don't do food reviews.

45:01Yeah, yeah. But people don't listen. Yeah, but the podcast, we're really excited about it because I guess if you had to describe it in a business term, We're B to C in that our consumers are our audience. And most people that are in that audience want recommendations and discovery. I think where we're going to go, and with this new podcast, which we have eight episodes already in the can, we're going to be much more B to B. So it's a lot more of the nuanced industry stuff, right? So like, how do you, you know, when I talk about what POS system are you using? What are you doing for loyalty? How are you retargeting?

45:37How did you actually start this business? What makes a business successful? So it's all the people in the restaurant space talking in depth about that. And to your point earlier about the types of guests that you have on this podcast, it really ranges from, you know, the people that we have are also people that we've been connected to that people that watch Righteous East might not necessarily know that we're connected to. For example, you know, we had my buddy Peter on. He has Chip City. That's a Danny Meyer-backed, Gracious Hospitality-funded cookie concept with 50 locations. Right after him, we had Jeté, who was a single-unit operator, the first Black-owned patisserie in Bed-Stuy.

46:26And then we had Pete Wells on. We're going to have Eric Ripert on next week. So it really runs the gamut as far as people that are doing interesting things in food, both on the business side. It's more about the business of food specifically. And then on the IRL side, you could talk about what we're doing. Yeah. So on the IRL side, it's funny. So yesterday I was talking to a friend about how now there are all these apps tackling loneliness, you know. And I feel like the human connection is only going to be more in demand. um so i mean but before all these like think pieces started to come out like we've always felt the need to connect with people um so even if we're not profiting or even if we're not charging the community members come into these places we'll make sure that the restaurant's good obviously um so we've been indexing into irl from the very beginning so going into this year and the years following, we really want to build upon that and make it more of a regular thing.

47:33So whether that is funded by brands. So like one particular example that I like to bring up a lot is, so Coca-Cola reached out and they wanted me to be participating in this campaign. And they usually give like these very vague briefs, like, yo, we want you to celebrate a moment. I was like, the fuck does that mean? But so I went back to them and told them like, listen, I'll do a moment as in literally buying out a restaurant for a dinner. And what I would do is I'll make content around that moment. So you guys get your deliverable agency, XYZ, and the restaurant gets paid because I'm going to buy it out.

48:12My community members get to come and eat for free. Everybody wins. So that was like an example of a branded IRL event, which we replicated not only with Coke, but also with Samsung, also with Oatly, also with On, the sneaker brand. So, yeah, that's one part of our business. But also we want to start doing things maybe that is more direct to consumer without having a brand involved. As in, you know, yeah, like we can't keep having these events that are completely free, right? Because we also need to be able to figure out how can we bring dollars, like direct dollars, to these eateries. But do it in a way where it's equitable.

49:01Do it in a way where the actual people that want to try out these restaurants could feel like they have some skin in the game as well. So this is like an idea that we're still marinating on. so maybe we could offline about it because I'd love to learn your takes on like because you speak to restaurateurs and people in food all the time. I want to know like what are your thoughts about like an ideal event? Like what is like a price point that people are willing to pay? Well, and to give a bit more context, I think the idea simply put is a supper club. We just don't know which version of the supper club we want to do yet.

49:36Right. Yeah, we should talk. We'll talk off mic, but in the show notes, in addition to linking to all the businesses that we've talked about, I'll throw all your links in there so people who are listening who want to catch up on all of these endeavors know where to do that. Hi there, it's Matt, co-host of the show. We are currently running a This Is Taste listener survey and we'd love to hear from you. Do you have a guest request? A restaurant you wish we'd visit to talk about on Three Things? What about a lesser known cookbook author who deserves a spot in our studio chair? You can let us know by clicking the link in our show notes to complete the survey.

50:10It will only take a couple minutes, I swear, and will help us continue to make the best show possible. That's the This Is Taste listener survey, link in our show notes. Today's episode is brought to you by ButcherBox. As a food writer, I can be a little skeptical about subscription cooking boxes you hear about on podcasts. There's big talk about cooking simplicity, but you're usually left with disappointment after smashing that promo code. Now, Clayton, have you ever tried one of those subscription boxes? Yeah, Matt, my friend gave me a code for that one that has all the chopped vegetables in little baggies.

50:44I felt like a drug dealer trying to cook dinner. Yeah, man, I have so been there. ButcherBox is a true exception. I was sent a box of premium beef and pork and was blown away by the quality and variety. There was 100 % grass-fed pasteurized ribeye, tri-tip, and ground sirloin for my favorite at-home smash burger recipe. George Motes, you better watch your back. For pork, they sent me a beautiful center-cut pork loin for slow roasting. I was super impressed, and I haven't even talked about the ribs, which I cooked in my Instant Pot. There was a rub of salt, white pepper, and togarashi, and I pressure-cooked with water and apple cider vinegar.

51:24It was incredible. These ButcherBox ribs are amazing. For nearly a decade, ButcherBox has led the industry with meat and seafood that's antibiotic-free. As an exclusive offer, our listeners can get free protein in every box for a year plus$20 off your first box when you go to butcherbox.com slash taste. Visit butcherbox.com slash taste to get this limited time offer and free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com slash taste. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. And to close today, I want to play a quick rapid fire game with you. I'm going to make you choose some favorites. Oh, no.

52:05I suck at this. It doesn't have to be. A lot of things do start with the word best, but we can maybe just think of it as like the first place that comes into your head. Your favorite right now. Your favorite right now. In this specific moment in time. At this very particular moment. Yeah. Okay. Do you guys want to decide who's going to go first? You should go first. Oh, you just pointed at each other. Okay, Brian, I'm going to make you go first. Okay. Your favorite spot for like a quick bite in New York. Balad, the Mediterranean like productivity bowl place, right? by our product. Are we wet? Okay, Jakey.

52:40Broncaccio's on Fort Hamilton Parkway in Kensington, Brooklyn. Your favorite diner? My favorite diner. Is Cats a diner technically? It's a deli. I think we'll take it. Yeah. My favorite diner. Oh man, they all closed. They all used to be in Queens. Yeah. Right now, as of late, is this diner called Purity Diner. Little Purity or Purity Diner is on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. Incredible name. Yeah. Purity. Yeah. And Park Slope. Okay. Your favorite bar? Well, I stopped drinking. But favorite bar? Probably Nebulous. The Jose Andres. Yeah. Because they have a great view. Because he took us there. Yeah.

53:27Yeah. They always took us there. So, yeah, that's definitely biased. But, yeah, no, man, I don't even drink like that, bro. Man. You can skip it if you need to. Yeah, like, yeah, I don't really have a favorite bar. Okay, your favorite, like, late night snack. Oh, my favorite late night snack. So, it's late night. I think I got to put that as the context. Yeah. Right? Because when you're late at night, you're probably intoxicated. You know what I mean? your decision-making isn't really quite there. Having said all that, there's a spot inside a supermarket in Flushing on Northern Boulevard. This Korean supermarket called Hanyang is a 24-hour joint.

54:09The produce isn't as fresh as H-Mart, but it's 24 hours. So inside that particular supermarket, there is a late night, this eatery that sells like just very basic Korean staples that are more like, they call it punshik, which is like, you know, it's like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like snacks, but it's not necessarily snacks. So it's like kimbap, for instance, right? Like the rice roll. That's considered a 분식. So they also serve like 떡볶이, which is like rice cake smothered in red chili paste, along with 순대, which is Korean blood sausage. So they serve all of that in this particular location.

54:46I don't even know what it's called, but as long as I can remember, it was always coexisted within this particular supermarket. So you don't know the name. I don't know the name. It's inside the Hangang. Inside a Hanyang supermarket on Northern Boulevard in Flushing. This is a proper recommendation when it doesn't have a name, but you're describing it by what it's nearby. Pretty much. Yeah. It's that. What's your late night? That's my late night spot. Mine would also be something on 32nd, a stew, a kunjip maybe. Kunjip, like a galbi tang or a seolong tang or something like that. Oh, yeah. And I also got to just shout out Steinway.

55:20Late night, Steinway Street and Astoria, Queens situations. situations i don't even know what i'm eating at that point i might be i don't even smoke cigarettes but i might even want to smoke a cigarette you know i mean and you know like the foreign country or 2 a.m pretty much yeah yeah yeah okay final question a spot that you want to shout out to get more love in new york a spot that i want can you rephrase the question just like a any place in new york that you think more people should go to a place in new york that mine is a Main Street Imperial Gourmet, a Taiwanese spot on Main Street in Queens.

55:58Oh, man. Anything on Righteous Eats. This one is a little tough. But when you said one of my fond food memories, after China, after I emigrated to the U.S., like the first food that I went out of my way, you know using my own money using my allowance to go to to purchase was at this uh filipino restaurant called renee's in woodside on roosevelt lav um so yeah so it's that and that was actually one of the first righteous eats episode that we ever did before we even started the righteous eats channel so i would highly recommend renee's kitchenette just because it It was like the first restaurant that as a kid, like maybe 10 to 11 years old, I had maybe like 10,$15 on me.

56:50And I went over there and I got myself a Filipino spaghetti, which is like a weird concoction to begin with, but is incredible. And so, yeah, I want to shout out Renee's. These are all such great recs. And I've had so much fun talking with both of you. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having us. Likewise. Thank you so much for having us. How do you guys end this? Just end it just like that? Yeah. It's like an NPR. Do you want to like drop something at the end? Yes situation. It's like, I don't do one of those. Yo, shout out to Righteous Eats. Air horn. You know? Shout out to Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island.

57:23Okay, we'll throw that in.

57:35Eliza, we're back with three things. How are you? I'm good, Matt. I'm excited to talk about what's been up for us lately. We have some recs here. We have some things that are on our mind. I'm going to start. I was in San Francisco recently, and I'm going to have a great San Francisco episode in the next month. And I made plenty of visits and saw lots of friends and can't wait to share all of those stops. But my first of three things is a coffee shop in San Francisco. I was just there, and I was having a meal with our friend Mackenzie Chung-Fagan, and she was like, you've got to go check this out.

58:08It's a pop-up. It's on Clement Street in the Richmond. I had not been there in years. And man, the Richmond is absolutely popping. There's so many new spots opening, so much energy on the street. I love that neighborhood. But they're operating at the acclaimed wine bar, High Treason. And it's only on the weekends, or it's actually, it's only Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's a coffee pop-up. And it is from Luis Gonzalez and Nathan Cruz. And these two folks have worked in coffee. and they are baristas, but they also live in the neighborhood and were like, we should do coffee at this empty wine bar during the day.

58:46And the owner agreed and they're off to the races. It was a fun vibe there. They're doing a kind of a limited menu. They're doing like Cortado. They're doing pour overs from Dot Coffee from Amsterdam. And really, they're big, the drink that they're most famous for that I got to try that's delicious is their Cafe Dola, which is a cinnamon cappuccino and it was delicious and I spotted some vinyls they were playing vinyls there was a DJ there playing some French disco but I spotted blowout comb from the digable planets was was on deck so I'm loving the vibe right great album right so that is called they're called high energy in San Francisco I love what these guys are doing I want to go there that's so fun your vibe I was like Eliza right away I was like Eliza would like this place I I wish I was there.

59:35It was very cool. What's your first thing? My first thing is that I went to a really fun pop-up last week. My buddy, Keith Su, who is formerly from the cooking collective See You Soon, that has done a lot of great pop-ups all over the world. And Tristan Kwan, who goes by at Fruitsome here in New York, teamed up to do like a Cantonese Canadian American pop-up at Rodora. Everything on this menu was just so delicious and fun. They did a turbo prawn thermidor is what they called it. So these huge prawns with that thermonaut preparation, but with exosauce on top. Super delicious. They did like a terrine with chung fun noodles on top.

1:00:12So this really like shreddy, delicious beef shank tendon pork trotter mustard greens with those tender rice noodles layered on top. Almost like a lasagna kind of vibe. A three type of mushroom salad with yuba and fuyu butter sauce. It was also good. And I feel bad mentioning it because the pop up is over. But I'm hoping that they will team up again and do something similar in New York. And they're chefs that you can both kind of follow on Instagram and I can drop them in the show notes. Yeah, we'll drop those notes. And I follow Fruitsom. I just followed that account and I fucking love it. You know, Fruitsom is his handle on Instagram, but that was brought into the ethos of the pop-up as well.

1:00:46And Every Table got a free little fruit plate with really beautiful yellow dragon fruit, fat grapes, pomelo. So in addition to all the fruit on the plate, they also had a hongbao red envelope that had the stickers inside of it. So a little delayed Lunar New Year treat. What's your second thing? My second thing is from the fine folks at Pistachio. Pistachio is the Italian pronunciation of pistachio. I am not pronouncing it right. But they are, I met them, I think, at Fancy Food or Expo West. And they sent me their new product. And it's been kind of reformulated. It is their spread, but it is now chunky and crunchy and everything I wanted.

1:01:23I think smooth pistachio butter is amazing for cooking and putting in like great baked goods. But when I think of a crunchy pistachio spread, I'm just like stick the spoon in and eat the jar. It's right. I'll just go right rip from it and I'll have it all day. It's a beautiful product and it's founded by Francine Voigt and Nicola Bufo. And I love pistachio and that sounds really good. It's really good stuff. And I think they're using domestic. They were using, I think, Italian and European pistachios before, but now they're using all California. And it's a really nice product. The branding is excellent.

1:01:59I think you've probably seen it at the Shopee Shops, Pop-Up Grocer, et cetera, et cetera. And I think this new product is just hitting stores now, and I really like it. That's awesome. My second thing is that I went to a really fun tasting last night that Casa Dragones, the tequila brand, was doing at Tokyo Record Bar. I'm a big fan of Casa Dragones. I think on the kind of higher end of tequila, they're doing really cool things. My favorite thing that I got to have last night was their reposado that they're doing, that they age in mezunara casks, which are a Japanese oak that's traditionally used for Japanese whiskey.

1:02:31And the tequila gets this kind of oaky, smoky, all of those delicious flavors. I had it in a Paloma, which was quite good. But then I think sipping it straight, I really just got to appreciate all of the nuance of that, which was super cool. I also got to chat a little bit with Berta Gonzalez-Nieves, who's the CEO of Casa Dragones and the co-founder. She also was the first woman to be certified as a maestra tequilera by the Tequila Regulatory Council in Mexico, which, you know, I would love for there to be many women that have that level. And I think there are more now, but I really respect Berta for starting this brand and for gaining that level of expertise and recognition with tequila.

1:03:08So I think as it starts to get a little bit warmer and I'm thinking about like what the drink of the summer might be or even just what I want to be drinking, like that tequila is always going to be in my mind. Yeah, I got to go down to San Miguel de Londo and hang out with Berta years ago and got to try some tequilas back in my tequila days. And I so agree. I think Berta is an incredible distiller and business person. And this is a beautiful product. They're always innovating and having new aging techniques. and I'm a big fan. What's your last thing? My last thing is in the drinks game as well, but, you know, it's in the NA game.

1:03:46And I am very excited about a new NA beer that was introduced to me recently. It's not new per se. It's called Visitor. Have you heard of Visitor at all? Mm-mm. Yeah, I hadn't either. And I think it's around the Midwest. I know that my friends in Chicago have been drinking it for a while. And it's a beer that's founded by Rob Jensen. He's one of the co-founders of Pitchfork, our favorite or many people's favorites, music publication. And I can't wait to chat with Rob at some point about this great beer. And what's interesting is that they're not like getting too in the weeds with flavor profiles.

1:04:24There's not like a style list. They're not doing like hoppy IPAs or, you know, a Kolsch. They're not naming it anything. They're really just doing IPA and extra IPA. Those are the two beers they sell. The cans are super iconic. They're silver and have a little bit of branding on it, but they're mostly silver. So they're not like overselling. It's kind of an understated beer. It's a really clean IPA, and the extra is obviously extra hopped, and if that's your style, this one will be good. And I just love seeing new NAs pop up, and creative people are trying to market it in bars, and I just think bar owners out there need to expand their NA beer selections.

1:05:02Just having athletics shouldn't cut it. There's plenty of great independent, smaller NA beers that are popping up, and one of these is Visitor. So if you listen to the show and you have a bar, please check out Visitor NA Beer. Do you have a final one, Eliza? Yeah. Okay, so I want to use this moment to talk about the thing I've been cooking a lot at home, which are tofu scrambles. Oh, yeah. Do you enjoy a tofu scramble? So I used to work at a health food store when I was a teenager, and I think I took home one of those really, like, those shelf-stable tofus and tried making a tofu scramble, and I did not have great results.

1:05:33so I've always been scarred for it. So my answer is no. So I really love a tofu scramble. I think partially because I don't like to eat eggs. So a tofu scramble is a good kind of savory breakfast option that still is delivering protein and I think can actually be kind of similar to an egg in terms of what you put on a plate. But not to brag, I make really good ones. Oh, yeah. I make them for my friends who think that they're not gonna like a tofu scramble and they do. And I think that there are a couple of factors that make a good tofu scramble. So I wanted to share that for my final three things.

1:06:04I think the first one obviously is getting the water out of the tofu, which you could press the tofu ahead of time or because you're breaking it down into chunks, I just kind of rip off a handful and squeeze it out over the sink. Clean hands, obviously. Quick question. Yes. What style of tofu? I use firm tofu. Firm, okay, great. That's just the tofu that I keep on hand in my kitchen in general. So that's what I use for the scramble. But I think it's a good texture because it can still be a little like toothsome and basically squeeze it out, cook it in the pan without any oil or anything in it just to kind of burn off some of that extra water.

1:06:35Then I add oil or butter, get it crispy. Then I add in what I'm using to flavor it, which lately has been a combination of like grated garlic, miso and tomato paste just for a little bit of that umami. And then I hit it with turmeric and a lot of this ranch powder that Ham and Sola Al-Waley did for burlap and barrel that has nutritional yeast and powdered buttermilk in it and garlic and I think oregano and basil, some other herbs. It just has a ton of umami and it just kind of coats everything together really nicely. Hit it with a little bit of lime juice, maybe a little bit of maple syrup if I want it to be like tiny bit sweet too.

1:07:11And then it's just so good on a plate with steamed greens or sweet potatoes or avocado. I did it with herby rice over the weekend for a friend of mine. And I just think more people should be making tofu scrambles. So this was my moment. Amazing, Eliza. I think you've got great instincts. It's beautiful to hear that you're going with maple syrup or ranch or both. Yeah, maple syrup. It sounds crazy to say I'm doing miso, tomato paste, maple syrup, and ranch powder. But I promise when you taste it, it all just adds up to be really umami forward and delicious. And I'll even do it as meal prep kind of for the week and just have it on hand because you could, you know, put it into a burrito if you wanted or you could just eat it on toast.

1:07:52I'm a fan. Love that. I'm going to do this, actually. I feel like you've inspired me. Report back. I will. Thanks for sharing your three things. You too. Thank you.

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