800: How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart on Erewhon Losing the Pizza Plot, Noma’s LA Adventure, and a Visit to Ballerina Farm

20:23Jason Stewart:Like who the hell are you? exactly and then you know you go down the aisles and you just crack up because like this bottle of water is 40 and then you're like that's funny i'm gonna take a picture of it put it on twitter and that's the same and then you know 10 years later we're gonna this is the most expensive this water is 70 for you and then you know it's the same thing over and over again it never ceases to amaze you and everyone knows how much you know a bag of chips costs so the sticker the sticker shock is shocking versus like you know how much this microphone costs or that camera costs yeah we don't know we don't know so but but it's what's like a sticker shock it's like definitely this cast of characters are always hanging out which you know go to calabasas or venice years ago and it was always those people were always there kind of brought it to a mainstream attention there's also um you know something about like the hot bar is fucking good that's the thing that i I think a lot of people who don't go to Erewhon, they think about the smoothies.

21:21Jason Stewart:But can you, like, it's good. If you really have to kind of know and master, there's like waves. And you can see when things are about to be replenished. And like there's certain items like don't, you know, don't get the buffalo cauliflower unless it's coming out piping hot because it still has that crunch. But once it's been sweating on the line for, you know, half an hour, there's, you know, nobody wants a soggy hot wing. You want that crunchy, crunchy. Yeah. But, yeah, you kind of learn what stuff is disgusting and what stuff is really good. And they have kelp noodles that are made out. It's free of everything.

22:01It's just air and color green floating.

22:04Jason Stewart:It's clear, calorie-free substance. And the noodles are kind of weird. But if you get the rice version of it, it goes down a little bit better. and you know all the i the my number one air one hack was i would go and get a slice of pizza because it was the only thing that was like the correct it was like a value like this is the right amount of money to pay for this food because that doesn't exist in air one whatsoever if you have it's like 19 gallon of milk yeah or this if you have ever had to wonder how much money you have in your bank account, then, you know, nobody would ever do that. But they switched to no more slices.

22:43Jason Stewart:Yeah. And now it's these mini personal pizzas where it's, like, 40 % of it is the crust. Oh, no, and that's, like, probably, like, 17, 22. It's not, like, yeah, the slice of pizza was, like, seven bucks, and it was a huge slice. The dough is really, like, super clean, you know, fermented, good quality, you know, cheese, pepperoni. It's all, like, on the up and up, and you'd eat it. Yeah, and I would have a slice of pepperoni pizza for lunch and feel good afterwards, which doesn't happen too often. I love that. All right, well, let's talk about Noma. Speaking of credit cards, you wrote this great piece.

23:18Speaking of our good friends at American Express. Yeah, you mentioned it was like, you know,$1 ,500 or$1 ,600. But you visited in 2023, and it was an interesting observation you made. I'm going to quote you. The Venn diagram of people who can afford to eat at Noma and the people who deserve to eat at Noma is small. that was really really good insight and obviously a lot of shit has happened at noma since you wrote that in 23 we ran him out of town yeah i mean did you go to the la pop-up i did not go if somebody

23:47Jason Stewart:quietly invited me to it and i could you know be smuggled and if i could get i mean i know a lot of people who went who's just like hey you know blah blah got a couple table you know and then you know bring the car with the tinted windows when you pull up and yeah and everyone i talked to was like it was fucking good yeah yeah the first reports were like you know half the menus cacti and that you know the it's a no polis beating that you have to take and you're and you start looking at the amex bill and you're like how much does cactus cost but one when the smoke cleared everyone i talked to was like i mean i hate all that shit but it was delicious yeah so it was cringe to go and like some of the process was maybe not great but ultimately it something good i've heard similar things as well i mean do you what do you think the legacy of noma in la is gonna be because like the whole point of renee going there is like he wanted to highlight your city to the world which is noble yeah thanks buddy thanks buddy um go back and work on copenhagen well we already know about la um no i mean obviously he's a very talented chef He's done a lot of great stuff and, you know, he did some bad things.

25:01Jason Stewart:I don't think he's going to return to Los Angeles anytime soon, if not ever, because he really did get one of the worst receptions of all time. Like a friend of mine, Al, he has a restaurant called Bar Di Bello, which is right next door to where they had a little pop-up shop where you could buy other forms of kelp and umamis and, you know, gooseberry renderings and things like that. a chair for four thousand dollars and you know every day it was people protesting like and every just just close the doors like nobody like the only people coming to the noma gift shop are coming there to like yell at you yeah no not a single person bought anything you know that's rough i can get my garum on the web they have good garum i'm sure the garum is sensational no more projects shouts to them no it's interesting i mean the legacy will will be written later i mean when they you know those those those trucks away with all the the tweezers and circulators but i i think it'll be mixed i feel i feel like some people will recognize that it was like a bold move to move to go there and this is of course not taking into account the reporting about renee abusing people like this is like deciding in like la we're not talking about the kidney punching at all this is just business logistics well i mean is how bold i mean he keeps doing these pop-ups and i think at this point it's not really like surprising it's it's like the eagles or fleetwood mac doing their breakup tour and you know i don't know how many reunions they've done and i don't know how many times noma is going to close and then oops reopen yeah but then when he did the video of him saying like we're gonna reopen in copenhagen yeah you know in like a few months he's in a few months yeah and he's you know he's on like and people people don't want to look at his face on on their phone yet he should have pulled the phone away a little bit it was a little close you're too close man he want he should do an army hammer five year give him five he'd he give us five months a five year army huh and five year hammerheads now but yeah you gotta do you got you can't just be like this awful thing just happened and then two months later like psych we're back baby i wonder what the people of copenhagen are gonna think now that they're he's he's like the most famous person in copenhagen not chef like no he's on the top of the like they're he's their national export i agree and he's their dualipa he i mean he is and clayton and i were there in j and now he's tarnished well i don't know i think there's a lot of hometown love.

27:38We were obviously there in January before the reporting came out, but obviously I think people knew. I just think as a tourist destination for Europe, for Asia, for many places outside of America and our media system, I feel like people are going to still go there. To Copenhagen in general?

27:57Jason Stewart:To go to Noma. Oh yeah, for sure. The locals will have mixed opinions, but I think they'll probably support them. I don't know. I just want to talk about CERT, actually, the pizzeria in copenhagen super good man that's like to me have you been yeah oh wow yes that i had a margarita there the first time i went there had a margarita pizza in the rain i remember it was like a bitch to get there and it was just dumping rain we were kind of having a bad trip because the weather it was just like one of those things where it was like every day is perfect in summer and we ride our bicycle to eat cheese and bread and then the three days we were there it was just so we were like bummed and i'm like i heard this pizza place is good and they're like how do you pronounce it i don't know blah blah we went there and there was no tables we had to sit on like a little ledge on like and they squeeze us in and that margarita came out and i was like i don't know if this is the best pizza i've ever had but i can't think of a margarita that's better than this so it was crazy i didn't know you had been there actually when i just mentioned i was being funny there's no there's super good man i mean copenhagen and and japan like yeah they quietly took pizza and said, I'm going to put my elbow into this shit.

29:08What about London? You spend a lot of time there, it seems, and you're really tapped in with the restaurant scene there, and you were recently there. What's your thoughts on the chef side of it? We can talk about pubs after it, but the chef side of London dining.

29:27Jason Stewart:I think they're smooth and they're dialed right now. I like the way that, because right now America is in like we can we cannot afford to do anything risky at all because we have to just keep slanging these steak frites and martinis just to keep the doors open because well said things aren't going so hot right now and London they're sort of almost a step ahead of us to where they're saying like hey we can not necessarily like we can afford to take some chances but like we are willing to or like we just can't stand the monotony and boredom of a Caesar salad that doesn't have any funny business and a burger that doesn't have, you know, and they tweak all the classics like the tartars and, you know, the steak frites and all the things I've said, and they tweak it in just a little way to where you're like, this is, it's still hitting, it's still comforting.

30:16Jason Stewart:I'm still not feeling like I'm being hoodwinked by some weird new experimental food that I got to spend$380 on. Just little tweaks. And you're like, this is delightful it's familiar but it's new i had a little there's this i keep forgetting the name of it it's called like one something hill okay i always forget what it's called it's like three words that sort of go together blank hill we'll find it claude will find one tree hill it's like one something maybe he'll look it up but i remember they had um they had martine they had the little mini martinis which are which are popular i know you want to talk about utah but when i was staying at the hotel they're like have you ever had a utah martini it's half the size but it costs the same so that's but every a lot of restaurants have little mini martinis but they brought them out sort of as just like a little starter like we didn't order them just like the chips and guac kind of fun and and they had a fun which was really fun waiting so it's like instead of like hey what will be you know you guys take a chance to look at the cocktail menu or you know can i I put any drinks in, just a tray with five mini martinis, and each one was different.

31:28Jason Stewart:So I had a gin martini that had a maraschino cherry in it. Beautiful. And it sounds kind of weird and dumb, and the flavor of maraschino was so small and slight. Yeah. Like any martini flavoring I think should be really slight to let the burning kind of sit up front and be in the driver's seat. In that form, in a tiny form, smaller form, a machine would work quite well. That's really smart. Yeah, so I'm hearing London is definitely flexing a little bit, experimental but not too, and also maybe not having that pressure of a new work. Yeah, and they want to flex their creativity maybe more than America does right now.

32:13Jason Stewart:And they're like, I don't want to just do the same old thing. we're gonna have the fundamental basics but we're gonna put our own unique twist on it and sometimes it works sometimes your your little gem lettuce salad that you can get anywhere they they go the extra mile and say like what if it just had this weird different nut or seed or a crunchy thing on there or like a different kind of vinegar in the dressing that just or like a weird cheese that they just grate on top and you mix it together and you're Like this is a gem lettuce salad or this is just a regular arugula salad, but in a different way that I've never had before.

32:49Jason Stewart:And you keep coming back to it. I love like a hard shred, like thick shred weird cheese. Just like a little weird cheese. Thick shred weird cheese. Yeah. And it's like maybe a little like the color is a little like weird yellow, like a weird chitty yellow. It's an Alpine Dijon orange color. Yeah. It comes. I love when you get a salad. It's challenging, but you keep coming back. I love it. What about pubs? Like, do you dine in pubs, eat the pub food? Yeah. I mean, I like pubs a lot. Yeah. They're a fun place to just kind of sit and just drink without any real direction. I love the classic, you know, pub fish and chips.

33:27Jason Stewart:Yeah. That's pretty much what I get every time. Because I was going to ask, like, you know, Dean's opened and like pubs, and there's a few more slotted to open later this year. And it feels New York is having this pub essence, whatever. And you should go to Dean's. It's good. Okay. Dean's is good. Do people stand outside and drink on the sidewalk? That's the problem. So I asked Jess about that. I don't think you can do that. I don't think you can do that. I feel like those barrels are only like, they're like the unmanned barrel. They're like the barrel but no guys. Until Zoran, you know, believes that adults can stand outside and drink a beer out of a glass after their hard day's work.

34:09Jason Stewart:Yeah. I don't think we'll ever have actual pub culture here I think the mayor can take that on It's your job, Zoe Let's talk about Utah How many times have you said that on this podcast? I feel like we've had some Utes We've had some Utes on Eliza's heading there Soon so she's going to report back She's going to get some dirty sodas, I know You went to Ballerina Farms You went to the source Now, you went on your own - Ballerina Farm. Farm. Somebody corrected me. It's not plural. I appreciate that. Those are the people who would correct you if you said like Barnes and Nobles. Tough one. Tough one.

34:49Jason Stewart:It's a tough one, but sometimes they say it like that and it's cute and I like it. It's cute, but it's a tough one. So Ballerina Farm, you went with your own money and you went - This was not like they did not pay you. Harper Collins did not pay for me to go get some beef tallow. No, no, no. This is all - I love it. I mean, it's funny because as a cultural commentating content creator, Yeah, three hours a week. you're like, is everything you do a business expense? You know what I mean? Correct. I mean, yes and no. You don't want to push it, of course. Depends how much money you make. It was, yeah.

35:28Jason Stewart:Depends on what, bracket? You're bracketing into it? Exactly. It's like, how many RIRS agents do you have on your case? That's a different episode. but um no there was i would i would say i was very pleasantly surprised by how good everything at ballerina farm oh cool obviously they have the dumb shit that you would get at erewan like you know a pair of sweatpants for a hundred dollars and you know just little yeah nick knacks that you get your rich in-laws and you know an elegant funky cutting board and yeah an apron and things like that but and i know that people also say that they have some fascist undertones rough and i was asking people to i was like what i don't know what exactly that means could you explain it to me and people couldn't really explain it to me but the closest that i got was because like in in middle parts of the country there's a lot there's like the maha movement but the maha crosses in utah with like the raw dairy kind of i don't know it's like like homesteader culture like kind of like maha meets homesteader so in la raw milk culture is very arawan crunchy granola farmers market people under the table and in in utah it's like conservative republican don't put your fucking bullshit in my in my dairy milk i'm gonna drink make it raw.

36:59Jason Stewart:Yeah. And then it, so it has these kind of Maha undertones that people, I don't, I don't know what, I mean, there could be other bad things going on. I just don't know. It's like horseshoe theory in play. Get these guys together. Yeah. The Maha and the raw milk, you know, in Calabasas. We're going to call it Raha. But then, yeah, I mean, make, make America healthy again by drinking cow feces. Wow. Horseshoe theory. Yeah, that's it. So when you enter the ballerina farm parking lot, like just set the scene like is it no problems happen in the world when you pull into the ballerina are there like instagram walls and shit like everywhere no i would say that it was so there's there's two locations i went to the second location which is in a town called midway which i'm assuming is midway between a town and another town but very idyllic little neighborhood you drive off the freeway like 15 20 minutes and it's just beautiful rolling hills it looks like the background of a you know a dairy yeah a dairy company's website and you know there's wild horses coming up to your car and you could pet them and oh man these palatial estates with huge properties and you know just people having the you know old people riding bicycles and it was just it was very idyllic and then when you go there and it's just it's just kind of a regular stock like a regular it doesn't look nicer than you know like elbow bakery or something like that it just kind of has like a regular vibe but yeah every little product that you know about in la or new york they have it in the middle of fucking nowhere it's like a real shoppy shop in this like red zone red red state yeah i mean it's but it's not a red state because there are it's a very like lgbtq friendly spot like when we were over there there's pride flags all over the place let me see that it was yeah that part was really cool so it doesn't it doesn't have that that element that you get in the south where you know certain areas certain folks ain't welcome it was very it was very crunchy in that way but then mixed in with the kind of like i'm really rich my husband works at a drone company and we have three beautiful children named Brylin, Ashlyn, and Caitlin.

39:22Jason Stewart:And, you know, I have a loon in water and a Stanley mug and a matcha and everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be wonderful in the world. But really good. My favorite part, sorry for interrupting, was they have fresh baked sourdough. Yeah. And they're famous for having their starter. You can buy their freeze-dried starter online and make it at home. I want to do it one day. Rehydrate that, get that starter. Get that started going, but you can, for a dollar, if you buy anything, they cut you a slice of bread. And they have a self-serve, like a salsa bar, but except it's manuka honey, sea salt, and butter.

39:59Jason Stewart:Genius. And you can just make a piece of untoast. And the butter's still, the butter's room temp, the honey's room temp. Oh, man. The bread, it's still warm from the oven, you know, two hours ago. So you don't have to toast it. You just slept on that bill and they give you a slice of bread? Yeah, and if you don't buy anything, you can hand them a dollar bill and you just eat it and it's... Sounds good. I've said it before, but there is nothing better than a perfect bite of bread, butter, and salt. Agree fully with that hard edge. Yeah, man. That little hard edge that's a little bit bitter. It's too good.

40:36Did you have dirty sodas in Utah? Did you go to one of those soda shops?

40:40Jason Stewart:I had one dirty soda. I went to Swig, the motherland. Nice. And I definitely did not get an adventurous exotic offering. I got like the most basic one, which is it's like Coke, lime juice, and coconut syrup. I forgot what it's called. Sounds good. It's one of the standard ones. You get very crazy. It's like Cuba Libre. Cuba Libre kind of vibe. So yeah, Carolyn, my wife, I gave her a sip and she's like, this reminds me of like teenage drinking like Malibu rum and Coke, you know, kind of thing. so that's what it i only wish it had more lime juice to balance out the sweetness but the thought i mean it's just so crazy because it's so sugar-based in in salt lake city like it's the only drug in town yeah they don't even really have caffeine so all the sodas are just like if you want caffeine we can do it we can do like a add a shot of caffeine to it it's wild so like the c button they just hit the caffeine yeah i mean like nothing comes stock with caffeine in in Utah, but sugar, it's in everything.

41:45Jason Stewart:More lime in the swig, you guys. Let's balance out those flavors. Because, you know, you're pulling Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew, and then you're adding sugar to it. Yeah. Just seems insane, you know? Or like when they do the pineapple with the Kool-Aid. Yeah. They're like, here's liquid syrup and then Kool-Aid powder, and then on top of that, just a cup of white sugar. Yeah. Why do you need it to be that sweet? It's not. We know that that's not good for you guys. But you know what? No alcohol, no cigarettes, no caffeine, so let them have it. Let them have it. Look, pineapple is acidic. It will balance out some of that sweetness, but she can only do so much.

42:23A few more here. Thanks, buddy. This is fun. The GoPro Life, your cooking videos. Big fan. They're really fun. Thank you. I'm making one soon. Are you? So yeah, what's on deck for that?

42:36Jason Stewart:Well, I've been working with Libby's, the canned fruit and vegetable company. They sort of like started it out by being like a great sponsor of it and just saying like, here's a bunch of food and you can do whatever you want. Yeah. We just want to, you know, see you do it. And say Libby's a few times. Sure. You know, show the can. Why not? Laces out. But I'm going to do I have some like canned peaches and I'm thinking about doing kind of like a campsite pizza oven, using the pizza oven from the night before for like the morning breakfast on the campsite. a little like oatmeal with some dates and pecans and then some kind of charged peaches on top.

43:17Jason Stewart:I like that. We'll see if that happens. I was talking to David Cho about also making nachos with broccoli instead of chips. I think that's a smart move. Well, we were talking about Panera Bread not far away around the corner. You stopped by? I didn't stop in. It's not my go-to. I don't plan to, but he was reminiscing of the college days eating the cheddar broccoli soup at Panera, which is, you know, a soup that people have been having for decades. But I was making my own slot bowl at home, which was a little more refined. And I had some like steamed broccoli, pulled it straight out into the steamer, onto my plate that was next to my whatever thingies.

43:58Jason Stewart:And I grated some like really nice kind of sharp aged cheddar right on top of the broccoli. I don't know why. I was just going great heavy. And then that the heat melted the cheese instantly. And that flavor just hit me. And then I said why not put carne asada and guac and tomatoes and onions and jalapenos and cilantro and beans and all that stuff on top. And that way, I mean nachos are probably my favorite food. But once you knock a platter down, it really you ain't feeling too good afterwards. Yeah, but like the high temperature of this pizza oven with the broccoli, it's interesting. Yeah, you got to get that high temperature on there, though.

44:40Yeah, that's right. When you visited Panera, did you plug it into Postcard? Got to say it. We said, David, we got to talk about Postcard.

44:47Jason Stewart:Good old Postcard. No, I should have plugged it in next door at the Gastro. Okay, Gastro Mart. Gastro Mart. Go to Postcard. It's great. I love Postcard. Yeah, yeah. I agree. It's the only way to make lists tolerable in my mind. I agree. We got to shout out David. absolutely love you David yeah let's circle back about Los Angeles restaurants um now I know you're kind of like post new restaurants giving a shit um it's my favorite city to visit for for restaurants in this country love LA so much as a as a Korean food enthusiast absolutely for that are you on the team of better than Korean food is better in LA than Korea no okay absolutely not a lot of people are.

45:30I know, and I respect that take. And a lot of Korean people. It's a tough take. I've been lucky to go to Seoul a lot and travel through Korea, and I think it's hard to get to some I've been really lucky to go with people who've taken me to like, Ganwondo and like, Jeju and shit like that. I think like, yes, there are some incredible restaurants in LA, but like the whole like, Korea, the talent there is really high. But I do love LA, Korean restaurants, big time. I miss Han Jae Park. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Portman Egg Soup. That was my spot. I loved that place.

46:05Jason Stewart:Yeah, that was an early Jonathan Gold spot for everyone. That was like the first toe into the jacuzzi of Koreatown, I remember. It was a hot, stinky, shit splattering on the walls, drinking the whole time. It was so good. It was so good. Actually, I told the story. Probably smoking there towards the end. There was smoking there. I remember when, so I went there with Jonathan Gold. I've told the story before I'll be brief, but it was cool. like he uh his red hair flowed into the pork ribs and i ate a lot of bit of his red hair i think i improved as a writer uh because i had a little jonathan gold hair some of that dna in you got a couple of that no um but back to you the question is is like la um i know we both enjoyed squirrel like i know that we've messaged about that but like restaurant wise i always want to know uh is stir crazy still a spot that you go to a lot yeah yeah yeah um stir yeah stir crazy is a place that like gets better every time you go there and i think because of the competition for people who don't know it's like a wine bar that has some food and when it first started the main complaint that people had was you can't get a full meal here and they said we never said we were a restaurant we're a wine bar that has some bites but other restaurants similar vibe popped up in the in the few years and their menu expanded more you got your wilds you got squirrel doing dinner it's cool so i think i think wilds lit a little fire under their ass you know there's that and treist and bruce and secco and you know tondo and all these little places that like we're only wine but also we have like some little little thingies you know little anchovies and things like that yeah exactly yeah so they kind of were like we we know how to make all the stuff We've got our hits dialed, that celery salad with the cheese.

47:55Jason Stewart:And, you know, the good stuff is really good. But then, you know, they started making little nudie dishes and little seasonal things. And just like every week have fun with new stuff. And it just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, yeah. It's really good. Any other places that you just like are interested in right now? There's a place that a lot of people have loved. It's called Frontera Taqueria, which is like a Taqueria Frontera. There's a few locations, but it's been around for a long time. Not a long time, but, you know, five, six years. They've won a bunch of taco competitions. I never had it.

48:29Jason Stewart:And then I went, I've been a couple times now with my brother, but they have, like, this little cup of beans. It's just, like, really nice stewed beans and broth that I've been kind of cooking all day with spices and, you know, cilantro and onions and everything. And then you can get it with basically just a bunch of birria poured in on top. And it's, like, it's very affordable. It's like a protein bowl, baby. So it's basically, and it's like$6. Oh, so good. And it's, you know, it's a small, medium soup cup filled with beans and birria and consomme broth that's been, you know, cooking all night.

49:03Jason Stewart:And you get a little cup of guacamole and they have their little tortillas that they'll kind of fry up into these tostada chips. And you have a protein bowl with chips and guac, you know, for less than$10 maybe. And I could eat that all day long. Especially when it's sunny outside, you know, go for a hike and just come munch down on a bunch of birria and beans. I see why you would just not want to go to like the place with the, you know, the artichoke special for$29 and, you know, and deal with parking when you can go and have this bowl for$10. You can have that bowl for$10 and then zip up the street to wax paper and get Strauss milk soft serve with vanilla swirled with whatever Weiser Farms melon or crazy pomegranates.

49:59Jason Stewart:Basically have the best cone of Strauss milk ice cream in the city also for under$10. And you don't leave your car. You get out, grab a cone, and you're licking it on the freeway. You're going home. And you're not going to eat better food in LA, period. And you just spent$20. Love it. Well articulated. By the way, Strauss is out east now. Oh, really? We got the pints now. Congratulations. We got the pints in Whole Foods. And I went recently, and they were all sold out except for the weird alt-vanilla one. There's always that one that's blueberry, vanilla, whatever shit. Do you guys have the Alexander A2 here?

50:40I don't think so. I haven't seen that.

50:42Jason Stewart:That's a very popular one that a lot of people prefer because it has 6 % milk fat. Yeah, that's nice. Which is nice, but sometimes it's a bridge too far. At a certain point, it's a lot of... Because once you taste that 6%, you don't want nothing else. You can't go back to no skim. It's like those days when you were raised on skim and you finally have 1%. You're like, what the fuck? Yeah. I'm speaking for myself, obviously. No, I mean, I grew up eating or drinking skim milk my whole life. Me too, me too. And then you get a real glass of real milk. You're like, what? Opens your eyes. Hey, fat makes everything better.

51:19Do you ever mess with Nyx? Like those 380 pints? Those low-cal? You ever mess with Nyx? No, I don't know Nyx. It's like the extension of Halo Top. It's like Halo Top crawled so Nyx could run. I mean, Nick's is using that David bar, that thing, that compound.

51:38Jason Stewart:It's people. Yeah. You know, we don't talk about what's in the David bar. Yeah, exactly. I haven't tried the ice cream yet. It's like$3.80 for a pint. I mean, I'm just saying, I had some last night. It was pretty good. $3.80 what? Calories. Oh. For a whole pint. Okay. But what's the catch, you know? Exactly. I mean. The catch is in there somewhere. I don't, like, it's not ice cream. That's the catch. It's a dairy dessert. No, I mean, it's tough. It's very similar to, you know, peptides and all these things. Like, we need more time. We need, you know, like with Alestra. You remember Alestra? Of course, yeah, of course.

52:14Jason Stewart:We don't, the David's bar could have enough. You know, people say like, oh, the reason why this has so many or so few calories is because, you know, it's none of this is actually digestible. And it just, you know, your body just says no to whatever's happening. And like, is that good? We don't know yet. Did David send you the ice cream? I feel like you'd be on that list. No, they sent me the cod. They sent me the frozen cod. Dude, rough. David, send me the canned cod. I want to try the conserva. Yeah, yeah. And I will try the ice cream, but I don't, like, I love ice cream. I'll just eat ice cream.

52:48Jason Stewart:I'll eat the one that I want. Yeah. I know I'm going to make the calorie decision, and it is what it is. Like, we've crossed this bridge. We're going to do it. Yeah. And I don't want to get my protein from ice cream. I feel like spiritually, my body biologically will not get more muscular. Yeah. And I will not become a more, you know, amazing athlete by eating this protein popcorn or ice cream. Yeah. Those form factors, it feels a little like unnatural. A little unnatural. It's far beyond unnatural. Were you a Scoops guy? Scoops ice cream shop? Yeah. Like, Fautel, like North Hollywood or North.

53:27Have we talked about Scoops over? I don't know what my voice is. You've never talked about it, but I just was thinking LA ice cream. That was my favorite. I love scoops.

53:35Jason Stewart:I discovered scoops very early on. Their first location was in like kind of, it was right by the LA college. Yeah, like North Korea. Heliotrope. Heliotrope, yeah. It was a little hole in the wall, the cheapest little thing. And the guy who owned it, we befriended him. And he actually took us to Seongbukdong. Oh, yeah. For the stew. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I'm sure you've had before. and that was an eye-opening meal for me as well. That was the first time I had a real slow-cooked stew with the potatoes and the pork and the bubbling. That was great. That was a special moment. But we befriended him, and he was basically like a scientist.

54:16Jason Stewart:Yep, correct. And he left his sciencing and devoted his education into flavor combinations and structures, and he just loved ice cream. but I had a lot of amazing flavors there over the years there, but he would do these special weeks where it would be experimental weeks. And he did one that was like vices or like drugs kind of, but he made a nicotine ice cream that was real. Oh really? It actually had like, it was, yeah, it was like eat at your own risk. This like he, whatever, put up nicotine pouches in the, you know, some Wiley Dufresne device and turned it into ice cream. Wow. And it had, He flavored it with some other things, but the flavor of nicotine was there, which is similar to chewing aluminum foil.

55:02It sounds so – I got to meet him over the years and profiled him a couple times. Great guy. Great guy. I'm glad we can talk about scoops a little bit because I'm not sure if they're open anymore. I don't think they are. I'm not that I know of. A real genius with the flavors. Yeah.

55:18Jason Stewart:And he franchised it, I think, was it Matt Kang? Yeah, Matt owned the one in Sawtell. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, down in Sautel when he was just starting out at Eater. Yeah, Matt ran this. I went there with him, I remember. Yeah, that was a good little shop too, right by Kogi, right? Kogi was right there. Yeah, it's weird because, you know, Kogi's still pumping. It's still around. And if you go grab one of those little tacos, it still hits. So good. This episode is brought to you by Quince. This time of year, I'm keeping things simpler in the kitchen. Lighter meals cooked with produce from the farmer's market, more last minute dinners with friends.

55:52and it really makes me notice how much better everything feels when you love what you're cooking with. That's why I've been reaching for Quince. Quince has beautiful cookware, glassware, and tableware that's seriously well-made and looks great on the table, all priced 50 to 80 % less than comparable brands. They cut out the middleman and work directly with top manufacturers, so you're paying for quality, not markup. Elevate your kitchen this summer. Go to quince.com slash taste for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash taste. Free shipping and 365 day returns.

56:32Quince.com slash taste. Jason, we can talk all day. But on This is Taste, we ask guests about their discerning taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious taste check. Are you ready?

56:40Jason Stewart:That was the fastest you've ever said that sentence, buddy. I tried, I tried. It was almost too fast. You know, you know. Some of our international listeners might not be able to pick it up. We got the Apple, you know, Spotify and Apple. Mm-hmm. are doing captions now. Yeah. We share an ad network talk house. Mm. They turn that, they put that button, they hit the button. They hit the button? Then now we have captions in our podcast. Open the floodgates. Yeah. Yeah. Which I'm bittersweet about. I'm like, some of the stuff I say, I don't know if I need it transcribed and researchable on the World Wide Web.

57:17Jason Stewart:Yeah, yeah. I liked hiding behind the anonymity of thousands of hours of audio that needs to be scrubbed through, but our days are numbered. Have thought that. Well, I think you're going to be fine compared to the stuff that we are saying on Hell Long Gone. Probably correct. Which is no slight to you. No, I mean - I mean, you're a more responsible person. Different shows, different styles. But having those - It's rapid fire time, you guys. Just do it. Best fruit. Best fruit. I'm trying to think of, I think last time I said bananas. I need to offer - Right now, I'm feeling watermelon. Great. the worst vegetable worst vegetable is i i uh radicchio yeah rough but do you agree with that whenever people do the rapid fire and they say something and you you you always agree i don't know if you always agree no i i definitely disagree sometimes i'll push back hard i think radicchio i think about the worst version of radicchio which is like really really bitter and really really soft and like not not the right really bitter really soft it's i think it's an ingredient that obviously can be done very beautifully but it requires some more mastery that most people are not able to achieve yeah they usually and we're gonna grill it and put it on something and then by the time it hits your plate it is soft and it feels like you're chewing bugs you know it's just a bitterness that can only be insect related if anyone ever says broccoli i push back like broccoli broccoli is the greatest vegetable it's like easily greatest i i love also I'm not I'm not I realize I'm not into ramps yeah ramps are tough I mean yeah hates everything I like I'm agreeing with you okay what is your typical breakfast typical breakfast it always changes lately I have been I've been eating oatmeal oh yeah I want a protein max and have my 11 egg omelet but I literally cannot choke it down it's truly nasty but I'm doing an oatmeal I I will get a pan going I'll melt some uh cook some dates down with some butter lots of cinnamon no sugar just the sweetness from the dates I'll roast some walnuts from J &J Farms that you get at at McCall's or cookbook that costs way too much money or some nice pecans yeah and you know boom off you go you can do some berries are these still cut like you're cooking for a couple hours no no no these are like five minute cooking bing bang get it going no I'll do I'll do butter and then I'll do a little coconut coconut milk in there a restaurant you wish you could bring back from the dead.

59:49Jason Stewart:Restaurant to bring back from the dead. Okay, let's go with Humji Park. Yeah. Actually, well, there was that and there was another Korean spot. It was called Tahoe 2 or something like that, but it was the first Korean restaurant that was an all-you-can-eat spot that was actually good and you could smoke in there. Oh, wow. Yeah. So they had a back room that was like Korean guys only, but it was all-you-can-eat and you can just get the brisket and you're pounding beers and the worst soju ever and it's like 19 and you could just go ham on it and then if you keep the cigarette under the table and i've talked about it before on something i've written but the the flywheel of cigarette beef and beer repeating yeah it's pure bliss it feels it feels like that's like you know like an hour outside of pohong i know right like you're in you know like a smaller korean town with like steel workers and instead it's a minute outside of chick-fil-a uh when you're speaking of that when you're craving fast food where are you going craving fast food um there's a place in la called oinkster which you probably have heard of it's i don't know if it's fast food but yes it's it's fast food slow it's good but i've been friends with the owners for a long time super super solid good beer selection but they have this baconator is basically their version of kind of like a crispy bacon burger with some barbecue sauce and it's just perfect it's just it the the carls jr western bacon cheeseburger kind of vibe going on and then you can get um chili fries with no cheese so they have a really good clean chili and just really good belgian fries that they they double cook there and the right potatoes and then just pour on some chili no cheese no sour cream and it's like it scratches the itch a lot of protein bring back the the rotisserie chicken though they used to do a great rotisserie chicken plate and you can get like it was like nine bucks a leg and a thigh some black beans and some red cabbage slaw yeah is that up in the park where is that it's in uh eagle rock eagle rock that's right okay great spot but if i if i'm not going there, In-N-Out, and Del Taco are my spots.

1:02:10Oh, Del? Not Taco Bell.

1:02:12Jason Stewart:No, I'm a... I can't believe we've never talked about this, but Del Taco, I've been going there since I was a wee child, and it's my... It's my number one. I used to eat Taco Bell, now I find it disgusting. Okay, so I've never been to a Del. I mean, it's a regional hit. They don't have it out here at all. I need to hit Del. Whenever you do go there, you have to go with me so I can show you. Oh, let's go. Yeah, I'd love to get your order. Then you can be a minefield. It would be fun. Last one, your favorite sandwich? Favorite sandwich. I mean, they have, we've discussed so many of them already and it's hard to, you know, I've had so many good ones.

1:02:48Jason Stewart:I really love either a classic BLT or the number one, like in terms of like satisfying my, my childlike trauma or whatever you're, whatever reason you're eating the sandwich for is like country potato bread, like from the supermarket a little sweetness to it you know like the whole grain but it's kind of sweet and it has like the oats on the on the crust yes so that mayonnaise iceberg lettuce tillamook cheddar turkey lunch meat yeah and then you know you can do an avocado if you have some tomato that's ripe you can throw it on there but just basically turkey iceberg yeah and and standard cheddar and I can, you know, that one is just so satisfying to me.

1:03:37Jason Stewart:What's the mayo? The mayo, I mean, I like Duke's or Hellman's you know, QP I think we've discussed it, but QP you know, it's been abused a little bit too much Can't use it too much MSG, I love MSG but I can't put it on sandwiches I love that Spanish mayonnaise, that like that little shrimp on there that shit is, that's my mayonnaise these days. Yeah, and the Graza mayo I tried, it's not bad I like the flavor the texture is a little different it is I mean Ayo Molly Ba is like good mayo I love that yeah I mean it is a good mayo and Molly is a friend it is powerfully flavored so you have to adjust your sandwich around it but once you figure out how to do it you're in a good spot I figured out the dill one is the fish filet sauce it's like the same it's like the ratios are almost textbook which nothing wrong with that props to Molly well Jason I hope you can come back This has been a lot of fun.

1:04:31Thank you so much for joining This is Taste.

1:04:32Jason Stewart:The pleasure's all mine, Matt. Thank you.

1:04:59by Steve Rydell. Episode portraits by Louise Zergon Pomeroy. Logo design by Ellie Skirzat and Ian Dingham. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.