Taco Bell vs. Del Taco
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And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility. Go to Indeed.com slash listen and tell them you heard about them from this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Today we debate tacos. What kind? It's the Dell versus the Bell. This is a hot dog is a sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? What?

Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole. She's the bell and I'm the down. Today we're scorching your world with the hottest political takes from the Libertarian Party. Nicole, hit them with it. No government in my tacos, please. Don't tread on my quesadilla. That's right. Shreddice. More like...

give people autonomy? Something like that. Do you remember Gary Johnson, libertarian political candidate? No. His whole thing, I think this was 2016, his whole thing was just like,

Guys, we should really make pot legal. And then somebody during like a debate or a town hall thing was like, but what about the rise in cardiac arrest or marijuana or something? And then he pretends to have a heart attack on stage and falls to the ground and gets up. Funny. You know, I don't generally agree with libertarian politics, but I thought Gary Johnson's fake heart attack was funny.

What about Howard Dean's, uh, yeah. Yeah! If you really look at, I mean, he ran an incredible grassroots campaign. Anyways, today we are talking about Taco Bell versus Del Taco. Can we put our laptops away for this? Put our laptops away. Josh, I think we should be honest with our lovely viewers. We did shoot another podcast earlier today where we ate Jollibee, and now we're going to eat Del Taco and Taco Bell together.

And I'm so full, I just burped up pancit paravok. But because I care about this podcast and about giving the people what they want, nay, what they deserve, I'm going to suffer and eat like a mountain of fast food. You know, a lot of people say the hardest job is being a mother. We know that's not true. The hardest job is being a podcast host where you have to eat silly little things. Yes.

So difficult. No, I feel like I am uncomfortably full right now. Me too. I did just go walk for an hour. We have to do this. We'll nibble and nosh. We'll nibble and nosh. I'm nibble. And I'm... And we're bringing you the best far-right Jewish news from... What did I say?

What are we talking about on that side, huh? Somehow only, the only political commentators on AM radio are just so far to the right. Are there like, I don't listen to the radio. Me neither. The only time I do is when I'm in an Uber and it's like, you know, 530 AM, you're Ubering to the airport and there's just some upsetting things still on AM radio. I don't, I ask them to put on music or just turn it off. Um,

Okay, Del Taco versus Taco Bell. I need my laptop for this. Some people might not know what Del Taco is. Del Taco is, as far as like this era of fast food Mexican, it's the second biggest chain in America. Behind Taco Bell? Behind Taco Bell. Taco Bell, and it's far behind Taco Bell. But for us, it's very special and very regional. If y'all haven't heard of Del Taco, it is, I grew up on it. They used to have, you know, three for a dollar Taco Tuesdays. They'd have 59 cent soft chicken Taco Tuesdays. They capitalize on Taco Tuesdays.

Yeah, a long time ago. Didn't Taco Bell also have like a small campaign doing competition? I'm sure they did. Listen, everyone, everyone loves an alliteration. But there's about 600 Del Taco locations. There's like 400 Taco Johns, 300 Taco Times. Right. But Taco Bell really is the king of this world. Del Taco is making a huge expansion push. The irony is they were founded within 100 miles of each other and within like two years of each other. Interesting. Back in the day, Taco Bell, right, was in, God, was Taco Bell downy? I think

I think Taco Bell was in Downey in 1962, and then Del Taco was out in a city called, like, Yermo outside of Barstow. Oh, I think I see the signs for Yermo when I go to Vegas. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So that was out in the desert, and Del Taco has been slowly expanding since. They have since opened. They're starting to get to the East Coast. They've opened, like, Pittsburgh. They got a location in Guam now. So Del Taco could be coming to your neighborhood soon.

And so you might be interested in this. Nice. Should I tell you what I ordered from each place? Absolutely. Okay, so we're going to start with the Del Taco menu. We got their new Trejo's Tacos Roasted Pork al Pastor Epic Burrito because I know you're all about trying the newfangled thing at any pasta place. Absolutely am. And then we also got their Beer Battered Crispy Fish Taco made with stone, trademark, Buena Vesa Salt and Lime Lager. Dude, that is one of my favorite beers of all time. Is it? The Buena Vesa Salt and Lime. Yeah. Perfect. Okay, good.

It's like a gelada, but in a can. Not like a... Meat gelada. Not a meat gelada. Just a gelada. A gelada. So there's meat geladas, cubanas, and geladas in different regions. Use them interchangeably. But I would call like a meat gelada something with either like a tomato or a hot sauce or spice base. And then gelada is just salt and lime. Which I love. Which I love too. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I throw a little maggie in there.

And then we got the Del Taco Crunchy. We got a Chicken Taco Del Carbon. We got something called a Bun Taco. Have you heard of the Bun Taco at Del Taco? No. Okay, literally I saw it and I'm like, click, like instant click. It's taco meat in a, it's literally sloppy, Joe. It's taco meat inside of a burger bun. Oh, well that's, okay, so Taco Bell used to have that. They called it the Bell Beaver. Bell Beaver, yes, but they have this. It's called the Bun Taco.

Interesting because Del Taco, one of the big differentiating factors is they have cheeseburgers and fries. And they have pork and shellfish and fish, which I think is so interesting. My theory is that Del Taco has been trying to scrape the ends of the bell curve because like they got to be Taco Bell somehow. Taco Bell is such a stranglehold. Right. Marketing, decades of consumer confidence. Del Taco has gone the cheapest. They've made their original Del Tacos cheaper than Taco Bell. Yeah.

And then they are going for the more premium items. So I've had like a steak and shrimp burrito from Del Taco that probably cost like eight bucks. And it was just delicious. So now they're partnering with Danny Trejo, who Godspeed, I think he filed for bankruptcy. Anyhow, Danny Trejo founded Trejo's Tacos in Los Angeles. They're making al pastor. Yeah. Crazy stuff, dude. I'll tell you all about the details. Crazy stuff. We also have the crunch tata tostada as well as the chicken cheddar quesadilla.

So this is our Del Taco menu. That's incredible. Do you want to dig into that or do you want to know what we got from Taco Bell? Let's dig into Taco Bell. Let's see where we can find some differences. Okay. With the Taco Bell, so I got their crunchy taco, of course. I got their nachos, cheese, Doritos Locos tacos because why not? A little specialty item. I got their burrito supreme. Love it. Mexican pizza. My mouth is watering.

The chicken quesadilla, cheesy gordita crunch, and because, again, I know you love high-ticket, cool, like, awesome items, I got you a Crunchwrap Supreme with a big Cheez-It inside. Oh, my God. Have you tried that yet? I haven't had that yet. Me either. No.

But that shows like where they're kind of going, right? Like Taco Bell, the big time, cheese it, big old new thing. And then Del Taco's like, hey, we got like a real Mexican actor that people know who has a restaurant. I'll say this. I'll say this. Taco Bell leaning into the cheese quite hard. Yes. They're all about the cheese. They're all about the queso. Cheesy street chalupa.

They had the queso lupa, which is Spanish for cheese chalupa. There's so much cheese in Taco Bell's menu. But I think Del Taco really focuses on proteins and like having cool, different, awesome proteins. I've never actually had Del Taco before. What the fudge? I've had Del Taco once. I've had it once before. And I think I just had a tacos al carbón once.

Why are you looking at me like that? Because that's incredible. I do remember the tacos al carbón. Sorry, taco del carbón. Yeah, yeah, we have one of those. Tacos del carbón. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Era when they came out with those. Because they were like, hey, we can make real tacos too. And I remember them being good. Where should we start? I don't know. But also the Burrito Supreme has steak in it. I decided to go with steak. Yeah, we got to do steak. We got to differentiate our portfolios. This was, okay, so the Del Scorcho. Oh.

Uh-huh. This is the OG like hottest restaurant sauce. This is hotter than the fire sauce, but then Taco Bell came out with Diablo. Oh, well, they look the same. I never tested them together. I shall be exclusively using Del Scorcho, me thinks. Okay, I will too. Me thinks, m'lady. Tips the fedora. I also think I got, I tried to get mild and hot, but they didn't put it in my order, but we do have the avocado salsa. I think the hot at Taco Bell, a lot of people say it's their favorite. To me, there's a weird spicing to it. I like the fire.

Fire sauce is also my favorite. Nice and tomatoey. Where are we starting? Let's start with T-Bell. Oh, well, okay. Crunchy taco versus crunchy taco? Let's... Okay, sure. Okay. So, it used to actually be called Casa Del Taco, which makes a lot more sense. Really?

And then they dropped that name, I think, in the early 70s. Also, there was a schism and Naugles. You've heard of Naugles tacos? Never in my life of being alive. They were like a small chain. I think they shut down, but they're on their way back. But they split off of Del Taco back in the day. Do we eat the same thing together? No, I think we should take... I'll take a bite of this and give it to you, or you take a bite of that and give it to me. Okay. You can have first bite of everything because I'm grosser. That's not true. You're not gross. To me, in my mind...

I would think that Taco Bell's crunchy taco is considerably better because I think the meat is spiced better. But I haven't ever tasted them side by side like this. It tastes pretty good. I will say it looks like the cheese has melted on the Del Taco one significantly more. The Del Taco taco, it's a lot bigger. It is a lot bigger and it's not softer. Like the corn, like the corn is a softer corn. Wow, I'm so sorry.

Taco Bell wins this one by a landslide. By a mile. There's too much cumin in the Del Taco one. Del Taco meat, it's not seasoned as well. I mean, this is bordering on a Jack in the Box taco, right? Yes. Like the meat feels like it has more filler. And I know Taco Bell has gotten in trouble. With their fillers? Only 88% beef, whatever. Del Taco is probably running like 79 to 81%.

This is no contest. Yeah. Crazy. But I know this is where they make their money. I was arguing with somebody once, which was probably you, about... Surprise, surprise. I would have thought that Taco Bell's highest selling item is like a Crunchwrap or something. What is it? By far, it's a Crunchy Taco. Uh-huh. Crunchy Taco, Soft Taco, Bean Burrito are the top three sellers. Wow. And then everything else is just a marketing ploy. Nice. To get people to buy more Crunchy Tacos. Right? People are buying sacks of 20 Crunchy Tacos for football games. Mm-hmm. Not doing all the other stuff. So Taco Bell, to me...

That crunchy taco, it's the standard bear. It's like a 9.5 out of 10. Can I have an El Scorcho? El Scorcho? I am using it as a palate cleanser. Yeah, yeah. Let's sip the Del Scorcho. See where it ranks compared to Fire. I haven't had this in a long time. I'm doing it by Diablo. Is that not fair? Should it not be Diablo? Should it be Fire? Del Scorcho is good, man. Del Scorcho is so good. Del Scorcho is good. Well, Diablo is a new one. Okay, fine. I'll take it. I mean, new-ish. It's probably, what, like six, seven years old, but...

- Diablo has a very unique point of view. - It has a nice sweetness. - More acid, more spice than the Del Scorcho. - Yeah, Diablo has less sugar. - I love that these just all start with water and tomato paste. They're both good though. - They're both delicious.

And I'll see you next time.

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Where do we go here? Let's try burrito. You can try. So that's the al pastor one that you have from Danny Trejo. This is fascinating. Right? This is massive. Look at that. Do you know what the price difference was on this? You versus the guy. He tells you not. She tells you not to worry about. Oh, God. This is the size of a Chipotle burrito. And honestly, when you open it, it looks like the quality of a legit sit down Mexican restaurant. That looks really good. You know? Uh-huh.

Dude. Is it really good? Dude, what? It's excellent. Really? I can't cross-pollinate sauces. Let me look at the price difference between the two. So it looks like the Burrito Supreme is $5.39, and then the Trail Taco is $7.99, but to be fair...

It's more than 30% bigger. Yeah. Also, I feel like from what I can see, it's not a lot of squirties going on. You know what I mean? Like they're not squirting stuff in there. They're thwapping stuff on there. Dude, this is hefty and thick and delicious. Oh my God. Look at that. That looks like a Chipotle burrito. I'm telling you, like Taco Bell is blessed and cursed in a certain way. That Taco Bell can never taste like anything but Taco Bell. Yeah. At the end of the day, Taco Bell tastes like Taco Bell. Maybe I renege that though because their new cantina menu is something that's really interesting. For the first time, they're putting like

purple cabbage in there. You know, like the avocado salsa they have. Can you grab me one of those? Mm-hmm. Because the new avocado salsa, like, this is really good. Shelf-stable. Yeah. Salsa aguacate. A little, like, it's kind of like salsa verde with a little bit of avocado blended in, but it's really, really delightful. Mm-hmm. They used to have a proper salsa verde. Mm-hmm.

And a chipotle salsa. Do you remember the chipotle salsa? No, but I remember the Verde. I remember I dressed up as a Verde one day. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Give me this. Yeah, Taco Bell burritos are always like a soup dumpling. I don't love Taco Bell. I don't go to Taco Bell for the burritos. I like to get a Taco Bell burrito. And Maggie, I'm so sorry. Do not edit this out, Nicole. Say something of value so she can't edit it. Because what you do is you push it to the top. Dollars. Cents. Quarters.

Coins. Pay for money. You can't slurp a Del Taco burrito. But maybe that's a point to it, no? That's a hallmark of Taco Bell. Everything stupefies itself. But I don't like the idea of slurping up my ridos. You're gonna get stupefied. Hurrah! That was my David Draymond of Disturbed Impression song, Stupefied.

If you have to explain it. I know. Burritos, where are you going? Even though it's 30% more expensive. Okay. Well, also I'm biased because I don't like rice in my burritos, but I think the protein tastes so much better in the Del Taco one. So I'm going to go Del Taco. Even though...

Taco Bell, I don't love, I don't, I don't know. Taco Bell's good, but the Del Taco tastes better. It tastes like a real cantina situation. Dude, this is a real... Yeah. I have not seen food this... Legit? Legit. Coming out of a fast food restaurant in a long time, right? I know, right? Like, this feels incredible. I wish you could see this pork. If you're on YouTube, you can a little bit, but it doesn't do it justice. Like...

This is because they came from a taqueria, because it did. Which is crazy. It's very well seasoned. Yeah, they did a good job. You know, it's almost like a little too heavily seasoned in a way, but damn. I think it's pleasant. No, it's like pleasant. And the size that you get for $8, that's pretty money. And if you're trying to paint the corners of that bell curve, dude, Del Taco, you're doing it, man. Okay, let's see. We got Mexican pizza versus what is this? Crunch Tata? Oh, no. How?

Can Del Taco, this again proves my theory, but how can you go from this like beautiful burrito al pastor to the crunched tata tostada? I know this is their value. This is their value menu item, right? Yeah. So it's a tough fight between that because Taco Bell, I think they got rid of their tostada. They have a cheese tostada right now. Cheese tostada, yeah. What are you going to do? Incredible. But this does look a little bit sad. It's, you know, just beans, cheese, lettuce on...

A tortilla. It's not good for delivery. This is not a delivery product. No, no, no. But also, like, the tortillas at Del Taco seem to be markedly worse, I'd say. Yeah, they do fall apart much quicker. Right? They're a lot softer. They're not as sturdy. No, they're not as sturdy. When you're, you know, slopping a bunch of liquid beans on it. It does taste really good, though. It tastes great. Mm-hmm. I wonder, bean for bean, who wins? That tastes really good. I actually really... I prefer the freshness of this to the...

insane duskiness from the red sauce from the Mexican pizza. The red sauce? I've never been the biggest Mexican pizza guy. I think people think I would have. You're more of a crumb trap guy. I'm more of a crumb trap guy. You need the vegetables. Except for there's white watery tomatoes on there. This like bean lettuce cheese, this is like something that I grew up eating at my friend's house growing up. Same, same, same, same. When we'd be playing like Dave Mira freestyle at his place when I was like nine years old, his dad would make

make almost this exact same tofusata for us as a snack. Like with the iceberg lettuce. This is a dude, I don't know if you remember me telling the story where I was like, hey, why do you use lettuce instead of cabbage? And he goes, because we're not poor. And he kind of like exploded at me a little bit. Well, he served some prison time. So like, you know, I don't think he had his emotions fully in check. But also that was when I learned that like, oh, cabbage, according to him, is for poor people and lettuce is for rich people. Who knew? Lettuce does spoil faster. Makes sense. That's very good. I haven't had a Mexican pizza in a minute.

Give this a whack. I'm gonna tell you something. It's not very good. I'm sorry. Mexican pizza slander. Starting with me. Didn't they try to remove this and people had an aneurysm or something? Was it like ice spice or something? Someone brought it back. Ice spice? Dude, who was it? Maggie Gillib-- No, Cardi-- Was it Cardi? Was it Cardi B? Ice spice brought back the Mexican pizza! Doja Cat! Oh, no! Well, have people forgiven Doja Cat? Hair grow long like Chia. Money grow long like Nia. Big Nia Long fan.

I hope you know I'm using all these sauces as a palate cleanser because I need it. As you should. If we pick the crunched tata tostada... Does it make me a worse person? I think it's a bit of an injustice, but I think we have to. If I'm being honest, I significantly enjoyed that more than the Mexican pizza. Me too. Me too. Josh, we're here to be honest. The people crave honesty now, you know? They've been... They're being...

manufactured false information, fake news. It's up to us to be honest. - We're the real truth tellers here. - Yeah, that's right. - 'Cause I'm the Del Scorch in your brains with the fieriest Green Party takes. - Josh, take out the-- - Jill Stein woulda won! - Take out the quesadilla. - What's she up to, man? What's Jill Stein doing these days? Marianne Williamson, I'm telling you, listen, I don't-- - Don't Google it! - Taco, again, in my mind,

Taco Bell's quesadillas are like the greatest thing in the world, and they made the innovation of putting mayonnaise in them. Which is incredible. Wait, look at me. I'm rich. I feel like Nick Acato Avocado. Oh, God. Nick Acato Avocado duped us all into thinking he was killing himself, and then it turns out he just...

Was and then he wasn't. I don't understand, man. I don't know what's going on with YouTube anymore. It freaks me out. He's exactly the same to me. Taco Bell did revamp their grilled chicken a minute ago. I think they're doing better work than they used to. I used to work in a catering company that would use... It shared a commissary kitchen with Taco Bell, so they would use their... I would take home like 10-pound sacks of Taco Bell's pre-cooked grilled chicken and eat them for my own meal prep at home. No way. Yeah, and it's...

It's got a taste to it. This is a previous formula. It had such a unique taste to it that I got so sick of after a while. Yeah, I'm sure. Taco Bell, the mayonnaise with the hot sauce in it, that's really all it is. Their creamy jalapeno sauce. I think it's excellent. After a while, it just melts all together and all tastes the same.

But I think it turns it into like a self-saucing cheese, you know? Interesting. You know what I mean? What is Del Taco? Do we have any sauce in here? I don't think so. I will say Del Taco's chicken has always been one of my favorites because it is a whole chicken thigh part. It's just marinated and enzyme to hell. You know what I mean? Like there's a chemical tenderizer in it. But it's good? It's always been great. I can't taste the difference, Josh.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can you taste the difference? Del Taco's grilled chicken is miles, miles better. Try the chicken out of it. Whose chicken is it? I'm sorry. I feel like I'm drunk. This one's better? Try the Del Taco grilled chicken versus the Taco Bell grilled chicken. Okay, but I'm not picking out. But, you know, I'm not eating it like this. I'm not picking it out like this. I know, but I think if you're split even on which one is better, shade towards the one with the best grilled chicken. Del Taco, their protein game is miles ahead of. Well, Taco Bell clears on beef.

Okay, fair. You know, and I think that's what most people are going, but chicken quesadilla for chicken quesadilla, this to me is a bit of an upset. I am shocked at how good the Del Taco quesadilla is. They don't use the three cheese blend. They're just using cheddar, which is probably the best of the three cheeses in there, so might as well use it all. Right. But the grilled chicken's incredible. Is Del Taco winning, Maggie? It's three to one, Del Taco. Holy cannoli. Well, well, well. What do you want to eat now? I'm full.

Yeah, can we go home? Bestie, I'm full. I'm back for part two. Oh, we have to try the crumb trap with the cheese inside. I don't know what to compare it to. This podcast has been brought to you by Half Flat Fresca. I've seen Josh's Half Flat Fresca mug. Let me take a selfie. I'm so sorry. Okay, which one are we eating that against? This, the... Should I cut this in half? Now we're getting into some specialty items here.

Oh, man. Yeah, it's tough. Oh, man. Okay. The Del Beaver over here is... Looks like a sloppy Joe from hell. Yeah, this looks like a school sloppy Joe. Not one of them nice charter schools either. You know, this looks like public school sloppy Joe. This one's tough. This is tough. Their beef, as we've discussed, it's already not the best. It's really bad.

That bun is sacrilegious. I thought I didn't care about buns. I do. I care about a good bun.

You don't care about a bun until you eat a really bad bun. You know what I mean? The best buns should go unnoticed. What? The best buns should go unnoticed almost. Yeah. You know? You're so right. That is really bad. You notice this bun. I notice it, and it's not in a good way. It's horrible. They've also burnt it. Is it whole wheat? Is that a whole wheat bun? No, because look how lily white that is. But the outside is so dark brown. They've somehow, I can't tell at which stage of the cook it was burnt. Oh my God, it's really bad. But it has been burnt.

I don't know why they would be toasting it in the store. Ugh. Especially the top. Ugh. It's acrid. It's chewy. It's thick. Gotta have some fire sauce as a palate cleanser. Huge bummer. Ruined my day. Maybe even my week. Yeah, pretty bad. Let's try this Cheez-It. Okay, we've made the cardinal sin. Listen, this is a production. Letting a Crunchwrap sit, and now it's just a wrap. But this is a thick piece of... Toasty cheese? Oh, man. I can't make heads or tails of it.

It's interesting because the flavor of a cheese is really like oxidized cheese, right? Can you give me a fire sauce? Oh, sure. Here, you can just have the one I had in my mouth all over. I like to put... No, no, I need like a whole packet of fire sauce per bite. Okay, Princess Peach. How much fire sauce do you put on your Taco Bell? I literally hold one like this and I eat and I suck and I eat and I suck. Oh, you never put it on the Taco Bell. You only suck. Can you give me the Del Taco one even though I know I'm not supposed to? Please? Yes. I haven't even had the... Which one's this? I'm having a lot of fun here. The mild? Okay, okay.

This is really... I'm not having fun anymore. Josh, I feel like I'm a... You've made a Faustian bargain. I feel like I'm a concubine being fed. Because the person who owns the harem likes... Yeah, like them guinea pigs in Ecuador. They go... I like them.

And you know who's the owner of the harem? The algorithm. Yeah, the concubine harem algorithm. It really does sort of fit if you take the metaphor to its logical end. I don't like that. R.E., the crunch wrap with the big cheese in it.

It tastes worse than a normal crumb drop. But it tastes better than that abomination of a sloppy joe. This heavily toasted, oxidized, big cheese flavor. I don't like it. No, I think it steps on the nacho cheese. I don't think it's as good. It's significantly better than the Del B. Yeah, we're going to give this one to Taco Bell. Do me a favor. Let's just do one more thing. Let's eat the fish taco and then be done with it, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where's the fish taco? We're making a mess. What else we got?

Oh, it's that stuff. We got a CGC. Well, Fish Taco's got the driest limes you've ever seen. I've eaten plenty of Fish Tacos from Del Taco. They're pretty good. Are they good? They're pretty good. Now, we can either put this up against the Cheesy Gordita Crunch or the Doritos Locos Taco. I think it should be against the Doritos Locos Taco because it's branded. Did you hear what I said? Huh? Were you talking to me? Did you hear what I said? I'm so sorry. I thought you were talking to Maggie. I feel like I'm high.

I'm not. This is what kids used to do. They used to like smoke a bunch of weed and then like go to Del Taco. Yes. I'll tell you what we did is you would go to Del Taco with basically like as much money as you had in your pocket in high school. And you would kind of just hand it to the cashier and go like, what can I get with this?

Like that was kind of the relationship. Yeah, yeah. You know, then you'd like go down to San Clemente, T Street. Can you put some lime on that, please? You know, you'd start, you know, you'd be like skimboarding all day. Oh, he's talking about skimboarding again. Do a little bonfire at night. Someone start like throwing cans of spray paint in the fire. He's going to wonder what that does, you know. It was a gusher, baby. That was like eating a fish gusher. How was it? Good? It was really good. It was really good? It's not like getting a Filet-O-Fish at McDonald's.

That's a pretty good piece of fish. Pretty well fried. Cabbage, pico. You can taste cilantro, which is a unique thing that you don't often taste from Taco Bell. That's really delicious. What do you want? That's a good fish taco. Cheesy gordita crunch or Doritos Loco Taco? CGC. Really? CGC. This is my favorite menu item. And I think that's where Taco Bell really shines. In a place where Del Taco hasn't really tried to compete.

In the wacky, tabacky... Look how white the lettuce is. It's quite white. I like the white parts of the iceberg. That's like the creamiest, nuttiest part. You know what I mean? Why are you laughing at creamy and nutty? Does that win? This is the silliest part. We just speed ran the entire menu. Dude, I was supposed to cook a nice dinner tonight. Maggie's asking me what this was. What? Where? Anything you say to her, you can say to me.

I was asking what CGC stands for. Oh, it's really obvious. Shut up. I kind of like Del Taco more. What did we learn about this? I learned that me and you can't eat like this anymore. Get a hold of this, man. I'm going to go home and eat a protein shake for dinner. Honestly, I will say Del Taco actually had an incredible showing.

And I'm quite impressed with, no, you don't need to eat that just because it's there. What's the, there's like an Einstein quote that's like if you judge a dolphin on its ability to fly. Climetry. Yeah, you know what I mean? But it's like you should be judging a dolphin on its ability to sexually harass researchers in the 1960s who were doing a bunch of acid. I don't think he said that. Because dolphins are great at that.

I don't think you said that. But no, you should, you know, judge them on their core competencies. I think Taco Bell's beef slop is one of the best items to ever come out of any fast food. And you put that in a Crunchwrap Supreme, it's great. You put that in a hard taco, it's great. Cheese and gordita crunch, that's great. I think everywhere else, Taco Bell is starting to fall short. I think they're coming up on it on the cantina menu and they're finding their stride. Very strong cantina menu, which we didn't taste today, but if you have it at your local Taco Bell, you should eat it. But like...

Beef slop and liquid cheese is where Taco Bell really shines and their inventiveness. Del Taco, really good job with premium proteins. I don't know, man. This fish taco tasted like a straight out of like a regular, it tastes like a Wahoo's. It was really good. The corn, the quality of the corn tortilla that they use also, I'm quite pleasantly surprised. I thought it was really, really delicious. I thought that their al pastor was great.

I don't know, man. I don't know if I'm going to give it to Del Taco, but maybe I am. What are we doing? What are we doing, Josh? I want to agree with you on this one. They're honestly so different. Like you said, this grilled chicken taco, it looks like it's from an actual taqueria, right? Yeah. You know? I think they can live in tandem. I don't think we need to crown a winner here. Really? I think we're fine. What if they come out with pitchforks saying, like, pick a winner! Pick a winner! Okay, one, two, three, Taco Bell. Like, I don't know. They have 8,000 locations. Del Taco has 600. They're doing something right. Man, what are you going to do?

Okay, now record an alt in case anyone wants to spot this. Del Taco, duh. The food is so much better. Yeah, the little man won.

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Just beautiful.

Whatever you love, find it on eBay. eBay. Things people love. Well, now that we can physically feel the inflammation rising through our entire bodies, my face is puffier than it was before we did all that. Is mine puffier than before? Yeah, but it's cool because we're right next to each other, so people are just going to think they messed up something in the lenses. Okay, good. Why are we using these fisheye lenses that look all puffy? Do I have anything in my teeth? No, it's the beef slop. No, do I?

I can feel it. When I smiled, I felt like... Oh, my God. It's a big black dot. Just a huge... Oh, it's like lodged. What is it? In the middle? No, it's on the edge right here. Yeah, what are you going to do? It's going to stay there. I don't think there were any black beans. It's black bean skin. That'll get you. I think I have a flosser. Hold on. Nicole, tell them what the segment is. Robot Maggie O. And now it's time for a new segment where Josh and I put our food trivia knowledge to the test. It's time for our very own trivia segment called...

Yummy in my tummy got some trivia for you. Robot Maggie has three questions prepared. Josh, you and I will wait until the question is completed, and then we will answer. If wrong, the other person will get one chance to guess and earn the point. Let's hear the first question, buddy. What are you looking for? A floss pick. I normally have one in my wallet. Do you want to? Do you want to? Yeah. Do you mind?

Horrible. Ew. Oh, God. Okay. First question. First question! Which spice is derived from the crocus flower and is one of the most expensive spices in the world? We both know it. One, two, three. Saffron. The correct answer is saffron.

Okay, next one, Robot Maggie. Which fruit is known as the king of fruits? I know it! I know it! One, two, three. Durian! The correct answer is durian. Maggie, you're going to have to give us some toughies, boo. No, but I kind of like this. Robot Maggie. No, I want to win. Okay, let's see if the last one divides us. Where does German chocolate cake actually come from? I'll ring in. I know. United States of America? It's American. I just don't know exactly where.

Yeah, where or what state or city I have a guess. Okay, go ahead. I'll let you take this one. I'm gonna guess Minnesota.

I'm going to guess Philadelphia. The correct answer is Dallas, Texas. No way. Interesting. We both got America. I knew it was America. And Philly was a great guess because like Germantown is a thing. But I thought for some reason Minnesota. Big cake baking church pot. It sounds like a church pot like dish. I don't know if it's from Dallas. I feel like I've heard that before. But also there's like coconut in German chocolate cake. It doesn't make sense that it would be. Did we both win or did we both lose? Do we have any other tiebreakers?

All right. None? Meg, you just ask us a question about food. What's your favorite food? Oh, I got it. Choose for us. I know it. Nicole wins. Okay. Well, yeah. All right, Nicole. All right, Nicole.

Let's listen to that first opinion out there. A lot of people out there got a lot of opinion. Hi guys, you are my son's favorite podcast. And so he and I listened to your podcast when we're on road trips together. And I thought it would be so fun if he was listening to an episode and he heard me. So this is Laura from Maryland. And my food take is that ganache is better than hot fudge. So.

So instead of having that gross corn syrupy, too sugary hot fudge on your ice cream, you just melt some dark chocolate with some heavy cream and you get it into a nice chocolate sauce and then you just plop it on your ice cream and it is way better. Thanks, guys. Bye.

Laura. What did they say? Laura from Maryland and Son. This is a very good opinion. I didn't understand what the other thing was other than fudge. Effectively, why use hot fudge on ice cream when ganache is kind of just like... Oh, she said ganache. Ganache. Oh, so much better. It's so much better.

It's so much better. The world's better. Well, they're... Okay, so hot fudge... I was trying to think, like, what the real differences are, but it's... Yeah, it's kind of just corn syrup. Corn syrup's what gives hot fudge that runniness because corn syrup, as it gets colder, is going to get less sort of flowy and then it gets hotter, but...

that's also just what the chocolate and the heavy cream do in ganache. Yeah, the heavy cream allows it to flow. And then the interesting thing with ganache is then you're getting like real chocolate flavor. I had, what did I have recently that had such an aggressive chocolate extract flavor? So if you eat like a Tootsie Roll, for instance. That's chocolate extract. That's chocolate extract. And that's what I always associate that like,

you know, kind of chemically hot fudge flavor with, I also happen to love it, dude. Me too, me too. I probably had like an eight-year gap in my life where I didn't have hot fudge on ice cream. Uh-huh. You would just melt down Tootsie Rolls? No, I just, it just never came up. Why didn't, why didn't? I eat a lot of ice cream. I just, you know, I never really got hot fudge. And then I had it for the first time in a long time. And I was like, oh, that's, that is a nice thing to have. Why doesn't Tootsie Roll invent like a...

Like a hot fudge. Why would they? A Tootsie Roll has been, you know, operating. I imagine they make 99.7% of their profits during Halloween. And nobody actually eats them, but they do get consumed and thrown in the trash. When you were a kid and you had Halloween candy, did you always like eat? Segment them, yeah. But you'd eat all of it and then the last things remaining would be lollipops and Tootsie Rolls.

You didn't eat all of your Halloween candy? What happened to it? Almond mom. Almond mom. Almond mom. I was an almond joy dad who said, give me all your almond joys and then you can just binge eat the rest of your candy. That's nice. No, she would give me some, but mostly it would be like the Nerds and like some Snickers and then like, but no Fun Dips. Fun Dips were automatically out. Yeah. Raisins. She would let me eat the raisins.

You know, houses that would give raisins and apples. That's another thing. As you get older, you start to really see the merit in houses giving raisins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm down with houses that give raisins. I know people might not agree with that. But regardless, ganache better than hot fudge. I agree. 100%. Laura, you are great. And I'm sure your son is great. You got a great mom. And if she's making ganache, putting it in your ice cream. Cool moms! When I get older, I used to want to be the house that gave king-size candy bars. Now, check this out.

I'm going to dry my own fruits. I'm going to package them. I'm going to give them out. It's going to cause a whole hubbub in the HOA. No, no, no. Don't do that. They're going to get mad. They're going to go, this person's creepy as hell. I'm not letting my kid eat that. You need to only give closed packaged candies to the kids. Nope. I'm going to dry. Check this out. Check this out. I'm going to dry my own raisins on the vine. You're not ready for parenting.

Dry my own raisins on the vine. You're not ready for parenthood. And then I'm going to put them in cute little gift bags. Four candy bars at Nicole's house. Everybody come to Nicole's house. She has four candy bars. Nicole's house had four size Twix bars. Why don't you have them, mister? And I'm going to go. So these are actually. Because we're going to live so close to each other. These are actually Catalonian sultanas that I've rubbed out with rosemary oil. Are we going to live in the same neighborhood? Yeah. Great. Sounds like fun. Our house is right next door to each other, actually.

We're going to have a zip line in between them. It's just me and David hanging out playing COD. The kids could zip line between our houses. That would actually be so fun. Mine are probably going to be heftier than yours, though. No, mine will be. Have you seen David's baby pictures? Have you seen my baby pictures? Oh, did David's baby? Yeah, you guys got some. Yeah, we all got some heft to us. Nice Simone looking. You should be so lucky. Have a little football playing, baby. Next opinion.

That was gross. Oh, okay. So I just wanted to point something out when it comes to McDonald's, by the way. So the McFlurry straw. Or it should have been a straw. That spoon that they use to mix the McFlurry, it should have been a straw. Weird, weird. Why aren't we talking about this? What do you mean why are we not talking about it? My dog left. What are you talking about? Because he doesn't want to talk about this anymore. So can we talk about this? Yes. Love the pot. Bye. Okay.

I got it. I got it. No, no, no. What do you mean? The chunks don't go through the freaking straw. There's no straw. The McFlurry spoon is not a straw. That's fine. There's an opening that makes you look like you should wrap your mouth around it and suck. Yeah, but you have to be smart enough to know that that's to go into the machine. What are you talking about? Well, he is. He is. No, he recognized that. He recognized that.

So what's the problem? If it looked like a straw and it's sitting in something that kind of looked like a milkshake, I should be able to suck it. Okay, but you know that a McFlurry has big old... He should be able to suck it. McFlurries have those big little chunkies in there. They can't go through a straw. Well, yeah, but no...

I think he would also maybe... This was before... Maybe he would argue that the Chunkies should be smaller. This is before Boba took over a nation, you know, with the big straws and the tapioca. This is before that. That's the thing. I first had Boba in 2004, right? About 12 years old. I had it in Westwood. I had it in Westwood. What year? I don't know. But it was at that Boba place next to UCLA. You know, the Boba Loca? What?

Yeah, Boba Luka's been open that long? I think so. We had never seen straws that big. That was the main thing. The tapioca pearls and the drinks and the ceiling technology, that was all very new. But more than anything, big-ass straws. Cool-ass big-ass straws. Never seen anything like that. What we had were the promise, or at least the temptation, of a McFlurry big-ass straw.

You know, but you're right. They got a Rolo McFlurry. You're going to suck half chunks of Rolos through that? No. No, it's going to get lodged in your throat. They were probably thinking about the lawsuits. They were thinking about the lawsuits. Yeah. What this man wants is called a milkshake. Go get a milkshake, baby. But, but, but. Also, don't call me.

gross i'm not that gross i did eat like 4 000 calories with a taco bell and del taco that was gross but as a whole i am not gross i shower often i smell i honestly smell so good right now what am i wearing coco mademoiselle i'm wearing coco mademoiselle i have fantastic deodorant on like i'm not gross i'm beautiful i will say mcdonald's standard straw is the thickest straw and maybe the sturdiest so i think it is the best for milkshakes but i i'm curious and please write us back

they think that boba straws should be the standard milkshake straw? Have we gotten to a point where we think straws should be so thick and round and voluptuous that that should be in every milkshake? Listen, does McDonald's have milkshakes? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. So, and then the McFlurry is something else. It's an ice cream base mixed with a candy. It's their blizzard. Yeah. Okay. So what? What's the big deal? Well, that's what I'm saying. I think what he wants is a milkshake. Okay. So get a milkshake and then have some cookies on the side. I don't know. Well, I think he wants a milkshake and a thicker straw. Okay.

Okay, well, then he needs to get a thicker straw. I know, but I... You know what you should do? He should buy his own straw. Should he have to provide that? Yes, he should provide his own straw. I'll tell you what I do. So there's a yoga-themed frozen yogurt restaurant. Yoga-ert? I love yoga-erts. Oh, my God, I know yoga-ert. Never been, but I know all about it. Driven past it for probably 12 years. Well, there's one on maybe Wilshire in...

in like Santa Monica area. I'd driven past it for probably 12 years and almost thought who would go to a yoga themed vegan frozen yogurt shop and then one day Julie and I go you know what we've lived in LA long enough and not gone into yoga and we did and it's just like lovely it's quirky it's weird they got like books and board games and I'm gonna throw up.

I love their little, it's just like blended cashews and dates. You know, like, yeah, whatever. This is good. And the problem is, though, they have the biodegradable wood spoons that make me feel physically sick. I love wood spoons. It makes my tongue physically recoil in my mouth. The thought. I love wood spoons. I have textural sensitivity issues. So does my husband. He can't hold certain paper bags. I have to hold them for him. Sorry, baby. I know you're watching right now. I love you so much. I think we're incredibly masculine. And it's okay that you have sensitivities. I believe in compromise and love. And part of that is holding bags for you. And you do other things for me.

And so what I do is I actually will, and this is something I've done multiple times, I will take a plastic spoon in there. That's okay. I'm bringing my own plastic spoon. That's fine. I can't do the wood thing. It makes me tired. That's fine. That's fine. So I'm saying this man could bring his own straws, you know? Bring your own straw. Why are you waiting for a handout?

Hey guys, Nicole. It's Jacob from Florida. You get it a lot, but I love the message. My hot take, which honestly seems pretty common, people give me crap for putting ketchup on eggs. You know, if I make an omelette, I'll make some ketchup. Or I'll just fry an egg, put it on some toast with some ketchup.

Josh, I feel like you might agree with me, but I'll have to wait and see. What about Nicole? Thanks. Love the work. What do you think about Nicole? What do you think about her? What do you think about her? I think you should say that because I historically kind of take the gross side.

And people will say ketchup on eggs is gross. Ketchup on eggs is delicious. No one says not putting ketchup on eggs is gross. Putting ketchup on eggs is great. I agree. What is your favorite ketchup on egg application? Scrambled! Scrambled, right? Hard scramble. Hard. Hard scramble. Hard dad scramble. Hard dad scramble. Hard Denny's ass, dad ass scramble. A little bit brown. I would even say quite brown. Bordering on like Thai omelette.

You know the Thai omelets that are like cooked in oil? What? No, that's Vietnamese and that's like a... Oh, man. I'm so stupid. I'm so stupid. You're not stupid. I'm a stupid girl. I mixed up Vietnamese food and Thai food. You're very smart for a girl. Stupid! Did you say I'm smart for a girl? No, I said you're such a smart girl. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Okay, sorry. Let's take that back. I like scrambled eggs and ketchup. Oh, my God. It's the best, isn't it? Right? It's actually like a Thai omelet. Yeah. What are they called? I don't know, actually. So I'll have to look it up. Um...

No, I think ketchup is less good with a fried egg. The runny yolk. I don't like when they mix into a sauce. I think it's so good. I don't like when they mix into a sauce. I love it. I actually really like it. Really? Also with hot sauce. So hot sauce, runny yolk, ketchup, butter.

Bada bing, bada boom, toast, dip, dip, yum. I'll go three to one, ketchup to sriracha. You eat sriracha in the mornings? I really do, yeah. I hate sriracha in the mornings. Well, that's where you and I differ. You know what I like? I like Tabasco in the mornings. I like Cholula. I like Tapatio. I'd be willing to even do a secret aardvark. No sriracha.

So I'll mix that together. And then sometimes when I'm really hard up for food, I'll scramble five eggs hard, real hard. And then I'll let it sit in a plate, let it cool a little bit, you know, go pee, probably wash my hands, come back so it's cool enough. And I just paw at it. You don't need to wash your hands after you pee. I

I feel like. You know what? I made that claim and I did the research. You should. I did the work. I'm talking about men. Yeah. No, no. I did the research. You like really should. Even if you're not touching your poopy? No. The problem is you're sitting, you're in a bathroom touching stuff where there's just poop particles everywhere. Oh. And there really are so many poop particles everywhere. Okay. You should really wash your hands. Not that I never like was, you know, I'm just not going to wash my hands, but it really reified the need. So the point is the eggs are cool enough to touch with the poo hands. Yeah.

you know and then I just swipe those in it's almost like dipping unlimited chips into unlimited salsa I just scoop the ketchup on the eggs and I slurp it off so yeah I fully agree ketchup on eggs um

People are too precious about like basic ass foods. If you want to get like real precious about like a cultural institution, you know what I mean? Like cassoulet should only be made with the finest de puy l'entouille or whatever. Sure. It's scrambled eggs, dude. Put whatever the hell you want on it. Right. Whatever's going to make your day a little bit better. Do you feel like you're going into like acute organ failure?

Oh, it's obtuse. Obtuse organ failure. Acute would be like one. You know, like boom. Pointed. Obtuse organ failure is like it's all shutting down. I feel really sick. But.

But on that note, thank you for listening to a hot dog is a sandwich. We got new episodes all the time. Not going to tell you when you just need to find out for yourself. Yeah. Keep clicking refresh on the YouTube page until a new episode comes up. No, I'll tell you when it's Wednesday, the audio version, of course. And then Sunday is when the video version comes out. Yeah. Nicole, what video platforms are we on?

YouTube only. Statistically, are they watching this on YouTube? Oh, also, you can check us out on... We have a TikTok. We have a TikTok, yeah. Check us out on Reels. We're on Reels. Do we still have an agreement with Snapchat, or is that dead? We're still publishing to Snapchat. Oh, we're still... Okay. Yeah, not as high a clip. CPM started dropping a little bit. They shifted their...

I think to spotlight more individual creators. Are we not individual creators? No. And we're not sure you're like individual creators on TikTok either, but we're still on Snapchat. Last Meal is on Snapchat. Okay, cool. If you want to leave us a message and call us gross or gorgeous, call us at 833-DOGPOD1.

And for more Mythical Kitchen, check out all of our other videos. They're all really, really good. Check us out on YouTube. I've really only been on Snapchat. I sent one picture on Snapchat. I stopped using Snapchat a long time ago. One picture. And then I stopped. But then there was like a summer. What kind of picture? Yeah, of course. And then there was one. I'm sorry? Huh? What kind of picture? Definitely. And then there was one summer when I would get recognized and people would be like, hey, you're the Snapchat show. Oh, and you think it's because it's that one picture? No.

No. Oh. No, because we were publishing a lot more on Snapchat and the views were a lot higher. You weren't cooking at 2013. No. No. I'll see you next time.

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