0:00

Hi, this is Rachel

0:02

McElroy.

0:17

Hi, this is

0:19

Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Welcome

0:22

to Wonderful. It's a show where we talk about things that's

0:24

good that we like that we're into. And

0:27

Rachel and I are celebrating a little anniversary

0:29

of our own not our 10 year wedding anniversary.

0:32

That one's coming up. It's coming up. Which

0:34

is

0:34

bonkers. A decade

0:38

for real. For us, it's our one

0:40

year anniversary here in Washington, DC. And I

0:42

just want to say, I feel first

0:45

of all, thank you. Thank you,

0:47

DC for that lovely gift

0:49

that you sent us. Acknowledging our one

0:51

year. It was a jam basket. A

0:53

jam basket. A basket of

0:56

jams, not in individual

0:58

jars, just a basket

1:00

of loose jam sort of seeping and

1:02

the bees, folks, there were so many

1:05

of them. Jams chosen by our

1:07

local representative. Yes. And

1:10

our alderman. I'm still here

1:12

for a year. I still don't understand how fucking

1:14

the government works because

1:16

it's not it's not real.

1:19

We don't have a real government because

1:21

we haven't quite decided like which type of thing

1:24

we are yet. Well, I think we

1:26

know we want to be a state. Absolutely.

1:28

We'd love to be a state. But we're not. Yeah.

1:31

And so we just kind of change things year

1:34

to year. I've been learning a lot about my local tax

1:36

liability.

1:36

And it's fucking

1:38

pretty wild that we don't get votes in the

1:41

Senate, the House for

1:43

anyway, we could go on and on. Listen

1:46

to us. We sound like locals. We're already

1:48

here. And

1:51

just thank you all. We did just get back from

1:53

Austin and just thank you to Austin for the basket

1:55

that you sent us, which just full

1:58

of queso. That was awesome, too. We like both.

1:59

with those. Jam and

2:02

K so do you think there's something there? No. Okay,

2:05

do you have a small wonder? Oh

2:07

man, I will say

2:09

like the, when we went to Austin,

2:13

we stayed in an Airbnb that

2:15

had like this little above ground

2:18

pool that wasn't a pool but

2:20

was a pool. It

2:22

was like the size of

2:25

a walk-in closet

2:27

and it was smaller

2:30

in depth than our six-year-old. There's

2:34

a specific set of people who will understand

2:36

this reference because it really is a perfect reference

2:38

point. It was a baptismal pool.

2:41

It was the exact dimensions of a baptismal pool,

2:43

waist high,

2:44

long enough to sort of dunk backwards in or

2:47

be dunked backwards in.

2:48

It was exactly that size, which perfect

2:51

for kids. Yeah, I mean that was what

2:53

was great. Our six-year-old still

2:55

is not a proficient swimmer and so

2:58

he was excited. Not a bomb blast like that.

3:00

Well. Damn. No,

3:02

he's not. He doesn't like

3:05

the water very much. But

3:07

he was able to just stand in there and feel

3:09

pretty secure, which

3:11

is nice as a parent. It's like, oh good. You

3:14

never

3:14

had the experience of going

3:17

to church and they had at

3:19

our church, the baptismal pool was like behind

3:22

the stage, for lack of

3:24

a better term, and it was like elevated. So

3:26

like you could see when people went in there

3:28

and got their dunk on.

3:30

Wait, it was clear? You could see them

3:32

go under? Yeah, it was clear. It was

3:34

like a clear wall. Okay,

3:37

well I just, okay, wow, okay,

3:39

sorry. I have to say that the robot

3:42

that lives in my watch that I said, it inspired Michael

3:44

Jordan and took the dunk to another level.

3:45

Anyway,

3:48

it was always like you would see it and be like, they

3:50

get to swim and I don't. You only get to swim once

3:53

in that pool. And that's so messed up.

3:56

Anyway. Yes, it

3:58

was a great little pool. I liked it a lot. I

4:02

don't know if we're ready to talk about Love

4:04

After Divorce yet, the new Netflix South Korean. I

4:07

don't know if we are either because I don't think we've really decided

4:09

if we like it. It is a weird one. It's every episode is very

4:11

long. It's a new, well

4:12

it's not new. It's

4:14

been on in South Korea apparently for four seasons,

4:17

but this is the first one that's come to America on Netflix. And

4:20

it's just a bunch of divorcees

4:23

that live in a house together and stop me if you've

4:25

heard this one before folks. Well,

4:27

the divorcee angle is kind of new, although

4:29

there were a few in Love Village.

4:31

Well, and there's all these like weird things.

4:33

Like we just learned last night

4:35

about the gimmick where

4:37

you only learn certain facts at certain

4:39

points. Yes, you are forbidden from

4:42

revealing a set of personal

4:44

details like your age, where you live,

4:46

the reason for your divorce,

4:49

number of kids. Yes,

4:51

and at any given point during the

4:54

run of the show, they will give you an

4:56

opportunity to reveal pieces

4:58

of information. Yes. And

5:01

so the episode we watched last night was

5:03

just people talking about the reasons

5:04

for their divorce. Yeah, fun stuff.

5:08

Fun icebreaker stuff. Yeah,

5:10

I don't know if I if we like it yet. The vibe

5:12

is pretty good. The vibe is pretty good. They

5:15

do make a meal out of every little

5:17

fucking thing, which drives me wild.

5:19

There is the very first episode. There

5:21

is a like like

5:23

a C-shaped couch situation.

5:26

Yeah. And each person that comes

5:28

in chooses a place to sit. And

5:31

it is discussed at length by the panel

5:33

about where each person chooses to sit and

5:35

what it means about their potential attraction

5:38

to other people in the house.

5:38

It's fucking wild. Every time any

5:41

time anyone sits down at any

5:43

time anyone rests, the

5:45

location of their rest becomes a

5:47

matter of like high

5:50

drama. Any physical contact to

5:52

if a person's hand touches another person's arm.

5:54

Yes. Like the camera zooms in and then we talk

5:56

about it with the panel. I understand

5:58

that there are cultural differences. that we

6:02

navigate anytime we watch a reality

6:04

television show from our country that we're

6:07

not very familiar with. But

6:09

this feels like a show level

6:11

thing of just people

6:14

on love after divorce

6:16

really care about where they sit. Well,

6:19

and it doesn't seem like anything's edited.

6:22

I feel like I am watching this in real time. Yeah,

6:24

sure. Yeah, I

6:26

kinda like it. We'll see. Yeah, we'll definitely

6:28

keep watching. I mean, sure. Also

6:31

American Ninja Warrior this season, kinda cool.

6:33

They're doing this thing where they do races, like

6:36

one-on-one races at like the

6:39

second stage of the game.

6:40

And Rachel

6:42

and I watch every episode of American Ninja Warrior. We talk

6:45

about it very rarely, because I think we haven't decided if

6:46

we're ashamed of that. You say rarely, but I'm pretty

6:49

sure we talk about it every other episode. Okay, well this

6:51

season, like in order to make it to the

6:53

semifinals, you have to race against somebody. And it's

6:55

fucking fun to watch two people race

6:57

on these big, fun obstacle courses.

6:59

Well, and they very intentionally seem to match people

7:01

up based on their similar skills

7:04

or body type. And so it's been fun to watch

7:06

these people who seem relatively evenly matched.

7:08

Yeah,

7:09

friends against friends, lovers against

7:11

lovers, dads

7:14

against sons. No, I don't think there

7:16

was a dad. They made a big deal out of who's gonna be

7:18

the first dad-son duo to make it through. Anyway,

7:22

don't share our media

7:24

consumption diet.

7:26

It's for professionals

7:28

only. It's for people with

7:30

two hours a night who don't wanna

7:32

deal with reality anymore. Except

7:35

that they do. Unless it's reality television. Not

7:38

their reality. Not their reality, someone else's. Hey,

7:40

you go first this week, what do you got? I do. So

7:43

my thing this week. Yes. Is

7:45

smell dating. This

7:47

is how you tell how old a dinosaur bones

7:49

is. That's a good guess. Halientologists

7:52

smell the bones of the dinosaurs. They say this fucking

7:55

reeks 65 million years. So

8:00

I've talked about your stink

8:02

before as

8:08

a stink that I love and I'm partial to. Oh

8:10

good. Specifically

8:13

on this podcast. Right, no, yeah,

8:15

you don't talk about stuff like that to just

8:18

the other parents in Henry's

8:20

class. No. Yeah, okay, cool. Just

8:23

check it. No, I've noticed that when I meet other parents, they

8:25

don't talk about how much they love their partner. As

8:27

much as I'm ready to do so, it never

8:29

comes up. It's never like this is

8:31

my husband, I love him so much. That's so weird.

8:35

But should it come up, I would love

8:37

to do that.

8:38

Yeah, absolutely. No,

8:40

what I found recently

8:42

on the internet and I say recently, but actually

8:45

it's from 2016, is

8:47

something called smell dating.

8:49

Okay, please expound. So

8:53

there were- Can I guess you wear a blindfold

8:56

to a date and then you just, you

8:58

don't talk.

9:00

You just smell, just a smell and

9:02

then you walk away like, yeah, that was all right. New

9:05

on Netflix. I really think this

9:07

could be a show. Love it for smell?

9:09

Yes. Love is smell? Love

9:11

is smell. Love is smell. So

9:16

it started in New York, which

9:19

you know, of course. That's where

9:21

everybody's super crazy.

9:24

Sex in the city. For the different

9:26

new trends.

9:27

Lot of exciting scents there

9:29

too. The city of a million smells is what they

9:31

call it. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's real.

9:34

I didn't make that up, it's real. It

9:37

started out of NYU. It was

9:40

this pair of researchers that

9:42

gave folks an opportunity

9:44

in the city to wear a t-shirt for

9:47

three days, which is

9:49

something a lot of us do anyway. Is

9:52

it? Three days consecutively?

9:55

Yes. That's a long time to wear one shirt,

9:57

I think, for me.

9:59

I mean, two. It's just

10:01

one more day than two days. Yeah, babe, it's 50%

10:04

more days. That's

10:07

a lot, that's a pretty significant increase of days

10:09

to wear one shirt. So the

10:11

instructions, let me get a little more specific here. Please

10:13

do. So the instructions on

10:15

the Smell Dating website said,

10:17

we'll

10:19

send you a t-shirt, you wear the shirt for three

10:21

days and three nights without deodorant,

10:24

you return the shirt to us

10:26

in a prepaid envelope, we

10:28

send you swatches of t-shirts

10:30

worn by a selection of other individuals,

10:34

you smell the samples and tell us who you like.

10:36

If someone who's smell you like, likes

10:39

the smell of you too, we'll

10:41

facilitate an exchange of contact information,

10:44

the rest is up to you. Okay,

10:46

now this is fascinating. Yes,

10:49

right? And hugely gross,

10:51

but mostly fascinating. I'm curious

10:54

why they have to send you a shirt, why you

10:56

can't just wear one of your own shirts. I guess maybe people

10:58

don't wanna cut up their shirts or...

11:00

Well, and it's some way

11:03

of controlling the variables, right?

11:05

Like what if somebody sends this

11:08

shirt blend that doesn't breathe and

11:10

the stink is more powerful, which

11:13

would bias the results.

11:14

Yeah, you don't want a moisture wicking fabric.

11:17

You could also reveal a little bit about your fashion,

11:20

which is kind of cheating. Yeah, no

11:22

information except stink, please. The

11:26

thing that is kind of cool about this, so you pay $25 and with

11:28

what they send you, they

11:32

don't

11:33

pay any attention to age, gender,

11:35

or sexual orientation. So it is just

11:38

smell. Okay. So it

11:40

really kind of opens the doors

11:42

for, you know, what

11:45

kind of person you might interact with. This may

11:47

lead to some bold revelations of where

11:49

one is positioned on the Kinsey scale.

11:51

Right. It's entirely on, and that

11:54

t-shirt smells good.

11:58

The people behind this...

11:59

are Tega Brain,

12:02

an Australian born artist. Tega

12:04

Brain? Yes. That's a fucking good name for

12:06

a scientist, huh? Don't you think? She

12:09

is an assistant professor of

12:11

digital media at NYU

12:13

and then Sam Levine,

12:15

who is an artist and educator.

12:18

He's taught all over the city

12:21

and is actually an assistant professor

12:23

in the department of design at UT Austin.

12:25

Hey, all right. Yeah.

12:27

And also I think is the director

12:29

of Euphoria?

12:31

Maybe, I'm thinking of something else.

12:32

Yeah, this is spelled L-A-V-I-G-N-E.

12:36

Oh, that's different dude then, for sure. Yeah.

12:40

These two got together to kind

12:42

of conduct this experiment

12:46

and they are not tracking user data.

12:49

How could they? How could

12:51

they? Aw man, you'll never believe this guy's

12:53

smell. It's pungent and earthy

12:56

and that's Thomas. So now

12:58

you all know this.

12:59

I just think it's interesting that these academics

13:02

are just kind of doing it for

13:04

fun, it sounds like. Like they're

13:06

not gonna have this

13:09

great huge spreadsheet of data

13:11

on each person and it's just

13:13

more like, like

13:15

let's see what happens. Okay,

13:17

yeah. It seems more artistic than scientific,

13:20

I guess. So

13:22

what

13:24

drew me to this is that so in 2016, this

13:26

happened

13:28

and then every

13:31

media outlet sent

13:34

some reporter through this experiment.

13:36

So I found so many testimonials

13:38

of people that went through this process and

13:42

there is definitely some commonalities. Everybody

13:44

was concerned about their own smell.

13:46

Of course, three days

13:48

wearing a shirt. I don't want anyone. I don't want

13:50

you to smell that. I don't want anyone. I don't wanna

13:52

smell that.

13:52

I read about people who

13:55

on day one intentionally kind

13:57

of broke the rules and like walked

13:59

through perfume.

13:59

or use particularly

14:02

fragrant body wash because you

14:04

are allowed to shower. There

14:06

were people who mentioned going to bakeries.

14:09

Just to get the good bread smell on them, that's

14:11

great. And

14:14

then the matches

14:17

was also interesting. So this

14:19

kind of really suggested the smell, I guess,

14:23

of the particular writer,

14:25

because some people had a lot more matches than other.

14:30

So time.com, that reporter

14:32

had two matches.

14:34

The person at Racked had

14:36

seven matches. Out of 10? Yes. That's

14:39

huge. Right, how good is that smell?

14:43

The person at Time mentioned that nobody followed

14:45

up, but the person

14:48

from Hello Giggles had

14:50

three matches and they met

14:53

one for drinks. So wait, the Time reporter got

14:55

zero matches? No, they

14:57

got two matches,

14:59

but nobody followed up. That's

15:02

a sad thing to have to reveal about yourself on

15:04

it. Like I did this whole investigative

15:06

report and well. My smell

15:08

is bad. I know everyone else got some, but

15:11

well, gosh.

15:13

And

15:15

it is possible because of the cheating. So the Time magazine

15:18

person did not mention any kind of cheating,

15:20

whereas the person at Racked very specifically

15:22

said, like, I really tried to

15:25

improve my smell. You

15:27

can't do that, yeah. So

15:29

Hello Giggles, so the person met

15:32

one of their matches for a date

15:34

and they did not

15:37

have the

15:39

best personality match.

15:41

But their stink alignment was out

15:43

of sight. So

15:45

they met at a bar for drinks,

15:48

at which point the writer found

15:50

out that the person she had met

15:53

had allergies and couldn't drink

15:55

beer. So that was

15:57

kind of a bust. And then.

15:59

She called the person James and

16:02

she said, James then spent a good five

16:04

minutes trying to get me to eat an olive,

16:06

despite the fact I do not want to eat olives.

16:09

That's no good.

16:13

They talked for a little

16:15

while and then she left and then she

16:17

got a text saying, I had a great time

16:19

tonight and you're charming and fun, but I don't

16:21

think we are a good match. Sorry, I

16:24

wish you the best of luck on other smell dates.

16:27

How kind of James. James

16:29

sounds a little

16:29

pushy, but his

16:31

heart and his stink is in the right place. There

16:35

was a story on Business Insider,

16:37

which I liked,

16:39

because it did seem kind of like an interesting

16:42

result. So she talked about

16:44

the whole process, which she said took about

16:46

a month, because first she had to wait two weeks

16:48

to get the t-shirt, and then she

16:51

sent it back.

16:52

And then a week later, she

16:54

received emails from smell dating,

16:56

indicating she had matched with two people. She

17:00

said she was pleasantly surprised that

17:02

even though she had no idea whose shirts

17:05

she had sniffed, the two people she matched

17:07

with were women, which would have been her gender preference

17:10

anyway.

17:11

So that's just kind of like a fun little result. Yeah,

17:13

sure.

17:15

But yeah, this is

17:17

not happening anymore. So when it was published

17:19

in 2016, it was kind of like an open call.

17:22

If you go to the website now, it does still exist,

17:24

but they are not taking new applications.

17:26

I mean, it may still be happening

17:28

in like the underworld,

17:30

New York City. The underworld. I

17:34

mean, I guess there's lots of ways you could do this on your own.

17:37

Sure, pretty much all of them ethically

17:40

dubious. Well, if you're open, if

17:42

you're upfront, like, hey, I want you to

17:44

wear this so I can smell it

17:46

later. Sure. All right, you're right.

17:49

Most people will be like, hell yeah, man, sign

17:51

me up. What's your name? Don't tell

17:52

me actually. This is more than words. So

17:55

this was open to the first 100 New

17:57

Yorkers to apply when it first went out.

18:02

I don't know if this is actually what it was called, but in the Vice

18:04

article, they called it, quote, the first

18:07

male odor

18:08

dating service. Is that

18:10

a male order? Oh, like an A-I-L. No,

18:15

yeah, yes, yes, sorry. Yes,

18:18

so. This is the first boy

18:20

stink service of its kind.

18:23

No, it's male, like postage.

18:26

So anyway, so I think this could be a reality

18:29

show. I think so too. I think just

18:31

the idea that people would

18:33

get set up, I mean, Netflix, always

18:36

looking for new ways to pair singles

18:38

together. Yeah. I

18:40

think this is an opportunity, everybody smells.

18:43

Yeah. You know, and then they smell each other.

18:45

Yes. And then they pair up and then,

18:47

you know, and then they have to get married. You've struck gold. And

18:49

then they have to get married immediately. Is there a famous

18:52

sommelier that we could get to host it? Who

18:54

could be like, Tiffany possessed

18:57

notes of chestnut. You

19:00

know, I mean, she's

19:02

not a sommelier, but I heard Padma is

19:04

leaving Top Chef. Okay.

19:06

Maybe she'd be into smell dating.

19:07

Maybe, she's gotta

19:09

do something, right? What's she

19:11

gonna do? I made probably

19:14

nothing, you know Padma. If I had Padma, I'd just

19:16

fucking kick it, man. I would just kick

19:18

it and yeah, that's

19:20

a good life. She's all set, man. I

19:23

think so. Yeah, so

19:25

smell dating. Thank

19:27

you, can I smell you away? Yes.

19:31

Oh, you

19:34

know what is one of my favorite parts

19:40

about living in a new city? What's that? The

19:42

exploring. Yo. Parking can be

19:44

intimidating. Yes. I'm not about

19:46

to just roll up somewhere and spend

19:49

the next 30 minutes trying to find a place

19:51

to put my car. But you know what took care of that?

19:54

What's that? My electric e-bike. Oh, that's

19:56

right. I can get everywhere super fast

19:59

and I can.

19:59

just roll up to a bike rack, I'm

20:02

ready to party with my new exploration.

20:05

Party with your new exploration, yeah. It's

20:07

the name of my album. For sure. The

20:10

thing I like about my electric e-bike is

20:12

that it's super easy to use. It

20:15

comes with, my fancy one

20:17

comes with two batteries. So like I

20:20

haven't had to charge it

20:21

yet since I've been using it. It

20:23

lasts, the battery power is incredible.

20:26

I can go really fast, but I can control

20:28

how fast I go.

20:30

You can go really slow if you want, I bet. For me, I'm

20:32

a little scared of really fast. So I'm

20:35

going about medium. And that's good enough

20:37

for me. I've been really

20:39

happy with it. And it's made my summer

20:41

like super great just exploring all over

20:43

the place.

20:44

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20:46

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the depth of love you have for your guinea pig? When

21:16

you look around a room of people, do you wonder if they

21:18

know sloths only have to eat one leaf a

21:21

month? Have you ever dumped someone for saying

21:23

they're just not an animal person? Us

21:25

too. She's Alexis B. Preston. She's

21:28

Ella MacLeod. And we

21:29

host Comfort Creatures, the show where you

21:31

can't talk about your pets too much, animal

21:33

trivia is our love language, and dragons

21:35

are just as real as dinosaurs. Tune in to

21:37

Comfort Creatures every Thursday on Maximum

21:40

Fun.

21:45

Hi everyone, I'm Laura House. And

21:47

I'm Annabelle Gerwitch, and sometimes it

21:49

feels like the whole world is a dumpster fire.

21:52

Right, there's too much to worry about. That's

21:54

why we make tiny victories. It's a 15 minute

21:57

podcast where we celebrate our

21:59

minor accomplishments.

21:59

and fleeting joys. And

22:02

listeners call in, like Valerie, who found

22:04

the perfect gift for her daughter's boyfriend

22:06

and Adam, who finally turned his couch

22:08

cushion the right way. And little happinesses,

22:11

like how birdsong helps your brain. That's

22:13

science. So join

22:15

us in not freaking out for 15 minutes

22:18

a week. That's Tiny Victories with Annabelle

22:20

and Laura, Mondays on Maximum

22:22

Fun. Whew! It's a tiny victory

22:24

just to make a network promo.

22:26

Honestly.

22:32

My thing this week is

22:34

an Austin staple. Obviously

22:37

seeing all of our friends and getting to hang out

22:39

with them, go swimming, watch our kids play together, highlighted

22:42

the trip. Yeah, it had been a year since we'd both

22:44

been back with the boys. That's right.

22:46

Just below that, and I mean just

22:49

below that, was all the food that we got

22:51

to eat. All the food that we got to eat

22:53

again. DC has like so many great

22:55

restaurants that we've eaten like at, not a

22:58

ton of places, just because we don't have a lot of opportunities

23:00

for date nights. But we've gone out and had

23:02

some incredible food here. Chef

23:04

Jose Andres

23:05

crushing it, crushing the game, everything,

23:08

everything he does. He owns essentially one city

23:10

block of DC.

23:12

We've made it a personal goal to try and get

23:14

to all of those restaurants. Try to get all of

23:16

them. By the way, if you work at Minibar or have a hookup,

23:20

get at me.

23:22

But for me, there's a lot of stuff

23:24

in Austin that I miss a lot as well. And

23:27

there's like upscale stuff.

23:29

There's like, like, La Condesa,

23:32

I miss. Just like really great

23:35

Mexican food. There's the whole sort of Tatsuya

23:37

family, the Ramen Tatsuya, Tiki Tatsuya.

23:39

I will also say we had like 10 years

23:42

of opportunity to really explore

23:44

the food space there. Yeah,

23:46

that's true. Which made it easier, I think, to

23:49

winnow down the list.

23:49

Right. As it turns out,

23:52

the one that has left the biggest hole in my heart and the itch

23:54

that got scratched was the

23:56

most satisfying during this visit was

23:58

Torchi's tacos. Torcheys

24:01

Tacos is the subject of my discussion. Yes.

24:03

Thank you for joining me in my Torcheys Tacos talk. Torcheys

24:07

Tacos is a fast casual

24:09

taco chain

24:10

that started in Austin but has since spread.

24:12

It's got 80 franchises in seven

24:15

states,

24:16

which is impressive considering

24:18

it was just, you know, a humble food truck

24:21

on South First Street

24:23

in Austin in 2006.

24:25

Owner Michael Ripka

24:27

sort of just lured in customers

24:29

with free chips and salsa, and then they would eat

24:32

the tacos there, and they were

24:34

very, very, very good tacos. They were

24:36

damn good tacos, according to the

24:39

company sort of masthead, which

24:42

then became sort of the tagline for Torcheys Tacos.

24:44

They have a whole like sort of devil thing, Torcheys,

24:46

like devil, damn, damn good, I don't know.

24:49

I mean, it's Satan, he's always getting

24:51

his fingers in something. Yeah. I

24:55

wanna like just

24:57

put a disclaimer up front. We

25:00

are not saying that these are the most

25:02

authentic.

25:02

No, no, no, no, in fact, if you

25:05

will wait just a minute, I will make the case

25:07

that they are deeply inauthentic.

25:08

There are real taco wars

25:11

in Texas about who has

25:13

the best taco. And

25:15

anytime Torcheys gets acknowledgement, there's

25:18

a whole large group of people

25:20

that are like- People fucking hate Torcheys. They're

25:22

like, no, that's not real,

25:24

that's not a thing. But there's

25:26

room for both of these things, right? Yeah,

25:29

I agree with you completely.

25:30

I was looking at a tweet that Alexandria

25:32

Ocasio-Cortez was like, where's the best tacos

25:35

in Austin? And it was literally just alternating

25:37

like, gotta get Torcheys,

25:39

don't fucking eat Torcheys. Which

25:42

like I get, there's like very authentic, very,

25:44

very good tacos in Austin. And

25:46

then there's also Torcheys, which is fucking

25:49

also very, very good. Very, very delicious.

25:51

In Austin, we were eating Torcheys like once a week, which

25:54

was a completely viable food ordering strategy

25:56

because they have so many good things

25:58

on the menu. They have a really good salad.

25:59

that I'm partial

26:00

to. They do, I have that right here.

26:02

The Airstream Salad, Romaine, arugula, and

26:04

picked mint, avocado, pico de gallo, grilled

26:07

corn, cojita cheese, pepperdew peppers and pistachios

26:09

with a drizzle of chipotle sauce and a side of champagne

26:11

vinaigrette. Sort of an ongoing

26:14

theme with this sort of menu is

26:17

their approach is pretty non-traditional.

26:20

The ingredients of nearly

26:22

everything on the menu adheres to like a

26:24

fairly maximalist philosophy.

26:28

There's very little editing that goes

26:30

on in these tacos. And as a result, there

26:32

are some super sloppy boys on here. I

26:35

wanna read just a handful of my favorites.

26:39

Green chili pork taco, that's pork

26:41

carnitas, green chilies,

26:43

cojita cheese, cilantro, onions, and

26:45

a lime wedge with tomatillo sauce on a corn tortilla.

26:47

Great,

26:48

great. Probably one of the least sloppy ones

26:50

actually that there is, but

26:53

so good, so salty. So

26:55

very, very salty. All of it's salty.

26:58

Everything on the menu is just deep. Fried

27:01

avocado taco, it's got fried avocados,

27:03

refried pinto beans, pico de gallo, lettuce,

27:05

and cheddar jack cheese with poblano sauce on a

27:07

corn tortilla. So good, so

27:10

goopy.

27:10

This is sort of cruel what you're doing right now. You

27:12

recognize that, right? I gotta talk about my favorite.

27:15

Okay. This is probably my favorite

27:17

taco

27:19

that I've ever eaten. And I've

27:21

eaten so many of them. It's the Baja

27:23

Shrimp Taco, fried shrimp, cooked cabbage

27:25

slaw, pickled onions, and jalapenos, cojita cheese,

27:28

cilantro, and a lime wedge with chipotle sauce on a corn

27:30

tortilla.

27:33

It's so good. It's spicy

27:35

and salty and good. And

27:38

it just is, my mouth is

27:41

literally watering so much right now.

27:43

It's B real time. I won't do that to you again, though.

27:47

Then they have the usual

27:49

chips and dips. Their chips, great, so

27:52

thin and crispy and crunchy.

27:54

Again, so salty, so, so salty. Guacamole,

27:57

really, really good, kind of spicy. They're green.

27:59

Green chili queso is like one

28:02

of the things that they're known for is queso

28:05

topped with a dollop of guacamole, fun,

28:07

cojita cheese, cilantro, and a little ribbon

28:10

of Diablo sauce, which is just like a little

28:12

spicy sauce.

28:12

Queso

28:15

is a real weakness for me and Griffin. Yes.

28:17

Because we will always eat too much. Yes. There's

28:20

no way to stop

28:22

eating it

28:23

at a point that is reasonable.

28:26

We tend to go until we physically

28:28

can't lift a chip into our mouth anymore. Yes.

28:31

So like not

28:33

high class fare here. They

28:36

have one, I didn't write down all the ingredients

28:39

for called the trailer park taco that

28:41

has like,

28:42

you can get it with queso and it also has like

28:44

fried chicken and shit in it. It's

28:46

so, I've never eaten that one because it seems like

28:49

it would

28:50

hurt me more

28:51

than the others already kind

28:53

of do. Like we, this is the first thing

28:55

we ate when we visited Austin. We came

28:57

in like dinner the night we arrived, we

29:00

got tortoise and I just slammed a Baja shrimp taco

29:02

and a fried avocado and had a bunch of

29:04

green chili queso and some churros,

29:07

which I think are

29:07

a new item on the menu. Yeah, we weren't familiar

29:09

with that. We went ham and I did not feel good

29:12

in the down, like the middle part of my

29:14

body, but the upper part of my body was

29:16

loving it. And

29:19

so yeah, there's lots of people who despise tortoise because

29:21

of its sort of inauthenticity,

29:23

which just kind of seems goofy because there's plenty of

29:25

incredible places to get very authentic

29:28

tacos in Austin. And I love

29:30

those too. That's the thing. I think there

29:32

is a concern that people will eat these and think

29:34

these are the best tacos. And it's almost

29:36

like you want to call them something different

29:39

because they are the best and

29:42

they may not be a traditional taco, but

29:45

I'm okay with that. La

29:48

Condesa offered a Cochinita PBL

29:50

taco for a while that was probably,

29:52

oh, it's up there, might actually be tied.

29:55

Might actually tie with a Baja shrimp taco, but a much more

29:57

traditional thing, right? And then it's, yeah,

29:59

anyway.

30:00

There's make room for both folks. There's so much

30:02

good

30:03

here. Torchy's just scratches,

30:05

Torchy's scratches a specific itch, right?

30:08

And there is no other restaurant like it that

30:10

scratches it in that same way. And

30:12

that's if I want just like a sloppy,

30:15

zesty, salty little guy that's

30:18

gonna make my tummy hurt, but my mouth feel amazing. It's

30:21

Torchy's, it's Torchy's for

30:22

me. Yeah, it's kind of whimsical. There's

30:25

something about eating the tacos there where you're

30:27

like, oh, I'm just having a good time. And it's obviously

30:30

there's a nostalgia thing too, right? Like when I moved

30:32

to Austin, I was sort

30:34

of very nascent in my food

30:37

appreciation journey.

30:39

Yeah, you had moved to Chicago

30:41

and suddenly you were like, right, I mean, you were open

30:43

to a new world. Right, I started to eat really great

30:45

food in Chicago because I lived with people who like thought

30:48

that spending money on that was

30:51

important, which was a different sort

30:53

of take from mine, which was I need

30:55

to fill my body up as

30:58

cheaply as I possibly can so that I have more

31:01

money for more important things or whatever. And

31:04

I ate Torchy's and it was one of the first things

31:06

I had and I just never really eaten anything like

31:08

it.

31:09

And then of course, like the first time I went to

31:12

a lock and dessa or what was the

31:14

place, I think it was on Burnett

31:16

that had like all the tile work and fountains

31:19

and it was like, they had like queso fundido.

31:22

Oh, you are thinking

31:24

of... Oh

31:27

my God. Fonda Samiguel. Fonda

31:29

Samiguel,

31:30

fucking great, like amazing.

31:32

But Torchy's was like one of the first

31:34

things I ate and so I think I do have like a bit of nostalgia

31:36

there for it as well, but they are spreading

31:39

out. There's one in,

31:41

I think Williamsburg, Virginia, so like three

31:43

hours from us if we wanted to get

31:45

down there. One of our friends

31:47

from Austin that lives here now,

31:50

well, no, it was Alamo Drafthouse. I

31:52

was trying to think like... Yeah, we got a Drafthouse. But

31:54

I thought there was a promise of a Torchy's.

31:56

I don't know. There's been a lot of discussion

31:59

among my friends.

31:59

that have moved here from Austin specifically

32:02

about what we will get here soon. I

32:05

thought maybe Torches is on that list. I mean,

32:07

Torches is climbing up the East Coast. It seems like

32:10

a matter of time. I will

32:12

help them be in business.

32:13

I will eat, Torches, you tell me

32:16

how many tacos I have to eat from you a year

32:18

to make it make sense for you to have a DC franchise.

32:21

And we'll help figure that out.

32:24

But I

32:25

understand what

32:27

Torches is, which is just real,

32:30

just sloppy boys. But damn it, if

32:33

it does not hit the spot every single time

32:35

that we eat it. So thank

32:38

you, Torches. Thank you, Torches. Do

32:40

you wanna know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes.

32:43

Okay. Daniel says, my small wonder

32:46

this week, man,

32:47

this is hungry work. My small

32:49

wonder this week is when you're making yourself or a loved one

32:51

a little grilled cheese or quesadilla and a little bit

32:53

of the cheese spills out onto the frying pan, granting

32:56

you a surprise crunchy cheesy treat is the best.

32:58

Yeah,

32:59

I agree with that. I'm always surprised when

33:02

you make grilled

33:04

cheese for Henry and you cut the

33:06

crust off and then you

33:08

don't automatically eat the crust. I

33:10

feel like I would do that every single time. I

33:14

don't eat the crust. I usually, okay, so

33:16

if we're doing this, if you're trying to shame me

33:18

for my food ways, Henry

33:23

doesn't eat

33:24

grilled cheese sandwich

33:26

in the way that people usually do it, which

33:29

is that you

33:30

make a grilled cheese sandwich and maybe cut it in half, sometimes

33:32

cut the crust off and then you give it

33:33

to the person. Although to be honest, he might. We

33:35

have just gotten in a routine of preparing it. I

33:37

have had him refuse a grilled

33:40

cheese sandwich I have made him before because it was not in

33:42

this specific form, I believe, which is a

33:45

gingerbread man cookie cutter

33:48

that I can get about four of on

33:50

a regular sized grilled cheese sandwich.

33:52

And it does not waste very much. Usually

33:55

there's like a little sort of star

33:57

in the center that I will eat, because that's

33:59

like the whole thing. of the grilled cheese sandwich with a crust.

34:01

Yeah, I don't usually opt

34:03

for that. But yes, I do love the crunchy

34:05

bit of cheese that comes out, that's the best. That

34:08

is absolutely the best. Tara

34:10

says, my small wonder is cutting the

34:12

sleeves off of t-shirts that don't fit so well

34:15

anymore and getting more use out of old

34:17

clothes as dope new muscle shirts.

34:19

Oh, have you ever done this? I don't think you

34:21

have. Not

34:24

for a very long time, probably not since

34:26

college when my arms

34:28

were fucking huge.

34:31

So big. From

34:33

lifting all those Mountain dews? From lifting. What

34:36

a hateful thing. I'm

34:40

sorry, is it this? College is when

34:42

I got really bad kidney stones and stopped drinking

34:44

soda. So now there's egg on your face. But

34:46

then again, my doctor told me to just stop

34:48

drinking brown soda. Dark soda. So

34:50

I probably, I have not, Mountain dew

34:52

is one of those things that I did sure used to drink

34:55

a lot of in my youth

34:57

and then I don't anymore. But then like

35:00

maybe once a year, I'll

35:02

have a Mountain dew and it's so good.

35:05

It's so good. On a hot day, a cold

35:08

dew is

35:09

so good. You're looking

35:11

at me right now with zero recognition. I

35:14

didn't grow up drinking it. No, well

35:16

you were denied a lot of like

35:18

straight pleasures. Well for a long time, there was a

35:21

hypothesis that I was allergic to caffeine.

35:24

And so I'm not gonna have Mountain dew. And

35:26

then I kind of aged out.

35:27

Of your

35:29

non-existent caffeine allergy.

35:31

Well, no, I aged out

35:33

of the period in which I probably would have consumed the

35:35

most Mountain dew. You've never had

35:37

a

35:38

Baja blast. You've never been

35:40

Baja blasted once. Rachel, you

35:44

gotta get Baja blasted. You

35:48

got to, it's so good. It's really

35:50

good. It's very spicy

35:52

on the tongue. The carbonation

35:54

and the caffeine

35:57

will make you go absolutely ape

35:59

shit. In fact, I'm thinking about

36:01

it right now. Maybe you shouldn't do Mountain

36:03

Dew. Because I do feel like my body,

36:05

even though I don't drink it that much anymore, has

36:07

a deep

36:08

sort of inoculation in my

36:10

bones to Mountain Dew. I feel like

36:12

if you drank it, you would go absolutely

36:15

haywire. Probably. You would

36:17

go bananas.

36:19

Speaking of cutting the sleeves

36:21

off of shirts, I like cutting out the little

36:23

neck on a shirt. Sure. Because

36:26

a lot of times, like a standard T-shirt

36:29

is a little too tight around the neck and it doesn't feel

36:31

particularly fashionable. You cut that neck out and

36:33

all of a sudden, you've got like a look. Yeah,

36:35

sure.

36:36

Absolutely. I've never done that before. I

36:38

just wanted to make sure that it was known that that

36:40

was an option. There's lots of ways you can cut things out of a shirt. You

36:43

can cut a little hole out of just the middle of it.

36:45

Just a little belly button window. Hello.

36:49

Thanks to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our song, Money Won't

36:52

Pay. It's our theme song. It's not just our song.

36:54

It's our songs. Our first dance at our wedding was Money Won't

36:56

Pay by Bowen and Augustus. Thanks to Maximum

36:58

Fun for having us on the network. Go to maximumfun.org. Check

37:01

out all the great shows there. We got new merch over

37:03

at macroymerch.com, including a

37:05

Clint the Planeswalking Janitor sticker that

37:07

I adore so much.

37:08

Yeah, I saw that. And

37:10

there's some other stuff there too. And we got some shows

37:12

coming up. Seattle, we're coming at you during

37:15

PAX. I

37:17

think we're doing some New York Comic Con stuff. You

37:19

can check all that out at macroy.family.

37:23

You know,

37:24

get there. And thank you all so much. Thank you for

37:26

listening. Thank you for being here.

37:29

I want to eat Torchy's tacos and

37:31

Mountain Dew. See, this is the cruelty

37:34

behind what you did. It is so bad. Not just

37:36

to us, but to our listeners who may not

37:38

have access to a Torchy's.

37:39

No, but those who do, please just

37:42

think of us. ♪ Think

37:45

of us fondly when

37:47

you eat tacos. ♪ That's

37:51

beautiful. ♪ Money

37:54

won't pay, money won't pay. ♪ ♪ Money

37:57

won't pay, work can't always

37:59

pay. ♪ Money won't play

38:02

Work it all in Money

38:05

won't play Work it all

38:08

in Money won't play

38:10

Work it all in Money

38:12

won't... MaximumFun.org

38:32

Comedy and Culture. Artist-owned.

38:35

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38:35

supported.