March 25, 2022 • 28 mins
Should you find yourself in an unfamiliar star system without your copy of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', this classic episode will help fill you in on the local fare, from perfectly normal beast sandwiches to pan galactic gargle blasters.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogel bam, and today
we have a classic episode for you about Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy and the fictional foods they're in. Yes, oh,
these fictional food ones. They're some of our favorites. They
are so fun to do, they really are. I UM,
it helps that like I don't know, like I'm I
(00:29):
was an English major and so I kind of missed
discussing literature, um uh and and other creative works, um
in some kind of I'm not sure if we're discussing
them in a strictly critical way. Um, but we're discussing them.
We are discussing them, and we have we often have
anecdotes and opinions and thoughts. Yeah, maybe what's the deeper
(00:54):
meaning of something or what it's what's it's trying to communicate.
In this case, forty two always, always, always was the
forty second anniversary of the publishing I believe of the Oh,
it could be the radio thing. I already closed the tab.
(01:16):
I'm not no one will ever know. That's very Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. For you. Yeah, that's it, that's it.
The time is past. Um, But we did. We did
this episode originally in August of twenty eighteen. Yes, wow, huh. Well,
(01:43):
and it came up recently in our Instant Coffee episode,
didn't it. Yes, that is why I was thinking of
it that end. Like I was like, it started time
for another fictional foods episode, but I'm not ready to
record a new one. Uh. And Douglas Adams is just
a delightful human person, and so I was like, let's
let's bring it back. Yes, And a lot of you listeners,
(02:06):
a lot of you, all of you, all of you
are delightful human people as well. Um, some of you.
I cannot wait to share the listener mail we got
about Instant Coffee. We've got a lot and a lot
of them are fictional, like food related. So people did
write in about this. People wrote in about Dune uh,
(02:28):
And people wrote in about Seinfeld and I missed reference
that I can't believe I missed. I can't. I know,
I'm falling down. What's going on with me? Uh? And
also after we did this episode, a kind listener Tom
Tomby Frequent Listener Frequent Responders messages since as the Ultimate
(02:51):
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. These books along with a
very nice note because we mentioned in there, um that
we I didn't have it and about but both of
us had lost our copies. I very strangely like like
like Tom, like you sent the books and then I
found my copy and I was like it was just
(03:11):
it was just right there. It was I don't know,
there was some kind of there's some kind of like
a situation. Yeah, it was shielded by like a somebody
else's problem shield or something something like that. Um, but
someone else's problem. I don't remember the exact phrasing from
the book anyway. Um. Yes, thank you so much though
(03:31):
for sending books. And I believe I was able to
pass on a copy to a friend who also did
not have one. And so wow, books are great, y'all.
I like them. They are great. They are great. That's
another one of the reasons we like we like these.
I like the excuse to look back at these fun
(03:53):
entertainment properties. Yes, and it had been a minute sinside
read the hit Checker's guy at Theolex. So this is exciting.
This is exciting. Yes, um, and I suppose, without further
ado we will let past Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
(04:21):
and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Anyes and I'm Lauren
vocal Baum and Odd's time for another fictional foods episode.
Yeah it's been a minute, but we are here today
to talk about fictional foods. Hitchhiker's Guy to the Galaxy Edition. Yes, yeah,
I believe I am a fan, and I believe Lauren
that you are a fan as well. I am very
(04:41):
much a fan. It was one of those I got
a hold of a copy of I think the whole trilogy,
which is five books, um in early high school, and
it was one of those revolutionary things for me, Like
it was just total paradigm shift. I was like, oh, oh,
so good. I think I had the same copy and
(05:02):
I let someone borrow it. If you're listening, I want
it back. I can't remember who you are, but I
will find you. I lost my copy as I was,
because I meant to reread at least the first book
when I was when when when we decided to do
this episode, and I it's it's not there. It's probably
(05:26):
the same person. That person just collecting coffees on top
of coffees for what purpose we don't know. Well, one
day we'll figure it out. But I wanted to start
with my favorite quote, which I do remember. I think
it's from the restaurant at the end of the Universe.
(05:46):
He's spending a year dead for tax reasons. I just
remember that because I like read that and I was
what eleven So I don't know anything about taxes. I
didn't have to pay taxes, but for some reason, it's
as my mom said, overturned my ticklebox. And I just
kept laughing and laughing and laughing. It's such a really,
(06:09):
it's a really clear memory for me, apparently. Yeah. Yeah,
And we have mentioned Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before
in a couple of past episodes like Gin and Tonic
to mind. Yeah, and as per the used with these
fictional food episodes. Thanks to Wikia fandom. So helpful, so helpful.
(06:31):
Oh yes, yes, hats off to you all, brave, brave
soldiers a fandom. Yes, we appreciate your efforts. So what
is it? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a
comedic media series almost entirely written by Earth human Douglas Adams.
(06:53):
It started as a BBC radio show in nine and
was adapted into A wild a popular series of novels,
plus stage shows, video games, a television series in one,
a feature film in two thousand five, and more other
radio shows. That's a lot it is. Douglas Noel Adams
was a writer who was rather famous for not writing, UM,
(07:17):
I love deadlines, he wrote, I like the whooshing sound
they make as they fly by. He was born in Cambridge, England,
in nineteen fifty two. His uh father, a teacher, and
his mother, a nurse, divorced when he was five. He
was a fan of Monty Python and he decided to
try to get into writing comedy. Took a whole lot
of odd jobs while he was doing it, and Uh
(07:40):
The Hiker's Guide radio show was an unexpectedly resounding hit
that moved him into writing full time. The novels almost
didn't happen because the BBC was like, oh, novel adaptations
of radio series never worked, let's not even try that.
But happened. They did. Also all of those other things,
(08:03):
And although Adams would struggle with depression and writer's block
and and kind of the weight of that early success,
he'd go on to to do work work in writing
that helped protect endangered species. He married, he had a daughter,
He's had a ridiculous collection of electric guitars, um and
he would die suddenly in two thousand one when he
(08:24):
was just forty nine UM. And every year on fans
and friends celebrate his strange life and legacy with Towel
Day day on which to openly carry a towel with you, because,
as The Hitchhiker's Guide taught us, a towel is one
of the most useful objects in the universe and you
should never go anywhere with that one. I actually have.
It's a yellow one, and it's one of those ones
(08:46):
that gets like super small and it is really absorbant
and tries really quickly, you know, just in case it's good.
It's you know, he could be a food. Who really
knows where your towel? Is this true? Uh? If if
you have rather no idea what we're talking about, And
I'm I'm so sorry if I drop more britishisms than
(09:07):
usual into this particular episode. It's thinking about it is
my brain in a very English place right now. The
eponymous Hitchhiker's Guide is this a galactic travel guide and
the media series are about the Adventures or misadventures of
another Earth human by the name of Arthur Dent traveling galactically. Uh.
And despite this, the series are way more about the
(09:29):
hilariously mundane things in life than they are about science
fiction a things. Uh. Adams actually said that he never
intended the series to be science fiction, but that he
blew up the Earth in the first episode spoiler alert,
and he sort of had to. Yeah, it's sort of
difficult not to go elsewhere if the planet no longer exists. Yes.
(09:52):
Uh So. One of those hilariously mundane things about life,
the universe and everything is food and inc So there's
a lot of that in the series. Um. A lot
of the series are actually just about Arthur trying and
failing to get a decent cup of tea. Yeah, which
we talked about a little bit in our episode. Yeah. Yeah,
(10:14):
And I have I have a have a quote for you.
Stop me at any time. I'll just go on forever
on the the first spaceship that that Arthur I guess
it's the second spaceship, isn't it that Arthur winds up
on I know how dare I? Um? It says he
had found a new traumatic machine which had provided him
(10:34):
with a plastic cup filled with liquid that was almost
but not quite entirely unlike tea. The way it functioned
was very interesting. When the drink button was pressed, it
made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subjects
taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject's metabolism, and
then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to
the taste centers of the subject's brain to see exactly
(10:56):
what was likely to go down. Well, however, no one
knew quite why did this, because it invariably delivered a
cup full of liquid that was almost but not quite
entirely unlike tea. That's one of the things I love
about um these books is that it it's there's all
these kind of high tech robot and it's trying to
(11:18):
understand humans, and humans just don't make sense. Essentially, it's
a joke, like I've done all this math and calculations
but nothing is working, or just yeah, beings, like living
beings at their core, are completely nonsensical. Yeah yeah. Um
book menus dot com has a breakdown of the most
(11:40):
mentioned food and drinks, because there are, like teeth, a
lot of things from Earth Show up in series A lot.
They're just usually viewed differently, and we will talk a
little bit about that more later. But te peanuts, corn flakes, McDonald's, hamburger,
jello Jonah, it's very important, custard, hot dogs, and rice pudding. Um,
(12:05):
and if you're interested, they have a lot more information
following all of that. Take a very long time to
go through, but more power to you if you want
to know. Oh, absolutely yes. So that's a basic overview.
We're gonna pause for a quick break forward from our
sponsor and then get into some specifics and we're back.
(12:36):
Thank you sponsored. So we have two sections here, foods
and drinks, and we're gonna start with foods, and we're
going to start in that subsection vegan rhino a k a.
Evil smelling meat, and by vegan rhino, is it is
it vegan? Is it? Nope? It's not what you're thinking.
(13:00):
Probably vegan here does not necessarily mean what it means
on Earth. It means from the alpha learious star system.
Oh like vega like vague vegan vegan not vegan. Yeah,
I got it, it's so Joe. Speaking of meat, there
are also a perfectly normal beasts which happened to pass
(13:22):
through this a particularly superstitious settlement on a planet called
Amuela periodically. Um. When Arthur crash lands there and is
asked why the Almighty Bob sent him, Um, he sets
himself up as the Almighty Bob's sandwich maker. Oh important job,
yeah yeah um, and his primary ingredient for these sandwiches
is perfectly normal beast. For upon l Ammuela, every aspect
(13:46):
of making the humble sandwich has been developed beyond the
dreams of even the picnic food epicures on Thermous Magnus
six mm hmm sounds good. Yeah. Sure. In the Restaurant
The End of the Universe, which is a book about
a fictional restaurant within that book, they serve scentiate and
(14:09):
suicidal meat, self serving you see. Yeah, yeah, it's explained
as being the most humane choice, you know, rather than
get tangled up in whether it's okay to eat regular
animals and plants which cannot consent um, someone bred a
type of cow that actively wants to be eaten. What
a life? Were good evening, Madame and gentlemen, I am
(14:35):
the main dish of the day. May I interest you
in parts of my body. Huh, well, something off my shoulder,
perhaps raised in a little white wine sash. There's the
Hagro biscuit, and this is a dntra se specialty, a
lower quality food stuff that they served to the Bogans,
(14:58):
whom they detested. The Tracy were known for having really
nice food, but they made pure crap for the Wogans.
So anyone expecting nice to trassy food but got something
they made with the Wogans in mind was going to
be disgusted and surprised. Um, and I'm not sure what
this is that the Internet will return a result of
(15:20):
a blue bread topped with guacamole. Well, that's what it
looks like. I have no idea what's actually going on.
It's a bright blue bread dot with something bright green
fill in as your imagine imagine agencies fit. Um. There's
star Bicks, which is a Cereal brand Algolean zilot burger,
(15:41):
which Zafa biebl Brocks described as quote a kind of
meat burger made with the most unpleasant parts of a
creature well known for its total lack of any pleasant
part that sounds appetizing. And as we mentioned earlier, earth food,
Several earth foods show up throughout the sea aries, but
in different ways than we would expect. For instance, beer
(16:06):
is used as a muscle relaxant, although I would say
you could argue some of us use it that way absolutely.
Oh yeah, yeah. Peanuts are sort of protein supplement. Uh
and t tea can power alien and probability machines. Quote
the principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by
(16:26):
simply hooking the logic circuits of a bimboolweeny fifties seven
submission brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a
strong Brawnian motion producer say a nice hot cup of tea, where,
of course well understood. Of course, when human Arthur Dent
(16:47):
confused computers by asking for tea, they asked him why,
and his response was it makes me happy. Oh yeah,
that's kind of nice, Poor Arthur. Yeah, poor Arthur. Coffee,
on the other hand, um and specifically stirring it has
sort of a butterfly effect on bistro mathematics. Yes, bistro
(17:09):
mathematics is an understanding of numbers that accepts that numbers
are not absolute but dependent on the movement of the
observer in restaurants, Yes, uh, quote just as Einstein observed
that time was not an absolute but depended on the
observer's movement in space, and that space was not an
absolute but dependent on the observer's movement in time. It
(17:31):
is now realized that numbers are not absolute but dependent
on the observer's movement. In restaurants, yeah I love this,
uh so yeah so so, like the number of people
a table is reserved for versus the number of people
who wind up eating, um, and the time that the
party is supposed to arrive versus when they actually do,
(17:52):
and the build amount versus how much anyone who's showed
up is prepared to pay, and whether or not they
have money with them, um. The work of calculating all
of these non absolute numbers can can allow you to
manipulate the very fabric of reality. Is what's going on
in bastro mathematics. There's a ship that has a beast
(18:13):
mathematics engine. The engine is made up of a robotic restaurant.
The servers and all the all the bits and pieces
are all robotic, and uh it's what it's doing is
actively calculating all of these numbers, these these non absolute numbers,
these numbers, some of which are a rest of private exclusions,
(18:34):
which are numbers whose existence can only be defined as
being anything other than themselves, like time of arrival exactly.
That's my favorite one. So uh so so yeah, so yeah,
I'm trying trying to to to solve these equations. Can
get can get you far? I think, isn't it like
(18:56):
the most powerful something of parasie It's it's very powerful.
It is it is and it's and it's a little
bit less sticky than improbability, uh, mathematics, which is what
drives another engine involved in the series. There's a lot
of engines driven around there, absolutely, So that's ah the
(19:20):
food overlook. But really we got to talk about some drinks, yes, yes, okay,
First we're gonna fause for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(19:45):
thank you. Alright, So the first thing we have to
talk about is Jenks spirit at old Jenks Spirit. Yes,
I think that has is what it's more usually called um,
And this is a spirit. Yeah, people drink it for
the same multitude of reasons we do. But it's way
(20:06):
stronger than most of the stuff we Earthlings are familiar with.
And there are several interesting drinking games involving jank spirit,
mostly played in hyperspace sports in the Orion Beta star system.
Here are the rules of one of them. Two people
sit across from each other at a table, glass placed
(20:28):
in front of both in a bottle of jank spirit
in the center of the table, and then both contestants
maybe fools, would sort of use the force they had
telepsychic powers and attempt to tip the bottle so that
it would pour some of the spirit into the glass
of their opponent, who would then have to check it
(20:50):
rent and repeat, bottle after bottle. Yeah, sort of like
beer pong or burea burea kart, but worse um a lossment.
You'd probably keep losing because the alcohol, I mean it
messes with a lot of things, but it also messes
with the telepsychic powers. Yeah. Once whatever predetermined amount of
(21:12):
jank spirit was consumed and a final winner emerged, the
loser had to perform a forfeit, which was typically an
obscene biological thing. Old jank spirit has appeared in a
couple of Star Wars properties, including The Force Unleashed two
novel and other things. And there's a drinking song. There
(21:34):
is I've been debating all day whether I was gonna
sing this or I was just gonna say it. Oh,
don't give me none more of that old Jank spirit. Now,
don't give me none more of that old Jank spirit,
for my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my
eyes will fry, and I may die. Won't you pour
me one more of that sinful old Jenks spirit? So
(21:56):
rousing tune, I'm sure. And speaking of something else, you
probably shouldn't drink pan galactic goggle blasters. These were invented
by the characters apod Um, and they are Jenks Spirit
cocktail with one of the most explicit descriptions in the
books when it comes to food or drink item quote.
(22:18):
Take the juice from one bottle of that old Jenk spirit,
poured into one measure of water from the seas of
satire Genius five. Allow three cubes of octurin megagen megagen
to melt into the mixture. It must be properly iced
or the benzene is lost. Allow four leaders of Folly
(22:38):
and marsh gas to bubble through it over the back
of a silver spoon. Float a measure of qualactin hypermint
extract dropping the tooth of an Algolian sun tiger, sprinkle
zam four adding olive drink but very carefully. There's a
(22:59):
lot of periods in their ellipses. Yes, and you should
drink it very very carefully. Is compared to quote, the
alcoholic equivalent of a mugging expensive and bad for the head.
And it's like having your brain smashed out by a
slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Another
(23:22):
description of its potency is as follows. After two of
those babies, the dullest most by the book, Vogan will
be up on the barn stilettos, yodeling mountain shanties and
swearing he's the king of the gray binding fiefdoms of Saxoquin.
There's a lot of fun words in here. It's Inventor
(23:42):
himself advises never drink more than two pan galactic gargo
blasters unless you are a thirty ton mega elephant with
bronchial pneumonia. Who There are places you can go in
the book to rehabilitate yourself after having one one of these,
and the TV show a drop of the liquid burned
(24:03):
a hole in the floor. But despite all of this,
it carries the label the best drink in existence. You know,
it's certainly something to remember if only you could. And so,
of course, tantalized as as humans are by descriptions of
(24:25):
this sort, many people have made real life versions. Yeah.
The you can find some at the Zafad people Blox
Bar in Ottawa, Ontario. So cool. Are the Daniel Bar
of Findomond in Paris, which was also cool. I've never
been any of these places, but I've delved into their
(24:46):
website or Wisconsin's forty two Lounge. Forty two. Yeah, yeah,
it's an important number. It is. When asked about the
recipe for the pan Galactic Gargo Blaster Deega Adams, the
author responded, Unfortunately, there are a number of environmental and
weapons treatises, Treats and Weapons Treatise and laws of physics
(25:10):
which prevent one being mixed on Earth. Sorry, but of
course there are real world recipes that you can find online.
And what I found from tour dot com is as follows.
One ounce are more of absence or pesties, which is
sort of a nearer absente um. One ounce of brandy,
(25:33):
four ounces chilled club soda, one teaspoon cardamom infused honey,
various oddities to garnish, and then he has a recipe
on how to make the cardamon honey. So you know,
if you're looking to try some yourself or drow a
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed party, invite us and
(25:56):
make this. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's basically a Tom
Collins basically with with like yeah, like like maybe something
a little bit absently flavored, yeah, tustin, a little bit
of color, yeah, garnish with an olive and speaking of um,
of course the gin Anthony, which I think is supposed
(26:17):
to be Gin and the Tan Knicks, the Gagracaca version
of Gin and Tonics essentially only again way stronger. That's
that's a theme in this, this whole thing. I've realized
it's strong enough to kill a cow at one hundred paces.
(26:37):
That's a serious That's a very serious drink. I mean,
all drinking is serious. Drink responsibly, yes, especially any pangalactic
charco blasters should you run across Oh yeah, man, if
staff had ever hands you a drink, drink extremely responsibly,
by which I probably mean not at all. Yeah, yeah,
(26:57):
definitely do the old toss over your show older things
and that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we
clearly enjoyed doing it. Yes, yes, um oh. And one
thing that I forgot to mention at the top, there
is or there was a little bit of Hitchhiker's news.
(27:20):
As of early it was announced that Hulu was doing
a new adaptation I think may maybe a mini series,
and I was supposed to start filming in like mi
and then that did not happen. Um, and I'm not
sure if it's in development. Hell at this point, are
what's going on? There hasn't been an update in a minute,
(27:44):
but but goodness, I hope that that happens. I always want,
I always always always want new filmic adaptations of this property,
new adaptations period. I just have it. Yes, me too,
So we'll we'll keep an eye on that. Maybe another
revisit in order, yes, yes, But in the meantime, listeners,
(28:08):
if there's any other fictional food property we should be covering,
you've got to let us know. Please email us at
hello at sabor pod dot com. You can also find
us on social media. We are on Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram at savor pod and we do hope to hear
from you. Savor is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, you can visit the
(28:28):
i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogel bam, and today
we have a classic episode for you about Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy and the fictional foods they're in. Yes, oh,
these fictional food ones. They're some of our favorites. They
are so fun to do, they really are. I UM,
it helps that like I don't know, like I'm I
(00:29):
was an English major and so I kind of missed
discussing literature, um uh and and other creative works, um
in some kind of I'm not sure if we're discussing
them in a strictly critical way. Um, but we're discussing them.
We are discussing them, and we have we often have
anecdotes and opinions and thoughts. Yeah, maybe what's the deeper
(00:54):
meaning of something or what it's what's it's trying to communicate.
In this case, forty two always, always, always was the
forty second anniversary of the publishing I believe of the Oh,
it could be the radio thing. I already closed the tab.
(01:16):
I'm not no one will ever know. That's very Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. For you. Yeah, that's it, that's it.
The time is past. Um, But we did. We did
this episode originally in August of twenty eighteen. Yes, wow, huh. Well,
(01:43):
and it came up recently in our Instant Coffee episode,
didn't it. Yes, that is why I was thinking of
it that end. Like I was like, it started time
for another fictional foods episode, but I'm not ready to
record a new one. Uh. And Douglas Adams is just
a delightful human person, and so I was like, let's
let's bring it back. Yes, And a lot of you listeners,
(02:06):
a lot of you, all of you, all of you
are delightful human people as well. Um, some of you.
I cannot wait to share the listener mail we got
about Instant Coffee. We've got a lot and a lot
of them are fictional, like food related. So people did
write in about this. People wrote in about Dune uh,
(02:28):
And people wrote in about Seinfeld and I missed reference
that I can't believe I missed. I can't. I know,
I'm falling down. What's going on with me? Uh? And
also after we did this episode, a kind listener Tom
Tomby Frequent Listener Frequent Responders messages since as the Ultimate
(02:51):
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. These books along with a
very nice note because we mentioned in there, um that
we I didn't have it and about but both of
us had lost our copies. I very strangely like like
like Tom, like you sent the books and then I
found my copy and I was like it was just
(03:11):
it was just right there. It was I don't know,
there was some kind of there's some kind of like
a situation. Yeah, it was shielded by like a somebody
else's problem shield or something something like that. Um, but
someone else's problem. I don't remember the exact phrasing from
the book anyway. Um. Yes, thank you so much though
(03:31):
for sending books. And I believe I was able to
pass on a copy to a friend who also did
not have one. And so wow, books are great, y'all.
I like them. They are great. They are great. That's
another one of the reasons we like we like these.
I like the excuse to look back at these fun
(03:53):
entertainment properties. Yes, and it had been a minute sinside
read the hit Checker's guy at Theolex. So this is exciting.
This is exciting. Yes, um, and I suppose, without further
ado we will let past Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
(04:21):
and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Anyes and I'm Lauren
vocal Baum and Odd's time for another fictional foods episode.
Yeah it's been a minute, but we are here today
to talk about fictional foods. Hitchhiker's Guy to the Galaxy Edition. Yes, yeah,
I believe I am a fan, and I believe Lauren
that you are a fan as well. I am very
(04:41):
much a fan. It was one of those I got
a hold of a copy of I think the whole trilogy,
which is five books, um in early high school, and
it was one of those revolutionary things for me, Like
it was just total paradigm shift. I was like, oh, oh,
so good. I think I had the same copy and
(05:02):
I let someone borrow it. If you're listening, I want
it back. I can't remember who you are, but I
will find you. I lost my copy as I was,
because I meant to reread at least the first book
when I was when when when we decided to do
this episode, and I it's it's not there. It's probably
(05:26):
the same person. That person just collecting coffees on top
of coffees for what purpose we don't know. Well, one
day we'll figure it out. But I wanted to start
with my favorite quote, which I do remember. I think
it's from the restaurant at the end of the Universe.
(05:46):
He's spending a year dead for tax reasons. I just
remember that because I like read that and I was
what eleven So I don't know anything about taxes. I
didn't have to pay taxes, but for some reason, it's
as my mom said, overturned my ticklebox. And I just
kept laughing and laughing and laughing. It's such a really,
(06:09):
it's a really clear memory for me, apparently. Yeah. Yeah,
And we have mentioned Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before
in a couple of past episodes like Gin and Tonic
to mind. Yeah, and as per the used with these
fictional food episodes. Thanks to Wikia fandom. So helpful, so helpful.
(06:31):
Oh yes, yes, hats off to you all, brave, brave
soldiers a fandom. Yes, we appreciate your efforts. So what
is it? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a
comedic media series almost entirely written by Earth human Douglas Adams.
(06:53):
It started as a BBC radio show in nine and
was adapted into A wild a popular series of novels,
plus stage shows, video games, a television series in one,
a feature film in two thousand five, and more other
radio shows. That's a lot it is. Douglas Noel Adams
was a writer who was rather famous for not writing, UM,
(07:17):
I love deadlines, he wrote, I like the whooshing sound
they make as they fly by. He was born in Cambridge, England,
in nineteen fifty two. His uh father, a teacher, and
his mother, a nurse, divorced when he was five. He
was a fan of Monty Python and he decided to
try to get into writing comedy. Took a whole lot
of odd jobs while he was doing it, and Uh
(07:40):
The Hiker's Guide radio show was an unexpectedly resounding hit
that moved him into writing full time. The novels almost
didn't happen because the BBC was like, oh, novel adaptations
of radio series never worked, let's not even try that.
But happened. They did. Also all of those other things,
(08:03):
And although Adams would struggle with depression and writer's block
and and kind of the weight of that early success,
he'd go on to to do work work in writing
that helped protect endangered species. He married, he had a daughter,
He's had a ridiculous collection of electric guitars, um and
he would die suddenly in two thousand one when he
(08:24):
was just forty nine UM. And every year on fans
and friends celebrate his strange life and legacy with Towel
Day day on which to openly carry a towel with you, because,
as The Hitchhiker's Guide taught us, a towel is one
of the most useful objects in the universe and you
should never go anywhere with that one. I actually have.
It's a yellow one, and it's one of those ones
(08:46):
that gets like super small and it is really absorbant
and tries really quickly, you know, just in case it's good.
It's you know, he could be a food. Who really
knows where your towel? Is this true? Uh? If if
you have rather no idea what we're talking about, And
I'm I'm so sorry if I drop more britishisms than
(09:07):
usual into this particular episode. It's thinking about it is
my brain in a very English place right now. The
eponymous Hitchhiker's Guide is this a galactic travel guide and
the media series are about the Adventures or misadventures of
another Earth human by the name of Arthur Dent traveling galactically. Uh.
And despite this, the series are way more about the
(09:29):
hilariously mundane things in life than they are about science
fiction a things. Uh. Adams actually said that he never
intended the series to be science fiction, but that he
blew up the Earth in the first episode spoiler alert,
and he sort of had to. Yeah, it's sort of
difficult not to go elsewhere if the planet no longer exists. Yes.
(09:52):
Uh So. One of those hilariously mundane things about life,
the universe and everything is food and inc So there's
a lot of that in the series. Um. A lot
of the series are actually just about Arthur trying and
failing to get a decent cup of tea. Yeah, which
we talked about a little bit in our episode. Yeah. Yeah,
(10:14):
And I have I have a have a quote for you.
Stop me at any time. I'll just go on forever
on the the first spaceship that that Arthur I guess
it's the second spaceship, isn't it that Arthur winds up
on I know how dare I? Um? It says he
had found a new traumatic machine which had provided him
(10:34):
with a plastic cup filled with liquid that was almost
but not quite entirely unlike tea. The way it functioned
was very interesting. When the drink button was pressed, it
made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subjects
taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject's metabolism, and
then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to
the taste centers of the subject's brain to see exactly
(10:56):
what was likely to go down. Well, however, no one
knew quite why did this, because it invariably delivered a
cup full of liquid that was almost but not quite
entirely unlike tea. That's one of the things I love
about um these books is that it it's there's all
these kind of high tech robot and it's trying to
(11:18):
understand humans, and humans just don't make sense. Essentially, it's
a joke, like I've done all this math and calculations
but nothing is working, or just yeah, beings, like living
beings at their core, are completely nonsensical. Yeah yeah. Um
book menus dot com has a breakdown of the most
(11:40):
mentioned food and drinks, because there are, like teeth, a
lot of things from Earth Show up in series A lot.
They're just usually viewed differently, and we will talk a
little bit about that more later. But te peanuts, corn flakes, McDonald's, hamburger,
jello Jonah, it's very important, custard, hot dogs, and rice pudding. Um,
(12:05):
and if you're interested, they have a lot more information
following all of that. Take a very long time to
go through, but more power to you if you want
to know. Oh, absolutely yes. So that's a basic overview.
We're gonna pause for a quick break forward from our
sponsor and then get into some specifics and we're back.
(12:36):
Thank you sponsored. So we have two sections here, foods
and drinks, and we're gonna start with foods, and we're
going to start in that subsection vegan rhino a k a.
Evil smelling meat, and by vegan rhino, is it is
it vegan? Is it? Nope? It's not what you're thinking.
(13:00):
Probably vegan here does not necessarily mean what it means
on Earth. It means from the alpha learious star system.
Oh like vega like vague vegan vegan not vegan. Yeah,
I got it, it's so Joe. Speaking of meat, there
are also a perfectly normal beasts which happened to pass
(13:22):
through this a particularly superstitious settlement on a planet called
Amuela periodically. Um. When Arthur crash lands there and is
asked why the Almighty Bob sent him, Um, he sets
himself up as the Almighty Bob's sandwich maker. Oh important job,
yeah yeah um, and his primary ingredient for these sandwiches
is perfectly normal beast. For upon l Ammuela, every aspect
(13:46):
of making the humble sandwich has been developed beyond the
dreams of even the picnic food epicures on Thermous Magnus
six mm hmm sounds good. Yeah. Sure. In the Restaurant
The End of the Universe, which is a book about
a fictional restaurant within that book, they serve scentiate and
(14:09):
suicidal meat, self serving you see. Yeah, yeah, it's explained
as being the most humane choice, you know, rather than
get tangled up in whether it's okay to eat regular
animals and plants which cannot consent um, someone bred a
type of cow that actively wants to be eaten. What
a life? Were good evening, Madame and gentlemen, I am
(14:35):
the main dish of the day. May I interest you
in parts of my body. Huh, well, something off my shoulder,
perhaps raised in a little white wine sash. There's the
Hagro biscuit, and this is a dntra se specialty, a
lower quality food stuff that they served to the Bogans,
(14:58):
whom they detested. The Tracy were known for having really
nice food, but they made pure crap for the Wogans.
So anyone expecting nice to trassy food but got something
they made with the Wogans in mind was going to
be disgusted and surprised. Um, and I'm not sure what
this is that the Internet will return a result of
(15:20):
a blue bread topped with guacamole. Well, that's what it
looks like. I have no idea what's actually going on.
It's a bright blue bread dot with something bright green
fill in as your imagine imagine agencies fit. Um. There's
star Bicks, which is a Cereal brand Algolean zilot burger,
(15:41):
which Zafa biebl Brocks described as quote a kind of
meat burger made with the most unpleasant parts of a
creature well known for its total lack of any pleasant
part that sounds appetizing. And as we mentioned earlier, earth food,
Several earth foods show up throughout the sea aries, but
in different ways than we would expect. For instance, beer
(16:06):
is used as a muscle relaxant, although I would say
you could argue some of us use it that way absolutely.
Oh yeah, yeah. Peanuts are sort of protein supplement. Uh
and t tea can power alien and probability machines. Quote
the principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by
(16:26):
simply hooking the logic circuits of a bimboolweeny fifties seven
submission brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a
strong Brawnian motion producer say a nice hot cup of tea, where,
of course well understood. Of course, when human Arthur Dent
(16:47):
confused computers by asking for tea, they asked him why,
and his response was it makes me happy. Oh yeah,
that's kind of nice, Poor Arthur. Yeah, poor Arthur. Coffee,
on the other hand, um and specifically stirring it has
sort of a butterfly effect on bistro mathematics. Yes, bistro
(17:09):
mathematics is an understanding of numbers that accepts that numbers
are not absolute but dependent on the movement of the
observer in restaurants, Yes, uh, quote just as Einstein observed
that time was not an absolute but depended on the
observer's movement in space, and that space was not an
absolute but dependent on the observer's movement in time. It
(17:31):
is now realized that numbers are not absolute but dependent
on the observer's movement. In restaurants, yeah I love this,
uh so yeah so so, like the number of people
a table is reserved for versus the number of people
who wind up eating, um, and the time that the
party is supposed to arrive versus when they actually do,
(17:52):
and the build amount versus how much anyone who's showed
up is prepared to pay, and whether or not they
have money with them, um. The work of calculating all
of these non absolute numbers can can allow you to
manipulate the very fabric of reality. Is what's going on
in bastro mathematics. There's a ship that has a beast
(18:13):
mathematics engine. The engine is made up of a robotic restaurant.
The servers and all the all the bits and pieces
are all robotic, and uh it's what it's doing is
actively calculating all of these numbers, these these non absolute numbers,
these numbers, some of which are a rest of private exclusions,
(18:34):
which are numbers whose existence can only be defined as
being anything other than themselves, like time of arrival exactly.
That's my favorite one. So uh so so yeah, so yeah,
I'm trying trying to to to solve these equations. Can
get can get you far? I think, isn't it like
(18:56):
the most powerful something of parasie It's it's very powerful.
It is it is and it's and it's a little
bit less sticky than improbability, uh, mathematics, which is what
drives another engine involved in the series. There's a lot
of engines driven around there, absolutely, So that's ah the
(19:20):
food overlook. But really we got to talk about some drinks, yes, yes, okay,
First we're gonna fause for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(19:45):
thank you. Alright, So the first thing we have to
talk about is Jenks spirit at old Jenks Spirit. Yes,
I think that has is what it's more usually called um,
And this is a spirit. Yeah, people drink it for
the same multitude of reasons we do. But it's way
(20:06):
stronger than most of the stuff we Earthlings are familiar with.
And there are several interesting drinking games involving jank spirit,
mostly played in hyperspace sports in the Orion Beta star system.
Here are the rules of one of them. Two people
sit across from each other at a table, glass placed
(20:28):
in front of both in a bottle of jank spirit
in the center of the table, and then both contestants
maybe fools, would sort of use the force they had
telepsychic powers and attempt to tip the bottle so that
it would pour some of the spirit into the glass
of their opponent, who would then have to check it
(20:50):
rent and repeat, bottle after bottle. Yeah, sort of like
beer pong or burea burea kart, but worse um a lossment.
You'd probably keep losing because the alcohol, I mean it
messes with a lot of things, but it also messes
with the telepsychic powers. Yeah. Once whatever predetermined amount of
(21:12):
jank spirit was consumed and a final winner emerged, the
loser had to perform a forfeit, which was typically an
obscene biological thing. Old jank spirit has appeared in a
couple of Star Wars properties, including The Force Unleashed two
novel and other things. And there's a drinking song. There
(21:34):
is I've been debating all day whether I was gonna
sing this or I was just gonna say it. Oh,
don't give me none more of that old Jank spirit. Now,
don't give me none more of that old Jank spirit,
for my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my
eyes will fry, and I may die. Won't you pour
me one more of that sinful old Jenks spirit? So
(21:56):
rousing tune, I'm sure. And speaking of something else, you
probably shouldn't drink pan galactic goggle blasters. These were invented
by the characters apod Um, and they are Jenks Spirit
cocktail with one of the most explicit descriptions in the
books when it comes to food or drink item quote.
(22:18):
Take the juice from one bottle of that old Jenk spirit,
poured into one measure of water from the seas of
satire Genius five. Allow three cubes of octurin megagen megagen
to melt into the mixture. It must be properly iced
or the benzene is lost. Allow four leaders of Folly
(22:38):
and marsh gas to bubble through it over the back
of a silver spoon. Float a measure of qualactin hypermint
extract dropping the tooth of an Algolian sun tiger, sprinkle
zam four adding olive drink but very carefully. There's a
(22:59):
lot of periods in their ellipses. Yes, and you should
drink it very very carefully. Is compared to quote, the
alcoholic equivalent of a mugging expensive and bad for the head.
And it's like having your brain smashed out by a
slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. Another
(23:22):
description of its potency is as follows. After two of
those babies, the dullest most by the book, Vogan will
be up on the barn stilettos, yodeling mountain shanties and
swearing he's the king of the gray binding fiefdoms of Saxoquin.
There's a lot of fun words in here. It's Inventor
(23:42):
himself advises never drink more than two pan galactic gargo
blasters unless you are a thirty ton mega elephant with
bronchial pneumonia. Who There are places you can go in
the book to rehabilitate yourself after having one one of these,
and the TV show a drop of the liquid burned
(24:03):
a hole in the floor. But despite all of this,
it carries the label the best drink in existence. You know,
it's certainly something to remember if only you could. And so,
of course, tantalized as as humans are by descriptions of
(24:25):
this sort, many people have made real life versions. Yeah.
The you can find some at the Zafad people Blox
Bar in Ottawa, Ontario. So cool. Are the Daniel Bar
of Findomond in Paris, which was also cool. I've never
been any of these places, but I've delved into their
(24:46):
website or Wisconsin's forty two Lounge. Forty two. Yeah, yeah,
it's an important number. It is. When asked about the
recipe for the pan Galactic Gargo Blaster Deega Adams, the
author responded, Unfortunately, there are a number of environmental and
weapons treatises, Treats and Weapons Treatise and laws of physics
(25:10):
which prevent one being mixed on Earth. Sorry, but of
course there are real world recipes that you can find online.
And what I found from tour dot com is as follows.
One ounce are more of absence or pesties, which is
sort of a nearer absente um. One ounce of brandy,
(25:33):
four ounces chilled club soda, one teaspoon cardamom infused honey,
various oddities to garnish, and then he has a recipe
on how to make the cardamon honey. So you know,
if you're looking to try some yourself or drow a
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed party, invite us and
(25:56):
make this. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's basically a Tom
Collins basically with with like yeah, like like maybe something
a little bit absently flavored, yeah, tustin, a little bit
of color, yeah, garnish with an olive and speaking of um,
of course the gin Anthony, which I think is supposed
(26:17):
to be Gin and the Tan Knicks, the Gagracaca version
of Gin and Tonics essentially only again way stronger. That's
that's a theme in this, this whole thing. I've realized
it's strong enough to kill a cow at one hundred paces.
(26:37):
That's a serious That's a very serious drink. I mean,
all drinking is serious. Drink responsibly, yes, especially any pangalactic
charco blasters should you run across Oh yeah, man, if
staff had ever hands you a drink, drink extremely responsibly,
by which I probably mean not at all. Yeah, yeah,
(26:57):
definitely do the old toss over your show older things
and that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we
clearly enjoyed doing it. Yes, yes, um oh. And one
thing that I forgot to mention at the top, there
is or there was a little bit of Hitchhiker's news.
(27:20):
As of early it was announced that Hulu was doing
a new adaptation I think may maybe a mini series,
and I was supposed to start filming in like mi
and then that did not happen. Um, and I'm not
sure if it's in development. Hell at this point, are
what's going on? There hasn't been an update in a minute,
(27:44):
but but goodness, I hope that that happens. I always want,
I always always always want new filmic adaptations of this property,
new adaptations period. I just have it. Yes, me too,
So we'll we'll keep an eye on that. Maybe another
revisit in order, yes, yes, But in the meantime, listeners,
(28:08):
if there's any other fictional food property we should be covering,
you've got to let us know. Please email us at
hello at sabor pod dot com. You can also find
us on social media. We are on Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram at savor pod and we do hope to hear
from you. Savor is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, you can visit the
(28:28):
i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com