Foodie Episode with Rekha Shankar ~ Dosa, Gharana, Energy Drink or RPG Spell? - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep 8 - American Born Chatty Desis (A·B·C·D)

Episode Transcript
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Omar Najam (00:00):
Welcome to ABCD.
I would like to introduceto you the cohost for this
episode, a gentleman whoadvocates so much for tofu.
Our nickname for himon the show is soy boy.
Please welcome Sandeep Parikh.

Sandeep Parikh (00:14):
Gosh, thank you so much.
Oh, and I would like tointroduce our cohost.
the man who, if you orderspicy at a restaurant,
they just bring out OmarNajam, ladies and gentlemen.

Omar Najam (00:24):
You know what?
Here's what's wild though.
We're not alone We havea third co host this week
Yeah the first person to giveout a James Beard Award without
the approval of the James BeardFoundation, that's right, it is
none other than Rekha Shankar!

Rekha Shankar (00:41):
Yay!

Ladies, gentlemen, and our non binary
friends, that voice you'relistening to right now, Rekha
Shankar, you may have, thatmight be familiar to you
because, not only was she anexecutive story editor for Grand
Crew on the NBCs, and, alsoexecutive story editor on Andy
Samberg and Neil Campbell'sDigMan on Comedy Central.
Let's go!Okay, she's also a popular host.

(01:07):
That's right.
The host of Smarty Pantson Dropout and more.
There's more.
I'm just, I'm in aflow state right now.
just let me flow, baby.
she also stars as Usha Rao inG13 on Dimension 20's latest
season, Never Stop Blowing

Omar Najam (01:22):
Up.
And.

huh.
And.
As.
I think the world's bestTTRPG character ever in
Laddoo Auntie in DesiQuest.

Omar Najam (01:33):
Yes!

Incredible.
Incredible.
I love on podcasts when theygo wow, what an introduction.
So I'll say that, ohmy god, wow, what an

Omar Najam (01:42):
introduction.
How would you have reacted if wehad done like the best man bit
where it's just oh and Rekha,I can't read your handwriting.
You know that little bitthat men do at weddings?
Oh, yeah.
I don't know handwriting stuff.
I don't know that bit.
I only

know when men are like, people have been
giving a lot of complimentsto my brother, and I'm
here to tell you the truth.
And they're just like,I hate him, I don't know
the handwriting thing.
I hate him,

I hate this relationship,
it's never gonna work.

What is the handwriting thing?

Omar Najam (02:10):
The handwriting thing is, I just gotta
say, the groom has anamazing personality, a
wonderful demeanor, isan athlete, a doctor.
And it's so good, it's Oh,sorry, I can't read the
rest of your handwriting.
ha! Oh, the your handwriting.
wait,

Rekha Shank (02:26):
that made me laugh.

Sandeep Parik (02:27):
your handwriting.

Damn, that worked on me.
Hey, listen.

Every, trope y, cliche joke, if heard for
the first time, is fantastic.

I'm going to use that.

Omar Najam (02:39):
folks, we're not talking about
weddings this episode.
We are celebrating our 40th,because it is our 40th episode.
And we get to do what we want,because it's our birthday.
Which means we're talking food.
That's right.
Our show, ABCD American BornChatty Desis is a podcast within
a livestream within our livesas two American born Desis.
it is a pod duckin if youwill, which is also a little

(03:02):
bit of a food reference.
And if you are like us outthere, and you're navigating
your cultural identity, andyou just want to chat it out,
folks, we have such a greatepisode for you, because on
tap for today, we have an oldsegment with a brand new name.
This is the firsttime I'm saying it out
loud on the internet.
We'll be kicking itoff with "White Lady
Teaches Us Brown News".

(03:22):
That'll be followed byAuntie vs Auntie Watch: 2024.
Followed by "Not a Doctor!?".
Then we'll have ourABCD game, which you are
really going to enjoy.
And finally wrap it up withour "Desi of the Week".
But first folks, can I tellyou about our sponsors?
you might know a littlebit about Our first sponsor
a show called DesiQuest.

Kaylin Mahoney (03:39):
Oh,

Omar Najam (03:41):
that's right.
It's the Dungeons and Dragons5e campaign that stars me and
Sandeep as well as You RekhaShankar and our friend Anjali
Bhimani and a collectionof amazing guests all set
in an original South AsianMythology inspired world
from the brilliant mind ofJasmine "thatbronzegirl"
Bhullar aka self care.
That's a reference to atext chain that we have All

(04:02):
the episodes are out right

now

Omar Najam (04:04):
and

you can watch the whole thing
over at DesiQuest.com

Okay, real quick favorite Laddoo Auntie moment
from the series I'm gonna justsay mine first since I gave
the prompt, it's unfair forme to throw to somebody else.
So I'm just going to say,in light of our pre show
conversation, it's the partwhere you go, drink water.
Such a great moment.
But now knowing the backstoryof how difficult it is for you

(04:31):
to consume water on a regularbasis, that's it especially
hits on a different level.

Yes, art is very healing.
I'm playing against type.
Normally I'm not someonewho drinks water or
advocates it, but I played.
Someone who does.
It's

good to stretch.

Omar Najam (04:48):
All this spider mama stuff was so great.
I do think that there'sjust a, such a true,
an honest, depiction ofaunties, like not asking for
help that Rekha mastered.
And there was just, I don'twant to ruin too much, but
there's a character that's Hey,there is like a education and
business that you could pursue.
And you were And if you wantedto share that information
with me, that's okay.

Yeah.
Way of

asking for help without asking for help.

Yeah.
an auntie will be like, I lostevery organ in my body and
you'll never know about it.
You'll hear about itlike a year later.
And yeah, every organof my body fell out.
Don't be such a gossip about it.
And you're like, "are you ok?"And they're like,
you're being weird.
Stop talking about it.
And you're like, I found out

Omar Najam (05:32):
my mom was in the hospital.
Cause my siblings werevisiting Los Angeles and we
were getting burritos and theywere just like crazy about how
mom's in the hospital, huh?
and I went outside and Icalled her and then she just,
her, the incident was like,are you in the hospital?
And her, she went.
And then laughed, andthen changed the subject.

Omar, I'm not going to say I have you
beat because that is amazing.
but I just want to, and Rekha'sheard this story because I
called her like pretty muchright after this happened.
But I had an entire conversationwith my parents, a whole
conversation with them.
back and forth, they passthe phone, everything.
And, then two hours later,I get a furious amount
of texts from my family.

(06:09):
And they were justlike, please pick up,
please call, call, call.
Something's going on.
And I talked to my brotherand my brother was like, Yeah,
so dad's in the hospital.
he had an event, heart thing.
He's okay, by the way everybodyThat's why I can tell the story
with some joy But and I waslike, oh my gosh, what happened?
what's going on?
I just talked to themHe's oh, what do you mean?
You just talked to them?

(06:30):
He's like they've been inthe hospital for 24 hours and
I was like wait So they'rein the hospital the entire
time that I was talking tothem about like nonsense.
They're passing the phoneback and forth because...
you know why they're passingthe phone back and forth?
Because the doctor wascoming up to talk to them.
And so they're like, here, youanswer it, they're trading off.

(06:51):
Now you talk about howexcited we are about

the Kevin Costner film.
What is

even happening?

That is so unbelievably sick.
And so typical.

So typical.
It's amazing.
What's not typical a podcastto have two sponsors.
And I'm going to tell you aboutour second sponsor right now.
It's pretty good, right?
Kaylin.
Good.
Good.
Okay.
Our second sponsor is youlisteners at home is everybody
that contributes to our Patreon.
Yeah, we need it.
We need to make the lights, hum.

(07:27):
Is that what lights do?
We've, we just startedthis idea of Effin Movie
Club because, guess what?
I'm making a movie!You guys, I'm making a movie
with one Rekha Shankar!we are working on
a film together.
It's very exciting, andpart of what I do is I watch
movies, as research, andwhat I'm opening up to our
Patreon subscribers is, I'llwatch the movie with ya.

(07:48):
Let's watch the movietogether on Discord.
And then, and I'll behind theveil it for you as I break
down the, important partswhat's inspiring me, what's
working for me, what's not.
what the pieces thatI'm gonna carry with me.
As I go, Rekha, oh my god!I just watched Palm Springs
and we have to do, wehave to copy this scene.
that's the stuff weget to do together.
And I'm like, you can't just

copy scenes from movies.

No, we just got, we just did it.
If Frances Ha didit, you can do it.
We just have to credit them.

Yeah.
Like a lower third.
This scene is from Palm Springs.
That's what you do on Instagram.

You just steal music and then it
says it at the bottom.
What the song is.
Yeah @ Palm Springs.

That's right.
That is a great.
Yeah.
We just got link

their Instagram.
So please, hey, why don'tyou get out there and
support a couple Desi's inthe creative arts and, help
us keep those lights on.
Again, that'spatreon.com/effinfunny,
E-F-F-I-N.
Funny

Omar Najam (08:41):
yes folks, should we get started with this episode?
Hell yeah.
We

usually have sound effects Rekha.
you could have fooled me.

Folks, we're trying something new this week.
In our segment, "White LadyTeaches Us Brown News",
Kaylin's going to read usthe news and we're going to
give our real time reactions.
Take it away, Kaylin.
I just have to say thatthis was not my idea.
I feel like that'simportant to mention.

Kaylin, don't sell yourself short.
Before we started rolling,Kaylin was like, I feel
like I, I want more ofa presence on the show.
I would love to pitch anidea where I read news
bulletins and you guys,you sit silently and react.
And I think it's a great idea.

We just have to nod or shake our heads shrug.

All right.
with that said, becauseit's an audio medium, I
guess maybe react grunt orcreative sound, but we'll
see how this one works.
So here are the articlesthat I read and can't
wait to share, with you.
So the first story, "HowSalvation Leveled Up the
Bay Area's Coffee World".

(09:58):
We've got a revolutionhappening up north, all right?
There's a lot of Indianinspired artisan coffee
shops and pop ups that aretaking over the Bay Area.
I learned Indian bornresidents are the largest
immigrant population there.
Fun.
Yeah,

Omar Najam (10:12):
we are.

I didn't know that.

NBD.

Yeah, apparently they have a lot
of like Indian restaurantswhere these places have things
like cardamom lattes, milkwash teas, a litany of other,
and these aren't my words,quote unquote, bastardized
Indian grandma drinks.

Oh, so like a golden milk or like a, some
sort of, I don't know, payasamtype beverage or something.

I love that they call it bastardized
Indian grandma drinks.
they're just owning thefact that we're just
stealing grandma's recipeand trying to market it
and make money off of it.

Omar Najam (10:45):
And running away with it.

Or maybe acknowledging that you
actually can never dograndma's recipe because she
doesn't write it down andshe doesn't have a recipe.
Yes, true.
If I

Omar Najam (10:53):
were to be

like's my grandma's God's milk, like
the prasadam (religiousoffering) she had before or,
on the, on like the prayershelves that we would have.
I have no idea what's in that.
Almonds?
Yeah.
turmeric, saffron,sugar, cashew.
lots of sugar.

There's also It's whatever's there.
Like, it's literally...
My mom's not going torun out and get more
saffron, if she's run out.
She's going to be like, I'm justgoing to grab this other spice.

People act like Indian cooking is complicated
and it is, and actually it'smostly complicated because no
one tells you how to do it.
And there are no instructions.
and every website that tellsyou how to do it is confusing.
And we'll be like, put twoclove and you're like, two
teaspoons or two cloves?
Just Two...
feel the

number two.
Not to,

Not

Omar Najam (11:36):
to overly parenthetical on this, because
I do want to, laser focuson the news, but I gotta
say, in online recipes, whenthey're, like, oh, here's my
entire backstory before youget to, the recipe itself?
Yeah.
Is that taking fromSouth Asian culture?
Because that is what it'slike when you ask, an auntie,
like, how do I cook this?
And they're just like,when I was 14 years old.
And then you're like, I don'tknow, I don't understand how

(11:59):
this is at all related tothe cilantro chicken recipe.

That is interesting.
I never thought about that.
And then...
That's

appropriation, basically what you're saying.

Maybe any, honestly, it's probably a
lot of stuff that's takenfrom South Asian culture.
When I get like a 404 error,I feel like that is taken
from South Asian culture.
When I asked my parentsa question and they don't
have anything to tell me.

Omar Najam (12:23):
Absolutely.
That is taken

from South Asian culture in a way.
There's a lot of internet stuff.

Omar Najam (12:27):
yeah,

absolutely.
Wait, can I ask about this,like the coffee angle of this?
Because, Okay.
Okay.
In, at least in my houseit was chai all the way.
Chai or bust.
There was like notalk of coffee.
It was like not.
But then I found out recent.
Yeah, maybe Rekha.
Go ahead.
Here's what I have to say.

. Rekha Shankar (12:42):
South Indian filtered Coffee.
Huge.
deal for South Indians.
So my house, yeah.
I was doing chai juston my own accord.
You know, kind ofcool girly effect.

. Kaylin Mahoney (12:52):
But.

Kind of a Gilmore girl

situation.
Kind of a

Gilmore girly, where I'm

Blaine from Gilmore girls.

I'm kind of Blaine from Gilmore girls where
I'm making my own way and stuff.
But, we were coffee all day.
Morning was coffee, afternoonis South Indian filter coffee.
And my aunt's house is, whereit's super, super strong.
They will not let youtake it without milk.
It doesn't matter whatyour preference is.
It doesn't matter whatintolerances you have.
You cannot have it.
They are

intolerant.

I am intolerant towards your

Omar Najam (13:19):
intolerance.
The aunties say buckle in, nerd.

yeah.
Hey, be cool, dude.
Don't be a fucking dork.
Take the

milk.
Take the milk.
Take the milk.

for me, I grew up with a lot of filter coffee.
And it's to the point where,because the filter coffee
takes a moment to make.
If you're like at my aunt'shouse, you're like, Oh,
oh, there's no coffee.
Can I make coffee?
I don't want to be likerustling through stuff.
They're like, Oh yeah,there's instant coffee.
I'm like, Oh, thatis disgusting.
I don't want that.
There's actually

no words in our native language.
Yeah.
You can't say I don't want, so I

don't know if that's a north or south thing.
a Parikh versusShankar thing, but

yeah.

Rekha Shanka (13:58):
That's my thought.
I think it

must, I think it is maybe south.
Yeah.
Related.
South Indian I feelis more of a coffee.
'cause when I wentto Kerala, Yeah.
there was coffee everywhereand I was like, wow,
there's coffee everywhere.
I didn't know this is a thing.

Yeah.
You tify by pouring it betweentwo vessels to cool it off.

Oh They

do the

crazy long ones, yeah,

it's

like the

Rekha Shan (14:19):
harlem globetrotters

but with a drink That's right.
If you've never seen that,it's pretty insane how they
like I the wingspan on these...
gorgeous

wingspan

insane huge and they're just they're
pouring coffee from or tea tocool it off I'm curious Kaylin

to go back to the news that Omar and Sandeep were
getting distracted from Do wehave a last name on the people
who started the coffee shop?
Like one of them?
yeah, if we got a northor south situation

one the owner of York Street Cafe.
His name is Anand Upender Yeah

Okay, I can see my telltale is if it
ends with an A N, I guessit's a South Indian name.
So that's really what Iwas looking for Kaylin.
So you didn't actuallygive me what, could
have been impressive.

Omar Najam (15:10):
The Upanishads are late Vedic and post
Vedic Sanskrit texts.
huh.
Does that help at all?

Are you just looking up Indian facts?
Yeah, on fuckin Google AI or

some shit.

Yeah.
Yeah, just asking ChatGPT,How should I respond to Rekha?
just say this thingabout the Upanishads.
Alright, so what, what'sspecial about Anand Upender?

I wrote his name down because he was
saying, he said something cool.
He called this sort ofmovement, popularization
of South Asian beverages.
he called it culturalmovement and says it's about
having brown hands populateposh coffee bars as much as
they do fields on the farm.

Omar Najam (15:50):
Hell yes.

Now I'm looking at the notes, so I am cheating,
but I see you wrote down somestuff about the baked goods.
And I think that's aninteresting part of the coffee
shop scene there becomingIndian that I have not seen,
which is so I have never met anIndian family that uses their
oven or that bakes anything.
So my parents use theiroven to store pot lids.

That's what that's for.
It's just to warm up the pots.
Yes, it's

a big drawer.
My dad's oven has been brokenfor, I don't know how long,
but he does not know becausehe never has to use it.
so

funny.

So the baked goods situation, I feel like.
A lot of people, includingmyself, don't know fully,
like there are biscuits,like tea biscuits and,
nankhatai and cumin biscuitsand all this stuff that I'd
be really curious to try.
And there's a lot ofBritish influence in India,
obviously, so like shortbreadtype of situations, cake
rusk, all that stuff.

Let's go on a tour of, the Bay Area
to these coffee shops.
If you're in the Bay Area

Hit me up, give me something for
free and I will be there.

Kaylin Mahone (16:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
Oh, you, oh, let me seeif I got this straight.

Omar Najam (17:01):
Then we can move on to the next story.
If you are in the Bay Area,comma, like you live there
or currently there, hit up

Rekha

Omar Najam (17:12):
and give her something for free.

That's it.

You got

Omar Najam (17:15):
it.
Okay, great.
That's all you gotta do.
1, 2, 3.
Great.

No further questions, your honor.
I think we should have ourown tea party, you guys.
Cute.
what do you think?
Like an Alice inWonderland thing?
No, I mean the British like high

tea.
I freaking love.

no.
like we, where we dumplike something into
the bay and we dress uplike, our type of Indian.
Yeah.

Go into the San Francisco Bay.

Go to San Francisco Bay.
Yeah.

We

Sandeep Par (17:42):
just need something

to...
off of pier 39.
Yeah.
Yeah.

We have something to have a grievance
about, which I don't knowwhat that is yet, but I
can solve for that later.
I

want a job.
I'm willing to throw tea.
I would love a job.
Yeah,

just the economy.

A tea

party in this economy, that's
what it's called.

And

then we just go and we dump a bunch of coffee.

Omar Najam (18:01):
talk about first, second, third generation
progress in these United Statesof America where now we are
throwing tea or chai or coffeeinto the bay and yelling that
someone has taken our jobs.
That AI has taken our jobs.
We truly have taken overthe American experience,
and I'm so proud of

us.

Let's end that story on that really great note.

Omar Najam (18:20):
it's a very rad story.
Thank you, Kaylin.

story number two for you guys today.
I hope you're hungry, I'mgonna feed you this good stuff.
A shocking study findselectric eels can zap
DNA into other animals.

Wow.

Their DNA?
Why?
Or they take it from one

DNA.
No,

it's their DNA, they're zapping it
into other organisms.
So they're

like,

shazamming

their DNA into a porcupine or something.

Or

It probably is an otter.

Yeah, like they put some sort of eel
quality into an otter.
Eel quality?
Eel quality?

Omar Najam (19:02):
Like patience?
I

Rekha Shanka (19:04):
didn't say virtue.

Sandeep (19:07):
Alright, tell us more.
Tell us more, Kaylin.
What's going on here?

Alright, some fun facts about eels.
They can release up to 860volts of electricity at a time.
Wow.
And turns out, after scientistshave been studying them, that's
enough to genetically modifynearby organisms through a
process called electroporation.
And electroporation, that'sa fancy way of saying that
these strong electrical pulsesdamage the cells of the other

(19:34):
animal and induce negativecharge DNA into their cells.
So wait.
Whoa.
What?

860 volts That's a lot of electricity.
That's a lot

Omar Najam (19:44):
of electricity.
It's a lot.

It's a lot.
I looked that up real quick.
That's a Nissan

Omar Najam (19:47):
Leaf.
Yeah.

It's like a high voltage power
line is around 860 volts.
Really?
Electric trains run betweenthe range of 600 and 900 volts.

So is it that Large industrial

equipment.

Is it that the water reduces whatever
the because if I were tobe electrocuted by 860
volts, it feels, am I rightto say I would perish?
So how does an otter, is it, thewater is like, doing something?
I think they do use it to kill.
Oh.
That's their, So it's killing,but then, so who cares

(20:20):
if it's altering the DNA?
We don't get tosee what happens.
Right?
If it dies?

Omar Najam (20:26):
Have you seen the movie The Fly?

there's a lot of wiggle room.
Yeah, it turns them into an eel.
This is how they propagate.

Omar Najam (20:32):
Eww! That's What?
Yeah, it's like zombifying.
So it

just changes DNA.
Are

I thought this was interesting.
So the eel, the eel generatesits electrical discharge gross
using special cells known aselectrolytes, I was just gonna

Omar Najam (20:50):
say, justice for Amazing Spider Man 2, a movie
where Jamie Foxx fell into avat of electric eels and turned
into Electro, and a man sittingnext to me turned to me and
went, that's not realistic.
I would love to look thatman in the face now and go,
looks like it's science.
Because it was the electriceels are able to negatively
charge the DNA in the phosphorusgroups, sir I don't think

(21:12):
you're thinking about thephosphorus groups So I think
this movie is actually a prettyscientifically accurate for a
man who's also a spider boy.

Yeah that person

watching a movie called Spider man.
Eel man can't happen.
That breaks my brain a little.
I feel

like you're in the middle of saying something.

Oh, I was just talking about their discharge.
As you do.
Yeah.
So they have this,they have this tissue,
named electric organ.

That's also the instrument I play.

And this helps them generate their discharge.
Okay.
Which they use to then catchprey and attack enemies, which
is what we guessed earlier.
But I also thought thatRekha, you brought up a good
point with all the water.
Does it reduce it?
Because No, like itshouldn't, right?
Because if you're struck bylightning and you're in a
lake, aren't you a dead man?
yeah, so it they should all bejust they're like double toast.

(22:18):
Yeah.

Yeah, I never thought of that like
the whole thing like youdon't put a toaster in
the bath or whatever It's

Omar Najam (22:24):
conductive

What?

Yeah, can electric eels What are they How
do they Yeah, let me say this,

Omar Najam (22:36):
let me have this as our takeaway.
If you're ever bored or feelinglike lackadaisical and it's not
like a brain chemical thing,like you're just like, I don't
know, maybe I've reached theedge of all that could be
known and there's nothing elseto think about electric eels
for just two more seconds.
And you'll realize that there'sso many question marks left
out there in the universe.
So many, how did they startdoing this and why can't we?

I gotta say, this stuff in the ocean is
truly, canonically disgusting.
And it's it all has likeweird, all the items down
there have weird stuff goingon like a lamp on its head or

Omar Najam (23:15):
one That's a good point.
It's a lamp on its head.
There's a shrimp that canpunch better than any other
animal on the planet I

think that is fucking disgusting.
Zach Reno recently did apresentation on smarty pants
about how we should stop goinginto the ocean And we got to be
done with it I completely agree.
I think the ocean,everything going on there,
I want to preserve it.
I don't want to pollute it.
All the animals shouldbe able to live there.
I don't want toknow what they are.
I think they're allnasty except for turtles,
except the basic ones.
The stuff that's superdeep is disgusting.

(23:42):
Stop going there.

Thank God this is a live show because
we have some scientists inchat, of course, furiously
correcting us, but they'rejust saying, listen, water by
itself isn't conductive, right?
You need something in it thatis conductive, like salt.
so thank you, DanWally, for that.
And

D Man says all the waters that's not
artificially cleaned uphas some kind of salt.

Water's rarely, actually pure H2O.
But I'm reading the end ofthis article and it says,
the authors are excited aboutthe implication of the study.
That organisms may undergogene transfer under the
influence of electricalfields such as lightning.
So it's if we get, if we'relike near an electrical,
like a lightning storm.
Struck by lightning.
I might get pregnant.

(24:22):
Awww.
Lightning

baby.

Baby.
I don't know.
That's my take away.
That's my take away.
Crazy.

my last little story I have for you guys.
hot dog.
Daddy is disqualified.

Omar Najam (24:36):
Go on.
Enough about me.

So as we all know, Nathan's hot dog eating
contest at Coney Island,it's held every July 4th.
Oh, is this yearthe two winners?
Patrick Bertoletti won,with 58 dogs, But did he?
Did he win?
And then Miki Sudo won thewomen's division with 51 dogs.

(25:02):
but in general, the dog countwas looking a little sad
because we were missing famoushot dog dom, Joey Chestnut.
Yeah.

Omar Najam (25:10):
Let's go! Joey! Bay Area Finest!

yeah.
yeah, and for any, for any ofthose who unfortunately don't
know about Joey Chestnut,he's won Nathan's contest
16 times total, 8 years ina row up until this year.
And his record iseating 76 dogs in 10

Omar Najam (25:28):
minutes.
That's a lot.
is Joey Chestnut retired?

Absolutely not.
No, he's just pivoted.
So what happened?

Omar Najam (25:34):
He's

pivoted! He pivoted in a
gorgeous way, right?
Okay, exactly.
Do you know?
I think I know.
I don't have to be awhite lady that teaches.
Also this is not brown news.
No, I want you to say.
No, I was going to ask you thelast two were not brown news.
Supposed to be, but it's brownnews cause I'm interested.
So

Omar Najam (25:50):
questionable competitions is
very South Asian.

Okay.
So he, on the 4th ofJuly, he did compete.
He competed against soldiers atFort Bliss Army's "Base Pop Goes
the Fort" event and guess what?
He beat all the soldiers.
He ate 57 dogs.
And the soldiers, I think itwas a group of soldiers, ate 49.
And that was in just fiveminutes and 30 seconds.

(26:18):
So he was on paceto beat his record.
Had he been able to competein Coney Island, it was
nearly half the time.
So he's a

worldwide champ.
Did we say why he wasdisqualified from the thing?
Oh,

no.
Unfortunately, it wasbecause he got sponsored
by Impossible Foods.
The vegan hot

dog brand.
And you have to eat Nathan's.
They did not like that.
You're joking.
And I freaking...

Also where it becomes south asian, right with
as many, vegan and vegetariansas we have in our world like
this is like I feel like in adirect assault on my parents.
At this point to say thatthis man just because he was
sponsored by a vegan hot dogcan't participate in a national
hot dog eating contest?
I feel like they shouldbe like, NASCAR drivers.
they should be able to wearsponsors all over their bodies.

(27:04):
I'm sponsored by WholeFoods and Hunt's Ketchup.
Because Impossible

isn't actually a competitor to Nathan's.
how insecure are you?

Exactly.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Nathan,

what a little

Omar Najam (27:17):
baby you are about this.
You know what Nathan?
There's an easy waywe can settle this.
How many impossiblehot dogs can you eat?

Yeah.
Right now.
We challenge you to eat as manyimpossible hot dogs as you can.
Nathan's pony up.
See if you can do it.
are you on, are you,do you have tea?
Can you fucking do it?

Omar Najam (27:37):
Gauntlet's been thrown.
It's on the ground.
The glove, is in the hand.
How small are those

hot dogs?
You know what I'm saying?
Did you guys ever see, therewas like a show called Man vs.
Beast or something?
Something like that,or like Joe vs.
the Beast or something.
Anyway, they had, Ithink, Kobayashi on.
The hot dog eating guy, and itwas, he was up against a bear.
an actual bear.
It was like him vs.
a bear as to who couldeat the most hot dogs.
Who won?, And , lemme justtell you, they, they did the

(28:03):
typical reality show thingwhere they like tried to
build it up and they're like,Uhhuh, we need to really
make an episode out of this.
all this backstory on the bear.
I don't know, itwas just back story.
The bear has been

self-conscious about Its salt intake.
.

Exactly.
Because when they finally get toit, the bear wins in an instant.
Basically, like Kobayashi'slike starting to get in there,
And the bear is just Haauum!Just like a whole crate full
of 80 hot dogs in a second.
It's a bear.
It's a bear.

Speaking of Kobayashi, just to wrap it out.
yeah.
He is gonna, he's gonnabattle Joey Chestnut, in a
one on one battle on LaborDay weekend, and its gonna
be broadcast on Netflix.

Omar Najam (28:44):
Oh,

Sandeep Pari (28:44):
see, there you go.
And it's hot dogs?
Oh my god.

Kaylin Mah (28:47):
Yeah, it's hot dogs.

Yep.
You blew it Nathan,and I bet it'll be
sponsored by impossible.
I mean, unless you wantto sponsor this show.
Nathan's then it's fine.
Then

I love you.
Hit me up.

If you're in the Bay Area, If you wanna
give Rekha anything for free.
If you're in theBay Area Nathan's?

Hit me up.
Give me something for free.
I don't eat meat.
We'll talk.
Let's go.

thank you so much, Kaylin for
the somewhat brown news.
I think that worked.
all right.
It is now time for ournext segment, not a doctor.

Omar Najam (29:21):
Folks, we would like to introduce our guest for
this segment, "Not a Doctor!?".
It is Amit Patelof Gharana Foods.

All right, hey, we are here with Amit
Patel, so good to see youagain, and thanks for being
on our foodie episode.
for those who are unfamiliar,Amit runs Gharana Foods,
You guys manufacture allthese snacks in the U.
S.
and distribute them, andyou sent them right over
to the DesiQuest set, andman, did we gorge on them.

(29:50):
Uh and you were like ourfirst, one of our first
major supporters of our show.
So we're so superthankful for that, man.
but, Let's jump in.
I want to get your sense ofwhat's going on with Indian
food culture in America.
I feel like there's a lot ofexciting things happening and
I'm wondering if you, whatare you seeing out there?

Amit Patel (30:09):
we're seeing a lot more, penetration of Indian
food into the American market.
I think before it was likereally basic papads and
stuff, and now you're startingto see watercress stuff.
if you're an Indian person,you know who Deep Foods is.
They've actually had a lot ofpenetration, all their frozen
foods are showing up at leaston the east coast They're out

here too.

Amit Patel (30:28):
Yeah, so we're seeing more of the traditional
North Indian food showing upon store shelves because that's
what everyone associates withIndian food at this point.
a lot less dosa, SouthIndian stuff and a lot
more chicken tikka masala.

But I feel like even the dosa stuff
is starting to hit too.
I definitely have friends thatare like hitting me up, like
my just non Indian friends thatare just like "Yo, is there a
great dosa place around here?"And i'm like you're
asking me this is amazinglike you even know what
dosa is yeah blown away

Amit Patel (30:58):
It's better asking for dosa than biryani, right?
Because that's the other option.
It's one of the two.

yeah.
Yeah

Amit Patel (31:03):
Have you heard of The Fancy Food Show?
So the fancy food show is thespecialty food association.
They do a lot of smallbrands, a lot of big brands,
they show up and a lot ofstartups show up there.
And there is an Indian brand outof, I think it's Boston, that is
trying to mainstream dosa mix.
So if you go to yeah, if youend up going to the Indian
store, that it's normal for us.

(31:24):
Like it's alwaysthere, it's pre made.
But they're finding a way to tryto push it into the mainstream.
I don't know how a non Indianperson is going to make it
unless they buy a special pan.
But, They're trying.
Everyone is trying.

what's that pan called?
you need a specific.
It's a dosa pan.
It's

Amit Patel (31:42):
like a flat, it's like a flat pan.

yeah, but That's

Amit Patel (31:44):
all it is.
Yeah, there's It's like aflat pan that has nothing,
no edges, no nothing.
It just, you justYou're, like a crepe pan.

It's like a crepe, yes, exactly.
yeah, interesting.
what about like therestaurant scene?
You're in New Jersey, right?
Yeah.
okay, if I'm coming out there toPAX Unplugged, I'm only an hour
away from New Jersey, right?
So tell me where I've got to go.

Amit Patel (32:06):
it depends.
so I'll give you a littlebit of background on myself.
So I, I grew up in a traditionalGujarati household, which
means mushy vegetables.
Yep.
And rice, I'm

very familiar.
Rice

Amit Patel (32:17):
and

dal( Amit Patel
And, uh, Staple, khichidi kahdi,that's literally every day.
I disliked Indian food.
I did not know I likedvegetables until I was like
18 and had like Chinese food,probably crunchy broccoli.
And you're like, Oh my God,this is what a vegetable
actually tastes like.
So I ended up, I endedup marrying a Filipino.

(32:39):
So I, like all the food islike accessible to us now.
New Jersey is probablynext to California is one
of the best states to livein when it comes to food.
You can get.
In my neighborhood, I livein Central Jersey, so near
Rutgers University, andI can get Ukrainian food.
I can get Israelifood, Palestinian food.

(33:01):
I can get, literally,Brazilian food.
I can find individualrestaurants that their
only desire is thatculture's and region's food.
So for Indian food, thebiggest one that I've been
hearing about is called Arzu.
And it's in like Freehold,New Jersey and they are modern
Indian food I think we weretalking about that before

(33:23):
where There is a fundamentaldifference between what we
used to eat and what modernfood looks like now and it's
Yeah, howwould you categorize that?

Amit Patel (33:32):
It's like fine dining for indian people.

Yes

Amit Patel (33:34):
So if you've ever had It's weird to
eat Indian food fine dine.
I've had like chicken tikkamasala in a small plate
that has like a little bitof coriander on the edges
and that's served to you.
And you're like, thisis like a $12 dish, man.
How are you going to chargeme $40 for this thing?

I know.
I'm used to it spilling overthe side of the like divided
plate and like another auntiealready trying to pour it into
my, like before I finished.
that's how I'm used toit, but you're right.
Like when it's like, So curatedlike it's a Michelin star
restaurant or something right?
It's a it's a trip.
Yeah.
That said I really do enjoy it.
There's a place calledBaar Baar here in LA.
Okay.
That dude when youcome out here, there's

(34:11):
one in new york, too.
and so we had theDesiQuest party there.
But yeah, it's just it wasexactly it was like, some
sort of gastronomic versionof a pakora or something, and
you're like, this is crazy.

Amit Patel (34:21):
It throws you off, like Like they can make a pani
puri out of, Nitrogen frozenstuff, and they make it inside.
So you get the experience of apani puri, but it's see through.

it's crazy.

Amit Patel (34:32):
It's cool, but it just throws me off too much.
Like a samosa that costslike $12, That's stuffed
with super fine chicken, It

throws you off, but I'm looking at the Yelp for
Arzu, so we are going, dude.
This looks awesome.
Yeah, it's gorgeous.
We can poo it and also devourit.
Oh yeah,

Amit Patel (34:52):
I'll eat.
I'll eat.
there's Tamarind in NewYork City, if you ever
make it into the city.
I don't know, it depends.
So it's, they have, I

feel like there's a lot of in terms
of Indian fusions, I waslike, I feel like people
are trying to crack likethe Indian Mexican fusion

Amit Patel (35:07):
thing.
Well, Taco Bell did it.

They didn't know they were

Amit Patel (35:12):
doing it, but Taco Bell pulled it off.
They're the best.
Are you kidding me?

They pulled it off that the Mexican
pizza was somehow Indian.
Until they

Amit Patel (35:21):
discontinued it, and they got all
the Indian people mad.

But then they brought it back, didn't they?

Amit Patel (35:24):
Yeah, they brought it back.

People had spoken.
my parents would alwaysbring their chevdo, right?
To the Taco Bell.
What?
What do you mean, what?
This is puttingon the taco salad.
Yeah.
Hell yeah.
They would pour it ontothe taco salad and they
poured into the taco.
Everything.
They'd put in the goddamn soda.
I don't know.
They poured into everything.

Amit Patel (35:44):
They just make safe, just put it on everything.

Yeah, exactly.
It's like mom dad Stop bringingin bins of chevdo in your purse.
Crunch up some chakri

Amit Patel (35:53):
and throw it on there it's
better than a crouton.

There you go.
Is there like ingredientsof the year type thing?
cardamom was hot Acouple years back
Is there a new ingredient?

Amit Patel (36:03):
Food show is all spice.
So chili powder, Ghost pepperanything that's getting spicy.
So like takis and cheetoshave made it really popular.
And now everyone isputting it into like
things like popcorn, chips.
They're trying to find anysavory snack they can possibly
find and dust it with someweird taki powder but spicy
food is back and I think,what they're trying to do is

(36:25):
they're trying to one peoplewant more like more flavor
in their food because saltand sweet only go so far.
But I think people are tryingto eat less And when you eat
really spicy food, you can'teat as much and I think that's
the trick behind it But thethe food shows that's really
the thing is finding ways toput spiciness, like hot honey
was huge last year and the yearbefore that everything was yuzu.

(36:49):
Like it's just we're movingfrom sour to spicy right now.

That's a really good point about
wanting to eat less.
And so let's just let'slike burn bright and
strong and hard, right?
instead of long that makessense And that's what I said
to people about Gharana stuffwas I was like if you're into
flaming hot, you should beeating the good stuff You know,
that our parents made that youknow from whatever hundreds of
years of making this chakrisand stuff like that, you know.
Eat the good stuff..
Yeah, Indian food is

Amit Patel (37:17):
naturally spicy and tastes better and it doesn't
have any of the junk that we putinto American food right now.

Is this true or not?
Or am I just onto an earlytrend where I feel like saffron
is like sneaking into things,

Amit Patel (37:31):
Saffron is too expensive to
sneak into mainstream.

But I keep seeing it in weird,
certainly in a, likelattes, Oh, a saffron latte.

Amit Patel (37:40):
That's cause you're in California, man.
Do you want to put an expensivestuff into non expensive
stuff and make it expensive?
I can tell you inJersey, you're not seeing

saffron.

Amit Patel (37:51):
It's a California Erewhon thing.

Okay, fair enough.
I'm so disconnected.
I saw saffron in an omelette.
I was like, that's insane.

Amit Patel (38:04):
So they found a way to make a $30 omelette.
Nice.
Exactly, yeah.

They put the gold foil on top,

Amit Patel (38:10):
that is a hundred percent indian inspired
there is no doubt about it.

Yes.
Oh, yeah That's what Iwas always saying, dude.
Like I remember seeing thatPeople talking about oh,
dude I had this thing withgold foil on top and i'm like
we used to Like our burfeeslike as a kid growing up.
Kaju Katli had it.

Amit Patel (38:25):
The silver foil had it.
They still do it.
It's not nearly as muchas it used to be like the
decoration part of our foodThe nicer stuff, like the
saffron, the cardamom, thefoils that they used to put
on all the sweets, it's slowlyfading, it's leaving, it's
no longer, that's what makesIndian food so good, is just
part of its presentation.

Wait, so why is it leaving then?
Is it just too expensive?
Cost.

Amit Patel (38:47):
Everyone is just cutting costs.
Maybe we'll see it come back,but in our area, where it's
all little India, essentially,it's all slowly going away.
It's really unfortunate.
And then you're seeing itcome back, in places like
Arzu, which is like a fancyrestaurant so you can put
it back on top of the food.
It's now more part of the finedining sophisticated dining
atmosphere than just the meanslike the normal day to day

(39:10):
shop at an Indian store stuff.

What makes a good Indian restaurant for you?

Amit Patel (39:14):
I'm a North Indian food eater.
Like Gujarati foodis off the table.
I just can't, I can't goto a Kathiyawadi restaurant
and just, I cannot do it.
It's not in my DNA.
I go with my parents.

It's literally in your DNA.

Amit Patel (39:27):
It's not in my DNA anymore.
I purged it.
I had purposely purged it,cause I cannot enjoy it.
North Indian foodhas supplanted it.
Anybody who can make a goodbutter chicken plus, I think
my biggest issue is naan.
Because it's so readilyavailable in that frozen
aisle, like anybody can buy it.
And you get it at therestaurants and you know the
difference between somebodywho's actually making in
a proper tandoor oven.

(39:49):
And you get that flaky Puffybuttery like it's just amazing

a little burnt.

Amit Patel (39:55):
Yeah.
Anybody who can make a good naanand a good basic butter chicken?
That's the first startand then you start going
to places like Arzu.
Or there's a place near us,it's called A to B and it
does Really quality food.
Not oily.
That's the big one.
Everything Indianfood is like oily.
And my favorite is, in ourneighborhood, there's a
place called deli gardenand it's a takeout only.

(40:15):
And it's the definitionof a hole in the wall.
That grease that they'vebeen cooking in for
the last 20 years.
It's flavored on flavor.

Okay.
I want to go there.
No, that's actually the one.
I don't want to go to Arzu.
Let's go to that spot.

Amit Patel (40:27):
You can try both.

So it is more of the traditional
North Indian style.
sorry, as you were describingit, for whatever reason,
this popped in my head, likecocktails, Indian cocktails,

Amit Patel (40:39):
yeah,

I had a ghee infused bourbon,

Amit Patel (40:44):
all right, no, that does not sound,

it was delicious.
It was so good.
I'm not kidding.
It was like I can't describe it.
It was the best oldfashioned I'd ever had.
It was like a buttery smooth oldfashioned.

Amit Patel (40:55):
Did they set it on fire at least to make
it fun that would be lit.

Was it was already fun.
It could have beenyour own devo, right?
My own devo.
Yeah, I could do artiwhile getting hammered
Yeah, that's the dreambut are there any indian
cocktails that you've noticedout there that you dig?

Amit Patel (41:16):
everything has bourbon or whiskey in it.
It's a very busy thing.
the most expensive whiskeyyou can find, they find a
way to put, they actuallydo put saffron and
cardamom and that stuff.
I've seen pistachios,like pistachio martinis.
So instead of doing,a espresso martini.

They're using

Amit Patel (41:35):
like a, Pista or pistachio, puree and putting
it inside, like they'redoing weird things like that.

We went to

Amit Patel (41:43):
a place in the UK called Dishoom.
They were doingthings like that.
It was really neat,but you really have to
be in the mood for it.

It sounds like we already know what
side you're on, the northernversus Southern, but do you
think that there is someaspects of Southern Indian,
this, the, the dosa's, theuttapams, those restaurants?
I feel like they'repopping up more.
They seem to be more inthe deli style or like at
an Indian grocery store.
you'd find the, dosa's andthe chaats and all that stuff.

Amit Patel (42:11):
I think you're finding it as a premix stuff.
Like a lot of the premadestuff, like the idli and dosa
has been around forever, right?
do you know gits packets?
No.
G I T S.
Oh.
Your parents didn'tmake gits idli?

I do recognize this package..

Amit Patel (42:27):
Yes.

Every, okay,

Amit Patel (42:29):
I see it now.
Yeah.
With that and a bit ofEno, like the separate

acid.
Yeah.
Eno.

Amit Patel (42:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.

I'd have to drink that whenever
I had a stomach ache.

Amit Patel (42:38):
Yeah.
, yes.

She'd pour it in some water
because you're not allowed

Amit Patel (42:42):
to drink soda, so you can have carbonated
water that has lemon in it.

Yeah.

Amit Patel (42:46):
Makes so much sense.

for those of you at home listening
who are unfamiliar with whatwe're talking about, there's
this stuff called ENO.
E N O.
My god, you're blowingmy mind right now.
You're bringing meback to my childhood.
And like, whenever we hada tummy ache instead of,
ginger ale, like my friends,my, my white friends would
be, it'd be ENO for me.
Oh,

Amit Patel (43:04):
that's crazy.
It's not just you.
It was every first genimmigrant child did it.

They also

Amit Patel (43:09):
put it in dhokla?

Yeah, right

Amit Patel (43:12):
to make it fluffy

to make it fluffy and like spongy, right?

Amit Patel (43:15):
Yeah, that's the trick

Yeah, I do remember seeing these packages
but I do believe my mom didmake idli and like khaman and
stuff like that from scratch.

Amit Patel (43:25):
Idli from scratch is work.
I remember my mom making it.
soak the rice for days.
Then blend it, thenstrain it and then you
have enough to make it.
Yeah that's why everyone'sgetting it pre made
now the dosa mix.
I

think

Amit Patel (43:40):
dosa and stuff, since it's all available and
they're trying to mainstreamit, I'm trying to remember,
there's a brand that doesachar, that's in Target and
those higher end places.
They're doing pre made food now.

Okay.
what would it taketo mainline dosa?
do they need a Tonythe tiger mascot?

Amit Patel (44:01):
dosa.
I don't know.
It's the Indian savory crepe,Potato filling or spicy filling.
It's just a replacementfor bread, crunchy bread.
What would be crunchythat I don't even know
it's approachable.
That's the thing.
It's bland and approachablebecause it basically
the flavor is whateveryou put inside of it.
If you want to,

I wonder if it'll be like food
trucks or somethingthat really, make it pop off.
They

Amit Patel (44:25):
do that.
Food trucks in the city have it.

Yeah.
They do South.
They

Amit Patel (44:29):
do dosas everywhere.
Between dosa, biryaniand chicken tikka masala.
Those are the three things thatare associated with desi food.
They don't realize it's alldifferent regional foods.

Right, they just lump it together.
So okay we do this thing onour show called "This vs.
That".
you take it take a sort ofan American thing and Indian
thing and we debate it.
And so I was kind of Wantingto do that with northern
indian food versus southernindian food, you can pick one.
But the other one is done.
It's off

Amit Patel (44:58):
North indian food every day.
Immediately.
Without even hesitationnot even a stutter.
Wow,

all that sambar gone.
Yeah Forget it.
Get outta my life.
I can

Amit Patel (45:08):
cheat and we can say Dal is Sambar.
There you go.

Yeah, that's true.
. Yeah.

Amit Patel (45:13):
Okay.
Again, we forget aboutCentral India being
just mushy vegetables.

Oh, yeah.
No, I won't even talk Idon't think Gujarati food
is in the conversation.
there's some good there.
Listen, I like my puri'sand I, I like, I don't know.
There's some stuff.
We got some stuff.
We got, undhiyu?
You don't like undhiyu?
Nope.
Shrikhand.
You know what shrikhand is?
Oh, I know what shrikhand is.
I'm not a big shrikhand

Amit Patel (45:39):
fan.
See that.
I used to eat that with puris.
Whatever reason.
That's like my childhood memory.
That

combo is good.
But for me it was morethe puri, but yes.
yeah.

Amit Patel (45:49):
I would

only dip a little bit.

Amit Patel (45:51):
Weird, savory sweetness, or salty sweetness.
I don't even know.
It's bread and yogurt.
Essentially sweet yogurt

sweet very sweet yogurt like like pistachios

Amit Patel (46:02):
and saffron

And it's almost like an ice an
icing consistency it's

Amit Patel (46:08):
almost thicker than icing.
I don't even knowalmost fudge batter

Yes, fudge batter.
Something really

Amit Patel (46:14):
like heavy whipping cream like it's dense

It like it fights you yeah,

Amit Patel (46:19):
you're gonna eat one cup of this and
you're getting diabetes

100%.
Delicious.
If you watch ANeverending Story and
Artax the horse goes intothe swamp and gets pulled
down like You dip your puriin, it may not come out man.
It seems like you are doingsome fusion stuff to me
with Gharana Foods, right?
You have the jalapeno.
jalapeno is like a hot flavor,obviously more ways than one.
talk to us about that.
are you seeing more fusionstyle stuff hitting the

(46:43):
market in the snack food area?

Amit Patel (46:44):
what I see Indian food doing is almost
following the Doritos model.
Which is coming up with apuri or something that they
can fry and turn into a pufflike a watercress puff, that's
what I've seen a lot of.

Watercress puffs, yes, I love those.

Amit Patel (46:57):
Yeah, and what they're doing, Makana?
Yes.
I like that.
Yeah, and they're justdumping flavors on top of it.
And that's the current trend.
I feel like they're just findingreally repeatable foods now.
It's almost laziness.
But people are buying it,it's really popular over here.
They sell taco bellbranded stuff over here
now Wow, it's weird Like

Taco Bell branded snacks?

Amit Patel (47:21):
Yeah, all the sauces are available.
The beans are available.
Like just in the indian stores.

Really?
Makes so much sense

Amit Patel (47:28):
And I talked to the guy and he sells he said
he sells more cases in hisone store Than the guy he
sells and in the entire state

But wait, why would you buy Taco Bell sauce
when you can walk into a TacoBell like my mom does and just
pocket tons of sauce and buyone mexican pizza and get like
Seven handfuls of the sauce.

Amit Patel (47:48):
You're so privileged.
Just walking into a tacobell and taking the sauce.
There's a lot of disposableincome over here How much sauce
can you possibly steal to beable to put it in your shaak?
.

You don't know easily handfuls, purse fulls of
sauce we used to have, for sure.
So her tacobell sauce is like saltine,
crackers, and, ketchup packets.
Yes.
That's right.
A hundred percent.
we just had drawer fulls ofanything you can get free
from a restaurant, likewhatever it was, subway

(48:21):
napkins, Even Heinz ketchup.

Amit Patel (48:23):
I have my mother in law who lives with me, so
yeah, I have to throw away theketchup, the barbecue sauce.
Taco Bell packets, likeanytime they go anywhere, I
throw away the paper, or Ihave to recycle the plastic
spoons and forks causethey're there just forever.
I'm like, can we please,even the free chopsticks
you get with Chinese food.

Oh yeah.
why do we need this?
We're

Amit Patel (48:48):
never going to use it.
We have real chopsticks.

All right.
So last question here, whenare we going to see Gharana
Foods in like a Von's?

Amit Patel (48:58):
It's a dream, but not anymore?
So our history had us atWhole Foods for four years
and we did okay for a while.
And then, the market isso unfavorable to brands.
I don't think people realize howmuch money or how much markup
your food has because there'sso many hands in the pot.

(49:20):
When dealing witha grocery store.
So like your food is probably75 percent markup versus
actual cost to produce.
And it's not eventransportation.
I'm just talking about physicalproduct, like the actual
production costs to get it tothe, if I could sell directly
to a store, I would do itin a second, but because the

(49:41):
market is so unfavorable toa brand, like this is just.
Like just some numbers, right?
an Indian grocery store If theysell it in the store for $3.49,
$3.99, and they get there,whatever, 20%, 30%, 40% markup,
whatever they want to do.
When I was sellingat Whole Foods foods,
they were selling it.
This is almost 10 years ago.

(50:01):
Now, they weresellig it at $4.99.
Wow.
Like they were, therewere so many, there was so
much markup in the middle.
That's why if you, haveyou seen the, achar in a,
an American store like theathanu's, or the chutneys,
like those types of things?

Yeah.
Yes.
I have seen it in, it's like $7a jar for something this big.
or like the jars of ghee $14.
The same ghee

Amit Patel (50:21):
you buy in an Indian store at whatever,
$7 for this big jar in theAmerican store is like $14.
But it's the samebrand, same everything.
Nothing's changed.

Finally my mom taught my wife how to make ghee.
because I married a whitegirl, and so she would, she,
and she loves ghee, so shewould always buy the ghee.
And I was like, I know it'svery easy to make ghee, I just
don't know, like the process.
She's like, fine, I'm justgonna learn it from your mom.
You didn't know howto make ghee You don't

Amit Patel (50:44):
remember your mom making it as a child?

Oh, Yeah, I remember her making it, but I
don't remember like, how longto leave it on the stove and
when to skimm the stuff off.
Like I had never paid attention.
I was doing, typical genderrole bullshit of like, you
know, My mom cook it wasterrible I didn't have sisters,
Three three douchey Parikhbrothers running around
there So yeah, I did not pay.
I did not pay good attention.

(51:06):
Now I do now because I watchedthem make it and it's oh now
my family knows how to makeghee, which is so great.
And it's so easy and so cheapso much cheaper to do than to
buy a thing like just You guys,just, I'll have my mom make a
video on how to make ghee, okay?
So just watch that, and thenyou can stop buying $14 ghee at,

Amit Patel (51:25):
Whole Foods.

All right, listen, that was gonna be the
last question, but I want toend with this, because you
bashed Gujarati food so much,but there's gotta be something
that you can't live without.
Isn't there one piece ofGujarati food that, it's
something that you're like, ohman, if they didn't have this,

Amit Patel (51:39):
you're putting me on the spot, man.
That's messed up.
maybe khaman.

Khaman.

Amit Patel (51:44):
But only my mom's.
specifically my mom's.
I cannot eat it at a store.
It does not taste the same.
it has to be my mom's khaman.
That is something I, whenevershe makes it, I will eat.
Or, actually something weirdis, you know what Sabudana is?

Oh,

Amit Patel (51:58):
I've heard that.
The tapioca balls.
Like the small, the yes.
Tapioca, that they do during acouple of, during the holidays.

The holidays, yep.

Amit Patel (52:04):
yeah, that.

Sandeep Par (52:05):
that's pretty good.

Amit Patel (52:06):
For whatever reason, I love that stuff.
I have no idea why.

is that the stuff that's in the milky drink?

Amit Patel (52:12):
that's what's in the bobba teas but not the indian
style is actual tapioca ballsYeah, you eat it with yogurt.
It has peanuts onit that are spicy.

Yeah.
Yeah,

Amit Patel (52:21):
you really can't chew it.
It's more like you

swallow.
Yeah

Amit Patel (52:25):
But it tastes delicious.
I don't know why or thefried version of that is
also really good All right.
See now I gotta go get food.
See?

All right.
There you go All

Amit Patel (52:34):
right, so true traditional gujarati food.
No bueno, but like Allthe appetizers and stuff.
Is samosas considered gujarati?

I feel like it was more prevalent
when we're going to go toa north indian restaurant.
Like we had likepakoras and stuff.
Those are Panjabi samosas

Amit Patel (52:50):
Specifically like the pure triangle ones.
Yeah, these are just a purelike 3d doritos triangles.
RIght, right.

that's the kind that we had.
Yeah, uh khandvikhandvi was our...

Amit Patel (53:04):
Oh yeah I used to make that when I was a kid.
That was fun Yeah, Iused to cut that off the
aluminum foil You're right,

I

think you're right, the appetizers and
like the peripheral food inGujarati food, you take the
dhal-bhat-shaak-rotli outof it, that stuff is, you're
right, that stuff is winning.
All right, awesome.
Amit, thanks for joining uson the Foodie episode, we call
this segment not a doctor,when we interview someone that
is not a doctor, so I think,who, does something actually
different, with their lives asa first gen, second generation.

(53:32):
Indian.
So I think this is apretty successful one.
although a lot of the foodwe talked about might,
land you with a doctor.
Um,

Amit Patel (53:39):
all the Indian food lands you with a doctor.
It's not, not tobe eaten every day.

Let's move on to our next segment.
It's Auntie vs Auntie 2024.

Omar Najam (53:50):
This is

huge.

Omar Najam (53:51):
This is our segment where we track the 2024 U.
S.
presidential election tosee just how close we are to
achieving a presidential racebetween Democratic auntie
Kamala Harris and Republicanauntie Nikki Haley reminder.
They are both at least partIndian, hence they are aunties.
Now, to be clear, we startedthis segment a while ago.

Yep.
After the primaries werebasically done though.
Done.
Yeah.
And we were just like, why not?
As a joke.
Basically as a joke.
because I think allodds were against this
ever happening, right

Omar?

Omar Najam (54:25):
That, yeah, we're, okay, I can't begin to
explain to you how far we arefrom political commentary.
Like, how far I am as apolitical expert of anything.
I've never called a race everbefore in my entire life.
I don't know anythingabout politics.
I, it's a miracle I vote.
yeah.
The fact that we are now so deepin what is possibly the most
important political watch andthat it happened here on the

(54:47):
show ABCD, I would like to takea second on our 40th episode
to acknowledge we are ahead ofthe curve to finding a trend.
I would love to talkabout Harris status.
Is that all right, Sandeep?
Please.
the K Hive is popping off.
that's right.
The K Hive, an informal onlinecommunity supporting Vice
President Kamala Harris, hasseen a resurgence following
Biden's performance inthe last debate as well

(55:08):
as television interviews.
so for example, there's beenincreased media presence
for the term Kamala,and the hashtag K Hive.
Yeah.
They've both been trending.
Harris supporters are floodingsocial media with memes
featuring the vice president.
They often incorporateher distinctive quotes and
speeches, blending ironywith authentic praise.
there is also an emojithat is out in the world.

(55:28):
Do you know whatemoji it is, Sandeep?
Is it a bee?
No.
Is it a hive?
That would be treadingon someone else's hive.
Is it a rabbit?
Is it a rabbit?

Why

Omar Najam (55:40):
do you think a, why do you think a rabbit?

"Hare-is".

Omar Najam (55:45):
Wow.

Oh man.
It's not?

It should be.
that's brilliant.

What is it?
It's a

coconut.
It's inspired by a particularanecdote shared by Harris.
Oh no.
Jesus.
Coconut trees.

Wait, what?
Do they not know, what coconutmeans for brown people?

Yeah, wait, what is it inspired by?

Omar Najam (56:05):
Oh my God.
It's inspired by ananecdote shared by Harris
about coconut trees.
Oh my God.
And that's as far as I'vegiven you all the facts.
I'm not here forpolitical commentary.
For

anyone who doesn't know, a coconut is
something that your cousins callyou when you're 10 to make you
feel bad that you're brown onthe outside and white on the

inside.
We literally almost called thisshow Coconuts because of that.
Because we wanted to reclaim theterm so instead we went ABCD.
Yeah, this is insane.
Damn!So that the that they're doing
the coconut that's amazingand no one's calling that out.
So I guess we are

Omar Najam (56:42):
yes Also betting markets like PredictIt have
significantly shifted in herfavor with Harris surpassing
Biden as the front runner ofthe Democratic presidential
nomination, so Lots going onthere is crazy in the hair.
This is crazy.
No,

literally this is what's happening.
This is, I just, Iwas just listening.
I've been listeningto podcasts like crazy
ever since that debate.
'cause I did a bitof a deep dive.

Omar Najam (57:03):
You've been listening to Adventure
Zone and . My old podcast"Thank you for Requesting"
that's what I should,

be listening to, to take my mind off of this.
But I can't stopthinking about it.
'cause that debatewas so hard to watch.
That was really painful.
And I was like, Democratscan't do the thing that, that
Republicans are doing, I don'tthink, which is like propping
up the nominee in spite ofthem not being fit for office.
The, nah, he's good.

Nah, he's good.

anyway, I recently heard that Harris
is now on these, predictivesites, these betting sites.
She's up to 50% to, totake the nomination.
from 15 percent beforethe, the debate.

Omar Najam (57:42):
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
And what percentagewere we at last time?

we ended at 35

So obviously on the Biden side of
things, the Biden, Harrisside, things might change.
Things might change.
we're pushing up.
Do you wanna hear a little bitabout the Nikki Haley side?

Omar Najam (57:54):
I would love to hear what's going
on with Auntie Haley.

Prominent American conservative
voice and editor in chiefof the National Review.
Rich Lowry is arguing thatHaley is the strongest
pick for VP for Trump.
and so Nikki Haley is notcurrently considered to be
on Trump's VP shortlist.
Haley could potentially,though, cause she's got a

(58:17):
lot of qualifications, right?
She was a runner up inthe nomination fight.
She represents a totallydifferent faction of the party.
She appeals to, Collegeeducated and suburban voters
where Trump is very weak.
She provides demographicbalance, because, she's an
auntie, and she has executiveand foreign policy experience.
on the other side, Haley was alittle mean to poor old Trump.
Yeah.
She was real mean tohim during the primary

(58:38):
campaign, when she was like.
Saying truths about himso mean Trump retaliated
against Haley's criticismsparticularly after winning the
New Hampshire primary And theMAGA base not a big Haley fan.
Questions exist aboutwhether Trump could ever
trust Haley in the VPposition, but, it probably
would be the smart move.

Omar Najam (58:58):
I've heard people say it doesn't sound like
Trump, it like wants NikkiHaley as a running mate.
And my response to thatis the man talks like EDM
music sounds don't Follow,don't try to follow any
track of narrative there.

Yeah.
here's what I'm going to pitch.

Omar Najam (59:13):
Yeah.

That Biden will step down.
Kamala Harris willbecome the nominee.
And then she picks Nikki Haley.
And then it's the auntieson the same ticket.

Omar Najam (59:26):
What a twist.
It technically would make auntieversus auntie watch 2024 a 100%.

I feel like there's not not a
chance in hell that couldhappen Is all I'm saying.
I could see them.
Yeah, I could seethem doing that.
I don't know why My

Omar Najam (59:44):
goodness, so what okay percentage wise 35 percent
it's got to go up, right?

Yeah,

Omar Najam (59:48):
gotta go up

after that debate?
Yeah, cuz like potentiallyone half of auntie
versus auntie, right?
Yeah, it's like waymore possible now
like way more possible

Omar Najam (59:59):
Rekha, what are you thinking?
Can we get to 50 percent today?

Rekha Shankar (01:00:03):
I pray not.
I'm not a fan of anybodywe're talking about,
particularly Nikki Haley.
Whatever.
She's an absolute, I love

Omar Najam (01:00:14):
Rekha's bumper sticker.

No one (01:00:15):
2024, she's an absolute

Sandeep Parikh (01:00:18):
freaking ghoul.

but it does sound like we're closer.
I for sure thought that.
Something would happen withBiden's nomination in the last
week or so, but every articleI was reading is nope, we're
still moving on with Biden.
And I'm like, now it'sstarting to trickle out.
Like maybe not.
And I'm like, yeah.
Abigail

Disney said that she will withhold all of her
support for the democraticparty until Biden steps down.
It's

brutal.

it's a scary, Not fun thing, that's
going on, but I also thinkthere's reality, which is
that, I almost feel likeit's cruel to run Biden to
make that man be presidentfor another four years.
give, can we let the guyput his feet up and hang
out with his grandkids?
Like he's my dad is 82and he's not fit to, to,

(01:01:07):
to drive, So I'm like,

Because I said the thing of I hate,
I don't like all thesepeople I'm going to vote.
I always vote.
I'm a super voter bitch.
I vote all the time.
Every day of my life.
Please vote.
Are these people ghoulish?
Yes.
Yes.
Of course.
But we

vote.
Without

a doubt.

Yeah, I'm not Advocating, for not voting,
but to have Biden step downand in the amount of time that
they have to put up anothernominee, it, would be very
challenging to put up anybodyother than auntie Kamala.
I think it'd be really tough.
from everything that I've heard,like just to transfer the money.
from his campaign, wouldbe like really challenging

(01:01:58):
if it was not Harris.
so look, let the man restand, and let, But let
our vision come true.
Let the first half of auntieversus auntie happen What

percentage are we feeling?

I'm going to throw out, I'm going to say,
yes, it would nor it wouldboost it to 50, but there's
obviously Biden is sayinghe's not going to step down.
So that's got to knockit down a little bit.
knock us down like 3 points.
Yeah.
Okay.
47.
Yeah.
47.
And then I'm thinking, andthen I'm thinking this whole
thing with the Supreme Courtand their immunity makes it
less likely that Trump's goingto be indicted for One of

(01:02:31):
those criminal trials so thatdecreases the likelihood that
he's going to have culpabilitySo maybe it's 45%.
How does that sound?
throwing out 45.

45 like the 45th president.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Like the four.

Okay.
Can we just do 44 then?

Okay.
44.
So we went, we'regoing from 35 to 44.
So a nine point jump.
Feels like it shouldbe more than that.
Huh?

I have no political expertise
or knowledge whatsoever.
So I cannot help you withthat math problem Sandeep.

Let's go 47 Anand Shah's in chat with 47.
47.
How does everyone feeling?

47.

Yeah.
all let's go to a morefun topic and let's
jump into the ABCD game.
Huh?
Huh?

Yeah.
Now it's time to play our gameEnergy drink or RPG spell?.

Kaylin Mahoney (01:03:32):
Yes.
That's amazing.
I have to give creditwhere credit's due.
We found this online.
It was from Kotaku

Kotaku boosted hell out of Legend
of Neil back in the day.
We love Kotaku.

Look at that.
And now we're heresupporting them.
This is a full circle.

okay, here's why the game exists.
There's a lot of weirdenergy drinks out there.
A lot of them have strangenames that sound like
spells or attacks from RPGs.
the game is, you have toguess if you think it's an
energy drink or a spell.
They are all either.
An existing spell, orattack, from a game, or
an actual energy drink.

(01:04:06):
and points if you get it right.
Person with the most pointsat the end is the winner.
the winner usually getsto host the next episode.
Rekha, this couldbe very interesting.
You could take it

and break it.
This could be problematicfor your schedule.
You could

end the show.
Yeah, next episode'sthe finale if I win.
Okay.
Okay.
And

then the loser will have one minute
to improvise a commercialfor a very new and a very
specific energy drink.

Beautiful.
Oh my god.
Okay, I love that.

That

is the

punishment.

Are you

guys ready to play okay.
Number one, Ultraviolet.
Is it a spell, or isit an energy drink?
Omar.

Ultraviolet.
light.
I'm going energy drink.

sorry, you just said Ultraviolet.
That's the whole thing?

Yeah.

And these aren't necessarily D&D RPG?
This isn't any, from Correct.
Okay.
Correct.

Could be Blades in the Dark.

Oh no.

Could be Daggerheart.
Oh

no.
Oh no.
Oh no.

Could be Candela.

Rekha, do you want to go?

Yeah.
I'm gonna sayIt's, energy drink.

I'm gonna just complete the triumvirate
and say it's an energy drink.
You guys all got a

point, congratulations!
Damn, let's go, bring

it on.

Who's casting Ultraviolet?

I don't want to see what's in the room, man.
I don't want to know whathappened in that dungeon.
It's gross.

question number two, Pipeline Punch.
What do we think?

this time Rekha you go first.
Thank you.
I think if that's the name of anenergy drink, that's disgusting.
Because it sounds like it'slike beating your esophagus.
So I'm going tosay it's a spell.
Okay.

You know what?
I'm gonna just change it up justso that there's an opposite.
But I think it couldbe an energy drink.

Okay.
I'm gonna say it's like a90's themed energy drink.
It's punch flavored and it'slike the pipe Like you're
just cutting up that pipeline.

You're just roasting that pipeline trim

It is an energy drink.
Let's go, let's go, yes.
Rekha, you're just one behind.
I lost

my ass in that one.

Yeah.
You underestimated howgross monster drinks can be.

Ew! It looks like you could use a
pipeline, is all I'm saying.

My pipeline is awesome.
It's full of blood, very good.

Oh, what?
What?
Question number three.
Blue Bolt.

I'm going to say spell.
Blue

bolt.
Okay.

These are great.
They really could,they could be both.
That's, these are great.
Blue?
I'm gonna sayspell though, yeah.
If this is a 5e

one and I'm overthinking it,
Drinking my bolt.
I'm gonna say, I'mgonna say energy drink.

I'm gonna say, Spell.
It is a spell.
eat...
It's a druid spell.
freaking dust, Omar.
Yeah, dude, oh my god,

I'm stuck at two points.
Yeah, we're

tied.
How's it feel tobe on the bottom?

Eat some South Indian Filtered coffee bro.
Yeah,

come on, dude.

I Would love that.
I don't know whythat's an insult.
I famously love coffee.
Yeah,

you need that.

I'm just saying you need that.
You stink!

You have the same amount of points as me.

No, but I said eat it, not drink it.

yeah.

Okay, so Sandeep's in the lead with
three points right now.

Alright, next.
Star Blast.

Star.
Blast.
Yeah.
Spell.
I'm gonna also say spell.
It's two

words.

Okay.
Oh, you read spell it.
Ha!

Can you use it in a sentence?

I think it is also a spell.
Even though I know that mightnot help us points wise.

It only helps me that we all pick the same thing.

It is an energy drink.
Oh, gosh.
You could have had it.
You can buy it on Amazon.
Rekha.

You could have had it.
Did you, what didyou say, Sandeep?
Energy drink?
I said

spell.
I said the same as you.
Oh, gosh.
So there's,

yeah, everybody, there's, there's a
chance we can tie it up.
right now.

Okay.
Okay.
Kaz Apple.
Spell it.
K.
Spell

it.
. Okay.

K-A-Z-A-P-P-L-E.
Oh, like kazam,

but apple.

Yeah.
Like abra-kazz-apple,

kazapple.
Abra-kaz-apple.

I'm gonna go spell.

I'm gonna say

God the game theory in this with 3 people
guessing between two options.
I know it's

nutty

This absolutely sucks I'm gonna say I'm

gonna say whatever Rekha says

Such trash

My answer is locked into whatever Rekha says

If it's a spell, it's too specific.
What, you turn someone intoan apple or an apple tree?
Yeah, But if it's a drink,it's way too specific.
What, it's all apple based?

But there's some of those goofy spells, right?
there's some ofthe, meme y spells.
There's so

many drinks named after just a fruit.
What?
Kool Aid?

What fruit is in that?
Alright, I'm gonna doYou are, you're mental.
I'm going to do spell.

Okay.

I'm locked in to spell.
It's a trap.
We're all doing spell.

Yeah.
You guys are not doingyourselves any favors.
Yeah.
Go ahead.

You all got a point.
It is a spell,

from dragon

quest.
Okay.
Broom, Broom.
Croom, broom?

Broom.

So close Rekha.
Broom, Broom.
B.
Broom broom.
Broom, as in the sweeper.
Broom.

So, this is round six?
Is this round six?

Who cares?

Why are

you trying to step out?

Step in.

Because I'm just trying to win.

Step

in.
Be here.
Broom, Broom.
I'll lead off.
I'll say spell.


And then I'm going to say sports drink.

Alright.
It is a spell.
It is a spell.
So now we have

We have a definitive loser.

It's just a sweeping spell.

I was going to say, how would
that be a drink at all?
what is broom?
Broom, Broom.
Oh, like vroom kind of thing?
vroom, it's a sweep.
But why is that a drink?
Because you could use yourbrush and brush it up the day.
Clean up your insides.
yeah, that's what I want to do.
I want to take ascrubbing brush to my

innards.
You guys, it's a witch, butit's like fast and the furious
and she's on the broom andit's and it says, it doesn't
matter if you win by an inch ora mile Broom, Broom, and she's
like, it's like a motorcycle,but it's like a broom.

Okay.
So it's more I see it'slike a mascot related drink
is what you, it's a mascot

related drink.
Okay.
They produced it inSalem, Massachusetts.

Awww.

Got it.
you were wrong.
But that would be great.
Now I want that drink.

let's do one last one.
One last

one.
Okay.
One last one to take it.
Alright.

And this one's worth three points.
.

Yeah.
yeah.
So

that it's interesting still.
Yeah, absolutely.
Three points.
Absolutely.
Anyone's game,.

Okay.
All right guys, this is it.
Tradin' Paint.
Tradin' spelltradin' T-R-A-D-I-N.
Little

Kaylin M (01:11:29):
apostrophe mark paint.
Tradin' Paint?.
Yeah.

sports drink.
Yeah, sports Drink energy.
Drink energy drink.
I know this.
It could be a spell or itcould be an energy drink.
That's what I know.
And I feel if it's a spell,it's like we each swap colors,
but if it's an energy drink,it's I'm going to kill you
on the basketball court.

Yeah.
We're trading paint.

Yeah.
I think, okay.
I think here's what I think.
Well wait Sandeepyou should go first.

Okay, I'm, I'll lock in.
Sure.
I'm gonna say spell.

Okay.

Yeah.

Totally.
I'm saying sports I think it'ssome, I think it's some kind
of a, disguise type spell.

Oh, interesting.

I think

trading, I'm gonna make my clothes
the uniform of this guard.

That's good.
That's what I also thinkit is, but the lack of G
on trading is throwing me.

I'm going to say

this is the number one basketball
sports drink of all time.
This is

crazy if this is

a

drink, because you're not
supposed to drink paint.

if I'm being honest, I think it's a spell.
I think it's funnierif it's a drink.
And I think this isa comedy podcast.
So I think it's a drink.

I'm glad that you think it's a comedy podcast.
I do love that.
I'm the only one

that said spell, right?

If, yes, so if it's a, if it's a spell,
Sandeep wins by a huge margin.
Yeah! And, Rekha, if it's a, ifit's a sports drink, I win.
Then, you win, becauseyou snuck one ahead of me.
Yeah.
And you'll take it, butyou also nudge me out.
And

then I host the show.

And you host the show.
Since it's locked in,can I say one thing about
trading paint, Kaylin?

Let's say, let's say votes are locked,
you guys can't change it.
Votes are

locked, you can't change it.
Trading paint is likea racing term, right?
Where like you smash into eachother and it's like you are
like rubbing the vehicle'spaint onto another one.

Yes.
If you all drank more

Broom, then maybe you'd know a little
bit more about drag racing.
A NASCAR

drink?

Alright.
Alright.
Are you forfeiting

your vote then, Omar?
I'm forfeiting my vote.

no.
I'm locked in.
I'm locked in.
I'm locked in with sports drink.
with energy drink.
So we're going to count youdown and you're going to
reveal who's the winner ofthis highly contentious game.
3, 2, 1 Kaylin.
Rekha!

No! Congratulations.

The new host of ABCD.

Oh, God.

Things are about to get a lot
stupider around here.

Sandeep (01:14:02):
Congratulations, Rekha.
Oh, I finally havemy Sundays back.

It is a nascar drink it seems I'll say it looks
like motor oil in the can Yeah,

it looks really great.
That's amazing.
They should sell it in the samething that you get, the same
kind of motor oil can thing.
okay, Which energy drink am I,am I gonna be pitching here?

Let's go broom broom.
I like broom broom.

Alright, so

Kaylin Maho (01:14:26):
I'll set the clock.
On your mark, get set, go crazy.

Alright, hey, what do you call
a witch's garage?
A broom closet.
Do you love witches?
Do you love brooms?
It's time to get hyped.
It's time to get awitch inside your DNA.
Did you know that electric eelscan zap DNA into your body?
Well guess what else can?
Broom broom.
Broom broom can zap thewitch's DNA directly into
every single one of your cells.
It'll change your mitochondriaand it'll turn it into, a

(01:14:53):
thing that witches love.
Those tiny little hats, withthe points at the end of them.
You're gonna love it.
You're gonna want broom broom.
You're gonna want it everywhere.
You're gonna wantit every orifice.
You got, you can buttchug broom broom.
You can do whatever you want.
You can broom broomyour broom broom.
If you know whatI'm talking about.
That's a whole, we'returning it into a verb.
like xeroxing.
Have you broom broom today?
No, you, we're Fuckingidiot, you got a broom broom.

(01:15:14):
What are you evendoing with yourself?
Oh my god, you dumb.
You're gonna go towork non broom broom?
You're gonna be un broom broom?
like a dumb dummy.
Why would you do that?
Hey, what's the witch'sfavorite makeup?
Mascara, that's right.
You got it.
Hey, you'll have clever punslike that Flying out of your
ear holes with broom broom.

You all might laugh, but that's literally what late
night commercials are likefor those of us who still have
television, where it's just Haveyou lost all your testosterone?
Yeah, cause you're a loser.
You didn't fight inthe war, did you?
No, you didn't.
Your grandfather did.
He's better than you.
Buy our testosterone pills.
They're sawdust.

They're

sawdust.
I like, uh, Broom Broom givesyou high blood pressure.
Oh, this

is great.
That was a Rick andMorty improvised
commercial in real life.
A taste that'll sweep you away.
Ah, that's fantastic, KPDubbs.
Why didn't I think of it?
Okay.

Oh, absolutely incredible.
Kaylin, thank you forhosting that game.

And Rekha,

thank you for winning that game.

Oh my god, no problem.
You're my employee

now.
And

on that note, let's head over to "Desi of the Week".
Actually, wait, we should

have a sound effect from our new boss.

Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Sorry, boss.

Let's head over to "Desi of the Week".
Yeah.
Man, things have changed.
Things have changed.
For the better, I don't know.
That's your new ringtoneladies and gentlemen.

Folks, this week's "Desi of the Week"
is author Khushbu Shah.
Shah has just released a newcookbook slash history book
called Amrikan that shinesa spotlight on the Indian
American diasporas, culinaryingenuity, and creativity.

Hey, what recipes can you expect?
let me tell you conventionalIndian dishes with American
ingredient substitutes.
For example, chevdomade with Chex.
Or pappadi chaatmade with tortillas.
I don't know howI feel about this.
Let's go.
Chex.
Actually, my mom, I, mymom used to make chevdo.
We called it "cher-do".
not used to, she does.
And whenever she makes itwith like actual all Indian

(01:17:33):
ingredients, I'm like, yo,I want my Rice Krispies.
this is, I want the stuffthat, that you made it
with when I was a kid.
That is.
I want my Frosted Flakes.
Listen, we talk about

diaspora.
I was like, what is chevdo?
My friends.

Sandeep Pari (01:17:45):
it's like hot mix.
I

just call this mixture.
Just call thisstraight up mixture.

You just say mixture?
Absolutely.
Is that what you guys say?
Mixture?

Say straight up mixture.

Your parents say mixture?

Absolument.
Okay.

Wow, are they French?

Yeah.

so

I just learned something.
I love that.
Rekha's parents, for thosewho don't know, and I'm
sorry if this is out of yourpersonal information, but
your parents are Gambit andthe rat from Ratatouille,
if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, I hate to admitthat because I don't
want people stalking

their house and taking them out of
it and stuff, but yeah.

let's see what other dishes you can expect.
Some other fusion disheswith other immigrant cultures
that are unique to theAmerican diaspora, Indian
Tex Mex or Indian pizzas.
Yes, I do love Indian

pizza.

I love Taco Bell pizza personally.
So I hope that's in there.
stuff that Khushbu wished andexisted and takes on things
that she grew up with as well.
For example, falooda with boba.
I don't know what falooda is...
The drink! But

I want it.
I only learned recently.

Okay.
I wonder if we see this isthe thing it's possible that
we call it something else.
Is it like themilky type of drink?
Is that what it is?

I never heard of it.
I don't think it'sSouth Indian either.

Okay, it sounds great cuz I love boba.
Saag paneer lasagna Rekha!

Let's go

and a duplicate of the McDonald's India
McSpicy paneer sandwich.
I didn't know

about this

I've

never had it's Indian McDonald's
has like good stuff.
I've never had it either

I've had the McSpicy paneer sandwich,
and it's delicious.
I really enjoyed it isStrangely kind of classy.
Yeah, so

speaking of foods you can't get your hands on,
the reason that Shah wrote,Amrikan is because Indian
immigrants used to have tosneak Indian spices into the
country and substitute anytraditional ingredients that
weren't available in America.
So for example, using Bisquickto substitute for Goya,
a key ingredient in GulabJamun, chutneys made with
peanut butter, et cetera, etcetera, et cetera, leading

(01:19:44):
to the development of anentirely new style of cuisine.

This is the whole thing we
were talking about.
Like our parentsjust being like.
I'm going to just usewhat's in the house.
This is around.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They didn't have, at leastwhen I was growing up, they
didn't really have a lotof Indian grocery stores
around New Hampshire.
They had to go to frickingBoston to maybe find something.
yeah.
Hell yeah.
We used a lot of peanut butter.
all right.
look.
Congratulations to, KhushbuShah for this big win,

(01:20:10):
but, we got a runner upfor "Desi of the Week".
Okay.
This is the foodie episode, sowe wanted to give it to Khushbu.
However, we'd be remiss withoutcelebrating India's national
cricket team for beating SouthAfrica in the T20 World Cup.
Played for the first timeright here in North America.
It was played inBarbados for the finals.
Congratulations to Indiaand congratulations to my
parents who are going tobrag about it endlessly.

(01:20:33):
So good job.
this ended India's 13 yeardrought for global cricket title
and their second win in history.
the India won the finalmatch by a narrow margin
of just seven runs.
And Virat Kohli playeda huge role scoring
50 in the final match.
and this victory makes Indiaone of only three teams along
with the West Indies andEngland to have won the T20
World Cup more than once.

Wow.
Yeah.

And India became the first country
to win the tournamentwithout losing any games.
So they were undefeated.
This is huge.

We'll never stop talking about this.
Just so everyone else inthe world is prepared.

My parents will definitely never
stop talking about this.

This is huge.
This is huge.
Oh my gosh.
folks.
That's been our show.
As always, our big ask is thatyou find one person like a
Rekha Shankar in your life andlet them know about this show.
Share it with them.
Let them know how much theywill enjoy and appreciate it.

Yes.
And, we wanna hearfrom you guys.
We wanna featureyou into the show.
Yes.
So send us a question orsomething that you want some
culturally specific advice on,and we're going to answer it.
Are we gonna answer it poorly?
Absolutely.
. But we are going to answer it.
Okay.
So badly.
So you can write in oreven send us a quick audio
file of the question.
Whatever you want to do,we'd love to feature you.
So tell us your name andwhere you're from, and then

(01:21:45):
send that question over toABCDpodcastshow@gmail.com.

Hell yes.
Now is the time in a show whenwe would like to shout out
our Patreons and listeners.
Kaylin, do we happen to havea genre or way of reading
these out to everybody?

Absolutely.
We had some fun suggestions,but I think my fave was because
all three of you are here.
How do you feel aboutreading these names as your
characters from DesiQuest?

Oh, okay.
That is amazing.

Hi, everybody.
I'm so glad to be here.
so in your presence,this is so lovely.
And I'm especially glad because,I miss all my friends from
home, Joshua O'Ryan, Toby M.
Carlo, Benjamin Lowe,and Miranda Hollinger.
I miss them so much.
And I'm so glad to betalking about them.

it's so funny.
I, was spending some time on a,a, numerical translation device
with Michael Long to that day.
And we were discussing howRaelynn Fox and Selena B
had been designing somethingthat completely just
astounded nervous wrecks.

I have a list here of people
who have wronged me.
Number one, but not least, butactually most, Michael Long.
And, Sarah H., you'vedone something, you
know what you did.
Moldy Vort.
you have a lot of explainingto do and I don't have
time to listen to it.

No.
And, that's, Ithat's interesting.
You have a whole list ofpeople that you despise.
It's wonderful.
I just wanted tokeep shouting out.
My pen pals from BritSowald, Philip Daon.
Kathleen Schlegel and Ducati.
Yeah.
I owe Ducati some pretzels.
I do.
I tried.
he gave me so many, and ReverendCatino and Brendan Pace.
I wouldn't be here withoutyour, emotional support.

when I'm building something and I, have a sort of
eureka moment, I like to, I havecertain, things I shout out.
for example, Varun!When something goes very well,
or Monroe Maxwell, when I'm justastounded, or Jeremy Schwartz!
When I'm confused and perplexed.
But really, when I'm, when Ihit gold, you'll hear from out
of the lab, me yelling, Witha, congratulatory bursting the

(01:23:49):
window out, and I yell downto a small child, you there,
young boy, what day is it?
and the child will look up atme and go, sir, it's 8 bit D!

Pfft! recently I saw, Sitara hanging
out with a list of suspiciouspeople, And I am, I have sent
her my recommendations forwho she should stop hanging
out with immediately forsuspicious behaviors and
possible lewd activities.

Read them all very quickly.
Kristen, Stan Wally,

Jeremy O'Brien, Astra, and Brendan Bradley
are the number one offenders.
Currently

excellent.
I'd just like to also announcethat this is actually canon me
and lisa are having a secondchild and we're gonna name
them one of the following namesMark tucker hannah lehman james
gaffney That would be prettycool name That's one name.
Yeah, that's one name Theright hand and the left hand
and then and vaden of courseis on the list as well So

(01:24:46):
those are our baby name listsand those are the gods that
support us the most We love them

my goodness.
Oh,

we did it! We did

it! Folks, this show was
produced and edited by AnandShah and Kaylin Mahoney.
The show's technicaldirector and sound
designer is Delvin Neville.
The show's executiveproducers are Sandeep
Parikh and Anand Shah.
Music is by Harshal Sisodia,Jasvir Singh, and Malik Saveri.
This has been an effinfunny production.
And on behalf of our cohost Sandeep Parikh and her
other co host Rekha Shankarand current boss, I've

(01:25:16):
been your host Omar Najam.
May your chakras be alignedand smothered in chutney.

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Foodie Episode with Rekha Shankar ~ Dosa, Gharana, Energy Drink or RPG Spell? - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep 8

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Foodie Episode with Rekha Shankar ~ Dosa, Gharana, Energy Drink or RPG Spell? - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep 8