November 27, 2025 • 9 mins
Delishees, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Jon Francois & Ajay Vandertunt discuss their plans, what the holiday overall means for them, and Ajay's got something to say to you if you're including pasta.
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ABOUT "THE DELICIOUS CULTURE"- Delishees!! Grab a plate and taste pop culture conversation with Jon Francois & Ajay Vandertunt. They feast on TV, movies, politics, and more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hey, delicious. Grab a plate and taste this
brief Thanksgiving edition of The Delicious Culture.
I'm John Francois. I am AJ today.
We're not going to do a regular episode because it's
Thanksgiving when you hear this.And it's why what we we should
be eating. We should be feasting.
Not, not not thinking so much about what America kind of is
(00:29):
right now. So, yeah, I don't know.
Just kind of wanted to give us some space to talk about what
we're doing this year, what Thanksgiving means to us
overall. How about you?
Go ahead. The funny thing is, Thanksgiving
for me is just another day. I like to just eat food.
Whenever I'm with family on a holiday, the food is the
holiday. But Thanksgiving itself, this is
(00:51):
going to going to be my second. Oh my God, no, not second.
It's actually third this year, Thanksgiving without my mother.
So it's going to be an interesting dynamic as we go
through it and we understand that everybody's going to feel
different about it. First things that I do want to
talk about when it comes to Thanksgiving this year, starting
on the 25th up until the 7th of December, if you are
(01:12):
participating in the national blackout, which means you are
not buying or purchasing things and if you're able to take off
from work, you're not working. I appreciate your support with
this campaign. We have been working a long time
to make this happen and it's going to be one of the best ways
if you want to make your voice heard when it comes to economics
in this country to participate. And all you have to do is
(01:35):
literally nothing. Don't buy anything.
Don't go anywhere to spend your time with your family and that
includes Black Friday shopping. Don't take your ass out there.
But on the side of non politicalstuff for Thanksgiving, what I
am looking forward to is the incredible stomach ache I'm
going to have after eating my dad's Mac and cheese.
I cannot wait. So your dad's Mac and cheese?
(01:57):
What else is going to give you atummy ache?
Pretty much everything because it's all going to be non vegan
food, but it's the Mac and cheese that I love more than
anything. I'm not a Turkey person.
I've never been into Turkey. I don't know what like The thing
is for it. I'm not a Turkey connoisseur,
but I may look at it and I may have a couple slices of ham.
(02:18):
But if anybody's making fried chicken, just tell me and I'll
show up at your house. Nothing wrong with that.
I mean, Turkey, I'm with you on Turkey.
I'm not super crazy about it. The rest of my family is not,
but yet we still make it becausesocietal pressure.
Turkey has to be on Thanksgiving.
If it is overly sauced, great. The worst thing is when Turkey
is not sauced enough because dryTurkey is a taste that no one
(02:42):
should have to experience. So please everybody, PSA sauce
your Turkey. I see it going there.
I did not see it going there at all because I was like, oh, a
sauce Turkey. I'm like, John, are y'all
pumping rum into the Turkey? But it's been a year, so we
might as well. We might as well.
I will not blame anybody that wants to infuse a little bit of
(03:03):
alcohol in their Turkey just to get a little buzz going, you
know what I mean? Now, one thing that we have to
talk about a cute little pop culture moment I want to pull
who is listening that is bringing drunken mashed potatoes
to their Thanksgiving. If you're not familiar with that
is lately there has been a trendonline of people putting patrone
or whiskey in place of water in their mashed potatoes and then
(03:26):
they're making some kind of gravy that's liquor based.
And I just want to know if anybody's doing it because I'm
going to try it out That's. Definitely going to be a strong,
strong taste of the potatoes. But hey, you know what?
Thanksgiving can be a stressful time for many when it comes to
dealing with certain kinds of family members.
So whatever gets you through it,whatever gives you a good time,
(03:47):
and especially if you are aroundthe company of great people,
enjoyable friends, more enjoyable family members.
I mean, you can't really go wrong either way.
So, yeah, drunken mashed potatoes.
I might actually suggest that tomy wife's Nana's Thanksgiving
and her mom's Thanksgiving, which is where I'll be going
this Thursday. Also, my birthday this year, my
(04:08):
birthday, it falls on Thanksgiving like once every
four years or so, like a presidential election, if we
still have those. So yeah, I am going to be
celebrating with my other familyhere in Vermont and that's going
to be wonderful. Thanksgiving to me.
Obviously before I met my wife Tony and in the first couple
years of our relationship when we were boyfriend and
(04:29):
girlfriend, obviously it was with my family down in
Connecticut and that usually consisted of my mom for the
time, my dad and siblings and cousins and my grandparents when
they were alive, aunts, uncle. So it was always just that
wonderful tight knit units. And look, my wife is white.
(04:50):
My in law family is white. I'm sorry, the black family
Thanksgiving food hits differentthan white family Thanksgiving
food. I'm just going to say it.
We're going to have a plate where it is overly saucy
lasagna, Turkey, corn with some kind of like Parmesan cheese
mixture, brown rice, beans, chicken wings smothered with
(05:10):
barbecues. Saw us like we are going to do
it up and give you the stomach aches of your lifetime to
reference the stomach aches thatyou have for Thanksgiving.
So that's been Thanksgiving for a majority of my life.
And this year it'll be a little bit different.
But thankfully I will also get to see the the family down in
Connecticut over the weekend andspend some time with them.
(05:32):
So it's, it's, it's a nice balance and it's a nice,
wonderful balance of like, OK, let me get Thanksgiving from my
wife's family experience and we can still have it from my, my
family's experience as well. And I don't know, I guess it's
also a helpful reminder, even though the government is back up
and running, I just feel like weshould remind people that you
could still, like, donate to your local food bank and because
(05:55):
that that can be an effective way, right, to make sure people
have food this Thanksgiving. Yes, I encourage everybody go
donate. Go serve food at the soup
kitchen or like you have a localfood kitchen or people who are
unhoused. It's a great time to actually
just donate your time. Food that you have that you
don't know that you're going to use, food that you think you
will not get a chance to use. There's always an opportunity to
(06:18):
give out to other people becausetrust me, people are going to
need it more than ever this year.
Yes, if you are listening and viewing, if you happen to live
in Vermont, where I am, Vermont Food Bank, I make a monthly
donation with them. That's great, but if not, that's
literally every, I, I think any state in this country has a food
bank that you could donate to. Please, please, please do that.
(06:41):
Because I, I can only imagine what people who don't have as
much this time of year are goingthrough when they see all this
commercialization of like, hey, eat all the food, buy all the
gifts. Like, so do what you can to make
the holiday season just a littlebit brighter for those who are
less fortunate. Please listen to us wherever you
(07:01):
get your podcast, The Delicious culture Apple Spotify series
xmamazonwhereyougetyourpodcastthedeliciousculture@gmail.com.E-mail us anytime if you'd like
at the Delicious culture on Instagram tick tock and YouTube
a have a tick tock as well at John dot Francois the number one
and AJ Vanderton talk and they follow.
I was going to say Spotify for some reason, YouTube and TikTok.
(07:26):
You can follow me there. I'm just AJ vandertime and
you'll see me pop right up. We gotta let a little
deliciousness ring. Black people.
This is specific to you. Just because it has pasta and it
doesn't, make it a side dish andlet that deliciousness ring.
I feel attacked. We've always kind of used pasta
(07:47):
as a side dish. No, it's the same thing.
So now I've never been to a white person's Thanksgiving, but
from what I see a lot of the Thanksgiving recipes from white
families that I know and also the ones that I've seen online,
it seems like mayonnaise and jello seems to take place in a
(08:10):
lot of dishes. And I don't know why but it's
the same thing for y'all. You cannot just throw mayonnaise
in something and call it a dish.Black people, you can't just put
pasta in something. They call it a side dish.
OK, Lasagna is they made it all.Right.
I mean, like someone who who lives for the plates with rice
(08:32):
and beans and lasagna and chicken wings and corn and all
that stuff, it's like, oh, that's going to be a hard pass
for my family. We're just going to be like,
yeah, let's die. Cook your food, still cook your
food because I'm not going to lie I would get a plate of
lasagna and fried chicken but I'm tired of all y'all coming in
my comments talking about pasta it makes today side dish it does
not. Lasagna is a meal on its own.
(08:54):
It is a very heavy carby meal. So yes, yeah, yeah.
The fact that it is a side dish.There's nothing more American
and black American than that. So yes.
And we end on that note.
Hey, delicious. Grab a plate and taste this
brief Thanksgiving edition of The Delicious Culture.
I'm John Francois. I am AJ today.
We're not going to do a regular episode because it's
Thanksgiving when you hear this.And it's why what we we should
be eating. We should be feasting.
Not, not not thinking so much about what America kind of is
(00:29):
right now. So, yeah, I don't know.
Just kind of wanted to give us some space to talk about what
we're doing this year, what Thanksgiving means to us
overall. How about you?
Go ahead. The funny thing is, Thanksgiving
for me is just another day. I like to just eat food.
Whenever I'm with family on a holiday, the food is the
holiday. But Thanksgiving itself, this is
(00:51):
going to going to be my second. Oh my God, no, not second.
It's actually third this year, Thanksgiving without my mother.
So it's going to be an interesting dynamic as we go
through it and we understand that everybody's going to feel
different about it. First things that I do want to
talk about when it comes to Thanksgiving this year, starting
on the 25th up until the 7th of December, if you are
(01:12):
participating in the national blackout, which means you are
not buying or purchasing things and if you're able to take off
from work, you're not working. I appreciate your support with
this campaign. We have been working a long time
to make this happen and it's going to be one of the best ways
if you want to make your voice heard when it comes to economics
in this country to participate. And all you have to do is
(01:35):
literally nothing. Don't buy anything.
Don't go anywhere to spend your time with your family and that
includes Black Friday shopping. Don't take your ass out there.
But on the side of non politicalstuff for Thanksgiving, what I
am looking forward to is the incredible stomach ache I'm
going to have after eating my dad's Mac and cheese.
I cannot wait. So your dad's Mac and cheese?
(01:57):
What else is going to give you atummy ache?
Pretty much everything because it's all going to be non vegan
food, but it's the Mac and cheese that I love more than
anything. I'm not a Turkey person.
I've never been into Turkey. I don't know what like The thing
is for it. I'm not a Turkey connoisseur,
but I may look at it and I may have a couple slices of ham.
(02:18):
But if anybody's making fried chicken, just tell me and I'll
show up at your house. Nothing wrong with that.
I mean, Turkey, I'm with you on Turkey.
I'm not super crazy about it. The rest of my family is not,
but yet we still make it becausesocietal pressure.
Turkey has to be on Thanksgiving.
If it is overly sauced, great. The worst thing is when Turkey
is not sauced enough because dryTurkey is a taste that no one
(02:42):
should have to experience. So please everybody, PSA sauce
your Turkey. I see it going there.
I did not see it going there at all because I was like, oh, a
sauce Turkey. I'm like, John, are y'all
pumping rum into the Turkey? But it's been a year, so we
might as well. We might as well.
I will not blame anybody that wants to infuse a little bit of
(03:03):
alcohol in their Turkey just to get a little buzz going, you
know what I mean? Now, one thing that we have to
talk about a cute little pop culture moment I want to pull
who is listening that is bringing drunken mashed potatoes
to their Thanksgiving. If you're not familiar with that
is lately there has been a trendonline of people putting patrone
or whiskey in place of water in their mashed potatoes and then
(03:26):
they're making some kind of gravy that's liquor based.
And I just want to know if anybody's doing it because I'm
going to try it out That's. Definitely going to be a strong,
strong taste of the potatoes. But hey, you know what?
Thanksgiving can be a stressful time for many when it comes to
dealing with certain kinds of family members.
So whatever gets you through it,whatever gives you a good time,
(03:47):
and especially if you are aroundthe company of great people,
enjoyable friends, more enjoyable family members.
I mean, you can't really go wrong either way.
So, yeah, drunken mashed potatoes.
I might actually suggest that tomy wife's Nana's Thanksgiving
and her mom's Thanksgiving, which is where I'll be going
this Thursday. Also, my birthday this year, my
(04:08):
birthday, it falls on Thanksgiving like once every
four years or so, like a presidential election, if we
still have those. So yeah, I am going to be
celebrating with my other familyhere in Vermont and that's going
to be wonderful. Thanksgiving to me.
Obviously before I met my wife Tony and in the first couple
years of our relationship when we were boyfriend and
(04:29):
girlfriend, obviously it was with my family down in
Connecticut and that usually consisted of my mom for the
time, my dad and siblings and cousins and my grandparents when
they were alive, aunts, uncle. So it was always just that
wonderful tight knit units. And look, my wife is white.
(04:50):
My in law family is white. I'm sorry, the black family
Thanksgiving food hits differentthan white family Thanksgiving
food. I'm just going to say it.
We're going to have a plate where it is overly saucy
lasagna, Turkey, corn with some kind of like Parmesan cheese
mixture, brown rice, beans, chicken wings smothered with
(05:10):
barbecues. Saw us like we are going to do
it up and give you the stomach aches of your lifetime to
reference the stomach aches thatyou have for Thanksgiving.
So that's been Thanksgiving for a majority of my life.
And this year it'll be a little bit different.
But thankfully I will also get to see the the family down in
Connecticut over the weekend andspend some time with them.
(05:32):
So it's, it's, it's a nice balance and it's a nice,
wonderful balance of like, OK, let me get Thanksgiving from my
wife's family experience and we can still have it from my, my
family's experience as well. And I don't know, I guess it's
also a helpful reminder, even though the government is back up
and running, I just feel like weshould remind people that you
could still, like, donate to your local food bank and because
(05:55):
that that can be an effective way, right, to make sure people
have food this Thanksgiving. Yes, I encourage everybody go
donate. Go serve food at the soup
kitchen or like you have a localfood kitchen or people who are
unhoused. It's a great time to actually
just donate your time. Food that you have that you
don't know that you're going to use, food that you think you
will not get a chance to use. There's always an opportunity to
(06:18):
give out to other people becausetrust me, people are going to
need it more than ever this year.
Yes, if you are listening and viewing, if you happen to live
in Vermont, where I am, Vermont Food Bank, I make a monthly
donation with them. That's great, but if not, that's
literally every, I, I think any state in this country has a food
bank that you could donate to. Please, please, please do that.
(06:41):
Because I, I can only imagine what people who don't have as
much this time of year are goingthrough when they see all this
commercialization of like, hey, eat all the food, buy all the
gifts. Like, so do what you can to make
the holiday season just a littlebit brighter for those who are
less fortunate. Please listen to us wherever you
(07:01):
get your podcast, The Delicious culture Apple Spotify series
xmamazonwhereyougetyourpodcastthedeliciousculture@gmail.com.E-mail us anytime if you'd like
at the Delicious culture on Instagram tick tock and YouTube
a have a tick tock as well at John dot Francois the number one
and AJ Vanderton talk and they follow.
I was going to say Spotify for some reason, YouTube and TikTok.
(07:26):
You can follow me there. I'm just AJ vandertime and
you'll see me pop right up. We gotta let a little
deliciousness ring. Black people.
This is specific to you. Just because it has pasta and it
doesn't, make it a side dish andlet that deliciousness ring.
I feel attacked. We've always kind of used pasta
(07:47):
as a side dish. No, it's the same thing.
So now I've never been to a white person's Thanksgiving, but
from what I see a lot of the Thanksgiving recipes from white
families that I know and also the ones that I've seen online,
it seems like mayonnaise and jello seems to take place in a
(08:10):
lot of dishes. And I don't know why but it's
the same thing for y'all. You cannot just throw mayonnaise
in something and call it a dish.Black people, you can't just put
pasta in something. They call it a side dish.
OK, Lasagna is they made it all.Right.
I mean, like someone who who lives for the plates with rice
(08:32):
and beans and lasagna and chicken wings and corn and all
that stuff, it's like, oh, that's going to be a hard pass
for my family. We're just going to be like,
yeah, let's die. Cook your food, still cook your
food because I'm not going to lie I would get a plate of
lasagna and fried chicken but I'm tired of all y'all coming in
my comments talking about pasta it makes today side dish it does
not. Lasagna is a meal on its own.
(08:54):
It is a very heavy carby meal. So yes, yeah, yeah.
The fact that it is a side dish.There's nothing more American
and black American than that. So yes.
And we end on that note.
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