November 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Tanner and Jerry take off for an episode all about travel. Tanner shares the chaos and charm of playing plane-shot roulette and revisits his appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives—including the now-legendary Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake from Rye. Then they break down how to find great places to eat when you’re away from home, from hidden gems to local standouts worth the detour. The conversation continues with tips on how to behave respectfully in restaurants abroad and navigate unfamiliar dining customs with confidence. Finally, they explore why food tastes different on a plane and what’s really happening to your senses at 30,000 feet.
Thank you for listening! Join us again every weekend for more food inspired fun. Have questions you want answered, comments to make the show better, do you want to join our growing list of radio stations partners, or just keep in touch? Let us know at Flavorphiles.com.
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Thank you for listening! Join us again every weekend for more food inspired fun. Have questions you want answered, comments to make the show better, do you want to join our growing list of radio stations partners, or just keep in touch? Let us know at Flavorphiles.com.
Follow on Instagram:
Flavorphiles: https://www.instagram.com/flavorphilespod/
Tanner: https://www.instagram.com/tagaragar/
Follow on Tik Tok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@flavorphiles
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Flavor Files. I'm Jerry Agar along with my son,
Tanner Agar. He's a restaurant tour bar tender and chef,
and this whole episode is going to be eating on
the road. That's what we're going to talk about on
Flavor Files.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
P H.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I l e s. By the way, So since it's travel,
Tanner your amused booze, we always have you have a
drink to kick off the proceedings. So this is your
travel drink.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, this is the only drink I will get on
an airplane, and it's also the only place I drink
this drink. To me, it's like inherently tied to being
on the airplane. And for two reasons. One I like it,
but like not that much. And two it's something you
can actually get on an airplane. You know, sometimes I
get a little travel sickness. I find it ginger ale
helps with that. But ginger ale always tastes better with
(00:51):
something in it, and that's something, in my opinion, should
be tequila. So I'm going to make one up really
quick for myself. That's going to pour a little glass
of that ginger Ao. Got a little tequila here, Gonna
pour from myself and then, by.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
The way, do you find that on the airplane they
generally have tequila.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh yeah, so on the airplane they have those little
tiny bottles, you know, the airplane bottles. Now, I'm gonna
give you a little tip that's not technically legal, but
what I like to do is actually go to the
liquor store before and they'll sell you those little tiny bottles.
You can take these through security. Every time I travel
with a group, people are like, oh, you can't bring
(01:30):
that through. Yes, you can bring it through. It's smaller
than three ounces, so it doesn't matter. So I like
to get a few of those. If I'm traveling with
a group, I will actually go to the liquor store
and I'll buy like a mixed bag, and then when
we get to the airport, I just say, hey, here's
the game. You can reach in and the deal is
it's a shot. I paid for it, but you have
(01:50):
to drink whichever shot you pull out of the bag.
It might be something nice, it might be fireball, so
it's up to you. You can choose, but it's like
Russian Roulette shots. I think this game is fun. It
always does well when we travel. When you're traveling if
you think, yeah, but the bottles are so expensive on
the plane, just bring yours. Just don't let an attendant
(02:12):
see you open a bottle and pour it in your drink.
But I've never had a problem with this, so I'm
a big fan of doing it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'm looking forward to seeing what the legal department thinks
of this broadcast. But that said, we.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Have a legal department. Well, yes, I didn't realized we
were making so much money.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Here's the thing. When people travel, they will look to
the media maybe to try and get ideas. And if
they're traveling around North America, one of the things that
people might look at, unless they're looking for fine dining restaurants,
generally is Guy Fieb's Triple d Diners, drive ins and Dives.
But the thing is, your restaurant in Dallas is a
fine dining restaurant and you went on that show first
(02:51):
of all? Why?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well why is because if someone calls me and says,
do you want your restaurant on Food Network broadcast all
these people, the answer is yes.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Wait a minute, you're not a drive in, You're not
a dive. You're certainly not a dive. You're not a doubt.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, so the first time I got the call,
I wasn't sure it was for me or I thought
it was a friend like just calling it as a joke, right,
But you know, I was talking to them and they said,
you know, we actually really do enjoy having some higher
end restaurants on the show, people that are really doing
something interesting, which excuse me, something that our guests would like,
(03:32):
you know, our viewers would like. That's sort of a
little bit in the style of what some of the
dishes we show are, even if the restaurant isn't technically
a diner, drive ins or dive. That's why they actually
call the show Triple D. There it's now allowing them
to expand by being triple D. It can be kind
of anything. So we were on Triple D. Guy Fiery
(03:53):
did come in person to the restaurant, happy to talk
about that experience. One thing though, I'm really proud of
is they asked us what dishes we would want to do.
They said five or six. I pitch five dishes to
them and they say, for the sixth one, I want
to pitch a dessert. And she said, I told you
no desserts. I said, I know, but you said five
or six. Let me pitch this assert. I think it's
(04:14):
good for the show. I don't want to be presumptuous,
but it is a chocolate cake made out of sauerkraut.
And she said, Guy really doesn't like desserts. He's never
put a chocolate cake on the show in twenty years.
I said, okay, all right, well you know, let me know.
And she called back and said, I can't believe I'm
saying this, but Guy Fiery wants that sauer kraut cake.
He put it on the show. So we are the
(04:36):
only chocolate cake ever on the show.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Tanna's restaurant that he's talking about, by the way, is
in Dallas, in an area called Lower Greensville, and it's
called Rye r y E Rye Restaurants. So there's just
a thing I've always been curious about. Guy Fier comes
into those restaurants and he's got to take big bites
in every Is he really actually eating it or is
it just a TV thing?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh? No, He's actually eating it. I mean, you know,
there's a lot of cut around trying to get the
right shot, get the right We want the viewer to
be able to feel like they're really seeing the food
getting cooked, so you're making things more than one time,
but one hundred percent, you know, Guy was eating the food.
He was actually eating the food more frequently and talking
(05:21):
more about it than you even got to see on camera.
So in no way is that faked. I mean, that
is a genuine reaction. Some of my favorite things he
said about the food didn't make the final cut on TV,
but it's one hundred percent real.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I wondered that because I wondered if the crews get
all ready at maybe several restaurants and he come to
Dallas and he just goes around to two or three
restaurants and does the show or was yours the only
one that day? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, So he does shoot three restaurants in a day.
So there's an early morning crew and sort of a
lunch crew, and then you know, sort of that early
afternoon crew, and so they're doing those three episodes, and
so there is a lot of setup, but a lot
of that setup is getting the lights right and miking
everybody and making sure that everything's organized and in place.
(06:05):
Because he sort of shows up and he shoots the
pre the after there was actually two days. Guy Fieri
was probably at the restaurant for maybe two or three
hours only, and we had two eight hour days of
filming in order to get enough content for our what
seven minute segment that we actually had on TV. So
he's in and out, but the crew does a really
(06:26):
thorough job. Basically all the shots that don't have guy
in it all. You know, a lot of the guest stuff,
a lot of the seeing us cooking, interacting in the restaurant,
that's all shot after he's not on site, just due
to his calendar.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, and those guests are invited and your state, your
restaurant is technically closed for two days.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
No, so what is true? And this is important. Every
person who came is a guest of the restaurant, so
they're absolutely real guests. However, we did have the opportunity
to get to choose what guests we wanted to invite
to the restaurant. So I don't know who he's going
to talk to. I don't know exactly who's going to
be there. But every person was a real guest, you know,
like none of them were you know you or your
(07:07):
girlfriend or they have to be real people who know
you through that who can speak well about the restaurant,
So they were all really sitting there, We were making
drinks for them, we were making food for them, So
it was more like a private event. I would say,
in that the restaurant's really running, everybody's actually having dinner
with us. It's just a little bit more of a
controlled environment because you obviously can't just open the door
(07:30):
to anyone who wants to come in and meet Guy Fieri.
It just wouldn't be an effective way to run a
service or to create a TV show.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
What did it feel like afterward when you sat down
to watch what ultimately was the TV show of your restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, we organized a watch party, mostly just for
our staff, but we put it online and we sold out.
We were overbooked for people who wanted to come watch
it with us, So that was really cool. But you know,
it was really great. You you watch the show and
you think to yourself, oh, wow, that'd be so cool
someday if we met him, and he does. You know,
Guy Fieri is very passionate about food. He's very passionate
(08:07):
about telling the stories of these restaurants and popularizing them,
and I really appreciate that, and so it's very cool
to see yourself on there, and so it was great
to sort of have that platform, to have that experience.
But my favorite part will probably be when they were
resetting cameras and he's off and it's just me and
him sort of joking around and talking about nothing and
(08:29):
talking about the restaurant. You know, he made it a
really good experience. His staff made it a really good
experience for us. And that's the part I remember more
than the segment.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Okay, And did it have any impact on your restaurant
going forward, because again, a lot of what takes place
on that particular show Triple D is Hey, this place
does great onion rings, this place does great hamburgers. I mean,
that's not your restaurant. You're a small plate's, fancy pants
kind of restaurant there in Dallas, say, and I just
(09:01):
wonder if maybe it gave a wrong impression for customers
at all.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think when
you saw the food, when you saw us talking about it,
when you saw the processes that were involved in our food.
I mean, we're really proud to be in the Michelin
Guide and do tasting menus and things like that. So
I don't think it gave a wrong impression to anybody.
I think the guests that have shown up have all
been really excited to be here. And you know I
have had guests who went like this shower krout and
(09:25):
this cake, I can't eat it. You came here because
you saw it on TV, right, Like you saw a
guy Fieri describe it like as this amazing delicious dish.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Come on, come on, he was really uh, he really
loved it. Let's take a moment though here, uh and
explain as a chef, how do you make chocolate cake
out of soauer kraut?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah? So this was actually something I was reading really
late at night, as I typically am, and I found
this story about how after the World War two they
had all all of this excess sauerkraut, or liberty cabbage
as it was called at the time. They had government
excess liberty cabbage, and they were trying to figure out
(10:08):
how do we put it in school lunches? Because we
have this food, it's already paid for, it's already made,
how can we offload it on kids? Get them a
vegetable slash, feed them cheaply. So they started mixing it
into chocolate cake. Because they thought they could disguise it
with cake ingredients and accomplish these goals, and so that
(10:29):
was interesting. The history of it was interesting, but the
chef part of me thought, hey, this is okay. Obviously
the kids didn't hate this, right, because if the kids
hated it would have worked. I wouldn't be reading this article. However,
what was really interesting to me is sauerkraut has a
texture kind of like coconut does in a cake. So, okay,
i'd have a nice little texture to it. Okay, sauer
(10:51):
Kraut is also got a lot of salt. Well that's good.
That's going to season everything and really help a lot
of the flavor pop. Okay, there's an acid to sauerkraut.
Well that's going to cut a really rich decat in cake,
so I can use really indulgent flavors. And finally, sauerkraut
holds a lot of moisture, so the enemies of cake
are always it's too dry. So if I can have
(11:14):
a cake that is not dry, really well balanced, really
well seasoned, has a nice texture. This actually I get
the government did it to impose it on children, but
this was a pretty good idea. Actually, and that's how
the dish was born, and I'm an advocate for it.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You go to another country, Tanner, or another part of
a country. You're in Dallas, you fly off to Minneapolis,
or I go to Vancouver or Montreal or something. What's
the first kind of thing that you would do to
find a good place to eat?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, the first thing to do is try to look
for who knows where to go? Right, I mean the
Michelin Guide one hundred years ago was started literally to
tell people where to go while they're traveling. Obviously, it's
really famous for especially high end rest It has more
budget friendly options in there, but what it's really known
for is very high end, especially tasting menu style restaurants.
(12:08):
So of course that's a great place to look. Social
media can be really good for this. You know, if
you're really active on Instagram or TikTok, you can find
people that create content for that city. Maybe they traveled
to that city and here's where they went. Maybe they
live in that city. I mean you can literally just
Google or you know, search on Instagram, TikTok best restaurants.
You'll get all kinds of hashtags. That's really what they're
(12:30):
for for finding things. One thing I also like that
a lot of people maybe sort of discount is local
traditional news, right. I like to check out a paper,
a magazine, something that's from that area that seems to
have some clout, seems to do a lot of publishing.
You know, it's hard to know what's a good resource,
(12:51):
but you know here in Dallas, the Dallas Morning News,
the magazine, they talk about food all the time. And
what I really like about that is they're plugged into
community a lot better. If you can find the local,
big newspaper that has a person who writes about food,
that's really one of the best spots to find these
sort of local places you wouldn't find. Social media can
(13:12):
also be good for this, but finding that spot that's
maybe it's newer, but man, it's killer. Maybe they're doing
something that's a little offbeat, a little bit different, but
that to me is some of the most exciting stuff
to do when I eat abroad, more than some of
these fine dining restaurants can be. Because sometimes find dining restaurants,
they're hitting a lot of the same beats to check
(13:33):
off the fine dining experience. Whereas you can go to
some restaurant you go oh, the husband's Jamaican and the
wife's from Korea, so they make Korean jerk chicken, and
you're like, cool, I've never had that before. I can't
wait to sit down on their table. And these really
local dive sources are where I try to go, and
(13:54):
then when I get to them, my favorite thing to
do is to say, where else do I need to eat?
You know, I want to dive in. What's the bar
you go to, what's the restaurant you go to? Who
are your friends and use them, use those people as
a resource.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The first time I was ever in Kansas City, we
ended up living there for a while, But this was
way before that, and I was going across the country
driving to Kansas City, and I had my friend who's
a comic, Adobe Maxwell, along with a kind of an
unofficial uncle of yours, and we were driving in. He says, well,
let's pull into Kansas City and get some barbecue. And
I said okay. So we pulled off. I don't know
(14:29):
where we were, and we see a service station with
guys working on cars. He said, pull in here, So
we pulled in. He walks and walks underneath the car
where there's a guy turning a ranch and talks to him.
He comes back to the car and goes, yeah, I
know where to lunch, because we wanted a lunch that
local people would go and have.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Absolutely that the local people know is good, that's consistent.
You know, the first thing that pops up on Google
is not oftentimes the most delicious restaurant, and a lot
of times that comes from the fact, certainly our restaurants
have had this issue. Google's amazing powerful tool. I wish
we were better at it. I wish we had ads.
I wish we had all of this, but you know,
we don't have corporate we don't have some big backing.
(15:08):
And a lot of the best restaurants are the best
because the people there are passionate. They're there every single day.
They're personally making the food, which means they just don't
have that marketing reach. And that's why I like these
real local places, talking to local people and getting that
story from them, and the suggestions you oftentimes get from
(15:29):
a really nice hotel are always going to be very sanitized,
very safe, because they don't want you to have a
bad time, so they send you to some place they
think a Canadian tourist is going to like as opposed to,
you know, a really authentic place that might not have
as nice of a dining room, or it doesn't have
very good service. Some of the best restaurants I've been
to on vacation have dingy dining rooms and horrible service
(15:53):
and amazing food. And at the end of the day,
I don't really care about about any of that. I
just want the food.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, if you go to Dallas, go to fuel City,
which is a place that has about fifty seven gas pumps,
and yeah, there's a big convenience store, but along the
side of the building there's a window and that's where
you buy Mexican food. And then there's a little kios
that sells street alotes and I recommend that in Dallas
at two or three in the morning. It's called fuel City.
(16:20):
But that brings me to street food. And you have
traveled a lot in your research and your experience in
the world of dining, and you've gone to a second
and maybe even third world countries, and will you eat
the street food.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I have never allowed the threat of gastro intentional distress
to cost me a good meal, and I've paid for
it many times. Yeah, you know, I was at carnival
in Rio de Janeiro, and I missed an entire day
because of HOUSEGA got And I've gotten sick in many
countries and it's absolutely worth it. I eat street food
all the time, and I'm a big advocate for eating
(16:58):
street food.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay, what I have done, I've done it in Mexico,
I did it in Costa Rica. Is I think that
looks like a good place. And I lay back for
a couple of minutes and I watch who's walking up
and eating there. Is it tourists in shorts and sandals
or does it look like locals who are on a
lunch break and they must know that the thing is.
I think that's good. But on the other hand, they
(17:21):
might also have a different constitution for the local food
than I do.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, that's absolutely a thing. I think I've gotten tagged
with that myself. You know, Hey, maybe this was made
with some water that everybody who lives here can drink
and doesn't have a problem with. But I do not
live here, and I have had a problem with it.
You know. So ultimately, if you're worried, you know, if
you are a person who's like immunocompromised or you get
(17:46):
sick really easily. Ultimately, there is no true way to
know if the foods are being made that particular food
is safe. Even the best restaurants in the world have
issues with food safety. Sometimes you can hang back, like
you were talking talking about, you know, and say, Okay,
does this place? Does this place look clean and organized?
Does it look like there's someone really taking care of things?
(18:08):
Does this place look established? Right? In an interesting way,
you can look at a place and say, ah, things
are kind of run down there. I don't think that
would be a safe place to eat. Okay, what's run down?
Is it the fridge, is it the stove? Or does
the chair look like it's seen in a lot of people.
Do the plastic cups that they use look like it's
(18:31):
they've seen a lot of traffic. If the kitchen is
being maintained, but the dining room is aged, that means
a lot of people have sat at those tables, and
that doesn't happen when the food's bad. And so, you know,
when I see a stand even on the beach, you know,
somebody walking who just happens to have a cooler, that's
a little bit more dicey. But someone who's got to
(18:52):
stand on the beach and some weathered tables, and you
can tell they spend all day out there in the sun.
I'm not worried about that food. I know that food's
going to be good.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Well, I can't always see the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, you can't always see the kitchen, but lots of
times with street food you kind of can see the
kitchen because it's the kitchen is the stall, you know,
and so that's one of the things I look for.
I was recently in Guadalajara and we had these amazing tacos.
Amazing and it was that exact same thing. He had
crappy plastic chairs and the table I sat at was
(19:22):
actually broken, but everything in the everything he was cooking
was incredibly clean. I this was a real professional, and
so I went, yeah, this is gonna be fine. And
the tacos were amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
If you were in Paris, would you go get the
Royal at McDonald's, the Royal with cheese?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yes, yeah, maybe if only for the bit. But this
is a thing that does come up right. I have
been fortunate to have traveled to over thirty different countries
and work in several. You know, do you have to
eat like a local, and I would say at a
different time in my life, I would have shamed people
who didn't eat the local food. But I have gotten
to a point where sometimes, man, I'm just really craving this,
(20:08):
or I just wanted this, especially if it's longer term travel.
I have been to Paris McDonald several times, actually, because
when I was living there it might be different.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Wi Fi was not very pervasive in cafes, so I
need to hop on the internet lots of times to
call you actually and catch up. And McDonald's was the
only place that had where that reliably had reliable internet,
And to be fair, the macarons were actually pretty good.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
All right. He's Tannerregar on Jerry Aegar. This is to
show about food called flavor Files. We're doing an addition
here about traveling and eating and coming up how to
behave in restaurants abroad.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I've had a real fortunate experience. I've gotten to work
in six different countries, traveled them anymore, and restaurants are
very different abroad.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
One of the first things that I think about, what's
something I should expe How should I prepare myself for
eating abroad, especially when you go to less developed countries,
you just need to be patient. You know, if anybody's
heard they've traveled, and you hear that island time, Yes,
island time. It can extend to the restaurant as well.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Would there be some places where the culture of the
restaurant might not be a lot different than the culture
of ours, the expectation you would have and how quickly
you get served in how you're served like, would that
be the sign in England for instance, but then very
very different in obviously Asian and African countries.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah. I don't have a lot of experience traveling in Asia,
so I can't speak to that as well. But you know,
when you used to think really Western style countries, right,
I mean London, Paris, Spain, like all of these places,
they kind of operate really similar to Canadian or American restaurants.
There will be the difference. You know, you don't tip
in a lot of those countries, and we can talk
more about that. There may be a little bit more
(21:51):
stand offish. You know, when I was working in Paris,
there was very much this idea of the people didn't
come here to talk to you, bring them their stuff
and leave them alone. Whereas, especially if you're down here
in Texas. I mean, I sit down and the meal
starts with, how do y'all you've been here before? We're
so excited to have you to die. No, you don't, Yes,
(22:11):
I do. I just don't take you to those places
because I find them a little much.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
But absolutely those restaurants I misunderstood. I thought you were
trying to tell people that that's what you say.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, we do not, we do not do that. That
is not true to me or to the style of
food that we do. And by the way, I definitely
see that.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
By the way, guys, if you're traveling in the South,
then she calls you darling. She doesn't want a relationship.
She just does that.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
She's just she's just nice. You know. Yeah, your bartender's
not that into you. They just work for tips, all right.
But you know, so that's a that's a thing some
of these countries. Whereas you know, I was in Jamaica
earlier this year, and possibly I think the best restaurant
we went to was a place called Cool Vibes. And
they have to have good vibes because the jerk chicken
takes two hours to come out to you and there's
(22:57):
literally nothing to do but drink red stripes and listen
to the music and wait for the chicken. You know,
So you just have to know that if you want,
if you want that very Western style experience, then maybe
you shouldn't travel to some of these countries that just
don't have that infrastructure to provide it. But again, I mean,
I'm in Jamaica on vacation. I'm not busy inherently. Yeah,
(23:22):
I've been on the beach all day. I was drinking.
I'm still drinking. I'm just waiting for the chicken. And
it was worth it. Absolutely when it comes exactly and
it'll be good.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay. What about kids in fine dining? I mean it's
an issue here in Canada and the United States. Some
kids are very well behaved and their little foodies some
of them, and some of them just actually know how
to behave in a restaurant. Because if you've gone out
to a fine dining restaurant for your twenty fifth anniversary,
the last thing you need is people's kids running around
in the restaurant. It's off putting. What's the approach and
(23:55):
attitude toward that in some other countries you've been to?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, absolutely, I would say, you know, if you have
kids and you want to expose your kids to good food,
that's a great thing to do. Teaching them table manners,
how to order food, how to you know, do that
kind of thing. Those are really valuable skills to impart
to your kid. But sort of like you said, you
know when you talk about people do anniversaries and birthdays,
So we think about ry right. We have an eleven
core chef's tasting menu. Our restaurant is fun, you know,
(24:21):
we turn the music up loud, we have a good
time with our guests. But at the same time, it's
a lot of business people, it's a lot of anniversaries,
it's a lot of celebrations of many kinds, and a
child running around the dining room would be distracting, it
would be rude. We don't have a no child policy,
which some restaurants do adopt, but we're really fortunate that
our guest base ask themselves the question that I would
(24:43):
ask if I had children, which is will my child
impact the dining experience of other people in a negative way.
It's not about if I want my kid to have
this experience, because really dining one thing that's cool about
it is. It's a shared experience, and it's not fit
for you to take from other people's experience because your
(25:04):
child is not yet ready for this dining room and
you see it abroad. That can be a difficult question
to answer, but I would think it was even worse
when you were abroad. You know, you travel to a
country where you don't speak the language, you already stick out,
you already need help to order through the menu, to
know what's okay, to communicate maybe if you have a
(25:24):
dining or a dietary restriction. And then you add on
to that your child is terrorizing other people. That's just
really disrespectful. We talked before about how to find a restaurant,
and I'm a huge advocate for locally owned, owned and
operated by the people that are passionate about food. Why
would you do this work to find people who are
there twelve hours a day, producing their dream and exercising
(25:49):
on their skill and talent, and then punish them by
making them babysit your children.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
You know, you just mentioned something that technology has really
helped out with, and that is trying to navigate the
menu in a country where you don't speak the language. Well, God,
bless Google Translate absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I mean, Google Translate is such a tool for you
if you're not as familiar with it. It's a free app.
You can download it on your smartphone, and one thing
that allows you to do is download the language pack.
So even if you think, yeah, but I'm not going
to have data, or what if I'm not there, that's okay.
You can download language packs to your phone. Then you
can literally pick up your phone, use your camera to
scan the menu, and in real time, it'll translate the
(26:29):
menu for you, so you can effectively read the menu
completely fine in your chosen language. And I have found
this incredibly helpful, especially traveling places. I can get myself
through a French menu, I can get myself through a
Spanish menu, But if I travel somewhere else, or especially
if I was traveling somewhere that didn't use our characters,
(26:50):
I mean I would be completely lost, even when I
go to Chinese or Japanese restaurants here in the United States,
I have used Google Translate to eat at a place
in Dallas because they do not have an English language menu,
and it's a really great tool to take away that
natural and completely natural, completely fair fear of I don't
want to look stupid. I don't want to impose.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
You just told me my kids can cause a problem,
and that's rude. But how do I not be rude?
How do I have an engaging experience? And in my
experience traveling and serving in other countries, people who are
genuinely trying, who are genuinely interested in your food and
your culture and your language. I don't have the experience
of people being rude to me. And even I worked
(27:35):
in Paris, and even then our staff was always nice
to people who didn't speak French as long as they
came in with that. They generally start with, hey, I'm sorry,
I don't speak French. If you learn one thing before
you go to a country in that language, it should
be hello, I don't speak your language. I'm sorry. Do
(27:55):
you speak English? Learn that phrase and you can find
it online so easily. I find that that phrase really
cracks open the door to people saying it's okay, we'll
help you. Maybe they speak English, maybe you can sort
it with Google Translate, but you know, sort of going
with that tool in your pocket can really do wonders
for you and help you open up a world of flavor.
(28:16):
And access to that culture you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Well, I think you can probably also look up local customs,
what not to say when you're in a restaurant in
this particular country, or what not to say to people generally,
And you can also use it to learn about tipping
because every country is different.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Absolutely, you should absolutely look up tipping culture wherever you're
going to go. You know, of course Canadians and Americans
are sort of famous for tipping. It's a part of
our culture and we can talk about that another time,
but it's just inherent to how it works. I'll tell you,
if you move abroad and you become a server at
other restaurants abroad, they will want you to take care
(28:55):
of all of the American and Canadian customers because they'll
serve all day long people in France who will not
tip them, but they know if you go give them
American service, they'll tip, and then all of us make
a bunch of money because it tipping's not something in France.
So that was something that happened to me abroad, is
they go, oh, it's all American businessmen, Tanner, you're not
(29:15):
cooking today, get in the dining room. And make us money.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So you were sharing the tips.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, well absolutely, because I would because the tips. I mean,
you know, when I was in Spain, the tip is
sort of some change you have in your pocket. It
really is sort of a hey, thanks, It's it's like
beer money. In American Canada, it's your rent, it's your livelihood.
It's more your beer money there. But in some countries
it is genuinely offensive to tip. And you should look
(29:40):
that up and just make sure that you're prepared and
being a part of the customs of the country.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Okay, so use Google Translate and find out how to
ask that question. As Tanner said, and where's the bathroom?
You have to know how to say that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, that's always a helpful one. Where is the bathroom
is probably uh yeah, that's probably the starter. I would
say for everyone.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
This is Flavor Files.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
What what was that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Thoughts.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
We're a highly trained broadcast professional.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I just finally ran through puberty there for a second. Okay,
So this is Flavor Files and we're doing a travel edition.
And now we kick this off at the beginning of
the show, Tanner with you talking about how you drink
on airplanes and the only drink you have on airplanes.
But you won't eat on an airplane or even really
unless you have to at an airport.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
No, I don't like eating at an airport. I don't
like eating on an airplane. I spend so much of
my travel budget and planning for travel and on the
trip thinking about food, thinking about it, dreaming about it.
My reison de etra, the reason I'm abroad is to eat.
Why would I possibly want to ruin that first precious
(30:50):
meal by not being hungry because I ate some sad
reheated airplane meal. I want to show up starving. I
want to get off that plane and rip into a
Chicago dog. I want to get off that plane and
bite into a croissant, and I don't want that sullied
by a ham and cheese sandwich that was, you know,
hastily put together by an airplane employee.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay, I think they tried their best on airplanes. But
you and I have both been just reading up on
some science. Here. There's an actual reason that food tastes
differently at thirty thousand feet. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Absolutely. There was that interesting BBC article which was talking
about a study. So this study was actually commissioned by Lufthansa,
the German airline, and they got the fran Hoffer Institute
for Building Physics. I have no idea if they do
good studies. However, they commission this study and what they
discovered is that while you're on a plane, the nature
(31:47):
of a plane environment changes how you perceive salt and sugar.
And part of it is going to be because the
pressurized environment. Part of it's going to be how dry
it is. You know regular humidity our restaurants, you know,
they can be sixty percent. They can be seventy five
percent during the spring, I know, because the dehumidifiers running constantly,
(32:10):
But a plane can be about twelve percent humidity. And
it's interesting, so much of how you taste food actually
comes through your nose. It actually comes through the smell,
and if it's dry, your nose dries out and that
doesn't allow you to taste as much of the food. Therefore,
they have to really ramp up the salt, They have
to really ramp up the spices to try to make
(32:32):
the food taste as good as that would have tasted
if you weren't in that airplane environment.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, they have to do all of that, which would
require an awful lot of testing, but they also buy
law have to cook the meal on the ground. They
then freeze it or super cool it or something, and
then they can't use a microwave on an airplane. It's
not that.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Simple, no, you know, it's I know, I said, I
don't want a ham and cheese sandwich hastily made by
an airplane employee. But I do recognize the challenge of
doing this. You know, I have a lot of respect
for the people who are actually able to put these
meals together, because when I think about keeping a food
environment safe, producing the pure number of meals that they
need to meals that, like you said, are cooked, then frozen,
(33:16):
then reheated and served to you, I mean, it is
a real challenge to keep up to the requirements of
that food environment. And so it's very funny, but yeah,
they don't. They don't have galley kitchens on a plane,
which so despite my respect for how much work that
must be, is one of the reasons I don't need
to eat it, because I'm going to a place, presumably
(33:38):
a place I wanted to go, so I don't need
to eat reheated food. I want to eat fresh, local food,
which is one of the reasons, you know, and we
could ask Grace about this. I'm kind of crabby, like
the whole end of the plane getting to that place.
I'm hungry. I'm very hungry, and I didn't you know.
Flying is not like that fun of an It's just
(34:01):
a still that's all it's for, right, exactly. I literally
try to sneak my little airplane bottles on, have a
couple drinks, and fall asleep as quickly as possible, and
then wake up and eat and as soon as as
soon as I've eaten. Oh, I'm in a great mood.
I'm having an amazing time.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
All right. I want you to define a word because
then it leads into another portion of this discussion about
dining on an airplane or why not to What does
the term umami mean?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So umammy is sort of defined as that extra taste,
and it's sort of the savoriness of it, the idea
that there's something in flavor that's more than maybe the
components of those things, something that sort of kicks in
your brain and you go, man, this is just really good.
This is really tasty. You know, umami shows up. It's
(34:48):
really an idea, especially over in Asia, a lot of
these flavors. That's where the word comes from. I think
japan Uh and sort of this idea of this extra taste.
It's not salty, it's not bitter, it's not sweet. It's umammy.
It's sort of hard to define what it is. But
when you taste it, you know, you know the way
that soy sauce is. Yes, it's salty, but there's a
(35:09):
there's a richness to it. Fish sauce has a richness
to it that you can't quite define. So that's sort
of created by MSG is one of the things that
helps create ummmy. By the way, if you're afraid of MSG,
that doesn't really make sense to me. MSG is a
naturally occurring compound. The fact that people use it in
food good for them. It makes your food taste better.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
The reason I ask is because another article Travel and
Leisure looked at this aspect of food on an airplane
and how our senses, even sound around us, can affect
how we enjoy food, and they said that umammy is
not as negatively affected as some of your other senses,
your taste, buds, your nose, those things on an airplane,
(35:49):
and therefore they say that's why the bloody Marry is
a good drink on an airplane. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So this is according to Cornell, which obviously is a
good institution. It does have a hospital school, so they're
you know, highly interested in this. But yeah, so according
to Cornell, there's the combination of the airplane environment and
then also the noise on an airplane, which is very
interesting to me. But according to them, we saw the
sarticle on Travel and Leisure, it's that the bloody marry
(36:16):
is the best tasting when you're on an airplane that
it will ever be, and better tasting than other things
because the environment lowers your ability to perceive the sugar
in a tomato, and tomatoes you ain't think of them
as not being sweet, but they are. They have a
lot of sugar. It lowers your perception of the sugar,
but not your perception of the omami. Therefore the umami
(36:36):
flavor comes out more strongly. Therefore, the very best airplane
drink you can have, apparently is a bloody mary all right.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Second second to the one that you described at the
beginning of the show, where you take a little bottle
of airline tequila and put it into ginger ale.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, Although now I might have a bloody Mary
yeah when I go. However, I don't generally think drinking
soup is my favorite way to enjoy my day, so
I'm not generally a bloody merry person. But there is
one thing about the study. It had nothing to do
with traveling, but I found it interesting when they were
saying that the noise helps it taste better for you.
(37:15):
I thought, maybe this is why every restaurant plays the
music so loud, and it's to cover up for not
very good cooking.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I don't mind loud music at a bar. I don't
like it so much at a restaurant. The music. So
you said something about loud music at your restaurant earlier,
but you really don't have it that loud. What's the
worst meal? If you've ever eaten on a plane, what's
the worst thing you've had?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Well, the worst time is definitely when I got sick
eating on a plane, which has certainly influenced my desire
not to do it. But probably I flew a I
did not know that I was flying on what is
basically a spirit or frontier. I was flying Hawaii to Australia.
I didn't realize I was flying on this low budget airline,
(37:54):
and I actually had gotten delayed, and so I hadn't
eaten this entire time, and you think, well, at least
I'll get to eat on the plane. I'm just so
hungry and I didn't realize this low budget airline doesn't
have food, and so the worst meal I've ever had
was not getting one because I didn't know you had
to pre book a meal. But the story turned around.
(38:18):
A woman setting next to me had actually forgotten she
had bought food and then had also packed food for
her and her small kid. So her small kid's lunch
box is the meal that I ended up eating between
Honolulu and Sydney, which was not terrible in terms of food.
I just had that pit in my stomach that I
(38:38):
was eating. I was literally taking this candy away from
this small child and literally eating their lunch. And I
still feel appreciative to that woman and slightly guilty for
eating her son's food.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
All right, be brave, be experimental when you travel. I
think you'll thank yourself for it. And if every once
in a while you get sick, tenor says, it's worth.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's worth it. It's worth it. The amount of good
meals I've had pales in comparison to the number of
times I've gotten sick, and eating abroad is one of
the biggest reasons to travel. Don't let your fear dissuade you.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And that's flavor Files for this week. That's Flavor p
h i l e. S available wherever you get your
podcasts and at flavor files dot com. Hope you join
us next week.
This is Flavor Files. I'm Jerry Agar along with my son,
Tanner Agar. He's a restaurant tour bar tender and chef,
and this whole episode is going to be eating on
the road. That's what we're going to talk about on
Flavor Files.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
P H.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I l e s. By the way, So since it's travel,
Tanner your amused booze, we always have you have a
drink to kick off the proceedings. So this is your
travel drink.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, this is the only drink I will get on
an airplane, and it's also the only place I drink
this drink. To me, it's like inherently tied to being
on the airplane. And for two reasons. One I like it,
but like not that much. And two it's something you
can actually get on an airplane. You know, sometimes I
get a little travel sickness. I find it ginger ale
helps with that. But ginger ale always tastes better with
(00:51):
something in it, and that's something, in my opinion, should
be tequila. So I'm going to make one up really
quick for myself. That's going to pour a little glass
of that ginger Ao. Got a little tequila here, Gonna
pour from myself and then, by.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
The way, do you find that on the airplane they
generally have tequila.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh yeah, so on the airplane they have those little
tiny bottles, you know, the airplane bottles. Now, I'm gonna
give you a little tip that's not technically legal, but
what I like to do is actually go to the
liquor store before and they'll sell you those little tiny bottles.
You can take these through security. Every time I travel
with a group, people are like, oh, you can't bring
(01:30):
that through. Yes, you can bring it through. It's smaller
than three ounces, so it doesn't matter. So I like
to get a few of those. If I'm traveling with
a group, I will actually go to the liquor store
and I'll buy like a mixed bag, and then when
we get to the airport, I just say, hey, here's
the game. You can reach in and the deal is
it's a shot. I paid for it, but you have
(01:50):
to drink whichever shot you pull out of the bag.
It might be something nice, it might be fireball, so
it's up to you. You can choose, but it's like
Russian Roulette shots. I think this game is fun. It
always does well when we travel. When you're traveling if
you think, yeah, but the bottles are so expensive on
the plane, just bring yours. Just don't let an attendant
(02:12):
see you open a bottle and pour it in your drink.
But I've never had a problem with this, so I'm
a big fan of doing it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'm looking forward to seeing what the legal department thinks
of this broadcast. But that said, we.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Have a legal department. Well, yes, I didn't realized we
were making so much money.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Here's the thing. When people travel, they will look to
the media maybe to try and get ideas. And if
they're traveling around North America, one of the things that
people might look at, unless they're looking for fine dining restaurants,
generally is Guy Fieb's Triple d Diners, drive ins and Dives.
But the thing is, your restaurant in Dallas is a
fine dining restaurant and you went on that show first
(02:51):
of all? Why?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well why is because if someone calls me and says,
do you want your restaurant on Food Network broadcast all
these people, the answer is yes.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Wait a minute, you're not a drive in, You're not
a dive. You're certainly not a dive. You're not a doubt.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, so the first time I got the call,
I wasn't sure it was for me or I thought
it was a friend like just calling it as a joke, right,
But you know, I was talking to them and they said,
you know, we actually really do enjoy having some higher
end restaurants on the show, people that are really doing
something interesting, which excuse me, something that our guests would like,
(03:32):
you know, our viewers would like. That's sort of a
little bit in the style of what some of the
dishes we show are, even if the restaurant isn't technically
a diner, drive ins or dive. That's why they actually
call the show Triple D. There it's now allowing them
to expand by being triple D. It can be kind
of anything. So we were on Triple D. Guy Fiery
(03:53):
did come in person to the restaurant, happy to talk
about that experience. One thing though, I'm really proud of
is they asked us what dishes we would want to do.
They said five or six. I pitch five dishes to
them and they say, for the sixth one, I want
to pitch a dessert. And she said, I told you
no desserts. I said, I know, but you said five
or six. Let me pitch this assert. I think it's
(04:14):
good for the show. I don't want to be presumptuous,
but it is a chocolate cake made out of sauerkraut.
And she said, Guy really doesn't like desserts. He's never
put a chocolate cake on the show in twenty years.
I said, okay, all right, well you know, let me know.
And she called back and said, I can't believe I'm
saying this, but Guy Fiery wants that sauer kraut cake.
He put it on the show. So we are the
(04:36):
only chocolate cake ever on the show.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Tanna's restaurant that he's talking about, by the way, is
in Dallas, in an area called Lower Greensville, and it's
called Rye r y E Rye Restaurants. So there's just
a thing I've always been curious about. Guy Fier comes
into those restaurants and he's got to take big bites
in every Is he really actually eating it or is
it just a TV thing?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh? No, He's actually eating it. I mean, you know,
there's a lot of cut around trying to get the
right shot, get the right We want the viewer to
be able to feel like they're really seeing the food
getting cooked, so you're making things more than one time,
but one hundred percent, you know, Guy was eating the food.
He was actually eating the food more frequently and talking
(05:21):
more about it than you even got to see on camera.
So in no way is that faked. I mean, that
is a genuine reaction. Some of my favorite things he
said about the food didn't make the final cut on TV,
but it's one hundred percent real.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I wondered that because I wondered if the crews get
all ready at maybe several restaurants and he come to
Dallas and he just goes around to two or three
restaurants and does the show or was yours the only
one that day? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, So he does shoot three restaurants in a day.
So there's an early morning crew and sort of a
lunch crew, and then you know, sort of that early
afternoon crew, and so they're doing those three episodes, and
so there is a lot of setup, but a lot
of that setup is getting the lights right and miking
everybody and making sure that everything's organized and in place.
(06:05):
Because he sort of shows up and he shoots the
pre the after there was actually two days. Guy Fieri
was probably at the restaurant for maybe two or three
hours only, and we had two eight hour days of
filming in order to get enough content for our what
seven minute segment that we actually had on TV. So
he's in and out, but the crew does a really
(06:26):
thorough job. Basically all the shots that don't have guy
in it all. You know, a lot of the guest stuff,
a lot of the seeing us cooking, interacting in the restaurant,
that's all shot after he's not on site, just due
to his calendar.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, and those guests are invited and your state, your
restaurant is technically closed for two days.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
No, so what is true? And this is important. Every
person who came is a guest of the restaurant, so
they're absolutely real guests. However, we did have the opportunity
to get to choose what guests we wanted to invite
to the restaurant. So I don't know who he's going
to talk to. I don't know exactly who's going to
be there. But every person was a real guest, you know,
like none of them were you know you or your
(07:07):
girlfriend or they have to be real people who know
you through that who can speak well about the restaurant,
So they were all really sitting there, We were making
drinks for them, we were making food for them, So
it was more like a private event. I would say,
in that the restaurant's really running, everybody's actually having dinner
with us. It's just a little bit more of a
controlled environment because you obviously can't just open the door
(07:30):
to anyone who wants to come in and meet Guy Fieri.
It just wouldn't be an effective way to run a
service or to create a TV show.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
What did it feel like afterward when you sat down
to watch what ultimately was the TV show of your restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, we organized a watch party, mostly just for
our staff, but we put it online and we sold out.
We were overbooked for people who wanted to come watch
it with us, So that was really cool. But you know,
it was really great. You you watch the show and
you think to yourself, oh, wow, that'd be so cool
someday if we met him, and he does. You know,
Guy Fieri is very passionate about food. He's very passionate
(08:07):
about telling the stories of these restaurants and popularizing them,
and I really appreciate that, and so it's very cool
to see yourself on there, and so it was great
to sort of have that platform, to have that experience.
But my favorite part will probably be when they were
resetting cameras and he's off and it's just me and
him sort of joking around and talking about nothing and
(08:29):
talking about the restaurant. You know, he made it a
really good experience. His staff made it a really good
experience for us. And that's the part I remember more
than the segment.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Okay, And did it have any impact on your restaurant
going forward, because again, a lot of what takes place
on that particular show Triple D is Hey, this place
does great onion rings, this place does great hamburgers. I mean,
that's not your restaurant. You're a small plate's, fancy pants
kind of restaurant there in Dallas, say, and I just
(09:01):
wonder if maybe it gave a wrong impression for customers
at all.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think when
you saw the food, when you saw us talking about it,
when you saw the processes that were involved in our food.
I mean, we're really proud to be in the Michelin
Guide and do tasting menus and things like that. So
I don't think it gave a wrong impression to anybody.
I think the guests that have shown up have all
been really excited to be here. And you know I
have had guests who went like this shower krout and
(09:25):
this cake, I can't eat it. You came here because
you saw it on TV, right, Like you saw a
guy Fieri describe it like as this amazing delicious dish.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Come on, come on, he was really uh, he really
loved it. Let's take a moment though here, uh and
explain as a chef, how do you make chocolate cake
out of soauer kraut?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah? So this was actually something I was reading really
late at night, as I typically am, and I found
this story about how after the World War two they
had all all of this excess sauerkraut, or liberty cabbage
as it was called at the time. They had government
excess liberty cabbage, and they were trying to figure out
(10:08):
how do we put it in school lunches? Because we
have this food, it's already paid for, it's already made,
how can we offload it on kids? Get them a
vegetable slash, feed them cheaply. So they started mixing it
into chocolate cake. Because they thought they could disguise it
with cake ingredients and accomplish these goals, and so that
(10:29):
was interesting. The history of it was interesting, but the
chef part of me thought, hey, this is okay. Obviously
the kids didn't hate this, right, because if the kids
hated it would have worked. I wouldn't be reading this article. However,
what was really interesting to me is sauerkraut has a
texture kind of like coconut does in a cake. So, okay,
i'd have a nice little texture to it. Okay, sauer
(10:51):
Kraut is also got a lot of salt. Well that's good.
That's going to season everything and really help a lot
of the flavor pop. Okay, there's an acid to sauerkraut.
Well that's going to cut a really rich decat in cake,
so I can use really indulgent flavors. And finally, sauerkraut
holds a lot of moisture, so the enemies of cake
are always it's too dry. So if I can have
(11:14):
a cake that is not dry, really well balanced, really
well seasoned, has a nice texture. This actually I get
the government did it to impose it on children, but
this was a pretty good idea. Actually, and that's how
the dish was born, and I'm an advocate for it.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You go to another country, Tanner, or another part of
a country. You're in Dallas, you fly off to Minneapolis,
or I go to Vancouver or Montreal or something. What's
the first kind of thing that you would do to
find a good place to eat?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, the first thing to do is try to look
for who knows where to go? Right, I mean the
Michelin Guide one hundred years ago was started literally to
tell people where to go while they're traveling. Obviously, it's
really famous for especially high end rest It has more
budget friendly options in there, but what it's really known
for is very high end, especially tasting menu style restaurants.
(12:08):
So of course that's a great place to look. Social
media can be really good for this. You know, if
you're really active on Instagram or TikTok, you can find
people that create content for that city. Maybe they traveled
to that city and here's where they went. Maybe they
live in that city. I mean you can literally just
Google or you know, search on Instagram, TikTok best restaurants.
You'll get all kinds of hashtags. That's really what they're
(12:30):
for for finding things. One thing I also like that
a lot of people maybe sort of discount is local
traditional news, right. I like to check out a paper,
a magazine, something that's from that area that seems to
have some clout, seems to do a lot of publishing.
You know, it's hard to know what's a good resource,
(12:51):
but you know here in Dallas, the Dallas Morning News,
the magazine, they talk about food all the time. And
what I really like about that is they're plugged into
community a lot better. If you can find the local,
big newspaper that has a person who writes about food,
that's really one of the best spots to find these
sort of local places you wouldn't find. Social media can
(13:12):
also be good for this, but finding that spot that's
maybe it's newer, but man, it's killer. Maybe they're doing
something that's a little offbeat, a little bit different, but
that to me is some of the most exciting stuff
to do when I eat abroad, more than some of
these fine dining restaurants can be. Because sometimes find dining restaurants,
they're hitting a lot of the same beats to check
(13:33):
off the fine dining experience. Whereas you can go to
some restaurant you go oh, the husband's Jamaican and the
wife's from Korea, so they make Korean jerk chicken, and
you're like, cool, I've never had that before. I can't
wait to sit down on their table. And these really
local dive sources are where I try to go, and
(13:54):
then when I get to them, my favorite thing to
do is to say, where else do I need to eat?
You know, I want to dive in. What's the bar
you go to, what's the restaurant you go to? Who
are your friends and use them, use those people as
a resource.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The first time I was ever in Kansas City, we
ended up living there for a while, But this was
way before that, and I was going across the country
driving to Kansas City, and I had my friend who's
a comic, Adobe Maxwell, along with a kind of an
unofficial uncle of yours, and we were driving in. He says, well,
let's pull into Kansas City and get some barbecue. And
I said okay. So we pulled off. I don't know
(14:29):
where we were, and we see a service station with
guys working on cars. He said, pull in here, So
we pulled in. He walks and walks underneath the car
where there's a guy turning a ranch and talks to him.
He comes back to the car and goes, yeah, I
know where to lunch, because we wanted a lunch that
local people would go and have.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Absolutely that the local people know is good, that's consistent.
You know, the first thing that pops up on Google
is not oftentimes the most delicious restaurant, and a lot
of times that comes from the fact, certainly our restaurants
have had this issue. Google's amazing powerful tool. I wish
we were better at it. I wish we had ads.
I wish we had all of this, but you know,
we don't have corporate we don't have some big backing.
(15:08):
And a lot of the best restaurants are the best
because the people there are passionate. They're there every single day.
They're personally making the food, which means they just don't
have that marketing reach. And that's why I like these
real local places, talking to local people and getting that
story from them, and the suggestions you oftentimes get from
(15:29):
a really nice hotel are always going to be very sanitized,
very safe, because they don't want you to have a
bad time, so they send you to some place they
think a Canadian tourist is going to like as opposed to,
you know, a really authentic place that might not have
as nice of a dining room, or it doesn't have
very good service. Some of the best restaurants I've been
to on vacation have dingy dining rooms and horrible service
(15:53):
and amazing food. And at the end of the day,
I don't really care about about any of that. I
just want the food.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, if you go to Dallas, go to fuel City,
which is a place that has about fifty seven gas pumps,
and yeah, there's a big convenience store, but along the
side of the building there's a window and that's where
you buy Mexican food. And then there's a little kios
that sells street alotes and I recommend that in Dallas
at two or three in the morning. It's called fuel City.
(16:20):
But that brings me to street food. And you have
traveled a lot in your research and your experience in
the world of dining, and you've gone to a second
and maybe even third world countries, and will you eat
the street food.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I have never allowed the threat of gastro intentional distress
to cost me a good meal, and I've paid for
it many times. Yeah, you know, I was at carnival
in Rio de Janeiro, and I missed an entire day
because of HOUSEGA got And I've gotten sick in many
countries and it's absolutely worth it. I eat street food
all the time, and I'm a big advocate for eating
(16:58):
street food.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay, what I have done, I've done it in Mexico,
I did it in Costa Rica. Is I think that
looks like a good place. And I lay back for
a couple of minutes and I watch who's walking up
and eating there. Is it tourists in shorts and sandals
or does it look like locals who are on a
lunch break and they must know that the thing is.
I think that's good. But on the other hand, they
(17:21):
might also have a different constitution for the local food
than I do.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, that's absolutely a thing. I think I've gotten tagged
with that myself. You know, Hey, maybe this was made
with some water that everybody who lives here can drink
and doesn't have a problem with. But I do not
live here, and I have had a problem with it.
You know. So ultimately, if you're worried, you know, if
you are a person who's like immunocompromised or you get
(17:46):
sick really easily. Ultimately, there is no true way to
know if the foods are being made that particular food
is safe. Even the best restaurants in the world have
issues with food safety. Sometimes you can hang back, like
you were talking talking about, you know, and say, Okay,
does this place? Does this place look clean and organized?
Does it look like there's someone really taking care of things?
(18:08):
Does this place look established? Right? In an interesting way,
you can look at a place and say, ah, things
are kind of run down there. I don't think that
would be a safe place to eat. Okay, what's run down?
Is it the fridge, is it the stove? Or does
the chair look like it's seen in a lot of people.
Do the plastic cups that they use look like it's
(18:31):
they've seen a lot of traffic. If the kitchen is
being maintained, but the dining room is aged, that means
a lot of people have sat at those tables, and
that doesn't happen when the food's bad. And so, you know,
when I see a stand even on the beach, you know,
somebody walking who just happens to have a cooler, that's
a little bit more dicey. But someone who's got to
(18:52):
stand on the beach and some weathered tables, and you
can tell they spend all day out there in the sun.
I'm not worried about that food. I know that food's
going to be good.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Well, I can't always see the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, you can't always see the kitchen, but lots of
times with street food you kind of can see the
kitchen because it's the kitchen is the stall, you know,
and so that's one of the things I look for.
I was recently in Guadalajara and we had these amazing tacos.
Amazing and it was that exact same thing. He had
crappy plastic chairs and the table I sat at was
(19:22):
actually broken, but everything in the everything he was cooking
was incredibly clean. I this was a real professional, and
so I went, yeah, this is gonna be fine. And
the tacos were amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
If you were in Paris, would you go get the
Royal at McDonald's, the Royal with cheese?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yes, yeah, maybe if only for the bit. But this
is a thing that does come up right. I have
been fortunate to have traveled to over thirty different countries
and work in several. You know, do you have to
eat like a local, and I would say at a
different time in my life, I would have shamed people
who didn't eat the local food. But I have gotten
to a point where sometimes, man, I'm just really craving this,
(20:08):
or I just wanted this, especially if it's longer term travel.
I have been to Paris McDonald several times, actually, because
when I was living there it might be different.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Wi Fi was not very pervasive in cafes, so I
need to hop on the internet lots of times to
call you actually and catch up. And McDonald's was the
only place that had where that reliably had reliable internet,
And to be fair, the macarons were actually pretty good.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
All right. He's Tannerregar on Jerry Aegar. This is to
show about food called flavor Files. We're doing an addition
here about traveling and eating and coming up how to
behave in restaurants abroad.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I've had a real fortunate experience. I've gotten to work
in six different countries, traveled them anymore, and restaurants are
very different abroad.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
One of the first things that I think about, what's
something I should expe How should I prepare myself for
eating abroad, especially when you go to less developed countries,
you just need to be patient. You know, if anybody's
heard they've traveled, and you hear that island time, Yes,
island time. It can extend to the restaurant as well.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Would there be some places where the culture of the
restaurant might not be a lot different than the culture
of ours, the expectation you would have and how quickly
you get served in how you're served like, would that
be the sign in England for instance, but then very
very different in obviously Asian and African countries.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah. I don't have a lot of experience traveling in Asia,
so I can't speak to that as well. But you know,
when you used to think really Western style countries, right,
I mean London, Paris, Spain, like all of these places,
they kind of operate really similar to Canadian or American restaurants.
There will be the difference. You know, you don't tip
in a lot of those countries, and we can talk
more about that. There may be a little bit more
(21:51):
stand offish. You know, when I was working in Paris,
there was very much this idea of the people didn't
come here to talk to you, bring them their stuff
and leave them alone. Whereas, especially if you're down here
in Texas. I mean, I sit down and the meal
starts with, how do y'all you've been here before? We're
so excited to have you to die. No, you don't, Yes,
(22:11):
I do. I just don't take you to those places
because I find them a little much.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
But absolutely those restaurants I misunderstood. I thought you were
trying to tell people that that's what you say.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, we do not, we do not do that. That
is not true to me or to the style of
food that we do. And by the way, I definitely
see that.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
By the way, guys, if you're traveling in the South,
then she calls you darling. She doesn't want a relationship.
She just does that.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
She's just she's just nice. You know. Yeah, your bartender's
not that into you. They just work for tips, all right.
But you know, so that's a that's a thing some
of these countries. Whereas you know, I was in Jamaica
earlier this year, and possibly I think the best restaurant
we went to was a place called Cool Vibes. And
they have to have good vibes because the jerk chicken
takes two hours to come out to you and there's
(22:57):
literally nothing to do but drink red stripes and listen
to the music and wait for the chicken. You know,
So you just have to know that if you want,
if you want that very Western style experience, then maybe
you shouldn't travel to some of these countries that just
don't have that infrastructure to provide it. But again, I mean,
I'm in Jamaica on vacation. I'm not busy inherently. Yeah,
(23:22):
I've been on the beach all day. I was drinking.
I'm still drinking. I'm just waiting for the chicken. And
it was worth it. Absolutely when it comes exactly and
it'll be good.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay. What about kids in fine dining? I mean it's
an issue here in Canada and the United States. Some
kids are very well behaved and their little foodies some
of them, and some of them just actually know how
to behave in a restaurant. Because if you've gone out
to a fine dining restaurant for your twenty fifth anniversary,
the last thing you need is people's kids running around
in the restaurant. It's off putting. What's the approach and
(23:55):
attitude toward that in some other countries you've been to?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, absolutely, I would say, you know, if you have
kids and you want to expose your kids to good food,
that's a great thing to do. Teaching them table manners,
how to order food, how to you know, do that
kind of thing. Those are really valuable skills to impart
to your kid. But sort of like you said, you
know when you talk about people do anniversaries and birthdays,
So we think about ry right. We have an eleven
core chef's tasting menu. Our restaurant is fun, you know,
(24:21):
we turn the music up loud, we have a good
time with our guests. But at the same time, it's
a lot of business people, it's a lot of anniversaries,
it's a lot of celebrations of many kinds, and a
child running around the dining room would be distracting, it
would be rude. We don't have a no child policy,
which some restaurants do adopt, but we're really fortunate that
our guest base ask themselves the question that I would
(24:43):
ask if I had children, which is will my child
impact the dining experience of other people in a negative way.
It's not about if I want my kid to have
this experience, because really dining one thing that's cool about
it is. It's a shared experience, and it's not fit
for you to take from other people's experience because your
(25:04):
child is not yet ready for this dining room and
you see it abroad. That can be a difficult question
to answer, but I would think it was even worse
when you were abroad. You know, you travel to a
country where you don't speak the language, you already stick out,
you already need help to order through the menu, to
know what's okay, to communicate maybe if you have a
(25:24):
dining or a dietary restriction. And then you add on
to that your child is terrorizing other people. That's just
really disrespectful. We talked before about how to find a restaurant,
and I'm a huge advocate for locally owned, owned and
operated by the people that are passionate about food. Why
would you do this work to find people who are
there twelve hours a day, producing their dream and exercising
(25:49):
on their skill and talent, and then punish them by
making them babysit your children.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
You know, you just mentioned something that technology has really
helped out with, and that is trying to navigate the
menu in a country where you don't speak the language. Well, God,
bless Google Translate absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
I mean, Google Translate is such a tool for you
if you're not as familiar with it. It's a free app.
You can download it on your smartphone, and one thing
that allows you to do is download the language pack.
So even if you think, yeah, but I'm not going
to have data, or what if I'm not there, that's okay.
You can download language packs to your phone. Then you
can literally pick up your phone, use your camera to
scan the menu, and in real time, it'll translate the
(26:29):
menu for you, so you can effectively read the menu
completely fine in your chosen language. And I have found
this incredibly helpful, especially traveling places. I can get myself
through a French menu, I can get myself through a
Spanish menu, But if I travel somewhere else, or especially
if I was traveling somewhere that didn't use our characters,
(26:50):
I mean I would be completely lost, even when I
go to Chinese or Japanese restaurants here in the United States,
I have used Google Translate to eat at a place
in Dallas because they do not have an English language menu,
and it's a really great tool to take away that
natural and completely natural, completely fair fear of I don't
want to look stupid. I don't want to impose.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
You just told me my kids can cause a problem,
and that's rude. But how do I not be rude?
How do I have an engaging experience? And in my
experience traveling and serving in other countries, people who are
genuinely trying, who are genuinely interested in your food and
your culture and your language. I don't have the experience
of people being rude to me. And even I worked
(27:35):
in Paris, and even then our staff was always nice
to people who didn't speak French as long as they
came in with that. They generally start with, hey, I'm sorry,
I don't speak French. If you learn one thing before
you go to a country in that language, it should
be hello, I don't speak your language. I'm sorry. Do
(27:55):
you speak English? Learn that phrase and you can find
it online so easily. I find that that phrase really
cracks open the door to people saying it's okay, we'll
help you. Maybe they speak English, maybe you can sort
it with Google Translate, but you know, sort of going
with that tool in your pocket can really do wonders
for you and help you open up a world of flavor.
(28:16):
And access to that culture you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Well, I think you can probably also look up local customs,
what not to say when you're in a restaurant in
this particular country, or what not to say to people generally,
And you can also use it to learn about tipping
because every country is different.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Absolutely, you should absolutely look up tipping culture wherever you're
going to go. You know, of course Canadians and Americans
are sort of famous for tipping. It's a part of
our culture and we can talk about that another time,
but it's just inherent to how it works. I'll tell you,
if you move abroad and you become a server at
other restaurants abroad, they will want you to take care
(28:55):
of all of the American and Canadian customers because they'll
serve all day long people in France who will not
tip them, but they know if you go give them
American service, they'll tip, and then all of us make
a bunch of money because it tipping's not something in France.
So that was something that happened to me abroad, is
they go, oh, it's all American businessmen, Tanner, you're not
(29:15):
cooking today, get in the dining room. And make us money.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So you were sharing the tips.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, well absolutely, because I would because the tips. I mean,
you know, when I was in Spain, the tip is
sort of some change you have in your pocket. It
really is sort of a hey, thanks, It's it's like
beer money. In American Canada, it's your rent, it's your livelihood.
It's more your beer money there. But in some countries
it is genuinely offensive to tip. And you should look
(29:40):
that up and just make sure that you're prepared and
being a part of the customs of the country.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Okay, so use Google Translate and find out how to
ask that question. As Tanner said, and where's the bathroom?
You have to know how to say that.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, that's always a helpful one. Where is the bathroom
is probably uh yeah, that's probably the starter. I would
say for everyone.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
This is Flavor Files.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
What what was that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Thoughts.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
We're a highly trained broadcast professional.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I just finally ran through puberty there for a second. Okay,
So this is Flavor Files and we're doing a travel edition.
And now we kick this off at the beginning of
the show, Tanner with you talking about how you drink
on airplanes and the only drink you have on airplanes.
But you won't eat on an airplane or even really
unless you have to at an airport.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
No, I don't like eating at an airport. I don't
like eating on an airplane. I spend so much of
my travel budget and planning for travel and on the
trip thinking about food, thinking about it, dreaming about it.
My reison de etra, the reason I'm abroad is to eat.
Why would I possibly want to ruin that first precious
(30:50):
meal by not being hungry because I ate some sad
reheated airplane meal. I want to show up starving. I
want to get off that plane and rip into a
Chicago dog. I want to get off that plane and
bite into a croissant, and I don't want that sullied
by a ham and cheese sandwich that was, you know,
hastily put together by an airplane employee.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay, I think they tried their best on airplanes. But
you and I have both been just reading up on
some science. Here. There's an actual reason that food tastes
differently at thirty thousand feet. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Absolutely. There was that interesting BBC article which was talking
about a study. So this study was actually commissioned by Lufthansa,
the German airline, and they got the fran Hoffer Institute
for Building Physics. I have no idea if they do
good studies. However, they commission this study and what they
discovered is that while you're on a plane, the nature
(31:47):
of a plane environment changes how you perceive salt and sugar.
And part of it is going to be because the
pressurized environment. Part of it's going to be how dry
it is. You know regular humidity our restaurants, you know,
they can be sixty percent. They can be seventy five
percent during the spring, I know, because the dehumidifiers running constantly,
(32:10):
But a plane can be about twelve percent humidity. And
it's interesting, so much of how you taste food actually
comes through your nose. It actually comes through the smell,
and if it's dry, your nose dries out and that
doesn't allow you to taste as much of the food. Therefore,
they have to really ramp up the salt, They have
to really ramp up the spices to try to make
(32:32):
the food taste as good as that would have tasted
if you weren't in that airplane environment.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Well, they have to do all of that, which would
require an awful lot of testing, but they also buy
law have to cook the meal on the ground. They
then freeze it or super cool it or something, and
then they can't use a microwave on an airplane. It's
not that.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Simple, no, you know, it's I know, I said, I
don't want a ham and cheese sandwich hastily made by
an airplane employee. But I do recognize the challenge of
doing this. You know, I have a lot of respect
for the people who are actually able to put these
meals together, because when I think about keeping a food
environment safe, producing the pure number of meals that they
need to meals that, like you said, are cooked, then frozen,
(33:16):
then reheated and served to you, I mean, it is
a real challenge to keep up to the requirements of
that food environment. And so it's very funny, but yeah,
they don't. They don't have galley kitchens on a plane,
which so despite my respect for how much work that
must be, is one of the reasons I don't need
to eat it, because I'm going to a place, presumably
(33:38):
a place I wanted to go, so I don't need
to eat reheated food. I want to eat fresh, local food,
which is one of the reasons, you know, and we
could ask Grace about this. I'm kind of crabby, like
the whole end of the plane getting to that place.
I'm hungry. I'm very hungry, and I didn't you know.
Flying is not like that fun of an It's just
(34:01):
a still that's all it's for, right, exactly. I literally
try to sneak my little airplane bottles on, have a
couple drinks, and fall asleep as quickly as possible, and
then wake up and eat and as soon as as
soon as I've eaten. Oh, I'm in a great mood.
I'm having an amazing time.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
All right. I want you to define a word because
then it leads into another portion of this discussion about
dining on an airplane or why not to What does
the term umami mean?
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So umammy is sort of defined as that extra taste,
and it's sort of the savoriness of it, the idea
that there's something in flavor that's more than maybe the
components of those things, something that sort of kicks in
your brain and you go, man, this is just really good.
This is really tasty. You know, umami shows up. It's
(34:48):
really an idea, especially over in Asia, a lot of
these flavors. That's where the word comes from. I think
japan Uh and sort of this idea of this extra taste.
It's not salty, it's not bitter, it's not sweet. It's umammy.
It's sort of hard to define what it is. But
when you taste it, you know, you know the way
that soy sauce is. Yes, it's salty, but there's a
(35:09):
there's a richness to it. Fish sauce has a richness
to it that you can't quite define. So that's sort
of created by MSG is one of the things that
helps create ummmy. By the way, if you're afraid of MSG,
that doesn't really make sense to me. MSG is a
naturally occurring compound. The fact that people use it in
food good for them. It makes your food taste better.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
The reason I ask is because another article Travel and
Leisure looked at this aspect of food on an airplane
and how our senses, even sound around us, can affect
how we enjoy food, and they said that umammy is
not as negatively affected as some of your other senses,
your taste, buds, your nose, those things on an airplane,
(35:49):
and therefore they say that's why the bloody Marry is
a good drink on an airplane. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So this is according to Cornell, which obviously is a
good institution. It does have a hospital school, so they're
you know, highly interested in this. But yeah, so according
to Cornell, there's the combination of the airplane environment and
then also the noise on an airplane, which is very
interesting to me. But according to them, we saw the
sarticle on Travel and Leisure, it's that the bloody marry
(36:16):
is the best tasting when you're on an airplane that
it will ever be, and better tasting than other things
because the environment lowers your ability to perceive the sugar
in a tomato, and tomatoes you ain't think of them
as not being sweet, but they are. They have a
lot of sugar. It lowers your perception of the sugar,
but not your perception of the omami. Therefore the umami
(36:36):
flavor comes out more strongly. Therefore, the very best airplane
drink you can have, apparently is a bloody mary all right.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Second second to the one that you described at the
beginning of the show, where you take a little bottle
of airline tequila and put it into ginger ale.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, Although now I might have a bloody Mary
yeah when I go. However, I don't generally think drinking
soup is my favorite way to enjoy my day, so
I'm not generally a bloody merry person. But there is
one thing about the study. It had nothing to do
with traveling, but I found it interesting when they were
saying that the noise helps it taste better for you.
(37:15):
I thought, maybe this is why every restaurant plays the
music so loud, and it's to cover up for not
very good cooking.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I don't mind loud music at a bar. I don't
like it so much at a restaurant. The music. So
you said something about loud music at your restaurant earlier,
but you really don't have it that loud. What's the
worst meal? If you've ever eaten on a plane, what's
the worst thing you've had?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Well, the worst time is definitely when I got sick
eating on a plane, which has certainly influenced my desire
not to do it. But probably I flew a I
did not know that I was flying on what is
basically a spirit or frontier. I was flying Hawaii to Australia.
I didn't realize I was flying on this low budget airline,
(37:54):
and I actually had gotten delayed, and so I hadn't
eaten this entire time, and you think, well, at least
I'll get to eat on the plane. I'm just so
hungry and I didn't realize this low budget airline doesn't
have food, and so the worst meal I've ever had
was not getting one because I didn't know you had
to pre book a meal. But the story turned around.
(38:18):
A woman setting next to me had actually forgotten she
had bought food and then had also packed food for
her and her small kid. So her small kid's lunch
box is the meal that I ended up eating between
Honolulu and Sydney, which was not terrible in terms of food.
I just had that pit in my stomach that I
(38:38):
was eating. I was literally taking this candy away from
this small child and literally eating their lunch. And I
still feel appreciative to that woman and slightly guilty for
eating her son's food.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
All right, be brave, be experimental when you travel. I
think you'll thank yourself for it. And if every once
in a while you get sick, tenor says, it's worth.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's worth it. It's worth it. The amount of good
meals I've had pales in comparison to the number of
times I've gotten sick, and eating abroad is one of
the biggest reasons to travel. Don't let your fear dissuade you.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And that's flavor Files for this week. That's Flavor p
h i l e. S available wherever you get your
podcasts and at flavor files dot com. Hope you join
us next week.
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