BHS – 8A – ‘Foodie Friday’ with Neil Saavedra | This Week's ‘World in Review’

KFI food enthusiast and Fork Reporter Neil Saavedra comes on the program to talk about $18 Big Mac meal sparking a revolt, Pizza Hut’s “All You Can Eat” lunch is back, BJ’s Pizookie subscription, and Cup o’ Noodles is serving up poisonous pufferfish. show closes with this week’s ‘World in Review.’  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're list Saints KFI AM six fortythe Bill Handles show on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. And this is IAm six forty Bill Handle here on a
Friday morning, June twenty eighth,the day after the debate which could have
decided the election right there last night. And I'm sure we're going to be

(00:22):
talking a lot more in terms ofthe fallout there. But now it's Foody
Friday with Neil Neil Savedra, hostof The FOK Report tomorrow from two to
five pm. Neil does his ownshow and he's our foody expert, which
we go to and which is whywe do Foody Friday. And so Neil,

(00:43):
let's start the cost of fast food. We have been discussing well for
a year at least, because itis skyrocketed. And there was the story
of the eighteen dollars Big Mac mealthat just took the country by storm.
And there's this a little bit nuancewhere another story about Carl's Junior and an

(01:08):
eighteen dollars meal is not nuanced.So let's start with McDonald's. Okay,
So with the McDonald's. This happenedsome time ago and you had someone post
this eighteen dollars post on X ofMcDonald's menu prices. Now, this was
at a particular rest stop in Connecticut. It went viral, made national headlines.

(01:34):
However, that is not the norm. As you know, a franchise
can go ahead and change costs ormenu prices depending on location, demand,
cost of food items, whatever itmight be. So that is aberrational,
but it's not as far off aspeople think. And the story I saw

(01:56):
on CNN, it says, hey, on average, it actually costs about
nine dollars in nine cents for thebig Mac combo meal. But that's not
the case locally here in southern California. I'm a quarter pounder with cheese guy
at and that meal is gonna setyou back about thirteen fourteen dollars. So
the other day and I complained aboutthis and talked about it quite a bit.

(02:19):
As I happened to stop into CarlsJunior, I was hungry, wanted
to lunch, stop in, andI order a We didn't even look at
the price, by the way,I just said, I want one of
your meals, you know, Iwant your cheeseburger, not a double or
triple quadruple cheeseburger. Just give mea cheeseburger, fries and a drink.
You're a normal whatever meal they callit. And so here comes the bill

(02:42):
and I'm starting to pay for it. When they go, that'll be eighteen
dollars and forty cents like, no, no, no, I only wanted
one. I think you misunderstood.No, no, that's it. And
I talked to my daughter last yesterdaywe had breakfast and we talked about Carls
Junior. She goes, yeah,it's eighteen bucks, Carls, how do
they're stay in business? Who thehell's gonna pay eighteen dollars for a meal

(03:06):
as a regular course of doing business? You know, Cono and I were
talking off the air about how weenjoy fast food and it's nice to be
able to go and grab a burgerhere or there, and you know,
nostalgia and it's the flavors are funt, but it is getting cost per.
You're gonna you're gonna pay the betterpart of twenty bucks. You're gonna ruin

(03:29):
a twenty to get anything these days. And so the story really is not
just about that, but how therewas such a consumer revolt about this original
posting that even though it is notthe norm to pay eighteen dollars, let's
say for a big mac meal.The fact is it has gone up so

(03:49):
much that that is the perceived reality. And now you're having this influx of
response to where even McDonald's is puttingup a five dollars meal and you again,
you have but even though I believeit's only through July, so they're
not even backing this up with likea dollar menu or something that's going to

(04:09):
stay on there. This is justI think it's too little, too late.
They're gonna have to do something moremajor. Okay, So following all
right now with that, So,I was having breakfast one of our favorite
restaurants, BB's up and down thestreet, which is a great breakfast place.
Yeah, and my daughter was mydaughter's birthday. So here I am
taking them to breakfast because I don'ttake them to breakfast sell the other times

(04:30):
I have them pay. Huh,you know, I don't know that's going
to happen. And uh, theplace was understaffed. It was there were
empty tables and there simply weren't goingto be enough people to serve as the
table and the ones, the waitersand the waitresses. I don't even can
say that. And the bus boyservers servers, and they're not even bus
boys anymore, right, Uh,the person use the word bus you have

(04:57):
to word anyway. Uh. Thepoint it is even they were running around
and Pammel pointed out, how doesanybody afford twenty bucks an hour? All
of a sudden, you go fromsixteen eighty five to twenty dollars an hour
instantly. And the answer seems tobe people are losing their jobs. They're
just that is absolutely the reality,and they're having a harder time. And

(05:20):
you're doing this during a time wherethe cost of food has been fluctuating and
in some instances has gone down,but in other instances it stayed up and
it continues to stay. Now,our eggs the same price they were a
year ago or anything like that.No, they've come down quite a bit,
but you're still paying for other things. And these restaurants are already hurting.

(05:44):
Most of them are trying to payback loans that they got during the
pandemic and are I don't see howthey're going to come out of it.
But on the flip side of that, other restaurants are trying to bring back
things like you remember it. Theywere everybody ran from buffets because of the
pandemic, and now you've got placeslike Pizza Hut bringing back there All you

(06:08):
can Eat. Oh yeah, Iwant to talk about that coming up for
me. I love but buffets andI want to combine bobbing for apples and
a buffet meal, and I usuallydo the two. And I'll get into
that because coming out, I haveno idea what that means either, mister
Biden. Yeah, the four mostfavorite words, Thank you Kono. I

(06:31):
thought it was three, but it'sfour most famous words on the planet.
All you can Eat, nothing likeit. Neil and I have gone many
times to All you Can Eat.And you know how crowds surround someone doing
a spectacular job like dancing. They'reso good at what they do. Everybody

(06:53):
goes off the dance floor and justwatches. That is how we eat.
Neil and I have crowds around us. It's fascinating, like two heavyweight boxers
walking into Basically we're basically okay,yoused to go down the street to to
uh oh gosh, what was it? Round table? Round table? Yeah.

(07:17):
I love their lunch buffet, geta salad, slices of pie.
We got to do that. ButPizza Hut is doing that. Yes,
now it hasn't come here yet.You got Hawaii, New Hampshire, Tennessee,
and Toronto showing off this lunch spread. The thing here is a lot
of the pizza huts don't have diningrooms. But if you find one with

(07:41):
a dining room, call and checkand see if they if they're doing this.
Another one of my favorite places Bjay'srestaurant. They have I really enjoy
their pizza and also they have theirpuzuki's. I have not just the you
know traditional chocolate chip with that youknow, Alla mode forget about it.

(08:03):
But they're doing they're launching their PuzukiPass and it's about four ninety nine a
month. So it's a subscription forfour months and you can get a pazuki
a day during this prescription or theyeah, the subscription rather well, there
could be a prescription. Some doctorswill prescribe perzukis. You think the other

(08:24):
day, I with my family,I went there and we out came the
puzuki and it was a free pazuki. They had a promo going and they
give you it's just terrific and it'sa big anybody else that serves something like
it just pales in comparison to me. Yeah, by the way, for
those people that don't know what apazuki is, it's a pizza cookie.

(08:45):
It is a pizza. It's ait's a chocolate chip cookie. That's maybe
I don't know, eight ten inchesin diameter. You can get a personal
one that you can get a largerone. But and they have many they
have I don't know, they haveeight flavors, so you can get all.
They have a new one actually,which is their graham cracker. Some
more as pazuki, but yeah,it's it's pizza and cookie combined. It's

(09:07):
a pazuki, so it comes outlike a pizza, right, but it
is a cookie. It's a cookie. Yeah, comes out like a pizza
and it's cut into pizza slices.It's a pazuki half pizza, half cookie.
Like you're you're not a jew,you're Jewish. That's a combination.
Yeah, that is very good.Now, this one, I love this

(09:30):
story. A cup of noodles servingup puffer fish, poisonous puffer fish.
Now one of the things that peoplepay a lot of money for in Japan,
not necessarily here is puffer fish sushi, which if you get into one
little part of the poisonous part ofthe puffer fish, it's instant death.
It's one of the most toxic thingsyou can ever imagine. They do it.

(09:54):
Is it because puffer fish takes sogreat No, it's because it's there
and cup of noodles combined with poisonouspufferfish. Explain that one to me.
You know what, we should dothat with hamburger and it's like this hamburger
has salmonila, We're gonna mix itwith good hamburger and try and cut the

(10:15):
salmonilla out. Yeah. Yeah,but that's basically what happens. It's about
people pay twenty thousand yen, whichis roughly one hundred and twenty five bucks
here in the States, at highend restaurants there in Japan to eat what
they refer to as fugu, andthat is the puffer fish. So cup
of noodle has combined this oil.They've made this oil that has the essence

(10:39):
the flavor of puffer fish, andthey're going to put that into their noodles
and they're going to sell them forbasically two hundred and ninety eight yen.
Which is about a buck ninety here. You won't be able to get them
here. It will only be inJapan. But the fact that this is
taking place, you know that thisis gonna, you know, trigger some
trend of some kind and maybe we'llsee these outrageous flavors and other things as

(11:03):
well. I just found it interestingtalking with a producer and about this,
about that they're even putting this togetherand saying, Okay, so this is
the flavor without the fear, becausethere's no way then why would you do
it? Yeah? But then whywould you do The whole fun of eating
pufferfish is how close you can actuallyget to death, and it is this

(11:28):
is the true true sushi chef whenyou reach this level where you can serve
pufferfish. I don't maybe even haveto be licensed in Japan to allow a
sushi chef to eat I serve up. Probably are licensed, yeah, because
even a good sushi chef there isgoing to be well trained. So at

(11:50):
this point, yeah, I'm surenot only do they have to be licensed,
but the restaurant itself has to belicensed. I've heard of places servity
legally and those are usually the onesthat end up getting stories about somebody dying,
being hospitalized or dying. Yeah,yeah, it's not fun at all.
I think you have to be registeredand all of that there. Even

(12:11):
in Japan. Coming up, it'sgoing to be summertime and that means grilling,
grilling, grilling, and Neil,I'm sure you're going to do show
after show. Absolutely, are anytrends coming up that you can think of.
You're usually pretty good at prognostication.Summertime is here, Where do you
think you know what foods are goingto be there? What kind of different

(12:35):
ways of cooking food? For example, I just discovered through Lindsay's parents cooking
pizza on the grill, Oh mygosh, which is fantastic. Absolutely,
As a matter of fact, evenwarming a store bought or a you know,
if you get a takeout pizza,warming it up on the grill a

(12:56):
little bit can give it an extracrispy crust. But if you're talking about
grilling, I think right now peopleare looking for They're on two sides of
the fence. They're either looking forinexpensive cuts or traditionally inexpensive cuts like flat
meat or flank steak or things likethat, which is good to learn how
to do them because you cut againstthe grain, you give them a seer

(13:16):
on both sides, and they canbe incredibly flavorful. But then they're going
to, hey, I'm going totreat myself and getting themselves a Tomahawks steak,
a two inch Tomahawks steak, ora cowboy cut or these thick,
wonderful cuts, and they're not reallyhitting just in the middle of these days.
As far as experimenting, though,you're right, pizzas in the backyard

(13:37):
are incredibly popular right now, andthere's a couple different ways to do it.
The easiest way is on a grill. Is you can make the dough
or buy the dough. You scrapeyour grill clean, you make sure you
season it with some oil carefully,and you put the raw dough on and
you cook one side. Then youflip it over and put the toppings on

(14:01):
the grilled now the pre grilled side, and you drop that lid and finish
the cooking the only and melt thecheese and all that. The only thing
you have to keep in mind isyou will not have time to cook things
like sausage. All that should bepre cooked. Any meats that are raw
should be pre cooked and then puton as a topping. Drop that lid

(14:24):
and you get this warm, smoky, slightly charred, grilled piece of it.
Absolutely, I will be talking awhole lot more as a summer Progress
is about summer stuff and grilling.Neil is the maven of grilling. Love
it. I know you do,and you're very good at it. Before
I get into this week's world andreview, Tonight, the Dodgers are in

(14:45):
San Francisco to take on the Giants, with the first pitch at seven point
fifteen. Listen to every play ofevery Dodgers game on AM five seventy.
LA Sports have that right, Yeahsports? Sorry, La Sports, No,
I get it. I get ita LA Sports. The problem is

(15:05):
it's written so it you can easily. This is why I get paid for
this. I'm run Uh yeah,yeah, Hey, Bill, you know
something when we were talking about theBiden and Trump debate last night that I'd
forgotten. A listener just reminded meon talkback there was one point where Trump

(15:28):
referred to Biden as Brandon. Didanybody else catch that? I didn't catch
that? I didn't. Yes,it was during it was during the discussion
on immigration, I believe, andhe slipped it in there, and I
went, what, Yeah, Igo, maybe I misheard that, but
I I just had a listener forFerment, so I don't. I wonder
if anybody else heard that. ButI heard him call him Brandon at one

(15:50):
point, and I laughed because Ithat's well way, Brandon is my daughter's
fiance. I don't know why Imentioned that, but it is. Barbara
is getting married, and I literallyam so excited about getting rid of her
and having someone else now responsible.It is just I love the guy.

(16:11):
Thank you, you take her.Okay, it wasn't Barbara the name of
Bush's wife and daughter and daughter andthen and daughter. People have daughters,
Okay, well said, Hey,it's time for this week's World in review,
living under a rock. Well,here's what you've missed, piping hotch

(16:36):
off the newswires from around the cornerto around the world. This is this
week's world in review. All right, We've got a whole lot to cover,
both international and national. Nationally,I'm going to just quickly touch on
it because we've been talking all morningabout this. The debate last night with

(16:56):
Donald Trump and Joe Biden, andJoe Biden came off as very old,
very dottery, and could not keepa straight thought in his head, convoluted
everything. He's going to be atalk show host here on Kfi's going to
takeover mornings for me because everybody's soused to that, and it was just
horrific. And then I'm so pleasedthat Donald Trump finally finally straightened it out

(17:19):
for me, because I really didn'tunderstand Donald Trump. And now that I
understand is he is the greatest presidentthat ever was or ever will be,
even as against George Washington, AbrahamLincoln, there's nobody like him. Okay,
thank you. Obviously I make alot of fun of Donald Trump,
and now I have to start makinga lot of fun of Joe Biden.

(17:41):
I took Joe Biden a whole lotmore serious than I did. Well,
now I'm seriously considering him as veryold, and I'm not the same.
I certainly don't have the same view. While I wasn't a fan, I
didn't think he was what he waslast night. Okay, so that's the
national stuff. Now let's go tothe international news and the international news.

(18:04):
And this is something that I payvery close attention to, and that's because
I have friends in israel I usedto have family in Israel. My great
uncle lived there for many years.And this has to do, of course
with the war in Gaza. IsraeliPrime Minister said on Sunday, the intense
phase I'm quoting now, the intensephase of the war with Hamas is about

(18:27):
to end, and we can shiftour focus to the northern border with Lebanon,
and that's Hesibe law. And isa war going to start? I
don't know. For Lebanon's sake,Southern Lebanon's sake, I hope not.
Because and the only reason you've gothissbell Allah entering the Fray is for solidarity

(18:53):
with the Palestinians. All right,they lost the The problem is when you
go to war with Israeli, youdon't do very well in the Middle East.
It's at some point they're going tofigure that out. You know.
Hamas, I still think, isproud of what they did on October seventh.
Greatest thing we've ever done. How'dthat work out for you? Huh?

(19:18):
In Saudi Arabia, every year thereis something called the Haij, and
the rules of the Haij are thatevery Muslim everywhere in the world is one
time supposed to go to Saudi ArabiaMecca, which is the holiest city in
Saudi Arabia. And you've seen videosand photographs of a million people surrounding and

(19:42):
going counter clockwise, sort of millingcounterclockwise at the Holy Stone building, of
which there was a rock on thecorner, and that was where Mohammed was
to have put his hand and thengone up to Heaven. I think is
the story. And I get alittle bit confused with what happened in Israel

(20:07):
because you have the two story.Mohammed was all over the place. In
any case, it is one hundredand twenty five degrees in Mecca. As
people go around and around, andyou don't see toilets, you don't see.
What you do is you see peopledying. And more than thirteen hundred
people died on this Year'shige pilgrimage.And when I said every Muslim, once

(20:32):
in his or her lifetime should dothe hodge, that's only for people who
can afford it. And the religionis pretty strict about that, saying only
if you can afford it, doyou go and make a pilgrimage. And
Saudi Arabia tries as hard as theycan and does a very good job at
controlling There's been some disasters where thereare some gridlock, certain bridges that are

(20:56):
coming in, but they really doa very good job. But how do
you deal with a million people marchingaround and you can see this huge crowd
milling around the stone with one hundredand twenty five degree heat. I mean,
it just you just can't do it. And so this year thirteen hundred

(21:18):
people. I don't know when thenumber was greater than that. By the
way, one point eight million worshiperstake part in the pilgrimage, so a
total of one point eight million aresurrounding and going around that stone. I
mean, just take a look atvideos on that the hadj Okay, here's

(21:40):
a surprise. Boeing got nailed againon a couple of different issues. The
one that I find more the mostinteresting is that Boeing or NASA has once
again delayed the Boeing Starliner the capsulefrom coming back to Earth, having brought
two astronauts up to the space andnow supposed to bring them back and can't.

(22:03):
So they're kind of stuck there.And Boeing is asked, has been
asked, and they sent out aof course, a press release and unfortunately
for them, just like the SupremeCourt had the draft released by mistake on
its opinion. This week a draftof the Boeing statement came out and it

(22:25):
said, we expect our astronauts tocome back, and then you'll see the
word never redlined out and soon hasbeen put into place. Boeing is in
a lot of trouble, to saythe least. And we actually we don't
even know when those astronauts are comingback. They're sitting up there and they're
parked at the ISS all right,they have enough food there. I think

(22:51):
women in the military Capitol Hills debatingshould women qualify for the draft. One
of the things about the draft thatvery few people know about because it's automatic
registration is when a man hits eighteen, we're when a boy hits eighteen registered
for the draft. I mean,legally, we still have conscription in this
country. We don't use it,and it's become a volunteer service, of

(23:14):
course, But since women have becomesuch a huge part of the military,
and they fly fighter jets and Ithink they're in I think every part of
the service except maybe submarines. AndI don't know the answer to that,
it could be that women are notallowed on submarine submarines simply because of you
know, the limited space and you'vegot the showers and the separate bathrooms.

(23:37):
That's it's very hard to do.But other than that, every ship,
every bit of the Air Force,the Marines, women are simply part of
the service. And so the Congressis being asked, why an't women being
drafted. If men can be drafted, women can't, makes a lot of
sense to me. So I thinkyou're going to see that happen. And
then finally, Julian Assange, Wikileek'sfounder, has returned to Australia. That

(24:00):
was an ongoing, huge legal battle. The United States wanted him extradited and
for years he was in London,and now they cut a deal with him.
He is getting a sentence, he'spleading guilty, and he's getting credit
for time served because he was inprison, or at least in jail in

(24:21):
London. That's it, guys,We're done. Come up tomorrow morning.
It's Handle on the Law at eighto'clock Marginal Legal Advice. Neil is on
from two to five with the ForkReport and you can reach him at Fork
Reporter and Instagram, the costume thatI wore in two thousand and six at

(24:41):
our event Pimpin' Ain't Easy. Anda shout out Tamy Kean, who We're
going to be replaying her interview withChef from Gwen that she did on your
show to Churtis Stone. We'll beplaying that at four o'clock on my show
tomorrow. He's going to tell youhow to make the best stake for the
Fourth of July holiday. That soundsgreat. That sounds great. It is,

(25:06):
and that's it. Amy's gone allnext week. She's actually gonna have
a good time visiting family and wellthat remains to be seen. Bill.
Yeah, that's true family after all. Heather's in next week, right,
the whole week. Okay, Ireally like Heather. We all like you,
well as much as we like youAmy. You're no Heather. Well,
thanks, You're welcome. Five amwake up call with going out strong,

(25:30):
I know, real strong. Allright, we'll catch you Monday morning,
everybody, and tomorrow morning at eighto'clock for Handle on the law KFI
AM six forty live everywhere on theiHeartRadio app. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show. Catch my showMonday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadioapp.