Chris: Although I saw that you posted on Instagram are, spots in the trending food category. Number 55. Phil: It felt good to, I don't know, kind of celebrate some of the successes we've had, although 55. Well, it's 55 in food. So it's not like, I mean, there's like 30 million podcasts out there, something like that. But to be 55 and food is kind of like saying we made the football team, where the third string punter and it's JV, but we made it, Chris: no we're here fell. We are, on this field. I saw somewhere that about 50% of all podcasts have one episode. Phil: Oh, no way. Chris: Yeah. And then 65 have too. overall the average number of episodes for any podcast is 14. So with this episode, we are over halfway to average. Phil: Oh, man, that makes me feel so good. That's great. Wow. I didn't know that. I love your stats. You're like, the statistician for the show. It's my favorite. It does feel good to feel like we're doing something though. Chris: It does. it makes it all that more meaningful. When we do know that there are people out there that kind of connects with the same journey that we're on. Phil: Like David and Broomfield, Colorado, David is actually a friend of mine. He might be one of the most handsome people I've ever known. Well, I mean, aside from you, Chris, obviously, but yeah, David listened to our episode on scrambled eggs and he. Wanted to share some of his own methods on how he makes them. and it sounds like you and he are relatively similar in some of your methods. He uses the Gordon Ramsey method and that's pretty similar to your, to your boy, right? Chris: It is. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like what I've kind of landed on is a little bit of a hybrid between the CEO. there's definitely some, some, Thomas Keller influences and some Gordon Ramsey, for sure. Phil: Well, I promised you that I would try doing that as well after we recorded our last episode. I made it the very next morning and guess what? My kids loved it, but most importantly, I loved it. Now. Most importantly, my wife loved it. She was like, wow, these are really good. Where have you been on my life? but okay. Seriously, David, thank you so much for reaching out and sharing some of your techniques. and if any other listeners are interested in sharing your techniques, we are interested in hearing them. Whatever it is. Look us up on Instagram at dad's kitchen co, and you know, today we went to the riverbanks zoo, which is in Columbia and we did this like boo at the zoo thing. I imagine every zoo in America probably has a booth at the zoo. And they're all probably called do at the zoo. , but I'm really proud of my zoo. Like they, they did a really good job. I gotta be honest with you. I was a little bit worried leading up to Halloween. Like how are we going to do the trick or treating thing? I don't know if I, if I want, you know, a bunch of. Chris: bag full of COVID Phil: Yeah. like a bond, your kids touching the same bowl of candy and then just dropping it in their own basket. I just, I don't know, man. I just like, I'm not trying to be paranoid, but it just kinda felt a little weird. Like what do we do about that? And anyways, I'm just really proud of the riverbank zoo. I thought they did a great job of maintaining a certain level of social distancing. They. it's kind of funny. They pass that candy with tongs. like, you'd walk around to the different stations, the different exhibits at the zoo. And you know, like in front of the lion, then somebody would just grab some candy out of their basket with tongs and put it in the kid's baskets. they, they just did a really good job. It was very well organized. It was very well thought through. Yeah. And most importantly, there were no bobbing for apples. And that is the silver lining with COVID bobbing for apples. It's disgusting. Chris: I'm not a fan of the concept on a lot of levels. Phil: I just feel like fresh fruit in general. Shouldn't be administered by a stranger. I don't know if you recall this but when I was growing up, like all the moms were cautioning, everyone to don't take any, any candy apples from people. Cause there'll be razorblades. Yeah. Razorblades in the candy apples. I don't think there's ever been a razor blade in a candy Apple, but it's not about the razor blade. It's just, just like fresh fruit from a stranger. I just don't know if I'd do that in general. Chris: it's a little bit more weirded out by like sticking your face in water than other people have slobbered in. Phil: Well, yeah, exactly. Chris: kind of gross. Phil: so anyways, well done. Riverbank zoo, Columbia, South Carolina. You guys are my fav Chris: So fell. One thing that you can do with those apples is take them all home with a slobber of olives, the neighborhood kids. And, uh, turn them into solid, Phil: Ooh, that sounds Chris: pretty, direct transition there. Huh? Phil: We're all about the segue We should get the company that makes those segues to sponsor us. Can like ring the bell every time we have a segue. have you ever read one? They're kind of fun. My neighbor behind me has one. Well, his kid has one, which I guess is still my neighbor. Uh, without the handlebars. What's that called? No. It's like, it's more like more like a hoverboard Chris: okay. Phil: where you just like leaned forward and you go lean back and go. Yeah. You can steer by lifting up your toes. They're way harder. I imagine. So anyways, but yeah, apples on salads. So I'm thinking. Great idea. Chris: yes, Phil, I do. I like apples on salads, but, you know, in the vein of our just fantastic segues, I think I like, salad dressing on salads, better than apples. How do you feel Phil: Hmm. I mean, Most salad dressings are really just a aioli. Chris: I guess it depends on what type of salad dressing you like. Phil: Okay. Personally, I can totally get down with oil and vinegar. I straight up love it. Actually. Do you remember one time, you and Molly hosted Ashlynn me for dinner and in lieu of a bottle of wine. I brought over a bottle of olive oil but yes, olive oil. Is totally addressing for me, um, with some vinegar. Hi, love it. If I'm not going to do that, I would, I would probably go with a balsamic vinegar, which obviously is kind of in the same vein. So ranch is delicious, but I almost feel like ranch is better served as a dipping sauce for like pizza than it is on a salad. Chris: Yeah. I've never been super into creamy dressings for reasons that we've hinted on a little bit, but In your guys's refrigerator. have? Phil: Okay. They're all the Newmans. we have a Walnut raspberry vinegarette. We have a basaltic Vinograd I think there's a blue cheese, maybe one more. We'll say four or five. Chris: Okay. Okay. Phil: I mean, they, they, they take up an entire shelf on the door of the refrigerator. Chris: Yeah. And that's probably pretty normal for most people they think. Phil: What about you guys? I knew you were going to say that. Cause you guys make your own Chris: yeah. Which I thought was totally nuts. I mean, I, I grew up with bottled salad dressing as I'm sure most people do. And honestly, I didn't even know that it was like possible to make your own salad dressing until six, seven years ago. the things that I've learned for. apparently it is, and it's, uh, pretty great. Actually, I think he's really grown on me. I think there's, there's part of me that kind of goes back and forth a little bit, between ears. Like sometimes you just want something easy and. I don't know, kind of quality and variety there's something very satisfying about, making your own salad dressing. And honestly, it wasn't something that I personally had done until kind of recently. Phil: like, what do you, what do you do? I mean, walk me through it. What do you make? Do you make a homemade branch? You make a homemade thousand Island. What do you do? Chris: No, we we've had homemade ranches. It's actually really good. As far as, you know, the creamier dressings go. I think in general, you know, I guess you can kind of break. Salad dressings up into vinegar assets, and your creamy dressings. I think for the most part, they kind of nicely fall into one of those too. Even things like, like French dressing is still a vinegar at its base where it's, you know, like an oil and vinegar with. roasted tomatoes and onions and Dejon mustard. Phil: you have like a go-to Chris: you know, if you're kind of breaking them into those two categories, definitely skew more towards the vinegarette. And I think, I think one thing that I like about making your own salad dressing is that, it can like be, it can be tailored to whatever you're making and you can change it up every time. you know, like a whole entire bottle. I mean like how, how long does a bottle last? You. Phil: Yeah. Three years and past the expiration date. Chris: crusty and gross Phil: they are. You open up the lid and you get flakes. Chris: Yeah. Phil: That's disgusting. Chris: and you can, you can, you can make smaller batches, honestly, I think like the last time that I made salad dressing, It was literally just for the salad that we were eating but you can make a, like a small batch in something like a Mason jar or a jam jar. We use jam doors a lot. My wife has a moderate obsession with jam jars and, That's a great way to store it. But I think at their core, most of aggressive or just, you know, super simple. They are an oil, which is like a fat and. some type of acid or in this case, some vinegar and you can change those up, like what, what those oils are and what those vinegars are. And then you can add a lot to it. So you can add sweetness, you can add something salty, you can really try out some different things. I think starting with that, that oil and vinegar base, and then use it adding some type of salt and then something that's a little sweet helps to bring a pretty balanced flavor to a basic vinegarette, but then you can, kind of jump off of that pretty easily. You know, I think a lot of, a lot of French. Style dressings are going to have some type of mustard on it. So like a mustard with honey is going to be fantastic. And it's not going to be anything like near your traditional honey mustard or what you think of as a store bought a honey mustard of any sort. Phil: Yeah. More of like a Dijon mustard, gray versus like the American French's Chris: As opposed to friendships. Yeah. honestly, like one of the things that we love thrown into salad dressing is just a jam of some sort. that can instantly give you, really great and Berry flavored vinegarette. . Phil: So I made this Berry compote one time. I think it was probably strawberry though. I can't really quite remember. And. Save the compote. And then a couple of days later put the compo on a bed of lettuce and I'm sure it was way sweeter than it probably should have been. Cause compo generally has, you know, some sugar melted in with it, but, and it was delicious. Like I would choose out over addressing any day. Chris: it kinda reminds me of this place that we went to in, London. it was in the borough market. it's a little restaurant called Elliot's and we had. Z best solid that I think I've ever had in my life. And it was so simple. Actually, we had several of the best dishes. That was so good. Phil: Yeah, you're a muscle guy. Chris: Yeah. I think it was like a, don't remember if it was beer or white wine, but, They were so good and the salad was so good. but it was so simple. It was just like a bed of really fresh greens with just a, a fantastic, really simple, like clean, well-balanced dressing and. I think it had some, some like Maldon salt or something sprinkled across the top. but it was one of the best selves that I can ever remember having. and I was just struck by like the simplicity of it. you don't have to like doctor something up with all these different ad-ons. And I think one of the things that allows that really simple salad to work is a good dressing. So I don't know how you feel about that felt. Maybe my ceilings are too strong. Phil: Did I ever tell you about my London story? Chris: I don't know Phil: Okay. So, the London story. Okay. I've only been to London one time. so I was there with some friends, had just come back from Africa and I don't really remember the exact scenario, but somehow I got separated. In customs. See, we had this really long layover, like 12 hours coming back to the us from Africa. And we thought, man, we're in London for like 12 hours. Let's go explore. It was right after a red eye, I was really tired and, the sun had just risen. We get off the plane we're in Heathrow airport. And somehow we get separated at the customs border and I'm like, okay, I'll just meet you guys. Like at big Ben or Buckingham palace or Westminster Abbey or something. Like, I'll just meet you at the place where people go and they go to London for 12 hours thinking like, yeah, it's no big deal. And this was kind of before, like everybody had cell phones is like, early two thousands. We have cell phones, but we didn't necessarily have international cell phones. And so, I hop on the train I'm by myself. And I end up in a train station. That is not correct. , I don't know where I am. So I'm like, well, what's the worst that could happen. I'll hop on a double Decker boss and I'll have him take me to Buckingham palace or wherever. Surely I'm going to find my friends, right? Like London, can't be that big. And it's like a Saturday, like in the middle of the summer, she was like, Chris: just a Phil: yeah, it's basically a village. Yeah. And, so there, I don't know why I didn't have the brilliant idea to do what literally every tourist does and hop on the tubes, but I didn't do that. I, I hopped on a double Decker bus and because I'm sleep deprived, I don't know what I'm doing. the bus routes don't really make a whole lot of sense to me. guess they're in another language, English maybe. And I ended up in not a very good neighborhood. Fast forward a couple of hours. I actually ended up falling asleep on the double Decker bus. And I, and I wake up have no idea where I am. I basically have to hitchhike back to Heathrow airport, which is like a hundred miles away. get back to the airport, see my friends. And they were like, where were you, man? Like you missed out. We. We sat next to some guy that was in the Philharmonic orchestra. And I'm like, really? I sat next to guy on a bus who killed a guy in the Philharmonic orchestra. And I never went to, to see big Ben because I ran out of time 12 hours. Apparently it wasn't enough time. I fell asleep on the bus. It was terrible, man. So I got to go back to London Chris: I feel, it sounds like, uh, trip to London is definitely an order once. They decide that their country. Phil: sure. Hey, when we go, we can, we can find that little beast or you found and have a, have a nice salad. Chris: Oh, Elliot's was fantastic. I would go back there in a heartbeat. Yeah, so cool. I forgot what they had asked them, like what they had on tap that day. And she said that they were out. And so he was going to go around the market and see if he could find something that would that'd be good. And he came back like super apologetic and he was like the, the brewery down, like at the end of the market. everything's just, it's not a cold over there. So it just, it just wouldn't be, it just wouldn't be delicious enough. And like, he was just so apologetic that it's like, it wasn't going to be delicious enough. so Phil: Oh my gosh. Chris: only going to serve it if it was good enough or something, Phil: they probably wouldn't do that at all of the garden Chris: not. So, Phil: and be like, get out of here with your socialism in your imported beer Chris: yes. Phil: This is America. Oh, man, we went off the rails. Should we talk about salad, dressing some more? Chris: but, uh, no is fantastic. And I think I saw like how good a salad could be, um, that it really didn't have to be like super crazy. You don't have to doctor it up. Like, greens in and of themselves Phil: I think that's the point that I was maybe hoping to make with this is like, should the dressing be the focal point of the salad or should it compliment the salad? Chris: I think I have, it could be either, honestly, like, okay. say you're doing something very seasonal and you have a simple green salad. maybe some spinach and Rugola something like that. And you have just like a really great fall dish. covering some of those bases you've got an oil, you've got a vinegar, some salt, and then Southern sweet that you throw in, you could, You could use something like a balsamic and olive oil and then throw some maple syrup. And, that could be something that, maybe stands out a little bit in compliment to, you know, whatever your kind of seasonal fall dishes. go either way, honestly. Phil: well, you mentioned having beets in your salad, right? Did you mention that? Yeah. Yeah, I really enjoyed beats. I like a good, fresh beet salad. And just so we're clear, I don't think either of us are talking about the beats that I thought were beats growing up, which is like more of a jello comes in a can you only, only Chris: Oh yeah, Phil: No, that's that's not beets. No, no, no, no, no. Beets are like exactly. It's like this delicious, almost like a turnip. Chris: Yeah, it grows underground, Phil: Mm Hmm. Oh, it does. And it just goes so good on a salad. We need more beats on our Chris: that might be now that I think about it. One of my favorite things on the salad Phil: okay. So here's my, here's my takeaway from all of this. If you're going to have a beat on a salad, it is kind of somewhat a subtle flavor. I mean, in many ways it just adds a really good texture. It's almost just like a large radish. But, if you want to pick up on that, on that subtle beef flavor, then if you douse your salad with the store-bought dressing. I don't know if you're really going to pick up on that because those store-bought dressings just, they're so intense that they are the focal point of the salad. Chris: And it's really not that hard to make, which is kind of one of the other things that I really appreciated about this, this concept of making your own salad dressing is Everybody knows what a salad dressing should taste like. Especially a well balanced salad dressing. And so, I don't know when I was thinking about it, it felt like one of those really simple things that can introduce kind of this basic cooking idea into your, daily habits, you know, what a salad dressing should taste like. And if you're making your own salad dressing, you should be tasting it as you go. So you add some oil, you add some vinegar, add a little bit of salt, maybe some honey or some jam, and you put all that in a bowl and start to whisk it up until it emulsifies. Or you put it in a jar and shake it like a, like a Mason jar or a jelly jar and then dry it. Yeah. See how it tastes. I think that's something about cooking that I am not still the best at and I should get better at is trying things as you go. but you know, with addressing, If you don't have that, like Tang and it just feels a little oily, you know, that something's not balanced and you can add some more, add some more vinegar to it. to start to balance it out the idea is to try it as you go and if it's, too sweet. You know, that there are ways to start to cut that sweetness down with your oil and your vinegar, and you can just kind of play with those ratios. It's just something that's really simple. And you can really taste it right away Phil: Yeah, I feel like this is a really good way to kind of do some exploration, to kind of figure out your place in the kitchen and see what kind of chef that you are. I don't know if that sounds cheesy, but, Be adventurous, Chris: yeah. I mean, I think when you're making a meal, you're making it to be eaten. So you're making it to taste good. you're making it to be nutritious and all as well, but, but you're also like trying to make it taste good. And so how are you going to know if it tastes good? If you don't taste it, tell us plaintiffs and on the table. I think for me, it's all too easy to get caught up in a recipe and think that the recipe has it all, like it's the be all end, all of or that's like the be all end all in the kitchen and, I think with salad dressing, it's just a really simple way to start to get beyond that and realize that you do know what something tastes like when it's really good. You know, a delicious is, you know, a balanced this, and, when you're making something like that's the time that you can. Alter something and like adjust the course of a dish. And so try it, taste it and trust yourself Phil: so this specific episode is not really about salad dressings at all, but it's about foundations. And I love that. It's about trusting yourself. That's good. You gotta love yourself, man. Chris: yeah, Yeah. And we've all been eating food our whole entire lives. So library to pull from. Phil: And when in doubt, just put some bacon on your salad Chris: salad. Phil: There you go. Chris: some corn in their Phil: Yeah. Can you have a Cobb salad without the egg? Like if you ordered a Cobb salad, hold the egg. Is it a Cod salad? I have a Cobb salad instead of egg. Could I please have some wheat luck coachee? I'm going to make you some wheat look, coach. I makes diver, I don't know if I'm even saying it right, but I'm going to make you some. Chris: I don't even know where you can find that you may have been grown on your own, so Phil: You might have to, I'm going to do that in my neighbor's yard. we share this fence and I'm going to grow it and it's going to overtake his yard. Oh man.