The Unqualified Culinary Critics

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Hello, we're the Unqualified Culinary Critics, a podcast centered around food and cultural experiences. We want to not only share our own perspectives, but hope that these stories connect in some way to each one of you as well.

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We do have a guest with us, you may remember them from our last podcast. Brett is here today. Hey, guys, thanks for coming back. So today on this episode, we wanted to invite everybody to talk about the one dish that is your favorite, was your favorite at some point in your life, it was the end all be all dish for you. I know that we all grew up on a lot of different foods, lots of different cultures here, and it can be anything that pertains to that or is the complete opposite of it, but I'd like to open it up to everybody and kind of see what we all were obsessed with at one point or another in our lives. So if anybody would like to kick it off, be my guest. I'll be happy to go last.

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Okay. Victoria, Brett.

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I think our guest should go first. Okay, I'll go first. I'm from New York originally, so I've always been obsessed with bagels. And I'm also Jewish, you know, so that's always been an influence. I love kind of Jewish staples. But the bagel has always been important to me growing up. Like it was usually very, because I lived in Manhattan, it was very easy just to walk down the street and grab a bagel on the way to school, on the way to work. But and now that I've moved to different parts of the country, it's been very difficult to find the perfect bagel. Because I do think New York bagels are like, they're known for being just the best of the best. And a lot of people say it's always because the New York water helped to make them that way. But I feel like the New York bagel is very fluffy, kind of fluffy, but they have the crunchy outside skin. And if you go here, I find it more difficult to find the perfect bagel. While Einstein, or the Einstein, what's it called? Yeah, Einstein's. Is that what they're called? Einstein. Einstein. Einstein, that's it. They're nice, but they're not like a New York bagel. They're kind of a little bit more dense and hard. So I did find a place on the west side called the Bagel Cafe, and they make really good bagels. I got to say New York quality, I would say. And then you have to think about your schmear, as we like to call it in New York. You know, do you have a regular schmear? Do you have, you know, cream cheese with scallion, cream cheese with lox, cream cheese with what's

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in it?

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What type of bagel? I prefer the everything bagel with a schmear that has cream cheese with scallion. That's my favorite go-to. So anyway, that's my two cents on favorite foods. I feel like almost every episode we we go back to bagels.

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Yes!

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I swear.

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You're kidding!

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I know, I promise you we will talk about it at least once or it will be mentioned. We cannot avoid it. And the Bagel Cafe has come up too. And now I really need to try it because everybody likes it. Yeah. It's funny because like yeah, like when we did our comfort foods, like I remember we talked about bagels because they really are a comfort. And like I remember like when I was growing up and I went to visit my grandparents in Ohio, you couldn't get bagels, like they didn't have bagel stores. Like you can maybe get the frozen ones, but now they're becoming way more widespread. But like I remember like growing up like 30 years ago, like

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they didn't have bagel stores in other places as you know, like they do now.

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Well, and I feel like they're not good enough. Like they're just not great.

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Yes, I agree with you.

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I feel very strongly about it. Like I will eat them if they are there, but only if that's the only thing there is.

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Yeah, that's a good point. And like if you go to Panera, their bagel isn't really like it's kind of I'll have it but it's not really a great bagel. It's kind of dense. And then I don't know if you guys have been to Montreal for their bagels.

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Nicole Sotto, MPH

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Never.

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Nicole Sotto, MPH

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Because there's a whole thing about Montreal bagels, and they make their bagels differently because they boil them. And so they have a different consistency. And a lot of people love the Montreal bagels versus the, I guess, the American style bagel. But I haven't tried them yet. I did not know that they had a different kind of bagel. Oh I was going to do a whole thing where I wanted to, I was potentially going to even start a bagel shop at one point in my life that I was thinking about it.

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So I did all this research.

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I will say that if you ever do start one, you need to let us know because I need to

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try it.

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Yes, I will.

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It was going to be called Spike's Bagels because that was the name of my dog at the time.

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Oh.

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And he was even there.

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That's cute. Yeah. So what are your guys' favorite foods? Um I guess I'll go next. So with me there's this dish that my mom makes. It's called um tortas de arroz. And it's like this it's like a rice patty essentially like that is the best way I can describe it but like the thing is she doesn't make it often which is upsetting because it's my favorite food but it's like this um but it's a very long process so I don't blame her you have to like put the rice in like a blender and then like so or like you soak it overnight and then you put it like in a blender and then put flour and egg and stuff to get it to like hold into like a patty and then you make like a stew, like a soup, a caldo. Um, yeah, and it's like, they're like spongy, but in a really nice way like not like spongy like in a cake like you would imagine a cake would taste like, but yeah, but they're really good. Um, it's honestly just basic ingredients like flour, rice, eggs, like tomatoes for the stew. But it sounds so simple, but it's so good. And like, when it comes to food, I'm a big texture person. And I feel like all the like patties like have different textures. Sometimes they come out like tasting differently or not tasting differently, but having like different textures to them. And I don't know, it's just a very nice surprise. And I really like, I've like, I'm like obsessed. Like I will make, like ask my mom to make me that for my birthday every year and it's funny because like I said it sounds very simple it is pretty simple well the ingredients are simple and like I remember the first time I asked my mom to make me that for my birthday um she sent a picture to my fias in the group chat and they roasted me for it because Because it's not something too fancy or anything like that, but I love it. I don't care if I get roasted for it, I will eat them every year for my birthday. So they're like a patty of rice, but then the sauce goes on top with the tomatoes or they're inside of it? It's like a stew, I guess. I don't know the word for it in English kind of like a soup. So like they just like you just put them like you make the the soup and then um the patties separate but then like once you're gonna cook everything to like you cook everything together like the the rice patties but yeah and it's it's basically like a soup I guess I don't know but yeah I I've never really met anybody else who has had them before though. So I don't know if it's like a regional dish or like a family thing. I feel like it's a very regional. Because even on my dad's side, my dad's family, they're literally like two towns away from my mom's side. Like, they'd never make that food either. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm hoping one day I meet somebody who has tried these before, because I always feel a little crazy talking about it, because everyone's like, what even is that?

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OK, I can go next. I'd probably say bagels would definitely be on that list for me as well. I talked about this previously. My dad's from New York, so he kind of grew up eating a lot of bagels as well. And we would get bagels every week that I would stay with him. Well, on the weekend we'd get bagels and it was just, I think like that kind of childhood like routine nostalgia, I think that made me enjoy that kind of tradition even more. But I will also say that my mom would make a lot of homemade pizza, so that's another good one. Like little baby pizzas and I don't know why but they would just be like I've never had food before it this is the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. Things like that and I think the fact that it's homemade too makes it even better. But those would probably be my top two.

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With like the pizzas is it just like cheese pizzas or like is there like a specific?

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It depends.

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Um, usually, so I feel like this is a very unpopular, maybe controversial opinion because everybody who I've told, they're like, ew, you're literally disgusting. I love olives. I can eat them right out of the jar. But a lot of people do not feel the same way. I would put olives on the pizza a lot, any kind of olives, usually black or the Kalamata olives, and other like peppers, other veggies on top of it. When I was younger and a lot pickier, it would just be cheese pizza. But as I grew up and realized I don't need to be so picky,

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there would definitely be some veggie toppings on there. Mm-hmm. I'm right there with you on olives. I love olives. Thank you. You're not gross. Those people are wrong. I know, I know. I can't even, I don't even waste my breath with them anymore. I'm just like, okay,

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well, that's your issue, not mine. Yeah. All right, what about you, Ashley? Oh, go ahead.

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I was just going to say, I support the olive cream. I even like the ones that are even, I like all olives, even the ones that are like in the can that come out of the black little waxy ones, I like those too. All olives, they're so, so good. I don't know how people don't like them. I don't, and the ones that are stuffed with blue cheese, I love those. I haven't had those. I've had like the garlic ones though. Yes. If you get a martini, sometimes they'll put a blue cheese stuffed olive in your martini in a fancy bar and that's always good. I've seen people drink those, but I've never tried one. If you like olive, because if you ask for a dirty martini, it's mostly olive juice, olive brine, and then they put, it's vodka and a little vermouth, but that's basically what it is a dirty martini And so if you like olive you might like that if you you know if you need a cocktail

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At some point after a stressful day. I think I need to go to a bar this weekend

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Yeah

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Because I always knew that they would put olives in the martini

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But I'm like oh my god olive like an olive drink and you get an olive with it, okay?

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Sometimes I would just order I don't drink that much, but sometimes I'll just

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order a dirty martini just to eat the olives and then I'll like leave the rest. And they're like,

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why don't you drink? Like, no, I wanted to pay $15 for a stuffed olive. That's exactly why I'm here.

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Honestly, that's something I would do too. If you're dead, very good. Exactly. And if it's a stuffed olive, yeah.

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Yeah. It's an appetizer right there.

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Exactly.

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All right. What about you, Ashley?

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Well, before I go to my brief dish, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. I don't know if I can say bandwagon for this, but I will agree with everyone. I like olives as well. It's not weird to put it on pizza. Thank you.

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Yes. The pineapple though, let's save that for another episode.

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Kind of joking on you.

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Yeah, that's a different controversial discussion.

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Oh yeah, I feel like we discussed that pineapple thing like in previous episodes, but hey, I'm like, yeah, we'll give you the smoke kind of, but you know what, we'll just give it to you. It's okay, like we're not gonna give you the smoke for being adventurous and what you wanna eat. It's cool, but just the idea of the pineapple on pizza, save it for another episode.

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Exactly.

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That's a whole other conversation.

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Agreed.

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So with mine, okay, you know, like almost everybody else, and I say almost, growing up I didn't really care much for veggies, but I mean, I think I've changed and kind of increased my interest in it as I've gotten older, but one day when I was younger I was at a restaurant with my parents and when we were eating I was introduced to this restaurant's cream spinach. So when I tried it the first time I was just taken back by how rich the flavor was and I'm like this is like probably one of the best things that that restaurant serves and I believe it's a signature dish or well a signature side of theirs because almost any restaurant would have, or almost any steakhouse to be specific, would have cream spinach. So I like the richness of the flavor and I like that the cheese and the cream and the spices just blending together in with the spinach. It just like makes that whole, it just like, it's like a party in my mouth, I guess. But in the end, it's just, it was like, to me personally, that's like the only restaurant that'll make the best cream spinach stir. And I wanna swear by it, but if I were to tell you where it is and you'd be like, oh it's there, but it could change. I would say that if I were to try it at other restaurants, and I have done it before, it just, it's good, but it just doesn't match or match up to what that restaurant that one restaurant that I went to it It just doesn't match up to their standards basically Really? So you you only like it from that one place? I do

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I mean, there's some other good places too, but like the best is that one place

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Is it like like you would go like drive all the way down there? Like if you're craving it like you would go all the way down there just to eat that and nothing else? Well, if I'm really craving it, I mean I gotta order stuff besides the spinach too, because I can't just like get the spinach and kind of come off as a weirdo.

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I have to like order stuff with it.

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You just order the spinach.

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I don't see why not, man. I go to places and order just like a side or something, because that's all I want. I've done that before too, so don't feel alone. Yeah. That's true, but like what happens with the other... Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say, have you tried the Stouffer's? There's a frozen Stouffer's cream spinach that is also... I like that one as well because I like cream spinach too, but I discovered that Stouffer's has a frozen one and it's pretty good, but I'd like to see... Maybe if you haven't tried it, I'd like to hear eventually if you do try it, in case you can't make it to the restaurant.

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It's a good option.

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Is it the spinach souffle?

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No. There's the spinach souffle, but then there's like another separate thing, because I made a mistake once of getting the souffle, which is also good, but they have a separate cream

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spinach.

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I have to look into that, because I didn't know about that until you told me.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I'll look into that. I'll let you know how that tastes too. Thank you Okay, I kind of lost my train of thought I think we're talking about like that one restaurant and yeah I mean what happens is that if that restaurant has good food too because like I'm just gonna straight-up reveal it I went to the palm and that's that one restaurant that where is that? Caesars. Oh Yeah that higher up one. Yeah, but I mean, it's it's good. It's good food It's like totally a restaurant that I would recommend going for like fun occasions and stuff But for like every week I would be personal and say it's up to you But if I were if I was given a choice to do to every week I think I tired myself out There's like thousands of restaurants in the valley that I can go to and then the price as well. I mean, it's fine dining.

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Oh, for sure.

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What can I say?

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That restaurant has such good food, but yet I keep ordering the same things almost every time I'm there, so I can't just order the spinach by itself. I feel like I'm about to go on a little tirade about the salad. And I mean, let's just say to go very specific, let's just make the story short here the salad there was used to taste so good but then stuff happens stuff change and now it's like oh there's horseradish in your salad like why do you put horseradish in the Caesar salad that this doesn't make sense that's not Caesar salad then you just put a ranch in there instead like that's not Caesar salad it really isn't to me in my opinion yeah yeah I don't know why they just changed the salad.

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I'm like, please don't- They can't mess with the classic like that.

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Yeah, it's like a recipe that they had to follow after the changes happened. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to order a salad again. I'm going to go to another restaurant to eat the salad that I want to get. And please don't destroy the cream spinach while you're at it, too.

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Right.

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That's just- Yeah.

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That's just huge to me. They're going to put horseradish in the next time you go?

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Oh, they have horseradish for steak. I mean, I think, yeah, I hope not.

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Yeah.

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A good Caesar salad, though, is so good, if you can get the right one. I agree with you

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on that, Ashley, that is a very good thing.

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Do you know any places here in Vegas that have gotten it, like, pretty, pretty, pretty good? pretty good. You know I learned how to make it at home to be honest. Yeah. And that's sort of fun. I do a vegan version. I learned like you need, well it's not vegan I guess it's vegetarian. No, is it vegan? No it's vegan because you could do capers instead of anchovies and then you don't use the raw egg. But I like this one place and I gotta Google the name of it. So go ahead, talk without me, I'm gonna Google the name of it. I was just going to say that one restaurant that I recommend, and it's, excuse me, also another fine dining restaurant would be Joe's, which is also in Caesars. And I think that's my favorite actually, that's my favorite restaurant. It's so good, but I just started trying that place like last year. Well, I like the stone crabs. I love the stone crabs there at Joe's. That's good. I actually don't eat that much seafood, I will admit, but I'm glad that I'm hearing positive reactions from the stone crab. I've heard of it, but I never tried it actually. It's really delicious. It's like you have to fly them in from Miami, from the coast there or whatever, because it's a special type. And it's interesting, the crabs, the stone crab, it's a nice kind of thing because they're really, really good and kind of big and tender. They're not like the other type of crab legs. What are they called? The stone and you have the long crab legs, and I forgot what those are called. But these are kind of more meaty, and you dip it in. They have a special mustard sauce they make, which is amazing. But anyway, I used to go to the one in Miami when I was growing up with my parents because my grandmother lived there. And so they have a few Joes throughout the country. But the one in Caesars, I recently discovered and I've been going there for like my birthday or whatever. But the cool thing about the crab legs that I like is that they don't kill the crab because they can take their legs and their legs grow back. So they take the crab out of the water. Wow. They take their legs off and they throw them back in and they're still and they live and they regenerate their legs So they don't actually kill the crab. So I thought that was sort of nice even though you're basically taking its legs off, but

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Yeah

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I have to google this

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I know, what?

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This is like when I was younger and I found out that lizards their tails would grow back

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As like a defense mechanism, they just like rip their tail out and I'm like, wow.

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That's true.

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What? I think we just learned something new. I know. Yeah.

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I agree.

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So then why do people kill the crabs if you can just take their legs? I don't know if it's just this type of crab, the stone crab.

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The other types of crabs.

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I guess that would make sense.

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It says here, yeah, the stone crab, it takes a year to regenerate its lost appendages. That's why they throw them back

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in the ocean.

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Nicole I wonder how they get around for a year while they're waiting for their legs to come back.

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Nicole That's true. Nicole That's true. Nicole What do you do? You just sink to the bottom

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and you're like, well, now what?

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Nicole Oh, the other kind is the snow crabs. Those are the other legs, but that's different. Nicole I've heard of those. Nicole I don't think they regenerate. Those are the ones you've probably seen at buffets and stuff, the long red ones.

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More common. Yeah.

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I've heard that name, so I'm going to guess that that's probably what you said, the more

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common what we've seen.

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Yeah. Those you get, it's hard to get these stone crabs because they're only from the Gulf Coast or whatever, so they have to fly them in.

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I guess you're getting what you're paying for. Yeah. Going through all this work for some food. It is expensive. Like you get four little legs for like 50 bucks. You know. Wow. But they're worth it. I've never been, but I also don't eat meat or seafood or anything. So that's probably why, but I'm going to take your guys' words for it. Yeah. Then it wouldn't be worth it.

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No, I could probably have like a side or something, but that would probably be about it.

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Yeah.

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Well, you're vegan then or vegetarian? I'm 95% vegan. There is some cheese that I will consume, but it's in very little amounts. I really never ate that much dairy or meat in general.

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That's probably due to the fact that my mom's been vegetarian and vegan, but yeah. Plus, I never liked seafood.

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What's your favorite vegan restaurant in Vegas then? Oh, okay. So it's closed down right now. Apparently they, on Yelp it says that they're scheduled to reopen on January 31st, but I don't know if that's true. Sadly, their chef passed away a few months ago, so they've been closed kind of trying to figure out what to do. But it's a vegan sushi restaurant called Cheekyoo. It's on Serene and Spencer. So right by the 215 and Eastern. Oh, okay. It's kind of tucked away, but it is so good. And the people who work there are some of the best and nicest servers I've ever had. She cute. I'm going to check that out. But if it reopens, I'm really hoping that it does, because it's how often do you see a all vegan sushi restaurant? I think you guys should really try it. It's great. I got to look into it.

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Yeah.

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I think it's great, but I'm really hoping that it reopens. Kind of just waiting. I keep checking. But yeah, that would be my first off-the-top recommendation. But if you're looking more for... Sorry, really quick while I'm here, because there's another good restaurant. It's called Veggie Street, but it's spelled V-E-G-G-Y and then street. It's more like American, they have burgers, hot dogs. They do have wrapped paninis. It's a lot more heavier foods, but I think it's really good. And then that's more of a small business as well. So you kind of see the same people working there, but

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they're really cool too. I definitely recommend.

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Okay. A veggie, a vegan hot dog.

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That sounds good.

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It's good.

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I tried, because they had a promo going on some Brazilian hot dog and I was like, okay,

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I'll try it.

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And it was pretty good.

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I'm going to try it.

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Yeah, those are my recommendations.

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I'm not vegan, but I like to eat vegan, vegetarian stuff just for fun sometimes. I think I do think it's delicious as well.

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So that's fun to try.

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It's pretty good. And now I will say, even just a few years ago, the steak meats and cheeses that were available to vegans and vegetarians were not that good. So I'm glad that now we have a lot more options and a lot more restaurants. And Vegas is like, as we're getting bigger, we're getting so many more. I mean, we already We already had a great food culture, but I feel like we have a lot of the options of like vegetarian, which is nice. It's getting better.

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Like, I feel like I could actually Google vegan stuff and there will be more than like a house salad on the menu. Yeah. But yeah, definitely check those places out when in Vegas. Have you heard of Chef Kenny's, the dim sum place off of West Coming? I've been there. I have been there.

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How is it? It, I tried the sweet and sour chicken, I think. I did get a little nervous because I was like, oh my God, I can literally get like fake duck meat on here.

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Like, this is weird. Like it, it was freaky. It was really good, but I think I was just like shocked at the fact that you can get like all of it was fake meat so it was like this like I'm not eating real meat this is weird it was freaky but it was pretty good it was pretty good I recommend that too. I haven't been there in a few years so maybe their menu changed but I did like the sweet and sour. Okay that's good because I was like I've heard of it because I did some research recently and planning to go to one of these days.

0:27:16
I think it's good. I need to actually see if anything has changed by them and see if I need to go back. Because I started off really small, I was like, okay, let me get something that I feel like would be hard to mess up.

0:27:30
Just in case.

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And plus something that I'm more,

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I'm probably gonna like it.

0:27:35
Let me not be too adventurous now. But yeah, those are good places here.

0:27:42
Yeah, I kind of wish I had like a lot more local restaurants that I recommend. I mean, Bagel Cafe is one of them. I mean, I've been there so many times too, and I really enjoyed their food. And that's, it's so affordable. It's not like the Palm, it's not like Morton's or whatever steakhouse is out there. It's just so good too. I like the Palm. Which is the one that you like, you recommend? The Bagel Cafe as well. Oh, the Bagel Cafe, yes. Okay, good. Yeah, we would mention that a lot in the show and we actually had a guest, like we were actually talking with him previously

0:28:19
and he also recommended that place as well. He likes it. Yeah, it's always packed too it seems. I haven't been there. I guess I really should go since everybody brings it up. Mm-hmm. Well I've been to their South Point location but I want to say that's the same location because that's how I saw it on their website but I could be wrong so maybe I haven't tried it. I need to go to the actual ones off of the 95 in Buffalo. So okay, Summerlin. Yeah, it's not South Point one. But yeah, I recommend it. Brett recommends it. Our previous guests also recommends it. I want to go to more local restaurants that are here because I think that they also need a lot of the recognition too, aside from all these chain restaurants here.

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But yeah, yeah.

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I just think that's funny. Oh, sorry. Oh No, I was just gonna say I just think it's funny because we started off the episode talking about bagels and Talking about bagels If you're on if you're an Eastsider on in Henderson Weiss's is a good place for bagels as well. And like it's I've heard of them. It's a good question. It's little, it's kind of small, but it's good. And also for takeout, it's pretty good too. I have to look at that up for sure, because I'm on the east side. Yeah, because whenever I get sick or my friend gets sick, I always send them the matzo ball soup from there, because they say it's like Jewish penicillin. It's

0:29:56
supposed to be for the heart, and they have the best matzo ball soup in a past episode as well. Oh yes. All right. Does anybody have any final thoughts as we are near the end of the show?

0:30:14
Not really.

0:30:16
Not that I can think of, besides thank you for having me it was really fun and I gotta say you guys are right up my alley we like the same things. I know and you like olives as well we all do so that's that's another good sign. Oh yes absolutely. That's true. Would you like to come back on? Yes I like you guys I want to talk about food more. That's good I look forward to it you know we all do I mean. Yes me too. Alrighty, so I'm going to make this quick since we're very low on time. Thank you again so much for listening to this episode, but I do want to leave with one question and that is, what is that one dish that became your favorite? Please do let us know. Our socials are Unqualified Culinary Critics on Instagram and then Twitter is UNQCLUCRIT. And once again I would like to thank Brett for making an appearance, for giving Our socials are Unqualified Culinary Critics on Instagram and then Twitter is UNQCLUCRIT. And once again I would like to thank Brett for making an appearance, for giving us her food stories, and that's about it. So, take care.

Transcribed with Cockatoo