This is our penis, I mean our poppy episode. We're back in person, doom scrolling and (again) on the very precipice of getting canceled as we welcome Mr Botany and grade Molly. Get out your magnifying glass as we dodge hail, corpus callosum and maw seeds to get to the bottom of what poppy seeds actually taste like.
Matthew's Now but Wow:おひとり様ホテル from Maki Hirochi, author-illustrator of Is Kichijōji the Only Place to Live and Sketchy and other excellent series.
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Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi. I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And I'm Molly. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:06
this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all, and you can't have any. Today
Molly 0:10
we are talking about poppy seeds.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:13
And we're back. We're back in person for the first time in a while.
Molly 0:16
Yes. So I'll be clearing my throat right here next to Matthew, because every time we record in the morning, I've got morning throat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:23
Yep. And I'll be just like,
Molly 0:26
what will you be doing?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:27
I'll be making the sound of the belted kingfisher, which, which a listener kindly sent to me. Which sounds like I'm doing it badly.
Molly 0:38
That's pretty good. You know, I was listening on the way over here to
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:42
bird bird songs. No, no, but I was listening bird songs.
Molly 0:47
I was listening on the way over here to a really interesting planet money episode about Osage had rights. Yes. Yeah. And anyway, the woman who did the imitation of the sound of the oil derrick sounds, you know, not unlike the belted kingfisher. I think you're right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Anyway, today's episode poppyseeds was suggested by listener Toby. Thanks.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:07
listener, Toby. And I have a feeling this was suggested probably years ago.
Molly 1:11
I think so too, because I do remember scrolling past this and our list of possible episode ideas scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Doom scrolling? Yes, they call it? Yep.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:20
Yeah. Oh, God. poppyseed. Oh, onion ring. Oh, okay. These are all good things.
Molly 1:28
So listen,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:29
I listening.
Molly 1:30
I'm ready to start out with my memory lane. Okay, let's do it. Which is that? Okay, so I have talked before about the time in my childhood, aka history when bagels arrived in Oklahoma.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:46
Okay. I'm sure I made the same joke last time was the Oklahoma bagel rush. That's
Molly 1:49
right. Yeah, that's right. And they set up camp in Cassidy square. Okay, at the New York bagel shop. Been there not to Cassie square. And the first bagel that I ever came to call my favorite bagel was a poppy seed bagel. And I think that that was my introduction to poppy seeds. Like full stop. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:10
I think mine was either a bagel or a hamantashen. Okay,
Molly 2:14
you know what, Matthew? I don't think I've ever had a hamentashen
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:18
I should have gotten some I'm not going to make some.
Molly 2:21
I mean, I think that this makes me if nothing else made me a truly bad like secular half Jew. Okay, this makes me really bad.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:31
Yeah, like you already already were like, on the ropes. Pushed you over into into purgatory? That's right. Yeah, I've had plenty of hamentashen in my time. Like, I gotta say, like, I know, I know have like, probably danced around this before. But like, you know, I am Jewish on both sides. And like, there just aren't any like, you know, beloved Jewish foods that are my personal favorites. And I would put hamantashen in that category. I do enjoy a good poppy seed. Wait,
Molly 2:57
so you're saying you're saying it's not one of my favorite. Okay, what about other forms of hum? Like other flavors of hamentashen? All of them are fine. Like, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:05
don't hate them. But oh my god,
Molly 3:08
I'm gonna get us cancelled.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:10
I mean, not you like we've already been canceled ever since you said the thing about biscuits and gravy. Oh. So it's fine. Don't zero listeners laughter We're just we're just like wank and parlor here
Molly 3:31
just to try to unpack it. No, Matthew, we actually got canceled back when we said we prefer cold fruit to room temperature. Okay, so I think actually my first encounter so my dad was Jewish, you know, in the bloodline sense. I'll be it not in the religious sense. So I am not technically Jewish at all. But I remember, you know, I would hear about various like pastries and things that I actually was never offered or never showed up in my house. But when I went to Paris for the first time as like a young adult, like living there with a host family, the mark a was like a newly hip neighborhood. This was a long time ago. And there are a number of really well established Jewish bakeries in the market, which is historically Jewish area in the center of Paris. Yeah, I remember standing in the window. I mean, I would pass by them all the time going to and from the subway. And I remember standing like looking through the window all the time, like marveling at this sheer density of ground poppy seeds in some of these histories in these Jewish bakeries like, you know, more than an inch thick of ground poppy seeds in a pastry and I don't like first time ever encountering that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:57
I don't think I realized until like you no longer After I should have that there's a difference between hold poppy seeds and ground poppy seeds. I think I assume for a long time that they're so small, like, what would you get out of grinding them?
Molly 5:08
You know, I still don't know Matthew, so I'm hoping you can tell me a little bit about it. We'll talk about a little bit because the truth is, is when I did go into those bakeries, or what I bought was this like really dense chocolate cake Sure thing. Oh, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:21
didn't realize you weren't even getting going. I thought you were just Oh, no, it's your your face up again.
Molly 5:26
I would marvel at the poppy seed pastries and then I would go in and buy this like really dense chocolate cake that was like close to a brownie. Sure. It sounds guys. So good. So good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:36
Yeah, so I remember hamentashen and poppy seed bagels like specifically where and when? I don't know. I know. Definitely like New York bagel boys I think was the name of the bagel place near me in the suburbs of Portland. And I'm sure and I know it would get poppy seed bagel sometimes everything bagel which includes poppy seed sometimes. And I remember lemon poppy seed muffins and almond poppy seed muffins also. So
Molly 5:58
my freshman dining hall in college they had I remember on top of the salad bar there were always like slices of cake like plates on plates. And they had a bundt cake. That was an almond poppy seed Bundt cake and I think it was the first time I had ever encountered a cake that was like so intensely almond extract is so good. Yeah. Oh my god. It was so good. It was life changing. Truly, truly. That was where I discovered how much I love almond extract.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:25
Yeah, like I would totally go for an almond poppy seed muffin or cake over lemon poppy seed. I have Betty Crocker lemon poppyseed muffins here because I wanted to have some poppy seed thing.
Molly 6:34
What does the poppy well we're going to eat these and I want to talk about what we actually think the poppy seed in the small quantities in which it appears in these muffins. What we think it actually contributes? Oh, I think it contributes something and we'll talk about Okay, great. All right,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:47
shall we shall we invite Mr. Botany?
Molly 6:49
Yeah. Can I eat a muffin? Well, on his way. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:53
I mean, it's like these are muffins for a box. Are they great? No. Are they fine? Yes. Okay, great. Okay, so what are poppy seeds? Well, poppy seeds are the seeds of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum I've grown them okay. And people have been eating them and using them medicinally for millennia, to the point that the Ebers papyrus from circa 1550 BC from ancient Egypt mentions poppy seeds as a sedative. However, the seeds are relatively low in opiates compared to the rest of the plant. I want to
Molly 7:23
say actually, I haven't grown the opium poppy specifically, I've grown the bread seed Poppy, which used to be illegal to grow sure. Anyway, go on.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:31
No, that was something I did not actually know that you cannot get edible poppy seeds from any kind of poppy that cannot also be used to make opium or heroin.
Molly 7:42
That's right. Okay. So Matthew,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:45
are we gonna get high? We aren't these muffins. I mean, maybe maybe if you really love boxed muffin,
Molly 7:50
you know this, this box muffin is way better than most of what you find in a coffee shop.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:56
It's got some crisp Enos to the edges.
Molly 7:58
Also the poppy seeds already I've got some thoughts on what they're contributing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:02
Okay, so the seeds come from the seed pod. And this is the first time I can remember in quite a while that the fruit that we're talking about is not a berry or a drupe it to capsule oh my god ring the bells of a capital J A capital is just like a it's a very symbol for it. It's just like a like a hard leathery shell with with some small amount of seeds inside. And in this case, it's a lot
Molly 8:24
does it contain like a cassette tape and like magazines and stuff and it was it buried for a while?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:32
Yes, this is this is a time time capsule. It's got what's on the cassette. Do you think Belinda Carlisle into Carlisle? I was he was gonna say like King Crimson for some reason. Um, I think I think of Time Capsules as being like a 60s 70s thing.
Molly 8:49
Okay, so let's Yeah, let's put on there. I don't know. CCR. Yeah. Joni Mitchell. Okay. All right. What else is in in our, our seed capsule?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:00
So I mean, 1000s of poppy seeds. And I learned something while researching this episode that I've never knew before and was shocked if I had said to you it's too late now because you've seen the agenda. But just like take yourself back a few minutes. If I had said to you, what shape are poppy seeds? What would you have said round? Yeah, I would have said spherical? They are not they are kidney shaped. Really? Yes. If you if you put in a magnifying glass, I did not get out of it. I have a magnifying glass. I don't have any poppy seeds other than the ones that are in these muffins. But I mean, we can pull up like a photo of like an electron micrograph that's fine. It doesn't even have to be electronic. I was gonna say Wow, how old do we need this to be? We have to Yeah, we have to magnify at least 2 million times. But no, they're little kidney saved shaped seeds.
Molly 9:50
So cute. So hold on. Can I go back to the capsule really quick.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:54
So I'm capsule Yeah.
Molly 9:55
So the seed pod you say it looks like a little ball with grooves on top and it contains like tons and tons of these little seats. So I just want to add that if you've ever grown poppies especially like bread seed poppies, where this is really visible, I mean, you know when the petals and the statement and stuff fall off you've got this ball up there and it is literally full of poppy seeds like if you shake it it sounds like a little maraca.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:18
Yeah like like every botanically speaking every fruit and like culturally speaking most fruit it's the enlarged ovary of the plant, ya
Molly 10:27
know, and in the case of a poppy It is particularly huge and visibles
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:32
in gorged.
Molly 10:33
Oh corpus callosum. Isn't that the tissue that becomes in gorged in a poppy
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:42
corpus isn't corpus callosum like the like wires between the two sides of the brain?
Molly 10:49
That it was the spongy tissue that holds up here. i You see what I'm using Poppy as a metaphor for
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:00
oh, so So wait, but I don't think I don't think there's corpus callosum in the penis either. Is that what you're getting at? Because I don't think so. Okay, just Google what's in the beat
it's funny, you're you're you're trying to come up with like the the the medical term for like the erectile tissue. Okay. I don't know the answer. Okay, hold on. corpus callosum. Big.
Molly 11:36
corpus callosum is the primary Comitia neural region of the brain consisting of white matter tracts that connects look left.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:45
Uh huh. Pretty important. So that's why Google Well, I don't I do not know how to how to form a search query. Why is it just going to result in a billion Dick
Molly 11:55
emptiness? The parts of the penis Okay, bass shaft glands and foreskin. corpus cavernosum Oh spongiosa
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:09
there's corpus spongiosa.
Molly 12:13
corpus cavernosum and corpus, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:15
one of the things I didn't know I was carrying.
Molly 12:18
You know, I am thrilled. Yes, and I'm,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:23
you know, I'm giving you right you get like an A minus for this. Thank you. D plus.
Molly 12:32
Okay, let's get back to business here. How
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:36
can we Okay, okay,
Molly 12:37
where were we?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:39
Yeah, you're gonna set me up for this fact about like, how many poppy seeds are a diagram?
Molly 12:43
Okay, at gram being very small amount. So like 1/28 of an ounce? Yeah, that
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:49
sounds right. Okay. They're 3300 about 3300 gram and about one to 2 million in a pound.
Molly 12:56
Wow. Okay. So these things are grown
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:00
were mostly Turkey, the Czech Republic and Spain Spain. I feel like every time we look up a plant like turkey is always like way up there on the list. So where like turkey or Turkey is like yeah, is like a real like Monster when it comes to agricultural exports.
Molly 13:17
Yeah, what happens to the rest of the plant? So you said that actually the seeds are pretty low in OPM. Yeah, compared to the opiates compared to the rest of the plant. So what what happens to the rest of the plant?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:31
Yeah, so I didn't realize this that Okay, so first of all, the remainder after after the poppy seeds are harvested. The parts that haven't already fallen off like the petals are gone by then you've got the the seed pod and the dried stem, and that's called the poppy straw. And that is the part that is used to extract morphine and other opiates. And to this day, almost all of the morphine used medicinally is made from poppies. It's not like it can not fabricate it can't Yeah, well, then we artificially synthesized but it is cheaper and easier to just extract it from poppies.
Molly 14:06
Interesting. Okay, and wait, just to be clear, if it were synthesized in a lab, that would be we would call it an opioid as opposed to an oil LPs.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:14
I'm not sure if that refers to like the process of the production process or the chemical structure? I don't know. Okay. All right. And so you have probably heard tell that like, you know, eating too many poppy seeds can make you fail a drug test. I didn't know whether this was like an urban legend, and I didn't know whether drug tests had gotten more sophisticated and would have like fewer false positives. I found guidance from the Department of Defense dated February 2023. Warning service members not to eat any foods with poppy seeds, because it can show up positive for codeine on a drug test. Wow. So it didn't it's not actually like a band. It just it just sort of recommends I did not know that Department of diff beds made strong recommendations. I figured it was always like, you know, do this don't do that. Like what
Molly 15:05
is this stuff tastes like because in truth so I've now just eaten an entire one of these muffins and mostly what I can identify about the poppy seeds and granted we're talking about a boxed muffin mix here but I but mostly what I'm getting is this delightful little crunch yet the
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:21
little crunch, but I feel like I always want to describe the flavor as throaty. And I know that doesn't mean anything, but it's like it's that I feel the flavor kind of hangs out like in the back of the mouth for me.
Molly 15:34
Do you have any just poppy seeds in a jar?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:36
I don't think we do. Oh my god, I should have brought some I should have gotten some.
Molly 15:41
Okay, but I mean, I guess I'm thinking of Okay, so I'm gonna think
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:45
we're gonna spend spend the next couple of hours picking them out of these mouths?
Molly 15:48
No, no, but I'm thinking about the difference in flavor between a poppy seed muffin and a sesame seed muffin, okay, I mean, excuse me a poppy seed bagel and a sesame seed
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:57
to do the thing I just did like, like, pluck one out of there and like, you know, with his little muffin flesh as possible and eat it because it has a very distinct flavor. Like I think of it like, I don't know how to describe it. I'm like a, you know, failed food writer. But I think of it as being kind of like celery in the sense that you don't think of it as having any particular flavor, just texture, but then when you actually eat it, you're like, oh, this has like a pretty intense flavor. No,
Molly 16:22
I feel like I'm still getting like a whiff of the lemon flavoring. Fine. No, but I think I know what you mean. Because like, just think about the difference between a poppy seed bagel and a sesame seed bagel or even a plain bagel, a poppy seed bagel and a plain bagel. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:36
they changed very different from sesame seeds. I'm glad you brought up sesame bagels because while I was researching, I learned that the two most popular flavors of Montreal bagel
Molly 16:46
There we go. I got the flavor. Good. I got the flavor. You're right. There's something vegetal? Yeah, about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:52
The two most popular flavors of Montreal bagel are Glen noir, which is poppy seed and Clen blondes which is sesame.
Molly 16:59
Oh that I like
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:01
also learned this has nothing to do with poppy seeds but that the French term for New York bagels is live Bajau New York que le bagel New York a wouldn't be bombshell. What it?
Molly 17:11
I don't think so. I think they'd say like Lubbock, Lubbock. Get back in
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:16
Lubbock again, you Okay? Something like that. So yeah, so the most desirable poppyseeds it seems like are the bluish ones. But different varieties of poppy produce different colors of seeds. And white and black seeds are also popular, and they all taste about the same. It seems like
Molly 17:32
do you think that if I so right now at home, so we're recording this at a time when it's the beginning of the growing season here? Did you know that the average last frost date in Seattle is April 6?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:44
I didn't know that. Wife is here. Laurie and I were talking about recently how we remember it snowing in Seattle in April like several times since we've since we've lived here like never sticking but like a little flake edge.
Molly 17:55
Yeah, so I have been starting seedlings like in my kitchen in the window. And I some of what I started with California poppies and a seedling is just a small seed. It's like a small plant. I know. Yes. And so my poppies have not done well. So I'm going to direct seed them into the ground instead of transplanting these little seedlings outside. So I've still got like, you know, packets of seeds, because I didn't use all of it. Could I like eat one of them, but like with something grow in your tummy? Would something grow? I love it when you say tell me would like would it taste bad? Like would I die if I ate like a seed that is like a California Poppy seed or? I mean, is there a particular type of poppy? Is it the bread seed Poppy, that all of these edible seeds are coming from
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:47
so I think as long as it's popover Somniferum it produces edible seeds and the other types of poppies don't produce like poisonous seed. They just don't taste as good. Okay, so I think you'll be fine. Like give it a try.
Molly 18:59
I can't wait. Yeah, okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:01
I mean, don't sue me if you're not fine.
Molly 19:04
Okay. I won't sue you. I mean, I haven't sued you yet. And you've given me all kinds of bad advice that
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:10
that is absolutely true. That's a good point. Yeah, I should I should definitely like consider myself in the clear at this point.
Poppy seed paste is the most common filling for hamentashen and if you ever ground poppy seeds, I haven't. I haven't either in a mortar and pestle and mortar and pestle. There's also they also make copies heat grinders with like a little crank. Mm hmm. Which looks fun.
Molly 19:38
Have you ever tasted ground poppy seeds or poppy seed paste
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:42
in a hamantashen? Yes, absolutely. Like straight? No. Okay, that would probably be a good way to really get the poppy seed flavor
Molly 19:49
Sure. In a hamantashen or other pastry like that is the paste sweetened?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:54
It is yeah, okay. Okay, using cakes and muffins. Obviously poppy seed rolls are really common in Central and East You're in Europe in a variety of countries and so like I've yeasted roll cake so like a thin yeasted dough spread with poppy seed paste rolled up and baked and then sliced. I love the thought of that. Yeah, it's I'm sure. You know, do you know the little Prague bakery that shows up? That shows up Prague bakery and founded by members of King Crimson Farmers Market Farmers Market in Seattle. I'm sure they have something like a poppy seed roll. If not literally just a poppy seed roll.
Molly 20:28
Yeah, so Matthew, so something that I think about people loving to use poppy seeds in is salad dressing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:36
Yeah, I sort of forgot that. So I never used poppy seeds. Let's get this out there. All right. Like I like them. Fine. I think they're really good in a in an almond or lemon muffin or pound cake. That's kind of as far as it goes for me.
Molly 20:50
What? What kind of bagel do you order these days? If you go by a bagel
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:54
sesame or cheddar jalapeno.
Molly 20:57
Okay, great. All right. Still no poppy seeds.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:00
I mean, I like I do like an everything bagel. Those usually have poppy seeds. Oh, it's right. And yeah, but if you if you had a poppy seed salad dressing as soon as I googled it there were like a million recipes.
Molly 21:12
Oh my gosh, tons of recipes. Okay, so here's the thing. I think of poppy seed dressings as being on the sweet side. A lot of people like sweet salads. I do not like a sweet salad either. I do not put any sweetener of any kind in my salad dressing. I don't want it Matthew. I think it's snowing. Whoa, is it see? Maybe the flakes look white and and slow.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:35
I think it's I think it's like a wintry mix.
Molly 21:38
Oh wintry mix that's right. Did you see the hail yesterday?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:41
Oh yeah. We
Molly 21:42
were in the hail. I was in the hail to I was outside waiting to wait
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:47
it hailed like right after like we went to see COD's cots j is that kid of the show June came to the show June performing in a children's play and then inhaled like right after that. Oh, I was indoors at the party. Right because Watson I went to get softserve at Indigo cow on on 45th which was excellent and got hailed on
Molly 22:08
Oh, wow. Okay, I got hailed on yesterday. Wow. This is a really interesting tangent. You got hailed on like a cab. Oh, hang on. But Matthew back to poppy seed dressing. I really like actively dislike a salad dressing that has been sweetened.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:23
Yeah, I usually do too. Sometimes. Sometimes I'll get a dressing in like, like a Japanese or Thai restaurant that's obviously sweetened. That kind of hits the spot, but in general, I agree.
Molly 22:33
Anyway, so I have never encountered a poppy seed dressing that I liked. In fact, I would actively avoid anything labeled poppy seed dressing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:42
Okay, you heard it here. Yeah. Oh, that's just didn't we just got more canceled. Apparently they're really good and buttered egg doodles. People do that a lot. That sounds good to me.
Molly 22:53
I would try it. Yeah, sounds really good. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:56
I read that poppy seeds used for bird seed are called moss seeds. This is according to Wikipedia. Molly, you are our local bird feeder. Do you know of mossy
Molly 23:05
stone? I don't know. I use sunflower seeds. Okay, that's really
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:10
interesting. Remember when we did a sunflower seed episode and they were really hard to crack.
Molly 23:14
I still don't understand. I don't understand people just absentmindedly shelling sunflower seeds with their teeth.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:22
I mean, I think it's a thing you do if you've got a lot of spare time.
Molly 23:25
Yeah, I mean, it's this white happens in like the dugout because you're just like waiting for your turn. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:29
yeah, whenever I'm in the dugout, I'm just like, kicking around like to and on. Like I got I got my chaw got my snuff. I got my sunflower seeds. You have your moss. I got my moss seeds. And like by the time I get out to the mound, no to the what's the batter's bite? To the plate? Yes. Okay, by the time I step up to the plate, might like I've like pockets of so many different things in my in various parts of my mouth. And I have that not
Molly 23:58
to mention all the pockets of your clothing. Yes, yeah, no.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:02
I am a walking time capsule. I've got like a King Crimson cassette in one pocket. Why? I don't know. I said it once and then I couldn't.
Molly 24:12
King Crimson for some reason I keep picturing George Clinton and like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:17
like different I mean, both both, like cool people from the 60s 70s. Yeah.
Molly 24:22
Okay. Wait, King Crimson did dancing in the moonlight. Did they? All right. Well, we're gonna find out. I'm not sure if that's right. But your problem right. Oh, King Crimson, it was prog rock. Yeah, no, King
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:35
Crimson did like like 20/21 century Schizoid man. 20th century. I don't remember the title
Molly 24:41
King Crimson hits. Oh, yeah. No, these are they're like weirdos. Yeah, no, this is none of this stuff. I know. What was King Crimson 's biggest hit star lists?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:52
I think so. A King Crimson I think is one of those bands either you know nothing about or everything about and I know nothing. So
Molly 24:59
I I know nothing. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:02
All right listeners like,
Molly 25:04
which Wait, can I share some of the this? The song title? Yeah, please. One is called the Battle of glass tears. Oh, that is probably a hold on hold on. This one I think is appropriate to our show. Okay, this one is larks tongues in aspic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:22
I have heard of that song. I don't know if I've heard it. Yes. Wow, that Yeah, but yeah, that is appropriate. That is next week's topic.
Molly 25:30
All right, Matthew. Anything else we need to say here about poppy seeds? Ma?
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:35
I mean, nah. Okay.
Molly 25:37
We have some spilled mail today
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:45
it's from listener Sophie who writes yesterday I stumbled upon a few old episodes of how it's made and it got me thinking are there any foods you like watching get made watching anything produced at an industrial scale fascinates me even the basics like bread and cheese barley, what do you like watching get made? Oh, God,
Molly 26:01
you know, the first thing that I love the first thing that I thought up I mean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:10
who doesn't? I made this give it his face.
Molly 26:13
You made such a stupid face. You looked at me. You were like, barely stifling. Okay, you know, something that I enjoy and I feel like this is pretty obvious, is I find it intoxicating to watch saltwater taffy being Polo. Yeah, I cannot figure out where the strands are going. Like I don't understand what's happening with the machine
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:36
looks like it was callosum it?
Molly 26:40
Yes, right. It's connecting the left and right hemispheres of the world. It brings humanity together. It really does to the seaside. I know that that's like really obvious, but I find it extremely pleasurable.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:51
Yeah, I have been watching this is not my now but well, but it could be in principle. I've been watching the show on Netflix called the maca nine cooking for the Miko house. Have you heard of this? No, I've been watching Love is blind. Okay, it was recommended to me by a friend of the show Becky selling it. The premise is like these two two teenage girls from from northern Japan go to Kyoto to train as Miko to become geiko geisha, and one of them does really well and the other one is terrible at it, but he's really good at cooking. And so she becomes like the cook for the house where everyone lives and trains to be Miko. There is some amazing cooking and that and like the stuff that I really like watching it made is like not like special unusual food but like ordinary food made by someone who's really good at it, like so, from from my recent trip to Tokyo. So from that show, first of all, like on the second episode, she makes Oyako Don which is chicken chicken and egg odd rice, which is a just beautiful dish to watch being made perfectly like getting the eggs set at the perfect texture and then like doing lates like made with two layers of eggs and then you'd like slide it out onto the rice just like balletic movements. And I love watching tempura get made.
Molly 28:10
Oh my god when you and I went to that tempura place tenta Yeah, yes, that's famous for tempura fried eggs. Oh, no, no
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:18
doubt. Tense que Yes, yes.
Molly 28:20
I could have watched that man. I mean, that man was a real performer. I mean, he loved to like make eye contact with one of the diners sitting at the counter as he is like effortlessly cracking this egg into a cauldron of bubbling oil. Yes, it was amazing to watch him. But anyway, yeah, that was pretty cool.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:40
Yeah, like making temporary like, like, you know that the Cook has to like monitor, like, have a bunch of different pieces in hot oil at the same time and know exactly when each one is going to be ready. The ones who are good at it, like you know, do not do not indicate in any way that this is mentally taxing. It's just like, okay, you know, I know what's going on with that piece. That piece that piece. No problem. It's great.
Molly 29:01
That was a really good question. It
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:02
was a really good question.
Molly 29:03
Thank you so much listener. Sophie.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:05
Molly, what's your snacking? Snacking? Gotta tell me what you snack in. Or I'll release the Kraken. So what's your snack in
Molly 29:17
just so I go months at a time kind of forgetting that Trader Joe's exists? But then when I do go I am always reminded again of the existence not only of Trader Joe's but of baby Bell. Okay, for some reason I only ever buy baby Bell cheese at Trader Joe's Okay, sure. And as a kid I hated baby bell like I just thought it was so weird like the textures weird you know? And as that processed cheese texture it's a little it's like firm but it's also creamy. Really?
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:49
How different is baby Belle from laughing cow
Molly 29:52
you know? Okay laughing cow is more spreadable. Okay. That's what I thought. Laughing cow is almost Yeah, I think laughing How is difficult to like transport without smushing for instance yeah that is true Okay? Whereas baby bowel is like designed to be transported. It is transporting
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:12
I'm now imagining a movie like in the mode of wages of fear where so it is trying to transport a big load of baby Bell laughing cow without swishing yet and it's very intense
Molly 30:24
well this is probably why laughing cow comes in that wonderful packaging the you know, the disk. All this to say I have been really enjoying baby bell in a way that I never would have as a kid because as an adult, I kind of like that weird like mild Gouda flavor and kind of slightly gummy texture.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:47
I haven't had it in a while and Watson does bring it home for Trader Joe's sometimes next time I'm gonna crack into one it's not that I dislike it I just sort of forget it's there. You
Molly 30:56
know, it's not it's not great, but it gets the job done. And it's satisfied. It looks like
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:00
it looks like it's really satisfying to peel the wax off, right? Yes,
Molly 31:03
it is. Yeah, it's just I like the flavor of it. It's quite creamy tasting and creamy feeling Jun had thought that that they didn't like baby Belle. But recently I threw a couple in my bag when I was driving them somewhere and June was like, try one again. They really liked it. But also said you really need to have water nearby when you're eating this like I think the feeling like it's almost like mouth coding. Anyway, like a Celeste pizza for one. That's exactly right. Anyway, but all this to say I'm really I'm having a baby Belle moment and it is a perfect snack.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:38
Baby Val moments. I've been snacking on a gift from mom of the show, Judy Amster it's Valrhona Guana ha PHEVs so 70% Chocolate, like discs are being shaped discs. Perfect for snacking. I have finished them already. But like Valrhona is my favorite snacking chocolate and then she got me exactly what I wanted. Thanks Mom of the show.
Molly 32:02
Way to go, Judy. Matthew, do you have an album wow this week?
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:12
I do. Well, first of all, I do recommend the mock and I cooking for the Miko house. I've only watched two episodes, but it's great. And I'm sure most of our listeners can't stand it when I do this. But as we've established, we don't have any listeners left. So only you can be annoyed with me. But I am recommending a comic that is currently only in Japanese and I don't know if or when it will be translated. But I know we do have some listeners who speak Japanese this is called oh he Tony sama Hotel. Which means like, one one person hotel, okay by maki Hiroshi, who is the author and illustrator of his Kichijoji the only place to live and sketchy and other excellent comic series. The thing I love so much about a Mockito T series is that she will start with a premise that seems too thin to be even called a premise. And then just like spins gold from it for book after book and this is like the first in a new series. And it's about Sheila Collison, a woman who works as like an interior decorator for like a decoration staging firm, I think and like for for research. And just because she likes to goes and stays in hotels by herself. And there is very little more to it than just seeing how this person like lives and like experiencing her internal monologue when she is staying at a variety of different hotels by herself.
Molly 33:32
How do you so Matthew, for those of us who are interested in reading these, whether or not we speak or can read in Japanese? How are you finding this stuff?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:42
My first maki Hitachi book was was one of the key Joji series, which I just found at a bookstore in Japan. And I was like, this looks interesting. And that one has been translated, that one has been translated into only available as an E an e book, but I highly, highly, highly recommend that.
Molly 33:56
Can I find it to the library?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:58
I don't know. That's a good question. But it is, it's on it's on Kindle. And it's quite inexpensive. Okay. And there are six volumes of that. So so this I just saw, she had a new book, and I'm like, she's one of my favorites. I'm gonna get that book. I actually bought it twice by mistake.
Molly 34:13
And did you buy it on Kindle? Like, Oh, this
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:16
one is the paper copy? I can go grab it and show you. No, I'm just interested in how you learned about it. Yeah, this one just because because, like I was already kind of following her. And one other funny thing about this book is that it is based on a popular Instagram account, which I started following, which is just this woman who like, you know, chronicles her stays at hotels and takes beautiful pictures. So maki Hiroshi turned this Instagram account into the premise of a book. Oh my that is brilliant. Yeah. And so like there is there is very little to it other than like you just kind of learn who this person is and why she likes staying in hotels and what she likes and doesn't like about particular hotels. Yet it is a page turner and Like I think maki hito Ji is one of the best writers I know. And I hope her work becomes huge worldwide. Please translate this book.
Molly 35:06
Yay. Okay, very good to know Matthew. Thank you. Our producer is Abby circuit tele,
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:13
please rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.
Molly 35:16
And you can chat with other spilled milk listeners at
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:19
everything spilled milk.reddit.com Great, delightful community. And until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk. I'm corpus spongiosa
Molly 35:30
I'm corpus cavernosum I can't believe you did that man. That's so don't
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:36
you started it
Molly 35:43
our producer wow I need a nap.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:46
I will you have to do a whole other episode. Oh
Molly 35:48
no. Okay.