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Molly 0:00
Hi. I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
And I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:06
And this has spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have any.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:10
And today we're talking about tangerines, I think or Mandarin mandarin oranges, or I'm
Molly 0:17
hopeful that by the end of today's episode, I will understand more what we're talking about.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:21
And I think that's unlikely. Oh, okay, because I did the research for this episode, and I understand nothing.
Molly 0:28
Okay. Well, even though you're like Mr. Mr. Botany.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:32
I know, Mr. Barton user is a regular guest that we have on the
Molly 0:35
show. Is he not coming on today? Oh, no, he is. Oh, okay. Okay, well, maybe just help it. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:40
just like when, when they come when the authorities come for Mr. Barton. Yeah. I wanted to be clear that Mr. Bobby and I are totally different people. Okay.
Molly 0:49
Okay. This episode was suggested by me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:53
Yes. Yeah. And, and what a suggestion it was, what
Molly 0:56
a suggestion it was. You know what, it just occurred to me, I need to wash my hands. Okay. And we need some sort of like a little knife. Okay, well to kind of get into the skin of these because if there's one thing that I don't like, which I'd be happy to talk more about, I really don't like doing that, like initial poking of your thumbnail into the top of the oh, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:17
don't mind doing.
Molly 1:19
Oh, gross. Okay, well, then we don't need a knife. Oh, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:22
Oh, I'll be your knife.
Molly 1:24
Be my knife. Wow, hot. I'm gonna wash my hands. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:27
while you're washing your hands. I'm going to start us off down memory lane. So my memory lane is I remember I don't remember when it started Exactly. But that my mom Judy Amster would get excited every every winter about satsumas in particular, and satsumas would start appearing in our home, and they were very easy to peel and we kids would always be like grabbing little oranges and snarfing them for snack for for a couple of months until until they went away for the season.
Molly 1:58
That's so interesting. I think I was not aware of like little clementines and things like that, that now are so ubiquitous, starting, like around the holidays, I don't think I was aware of them till like, maybe I was in college.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:11
Yeah. And then so then, like, I kind of forgot about them. I mean, maybe we bought them occasionally when we moved to Seattle. But then when we moved to New York, well, la Watteau was in grad school, which still feels very recent, but was 9899. Yeah, that's when we learned that on the East Coast. clementines are more of the winter citrus thing and we would get boxes of clementines at fairway and eat those and I think of climate tines as being like having thinner skin that's a little harder to peel but otherwise being very similar.
Molly 2:41
Yeah, I like that. You made that distinction there like maybe a East Coast West Coast thing. I think that my introduction to these like small citrus fruits was clementines and not Satsuma. Short I think about it. This is a thrilling line of conversation. I'm so
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:57
glad I heard the term mandarin orange before even either of those other things.
Molly 3:02
Well, because it was like Do you remember the little like canned little segments of mandarin orange? And that was always like a big deal. Like when that showed up? It was a huge deal when those showed up. No, as you know, somebody would make their fancy ass salad with their slivered almonds and their canned mandarin orange SEC section.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:22
This is more of a thing that would happen in Oklahoma than a thing that would happen in Portland, but probably I'm sure it was happening in Portland also.
Molly 3:29
Okay, well, anyway, yeah, I think that mandarin orange was a term that like connote it cool orange. Yeah. are denoted, denoted denoted. Gosh. So I think I think connote it. Okay, great. Let's go noodle. Okay. No, but anyway, I can think of beverages and things like that. That would like a brand. orange slice. Yes. That would brag about having like Mandarin Orange.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:59
Orange slice was so good. I can't believe they discontinued it. And yet, if they brought it back temporarily, which I'm sure they will I drink it and be like, Okay, this is orange soda. Yeah, yeah. So the fact that I can't get it means it's the best. That's right.
Molly 4:12
So, uh, yeah, but I do think that, you know, we are living in a produce Renaissance. Oh, yeah. I mean, we are living in a we were writing that flaming dumpster. Right. We've been writing for many episodes, and it just crashed into a huge pile of fruit. We're living in a good time for produce. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:34
we should we should get who's that fruit guy David Karp of that guy. What do you think?
Molly 4:40
Oh, yeah, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:41
real Mr. Botany
Molly 4:42
is the real Mr. Botany. For instance, this morning I stopped by my local PCC which is Puget consumer Co Op. Do they just drop the sound?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:52
Did they drop the sound?
Molly 4:56
Like drop it you just sound consumers
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:59
Yes, yes they dropped the sound consumers nobody ever said like spells out what the acronym is just PCC just
Molly 5:09
PCC and like when I first moved to Seattle PCC was like the equivalent of your like super crunchy like local health food store. And then Whole Foods came along and kind of like pummeled PCC, but PCC has made a resurgence in the last. I don't know how long and I'm really glad because if there's one thing that I can always count on PCC, for it is having a huge array of what ever fruit is in season right now. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:37
there is an impressive trail of oranges on the table here. I don't know how many different varieties I'm looking at. But I'm sure Molly is going to clue me in,
Molly 5:45
hold on. I just also want to say and like I have to make sure that everybody who lives in Seattle knows this that the Ballard PCC has a truly exceptional fruit department compared to other PCCs okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:00
I also contributed I went to Safeway and I contributed one big ugly orange,
Molly 6:06
which is the same kind that I have in a smaller form. What was yours? What a gold nugget? Yeah, that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:14
gotta be Yeah, so we got like, little big nugget and little nugget. Yeah. No, I think nugget ship or big nugget,
Molly 6:21
we should go and discuss these things and then figure out how we're going to taste them.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:26
Okay. So let's, let's hear from Mr. Etymology first, because you suggested this episode as tangerines and I quickly learned that tangerine is not a very well defined thing. Okay. So Mr. Etymology says that tangerine as an adjective originally meant from Tangier, which makes sense, and people began using the adjective to refer to the fruit in the mid 1800s. And according to up to a history of the citrus industry, written by H. Harold Hume and published in 1913, I'm sure you've read it. A citrus grower named major at way grew tangerines and Palatka, Florida and said they were a tangerine variety, meaning that like the seeds or stock was imported from Morocco. Isn't it cool when someone has named a major?
Molly 7:12
Like first name major? Yeah, you know, there was a cobbler in Ballard for a while, who had a dog named major. Yeah, that's the only person I've ever known named major.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:21
I mean, there was a there was like a pig named major in Animal Farm.
Molly 7:24
I think I never read Animal Farm. Isn't that weird? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:28
I read it in high school. I think I only did it before they're both George Orwell. Both Orwell Yeah. Okay. And so botanically, there is no consensus about whether tangerines are a separate thing from mandarin oranges. So some fruit scientists put tangerines in the species, citrus Tangerina, and others and I think I think it's more like people are leaning more toward like, they're just a type of mandarin orange, which is citrus Reticulata, or possibly a non bitter bitter orange, but we'll get into that.
Molly 7:59
Oh my God. And so, why are mandarins called mandarins?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:03
Because they were like, associated with China. Okay, like, at a time when like something being from China was was considered like luxurious.
Molly 8:12
Yeah. Okay. And what is the adjective? Mandarin mean? Oh, I don't know. Do you know, but but let's find out. Okay. It does show up occasionally. And I'm always like, what is this mean?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:25
Yeah, like, are we supposed to say it or not? Oh,
Molly 8:29
yeah, I'm only seeing it as a noun. Looking for the adjective verb.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:35
Well, it's you know, it's a noun that's used it an adjective. I used to know what that was called, but I don't Okay, whatever. Go on. Okay, great. So I'm glad we settled that I'm really glad that we were only we're gonna talk about tangerines and mandarins interchangeably as small oranges the first smash hit tangerine variety in the US was the dancy or dawn see I'm gonna say dancy tangerine da N Cy which was marketed starting in 1867 as the kid glove orange or the zipper skin Mandarin
Molly 9:05
Oh wow. Pretty cool right in Mandarin. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:09
The Danti was like like you know, the the cool the cool orange on the block for like 100 years until declined in popularity in the 70s because new hardier hardier varieties came on the scene that shipped better and were less susceptible to fungus.
Molly 9:24
That's pretty good. That's an incredible run for the dancy the dancy tangerine? Yeah, I can't think of many things that get to have like a run of popularity. That's 100 years long.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:36
Yeah, like Levi's 501 jeans maybe? Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. Oh, the only but that's you know, that's that like proves your point because Cola, Coca Cola, chocolate, chocolate, Baseball,
Molly 9:50
baseball, yes. Okay, here we go. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:53
Most tangerines in the US today come from Florida, and the top varieties grown these days are Merc hot and Calum? In time, we have a Mercato good and Mercado and tine are technically tandoors or dang jars, which are a cross between a mandarin orange and a sweet orange. But like, these are like things that are already heavily hybridized. So like, you know, like go horticulturalists will just cross anything and like at some point you're like this is not really like a separate species it's just like a bunch of stuff mushed together
Molly 10:24
Hold on I'm fascinated by this mention of the merch hot because like when I went to buy these this morning, they were specifically labeled you know, by their type do you think that when merch cots which as you said are a top variety grown in Florida, when they show up in most grocery stores, or they just labeled tangerines?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:44
I think they're often labeled Clementine or like something so one thing I found is that like, the cuties brand which is very popular, like we'll switch between clementines and Mercado depending on like which is more available as the season goes on, so if you buy a box of cuties they may be technically clementines or Mercado.
Molly 11:03
Oh, that's interesting to me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:05
I mean, a little bit yeah, it's very mildly interesting. So now if we throw in mandarin oranges, I'd like theoretically be talking about tangerines up until this point, but again, there's no real distinction. So matters are called me Khan and Japanese and are strongly associated with New Year's and winter in general. So around around New Year's you start seeing a common decoration in Japan called Kagami mochi, which is like mirror mochi, and it's two stacked mochi cakes with a makan on top. And these days that pecan is often plastic but sometimes real.
Molly 11:38
Okay. And one Have you ever eaten Kagami mochi? You don't? It's purely for decoration. Got it? Okay, understand now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:47
I mean, like, it would be like if you showed up so take a bite of it. You would like you'd give them the greatest story of their lives. Okay, so I'm gonna do should do it. Yeah. One source I found but just one that didn't seem very plausible said the the custom of giving mandarins as a Christmas gift in North America comes from the Japanese tradition that in the 1880s Japanese immigrants in the US began receiving pecan shipped from Japan, and everyone liked them. So that's possible. I guess there's no real evidence for it. So the Mandarin is citrus Reticulata. And it is the parent of the big sweet orange.
Molly 12:26
Interesting. So what's the big sweet orange? What? Who's the other parent?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:30
The other parent is a pomelo? Really? Yes. Okay. So you cross you cross a mandarin with a pomelo. And you get a big sweet orange. So when
Molly 12:38
you say big sweet orange, do you mean like Valencia? Evil? One of those? Yes. It's so interesting. You know, in the US, I think of you know, when we were kids, and you couldn't get produce as as yummy as you can now or as varied as you can now. I feel like the Big Three produce items were like big sweet oranges. Red Delicious. Apples. Bananas. Yeah. In other parts of the world. Maybe you don't know the answer to this but our big sweet oranges as as prevalent as they have been in the US at least.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:10
That's a good question. I don't know. I'm going to say yes. In Valencia. Other than that, I don't care too.
Molly 13:18
What about a naval?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:21
In the Navy? Yeah. Okay. Okay, you're welcome. Everyone who now has that song stuck in your head?
Molly 13:29
All right. Oh, my God. Wait a minute. You You just wrote you haven't read John McPhee is oranges.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:34
You know, I should have reread it. Of course I've read it, but years ago, okay. When When did that essay come out? Well, 1982 or so there's a long
Molly 13:42
time ago because I think that he was like It began as an article in The New Yorker. Way before the 80s maybe even the late 60s.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:51
Yeah, that sounds right. Okay, I'm looking it up because now I got to know
Molly 13:54
everybody. If you haven't read John McPhee is oranges. It's a thin little book, nonfiction. But brilliant nonfiction writer John McPhee, and it is about the Florida orange industry and it is so fantastic. I feel like it blew my mind open in terms of what like nonfiction could do. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:14
It was published in book form in 67. So yeah, wow, okay. Wow, classic. Anyway, he goes John McPhee, as John McPhee does goes into a lot of detail about oranges. So the so I said like the big sweet oranges of Mandarin pomelo cross. The thing is these guys here are also Mandarin pomelo crosses because wild mandarins are very sour.
Molly 14:37
Oh and pomelos are not
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:40
I guess not I mean pomelos I think of as not having much flavor at all, but apparently when you cross them with a sour ish orange, you get a sweet orange. Okay, okay, I don't know how this stuff works. Oh, wait, we never even invited Mr. Botany on Oh, wait,
Molly 14:53
wait a minute. Where is he? Is he here? Ah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:55
yeah, hold on it. Hello,
Molly 14:59
Miss survive me is that you? Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:00
Has anyone ever noticed the dead no one ever sees me and Mr. Endermologie in the room at the same time?
Molly 15:09
I love your voice
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:09
no thank you
Molly 15:12
okay what are you going to tell me?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:14
I think that you already went over all the botany stuff so I will see myself out
Unknown Speaker 15:23
okay
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:24
all right before I go back he's pretty cool guy right
Molly 15:30
he really is Thanks for visiting Mr. Botany
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:32
well by now.
Molly 15:35
We can definitely got door closing sound Yeah, but can you insert one?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:39
Um, surge again? Yeah, so when I was a kid that satsumas was was synonymous with like the good mandarin oranges. That's and lately newer brands of varieties like like, seemed like everyone was talking about sumo for oranges for a while, like few years ago and they're still around. Yeah, so I know Molly, what do you look for in a little orange?
Molly 16:01
Okay, well, so I like I cannot stand seeds. I cannot handle seeds. i Yeah, I know what you mean. Like it will ruin everything for me. I feel
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:11
like the like the tolerability of seeds in your in your like fleshy fruit like a watermelon or an orange. It's related to whether you're in a place where you could spit the seeds, right? Because, you know, I
Molly 16:25
don't want the seeds at all. Okay, like it it ruins it. It's like it completely counters my ability to enjoy the fleshy part of the fruit.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:34
Okay, see, I feel like if I'm somewhere where I can just like like spit the seeds on the ground that I have no problem with. It's like trying to figure out what to do with them in a civilized setting. That's
Molly 16:43
the pro No, no, no, no, no, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:45
I should just avoid civilized settings. They don't really suit
Molly 16:48
No they don't. So yeah, I I'm seed negative. Okay, yep, yep, seed negative. I will also say that you know, I don't mind if they're a little bit hard to peel like the thin skinned ones.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:01
Really, really like it when I like you know, what do we sell zipper zipper skin zipper
Molly 17:05
zipper skin? Yeah. Zipper skin
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:08
man. Like it it's very satisfied. Just kind of like be able to like cloth all the skin off. But yes, not at the expense of good flavor.
Molly 17:17
How do you feel about well, so for instance, my child really does not love it when I put these in there at lunch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:24
But you keep doing well. No,
Molly 17:26
I only do it if I have time to peel it for though ahead of time. And I would like peel it and put the naked little tangerine in there. But even then, when June's lunchbox comes back, it is full of like little threads of piffle pulled off. They will not eat the little tiny threads of pith and I don't care I've eaten so much so much orange stuff I
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:51
am very PIF negative like I like even even like after I peel the pith off like still like I'll chew it and then like somehow there's still like a ball path in my mouth. Wow. But it depends it seems to depend on the variety so we'll see we'll see which ones of these are pithier and less pithy let's let's start tasting I'm wondering
Molly 18:16
so this one is a pixie tangerine okay. And I think of a pixie you gotta you gotta crack into it I won't do it I hate it. So I think of pixie tans are tangerines as I associate them with California. I don't know why was the we didn't look up anything about these varieties. But anyway, I think I first learned if pixie tangerines from reading like Che Penney's cookbooks are something where Alice Waters was getting all excited about about pixie tangerines and date sounds like her. That does sound like her. Anyway, so okay, what do we think of this?
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:50
I think it's pretty good. Again, doesn't it doesn't knock me over with flavor. It but it's but it's good flavor.
Molly 18:56
It's a good blend, I would say of sweetness and acidity. What do you think of the blend?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:02
Yeah, I think it's a good blend. Like the flavor is kind of fleeting. I would say.
Molly 19:08
There's a lot to chew. I would say there's actually a lot to chew here. This is a little pithy. I mean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:13
do you store these in the fridge?
Molly 19:16
I do store them in the Yeah, always. Okay, Matthew For our next one. So we'll we'll comment globally as we can, but but taste local. This is a stem and leaf Satsuma and, like, you know, these are the ticket. These are the ones that are like marketed as being stem and leaf so you can always tell them from the other ones because they've got a whole bunch of dried up leaves piled in with them. This one looks like it's waxed. It looks pretty polished. Yeah, like shelf ready, ambitiously perfect. But let's take a look at it. Let's see what it does. Okay, wait, so this is our pixie let's keep this separate. Oh, yeah. Okay, so how, okay, here's the I don't know what variety this is. Oh, This is juicy your has a more floral flavor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:03
This is better than the pixie.
Molly 20:05
I agree. Okay, that's nice. The picture I
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:08
could tell like it was a little too firm as I was peeling it. Yeah, I wanted you wanted to be like you want there to be like a free zone of danger. Like you're going to stick your thumb into it and like juice will come squirting out. Well, I
Molly 20:18
think you're gonna find that to be the case here with the merch caught. Here's our merch caught. Okay. Okay, moving on.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:23
I feel like I've never felt more useful as a person than being like the only person who's willing to stick his thumb through the mattress. Yeah,
Molly 20:32
no, I hate that. I won't do it. Okay, this is this is the merch cot. Which honestly looks a tremendous amount like the thing labeled stem and leaf. It looks a little dry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:43
It's a little dry. This this is not doing much for me. No, no flavor. No, very little flavor. Not very juicy.
Molly 20:49
Okay. All right. Moving this one. Let's get rid of it. Okay, Matthew, let's do so this is called a
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:55
I assume I assume you've got like a whole cheese played strategy laid out here that I'm not privy to
Molly 21:00
know because I was kind of in a hurry at PCC and I just was like let's get one of each and I didn't really read what the descriptors were I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:08
imagining you like like guy hitting up the citrus display PCC like a bear just like
Molly 21:14
okay, this one is called a bear noise. This one's a tango, Tango, Mandarin Tango tangerine. As we've established it doesn't matter.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:22
Right. But it might be a tango, or it could be.
Molly 21:26
Anyway, this one I've not seen before. Surely it's a cross between oh, wait a minute, didn't you find out that the TDE is a cross between a tango and a loop in a bop bop?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:36
I think I googled it when you mentioned it. I just kept joking that it was that it was the top dog entertainment orange and then I forgot everything else about it. I'm pretty good.
Molly 21:45
Pretty good. But I gotta say so far. The Rando like stem and leaf is my favorite.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:49
Yeah, Brando, Brando, but this is this is pretty good. What this is solid. I forgot what this one was again. Tango tango. How
Molly 21:55
are you feeling about the amount of pith we got a lot of pith here,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:58
but it's like coming off pretty easily.
Molly 22:01
I don't even take it off. I just eat it. Okay, Matthew, we've got three types left here. We've got gold nugget.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:07
I can't believe you won't stick your thumb through the pit but you'll put it in your mouth.
Molly 22:11
I'll put the pith in my mouth. Yeah, well, you know, we all have our we all we all have our limits. Okay. Matthew, we have a gold nugget. Okay, we have a Mineola Tangela. I've heard of that. And we have TD ease.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:25
Okay, so what what is special about the TDS I know you mentioned them before.
Molly 22:29
Just this is the first year I've seen them on the market and I have heard on the Instagram many people talking about them being like Oh, wow, have you tried this new tangerine
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:39
and it's they're called the TDS because they're cross between Tango dango
Molly 22:46
dango Yeah, no, you looked it up. Let's find out. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:50
you can look it up this time. got busy sticking my thumb interface.
Molly 22:54
Okay. T D Mandarin. Wow. new hybrid variety. Yeah, it's good. Oh, between temple dancy and encore
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:04
Oh, dancing. So dancing is like making making a play to come back in the form of TDE
Molly 23:09
Okay, so this is super juicy. Okay. Oh, God. I mean, yeah, it's pretty good. That's pretty great. Yeah, God II it's like packets of juice, but not in a way that makes it impossible to eat like out of hand.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:25
Okay, I gotta say I'm I'm on board the TDE train. Oh, wow, you sound this specimen. Oh, that's pretty cool. We
Molly 23:30
got another one here. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:32
this is the Mineola Yeah,
Molly 23:33
do you think we should go gold nugget and then go to the Mineola Tangela Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:37
wow, this gold nugget Hang on. This is this is the hardest one to peel by far to the extent that I may fail.
Molly 23:45
You know what, Matthew? So have you had those sumo things?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:48
No, I didn't get any because I figured you were gonna bring them well.
Molly 23:51
I don't like him that much. Okay, I don't think they're that great. Okay. i
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:57
It seems like like the most important thing if you're if you're want to like market a new tangerine Mandarin variety is to come up with a name. Yeah, TD is like what marketing is but
Molly 24:09
I mean Sumos are cute, but I have found them to be almost like too juicy and and too sweet and lacking in some acidity. And I also found them to be a bit dried out sometimes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:23
There's gold nugget is really good. Like, I didn't think the juice could be worth the appeal. Because it is a pain in the ass. He'll
Molly 24:33
struggling mightily Matthew. Matthew is having to use his like, like weightlifting face.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:42
Check never used for weightlifting. Sure. I really tried peeling face that if I ever decide to
Molly 24:48
wait, I'm really curious. So this is pretty tart.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:52
I like that.
Molly 24:53
I do too. Would you open the big one and we can see if it's just a fluke.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:57
Yeah, so I was at Safeway this morning. I bought a big a big gold nugget this has so much pith it's like it's it's like I don't Oh I kind of don't want to try this but I will because because our listeners it looks
Molly 25:13
like it has like been rolled in powdered sugar you Matthew this looks terrible no This looks awful this is like it looks really dry
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:24
it's no it's not very good the little one was good that's weird huh that's the only one that I would say has a weird flavor.
Molly 25:34
Okay, we got one I'm starting to get tired of these Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:37
We only have one more Mineola All right, okay. My thumb is is is kind of stinging Is there is there if you go if you go to the to the hand hand foot and throat doctor do they were diagnosed people with peelers peelers bomb I just was juicy
Molly 26:13
my next My next door neighbor is a podiatrist. I'll have to ask him he's handsome throats as well.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:20
I mean I'm sure he sees them but just diagnose them okay.
Molly 26:27
I really different thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:28
My feeling about the medial a Tangela which I think is very good is it tastes like like Tropicana orange juice in a carton. It has like a very very like commercial orange juice flavor, which is not a bad thing. I would probably say it's my second favorite after the TD here try the TD again. Except I say I like the the small nugget also. Which one was the small nugget? It was this one little nugget well nugget, your hands like are glistening.
Molly 27:00
Oh, what did you think of the gold nugget? So you just did the Mineola Tangela followed by the TDE followed by a golden so
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:06
actually I think the gold nuggets my favorite I want I want like a really like good balance of tart and sweet not just sweet. Okay, and not just tart but a balance of both
Molly 27:18
Okay, yeah, but yeah, I think I want a balance of like sweetness and tartness both oh god I've heard a seed it's ruining everything. I'm gonna swallow it. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:32
no, don't you know what happens if you swallow? No, I got it out. Your your tummy turns into Florida. All right, so what have we learned? It's time for our recurring segment that we do every time what have
Molly 27:44
we learned? Oh, okay. Well, I feel like a good Mandarin I've got like a good a good map. So good. Mandarin is better than no Mandarin. Okay, great. Yep. Because they're all pretty good. Today a good Mandarin is hard to find.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:01
Yeah, okay. No,
Molly 28:03
I think a good Mandarin is better than no Mandarin. I think the hard thing is finding a good Mandarin now maybe we should actually talk about strategies for not for like not bringing home dried out nasty ones. Okay, do you have a such a stretch? One strategy, I look for heaviness always in citrus fruits. I want it to feel heavy for its size. And that for me is the number one indicator of juiciness. That makes sense. And then I do also like ones that have I tend to like ones that have thinner skin.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:36
Yeah, I think I do too. I've kind of mad at the at the gold nugget because I never want to peel one again. But it was also one and I know like you're not going to peel it for
Molly 28:46
me. So I'm not what you've done the weirdest peeling job,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:50
but it's because it's hard. Oh, look, I'm in it. I'm peeling the rest of it. You're I think you're just so much stronger. Oh, you didn't even have to resort to weightlifting. How's that? How's
Molly 29:04
your thought? Well, you know, women when two women get together, they have sex with their hands. So maybe we have stronger hands.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:11
Wow. That wasn't to say at all, but Okay, yeah. Just like anytime to ask Lori. Okay. All right. So
Molly 29:24
I'm fine on that orange. I could take it or leave it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:26
Okay. Yeah, that was my favorite. So what was your favorite? The TD?
Molly 29:30
I think the TDE or the like stem and leaf. I'm curious about it, too. I'm curious about what the variety was.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:37
Yeah, but I don't like I don't know how much the variety really matters after this experience that it's that it's probably more about like is was it like, you know, picked at its peak and like handled well and like was it was it a just a good orange? With Was it a good seed?
Molly 29:52
Yeah. Okay. Wow, my hands are so strong compared
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:55
to the average episode. We like we like slurped a lot more but learned a lot less Yes, that's right. Because in an average of said we learn a lot. Yes. Yeah. It's because it's because I forgot to invite Mr. Botany and until it was too late.
Molly 30:11
Matthew, do we have a beak of the Week? This week?
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:15
Oh, I think we have several segments. Oh, nice. Nice. I
Molly 30:20
get it. Or they see lists.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:23
No, they're there. They're full of it. There's because birds loveseat Oh, that's right. Yes. So, Reverend a couple of weeks ago, we said we were retiring geek of the week. Yeah. Because we ran out of birds. Well, it's back. Maybe maybe just once, but maybe more than once. Because listeners Susan contributed for the first time in spilled milk history. A user user. Sorry, I was at my other job mentally for a moment. A listener contributed theme song for a segment and let's hear it right now.
Speaker 3 31:01
You've got sharp claws A you can perch up. Hi. You've got those wings because they help you fly such an interesting bird. its beak of the week. Oh, listener.
Molly 31:14
Susan. You shouldn't have this makes me so happy. Like yeah, like, you know how I said that. I like to choose mandarins that feel heavy for their size. Like This song makes me feel so much heavier. From my sighs okay. This song does for me so much more than you would think it would.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:40
Okay, yeah. It's a 10 second song that like brings like
Molly 31:45
100 seconds of joy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:47
Okay, yeah. Joy. Did you replay 100 seconds of joy. And you're like in high school did you not on purpose.
Unknown Speaker 32:11
Okay, all right. So
Molly 32:13
wait, what who's our beak of the week this week?
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:15
Oh are bigger than week this week is a beak that you introduced me to the dark eyed junco Junco. Hi, I'm Alice. And this is a common small bird found on Molly's patio. It's usually kind of hopping around at the base of tree. That's right. And like I'm realizing like, I'm just starting to understand that like, there are a lot of birds small birds of like Sparrow size that I kind of lumped all into the same box or so
Molly 32:39
many like small songbird. Sparrow looking Finch ish.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:46
Yeah, things. And so there are 138 recognized species of New World sparrow and the dark eyed junco is one of them, and it's notable because it has like a very well defined black head.
Molly 32:59
That's right, except Matthew, did you know that that is specific to West Coast varieties?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:06
Oh, I think I did know that because why for the show, Laurie got me like a bird identification pamphlet that is looking at some some various juncos cool.
Molly 33:16
Looking at some various juncos Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:18
so So I'm at the point in my in my bird journey, where like I know enough to be not very smart. Perfect.
Molly 33:27
I feel like I'm at the point in my bird journey where I know just enough to seem like I'm smart. But I'm still not.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:34
I know, you know, a lot more than me. And yeah, so the dark eyed junco is found throughout North America. So if you are found in North America, North America, there's probably one near you right now.
Molly 33:43
There probably is. Yeah. Okay. Matthew, do you have an album? Well, I do.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:55
And I think I might have mentioned Dayla soul in mind now, but Well, recently, I can't remember for sure. But if so I'm picking them again. Which is my right as a co host of this show. That's right. So after being unavailable on like digital platforms for many years, all of Dayla souls early albums are now available to stream everywhere. That includes three feet high and rising, their debut de la Sol is dead and stakes is high, which are all terrific albums. And I grew up listening to Dayla. So like, they were one of the first bands that like a friend and I sort of like discovered on our own without, like an older person playing them for us. I just thought was the coolest thing we've ever heard. We didn't know you could have like skits on an album. We didn't know you could have like short songs on an album. We didn't know that. Like, you know that a hip hop album could be funny. You know, it just like blew our minds and like guy, you know, had been one of my favorite bands ever since. And now because they're on every platform I get to like tell everybody to go and listen to them. Definitely start with three feet high and rising. It is an absolute Stone Cold classic.
Molly 34:58
Awesome. Thank you Matthew. My pleasure. Our producer is Abby circuit tila.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:03
Sure talk about your newsletter. Yeah,
Molly 35:04
my newsletter is back from my parental leave hiatus. Oh, yeah. Yes. It's called I've got a feeling it's on substack you can find it at Molly weisenberg.substack.com.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:13
And I have some. Well, okay, so I'm just gonna say like, Fuck it, I am going to assume that my EP has gotta be out by the time this this episode airs, and I'm gonna throw a song at the end of this song. So my EP is, it's my band is called early to the airport. And it consists of me and Matt Watson. We have a six song EP called departures that should be out now wherever you listen to music, and I'm going to throw my favorite song on that EP, which is called Royal Road at the end of this episode. Well, I'm going to ask Gabby to do it. You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts and you can hang out with other spilled milk listeners at everything spilled. milk.reddit.com and talk about what your favorite Mandarin slash tangerine varieties are or
Molly 36:01
Tango or or Tango or Yeah, I don't even remember what the Tango or was
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:05
it was it stands for Tang or not.
Molly 36:09
Oh, we're back to the like sweet and a little bit of acidity. Yeah, Tang, tang or notes. Thank you for listening to spilled milk
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:19
that way, but yeah, no, that
Molly 36:20
was okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:21
Oh, great. Just it was just fine.
Molly 36:23
Yeah, I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:24
I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.