While talking tomatillos we blow minds and shatter worlds as we conclude that it's all about the journey, not the destination. (But really, what is at the end of Memory Lane?) We follow the lego brick road as we encounter two Sheens, three husks and wakes of vultures all in an attempt to define "slimy".
Easy Pressure Cooker Pork Chile Verde Recipe
Matthew's Now but Wow! - “Consider the Vulture,” by Meera Subramanian
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 have any today we
Molly 0:11
are talking about tomatillos and
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:13
this episode was suggested on Reddit by M Galeazzi. I assume as you right. Well, no,
Molly 0:19
but I love this. It's two E's and two z's. Yeah, I'm really glad that you said it because for some reason I inserted the C in there and I was gonna make it Gliese.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:29
Oh, I think it is a MC Gliese MC Gliese.
Molly 0:32
No thank you McAleese M
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:38
What's that McAleese?
Molly 0:39
Anyway, thanks. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:42
so why don't we begin with memory lane? Oh, where's your memory lane for these little green delights?
Molly 0:49
You know, I think that I was probably eating tomatoes in Mexican restaurants Tex Mex restaurants and long before I knew that I was eating tomatoes. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:59
yeah, my memory lane as sometimes happens to me. You know, we we start the show we set off down memory lane. It's it's like a secret little passage in the woods. And then I realized that I have more memory lane than I thought like as
Molly 1:12
journalists, the road like constructs itself before your eyes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:17
It's like It's like it's more about the journey than the destination. That's right. I am not sure what's at the end of Memory Lane we just die. Oh, or maybe No, no, you you would like regress back like Benjamin Button style and like you're not born yet. Okay. That's at the end of memory lane. Okay, but before you get to that point, when I was a kid and my dad and I aka dot Dempster dots dotser. Dad alive because he's not not as much of like a food person as
Molly 1:51
he does like Richard D does are as big as also
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:55
one of the reindeer. Okay, so dots are loving this. When I was a kid, we went to a salsa tasting at a supermarket in like Beaverton, Oregon, like suburban Portland. I
Molly 2:12
have a question. Did you guys go specifically for that or did you happen to be there when there was a salsa Oh
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:18
no, we went specifically for the salsa taste. We heard salted tasting and we got in the car immediately. I love this knock down memory lane. Okay, go ahead. And so yeah, this was this was like a you know cut upscale a supermarket in West Portland you know now that now that I think back on it, I think this may have been just a ploy to get people in the store to buy more salsa and other things. I thought I thought they did a purely for love of the game. Wow, that's genius. And our favorite one was a green salsa which was definitely a tomatillo salsa with with some green chilies and onions and probably some lime juice in there. And that may have been the first the first time that I became obsessed with a tomato product.
Molly 3:00
So you think at that time you understood that the green color here probably came from a toma tea No, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:06
think I think I just understood that now. Oh, okay, just checking. And then I don't remember when I started cooking with tomatoes, but I'm gonna guess that it is around the same time that I first smelled the ton of maker orchards chili roaster at the Seattle farmers market. They have one of those you know, it's like a like a cage like a big wire cage with some gas gas jets blow and fire into it. And they and they rotate it and it smells good for like miles around.
Molly 3:35
What does this have to do with Toma? Tia
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:37
so like you you would be drawn to their stand by the chili roaster but then they've also got like a bountiful display of tomatoes and I was like, how do you cook those? And I assumed that is probably where I first bought them. And
Molly 3:50
we shouldn't say to that ton of maker not only like roasts chilies, but they grow I think more different types of chilies than any other grower I'm aware of at this. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:01
it's probably like, probably tight race between them and offer as far Oh, that's
Molly 4:05
a good point. That's a good point.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:07
But yes,
Molly 4:07
so what are these things? Because, like, how is it different from just an unripe tomato? Okay, so a dumb question. It's
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:14
not a dumb question. It's, it's not just an unripe tomato, and we're gonna make that abundantly clear. However, I didn't think I was gonna like learn anything that like shattered by world while researching this episode, but I did and it's botanical. Whoa, okay.
Molly 4:28
shattered your world sounds bad. Like have you been like just a brief break in you're crying It's Have you been Have you been crying ever since?
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:39
No it what's the opposite of like, it blew up my blew up my spot. No.
Molly 4:47
It it. It it blew my mind with awesomeness it blew
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:52
my mind with awesomeness. Yeah. Okay. It's like that. That isn't there a song from like the Lego movie about how everything is awesome. Now You haven't seen The Lego Movie? I haven't either. Okay, okay. Have you played if you played any of those like Lego video games on your phone now? Maybe they're these are these are things I know exist. Have you? Have you assembled a large Lego set anytime recently? Yeah, I have. I have well what was it? Castle? Like, like a horse facility.
Molly 5:21
It was a Harry Potter themed thing. It should have been the night bus. I mean, I wouldn't call that a large Lego thing but it was know a little while
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:29
since since I like you know, when a cots D was younger. We did some pretty large like a like a haunted castle type of Lego thing. And like that is that is a real job. I
Molly 5:39
don't understand the thrill of Legos because they put like put you on blast. Together. That's correct. Which is kind of tedious. kind of hurts your fingers sometimes. Oh, yes. And then you've got this thing. But like, there's no kid in the world who likes to play with the built Lego thing. I think they're super put it on the shelf and enjoy it. Or they take it all apart again and add the parts to their bin of Lego piece that never gets used. That's right. So it's like basically yeah, no, it's all about the process. It's about the journey, not the destination the journey
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:22
not the destination and then like it yeah, then as soon as they finished assembling the the Lego thing that you've probably paid $75 For then then they want the next one. That's right River. Okay. Couple of things when we're thinking about Legos because this is our Lego episode. This is my fault. Do you have you seen the Lego Friends pony washing station? Yes. Okay, yeah, that we got like, we are still buying Legos. Let me be clear, yeah. Have you ever done nano blocks?
Molly 6:44
No, but I saw them at Kinokuniya. Okay, yeah, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:48
nano blocks are like little tiny Legos that hurt your fingers more. Okay, so, I recommend those as well.
Molly 6:55
Okay. Do you have to use tweezers?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:57
You probably it would help Well, if
Molly 6:59
you step on one, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:00
guess you seven will you have to use tweezers to extract it. That's right. All right. Okay, a tomatillo is a small fruit they are most often green but that can be yellow or purple are kind of a mosaic of the three it grows surrounded by a sticky papery husk. And they are most common in Mexican cooking and but have like become a beloved part of Caribbean cooking as well and have been part of Mesoamerican cuisine for millennia. Why
Molly 7:26
is the husk sticky? I mean, it makes the fruit sticky to what do you think that's all about but
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:30
it's got to be some sort of, okay, so I am going to guess this is this is a guest that they'd probably the sticky stuff has some like like anti past like you know, natural pesticidal properties of its own and also just helps the husk stick to it because the husk is obviously protecting the fruit also. Okay, okay, like what is it being protected from versus like, what is it what does the plant want to eat the fruit? I do not know. Okay, okay, we should ask the fruit we should ask the fruit Yeah, they're they're in the five solace genus. There seem to be two species phi solace Philadelphia and phi solace ik so Carpa but as far as I could tell that species names seem to be used kind of interchangeably. And you can find lots of claims about like, you know, if, if it's like this color, it's this species and if it's this color is the other species or like this one is usually used raw and this one's usually used cook. I think they're the same. Okay,
Molly 8:25
you heard it here. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:27
So here's the thing that blew my mind. Are you ready? Yes. So when you roast tomatoes like over an open flame or in the oven, which I do often they smell kind of like green chilies more so than roasting tomatoes. And it turns out that so so tomatoes tomatoes and peppers are all in the in the Solon AC Family. They're all they're all the same botanical family. Tomatoes are much more closely related to peppers than two tomatoes. Interesting. So they are sister taxa the the ffice Alice part of the tree and the and the pepper, the capsicum part of the tree. Wow. Okay, that's very interesting, like the phylogenetic tree not like an actual
Molly 9:11
tree, so they're more closely related to peppers than to tomatoes to recap.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:16
Yes, that's correct. Have you imagined another kid big out of nowhere, but it's gonna make sense in a minute sort of. Have you ever played buying craft? No, I haven't either. You haven't? No, I'm
Molly 9:28
very surprised. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:29
but I heard on one of my favorite podcasts get played comedian Heather and Campbell describe Minecraft is a game where you punch a tree until you get enough wood to build a bench tells me everything I need to know about Minecraft. Yeah, yeah.
Molly 9:44
I don't know anything about Minecraft. But that sounds very evocative.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:48
Yep. So the tomatoes they're closely related to ground cherries, which are like a little fruit that looks kind of like a mini tomatillo. It's got a little husk and other husks to Nightshade. It's Oh, I'm
Molly 10:00
not aware of other husked Nightshade. Well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:02
there are some. Okay, great. And most of the world's tomatoes are grown in Mexico and Guatemala. All right,
Molly 10:08
okay. And so are they called to Mateos in Mexican Spanish?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:13
I'm not equipped to answer that question but I have a friend who is Is it Mr. entomology sure is okay
Molly 10:27
so he knows about like different languages and stuff too. Yeah, Mister Mister multi linguistics? Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:33
Military, Mr. Mill, Mr. Mr. Military man. Okay, so, these things go by a lot of names. And so the word tomatillo comes from no bottle tomato. And allegedly According to Wikipedia, these are sometimes called husk tomatoes or Mexican ground cherries in English, but Mr. Etymology has never heard anyone say this. Okay, and the like will get boring further into like, what are they called in Mexico in just a minute, but some of the other words related to them that I've already said it so Carpa is enough by solid so Carpa means slimy fruit. And specifically refers to the tacky stuff between the husk and the fruit
Molly 11:18
but that's the opposite of slimy Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:22
guess it's more tacky than slimy but I mean, yeah, opposite is a strong word. I feel like I feel like marble is the opposite of slimy what? Like like so like like slimy slimy like I think it was kind of like you know Luke Luke warm and sticky and wet. No. Slimy
Molly 11:42
is like as slimy is
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:47
as slimy does
Molly 11:49
I guess it's sticky but fine. You're right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:53
So it doesn't have to be very sticky in order to be slimy. I hard to describe slimy, isn't it? You know it when you when you stick your hand in it? That's
Molly 12:00
right. Boogers slimy, Ogres are slimy, and they're both They're slippery, but they're also a little bit sticky. I can concede that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:09
You had a Delta you're the parent of a young child's right.
Molly 12:13
That's right. Yep. Okay, what about ffice? Alice
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:17
okay. So if I solace was coined by Linnaeus and comes from the ancient Greek for bladder or wind instrument, and as far as I can tell, this must refer to the puffed up husk. Because like otherwise, what does that have to do with anything?
Molly 12:31
Yeah, interesting. Okay. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:33
So in Spanish, here are some just some of the names in circulation. Okay, so you ready? Tomahto Cascara which is a husk which means tomato with a husk tomato, the phrase idea is that like wait, is that like strawberry? Yeah, like a little strawberry tomato. Okay. Uh huh. Tomato beer today. This checks out photo Lido little lantern. Ah, that lantern plant. I think that's the same same same family also. Okay, Muto monta. I don't know what that means to mark just Tamati in parts of Mexico, where tomatoes are called heat. Tomahto
Molly 13:05
Wait a minute in parts of Mexico where tomatoes are called heat. Tomahto Yes, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:10
tomatoes are called tomato. Did I say it wrong?
Molly 13:13
Well, you said whatever. Yes. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:16
there's no way to find out. We're not recording. Absolutely not.
Molly 13:19
So okay, so you cook with these quite a bit quite a bit. All right. So tell me what you make other than Well, the tomatillo salsa that we're going to talk about in a second. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:30
so these are one of my favorite foods and have been for a long time. And like aside from just being incredibly delicious, they are a strong flavor and texture. So like you know, you put them in something when you want toma to taste and tomatillo texture we'll get to the texture in a minute. But so it's not like a subtle seasoning that you'll throw into that you'll throw into something but they are quite versatile and they are available in good quality year round unlike their friend the tomato and do you just tend to buy them in like your western supermarket I do accept so in season they grow locally from like mid mid to late summer into fall and then I will prioritize getting the local ones from Taunton maker or Alvarez farm. And then sometimes you get like the purple ones, which are really sweet. But generally like any supermarket that you know, even even some that don't like serve, serve like a Latin American customer base will have a good good quantity of tomatoes, but like the Safeway chain around here like tends to be good for Latin American ingredients. So like I will usually when I'm going to make salsa I will just put salsa stuff on the shopping list and I know that what I mean is tau Mateos serrano chilies and cilantro. Okay,
Molly 14:46
this this sounds delicious. Go on.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:49
Okay, so you got to start by removing those husks. You gotta you got to peel off that husk and sensual way
Molly 14:56
and do you do it like under running water or do you do it when They're dry What do you do
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:01
know it's easier if you get them wet. Oh so so I put my tomatoes in a bowl I put that bowl in the sink and like run some water into it and then I kind of just peel them under the Stillwater
Molly 15:11
got it Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:12
okay do you find that Still waters run deep?
Molly 15:15
Yes they do whoa yeah Does that just
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:19
mean like is that just like a nice way of telling someone to shut up or is it like an observation about people who are quiet or both both okay where was it? Oh yeah so yeah so then I like husk them husband in the bowl, dump out the water and then like rinse them a couple more times until the water no longer is like soapy because the
Molly 15:39
I assume the till the Exo stuff is all kicked off.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:43
Yeah I do the extra stuff is has like some modifiers in it.
Molly 15:46
Oh does it get bubbly? Yes. bubbly. Yeah. Okay. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:51
then you can use a raw or cooked okay
Molly 16:02
so you are going to talk about texture. How is the texture different from like a firm tomato for instance. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:09
more pectin, so like you know, tomatoes tomatoes have a lot of packed and that's what makes them kind of jellied inside what like, you know, makes a tomato sauce thick. Tomatoes have more of that. All right. Okay, so like stuff made with with especially cooked tomatoes. They work as a thickener.
Molly 16:26
And I noticed I've sometimes noticed in like a cell severity that there is it it has a certain sheen to it. Yes, he totally does. And is that from the pectin? And
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:36
you mean Martin Sheen, right? Do
Molly 16:38
I have
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:40
this joke every time you say the word? Everyday either? I said the word sheen. Yeah, you're thinking Charlie? Yeah, I
Molly 16:45
was thinking Charlie Sheen. Yeah. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:47
you open up a little tub of salsa from the supermarket and Charlie Sheen steps out.
Molly 16:51
That's right. Yep. It was really alarming the first time and now I just get used to
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:55
it. Right? You can become inured to almost anything. Yeah.
Molly 16:59
I mean, I'm always glad to see that it's Charlie and not Martin because I had a big crush on Charlie Sheen when I was a kid. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:06
then I think that maybe like not a lot of people would say I was glad to see Martin. Martin
Molly 17:14
is like more presidential. But the part of me that lives on memory lane. Yeah, no, I hear you loves Charlie Sheen. Why at least like circa 1980? Some has
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:28
Emilio esta vez ever ever. Out of Europe. He's only he's only half
Molly 17:33
tomatillo so I have to have a tea. Okay. Isn't he half sheen?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:38
I thought he was all sheen and just like decided to use the original family name rather than I have no
Molly 17:45
idea. Yeah, we're definitely we're definitely treading into, into into tears. Can
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:51
we call about this? We're supposed to call Ken albala When we have a question about like culinary history, but we may have to we have to call someone else for for like sheen, Sheen talk. Okay, Emilio asked, ever ever. Okay, I need to switch from Japanese to English Wikipedia. He's the son of Martin Sheen and the older brother of Charlie Sheen. So yeah, he's all all sheen or all esta vez depending Oh,
Molly 18:15
wait, so why so but he used esta vez to distance himself from the machines.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:20
I don't know why if I may, I would have to like read more than one sentence into the Wikipedia article and I'm not going to do that but but you know, actors they do they do a lot of things.
Molly 18:30
They do so many things. Hey, let's try talking about tomatoes again. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:33
Told me to do so many things. So So yeah, so they have A cian whichever one you want whichever one you want. And you but you can make a raw tomatillo salsa like by just chopping them up and then then they've got like a little bit of like, like a little tooth to them. I wouldn't say crunchy. Exactly. And how's the flavor different? Much like brighter and sharper. Okay, when they're raw. Okay, although they are they are still a very tart fruit when even when like fully broiled and pureed? Yeah, okay, which is what I love about it. Do
Molly 19:07
you usually make like a roasted or broiled tomatillo salsa then always
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:12
always okay. I like I've occasionally had a craving for raw tomatillo salsa in the summer when I got like the local ones, but 99% of the time, they're going right under the broiler. I'm going to put them on oil them whole, I bribe them whole, okay, it ends up being like possibly I'm just not preheating my boiler enough or possibly like some water is boiling off the surface, but I tend they tend to go like seven minutes on one side and three minutes on the other side. And you don't have to be afraid to get them like blackened they're gonna be great.
Molly 19:42
Okay, and then do you peel off the black stuff? Nope. Oh, it's right to the saucer. Okay, great. So the whole you dumped the whole thing into the blender. The whole thing
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:49
goes into the blender or the food processor along with roasted so while the tomatoes are roasting in the oven, I've got some serrano chilies and garlic In a skillet just hosting in a dry skillet and what form is the garlic wonder how many times I've gone through this salsa recipe on this? Yeah,
Molly 20:06
no, it's okay. I don't remember it at all. So, what do you do with the garlic is it in the husk?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:12
It's in the husk. Wow, we've just met our second husk
Molly 20:20
been a really big day for us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:21
We I mean, you You taught me taught us about the human sack, but what about what of the human husk go on. I've got some garlic garlic in the husk. And and if you serrano chilies in in like a small cast iron skillet and he's kill it would be fine on the stove, just like slowly roasting until they get a little color on them. And then I'm going to husk the garlic. I'm going to cut the ends off of the the chilies and then I'm going to whiz that all up in the food processor with the roasted tomatoes. Some like a good teaspoon of salt touches sugar. And I think that's it and then that's that's kind of the base for the salsa. Okay, and then that salsa base you add water to thin it out chopped onion and cilantro. Ah
Molly 21:06
so the onion is the onion is fresh and gets added later. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, okay, after after it's cooled a bit. Okay. And you you wrote here that because of the fresh cilantro this is only good for about two days. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:20
so like the salsa base, which is all cooked stuff could probably live in the fridge for a few days. But why? Because you're gonna want to eat it before that. But once you get like raw onion and cilantro and it's only good for a couple of days, but then you can turn it into Chick Fil A's if you have any leftover.
Molly 21:34
Okay, okay. And do you use this in other recipes like Do do you ever make like a chili bear day or something like that? Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:41
So the chili verde doesn't doesn't come from the salsa but I will make a chili verde like chili verde in the Instant Pot friend of the show Kenji Lopez alt has has a recipe for it, but you don't even really need a recipe. So we're throwing Keji under the bus.
Molly 21:57
Wow. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:59
but like his recipe is a great starting point.
Molly 22:01
So you take this episode has we have put two beloved American institutions on blast Legos,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:07
Legos. I love bezahlt and, and then we redeemed Charlie Sheen. Like we traded. We traded in Lagos and Kenji Lopez Alt for Charlie Sheen
Molly 22:17
and we met to hast
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:20
us so far. Like who knows how many more husks we will meet in our lives are the rest of this episode. I can't wait to find out me too
Molly 22:30
chilly Faraday but anyway, we don't need a recipe but look up Ken cheese. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:33
Yeah, but you throw your throw some pork, some some chili, some tomatoes. Basically, that's absorbed into into the Instant Pot. You cook it for like half an hour. And that and then you take the pork out you puree the rest and basically that's it. It's so good.
Molly 22:50
Yeah, yeah. I you have made it for me is delicious. Enchiladas
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:55
like enchiladas VEDA days. Those are one of my favorites. Like I usually make them with like chicken and whatever kind of cheese I have on hand. And like a quick like, you know, again, like I'll roast over some tomatoes and puree them with like some garlic and onion. So you
Molly 23:13
wouldn't just use your roasted tomatillo salsa.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:16
It's too strong to be used as like an enchilada sauce by itself. So the enchilada sauce needs to be a little less a little thinner and less spicy. Okay, that makes sense. But like in a pinch, like if you thinned it out and use it as enchilada sauce. Would it be bad? No.
Molly 23:33
Okay, so when I'm making chilaquiles, which you and I just ate for lunch? Yes. I usually use la victoria brand like jarred salsa verodin. We keep that on hand all the time. And the first ingredient of that is of course, tomatoes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:48
Would you say a jar is a kind of husk? No, I don't think so. either. Okay, but it was worth a shot. Okay.
Molly 23:54
Anything that we should say about La Victoria. I mean, I think it's a delicious product. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:59
think it's a really good jarred salsa. Yeah, it was good. Like the medium like chunky green salsa. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah,
Molly 24:05
it's great. Yeah, very tasty. Anything else?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:08
I can't think of a time that I used to Mateos without also using green green chilies in there somewhere. Like it just seems like they go together like perfectly. Some foods are just like that. Yeah, yeah, they go they go together like like whichever like cheese and macaroni and cheese and macaroni like, like, Sheen and whichever whichever other sheen gene is getting along with at this point. Have you ever had waveless divorce Jada's? I have? Did you have the med send your moves which is
Molly 24:40
now called the move so loose or something like that? Or the Sinjar? Yeah, I don't know. Yes, delicious. The
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:47
so what's the worst CROs it's like eggs like fried eggs served with green green sauce on one side and red sauce on the other side and the green pure green sauce will leave made with tomatoes. Typically no and usually some some nice beans on there and not so good. So good. So good.
Molly 25:05
Oh, what about puzzle a? Green forms?
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:09
So they bear day. Oh good. Okay. Yeah so like made with with like a toma to base there's gonna be chilies in there probably lots of cilantro maybe other herbs also. I haven't made for Solia too. So good. What
Molly 25:23
about things like chicken chili? Does cat sometimes use tomatoes? Like
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:28
a like white Chili Chili? That's something I haven't made in a while but I wouldn't be surprised i Yes, get definitely there are recipes for that with tomatillo.
Molly 25:38
I remember there was a period of time after school when I would go to I don't even remember now what the bookstore was called, or the cafe that was attached to it. This was an Oklahoma City. Yeah, I would go to this cafe and I would get an iced mocha. Of course, and I would get a cup of their white chicken chili. And then I would get a poppy seed scone to go and this was like my afternoon snack after school in high school. Awesome. So random. Yeah, yeah, it was in a strip mall. I mean, as most things were in my childhood,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:11
yeah. Have you been to this is just mocha related. Bollinger's Bolin, Jers
Molly 26:16
volunteers books, some volunteers
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:19
books, okay. Yeah, so he's still there? Probably not now. It turned into bowling or his bowling alley. Yeah. Have you been to this is my this is mocha related. It's not it's not toe to toe related. Have you been to Hello M coffee house in the International District? No, it's so great. First Weitzel and a cots D wet and then they told me you've got to check this place out and then I went with Watson the other the other morning we walked down to the ID it is like a little Vietnamese coffee house. It's just a wonderful space with like, you know, like sort of community like history of the community like in in like a timeline on the wall that I couldn't stop reading. But the coffee drinks are so good and so inventive. So it's everything from like, you know, like a classic Vietnamese iced coffee.
Molly 27:04
There was like an like an a layer of like whipped egg or something on top of a coffee drink that
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:11
December God that they loved. I tried the Viet mocha which is a mocha made with condensed milk and my low malted milk powder. Oh, wow.
Molly 27:20
So smooth. Okay, and so this is a coffee shop.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:23
It's a coffee shop called Hello mo in Seattle. Highly recommend. Okay, I
Molly 27:27
want to come meet you there.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:29
Let's do it.
Molly 27:30
Let's do it. We have some spilled mail.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:32
We sure do.
This bill Bayless from listener can and we're gonna give his phone number here on the air. Just kidding. Listener Ken obala says, of course, you should just call me followed by his phone number. And this is a response to our spaghetti episode. So
Molly 27:51
listener Ken albala. We will keep your phone number to ourselves. He says spaghetti is complete nonsense. There's so much more to say. Durham, semolina is from the Middle East, not Northern Europe at all. Macaroni was the generic name for pasta in Italy from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. But most importantly, you can extrude pasta without a complex machine. There's a video of me doing it on YouTube with a torch to odd Beagle on a what? It's some sort of pasta extrusion device. Okay, okay, thank you, Ken albala Wow, I want to watch this video on YouTube. So So
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:29
apparently, we everything we said on this beginning episode was wrong, but I thought it was a pretty fun episode. Anyway. Remember how he kept saying like, in our subscriber newsletter, like our running joke was that we've never done a spaghetti episode and never will. Well, now we know why we shouldn't have done it. Yeah. Okay. No, it's fine.
Molly 28:48
Matthew, what's your snack in? Hey, watch
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:51
your snacking. Daddy. Gotta tell me what you snack in. Or I'll release the Kraken. So what should snack in just I'm snacking a new flavor of turtle chips. The chips that we basically did a whole episode on but I still can't stop talking about them. This is juega flavor. And it's basically like their flaming lime but not as sweet and a little bit spicier. Very tasty. Okay.
Molly 29:19
You know, Matthew, I've been snacking on corn muffins. The recipe we talked about in the corn muffins episode from from Cook's Illustrated. Yeah. Did we link to that in the show notes? Yeah, okay. Okay. Well, anyway, we were having some friends over I think maybe like a total of eight or 10 people and so I made a double batch of cornrows. Okay, so like 2424 muffins, and I knew that we were going to have leftovers. But it turned out that these people like didn't eat very much. Or like it maybe had a max of one muffin each. So Matthew, we have been steadily working our way through through like a whole extra dozen corn muffins and I had the last one I think over the weekend Do you pop them in the oven for a few minutes? Yeah, so I just once they're cool I freeze them in like a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag and then I've even you know it the texture is not the greatest but I've even taken them straight out of the freezer and just popped it like on a paper towel on the defrost setting in the microwave till it softens up a bit then put it in the toaster for a minute. love them so much. It's such a good recipe. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:32
I'm so I'm so glad that you that you got onto the the muffin train.
Molly 30:36
I'm on the muffin train.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:37
Do you know what the first step in making corn muffins is? You have to remove the husk. Oh, I was thinking it's the third
Molly 30:48
Oh, we did it. We attained the third husk level. The third husband walked the third house.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:54
I was gonna I was gonna try to make a joke about the movie The Third Man, but I don't remember anything about that movie, although I haven't seen it. And like no one wants to joke about an old movie. Anyway, Matthew,
Molly 31:03
I hear you have a now but wow
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:13
this is a crossover now. But wow slash geek of the week. Okay. Okay. Because it is an article from the New Yorker, a magazine that maybe you've heard of. Did you read this article? No. Okay, no, I haven't even heard of it. So it's by Mira Subramanian, and it's in the January 31 issue, and it is called consider the vulture. And I'm gonna I'm gonna read a couple of bits from the article which is, so it's an article about efforts to conserve like critically endangered vulture species in Nepal and India. But it is also a piece just kind of in the John McPhee New Yorker tradition of like, I'm a great writer. I'm very curious about vultures. I'm going to share with you in a very entertaining format. Like all of the things I find interesting about vultures that I learned along the way, Oh, fantastic. Vultures are completely awesome birds. And if you don't already think so you will after reading this article. So here's a couple of couple of clips. Quote, a group of feeding vultures, which is known as awake can transform a hulking carcass into a bare skeleton in the time it takes a human to fix a pot of rice. Wait
Molly 32:15
a minute, hold on, hold on. I just have to say a group of feeding vultures is known as awake apparently, god that's so good. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:22
She also writes the vultures were so gross that they were gorgeous. It's easy to shun vultures as dirty and disgusting or as harbingers of death but they're more like Undertaker's performing an essential job and receiving little thanks for their work.
Molly 32:34
Oh, thank you vultures. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:36
yeah, I think you'll enjoy this article. It's also sad that all of these falters species have become endangered, but we're trying to fix that. But cool, cool birds. Great article, The New Yorker. It's a magazine. Okay. Hey, our producer is Abby circuit tele. Yes. And you can rate and review us. We'll plug our show. This is this is our show and you can you can plug us into the internet. And we'll and we'll light up. And you can also rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.
Molly 33:03
You can chat with other listeners, you can get plugged into the conversation. Wow with other spilled milk listeners at everything spilled milk.reddit.com And until
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:13
next time, where we're emerging from our husks to greet a new day.
Molly 33:19
Ah, that's me stretching and coming out of my house. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:23
feel like it would be more sound more crackly. If you actually had a husk? It does a husk have to be dry. Is that is that like an inherent part of a husk? Maybe? Yeah,
Molly 33:33
yeah. Molly Weissenberg. What
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:35
what a wet husk. Molly wizened bird and I'm Matthew Amster-Burton
I don't we don't need to plug today. I
Molly 33:48
don't I don't want to plug anything. Yeah.