Turns out we've got another climax in us so we're bringing you a second treatise on Italian Sodas. Molly gets caught pneumatic tube cheating while Matthew attempts a keynote joke as they sip these grown up sodas that still aren't peaty enough for our tastes. Listen, we've been using divining rods to do vibe checks since time immemorial so trust us to know the difference between France and Italy.
Matthew's Now But Wow: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
Molly 0:04
I'm Molly And I'm Matthew, and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all and you can't have any. There we
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:11
go. And today we're talking about Italian sodas two. Yeah, okay,
Molly 0:16
just when you thought Italian sodas one was sort of anticlimactic enough. No, no, we have more than another climax. We have a whole other show.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:25
That's our new That's our new slug. And we've spelled out we've got more than another climax. I don't even know what this means. Yeah, I heard words coming out here.
Molly 0:39
My lips were moving. No, but anyway, Italian sodas, too. All right, so what does this mean? So in our previous Italian soda, previous climax, yeah, our previous climax, we talked about Italian sodas, as in that thing you get when you mix Torani or Da Vinci syrup with sparkling water. We didn't like that thing. Very like that thing, very much. But there's this whole other category of Italian sodas that actually maybe comes more readily to mind for you listener today,
Speaker 1 1:09
Yeah, cuz, like, if we invited you over and said, like, come on, come over to our place for Italian sodas, you'd probably be surprised if we pulled out bottles of syrup. Maybe, maybe, maybe, I don't, I don't even know if you would, if you would accept the invitation, to be honest, probably not.
Molly 1:24
But what we mean is a category of, sort of like soft drinks, basically, yeah, that are mostly, I think, made by the the Pellegrino or the San Pellegrino company. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:34
there, there are some other makers. Now we're gonna try a couple of them, but I definitely think of it as a Pellegrino thing, yeah,
Molly 1:40
so like the orange Chada beverage, limonata. There's also Rachel Rosa. There we go. And then there's quinoto, which is, I think, the kind of extra sophisticated. Oh yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:53
we've we've got it. We've got all the ones you mentioned. I think we also have a grapefruit, one, maybe a couple of different aranchadas to compare. It's gonna be a big day here in Italian soda land. I think these are gonna actually be good for the most part. I think so too. What's your memory lane with these guys?
Molly 2:09
I remember my parents introducing me to Orangina, which, to be clear, is not an Italian soda. Have we done an orange Gina episode, like we've had Orangina together, Orangina together, but maybe, did we do like an orange soda episode? You know what? I think we did? You know, we could probably find this out. Nope, there's no way. Okay, well, then I'll move on. I remember my parents introducing me to orange Gina. I don't know I was an adolescent at some point, but, you know, many of us were, but around the same time, I remember being in a restaurant or something and wanting this new drink. I had discovered Orangina, but they didn't have it, but they had this other thing called aranchada, which came in a can, unlike Orangina, which always came in a glass bottle. Yes, I tried it, and I was not displeased. Oh yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:01
it's good stuff. Do you remember? This is a memory lane that just came to me that the Pellegrino soda cans used to have like a peel off foil on top. I don't think they do that. They don't know, but at least not in the US, but, but I do remember those and the place I would drink the most often, it was usually the liminata, although I did, like all of them, was at the palace pizza on Broadway. It just seemed like, if I was gonna get a soda to go with pizza, either root beer or a liminata seemed like the soda to have with pizza. The fact that it was Italian made it seem kind of fancy.
Molly 3:35
And then I remember at some point, maybe around the time we opened Delancey, I remember being like, in the car with somebody who had picked up a kenodo at, I don't know, de la renti or something like that. And they were like, here, you've got to taste this. And I tasted it, and I liked it. It will talk more. I'm not sure if I
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:55
like or not. I know I've had it, but I sometimes struggle with bitter things. But well, yeah, we'll
Molly 4:01
figure it out. I really liked it, and I have only come to like it more in the time since. Well, and you're, you're a, I'm a bitter person, but you're in a groany, girly I'm it, that's right, I'm in a groaning I'm not
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:14
really so, yeah, that makes sense. But yeah, no, I'm excited to try it. We should specify that when you're saying kinoto. It's not like k, e, y, N, O, T, E, dash O, it's C, H, I, N, O, T, T, O,
Molly 4:27
yeah. It's the Italian pronunciation. Looks like Chino to
Speaker 1 4:32
Yeah, it's not, it's not a soda based on the the apple PowerPoint knockoff. Wait a minute, Keynote. Is the PowerPoint knockoff at Apple League. PowerPoint knockoff, yeah. All right, yeah, that's and that's what makes it, that a great joke. Well,
Molly 4:48
here we've reached the end of the show. What have we learned? All right, I've learned all about keynote. Oh
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:53
yeah. We're gonna give a keynote the climax of this episode, if you will, will be our keynote speech.
Molly 4:59
Okay, no, no, but just kidding, it's time to talk about where this stuff comes
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:05
from. Okay, do can we, when can we start tasting it now? Okay, great. I'm gonna go to the fridge. I'm gonna withdraw withdrawal from the fridge. Like, you know, how if we talked recently enough about, how did you ever with your parents drive up to the bank teller window. Talked about this so many times, the pneumatic right, with the pneumatic tubes that they would send like under, under the pavement, yes, yes, we haven't talked about it recently enough.
Molly 5:32
Oh, my God. Well, then I've been talking about it with everybody, but you, because it comes up for me and believe
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:36
you're out there talking to people other than me about pneumatic tubes.
Molly 5:42
Feel so betrayed. It comes up for me, like, at least a couple times a year. This is, like a core memory. Like, you know, parents talk about making core memories for their kids by, like, taking them to Disneyland and stuff. No, no, all you had to do in the 80s was take them to the bank drive through where there was a pneumatic tube.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:00
This reminds me. Okay, yesterday, I was at a local cafe where a couple of young people were working behind the counter, and there weren't a lot of people in there, so I was like listening in on their conversation, and they were, yeah, such a creep. They were talking about, have you ever seen a rotary phone? And they concluded, no, they've never seen a rotary phone. And I got up, I went over, and I said, I've seen a rotary phone. It was on my kitchen mall growing up. And they were like, cool, man. And then they kept talking about this, and then they concluded they had never seen a landline phone. What? And so and so. Then I texted, how old are these people? I don't like 20. Okay, okay, yeah. So I texted, so I texted a cots D, adult child of the show December, and asked them, Do you remember our landline phone? And they were like, yeah, it had, like, a base that was plugged into the wall. But then the then the phone thing itself was cordless. Like, Yep, you got it. Good
Molly 6:56
job. Good job. Acots D, right. Okay, well, hey, yeah, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:01
I don't remember why we were because about, because I was talking about maybe withdrawal from the fridge. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go do that now. Cool.
Molly 7:07
So glad we were able to get all the way back to the source of that. It's so rare to be able to trace one of our tangents back to the source. It's gonna be our dump bowl. Okay, everybody. This is a blue glass bowl, tempered glass, anchor Hawking. Oh, wow. We've got, we've got tumblers here.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:26
Yeah, these tumblers were purchased by watts at Murata Shokai in nishiyogikubov Tokyo,
Molly 7:33
delightful, well traveled tumblers. Wow. We've got a lot of Italian so does,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:39
yeah, I kind of couldn't stop Okay, so how should we cheese plate these? So what we've got is we've got two Adan chaos that we should taste side by side. We've got limonata, but this one's a blood orange one. Oh, I don't think I noticed that. Okay, great. Okay, the quinoto. We've got a mojito Limon mint from croto, which is a good, good brand name, and they've got a Trader Joe's grapefruit, Italian grapefruit soda. Okay,
Molly 8:06
here's my feeling. I think that limonada, the lemon one, is the this is like the bog
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:12
standard. And when we get to the history section, you'll learn that it comes from a bog
Molly 8:20
All right, the aroma has some, like, bitter orange. It's delicious. I mean, bitter lemon. Oh, that is delicious. I forgot now, delicious. So good, yeah, okay. How would we describe what makes this different from regular lemonade?
Speaker 1 8:33
Well, it's carbonated for one thing, but the lemon flavor, lemon flavor really different, yeah, yeah. It just, it has such, such, like a, like, a complex roundness to it's got, it's got a little bit of bitterness. It feels, it still feels like a grown up soda. It does,
Molly 8:50
that's really nice. Will you look at what's in it? Does it? Does it explain itself? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:54
doubt it. Okay. Water sugar, lemon juice, lemon juice from concentrate, carbon dioxide, natural flavors. It's like, it's all in the natural flavors. Yeah,
Molly 9:04
I think it's, it's like, the taste of Italy, or something. It is, yeah, it's the, it's the taste of Italy. So I think we should move on to the orange Chada, which is the orange version. And we're gonna
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:15
see some history at some point here. But I'm just having too much fun drinking soda. Okay,
Molly 9:21
now this one really different smell. You can really smell the orange, Mm, hmm. Tastes weird after the Lima nada.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:28
I want it's, it's much more one dimensionally sweet, yeah, like it's still, it's still good. And I think, I think, like, if we were tasting it side by side with, like, a sun kissed we would choose this. I want it to be more, more sour and have more like, more peat, more more pee, more peel, flavor got it. Zest is what I'm talking about.
Molly 9:54
I think that this I feel fine. I feel like it's hot out. When
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:00
I taste this right? I was thinking about this after our Italian sodas one episode, what do you call our previous climax that that, like, I'm sure if it had been like a hot day, we would have liked Italian sodas much better, because, like, it's sweet, sweet and cold, but, like, in the middle of winter, nah.
Molly 10:18
Okay, but I like both of these, but I like both these. Monada is superior. Yes, quite superior. Let's try
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:25
the Siciliana, arachata de Cecilia, Sicily, blood orange soda. Will
Molly 10:30
you while you're cracking that open? Will you tell us about where you purchase these?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:35
Oh, all over, baby. Oh, wow. This one
Molly 10:39
looks like it has some artificial color. I bet it does. This one is a, like, a really beautiful raspberry color in the glass,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:48
yep. Okay, so this one came from a metropolitan market, as did this croto Mojito, one which we haven't tasted yet. Okay,
Molly 10:54
this one, this is the brand is Siciliana. This, to me, tastes much more like a, like a, like, soda pop. It's sweeter, yep, but it does taste like blood orange, yeah, I do like it, yeah, I like it too. No, I like that, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:11
Then obviously, the the villa Italia, from Trader Joe's the quinoto. I went down to de la Renta this morning, Italian goods shop at Pike Place Market, and got the quinoto.
Molly 11:23
I have a question, so I'm looking at the San Pellegrino cans, yeah, and the Siciliana can Did you say those were all from met market?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:32
These two were, this was from Trader Joe's. But you do realize that
Molly 11:35
we are audio only?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:39
Are you sure anyway, because Matthew was, like, gesturing this guy over here, like, no. But what I wanted, I figured there, there were hidden cameras all over the studio.
Molly 11:49
Okay. Well, what I wanted to point out is, like, the esthetics of cans have changed. Oh, yeah. Like, these are tall, narrow cans. These are meant to look more expensive, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:01
think. So it's supposed to be like, you know, this isn't like a can of Coke. This is something we can charge $3
Molly 12:06
for, that's right. So I'm now curious to go look at the section of, like, fancy sodas, which are now in sort of every upscale grocery store, right? Because, yeah, I wonder how many different products are using this sort of taller, narrower can.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:21
Well, most and most of these, I was able to buy a single cans. You will be pleased to know that the one that I had to buy a six pack of was the liminata, which is our favorite so far. So great. I'll be sending you home with some of those. Okay, should we do? Uh, vile Italia Italian grapefruit next from Trader Joe's.
Molly 12:37
And Trader Joe's has for a long time carried these, like, one liter bottles of fizzy lemonade products, right? Don't, but don't they have one that's French, and then this one is Italian. Yeah, they do, do we know the difference between, well, between France and Italy? Yes, that's what I was going to ask. Ooh, ooh.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:57
No, not crazy about this one.
Molly 12:59
This one is, like, purely the taste of grapefruit pith. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:04
it's very pithy. It's really pithy. It's like, it's interesting, because I think of the San Pellegrino popel pompelmo as being one of my favorites, but I didn't get it today. Definitely better than this.
Molly 13:16
Do you think anybody tasted this in in the process of making it, no, I think seems like a mistake
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:24
over here on the bookshelf, I forget about it. You
Molly 13:26
just moved it, like, away from the table. Like we got a that's disappointing.
Speaker 1 13:30
Like, I feel like Trader Joe's would be really good at picking a soda. Yeah, no, that's not good. No, interesting. Maybe it would be different if we hadn't had these others first. I mean, it is more bitter, yeah. Like, we've talked about how, like, I realized that I don't like getting two flavors of ice cream or gelato, because I always like one of them better, and then feel resentful of the other one. I feel, yeah, it could be the same that, like, if we had tasted that one first, maybe we thought, would have thought it was fine,
Molly 13:57
because that one is the least carbonated, the ones we've had so far, and the most bitter, yeah, so I don't know, you know, there's a part of me that's like, maybe I'll take it home and I'll see how it is later. Don't spill it in your car. Is your car still going? Okay? My car? Okay, yeah. In fact, it still smells like the air freshener that the detailer put. Okay, I like that. I've got no complaints.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:18
Okay. Next up, we've got croto Mojito, lime and mint. The thing I thought was interesting about this one, it's made with real lemon pulp and natural flavors. As far as I can tell, it contains no lime, wow. Okay, I'll read off the ingredients just a minute. I kind of, even though it's got a picture of a lime, got a picture of a lime and a mint leaf, but it says imported by the Danish bakery. Ingredients, spring water, lemon juice, sugar, glucose, fructose, syrup, carbon dioxide, lemon pulp, lemon mint and lime. Natural flavors. Got it okay? I don't have expectations about this one, one way or the other. The
Molly 14:52
citrus flavor feels more fake, but I would not kick this out of bed. Yeah, I kind of like the mint works really. Well, the mint is really nice. Yeah? I mean, this is a great, like, non alcoholic, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:05
like, yeah. If they poured me a glass of this at a bar, I would be totally satisfied. Oh, yeah, especially with, like, a squeeze of fresh live would would go a long way.
Molly 15:13
Did you say that you got this one at met market? Oh, that's really nice. You've got one near you now, right? Yeah, and there were other flavors of it too, kingly expensive. Oh, sure, market. Oh yeah, just stupid. However I do, like, I call it Whole Paycheck whole Oh, clever. Nobody's ever thought of that before.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:33
All right, should we? Should we kinoto? Let's
Molly 15:34
kinoto. Okay, hold on. Wait, actually, you know what? I want to let my mouth, okay, let your mouth mellow. I want to let my mouth mellow while you tell me about this company that makes sense. Many
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:45
of these. Okay, so first of all, I didn't realize until I was doing the research for this yesterday, that on the sparkling water, it says s, p, Pellegrino, and on the soda, it says San Pellegrino. I think it's supposed to be pronounced San Pellegrino, even when it's just the s. But something about S P Pellegrino is fun to say.
Molly 16:07
I wonder if, if the word san is abbreviated to s, the way that saint is abbreviated to S T or S T E in French, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:15
I think so. Okay, okay, so San Pellegrino. Okay. So luckily, San Pellegrino has a good corporate history page. Not all companies do. We'll link to it, but you can find it. The company was founded in 1899 in Milan to commercialize the spring water of San Pellegrino, termay Hot spring, which has been a popular destination since the 14th century for people who want to like get their get their hot spring on. And it is alleged that Leonardo da Vinci visited the spring and then wrote a treatise on water. Okay, so were you able to find that the treatise? Yeah, no, I wasn't. And, like, I wasn't even able to confirm this rumor. I figure, like, if you've got a hot spring, you should just, like, you can, you can say anything you want. No one's gonna call you on it. Like, you can say, like, you know, Robert De Niro got into our hot spring. Yeah, that was the only other Italian person. Wait
Molly 17:06
a minute, I'm trying to figure out how you get from hot spring to, let's sell this as drinking water.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:14
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think, I think, like natural spring water, you know, has been, has been a thing for bathing and drinking since time immemorial. You might say, okay, when does time immemorial start?
Molly 17:29
We we can't see it in our memories. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:32
for I mean, for us, since we can't remember what we did, like two weeks ago, I think that's time immemorial for us.
Molly 17:39
Wait a minute. I have a little bit of a question, yes, please. So I've always wondered about, like, where so water that is underground? Like, if you dig down enough outside, you will presumably hit water well if you hit an aquifer. So what is that like? What is a Where is well water coming from? And how is it drinkable?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:58
Um, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some speculating. So, okay, so all, like, it all comes from either the ocean or rainwater, right? So, I mean, it comes from rainwater, because otherwise or from, like, a lake, which comes from rainwater. So, so, like, all of this is stored rainwater, because otherwise it would be salty, right? And it like, filters through the ground and gets purified. And then there are places in which there's, like volcanic activity. So there's like hot spots, I don't think they call them hot spots that causes the water to, like, bubble back up and be hot. This was like, Do you think I wait a minute? I'm not done. Do you think they're gonna hire me as like a geology professor at Harvard, based on that lecture I just
Molly 18:49
gave Wait, but I have more questions. Okay, great. So let's say you buy a piece of property, okay, okay, and you build a cabin on it, like a money pit, and you situation, you dig a well, okay, yeah, yeah. How do you know where to dig a well? Oh, you get water like a,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:07
yeah. Of course, everyone knows that. Oh, okay, use a forked stick. No. But really, I think you like talk to there's like a, like, a hydrological analysis you can get like, like maps from from your from your local hydrology office. This is sort of correct. This is like, as much as 20% correct, okay. Like this, like, how do they make the maps? How do they know where the water is? It starts. It all starts with divining rods and rainwater.
Molly 19:40
Okay? No, no. I've always wondered this. Like, well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:44
we should do an episode about wells.
Molly 19:48
Okay, let's do like, when
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:50
you were a kid, what did you think of well wise when you were a kid?
Molly 19:54
Like, tell you, yeah, I remember when baby Jessica, exactly
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:57
like, right? That it was just like, it was like, a thing. There was a thing that babies
Molly 20:01
could fall into, and then there would be a nationwide crisis right while we waited for the baby to emerge. Or you would throw a coin in it and make a wish That's right. Or Snow White would sing a song into it, right? She sits by the well,
Speaker 1 20:16
okay, there's a word in Japanese for like, sitting around a well and and like chatting idly, but I, which I think is probably, like an old timey word, but it's come to me just like, like idle chatter in general. Okay, Ito bataka Oh, that sounds nice. Say it again. Ido batakaigi, Oh, that's great. Okay, Ito Bata Kai, WA Kai. Well, I'm
Molly 20:41
really looking forward to our wells episode. Do you think that we could, you know, I could drive around or take ferries to visit some friends who I know have, well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:52
I should, yeah, and like, bring us some pretty okay. Do
Speaker 1 21:04
the hot spring, where this stuff, I assume people just found, like, okay, there's like, water bubbling out of the earth. Like they didn't, they didn't have to go to the hydrological society even, because it was just there. Yeah,
Molly 21:15
no, presumably there have always been hot springs before even there were hydrologists, probably,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:21
yeah. So in its first year, San Pellegrino produced 35,343 bottles of mineral water and exported about 5000 of
Molly 21:29
them. But hold on, was that water still, or was it sparkling? So
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:32
that is not clear to me, because the spring is not naturally carbonated, okay, but we think of Pellegrino as being like a carbonated water, yeah, like back then, I don't know. I think maybe it's always been a carbonated water that has been like forced carbonated
Molly 21:49
Okay, so the company started in 1899 Yes. And then when did they get into flavored
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:55
waters? So they first, the first one they produced was aranchada Soda 1932 which was followed by aranchada, Amada, so like bitter, bitter, bitter orange, and then a couple other flavors, and then liminato was introduced in 1960 I believe the water for the sodas is not the like San Pellegrino, termay spring water. I think it's other water, okay, oh, made with ingredients from natural origin. But I think, I don't think the water is anything special,
Molly 22:23
okay, that makes sense. Save the water for when you can really taste it. Yep.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:27
And current flavors in the US are limonata, orange, chaunce Rosa, mellograna and orange, Cha and pompelmo
Molly 22:35
and melograno and Arancha would be pomegranate, orange, yeah, okay, didn't get that one, sorry. All good, all good. And Pompeo would be grapefruit, yeah, okay, yeah, like Pompeo moose. That's exactly right. That's how you pronounce it. So what's
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:51
Why, Mr. Etymology, as well as a geology professor, so
Molly 22:54
where do like the bitter Italian sodas come into this? Like, for instance, quinoto, the San Pellegrino equivalent is, like Kyoto, or
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:04
what do they call? Well, there's sandbar, you know, Kino, okay, no, I don't think they're currently selling that in the US. It's not on their website. So there is, there is, like a cherry, bitter cherry, one that they had at de la Renta, but you had to buy like, 10 bottles of it. So I didn't get it. Okay, I think that was an Italian import, but I've got lurizia brand quinoto, the yellow label, which you've probably seen before. Yes,
Molly 23:29
I've definitely seen this one before. And it's, it's a clear bottle. What's Inside is a kind of amber brown liquid, kind of maple syrup colored, yeah. Okay, so let's talk about what this is. Okay?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:42
So this is made from the juice of the fruit of the myrtle leaved orange tree, which is a type of bitter orange. And it's also, that's also the main flavoring in Campari and other like bitter liqueurs.
Molly 23:55
This, for me, is like the ultimate non alcoholic beverage. It is not, oh, it's, yeah, it's really good. It's not very fit. It's got cola notes to it. It really has that caramelly quality of cola, and it's lightly bitter. But I don't think you have to like really bitter stuff to like this. Do you think?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:11
No, I don't think so. It does say on the bottle contains no quinoto cheese, water sugar, lemon juice, carbon dioxide, burnt sugar, color and natural flavor, natural flavorings, natural Savona, slow fruit food, presidium, kinnoto flavoring point, oh, 3%
Molly 24:29
Wow. Okay, I love this. I should keep this around the house more.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:35
I'm not gonna pick this over the liminata most, most times, but I do like it. For
Molly 24:39
me, I think I would pick this over the limonata as a substitute for an alcoholic beverage. It scratches that that like bitter like amaro vibe, yeah, Scratch is a bitter itch. It scratches a bitter vibe. It scratches a bitter vibe, is what I said, vibe check. But the limonada, I think. Is more like what I would want to have with my lunch on the Amalfi Coast, classic limonada lunch, yeah, yeah, yeah, like a three limonata lunch, yeah, Malte
Speaker 1 25:11
coast, right about now, I don't even know. Like, if you gave me a map of Italy and said point to the Amalfi Coast, I would be way off. But it doesn't matter. No, I think you'd be fine. Is it like South? Is it West Italy has a lot of coast,
Molly 25:25
a lot of coast. You know, I just realized that I'm actually not sure.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:30
Like, maybe the Amalfi Coast is like, like, Atlantis, it, you've heard of it, but, like, no one knows how to get there. I'm
Molly 25:37
gonna go out on a limb and say that it's down south there. It seems like, like, I think it's, if
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:44
we have any listeners on the Amalfi Coast, get in touch, contact at spill milk podcast. Where are you? Where are you?
Molly 25:50
No, no, I think it's like, down there, like, near, like, Sardinia and stuff. Yes, Sicily,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:56
one of those two. That's where, that's where the bitter oranges come from. I think
Molly 25:59
it's on the east part of the South, like the boot heel. Yeah, let's look it up. Part of that is Basilicata. I think, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:07
think Basilicata is like the the instep of the boot and, and Puglia is the boot heel. I've been to Puglia. I should know this. I wish, I wish I was in pulia right now. Okay, a Malfi coast. All right, I'm zooming out. We're gonna find out extremely
Molly 26:21
wrong. Oh, wait, I just realized that Sicily and Sardinia are on the west side. Okay?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:27
The Amalfi Coast is near Naples. See? Okay, okay, so which is, it's not as far south as the boot foot, like toe or heel? Is it on the east or west? It's on the west. Oh god, I've been to Naples. So you were, you were on the Amalfi Coast, ish, I
Molly 26:47
was, I've been to Naples and Capri and Ischia, those islands off of Naples.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:53
Were you ever Under the Tuscan Sun? I'm
Molly 26:56
not sure that I've been under the Tuscan Sun. I got this so
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:01
wrong. I'm so glad you did. It's much more entertaining than if we got it right. Okay,
Molly 27:07
no, but it makes us look as like, as much like stupid Americans as we try not to look like. Well,
Speaker 1 27:13
I mean, the stereotype exists for a reason. We're not immune. It's true. So okay, so if you're gonna rank your favorites here, we would have to rank them all. I would the ones I would go back to are the liminata and the and the mojito.
Molly 27:29
I would go back to the liminata, followed by the kinoto, followed by the Mojito, yeah, followed by the blood orange, and finally, the arenchat
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:37
Yeah, I think so i i might have liked the Pellegrino orange out of better than the Siciliana blood orange, but it was close. Yeah, I want the orange out of it to be punchier. I think, I think I might try like another. I wish they still made the the orange, orange out of Mada. Yeah, that would
Molly 27:54
be really good, right? Well, all right, this, this was illuminating, so, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:59
I would pick any of these over a Italian soda made with syrup,
Molly 28:03
great, by the way. I meant to tell you, Oh, I think I was in too much of a hurry, so I didn't text you, but I was at like us chef store, something what used to be cash and carry, okay, yeah, in Ballard last week, picking up some stuff for June school play. And why would you change the name cash and carry such a great name? I'm sure it was purchased. Yeah, anyway, but that is where you go to get to Ronnie. Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:30
did they have like, 50 of them? Yes, yes. They had, like, how many did you get? A zero? Okay, they had all the flavors. That's where you go to get that thing. We didn't
Molly 28:39
like, That's right, yep. So if you're looking for it, everybody go to your nearby cash and carry or, like us, food service, Chef, store, whatever. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:48
but also, yeah, to get this product we don't recommend. Yeah, right, okay. Molly, what am I snacking?
Molly 28:57
Matthew, what are you snacking?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59
Hey, watch your snacking. You gotta tell me what you're snacking or I'll release the Kraken. So watch your snacking. Okay, I have two watches snacking. Should we do both on one episode, or should we save one for a future episode? No, go ahead. All right. All right. I'm gonna clear the table. So I don't like knock over a bunch of open cans while I'm getting these things. And I'll be back with a couple of
Molly 29:27
snacks. You know what I just thought of something that I've been snacking recently? Wow. Okay, let's do it. Okay, I don't have it in front of me, so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about it while you're clearing the table. I was on a writing retreat with three writer friends. Recently, one of the places we went to pick up groceries for the weekend was Trader Joe's, of course, like a truly excellent place to buy snacks. News flash, news flash. And one of my friends picked out a bag of what I believe were called spicy tempura style seaweed. It's like a bright yellow. Bag, almost like a marigold kind of color, and what was inside were like little rectangles of seaweed that had been tempura, battered and fried. Oh, this sounds great. So it was like the best of a chip with a seaweed flavor, but it was fried, and then it also had, I believe, togarashi, you know, in the batter. So spicy, seaweedy, crunchy, so good. I think it was called spicy tempura style seaweed.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:26
Yeah, I'm curious, like, how the tempura part comes through, because I've had that, like, made fresh, but, like, it wouldn't be good if you then put it in a bag. No, no, you buy it and tell me what you think. Okay, yeah, I will, for sure. Okay, I got two here. Let's start with this one. So I've got, this is a new line of kalbi brand chips, and it's kalbi Asian style chips. And they had four flavors at A WA jamai. I think it was like spicy barbecue, umami, salt, Thai style yellow curry. And another one, and I got Thai style yellow curry. Tell me what you think of these. Okay, so is
Molly 31:01
this a potato chip? It's a potato chip. Okay. Oh, I think that's very good. Yeah, it
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:07
tastes like a tiny yellow curry. I think they really nailed it. I'm gonna try all the other I
Molly 31:11
would like a little squeeze of lime. But in general, no other notes. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:16
no. This like, I love it when someone really nails a chip flavor. I think they really nailed this chip flavor. Yeah, a little a little bit more tanginess might be good, but, yeah, I've been, I've been snacking these hard
Molly 31:29
Wow, good choice, good choice.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:31
I'm really curious about the umami, salt flavor, and then another impulse buy at awaja Maya. I bought this purely because of the label, because I thought it was such a beautiful label design. I'll take a picture. We can, we can post it on our Reddit. Hold
Molly 31:46
on. Am I gonna pronounce this correctly? He be a Sox, a Maki? Yep, great. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:51
he be is the brand, and saksa Maki is the style, Asakusa, in this case, just referring to nori. But the label has got, like the name is written in calligraphy. It's got, like, a little cartoon of the product, and then, like a little cup of green tea. I just thought it looked so beautiful. And then they're individually wrapped in here. It's just, it's just a Senbei wrapped in crispy Nori, but it's really good. Oh,
Molly 32:12
that is so good. Wait a minute. How would I have chosen this if I don't, if I can't read I mean, I feel this way about a lot of the really great stuff that you pick up at wa jamaya. I wouldn't know how to choose it because I can't read the kanji.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:32
In this case, though, I just, I just knew it was going to be these guys, okay,
Molly 32:36
but you could read it. I could read it. Yeah. What's the point of the green tea? Just a serving suggestion. Just a serving suggestion. Okay, that's really lovely. Yeah, really good, right? I mean, a lot of packaging, a
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:46
lot of packaging, but like, it's all, like, very nice packaging,
Molly 32:50
well. And there's also something about the fact that, I mean, this is basically individually wrapped crackers. It is, like, literally one cracker per sleeve. However, there's something about that that forces you to slow down and, like, actually really enjoy your one cracker,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:04
which I did. I did too, yeah, and the bag of chips. Like it also, like, forces me to really enjoy my 18 chips.
Molly 33:13
Oh, wow. Okay, well, this was a really good week
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:16
for snacking. It was a listener. Also got in touch to tell us that we now have to try the Trader Joe's cinnamon graham crackers. Have you ever had these? No, I haven't either. So okay, next time Trader Joe's, I'm getting the the tempura fried nori snacks and the cinnamon grams, cinnamon grams,
Molly 33:34
okay, okay, yeah. And the spicy tempura style seaweed is in a bag, like a chip bag, okay? And it's yellow, all right, I'm excited, okay, Matthew, now, but wow,
Speaker 1 33:52
I have one. It is a book, and it is called, under the eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami. It is not about Big Bird from Sesame Street. I'm disappointed, which is a little disappointing. It is a wildly creative, like apocalyptic, speculative novel about the end of the human race. It has I'm like, this does not sound like something. Is a favorite author of mine who writes, as we'll see, in a wide variety of genres, so I will always try her new book, even if it seems like it might not be my thing. And like, I'm like, 20 pages into this book, maybe 30 pages. And so far, there's been humans made in factories from animal stem cells, where, like, after the person dies, you can look at their bones to figure out what animal cells they were made from. There's like character that takes a hovercraft ride across a desolate landscape that's like, like Cormac McCarthy esque, just incredibly you can you can see it. And there's also chicken pot pie, perfect. What more do you need? So if you know the author, David Mitchell, you kind of have an idea of what hito Mikawa kami is like. Because just. Whatever genre strikes her fancy, she will write in that genre and absolutely destroy so she wrote a the book that she's best known for is called the briefcase, which is like a May December love story. That's like, it's good. I enjoyed it, but it's kind of like a sappy love story that was turned into a comic and a movie and a stage musical. She also wrote the Nakano thrift shop, which I know I've recommended to you Molly before, and maybe recommended on the show before, which I would describe as like a very thin slice slice of life, about some misfits working at a shop. She wrote record of a night two brief, which is a absolutely gone so fantasy short story that you really can't describe it's just pure image driven adrenaline. And then she wrote this ambitious apocalyptic novel, and so, like, really, nobody knows what she what she's gonna do next, but it's gonna be great,
Molly 35:52
amazing. Okay, where would you recommend I start if I haven't read any of her, Oh, wow. Should I do the Nakano thrift shop?
Speaker 1 35:58
I would start with the Nakano thrift shop, I think, yeah, I didn't even mention the like, she had a book called, like, people of your neighborhood that was like a series of interconnected short stories about a very strange neighborhood. But anyway, this book is really good under the eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami,
Molly 36:16
delightful. Thanks for telling me about it, Matthew. We have some spilled mail. I would love to hear it.
Molly 36:27
This one comes from listener Judah in Norway, yes, who has in the past provided us with our beloved Walters manler candy
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:36
bar. Yes, before you start, so I don't forget listener Judah also taught me about something that I'd never heard of, which is that there's a popular like Kit Kat knockoff candy bar in Norway called thick lunch. That's pretty good. It's
Molly 36:50
great. Okay, all right. Listener, Judah says, Hello, Molly and Matthew. I hope all is well. You both often mentioned the salad bar at Wendy's, and it got me thinking about beloved restaurants that you went to regularly with your family as a child, but then when you visited said restaurant in another state, they had a different menu or something else different, that made it very exciting. For example, my parents were Wendy's people, and it was our go to restaurant for lunch or dinner. Okay, we would have actually said supper when we visited waco almost every Saturday, it was the closest big city to our tiny town. Then for several summers in the mid 1980s we would spend our vacation in the Ozarks. Wow. Shout out to my home territories, and there was a Wendy's near our hotel that had a breakfast buffet. It blew my little 10 year old mind, and I think my brother and I were more excited about that than any of the activities my parents had planned for us almost 40 years later, we all still reflect on it affectionately. I can still see the fluffy scrambled eggs under the heat lamp and feel the excitement of going to Wendy's for breakfast that was all caps. So are there any restaurants or stores you loved as a child that were different in another city or state and opened your eyes to a whole new world. The waco Wendy's never started serving breakfast, sadly, but at least it's forever, a memory locked into happy childhood summers, all the best. And Walter says, Hello Judah in Norway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:14
hello, Walter. I think, did we ever determine whether Walter is a real person? I don't think. I think, well, we decided he was, I think he was not.
Molly 38:24
No, oh, I thought we decided he was, but that was just us having decided.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:28
All right, sure. This is a great question. I can't think of any non Japan examples. So like, this is just gonna have to be one of those episodes where I say of a lot of Japan stuff, okay, but I'm gonna retell a story that I'm sure I've told on the show before, which is that Denny's is a popular chain in in Japan, you and I have both been That's right, and has some like American ish food, but mostly Japanese or Japanese style Western food. And they open early for breakfast, which not a lot of places in Japan do. And so if you go for breakfast, like, you can get pancakes, you can get french toast, everything is going to come with us with a side salad, and you'll be encouraged to, like, add a bit of natto for like, 100 yen. And so my favorite thing that ever happened to be in a Japanese Denny's was Laurie and I were there, and at breakfast time, maybe with December also. And there was, like, a couple of American tourists at a nearby table who were like, looking at the menu, trying to find something, something that reminded them of home and and the guy just looked at the breakfast venue and said, The fuck is this?
Molly 39:37
Was he looking for, like, Moon over
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:40
Miami's are a Grand Slam of some kind
Molly 39:43
I was thinking of, and this is not the best example, because I didn't actually eat here, but I remember when I was living with a host family in Paris, the subway station that I would use most often to get to school, our neighborhood metro station had a McDonald's. Right outside of it, shirt, which, of course, was there the signage said, macdo? Oh, did they have pizza? No. What they did have was a lot of seasonal specials that were non western cuisines. Okay, so there would be like, a dosa burger or something where they had, like, somehow worked in, like, a really thin, like, Indian pancake, right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:28
I don't know if you're making this example up. I'm making this example up. Okay, I want the dosa burger. But it wasn't just
Molly 40:37
like, Oh, we're gonna make a curry burger. It was like they would go more, more specific, yeah, I like to, you know, to another country's cuisine. They would go deep into it. Did you try any I didn't try any of them. But I loved whenever. So when I was crossing the street to head home from the metro station, I would always be facing the signage that was in the window with that month's, like, you know, oh yeah, they probably called it like a quote, unquote, like ethnic special, sure, you know something anyway, but I remember just thinking, and they, they don't do stuff like that in US McDonald's that I'm aware? No, I don't think so. Or if they did, it would be like a regional us thing, like, we're gonna have Memphis style barbecue. I don't even think they wouldn't even do that on, like rib or whatever, like burger Burger King
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:31
did, like a barbecue sandwich series many years ago. I don't think it was very successful. Yeah, yeah, no. That's like, yeah. Listeners like, I'm curious to hear if anyone else has memories like this. Contact at spill about podcast.com and
Molly 41:46
I should say that this would have been like 1999 to 2000 it was a while ago,
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:53
I told you, but I don't think I told the listeners that when, when the Amster Burton family was in Tokyo, over over Christmas and New Year's, we saw a Picard le ciergelet in Tokyo. Yes, I didn't go in. I'm so disappointed, but I was very pleased to see it
Molly 42:08
all right. Well, hey, thanks for a really great question. Listener, Judah, and actually, the funny part is that I had read this spilled mail, I guess this morning, like while I was drinking some coffee, and while I was driving over here to do this taping with you. I was thinking about what my answer was going to be, and for some reason, by the time I got to the end of listener Judah's email, I had forgotten that we were actually talking about Wendy's, even though it says Wendy's in the last sentence, and I was about to talk about like the salad bar at Wendy's. Okay? I mean, that's fine anyway. That's a reflection upon my poor short term memory this morning. All right, and that was the climax of our show. That was the climax of our show. What have we learned? We have learned that our producer is Abby sercatella, yes. We've also learned that you can rate and review us wherever you get.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:54
Just learned this is a new thing you can now do. And we did learn, and this is true now that you can no longer just go everything spilled milk.reddit.com. That just takes you to the front page of reddit. So it's reddit.com/r/everything, spilled milk, or just Google spilled milk. Reddit, that's yeah. Why would they take away a sub domain?
Molly 43:14
I hate that. Well, yes, thank you for listening to spilled milk.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:20
No. Thank you for listening to spilled milk. The show that that, I think probably last time we talked about pneumatic tubes, we made a joke about, like, using your eustachian tubes as a pneumatic tube.
Molly 43:32
I know that sounds fresh to me. I don't think I've done
Speaker 1 43:35
that as a fresh, like, fresh joke, a closing joke, humor. Yeah, the show that that uses that, I guess I already said, I don't need to just repeat the thing. I just said, you get it? I'm Matthew Amster Burton,
Molly 43:48
I'm Molly. Weisenberg,
Molly 43:56
I'm Matthew, and I'm Molly, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:57
this is spilled belt Moke.
Molly 44:02
I'm no, you're not. I'm gonna start. Okay.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai