Welcome to the Season of Steam where we are dangerous but alluring while revealing our favorite grocery store lunchables. While chatting soup cauldrons, Krusty Krumbs and the membrane industry Matthew gets more excited than ever before while Molly confesses her true feelings about Town & Country.
Matthew's Now but Wow! - Say Sue Me, The Last Thing Left
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi. I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:06
This is Spielberg show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all. And you can't have any
Molly 0:10
today we are talking about okay, we're calling this episode supermarket lunch. It was suggested by spouse of the show ash, I know them. And you do. The gist of it is like when you have to get lunch from the supermarket, right? What do you get there like a grab and go kind of lunch at the supermarket?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:33
What I would say even though like, I almost never, like deliberately get lunch from the supermarket, although that has recently changed. And I'll go into that. This really excites me because there's just such a sense of prospect. Oh, God. Yes.
Molly 0:47
Yes. I mean, there may be no topic that we have done yet. That has as many potential Yeah, lines of inane conversation.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:02
I don't know if I go that. Oh, I think we I think we have done that. But like, I think we're gonna get to the end of this episode. And there will be whole, like aisles of the prepared food section that we haven't gotten.
Molly 1:12
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that will. So I should also say that this episode came about because when it was spring break here, we went to Hawaii, our first family vacation since 2019. And there was a food land grocery store near where we were staying that food land is like so well equipped, not just with groceries, but also with options for lunch stuff. Yeah. And we were trying to, you know, eat breakfasts at the condo and eat lunches, like, cheaply. And so we would either make our lunch, or we would stop at Food land and grab lunch and ash was like, you guys should do an episode on this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:53
Yeah. So okay, so should we should we go down memory lane? Let's do and like I kind of, I don't know, for this for the purposes of this episode, kind of like where, where Memory Lane ends and where, like, Modern Times begin?
Molly 2:07
I mean, I think this is often a thing we're having to fill out with memory lane. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:13
I mean, I've, I think some people date moderate modernity to like the Bauhaus era. Yeah,
Molly 2:19
I mean, do you watch supermarket did
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:21
they eat it? I mean, some of them some of the Piggly Wiggly, Piggly Wiggly. That's correct. a&p says, We're architects and painters. Yes. Okay. Great. Very proud of myself right now.
Molly 2:37
Okay, so I'm gonna go first, please. And this is definitely going to as though our listeners didn't already know like roughly how old I am. I feel like my answer here places me within a certain era of grocery stores. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of grocery store lunch is grocery store sushi. Yeah, like, do you remember? I think it must have been maybe in the mid 90s When I became aware of grocery store sushi. And I remember thinking that it was somehow both dangerous. Like, who would buy raw fish and eat it just from the grocery store? Right. And also somehow incredibly enticing the thought that we can have this thing that was truly a specialty food. Yeah. And that you could buy it in the grocery store. I mean, who cares whether it was like not very well made. But I loved it
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:34
the way you described as kind of like a bad boy like the bad boy of the supermarket because like dangerous, but alluring rice. Yes, I do remember when supermarket sushi came on the scene, but I was still scared of sushi myself at that time. And so I never bought it. Okay. I mean, I have since then.
Molly 3:52
Okay. Okay, good. You know, and it varies widely. Like, yeah, you know, if you go to like a Whole Foods type place, you're going to encounter a lot of brown rice sushi, which is not a terrible thing, but it to me is a whole other shirt. Anyway, I have to say I think I first came across supermarket sushi when I was in college, and there was this Andronikos Have you ever been to an Andronik? Grocery Store? It's like a super like, she she not I mean, not like a dean and DeLuca kind of situation. But like the next tear down from that. Yeah. Or at least when I was in college, it felt very fancy to me. It was in Stanford shopping center. And I would ride my bike over there if I wanted to have sushi. Yeah, Andronikos felt so fancy. I just remember feeling like I have arrived like I live in a place where I could go to the grocery store and buy sushi.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:46
I started having this this experience recently, which I'm teasing again. We'll get there okay, but so for me like one theme that we're going to come back to over and over on this episode is is that I'd still just not into cold or room temperature food very much and so that means that like whole swathes of the supermarket lunch options, like just don't really enter into my decision making process.
Molly 5:13
Yeah, I mean, I think that that grocery store sushi in particular is kind of a weird one because it's much colder than sushi that you would ever eat at a sushi bar. And I mean ideally, I have to say the best grocery store sushi I've ever had was from food land in Hawaii, maybe because they were going through such a volume of it I think that's probably like I mean, I think they had like a lot of tourists coming through that place and the you know, the the refrigerated case where the Sushi was was like the second case when you walk in the front door. And so I venture to guess they did a huge volume of sushi and so the rice was like never too cold. It was always really fresh, but that is not usually the case like I gotta say, Okay, so my like local supermarket in my part of town used to be called Ballard market now it's called Town and Country market. Oh, I want you to talk about in country market in a minute hate I don't like calling it Town and Country market. This makes me well, this makes me feel like I'm living like on a golf course or something. Okay, like I hate it. Like at least Ballard market like Ballard is the neighborhood. So at least saying Ballard market, it just felt like this is the neighborhood grocery store. Yeah. Anyway, I do not like the sushi they have there.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:30
Yeah. My local supermarket either. I'm not even going to name them because I don't want Wow. You don't want to get blowback. I don't want to get blowback from QFC Okay, Matthew, yeah, and there's like plenty of good takeout restaurants sushi very close by Yeah. So I feel like I'm gonna I'm just gonna wander a block north or south.
Molly 6:50
Yeah, you are in a more urban part of town where you can get sushi that sort of can do that sort
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:55
of thing. Yeah. When I think supermarket lunch Memory Lane, I think Safeway Chinese food.
Molly 7:00
Oh my god. Okay, so is this like it like a hot bar kind of thing? Yeah, like steam
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:04
table. It's like behind the counter, so they have to serve it up. Okay. And, like I remember, first of all, like in high school, especially when I was working on the newspaper, this would sometimes be a supermarket dinner, but lunch also, like, you know, it'd be like working on deadline for the school paper. And the Safeway was two blocks away, we would send someone over to get Chinese food. And we would probably eat it out of the takeout containers like in a movie.
Molly 7:28
And like what else? Wait a minute at the Safeway. Would they put them in like the stereotypical Chinese takeout box?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:34
Yes, I think it depended on like what kind of meal you got. Because you could get like, just like a box of General Tso's chicken, which was always my favorite item or you could get like a combo with with fried rice, like basically like what you would get at Panda Express, but not quite as good. Okay. Okay, you know, with chow mein fried rice and like a couple of entree options. And it would always be like something something fried and goofy. And like I just still kind of have a soft spot for that I will still very occasionally get Chinese American steam table for food from the Safeway in my neighborhood, even though it's not good, but it's like it's it's good in like a purely junk foodie kind of way.
Molly 8:13
And so you would go to Safeway for this as opposed to QFC which is the other main supermarket
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:19
in your neighborhood. Yeah, Safeway just has a much better selection. They do little Chinese American Chinese American food at KFC, but not nearly as much.
Molly 8:27
You know, I'm realizing actually listening to you talk about the steam table that I have been the person working behind the counter dishing out food from the steam getting steamed, getting steamed. So when I worked at Whole Foods when I was in college, I worked one one year at the prepared foods counter, like you know, selling cheese and olives and stuff like that, or sorry, at the specialty counter selling cheese and olives and stuff. And then another another season behind the prepared foods counter, where we had both like all those cold prepared foods, but also a steam table, rotisserie chicken, et cetera. And I had forgotten about all that stuff.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:07
When you when you write your inevitable fourth memoir, you should call it season of steam season of steam. Wow. Or it could be your first romance.
Molly 9:15
I was gonna say maybe it could be like erotica.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:17
Yeah, maybe like each each book because you got it like if you write a romance or like erotic fiction, it's gotta be like the beginning of a 17 book series. Like each one can be season of something.
Molly 9:26
I'll do the four seasons. It'll be like, autumn of steam, autumn, winter, steam. Winter
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:33
steam spring of steam. Well, I mean, like when it's winter like can you go and like the outdoor hot spring bath. That's very that's very satisfying.
Molly 9:41
Yeah. Okay, so let's let's come up to to the present. Yeah. All right. So you do still sometimes go to Safeway to get your Chinese American?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:51
Yeah. Like, like fried rice and like the Yeah, like the general tso's chicken or sesame chicken, that kind of thing. So that like like mongolian beef, that sort of thing.
Molly 10:02
Okay, excellent. Is there anything else you get at Safeway? Yes, particular to say
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:08
this is a pretty new item. I think like within the last couple of years, they've always had, you know, chicken tenders chicken strips, of course at Safeway. But sometime the last couple of years they started selling Nashville hot chicken strips, okay. And like, are they really spicy? No, but they're a little spicy. And things are so good. Like, again, it's like if you if you want just like like pure MSG, salt, chili powder and grease, like there are a few better delivery mechanisms, then the Nashville hot chicken strips from Safeway.
Molly 10:43
Okay, so, as you know, the Safeway that is closest to my house is an extremely sad Safeway. Yeah, and I do my best not to go there. And it would never this is the thing that would never occur to me to go to that grocery store for lunch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:58
Yeah, usually, if I'm gonna get the the chicken strips for lunch, it's because I'm heading a safe way. Like with a shopping list in my head. I'm like, oh, and I could eat two chicken strips on the way home. Okay, okay. And let me let me be clear, like these are best eaten, like while you're walking home from storming out
Molly 11:17
of how out of hand. They say. I am so impressed that you I mean, I guess this is the kind of lunch that is born of a college students mind or
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:28
you're really for eating chicken strips.
Molly 11:32
I'm impressed that you even like maybe impressed is not the right word. No, stick with it. Okay. It is never occurred to me to look at the like hot food counter there. I feel like I've spent more time looking at like, the hot foods available at like an American 711 Sure. Then at a Safeway just like never occurs to me to go over there. Sometimes
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:53
I get a craving for a spicy Big Bite hotdog from 711. Pretty good.
Molly 11:57
Okay, but that would this is not our convenience store. Right. So I shouldn't have mentioned I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:01
I think there's like a whole kind of culture of appreciation of supermarket fried chicken. And like, you know, which like, does Albertsons have the best fried chicken? That's that sort of thing. And they're all pretty good.
Molly 12:12
You know, people used to say Crescent market, like the best fried chicken. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:17
I knew if they didn't say that the suit of armor would come to come to life and attack.
Molly 12:21
Yes. The best thing about supermarket fried chicken is the fact that like, you can smell it outside the store before you walk in. And it's so different from like, you know, if you've ever gone to like a fried chicken restaurant, or even like one of the, you know, the famous ones in like Memphis or whatever, you know, you expect to smell fried chicken outside the place, right? There's something especially magical about going to a grocery store and smelling fried chicken. We don't expect it. It's like amazing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:50
It's never gonna be like the best fried chicken you've ever had. But it's never going to disappoint. That is correct. Even Even if you eat it cold and like we've established I don't like cold foods, but I will eat cold supermarket fried chicken and it's fine. Right.
Molly 13:01
Okay, I'm going to do one, please. Okay, so I again, I'm going to come back to Ballard market, which I just I really don't want to call Town and Country market. Do I have to
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:11
know I'm going to be talking about a different location of town and country market in a minute. Okay, so I have
Molly 13:16
this kind of leg. I don't know. I feel I have a warm feeling about soups, in grocery stores. Like you know, big Cauldrons of soup. What do you like steamed table soup? No. What do you think I like cauldron soups. Okay, culture and soups. Okay, so I really like split pea soup than I do. And over the years, I have had split pea soup in pretty much any grocery store. That was my grocery store at the time. I remember when I worked at Whole Foods. Sometimes if like spending all morning in the air conditioning in there and left me kind of chilled. I would get split pea soup for lunch. Anyway, I really enjoy the split pea soup at Ballard market. I don't even know what that it's that great, but it's a solid split pea soup. June really likes the chicken noodle soup from Ballard market. I feel like it is exceptionally greasy. Okay, like once it's built in my car. Oh no. And even more than just you know, chicken soup spilling in your car like the residue of grease like it was shocking.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:18
What what did you did you have to like get the rug shampooed or something? No, luckily
Molly 14:22
I have like rubber mat on the floor. So I was saved from a lifetime of chicken soup smells all right. But anyway all this to say split pea soup.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:34
Now when you get the split pea soup or any soup at the not to be known as Town and Country market. Is it extremely hot. Oh
Molly 14:42
yes. Oh, yes. It's so
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:44
this is something I like about about grocery stores you have like it's always it's dangerous.
Molly 14:49
Well and the other thing is, you know how you purchase it based on the size container you put it in, right? So I always feel like anytime that I filled the container to the top inevitably I spill it on myself. I'm trying to get the lid on or trying to get the lid off and the stuff is scalding hot. So I have taken to not filling it quite all the way and every time bless them, whoever is working the checkout, when I go through is like, well hon, you didn't fill this all the way. And I'm like, I know I don't want to explain it. But, you know, it's like, do I want my money's worth? Or do I still want to have skin
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:25
that's that's a tough tough decision. Yeah, I recently had a supermarket soup lunch that I enjoyed very much it was it was with wife at the show Laurie maybe you know her we were we were going to pick up our niece at preschool that's the word I was looking for. We so we stopped at the thriftway in West Seattle. And I got like, like a corn chicken and corn chowder I think which was which was quite tasty and very, very hot. And and some kind of bread to go with it. And we just ate like, ate it, like leaning against the wall outside of the thriftway Oh, god,
Molly 15:59
that's perfect.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:00
We were going to go to McDonald's but they only the drive thru was open.
Molly 16:04
Okay. You know, I have to say so a chain of supermarkets here in Seattle is called PCC it's a co op. And PCC has some really good prepared foods, which I'm going to be talking about in a minute, but I have to say, I love PCC, but I want them to put more salt in their soups.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:22
Do they have little salt packets that you could put in? Maybe? Okay, I haven't noticed. No, no, I do think like it should come nicely seasoned. But
Molly 16:30
yeah, yeah. So I you know, I'm always drawn to the Cauldrons of soup. And at PCC, I have to remind myself that I've been disappointed so many times. Yeah. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:40
okay, let me let me talk about my town and country market because when we go to Bainbridge Island, today, we will usually get lunch at the town and country market in the middle of Winslow on Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge Island is it's like a suburban island near like, you know, a half hour ferry ride from Seattle so it makes a great day trip you hop on the ferry you you'd like see some water. You get lunch at Town and Country market you get dessert at Mora Ice Creamery. But the town or country market they've got a huge selection. I will often get like a soup or a curry, or Yeah, usually usually one of those things they'll have they'll have like some simple curries or or like a chowder like soup sometime maybe someone has a clam chowder or a corn chowder. And like yeah, it just it feels like a bounty of options.
Molly 17:25
Yes, yes. It occurs to me that another thing that I don't use so speaking of like cold food, I want to talk about like pre made sandwiches. Okay minute okay, that that like are made by the grocery store deli and are like shrink wrapped and in a refrigerated case. Yeah, by the deli. I don't like sandwiches like this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:45
I don't either. Like that whole case that has like salads in it also, like I just like mentally edit that right out. It's just not for me,
Molly 17:52
I only go there if I'm really desperate. Like if nothing else is working like sometimes they don't have the soups out yet or they don't have anything I like like on the steam table. Then I will go for like one of the salads and a clamshell thing but it's always got to have like a lot of like salty, tangy stuff, like okay, all it's maybe sliced salami, maybe pepperoncini like you can you can make a decent grocery store salad, as long as it's got those things that said, I would rather buy one of those clamshell container salads than go to the salad bar. I always find the salad bar to be way less delicious than it
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:32
and I feel like the price adds up a lot faster than you expect. Yeah,
Molly 18:36
but anyway, a couple of times when I have been truly desperate I have walked past the you know the case of pre made sandwiches at Ballard market and they have one that is like an Italian sub. Okay, on a like a baguette type role like you know, Bunmi size let's say and so it's good yeah. And so it's got you know, it's got a couple different kinds of cold cuts Provolone it does have sliced tomato but they've always positioned it correctly in the sandwich so it doesn't get the bread soggy. Okay. And then there's I can't remember what else is on it some something spicy and oily and anyway, sounds good. I have to say it totally gets the job done. And it's the kind of thing that you can you know, you can eat sort of tidally while you are sitting at a stoplight in you know in your car. Yeah, but otherwise I do not like pre made sandwiches on sliced bread. I don't understand why so many of those are for sale. Everywhere.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:39
Yeah, I don't like it that if there is a if there is a panini menu at the supermarket, like I can always go for a supermarket panini.
Molly 19:48
Are you a hot sandwich person in general? Yeah, absolutely. You and my spouse should should get together Ash is such a person is just such a hot sandwich person like they will occasionally get like a hot sandwich at Starbucks.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:02
Oh, yeah. Our breakfast sandwiches are so good. Yeah,
Molly 20:05
yeah. Anyway yeah Ash is always on it if there's a panini menu they they're gonna get like, you know, like a turkey pesto kind of situation. But like just never appeals to me. I don't like the smell of a hot sandwich.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:21
Oh, I do and like I feel like that's where like the supermarket counter. That's where like the last civilizations final Panini grills have ended up because it was like such a thing and like the 80s 90s and like that trend is long over, but you can still get him at some supermarket. Yes. Did you ever own a panini grill? We did? I guess you probably didn't because you don't like hot sandwiches.
Molly 20:43
I did not own one. Although there was a time I remember when paninis became a thing and I was like, Ooh paninis and I think I liked them but then I quickly discovered that
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:00
okay, I want to talk about something that you can only get at the metropolitan market chain, okay, in Seattle, which used to be used to be thriftway I think and labor like there's couple and Queen Anne and one in West Seattle and Sandpoint. This is really helpful for most of our listeners
Molly 21:16
like Matt market is it's it's a slightly high end grocery store
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:21
it kind of it's funny. It's kind of like an Andronicus gonna say it reminds me of Andronik before I get to the thing I was gonna mention like at Andronikos did they have like a prime rib carving station? Or like like a hot roast beef?
Molly 21:32
Matthew I was literally 19 years old. I don't think I noticed this was true
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:37
like you have to like reach a certain fairly advanced age before you start noticing prime rib. Yeah, no I did you're right
Molly 21:43
prime rib was like securely within like my dad's Yeah. Of interest. Yeah, you're right. your circle of
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:50
influence. Yeah, he was a big influencer in the world of prime rib.
Molly 21:54
Yeah, he was a dad flew in, sir. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:57
Okay, so they probably metropolitan market is the kind of supermarket where they probably have prime rib. But what the thing that I'm thinking of is like, I don't even have like a go to lunch item there. Oh, they have a pokey bar. That's that's quite good. Oh,
Molly 22:11
my God. Has anything ever been more? 2020s?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:15
Yeah. Like, I feel like that trend is already like, on its way out. But But like, what? It's good. It's really good. They have this thing called the cookie and it's just a big ass, like chocolate and chocolate chip, not cookie. And it is like it's designed to be like, ridiculously over the top. It's like $4 Okay, and it's thick. It's big. Like, if you imagine like how big like a big bakery cookie. It's bigger than that. Okay, so prepare. It's not it's not that it has a huge diameter, but it's thick and it's gooey in the middle. Okay. And it's like, you know, it's a cookie that they want that there. They want you to talk about Yeah, you know, like this cookie, like this cookie. Like, can you believe like how expensive it is? And it probably has 6000 calories. It's really good. Okay, like I like I think if you ate the whole thing yourself, yeah, it would be a bad situation.
Molly 23:05
So basically, what you're saying is you go to Matt market, you get some freshly sliced prime rib. I get some Yep. And you garnish it with pokey. Yeah. And then between two giant cook Yes. That's what they call the cookie. That's exactly yeah. Okay. My next item is okay Central Market which is also owned by the town and country people Central Market is in Shoreline, which is a like a suburb X Serb.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:35
The Town and Country people like speaking of book title sounds sounds like like a dystopian like Stepford Wives kind of Oh, yeah. Book, right. Oh, yeah.
Molly 23:43
Like the town had country. People are coming. Yes. Anyway, Central Market is fantastic. Yeah, I think it's the best of their stores. I mean, possibly, though, you and I are biased because part of what's so special about Central Market is their huge array of foods that you would otherwise only find in an Asian market. Right? Oh, how
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:02
did you like the stuff you got from Asian family market?
Molly 24:05
I was thrilled. I have to say Matthew, I was really aware of how like how lost I was there not being able to read Chinese. Oh, okay. So I think that I want to go back next time with you or someone else in my world who can actually help me. Okay, get around there because I felt like I could barely scratch the surface of it. All right. Yeah. This will be fun. Yeah. So central market is huge. And one of the parts of Central Market that really I think defines it is they have a frickin massive cafe area. Oh, yeah. I don't know what you would call it when there's like full on seating inside the restaurant and like, I mean, seating inside the grocery store, like three islands like salad bar thing. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:51
I know what you mean. So three islands is called an archipelago archipelago archipelago.
Molly 24:57
Anyway, I really enjoy Pizza in fact,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:01
P stands for archipelago and Pacific
Molly 25:05
I really enjoy the pizza at Central Market yeah I find grocery store pizza even when it's not that good it's so satisfying I know exactly what you mean it's fine then so so pizza and I think the
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:18
pizza at Whole Foods pretty much blows but I also will get it anytime
Molly 25:24
yes yes no at the pizza at Central Market I'm thrilled with it's also you know like a classically huge slice right i love it and then my people what they really enjoy getting at Central Market is they have pork buns like Nicoma and or yeah anyway pork buns yeah that you can either get you know refrigerated and take them home and warm them up yourself or they have them in sort of like a hot case you know the rotisserie chickens and stuff and why thinks that is brilliant. June always goes straight over there and grabs you know
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:00
that's it that's a GO TO LIFE OF THE SHOW Laurie item also like we grabbed lunch at a watch Amaya recently before getting on a bus and and wife the show Laurie went straight to the Choshu bow case.
Molly 26:14
Yeah, so good. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:15
so the best thing happened recently H Mart which the big North American Korean supermarket chain opened a store like six blocks from where I live it's called the M to M market because it means morning till midnight which is not what their hours are it means Molly to map to Matthew and but they they specified on a bunch of posters outside like in the way there's a store that it means you'll think about us morning till midnight even though we close at 9pm
Molly 26:47
Wait a minute and so how do you like do they also have the words H Mart somewhere on the outside of it? They
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:53
don't really and like everyone is told about this? Like why wouldn't they use the name that everybody knows including like which appeared on a best selling the in the title of a best selling book? Yeah, and they changed it at the last minute because they put up some H Mart signs and then took them down. So that whole thing is very puzzling and like right before they open had everyone worried like are they going to fuck this up somehow?
Molly 27:14
Oh my god. Okay, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:16
they did not fuck it up at all. It is one of the best stores I've ever been to in my life. The stocking of this store is a work of genius.
Molly 27:24
Oh my god, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:25
can't wait to go and they have a food court that hasn't opened yet they have a bakery that fucking rules but they have like prepared hot lunches like like don't booty like stuff on rice and and other things but especially that and so far, like I'm planning to pretty much try them all except the one that has like an enormous amount of mail on it, which isn't my thing. But I've had like a pork belly Don, which is like Korean style like grilled and you can really like taste the grill like slices of tender pork belly with like a lightly spicy sauce, lots of sauce, soy sauce and a little go to jar I
Molly 27:59
just want to tell the listener how much you're smiling while you talk about and
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:03
and and they have they've Korean fried chicken like three flavors. And just like they're like ready to go anytime like I'm gonna be talking about the store on every episode from from now until they inevitably go out of business just to break my heart. But like, you know, I I've gotten lunch from there several times now and it's been just the quality is great. Like, it's just like exactly what I want out of a supermarket
Molly 28:25
lunch. And is the police packed like people into it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:29
That's a good question. Like it's been like the foot traffic has been pretty good. I think like I feel like a good sign is that I went in the other day and like I've got stuck behind a bunch of slow moving Asian grandmas. I feel like so it feels like it's attracting the right element. And it's right at the train station so it's easy to get to for people from other neighborhoods if they live near the train.
Molly 28:52
Ah, so Okay, so is it so it's near John and Broadway where the entrance is at Broadway and John? Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59
Where is it like if you have time we should walk down there after recording. Oh, maybe it's great. Okay, so anyway so they got they got amazing like stuff on rice lunches there I've tried like the the spicy beef the the pork belly, the green fried chicken. Like I've gotten some, like, you know, temporary shrimp and croquette items. I just love the store.
Molly 29:19
Amazing. You know, one other thing that I want to mention is something that's only recently come to my attention and it's PCC which is again a co op based here in Seattle. They make a pretty good butter chicken and I'm not I'm not going to claim that it is you know that it is authentic. It's definitely not better than one that you would get in a good Indian restaurant, or that you could make from that delicious recipe that has made the rounds the Instant Pot butter chicken from two slivers that it had it within the last couple of weeks. Yes. Anyway, but it is really delicious. It is like reliably delicious. And they always have some sort of rice sometimes coconut Rice sometimes a more sort of like just plain white rice. So you can always count on having rice and then there's always like either buttered chicken, or they do a really good pork chili bear day. And these are like the hotbar. And they always have roasted vegetables, which sounds really boring. But But if they're good, they're good. It will you know, and I just never like It's like roasted pepper, roasted bell peppers, roasted mushrooms, red onions, maybe one zucchini. And I have to say that like those are all things that I don't tend to roast altogether. I very rarely roast. roast vegetables together.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:43
No, usually you'll just roast one whole read on you. Yes,
Molly 30:46
yeah. And then just make my family sit around and walk out of it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:51
But like his team for Mickey's Christmas care,
Molly 30:54
it takes me back to like the late 90s When we all are to the 90s when we all got into roasting Yeah. And you know, I think my dad like when he would make roast chickens he would often roast kind of that same like for vegetables all on a sheet pan together with maybe like olive oil a little bit soy sauce, maybe some balsamic you know, because it was the 90s and the roasted vegetables at PCC just push all those same buttons for me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:22
Could one of the titles in your steamy romance series called be called a season two roast?
Molly 31:29
No, it's again, the Four Seasons random to Roast spring to roast
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:34
spray. Yeah, okay, I gotta get that sexy new book spring to roast. Have you read spring to roast? You should read it on your ebook reader. So no one knows that you're reading it on the bus.
Molly 31:44
Yeah. Anyway, I really enjoy it and it tastes extra good. I think the first time I had the like trio of butter chicken, coconut rice and the roasted vegetables was really good. I was eating it in my car outside the PCC in Redmond. Which is the town that I go horseback riding in. Sure. No, it was cold. It was winter. And I was like too hungry to drive home to get lunch. God it was so delicious. Yeah, good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:16
I do kind of associate supermarket lunch with like being really hungry and needing some lunch. Yeah,
Molly 32:22
yeah, maybe. Maybe that's why we're so enthusiastic about it. Because everything tastes so good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:26
I know. That's true. Because like, Yeah, cuz like, it's not something that unless we're going to Bainbridge Island like it's not something I really like plan ahead for like it's gonna be a supermarket lunch kind of day. It's just it's like, oh, like I'm shopping at Safeway. And I just realized I'm really hungry right now time for chicken strips. Yes.
Molly 32:41
Except I bet you are. You are planning to like go to M to M
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:46
Oh, yeah, that's yeah, that Almost doesn't count because it's too good. M to him
Molly 32:50
when even saying that makes me feel like I'm placing like, like, an add in like
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:56
Yes. That's that's how we the show started. You placed it you placed an M to M ad. What was
Molly 33:02
it that what's the stranger's like? misconnection No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:06
no, I saw you.
Molly 33:08
But no, there's like one that's like the sex sex fast. No, I remember because my my friend Sam season autumn two sacks. My, my friend Sam back when he was single. This was a long time ago. He put an ad in, in that part of the stranger nice. And somebody sent him a reply. And one of the things they said was you look like a shit ton of fun. Oh, and so I've thought that ever since.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:38
what a what a nice thing to say. I know. Right? Did Was he very pleased.
Molly 33:42
I think he was Yeah, I think he was also like, huh, I mean, is this or isn't this someone I want to go on a date with? I don't know.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:49
I don't think anyone would ever say that about me. I think they'd be like, like, you know, maybe once he's once you get to know him. Okay, all right, but I'm fun.
Molly 34:02
You were so fun. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:02
mean, listeners know how
Molly 34:04
to say actually, if people could see your face while you're talking about MTM market, they would be like that guy looks like it. Yeah, same
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:11
time DTM to em anytime. Okay, okay. All right. Shall we move on to segments please. Alright, let's begin with spilled mail
Molly 34:29
All right, I'm gonna read this okay. Today spilled mail comes from listener Talia. Hi, Matthew and Molly. I really enjoyed your episode on non alcoholic beer. And since I work in the since I work in the membrane industry, oh my god listener Talia. I've never Wow. Okay. Since I work in the membrane industry, I thought I'd write in and answer a question you brought up about distilling.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:54
I think working in the membrane industry could be the term you use for being a roadie for Cypress Hill.
Molly 34:59
I think you're right Yeah. You wondered about whether or not the leftover stuff from distillation to make liquor gets used for anything. The answer is yes stillage. From distillers, making alcohol for human consumption is most commonly used as a soil amendment or just treated as wastewater. But the use of silage as a co product is actually a big part of the ethanol industry. The leftover sludge from producing ethanol is known as distillers dried grains with solubles or DD GSM to endless DDGs and it gets sold as animal feed. You can also extract corn oil from ethanol stillage and sell that. Because ethanol is such a volatile market selling DDGs helps stabilize producers revenue stream and generally makes up around a quarter of their overall revenue listener. Talia is way smarter than we are so good, okay. In theory, you could reuse stillage from either liquor or ethanol production in some food applications. But that is much rarer because producers would need to have a partnership with a different facility. And the regulatory hoops would be a pain. You can also recycle some amount of stillage to boost production, since they're still useful sugars for your yeast to digest, as well as yeast biomass. This is common in ethanol plants, but I don't know how standard it is in liquor distilleries. I honestly was just excited to hear reverse osmosis mentioned on my favorite podcast, but the discussion of de alcohol isation actually gave me an idea for a new application for my company to work. So I'll make sure to show you out of that goes anywhere. Oh my God. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:37
when you say shout us out, you mean like cut us in on that revenue? Yeah, I mean, we need to stabilize our revenue stream like could we be selling DDGs? Can we be selling byproducts from making our podcasts? Yeah,
Molly 36:49
I mean, let's see here. There'd be like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:54
I mean, often when we do an episode, they'll be like some some like like crusty. Like like crumbs, crusty crumbs. Yeah, yeah. Okay, we're selling a new product called crusty grubs. Wow,
Molly 37:03
good listener. Talia. This is fantastic. I mean, I do think I'm gonna have to spend more time with what what you've written here so that I can really understand it because this is more information than I ever dreamed of receiving about this. And I'm so pleased. Yeah, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:18
I just knew like as soon as as soon as listener tell. You said I work in the membrane industry. I'm like, Yep, we're putting this on on the show. This is fantastic. Anyone who writes in from the from the membrane industry whether or not you're a member of Cypress Hill will read will read your letter on the air.
Molly 37:32
But But listener Talia, really. So if you want to write in and tell us more about this new thing you're going to suggest your company should work on, you know, maybe if it involves a lot of initials DDGs or M to M or D TF, or anything like that. Right and tell us about it. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:52
well, I think it's probably like a trade secret at this point. No, she would tell us Okay, great. Yeah. All right. Should we should we do a little now but while
I'm doing I'm picking music for my second time in a row. And last time I picked like a super loud, aggressive punk album. And this time I pick and kind of the opposite of that. But also great, which is the new album by the Korean surf rock band say sue me. I loved their last album. They have a new album that will be out by the time you hear this called the last thing left. And I've heard the first two singles from it so far, and it's just delightful. Like, it's atmospheric. It's it's, it's soothing, but it's still kind of rocks and the guitar playing is great. And it's it's just like beautiful music that you can you can like put on and just feel good.
Molly 38:48
What you're describing sounds like a good soundtrack first summer.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:51
It would be a great soundtrack for summer. Yes. Excellent. Excellent. So yeah, that say sue me the last thing left.
Molly 38:58
Great. Okay, well,
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:00
our producer is Abby circuit tele, please rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts, and you
Molly 39:05
can chat with other spilled milk listeners on Reddit at reddit.com/are/everything Spilled Milk
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:11
and until next time, we are always down DDGs fuck that. My Molly.
Molly 39:29
Coop is bananas like that? Those are the biggest bananas I've ever seen.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:34
I don't remember who bought them and the jaunty angle of the middle bottom. Okay, so I'm to blame for this. You're
Molly 39:41
a monster. Did you feel like you had something to prove?
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:45
I guess. Yeah, I thought about it a lot when I was picking out the bananas as I always do.
Molly 39:53
I gotta choose a banana that symbolizes my manhood.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:57
Well, I mean, I had to pull up my you know rolly tape. measure that I carry with me everywhere. That's what I came up with. And I stand by it
Molly 40:05
that middle one looks like it's been doing those exercises where you like drape, like a wet washcloth over it and practice lifting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:16
I know I don't think so. Okay. All right. Wow. All right. Okay, should we do an episode? Yeah.
Molly 40:22
I can't stop like
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:25
you want me to move up? Or bring them closer?
Molly 40:36
Oh, oh, okay. I'm going to try to get it together. Abby.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:40
We done a banana episode we talked about this hates
Molly 40:43
us by now. Yeah. Okay. I'm Molly. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, you go first you go