Today we learn lots about Japanese Curry, retort pouches and what sailors eat. As we brave water stew and precise measurements, Molly sets the scene before we attempt to discover how WOTSL feels about torque.
The article in the Japan Times by Makikoh Itoh
Molly's Now but Wow!
Molly 0:00
Hi. I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
And I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all in. And we've just finished it and you can't have any.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:12
And today we are talking about the thing that we have just eaten all of which is Japanese curry.
Molly 0:17
This episode was suggested by listener, Vicki. Thank
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:20
you listener, Vicki.
Molly 0:22
And I'm just going to start right off by saying that the Japanese curry that I just ate here at your table was my second time ever. Oh, okay. Being Japanese curry. I believe the first time was also at your table. Okay. So I have no memory lane.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:37
All right, go read. When was the first time?
Molly 0:39
I don't know you've cooked a lot of meals for me. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:43
that's true. Yeah,
Molly 0:44
I remember having Yeah, okay. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:47
Well, I've got memory lane. So let's do it. Great. I know I've talked about this on the show before when I was in sixth grade, my best friend was named Alex his mom. cornica was from Japan. And she would make curry for dinner. And I loved it. It was s&p Golden curry from a box. And totally picture the logo. Ha. And I just thought it was like one of the best things I've ever had. And like immediately went home and asked my mom like if she would make it and she you know, asked Kuniko like, like, how do you make it and she said get s&p Golden curry in a box. And my mom did and started making it. Oh my gosh, so so this was like definitely like a formative food of my youth. And then more recently, like I remember eating curry rice on a na like, flights to Japan, which is like, pretty much the best airplane food you can make.
Molly 1:37
I have definitely had curry on a flight to Tokyo. Which of which I have taken two round trips. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:46
And like, I mean, like could could you come up with anything better to be served as airline food like it's, you know, it reheats perfectly. It's well spiced. So it doesn't you know, suffer from like, you can't taste anything at 36,000 feet. It's just perfect.
Molly 2:03
You know, it occurs to me, you know, for a few months now, Matthew, everyone has been talking about the Japanese show old enough.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:09
Yes. I've been watching it. I've already seen a bunch of it like in original in Japanese because it'll show
Molly 2:15
Yeah, it's like more than like 30 years running or something. Anyway, the first episode that they had on Netflix or wherever it was we started watching it it the kid goes to the store to get right to get any it's to make curry for his dad. It's a sweet curry. Yeah. So yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:33
Is that incredible? Just like he forgot. He like starts to head home and forgets the curry and has to go back I know it's
Molly 2:38
yes, yes. And you see him like he has to walk like like a kilometer to get to and like a kilometer two and a kilometer home from the supermarket and it's like along a busy street with these like massive trucks. And the camera like zooms in and you see him like as this little speck that slowly gets bigger and bigger next to this giant road is great.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:02
The thing that I've getting out of like rewatching the show like watching a bunch of episodes in a row is that two year olds are so good at doing errands because they pretty much do what you tell them and by the time they're born, your odds are terrible. Oh
Molly 3:15
my god, the kid the kid who is like sent home from the orange tangerine orchard to make juice. I was like, well, this kid
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:26
sounds so great. Oh my god. Yeah. Cuz like a four year old be like, Oh, wow, a stick. I'm gonna play with this for the next six hours.
Molly 3:33
Well, like the mom can it's like calling him on that phone. Yes. And he just like hangs up on her and goes back to playing with his stuff. Yeah, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:44
no, it's just like, I feel like he the way he answers the phone is like the way like I'm like Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to it. Like I'm about to do it. I was just getting started on that. Bye.
Molly 3:55
Okay, all right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:56
And then my other memory lane is and we'll probably talk about this more on on the episode is there the most popular curry chain in Japan is called Coco Ichi. Banja or just Coco Ichi. It's become like a favorite place for my family and like a favorite fast food chain for a lot of people in Japan. But it was it was a teenager of the show December's pick for lunch on their birthday the last time we were in Japan
Molly 4:21
delightful. Well, so Okay, tell me about this. The first time I ever heard the two words Japanese and curry next to each other. I was like, How does this happen? Yeah. So So tell me a
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:34
story. It's a it's a circuitous route and it's a truly international dish and a lot of the history that I'm going to share here comes from a great article in The Japan Times which will link to by maki ko ito who's she runs the just bento blog and public as published several just bento cookbooks. Okay. Very, very successful cookbook series, but writes a column for The Japan Times which is the the biggest English language newspaper in Japan. and curry came to it to Japan not directly from India but from England. And that explains a lot about like how curry is prepared and served in Japan although Japan has put a lot of its own touches on it, especially in terms of food technology, okay, so So basically
Molly 5:21
Okay, yeah so so obviously you know, the the spices we call curry made their way to to England through
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:31
through from the colonial era going back to like the beginning of the 19th century like curry began to grow in popularity in England and of course was adapted to English tastes like you know, whereas you know, curry in India is is a way of cooking at it at a style of dish that has hundreds if not 1000s of different variations, you know, in terms of geography and ingredients and you know, it's not it's not one dish, but when it got to England it was kind of edited down to like a couple of dishes
Molly 6:06
right and so then it went to Japan then
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:09
went to Japan and near the beginning of the Meiji era so like the 1870s So like after after Japan was forcibly opened up for trade. And so the British Navy and merchant marine brought curry and curry spices to Japan and you know, anywhere anywhere curry and curry style dishes land, it tends to be popular because it's really tasty. Right and because the ingredients you need are non perishable Yes. Like it's it's about you know, you need you need like some cooking medium which which could be water and it'd be a blend of spices and you can make curry
Molly 6:47
I love the the like game of telephone aspect of this you know, like you know even just the aftertaste in my mouth after this Japanese curry you know if you can if I ate it with my eyes closed I would be like ah vaguely like an Indian curry but not quite like It's like slightly altered in translation or maybe a lot altered
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:13
Yeah, and of course it's great with rice which was already a staple of the Japanese diet Okay, so from when curry first appeared in Japan in the in the 1870s or so it was immediately like became like a well known dish pretty much but was considered kind of like an expensive or difficult to make international dish. Okay. And that change like through a series of innovations in like product you know, technology and marketing Okay, to the point that where today SPOILER ALERT curry is the most popular food in Japan.
Molly 7:46
I mean, yeah, I think about you talking about Japanese sort of cafeteria food Yeah, basically seems like a sea of curry and curry variations.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:56
Yeah, like other other things with with like, not too dissimilar brown sauces also and white sauces sometimes. So the main invention that made Japanese curry really what it is is instant curry roux. So what are the things that set Japanese curry apart are like first of all, like, rather than being like, you know, a profusion of different dishes, it's kind of just one dish that you know comes in different like spice levels and like, you know, different people like prefer like a lighter colored curry or like a thinner or thicker curry. But it's basically like heavily starched thick and not super spicy, very smooth textured, and the ingredients like typically to be some kind of meat like beef is probably the most popular but it could be pork or chicken, and like potatoes and carrots or some other simple root vegetables.
Molly 8:45
I think of it of Japanese curry, in all my extremely narrow experience as having a certain sheen to it, which must come from that cornstarch. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:55
it's usually I think corn starch or potato starch and flour, wheat flour. Okay, and so instant curry root was a powder that was introduced by House foods in 1926, which is still one of the biggest makers of curry of curry mixes. Wait, hold on House Foods was based were in Japan, okay. So it contains salt, MSG, some kind of starch and spices all in one mix and it can turn water hot water into curry. Okay, so that was started to make curry like affordable and approachable for home cooks in Japan. And then in 1956 SNB foods introduce curry roux in bricks or blocks, okay, and this is what most people use today and what I use to make the curry that we just ate,
Molly 9:40
so did they look kind of like bouillon cube, I'll show you what it looks like not exactly okay. And I love what you wrote here on the agenda, which I'm going to I'm going to steal and read and take your thunder here. You said you know that that making curry roux or selling curry ruin bricks or blocks doesn't seem like a big innovation compared to just like a powder right if you think of it as like the difference between like Tide Pods and a big ol box of tide yeah powder that you got to scoop out like the pods are way nicer to use Yeah, like
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:10
with with blocks like you know, it's there's no mess like even possible you don't really have to think about the proportions because there's like a recipe on the back of the box and just tells you exactly how much water to use. You're gonna open this you can see what it looks like
Molly 10:23
hold on, is that just one?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:25
So this is a poll that's one beat Yeah, but you can you can break it into it breaks into four pieces if you need to make a smaller amount okay, but this this like block here is enough for like three dinner size servings, I would say maybe four eight.
Molly 10:41
It smells great. And it also smells like that like yeah, concentrated like food.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:47
Yeah, smell and this is a thing like this is a this is a perfectly apt highly engineered food product. Like if you look at the ingredient list is long. And you know, so it's got all kinds of like balsa fires and stabilizers and stuff in it that gives it that like, you know, perfect smooth sheen. And this is made by House foods like the company that originally marketed instant curry roux.
Molly 11:08
I'm fascinated. So this particular one is called Java curry. They make a number of different curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:14
Yeah, so there's maybe like four that are the most popular and then like in Japan, there are dozens and dozens of like different like, you know, this is this is like our limited edition curry. And like there's there's become more of an interest in like real, quote, Indian curries. And there's been kind of overlap with like, you know, here's something that tastes a little more like what you might get in India, but it's still in the format that you that you prefer.
Molly 11:36
Okay, I want to hear in a minute about how you chose this particular one. But let's keep walking our way through history. So we're up to 1950 Okay, so we've got the bricks or blocks
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:46
1956 Yeah, so now it became like super simple to make at home and just have it come out good every time. But it was still kind of thought of as like grown up food. Because it's spicy. And so in in 1963 house foods same company again introduced Vermont curry, which is either the first or second most popular brand now in Japan. And the the marketing of Vermont Curry was that it's a mild curry made with honey and apples. You know, just like you might get in Vermont. Yeah. And it was marketed to our parents with children like you know, this is the curry that is mild enough for your kids to eat and kids loved it. I will do
Molly 12:24
I wonder if this is the one that the little boy in old enough purchases because he purchases a sweet curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:31
Thank you. Probably yes has like
Molly 12:33
a like an apple. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:35
totally thing.
Molly 12:36
Well, so. Okay, I'll hold my okay then
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:39
one one more like like, you know, nowadays, like a lot of curries bought like in returnable pouches like with with like meat or vegetables or portable pouch. I don't know what that word means. I just wanted to say because it is accurate that it was called was like, you know, like a shelf stable. Like, like, like a brayer tight bricks.
Molly 12:57
No, no, what's the packaging? We've talked about this Tetra pack.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:03
Yeah, Kyle, kind of like tetrapack only more like a bag. Okay, that like used to be called boiling bag. Okay, but like it's it's like a premade curry that you could just like open up like microwave and put on rice.
Molly 13:14
Oh, like the kind of like the it was like a Korean pouch that you served us for lunch one day recently. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:21
it's like that Korean pouch that I started.
Molly 13:23
So it's like a weird kangaroo.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:27
And so that that kind of brings us to where we are today. Like curry is like super popular throughout Japan and is still like, pretty much eaten like I made today like with, usually with rice and it's it's like a thick, dark brown. mildly spicy stew.
Molly 13:44
I have to say there is something about the texture of it. It is there's the shine of it. And the gloop Enos of it is different from a curry that I would have in an Indian restaurant. I think there is a gloop factor here.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:58
Yeah. And curry is very associated with the Japanese Navy because they serve it every Friday on ships, you can find lots and lots of recipes for like, this is the authentic curry served by the Japanese Navy. So like, I'm sure I'm sure on TV in Japan. Like you could turn on the TV almost any day and see like a documentary segment about like, you know, we went on a ship and ate curry with the sailors. That sounds and it's and it's like the one dish in Japan that everybody knows how
Molly 14:26
to cook. I like that. Do we have a dish like that in the US?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:30
That's a good question. Like, I feel like the first dish I learned how to cook was scrambled eggs, but I
Molly 14:36
was gonna say scrambled eggs seemed like the basic but that is not in any way like inherently American. No, I don't know. Anyway. Okay. Um, so what makes this different from Indian curries?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:49
Yeah, I think it's the texture. It's the fact that it's there. You know that it's even though there are different kinds like there's kind of one dish that is thought of as Like this is kind of Japanese curry that everyone would recognize, which is absolutely not true of curry in India. And that I mean the fact that it's not very spicy I think is very characteristically Japanese like I got this is the Java curry that I got is considered like house foods is spiciest curry and I got the hot and like it was not very spicy now no but very tasty
Molly 15:24
this like the the slurry the sauce itself is really smooth like yeah, very smooth and and there's a certain viscosity to it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:34
Yeah and is that that proprietary starch plan? It's really satisfying because so here's how I made this, okay, which is basically exactly the the recipe on the package, although I cooked the meat a little longer to make it to make sure it was tender. So you brown some onions in oil, you add your meat and vegetables if you're going to if they're going to cook it for the same amount of time at the meet. I held the vegetables back.
Molly 15:58
Wait, hold on, what kind of meat did you use,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:00
I use just a package of like beef for stew that was on sale at Safeway. Great, okay. And then you put in water, and then you use do it and you're making kind of like the world's worst stew because it has no salt. It's just water, onions and meat. And then so and then you take that and then you throw it back through and potatoes and carrots a little later so they wouldn't overcook. Then once all the vegetables or meat and vegetables are cooked and tender, then you throw in the curry brick. And it transforms in over the course of about five minutes. Like at first you think like there's nothing happening and then like it starts to dissolve and the color starts to darken and then the starch granules blow up and it thickens and like becomes curry just like over the course of five minutes.
Molly 16:46
I'm fascinated by the absence of any seasoning in the cooking water. Yeah, because, you know, obviously this curry brick is massively flavorful. Right? But like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:59
Should we try like shaving off a little?
Molly 17:01
No, I don't want to don't want to you could do that later alone. Oh, I will. Wow. Yeah, I mean, of course you don't need to season it, you're about to pummel it right with so much
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:10
does seem totally lame. And like, you know what I usually when I'm making it usually I will like taste like a bite of meat to make sure that it's that it's like the tenderness that I'm looking for. And tasting like, you know water. Water stew is pretty graphics. Yeah,
Molly 17:25
I was gonna say I don't know if I'd be brave enough. I think I would just kind of pull it out and poke it. Yeah, so you serve this today on white rice. Was
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:35
it Calrose Calrose rice okay. And I mean technically I think it was koshihikari and I served I started at like curry rice style which usually the you put the curry on one side of the rice on the other side. I didn't have like a caught a dawn where the curry is on top but like side by side is by far the most common and then
Molly 17:53
you took some sort of kind of rest color like little pickle II type thing out of a can. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:01
I forgot. I think I forgot to put it on the no I put it on the agenda. So this is called Fujian czukay which is like seven lucky Gods pickle Okay, and I don't know it's research like how did this become like the official pickle that you serve with Japanese curry but it is and it's a soy sauce pickle of like root vegetables usually usually like lotus root and daikon and and flavored with with shiso and sesame usually you can make it a bunch of different like ginger to smells like fresh ginger. I bet there's ginger in there. So I went to the M to M the Korean market that opened near my house and I was like I don't know if they're gonna have this. It's like it's a Japanese ingredient which they do have a lot of Japanese groceries there but like I don't know if they'll have this specific pickle. Not only did they have it, they had it in, in western Japanese style or Eastern Japanese style.
Molly 18:54
You are like so I mean, I've never seen you so happy about any.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:58
I think the main difference is how much food coloring they use. And I got the one with more food coloring. Okay.
Molly 19:04
Which one did you which one is this?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:06
It's the st western style.
Molly 19:09
Okay. Okay. It is pretty it does that generally get put on the rice. You put it on the rice? Um, it can it can be either, okay. And it's sweet. It's like we served on the side. It's sweet and tangy. Yeah, but heavily sweet. I was yeah, it's
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:24
supposed to be just like a little flavor and especially textural counterpoint, I think okay
Molly 19:38
so in addition to serving it the way that you served it, what are the other ways that one might encounter Japanese curry?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:44
Okay, there are three others that are really common. One is curry Udaan which is exactly what it sounds like you make you make a curry and instead of serving it over or alongside rice, you use it as a sauce for Udaan noodles. Very tasty
Molly 20:00
and so you would just take like plain like boiled noodles. And would you put them like side by side in a bowl with the curry?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:07
Yeah no just toss it together like like a spaghetti sauce.
Molly 20:10
Oh that sounds like it's I think that my family would like this
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:14
yeah I will probably do that tomorrow for lunch okay because we have plenty yeah the thing about making Japanese crate it's so easy to make and like you know they sell when you when you buy a box of curry bricks it's enough for kind of like nine servings and so I usually I'll just make the whole thing because it it keeps well in the fridge and it freezes so the other ways of serving are caught a Pong which is a this is a thing like I think of it as like kind of uniquely Japanese like I don't I don't know there probably is like a version of this that originally is related to something in India or China but it is kind of a a filled fried dough that is panko crusted and filled with a with a pretty thick curry so that it doesn't like all leak out when you take a bite. And it's kind of it's crispy on the outside but like it's got a lot of chew to the bread part. It's really tasty.
Molly 21:10
So it's like a It's fried like a doughnut. It's fried. Donut filled,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:17
shaped like a jelly doughnut or or it can be shaped like kind of kind of like football shaped either way, okay, it's filled with curry. Very good luck these also That sounds fantastic. Yep. And then the other one is soup curry, which I have never had. And this is a dish associated with saputo and Hokkaido in northern Japan. And you do see it at like specialty soup, curry restaurants, other places, but it's not very common outside of its home turf. And it's like a curried vegetable soup with a large amount of fresh vegetables, which sounds delicious. I've just happened to never try it.
Molly 21:50
Okay. And so does it ever get served with any so you know, we talked about these pickles does it commonly get served with anything else on it or Yeah, Neeraj is it a Is it like a side for anything else? What is it
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:08
it is common to have curry with topping so if you go to to Coco Ichi Bong or another curry restaurant, you will have a choice of like, what toppings would you like with your curry you can go like it's considered kind of like you know, everyone loves it but like college student food because you can quickly like build an enormous mountain of food that will not be super expensive. So like, you know, probably the most common dish at at KOKO Ichi is katsu curry Udaan sorry, katsu curry rice. It's just a cut aid ices how you say curry with rice. Like you don't use the Japanese word for rice. It's considered like a foreign dish. So you say your dice.
Molly 22:47
Okay. And so Okay, so what you're describing here with katsu, yeah, would have so you'd have the rice you'd have the curry on top and then you'd have like a pork or chicken cutlet? Yes, like fried.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:59
And usually kind of dropped on top kind of like crossing the boundary between the curry and the rice. Okay, but you could get like fried shrimp on top there's like a like crispy skin sauteed chicken that they have it Coco Gmod that December it I both really love.
Molly 23:15
I can imagine that the like the saucy part of the curry would be delicious, like saucing this fried meat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:23
Yeah, it's really good. Okay, and curry rice is always eaten with a spoon, not chopsticks. I mean, for obvious reasons, because you would get to quickly get to a point where it was not possible. But like and it's fun to be with us but okay, I already kind of went through like my method for making curry like I like the house foods Java curry because I just feel like it's the most intensely flavored of the of like the four or five most common curry boxes that they sell it a watch Amaya. And so I always get the hot Is there a Java mild? There's no Java mild but there's Java medium.
Molly 23:59
Okay. It's I mean, I imagined Java medium is going to be quite pretty mild.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:03
Yeah. But then you get down to like, you know, the Vermont curry mild like there'll be absolutely no trace of capsaicin within a mile of the box.
Molly 24:11
Okay, so if I'm going to feed my child Japanese curry with and knowing that my kid is like, my kid can totally tolerate spice. Yeah, yet they are in this phase of thinking that they can't so if they know that it's going to be
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:29
they're gonna be good s&p medium to start Okay, SMB media? Yeah. Okay. And when people in Japan may curry at home like which they they do like with with curry from a box probably 99 times out of 100 it is common to to doctorat to like put your own spin on it. And you'll feel like you're doing a little more home cooking in a couple of different ways. One is to mix different commercial boxes. Like you know, some people say like my curry that I make at home is like you 50% Java curry and 50% Cocoa moto curry. And, like, you know, does this really make a difference? Right you know? Sure, I guess but like, you know, it's fun it's fun to mix things together. Yes. And the other thing people do is like you know put in like their secret ingredient and the secret ingredient like most commonly is either cheese and like like a very like smooth like processed cheese or like mild cheddar type of cheese melt in totally melt in or, and or chocolate.
Molly 25:29
I am. Okay, I'm really interested in the cheese. I'm fascinated. I think this could be great. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:35
mean, you could throw in like, you know people's hair and like, you know, like a craft single basically, or like some grated cheese. I have tried both of these additions, like separately and together. And like neither one of them really does anything for me beyond just like the basic Java curry, but I would encourage everyone to try it because it might totally be your thing. The Java
Molly 25:54
curry there is some there's a sweetness to it. Yeah, there always is. Yeah, there's a sweetness that almost reminds me of like, when I make bulgogi and I great like Asian pear. Yes. Something into the marinade. Like it's almost that kind of feeling. Yes, like, like Asian pear or Apple sweetness.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:14
Totally. Okay, and the other thing I would say about making curries, like one thing I like about is that you put in a large amount of onions like it always like like if you don't feel like you're putting in too many onions when you're starting then probably you need to use more like I'll put in like a pound of onions to a pound of meat typically and
Molly 26:32
how much like how much do you want to cook the onions
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:34
you want to like cook them down a little bit and get a little bit of color on them before you before you put in the water. Okay, cool. But I mean I think also everybody does it differently and so like if you like less idea and you're like you know sweating your idea and instead of instead of like getting some brown on them like you know whatever and so
Molly 26:50
basically if people you know want to just be able to easily make curry the way that you do you get the Java curry hot or house foods Java curry hot yeah and then you follow the instructions on the box because the the box says like oh yeah, this volume of onion right yeah, you know
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:07
one thing I love about the the rescue of the box is it says five and two fifths cops 1113 105 and two fifths Yes. 1300 milliliters of water or 1150 milliliters if cooking in a covered pot.
Molly 27:21
Oh my god, I love this precision.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:23
They really make sure like you cannot screw this up.
Molly 27:26
Okay. Ah, I am here for it. Yeah. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:29
s&p Curry like the top brand like is typically available in like your your local like North American non Japanese supermarket
Molly 27:38
or any of these golden curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:41
Yeah SNB golden curry. That's
Molly 27:42
the gold decree. Yes. Okay. I know I can find this in my absolute Western supermarket. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:47
Okay, so And sometimes I make it in the Instant Pot. I did this one in the oven just because I had time and wanted to smell it while it while I was cooking, but it cooks real quick in the Instant Pot. So wait,
Molly 27:57
what part of it would you do? You'd slimmer? All the stuff in the Instant Pot? Yeah, for
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:00
I would. Yeah. Like when I do the Instant Pot like I'll do like the meat for like 20 minutes. Then throw in the vegetables and do like five more minutes. Okay, quick release, and then hit saute. Throw in the curry brick and dissolve it. Okay, it's done. Okay. Wow. Yeah, one one thing I was thinking about with curries, like when there's like a breakfast buffet at a hotel in Japan, they'll often be like a big Tareen full of curry. Very satisfied. God That sounds really good. Like big one of curry and one of miso soup. Yeah.
Molly 28:29
Ah, okay. Okay, this this was great. Thank you, Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:33
I've got like if you if you haven't had Japanese curry curry or haven't made it at home or haven't had it in a while, like go out and make so it's like the easiest thing and it's always very satisfying.
Molly 28:42
I think Ash is going to be thrilled when I say that. I'm going to make Japanese curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:46
Excellent. Shall we move on to now but wow
Molly 28:57
so Matthew on the agenda here I only wrote one now but while but I actually have to and I don't know if that's bad because like I'm using all my ongoing are now but why I'm blowing right now. But what Yeah, okay. So they're both podcasts that I listened to yesterday. I have to wait, I have to set the scene for you. Okay, so so yesterday afternoon, it was really nice on your shades long. I mean, we're recording this episode, like six weeks ahead. So it's it's the it's late April here. And it's just starting to feel like when the sun is out. It feels really warm. Yeah. Kind of rhubarb on the shopping list. Yes. Okay. Well, so yesterday afternoon. So we had plans to go eat with some friends in their backyard. So I didn't have to like think about dinner. And it was like four o'clock and I was feeling sleepy. But like I hadn't really like done anything with my body all day. And I was like, I'm going to take a walk and I went outside and I was like, No, I'm actually just gonna get out like one of our camping chairs and sit in the sun drive.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:56
I said she's long I wasn't far off. Yes.
Molly 29:59
So I I took one of our like, you know, collapsible camping chairs, set it up in the driveway in in the sun, which was waning by this point I was wearing my like my like puffer coat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:10
So when someone wrote a complaint about you on next door, yeah.
Molly 30:14
Anyway, I put in my headphones and I listened to these two podcast episodes with the sun on my face. I think I even have a little bit of a sunburn today from it. I don't see it. Okay. Anyway. Alright, so the first one that I want to mention is the podcast partners, which is made by Rishi cash her way, who is also the the force behind song exploder.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:37
And the the accept cookies newsletter that I recommended a couple of weeks. Yeah.
Molly 30:42
And he did home cooking with semi Nosrat. Yeah, during the pandemic lockdown. Anyway, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:50
Is the kind of the kind of person who makes makes us feel bad about ourselves for not doing more stuff.
Molly 30:55
Thanks a lot did anyway, so this podcast is, you know, it's got that same wonderful production style as song exploder, where like, he comes on, and he talks about why he's invited these guests, but then like, he has this way of editing it so that he disappears, and it's just the person he's interviewing, like, talking. Cool. So anyway, this podcast is called partners. And it is always to people who are partners of any type, whether business partners, romantic partners, whatever crime partners in crime, he had Bonnie and Clyde,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:30
that great episode. Yeah. Anyway, I did kind of upsetting
Molly 31:34
anyway. But so the episode that I listened to was with Roxane Gay and her wife Debbie Millman. Okay. And of course, Debbie Millman. You probably know from her own podcast, design matters. And she's a fantastic interviewer. You know, the two of them, they're married. And they basically every every set of partners who come on the podcast talk about, like, how they met, and like, what their partnership is, and what makes it work.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:02
Can we can we get invited on this podcast? I
Molly 32:04
know, right? Anyway, I have to say this episode with Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman is so like, romantic. Okay, just listening to the two of them talk and like, how like hardcourt Debbie, like pursued Roxanne. And also just listening to them talk anyway. It's delightful. I'm in. So yeah, that's the podcast partners made by Rishi catch her way, and in particular, the episode with Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman. Okay. The other one I wanted to mention is an episode of still processing, okay, which is usually with Wesley Morris and Jenna Wertham. But Jenna Wertham is taking the year off to work on a book and so Wesley Morris is having like a guest on each time to chat with him. And this particular episode is about theme music for TV shows. Okay. And he's talking with Hanif abdurraqib. Yep. And so there have like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:58
as soon as you said the music for TV shows the Golden Girls theme jumped into my head.
Molly 33:03
I love that. That's what jumped into your head. So they they talk about I just had never thought about theme music for TV shows the way they're talking about, alright. And what prompted them to talk about it is you know, when you're watching shows, now you can like click to skip the intro. And they were talking about whether like, this is a good thing or not. I've thought about this too. So anyway, the episode is great. They talk about theme music from a lot of different shows from Yellow Jackets. To to the Jeffersons so like a broad range time. Spoiler alert, Wesley Morris cries,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:41
okay,
Molly 33:42
it's such a great conversation. And it just made me think about, like the experience of TV and the way that it is created for us in a different way than I'd ever thought of it before.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:56
Okay, that sounds deaf what both of those both sound like my kind of thing. Yeah.
Molly 34:00
So that's, that's an episode of still processing. That is, yeah, it's probably came out in March or April, and it is going to say something about theme music or theme songs. Okay. I don't know. You
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:12
know what I'm going to do later, I'm gonna get up my shades long. I'm gonna I'm gonna put on the song chaise long by wet leg. And then after that, I'm gonna I'm gonna set it up in the driveway of our building. I'm gonna start listening to those podcasts. And then I'm gonna get run over by a neighbor trying to go into the garage.
Molly 34:25
Great. Okay, perfect.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:27
It's gonna be a big day.
Molly 34:28
I'll come visit you in the hospital. I'll bring you Japanese curry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:31
Thank you. Wait to bring it back around. So our producer is Abby, sir. Catella.
Molly 34:34
That's right. And you can rate and review us everywhere you get your podcasts. I know all podcasts say that. And that's because it's actually important.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:42
Yeah. Do we know why it's important? No, but we do know that it's important to hang out with other people listen to spilled milk. And you could do that at reddit.com/are/everything spelled Valcke,
Molly 34:53
indeed. Well, thank you for listening to spilled milk the show that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:58
the world's first return. audible podcast. Ah, you've been holding on to that. I just thought of it like, like 10 seconds.
Molly 35:05
Wow. Okay, I'm Molly Weissenberg. I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:08
Matthew Amster-Burton
Molly 35:15
I did see I had to open up an issue and look at this article, the headline of which was like 10 things to never ask your lover. Oh, okay, let's go through we go through all 10 Okay, so one of them was have you ever felt this way before? That's the whole question like because you're not supposed to want to know if your partner has ever like been in love before Okay, I see me and
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:39
well this is this is like more like deeper and more emotional than I that I was gonna give Playboy credit for
Molly 35:45
another one of them was Why did you do that? The other one was did you come? Okay, which I feel like what who doesn't have Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:57
I mean that's that I guess I guess like this was just like like proto like you know this the number seven will shock you like because you do this all the time but you shouldn't Yes, right.
Molly 36:08
But anyway, I do feel like probably in what would the reason that I'm talking about this is I do think that probably in one of those 150 Plus playboys there is your soulmate. No there's something about how to like strengthen your pain oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:23
I'm sure yeah,
Molly 36:24
of course so that it can
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:25
like right. I'm gonna go on the record here and say like, I don't I don't love find to withstand torque.
Molly 36:41
Wow, I mean, have you maybe this is something you should ask your spouse this was not one of the 10 questions you shouldn't ask like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:48
do you want to apply torque
Molly 36:50
applied torque to my
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:53
because torque is like or like a rotational thing right? That's that's where that's what gives me pause but I mean like of course you do you I'm just just saying like yeah, like the idea of torque. Like you know in like under the hood Yeah, I want all the all the foot pounds of torque I can get but under the under the covers.
Molly 37:17
You want a straight piston action?
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:21
Exactly like yeah, we're talking about different parts of the engine
Molly 37:28
a vaguely car for more than just one job.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:33
I know. Wow. Okay, well third
Molly 37:37
world Republic never get there.