Try It, You'll Like It

Comedian Nelinda Palomino guests this week to talk about her long-held dislike for peanut butter. For the tasting, dabs of creamy, crunchy and natural peanut butter are served with a strawberry jam PB&J squaring off one using grape jelly. They also have a colonial era cream of peanut soup, chicken satay with peanut sauce, a burger with peanut butter, homemade peanut butter squares and a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

Comedian/Drummer Joel Jimenez hasn’t had liver since he was a kid, but on this week’s episode, he’s deLIVERed quite a few options to try. For Hot Tastes, David wants a gas station fruit basket at the checkout aisle at grocery stores while Winston wants a larger selection of ethnic meats at his butcher counter at the grocery store. For the tasting, beef liver and onions, deli-style chopped liver, a Slavic Liver Cake and goose and duck/port wine liver mousses are served.

Writer/Comedian Nadia Osman isn’t punking hosts Winston and David, she actuallys does not like ribs, leading to one of the most anticipated tastings yet on the show. For the tasting, four smoked versions including a salt and pepper rib, a glazed bbq sauce rib, a yakiniku rib and a homemade riff on a McRib sandwich are served alongside Food Wishes sausage oven ribs, a slow cooker root beer rib and a braised beef short rib with cheese grits.

Host David Zwick has never had Taco Bell. After mentioning this fact on an earlier episode and to kick off 2019 right, fellow host Winston Carter subjects David to try a significant portion of the menu with comedians Jake Regal and Jessica Svendsgaard. For the tasting, a hard shell taco, two doritos locos tacos, a cheesy gordita crunch, a spicy tostada, a mexican pizza, a five layer burrito, a quesarito and cinnamon twists are washed down with a baja blast.

Comedian and podcast superstar Jon Gabrus (High and Mighty, The ActionBoyz Podcast, Raised By TV) joins Winston and David for an end of year blowout where they test his taste buds with some wild selections. For a once a year segment entitled New Tastes Resolutastes, Winston aims to eat more street meat in the new year, David wants to host more food gatherings and play around with squid ink and Jon wants to get into more cuts of beef.

Comedian Cory Webster (Dick Cannon) guests this week to keep the holiday spirit rolling in spite of his dislike for eggnog. For the tasting, a traditional eggnog, coquito, tamagozake and cartons of coconut milk eggnog and vanilla spiced eggnog are served alongside an eggnog fudge and a pork au lait stewed with eggnog instead of milk.

Chestnuts are roasted over an open flame and chestnuts have been roasted in the snow, much to the chagrin of John Roiniotis (TBToonz) who truly despises the festive nut. For the tasting, roasted chestnuts, a chestnut soup, chestnut meringue pie and chestnut cookies are served alongside imbuljata tal-qastan, a Maltese drink flavored with chestnuts, cocoa, seasonal spices and tangerine.

Crank up the Fela Kuti and put the Manturkey in the oven because comedian, bon vivant and leader of the Dom Squad Dominique Johnson joins us this week to dive deep into cornbread, the cornmeal classic. For the tasting, a Texas-shaped cheddar jalapeno cornbread, a sweet cornbread Bibingka from LA Filipino/American BBQ fusion restaurant Park’s Finest, a traditional spoon bread as well as deep fried hush puppies and corn dog bites are served up.

Comedian Jason Sheridan (Podcast: The Ride) joins us this week for a harrowing, leguminous Tamarind adventure. For the tasting, raw tamarind pods, homemade jelly and chutney, chicken pad thai, Tamarind Beef stew, a tamarind candy roll and a tamarind chili ice cream are served plus a tamarindo agua fresca to drink.

In the final edition of The Thanksgiving Wars, comedian guests Erin Gabbard and Jessica Zepeda defend and destroy (respectively) the status that stuffing holds as a standard Thanksgiving side, including a fascinating discussion of what constitutes a “garnish.” For the tasting, store-bought boxed Stove Top stuffing is prepped with its basic instructions both inside of a bird and baked in a tray plus a homemade cornbread/sausage stuffing, a standard white bread stuffing and a rice stuffing are served.

It’s our most heated debate of the Thanksgiving Wars yet. Several lines in the sand are drawn. Shots fired! Winston is held back. Arik Cohen and Rachel Chapman join us to debate the merits of Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallow. For the tasting, casseroles with store-bought mini marshmallows, another topped with marshmallow fluff, and a smoked sweet potato version are served along with a dessert of sweet potato ice cream with homemade marshmallow fluff and candied pecans.

The Thanksgiving Wars continue with comedian guests Marie Buck Scott and Nikki Digaetano joining our hosts in deliberating the pros and cons of this divisive Thanskgiving side dish: green bean casserole. For the tasting, the traditional campbell’s recipe (of just canned green beans, french fried onions and condensed mushroom soup), a fresh scratch version and an inverse version (cream of green bean soup with whole mushrooms) are served.

It’s the first Thanksgiving War Battle. On the four Thursdays leading up to Thanksgiving 2018, Winston and David will moderate a debate featuring a guest who loves a Thanksgiving side and an opponent who wishes to see it wiped from the cornucopia. In this first round, cranberry sauce lover Clare Loughran (Inside The Disney Vault) takes on her cran-adversary Zach Pyke (The Bachelor Zone). For the tasting, two varieties of canned sauce, homemade sauce, an attempted jelly mold and a cranberry relish.

Happy Halloween! It’s a terrifying episode of Try It You’ll Like It for David as he takes on his dislike of candy corn with true candy corn crackpots improvisers/actors Mike Cardella and Rachel Retha Middleton. For the tasting, a variety of Brach’s candy corn, Jelly Belly candy corn, homemade candy corn and a candy corn cocktail are served, plus a surprise Baked Alaska at the end made to look like candy corn with lemon curd ice cream and orange cake.

Director/Podcast Producer Cody Ziglar and director Austin Kolodney (aka the Spice Boys) guest on this week’s episode to discuss their shared dislike of Sauerkraut. For the tasting, canned sauerkraut, homemade cabbage sauerkraut and brussel sprouts kraut, a sweeter german style kraut with kielbasa and a cocktail called a Caraway Fizz with aquavit and sauerkraut juice are all served to the Spice Boys.

At the end of this episode, hosts Winston and David offer a full-throated apology to their guest Valerie Gordon of Valerie Confections for the cavalcade of Hostess Cakes and Hostess based dishes they experienced together for the tasting. For the tasting, Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Sno Balls and creamy filling based Hostess products are served alongside a homemade Hostess Cupcakes Cake pop with bruleed marshmallow fluff, a strawberry twinkie mocktail and a smoked twinkie.

Kristine De La Cruz and Sean Gillaland of Creme Caramel LA challenge David and Winston with a food they’d never had before: bittermelon (aka the bitter gourd or karela). With the texture of celery, the seeds of a squash and bitterest of tastes, it presents a real challenge for them. For the tasting, raw karela, toasted seeds, a sweet bittermelon pickle, an Indian mango and karela pickle and a bittermelon syrup made into a gin fizz to mirror a gin and tonic are served.

“Ahhhhh!” screamed the guest! And that guest, Ellen Clifford, is joined by her cohost of The Wine Situation podcast, Shaughn Buchholz, to discuss her fearful reaction to beer. For the tasting, they serve up Stella Artois, a german pilsner from Eagle Rock Brewery, 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon, Sierra Nevada’s Kolsch and a homemade Hefeweizen. To eat, beer cheese dip, beer bread, Guinness Lentil and Mushroom Pie and a Shake chocolate porter ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels.

Comedian, trombonist and good friend Erin McGown guests this week to discuss her aversion to green peas (and not, as the distinction is made clear, snap peas or snow peas). The episode kicks off with a round of Real Food or Real Gross that includes such potential foods as drunken shrimp, squirting cucumber salad and flummadiddle. For the tasting, fresh peas, two versions of mushy peas, wasabi peas, a pea soup with ham and a mint pea ice cream are served.

Actor, writer, and mutual friend Evan Sloan guests this week to discuss his aversion to grapefruit. For the tasting, pink and ruby red grapefruits are served raw plus bruleed grapefruit halves, grapefruit chermoula (a North African sauce), grapefruit soda (made from homemade grapefruit syrup), candied grapefruit peel and a pink grapefruit marmalade are served.