Try It, You'll Like It

Tsss tsss! Comedian (and the woman upon which Winston acts as boyfriend) Erika Curry guests this week to discuss her dislike for eggs. For the tasting, an EGG PLATE featuring six items (scrambled, fried, hard boiled, boached and cured eggs plus a soft boiled ajitsuke tamago aka marinated ramen egg) is served plus a spaghetti carbonara, chinese egg tart and a vanilla souffle.

Amanda Salvatore and Jackie Rae Aubel, hosts of Campfire Media podcast Guilty Pleasure, join David and Winston this week to discuss Amanda’s passionate distaste for roast beef sandwiches. For the tasting, Arby’s sliders, the OG Beef from Top Round and a homemade smoked tri tip sandwich is offered to Amanda while Jackie enjoys a BBQ mushroom sandwich.

Recorded from the Hell’s Kitchen location of The Meatball Shop in New York City, Chef Dan Holzman guests to discuss meatballs and his dislike for blood sausage. For Hot Tastes, Winston wants more frozen salty foods while David would like to be able to do more individual orders for one bite items like dumplings (and even meatballs). For the tasting, Black Pudding from John Sullivan’s Bar and Grill, Soondae from Gammeeok and Morcela from Buenos Aires Restaurant are served.

Actor Joel McCrary of NBC’s Trial and Error joins us in the sweltering August heat to discuss his distaste for the most summery of summer fruits, the watermelon. For the tasting, watermelon is served raw, in an agua fresca, as the base for a gazpacho, sweet watermelon rind pickles, baked as a “steak” preparation, smoked into a watermelon ham, as well as a sweet and spicy sorbet and sour patch watermelon gummies for dessert.

Owners of the truck and Pasadena restaurant Waffles de Liege George Wu and Lawrence Tai join our hosts this week to discuss their distaste for ginger. For the ginger menu, crystallized ginger, Reed’s Ginger Beer, homemade lemon ginger kombucha, ginger chews by the Ginger People and a medicinal ginger chicken broth are served.

Chef Wes Lieberher (currently corporate executive chef for the J. Fall Group and formerly of Beer Belly) joins the podcast this week to discuss his distaste for tripe, the first and second stomach of a cow. For the tasting, tripe tacos from Tacos Arizas, stir fried tripe from Bao Dim Sum House, and a homemade Tripe sandwich with salsa verde that's a riff on a Florentine sandwich, the Lampredotto.

Cakemaker Maryn Silverberg of Piece of Cake LA guests this week (bringing a delicious cookie butter cake with her) while David and Winston return the favor by supplying plenty of red bell peppers to her chagrin. For the tasting, raw red bell pepper, red pepper jelly, roasted red pepper romesco sauce with fried pita chips and a red bell pepper cake with a red bell pepper frosting are served.

Recorded from their storefront in Santa Monica, owners of Cookie Good Ross and Melanie Canter join Winston & David this week to discuss Ross’s distaste for beets. For Real Food or Real Gross, Winston poses whether bat paste or fish’ems is real, while David draws on inspiration from 1950’s recipes when he has our guests choose between celebration pie and the cranberry candle. For the tasting, pickled beets, roasted beets with chevre and a chocolate beet cake are served up.

Adam Bunnell of LA donut truck Hustle N Dough guests this week to discuss donuts, coffee and his aversion to mint with David & Winston. For the tasting, they offer fresh mint, mint toasted almond feta pesto, corn succotash with mint, and andes mints plus a beverage accompaniment of a mint julep mocktail and honeydew mint juice.

Joe Nicchi of the CVT Soft Serve Truck joins Winston and David to get into his distaste for strawberries. For Hot Tastes, Winston wants there to be more cooking with lava while David staff to be forthcoming when there’s an issue and not pretend like nothing is wrong. For the tasting, raw strawberries are served with balsamic glaze and nutella, strawberry gazpacho, a strawberry milkshake and the strawberry balsamic shrub from the Aaron Polsky episode are all served.

Recorded at Checker Hall in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Winston and David return to eggplant for the second time at the behest of Checker Hall owner Hugh Horne who is not a fan (and head chef Hovig Agop joins us as well). For the tasting, an eggplant forward ratatouille, eggplant caponata, and eggplant caponata are served alongside chef Hovig’s moussaka.

Recorded at Brewyard Beer Company in Glendale, CA, owners Sherwin Antonio and Kirk Nishikawa guest to dive deep into beer Kirk’s distante for gummy textures. FornHot Tastes, David wants a full ingredient list on beer labels and Winston believes there should be no indoor seating for fast food restaurants. For the tasting, Charleston Chews, sautéed mushrooms, and dukbokki (Korean rice cakes in a red sauce) and Korean mochi with a sesame filling are served up!

Recorded at Arts District Brewing Company in downtown LA, head brewer Devon Randall guests to discuss her dislike for tuna fish sandwiches. For the tasting, Devon provides David/Winston with a nearby bodega sandwich and they provide her with a standard tuna salad, a black garlic tuna salad and a mayo-free sesame avocado tuna salad sandwich.

Recorded at Angel City Brewery in the Arts District of DTLA, head brewer Layton Cutler and brewer Tyler Thurman join us to discuss Tyler’s distaste for avocado, a dislike made worse by the fact that Angel City brews its own avocado beer every summer. For the tasting, raw avocado, Salt and Straw’s Avocado and Oaxacan Chocolate Fudge ice cream, and a homemade popsicle are served.

All episodes in June 2018 will feature LA craft brewers and our Brewery Month kicks off with Jeremy Raub of Eagle Rock Brewery who has Winston/David serving up natto, a Japanese fermented soybean dish. For Hot Tastes, Winston thinks that meatballs are a superior pizza topping to sausage, while David feels that any flavor that can’t be juiced shouldn’t be in beer (i.e. peanut butter). For the tasting, one homemade batch and three varieties of store-bought natto are served up with rice and scallions.

Comedian, playwright and dear pal Ross Buran guests this week to discuss his distaste for mushrooms and all things fungi. In lieu of Hot Tastes, David surprises Winston and Ross with a Chicago-based liqueur and Korean Sweet Corn ice cream. For the tasting, a raw mushroom, Italian-style marinated mushrooms, mushroom ragout and a truffle flatbread a served up...and then a sweet mushroom surprise challenges Winston and Ross’s tastebuds.

Owner of BBQ pop-up Bobbie’s Small Batch Chris Jenkins arrives with an empty stomach to receive Winston/David’s presentation of sushi, a food he avoids with regularity. Rather than attempt to make sushi on their own, the hosts leave it to the sushi professionals and present Chris with a Try Me box delivered from Sugarfish. Find Bobbie’s Small Batch Kitchen on Instagram and hit Chris up for all your smoked meat needs!

Chef Ted Hopson hosts the Winston/David at his Studio City restaurant The Bellwether to discuss his most hated food: gingerbread. This week’s hated food was even the secret ingredient when Ted appeared on Iron Chef Showdown so the boys face a daunting task trying to outdo him. For the tasting, a sweet and savory gingerbread cookie are offered.

Bar manager Aaron Polsky hosts Winston and David at Harvard and Stone to discuss shrubs, a beverage made from fruit juice and vinegar. Centuries ago, shrubs were used to preserve fruit juices but with the advent of refrigeration, they fell out of fashion until a recent cocktail renaissance, but Aaron wants no part of it. For the tasting, homemade strawberry balsamic and orange champagne vinegar shrubs are served in addition to switchel.

Comedian/trained chef Tracy Tober joins us at the TIYLI compound to break down her displeasure at thought of a baked bean. For the tasting, they serve up Heinz baked beans, BBQ baked beans from LA’s Bludso’s (served as they are as well as additionally smoked by David/Winston with pecan chips for two hours) and a savory baked bean dish called Tavče Gravče, one of the national dishes of Macedonia.