Podcast Minisode: National Potato Day
Hi, I’m Craig The Intern, and they make me transcribe these every week. Everything’s going great so far! This potato day minisode is about potatoes, which I don’t really like, but most people do. Probably because I only get fed cold potatoes in the intern room. You’d think they could throw in some Spam or something to flavor it. But I’m getting this transcription up late, so I guess I deserve it.
The Lowdown:
It’s Potato Day, or Po-tah-to Day (or “potatoe” day if you’re a certain former vice president), and we don’t know if it’s national or international at first. National, apparently. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is considered to be the cinematic peak for potatoes, although The Martian is up there. Matt is stunned to realize there are over 4,000 kinds of potatoes. Mack reveals they have more chromosomes than human beings, and there’s a sort of potato illuminati that meet every year to decide what sort of potato will be used that year for fast food fries.
Garlic mash is a favorite potato form of our hosts. A big baked potato is too much food now. And bacon makes everything better. Sweet potatoes are good in fries, but considered desserty by Mack. Everyone loves french fries, but thin is better than thick. Mack makes his own potato chips.
We talk staple crops, and how it’s corn and wheat here, but it’s other tubers elsewhere, like yams and lotus root, the latter being declared delicious by Matt. Mack recalls the time when his mother told him that mashed potatoes were actually made by…mashing potatoes. He xtols the virtues of Joel Robuchon in Paris as having the best.
Next up, it’s the pros and cons of different friers, and how olive oil can burn your steak too soon. We close this minisode with a shoutout to Ireland.
The Highlights:
2:43-3:05 what Russians and Irish have in common.
3:43-4:17 favorite baked potato toppings.
5:29-5:55 the trick to making good french fries at home.
The Links:
-The potato scene from The Two Towers, which, ironically, does not have any actual potatoes in it:
