- We're taking Italian food and American barbecue
to places they've never been before.
- Let's talk about that.
(upbeat music)
Good Mythical summer.
- There's nothing like a hot sun,
a cool pool, and a string of tables
overflowing are freshly grilled meats,
beans, and carb-loaded dishes as far as the eye can see.
And beans.
- A good old cookout, or as some people call it,
a backyard barbecue.
- You're wrong, but for the sake of this,
we'll just keep going along with the way
that you use that term.
- Barbecue.
- But you know what other cuisine is all about
meats and carbs?
- Italian?
- Oh, you found it in your notes.
Yes, Italian. You're right.
So today, we're finding out what happens
when you combine foods and flavors
of American backyard barbecue and Italian cuisine.
It's time for "Barbecue Italian vs. Italian Barbecue,"
AKA "Ciao, Pardner vs. Howdy, Paisano."
(upbeat music)
- [Stevie] Hello, BBQ boys.
- Mm-hmm.
- [Stevie] We put today's barbecue Italian
versus Italian barbecue matchups on our Instagram,
and the Mythical Beasts voted on which dishes
they thought you would like better.
The Mythical kitcheners made all of those dishes,
and we're gonna see how well
the Beasts can predict your tastes.
They'll get a point for each round
the majority of them guessed correctly.
If they get three or more points,
you'll have to write a celebratory acrostic poem for them
in "Good Mythical More."
- And we'll do it.
- But if they don't,
the Beasts will have to go to our Instagram,
find the photo of you guys holding a barbecue skewer,
and they must comment, "That's a skewer, and we're manure."
- Ooh! - And you'll know it, too.
- That's gonna hurt.
- I love these food fusions. - Woo! They're so good.
- Something great always comes out of it.
And I particularly love Italian food and my cookouts,
so I can't wait.
- Are you ready to get started, Stevie?
Do you have any more information for us?
Are you done?
- [Stevie] I can give you more.
I can always give you more.
- Okay. All right. - You know what this is.
- Okay, so we've got...
I'm so excited about this.
We're starting a little bit light.
We're not going straight to the meat.
We've got barbecue green beans bruschetta
versus gnocchi potato salad.
I'm gonna try to ignore that for a second.
'cause I'm so excited about it.
- Uh-huh.
Right, and you know that...
This is what we're thinking.
Well, this is what they're thinking, too.
- [Rhett] 'Cause it's already potatoes.
I mean, this is genius.
- Green beans,
snap beans,
whatever you want to call 'em.
- Bruschetta.
- Now, V, what's in this because that is tasty?
- [V] So you have a tomato-based barbecue sauce,
green beans, with bacon bits
atop toasted fresh bread slices.
- I would think- - Is that strange?
- ...you'd like this better than regular bruta because-
- Yeah, the only tomato part is just the sauce,
which I'm fine with that.
Very, very, very good.
- It's very good. It's very good.
- And you feel like you're getting your greens-
- Yeah, but who cares about that?
- ...in an Italian kind of way.
I remember the first time I had gnocchi.
I did not know how to say it.
So what'd you do here?
You got the...
You got the potato gnocchi.
- [V] Yes. It's standard potato salad and greens.
So it's like celery, green onions,
mayo, mustard, celery seed,
and then the gnocchi is just replacing the potatoes.
- It's that simple, huh? - Yes.
- [Rhett] 'Cause gnocchi is a potato pasta.
- This is Instagram hackish, you know?
Just replace your potatoes with gnocchi.
Oh, but it would be in that, I guess, the TikTok voice.
Just replace your potatoes with gnocchi.
I can't.
- That's perfect.
I'm picturing TikTok now.
- Mm-hmm.
In your particular potato salad, what's the red sprinkles?
- I'm coming back. - Paprika.
- Yeah, but that's the red sprinkles
in every potato salad, Link.
- I love it.
- In this particular potato salad.
- I always love it, and I'm always like-
- How do you make the red part?
- What is the red sprinkles?
Mmm.
Yeah, I don't wanna give the short shrift,
even though it's not gonna win it.
- It's definitely not gonna win.
- And I just did.
- Here's what I'll say.
Give it its due.
Based on perceptions,
this is better than I thought it would be.
I had such high expectations for this.
It's definitely the winning dish in this regard,
in this setup.
But gnocchi, I think it's as good
as that combination could be, V, I will tell you that.
- And you knew that.
- And I'm gonna eat more of it.
- Right, Stevie?
- [Stevie] I mean, this one is very, very close.
- Really?
- [Stevie] 52%-
- What? - ...of the Mythical Beasts
thought you would like
the barbecue green bean bruschetta better.
- Really? Wow.
(buzzer buzzes)
- Wonder why?
(crew laughing)
- [Stevie] The level of disappointment
might be disproportionate
to the actual game we're playing right now,
I just gotta say.
- I don't understand.
I mean, I can put myself in a voter's shoes and vote,
and I did.
- What size? What size shoe?
- Well, it's a nine. They're a little smaller than me.
- Okay. But probably average.
Eight, nine, yeah. - Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
- We are disappointed in you.
We're not hiding it.
- Get ready, Instagram.
(upbeat music)
- Now, we got some fun changes to classic dishes
on both sides.
We got a hot dog manicotti.
- [Rhett] Woo!
- Versus a bolognese.
(Rhett laughs)
And I couldn't help but say the G in it. Bolognese.
These sound incredible.
V, tell us about this manicotti dog.
- [V] Would love to, Link!
(Rhett laughs)
- I love your enthusiasm.
- [V] It's a manicotti pasta noodle with a ground hot dog
and ricotta cheese filling
served inside a toasted hotdog bun
with homemade style Italian gravy on top.
- Wow. So a manicotti is just a big old-
- Noodle. - Noodle filled up.
- Yeah, I know.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- That's good.
- A lot of bread and a lot of pasta at once.
The hot dog is kind of hiding.
- It's subtle, which is what we wanted.
I mean, what about...
Did you think about just putting a whole hot dog,
boop, in the middle of the manicotti?
- [V] Absolutely.
But it would've kind of looked inappropriate.
- Oh, yeah. (crew laughing)
- That's exactly what I was thinking.
- There you go. Yep.
- We don't do wieners on this show.
- Definitely thought about it.
- Now, over here, though- - Mm-hmm.
- Burger? Bolognese burger?
- Did somebody say burger bolognese?
- I didn't say it like that.
I wish I could.
- That's all right.
- It's our Italian chef, Nicole.
- Would you like some cheese over your bolognese burger?
- Yeah, yeah, of course.
- Okay. Say when, my sunflowers.
(Rhett laughs)
- [Rhett] Wow, I've never been called to sunflower before.
- Keep going.
V, what is the white spread?
- [Rhett] When.
- [Nicole] It is a Parmesan cheese sauce.
- Oh, so we got Parmesan cheese,
and we got Parmesan cheese sauce.
- [Nicole] Yes.
- Link, would you like me to do the same thing with that?
- I think you should, homie.
- How about you assemble it?
- The burger has a glaze.
- [V] It sure does, Link.
Look at you. You can see.
(crew laughing)
Sorry.
- I like the way you talk to him, by the way.
- I can see. - You can see.
It's a mild Italian sausage and ground beef patty
topped with bolognese sauce, garlic butter, brioche bun,
Parmesan cheese sauce, and fresh Parmesan
from our beautiful Italian chef Nicole.
- Whoop.
And you made that noise.
- Sorry about that noise.
I hate that noise just as much as you do.
- Now, Burger King tried to do something like this,
but it was a chicken sandwich.
- [Rhett] When they did the Italian stuff?
- Yeah.
- Oh yeah.
- Wowser.
- Oh.
Man!
You put some sausage in that burger, right?
- Mm-hmm. - Yes, I did.
- The cheeses work together so well.
- Oh my God.
- My favorite kind of sauce, bolognese, is really meaty,
really meaty.
But it doesn't get as meaty as this
when there's a big slab of meat under it.
- It's the meat sauce with the meat underneath it.
It's double meat.
And then there's double meat
within the actual burger itself.
So it's actually triple meat if you think about it.
But you didn't think about it.
- I thought about it, and I did see it.
- Now, y'all certainly,
you certainly got this one right, right?
You knew we were gonna choose this one, right?
- [Stevie] 72% of the Mythical Beasts thought
you'd like the bolognese burger better.
- Right. - Mm-hmm.
- You're still with us.
Thank you. (bell chimes)
- Again, Instagram worthy.
And the voice can do the thing that the voice does.
- Not on Instagram.
- TikTok. (upbeat music)
Before we dig into this amazing looking round,
we've got an amazing announcement.
It's time to announce the August pin of the month.
- Woo!
- You only get it for 24 hours,
and they've made Link's sliding scale,
and it actually slides.
- [Rhett] It's literal sliding. That's crazy.
- I'm gonna go- - It's crazy.
- I'm gonna struggle, which is really gonna sell it.
It's down...
There we go.
- [Rhett] Do that smoothly.
I'll do mine smoothly, too.
- I can go from being me
to being super happy about this round.
So it's kind of like a mood ring, but in pin form.
- Yeah. Like don't talk to me today.
Maybe approach me softly or-
- Yeah. - Yes.
I'm open for business.
- 24 hours only, mythical.com.
- Now, I will have to say, thank you, crew,
for putting my sliding scale-
- [Link] Your mood scale?
- ...that doesn't really slide on the back.
It makes me feel so special just to be included,
just be a part of things.
- Snatch it up.
It's a collectible.
Mythical.com while supplies last in that 24-hour window.
- Okay.
This is crazy, V, what you've done here.
We have brisket Parmesan.
- Oh gosh. - Brisket Parmesan.
So like chicken Parmesan, but with brisket.
- I get it.
- And then in honor of the Italian flag-
- [Link] Mm-hmm.
- Like they also did at Burger King
when they did those three sandwiches.
We've got- - Italian sauced ribs.
- ...ribs with some...
We'll hear about these in a second.
Let's hear about this first.
- Clearly excited about this brisket, V.
- [Rhett] What's going on over here?
- [V] It's a classic parmesana, not a Parmesan.
He said chicken.
- [Link] Oh.
- Oh, really?
- [V] So we replaced the eggplant that's originally in it,
and we used brisket instead.
- [Rhett] Oh God.
It's so cheesy. It's so brisket-y.
- You know if you're gonna throw brisket in something,
we're gonna love it.
- Okay. I can do this.
I can do this.
- [Crew] Good pull, Rhett.
- How is this not already a thing?
Like...
I'm just, I'm so happy right now.
As you can tell by my pin.
- It's so much better than the eggplant.
(Rhett laughs)
Brisket is so much better than eggplant.
- And chicken.
What we got over here?
We got pesto. What else?
- [V] Yeah, we have an Italian dry rub, ribs,
sauce of marinara Alfredo,
and a fresh pesto to resemble the Italian flag.
- Oh, these are together?
- [V] Yeah.
- Well- - Maybe we just pull.
- [V] You can bite both sides if you're feeling good.
- What if I just pulled?
Let's just see what happens.
- [Link] I'm gonna try the Alfredo on it.
Oh.
- Sorry. I think I just took all your meat.
- And then start with this.
- Don't look at me when I get pesto on my lips.
- That dry rub is nice.
- Mm! - Alfredo sauce ain't bad
on a rib.
- [Rhett] Yeah. Let me get something about that.
- [Link] It's really great.
- [Rhett] Oh, it's coming apart. I love it.
I mean, that's just really, really, really good.
- It's a little strange.
The Alfredo's a little strange, I think.
- Mm.
- But the pesto, let me try that.
- Strange is not the word I would use.
I didn't...
Here. You can have that bone.
(crew laughing)
- You just pulled.
- And you can have this other bone, too. (crew laughing)
I'll just take this meat.
Look at that. - I have to mention
every time-
- Oh gosh. - ...that you both split
the rib, you always took the one
that was way bigger than the other one
and left the other one for the other guy.
- That's right.
- [Stevie] That's just code that you have, I guess.
- Every man for himself. - Respect.
- [Stevie] Yeah.
- Now, I dropped the marinara from the ribs back into this,
but if you had one sauce to drop in there,
it would be that one.
- I've tried all three.
Well, no, I didn't get any of the marinara.
Let me try it.
- [Rhett] Yeah. Get some of that.
- [Link] Because-
- [Rhett] I'm coming back over here.
- These ribs are cooked perfectly,
rubbed great, sauce awesome,
but the combination is not singing
in the way that that does.
- So Link, I think you should just grab the golden tong and-
- Yeah, we got to.
- I'm claiming this one. That's why my fork's on it.
- You with us?
- [Stevie] 59% of the Mythical Beasts
thought you'd like the brisket parm better.
- Yeah, y'all know what's up, at least some of you do.
(bell chimes)
- Oh, man.
Thank you, V. - You're welcome.
- Thank you.
You've given me something to dream about tonight.
- Y'all can take the rest of the day off.
(upbeat music)
- Dessert time, and you got to get this one right,
collectively, Mythical Beasts,
in order to not have to shame yourself on our Instagram.
We have Kool-Aid panna cotta versus tiramisu cornbread.
Now, bear with my ignorance here.
Can you remind me what a panna cotta is in general
before we get into this colorful Kool-Aid version?
- [V] Yeah.
So panna cotta actually translates to cooked cream.
So we cooked up some heavy cream with some gelatin
and some milk and then we mixed in
some Kool-Aid flavors in it.
- Okay. Yeah. - What flavors?
- It's custardy.
- [V] A blue raspberry Kool-Aid
and a cherry Kool-Aid that's at the top.
- Look at that. Isn't that pretty?
- I just hate that I had to go and ruin it.
Look at that.
That's a colorful bite.
I got a blueberry in there, too.
- Wow! That has got-
- Kool-Aid flavors. - Kool-Aid written
all over it.
- Coming real strong.
Wow.
It tastes exactly like it looks it would taste
based on the brightness of the colors.
- It's like an Italian kid's birthday party.
Hey!
- [Rhett] Have you been to one of those before?
- I think that's what they all say to each other.
- [Rhett] Yeah.
- [Link] Wow.
- It might be a little bit too much for me,
and that's saying a lot.
You know, I have a high capacity.
- It's great.
It's packs a sour punch. I love it.
- Feels a little, it feels like it might be for somebody
with a palette of a child.
- It's great. - Yeah. (laughs)
It's so sweet. It's so sweet and so tart.
- Tiramisu cornbread.
So let's-
- So what do we got over here on the side?
- Let's get a slice.
- [V] It's espresso ladyfingers cornbread,
dusted with cocoa powder
and topped with a mascarpone cheese butter on the side.
- Oh, okay. - I'm making this one for you.
Marscarpone butter?
I think you're gonna want that.
And then do what you want with it.
- Oh, thank you.
Oh, it's warm. I love it.
- [Link] Marscapone butter.
- That's a lot of butter.
I mean, it's still butter, you realize, what you just...
But you know what?
- It's also cheese. - I'm a butter boy.
Huh. Huh. Mm-hmm.
Don't breathe in.
You know, when you're eating tiramisu,
you have to tell people don't breathe in.
- Okay.
- I've seen so many people almost die
on that cocoa stuff on top.
- Also, don't breathe out 'cause it'll get it on everybody.
- This is incredible.
- It's still corny, which is kind of nice.
- It's got that cornbread taste-
- Mm-hmm.
- But then this sort of unexpected,
almost gripping- - Chocolate.
- ...whatever tiramisu is-
- I do love it.
- [Rhett] It's a clear winner to me.
- But I'm voting for this one unless you change my mind.
And you can't do that by shaming me
that I have the palette of a child.
- Okay. - You gotta lure me into this.
- Well, why does it have to be your way?
I'm not the one with weird opinions.
- All right, I'll lure you over here.
It's beautiful.
It's definitely gonna work on TikTok,
which I've been calling Instagram this whole time,
and it's rich, but it's tangy.
It's sour.
It's unexpected.
It's light.
It leaves room for even another dessert.
This right here, it almost-
- It's not- - ...still bridges
between dessert and meal.
- Dude, it's pretty. - This is great, though.
- It's pretty, but that's it, man.
We're going to rock-paper-scissors this?
- Yeah.
- Okay. - We're at an impasse.
- Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.
All right. You win.
Although I heavily disagree.
- This is still great. Don't get me wrong.
- [Stevie] 63% of the Mythical Beasts
thought you'd like the tiramisu cornbread better.
- Oh, well, okay. - Sorry.
- So it's Link's fault
that you have to shame yourself on Instagram.
- [Stevie] Something tells me they're gonna be writing
a little more than "That's a skewer, and we're manure."
- That's a skewer. We're manure.
Nothing about me in the comment.
- Nothing about me for sure.
Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell.
- You know what time it is.
- Hi, my name is Josh.
I'm from Durham, North Carolina.
But today, I'm in Kingston at King's Bar-B-Que & Chicken,
and it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- That's right.
If you know the deal- - They do it right.
- You know that you say Durham with one syllable.
It's not Durham. It's Durham.
Click the top link to watch us dive into fajitas,
a fajitas draft, with Jordan in "Good Mythical More."
- And to find out where
the Wheel of Mythicality's gonna land.
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