- Can something split up the power couple,
spaghetti and marinara?
- Let's talk about that.
(gentle, upbeat music)
- Good Mythical Morning.
- Today, we're gonna find out what undiscovered topping
is the next best thing to marinara on spaghetti
or maybe even better than marinara.
- Yeah.
- And a portion of today's episode is sponsored
by Bright Cellars, but more on that later.
- Okay, you know the phrase don't start something
you can't finish, right?
It works well when referring to home construction
and picking fights, but it also applies to spaghetti
because have you ever started boiling some noodles
and then you realize you don't have the sauce to go with it?
- I do not boil without checking for sauce first.
- Well.
- As a policy.
- It hasn't happened to me either,
but that's just because I have the fear of that happening,
so it keeps me from even trying to make spaghetti.
- Oh, that's why you haven't made spaghetti.
- Maybe that's all gonna change today.
It's time for Next Best Thing,
spaghetti and marinara edition.
- To determine the true next best thing to marinara sauce,
we're gonna need to combine sketti with salsas, liquids,
and condiments of all kinds,
covering the full spectrum of flavor.
- But first, we should try a classic plate
of spaghetti and marinara
so we can remember where the bar is set.
- Now, we're not putting Parmesan cheese on this,
which I would normally do, just because it's just,
I feel like I want the unadulterated experience.
- Do you ever used the spoon twirl technique?
- I do this and then I just bite that
and the rest of it falls. - Kinda fancy, right?
Instead of slurping.
- It works for a reason.
Actually, I don't know the reason.
I'm sure there's some culinary reason.
- It's the tangy acidious-ness.
- Acidious-ness, yeah.
- Of the sauce with the starchy yellowness of the noodle.
- Yeah, you should have a show on the internet
that is mostly about food.
- Yeah, it's good.
Is anything remotely better?
- Let's find out.
(gentle classical music)
I had no idea where we were gonna start this, but.
- And I thought that was cheese.
- But we're starting with honey mustard.
I mean, why not, right?
It goes on so many things
and Link, I know that this is a point of contention for you,
but honey mustard is just honey and mustard.
- Now I don't even know why, what was contentious about it.
- I think it was just the fact that you didn't understand
that honey mustard was honey with mustard in it.
- Well, who told you that?
- You did. (laughing)
You said something-
- It looks good.
My brain is telling me that it's cheesy noodles.
- Right, but it's not.
- It's alfredo-ish.
- There is a creaminess to it.
- It's very sweet.
- I'm not a massive honey mustard fan.
I actually had to make myself like honey mustard
earlier in life because it ended up on so many things
that I made a conscious decision.
I remember sitting in a restaurant as a 10 year old
and thinking to myself,
you must make yourself like honey mustard, Rhett.
You must overcome this.
- Wow.
- Because it ends up on so many things
and I successfully did it.
- Wow, Rhett didn't like something as a child.
Honey mustard.
- But I don't love it.
- Yeah, but it is the next best thing
because it's the only thing-
- It's the only thing to choose from.
- I feel like it needs some fried chicken pieces.
- Okay, all right.
(gentle classical music)
- We got some buffalo sauce on these noodles.
Now, have you ever said no to the buffalo sauce?
- Buffa-no.
- That's right, buddy.
- Now, this has an aesthetic quality that fits
with what you might expect.
Before I eat this, I will say, it feels like
the kind of thing that you might see on Reddit.
Like, you can put Buffalo sauce on noodles
and it's great, guys!
Try it!
- Hey, well, that's what we're trying to do here.
Trying to fuel Reddit.
Keep that site alive.
I really like-
- [Rhett] Does it need our help?
- The twirl against the spoon.
I would recommend it at some point.
- I just like Buffalo sauce, man.
- Spicy, buttery.
- [Rhett] And I like the fact that it has that spice.
- Smooth.
- It's a completely different thing.
Obviously, it's not going in a creamy direction.
For me, this is an easy usurping of the honey mustard.
- I really liked the honey mustard, but it was so sweet.
This is better.
- The honey part, yeah.
- Because it stays in that savory territory,
so I'm with you.
We're gonna have the buffalo sauce take over
as the next best thing.
- And one of the things that separates regular hot sauce
from buffalo sauce is usually the addition of oil or butter.
And you know how like when you're a kid,
you just put butter on noodles?
It kind of has that buttery noodle, but then the spicy.
So this is actually, this is a front runner
that I'd like to see.
- You don't think it's gonna get toppled anytime soon?
- I'm interested to see what gonna try.
- I just toppled Morgan, who got to dive to catch
a horrible throw.
- It was a really low, low throw.
- It stuck to my hand.
- It happens.
(gentle classical music)
- Before we try our next mini marinara substitute,
this portion of today's episode
is sponsored by Bright Cellars.
Bright Cellars is a monthly wine subscription service
that helps you discover the wine that you love.
- Even if you're not a regular wine drinker,
the holidays are coming up
and it's good to have a few extra bottles on hand
so you don't show up at a dinner party
with a very obviously used gift for the host.
- It sounds like you're specifically referring
to the scented candle that I gave you.
I only burned it in order to test out the scent.
- Well, you tested over half of it.
- To get matched to the perfect premium wines
tailored to your specific taste preferences,
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- Seven questions.
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- You are sore about this candle.
- Just a little bit.
- And after your first order, you can log into your account
and then rate the wines you received
on a scale of one to five so that the next round of bottles
are even better suited to your tastes.
All right, Rhett.
You know what?
I want you to have this brand new, unopened bottle
of Living Essence.
I know you're like pinot noir.
This thing comes from Lodi, California,
like the Creedence song.
- And you know what?
It is unopened and unused.
I really appreciate that, Link.
That's so big of you, but you know what?
I've actually got my eye
on this Folk and Fable bourbon barrel blend.
It's a bold and smoky red blend.
You know I like my wines bold and smoky.
- Then I'll keep the Living Essence, but what's cool
is that each box comes with these wine education cards.
You get to read about all the stuff
associated specifically with each bottle.
It outlines the tasting notes, suggested pairings,
best serving temperature, and the origin.
- And Bright Cellars is offering 50% off
your first six bottle box, plus a bonus bottle.
That's seven bottles for just 53 bucks.
So click the link in the description to get started.
- Thanks again to Bright Cellars for sponsoring
this portion of today's episode
and now, let's try our next exciting alternative
to spaghetti and marinara.
- Well, Link, it's plum sauce.
It's a small bottle that packs a punch.
- I'm gonna get plum tickled.
Are we back in sweet territory?
And have we establish that that's not to our liking?
- Well, I don't know.
I'm open-minded.
I may upgrade to your spoon technique after awhile here.
- Sometimes, I get way too much on there, though.
- I don't think I've ever really intentionally put
plum sauce on anything.
- It tastes like Christmas.
- Yeah, it has a, is that a coriander?
What does that in there?
Read the ingredients.
- [Link] I don't know.
Fake label doesn't have real ingredients listed on it.
(crew laughing)
What is this?
It's purple.
It's got plums in it.
Don't be stupid or inquisitive.
- I'm not enjoying this.
What does plum house actually go on?
- [Crew Member] Egg rolls, maybe.
- (laughing) Egg rolls, maybe.
- But not this, baby.
- Quite the endorsement.
(gentle classical music)
- Thousand Island dressing.
Will it have us a thousand times yessing?
- Oh, buddy! - Let's find out.
- Now, Thousand Island dressing has already made the leap
to savory things, like many burgers,
you'll find the Thousand Island sauce.
- Sure, sure, but that's a secret.
- They call it a secret sauce,
but it's just Thousand Island,
which I think is just ketchup and mayonnaise,
but you didn't hear that from me.
- Pickle bits.
I don't know what else is in this.
Nothing.
- Yeah, we're definitely not going to get any of this
approved by the USDA with not putting any information on it.
- I would have said that Thousand Island is not as sweet
as honey mustard, but I think it's sweeter
and it's long gone, when comparing it to the buffalo sauce.
- I'm pausing to really consider this
because it has a creamy quality.
The orange comes from ketchup, which is from tomatoes,
which is what is in marinara sauce already.
- Okay.
- [Rhett] But it also seems a little nasty.
- I don't dislike it.
- But it's a little nasty.
- I like the honey mustard better than this.
- Well, we've already thrown that away.
- Right.
- We're stuck.
- I can't put this ahead of the buffalo sauce.
- It's not better than the buffalo.
- Because that was really working.
- I'm really trying to give it a fair shake.
- So it's sliding.
(gentle classical music)
Can gravy be the next best thing?
- Anytime you say gravy, I say yes.
- Maybe.
Maybe gravy, baby.
- I will say, two boys from the south,
gravy holds a special place in our hearts.
Literally, there's probably gravy
from the last 20 years or so that's still lodged-
- Stuck in a valve?
- But we typically do the white gravy, but let's.
- It implies meat.
- It implies meat, but then you look beneath there
and there is no meat.
- There is no meat.
- It's just implied meat.
Do you like the implication of meat?
- I don't know if that makes me more frustrated
or if it makes me more at home.
It's like, maybe I could think
that the gravy contains the meat.
If it had meatballs, I think this could
really start to work, but without the meatballs-
- I think it's a specific kind of gravy.
It's a canned gravy.
I think if you're talking to homemade gravy
or if talking white gravy that you put on a biscuit
that's got little sausage bits in there.
- Let's open it up. Let's include that.
Are you cool with us including?
- I don't know how I feel about that.
You're including the world of gravy
into this little can of gravy?
- It's gravy.
It's like, we know that there's other types of gravy.
- But once you open yourself up to all kinds of gravy,
it's a gateway to lots of different things.
- No, it's just more gravy.
- Next thing you know, you're hanging out
at the corner store, playing checkers
with some guy named Herb.
- Drinking liquids out of bags.
- Yes.
- Oh, no.
- Yeah, and then getting your news from the paper.
(crew laughing)
Gravy's a slippery slide, man.
- I think this is some crappy gravy and it's still okay.
It implies meat.
- It implies meat.
I do like the implication of meat, just on a theoretical,
in a theoretical way.
I do appreciate the implication of meat.
- If you get the gravy that you love,
it is going to be a better next thing
than the buffalo sauce.
That's my assertion.
- I don't disagree with you.
- That white gravy?
- That gravy's not here.
This is a philosophical conundrum that you have opened up.
The gravy boat has just sailed
right into the middle of a conundrum, my friend.
- I'm just saying, let's say the best version of gravy
to your taste.
It's just like saying your favorite brand of buffalo sauce.
- Buffalo sauce.
- Is what you would put on, but we haven't dictated
which one that is.
- Well, I've never considered it in that way.
- So do that and then, are you cool with this?
- I don't know if I'm cool with it, but I'm okay with it.
(gentle classical music)
- Bean alert, Rhett. - Hey!
- We got some red bean paste here,
a paste commonly used in Eastern Asian cuisine.
It is the fancy cousin of baked beans.
Sweetened, boiled, and then mashed paste
made out of red beans.
- I love red bean, like a bun.
You can get a bun with red bean inside.
It's kind of a dessert-y thing, but also, very mild.
Now consistency wise, we're having to do some work.
- Yeah, it's like, I kind of want to-
- You got to work it in.
It seems like if this was a good idea,
then they would have already figured this out
and proposed it from Asia to the rest of the world.
You know what I'm saying?
Because they've got both of these things,
noodles and red bean paste,
and I don't know if this has happened yet.
- I think the pace goes a long way.
- [Rhett] I'll be finding out why.
- So I just added the bean after the twirl.
- Yeah, I'm there, kind of.
- Which kind of helped.
- A little dry.
- I could use a little more.
- It's a little like starch on starch,
even though I don't really consider bean a starch.
It has a starchy quality.
- It has a prune-ish quality.
- Do you like prunes?
- Yeah, I'm a fan of prunes.
I like this bean paste, too.
I'm just eating it alone now.
- I like the bean paste itself.
It's the combination.
Don't eat too much bean paste, man.
- Oh, really?
- You gotta hold yourself back.
- I'll be pasting it up later.
- It's so concentrated, you don't understand how many beans,
like you may think I'm crazy for saying it,
but there's at least 30 beans right there.
(crew laughing)
- Oh, thanks for warning me, man.
- You want 30 beans in your mouth?
- Thanks, see that's what friends are for.
I'm glad I'm not eating this alone.
It doesn't top the gravy.
- Good effort.
- Good effort, bean paste.
- But you're not gonna do it.
- You're not gonna do it.
You're not gonna do that to us, but I do like you.
(gentle classical music)
- And finally, we have arrived at cocktail sauce.
- Now, is there a way that we can think about this
that will increase the chances of it working?
Because my initial reaction is, this is not gonna work.
There's no shrimp inside.
- Let's think of it as marinara sauce.
- Well, I mean, it's tomato paste.
- Yeah.
- And there's some-
- The horseradish is what kind of gives cocktail sauce
its cocktailish-ness.
- But that's kind of like hot sauce, kind of,
which was the next best thing to the next best thing,
which is gravy right now,
and it certainly looks like you would expect it.
Some people just put freaking catch-up on their spaghetti
and call it a day.
- I really appreciate your philosophical openness today.
- Yeah, I just really-
- It's really impressive.
- In the name of discovery.
- It's not horrible.
- No.
- But your face looked like it was horrible.
- No, I was confused that it wasn't horrible.
- I mean, it's no gravy. (laughing)
It's no theoretical gravy.
- Hold on, now.
It's just the tangy-est.
- It really grabs the noodle in the right way.
- You can put this in front of somebody
and not give them any warning,
except this is what I call my tangy sketti.
Get full tang on this thing.
- And I like it when my noodles
are grabbing in the right way, my sauce.
- So it's definitely growing on me.
I think it might won a little spot up there
because it's just really tangy.
It's the tangiest ketchup you could ever throw on spaghetti.
- Here's my argument against.
- And that works.
- Okay, now, first of all,
I wasn't even really on team gravy,
just because I had philosophical issues with it.
- Yeah, we know what team you're on.
- You had opened this up to something
that is just theoretical considerations of implications,
as opposed to just taste sensations, you know?
And when I found myself in situations,
like the one that we are in right now,
there are complications when I personally listen
to your pontifications about these philosophical,
I gotta come up with another word, but ends in -ation.
I don't have it right now.
- Well, I would say the ramifications
that your gravitation-ing towards.
- And I don't really have any qualifications culinarily.
(crew laughing)
I've just, you know what?
I'm just an internet sensation. (laughing)
And so, whatever that makes me, man.
- So let's just, let's just do this.
- So your theoretical best gravy,
if you can get your hands on that,
you should try that on your pasta,
but cocktail sauce, you should try that
because you might find that you like that.
But if you're a buffalo sauce person,
listen, today is all about possibilities, okay?
Don't hold yourself back.
Don't limit yourself to one thing when you can have three.
- But I wouldn't mix them.
- Don't put them together.
No, don't do that.
- Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell.
- That would be an abomination.
- You know what time it is-iation?
(Rhett laughing)
- Hi, Rhett and Link.
I am Robert.
This is Verona and it's time to spin
the Wheel of Mythicality.
- Beautiful.
- That was beautiful and we're talking about the coin.
(chuckling) I know the saying.
Click the top link to watch us discover
the crazy English translations
behind your favorite pasta shapes in Good Mythical More.
- And to find out where
the Wheel of Mythicality is gonna land.
- [Rhett] Get as adventurous as you want in your kitchen
with the Mythical Kitchen merch collection,
available now at mythical.com.