Burgers Uncovered: 3 Orlando Burger Joints with Amy Drew Thompson

Embark on a gastronomic adventure with me, Carl Fiadini, as Chef Jeffrey and I chat with the illustrious Amy Drew Thompson. We'll whisk you away to the bustling streets of Orlando, unveiling three of the cities burger havens that are flipping the script on traditional patties and buns. If you're a fan of unconventional pairings, wait until you sink your teeth into the concept of Reuben Pizza – it's the kind of culinary mash-up that will have your taste buds doing the tango. As the holidays loom, we're also spicing up the festive table with twists on corned beef and Easter classics, ensuring your celebrations are anything but ordinary.

As the aromas of smoked corn beef waft through the air, we'll share a plate of foodie insights, including a spotlight on the Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards. This year, Primrose Lane's classic Smashburger reigns supreme, but don't take our word for it – come along as we explore the flavors that clin

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello Food Fam. This is the Walk and Talk podcast where you'll find a perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl Fianini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We're recording on site at Ibis Images Studios, where a food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. First things first. Last week we had sports legend and businessman the Bo Jackson on the show and what a great episode it was that it is. I'm looking for critiques on how the interview went. Go listen, then hit me up on that IGDM slide right in at Walk and Talk show.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Here's a giant shout out to our dear friend Patrick Kennan of the Produce Industry podcast for hooking us up with Bo and giving team Walk and Talk the VIP treatment on his inaugural networking event on a badass yacht. Oh my god, it was fun. We had such a blast. There's pictures. You gotta go check that out on the socials. He's gonna be on the show soon as well to talk about it.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Alright, so what the hell is a Ruben Pizza, you might ask yourself. Nah, who would ever ask that? Well, me, until I saw it. And then I fell in foodie love. Just wait for the yummy, yummy description. Thank you Peninsula Food Service for supplying the proteins for today's production. Yone Chefs in the central Florida area, peninsula, is the largest distributor of Creekstone Farms beef in the Southeast United States. It is complete with a fully staffed butcher shop to help solve your kitchen inconsistencies. Check out their dryage program too. Alright, this week's guest is a Walk and Talk Media contributor, amy Drew Thompson. She's been published in the New York Times, usa Today and the Orlando Sentinel. She is a foodie in the central Florida food industry, no, and she's telling you where some of the best three burger joints in Orlando are. Stay tuned. Amy Drew is on deck. Jeff popped a clutch baby, let's roll.

Speaker 2: 3:09

Yeah, it's gonna be one of those good days. So we've got excuse me, we've got a pie day. And then we have a pie day, and then we've got St Patrick's Day and at the end of the month we've got Easter. So I wanted to showcase some of the foods that people will be eating or have eaten. So one of those things you mentioned was the Brubein Pizza. Everyone's gonna have a little bit of corned beef left over. Hard to even imagine this, right.

Speaker 2: 3:37

So, here's the thing I don't know why more people are not smoking corned beef than boiling corned beef, because, let me tell you something, there's like a whole next level. I've smoked corned beef before, but I forgot how great it is. More people need to be smoking corned beef, definitely.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Well, just for the listeners, okay. First of all, it's Friday. Okay, normally we do, we're posting.

Speaker 2: 4:01

I got a text yesterday. Where's the podcast?

Speaker 1: 4:03

Yeah, seriously. So, by the way, that's absolutely all Jeffrey's fault, okay, 100%. You know he's wearing that chain of burden around his neck and then, because of that, now we didn't get to cook yet. Okay, so I don't even know what this is going to be. I'm super excited, I'm stoked, amy Drew's here and we got a lot to talk about. But, anyway, give us some description here. I don't even know what to say right now.

Speaker 2: 4:28

So the corned beef, brubein. Basically, you have sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, grilled um rye bread, swiss cheese. Just take it, roll your pizza dough out or get your favorite pizza dough. You could do one of two things make an aioli using mustard and mayonnaise, but there's a certain individual that doesn't like mayonnaise, so we're just going to do a spicy brown mustard on there. That's going to be the base, with a little melted butter on the on the dough itself.

Speaker 2: 4:57

Got the cheese on top, then the sliced very thin or shredded corned beef. Put it in your oven or your pizza oven or a pizza stone, get it nice and caramelized. And then what I did was I didn't do the sauerkraut because obviously it's got sauerkraut to it. I actually charred right on the coals, the firewood, the cabbage. And what's great about cabbage is as it chars the inside or the interior of it, because the outer layer is actually steaming. So all you have to do is peel that off and you have this wonderful decadent crunchy, but like blanched cabbage. But it adds another level of flavor and texture because it's got that beautiful smoke to it and a char. So it adds flavor. So that goes on top and you just cut it like a pizza and eat it. You can do it with an empanada, you can do it with pot sticker shells there's so many different vessels or even spring rolls, or even egg rolls. So there's so many different vessels that you can utilize with different cultures. Samosa, as I keep on thinking about it, pierogies, so you just take what you want and put the filling in and then you go.

Speaker 2: 6:09

The other ones we went with, obviously, easter's around the corner, so I wanted to showcase some rack of lamb with pistachio. What I did with those is I sliced those down and I do like a reverse here with some of this. Chefs were doing cryogenic ice bath with taking steak, freezing it, smoking it, then doing a reverse here. So I don't have a cryo, I don't have liquid nitrogen at my house or anywhere where I can do this, so what I do is I freeze the loins, throw them into the freezer. Next day I get up, put it on the smoker. I'm able to smoke it for more than 20 minutes because it's still frozen, so it's still mid-rare, but it inhibits that flavor of smoke. That I'll do is some different showcasing of different products in there. And then the lamb shank man.

Speaker 2: 6:58

I had that for dinner because I had two of them, and I did an Uzu miso glaze on top, so it's got a lot of flavor. Put it in the sauce, so that's got to come out too as well. And then, lastly, I'm just going to do a presentation of a beautiful cabbage carrots, but it's going to be pureed and the potatoes are going to be crunch. So I wanted to look at things of texture. So we have the charred cabbage, we have the beautiful smoked corned beef, the carrots they're not mush but they're pureed and then the crunch from the roasted potatoes. And I wanted to showcase how different food can come and be. I think that's important. And this guide to my right is kind of Tommy, that because you got to have color, you got to have contrast, you have to have flavor, and then you also have to have crunch textures, flavors, mush, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 7:48

And the guide to your right, of course, is John Right, silent John Right. I don't know if I like the way the setup is today.

Speaker 2: 7:55

You know like it's reversed. It's reversed Because you usually are all like in a food coma.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Yeah Well, you know, right now I'm actually hungry. I got hungry. You know, I got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. You know what I mean. A little Somebody. Yeah, thank God, just this morning I've been carrying, I've been carrying around.

Speaker 2: 8:12

I was there during the translation. Why is this night anything different from any other night? I guess you're right, so whatever you said would you call me All?

Speaker 1: 8:20

right, thank goodness, thank goodness. Amy bought the fudge Stop circumventing me.

Speaker 3: 8:27

I said I brought fudge, you can eat that.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Look at you both. You just, you dare, right. You just took the dump truck and it ran right over me and back and reversed it. Okay, the fudge was homemade by the Amy Drew Thompson.

Speaker 3: 8:41

I never made it before.

Speaker 1: 8:42

And she's never done it. And it was freaking delicious. And welcome to the show, amy, thank you. Thank you, it's good to be here I'm over-caffeinated and happy. All right, we love it, and we love our second to third co-host today.

Speaker 3: 8:57

I love that.

Speaker 2: 8:59

The governor.

Speaker 3: 9:00

The governor.

Speaker 2: 9:01

He's the mayor, yeah, the mayor the table.

Speaker 3: 9:03

My dog is here and it was really nice of you guys to let me bring him.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Mayor Finn again.

Speaker 3: 9:08

Yeah, he's just chill he's laying down his head down. He's just relaxing under the table.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Yeah, we're dog-casting today. Yeah, we're dog-casting today. We're pro-puppies. Okay, not my puppy, no yours. Yeah, you still have all five. I still have all five, but I have a little nick, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:29

He walked in with holding something and the dog thought it was food. Oh yeah, that happens. It sure did Now with my dog, he's pretty.

Speaker 3: 9:36

he'll look at you and be like, hey, can you drop some of that down?

Speaker 1: 9:40

I felt like I felt like I was in the ocean and I got hit by a hammerhead or something like that, I don't know. Anyway, all right, so a puppy smash burger.

Speaker 3: 9:52

I was just looking at the IG, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:54

It's nice. Wow I mean, I don't want to. I'm going to let you get into like who you know. You put an article out, orlando Sentinel. I'm going to let you talk about it. But I just have to say, like just scrolling through that first one, I'm thinking we're going to pack up early today. We're not even going to cook, you know what.

Speaker 2: 10:12

All that stuff you said you're out.

Speaker 1: 10:13

man Poppy's in, you're out.

Speaker 2: 10:14

You're going to get an hour and a half drive. You know, really hungry.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Imagine me then. All right, so what do you got?

Speaker 3: 10:21

Well, I really I would like to dovetail onto the smoked corn beef thing, because St Patrick's Day is coming up and today there's a piece out in the paper about some creative corn beef ideas and one of them is a smoked corn beef that a guy in Ovido is doing, jason Brock from Flux Brock's Florida barbecue. It's a food truck but he recently kind of found a permanent home at the Ovido food factory food hall and so he's sort of like a permanent fixture there and you order through the bar and he's doing a special Friday, saturday, sunday smoked corn beef and he does some phenomenal. His I mean his truck is normally amazing and he does some creative stuff. He does like a citrus moho pork chop. He does some really good things, but this weekend he's doing a smoked corn beef for St Patrick's Day with a beer, breezed cabbage and sausage, because it's a barbecue truck and one kind of meat is not enough.

Speaker 3: 12:01

Exactly so you get sausage on the side of your corn beef and some other really good stuff, and of course the regular menu will still be there if you don't feel like having the corn beef but I don't know why you wouldn't and that'll be in limited amounts for the next three days until close. And it's good stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:16

You know it's funny. You made me remember when you get to the stall and at Breskete you usually wrap it butcher paper and go inside and continue cooking. So what I did was I actually took it, put it into a foil pan and took some beer and actually finished the process off of the cooking of the corn beef in beer. So it was braised in the beer not the cabbage, but it was braised in the beer and you really took the salt level down a little bit. So, yeah, the beer is definitely where it's at.

Speaker 3: 12:44

Yeah, it's good stuff and they've got you know at the food factory. It's right there in the bar, so you've got a full bar there for all your St Patrick's Day needs. Wow. And I think the plate is 22 for the plate big plate, corn, beef, cabbage, sausage and another side that I'm not remembering completely, but it's there.

Speaker 2: 13:03

It's not cheap, that's for sure.

Speaker 3: 13:05

No.

Speaker 2: 13:05

I mean, the food costs are not cheap.

Speaker 3: 13:07

No, and that takes a little bit of labor to get it that way.

Speaker 2: 13:11

Right, so you know, oh, 100% definitely yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:15

So I mean, here's what I'm thinking At some point very soon, we need to do a field trip, we need to grab Amy Drew.

Speaker 3: 13:26

So I'm already yes. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 13:28

I'm already saying yes to this, yeah, I mean we can even do something really cool or rent a bus, a few other friends, maybe some other social media folks that we're friendly with, and go do like something really big.

Speaker 3: 13:38

Yeah, that sounds fun. Right, sounds fun.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Like a food tour? Yeah Right, oh yeah. So if I don't have to cook, I'm in. What do you mean?

Speaker 3: 13:49

I love to cook but I also love to not cook.

Speaker 1: 13:52

I love to cook.

Speaker 3: 13:53

That's the thing with people who cook.

Speaker 2: 13:55

I like to experience the food.

Speaker 3: 13:56

Yeah, well, when you're doing all the prep and you're doing all the cleanup and you're doing all the work in between those two things, sometimes it's really nice to just be like we could order pizza.

Speaker 1: 14:07

I'm going to hold down for that too.

Speaker 3: 14:10

Yeah, pizza.

Speaker 1: 14:12

All right, so back to the article. Okay, thank you, let's talk about it.

Speaker 3: 14:17

Okay, burgers. This article comes on the heels of the Foodie Awards and this year Orlando Sentinel is doing them differently. Normally, for the past 27 years or something like that, four of which I've been with the paper, they do it all at once and it's like I don't know what it was in the beginning, but by the time I got here it was like 50 categories, 300 restaurants. If you include my number one pick plus two runners up, it's 300 restaurants, and the runners up would just really get kind of a little bit of a mention in their name and address. And this year we decided to mix it up and break it out into something quarterly so it's easier to digest no pun intended or pun intended and it would allow the other restaurants named because it's really hard.

Speaker 3: 15:12

This is the hardest thing that I do to pick the best burger in a city. I mean A so subjective my best, your best, his best, her best. It's all different and there's a hundred burgers that are amazing in the city, probably more. So this was a really nice way to let everybody shine and kind of not. So the number one pick this year was Primrose Lane's really good, okay, see Smashburger, double patty onions, American cheese. A nice little salute to chef Jason Campbell's time out in Oklahoma city. But it's a very classic, can't go wrong. You know, pickles, the house pickles. They put ginger at the pickles there. Man, I say this every time. They should sell those in the pro shop by the jar at Primrose Lane's. They're so good but they're gingery, so it's got that snappy bright in the middle of all that fat, which is a lot of fat. So it's really nice. So that was the number one pick. But these other burgers are just as award worthy so I wanted to be able to let them shine.

Speaker 1: 16:19

There are thousands of restaurants in Orlando.

Speaker 3: 16:22

Yeah, thousands.

Speaker 1: 16:23

Yeah, it's a daunting task.

Speaker 3: 16:26

Yeah, and I have not been to them all.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Right, but you know, but this is, this is a task worthy of the best, and that's why you're doing it. I mean, the truth is I should be part of this. I'm just saying, I'm putting it out there. I should be part of this, come on out.

Speaker 2: 16:44

I can see you'd be like the guy at Wonka the police chief. I don't know if you saw that movie. You started out really thin. He's up to 150 bucks. What has happened here? Chocolate in the middle of the movie Gained like 400 pounds. That's what happened to me. Well, no, you, if you do that with Amy, you will be you've been around for.

Speaker 3: 16:59

You just have to not finish things and work out. That's what you have to do.

Speaker 1: 17:04

But it is.

Speaker 3: 17:05

It is not easy. Weight maintenance is not easy. It is a it's a full time job.

Speaker 1: 17:10

You know, my grandparents were in the depression.

Speaker 2: 17:14

There's no not finishing. You have to finish starving children and I remember the first time when I was a two teenager and I was like, well, send it to him.

Speaker 1: 17:23

You know what I mean? I was nine when I told my mom that, and then my teeth grew back.

Speaker 3: 17:26

It was a whole I always finished, yeah, so nobody ever gave me any lip, oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 17:32

But here's the thing about burgers.

Speaker 3: 17:33

I had to train myself to not finish everything on my plate.

Speaker 2: 17:36

Here's the thing about burgers it's on every single menu in the United States practically so that's a huge. I mean every menu has a burger hunt, yeah, yeah, and the burgers now are like $20 a piece, yeah, and the days have gone by where you can get a five, six, $10., like I've seen some. Now they're 18 to $22 and it's just a burger with cheese.

Speaker 3: 17:58

Last year's winner, I believe the one that I picked as number one, which is still worthy, very different than chef Jason's smash burger, was the burger at Bakon which, if you get the upgrade which you should, comes with a giant slab of foie gras on it and. I think that the price tag on that last year was like $37.

Speaker 2: 18:19

It's not that bad, especially with foie gras.

Speaker 3: 18:20

It was really good and it was generous and it was one of the best I went there. One of the people who I enjoyed this with was our theater writer, arts writer, matt Palm, and he still says that that was like the best burger here. So it's tremendous. But these other burgers are so good and to get into it, up in Sanford there is a stall at Henry's Depot called Sweet and Salty Island Grounds. They started as a food truck. I reviewed them a couple of years ago when they came out during the pandemic One of my favorite probably honestly my favorite chicken sandwich to date. They make Really yes, but we're not going to talk about that. I'll get into that another time. But they have a burger. They do Hawaiian and Filipino food and they took the Hawaiian plate lunch, classic loco moco and turned it into a smash burger and I like loco moco but honestly it's not a favorite Like I'd rather have kalua pig or something like that when I'm thinking about Hawaiian lunches.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Take a manapua anytime.

Speaker 3: 20:00

But as a burger this really works. Th though the fried egg on top the toasty bun yeah, it's good stuff, really good stuff. Have you, I mean, and he makes this fresh garlic aioli like with the fresh. And so even under all that stuff, two patties, the egg, the gravy you're like where's that garlic coming? From Cause it's like pow Even through all that, so really really good.

Speaker 2: 20:27

He's drooling.

Speaker 3: 20:27

Yeah, it's a really good burger. It's a really good burger. It's messy, it is a messy one. If you're one of those people who doesn't like messy food, this one's not for you.

Speaker 1: 20:38

Don't stare at me.

Speaker 3: 20:39

I use a fork, that's all yeah you can do that too, but they have so much good food, I would recommend sharing it.

Speaker 1: 20:44

You had me in a trance.

Speaker 2: 20:46

I looked over and he was leaning his cheek on the microphone.

Speaker 3: 20:50

So excellent burger right there.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Have you been to? I want to get back to the article. Okay, we have some. What do we have?

Speaker 3: 20:59

A ADHD, whatever we have, it's where I live in the place. Well, this is the article, so I started with that one. Oh beautiful, I started with that burger.

Speaker 1: 21:06

But have you been to Alex's fresh kitchen?

Speaker 3: 21:08

Oh yeah, yeah, I know Alex.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Yeah, he's a good dude, the mamba.

Speaker 3: 21:12

Yeah, I knew you were gonna talk to the mamba burger. That's good stuff.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Yes, yes, what's the strangest burger you've had, but good Like what's out there.

Speaker 3: 21:20

I don't know. I mean foie on the burgers. It's certainly atypical. I don't really know any. I've never got anyone's backyard barbecue and haven't throw that on there Come on over. Poppy Smash, which was the one that you were eyeballing. Wow yeah, Poppy Smash burgers Downtown Orlando. Latin style. Everybody the chef there, Chris Hernandez. It's sort of an homage to his dad, who loved to cook, but no matter what his dad cooked, it would be Latin food, Like his dad make lasagna, but it would somehow be.

Speaker 2: 21:55

Flavored. Be like Latin like every single thing that he would make.

Speaker 3: 21:59

Right, exactly.

Speaker 1: 22:00

It's a chorizo instead of beef right.

Speaker 3: 22:02

Exactly, it's the whole idea.

Speaker 2: 22:03

So free-throat instead of tomato sauce?

Speaker 3: 22:05

Yes, exactly Everything was like sazon, even though it was supposed to be an Italian dish, whatever. So everything his dad would make would end up like Latin food. So this is sort of his little wonderful homage to his dad. And the burgers all have Latin style and they have some funky ones there that have maduros and chimichurri and really good stuff on it and they're all really good Yucca fries with just smushed on there Good stuff.

Speaker 1: 22:34

I love all that I used to when I was in Miami. I was in my 30s, I was living on the beach. It was awesome.

Speaker 3: 22:42

And the I was living there in my 30s too it was so great Good stuff. I was there for six years. It was fun.

Speaker 1: 22:47

You know, the building I lived in was like this it was a hotel condo, so there was always people coming and going. It was really fun, a lot of high energy. But down in the like downstairs, there was this little cafeteria. You know, it wasn't like a restaurant, it was just literally a place where you can get a cafe con leche a.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Cuban sandwich, stuff like that, and it was as legit as you could possibly be and just going down there and having that whole Miami vibe. Yeah, I'll have a cortadito or I'll you know, or the Cuban coffee or the whatever.

Speaker 3: 23:21

We're all into la careta. Yeah, you know, just your own candle drive. Oh, I need a coffee. I need a coffee.

Speaker 1: 23:26

You see, la careta does a great job, but like a little hole in the wall place, like this 100% 10 times better. Oh yeah, and it's just the feel and the vibe. Man, I miss that so much.

Speaker 3: 23:37

The beauty of it, though, is, I think, is that, whether it's a place like that or a la careta, you can just roll up and there's a window. Yes, you know, like there's the window, it's just, it's so tropical, it's so Cuban, caribbean, just the vibe to be able to roll up to the window, get a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1: 23:55

And split.

Speaker 3: 23:55

You know, get a pasta lito, lean out because you can't eat it standing up because it'll end up all over you. You know, don't bring it in the car, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Never bring it in the car. That's right, wow. So, speaking of that and that whole Latin vibe, this poppy thing is like when are we going Like seriously? You should, while we're talking, you, sir, should look up the Instagram.

Speaker 2: 24:18

Okay.

Speaker 1: 24:19

And just gaze upon the gorgeousness and eatability of what's on it.

Speaker 3: 24:25

Yeah, they're lovely and it's a burger joint, that's, you know, and it's one of those really nice places Downtown. It's kind of in the middle of a lot of the bars and things that I don't necessarily do at two in the morning anymore, but there's plenty of people and this is some good mop up food anymore, but you can go. Yeah, well, I mean, you know I had my day.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Right yeah, so where?

Speaker 3: 24:48

I do my drink in early now. I start early, I finish early, yeah right.

Speaker 1: 24:52

Well, yeah, everything has to be lunchtime now.

Speaker 3: 24:55

I'm on the early bird special happy hour yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Her early bird. I'm in bed by eight it's the way it works.

Speaker 3: 25:01

Not that bad, but no.

Speaker 1: 25:04

So those are your, those are, you know your top. So out of those three, are you allowed to say that you have a?

Speaker 3: 25:11

It really I don't, I don't, I. It really just depend on what I'm in the mood for. And we should talk about the third one too, because they have like poppy smash you know, sweet and salty, has the burger, that's their burger and it's amazing, poppy smash does burgers. The classic in Thornton Park is sort of like Pub Grubb central, so they have all kinds of different things. They are attached to Burton's bar, which is a, you know, really old neighborhood bar in Thornton Park in Orlando and they do the food.

Speaker 3: 25:45

You know you can just go get food if you want, but they do the food for the bar there and they have phenomenal burgers and their basic cheeseburger is wonderful. But they do these crazy weekly specials that are nuts and they've been doing this for about a year. I don't think they've repeated one yet and although Brian the chef there he's thinking about maybe at the end of the year doing like a greatest hits week or something Like the most popular of the special burgers, maybe doing them for a week at the end of the year. And they do some really good taco inspired burgers, patty melt style on bread, you know, double patty, single patty, all different stuff.

Speaker 3: 26:29

Cajun inspired burgers if he does that mother burgers, you know all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1: 26:34

If Brian does that, are you going to cover it?

Speaker 3: 26:37

I'll definitely eat it. I don't know what'll be going on. It's news, it's the news industry, so I never exactly know what's going to happen. I always go into these things with the best of intent and sometimes a story that I planned on doing in February doesn't get done until July because things keep bumping in.

Speaker 2: 26:53

You know, there's something, there's a show called the walk and talk that could do something, maybe to get a field trip there and cover it.

Speaker 3: 27:00

You should. You should come to Orlando, showcase the amazing things that are going on in Orlando. This is what I want More ambassadors join me. Join me in promoting the wonderful small businesses and cooks in our city.

Speaker 1: 27:16

The more you know. I feel like it's a like an 80s, you know commercial whatever, yeah, I can't do it all.

Speaker 3: 27:24

I can't one person.

Speaker 1: 27:25

Like they're reading rainbow, something like that. Should I sing it? No, don't Okay.

Speaker 3: 27:30

Reading rainbow.

Speaker 2: 27:31

All right, okay, so you have burgers, and that's just three places.

Speaker 2: 27:36

No, the reason why I asked about the strangest ones? Because there's a buddy of mine in Palm Beach. He owns meat tap room and he got it's a dot. Even between each one, george Patty and that boy. He comes up with some of the strangest things. He's got one when it has peanut butter and like a jam on it. He's got onions. He has one that's like the one that I just saw from pop poppies. It's like you have to dislocate your jaw to put it in your mouth.

Speaker 3: 27:59

There is a place in town called Badass's Burgers.

Speaker 3: 28:04

From the same chef who did Badass sandwich, John Colazo, If you're listening. Hey, John, I just covered a burger of his for a peanut butter related article. He does a special. First of all, his burgers are. They are. They're Badass. I mean, it's right there in the name Australian Wagyu build your own. He has some chef selections, but you can build your own. He has all these incredible toppings. You can get something basic. That isn't crazy. You could also make something that's over $20 easily, but it's up to you.

Speaker 3: 28:38

He has a special called the Presley peanut butter Banana caramelized, he hits the bruleed banana and a house made peanut butter sauce and bacon, I think it's on it. And it is Nuts. Yeah, it's just nuts. Yeah, it's a great place. That's another one Easily could have been in this roundup was in the roundup last year, you know, and it's no less good than it was last year. It's just you know. I just want everybody to get a turn because, they're all so good.

Speaker 2: 29:16

And it's funny because you mentioned, burgers are subjective, just like cookies and brownies, right? Sure, it's the meat block that I look for. It's the shoe. It's not like I know. Everybody got under this huge trip about brisket, short rib and chuck and I just find that to be chewy. You know there's, there's, there's gotta be ground right.

Speaker 3: 29:35

And some people like the smash burger. Some people want something that you can cook to temperature so you know they're all out there. I mean the crunchy bits on the smash burger. Yeah, the little edges.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Smash burgers. Really, it's where it's at, that's where you want to be and with that said, I'm all about like your traditional big, thick fat.

Speaker 3: 29:57

you know just something you pick up, you know the chop meat, you pick up it's juicy because it's medium rare. Medium rare If it gets cheese.

Speaker 1: 30:05

Yeah, if you even get that far and you just enjoy the hell out of it. That I don't know.

Speaker 3: 30:09

Yeah, they're all good. I kind of live there. I think that Poppy I'm not sure I think Poppy Smash does they use a Creek Stone Wagyu Tallow, maybe they do some kind of a real and that's what they cook it in and the bun gets cooked in that and it's all good.

Speaker 2: 30:26

Tallow is the way to go. Yeah, sorry.

Speaker 3: 30:28

If I got it wrong, I'm sorry. I'm close. I'm close. There's some very good, chef-y, things going on there. Read the article.

Speaker 2: 30:36

Tallow is what McDonald's used to cook their french fries in. Right, couldn't do be couldn't have it if you were vegan. They don't do that anymore. They went to a high oil like acid fryer oil. But yeah, that Tallow's fantastic, especially ribeye.

Speaker 1: 30:52

You know, while Orlando's such a fun place. It's like a two hour drive for me, so I'm over in Tampa all the time. Yeah, but I want to go to these places Once a month on Thursday. Come on over, we should do it Come on over.

Speaker 3: 31:08

We can make a regular thing.

Speaker 1: 31:09

Yeah, I mean, we got to get like a walk-a-talk bus. That's what we need.

Speaker 2: 31:15

OK. Like a mystery machine, Well so there's the new VW bug, that's, you know, battery, or what do you call it? Electric.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Well, so here, I was just going to say that.

Speaker 2: 31:24

I was going to say 60,000.

Speaker 1: 31:25

Right, so I was just going to say this like a friend of mine $60,000 VW bug.

Speaker 2: 31:30

No, it's the bug bus. Oh it's the old bus but it's shaped just like it, but it's electric.

Speaker 3: 31:37

I saw it so they revamped it. My wife's on the waiting list. They have paint flowers on the side of that. They roll on in.

Speaker 1: 31:43

Well, so here's the thing, Give me a roll in, here's what I want. I was not like I was neither here nor there on like Tesla, right, like it's cool, all right, cool. But a buddy of mine got one and I was like, all right, let me, let me drive this thing. Let me tell you something what a great driving experience. I wouldn't want to have like a whole house of electric cars, but I would like to have the one and then have like still a combustible engine. You know what I mean. Let me tell you something the drive yourself feature like we're just automating.

Speaker 3: 32:13

Scares the hell out of me.

Speaker 1: 32:15

Yeah, but let me tell you how amazing I'm afraid of people using that on the road. All right. So in my neighborhood I went about a mile. I went from my house to a pizza place, right, and we did it, you know, hands-free, or whatever they call it. And let me tell you something On the screen it shows you silhouettes of all the human beings around cars, whatever and it navigates everything stop signs, double-parked cars, everything.

Speaker 2: 32:51

U-turns. So you said everything Does it make a hamburger though?

Speaker 1: 32:56

No, but it takes you to the hamburger.

Speaker 3: 32:59

Maybe I'm old school. I'm not saying that this technology is not incredible. It's incredible.

Speaker 1: 33:07

Incredible.

Speaker 3: 33:07

Legit. However, I like driving.

Speaker 1: 33:11

Me too, me too but it's a thing Like drive.

Speaker 3: 33:14

I love road trips. I like put my arm out the window and my hand on the wheel and going.

Speaker 1: 33:20

Yeah, but I don't like I-4. Oh no.

Speaker 3: 33:24

Nobody likes I-4. Come on.

Speaker 1: 33:26

Because it's a two-hour drive to get you know.

Speaker 2: 33:30

So instead of a Tesla or a Volkswagen Bug, boss, why don't we just do a helicopter?

Speaker 1: 33:37

And then it's not that.

Speaker 2: 33:38

It's a little out of budget. Rent a helicopter. Rent a helicopter for the day. It's like $25 over it, orlando.

Speaker 3: 33:48

Just swat team into all these burger joints.

Speaker 1: 33:51

I don't know that. They're just dropping you off at the front door. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 33:54

That would look awesome, it would be great. It's just saying they'll be like who's that? Where's that going? Can we arrange an explosion to walk away?

Speaker 3: 34:01

from. That's my fear. It is Orlando. Anything can happen. That's the end of our TikTok. That's kind of my fear of the whole helicopter thing Slow-mo walk away from the explosion Without turning around. Yes, there was like.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Charlie's Angels.

Speaker 3: 34:12

It's funny, it's funny you say that Now we're talking. My dream.

Speaker 1: 34:15

I just saw a TikTok or some social media where somebody's dad like just a dad somewhere out in the hills or whatever he did that he did it himself, like he slow-mode videoed himself. You know doing this thing with some. I guess it was fuel and fire Slow-motion turnaround.

Speaker 3: 34:39

As he walked away and I was like that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 34:43

He's probably in jail, I'm just saying. But it was really cool.

Speaker 3: 34:46

But he's the coolest guy there.

Speaker 1: 34:47

Coolest dad in the whole joint. Yes, my goodness. Okay. So back to reality. It's a two-hour ride. It's bumper to bumper. I don't have any automation driving or anything. I have to do it the old school way. I hate it so much, but I love burgers and food more than I hate I4 driving Same Okay. So what we need to do, I would love to, before you leave today, let's put a schedule. Let's actually do a little road trip and go see some of these cats that sounds great, yeah, and maybe we can cover it in some fashion.

Speaker 1: 35:27

I'm not saying, bring all the gear, but maybe we can do a little road trip, a little fun time.

Speaker 2: 35:35

I'm up for it.

Speaker 1: 35:36

You won't have to cook.

Speaker 2: 35:37

That's why I'm up for it.

Speaker 1: 35:39

I want Amy Yee's opinion, maybe Brian's opinion, Fiona. Brian I want to hear from these cats. Hey, amy, hi, all right, what's next for you, amy Jew Thompson?

Speaker 3: 35:51

What's next for me? I don't know. What should we talk about? We've talked about the burgers. We've talked about the corned beef. What do you guys have coming up? I think I'm going to go and I'm not going to name names because I don't want to. I don't like to forecast, but I'm going to hit some breweries this week for a new article that's going on and that's going to be fun.

Speaker 1: 36:15

I'll talk about Florida breweries. Right, you make good beer your side or over here.

Speaker 3: 36:20

In Orlando, but yesterday I had a beer from HOB in Dunedin, the mango heffaweiss, and it was really good. Not sweet, not too fruity, just a little hint. It was very light and it went really well with my pizza for pie day. I had pizza for pie day. Did y'all have pie of some sort?

Speaker 2: 36:40

Every day. He's Italian, so of course.

Speaker 3: 36:43

Did you have any pizza yesterday?

Speaker 2: 36:45

No, actually no, I was actually experimenting yesterday, so I saved the pie for today. Was that like peyote?

Speaker 1: 36:52

No, no that was some other stuff. That was another thing. Yeah, so we had I'm talking to a couple of people right now, we're talking about farmers, craveable dinner sort of, or mixer sort of events right, coming up soon the opportunity over here on the Tampa side with a brewery. Okay, I'm not going to drop it now. Not all the way Came about and that was through our boy pooch. Okay, sean Sean pooch, sean poochie, pooch Rivera.

Speaker 3: 37:28

Hey pooch, hey baby.

Speaker 1: 37:32

Came. Something came kind of came up with that and it might be a big deal and off air. I will share the other one I got. It came dropped easier but there is an Orlando.

Speaker 2: 37:44

I know the one we were talking about. Yeah, I want to know.

Speaker 3: 37:47

I want to know.

Speaker 1: 37:48

Yeah, it's gonna be cool. It'll be at a butcher shop. The problem is is like we're coming here, but your shop meet.

Speaker 3: 37:58

I'm for all of this.

Speaker 1: 37:59

I'm thinking bird, the one at the butcher shop. I think he's gonna land on a, on some, on a bourbon It'll have something tasting, yeah, okay, so no beer.

Speaker 2: 38:09

No, yeah, you did. Well, you can do. You can do beer, bourbon and one such a beer you gotta switch you don't have to do it all, bourbon.

Speaker 1: 38:18

Yeah, we got to talk about it too, because there might be wine involved. I don't it's, but it's a anyway.

Speaker 3: 38:23

All of this sounds great.

Speaker 1: 38:24

It sounds awesome, but here's the cool part about it I don't have to cook all of it. You're gonna cook some of it, though You're never off the hook.

Speaker 2: 38:30

I mean I don't mind, listen, I don't mind. Again I told you I don't mind doing a nine to a course, tasting many, with eight other chefs right?

Speaker 1: 38:37

Well, that's the idea. I mean, we have to be if we're doing, if we're doing an event, and you know we have to represent the WIT. You know I'm saying the walk-and-talk. We have to know.

Speaker 3: 38:46

I get.

Speaker 1: 38:47

You're gonna have to do a course or two.

Speaker 2: 38:49

I don't mind. I don't mind a course or two, it's the entire menu, I mean.

Speaker 1: 38:53

I want to put on a 20 course, or and it's all you? No, no, I'm kidding make it one person 20 courses is too many.

Speaker 3: 39:00

I'm just. You know what they're gonna be.

Speaker 2: 39:01

They're gonna be like a moose-boosh.

Speaker 3: 39:03

Petty, for I still think it's too many. It is too many, but I just I want to give you forget what you had at the beginning by the end and you're there like literally the three hour tour.

Speaker 2: 39:13

What you're all are missing.

Speaker 1: 39:14

You're missing something here. I Don't care if anybody shows up, I just want you have to cook.

Speaker 2: 39:20

That's it.

Speaker 1: 39:20

That's all it's about.

Speaker 2: 39:22

It's really just that. I mean, I do four courses every Thursday.

Speaker 3: 39:25

I was treating it like he was actually saying something that was really gonna happen.

Speaker 1: 39:30

No, no, no. These other, these, these, the other ones will happen.

Speaker 2: 39:32

Yes, 20 course or no? Reasonable? Not, it's, you know, it's already pushing it.

Speaker 3: 39:38

Yeah, I've had a couple of you know ten, even even like omakase, like one bite. You know if you're eating a bite of rice with most of those things like, that's taken up a lot of real estate.

Speaker 2: 39:51

Yeah, well, we did in your terrible dinner.

Speaker 1: 39:53

Yeah, but so we? Last week we had I mentioned it in the monologue red Bo Jackson on the show which was Don't know.

Speaker 3: 40:04

So that was really reference, totally dated, like there's like eight people are like oh wow.

Speaker 1: 40:11

But then you know, the night before you know, we, we did a dinner for bow and the rest of the gang. So it was Patrick, bow and ten acre. Marketing and a few other people was maybe what? Ten or twelve, 12 folks meet Bo Jackson. It was so cool. But how many? What was it? Five, five, five, six, six, six, six, perfect. I think five to six courses is absolutely perfect, because you're in, you're out, it's you know.

Speaker 3: 40:37

There's room for your beverage. There's room for discussion.

Speaker 1: 40:42

Yeah, you don't feel like you're tied in for, you know, eight hours or whatever.

Speaker 2: 40:45

Yeah, the sixth one was definitely the smoke crab that we did in the no smoked fish dip in a pot, a puri.

Speaker 3: 40:52

I'm a big fan of smoked fish dip.

Speaker 2: 40:54

That was the most challenging one for me, because you know.

Speaker 3: 40:58

It's a really a favorite of mine.

Speaker 2: 41:00

But being I used to work at shenanigans in Hollywood and we always talk about it and you know any sports bar, you see it's a, it's a plastic melamine bowl, the scooping poop of the fish dip on there and then that's got all the accoutrements. How do you make that the elevated? So thank God I had dealt with Pani puri, which means fried water, and it's these little Indian puffs at semolina. So this one, the Pani, is what I used to fill the smoke fish dip. And then I had a Mara sake peppers that I'm growing in my house. That was on the bottom. And then Marvin at the farm gave me microgreen onion A perfect, what a perfect little bite. It sounds wonderful.

Speaker 3: 41:44

I'm all for the big scoop in the melamine bowl.

Speaker 2: 41:48

So am I. There's a time and a place for it, but when you're serving crackers and Celery and all that good stuff.

Speaker 3: 41:54

Yeah, I love it all.

Speaker 2: 41:55

Yeah, we did, we did the edible. We did an edible salad. We did the kufa horn link horton chicken from the crepeable dinner. We did a brisket dish with fried collard green. Nice collard of collard, green fritters because that sounds good. Yeah, everywhere in Florida we do fritters, but I looked and nobody did a collard green fritter. I'm like what. So I did a path to shoe that a big vegan out of curiosity, can you?

Speaker 3: 42:19

yes, but Most people like ham or something in college, yeah most of time.

Speaker 2: 42:25

If I'm doing it vegan, I'm gonna do it with smoked sea salt, smoked Paprika that's great.

Speaker 3: 42:32

Yeah, or I actually smoked the actual greens collars are nice, mm-hmm, especially when we get them.

Speaker 1: 42:38

We got it. We got it like really nail down this recipe thing and getting people on board. I yeah, I can do that.

Speaker 2: 42:45

That's. You know, we've kind of been teasing it. Well, the corned beef one I think I might put out there because that was easy peasy. It's five days of just waiting, literally five days waiting.

Speaker 3: 42:57

I don't know that was what chef Jason told me. He said the only thing with the corned beef brisket Smoking is that it takes a little bit longer because it's been sitting in the brine for like ten days.

Speaker 2: 43:06

Yeah, but it goes between five to seven up to ten days and then normally it's four hour a cook and boiling water. It's a lot longer in smoke.

Speaker 3: 43:15

Yeah, a lot longer. He said it's longer than his regular brisket because of that soak.

Speaker 2: 43:20

I will tell you the a. We did an a9 plus plus wagyu from Australia for the dinner and that took 14 hours Minimum and the shrinkage was ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 43:31

I'm hungry, you know, watch out, I'm glad there is you.

Speaker 2: 43:35

You know We'll wait until you have tonight today's food, so you'll be really happy matter here.

Speaker 3: 43:41

Many cold pizza in the car.

Speaker 2: 43:45

And and fudge don't. Don't forget, you're gonna have fudge to you. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 43:49

I already started on the fudge, which was really great. Amy, thank you.

Speaker 3: 43:52

Oh, you're welcome. I never made fudge before.

Speaker 1: 43:54

Wait my heart, definitely through my stomach.

Speaker 3: 43:57

It's not hard.

Speaker 1: 43:58

Yeah, did while you're, so what's your next article? What should we be looking for?

Speaker 3: 44:06

a brewery based article. I'm not gonna give away the good stuff, because beer is good by itself, and what else do I have coming up? I can't forecast, so I'll just say I got a brewery piece coming up.

Speaker 1: 44:17

All right, and how, and how are, how's everyone gonna find you?

Speaker 3: 44:21

you can find me on Instagram at Amy Drew, a my dr Double-O. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me all the time in the Orlando Sentinel. So Orlando Sentinel, calm and Come read me, come hang with me, join the let's eat Orlando Facebook group and Join the conversation.

Speaker 1: 44:43

Excellent, basically find Amy Drew, as always. Love you guys, amy, thanks for coming out gosh Love it here. Peninsula food service chefs. You want to upgrade that beef game? Check them out. Let's get them. Let's get them on the on the Instagram Peninsula underscore. What is it?

Speaker 2: 45:06

Now check out the new website.

Speaker 1: 45:08

Oh my goodness the wet. Oh my god, get on the website, go check us out. We are out.