Are Comfort Foods Better Spicy? (Taste Test)

Are comfort foods better spicy? Let's talk about that. Good mythical summer. Today is the first day of Beat the Heat week and we're doing something a little unorthodox to beat today's heat. Yeah, we are eating some seriously spicy foods to make the insides of our bodies so hot that the outsides feel cool. Y'all didn't think of that, did you? Well, don't worry, the big brain boys got you. Yeah, but it's not just any foods. We're heating up comfort foods. Do any comfort dishes taste even better when they've been spicified? First up, we've got chicken noodle soup. This is not something that I put hot sauce on or in. I have put a little hot sauce, but not anything that looks like this. We're calling this chicken noodle doom. And Nicole did a bunch of things to each of these dishes. It's not just like throwing hot sauce in something. Right, well, this one's green, so this is different. So what did you do to make this spicy, Nicole? So I blended up a whole jalapeno and half of a serrano in there in the actual soup base. And I thought that the brightness and that fresh vegetal green would be really, really nice to counter with that stick-to-your-ribs kind of flavor. I love it when somebody says vegetal. I thought that was a mistake. No, vegetable and vegetal. Do you wanna eat spicy when you're sick, though? Maybe you do. It clears you out. Yeah, so maybe this is a one-two punch of comfort and therapy. That's a good chicken noodle soup. Thanks. It is. Let's just start there. Made with lots of love. Okay, I can tell. Coming in hot. I mean, you're right, the greeniness of it is, I'm trying to get some. Vegetal. The vegetalness of it is interesting. Oh. You need a whole bag to go. I've got a bag to it, bro. Chicken noodle, ooh, that's hot. Let me readjust my expectations for the rest of this episode. Well, this is round one. You said that they escalate in spiciness. Yeah, they do. Well, I'm not in a lot of pain, but I mean, yeah, if I'm sick, I think this diverts my attention. You know how if you're hurting somewhere and then somebody just pinches you? I mean, I don't typically ask for that. Does that happen to you? Does this happen to you? I'm thinking of something like that, like when it distracts you, like when you have a headache, but then you grab right here and you start pushing, and that hurts, now my head doesn't hurt. Or when you get bad news and then you get worse news. Yeah, that's it. That's right. Then you forget about the bad news. That's what I'm trying to talk about. Not pressure points, this isn't an acupressure episode. Right. I'm liking where this is taking me. It's super unexpected. If I was stuffy, it would start to loosen things up a bit. You're taking another bite. Okay. We've used the word vegetal. Three times. In sincerity. Okay. I think the fact that you drink this when you're sick and you're trying to give yourself those fluids and you're trying to get things moving. This is also good though. Not everything moving, but moving up here. Unexpectedly. Chicken noodle soup. Is bad or spicy? Onto mashed potatoes. We're calling these spicy ones your last potato. Oh! The gravy over here, as you can see, is not nearly as brown. So, Nicole. Ew. Why are these mashed potatoes a little bit darker and why is the gravy a lot yellower? Well, we used scotch bonnets for this one, so that yellow stuff on top is just a straight up scotch bonnet gravy with actual scotch bonnets blended in. And the potatoes themselves, I purposely left these with the skin on because when I think of comfort food, I think of skin on mashed potatoes. So, that doesn't change the spice level of anything or whatever. But there's scotch bonnet in the potato as well. I'm scared. Because, let me just say, let's just start with these mashed potatoes. They're very good. Let us not forget how good these are. It's so good. Thanks. Creating a lake of gravy in the middle of a big dollop of mashed potatoes makes you feel like God. I'm gonna put a lake here. And you know what? And it's going to, God's a woman. And it's going to be a brown lake. Of course she's a woman. This might look like diarrhea, but that does look like cat vomit. But you know what? We people can make lakes. You ever heard of a woman-made lake? Oh yeah. I'm just a normal woman and I've made a lake. That's the sign as a country music singer that you've made it. If you have a woman-made lake on your property. Who did this? Multiple ones. Garth Brooks. Thomas Rhett, he's got a couple. I think Eric Church has got a couple. You get a woman-made lake on your. And then you stock it with fish and then you write songs about fishing, beer drinking. Every day. And hunting. Loving every day. Yeah, pulling up your socks. Yeah. We're stalling. How much of that scotch bonnet are you gonna get on there? Is it still salty and gravy-like or is it just an abomination? Yeah, it's a gravy. It was made with chicken stock and beef stock. No. It's not gonna be that bad. Ooh, it is hot. Spicy. Oh gosh. Woo. Ooh, ooh. I can feel it. I can feel the heat. It's going down. The heat is right there right now and it's about to hit the stomach. Why haven't you hiccuped yet? I don't know, but I am just, I am, I'm seizing with heat pain. But if I focus on. But. The taste. But if I focus, the taste is not bad. The taste is not bad, but the taste is not. The taste is not as good. This is, you've seasoned these so perfectly that they don't feel like they need anything. And I gotta say, I don't like looking at that. Yeah. I don't know if this one's working for me. I'm sorry I said cat vomit. Now I would like to give this to grandma to wake her up a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Bring this out at Thanksgiving and don't tell, oh no, nothing's different. Yeah. This is just normal. Make it a little entertaining for her. Oh yeah, what, you think it looks yellow? No, it's not yellow, just taste it. And old people are. Come on, grandma. They're really insensitive to spice. They can take a lot, right? That's how it works as you get older. Oh God. No, it's not how it works. Ooh, I'm hurting a little bit here. Great effort, Nicole, but we're gonna say mashed potatoes are not so nice-y. Okay, we've got some hot cakes, and of course we've got even hotter cakes. Oh gosh, I'm still hiccuping. I don't know how you miss the hiccups. Yeah, I don't know. But I am talking like this. You are. My vocal cords have been burnt to a crisp, slaying blade, mm-hmm. Nicole, is the only reason that you're doing this to us is because they were already called hot cakes? No. I didn't even think of that. Why do the cakes look different? Are they hot, too? Yeah. Not just the syrup? Yeah, yeah, there's cayenne pepper in those, and they were made with buttermilk and lots of different kinds of flours, and then over there in the maple syrup is, again, lots of cayenne pepper. Cayenne, what up? You can even see the color difference between the different syrups. I'm gonna go no syrup first. Is this the primary heat found in hot chicken sauce? It is for the hot chicken that I make, yeah. You mean like Nashville hot chicken? Yeah, cayenne is the main heat source. That's what I found. So you're not dipping it, I'm just gonna. I will. I don't wanna take two if I don't have to, so I'm just gonna go for the dipped version. The cakes are not crazy. Oh, I dropped it. Now I gotta get a little bit more on there. Oh gosh, come on. Come on. The cakiness should help us. It's a very bright taste at first. Then there's sweetness. I like cayenne much better than scotch bonnet, so I'm doing a little better. The cakiness is helping. What you thinking? I like cayenne as well. It's really competing with the sweetness. That's helping. I feel like the perfect bite would be the cayenne cakes. With the normal syrup? With the normal syrup. I know that's not an option. I mean, if International House of Pancakes has never done a spicy pancake, maybe they know something we don't. I mean, they've been around the world. And they've done everything, everything. They are willing to try so much. And they haven't tried this. Are we willing to try something they can't? This is not hurting me, so I really wanna give it a chance. Bon chance. Yeah, it's not crazy spicy. For me, you know what? I'm gonna say I'm neutral on the flavor, so I'm gonna leave this ball in your court, Link. I keep thinking that it's like hot chicken breading. It is. In my sauce that I do at the end, you know when you come to my house and I do my hot chicken? Yeah, man. Can you see anymore? Are you losing the ability to see? No. In my, so there's hot all in the breading. But then when you wanna take it up the next level, I take straight cayenne pepper. Yeah. And I mix it with some of the rub. And then I take the hot oil from the chicken that we just fried. Right. And I put the hot oil just directly into the cayenne and make a slurry. Yeah. And then I give people a little paintbrush. And everybody comes with a little Spice Picasso. And they paint, you've painted your thighs at my house. Everybody paints their thighs at my house. Maybe I was in the restroom. No, no. Spreading my thighs. No, you painted your thighs at my house. That's how you paint with the sauce. And then you put more sauce on top of that, which is the chicken sauce, which is creamy and mayo-y. It also has some cayenne in it. Well, it's certainly better than this. Okay, well, it feels like you have your answer. Pancake. Not so nice-y. You can get your feet into our faces with these new Rhett and Link slippers. This is the newest Mythical Society quarterly collectible. You gotta become an all-access quarterly or annual member to unlock yours at mythicalsociety.com. Now let me say, lots of people have been asking about sizing. Is two sizes fit most? All the way down to a men's size four, women's size five, all the way up to a men's 12, a women's 13. I'm a men's 13, and I fit into the large ones fine, so I think it goes even higher than that. So we got you covered. Uh-huh. So be an all-access member of mythicalsociety.com. Next up, in terms of comfort foods, there you go, is one of the best comfort foods, pot pie. Is it chicken pot pie? It is chicken pot pie. Okay. That's the spicy one, though. That's the spicy one. Here is the normal one. We're calling this spicy joker hot cry. And we may, based on how we've been feeling. What is, what's this guy up here? Is that a green bean? I hope it's just a green bean. That's the culprit. That's what's making the whole pot pie spicy. It's a bird's eye chili, also known as a Thai chili. Oh, Thai chili. Yeah, so there's a lot. I actually use the Thai chili kind of as a pot pie ingredient. So you know how pot pies have peas and carrots and leeks and stuff like that. So that's in the pot pie as well. But there's a fair amount of chopped Thai chilies in there. And then the dough on top is studded with a bunch of Thai chilies as well, chopped up. What are you doing to these pies? You are disrespecting the pot pies like I've never seen before. This is like the most offensive thing I've ever seen done to a pot pie. Yeah. This is what you do to a pot pie? Well, but here's the thing. Nothing on the planet is hotter than a chicken pot pie. And we want spicy hot, but we don't want temperature hot. I think it's gonna be just fine based on the back of my hand. If I had a dollar for every time that I burnt my mouth. I don't want it all mixed. Like you're tossing a salad. I don't want, the best part of a pot pie is the giant piece of crust that you get with a bite. And now it's all gone. It's all gone. But you're not gonna burn your mouth. I don't care about burning my mouth. You're welcome. You could have done that on your side. I mean, there was gasping that was happening the whole time you were doing that. Stop! I'm just trying to help you. I don't even see steam. I think we're gonna be fine, Steve. I'm nervous, dude. I don't like, there's nothing worse than burning your mouth. Hold on, wait. Eating a lot of spicy foods and then like having to crap it out later. That's worse. Who's the bad guy here? It's Nicole, not me. Well, both of you. Both of you. I mean, this is some goodness. Is that thyme I taste? It's mostly sage. Sage? Okay, so there's no witches in here. Well, there's good witches. There's good witches. Good witches. Yeah, I left the sides for you, dude. Oh, I appreciate that. If you wanna throw a side in there. Oh, I will, because I like every bite of a pot pie to be the crust and the pie. Well, that's impossible with what I've done. Yeah, exactly. Let me see that right there. See, you can still get that crusty thing. If this was the only thing I was eating today in my only meal, I would be really mad at you, but since I only ate a bite. Your relationship with spicy foods is much more involved than mine. I'll put hot sauce on Mexican food, also on spaghetti, on fried chicken, and I have a different kind of hot sauce for each one, but those are the main things for me. I like a Thai chili a lot. Ooh, it's hot, though. I put that into a lot of things. Ooh, it builds. It's a thick hot. I had a big thing of Thai chilies. It's filling up my whole head with hot. That I would cut up and throw in things. Oh, the nose is running. I love the flavor, and actually, for me, it's a really well-rounded spice. You know? It's a big, it's a big voluptuous heat, is what I would call it. To me, this is what pot pie's been needing. You know what I'm saying? I mean, sage is what I thought it was needing until I got hit by it over here, and I'm like, that's great. The only thing that would make this better is if there was more of the crust still intact. I'll see if I can find some in here. I'm eating the heck out of this. It's very hot, but I concur, it is. It's not crazy over the top, right? Extremely tasty. I'm not crying. My nose started sweating in the last round. You know when weird parts of your body start sweating? It's like certain peppers can tap into that. I'm getting it like in the hairline. Like I'm feeling like a weird heat sensation, but I kinda like it. I'm getting a little tricep perspiration. Tricep heat. Okay, well, all right. This is good, though. That is really tasty. So we're saying. And you didn't skimp on the heat. It's just that good. It is. Hot pie, better spicy. Now we're down to an old standby mac and cheese. But we also have the spicy version that we're calling mac and scream. Shall I? You shall. Oh, no. You're seriously? Don't be that guy. I asked first. You were joking, right? Yeah. But you said yeah. I mean, I was in salad tossing. So if I brought an apple pie to your house, and you were like, everybody dig in, would you? No. You wouldn't be that guy, right? No, I would never do it to this. What's the difference? It might be hot. Oh, man. That's a lot of crumbs on top. Yeah, it's a breadcrumb topping. How'd you make this one spicy? Well, it has a lot of Carolina Reaper in it. So I boiled the noodles in Carolina Reaper water. And then I made a bechamel with a lot of Carolina Reaper. And then on top is Reaper crumbs. Now we've gone on record many times saying that, yes, we may be from North Carolina, but we do not endorse the Carolina Reaper. It has been good to us, eating it. Actually, it's been very good to us, but. In terms of video performance, but not in terms of personal GI. And we've never been fans of the taste of a Carolina Reaper. I don't like the flavor of a Carolina Reaper. And you get PTSD when you smell it. I know, I'm gonna get a scoop, and I'm gonna smell it. You know what, why don't you toss the salad on this one? Do you want me to? No. Actually, I don't care. Do you feel like you need to? Well, she said that this crust has it all in it. I don't, you know, I don't want too much of the crust. Turn that over here. And then just so we can see what we've got. I'm just so we can see what we got. Just trying to show you what we got. It does have that scent. It's just permeated. But it's not as strong as I was thinking it was gonna be. But I can smell it, and my body tells me, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just gonna get a little bit, because I got a big bite here. I'm just gonna. Get half of it. It still tastes cheesy. Oh, I'm getting it now. My body doesn't want to retch. I don't want to swallow it. I'm too scared. I'm too scared to swallow it. In my mouth, it's already a bad, bad, bad, bad news day. It's in my throat. I know, I know. Don't let it in your throat, dude. I already did. It's all the way down my esophagus. It's in my gullet now. And it's beginning to build, and I had. It's bad. I had half of it. It's just, it's like eating bad memories is really what it's like. Like if you had a picture book of the worst things that ever happened to you, and then you pulled out each picture, and you just started shoving it down your throat. You think that's one of the worst things that's ever happened to you? My brain knows that it's one of the worst things that ever happened to my body. I'm going back to the real thing here. This will help. That's a good idea. There might be somebody out there that would prefer that. I don't even want to eat with this fork. They're not at this desk. Oh, it's temperature hot. You should've tossed the salad, man. Oh, God. I know. Listen, we have to do it. Nicole has her head in her hands. You're breaking my heart here. I have to cool it off. Just blow on it. Does it have to be the whole thing? Was that a hiccup or a burp? Both. A hiccup. It was both. And I apologize for it. Touches my mouth, it's not milk, it's just. Apologize for it. So, Nicole, it's definitely not better with the spice. Oh, okay. But not this level of spice. But if you have like, just like normal, if you want to like put Cholula on your mac and cheese or something. Recline. I think that's okay. We're going into recline mode. Y'all didn't know our chairs could do this. Just give us a second. Mac and cheese. Okay, all right. Well, we had some winners. What if we always sat like this? We had chicken pot pie and chicken noodle soup that were winners. It's like kids doing this show. All right, we had chicken pot pie. Is this what y'all want? Y'all want an upper third? And we want, we have anything that has chicken in it we like, a little bit hotter. But if you get your mac and cheese too hot. Yeah, we don't want that. It's gonna make us shrink and be little boys. Thanks for being your mythical best. You know what time it is. I'm Micah. I'm Lori. And we just made animal style mac and cheese from the Mythical Cookbook. And it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality. Cook it up. It's a family affair when you have the Mythical Cookbook. You know what? It is about time we got rid of this shirt. Yep. That says. Yep. The lion does it. Why? God, I'm tired of that thing. Join us at Good Mythical More to see us try the TikTok soda match challenge. Join all access to unlock the Rhett and Link slippers quarterly collectible at mythicalsociety.com. ♪♪♪