Are Grudges and Rivalries...Secret Innovators?

David Chang (0:00)

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Are you holding a grudge? If not, you should.

First of all, it feels great. It's a renewable energy source. But more importantly, grudges have fueled some of humanity's greatest achievements. Today, on the podcast, we're going to convince you.

This episode of The Dave Chang Show is presented by Vrbo Vacation Rentals. People are unpredictable, especially when you travel with them. Someone's in a mood, someone's hungry, someone didn't sleep, something's going to happen. You can't be worrying about your vacation rental too. That's why when you book with Vrbo, VrboCare and 24-7 Live Support is built in. So if something's broken, not as described, or just not right, Vrbo is there 24-7 to help. If you know you Vrbo, book today on the Vrbo app. Terms apply. See vrbo.com/trust for details. Welcome to The Dave Chang Show. I'm here with Christopher Yang and David, our young producer. And today we're going to be doing a MOIF, My Opinion is Fact. We're making a Nashville style hot chicken based on the legendary OG of all the hot chicken, Prince's, and covered in an Ugly Delicious a long time ago.

This is actually Christopher Yang's recipe.

Chris Ying (2:07)

It was a labor of love.

David Chang (2:08)

And it's fucking awesome. Nashville hot chicken originated in the 1930s, and the story goes that the proprietor of Prince's, um, cheated.

Chris Ying (2:22)

Fulton Prince was a philanderer.

David Chang (2:24)

Philanderer. What a good rebrand for cheater.

Chris Ying (2:29)

Just a straight up cheater. This dish was born of grudge.

David Chang (2:32)

Grudge.

His wife was so upset that it was like, I'll show him and made him a fried chicken that was going to be punishing with a lot of heat. And so the story goes, Fulton Prince loved it, and that started the entire hot chicken craze that is now all over the world.

Chris Ying (2:57)

Crazy, actually.

David Chang (2:58)

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Chris Ying (3:00)

Was it that bit when you first went, when you did Ugly Delicious and you were doing Princes?

David Chang (3:05)

So when I started going to Nashville, Howlin Rays, which was very popular, wasn't even a thing yet. What's the one here?

Chris Ying (3:13)

Howlin Rays is here. There's Hattie Bees.

David Chang (3:15)

Hattie Bees, excuse me, Hattie Bees in Nashville wasn't a thing yet. Howlin Rays here does great fried chicken, but there was no way we were going to do hot chicken of Nashville without giving you the story of Princes hot chicken. And it was born out of spite and rage and bitterness, let alone the spicy heat that I tasted. I'm sweating profusely right now.

So we're talking about rivalries and grudges and how basically a grudge is important in the world and a grudge becomes, in a lot of ways, the best form of grudge is a rivalry.

Chris Ying (3:55)

Yeah, so nested in all of this stuff is, you know, there's a difference between a grudge and just being angry, right? A grudge is like a long term feeling of resentment, ill will, based on something that happened. And oftentimes these grudges, as they mature and get older, you don't even remember what the goddamn thing was that happened that made you mad in the first place.

David Chang (4:17)

So this is a crazy thing if you're watching or listening that we're going to try to convince you that grudges are good, right? Welcome to the dark side.

Greed is good. Grudges are good. But really genuinely, we're sitting down, writing out what we want to talk about in today's podcast, and I think we actually did convince ourselves that grudges, we're not developing grudges anymore.

Chris Ying (4:48)

We're not developing.

David Chang (4:49)

With a crazy thesis that we'll get to in a second.

Chris Ying (4:51)

Yeah, I mean, listen, people are angry all the time, all day, every day right now, but it's not a grudge.

It's like a fleeting anger as you're scrolling past something on social media that's just like, oh, I'm so pissed. What's the next thing? Oh, it's a puppy. Oh, what's the next thing? But a grudge is something that you hold inside for a long time and you kind of use.