Overrated Dishes, Reservation Platforms, San Diego, Pod Tension

Jordan Okun (0:04)

I'm Mad Food, I'm Jordan, Max is here, it's Q and A time once again. Let's get right to it. I thought Bar Sawa, this person writes, now get ready for this, you're not gonna like this. I thought Bar Sawa was better than Shunji. Am I on drugs, they ask?

Max Shapiro (0:23)

You know, I don't know who is saying this, but I-

Jordan Okun (0:28)

Well, would someone be crazy and on drugs, technically, if they enjoyed the Sawa experience over Shunji?

Max Shapiro (0:39)

No, I think it depends on who you are. If you are someone who is very into like a temple of sushi and not, you know, like a dark, cocktail heavy, you know, louder music experience, Shunji maybe, you know, might be too serious, might be too challenging for some people.

Jordan Okun (1:05)

Not challenging. I'm the guy who knows if sushi is challenging.

Max Shapiro (1:08)

But some people might find it challenging, you know, if he hits you with a Kohada and you're like, that's a challenging fish for me.

Sawa is in a way similar to Ito and kind of like Nakazawa where they give you the hits. They give you the hits and they give it to you in an atmosphere that is fun. You know, Sawa is dark. They have speakers and they're playing good music and they're shaking up cocktails. And the nigiri a lot of the time is riffs on dishes. Like he did a salmon nigiri, there was a riff on like a lox and a bagel, right? You remember that when you had that?

So if that's more your speed, then you're going to like that more than Shunji. I think that pound for pound, yeah, you're on a little bit of drugs because Shunji is better than Sawa, but Sawa is still very good and more palatable to more people.

Jordan Okun (2:13)

So are they on drugs or are they not on drugs?

Max Shapiro (2:17)

Because of their preference?

Jordan Okun (2:18)

Yeah.

Max Shapiro (2:19)

Not on drugs.

Jordan Okun (2:19)

Okay, that's the answer.

Max Shapiro (2:21)

You're allowed to like Sawa more.

Jordan Okun (2:22)

Because Bar Sawa is that good.

Max Shapiro (2:24)

Bar Sawa is good, but Shunji is, I mean, it's objectively better.

Jordan Okun (2:28)

Okay, but depends what you're looking for in a sushi experience.

Max Shapiro (2:31)

Depends on what you're looking for. It's also Bar Sawa is 185 bucks, Shunji is 300 bucks.

Jordan Okun (2:36)

Right. Okay.

Max Shapiro (2:37)

It's a big price difference too.

Jordan Okun (2:39)

That's the answer. What is a popular dish you guys think is so overrated and why others like it?

So did you do?

Max Shapiro (2:48)

I didn't do specific dishes.

Jordan Okun (2:50)

Did you do? What do you do?

So we didn't even discuss. We didn't.

Max Shapiro (2:56)

For me, the word Wagyu has been beaten to death and grossly misused as a shortcut for quality.

Wagyu does not mean the beef was raised in Japan. It literally means Japanese cattle and refers to four native breeds. Japanese Wagyu, American Wagyu, and Australian Wagyu are not interchangeable. A lot of American Wagyu is Japanese Wagyu genetics crossed with Angus or whatever, and that can produce excellent beef. But the word alone tells you very little about grade, marbling, provenance, and whether the dish will be good. Now, every burger, taco, sando, bowl of fried rice is Wagyu, which mostly gives influencers another word to say 7,000 times a day.

Wagyu can be amazing, but it's ubiquitous now, and you have no idea what kind of Wagyu, if it's good, where it comes from. So it's overrated, because at this point, we don't know what the hell it is.

Jordan Okun (4:08)

All right, anything else?

Max Shapiro (4:09)

Truffle anything. It's overrated. Truffles in general are overrated when they're real.

But now we're talking truffle on a million things, and people freaking out about their truffle fries. It's overrated. The only truffles I like are real white truffles in season in winter from Alba. Paragord black truffles in season. Australian winter black truffles can also be good. Outside of that, truffles are just musky and have nothing going on, and they're overrated.

Jordan Okun (4:43)

Okay.

Max Shapiro (4:45)

Burrata. Every.

Jordan Okun (4:48)

Well, you're really coming for everyone now.

Max Shapiro (4:50)

Every single menu with the burrata. Burrata is delicious. I'm exhausted by it. Tomato and burrata, peach and burrata, pizza and burrata, bread and burrata. Enough. It's enough.

There are plenty of creamy cheeses out there.

Enough.

Jordan Okun (5:09)

You know, places just want to make money and they know what people like and it's why there's crudos on every menu.