Ep 295: George Egg

Summary

Podcast Summary: Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster – Episode 295: George Egg

Episode Details:

• Title: Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
• Host/Author: Plosive
• Guest: George Egg
• Release Date: May 28, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 295 of Off Menu, hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome special guest George Egg—a multifaceted comedian, chef, and renowned Snack Hacker. The episode delves into George's journey from stand-up comedy to culinary creativity, exploring his popular Snack Hacker series and his forthcoming cookbook.

George Egg's Background

George Egg is introduced as a comedian who seamlessly transitioned into the culinary world. Initially known for his energetic performances in comedy clubs, George expanded his repertoire by incorporating food-themed shows.

James Acaster [03:06]: "Yes. He's a comedian. He's a chef. When we started Stand Up Ed and I, we mainly knew George as a comedian. He'd go around the clubs tearing the roof off every single night."

The Birth of Snack Hacker

During the lockdown, unable to perform live, George channeled his creativity into creating Snack Hacker videos, a series where he transforms everyday snacks into gourmet treats. Assisted by his son, Gem, George began producing short, engaging videos that quickly gained traction on social media.

George Egg [14:21]: "Snack Hacker is a series of videos that are ongoing that I've put on social media. I started doing during lockdown because, you know, theaters were closed, couldn't go on stage..."

Evolution and Popularity

What began as simple modifications, like adding pickled jalapeños to a cheese and onion pasty, evolved into more intricate creations such as deep-fried pot noodles and Twiglet brownies. The Snack Hacker series now boasts over 500 episodes, showcasing George's innovative approach to everyday snacks.

George Egg [15:03]: "But I used the Greg's cheese and onion pasty again. But to make us kind of like cauliflower cheese... absolutely heavenly."

Snack Hacker Cookbook

Building on the success of his video series, George authored "The Snack Hacker", released on June 5th. The cookbook encapsulates his favorite recipes and the stories behind them, blending humor with culinary insights.

James Acaster [80:33]: "So many cool recipes in there. Porridge pot pancakes, Mushy pea hummus to name but two Cheesy cup noodle with egg yolk."

Memorable Conversations and Anecdotes

Throughout the episode, George shares nostalgic memories tied to his culinary exploits. From struggling with over-the-top restaurant service to recreating fond childhood meals, his stories are both humorous and heartwarming.

• Restaurant Service Frustrations:

  George Egg [08:00]: "I'll go in and I'll, I'll go, I'm going to have, I won't have a starter, I'll have tap water or whatever... and then everyone around me starts getting cocktails."

• Camping Memories:

  George Egg [44:09]: "So when the kids were small, we used to do a lot of camping holidays and we'd go to France... barbecued long French chipolatas, lentils from a tin, tinned lentils and tinned French beans..."

Culinary Philosophy

George emphasizes simplicity and creativity in cooking. His approach often involves enhancing existing snacks with minimal ingredients to elevate their flavors, making gourmet cooking accessible to everyone.

George Egg [17:57]: "The kind of idea around Snack Hacker is it is, you know, without wanting to get to Ratatouille the film, but that anyone can cook."

Interactive Segment: Creating a Dream Menu

The hosts and George engage in designing a dream menu, selecting favorite starters, main courses, side dishes, desserts, and drinks. This segment showcases George's unique culinary perspective and his ability to blend humor with food.

George Egg [36:46]: "When me and my brother were teenagers, we did... treats like the British Rail microwave burger... and it just hit the spot."

Hacking Snacks On-The-Fly

A recurring theme is George's knack for hacking snacks in real-time, demonstrating his ability to improvise and enhance dishes with whatever is available. This not only entertains but also inspires listeners to experiment in their own kitchens.

George Egg [62:13]: "You can hack a snack on the fly whenever nature calls."

Conclusion

Episode 295 offers an entertaining and insightful look into George Egg's world where comedy meets culinary innovation. His ability to transform mundane snacks into delightful treats embodies the essence of Off Menu—turning dream meals into reality with a dash of humor and creativity.

James Acaster [83:02]: "We are very impressed that he got that handle. And thought, right, that's me. I'm the egg guy... I love eggs so much."

Listeners are encouraged to follow George's journey on Instagram and explore his Snack Hacker series and cookbook for more delectable inspirations.

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Notable Quotes:

• George Egg [14:45]: "But it's funny as well."
• James Acaster [16:19]: "You've texted me, you've told me that pizza..."
• George Egg [29:57]: "I've had people find me on social media and say, found another egg."
• Amy Gledhill [58:14]: "Mac and cheese to me is the modern one where there's stuff added to it and it's got a crust on the top."

Timestamp Highlights:

• [03:01] Introduction of George Egg
• [14:21] Origin of Snack Hacker
• [36:46] Dream Starter Discussion
• [62:13] Snack Hacking on-The-Fly
• [80:33] Highlighting the Snack Hacker Cookbook

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For those intrigued by George Egg's culinary adventures and comedic flair, be sure to check out his Snack Hacker series on YouTube and his upcoming cookbook, "The Snack Hacker," available from June 5th.

Transcript

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[Ed Gamble]

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[George Egg]

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[George Egg]

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[George Egg]

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[Amy Gledhill]

Welcome to the Off Menu podcast. Taking the baked potato of Conversation. Adding in the baked beans of humor and the pre grated cheese of friendship scum.

[James Acaster]

Deltious.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yum, yum, yum, yum.

[James Acaster]

That's it. Gamble. My name is James A. So together we own a dream restaurant. And every single week we invite the guests and ask them their favorite ever start a main course, dessert side dish and drink, but not in that order. This week our guest is George Egg.

[Amy Gledhill]

George Egg, in many ways is the perfect guest for this podcast. James.

[James Acaster]

Yes. He's a comedian. He's a chef. When we started Stand Up Ed and I, we mainly knew George as a comedian. He'd go around the clubs tearing the roof off every single night. And then he started doing a food themed show which I think we'll talk about with George. And then that has evolved over the years and now he's the snack hacker.

[Amy Gledhill]

He's the snack hacker. Very successful online videos where George hacks snacks.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

He takes like, you know, things that you can buy just off the supermarket shelves or at a petrol station, that sort of stuff.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

And just upgrades it, turns it into a delicious gourmet snack.

[James Acaster]

Pimps them up.

[Amy Gledhill]

Pimps them up. And finally, George has a book called the Snack Hacker which is out on the 5th June and available to pre order now. And all of those fun crazy recipes are in there. It says here there's things like deep fried pot noodle, microwave shakshuka and Twiglet brownies, which initially when I read that I thought, holy shit. But then you think about it and yeah, delicious. That's working.

[James Acaster]

I've made some of George's Snack Hacker recipes. They are very easy and straightforward. Fun as well to do and all taste amazing.

[Amy Gledhill]

Great. We're very much looking forward to speaking to lovely George Egg. Yes, he's a good egg.

[James Acaster]

He's a good egg. But listen, even good eggs go bad sometimes. If George Egg says a secret ingredient, an ingredient which we deem to be unacceptable, we are going to kick him out of the dream restaurant. And this week the secret ingredient is Snacker Jacks.

[Amy Gledhill]

Snacker Jacks. Because it sounds a bit like Snack hacker. Snacker hack, Snacker hack.

[James Acaster]

The snack hack A snack jack.

[Amy Gledhill]

A snack. Snack hacker.

[James Acaster]

Snacker Jack. Hacker hack a Jack.

[Amy Gledhill]

Obviously the way to go, you would have thought would be to pick egg.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

But that's in everything really.

[James Acaster]

It's such a common ingredient.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

We'd be kicking George out so early and that seems stupid when we've got a comedian who has a cookbook.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

On our comedy food podcast.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

To just Kick him out. Because he said egg. We were just going to hope that he doesn't say Snacker Jacks. But here's the thing he might do. We're not playing it easy.

[Amy Gledhill]

No.

[James Acaster]

Because George, as we've said, get stuff that you can just get on the supermarket shelves, snacks that already exist, pimps them up and he. And he loves those.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

He might have Snacker Jacks. A Snacker Jack Snacker hack that he does.

[Amy Gledhill]

Snacker Jacks would add texture to a lot of things.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, man. The thing is, George is going to be so sad if we kick him out.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. He's such a nice man. He's really looking forward to being on this podcast because he knows it's perfect for him. If we kick him out, he's going to genuinely hurt his feelings. It's not going to be like Jade Adams when she was, like, really leaning into it, like, ha.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. And that was on Zoom. So she was at home. So she.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, she didn't care. He's. He doesn't live in London or if he lives in Brighton or Hove or something, he'll have driven here or got the train, which is a nightmare to like. That's the worst place in the country you can get the train to London from. If he comes here, sits down and then we. What? It's famously bonito.

[Amy Gledhill]

That's true.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. That's. That's Benito. I know you might think it's just an hour away, but, like, that. Southern Rail is an absolute nightmare.

[Amy Gledhill]

They cancel all the time.

[James Acaster]

They cancel all the time. People hate it. It's the. It's. It's the go to but of any train joke.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Is Southern Rail. That's got many an applause break on Mock of the Week. May it rest in peace.

[Amy Gledhill]

Who would have thought Southern Rail would last longer than Mock the Week?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I mean, you had the last laugh.

[Amy Gledhill]

I guess, but George or the Laugh Replacement service.

[James Acaster]

Oh, brilliant stuff. You say that in scenes. We'd like to see your tether roof. But George would be very, very sad. If we say, George, bad luck. You said Snacker Jacks, you're kicked off. He'll go. No, really? He might be like, ha, ha, ha. He'll go, really? Are you serious? Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Bye.

[Amy Gledhill]

Bye.

[James Acaster]

Bye. Goodbye.

[Amy Gledhill]

I've just checked the trends. They're all cancelled.

[James Acaster]

Good luck hacking that. Good luck hacking the rail replacement service.

[Amy Gledhill]

Which is why we're telling you now. His book is called the Snack Hacker.

[James Acaster]

Yes. And you should all get it.

[Amy Gledhill]

It's available for pre order, so look get it. There's the plug. Because who knows how long George is going to last on this.

[James Acaster]

Let's see, this is the off menu. Menu a George.

[Amy Gledhill]

Welcome, George, to the dream restaurant.

[George Egg]

Thanks for having me.

[James Acaster]

Welcome, George Egg to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting for some time, I think.

[George Egg]

Well, I think I've been, I've been wanting to come here for some time. And there you are. There's the genie, there's the matrix.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

I think we're still sticking with maitre d, aren't we?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I love that you're the maitre d. Thank you.

[George Egg]

Here's a question.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[George Egg]

Off the bat, what sort of a genie? Well, what sort of a waiter.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[George Egg]

Are you? That's what I want to know because I, Yes.

[James Acaster]

Well, this is your dream restaurant, so I am your dream waiter.

[Amy Gledhill]

But what are the different types of waiters that are in your mind?

[George Egg]

Well, I don't, I get stressed in restaurants. Various reasons. I think a lot of it kind of harks back to being a student and not having much money and worrying about bill splitting anxiety.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

So, you know, I'll go in and I'll, I'll go, I'm going to have, I won't have a starter, I'll have tap water or whatever. And then everyone around me starts getting cocktails.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then I'm thinking, well, what's going to happen at the end of the, yeah. Of the, of the, you know, of the night. And then a thing that compounds that is when you've got a waiter who's very sort of trigger happy with the topping up. So I've had that with water. Worse, I've had that with wine. So there'll be like me and someone else and we've bought a bottle of wine between, I'm assuming we're going to split the wine.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And I'll be drinking mine a little bit slower than, than they will. And then the waiter's kind of nipping in and so I despise that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yes. I, I, I will not be top up, Charlie. I, those people, I, I do find it very stressful. Even if it's like we've, you know, tap water and it's freezing. But, but they're just constantly. Because I want to have a chat with the person I'm talking to. I don't want this person dipping in.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Suddenly they're on my shoulder filling up a water and then they're gone again. And I know if I have a sip they're going to be Back in to get it to the level that it was at.

[George Egg]

Yeah, no, I don't want that. I had that in a restaurant once, but yeah, I actually wrote to the restaurant afterwards that this one way, I said, you know, he's doing a great job, but it's just. It's too much. And we actually. We were going to order dessert. We ended up just kind of going, should we go somewhere else?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Because he was topping up all the time.

[George Egg]

He was just too. Too attentive.

[Amy Gledhill]

See, that's what I mean, what a balance for that guy. Right. Because he's also like, I've got to do my job here.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

So. But I guess it is just. That is the fine balance of being good at that job is knowing when to stand back and when.

[George Egg]

Yeah, I think that's that. I've seen. What's his name? Fred. What's it? Fred.

[Amy Gledhill]

Fred Syriac.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Talking about. About waiting, you know, and you've got a. You've got a ghost in and out and, you know, you don't even know they're there. That's. Although I don't want to not know you're there.

[James Acaster]

Well.

[George Egg]

Because you're. Well, you're. You're a genie for a stuff.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Well, I could make myself invisible and still keep you topped up.

[George Egg]

That's true.

[James Acaster]

Oh, really? I mean, I should just like, you know, be able to cast some sort of spell on your drink.

[George Egg]

That means obviously the tops up. And also by itself, the. The big concern here is I'm not paying.

[Amy Gledhill]

No, look, no one's paying.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

So you're not paying.

[Amy Gledhill]

You don't need to worry about how much wine the other person's having, by the way. I understand that. So much. And it is pathetic, isn't it? Going. They're getting more wine than me.

[George Egg]

Yeah, we want it to be fair.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, fair.

[Amy Gledhill]

Can you bring us two half bottles?

[George Egg]

Here's. Here's another thing. What about this? When a waiter comes up, like, because I'm undeniably into my food, I'm a big, you know, I'm a food guy. And I will finish. I. I will finish what's on my plate. I'll, you know, and. And if I think I can get away with it, I'll be, you know, running my finger around the edge of the plate and getting every last morsel when a waiter comes up and says, oh, you were hungry or you ate that quick.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.

[George Egg]

That's a big. That's a.

[James Acaster]

The worst I've Ever had. And this wasn't. It's a similar thing but for different reasons. This was bad. I was at a place and the food was. It was bad food and the. The waiter was like the nicest man. And also I think I owned the place.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Really lovely friendly man. And I had something that was not good. And then he came back and he went, oh, you ate it. Oh, that's cool.

[Amy Gledhill]

Never happened before.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, that's cool. This guy ate all his food.

[Amy Gledhill]

Ring the bell?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, it was that. So that, that let me know I was in there. Definitely in the wrong place.

[George Egg]

What sort of a place was that? Was it one of those places where they have all pictures on the walls?

[James Acaster]

It was. No, it was a place like nothing you've ever seen. It was. It. It was a vegetarian place in Rome and it was across the street from our hotel and we just fancied like not having meat that night. So we, we googled it. Best vegetarian is. Oh, it's like right over the road. Really thought we'd landed on our feet and walked in and it was like someone had last minute had to put together something that looked like a restaurant out of the things that were left behind by the builders. And then pretend that this is. Yep. This is always like this. And please come on in because often.

[George Egg]

The vegetarian option I find is. Is a safe bet because more effort's been made. Mrs. Egg doesn't eat meat and if we go out for a meal, I will always feel obliged to get the meat dish because it feels like I'm out for a treat. It's got to get some meat and she'll get the vegetarian dish. And I inevitably, you know, nine times out of ten have food envy.

[James Acaster]

That's what we're up for that night.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

We did not pan out very bad. And like more than one dish involved a liquid which I'm pretty sure was mouthwash.

[George Egg]

Wow.

[James Acaster]

That they just put into it. I was like, this is. This is bad stuff. What was the food? Yeah. Vegetarian.

[George Egg]

Because some. I find saffron sometimes has. If it's. If people use too much saffron, it's got a slightly.

[Amy Gledhill]

Taste. Yeah.

[George Egg]

I wonder if they'd could have been that gone a little heavy handed on.

[Amy Gledhill]

The old expensive bananas on the saffron.

[James Acaster]

Have you ever hacked a snack with saffron?

[George Egg]

Well, I don't like saffron because for that very reason I find it a bit too much. So I've used something called paella powder in a snack hack. Which is. Which I bought in Spain and it's I think it's mostly yellow food coloring and there are. There is smoked paprika in there and I think there is a very tiny bit of saffron in there. But you put it in with your pilot and it, it looks the business.

[Amy Gledhill]

We should talk about Snack Hacker.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

To pro. Properly introduce you to our members of the audience who might not have. Might not have seen the snack.

[George Egg]

Probably billions of people who don't know about snack.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh no, no, no. This. There's two people and we've got to explain it to them.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[George Egg]

Okay.

[James Acaster]

But it could, it couldn't be more up our listeners street. How did it get started? What is it? Let them know.

[George Egg]

Snack Hacker is a series of videos that are ongoing that I've put on social media. I started doing during lockdown because, you know, theaters were closed, couldn't go on stage because my. For the listeners who don't know my, my kind of on stage thing is I cook on stage, but that's by the bike. So Snack Hacker, I thought I've got to start making videos or start doing something. So with the help of my son Gem, we started making these little videos which I put on where over about sort of a minute and a half, two minutes I will hack a snack. But there's more to them that so, so they started out by. By kind of taking an existing food item like something from Gregg's or McDonald's or wherever else and then enhancing in some ways. So the very first episode I got a. Got a cheese and onion baked from Greg's, opened up like a pocket, put in some pickled jalapenos at it, talked about it. Yeah, that was it.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Really simple. But I did seven episodes, put them out and they just seemed to. Was one of those things where, you know, got traction immediately. A lot of people were excited by them. A lot of the followers started going up and then we carried on making them and at the time of recording there's about 100, 506 episodes. And I started out with interfering with existing snacks and it's kind of. It's evolved and because I just say.

[Amy Gledhill]

That the Snack Hacker is a much better name than the Snack interferer.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

But it's funny as well.

[James Acaster]

Slightly phenomenally when you're in prison.

[George Egg]

There is. There is one little section of outtakes I've got of when I was so much later on about episode 80, I. I did something else with a. This sounds really awful as well.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

But I, I used the Greg's cheese and onion pasty again. But to make us kind of like cauliflower cheese. Taking cauliflower cheese, which is so nice. So I'll just tell you what you do really quickly. So a lot of them do involve a bit of actual cooking because I'm, you know, I'm in the cooking. So you get, you get a slice of cauliflower, you cook it in brown butter, you toast some hazelnuts. Because hazelnuts and cauliflower and cheese, really nice combination. Go down to Greg's, get a cheese and onion pasta, open it up, cauliflower in there, crushed hazelnuts, onions, the, the burger onions, you know, the kind of crispy ones that is on every.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Street food thing at the moment. Loads of those. Put the lid back on, eat that. Oh my God. So anyway, that's absolutely heavenly. But at the start we thought it'd be funny to have a little to camera bit where I'm saying, you know, three years ago I interfered with a cheese and onion pasty and we, we must have done about 30 takes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then we've stitched them all together. We might put out some time of me just corpsing constantly and, and then trying to make it sound better and it ended up sounding.

[Amy Gledhill]

That does sound like the worst lockdown ever. You got bored and you started interfering with the cheese and onion pasta while.

[James Acaster]

Your son filmed it. I absolutely love the snack hacker videos. I've watched so many of them. I've tried to. Well, I have made some of the stuff on the.

[George Egg]

You've texted me, you've told me that pizza, I think you've done.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Naan based pizza, which I did twice but also is the naan based pizza, which obviously for the listeners, if you need to explain it, is that the base is a naan. Yeah, it's a circular. A circular naan. I, I used, I use a garlic one.

[George Egg]

Did you find a circular one? No, you see, because the saddle shaped ones are kind of.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I know you seem wrong. I know that you were disappointed further.

[Amy Gledhill]

Away from pizza at that point. Aren't we?

[George Egg]

Yeah, exactly.

[James Acaster]

I sent you the photo of it and you were like, you guys should not find a circle. And I was like, no one, George. But. And then I made the pizza sauce from another video of yours where I think another YouTuber. Yeah, food YouTuber suggested.

[George Egg]

Yeah. A guy called Adam Purnell who goes under the handle the Shropshire Lad or A Shropshire Lad. But anyway. And he's a barbecue chef and he. Yeah, he was a guest. That's another thing with the, with the series. I've had various guests, including you.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[George Egg]

Not you yet. Not me in time.

[Amy Gledhill]

Not yet.

[George Egg]

We did talk about oysters and crisps at one point and, yeah, his idea, Adams was using the. The kind of Bloody Mary mix.

[James Acaster]

Big Tom.

[George Egg]

Big Tom. That's the one he used. Big Tom.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

With hot sauce.

[Amy Gledhill]

James just shouted. Just for the listener. James shouted Big Tom up into the sky. And it sounded like you were giving out a tribute to your dear friend.

[James Acaster]

Big Tom up there with big worm saluting. That was great. I made the pizza sauce from the Big Tom and the hot sauce that I had. I got loads of hot sauce in the fridge.

[George Egg]

Because you put the pepper army on it as well.

[James Acaster]

No, I didn't use pepper army. I used to as different type of sausage.

[George Egg]

But that's the thing.

[James Acaster]

And I mean, topic can be whatever.

[George Egg]

And that is the ethos about the whole kind of.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

The kind of idea around Snack Hacker is it is, you know, without wanting to get to Ratatouille the film, but that anyone can cook. And cooking can be as simple as putting one thing with. With one other thing, you know, and then going, oh, well, that's combination I wasn't expecting.

[Amy Gledhill]

And it's so much more satisfying, isn't it? I got into a horrible rhythm of takeaways recently, just because, you know, I'm not at home all of the time, and then you're like, I can't do a big shop, there's no point. And then you get into that rhythm of takeaways and then as soon as you pull yourself out that and go, I'm just going to cook something. Even if it's something that you get from the takeaway.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

You'd feel so much better about it.

[George Egg]

Well, one. One for that is my Peshwari toasty.

[Amy Gledhill]

Go on.

[George Egg]

Which is just. It's super simple. So the kind of idea behind that is that people eat microwave curries and there's no shame in eating microwave curries. They, you know, there's some great ones out there, there's some rubbish ones out there, but maybe they, you know, give you a nostalgic hit or whatever. Vesta curry is like, you know, revolting, but it reminds me of the past. But anyway, so for those occasions when you're. When you've got a microwave curry and you kind of go, I want to. I want to feel like I've achieved something. Yeah, you make a Peshwari toasty, which is basically either in a Breville kind of one or. But I've got these. This collection of very nice analog Toasty makers that are kind of like clamshell thing with long arms and they go over the. Directly over the gutter. Anyway, you make a toasted sandwich with ground almonds, desiccated coconut, chopped up sultanas, a little bit of cardamom in there, and then you bust the outsides and toast it and it's. It's basically a Peshwari naan in a white bread sandwich. And the edges where the. Where the Breville or whatever presses it, they go like a kind of Gary Baldy biscuit and it's just heavenly. And then. Oh, I know, I forgot. You butter the outside and you put flaked almonds on the outside, so you get that kind of, you know, it's all the flavors of a Peshwari naan and then a bit of coriander and more butter on the outside. And then. And then you rip up and scoop up the microwave curry with that. And you don't even have to take the microwave curry out of the packet because you've made the sandwich, you've done the cooking, so you go, this is fine. And then, you know, if you put.

[Amy Gledhill]

It on a plate to make yourself feel better.

[George Egg]

Exactly. If you were eating it with a spoon straight out the packet, you feel terrible.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

But you make the sandwich and then suddenly you're cooking.

[Amy Gledhill]

Genius.

[James Acaster]

And is that in the Snack Hacker book, the cookbook that you've released?

[George Egg]

It is in.

[James Acaster]

It's got so much in it. I mean, when do you start thinking about that? About. Let's do a book? I guess we.

[George Egg]

I mean, maybe about a year ago or so. I mean. I mean, right from the beginning. I mean, in fact, from before Snack Hacker, I've always thought I'd like to. I'd love to write a cookbook sometime anyway. And then once Snack Hacker got the traction, it got. Well, me and Jem, my son, we came up with a pitch, sort of explaining what the idea of the book is, which is very much about the snacks, but also about kind of where your food comes from. For me personally, there's quite a lot of memoir in it about, you know, my dad cooking when I was a little boy. And through writing the book, I've realized how quite how much of the food I've done on the videos has come from my childhood and. And food memories.

[Amy Gledhill]

But it seems to me like a much more manageable and practical cookbook than most cookbooks.

[George Egg]

Oh, yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

So many cookbooks I like. I'll sit and read them like a novel, but I'll be like, I'm never Cooking anything out of that.

[James Acaster]

I look at the ingredients of, like, one. I'm not doing that. Yeah, yeah. Often you're like, I fancy cooking something tonight. I'll grab it. Grab whatever cookbook I've got.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Look at every single recipe. Well, all of these are. I've got none of this in the house.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I don't know where I buy half of it. With your one, it's like. Yeah, yeah. Great. Yeah. Oh, no, I'll cook all of this tonight.

[George Egg]

There's one recipe that all you need is some sauerkraut with caraway seeds in, which sounds a bit obscure, but it's one jar. You just need to go down to, you know, some international supermarket, buy a jar of that, then you can do the recipe.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I ordered a Reuben recently from somewhere and it didn't have sauerkraut in, and I was very annoyed.

[George Egg]

Is it even a Reuben without sauerkraut?

[James Acaster]

That's what I thought.

[George Egg]

Yeah. What was in it?

[James Acaster]

Two pretty thin slices of beef, like. Absolutely. I was. I was pretty annoyed now, you know, disclaimer. It was at a cinema.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

What, like a posh cinema?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. I think it's a posh cinema, but I still think if you're gonna put Reuben on there, it should be a Ruben.

[George Egg]

Well, I think once you've seen the images of your kind of American massive Reuben deli.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[George Egg]

Where it's three fingers thickness of pastrami or salt beef in there, and then you buy one from a supermarket and.

[James Acaster]

It'S like, I think that cinema shouldn't be allowed to show When Harry Met Sally ever again. First of all, we always start with still a sparkling water.

[George Egg]

Well, as we were discussing earlier about the bill kind of anxiety, I would normally go for still water. Tap water.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Because I just think, you know, I don't want to paint them, but because we're in this restaurant, I'm not. I'm going to go for sparkling and I'm gonna go for a very particular sparkling, which is. It's some water me and Mrs. Egg had. We were on holiday in Gran Canaria and we're in the capital and we. We just had this. It was just like the perfect glass of water.

[James Acaster]

I'm quite jealous of this straight away, because when we've done our menus in the past, which is twice now, the water course is the only one where I haven't felt like I've always sat down for where I had the best water and I can't think of anywhere. So we end up hacking that Course. And just saying. Ed said Guinness once.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

For his water course.

[George Egg]

Water in it.

[James Acaster]

So, like. But. But, like, I've always been like, I would like to have, like, a best glass of water I've ever had. And the fact that you've got that.

[George Egg]

Well, it was. It was just one of those kind of like, perfect storm of temperature, sparkle. So it was very. I think that different places they. They go for, you know, summits, more effervescent, whatever. This was very lightly sparkling, almost like half and half. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A very gentle sparkle. And a thing that's so important for me, the thickness of the glass. That is a big issue with beer and everything. You know what I mean? Like, you want a thin, really thin glass. And it was. It was an incredibly thin glass. Just perfect. And we said to the waitress, we said, look, this. This is the best glass of water we've ever had.

[Amy Gledhill]

She must have thought you were insane.

[George Egg]

I really do.

[James Acaster]

Back into the kitchen. Just be like, whatever you cook for these guys, it's fine. They're going to love it. They just told me it's the best glass of water they've ever had.

[Amy Gledhill]

You really. You really blow hot and cold with waiting staff George, you're either telling him it's the best glass of water, you're writing a letter to say they were too attentive.

[George Egg]

So, yeah, so that's the water there. Although the first time you got one of those insulated metal flask bottles.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then you put cold water in it, and then about three hours later, you're still gonna have some of that water.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

That's something, isn't it?

[James Acaster]

That feeling.

[George Egg]

Isn't it, though? It's like, oh, my God. You want to get everyone around science.

[James Acaster]

Come and try the water I. Of this. It does feel good to like. I'm sorry, I was doing an impression of the person then. At the time, I wasn't telling you. I've just thought of something.

[George Egg]

Oh, I see it.

[James Acaster]

I realized the way you looked back at me, I was like, oh, no, I've gone too fast from my impression into a what? My next thought.

[Amy Gledhill]

Words are your tool, James.

[James Acaster]

Words are my tool. Ironically, I couldn't think of what to say next after that. Words are my tool. My point is, when you do that thing with the bottle of water, with the metal bottle of water, you do feel very, very pleased with yourself that you thought of it.

[George Egg]

Yeah. Slightly beats.

[James Acaster]

That feeling is almost better than the feeling of hydration.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[George Egg]

No, it is. It's all about beating the system, which Is kind of goes back to the whole snack hacking thing. It's all about kind of going, I'm in control here.

[Amy Gledhill]

What else could you keep in that box?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, because that wouldn't be snack hacking. Putting water in that bottle. If you put chocolate custard in that.

[George Egg]

I tell you what, that.

[James Acaster]

That's not kacking.

[George Egg]

I like to get a thermos and I like to cook sausages or put them in a thermos and take them to the cinema. And then halfway through the film, unscrew. And you know, the cinema is people. By people going, someone's got. Someone's got hot sausages.

[Amy Gledhill]

This has got to be a midweek daytime show. You are not going on a packed Saturday with a thumbs full of sausages.

[George Egg]

Oh, yeah. No, it's so quiet. It's kind of end of the run.

[James Acaster]

What kind of films are you watching where a hot sausage is appropriate?

[George Egg]

I mean, what film isn't appropriate for. When is a hot sausage from a thermos?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Are you just picking them out with your fingers, the hot sausages?

[George Egg]

Well, we've had that before, but we've used too narrow a neck on the thermos and it's been. Yeah, yeah, you're drinking the sausage at.

[James Acaster]

The top and stick it out like a. Like a deodorant ball. Smell like sausages all day.

[George Egg]

So, yeah, wide neck. You've got to go, you know, got to go. We've done it before. We've put too many in and then it's. Then you can't. Yeah, well, family, you know.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, well, I love. That's what I love about your family. Because, like, you all seem to be on the same page.

[George Egg]

Yeah, well, apart from Mrs. Egg, who wouldn't want the meat sausages.

[James Acaster]

No, she's got corn sausages.

[George Egg]

Vegetarian option. Yeah, she kind of should be like, no, you know, you guys have the.

[Amy Gledhill]

Sausages, I'll go sit up the other end of the cinema.

[James Acaster]

So we're completely different away from the family. Smell like hot sausages. Or bread pops.

[George Egg]

Or bread.

[James Acaster]

George, egg problems. Or bread.

[George Egg]

Do you know, I knew it was.

[James Acaster]

Announcement before you an. An announcement.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

How many episodes of this podcast have we done now, Benito? 260 something. That's the first time I've shouted poppadoms or bread and it's made me fart.

[George Egg]

Oh, wow. Maybe it's the thought of the sausages.

[James Acaster]

As I shouted bread, I did a fart and it was forced out by me shouting.

[Amy Gledhill]

The first time you said bread. Or the second time.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah. The first time.

[Amy Gledhill]

But you still went in just as hard the second time.

[James Acaster]

Yes, because I was trying to. I was so worried that maybe people had heard the fart. We just keep on. Just keep on going.

[Amy Gledhill]

Were you not worried that if you pushed even harder, you might squeeze the sausage out your thermos?

[James Acaster]

Maybe. Maybe. I was hoping that that could be too small. It wouldn't come out. So there you go. It's a first of the podcast.

[George Egg]

It is first.

[James Acaster]

All these times of shouting popular absorbed bread. But that's the first.

[George Egg]

It's a modest sized room. This as well.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah. Let's hope it doesn't smell of hot sausages by the end. We'll see. Popular bread.

[George Egg]

Georgia. Well, here's the thing. I think you know what I'm going to say.

[James Acaster]

Well, I guess you're going to say bread or. Or you've got a hack where you got both of them.

[George Egg]

No, I'm gonna. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say bread because where was the. In fact that I think the last.

[James Acaster]

Time saw you on your birthday making bread.

[George Egg]

Yeah. Should I say where?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

E5 Bakehouse.

[James Acaster]

E5 Bakehouse. Having a. For your birthday. Someone got it for you for your birthday.

[George Egg]

My daughter who works at E5.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[George Egg]

At the time of recording.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You never know what she might have done between now and then. Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

She's.

[George Egg]

She's a baker. And I. I said I would love to because I love bacon bread anyway. You know, obviously I love bacon break. Also do.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And she said, I'll organize you to do a stage which is, you know, when you go. And basically chef for free in a. In a food establishment.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

So I went and got there early in the morning and we spent the day baking bread. And James came in and came backstage.

[James Acaster]

I did. They let me in backstage. We could say Happy birthday to George. I could see all that. And also you could meet all the bread. Met all the bread.

[George Egg]

We tried to get you to have a go with the bread, but you, you were breadshot. You were double shy.

[James Acaster]

I wouldn't do it.

[Amy Gledhill]

Why not, man?

[James Acaster]

I just. I.

[George Egg]

It is a. It is a very high.

[James Acaster]

My history of bacon is not good. I don't touch it.

[George Egg]

Do you know, it is quite intimidating, the Dough.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

In E5 because the quantities are insane.

[Amy Gledhill]

Because East London, it's like sort of cockney attitude.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You were doing a good job, man. You were doing a good job.

[George Egg]

And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I mean, I. Before I started doing the cooking on stage shows I had this real. Because I was doing stand up for years before that kind of more conventional stand up. I had this real thing where I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop doing stand up altogether and I'm gonna do something in the culinary world like, you know, have a cafe or whatever, something like that. And then I started doing the on stage cooking and realized, oh, I can do both, but I think I could work in a bakery. I'd be happy going in every day doing the same thing. It's meditative. You feel like you're creating something of value. You know, it's not intent, it's just. Yeah, it's fantastic.

[Amy Gledhill]

Was there something about bread? Because that is such a staple food for so many people that making it feel sort of.

[George Egg]

Oh, it's, it's quite, it's like integral.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

Is that the right word?

[James Acaster]

Also, it's only when I met your daughter that I realized your surname isn't actually egg. Yeah, I know because I, I always assumed it was Megan. And then your daughter's called Meg. And I was like, there's absolutely no way.

[Amy Gledhill]

That is mad that that is the first time you thought the egg might not be George's real name.

[James Acaster]

I've met a guy called Paul Foot.

[George Egg]

But there are, there are real eggs out there. I, I've had people find me on social media.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And say, found another egg.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. They say I'm doing my family egg tree.

[James Acaster]

And so what's the particular type of bread you want then for your. Because I know you're George Egg. You're not gonna just want bread in general.

[George Egg]

Well, here's the thing. So I want to give a shout out to, I suppose, honorable mentions. That's what we say.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

To white sliced bread with margarine and cress. And I tell you why that is. Because when I was in nursery school, we grew cress.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

As we all do.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And I will never forget the sensation of having. And we, when we finished growing, it took a week or so and then we cut it down and we, we had white bread and it would have been margarine, thickly spread. And then we cut the, put the crescent and just the sensation of having that is just, you know, it's the ratatouille, you know, critic. That's very nice moment. But that's not the bread I'm choosing. I'm choosing E5 Bread because it's, it's such incredibly good bread and because I've been there and I've made it and my daughter makes it. And, you know, it's great bread.

[James Acaster]

I know it's great. I know it's great. I mean, that they featured on my first dream menu did here. I think my side dish was the roast carrots there. When I came and met you backstage, I also met the person who made the carrots.

[Amy Gledhill]

Wow. Did you talk to the carrot for you?

[James Acaster]

Yes, I talked to them. I said, thank you. Thank you so much. I said, will be. Because, you know, for those people who don't know E5, the menu changes every day. It's a different lunch every day. So, you know, I very pathetically went, will we be seeing those carrots again anytime soon? Well, you never know.

[Amy Gledhill]

James's life is going to restaurants and asking people who work there when is a menu item coming back.

[George Egg]

But that is. That is the worst, though, isn't it? It's that thing of when things. Here's something I want them to bring back. Yeah, I don't like maltloaf. Sarin. Maltloaf. There is. There is a thing you can do. There's a recipe in the book where you. You microwave it and add butter and then it turns almost into like kind of sort of sticky toffee pudding. It's amazing. But briefly, Serene did a. Like a cereal bar called the Go Bar. Stop doing it. It's gone. Can't get it anymore.

[James Acaster]

But you loved it.

[George Egg]

It was just. It was so good. It was kind of Maltese serenity, but it was. It was like a flapjack and it was just. It was heavenly.

[Amy Gledhill]

But if you met this people from Serene.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Would you go, please bring back the goba?

[George Egg]

Oh, I really would do. You know, I've thought. I've actually thought about writing to them.

[James Acaster]

How do you think the people at Serene would apologize to you?

[George Egg]

Well, I. Oh.

[Amy Gledhill]

If they just went, we apologize. You were like, fuck it out, guys is right there. We are multi. Sorry. Come on.

[James Acaster]

I. I went to the French in Manchester recently, which I've shouted out on the podcast before. I love it. And their bread changes pretty regularly. They get it from Pullen Bakery in Manchester and they did a malt loaf sourdough hybrid, and it was so good with beer butter. Oh, wow.

[George Egg]

Beer butter.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Wow.

[James Acaster]

And. Or beef butter. Actually, actually, as I said, beer butter. I was like, that's not right.

[Amy Gledhill]

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[George Egg]

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[Amy Gledhill]

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[George Egg]

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[George Egg]

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[James Acaster]

Let's get into your menu proper George, your dream starter.

[George Egg]

Well, am I allowed on a moose bouche? Yeah, people have had a Moose boost.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah. You allow one.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Let's try to introduce it as a format point for a while.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I. I tried to, but it was me telling them what the amuse boost was because, you know, I thought it's an amuse boosh. But also I call it amused boosh because I didn't know at that point it was a moose boost. I really did embarrass myself. But I mean, it moves.

[George Egg]

Is amused, isn't it?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, Yeah, I think so.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. But your boosh. It's an amused bush.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Before you've eaten it. But it's amused. It's an amused bush.

[James Acaster]

After.

[Amy Gledhill]

After.

[George Egg]

I see. Or you're. You. You have an amused.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, yeah, but please. Of course you're allowed in the moose bush.

[James Acaster]

We would expect nothing less from the snack hacker.

[George Egg]

I thought. One thing I contemplated was because I. I'm always crippled by choice.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Restaurants. And was. I was contemplating saying, well, could you just order for me?

[James Acaster]

Wow.

[George Egg]

Because I've started doing that if I've gone somewhere with someone who I trust.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And just saying, look, you know, wow. It's out of my hands.

[James Acaster]

And that's never gone wrong for you?

[George Egg]

No, it's always better.

[Amy Gledhill]

I couldn't imagine ever relinquishing that control.

[James Acaster]

I can't imagine.

[Amy Gledhill]

I'm often the person who has to order for everyone. But I'll tell you what happens, George, is what. Yeah, it's a bit. Bit at the table with my wife will be there. Inevitably, she follows me around.

[James Acaster]

Well, listen to the joy in the world. Inevitably, James might be there. Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

James's partner, you know, other friends, whatever. Big menu. There's like. Like you're ordering small plates or whatever. Oh, I like the sound of this. I like the sound of this. I'll be like, oh, yeah. They go, you just order and you just order. I go, fine, I'm going to order. But you've said I can order now, so I'll start ordering. Then they start throwing stuff in. They go, oh, no, but we'd like. But directly to me. Even though the person stood there.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I would probably be guilty of that. I like the idea of someone ordering for me, but I probably would say.

[James Acaster]

It'S too much fun to do it to him, though.

[George Egg]

I would like you to order for me, though.

[Amy Gledhill]

Here.

[George Egg]

No, I mean, like in real life somewhere.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Make sure you throw stuff in or.

[Amy Gledhill]

Throwing stuff in that I've already ordered as well. That's. That's annoying.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Sometimes you want two of them. Well, you Want enough for everyone. You got a big, big gang.

[George Egg]

You know, I haven't thought. I'm thinking now I'm suddenly thinking about the. The secret ingredient.

[James Acaster]

Oh yeah.

[George Egg]

I'm worried about that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

You don't need to worry about that.

[George Egg]

Okay, good.

[James Acaster]

You do. We have chose one. You should worry.

[George Egg]

What it is, is. It is what I. I don't know if it's just to my. My family. Cause a bit of each. That's what we would call when you're having a full English breakfast.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And you have on your phone a little bit of every element.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Yeah. And when I was a little boy, my dad did most of the cooking at home and occasionally we would have a. A full English breakfast for dinner, which is just such a.

[Amy Gledhill]

That's joyous.

[George Egg]

It's just the best, isn't it?

[Amy Gledhill]

Messes with your head in the best way.

[George Egg]

Yeah, no, absolutely.

[James Acaster]

I didn't even know this was a thing until the podcast. So until we interviewed Jess Phillips and I couldn't get my head around it.

[George Egg]

Do you know what else I like Non breakfast items for breakfast? Curry for breakfast.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

When I go overseas to gig, I will, you know, I'll have the. Went to Hong Kong with some other acts and they were having the. The sort of British.

[Amy Gledhill]

The Western break.

[George Egg]

The western breakfast which was pre milked cornflakes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh my God.

[George Egg]

Yeah. And they were going, oh, these. They're all soft and it's like. Well, don't get the. Don't get their idea of what. You know, get. Get what people in Hong Kong eat.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Which is some unusual kind of rice porridge thing with fish flakes on. But it was great.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. I told you when, when I was in Japan the last time on the breakfast buffet in a hotel we were in, there was the Japanese breakfast and the western breakfast. And the western breakfast was spaghetti carbonara.

[George Egg]

I'd like that.

[Amy Gledhill]

Bacon and egg.

[James Acaster]

Now I'm thinking let's get back to this.

[George Egg]

Amused Boost is a bit of each, but it's a bit of each from when I was. So. So now my full English order would be very different to what it was. So when I was small, in the 70s or 80s, probably around about the early 80s, this would be. A bit of each would be bacon with rind on it, which I'd have to cut the rind off because it didn't like that. A bit of sausage, flat mushroom, egg. Of course I wouldn't have the tomato. It was a bit of a fussy boy. So I didn't like the tomato. On the plate too wobbly in the skin and choke you and everything else. And then fried bread.

[Amy Gledhill]

Amazing.

[George Egg]

So that would be my bit of each then now you know it would be very different. So I don't. I actually am undecided whether it would be a bit of each from then or a bit of each now. Which is going to include, you know, your black pudding and your hash browns and.

[Amy Gledhill]

Well, we could get you a really long fork for this. Amuse bush.

[George Egg]

How long?

[James Acaster]

Or two forks.

[Amy Gledhill]

Or two forks.

[James Acaster]

I think amuse bush. We can. We could set it up. It'd look really nice actually. Like. Because it wouldn't be like full length forks. So like. Like half length forks. But they cross like that. Like an X. And one's got a bit of each past.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And one's got a bit of each present.

[George Egg]

There's going to be some crossover. I suppose. That's where they cross over.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[George Egg]

That's where you've got.

[Amy Gledhill]

So we've got black pudding, we've got hash brown. Any other new elements that you want to put on there?

[George Egg]

Not beans.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I like just a little bean on each prong.

[Amy Gledhill]

Thank you, George.

[George Egg]

I don't like beans on a fun English breakfast.

[James Acaster]

Thank you.

[George Egg]

Unless I'm on a ferry.

[Amy Gledhill]

Imagine if I agreed with that.

[George Egg]

But it just feels right.

[Amy Gledhill]

I always say that.

[James Acaster]

Correct.

[George Egg]

But you know what I mean, a ferry. Like you're getting ferry to France.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And there's something about, I don't know, certain environments on a ferry. In a youth hostel dining room.

[James Acaster]

What you. You're not beans, you're old man. What you do? What are you doing in the youth hostel?

[George Egg]

I was a child.

[James Acaster]

Oh yeah, fair enough.

[George Egg]

Youth hosteling holidays.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough. I thought you talking about now.

[George Egg]

Although you don't have to be you don't you. You can stay in a youth hostel as. As a grown up as well.

[James Acaster]

Can you.

[George Egg]

You thought things going to come with this later on anyway. Yeah, I think. Beans in a supermarket, cafe. Youth hostel.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Dining room and ferry.

[James Acaster]

That's the only time it's allowed.

[George Egg]

That's the only time it's not on.

[Amy Gledhill]

This bit of each.

[George Egg]

No way.

[James Acaster]

This bit of each sounds delicious.

[Amy Gledhill]

Are you sauce? What you doing?

[James Acaster]

I'm guessing you're gonna have two splodges on the plate. One ketchup, one hp.

[George Egg]

Do you know, at the moment I'm really into my hot sauce.

[James Acaster]

I'm.

[George Egg]

I'm. I'm kind of entertaining the rim of my plate with a sort of spectrum of brown sauce. Ketchup. Various different hot sauces. Salad cream.

[James Acaster]

Salad cream, Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

I say hot. I mean, I'm a hot sauce guy. It's going nowhere near a full English for me.

[George Egg]

Just a little bit.

[Amy Gledhill]

It's got to be brown.

[George Egg]

Rumbling now.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, it happens. James has farted already this episode.

[James Acaster]

I think my butt's rumbling.

[George Egg]

I. I really like salad cream with a full English.

[Amy Gledhill]

Really?

[George Egg]

Well, it's. Do you know, I call it white ketchup, but it is like your rap name. It's. It's.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

It's vinegary, it's sugary.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I mean, it's literally tomato ketchup without the tomatoes, isn't it?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

And I don't think tomato ketchup really tastes of tomatoes.

[Amy Gledhill]

No, it doesn't.

[James Acaster]

No.

[George Egg]

It tastes of vinegar and sugar.

[James Acaster]

Well, let's let you into a little secret before we get onto your starter, because you're worried about saying the secret ingredient. You've not said your secret ingredient, but.

[George Egg]

Did I get near it?

[James Acaster]

Obviously, the first suggestion we had for secret ingredient was egg, because of your surname. We decided it would be unfair, but if we had done it, you'd be out on your amuse booth. What's your dream starter?

[George Egg]

When me and my brother were teenagers, we did. We did this little. A few years when we did walking holidays and we would stand youth hostels and we walked between them and, you know, hiking and we get exhausted and on the way home, we would always get the train back to London and we would treat ourselves to a British Rail microwave burger.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, God.

[George Egg]

And it. It was awful. Yeah, of course it was, yes. So these days with the microwave burgers, when, when you get them, they, they suggest that you toast the bun separately, you microwave the. The burger itself, blah, blah, you know, and the. It's actually a more kind of realistic simulation of a. Of a. A half decent.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Burger can be. But in those days when they, when they first did them on the buffet car on the intercity train, it would be the whole thing in a polystyrene box, all microwaved. So the bottom bun would be like hard like cardboard. And then you have this hot burger and the cheese is just completely fused in. The ketchup's boiling. And then the top bun is steamed as well, so it's all wet and. Which is now a thing. Everyone's steaming the buns. But anyway, we'd have that with a can of bitter. And we were only like 15, but you could just, you know, those were the days and, and it was just sensational. And it was just. It was so welcome.

[James Acaster]

You made that sound disgusting.

[George Egg]

You imagine if you're 15 and you've walked, you know, three days, kind of three or four days, 25 miles a day, and you can be knackered and you've got. On the train, you're hungry, you want someone to eat. Yeah, get that. And actually, it just hit the spot.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, but anything would.

[George Egg]

Yeah, but that did.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, but that was what you did. You had the routine of it.

[George Egg]

Yeah, but it was that.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, it was that.

[George Egg]

It was. That was what was the thing.

[Amy Gledhill]

Fair point.

[George Egg]

But here's the thing. So then. So I. So that. That was like a amazing memory of having that.

[James Acaster]

And.

[George Egg]

And. And I had. Hadn't had one for decades. And then when I did my first Edinburgh, I was coming back from doing my. My tech, and I was all knack, and I'd driven there the same day and. And heading back to my digs, and I went into a supermarket and I just thought, I'm gonna. I thought, I'm gonna get a rustlers. Because I knew there's a microwave in the accommodation, and we didn't have a microwave at home, so I'm just gonna. Just gonna try. When I was exhausted and then got in can of beer, didn't read the instructions, put the whole thing straight in the microwave. And it was again, that Ratatouille Anton Ego moment of taking a bite and going, I'm 15, I'm on the train again. Say one of them, please. But it's got to be from circa 88, 89.

[Amy Gledhill]

So you want the British Rail.

[George Egg]

It's got to be the British Realm. And it's got to be in the polystyrene box.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I mean, maybe even I'm, you know, jiggling about, because I'm on the empty city.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

You're on a train carriage kind of.

[George Egg]

Stones bitter.

[James Acaster]

Stones bitter.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Bottom bun solid like cardboard.

[George Egg]

Chewy.

[Amy Gledhill]

Soggy top bun.

[James Acaster]

Soggy top bun. I mean, like boiling ketchup.

[George Egg]

Yeah, boiling ketchup. Like cheese welded.

[James Acaster]

Do you let it cool down before you start eating it, or do you just. Do you and your brother just tuck into them straight?

[George Egg]

We would tuck into them straight away.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Inevitably have to be sipping the beer at the same time.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You would get you. That would cool it down and then you'd swallow occasionally. You do. You wouldn't have enough beer and you'd. And you'd swallow too early.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And you'd have a kind of locket of boiling hot. The puck of burger like behind the ribs. Next to the heart. Next to my heart.

[James Acaster]

The Snack Hacker by George Egg is available via Blink Publishing. Well, do you know what?

[George Egg]

Do you know what?

[James Acaster]

What?

[George Egg]

Here's the thing. And I'm not going to do this, but. But no, here's the thing. Let's listen in. In the book, I have recreated that by making a burger that's. It's like an inside out burger that's so that you flip the bun and you taste the outsides and it's squashed down and there's a beer and mushroom sauce.

[James Acaster]

That sounds nice.

[Amy Gledhill]

That sounds lovely. That sounds like you're picking the British.

[James Acaster]

Rail burger, not picking that delicious sounding burger that you. That you, mate.

[George Egg]

I'm picking the British roll. For this.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes. For the memory.

[James Acaster]

Because you want to be with your.

[George Egg]

Brother coming back from.

[James Acaster]

What would you and your brother talk about on the train while eating these burgers clogging the bitter? I don't know.

[George Egg]

Because we had quite strict rules, we decided. We said no Walkmans when we did the walking holidays. We thought, you know, we want to be chatting.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I think we were kind of talked out by then. We would have talked the whole time. We would sing songs from the BBC Radio. Lord of the Rings when we were walking up on the half.

[Amy Gledhill]

I absolutely love the idea of 15 year olds going, no Walkmans. It's. It's a time for conversation.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, it's really sweet.

[George Egg]

It was wholesome. No, and then. But yes. So we did a lot of talking on the holiday. So my memory of the train was snoozing the. In British roll burger. Drinking cans of Stones.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then going, how much more? We've got another two hours.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I can't wait to get home to my Walkman.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Your dream main course, Georgia.

[George Egg]

So when. When the kids were small, we used to. My kids were all grown up. That's why my daughter works in a bakery.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

She's not a child.

[James Acaster]

For the listener.

[George Egg]

Scenario. But when they were small, we used to do a lot of camping holidays and we'd go to France and we found this campsite really near to Dieppe, a place called. It's pronounced, it's just spelled eu. And it's really difficult to find because as soon as you Google it, you just get stuff. All about the eu.

[James Acaster]

We've left that now. Yeah.

[George Egg]

Which is a shame. But when. In fact, that's.

[Amy Gledhill]

That's if you ask for directions. Where do you want to go? We're fine.

[George Egg]

It said in the book, it said pronounced as a Grunt. That's exactly what it was. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, so we found that. We found this. This campsite, lovely municipal campsite, where you didn't. It's quite basic and you didn't get. You didn't get any other British people there, which is always a bonus.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You know, you don't want someone going to come and have barbecue with it. I'm all right.

[James Acaster]

No, I've got a thermos full of sausages.

[George Egg]

They're still hot.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And I've had my beans on the ferry.

[James Acaster]

But.

[George Egg]

And what we would. Would have, and we still recreate at home, is it's a camping dinner that we of. Of French sausages. So, you know, you get the long. The long chipolatas in France, which I always am fascinated how they don't. Because they're clearly proper intestines or whatever.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

They're not. They're not like, you know, whatever the. And have you noticed so many supermarket sausages now in nice places, it's all the kind of the. The fake collagen they're all for. You can't squeeze the insides out. They break up the sausage.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, really?

[George Egg]

Yeah. By the way. But in France, you get the long ones. They stay straight, they don't curl. Don't know how they do that. Anyway, so barbecued long French chipolatas, lentils from a tin, tinned lentils and tinned French beans, which have a taste that's so evocative of holidays and, you know, potatoes cooked the. The beans and the lentils cooked with cider.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, wow.

[George Egg]

And then you get to drink the cider, so I get extra drink because then I'm just. Because there's. The side is left.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

So I can have that. That's not. That's not my drink. It's just there.

[Amy Gledhill]

We've already given you a tin of bitter on a train, I think. Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Oh, I didn't want the tin of better with my. With my starter.

[James Acaster]

Are you joking?

[George Egg]

Actually, no.

[James Acaster]

You need that to cool it down, otherwise you're not gonna be able to taste the rest of this dream meal because you lost all the skin from your tongue and your mouth eviscerated. You need the best.

[George Egg]

Isn't that the worst? When you do have a bite of something hot and then you immediately know.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You touch the roof of your mouth, it's always fairly baggy and you think first bite.

[James Acaster]

Oh, great. Well, this is me for a while.

[George Egg]

Yeah. Days, isn't it?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

Not even the meal.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. Awful. Brushing your teeth and Catching it.

[George Egg]

So that's the main. That's the main. We're camping in France and we've got. And it's the sausages with the tinned lentil with Dijon mustard in with the lentils and cider in with the lentils and tin potatoes.

[Amy Gledhill]

You know, I love how often sausages have popped up in the menu already.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, you love sausages, man.

[George Egg]

Yeah, they haven't.

[Amy Gledhill]

Doesn't. Yeah, but sausages are great.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah, they are good.

[Amy Gledhill]

So it's the lentils, potatoes.

[George Egg]

Tinned beans as well. Tinned French beans, which just like, you know, they're like a paste, but there's the flavor of the tin flavor that just works. And cooked in cider as well, which cooked inside. So put those in a pan and then put some cider and bubble that down. I'd fry some onions first. Yeah, Fry some onions and garlic. And then I put the cider and let that bubble down. And then I put the tin the, the, the lentils and the beans.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then let that cook and then add a little bit of Dijon mustard at the end. It's that simple.

[Amy Gledhill]

Amazing.

[George Egg]

Loads of parsley.

[James Acaster]

Do you ever give this, like, dish a name? Because if you cooked it so regularly, people just come up with.

[George Egg]

I think we call that the holiday dinner. Yeah, Something like that. Vibes slightly, but it's more like brown lentils, small brown lentils. So it's not like the big, you know, and it's not tomatoey. It's so good.

[James Acaster]

You could have called it din. Yeah, yeah. Stop trying halfway through the word.

[George Egg]

But doesn't food, when you have food outside.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

It makes everything feel a bit more special, doesn't it? Especially if you've cooked it.

[George Egg]

But it just tastes different. It definitely tastes different.

[Amy Gledhill]

Different.

[George Egg]

And the kids were small. We had this book called Taste and Smells as this rhyming couplets.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

It's just got this bit which says, ham is hamia, jam is jammy. I love it. But it is so true, isn't it?

[James Acaster]

I love that you were reading that to your kids.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And they were just like, yeah, yeah. And you were like, I love this poetry hammers. Hamiya, jam is jammy. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

This is the fifth time.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah. Stop me to do this book. Are there any other memories from those kind of holidays that you have that like, like a food related.

[George Egg]

Well, I mean, I love going to France.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

My highlight of going to France, I do like going to, like a proper French market. But my highlight. Well, in fact, my highlight of going abroad anyway is going to a supermarket. Just love shopping in a foreign supermarket. And I think probably one of the biggest highlights is seeing what different flavor crisps they've got.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. Always a big moment when you're in a country you've not been to before to see what. What wacky crisps are going on.

[George Egg]

Yeah, I got some given to our neighbors when went on holiday to France. Came back a couple of days ago, they gave me. I haven't tried them yet. Guess what flavor they are.

[James Acaster]

Go on, let's guess.

[George Egg]

You could even do it. Like 20 questions.

[Amy Gledhill]

James loves guessing games. So this is.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, I love guessing.

[George Egg]

We have a game that we play.

[James Acaster]

Lasagna called no Toad in the Hole.

[George Egg]

I'll give you a clue. Yeah, France. It's a French thing.

[James Acaster]

Snails?

[George Egg]

No.

[James Acaster]

Frogs.

[George Egg]

I'll try those. No.

[Amy Gledhill]

Comfy duck.

[George Egg]

Do you want to, like, narrow it down by saying, is it sweet or savory? Or do you want to just guess?

[James Acaster]

I think we've already started to narrow it up. Creps. Crepe suzette.

[George Egg]

No. This is gonna take to it. Should I tell you?

[James Acaster]

No. Pas a chocolat?

[George Egg]

No.

[Amy Gledhill]

Guess.

[George Egg]

No.

[James Acaster]

Paneraisin?

[George Egg]

No.

[Amy Gledhill]

Is it savory?

[George Egg]

Do you know, I'm not really sure.

[James Acaster]

Why do you offer up. Do you not want to narrow it down? Sweet and savory, that you're not sure?

[George Egg]

Well, I'll tell you what. That really. Old man, that really narrows it down. If 51. That narrows it down, doesn't it? If you don't know if it's.

[James Acaster]

Sure.

[George Egg]

Sweet or savory.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

That.

[George Egg]

That narrows it down more than me saying yes or no.

[James Acaster]

Yes. Oh, come on, Ed.

[George Egg]

No.

[Amy Gledhill]

I'm enjoying watching you struggle.

[George Egg]

Should I give you another clue?

[James Acaster]

Bon bons.

[George Egg]

What?

[James Acaster]

No.

[George Egg]

They're definitely sweet, aren't they? Should I give you another clue?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. A drink. It's a kind of. Not Cafe Olay.

[George Egg]

No, very fre. Much more French. A booze drink.

[James Acaster]

Martini.

[George Egg]

It's a French booze drink.

[James Acaster]

Daiquiri spirit, cognac.

[George Egg]

Like a pair of teeth. You'd have it with water.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, what's it called? The anecdote.

[James Acaster]

You want?

[George Egg]

Yeah. Pasties, pastis. Past these flavored crisps.

[Amy Gledhill]

Wow, George.

[James Acaster]

I don't even heard it.

[George Egg]

How was I gonna get Perno? You know, you have perno and then water, and it goes. And it's like magic because it's clear, and then you have water, which is also clear, and then it's all cloudy.

[James Acaster]

I Don't know that I love it. I love the sound of it.

[George Egg]

It's very anecdy.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. I don't know crisps.

[George Egg]

Well, I'm intrigued.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I mean, I love aniseed in other things. I love aniseed flavor.

[James Acaster]

With pork you love. There's a lot of the snack hacker stuff. You put licorice in. You made some licorice buns. Was it like some.

[George Egg]

I made some licorice pancakes. So I did pancakes with blackcurrant jam and then I got like a panda licorice bar and grated it like parmesan.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, wow.

[George Egg]

And it's like black currant licorice sweets.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

On a pancake. And then you dust it with icing sugar and then grate more on top after it's all rolled. Oh, beautiful.

[Amy Gledhill]

My favorite thing to do in foreign supermarkets is to try and find some products that are rude in English.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, that's good.

[Amy Gledhill]

Like finding some cereal called cum and stuff.

[George Egg]

And do you photograph or do you buy it?

[Amy Gledhill]

Photograph it. Normally, I very rarely want to eat a bowl of cum.

[George Egg]

What about if it's been pre milked?

[James Acaster]

Hack that snack, George.

[Ed Gamble]

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[James Acaster]

Your dream side dish, George.

[George Egg]

I haven't chosen it yet. I've got two choices and I've got to decide now. So I tell you what they're Between. Or should I just decide?

[James Acaster]

Tell us what they're between.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, I think so.

[James Acaster]

We might have.

[George Egg]

No, I'm just going to tell you what I'm going for.

[James Acaster]

No, no.

[George Egg]

The one I've decided not to go for is.

[James Acaster]

Okay.

[George Egg]

Is too boring. Well, it's just macaroni cheese, but there's. I love it in so many permutations.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Like I love a lobster macaroni cheese.

[James Acaster]

Well, listen. God, do you want me to offer you this? People have hacked the menu before by having a pasta course before the main course. I think you could, especially in the snack hacker world, a lobster Mac and cheese would be a pasta course.

[George Egg]

Thank you. I still got to decide because it's between. Here's the choices for the Mac and cheese. Well, first of all, how do you feel about Mac and cheese as opposed to macaroni cheese? Because I was brought up calling it macaroni cheese. Sure. Mac and cheese has become the thing and it still irks me slightly. And I think. Come on.

[James Acaster]

Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Mac and cheese to me is the modern one where there's stuff added to it and it's got a crust on the top. Macaroni cheese to me is like a big glob.

[George Egg]

Oh, it's all runny.

[Amy Gledhill]

A big glob of it. All runny.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Crispy top.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. That to me is macaroni cheese. Also, I would say every time I have Mac and cheese, I'm excited about it. I love the idea of it because I love cheese. I love Mac. I've never really had a macaroni cheese that I've been like. That was as good as my image of macaroni cheeses in my head.

[George Egg]

I have. And it was.

[Amy Gledhill]

Tell me about it, brother.

[George Egg]

It was his fault.

[James Acaster]

Hello.

[George Egg]

Well, not his fault.

[James Acaster]

His.

[George Egg]

His. James to his suggestion. So when I went to New York the first time, I knew that he likes food.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

He. The genie over there.

[James Acaster]

Hello.

[George Egg]

And I texted him and I said, can you give me some food recommendations for New York?

[James Acaster]

I mean, it's probably going to end up being Ed's fault. This. Because there's probably somewhere that Ed originally recommended to me.

[George Egg]

Well, first of all, it was the most comprehensive list I've ever had.

[Amy Gledhill]

Well done.

[James Acaster]

Thank you.

[George Egg]

And honestly, there must have been about 30 suggestions. Yeah, it's fantastic. And one of them was smack.

[James Acaster]

Yes. Oh. So actually this is Henry Whitaker's fault.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, okay.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Henry Whitaker recommended this to me and I passed it on to you.

[George Egg]

Well, what a place. Have you been there?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, I went there with my mum. And my girlfriend.

[George Egg]

It's just the best. I love how scrubby it is.

[Amy Gledhill]

I just want to. James said that, like it made him sound really cool. Yeah, I went there with my mum and my girlfriend. Doing pretty well with the ladies.

[James Acaster]

It's two different people, by the way.

[George Egg]

What? So that Mac and cheese, the one I've been there a few times.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

To smack. And the best one I had was the. That had big hunks of like big fat bacon, you know, like real chunks. Crispy. Oh, my God. So that. But then also case of Spatzer, which I just love. And I had. I did a show in Germany, did the show and then after the show it was just lovely. It's so like that in Europe, which it isn't here. Or, you know, other places where I've done a lot of comedy. At the end of the show, the audience all goes and they get these big long, like, you know, Oktoberfest tables and benches and these caterers come in and put all these big dishes on the. On the stage and everyone eats. And there was this casa spatula which is just. I love it. And I try and recreate it. So it's basically Mac and cheese, but it's got macaroni cheese.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

It's got crispy top, though.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Maybe it's Mac and cheese, but it's not casual spats. And you've got this seam in the middle of slow cooked onions.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, yeah.

[George Egg]

Like, you know, like kind of proper caramelized. Total caramelized. Like. Like French onion soup onions. Wow. And then it's. And it's like noodles rather than.

[Amy Gledhill]

Rather they're like still. Are they tubes still or.

[George Egg]

No, they're like the way they make the spatzler, which is their noodles, I believe it's like a batter. And they. I think they pour it through a kind of sieve or a colander straight into the boiling water.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And then it. So you get these kind of ragged sort of noodly things that are only about kind of 6, 7 inches long. And then that's all with the cheese sauce and then the onions.

[Amy Gledhill]

So is that what you want as your. As your side dish?

[George Egg]

I can't decide. Can you choose for me out of those two? I have to choose, don't I?

[James Acaster]

Well.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, so you're deciding between these two for your pasta?

[George Egg]

I'm gonna go for the smack one because it was so good and I love the scrubbiness of the place and the little. And they got sachets in there. You like sachets?

[Amy Gledhill]

Sachets are what?

[George Egg]

Sachets are hot sauce. I. I love.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Collecting sachets and. And keeping them about my person so I can.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Hack a snack.

[James Acaster]

You can hack a snack on the fly.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Whenever nature calls.

[George Egg]

And they had. In smack, they had these little sachets of Louisiana hot sauce and guidance. Guidance. Mustard. Spicy mustard, it's called.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. You got a whole, like. Well, you got a bag. A jiffy bag of those. You got a tub of those.

[George Egg]

Untold. I mean, like. Yeah, it's just so much, like, too much for. For a jiffy bag. Bag.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And such a variety. My. My other daughter, Zoe, went to Japan recently and came back with sachets of kewpie.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, wow.

[George Egg]

How about that?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

And also really weird.

[Amy Gledhill]

You're an easy dad to get presents for, aren't you?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Honestly, I was saying, find me, find me. Such. She went to the food district in Tokyo and she got these. It's like. It's margarine and some kind of bean paste in one. Well, it's like a double sachet and then you snap the top and both like, arrow diet. Like what? Arrow diet. You know, the glue that's two parts together and then you squeeze the two out.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

How about that? I haven't tried them yet.

[Amy Gledhill]

I love it.

[James Acaster]

You can put them on your licorice crisps.

[George Egg]

They might work.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[George Egg]

I thought I'm doing for my side. So when. When I did my first Edinburgh, I stayed with our mutual friend John Robbins.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. And who also collect sachets of sauce.

[Amy Gledhill]

It rarely happens. You are now, I guess, on the podcast. And you cooked one of the dishes on John's dream menu.

[George Egg]

I did, didn't I?

[James Acaster]

Yeah. That must have warmed your heart to hear that.

[George Egg]

It really did, actually.

[James Acaster]

Must have felt good.

[George Egg]

Well, they got it a little bit wrong, but it doesn't matter.

[James Acaster]

No, it doesn't matter.

[George Egg]

But it should be in a muffin, like a kind of McDonald's kind of thing. Anyway. And I was staying with another mutual friend, Mr. Matthew Crosby.

[James Acaster]

Oh, yeah.

[George Egg]

And I. I cooked a meal for them one night, and I made this salad that I made every day, pretty much that festival. So I was using various ingredients in my show, like anchovies, which once they were open, I didn't want to use in, you know, too many, like, you know, too many shows. So I was eating them, the ingredients afterwards as well, and I made this salad that I call my Edinburgh salad. This is from the first year I was there, and it was loads of stuff from little. Because that was just around the corner from where I was performing. And it was sort of bitter leaves kind of. Well, like just a bag of salad leaves. Cherry tomatoes, anchovies, torn up mozzarella, black olives, avocado, torn up cured ham, red onion, red chili, lemon or lime, mint, dill and basil, because I was using all of those in the show.

[James Acaster]

Oh, wow.

[George Egg]

And then just a little bit of olive oil.

[Amy Gledhill]

Beautiful.

[James Acaster]

It sounds like a very tasty salad. It's nice.

[George Egg]

It's busy and it's bright and it's colorful. And also it's that kind of thing of. Of when you're at Edinburgh and you're eating unhealthily. Hence the rustlers.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Something like that makes you. You know.

[Amy Gledhill]

But also crucially, in Edinburgh, I find. And actually, I eat healthy in Edinburgh now, but if I'm on a run of eating unhealthy stuff, I can't go straight from that to pure salad. My body can't. My body can't take it.

[George Egg]

Oh, yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

I go into shock. So I have to have cheese in it, basically.

[George Egg]

Yeah. Oh, well, this. This salad, if you took away the leaves.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

That.

[George Egg]

It's still a meal.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

It's substantial.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. I remember discovering those salads, probably as a teenager. I'd seen them on menus a bit like.

[George Egg]

Hold on a second.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

There's like, just a load of fried chicken in a salad.

[George Egg]

Should I tell you what I've remembered that I want to have in my restaurant?

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

A cat.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Well, I. I find the whole restaurant environment quite. I don't know, stuffy. I hate. But I hate going to restaurants by myself. Off.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Which you do when you're on the road.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And you find.

[Amy Gledhill]

I love it.

[James Acaster]

I love it.

[George Egg]

Do you?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

See, I'm in and out too quick and I look at my phone the whole time. I can't.

[James Acaster]

I think you should make a rule quickly.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. Love looking at my phone.

[James Acaster]

I like being in and out quick, but I don't like looking at my phone. But I still look at my phone and. I know what you mean, but maybe you should just have the rule that you did with your brother.

[George Egg]

What, no phones?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Restaurant, no phones, no Walkmans.

[Amy Gledhill]

So you can talk to yourself, Sing.

[James Acaster]

Lord of the Rings yourself or whatever. Whatever you need to do.

[George Egg]

I'm not gonna sing in a restaurant.

[Amy Gledhill]

So you'd like a cat in the restaurant.

[George Egg]

Yeah. I think that would make it really homely.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You know when there's, you know, like, cat in a shop.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Yeah.

[George Egg]

Or a cat in a pub.

[Amy Gledhill]

Pub cats are great.

[George Egg]

Pub cats are great. My daughter Meg the baker.

[James Acaster]

Okay.

[George Egg]

When she was at school they had a school cat.

[James Acaster]

Wow.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh that's nice.

[George Egg]

And I think it was a stray that just wandered in and then everyone was like yeah, that's fine. And it would wander in that classroom. So it was just. And even. But you know change of lesson time when the corridors are just full of kids.

[James Acaster]

Like a Hogwarts thing.

[George Egg]

She went Hogwarts? Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Mega is a maga.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Is the name of someone who would go to Hogwarts.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, absolutely. Mag Egg from Hufflepuff.

[George Egg]

Would she be Hufflepuff?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Meg Egg would you know Meg Egg better than us. What does she value? Well they value loyalty above all else. Is it like bravery for Gryffindor?

[George Egg]

But is it like horoscopes where whatever one you choose people are go yeah, yeah, oh yeah, it's me.

[James Acaster]

No, no because this is like a made up world. So they, they, they can just have it. They can just have it be true. Yeah, yeah. That's not. I mean I don't know, maybe there is. I haven't actually read the Harry Potter books. I don't know if there's a chapter in it where some of them are going, you know that that hat just says whatever when you put it on and you just believe it because it's just basically he's just describing anyone you're not in really In Slytherin House, you know. Do you believe in that it your dream drink, George?

[George Egg]

So in Brighton there used to be a restaurant called Silo that has since moved to London.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[George Egg]

And I haven't been to it since it moved to London but when it was in Brighton when it first opened they had this drink. It was very hipster when it first opened it was toe curlingly hipster. You know it was like all the drinks were in recycled jam jars, that kind of thing. Thing. It was a bit like. But they had this drink called Elderflower Ebulis that was made apparently by a Brighton based fermenting. They make a lot of kombucha called the Old Tree Brewery and they don't do it anymore. But it was kind of. I don't really know what it was. It was sort of somewhere between homemade elderflower wine and beer. It was slightly kombuchary. It had a cake. It was probably about 5, 6% cloudy. Looked like, looked like pastis. Yeah, cloudy kind of greeny color. Heavenly.

[James Acaster]

And was that in a jam jar?

[George Egg]

It was served in a Jam jar, big one. And, yeah, it's heavenly. And then they stopped doing it. And then you could buy it from the Old Tree Brewery and now the Old Tree Brew stopped doing it.

[Amy Gledhill]

Disaster.

[James Acaster]

But in lockdown, for me to step in and ask them if they can put it.

[George Egg]

Yeah, but what did I do in lockdown?

[James Acaster]

You're right, you know, you had to snack. You made it.

[Amy Gledhill]

You made it.

[George Egg]

You made something.

[James Acaster]

1.

[George Egg]

I made a barrel of it.

[Amy Gledhill]

Wow.

[James Acaster]

Did it taste the same or better, or.

[George Egg]

It was close enough. It wasn't exactly the same. I didn't know how they did it, so I made. I basically followed a recipe for elderflower champagne is what it's called. And it's like the lazy way of doing it. So you just. You just mix sugar, elder. You basically make elderflower cordial and add yeast and then let it ferment so it's cloudy and it goes fizzy. And I did it in, like, a brewer's barrel, so it's got a valve on it so it wouldn't explode.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And for the first third of the barrel, it was quite sweet. And then it carried on fermenting, so by the end it was incredibly dry.

[Amy Gledhill]

Wow.

[George Egg]

And it knocked your socks off.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Egg]

Song's gone. And my son, who. God, how connected is this? Jem, who's designed the book, it's all his illustrations in there. He designed a label because we were idlers. Lockdown. So, yeah, things like that. He designed a label for the barrel, for the little circle on it that said. That said elderflower ebulis with our version.

[James Acaster]

Oh, that's great.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

You say now, I haven't thought about elderflower champagne for decades, where you said it just now. Look, my mum listens to every episode, so, Mum, you're have to text me and tell me if this memory is true or if I've made it up in my head. But my mum used to make elderflower champagne at home. I remember once being at home and then just hearing this, like a series of, like, really loud noises. And then in the garage, all the. All the tops are popping off the flower champagne so that the fizzer got too much inside the bottles.

[George Egg]

Was it just the tops or were there the actual.

[James Acaster]

Oh, the actual stuff was coming out of it. The glass didn't break, but, like, just the tops. Yeah, that's. That's a memory I have that my mum will have to text me and let me know.

[George Egg]

I think it's likely because that is definitely a thing. So the recipe that I followed was from a book Guy, a guy called John Wright, who's the sort of forager guy from River Cottage. And he. He writes so well, really recommend his books and he talks about making it the kind of cavalier way. And he's this lovely story about a guy who had made a load of elderflower champagne bottles. They were in his garage and he's in his shed and all but two of them exploded and he was so scared to go in there, he borrowed an air rifle off a friend to take the last two out. Isn't that great?

[James Acaster]

Your dream dessert, George. And I'm hoping, because I quite fancy something sweet at the minute and I'm hoping that it's something that, like, is nearby that I can. I can hack. I can hack. I can do a snack hack.

[George Egg]

Yeah. Can you see dessert from that? You're looking to the side.

[James Acaster]

Well, just. There's shops out there. I'm looking out the window.

[Amy Gledhill]

We're in a good area for food.

[James Acaster]

Though, so I like it. If there's a. If there's a sweet snack hack that George has got shot.

[George Egg]

It is. I mean, it is a snack hack, but it's. It's a. My mum snack hack. It's not something you could do now. You do it at home.

[James Acaster]

What? Because it's not PC.

[George Egg]

Versus the 80s.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[Amy Gledhill]

Finding the 80s.

[James Acaster]

You couldn't do this now. So for the listeners, this was when.

[George Egg]

Thatcher was in, I imagine. This is my mum's homemade brown bread ice cream.

[James Acaster]

Yes. Now you've done this on the channel.

[George Egg]

I've done it.

[James Acaster]

It always looks delicious. It reminds me of something. Someone did a similar thing for me once. It so good. I'm very glad you've picked this because you did it as an ice cream sandwich as well. At one point.

[George Egg]

I did it as. Yeah. Just to put a photo up. So in the. In the book.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

I keep saying in the book.

[Amy Gledhill]

You keep saying it quietly as well.

[George Egg]

Well, only because I feel like I don't want to be kind of going, oh, in the book this, in the book that. But you know what I mean, you're.

[Amy Gledhill]

Here to talk about the book as well.

[George Egg]

Yeah, but I mean, it's. It's.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, it's in the book.

[George Egg]

So my mom was not a very good cook at all. My dad did all the cooking. Pretty much all. Most of the cooking. But she did. She did two desserts, like dinner kind of dinner party, go to desserts. And one of them was awful. And it was this kind of. It's not really a trifle. So she'd get Maryland Cookies, soak them in sherry, and then they were sandwiched between whipped cream, almost like a caterpillar cake, and then covered in loads more whipped cream and then covered in Cadbury's flake, crumbled up.

[Amy Gledhill]

Okay, I'll say that. Now I want to eat it.

[George Egg]

I'd eat it.

[Amy Gledhill]

I would absolutely eat that.

[George Egg]

I did eat it. I ate loads of it. Of course I did. Little boy. But. But it was too heavy on the sherry.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You know, it was like. I like a bit of booze in the dessert, but when it's.

[James Acaster]

Are you a little boy when it overwhelms, to be fair.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

As a little boy, even now loving sherry.

[George Egg]

Even now, I like sherry.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

But I find if you've got. If you've got dessert that's too heavy on the alcohol. I find it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

My palette when it comes to desserts is quite infantile. I like. You know, I'm a milk chocolate guy.

[James Acaster]

And not a dark. Not a dark chocolate. Yeah, fair enough.

[George Egg]

Maybe even white chocolate. Blonde. Blonde chocolate. That's the new one, isn't it?

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, but.

[George Egg]

But, yeah. So that was one of the desserts and the other one was a brown bread ice cream. And then what I did is I thought was quite nice would be to make the brown bread ice cream and then make ice cream sandwiches with the marina cookies. So that then I'm kind of doing a lot.

[Amy Gledhill]

Oh, nice to her.

[George Egg]

Bad, bad dessert. But the brown. But ice cream that she used to make, it's such a simple recipe. It's basically just wholemeal bread crumbs, hazelnuts, and Demerara sugar, which you toast till it's crunchy. And then you make a meringue of egg white and sugar and fold that into whipped cream and then fold everything together and freeze it. And because it's whipped, it's stable, so it won't go crystally, like, you know, so you don't churn it and it's. It tastes like. It reminds me of the cornetto with the hazelnuts on, you know, the chocolate cornetto reminds me of that. It reminds me of the inside of the Ikea Diam cake. That slightly bready, sugary, you know? Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. I tell. What else it tastes like one of my favorite things. The Kinder Maxi King.

[Amy Gledhill]

Talk me through the Kinder Maxi King.

[James Acaster]

I think I know what you're talking about.

[George Egg]

King is. Hold on. Is it on the. Is it with the chocolate bars? No, I'm looking through the chocolate bars. Not there.

[James Acaster]

You can't remember, I'll tell you where it is.

[George Egg]

Yeah, it's in the fridge.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

But it isn't an ice cream. It's one of those in between.

[Amy Gledhill]

Right.

[George Egg]

So it's like a sort of whipped white, sort of sweet vanillary mousse covered in chocolate and hazelnuts. And then it looks like it's like a tiny surfboard. It's that shape and it's. And it's kept in the fridge and it's got a kind of core of caramel.

[Amy Gledhill]

I've got to get myself a Maxi King. Honestly, something we can get in the shop.

[George Egg]

Here's the thing.

[Amy Gledhill]

Okay, thanks.

[James Acaster]

Great, thanks.

[George Egg]

Best guess, they're not. And here's where you can get them. Supermarket in France.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, of course, of course.

[George Egg]

Occasionally you get them in the uk, but they're not common.

[James Acaster]

Well, congratulations to our French listeners who are going to be going out and getting a Maxi King right now.

[George Egg]

They're so good. I was, I was gonna bring Maxi Kings with me to give you all at the end, but I couldn't find them. And the shop that I was gonna do in Brighton was too far away from the station. It'd be too much of a detour. And there's something else I want to have with the dessert.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

If I may, as a drink with the desserts part of it.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

And it is the. Because it's just. Oh, my God. And it's another a. I don't know, maybe it's you. Maybe it was you through you recommendation in New York. From the milk. Is it just called milk? Yeah, was originally. But anyway, it's their cereal milk latte.

[Amy Gledhill]

I mean, all that. I've not had the latte. The cereal milk milkshake is still one of the best things I've ever had.

[George Egg]

Have you made their cereal milk?

[Amy Gledhill]

No, Very rarely do I make something.

[James Acaster]

You make stuff loads.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, but look, I should be doing more.

[James Acaster]

No, come on, don't. Don't beat yourself up.

[George Egg]

Their cereal milk is so easy to make. Here's a connection that I didn't know was going to happen. It's. You basically do what they did in Hong Kong.

[James Acaster]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

You pre melt the cereal.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. That must be what they were doing.

[George Egg]

So you do. What you do is you just.

[James Acaster]

Tourists will go in and take it off and before. Oh, we're making cereal milks lattes out of those stupid English. Oh, they're eating them again and they're complaining about them.

[George Egg]

I went to, then had the cereal milk latte and then the next day went into a Thrift shop and there's a load of books. And they're right. Like at eye level was the Mama Foku milk bar.

[James Acaster]

Yes, of course, that. Yeah.

[George Egg]

Bought a couple of dollars.

[James Acaster]

She worked there, didn't she? I didn't know that until I saw the Chef's table documentary. Yeah. So you would have the.

[George Egg]

I'd have the cereal. Milk latte. But the cereal by itself is heavenly. You toast. Yeah, Toast cornflakes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[George Egg]

Then put milk in, bit of brown sugar, and then the thing that makes it. It a little bit salt and it's just.

[Amy Gledhill]

And then you just let that steep. Do you.

[George Egg]

So you let that steep overnight. I think you toast. Yeah, you toast the cornflakes a little bit to just get a bit more out of them. Then you pour milk and then leave it. And then you. You push it through a sieve. The next day, put it back in the fridge.

[Amy Gledhill]

I'm gonna do that.

[George Egg]

And it's just. It's the best drink.

[James Acaster]

I'm gonna read your menu back to you now, George, and see how you feel about it. You would like sparkling water from Gran Canaria in a thin rimmed glass. Problems of bread. You would like the bread from E5 Bakehouse. Amuse bouche. You would like, like a bit of each past and present starter. You would like British Rail Microwave Burger circa 88. 89. With a can of stones. Better with your brother on a train. On a train.

[George Egg]

Leo.

[James Acaster]

Huh?

[George Egg]

Leo's there too, Your brother? No, that's my friend Leo. Henry's my brother, but Leo's there too. Leo came on the walking holidays.

[James Acaster]

Henry egg pastor. Casa Spitzel, case of Spatzler. Spatz. But then.

[George Egg]

I don't know.

[James Acaster]

But then did you decide on the.

[Amy Gledhill]

No, you decided on the smack in the smack.

[James Acaster]

So, pasta course. The smack. The bacon smack.

[George Egg]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

Main course, camping dinner. That's barbecued French sausage. Tin lentils. French beans cooked in cider with the potatoes. Tin potatoes, Dijon mustard. Dinner, Dinner side Edinburgh salad with John.

[George Egg]

Robbins, I guess, and Matthew Crosby.

[James Acaster]

No, Crosby was an afterthought. He's not there.

[George Egg]

It wasn't an afterthought. I was just. It was just further down the.

[James Acaster]

Drink. Elderflower aboulis with your little label on it. Or. No, you want it from the actual place. You want it from the original place.

[George Egg]

I don't mind if it's the one we made or. That was quite nice. The one we made. No, I love it from the place.

[James Acaster]

I'd like it from Silo.

[George Egg]

From Silo. Silo.

[James Acaster]

In the past and then dessert, Mum's brown bread ice cream and a cereal milk latte from Milk Bar.

[George Egg]

And we all have Maxi Kings.

[James Acaster]

Yes, yeah. And then you can dish out the Maxi Kings as well.

[Amy Gledhill]

Well, very strong.

[George Egg]

Chuck them like that.

[James Acaster]

Yeah, yeah, just chuck them like.

[Amy Gledhill]

Very, very strong.

[James Acaster]

That sounds very, very tasty. Tasty. I'd say, George, that that's a meal that I would enjoy more as it progresses.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes, same.

[George Egg]

What about the bit of each, though?

[James Acaster]

Surely you'd like that Bit of each, definitely.

[George Egg]

I think I. I'm. I'm thinking that the British Rail burger is the low point. But you don't have the memory.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

So, like, I don't know if we're. We've got stuff we've eaten on a train that would replace that.

[George Egg]

You must have something like rubbish, that is.

[Amy Gledhill]

I used to have the bacon rolls on that all the time. They had the same problem, but I think they're in plastic by the time I was eating them and they're soggy all the way through. But it's not a good memory.

[George Egg]

Have you got a food item you can think of that is like, that's rubbish. But is a good. That's like. I know this is awful, but it.

[James Acaster]

Reminds me of, you know, that's good, actually. That's a good one for the listener. If you can tweet us, tweet the off menu account and say if you've ever had something that you know is awful, but the memory makes it good. And the best one will get a signed chopping board from the great Benito.

[Amy Gledhill]

Thank you very much for coming to the dream restaurant, George.

[George Egg]

Thank you for having me.

[James Acaster]

Goodbye.

[Amy Gledhill]

Bye. There we are, James. The off menu menu of George Egg.

[James Acaster]

What a lovely man. What a lovely menu.

[Amy Gledhill]

What an exciting sounding book.

[James Acaster]

Yes, the Snack Hacker by George Egg.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes, get the Snack Hacker by George Egg. It's published on the 5th of June.

[James Acaster]

So many cool recipes in there. Porridge pot pancakes, Mushy pea hummus to name but two Cheesy cup noodle with egg yolk. And the photos in this and the illustrations are gorgeous.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes, his son did the illustrations.

[James Acaster]

Yes. Shout out to Gem.

[Amy Gledhill]

Shout out.

[James Acaster]

I don't know. Don't know what happened to my, my tongue there. I thought the guy was eating. Eating some snack hats, you say?

[Amy Gledhill]

Lovely menu. We gave him an easy ride on that train burger because it was attached to a nice memory. But that is disgusting, man.

[James Acaster]

It was absolutely disgusting. And then, you know, he didn't even hack it. Yeah, he didn't hack it. Disappointed, Georgia.

[Amy Gledhill]

But the rest of the menu sounded absolutely delicious.

[James Acaster]

You should all follow George Egg on Instagram. At George Egg. We are very impressed that he got that handle.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah. I can't believe he got George Egg. There must be.

[James Acaster]

Must be loads of people called George who love eggs.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

And thought, right, that's me. I'm the egg guy.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

I love eggs so much.

[Amy Gledhill]

My name's George.

[James Acaster]

My name's George. I'm gonna go for the handle George Egg because my surname's already been taken.

[Amy Gledhill]

What, the snack hacker.

[James Acaster]

That's that.

[Amy Gledhill]

The snack hacker. Surely.

[James Acaster]

But yeah, yeah. So at George Egg on Instagram and you'll get. I mean also like you got to go on YouTube and watch all the snack hacker videos.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah.

[James Acaster]

As well. I'm sure they're on Instagram too, and all over the place. But that's where I watch them.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

I watch them all, like all in a row. Before I know it, the whole day's gone. Because I've been watching. Those are snack hacks. And then I go and hack a snack.

[Amy Gledhill]

George did not say Snacker Jacks even though he's the snacker hacker.

[James Acaster]

And we are very glad that we didn't choose Egg, which was our original. Yes.

[Amy Gledhill]

Because he would have been gone straight.

[James Acaster]

Away and we've gone immediately with an amuse boosh. Which would have been very sad that.

[Amy Gledhill]

He'S select that he. That he put into them.

[James Acaster]

Can I please put this in here?

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, it might have been. Funny, man.

[James Acaster]

Funny.

[Amy Gledhill]

Actually, I do think we should have British Rail burger as a future secret ingredient.

[James Acaster]

Yeah. Add it to the list. Bonito. It's on there. I mean, imagine it being picked again. Joe. What? That person would absolutely deserve it.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yeah, they would.

[James Acaster]

We'll get his brother on. Yeah, we'll get his brother on. Kick him off. Also, like, yeah. If you ever see George Egg on a. On a comedy bill, you've got to go and see a Stand up too.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes, absolutely.

[James Acaster]

This guy's doing everything.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes. He's got a lot of stuff out there. Make sure you go and check George Egg out and buy his book. But for now it's goodbye from us.

[James Acaster]

Goodbye from us.

[Amy Gledhill]

Bye.

[James Acaster]

Bye. That's Ed and James.

[Amy Gledhill]

Yes.

[James Acaster]

Maybe from Benito as well. I don't know if he ever really knows. Shaking his head.

[Amy Gledhill]

No, not goodbye from Benito. Benito is always in your heart.

[Ed Gamble]

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[Paige Desorbo]

Hey, this is Paige Desorbo from Giggly Squad and this episode is brought to you by Nordstrom Summer's here and with weekend getaways, celebrations and more on your calendar, Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever, from playful prints and breezy fabrics to 70s inspired looks and bright handbags. Discover new arrivals from your favorite brands like Reformation, Veronica Beard, Farm, Rio Levi's and more. It's easy too, with free shipping and free returns in store order pickup and more. Plus NordicLub members enjoy free two day shipping on thousands of items in select areas. Shop today in stores [e-mail] this is Paige, the co host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over I have to order champagne. I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just uber eats it. The amount of times I've had to uber eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Ubereats. You can get grocery alcohol everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get Almost anything with UberEats. Order now for alcohol. You must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

[James Acaster]

Hello there Off Menu listeners.

[Amy Gledhill]

It's me, Amy Gledhill and you might.

[George Egg]

Remember me from my episode of Off.

[James Acaster]

Menu when I chose to have seaweed on mash. And I'll be taking no further questions. And my name is Ian Smith and you may remember me from the one line of dialogue I had in a non broadcast Channel 4 pilot. Maybe you were in the studio audience at the time. Who can forget? But that's not what we're here talk.

[Amy Gledhill]

About, no, nor the news.

[James Acaster]

Our podcast is coming back for series four and don't worry, it's not a boring News podcast. No way. We're two northerners living in London, and.

[Amy Gledhill]

Every week we catch up on the.

[James Acaster]

Weirdest, most bizarre local news from up north. Things like woman in tears after spotting.

[George Egg]

Spitting image of dead dog in bath mat.

[James Acaster]

Pure evil blackbird named Derek terrorizing Yorkshire village and attacking children. And we're joined by special correspondence every week. Week.

[Amy Gledhill]

Like you one and only Ed Gamble.

[James Acaster]

Who you might have heard of. You remember him from this podcast, the one you're listening to now? Yeah, he hosts it. Yeah, co host. He was on my episode of Off Menu. Was he?

[George Egg]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Acaster]

I think he was in the non Broadcast Channel 4 pilot I did as well. Oh, he will have been. He's a nice guy.

[George Egg]

That's Northern News out every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.