Ep 155: Taron Egerton

Hello, it's Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu Podcast.

Hello, it's James A.

Caster here from the Off Menu Podcast.

And before the episode starts, we'd like to talk to you about All Our Relations, a non-profit co-founded by your friend of mine, comedian Jen Brister, and Georgia Takax.

Yes, All Our Relations was originally started to support 15 families in Gaza when the genocide started, but now supports 21 families and funds several mutual aid projects, including two seven-day food kitchens and two mobile food parcel delivery schemes, as well, feeding hundreds of families in Gaza every single day.

They've created an absolutely amazing thing.

And we feel like, you know, it's the off-menu podcast.

We talk about food and we are very lucky to eat wonderful food and have access to absolutely brilliant food all of the time.

And I think we need to talk about people who have access to no food, James.

Absolutely.

So if people would like to donate, please go to allourrelations.co.uk or look at the links in Jen Brister's bio on Instagram.

Every penny raised go to supporting people in Gaza.

Thank you so much and enjoy the episode.

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Welcome to the Off-Menu podcast, beating the egg of conversation, grating in the cheese of humor, pouring into the pastry case of the internet, and baking for approximately an hour to make a lovely podcast quiche wow happy with that yeah very happy with that i i thought for a second there you were making an omelette i think i might have done omelette before that's the only reason

nice nice little left turn there it's a quiche yeah it's a quiche i don't think that's exactly how you make a quiche i think there's some other elements to it but hey you you know that you know that i don't know any better so yeah i believe you that said gamble my name is james a cassero this is the dream restaurant and we invite a guest every single week and we ask them their favourite ever start a main course dessert side dish and drink not in that order.

And this week, our guest is Taron Edgerton.

Tarren Edgerton, a wonderful actor.

A wonderful actor.

I love him in films such as Kingsman, Rocket Man.

Yes.

Eddie the Eagle.

Eddie the Eagle.

Oh.

The trailer to Eddie the Eagle genuinely made me emotional.

Very, yeah.

I thought it was such

a sweet story, anyways.

A true story.

And

rarely does a trailer get me in the feels, Ed.

And that's a hard thing to do with you because

you're an absolute rock, James.

I'm the tin man.

He's the tin man.

That's what everyone calls me.

The tin man.

The tin man.

You'd be a great tin man, actually.

Yeah, I would love it.

Paint your face out yourself, though.

You're halfway there, aren't you?

Yeah, you're a proper tin man.

Yeah.

Who would I be?

In Wizard of Oz?

Yeah.

Oh, I mean, there's not many...

There's not many handsome men in Wizard of Oz, is there?

Stop it, you.

So I don't really know.

Don't you know who you are?

I'd happily have a crack at the lion.

Energy-wise, I could have a bash at the lion.

I think Josh Willigan would get the lion.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

Yeah, Benny was pointing out that Josh would be the scarecrow.

That's probably true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the lion, I don't know.

Can I not be the lion?

Dorothy, maybe?

Can I be Dorothy?

Toto?

It could be little Toto.

This is another conversation where we cast films with the British Comedy Circuit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Which we just start up a new podcast.

Anyway, we are going to kick him out if he says a secret ingredient.

Am I right?

Yes, you are right, James.

There is a secret ingredient if Taron says it he's out on his ear which would be a shame because I think he's looking forward to this James.

He listens to the podcast.

He listens to the pod.

We're very excited to have him on.

It would be a shame to kick him off.

But rules and rules.

And this week, the secret ingredient is

Turkish,

but the chocolate bar.

But no, not the chocolate bar.

The chocolate bar is good.

Normal Turkish, the little cubes.

Wrong.

The little cubes.

I love the little cubes.

I used to go on holiday with my family to Cyprus a lot, and it was such a great day when we go to the Turkish Delight shop or this, I believe, Cypress Delight, they would call it.

Okay.

And buy the little, all different flavours.

The pistachio one, that's my favourite.

The worst, that's the worst one.

Open it up.

So delicious, and it's all covered in the icing sugar.

They're like travel sweets for the thinking man.

Right, well.

The first time I had Turkish Delight, I think it might have been the yellow one, maybe.

It was delicious, but very quickly don't like the Turkish Delight, but I do like the chocolate.

The chocolate bar is trash.

Chocolate bar's delicious.

Fries Turkish delight.

Yeah, why are you covering it in chocolate?

No need.

Absolutely delicious.

No need.

So either one of it says either one, he's out.

Either one,

but let's just say that, you know, the person who hates that particular type of Turkish delight is the one who has to kick him out.

Okay, perfect.

So that's a good deal.

Yeah, yeah.

Well done.

Well, hopefully you won't say it anyway, because we're looking forward to meeting him.

Taran is also in a very new exciting TV show on Apple TV Plus called Blackbird, James.

A psychological thriller.

I like psychological thriller.

Me too, me too.

Because you can use your head and your heart.

You're thrilled.

You're emotionally thrilled, but your head is going, oh,

I'm in this as well.

Yeah.

They're making me think.

So do watch Blackbird and you have a think and overscare.

Yes.

And this is the off-menu menu of Taron Edgerton.

Welcome, Taron, to the Dream Restaurant.

Thank you for having me.

I'm very pleased.

Welcome, Taron Edgerton, to the Dream Restaurant.

We've been expecting you for some time.

Here he is.

He went big for you today, I think.

I felt it.

I felt the sound effect.

I felt the rush of air as you manifested.

What did you visualise?

Well, what did you see?

Tell her this is what you saw.

You, but with a sort of small cloth wrap in a sort of wide front shape.

When you say a cloth wrap.

Kind of like, I suppose like an old-fashioned nappy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like a nappy.

Let's just say what it is.

It was kind of like a nappy.

Yeah.

I wear a nappy for it.

Yeah.

For a meal.

Like you would wrap cheese in in the old days, sort of like cheesecloth, sort of cheese.

Exactly.

Yeah.

With the sort of string, the metal string, swinging around his head.

It'd be quite good to wear a nappy during a meal.

You'd never have to leave.

The table.

Well, you'd never have to loosen your belt, would you?

No.

You could just expand

with the nappy.

Never see a baby loosening its belt, do you?

Imagine that.

Oh, God, sorry.

Yeah, because I suppose all my knowledge of nappies, really, as a childless man come from the adverts where you always see there's a sort of elasticated flex bit.

Yes.

So they do they do grow with

the baby.

Do you look at that and see?

That's almost like the baby gets full.

Yeah, right, right.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I always visualise a nappy sort of moving around on its own, you know, because they show the absorbent qualities without the baby.

Yeah, sure.

So it sort of does like a little ballet pirouette thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So maybe, do you think since you're a genie, perhaps your nappy could do that as well?

Oh yeah, I'd have a magical nappy that moves around on its own.

So what?

So does it fly off you?

Yep.

A bit like Doctor Strange's cape.

Yeah.

Oh, exactly like Doctor Strange's cape.

Yeah, yeah.

And it can fight my battles for me sometimes and help me.

I'm so excited at that idea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, because I was about to say, because

my brain went to just like, when you said move around on its own, because I'm a genie, I thought about the carpet in Aladdin, but Doctor Strange's cape is a much better reference.

It's more 2022, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I really like that.

Why would you want a nappy that flies off on its own?

That's the last thing you want a nappy to do, though, right?

If anyone ever attacks me, the nappy can defend me that's a good thing.

You can foil your foes with it.

Yeah.

But would it be soiled?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some of them would jump out.

Some of them would jump out.

I would be scared, soil myself, and then the nappy would be like,

would you preserve your modesty as it's flying around?

No, I would like, you've got to use everything available to you to distract them and to get in their heads if they're attacking you.

So I've got to have my boy out and like, you know.

Although, I I would, from the other perspective, I would say that if I was being attacked by a magical soiled nappy, I don't have time to look at someone's crotch.

No, you'd just be running for the hills.

I'd be running for the hills, just batting the nappy away.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or it'd be wrapping around your face, you childless man.

Yeah.

How I'd refer.

I didn't know I'd start referring to himself as that now.

Well, I just, it's, I just wanted to let everyone know why I know about it like that.

You were setting the saplings.

I was setting the saplings.

Yes.

Childless man.

You're a childless man.

Yeah, I'm a childless man, but I don't don't go around telling everyone making my identity that's not my identity my identity within the world of nappies childless man yes childless childless man very much a childless man yeah three childless men four actually if you count bonito which people rarely do yeah yeah yeah yeah

bonita's got a puppy now though

have you what sort of dog we've got two of those you got two cockapoos you got the same dog as bonito yeah they i mean they're amazing but they're so they're they're full they're full on Very lonely.

Oh, bad luck.

I think that's what Benito's finding.

He's getting, he's not getting much sleep at the moment.

Considered a nappy?

Perhaps a nappy that could take them for walks.

Yeah, that would be good.

The broader strange.

Bro, James is nappy.

Yeah, I'll lend you my nappy, Benito.

Take the little cockapoo for a walk anyway, so cut all this out.

Anything to do with him doesn't go in.

Cockapoo's your special move with a nappy, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, great.

No, you've got to keep it.

That's a great joke.

That brings everything to you.

Either way you look it.

Would you consider yourself a foodie, Tamar?

I feel like there are two sides to my nature.

There's the sort of the side of me that appreciates nice food, well constructed, with lots of thought put into it.

And I do like to cook a little bit.

But then there's the other side of me that's a kind of disgusting, gluttonous gannet that sort of doesn't really care what it is.

It's more just about volume.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Oh, yeah.

So I feel like a foodie kind of makes me think of somebody who's really quite academic and measured in what they do and i wouldn't say that that's me all of the time but i think i think the gannett feeds into the foodie as well i think that's the part of it well in which case maybe yeah i mean i think about food all the time

all the time and oscillate between being someone that eats quite well and someone that really really doesn't eat well is that because acting you have to eat well i think it depends what you're doing last year i i played a part where i had to be in good shape so i had to think about it for quite a long period of time.

And it was hard.

It's really, really hard.

Yeah.

And boring.

And boring how much you think about it, because if you think about it all the time, it means you talk about it all the time and no one cares.

And if you're eating that healthily, you must be thinking about the other stuff that you just you want to eat all of the time.

Yeah.

I've done like periods of eating very healthily.

I'm on a downward slope now.

I'm just eating whatever I like, which is beautiful.

But do you do the thing of watching YouTube videos or thinking about everything you want to eat or looking at menus online when you're eating healthily?

So, what you watch people eat the foods that you wish you could eat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When he's reading menus online, he texts me to tell me that he's doing it.

I'm going to join in with it.

Really?

Yeah.

You bring James into your fantasy.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I've got to do it.

You've got to legitimize them.

How does your wife feel about that?

She's fine with it.

She has fancy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She gave us long ago.

She doesn't want me to call her at the through and go, look at this menu.

Yeah.

All right, are we going to go there?

No, I can't.

I've got to tell James about it.

Have you ever gone online just to read a menu?

I don't think, probably not without intending to go and eat there, I don't think.

And sometimes I feel like that's cheating as well, because I feel like it's quite nice to get to a place and share in the moment of opening the menu.

Do you know what I mean?

And I sometimes feel like when I get there and someone said, oh, I've already looked at the menu, I feel like it's the kid who flicked to the back of the Order of the Phoenix.

Do you know what I mean?

And goes, I don't know what happened.

And I sort of go, well, you're just a,

I don't know if I can swear, but it's annoying, isn't it?

You can swear.

You can swear.

Yes, I am.

Yeah, yes.

Because you've subverted

what everybody else is doing.

I see what you mean.

Because

I do do that.

And I'm the guy being like, no, you're not.

Well, quite a bit of judgment, actually.

Yeah, yeah, but fair.

Well, they do.

Apparently, this is an amazing thing they do here.

And I've looked at the menu and they have that today, so we should definitely order that.

I do that.

And that is like you've cut out a whole portion of the evening.

Well, yeah, it's part of

the ritual, isn't it?

I think.

But there's something quite nice about getting there and having that moment of because it's so much about communion, isn't it?

And you know,

I've got a very close relationship with my family.

We've always cooked together, and there's something very sort of social about it.

I do buy into that the whole Jamie Oliver school of it being the time to be together.

And I think going out and looking at a menu is kind of an extension of that.

Yeah, I like that.

I think you're right.

I like that.

I'm going to stop looking at menus online now.

Yeah.

Really?

And are you going to stop telling everyone that Sirius Black dies?

No way, man.

No way.

Every meal, that's how it starts.

The thing is, I think enough people listen to this podcast that that will have ruined it for someone.

Yeah.

Some of them go, what the f- Ed sits down at the start of every meal and he goes,

Benatrix La Strange kills him.

She pushes him through a curtain.

Yeah, she really mumps it in everyone's face as well.

Dobby's dead and we're having the pork.

Still a sparkling water tavern so i thought about this and i think on this occasion i'm going still okay i like sparkling water for the same reasons everybody else does it feels like a sort of uh like a gentler cousin of champagne doesn't it it feels like an event yeah you know it sort of somehow feels like it should cost 10 times the amount of still water even though it's just had some gas put pumped through it

but i think when you come to the dream restaurant you need to be thinking about the amount of food you can cram inside yourself and I know there's magic at play and the normal rules of physics don't apply but the association of drinking sparkling water I think will make me feel fuller yeah quicker and I want to bed into the experience and make sure that I've got a real cavernous empty space that I can just fill with all the foods I enjoy so I'm going still I think that's very that's sound logic oh totally sound logic and I love to hear about sparkling water being the gentler cousin of champagne.

Do you know what I mean though?

It still feels like an event.

I'm imagining a gathering of the Fizzy family now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the bit of a family tree.

It's very, very, very, very mild manners.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very non-committal when it comes to opinions about things that are happening in the world.

Whereas champagne is like, oh, I've got so many things to say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's champagne.

Okay, sounds like a nightmare.

In the Fizzy family tree, then, like, where are you putting ginger beer?

In relation to champagne.

I feel like a sort of...

I'm sorry,

ginger beer.

Like,

maybe like

an older uncle who sometimes says things that aren't entirely appropriate.

Yeah.

But he's really well-meaning.

Yeah, yeah.

And

it's just a product of another time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, you know, you'd probably have a moment to think before you invited him to every

family event.

Yeah.

the like, are you thinking fiery ginger beer in particular?

Exactly that.

Yeah, yeah.

He loses his head sometimes, but just a bit, he just gets a bit overexcited.

He doesn't get out much.

Yeah, yeah.

You know?

Doesn't.

No.

Yeah, he's a bit dusty back on the shelf.

A little bit.

And when he gets there, do you know there's those people in your life?

There's people in your life you've not seen for ages and your heart rate doesn't change when you see them.

And it's lovely and it's like a true friend.

But you know, there are those people in your life where you see them and you go,

okay, all right, here we go.

And you just have to slightly adjust.

and they're probably the people in your 30s you gently maybe don't see as much of i feel like uncle ginger beer yeah maybe one of those people you want to name names

it's probably best i don't

does champagne have any children or is it a childless drink um

well so when i was a little boy i remember that my great-grandmother who we i called nin she used to she used to she used to call it was very strange she used to call me sailor and when everybody else was having a drink at Family Dues or whatever, she'd always give me like sparkling grape juice.

A bit like, what's that thing that

they get out at Christmas with people who don't drink?

Schler.

Schler.

So it wouldn't have been.

Oh,

this might be the first schler mentioned on the podcast.

You love schler, right?

I love schler.

It's hilarious.

So I suppose maybe.

I mean, she wouldn't have given me schler.

It would have been like a sort of, you know, a Safeway's own version of an off-brand shlch.

Off-brand, yeah.

but i feel like that could be a child of champagne yeah sort of

the innocent version of champagne yeah little sort of cute champagne little come and drink me that's not going wrong yeah yeah i think schler is

schler is so funny yeah every time

it barely rarely comes up that people have got schler but when they bring it up in fact they have to say it so we have schler if you're like

what the hell is schler about yeah there is a benefit to schler though because as much as i like champagne like most people do

my mouth tastes of arse after

do you know what it's so horrible the breath champagne gives people

so for that reason alone I think schler's worth a punt popped up sore bread pop alums or bread Tammy Edgerton pop alums or bread okay poppadums yeah yeah pop a dumbs go that really that did frighten it you knew it was coming yeah you knew it was coming and he's getting better at now we're back in rooms with people yeah you're right you are getting better at sneaking up on people and also get better when i know that the person has listened before so therefore expects it.

And I was like, right, you know, I've made it feel like we're talking about Schlur for a while, which I wanted to, by the way.

So I've kind of like, you know,

annoyed myself there.

Just cut the Schler conversation.

No, but it was good because it was offbeat.

It was very, it was a jazz attack.

Yeah, yeah.

I wanted to ask Karen if Nin called anyone else Sailor or if it was just you.

Oh, yeah.

As far as I can remember, that was a detail that we let slightly.

As far as I can remember, it was just me.

Yeah.

But I remember at the time it making me feel like a rock star.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Little boy.

Yeah, little boy bottom Schler.

sailor yeah

there it comes the sailor exactly um

the schlaler yeah the schlala doesn't quite work but you know we'll watch that schlerler schlerler yeah

that's much better we love that we have that

so the re the reason i've just i've opted for pop because popadoms i do every time i listen to the show i do think there is something really incongruous about having poppadoms if the if if the rest of your meal isn't centered around indian food sure but mine is ah Oh.

So

I am going to have popadoms with mango chutney, raita, all that, lunch hilly,

all that good stuff.

Yeah.

That's good.

And I was trying to think, is that, because when I was thinking about it, I was trying to figure out, is there a posh version of poppadoms that makes me sound like I'm a culinary kind of whiz?

Do you know what I mean?

That I've eaten somewhere really interesting.

But I do slightly feel that once you've had one pop-adom, you've had them all.

Well, they do the spicy ones sometimes.

You go somewhere that's plain or spicy.

I prefer the plain.

I think I do as well.

I do.

And I also, my favourite use of a popadom is not the sort of, not the crack and snap and dip, the classic move.

I like to take a whole popadom,

smush it in my hands, and then crumble it over a curry.

Oh, okay.

So you're using it as a condiment more than anything, really?

Yeah, a bit like a sort of substitute for fried onions, you know, something to give it a bit of texture, a bit of crunch so i'm gonna have popadoms instead of bread and i'm gonna keep a little bit back for for the crumble for my mat for the crumble yeah but you are eating a little bit of it just in the traditional popadum style yeah absolutely yeah you're saving some i'm keeping it real versatile i'm gonna use it as the traditional sort of you know take a little square and nibble but then also crumble crumble it on like a sort of garnish like a crispy garnish i've seen people do the crispy garnish and i do respect it every time do you yeah it takes quite a lot of bravery to take a hot because it's a big old thing.

You can't do it discreetly and it makes a big noise.

So I feel like if you've got to do it, you've got to own it.

Yeah.

You've got to sort of act like you're Brian Blessed or something.

Especially if you're quite a quiet Indian restaurant as well, like late night where there's not many other people in there.

Yeah.

There's sort of soft, soft music playing in the background.

And then suddenly...

Yeah, exactly.

I always wonder

when I listen to this show

who the other guests are.

Well, this is up to you.

Look, this is your dream meal.

If you want to be eating alone, fine.

If you want other guests in there, fine.

Well, I sort of always imagine that it's kind of like the background cast of the movie Disney's Robin Hood, you know, sort of animals dressed up in kind of medieval costumes and in larks.

But the background cast, you don't want the main players.

Absolutely not.

I don't want anyone to pull focus.

Background cast of the animated Robin Hood, who are animals dressed

and they're all doing

slightly the same thing over and over again, you know,

the same sort of action on feet in the hope that you won't know.

It's such an actor that you have extras in new restaurants and no one pulls focus.

No other stars in here, please.

Yeah, yeah.

No foxes.

I know a few stars that you wouldn't invite to dinner.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

Helena Boncarter.

Daniel Radcliffe.

Gary Newman.

Yeah.

Gary Newman.

Gary Holdman.

Gary Newman was not in any of the Harry Potter franchise films.

But they would all ruin it for you, wouldn't they?

They'd turn up and tell you what happens at the end of Order of the Phoenix.

Yeah, I suppose so.

Yeah, so you can't miss it.

You can't risk that.

What specific animals?

Any specific background animals?

It makes me think of...

I think of a...

perhaps like an alligator blowing a long trumpet.

Yeah, okay.

Does that conjure an image of that?

And that's not going to pull focus?

Yeah, that's going to come hard.

That's going to drown out the conjunction of the pop-a-dums at least.

No, because I can get...

Oh, poppa-dums!

Are you pre-arranging with the alligator?

I was going to get him to mine.

But actually what I might do is get him to toot every time I crunch a pop-up.

That's a great idea, yeah.

That's a really good idea.

That would work in so many situations.

Where you have an alligator following your animal.

Whenever you farted, mate.

Whenever you farted or...

Like in some Japanese toilets, you can play music that's supposed to cover up the sound of you going to the toilet if you're like any line of cubicles.

Wow.

So instead, you could take the alligator to...

And what would you do?

Would you give him a signal?

Would you give him a wink?

I think he'd know.

He's got got to be watching.

He's got to have his eye on that part.

I think he's in the game.

Well, that's what he's being paid for.

Are you paying him or is he...

You must be paying him.

Not initially.

Right.

And we'll see how he does.

So he has a sort of phase where he's...

Well, what's his motivation for doing it in the first place?

Not initially.

It's not a good job, man.

How's he earning a living?

Well, it's not a good job.

He's not getting bloody paid, is it?

He does a good job.

But by worth, I'm going to get paid for this.

Yeah.

Alligators are living creatures too, as well, you know.

Yeah, all right, fine.

Yeah.

All right, I'll give him a quid or something.

A quid for every trump.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, that's a lot of money, actually.

Yeah.

If you've ever been around Ed.

Most of the editing Benito has to do is getting rid of Ed's flatulence.

Every time he cuts to the little music in between the sections.

That's a fart.

Yeah.

There's no editing there.

That's just, we're still sat here and I've just done a really long fart.

Also, Ed's farts are extra loud because every time he does them, he goes, oh,

like that as well.

He goes, oh!

Yeah, because then it's taken by surprise.

I'm always scared by them.

Yeah, and he gets really surprised by them, don't you?

Surprised and slightly excited by alligating.

Yeah,

the sensation he wasn't expecting.

Every time it's a new sensation.

Yeah.

So

actually, I'd have to pay the alligator quite a lot of money, I think.

This would be a lot of work.

If I had a quill every time, I'd gamble fasted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'd be an alligator with a drum.

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A starter, your dream starter.

Yeah, okay.

So I was torn between two things.

But I decided on there's a there's a there's a restaurant in Soho called social eating house do you know

and the the the chef there is a guy called Paul Hood and it's actually last time the last few times for the past couple years it's not been on the menu but he used to do this thing and I think it was kind of a signature thing he did and it was called mushrooms in a bag do you have that

and he sort of brings out or someone from his his team brings out um a little toast rack with pieces of really nice i think sourdough toast with a kind of mushroom pate smeared on the top of it.

Spread is probably a nicer word when you're eating it.

But then also he brings out a bag of mushrooms that have been steamed in a kind of little folded plastic bag that they cut open in front of you.

And then you put the mushrooms on the toast, chop it up and eat it.

And it's got a really nice amount of theatre to it that it doesn't feel, it's not like, you know, when someone brings out something that's on fire or you've got a crack into it and there's five layers and it just sort of all of a sudden hits a different part of your brain from the food bit.

There's just a really nice little bit of theatre to this, and you will take a piece from the middle, and it's just lovely, and it's completely delicious.

But

he took it off the menu.

I've not been in a couple of years, actually, and I don't know why he did that, but it's amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

It sounds amazing.

It sounds like that sort of thing you're looking for as well, that communal

sort of fun thing.

You're all getting involved and you're all doing something.

Yeah, I really like food that's not.

Like, I've had meals that have been, you know, really intricate and things that have got incredible sort of craftsmanship in the construction of them.

And it's a really nice experience, but I don't like it as much as I like everyone mucking in, get involved, you know, lots of people sploshing stuff around.

Do you know what I mean?

On a Saturday night.

Do you know what I mean?

A bit of a like a splosh, a sploshy dinner.

I prefer a sploshy dinner.

Yeah, yeah.

Like the best meal

I've ever had was Long Klume.

And before we started recording, we were talking about the trip.

And that's where I saw that.

And I thought, I've got to go and try that place.

And I went.

and it was the best meal it was incredible but I wouldn't want it every day yeah do you know what I mean it's a special occasion it's a really special occasion it's like the kind of thing I think you do once every few years to celebrate a special occasion or something but yes back to mushrooms in a bag it's just got a real wholesome loveliness to it but it's it's it's just phenomenally delicious and if it's not on the menu and he's listening he should definitely bring it back because it's the Jason Atherton restaurant right he's got a few I think it is yeah yeah yeah I have been there because he's got a pizza place as well I I think, that he opened somewhere.

Yeah, I think

he's got Little Social as well, which is across the road.

Right.

And the bar upstairs, which is called the pig or something, the blind pig.

Is it the blind pig?

Yeah, it is.

It's a good name for you because you can't really see it up there.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that restaurant is phenomenal.

I've not had the mushrooms in a bag.

That sounds great.

I never had that.

Also, all the backbone animals are going to be excited when they hear Paul Hood's in the kitchen.

I thought they're going to be great.

We know your cousin.

We know your gentle cousins.

I don't know.

Paul Hood sounds like the gentleman of cousins, actually.

I think Paul Hood's the gentleman.

Paul Hood's the gentleman, making mushrooms in the back.

Robin Hood, I think.

Robin the rich and giving to the poor.

Yeah, Robin, he's got good intentions, but he's full on.

Yeah, yeah.

He's put the gentleman.

I actually think Robin Hood would be one of those people, if I saw them at a family gathering, I'd be like, oh, here we go.

Yeah, oh, no.

He's going to bang on about about how from the rich altruistic he is and yeah yeah yeah he'd be a nightmare on Twitter that bloat he would he would he would he'd get a lot of hate yeah yeah it wouldn't go well for him for all the nice things he's doing or or for the virtue signal

virtue signals

I think I've been there once social media house very nice and um I keep on like it's one of the it's the I'd say it's the main place that I've been turned away from the most amount of times times.

Because I just haven't learnt that you should book a head and I chance my luck every time.

It's nice that

they do really nice things with bread.

They do little, again, communal, you can buy like a jar of something and they do a coleslaw which has got truffle in it and it's really, it's like the

carrot and the, it's cabbage, isn't it?

It's all really chunky and it's just amazing and really rich and fatty and lovely.

And they bring a little basket of bread or I think they might bring a loaf of bread and you sort of tear bits off and scoop bits out and then they do a I think they do a pate as well or duck roulettes I think is the name they do yeah and they're really nice you can you can buy a couple of them for the table and then you all muck in and share and get back there what kind of mushrooms are they in the in the bag have you got button mushrooms or are they the ones no they're the ones that look mad no it's one of the one of the

i know exactly what you mean yeah yeah totally i'm not sure it might be a little mixed but certainly more more more of a foragey vibe i think wild wild mushrooms i think so

yeah the ones that look mad The ones that look mad.

That's what you want.

It's the ones where

the ones that feel a bit dangerous.

Yeah, they all look different.

You know, they kind of like got that quite a meaty quality to them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The ones that look like a big trumpet.

The ones that look like a big trumpet.

The alligator.

Yeah.

It's straight in there.

Get out of the bag.

Stop popping on my mushroom.

Yeah.

That's not covering up my farts.

And you're not,

just to be clear, you're not crunching up your popping arm over this.

No, no, I don't.

Would you be tempted?

Because it's sat there.

It's ready to be crushed.

No, because I think the bread is toasted really nicely.

So I feel like the different textures are all pretty well figured out.

Whereas, not to say I'm reinventing the curry or anything, but I do think

there is a level of elevation to putting a pop-adom on a curry.

I think it gives it an extra dimension of crunch.

Whereas

the, it might even be called seps in a bag or something fancy.

Oh, okay, yeah.

That I feel like they've got it pretty well figured out.

I think it needs augmentation.

Nice.

Yeah, that's the thing in those kind of plates.

Like, if you went to Longclum or something like that, you wouldn't be adding stuff to you.

You wouldn't be going.

No.

I'll tell you what this needs.

No.

Who's got that hot sauce?

You've got hot sauce in your bag?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm a bit like that with mayonnaise.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Big jar of Hellman's.

You know, people like, I think, particularly in America, certain parts of America, they'd have a little bottle of hot sauce in the bag.

Yeah.

I'd love my own bag just for a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise.

Maybe purpose-built, you know, in the same way.

What short you're putting it on?

Putting it probably like a leather belt or something.

I mean, but what food are you putting it on?

I prefer your answer, Motan.

I really prefer.

You're so into it.

You've got a leather belt.

A leather belt that's just a jar.

Just a jar, just a jar.

A bit like I'm off to catch frogs or something.

Yeah, you're at the hotel.

Maybe with a couple of little side sections, perhaps for like a, maybe an maybe a butter knife.

Yeah.

And then also perhaps some anti- you know, like surface wipes so that I can just wipe it off.

So I'm not putting a mayonnaise knife back in the

makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you're gonna go to that level, you might as well really think it through and bring it together.

Maybe a little golden mayonnaise spoon or something.

I've got one of them.

I've got a golden teaspoon on a chain that I can put around my neck.

Yeah, that's for ice cream, though.

It's for ice cream.

Yeah.

Yes, you've got an ice cream thing, haven't you?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, that does look like a Coke thing, though, right?

Yeah, everyone told me that.

Like, I got given it for Christmas.

It was a callback to something that, to the Jason Reitman episode, I think.

Yeah.

Which I'd forgotten about because it had been so long since we've recorded it.

So my mum got it for me.

I was like I don't know what well I've been giving this

and she had to tell me about my own podcast and now yeah I've got it hanging up in my kitchen I remember that I listened to that one that's the he directed ghostbusters right

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so I can uh I can use that spoon now yeah nice but so maybe for your Christmas you're gonna be only getting

a mayo belt maybe yeah I do like the idea of the leather crossbody I know but instead of the bag it's just a massive jar of Hellman's like quite a hobbit-y vibe yeah do you know what I mean yeah a bit like you should be walking around with furry bare feet with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And a sort of quizzical look.

It's not like a Robin Hood vibe either.

No, yeah.

No, no.

No, exactly.

Well, that's the sort of more.

Well, you could sort of flip it around, couldn't you?

Yeah.

And then it would feel quite rock and roll like it's a quiver.

Yeah.

Mayonnaise in a quiver, would you consider?

I think it depends if you've got the right utensil to be able to easily access it.

If perhaps if you had a big long spoon, then you could sort of do the action of removing it from the quiver and scoop it out and put it straight in your mouth.

Yeah.

I mean, that'd be good.

Yeah, I'm devil into that.

It's like you're grabbing an arrow and then it's just a spoon.

But you'd have to put the spoon in the jar already.

Yeah,

definitely, yeah.

So that you're reaching back like an arrow, you're pulling it, the spoon out,

eating it, and then you put it back into the jar.

So maybe more like a ladle because

of the angle that it's entering in.

Because otherwise, you're flicking mayonnaise over everything.

Otherwise, it's a disaster.

You're going to piss off the other guests in the restaurant.

The other case is catching an eye full.

The other gate is quick.

That's a disaster, yeah.

My eyes.

First off, the other gate.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

This isn't worth a quid every 10 minutes.

But yeah, what food do you put it on?

Oh, yeah, sorry.

I mean, I'll put it on quite a lot.

I mean, if it's, if I've, if it's like, say I'm hungover and I'm having a curry, I mean, I'll introduce mayonnaise to a curry.

Ah, yeah.

Wow.

Or I'll put it on.

I mean, people who don't put mayonnaise on pizza drive me up the wall.

What?

Hold on a second.

So I.

Yeah, no,

I know what you mean, actually.

People who don't put jam on a burger annoy me,

Tara, you can't pitch that as a universal cry.

No, I can't.

Are you sure these people?

I can't.

The history books are full of people everyone said was mad until they invented the light bulb or something.

Sure, yeah.

It tastes similar.

It's exactly like that.

You know, if you've got a pizza, particularly I feel if it's like a frozen pizza that's a bit uninspiring, if you take a big old dollop of mayonnaise from a jar and you just spread it on top like butter over a crumpet,

I promise you, it's going to take that thing to the next level.

You've got to just expand the way you're thinking because the components are the same as a sandwich.

It's bread, it's a tomato sauce, it's meat, it's veg.

It's all the same thing.

It's just in a slightly different form.

And you would never go, you're putting mayonnaise on a sandwich, you heathen.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

But listen.

I'm open to the idea.

I like that you do it.

I think the issue that we had is people who don't put mayonnaise on a pizza pizza do beheaded.

Because that's everybody except you, Tarant.

Okay, all right.

Okay.

Well, perhaps I may have been a little bit overzealous in the introduction of the idea, but

I would encourage everyone to try it.

So when you're preparing for a film role and being healthy, it's pretty easy.

You just cut out mayonnaise slab of pizzas.

Yeah, that's the way I lose the first story.

Because I like a, you know, when you're ordering a pizza and sometimes you can get dips and stuff.

And sometimes you'll be able to get like a sriracha mayo or something like that to dip the crusts.

I love that.

And then I thought, maybe tarot means like a drizzle all-round.

Like, you know, sometimes you'll do that as well.

You'll do that.

But at no point did I expect you to say you're getting the mayo and you're spreading it over the full surface of the pizza, like an extra topping.

Like, and I do quote, a crumpet.

Yeah.

I mean, it really, it does depend in what mode I'm in.

But yeah, if I'm, if I'm, if I'm really going for it, yes, that's perfectly possible.

Is that, is that that's hangover food, right?

That's hangover food.

You know, when it feels like tomorrow is never going to come anyway, so it doesn't matter.

And then inevitably Monday morning does come and you feel disgusting.

And not only are you still hungover, you've had a mayonnaise covered crumpet pizza.

Exactly.

And you're wondering why you've sat in your flat alone.

We did a pizza collab with Yard Sale Pizza.

Oh, nice.

I'm looking.

You'll be getting a call from them soon.

Do you think?

Maybe develop a pizza-purpose

mayonnaise.

I think it would be good of them to do the option for all their pizzas.

That if you want, you can go Tamron.

Right, right, right.

So like, yeah, do you want that Tamron?

Yeah.

Yeah, Tarran style?

Yeah, yeah.

Tamman style, and then they spread the mayo on it.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out if that's great or tough.

Yeah.

Do I want that to be my legacy?

I feel like you've got other stuff that you can consider as part of the legacy.

I don't think this will completely eradicate everything you've brought up until now.

A corner of...

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sure.

It'll be a subsection on Wikipedia.

Right, right.

But it'll be at the bottom.

Wow.

Tammany's or whatever.

Tamaranese.

Yeah, it's good.

Tamana's pizza.

I would be interested in developing my own mayonnaise.

That is something that I'd be proud of.

Yeah, absolutely.

Your own mayonnaise.

Maybe it was like interesting Welsh eggs or something.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Interesting Welsh Egg Mayonnaise.

Interesting Welsh Egg Mayonnaise.

That's a great name.

Interesting Welsh Egg Mayonnaise.

We've got Taranaise.

That's in the bank.

At the very least, it could be the album name for my first album.

Yeah.

Interesting Welsh Egg Mayonnaise.

Yeah, yeah.

That's quite, I mean,

pretty experimental, that album.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Your legacy is absolutely signed and sealed now.

Do you think?

You've got it.

The mayonnaise, the album.

Congrats.

All the films, obviously.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Shot.

Your dream main course.

Now, we kind of already know what this is going to be in a way.

Yeah.

Edge, do you want to guess what kind of curry we're talking here?

I think it might be on the spicier side,

simply because you're saying when you're hungover, you might add mayonnaise to it.

I don't think anyone, no matter how hungover someone was, surely not adding mayonnaise to a corner.

No, no, because that's too rich, isn't it?

Yeah.

Well, hold on.

We're guessing.

Okay, you're guessing.

All right, okay.

This is a perfect guessing game.

Okay.

Lambuna.

Now, lamb.

I'm thinking of going down the lamb route as well.

But I was thinking maybe like lamb gel frazier lamb madrasse.

Oh, we did all right.

We did all right.

I don't think that's bad going at all.

What led you both to lamb then?

Racism.

Yeah.

Yeah, fair enough.

Okay.

That was why.

Yeah, I'm not.

No, fair enough.

Also, I would personally go for lamb.

Yeah, I think that I would probably, most of the time, I'll just go for chicken curries.

But I do think if it's a special meal, if someone's picking it as their dream mate, I'd expect, because I think lamb curries, when done well, are the nicest.

Absolutely, yeah.

But difficult, but easy to screw up as well.

Well, I agree.

And I think it ties into what you said about putting mayonnaise on a cormer.

I think the thing about having lamb in a curry is it totally depends on what the base of your sauce is.

Because I think...

Like, having a cream-based source for a lamb curry is, I think, quite a lot because the meat is, like, if you use use shoulder, quite fatty.

So, the specific curry that I'm thinking of is one that I cook, and also my mum and my stepdad cook.

And what's lovely about it is it's all done from scratch, but it kind of comes up different every time, you know.

And there's something really lovely about that.

It feels like it's sort of constantly in flux, and you're not constantly reaching for some sort of precision dish that you get tired of because it always comes up a bit different depending on how many chilies you use, what type of chilies, whether they're fresh or dried.

But the one I'm thinking of, I have to say,

that's something that I would do if people were coming over to the flat or whatever, but I'm specifically imagining one cooked by my mum, obviously.

And it's really, really, really gorgeous.

It's the kind of thing you cook over sort of three hours, probably.

And it's

like a blended onion base with chopped tomatoes.

So you fry up spices with the onions.

I know chili and garlic with the onions.

And then you fry the meat in the spices.

And then you introduce both to each other and sort of slow cook it over a few hours and it's really really good yeah that sounds very nice is there a specific time where you were like oh that's my favorite version of this that you want at this dream meal or will you take whatever version happens to crop up well i guess it's probably as much as anything about the people you're with so quite often i'll spend a few months away from home but whenever i go home and i'm in in the house with my family there's something that's really special about having a dinner like that and it's something that they will cook because I'm coming home you know because it kind of fills the house when you arrive and it feels like a Friday night thing or a Saturday night thing everyone's having a couple of beers and typically you know the mum or my step-dead guy would do a dal with it and a raita you know and poppadoms and well they wouldn't make poppadoms but they'd make the other things and that's I don't know it's just a sense of coming home and family and And yeah, I just think Indian Food Done Well is amazing.

Yeah, it's really clear how important it is to eat with your family.

Yeah.

But when we asked you the guest list, all you said was that it was background characters from Robin Hood.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, you know, when I'm on a podcast, it's not about them, is it?

It's about them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Looking at the full focus on them.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

No, that sounds lovely.

Yeah.

And I can totally, I can feel it.

I can, I can see it.

And you walk in and the smell hits you, and then you see everyone for the first time in a few months.

Beautiful.

Exactly.

I do have an honorable munchon, though.

Please.

And

it's quite, I don't know what the polite way of putting it is.

it's it's sort of it's junk it's junkie.

Yeah, yeah.

It's proper junkie.

And there's a place in my hometown

and it's called Lip Licking Fried Chicken.

Yeah,

it's been there for a very, very, very long time.

It's ran and operated by one family from the area.

And it's just somewhere I've been going since I first started going out with my mates.

And I still love it.

It's the kind of thing you probably shouldn't have that often because it's, I don't think it would be described as health food.

Yep.

But it's fried chicken with chips loads of mayo they often put like grated mozzarella all over it and there's something that they do there which is just like a chicken sandwich with a hash brown in it and cheese and chopped lettuce and mayo and i can't figure out if it is the most delicious thing i've ever eaten or if it's just kind of the flavor of my childhood or my teenage years and that's why i always keep going back to it

but that is something that i did also consider but i think perhaps the curry is probably much nearer to my heart, you know.

I think that's a better choice as well.

Yeah, that feels like a better choice.

But having said that, lip-looking fried chicken sounds great.

Sounds great.

And

we've said it before in the podcast.

The first fried chicken you have

blows your mind.

So that was the first taste you had of fried chicken.

Probably was.

Probably was.

It's pretty mind-blowing.

And the introduction of the hash brown.

I used to be a Zinger Tower burger boy.

That was my order at KFC.

When did that change?

Why did that change?

I used to go every Friday to KFC with my friend Graham and watch Extreme Sports on the TV and have a Zinger Tauerberger.

Oh, nice.

When I was 17 to 18, probably.

James didn't discover alcohol until later in life.

Yes, I think I knew that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we'd have that for lunch.

That's why him and Graham used to watch Extreme Sports and have a Zinger Tauerberger every Friday.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They showed Extreme Sports in the KFC.

So that's why we watched it, because it was on TV.

It was set in KFC with your Zinger Tauberburger and whatnot.

Yeah, because we were going to college nearby and we would leave at lunch, go to the KFC, watch the Extreme Sports and eat the Zinger Tower burgers.

Nice.

And very excited about it.

And then I think I changed from it to the Zinger Rap.

Right.

Because it's lighter?

Just got into raps big time, you know.

A rap phase.

I hadn't really ever had raps.

I'd had sandwiches

just all the way through school.

Sandwiches are a big thing, aren't they?

All the way through school.

Sure.

You're just having sandwiches.

And my mum never made me a rap.

And suddenly I was like, this is amazing.

These raps are so cool.

How does your mum feel about that when you said no I didn't sandwich your sandwiches

I didn't tell her about the extreme sports either I kept it all secret

she thought you were having sandwiches and watching mild sports she didn't know yeah well yeah I just really got into raps for a bit and then they bought out popcorn chicken and I got very excited about the popcorn chicken and loved that and always had to have a box of popcorn chicken with the main KFC order yeah yeah of course yeah did you ever you know the one that I always loved at KFC and I don't know if they still do it was do you remember the the big daddy box meal oh I know the name and and it's it had a very specific burger in it with a very specific sauce that you couldn't get independently you had to of the box of the big daddy box meal yeah and i remember thinking that was quite special and always feeling slightly frustrated that you had to get it as part of this epic big combo with loads of things which was probably

probably you know by kfc standards quite expensive as well i think i've only had kfc maybe four times in my whole life that's amazing incredible i don't know it was just never part of it was never on the agenda when i was a kid but then when i started working in a pub, there was a favourite chicken opposite.

And I would finish my shift and immediately go to favourite chicken and get basically the equivalent of a Zinger Tauer burger.

Right, right.

That's so good.

Well, you would like KFC then.

Yeah,

I would like it.

Yes.

Yeah.

When did your mum start making this curry?

Because, like, I'm always interested when family recipe, like family staple dinners crop up and then how it becomes your favorite and how it becomes a thing of like, that's what we make in town when he comes home.

So there's a specific cookbook, kind of like a sort of,

I think,

what seems like a sort of quite traditional Indian family cookbook that I think was my stepdad's.

And she met my stepdad when I was 14.

And I think it may be something that he brought in.

And I suspect my mum has probably refined her process of doing it in a way.

He still does it a lot as well.

And he's very, very good.

But he's somebody who would not necessarily really pay that much attention to a recipe.

And is kind of quite freestyle in the way he cooks.

And it still comes up great, but it's just, it just feels different to the way, you know, like there's, you know, the element of chemistry that comes into cooking that I feel like my mum has probably got a better handle on than I have or he has, just in terms of like, you know, the amount of fat there is in something and how long you want something to reduce for and like the water content and the amount of veg you're using and how all that blends together.

And she's got a real instinct for that in a way that, I mean, if he's listening, I'm sorry, guy, but he possibly doesn't have.

But it definitely came from him, I think.

He's more of a like instinct, just riffing it, trying different things.

Yeah, he's, you know, Alexa

play the who and air guitar whilst, you know, cooking the curry.

One of those guys.

Yeah, one of those guys.

My mum's constantly coming in and going, Alexa, quieter, please.

Yeah.

I think I'm both those guys.

Right.

And the difference is if I have a beer while I'm cooking.

Sure.

So I can cook.

The first half an hour to 45 minutes of the preparation, if it's a big meal, I'm so exact.

It's all perfect.

I'm pre-prepping.

I'm getting everything chopped.

I'm cleaning stuff as I go.

Crack a beer open.

Yeah.

I let you play the who.

Disaster.

Yeah.

I got a terrible habit.

Occasionally when I cook, I will do an Instagram story as I'm doing it.

Yeah.

And more often than not, I'll drink.

Yeah.

And it's never a good idea because by the start, I'm really kind of together.

I sort of look quite nice, quite fresh, you know, and I'm being quite measured and considered.

By the end of it, oh my word, I just look like a sloppy mess.

I'm swearing a bit, you know, telling people to get out of the kitchen.

Yeah, just completely have it.

Because if it's not dangerous enough to have a drink around an open flaming knives, you're like, well, why don't we broadcast this to the public?

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Never, you know what I do.

Yeah, ball with it.

Cooking, thinking that idea of I'm going to have a drink while I'm doing this, it feels so great.

Oh, it's amazing.

When it occurs to you, even if it's just a soft drink, I get excited to be like, well, while I'm cooking, I'm going to have a big old diet of Coke.

I'm like, oh, brilliant.

This is a flavorful to it.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what?

I sometimes say out loud when I have a little sip of a beer while I'm cooking.

I don't know.

Well, strapping for years.

Treat for the chef.

Yeah, great.

He says it out loud to himself.

Yeah.

Because it feels like you're sneaking one in because you're doing all the work.

Yeah.

So you get a little extra treat.

It feels like someone should be grabbing the drink and pouring it in your mouth as you're stirring or chopping or something.

Treat for the chef.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But she won't do it.

Yeah.

That's what the alligator could come in handy.

Exactly.

Yeah, you've been promoted.

Yeah.

I don't think that's a promotion.

That alligator takes what it can get.

It sounds that way.

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Your dream side dish.

I mean, I feel like it should be something that complements a curry, but I'm not going to do that.

And it's something that I think a lot of people might roll their eyes at and think it's a sort of actorie cliché but I am going to go for rock shrimp tempura from Nobu London Park Lane and it's pretty you know I mean I think it started there I mean you see that kind of thing in a lot of places now but I'm fairly certain well it was certainly one of the first places to do it or they do it very very well and I think it's just it's just chopped up prawns in a batter with rocket and a sort of creamy

like a spicy mayonnaise that they just mix up and serve to you and you just picket it with chopsticks and it's quite it's quite light but it also feels sort of decadent and battered and fried and it's just lovely and i love it

it's great it's really good have you guys not done that i've never been i've been but i i didn't have that i don't think no which one did you go did you go to the one in i've been to both in london yeah so there's the one that's opposite hyde park yeah that's the one i'm talking about which is quite light and bright in there and it's quite it feels like yeah more of a sort of yeah yeah a less uh like the other one is just you feel like you're a wag.

You feel like you're with a footballer.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

And I think, I think I do really love Nobu, but it is got a kind of the food's always consistently really lovely, especially in that Park Lane one.

But it does sometimes feel a bit like it's very in-out and it's got a kind of chaos to it.

Yeah.

And so, and it's.

Which is the one that Boris Becker got the waitress pregnant in the broom covered at?

Oh, God, I didn't hear about that.

Yeah, that's...

I mean, it does have a sort of slight air of, you know, anything.

anything else.

It's probably the other one, right?

It probably wasn't the Park Lane one, because that feels a bit more like a sort of fun, like light and bright restaurant.

There's a lot of windows, but...

Exactly.

The other one's a sort of den of inequity.

Yeah, that feels like more of a Boris Becker with the waitress in the broom cupboard.

Right, yeah.

Do you have to be cautious when eating Rocket in public now?

In case someone's shouts Rocket Man at you.

Because genuinely, when we were discussing secret ingredients, I did think maybe we'll go Rocket.

Oh, just on the off-channel.

See that?

He's an Eagle Mania.

Yeah.

He starts to recite his.

link just to have a link.

Sometimes we'll just try and make it link with the guests for the sake of convenience because we've done all the foods we actually hate now.

Yeah, yeah.

So we might as well just make it link with the guests.

It was very nearly rocket.

And

that could have been.

Imagine if I got kicked out.

If you got kicked out with Jade Adams.

Also, because I'm a fan of the show, I asked to come on.

So imagine

to come on and get kicked out.

We'd have felt bad.

But we're off if we didn't go rocket.

But it must be a thing where, like, if you're ever, if I was you and I was in public and I was bringing a spoonful of rocket up to my mouth, I would expect someone to go, Rocket Bye!

Although I suppose from an adjacent table, it's quite difficult to identify the specific greenery you're eating, isn't it?

And I mean, imagine how foolish you'd look if it was a bit of spinach.

Yeah, but you know, people are having a even if it's spinach, they're having a crack at it.

They're going to have a go.

Because you can't, it's kind of almost more indignified that you come back with a spinach, you idiot.

You know, like,

exactly.

But it says, I win.

Yeah, yeah.

Spinach, actually.

And And then it was called your Popeye.

I was reaching for that, but you didn't eat it.

And then because you are a sailor.

Exactly.

So that would make sense.

I can't keep up.

Also, I guess, you know, it's

pretty successful role for you.

So it doesn't matter if somebody shouts Rocket Man at you.

Everybody got a nice little reminder.

No, it's lovely.

It's not, you know, it's not.

But you know, I'm very happy to be associated with that.

You're eating a Nobu.

You're having your favourite addition, Nobu.

Yeah,

what's the problem if someone shouts Rocket Man?

Yeah, get over yourself.

And I guess you could ask Elton, like, you know, do you eat Rocket in public, Elton?

So Elton must not go near it.

Yeah, he can't.

He doesn't eat it.

He probably learned that in 1978, didn't he?

Yeah, people are saying that.

Was Rocket.

Do you reckon people were eating Rocket when a wine spread went?

No.

No, not when the song came out.

I mean, I bet it took years for people to get on board with Rocket.

Yeah.

Because it's a funny thing, isn't it?

I mean, it's good, but it is bitter.

And I bet initially when people, when it was, you know, when it came out,

when Rocket was released.

Yeah, when it was released,

say it was 1978, I bet people didn't appreciate the genius of it.

They tried to get Elton on board to do the advert?

Yeah.

To promote Rocket.

I mean, if they didn't, they missed the trip.

Yeah, if they were going to be around the clock.

There's no way they weren't.

Yeah.

I mean, come on, Elton, please.

Please do the advert.

Say you're a Rocket Man and then put a spoonful of Rocket in your mouth.

That's all we need you to do.

I'm not going to do it.

Forget it.

No idea when I asked you what you were putting your Mo on.

I was hoping you were going to say Rocket.

Yeah.

No.

Would I have it on a bit of salad?

I probably wouldn't have it on a salad.

Oh, do you know what?

I might make a dressing with a bit of mayo in.

Yeah.

For a salad dressing, but I probably wouldn't squirt mayo on a salad.

Sure.

The shrimp sounds great.

Yeah.

The thing about it is

when you go there, I think

it's expensive to eat there.

So it depends what you want out of it.

Like, I don't know.

Sometimes it can feel like it's quite in and out

for the money it is.

So I think it's really, it's nice to go with a bit of a gang and make it feel like a little bit of an event because it's...

Because it's you know, I know people who eat there every day.

Like it's going to, it's a bit like, you know, going for fast food for for uber wealthy people but it's it's nice to sort of save it i think and treat it as a special thing yeah yeah there's a place called shack fu which we've mentioned a lot on the podcast i follow them on instagram but i've never eaten there and i followed them just because their sandwiches look so alluring oh they're so good yeah

they do a katsu sando yeah that's my end of the market i've seen i i've been there and had the they've done a rabbits katsu sando as well wow which is exceptional wow and don't they do they do one dessert right they do a mature toast thing Yeah.

French toast, yeah.

Which, like, that's the thing now, he's saying about going to a place a lot.

Like, I've been there so much that now some there's a lady who works there, she's working there.

If I've had my main course, she'll just get the French toast ready.

And if I don't want it, I feel real bad guy, because I'm like, oh, I'd rather not.

She's like, what?

But you love it.

You love the French toast.

I'm like, oh, not today.

I went there yesterday with a friend who

he hadn't been there before.

Yeah.

So I was like, oh, yes, let's go here.

Because if someone hasn't been there and I don't really know what that friend likes to eat, really, they're going to have stuff on that menu that he likes.

So it was a bit embarrassing yesterday.

So all the waiting stuff, I knew them all by name.

Saying hello to them all.

And stuff.

And he went, no, you really do come here a lot.

Yeah.

Your dream drink.

I mean, contrary to what I said about gassy liquids, I do like a beer.

Yeah?

Yeah, I do.

And at the moment, the one I like is called Saturday Lager.

Oh, never heard of this?

It's a white tin, very plain.

And

I think they do a range of seven drinks and one's named after each day of the week.

I can't remember the name of the brewery, but they sell it in Waitrose.

And I think I'd just have a can of that maybe.

I can visualise the can.

I think I know.

I mean, it's easy to visualize.

It's just white.

With black writing on it.

Tiny little

black writing.

writing and then i think each of the other ones is a different colour right yeah who's the brewery benito that's right and union that's the one yeah excellent so what makes it a nice lager well i don't i mean i've tried to be um i've always liked a beer but i've i've never been somebody that's a really kind of graduated into more kind of complex sophisticated beers you know like i've i just like a sort of nice sort of full-bodied lager really you know maybe something that's a little bit cloudy and quite-by-don't like for you, like bitters and things like that.

I've tried bitters, really don't agree with me in the way that they don't agree with a lot of people that we don't need to go into detail about.

But we need the alligator, basically.

We need the alligator, the alligator, yeah, with a mop and bucket, right?

This poor alligator has got so many more jobs now.

Oh, poor god.

Oh, God.

Put down the trumpet and get the mark.

Free for the chef.

um so yeah just a simple nice beer i think i think do you only drink it on a saturday uh

have you ever had it on another day of the week i prov uh i probably have i mean i try and only drink on the weekend

because when i i've got uh some specific day pants right um and whenever whenever i uh go outside of the

outside of the system, I do genuinely think in my head, I'm being a real rebel today.

If I'm putting Wednesday pants on on on a Sunday, I think this is what are you doing, you mad man?

Yeah, do you feel out of whack for the day, or do you just feel like a do you just feel like a non-conformist?

I just feel like a bit of a punk, to be honest.

Dude, yeah, yeah, rebel rebel.

Because I think, oh, maybe it's unlucky, and then I think, no, you've got to take your fate into your own hands.

I'm wearing the Tuesdays on the Thursday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, so your pants don't forget who's in charge.

Yeah.

Exactly.

That's the whole thing, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a lovely drink for Saturday beer.

Yeah.

I think

lager and curry, you can't really go wrong.

It's a good mix.

Yeah, exactly.

And I don't know whether, obviously, we're always told that that's a good mix.

And I think I might have, when I first had it, forced myself to enjoy it because everyone told me it was a nice mix.

Because you're at the age where you didn't enjoy beer.

Yeah, but you felt you should be curry.

To be a real man, whatever.

Beautiful.

But I like weird beers now.

Do you?

Because I can only stomach a couple of beers now.

I used to be able to drink like 10 beers.

See, I'm trying to cultivate that in myself.

That thing of, you know, listen to your body.

You've had two beers.

You feel full.

You really don't need a third beer.

Now's the time to segue into something like a nice vodka soda, you know, and something that's a little bit lighter.

And I could still easily be the kind of guy who'll go out and guzzle a bunch of beers, but I'm really trying not to be because it just feels a little bit juvenile for a man in his 30s.

Oh,

we're older than you.

No, but I would have like, now I'd have like a weird sour beer or something.

Yeah,

really?

James got me into them.

I got him into them.

And then I'm

out of them much now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the baton has been handed over.

I've had experiences like that.

So I feel like, you know, with the sort of craft beer kind of explosion thing that happened a few years ago,

IPA became a real thing, didn't it?

It looked like a contender to the lager.

And I remember the first time I had when I thought, oh my, I drink IPAs now.

This isn't it.

This is my new identity.

But

it tapered off.

Right.

And I came home.

On a Saturday.

On a Saturday.

Yeah, yeah.

I was thinking the other day, I went to Mikela.

It's a really fantastic brewery called Michelle.

It's a Danish brewery.

They've got a place in London.

And I went for a beer there.

And Rob Beckett came to join us at the comedian Rob Beckett.

And I felt immediately embarrassed when Rob turned up because I was drinking a

passion fruit beer.

And he is the most straight down-the-line bloke you'll ever meet in your life.

Yeah, he's quite sounds like

it.

I was like, oh, no.

And he's like, what are you drinking?

I went, passion fruit beer.

What the fuck?

Like, got really angry at me.

And the waiter came out to take his order.

And Rob went, I don't want that.

What's the closest thing you got to Amstill?

Yeah.

That's what I was doing.

And then his friend turned up.

He used to be a boxer.

God, I felt so embarrassed.

Yeah, how do you handle those situations?

You got to own it.

I tend to stay quite quiet.

That's the way I like to sort of try and handle it when I'm with the guys.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As soon as I get overexcited or keen or someone directly sort of engages me, I don't stand the test very

well.

You you've done action films and stuff where you've been like jumping around kicking people's faces in.

So like

they must think of you.

Yeah, he's a

really

real guy.

Yeah, no, I'm endlessly disappointing to people.

You know,

I often get asked, you know, who my team is and all that.

And being Welsh, I often get asked about rugby.

And did I play rugby when I was younger?

And I just can't.

I mean, I have now arrived at an age where I can't,

I also can't be bothered to pretend, you know.

So if someone now asks me, you know, who my team is or whether I like football, I just, I can't even summon the energy, really.

It's just,

I really don't like football.

And I just don't want to have this conversation with you.

We arrive at your dream dessert.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

Okay.

Shall I polish up the spoon?

I think you should.

I think it's good.

So my favourite dessert is a pecan pie.

Lovely.

And

have spent, I've spent two extended periods of time, like months in New Orleans for work.

And both times, I don't actually think, I'm not sure if the pecan pie is a native thing to New Orleans.

I think it might be another southern, it might be a state other than

Louisiana.

It might be Texas.

I can't remember exactly.

Which one is the pecan?

There's a pecan state, isn't there?

Yeah, I don't know what.

I don't know.

I thought I was going to be googling that.

The pecan state.

But it feels like a southern, a subject.

Exactly.

I think it's something that's kind of been embraced by the south in general.

And they just have amazing pecan pie in New Orleans.

And I was there for six months last year.

And

a lady named Anne Morgan, who I was working with on the production, who is a hair designer, a hairdresser.

She bought me some pecan pie from a place called Windowsill Pies New Orleans.

And she also bought the most incredible ice cream from a place I can't remember the name of, but the pie is the main event.

And it was just insane.

So sort of crunchy and buttery and delicious and with a big dollop of really good, you know, vanilla bean ice cream or something.

You know, it's really, really special.

A little bit warm as well.

Yeah.

You know, like nicely out of the oven with ice cream on top.

That's my idea of a real good time.

Pie culture in America.

We've never captured it here, right?

We've never captured it.

Sweet pies.

Yeah.

Totally.

And oh, and that's another one.

She actually, it was very decadent.

There was a bunch of us on the makeup bus and she bought, i think a cherry one a pecan one and then also a sweet potato one which i found it quite difficult to imagine but was really really really really really yeah really good uh so yeah that that that's the thing that came to came to mind i really do love a pecan pie and this one from windowsill pies was exceptional i love the name of windowsill pie

isn't it evocative very evocative yeah imagine the little a little fat boy in a comic book stealing it off a window

i'd love to steal it steal a pie off a windows somebody would steal a

I would.

If I was walking along and I saw a pie calling on a windowsill, I think I'd steal it.

I'd love to read a comic about you stealing a pie off a windowsill.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I'd love it.

I love cherry pies.

Yeah.

Remember when we were in America with our friends?

Yeah.

And we walked

over an hour.

It was about maybe a half hour.

Maybe, yeah.

Yeah, it was a pretty long way.

To following the Google Maps or whatever to where the pie shop was because we all wanted.

Hello, was it?

New York.

New York.

And we were like, we really want a cherry pie.

googled where the best one was found it on the maps walked all the way there and it was shut did you get a pie we didn't that day we went well I don't think we no we didn't get one

that's a nightmare did you get have you ever done juniors is it juniors cheesecake in New York I think it's juniors cheesecake no that is there's there's a place called juniors in New York and they do a strawberry cheesecake and it's the best cheesecake I've ever ever ever ever had I mean it's insane so the next time you go highly recommend junior cheese what makes it so good I I mean, if I knew that, I'd be making it every day.

I don't know, but it's delicious.

Delicious.

All right, we're going to have to manipulate another trip to record podcasts.

Yeah, I'd have to go there again.

I'm going to read your menu back to you now, see how you feel about it.

Okay.

Still water.

You want poppa doms of chutney and the righter lime pickle, but save some to crumble.

Starter, mushrooms in a bag from Social Eating House.

Main course, mum's lamb madress.

Crumble the poppadum over the top.

Side, rock shrimp tempura from Nobu, London Park Lane.

Drink.

And Union Saturday lager.

Dessert, pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream from Windowsill Pies in New Orleans.

That sounds amazing.

Yeah, I feel good about it.

I really want to try the pie, most of all.

Actually, I also want to try your mum's curry.

I don't know.

I want to try that.

That sounds delicious.

That's the madras for sure.

Well, thank you so much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Taron.

Thank you, Taron.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's been lovely.

There we are.

Thanks so much for coming in, Taron.

That was a great episode, I think.

Great episode, and like really, really visual.

You know, you've got the mayonnaise belt there, the cast of Robin Hood.

The quiver, the mayonnaise quiver.

It's great.

There's a lot of stuff going on.

The alligator.

Yes, the alligator the Turkish.

There was a lot going on there.

I loved that episode so much.

And a great menu.

At the heart of it.

A great menu at the heart of it.

Yeah, a lot of stuff I'd like to try there.

Yeah.

And no Turkish Delight, so we didn't need to have that argument.

Yeah, fair enough.

I think we should have asked him anyway which are the two he prefers, actually.

If he's on team chocolate or team no chocolate yeah it was we were so close to picking rock rocket for that we were so close to picking rocket and you know i'm glad that we didn't because we got to hear about the pecan pie yeah but at the same time i i always do get excited about the prospect of kicking anyone else so or eagle we could have picked eagle

imagine if we picked eagle and he picked eagle and he did pick it roast eagle yeah i love it

and don't forget that taron is in blackbird on apple tv plus which is out now a psychological thriller for your mind and your heart.

Kakor, Kakor!

The Blackbird.

Ed, are you doing anything?

Yes, I'm on tour.

James, Edgamble.co.uk for tickets.

Yes.

Check it out.

Electric, it's called.

It's called Electric.

It's a lot of fun.

Come along.

You can pre-order my book, James Acre's Guide to Quitting Social Media, Being the Best You You Can Can Be, and Curing Yourself of Loneliness, Volume 1, wherever you get your books.

Unless it's already out.

If it's August or after August,

it's already out.

You can buy it.

Buy it.

Buy it.

I loved it.

Thank you, Ed.

Thank you very much for listening to the Off-Menu podcast.

We've got plenty more amazing guests to come.

It's going to be Scrum Shelicious.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze.

Talk about refreshing.

You know what else is refreshing this summer?

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We love to see it.

You check your feed and your account.

You check the score and the restaurant reviews.

You check your hair and reflective surfaces and the world around you for recession indicators.

So you check all that, but you don't check to see what your ride options are.

In this economy, next time, check Lyft.

Oh, hi, James.

Have you heard the news?

Oh, yeah.

Go on.

You and I are modern boys because the Off Menu podcast is now on YouTube.

This is embarrassing.

Why is it embarrassing, man?

You love YouTube.

I love watching clips on YouTube.

Sure.

Now people can watch clips of Off Menu on YouTube and full episodes.

But it's embarrassing, man.

It's not embarrassing at all.

It's really cool.

We're on YouTube with the great and good.

The coolest people in the world are on YouTube.

Me, you, Logan Paul.

Who's Logan Paul, the dad from Succession?

At Off Menu Podcast.

That's what Benito's calling us now.

And we're on TikTok.

This is embarrassing, man.

It's not embarrassing, man.

We're cool.

We're like Olivia Rodrigo.

And Ed.

People have been asking us, battering us, bothering us, actually.

They want to watch the Stephen Graham supercut from the Stephen Graham episode so they can see all of his reactions to us, everything that he did.

Or Benito has bent to their whims, and he's going to put it on YouTube.

He's going to do it.

Follow us at Off Menu Official on TikTok, at Off Menu Podcast, on YouTube.

You can watch clips from the podcast.

And on YouTube, you can watch full video episodes.

People have been asking for it, and you're finally getting it.

Full video episodes.

So you can see every single nuance on our little faces.