The Dave Chang Show

What happens when the Wheel of Constraint rolls into the City of Second Chances? Dave reports on a weekend to remember in Las Vegas, and Chris and Noelle weigh in with their own wheel-inspired winnings. Also: an erotic ramen photo shoot, honey-butter hot chips, meeting your match at Moon Palace, an extremely delicious rum, what to order from room service at 4 a.m., mortadella penance, some wise advice from Helen Rosner, and a rundown of Trader Joe’s highs and lows. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Week 1 of their Wheel of Constraint ordeal wrapping up, Dave, Chris, and Noelle might just be close to the renewed food gratitude they’ve been hoping for. But with that gain comes the requisite pain. Discussed on today’s MOIF: drinking from a puddle on 1st Avenue, self-soothing with shellfish, Dave endangering the no-sugar seal, pining for tortellini, new frontiers in freeze-dried food, the military MRE minefield, a perfectly ripe mango, letting go of “the best,” Wirecutter asking the wrong questions, outsourcing the question of life, knives made by swordmakers, and a Momofuku-enabled expulsion of one Master from their Domain. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the only day of the year that stands neck and neck with SantaCon in the cockles of Dave’s heart—which means it’s time for an especially amorous #AskDave After Dark. Among the topics tenderly contemplated: why everything that tastes good is bad for you, eating Mexican food in Northern Virginia, considering a career as a master pickpocket, setting Dave Chang traps in Bristol Farms, the enigma of Trader Joe’s, oxtail arbitrage, grocery-store finger bowls, Sophie B. Hawkins, jumbotron marriage proposals, Boiling Crab date night, and Dave’s heartfelt recipe for chocolate-covered strawberries. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle check in midway through Day 1 of a monthlong sugar-banishment ordeal, and things are already looking tense. With two meals down and 88 to go, are they prepared to make it to the mountaintop? Surveyed through the hunger pangs: what Dave had for lunch, a NASA recipe taste test, eating cassoulet on the space station, the underground MRE economy, negotiating the terms of the no-sugar program, the Charles Barkley rule, low-grade-sad Chris Ying, Dave gaining strength like Vigo the Carpathian, protein-shake smelling salts, and somehow coming out of this with gout. (Plus: Listen to the end to learn how you can help bring back Dave’s favorite podcast—Recipe Club.) Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle assemble for a fortifying round of MOIF before grappling with their greatest challenge yet: the Wheel of Inspirational Constraint. Assessed along the way: lemon-pepper bagels, land scurvy, America’s Most Valuable Texture, Dave’s pyrotechnic oven mitt test, the importance of the single-purpose kitchen towel, making Teddy Roosevelt proud, cutting the top of your finger off on your first night on the job, and dueling schools of thought on how to say “molybdenum.” Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy Digital CEO, prison reform advocate, and blockchain evangelist Mike Novogratz returns to the show to guide Dave and Chris through the wilds of web3, NFTs, and the crypto economy, and to break down what it all might mean for art, entertainment, and the way we eat. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Mike Novogratz Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle combine their MOIF powers once again, in an action-packed episode encompassing Chris burning his eyebrows off, keeping your friends close but not too close, Peking duck pizza, taking on Big Oven Mitt, flats vs. drumettes, dinner-table privacy screens, movie-theater nacho cheese, the beauty of 'Ratatouille,' the Dave Chang cut of 'Julie & Julia,' and the thrilling debut of the 'Dave Chang Show' Discord. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A few weeks ago, Henry Louis Gates brought Dave onto PBS’s 'Finding Your Roots' for a deep dive into the Chang family lineage—and turned up some incredible stories of intercontinental achievement and Jazz Age entrepreneurialism along the way. Today, Professor Gates joins us to discuss his own journey, his hot-sauce collection, and what they discovered in the far reaches of the Chang family tree. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Professor Henry Louis Gates Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Does wanting to make pizza at home mean the universe is telling you to never, ever make pizza at home? Dave straps on his Socratic sandals to guide us through a head-spinning dilemma, alongside metaphysical considerations of food-photo truthers, perfect-email hell, making your own wedding cake, the calzone-shaped cup of the carpenter, and the worst pizza Dave has ever had. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The creator of the captivating podcast turned TV show 'Song Exploder' joins Dave and Chris to explore the kitchen equivalent of demo tapes, the as-yet-unrealized dream that is Cookie Exploder, that time U2 put an album on everyone’s phone, eating like a Buddhist monk, disrobing at a dinner party, what makes great restaurant music, and Dave’s unbroken record of never having watched 'The West Wing.' Listen to Hrishikesh’s dinner-party playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Pxi5QSinRtBvQfselifLB?si=9d06714e63a34cd8 Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Hrishikesh Hirway Associate Producer: Sasha Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris assemble for a late-night review of recent meals, the best sick-day foods, and a few different international mysteries. Also considered: the healing powers of mapo tofu, Dave's post–'Hot Ones' death throes, eating beef jerky in Copenhagen, asking for seconds at the sushiya, chicken soup component rankings, Dave's praise for matzo balls, the ham–chicken broth nexus, eating as exercise, and the strange allure of the unfilled dumpling. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When L.A.’s Guelaguetza restaurant opened in the mid-’90s, mole and mezcal and all the other treasures of Oaxacan cuisine were a long way from the cachet they carry today. Co-owner Bricia Lopez joins Dave and Chris to talk about how her family helped put their culture on the map. Discussed: where Dave will retire, hunting wild boar in the 1930s, opening a Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown, eating tlayudas at the Four Seasons, bringing your kids into the industry, Chris’s unwarranted tie-dye skepticism, making mole vs. making bolognese, smoke as a condiment, culinary bullshit detectors, roasting chiles and complaining, and Dave’s chipotle pepper misadventures. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Bricia Lopez Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We were supposed to record a MOIF, but Dave and Chris got in an argument about the topic. One wanted to talk about curry. The other wanted meatloaf. Which one would you rather they discussed? Well, it doesn’t matter, because they didn’t end up talking about either. This is what a podcast sounds like after our cohosts fight, storm off, make up, and finally record a podcast about their kids being their best friends, flannel pajamas as a medieval torture device, and possibly reapplying to college. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the first MOIF of the year, and we’re off to a dark start. Dave laments his own cooking, and searches for inspiration. Also, pizza is great. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Night has fallen once again, and Dave, Chris, and Noelle have assembled for another late-night recording and their last challenge of the year: a Christmas dinner draft, with some truly startling combinations landing on the table. Also discussed: what to wear to a baby's 100-day celebration, using crumpets as hamburger buns, navigating Mad Cow Disease, and whether you can set any limits at all on what you're willing to call a side dish once you've let lumpia in the door. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris sit down with 'Speed & Scale' authors and venture-capital veterans John Doerr and Ryan Panchadsaram to discuss what their new book has to tell the food world about climate change and what we can still do to solve it. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guests: John Doerr and Ryan Panchadsaram Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle return for the big reveal of their deeply researched, still-buyable tripartite gift guide, covering all the essentials for the ones you love and the ones you maybe don't love so much. Phoning it in? We've got you. Shooting for thoughtful but not oppressively generous? We've got you there, too. Going for a once-in-a-decade, life-altering display of affection? This is the episode for you! Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

886 chef and 'The Next Thing You Eat' guest Eric Sze joins Dave and Chris for a scalding plunge into what may be Dave's favorite cooking method out there today: the bubbling cauldron of communal deliciousness known as hot pot. Beneath the surface, though, colossal schisms are revealed—sauce or no sauce? Fish ball or no fish ball? Fancy wagyu or humble, pre-sliced eye of round? Does fondue count as hot pot?? Our panel battles it out until the last bit of butane's been put through the burner. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Eric Sze Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the leftover stuffing all eaten at last, and Dave-dismaying Mariah Carey songs already in the air, we turn our minds toward Christmastime. Discussed: wearing Dickensian costumes to the House of Prime Rib, the Dave Chang Grinchification Tracker, anti-fruitcake diatribes, stollen vs. panettone vs. buche de Noel, Garrett Popcorn flavors tearing our hosts apart, making your kitchen look like a Jamba Juice, the Christmas gift infinity gauntlet, and our last-minute multitier frenemy-to-forever-person gift guide. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our first guest ever, the Podfather himself, returns to recall the freewheeling days when this podcast was just a glimmer in Dave’s eye. Also considered: Stephen A. Smith, what makes a great show, remembering Tom Hanks movies vs. remembering notable life events, the perfectly sized dinner table, throwing a chain saw into a hot tub, Jon Favreau’s ‘Dinner for Five,’ Ooni ovens vs. French bread pizzas, the potential death of season tickets, what a 22-year-old Dave Chang would do in 2021, wearing belts again, and burning down your entire neighborhood with the smoker Jimmy Kimmel gave you. Host: Dave Chang Guest: Bill Simmons Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The stars are out, and Dave and Chris have assembled for another late-night fever dream of a Q&A. Discussed: sleep regression, Cajun honey ham, crossing the marinated meat rubicon, Thanksgiving-flavored chips, H Mart oxtail prices, a disastrous scallops purchase, eating breakfast sausage on the drive home, Hugo climbing the pantry like a cat burglar, Sichuan celery salad, bringing your own salt to restaurants, and a late-breaking report from the guy who inspired last month's flawless Dave Chang delivery day. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The thrilling, shocking conclusion has arrived—Round 4 of the quest to discover the Autumnal American Pie of the Year. But before revealing our winner, we discuss Dave's latest Thanksgiving gambit, a forgotten mother sauce, 14-hour hot-sauce fevers, second-degree cheese-fry burns on date night, flat-earther pie preferences, the limits of the sweet-salty paradigm, making every month pie month, the most beautiful pie Chris has ever seen, the one pie Dave's family ate in its entirety, sugar-acid key-lime alchemy, a buttermilk-raspberry trip beyond the pie horizon, cannoli vampirism, and Dave finally praising the Bay Area. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At last, we answer America's burning question: Who won the Pronunciation Bee? And then: a glimpse into Dave's vast Basque Rolodex, a prophecy fulfilled, buying a 14-pound serrano ham from Costco, the eternally unsolved croissant conundrum, dubious expat accents, a supercomputer-fueled rumination on holiday homecomings, Proustian trauma, Christmas in the Philippines, Chris's skin care routine, winning Friendsgiving with a gravy thermos, and Antarctic ice-sampling missions into the depths of the parental fridge. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

POIF Part 3 is here, and the gang is in very deep. After a brief check-in with KCRW's pie-contest maven, Evan Kleiman (5:20), we get into our tasters' pie-zonked responses to the mail-order barrage (11:05). Featuring discussion of Dave's sole pie-making attempt, a journey beyond the 'Interstellar'-inspired pie horizon, mincemeat disappointment, eating key lime pie in South Beach, #pielife vs. #vanlife, and Oakland's great Lois the Pie Queen. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio and Evan Kleiman Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris welcome back chef Diep Tran to celebrate the treasured elixir that is Red Boat Fish Sauce before embarking on a whirlwind survey of their all-time favorite potluck play—Vietnamese summer rolls. Topics covered: the forbidden fruit of the kitchen, making mortadella in the garage with a buffalo chopper, first-press fish sauce, respect vs. fear on the way to embracing the funk, surf and turf vs. pork and shrimp, honey mustard vs. sweet and sour, the holy grail of no-dip rice paper, ordering head cheese over Instagram, eating alfalfa sprouts on the commune, and the Gene Hackman of flavors. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Diep Tran Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle briefly say some nice things about Isaac on his last episode as the producer of this show (0:00) before diving back into the world of crusty circles (15:45). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have you ever been at a restaurant and afraid to order a dish because you don’t know how to say its name properly? Well, so have Dave and Chris. In this installment of Demystified, they call up the Los Angeles Times’ Gustavo Arellano to discuss all things pronunciation. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Gustavo Arellano Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s finally November, also known as pie month here at Team MOIF. In celebration, we wax poetic about our favorite crusty circles and learn about the best ways to make pies at home. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another #AskDave After Dark, another chaotic conversation, another frenzy of answering your questions. On today’s show: rushed cooking on a tight parenting schedule, lap cheong vs. Spam, how to eat pancakes, what to order when your significant other is away, and the best salads in the world. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Each member of the MOIF crew put together seven-member rosters of candy. And things got … a little competitive. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris are joined by Priya Krishna to explain the thought process behind their new book “Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave)” before hearing Priya’s five most essential cooking tools. Host: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Priya Krishna Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The MOIF crew continue their excessively obsessive conversation surrounding the grocery store experience (0:00) before drafting supermarkets from around the world (28:21). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris are joined by filmmaker Morgan Neville to preview their upcoming Hulu series ‘The Next Thing You Eat’ (0:00) before discussing their favorite music to play at a dinner party (42:24). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Morgan Neville Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The MOIF crew debate the what, where, and how of buying groceries. What even is a grocery store? Do you buy organic or conventional? Cart or basket? We answer these burning questions and many more, so much so that we have to make it a two-parter. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris bring in coffee legend George Howell to hear about how he changed the coffee industry, what goes into good coffee, and where coffee is going in the future. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: George Howell Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The crew reassemble to discuss everything that has to do with that meal you eat in the middle of your day. Host: Dave Chang Guests: Chris Ying and Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris call up Pablo Torre, ESPN personality and father to an 18-month-old baby, to discuss their children’s poop for a truly disturbing amount of time (13:00) before sharing their recent experiences in all other aspects of parenting (28:30). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Pablo Torre Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that many of us have safely returned to dining out, Noelle asks the rest of the crew: How do you react when you drop your silverware? (13:16) How do you order well? (26:30) How do you pay? (39:29) Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave recounts the week he first met Australian fish chef Josh Niland (0:39) before Josh explains how to overcome the trepidations many feel about cooking fish and all of the glorious ways to do so (9:22). Find Josh’s bestseller 'The Whole Fish Cookbook' and new book 'Take One Fish' wherever books are sold. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Josh Niland Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, Noelle, and Isaac congregate once again to debate the merits of recipes (or the lack thereof) (0:24) before sharing their thoughts on a variety of topics, culinary or otherwise (18:46). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris are joined by kebab aficionado Euno Lee to discuss the culinary world of kebabs in the greater Los Angeles area and beyond. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Euno Lee Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave is joined by Chris, Isaac, and Noelle “the Snackmaster” Cornelio to share the behind-the-scenes chaos of booking guests for this very podcast (0:36) before opining on several culinary topics (14:51). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back! Connecting from his garage in the wee hours of the night, Dave reunites with Chris and Isaac to answer listener questions that came in during the break. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While we are on hiatus, we’ll be releasing remastered episodes from our sister podcast ‘Recipe Club.’ Bryan Ford joins Dave and Chris to respectfully discuss their three recipes—which this week concern Boboli shelf-stable pizza crust. This podcast consists of potentially the longest conversation anyone outside of the Boboli organization has had about the end-of-the-aisle grocery store staple. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Bryan Ford Producer: Isaac Lee Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While we are on hiatus, we’ll be releasing remastered episodes from our sister podcast ‘Recipe Club.’ Dave and Chris are joined by the 'Recipe Club' doyenne Rachel Khong to respectfully discuss the three recipes they have chosen to represent an ingredient that goes by many names such as polenta, cornmeal, or grits — it's a wholesome mush loved by Italians and people of the American South alike. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Rachel Khong Producer: Isaac Lee Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While we are on hiatus, we’ll be releasing remastered episodes from our sister podcast ‘Recipe Club.’ Dave and Chris are joined by Priya Krishna to respectfully discuss the three gyoza recipes they have chosen and what constitutes their ideal dumpling. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Priya Krishna Producer: Isaac Lee Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Isaac convene at nighttime to answer questions submitted by you, the listeners. And … it really goes off the rails, somehow even more than usual. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave shares his thoughts on a few culinary topics (0:30) before he and Chris bring in ‘High on the Hog’ host Stephen Satterfield to discuss how modern foodways in the United States are rooted in the history of slavery and the consequent injustices against African American people in the culinary world that persist to this day (11:00). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Stephen Satterfield Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave shares a few lessons learned from some recent food adventures (3:37) before he and Chris bring in ‘Roadrunner’ director Morgan Neville to reflect on food media titan Anthony Bourdain’s life, career, death, and legacy (15:00). You can watch ‘Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain’ in theaters starting July 16. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Isaac discuss the future of foodie culture in the post-pandemic Western world (0:26) before they riff on a variety of topics selected by the “supercomputer" (15:45). Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Isaac Lee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices