Always Hangry

Is it ever okay to eat with your hands at a restaurant? George and Karla Walsh set the rules, rebrand the world's worst food names, and Chef Vivek Surti of Tailor Nashville explains why "curry" doesn't actually mean anything.

George Duran and Karla Walsh open the fine-dining rulebook and start crossing things out. Which foods are you allowed to pick up with your hands — and who decided that? There's a list. It involves bones, buns, edible wrappers, and one very firm position on tomahawk steaks.

Then: the science on whether touching your food actually makes it taste better, how the fork went from scandalous foreign object to table standard, why China went a completely different direction, and the international cuisines where eating by hand isn't a lapse in manners — it's the point. Plus a cautionary tale about a finger bowl that mysteriously emptied itself.

After the break, the rebrand segment. Head cheese contains no cheese. Rocky Mountain oysters are not oysters. Imitation crab is not crab. Spotted dick is not what you're worried it is. George pitches replacement names, Karla judges them, and a strong case gets made for calling prunes "dried plums" from here on out.

Finally, Chef Vivek Surti of Michelin-recommended Tailor in Nashville joins to answer the Indian food questions people are too polite to ask. Why is nearly every Indian restaurant in America serving the same handful of Punjabi dishes? What does "curry" actually mean? Would he eat street food in India? And is it okay to pick up the lamb chop with your hands at his own restaurant?

Takeaways:

• Eating with your hands isn't a lapse in etiquette — in many cuisines it's the correct method, and there's research suggesting direct hand contact genuinely changes how food is perceived.
• The fork is a newcomer. It was condemned as decadent when it arrived in Europe and didn't take hold in America until the 1800s — humans have been eating with their hands for far longer than with cutlery.
• China's cuisine and its utensils evolved together: food cut into bite-sized pieces in the kitchen removed the need for a knife at the table.
• Restaurants signal permission. Wet wipes, hot towels, bibs, shell crackers, gloves, and finger bowls are the kitchens telling you to go ahead and use your hands.
• A lot of food names are actively working against the food. Head cheese, blood sausage, and imitation crab all describe delicious things in the least appetizing way possible.
• Sorghum is one of the world's oldest cultivated grains — gluten-free, drought-resistant, and used in everything from flour to syrup to biofuel — and George's only complaint is the name.
• American Indian restaurant food is overwhelmingly one regional style. Vivek Surti estimates 90–99% of it descends from Punjabi cuisine, largely because that's what British diners preferred and what first-generation restaurateurs could sell.
• "Curry" is a blanket term with no real meaning inside India. Ask an Indian chef to "make curry" and the honest answer is a question back.

Companies and people mentioned

• Vivek Surti — Chef and owner of Tailor, Nashville, Tennessee. Michelin-recommended, South Asian American / "first generation American" cuisine, tasting-menu only. James Beard Foundation semifinalist, Best Chef: Southeast. Located in Germantown. — https://www.tailornashville.com/
• Karla Walsh — recurring co-host; food and wellness writer — https://www.instagram.com/karlaswalsh/
• Charles Spence — Oxford experimental psychologist and gastrophysicist; author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating
• Adriana Madzharov — sensory marketing researcher, Stevens Institute of Technology; author of the 2019 hand-contact study
• Maid-Rite — Iowa-founded loose meat sandwich chain
• Manwich — canned sloppy joe sauce brand (Hunt's)

Also referenced:

Journal of Retailing; International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science; Smithsonian magazine; Japan National Tourism Organization; MICHELIN Guide

Summary

One gluten-free guest can derail a dinner party. One meatball can derail a friendship. George Duran and food writer Karla Walsh lay out the unwritten rules of sharing plates, expose what "best by" actually means, and meet the forager New York City arrested for eating a dandelion in Central Park.

Show Notes

There is an exact number of appetizers a restaurant will bring to your table, and it is never the number of people sitting at it.

George Duran and Des Moines food writer Karla Walsh open this one on the social minefield of shared plates: which fries are legally yours (curly, apparently, forever), why high-end restaurants insist on serving five of something to a party of six, and what to do about the single remaining croquette that everyone is staring at and nobody will claim. George lays out his rules — everyone gets one before anyone gets two, double-dipping is fine if your fork behaves, and if you take the last bite you have to say so out loud. Karla, who is more reasonable, mostly agrees. There's also a 20-year grudge over a friend's birthday bill that has never been resolved and probably never will be.

Then the label on the yogurt. California's new date-labeling law took effect this July, which means "sell by" is gone from consumer packaging in the state and everything else has to say either BEST if Used by or USE by. George explains what those two phrases actually mean, why almost none of these dates are federally regulated, why brown ground beef is fine, why vacuum-packed chicken smells like that for about nine seconds, and why you should absolutely not wash it. Then a game called Taste It or Waste It, in which Karla learns her hot sauce has years of life left in it. Also: George's standing theory that cereal companies deliberately refuse to put zippers on the bag.

And then the man who sees dinner where you see a lawn. "Wildman" Steve Brill has spent more than forty years teaching people to identify edible plants across the Northeast, and he became internationally famous in 1986 when undercover park rangers — posing as a married couple, on his own tour — arrested him for eating a dandelion in Central Park. He tells the whole thing: the hidden walkie-talkie, the handcuffs, the fingerprints taken for the city, the state, and the FBI, the judge who wanted it out of her courtroom, and the part where the city dropped the charges and then hired him. He also explains, without much sentiment, what happens if you eat the wrong mushroom.

Nothing here is food safety advice. When in doubt, throw it out.

Takeaways:

• Some foods are not shareable and pretending otherwise is how friendships end. Curly fries are the clearest case.
• Restaurants plate appetizers in threes and fives because odd numbers look better, which means they are mathematically hostile to a table of four or six.
• "Sell by" was never for you — it's stock rotation. "BEST if Used by" is quality. "USE by" is the safety one. Only that last one is telling you not to eat it.
• Brown ground beef is a chemistry story, not a spoilage story: myoglobin oxidizing to metmyoglobin. Smell and texture are the real tells.
• Foraging isn't reckless, it's just uncommon — Brill's rule is 100% certainty on identification, every time, no exceptions.

• "Wildman" Steve Brill — Forager, naturalist, environmental educator, author — wildmanstevebrill.com
• Foraging with the "Wildman" — Brill's foraging app, 250+ plants — wildmanstevebrill.com/mobile-app
• Karla Walsh — Food, wellness and lifestyle writer; Level One Sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers) — karlawalsh.com · IG @karlaswalsh · newsletter What's Good

Also referenced:

• California AB 660 (Irwin), effective July 1, 2026 — standardizes food date labels, bans consumer-facing "sell by"
• USDA — safe minimum internal temperature for poultry, 165°F; guidance on mold on hard cheese; color as a freshness indicator
• FDA — infant formula is the only food product with a federally required date label
• Drexel University — consumer research on discarding food near package dates
• NYC Parks Department — Brill's 1986 arrest and subsequent four years as a Parks naturalist
• Mayor Ed Koch, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe
• CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, New York Daily News, Associated Press
• All-Bran, Shredded Wheat, Rice Krispies treats

Every year, thousands of new food products launch in the United States with one goal: to become the thing you can't stop eating. Some of them solve a real problem. Some of them are cotton candy that tastes like salted butter.

George Duran spent two days at the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center — 2,300 exhibitors, 32,000 people, and a tote bag that ended up heavier than a Costco run. He ate jam with electrolytes in it. He ate oatmeal flavored with garlic and miso. He ate goat cheese that had turned purple. He was handed an entire burrata, for himself, by an Italian man who would not take no for an answer.

This is a walk through the show floor with the people actually making this stuff: a candy maker chasing adult nostalgia, a jam guy who'll happily tell you electrolytes are just salt, a founder who made tofu shelf-stable so you can carry it on the subway, and a company using fungi to build a better ham.

Not every one of these products needs to exist. But every one of them says something about what we want food to do for us now — be fun, be healthy, be fast, and surprise us. Sometimes all four at once.

Takeaways

• Cotton candy is being reformulated for adults — Morganne Wheeler's Cirrus 9 Candy sells salted butter, lychee, Madagascar vanilla, and New York maple syrup, betting that nostalgia plus a grown-up flavor profile beats plain pink sugar.
• "Electrolytes" is marketing for salt. Jesse Linevsky of Jesse Jams says it out loud: potassium chloride and sodium chloride, that's the whole secret.
• The Fancy Food Show is trade-only — no public tickets. 2,300 exhibitors, roughly 32,000 people, and buyers from Whole Foods and H-E-B deciding what lands on your shelf next year.
• Every health buzzword is now stacked on one label. Good Journey Donuts is gluten-free, low sugar, non-GMO, keto, and high fiber — at some point a cookie starts sounding like it's applying for a grant.
• Savory oatmeal is a real category play. Gamsa Foods is selling sesame-garlic oats built on Korean juk and Chinese congee, and Ruby Saens says the toughest test market — 50-plus shoppers in rural Arkansas — took to it immediately.
• Olive oil is now a wellness shot. Katerina Mountanos of Kosterina says her customers started doing it before the company made a product for it, and TikTok did the rest.
• Sampling is the one thing a trade show can't move online. Leanna Salamah of the Specialty Food Association is blunt about it: with food, you have to put it in someone's mouth.
• Mushrooms are coming for the deli counter. Prime Roots is making turkey, ham, salami, and bacon out of fungi, aimed at flexitarians rather than vegans.

Companies and people mentioned

• Morganne Wheeler — Founder & CEO, Cirrus 9 Candy — https://cirrus9candy.com/
• Leanna Salamah — SVP, Marketing & Communications, Specialty Food Association — https://www.linkedin.com/in/leanasalamah/ | https://www.specialtyfood.com/fancy-food-shows/summer/
• Jesse Linevsky — Founder, Jesse Jams — https://jessejams.us/
• Michelle Adams — show attendee since ~2000
• Caroline Dai — Founder, TofuGo Snacks — https://www.tofugosnacks.com
• Kristoffer Quiaoit — Co-founder, Good Journey Donuts — https://goodjourneydonuts.com/pages/about
• Katerina Mountanos — Founder, Kosterina — https://www.kosterina.com/
• Ruby Saens — Gamsa Foods — https://gamsafoods.com/
• Lucas Prado — Founder & CEO, Beest Snacks — https://www.beestsnacks.com/
• Ryan — first-time attendee
• Alex Coenen — President, LaClare Family Creamery — https://www.laclarefamilycreamery.com/
• Sashi Kumar & Brittney Lim — Co-founders, Tamarind Heads — https://tamarindheads.com/
• Stefano — SCP Global Import — https://www.instagram.com/scpglobalimport/
• Krista Arland — CEO & Founder, Your Grandpa's Old Fashioned — https://www.yourgrandpasoldfashioned.com/
• Kimberlie Le — Founder, Prime Roots — https://www.primeroots.com/en-us
• Eric — Chief Marketing Officer, WISEcode — https://wisecode.ai/

Also referenced:

• Whole Foods
• H-E-B
• Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
• Entenmann's
• Bon Appétit
• Food & Wine
• CNN

George Duran and food writer Karla Walsh open the fridge on the stuff nobody says out loud.

First up: the genuinely unhinged things Costco has sold in bulk — gold bars, six-foot nutcrackers, 72-pound wheels of Parmesan, buckets of apocalypse food, and yes, caskets💀💰 (buy one, get a free divorce certificate, apparently).

Then brunch goes on trial. Is it a real meal, or just an excuse to charge $20 for eggs the head chef was too hungover to cook? George has a theory.

In "Trend or Trash," Dubai chocolate gets the treatment, followed by a round of "Dubai or AI?" — where Karla has to guess which absurd chocolate mashup is real and which one ChatGPT invented.

Finally, aquaculture scientist Dr. Stefanie Colombo (Dalhousie University) settles the farmed-vs-wild salmon fight for good — including the part where modern salmon farms use underwater cameras and fish facial recognition.

Grab a snack. Stay hungry.

• Costco has sold some genuinely deranged things in bulk: gold bars, six-foot nutcrackers, 72-pound Parmesan wheels, apocalypse-food buckets, and actual caskets.
• George's brunch theory: you're overpaying for eggs the head chef didn't even cook — he's hungover from Saturday night, so the underlings are on brunch duty.
• America's brunch scene has produced a Bloody Mary with a whole lobster hanging off it, one topped with an entire fried chicken, and a $2,000 lobster frittata.
• "Dubai or AI?" proves the internet has tried Dubai-chocolate everything — burgers, wings, ramen, even pickles — and most of it is real.
• The farmed-vs-wild salmon panic is mostly myth. Dr. Stefanie Colombo makes the case for "farmed AND wild": similar nutrition, better availability, smaller footprint.
• Salmon farms run on tech you wouldn't expect — underwater cameras and biometric "facial recognition" that IDs individual fish by their freckle patterns.

• alwayshangrypodcast.com

• Costco, Dairy Queen
• Whole Foods
• Cinnabon
• Auntie Anne's
• Dalhousie University
• Aquaculture Nutrition

George and Karla dive into the wild world of buffets in this lively episode of The Always Hangry Podcast, revealing how these all-you-can-eat feasts can morph people into buffet beasts! They chat about the psychology behind buffet behavior, like how diners with heavier BMIs tend to attack the buffet with chopsticks while lighter folks take a more strategic approach.

The conversation takes a humorous turn as they discuss the latest food scams, including folks using AI to get refunds on takeout by doctoring food pics. Plus, George introduces a special guest, Michael Rosenzweig, who’s shaking up the candy scene with his innovative, health-conscious snacks made from konjac. So grab your favorite snack and get ready for a fun-filled exploration of food quirks and trends!

Takeaways:

• Eating chicken wings can be a guilty pleasure, especially when faced with a pile of bones.
• Buffets seem to change how we eat, often leading us to overindulge on various dishes.
• Studies show that people with higher BMIs eat faster at buffets using chopsticks, which is a curious observation.
• The psychology behind buffets suggests that variety can lead to overeating due to a fear of missing out.
• New food trends, like protein-infused snacks, are becoming increasingly popular, appealing to health-conscious consumers.
• Innovative products, such as slurpable jelly snacks made from konjac, are adding a fresh twist to the candy market.

Links referenced in this episode:

• www.pacpacsnacks.com
• alwayshangrypodcast.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• DoorDash
• Walmart
• Pack Pack Snacks
• Cargill
• Blue Bell
• McDonald's
• Trader Joe's
• Kardashians
• Cold Stone
• Kit Kat

This episode goes deep on exotic meats and the strange lengths people go to for food — starting with a website that sells, wait for it, opossum tail (just the tail). George and Feel Good Foodie's Yumna Jawad work their way through yak filet mignon, giraffe hot dogs, zebra sausage, and George's own unwitting run-in with cat meat at a childhood baseball game. From there, they get into the FDA's official "food defect levels" — the surprisingly specific amount of mold, insect fragments, and rodent hair the government allows in your ketchup and spices — before tackling the eternal restaurant question: is it ever okay to send food back?

The back half brings in Nocca founders Nicholas Wooller and Alessandro Sitá to talk gnocchi, Italian-American cuisine, and whether Cheetos-flavored gnocchi is a crime or a vibe.

Takeaways:

• Exotic meats are legal to sell in the U.S. as long as the animal isn't endangered and it's processed through an approved system — which is how yak, zebra, giraffe, and lion meat end up for sale online.
• Food is a love language: in Yumna's Lebanese household, "are you hungry?" was how her parents said "I love you."
• The FDA's food defect levels handbook permits things like up to 1,250 insect fragments per 10g of ground oregano, or 11 rodent hairs per 10g of ground sage — before a product gets pulled.
• George's take on restaurant menu language: "whipped," "aioli," and "chiffonade" are just marketing markup on mashed potatoes, mayo, and thin slices.
• Yumna sends food back for real problems (wrong temperature, wrong doneness, allergens) but not for minor stuff like a slightly overcooked side.
• Nocca's founders talk building a modern food brand around gnocchi — including a preservative-free, shelf-stable version developed with university research — and how far Italian-American cuisine has drifted from its regional roots.

Links referenced in this episode:

• exoticmeatmarkets.com
• alwayshangrypodcast.com

Companies and people mentioned in this episode:

• Feel Good Foodie
• https://wildforkfoods.com/
• exoticmeatmarkets.com
• https://www.nocca.co/

George Duran and Karla Walsh kick off a deliciously wild ride on the Always Hangry podcast, diving into the zany world of Costco food samples, dietary quirks, and the hilarious lengths people go to when it comes to food.

They explore the cult-like following of Costco, where samples can skyrocket sales by a whopping 2000%! George shares some eyebrow-raising anecdotes about the most bizarre things sampled at Costco, from lemon crème to even wet dog food, leaving listeners in stitches.

They also tackle the serious side of dietary restrictions and the myths surrounding olive oil, ensuring that no topic is left unturned. So grab your favorite snack and join them for a fun-filled chat that’s bound to tickle your taste buds and your funny bone!

Finally, George sits down with Alexandra Devarenne of the Extra Virgin Alliance (EVA) to bust some of the biggest myths surrounding olive oil. From how to choose a quality bottle at the supermarket to whether you should really cook with extra virgin olive oil. Alexandra shares practical tips that will change the way you shop, store, and use one of the world's healthiest ingredients.

Takeaways:

• In today's episode, they delve into the quirky world of Costco food samples, revealing just how much those tiny bites can boost sales by a whopping 2000%.
• They share hilarious stories about bizarre food sampling experiences at Costco, including some truly outrageous items, like wet dog food and even toilet paper!
• They discuss the challenges of accommodating various dietary restrictions, sharing amusing anecdotes about friends who seem to have more food rules than a game of Monopoly.
• The conversation touches on the ethics of food sampling and the fine line between tasting and stealing, prompting some lighthearted debates about supermarket morals.
• They also explore the science behind why free samples can trigger a sense of reciprocity, compelling shoppers to buy what they taste, even if it’s just a tiny chip of something.
• Finally, they wrap up with a fun game about drizzling olive oil on unexpected foods, proving that culinary experimentation knows no bounds, even if it involves ice cream!

Guests

• Karla Walsh — lifestyle & food writer
• Alexandra Devarenne — Extra Virgin Alliance ·

Next week: George sits down with feel-good foodie Yumna Jawad.

Links referenced in this episode:

• yahoofinance.com
• alwayshangrypodcast.com
• https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/extra-virgin-alliance

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Costco
• Yahoo Finance
• Better Homes and Gardens
• Travel and Leisure
• Allrecipes
• Eating Well
• Bon Appetit
• Whole Foods
• Extra Virgin Alliance

Food isn't complicated. People make it complicated.

Always Hangry is a new food comedy podcast where chef and TV host George Duran calls out the weird, frustrating, and totally ridiculous ways we all behave around food — Costco sample chaos, restaurant etiquette, grocery-store habits, and all the things we do that somehow make perfect sense until you actually think about them.

No recipes. Nothing precious. Just the conversation you'd have after a couple of drinks when someone finally says the thing everyone's thinking.

New episodes launch Tuesday, July 21st. Follow Always Hangry wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss the first bite.