Episode 95:💰⚓ How To Use Price Anchoring As A Consultant
Summary
Nick and Kai spend the episode talking about food, mostly the weird end of it. They go from edible insects to Icelandic fermented shark to pho scarcity in Chicago to the cult of Harold’s Chicken Shack, with no business content in this stretch of the show.
Highlights
- Nick has eaten crickets, ants, and meal worms. He rates meal worms highest: flash-fried with Thai chilies, green onions, and ginger, they taste, in his words, ‘Sezchuan.’
- Hákarl, Icelandic fermented shark, is made by burying the meat in the ground to let it spoil. Nick dry-heaved eating it and calls it one of the worst foods he has ever eaten. The high ammonia content is not metaphorical, first-timers are advised to pinch their nose.
- Nick pushes back on the ‘adventurous eater’ label: what he actually means is that he has an open mind about food and is not picky, not that he eats insects regularly.
- Chicago’s pho is concentrated in two neighborhoods, both far from where Nick lives, with no direct train access to the closer one. Unlike ramen or fried chicken in Chicago, where the best is also the most popular, the best pho is not.
- Kai reports that Eugene, Oregon has no good fried chicken. The only option is a place called Chicken Bonez, spelled with a Z, which does not inspire confidence.
- Harold’s Chicken Shack is a 69-location Chicago mini-chain. The Hyde Park location near the University of Chicago is nicknamed ‘The Nobel Harold’s’ because, by tradition, newly announced Nobel laureates go there for a free bucket of chicken on announcement day.
Read the transcript
Have you ever eaten crickets? Yes. How are crickets? Fine. They’re funky. They’re crunchy. You have to deep fry them. Yeah. I’ve eaten ants, crickets, worms in the bug category. What up? Worms are great. Okay. Worms are fantastic. You flash fry these tiny meal worms, and if you stir them with like Thai chilies and green onions and ginger, it’s. It just tastes Seshwani. It’s great. It’s amazing. Yeah, no, worms are amazing. People are fucking up by not eating worms. Ants, why? They are literally something you put on. It would be like putting microgreens on a fine dining plated dish. Like, why are you scattering ants around? It’s not like you’re eating a handful of ants. You’re eating like ants on something or ant eggs in something.
It’s like route.
Yeah, yeah, but black. They’re obviously ants. They’re ant hands. You’re eating. And it imparts a flavor. You’re getting. You know what ants taste like after you’ve done this, but also like why? It seems to me like why would you harvest this or like farm ants? Oh weirdest things I’ve eaten. Yeah, once you get in the bugs territory or like the durian territory, like hard to beat bugs. Hard to beat bugs, hard to beat Natto or Durian or Hakarl. Uh-huh. How do you even spell that last one? Hakaro? H-A-K-A-R-L. There’s a backwards accent on the first A. Oh, fermented shark. It’s Icelandic fermented shark, and they. There’s a traditional preparation for it where they dig a hole in the ground and literally let it spoil. Wow. It tastes like ammonia.
Uh-huh.
It’s bad. I do not. I do not recommend a Carl. It’s like straight up one of the worst foods I’ve ever eaten. Oh my gosh. And you can tell, like, people. People could eat it. Uh-huh. Don’t fucking eat it.
No. Oh, so the meat is normally poisonous. And this is how they make it edible. Oh my gosh. Oh, and it contains a large amount of ammonia.
So, yeah, know it. It’s real.
It’s real. It’s not.
And you shouldn’t be.
Eating new to it may gag on the first attempt to eat it because of the high ammonia content. First timers are sometimes advised to pinch their nose. I dry heaved.
Oh, I do. Yeah, and I don’t dry heave at most food, right? Like, the point is that it’s food, you should be eating it. When people call me an adventurous eater, this is what they mean. But in practice, me being an adventurous eater is not, I’m willing to eat insects, but I have an open mind about food and I’m not a picky eater. Right. And. And I think that’s the better way of reading it because I’m not eating ants every day, people. Like, this is not no. Why would you do that?
Coming to draft lunch with ants today.
I’ve I on draft lunches page, I literally joke about me not serving Hakar. And people are like, what is that? And I’m like, don’t Google it. And you’re going to think I’m serving Hakaro.
It comes in two varieties: chewy and reddish from the belly, and white and soft from the body.
I had the white one. I never had the red one. You’re missing out. Kai, I’m not.
Oh, the modern method to make it is just press the shark’s meat in a large drained plastic container.
Jesus. It takes all kinds, doesn’t it? It really does. You learn a lot about how the world works through their What is effectively street food? Like, this is a delicacy and it’s ubiquitous among the like 300,000 people that live in Iceland, population lower than Wyoming plus Penis Museum. But like also if you go to like um I don’t know the Hanoi, right? Um so Vietnam you can probably get a lot of really fucked up food in Vietnam, right? But like in practice, everybody who lives in Vietnam just eats like pho and bunh hua and like yellow pancake and like like foods that are normal. They’re fine. Like, you if you come with me and you eat pho, the most fucked up thing in pho is tripe. And you can get it without tripe. They’ll look at you squirrel-eyed, but that’s fine. You’ll live. Come on. Please. I just had fun the other day.
Oh, I loved it. Oh, so good.
Was that your first time having Fa?
No, God, no. First time in like a month, though. So the magic was reawakened.
I don’t eat pha during most warm months, and it’s getting to the point where it’s cold, so I need pha. But also F in Chicago is concentrated in only two neighborhoods. So and they’re both pretty far away from where I live. One is directly north, but there’s no train. Um and uh that’s that’s kind of a a pain. Like, it’s it’s difficult to get to to the pho. Um, but they’re, you know. Also, the best pho is not the most popular pho, which is not usually the case in Chicago. Like, the best ramen is the most popular ramen, period. Full stop. The best fried chicken is the most popular fried chicken. But the best pha, no. No.
I just discovered we have no fried chicken. No good fried chicken places in Eugene.
That’s deeply unfortunate.
We have a place named Chicken Bones spelled with a Z. I’m very wary.
Um yeah, no, Chicago has Harold’s Chicken Shack, which is a like 69 location. Mini chain. Like it’s very easy to get good fried chicken just by going to Harold’s basically anywhere. And there are even a few on the north side. But like I just sent you on Skype, I sent you the logo for Harold’s Chicken Check. That’s how you know it’s good.
Oh, it’s so beautiful. These fonts.
That’s how you know, right?
Oh my gosh. This is art. This is modern art. This should be in a museum.
Yeah, and like this is what one looks like IRL. Like and they’re everywhere. And they just put the number there in the chronological order of it opening. And like some of them have bulletproof glass. There’s one. It’s in Hyde Park, right next to the University of Chicago, literally called the Nobel Heralds, because you will usually see Nobel laureates eating there. Oh my gosh. Because the University of Chicago has like 50 Nobel laureates. Right. And there’s also a tradition of the day you get announced that you won your Nobel, you go to Harold and everybody, it’s like a huge press opportunity, and you just get. Free bucket of chicken from Harold’s if you’re a Nobel laureate that day.
If that isn’t motivation. I don’t know what is.
Right? Right? You’re working for the bucket. That’s it. You consume that bucket. You know what happens? You know what happens after that? You finish the bucket. You need another bucket. You’re working for your next bucket. Try harder.