Tailgate

June 18, 2025·1 hr 6 min·5 clips

Three sports fans debate the best portable dish to cook in a parking lot before the game.

Chris starts with stadium math. He introduces Avish as a sports-and-Indian-cuisine guy, mentions Pija Palace in Los Angeles, and asks what a small hot dog plus small beer should cost. Avish barely blinks. He guesses around $30, then accepts that the real stadium answer is probably closer to $34, because surrender seems to come with the seat. The tailgate talk rolls on from there. By the judging section, the table has moved from ballpark pricing to a crab cake slider meant as a friendly entry point for non-Marylanders. The potato chips land right away. Darren says he is not usually a potato chip sandwich person, which makes the crunch feel more like a nice surprise than a stunt. Avish wants the sandwich fresh and light. The panel likes the sauce, likes the seasoning, and gives the chip texture its due. The crab cake itself takes some hits. The cleanest complaint is also the harshest: without Chesapeake blue crab, it was never going to be anyone's best crab cake. Fair enough. The group also worries the vegetables might need more of a slaw treatment, and the sandwich is too tall to eat cleanly. Height becomes its own problem. Darren has jaw logistics. Avish wonders whether crab cake sliders belong at a game at all. Someone floats tall boys, which is probably where this conversation had to go. The sportiness ruling never fully settles. Avish says he has never shown up to a game and found crab cake sliders waiting, but he would still eat whatever was there if he were drunk. That may be the tailgate doctrine. By the end, the crew gives out Meyer cookware, thanks Darren, Becky, and Avish, and sends listeners to the Major Domo Discord, where complaints about the show are apparently already in progress.

As heard by us

A loose, funny tailgate debate where crab cake sliders get judged on crunch, height, and whether they feel game-day enough.

Recipe Club treats tailgate food like a very unserious tribunal, which is exactly the fun of it. Chris Ying opens with stadium hot dog and beer math, then the room settles into the bigger question: what belongs in the pregame spread when everyone is hungry, opinionated, and…

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a crab-cake sandwich debate and a stadium hot-dog price check in the back of a truck.

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