James Beard Award-nominee, chef and cookbook author Lee Anne Wong introduces listeners to her restaurant, Koko Head Cafe.
James Beard Award-nominee, chef and cookbook author Lee Anne Wong introduces listeners to her restaurant, Koko Head Cafe. She shares what inspired her to launch the concept in Tokyo and Honolulu and the destinations’ appeal. The New York native spills unique challenges and advantages that come with running businesses in Hawaii and Japan. Then, she reflects on her unexpected family reunion while filming Top Chef on the island. She spills the personal reason she relocated and favorite moments from her 20+ years of experience competing on television. The proud mom shares valuable lessons she teaches her son while watching her shows together and favorite dishes to make with him. Determined to positively impact the environment, Lee Anne explains the key to filling her menus with locally sourced ingredients and the power of fresh food produced by humans who live and work in the area. She addresses ecological issues that importing ingredients cause and the lingering economic impact of the pandemic on her industry, offering an insightful take on inflated prices. She reveals her favorite local foods, goals for her guests’ experience and the reason she does it all. Post-Covid, numbed taste buds and concerning news from her doctor, Lee Anne shares how her diet has recently changed and what she’d put on her menu to have a perfect day of food.
Find episode transcripts here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/lee-anne-wong-on-her-hyper-local-approach-to-hawaiian-cuisine
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Check Out Lee Anne Wong’s Website: https://www.papaainamaui.com/
Follow Lee Anne Wong on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leeannewong?lang=en
Follow Lee Anne Wong on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/papaainamaui/
Follow Lee Anne Wong on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leeannewong/featured
Learn More About The Next Iron Chef: https://www.foodnetwork.com/search/top-chef-/SHOW_FACET:The%20Next%20Iron%20Chef
Learn More About Alex vs. America: https://www.foodnetwork.com/search/alex-vs-america-
Learn More About Guy’s Ranch Kitchen: https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/guys-ranch-kitchen
Jaymee Sire:
Hello, hello and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is a podcast where we dish on all things food with your favorite chefs, food influencers, and Food Network stars. I'm your host, Jaymee Sire, and today we have an award-winning chef out of Hawaii, sharing her love for Asian inspired dishes and what it was like going head to head with Alex Guarnaschelli. She's a chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and a James Beard 2023 nominee. It's Lee Anne Wong. Lee Anne, welcome to the podcast. I know you've been spending a lot of time in Japan lately, due to my light Instagram stalking of you. Can you share a little bit more about your latest project?
Lee Anne Wong:
I finally, nine years later, opened my restaurant Koko Head Cafe in Tokyo.
Jaymee Sire:
What do you mean nine years later? Because obviously you have a very popular spot there in Honolulu by the same name. Was Tokyo always in the plans?
Lee Anne Wong:
Tokyo was always the goal, the long-term goal since day one. And I'm not from Hawaii, I'm from New York. And so when I moved to Hawaii at the end of 2013, I partnered with Kevin Hanney and we opened up Koko Head Cafe and he wanted a, a breakfast place. I was like, all right, well lemme do like, lemme take a stab at this brunch thing. And I think part of the goal, just because there's such heavy Japanese tourism in Hawaii, was to eventually get our cafe to Japan. And I had been traveling to Japan for the past since like, I think 2009. And it was definitely one of the places that I fell in love with. I had worked there for a short time and it was, I always, I'm always looking for excuse to go back, you know,
Jaymee Sire:
What, what is it about Japan that has you so enamored?
Lee Anne Wong:
I mean, everything, there's just, just the, the people, the culture, the food, the, the historical culture and art and just, I think there's a lot about, you know, Japanese sort of lifestyle or philosophy that I find appealing, especially in, you know, moving, leaving the mainland, coming to Hawaii, finding a little bit more like calm. I keep going further east or west, whichever way call it. But it, it's just a beautiful place and I love, I love the Japanese people and I'm so excited that we're finally not just in Tokyo, but we're in Tokyo Station.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. How is it similar and how is it different from the, the popular original spot in Honolulu?
Lee Anne Wong:
It is, well, we are, I mean the, the most glaring difference is the business hours. And we are in Chin Marinucci building, which is a very popular retail and office building right next to Tokyo Station. And the hours are 11 to 11. So my spot in Honolulu's brunch, we do, you know, 8:00 AM to 2:00, 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM every day. And so starting at 11:00 AM so having like a fast hard lunch service cuz we're in a, a office building and then having dinner, you know, we're on basically the way that, you know, j Japan especially Tokyo's laid out is that, you know, we're on an office building, we're on the seventh floor, and so we're not ground level. You have to get an elevator to find us and we're on a floor with, you know, half a dozen plus other restaurants. Okay. So all the buildings in Japan will have like, you know, a basement floor with restaurants or a food hall and then they'll have another two to three floors upstairs, you know, that have restaurants. That's just all food. So I think it's, it's the reality of like, you know, hey we are, we've opened our restaurant. It is a unique concept, however, we opened it in a city with 80,000 plus restaurants. So you have to, you, you still have to invest in marketing and promotion and PR and, and all that. So.
Jaymee Sire:
Well, congratulations. That's super exciting. As you mentioned, you spent so much of your life in New York. What, what made you want to move to Hawaii in the first place?
Lee Anne Wong:
A boy.
Jaymee Sire:
The tale as old as time.
Lee Anne Wong:
But I think it was just at the time I was doing a lot of food television, so I was, I had been doing Unique Eats for six seasons and I was just not, I didn't have like a day-to-day job. I was just basically living out of a suitcase doing food television, whether it was behind the scenes or in front of the camera. And I think that just wore on me after a little while and, you know, I'd come back to New York and all my friends would be busy cuz I had been gone for two months
Jaymee Sire:
Wow, that's so exciting and, and, and very cool too that, like you said, not only is it a a destination for visitors, but it's, it's really become kind of a, a community, you know, favorite as well.
Lee Anne Wong:
We're very lucky. So.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Well, speaking of Hawaii, your episode of Alex Vs. America Hawaii airs on Sunday. What was it like to represent the state that you've come to call home now?
Lee Anne Wong:
I mean, that was so much fun. I am friends with both the other chefs who are on the show, Jon Matsubara on Ippy Aiona, and it was just great to be able to cook with them, you know, and cook against Alex. Like, I've known Alex for 20 years and I have so much respect for her and so happy for all her success. And it was fun just to like go there and share a little bit of Hawaiian culture with, with Alex and yeah, cook with my friends. That was, I had a great time.
Jaymee Sire:
What, what are like the flavors and, and maybe techniques that are unique to Hawaii that you got to demonstrate and kind of put on that stage during this episode?
Lee Anne Wong:
Well, she had some really fun ingredients. She had some of the Hawaiian canoe crops, so things like taro root and ulu and sweet potato. And then she had some other Hawaiian ingredients available for us. It was fun for us to be able to come in and confidently utilize those items and our recipes, even though Alex was a little bit stumped.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
It was really, I mean it's, I think that's the fun part of cooking is just being a, as a chef, you know, even if you're not familiar with something, being able to figure it out and use your intuition. And that's what Alex is so good at that. So, yeah. She did great.
Jaymee Sire:
As you mentioned, you've, you've known her for a long time. So what, what was top of your mind going into a competition against Alex?
Lee Anne Wong:
She's an iron chef.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Jaymee Sire:
No, I love hearing that because I, I feel like we've, we've, you know, obviously spoken to a lot of chefs that have competed on, on both formats and, and they say the same thing, you know, it's just, you know, it's obviously there's the competition aspect and, and if you are a competitive person, sure you wanna win, but at the end of the day, you know, it's, it's fun and, and and inspiring and you get to cook with your friends. So I, I'm excited.
Lee Anne Wong:
We’re making TV.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. You gotta be entertaining, right?
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah.
Jaymee Sire:
What does make Alex such a force to be reckoned with? Especially in that, you know, competition, cooking arena?
Lee Anne Wong:
She, I mean, she's just got years of that experience underneath her belt, whether it's actually, you know, competing or whether she's behind the judges' table. She also gets to, you know, every day she's on chop, she's watching other chefs try out new things, you know, other chefs like, you know, their tricks and their sort of like what they're doing in the minute. And so I think that she, having that exposure makes her really great competitor. And besides the fact, I mean, she's like, Alex is a New York legend in her own right and, you know, she had years of like award-winning restaurant experience under her belt when she's sort of like, she, I guess she still, she still has restaurants.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Butter.
Lee Anne Wong:
She's just like the judge.
Jaymee Sire:
She's just like, I only need one. Yeah. She's got the one. That's all she needs. I mean, I think it's so interesting when you talk about, you know, these, you know, food competition, right? Because you could be an excellent chef and not necessarily be good at competing
Lee Anne Wong:
Or tv.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Or tv. Yeah, that's true. Or tv. What do you think separates, you know, the people that are really good at competition, cooking from, you know, just a, an everyday chef type?
Lee Anne Wong:
I mean, with the competition, cooking and, you know, I can say this cuz I battled against Jet Te, who is like a king of competition cooking. Is that Yeah. It's a real like cage match instinct that like once you're, and it's not necessarily you against another chef, it's always just you against some sort of clock that's counting down. Right? And so you see, you know, to be able to battle against somebody like Jet, who is also just incredible. Like he knows his way around that kitchen, the TOC kitchen, he knows shortcuts for big flavor in a short amount of time. And those were things that I think I struggled with as that being my first time in the kitchen for the most part. My second time ever cooking in the kitchen. And so it's, I think, you know, any competition chef, whether it's Alex doing a entire season of Alex versus America, she's basically conditioning herself to like, be able to do stuff within a, against a clock, you know, whether it's a a 20 minute, 30, 40 minute time limit every day that she competes, she's training, you know? Yeah, that's true. And that's kinda the same with like t o c. It's like none of us have really been in the kitchen that often and if you add it up, it's like, yeah, okay, Jet's been in there maybe two dozen times,
Jaymee Sire:
Well, speaking of competitions, you battled twice on t o c this season, just barely losing out to one of our friends. Jett, what was the entire experience like for you?
Lee Anne Wong:
It's so funny cuz I just, I literally just got back from, I, I came back from Japan last Tuesday and then I flew out Sunday to do an episode of Guys Ranch. Hmm. Fun. And that was like, it was literally like, I'm like, that's it. This is all we have to do. Like, this is so not traumatic. I don't have to run for my pots and pans
You're not really, again, I don't feel like you're cooking against that other person as much as you're cooking against the wheel and the clock. You know, it's, and I mean it's a, what's nice about shows like Alex Vs. America and and Tournament of Champions is the blind judging. The blind judging makes it fair, you know, as fair as it can be. And you know, I, I love that, you know, cuz at the end of the day I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm a great chef. I maybe that dish was not as successful as I wanted it to be in this competition. But
Jaymee Sire:
How did your son react when he found out you lost?
Lee Anne Wong:
He had a total, well, it's so funny because I don't have Food Network in Hawaii. Right. I don't, I only have streaming. So we had to go watch it at a bar once the t c baby, we had to go watch it at a bar in Laina. And except it was like in question at what time it was coming on. So I was like having this big watch party and then I think we thought it was coming on at five when really it aired at four. So my kid got to watch me in a very loud, crowded bar on TV and he was kinda like, oh, there's mom, what are you doing, mom, are you cooking? You know, and it didn't really register with him what was happening. And then, so that was not my battle against Malarkey. And then he's like sitting next to me on the couch one day and I'm watching like a food network recap of my battle against Jet on Twitter. And he watches a thing and he watches Jet Win and he just like his face like crumbles and he breaks into a total like meltdown
Jaymee Sire:
No, I saw that tweet and I know you said you, you said that he, he can't wait to meet Uncle Jet and give him a high five. Yeah. Ha. Has that happened yet?
Lee Anne Wong:
No, not yet. But it's, it's so funny. Just cause my, my child is like, he wants to be, he's like, I'm your sous chef. He goes, I'm part Chinese, I'm part chef. I'm like, yes you are
Jaymee Sire:
Wait, he is interested in the kitchen and cooking and, and what mom's doing.
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah. Yeah. I'd say so. He likes to help make pancakes in the morning. He'll crack the eggs, the scrambled eggs we made, made rainbow sprinkled croissants this morning.
Jaymee Sire:
Oh yeah.
Lee Anne Wong:
Total meltdown. Cause the whipped cream canister was empty. And I said, Hey, hey, hey, wait, wait, wait. And then watched him make real whipped cream and, and then he was like so impressed.
Lee Anne Wong:
Like I said, now we can have whipped cream whenever, whatever to have this stuff. Yeah. I was like.
Jaymee Sire:
Did he like the real stuff better than the can?
Lee Anne Wong:
He did. He did.
Jaymee Sire:
Good. Good boy
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah.
Jaymee Sire:
I mean, how, how would you des describe your, your cooking style and the, and the flavors you lead on most, whether it's in the competition arena or at your restaurants?
Lee Anne Wong:
You know, I think, so it's interesting because my style has evolved over time and I think that, you know, there was a time I was, I was raised in fine dining and there was a time that it was like, I'm like really small
portions of food don't do anything for me.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
You know what I mean? Like, I don't want my, my guess at my restaurant, I, and I think because it's like Cocoa Head is a brunch restaurant and then my restaurant in Maui, Papa Ina we're, we're sort of pigeonholed into brunch right now because of our lack of labor. Mm-hmm. So, oh, that's okay. Because of our lack of labor and, you know, I don't want anybody to leave hungry. That's basically it. I judge some, like now that I'm older, I totally judge a restaurant by like, did I need to go get a piece piece of pizza afterwards? You know,
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
They kind of look at me and I'm like, it's, and I'm like, it's literally the freshest burger you're gonna get in Maui. And, and, and that means something. Cuz even, even certain companies have to take the cattle here, ship it to California to be slaughtered and then it gets, comes back on the slow boat. And I'm working with a rancher that slaughters right here on island. Wow. And so we're getting our beef, you know, again, by the hole and half cow. And it, it forces I think my, my culinary team to be creative and figure out how to use whole parts of the animals. So we have fun
Jaymee Sire:
You just have to be patient.
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah, I mean it's, it's, you know, when New York was amazing because it's like, I grew up in Aquavit and I grew up, you know, it's like I, my next restaurant was working with Jean George, so we would like get all these beautiful, super expensive ingredients from all over the world cuz we were in New York, which, you know, at the time I didn't know anything else. It was like the center of the universe coming to Hawaii where it's literally the most remote piece of land on the planet and everything's gotta come across an ocean to get here. Like the environmental impact. I mean, you have to think about it and then you, you think about honestly just the flavor and the quality. It's like Costco here is king. Like people
Jaymee Sire:
I mean when you put it in those terms and, and you really think about, I mean obviously that happens on the mainland as well, but even, even more so when it has to sit on a boat to, to get where it's going, I think obviously the, anything fresh is gonna be the best tasting option you can get. Coming up next. Leanne describes her cooking style and her favorite flavors and ingredients found in Hawaii. So stick around. What are some of the local ingredients to Hawaii that, that you love using that you really can't get anywhere else?
Lee Anne Wong:
We use a lot of breadfruit. So like the canoe crops like ulu, kalo, sweet potato. So I heavily lean on those ingredients in my restaurant, the tropical fruit here. So it's like I do a fruit plate that I think is very unique. It's not, you really can't get a fruit plate like it anywhere in the state where, you know, I go to the farmer's market twice a week and I find as much local fruit as possible and then it ends up on this fruit plate. Mm. And sometimes, I mean, minimum there are 12 fruits, sometimes I've had as much as like 30 fruits on the plate. And it's literally like a bite of this, a bite of this. And, and the purpose is if you're local and you live here, there's probably something on there you haven't tasted or maybe you only tasted once, if you're not from here, I bet you there's a bunch of stuff on there that you've never tasted before. And so it's about that moment of discovery. It's really about that moment where you are like looking at something that you've never had before and you're like, I'm gonna try this new food. Even if it's like a Cuban red banana, which is a little starchier and creamier, but it's got this beautiful sort of like peach colored flesh. Right. And you know, I remember the first time I like got one on the side of the road, I was driving to Hana and I was like a Cuban red banana, what is that?
Jaymee Sire:
Sure. I mean, and you're like, you said you're, you're providing this unique experience for the guests, you know, trying something new.
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah. It's not this like cliche version where you're getting like a doll whip or like some stuff all coated in sugar. It's interesting cuz it's like the fruit plate is, the fruit plate is $16. Right. And people are like, oh, that's really expensive. I'm like, there's like, sometimes there's like two dozen different types of fruit on there. I'm like, I'm not, I'm like, no one's making money on the fruit plate. Trust me.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Some of the fruit, like the lychee right now are $12 a pound. Wow. So it's like, like putting a whole lychee on a plate that's like 50 cents, you know? Yeah. So it's like, so there's, there's just, you know, in, in effort to give the experience, like I want people to understand, you know, the, the value. And I think that's like an open conversation I'm having now. I'm about to actually write a piece for Food and Wine magazine about inflation and how it's affected the restaurant industry. Cause inflation is everywhere. And I think people, you know, after Covid we get a lot of people who come in complain they're, you know, everything's so expensive. And I'm like, well you're not really just paying for food. You know, and that's, that's the, that's the overall message is that, you know, this restaurant that you're dining in with this beautiful ocean front view and the servers who are serving you and the people who are cleaning up af after you and doing your dishes, like your avocado toast pays for all of this
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Anne Wong:
For their living weight, for their health insurance, you know, for like all of it. And you know, perceptively speaking, I'm like, to be blunt, I'm like, you, you know, as customers you're, you're literally renting a chair from me in which to feed yourself.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. I mean that's an interesting way to look at it. Yeah.
Lee Anne Wong:
You're renting my space because that's really what it is, is that perceptively a customer only sees the food and the plate and what, like, what's on the plate. And they even look past things like packaging, you know, and I'm like, everything costs money. Everything in Hawaii costs money cuz it costs money to get here. Right. So things like paper goods are really, really expensive because they have it's shipping weight. And so it all gets on a boat. It all comes here. You know, when we were as restaurants, I think after Covid, almost every restaurant in the country was forced to purchase an incredible amount of p p e, you know, it became another expense onto our, our bottom line that hasn't gone away really. And so it's been, um, beyond the fact that those items were, you know, I think a box of gloves, a case of gloves used to cost $40 and now it's closer to $120 for a case of gloves. So it's, and at one point it went up to $200, like during peak covid. It was crazy. So we've just been dealing with the same prices, the same disruptions in the supply chain. And so, you know what I tell people, I'm like, you know, don't get mad at restaurants. Like get mad at maybe the gas companies
Jaymee Sire:
I mean, that was actually gonna be my next question, you know, all that's, I mean, you just listed off so many reasons why somebody might get out of the business, but you clearly, you clearly like, have a passion for it and love it. What, what keeps you coming back and, and pushing to, you know, open other locations of your restaurants and continue expanding and, and, and going forward?
Lee Anne Wong:
I mean, ultimately we're in the business of creating jobs, right? And sharing experiences. And I feel very fortunate to have gotten into the restaurant room, I think a little late in the sense that I took a break and I did TV for a long time before I decided to go back into restaurants. And to see my brunch concept, not only still have life in it nine years later, but to be able to go international was like really, really meaningful to me just because it's, it's rare and it's also, you know, it's the culmination of years and years of like many people's efforts that got us there. And so, you know, again, I think it's, it's, it's shared excitement, it's shared goals, it's shared being able to bring my concept to Japan where Hawaiians can go and feel like they have a place that feels familiar, you know? It's the same thing. Sharing. I, I remember that first week we opened, I, we had some customers in that that were like, we've been to your Hawaii restaurant, we love it. We're so excited you're here. You know, and that was just really, it was really nice to see. So I wouldn't say legacy, but it's, again, you're, you're, you're creating this like web of experiences for people, your employees, uh, your, your customers. And I just know Coco had, you know, again, we started in this like really like rundown space, terrible landlords. And we did that for like eight years. And we've had couples who were like, I got engaged here for, we had our, you know, we celebrated finding out we were pregnant here when we had our baby. This was our first meal that we came to afterwards. We've had graduations, engagements, weddings, like we've been part of people's lives. And I think that's so awesome. You know, I mean, I think that's why we do it. I've had three employees with sets of twins,
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Oh, my Vitamix
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Everything that's a, that's a big one. Snack you always reach for?
Lee Anne Wong:
Apples.
Jaymee Sire:
Oh, okay. First thing you should learn to cook in order to cook?
Lee Anne Wong:
Well, Eggs.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Keep it simple.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Oh gosh, butter
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. All right. Well, our final question is not rapid fire, and we ask everybody the same question. Everybody has a different a answer of course. And that is what would be on the menu for your perfect food day. So we want you to take us through the day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. There are no rules. You can travel time, travel, spend as much money as you want. Yeah. It's your day.
Lee Anne Wong:
So here's, here's the thing. So I have two things. I have been suffering with long covid for over a year and a half.
Jaymee Sire:
Oh no.
Lee Anne Wong:
My taste buds have been like outta whack for a long time. But secondly, I also, like last summer my doctor told me I was pre-diabetic, so I had to like basically change my diet. I was like, okay. And I knew exactly what needed to happen. So I, because I like, I'm like, yeah, I guess I leaned pretty hard into pasta during the pandemic
Jaymee Sire:
Didn't we all
Lee Anne Wong:
So Yeah, no, it was, it's just, it runs in my family. And so I was like, okay, well I'll just go cold turkey and I'll, I'll cut carbs, I'll go hardcore keto. And I like got keto flu and everything that week and just from my body going to shock. And so my diet has been so crazy. Really since then, I've dropped a bunch of weight. I like went six weeks in Japan with only eating one bowl of ramen. Yeah. So my perfect day of food would involve a lot of sugar and carbohydrates.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. Well, like I said, there's no rules. So there's no pre-diabetes in this, uh, question.
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah, right.So yeah. So my morning brunch would start out with a beautiful soft french, uh, soft curd french omelet with a ton of butter, with some salty, crispy bacon. And then probably my corn flake french toast from my restaurants. Mm. I love that. Then lots of fresh fruit. Cause we had a bunch of fresh fruit today from the yard. And then, let's see, lunch would be a beautiful sashimi lunch. I would like to do raw fish, raw poke, fresh salads. That's like, yeah, I, I eat a lot of vegetables now, but I think that was my delight in Japan was being able to have like fresh sashimi every day. Like at the supermarket you could get these like gorgeous sashimi platts for like $10. You're like, wow, it's all this cost. Okay. Amazing.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
And then for dinner, yeah, no, I would have a, a multi meat course. Probably like, probably like tonkatsu like pork tonkatsu followed by like seared Japanese beef or like Japanese shabu beef. Shabu yeah, that's like kind of, it, it's like big meal, lots of big proteins, lots of vegetables. That's like, yeah, I, it would be a lot of food. I mean, I, it's so funny cuz I used to be able to eat like all day. Like I would go to Japan and I would literally eat all day. And I was there working this time and I was like staying in hotels around Tokyo Station. And because I was getting up and going to work early and coming home late, after everything was closed, I, I was literally living off of like family mart and 7-Eleven for three weeks,
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
Yeah. It's actually really good. But yeah, I was going in and getting like these tiny little salads and like little pork cut sandwiches and that was like how I was like eating for, for weeks and upon weeks was just like coming off of the 7-Eleven
Jaymee Sire:
Um.
Lee Anne Wong:
It was delicious.
Jaymee Sire:
I'm sure it was. Is there dessert involved in your dream food day?
Lee Anne Wong:
Mm, yes. Okay. My dessert would be, and we have to figure out how to get hain dos to like bring them here. So Häagen-Dazs makes this like crispy sandwich. It's like the, it's like basically like a wafer around like Häagen's ice cream, but they've managed it like it's a wafer that doesn't get like chewy or like styrofoam. It like stays like super crispy.
Jaymee Sire:
Interesting. Okay.
Lee Anne Wong:
And it's, yeah, it's basically, I would take like probably 10 of those and sandwich them whole bunch of cake and whipped cream and like eat those. But yeah,
Jaymee Sire:
All right.
Lee Anne Wong:
That, that, that's my perfect day is, is lots of protein, lots of vegetables and fig finish a day with a multiple sugar bomb.
Jaymee Sire:
Lee Anne Wong:
With ice cream sandwiches and cake
Jaymee Sire:
Well that sounds like an absolutely perfect food day. And, um, thank you so much for taking the time. We look forward to your episode of Alex Versus America.
Lee Anne Wong:
Oh, excited to see it.
Jaymee Sire:
Once again. You can watch Lee Anne's Alex Versus America episode this Sunday, May 21st at eight seven Central on Food Network. Make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a thing. And if you enjoy today's episode, please rate and review. We love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.