The Froze Bros

It took forty years, but Hot Pockets finally caught up with Darren. This week, the Bros review Hot Pockets Pepperoni Pizza —and for the first time in recorded Froze Bros history, one of your hosts takes his very first bite of the episode's food live on mic. Digging further in: two Iranian Jewish brothers, Paul and David Merage, founded Chef America in the 1970s with Belgian waffles and a hunch about microwaves. A rebrand in 1983 became a frozen food institution. And a $2.6 billion sale to Nestlé in 2002 made everybody very comfortable. But since 2024, the crisping sleeve is gone. Pour one out. In the news: Trader Joe's settled a class action lawsuit for $7.4 million over some receipts that showed a few too many credit card digits back in 2019. Nobody was actually harmed. Someone sued anyway. Get your $102 if it's coming to you. Plus: Google Blogger had impure thoughts about our corn dog post and tried to censor us. The Reverse American cooking method gets its podcast debu...

Eighteen months. Sixty-two episodes. Zero french fries. That changes now. The Froze Bros welcome Erin — improv friend, Boston Marathon fan, and the guest who finally drags the Bros into the frozen fry case. This week's review: Alexia Sweet Potato Waffle Cut Fries , seasoned with garlic, onion, and pepper. Darren digs into the history: a brand born in Long Island City in 2002, acquired by Conagra in 2007, with production eventually handed off to potato giant Lamb Weston . Sweet potatoes, meanwhile, have been cultivated since at least 2500 BCE in Peru, and somehow made it to Polynesia centuries before Europeans, which is either one of the world's great unsolved mysteries or proof that ancient mariners had excellent taste in side dishes. In the news: the Palm Beach Cardinals suit up as the Frozen Iguanas , paying tribute to a species that goes into paralysis when the temperature drops below 50°F. That's Florida, man. Plus: Patriots’ Day and who celebrates it. What Fenway mea...

We’ve been thinking about this one for almost a year. (Thinking’s hard, bro.) This week, Darren and Max finally review Deep Indian Kitchen Chicken Tikka Masala —roasted white chicken, creamy sauce, cumin basmati rice—and it was worth the wait. Before they dig into their meal, they dig into the history: a dish whose origins are genuinely up for grabs. Did chicken tikka masala begin on a stormy night in Glasgow when a Pakistani chef poured a can of tomato soup over a bus driver's dry chicken? Or is that story all wet? Whatever the history, a New Jersey family founded Deep Foods in 1977 when a mom started making Indian snacks in her home and selling them to neighbors. The company was named for son Deepak, and deep means lamp and enlightenment in Hindi. Almost 50 years later, every purchase benefits a foundation supporting over 35,000 children in rural India. Plus: The recalls keep coming. A listener has a frozen waffle emergency with a relationship hanging in the balance. The People...

We’ve got a full table this week. Returning guest Shaun brings along Kristen as the show's official Gluten-Free Correspondent, and the team reviews Feel Good Foods Buttermilk Pancake Balls —certified gluten-free, Danish-style, dippable, and poppable. We get into the company's origin story, the surprisingly deep history of the pancake ball, and whether the Danish really deserve credit for this. What exactly is an æbleskiver? And did Vikings seriously cook them in their dented shields? In the news: the Ajinomoto/Trader Joe's glass recall keeps growing. The source has been identified, and sufferin' succotash it's the carrots! Also: a Norwegian man once brought his grandfather's frozen body to Colorado. "Tuff shed," you say? Well, the town threw a festival about it. Plus: the gluten-free tax is real, the sog factor is realer, a serving size of two balls is a joke, Shaun brings a brand new game called Tip of the Iceberg, and that's just the—well, that...

The Bros are back—and we've got burritos. April Fools, Froze Fam! The fake breakup is officially cancelled, the freezer aisle is open for business again, and we have some words about what just happened. This week's face-off pits two of the cheapest frozen burritos against each other: Tina's Beef & Bean vs. El Monterey Beef & Bean . One of these brands claims to be America's number one selling frozen burrito. So does the other one. Somebody's lying—or maybe nobody is. Either way, we dig into the histories: a family that fled the Mexican Revolution and built an empire on Grandma Rosie's recipes, a mysterious company called Camino Real Foods that invented a mascot who doesn't exist, and a brief but unavoidable detour into why you may have heard the name "Tina" in a completely different context. In the closing segment, Darren unveils Stick Figuring—a game where Max tries to identify famous moments in frozen food and Froze Bros history from Da...