Dijon Mustard Quality, Rolls Royce Grey Poupon Anecdote
A discussion regarding the declining pungency of Dijon mustard sold at Costco leads to an anecdote about driving a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II in Manhattan during the 1980s. The story details how frequent references to the "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" television commercial prompted the keeping of a jar in the glove box. Differences between American-licensed Grey Poupon and authentic French-made versions found in Canada are also noted.
dijon mustard· costco· grey poupon· rolls royce· mtv· canada
00:00 Are they gonna prop him up like Obama? In America's official Formula One home! And broadcasting live from the capital of the drone star state here in downtown Austin, Tejas, in the Cluedio, in the morning everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from northern Silicon Valley where I can assure you with some authority that most Dijon mustard sold in the United States is stale. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I stepped all over you. You went so long, I'm like, what are you doing?
00:43 Hello? If you did a time analysis of how long I go, it's so short that I figure once in a while I can say something more than the normal nothing. Well, I'm sorry. Just do this for me. Say, I'm John C. Dvorak. I'm John C. Dvorak. You'll never hear it in the final mix. It'll sound perfect, I promise. Yeah, I doubt it. You're not going to fix that. Now, what was this about mustard? Most of John mustard sold in the United States is stale. Oh, it has not none of that. If you go to France and have Dijon mustard, I don't care where you get it. It's got a bite. But what happened? What happened? Did you get a nasty Dijon?
01:26 No, I was just thinking about it because I noticed that some recently within the last six months, Costco brought a bunch of mildly Dijon mustard in a two pack of the regular hot Dijon and some of that giant old fashioned stuff with the big grains, big mustard seeds. And when you went to buy it, if you bought it when it came in, because it was a good deal, it was the real deal. It was a hot Dijon mustard. It was just enough, you know, it was just really go right through your nose. It was like wasabi.
02:03 A month later, if you went back to get another batch of it, by then it was already lost that pungency. It just goes away. It's an outrage! It oxidizes so fast. Or whatever. I think it was probably slightly oxidized when they shipped it over, but... Okay, okay. I have to interject. It's annoying. I can't buy a good bottle of Dijon mustard in the United States. I have to interject with a show business story. Back in the day, MTV days, when I had money, I had a Rolls Royce, a Silver Shadow II. I bought it second hand but it was it was it was in you know and only had 7,000 miles on it. Perfect. I drove it into Manhattan every single day.
02:43 And this was the time, I don't even remember the commercial on television, there would be two Rolls Royces parked next to each other and the guy in the back, the window would go down and what would he say? He said, do you have any Grey Poupon? Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon? So I had, of course, every douchebag on Route 3, you know, going into the tunnel, would honk, hey man, you got any Grey Poupon? And I would open my glove box and why yes, I do. And I had my Grey Poupon right there. Yeah, well, Grey Poupon, of course, which was first introduced in the United States by Hubelijn, is not Grey Poupon from France. It was, they licensed the name and they made a kind of a brown mustard that is very mild. Last time I looked, I could be wrong, they may have changed it, but in Canada, the Grey Poupon is actually made in France and it is the Dijon mustard with the bite to it. I heard that San Francisco is now the king of making the Poupon.
