Recent Episodes

Dwight Furrow, the author of American Foodie: Taste, Art, and the Cultural Revolution, talks about the philosophy of food. We discuss everything the impact of everything from automobile to Alice Waters to the Slow Food movement have shaped the way Americans think about food.
 
 
 
 

Inbal Baum

Inbal Baum, the Founder of Delicious Israel, joins us to talk about where foodies should eat when they travel to her country.

• Shakshouka is a popular dish in Israel
• Israeli Breakfast is a distinct and important meal
• The modern cherry tomato has roots in Israel
• Tel Aviv and Jerusalem top the list of cities you should visit
• Beach season runs from April to October
• Rosh Hashana is a great time to visit Israel
• When you visit Tel Aviv, go to the Carmel Market, the Levinsky Market
• Try the date syrup, Silan

Food for Thought

• Q: After pita bread, what is the most common food used to “wipe” humus?
• A: Raw onion.

Out of the Frying Pan

• Favorite Spot for Outdoor Dining: Milgo & Milbar
• Favorite Place to Buy Spices: Cafe Arma in Levinsky Market
• Herbs to Try: Za’atar and Hawaij (in Yemenite Coffee)
• Favorite Winery: Sphera
• Favorite Place for Dessert: The Malabia
• Favorite Food Experience for Kids: Max Brenner
• Chef to Watch: Eyal Shani
• Dish to Try at Different Places: Shakshouka and sabich

Bennett Jacobstein

Bennet Jacobstein, author of The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine, talks to us about what foodies can find at different baseball stadiums around the country.

• Hot dogs and sausages are not the same thing.
• The quality of ballpark food was elevated in the 90s as new stadiums were built and food television shows took off.
• Stadiums have highlighted regional foods.
• Gordon Biersch‘s founder Dan Gordon introduced garlic fries at Candlestick Park in 1994.
• The song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was written in 1908.
• The Yankees replaced Cracker Jacks at one point, but brought it back after a public outcry.
• 

  San Francisco Giant Gordon Biersch Garlic Fries

  Veggie Happy spearheaded the movement to get veggie dogs sold at ballpark stadiums.

• Andrew Zimmern has a stand in the Minnesota ballpark.
• Rocky Mountain Oysters are bull testicles.
• “The Big Six” are the food companies that service the major ballparks.
• As you go from ballpark to ballpark, try the hot dogs at each to see how they’re done differently.
• Proceeds from Bennett’s book go to Second Harvest Food Bank.

Food for Thought

• Q: In what year were Cracker Jacks first served at a baseball game?
• A: 1896 in Atlantic City.

Out of the Frying Pan

Here’s what Bennet recommends you try at each ballpark:

• Yankees Stadium in New York City: Chicken and Waffles.
• Fenway Park in Boston: Lobster Roll and a cuban sandwich.
• Wrigley Field in Chicago: Chicago-style hot dog with Vienna beef.
• Turner Field in Atlanta: Boiled peanuts.
• Marlins Park in Miami: Cuban dishes.
• Safeco Field in Seattle: The Ivar’s hot dog (with fish) and cream cheese hot dog.
• Nationals Park in Washington D.C.: A cauliflower hot dog and presidential cupcakes.
• 

  Chicago White Sox Chicago-Style Hot Dog

  Busch Stadium in St. Louis: The BBQ.

• Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles: Tommy Lasorda Spumoni ice cream.
• AT&T Park in San Francisco: Crab salad, lamb sausages, and Gordon Biersch garlic fries.

Try a Food Tour

Taste your destination! Food tours are a great way to sample the local culinary scene.
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Top 5 Lists

View from top of Ajax Mountain

While Aspen is known as one of the hottest winter ski destinations, you might want to check out what this Rocky Mountain town offers in the summer. With consistently sunny daytime temps average 76 degrees with low humidity, Aspen is an equally alluring summer playground.
 
When the eves cool off to comfortable sweater wearing temps, throngs of music lovers and students migrate to the Aspen Music Festival. The festival runs for 8 weeks, providing 300 concerts for music lovers to enjoy over the summer months.
 
Best bet? Walk from any of these vegetarian dining spots to the Benedict Music Tent where most of the concerts are held on a bucolic campus. Bike racks are provided, as is ample parking. You don’t have to be vegetarian to love these veggie centric favorites. Here’s where I head after a morning of hiking or biking, or before a concert as the sun is setting.
 

1. Aspen Farmers’ Market

Aspen Farmers’ Market

If it’s Saturday, it’s market day, so head to the middle of town and check out the vibrant farmers’ market. With fruit, veggies, baked goods and fresh cheese all available, come prepared to collect whatever appeals and pack it to go. Walk a couple of blocks to the gondola and head straight up Ajax mountain for awe-inspiring views and music on the mountaintop on Saturdays and Sundays at midday. Saturdays are classical days with musicians from the Aspen Music Festival toting their instruments to the 11,000 foot summit of Ajax to bounce their glorious tones across the snow capped peaks. On Sundays, catch lively bluegrass between 12-3.
 

2. Pyramid Bistro

Pyramid Bistro’s Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Check out Pyramid Bistro, upstairs from the longstanding Explore Booksellers right on E. Main St. You can’t miss the historic Victorian house set behind a picket fence with the perennial garden alongside the sidewalk. Reserve enough time to enjoy your beautifully prepared meal and browse the eclectic book selection. Pyramid is open daily for lunch and dinners, offering both indoor and patio dining. WIth its mission of “providing fresh, nutrient dense food that is organic and locally sourced whenever possible” it’s perfect for anyone with dietary restrictions as they are happy to accommodate meat free, dairy or gluten free, or vegan needs.
 

3. 520 Grill

520 Grill’s fish tacos

Another favorite that’s not far from the gondola, and down a flight of stairs that leads you to a hair studio, a marijuana store, and a clothing store, is 520 Grill. Affordable, fast, cooked to order eats ranging from fish tacos, to “veggie farmer” salad with options to top it off with wild salmon or sushi grade tuna are the order here. Owners Wheaton Augur and Troy Selby created a lot more than a lunch counter by offering a range that pleases lots of palates. We went back 2x in as many days, to get our fill of the kale-quinoa salad, fish tacos and the sweet potato fries. It’s all a little messy for the slopes but it’s perfect to eat right there, indoors or outside on a little shaded postage stamp of a patio.
 

4. Chef’s Club at The St. Regis

Chef’s Club at the St. Regis: English Pea Agnolotti

After sunset, we switch gears and head to the more elegant Chefs Club by Food and Wine at the St. Regis Hotel. This recently inaugurated collaboration is successfully played out in the newly situated and re-designed dining room where the entire kitchen is in full view of the dining room. A long expanse of comfortable counter, the “chef’s table”, allows diners to view the magic happening under the confident and competent Executive Chef, Thomas Riordan. Highlights included an appetizer of four blinis (rye flour) topped with house smoked sturgeon mixed with red onions and nestled against egg “mimosa”. Teeny beluga lentils dotted the plate. Ready for some carbs? I opted for English Pea Agnolotti, a luxurious mound of house made pasta with shaved black truffles, morels, spring leeks,and creme fraiche reduction. Damn the diet. I’ll remember this one for a long time.
 

 

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5. Plato’s

Plato’s at Aspen Meadows: Bauhaus structure at sunset

And finally, my favorite spot to dine is Plato’s, an intimate restaurant at the Aspen Meadows Resort, the home of the Aspen Institute. I love the Bauhaus structure and floor to ceiling windows bumping up to breath-taking views of the glimmering sunset over the Rockies. Plato’s inspired menu is a contemporary and simplified interpretation of comfort cuisine, utilizing local and organic ingredients. Of the seven starters offered, five were veg or fish, putting the kosher keepers and vegetarians at the table in a position to choose freely. Chilled strawberry soup with Greek yogurt, burrata and tomatoes or Colorado Ruby Red trout with trumpet mushrooms? We opted for most decadent and chose Spring Pea Risotto with firm English peas, mascarpone, nasturtium and Fruition Pecora cheese. Creamy, rich with nuanced melding of flavors, and perfectly al dente Carnaroli rice did not disappoint.
 

 

 
What’s your go-to vegetarian dish in your favorite restaurant?
 

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Liz Rueven launched Kosher Like Me to share resources for other kosher keepers and vegetarians who seek local, seasonal, organic, best options when dining out and about. She splits her time between her home in coastal Connecticut and New York City. Relish.com recently named her one of their 5 favorite Jewish bloggers to follow.
 

Check out 4 Bloggers Dish: Passover: Modern Twists on Traditional Flavors, which contains over 50 new recipes from four award winning food writers who have gotten to know each other through their blogs: Whitney Fisch of Jewhungry, Liz Rueven of Kosher Like Me, Sarah Lasry of The Patchke Princess, and Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat.
 
In addition to mouth-watering modern recipes such as Balsamic Braised Short Ribs, Matzah Brie Caprese, Spaghetti Squash with Quinoa Meatballs, Sautéed Kale, Tomato, and Mushroom Quiche with a Hash Brown Crust, and Cinnamon Donut Balls, this e-cookbook also includes step-by-step instructions and beautiful visuals as well as helpful tips such as Freezer Instructions, Prep Ahead Rules, and a To-Go Guide.

Greece in general and Crete in particular are very much a food culture. Our lives greatest moments, whether good or bad, whether joyful or with sorrow, are very much linked or accompanied with food. The otherwise typical question: “what did you eat today?” is not one with dialogical curiosity, but rather one that aims in sharing an important event of the day. The answer that follows is not given with a simple verbal answer, but rather with a series of non-verbal cues such as the rubbing of your belly, the shake of the hand as an exclamation mark, or even the sour expression of the face in order to underline the pleasure, or disappointment that came along with its consumption.
 
Greek people see food as a partner, as medicine, as indicator of knowledge, prosperity or even ability and talent. Every mother is chef with a specialty and a group of friends always knows whose mother cooks what the best. Among the several regional cuisines of Greece, there has been a lot of conversation recently about Cretan cuisine, its health benefits, rich and vivid flavors and simplicity of execution.
 
But not many visitors are aware though that Crete is a culinary heaven for vegetarians. Culinary traditions and typical Cretan flavors are developed around mountain flavors. Despite the fact that Crete is an island, historical and cultural events, have affected the development of local flavors in simple, mountainous, seasonal flavors with the presence of meat kept to the minimal. Besides animals were mostly used for work, or their by products such as milk, wool and so on.
 
Thus meat consumption was a three times a month (mostly Sundays) event. So in case you are Taste Trekking on the island here is a list of suggestions that will catch you by surprise for their simplicity yet richness of flavors. An important note to keep in mind is that these types of dishes are not served in special Vegetarian restaurants. They are available depending on the season almost in every restaurant you will be Taste-Trekking.
 

1. Golden Thistle With Artichokes (Askolibri me Agginares)

The Latin name for Golden Thistle is Scolymus Hispanicus and it is a very important nutritious source of organic acids, metals and vitamins. In Crete it is a very popular dish as it combines together with artichokes. Cleaned from its thorns it is simply put for boil with the artichokes.
 
It is served together with the addition of extra virgin olive oil, lemon and salt. For those vegetarians eating eggs, its preparation with the addition of an egg lemon sauce (avgolemono) will make it simply divine. In either case this is a flavorful, saucy, rich dish oozing health and nature!
 

2. Stamnagathi with Feta and Tomatoes

Chicorium Spinosum is the scientific name, but Stamnagathi is how you will find it in Crete. This very interesting wild green grows on hills which are not far from the sea and as the Latin name might imply it is some sort (but not really) of chicory. Some argue it is a great product against liver or kidney problems. All we say with certainty is that if you boil it a little, and then throw it on a hot pan with the addition of tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), feta cheese and olive oil the result is simply phenomenal.
 
Stamnagathi has a natural slight bitter flavor so the addition of tomatoes and feta balance it out. You will often find it simply boiled or even raw in salads. Regardless do not hesitate to try it. Nowadays it is available in almost every restaurant or similar culinary corner of the island.
 

3. Chickpeas- Revithia

It is undeniable that this particular type of pulse is popular on other parts of the world. However in Crete it is prepared in several different ways which will definitely will not disappoint neither vegans nor vegetarians. Chickpeas have been eaten in Crete for millennia.
 
Even today, on summer months, you can find people selling semi-dried branches with the chickpeas still attached on them. You only need to cut and eat them. But if you are not up for the all natural tasting then surely you will appreciate the flavors that come as chickpeas combine with a lemon and flour sauce either oven baked, or, casserole.
 
If you are afraid the flour might feel a little heavy then go for the tomato sauce. Regardless of what you pick a good revithada will definitely make you content and pay off as a delicious alternative of protein source.
 

4. Stuffed Tomatoes (Gemista)

Tomatoes during summer are on their peak. They are juicy and flavorful with great aroma. Stuffing tomatoes with different vegetables and rice is a common practice in Greece. In Crete however they use to stuff them with barley. This alteration gives a more intense and rich flavor which brings the characteristics of each vegetable added in the mix in a nice balance.
 
Zucchinis, onions, egg plants, carrots, but also, peppermint, dill and parsley combine with barley to elevate flavors and bring summer on your plate. Eaten as both cold and warm dish the ideal companion is a scoop of Greek yogurt. Important to note is that you can find Gemista with other vegetables also such as eggplant, zucchinis and red or green peppers.
 

5. Broad Beans Pure (Koukofava)

Broad beans, or Koykia as known in Greece belongs to the family of pulses and it is a product prepared in various different ways. Most common and amongst the favorite ways of preparing koukia in Crete is boiled then mashed, served with onion, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper. This dish is called koukofava and it is served on the island for centuries.
 
Simplicity of cooking meets purity of products in a dish that every flavor is clear and straight forward. Bear in mind that in Crete it is not advised to combine this product with any type of cheese. It is believed there is some connection with the lack of enzyme (G-6-PD) responsible for the processing certain carbohydrates into energy. If you know you are good to go then do not miss the chance to try this recipe. Simple food, simple executions, incredible flavors.
 

About Georgios Maltezakis

Georgios Maltezakis works as a Sales and Operations Manager for Cretan Paths Alternative Tourism. He is also specializing on culinary tourism programs. He has publications in colaboration with proufound academics on food matters, such as Ken Albala, as well as, culinary tourism specialists like Erik Wolf. Finally he is one of the Ambassadors of the World Food Travel Association in Greece.

Sri Lanka is a country popular among travelers for its scenic beauty. Known as the pearl of Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka has a rich culture and a heritage passed down from generation to generation. It has a food culture unique for the country, and although the staple food is rice and curry, Sri Lankans are proud of their own signature dishes which range from a variety of side and desserts to drinks and sweets.
 
With the influence of Ayurveda medicine and Sri Lankan’s own indigenous medicine, there are lot of herbal drinks and foods which are included in daily meals such as herbal gruel (Kola Kanda) and herbal teas. (Ex: Beli mal tea, Ranawara Tea). Sri Lankan food is mainly influenced by Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and English food; therefore, currently there are lots of dishes which belong to Sri Lanka with the roots from other countries. The famous Lamprais is an example which is mainly a food of Sri Lankan burghers. There are lots of signature dishes for each province of the country. The below mentioned dishes are easily found in any local restaurant or even as street food. Below are the top 5 foods which I selected with due care and with my taste buds.
 
 

1. Milk Rice (kiribath)

Even if you are not a rice lover, try a little bit of this dish. This is a signature dish for Sri Lanka which is common place in almost all ceremonial occasions. The rice is cooked with a thick creamy coconut milk and the taste is slightly creamy and  reminiscent of milkfish. Traditionally, the cooked rice is pressed and cut into diamond shaped pieces. Usually this is served with a spicy lunu miris (chili paste) or mild spicy dish like seeni sambola. But still it tastes good with a Sri Lankan traditional sweet or a banana. Kiribath is good as breakfast. You can find this dish in most breakfast buffets in any restaurants. But, here is a suggestion: try milk rice (kiribath) with a Sri Lankan family in a homely environment and see how they cook it in a traditional Sri Lankan kitchen. It will be a memorable experience during your stay in Sri Lanka. You can find a local host from withlocals.com
 
 

2. Curd & Treacle

This is a must try dessert during your stay in Sri Lanka. Curd (Mee kiri) is a traditional dessert prepared with buffalo milk and it goes well with palm treacle(kithul pani). Southern Sri Lanka is popular for the best curd, although this dish can be found anywhere in Sri Lanka. If you like natural yogurt,then I am sure you will also like this Sri Lankan finger licking dessert! To find out more about this traditional dessert, click here!
 
 

3. Koththu Roti

Cooked in a curry sauce, you can find different varieties of koththu roti in Sri Lanka namely, chicken,vegetable or egg koththu. Koththu roti is a dish of cooked godamba roti strips (flat bread strips) with fried vegetables in a curry sauce. The dish has a good strong spice on the palate so be sure to ask for a less spicy version if you are so inclined. Koththu roti claims to have originated at Batticaloa, an eastern part of Sri Lanka, however nowadays you can find this in any high end restaurant or even as street food. If you want to find a restaurant to try this and to plan your trip before visiting Sri Lanka,then check tasty.lk for restaurant reviews. I am sure you’ll find a great location to try some koththu roti with peace of mind.
 
 

4. Short Eats

In Sri Lanka, you can find different snacks or as they are called “short eats”. These bites are a bit spicy and stuffed with a mix of vegetables, fish or meat. They are great to taste with a cup of Ceylon tea and can be good as part of breakfast. There are different short eats for different tastes, for example, vegetable roti, fish bun, Chinese rolls, cutlets, and egg roti are just a few to mention. All you need to ask is “short eats” from the restaurant and you will receive a plate full of different snacks so you can try what you like. Don’t worry, they will bill only for the quantity you eat! To find out more about the best dishes to try during your stay in Sri Lanka, click here.
 

RELATED: What to Eat in Southern India.

5. Appa (Hoppers)

Appa is a kind of pan cakes with a soft middle and a crispy outside. In Sri Lanka, you can try this for breakfast, dinner or even as an evening snack. Appa is made with a fermented rice flour & coconut batter and it is cooked in a special round pan. Though this is a popular dish in some other south Asian countries, you will see some differences in Sri Lankan version, for example, the Sri Lankan appa is served with a spicy chili paste. Order some ‘egg hoppers’/Biththara appa to enjoy appa with a cracked cooked egg on the top. Try it and satisfy your taste buds! Also, check out 25 other Sri Lankan dishes you must try!

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About Amila Wickramarachchi

Amila Wickramarachchi is a Sri Lankan who loves to share her recipes and travel experiences with the world. You can find her in ‘Food Corner’ with some Sri Lankan recipes and travel notes.