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, 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

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

More in this Country

NOTE: This is the third in a three-part series. You can find Part I here and Part II here.
 
From the idyllic village of Plymouth and my visit to the Plymouth Cheese Company, this moto-foodie has ridden out of the Green Mountain Range and down the Ottauqueechee River valley. There’s more to tempt the appetite—Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners, Mountain Creamery in Woodstock, Eaton’s Sugarhouse on Rt. 14 at the junction of Rt. 107—along the way to the next cheese producer. Historic buildings, numerous covered bridges, and gorgeous scenery are all part of the mix that makes the Vermont Cheese Trail special, whether traveled by motorcycle or car.
 
The eastern region of the state is the Piedmont, an area of random, jumbled mountains where roads twist and undulate along streams and rivers before cresting ridges to descend to the next series of interconnected valleys. It’s stunningly beautiful.
 
Blythedale Farms is located in the middle of the Piedmont and next to the Corinth Town Clerk’s Office. The gravel driveway leads to the farmhouses, barn, and creamery. The modest red-clapboard dairy certainly doesn’t appear to be a place where award-winning cheeses could originate, but from here they go to gourmet shops and restaurants from New York to San Francisco and during the Bush Presidency they were frequently served at the White House.
 
Blythedale Farms has a history that began with master cheesemaker Tom Gilbert and Karen Galayda at Craigston Cheese Co. in Wenham, MA. As with so many others, they left their jobs and set up their own operation on the Gilbert farm, Blythedale. Outgrowing the family farm they moved to Cookeville (Corinth, Vermont) in 1995. Producing a line of artisanal cheeses—Camembert Vermont; Green Mountain Gruyère; Vermont Brie; Cookeville Grana; and Jersey Blue—and selling through distribution networks they became one of the first successful modern artisanal cheese in the state. In 2004, Tom and Becky Loftus purchased Blythedale, sold their house in Rochester, NY, and moved to Corinth. One does not mess with success and the only change they’ve made to the product line is to add a 1-lb brie.
 
This is a farmstead operation and all the cheeses are made from Tom and Becky’s herd of Jersey cows. Only whole, unpasteurized milk— no rBST hormones– is used, the cheeses are hand ladled, and they are aged in their own “cave”.
 
Vermont Brie is on par with the best that’s produced in France and Jersey Blue— with a Roqueford mold and made like a Stilton—is one of my long-time favorites. Their extensive list of awards includes American Cheese Society Best in Class and Reserve Grand Champion (of the entire show) for the Jersey Blue.
There is no farmstead store and visiting the farm is by appointment only. Farming is very time consuming but Blythedale cheeses are sold coast-to-coast and can be found in many Vermont grocery stores.
 
A short backtrack to continue north on Brook Rd. brings me to Rt. 25 where I make a left turn to continue towards Barre. Approaching the Granite Capital of the World, the Rock of Ages quarry can be seen at the top of the Barre Pluton. The Vermont Creamery, another one of the hippie-back-to-the-land success stories that Vermont is known for, is located just around the corner from the Rock of Ages Visitors Center in Websterville.
 
Allison Hooper was raising goats and making cheese in Brookfield in 1984 and met when Bob Reese needed some chevre for a function held by the Vermont Agriculture Department. They teamed up and moved the creamery to Websterville in 1989 and Adeline Druart, a master cheesemaker from France joined the team. This socially responsible B corp now has 20 employees; supports 17 goat farms in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Ontario; and their award-winning cheese is distributed across the country.
 
The creamery is a large red, industrial-styled building that’s located in a commercial park. Recently a greenhouse-like vistors’ center has been added where small windows allow people to catch a glimpse of production taking place in the cheese room. There is no tasting, but some of their products can be purchased from a tiny refrigerator in the center. Better yet, look for their products in better grocery stores and cheese shops.
 
Going down the hill and following Rt. 14 through Barre and past Hope Cemetery—world famous for its memorial sculptures—I bear right on Rt. 2 in East Montpelier. Willow Moon Farm is located on the banks of the Winooski River just before entering the village of Plainfield and only a few yards off the main highway.
 
Willow Moon Farm breeds and milks registered Nigerian Dwarf goats. This is a mother-daughter team that has been milking goats since 2006, but didn’t get licensed until 2010. The following year they entered the ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) cheese competition and tied for 3rd place (with VT Creamery) for their feta. Pretty impressive.
 
The cheeses are made from pasteurized milk and vegetarian rennet. They produce Winooski Tomme (aged for 3-7 months) and Willoughby Tomme, a semi-hard tomme from summer pasture milk. Little Goat Blue, Spruce Peak ash-ripened, aged Rock River Red, and gouda are among the cheeses produced. I sampled the herb and garlic chèvre—it will become one of my standard snack cheeses— and the feta doesn’t taste at all like a goat cheese.
 
Visitors are welcome and can visit the goats, take a tour, and purchase cheeses from the cooler in the farm store. I’d also suggest picking up some of the honey they produce. My next stop is only a few minutes away, but as so many visitors have remarked, “this is in the middle of nowhere!”
 
The village of Cabot has a population of only 233 (1,433 in the entire township), but there’s a post office, church, public school, a restaurant (Downstreet Eats); the Cabot General Store for groceries and such; Harry’s Hardware has a couple of gas pumps and the Cabot Garage is right across Main Street. There also is the Cabot Creamery and its visitors’ center where each year up to 40,000 visitors pay to take the creamery tour (educational groups aren’t counted since they are admitted free of charge).
 
To paraphrase a line in the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”
Cabot Cooperative Creamery started in 1919 when 94 dairy farms kicked in $5 per cow and a cord of wood—electricity didn’t arrive until the 1930’s—to get started. They didn’t start making cheese until 1930 and entered their first cheese competition—U.S. Champion Cheese Contest—in 1989 and captured first place for cheddar. In 1989 they also merged with Agri-mark, another New England cooperative, but remain 100% farm-family owned.
 
Major decisions are democratically made by members and included 20-million dollars for a whey processing plant in 2000 and this year approved three million for a reverse-osmosis machine to water content in the whey. This is agri-business done the right way.
 
The Cabot Cooperative Creamery now processes a million pounds of milk and produces 84,000 pounds of cheese a day, 24/7. This includes Colby Jack, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Pepper Jack, American, and Swiss. Their flavored cheeses include my favorite, Pepper Jack, and the 2014 award-winning Hot Buffalo Wing, but what Cabot is most known for is cheddar.
 
In my opinion, Cabot sets the standard for sharp cheddars and these come in sharp, extra sharp, and seriously sharp grades. However, even these have to take second place to their specialty aged cheddars: Alpine, Farmhouse Reserve, White Oak, Artisan Reserve, Vintage Choice, Private Stock, Classic Vermont Sharp, and Clothbound Cheddar. As with almost any food, what is “best” comes down to personal preference, but Clothbound Cheddar did win the silver medal at the 2012 World Championship Cheese Contest and Best of Class in the 2013 American Cheese Society competition; Vintage Choice captured Best of Class in the 2014 World Championship Cheese Contest.
 
Cabot produces a wide range of block cheddars that are aged for two to 36 months. Even if lactose-intolerant you can eat aged cheddar cheese because most of the lactose is removed when the whey is separated from the curd during the cheese-making and any remaining lactose is broken down by the aging process. Cabot products have no additives or preservatives, gluten or gliadin, the rennet is not of animal origin, and most cheeses are certified kosher and Halal.
 
It turns out that White Oak is the same cheese as Clothbound Cheddar, but the difference is that the former is block aged while the later is cave aged at Jasper Hill. Tasting both illustrates the difference between the more costly method of cave aging—where the rind is exposed and develops a bacterial rind—and the modern practice of vacuum sealing 42-lb. blocks plastic to preserve moisture and prevent a rind from forming.
 
Each block is graded by hand and a very small percentage of the best are cut, waxed coated, and sold as Classic Vermont (red wax/aged 8 months); Private Stock (black/16 mo.), Vintage Choice (purple/24 mo.); and Artisan Reserve (red/36 mo.). Certain “reserved” cheeses are only available at the four Cabot retail stores and by ordering online. The Clothbound Cheddar has to be ordered online in quarter-wheel sections. All three are worth the effort to obtain.
 
Cabot cheeses can be found in almost every supermarket and convenience store in the Northeast and they have four retail outlets: three in Vermont—Cabot, Waterbury, and Queechee—and in Portland, ME.
 
From here the trail leads into a region known as The Northeast Kingdom and to one of the most unique cheese producers in the state. I’ll tell you about it next time.
 

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In this episode of the Find Dining Podcast, Tyler Walters of Why Did I Eat This? recommends Angel’s Trumpet Ale House in Phoenix, where Chef Xane Brody serves up fantastic wings.

• Read more about Angel’s Trumpet Ale House on Why Did I Eat This?
• Visit the Angel’s Trumpet Ale House website
• Angel’s Trumpet Ale House is located at 810 N 2nd Street in Phoenix
• Art lovers, check out First Fridays
• Chef Chris Bianco runs Pizzeria Bianco
• Get the donkey wings at The Reef and the suicide wings at Teakwoods Tavern
• Stop by the Luncha Libre food truck
• Chef Nobuo Fukuda can be found at Nubuo at Teeter House
• Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza owns Barrio Cafe and Barrio Queen

Tyler recommends:

• Angels Wings with Honey and Moose Drool Dipping Sauce
• Pizzas
• The Churchill Grilled Cheese
• Pop Tarts

Phoenix Dining Districts to Explore:

• Downtown Phoenix
• Old Town Scottsdale
• Downtown Chandler

Phoenix Food Events:

• Arizona Taco Festival (October)
• My Nana’s Best Tasting Salsa Challenge (April)

Food for Thought:

• Q: What dish was almost named the official state food of Arizona in 2011?
• A: The chimichanga.

Out of the Frying Pan Picks:

• Favorite Place for a Original Cocktail: Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails
• Favorite Barbeue: Joe’s Real BBQ
• Favorite Place to Get a Burger: The Chuck Box
• Favorite Foodie Event: Arizona Taco Festival
• Favorite Place to Get a Chimichanga: Macayos
• Favorite Place for Late-Night Food: Amados Mexican Food

 

See a map of more podcasts.

Brad Weaber is the executive vice president of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. A 25-year meeting industry veteran, Weaber and the team at the New Orleans CVB drive tourism is a $6 billion industry for New Orleans attracting more than nine million visitors annually. We sat down to ask him a few questions about his city…
 

1. What foods is New Orleans known for?

New Orleans is known for food – it is why people travel here, why they hit the gym when they get home, and why they can’t wait to come back. While everything you put in your mouth in New Orleans is delicious, there are some unique dishes that you can only get in New Orleans that you must have while you’re here:

• Gumbo, a melting pot of New Orleans ingredients, it can be compared to what other would consider a stew, served with chicken and sausage or seafood and over rice, but to locals it is much more than that. It begins with a roux and hours are spent stirring and seasoning until it is perfected.
• Jambalaya, a traditional rice dish with bold flavor and perfect spice as well as various ingredients such chicken, sausage, seafood, or any mixture of the three.
• Seafood is featured in virtually every dish. It is boiled, fried, eaten raw or even throw it in an etouffee, a thicker stew seasoned to perfection and chock full of delicious, plump crawfish (or shrimp, depending on the season).
• New Orleans’ version of a sandwich is a muffuleta, a massive and delicious Italian cold-cut sandwich, or po-boy, overstuffed sandwiches served on French bread.



• Red beans and rice are a Monday tradition because that’s when New Orleanians made the dish with leftover pork from +Sunday dinner and could leave the beans to cook all day while they tended to their washing.
• You can’t skip dessert – for your sweet tooth we have beignets (over version of a donut – friend dough covered in powdered sugar), bananas foster, bread pudding, and king cake is available January 6th through Mardi Gras Day, which is March 4th this year.

And the list goes on. For more details and recipes visit our website.
 

2. What are some of the dining districts foodies visiting the city should be sure to explore?

The French Quarter is the city’s most valuable asset. It is where traditions, recipes, and prominent chefs began creating the city’s signature dishes nearly 300 years ago, but the New Orleans culture is spread across the entire cities.

The Central Business District, Garden District, Uptown, Mid-City, Bywater and Marginy neighborhoods have some of the best and up-and-coming restaurants in the city. While the French Quarter will always be a part of anyone’s trip to New Orleans, visitors are venturing out to other areas to discover what the locals get to experience every day.
 

3. Besides Mardi-Gras, what are some of the big food events that happen during the year?

In the spring and fall there is a festival virtually every weekend. We celebrate oysters, creole tomatoes, seafood, BBQ, po-boys and so much more. Here is a complete list and dates.
 

4. Tell us a secret about the New Orleans food scene that we may not have seen in other places.

Locals are passionate about iconic dishes that reflect the city’s historic gumbo of cultures, from African, French and Spanish to Italian, Irish and Southeast Asian. Typical Creole fare is on the rich side – beginning with rouxes or buttery sauce. Because of our geographic location, gulf seafood is everywhere and as fresh as you can get it.
 

5. NOLA was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. What do visiting foodies need to know about the recovery since the storm?

There are now more than 1,300 restaurants in New Orleans, nearly double the number that there were prior to Katrina. Prominent New Orleans chefs have expanded their restaurant portfolio, new chefs have entered the market and there is a creative energy on the dining scene in the city that is unlike anything you could imagine.