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

Our walking food tour combines tasty food tasting, food history, politics, and culture.
It begins with a light breakfast and unforgettable Cretan beverage. Since Arabs, Jews, Venetians, Ottomans, Greeks from Asia Minor, and immigrants have passed through Chania, adding their flavors to the local cuisine, we will follow their trail. We will experience a multi-sensory food event and delectable delicacies from one-of-a-kind specialty food shops while enjoying the opportunity to better understand the culinary history of the city and how the locals eat.

Our walk ends with a dive into the distant past. We will visit the archaeological museum of Chania to view selected cooking vessels and to experience them more in depth as one would taste exquisite old wine. We will then visit either a ceramic workshop, where we will have a chance to enjoy a short lesson in ancient cooking or a local taverna and we will be treated to home-baked bread, made according to ancient baking method- and other fine delicacies of historic Cretan gastronomy.

More in this Country

 

In this episode of the Find Dining Podcast, Giorgos Maltezakis of Cretan Paths talks to us about the food scene on the Greek island of Crete. We discuss olives, cheese, and minotaurs.

• Check out the three-day potato festival in Psychro in August
• Sample some eftazimo (seven kneaded bread)
• Learn the myth of the minotaur before you head to Crete
• You can visit the remains of the palace of Knossos
• Taste some cheese: kefalotiri, anthotiros, mizithra
• Sip some raki (or tsikoudia), the “shnapps” of Crete

 

Food for Thought

• Q: What three food products were the foundation of Minoan civilization?
• A: Olive oil, wine, and barley.

 

Out of the Frying Pan

• Restaurant with the Best View: Swell Restaurant
• Favorite Market: Chania Market
• Baseline Dish: Dolmades
• Favorite Wineries: Dourakis and Tamiolakis
• Favorite Place for Dessert: The Cretan Bakery
• Cretan Paths Tours for Foodies: Multiple  Experiences Tour or the Winery Tour

Thei Zervaki shares her culinary adventures on her blog www.fullybooked.biz, is a regular food contributor for Southern Hospitality Magazine and whets appetites with cultural tastes for her Just Try It column. She also writes for the Huffington Post, CNN Travel, Harbors Magazine and other outlets. Thei is a scout for trendy and weird foods, organizes culinary tours in Greece and Seattle and enjoys a glass of Assyrtiko in hot and humid nights.
 
Thei will be leading a session on specialty foods in the Cyclades islands at the 2014 Food & Travel Expo. We asked her a few questions…
 
 

1. Where should foodies go when they visit Greece?

They should definitely visit Thessaloniki, the “food” capital of the country. The Greek islands offer a unique and rich culinary tradition. Each area in the country has something else to offer so foodies have to do their research and identify first where they want to go and what foods to try.
 
 

2. What foods or dishes should foodies be sure to try when they go?

There are so many tasty dishes in the country and amazing flavors. The difference for Americans who travel to Greece is that they are used to eating Greek food introduced by Greek-Americans which is not exactly the same found in Greece.
 
The traditional dishes that everybody should try is a pita gyros sandwich (made with pork); the Greek salad; the traditional Greek “koulouri”; cheese pie; the real Greek yogurt; ouzo with appetizers for sure. I would have a frappe coffee and I also recommend to visit at least one bakery and one taverna.
 

RELATED: Travel Writing in Greece.

 
 

3. Are there any food events foodies should plan their trip around?

Not really. I would suggest to decide on where to go, then do some research on local food events. Most areas offer culinary tours so this is a good beginning to experience local dishes and ingredients. Greek food has a world reputation based on its qualities and flavors. Try to avoid very touristic areas and buy foods from stores/restaurants popular with the locals.
 
 

4. What’s the biggest difference between the Greek food scene and the American food scene?

There are two different countries in size and food culture. Therefore, the foods offered are completely different. I would say that the Greek food scene is less international compared to the American. The Greek food has been modernized the last decade and has introduced elements from world cuisines however, the core ingredients are always the same- Greek olive oil, fresh vegetables, red meat, fresh fish and wine. Greek people are less open to international dishes and slightly more conservative to trying new foods -probably as most Mediterranean cultures.
 

RELATED: Three Afternoons of Dining in Greece.

 
 

5. What will you be speaking about at the 2014 Food & Travel Expo?

We will explore distinctive flavors, tastes and ingredients of the Cyclades like fava, the yellow split pea, capers, chickpeas, sweet tomatoes, cheeses and pastries not found in other parts of the country. I will share recipes, samples and highlights of Cyclades rich culinary history.
 
 

Highlights from the 2013 Food & Travel Expo

This is the first of a three-part series on Greek cuisine by Christopher Bakken, author of Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek Table.
 

Mesimeriano

In Greece, the most important meal of the day—and usually the most exciting—is the mid-day meal, the mesimeriano.   While it’s possible to translate mesimeriano as “lunch,” that doesn’t begin to get at the concept.  Americans usually treat “lunch” as the sober and utilitarian half hour with which they break up their work-day.  The Greek mesimeriano, on the other hand, rarely begins before two in the afternoon and often lasts for many, many hours. Mezedes, the appetizer-sized plates of Greece, are ordered in abundance and shared around the table.  This occasion for drinking and dining is treated as a ritualized occasion for pleasure, sustained conversation, relaxation and, if the mood strikes, singing.  What follows the mesimeriano is usually not a return to work, but a long, satisfying snooze somewhere in the shade or by the sea.  Most Greek businesses re-open from six to nine at night, once everyone re-emerges from the siesta and returns to waking life.
 
The menu of the mesimeriano depends, in part, on the beverage of choice.  Beer and wine are fine choices (though wine-drinking always feels like a nighttime sport to me), but afternoons in Greece are more typically lit with the brightness of spirits distilled from the grape—ouzo, tsipouro, and raki–as well as the salty, spicy, and fortifying dishes specifically designed to be consumed along with them.
 
I just returned from seven weeks of travel in Greece and I enjoyed the mesimeriano almost every day.  Some were easier to recover from than others: a few mesimeriana didn’t end until it was time to begin thinking about dinner.  Although every mesimeriano felt like an event to be remembered, I’ve limited myself to describing just three of these meals, as an excuse to recommend the restaurants where they happened.
 

RELATED: Sample Christopher Bakken’s Book on Greek Cuisine

 
 

My first Mesimeriano, Heraklion, Crete:  Mezedadiko Peninta/Peninta

Odos 1866, ap. 20.  Heraklion.  Tel: (011 30) 2810 286220
 
Greece’s national drink, ouzo (and also tsipouro—see below), is spiked with anise, is typically diluted with water and ice, and is meant to be sipped.  Ouzo is sweet and fiery and one goes to a place called an ouzeri to sip ouzo and share mezedes.On Crete, however, you drink raki.  Like ouzo, raki is distilled from the by-products of wine making, but this grappa-like rocket-fuel has no anise (confusingly, if you order raki in Turkey, you get something much closer to ouzo).  On Crete, it is poured from chilled carafes into tiny shot glasses and is meant to be downed in one gulp.  The best raki is smooth and clean as glass: the quintessence of the grape.  Since it is lower in alcohol than ouzo, it’s not unreasonable to throw back a dozen or more shots over the course of a meal.
 
The day I wandered into Peninta/Peninta (i.e. “50/50”), I had no intentions of touching the stuff. I’d just arrived on the island that morning, having taken the overnight ship from Piraeus to Crete. My legs were still rubbery from the crossing and my head swam a little, so drinking didn’t seem like a great idea. But I was hungry, which is how I wound up in Heraklion’s central market.
 
As with most Greek cities, some of the best meals are found right in the marketplace, where vegetables, fish, and meat are being peddled just steps from your table. While I was disappointed to see that the Heraklion market had been invaded by tourist shops (all of them selling the same, mass-produced Chinese garbage), I was stunned by the quality of my lunch at Peninta/Peninta.
 
I sat against the restaurant’s back wall, where I found a table bathed in sunshine.   Within moments—before I’d had a chance to order a more sensible beverage—one of the waiters arrived at my table with a “tablecloth” square of butcher paper, a frozen carafe of raki, a thimble-sized glass, and a bowl of tiny Cretan olives.  Seconds later he returned with a small bag of bread.  No, he brought me a small bag of perfect bread—some pieces brown, some white, and some flecked with barley.  All had been made with a wild yeast starter and hailed from the nearby “Touli” bakery, which has kept Heraklion in excellent bread since 1865.  Helpless before these opening salvos of hospitality, I filled my glass with raki and tilted it back, my face to the sun.
 
I don’t really remember ordering about a half hour later, but I ordered perfectly, assembling the essential elements of the Cretan diet before me: grain, greens, fish, and olive oil.  The best organic olive oil in Greece comes from Crete and a bottle of it was there on the table.  It was golden and scratchy and had been pressed from green fruit: perfect with the bread.
 

RELATED: The Top 5 Dishes Travelers Should Eat in Crete

 

To accompany raki, you want something salty, so I ordered a plate of gavros marinatos, fresh anchovy filets lightly salted and marinated in vinegar, sweet onions, tomatoes, and parsley.  For my salad, I got lucky.  Cretans are excellent foragers and they eat a hundred kinds of horta, or wild greens.  But the season for each green is short, since the summer heat demolishes most of the delicate mountain greens.  But they still had stamnagathi on the menu and I was quick to order a plate.  Stamnagathi is a kind of spiny chickory with dark green, crunchy, serrated leaves.  The greens had been trimmed of their root ends and were tossed in lots of that scratchy oil and some coarse sea salt.  A lemon wedge woke them up and I inhaled the whole plate before the sun could wilt even one leaf.
 
When I finished my first carafe of raki and the waiter replaced it, I considered ordering more food.  The menu at Peninta/Peninta offered many other temptations: snails sautéed with rosemary and vinegar; apaki–a smoked pork loin famous in Crete; local sausages lit with garlic; and a nice selection of cheeses.  But I’d eaten right and there was always the possibility of dinner.  When I left the restaurant an hour later my lips were glistening with oil, my land-legs had returned, and my brains were effervescent.

 

This is the first of a three-part series.