Good Food
Cast iron skillets, corn, slaughterhouses, Azerbaijani food
Chuck Reece gets to the heart of our love affair with the cast iron skillet. Peggy Lowe discusses the perilous work in slaughterhouses. We talk Azerbaijani cuisine with Feride Buyuran and fermented ice cream with Tyler Malek. Plus: French and Vietnamese spots to try and corn at the market.
By Evan Kleiman • • 58m ListenPhoto courtesy: Salt & Straw
In this episode
7 storiesEscargot, My Car Go...to Spring in Downtown LA
If you’re on the hunt for cuisine Provençal and a menu that epitomizes the essence of summer, motor over to Spring in downtown LA. That’s the word on the street from our favorite food writer Jonathan Gold. He recommends the escargot (more salad than snail), les legumes de saison (seasonal vegetables) and the strawberries with tarragon granita.
Read the story7 minPomegranates and Saffron
In Azerbaijan, “a house without a guest is like a mill without water,” or so the saying goes. You don’t hear about Azerbaijani cuisine every day but Feride Buyuran hopes to change that with her new cookbook, Pomegranates and Saffron: A Culinary Journey to Azerbaijan .
Read the story10 minWe Love the Funk
Much of the food and drink we love is fermented, from beer and wine to bread and chocolate. But what makes a fish sauce ice cream a good idea? The Willy Wonka of Salt & Straw , Tyler Malek, explains how he injects the funkiness of fermentation into his frozen confections.
Read the story7 minCorn and Tomatillo Salad with Crispy Pig Ears
It doesn’t get much more summer than corn-on-the-cob. But don’t be alarmed if you find a worm crawling in an ear, says the chef at Miro , Gavin Mills. Finding little critters in your corn is proof it was grown without pesticides: “I usually try and release the worm back into the wild.
Read the story7 minA Love Affair with the Cast Iron Skillet
“Each time a Southern cook hefts a skillet to the stovetop, he or she is not alone,” writes John T. Edge in A Gracious Plenty. “Trapped within the iron confines of these skillets and stewpots are the scents and secrets of a family’s culinary history.” So where did our love affair with the cast iron skillet begin?
Read the story10 minDangerous Jobs, Cheap Meat
Next, onto a subject that the entire Good Food team spends a lot of time talking about: the price of our meat. In America, we eat more beef, poultry and pork than almost anywhere else in the world and we expect all of it to be super-cheap.
Read the story11 minAll Hail to the Neon Catfish God
We close out this week’s show with a steaming bowl of fish pho and Gustavo Arellano , editor of the OC Weekly and host of KCRW’s Orange County Line. "If someone says they’re going to Taco Bell for an enchirito, I’d throw shade," says Gustavo.
Read the story4 min
