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Sunday, April 29, 2018

Sum It Up Sunday-What a Year!

A year! It's kind of crazy to realize because we've had our heads down, cranking out 30 episodes of our podcast. Technically it hasn't been 365 days. I came up with the radical (some say insane) idea that we would do 3 seasons a year, with hiatus' in between, so that we have some breaks and time to regroup. I suck at math, so it's close enough to a year for me.


I've had a lot of jobs in the past. There was a time in my life when I was a nanny, a librarian, a restaurant manager, an online grocery delivery salesperson, even, yes even, a tea-bagger. (That story for another time kiddos.) Perhaps I'll make a living with this podcast, Something About Food? , in conjunction with the travel/cookbook I'm writing. While on hiatus I'll be finishing the formatting for that and I'll be self-publishing soon.








I used to think, like many of us, that I was awkward and socially inept. Able only to connect with folks by talking about food. Well, guess what? That is exactly what I am doing now. Still awkward, socially inept and owning it. Trying to be better every single day and hopefully helping the world be a better place, even if only in little increments.








The show has been an actual joy to produce. My trusty side-kick and Executive Producer Curtis Endicott has supported this nutty idea and given me a well-needed balance of technical aid and creative confirmation. Duuude! Look what we've done!




Finding folks to chat with hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Every one of my guests is someone I chose to converse with because they interest me. That we are all connected by food is obvious when you listen to these interviews.


We even have two sponsors now! As a confirmed chocoholic, I'm loving that Nova chocolate has joined us. Let Thy Food queso dips mean that nachos can happen anytime, just hope it's not when I'm recording!

Next season is starting to form before we've even hit this hiatus. I am very excited to share a few of the future guests with you.

Photographer Ben Von Wong's artistry isn't only eye-catching and distinct, it also makes you think about the world around you and your role in it.


Vilissa Thompson founded the site Ramp Up Your Voice to create conversations on disability and intersectionality. I'm really looking forward to learning more about her advocacy.


Chef Maiki Le is Executive Chef at Upstairs2, a restaurant in LA. We had very different paths in the food world, but we found a lot of common ground.


Thank you one and all for listening in and joining us at the table. Grab a link and share on social media so we can get more ears, more guests and keep on chatting.

On Facebook: @clarkesomethingaboutfood
On Instagram: @somethingaboutfoodpodcast
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Thursday, April 26, 2018

Good Food News-Sweet Syria

You know what is sweet about this story from Chowhound? All of it.


Khaled and Ruwaida are immigrants from Damascus, Syria who have been living in Georgia for almost two years and have a Syrian cookie enterprise. The idea of “Sweet, Sweet Syria” cookie sales came about during a neighborhood music festival where Ruwaida sold 45 dozen cookies in three hours from a friend’s porch.

Traditional Mamool cookies are made with a ten-step labor-intensive process. It involves shortbread dough, seasoned with orange and rose water, and stuffed with dates, pistachios, chocolates, and coconut. The recipe has passed on through generations.The cookies are delicate, flavorful, yet not too sweet.

Khaled, Ruwaida and their company, Sweet, Sweet Syria invite people to experience their culture one cookie at a time. Yes, please!


Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Two Women Talking

Caitlin Durante is too busy with her own podcast, traveling for comedy, and LIFE to take the time to cook. But she loves to eat, laugh and talk about food, movies, and travel.




Our chat covers all that and pizzas biscuits (a Pillsbury masterpiece) here in Episode 30.


Caitlin Durante is an LA-based comedian, writer, and producer. She is the co-host of The Bechdel Cast, a critically-acclaimed podcast about the portrayal of women in movies, she helps people write better screenplays, and she performs standup all over the country.

Catch all of our conversation here:

On iTunes: http://bit.ly/itunes_somethingaboutfood
On Google Play: http://bit.ly/google_somethingaboutfood030
On Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotify_somethingaboutfood
On Libsyn: http://bit.ly/somethingaboutfood_30
On Stitcher: http://bit.ly/stitcher_somethingaboutfood
On iHeartRadio: http://bit.ly/iheart_somethingaboutfood


An exclusive photo of Caitlin's caketastrophy! And before you judge, we have all been there... or at least I have...



Sunday, April 22, 2018

Sum It Up Sunday-Eat With Me

This food obsession of mine isn't everyone's, I know. There is a part of me, probably the teaching gene that was passed down to me from my mom, that want folks to try things they have never tried yet, not everyone is as adventurous as I am. And it hurts me.


"Don't be crazy", you'll say, or "it's not a problem". But it is for me. Feeding people is my thing. It is how I show my love and build community with the people around me.

I had several successes this past week in Las Vegas. There were taco's (none of them vegan, so I found food elsewhere, but I was very excited to get my pals to dig into Tacos El Gordo),



gelato (and yes I did fill my face with this non-vegan treat)


and pho (because past guest Jazzy Byner recommended Pho Kim Long).


There was a Brazillian steakhouse so the meat eaters could get their fill (and I almost pulled a chair up to the salad bar. I did not take any pics as I was too busy eating my fill of Hearts of Palm, which I never can get enough of).

A major fail happened when I found a great Middle Eastern place to try but forgot to check to see if they were open. User error. And the place I found last minute to fill in for it, was not up to par. Major failure, I felt horrible.

An old friend told me once that we will have thousands, if not millions of meals, if one is a fail, that isn't such a tragedy in the grand scheme of things.

I am trying to take that to heart. There is no perfect. Sometimes we get pretty damn close though.


Thursday, April 19, 2018

Good Food News-Native Lands In Native Hands

In Good Food News: I found an article from Civil Eats about a quarter-acre of land in Oakland, California that is about to return to Native hands, bringing a sense of place and healing to the Ohlone people.


For thousands of years, the Ohlone lived in the area between the San Francisco Bay and the Monterey Bay. When the Spanish missionaries arrived in the 1700s, they brought smallpox and other deadly diseases with them and enslaved and murdered Native communities.

A lot of the hardship in today’s Native communities is tied to their lack of land, say Corrina Gould and Johnela LaRose, founders of the Sogorea Tè Land Trust, which was started in 2012, specifically as a way to return Ohlone land, so that they and others in the Native American community can grow food and have land for ceremonial practices

“It’s important for all human beings to have a connection to the land,” says Gould. With this in mind, she and LaRose are “working on creating places of healing and a space that young people can be on, so they’re not covered in concrete all the time.”

A very green way to bring native people back to their lands.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Sea Captains and Wizards

Brian James O'Connell is a Los Angeles-based actor and teacher who travels the world performing comedy and making films. What I love about this guy is that he enjoys weird and exotic food but at the end of the day BOC still loves Bojangles biscuit.


We got along like gangbusters in “Sea Captains and Wizards”, episode 29 of the Something About Food? podcast.



Brian James O’Connell is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and teacher in Los Angeles. He is a co-founder of the The Pack Theater and currently teaches in their Core Improv and Digital Programs. Brian is the Creator and Executive Producer of WPCK, the Executive Producer of The Deconstruction, Creator and Executive Producer of Big Yellow Taxi, the Executive Producer and Founder of Long Hard Tuesdays, the Executive Producer and Founder of The Lady Invitational and Executive Producer of Genre Night! at The Pack Theater.

You can find him here as well:

Dr. God: http://www.drgodcomedy.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/b3OC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Improv1to1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b3oc/


Yep, those are the famous Bojangles biscuits!

Here is where else you can hear him rhapsodize about his love for them:

On iTunes: http://bit.ly/itunes_somethingaboutfood
On Google Play: http://bit.ly/google_somethingaboutfood029
On Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotify_somethingaboutfood
On Libsyn: http://bit.ly/somethingaboutfood_29
On Stitcher: http://bit.ly/stitcher_somethingaboutfood
On PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/something-about-food
On iHeartRadio: http://bit.ly/iheart_somethingaboutfood 

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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Sum It Up Sunday-Personally, Food

Why we love the food we love is very much a combination of nature and nurture. There is no one thing that will tell us what we like to eat and cook, but rather many influences, some from before we are even born!


When we are taking that nine month holiday in our mother's womb, what she eats during that time sets a course for us. The more varied her diet, the more apt the child will be to try a varied diet later in life. Her hormonal fluctuations might throw a major wrench in the works because what she wants to eat then may change drastically from what she was eating before that baby was just a twinkle in her eye.


Once you are out in the great big world, nurture kicks in as the family will then guide you, for better or for worse. One of my favorite questions to ask guests on the podcast is "When you were growing up, who did the cooking at home?" If one or both of your parents cooked, you are often more apt to cook yourself and to generally enjoy eating.


Not always, though. I have a friend who's mother would come home from work and cook for the family as a duty rather than as something pleasurable. Flash-forward to my friend as an adult- I would cook for her and she just couldn't enjoy the meal because she felt guilty. We found that going out together to eat worked best for us, because she wouldn't feel the guilt and I would feel that sense of community eating around a table with someone that my family instilled in me.


Food is so personal. On the nature side of things, some DNA tells folks that cilantro tastes like soap or that beets taste like dirt. For me, squash is repellent after not wanting to finish a serving of it when very young and throwing up because I was so upset from fighting about it with my mom. To this day just the thought of squash makes my jaw tighten (as it is right now as I type this...ugh...). So, again, a negative nurture influence.


I find the connections we have to food and how it connects us to one another fascinating. It doesn't just fuel our bodies, it fuels our lives and more often than not our relationships with one another.





Thursday, April 12, 2018

Good Food News-Más Fresco

Here is a fresh take on a food stamps program from NPR. The story is about an effort called "Más Fresco", or "More Fresh" in English, to rewards food stamp beneficiaries for buying more fresh produce. Research has shown that affordability is an obstacle to healthier eating for people in lower income brackets.


The University of California, San Diego is administering Más Fresco and studying its results with a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has funded similar efforts in other states, including Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Mexico. The dollars invested in those states have been aimed at inducing food stamp recipients to buy more produce at farmers markets or at mobile markets that visit low-income neighborhoods.

The goal of the four-year program is to improve diets and overall health by making fresh produce more affordable. "We know food insecurity and, unfortunately, chronic disease go hand in hand," says Joe Prickitt, a UCSD dietitian who is senior director of Más Fresco.

An inspiring and healthy way to combat food insecurity.


Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Jam to Uli's Beet

Talking to Uli Nasibova about the flavors and passion she puts in as the creator of her own gelateria is almost as good as eating her gelato.


She is a delightful showcase of exploration, invention and making a way for herself in America on her own terms. A truly flavorful chat in “Jam to Uli's Beet”, Episode 28 on Something About Food?


Uli Nasibova is originally from Baku, Azerbaijan. She moved to the U.S. to attend Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO, where she double-majored in French Literature and Mathematical Economics. She worked in the world of finance for eight years and living in downtown LA,  a rapidly changing neighborhood where she saw that the community needed a frozen dessert café, badly.  She draws inspiration for her inventive flavors from the city the cuisines it represents –from ube jam filled pastries in Historic Filipinotown to black sesame buns in San Gabriel Valley, to that soul-cleansing thom kha gai soup at Jitlada in Thai Town. Uli opened the doors of Gelateria Uli in Downtown  Los Angeles in April of 2014.  Their second location, on West 3rd Street in the Beverly Grove district, opened on August 31, 2017.

Get the scoop here!

On iTunes: http://bit.ly/itunes_somethingaboutfood
On Google Play: http://bit.ly/google_somethingaboutfood028
On Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotify_somethingaboutfood
On Libsyn: http://bit.ly/somethingaboutfood_28
On Stitcher: http://bit.ly/stitcher_somethingaboutfood
On PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/something-about-food
On iHeartRadio: http://bit.ly/iheart_somethingaboutfood

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Sum It Up Sunday-That Ain't Vegan

Oh pastries, how I do adore you. Especially you pain au chocolat. I see you there. Looking all buttery and chocolate filled. How am I to escape your allure? What is it that draws me to you?


Maybe it was the time our mother took to bake cakes, cookies, pies and other assorted baked goods for us when we were young, that sweet, perceptible manifestation of her love for us, following in the very capable flour-coated hands of her mother who could whip up a Napoleon while rarely looking at the recipe.


Perhaps it was getting the bakery next door to me to make brioche dough that I would then wrap around batons of chocolate (after reading about it being the favorite afternoon snack of Parisian school children in a Bon Appetit story when I was the executive chef in a small restaurant in my hometown).


It could have been when I was working at the cooking school in Boulder CO and when the last day of the pastry intensive day would roll around, I would miraculously show up to ask my friend Carol, the instructor, if she wanted me to take the malformed pastries off her hands.


And maybe it was finding delicious pastries all around the world, from New Zealand to Iceland.


Ultimately it is most definitely all of the above. I am well aware that none of them are vegan. And that none of them are cholesterol free, which is why I eat a mostly vegan diet, for my health.


Treating myself isn't the worst thing in the world to do. I balance it out with fruits, veg, whole grains, and plant-based meals 98% of the time.

When I think about the time and skill it takes to make one of these beauties, I relish that and indulge. One of the biggest things I've learned is that you can't kick yourself for treating yourself. I give myself love by eating right AND by taking down an "Oh Mon Dieux" in Montreal.

I hope we can all give ourselves a break, some slack. Let go of the rigid and be more fluid in our self-care. Get out there, Oh Hungry Hordes, and go do you.


Saturday, April 7, 2018

WZOZ Interviews Something About Food?

I've known my pal Leslie Ann for eons. We grew up together, were on sports teams together, members of her family dated members of my family. You know, we know each other.
She's been doing her thing as a radio DJ in Oneonta NY since forever as well. She interviewed me on WZOZ and I got to chat about where food has taken me from growing up in Gilbertsville, NY.











Thursday, April 5, 2018

Good Food News-Cuba’s Underground ‘Paladares’

A few months back, Eater had an article about the paladares,  or underground restaurants, in Cuba.


Using the meager ingredients the government rationed out, Cubans started serving “survival fare” at these small, private restaurants that popped up inside homes in Havana and other cities across the country.

One owner described how the supply market came to her. “The ingredients found me,” she says. “When word got out we had a restaurant, strangers came knocking on our door selling anything from lobster to chicken to floor mops. They sold to survive; I bought to survive.”

A great story about "an underground subculture that eventually went mainstream out of necessity".


Tuesday, April 3, 2018

A Cuppa Conversation

A technical glitch messed up the first interview I did with England born-Boulder CO residing Rabbi Marc Soloway. But he graciously sat down over a cuppa and a biscuit for a redo.


 We talked about how food traditions carry on through the generations, bike rides through Israel for the environment, and Indian buffets in “A Cuppa Conversation”, Episode 27 of Something About Food?



Rabbi Marc Soloway has been the spiritual leader of Bonai Shalom in Boulder, CO. since 2004, after leaving behind an acting career in his native London.  Marc is part of a Jewish community goat-milking co-op and a chicken co-op, and was honored in the Obama White House in 2015 as a "Champion of Change - Climate Faith Leader."  Marc hosts a podcast "A Dash of Drash", weekly reflections on the world through the lens of Torah, here on iTunes and here on Soundcloud.


Pour yourself a cuppa tea and listen to the episode here:




Sunday, April 1, 2018

Sum It Up Sunday-Be My Guest

I had no idea what I was getting into when I began this podcast. Listening to WTF or Wait, Wait... Don't Tell me gave me a smidgen of insight into where I wanted it to go, but who did I want to invite? Many of my friends and acquaintances are interesting folks who I knew I wanted to have on as guests because I was really was curious to see how food is a part of their lives.


What I didn't reckon with is that not everyone has the time or the desire to be interviewed. Rather than take that personally, I saw it as an opportunity for me to branch out and do what I call "punching above my weight class". What that means is that I'm contacting a large number of folks, who are in incredibly diverse careers and who may happen to be very well known.

About 1 or 2 of every 20 I ask, say yes. And that, I think, is a pretty good percentage.

It was through nepotism (using my brother's friendship with Brian Boitano) that I chatted with an Olympic Gold Medalist...


I was eating so many of the baked goods from hometown pal Heather Covington that I almost felt she owed me an interview...almost...


Reading an intriguing story about Afghani Veteran and entrepreneur Kimberly Jung who co-founded a spice company with fellow vets, got me asking her to chat.


Ultimately whether they are a Salvadoran Poet...


... a Trinidadian American Plumber


... a doctor of physics...

... the first Asian-American GM of an NBA Team who is a food blogger...


... or an old buddy who is all about Improv...


... they and many more have all helped me learn more about food, the world and how we are all connected by what we eat. The hunger-inducing conversation continues and I hope you'll invite folks you know to listen in and join us at the table on Something About Food?


All of our Episodes can be found here:
On iTunes: http://bit.ly/itunes_somethingaboutfood
On Google Play: http://bit.ly/google_somethingaboutfood026
On Spotify: http://bit.ly/spotify_somethingaboutfood
On Libsyn: http://bit.ly/somethingaboutfood_26
On Stitcher: http://bit.ly/stitcher_somethingaboutfood
On PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/something-about-food
On iHeartRadio: http://bit.ly/iheart_somethingaboutfood