Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to save our production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie, I'm going vocal bum and today we have
an episode for you about Buffalo Mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Which is an episode of Long time Coming. Yeah, yep.
We were supposed to record it like a week and.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
A half ago, but then I had Shenanigans and then no,
wait did you have was did I have two Shenanigans?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Multiple?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And then you had Shenanigans and anyway, yeah, so here
we are.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Here, we are. Thank you for your patience as always.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, thank thank thank you all so much.
Thank you, Annie, I thank you, thank.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
You, thank you. Andrew. Oh gosh, yes, thank you, Andrew.
Thank everybody, thank you, thank you. Was there any particular
reason this episode was on your mind? Born? All right?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So I was looking for a cheese episode, and I
was struck by how passionately people were arguing about when
water Buffalo arrived in Italy.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Did warn me about that?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And I was like, I want to learn more about that,
despite the fact that we had already done an episode
on Mozzarella in general and relatively recently, only in March
of twenty twenty two. But yeah, like I just I
felt like there was a lot to this specific variety
of mozzarella that we didn't cover in that episode and
that I wanted to go into, possibly because I was
(01:40):
just craving pizza.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Oh yes, which speaking of that is my main experience
with buffalo mozzarella in the United States. And in fact,
I had a good group of friends of mine come
from outside of Atlanta. We went to Pride this weekend.
O oh yeah, yeah, it was really it was a
really good time. But they were talking about all of
(02:04):
the things that are Atlanta, things that they wanted that
they couldn't necessarily get where they are. And one of
the things they brought up was kind of these like
nicer Italian pizzas that have buffalo mozzarella. That is my
main experience with it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
We do have a few great, like like sort of
upscale pizza restaurants in town that have like you know,
like the traditional brick oven and the whole thing, and
like really high quality ingredients like buffalo mots.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So yeah, yeah, last we didn't get any. I'm on,
I have been looking for where I could get some
of this cheese anyway. You can see our past cheese episodes.
We've done quite a few we've got kind of a
cheese multiverse A this.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, absolutely, it's like we both really enjoyed cheese.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
What that can't be? Well, I guess this brings us
to our question. Sure, Buffalo mozzarella, what is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Buffalo mozzarella is a type of fresh stretched cheese made
from the milk of water Buffalo. It's made by working
the cheese the cheese curd specifically, sort of like a dough,
until it's this mass of soft strings that you then
shape into balls or other shapes and then package in
brine or usually whey. Each palm sized ball will develop
(03:37):
this thin layer of slightly firmer rind on the outside
like tender and chewy but sturdy, and the inside will
stay softer, even more springy, almost but not quite spongy,
almost like a tender piece of meat or mushroom, but
so creamy. It'll be bright white in color. Buffalo milk
is really rich, and you get that low salt from
(04:00):
the brine. Some varieties are smoked and those get a
little firmer and yellowed. It's served in usually savory dishes,
either cool or warm, maybe with fresh fruit or preserves
or tomatoes and herbs. As a snack, maybe with toasted
bread or sliced onto a pizza or chopped into a
pasta or a salad. It melts into these stretchy pools
(04:22):
when it's heated.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's a it's.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
A very rich mazzarella. It's like, uh, it's like kissing
a baby, like right on its soft little cheek. It's
like it's like, oh, yeah, like this is what civilization
is for.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Mm yeah yeah yeah buffalo.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And sorry to storty to like to invoke a baby
in the middle of a food description. We it savored.
Do not do not condone eating babies. That's not what
we're about. Kissing babies. Yes, eating babies. No, okay, anyway,
(05:05):
Buffalo mozzarella does have a protected designation of origin in
the European Union, meaning in order to pulo cheese that
thing you have to make it under certain traditional rules
in this certain traditional area. But first, cheese basics.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So, cheese is.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
A tasty way of preserving milk and condensing its nutrients.
Milk is an emulsion that is a stable blend of
these little globs of fats and stuff spread throughout water
and stuff. To condense it, you just convince the fats
and stuff to clump together into curds so that you
can drain off most of the water and stuff, which
is the way that also works to preserve it because
(05:42):
many microbes like us need water to live. In the
case of buffalo mozzarella, you use a type of enzyme
called rennet and a starter culture of lactic acid bacteria.
Rennet is an enzyme found in the stomachs of baby
ruminants that helps them digest milk by separating it into
curds and whys renn. It can also be extracted from
certain plants or grown in labs using microbes, but in
(06:05):
this case you're using animal rennet. Lactic acid bacteria are
bacteria that eat sugars in milk and excrete acids, which
also makes curds clump up for complicated reasons that you
can see our Cheddar episode about, but I'm not going
to go into them today. So to create the curds,
you heat the milk to specifically between thirty three and
thirty nine degrees celsius that's ninety to one h two fahrenheit.
(06:28):
Then add your start culture and your reddit. It'll coagulate
into curds in way, and you separate out the curds,
and I'm guessing save the way for future starter culture
or for production of like complimentary products like ricata. Anyway,
you then cut the curds into fine grains, which helps
drain more whey. The curds are allowed to rest in
(06:48):
the way for a few hours, allowing time for lactic
acids to develop, and you want that because a lower
mor acidic pH like right around five will help the
curds stretch in the next step, because that's acidic enough
to dissolve some of the calcium phosphate in the milk proteins,
which lets them hydrate more, which keeps them flexible. Speaking
of flexible, next up, you're going to create that stretch
(07:12):
and springiness, and you do that by by mucking around
with the proteins and the curd encouraging them to form
up into these long, flexible parallel chains. So first you
drain the curds to remove as much of the way
as possible. Then you heat them in very hot water,
like at least eighty celsius one hundred and seventy five fahrenheit,
(07:34):
like near to boiling, if not actually boiling, and they
will start to melt and fuse together, and then you
keep taking the mass out and stretching it over and
over again in a single direction like lift and pole,
lift and pole, which lines up the protein strands and
traps fat and water among them in these tiny threadlike
(07:55):
pockets or channels. And this is different from the structure
sure of something like a sheddar, which is more like
a like an even web of proteins and fats, and
also lower moisture. So finally you wind up with this
big mass of cheese, and then you twist and pinch
off pieces with your fingers, which is actually where the
(08:16):
word mozzarella comes from, mazzare, meaning to cut off. The
maker might also twist pieces of the cheese into braids
or other forms. It's then rested in cold water to
set up that firmer outer rind, and then in brine
to add salt. It's then packaged in whey, sometimes with
salt added to keep it soft and moist throughout the
(08:36):
distribution process. The finished mozzarella will be porcelain white in color, chewy, springy, tender, melty,
and in a little bit like milky salty. Yeah, and stretched.
Fresh cheeses are a category called pasta falata In Italian
(08:58):
buffalo mozzarella tastes a little extra rich because buffalo milk
is higher in fat than cow milk. Cow milk covers
around like three to four percent fat, buffalo milk is
more like seven to eight and that pedo dictates that
to be called mozzarella di Buffalo Campana, it must be
made with milk from buffalo raised in particular parts of
(09:19):
the Campania region. Like the official document lists different state
roads as boundaries, and those buffalo can only be fed
on hay, greens and corn that are grown right there.
The milk must begin processing into cheese while it's still fresh,
within sixty hours of coming from a buffalo. The rennet
used is calf rennet harvested in the area, and the
(09:42):
starter culture is way that's left over from previous batches
of mozzarella. It must be packaged immediately where it's produced.
There's a whole digital record that producers have to keep
for traceability. It's really fascinating in a kind of dull way.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I love it. Oh yeah, we need a miniseries.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Oh my goodness, Yeah, it's the hold up. I really
do want to want to do a cheese crime show.
I think it would be great.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Oh yes, cheese crime, cheese crime.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
All of this being said about that pedo. People do
make mozzarella cheeses from buffalo milk in other places, such
as Egypt, in Brazil like all the time.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So yes, yes, wow? What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Cheese is a nutritionally dense food on purpose, eat a vegetable,
put one on your pizza.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I will say that due to the differences in like
the molecular makeup of buffalo versus cow milk, some people
who are intolerant of cow dairy are able to digest
buffalo milk cheese more easily. Don't take my word for it.
Approach carefully, Approach carefully.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I love it. Well, we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh my gosh, we do. Okay, So in twenty twenty three,
cheesemakers produced fifty five thousand, five hundred and eighty eight
tons of Pdo buffalo mozzarella, which is a fairly stable
amount year to year. That amount represents about seven hundred
and fifty million euros in sales, and they sell about
(11:26):
forty percent of that internationally. There are some one thousand,
three hundred farmers involved in its production and The entire
production chain employs about eleven thousand people.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
As of the twenty teens, Italy is home to about
ninety percent of the population of European water buffalos, most
of which are reared for buffalo mozzarella production. The specific
breed that Italy rears, the Italian Mediterranean buffalo, were about
four hundred and thirty five thousand buffalo strong as of
twenty twenty three. Yeah, not bad doing okay.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
There.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
There is a Buffalo Fest in Naples every year. In
early September twenty twenty four was the eighth annual iteration.
In twenty nineteen they expanded it to nine days. It's
Nine Days of Buffalo Festival. They received some five hundred
thousand guests that year and served tens of thousands of
(12:26):
buffalo dishes, from the cheese to burgers to buffalo ricata desserts.
Gluten Free menu tickets are cheaper by two euro which
I found fascinating because in America everything gluten free is
so much more expensive. But maybe they were guessing that
you just wouldn't be eating the pizza, so you're just
eating the peer cheese. So I don't know if you've
(12:48):
been I have questions. Right In a production of buffalo
mozzarella increased by over twenty six percent from twenty thirteen
to twenty seventeen. Intensive farms are able to get some
eight liters of milk per buffalo per day, which is
a bunch because this milk is also again higher in
(13:12):
fat and protein than cow milk. It only takes about
four liters of milk of buffalo milk to produce a
kilo of cheese. Cow's milk requires like two to three
times that much milk per kilo of cheese.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
One.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, yeah, one large production center tore Lubara. Sure, I
might have just pronounced that in a Spanish way, but
here we are. They produce eleven thousand pounds of buffalo
mozzarella a day. What it's a large, large industry. And yeah,
(13:45):
this one cheese represents about fourteen percent of the gross
domestic product of the Campania region, accounting for right, yeah,
some eleven thousand jobs. Wow, so popular, I could say,
sort of a big deal.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, sort of a big deal. Confidently can say, okay, okay,
well there is a history of people arguing about it though.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Oh gosh, and heck, yeah there is and we are
going to get into that as soon as we get
back from a quick break forward from.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank
you again.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
See our past cheese episodes, especially Mozzarella. But yeah, the
general story about cheese is people wanted to preserve milk.
Cheese was a good way to do it. It may or
may not have been a totally accidental discovery based on
environmental factors, or hiding mistakes from royalty, which is a
(14:56):
popular legend that comes up all the time, or like
somebody fell in love yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah and either forgot the cheese or yeah, yeah, yes.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
There's a lot of legends about cheese and a lot
of food products we talked about that have a familiar ring.
But anyway, when it comes to what you mentioned, Lauren,
the arguing about the water buffalo, Oh my goodness. Okay,
So the water buffalo, sometimes called the Asian buffalo, originated
(15:32):
in Southeast Asia as far back as twenty five hundred PCE.
How precisely these buffalo made it to Europe is the
source of a lot of speculation and disagreement. What we
do know is that they were in Italy by the
fifteenth century.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, it is fascinating to me. Okay, so like so like.
Did Hannibal bring them when he invaded Rome in two
hundred BCE? Did the Crusaders bring them back from the
Middle East in like six hundred CE. Perhaps the Normans
brought them from Sicily in about one thousand CE, where
they had been brought by the Arabs by nine hundred CE.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Nobody knows, Nobody knows.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
What we do know is that it's likely that they
were imported more as working animals than as dairy animals.
Like South central Italy was full of these marshy plains
at the time, and these are animals that are comfortable
with waiting and are also powerful enough to haul heavy
loads or plows and the like.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So right, okay, So, however it happened, they did make
their way to Italy, Some sources trace using buffalo milk
water buffalo milk to make mozzarella in the area back
to the twelfth century. Documentation indicates that monks from the
(16:54):
San Lorenzo monastery offered worshippers on their yearly pilgrimage something
called matza, and many of these early mozzarellas may have
been made with buffalo milk. Some argue, though, that this
cheese was made with cow's milk, not water buffalo, and
so it is not in fact reference to water buffalo cheese,
(17:19):
something I ran into frequently in this outline. In this argument,
farmers turned away from cow's milk to cheaper water buffalo
and goat's milk in the thirteenth century. Still, even other
sources argue that a sheep's milk cheese similar to mozzarella
was being produced in first century CE Rome. Okay, By
(17:45):
the fourteenth century, the cheeses in this family of cheeses
that could survive transportation were being sold in nearby markets
like Naples.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, and smoked cheeses of these types were popular by
this time, as smoking the cheese extended its shelf life.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Right. The word mozzarella in this context first appeared in
an Italian cookbook in fifteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It was written by a cook for the Pope's court.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So fancy, yeah, big deal. Yeah yeah. Mozzarella, though, remained
pretty local for many centuries, but it became popular in
the eighteenth century, perhaps because the Bourbons started breeding water buffalo,
especially in the region of Campania. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Apparently the Bourbon dynasty was really big into agricultural research
in Ferdinand the Fourth specifically set up this dairy for
experimenting with cheese in this region.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, it was a whole thing. Not only was the
dairy used for cheese production, but through crossbreeding, the buffalo
meat became more accessible and popular too. So Yeah, the
unification of Italy in the nineteenth century had a negative
impact on the water buffalo population after large portions of
the wetlands were drained for agriculture. According to some estimates,
(19:09):
the water buffalo stock dropped by up to seventy percent.
This obviously was pretty devastating for buffalo mozzarell production, but
all was not lost. The expansion of rail systems in
the area helped further transport these cheeses to markets that
(19:30):
had never had access to it before. With improvements in
technology and refrigeration, Mozzarella's popularity grew even more in the
twentieth century, particularly in Europe and the United States. American
soldiers returning from World War Two brought back with them
this taste for mozzarella, and we talked about that in
our Mozzarella episode of how it became such a popular cheese. However,
(19:55):
this popularity outstripped the capabilities of the water buffalo population
and farmers, so a lot of farmers turned to cow's
milk instead to meet demand. Again, this argument about.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Which animal is actually coming from which is part of
why there is such a traceable supply chain these days.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes. Yes. Water buffalo were first imported into the United
States in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
In nineteen eighty one, the Consortium for the Protection of
Campania Buffalo Mozzarella was created with the goal of protecting, enhancing,
and supervising this cheese and its traditions. It is certified
by the Italian Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. They
have a research library in Naples and they call it
the Matzteca.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I love this, Yes, I love this excellent, excellent. In
nineteen ninety three, Mozzarella di Buffalo Campania was awarded a
dop of Protected designation of origin.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
In the two Given the popularity of the cheese, other
areas like northern Italy and up into Germany have started
trying to raise water buffalo to make mozzarella type cheeses
and other products. There's also been a push to reincorporate
buffalo meat as like a coproduct of the industry as
currently In many cases, the male calves are slaughtered a
(21:22):
few days after birth.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Right and there have been attempts to produce buffalo mozzarella
in the United States, but it's been difficult and inconsistent,
partly because the climate largely just doesn't work well with
water buffalo here. One of the big names that comes
up in this conversation is writer Sam Anderson, who once said, quote,
(21:46):
the great white whale of American cheesemaking a dream so
exotic and powerful that it drives otherwise sensible people into ruinous,
monomaniacal quest. Over the last last fifteen years, the attempt
to make authentic buffalo mozzarella to nail both its taste
and texture has destroyed businesses from Vermont to Los Angeles.
(22:11):
It seems truly doomed. Wow, honestly, I cut that quote down.
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
The great white whale of American cheesemaking so excellent, oh,
I guess, sort of speaking of yeah, because buffalo mozzarella
goes for a higher price than cow milk mozzarella does.
There is cheese fraud. Of course, there is cheese fraud.
(22:42):
This is probably not happening with that pedio buffalo mozzarella. Like,
there are so many again checks and balances in that
system that sort of protect it.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
But one of the ways.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
That they're trying to protect against it is so researchers
have worked out the like five percent different in the
proteins between buffalo milk versus cow milk, and they found
evidence that over half of packaged products claiming to contain
buffalo mozzarella are at least partially made from cow mozzarella.
(23:16):
Study was done in twenty nineteen, but investigations are ongoing.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Again. We need to show all hilariously cheese crime.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
This year twenty twenty four, Naples hosted the first International
Conference for buffalo mozzarella and milk products. Humans involved in
everything dairy buffalo, from veterinarians to breeders to researchers to
supply chain technicians to actual cheese producers, met to discuss
and connect and collaborate on industry topics. Some thirty research
(23:52):
projects were presented and this happened just at the end
of September.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Wow, people are interested in buffalotrilla. Yes, they want to
learn more.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Agreed, I just read like a lot about buffalo mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah, and I want to learn more. So yeah, I
do too well as always listeners, if you've been to
any of these festivals, if you work in the industry
in some way, oh yeah, just like it, have recipes,
have thoughts. We would love to hear from Always Always Always.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
We do already have some listener mal for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from a quick break. For a
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listener. Man.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I think I was off key on that one, but
I think the both of us were. We're doing a
very impassioned buffalo mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
We were because it's like when you take a bite
into it, Yeah, it's just it's a symphony. It starts out,
it starts out kind of simple and then it has
like the little complex things, but it's just it's a
comforting nice It's just nice. Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Nice, you know, like which be sorry sorry, no, I
kind of prefer it like chilled to or like room
temperature to hot, because I sort of like the the
true of the anyway.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Anyway, Okay, we have a lot of thoughts jeez in
general in general A few yes, so I wanted to
start this listener email. Part of the Shenanigans we alluded
to at the top is I went to Seattle for
almost a week for vacation.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And in the a for vacation. That's great, yes, but.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Of course, so much of our job is hard to
disconnect from, Like I could talk about this and the
stormer talk about this, which is not a bad thing.
But anyway, Listener, Rose, who has been a wonderful supporter
in the past, has Santa's kit Kat bars a Santa
Spiroshki sent me this list of restaurants I should go
(26:27):
in Seattle because she lives in Seattle. Oh yeah, and
I did hit up quite a few of them. I
am very excited to in the future do an episode
about Seattle Kariaki because I I kind of was dismissive
of it at first alive and then I tried it.
I was like, okay, got you there. There was a
(26:50):
lot of things. I had a lot of women run restaurants,
which was amazing. But I got to meet up with
Rose and we went to a restaurant called Kama Neeggie together,
also run by a woman where they make soba in house.
Oh no, they're one of like my memory is saying
(27:14):
to restaurants that meet whatever requirements in the United States,
but a small sample size of restaurants that do it.
And you could see them making, Oh cool the soba
while you're eating. It kind of had like the you know,
wrap around bar situation. That's so cool. Yes, and I
had a lot of amazing things. It was and Lauren,
(27:38):
I'm gonna I'm counting on you or I should have
warned you about this. What's the mushroom? It's my taki,
I believe.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
So.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yes, there was like a lot of things at my
Taki because it's in that area. It's only for a
small amount of time, and I'd love mushrooms, so we
had a lot of stuff like that. There was just
a lot of like fog ra. There's a lot of
duck and I got dipping noodles that had like duck
(28:07):
eatballs u zoo.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That sounds so oh, that sounds so nice.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yes, and it was so good. It was so good.
It was one of those things where I was like
immediately angry after it was over because I was like,
I'm not gonna be able to get this again. I'm
so I know that kind of meal.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I know that kind of meal. Y also like right,
like like really good fresh noodles and just like a
really simple dipping sauce is one of life's most amazing pleasures.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Absolutely so oh and I mean that's truly like the
noodles were so good because otherwise I think it would
It's easy for it. It would have been easy for
it to be kind of bland, but so good. The
dipping broth was so good and I was so mad
after it was over. I was full of satiated and happy,
(28:58):
but I was. But thank you so much, Rose, who
has been here for us.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Oh yeah for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yes, we love we get those kit cat shit. Please
don't feel pressured to see oh no, no, but no yet.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
But it's been frabulous when we've had them to just
go like, oh yeah, hey, hey guys.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
We would get our super producers together, we would divide
them up. It was just really fun. Yeah, fun time.
And Seattle, I was a very I had a great time.
There's a lot of great food there, and I'm sure
there will be in future episodes. Heck yeah, heck yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
A further shout out to Rose for us so so
news update on my household, and that I don't think
i've mentioned on the show before. I obtained a kitten
a couple of months ago. And yeah, and I and
I need to make it clear that that it's it's
(29:51):
it's both. This kitten is an absolute love of my
life and also an absolute pain in my butt. And
she is kind of a little demon Her name is Bruce.
We thought she was a boy at first. It doesn't
really matter. She doesn't understand gender constructs. But when I
first got her, Rose sent me this very nice note
(30:14):
on Instagram, asking.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Very nicely if I needed help, which I did.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, and so so yes, much much appreciated. Bruce appreciates
it too, inasmuch as she appreciates anything that she's not
actively clawing the life out of.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
She's not that bad. It's fine.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
It's where we're getting along to it. She's just a kitten.
She's just like a five month old kitten. And she
has very sharp points. Yeah, she's come always. Oh she has,
Oh she has. Yeah, there are some days when she
doesn't draw blood at all.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I mean, look at that. That's progress. If that's what
I'm hearing she was feral.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's a whole but anyway, okay, yeah, so so very
very cute. You can you can see my Instagram vogel
bomb like vog e l bomb. Yeah, if you want
to see pictures anyway, Yes, so thank you to Rose
for that. Also, EJ wrote when I opened the podcast
(31:26):
app as soon as I got on the train this morning,
my heart started racing when I saw today's episode. Uzu
is my jam, unfortunately not literally, and I knew I
had to write in again just to be clear. Though
I'm more of a yuzou lover than an expert. I
think I've loved uzu even before I knew what it was.
Back when I used to wear fragrances, my favorite one
turned out to have top notes of uzu, lemon and
(31:48):
green peppers. Yeah, so it's no surprise that when I
moved to Japan, Yuzu kush Show quickly became one of
my favorite condiments. Usu is one of those things that
easily tricks me into ordering anything with it on the menu,
especially if it's a limited time only item. However, it's
not always great. Don't get me wrong, It's almost always delicious,
but sometimes they just sprinkle a bit of uzu on
(32:10):
top and call it a day. Not really worth the
upcharge that comes with the limited time label. The first
time I had ramen in Japan was at a ramen
shop in Asakusa, Tokyo on New Year's Eve. Almost all
the shops were closed given the holiday, but I was starving,
so I ducked into this particular spot and had a
wonderful show you ramen topped with some yuzu peel in
the bra. Over the years, I've returned to confirm whether
(32:33):
it was really that good or if I was just
that hungry or nostalgic for a simpler time when Japan
was still new and sparkly to me. I'm happy to
say it still holds up. By the way, their unique
gioza made with chicken and ho do same vermicelli instead
of the usual pork, is fantastic. Also, they consistently use
double yolk eggs, which I've rarely seen elsewhere. Maybe you
(32:55):
could enlighten us on the science behind double yolk eggs
in a future episode. The best easy products are those
where the flavor is introduced subtlely, like yuzu ice cream
or yuzusake. Instantly after listening to the episode, a friend
messaged me saying they're sending me a bottle of yuzusake
from their prefecture. Which culinary gods of providence do I
owe this luck to?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Is it you?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Annie?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
And Lauren?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
A single yuzu fruit doesn't give much juice, so most
of the yuzu juice I find here is mixed with
something else, like lemon juice. Yzu ponzu or any ponzu
is a favorite dipping sauce at home. Whenever we make
nabe Japanese hot pot, there's always some yuzu panzu for
dipping our meats and veggies before eating. Takiyuki is another
dish that pares well with ponzu. While most people enjoy
it with mayo or takayuki sauce derived from worstershire sauce,
(33:40):
some purists prefer it with something lighter, like ponzu or
dashi soup. My favorite east for yuzu is in banking
Filipino flun called letchiflun instead of vanilla. I steep the
milk and yzupeel, sometimes kabosu peel, which brightens the richness
of the egg. Yolks and condensed milk. Finally, yizuboa yuzu
(34:01):
bath is one of my favorite winter activities. Since good
usu can be expensive, I wait for the less than
perfect uzu to go on sale. And yes, I also
use the yuzu from my leche fluan if I remember
to leave some rind on the fruit. I like to
lightly rub the usu on my skin. Whether it has
any real benefits, I'm not sure, but it feels nice
and I end up smelling like yuzu afterward. Savory or sweet.
(34:23):
Yusu and its citrus cousins like kabosu and sudachi are
incredibly versatile and brighten up anything you add them to.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Ps.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
It took me a few days to finish this email,
so I've actually already received the yuzuzake it's called yuzubie
from a Funasaka brewery in Takeyama. Looking forward to having
it with some gioza this evening.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
No listen, EJ. Every time you write it's a roller
coaster of cravings. I was not expecting the yoza to
come in at the end.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh yeah, and especially it's the same kind of like
you're almost mad because like you can't be eating those things. Yes,
I mean, I mean, thank you for making me this mad.
It's a wonderful anger.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
It is. It's an anger that comes from the most
relatable place. I think I want to be eating that.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah, And I'm so happy for you that you get
to eat it.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Yes, Yes, angry at you that you get to eat it.
It's both, it's both, it's both. I do love all
of these Yuzoo notes. A lot of people have written
in about y Zoo, and I love that you've got
the experiences with the drinks, with the sauce, with the baths.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, with the soups, with the just just as across
the board.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
See, this is what I was looking for, because right
I don't have that much personal experience with it. I
feel like I feel like I mostly see it as
a cocktail edition and that's kind.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Of it me too, which is clearly a shame. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah. Also, now I'm interested in double yolk egg science,
so let's figure that out at a later date in time.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
That I feel like that's a very aspirational episode which
we have been on a run of doing.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
We have, we have I don't know if a cult.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Topics.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Yes, I don't know if I'm up for like eggs
slash chickens.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Right, that's that's a lot. That's very much. So maybe
this would actually be good because it's very it's narrow. Yeah, yeah,
there you go. I go. Okay, we'll look in to it. Yes. Well.
In the meantime, thank you to both of these listeners
for writing in for supporting us. If you would like
(36:55):
to write into us, you can Our email is hello
at saberpod dot com. We are also on social media.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.