April 16, 2021 • 39 mins
This lime-green culinary nut partially deshells itself when it’s ready for us to eat. Anney and Lauren shake down the history and science behind pistachios.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about pistachios, which I don't have a lot of
experience with this either. Uh well, this was a listener's suggestion,
wasn't yes, yes, okay if you have suggested it. Yeah,
(00:30):
And when you I think it's a it's been a
while since somebody suggested it. Because when you you put
it up there as like maybe we'll do this one.
I laughed out loud because it felt so out of
left field to be well, one of my best friends
loves pistachios, like if we go on trips together, that
is the snack. That and eminem peanuts, which yes, so good. Um,
(00:53):
which after doing the research for this makes sense because
her family is from iran Um and we'll get to
do that later. My co host ever on Sincy, Samantha,
she has what she calls a graveyard of pistachio shills
in a tub on her desk. She I told her
we were doing this episode, and she went out of
her way to explain the whole situation to me as
(01:14):
to why this exists, and she was like there are
still pistatios in there, you just have to search them. Yeah. Yeah,
And I really I vividly remember those Stephen Colbert commercials
for pistachios where he would like crack open his head
and then there's a pistatio. Dun know. I freaky missed
(01:36):
all of that. But okay, Stephen Colbert, that's cool. Uh yeah,
I I love a pistachio. I will say that they
are a fairly frequent snack for me there. You know,
they're like a little bit on the pricey side. I
feel like they're like my like special occasion snack. Yeah.
But uh but my my main association with them involves
(02:01):
a shout out to my friend to for Payne, who
wrote this beautiful screwball horror drama stage play that's about
like intra community l g B t Q bigotry and
how damaging it is when bigotry is well meaning microaggression
(02:21):
kind of stuff. And it's just one of the most
romping lye upsetting things I've ever seen. And the connection
point here is that it has just like the most
romantic scene involving a pistachio farming conversation that could possibly
exist on stage. Your page. Um. Uh but um when
(02:47):
when live theaters get back to it? And uh and
and if one near you puts up this show, I
definitely think you should look into it. Um. The name
contains a cuss word that I would not normally say
on air, but it is you us in in the
manner of all of this discussion about these issues. It's
called angry fags. So yeah, highly recommend. It is definitely
(03:11):
not for not for little ones, but um, but it is. Oh,
it's so upsetting and so good. So anyway, I can't
think about the stasia good. I can imagine flipping over
like the playbook, roppingly upsetting. Yeah, Toford, that's that's for you.
(03:34):
Feel free love it definitely romance Little Pastagio Farmer was
not where I thought this episode was gonna go. But
every episode is a beautiful. It's like you're cracking open
a pastachio right right, which is actually why I don't
snack on them that much, because you know I would
never I don't associate myself with laziness. But if I
(03:58):
make this calculation that the effort is not worth the
final product, then and I struggle with pasta. I don't
know if I never figured out the method. I don't know.
There's a there's a real there's a real good trick
for using Once you get one open, you can use
it to kind of pry you can use half of
one of those to kind of pry open the rest.
(04:19):
There's a trick, all right. But but also you can
look at videos online. It also does help if you
have nails a little fingernails a little bit you do not. Yeah,
but I actually like that they're a little bit difficult
to open sometimes because I feel like it slows down
my smacking rate, because otherwise I'm the like grab an
entire handful of popcorn and try to fit it all
(04:41):
into my face at the same time kind of girl.
And I feel like I feel like that's an urge
that I should curb popcorn. Popcorn is a different category.
It is. It is like, this movie is tense. Let
me see how much popcorn I can show? Is uh? Anyway,
(05:07):
we're not talking about pop were today. We're talking about pistachios.
We are, so let's get to our question. Pistachios. What
are they? Well? The pistachio is yet another example of
a culinary nut that is not botanically considered a nut
(05:27):
that how many if I have a nut mix, how
many of those are nuts? I feel like I have
my whole life, I've been lied to. I feel I
think it's very few, very very but it is. It
is instead the seed of a type of fruit called
a drupe. And we've talked about other culinary nuts in
(05:50):
this category, yes, a cashews and pecans um, as well
as other drupes like nutmeg and olives and peaches, and
in some cases like olives and peach, is a droope's
fruit is what you're interested in. In others, it is
the seed that's tasty um. And in the case of pistachio's,
you're you're dealing with um, a fruit that has this
(06:10):
this thin layer of greenish yellow to red fruit surrounding
a stiff shell, not quite papery, more like paper boardy,
you know, a little bit little bit stuff, a little
bit difficult inside that shell. The seed um as it
matures will grow larger and larger, filling the shell out
as the season continues, and when they're ready for harvest,
(06:31):
the seeds will loosen inside of those shells, and the
shells will split partially open um and apparently whole orchards
will split open over the course of a single night.
And this is where that romantic farming conversation comes in,
because the one character in the play is describing it
as this kind of sound and then all of a sudden,
(06:52):
you got all of these and it's really beautiful. Ah.
That does sound lovely, right ah. Anyway. Statue trees are smallish,
growing to about sixteen thirty two ft and are either
male or female, and the flowers don't produce nectar, so
(07:13):
they don't attract bees and other pollinators. Um. The pollen
has to spread by by wind or by hand, usually
by wind. These trees like long, hot, arid summers and
cool winters. They're often planted close together for better pollination
and use of resources. UM. So when the seeds mature
and those shells split, they usually stay right on the trees,
(07:33):
and farmers will lay down tarps and then physically shake
the trees to get the nuts to drop. The thin
fruit is then rubbed away and the seeds are often
um roasted and seasoned and sold right in those creamy
white shells. Um. This is one of the only nuts
that you can season in shell, which is why d
shelled statues are so expensive. These seeds themselves are covered
(07:57):
in this. A thin red to brown skin would maybe
peeled off to reveal the lime green nut underneath, very
striking color. The trees are a member of the Cardiacia family,
which means that they are related to mangoes, cashews, pink peppercorns,
and poison ivy and oak and poison sumac yep, oh,
(08:23):
poison ivy. I got some bad memories of poison ivy. Oh.
I am lucky to have never had a poison ivy episode,
but I get that calumine lotion. Oh no, I've had
embarrassing all kinds of bug stings, though, so I feel
(08:44):
like I'm karmically balanced. You think I don't know. I
will never forget one time I made a deal with
a lop. We had a deal and he stung me right,
Oh no, he flew at me. We had a deal. Wasp.
(09:07):
That's gonna let you live these untrustworthy wasps. I'm telling you,
I was like nine years old and that happened, and
I have not forgotten. M hmm. I mean it's it
is well known that the wasps are jerks. Uh yeah,
come on, we weren't even close to me. That's what
(09:30):
blows my mind. I don't want to get to this beef.
I have to wasp. But he was far away. He
had to come at me, you know, you know, I
still I still remember that the the bee walk that
they taught us when we were doing that video episode,
and we listened a bunch of bee hives for because
we were talking about honey and uh, and they were like, yeah,
(09:51):
sometimes bees are just attracted to the color of your
shirty or shampoo or something like or the center of
your shampoo. So so just kind of, you know, walking
wobbly circles and eventually they'll get bored. It was quite fun,
and I think about that every time I see a
(10:11):
b I'm like, do I need to initiate wobbly circles?
Initiate wobbly circles? And everyone around you was like, oh, dear,
at any rate. Pistachios um. Not all species of pistachio
trees produce edible nuts or reliably produce edible nuts um,
(10:35):
but some, like the Pistasia chinensis, are planted as ornamentals
due to the beautiful foliage that they get in the fall.
They'll go all red and orange before dropping their leaves
for the winter. Wow, what about the nutrition. Pistachios are
(10:55):
pretty good for you. They've got a lot of protein
um even compared with other nuts, plus fiber, a good
spread of unsaturated fats, lots of vitamins and minerals, a
little bit of carbs too, so they will both fill
you up and help keep you going. As with all nuts,
they are colorically dense, so watch your portion sizes um.
But in general, research has indicated that replacing like more
(11:19):
processed foods um with a controlled amount of pistachios can
help reduce risk of stuff like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes,
maybe even cancers and brain diseases. So I would say
that overall, incorporating them into your diet by replacing less
healthy foods um is a great a great plan. Are
(11:39):
a great snack. I'm not unsure unclear whether this was
my data has been mined by Google. Are just a
weird circumstance, But today I received an email. We get
a lot of like cold marketing emails for our job,
and I got one about the health of the pistachio
and it was like just fifty bullet points. It was
(12:01):
a lot. I did not bet them for but yeah, yeah,
I'm also you know, I'm not I'm trying not to
linger on this topic too much, but I'm getting angry
and angry about this wasp thing because I remember I
had I had a wasp nest in my room and
I would wake up in the morning I have like
thirty wasp in my room, and my dad would come
(12:23):
in and we didn't kill them. We would get to
little tweezers and let them out, and we were we
were trying to be kind to the wasp. Why all right,
we do have some pastachio numbers for you. We we do.
We totally separate from unappreciative jerky wasp. Sorry, I'm grateful, No, no,
(12:51):
I appreciate that the twenty plus years later, this this
wasp is you know, you know you just don't you
just you just you just you hope for better. You
hope for better from people and insects. Yeah, so numbers wise,
(13:15):
numbers numbers on pistachios. Yeah yeah, Um, the United States
in Iran are the world's largest producers of pistachios. Um. Yeah.
They kind of go back and forth over who holds
that the American pistachio industry produced over nine hundred million
pounds of pistachios in California is by far America's largest producer. Yeah,
(13:38):
oh yeah. Um. Production in the United States increased um
from nineteen seventy seven with four million pounds too. Yes,
over nine hundred and eighty million mm hmmm. The United
States Agricultural Research Service in Davis, California, has a living
botanical library, or at least it as of two thousand five,
(14:01):
with over seven d and fifty pistachio trees from ten
different species and hybrids. I know, right, I want to go.
I want to visit right now. Um. It takes trees
about a decade to mature, a decade or two to mature,
but after that they can produce as much as fifty
pounds of a holed nuts per year that's about twenty
(14:22):
three kilos. And researchers with the University of California have
called the pistachio the single most successful plant introduction to
the United States in the twenty century, which is amazing, right, yeah,
and it happened, I mean relatively recently, all of this
(14:44):
in the United States. It did. Yeah, yeah, And we
are going to get into the long history before that.
Plus the recent history of this. As soon as we
get back from a quick break forward from our sponsor
and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you, And
(15:06):
I have more thoughts about wasp. Uh, this is the
wasp show. Now it's called wasp stuffs. Just be complaining
about about this one wasp, not even all wasps that punk.
No no, no, no, all right. Um So pistachios. Historians
(15:32):
have gone back and forth about the origins of the
pistachio tree. Nowadays, they think that pastachios have been growing
in the Middle East and or Central Asia for thousands
of years at least. Archaeological digs in northern Iran and
Uzbekistan revealed pistachio shells and settlements dating back to Remains
of pistachios in Afghanistan and Iran are even older, going
(15:55):
back to six thousand BC m The Old Testament mentions
pistachios and positively nonetheless it's like a as like a
rare gift. Yeah, Sashia's have a long history and what
was Persia modern day Iran. The story goes that the
Queen of Sheba was a big fan of them, declaring
(16:15):
that all pistacio has grown on lands she controlled belonged
to her and those on her court. True or not,
people have been eating them and using them for medicinal
purposes for thousands of years. Some records even indicate that
they were Sometimes you'd as aa, I read that couples
(16:36):
in Persia would perhaps sit under pistacio trees and if
they heard a nutcracking, yeah, that meant good fortune was
in store for their relationship. And now I'm like, is
this where tofur got that from? Heck? Follow up question right,
Alexander the Great rock Stacio's back with him to Greece
(16:56):
and three hundred BC Greek philosopher THEW. Frost Is described
pistachio Sometime around around that same time, he wrote up
the Pistachio Tree that it quote bears nuts only as
big as almonds, and they closely resemble almonds in appearance,
except that the shell is not rough, and in savory
and sweetness they are superior to almonds. Therefore, yeah, the
(17:18):
people of the country use them in preference to almonds.
And this comparison to almonds seems to have been a
common occurrence in Europe. A second century BC Greek poem
about plants that provide protection from scorpion stings, which I love.
But this is a poem I know, I got some
(17:39):
stories about scorpions too. Pistachios are compared to almonds in
this poem, and that was also the first instance of
the word pistachio being used in the Greek language. In
the first century CE, physician Dioscarieties wrote about the medicinal
benefits of pistachio goes. Under the reign of Roman Emperor Tiberius,
(18:03):
pistacios made their way to Spain and Italy. By the
first century C, pistachios were in northern Africa and China.
China started cultivating them in tenth century CE. Several written
records out of Europe praised the taste of pistachios, and
they all seemed to indicate that they were primarily grown
in Syria at this time, or at least that's where
(18:26):
the Europeans thought they were coming from. There are no
records that the tree itself, at least in the commercial sense,
existed in Greece until the nineteenth century, for instance, so
a lot later, during the Middle Ages, with the spread
of Islam and Arab traders, cultivation of pistachios grew, as
did the market for them. Central Europeans called them the
(18:47):
Latin penny nuts since they arrived through Italy. Uh huh.
At the time, pistachios could be quite pricey, and we're
often used as a baking ingredient, like to really fancify
your parents. Yeah. The first recorded pistachio orchard in Greece
was established in eighteen sixty in Athens. Pistachios were a
(19:09):
popular imported snack in America in the eighteen eighties. Middle
Eastern immigrants in particular were big consumers of them. People
could find them in vending machines at bars or restaurants
and other spaces like that. Apparently, a common slogan for
them at the time was a dozen vernicle cool. The
first pistachio tree was planted in America by the USDA
(19:30):
in nineteen o four, and farmers did grow pistachios in
the United States and California in particular. American botanists and
so called plant explorer William E. White House went to
Iran to gather twenty pounds of individually chosen pistachios about
ten kilograms in nineteen thirty. He brought them back to California,
(19:51):
where he planted them, and yes, it took a decade
for white House to see results, and unfortunately for him,
only one of the nutes he'd chosen was successful. And
he did didn't know what type of tree did come from.
He had picked it up from a pile of drying
pistachios and the orchards of a well known pistachio growing
family in Iran, so white House gave the tree the
(20:11):
same name as city near where he found the nut, Kerman.
Through experimentation and propagating with tougher root varieties, the American
pistachio industry was born. The popular violine of all this
is that the American pistachio industry traces back to one
Iranian seed. In nineteen seventy seven, white House received the
(20:33):
very first Pistachio Association's annual achievement by it to industry Awards.
I Love It. Pistachio plots spread through California in the
nineteen sixties, and soon after pistachios were being grown in
Arizona and New Mexico. By nineteen seventy six, the American
pistachio industry was producing one point five million pounds of postachios.
(20:56):
Same time, Americans were snacking on twenty million in pistachio
is imported from Iran, often died red to cover up
any flaws, or perhaps the practice of dyeing the red
started as a way to stand out fingers and mouths
dyed red or a sign of a pistachio snacker. I've
also heard as an alternative origin story for this that
(21:18):
um that traditionally producers in Iran would brine whole pistachios
with the fruit still attached, and since it's a reddish fruit,
that would partially dye the shell this pinkish red color UM.
And so therefore some either um importers into America or
American producers trying to do like a copycat product, would
(21:40):
die their product red to reproduce that color. But mystery's history.
Mystery's history. I've never heard of this, but I will
tell you the Internet informs me that some people are
very nostalgic, very nostalgic. Yeah, yeah, this was this was
slightly before my time. I think I remember seeing red
pistachios and stores, but like when I was very young,
(22:03):
too young to be like I'm going to get that
pistachio right, So yeah, I feel like I've seen it
in terms of like when the Christmas holiday comes around
and it's red and green everything I've seen, but I
just assumed it was Christmas ms. However, all of this
um importing of Iranian stachios came to a halt with
(22:25):
the Iranian hostage crisis in nineteen seventy nine, and the
US is subsequent full trade embargo on goods from Iran.
American producers stepped in to meet demand, really jump starting
the industry in the United States. That year, the New
York Times published this quote, this California pistachios brought to
you courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service and the shaw
(22:48):
of Iran. Yeah, once the US reopened trade with her
on in, American pistachio producers successfully petitioned the United States
International Trade Commission to impose a two D and FOURT
special import duty on unshelled Iranian pistachios. Might it's high.
(23:13):
In two eight the U s sur past Iran as
the largest producer. Though Yeah, like I said, they kind
of bounced back and forth since then. Oh and then
this growing popularity of pastacio's made way for pistachio ice
cream in the US, which is my brother's favorite flavor,
and I read a couple of articles. I don't really
get like any official numbers, but said that a lot
of people are introduced to pistacio's this way in the
(23:35):
United States through pistacio ice cream. I think that that
was I'm pretty sure that was my introduction to it. Yeah,
makes sense, delicious. Yeah. Stepping back a bit, Australia's commercial
pistachio industry kicked off in the nineteen eighties. In MPR
reported on a story around how a large number of
(23:58):
California pistachio trees work shooting blanks, which means producing empty shells.
In some orchards, up to of the crop were blanks. Generally, Yeah,
generally pistacio ger anticipates about ten percent planks. So that
was a huge joke. Drought, heat and unusual weather are
(24:18):
believed to be the most likely culprits. And now food
ice Yes, you really never know. I love it every
time with the past, but yeah, um, the world's the
most prized variety of pistachio, the green pistachio from Bronte, Italy,
are so sought after that during pistachio season in Sicily,
(24:40):
the pistachio orchards are protected from thieves by police with
a police helicopter on hand, twelve per orchard. Of some
cases police pistachio popters. This is great. I mean, I
mean thrilling. I can't really play a moral qualification on that,
(25:02):
but thrilling. Definitely thrilling in terms of pistachios. According to
the BBC, one kg or two point two pounds of
these unshelled pistachios could run you about fifteen point fifty
euros or seventeen dollars and forty cents, twice what the
pistachios from the US are ron cost, earning them the
(25:23):
nickname Cecily's Green Gold. They account for only one percent
of global production and of that is exported um and
they are a controlled designation of origin products. In two
thousand nine, thieves made off with about four thousand, six
hundred euros worth of product in today's money, resulting in Yes,
this police presence around the crop in harvest years, which
(25:45):
is every other year, I believe. Yeah, it tends to
be um like like some other fruiting trees, pistachios um
will have one really bumper year and then one kind
of rest here m all year. Turkey also takes their
pistachios very seriously. It's a key in the classic Turkish
(26:06):
dessert black Clova. Due to civil and rest in climate,
the pistachio market for Turkish grown pistachios can fluctuate wildly,
but generally the yield is relatively small and the price
is high. This has led to pistachio thieves and even
a so called pistachio mafia and a pistachio black market.
(26:27):
Adult male growers keep a loaded shotguns nearby, and farmers
and thieves have been killed in this. Yeah. Yeah, um
and uh sort of going back to the NPR story
that you mentioned. Um, as with much of the produce
that we discuss, Yes, pistachios are having a harder time
(26:49):
because of climate change. Um. Many many trees, not just
pistatio trees, but many trees in general, and other plants
in general need cool winters to trigger storage of nutrients
and then change from cooler temperatures to warmer temperatures in
the spring to trigger blooming. Um. And when you don't
get that, you don't get as many flowers. And and
(27:11):
with some plants like statios, you might get male and
female trees blooming at different times, which is trouble. Researchers
at CSU are working on ways to help farmers like
wake their trees up in the spring artificially, and there
are other efforts to breed new varietals of trees that
(27:32):
can fruit without those cool winters. Um, you know, research
is ongoing, but you know, fingers fingers crossed. Yeah, do
what you can to help prevent climate change and preserve pistachios.
Preserved pistachios. That's a fun word to say to UM. Yeah, yeah,
(27:57):
once again every time I'm like, sure, we're not going
to be talking about police helicopters, but I guess so.
Of course, yeah, of course, of course that's yep. Crime
lives everywhere, even even in pistachio orchards, even in pistachio orchards.
(28:20):
Well that's what we have to say about Pistachio's phone.
Now it is UM and we do have some listener
mail for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor. And we're back.
Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, we're back with listener
(28:48):
that it was a fun one that was exciting for me.
Did you startle yourself. Annie, Oh, I am very easily
startled everyone. This is true, This is true. I detect
(29:10):
no lie. Um. Yeah, I recently dogs that for a
friend of mine, and I mean every two minutes. Startled
all right, Devon wrote, I loved the most recent Listener
(29:31):
Mail episode, and when one listener suggested Cincinnati style chili
as an episode, my mind instantly started thinking of some
regional dishes that are popular in my home of upstate
New York. First, I don't think there's enough for a
whole episode about salt potatoes, but I have some fun
stories about these. They are small, round, white potatoes that
are boiled in salt water and eaten covered and melted
butter um. They're perfect for summer barbecues. As the story goes,
(29:55):
back in the day in Syracuse, New York, a lot
of Irish immigrants worked in the salt mines and would
bring potatoes for lunch. It came time to eat, they
throw their potatoes in boiling water, but since they were
surrounded by salt, it created saltwater and thus salt potatoes.
One last fun story about these. When I was in
high school, I worked at a grocery store. Apparently an
out of State New Hire and the produced Department thought
(30:16):
he uncovered a secret drug smuggling operation inside bags of potatoes,
but it turns out that it was just bags of
salt for salt potato. Secondly, this is a regional dish
that I hate, and somehow it has followed me from
upstate New York. This is specific to Utica to Delaware,
where I currently live. Tomato pie. It looks like a
(30:39):
rectangular pizza with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and it
is served cold room temperature. The first time I ever
had it, I mentioned to my fiance that I wasn't
a fan and I'd probably like it better fresh and warm,
so the dough isn't saggy, and he told me it
was meant to be that way anyway. I would love
to get to the bottom of how this abomination came
to be and how it's sohow regional to two different areas. Lastly,
(31:03):
my favorite garbage plate. These are most popular in Rochester,
so whenever we go there to visit friends, we always
get one. I'm not from Rochester, so my definition may
be off, but to make them, you start with some
sort of potato hash browns tater tots or French fries
and some sort of pasta macaroni and cheese or pasta
saled and topped them both with mustard onions, a meat
(31:23):
chicken nuggets, hot dogs or hamburger patties, American cheese, and
top the whole thing with a meat based hot sauce.
They're really customizable, so that makes it a little difficult
to nail down one definition, but the hot sauce is
the key factor. They're absolutely a once a year type
of a meal, but they are amazing. At one point
the Rochester Airport had and it might still be there,
(31:46):
a garbage plate restaurant and we got those to bring
on very fine. It was not a good idea. Thank
you both so much. With God, I love listening to
it and I've even got my fiance to love it
as well. Side note, I was also able to get
him to enjoy Sminty by way of Addy and her
love for the Last of Us. He loves it so
much too, and he even likes Abby. Yes, it's hilarious
(32:10):
that you say that, because I know joke. Got a
message from my boss and he was asking me if
I could talk about this new segment we're doing which
is fictional women around the world for stuff I've never
told you, and I said, yes, but right now it's
currently only an excuse for me to talk about the
Last of Us because there's only been two of them,
and it's on two people from the Last of Us.
(32:33):
And he was like, are you sure you're not driving
people away? And then you sent this email Devon and
I sent it to him. I was like, have one
anecdotal So thank you for letting me have those moments. No,
that's wonderful, and all those foods sound wonderful. They would.
(32:55):
I love this regional stuff. I truly, truly do. Oh
oh absolutely where you know, you travel like like fifty
miles away and you're like where all the garbage plates
and everyone there is like the heck is a garbage plate?
But yeah, I am confused and delighted anytime that both
potatoes and pasta are involved in the same dish um
(33:20):
And I want to try this immediately. Oh yeah, we're
definitely gonna have to make that happen. I do think
it is a once a year type meal, but I wanted,
yeah that once a year could be like very soon, Yes,
I hope, so e J wrote thank you on that
(33:41):
oil timed tamarind episode. In the Philippines, we used tamarind
as a souring agent for soups called scenic gang. Traditionally,
the tamarind fruit and pods are boiled, then mashed to
extract the tamarind flavor. Then a soup is made with
meat pork beef for fish, leafy vegetables like water, spinach, tomatoes,
garlic and green chilies, root vegetables, taro and dikeon, whatever
(34:03):
other vegetables you have. Okra and eggplants are quite popular too.
Other souring agents can be used, such as guava, which
is preferred for the fish version of the dish, and
other sour fruits. The most interesting use of tamarind and
our family is the chicken version of the scene gang
called the Old Goodness I'm so sorry my tagalic is
really terrible. Sea polukang Manoch, or apparently literally, U tamarind
(34:29):
did chicken. This version includes tamarind leaves and ginger to
the usual garlic, onion and tomato. However, my family frozen
tamarind flowers which we would pick off the neighbors tamarind tree. Hey,
those branches extend over a tiny creek and well onto
our property, which is incidentally how we sometimes get mangoes
as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it,
(34:51):
and it might be years before I can go home again. Anyway,
I'm currently listening to your Pokemon episode and I just
had to stop listening and write this email asap. Brock
stew is likely the Japanese cream stew quite common to
be made with store bought rou and just thrown in
vegetables and meat. Oh and by the way, do not
go to the Pokemon cafe for food. At least the
(35:14):
food is not very good at all. I went with
my partner for Valentine's I thought it would be a
cute thing to do. I didn't expect it to be great, um,
But what I didn't expect was for the main dish,
the Pikachu Ami rice, to be grossly less than satisfactory.
Oh no, you're probably familiar with amu rice um, the
rice dish wrapped inside an omelet. Like the cream stew.
(35:36):
It's another prime example of Yoshoku, Western influenced cuisine and
Japanese comfort food. The ketchup rice version is especially popular
with children. Now I've had so so onner rice before,
but the Pikachu one was definitely kids sized. In hindsight,
I should have known. I'm a largish guy with a
hefty appetite. This might look like a lot, but it's not.
(35:58):
Those Pikachu ears on the plate extading outwards give you
the illusion of size, but remember that's not usable space.
It has a lot of other things, but they're tiny,
like a baby's fist, and they're essentially microwave bento items
that one would find in the frozen food section. And
that egg, the egg was so thin and dry. It
was like um aburaga fried tofu for um a nati sushi.
(36:21):
I think I'm saying those words right, he continues. Aburage
is great, mind you. I just don't like my eggs
that way. If you really want on a rice. The
viral video Amo Rice Restaurant in Kyoto, Kichi Kichi is
actually pretty good. Expensive, but it's like a dinner in
a show. Reservations must be done a month or two
in advance. Though, speaking of dinner in a show, Pikachu
(36:43):
showing up to do a little jig and pose for
pictures won me over. I mean, how can you resist that?
So if you must go to the Pokemon Cafe. Avoid
the Pikachi plate. I found the snore Lax Food coma
slash nap lunch plate as I like to call it,
to be a better deal. Or stick to the desserts
and parfaits. Those were good. You will need a reservation,
(37:04):
which you can do in English at the website, but
pre pandemic you had to reserve a month in advance
for the Tokyo branch. The Asuca branch seemed to be
less crowded, as I was able to make a reservation
a couple of days prior, and I even saw some
open slots during the off hours. The better video game
related downe in experience is the Canopio, which is Toad's
Japanese name, likely a portmanteau of the word canoco, which
(37:27):
means mushroom, and possibly pinocchio. Um. Yes, the Canopio Cafe
in Supernintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Because
it was my birthday weekend, we tried a lot of
the dishes available and they even got me the Princess
Peach Cake, which was a sponge cake with fruits. It
was great, but I do slightly prefer the un birthday
(37:49):
cake at Tokyo Disneyland. I love this. Wow, that is
a treasure trove of information. Thank you, I know, I know,
and probable mispronunciations. I'm so sorry. My Japanese is rusty.
My tagolic has always been awful. So I'm like, oh no,
(38:10):
I'm often a charitable co host, and I'm like, this
is the one I'll get for Laurence. It's okay, I
do that to you with French words. I'm just like,
Andy can take this section right crazy. I love how
many of so much letters about the Poke Everyone episode.
A lot of you wrote in a brout brox do
esthma or m I hope by'm pronouncing your name correctly.
(38:32):
I've heard about it. I love this love yes, yeah, yeah,
if if y'all, if y'all couldn't tell, we had way
too much fun doing that episode, so we are glad
that y'all had a fun time listening to it as well. Yes,
it's very very fun, very strange, but fun. Real weird,
real weird. I don't think i've recovered. Um well, thanks
(38:59):
to those listeners for writing. If you would like to
write to us that you can. Our email is Hello
at savor Pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
savor pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(39:22):
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagin and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about pistachios, which I don't have a lot of
experience with this either. Uh well, this was a listener's suggestion,
wasn't yes, yes, okay if you have suggested it. Yeah,
(00:30):
And when you I think it's a it's been a
while since somebody suggested it. Because when you you put
it up there as like maybe we'll do this one.
I laughed out loud because it felt so out of
left field to be well, one of my best friends
loves pistachios, like if we go on trips together, that
is the snack. That and eminem peanuts, which yes, so good. Um,
(00:53):
which after doing the research for this makes sense because
her family is from iran Um and we'll get to
do that later. My co host ever on Sincy, Samantha,
she has what she calls a graveyard of pistachio shills
in a tub on her desk. She I told her
we were doing this episode, and she went out of
her way to explain the whole situation to me as
(01:14):
to why this exists, and she was like there are
still pistatios in there, you just have to search them. Yeah. Yeah,
And I really I vividly remember those Stephen Colbert commercials
for pistachios where he would like crack open his head
and then there's a pistatio. Dun know. I freaky missed
(01:36):
all of that. But okay, Stephen Colbert, that's cool. Uh yeah,
I I love a pistachio. I will say that they
are a fairly frequent snack for me there. You know,
they're like a little bit on the pricey side. I
feel like they're like my like special occasion snack. Yeah.
But uh but my my main association with them involves
(02:01):
a shout out to my friend to for Payne, who
wrote this beautiful screwball horror drama stage play that's about
like intra community l g B t Q bigotry and
how damaging it is when bigotry is well meaning microaggression
(02:21):
kind of stuff. And it's just one of the most
romping lye upsetting things I've ever seen. And the connection
point here is that it has just like the most
romantic scene involving a pistachio farming conversation that could possibly
exist on stage. Your page. Um. Uh but um when
(02:47):
when live theaters get back to it? And uh and
and if one near you puts up this show, I
definitely think you should look into it. Um. The name
contains a cuss word that I would not normally say
on air, but it is you us in in the
manner of all of this discussion about these issues. It's
called angry fags. So yeah, highly recommend. It is definitely
(03:11):
not for not for little ones, but um, but it is. Oh,
it's so upsetting and so good. So anyway, I can't
think about the stasia good. I can imagine flipping over
like the playbook, roppingly upsetting. Yeah, Toford, that's that's for you.
(03:34):
Feel free love it definitely romance Little Pastagio Farmer was
not where I thought this episode was gonna go. But
every episode is a beautiful. It's like you're cracking open
a pastachio right right, which is actually why I don't
snack on them that much, because you know I would
never I don't associate myself with laziness. But if I
(03:58):
make this calculation that the effort is not worth the
final product, then and I struggle with pasta. I don't
know if I never figured out the method. I don't know.
There's a there's a real there's a real good trick
for using Once you get one open, you can use
it to kind of pry you can use half of
one of those to kind of pry open the rest.
(04:19):
There's a trick, all right. But but also you can
look at videos online. It also does help if you
have nails a little fingernails a little bit you do not. Yeah,
but I actually like that they're a little bit difficult
to open sometimes because I feel like it slows down
my smacking rate, because otherwise I'm the like grab an
entire handful of popcorn and try to fit it all
(04:41):
into my face at the same time kind of girl.
And I feel like I feel like that's an urge
that I should curb popcorn. Popcorn is a different category.
It is. It is like, this movie is tense. Let
me see how much popcorn I can show? Is uh? Anyway,
(05:07):
we're not talking about pop were today. We're talking about pistachios.
We are, so let's get to our question. Pistachios. What
are they? Well? The pistachio is yet another example of
a culinary nut that is not botanically considered a nut
(05:27):
that how many if I have a nut mix, how
many of those are nuts? I feel like I have
my whole life, I've been lied to. I feel I
think it's very few, very very but it is. It
is instead the seed of a type of fruit called
a drupe. And we've talked about other culinary nuts in
(05:50):
this category, yes, a cashews and pecans um, as well
as other drupes like nutmeg and olives and peaches, and
in some cases like olives and peach, is a droope's
fruit is what you're interested in. In others, it is
the seed that's tasty um. And in the case of pistachio's,
you're you're dealing with um, a fruit that has this
(06:10):
this thin layer of greenish yellow to red fruit surrounding
a stiff shell, not quite papery, more like paper boardy,
you know, a little bit little bit stuff, a little
bit difficult inside that shell. The seed um as it
matures will grow larger and larger, filling the shell out
as the season continues, and when they're ready for harvest,
(06:31):
the seeds will loosen inside of those shells, and the
shells will split partially open um and apparently whole orchards
will split open over the course of a single night.
And this is where that romantic farming conversation comes in,
because the one character in the play is describing it
as this kind of sound and then all of a sudden,
(06:52):
you got all of these and it's really beautiful. Ah.
That does sound lovely, right ah. Anyway. Statue trees are smallish,
growing to about sixteen thirty two ft and are either
male or female, and the flowers don't produce nectar, so
(07:13):
they don't attract bees and other pollinators. Um. The pollen
has to spread by by wind or by hand, usually
by wind. These trees like long, hot, arid summers and
cool winters. They're often planted close together for better pollination
and use of resources. UM. So when the seeds mature
and those shells split, they usually stay right on the trees,
(07:33):
and farmers will lay down tarps and then physically shake
the trees to get the nuts to drop. The thin
fruit is then rubbed away and the seeds are often
um roasted and seasoned and sold right in those creamy
white shells. Um. This is one of the only nuts
that you can season in shell, which is why d
shelled statues are so expensive. These seeds themselves are covered
(07:57):
in this. A thin red to brown skin would maybe
peeled off to reveal the lime green nut underneath, very
striking color. The trees are a member of the Cardiacia family,
which means that they are related to mangoes, cashews, pink peppercorns,
and poison ivy and oak and poison sumac yep, oh,
(08:23):
poison ivy. I got some bad memories of poison ivy. Oh.
I am lucky to have never had a poison ivy episode,
but I get that calumine lotion. Oh no, I've had
embarrassing all kinds of bug stings, though, so I feel
(08:44):
like I'm karmically balanced. You think I don't know. I
will never forget one time I made a deal with
a lop. We had a deal and he stung me right,
Oh no, he flew at me. We had a deal. Wasp.
(09:07):
That's gonna let you live these untrustworthy wasps. I'm telling you,
I was like nine years old and that happened, and
I have not forgotten. M hmm. I mean it's it
is well known that the wasps are jerks. Uh yeah,
come on, we weren't even close to me. That's what
(09:30):
blows my mind. I don't want to get to this beef.
I have to wasp. But he was far away. He
had to come at me, you know, you know, I
still I still remember that the the bee walk that
they taught us when we were doing that video episode,
and we listened a bunch of bee hives for because
we were talking about honey and uh, and they were like, yeah,
(09:51):
sometimes bees are just attracted to the color of your
shirty or shampoo or something like or the center of
your shampoo. So so just kind of, you know, walking
wobbly circles and eventually they'll get bored. It was quite fun,
and I think about that every time I see a
(10:11):
b I'm like, do I need to initiate wobbly circles?
Initiate wobbly circles? And everyone around you was like, oh, dear,
at any rate. Pistachios um. Not all species of pistachio
trees produce edible nuts or reliably produce edible nuts um,
(10:35):
but some, like the Pistasia chinensis, are planted as ornamentals
due to the beautiful foliage that they get in the fall.
They'll go all red and orange before dropping their leaves
for the winter. Wow, what about the nutrition. Pistachios are
(10:55):
pretty good for you. They've got a lot of protein
um even compared with other nuts, plus fiber, a good
spread of unsaturated fats, lots of vitamins and minerals, a
little bit of carbs too, so they will both fill
you up and help keep you going. As with all nuts,
they are colorically dense, so watch your portion sizes um.
But in general, research has indicated that replacing like more
(11:19):
processed foods um with a controlled amount of pistachios can
help reduce risk of stuff like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes,
maybe even cancers and brain diseases. So I would say
that overall, incorporating them into your diet by replacing less
healthy foods um is a great a great plan. Are
(11:39):
a great snack. I'm not unsure unclear whether this was
my data has been mined by Google. Are just a
weird circumstance, But today I received an email. We get
a lot of like cold marketing emails for our job,
and I got one about the health of the pistachio
and it was like just fifty bullet points. It was
(12:01):
a lot. I did not bet them for but yeah, yeah,
I'm also you know, I'm not I'm trying not to
linger on this topic too much, but I'm getting angry
and angry about this wasp thing because I remember I
had I had a wasp nest in my room and
I would wake up in the morning I have like
thirty wasp in my room, and my dad would come
(12:23):
in and we didn't kill them. We would get to
little tweezers and let them out, and we were we
were trying to be kind to the wasp. Why all right,
we do have some pastachio numbers for you. We we do.
We totally separate from unappreciative jerky wasp. Sorry, I'm grateful, No, no,
(12:51):
I appreciate that the twenty plus years later, this this
wasp is you know, you know you just don't you
just you just you just you hope for better. You
hope for better from people and insects. Yeah, so numbers wise,
(13:15):
numbers numbers on pistachios. Yeah yeah, Um, the United States
in Iran are the world's largest producers of pistachios. Um. Yeah.
They kind of go back and forth over who holds
that the American pistachio industry produced over nine hundred million
pounds of pistachios in California is by far America's largest producer. Yeah,
(13:38):
oh yeah. Um. Production in the United States increased um
from nineteen seventy seven with four million pounds too. Yes,
over nine hundred and eighty million mm hmmm. The United
States Agricultural Research Service in Davis, California, has a living
botanical library, or at least it as of two thousand five,
(14:01):
with over seven d and fifty pistachio trees from ten
different species and hybrids. I know, right, I want to go.
I want to visit right now. Um. It takes trees
about a decade to mature, a decade or two to mature,
but after that they can produce as much as fifty
pounds of a holed nuts per year that's about twenty
(14:22):
three kilos. And researchers with the University of California have
called the pistachio the single most successful plant introduction to
the United States in the twenty century, which is amazing, right, yeah,
and it happened, I mean relatively recently, all of this
(14:44):
in the United States. It did. Yeah, yeah, And we
are going to get into the long history before that.
Plus the recent history of this. As soon as we
get back from a quick break forward from our sponsor
and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you, And
(15:06):
I have more thoughts about wasp. Uh, this is the
wasp show. Now it's called wasp stuffs. Just be complaining
about about this one wasp, not even all wasps that punk.
No no, no, no, all right. Um So pistachios. Historians
(15:32):
have gone back and forth about the origins of the
pistachio tree. Nowadays, they think that pastachios have been growing
in the Middle East and or Central Asia for thousands
of years at least. Archaeological digs in northern Iran and
Uzbekistan revealed pistachio shells and settlements dating back to Remains
of pistachios in Afghanistan and Iran are even older, going
(15:55):
back to six thousand BC m The Old Testament mentions
pistachios and positively nonetheless it's like a as like a
rare gift. Yeah, Sashia's have a long history and what
was Persia modern day Iran. The story goes that the
Queen of Sheba was a big fan of them, declaring
(16:15):
that all pistacio has grown on lands she controlled belonged
to her and those on her court. True or not,
people have been eating them and using them for medicinal
purposes for thousands of years. Some records even indicate that
they were Sometimes you'd as aa, I read that couples
(16:36):
in Persia would perhaps sit under pistacio trees and if
they heard a nutcracking, yeah, that meant good fortune was
in store for their relationship. And now I'm like, is
this where tofur got that from? Heck? Follow up question right,
Alexander the Great rock Stacio's back with him to Greece
(16:56):
and three hundred BC Greek philosopher THEW. Frost Is described
pistachio Sometime around around that same time, he wrote up
the Pistachio Tree that it quote bears nuts only as
big as almonds, and they closely resemble almonds in appearance,
except that the shell is not rough, and in savory
and sweetness they are superior to almonds. Therefore, yeah, the
(17:18):
people of the country use them in preference to almonds.
And this comparison to almonds seems to have been a
common occurrence in Europe. A second century BC Greek poem
about plants that provide protection from scorpion stings, which I love.
But this is a poem I know, I got some
(17:39):
stories about scorpions too. Pistachios are compared to almonds in
this poem, and that was also the first instance of
the word pistachio being used in the Greek language. In
the first century CE, physician Dioscarieties wrote about the medicinal
benefits of pistachio goes. Under the reign of Roman Emperor Tiberius,
(18:03):
pistacios made their way to Spain and Italy. By the
first century C, pistachios were in northern Africa and China.
China started cultivating them in tenth century CE. Several written
records out of Europe praised the taste of pistachios, and
they all seemed to indicate that they were primarily grown
in Syria at this time, or at least that's where
(18:26):
the Europeans thought they were coming from. There are no
records that the tree itself, at least in the commercial sense,
existed in Greece until the nineteenth century, for instance, so
a lot later, during the Middle Ages, with the spread
of Islam and Arab traders, cultivation of pistachios grew, as
did the market for them. Central Europeans called them the
(18:47):
Latin penny nuts since they arrived through Italy. Uh huh.
At the time, pistachios could be quite pricey, and we're
often used as a baking ingredient, like to really fancify
your parents. Yeah. The first recorded pistachio orchard in Greece
was established in eighteen sixty in Athens. Pistachios were a
(19:09):
popular imported snack in America in the eighteen eighties. Middle
Eastern immigrants in particular were big consumers of them. People
could find them in vending machines at bars or restaurants
and other spaces like that. Apparently, a common slogan for
them at the time was a dozen vernicle cool. The
first pistachio tree was planted in America by the USDA
(19:30):
in nineteen o four, and farmers did grow pistachios in
the United States and California in particular. American botanists and
so called plant explorer William E. White House went to
Iran to gather twenty pounds of individually chosen pistachios about
ten kilograms in nineteen thirty. He brought them back to California,
(19:51):
where he planted them, and yes, it took a decade
for white House to see results, and unfortunately for him,
only one of the nutes he'd chosen was successful. And
he did didn't know what type of tree did come from.
He had picked it up from a pile of drying
pistachios and the orchards of a well known pistachio growing
family in Iran, so white House gave the tree the
(20:11):
same name as city near where he found the nut, Kerman.
Through experimentation and propagating with tougher root varieties, the American
pistachio industry was born. The popular violine of all this
is that the American pistachio industry traces back to one
Iranian seed. In nineteen seventy seven, white House received the
(20:33):
very first Pistachio Association's annual achievement by it to industry Awards.
I Love It. Pistachio plots spread through California in the
nineteen sixties, and soon after pistachios were being grown in
Arizona and New Mexico. By nineteen seventy six, the American
pistachio industry was producing one point five million pounds of postachios.
(20:56):
Same time, Americans were snacking on twenty million in pistachio
is imported from Iran, often died red to cover up
any flaws, or perhaps the practice of dyeing the red
started as a way to stand out fingers and mouths
dyed red or a sign of a pistachio snacker. I've
also heard as an alternative origin story for this that
(21:18):
um that traditionally producers in Iran would brine whole pistachios
with the fruit still attached, and since it's a reddish fruit,
that would partially dye the shell this pinkish red color UM.
And so therefore some either um importers into America or
American producers trying to do like a copycat product, would
(21:40):
die their product red to reproduce that color. But mystery's history.
Mystery's history. I've never heard of this, but I will
tell you the Internet informs me that some people are
very nostalgic, very nostalgic. Yeah, yeah, this was this was
slightly before my time. I think I remember seeing red
pistachios and stores, but like when I was very young,
(22:03):
too young to be like I'm going to get that
pistachio right, So yeah, I feel like I've seen it
in terms of like when the Christmas holiday comes around
and it's red and green everything I've seen, but I
just assumed it was Christmas ms. However, all of this
um importing of Iranian stachios came to a halt with
(22:25):
the Iranian hostage crisis in nineteen seventy nine, and the
US is subsequent full trade embargo on goods from Iran.
American producers stepped in to meet demand, really jump starting
the industry in the United States. That year, the New
York Times published this quote, this California pistachios brought to
you courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service and the shaw
(22:48):
of Iran. Yeah, once the US reopened trade with her
on in, American pistachio producers successfully petitioned the United States
International Trade Commission to impose a two D and FOURT
special import duty on unshelled Iranian pistachios. Might it's high.
(23:13):
In two eight the U s sur past Iran as
the largest producer. Though Yeah, like I said, they kind
of bounced back and forth since then. Oh and then
this growing popularity of pastacio's made way for pistachio ice
cream in the US, which is my brother's favorite flavor,
and I read a couple of articles. I don't really
get like any official numbers, but said that a lot
of people are introduced to pistacio's this way in the
(23:35):
United States through pistacio ice cream. I think that that
was I'm pretty sure that was my introduction to it. Yeah,
makes sense, delicious. Yeah. Stepping back a bit, Australia's commercial
pistachio industry kicked off in the nineteen eighties. In MPR
reported on a story around how a large number of
(23:58):
California pistachio trees work shooting blanks, which means producing empty shells.
In some orchards, up to of the crop were blanks. Generally, Yeah,
generally pistacio ger anticipates about ten percent planks. So that
was a huge joke. Drought, heat and unusual weather are
(24:18):
believed to be the most likely culprits. And now food
ice Yes, you really never know. I love it every
time with the past, but yeah, um, the world's the
most prized variety of pistachio, the green pistachio from Bronte, Italy,
are so sought after that during pistachio season in Sicily,
(24:40):
the pistachio orchards are protected from thieves by police with
a police helicopter on hand, twelve per orchard. Of some
cases police pistachio popters. This is great. I mean, I
mean thrilling. I can't really play a moral qualification on that,
(25:02):
but thrilling. Definitely thrilling in terms of pistachios. According to
the BBC, one kg or two point two pounds of
these unshelled pistachios could run you about fifteen point fifty
euros or seventeen dollars and forty cents, twice what the
pistachios from the US are ron cost, earning them the
(25:23):
nickname Cecily's Green Gold. They account for only one percent
of global production and of that is exported um and
they are a controlled designation of origin products. In two
thousand nine, thieves made off with about four thousand, six
hundred euros worth of product in today's money, resulting in Yes,
this police presence around the crop in harvest years, which
(25:45):
is every other year, I believe. Yeah, it tends to
be um like like some other fruiting trees, pistachios um
will have one really bumper year and then one kind
of rest here m all year. Turkey also takes their
pistachios very seriously. It's a key in the classic Turkish
(26:06):
dessert black Clova. Due to civil and rest in climate,
the pistachio market for Turkish grown pistachios can fluctuate wildly,
but generally the yield is relatively small and the price
is high. This has led to pistachio thieves and even
a so called pistachio mafia and a pistachio black market.
(26:27):
Adult male growers keep a loaded shotguns nearby, and farmers
and thieves have been killed in this. Yeah. Yeah, um
and uh sort of going back to the NPR story
that you mentioned. Um, as with much of the produce
that we discuss, Yes, pistachios are having a harder time
(26:49):
because of climate change. Um. Many many trees, not just
pistatio trees, but many trees in general, and other plants
in general need cool winters to trigger storage of nutrients
and then change from cooler temperatures to warmer temperatures in
the spring to trigger blooming. Um. And when you don't
get that, you don't get as many flowers. And and
(27:11):
with some plants like statios, you might get male and
female trees blooming at different times, which is trouble. Researchers
at CSU are working on ways to help farmers like
wake their trees up in the spring artificially, and there
are other efforts to breed new varietals of trees that
(27:32):
can fruit without those cool winters. Um, you know, research
is ongoing, but you know, fingers fingers crossed. Yeah, do
what you can to help prevent climate change and preserve pistachios.
Preserved pistachios. That's a fun word to say to UM. Yeah, yeah,
(27:57):
once again every time I'm like, sure, we're not going
to be talking about police helicopters, but I guess so.
Of course, yeah, of course, of course that's yep. Crime
lives everywhere, even even in pistachio orchards, even in pistachio orchards.
(28:20):
Well that's what we have to say about Pistachio's phone.
Now it is UM and we do have some listener
mail for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor. And we're back.
Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, we're back with listener
(28:48):
that it was a fun one that was exciting for me.
Did you startle yourself. Annie, Oh, I am very easily
startled everyone. This is true, This is true. I detect
(29:10):
no lie. Um. Yeah, I recently dogs that for a
friend of mine, and I mean every two minutes. Startled
all right, Devon wrote, I loved the most recent Listener
(29:31):
Mail episode, and when one listener suggested Cincinnati style chili
as an episode, my mind instantly started thinking of some
regional dishes that are popular in my home of upstate
New York. First, I don't think there's enough for a
whole episode about salt potatoes, but I have some fun
stories about these. They are small, round, white potatoes that
are boiled in salt water and eaten covered and melted
butter um. They're perfect for summer barbecues. As the story goes,
(29:55):
back in the day in Syracuse, New York, a lot
of Irish immigrants worked in the salt mines and would
bring potatoes for lunch. It came time to eat, they
throw their potatoes in boiling water, but since they were
surrounded by salt, it created saltwater and thus salt potatoes.
One last fun story about these. When I was in
high school, I worked at a grocery store. Apparently an
out of State New Hire and the produced Department thought
(30:16):
he uncovered a secret drug smuggling operation inside bags of potatoes,
but it turns out that it was just bags of
salt for salt potato. Secondly, this is a regional dish
that I hate, and somehow it has followed me from
upstate New York. This is specific to Utica to Delaware,
where I currently live. Tomato pie. It looks like a
(30:39):
rectangular pizza with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and it
is served cold room temperature. The first time I ever
had it, I mentioned to my fiance that I wasn't
a fan and I'd probably like it better fresh and warm,
so the dough isn't saggy, and he told me it
was meant to be that way anyway. I would love
to get to the bottom of how this abomination came
to be and how it's sohow regional to two different areas. Lastly,
(31:03):
my favorite garbage plate. These are most popular in Rochester,
so whenever we go there to visit friends, we always
get one. I'm not from Rochester, so my definition may
be off, but to make them, you start with some
sort of potato hash browns tater tots or French fries
and some sort of pasta macaroni and cheese or pasta
saled and topped them both with mustard onions, a meat
(31:23):
chicken nuggets, hot dogs or hamburger patties, American cheese, and
top the whole thing with a meat based hot sauce.
They're really customizable, so that makes it a little difficult
to nail down one definition, but the hot sauce is
the key factor. They're absolutely a once a year type
of a meal, but they are amazing. At one point
the Rochester Airport had and it might still be there,
(31:46):
a garbage plate restaurant and we got those to bring
on very fine. It was not a good idea. Thank
you both so much. With God, I love listening to
it and I've even got my fiance to love it
as well. Side note, I was also able to get
him to enjoy Sminty by way of Addy and her
love for the Last of Us. He loves it so
much too, and he even likes Abby. Yes, it's hilarious
(32:10):
that you say that, because I know joke. Got a
message from my boss and he was asking me if
I could talk about this new segment we're doing which
is fictional women around the world for stuff I've never
told you, and I said, yes, but right now it's
currently only an excuse for me to talk about the
Last of Us because there's only been two of them,
and it's on two people from the Last of Us.
(32:33):
And he was like, are you sure you're not driving
people away? And then you sent this email Devon and
I sent it to him. I was like, have one
anecdotal So thank you for letting me have those moments. No,
that's wonderful, and all those foods sound wonderful. They would.
(32:55):
I love this regional stuff. I truly, truly do. Oh
oh absolutely where you know, you travel like like fifty
miles away and you're like where all the garbage plates
and everyone there is like the heck is a garbage plate?
But yeah, I am confused and delighted anytime that both
potatoes and pasta are involved in the same dish um
(33:20):
And I want to try this immediately. Oh yeah, we're
definitely gonna have to make that happen. I do think
it is a once a year type meal, but I wanted,
yeah that once a year could be like very soon, Yes,
I hope, so e J wrote thank you on that
(33:41):
oil timed tamarind episode. In the Philippines, we used tamarind
as a souring agent for soups called scenic gang. Traditionally,
the tamarind fruit and pods are boiled, then mashed to
extract the tamarind flavor. Then a soup is made with
meat pork beef for fish, leafy vegetables like water, spinach, tomatoes,
garlic and green chilies, root vegetables, taro and dikeon, whatever
(34:03):
other vegetables you have. Okra and eggplants are quite popular too.
Other souring agents can be used, such as guava, which
is preferred for the fish version of the dish, and
other sour fruits. The most interesting use of tamarind and
our family is the chicken version of the scene gang
called the Old Goodness I'm so sorry my tagalic is
really terrible. Sea polukang Manoch, or apparently literally, U tamarind
(34:29):
did chicken. This version includes tamarind leaves and ginger to
the usual garlic, onion and tomato. However, my family frozen
tamarind flowers which we would pick off the neighbors tamarind tree. Hey,
those branches extend over a tiny creek and well onto
our property, which is incidentally how we sometimes get mangoes
as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it,
(34:51):
and it might be years before I can go home again. Anyway,
I'm currently listening to your Pokemon episode and I just
had to stop listening and write this email asap. Brock
stew is likely the Japanese cream stew quite common to
be made with store bought rou and just thrown in
vegetables and meat. Oh and by the way, do not
go to the Pokemon cafe for food. At least the
(35:14):
food is not very good at all. I went with
my partner for Valentine's I thought it would be a
cute thing to do. I didn't expect it to be great, um,
But what I didn't expect was for the main dish,
the Pikachu Ami rice, to be grossly less than satisfactory.
Oh no, you're probably familiar with amu rice um, the
rice dish wrapped inside an omelet. Like the cream stew.
(35:36):
It's another prime example of Yoshoku, Western influenced cuisine and
Japanese comfort food. The ketchup rice version is especially popular
with children. Now I've had so so onner rice before,
but the Pikachu one was definitely kids sized. In hindsight,
I should have known. I'm a largish guy with a
hefty appetite. This might look like a lot, but it's not.
(35:58):
Those Pikachu ears on the plate extading outwards give you
the illusion of size, but remember that's not usable space.
It has a lot of other things, but they're tiny,
like a baby's fist, and they're essentially microwave bento items
that one would find in the frozen food section. And
that egg, the egg was so thin and dry. It
was like um aburaga fried tofu for um a nati sushi.
(36:21):
I think I'm saying those words right, he continues. Aburage
is great, mind you. I just don't like my eggs
that way. If you really want on a rice. The
viral video Amo Rice Restaurant in Kyoto, Kichi Kichi is
actually pretty good. Expensive, but it's like a dinner in
a show. Reservations must be done a month or two
in advance. Though, speaking of dinner in a show, Pikachu
(36:43):
showing up to do a little jig and pose for
pictures won me over. I mean, how can you resist that?
So if you must go to the Pokemon Cafe. Avoid
the Pikachi plate. I found the snore Lax Food coma
slash nap lunch plate as I like to call it,
to be a better deal. Or stick to the desserts
and parfaits. Those were good. You will need a reservation,
(37:04):
which you can do in English at the website, but
pre pandemic you had to reserve a month in advance
for the Tokyo branch. The Asuca branch seemed to be
less crowded, as I was able to make a reservation
a couple of days prior, and I even saw some
open slots during the off hours. The better video game
related downe in experience is the Canopio, which is Toad's
Japanese name, likely a portmanteau of the word canoco, which
(37:27):
means mushroom, and possibly pinocchio. Um. Yes, the Canopio Cafe
in Supernintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Because
it was my birthday weekend, we tried a lot of
the dishes available and they even got me the Princess
Peach Cake, which was a sponge cake with fruits. It
was great, but I do slightly prefer the un birthday
(37:49):
cake at Tokyo Disneyland. I love this. Wow, that is
a treasure trove of information. Thank you, I know, I know,
and probable mispronunciations. I'm so sorry. My Japanese is rusty.
My tagolic has always been awful. So I'm like, oh no,
(38:10):
I'm often a charitable co host, and I'm like, this
is the one I'll get for Laurence. It's okay, I
do that to you with French words. I'm just like,
Andy can take this section right crazy. I love how
many of so much letters about the Poke Everyone episode.
A lot of you wrote in a brout brox do
esthma or m I hope by'm pronouncing your name correctly.
(38:32):
I've heard about it. I love this love yes, yeah, yeah,
if if y'all, if y'all couldn't tell, we had way
too much fun doing that episode, so we are glad
that y'all had a fun time listening to it as well. Yes,
it's very very fun, very strange, but fun. Real weird,
real weird. I don't think i've recovered. Um well, thanks
(38:59):
to those listeners for writing. If you would like to
write to us that you can. Our email is Hello
at savor Pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
savor pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(39:22):
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagin and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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