July 24, 2024 • 34 mins
This bitter root vegetable is often roasted and used to make hot beverages, like chicory coffee. Anney and Lauren dig up the science and history of root chicory.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie and I'm more on Vocal Bomb, and today
we have an episode for you about chickery root.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, which was another one that gave me a bit
of competitions. Yeah, the specificity of it. I want to
get it right. And when I originally when you suggested it,
I thought I had never heard of it or had it.
But when I was researching it, it's like, oh, yes,
I have had coffee with chickery in it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, totally right.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, together we have.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's why I had thought. I was pretty sure that
we had been sitting in Cafe Dumont together and that
you had ordered a coffee that did, in fact happen.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Does that explain why your own note in the intro
here is just a single word nope with the period yes?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it's a there's a lot going on, folks, I know,
you know.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And so I was just like stressed when I was
doing this.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, and I was like, no experience, no, But then
I read it, I was like oh yeah, And then
I never came back to fix the note, So okay,
I wasn't sure I was like, maybe she hates chickory.
Maybe Cafe Lana is her least favorite place on the planet.
She suffered through it for me and Dylan and.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Me, Yeah, Dylan and I were that. We were both
wearing black when we went. Yeah, and so I got
all the powdered sugar on me. Ever since rage, No,
it's a case of stress and exhaustion. Well, was there
any reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It's been on the list for a really long time,
and I thought, you know, why not?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Now, why not? Now you're really leaning into this, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I promise it's not for any like really dire reason.
It's it's it's really just like, oh, you know, hecket,
let's yeah, let's go, let's have fun. Let's do too
much medical reading into chickery root.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, that is true.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I even tried not to and even to like explain
why I wasn't going to explain more. I had to
read like a lot of medical papers. So, yeah, that's cool.
We're ostensibly a food show.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
We are, indeed, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
On that note, I guess I can say that you
can see our episodes on coffee. I believe we have
two on do we have two on coffee that we
definitely have the one big one from a Wahoo with
the interview. That's great anyway, I don't know, I don't
remember what we've done.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
One on dandelion.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, also gave me palpitations. So this runs in the family.
As they say, I feel like a lot gives you palpitations.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
An that's the truth, all right, I will accept that, Lauren.
That's a fair point. Okay, okay, yes, okay, wow. I
guess that brings us to our questions.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Chickery root.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, chickery root is the root of a chickory plant.
Chickory is a category of like bitter sort of weedy
plants with different varieties grown for their leaves versus their roots,
which is why I specified leaf chicken is going to
have to be another couple of different episodes, I think.
But okay, because yeah, when you cultivate it for its leaves,
(04:07):
you can wind up with things like a like Ridicio
Ridicio or Belgian end dive. But today we're talking about
the root. It is a taproot more specifically, and so
the plant's taproot can grow long and thick and crisp
and can then be harvested and either cooked as a
vegetable or more frequently like roasted or otherwise dried and
(04:27):
then ground up for use in beverages, often hot drinks,
either by itself is like a tea or to saying
I should say, or added to coffee. It's also used
in burn beer. Chickory root is very bitter and sort
of woody, earthy herbal when it's raw, and then roasting
(04:48):
it brings out a sort of like toasty, nutty sweetness
that balances that bitter a little. It is a really
intense flavor that takes you on a bit of a journey,
like very complex, not quite like anything else. Chickory is
sort of too coffee what carab is to chocolate. Like
(05:08):
they get compared a lot, but you should really think
of it as its own thing for your own safety,
your own like emotional safety.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's like, okay, I know this one is sort of weird,
but it's sort of like being hit in the face
with a cartoon frying pan because it is just strong
and like up in your sinuses. But you see little
stars or lattes.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, yeah, Oh, that's a nice way of putting it
in the face of the cartoon frying pan. Sure. Yeah,
you gotta look at the bright side.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, you get to see stars.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's great. Yeah, there's a fun sound involved.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I do. I do love chickery coffee. I had at
least two cups over the course of reading about all
this because I was just like, yeah, I'm going to
drink some of that right now.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I always have.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Some okay root chickories. Botanical name, Why do I do
this to myself? That's not what it is is a
Chequorium intubus variety sativam sativam, meaning cultivated. It's in the
astorassier or daisy family, along with yes, dandelions, but also
things like artichokes and lettuces. It is a temperate zone plant,
(06:31):
but it's really it's really comfy, especially the root versions,
with very hot and dry weather, and it can grow
sort of wiry and tall, like like up to six
feet that's two meters given the chance, with leaves that
will typically resemble a dandalion's. The first year that it grows,
it'll build up this taproot underground, off of which its
true roots will thread out into the soil, and that
(06:54):
taproot is a storage container for like sugars and water
and various other nutritious stuff that the plant we'll used
to get through the winter and then bloom and seed
the following summer, unless we dig it up and eat
it first.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Suckers.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, when chickery, When root chickery does flour, they're these
pretty like blue to lavender blooms with these like long,
kind of rectangular shaped petals that are notched on the
end so that they look a little bit like a paintbrush.
They're real pretty. And if you've ever seen tall weeds
with blue flowers on the side of the road in
(07:32):
certainly Europe or North America, probably a lot of other
places where it's been naturalized, it's probably chickery. The taproot
is ivory in color, with like a darker sort of
golden colored skin, and can be anywhere from like sort
of spin lely to pretty hefty like a like a
parsnip or maybe a pale carrot sort of thing. Freeze
(07:53):
and beverages. It can be dried just simply dried out
to preserve its natural flavors, or roasted anywhere from like
a toasty brown to very dark like like coffee or
cacao beans, creating new flavors from caramelization and the male reaction.
It can be brewed alone into a hot drink, or
mixed in with coffee beans, or or used sort of
(08:15):
like hops are to make beer as a like bittering
and or anti microbial agent. I've seen it in stouts
and strong ales. In the food industry, the root is
debittered and then powdered and used in various processed foods
to add sweetness or body to different foods and drinks
(08:35):
that the starches in chicken root can can form like
a like a gel with water that can even turn
kind of creamy if you agitated enough.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You can.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Also, if you have a taproot, you can use it
to grow baby greens. Just plant one with the top
of the root just exposed. It should sprout little bitter shoots.
Let's just get some little bitter microgreens in your life.
Yeah a little, yeah, a little bitter shoots like me,
I wasn't gonna say.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Well, what about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
By itself, chickery root is pretty good for you. It
contains a bunch of fiber and a number of micronutrients
that help your body do stuff. Though, if you're drinking
liquids that it's steeped in or like browed with, rather
than eating it. You're not really getting like that much
of the fiber part. It contains no caffeine, so if
you're looking to cut back on that, it can be
(09:31):
like a useful alternative or addition to to coffee beans. Traditionally,
chickory in general and its root in particular have been
used for all kinds of medicinal purposes in the places
where it grows, and one of those reasons, as it
turns out, is that chickery root does contain a lot
(09:51):
of this one type of fiber called inuline. This is
not an anuline episode, but all right, when it's h
chickory root is at least like sixty eight percent inuline
by dry weight. It has more fiber by dry weight
than pretty much anything else we eat. Inulin is this
(10:15):
really dietarily and commercially interesting type of fiber because it
tastes sweet while having fewer calories than sugar, and because
it's a soluble fiber meaning it can glom onto water,
and because it seems to potentially have all kinds of
positive benefits in the body. Very Basically, inulin is made
(10:37):
up of these fibrous chains of fruit toase that our
bodies cannot break down. Fiber that we can't digest is
good for us because it helps everything kind of move
along where our guts and helps us feel full and
prevent overeating. And inulin specifically can be broken down and
eaten by some of the good bacteria that live in
(10:59):
our guts, which can help them flourish, which can help
our health overall. However, a lot of research into anylan
has been done with extracts, not with like the whole
chickery route, or with preparations thereof as in coffee. And
as always you know say er motto, nutrition is complicated,
our bodies are complicated. More research is necessary, and before
(11:22):
ingesting a medicinal amount of anything, you should consult a
healthcare provider, which we aren't.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Nope, Nope, absolutely not Nope. Do not come at us
with your lawyers please. As mentioned, we've got enough going
so we do have a couple numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I read that the global market for chickery root is
somewhere around seven hundred million dollars per year. There are
chickory festivals, one in Vermont is coming up in October.
I think that the third annual was in twenty twenty three.
I couldn't find anything about about a twenty twenty four version,
but it has been a week long event with lots
(12:08):
of participating restaurants and bars and like farming co ops
to educate folks on how to use chickery root and ridiccicio.
Their tagline is make the world a bitter place.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh that sounds like you, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think you need a shirt that says that, right.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh yeah, uh. There's there's another one, another chickery festival
out in the Pacific Northwest, though it's definitely focused on
like the leaf type chickeries.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But you know, yeah, yes, I think I saw that
there's one in Italy that sounds accurate. YEP listeners, please
let us know as always.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well there is quite the history behind chickery route.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
There is, and we are going to get to that
as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank
you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Okay. So, chick re root originated in parts of Europe,
Asia and Africa, or at least that's what people think
because the history of chickery root isn't the easiest to
track down. It is a task made all the more
difficult by the different varieties. But researchers speculate it may
(13:35):
be one of history's earliest cultivated vegetables. However, it isn't
quite clear if they were being cultivated for their leaves
or their roots. Are both, probably, I mean honestly, probably
for the whole thing. Yep, But yeah, all right, So
four thousand years ago the ancient Greeks and Romans started
growing chicken root as a vegetable crop. Ancient Egyptians chickery
(14:00):
root to use medistantly, culinarily and as a drink as
well as food for animals. I also read cosmetically, but
I could believe back that up. But wherever it grew,
it was generally popular and used in a whole host
of ways, and that is reflected over years of writings,
from cookbooks to poetry. It was something people were excited about.
(14:25):
One of the first known instances of chickery root in
the human record dates back to the third century BCE,
when Greek botanist Theophrostis described the plant and stages of growth.
He also referred to the culinary uses for the leaves.
Chickery root has a long history of being used distantly
in areas where it is indigenous, ranging from cancer, tumors, jaundice, injuries, diabetes,
(14:50):
all kinds of things. Yes. In the first century CE
Roman cookbook the Epiceus featured a restI for chickery roots.
When it was time for the roots to be harvested,
they were stored with onions and oil, to be eaten
during the winter with honey and vinegar. According to the Apicius,
(15:11):
Greek writer Celsus mentioned roasted chickery root around the same time. Okay, yeah,
I mean this preparation was often eaten alone, but sometimes
alongside other foods. According to a Greek physician in the
second century CE, this preparation was quite bitter. At the
(15:31):
same time, Greek physicians were writing about the medicinal qualities
of chicken roots skipping ahead. In a ninth century CE
Islamic medical work, several uses in preparations of chicken roots
were described. During the Renaissance, more instances and details about
(15:51):
chickery root began showing up in the written record. A
sixteen fourteen Italian cookbook contained descriptions of two preparations of
chicken root, one for spring and one for fall. In
the spring preparation, the leaves and root were served raw
with oil, salt, and vinegar, and in the fall preparation,
the roots were boiled, seasoned and served with raisins, and
the raisins were supposed to combat the bitterness. Okay, yeah, sure,
(16:16):
sure yeah. Other writings suggest that the roots were eaten
in salads and many places throughout Europe at this time.
They were also eaten in MUSHes, cooked and eaten as
a vegetable side and soups, or as something kind of
like a condiment for meats, which I'm really interested in.
Some records from the seventeen hundred suggest the roots were
(16:36):
sold as candies or sweets. Yeah so interested, Sure, yeah,
I get it. Put some sugar on it. It's got
like some bitter and sweet.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
YEA, cook it down with some syrup. Yeah, make a
little candied candy chickory.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Sure. All throughout this time, several works described the medicinal
uses of chicken roots, including dosages and preparations like that
got more, It got much more specific, However, European perception
and usage of chickery roots started to shift beginning in
the mid eighteenth century. They were still eaten as vegetables,
(17:10):
but typically more out of necessity than desire. Because of this,
many started to associate the roots with famine and poverty,
so kind of lost their shine. Researchers speculate this is
also when chickery drinks really took off. According to a
few sources, two coffee pioneers started experimenting with coffee and
(17:33):
chickery root drinks in eighteen oh one, and their efforts
led to increased trade of chickery in France, but their
results were still kind of under the radar. The idea
goes that these drinks, which were ground chickery root powder
mixed with hot water, sometimes with coffee, grew in popularity
(17:53):
towards the end of the eighteenth century due to the
prohibition of coffee in Germany enacted by Federic the Great.
After that, chick re production in Europe increased to meet
the growing demand for chickery drinks to cover the loss
of this coffee or perhaps particularly in France, it rose
(18:14):
in popularity during the coffee shortage caused by Napoleon's Continental
Blockade of eighteen oh eight.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah that was a move to cut off trade of
continental Europe with the British right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And since chickery grew in France, it was an ideal substitute,
and people would mix a little coffee with their chickery
drinks to make the coffee stretch for longer. So I
love how often would come to like taxes and shortages
in this show yep we're speaking of. After the blockade
(18:52):
was lifted, this practice faded but didn't disappear completely and
made its way to French colonies, including Louisiana. France exported
sixteen million pounds of chickery in eighteen sixty. This meant
that it started growing in places like North America and
Australia too. Also, I read that this is when India
(19:15):
was introduced to chickery coffee through the UK. But I
couldn't find a lot of sources to back that up,
so right.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
In, yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't to be fair, I
didn't dig very deep on it, but I couldn't find
easily find details on that one either. But I do
know that chicory coffee is a really popular in filter
coffee in India.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, So listeners, please if you have an experience
or knowledge, Yeah, right in But yeah, once again, a
blockade is what led people to drink chickery drinks in
the US. This time it was the Union blockade of
the Port of New Orleans during the Civil War. At
the time, this is one of the largest importers of
(19:55):
coffee in the US. So once again, in the face
of coffee shortages, people turned to chickery root drinks, especially
in New Orleans, where these drinks are still popular long
after the blockade was lifted and coffee was no longer
in short supply.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, it became a whole thing. And speaking of the
coffee stand, Cafe Dumont opened in eighteen sixty two, smack
in the middle of the Civil War, so yeah, it
makes sense that they developed this now famous coffee blend
of four parts coffee to one part chickery. Dylan, I'm
still sorry about that powdered sugar incident.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's my bad.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
You're very nice about it. I probably don't have to
keep apologizing, but I still feel silly anyway. There are
certainly other chickery, coffee and bigniet stands around New Orleans,
and I encourage everyone to find their favorite one, but
Cafe Dumont is kind of the big one, or the
(20:54):
nationally available one, because fast forward today and now find
cans of Cafe Dumont's chickery coffee and lots of grocery stores,
but perhaps especially American Vietnamese grocery stores, because of a
shared history of colonization by the French and thus a
(21:15):
similar Ish coffee culture. Different episode, different episode.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yes, yes, indeed. Well, during World War Two, chickery roots
were readily available and they were ground up and the
resulting flower was used in breadmaking. When there was shortages
of all kinds of things, turned to chickery roots.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yep. But back to coffee. Nestlie developed an instant coffee
and chickery drink mix in the nineteen fifties called rick
Ray ricarey that sounds more. I don't know, I didn't
look it up. Mostly mostly for the French market. It's
also available in South Africa as ricoffee, which I love.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yes. And then in the nineteen seventies, scientists discovered that
chickery root contained up to forty percent annyalin.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah uh, and that's that's by fresh weight, not dry weight.
Inulin had been discovered back in the early eighteen hundreds,
and researchers have been interested in it for all kinds
of things, including right as a sweetener for foods if
you don't want to consume sugar, as in uh, if
you're managing diabetes. So yeah, like cultivation of better root
(22:33):
varieties of chickory and production of root chickery really took
off around the end of the nineteen hundreds. And when
we started to discuss prebiotics in nineteen ninety five, meaning
stuff that helps build colonies of beneficial bacteria, inulin was
pretty quickly part of the conversation.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So yeah, this was because say this about every episode,
but this was an interesting one in terms of it
kind of broke down to here's the medical use, here's
how a lot of people use it as a food stuff.
And like again, listeners please write in, but I read
(23:14):
places like Italy it's still like the root is roasted
and eaten as a dish.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Ah that sounds delicious, I mean, especially right in some
of those some of those old school preparations you were
talking about with like spices and honey, like that sounds great.
Like I like a bitter root vegetable, that's great.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Come on, I still think we need to get you
that shit. They could be wonderful, but yeah, this one's
this one has the vibe of research is ongoing. I'm
sure we'll return to it in the future. Yeah, but
in the meantime, that is what we have to say
(23:54):
about Chickory Root for now.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It is. We do have some listener mail for you though,
and we are going to get into that soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with bitter Okay, Yeah, yeah, I guess you
can be bitter and be not so unhappy. That's just
(24:32):
I was projecting. I shouldn't have done that. I'm not mad.
So we have a longer listener mail today, complete with
pictures that we have to describe. So we're going to
split it up into this is when I teased and
it's amazing, very excited to share it. Okay. E J wrote,
(25:00):
it's been almost a year since I last sent you
guys an email. Do you guys deliberately schedule your Japanese
episodes to come out in the summer? Just a fun coincidence.
I was amused when you mentioned that Nato had a
certain fermented cheese like quality. When I first tried Nato,
it kind of reminded me of blue cheese. When I
mentioned this to Japanese people, some of them were adamant
(25:22):
that I was wrong, because, according to them, Nato was delicious,
but blue cheese was disgusting. Total opposites. Some years ago,
when I was still teaching English, I decided that the
best way to teach paragraph writing was to use pizza
as an analogy. Just as with a pizza, the appropriate
(25:45):
toppings depend on what you're aiming for in your writing.
I showed my students' examples of pizzas from around the world,
including Japanese tuna mayo pizza, which was normal to them,
Chicago deep Dish, and Swedish banana curry pizza. Then I
revealed my masterpiece, blue cheese Nato. The opposite of a
(26:08):
big hit. Nobody would be happy with it. Made it
a fair compromise. I made it using a standard cheese
pizza from the supermarket, topped it with some Bargator Pecante
cheese and added washed Nato. Then I baked it in
(26:28):
the oven. Before serving, I drizzled some honey on top.
Because I had a coworker who swore by the honey
Nato combo and quacho Fromagi. Pizzas in Japan are usually
served with honey. I was quite pleased with my creation.
As predicted, my students wore not very enticed by it
(26:49):
when I showed it to them. Only one girl said
out loud in Japanese, of course, hey, that looks pretty
good to the stunned looks of her classmates.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, yes, yes, and so there are Yeah, there are
some photos of the pizza, and it looks good. I
would try that. You know, it looks good to me,
especially with the honey on there, like yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, honestly, good on you. It turned out pretty good.
It looks pretty good. I can't vouch for the taste, obviously,
but I would give it a go. And I can
see the comparison of Nato and blue cheese.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
It might be like a one slice kind of kind
of pizza.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah it sounds kind of rich.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, it sounds fairly intense.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But yes, pizza. I like that. EJ continues.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
As I mentioned before, I now live in Osaka, which
is known as the nation's kitchen. They included the Japanese
are not going to try it today. I'm tired, Okay.
There's a saying that Kyoto will ruin themselves for good clothes,
while Osaka will ruin themselves for good food. This reputation
goes way back during the Edo period after the fall
(28:13):
of Osaka, which made Oscaca more reliant on trade of
rice and other produce. People do come to Osaka to eat,
but the more local comfort food fair is far more
popular here than fancy dining. Among the cities with the
most Michelin starred restaurants, Osaka ranks merely fourth after Tokyo, Paris,
and Kyoto respectively. Osaka's food culture, as well as the
(28:33):
Michelin guides heavy bias for a French Japanese cuisine, is
a much longer topic that I'm currently trying to research
myself and is very much worth a look for a
future episode if you're ever so inclined. This is somewhat
tied to your mention of the show Shogun, which was
set some years before the fall of Osaka Castle. It
is a great show and after we finished watching it,
we felt like we needed to know more. We found
(28:54):
that Lady Marico, our favorite character, was based on a
woman named Osakawa Garcia and my partner found out that
her remains were interred at a temple that was near
our neighborhood, so we took our bicycle in cats for
a walk and visited her lady Marico And okay, so yes,
(29:14):
there's a picture of the cat for tax. He is
a big, flufy orange guy and apparently did not want
to go out for a walk, but looks like he's
suffering through it. Also a photo of EJ's go to
(29:34):
Baskin Robin or thirty one ice cream flavor as it's
called in Japan, which is exclusive to one convenience store,
pop Rocks Cotton Candy. Would Annie eat this, she's making
a face.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
It wouldn't be what I chose. I'd eat it if
I had to, but I wouldn't go for it.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I'm curious. I'm curious about all of that. I'm curious
about how you keep the pop rocks dry in the
midst of ice cream. I'm sure it's like an extra
candy shell or something. But okay, anyway, and some weirder
Domino's Japan pizzas, which are intentionally weird Halloween hot sauced
Happy Yoka pizza, pickles pizza, and socura pizza. Yes, I've
(30:18):
tried them all, and these are where we really have
to we really have to do some explanation, because all right,
the sakura pizza looks to be a stuffed crust pizza
with is that powdered sugar? Is there powdered sugar on
the edge of the crust. Is this a partially sweet pizza? Uh?
(30:44):
And maybe yeah, I'm not sure what else is on there.
It looks like soacura blossoms, like candied socura, yeah, of
some kind.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah. The pickle pizza has so much many pickles.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, so many pickles. But super producer Dylan, who loves pickles,
was like, even I might have to draw the line.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, uh yeah, and I think he had a dill
pun in there, and now I don't remember what it was,
but but yeah, this is a this is like a
wall to wall pickle pizza. Like it appears to have
like a white sauce kind of situation going on, and
there does appear to be like a mozzarella under the
pickles or some other kind of white cheese like that,
(31:33):
But like that, there's no there's really no gaps in
the pickles.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It is.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Coated, and there's a there's a solid shingling of pickles
across the top this pizza.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's pickles as far as you can see.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
And then, last, but certainly not least, this bloody Halloween
pizza with blood red hot sauce and sweet tappyoca. I'm
just I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, and I really love the advertisement because first of all,
the hot sauce is streaked like blood. Of course. Yeah,
but there's a hand with I guess long red fingernails.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right, it looks I don't know,
the zombie or vampire themed perhaps. And there's a real
good cheese stretch in the photo. I always had a
good cheese stretch. The crust looks black to me, and
I'm not sure what's up with that.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I have no idea whether this is more sweet or
more savory or just smack in the middle, because why not?
Because why not? I love this?
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I love this so much. Listeners, Please, if you've encountered
a people like this, you've got a lot us know
it brings us so much joy. I've shared this with everybody.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Immediately look at these pizzas that exist out there.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh my god, I'm so happy they do it begs me.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Joy and again, yeah, like I would try anything basically.
So if I didn't have like immediate fear about like
endangering my physical health, I would try basically anything. So
so yeah, all of that is certainly on the table.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yes, absolutely, I want it to be on the table.
All right. Oh god, this is amazing. Thank you so
much EJ for sending us this, for writing in and
to all the listeners who have written to us. If
you would like to write to us, you can. Our
email is hello at savorpod dot com, and we're also
(33:58):
on social media.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod, and we do hook to hear from you.
Save 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 us
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.
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie and I'm more on Vocal Bomb, and today
we have an episode for you about chickery root.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yes, which was another one that gave me a bit
of competitions. Yeah, the specificity of it. I want to
get it right. And when I originally when you suggested it,
I thought I had never heard of it or had it.
But when I was researching it, it's like, oh, yes,
I have had coffee with chickery in it.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, totally right.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, together we have.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's why I had thought. I was pretty sure that
we had been sitting in Cafe Dumont together and that
you had ordered a coffee that did, in fact happen.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Does that explain why your own note in the intro
here is just a single word nope with the period yes?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, cool.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it's a there's a lot going on, folks, I know,
you know.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And so I was just like stressed when I was
doing this.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, and I was like, no experience, no, But then
I read it, I was like oh yeah, And then
I never came back to fix the note, So okay,
I wasn't sure I was like, maybe she hates chickory.
Maybe Cafe Lana is her least favorite place on the planet.
She suffered through it for me and Dylan and.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Me, Yeah, Dylan and I were that. We were both
wearing black when we went. Yeah, and so I got
all the powdered sugar on me. Ever since rage, No,
it's a case of stress and exhaustion. Well, was there
any reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It's been on the list for a really long time,
and I thought, you know, why not?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Now, why not? Now you're really leaning into this, let's
do it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, I promise it's not for any like really dire reason.
It's it's it's really just like, oh, you know, hecket,
let's yeah, let's go, let's have fun. Let's do too
much medical reading into chickery root.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, that is true.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I even tried not to and even to like explain
why I wasn't going to explain more. I had to
read like a lot of medical papers. So, yeah, that's cool.
We're ostensibly a food show.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
We are, indeed, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
On that note, I guess I can say that you
can see our episodes on coffee. I believe we have
two on do we have two on coffee that we
definitely have the one big one from a Wahoo with
the interview. That's great anyway, I don't know, I don't
remember what we've done.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
One on dandelion.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, also gave me palpitations. So this runs in the family.
As they say, I feel like a lot gives you palpitations.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
An that's the truth, all right, I will accept that, Lauren.
That's a fair point. Okay, okay, yes, okay, wow. I
guess that brings us to our questions.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Chickery root.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Well, chickery root is the root of a chickory plant.
Chickory is a category of like bitter sort of weedy
plants with different varieties grown for their leaves versus their roots,
which is why I specified leaf chicken is going to
have to be another couple of different episodes, I think.
But okay, because yeah, when you cultivate it for its leaves,
(04:07):
you can wind up with things like a like Ridicio
Ridicio or Belgian end dive. But today we're talking about
the root. It is a taproot more specifically, and so
the plant's taproot can grow long and thick and crisp
and can then be harvested and either cooked as a
vegetable or more frequently like roasted or otherwise dried and
(04:27):
then ground up for use in beverages, often hot drinks,
either by itself is like a tea or to saying
I should say, or added to coffee. It's also used
in burn beer. Chickory root is very bitter and sort
of woody, earthy herbal when it's raw, and then roasting
(04:48):
it brings out a sort of like toasty, nutty sweetness
that balances that bitter a little. It is a really
intense flavor that takes you on a bit of a journey,
like very complex, not quite like anything else. Chickory is
sort of too coffee what carab is to chocolate. Like
(05:08):
they get compared a lot, but you should really think
of it as its own thing for your own safety,
your own like emotional safety.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's like, okay, I know this one is sort of weird,
but it's sort of like being hit in the face
with a cartoon frying pan because it is just strong
and like up in your sinuses. But you see little
stars or lattes.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, yeah, Oh, that's a nice way of putting it
in the face of the cartoon frying pan. Sure. Yeah,
you gotta look at the bright side.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, you get to see stars.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's great. Yeah, there's a fun sound involved.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I do. I do love chickery coffee. I had at
least two cups over the course of reading about all
this because I was just like, yeah, I'm going to
drink some of that right now.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I always have.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Some okay root chickories. Botanical name, Why do I do
this to myself? That's not what it is is a
Chequorium intubus variety sativam sativam, meaning cultivated. It's in the
astorassier or daisy family, along with yes, dandelions, but also
things like artichokes and lettuces. It is a temperate zone plant,
(06:31):
but it's really it's really comfy, especially the root versions,
with very hot and dry weather, and it can grow
sort of wiry and tall, like like up to six
feet that's two meters given the chance, with leaves that
will typically resemble a dandalion's. The first year that it grows,
it'll build up this taproot underground, off of which its
true roots will thread out into the soil, and that
(06:54):
taproot is a storage container for like sugars and water
and various other nutritious stuff that the plant we'll used
to get through the winter and then bloom and seed
the following summer, unless we dig it up and eat
it first.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Suckers.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, when chickery, When root chickery does flour, they're these
pretty like blue to lavender blooms with these like long,
kind of rectangular shaped petals that are notched on the
end so that they look a little bit like a paintbrush.
They're real pretty. And if you've ever seen tall weeds
with blue flowers on the side of the road in
(07:32):
certainly Europe or North America, probably a lot of other
places where it's been naturalized, it's probably chickery. The taproot
is ivory in color, with like a darker sort of
golden colored skin, and can be anywhere from like sort
of spin lely to pretty hefty like a like a
parsnip or maybe a pale carrot sort of thing. Freeze
(07:53):
and beverages. It can be dried just simply dried out
to preserve its natural flavors, or roasted anywhere from like
a toasty brown to very dark like like coffee or
cacao beans, creating new flavors from caramelization and the male reaction.
It can be brewed alone into a hot drink, or
mixed in with coffee beans, or or used sort of
(08:15):
like hops are to make beer as a like bittering
and or anti microbial agent. I've seen it in stouts
and strong ales. In the food industry, the root is
debittered and then powdered and used in various processed foods
to add sweetness or body to different foods and drinks
(08:35):
that the starches in chicken root can can form like
a like a gel with water that can even turn
kind of creamy if you agitated enough.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You can.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Also, if you have a taproot, you can use it
to grow baby greens. Just plant one with the top
of the root just exposed. It should sprout little bitter shoots.
Let's just get some little bitter microgreens in your life.
Yeah a little, yeah, a little bitter shoots like me,
I wasn't gonna say.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Well, what about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
By itself, chickery root is pretty good for you. It
contains a bunch of fiber and a number of micronutrients
that help your body do stuff. Though, if you're drinking
liquids that it's steeped in or like browed with, rather
than eating it. You're not really getting like that much
of the fiber part. It contains no caffeine, so if
you're looking to cut back on that, it can be
(09:31):
like a useful alternative or addition to to coffee beans. Traditionally,
chickory in general and its root in particular have been
used for all kinds of medicinal purposes in the places
where it grows, and one of those reasons, as it
turns out, is that chickery root does contain a lot
(09:51):
of this one type of fiber called inuline. This is
not an anuline episode, but all right, when it's h
chickory root is at least like sixty eight percent inuline
by dry weight. It has more fiber by dry weight
than pretty much anything else we eat. Inulin is this
(10:15):
really dietarily and commercially interesting type of fiber because it
tastes sweet while having fewer calories than sugar, and because
it's a soluble fiber meaning it can glom onto water,
and because it seems to potentially have all kinds of
positive benefits in the body. Very Basically, inulin is made
(10:37):
up of these fibrous chains of fruit toase that our
bodies cannot break down. Fiber that we can't digest is
good for us because it helps everything kind of move
along where our guts and helps us feel full and
prevent overeating. And inulin specifically can be broken down and
eaten by some of the good bacteria that live in
(10:59):
our guts, which can help them flourish, which can help
our health overall. However, a lot of research into anylan
has been done with extracts, not with like the whole
chickery route, or with preparations thereof as in coffee. And
as always you know say er motto, nutrition is complicated,
our bodies are complicated. More research is necessary, and before
(11:22):
ingesting a medicinal amount of anything, you should consult a
healthcare provider, which we aren't.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Nope, Nope, absolutely not Nope. Do not come at us
with your lawyers please. As mentioned, we've got enough going
so we do have a couple numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I read that the global market for chickery root is
somewhere around seven hundred million dollars per year. There are
chickory festivals, one in Vermont is coming up in October.
I think that the third annual was in twenty twenty three.
I couldn't find anything about about a twenty twenty four version,
but it has been a week long event with lots
(12:08):
of participating restaurants and bars and like farming co ops
to educate folks on how to use chickery root and ridiccicio.
Their tagline is make the world a bitter place.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh that sounds like you, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think you need a shirt that says that, right.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh yeah, uh. There's there's another one, another chickery festival
out in the Pacific Northwest, though it's definitely focused on
like the leaf type chickeries.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
But you know, yeah, yes, I think I saw that
there's one in Italy that sounds accurate. YEP listeners, please
let us know as always.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well there is quite the history behind chickery route.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
There is, and we are going to get to that
as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank
you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Okay. So, chick re root originated in parts of Europe,
Asia and Africa, or at least that's what people think
because the history of chickery root isn't the easiest to
track down. It is a task made all the more
difficult by the different varieties. But researchers speculate it may
(13:35):
be one of history's earliest cultivated vegetables. However, it isn't
quite clear if they were being cultivated for their leaves
or their roots. Are both, probably, I mean honestly, probably
for the whole thing. Yep, But yeah, all right, So
four thousand years ago the ancient Greeks and Romans started
growing chicken root as a vegetable crop. Ancient Egyptians chickery
(14:00):
root to use medistantly, culinarily and as a drink as
well as food for animals. I also read cosmetically, but
I could believe back that up. But wherever it grew,
it was generally popular and used in a whole host
of ways, and that is reflected over years of writings,
from cookbooks to poetry. It was something people were excited about.
(14:25):
One of the first known instances of chickery root in
the human record dates back to the third century BCE,
when Greek botanist Theophrostis described the plant and stages of growth.
He also referred to the culinary uses for the leaves.
Chickery root has a long history of being used distantly
in areas where it is indigenous, ranging from cancer, tumors, jaundice, injuries, diabetes,
(14:50):
all kinds of things. Yes. In the first century CE
Roman cookbook the Epiceus featured a restI for chickery roots.
When it was time for the roots to be harvested,
they were stored with onions and oil, to be eaten
during the winter with honey and vinegar. According to the Apicius,
(15:11):
Greek writer Celsus mentioned roasted chickery root around the same time. Okay, yeah,
I mean this preparation was often eaten alone, but sometimes
alongside other foods. According to a Greek physician in the
second century CE, this preparation was quite bitter. At the
(15:31):
same time, Greek physicians were writing about the medicinal qualities
of chicken roots skipping ahead. In a ninth century CE
Islamic medical work, several uses in preparations of chicken roots
were described. During the Renaissance, more instances and details about
(15:51):
chickery root began showing up in the written record. A
sixteen fourteen Italian cookbook contained descriptions of two preparations of
chicken root, one for spring and one for fall. In
the spring preparation, the leaves and root were served raw
with oil, salt, and vinegar, and in the fall preparation,
the roots were boiled, seasoned and served with raisins, and
the raisins were supposed to combat the bitterness. Okay, yeah, sure,
(16:16):
sure yeah. Other writings suggest that the roots were eaten
in salads and many places throughout Europe at this time.
They were also eaten in MUSHes, cooked and eaten as
a vegetable side and soups, or as something kind of
like a condiment for meats, which I'm really interested in.
Some records from the seventeen hundred suggest the roots were
(16:36):
sold as candies or sweets. Yeah so interested, Sure, yeah,
I get it. Put some sugar on it. It's got
like some bitter and sweet.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
YEA, cook it down with some syrup. Yeah, make a
little candied candy chickory.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Sure. All throughout this time, several works described the medicinal
uses of chicken roots, including dosages and preparations like that
got more, It got much more specific, However, European perception
and usage of chickery roots started to shift beginning in
the mid eighteenth century. They were still eaten as vegetables,
(17:10):
but typically more out of necessity than desire. Because of this,
many started to associate the roots with famine and poverty,
so kind of lost their shine. Researchers speculate this is
also when chickery drinks really took off. According to a
few sources, two coffee pioneers started experimenting with coffee and
(17:33):
chickery root drinks in eighteen oh one, and their efforts
led to increased trade of chickery in France, but their
results were still kind of under the radar. The idea
goes that these drinks, which were ground chickery root powder
mixed with hot water, sometimes with coffee, grew in popularity
(17:53):
towards the end of the eighteenth century due to the
prohibition of coffee in Germany enacted by Federic the Great.
After that, chick re production in Europe increased to meet
the growing demand for chickery drinks to cover the loss
of this coffee or perhaps particularly in France, it rose
(18:14):
in popularity during the coffee shortage caused by Napoleon's Continental
Blockade of eighteen oh eight.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah that was a move to cut off trade of
continental Europe with the British right.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
And since chickery grew in France, it was an ideal substitute,
and people would mix a little coffee with their chickery
drinks to make the coffee stretch for longer. So I
love how often would come to like taxes and shortages
in this show yep we're speaking of. After the blockade
(18:52):
was lifted, this practice faded but didn't disappear completely and
made its way to French colonies, including Louisiana. France exported
sixteen million pounds of chickery in eighteen sixty. This meant
that it started growing in places like North America and
Australia too. Also, I read that this is when India
(19:15):
was introduced to chickery coffee through the UK. But I
couldn't find a lot of sources to back that up,
so right.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
In, yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't to be fair, I
didn't dig very deep on it, but I couldn't find
easily find details on that one either. But I do
know that chicory coffee is a really popular in filter
coffee in India.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, So listeners, please if you have an experience
or knowledge, Yeah, right in But yeah, once again, a
blockade is what led people to drink chickery drinks in
the US. This time it was the Union blockade of
the Port of New Orleans during the Civil War. At
the time, this is one of the largest importers of
(19:55):
coffee in the US. So once again, in the face
of coffee shortages, people turned to chickery root drinks, especially
in New Orleans, where these drinks are still popular long
after the blockade was lifted and coffee was no longer
in short supply.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, it became a whole thing. And speaking of the
coffee stand, Cafe Dumont opened in eighteen sixty two, smack
in the middle of the Civil War, so yeah, it
makes sense that they developed this now famous coffee blend
of four parts coffee to one part chickery. Dylan, I'm
still sorry about that powdered sugar incident.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's my bad.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
You're very nice about it. I probably don't have to
keep apologizing, but I still feel silly anyway. There are
certainly other chickery, coffee and bigniet stands around New Orleans,
and I encourage everyone to find their favorite one, but
Cafe Dumont is kind of the big one, or the
(20:54):
nationally available one, because fast forward today and now find
cans of Cafe Dumont's chickery coffee and lots of grocery stores,
but perhaps especially American Vietnamese grocery stores, because of a
shared history of colonization by the French and thus a
(21:15):
similar Ish coffee culture. Different episode, different episode.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yes, yes, indeed. Well, during World War Two, chickery roots
were readily available and they were ground up and the
resulting flower was used in breadmaking. When there was shortages
of all kinds of things, turned to chickery roots.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yep. But back to coffee. Nestlie developed an instant coffee
and chickery drink mix in the nineteen fifties called rick
Ray ricarey that sounds more. I don't know, I didn't
look it up. Mostly mostly for the French market. It's
also available in South Africa as ricoffee, which I love.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yes. And then in the nineteen seventies, scientists discovered that
chickery root contained up to forty percent annyalin.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah uh, and that's that's by fresh weight, not dry weight.
Inulin had been discovered back in the early eighteen hundreds,
and researchers have been interested in it for all kinds
of things, including right as a sweetener for foods if
you don't want to consume sugar, as in uh, if
you're managing diabetes. So yeah, like cultivation of better root
(22:33):
varieties of chickory and production of root chickery really took
off around the end of the nineteen hundreds. And when
we started to discuss prebiotics in nineteen ninety five, meaning
stuff that helps build colonies of beneficial bacteria, inulin was
pretty quickly part of the conversation.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So yeah, this was because say this about every episode,
but this was an interesting one in terms of it
kind of broke down to here's the medical use, here's
how a lot of people use it as a food stuff.
And like again, listeners please write in, but I read
(23:14):
places like Italy it's still like the root is roasted
and eaten as a dish.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Ah that sounds delicious, I mean, especially right in some
of those some of those old school preparations you were
talking about with like spices and honey, like that sounds great.
Like I like a bitter root vegetable, that's great.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Come on, I still think we need to get you
that shit. They could be wonderful, but yeah, this one's
this one has the vibe of research is ongoing. I'm
sure we'll return to it in the future. Yeah, but
in the meantime, that is what we have to say
(23:54):
about Chickory Root for now.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
It is. We do have some listener mail for you though,
and we are going to get into that soon as
we get back from one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with bitter Okay, Yeah, yeah, I guess you
can be bitter and be not so unhappy. That's just
(24:32):
I was projecting. I shouldn't have done that. I'm not mad.
So we have a longer listener mail today, complete with
pictures that we have to describe. So we're going to
split it up into this is when I teased and
it's amazing, very excited to share it. Okay. E J wrote,
(25:00):
it's been almost a year since I last sent you
guys an email. Do you guys deliberately schedule your Japanese
episodes to come out in the summer? Just a fun coincidence.
I was amused when you mentioned that Nato had a
certain fermented cheese like quality. When I first tried Nato,
it kind of reminded me of blue cheese. When I
mentioned this to Japanese people, some of them were adamant
(25:22):
that I was wrong, because, according to them, Nato was delicious,
but blue cheese was disgusting. Total opposites. Some years ago,
when I was still teaching English, I decided that the
best way to teach paragraph writing was to use pizza
as an analogy. Just as with a pizza, the appropriate
(25:45):
toppings depend on what you're aiming for in your writing.
I showed my students' examples of pizzas from around the world,
including Japanese tuna mayo pizza, which was normal to them,
Chicago deep Dish, and Swedish banana curry pizza. Then I
revealed my masterpiece, blue cheese Nato. The opposite of a
(26:08):
big hit. Nobody would be happy with it. Made it
a fair compromise. I made it using a standard cheese
pizza from the supermarket, topped it with some Bargator Pecante
cheese and added washed Nato. Then I baked it in
(26:28):
the oven. Before serving, I drizzled some honey on top.
Because I had a coworker who swore by the honey
Nato combo and quacho Fromagi. Pizzas in Japan are usually
served with honey. I was quite pleased with my creation.
As predicted, my students wore not very enticed by it
(26:49):
when I showed it to them. Only one girl said
out loud in Japanese, of course, hey, that looks pretty
good to the stunned looks of her classmates.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, yes, yes, and so there are Yeah, there are
some photos of the pizza, and it looks good. I
would try that. You know, it looks good to me,
especially with the honey on there, like yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, honestly, good on you. It turned out pretty good.
It looks pretty good. I can't vouch for the taste, obviously,
but I would give it a go. And I can
see the comparison of Nato and blue cheese.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
It might be like a one slice kind of kind
of pizza.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah it sounds kind of rich.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, it sounds fairly intense.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But yes, pizza. I like that. EJ continues.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
As I mentioned before, I now live in Osaka, which
is known as the nation's kitchen. They included the Japanese
are not going to try it today. I'm tired, Okay.
There's a saying that Kyoto will ruin themselves for good clothes,
while Osaka will ruin themselves for good food. This reputation
goes way back during the Edo period after the fall
(28:13):
of Osaka, which made Oscaca more reliant on trade of
rice and other produce. People do come to Osaka to eat,
but the more local comfort food fair is far more
popular here than fancy dining. Among the cities with the
most Michelin starred restaurants, Osaka ranks merely fourth after Tokyo, Paris,
and Kyoto respectively. Osaka's food culture, as well as the
(28:33):
Michelin guides heavy bias for a French Japanese cuisine, is
a much longer topic that I'm currently trying to research
myself and is very much worth a look for a
future episode if you're ever so inclined. This is somewhat
tied to your mention of the show Shogun, which was
set some years before the fall of Osaka Castle. It
is a great show and after we finished watching it,
we felt like we needed to know more. We found
(28:54):
that Lady Marico, our favorite character, was based on a
woman named Osakawa Garcia and my partner found out that
her remains were interred at a temple that was near
our neighborhood, so we took our bicycle in cats for
a walk and visited her lady Marico And okay, so yes,
(29:14):
there's a picture of the cat for tax. He is
a big, flufy orange guy and apparently did not want
to go out for a walk, but looks like he's
suffering through it. Also a photo of EJ's go to
(29:34):
Baskin Robin or thirty one ice cream flavor as it's
called in Japan, which is exclusive to one convenience store,
pop Rocks Cotton Candy. Would Annie eat this, she's making
a face.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
It wouldn't be what I chose. I'd eat it if
I had to, but I wouldn't go for it.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I'm curious. I'm curious about all of that. I'm curious
about how you keep the pop rocks dry in the
midst of ice cream. I'm sure it's like an extra
candy shell or something. But okay, anyway, and some weirder
Domino's Japan pizzas, which are intentionally weird Halloween hot sauced
Happy Yoka pizza, pickles pizza, and socura pizza. Yes, I've
(30:18):
tried them all, and these are where we really have
to we really have to do some explanation, because all right,
the sakura pizza looks to be a stuffed crust pizza
with is that powdered sugar? Is there powdered sugar on
the edge of the crust. Is this a partially sweet pizza? Uh?
(30:44):
And maybe yeah, I'm not sure what else is on there.
It looks like soacura blossoms, like candied socura, yeah, of
some kind.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah. The pickle pizza has so much many pickles.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, so many pickles. But super producer Dylan, who loves pickles,
was like, even I might have to draw the line.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, uh yeah, and I think he had a dill
pun in there, and now I don't remember what it was,
but but yeah, this is a this is like a
wall to wall pickle pizza. Like it appears to have
like a white sauce kind of situation going on, and
there does appear to be like a mozzarella under the
pickles or some other kind of white cheese like that,
(31:33):
But like that, there's no there's really no gaps in
the pickles.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It is.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Coated, and there's a there's a solid shingling of pickles
across the top this pizza.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
It's pickles as far as you can see.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
And then, last, but certainly not least, this bloody Halloween
pizza with blood red hot sauce and sweet tappyoca. I'm
just I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, and I really love the advertisement because first of all,
the hot sauce is streaked like blood. Of course. Yeah,
but there's a hand with I guess long red fingernails.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right, it looks I don't know,
the zombie or vampire themed perhaps. And there's a real
good cheese stretch in the photo. I always had a
good cheese stretch. The crust looks black to me, and
I'm not sure what's up with that.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
I have no idea whether this is more sweet or
more savory or just smack in the middle, because why not?
Because why not? I love this?
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I love this so much. Listeners, Please, if you've encountered
a people like this, you've got a lot us know
it brings us so much joy. I've shared this with everybody.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Immediately look at these pizzas that exist out there.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh my god, I'm so happy they do it begs me.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Joy and again, yeah, like I would try anything basically.
So if I didn't have like immediate fear about like
endangering my physical health, I would try basically anything. So
so yeah, all of that is certainly on the table.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yes, absolutely, I want it to be on the table.
All right. Oh god, this is amazing. Thank you so
much EJ for sending us this, for writing in and
to all the listeners who have written to us. If
you would like to write to us, you can. Our
email is hello at savorpod dot com, and we're also
(33:58):
on social media.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod, and we do hook to hear from you.
Save 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 us
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.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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