The On-the-Ball Onigiri Episode

This Japanese snacking staple can go in lots of directions, but it all starts with seasoned rice. Anney and Lauren fill in the history and culture of onigiri.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hell though, And welcome to Savor production of I Heart
Radio and Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today
we have an episode for you about on a Geary.
Oh so many cravings, yes, gosh, very intense and specific
cravings I am having right now. Yes, And this episode

(00:29):
uh happened to be like perfect timing for me. It
was a suggestion from you. Did you have any like
any impetus behind it or was it just like, oh,
this is one that's been on our suggestion list for
an untold amount of time. Yes, I'm told there's no
way of knowing eons ago, since the beginning of time. Yes,

(00:57):
well as it should be. Uh, okay. So I have
so much nori right now, like, oh yeah, an embarrassing
amount because it was the only amount I could get.
I needed it for some recipe I was doing that
was very delicious. But now I have a ton of it,
and so I've been trying to find recipes on how
to use it, and through that I have found a

(01:21):
lot of on a Geary recipes And at first I thought,
you know him a little rice phobic. I'm a little
scared of cooking with rice. Um, And I've just always
assumed this would be too difficult for me. But reading
through the research, I I feel confident and I'm gonna
give it a go. And in fact, I want to

(01:42):
do a whole Like I want to do some pan
fried versions, panmfied versions. I want to do a whole spread. Yeah. Yeah,
it is one of the things that, like, you you
might as well make a lot if you're making it,
because like once you get molding, just just kind of
keep going, you know, Well that's the plan more I
hope it's. And this episode did bring back many fond

(02:09):
memories of our time in Hawaii. Yeah, absolutely one of
the one of the things like we we like landed
and got to our hotel in Waikiki and realized that
one piece of our luggage was still at the airport,
and so we just had this like this like cool
like and and also like our rooms weren't ready, so

(02:29):
like we just had this like cool stretch of maybe
an hour where we were sitting out on the patio
of this of this hotel and we were right across
the street from I think it was a seven eleven,
and I ran across and just grabbed like a bunch
of like masubi and a gary and drinks and just

(02:51):
and there was like a brief, beautiful rain storm and
it was like like the the act of sitting on
this hotel patio eating convenience store snacks was so lovely.
It was. Yeah, it was like a really special moment

(03:12):
where we're like, oh, we got to enjoy that time
with each other foods and just yeah, it was really lovely.
It was uh for this one. You can see r
Rice episode, which still like I remember how much it
broke my brain, but yeah you can. And also our
donut episode. Surprisingly that's because of stuff we mentioned in

(03:38):
our Pokemon episode and we'll get into more later on.
But but yes, yes, yes, you seriously never know where
the research is going to take you never. Okay, So
I guess this brings us to walk question. Sure on
a giddy what is it? Well? On a geary are

(04:03):
a category of handheld food items that can be a
lot of things, but at base are cooked rice and
some kind of seasoning and or filling, packed furmish into
a into a ball or triangle or maybe kind of
like a puck so that you can pick it up. Um,
often partially wrapped in nori, which are which are dried

(04:26):
paper like sheets made of seaweed on a geary, are
almost always savory. They can be served warm or room
temperature or cool. They can be a snack or part
of a meal, or like a whole meal into themselves. Um,
they're like a They're like a hardy tea sandwich, but
with rice instead of bread. They're like less fatty, are

(04:50):
in cheeni? Okay that they're They're like a They're like
a dumpling made of grains of rice is saying to you,
it's not safe to go alone. Bring me all always.
It does. It does kind of have that vibe of, like,

(05:12):
I don't know, it kind of reminds me of my
mom when she's like, you've gotta what if you don't
have enough food? Take this stick this. Yeah, it's so
easily portable and pretty filling. Yeah, I get that vibe. Um.
The rice in question is usually like regular old steamed
white rice, not not sticky glutenous rice. Usually, though you

(05:35):
can use that. The rice is seasoned with anything from
a little bit of salt to like a blend of
more complex things like sesame seeds and dried fish flake
um and flakes of nori. Maybe some other herbs or
spices like She's so leaf for bits of dried veg.
You can also mix in more substantial ingredients to the rice,

(05:55):
like like cooked red beans or different grains like barley,
or you could use like a pan fried rice with
bits of cooked veget it if you wanted to um.
In some cases, generally, when you have not mixed anything
in with the rice um, the rice will be pressed
around a filling of some kind, usually a chopped filling,

(06:16):
so it's kind of easy to to bite into. Um
something like cooked or preserved seafood or meat, sometimes dressed
in a sauce. Sometimes just plain or pickled fruit or
vegetables um. For example, umboshi, which are tarts salted pickled plums,
one of my favorite things, very strong in flavor, real weird.

(06:37):
If you've never experienced them, I want you to and
I'm sorry. Yeah, I believe when we went to that
big mall where I felt like on this Hawaiti chrip
where I felt kind of like all of y'all's bobs
where you're like, I can't please any can we go
to these? You immediately saw one of one with Mubashi

(06:58):
in it, and you were like we're getting it. That's it.
That's it. It was delicious. I loved it. I think
they're great. It's I I don't think there's there's a
lot of things in um An American cuisine that have
the same combination of both very tart and very salty.
So it can be it can be a little bit startling,

(07:19):
but but in a way that I love anyway. UM,
that's a that's an option. UM. Also, cooked vegetables like
mushroom or sweet potato might be used as a filling
or just like a like a dollop of miso paste.
Any kind of filling goes really so you you take
your your your your rice, and you're filling, and you
hand pack uh this this thing into shape into whatever

(07:42):
shape it is that you're going for, or you can
use a mold if you want to. UM. And then
because even a non sticky rice is like a little
sticky to the touch, you usually apply UM a partial
wrapper sort of like a handle of nori. Uh nori

(08:02):
is definitely a whole other episode onto itself. UM. But
very basically, this is a product wherein seaweed is pulped
and pressed into thin sheets like you would do to
to would to make paper. Um. And then those sheets
are roasted dry, yielding something that will break and crumble
on its own, um, but has a little bit of

(08:25):
a chew to it when it's wettened, and it's got
this this savory vegetal kind of toasty, roasty flavor. So
what you get when you apply this to on a
geary um when when you take it, when you take
a fresh sheet and apply it and serve it immediately,
it's almost like a like a paper thin crunch trap.
M m uh. And yes I'm using tacobout it. There's

(08:50):
a ground reference here, um. But hopefully you'll understand what
I'm talking about. Um. If you let if you let
the ungeary sit a while, um, then the nori will
moisten from the rice and attain the sort of snap
and chew almost like a like a sausage casing. Um.
Some people really dislike that and want it to be

(09:11):
super fresh. I don't mind it either way. Um uh.
Not that I want you to have as many preferences
as you want to have. We like a strong preference here,
we do. This is one case where I'm like, I
want to eat the food like I would like to
I would like to eat it, I don't care um
at any rate. Uh. You can also instead of nori,

(09:33):
use other edible wrappings UM, different leafy green vegetables or
herbs to preference. She's so leaf is is another one
that shows up sometimes UM or a type of mustard
greens or maybe like a steamed cabbage kind of situation. UM.
Or instead of doing any of those things um, or
maybe an addition, uh, you can take your shaped on

(09:56):
a geary um just the rice and grill it or
grittle it so that it gets this crisp golden crust um,
sort of like the pan crust on paia or bibumbat
m Yeah so good. Oh um. Those are called yucky
on a geary um because yucky is a word for
for cooked basically um. And you can make on a

(10:20):
gearry at home um. But they are also a very
popular to go convenience food and a common snack at
bars and restaurants if you make them at home. UM.
You can get molds in the kind of like standard
like triangular or circular shapes, or in all kinds of
cute see silly shapes for for lunch boxes, like like

(10:43):
panda faces or whatever um bento culture bento being a
word for this kind of like like fancified lunchbox situation.
Um is a whole thing, also a whole other episode. Yes, oh,
I can't wait to do that, but I did. I did.
That's the rabbit hole for the episode. Look up these
shapes and I found like a soccer bumbled you can

(11:05):
buy oh yeah, yeah, I don't know it, and all
kinds of co branded things. I mean, you need your
ungary to look like hello, Kitty's face. Like that's a
thing anyway. Um uh, the young geary sold inconvenience stores. Um.

(11:25):
These days are are packaged really ingeniously with this double
layer of cellophane type plastic um and the outer one
you know, keeps like the whole thing sanitary, but there's
this clever inner one that keeps the nori separate from
the rice but pulls away easily so that when you
unwrap it, that's the first time that the nori touches

(11:48):
the rice. So the nori stays crisp until you eat it.
That's fantastic. I read about that and I was like,
I could envision it. Um, that is pretty cool that
the first time I they definitely had that in the
ones that we bought in Hawaii. Uh, and I hate

(12:14):
what I'm like, I want to go to a seven eleven,
Like so silly. I don't think it's silly at all.
Or what I'm really missing right now is there's a
few Ishakiah's around town, um, like Japanese like pubs around
town that um, I haven't been to in a long
time because of the pandemic, and I really really really

(12:35):
missed them. Yeah, oh my gosh. Yes, Well maybe if
my my experiments aren't a disaster, I'll bring some to
the next Okay, right, Okay, it'll be fine. Well what
about the nutrition. Oh, it depends on how you make them,

(12:58):
you know. Um it's it's a all of rice at
the end of the day. Like it's kind of carb heavy,
but I can't have a good boost of protein to it.
Depending on what else you do there, um, you know.
And they will fill you up, um, can can keep
you going. Uh, you know, eat a vegetable, drink of water. Definitely,
drink of water. A lot of these are kind of
salt bombs. Yeah yeah, I mean again, I remember we

(13:21):
took them to a beach in Maui. We like got
went to the store and we took the beach and
I remember eating just one and thinking whoa, yeah, yeah,
those might have been a mass sub um. And like
spam missubi, which are a very related category, omissubi can
be a synonym um for on a geary, But generally

(13:46):
the Hawaiian concept of mass subi is a little bit more,
a little a little bit different and specific. But at
any rate, a large amount of rice. You're like, this
is a snack like and it's like a large amount
of packed rice. Like, yeah, well, we don't have many

(14:07):
numbers for you, but we do have a few. Yeah,
not not right here, there's a few. There's a few
more in the history part, but but here at the top,
just a couple. Yes. According to Elizabeth Ando, a scholar
of Japanese culinary history and culture, one point six billion
on a geary were sold in Japanese seven eleven. Oh

(14:28):
that's a lot um And it came out to be
about twelve on a geary per person on average that year.
I read that by twenty nineteen that number was up
to two point three billion. Wow. Yeah, my mind is
trying to grapple with this. Dang. Yeah, yeah, it's um.

(14:56):
Oh I can see why. Yeah, well, clearly they're popular,
and there's a history onto how and why they have
become so popular. Absolutely, and we are going to get
into that history right after we get back from a
quick break for a word from our sponsors. Then we're back.

(15:24):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. So this one's gonna
be a bit of fun with Japanese pronunciations, but Lauren's
going to help me out. I'll see what I can do.
I it's been a hot minute since I was in
college taking Japanese language classes. But we'll see. We'll see
if we can not butcher anything. I think we can

(15:46):
do it, okay. I felt pretty confident, and then I
just looked down at something I wrote. I was like,
oh no, but we're gonna I think we can do this.
I think we can do this, okay, And again ce
r Rice episode for more information on rice, but for
our purposes in this episode. Historians think that rice was
introduced to Japan around six thousand BC, and by about

(16:09):
three thousand b C, rice cultivation had spread through much
of the country, and in fact, there's a whole thing
about like wind round rice is popular when grains of
black rice is popular and it's too much, but just no, Yeah,
find the information should you desire. Yeah, and we can.
I feel like we're giving ourselves so much homework this

(16:31):
this episode, but right, all right, we can. We can
do so many different episodes about all these specific types
of rice and it would be fascinating and horrifying. Nothing
horrifying from a reading point of view, just like, there's
a lot of intricacies here and it's really cool. But
a lot indeed quite a lot, quite a lot um

(16:55):
but for this episode. While the word on a geary
can be traced back to fifte century Japan, most experts
looking into these portable rice balls believe that they go
back much further, perhaps as far back as the sixth century,
and perhaps even further. I'll get to them a second,
when a similar item went by a different name. On

(17:17):
top of that, a seven twenty one c e book
made mention of the guinie sure yeah yeah, which which meant,
folks in that area we're making rice balls by then,
and another book published around the same time seems to
make mention of them to the context, seemingly that the
rich would feed this item to their servants and farm workers,

(17:40):
both as a convenience item for the workday, but also
as a gift and um. As with many episodes, this
is an ongoing confusion. They were called by so many
different names and it's sort of hard to trace, uh
and know exactly what they were. But it seems like
kind of this rice ball, perhaps with protein, has been

(18:01):
historically these things were mentioning. Was there, like the it was?
It was there? Yeah, yeah, not not by the same name,
but right right. The culture of making and eating these
things goes way back. Indeed, a twelfth century woodcarving seems
to feature something resembling on a geary. And yeah. Also,
as with all of our topics, there are a couple

(18:23):
of theories and explanations surrounding on a geary. One popular
reasoning or story behind it believes that they originated as
a convenient way to feed traveling soldiers, sometimes between seven
and one thousand, acting as a sort of preservative. Others
suggest that nobles would sometimes give peasants who lingered just

(18:46):
outside of their gates rice balls. During a rebellion that
happened in twelve hundred c E. Up to two hundred thousand,
on a geary were distributed for soldiers. UM and rice
balls have continually provided sustenance for Japanese soldiers during conflicts.
That's been a thread throughout The name on a guery

(19:06):
came out of fifteen century Japanese banquets, not to describe
something eaten by those attending, but instead of food that
used up leftovers while feeding the servants after the banquet
was over. So these early on a geary usually contained
a bit of protein like seafood or small scraps of meat,
combined with whatever rice and or other grains that was

(19:27):
left over from this banquet. Um. They were designed specifically
so that they could be eaten by hand, no chopsticks required,
and they may have also been wrapped in bamboo leaves
and heated on A geary were popular for workers during
huge construction projects during the eighteen hundreds uh and they
were not infrequently depicted an art which I love, you know,

(19:50):
we love some good food art around here. This is
also around the time people started wrapping there on a
geary and Nori as opposed you the band boat that
as opposed to the band believes though historians from what
I read, are precisely sure why. And yes, I cannot
wait to do a norise I'm so excited to look

(20:12):
into it because my package contains kind of a sinister warning.
So I'm like, cannot wait to learn more about that. Okay, right,
Sometimes these rice balls were coated in something like mis
and baked, and sometimes hot tea was poured over them.
From what I read, which I'm also really interested in.

(20:34):
At this point to rice was fairly accessible to the
average person, which was not always the case in Japan.
Has not always been the case. Um And further, this
is around the time when rice ball started. And further,
this is around the time when rice ball started becoming
key in binto boxes. Yes, I also want to learn
more about that. Here's the snippet about on a Geary

(20:58):
published around that time. In this life, the palm is
dipped in salt water and held in the hand. Although
there is no fixed shape. In the three capitals and
Kyoto and Osaka, there are some that are made in
the shape of a bale with a little black sesame
seeds sprinkled on the surface. In Edo, most of them
are around are triangular, about one inch and five minutes

(21:18):
in diameter and five or six minutes thick. Sesame seeds
are rarely used. Many of them are held in a
bowl and roasted afterwards. There's a lot of legends about
the shape, uh, which I love also, Uh, I don't know.
It makes me happy when I learned about these kind
of regional differences and why people do make it the

(21:40):
way they make it where they do. Um, but the
shape has definitely been part of it, which yeah, I
very much enjoy. Yeah. On a geary we're part of
some of the first school lunches for Japanese impoverished children
in the late nineteenth century. But though they have this
history of being in an item of human the something

(22:01):
for the less well off, by this time pretty much
everyone ate them for all sources of occasions from everyday lunches.
Two celebrations in the first seven eleven opened in Japan
and they offered on a geary uh. And this was
kind of a changeup of the idea that you had
to make them at home, Like now you could just

(22:23):
buy them at a convenience store super easily. And there
was a fascinating article I read about seven eleven and
technology around on a geary to like make this happen,
which is really cool. Seven eleven might be a fun episode.
Two oh No, I'm giving us so much, no, but
absolutely m h and this is cool, okay. So a

(22:46):
blackened cone shaped item was uncovered at an archaeological site
in Japan seven and this item is believed to be
the oldest known rice ball, believed to date back to
the first century CE. Similar items called zoons shaped carbonized
rice balls have been found around the area, some containing

(23:09):
coins inside of them, and experts looking into it think
that they have these like finger shaped dants, suggesting that
people ate them just like we eat them today with
their Well, yeah, it's a it's a pretty flawless design,
I mean, true truth. But that like going back to
what I said earlier when I made mention of like

(23:30):
sixth century CE s sort of when a lot of
people said on a Geary that's where it started. This
to me suggest it's even older than that. Yeah, but
now let's dark about don't. So we have mentioned this
in a couple of episodes, but we got to mention
it again because it cracks me up every time. So

(23:53):
in ish uh, an episode of the Pokemon series aired
in America, uh, and it called on a Geary jelly
donuts because they didn't think American audiences would know what
on a Geary or rice balls were so like this
character was like, oh, these are so good, these jelly donuts.

(24:14):
But it was on a Geary. It was clearly on
a Geary. Yes, yep. And it has become a popular meme,
very very popular. And you can find recipes for Bros
jelly donuts um sort of jokingly but also bros on
a Geary from this episode. Yes, Oh gosh, I love it.

(24:36):
I was reading some of the memes yesterday when it
was a research It's funny, it is. It is a
as I said in our Pokemon episode, like it is
a very funny sequence in the American dub because it's
just like they are holding these absolutely savory rice balls

(24:57):
that have a failing in them that is not jelly, right,
they are not donuts and the filling is not jelly,
and everyone says the phrase jelly donuts like twenty times
and it's just increasingly surreal every single time it happens.
It's high quality. Yep. Recommend, recommend if you haven't seen it.

(25:17):
Mm hmmmm mmm. After the March two thousand eleven tsunami,
earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan, on a Geary became
an instrumental source of comfort and food for survivors because again,
they're easy to transport, easy to hand out. Yeah. Um.
In Japanese developer cyber Step released it's MMO RPG by

(25:42):
the name of on a Geary, which later spawned an
anime series. I have no idea what it's about. No idea,
no idea. Listeners right in your our only hope we
can't search um then I think in. A non profit
group out of Japan called Table for two started up

(26:04):
this Yearly on a Geary action campaign and it runs
in October ish of every year and raises awareness and
funds for the United Nations World Food Day. And this
campaign specifically encourages people to uh to make on a
Geary and post pictures of on a Geary. And they

(26:24):
chose this food as a symbol for this campaign because
it's like homey and comforting and sustaining. They partner with
sponsors to provide school lunches for every picture that gets posted. Um.
They sometimes call it the one million documas campaign m
et documas being like a phrase of like a phrase

(26:45):
of gratitude that you say before you dig into a meal. Um.
They received over two thousand pictures of on a geary
and don't donated over one million, six d thousand meals,
feeding eight thousand school kids for a whole year. Wow. Yeah,

(27:05):
it's oppressive. I love it. In seven eleven, switched to
a bioplastic cellophane wrapper for their own geary um, reducing
its plastic use by two hundred and sixty tons a year. Wow. Nice.
Yeah yeah yeah. Uh. In two I want to Nabby

(27:30):
and Samuel Chifaux arts. Now the French is stripping them.
I don't I don't know. Their restaurant is located in Paris,
but I don't believe he's actually French. But anyway, whatever.
They published their book called on a Guilty and I
think as thirty six on recipes. I believe that's correct.
I was looking into it. Yeah, yeah, it's a recipe book.
It seems it seems quite dear, really it does. I

(27:58):
just look into it for my grand experiment time about
your Yeah, yes, m m m m m m m.
And I also got a bunch of fewer cockades to try,
like a bunch of different ones. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
because I think a listener sent in a whole bunch
of different things and oh that's amazing. Gosh. Sorry, I

(28:24):
just like I just like stopped talking because I was
thinking about rice. That's about where I am too. That's
about where I am too. It's exciting and exciting all
at once. Absolutely absolutely well, oh the cravings. I think
that's what we have to say about on a Guinea

(28:45):
for now. It is um. We do have some listener
mail for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsors. We're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
thank you, And we're back with just yeah, yeah that

(29:16):
it is right. It is. Oh gosh, I'm so excited
to make it. I'm scared, but I'm excited. But okay, okay, okay,
Bart wrote, I always squee a little inside when a
new episode of Savor appears in my podcast app but
that goes double when you cover one of my passion foods.
I'm in it, and I joke that I'm a machine

(29:39):
for turning caffeine into code. I have strong opinions on
all forms of caffeine. European coke is just better, but
coffee is the king of my caffeine hill, and espresso
is the pinnacle of coffee. My test for any new
coffee place is a black espresso. If that's good, they
have good coffee. If not, move on anyway. I'm a

(30:02):
picky guy when it comes to my coffee, and the
perfect cup for me is equal parts of espresso and water.
Black appear espresso is a little too strong for my taste.
An Americano much too weak. I struggled for ages to
find an a for this perfect drink. Much googling later,
I found it Cafe Zoro. How cool is that? Sadly,
almost no barista has ever heard of it, though, so

(30:24):
it doesn't actually solve my problem of easily ordering my
perfect coffee. For now, I've settled on an extremely short
Americano like halfway up a flat white cup. Yeah, I
mean that does sound good to me. Um, you know
we love these strong preferences. Oh yeah, yeah, I've never
I've never tried. I've never tried to drink like that.

(30:45):
I also, I dislike Americanos. I feel like they get
really bitter when you add that much water to them
for some reason or like I don't I don't know,
like I or bitter in a bad way, which I
never say. So. Yeah, yeah, but but maybe I should
maybe I should try this sounds I mean, it sounds
good to me. Cafe Zoro is a great name, so yeah,

(31:07):
I'm in on that. But also more memories of Hawaii.
I remember when we talked to Doctor Coffee Simon. He
was like, I think he did the same thing, Like,
we got to try the espresso. Yeah, if that's good,
we could hang Yeah, and we all got the espresso.
I think one person didn't get it. Anybody else were like,
we'll do what you say, sir, you lead. It was good,

(31:33):
it was delicious, it was good. Yeah, you know, I
I agree. Espresso just like black espresso is my panicle
of coffee as well. Yeah. Yeah, uh, Caitlin wrote, I
never responded to you a year plus ago after you

(31:54):
actually did the old Meal episode. Oh my goodness. I
was so happy and showed in all the good feelings.
Thank you so much. You'll never believe the timing of
the Oatmeal episode. The weekend after that episode dropped, I
was actually helping my younger sister, who is a total badass,
move from South Carolina to wait for it her she Pennsylvania.

(32:16):
I got to spend the weekend with one of my
favorite people listening to one of my favorite podcasts. It
was great. My sister is a food science slash safety
wizard and as part of the Mammi system that keeps
our food safe to eat. I'm in awe of how
amazing she is every day and I'm so proud of her.
So I wanted to take this opportunity to brag in
a complete non sequitur. I wanted to share that my

(32:38):
husband and I also live in Atlanta, and I get
super excited whenever we get a hometown shout out. We're
in the Dicator area. Oh hi, um so homegrown farm
burger and Raging Burrito. I'll have our hearts keep the
local suggestions coming. I can't wait to try the seesh
one place you recommended several episodes ago, which brings me
to another amazing lady. I want to brag on my

(32:59):
sister in law and only goal. I think that would
be how you'd say it. Let me know um Founded
and operates the local meal kit delivery service Garnish and
Gather right here in Atlanta. If you've ever got an
itch to do a meal kit delivery service episode. Emily
would be an amazing candidate for an interview. She works
closely with local farmers and is well plugged into the
Atlanta food scene. She does it all while looking flawless

(33:21):
and raising three children. Seriously, she's a superwoman. I'll end
with a bit of life news. My cornbread less husband
and I are expecting our first child. We decided we
had had enough relaxing Saturday mornings during the pandemic, so
we thought we'd ruin that forever. It has been so
so interesting exploring what I, as a pregnant foodie, cannot

(33:43):
eat and why. In talking with my mother and mother
in law, they've commented how there's just so much more
to think about now than there used to be. They
didn't even have to think about sushi in the eighties.
What was kombucha? Soft cheese is or is not? Okay?
No coffee or two milligrams one glass of wine to
day or don't even sniff it. Go back even further
and you get even weirder suggestions like that wine is

(34:06):
good for the baby, raw meat is good for something.
An episode on the history of what is suggested to
eat during pregnancy by the prevalent medical knowledge of the
day would be fascinating and probably mildly horrifying. I know
it's slightly out of your wheelhouse upper the saver motto,
always check with your medical professional, But heck would it
be interesting. Just be warned when you dip your toe

(34:29):
into anything pregnancy related that you're waiting into a pool
of judgment. Everyone has an opinion, so caveat the heck
out of it. Gird your inbox, and hide your women
and children. Literally. I that is a winning argument, Caitlin,
be terrified, but do it. No, No, that's good your inbox.

(34:50):
It's true. You are very correct that it would be fascinating. Yeah,
because even me, someone who has never been pregnant, but
I've had pregnant friends. I've just heard them be like
I've heard I can't use the microwave, but like all
these things like oh my goodness, yeah yeah. Also congratulations, yes, yes, congratulations.

(35:14):
Though I'm sorry that you're waiting through this pool of
judgment right now. Oh, but that's very exciting. Oh, and
thank you so much for telling us about your Your
sister's job sounds completely amazing, and thank you to her

(35:36):
for her work, and thanks for shouting out your friend.
I haven't tried garnishing gather, but I've got friends who
have tried it and have really enjoyed it. So I
tried it after um we did our beats episode. I
think because I really wanted to try fresh beats and
I couldn't find them in store. So I was like
desperately searching and it was difficul I got a bunch

(35:59):
of stuff. Oh but yeah, that was pretty great. And yeah,
it's always we love shouting out local Atlanta things. Meal
Kit has been on our list for a long time,
which if if you didn't pick up on it listeners,
the oatmel comment at the top is because Caitlin requested
oatmeal a year before we actually got So again, we

(36:23):
do have this. We will do it, but it might
be a year or more or more, you know. Yeah,
I mean there's things like this, like you said, the
uh like pregnancy foods that that's gonna be a big one.
Some of them are just intimidating, but I am fascinated

(36:45):
and very curious. Yeah, yeah, and and doing it like
like I I try to, like again, like I like,
I really try to stray away from giving out medical
advice on the show because that's I'm not We're not
we are not medical professionals, um, and so it can
be so tricky getting into you know, like we've got
a few episodes like that um in in in our

(37:08):
idea sphere, like a sports nutrition um specifically running nutrition.
Runners have a lot of very specific ideas about what
to do and what not to do, and most of
it seems to be contradictory. Um and and write things
like that. Um. But right, but going at it from
a historical angle is always super fascinating because right, just

(37:29):
like going back in time and talking about what the
medical establishment didn't didn't know about human biology, especially where
it relates to women. Oh yes, super fascinating. And also
it always makes me think of like the hundred years
from now podcasters version of us then and Lauren, They're

(37:53):
gonna be like, what did they think? Right? That's not correct?
Mm hmm yeah probably yeah, h wow what We will
add it to our list yes. In the meantime, thanks
so much to bet that those listeners for writing to us.

(38:15):
If you would like to write to us that you
can our emails hello at savorpod dot com. We're also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod. And we do hope to
hear from you. Saver is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always for our superproducers

(38:36):
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way