January 27, 2021 • 38 mins
This comforting dish is a lot more than just rice with stuff – it’s been called the history of Spain in a pan. Anney and Lauren dig into the rich story behind paella.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Sabor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Bogibum, and today we're
talking about Paea. Yes, and thanks to Swatty for the recommendation.
I'm sure other people have recommended it in the past.
There probably probably, but this was the most recent recommendation.
She actually recommended a whole series on rice dishes. Oh right, right,
(00:32):
uh huh yeah, which I think is a great idea.
But speaking of you can see our rice episode and
also our risotto episode I think applies and kind of
what we're talking about here, and our tomato episode and
r S Cargo episode. Yeah, and there's even a couple
more um that are coming up in the outline. And
(00:54):
our next one super secret hint is also going to
be related to one of the ingredients. What could it be?
I don't know. I think you do know. Let me
pretend that I don't know. Okay, you definitely don't know. Also, uh,
I just highly recommend scargo episode because we got to
(01:16):
talk about really weird Uh yeah, it was I think
that was low key what inspired me to get aquatic
snails as pets, because I was like, these things are fascinating,
so good. Indeed, I mean tasty and fun. Both feasty
(01:38):
and fun. It's an excellent description. Uh well, I don't
have paea often at all, Probably less than I can
count on one hand how many times I've had by
you ever, Wow, heck yeah. But I do love it
and I have a very fond memory of eating it
when I went on a high school trip to France
(02:00):
in Spain. That was the first time i'd been on
a plane, first time i'd been somewhere international. Yeah, has
a high place in my my memories. But we learned
how to make gin and tonics, and yes, I was sixteen,
and I felt so cool. And then we had pia
and it was delicious. Oh goodness. I don't know. I
(02:21):
don't think i'd ever had paia until I moved here
to Atlanta. There's a local chain of like Spanish Ish
samed restaurants called La Fonda, and and for a while
I was like straight at in their paea a lot um.
Unfortunately I don't. It's not something that I order out
very often because, um, sofrito is often an ingredient, and
(02:44):
bell peppers are often an ingredient, and sofrito and that's
bad times for me. Um, but oh I love a
pa any any rice dish that has a any rice dish,
be any one pan rice dish that has the capacity
to have like a like a layer of crispy on
the bottom. Oh my heck, that's my favorite thing. Yeah.
(03:06):
I when I was telling people I was doing this
episode because I live right near a Lafonda, Um, so
many people were like, you've got to get because I
was saying like, I need, I need. The craving is
so strong, and they were like, oh, to go to Lafonda.
And so I'm pretty sure that's going to happen. That's
in my future. Yeah, do it. Um. But I want
(03:28):
to include a sign Feld quote of the episode. Uh.
This is from Cramer. Uh and he's describing a stale
Costanzas pie a um. Yes, And he says, oh, it's
an orgiastic feast for the senses, a festival of sights, sounds,
and colors. Yeah, all right, yeah, I think that's about right.
(03:51):
It is it is, it is it. It is a festival.
It is a festival for the soul, the taste, the heart,
everything everything. And people do have very strong thoughts about
Oh my goodness, I didn't. I didn't realize, but but yes,
it does. It does bring us, I believe to our question. Indeed, pa,
(04:19):
what is it? Well? Uh, the specifics do depend on
who you ask. But but paea is a savory pan
cooked short to medium grain rice dish that also contains
stuff stuff stuff. Yes, um, that stuff can be um,
all kinds of proteins and vegetables. The liquid that you
(04:40):
add to cook the rice in there can be a water, broth, wine,
a combination. Uh, tomatoes and spices like saffron and paprika
and rosemary are often added. It's meant to be a
dish that, yeah, you cook in this single pan. You
get your aromatics going, like the garlic and the onions
in olive oil. Then um, cook off your your vegetables
and you proteins a little bit, get them nice and brown.
(05:02):
Then um, add cooking liquid and rice in some in
some order, in some order, stir to combine, and then
just kind of let it sit until it is cooked. Um,
you don't. You don't usually stir it that much after
all of the ingredients are in there. And it's traditionally
(05:22):
cooked over a hot wood fire in a shallow two
handled iron pan. And this pan distributes and and and
the wood fire to both distribute heat across all the
ingredients throughout the pan, allows moisture to steam out. And yeah,
it allows that that that toasty crust of caramelized rice
to form on the bottom of the pan. So good um.
(05:44):
In Spanish, it's called so crunchy, so satisfying um. So,
so you wind up with this um al dente rice
um tender and and comforting and carbi um in either
a reduced broth or with the liquid totally absorbed. Again,
this is this is a preferential thing um. And it
(06:05):
just winds up either way being a bright and tangy
sweet and and warm and earthy savory. And there are
so many opinions about what is the right way for
it to be and what is the right way to
cook it in order to arrive at that dish. Um.
You know, how much should you brand the ingredients before
(06:26):
you add the cooking liquid? How much cooking liquid should
you add? Do you want that socot or nut? Uh?
Do you toast the rice before you add the liquid?
You know? And then the ingredients you know, like what
goes into your aromatic vegetable mix, is it a sofrito
with bell peppers or without bell peppers. Uh is it
okay to mix land and sea proteins? Should chariso ever
(06:49):
be in there? Someone gasped when I said that. Uh,
I mean, like, but what rices are appropriate? It goes
on and on, like even even stuff like um like
onion and garlic and paprika are contested. I will say
that Paia lanciana, the traditional pa typically contains as its
(07:13):
veg um, string beans and lima beans, a more connective tissue. UM.
If you're going for land meats, then rabbit, chicken and
snails are common. If you're going the seafood route, usually
you wouldn't do both at the same time. Umu, shrimp, um, clams, muscles, crawfish,
and squid are common around Spain, depending on the time
(07:36):
of year. Um artichoke carts and white beans um are
sometimes found, but it tends to be like a more
like the more simple, the better kind of thing, And
a lot of the versions that you get outside of
Spain are not really considered. They're like, that's not pa
(07:58):
that's like rice with stuff. Yeah, yeah, which we're going
to revisit, especially in uh. I mean spoiler alert, there's
a pie emoji, and a lot of conversation came up
around what is the emoji? What should be included in it?
(08:18):
Does it really look like piea? Yes? Does it? Well? Oh?
One one more? One more hint of controversy on top
of that, though, what time of day should paea be eaten?
Is it okay to eat paea after sunset? I cannot
(08:39):
tell you the answer to this question, but some people say, no,
what am I gonna do? Lauren? So I should eat
it for lunch to be safe, lunch solid lunch, all right? Done? Um? Well,
what about the nutrition? You know? Of course, it depends
(09:01):
on how you make it. Um. It tends to be
calorically dense, um, a good protein, light on the vege,
heavier on the on the carbs and the fats. Um.
But you know, like it is a meal that will
fill you up and it will keep you going. As
we always say, eat a vegetable, um, you know, maybe
a nice light salad on the side. Don't take my
(09:21):
word for that as being traditional. I just think you
should eat a vegetable. Um. Lawrence just trying to look
out for you. I am, I am you know, I
I just I just want your digestive system and you know,
balance to have a good time. I want your cellular
structure to be everything it can be. It's because you're
(09:44):
so kind and thoughtful, and this seriously keeps me up
at nights sometimes I'm not even kidding. We do have
a responsibility, as very awkward clearly not professional food podcasters,
to make sure people eat vegetable salads like hard to
(10:05):
eat food. I understand, Um, it's hard to eat food
unless it's by then it's perhaps true, true enough. Pie
is one of the dishes that like, if I have
a a pan of piea in front of me, I'm like,
so this is a single serving, correct, Like, this is
(10:26):
just I will just keep eating until there is no
more and then I know to stop. Yes, I mean
that's the thing, right, is usually you cook it in
that big pan, and unless you're with a big group
and it's just you, Yeah, you need a group, is
what I'm saying. Yes, preferably absolutely uh yeah, And we
(10:50):
don't really have any numbers for you. I will say
that in a lot of the articles I read, um,
they said, you know, any Spanish restaurant you go to
is going to have a PAA on the menu. Whether
or not that is something that traditionalist would call pia
or it's just rice with stuff. And as you said,
(11:12):
which is a common complaint, that's not just you like, yeah,
that is a common complaint thrown at some restaurants that
it's not true. But basically pia is sort of infiltrated
our international psyche, whether it is real paia yeah or not. Yeah, yeah,
and and and right and uh, you know, it's it's
(11:35):
also important to remember that whenever we're talking about an
entire country, Um, you're you're not gonna it's not it's
not going to be a culinary monolith like you know,
like if you go to different areas of that country,
they are going to be different local foods that have
been traditionally incorporated into cuisines for different reasons. And so yeah,
(11:55):
so when when you're talking about this, this concept of paea,
it did originate in one specific place. And and it's
fine to have iterations right it right away, it right away,
and and there are so many iterations. And we do
have a lot of fun conversation around this and around
technology around this. Yes, but first we got to go
(12:19):
through some some history to get there. We do, and
we will get into that as soon as we get
back from a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. So
(12:41):
Pa was the confluence of a lot of things. Um.
It is sometimes described as the history of Spain on
a plate. I I do, I do too. The olive
oil was a result of Romans planting alive trees in
the region. The tomatoes were brought back from Spanish callization
of the America's rice arrived in Valencia via Arab traders
(13:05):
and the North African Berbers that settled there in the
eighth century, and rice took off particularly. Well, they're in
fact eros and I know it, that's not correct. It's
okay at the double r. I can do it sometimes
and a lot of times it sounds really pretentious to me. Uh.
And also I fail at it. So okay, you're I
(13:27):
think that was that was clear enough, Thank you, I
will take it. But the Spanish word for rice derives
from the Arabic word for rice, and in the early days,
rice farmers in this in this region often ate easy
and cheap rice, just rice on the weekdays and on
(13:48):
the weekends they ate it as a compliment to a
stew with whatever was in season at the time, and
irrigation systems built by the Romans and Valencia made the
way for rice to become a staple in the local
diet by the fifteenth century. And speaking of Romans, historians
believe that pan used for paea, which is really important
(14:11):
in this whole thing, originated with ancient Romans, and that
the word piea comes from the Latin word for this
type of pan, patella. In Valencian it means frying pan
or pan and is used for all kinds of pans.
There's a romantic but widely dissed story that the name
(14:33):
was bestowed by a young man who made this dish
for his lover are for her um, or that it
comes from the Arabic word for leftovers and more on
why that is second yes, um. The pan and the
rice came together in Valencia, and farmers, perhaps particularly rice
(14:54):
farmers in that region are thought to be the first
to whip up piea. Uh. They'd add whatever they had
available to the rice, cook it in a large, wide,
thin bottom pan. Of note, it might have been a
convex pan, which is not the case today. But because
they were doing it kind of over this open fire
and a stove or what we have more modern le
to cook it over right more more like I'm more
(15:15):
like a walk yeah yeah exactly. And they would eat
this for lunch, lunch, and they would put all kinds
of things in there, from snails to onions, to tomatoes,
sometimes beans. They would season it with spices like saffron
and paprika or paprika uh, and they mix all these
flavors and textures into this dish. Um. And at the time,
(15:38):
snails were cheap, so they were the frequent choice for protein,
but on special occasions people might use rabbit or duck
or chicken. Um. And the traditional method for pie and
consumption was straight out of the pan with wooden spoons.
Yeah yeah, Like everyone like gather around the pan and
have their own wooden spoon and woodwood would eat communally together,
(16:01):
yes um. But in other versions of the story, Paea
resulted from servants that cooked at royal banquets and they
would take any leftovers and bring them home, cook them
up over and open fire with rice. Again, this is
probably a case of multiple inniscences of this happening. Yeah
yeah yeah. The area around Valencia was was famed for
(16:25):
its quality and quantity of agriculture at the time. Um,
you know that that good Spanish rice, freshwater, fish and
eels from a nearby lake, marine seafood from the nearby
Mediterranean coast, lots of game birds. Um. Tomatoes, Yeah, we're
introduced in Spain in the early fifteen hundreds. It seems
that they were picked up more readily there than they
(16:45):
were in Italy or or England, which were like what
are these poison things? And the Spanish were like they're tasty,
and they were like no seria tomato episode um. Valencia
is home to lime mines um, not the fruit, you know,
like the mineral um, and thus the water and ground
there is infused with extra calcium compounds and this can
(17:09):
help some plants grow. It can also help some of
the animals that eat those plants grow. Um. You can
see our Kentucky slash Bourbon episodes for more on all
of that. But some Valencian cooks swear that the calcium
rich local water is critical to the final texture of paea.
And like if they're like going on like a like
(17:32):
a road trip to the mountains or something, they will
bring local water with them. If they're planning on cooking
Paea while they're away. Yeah. I think I even read
some restaurants in different countries. Yeah, there's a rumor that
there's been someplace in New York City. But like I
I've read that rumor in like five articles, but I've
(17:52):
never read a name of such a restaurant, So I
don't know. It's it's a it's a lovely concept. I
enjoy it. Um and uh and and all of this,
all of this um local traditioning culture around Paea as
it was developing. Um, the Spanish Empire was at work,
you know, still colonizing overseas, including Louisiana in the mid
(18:16):
to late seventeen hundreds. So one of the deep influences
on area dishes like Jambalaya is Spanish Paea. Mm hmmm uh.
And one of Valencia's oldest restaurants, La Pepeca, often comes
up in conversation about Paea. It opened in eight after
King Alfonso the thirteenth officially allowed forty four people to
(18:39):
set up the small beachside restaurants, and many of these
restaurants served piea, but a storm in destroyed most of them,
and that's when La pepeica and its current form was constructed,
so it existed before, but it got blown down. They
rebuilt it still standing. It's open kitchens influenced how observing
chefs in that area cooked by it because they could
(19:01):
see in see what they were doing. Yeah, I knew
this was a popular product. Lab Pepica has been in
the family since it first opened its doors, with the
same recipes and cooking methods, and it often gets the
credit for popularizing one of the most beloved types of paia,
seafood pa In fact, I'm sure some people would argue
(19:22):
with me and say that they created it. I'm going
to say popularized it, Yeah, I would. I mean, yes,
I just makes that second thing right, right, It makes
sense that other human people would have also put seafood
in this thing if seafood was what was available. Yes,
but I will absolutely agree that they popularized it and UH.
(19:47):
As part of that, other kitchens did take notice and
they started making their own versions of the seafood paea UH.
And later they also take credit for inventing vegetable paea. Again,
I would say popularizing is probably better, but UH, and
this allegedly they did and serve as a former vegetarian
(20:08):
Queen Sophia, so they were trying to make a vegetarian
version for her. Her and she's not the only famous
name involved in this restaurant. Uh. We also have Earnest Hemingway,
who shows up in a lot of our episodes. I
got to say, dude, just liked eating and drinking, you know,
(20:28):
I respect m h uh. Yeah. So he visited La
Pepeca a few times in the N nine. He spoke
really highly of it. He brought it into the international spotlight,
and he wrote about it in his book The Dangerous
Summer quote. Dinner at Pepics was wonderful. The seafood and
the Valencian rice dishes were the best on the beach.
(20:51):
I mean, that's high praise. And he was not the
only famous patron either. There was also painter Joaquin so
oh yeah. One story goes that after observing this painter
struggling to d shell and peel the seafood in there,
their seafood Paea. Uh, the wife of the owner had
(21:12):
observed this, and so the next time that he ate there,
she peels and already shelled the seafood for him, so
he didn't have to do it. Um and other restaurants
taking out of this too, and soon quote Gentleman's Pie
gained popularity. Okay, okay, I will okay, I will put
(21:35):
in here. I can't. I can't helt myself. Um, if
you're going to make pie at home, and you do
not at the table wish to d shell or peel
your seafood, but you're making a seafood paea, do cook
the shells in the paea will add a lot of
great extra flavor. Um. Just yeah, just do, just do
what this nice lady supposedly did. Yes, and removed before
(21:59):
serving post cooking. Yes, that's a shiss um, So go
fright to that rice and stew thing that we were
talking about earlier. The first recipes for that in this
region popped up between the seventeen fifties and eighteen hundreds.
The first written recipes, and according to one source, the
word piea wasn't used to refer to the food um
(22:21):
as opposed to the pan which it was used for,
but the food specifically what That didn't happen until the
eighteen forties um in an article about this regional dish,
but references to rice alla valencia date back to the
seventeenth century, and we can guess that was similar at
least um by the mid twentieth century, it was a
(22:43):
popular food stuff for laborers. This piea. Before that it
was primarily eaten at family gatherings, and it still was,
but kind of spread out a little bit more. Uh.
Piea really vaulted to the world stage in the twentieth century.
Um after the nineteen death of Franco the dictator that
(23:06):
had ruled the country for thirty six years. Much of
the country celebrated and that caught the eye of tourists,
something only amplified by the Olympics in Barcelona, and as
a part of marketing Spanish culture to tourists, chefs really
showcased piea, often in conjunction with tourism boards, and this
(23:28):
transformed paea from a regional dish to a symbol of Spain,
something tourist expected to encounter when visiting the country. And
this in turn led to real confusion about what the
dish actually was, and there was a mess of interpretations
and watered down versions, just just a lot of confusion.
(23:52):
So to combat this, a group of Valencians came together,
ranging from chefs to writers to just right fans uh
In to found Wikipiea UM with the goal of protecting
and preserving this culinary heritage for Valencians themselves. They published
(24:14):
a ten point manifesto, an app, a map to find Piea,
a breakdown of ingredients they compiled after consulting two entred
restaurants in Valencia, which you can reference like if you're
like I want pie this in it, you can search it.
It's great, a bunch of stuff, and in their about
section it reads today Piea, in addition to being the
(24:36):
fundamental access of the gastronomic tradition of the Valencian community,
has become an attractive world brand that is often misunderstood.
Wikipia is the organized response of the public to this
imbalance between what is believed to be and what it
really is. A source of knowledge and recognition around authentic
pieas made by everyone UM. One of the key members
(25:02):
of the team working at Wiki Paiea, jose Manuel gar Sarah,
explain some of the difficulties they face. Quote, we realize
the lack of understanding is as much our fault as anyone's.
We can't even come to an agreement ourselves constitutes real
piea so how can we expect the rest of the
world too. In a radius of sixty kilometers, you'll find
four very distinct pieas. Someone might say, I'm sorry, that's
(25:26):
not a piaa. What the hell are you talking about?
That's how my grandpa always made it? How I I
love this with it feels like every dish we talk
about this type of history of of disagreement and just
impassioned like no, like that is not how my grandparents
made it, So you are wrong. Um. And to this end,
(25:49):
there was in fact a piea gate hashtag back in
seen that that I believe was kicked off by um
English celebrity chef Jamie Oliver offering and then defending a
piea that included cerizo. Um. The thing with ceriso is
that it's it's a strong flavored ingredient, and so a
(26:12):
lot of like piea purists, I think, would say that, um,
that it's going to overwhelm the delicacy of the other ingredients. UM,
be overpowering. So so you know, UM, if you need
to read up on paie a gate, it's a really
fun bizarre rabbit hole. I found all of these articles
(26:34):
talking about like terrible versions of paea that celebrity chefs
had made. It was like and another thing Gordon Ramsey
and I'm like, yeah, and I think that's another thing
on Wiki paieas they said, like everyone's going to say
(26:55):
that their family recipe is the best, Like you can
say this. This restaurant, you might agree, is doing a
really good version, but your family recipes is gonna be
the best, of course, of course, of course, oh absolutely.
Um And speaking of like weird rabbit holes, I guess
(27:16):
um in Guierramo Novarro and his ad agency, we're looking
to promote one of their clients, a client at Dalton Rice.
So they decided to embark on a piea emoji mission. Yeah,
and he called up Spanish chef Jose Andre's for help,
who later said, of the whole thing, you can't just
(27:39):
pay these guys off. You have to convince them that
pie emoji is something that people will really you said,
it is really important. Um. So Andre's really wanted the
emoji to reflect true pie and not just rice with
stuff on it. Uh. So the emoji was greenlit in January,
(28:02):
and this was after the hashtag pie a emoji trended
in March with twenty thousand tweets that reached thirty five
million people. Still, when the emoji came out in December,
Navarro was none too happy. It had peace strip and
muscles peace peace. So Navarro went right to the source,
(28:30):
the inventor of the first emoji in Japan. Yes, he
flew there, he flew there about this pie a emoji.
Um and his determination paid off. I read he gave
a lot of impassioned speeches. Uh. And the emoji was
updated in April seventeen, or at least it was for Apple.
(28:52):
Some other platforms lagged behind, and Andres later said I'm
so upset at Bill Gates. Microsoft is the worst of
the worst ones, because well you look at this pie
emoji and you don't even know what it is. Wow,
Bill Gates, Bill Gates. He also called out Zuckerberg. Yeah see, okay,
(29:16):
I'm looking through my phones emoji right now, and I
mean what I what I can guess is meant to
maybe be piea. It looks like just like a hot
pot to me, maybe like a curry. It isn't the
right type of pan with the two handles, but it's
got like a like a like a chicken drumstick and
(29:38):
green beans, and are those lemons? I'm not even sure. Yeah, no,
it is limons. Well that's what it's supposed to be,
a lemon, because Andre's pot against that too. He was like,
I'm not sure where they put the lemon in there,
but that's the best we can get. Take it. The
green beans are supposed to be in there for yeah,
yeah they are, they are, and it's it is to
(29:59):
be fair clear green beans. Um. And like in like
a dark meat on the bone chicken is certainly not
unheard of in a piaa. So I feel like it's
it's halfway there. I feel like it doesn't scream piea
to me. Mm hmm hmm. Well what would scream piea
(30:20):
to you? You know, I think of the seafood type also, uh,
I think that you really have to have the texture
of the grains of rice apparent. And I know that
you're dealing in a very small medium here, so detail
is difficult. But um but but one of the one
of the things that I kept reading about over and
over again, UM is how important it is for UM
(30:43):
for the rice to be uh dry like like like
individual grains not um not sticky or mushy or swampy. Um.
I think that's the first time I've ever applied swampy
as a term to a food dish, and I hope
it's the last. I never want to think about that
again anyway. Um yeah, so so yeah, because the which
(31:09):
is why it looks more like a like a pot
of curry or something to me um in in my
Apple emoji bank. Yeah. I texted Lauren last night and
I was like, is this the pie emoji just sort
of randomly sounds cut. It's when I typed in pieo,
that's what came up as an emoji. Oh okay, Uh,
(31:32):
I think that's it. I mean, there's no other there's
no alternative that is more piea than that. I love
how often we get to talk about emojis. It's an
important part of our modern cultural landscape, you know. Yeah,
(31:55):
and food is a big part of it. Yeah. Yeah, well, uh,
we'll see. We'll keep tabs on what happens with the
piea future. But yeah, that's about what we have to
say on pie from now. It is. Um. We do
have some listener mail for you, but first we've got
(32:17):
one more quick break for a word from our sponsor
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listener. Oh that was lovely? Was it?
(32:41):
I thought it was? And I have the last say
on this listener mail bit you do, so there it
was lovely, Lauren go Yeah, Anthony wrote Ice Wines. When
(33:02):
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We continued this tradition until I was of age to drink,
and then we start exploring other areas around Stow, and
(33:22):
one of these trips we found the winery Boyden Valley
UH in Cambridge, Vermont, just past Smugglers Notch. Everything they
offer here is amazing. To make the story shorter, we
continued my father's tradition well passed as death and extended
it to my family with my wife and children until
we moved to Florida. Boyden Valley continues to be our
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enjoin experience better than what you had at Disney. I'm
(34:08):
into it absolutely. Oh gosh. Um. Yeah, I've got family
from from up around near Ish there, like the New
Hampshire Vermont sort of region. Um, But but I haven't
done a whole lot of exploring. Usually when we're hanging out,
we're you know, just doing real tight family kind of stuffs.
So oh now I want to Yes, Yes, I've I've
(34:33):
teetered on the edge of getting some ice wine. I
found like three or four in Atlanta, Atlanta, and I'm like,
I definitely have not been out to a store that
would have it since we were talking about it. But
when I go, when I go, who knows, who knows,
(34:54):
who knows? Only time can do absolutely heck. Kristen wrote,
I had to write as I listened to the Scrapple episode.
I grew up in Dover, Delaware, and Scrapple was always
in our fridge, and I just assumed the rest of
the world was as fortunate as I in that respect.
I eventually learned that was sadly not the case, and
I've had to explain what it is and how much
(35:16):
I love it too many over the years. My favorite
way to eat it as a kid was in a
sandwich of buttered toast and ketchup. Now it's with a
runny egg on top. The trick is to cut just
the right thickness in a slice so that the outside
gets super crisp while the inside stays soft. There's a
popular flea market in Amish food market in Dover called Spences,
and lines for their scrapple egg and cheese on a
(35:37):
roll sandwiches are often very long. My brother also tells
me there's a local pizza place that offers scrapple as
a topping, though I have yet to try it. I
currently live in central Pennsylvania, and while scrapple is certainly
a thing here, I've even had several homemade versions over
the years. The brand I grew up eating, called kirbyan
Holloway out of Harrington, Delaware, is not available, and no
(36:00):
other kind I've ever had comes close to it. It's
dark and spicy and just the best. So to answer
your question, Lauren, yes, you can have it shipped, which
I have done in times of desperation. Otherwise, whenever I
go home for a visit, I always return with several
pounds to tide me and my kids over. Piece of advice,
if you want to stock up and freeze some slice
(36:21):
it first and lay the slices out on a cookie
sheet to freeze, then store them in a freezer bag.
Or if you're like me and storing a lot, vacuum
sealing smaller portions to keep it extra fresh, you can
put the frozen slices directly into a hot pan and
they turn out great every time. If you freeze the
whole block and then though it'll be mealy. Oh I.
(36:46):
This is one of the joyous things about doing a
food show is that I not infrequently have cravings for
foods that I've never had uh and I have had scrapple,
but like, I haven't had like that particular. I'm like,
I just sounds so delicious. And I love UH as
(37:07):
as we've u' as I've alluded to in past episodes.
I love like regional pizza topics. Yeah, and I love
that there's a place that you can get scrapple as
a pizza. Beautiful, it really is. It really is. Well
one day, one day. Um. In the meantime, thanks to
(37:29):
both of those listeners wore writing to us. If you
would like to write to us, you can. Our email
is hello at savor pod dot com. We are also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Safer is production of by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(37:50):
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Stylan 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 Sabor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Bogibum, and today we're
talking about Paea. Yes, and thanks to Swatty for the recommendation.
I'm sure other people have recommended it in the past.
There probably probably, but this was the most recent recommendation.
She actually recommended a whole series on rice dishes. Oh right, right,
(00:32):
uh huh yeah, which I think is a great idea.
But speaking of you can see our rice episode and
also our risotto episode I think applies and kind of
what we're talking about here, and our tomato episode and
r S Cargo episode. Yeah, and there's even a couple
more um that are coming up in the outline. And
(00:54):
our next one super secret hint is also going to
be related to one of the ingredients. What could it be?
I don't know. I think you do know. Let me
pretend that I don't know. Okay, you definitely don't know. Also, uh,
I just highly recommend scargo episode because we got to
(01:16):
talk about really weird Uh yeah, it was I think
that was low key what inspired me to get aquatic
snails as pets, because I was like, these things are fascinating,
so good. Indeed, I mean tasty and fun. Both feasty
(01:38):
and fun. It's an excellent description. Uh well, I don't
have paea often at all, Probably less than I can
count on one hand how many times I've had by
you ever, Wow, heck yeah. But I do love it
and I have a very fond memory of eating it
when I went on a high school trip to France
(02:00):
in Spain. That was the first time i'd been on
a plane, first time i'd been somewhere international. Yeah, has
a high place in my my memories. But we learned
how to make gin and tonics, and yes, I was sixteen,
and I felt so cool. And then we had pia
and it was delicious. Oh goodness. I don't know. I
(02:21):
don't think i'd ever had paia until I moved here
to Atlanta. There's a local chain of like Spanish Ish
samed restaurants called La Fonda, and and for a while
I was like straight at in their paea a lot um.
Unfortunately I don't. It's not something that I order out
very often because, um, sofrito is often an ingredient, and
(02:44):
bell peppers are often an ingredient, and sofrito and that's
bad times for me. Um, but oh I love a
pa any any rice dish that has a any rice dish,
be any one pan rice dish that has the capacity
to have like a like a layer of crispy on
the bottom. Oh my heck, that's my favorite thing. Yeah.
(03:06):
I when I was telling people I was doing this
episode because I live right near a Lafonda, Um, so
many people were like, you've got to get because I
was saying like, I need, I need. The craving is
so strong, and they were like, oh, to go to Lafonda.
And so I'm pretty sure that's going to happen. That's
in my future. Yeah, do it. Um. But I want
(03:28):
to include a sign Feld quote of the episode. Uh.
This is from Cramer. Uh and he's describing a stale
Costanzas pie a um. Yes, And he says, oh, it's
an orgiastic feast for the senses, a festival of sights, sounds,
and colors. Yeah, all right, yeah, I think that's about right.
(03:51):
It is it is, it is it. It is a festival.
It is a festival for the soul, the taste, the heart,
everything everything. And people do have very strong thoughts about
Oh my goodness, I didn't. I didn't realize, but but yes,
it does. It does bring us, I believe to our question. Indeed, pa,
(04:19):
what is it? Well? Uh, the specifics do depend on
who you ask. But but paea is a savory pan
cooked short to medium grain rice dish that also contains
stuff stuff stuff. Yes, um, that stuff can be um,
all kinds of proteins and vegetables. The liquid that you
(04:40):
add to cook the rice in there can be a water, broth, wine,
a combination. Uh, tomatoes and spices like saffron and paprika
and rosemary are often added. It's meant to be a
dish that, yeah, you cook in this single pan. You
get your aromatics going, like the garlic and the onions
in olive oil. Then um, cook off your your vegetables
and you proteins a little bit, get them nice and brown.
(05:02):
Then um, add cooking liquid and rice in some in
some order, in some order, stir to combine, and then
just kind of let it sit until it is cooked. Um,
you don't. You don't usually stir it that much after
all of the ingredients are in there. And it's traditionally
(05:22):
cooked over a hot wood fire in a shallow two
handled iron pan. And this pan distributes and and and
the wood fire to both distribute heat across all the
ingredients throughout the pan, allows moisture to steam out. And yeah,
it allows that that that toasty crust of caramelized rice
to form on the bottom of the pan. So good um.
(05:44):
In Spanish, it's called so crunchy, so satisfying um. So,
so you wind up with this um al dente rice
um tender and and comforting and carbi um in either
a reduced broth or with the liquid totally absorbed. Again,
this is this is a preferential thing um. And it
(06:05):
just winds up either way being a bright and tangy
sweet and and warm and earthy savory. And there are
so many opinions about what is the right way for
it to be and what is the right way to
cook it in order to arrive at that dish. Um.
You know, how much should you brand the ingredients before
(06:26):
you add the cooking liquid? How much cooking liquid should
you add? Do you want that socot or nut? Uh?
Do you toast the rice before you add the liquid?
You know? And then the ingredients you know, like what
goes into your aromatic vegetable mix, is it a sofrito
with bell peppers or without bell peppers. Uh is it
okay to mix land and sea proteins? Should chariso ever
(06:49):
be in there? Someone gasped when I said that. Uh,
I mean, like, but what rices are appropriate? It goes
on and on, like even even stuff like um like
onion and garlic and paprika are contested. I will say
that Paia lanciana, the traditional pa typically contains as its
(07:13):
veg um, string beans and lima beans, a more connective tissue. UM.
If you're going for land meats, then rabbit, chicken and
snails are common. If you're going the seafood route, usually
you wouldn't do both at the same time. Umu, shrimp, um, clams, muscles, crawfish,
and squid are common around Spain, depending on the time
(07:36):
of year. Um artichoke carts and white beans um are
sometimes found, but it tends to be like a more
like the more simple, the better kind of thing, And
a lot of the versions that you get outside of
Spain are not really considered. They're like, that's not pa
(07:58):
that's like rice with stuff. Yeah, yeah, which we're going
to revisit, especially in uh. I mean spoiler alert, there's
a pie emoji, and a lot of conversation came up
around what is the emoji? What should be included in it?
(08:18):
Does it really look like piea? Yes? Does it? Well? Oh?
One one more? One more hint of controversy on top
of that, though, what time of day should paea be eaten?
Is it okay to eat paea after sunset? I cannot
(08:39):
tell you the answer to this question, but some people say, no,
what am I gonna do? Lauren? So I should eat
it for lunch to be safe, lunch solid lunch, all right? Done? Um? Well,
what about the nutrition? You know? Of course, it depends
(09:01):
on how you make it. Um. It tends to be
calorically dense, um, a good protein, light on the vege,
heavier on the on the carbs and the fats. Um.
But you know, like it is a meal that will
fill you up and it will keep you going. As
we always say, eat a vegetable, um, you know, maybe
a nice light salad on the side. Don't take my
(09:21):
word for that as being traditional. I just think you
should eat a vegetable. Um. Lawrence just trying to look
out for you. I am, I am you know, I
I just I just want your digestive system and you know,
balance to have a good time. I want your cellular
structure to be everything it can be. It's because you're
(09:44):
so kind and thoughtful, and this seriously keeps me up
at nights sometimes I'm not even kidding. We do have
a responsibility, as very awkward clearly not professional food podcasters,
to make sure people eat vegetable salads like hard to
(10:05):
eat food. I understand, Um, it's hard to eat food
unless it's by then it's perhaps true, true enough. Pie
is one of the dishes that like, if I have
a a pan of piea in front of me, I'm like,
so this is a single serving, correct, Like, this is
(10:26):
just I will just keep eating until there is no
more and then I know to stop. Yes, I mean
that's the thing, right, is usually you cook it in
that big pan, and unless you're with a big group
and it's just you, Yeah, you need a group, is
what I'm saying. Yes, preferably absolutely uh yeah, And we
(10:50):
don't really have any numbers for you. I will say
that in a lot of the articles I read, um,
they said, you know, any Spanish restaurant you go to
is going to have a PAA on the menu. Whether
or not that is something that traditionalist would call pia
or it's just rice with stuff. And as you said,
(11:12):
which is a common complaint, that's not just you like, yeah,
that is a common complaint thrown at some restaurants that
it's not true. But basically pia is sort of infiltrated
our international psyche, whether it is real paia yeah or not. Yeah, yeah,
and and and right and uh, you know, it's it's
(11:35):
also important to remember that whenever we're talking about an
entire country, Um, you're you're not gonna it's not it's
not going to be a culinary monolith like you know,
like if you go to different areas of that country,
they are going to be different local foods that have
been traditionally incorporated into cuisines for different reasons. And so yeah,
(11:55):
so when when you're talking about this, this concept of paea,
it did originate in one specific place. And and it's
fine to have iterations right it right away, it right away,
and and there are so many iterations. And we do
have a lot of fun conversation around this and around
technology around this. Yes, but first we got to go
(12:19):
through some some history to get there. We do, and
we will get into that as soon as we get
back from a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. So
(12:41):
Pa was the confluence of a lot of things. Um.
It is sometimes described as the history of Spain on
a plate. I I do, I do too. The olive
oil was a result of Romans planting alive trees in
the region. The tomatoes were brought back from Spanish callization
of the America's rice arrived in Valencia via Arab traders
(13:05):
and the North African Berbers that settled there in the
eighth century, and rice took off particularly. Well, they're in
fact eros and I know it, that's not correct. It's
okay at the double r. I can do it sometimes
and a lot of times it sounds really pretentious to me. Uh.
And also I fail at it. So okay, you're I
(13:27):
think that was that was clear enough, Thank you, I
will take it. But the Spanish word for rice derives
from the Arabic word for rice, and in the early days,
rice farmers in this in this region often ate easy
and cheap rice, just rice on the weekdays and on
(13:48):
the weekends they ate it as a compliment to a
stew with whatever was in season at the time, and
irrigation systems built by the Romans and Valencia made the
way for rice to become a staple in the local
diet by the fifteenth century. And speaking of Romans, historians
believe that pan used for paea, which is really important
(14:11):
in this whole thing, originated with ancient Romans, and that
the word piea comes from the Latin word for this
type of pan, patella. In Valencian it means frying pan
or pan and is used for all kinds of pans.
There's a romantic but widely dissed story that the name
(14:33):
was bestowed by a young man who made this dish
for his lover are for her um, or that it
comes from the Arabic word for leftovers and more on
why that is second yes, um. The pan and the
rice came together in Valencia, and farmers, perhaps particularly rice
(14:54):
farmers in that region are thought to be the first
to whip up piea. Uh. They'd add whatever they had
available to the rice, cook it in a large, wide,
thin bottom pan. Of note, it might have been a
convex pan, which is not the case today. But because
they were doing it kind of over this open fire
and a stove or what we have more modern le
to cook it over right more more like I'm more
(15:15):
like a walk yeah yeah exactly. And they would eat
this for lunch, lunch, and they would put all kinds
of things in there, from snails to onions, to tomatoes,
sometimes beans. They would season it with spices like saffron
and paprika or paprika uh, and they mix all these
flavors and textures into this dish. Um. And at the time,
(15:38):
snails were cheap, so they were the frequent choice for protein,
but on special occasions people might use rabbit or duck
or chicken. Um. And the traditional method for pie and
consumption was straight out of the pan with wooden spoons.
Yeah yeah, Like everyone like gather around the pan and
have their own wooden spoon and woodwood would eat communally together,
(16:01):
yes um. But in other versions of the story, Paea
resulted from servants that cooked at royal banquets and they
would take any leftovers and bring them home, cook them
up over and open fire with rice. Again, this is
probably a case of multiple inniscences of this happening. Yeah
yeah yeah. The area around Valencia was was famed for
(16:25):
its quality and quantity of agriculture at the time. Um,
you know that that good Spanish rice, freshwater, fish and
eels from a nearby lake, marine seafood from the nearby
Mediterranean coast, lots of game birds. Um. Tomatoes, Yeah, we're
introduced in Spain in the early fifteen hundreds. It seems
that they were picked up more readily there than they
(16:45):
were in Italy or or England, which were like what
are these poison things? And the Spanish were like they're tasty,
and they were like no seria tomato episode um. Valencia
is home to lime mines um, not the fruit, you know,
like the mineral um, and thus the water and ground
there is infused with extra calcium compounds and this can
(17:09):
help some plants grow. It can also help some of
the animals that eat those plants grow. Um. You can
see our Kentucky slash Bourbon episodes for more on all
of that. But some Valencian cooks swear that the calcium
rich local water is critical to the final texture of paea.
And like if they're like going on like a like
(17:32):
a road trip to the mountains or something, they will
bring local water with them. If they're planning on cooking
Paea while they're away. Yeah. I think I even read
some restaurants in different countries. Yeah, there's a rumor that
there's been someplace in New York City. But like I
I've read that rumor in like five articles, but I've
(17:52):
never read a name of such a restaurant, So I
don't know. It's it's a it's a lovely concept. I
enjoy it. Um and uh and and all of this,
all of this um local traditioning culture around Paea as
it was developing. Um, the Spanish Empire was at work,
you know, still colonizing overseas, including Louisiana in the mid
(18:16):
to late seventeen hundreds. So one of the deep influences
on area dishes like Jambalaya is Spanish Paea. Mm hmmm uh.
And one of Valencia's oldest restaurants, La Pepeca, often comes
up in conversation about Paea. It opened in eight after
King Alfonso the thirteenth officially allowed forty four people to
(18:39):
set up the small beachside restaurants, and many of these
restaurants served piea, but a storm in destroyed most of them,
and that's when La pepeica and its current form was constructed,
so it existed before, but it got blown down. They
rebuilt it still standing. It's open kitchens influenced how observing
chefs in that area cooked by it because they could
(19:01):
see in see what they were doing. Yeah, I knew
this was a popular product. Lab Pepica has been in
the family since it first opened its doors, with the
same recipes and cooking methods, and it often gets the
credit for popularizing one of the most beloved types of paia,
seafood pa In fact, I'm sure some people would argue
(19:22):
with me and say that they created it. I'm going
to say popularized it, Yeah, I would. I mean, yes,
I just makes that second thing right, right, It makes
sense that other human people would have also put seafood
in this thing if seafood was what was available. Yes,
but I will absolutely agree that they popularized it and UH.
(19:47):
As part of that, other kitchens did take notice and
they started making their own versions of the seafood paea UH.
And later they also take credit for inventing vegetable paea. Again,
I would say popularizing is probably better, but UH, and
this allegedly they did and serve as a former vegetarian
(20:08):
Queen Sophia, so they were trying to make a vegetarian
version for her. Her and she's not the only famous
name involved in this restaurant. Uh. We also have Earnest Hemingway,
who shows up in a lot of our episodes. I
got to say, dude, just liked eating and drinking, you know,
(20:28):
I respect m h uh. Yeah. So he visited La
Pepeca a few times in the N nine. He spoke
really highly of it. He brought it into the international spotlight,
and he wrote about it in his book The Dangerous
Summer quote. Dinner at Pepics was wonderful. The seafood and
the Valencian rice dishes were the best on the beach.
(20:51):
I mean, that's high praise. And he was not the
only famous patron either. There was also painter Joaquin so
oh yeah. One story goes that after observing this painter
struggling to d shell and peel the seafood in there,
their seafood Paea. Uh, the wife of the owner had
(21:12):
observed this, and so the next time that he ate there,
she peels and already shelled the seafood for him, so
he didn't have to do it. Um and other restaurants
taking out of this too, and soon quote Gentleman's Pie
gained popularity. Okay, okay, I will okay, I will put
(21:35):
in here. I can't. I can't helt myself. Um, if
you're going to make pie at home, and you do
not at the table wish to d shell or peel
your seafood, but you're making a seafood paea, do cook
the shells in the paea will add a lot of
great extra flavor. Um. Just yeah, just do, just do
what this nice lady supposedly did. Yes, and removed before
(21:59):
serving post cooking. Yes, that's a shiss um, So go
fright to that rice and stew thing that we were
talking about earlier. The first recipes for that in this
region popped up between the seventeen fifties and eighteen hundreds.
The first written recipes, and according to one source, the
word piea wasn't used to refer to the food um
(22:21):
as opposed to the pan which it was used for,
but the food specifically what That didn't happen until the
eighteen forties um in an article about this regional dish,
but references to rice alla valencia date back to the
seventeenth century, and we can guess that was similar at
least um by the mid twentieth century, it was a
(22:43):
popular food stuff for laborers. This piea. Before that it
was primarily eaten at family gatherings, and it still was,
but kind of spread out a little bit more. Uh.
Piea really vaulted to the world stage in the twentieth century.
Um after the nineteen death of Franco the dictator that
(23:06):
had ruled the country for thirty six years. Much of
the country celebrated and that caught the eye of tourists,
something only amplified by the Olympics in Barcelona, and as
a part of marketing Spanish culture to tourists, chefs really
showcased piea, often in conjunction with tourism boards, and this
(23:28):
transformed paea from a regional dish to a symbol of Spain,
something tourist expected to encounter when visiting the country. And
this in turn led to real confusion about what the
dish actually was, and there was a mess of interpretations
and watered down versions, just just a lot of confusion.
(23:52):
So to combat this, a group of Valencians came together,
ranging from chefs to writers to just right fans uh
In to found Wikipiea UM with the goal of protecting
and preserving this culinary heritage for Valencians themselves. They published
(24:14):
a ten point manifesto, an app, a map to find Piea,
a breakdown of ingredients they compiled after consulting two entred
restaurants in Valencia, which you can reference like if you're
like I want pie this in it, you can search it.
It's great, a bunch of stuff, and in their about
section it reads today Piea, in addition to being the
(24:36):
fundamental access of the gastronomic tradition of the Valencian community,
has become an attractive world brand that is often misunderstood.
Wikipia is the organized response of the public to this
imbalance between what is believed to be and what it
really is. A source of knowledge and recognition around authentic
pieas made by everyone UM. One of the key members
(25:02):
of the team working at Wiki Paiea, jose Manuel gar Sarah,
explain some of the difficulties they face. Quote, we realize
the lack of understanding is as much our fault as anyone's.
We can't even come to an agreement ourselves constitutes real
piea so how can we expect the rest of the
world too. In a radius of sixty kilometers, you'll find
four very distinct pieas. Someone might say, I'm sorry, that's
(25:26):
not a piaa. What the hell are you talking about?
That's how my grandpa always made it? How I I
love this with it feels like every dish we talk
about this type of history of of disagreement and just
impassioned like no, like that is not how my grandparents
made it, So you are wrong. Um. And to this end,
(25:49):
there was in fact a piea gate hashtag back in
seen that that I believe was kicked off by um
English celebrity chef Jamie Oliver offering and then defending a
piea that included cerizo. Um. The thing with ceriso is
that it's it's a strong flavored ingredient, and so a
(26:12):
lot of like piea purists, I think, would say that, um,
that it's going to overwhelm the delicacy of the other ingredients. UM,
be overpowering. So so you know, UM, if you need
to read up on paie a gate, it's a really
fun bizarre rabbit hole. I found all of these articles
(26:34):
talking about like terrible versions of paea that celebrity chefs
had made. It was like and another thing Gordon Ramsey
and I'm like, yeah, and I think that's another thing
on Wiki paieas they said, like everyone's going to say
(26:55):
that their family recipe is the best, Like you can
say this. This restaurant, you might agree, is doing a
really good version, but your family recipes is gonna be
the best, of course, of course, of course, oh absolutely.
Um And speaking of like weird rabbit holes, I guess
(27:16):
um in Guierramo Novarro and his ad agency, we're looking
to promote one of their clients, a client at Dalton Rice.
So they decided to embark on a piea emoji mission. Yeah,
and he called up Spanish chef Jose Andre's for help,
who later said, of the whole thing, you can't just
(27:39):
pay these guys off. You have to convince them that
pie emoji is something that people will really you said,
it is really important. Um. So Andre's really wanted the
emoji to reflect true pie and not just rice with
stuff on it. Uh. So the emoji was greenlit in January,
(28:02):
and this was after the hashtag pie a emoji trended
in March with twenty thousand tweets that reached thirty five
million people. Still, when the emoji came out in December,
Navarro was none too happy. It had peace strip and
muscles peace peace. So Navarro went right to the source,
(28:30):
the inventor of the first emoji in Japan. Yes, he
flew there, he flew there about this pie a emoji.
Um and his determination paid off. I read he gave
a lot of impassioned speeches. Uh. And the emoji was
updated in April seventeen, or at least it was for Apple.
(28:52):
Some other platforms lagged behind, and Andres later said I'm
so upset at Bill Gates. Microsoft is the worst of
the worst ones, because well you look at this pie
emoji and you don't even know what it is. Wow,
Bill Gates, Bill Gates. He also called out Zuckerberg. Yeah see, okay,
(29:16):
I'm looking through my phones emoji right now, and I
mean what I what I can guess is meant to
maybe be piea. It looks like just like a hot
pot to me, maybe like a curry. It isn't the
right type of pan with the two handles, but it's
got like a like a like a chicken drumstick and
(29:38):
green beans, and are those lemons? I'm not even sure. Yeah, no,
it is limons. Well that's what it's supposed to be,
a lemon, because Andre's pot against that too. He was like,
I'm not sure where they put the lemon in there,
but that's the best we can get. Take it. The
green beans are supposed to be in there for yeah,
yeah they are, they are, and it's it is to
(29:59):
be fair clear green beans. Um. And like in like
a dark meat on the bone chicken is certainly not
unheard of in a piaa. So I feel like it's
it's halfway there. I feel like it doesn't scream piea
to me. Mm hmm hmm. Well what would scream piea
(30:20):
to you? You know, I think of the seafood type also, uh,
I think that you really have to have the texture
of the grains of rice apparent. And I know that
you're dealing in a very small medium here, so detail
is difficult. But um but but one of the one
of the things that I kept reading about over and
over again, UM is how important it is for UM
(30:43):
for the rice to be uh dry like like like
individual grains not um not sticky or mushy or swampy. Um.
I think that's the first time I've ever applied swampy
as a term to a food dish, and I hope
it's the last. I never want to think about that
again anyway. Um yeah, so so yeah, because the which
(31:09):
is why it looks more like a like a pot
of curry or something to me um in in my
Apple emoji bank. Yeah. I texted Lauren last night and
I was like, is this the pie emoji just sort
of randomly sounds cut. It's when I typed in pieo,
that's what came up as an emoji. Oh okay, Uh,
(31:32):
I think that's it. I mean, there's no other there's
no alternative that is more piea than that. I love
how often we get to talk about emojis. It's an
important part of our modern cultural landscape, you know. Yeah,
(31:55):
and food is a big part of it. Yeah. Yeah, well, uh,
we'll see. We'll keep tabs on what happens with the
piea future. But yeah, that's about what we have to
say on pie from now. It is. Um. We do
have some listener mail for you, but first we've got
(32:17):
one more quick break for a word from our sponsor
and we're back. Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you, and
we're back with listener. Oh that was lovely? Was it?
(32:41):
I thought it was? And I have the last say
on this listener mail bit you do, so there it
was lovely, Lauren go Yeah, Anthony wrote Ice Wines. When
(33:02):
I lived in Massachusetts, my father created a tradition of
traveling to Stow, Vermont in August to attend an annual
car show. When people here Stow they think of a
ski town, which it is, having the best slopes in
the region, but still is also wonderful in the summer.
We continued this tradition until I was of age to drink,
and then we start exploring other areas around Stow, and
(33:22):
one of these trips we found the winery Boyden Valley
UH in Cambridge, Vermont, just past Smugglers Notch. Everything they
offer here is amazing. To make the story shorter, we
continued my father's tradition well passed as death and extended
it to my family with my wife and children until
we moved to Florida. Boyden Valley continues to be our
(33:42):
favorite winery and we order from them over the internet.
They boldly try new things and use the Vermont region
to make unique and very appetizing wine. As much as
I love grape wines, they make astounding blueberry, strawberry, discontinued cranberry,
and even rhubarb wines. Their ice wines are all so immaculate,
and I suggest you tried them if you want to
enjoin experience better than what you had at Disney. I'm
(34:08):
into it absolutely. Oh gosh. Um. Yeah, I've got family
from from up around near Ish there, like the New
Hampshire Vermont sort of region. Um, But but I haven't
done a whole lot of exploring. Usually when we're hanging out,
we're you know, just doing real tight family kind of stuffs.
So oh now I want to Yes, Yes, I've I've
(34:33):
teetered on the edge of getting some ice wine. I
found like three or four in Atlanta, Atlanta, and I'm like,
I definitely have not been out to a store that
would have it since we were talking about it. But
when I go, when I go, who knows, who knows,
(34:54):
who knows? Only time can do absolutely heck. Kristen wrote,
I had to write as I listened to the Scrapple episode.
I grew up in Dover, Delaware, and Scrapple was always
in our fridge, and I just assumed the rest of
the world was as fortunate as I in that respect.
I eventually learned that was sadly not the case, and
I've had to explain what it is and how much
(35:16):
I love it too many over the years. My favorite
way to eat it as a kid was in a
sandwich of buttered toast and ketchup. Now it's with a
runny egg on top. The trick is to cut just
the right thickness in a slice so that the outside
gets super crisp while the inside stays soft. There's a
popular flea market in Amish food market in Dover called Spences,
and lines for their scrapple egg and cheese on a
(35:37):
roll sandwiches are often very long. My brother also tells
me there's a local pizza place that offers scrapple as
a topping, though I have yet to try it. I
currently live in central Pennsylvania, and while scrapple is certainly
a thing here, I've even had several homemade versions over
the years. The brand I grew up eating, called kirbyan
Holloway out of Harrington, Delaware, is not available, and no
(36:00):
other kind I've ever had comes close to it. It's
dark and spicy and just the best. So to answer
your question, Lauren, yes, you can have it shipped, which
I have done in times of desperation. Otherwise, whenever I
go home for a visit, I always return with several
pounds to tide me and my kids over. Piece of advice,
if you want to stock up and freeze some slice
(36:21):
it first and lay the slices out on a cookie
sheet to freeze, then store them in a freezer bag.
Or if you're like me and storing a lot, vacuum
sealing smaller portions to keep it extra fresh, you can
put the frozen slices directly into a hot pan and
they turn out great every time. If you freeze the
whole block and then though it'll be mealy. Oh I.
(36:46):
This is one of the joyous things about doing a
food show is that I not infrequently have cravings for
foods that I've never had uh and I have had scrapple,
but like, I haven't had like that particular. I'm like,
I just sounds so delicious. And I love UH as
(37:07):
as we've u' as I've alluded to in past episodes.
I love like regional pizza topics. Yeah, and I love
that there's a place that you can get scrapple as
a pizza. Beautiful, it really is. It really is. Well
one day, one day. Um. In the meantime, thanks to
(37:29):
both of those listeners wore writing to us. If you
would like to write to us, you can. Our email
is hello at savor pod dot com. We are also
on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Safer is production of by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(37:50):
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Stylan 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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