January 2, 2025 • 24 mins
From Birria Ramen to Esquites, Eva and Maite kick off 2025 exploring the fusion of cultures that can be found when enjoying street food that you can eat in a cup! Plus - Los Angeles based food writer, Bill Esparza, joins the show to discuss how food can build community especially for immigrants planting their flag in a new country.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
So street food has existed ever since the first urban
settlements were created, and a city street food can teach
us so much about the migration of people and ingredients
and techniques.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, and for a person in a new country, street
vending is often a vital part of how one enters
a city's economy. It's also a way to keep cultural
traditions alive.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
There are so many kinds of street foods.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I mean tacos, hot dogs, pretzels, and then there are
foods specifically sold in a disposable cup.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Today's episode is all about food.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And food and a cup of it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am Mate remez
Rajon and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That explores our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So make yourself at home.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Today we're going to talk about that idea of a
cup and so that it's something so intimate in a
way and something so personal. So we're going to focus
on food in a cup and what that tells us
about people waves of immigration. Have a conversation about our
favorite sort of foods in a cup and what we
think of And then BILLI Sparza will come in, and
(01:27):
I thought of him because he wrote this article and
eater La about the body cup, and it's this Puerto
Rican cop that's really interesting. He writes about La and
about his experience is eating foods in a cup, and
maybe we can ask him about the sort of fusion
of cultures, which I think is really interesting and how
they could all kind of blend together in a cup.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I love food in a cup. I think it's convenient.
I think it's creative. I think it's fun. Who invented this?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I know who?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You're the first person to put things a cup and said,
go on, go off now it is.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So so funny and so interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
And I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
There's something so intimate about a cup and so inventive,
Like you said, I mean, it's so entrepreneurial.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yes, it holds something. It's easier than a bowl. It's
a cup.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You could walk around with it, it's not going to
fall over. Who did this first? So let's go way
back and talk about the cup, like what were the
first food serve a cup?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And who invented the cup?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Who invented the first like food a cup.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, it's impossible to know who invented the first cup,
because cups have been used, you know, forever before recorded history.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
The earliest known drinking vessels were made from pottery and
go back around twenty thousand bees.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I know, I was at the Wine Museum in Bordeaux
and one of the first vessels that people drink wine
out of is there, and it's I don't know how
really they founded in like an excavation of something, and
that they really believed that was the first wine wine glass.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So yeah, cups in general go way back.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Pups in general, yes, they go way back.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Glass was first first appeared in the sixteenth century BC
and Mesopotamia and in Egypt. So this idea of a cup,
and even before that it's probably people were using you know,
shells or boards. So, but the first foods historically recorded
to be served in a cup are things like soups
or broths or you know, stews, those things that had
(03:35):
a lot of well it.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Must have been in Roman times for sure, right, well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Roman times for sure they were the first or one
of the first civilizations to use cups, you know. For
the six change of ready to eat foods in public spaces.
So when you think of places like Pompeii that had
a lot of stock, like food vending, a lot of
street foods and stuff like that, like.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A market, a market with stalls.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And exactly, and they would exchange things like wine or
broth or like wine like you just mentioned. So they
were really one of the first civilizations in the Western
world to sort of do this, to exchange these you know,
to have this sort of street food you know exchange
that's recorded.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So that was ancient Rome, and then that evolved into Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So yeah, ancient Rome, and then as time progressed, so
ancient Roman vessels they were using, you know, pottery and
places like Pompeii, and then as times goes on in
medieval Europe, street vendors sold foods in wooden cups, so
we see pottery, then we start seeing wood In pre
(04:45):
Columbia Mexico, they would sell food in the markets in
the Tiangeese from pottery and also from gourds.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But I would have to think that the industrial revolution
also had an influence on not only street food, right
because of the amount of workers, but this food and
a cup idea.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Absolutely absolutely, And then we start seeing a difference in materials.
So we start seeing things like ten when originally it
was pottery. Then we start seeing more sort of different materials.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
But then so.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Waite, when did we screw it all up and started
doing disposable That's that's the big question.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And this is what makes street bending in a cup
so easy, right with this disposable cup.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So the disposables or the styrophone, remember the styros I
think they still sort of escape this in the styrofoam
cups in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, so styrofoam was sort of very easy for make
things much easier for a lot of people, but it's.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Sort of horrible, horrible, horrible for the environment.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
But there's evidence of documented paper cups in China around
the second century BC, where paper cups were used for
serving tea, but the modern disposable paper cup is traced
to the start of the twentieth century. The styrofoam was
(06:10):
not invented until nineteen forty one. An engineer at Dow
Chemicals invented styrofoam in an attempt to create a rubber
like surface, and it had polystyrene, which holds heat. But
the nineteen sixties became the age of the styrofoam cop.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
All right, when we come back, we'll have a conversation
with James Beard. Award winning journalist Bill Esparsa, considered one
of the country's leading experts on Mexican food.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I feel I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I feel like Mexicans invented everything.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I'm sure I'm wrong, but I feel like fluting a
cup is so Latino. It's so Latin America. Definitely, is that?
Do you feel that wall we I mean I grew
up with food in it yeah, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, all around me, Yes, so did I. But it
is something global. I mean I feel like probably every
culture can say, oh yeah, my culture is you know,
is the one that did the food in the cup first?
You know, It's just such a part of street food
and community because even when you think of, you know,
growing up in the in the US, like the ice
(07:29):
cream truck. But for sure, I mean I grew up
with the frutero, the.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Esquites in the States.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The growth of Latin American communities in the twentieth century
created this imflux in a variety of street foods. So yes,
I agree with you that Mexicans have the best street
food and introduced them or began introducing them to the
US in the twentieth century. So the esquitees comes from
the Nawa word esquito, from the word issekwi, which means
(07:59):
to toe corn. And they're often sold by street vendors
in the evenings, in parks and little placitas. So it's
definitely a staple in the in the sort of when
the sun goes down in the evenings and the corn
is cooked with water and salt and a paste, and
then you add lime juice and chili peguine or daheen
(08:20):
and a little bit of guess s fresco. When I
was in Wahaka a couple of years ago, a friend
of mine told me, you have to get the esquitas
of the barge. And there were a few people setting
up and I wasn't sure. No, They're like, it's the
lady from the barque that sets up at six o'clock.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
And I didn't want to go to the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And then all of a sudden, I see a line
form and there's a woman with her little carrito and
there's this steam and she's cooking the corn in some
sort of broth.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It's it's it's some sort of Chili I think, I
don't know which kind of chila, maybe Chila Wahio or
something like that. Best esqui this ever, well, I do.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I can see how immigrants bring their food cultures from
their native lands and they kind of adapt them to
their adopted lands. And so when these cultures and flavors
are like mixed together in a cup, it really reflects
this this like tapestry of a city, and for me,
it's magical.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Adapting to what's available here. But it also bringing these
food cultures. It just sort of creates a way to
share foods from within and also from outside of the community.
So you introduce your foods to people who are not
part of your culture, so it becomes this really interesting
exchange of culture.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All Right, you guys today we have an amazing person
with us.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We don't have a lot of guests on the show bill.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I'm spoiled, feeling spoiled.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Are you?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
I'm doing fine? Up, are you?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Mike is your biggest I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Oh well, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Where did you grow up there in northern California. My
family is from West Calientes. We have the most amazing
dorta ever. Oh really, Krema, It's it's a bolo they
only make there, and they fill it with cream, a
pickled jalapeno and that's it. Or and a piece of ham,
a piece of like lunch meat ham. It's it's a
(10:29):
cream torta.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Is it like nata or is it like Mexican Krema, it'sma.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Oh my gosh, it sounds delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Well, you've eaten your way through Los Angeles, So what
is some of the most interesting foods in a cup
You've encountered the.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Most interesting inside of a cup? Yeah, vasso bourriqua.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
There's ah, it's a Puerto Rican stand I just wrote
about recently down in Long Beach, and they do these
really trendy cups that are popular in Puerto Rico, and
they have mofongo arols and and they have a skewer
coming out plantains, all their flavors, a little bit of
mayo ketchup and so that is one of the coolest
(11:12):
cups I've had in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I didn't even think about Puerto Rican food in a cup,
but yeah, could be in a cup, yet, could be
in a cup.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Mofongo is one of my favorite things is the.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Name and longer.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So we've got to post some photo right now.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I did.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
This is why I wanted to have you on because
when I read about this body cup, I was like,
this is incredible. Like I've I had not not thought
about Puerto Rico either. I was focusing on Oh, It'squita's
and the stuff that you know, I'm more familiar with.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
But the body cup is like, Oh, this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And then you know, I love Bill how you discover
all of these places all over the city that are underappreciated,
little places in La and.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
How you know, know food in a cup?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I street food is so broad, but food, so we're
footing on food and cup that it's just something that
brings together different cultures and you know, people outside of
a culture like us that our Mexicans can taste this,
you know, Puerto Rican culture and have a little and
I love that this sort of that a cup can
bring all of these different cultures together. So when I
(12:21):
read about your body cup, I was like, Oh, we
have to have Bill on to talk about this. So
what other dishes or like, what how do you feel
like dishes like the body cup? What do they tell
us about the people selling it or the person selling it.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Well, I think in the in the case of the eighties,
they're really you know, they're honing in on a trend
that's happening all over Puerto Rico, where cultures are always
people always say, well, well, traditional food is like we
want to do food. It's not traditional. We want to
we want to do something different. But the truth is
traditional food is not static. It's always innovating. It's always
(12:58):
changing always book people don't like the word authentic, and
I'm like, what's authentic today? Some of it will remain,
but other things will be added over time. So authentic
is evolving, it's living, it's changing. So right now, this
thing is hot all over Puerto Rico and the family
is going back to visit their family and stay in touch,
(13:20):
and they're seeing these like, oh, let's bring this, Let's
bring something that's really like happening right now in Puerto
Rico to the streets of Los Angeles, and you know,
and for us, it adds really excitement because a lot
of times, over time, restaurants open and they sort of
follow the same safe format of foods.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
You know, they'll have a certain you've seen this before.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
You go around to Cuban restaurants and they all have
a very similar menu, and you go to Mexican restaurants
that have the same menu, and then when you see
something like that, you're like, you know what, I wonder
what's like now, I know what's happening in Puerto Rico,
like what they're eating right now.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
And that's exciting for me. I think.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I always say you learn about a culture through their food.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Oh yeah, we always talk about this idea of that
is authentic, is so personal and one of the things
that's so I think exciting about food and like us
that think about food all the time and that write.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
About food, it's constantly evolving.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It is not static like ever, right, So that I
think is super exciting.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Yeah, it's it's not a museum, it's it's it's a lie.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
How amazing was he? I want his job? Like he
just what does he just go around and eat and
eats and writes about it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, he eats right now. He joined us from Washington State.
He was at a Thaco festival in Washington State. It's
awesome and you know, we learned about the Banesilco Bala
that when we did our Afro celebrating Afro Mexican history.
So and I learned about them through one of his articles.
So he eats his way around La, but he really
(15:05):
gets to know the people that are making and selling
the food. So this is what I really like about
what he writes. That it's not just like the trendy dish,
but he really talks about the culture and he talks
about the people that are making it. And I think
that that's something really important.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
What's your favorite food in a cup? There's so many
that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I mean, I would have to say, I love escuit
this I grew up.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I love this too, so good.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I grew up calling them ado though I didn't learn
the word is that until.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I called him a lots in a cup. I said,
a lot isn't a cup?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And then they're like, no, there's a lot, and then
there's a steth this and I never knew it was.
It was called two different things. But yeah, until until
you know, being in Mexico. But you know what else
is a close second for me through me too.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I love I love mango and cucumbers with chile and
lime and taheen and.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
CHAMOI I love, Like, I can't pass by one of
those food one of those fruita vendors on the street.
If they are on the street, I pull over and
I get a cup of mango.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Same same.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
There's one on the corner of my house right right here.
I can see them if I look out of my
office window. Yeah, as soon as I see the little umbrella,
I love.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
But also like, let's talk about fruit though, Like let's
talk about the fruit in a cup, because that is
an explosion of.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Cultures completely one cup. Because the mango's from where.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Mangoes from India, coconut and limes are from Asia, watermelon
is from Africa, hikamis from Mexico. Chamoi is this sort
of mixture of cultures, Asian cultures that was then developed
in Mexico. So it's just a nix losion of flavors
and it's essentially the whole world in a cup. But
(17:05):
at the same time, yeah, salt, yeah, So it's it's
this incredible. I mean, it's it's just it's the whole
it's life and a cup. And I feel like it's
amazing and I and I feel like it's sort of
the quintessential food and a cup because it combines the
(17:26):
entire world, but it's also so specific to to our culture,
to what we you know, grew up with.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Like you said, they're usually immigrants, wake up at five am,
they go to the wholesale fruit market, they per you know,
they have to push their card everywhere. I mean, it
is hard work, you know. And then they usually end
at night. I mean their day start so early and
then it ends at night.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And a lot of these these fruit thattos, you know,
eventually save money to purchase like their own push card
or their own vehicle.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
So I just think there's so much history behind behind.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's incredibly hard work.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And there's this woman a professor at a University of
California at Irvine, Rossio Rosalez, who did a field study
on fruttos in La and they're immigrants and at the
beginning of her study in two thousand and six, she
learned that most of the immigrants at that time came
from the same town in Bueblin, and so people from
(18:28):
this town were immigrating here. They never think that they're gonna,
you know, become fruit vendors when they get here, but
they're promised the fruiteto work. They're promised a place to
live before the migration.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
So there's this.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Community already here and it's grueling. I mean it's but
but it really is is a way into a city's
economy for for many new immigrants from Mexico to the
to the US. And yet you never see them just
on a hammock, just hanging out chilling. No, They're they're
(19:05):
working there.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Gas is off. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Let me tell you something. I am big on TikTok.
I'm a big TikToker now. And one of the trendiest
things on TikTok is ramen bilia. Yeah, and talk about
a car crash of cultures because bilia, as you know,
is like this brothy, amazing dish and full of flavor.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
All these spices usually traditionally made of goats of goats.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Meat, but you know you can have bva is now
that kind of like the term of like you can
have any meat.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It's just the brothiness of like different things. Because I've
had beef, be thea, I goat, b via. I've had
different things. Although the original original is traditionally goat, but.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Now people are adding ramen noodles, which is Japanese even
though ramen originated in China. It's it's you know, it's
this cultural exchange in a cup, which is so I
wonder who the first person came up with this of
like this hot broth, Why don't I heat up my noodles,
(20:12):
my instant noodles in this amazing broth, which is probably
one of the best ideas ever.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I know, it's such an ingenious idea for sure, but yeah,
it's like the Mexican beria, the rama noodles that are
very Japanese but originated in China. So it's this sort
of you know, you know mix. And then the instant
noodles were invented to help address this food shortage crisis
(20:38):
in Japan after the Second World War by an inventor
slash businessman, Mamafuko Ondo in nineteen fifty eight. So yeah,
using the broth, waiting three minutes and then selling it
is like so ingenious, incredibly.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
You know, and then adding cilantro and onions and lime
juice like biria and ramen together Bilia ramen, which is
they're calling it bila ramen.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Piri ramen is brilliant.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's brilliant brilliant, and people credit this Mexican ship, right, yeah,
we're creating this.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Mexico City A chef, Antonio de Livier was credited by
making it first but using fresh noodles in his Mexico
City restaurant. But it became more famous in La So
it became really famous twenty nineteen, so not that long ago.
And now it's like it's a huge thing. And like
(21:35):
the fruit that, it's like the whole world in a cup.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
The other thing I grew up with in a cup
is rustbus. In Texas, we have rastpus. My husband makes
fun of me because he's like, that's not what they're called,
because in Mexico they're called rastpatos, yeah, which are snowclones.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
So that's another fun thing. And sometimes you can put
coconut shavings. Sometimes there's like ice cream in the middle
around the shaved ice.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
You can have all these different flavors like that a
huge part of my child mine.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Too, and or or some sort of fruity syrup and
then condensed milk, or just the ice with condensed milk.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Yes, oh my god, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
We talk a little bit about that in our in
our ice cream episode last season, we talked a little
bit about the the ras us.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, but you know what I I've never had, which
I saw was on our list was flout buzz and busts.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
You haven't had them?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Oh, I've never seen that? No, have you? Yes?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yes, I don't know where I've seen them, but I
have seen them.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And it's basically the cup and on the bottom they
put the salsad, like a green salsa or something, and
they put the little flout thas, which are the little
you know, fried takitos rolled and then they they're sticking
out of the cop. So instead of walking around with
a plate that's kind of awkward, it's a cup and
you just dip, you know, you just you know, you
(22:49):
could double dip or triple dip because it's your little
cup and it's and then you put the cheese and
you put the toppings. Brilliant, brilliant. And they are said
to have originated in the state of Guerretro. So it's
this traditional cup. Wow, traditional dish served in a very non.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
What a great idea because it is a hand food,
you know what I mean, it's a it's a hand food.
So that's amazing to have the Grandma and the sauts
on the bottom of the cup. We're like, what what,
I'm going to just start making flats at home and
do that. It's a great I'm going to give it
to my son in a cup.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah it's easy. It's easy. Yeah, it's so easy.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant idea.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Everybody, Thank you for listening to this episode of Food
and a Cup. I think it's so enlightening because, like
you said, Mikey, they're like these little collisions of cultures.
The world is in your hands, and what a what
a great topic to talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Now I'm hungry.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Now I'm hungry too. Yes, the world did a cup.
Thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Thanks everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Hungry for History is a hyphen Media production in partnership
with Iheart's Michael past Network.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
So street food has existed ever since the first urban
settlements were created, and a city street food can teach
us so much about the migration of people and ingredients
and techniques.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, and for a person in a new country, street
vending is often a vital part of how one enters
a city's economy. It's also a way to keep cultural
traditions alive.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
There are so many kinds of street foods.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I mean tacos, hot dogs, pretzels, and then there are
foods specifically sold in a disposable cup.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Today's episode is all about food.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And food and a cup of it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am Mate remez
Rajon and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That explores our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So make yourself at home.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Today we're going to talk about that idea of a
cup and so that it's something so intimate in a
way and something so personal. So we're going to focus
on food in a cup and what that tells us
about people waves of immigration. Have a conversation about our
favorite sort of foods in a cup and what we
think of And then BILLI Sparza will come in, and
(01:27):
I thought of him because he wrote this article and
eater La about the body cup, and it's this Puerto
Rican cop that's really interesting. He writes about La and
about his experience is eating foods in a cup, and
maybe we can ask him about the sort of fusion
of cultures, which I think is really interesting and how
they could all kind of blend together in a cup.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I love food in a cup. I think it's convenient.
I think it's creative. I think it's fun. Who invented this?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I know who?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
You're the first person to put things a cup and said,
go on, go off now it is.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So so funny and so interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
And I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
There's something so intimate about a cup and so inventive,
Like you said, I mean, it's so entrepreneurial.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yes, it holds something. It's easier than a bowl. It's
a cup.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
You could walk around with it, it's not going to
fall over. Who did this first? So let's go way
back and talk about the cup, like what were the
first food serve a cup?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And who invented the cup?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Who invented the first like food a cup.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, it's impossible to know who invented the first cup,
because cups have been used, you know, forever before recorded history.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
The earliest known drinking vessels were made from pottery and
go back around twenty thousand bees.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I know, I was at the Wine Museum in Bordeaux
and one of the first vessels that people drink wine
out of is there, and it's I don't know how
really they founded in like an excavation of something, and
that they really believed that was the first wine wine glass.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So yeah, cups in general go way back.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Pups in general, yes, they go way back.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Glass was first first appeared in the sixteenth century BC
and Mesopotamia and in Egypt. So this idea of a cup,
and even before that it's probably people were using you know,
shells or boards. So, but the first foods historically recorded
to be served in a cup are things like soups
or broths or you know, stews, those things that had
(03:35):
a lot of well it.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Must have been in Roman times for sure, right, well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Roman times for sure they were the first or one
of the first civilizations to use cups, you know. For
the six change of ready to eat foods in public spaces.
So when you think of places like Pompeii that had
a lot of stock, like food vending, a lot of
street foods and stuff like that, like.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
A market, a market with stalls.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And exactly, and they would exchange things like wine or
broth or like wine like you just mentioned. So they
were really one of the first civilizations in the Western
world to sort of do this, to exchange these you know,
to have this sort of street food you know exchange
that's recorded.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
So that was ancient Rome, and then that evolved into Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So yeah, ancient Rome, and then as time progressed, so
ancient Roman vessels they were using, you know, pottery and
places like Pompeii, and then as times goes on in
medieval Europe, street vendors sold foods in wooden cups, so
we see pottery, then we start seeing wood In pre
(04:45):
Columbia Mexico, they would sell food in the markets in
the Tiangeese from pottery and also from gourds.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But I would have to think that the industrial revolution
also had an influence on not only street food, right
because of the amount of workers, but this food and
a cup idea.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Absolutely absolutely, And then we start seeing a difference in materials.
So we start seeing things like ten when originally it
was pottery. Then we start seeing more sort of different materials.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
But then so.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Waite, when did we screw it all up and started
doing disposable That's that's the big question.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
And this is what makes street bending in a cup
so easy, right with this disposable cup.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So the disposables or the styrophone, remember the styros I
think they still sort of escape this in the styrofoam
cups in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, so styrofoam was sort of very easy for make
things much easier for a lot of people, but it's.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Sort of horrible, horrible, horrible for the environment.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
But there's evidence of documented paper cups in China around
the second century BC, where paper cups were used for
serving tea, but the modern disposable paper cup is traced
to the start of the twentieth century. The styrofoam was
(06:10):
not invented until nineteen forty one. An engineer at Dow
Chemicals invented styrofoam in an attempt to create a rubber
like surface, and it had polystyrene, which holds heat. But
the nineteen sixties became the age of the styrofoam cop.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
All right, when we come back, we'll have a conversation
with James Beard. Award winning journalist Bill Esparsa, considered one
of the country's leading experts on Mexican food.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I feel I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I feel like Mexicans invented everything.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I'm sure I'm wrong, but I feel like fluting a
cup is so Latino. It's so Latin America. Definitely, is that?
Do you feel that wall we I mean I grew
up with food in it yeah, everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, all around me, Yes, so did I. But it
is something global. I mean I feel like probably every
culture can say, oh yeah, my culture is you know,
is the one that did the food in the cup first?
You know, It's just such a part of street food
and community because even when you think of, you know,
growing up in the in the US, like the ice
(07:29):
cream truck. But for sure, I mean I grew up
with the frutero, the.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Esquites in the States.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
The growth of Latin American communities in the twentieth century
created this imflux in a variety of street foods. So yes,
I agree with you that Mexicans have the best street
food and introduced them or began introducing them to the
US in the twentieth century. So the esquitees comes from
the Nawa word esquito, from the word issekwi, which means
(07:59):
to toe corn. And they're often sold by street vendors
in the evenings, in parks and little placitas. So it's
definitely a staple in the in the sort of when
the sun goes down in the evenings and the corn
is cooked with water and salt and a paste, and
then you add lime juice and chili peguine or daheen
(08:20):
and a little bit of guess s fresco. When I
was in Wahaka a couple of years ago, a friend
of mine told me, you have to get the esquitas
of the barge. And there were a few people setting
up and I wasn't sure. No, They're like, it's the
lady from the barque that sets up at six o'clock.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
And I didn't want to go to the wrong person.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And then all of a sudden, I see a line
form and there's a woman with her little carrito and
there's this steam and she's cooking the corn in some
sort of broth.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
It's it's it's some sort of Chili I think, I
don't know which kind of chila, maybe Chila Wahio or
something like that. Best esqui this ever, well, I do.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I can see how immigrants bring their food cultures from
their native lands and they kind of adapt them to
their adopted lands. And so when these cultures and flavors
are like mixed together in a cup, it really reflects
this this like tapestry of a city, and for me,
it's magical.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Adapting to what's available here. But it also bringing these
food cultures. It just sort of creates a way to
share foods from within and also from outside of the community.
So you introduce your foods to people who are not
part of your culture, so it becomes this really interesting
exchange of culture.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All Right, you guys today we have an amazing person
with us.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We don't have a lot of guests on the show bill.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
So.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
I'm spoiled, feeling spoiled.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Are you?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
I'm doing fine? Up, are you?
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Mike is your biggest I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Oh well, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Where did you grow up there in northern California. My
family is from West Calientes. We have the most amazing
dorta ever. Oh really, Krema, It's it's a bolo they
only make there, and they fill it with cream, a
pickled jalapeno and that's it. Or and a piece of ham,
a piece of like lunch meat ham. It's it's a
(10:29):
cream torta.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Is it like nata or is it like Mexican Krema, it'sma.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Oh my gosh, it sounds delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Well, you've eaten your way through Los Angeles, So what
is some of the most interesting foods in a cup
You've encountered the.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Most interesting inside of a cup? Yeah, vasso bourriqua.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
There's ah, it's a Puerto Rican stand I just wrote
about recently down in Long Beach, and they do these
really trendy cups that are popular in Puerto Rico, and
they have mofongo arols and and they have a skewer
coming out plantains, all their flavors, a little bit of
mayo ketchup and so that is one of the coolest
(11:12):
cups I've had in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I didn't even think about Puerto Rican food in a cup,
but yeah, could be in a cup, yet, could be
in a cup.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Mofongo is one of my favorite things is the.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Name and longer.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So we've got to post some photo right now.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I did.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
This is why I wanted to have you on because
when I read about this body cup, I was like,
this is incredible. Like I've I had not not thought
about Puerto Rico either. I was focusing on Oh, It'squita's
and the stuff that you know, I'm more familiar with.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
But the body cup is like, Oh, this is so interesting.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And then you know, I love Bill how you discover
all of these places all over the city that are underappreciated,
little places in La and.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
How you know, know food in a cup?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I street food is so broad, but food, so we're
footing on food and cup that it's just something that
brings together different cultures and you know, people outside of
a culture like us that our Mexicans can taste this,
you know, Puerto Rican culture and have a little and
I love that this sort of that a cup can
bring all of these different cultures together. So when I
(12:21):
read about your body cup, I was like, Oh, we
have to have Bill on to talk about this. So
what other dishes or like, what how do you feel
like dishes like the body cup? What do they tell
us about the people selling it or the person selling it.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Well, I think in the in the case of the eighties,
they're really you know, they're honing in on a trend
that's happening all over Puerto Rico, where cultures are always
people always say, well, well, traditional food is like we
want to do food. It's not traditional. We want to
we want to do something different. But the truth is
traditional food is not static. It's always innovating. It's always
(12:58):
changing always book people don't like the word authentic, and
I'm like, what's authentic today? Some of it will remain,
but other things will be added over time. So authentic
is evolving, it's living, it's changing. So right now, this
thing is hot all over Puerto Rico and the family
is going back to visit their family and stay in touch,
(13:20):
and they're seeing these like, oh, let's bring this, Let's
bring something that's really like happening right now in Puerto
Rico to the streets of Los Angeles, and you know,
and for us, it adds really excitement because a lot
of times, over time, restaurants open and they sort of
follow the same safe format of foods.
Speaker 6 (13:39):
You know, they'll have a certain you've seen this before.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
You go around to Cuban restaurants and they all have
a very similar menu, and you go to Mexican restaurants
that have the same menu, and then when you see
something like that, you're like, you know what, I wonder
what's like now, I know what's happening in Puerto Rico,
like what they're eating right now.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
And that's exciting for me. I think.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I always say you learn about a culture through their food.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Oh yeah, we always talk about this idea of that
is authentic, is so personal and one of the things
that's so I think exciting about food and like us
that think about food all the time and that write.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
About food, it's constantly evolving.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It is not static like ever, right, So that I
think is super exciting.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Yeah, it's it's not a museum, it's it's it's a lie.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
How amazing was he? I want his job? Like he
just what does he just go around and eat and
eats and writes about it?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, he eats right now. He joined us from Washington State.
He was at a Thaco festival in Washington State. It's
awesome and you know, we learned about the Banesilco Bala
that when we did our Afro celebrating Afro Mexican history.
So and I learned about them through one of his articles.
So he eats his way around La, but he really
(15:05):
gets to know the people that are making and selling
the food. So this is what I really like about
what he writes. That it's not just like the trendy dish,
but he really talks about the culture and he talks
about the people that are making it. And I think
that that's something really important.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
What's your favorite food in a cup? There's so many
that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I mean, I would have to say, I love escuit
this I grew up.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I love this too, so good.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I grew up calling them ado though I didn't learn
the word is that until.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I called him a lots in a cup. I said,
a lot isn't a cup?
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And then they're like, no, there's a lot, and then
there's a steth this and I never knew it was.
It was called two different things. But yeah, until until
you know, being in Mexico. But you know what else
is a close second for me through me too.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I love I love mango and cucumbers with chile and
lime and taheen and.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
CHAMOI I love, Like, I can't pass by one of
those food one of those fruita vendors on the street.
If they are on the street, I pull over and
I get a cup of mango.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Same same.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
There's one on the corner of my house right right here.
I can see them if I look out of my
office window. Yeah, as soon as I see the little umbrella,
I love.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
But also like, let's talk about fruit though, Like let's
talk about the fruit in a cup, because that is
an explosion of.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Cultures completely one cup. Because the mango's from where.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Mangoes from India, coconut and limes are from Asia, watermelon
is from Africa, hikamis from Mexico. Chamoi is this sort
of mixture of cultures, Asian cultures that was then developed
in Mexico. So it's just a nix losion of flavors
and it's essentially the whole world in a cup. But
(17:05):
at the same time, yeah, salt, yeah, So it's it's
this incredible. I mean, it's it's just it's the whole
it's life and a cup. And I feel like it's
amazing and I and I feel like it's sort of
the quintessential food and a cup because it combines the
(17:26):
entire world, but it's also so specific to to our culture,
to what we you know, grew up with.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Like you said, they're usually immigrants, wake up at five am,
they go to the wholesale fruit market, they per you know,
they have to push their card everywhere. I mean, it
is hard work, you know. And then they usually end
at night. I mean their day start so early and
then it ends at night.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And a lot of these these fruit thattos, you know,
eventually save money to purchase like their own push card
or their own vehicle.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
So I just think there's so much history behind behind.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's incredibly hard work.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
And there's this woman a professor at a University of
California at Irvine, Rossio Rosalez, who did a field study
on fruttos in La and they're immigrants and at the
beginning of her study in two thousand and six, she
learned that most of the immigrants at that time came
from the same town in Bueblin, and so people from
(18:28):
this town were immigrating here. They never think that they're gonna,
you know, become fruit vendors when they get here, but
they're promised the fruiteto work. They're promised a place to
live before the migration.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
So there's this.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Community already here and it's grueling. I mean it's but
but it really is is a way into a city's
economy for for many new immigrants from Mexico to the
to the US. And yet you never see them just
on a hammock, just hanging out chilling. No, They're they're
(19:05):
working there.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Gas is off. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Let me tell you something. I am big on TikTok.
I'm a big TikToker now. And one of the trendiest
things on TikTok is ramen bilia. Yeah, and talk about
a car crash of cultures because bilia, as you know,
is like this brothy, amazing dish and full of flavor.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
All these spices usually traditionally made of goats of goats.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Meat, but you know you can have bva is now
that kind of like the term of like you can
have any meat.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
It's just the brothiness of like different things. Because I've
had beef, be thea, I goat, b via. I've had
different things. Although the original original is traditionally goat, but.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Now people are adding ramen noodles, which is Japanese even
though ramen originated in China. It's it's you know, it's
this cultural exchange in a cup, which is so I
wonder who the first person came up with this of
like this hot broth, Why don't I heat up my noodles,
(20:12):
my instant noodles in this amazing broth, which is probably
one of the best ideas ever.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I know, it's such an ingenious idea for sure, but yeah,
it's like the Mexican beria, the rama noodles that are
very Japanese but originated in China. So it's this sort
of you know, you know mix. And then the instant
noodles were invented to help address this food shortage crisis
(20:38):
in Japan after the Second World War by an inventor
slash businessman, Mamafuko Ondo in nineteen fifty eight. So yeah,
using the broth, waiting three minutes and then selling it
is like so ingenious, incredibly.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
You know, and then adding cilantro and onions and lime
juice like biria and ramen together Bilia ramen, which is
they're calling it bila ramen.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Piri ramen is brilliant.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
It's brilliant brilliant, and people credit this Mexican ship, right, yeah,
we're creating this.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Mexico City A chef, Antonio de Livier was credited by
making it first but using fresh noodles in his Mexico
City restaurant. But it became more famous in La So
it became really famous twenty nineteen, so not that long ago.
And now it's like it's a huge thing. And like
(21:35):
the fruit that, it's like the whole world in a cup.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
The other thing I grew up with in a cup
is rustbus. In Texas, we have rastpus. My husband makes
fun of me because he's like, that's not what they're called,
because in Mexico they're called rastpatos, yeah, which are snowclones.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
So that's another fun thing. And sometimes you can put
coconut shavings. Sometimes there's like ice cream in the middle
around the shaved ice.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
You can have all these different flavors like that a
huge part of my child mine.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Too, and or or some sort of fruity syrup and
then condensed milk, or just the ice with condensed milk.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Yes, oh my god, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
We talk a little bit about that in our in
our ice cream episode last season, we talked a little
bit about the the ras us.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, but you know what I I've never had, which
I saw was on our list was flout buzz and busts.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
You haven't had them?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Oh, I've never seen that? No, have you? Yes?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yes, I don't know where I've seen them, but I
have seen them.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And it's basically the cup and on the bottom they
put the salsad, like a green salsa or something, and
they put the little flout thas, which are the little
you know, fried takitos rolled and then they they're sticking
out of the cop. So instead of walking around with
a plate that's kind of awkward, it's a cup and
you just dip, you know, you just you know, you
(22:49):
could double dip or triple dip because it's your little
cup and it's and then you put the cheese and
you put the toppings. Brilliant, brilliant. And they are said
to have originated in the state of Guerretro. So it's
this traditional cup. Wow, traditional dish served in a very non.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
What a great idea because it is a hand food,
you know what I mean, it's a it's a hand food.
So that's amazing to have the Grandma and the sauts
on the bottom of the cup. We're like, what what,
I'm going to just start making flats at home and
do that. It's a great I'm going to give it
to my son in a cup.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Yeah it's easy. It's easy. Yeah, it's so easy.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant idea.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Everybody, Thank you for listening to this episode of Food
and a Cup. I think it's so enlightening because, like
you said, Mikey, they're like these little collisions of cultures.
The world is in your hands, and what a what
a great topic to talk about.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Now I'm hungry.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Now I'm hungry too. Yes, the world did a cup.
Thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Thanks everybody for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Hungry for History is a hyphen Media production in partnership
with Iheart's Michael past Network.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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