Bonus Episode - New York with Zoe Saldaña

In this bonus episode of Ruthie's Table 4, Golden Globe-winning actress Zoe Saldaña discusses her love for New York - a melting pot of different foods and cultures.

Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
My family has been in New York since nineteen sixties
and I lived there until I was ten. From ten
to seventeen, I was in Dominicam Republic. And you went
back to when I was seventeen. My mom is working,

(00:20):
my stepdad is working, my sisters and I were finding
our afternoon sort of placements. I was working also on
the weekends at Burger King and stop there, what were
you doing? I worked at Burger King and what did
you do here? I did the drive through. You know, Hi,
welcome to Burgleem, I take your order. There was a

(00:40):
lady from Guyanese lady who is like my boss, and
I just loved her accent. Welcome to burger Que, Ma
take Yorda. And I would like, I wasn't making fun
of her. I would just try to kind of acquire
this this accent because it was also like, now that
I'm back in New York, I'm reconnecting with all these
multicultures all over the place, and a lot of a
big part of them was connecting with other Caribbean people.

(01:05):
You know, we're from Spanish Antillas, so the West Indies's
English and Tillas and the British Islands or whatever, like.
We didn't really have that in Dominican Republic. So now
I'm connecting with Jamaicans, I'm connecting with people from Maru.
Buta Saint Lucia Grant came and cool so I and

(01:25):
Queens is definitely a very big West Indian and so
is Brooklyn, West Indian melting pot. So I was going
bananas for the food. It was so good. And so
I worked with a whole bunch of Caribbean people, but
we were from different parts than at Barriking, and it
was fun. I feel like that's when my curiosity over
human behavior and who we are as people began. I

(01:46):
think a restaurant does teach you that. Absolutely would say that,
walk into a restaurant, look at the tape of everybody
having fun, and everybody has a story. That's why. Absolutely.
And one of my managers was this woman who must
have been in her late thirties, but she drove to
work in a motorcycle. You know, she was just toping
I get them up junor like she would just talk

(02:08):
like a brought during here. She just had a way
of talking. And I just remember I would have like
just doze off observing people and hearing their accents. Because
now I'm in New York again, I'm getting to hear
the world again. My life was very multicultural. It was
from the beginning. I think growing up in New York,
you're just around just the world at all times. Pick

(02:31):
a block and you'll have like three continents and ten
different countries and you can eat, and I feel like
you do get to know people and communities through their food,
And a lot happens when you break bread with individuals
you just I don't know, there's an unspoken word that
makes it permissible for you to connect with people that

(02:52):
look obviously different, speak differently, smell differently from you, and
yet through the food that they're sharing with you, you get
a piece of who they are and vice versa. So
New York is that special still to this day for me,
Did you have Chinese food? Did you have any? Oh?
My god? Did you Every Sunday? You I'm like the
American families they go like every Sunday to like a

(03:14):
diner and they'll have like pancakes. Oh god, why would
I start the day eating cake? Like I don't you know,
But like I said, I have a savory tooth. So
we would wake up and go either to Flushing in Queens,
which is the second biggest sort of like Chinatown Asian
community outside of Chinatown in downtown Manhattan, or we would

(03:37):
just go to Chinatown and we would have dim sum.
You know, on Saturday nights you have Korean barbecue. Friday
nights you have Korean barbecue. Or or sometimes if my
family that was visiting from from Dominican Republic that are
half Dominican half Japanese, they were in town, we would
go have Shabu shabu, or you go you go to
Seventhiet Street in Roosevelt and you would have like Indian food.

(03:59):
That was our community there for Indian food. That shows
a real curiosity that they really cared. It was always
through food, mind you, there was still a simplicity. We
didn't go any deeper than that. But by the time
I would meet someone that comes from that part of
the world, and if I've tried their dish before, I

(04:20):
felt like I already knew half of them. Eating other
world's foods feeds your curiosity and you do remain open
going okay, so I know your dishes. Some of your dishes,
like I want to know more about you. Thank you
for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair