@ForkReporter | Hour 2

Paige Murtaugh – Food Relay
Paige Murtaugh – Food Relay
Neil Health Update
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Niel Sevedra. You'relistening to kfi EM six forty the Fork
Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey everybody, it's the Fork Report.
Happy New Year to you. Ofcourse the Fork Report is it's a
sanctuary. It is the time forus to kind of shake off the heaviness
of the week, whatever's going onin the news, whatever stress you have,

(00:25):
and come together and celebrate food,people that make it, the culture
behind it. We talk about everythingfrom you know, cooking things at home,
bacon at home, to cocktails littlelike you know what I'm saying,
little little little how's your father?And everything in between. Going out to

(00:46):
eat. You gotta celebrate food.You got to focus on local places.
If we don't go out to eat, the local economy dies. Hospitality is
the corner corner storm stone, thecorner stone of the local economy. And
that's why we always talk about andsupport local places. When you get a

(01:07):
chance to do that, it's alwaysa good thing. One of the parts
we celebrate about food is global foodand different drink and food trends all over
the planet and how they affect ushere, how they make their way to
hear more and more with the technologywe have to move food ingredients from one

(01:30):
part of the world to the next. We get to enjoy enjoy more food
with different flavors, different profiles fromall over the world, and then we
find out about these things. Alot of times when it comes to travel,
and there are entire networks that theirfocus is to take us to places
that we've never been to before andlearn about these places. One of my

(01:53):
favorites is when they combine traveling withfood. And a great way to see
that happen is on a show calledFood Relay. The host is with us
now. She's a comedian, she'san actress, she's a chef, and
she's the host of Food Relay onGo Traveler. Her name is Paige Murtap.
Paige, welcome to the Fork Report. Hey Neil, and hello everyone.

(02:15):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing home wonderful. How
are you pleasure? Well, youwere born out here, right, You
were in La I was yeah,West La Ucla Hospital. Oh wow,
look at that. And and thenyou moved to Arizona and then came back
here. Yeah. So I movedto Arizona shortly after I was born and

(02:39):
then moved back to la. Imoved a lot as a kid. I'm
the daughter of a single mother,so we moved around a lot. And
I think that that is one thatis one thing that gave me the capacity
to travel was moving so much inmy life. So you know, being
young, it was hard moving alot. But now as an adult,

(03:00):
I see it for the blessing thatit was. Well, it sure gave
you the bug, I imagine.Oh yeah, yeah, it's travel.
Does that. You know, onceyou find your group with it and how
you like to travel, you can'thelp but feel that snowball effect. Yeah,

(03:20):
I'm infected. I've got the bug. Yeah. You know what's funny
is you have a very charming wayabout you and you have this energy.
Where is it easy for you tomeet people and come into their homes or
because it just seems like you becomefamily immediately on the show. Oh thanks

(03:40):
Neil. Yeah I heard your intro. You called me a little nutty and
it's funny because one of my nicknamesgrowing up with peanutties. So yeah,
I think that my borderline O noxiouspersonality but very warm presence has gotten me

(04:00):
into some amazing places. I mean, as the host of food relay,
getting to travel to all these countries, meeting chefs and families from across the
globe, and getting invited into somebody'shome, Like, that's such a big
honor, and I don't take itlightly because they invite you in, they
share their culture with you, theyshare their story, and then the world

(04:23):
feels a little less strange and itfeels smaller, I imagine, and to
see you. Okay. So forthose that don't know the premise of the
show, and stop me page ifyou think there's if I'm not giving doing
it justice. But really, you'regoing from place to place, learning about
the culture through food, and thentaking that to the next place. So

(04:44):
that's where the relay comes in.You're taking what you've learned and you're passing
it into the next show or atthe end of the show, rather tying
it into another culture and having themexperience that culture through you. Is that
right? Exactly? Yeah. Ijust imagine in a relay race someone passing
a baton. So that's exactly whatwe're doing with food relay. We start

(05:06):
our adventure in Serbia. Then webring in Serbia. I get to meet
the local Serbs, you know,they teach me about the cultural influences,
the Ottoman meets the Austro Hungarian culinaryinfluences, and then many, you know,

(05:28):
many segments included me drinking booze earlyin the morning, so maybe that
was not the greatest idea, butyeah, so we get to go all
over the city, they show methe markets we're looking for ingredients, and
then at the end of every episode, I cook a meal with cuisine from
my last destination. So in Serbia, I cooked the serbs a Thanksgiving meal.

(05:54):
And I don't know if you haveever tried to shop in another country,
well, you know, it's hardto find some very basic ingredients that
you might need. So there's allkinds of mishaps and misadventures and triumphs of
searching for ingredients in the show.Yeah, it's that is part of its

(06:15):
charm. And I actually like Ihave done that. I have been in
other countries and said, well,we'll just go grab this, and it's
like, you know, don't deysta Trader Joe's. And it's always interesting
to go to the local market andsay, hey, can I have the
cow in parts rather than the wholething? Oh, you don't sell it

(06:36):
that way, Okay, I'll breakit, toll fabricate it myself. But
it is neat to see trying tofind that, you know, what we
would consider a traditional you know,Thanksgiving meal, and trying to find that
somewhere else and at least bring thoseHomi flavors and the like together. I
think as you connect with people andyou find out you know, what they're

(07:01):
going to make for you, oneof the things that I noticed throughout is
there is a look of intense pridepleasure on people handing you something or sharing
something. You know, yeah,absolutely well. I mean these recipes a

(07:21):
lot of times they come from theirfamily, you know. Like in Greece,
which was the third episode, Iget invited into a family home,
this woman called Demetria. We're innorthern Greece and that's that's all anikey and
she invites me into her home.She's pouring wine, we're cooking and dancing,

(07:42):
and we make this dish called Yemmystuff. So Yemy Stuff is stuffed
vegetables with rice, meats, herbs, tomatoes, dice tomatoes, and it's
just just and it's baked until it'sreally soft. Need drizzle it with the
olive oil and their potatoes, andit's just this vibrant, colorful dish,

(08:03):
which to the people in the Salonikiis symbolized as being home in the summer.
It is yemisa is eaten in thesummer, so it has that nostalgic
I'm home again steel and that translatesto when I was eating it too.
Wow. It really is interesting bringingthose flavors and textures. Also, you

(08:24):
know, we celebrate food on thisshow, and you know, on average,
you do a radio show where you'retalking about food is an odd thing
because we don't have those visuals.But you just there as you're talking about
the textures, those flavors, eventhe olive oil on there. You know,
bringing those pictures into people's heads,there's something I think we recognize.

(08:48):
Faces are the first things that welearn when we're a kid, and the
second thing is food and texture.You know, there's something about that that
when you describe that, I canpicture that exactly in my head and I'm
like, I want to eat thatthing. What she just said, I
want that in my mouth. Thatjust sounds like a great combination. Okay,

(09:09):
so hang tight, we're gonna getsome news. We come back.
We're gonna talk more with Paige Murta. She's the host of Food Relay.
We've talked about Go Traveler on theshow before. You can go to Gotraveler
dot com. You can see thefirst season there that actually ends up and
we'll talk about this. Actually thesixth episode ends up in Los Angeles there
on the pier in Santa Monica.But you can go check it out there.

(09:31):
But I encourage you personally to dowhat I did, and that is
download the Go Traveler app and thatway, when you go into a doctor's
office and the TVs on and Joanneis putting ship lap up on somebody's house
again, you can go, I'lljust watch Go Traveler on my own and

(09:52):
then I can pick what I watch, So do that. I encourage you
to check that out and you cansee Food Relay and see Paige Murtad doing
that. We'll come back. We'lltalk about more about the program Food Relay,
but also what pages up to now. She's a comedian. She's also
a chef, and we'll get intothat as well. So go know where

(10:13):
you're listening to The Fork Report withNeil Savedra on demand from KFI AM six
forty. Hey, everybody, it'sthe Fork Report, all Things food Beverage
on de Beyond. I am yourfriendly neighborhood Fork Reporter and Neil Savedra.
How do you do. I'd lovefor you to hang out with us on
social media, whether it's threads xor Instagram, where I tend to be

(10:35):
the most and yes it is meon there. You can find me at
Fork Reporter at Fork Reporter there.I always love connecting, whether it's during
the show or during the week,and you can find me now as a
permanent fixture on the Morning Show withBill Handel Monday through Friday. A lot
of interesting things in the new year. I'll update you on my health coming

(10:56):
up, because I was out,you know, post pande. I was
out more this past holiday season thanI have been in a long time,
shaking hands and meeting a lot ofyou good folks, and you were all
so very kind asking how I wasdoing and post kidney transplant and all of
that. So I'll give you anupdate on that. Tgif abruptly closes thirty

(11:16):
six restaurants, did it affects southernCalifornia, I'll tell you about that.
Pizza Hut'll also laying off quite abit of people. What else? Oh
sixty cent tacos. So much toget to. But right now we are
chatting with my guest, first timeshe's been on the show, Paige Murta.
She's a comedian, she's an actress, she is a chef, and

(11:37):
she's also the host of Food Relaythat you can see on Go Traveler.
I recommend downloading the app and doingit there because then you could take it
with you to places that have badTV on, like doctor's offices and things
like that. Or when you're enjoyingtwo and a half hour wait at the

(11:58):
DMV in our lovely city, youcan do it there too, and you
can watch Food Relay all right,page, So you go through. There's
six episodes. You go through andyou start as we talked about, and
you go through Sri Lanka, andyou go through Mexico and you end up
in Los Angeles. Going through thatin its entirety and walking through all those

(12:24):
different places, was it a shockto be home and bring it here?
Do you think LA's a place thatreceives different cultures easily? Of course?
I mean La is so diverse.You can experience amost almost all the global

(12:45):
flavors in a twenty mile radius,So yeah, it made sense for the
show. I believe it made sensefor me personally since I started my journey
on life here in Los Angeles.And yeah, I mean I get a
sense of being in a different placeevery time I go to a different town
in LA. Yeah, it isa lot of people because you know,

(13:09):
born and raised. So I'm abig proponent of LA and I think we
have the greatest food seen here inthe country. I had a lot of
my friends on the East Coast wantto gripe about that, but I like
to push it back in their face. The thing is that's different is we're
kind of spread out, but ifyou go to different parts of Los Angeles

(13:33):
and southern California, you really canfind authentic world cuisine from everywhere. It
just is not all on Melrose orall in Silver Lake or you know,
any of these locations where in NewYork you can kind of go to Manhattan

(13:54):
and get just about everything or nearbyand Greenwich Village and like. But it
is a really neat place when itcomes to culture and food. So what
was what was your favorite thing bringingback home to Los Angeles. My favorite
thing bringing back home to Los Angeles. Culture wise, yeah, food or

(14:16):
culture wise, well, just onething that you were excited to bring back
to friends and family here in LaWhat I was really excited to bring back
was Cuban cuisine. So in theLos Angeles episode, which is the final
episode of the entire season, Icook a Cuban meal that I learned of

(14:39):
food that I learned when I wasin Cuba, and Cuban food that I
cooked was what I learned how tomake in Guanabacoa, which is just a
little a little bit outside of Havanaor Labana as they call it. And
this place is really unique because Guanabacoawas the birthplace of Santa Rilla, which
is is the religion endemic to theisland, which is a blend of the

(15:05):
Yoruba tradition because a lot of peoplethat live in Cuba, you know,
were brought from Africa, so theybrought with them their food, their traditions,
but they kind of had to hidetheir religion and their tradition because they
were, you know, being persecutedfor practicing their own beliefs, so they

(15:26):
hid behind some Catholic symbols, soit looks like they were praying to Catholic
gods, but they were really prayingto their own gods. And very much
like how the people of Cuba arevery spiritual with their practices, they're also
very spiritual with their food, thecuisine that they eat there in Guanabacoa,
A lot of the cuisine they eatis also favorite foods of the gods.

(15:50):
Like for instance, in Los Angeles, I cooked some malanga fritters, which
are like fried root. They kindof us like Dannie's was a little bit
of honey and Oshoan she is thatyou were Bogada. She loves honey.
So when they cooked this meal,it's like they're dedicating that dish to Oshoan.

(16:11):
Or I also learned how to makea okra stew him Bombo and okra
is loved by the god Shungo.So I just what I really love is
just all the intentionality behind the cuisineand all that it means to them,
their spirituality, their identities. SoI had to share that with some of

(16:32):
my friends that I gathered with inLos Angeles, which you can catch on
the sixth episode of Food Relay onthe Go Traveler app and one of my
friends who joined us, comedian KingHassan. He had actually traveled to Cuba
as well, so we got tokind of share some similar experiences of the
amazing place that is Cuba. Ilove the word you used, intentional,

(16:52):
and there's something about that in food, throughout religious fees, throughout all kinds
of culture. The intention that goesinto the food is to what it means,
what it's going to impart to someoneelse. That's an excellent word.
We're up against the clock. Itwas a real pleasure. I hope you
take time to come on the showagain and come into studio maybe with bank

(17:12):
some of our food places that comein and you can come and talk about
food with us. And of courseanytime you're going to be doing stand up,
I know you do some stand upat Flappers here just down the street
from the station and the like.Anytime you do that, let us know,
just hit us up and we'll makesure people know about it. All
right, Neil, I would loveto share a meal with you, And

(17:33):
thank you so much for having meand everyone go check out food Relay on
Go travelers. Thank you so much. Happy New Year, and the best
of luck to you in twenty twentyfour. That there is page Murda and
you can find out do you havea website or things you want to make
sure people can find right now?You can find me on Instagram at Paige
murtaal Paige m you are taugh.I would love to chat with you,

(18:00):
so just send me a message.I'm also a private chef. That's mainly
what I do here in Los Angelesnow, so yeah, and people can
book you through your Instagram. Yeah, just shoot me a message. I
do private events all around LA andNeil planning. Actually, the Food Show
is really what catalyzed me into beinga chef. So I love, very

(18:22):
grateful to Food Relay and all theadventures and thank you. Oh no,
my pleasure. We'll talk again.I have great favorite that all right,
my friend, thanks for taking thetime. That is a page murder and
you can find out more about hershow Food Relay on gotraveler dot com and
of course the Go Traveler app.We'll be back with more, so go
know where it is. The ForkReport on Neil Savedra KFI. I'm six

(18:44):
forty. You've been listening to theFork Report. You can always hear us
live on KFI AM six forty twoto five pm on Saturday and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app. It'sthe four Coalport all things food, beverage
and beyond. Happy New Year toYou twenty twenty four is upon us.

(19:07):
I am your well fed host,Neil Savedra. How do you do?
Don't forget? You have our friendTula Sharp with so Cal Saturdays coming up
at five, and then our buddySteve Gregory takes over at seven from seven
to nine with Unsolved, and yetanother friend, Clay Row goes ahead and
does before the Coast and then oninto Coast to coast am. So basically

(19:33):
what I'm saying is go no where, no reason for you to leave.
All right, this is going tobe a shorter segment, so I'll take
this one so that I don't belaborthe issue. But many of you were
very kind to asking me about myhealth when I saw you during the holidays.
It was really fun because of Pastathonand the like. I was out
quite a bit, from hanging outat Wendy's to hanging out the entire day

(19:57):
with the cast and crew of KFIthere at the Anaheim White House with Bruno
for Katerina's Club, to Gosh,we went to Smart and Final, multiple
smart and finals out there in OrangeCounty. So it was really nice to
see everybody, but you all arejust very kind to ask about it.

(20:17):
So I thought i'd give you anupdate for twenty twenty four. I am
feeling great. I'm in a goodplace. All my numbers are wonderful,
whether it is blood pressure, whichis something that you have to battle when
you are dealing with my particular disease, which was and is I suppose is

(20:37):
polycystic renal disease. So it's genetic. There's seven kids in my family,
five of us have it, sofive out of the seven kids got it.
My dad had it. I havenephews and nieces that have it.
And you go on dialysis first whileyou're waiting for a kidney. Thankfully,
I was on dialysis only for tenmonths because of very sweet human by the

(21:00):
name of Julie helped me out anddonated a kidney. She and I have
since become friends and I adore herbecause she's an amazing person. That put
me in a great place. Sojust before the pandemic pandemic, and I
think it was December thirteenth of twentynineteen, I got the kidney transplant,

(21:23):
and then of course the pande hit, so I had been indoors already.
When I was ready to go back, they said, my bosses said,
I wanted to to stay home untilwe figure out what this is going to
be. And it turned out tobe a pandemic. So all of those
things put me on the road tohealing, and I was doing great.
I had lost weight and then startedto put it back on. And one

(21:48):
of the things that I found outmost recently in July was that I had
something by the name of hypo thyroidism, and normally that caused you to gain
weight, so that was corrected,and then I was diagnosed with new onset
diabetes. About I don't know whatthe percentage is, but when you get

(22:11):
a new kidney, when you getan organ, a solid organ transplant,
your body wants to reject it becauseit sees it as foreign, even if
it's a match, even if it'sfrom family, And so they give you
pills that are anti rejection. Oneof them is prograph, and I take
prograph. Another one is I'm onsteroids. Well, those two things mess

(22:36):
with your sugar levels. And althoughI don't have diabetes in my family and
have never been diagnosed with it.African Americans and Latinos are at a higher
risk for this when you get atransplant. So I had seen other family
members go through it and expected itto happen at some time. Had hoped
that it wouldn't. But it did. And with that game new medication,

(23:00):
so medication for my hypothyroidism and amedication called met Foreman for diabetes, I
started dropping weight very quickly. SoI'm down from two eighty to as of
today too thirty seven and a halfpounds, so that since July. Then

(23:25):
recently they put me on something calledManjaro, and that is one of those
drugs that you've been hearing talked abouta lot like ozepic that are for diabetes
but also help with weight loss.I've been out for two months, maybe
lost two pounds on it. Thevast majority came from the met maybe the
met Foreman or whatever. Some doctorssay, no, you probably would not

(23:47):
have lost that amount of weight.But whatever it did, my chemistry changed
and I went back to a morenormal high weight for me, which is
two fifty or below. And that'swhat's happening. So if you see me
looking thinner, I hope it's ahealthier thinner. I didn't want anybody worry
because you all are so amazing andway too generous and kind with your prayers

(24:08):
and thoughts, and I feel great. It took a little while to get
balanced through all those things in thenew meds, but I wanted you to
know if they're you're on the pathof diabetes, or if anything like that,
if I can help you or talkto you or anything like that,
I'm happy to do share whatever Iknow. But I just wanted to thank

(24:30):
you to those who were asking tolet you know that's what I'm on.
I would love to say, oh, I'm taking the stairs and running and
all these things. That's not thecase. Although I feel a thousand times
better when I do go to exercise, or I do move around, or
I go out with Max and Tracy, my wife, and we do things.

(24:51):
I'm feeling a thousand times better,sleeping better, And for what it's
worth worth, that's where I'm at. But I know a lot of people
are taking these pills for weight loss, which is great. If that's what
your doctor prescribes it for, itsure is going to be a part of
my health too, is to shedthe weight, but I wanted to let

(25:11):
you know so it doesn't give thefalse impression that I'm pumping weights or something
that it's the medications that are doingit. And I'm thankful to them and
to the science behind them that arehelping me feel better. And I hope
to switch that and pour that intogetting back under weights and building myself back
up to be a healthier me.And if that motivates you in some way,

(25:36):
great, If you just are cheeringme on, I appreciate that because
we need to do that for otherpeople. You have to root for other
people for success. So thanks forthe love and support and happy New Year
to you. A bit of newsthat's a little sad when we come back
about one of my favorite stores.I'll explain that, so go nowhere.
It is the four Report. I'mNeil Savedra k I AM six forty.

(25:57):
You're listening to The four Report withNeil Savadra on demand from KFI AM six
forty. Happy New Year to you, Neil Savadra here with you on the
Foek Report. We're always happy toshare thoughts and ideas and celebratory comments about
food, local cuisine, world cuisine. Of course, eating out with each

(26:21):
other, going to you know,celebrate events and the like with each other
at different restaurants and bars that madeit through twenty twenty three. Really sad
to see a lot of them fallapart and have to shudder. And sometimes
it's not like this implosion. Sometimesit was just like the huffing and puffing

(26:41):
and say, we've worked really hardto try and stay and exist through everything
and all the changes and all thehoops that they had to jump through through
through the pandemic obviously, and thenand then just couldn't anymore. And some
of it it ties into people makingchanges in their own lives. And one

(27:03):
of those stories is about our goodfriend Kim People's there at vom Foss in
Claremont. And I mentioned this onBill Handle's show this week. And if
you didn't know, I'm now apermanent part of the morning show. Wayne
Resnick has sem mostly retired. He'llstill be there on Mondays to do they

(27:26):
have a case and he'll do fillin obviously things like that. But I
am now a permanent member of themorning show crew. And I told Bill
about this, and it's such abummer. He'd been to the shop as
well there in Claremont. The goodnews is Kim is making decisions for her
own life and writing a new chapterfor her life, so I'm sure it's

(27:52):
bittersweet on her end as far asyou go. As far as I know,
it's at the end of January.If I'm mistaken about that, you
can call the store and find outfor sure. But all you need to
know for right now for you isto one. If you just want to
go in there and give Kim ahug and say hello to the crew and

(28:17):
give some love to them. Great. If you want to do some shopping,
which I'm going to highly recommend,the sale is twenty five percent off
everything. Everything so pretty amazing,and I love their stuff. I will
continue to love their stuff. Iknow some friends of hers own the one

(28:42):
in Ventura and own the one inSan Diego, I believe, So those
are some other options for you forthis beloved place. I have just been
such a huge fan of Kim,and she's a lovely human being and a
faithful and spiritual and thoughtful individual andtreated her her crew wonderfully and all of

(29:08):
that. So if you want togo in and do some post holiday shopping,
get yourself some high end spirits.Get yourself some wonderful food stuff.
They have vinegars, they have oils, gourmet foods. I bought a lot
of seasoning from them this past year. Did the vast majority of my family's

(29:30):
gifts I did at m faust thisyear. And I will tell you this
full disclosure. I pay full plotprice, didn't. I don't even get
or ask for the discounts that youguys get for telling them about my show,
because I try and support them aswell and just really enjoyed all the

(29:51):
things. Everybody always mentions how greatthey are. So if you're near one
zero one North Indian Hill Boulevard therein Claremont, go check them out there
in the Claremont village. You've heardme talk about them many times First Street
and Indian Hill Boulevard, and gosay hi, give love to Kim and
the crew, and by yourself somereally fantastic gourmet olive, oils, gourmet

(30:18):
vinegars. Of course, those spiritsare fantastic. You can even see on
their website Vomfossclaremont dot com things thatI love there as well, and get
that twenty five percent discount that they'redoing now until they close. We send
them off with love in prayers toKim and the entire crew. Tell them
that you heard about it here,not for any reason other than to show

(30:42):
them that we continue to give themlove as they shudder. This wonderful location
of Vombfoss there in Claremont. Welove you, Kim Bond Voyagey wherever you
might be going and enjoy it isthe Fork porta Neil Savedra. This is
KFI and KOSTHD two Los Angeles,Orange County. You've been listening to the

(31:06):
Fork Report. You can always hearus live on KFI AM six forty two
to five pm on Saturday, andanytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app