@ForkReporter | Hour 2

Guest Paige Murtaugh from Food Realy joins the show.

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.
Of course, the Fork Report isit's a sanctuary. It is the
time for us to kind of shakeoff the heaviness of the week, whatever's

(00:22):
going on in the news, whateverstress you have, and come together and
celebrate food, people that make it, the culture behind it. We talk
about everything from you know, cookingthings at home, bacon at home,
to cocktails little like you know whatI'm saying, little little little how's your

(00:43):
father? And everything in between.Going out to eat. You gotta celebrate
food. You got to focus onlocal places. If we don't go out
to eat, the local economy dies. Hospitality is the corner corner, storm
stone, the corner stone of thelocal economy. And that's why we always

(01:06):
talk about and support local places.When you get a chance to do that,
it's always a good thing. Oneof the parts we celebrate about food
is global food and different drink andfood trends all over the planet and how
they affect us here, how theymake their way to hear more and more

(01:26):
with the technology we have to movefood ingredients from one part of the world
to the next. We get toenjoy enjoy more food with different flavors,
different profiles from all over the world, and then we find out about these
things. A lot of times whenit comes to travel, and there are
entire networks that their focus is totake us to places that we've never been

(01:49):
to before and learn about these places. One of my favorites is when they
combine traveling with food and a greatway to see that happen and is on
a show called Food Relay. Thehost is with us now, she's a
comedian, she's an actress, she'sa chef, and she's the host of
Food Relay on Go Traveler. Hername is Paige Murtap. Paige, Welcome

(02:13):
to the Fork Report. Hey Neil, and hello everyone. Thank you so
much for having me. I'm doinghome wonderful. How are you pleasure?
Well, you were born out here, right, You're in La I was
yeah, West La Ucla Hospital.Oh wow, look at that. And
and then you moved to Arizona andthen came back here. Yeah. So

(02:36):
I moved to Arizona shortly after Iwas born and then moved back to La
I moved 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
that is one thing that gave methe capacity to travel, was moving so
much in my life. So youknow, being young, it was hard

(02:58):
moving a lot. But now adult, I see it for the blessing that
it was. Well, it suregave you the bug, I imagine.
Oh yeah, yeah, it's travel. Does that? You know, once
you find your group with it andhow you like to travel, you can't
help but feel that snowball effect.Yeah, I'm infected. I've got the

(03:20):
bug. Yeah. You know what'sfunny is you have a very charming way
about you and you have this energy. Where is it easy for you to
meet people and come into their homesor because it just seems like you become
family immediately on the show. Ohthanks Neil. Yeah, I heard your

(03:42):
intro. You called me a littlenutty and it's funny because one of my
nicknames growing up with Peannutties. Soyeah, I think that my borderline O
noxious personality but very warm presence hasgotten me into some amazing places. I
mean, as the host of foodrelay, getting to travel to all these

(04:06):
countries, meeting chefs and families fromacross the globe and getting invited into somebody's
home, Like, that's such abig honor, and I don't take it
lightly because they invite you in,they share their culture with you, they
share their story, and then theworld feels a little less strange and it
feels smaller, I imagine, andto see you. Okay. So for

(04:29):
those that don't know the premise ofthe show, and stop me page if
you think there's if I'm not givingdoing it justice. But really you're going
from place to place, learning aboutthe culture through food, and then taking
them to the next place. Sothat's where the relay comes in. You're
taking what you've learned and you're passingit into the next show or at the
end of the show, rather tyingit into another culture and having them experience

(04:55):
that culture through you. Is thatright? Exactly? Yeah. Just imagine
in a relay race someone passing abaton. So that's exactly what we're doing
with food relay. We start ouradventure in Serbia. Then we bring in
Serbia. I get to meet thelocal Serbs, you know, they teach

(05:15):
me about the cultural influences the Ottomanmeets the Austro Hungarian culinary influences, and
then many, you know, manysegments included me drinking booze early in the
morning, so maybe that was notthe greatest idea, but yeah, so
we get to go all over thecity, they show me the markets we're

(05:40):
looking for ingredients, and then atthe end of every episode, I cook
a meal with cuisine from my lastdestination. So in Serbia, I cooked
the Serbs a Thanksgiving meal. AndI don't know if you have ever tried
to shop in another country, well, you know, it's hard to find

(06:00):
some very basic ingredients that you mightneed. So there's all kinds of mishaps
and misadventures and triumphs of searching foringredients in the show. Yeah, it's
that is part of its charm.And I actually like I have done that.
I have been in other countries andsaid, well, we'll just go
grab this, and it's like,you know, don't they have Sta Trader

(06:25):
Joe's. And it's always interesting togo to the local market and say,
hey, can I have the cowin parts rather than the whole thing?
Oh, you don't sell it thatway, Okay, I'll break it dolfabricate
it myself. But it is neatto see trying to find that, you
know, what we would consider atraditional you know, Thanksgiving meal, and

(06:48):
trying to find that somewhere else andat least bring those Homi flavors and the
like together. I think as youconnect with people and you find out you
know, what they're going to makefor you, one of the things that
I noticed throughout is there is alook of intense pride pleasure on people handing

(07:13):
you something or sharing something. Youknow, yeah, absolutely well. I
mean these recipes a lot of timesthey come from their family, you know,
Like in Greece, which was thethird episode, I get invited into
a family home, this woman calledDemetria. We're in northern Greece and that's

(07:34):
that's all a nikey and she invitesme into her home. She's pouring wine,
we're cooking and dancing, and wemake this dish called Yemmy Stuff.
So Yemy Stuff is stuffed vegetables withrice, meats, herbs, tomatoes,
dice tomatoes, and it's just justand it's baked until it's really soft.

(07:57):
Need drizzle it with the olive oiland the potatoes and It's just this vibrant,
colorful dish, which to the peoplein the Saloniki is symbolized as being
home in the summer. It isyemisa is eaten in the summer, so
it has that nostalgic I'm home againsteel and that translates to when I was
eating it too. Wow. Itreally is interesting bringing those flavors and textures.

(08:22):
Also, you know, we celebratefood on this show, and you
know, on average, you doa radio show where you're talking about food
is an odd thing because we don'thave those visuals. But you just there
as you're talking about the textures,those flavors, even the olive oil on
there. You know, bringing thosepictures into people's heads, there's something I

(08:46):
think we recognize. Faces are thefirst things that we learn when we're a
kid, and the second thing isfood and texture. You know, there's
something about that that when you describethat, I can picture that exactly in
my head and I'm like, Iwant to eat that thing. What she
just said, I want that inmy mouth. Yea, that just sounds
like a rate combination. Okay,So hank tight, We're gonna get some

(09:09):
news. We come back. We'regonna talk more with Paige Murtagh. She's
the host of Food Relay. We'vetalked about Go Traveler on the show before.
You can go to Gotraveler dot com. You can see the first season
there that actually ends up and we'lltalk about this. Actually the sixth episode
ends up in Los Angeles there onthe pier in Santa Monica. But you

(09:30):
can go check it out there.But I encourage you personally to do what
I did, and that is downloadthe Go Traveler app and that way,
when you go into a doctor's officeand the TVs on and Joanne is putting
ship lap up on somebody's house again, you can go, I'll just watch
Go Traveler on my own and thenI can pick what I watch, So

(09:54):
do that. I encourage you tocheck that out and you can see Food
Relay there and see Paige Murta doingthat. We'll come back, we'll talk
about more about the program Food Relay, but also what pages up to now.
She's a comedian. She's also achef, and we'll get into that
as well. So go know whereyou're listening to The Fork Report with Neil
Savedra on demand from KFI AM sixforty Hey everybody. It's the Fork Report,

(10:20):
all Things Food, Bevera, JeDeviyond I am your friendly neighborhood Fork
Reporter, and Neil Savedra. Howdo you do. I'd love for you
to hang out with us on socialmedia, whether it's threads x or Instagram,
where I tend to be the mostand yes it is me on there.
You can find me at Fork Reporterat Fork Reporter there. I always

(10:41):
love connecting, whether it's during theshow or during the week, and you
can find me now as a permanentfixture on the morning show with Bill Handel.
But right now we are chatting withmy guest, first time she's been
on the show, Paige Murta.She's a comedian, she's an actress,
she is a chef, and she'salso the host of food that you can

(11:01):
see on Go Traveler. I recommenddownloading the app and doing it there because
then you could take it with youto places that have bad TV on,
like doctors' offices and things like that. Or when you're enjoying two and a
half hour wait at the DMV inour lovely city, you can do it
there too, and you can watchfood Relay all right, page so you

(11:26):
go through. There's six episodes.You go through and you start as we
talked about, and you go throughSri Lanka, and you go through Mexico
and you end up in Los Angeles. Going through that in its entirety and
walking through all those different places,was it a shock to be home and

(11:48):
bring it here. Do you thinkLA's a place that receives different cultures easily?
Of course? I mean La isso diverse you can experience at almost
all the global flavors in a twentymile radius. So yeah, it made

(12:09):
sense for the show. I believeit made sense for me personally since I
started my journey on life here inLos Angeles. And yeah, I mean
I get a sense of being ina different place every time I go to
a different town in La. Yeah, it is a lot of people because
you know, born and raised,so I'm a big proponent of LA and

(12:35):
I think we have the greatest foodseene here in the country. I had
a lot of my friends on theEast Coast want to gripe about that,
but I'd like to push it backin their face. The thing is that's
different is we're kind of spread out. But if you go to different parts
of Los Angeles and southern California.You really confined authentic world from everywhere.

(13:01):
It just is not all on Melroseor all in Silver Lake or you know,
any of these locations where in NewYork you can kind of go to
Manhattan and get just about everything ornearby and Greenwich Village and like. But
it is a really neat place whenit comes to culture and food. So

(13:24):
what was what was your favorite thingbringing back home to Los Angeles? My
favorite thing bringing back home to LosAngeles culture wise? Yeah, food or
culture wise? Well, was theone thing that you were excited to bring
back to friends and family here inLa Well, what I was really excited

(13:45):
to bring back was Cuban cuisine.So in the Los Angeles episode, which
is the final episode of the entireseason, I cook a Cuban meal that
I learned of food that I learnedwhen I was in Cuba, and Cuban
food that I cooked was what Ilearned how to make in Guanabacoa, which

(14:07):
is just at a little bit outsideof Havana or Labana as they call it.
And this place is really unique becauseGuanabacoa was the birthplace of Santa Rilla,
which is the religion endemic to theisland, which is a blend of
the Yoruba tradition because a lot ofpeople that live in Cuba, you know,

(14:30):
were brought from Africa, so theybrought with them their food, their
tradition, but they kind of hadto hide their religion and their tradition because
they were, you know, beingpersecuted for practicing their own beliefs, So
they hid behind some Catholic symbol soit looked like they were praying to Catholic
gods, but they were really prayingto their own gods. And very much

(14:54):
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.
Like for instance, in Los Angeles, I cooked some malanga fritters, which

(15:18):
are like fried root. They kindof tease like Dannet's with a little bit
of honey and ocehan she is thatyou were Bogata. She loves honey.
So when they cook this meal,it's like they're dedicating that dish to Oshoan
or I also learned how to makea Okra stew him Bombo and Okra is
loved by the god Shungo. SoI just what I really love is just

(15:43):
all the intentionality behind the cuisine andall that it means to them, their
spirituality, their identities. So Ihad to share that with some of my
friends that I gathered with in LosAngeles, which you can catch on the
sixth episode of Food Relay on theGo, Traveler Apps, and one of
my friends who joined us, comedianKing Hassan. He had actually traveled to

(16:03):
Cuba as well, so we gotto kind of share some similar experiences of
the amazing place that is Cuba.I love the word you used, intentional,
and there's something about that in food, throughout religious fees, throughout all
kinds of culture. The intention thatgoes into the food is to what it
means, what it's going to impartto someone else. That's an excellent word.

(16:26):
We're up against the clock. Itwas a real pleasure. I hope
you take time to come on theshow again and come into studio, maybe
with some of our food places thatcome in and you can come and talk
about food with us. And ofcourse anytime you're going to be doing stand
up. I know you do somestand up at Flappers here just down the
street from the station and the like. Anytime you do that, let us

(16:47):
know. Just hit us up andwe'll make sure people know about it,
all right, Neil, I wouldlove to share a meal with you,
and thank you so much for havingme and everyone go check out Food Relay
on Go Travelers. Thank you somuch, Paige Murder and you can find
out do you have a website orthings you want to make sure people can
find right now? You can findme on Instagram at Paige Murta p A
I G E M. You arep A U G H and I would

(17:12):
love to chat with you, sojust send me a message. I'm also
a private chef. That's mainly whatI do here in Los Angeles now,
so yeah, and people can bookyou through your Instagram. Yeah, just
shoot me a message. I doprivate events all around LA and Neil planning.
Actually, the Food Show is reallywhat catalyzed me into being a chef.

(17:32):
So I love very grateful to FoodRelay and all the adventures and thank
you. Oh no, my pleasure. We'll talk again. I have great
favorite that all right, my friend, thanks for taking the time. That
is Page Murda, and you canfind out more about her show Food Relay
on gotraveler dot com and of coursethe Go Traveler app. We'll be back
with more, so go know whereit is. The Fork Report on Neil

(17:55):
Savedra kf I. I'm six forty. You're listening to the Fork Report with
Neil's on demand from KFI AM sixforty all things food, beverage and beyond.
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

(18:17):
up at five, and then ourbuddy Steve Gregory takes over at seven from
seven to nine with Unsolved, andyet another friend, Clay Row, goes
ahead and does before the Coast andthen on into Coast to Coast AM.
So basically what I'm saying is gono where, no reason for you to
leave. All right, this isgoing to be a shorter segment, so

(18:40):
I'll take this one so that Idon't belabor the issue. But many of
you were very kind to asking meabout my health when I saw you during
the holidays. It was really funbecause of pastathon and the like I was
out quite a bit, from hangingout at Wendy's to hanging out the entire
day with the cast and crew ofKFI there at the Anaheim White House with

(19:04):
Bruno for Katarina's Club, to gosh, we went to Smart and Final,
multiple Smart and Finals out there inOrange County, so it was really nice
to see everybody. But you allare just very kind to ask about it,
so I thought i'd give you anupdate for twenty twenty four. I
am feeling great. I'm in agood place. All my numbers are wonderful,

(19:26):
whether it is blood pressure, whichis something that you have to battle
when you are dealing with My particulardisease, which was and is I suppose
is polycystic renal disease. So it'sgenetic. 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 have nephews and nieces that have it.

(19:49):
And you go on dialysis first whileyou're waiting for a kidney. Thankfully,
I was on dialysis only for tenmonths because of very wheat. Human
by the name of Julie helped meout and donated a kidney. She and
I have since become friends and Iadore her because she's an amazing person.

(20:12):
That put me in a great place. So just before the pandemic in I
think it was December thirteenth of twentynineteen, I got the kidney transplant,
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,

(20:34):
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
of the things that I found outmost recently in July was that I had

(20:55):
something by the name of hypo thyroidism. Normally that caused you to gain weight,
so that was corrected, and thenI was diagnosed with new onset diabetes.
About I don't know what the percentageis, but when you get a
new kidney, when you get anorgan, a solid organ transplant, your

(21:18):
body wants to reject it because itsees it as foreign, even if it's
a match, even if it's fromfamily, and so they give you pills
that are anti rejection. One ofthem is prograph, and I take prograph.
Another one is I'm on steroids.Well, those two things mess with
your sugar levels. And although Idon't have diabetes in my family and have

(21:41):
never been diagnosed with it, AfricanAmericans and Latinos are at a higher risk
for this when you get a transplant. So I had seen other family members
go through it and expected it tohappen at some time, had hoped that
it wouldn't, but it did.And with that game new mediation, so
medication for my hypothyroidism and a medicationcalled met Foreman for diabetes, I started

(22:11):
dropping weight very quickly. So I'mdown from two point eighty to as of
today too thirty seven and a halfpounds, so that since July. Then
recently they put me on something calledManjaro, and that is one of those
drugs that you've been hearing talked abouta lot like ozembic that are for diabetes

(22:34):
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
have lost that amount of weight,but whatever did, my chemistry changed and
I went back to a more normalhigh weight for me, which is two

(22:56):
fifty or below, and that's what'shappening. So if you see me looking
thinner, I hope it's a healthierthinner. I didn't want anybody worry because
you all are so amazing and waytoo generous and kind with your prayers and
thoughts, and I feel great.It took a little while to get balanced

(23:17):
through all those things in the newmeds, but I wanted you to know
if they're you're on the path ofdiabetes, or if anything like that,
if I can help you or talkto you or anything like that, I'm
happy to do share whatever I know. But I just wanted to thank you
to those who were asking to letyou know that's what I'm on. I
would love to say, oh,I'm taking the stairs and running and all

(23:38):
these things. That's not the case. 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.
I'm feeling a thousand times better,sleeping better, And for what it's worth
worth that's where I'm at. ButI know a lot of people are taking

(24:00):
these pills for weight loss, whichis great. If that's what your doctor
prescribes it for, it sure isgoing to be a part of my health
too, is to shed the weight. But I wanted to let you know
so it doesn't give the false impressionthat I'm pumping weights or something that it's
the medications that are doing it,and I'm thankful to them and to the
science behind them that are helping mefeel better. And I hope to switch

(24:26):
that and pour that into getting backunder weights and building myself back up to
be a healthier me. And ifthat motivates you in some way, great,
If you just are cheering me on, I appreciate that because we need
to do that for other people.You have to root for other people for
success. So thanks for the loveand support and happy New Year to you.

(24:48):
A bit of news that's a littlesad when we come back about one
of my favorite stores. I'll explainthat, So go nowhere. It is
The FOK Report. I'm Neil Savedra, k I am six forty. You're
listening to The Fork Report with NeilSavedra on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Neil Savadra here with you on theFork Report. We're always happy to

(25:11):
share thoughts and ideas and celebratory commentsabout food, local cuisine, world cuisine,
of course, eating out with eachother, going to you know,
celebrate events and the like with eachother at different restaurants and bars. That
made it through twenty twenty three.Really sad to see a lot of them

(25:33):
fall apart and have to shudder.And sometimes it's not like this implosion.
Sometimes it was just like the huffingand puffing and say, we've worked really
hard to try and stay and existthrough everything and all the changes and all
the hoops that they had to jumpthrough through the pandemic obviously and then and

(25:55):
then just couldn't anymore. And someof it ties in to people making changes
in their own lives. And oneof those stories is about our good friend
Kim People's there at vom Foss inClaremont, and I mentioned this on Bill
Handle's show, And if you didn'tknow, I'm now a permanent part of

(26:17):
the morning show. Wayne Resnick hassem mostly retired. He'll still be there
on Mondays to do they have acase and he'll do fill in obviously things
like that. But I am nowa permanent member of the morning show crew,
and I told Bill about this,and it's such a bummer. He'd
been to the shop as well therein Claremont. The good news is Kim

(26:41):
is making decisions for her own lifeand writing a new chapter for her life.
So I'm sure it's bittersweet on herend as far as you go.
As far as I know, it'sdone at the end of January. If
I'm mistaken about that, you cancall the store and find out for sure.

(27:04):
So pretty amazing, and I lovetheir stuff. I will continue to
love their stuff. I know somefriends of hers own the one in Ventura
and own the one in San Diego, I believe. So those are some
other options for you for this belovedplace. I have just been such a

(27:30):
huge fan of Kim, and she'sa lovely human being and a faithful and
spiritual and thoughtful individual and treated herher crew wonderfully and all of that.
So if you want to go inand get yourself some high end spirits,
get yourself some wonderful food stuff.They have vinegars, they have oils,

(27:56):
gourmet foods, about a lot ofseasoning from them. This past year.
Did the vast majority of my family'sgifts. I did at vom Fass this
year, and I will tell youthis full disclosure. I pay full plot
price, didn't. I don't evenget or ask for the discounts that you
guys get for telling them about myshow, because I try and support them

(28:18):
as well and just really enjoyed allthe things. Everybody always mentions how great
they are. We send them offwith love and prayers to Kim and the
entire crew as they shudder. Thiswonderful location of vomb Foss there in Claremont.
We love you, Kim Bond voyageywherever you might be going and enjoy

(28:45):
it. Is The Fork Report onNeil Savedra. This is KFI and KOSTHD
two Los Angeles, Orange County.You've been listening to The Fork Report.
You can always hear us live onKFI AM six forty two to five pm
on Saturday and anytime on demand onthe iHeartRadio app