Welcome Back NEIL!!

Let's start off the show with a GREAT joke and Technique of the Week. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savandre.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFIM six forty the fourth Report on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, Kayla, Yeah, Neil.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What do you get when you mix a dog with pasta?
What a labor noodle?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
How you doing? It's your old pal, Neil Savandri here.
Happy to be.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Back from Italy. Man, what a lovely place on this planet.
The food is fantastic. Was a good time. I was
out there celebrating love with Bill Handle.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I was the best.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Man in in quotes for his wedding to Lindsay and
was happy to be out there and ended up using
it as vacation with my family as well. So it
was my little Max's first international trip. He's a fantastic traveler,
which I will tell you is one of the things

(00:53):
you need to know about your partner in life. That
was one of the best things that my wife, Tracy
and I learned about each other as we travel well together.
She's much better than I am. I can get moody,
get moody sometimes, but it was a blast.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I'm thrilled to be back.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
A little under the weather, we got sick out there,
but the food and everything was spectacular and I'm thrilled
to be back. I invite you to hang out with
me this coming week Monday through Friday. I'll be filling
in for Bill Handle all next week as he's taking
a little longer because you know, he got married, honeymoon
and all that. I didn't stay on the honeymoon with them,

(01:35):
although they begged me, mostly his new wife. But I'm
back and I'm happy to be here. And with that,
I wanted to remind you of a couple of new
things things. Things changed around here. Gary and Shannon.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Are pals over there.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
On the weekday Monday through Friday, nine am to one pm.
They've got a new weekend podcast called Weekend and Fix
and you can find it there KFI six forty dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Check that out.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I think today's is about like AI relationships, So go
check that out if you get a chance. So being
in Italy, of course, it's really strange. You think you'd
eat everything in sight and all that you'd gain weight.
I actually lost weight in Italy, and it's an ongoing
joke that happens with a lot of people because one

(02:26):
you're walking everywhere and two you're eating. Habits changed there.
What is it are they eight hours ahead or eight
hours behind? Always forget and so your little cattiwampus when
you get there. But we ate really good food, and
two things that stood out to me I wanted to

(02:48):
talk about for Technique of the Week, and that is
spaghetti carbonara and apparol sprits, which is about ridge that
has often had before your meal there in Italy. Not
because we didn't have fantastic pizza we did, or other

(03:09):
pastas we did, or other dishes we did. I'm not
a big drinker when I travel. I'm not really a
big drinker at home. Okay, Italy's ahead, thanks Kayla, by
eight hours. So you know, I like to have a
drink when I'm in my shop working not with power tools,

(03:32):
and when i'm grilling. Those are kind of things when
I like to typ a glass or something like that.
But when I'm traveling, I'm not really big on that.
Other depending on the circumstances I'm in and things like that.
So I didn't drink a whole lot at a little
prosecco here, a tiny bit of champagne at the wedding,

(03:53):
and that was about it. I didn't have any cocktails
with the exception of an apparol sprits. So I'll get
into that shortly. Let's start with real deal spaghetti carbonara.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I have been.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Called or texted many times no joke with people saying,
I'm at this restaurant and I'm having the best pasta
sauce I've ever had, And inevitably I'll go what color
is it? And they'll say yellowish, and I say, that's carbonara.

(04:30):
Because there is something so special and magical about this
sauce and it's not difficult, so I thought we'd do that.
Let's talk about real carbonara. It's this rich, creamy and silky,
smooth sauce that just encapsulates completely in gloves, every piece

(04:54):
of pasta. It just really marries like no other sauce.
To me, it should have zero cream in it. The
creaminess is not from cream. It comes from just the eggs,
comes from the cheese, a little bit of starchy pasta,
water or what chefs referred to as liquid gold.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
And that's it.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
It's simple, it's pure, it's delicious, and I'll break it
down for you. This is for serving of four people,
one hundred and seventy five grams of guanchale. Now, Guanchale
is pork jowls. It's a it's a it's a cured meat,

(05:40):
and it comes from the cheeks, the faces, flavor people.
The thing is for a long time, from the seventies
till about I think twenty thirteen twenty fourteen or so,
a lot of Italian processed or cured meats pork were
not legally allowed in the United States. You with an

(06:00):
illness that was found in the concern of bringing that
illness here to the States. It's harder to find than
most other things, but when you can find it, it's
fantastic good order as well. So guanchale is like bacon,
but it's not smoky, it's sweet, it's salty. You cut

(06:21):
it into batons, these short batons, and it just has
this great shoe factor and really goes up against the
silkiness of the In this case, the bright yellow, delicious sauce.
So two large eggs than two egg yolks, one hundred

(06:44):
grams of parmigiano reggiano. You can use peccorino, you can
use parmesan, but you want it finally grated. A quarter
teaspoon of black pepper, fresh cracked is going to be
the best friend here forigner grams of spaghetti pasta dried,

(07:06):
one tablespoon of kosher or cooking salt that you're gonna
put that in your pasta water, of course, and really
this doesn't need any extra salt between the pasta water
being properly salted is Most chefs will tell you pasta
water should be salty like the ocean, So kicking it
up over that tablespoon is fine as well. And also

(07:27):
that guanchale is going to kick up the salt content.
You want half cup reserved pasta cooking water that is
liquid gold. The starches in there are going to thicken
that sauce in a way nothing else can optional. You
can use some garlic, a garlic clove finally minced. Some
people put chopped parsley or extra cheese for garnish. That's

(07:47):
fine as well. All right, we come back. I will
get into more how to prep it and make yourself
some of that real Italian carbonara. It really is a
thing of beauty and it's not difficult at all. So
go nowhere back live with you, back from Italy and vacation.
Happy to be with you today, and don't forget to

(08:09):
join me during filling in four Handle all next week
before he comes back from vacation, and I'd love to
see you there.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
How are you, it's your pal, Neil Savedra. Happy to
be back from vacation. Was in Italy with my family,
attending Bill Handle's wedding, his nuptials and with his new bride, Lindsay,
and we're back. I'm happy to be live with you today.
A couple of things to remind you. I will be

(08:45):
filling in for Bill because he's out one more week,
so I'll be filling in for him all next week,
starting at six a m. After Amy King and wake
Up Call, so you can join me right before Gary
and Shannon come on at nine o'clock. Well, have good time,
don't forget Gary and Shannon. Now have your weekend fix

(09:05):
that You can listen to their new podcast by going
to KFIAM six forty dot com and searching for garyan
Shannon's Weekend Fix. I think today they are talking about
like AI relationships, people getting a little too like that
movie Her which was very good but strange, So check
that out won't you. I also want to invite you

(09:26):
to join me not only on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
At fork Reporter. At fork Reporter, where we have fun.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
I put a lot of food memes up there, curate
them all myself and let you know different things going on.
I've got another Disney post I'm gonna be putting up
because they have there through April twenty first, I believe,
is their food and wine event, and they have some
spectacular dishes, really wonderful things. They're always upping the ante

(09:55):
when it comes to the cocktails they're putting forward, even
the non alcohol beverages. They did a raspberry or chata
that was just divine. It was so lovely, and I
think I'm going to post that. They also had a
choice Leche's cake that I thought was terrific, Biria mac

(10:18):
and cheese. I posted that one. You could see that
one up there at FOURK Reporter. Also, you know, I
have a little side business. It's not really open to
the general public or anything, but I started using the
name of that, which is Savco Industries, as just a
place for my creative side. So if you want to
if you're creative or an artist, or you like those types,

(10:40):
of things that's more my creative stuff that is not
food focused. You can find me at Savco Industries. That's
SAA v COO Industries on Instagram as well, Savco Industries,
and that's where I'm putting some of my art stuff,
three D printing, laser cutting and doing stuff like that.

(11:03):
Not selling anything on there, at least not right now.
There are some people that have asked if I will
do custom cutting boards and the like for the general public,
and I just haven't opened it up to that. I
do it for other companies and individuals, but haven't really
opened it up to the general public. But prop making,
pop culture, star Wars, all these things at Savco Industries

(11:27):
on Instagram as well, and that way we can connect
outside of the show. All right, I know this is
a very short segment, but I'm going to extend Technique
of the Week throughout the next couple of segments as well.
Because we were getting into Carbonara, which is a fantastic
sauce just getting back from Italy. The two things that

(11:48):
really stood out was Carbonara is just not something we
have as much here. We tend to have red sauces
here or Alfredo at Cheese sauce or mornee, like a
cheese sauce that you'd have with mac and cheese, that
type of thing. So you want to cut the guanchale

(12:09):
into these little batons about a half centimein.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Or thicker, so they get real gold and crispy.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
They're wonderful. You want to grate the cheese. Finally, grate
your cheese. Get that microplane out. This is the time
to use it. You don't want to use pregraded stuff
when it comes to this because it won't melt right.
Whisk the sauce base in a big bowl, really wonderful,
big enough to toss all the pasta you wish together.
Whisk together the eggs, the'se a raw by the way,

(12:40):
the yolks, the cheese, and the pepper. You get this.
This is your creamy sauce base. No heat needed just yet.
You boil the pasta. Get a big pot of boiling
water about four liters, and you add salt. Cook your
spaghetti until it's al dente, it's a little toothy in
the center. And then just before drink and you scoop

(13:00):
out one cup of that hotch starts you water because
that is liquid gold. And you're gonna use that to
thicken up this sauce. You cook the guanchalie, and once
that cooks, you toss your guancholi into a pan. You
don't need oil. You cook that up. It's delicious and
it's unfat. Get it golden and crispy. You can toss

(13:21):
garlic in there later, if that's your thing. You bring
it all together. You drain your pasta, then immediately add
it to the pan with your guanchali. You toss it around.
Pasta gets coated and glorious fat. You tip the whole thing, pasta, guancholi,
all of that flavorful fat into a bowl with your
egg and cheese mixter mixture. You had about a half

(13:41):
cup of the hot pasta water. You don't want to
scramble the raw eggs. You want them to blend with everything,
So you stir like crazy wooden spoon, use the handle, tongs, whatever.
You spin everything together about thirty seconds to a minute.
Make sure the sauce is thickened. It's going to get
thicker and thicker right before your eyes. Creamy, beautiful, no scrambling,

(14:04):
just silky goodness. And then you serve it up, okay,
in a warm bowl. You want to use a warm bowl.
It makes a difference. Pasta waits for no one. We
all know that. So you want to serve it up
immediately while everything's still hot, dreamy, creamy, lovely. You can
top it with extra cheese, cracked pepper, any of those things.
Gwanchelli's the traditional choice. If you can't find it, find

(14:28):
block bacon, panchetta, something like that.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Eggs. If you're pregnant or you.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Have a compromise immune system like myself, maybe skip this one.
Go for an Alfredo sauce and set instead. However, you
can talk to your doctor and see if pasteurized eggs
are okay for you to have, because those will working
this as well. No cream, and that makes it authentic.
When we come back, we'll talk about the Apparall spritz.

(14:58):
What a fantastic drink in a really lovely addition to
the trip when we get back.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
So go no where.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
You're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Sevadra on
demand from KFI a s.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Thanks for hanging out today. Happy to be back from vacation.
Very special time to hang out. Bill handles nuptials there
in Italy in Verona. How sweet is that?

Speaker 1 (15:23):
You know?

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Time Romeo and Juliette in Italy. No, in Verona. Yes,
I'd not been to Verona. But I love Venice and
we spent a lot of time in Venice, and I
love Rome. We spent some time in Rome. We visited
some friends of ours just outside of Milan, and that's

(15:49):
fun because they have a child that is similar to
Max's age and they got to hang out for a
while and he went to their school. And it's funny
we met them. I'm I actually met them in Morocco
many years ago at a cooking class and we've been

(16:12):
friends ever since, before the kids were even born. So
we got to spend time with them and it was
it was a really really special trip. But we got
some crud on the plane the way over because clane
planes are flying buses and people are you know, sick
and coughing all over the place. But it was really lovely.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Have you been. I have not yet. It is on
a bucket list, Oh you got you know. I got
to tell you.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Everybody thinks of traveling as this massive expense, and it
can be. But if you if you look at it
as you know, rooms, you're not going to spend a
lot of time in so don't go nuts.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
You want it clean and you want.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
A good bad It's hard to find any king side
beds who kind of get over that in Europe because
the biggest you're going to get is a queen or
in Italy they call the matrimonials or something, and it's,
you know, like a marriage bed.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
They're not very big.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
I am curious though, if commercialized American food taste the
same over in Italy.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, okay, So here's something I do, Andrew everywhere I go,
if they have a McDonald's or things like that, right,
I always go.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I always go.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Because I'm I'm fascinated on how they see our culture too.
Plus it's familiarity, and there's nothing like McDonald's fries, right, Sure,
fries are exactly the same everywhere. The fries are exactly
the same. However, their sandwiches are different.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Oh okay, so they.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
They For instance, there's something called that they call toast
in Italy, which is usually fairly large pieces of wonderfully
beautifully pillowy white bread. Usually the crusts are cut off
and a very lovely cheese, a white cheese with great ham,

(18:10):
and it's just a grilled cheese with ham in it.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Essentially that's kind of a big deal.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
So if you go to McDonald's in Italy, they have
something called the mc Toast and it's basically that, but
it's a hamburger bun that's been toasted on the inside
but inverted, so the buns, the top of the buns
are now facing inward and then it has the ham

(18:35):
and cheese on there. So when I've been to McDonald's everywhere,
I've been to McDonald's in Thailand, in Brazil, in Jerusalem, Italy, India,
all over the world, and for instance in India, the
big things of note are that there's no beef. Is sacred,

(19:00):
so there's no beef and so everything's chicken everything. There's
no pork either, so everything's chicken. And the Maharaji Burger,
I think something like that is what they had. And
one of the things that I noticed in India that
I loved at the McDonald's was any packets that you

(19:22):
take of the condiments, you return them if you don't
use them, and you put them into this case and
they take the case and then they you know, heat
treat them or wash the outsides of them, and they
go back into you don't just throw them away.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You don't waste them. They go back. They clean the
outsides of them because the insides are fine and haven't
been touched by anyone.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
And I love that. Like here, we're so just throw
that packet of ketchup away because most of it, no
one's gonna want to touch it again, because we're weird
that way. But there so there's things like that. The
worst burger I've ever had at a McDonald's internationally was Brazil.
They had a brown sauce on it that I have
no idea what it was, but it was horrific. The

(20:09):
best burger I've ever had at a McDonald's internationally was
in Jerusalem. The service and another thing is Andrew. This
is crazy, but if you go to McDonald's in other countries,
they are a nightlife spot. Really, they're slammed. They're clean

(20:32):
as hell, and they are slammed. So during the day
you're gonna see, you know, young people in there, but
you're gonna see families eating in there and like a
normal restaurant. But at night it's all young people. They're
hanging out out front, they're hanging inside, they're eating. They
have the mcafes in throughout Europe as well, so people

(20:56):
are having coffee and you know, uh, you know, croissants.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Or whatever they have.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
But it really is like a place to go like
a you know, an American place to hang out. And
it's crazy because you don't see like here. If I
go down the street to McDonald's, chances are if it
has a dining room, it's film filled with homeless people.
And it's they have table service, a lot of them,

(21:24):
so you you can order it a kiosk, you pick,
you pull a number, you put it on your table,
and they will come and deliver it to you.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah, and the only time you interact with the worker
is when you need the key code for the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
And it's really it's it's it's an altogether different experience,
which is why I'm fascinated by it. And also the
comfort of having fries just you know, uh. But it
really is interesting as to the style, like barbecue is
really I find barbecue burgers that maybe you think of

(21:57):
Carl's Junior or things like that, you'll find those at McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
That is interesting though, like with the fries, because you
would think, like as you go from country to country,
maybe sometimes they use different oil to cook those.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
They may because in some places, you know, the United
States changed, We originally did beef tallow, which is a
far superior oil to not only fry in, but the
flavor and the like is fantastic. But what ended up
happening is some vegetarians or vegans that were religiously so

(22:32):
possibly if I remember correctly, is you had them complain
that it wasn't noted and that McDonald's fries were not vegetarian.
So I think that was back in the nineties that
that was changed here. You can still get beef tallow
fries at many different restaurants they just tell you. But
McDonald's changed that here. I think probably throughout the world

(22:55):
that may be different, but it makes a huge difference.
Beef tallow fries are much better, hands down across the board,
but the fries roughly taste the same. So that's often
a place if I miss home when we're traveling, I
just want that same thing. I'll get a little thing

(23:15):
of fries and it always takes me back. The burgers
are going to vary, the sauces are going to vary.
A lot of them have their own special sauces or
things like that. They still use for the most part,
American cheese and those types of things. Bacon is more
prominent and barbecue is more prominent in other countries than
it is here for McDonald's. But yeahs, it's always interesting

(23:40):
to see, you know, and I saw places, you know,
real American fifties diner signs like that, and I'm always curious,
but you're also there to learn about their culture.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
So I do a little bit of back and forth,
but it's always interesting. All right.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about
the Appaol Sprits, which is it reminded me how much
I love this simple beverage and it's not overpowering because
it's a liqueur based wit along with some prosecco that
it really is super refreshing and something nice to have

(24:19):
before dinner. And they were everywhere this classic orange, orange
looking beverage. So go nowhere. You've been listening to the
Fork Report, you can always hear us live on KFI
AM six forty two to five pm on Saturday and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Please follow me
on Instagram at fourk Reporter at fork Reporter for the

(24:42):
food stuff, and at Savco Industries saav COO Industries for
all my art stuff. Especially if you're an artist as well.
I mean you don't have to be, but if you
do art or create all those things, I love checking
your stuff out as well. All right, really quick, Apparol sprits.

(25:03):
What a fantastic beverage and I've only ever had them
on occasion. My brother Craig makes a great one, but
I haven't had one in a while. I had one
in Italy, did not drink a lot at all, but
what a nice thing to have before.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Food.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
So Aparol sprits beloved Italian apertivo, and that is a
pre food cocktail. It's got its roots in the Minnetto
region of Italy. This during the eighteen hundreds you had
Austrians and what they would do is they would dilute

(25:40):
Italian wine with soda water and they called this spritzen
and that's German for splash. So later you get prosecco,
which is fabulous, and Italian liqueurs like apparol, which is
a bitter liqueur, slightly sweet but very bitter finish. And
it became these popular editions, culminating in the nineteen fifties

(26:01):
in what we now celebrate is the aparol sprits. Very
basic recipe. I'm going to give it to you. It's
a three two one combination with the specs here. This
is approved by the International Bartenders Association. Very simple, three
parts prosecco DOC, which is the classification there of the prosecco,
two parts of apparol. Again, you can find this at

(26:23):
your local grosser or liquor store. It is an Italian,
a bitter Italian liquere. It's a great mixer used in
a lot of drinks here. It's very simple. One splash
of soda and one slice of orange as the garnish there.
So you place ice cubes in a stemmed balloon glass,

(26:44):
so think big wine glass. Pour three parts of the prosecco,
followed by pouring two parts of apparol and one ounce
of soda. Then the slice of an orange there as
it's garnish. It's pretty simple. It's just the ratios. There
are three parts percent echo, two parts apparol, one part
soda water. Very simple and it's best served on ice.

(27:08):
But man is it refreshing and delicious. Not heavy on
the alcohol. So it's not like, you know, I didn't
feel it in any way, shape or form. I only
had one. But it's a nice, generous, poor and glass
and it's just really something that gets you ready. I
had it with pizza, but sometimes you have it with

(27:29):
it just escaped my mind. It's really lovely and Italy.
They kind of before they go out, they go out
for like appetizers.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Where is it? It's not my mind, and it's super
lovely way to start.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
The evening and just lovely and spring is here. It's
this vibrant orange color, kind of a slightly burnt orange color.
It's gorgeous to look at and like I said, not
real heavy, So something you might want.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
To try stick around.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
New dietary guidelines coming up for twenty twenty five will
into that, plus a guest chef, Miguel of Habana. National
IMP Data Day is coming up next week. I think
it's actually a week from today, and we're going to
talk about that.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
So go nowhere.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty