0:09

Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.

0:11

I'm Annie Reese and I'm one vocal bum and today

0:13

we have an episode for you about tapach. Yes

0:17

fun with pronunciation, at least for me. Yeah,

0:21

I did not know

0:24

what this was and I actually had

0:26

to go back and revise because I

0:28

started researching it. I was like, okay, okay,

0:31

and then I continued researching it and I was like no,

0:34

oh, okay, no,

0:35

no, it all

0:38

worked out in the end.

0:41

Well, okay, I'm pretty sure that our friend

0:44

of podcast, Julia Skinner, has

0:46

served some to you at some point

0:48

in your life. She is

0:50

a big fan of this beverage.

0:53

I even like, I don't

0:55

recall this. She's given us a lot of things

0:58

because she's wonderful that way. Yes, yeah,

1:00

I'm kind of human. You You you go to her

1:02

house and she just starts pouring

1:05

you little bits of and giving you little

1:07

snacks of all of the wild

1:09

things that she is fermenting. That's a that's a yeast

1:12

pun right there. But yeah, many

1:14

more to come.

1:16

Yes, I believe I faintly remember that, but

1:18

I didn't connect the name with

1:21

the drink. But

1:23

yes, she is wonderful and even

1:26

before you had mentioned that. I

1:30

was like, I bet this sounds like Julia

1:33

has done this, has

1:36

made this, wrote about it.

1:37

Oh yeah, oh yeah, yes,

1:41

yes absolutely she She does have a recipe

1:43

for it in her book Our Fermented

1:46

Lives, which we which we had

1:48

her on the show to talk about.

1:50

Yes, yes we did. It's a great book.

1:53

Was there any reason this was on your mind?

1:56

No?

2:00

I kind of thought it might be like a

2:02

version because I had timidly

2:05

suggested kombucha.

2:07

Maybe you were like, no, yeah, maybe

2:09

that was it. Maybe yeah, Well I

2:12

was a searching for in my

2:14

rotation of topics, I was looking for a drink

2:16

to talk about, and uh

2:18

yeah, I'm not sure if it was on our list

2:21

or if I was just you're

2:23

like, oh that one.

2:26

Sometimes topics just yeah, they

2:28

just happened, you know. Maybe there was a kombucha seed

2:30

in there though maybe maybe.

2:33

I don't know, but it was just very funny

2:35

because you were like a drink, I'm thinking

2:37

about a drink and I was like kombucha and you were like.

2:39

No, absolutely not, No,

2:43

I'm not going to be an ambitious.

2:48

I will say I was talking about with

2:50

the mutual friend Lyle I

2:53

got to hang out with him the other day, and I was

2:55

talking about teach a Maratah,

2:59

We're gonna talk about chicha.

3:02

But it was just interesting. Sometimes a

3:04

lot of times you listeners write in about this and you're

3:06

like, wow, what are the odds you were talking about

3:08

this.

3:08

While I was making it. Well,

3:10

there you go.

3:11

It happens to us too.

3:16

And it's glorious when it does. But okay.

3:19

You can also see our episodes

3:21

on pineapple various

3:23

kinds of sugar, cinnamon,

3:26

beers and wines, maybe

3:28

kafir h.

3:31

I don't know, all

3:35

kinds of thing, yeah, kinds of h Yeah,

3:38

well, I guess that a ser question

3:41

does topach

3:46

What is it?

3:47

Well? Tapache is a type of beverage

3:50

made from pineapple scraps, unrefined

3:52

cane, sugar and water, lightly

3:54

fermented and then strained, resulting in

3:56

a sweet, tart, tangy, and bubbly

3:58

drink served. It

4:01

often has like a very low, like negligible

4:04

alcohol content, but it can be made

4:06

to be more alcoholic as well, or used

4:08

in like a cocktail for a boozy punch. I've

4:12

never had it because by

4:14

the time I realized that it

4:16

existed, I realized I

4:18

had also realized that I shouldn't eat pineapple, and

4:22

I'm not positive that it would set me

4:24

off, But you know, I've just never had a

4:26

day where I was like, you know what, I want to mess

4:28

around and find out about Papache, Like

4:30

I have time for potential gastro

4:32

upset. That sounds like a good way to spend my day.

4:36

So what I'm saying is that I'm given

4:38

to understand that

4:40

Apache is just so refreshing,

4:43

like bright and fruity, not too sugary,

4:46

with that little zing of carbonation and

4:48

a little bit of tang or funk of ferment.

4:51

You can also add any kind of spices you want,

4:53

often something warming like cinnamon or allspice

4:56

or other fruit too for a personal

4:58

flare. You don't even have to make it with pineapple.

5:00

More on that later. It is often

5:02

made at home or by small shops

5:04

or street vendors in small batches,

5:07

though it's beginning to be produced commercially as well.

5:10

It's just a really simple, rewarding

5:13

homebrew that also uses

5:15

up parts of a whole pineapple that would otherwise

5:18

go to waste. It's

5:20

like an actual pineapple soda.

5:23

Yeah, It's like

5:27

it's like on a hot day when

5:30

you first dip your toe into

5:32

a cool swimming pool or stream

5:35

and you're like, oh, that is cold. But

5:37

then pretty immediately you're like, oh that is

5:39

so nice.

5:42

Yeah like that, I love that feeling.

5:44

Yeah, right, refreshment,

5:49

yes, but okay,

5:52

let's go through those ingredients,

5:54

all right. Pineapple, in case

5:56

you just got to here. By here,

5:59

I mean earth, is a lovely, juicy,

6:01

tangy sweet fruit with a thick, sort

6:03

of leathery, vaguely spiky, definitely

6:06

inedible skin and

6:08

a core that is technically

6:10

edible, but so fibrous that it can cause

6:13

balls of fiber to build up in

6:15

your digestive tract, which nobody

6:17

wants. So Tapacha

6:20

uses these things. You just cut them up. You

6:22

can also use the fruit if you want to, for like an

6:24

extra kick of flavor up to you water.

6:29

I feel like this is self explanatory for a beverage.

6:31

Yeah, good ingredient

6:33

for a beverage. Love it, uh

6:36

huh. Unrefined cane

6:38

sugar okay, so kind

6:41

of going off our recent episode

6:43

about golden syrup. If

6:45

you just boil down cane juice

6:48

without refining it, you'll wind

6:50

up with this like thick, sweet caramelized

6:53

paste that'll cool into

6:55

a solid block, sort

6:57

of like solidified brown sugar. Okay,

7:01

modernly in Mexico where tapate

7:03

is from, it's sold in these solid

7:06

cones called piloncillos, like

7:10

brown sugar. It can range from light in

7:12

color and flavor to like really rich

7:14

and sort of bitter and mineral into

7:17

pach. This is going to give you some depth of flavor

7:20

and also help fuel the fermentation process

7:23

because the final main ingredient here

7:26

is wild bacteria and yeasts.

7:28

You do not have to add them. They occur

7:30

naturally on the skin of pineapple and

7:33

other fruits and in the air around us. They

7:36

live comfortably in water, and we'll eat some

7:38

of the sugars and the fruit and the sugar

7:40

that you've added and poop carbon

7:42

dioxide, bubbles, a little bit of alcohol and

7:44

flavors, bacteria

7:47

and yeas fool. Yeah,

7:52

So the final flavor of your tapache

7:55

is going to be individual to your

7:57

area, to your kitchen, to

8:00

your batch. I

8:02

mean, like it's a good bet that you're going to wind up

8:04

with a lot of lactococcus and sacaro

8:07

mices in there. You know, things

8:09

that we commonly talk about as being

8:11

helpful bacteria and yeasts in the production

8:14

of everything from yogurt to beer,

8:17

because they not only produce

8:19

stuff like flavors and alcohol that we

8:21

like, but they also help crowd out

8:23

and kill off potentially harmful microbes,

8:26

frequently with those flavors themselves. Anyway,

8:30

Yeah, it's just not going to be as standardized

8:32

as anything that you ferment using a

8:35

mother or a scobie or a kaffir

8:37

grains. Yeah,

8:39

of course, in commercialized production, I'm

8:42

guessing they probably use something a little

8:44

more standardized, but they haven't

8:46

consulted me, so I can't tell you for sure.

8:50

I know right what's

8:52

going on there.

8:55

But yeah, okay, aside from aside from those basic

8:57

things, you can add other choppeds

9:00

like apples or oranges or tamarind

9:02

or mango, spices like

9:04

cinnamon or alspice or ginger, or

9:07

cloves or peppercorns or a nise.

9:10

You can serve it with a chili pepper rim

9:12

if you want to. That sounds delicious and I would

9:14

never stop you. But

9:18

yeah, if you buy some from vendors

9:20

in like different parts of Mexico and Central

9:23

America, you might get a version

9:25

that doesn't contain pineapple at all, but

9:28

rather corn or cactus

9:30

fruit or whatever fruit is in season.

9:33

Pineapple is perhaps the most popular iteration,

9:36

but it's not like a necessary ingredient.

9:39

Yeah right, yes,

9:42

if you're gonna make it at home, you really

9:45

only need the skin and core of

9:47

a pineapple, a little bit of sugar, and

9:50

enough water to cover them both in a food

9:52

safe container. You know you like stir it to dissolve

9:54

the sugar, but yeah, just cover it loosely

9:56

with a dishcloth to keep out bugs, and

9:59

in a couple of days have nice, bubbly tapache.

10:02

In about a week, it'll be alcoholic. You

10:05

can strain it and then store it in your fridge for a couple

10:07

months.

10:08

Oh wow, hmm, I

10:11

want to do it. I want to do it.

10:12

It is apparently so easy.

10:15

I have not tried it yet, but I'm

10:18

like, I could try this with a different

10:20

fruit.

10:21

Yeah yeah, yeah,

10:24

opportunities abound.

10:25

I have so many jars, you guys,

10:30

they're just asking to be used.

10:31

Lauren, Come on, you

10:35

need it for your rec room where I'm going to play my

10:37

Star Wars toy game that I told you about

10:40

last night. I need you?

10:42

Do you do? Yes? Oh

10:44

god? Sure?

10:45

Alcoholic to passion would

10:47

only help.

10:50

Y'all if I have not mentioned

10:52

mentioned it before. The home that I

10:54

have purchased and is still a heck and

10:57

wreck. It's a fixer upper. Pardon

10:59

me, pardon me. House has

11:03

a wreck room that is wood

11:05

paneled, and I am unironically

11:07

excited about it, like secretly,

11:10

I am just a Midwestern dad and

11:12

this is it makes me so happy.

11:16

I am gonna play Super Nintendo in

11:18

that wreck room and it's gonna be great.

11:20

Oh my gosh, it is gonna be great,

11:26

very happy about this for you and for me.

11:31

Anyway. Tapache Okay. Tapache

11:34

is often made at home or

11:36

purchased from a street cart like ladled

11:39

straight from a croc or a barrel, or

11:41

maybe served in like a little individual plastic

11:43

bag that's sealed up tight and has a straw stuck

11:45

in it. Yeah, but but these days, right,

11:47

you can find commercial versions outside

11:49

of the local area as well, and it

11:51

can be consumed as is or mixed

11:54

with other juices or with like a beer

11:56

or liquor if you want to.

11:58

Yeah, yep, Well,

12:01

what about the nutrition?

12:03

That depends on exactly how you make

12:05

it, But generally speaking, it's

12:07

not super sugary. It will

12:09

probably contain some like good micro nutrients

12:12

and various other compounds that have

12:14

positive effects in your body. If

12:17

it is a treat, if it is a little bit sugary,

12:20

sugar is a treat. Treats are nice. Try

12:23

not to get too many calories from from beverages

12:26

eat food. I

12:28

think that's the first time. Is that the first time

12:30

I've ever had to say that.

12:32

I don't know. We've been here for a minute.

12:35

We have, that's the first time. It's impressive.

12:37

Oh yeah, our seven

12:39

year anniversary is coming up. I

12:42

know, I thought it was something

12:44

less than that. Huh.

12:47

We've been kicking around for a while,

12:49

Lauren. Yes,

12:54

well we have number

12:56

for you.

12:57

We have one single set of numbers. Okay.

12:59

So, because has this tends to be a

13:03

very locally produced kind

13:05

of product, there aren't really global

13:08

production numbers or anything like that to report

13:11

upon. But as

13:13

I was reading some of the excellent

13:16

research going into the

13:20

microbiome of tapach, which

13:23

there is a bunch of now, which is so exciting.

13:26

Yeah, this one paper that was published

13:28

in July of twenty twenty two that

13:30

profiled the genes of microbes

13:33

growing in this batch of tapache that they made

13:35

over the course of a seventy two hour period the

13:39

study, they found yeasts from

13:42

to Phila thirteen classes,

13:45

eighteen orders, twenty five families

13:47

and forty one genera,

13:50

and then bacteria from

13:52

nine Fila twenty four classes,

13:54

thirty eight orders, seventy one families,

13:57

and one hundred and five genera,

14:02

And like it changed over time, like

14:05

really dramatically, which is I mean a

14:07

common occurrence, but so cool. The

14:12

researchers referred to this as

14:14

the ecosystem of Mexican depace.

14:18

Oh that is cool, Yeah,

14:21

very cool. I love

14:23

it.

14:30

Yes, well, we have quite

14:32

a history for you.

14:34

We do. We do, and

14:36

we are going to get into that after we get

14:38

back from a quick break for a word from our sponsors,

14:49

and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.

14:52

Okay, So yes. A

14:54

fermentation, often

14:57

largely accidental in the early days, is

15:00

one of the world's oldest practices used

15:02

by humans. Accidents learn not

15:04

when it comes to food and drink.

15:07

Yes, The aforementioned Julia

15:09

Skinner writes in her book Our

15:11

Fermented Lives that Apache's roots

15:14

go back, you know, like twenty thousand

15:16

years, because

15:20

you know, cultures in the area

15:22

like by which I mean central

15:25

Mexico into Central America. Cultures

15:27

in the area, like cultures pretty much everywhere, learned

15:30

that if you put fruit or

15:32

other vegetation in water, it

15:34

will ferment all on its own. We

15:37

know today that that's because of wild

15:40

bacteria and yeasts that live on the

15:42

skin of most vegetation and in the air

15:44

around us. And people then

15:46

learned to help the process along. And yeah,

15:49

again like this has been going on

15:51

for quite a long time. We figured out fermentation

15:54

before we figured out the wheel. Yep,

15:58

yep. Old.

16:01

But yes, to pache, which

16:04

is a product of such fermentation, goes

16:07

back to pre Columbian Mexico,

16:10

that area and cultures like the Maya.

16:12

Yeah, the Maya and the Noah. Yes.

16:15

It is just one of many fermented beverages

16:18

from the region and the time, most

16:21

of which have very little historical

16:23

documentation, if any at all. But

16:27

one of the important ones that often comes

16:29

up when you're talking about this is Chicha.

16:32

So Chicha historians

16:34

believe that it goes back to three

16:37

thousand BCE, when people's

16:39

in Central and South America would chew corn into

16:41

a pulp and their'sliva would

16:43

transform the mash

16:47

into sugars. Essentially like I'm

16:49

really, I'm really

16:51

making this a much shorter explanation, I

16:53

guess, and chewing

16:55

corn is a pretty common way to make it easier

16:58

to work with it. So

17:00

then people would put the chewed corn in a

17:02

container where it would be exposed bacteria or

17:04

yeast in the air, and within

17:06

as little as a handful of hours. Perhaps

17:09

they had an alcoholic beverage

17:12

that could be boiled and sterilized, and

17:14

this drink was highly prized and may

17:16

have even been used in ceremonies. However,

17:20

the Spanish did not approve of it when they

17:22

arrived in the fifteen hundreds,

17:24

and its popularity fell in a lot of places.

17:27

However, it remained as staple in Colombia,

17:30

and vendors stands called chicheriez

17:32

serving the drink acted as both bars

17:35

and communal spaces in

17:37

the eighteen hundreds, and from

17:39

what I read, there were hundreds in

17:41

Bogata alone. So popular,

17:45

but this changed after a law requiring

17:48

that fermented drinks be industrially produced

17:50

and packaged in glass that was passed in

17:52

Colombia nineteen forty eight. Lawmakers

17:55

blamed chicha for a lack of hygiene, violence,

17:58

and a pseudo scientific condition that

18:00

some claims was worse than alcoholism,

18:02

termed cheese mo chicha.

18:07

Yes, Chicho

18:09

was largely supplanted by

18:12

beer, and this is part of a push to erase

18:14

the past of this country,

18:17

of this area and modernized.

18:19

Yeah, the chichiese mall thing

18:21

reminds me of the panic about absinthe

18:24

that occurred, yes, over

18:26

in France. But yeah, yeah,

18:31

okay, but to pache

18:33

To pache at first was

18:36

primarily composed of crushed corn fermented

18:38

in clay pots.

18:39

Corn is native to central Mexico. That is also

18:42

an ambitious episode we have put off for a very

18:44

long time.

18:47

We just I think we have to divide it into

18:49

like dent corn versus sweet corn.

18:51

But yes, two are very closely related

18:53

anyway. Okay, yeah, yes, it's

18:56

going to be a thing. Yeah, but it's gonna be it's

18:58

gonna be a whole thing. It's going to be whole

19:00

thing.

19:03

But historians suspect peoples

19:06

in this region were drinking tapace by like

19:08

the thirteen hundreds to fifteen hundred CE.

19:10

To Pach's components changed when colonizers

19:13

introduced pineapple, which

19:15

produced a sweeter flavor when it was added to

19:17

the mash, and eventually pineapple

19:19

went on to largely replace corn when it came

19:22

to tapace. But like you said, Lauren, there

19:25

were a bunch of different variations.

19:26

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Though the word tapace

19:29

itself shows the beverages history

19:31

with corn that there are a few theories

19:33

about where exactly it comes from, but generally

19:37

it seemed a historians seem to agree

19:39

that it comes from the novel out words

19:42

for like tender corn drink and

19:44

also for stone ground, like there's influence

19:47

from a couple in there. So yeah,

19:50

it's a stone ground corn drink. There you go, it

19:53

makes sense. Side

19:55

note here, researchers also

19:58

kind of like to argue about whether pineapp

20:00

was in fact present in what's now central

20:03

Mexico and down into the Maya region prior

20:05

to colonization. From

20:08

what I understand, it

20:10

seems more likely that

20:13

the colonizers did indeed bring pineapple

20:15

in from the Caribbean or

20:17

maybe South America, like pretty

20:20

early on in the late

20:22

fourteen to early fifteen hundreds, and

20:24

that it just really spread fast

20:27

that it became commonplace across

20:29

the area within one hundred years, to

20:32

the point that the Spanish then started

20:34

spreading that local pineapple

20:37

to other places in the world by the end

20:39

of the fifteen hundreds, so super

20:41

quick. But it's kind of it's kind of

20:43

you know, Histori's mysteries. Yeah,

20:47

yeah, Okay.

20:49

However, because cinnamon,

20:52

and specifically ceylon cinnamon was

20:55

definitely introduced by the Spanish

20:57

as a trade product in Mexico the

21:00

mid fifteen hundreds where it really

21:02

caught on and apparently Mexico

21:05

today is the world's largest consumer

21:07

of celon cinnamon. Huh

21:09

yeah, huh.

21:12

Well, like pretty

21:14

much everything we talk about, tapace

21:17

is no different. People started experimenting

21:20

based on taste and local ingredients, adding

21:22

in botanicals, herbs, and spices like salon

21:24

cinnamon. A lot of these recipes

21:26

were handed down through the generations in

21:29

indigenous communities, and this is one of the reasons

21:31

I think.

21:33

Numbers are difficult. As you said, was

21:36

it for.

21:36

A long time, It has been you make

21:38

it in your home or you buy it from a local vendor,

21:41

like yeah, that's where you get it.

21:43

Yeah, yeah, totally, but

21:45

okay. So part

21:47

of the partially

21:50

enforced and partially voluntary cultural

21:52

shift that occurred both during

21:54

several waves of colonization in Mexico

21:57

and Central America, and then

21:59

later through through industrialization and

22:01

globalization, was the

22:03

introduction of other and

22:05

perhaps competing beverages like

22:08

beers and sodas. I've

22:10

read that SODA's, especially starting in the nineteen

22:13

fifties, cut into and

22:15

even i've read the word endangered the

22:18

consumption and production of

22:20

traditional beverages like tapach.

22:23

Like there are fewer places

22:26

that specialize only into

22:28

pach to pata villas in Mexico

22:30

City today than there were in prior generations,

22:33

but it is still a popular product and still

22:36

from what I understand, very nostalgic for a

22:38

lot of people, you know, like for what

22:40

their grandma brewed in her kitchen or

22:43

what they got from like a particular vendor

22:45

when they went walking with their parents.

22:49

Yes, and I just realized

22:51

I really never explained, but chichi

22:53

marada is purple

22:55

corn drink. Oh, yes, very

22:58

popular in Peru.

23:00

And when I was in Peru, everybody

23:02

there was like, teacher, marada,

23:04

here's where we're going to go.

23:05

To get it.

23:06

So that is how I found it. People had like their

23:08

specific vendors. I liked, we

23:10

have to get this here, so very

23:12

similar vibe tipach is

23:14

experiencing a bit of a glow

23:17

up in the US right now, both

23:19

as a health food and as

23:21

a cocktail ingredient. Dita

23:24

Kaye looked up I Guess that's

23:26

right launched in twenty

23:29

Thank You Lauren launched

23:31

in twenty twenty, selling

23:34

a variety of flavored canned tapach.

23:37

In June twenty twenty three, Tipach

23:40

Saison launched

23:42

the first commercially produced alcoholic tapach,

23:45

also called Tipach Saison. All

23:48

of this has caused some to worry

23:50

that the culture and history behind the beverage

23:52

will be lost. There's a lot of comparisons

23:54

to kombucha and

23:57

that the wrong people will will be making money

23:59

off of it.

24:00

Yeah, but both of those brands are

24:02

run by people who are connected to and

24:05

who are also directly working with local

24:07

communities. But you

24:09

know, like, is that going to be the case in the future,

24:12

because right, yeah, like, is it going to turn

24:14

into another kombucha or

24:17

another kafir where the

24:19

people profiting from it will

24:21

have no connection to or maybe even no idea

24:24

where it's from, right.

24:28

Right, especially because again, it

24:31

has so long been like something you

24:33

make your grandma makes at home, ork, Like it's

24:36

something you get from the vendors.

24:37

So it's and also something that like that,

24:39

like wealthy Europeans

24:42

looked down on. Right.

24:44

Yeah, yeah,

24:46

I felt weird because I was like, oh, where can I get

24:48

it? I was like, wait,

24:51

I have to make sure it's that I'm doing. I'm not

24:53

doing the thing, not doing har Yeah,

24:57

that's just what happens in a lot of the episodes. We

24:59

talk about something

25:01

we have to grapple with. But

25:04

I do want I feel like you're

25:06

right, and I did have it with Julia that

25:08

I would like to have it again now that I know what it

25:10

is in mystery of it.

25:13

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna I'm

25:15

gonna read up on like what other

25:18

fruits, yeah, are like a good

25:20

substitute. Yeah,

25:22

and use one of those heck in jars. You know I

25:25

might.

25:26

Yeah, you use those jars.

25:28

I might make this. I feel like I could.

25:30

I feel like you could too. Yeah.

25:34

Oh yeah, I have a ton of pineapple

25:36

frozen, but not the part that

25:38

I need.

25:41

Blast. You're

25:44

just gonna have to go buy a pineapple.

25:46

Oh oh, dear

25:48

dear, I have such

25:51

a nerdy thing that's about to happen, Lauren. If

25:53

I may indulge in this particularly

25:57

yes, So listen.

26:00

You might not know this, but I had a huge

26:02

cress on Ryan Gosling when I was a kid in

26:05

the show Young Hercules. Okay,

26:07

and this show has

26:10

never been available to buy

26:13

for me, but through some

26:15

successful searches and bidding,

26:18

I now have the DVDs

26:20

of Young Hercules.

26:21

Wow.

26:22

And me and my friend were like planning

26:25

because we would watch it together. We're

26:27

planning a themed menu, of course,

26:29

and one of the things on there, she was like, you

26:31

should make ambrosia, which

26:34

for me is basically just pineapple

26:36

and juice. So now I'm

26:38

like, maybe I could

26:41

work this in somehow.

26:43

Yeah, go go get your fresh pineapple,

26:45

you know.

26:46

Yes, then I take the ambrosia.

26:49

Take the fruit, you know, brewier

26:52

tapach.

26:53

Yeah.

26:55

Oh it's gonna be good. So

26:59

excited it. That's

27:01

that's amazing. And

27:04

I would say, given the fact that you ran a D

27:06

and D game for me and

27:09

several of our other co workers last night, that's

27:11

not like the most nerdy thing I've ever heard of you

27:13

doing. No,

27:18

No, but it's up there.

27:19

It's embarrassing because I like wrote a fan letter

27:22

that I hope he never read. I

27:25

was nine years old and I like dotted the eyes with

27:27

her. It was fine, but like, oh,

27:29

come on, it's adorable. Oh

27:33

no, I'm blushing. Wow,

27:37

it was. This is a timely episode for

27:39

me, is what I'm saying.

27:41

Okay, that's great. I'm I'm

27:43

I'm here for you. I'm here for you in this moment,

27:45

of course.

27:46

I appreciate that. Well.

27:49

If you have any fan letters

27:51

that you want to tell us about

27:53

having written to someone else really embarrassingly,

27:56

yes, if

27:58

you have a personal memory

28:00

of depach or

28:03

anything else, we would love, we would love to

28:05

hear from you. We do already

28:07

have some listener mail for you, though, and we are going

28:09

to get into that as soon as we get back from one

28:11

more quick break for word from our sponsors,

28:22

and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,

28:25

and we're back with school SpongeBob.

28:35

Oh.

28:36

Okay, I show.

28:40

No idea what you're talking about.

28:42

I love it. That's another.

28:44

That's another one that's been on the list for a long

28:47

time. One

28:50

Day, One day, Okay,

28:55

John wrote loved the recent episode

28:57

on dim Sum and just had to chime in. Growing

29:00

up, Chinese food was a staple for my family,

29:02

and in fact, my mother worked at one restaurant

29:04

for several years while I was a child, Dumplings

29:07

aka potstickers were always a

29:09

favorite treat, but something that had

29:11

eluded me for a long time was the fabled

29:14

jiaolongboo or soup dumplings.

29:17

Maybe I'm misremembering, but when Bruce

29:19

Lee is giving his famous bee like water

29:22

speech and enter the Dragon, he does

29:24

so while eating jiaolongboo, demonstrating

29:27

how to properly tear open a corner of

29:29

the dumpling to let the soup in

29:31

actuality a neat aspect or

29:33

gelatin that melts from the steaming process

29:36

fill your spoon and prevent you from burning

29:38

your mouth. It wouldn't be till

29:41

my wife and I honeymooned in California that

29:43

the stream was made of reality. We

29:45

went to a lovely little dim sum restaurant

29:47

in San Francisco right when they opened,

29:49

and took time to savor our tasty treat,

29:51

accompanied by delightful chrysanthemum

29:54

tea. Of all the things

29:56

we tried, the phoenix talons,

29:58

fried and marinated chicken fee we're

30:00

the hardest to swallow. We

30:02

gave it a daring China nibvel, but the texture

30:05

defeated it. Still, it's

30:07

been a happy memory for us, and it's nice to

30:09

know that there are some places nearby in Atlanta

30:11

that served dim sum, even if it's

30:14

without the cute little carts.

30:16

Oh

30:18

yeah, now there's a there's plenty of dim

30:20

sum around Atlanta. Yes, oh

30:23

yes, yeah, I

30:25

tended to go to Canton House, but

30:29

that's just like my basic that's like the

30:31

one that I was introduced to first. So

30:34

yeah, yeah, there's a bunch of them. Yeah.

30:37

We have kind of like twenty minutes outside of the heart

30:39

of Atlantic, kind of a Chinatown,

30:42

a China market area, and it has a lot of restaurants

30:44

here there. But

30:47

yeah, yeah, I love this.

30:49

I recently ordered a bunch of soup

30:51

dumplings now because after you told me

30:53

how to eat them, I was like, well, now I've got to try. I've

30:56

done it right this whole time, so I'm

30:58

very excited. I think they're coming tomorrow. Oh

31:01

oh fine, I will report back

31:03

on that.

31:03

Okay.

31:04

It is funny about the the chicken

31:06

feet. I

31:08

ate that a lot in when I was in China.

31:11

Oh yeah, because it was kind of just sold like

31:14

I.

31:14

Don't know, like how in the US we sell

31:16

candy bars when you're checking out.

31:17

It was sort of just kind of everywhere.

31:19

Yeah, and especially when I first got

31:21

there and I realized, like, oh my

31:23

Mandarin is not very good. Nothing's

31:26

in English. I'll just I see this thing,

31:28

I'll buy it. So I really liked it, but

31:30

it took My friends were like, it

31:32

is work to get some of the

31:34

meat. It's one of those things you get a yeah,

31:36

it's effort.

31:37

Yeah, and it is a lot of a lot of skin

31:40

and kind of like a little bit of fat. I find

31:42

it very chewy, which can be a

31:44

difficult texture sometimes,

31:47

especially if it's combined with a flavor

31:50

that you're not expecting to get from chewy.

31:53

But uh, it's not

31:56

a thing that I order. But I

31:58

certainly wouldn't turn my nose bad.

32:00

If someone was like, here, try this, I would be like.

32:02

Of course, yeah,

32:04

yeah, pretty good. Yeah,

32:07

I'm glad.

32:08

I love these memories.

32:09

I'm also someone who has like the

32:12

memories associated with entertainment

32:14

where I'm like, well remember and that scene

32:16

where they hate this? Yes, so

32:18

I'm with you.

32:21

Oh, Jill

32:23

wrote Happy New Year. Mold

32:25

wine is one of my favorite festive drinks.

32:28

I first had it during bonfire night celebrations

32:30

in England, where it's all about burning guy

32:32

fox and effigy and shooting off fireworks.

32:35

Me and a couple of my friends walked up one of Durham's

32:37

many hills to watch the fireworks, since many

32:39

of the different colleges had their own celebrations

32:41

and we could see all the different shows from that vantage

32:44

point. As it was November in England,

32:46

the night was quite cold and rainy, and we had

32:48

to press together to share warmth, a far

32:50

cry from warm summer night fireworks for the

32:52

Fourth of July. The only thing that

32:54

made it bearable was the glug my finish

32:57

friend made and kept in a thermos. The

32:59

common of hot wine, warm spices,

33:02

citrus and whiskey was all we needed.

33:04

Since then, I've tried and loved many variations

33:06

of muld wine, including the hippocris

33:08

you mentioned. The long pepper and

33:10

greens of paradise really make it special, floral

33:13

and more fiery than regular black peppercorns.

33:16

One of my friends even sent me some mold wine tea

33:18

this Christmas, and I'll have to report back on the

33:20

flavor. Lauren. I

33:23

think you'll really like a chada.

33:25

A chada is pickled green papaya with other

33:27

vegetables like carrots. Some

33:29

recipes even call for reasons it's

33:32

sweet and vinegary and plays well with

33:34

all proteins. However, my

33:36

favorite application is with Crispy

33:38

Fried pork Belly Lynch and Kohally

33:41

or even the Adobo sa scene

33:43

that I wrote about a while back. There's

33:45

always a jar of it in my fridge. I've never

33:47

made it myself, but maybe I'll have a go, and

33:50

then links a recipe and says please

33:52

enjoy. Yes, yeah,

33:55

yeah, so this is a this is a Filipino dish.

33:58

And we're lucky

34:00

in Atlanta to have had this relatively recent

34:03

influx of like very popular,

34:05

very good Filipino restaurants. Yeah,

34:09

a few of them, like during the pandemic, moved

34:11

from being like pop up situations

34:14

to having their own storefronts. And

34:16

one of them just got a nod uh Esterltha

34:19

just got a nod from from Heck and Michelin

34:21

guide uh so has

34:23

offered them delicious food. Oh

34:27

I he can love Filipino food.

34:29

Me too. I believe it

34:32

was Joe that sends in a recipe that I make

34:34

to this day. Oh yeah,

34:37

yeah, so good. They like a dobo like

34:40

where it melts with the rice.

34:44

Yeah, so good.

34:47

Oxtail, It was oxtail. That's how I make it.

34:48

Oh okay, all right, yes,

34:51

oh heck yeah. And

34:53

mulled wine. Oh right right, how delightful, how

34:55

nice on a cold night. And

34:59

I agree with you about long pepper. I love a

35:01

long pepper. One of y'all

35:03

sent in a jar once. Yes,

35:06

and it's so good I'd

35:09

never had it before.

35:10

Yes, that is true. Oh, you

35:12

listeners are the best. You are. You

35:15

introduced us to so much. You send

35:17

us stuff never required but always know. Yeah,

35:21

so thank you, and

35:23

please do report back about this tea.

35:25

I'm intrigued absolutely yes.

35:28

Well in the meantime, thanks

35:30

to both of these listeners for writing in. If you would

35:32

like to write to us, you can. Our email is hello

35:35

at sabrepod dot com.

35:36

We're also on social media. You can find us

35:38

on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

35:40

saber pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savre

35:43

is production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts

35:45

from my Heart Radio. You can visit the iHeartRadio

35:47

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

35:49

listen to your favorite shows. Thanks

35:51

as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan

35:53

and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and

35:55

we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.