This film ties together themes of the real, historical power of food and stories via fantastical threads. Anney and Lauren explore the semi-fictional foods of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of I Heeart Radio. I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren vocal Baum, and today we have an episode for you about the semi fictional foods of Pan's Labyrinth. Yes, and if you've seen that film then you know there's some intense subject matter to be discussed. Yes, absolutely, uh absolutely, I was I suggested this topic because you know, it's October, even more people than usual are filling their brains with with horror films. And I was like, oh man, what if we did a fictional foods with some kind of horror property. Um? And my first thought, My first thought was this shining And Annie was like, so you're just going to talk about alcoholism, yeah, and a little sad frozen cabinet and and the sad frozen pantry. Yeah. I was like, I was like, okay, I see you. Um. And I don't know where I got Pants Labyrinth from, honestly, Like, I was just kind of going through because because I almost wouldn't. I mean, it's a it's a film with many strong horror elements, but it's not usually categorized strictly as a horror film. Um. Right, it's kind of a dark fairy tale with historical elements that are sad. Yeah, which to me, I just I don't know, like like to me, Gamaldo Toro is pretty much always a horror director, no matter what precisely he's doing, he's really leaning in that direction. And I think that part of why it's not categorized as a horror film is a reluctance among some academics and film critics to um recognize genre fiction as like good. Ever, so they're like, oh, well, I liked this, so I can't possibly be a horror film. It's a dark fairy Yes. We just did an episode about this on stuff I never told you. We were talking about elevated horror and what does it mean and why is it a thing? And a lot of it is people just don't want to say they like horror, right, yes, so a lots I'm back there. Um, I hadn't seen I saw Pants Labyrinth when it came out because it was very critically acclaimed. Um, it got a lot of buzz, as they say, So I saw it when it came out. I think it was pretty young, younger youngish at the time, who knows, Um, But it disturbed me and I never I hadn't seen it again until this. I rewatched it for this episode. Yeah, I think I must have seen it at least one other time. Yeah, because I remember seeing it in theaters and being yeah, like very kind of racked about it, um, and then and really liking it and wanting to watch it again, but never quite coming around to like a really good time to do it. And so it's certainly been like ten years or something like that since I've watched it. And uh, and it was really really interesting getting to revisit it and um see all of the effects that they were using, and um, all of the themes that I've gotten to watch del Toro, um using some of his later works. Yeah, and that that's that's interesting to me that the food stood out enough to you that even though you hadn't seen it in a while, it was a suggestion. Oh yeah, let's talk about this so well that I mean, if if you've seen it, then I'm sure that you know, like one of the main things we're gonna be talking about is that heck and Dinner with the Paleman. It's just very it's very striking and the actual scene, actual depiction of the food in the scene is so short, but it's quite memorable. It is all right, So I guess that brings us two hawk questions. Oh, i've it certainly does yep, Okay, here we go. Pans Labyrinth, what is it? Well? Pan's Labyrinth is the English language name of a Spanish Mexican film original title A LaRenzo del Funnel. It premiered in two thousand and six and was written and directed right by Yamoo. And we've talked a lot about fairy tales on this show. We've done readings of a few of them. Um, and the story is both a fairy tale and depicts very real historical events if if a fictionalized stylized version of them. Yeah. So there are two threads to the plot. Um one follows an eleven year old girl named Ophelia and her pregnant mother as they arrived in a countryside military camp in post Civil War Spain. Ophelia's father had died during the war, and they're settling in with her stepfather for his baby's birth. Um. He's a captain in the military and stationed there to root out a guerrilla activity in the woods. He's a cruel, stern man with little regard for Ophelia or her mother. His unborn son is all he seems to care about, not that he's even sure of the sex outside of his own, you know. Arrogance. Uh. Times are lean and the military UM and government are hoarding what little food and medicine are in the area, and the rebels are trying to help the locals. And one of the rebels, a woman named Mercedes, works sort of undercover, is the head of house at the camp, like the head servant. Things go poorly in this thread. UM. The other thread is a fairy tale that may be real or that Ophelia may have concocted UM, that she's really the lost princess of a magical kingdom, and that a fawn has come to give her three trials to see whether she's worthy of rejoining her immortal family. UM. So she must face fearsome monsters and protect the innocent and save her baby brother. Things also kind of go poorly. Theme of the film, UM, which we were talking about when I was trying to think of like Spanish Mexican horror movies and everyone I was like, but that's pretty grim and said, oh that's pretty grim and sad. Yeah, yep, UM, UM gonna get into a little bit of why that isn't just a second UM. First to note on del Toro Um he was born in Mexico in nineteen sixty four into a deeply Catholic family, although he is lapsed Catholic. He frequently works in genre fiction UM, some of which does indeed explore similar historical themes of authoritarianism. But we are ostensibly a food show. Almost every episode we have to remind ourselves uh foo. Food and various difficulties with it are a really key part of this film. Characters are constantly eating or drinking or struggling to do so. In the real world, there's daily cooking to be done, rations to distribute feasts to impress, with nausea to cope with, and alcohol as a pleasure and as a painkiller. UM. In the fairytale world, there's tricks to be played and entrapments to avoid surrounding food and eating, and and always the fear of being eaten by the monsters. More specifics on all of that in a little bit, but there's a lot of metaphor that can be drawn between the food and the anxieties surrounding it in the real and the fairytale worlds and okay, the Spanish Civil War and the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco afterwards were really terrible times in history for a lot of people. The war only lasted from nineteen thirty six nine thirty nine, but Franco ruled from then until ninety five, and hundreds of thousands of people were killed, partially in mass exterminations by the nationalists under Franco. Um exterminations of people deemed socially undesirable for one reason or another, including people of religions other than Catholic, gay people, leftists, a very walks. It's called the White Terror, and the extent of this is still uncertain today, but like it's it's thought that like tens of thousands of people still lie unknown in in unmarked graves. Just this year, virtual Museum opened and new laws were passed in Spain to help untangle the history there. And especially in the decade or so immediately following the war, there was a lot of famine. H there was this three year drought that did not help a lot of the farms and the people who worked them were destroyed or displaced. It's sometimes called Spain's Years of hunger. Ah. There was a ration system in place from the late thirties until the early fifties, but it was insufficient and rife with corruption. A research into people's diets indicated that no one was getting enough to eat. Literally, no one day studied was getting an appropriate daily chloric intake um, and what they were getting was like over fifty calories from bread. Ah. It was a huge source of anxiety for many people, and malnutrition was very rampant. Yeah. And I know we've talked about this in a couple of episodes, and I think that war and conflict every episode we've done has some instance of war conflict. Here was the people who were suffering and didn't have enough food and what came out of that. Um. So yeah, it would have a huge impact on the culture. The films that are getting made around these ideas, oh yeah, yeah, and the stories that you tell and how you deal with those anxieties. And one of the things that I do love about genre fiction and perhaps specifically horror, is that it's such a wonderful place to explore anxieties like that. Yeah. Yeah, especially you like, if you're trying to deal with something that is so tragic and terrible as this, and you don't want people to turn away because it's not a fun topic. Explore it and it's still not a fun topic, but at least like you're having that conversation, I think more people are more willing to engage in it in that way. But that's my opinion. Well, what about the nutrition oh, um, don't don't eat uh? Genre depictions of uh Francoist fascism. Yeah, I think I can get on board with that one. No silly follow ups from me. We do have some numbers for you, so we do. Um. The film got a relatively limited release but was very well accepted. It's certified fresh at on Rotten Tomatoes. Very good. Um. And the year that came out, it was on the top ten lists, um like top ten movies of the year of at least thirty five major publications. Um as it was still the fifth highest grossing foreign film in US history. UM. So that was eleven years after it had come out, and it was nominated for a glut of awards pun intended after the fact, but you know, let's roll with it. Um. At the seventy nine Academy Awards, it won three for Art Direction, cinematography and makeup, but it won across all categories with various organizations over the next year or so. Yeah, it's very, very visually arresting. It's it's still. When I was watching, I was like, still, yep, Yeah, okay, yep, yep. That's beautiful and very upsetting. Exactly. Well, we're going to get into more of that, but first we have a quick break for word from our sponsor. We're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. One of the thoughts that I had while I was watching this time around is like, goodness, my gracious, this film is not light handed. It's it's pretty. It's pretty straightforward, like as much as it's you know, couching things in metaphor, it's very direct and um one of those one of those things I realized, like the very setting of the main events of this film is evocative. Because the military camp is set up in this old mill. It is literally replacing a means of making food with the means of making war. Yeah. Yeah, and it feels kind of it's trivial the right word. I don't know. I kept thinking of the Hunger Games. A lot of the conversations we have when we did the Hunger Games are very relevant to this as well. And obviously the Hunger Games is totally fictional, still has like real world foods, but like a future dystopia. Sure, although I can't help like, like the reading that I was doing about the famine in the country and immediately following the war UM was so reminiscent, Like I have to think that Suzanne Collins did research into stuff like post Civil War Spain when she was especially writing the prequel. It was just very very very similar and very upsetting. Yeah. Yeah, And as we talked about in that Hunger Games episode. In Pan's Labyrinth, food is often depicted as a source of power UM. Several scenes show those who were in power feasting UM. And these feasts are often made by the lower class. They're supplied by the lower class. Uh. And that is why while the lower classes like struggling and starving, they're feasting off of what they have done but they have taken from them. In In just one example, at one point early in the film UM, two locals are captured by the Captain's men and questioned for being potential rebels. It turns out they're really probably just farmers who were hungry and out hunting rabbits, but they're murdered for having guns and being out at night, right, and then there are also more fantastical elements illustrating the power of food. For instance, Apphilia, there's a scene where she's able to defeat this big toad, obnoxious toad's living under a fig tree and poisoning it slowly. Yes, she's able to defeat it by giving it by feeding its stones, which acts as like a purgitive. It rids the toxin from the tree um so that it once again can produce fruit. And this is all after she asked of it. Aren't you ashamed of staying down here eating bugs while the tree dies? Um? And much of this food and its power serves as a symbol of, yeah, what was going on during the Spanish Civil War and fascism. When Vadal, acting as a symbol of the fascist government, hands out the captain yes, um sorry sorry yeah. When he hands out ration cards, he's controlling the source of food and therefore is in the place of power. And it's telling you that you're very lucky that they're so kind to give these rations. You're welcome, We don't have to do this. H M. Hmm. And then there are a lot of scenes around So Mercedes works in the kitchen, works with a lot of other cooks, and there are a lot of scenes around that that I found interesting and especially like them being sort of the mercy of the higher ups, like getting blamed for the burnt coffee, um, getting blamed for the rabbits that are too young to be cooked. Uh, these demands for this lavish food that isn't available. Uh. And then kind of the like gossip that's going on in the kitchen about like oh they eat like pigs and just this it being a space of kind of this smaller rebellion of talking about like look what they're doing, We see what's happening here. M h uh. An early scene shows the captain talking about rations like olives in a very smug manner. Um. And then yeah, they have the like well off circle and a circle dividing them. Um. And when they do we end out the rations, they call it like the daily bread and Franco Spain. Uh, and yeah, are very like thrilled by it. Yeah, it's it's very oof oof. It's it's very like like military dudes yelling at you, basically implying that you should be so grateful about this pittance of food that they have spoken with amongst themselves as knowing is insufficient. Yeah. In another small act of rebellion, um, Mercedes does bring some food and rations out to the rebels. Um. A little bit of disobedience in there. Yeah, some cheese, some brandies and tobacco. And there are several scenes that I personally thought was like, oh, this is uh something where it felt to me where I was picking up on, like the dangers of cooking, Like especially with Mercedes. She has this knife and she keeps like wiping it off in her apron. I was like, Oh, that's gonna that's gonna come back. It's a Chekhov's pairing knife for share still um. Yeah. And then like there's a lot of stuff that felt evocative to me around like the death around cooking when it comes to cooking meat or preparing meat, or the flip side of kind of the life giving you know, you killed this animal, but it's feeding people. Um. And the same with milk, Like there's a pretty particular scene where Mercedes is milking a cow and I was like, there's a reason this was put in here. Yeah. Yeah, and giving the milk directly to Ophelia and and it being a very um kind of warm and comfortable and earthy moment. M yeah. Um. The meanwhile, the fun himself and and the some of the fairies are shown eating as well. Uh, they eat this little scrap of jerky that looks real gross and real suspect to me. I'm like, is that made of people? Like? What kind of tearing at it? Pretty savagely? I'm like, M And I did enjoy that aspect of this movie, of the kind of because so many fairy tales we grow up with are the disneyfied version, and when you go back to the original, you're like, oh um, and I feel like this was kind of going back to like, oh yeah, fairies maybe they eat people. I don't know, yeh, scary, watch out. They might be lying to you. You're not sure, Yes, something could be going on. We're speaking of one of the key pieces of food or not. It's not really food, but something that requires food in this is the man Jake root Um that Fawn gives Ophelia in order to heal her pregnant mother, and so Apphilia puts the under her mother's bed and she feeds it like drops the blood and milk. However, when her stepfather discovers it, he is disgusted. Um. He goes to destroy it, but before he can, Affiliate's mother convinces him like, give us a moment alone, and she tells Aphilia essentially the real world isn't fair and magic isn't real. And then she throws the magic root into the fire and collapses in pain as it burns, as if she's somehow connected to it. Uh. And that kind of struck me, as this conversation we've had before of like looking down on these on traditional, long trusted remedies where they just are me like, oh, this is gross, this is wrong. Um, yeah, this isn't modern. It must be incorrect and silly. Yeah. And it was just heartbreaking to have this where Philia is trying to help her mom and be told like the real world sucks, magic isn't real. Yeah, suck it up, Yeah you need you need to grow up because this is never going to help. Um and then kind of immediately eating her words. Um. And that second that she destroys that thing, she starts having a much worse time. Yes, And notably, the man Drake does kind of look like a child, and she a baby, and the mother is pregnant. So it's I felt pretty symbolic on the nose, But I think this brings us to the centerpiece. Oh yeah, the pale man's male. Um. Yeah it is. This is a very very striking scene. So it's like this long table in an empty room. Other than the paleman and Affilia and her fairies in her little hand bag and on the table are just like all these fruits, um, all these drinks, and most of them are in shades of red um. A lot of them are kind of like speaking red liquid. There's ham and bright red caviar and jello, like just all of these like shades of pink and red. Other things in there too, but mostly like black and rust and red and pink as strawberries and and slices of oranges, blackberries and raspberries, black and red currants, pomegranates and cherries, wine, all of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a very saturated yeah yeah. And and and at the head of this table is this monstrous pale man um who doesn't seem to have any eyes, and who who is unmoving for a large portion of the scene. And Ophelia has been warned to not eat anything on the table, right, And if you haven't seen this movie, you've probably seen that's the image you've seen is the Paleman. Um. So above this table are these frescoes that depick the Paleman eating children. Yeah, just gobbling them right up. And so it's it feels very clear that the meal represents temptation. Um was specifically designed to lure in children, and especially children who are hungry, which is something that comes up in fairy tales all the time, of like this hunger of children. Um. We talked about it in our Handsl and Gretel episode, yeah, and in our Goblin Market episode. That's right, um. But yeah, so affiliate was told like, don't take any part of the food. It was one of her trials. Um. But she gives in and she eats two grapes, and I think, and a lot of things I read it supposed to be like the Paleman's eyes. So she eats these two grapes and then he's able to put his eyes in his hands. I'm making a hand gesture. You can't see, but you're Paleman. It's the Paleman hand. I just here. He yes, he puts yeah when when she comes in, his eyeballs are sitting on a plate in front of him, and then he just pops him right in the palms of his hands and he's like, oh, I can see now. Great. Yeah. It's almost like, you know, by giving in, by partaking in this food which she needed and wanted, she's giving him that power that we were talking about, that the kind of power that food has, um and it does. This scene does echo another scene in the real world where the captain and his cohorts have this luxurious mean um. They're toasting to each other um and over the whole meal is hanging hanging over it is this suffering and lack of food available for others as they're just like yeah, yeah, because at that dinner, at that feast, they're discussing cutting rations for the locals, um and like the food on their table doesn't appear fancy, certainly not fancy the way that the Paleman's dinner does, but um, but is very plentiful. You know, potatoes and beans and roast chicken and red wine and those two rabbits roasted yep. That really that burns yeah, um. And there is a history of using scenes of feasting often over the top lavish beast. I mean even like in our real world history we've talked about that plenty, but in our fiction, like, there's so many examples I could think of. But you have those like gross mouth sounds. You have like the snapping of the bones, the inhaling, the sucking sounds of like dribbling of juices, often the juices are red. Um. And that is juxtaposed with poverty and death um. And then also just like depicting such a gluttonous feast as an evil temptation, like oh this is so bad. Um. It did remind me of the scene from Return of the King when oh, yeah, Dennis or is like going to town feasting alone the sounds and the juices, and it's like cut against his soldiers going out to die. Well he's just eating, consuming yeah mm hmm. And then I I thought a lot of really in depth essays about those that fascinated me. But kind of the whole idea of like in this movie of losing affilia, losing her innocence and this fairy tale kind of being, you know, her childhood innocence, trying to hang onto that and then it getting destroyed and when the Paleman, after she eats two of the grapes at this feast, he takes two of the fairies um that she has with her and eats them really girly. Yeah. Yeah, And it just felt like that was a key moment of Oh, you made this mistake and and you're going to lose this piece like childhood innocence maybe. Um. Yeah, Like the evils are real, you are not safe. This is what reality is like, um. And the I would say that the Paleman himself is a really terrifying depiction of hunger. Um. You know, he either can't or won't eat this feast that's in front of him, but instead waits for children or for fairies to to devour um. And and and like physically he's got this fatty skin that's hanging in loose folds all over his body, but the rest of his body is so thin, so like impossibly emaciated, with this swollen belly. And oh, it's it's really upsetting. Good show, good show, everyone involved, Good show. Doug Jones, terrifying, sir, Yes, yes, I am scared. You have done an excellent job. Yeah, that's the actor who was portraying the fawn and also or the movements of the fawn and the paleman. Yeah, and then I guess we need to talk about grapes. Yeah, yeah, because because why because why grapes? Right? Like, you know, there's this table is just bursting with like towering pies and and roasted squash and rested crabs, that ham that studded with the pineapples and the cherries. Um, but it's these grapes. There's this platter of this red fruit with right the cut up and pomegranates and and these grapes and they're they're huge, and they're cold. You can tell because there's they're the kind of sweating and she just can't resist them. Yeah. And I feel like the use of grapes just brings up so much for me. Um. But you know, like the temptation of the forbidden fruit um back and all. I feel like a lot of times when I think of grapes, I see those kind of Greek paintings where gods or angels or whatever what have you are eating grapes and it's painted as like so luxurious, so luxurious, someone will feed them to you, like just the height of of luxury. Um. And then I do think fruit is often used in fairy tales, like you have the poisoned apples of snow white, just for one example. Um. And then again a lot of people have written about how this also represents a loss of innocence. And I found a specific paper that was about menstruation. So I was like, well, I guess I'll come back later for stuff I never told you. I don't think this is a savor rabbit hole, but I'll come back. Um. But yeah, yeah, it was interesting. And the way it was shot, Aphilia was looking she wasn't looking at the paleman. The fairies are telling her like don't, don't do it, don't do it, and she's eating them, and just like she's a child and she yeah, she is a kid, and she probably hasn't had something I mean, like fresh fruit in that kind of situation is luxurious. It is a special treat. And and especially you know, like like like thinking about refrigeration and how how rare that was in those days and especially in in lean times when you know, you don't always have power everywhere and stuff like that, and so like she probably hadn't had something that sounds as simple as we're rigerated grape in years maybe in her whole life, because she's eleven years old, it's only five years after the war ended. You know, like like she probably doesn't remember a time before war. She probably doesn't remember a time when she had as much fruit as she wanted to eat. Yeah. Yeah, And I always said this earlier, but that to me goes back to that point of like, if you're controlling the food, then you have the power. Because when she ate the grapes, she was hungry, she was a child, but in doing so, she did give or power was taken from her and it made the pale man like wake up, he's able to see um. So I just think like that whole idea of if you are the one controlling like who gets food, how much food, then it's like we can't blame her for not being able to resist, right But yeah, yeah, even you know, even though we've seen her do um incredibly brave, selfless things for for the rest of the film, you know, in that in that moment, she was just a hungry kid, and you know, and it's not it's not evil, It was just used against her. Yeah yeah, yeah, the whole film really is about you know, innocence, um and and and evil and about bravery. Yeah, the bravery to do the right thing, even when that's going to cause some trouble for you, even when you have direct orders to do the wrong thing. Um. And and that's just a really clear example of that of that type of metaphorical visual It's also a story about stories, about the power of stories, and how the same way that an authoritarian will try to control you through hunger, they'll try to control the narrative and who gets to narrate um. And you see that again and again through this film about you know, Aphelia's mother fretting that she's wasting too much time reading books and thinking about fairy tales and that it's not realistic and that she needs to grow up and um. At that at that feast in the real world, you see the captain speaking down to Aphelia's mother. She she tries to tell this kind of romantic story about how they got together and uh, and he mocks her. He goes, he turns to the ladies who are there, and he's like, man, she's isn't she so quaint? Like she really thinks that this kind of thing is amusing? Isn't that adorable? Um? And then when someone else at the dinner proceeds to tell kind of a story about the captain's father about how he died, the captain denies it, even though he clearly this is clearly exactly what happened. Um, that that his father died at a certain time and broke his watch, and you know, had instructions for the watch to be given to his sons, that he would always know what time his father died. And he carries around this heck and watch the whole movie and is obsessed with it, and um, and the last thing that he does, because good good does win in the end, really and in both the fairy tale and the in the real world in this film, the last thing that the captain does is asked that the rebels give his son, the baby boy, I Philey's little brother, this watch and tell him who his father was and what time he died. And the rebels cut him off and they're just like, yeah, he ain't even going to know your name, and that's it. And that and I love I love that. I love that they have, you know, reseased the means of narration. They've reseized the means of production of food, of of welfare m Yeah, it's it's really really good. And we didn't even talk about um because I was also struck by the captain gets the slash on his face and he keeps trying to drink oh um, and it clearly hurts him. Uh, and he keeps trying to keeps drinking alcohol. Yeah, whiskey or brandy or something like that. And oh, it's so it's so annarly it really is. Um. That was the thing that very much struck me that this this go through is how how gory things get in the real world, and how even though things are scary and the in the fairytale world there, they're never I don't know, just just that that that um, that juxtaposition between the horror of fairy tales and the horror of getting your face slashed open and trying to sew it back up yourself like that so wild. Oh I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on the film before. Heck. Um, yeah, it's it's it's really if you if you haven't seen it, we've just spoiled like the whole movie for you. So sorry. But but maybe if you have seen it and uh, you know, want to be kind of upset but also dazzled. You know, give it a revisit. I love it, great review? Yes, yes, yes, Uh do you recommend it? I feel like we've gave it enough of a warning that it's kind of a downer. That sounds tright, but essentially it does. I don't know, it's I think it's I think it's hopeful in the end. I think it's hopeful that there are good people who are willing to do good things and help each other out. Yes, and that I think also that your small actions can mean so much more than you thought that they did. Yeah, definitely, before we go, um or, I mean, we have some listener mail for you, but before we before we get into that, Annie, I want to ask you, do you think that the fairy tale world in this film is real? Or do you think Ophelia was making it up? I okay, my knees, my knees, jerk. Answer is, I've always assumed it was real. Um, and I think that's the way that it was shot and the way that was done. Um. I'd never had considered before that maybe she was making it up. I don't want to say just making it, but you know, like sure, this escape, I always thought it was real. I thought it was real too, and and I guess I guess rewatching it, there are just a couple of little hints where um where like um, like the captain can't see the fawn or where You're not sure, And Ophelia had this this magic chalk from the fond that could let her open a door to wherever she wanted to go. And uh, and Mercedes sees one of these chalk outlines, but it's just a chalk outline that's there's no door there. But then there are other hints yeah where um, you know, I don't know, like like where did she get that man Drake Root? Uh? Uh? You know she it seems very big for such a small child to have come up with. Um, And I did. I did read an interview with del Toro where he's talking about how that that is his intent that it was, that it was real, and so I don't know. I was just I'm just curious. I I think watching it, I really hoped that it was real and was really afraid that it wasn't. Yeah. Yeah, again, like I think the way that the the narrative was set up, the way it was shot, you were at least for me, I was primed to be like, yeah, that's what's happening. I believe her over this guy certainly. Well, I think that's what we have to say about Pan's labyrinth for now. I think it is. We do have some, as Afford mentioned, listener mail for you, but first we've got one more quick break for a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, and we're back with the snow like a mace. Ah. That was That was when we should have recorded. Well, one day you'll get the video of what's going on behind news, whether you want it or not. Oh goodness, um, Andrew wrote a long time, long time. Thanks again for always bringing a little sunshine into my day. Lately my podcast have been the audio equivalent of doomscrolling. So I very much appreciate your show. Wow this episode, I don't know, but thank you, Andrew continues. I'm a few weeks behind and just listened to your Dill episode and had two thoughts. Lauren made mention of Ukraine at the top of the show, and I was immediately reminded of a nearby brewery that recently released a beer in support of Ukraine. It was on the lighter side and was brewed with sea salt, sunflower seeds, and dill weird on paper, but definitely translated well into an enjoyable beverage. Herved beers can sometimes be overwhelming, but this one was very well balanced. However, it caused quite the halotoxes to Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches came up during the listener male portion of the episode. To my abject horror, my wife actually makes peanut butter and pickles sandwiches occasionally for her lunch or for an aftrinude snack, and claims to enjoy them. She will smear on the peanut butter, put a dill pickle spear on the side of the bread, and fold it in half. She claims the texture of the pickle adds some level of sophistication. But I will never be touching one of those things, all caps. Never. Oh that's that's wonderful. Yeah, I mean, I hope this doesn't get me on your bad side, but I feel like I could enjoy that. I mean, I I think that you would enjoy peanut butter in no matter. I don't think, like not even Mayo really dissuaded you. From enjoying peanut butter. It's true. Oh oh no, now I have a craving Oh my gosh. Okay, Luckily I have a ton of peanut butter, not so many pickles. But I can fix. Can you can? And this beer sounds delightful. I think it does. It does. I don't think I've ever had dil in a beer, but I'm so into that. M Chad and Lauren wrote, we are reaching out to say hi and to share some fun tidbits from this past year's adventures and fun coincidences between episodes and where we happened to be visiting. Uh are reaching out has been on my to do list for a while, but moving, starting new jobs, traveling, and celebrating our daughter Grace's college graduation, amongst other life events, has kept us on our toes all year. I'm on my first work trip since and as I sit in the hotel room awaiting my six thirty am alarm, I thought now would be an ideal time to reach out again. Here we go. We visited Palm Springs back in March, and lo and behold, I listened to your episode on date Shakes on the flight. Little did I know that two days later would be driving through Date Valley on our way up to um Ottle Wild and to the pines and snow so crazy. I know the shakes are good, but the views from the mountains were better. Uh. This summer, we took our parents out to Sonoma and shared with them our love for wine tasting. After surviving four days with both sets of parents plenty of wine tasting and catching up, we dropped them off at San Francisco Airport and did another week of road tripping and seeing friends from Sacramento to Los Angeles. During one of those long, crazy drives in the Central Valley, we listened to your episode about Pismo clans and the Monterey Clan industry. Two days later we were in Monterey Bay. We had a marvelous lunch on the pier at sand Bar and Grill, saw some sea lions, found my new favorite hot sauce, the pepper plant. The stuff is amazing, go buy some. I cannot eve recall when we were listening to your episode on jerk Chicken, but regardless, it brought back a rush of memories of finding the best jerk chicken cart in New York City, Oh, which I did. It's on fifty six and third Avenue and the chicken with oxtail, gravy and rice is the best cart food I've ever had. Now that I remind myself it's been five years since I last ate some I need to make time to get back there and see if they're still there. Also, Happy one Day Early, Happy Jerk Chicken Day. It's now on my calendar because of YouTube, and no, I did not plan on this timing. Another episode that spurned of food experience is when Annie waxed poetic about butter beans and I was like, wait, we eat those pretty regularly thanks to Rancho Gordo. And I just happened to listen when I was in the mood to make some hummus lo and behold, butter bean hummus was now in our bellies. Those lagoons make even better hummus than dare I say, garbonzo beans And well, you don't have an episode on it yet, but if you are in search of a road trip and want to research bourbonism, you need to head to Louisville. I hope it's on your radar, and if not, I'm happy to write another diet tribe worth of info about the city. The food and of course bourbon. Thanks for sticking with me making great shows, and I do apologize for the long winded email. Plus we are back in Atlanta later in November to see friends and eat our way through more of the amazing restaurants on Annie's map. Thanks again for sharing ya. I'm glad that map is getting oh always yeah, yeah, goodness, that's a great map. Um oh heck okay, Uh, congratulations on your daughter's college graduations. Heck yeah um oh. Palm Springs is such a weird city. Yeah, I love that entire area. Um, I have not been out to like northern California and way too long. Yeah, we need to fix that. Yeah, that's high on the list. High on the list, it is. We also had a funny moment where we're like, have we done an episode on clams? We haven't done one, but we have talked about them in another episode. But this is a classic battle Or and I have. We're always like, did we do that episode already? Yeah? Or We'll be twenty minutes into doing reading for an episode that both of us are convinced we've never done, and then we suddenly realized that we have done it because we're coming up with all of these links that we already have book marked, Like, there's no way I would have read this earlier. Right, maybe if anyone knows about this jerk chicken cart right in, we could confirm her network. Yes, give us an updates. Always so good, always so easy. I always forget. I know, I've had a homeless craving lately. Also we haven't been so I always get in trouble for this. I can't remember its Louisville. I don't know how to say it. But anyway, but we didn't go to Kentucky and drink some whiskey. Yes, we went and we got to talk with Eddie Russell and um a he was delightful. Uh and be Yeah, we we did. Um we did like a like a roundup of some of the food that we enjoyed while we were there, including hot brown Am I saying the right thing? I think? So there was a lot. It was very good, but it was a lot of food. Yeah, so much food all the time. They're it was wonderful. Um so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was that was in the early days. That was way back, way back. That was when I was still driving around everywhere. Oh my goodness, times of change, listeners, times have changed, Frenny, Yes, Um, thank you, thank you. Thank you to both of these listeners for writing in. If you would like to write to us that you can our email us hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way