The adventure continues! We turn again to our inboxes to share your stories, from a persevering pineapple and a beef with Ginger Beef to sweet maple syrup memories and one spicy Princess Stew.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Hello, and welcome to favorite protection of I Heart Radio. I'm Any and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we've got another episode of Listener Mail for you. Yes, the fifth edition, the fifth edition, which I you know, I'm already starting to think of those fives that I can write title ideas from. Of course, my favorite movie about times the Empire Strikes Back, which is the fifth of the Star Wars movies, So who knows, I might just campaign really hard for that. I wouldn't blame you. It's a that's also my favorite of the Star Wars movies. Um and uh. And also like once you get up above four, I feel like your your your options. First sequel titles really start dropping to a very select group. But that select group is so funny. Often that is accurate, fires Jakes back aside that the rest are usually very goofy Oh, is there fifth Transformers? I'm sure there is. You're you're like looking at that territory. Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking like I'm thinking it's it's what like Freddie like um stuff and stuff like that, like that echelon. Yes, yes, that is what we're looking at here, and I'm very very excited about it. I'm also excited about all the wonderful listener male you y'all continue to send us. Yeah, I promise we're not doing this just for the title opportunities. Um, it's because y'all just keep being so lovely that we're like, oh, well, I guess we have to do more of this. So thank you, yes, thank you. So here we are you like to start, Lauren? Sure, Anthony wrote first the Cuban sandwich? Did you know that almost every culture has a version of the ham and cheese sandwich? In this case, it is the Cuban Years before I moved to Central Florida, my wife and I were married and honeymooned in Tampa. We decided to add hawk the trip, so we decided daily where we wanted to go. One particular day, we traveled to Ebor City and had a wonderful time. Growing up Italian and traveling to the old country brought back memories and Ibor, mostly in the artistic masonry and colorful displays. Columbia Restaurant is certainly a gem to behold, and everyone should either dine in or sit at the bar for the experience. But it saddened me that you only mentioned this particular place regarding the Cuban sandwich, although they are served there, in my opinion, it's not the best in the area. This title belongs to the Stone Soup Company in Ebor City. On more than a few occasions they've won the title of best traditional Cuban sandwich, and yes, that means it has salami. When we ate this Cuban sandwich for the first time, we were elevated to such a euphoric state and moods uplifted. We began talking to our waitress, who also bartends at the local Coyote Ugly. More on that in a second, and she mentioned a program to assist the homeless. Not only do we purchase the Cuban to go, but we bought four more to donate. She was so taken aback with our generosity she told us to meet her at the bar at Coyote Ugly later that night. Surprised we were when we found her behind the bar serving as drinks on the house to thank us for helping out the board locals who needed it most. Anthony continues, um Hamburgers great episode, and I agree it may deserve a second. Although the origin stories are amazing, I think we need to learn more about hamburger culture. Hamburger joints themselves are responsible for classic car gatherings and for movie classics such as Greece. Not only did you forget to mention the crabby patty, but what about poor old Bob and his burger. Bob's Burgers has such a following they created an actual cookbook with many of Bob's burgers that are created in the show. Personally, I am obsessed with all the burger puns. When it comes to my own personal indulgences for burgers, I have three burger King once released a burger that was topped with mashed potatoes, fried onion rings, barbecue sauce, and a one sauce. I still craved this burger on occasion, my personal favorite cooker burger to your liking, Then you ready spread some peanut butter on that burger and finish with the squirt of sarratcha. Another variation of this it is the top with the fried egg your preference. Of course, don't knock it until you try it. I have never been elevated to this level of decadence, and it only took some peanut butter on a hamburger thirdly, just a classic hamburger off the menu from food Wreckers. They not only had great burgers, but excellent fresh toppings, seasoned fries and shakes. My friends and I would go there on the weekends to knock ourselves into a gluttonous coma and then go outside and look at all the classic cars that have gathered. R I pod r I P. Indeed that was. That was one of the few restaurants that my dad and grandmother would both agree to go to. UM. And I was happy because they had the Ninja Turtles arcade game. Oh. I was like, this is a great place. We should always go there. Yeah, and we went. When I was a kid. I grew up in small town, nothing to do place. UM, So we would drive like once a month on Fridays, we would drive to Media Play, which like forty minutes UM and then we would buy something with whatever money we'd saved up, and then we'd go eat at flood Wreckers, which I liked because they had those like little douse you could sit in and I just felt so cool. That was. It didn't take a lot, No, absolutely didn't. Um um Uh. Anthony continued, um MAXI soda. You need to do a show on this, the world's first carbonated drink, which was sold as a cure all tonic before it was marketed as a soda. I learned to treasure Moxie by my grandmother, who always had it in her fridge. My brothers have the same appreciation. No one else in our family likes it, and I personally only have one friend who enjoys it. It is indeed an acquired taste, and those who enjoy it are few but our cultists. The best description I can provide is imagine Dr Pepper with a bitter finish at the end. One of my favorite drinks is a classic rum and coke, but substitute Moxie for the coke with cement rubbed on the rim. Oh yeah, and Dr Pepper is like my least favorite thing ever. Um, I'm pretty sure that is accurate statement. I don't like Dr Pepper, but I do love the name Moxie, and I have some friends who do enjoy this Moxi soda. So I think it. You know, it has a special place. I'm not going to knock it. Yeah, yeah, I think Um, is is this a Northeastern thing? I think this might be a New England thing. Yeah, because the last time I was visiting family up in New Hampshire, Um, they were like, oh, we're there's more than me coming in from out of town and they were like, we have to go get some boxing col up and I was like, I don't know what that is, but cool. Um, I think I think I had a sip. And I think that's a pretty fair description. I liked it. I mean, I like I like better things. So yeah, I feel like that would be a great horror movie because of the description of people who love it as cultist, where you're like in a small town and you notice like everyone's drinking this one, so they're looking at you, like very suspiciously if you're not drinking it. All right, okay, um Lee wrote, I just listened to your Margine podcast and it reminded me of a story that my grandpa used to tell me about living with rationing during World War Two. My grandpa grew up on a dairy farm here in southeastern Wisconsin and as a result never really had much need for olio, as he still calls Margarine. But due to rashtion, ng butter became hard to come by in World War Two, and because of Wisconsin's margine band olio was illegal. They were producing the milk sending it to the cream her but but unable to buy the butter. Once they were out of rations and unable to use the ohio rations because it couldn't be sold in Wisconsin. According to him, they would have to make a trip down to their aunts in Illinois to get some to quote, have something to put on their bread. He would say, quote it tasted like garbage, but was better than nothing. But my grandpa definitely is bias store and fresh off the farm dairy. He hasn't drink milk and over a decade now that the family farm is no longer a dairy, because he doesn't like homogenized and pasteurized milk. Shrug Emogy. I've always wondered why they didn't just make their milk into butter themselves on the sly. According to another of his stories, they once sold black market beef to a local Catholic monastery. I suspect He would say that they only sold the beef because they couldn't get by without the money at the time, but they could get by without butter. His father had died of leukemia months before the US entered the war, leaving my great grandma to run the farm with her kids aged eleven, thirteen, and fifteen, so I can imagine times were tough for them. These stories actually inspired my capstone research project on rationtion, NG and the black market during World War Two for my undergraduate degree in history. I thought you might find the Marjarine dilemma interesting. It definitely reminds me to be thankful for the butter on the table today and that even though COVID times are tough, we'll get through it, just like past generations made it through their own tough times. That is fascinating. I hadn't really considered in Wisconsin, in particular, if you have butter rashting and you can't get margarine legally, which is like so strange to say out loud that like margarine is illegal. Yeah, yeah, right, very specific set of circumstances. Yeah, it does that confluence of it being during that time and huh yeah uh. And dud Um Dominique wrote, I just listened to your second Ginger episode and thought i'd write in with the best Ginger snap cookie We've ever had. One fall day a few years ago, I was at my library, seated in the section with all the magazines. My library also creates collections of old magazines by theme, and there was a basket of Christmas cookie magazines in front of me. I picked up an American Test Kitchen issue, which I had never seen sold here in Canada before, and read about something called fairy gingerbread dating back to the eighteen hundreds. I snapped a picture of the recipe and made it a month later for Christmas. It's a bit of a weird type of cookie. As you spread the running batter out on a lined pan very thinly like a cracker, and make it for a short amount of time, they snap apart. And if you want them to snap to a particular shape like the houses in my picture, then take them out halfway through the cooking time and score them. They turn out thin and crunchy, with a wonderful ginger flavor and not too sweet. My mom isn't big into sweets, and she loves these. She said they were the best cookie should ever eaten. Here is a blog with the recipe, the only other place I found it online. I do puffy ginger molasses cookies, sometimes just in balls, but other times I roll out the messy dough and make shaped characters. The wookies are my favorites. I've inserted some links to my typical Christmas decor and and my sister and I are making absolute mass decorating cookies as thirty some things do in their mother's kitchen. Yes, cookie cookies all the way. Yes, these cookies sound delicious, right, yeah they do. Yeah, I'm really I'm really intrigued by this. This uh this this cracker type gingerbread cookie. Yeah. Yeah, And the recipe was included in this email. If any listeners want it, you can contact us in many ways and we will get it to you. We will, we will, we gets guarantee. Uh yeah, we we could if I if I remember to maybe I'll post it on the online, on the social media or something. That Yes that thing, Leda wrote, I just listened to your your podcast and felt obligated to write in first, I am a red hood and asked, such a common nickname I have is ginger. In fact, when I first met my boyfriend, he called and still calls me ginger. And when I first met his parents before we were dating, I walked in and they said, oh, you must be ginger, to which I recalled, yes, that is me. They do sometimes call me by my actual name, but we have been dating for eight plus years now and they still mostly call me Ginger, as you any of our mutual friends that we've met since we started dating. I truly don't mind the Ginger nickname, since my name can be weird to pronounce our spell, so sometimes it's just easier to be Ginger. Second, and food related, I don't have a special recipe for ginger, but I felt the need to share my ninjabread cookies that I made one time for a cookie exchange. I have included a picture to better illustrate this and encourage anyone who regularly makes gingerbread cookies to invest in some Ninja cookie cutters. I'm not sure why I didn't share this for the actual Gingerbread show, but this episode brought up the memory and I could not share. Yes, ginga bread cookie is I've never done that, right, right, that's delightful. Oh man, I did have this whole thing. We unfortunately didn't get to do it in our D and D campaign that just finished, not the diorama, but I did. I like to do these themed items I would bring and I had this whole gingerbread set up cookie, set up thing, but you know, pandemic times and maybe one day you will get to see the beauty was planning. Gosh, yeah, I I really, I really dislike rolling out cookie though I tend to not make rolled cookies because of that. I'm just like, why am I using a rolling pan? This is terrible? Um, I don't know why. But I do have some really good cookie cutters that I feel like I should. I've got some from Portal, Like the video games are pretty good. Yeah, I can already envision. Yeah, I mean you know, I guess. I guess any square cookie can be a companion cube. But um right, with enough imagination, Oh waited companion cube? I miss you, um Ohen wrote. My son and I have been listeners since the first episode of food Stuff. We would listen while driving him to and from daycare. Now he's halfway through first grade and we're still listening to every episode. Can you imagine our excitement when I heard you mention the most important cultural icon to ever come out of my hometown of Calgary, alberta ginger beef. Sorry Todd mccarlane, but to hear you suggest that there is no ginger in ginger beef. You have fallen prey to the classic Internet problem of believing what people say. I have the real scoop for you on the real stuff. Outside of Calgary, plenty of ginger beef is sold. That is, thickly cut strips of cheap beef, deep fried in too much batter and doused in a dark brown sweet sauce. Nothing could be further from the true ginger beef that has earned Calgary's culinary scene fame from as far away as moose jaw and medicine Hat. This dish is an unheralded classic of westernized Chinese food that belongs in the pantheon of grates with General so Chop, Suey and Fortune cookies. The real ginger beef is flank steak cut thinly across the grain and deep fried in a barely their batter so lightened crispy it doesn't even fully cover the beef until the beef, not just the batter, is crisp. The beef is then stir fried with either sliced bell peppers or a combination of Julianne celery and carrot together with you guessed it, Julianne fresh ginger root in a thin but delicious sauce that just barely coats the other ingredients. Every year, my sister in Lana I spent two full days cooking and feast for Lunar New Year, like the good Volga Germans we are and along with all the other more traditional Chinese dishes. Every guest texts me in advance to demand that I make ginger beef and here's the best part. You can make it now too. In the mid nineties, when nobody knew what the Internet was, a Calgary Chinese food restaurant called I Am Not making this up. Ginger Beef Peaking House put their recipe on their web page, which I greedily downloaded with my dial up modem, and the recipe follows. So it sounds delicious, it does? I I want that now? Yeah? I mean again, you could get a whole recipe exchange going here, right. I you know, like our our our website got switched over to this kind of like I heart template that um that we don't have any particular control over um and uh but I I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, it's the time for recipe blogs, Like I don't know, yeah, sure, always it's time of bringing back the recipe block. I'm actually not in touch with the blog world. It might not have never gone away. I don't think it every went away. I based on I get. I find most of my recipes on recipe blogs, and so I can tell you they're still there. They're they're still still publishing mostly unrelated stories from the cook's childhood. I don't know that we can cast too much shade and that guard Lauren, I guess you're super correct. Shall I go on another spiel about Star Wars? I mean, yeah, but another time perhaps. In the meantime, we have a letter from Zach, who wrote, thank you so much for producing such a consistently lovely show. Thank you. I started listening back was tempted to write in on the first episode. I listened to Mayonnaise and Mayo Nays about my experiences as my experiences as a vehemot Mayo Nair Andtil tasting mayonnaise in Japan. But then I started catching up and it got mentioned in a listener Mayo. In determination to not write in about something already mentioned, I tried to catch up before writing one thing to another and has been an epic catching up the show. That's that I am finally caught up. I listened to it while cooking and can't really listen to it otherwise due to cravings. It induces understood um, which is part of why it took me so long to catch up. But the other part was having to learn French this past year. I remember one of your listeners mentioned they listened to your podcast while through hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I could not imagine the As an outward bound instructor that spent ten to twenty two consecutive days backpacking, I have been a lot of time talking with my co instructor and students about what we will eat when we get back to civilization. Listening to a food podcast would have been torture. Trying to not overlap on other listener mail here. Some episodes that I particularly enjoyed were I start with your recent episode and an old one, which was one of my favorites. To prove I have caught up, I have started to write this email more than once. It's shoe shoe. That's the term of endearment towards a significant other. I gotta say it twice. Also, I hope Annie you have started eating your cauliflower stems. They are delicious roasted in the oven. Just cut them a bit smaller or cook them longer than the rest of the flour. Ginger ginger snops is a delicious thing some Swiss people do, and my wife got a bottle for a birthday this year, but I still don't have a recipe. Need to work on that though apparently it's not too unlike lemon cello. But with ginger. The reducing Food Waste at Home episode with a great interview with the Waste Not Initiative. Food waste hits home for me, in part because I don't like it and in part because I am a feral cat. Thanks for that parallel. When it comes to eating food, whether dumpster diving or just eating leftovers off of plates at restaurants, my hatred for wasting food, combined with my ability to be always hungry, means I'm pretty good at avoiding food waste. It was nice to hear the largest scale perspectives of this important issue. Also, this episode introduced me to Tarhana and it is amazing for those that like fermented foods. I keep a Kombucha Scobie um Keeper grain sour dough pickle and ferment things used to brewby er. Frequently lost my equipment in the process of moving, but maybe again one day and have made one offs of apple cider meat and kemchy. This was a really cool adventure to find something fermented and new to try. That continues the Overstuffed Thanksgiving episode. I will miss Thanksgiving this year sadly, but my wife made a pumpkin pie to make up for it, so not all is lost. This episode brought me to the most dubious unofficial Thanksgiving tradition my family has where my younger brother eats too many edibles or drinks too much wine or a bit of both, and passes out on the couch after dinner or sometimes at the dinner table. He will only arise from the dead by his favorite dessert of all time, Pillsberry dough Boy sugar cookies. Yep, he skips the homemade pies and cakes my mother prides herself on and spends days prepping to eat the prepackaged cookie with the food coloring on top. Those are good, I remember those being good. Yeah, oh yeah um. The Ramen Noodles of History episode. I spent a handful of winters in Japan a some on Han shoes, some on Hokkaido. As a ski guide, um Raman hits close to home and is one of my favorite foods. Moving to Switzerland has been great for the food, except ramen, which is difficult to find, so I learned how to cook it myself and I did all right. Also, like the Mayo episode, this was one of the first ones I listened to before I knew about the cravings. I had the episode in my headphones as I was out ski touring and it will be the only time I opted to cut a ski daste short on a really good day due to this craving. There are probably few skiers in Atlanta, but if you get the chance to ask any, they will tell you one does not stop early on days where it's waist deep. So while this was a big deal, I don't regret it getting a taste of something you didn't expect. I feel like this was the kool Aid episode or a related listener mail. Thanks for the Little John video recommendation by the way, where you or listener talked about taking a large sip of something and it tasted much different than they intended. I almost vomited on the spot as this reminded me of a cruel prank my friends and I would play in college. Take a glass filled with vodka and leave it in the freezer for a couple of hours at ice cubes, and hand it to some unsuspecting newcomer anytime parties lunch with the parents early morning hangovers after a long run. The game was afoot and it was horrible. I do not recommend this to anyone, and I apologize in advance to anyone that he hears this and gets an evil idea. Thanks for the really dark interpretation of Hansel and Gretel that they are in the afterlife. I never thought of it that way. Now can't unthink it. I can't either. Actually I'm not that I necessarily I am certain that's how it is, but I just can't not think about it. I feel like it makes the most sense in a way, and well, well, and then again, like any time that I find to the end of a story kind of suspect, I just reckon it in my head. I'm just like, no, that's not really what happened. I have a better ending up here. It's fine. Yeah, I do that to your headcannon, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's how headcannon is so important. Let me talk about Star Wars and more. We do have some more listener mail for you, but first we have a quick break for a word from res sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you Eric Row. During a recent episode, Lauren was talking about her large potted avocado plant, and I want to share my story. Twelve years ago now, in my biology class, we were doing a section on sustainability, and one of the projects we did was growing plants from food waste. Many people took the easy route and grew green onion, potatoes or carrots, but I wanted a little more of a challenge, so I decided to regrow a pineapple. It was easy at first, just twist off the top, remove any fruit and the first layers of leaves, and stick it in a shallow glass of water. Right away, it started to grow roots and easily transplanted to soil. At this point, I was living in a cold northern climate, so I had no real reason to believe the plant would do very well. But it stayed alive during the first winter, and at the end of the school year I got to take the plant home. It kept growing through the summer and When it was time to go off to college in the fall, I took the pineapple with me to spruce up my new norm. A bit. Fast forward now twelve years and living in four different states, and this pineapple is still with me. It survived my irresponsible college days. It's been overwatered, underwater, lived in a dark basement I was renting, knocked off a shelf by playing dogs, survived a freak summer blizzard in Colorado where all but the very inner leave you survived. It, sustained heavy damage in a hail storm in Texas, and made it through blistering Arizona heat waves. Through all of this, after ten years, this poor little pineapple was only slightly bigger than when I started, probably a foot and a half tall and a foot wide. I now live outside San Diego, and in the last two years the plant has started growing exponentially. It's now about four ft tall and almost five ft wide, and I've had to buy a bigger pot twice. Now. I should also mention that in that biology class I met and started dating the girl that eventually would become my wife, and she has never been the biggest fan. Calling the plant my old girlfriend, I like to joke that the pineapple is our beauty and the beast plant. When it dies, so does our relationship. She doesn't find that funny. A couple of weeks ago, when we were moving the plant inside for the winter, struggling to get it through the door it had outgrown during the summer months, both of us sustained many cuts on her arms from its spiky leaves. I thought that was going to be her breaking point and that she was going to make me get rid of it. But a couple of days later, I caught her trimming up leaves that had been damaged in the move and talking to it as she gave it some water. I've never been more in love with her. I truly can't believe this plant I survived so much. And I know what you're wondering at this point. Has it ever grown a fruit? Nope, nope, never, it's probably never even thought about growing one. Oh that's so much. That's so sweet. Oh that's wonderful. That's really that's really good. I'm I'm also glad that I'm not the only person that talks to their house. I I love that so, so, so so much. And you know, here's so many more years the relationship and the Pineapple plays. Um Mitch wrote, my wife and I are huge fans of your show. We both listen on our respective commutes and then talk about it post work. It's also a great common ground podcast. When we traveled pre pandemic, both of us got a big kick out of your Boxed Wine episode. I've always looked down on boxed wine, but my wife had no such reservations. With the pandemic, it was cost effective, so we gave it a go. We fell in love with Bota Box Wines in March and recently finished every single flavor. My wife sadly had to drop out halfway through the Boto Box Rainbow collection due to pregnancy. As much as I missed my wine companion, I suppose it was the right thing to do. I just finished the last flavor and put a picture of the collection. Any was surprisingly beautiful. I was like, oh, it was you know by color Rebo and I thought it looked great. Uh In congratulations both on the pregnancy and completely the vote of box remote collection. Both those that are pretty pretty amazing feats. Yeah yes, yes, um swat to your roote. Just started listening to your Burger episode and had to pause to write this email. Y'all started the episode off referencing a little TV show. As Annie was saying the words I confidently set out loud in my car, of course they're going to be talking about Bob's Burgers. Well, obviously that was not the case, because just as I said those words, Annie said supernatural. I don't know what I was feeling at that moment, but the fact that I was wrong about the show really hit like you go hard. The disappointment I felt was so bizarre. I made eye contact with the person sitting in the car next to me, and I just know he saw the roller coaster of emotions that went across my face in a span of like four point seven seconds. His face was one of puzzlement and also suppressed laughter. The episode was great and so much fun to listen to you, but that disappointment lingered for an entire hour. I just thought y'all would get a kick out of my story, and yes, I do find that hilarious. And also I totally meant to mention Bob's Burgers and I forgot. Uh that would have made more sense. Swatty like you. You would have been a better guess than supernatural. So I don't think you need to take this as a real ding to your ego. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't meant personally. Oh no, no, no, we would never know. Um no, yeah, I I actually have not seen Bob's Burgers, and I've been told by approxim million million people that I would love it in the burger puns. Yes, uh so I I yeah, I got into the back of my head. I will get to it eventually. It's it's really sweet. It's it's a very heartwarming show. Um and uh yeah, I'm totally that guy who uh like, I'll be watching it and I'll be like, did you see the burger bun and they're like, yeah, dude, it's right there, and I was like, it's funny, and I that's what I've been told. Like people are always almost offensively shocked that I haven't seen it because they're like, but the plums with the plums. Annie, Yeah, I know, I know I'll love it. I'll get there. But yeah, I can't believe we told it. I made a note of it and everything like Bob's Burgers, but I forgot. I forgot, you know. You know. It just shows that we do need a Burger sequel Yes yea or a whole Bob's Burgers episode. Yes people ever written suggested that there, so that's on our list on our uh summer wrote you asked for emails regarding local specialties, so here's one. I grew up in Quebec, where most of the world's maple syrup comes from. So every year it was always a great treat to go to the caban a sukra I think um, which literally translates to sugar shack. This was an event. You can get horse drawn carriage roads, learn how to make maple syrup, other family activities, maybe some outdoor activities like snowshoeing or cross country skiing. Eat a maple inspired breakfast with pancakes or crepes, maple baked beans, breakfast sausage and or bacon, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera in a heated room. Delightful. But my favorite part was let's here. Let's here, I think um or maple taffy in English. Oh my, you have a pile of clean, fresh snow and poor, hot and very concentrated maple syrup. The snow cools the thickened maple syrup into a taffy like texture, but before it cools completely, you take a popsicle stick and roll up the maple goodness. The result is a sticky, sweet maple treat that's still slightly warm from the maple, but you have the crystalline coolness of the snow that hitched a ride and has yet to melt away. Image attached. Literally, the experience is melt in your mouth, sweet heaven. If you like maple and sweet things, not everyone does. As a kid, I couldn't have had more than one because it would be too sweet, but later had it as an adult I learned that I could have to extending the joy of the experience. I a last now live in London, Ontario, so we don't get enough snow to do the taffy, so I miss it terribly. If you do make it to Quebec, Montreal, Quebec City, or anywhere else in around March, I do encourage you to stop by a sugar check. Yes, absolutely, yes, we as to go to Canada's growing and growing into it. Oh yeah, that's so fun. I would have loved that as a kid and as an adult. But as a kid that would have been like a magical experience. Oh yeah, oh yeah, um yeah, and then another listener has written in about that. I think we've I think we've mentioned this somehow, some way before it. Yeah in yes, yes, um, And we do have some more a listener mail for you. We do, but first we've got one more quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Mike wrote thank you for the great Fruit episode. As someone who is on high blood measure meds, I appreciated the knowledge and why I can't eat such delicious fruit. A quick story about that. In two thousand two, guys put on meds that wouldn't allow me to have great fruit. I literally had bought a quart of grape fruit juice the day before going to the fast forward. A number of years in, my cardiologist put me on a new med and I received fantastic news I could eat great fruit again. Rather than returning immediately to work after my appointment, I stopped by the closest grocery store and bought a bagg fast forward. I'm back on meds that mean no great fruit after having heart surgery. A bummer to be sure, but given the alternative for others in a similar situation. I do recommend the harribou fruit salad candy. Their faux grapefruit is solid, and the occasional sip of a grapefruit I p A has shown no ill effects. Oh. I'm still so shocked by this whole thing, and a lot of you have written in about Oh thank you for I didn't know why I couldn't have grape fruit. I'm glad that the I p A you got that in this faux grape fruit flavor, so it's not completely absent from your life. Yeah. Yeah, and I would I would hazard that there are probably some I p A s that will give you a similar flavor experience to grape fruit without actually having grapefruit juice in there. Um. I do kind of like like look out for when I'm in a certain mood for wines like white wines that are labeled like with with like notes of pineapple, because I shouldn't eat pineapple, and sometimes I'll pick and want in the universe's pineapple. Yeah, stud So yeah, yeah, do do what you can. Yeah, work it out, but be safe, Be safe. Devin wrote, I was listening to several episodes the other day and I wanted to write in first I think it was the Margarine episode, but I was so surprised to learn that Lauren doesn't have a science background. Oh oh, thank you, oh gosh. Um. I'm working on a PhD in analytical chemistry and my advisor always says that you never really understand something until you can explain it in a simple way, and I've always thought Lauren does a wonderful job of doing that. So kudos to you, Lauren. Me ow, I say, thank you, gosh, how nice? Um. Okay. Secondly, I'm party to the party on the Molecular Astronomy episode, but I wanted to share for my fellow Star Wars fans like Annie, that Galaxy's Edge and Hollywood Studio, as at Disney World, has a lot of food that is borderline molecular Astronomy. My fiance and I went earlier this year, pre pandemic and had some drinks at Oga's Cantina. My fiance had a fuzzy ton ton which had this really cool citrusy home on top with some sort of plant extract that made your tongue and lips tingly as you drank it. What I had was not really a drink, but it did contain alcohol. It was a petri dish filled with gelatin and popping boba like balls, topped with pop rocks, freeze, dried fruit, and other alien looking garnishes. I've attached some pictures of these, and when it's safe to go, I highly recommend going to Galaxy's Edge. Yes, oh, I can't wait, I really want to. I yeah, I too went in February, which I was blowing my mind when I was writing out like what happened in I was like, oh, yeah, I went. I did that Galaxy's Edge. And I've also had the fuzzy Tanton. It was great. I got one that was like han solo and carbonite and it had this like metal grate um and under the grate was dry ice, so so it was like smoking. And that one was really good. Um. I know there's a cookbook for anyone's interested. We mentioned it in our fictional foods. Yeah. Also, I'm gonna be straight with you, I almost I there were tears running down my face when I got onto that ride Rise of Resistance, which if anyone's listening to this, like after the pandemic, you can't just get on that ride, Okay, you can't just show up. You've got to have a plan. Um, and when we got in there were two years I'll admitted. Yeah, yeah, no, that's uh. And yeah I'm for for anyone who listens to any of any of Holly Fries shows, I'm sure that you are already aware. But she is also a very big Star Wars fan, and um has spent a lot of the pandemic uh drinking her way through the drink section or I know, actually the entire Star Wars Galaxy's Edge cookbook, UM, and her her Twitter feed is full of that. Yeah, she talks about it on the internet somewhere. Yeah, Holly and I were recently on movie Crush where we talked about Empire Strikes Back and she discussed it on there and uh, that was an hour and thirty minute episode that had a time limit on it. If that tells you anything, but go check it out if you want. It was very fun and now I have a very fun Twitter prank people are playing me. Oh right, yes, so yeah, I go check that out when when the pandemics ever. I I also recommend Galaxy's Edge. It's fun. Uh, Jody wrote, I've thought about writing many times, but this time it was like a sign from the podcast Gas. I tend to bene listen to my podcast, so I heard the Hannibal episode in the Hansel and Grettle episode on the same afternoon. Both were very good on their own, but the combination struck me as hilarious. I made my daughter listen to the episodes back to back, and when she was finished, her only comment was, clearly, these people have never met you. You see, I have a bit of a strange reputation among my nearest and DearS that started nineteen years ago when my daughter was a newborn. I was playing your toes and pretending to nibble on them to make her laugh, and telling her in baby talk boys, I could just eat you up. You're so darn cute. I stopped and looked at my sister, who was visiting, and said, what a creepy thing to say to a kid. I basically just told my infant child that I was going to cook and eat her. My sister rolled her eyes and told me that I was weird. She wasn't wrong, but that isn't the point. During a two am feeding, I got to thinking about that exchange. We tell our kids a lot of creepy stuff. Rockabye, baby, haunsle and Gretel where the wild things are, et cetera. The more I thought about it, the more I was condensed my kid would need serious therapy by the time they hit preschool. Okay, so I may have been a little sleep deprived, but it was too late. I could not unthink the thoughts. From that point on, it became a standing joke around my house that kids could be cooked and eaten at my slightest whim. Over the years, other people heard me say that naughty children would be cooked and eaten, which, of course met that I also had to explain myself. Thankfully, I am only friends with people who have a great sense of humor. Years of this nonsense eventually led to the attached picture. For Halloween one year, I dressed up as the mostly friendly witch next door. I am allergic to most face points and makeup, so my Halloween costumes are only as scary as my actual I made my daughter sit in our tub, and when children walked into the house, I would tell them I would give them candy if they gave me dragon liver or something of the sort for my Princess stew As if on cue they would ask what Princess st was, and then the show started. My daughter would let out a streak and plaster her face against the steamed up windows of the porch, making sure to really hand it up with lots of splashing handprints sliding down the windows. The works. I would toss the trick or treaters some candy and dash up the front steps, making sure to grab my giant potato masher along the way and yelling get back in the butt. The hot tub sits below the window line, and the windows are just steamed up enough that from the front yard a kid could own. We see our outlines as I mashed the princess back into the pot, with more dramatic splashing, yelling, and a few gurgles for good measure. This worked even better as the evening war on and we perfected our scene and the shadows started to really work in our favor. If the child had an adult with them, I would ask the parent if they wanted to contribute the child to the pot for a portion of the stew. Naughty children are particularly delicious. Some parents played along and pretended to think about it. No other children were added to the pot. Over the years, I have threatened to cook and eat many a naughty child and have many stories, but sadly only a few pictures. My husband has posted this picture on social media every Halloween since the ninety ticket. One of her friends is it printed out and hanging her kitchen as a warning to her own children. She told them that if they are naughty, they would be brought to my house. Those children are only a little younger than my own daughter and taller than I am, so that's not much of a threat anymore. But the picture remains on their kitchen bowl and board just in case. For the record, both of my children, ages twenty three nineteen are alive and well. Both are reasonably well addressed all things considered. That's so great, that's wonderful. Yes, yes, I mean you're not wrong. We do tell children a lot of strange stuff. Yeah, he made a Halloween thing out of it. That sounds amazing. It would have really scared me as a kid, so yeah, I would have been. I would have been like a little bit genuinely upset by that as a child, which means I love it right now. Yes, yes, so thank you. Thanks to everybody who wrote in these amazing letters, and we truly they're these beacons of lights really bright in our day, yes, and we're so happy to share them with all of you. And we would love to hear from any listeners about any and all things um. You can write to us. Our email is Hello at saborpod dot com. You can also find us on social media. We are on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at savor pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts to my heart Radio. You can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks it's always to our superproducers, Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way