Eat This Podcast
Talking about anything around food

Nominated

25 March 2015 Filed under:

Hard to believe, but Eat This Podcast has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award in the podcasting category, and in good company too.

Jbfa medal

Of course, I knew that it was a possibility. That’s how the Awards work. You enter, and I thought, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. To have gained an actual nomination is a surprise and a delight. Helena Attlee was probably my secret weapon, talking about Citrus in Italy.

It is honestly hard to express my delight and excitement.

A visit to Koshari Street An upmarket hole in the wall that serves couture street food

23 March 2015 Filed under:

Street food is big. Not just in places where eating on the street is the only place many people can afford, but in happening neighbourhoods around the rich world too. Burrito trucks, Korean barbecue in a taco, ceviche, you name it; all are available on the streets of London and Los Angeles, Sydney and San […]

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koshariStreet food is big. Not just in places where eating on the street is the only place many people can afford, but in happening neighbourhoods around the rich world too. Burrito trucks, Korean barbecue in a taco, ceviche, you name it; all are available on the streets of London and Los Angeles, Sydney and San Francisco. They have strange exotic takes on porchetta on the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina, and pizza ovens parked in English railway station forecourts. In many neighbourhods you can barely move for falafels.

One of the iconic street foods of Egypt – koshari – is now available in London, in a slightly upmarket hole in the wall place. I’ve always maintained that this podcast is not about happening restaurants or the latest groovy cocktails, but the chef who made Koshari Street happen happens to be a friend, so on a recent visit, I went to try for myself. And, of course, we talked about far more than the restaurant.

 

Notes

  1. Koshari Street is at 56 St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4EA. And online
  2. Anissa Helou is also online and her book Mediterranean Street Food is still available.
  3. We were interrupted by Lauren Bohn, and she too has an online presence, although there’s not much evidence there of her interest in food.

An Italian wine education A recently minted sommelier tries to improve my understanding

9 March 2015 Filed under:

Drinking Italian wine anywhere — even in Italy — can be fraught with complications. Is that wine from the area in Piedmont known as the Langhe? Better not say so on the label, unless you have express permission to do so, or risk a fine. Labelling was one of the few topics I didn’t cover […]

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wineDrinking Italian wine anywhere — even in Italy — can be fraught with complications. Is that wine from the area in Piedmont known as the Langhe? Better not say so on the label, unless you have express permission to do so, or risk a fine. Labelling was one of the few topics I didn’t cover in an extensive conversation with Marco Lori, a sommelier who kindly agreed to be grilled. I’m somewhat in awe of people who seem really to know their wines, and so I took the opportunity to ask Marco to try and lift the veil. That he did, with great good humour. There is so much I don’t understand. Like, what exactly do wine people mean when they talk about the smell of green peppers in a wine? Try as I might, I just don’t get that. And the resurgence of natural wines. And I had no idea that careful winemakers go through the harvest bunch by bunch, selecting this one for their top-notch wine, that one for a slightly lesser version. So much to learn. So little time.

Notes

  1. Jeremy Parzen touched on the latest labelling madness on his website. Absolutely sweet winemakers, quoting Bob Dylan: “to live outside the law, you must be honest”.
  2. Marco Lori’s website is Off the Vine. Say I sent you; it might do us both some good.
  3. This is that wine I mentioned. I haven’t managed to find it for sale locally. Yet.
  4. Intro music by Cerys Matthews. I hope she doesn’t mind. I mean, I don’t mind her website playing music to me unbidden.