Most Memorable Food Experiences

0:28Hi, I'm Ryan Davis. sick again. I mean, just the sickness. Just every week there's a new sickness. Oh my gosh. It's like a new theme of the podcast. I've got the real, I've got the nasal thing going. You're going to hear it. I mean, I got to acknowledge it. It's an audio medium. Yeah. Well, I thought maybe this was just your voice now. This is like your... Now, you will be in danger of cold and flu as well, of course, because this is the rare episode where we don't need to do a Judy alert. In fact, Judy should be doing a Kiernan alert. I know I'm here in Maryland's Eastern Shore in my mom's Airbnb, which is not active during the winter.

1:07And yeah, it's nice to be home here in the freezing cold Eastern Shore. And are you getting anywhere else stateside while you're here? Is this just a way stop on the way back to South America? I saw Reagan International. That was nice. and you're not going to new york you're not going to philadelphia this is like a real just family trip yeah you know i'm i'm very family oriented guy so you spend you spend the holidays with your family you're with this is we we we celebrate this is the orthodox holidays as we record this is february 3rd what uh the only holiday on february 3rd nope it's the feast of saint blaze the Catholic saint of throats and people go to church.

1:58And Ryan, I know where you were going with that. I don't like that. No, people go to church and they hold candlesticks on either side of your throat and the priest gives you a blessing and then you don't have throat sicknesses that year. Well, you should have done that this year. I've always been weird. I've never understood why St. Blaise gets this ritual? Catholics really know about that. What is it about? I mean, all the saints have all these crazy things that go on with them. Why St. Blaise at the top of the calendar to have people come in and get the blessings? I'm hearing about this for the first time.

2:33I was here with my mom because we celebrate Groundhog Day as a family, and it's important for me to be here. Do you guys lift each other out of the ground? and look for shadows. Yeah. This isn't your actual first day of time of hearing the Feast of St. Blaise, though, right? I don't know. I don't think they do that at St. Francis' Thales. I'm going to check. Guys, this is something worth traveling for. You want to look for a great St. Blaise festival close to you. Go to the Mass, you get the candles. It's great. I'm feeling a little scratchy down there. I could use a little intervention right now.

3:10Yeah, it can't hurt. I mean, it could burn you. And now where will you be going? When and where will you be going from Maryland? I am flying to Mexico to be with my boyfriend over the Valentine's Day holiday. He's flying in from Bogota. And then we're going to Puerto Vallarta. And then back to Bogota for the foreseeable future. Wow. Okay. Hunkering down again. Time of the European sojourn is over for a while. That was a long trip. That was a lot of cities. It seems long. I felt, yeah, you seem tired, I would say. I was pretty tired. We are. I had an amazing time in Florence, which we have to do an episode about.

3:53But it is such a city that I barely had. I felt like I barely touched it. You know. Oh, I'm sure. Because how long were you there? Just like three days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The I'm off to ski at the end of this week. We're heading up to Stowe, Vermont. We've we've talked about Stowe before. Or hell, I'll throw it in the show notes because a lot of New Englanders will be heading towards that Stowe area. This is the rare year where the skiing on the East Coast is better than the skiing on the West Coast. You're seeing all over my social media. I don't know if you're plugged into ski Instagram. I am not.

4:27The big thing for influencers to be posting this year is they'll write my non-cancelable picture to Park City. And then it's just like this tiny little strand of snow on all this mud on either side. And they've got their skis in the mud. It's very dramatic. They really don't cancel if there's no snow. You know, I mean, it depends how you book. It depends how you book. Skiing's hard for that. It's very hard to know. And you know what? I'll even throw a link to our traveling to ski episode. Remember when we did that last week? Oh, I do. I learned a lot. Now, Ryan, one, today we're tackling a topic that we're both very passionate about.

5:10Obviously, we're passionate skiers fitting for right now while the Winter Olympics is going on. But we're also quite passionate about food. Yes, we love food and we love interesting food and cultural food experiences. Yeah, we love it all. I do have a question. So we're both going to cover, we've both brought three food experiences that stand out in our mind from our travels. We're going to talk about it. And I'm going to talk about certain cuisines that jumped out. And there's a long list of maybes to be included on this. I remember particularly when I was in Bhutan, the rural folks who are out in the fields doing God's work all day, they carry a piece of dried yak cheese as a necklace.

5:55And it's like this big hunk thing. Picture like Parmesan, like a big wedge of Parmesan, but dried out to like the absolute, there's no moisture left. And they just suck on that. And they bite off a piece that you basically rehydrate in your mouth over the hours that you're chewing it. But I decided not to put that on the list. So I just pushed it up here to the A block. Yeah, that's different. I tried it and it was a memorable food experience. It was like having some rawhide in your mouth, but you know, it's very convenient, very portable. Yeah. Here's the question I have for you. You know, you're well known on the podcast for enjoying the top 50 places on earth to get a burger and that kind of stuff.

6:40You love lists and like kind of box checking where food is going to exist. With star collecting, we prefer to call it. Yeah. What do you call it? Star collecting. What's star collecting? The Michelin star collecting. I've never heard that. Is that what you people call it? Yeah, you're a star collector. Yeah, yeah. Is that a real thing or did you just make that up? That's a real thing. And who uses that phrase? People I know and people, it's a kind of - Who? Name one person. Chase Whiteside, is that who you're going to say? I'm not going to name any people. All right, so nobody calls it star collecting except Ryan.

7:13That's a future episode, the sad group of star collectors, of hobbying star collectors. No, here's a question that I have for you. It's twofold. The first is, I really don't know, because you and I have traveled a bit together, but not to exotic places. We've never been together to a really faraway trip or a culture that is so foreign to the two of us. And are you - We ate very well in Kentucky. Yeah, we did. Foreign culture, though. All right. You know what? I'll even throw in the show notes a link to our old Louisville episode, which incorporates also Mammoth Cave National Park. Now, Ryan, which is why, by the way, which is it has a great story about going out to eat with Ryan, where he tries to talk to a taco place about a particular type of super special Mexican taco that you can only get in Mexico City.

8:09And the guy looks at him like, what? Who are you? Go back to Mexico City. It was literally a gringo, folks. It's not that special. It was rough. Okay. Now, Ryan, here's my question. When you travel to a culture that has food that's very different than ours, and they have foods that we might consider challenging, say food that incorporates blood, for example, are you an adventurous eater where you'll try something just to try it and see if you might like it? Yeah. I mean, I feel obligated. Yeah, sure. okay i've eaten i've eaten worms and caterpillars and ants yeah worms what was the worm what was the context of the worm that was in uh a tasty menu in quito and one of the dishes was just uh it was a nice cooked like plump kind of worm but it was like fuzzy so i don't know if it was like a it was a caterpillar worm it was green and it was and you know i it i'm not gonna say i enjoyed it Sure.

9:11Sure. But you tried it. Okay. That really answers the question. And then the second piece I have now, I know you, I know you do this in Mexico city, but I don't have a feel for because you are a star collector because you're a star collector. Do you mix in a good amount of like street food and like how much are you focused on the highest end? No, I mean, almost all like breakfast or lunch will be like little cafes or street food or, you know, sandwiches in Milan, you know, like whatever is whatever is like the normal kind of chill places. I love to see that. Yeah, I'm a real obsessive. I'm always looking for best sandwich in a place and best bakery in a place.

9:56Boy, boy, does Italy do sandwiches well. Well, do tell because I don't think you have any of those featured today. So what did you discover of Italian sandwiches? Oh, I mean, they just they love a sandwich. They always have just incredible cured meats and cheeses with fresh bread. And, you know, it's really just like a snack. So you'll just kind of grab a little a little sandwich at a cafe while you're it's just lovely. Yeah, I love I love the sandwich culture of Italy. All right. I have one one last question before we jump into the the cured meat of the episode, which is, I do have to know, because we're going to be talking about food, are we currently on the Ozempic schedule, or are we taking a break right now?

10:40No, I was off for some of the holiday, but now I'm back on. You're back on? Yeah, I'm on my fighting weight, you know. Wow, wow. And could you feel, did you put on a little weight during the holidays? I think it was, I didn't end up putting on that much weight, because I walked so much. Like some days I was walking like 15, 20 ,000 steps, like, you know, four or five days in a row. So I think I was just burning way more calories. So I didn't really gain that much weight, but I did eat a lot more. I was going to be impressed. I thought when you said 15, I thought, wow, this guy's walking 15 miles.

11:13That became 15 ,000 steps. I'm like, ah. That's seven and a half miles. That's a lot of miles. Yeah, yeah. All right, Ryan. Well, I think it's time for us to dive in and talk about some of our most memorable food experiences while traveling. Tell the cabin crew. Flight attendants, prepare for takeoff, please. So before, you know, I think this will be one of the ones where you've got one, I've got one, you've got two, I've got two, and we'll pass back and forth. And then what's really fun in this episode is we've got one shared one to cap it off. So we'll be doing seven spotlights here. But let me ask, Ryan, I'm sure you struggled with the same thing I did, which is what exactly was the criteria you were using to consider it a special food experience?

11:59I think a combination of, you know, you know, the setting and the food and sometimes even how I got there and just sort of how how unique the food is in the culture and how much I liked it. And so aesthetics, is that? Oh, yeah. I always say, okay, yes. You were, see, I was very focused on flavors and especially a discovery of things that I didn't know I liked. That was like, because when I think of memorable food experiences, that feels like a door opening. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that that's, we approached it in different ways, but there'll be a lot of overlap in what, how we talk about our experiences.

12:45All right. Well, lead the way, Ryan, what is your first most memorable food experience. Okay. I want to talk about this really cool food experience I had in Mexico City a few years ago, and it's called Arca Tierra. And this isn't like a typical restaurant. It's in Zocimoco, the floating gardens. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Yeah. And so you actually have to take a... Well, what are the... You should say what the floating gardens are. Yeah. So there are these super colorful canals in Mexico City that tourists and locals go and you rent a boat and you sort of go around these canals and you party with your friends and there's music and there's drinking and there's a little marijuana smoking, you know, and people just haven't.

13:32I'm sorry. I know it's out of control. Um, you know, people just having a good time and, um, you know, there's throughout people selling like beers and, and, you know, uh, food and snacks. And there's little places that you can stop to, you know, uh, have some drinks or whatever, but this place is sort of deep inside that area and you take a special, um, boat and it takes you out to this little island and um there's no electricity on the island it's entirely a farm-to-table experience with all this local uh agriculture it's super seasonal and cooked in like highly traditional mexican ways like on fire um and they offer different menus throughout the year depending on sort of like um you know sort of the the season obviously but you can expect things like you know quesadillas with squash flowers and spinach hair loin blue corn dishes just you know all sorts of like really really traditional things you're the coffees brewed in a clay pot you know it's it's that kind of place and it's a really unique experience because you know as you've seen the food cook they give you a walk around the island where they're growing some of the, um, you know, they're growing some of the food that they're using there, but they're, they also tell you about sort of their philosophy about keeping this sort of cooking alive.

15:00And, uh, it's all done in a small group and then you, you eat and drink and then be merry. And then they send you on your way. So it's sort of like, it's like a 12 to five kind of, kind of day of, uh, eating and, and, and hanging out on this little Island. That's cool. I, I, I have done, I I'm not incorporating anyone here, but a couple of food tours. In Malaysia, I did a food tour. And I do, I think food tours are a great thing to do when you have limited time. Because, you know, if you want to pack in as much exploration as possible, great to have an expert who can really walk you through it.

15:36Yeah, definitely. I mean, this, this, you get the, you know, and it's a communal meal. Everybody sits down together that you came on the boat with. And so it's, it's cool. And I'll link in the, show notes. Book it well in advance. It's very popular, but it was a super cool experience, and I'd love to do it again sometime. Well, Ryan, my first one comes from when Catherine and I, we took a big trip to Vietnam and Myanmar. And in Vietnam, the food was a big part of the draw of coming to Vietnam because it's so fresh. It's very light. It's very aromatic. I always think of Vietnamese food as having great stacks of herbs and using it against really subtle flavors.

16:22And one thing that I hadn't really thought through, honestly, was, you know, what does breakfast look like overseas? And in Vietnam, breakfast is just as savory as lunch or dinner is. And so beginning the day with a big bowl of pho or a similar sort of noodle meaty soup is a really standard thing to do. And so Catherine and I spent most days we would go out to a food stall. And a lot of the guides are basically like, look for where the longest line of local people is. And like, that's the soup you want to get. And I remember we went into one where completely just inundated with people who are on their way to work, sitting on these small plastic stools, which is a very common site for these street stalls.

17:18These stools that are really like in the US, you would say, oh, that's for like a kindergartner. You just kind of squat on one of those, a giant pot steaming with delicious chicken broth. They put the noodles in, they put aromatics and herbs and spices in live. And I do remember I was asking you about the challenging food. One of the more challenging things that I ever tried, and this was for breakfast, was clotted pig's blood. And it was a little cube of like a jello pig's blood. Now, it's very memorable, which is why I remember it. And it's on this episode. But I have to say, it really did make me think, God, why do we do breakfast like we do?

18:05Like, why do we grow up with sugary cereals or like peanut butter toast when we could be having pho for breakfast to really like turn you on to the rest of the day? I think that's a pretty good approach. And I learned that in Vietnam. It's super memorable and inspiring for me. That is really fun. I think I've seen that blood thing that you're talking about. I think I've avoided that at a Vietnamese place before. It's very, I mean, jello-y is the right way to say it. And it is like somebody has just put like iron directly into your mouth. But you know what? I was there. I wanted to try it. I didn't get it every day.

18:43I got one day in my breakfast and I was like, okay, now I know what that's like. And it's very iron forward. And I will slip in. there was one other interesting food story from Vietnam, which is there was one night that I did a bunch of research in Hanoi to find a restaurant I thought we would like. And by the time we were through the appetizers, it was very clear this place was like not good. And we debated, God, should we like sit here and suffer through this? I mean, we're in like a great famous food city. We love Vietnamese food. And we just cut out. We paid the check for just the appetizers.

19:15We cut out. We took the hole in the wall method and we ended up at a place where all they served was, you know, there's room for maybe three or four people there. And all they served was just a fresh roasted fish stuffed with as much dill as you could possibly fit into that fish. And it was so simple and delicious. And I think that is what really struck me about Vietnamese food, how simple it could be. And it's the quality of the ingredients. That sounds amazing. My friend just got back from his first trip to Vietnam and will not stop raving about the food and culture. And I got to go. It's very I think it's similar to Italy in that you can stumble upon places and chances are you're going to get a great meal no matter where you are.

20:01You know, I feel like in New York, you kind of have that where like you can find places just by happenstance as opposed to needing to do all the research. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's how you know you're in a great food city. All right. Now, what's your second one, Ryan? So my second one actually comes from my trip to Dubai, which was like 2013. And I had a guide there who was Emirati. And one afternoon, he took me to lunch near the old town. And it was this place where there was no signs. It was a small, it looked like a house. You kind of walk in and you take your shoes off. And everybody sits on the floor and there were like 20, 25 of us, all men.

20:48I'm the only guy who's dressed in my Western suit. And they proceeded to bring out a huge lamb that had been slow cooked all day that is so soft that when you touch it, it kind of just like the meat just falls away. Oh my God. Wow. And, you know, obviously rice and some flats, some like breads. And a little bit, I remember like of yogurt and we, they, we served ourselves and everybody ate with, with their hands and we sat on the floor and it was very quiet. And, you know, people talked in like a low whisper to the folks that they knew, but, you know, everyone was very, um, uh, nice. And, uh, it, it, it was a really interesting experience.

21:34And, uh, yeah, then you sort of, um, you got up and, and everyone paid as they left. And that was that. It was just such a unique experience. The food was amazing. I certainly had never been in that kind of environment before. Sounds incredible. Yeah, it was super cool. So did you bring a second choice here experience? I did, Ryan. So similar to how Vietnam is a great country to visit for food experiences, Morocco is another place where when you think back on your memories, you immediately go back to street stalls with all sorts of dried fruit and really rich smelling spices and cold drinks and like freshly poured in front of you.

22:21Mint tea is like a very common thing to get when you're staying at a Riyadh. And when Catherine and I were in Fez, I had a local specialty there that really captured my heart and imagination. It's called Bastille. And it's spelled P-A-S-T-I-L-L-A or B-A-S-T-I-L-L-A. And it's a traditional Moroccan meat pie that is made with historically pigeon, but today it's mostly with chicken. And it's a very savory, succulent, rich meat pie. I like meat pies generally. They've got the good old like British sort of meat pies. But this one is a little more delicate and it's spiced primarily with cinnamon. So it's a really warm tasting dish.

23:12And, you know, I didn't immediately think of chicken and cinnamon as pairing well together. But that with a flaky crust and these almonds on top, it's definitely a little sweeter than I think most like entrees certainly would be in the United States. but that bestia has stuck with me. I think about it often. I've even thought about like, what would it take for me to make that bestia? Cause I feel like I got all the like parts of that here in the U S. Um, but it, nothing will sort of bring me back to that Fez restaurant, uh, so much like that. Um, and it, and it, it really captured for me, uh, that special Moroccan, uh, cuisine.

23:51Well, you know, I think the, uh, the pigeons in Boston pretty cold right now, I'd go catch yourself a few. They're probably not moving too fast.

24:01Now, it looks to me like your third one must have something to do with birds as well. Yes, it does. So my third one is the classic, you know, I'm back home in the Eastern Shore. It's unfortunately not the time of year, but the classic Eastern Shore sort of mid-Atlantic crab feast. and my favorite place to get this is at the Red Roost, which is in this little town outside in the eastern shore of Maryland. And this is a place that began as a chicken house like in the 1940s and then it was flooded and it could no longer be a chicken house. So they turned the area into a campground. But then there was this 1973 oil embargo that made this price of gas go sky high and nobody was going around camping.

24:49So the guy started selling fried chicken just to get some business in the door. And it was so popular, he turned it into a full-on restaurant in 1974. And so when you go here, the thing you get is the all-you-can-eat. And it comes with steamed blue crabs, snow crabs, steamed shrimp, fried chicken, hush puppies, corn on the cob, clam strips. Oh man, that sounds so good. Clam strips. This is like the opposite of Vietnamese. So, you know, and they just sort of, they sort of just, you know, you go there, everybody sits in a big table with your friends and they just start dumping, dumping food in front of you as it comes out of the kitchen, hot and fresh.

25:31And it's all terrific. I actually like the fried chicken so much that I have to like slow myself down so I don't fill up on it. And then hush puppies are like, you know, delish. That's like a fried cornmeal ball, basically, right? Yeah, with a little powdered sugar on it. Delicious. Can't go wrong with that. So that is always, I try to go once a year, and there's nothing like the old Chesapeake Crabbeast. Did you go, are you going on this trip? No, they're not open, because it's not the time of year, but I went when I was here. I went when I was back in the summer, and it's reason to come back, for sure.

26:10For sure. Yes. And did you bring a third? Yeah. You know, I didn't want to do a bunch of US ones on this one. You know, I would say hot chicken in Nashville is one I kind of consider putting on here because it's such a great experience. Pizza in New Haven. There's like these classic food experiences. This one surprises me with how much it stays with me, but I think it's worth it. So, you know, Catherine and I like to do the national park trips. And we always kind of laugh at lodges in national parks because they're often trying to do this like fancy food that like, you know, their ingredients aren't like well sourced.

26:51And like, I just don't need to have like French food when I'm staying at this lodge in the middle of a, you know, quite remote national park. And so we always say, you know, we wish they would just do like basics really well, like just make a really good chili or something like that. And there was one day when we were in Glacier National Park in Montana, where we had done an 18 mile hike. And I remember the last couple miles were a struggle. It was like a strenuous mountainous hike, but we had seen mountain goats and we had seen glaciers and it was like a really crowning achievement day of a hike.

27:29And we were both absolutely exhausted. it. And there's a hotel called the Belton Chalet, which is on one side. Glacier has this going to the Sun Road, which is the major thoroughfare. It takes a long time to traverse it. And Belton Chalet is on one extreme end. And we got a reservation to stay there that night. And in the Lodge restaurant, I was just looking for like, oh, man, what have I like earned off this 18 mile strenuous, like every muscle in my body aching. And I got something I would just like never treat myself to get. I was like, you know what? I'm getting that bacon covered meatloaf.

28:10And boy, oh boy, it was such a, I mean, talk about quintessential American cuisine. It was such a gut buster, but it felt like a really grand reward to a really satisfying physical activity. i uh i like it might surprise you but i like things wrapped in bacon oh that's uh well not right now because of ozempic but you like a little no just a couple a couple a couple bites of it you know um but yeah no that sounds that sounds fantastic it was i mean it was so indulgent but uh you know i we i love doing activities like that so that you can indulge yeah i mean that sounds like something they ate on the titanic so and that's part of what made it go down faster Hey, a really good meatloaf.

28:58I'm not going to be up here on my congealed pig's blood, look at me kind of thing. No, I won't turn my nose up at a nice bacon covered meatloaf. Me either. Get a little mac and cheese on the side. You're all set. Now, Ryan, you successfully got ahead of me where you already knew where one of mine was going to be for this. And you said, you know what? We've both been separately, But we should highlight, I mean, the food in Peru, again, truly one of the world's great cuisines. I don't think I ate a bad meal in Peru. Yeah, Peru is an amazing place to eat. Every city has terrific food and different takes.