418: Throwing Fits with James Harris

30:09Right, right. That's how you know it's good. Or my other strategy is like, and I do this anytime I travel, especially with stores, you kind of like befriend or chat up or just, you know, you're making small talk with the retail associate and they're local. They're like tapped in, supposedly. Ask them for a recommendation, right? Just ask a local person who kind of feels like they know what they're talking about or you respect what they do or how they present themselves. You're probably going to respect their choice in other aspects of culture. Ask them where their favorite bar is or what is going on that night that you should check out.

30:50So what did you find out when you're using this method, this James method? Because I feel like you're tapping into something. Do you speak a little Japanese or read a little Japanese? I speak enough to get around. but now like with you know like translation apps like you're good you're good yeah it is surprising i think people are always surprised at how little japanese people speak english themselves yeah um so i would definitely like get some apps if you don't yeah yeah yeah um i mean just like fire ramen like a cocktail bar came from like a store rec a store recommendation my first night i like touched down at like six o 'clock put my bags at the hotel like immediately just had to go find food I didn't go and find like you know something on like a side street I just went to like the first izakaya I could find it was full of tourists and Japan right now is I think they set the record for tourism in April 24 and it is like noticeably crowded with so many more tourists than ever and I've been going I've probably been like 30 times I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it is like okay how can you kind of zig when everyone's Yeah, and you have family there.

31:59It's your culture. So it's a little bit you have a unique perspective about how to visit Japan. And to be fair, you're definitely just trying to find an experience that feels like what you expect from Japan. I think the mentality you have to go in is like you're never gonna nothing is like the best or like the 10 best lists like those aren't going to be effective at all we had this guy on this writer W. David Marks who lives in Japan and he was just on the pod he was talking about how the TikTokification of Tokyo is really starting to creep into like of course you had you know TikTok lines in like Shinjuku Shibuya Harajuku some other like popular neighborhoods like to talk spots like yeah and like lines and like you know places blowing up and he's like yeah my my this cafe I go to where I get like just a coffee and a croissant all of a sudden there's like a line of 50 people that need this like one pudding right and they get their content and then they're gone so he's like so what I do is I still go there but I just wait until the 50 people like until they've sold out of their pudding right and then the line dissipates and the owner is this like 85-year-old Japanese guy that doesn't have a fucking smartphone.

33:13He's like, I don't know what's going on, but I'll sell the pudding and fine, whatever. It's crazy. It's the same in Seoul. I was just there in January in places like Ujuro and Songsu, like neighborhoods that are cool, are like these long lines of Koreans, like young Koreans. And I got to believe it's Kakao or TikTok that's like driving it. And you find your other spots. Yeah. But I don't know. It just feels... seoul they came out of like two years i'm sure same in tokyo a pretty strict nine nine p.m eight p.m curfews got it and so like that that that lifted in only 23 yeah and so it's kind of like a i feel there's like a little bit of coming back to life right um what dishes are you are you getting in in japan like that you really crave it could be from your your the home cooking that you miss um or just dishes that you love there's a ramen spot in the neighborhood where my family is which is called okikabo that's the neighborhood the average age is like 77 yeah like it is sleepy it is not like like people know it but they're like oh okay um it's like near it's like a 20 minute you know train ride to shinjuku or whatever yeah um there's a ramen spot i'll go to like multiple times anytime i'm there it's actually a taiwanese version of ramen so it's like a it's like no no broth but it's like a wet coating of the noodle and a bunch of like vinegar and oh we're vinegar yeah entering the fray it's definitely chinese yeah or taiwanese i think it's taiwanese yeah yeah yeah um but i mean the proprietors are japanese but i think it's like a taiwanese style um i love just posting up at the yakitori tents outside the train stations You're just elbow to elbow with salary men, you know, just eating sizzling chicken right off the fucking grill.

35:03Just like, you know, keeping your sticks, paying them, paying by the stick, having a cold Asahi or Orion beer to match with it. It's that's like and that's what I want. And you can go to any Yaki Tori tent and you're going to get the best Yaki Tori you've ever had. It's so true. And really, the chicken's going to be super fresh. Speaking of Asahi, I'm an NA guy. They have an NA00 Asahi that I had in Portland recently. How was it? It's super good, dude. I just wanted to plug it on the show. It made sense. So good. So good. So like the real. Did you get it poured in the robot arm? I did not get it.

35:37I was poured by a human. The future is now. The future is now. All right. Transitioning the convo, you worked at both Complex and Barstool. So I want to ask you a couple of specific questions. Your best interaction over food with a wrapper. Real quick. I was a freelance or our previous podcast was licensed by Barstool or signed to Barstool. Oh, okay. So we will back out of the specifics. But did you ever were you in the office of Barstool? We would like show up after work hours when it was just like the content monkeys just like editing hours of Dave Portnoy saying, I don't know, shit about sports.

36:17Yeah, right on. And we just would just kind of do our thing and dip. And that was the network that we absolutely torched our relationship with when we left. But a complex, I was there for a long time. I didn't really interact with that many rappers except for a very drunken Machine Gun Kelly at like 10 in the morning. But I worked at Def Jam for two years. And that was a lot of like, the one food thing I remember is me and our content team, we flew down to Georgia for a weekend or for a few days. and we spent a few days with young Jeezy filming him going back to his hometown. Oh, really cool. In the country.

36:57Yeah. Like two and a half hours outside of Atlanta. Whoa. And Jeezy was, he wanted to be there when we were doing an edit. Had to come in on a Saturday. I was texting with his guy. I was like, does he want anything? He's like, yeah, he wants seven spicy tuna crispy paninis from Joe and the Juice. I'm like, what? the least hard response you'd ever get and like kind of a great call though yeah feels healthful feels like protein and carb balance he's on his health shit so I think he's one of the protein I think he went fish because I don't know if he like fucks with red meat yeah or pork so that was wild and then I remember that Jadakiss once wanted like charred blackened salmon and it arrived and it like wasn't charred enough like the char was not hard enough and we had to like get another blackened salmon in like extra blackened.

37:49Well, you just reordered Jada's order. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, blackened fish, not my favorite preparation, but I could see if it misses the mark with the seasoning that you'd be a little disappointed. Then it's just like fish, right? It's just fish. It's just like burnt fish. You want it to be charred and blackened. Okay. Thank you for playing a little bit of being a good sport with those questions. Of course. Good memories. You hang with a noop, which a noop is opening. Boy. Yeah, right. And Anup is opening a restaurant, and I wanted us to get to Anup. I like Anup a lot. I want to have him on the show.

38:23You should. But let me ask you, when you're hanging out with a guy who's very involved in restaurants in New York, and he's like your dining companion, are you dining out differently? I'll let him take the lead, usually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm happy to kind of take the back seat and let him just kind of take charge on the menu. And, I mean, we go to, I went to Frog Club with him, which, I don't know if I talked about that, but like, oh my God. I kind of don't want to talk about that place. No. I kind of like just want to like. It doesn't deserve our breath, our oxygen. Truly, like for real.

38:54Well, I'm banned from there, so it doesn't even matter if I say anything. Oh, well, shit. It's fine. You're banned from, why are you banned? Okay, I did just ask a question. I'm banned because I went there and talked about it on Throwing Fits, and the clip went kind of viral because I was the first person to really talk about it. Because I went there on the first week with Anup. Yeah. Anup is, Anup Polar said he, he has his finger like very much on the pulse where you know he's like oh this new shit is opening you want to go there or this pop up whatever but the best shit that we think do in my opinion is like Astoria's seafood kind of like these institutions not like a corny Balthazar way yeah we went to Don Pepe's and got the shrimp Luciano with pasta and that might have been like top 10 dish I've had in 2024 yeah man or just like random spot we'll you know go to uh He's a big tennis guy too and will be at the US Open and then go to Flushing and just pick whatever's open and looks empty enough to, you know.

39:52And then just let him do the run point on the menu. And yeah, he's a food guy but not in the annoying type of way. Yeah, he's not trying to explain stuff. He's not trying to say, I know a secret resi to get into the thing. And he's not posting every photo. He's not doing the thing where you fucking post all 19 pieces of sushi you get at your omakase. Yeah, that's a rough hang. No, I agree. That's going to be a rough hang. You mentioned something in passing, and I want to list one. Is Balthazar corny? The food is not good. I think it's fine to get a drink at the bar. Yeah. But I think it's more like the Balthazar halo effect of everything trying to be like a French bistro New York classic institution.

40:37I'm done with French bistros. Yeah. I'm done with steamed fish. you know fucking you know like cream sauces like I don't know just over it yeah I mean I think it's like the tower the seafood tower and the martinis there is like and like the service is pretty good at both Starbucks and like Anup will do I mean it still feels cool to go in there yeah Anup does like a I think Christmas day him and some buddies I've never gone but him and some buddies will always do like a seafood tower martinis lunch that's it that's it that's what you order there but he is opening up a restaurant called Strange Delight in Fort Greene.

41:11And so it's cool to see someone that has worked in all facets of the food industry from like a cheese shop in Philadelphia to Pok Pok to Momofuku to Shake Shack on like the corporate side. Yeah, Anoop was at Pok Pok. Yeah. That's where I met him. That's where I met him. I was like, I know that. That's where I know him now. You made the connection now. Right. He's opening a restaurant, Strange Delight in Fort Greene. With Ham Hawaii. Yeah, with Ham. It's going to be fun. I'm so excited for that. It is like New Orleans influence, but not necessarily Po' Boys. And while it is like, or Buffalata's, it's but kind of like, I went to New Orleans with him and it was just a feeding frenzy.

41:50I went to Galatoire's and it was kind of weird and racist in there. Yeah. But like the Oysters Rockefeller blew my dick off. Did you go to Coop's at all for chicken? Fiorelli for chicken? I've been there before to Coop's and I really like the rabbit, the fried chicken in the, I think it's a rabbit jambalaya. Rabbit Jambalaya James Right on point Right on point It's exactly what you ordered there So far I love the rabbit Jambalaya So it's gonna be kinda like That style of New Orleans Not necessarily like What you think of You know like the Disneyland Version of New Orleans Yeah Um And it's gonna be And yeah it's gonna be Fucking good Yeah so what's ham What's like the point of view With him With the chef Is he Is he like Is it an oyster bar Is it What's it Well it's like an oyster bar Oyster restaurant But it's not just like You know raw bar oysters by the half dozen gonna be a lot of cooked oyster dishes which I think is like a criminally underutilized use of the oyster is like cooking them oh I mean Felix do you go to Felix?

42:49no so that to me New Orleans is the one for cooked oysters okay yeah Felix is great like what's the preparation? I mean it's just grilled on a half shell with butter and citrus like fried oysters and the big old golf oysters too it's not the small guys you get up in you know the colder waters nice golf oysters there's like an oyster loaf I think kind of based on the Casamentos a oyster Rockefeller inspired by Galatoire like it's going to be really fucking strange delight yeah gotta go there I'm excited for it to open okay so you and Lawrence are going to be in Italy for a month we were trying to book this and you're like I'm gonna be gone I'm like oh really you're gonna be in Italy for a month and it's not August it's gonna be in June it's a work trip I'm kidding I mean, so yeah, you guys do a lot of work in Italy, right?

43:37So tell me, how do you prepare to eat Italian food in country for a month? Similarly to Tokyo, if you just get people's lists, you're going to get the same places. Yeah, man. Right? Which, maybe that's a good thing, right? If you cross-reference lists and a few of your trusted wreckers are giving you like option D, go to option D. Right? It's just a meal. Like it's not going to, you don't live or die by like missing out or going to like one place that you're like, oh, that was a miss, whatever. But again, I think because we're going for, we're lucky enough to be going for work, I think it is like tap into the local brain trust.

44:14You know, there's a, there's the Barbasso. That's like the fucking legendary gigantic Aperol Sprizzioli place. Is that Milan? That's Milan. We'll be in Florence, Milan, and then Paris a little bit. and I'm going to go to the south of France for a vacation. So you're like more north style of Italy. Yeah, you know, like get some Milanese, get some fucking steak. Yeah, man. But we're doing work with a bunch of, a few different like Italian businesses and it's just like, yo, where should we go for dinner? Exactly. But again, it's also like you can't expect to have the best cacio pepe of your life.

44:52Just eat the cacio pepe and it's going to be fucking good. Yeah, and look at the cool drinks you're going to be having. Yeah. I think Italy's got, obviously, the wines, the natural wines, but the way they make cocktails is so nice. And you have to be chill with your order being wrong or the language barrier being too strong. If you're going to a local spot, they're not going to have an English menu. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not going to know. The translation apps aren't going to work. The power might go out, which happens at this place we started going to in Milan. I forget the name of it, but I know it by sight.

45:24Like the power just goes out and like there's nothing you can do. And the staff isn't freaking out at all. Charming. Yeah. And then like a guy comes in with a fucking trombone and is playing like the loudest, worst music you've ever heard. But like that's happening. You can't do anything about it. I never asked you, did you end up going to Puglia? We talked about that off mic a bit last summer. What did you think of Puglia? Puglia was sick. Yeah, man. unfortunately my girlfriend at the time and i we went there and then like the next week like the kardashians were there oh yeah and like uh dolce and gabbana did a thing there so it was like well pulley is now torched um like i saw pulley mentioned in some like popular tv show i don't know but yeah seafood what i mean just the simplicity i think i ate like three dozen uni if i'm sitting in Lecce in it was some I think it was south of Lecce yeah I'm not sure but like it was like white trash Italians and like me my ex-girlfriend and I'm like this is this is how you know it's good this fat Italian in capris and like some Philippine fake Philippine shirt and like bad jewelry and he has a bucket next to him for the for the sea urchin shells yeah for the shells that's fighting you guys Yeah, which is like, if there's a bucket next to you, then you know the place is going to be good.

46:53I mean, this is like, the James Harris rules for travel and dining is pretty great. You have to cede control, right? You can't be in a situation and think that you're going to be the operator. Things are just, you just got to let it come to you. Okay. I'm so excited to hear about your trip when you get back. Oh, yeah. This is Taste. We asked guests about the discerning taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire. Fast and Furious Taste is James. Are you ready? the best fruit peach seasonally speaking peaches, cherries and weirdly, this is a weird one but recently I've been fucking with grapes wow, like concords?

47:32no, like I was at, I don't go to Trader Joe's but I was at the Trader Joe's in Patterson New Jersey on the way to tennis camp with my boy Newt and he picked up like three different types of grapes they were phenomenal yeah man honey honey pearl i think was a type grapes can be good especially at the farmer's market in like late summer early fall the humble grape who knew it's good not just in wine form the worst vegetable uh i'm very happy that we as a society have kind of moved past kale yeah if you need to massage something to be able to digest it like you probably we probably should not be ingesting it right no for sure it's it's it's definitely i'll fuck with the sweet green kale Caesar.

48:14I can't even do that anymore. Nah, it's tough on the body. I was trying to think. I was like, I can't think of a vegetable really that I don't fuck with except for kale. I've never had kale prepared in a way where I'm just like, I'll have the kale, please. Well, sauteing kale is the worst. Truly the worst. Kale chips, I've tried, but it just tastes like salt. Yeah, you're right. The best dessert. I'm not really a sweets guy. Maybe just like chocolate cake or like coffee ice cream. Separately, separately. Yeah, of course. Your favorite American fast food chain Of the big four Or big three I would probably go Wendy's I would go Wendy's Mickey D's, Burger King, Wendy's That's it And then you have like the sandwich guys I was a Blimpies kid growing up Oh me too for sure West Michigan still has plenty of Blimpies You see it sometimes in Jersey Even though Jersey Mike still So reigns New Jersey Michaels I fuck with New Jersey Michaels I don't really fuck with Subway No I'm new to Taco Bell Wait stop Is that a branded thing?

49:19Did you get paid for throwing fits to go to Taco Bell for the first time? No How are you new to Taco Bell? So when I was in high school We'd get high and then go to the combination Taco Bell and Wendy's on 14th Street And I would always opt for Wendy's So I never really indulged in Taco Bell And now the menu I just can't, I need to learn the lexicon because I don't know the words at all. I don't like all their terms, but I have had it a few times now and I'm a recent convert, I would say. I'm a huge fan of the chicken cantina menu that has just been announced. I'm a big fan. No sponsorship yet.

49:57No, I actually really like, one of the corporate chefs is a listener of the show and shouts to you for talking about the internal process at Taco Bell to me. I definitely fuck with their marketing even though it's kind of become the de facto brand has voice like Taco Bell was early on that they played that Green Day song in the latest commercials that was pretty cool the new Green Day song your favorite cookbook of all time I'm not really a cookbook guy yeah it's alright I guess I just have recipes on my phone we can skip this one

50:35Warren says it's the best analogy that I've ever come up with in my life. We talk about, like, so many guys want to know about, like, personal style and how to develop your personal style, right? And I really equate it to cooking at home, which I never really was that into until pandemic, and now I love it. Yeah, that's cool. When you're first learning to cook, you need to follow the recipe to the T. You know, you need to know, like, exact ingredients, exact measurements, et cetera. Once you start getting, like, familiar with, like, the techniques, what you like, heat etc time then you can kind of just like fuck around and like you you're like oh actually I'm not gonna add this much paprika I'm gonna add this much I'm gonna add sumac instead or I'm gonna make some like sumac onions on the side and add that because I know it's gonna like pair well with whatever yeah yeah you start to get instinctual intuitive and eventually you don't even need necessarily to follow the recipe you just kind of know what you like and you can just like riff it out I love your journey and adjust and the same is true with like personal style and fashion where it's like sure you might want to just but eventually you gotta start just fucking riffing and it becomes instinctive.

51:37Yeah, you start doing pairings and combinations. Cookbooks I really like as objects and they're beautiful to look at and read, but I don't know if I necessarily prop one open and fall to the teeth. All good. I think that I personally enjoy cookbooks that do more than just teach to cook. Yeah. I make them myself and I'm super into that. The enthusiasm in cookbooks can be infectious. I agree. And I like that. Thank you. That's good. Good way to say that. All right, so your favorite LA restaurant right now? El Russo Taco Truck number one Word Good choice Your favorite New York City restaurant right now It's Bernie's I mean we already covered that You're being true to yourself Your favorite city outside America to visit for food I think the obvious one for me is Tokyo But also Mexico City Another obvious one that is like maybe more accessible For denizens of LA, New York Chicago Going there on Sunday Love it Super into that choice Man a few more James, it's been super fun having you in the studio.

52:33A cuisine you would like to learn more about?

52:38Western and Northwestern Chinese. Yeah. Because it kind of gets into that like Middle East, Central Asia. Good answers there, James. Last one, your favorite sandwich. In the summer, nothing hits like a BLT. Oh, stop. Agree. Okay, big questions here. Mayonnaise choice. I was just talking about Duke's Mayo. I've never had it. Wait, stop. I've never had it. Because it's a Southern thing, right? I grew up in New York. Amazon. Like, every store. No, but like, I've never, okay, I understand. This is not a, I mean, I'm fucking around, but like. Do you grow up, like, in a Duke's Mayo household? I grew up in a Hellman's household and a Miracle Whip household, which, you know, judge me.

53:15I only got Duke's later in life, but I do like Duke's. I like QP. Yeah, right, I'm fair. I'll just use QP. Yeah. I want to try Duke's Mayo. I do think, though, that people that are like, oh, man, I moved to New York and I helped raise rent and took housing from a fucking, you know, took my finance job and I took housing from, like, an immigrant or a creative, like, artist or whatever. Like, New York fucking sucks, but guess what? I got my Duke's mayo. Yo, relax. Yeah, exactly. Okay, the bacon choice. I feel like really thin bacon from, like, Oscar Mayer kind of freaks me out. I'll just get bacon from, like, the pork guy at the farmer's market.

53:51New skis, man. it's all about the tomato though agree it's the tomato and the Boston lettuce yep which is like trash usually for everything else yeah Boston Bib like I feel like not my choice for a salad but I'll do it for like if I'm trying to do like a like a Thai style like a minced meat salad with lettuce cups I was coming in from the non-Asian point of view no I just like I feel totally agree like Thai food and Bib lettuce is 100 % that's the only time I use it though I'm not fucking out here like eating a Bib lettuce salad that's what I'm thinking I was thinking more salad. You've corrected my wrong.

54:25I love that. And then outside of the summer, I would say maybe a banh mi. It's my number one in our draft. We drafted sandwiches. Yeah. But a year and a half ago, oh, yeah, my number one by far. Easily the best sandwich. Easily. James Harris, thank you so much for joining us. This is Tace. Thank you.

54:49Eliza, what is up? How are you doing? I'm good. We're back in New York. We have been on the road, you and I and Clayton and Shirley and everyone on the team. Us and the giant bag of gummy bears. Yeah. Did that make it back? I think I left the gummy bears in Vegas, but I did transport them from Wisconsin to Vegas. So those gummy bears really did see a lot of the world. Yeah. And we gave them to strangers in the airport also. Oh, that's amazing. That was a good call. I still have the corn that we acquired in Viral Cool, Wisconsin. Yeah, I mean, we came back completely transformed. I'll never be the same again after spending a week in Vegas.

55:27Yeah, so listener, we were on the road, our team, for about eight days, nine days. It was really fun. It was fun. We almost, to my feeling, got killed in a tornado storm, but we didn't. Matt kept us alive. It was awesome. Oh, my gosh. I don't take credit for keeping us alive. I take credit for just driving straight and not freaking out. You stayed calm. You turned on the radio so we could hear the tornado siren updates. I'm not a Midwesterner, so that was a new experience for me, but it was great. So for listeners, we were driving from Verrocco to Madison. Definitely tornado warnings, definitely sirens.

56:03I grew up in the Midwest, so I feel like I had a little experience, but the car was not chatty during that hour and a half drive. No, Clayton and I sat on opposite sides of the car watching the tree line to see if any tornadoes would come in. And the whole time in my head, I'm like, would I know what it looked like if I saw it? And then you showed me one video and I realized that I didn't see anything like that. Nothing like that. Not even like no trees falling from heavy winds either. No, just like a green black sky and lots of lightning and the bulletin coming in on the radio every five minutes.

56:37So super chill. Yeah, super chill trip. What's your first thing? We're doing three things. My first thing is that I came back from Vegas and I needed to reset completely. And so I went up to Callisto Farm in High Falls for the weekend for this pizza pop-up that was happening there from Promises Kept, which is like a Hudson Valley pizza event kind of thing. Have you been? Have you had their food before? I've never been to Callisto and I've never had this pop-up. Absolutely. The pop-up was great. Callisto is like a really special farm that my buddy Amalia is running up in High Falls and they do dinners all over the summer.

57:09So if you're listening and you want to go kind of see goats, they had some baby bunnies that they found in the hay when I was there. I would definitely check their Instagram because they have other events happening. But the one that I was at was this pizza and then Cherry's ice cream, like the soft serve stand. Did a pop up there. They did basil oil on the vanilla ice cream that they made at the farm. And they're doing these all summer? Yeah, this was like their summer open house kind of kickoff. And then Amalia is going to release a series of events over the summer. They're normally ticketed dinners.

57:41Yeah. I am so excited to hear that. I will absolutely make it. When I think about High Falls and pizza, I think about Ollie's. Yes. We did go to Ollie's the next day for lunch, which pizza back to back like that seems like a lot. But I thought Ollie's was really great. And all of their like I got like a really good eggplant parm sandwich on focaccia there. Beautiful breads there. I love Ollie's a lot. That's my favorite. This is going to be the summer of upstate reports. reports definitely I feel on the show definitely what's your first thing my first thing is I am I have meaning to mention uh Thumbbody Coffee Thumbbody Coffee is in Paramus New Jersey Thumbbody yeah Thumbbody Thumbbody really really really terrific coffee shop that's right off route four kind of near the GW bridge so anyone who's like traveling up upstate or towards Jersey I I love this place because it's owned by, I believe, a Korean couple, and they're doing some of the coolest cold drinks I've seen in the region.

58:42They have a sparkling hibiscus americano, which I think is really cool when you're mixing coffee and tea and hibiscus in that way. They have a matcha ube syrup latte, which I like an iced latte, an espresso tonic with orange juice. and they have a record shop in the back and it's kind of in this weird, it's literally in like an office building that's like half full, half empty in Paramus and it's in the lobby of it. It's like such a random, it feels like it's an LA spot to be honest. I love the sound of all those drinks. Somebody was just telling me about the espresso orange juice thing, which I can't really picture, but I can believe that it works, you know?

59:24Oh my gosh, it's in Korea world, we have an espresso tonic with orange syrup. Yeah. So good. I like an espresso tonic. I guess it just probably amplifies the fruitiness of the coffee. Yeah, it's a really nice pairing. I love it a lot. So this place, definitely check it out if you're in Paramus or kind of that northern part of Jersey. I love it. What's your next thing? My next thing is that I did an event with Lyft and Stud Country, the line dancing party for Pride with Cakesy in this past week, which was really fun. And the baker, Julie Saha, who is the chef at dinner party in Fort Greene, did a cake for the event that was just really good.

1:00:04It was a strawberry olive oil cake with pink peppercorn buttercream and lemon curd. And when Julie took the lid off of the kind of like baking tray when it was at the event, the smell of pink peppercorn like hit the back wall. It was so pungent. But when you tasted it, it just was like this gentle warming heat. I thought it was really cool. It sounds amazing. So how was the event? How was the line dancing? Well, Kesha performed, so it was amazing. Was that like as advertised or was that drop in? They announced it like day of, but I was working the event, so I knew that was going to happen. But picture this.

1:00:37It's like an hour before everything's supposed to be ready. All these people work in production or running around in a tizzy because Kesha is doing her soundcheck. And I'm frantically like putting strawberries and whipped cream onto cake while like we are who we are. The audio track is just blaring at full volume. It was very much like how did my life lead me to this moment. But it was really fun to get to do like a signature cake zine dessert table for another event and to line dance as well. So fun. And I have to say the new cake zine is dropping soon. Details to follow. What can you say? Yeah.

1:01:10I mean, Candyland is the theme. It'll come out late June, early July. And I'm excited to have Tanya on and do a whole episode talking about it. I've gotten a peek at it. I've read a few of the pieces. It's your best issue yet. It's so ambitious. I'm thrilled for you guys. Aw, thank you. I feel like that's not your second thing, though. It's not my second thing. Good segue. I have to say, I had Kushbu Shah in to talk about her book, and we're going to have that episode up sometime this summer. But I have to just say, in the Three Things segment, Amri Khan, her new cookbook is phenomenal. It is truly one of my favorite books of the year.

1:01:46And Kushbu is somebody who's written for taste and has been a friend for a long time. She used to be the restaurant editor at Food & Wine for, I think, five years. So really knows what she's talking about when it comes to journalism and writing about restaurant culture. But this is her first cookbook. And it's phenomenal because it really brings the Indian-American diaspora into focus in a way that has never been done. There's been plenty of terrific Indian cookbooks written. We published a few ourselves. But for me, this is a really groundbreaking work. And I have to say everything from the what to buy section, which is not a laundry list of spices that we may know, but five spices, very tight list.

1:02:26Kasuri Methi, which is a dried fenugreek. She makes a very strong case that this makes everything better, which is I love seeing that in the cookbook. There's a whole pizza section, which I think is a tremendous merging of American culture and South Asian culture, Indian culture. and her last recipe, which I like to ask about sometimes on the show, is a jaggery and fennel Rice Krispie Treat, which to me is like those little snacks that you get at the end of a meal at an Indian restaurant and she has it in Rice Krispie form. So my takeaway is that this is like truly one of my favorite books of the year.

1:03:01You should buy it and Kushpusha rules. Yeah, we love Kushpusha. What's your next one, Eliza? My last thing is that I went to a really special dinner at Rodora earlier in this week that was for the artist El Seed, who's a French Tunisian artist who has an olive oil that he just released called Tecapé Olive Oil. His family has an olive farm in Southeast Tunisia and they've been making olive oil there for a while, but he kind of stepped into the family business and expanded it and made these really beautiful olive oils and really special jars. They have calligraphy written all around the side, Arabic calligraphy, which is a staple of his large scale art installations that he does in places like Dubai.

1:03:41And the calligraphy translates into, you can snatch a man from his country, but not the country from a man's heart. And it's wrapping around this olive oil. So the olive oil itself is really peppery and delicious. He told me something funny that like when you are going to an olive oil tasting and there's other olive oil makers, it's a sign of a good olive oil when olive oil is peppery in your throat. So as a sign of respect, everybody, when they taste it, make really big like, oh, like reactions to how peppery the olive oil is. So if you want to be like extra polite, you go to this conference and there are all of these people just tasting each other's olive oil and recoiling from how fresh it is, which I thought was really a special and cute thing to hear.

1:04:21Oh, my gosh. And I think it would basically be a really beautiful gift for someone also because the jar itself is like this beautiful collectible kind of item. What a cool memory and thought about the way to properly taste olive oil. I feel like that astringency does come to us sometimes when we taste and we might feel like that's like impure, but it's actually the opposite. Right. It's all those polyphenols that are in that super active and alive and fresh olive oil. And that's what gives it that quality. So we can buy these bottles. Are you going to link? We'll link to it. Yeah, we can link to it.

1:04:48It's spelled T-A-C-A-P-A-E, tecape. It's super cool. Love it. That's great. And man, you're on your pop-up bag this summer. I love it. You know, I live very close to Rodora. So if there's something happening there, I'm going to be there. It's a great space. And I've never actually been there for a non-pop-up. It's like a wine bar in general. Yeah, it's a great wine bar. It really is like the place to be in Fort Greene. Whenever I walk by it, I have to be prepared to see folks that I know. But that's kind of nice. That's nice. What's your last thing? My last thing is that I had such a great time in Wisconsin enjoying cheese and really like kind of immersing ourselves in the world of Wisconsin cheese.

1:05:28I was like, I want to explore Hudson Valley cheeses a little bit more. You're like, let me eat more cheese as soon as possible. I need more cheese. And I was at my local farmer's market, the Goshen Friday Market, and my favorite cheese seller, this really terrific guy, used to only sell Cooperstown cheese. Apparently, Cooperstown cheese is sunsetting their business. The family is retiring, and they only have a few wheels left. But the stand is now pivoted to being a full farmstead cheese operation. So I got to taste three cheeses, meaning I bought three cheeses this past Friday. so I had the Cooperstown cheese to me the Tomo Torino may you rest in peace I think I may have had my last Tomo Torino I've been buying it for about 4 years that's kind of an aged hard they're all cow's cheeses but these are definitely in the aged realm lots of salt crystals but the other 2 was 5 spoke creamery which was doing a 24 month aged cheddar and I had Jake's aged gouda which I think to many listeners, that's become a brand that many of us will seek out when we're at the farmer's markets in New York City or the Hudson Valley.

1:06:41So now I can try Hudson Valley cheeses all the time through the cellar. And really, they're making great cheeses in the Hudson Valley. Yeah, I believe it. And I love that your thirst for cheese is never ending. I feel like I will never, it'll be a journey that I'll never complete in my life. I feel like I need to go to other countries to do cheese. Hint, hint. You want to go on the road again? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Thanks for sharing your three things, Eliza. Yeah, you too.

1:07:11This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumbert. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.