Eat Your Words

In this episode of Eat Your Words, Cathy talks to Lucky Peach editors Chris Ying and Rachel Khong about their new cookbook, The Wurst of Lucky Peach: A Treasury of Encased Meat. Chris and Rachel talk about their "sausage quest" around the world to North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia to find sausages they wanted to celebrate in their cookbook. Listen to find out about Rachel's love for the danger dog and what continent has the fewest endemic sausages.

This week on Eat Your Words, host Cathy Erway sits down with the ladies of the Food Book Fair, Kimberly Chou and Amanda Dell. Dubbed the "Coachella of writing about eating," Food Book Fair includes panel discussions, a pop-up bookstore, #Foodieodicals, cooking demos, conceptual literary dinners, film screenings and much more. This year's fifth anniversary of the festival takes place on May 1st and 2nd at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg.

On this week's episode of Eat Your Words, host Cathy Erway speaks with Karissa Chen – a writer who is currently a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan – on the importance of being responsible when writing about another culture's food. Specifically, they tackle food writer Calvin Trillin's controversial poem "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" which was recently published in The New Yorker. While major news outlets have interviewed various food writers who are critical of this situation, very few have bothered to ask Asian American writers what they think.

On this week's episode of Eat Your Words, Cathy speaks with Marisa McClellan, a full-time food writer and canning teacher, and the voice behind the blog Food in Jars. She is also the author of the books Food in Jars (Running Press 2012), Preserving by the Pint (Running Press 2014), and Naturally Sweet Food in Jars (Running Press 2016). In her new book, she offers a comprehensive response to fans’ frequent requests for canning and preserving recipes that utilize natural sweeteners in lieu of refined sugar, opening up the world of canning and preserving to home cooks who follow sugar-restricted diets.

On this week's episode of Eat Your Words, Cathy is joined in the studio by Lukas Volger, author of Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Pho, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals. He is also the editorial director and co-founder of Jarry, a print magazine that explores where food and gay culture intersect, and the owner of Made by Lukas, a Brooklyn-based company that makes veggie burgers. Tune in to hear Lukas and Cathy discuss how changes in eating habits are being reflected in the very vessels from which we eat.

On this week's episode of Eat Your Words, Cathy is joined in the studio by Imen McDonnell, author of The Farmette Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures from My Life on an Irish Farm. In a former life, McDonnell worked in broadcast production while living in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles. Now, she resides with her husband and son on their centuries-old family farm in the southwest of Ireland, and blogs about her experiences on Farmette. She and Cathy discuss leaving the American city for the Irish countryside, as well as some authentic St. Paddy's Day traditions.

On this week's episode of Eat Your Words, Cathy welcomes guest Ashley Warlick, author of The Arrangement. The new book is a work of historical fiction about legendary food writer M.F.K. Fisher, who John Updike referred to a “poet of the appetites.” In Raymond Sokolov’s 1982 review of Fisher's As They Were, he wrote: “In a properly run culture, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher would be recognized as one of the great writers this country has produced in this century.” Through writing The Arrangement, Warlick hopes to introduce a new audience to the hungry, sensual, stubborn character who was M.F.K. Fisher.

Konjit Zewge, at the age of 89, documented her succulent dishes in her book Yemouya Kouncho. She wrote her book for the sole purpose of passing the art of preparing traditional Ethiopian cuisine to the next generation. Her parents' home was always filled with extended family, neighbors and other visitors who delighted in the savory dishes. Running the household was traditionally the women's job and learning how to prepare food started at an early age. As an ardent student, Zewge made it a point to write down procedures, the various ingredients and amount used in recipes. Her book has been translated to English by her daughter, Mesrak Mekonnen. Mekonnen lives in San Francisco.

Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love – part memoir of a journey to six continents in pursuit of delicious and endangered tastes, part investigation of the loss of biodiversity from soil to plate – tells the story of what we are losing, how we are losing it, and the inspiring people and places that are bringing back the foods we love. This week on Eat Your Words, host Cathy Erway is in studio with author Simran Sethi talking how in America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers market or at a Midwestern potluck. Shockingly, 95% of the world’s calories now come from only thirty species. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Tune in for an enlightening conversation and learn what it takes to save the tastes that connect us with the world around us.

If you’d like to grow your own food but don’t think you have the space, look up! Today on Eat Your Words, Cathy Erway is in studio with Annie Novak, author of "The Rooftop Growing Guide." In urban and suburban areas across the country, farms and gardens are growing atop the rooftops of residential and commercial buildings. In her accessible guide, Annie’s passion shines as she draws on her experience as a pioneering sky-high farmer to teach best practices for raising vegetables, herbs, flowers, and trees. The book also includes interviews, expert essays, and farm and garden profiles from across the country, so you’ll find advice that works no matter where you live. Featuring the brass tacks on green roofs, container gardening, hydroponics, greenhouse growing, crop planning, pest management, harvesting tips, and more, "The Rooftop Growing Guide" will have you reimagining the possibilities of your own skyline. Tune in for more!

Food whore (n.) A person who will do anything for food. Eat Your Words host Cathy Erway is in studio this week with author Jessica Tom, chatting all about her new book, "Food Whore." Full of wit and mouth-watering cuisines, Jessica’s debut novel offers a clever insider take on the rarefied world of New York City’s dining scene in the tradition of The Devil Wears Prada meets Kitchen Confidential. Sharing her thinking behind literary foodie-ism as well as her writing process, she and Cathy go on to discuss what's next for "Food Whore." Tune in for a great show!

With the Chinese New Year around the corner, Eat Your Words host Cathy Erway gets Danielle Chang, creator of Luckyrice, to the show. Exploring Asian culture through the lens of food, Danielle created Luckyrice to follow her lofty, yet life-long, passion to create a platform for Asian culture. The Luckyrice Festivals held across the U.S. feature hundreds of chefs and mixologists, as well as corporate and culinary partners, the large-scale tastings and festive dinners attract global-minded, culture-seeking consumers. Danielle also highlights the new Luckyrice cookbook that is complete with stories, techniques, and contemporary Asian recipes from a range of culture and the traditions that inspired them. Tune in for a great episode!

Two Percent Solutions for the Planet profiles fifty innovative practices that soak up carbon dioxide in soils, reduce energy use, sustainably intensify food production, and increase water quality. The “two percent” refers to: the amount of new carbon in the soil needed to reap a wide variety of ecological and economic benefits; the percentage of the nation’s population who are farmers and ranchers; and the low financial cost (in terms of GDP) needed to get this work done. As White explained in his previous work, Grass, Soil, Hope, a highly efficient carbon cycle captures, stores, releases, and recaptures biochemical energy, mitigating climate change, increasing water storage capacities in soil, and making green plants grow. Best of all, we don’t have to invent anything new—a wide variety of innovative ideas and methods that put carbon back into the soil have been field-tested and proven to be practical and profitable. They’re mostly low-tech, too, relying on natural resources such as sunlight, green plants, a

Eat Your Words is back for a brand new radio season! Host Cathy Erway welcomes chef and author Sara Jenkins to the studio chatting highlights from the book (co-authored with her mother, Nancy Jenkins), The Four Seasons of Pasta. Notably, there are few ingredients in a cook’s pantry that beat out pasta—for tastiness, for ease of preparation, for versatility, and for sheer delight. It’s irresistible to all and perfect for every occasion. Sara and her mom draw on their own background in Italy, where they’ve lived, cooked, studied, and worked in Rome and Florence, and on a Tuscan olive farm for many years. Presently the accomplished chef and owner of Porsena and Porchetta, two restaurants in New York’s East Village, Sara and Cathy round out the show discussing the inspiration for the book as well as the importance of improvising while you cook. Tune in for a wonderful show!

American shoppers are collectively responsible for more wasted food than farmers, grocery stores, or any other part of the food-supply chain. The average family spends a shocking $2,225 every year on food they don’t eat. This problem is so massive that if food waste were a country, it would have the third-largest environmental footprint after the United States and China.  This week on _ Eat Your Words _, host Cathy Erway is on the line with Dana Gunders, NRDC staff scientist and author of the new book “Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook,” seeking to change this quandary. Dana explains that this essential guide—packed with engaging checklists, creative recipes, practical strategies, and educational infographics—offers easy ways to save food and money. And the good news? Cutting food waste doesn’t require significant time and effort. Dana offers genius advice for smarter grocery shopping, ingredient storage, and meal planning. All it takes are a few simple behavior tweaks to take a real bite out of this problem. “O

There are roughly 80 million Millennials in America. According to research by BBDO, half of them identify as “foodies,” and this week on _ Eat Your Words _, Cathy Erway is sitting down with Millennial author Eve Turow to discuss her new book, A Taste of Generation Yum. Known for buying organic groceries, fawning over Chemex coffee, Instagram-ing images of pork belly and spending their recession-dented incomes on high-end meals out, these young adults with degrees from prestigious universities apply their learnings to harvests instead of hedge funds. Never before has a young generation paid this much attention to food, and since 2012 Eve explains that she has been on a journey to understand why.  Through interviews with a variety of Millennials as well as food luminaries—including Anthony Bourdain, Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Marion Nestle and more—Eve highlights the underlying drive for the Millennial obsession with food, and comments on the role of Millennials in the future of food policy in America. Tune

Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that’s perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac & cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!)―and use a foolproof method that works every time?  This week on Eat Your Words , Cathy Erway is on the line with J. Kenji López-Alt, who luckily has written a new book to answer these questions and more! As Serious Eats’s culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new―but simple―techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes with over 1,000 full-color

Rebel with a culinary cause, Justin Warner, sits down with Cathy Erway this week on _ Eat Your Words _ chatting his unique flavor theories, highlights from his book The Laws of Cooking and How to break Them, plus thoughts on the local, sustainable food scene.  Justin goes on to explain that beyond providing boundary-pushing recipes to readers, he encourages positive experimentation in the kitchen and that this tends to be a great learning experience.  What are some of his notable kitchen blunders?  How does Justin tweak with the traditional holiday fare?  Tune in for this great show! Photo by Daniel Krieger “The culture of ‘foodie-ism’ and media in general… I think we’ve all realized that, hey, restaurants are starting to make food for press and not food… and that’s kinda a sad thing but that’s what it takes to get New Yorkers into your restaurant.” [7:30] “Food needs to sustain us and the world around it and the second your slap a name on it becomes she-she.” [21:15] –Justin Warner on Eat Your Words  

This week on _ Eat Your Words _, Cathy Erway welcomes Heritage Radio Network alum, Nicole Taylor, to the show.  Talking Nicole’s brand new cookbook, “The Up South Cookbook,” it is best described as Southern cooking meets the Brooklyn foodie scene, keeping charm (and grits) intact! Georgia native Nicole spent her early twenties trying to distance herself from her southern cooking roots–a move “up” to Brooklyn gave her a fresh appreciation for the bread and biscuits, Classic Fried Chicken, Lemon Coconut Stack Cake, and other flavors of her childhood.  “The Up South Cookbook” is a bridge to the past and a door to the future. The recipes in this deeply personal cookbook offer classic Southern favorites informed and updated by newly-discovered ingredients and different cultures. The recipes speak to a place “where a story is ready to be told and there is always sweet tea chilling.”   Tune in to hear all about this new Southern classic. “If you can make a pot of peas I feel like you can do anything!” [25:45] –Nic

The largest edible fruit native to the United States tastes like a cross between a banana and a mango… any guesses?  This week on Eat Your Words , host Cathy Erway is on the line with Andrew Moore discussing the pawpaw.  Author of “Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit,” Andrew explains that the fruit actually grows wild in twenty-six states, gracing Eastern forests each fall with sweet-smelling, tropical-flavored abundance. Historically, it fed and sustained Native Americans and European explorers, presidents, and enslaved African Americans, inspiring folk songs, poetry, and scores of place names from Georgia to Illinois. Its trees are an organic grower’s dream, requiring no pesticides or herbicides to thrive, and containing compounds that are among the most potent anticancer agents yet discovered.  So why have so few people heard of the pawpaw, much less tasted one? Tune in as Cathy and Andrew unpack the facts and more! var array = eval('[{"alt":"","caption":"&quo