Podcast appearances and mentions of amy eddings

Taking your first bite of Chef Jeremy Umansky's fried chicken or pastrami sandwich is one of those blissful food moments that is guaranteed to live in your head rent-free. His secret ingredients? Koji-culturing, foraged edibles, and sustainable food sourcing that earned him four James Beard Award nominations, including Best New Restaurant, Best Chef, and for his recent book Koji Alchemy. Jeremy and his wife Allie La Valle-Umansky opened Larder Delicatessen & Bakery in 2018 in Ohio City's Hingetown district. Larder's menus are constantly evolving and Umansky's innovative techniques remind us of what is possible right in our own backyards.rnrnTraditional knowledge of fermenting and foraging is a cornerstone for many cultures including Indigenous and African American communities. But centuries of colonization and modern urban sprawl decimated natural ecosystems. And the industrialization of our food supply forever shifted America's relationship with the food we eat. Across the country, efforts are underway to improve food sovereignty and reclaim traditional practices.rnrnJoin the City Club as Ideastream's Amy Eddings chats with Chef Jeremy Umansky, on the benefits of foraging, sustainable food sourcing, and the art of fermenting in his book Koji Alchemy.

Kennedy and Carmen are joined by host and producer of NPR's “Morning Edition” on WKSU, Amy Eddings, to discuss the media, its varied roles, and how it impacts politics. Amy offers her firsthand perspective as a member of the media, while Polar Bear POV Sunny Lloyd shares her thoughts as a consumer. Together, they help Kennedy and Carmen uncover the importance of the media.

Six short stories, sexy & sad, frank & funny, riding the highs & lows of love, lust & everything in between. Meet agony aunts, lost loves, AI relationship mediators, singletons going spare, pill-popping avant-garde artists, mothers in despair & horny Victorian teens. RUNNING ORDER for AGONY & ECSTASY Introduction by Liam Hogan - Interview at the RSA by Sarah Richardson, read by Andrea Hall - Starfish by Donna Tracy, read by Linda Shannon - Meedy by Will Conway read by Rich Keeble - Mushroom by Melanie Carvalho, read by Katy Darby - Not Raven But Drowning by MJ Lee, read by Keleigh Wolf - Dear Miss Maguire by Amy Eddings, read by Oliver Yellop & Caroline O'Mahoney Hosted by Liam Hogan, directed & recorded by Katy Darby at The Phoenix, Cavendish Square, London on Tuesday 14th February, 2023.

Celebrated local writer and performer Nelson Simon graced Greenlight's (virtual) stage to share his new book, Soul of the Hurricane, the unlikely and harrowing true account of his experience sailing into Hurricane Grace, the southern end of the “Perfect Storm.” It was October 1991, and Simon didn't exactly want to sign up as a last-minute crew member transporting a Norwegian schooner from Brooklyn to Bermuda. But one thing led to another, and there he was. What began with an unexpected invitation and ended far from home in a dark, angry sea makes for an epic true story of grit and courage. Writer, journalist, and longtime All Things Considered contributor Amy Eddings joined Simon for a scintillating conversation on surviving near-death experiences and the power of storytelling. Recorded October 28, 2021.

The Canadian government has agreed to pay $31 billion to compensate Indigenous families of about 115,000 children who were put into foster care for what Manitoba Indigenous Chief Cindy Woodhouse says had to do with poverty and racism — not parenting. She joins us. And, alpacas are abundant in Ohio. Questions about how to bolster the production of alpaca fiber into the local textile industry are resurfacing. Amy Eddings of WCPN ideastream reports.

Playwright Keenan Scott II's "Thoughts of a Colored Man" explores the lives, pressures and passions of seven contemporary Black men who live in one Brooklyn neighborhood. He discusses the play with two of its actors, Dyllón Burnside and Forrest McClendon. And, America's national parks are facing a huge problem: climate change. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio is taking steps to adapt in whatever ways it can. Amy Eddings of ideastream public media reports.

This is the second half of an interview I had several months ago with my friend and podcast co-host Amy Eddings. Specifically, Amy was curious about the origins of my personal style and about the blog. This interview was the first time anybody really asked me about how it all started, who were my idols and influencers, and such. In addition to being a dear friend and my co-host of The Downtowner, a podcast about Downtown Cleveland, Amy was the host of All Things Considered for many years in New York on WNYC and, since moving to Cleveland, has worked primarily as the host of Morning Edition on WCPN. Basically, she's a serious news person. Being on the receiving end of questions from such a serious news person was a really fun first. Our conversation clocked in at a full hour. So I did some editing and turned it into a two-parter. This is part two. Enjoy!

Several months ago, my friend and podcast co-host Amy Eddings sat me down for an interview to talk about… well… me. Specifically, Amy was curious about the origins of my personal style and about the blog. This interview was the first time anybody really asked me about how it all started, who were my idols and influencers, and such. In addition to being a dear friend and my co-host of The Downtowner, a podcast about Downtown Cleveland, Amy was the host of All Things Considered for many years in New York on WNYC and, since moving to Cleveland, has worked primarily as the host of Morning Edition on WCPN. Basically, she's a serious news person. Being on the receiving end of questions from such a serious news person was a really fun first. Our whole conversation clocked in at a full hour. So I did some editing and turned it into a two-parter. This is part one. Enjoy! https://georgehahn.com

Listener John Randolph takes co-host Amy Eddings to task for saying she won't walk to work when it's cold and snowy Detailed show notes at https://www.ideastream.org/news/the-downtowner-bonus-episode-cleveland-winter-is-no-match-for-this-walker.

In this episode, I ponder the question: is it better to own or to rent? Each option has its benefits and bummers. But as I get older, having been a guest and keen observer of many owners over the decades, I'm less attracted to the idea of “ownership” and more interested in traveling light as the renter I've always been. I'm very lucky to live in an apartment in Downtown Cleveland that feels more like a customer service arrangement than the typical landlord/tenant relationship. Whenever I need something, it's taken care of at no extra cost, leaving me to get on with the business of living and to focus my time and energy on things I'd rather do. The same idea works for my approach to things like a car or media. Where I once prided myself as a collector of vinyl records and CDs, I much prefer access to everything I already owned plus much more music than I can wrap my head around let alone afford to buy with services like Spotify and Apple Music. And the space I save without dealing with the physical media? Fuggedaboutit. And the car? Nah. Also in this episode, I give a little shout-out to my new podcast venture called The Downtowner, a new show about Downtown Cleveland that I co-host with the amazing Amy Eddings, our local host of NPR's Morning Edition who also happens to be a native Clevelander who returned home after decades in New York City. She and I also live downtown, giving us much to discuss in this brand new production from ideastream, Cleveland's public media company.

From pimps betting on a sex race to starships stuffed with the virtuous, via a hotdog-eating contest, promiscuous peasants and a very unlikely agony aunt, we're unleashing our inner sinners (and a few saints) in November. VICE & VIRTUE STORIES in order of performance: Seven Ships by Liam Hogan, read by Clareine Cronin Let the Girl Eat by Laurence van der Noordaa, read by Rebecca Yeo My Last Friday Night John Race by David McGrath, read by Silas Hawkins Kinky Sue by Amy Eddings, read by Sarah Feathers Kitty and Pussy by Anne Neumann, read by Miranda Harrison

When it comes to vegetables, it must be hard to be a rutabaga. As a cross between a cabbage and a turnip, the humongous, humble-looking root vegetable can easily be overlooked when compared to the delicate fiddlehead ferns available in the early spring. But here at Last Chance Foods, we like the underdog vegetables. That’s one reason WNYC’s Amy Eddings recently bought a huge rutabaga from Conuco Farm’s Hector Tejada at the Fort Greene farmers market. Despite all her good intentions, the poor rutabaga languished in her refrigerator for three weeks, slowly drying out and becoming slightly squishy. A rescue mission was called. The root vegetable was hauled back to the farmers market for a professional consult with Tejada, whose farm is located in New Paltz, N.Y. He explained that the rutabaga was fine to eat, though perhaps better for a cooked application since it was getting a little soft. “You want it crisp and crunchy when they’re raw,” Tejada said, adding that he usually eats the vegetable raw. Eddings’ rutabaga and those at the market now were harvested last year, around Thanksgiving, he added. They take about 120 days to reach their gargantuan size, and usually experience several frosts before being harvested. The cold weather helps make them sweeter. “They can be sitting in the field and they can be in the morning… completely icy and basically frozen,” Tejada said. “And later when the day gets warmer and the sun shines, they just defrost and the same happens with the greens.” (Photo: Rutabagas from Conuco Farm at the Fort Greene farmers market.) The greens are edible, too, and taste like slightly spicier turnip greens. At this point in the year, though, the greens were cut off months ago. For optimal long-term storage, Tejada keeps the rutabagas, still covered in dirt, in closed rubber bins that have holes punched in them for air circulation. The vegetables are washed before arriving at the market, and Tejada said to keep them in the refrigerator at home. “You don’t want to leave it exposed to the air,” he explained. “You want to keep in either a plastic bag or a sealed container.” Tejada, who hails from the Dominican Republic, explained that rutabagas are easy to prepare. He roasts them with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. He also said that many of his customers like to steam them and mash them with potatoes. “It was not something that I grew up eating at all,” Tejada admitted. “I love them. I have them even, like, caramelized with maple syrup, like a candy.” For that, he mixes chunks of rutabaga with maple syrup or honey and seasons it before covering the dish with aluminum foil and roasting it in the oven. He then broils it uncovered until the rutabaga is crispy. If you want the details of that, you’ll have to visit Tejada at the farmers market. Eddings ended up slicing her rutabaga into strips and using Food52’s recipe for Rutabaga “Cacio e Pepe.” Rutabaga “Cacio e Pepe”by savorthis  Ingredients 1 rather large rutabaga (sliced yielded about 4 cups) 4 tablespoons butter black pepper ¾ cups parmegiano reggiano, grated ¼ cup ricotta salata Get the full recipe at Food52.

Five fantastic stories of love, death, sex and flirtatious unicorns for Valentine's Day, featuring ballads, high art, highwaymen, mass slaughter and the perils of internet dating (twice). STORY PLAYLIST: 1) 00:00 THE BALLAD OF TOM & JANE by Amy Eddings, read by Lisa Rose & Peter Noble 2) 14:10 NINE DEAD, SIX WOUNDED - A LOVE STORY by Ian Green, read by Martine McMenemy & Andrew Baguley 3) 27:00 YOU & ME by Maria Kyle, read by Suzanne Goldberg & Cliff Chapman 4) 44:25 CANVAS SPIRITS by Paul Flack, read by Silas Hawkins & Patsy Prince 5) 1:03:00 IN WALKS A UNICORN by David Douce, read by Sarah Feathers & Tony Bell

Millet is a gluten-free whole grain that tastes sort of like a cross between vanilla and corn. It certainly has a flavor that birds enjoy — much of the millet in this country is used for bird seed. But what’s good for Tweety has long been considered tasty by humans, too. “If you’ve ever seen those yellow, tiny, mustard-seedy grains in birdseed and parrot food, that’s millet,” said Mark Scarbrough, co-author of the book Grain Mains: 101 Surprising and Satisfying Whole Grain Recipes for Every Meal of the Day. “That [association with bird food] gives it a bad rep, which is really unfortunate because it is probably the oldest harvested grain on the planet.” While he pointed out that archaeological research indicates millet was grown in China even before rice, Last Chance Foods host Amy Eddings offered a word of caution on eating too much of the grain, which has been linked in some reports to thyroid problems. Consumed in moderation, however, millet is a healthy, gluten-free alternative to wheat. “It’s also an incredibly high source of calcium, of zinc, of potassium, and B vitamins,” added Scarbrough. “It’s probably got the highest profile of B vitamins of any whole grain.” (Photo: Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough/Jon Fisher) The grain can also make for a savory, satisfying vegetarian burger. Scarbrough and Grain Mains co-author Bruce Weinstein developed a recipe for a millet burger that incorporates olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and pecorino cheese. “We give it an Italian antipasto bar flavor profile,” Scarbrough said. The first step in enjoying millet, though, is proper selection and storage. He advised smelling millet before buying it — even if it’s in a plastic bag. “Any whole grain you buy, even millet, you should always try to take a whiff, a smell, at the grocery store,” Scarbrough said. “You’re smelling the grains in the grocery store because you don’t want that... rancid, musky, mushroomy, earthy, wangy smell.” Once home, maintain freshness by keeping it in your freezer. “That is the best place to keep millet and teff and some of the ones that go rancid really fast,” he added. Try and Weinstein and Scarbrough’s recipe for Millet Burgers with Olives, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Pecorino. That’s below. A millet field in Germany (Armin Vogel/flickr) Millet Burgers with Olives, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and PecorinoServes 6Active time: 15 minutes Total time: 55 minutes  3 cups water 1 cup millet 10 chopped dry-pack sun-dried tomatoes 1 garlic clove 1/4 cup pine nuts 1/3 cup pitted green olives, chopped 1/4 cup packed grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano 4 large jarred caper berries, minced 2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 teaspoons minced fresh marjoram leaves or 1 teaspoon dried marjoram 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1. Combine the 3 cups water and the millet in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer slowly until it's like a thick, coarse, hot breakfast cereal, about 30 minutes. Uncover and stir well to incorporate any last bits of water. Scrape the millet into a large bowl and cool for 10 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, put the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic in a small heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water and steep for 10 minutes. 3. Place the pine nuts in a dry medium skillet set over medium-low heat. Toast until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Pour them into the bowl with the millet. 4. Drain the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic in a fine-mesh sieve and add them to the bowl with the millet. Add the olives, cheese, caper berries, oregano, and marjoram. Stir well, mashing the ingredients together. You want texture here, bits of this and that scattered throughout the burgers, not a baby-food puree. Use dampened hands to form the mixture into 6 round, even patties. 5. Melt the butter in the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet, preferably nonstick. Slip the patties into the skillet and cook until mottled brown and somewhat crisp, about 4 minutes. Flip them and continue cooking until set throughout, mottled brown on the other side, and now nicely crisp, about 4 more minutes. If your skillet isn't large enough to hold all 6 patties at once, work in two batches, using 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon unsalted butter for each batch. TESTERS' NOTES • Here, we've used an Italian palette to balance the aromatic millet. Note that the recipe calls for the larger, oblong caper berries, not capers. • The timing for cooked millet is a bit dodgy since the grains are notorious for picking up and holding ambient humidity--as well as releasing it in a dry environment. Don't stand on ceremony: Lift the lid and check the millet as it cooks, adding more water as necessary. You're looking for a crunchy texture that's nonetheless tender to the bite. • These patties would be a treat on whole wheat buns with a little purchased caponata as well as thinly sliced red onion and crunchy lettuce. You could also slice the cooked patties into bite-sized bits and toss them in a large, Italian-style, chopped salad, dressed with a creamy vinaigrette. • These patties don't reheat as well as some of the others, although they do make great late-night snacks right from the fridge, cut into small pieces and dipped in deli mustard. Reprinted from Grain Mains by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. Copyright (c) 2012 by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. By permission of Rodale Books. Available wherever books are sold.

Today is Valentine’s Day, so we’re going to talk about chocolate. That’s the easy explanation. The more complicated version of how Last Chance Foods choose to approach the topic of such a beloved confection involves a former aerospace engineer turned farmer, a vertically integrated beans-to-bar company, and a three-year-old factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn Those are the bones of the story behind Cacao Prieto. Founder and CEO Daniel Prieto Preston started his career as an aerospace engineer, and after selling his defense company and signing a strict five-year non-compete agreement, he decided to turn his attention to his family farm in the Dominican Republic. The farm had been growing organic cacao for more than 100 years. (Preston said most farming on the island is organic because of strict regulations to prevent deforestation like that seen in neighboring Haiti.) The cacao pods that are harvested twice a year bear little resemblance to chocolate. “You have these strange football-shaped pods in all different colors that grow anywhere on the tree, not just at the end of the branches,” Preston explained. “They can come right out of the trunk. It looks like something that would be in a children’s coloring book.” The fruit has a gooey white pulp with about 40 seeds inside each pod. “It’s not a bean,” Preston said. “That’s just another misnomer. You’re actually eating the seeds of the cocoa fruit.” Even the word “cocoa” is a misnomer. “Cocoa is actually a misprint in an English dictionary from the mid-1850s, which became just sort of universally used,” he said. “So you can use it synonymously with cacao. Generally speaking, you’ll refer to cocoa as something that’s been processed, but people use it for everything.” (Photo: Amy Eddings and Daniel Prieto Preston at Cacao Prieto in Red Hook, Brooklyn/Joy Y. Wang) In most chocolate production processes, the cacao pods are hacked off the tree and then left to rot in 5-feet-high piles in tropical weather. “Most people don’t realize that chocolate is a fermented food,” Preston said. “The average fermentation pile probably has 400 different microorganisms and a least a dozen pathogens. That’s one of the reasons why it’s actually not good to eat raw chocolate. It needs to be sterilized first.” Preston, who is also an inventor, felt like he could do better than that. Cacao Prieto created a controlled fermentation process that keeps out contaminants, and they inoculate the cacao seeds with lab-grown strains of yeast. He also created and patented a vortex winnower that uses a vacuum and centrifugal force to separate cacao nibs from the shells. “There’s a saying in chocolate that every step of the process is the most important step,” he said, adding that the controlling fermentation helps Cacao Prieto control the flavor and bitterness of the finished chocolate. “Sophisticated palates, I think, prefer bitter flavors to begin with,” said Preston. “I like a little bit of sugar, so my preference is something around 72 percent. Never milk. Milk chocolate’s not real chocolate to me.” To see more about how cacao is processed at Cacao Prieto, check out this video. Amy Eddings and Daniel Prieto Preston in front of his vortex winnower at Cacao Prieto in Red Hook, Brooklyn.  Cacao nibs at the Cacao Prieto factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Americans now eat 150 percent more hot sauce today than they did in 2000. WNYC host Amy Eddings thinks that’s because our palates are bored and jaded. “We call ourselves foodies by just sprinkling some hot sauce over pancakes and saying, ‘I invented something new,’” she said. “What we’re doing is just blazing a hole through our tongue, and we’re not really settling in and increasing our knowledge about the complexity of taste.” That’s likely not a popular opinion to espouse two days before the Super Bowl, an event famous for hot sauce-garnished foods like buffalo wings and nachos. The Sporkful podcast host Dan Pashman countered Eddings’ point by saying we should use hot sauce more often, but less of it when we do. Pashman’s favorite hot sauce is sriracha, the California-made, Asian-inspired chili sauce. He explained that, rather than just being spicy, it has flavors of garlic, salt, and sugar. “I think that food is supposed to be about pleasure and not feats of strength,” said Pashman, who's also the host of the new Cooking Channel web series "You're Eating It Wrong." Nonetheless, he did recently sample “death wings” for a recent episode of The Sporkful. He was with Matt Reynolds, the director of the new documentary comedy The Great Chicken Wing Hunt. Reynolds explained why he’s against pain-inducing hot sauce. “You’re not getting the flavors of the peppers, all you’re getting is the heat,” he said. “And you know you create these wings where, you know, you have to sign a waver to eat them, and you have a contest and if you eat six they’re free. And I mean, I think all that is pretty silly. You know, it’s like, why not just have a contest where you let someone punch you in the face.” (Photo: Dan Pashman) Eating super spicy hot sauce and getting punched in the face do have one thing in common: Both cause pain that then triggers the body to release endorphins. That’s why hot sauce sometimes produces a feeling of being high. “Hillary Clinton attributes her high levels of energy to the fact that she eats hot peppers,” said Pashman. If you’re looking to get amped for the Super Bowl, he suggested strategically dosing snacks with hot sauce. To achieve maximum heat plus flavor, Pashman recommends taking a lesson from buffalo wings, the hugely successful bar food that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. “Everyone puts so much focus on the heat and the spice and the hot sauce of buffalo wings,” he said, “but I think it’s important to recognize that the genius of the buffalo wing recipe is that it combines the hot sauce with a dairy, a base ingredient that cuts the heat and complements the flavor.” To that end, Pashman recommended splashing a bit of hot sauce into your mayonnaise-based dips. “Just a little squirt of hot sauce in there — just a little kick — will make a huge difference in your dips,” he said. Give that tip a try this weekend, or find your own heat-butter balance with Reynolds’ award-winning buffalo wings recipe. That’s below. In the meantime, tell us what you think. What's the best hot sauce on the market? What's the most unexpected food that you've improved with the addition of hot sauce? Is Dan Pashman insane for claiming hot sauce is not good on eggs?  Director’s Recipeas seen in The Great Chicken Wing Huntby Matt Reynolds 23 oz bottle of Frank’s Red Hot (don’t use generics) 1-2 sticks butter 1/2 bell pepper 4-8 hot peppers (habaneros, serrano, jalapeno, etc. — grab an assortment of what’s available at your local supermarket) 1/2-2 tablespoon honey-mustard 10-20 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed or chopped Celery salt Assorted hot sauces (Tabasco, Cholula, etc) SAUTE garlic in one stick of butter for 1-2 minutes on low/medium heat, being careful not to burn it. Add HALF of the peppers, both bell and hot, finely chopped. Saute mixture 1-2 minutes. Pour in Frank’s. Simmer and stir for 5-10 minutes, adding mustard and dashes of celery salt and assorted hot sauces to taste. If sauce tastes bitter (caused by some peppers) add honey-mustard (or just plain honey) until bitterness disappears. Keep simmering. For a milder sauce, add more butter; for hotter sauce, add more peppers. Let simmer for another 5-15 min, until sauce thickens and reduces by 5-10 pct; Adjust ingredients to taste. FRYING is a world unto itself. Know your deep frier. ALWAYS use fresh wings (never frozen). Always naked (never breaded). Take wings out of refrigerator at least an hour before frying and let sit at room temperature. If using frozen wings, thaw completely before frying. 375 is a good temperature for more friers, but test yours because each frier is different. Frying should take 8-12 minutes. Aim to hit the sweet spot where the wings come out crispy on the outside but still tender and juicy (but not undercooked) on the inside.

In the past few years, ramen shops seem to be popping up everywhere from Harlem to Flushing. Chef Ivan Orkin, who just opened Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop at Gotham West Market and published the memoir/cookbook Ivan Ramen, says that the reason ramen has gotten so popular is because it’s the ultimate comfort food. “It’s all in one bowl — it all gets eaten together,” he says. “There’s a lot of different flavors. There’s fat and salt. And I think it just hits all those different points we need to make us feel good. And it’s simple.” Orkin opened his first ramen shop in 2007 in Tokyo, and went on to launch his own instant ramen brand. Not bad — for a Jew from Long Island. Orkin says being an outsider in Japan had its advantages. “You have.. the obvious hook,” he said. “You slide open my little aluminum doors and there’s a white guy standing behind the counter, which certainly didn’t hurt. I won’t lie.” One of his specialties, noodles made with rye flour, had less to do with all the rye bread he ate growing up and more with the simple stuff that inspires him. “The flour is very different in the United States than in Japan,” Orkin explained. “It’s milled a lot more finely there. And here, you know, I ended up using rye. I do use rye in Japan but not in every one of my noodles. In some of my noodles I use toasted corn, in some I use whole wheat.” (Photo: Ivan Orkin and Amy Eddings at WNYC/Ivan Orkin) He only uses a small percentage of rye flour, though, because it doesn’t bind well. “It’s just enough to give a little bit of an aromatic punch,” he said. Orkin, a self-described geek who makes up noodle recipes in his head, confessed that he doesn’t remember his own cooking instructions line for line. So when it came time to take photos for the cookbook, he had to go about it like any home cook. “I opened up the book, and I read the recipe,” Orkin said. “I didn’t have any kansui on hand [so] I made it with Harold McGee’s recipe. And the [noodle] recipe really, really works. I mean, it’s dauntingly long and yet if you read it slowly and carefully, you can do each component one at a time.” Some parts can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. As for where to source the various Japanese ingredients, Orkin recommended heading out to the Japanese supermarket Mitsuwa in Edgewater, New Jersey. There’s a food court there with ramen and rice bowls to make the trip particularly worthwhile. Mitsuwa also holds seasonal ramen events with guest chefs flown in from Japan. Orkin may just be distracting the hungry masses by sending them to Mitsuwa for the moment. In addition to the 20-seat Slurp Shop, his storefront restaurant at 25 Clinton Street is set to open early next year, though he wouldn't specify a date. “I’ve given up giving dates because I’ve been getting chastised,” he said. “Apparently, one person Tweeted that I’ve redefined the word ‘soon’... Touche, touche.” If you’re not willing to wait, try your hand at reproducing Orkin’s ramen noodles at home. Here’s the recipe.

Master pastry chef Jacques Torres has a word of advice for anyone making pies for Thanksgiving. He says to keep it simple. “When you start to put too many [flavors together], you don’t know what you eat anymore,” he said. Instead, pick one main flavor and then use another ingredient or two to complement it. “If you eat chocolate, add a tiny bit of salt. That salt [is] going to enhance the flavor of the chocolate,” Torres said. “If you put pear, pear and chocolate, or orange and chocolate, marry very well together. But make one of the two the star.” Torres, who recently stopped by to judge the annual WNYC employee pie contest, also said to be sure to make test pies before the big day. That gives you a chance to get reactions and suggestions from friends and family, and allows for an opportunity to perfect a crust or filling. Speaking to us from the site of a new Jacques Torres Chocolate factory in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the chocolatier said that he particularly loves the American tradition of holiday cookie swaps. “What a beautiful gift when someone spends time in the kitchen for you, and puts all his love, attention, time into a box of cookies,” he said. Torres told WNYC’s Amy Eddings that he plans on hosting Thanksgiving. He’ll make a turkey, which he always makes sure to soak in brine the night before. He said that the brine helps keep the turkey moist. Hear what French and American sides he’ll be making in the clip below. And as for dessert, Torres says he has two plans in mind, one of which is a upside down apple tart. He describes how he makes the dessert, which is also known as a “tarte tatin,” in the clip below. Here are two recipes for tarte tatin. Smitten Kitchen: Molly's Apple Tarte Tatin Los Angeles Times' Recipe: Tarte Tatin (upside-down caramelized apple tart) If you’re looking to bring dessert to a Thanksgiving feast, try out the recipe for Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies. They have the advantage of being particularly portable. Chocolate Chip Cookies from Jacques TorresTime: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chillingYield: 1 ½ dozen 5-inch cookies. 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 ½ ounces) cake flour 1 2/3 cups (8 ½ ounces) bread flour 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt 2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter 1 ¼ cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract 1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note) Sea salt 1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside. 2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. 3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside. 4. Scoop 6 3 ½ -ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin. Note: Disks are sold at Jacques Torres Chocolate; Valrhona fèves, oval-shaped chocolate pieces, are at Whole Foods.

For the past few weeks here at WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show and Last Chance Foods have combined to bring you the latest breaking news in the worlds of seasonal vegetables, new cookbooks, and pickling. Today, Leonard Lopate launched the 3-ingredient challenge with the help of chef Rozanne Gold. In recognition of that contest and to present a united Food Fridays front, Last Chance Foods host Amy Eddings put a series of questions to Lopate for a change. Lopate gently dodged the question of what he would submit as his 3-ingredient recipe by claiming host privileges. He pointed out that this year’s challenge differs from a previous James Beard award-winning iteration in which listeners challenged Gold to devise recipes based on certain ingredients. “In this case, we’re asking our listeners to come up with the recipes, and then we’re going to decide which one works best,” Lopate said. “We’re also inviting celebrity chefs to take part in the challenge.” The primary ingredient of this year’s 3-ingredient challenge is chicken, which could be a limiting proposition for vegetarians. The second ingredient can be allium like onions, leeks, or garlic. Then the listener chooses the third ingredient and preparation method. Seasonings, spices, herbs, oil, and butter can be used in any quantities. When asked which food segments have proved the most controversial, Lopate pointing to hunting and meat as a consistent source of contention. (Photo: Leonard Lopate/Casey De Pont) “I think that anytime you talk about game, people get upset,” he said. “ And then there are vegetarians who just get upset that you ever say anything nice about meat, which seems to me to be a little shortsighted because a lot of people still eat meat. But I do try to address the issues of vegetarians, because we all should be eating a lot of vegetables and we should probably all be eating a lot less meat.” Lopate’s favorite kitchen tool is one that can brook little argument, except possibly from those trying to go gluten-free. “I have a bagel slicer,” he said with a chuckle, “and it works great.” See Amy Eddings grill Leonard Lopate in the 60-Second Stir-Fry lightning round of questions.

Few foods can seem as “last chance” as a piece of moldy cheese. While some of us contemplate the age-old question of whether to cut off the fuzzy bits and eat the rest, Brian Ralph is carefully cultivating mold at Murray’s Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village. He’s the cave master at the store and oversees the ripening of various cheeses in Murray’s five cheese caves. Ralph currently works in consultation with Dr. Benjamin Wolfe, a microbiologist researching mold at Harvard University. He calls Wolfe up with questions about how to cultivate and maintain various cheese molds, each of which serves an important purpose. “Depending on the species or subspecies of that mold, it’ll create different flavor profiles,” Ralph explained. “Like this one tastes grassy or this one tastes yeasty. But does it taste like beer yeast or champagne yeast?” This week’s Last Chance Foods segment took place in Murray’s cheese cave number four. It’s a vaulted, air-conditioned room, permeated with a strong, sharp smell. Wooden and metal shelves lined the walls and were filled with neat rows of domestic and imported natural-rind cheeses. “We’re putting [cheeses] in here so they can breathe,” Ralph said. “And what you’re smelling is the cheeses breathing and they’re letting off ammonia, they’re letting off other by products as they’re ripening the cheeses. Essentially, we’re letting them express themselves so that it doesn’t go back into the cheese and create off flavors.” Located in the basement of Murray’s, cheese cave number four is the most nose-tingling and pungent. Walking inside, Wolfe admitted he loves the smell. “These are molds that we’ve grown on cheese, we’ve grown to make miso, we’ve grown to make a lot of different products over thousands of years,” he said. “We’ve essentially domesticated these molds.” Wolfe works with Dr. Rachel Dutton at Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology in educating food makers and other scientists about helpful, harmless molds. In particular, Ralph works with Wolfe on sporendonema casei, a bright orange mold specific to Hudson Flower, the cave master’s signature cheese. On a recent visit from Cambridge, Mass., Wolfe brought petri dishes of lab-grown mold to use as comparison against what was growing on Murray’s cheese. “We like to think of [the cheese cave] as a frat house or something where you get like all these different people coming and expressing themselves in different ways,” Ralph said with a chuckle. “And we kind of treat it like a day spa where we come in, we pat them, we flip them over. If there’s cheese mites, we brush them off or suck them up with vacuum and make sure they’re not burrowing too far into the product itself.” That’s right: some varieties of cheese host microscopic mites that are invisible to the human eye. Ralph can tell they’re present by the dust the mites create on and around the cheeses. There’s no cause to be alarmed by the tiny creatures, though, says Wolfe. “I like to think of cheese mites as the gophers of cheese rinds or the groundhogs of cheese rinds,” he explained. “So they’re running around this moldy landscape, which could be like a lawn, and they’re eating the grass, but in this case the grass is mold. So they’re munching on various parts of the rind.” Wolfe pointed to a brown spot visible under a portable microscope. It was a mold called scopulariopsis. “We think of scopulariopsis as the cheese mite bar,” he said. “They love this particular mold. It’s one of the most delicious molds for them. So anytime you have scopulariopsis on a cheese like this, you have a mite party.” Wolfe was careful to add that, like mold, the mites were simply a natural part of the cheese’s ecosystem. “They’re not doing anything bad, necessarily, to the cheese unless they go out of control,” he said. “So that’s where Brian comes in and makes sure their numbers don’t go too crazy high.” Photo: Brian Ralph, Amy Eddings, and Benjamin Wolfe outside a cheese cave at Murray's Cheese Shop/Jennifer Hsu (WNYC)