2012 SAVEUR Blog Awards | The Dinner Special podcast

137: Yigal Schleifer: Guided by Stories of Unsung Food Heroes

August 24, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Culinary Backstreets

Yigal co-founded the blog Istanbul Eats with Ansel Mullins to bring us the best undiscovered local eateries you might not always find on your own. The blog has grown and evolved into Culinary Backstreets, which tells the stories of a city’s foodways, giving equal measure to the culinary side as the human element to gain a deeper understanding of the city and its daily life.

Over the years, Yigal has worked for the New York Post, New York Times, and Vanity Fair. Istanbul Eats was a winner in the 2012 SAVEUR Blog Awards, and Culinary Backstreets has earned a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor.

I am so excited to have Yigal Schleifer of Istanbul Eats and Culinary Backstreets with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below belong to Culinary Backstreets.)

On Their Blog Istanbul Eats:

We were both living in Istanbul. We’re both Americans. Ansel’s from Chicago, I was living in New York before coming to Istanbul. We both got there around the time, 2002. And got to know each other through mutual friends fairly early on, and I think both shared a love for what makes Istanbul so special, which is it has all these great little backstreet places to eat. Just fun little ‘hole in the walls’ or ‘mom and pop shops’, or just places that have been around for generations, centuries. Very traditional nice spots that serve great food and are often hard to find, unless you’re kind of wandering the streets almost aimlessly.

I think in many ways we bonded over that. We were sitting over lunch one day, I think this was around, let’s say, 2009, and we were both complaining to each other about this article that just appeared in the travel section of a major American newspaper, and it was one of those articles saying, “If you’ve got a couple of days in Istanbul, here’s what you should do and where you should eat.”

The food suggestions, we thought, were just atrocious. At least in our minds. They were very typical suggestions, and just the kind of things that leave people feeling like, “There’s really no great food in Istanbul.” I mean, we kept hearing this. People are like, “I’ve come to Istanbul and I didn’t have a great food experience.” And to us, that was hard to believe. How could anyone possibly not have an incredible food experience in Istanbul?

We thought, “You know what? It’d be nice if there was something that highlighted these great spots that we love.” So thus was born the idea for the blog Istanbul Eats, initially just each one of us writing about these places that we had grown to love over the years there, and more or less more humble places. Not the high-end of the spectrum, but calling them the low-end is not so fair either because there are some high culinary achievements happening in some very humble places.

So we started with the blog and it really took off. It was kind of hard to imagine but at that time there was really nothing, not even in Turkish, that was doing what we were doing, which is kind of just writing about these humble, authentic places. And about a year after doing the blog, we had enough material for a book, so we did a guidebook, which is in English, but there’s also a Turkish version and a Greek version.

And then we also had the idea of… It was suggested to us by somebody who does this in Rome, which is to start doing food walks, culinary tours. We thought about how we would like to do that and really decided that you can really tell the story of the city through food, and we were doing it through our reviews in one way, but doing these walks would be another way to do it.

We came up with an initial route. We now, at this point, all these years later, we have maybe closer to 7 different routes in Istanbul. But the idea was really to create a kind of narrative-driven food tour. So instead of just stuffing your face and going from one place to another and eating good food but without maybe much thought as to what all the food is about, we decided to really find ways to tell the story of Istanbul, of different neighborhoods, especially places that most tourists don’t get to, through food.

Initially our first walk was through an area of the old city of Istanbul where most tourists don’t get to, and really understand the history of how food drives the rhythms of daily life in Istanbul.

So that’s how Istanbul Eats got started. I think it filled the void that was there. I think being expats, or outsiders, allowed us to, let’s say, venture into neighborhoods that maybe because of whatever cultural divisions you have in Turkey, certain people wouldn’t go to that neighborhood. Maybe it’s too religious over there, or it’s too this, or it’s too that. Those rules didn’t really apply to us because we were foreigners. So we were able to go wherever we wanted and eat wherever we wanted and write about these places. It took off, and we were really gratified to see the response.

On Starting Culinary Backstreets:

Istanbul Eats started in 2009, and about a year later started doing food tours. And while we were doing that, we were thinking it would be interesting to try this model in other places. We also saw people who had come to Istanbul and used our book, and had been on our walks who said, “Hey, you guys should think about doing this where I live, this would be really cool”. So, in 2012, the idea of Culinary Backstreets came into our head, which is the idea of trying to do this in other places. In 2012 we launched a website, and initially, we were along with Istanbul, we were also in Athens, and Barcelona, and Shanghai, Mexico City, and then we had it in Rio.

And really the idea was we used that same model, find a local person to write for us about great local places to eat, really to celebrate these kind of unsung heroes, people perpetuating culinary traditions, or doing interesting things with old traditions in new ways. And then we also do these experiential activities, the food tours, to really give people a chance to really get on the ground and have a more guided experience. So we’re really gratified to see that that also got a very nice response, and since then, we’ve gotten into a few other places. We’re now in Tokyo, and Lisbon, and PRC, and Georgia.

We’re really trying to make our mark in cities that we think have a great culinary tradition, great culinary culture, great food culture. That have an interesting story to tell beyond the food itself, but that the food helps tell the stories. So a city with some kind of interesting backstory and that the food really helps you unlock the mysteries of that city. And also places that are kind of hard to navigate on your own, for whatever reason. If it’s the language, culture, or even geography. Istanbul is such a hard place to sometimes navigate because the streets are kind of winding, and you just never really know where you are. It’s nice to have that guidance.

So that’s Culinary Backstreets. The idea, again, it’s just like what we did in Istanbul, really tell the story of these cities through their food, and to really offer people a way to interact with that city and with its story, either through reading our reviews that we do, or taking one of our walks. We also offer something called the Eatinerary, which is our custom-made food and travel guide. We have an online questionnaire that people can fill out and tell us what all their different preferences are and what their passions are and what their cravings are. And then we come back with a several day guided document that serves as a kind of a food guide. So, setting up each day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and other things along the way that really take you through the city and its food.

That’s the Culinary Backstreets story. We’ve really been happy to see it grow, and the idea is to keep adding all these kind of interesting cities to the roster as we grow.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Well, this may sound very cliche, but lately it’s just been the British Baking Show. Sad to say I’m not a big TV guy. But that’s been what I’ve been watching with my kids, and they’re big fans.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

This is kind of a backhanded plug for Culinary Backstreets, but just to say that we recently did a week together with a website called Roads & Kingdoms. Roads & Kingdoms is not strictly a food blog, they’re kind of a culture and travel website that does great reportage and focuses on food, and we did a week with them about bars. Different bars that we really love, small little places, focusing, again, on the people…we call it “behind bars”, it’s the people, the bartenders. So we’re really happy to work with them. It’s a great site that I highly recommend, Roads & Kingdoms.

With Culinary Backstreets, what would you say is your personal favourite tour?

Well, one of our newest ones is in Georgia, the country not the state. It’s an amazing place, it’s an amazing country, it’s an amazing food culture that has an incredible wine culture. There’s something very raw and wild still about life in Georgia. The food is sort of like this mix of all kinds of different influences, yet you can’t quite put your finger on it… It’s totally unique in and of its own, and the walk that you do there takes you through this old market there that’s just an incredible hive of activity and through the city, and then ends up at this wonderful restaurant run by a group of younger Georgians who are recasting older traditions in a new light.

It’s just great, it’s an incredible introduction to, I think, a place that feels really different than a lot of what most people experience, be it European, or North American, or South American, or even Asian. It’s just a very interesting place.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

It’s not unusual, but I love it deeply, and it’s a mortar and pestle, wooden mortar and pestle, that, to tell the truth, I can’t remember where I got it. It’s possible that I got it in Jerusalem but it’s possible I got it in New York. It’s been with me for a long time now, and I can tell how long I’ve had it because the pestle is sort of worn down from all the grinding but I use it specifically for crushing garlic, it’s perfect for crushing garlic. I don’t know what it is, something about the wood against the wood, and the way it soaks up some of that aroma and the flavor. And just the warmth of the wood, it’s almost like a child of mine. I really love my mortar and pestle, and there were a few years where it was in storage just because we had been traveling, and being reunited with that piece of kitchen equipment is really special.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I hate to repeat myself, but let me go back to liver and just say that after spending several years in Turkey and encountering liver in all kinds of different forms, in some places it’s even eaten for breakfast, literally, it’s grilled in southeast Turkey in the morning, grilled up. So I’ll have to say liver again just because I’ve become such a liver fanatic.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

There’s one that to me is kind of like a Bible and it’s Paula Wolfert’s, Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. Maybe it’s 20 years old or more, but it’s a fantastic cookbook that I just turn to all the time and has some fantastic recipes. There’s just something perfect about it to me, and I always go back to it, and it just really seems to cover the sweet spot for me in terms of this Eastern Mediterranean region, ranging from Greece over to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and down through Egypt. It’s a great cookbook.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Probably The Wailers, as in Bob Marley and The Wailers, but before when they were just The Wailers. And it would be Catch a Fire, probably. I would have to say that’s something… That era… Wailers… Anything, actually, from that era I think really does it for me in the kitchen. Or anywhere else.

On Keeping Posted with Yigal:

Go to our Facebook page, we’re just Culinary Backstreets on Facebook, look us up. That’s probably the best way to stay up on what we’re doing. If you want, go to our website and sign up for our newsletter, we send out a weekly top stories of the week newsletter. But Facebook is the most comprehensive.

136: Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack: Passing On the Flavours of Mexico

August 17, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Muy Bueno

On her blog, Muy Bueno, Yvette shares her family stories and takes her readers on a journey through old-world northern Mexican cuisine, traditional south of the border home-style dishes, and Latin fusion recipes. Muy Bueno was a finalist in the Saveur Blog Awards in 2012 and 2014, and Yvette has published two cookbooks: Muy Bueno: Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor and Latin Twist: Traditional and Modern Cocktails.

I am so thrilled to have Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack of Muy Bueno joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Yvette’s.)

On The Role Food Played in Her Home:

I grew up in El Paso, Texas, which so many people think, “Oh, you have Tex-Mex food,” but if you’ve ever been to El Paso, it’s pretty much Mexico. Our home is literally a mile away from the Juarez Mexico border. My grandmother came from Chihuahua, Mexico, when she was 10 years old. She’s passed away. She passed away when she was 98 years old, but my mom was a single parent and we lived next door to my grandma. So it was basically my mom and my grandma who raised me, and it was food all the time. It was either see my mom in the kitchen all the time or my grandma in the kitchen. And that was why I named “Muy Bueno” what it is because my grandma would always be in the kitchen, and just anytime any visitors would come, she would always say, “Siéntate a comer, esta muy bueno,” which means, “Sit down, come and eat, it’s very good.” And so every time I thought about my grandma and trying to come up with a blog name, that name just kept coming to me.

My grandma was just always in the kitchen and I was always in there with her. I just loved to sit there and watch her make homemade flour tortillas. And I just couldn’t wait to get home from school and just sit there and just listen to her stories. She would just tell me, you know, growing up in the ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico, and during the Mexican revolution, and crossing over to Texas with her family when she was only 10 years old, and just how scary it was. And the things that she experienced, I just found it fascinating. I could just hear her stories over and over and over again. I just loved sitting there and just watching her cook. And that was what I fell in love with.

Although, growing up, what’s so funny is seeing her in the kitchen, my mom always in the kitchen, that was where I did not want to be. I just felt like they were under appreciated and just always there. But as I became a mom, I realized that’s just your gift to your family. And that’s your showing your love to your family, and that’s when I fell in love with cooking, once I had my own children. But in my teens and college, I was like anti the kitchen, anti-cooking.

On Rediscovering the Kitchen:

Everybody would tease me, my family would, especially my brother. He’s seven years older than me and he still teases me, thinking, “Oh, you still don’t cook. You just play one on the Internet.” Because he would be the biggest one. My grandma, too, would say I’m never gonna find a man because I didn’t like the kitchen. It was just like a running family joke. But it’s not that I didn’t know how to cook. I just chose not to cook. My love in the kitchen was when I would entertain. I would love to have friends and family over, and that’s when I would get creative and have fun, when I knew I could cook for a crowd.

It was until I had children, I was like, “Okay, now I kinda have to cook.” So that’s when I started calling my mom and asking, “Okay, How do I make some of these recipes?” She never had it written down. I never bothered to write them down. I would just make them as she was telling me over the phone. And so that’s how I would learn some of the traditional dishes that I grew up with.

Still to this day, when I make a dish that my grandma would make often, I just seriously feel her. I just know that she’s watching me and guiding me in the kitchen. So it’s really cool.

On Her Cookbook, Muy Bueno: Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor:

That was really challenging when we tried to come up with our tagline or subheading. It’s like authentic could be very misleading, I guess. People could be very judgmental when it comes to any type of cuisine, whether it’s authentic or not authentic. Everybody’s definition of authenticity is very different. And when it comes to cooking, it depends on what region. I just came back from Oaxaca, Mexico, and there were so many dishes and ingredients that I have never heard of. So my chicken mole is completely different than a mole that’s made in Oaxaca, Mexico. That’s why we named it “authentic flavor.” We’re not claiming that it’s authentic Mexican, but that it’s authentic to us, and it’s the flavor of Mexico that we know and love.

I just posted a recipe not too long ago of this very authentic traditional dish called chiles en nogada. And it’s not a dish that we necessarily grew up with, but I researched it enough and learned how to make it to share it with my fans. And there’ll always be somebody who’s like, “No, this is not authentic, because an authentic chiles en nogada, you have to peel the walnuts.” And it’s like, sometimes, I skip steps to try and make it easy for the everyday cook. Who has a time to be peeling walnuts?

So just little things like that, I try to make dishes that are authentic in flavor, but are easier to make and maybe adding a spin where it’s a healthier dish or just making it more simple, but keeping those traditional and authentic flavors in there.

On Co-Writing a Second Cookbook, Latin Twist: Traditional & Modern Cocktails:

It was funny because you never know who you’re gonna meet. That’s what I love about blogging is it’s opened up so many new relationships that sitting in my old job in a cubicle, I would have never had the opportunity to meet. And Vianney is another Latina blogger who is from Texas. So we automatically had that connection, and I followed her blog, she followed my blog. And one event, we went with Nestle to go to California and be a part of a tamalada.

And that evening, we were both flying out and had a long delay at the LA airport. We’re like, “Let’s get some cocktails.” And so we started with one cocktail, and another cocktail. She has a great section in her blog that’s called Margarita Love. And so I kept telling her, “Vianney, you need to write a margarita cookbook, you know, margarita cocktail book.” She’s like, “Yeah, that’s my goal. I wanna do that.” I was like, “Well, let me know if you need help, and I can design it for you, or I can talk to the publisher that I worked with and see if they might be interested.” And she was like, “Okay, okay.”

And so then, after I was on the plane and we parted ways, I was thinking, “I need to do something with her. I don’t wanna steal her thunder with a margarita book, because I would love for her to still do that on her own, but we need to team up together and write a cocktail book, not only just of margaritas, and not only just of Mexican cocktails, but cocktails of Latin America and Spain. And so that’s how the idea started. I approached her saying, “How about we team up together and we write a cocktail book together and share both of our loves of these fun cocktails that usually end up being Latin-inspired.”

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love anything with Giada or Rick Bayless or Pati Jinich. It’s not so much of the show, but more about who’s cooking and who captivates my attention.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I would say White on Rice Couple. I’ve just always loved their photography style and just their whole life in general. They have this gorgeous garden and these orchards. It just looks fabulous. I also love Matt Bites, Matt Armendariz. I just love that he’s a Latino. He seems like he would be a fun friend. I love his photography and his styling. He works with his partner who has an amazing eye for food styling. And just together, they do some magic. For me, it’s all about visuals and photography, and capturing the story with it. And so those blogs have always kept my interest.

I also love Foodiecrush. She has an amazing, a completely different sense of style, where I think it’s more modern and clean, and she also has a background in graphic design. So I love her clean space when it comes to styling food.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I follow a lot of yogis on Instagram. I just love yoga girl, and she just always has some inspirational messages. It’s just neat to see all these amazing yoga poses that she does in the middle of nowhere, or like super tropical, exotic amazing spaces. But I just love that she always has positive messages or inspiring quotes, always to her photos.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

That’s an easy one. It’s my grandmother’s rolling pin. After she passed away, my mom asked me what it was that I would love from my grandma, and I just wanted that rolling pin that she would make flour tortillas with every day. And so come to find out she had two rolling pins, and my sister asked for one too. So we each got a rolling pin. I think it’s kind of like a baton, like your turn. It’s time to continue that legacy and those traditions of food with your family.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

I would say nopales, which are cactus petals. It’s not even so much that I didn’t love it. It’s just we didn’t really grow up eating them very often. When I saw them, it was more in a jar and they just looked slimy and they just didn’t appeal to me. And so it was not, until recently, where it’s like you can honestly get them fresh. I put them in a smoothie every morning or mix some scrambled eggs or just in a fresh salad, it’s just such a fun ingredient that I think it’s underrated and it needs to be used more often.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I love Rick Bayless. I love Pati Jinich. I also love Marcela Valladolid. Anything Mexican, I just love to, not only read the recipes, but read their history or learn how they make the recipes. It’s just interesting, because you can have a tres leches cake in all the books, and they’ll all be completely different. I love seeing the variety of the same Mexican dish and how it’s made by different Mexican chefs.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would say any old Mexican music. There’s Paloma Blanca, which is a white dove. And there’s another one called De Colores. So they’re just two old Mexican songs, and it’s like I’m flooded back with feelings of my grandma, racing to go pump up the volume and sing. Now I sing those songs and turn up the volume for those songs, and just know that grandma is there watching me cook, singing with me.

On Keeping Posted with Yvette:

I think Instagram’s definitely my new love. That’s where I post the latest and greatest, also on Facebook. I’m not on Snapchat yet. I do have an account, but I haven’t caught on to the Snapchat wagon, which I’m sure I will soon. But yeah, for now, definitely Instagram on Muy Bueno Cooking. And on Facebook, it’s under Muy Bueno Cookbook.

134: Joumana Accad: Sharing a Taste of Beirut

August 3, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Taste of Beirut

Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Joumana moved to the U.S. in 1979 and is a former school teacher, pastry chef, caterer and translator. She started her blog, Taste of Beirut, in 2009 to share a window into the Eastern Mediterranean where Lebanese food mixes with Turkish, Syrian, Persian, Iraqi, and Egyptian flavors. Joumana was a finalist in the 2012 SAVEUR Blog Awards, has shared over 1200 recipes on Taste of Beirut, and published a cookbook, Taste of Beirut. Today, she works both in the U.S. and in Lebanon as a food stylist, recipe developer, menu consultant, and a cooking instructor.

I am so excited to have Joumana Accad of Taste of Beirut with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Joumana’s.)

On the Role Food Played While Growing Up in Beirut, Lebanon:

When you are born and brought up in one place, you don’t begin to realize how special it is until you move out of that environment into a completely different environment. And that’s what happened with me when I moved to the U.S. It suddenly dawned on me what the words fresh and local meant. For example, my grandmother who lived with us and she was in charge of feeding us, she would buy her fruits and her veggies every single day by lowering a straw basket and checking out the street vendors, and then even bargaining with them to do her marketing for the day. And then she would cook every single day, a fresh meal. And that’s something that when you live in a country like the United States or even in Europe, it’s something that you don’t have that luxury of time. I wanted, all of a sudden, being thrown in a new culture, you feel like you want to hang on to your roots and your heritage, but you don’t know quite how to do it. That was the impetus that got me started on the blog, wanting to blog about it.

I’ve always had an interest in cooking, it just was not encouraged when I was growing up. It was not something one would, at that time, encourage people. It was more like, “You need to go to college and learn something serious like law or business.” I had no interest in. But in the U.S., left to my own devices, whatever comes naturally is what you end up doing. To me, my interest in cooking was completely natural, and I did it on my own learning, sometimes calling home and getting tips. And it just gradually developed over the years. But I think the seed was there initially.

On Lebanese Cuisine:

It’s a simple cuisine with ingredients and techniques that recur for example. When you talk about Lebanese cuisine and dairy, you’re talking about yogurt. And I’m not talking about the sweetened yoghurt with the fruit at the bottom. I’m talking about the plain, a little bit sour yoghurt that is used for sauce. If you’re making a stew or a soup, that is used as a side dish. If you’re making a pilaf with rice or with bulgur, that would be the yoghurt. There’s a lot of legumes, chickpeas being one of them, beans, lentils, a heck of a lot of lentil dishes. Simple things like citrus, lemons, you’re always squeezing lemons either in a salad or on a soup or whatever.

It’s not a sophisticated cuisine. And once you’ve learned a few techniques… And now, there are some dishes that require some more sophisticated technique, but by and large, it’s a simple cuisine that anybody can learn and that anybody can make in less than 30 minutes.

On What a Typical Lebanese Meal Looks Like:

Well, for example, you would take, say, any kind of veggie that would be in season, say artichoke. If you have an artichoke, then you would make a stew with some artichoke. The stew would not have a whole lot of meat, it would have a few pieces of shank, maybe with some bone to give more flavor. And then at the end of that stew, to give it flavor, you always add a pesto which is basically you sizzle, in some olive oil, some cilantro and some garlic. You add that at the last minute for flavor.

We have lemon, we have tahini. Tahini is essential in a pantry. Tahini would be like the Lebanese or the Levantine equivalent of butter for the French. Because with Tahini, you make your hummus, you make your dressing for your salads, you make a lot of different veggies dressed with that tahini dressing. You boil them or steam them and you add that tahini dressing. You don’t use butter, you use tahini. And tahini is a paste that’s made out of sesame seeds. That’s about it.

On Her Cookbook:

So many people were telling me, “You ought to have a cookbook,” because I was getting such a good response from the blog and getting to be a guest on radio shows, and on television, and so on. I didn’t have to struggle really. I had a publisher who was interested, HCI, famous for publishing the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and they offered me that book deal, and I worked on it. And I basically wanted to include the core recipes that would exemplify Lebanese cuisine without going just crazy. So I just focused on that. And each recipe had a photo because I’m also the food photographer for the blog and cookbook.

I moved back to Lebanon since 2011 because I wanted to immerse myself in the cooking scene here, cook with local cooks. I thought that it would behoove me to have that experience under my belt, instead of sitting in Dallas writing about Lebanese cuisine by memory. It was a great experience, because I was able to spend half my time in the mountain and learn about country style cuisine, which is completely different from Beirut style cuisine, and cook with Lebanese cooks and learn from them some tips and techniques that I never would have had that exposure had I been still living in Texas.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Oh, gosh! That’s an easy one. I don’t watch any.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I used to subscribe to French food sites, it was called cook.com. It’s a paying site, but they have chefs, French chefs, and I learned a lot from it because I thought French chefs were very creative. And it was fun, interesting and fun. I also read a lot of blogs, and they’re usually in French from North African bloggers, because this is one cuisine I’m curious about and I don’t know much about. This is a very rich cuisine in terms of cultural history, variations, all these different tribes. It’s very interesting to me, so I’m learning. I like to learn more than just read a blog because it’s trendy or something.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I like Instagram. To me it’s the best medium, because it’s quick and easy, and yeah, it’s an instant gratification. I follow a lot of world famous photographers, for example.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I can tell you my treasured, because I would not be in any kitchen if I don’t have it, it’s my garlic mortar. It’s a special wooden mortar specifically for garlic. I refuse to use that garlic press thing. It has to be mashed, and so you have to pound the garlic with some salt or something to make it pasty.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Oh, easy, eggplant. I used to hide the eggplants when I was in school, in elementary school, in the pocket of my apron, so I wouldn’t have to eat it. Of course, I have changed 180 degrees as far as eggplant is concerned in my adult years.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I’m on a constant search for deepening my knowledge of Middle Eastern cuisine. So for example, if I read a cookbook, I want it to not just have a bunch of recipes. That, to me, is not interesting. I want to know the why and the history behind it, and all this. So for example, there’s some cookbooks on Persian Cuisine that I’m really enjoying, because they really go in depth on the history behind the dishes and interesting works like that.

Well, there’s, for example…her name is Margaret but she wrote a book on Persian Cuisine. There’s also Najmieh Batmanglij who also published some beautiful book on Persian cuisine, beautiful photography. Those are cultures that I’m interested in, that I want to learn more about, and the cookbook does the job. It delivers not just recipes, but the whole holistic thing of the culture.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Well, not classical. Classical makes me want to sleep. Anything from, let’s say, the late ‘70s onwards is good. My son introduced me to Linkin Park. And yeah, I’d go for Linkin Park. I’d go for something like from ‘80s, like Fleetwood Mac, I like this kind of stuff.

On Keeping Posted with Joumana:

Well, I’m pretty active on Instagram these days. So you just go on Taste of Beirut.