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126: Ice Sanford: Tasting Food from Around the World

June 8, 2016 by Gabriel 2 Comments

Ice Sanford of Foolproof Living on The Dinner Special podcast featured image
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Ice Sanford of Foolproof Living on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Tasting Food from Around the World.Foolproof Living

Ice was born with itchy feet. She grew up in Turkey, lived 10 years in the States, four years in the British Virgin Islands, and has recently moved back to the U.S. A food and lifestyle photographer and full-time blogger, she is a firm believer that if you know how to read, you know how to cook. On Foolproof Living, Ice shares easy to follow recipes that are helpful and full of flavor, as well as stories about her travels.

I am so happy to have Ice Sanford of Foolproof Living with me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Ice’s.)

On Her Favorite Food in Turkey:

A big plate full of Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Blood Oranges and Fennel placed on an old farm style table is photographed from the top view.

A big plate full of Quinoa and Avocado Salad with Blood Oranges and Fennel.

I am a big fan of breakfast. I’m a morning person. I like to get up early and have breakfast. To this day, I do a lot of toast and feta cheese. Feta cheese is so big in Turkey, and olives, my American friends make fun of me because I eat olives in the morning, but olives, jam like cherry jam and homemade marmalade and different cheeses, but mostly feta cheese is big, big back home.

Feta cheese in Turkey, it’s amazing there. Really. It’s so fatty and so delicious, and I just love it. And I have a lot of friends ask me how can you live without this? It’s hard. It’s my favorite thing.

On the Food Culture in British Virgin Islands:

A bowl of braised baby artichoke salad with white beans and shaved manchego is photographed from the top.

A bowl of braised baby artichoke salad with white beans and shaved manchego.

It’s a combination of a lot of food cultures. When you’re talking about the Caribbean, you have so many little islands and little cultures in there, and they are all living together. We were living on a small island called Virgin Gorda. It’s a nine-mile long island, half an hour ferry ride from the big island Tortola, which is the city, a big, big capital basically. Each island has islanders from the neighboring island like Jamaica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Nevis and Kitts. So they all bring their own culture and we would have these little food gatherings every so often on the island, and you get to taste a lot of different cuisines.

We were just talking about it with some friends the other day. On one of those, we heard that Nevis and Saint Kitts. Those people eat a lot of monkey meat because they have so many monkeys over there, and it’s just a part of culture. I went there because I tried to eat everything, at least know the taste of it and it was gone. Right after they opened their area, it was just gone. And my husband was like, “I can’t eat that. It’s too close to home.” But for me, I wanted to taste it. A lot of curry, they eat a lot of curry, chicken, seafood is big, and a lot of sweet tastes like putting pineapple, coconut, those are obviously in abundance.

On a Recipe She Picked Up from Her Travels:

Mexican Style 2 eggs topped with guacomole, pasilla chile sauce, Mexican cheese, and fresh cilantro served in a Mexican dish.

Mexican Style 2 eggs topped with guacomole, pasilla chile sauce, Mexican cheese, and fresh cilantro served in a Mexican dish.

One of my favorite recipes, it’s on the blog as well, is huevos rancheros, I am a big fan of huevos rancheros. A couple of years ago, we went to San Miguel de Allende, and there my husband and I went to different restaurants every morning and ordered huevos rancheros every single day just to find what is the best one. If you think about it, it’s just eggs served with some sort of a sauce over a corn tortilla. But this one place called Posada Corazon, a small inn in the heart of the city, had the best, like absolutely the best huevos rancheros because the cook made this pathia sauce, chili sauce, and it was just phenomenal.

She didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak good Spanish, and we tried to really communicate, but it came to the point where it was just not working. She was trying to show me what she used, but then I went to the hotel and made the person at the front desk call her and get the recipe. And since then, it’s our favorite, favorite dish. And I shared that on the blog.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

America’s Test Kitchen.

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

I love Artful Desperado, Gabriel, his work, his photography takes my breath away. I love The Bojon Gourmet via Alanna. She is amazing. Her recipes, to me, they are all doable. I want to make everything. I also like The Clever Carrot, Emilie. She is really talented. There are so many, Snixy Kitchen, I love, and Adventures in Cooking. Those are some that I really like.

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

Oh my God, there are so many people. There is an account on Pinterest and Instagram called A Daily Something. I really liked that. Witanddelight, I really like. There is another girl on Instagram, Mademoisellepoirot. Her photography is amazing, her color schemes, those are the ones that I really enjoy.

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

My mom’s mixing bowls.

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

I can’t say I love it, but I’m working on it. And this is so in a way, embarrassing to say as a food blogger living in the U.S., bacon.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Flavor Bible, I go to the supermarket with The Vegetarian Flavor Bible. We have a Farmer’s Market here and you can find every kind of vegetable in there and some of them I’ve never seen, but I would like to try. So I go there and look at what would match with this. That’s a very good resource if you’re creating recipes or if you’re trying to finish stuff in your fridge and don’t know what matches with what.

Cook’s Illustrated is a really good resource for me because if you don’t know something, just go there and look. And then, some food blogger cookbooks. I think those guys and gals, they are just doing an amazing job. Seven Spoon cookbook is like a go-to cookbook. I made a lot of things in there. Jamie Oliver is really good, Thomas Keller if you want to learn how to do certain things the professional way. Those are ones that I go to often.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I like anything Sia. Lately, I’m really, really impressed with her voice and just love it.

On Keeping Posted with Ice:

ce Sanford of Foolproof Living on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

I do update my Instagram regularly, as well as Facebook. Facebook is Foolproof Living and Instagram is aysegul.sanford. You can find me there.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: A Daily Something, Adventures in Cooking, America's Test Kitchen, Artful Desperado, Atlanta, Aysegul Sanford, Cook's Illustrated, Feta Cheese, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food Photographer, Foolproof Living, Huevos Rancheros, Ice Sanford, Jamie Oliver, San Miguel de Allende, Seven Spoons, Sia, Snixy Kitchen, The Bojon Gourmet, The British Virgin Islands, The Clever Carrot, The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, Thomas Keller, Turkey, Virgin Gorda

022: Alanna Taylor-Tobin: How to Build a Meal Around Vegetables First

April 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.
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Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast on How to Build a Meal Around Vegetables First

The Bojon Gourmet

Alanna is a self-proclaimed recovering pastry chef, and on her blog, she shares her amazing food photography and recipes, many of which are vegetarian or gluten-free.

I am so delighted to have Alanna Taylor-Tobin of the Bojon Gourmet here on the show today.

On Being a Recovering Pastry Chef:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about being a recovering pastry chef.

Well, it’s a little bit tongue in cheek, but I worked as a pastry chef for several years here in San Francisco, and two and a half years ago, I left my job to work on my blog full-time.

I don’t know if you’ve worked in restaurants? But they’re kind of crazy. When I left I just felt like, “I’m so relieved that I’m not working in restaurants anymore.”

It was just hectic and kind of a challenging place to work.

On Moving from Pastry to Cooking Savory Foods:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about moving from pastries to cooking savoury foods.

I’ve always loved cooking. I’ve always loved making anything I possibly can in the kitchen, including cocktails and savory foods also.

The reason I became a pastry chef is because I’m really squeamish and I don’t like touching raw meat and having to handle it. My very first job in the food industry was as a pantry cook at a restaurant. And I hated having to cut up big slabs of bloody fish and meat and stuff. So then when I went to work in a bakery I was like, “Oh, this is great! I get to do all of the food making, but I don’t have to touch all the yucky meat and seafood and stuff.”

That was actually the main reason why I went to pastry school and became a pastry chef.

But I’ve always loved cooking. I just cook mostly vegetarian at home because of the squeamish factor. I tried to make a balance of sweet and savory recipes on my blog and I tried to alternate recipes, but it is a little bit challenging sometimes because I get stuck in dessert mode.

I have to tell myself to think about like, “Okay, we need to have something substantial to eat.” So sometimes I have to just force myself to just go for something savory just so we’re not inundated with sugar all the time.

On Her Passion for Food and Cooking:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her passion for food and cooking.

My whole family is a very food-oriented family, and nobody actually works professionally in food. They’re all psychologists actually. My whole family are psychologists but they all really love food and as a kid my favorite times were going out to restaurants with my parents. Or, my mom would always have the Bon Appetit subscription. She always had a great cookbook collection.

I have an older brother and I think I was about nine and he was dating a woman who was a pastry chef. And that was the first time that I was like, “Oh my God! That’s a thing? You can just get paid to make desserts for a living forever? That’s so cool! I want to do that!” So I kind of had it in my head from a very early age that I wanted to be a pastry chef.

My parents are divorced and my mom lives in L.A. My dad lives in Oregon. And usually when they come visit we tend to take them out to restaurants because we live in San Francisco and it’s just an incredible restaurant culture here. But we do potlucks and stuff.

The only holiday that I really enjoy is Thanksgiving because we always do a big potluck at my brother’s house in Berkeley and I get to make as many pies as I want. That’s my very favorite thing.

On Vegetarian and Gluten-Free Cooking:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about vegetarian and gluten-free cooking.

My sister has known that she is allergic to gluten for 20 years I think now. She was gluten-free before it was cool. I think that kind of runs in my family. For the last ten or so years I’ve been experimenting with less gluten and just more whole grains and stuff.

I grew up not eating a ton of meat. I didn’t have a super meat-centric family and my mom’s always been really interested in health and nutrition.

When I first moved out of the house, I just ate Kraft mac and cheese for every meal because I was like, “Yeah!”

That got old really fast.

So I just started cooking more and one of the first cookbooks I owned was by Deborah Madison who’s mostly vegetarian. She’s founded Greens, the vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Just her whole aesthetic really inspired me.

When I moved in with my partner, he had been vegetarian for many years. It was just sort of natural to cook vegetarian. He’s not vegetarian anymore but he still eats mostly that way as do I.

As for the vegan, it’s not really a huge concern for me. I do have friends who are vegan. Or who are lactose intolerant and such. It’s kind of nice to have those recipes in my repertoire so I don’t have to be like, “Oh my God! A vegan’s coming for dinner. What do I do?”

That kind of mindset, of the meat is where you start from, is just kind of backwards from how I think. Even when I go to restaurants, I always look at the side dish, even if I get a meat entree, it’s because it has these awesome potatoes or the greens or something like that. I tend to start more from the vegetable aspect of it and sort of build a meal from there.

I tend to look at what’s in season. Or, “Oh, I’m craving sweet potatoes.” So then I’ll make a dish around that, like enchiladas.

I don’t think so much in terms of I need protein. I’m going to substitute this out for the protein or something.

I do eat a ton of cheese. I just love cheese. It’s my very favorite thing in the whole world. I probably eat more cheese because I’m needing the protein.

I guess I would say if you’re looking for a protein substitute, well, dairy obviously, but you can’t do that if you’re a vegan. Mushrooms are a really good source of protein, beans and nuts and all that kind of stuff. I don’t tend to think like that.

I tend more to start with the vegetable or the grain.

On Turning Down a Cookbook Offer… Twice:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about turning down a cookbook offer twice.

I had really mixed feelings about whether I should talk about it at all in a public way. It seems like cookbooks are kind of the equivalent of having a baby where you’re not allowed to tell anybody in the first few months until really you’re sure it’s going to happen.

I was nervous about talking about it. But I just felt like, I was personally so confused and lost having to try to figure out whether this was a good offer or not. I just wanted to put the information out there to help other people because I know publishers are reaching out to tons of bloggers now.

We don’t always know how the publishing world works and whether what we’re being offered is good or not. And we have to stick together, you know?

So I put that information out there and I was just shocked at all of the great responses that I got. From people saying, “Good job. Good job for turning that down.” And then there were also a few people who said, “Hey, I work in publishing and that wasn’t a bad deal.” That was a good perspective to hear also because I tried to make it really clear that my whole point was that I just didn’t know.

I wasn’t saying this was a crappy deal and I turned it down. I was saying I didn’t know if this was a good deal or not, and I need to explore that some more. So it was kind of good to hear both sides of that from commenters.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

When I was in college I loved watching, The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver. And I loved watching Iron Chef when it was all in, was it Japanese, I think?

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

Oh my gosh! I follow 200 blogs or something like that on Bloglovin‘.

There are so many fabulous blogs out there. It is so hard to choose, but I’ve recently become friends with a few bloggers. I’ve been more actively following their blogs.

One of them is Snixy Kitchen and Sarah Menanix is the author and her photos are just gorgeous. She’s got this beautiful light in her space, and she’s a really adventurous cook and baker. So she’ll just make anything. She just posted these gluten-free scallion pancakes and they’re just insanely good. So I highly recommend checking out her site.

And then another one is The Pancake Princess, and Erica is the author and her styling and attention to detail is just amazing. I love her photographs and recipes so much.

Another blog I really love is Circa Happy by Pang, and she’s Thai. Her recipes have a lot of Thai influence, and she’s only been doing food photography for less than a year and they’re totally professional caliber photographs. They’re just absolutely stunning.

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

I mostly use Pinterest as a personal way to collect recipes, but I do check Instagram constantly. I love Instagram so much. A friend of mine, Ana, and her blog is Fluxi On Tour. She takes the most beautiful Instagram photos. They’re all on her iPhone and a lot of them are landscapes and cityscapes. She’s a travel and food writer, and she just blows me away with the caliber of her iPhone photography. I don’t know how she does it but they’re just incredible. So I always love seeing her posts on Instagram.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

I would say maybe a variety of cooking oils, like olive oil and a neutral oil like sunflower or grape seed.

I’ve been really using a lot of ghee lately. It’s nice because you can keep it at room temperature even though it’s derived from butter, and it has a really high smoke point. So it’s really great for making popcorn or anything that you need really high heat for, and you want that kind of warm flavor like pancakes. You don’t get the butter burning in the pan because it’s got such a high smoke point. And it just adds this delicious warm richness to anything that you make.

I usually purchase it. A good friend of mine actually gave me a big jar of homemade ghee for a holiday gift.

I was just like, “Wow! This is the best gift ever!”

Name one ingredient you cannot live without?

I’d have to say, well, chocolate is really obvious, but for a savory ingredient? Maldon Salt is just my favorite finishing salt. It’s such a small and simple thing, but it can just make any dish, even sweet things, it just adds this crunchy amazingness that makes people go, “Wow! This is awesome!” And it can be the most basic thing but it has this delicious flaky, crunchy salt on top.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Oh boy, cookbooks. Well, one that I just have in my head because I used it the other day is The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. And it’s all ice creams and it’s kind of like the ice cream bible. It was the first ice cream book that was a very natural and fun and really thorough way with ice creams.

I’m a huge Deborah Madison fan so I love her book on soups. I use that one a lot. And she has one called Local Flavors that’s all about farmers market cooking, and it’s not one of her better known books. But I’ve probably made a third of the recipes in that book and every one is just fabulous! They’re really unique and they’re simple and they’re just super good. It’s things that I would never think of to cook. I feel like I owe a lot of my aesthetic to Deborah Madison.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I would have to say Lovely Day by Bill Withers is just one of the most fun upbeat songs that I’ve ever heard.

Keep Posted on Alanna:

Alanna Taylor-Tobin of The Bojon Gourmet on The Dinner Special podcast talking about how to keep posted on her.

I would say Instagram is probably a good way to keep in touch with me. And my handle is The_Bojon_Gourmet. (BojonGourmet.com)

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    Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Alanna Taylor-Tobin, Bill Withers, Bon Appetit, Circa Happy, David Lebovitz, Deborah Madison, Fluxi On Tour, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Gluten-Free, Greens, Iron Chef, Jamie Oliver, Local Flavors, Lovely Day, Pastry Chef, Sarah Menanix, Snixy Kitchen, The Bojon Gourmet, The Naked Chef, The Pancake Princess, The Perfect Scoop, Vegetables, Vegetarian

    Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
    Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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