785: What Is a National Dish With Anya von Bremzen and Argentina’s National Drink, Mate

The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters

American Public Media

Arts, Food

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we take a close look into what makes a national cuisine. Anya von Bremzen talks about her most recent book, National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home. We get into the history, culture, and theories behind the popularization of dishes, from researching the “correct” way to make pot-au-feu in France to looking at the “pizza effect” and the role of borsch in her family’s history. She shares her mom’s recipe for Super-Quick Vegetarian Borsch. Then we get into what may be the Argentinian National drink – mate with Mate & Co.’s sommelier, Tomás Martín Sanchez. He explains the production process, its unique flavor, and the community it brings together with its communal drinking ritual.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

August 4, 2023 (originally aired)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, it's Sally.
0:04.1	You know, when you support this blended table with a donation, you'll not only power
0:07.8	a vital public media program, but will send you a special thank you gift perfect for any
0:12.6	kitchen.
0:13.6	We have an array of goodies and gadgets to help you chop, prep, and sip and style.
0:18.8	Check out the gifts and contribute what you can at splenditable.org slash donate and
0:24.2	thank you so much for your support.
0:30.0	My name is Francis Lamb and this is the Splendid Table from APM.
0:40.8	So I was reading this fascinating article the other day by Mariana Juxtie in the Financial
0:45.6	Times about an Italian academic named Alberto Grande.
0:50.2	He's a professor at the University of Palma and well the article starts off with Grande
0:55.2	being interviewed over dinner at a restaurant and he looks around like he's hiding from
0:59.2	the cops or something and he goes, they hate me here.
1:03.6	And the reason why they, well first it's not clear who they is and eventually realize
1:07.4	that they is like every living person in Italy, the reason why they hate him is that he
1:12.6	has made his life's work to poke holes in Italy's historic foods.
1:18.7	Like how Parmesan Reggiano, right, the king of cheeses, or at least the dry hard version
1:24.0	that we fetishized now, was really only kind of invented in the 1960s.
1:28.8	What really gets people riled up is when he claims that the cheese that's closest today
1:32.9	to the historic Parmesan is a Parmesan that's made in Wisconsin.
1:38.6	Anyway, this dude is fascinating.
1:41.4	But the whole reason why he makes people mad is that he's telling millions of people that
	...

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