Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this complicated country.

We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories, their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature and get closer to the things we're missing.

Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts.

It's the splendid table from APM American Public Media.

Thank you. from APM American Public Media. I'm Lynne Ro SETO-Castor-Castor.

You know, the logic of cooking is really amazing,

and most cookbooks cheat us out of it.

For example, we constantly eat very different seeming dishes that are really the same technique

except for their ingredients.

Okay, that sounds insane, but look, here's what I mean.

Today, a Mexican chef explains how the famous pumpkin seed sauces of Mexico are only one technique that becomes many different recipes.

So maybe we should stop collecting recipes and instead collect techniques.

Well, there's a lot more of this kind of thing coming your way, this hour on the splendid table. This Splendid Table.

This week's Splendid Table is a repeat of an earlier broadcast.

This is The Splendid Table from APM American Public Media, the show for people who love to eat. I'm Lynn Rossetto-Casper.

Here's a basic for your culinary arsenal. If you change the shape of an ingredient,

you'll change what happens in your mouth. I mean, it suddenly is crunchy or it's slippery,

and the taste changes. Think steak and hamburger. Say meat, but not.

Then look at Chinese food. I mean, this is genius at work, toying with our taste perceptions.

They precision cut to play up texture like stir-fried pork with water chestnuts.

And then there's the Mexican brilliance of grinding seeds and nuts.

You've got a flock of classic sauces that all begin with that technique.

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