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 Lynn Rosetta Caster with The Splendid Table.

Music with the splendid table. Today we're traveling in Vietnam.

Our guide is native and food expert, My Fom.

She paints a portrait of a country that's at peace for the first time in a century

and of a cuisine that is the liveliest and freshest in all Southeast Asia.

She brings us the street life, the street food, and the home cooking of Vietnam.

Back here, Jane and Michael Stern take us into an episode of The Sopranos in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Anya von Bremsen of Travel and Leisure magazine is a woman of courage.

She has the nerve to name the best pizza in America.

And we go into the woods for the feast of audacious souls.

All this and your calls coming up on the splendid table.

But first of this.

It's Lynn Rosetta, Casper, with Kitchen Chronicles, where knowledge is power and cooking is pleasure, a practical guide to nourishing ourselves and the people we care about. I was thinking the other day about how at this time of year you don't need to do much to foods.

So many things taste great raw or barely cooked.

If you use too much heat or too many ingredients, you hide the incredible goodness of things like prime tomatoes or melons or nectarine or corn.

But there are flavoring tricks, ways to accent what is already good, and some ways to liven up and brighten the tastes of things that just might be a little dull.

So here's a few flavoring tips to use for fresh summer produce.

Now, the first thing to remember is opposites do attract, and they can make that opposite flavor

taste even better, especially when you're talking about sweet and tart.

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