By NPR Staff – NPR

Padma Lakshmi is probably best known as the host of the TV show Top Chef on Bravo, but she’s also worked as a model and an actress. Lakshmi was born in India, and moved to America to be with her mother, who’d moved to the States after the breakup of her arranged marriage.

Raised between two countries, she developed a love of food and family. And then, in her 20s, she met and fell in love with the author Salman Rushdie.

“He’s an extremely brilliant and charming and layered and complicated man,” she tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “If you’re someone who’s like me, and especially Indian, it’s sort of like meeting Hemingway in your twenties, you know?”

Lakshmi came out the other side of that marriage, had a child, lost a partner to brain cancer — and still kept working on TV and writing cookbooks. She writes about it all in a new memoir: Love, Loss and What We Ate.

Interview Highlights

On being a supertaster

From my earliest childhood memories I can remember being in the kitchen, and my grandmother and my aunts and my older cousins, and my mother, certainly, all taught me about food. I only found out recently from a scientist in Seattle at the Science Museum that I am a supertaster, and I never knew that was actually a thing … I bring it up because from a very early age, I was always very curious about eating foods that normally toddlers don’t eat. Very sour things like mango and tamarind, very bitter things like fermented foods or certain Asian vegetables. And you know, you don’t really give a bowl of fiery indian pickles to a 2-year-old! And yet I was climbing up on my grandmother’s shelves in the kitchen like a monkey, sort of like a temple monkey, to try and get at the pickle jars … I think my young palate needed that stimulation.

On coming to America at the age of 4 and eating nothing but rice

I was very used to a lacto-vegetarian Hindu Brahmin diet, and so I found it hard to eat American foods. So we would have to seek out restaurants that had rice — whether it was a Chinese restaurant or a Mexican restaurant, or whatever. And luckily we lived in New York City, and I experienced the city through my palate, and it was an exciting place to grow up as a child. It gave me great independence, but it also allowed me to really experience a lot of the world in a much less sheltered way than I would if I was living anywhere else.

On how Top Chef has changed the way she cooks and eats

Getting to rub shoulders with all of these great chefs, from Thomas Keller to Daniel Boulud to Jacques Pepin and on and on, it does inform my thinking about food — I mean, how could it not? But our show is really about professional chefs who command a kitchen that puts out 200 plates of food that are all different, and hot, and come out at the same time. But, you know, it has informed me immensely. I would consider myself a culinary spelunker, and I love nothing more than to go to a new town or city, and discover that city through its food.

By Jake Grove of the Independent Mail

There are trends in everything these days.

Music trends tend to last about three months (anyone really remember Meghan Trainor these days?).

Fashion trends last less time, probably clocking in at about two months at the most (thank goodness skinny jeans are gone).

And don’t even get me started on the next big thing in technology, because it will be pass in a month or less (so long iPhone 6, welcome the iPhone 7).

But trends in food are something different.

Food and drink trends tend to stick around a little longer, allowing for restaurants around the country and the world to catch up a little bit and get in on the action.

Once upon a time it was vodka and its flavored counterparts that ruled the beverage roost.

Then, along came the many faces of craft beer, which has dominated the landscape for the last four to five years.

With food, we were enamored by the gluten-free lifestyle for a time and wanted to eat everything “paleo.”

But there are new trends that will stick around for the 2016 calendar year and you should know them before you head out on this year’s vacation or for your next day trip to the closest major metro.

We have put together some trends that are blowing up right now and will likely continue to do so the rest of the year.

See what you think and plan accordingly on your next dining excursion.

Ramen

Not so long ago, the broth diet fad was a thing. People were extolling the virtues of bone broth and enjoying it as a meal, a snack and everything in between. And while the broth fad might have faded, it has been replaced by something we all know and love: ramen.

But this isn’t the ramen of your college days. No, this is ramen that is made using rich, savory bone broth and noodles that won’t bust your diet.

Ramen noodles are lighter and can be manipulated to absorb flavor well and doctored to fit any taste.

You will find them in noodle shops and you can order it as pho or other noodle dishes, but it’s all the same concept.

Take some bone broth, add Asian-style noodles, put in hot sauce, soy, onions and other umami flavors and repeat.

Fermented foods/pickled foods

There is a craze out there right now for pickles.

Not just dill pickles or bread-and-butter pickled cucumbers, but all things pickled.

The days of a simple cucumber representing the pickled world are gone.

Today, it’s cauliflower, carrots, beets, ginger, Brussels sprouts, onions and so much more.

Just take a look around Anderson to see the pickled influence.

SummaJoe’s Searing Pans has one of their most popular sandwiches, the Hot and Juicy, covered with pickled veggies.

And at Carolina Bauernhaus Ales on Sunday, you can get a charcuterie board with cured meats and house-pickled veggies that pair with their funky brews.

So, look for pickles or start pickling yourself to play with this newest trend.

Crazy-topped pizza

Used to be that only a few places had the guts to have fun with their pizzas. With most of the population loving their classic pepperoni and cheese pizza, it seemed silly to try and mix things up too much. But those days are gone. The wild-topped pizza is part of the future and it’s not going anywhere.

From Mellow Mushroom to SummaJoe’s to Rick’s Pizza Pub and Joe’s New York Pizza, purveyors of this most popular pie are going way outside the box to come up with new flavors all the time. Mellow uses Asian flavors to top many of their pies while experimenting with funky cheeses and different sauce bases. At SummaJoe’s, it’s all about putting a flavor experience on a pie from their specials like smoked salmon and capers to their South Cackalacky pie with pimento cheese. Joe’s New York Pizza still makes their mark with classic pies, but have seen an uptick in wild flavor requests that just seem to work. And it’s even more interesting in the home pizza market where anything goes.

Fast casual dining

The trend of fast casual dining isn’t anything new, but it is something that is trendy right now. Places like Chipotle made this concept popular, but it’s been those places that take it to the next level that are keeping the trend alive.

In Greenville, there are spots like Grill Marks where people can enjoy a fine-dining experience with fine-dining ingredients while hanging out in their T-shirts and jeans. They can enjoy infused vodka cocktails and craft beer while waiting for their gourmet burger topped with pork belly or microgreens. It’s true of several places around Greenville and the concept is working its way toward Anderson and Clemson slowly but surely.

Jerky

Where there are pickles, dried meats are not far behind. Jerky is the kind of quick, portable snack that is ideal for people on the go. It’s packed with protein, low on sugar and can come in a variety of flavors.

It used to be that beef jerky was the only dried meat you would see, but turkey jerky, salmon jerky and wild game jerky are all making big strides to show that you can dry anything and enjoy it.

There are several jerky stores popping up in the Greenville, Charlotte and Atlanta areas with Anderson following suit to sell more jerky in specialty stores throughout the area. But with so many strict laws for making and selling jerky, you won’t see a lot of farmers markets filled with the stuff made by local folks.

Regardless, jerky is a trendy snack right now and shows no signs of slowing.

Bourbon and Scotch

On the beverage front, bourbon and Scotch have taken over for the vodkas and tequilas of yesteryear. Just look at the Scotch shelves at your local liquor store and you will see everything from a $20 bottle of basic stuff to bottles that cost $200, $300 and $400 each.

As for bourbon, it’s become the single-most popular spirit in the last couple years. People are searching for specific bottles and the secondary market on brands like the Van Winkle family of bourbons is through the roof right now. Heck, even derivations on Van Winkle are hot sellers only being allocated to accounts and then sold one bottle at a time, sometimes in a lottery.

This holds true for cocktails as well with bourbon and Scotch being mixed in creative ways at your favorite bars.

There are other trends to be sure. Things like hot fried chicken (thank you very much, KFC) and tropical beers (pineapple, mango and tangerine, oh my) are hot right now. There are even dining experiences that will be hot like the immersed dining or the self-serve beverage market. But these are some you can enjoy right now, before they become passe, even for Upstate South Carolina.

By Grayson Haver Currin   –   Indy Week

Arthur Gordon had too much produce.

In 2012, his Raleigh institution, Irregardless Cafe & Catering, purchased a 1.5-acre garden a few miles from the restaurant, intending to increase quality control and decrease the distance between the plant and the plate. But the seasonal surpluses perplexed him, forcing him to find new ways to use what he had—or preserve it for later. So Gordon started pickling and fermenting and soon found he couldn’t stop. These days, he even talks loftily of fermenting Irregardless’s own blackberry wine.

Coincidentally, perhaps counterintuitively, the interest in pickling paralleled another new Gordon curiosity: deep-frying. Last year, after forty years in the Irregardless kitchen, he offered his first-ever fried items—calamari, falafel, and, after investing nearly fifteen-thousand dollars on twin industrial-size fryers, the restaurant’s latest wonder: salt-and-vinegar French fries.

After slicing potatoes into quarter-inch rectangular strips, Gordon pickles them in a solution of salt and sauerkraut juice for at least two days. After they’ve adequately soaked, the kitchen fries them twice in rice bran oil at escalating temperatures. The outside is crisp but yielding, as though the potatoes have an invisible thin skin. The inside is supple and hot, with the mild vinegar tang arriving early in the bite before forming a sort of delicious cloud as you chew. It’s not overpowering like a salt-and-vinegar chip (“The big boys use flavor enhancers,” Gordon reports) or too soggy, like British chips doused in malt vinegar. These are the shoestring potatoes of a giant, laced with just enough pickle zest that you need to eat the next one and the next one and the next one to verify the taste. Not a problem, really.

“I don’t want to get too heavy into fried foods. We didn’t have them for forty years because I don’t think it’s a healthy lifestyle,” Gordon says. “But they certainly taste the part. And everything in moderation is OK.”

This article appears in print with the headline “Oil and Vinegar.”

by Christopher Osburn   –   Crave

Back in 2004, the Boston Red Sox made news when first basemen Kevin Millar told media members that some players took shots of Jack Daniel’s before game six of the American League Championship Series. It worked so well, the group decided to continue the tradition through the World Series. It worked and they won the World Series for the first time since 1918.

“It was one of those group team things, like shaving our heads last year,” Millar said at the time. “What we had was one small Gatorade cup, with a little Jack Daniel’s in it. We passed it around and everyone symbolically drank out of the same cup, because we are a team. It wasn’t as if guys were drunk. Can you imagine Trot Nixon or Jason Varitek or Mike Timlin actually sipping alcohol before a game? No way.” Pedro Martinez went one step further, saying that team members didn’t drink Whiskey. He says players drank the Dominican spirit Mama Juana, a spirit made from rum, red wine and aged with herbs and tree bark. “We took a shot of Mama Juana every single game, before the game,” Martinez said in 2013.

So, Pickle Juice is Healthy?

You might be saying, “I’ve been drinking the juice from the pickle jar for decades. I didn’t know it was good for you.” You probably just thought you were a weirdo for being drawn to the tart, salty juice that surrounds your favorite gerkins. Pickle juice is scientifically proven to relieve muscle cramps extremely quickly. “The 100% natural ingredients function as a neural inhibitor which addresses the cramp at the source,” says Filip Keuppens, Sales & Marketing Director for The Pickle Juice Company.” It replenishes electrolytes in the body and it contains ten times the electrolytes as most sports drinks.” The high electrolyte content promotes hydration and functions and as an antidiuretic which can prevent dehydration while consuming alcohol and aid hangover recovery the following day.

The Pickleback Shot

This is a shot combination similar to a “beer and a shot”, but instead of a beer, it consists of a shot of pickle juice and a shot of whiskey. The whiskey is imbibed first, followed by the briny pickle juice. The pickleback name actually is only a reference to the pickle portion of the shot since it is enjoyed at the end or the “back” of the experience. Some people have changed it up by drinking whiskey and then taking a bite of a pickle, but you should know that you won’t get the same positive health effects if you do it this way.

It is believed to be invented by bartender Reggie Cunningham at the Bushwick Country Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn a decade ago in 2006. “As a chaser, the sweet-and-sour nature of the brine is said to neutralize the burn of the alcohol, and the salt acting as a masking ingredient to counteract the harsh taste of the spirit,” says Keuppens. Cunningham didn’t technically invent the drink, he learned about it from speaking with a southern customer. He may have coined the word “pickleback” at The Bushwick County Club in 2006, but it’s not the first time the drink appeared. “It’s said to have its origins in the South, notably in Texas.” The pickleback at the Bushwick Country club consists of Old Crow bourbon and the pickle juice from McClure’s spicy pickles.

Keuppens was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the health benefits of pickle juice, the inspiration for the company and why pickle juice is great for cocktails.

CraveOnline: Tell us about The Pickle Juice Company.

Filip Keuppens: Started in 2001, the Pickle Juice Company is the first drink manufacturer to produce a purpose-built sports drink based on the functional properties of pickle brine. Its proprietary recipe was developed specifically to help prevent dehydration and muscle cramping caused by heat and muscle exertion. It is becoming more and more commonly used by athletes, the military, people working in strenuous or hot environments and the elderly who find it to be an outstanding source of relief for nocturnal muscle cramps. The company is based in Mesquite, TX.

What was the inspiration for the company?

The inspiration for the company actually came as a result of a 2000 Dallas Cowboys v. Philadelphia Eagles game. It was reportedly the hottest game in NFL history, with the Cowboys and Eagles playing in the 109-degree heat. The Eagles seemed more energized while the Cowboys suffered from muscle cramps, and the Eagles credited this (and their 41-14 victory) to pickle juice, which trainer Rick Burkholder recommended to combat the heat. This led to the founders of The Pickle Juice company to research the functional properties of pickle brine and develop the recipe for the Original Pickle Juice.

What makes pickle juice a great cocktail ingredient?

Pickle Juice Chaser has the added benefit of providing 10 times more electrolytes along with vitamins, potassium, and zinc.

Why do you think the pickleback is so popular?

Much like peanut butter and jelly, the combination just seems to work. The drink’s popularity and growth seem to be organic in nature. Originally migrating to the Northeast (NYC) through requests by southern tourists and spreading from there after various bartenders have adopted the drink and spread the word.

Is there anything else our readers would want to know?

The products manufactured by The Pickle Juice Company are specifically designed for use as beverages in order to promote the best exercise, cramp relief, boozy night out or hangover recovery experience possible.

#Pickleback