Shows
Texas Folklife: The Folklorist Next Door[Special Series] Stewed and Chopped - Food on the BorderSend us a textStewed & Chopped is a limited series produced by Texas Folklife, exploring foodways in Texas. In this episode, food scholar Meredith Abarca (UTEP professor and producer of El Paso Food Voices) and taco expert Mando Rayo (Tacos of Texas podcast) discuss the foodways of the Texas-Mexico border, the influence of matriarchs, and shifting cultural values. Produced by J.A. Strub. This episode is supported in part by Humanities Texas.Support the showLearn more at TexasFolklife.org Thi...
2024-08-3028 min
El Paso Food Voices23: To Eat or Not To Eat“To Eat or Not to Eat” is part of El Paso Food Voices’ special feature on “Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship” as it looks at the role of culinary dystopia. Culinary dystopia is the tensions that create toxic relationships between people through food, hindering the potential for kinship. We focus on culinary dystopia formed through restriction, looking at national restrictions such as the criminalization of beef in Nepal, restriction through racial and class oppression in the United States, and cultural and individual restrictions of food through a Mexican-American lens. Through viewing culinary dystopia, we explore how and where the positive a...
2024-05-2248 minEl Paso Food Voices22: A Gustatory Journey Towards HomeIn this episode of EPFV's special feature on "Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship," we deal with the theme of a gustatory journey, exploring the profound impact of food on our sense of home and belonging. Sharing personal experiences of using food to reconnect with home while living away, we discuss the significance of dishes, Nepali mo:mo and eggs with chorizo in particular, in shaping identities and creating a sense of belonging. Drawing insights from the scholars such as Meredith E. Abarca, Claude Fischler, Jon D Holtzman, Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra, David Sutton, and William Safron, this episode e...
2024-05-2228 minEl Paso Food Voices21: Food PleasureIn this episode, Samuel Rodriguez and Frank Nabi join Meredith Abarca to discuss the topic of food pleasure and culinary kinship. They examine the teachings of Epicurus and Mother Teresa in order to talk about the spiritual pleasure that sharing food with others can bring. Samuel and Frank both share personal stories of how sharing food with others brought them joy and helped them form a culinary kinship.
Works mentioned in the episode are:
Annas, Julia. “Epicurus on Pleasure and Happiness.” Philosophical Topics 15, no. 2 (1987)
Dennett, Carrie “Food is More Than Just Fue...
2024-04-2531 minEl Paso Food Voices20: Searching for Belongingness: Roti, Tortilla, and TamalesIn this episode, Ana Munoz, Jake Pineda and Renuka Khatiwada join Meredith Abarca in a conversation where they define the idea of “belongingness,” and its connection to food. From Mexico to the U.S, and Nepal, Ana, Jake, and Renuka weave personal stories on important foods in their life that represent belonging and finding a home through these foods. As author Grace Cho writes in her memoir Tastes Like War, it is not about the “what” of eating but the “whys.” This episode is part of EPFV special feature on “Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship”
Works Mentio...
2024-04-2536 minEl Paso Food Voices19: Culinary Choice, Kinship, and EmbodimentThis episode is part of El Paso Food Voices’ special feature on "Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship.” Three graduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso coming from three different geo-political locations share their culinary stories: El Paso (Stephanie), Juarez—El Paso (Victor), and Nepal (Purna). These stories speak of empathetic passion, scarcity, and a deep yearning for home. Their conversation begins by sharing their typical “food choices” and come to a general conclusion such culinary choices have been influenced by a network of relationships not only with food but also people. Moreover, they come to a general un...
2024-03-2036 minEl Paso Food Voices18: Food and the SensesIn this episode of EPFV special feature on “Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship”, graduate students Marissa Bond, Fernanda Estrada and Tony Diaz discuss how the senses not only relate to the consumption of food but to the relationships, spaces and experiences that come from eating. This talk offers a window into personal stories that encompass a variety of sensorial experiences–from cooking with our hands, to dining alone, to even growing and feeding others. Utilizing key scholarship from food philosophers, Marissa, Fernanda and Tony dive deeply into intellectualizing the body’s relationship with food as well as how certain emotions...
2024-03-0434 minEl Paso Food Voices15: Fusion of Mexican and Asian FlavorsIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with chef and restaurant owner of “El Charlatan: Taqueria y Ramen-Ya.” The restaurant is located in Socorro, Texas, about a 20 minute drive east of downtown El Paso. Enrique shares his culinary journey that began with him cooking downtown El Paso, took him to Chicago, to eventually opening his own restaurant, El Charlatan. In Chicago, he worked for six months at Next Restaurant. Recalls how his father was instrumental in getting him to Chicago. They used to watch cooking shows in Netflix such as The Chef’s Table and Mind of a Chef...
2023-11-2345 minEl Paso Food Voices16: Sotol The Spirit of the Chihuahuan DesertIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Valeria Alcalde who grew up in Ciudad Juárez, and after traveling the world, returned to create her own brand of sotol, an alcohol made from a native yucca plant of the Chihuahuan Desert. Valeria describes the history and process of making this spirit. We learn from Valeria’s story, not only about the artisan process of making sotol, but also about her own spiritual journey that has taken her to development of her own brand, Rarámuri sotol. In the process of learning about sotol, we also learn about...
2023-11-2344 minEl Paso Food Voices17: Culinary Heritage and Kinship in Food StoriesOn this episode of the EPFV Podcast, Meredith E. Abarca and Joshua Lopez discuss their role in the development of the El Paso Food Voices project, the podcast and the open-source digital archive website. Meredith and Josh discuss the challenges and values of framing the “intimate histories” people share with one another through their food stories by using the terms culinary heritage and culinary kinship. In this episode, Meredith speaks about a new special feature to El Paso Food Voices podcast, an audio documentary on Culinary Heritage, that students in a graduate seminar on “Mapping Food Narratives” will be creating...
2023-11-2334 min
Tacos of TexasArchiving Our Food History: What Goes Into Researching and Saving Oral Recipes and Histories.Food recipes and histories have been passed down orally for centuries, but thanks to the accessibility of technology, we can now archive recipes and stories in other ways. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Meredith E. Abarca about putting together her online archive El Paso Food Voices. Author and blogger Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack shares how she has used her cookbooks as a way to archive her family’s recipes.
The full transcript of this episode of Tacos of Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on so...
2023-10-1739 minEl Paso Food Voices14: Lucy’s Café: A 50 Year Old Family LegacyIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Josh and Margo Lepe, owners of Lucy’s Café North. Josh Lepe is the grandson of Lucy Lepe who in 1978 open Lucy’s Café in El Paso Texas. Josh shares that now it is Lucy’s sister who runs this first original Lucy’s Café establishment. In this episode, Josh shares memories of his family’s culinary signature dishes—Machaca with chile con queso and Tacos Antonia, for example--that have fed folks in El Paso, Texas for over 50 years. Currently there are four Lucy’s Café establishments in El Paso, with Lucy’s...
2022-12-0744 minEl Paso Food Voices13: Salsa: The story of Zubi’s Salas & DipsThe host for this episode of EPFV, Margo Lepe, speaks with Sarah Zubiate, founder and CEO of Zubi’s Salsa & Organic Dips: Plant Based by Latin Taste. Sarah speaks to the health, cultural and sustainable motives that led her to transform some Mexican family recipes she grew up eating in El Paso, Texas into marketable fully plant-based products she now sells worldwide. The motivation that marks Sarah culinary trajectory into all plant-based Mexican food products is based on the process of returning to that earth and eating from the earth. In this episode, we learn about Sarah’s personal stor...
2022-12-0722 minEl Paso Food Voices12: La Semilla Food Center, Anthony, New MexicoIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Marleen Yañez, Education Coordinator for La Semilla Food Center Organization. La Semilla, founded in 2010, is a nonprofit organization located in Anthony, New Mexico. Its mission is to create healthy, self-reliant, sustainable and fair food systems in the El Paso del Norte region. In this conversation with Marleen, we learn about her personal life-changing relationship with food and how this let her work with La Semilla. She shares the history of the organization and its multiple programs that range from teaching about food cultivation using a system of “agroecology,” which...
2022-12-0741 minEl Paso Food Voices11: El Layali: Lebanese Cuisine with a 30 year Lebanese-Mexican Family HistoryIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Adriana and Lily Nadar, co-owners and chefs of El Layali, a Lebanese restaurant. In this conversation we learn about the migration of Lebanese into Mexico City and the northern state of Chihuahua. Adrian shares the history of her Lebanese-Mexican family and what led her aunt Adela Nadar encouraged her husband into opening the first Lebanese restaurant in Chihuahua, City in 1986, Los Fenicios (The Phoenicians), which is still operating and family run. Adrian and Lily speak about their introduction to the restaurant business; connections between Lebanese and Mexican cuisines, both at...
2021-12-1344 minEl Paso Food Voices10: Taconeta: Tacos and more filled with History and CultureIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abarca speaks with Alejandro Borunda, co-owner of Taconeta, a restaurant that specializes in tacos and other regional foods mostly from central Mexico. Alejandro shares his journey into the food industry and his vision for Taconeta’s serving style, dining area, kitchen, and of course the menu. Raised by a mother whose own passion for food led her to become a professional CIA (Culinary Institute of America) trained chef, Alejandro embraces the philosophy that a way to learn about a place history and culture is through food. This belief is the very spirit of...
2021-08-0544 minEl Paso Food Voices9: Culinary Sustainability at Rulis' International KitchenIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abarca speaks with Raúl Gonzalez, better known as Ruli. He is owner and executive chef of Rulis' International Kitchen and created /host of The Chuco Cooking Show. Ruli shares the journey that took him to recognize cooking as his “zen” and his commitment to support locally grown foods. He expresses his views on the impact that mass food production has had both for the food industry and on people’s health and world views. He goes on to address the benefits and challenges a commitment to culinary sustainability brings forth in the dail...
2021-08-0547 minEl Paso Food Voices8: Food Accessibility in a Designated Food DesertIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abarca speaks with Roman and Adriana Wilcox, co-owners of One Grub Community and co-founders of the non-profit Planty of the People (www.facebook.com/PlantyForThePeople). Their commitment to providing access to healthy, fresh quality products to El Paso’s community has been featured in El Paso Food Voices project. Adriana, in EPFV episode #4 speaks of her journey as a social entrepreneur and her growing interest in channeling her energy through providing food access to which every community she happens to be a member of. Roman in EPFV website-public kitchen section (https://volt.ute...
2021-08-051h 01El Paso Food Voices7: Food Studies in El Paso, TexasIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abarca speaks with Sabiha Khan, professor of Communications and Digital Media Production. Among prof. Khan’s academic and community engagement interest is the field of Food Studies. In this episode, she speaks a few projects that futured El Paso’s food practices, history, and culture. In her on-going documentary, Remembering How to Eat, through her collaboration with La Semilla Food Center, a 14-arce farm located in Anthony, New Mexico, prof. Khan explores how the center’s youth gardening programs is helping young people to re-connect with the land, food, and family culinary histor...
2021-08-0540 min
El Paso Food Voices6: Food Studies in the Humanities and New Life’s JourneysIn this episode of EPFV, I, Meredith E. Abarca, speak with two of my former students, Consuelo Salas and Joshua I. Lopez. We discuss how and why Food Studies has become central to their postgraduate work. I first met Consuelo Salas when she took a required course to obtain a BA in American Literature, “Introduction to Literary Studies” in the Department of English at the University of Texas at El Paso. This course introduced students to literary theories by anchoring them through food. Consuelo speaks of her initial reaction to the concept of examining life's cultural, social and economic comp...
2020-01-2742 minEl Paso Food Voices5: Mexican Baking TraditionIn this episode, Chyanne Smith talks with Juan Gonzalez, owner of La Sevillana bakery in Lower Valley El Paso, Texas, about traditional Mexican baking. They begin by delving into the history of Mr. Gonzalez’s bakery including how he got started and how his bakery is central to the neighborhood for more than just the breads he makes. In this discussion, Mr. Gonzalez also talks about the origin of the name of his bakery, La Sevillana. The discussion then shifts into talking about the best part of a bakery – the food – looking at Mr. Gonzalez’s menudo while also discussi...
2019-12-1223 minEl Paso Food Voices4: Food Justice as Community ActionIn this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abarca speaks with Adriana Wilcox, co-owner of One Grub Community, the only all plant-based restaurant in El Paso, Texas, and co-founder of “Planty for the People,” a non-profit organization. Adrian walks us through how she, and her husband chef Roman Wilcox, became do define themselves as food social entrepreneurs. What this means to her is that everyone deserves the right to good, healthy and delicious food. As a team, the Wilcox have made a commitment to use their business and culinary skills as venues for addressing food insecurities in some of El Paso’...
2019-12-1245 minEl Paso Food Voices3: Life through the Lens: Food, People, and PhotographyIn this podcast our guest is professor Dino Chiecchi, a life-long photographer journalist who now teaches in the Department of Communications at the University of Texas at El Paso. He speaks of the value the food has historically played in capturing peoples’ emotions in divers social, historical, cultural and economic realities. He this podcast, he talks about food in photography pertaining to food distribution, poverty, war, and famine. More specifically, he addresses several important factors that photographers should consider while photographing these social issues in first-world countries as well as third-world countries. He offers tips to listeners, which include ca...
2019-12-1232 minEl Paso Food Voices2: Food in Art and Art in FoodOn Monday October 28 2019 at 10:00 a.m., St. Petersburg Born and Internationally known artist Lyuba Titovets came in to be interviewed for the El Paso Food Voices Podcast. The interview began with an introduction of Lyuba, her profession and her background. Lyuba Titovets was born and raised in St. Petersburg Russia where she and her husband Alexander Titovets received training at the local university. After her introduction, Lyuba spoke about her development as an artist and how she developed her aesthetic and choice of composition, moving from the fantastical to the realm of reality and still lifes as she matured...
2019-12-1240 minEl Paso Food Voices1: Dinner at the AniszewskisWhen he isn’t caring for others as an endocrinologist, Jarek Aniszewski is an avid home-cook and host who communicates care for others through food. In this episode on commensality, the act of eating together, Jarek discusses the ins and outs of his weekly food gatherings, filling us in on the menus and guests that make up his shared table, the collaborative dynamics of his family’s kitchen, and how his hospitality, influenced by both his Polish ethnicity and upbringing, has embraced El Pasoan culture.
2019-12-1237 min