Podcast

Oddball is an exciting new product that aims to reinvent jelly snacking, taking away market share from the dominant Jell-O with a vegan superfood snack. On this episode, we catch up with Oddball's amazing founder, Sophia Cheng. We met Sophia earlier this year on the floor of the Natural Products Expo West trade show, where she was hustling the pouches of berry, mango, and grape jelly out of her backpack. I was impressed and invited her into the studio to talk about her journey to bringing this traditional Asian dessert to the masses. I love the product as well as catching up with the company’s founder. I hope you enjoy this conversation. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. MORE FROM ODDBALL:BTS: Behind the Snax with Oddball [Snaxshot]Meet Sophia Cheng [Canvas Rebel]Oddball breaking the Jell-O mold [Food Business News]

Priya Krishna is a reporter and video host for New York Times, where she’s currently acting as the co–interim restaurant critic. She’s the author of the best-selling cookbooks Indian-ish and Priya’s Kitchen Adventures: A Cookbook for Kids and the host of the YouTube series “On the Job.” We’ve all been admirers of Priya’s work for years, and it’s so special to have her back on the show to talk about stepping into the role of restaurant critic, and much more, the char siu Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: Long Island Compromise is the top of Taffy Brodesser-Akner Mountain, Osakana in the East Village is great for a picnic, Kato in Los Angeles is serving the country's best NA cocktails, the Frozmopolitan is the Cosmo in its best form, congratulations to Yes Plz on your 300th coffee, Brooklyn's Montague Diner is our new favorite diner in Brooklyn, the char siu pineapple bao at Mei Lai Wah is a perfect food. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. MORE FROM PRIYA KRISHNA:No More Butter Chicken: Where Indian Food Finally Gets to Be Itself [NYT]Why Do American Grocery Stores Still Have an Ethnic Aisle? [NYT]Was Cast Iron Almost Canceled? [TASTE]

Today on the show we’re sharing two singular conversations, one with chef and cooking personality Ham El-Waylly and one with novelist C Pam Zhang. Ham is a staple on the NYT Cooking YouTube channel, with an all-star restaurant résumé from Momofuku’s Ando to the new Fort Greene seafood destination Strange Delight. C Pam Zhang is the author of the transportive novels How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey, and she writes about food like no one else. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. MORE FROM HAM EL-WAYLLY & C PAM ZHANG:Chicken Stroganoff [New York Times Cooking]The World’s Smelliest Fruit? Sohla and Ham Try Cooking With Durian [Mystery Menu]See It Slant [The Cut]

Grammy-winning artist Arooj Aftab returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her fourth solo album, Night Reign, and her journey of the last two decades, staying true to her vision, and pioneering a sound that she wanted to hear.

Robert Maleski opened Milly’s Pizza in the Pan in 2020 as a way to show Chicago pizza fans that there was more going on in their city than deep-dish. Now, of course, any true Chicago local knows this, but nonetheless, when Matt first tasted Robert’s pie at his Uptown location, he was blown away by its understated excellence. In this episode, Robert shares his story and discusses how the legendary pies of Burt Katz as well as his grandmother’s cooking inspired what many consider the city’s top pie.  Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: Stone fruit in the summer of 2024 is working, Dog Day Afternoon is doing Chicago-style hotdogs in Brooklyn in the best way, Real Americans by Rachel Khong is a great summer read, brown sugar boba at Xing Fu Tang in the East Village, Langer's in Los Angeles might be the pastrami GOAT, double yolks are amazing, Daisy Alioto of the great publication Dirt gave an incredible talk about the Taste Economy. Watch it! Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.

“So you aren’t secretly jealous that she married Berman?”