El Paso Food Voices

In 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 Fuel — It’s Also Pleasure”. originally published May 23, 2018. https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/food-is-more-than-just-fuel-its-also-pleasure/ Lucy Fischer West ‘Food Traditions from Afar.’” n.d. Www.youtube.com. Accessed November 28, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=uOB3CMX7pAE Machado, Eduardo, and Michael. Domitrovich. Tastes like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home. New York, N.Y: Gotham Books, 2007 “Robert Flores Spiritual Nourishment.” n.d. Www.youtube.com. Accessed November 28, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69xSDSdZwE8  

In 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 Mentioned in the Episode: Abarca, Meredith. 2022. “Elisa Licona Southern’s ‘Sobremesa the “Real” Meal.’” Www.youtube.com. 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ma-A5_hT8. Cho, Grace M. 2021. Tastes like War. Feminist Press at CUNY. TED Talks 2022. 2022. “Food: A Third Culture Kid’s Sense of Identity. | Eric Pak | TEDxYouth@ISBangkok.” Www.youtube.com. February 22, 2022. https://youtu.be/yJIVqrqfZjU?si=AhVGaMYJMWF_35BG. TED Talks 2023. n.d. “Soul Roots:A Journey into Ancestry, Belonging, Food & Love | Jennifer Griffith | TEDxYouth@ACSBeirut.” Www.youtube.com. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMz6d0i34LQ. TEDx Talks. 2020. “How Food Can Be a Source of Intimacy, Identity, and Vulnerability | Jenny Dorsey | TEDxIVC.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gsR4ihE8LQ.

This 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 understanding that food choice is part of developing a “culinary kinship” which goes beyond the socio-cultural legacy and expectations of heritage. Finally, the students explore the ways they embody such culinary kinship which manifests in different culinary occasions. Their stories speak of tasting new foods with childlike openness, overcoming scarcity of food, and longing for the warmth and familiarity of a homecooked meal away from home.     Works mentioned in the episode are: Abarca, Meredith E. “Charlas Culinarias (Culinary Chats): A Methodology and Pedagogy Expanding a Food Consciousness.” Food, culture, & society (2023): 1–13. Abarca, Meredith E., host. “Hugo Loera Cooking to Remember.” EL Paso Food Voices, August 14, 2022. https://youtu.be/1hitDyGnj-o Abarca, Meredith E., host. “Roman Wilcox Full Interview.” El Paso Food Voices, December 22, 2022. https://youtu.be/_3aKYqjbfSY Bittman, Mark. “What's Wrong with What We Eat.” TED, May 21, 2018. https://youtu.be/5YkNkscBEp0 Elebiyo-Okojie, Vivian. “There’s Something about Food.” TEDx Talks, October 28, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C6cRiHKCOg Goldwyn, Samuel. East Side Sushi. YouTube Movies and TV, October 14, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt-OBSb_EGo. Sheena, Iyengar. “The Art of Choosing.” TED, July 26, 2010. https://youtu.be/lDq9-QxvsNU

In 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 like disgust and hunger play a role in our lives.      Works mentioned in the episode are: Abarca, Meredith E.  & Colby, Joshua R. Food memories seasoning the narratives of our lives. Food and Foodways. 2016. DOI: 10.1080/07409710.2016.1150101. “Yolanda Leyva: ‘Ancestral Foods.’” YouTube, September 30, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HUqD9CNdc&t=3s  Korsmeyer, Carolyn. Savoring disgust: The foul and the fair in aesthetics. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. 2011.  Mylod, Mark . The Menu. Searchlight Pictures. 2022.  Wood, Machelle R., "Interview no. 1727" . Public Kitchens. 7.2019. https://scholarworks.utep.edu/ep_public/7 Young, A.M. & Eckstein, J. Terroir and topoi of the low country. In Conley, D., & Eckstein, J. (Eds.), Cookery: food rhetorics and social production (pp. 43-60). University of Alabama Press. 2020.    

On 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 and hosting.

In 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 the difference between this spirit and others such as mescal and tequila. Valeria to the popularity of the whiskey in history of beverages in Mexico. For those of us living in the Chihuahuan Desert, sotol should be embraced us our heritage drink of choice.

In 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. After an episode featuring chef Graut Ashatz, Enrique’s father encouraged his son to follow his dreams.  His culinary career has not been a product of formal training at a culinary school. He learned be method began by watching cooking shows, cooking with his father, and  “hands-on” experimentation. Since his journey of becoming a chef and restaurant owner has taken a path of just doing things without formal culinary training and creating ethnic fusion foods—Mexican and Asian, he came up with the name El Charlatan. In Spanish, this word suggests a person that does not quite belong in a social setting, but nonetheless claims a space for himself. Enrique is not simply claiming a space for himself in the culinary world, but claiming cultural visibility and offering economic support to the food industry of the “Lower Valley” in El Paso del Norte area, a place was born and raised.  

In 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 Café North, being the newest addition and the only one in El Paso’s Northeast. Josh’s speaks of the key ingredient that kept his grandmother in business for years helping her, a single mother from Juarez who crossed the international bridge into El Paso raised seven children on her own: kindness. It is the intention of kindness and the desire to server a community with humility that underscored what Josh’s business model.  As we hear Josh’s and Margo’s speak about their new adventure running Lucy’s Café North, beyond hearing about some iconic border Mexican dishes and family culinary creations, they also speak to the role the family run restaurants play in functioning as community centers.

The 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 story of growing up in El Paso, Texas, of being adopted and later in life reconnecting with her biological family who live in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Rooted in this personal story is the trajectory of her Mexican culinary entrepreneurial trajectory. She grew up in the Chihuahua Desert connected to the earth, and now she spends much time in an organic sustainable farm in Dallas, Texas creating Mexican salsas and queso dips without animal products.

In 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 refers to both methods of production and a food movement of food, gender, and climate justice, to cooking lessons and culinary storytelling gatherings. The process of remembering and relearning Indigenous/ancestral gardening and cooking techniques are a central component to the food systems work. Through the storytelling program, for example, the goal is to change the dominant narrative in the El Paso del Norte region that mostly defines Mexican food as unhealthy, in order to remember the nutritional, spiritual, and cultural benefits and values of ancestral ways of cooking. La Semilla is committed to sharing and learning from community members. Through a number of different programs form fellowships to community partnerships, La Semilla functions as a resource to teach agriculture on its farm property, space donated by Sierra Vista Growers, to help organizations such as schools develop sustainable community gardens. In addition to hands-on projects that impact food habits at an individual level, La Semilla also has a policy program that works to enact governmental based policies to assist in the development of long term sustainable food systems changes. La Semilla Food Center, therefore, works on both local and global methods for creating food systems that are motivated by a holistic approach that interconnects food, gender, class, ethnic, and climate justice.

In 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 the level of ingredients, techniques, and dishes. They also speak of specific familial culinary traditions that began at Los Fenicios with their aunt’s cooking and that now they prepare at El Layali. Last but not least, the philosophy guiding their cooking, which they see as artisan, is one that in Adriana’s words is intended to help their patrons “to taste the earth.”

In 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 Taconeta as patrons experience the flavors and textures of heirloom blue and red corn that reaches Taconeta through a network that buys directly from framers in central Mexico. Alejandro shares the process of importing sacks of corn to the nixtamalization for making daily fresh tortillas. We also learn about the origin and process of making what should be considered El Paso’s native alcoholic drink: sotol. As a restaurant co-owner, he also brings our attention to the important topic of food waste and what steps are taken at Taconeta to mitigate this environmental, ethical, and social issue. ​

In 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 daily operations of running a restaurant in a desert area as El Paso, Texas. Through his comments, we learn some aspects of El Paso’s culinary history and the efforts of a number of farm growers to provide high quality locally grown products.

In 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.utep.edu/epfoodvoices/), speaks of his culinary journey that let him to understand the social responsibility the life of a chef entails. In this join conversation, they specifically speak of both the challenges and opportunities that Covid-19 has presented to their continues efforts in making plant-based food accessible to the community.  

In 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 histories. Prof. Khan speaks of other digitally based and public humanities projects where she has focus on exploring and analyzing El Paso’s community food practices.

In 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 complexities through food. She speaks of specific class assignments that led her to fully experience the rich and complex role food plays in our daily lives. She also addresses of the impact seeing life through a critical food perspective has had in personal life, in her views of El Paso’s food landscape, and in her professional career as an Assistant professor in Writing Studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Joshua I. Lopez also speaks of how learning about food studies as a scholarly research area has impacted his life. I first met him when I gave a lecture on food as a system of communication to an undergraduate course in Cultural Anthropology  he was taken. Joshua, intrigued by this idea, he continue to explore it while obtaining his Master’s degree in American Literature. In this episode, shares a moving story of when he came out to his mother. Without responding to her son’s news, she simply made him a cup of hot chocolate, placed it in front of him, and told him not to stay up too late. Through this gesture, Joshua knew he was loved and that’s all it matters. Through the courses he has taught at the University of Texas at El Paso and at El Paso Community College, Joshua has designed assignments to help numerous of students understand and communicate with the voice of food. As a Ph.D. student of Food History at the University of North Texas, he focuses his research on gathering food oral stories and understanding the impact of “food voice” in people’ everyday life.  

In 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 discussing the varieties of menudo that exist. To end the conversation, our hostess and Mr. Gonzalez discuss traditional holiday breads and the importance they carry.

In 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’s desiccated food desert areas. By developing and implementing systems such as “pay it forward,” “volunteerism,” “gardening knowledge,” and “cooking lessons” into the everyday operation of food related work, they creating community networks the collectively begin to create spaces dedicated to food justices.

In 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 caring about the subject matter and learning to show empathy without being too involved. He indicates the importance of separating the self from the subject matter since it could compromise the objective at hand. If photographs include people, they are the most important subject matter to consider because their body language not only reveals a great deal about them as an individual but as a part of the collective whole. He emphasizes the universal understanding that photography offers to a diverse audience regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, etc. However, he stresses the value of capturing the honest truth about life, both positive and negative, rather than concealing it through staging photographs. A has the ability to communicate across cultures, yet captions and cut-lines are crucial to know vital information such as the ‘who, what, where, when and why’ of a photograph. Have we captured your attention? Join us as we cultivate mindfulness while we capture moments and create memories.  

On 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. Lyuba then spoke about the unique food/Russian inspirations in her artwork such as the White Nights Festival, an annual summer festival in Saint Petersburg celebrating the continual sunlight in the summer months. Lyuba then spoke of her move to El Paso and the local food influences that inspired her paintings, like the pomegranate tree, fig tree and grape vines in her backyard. Lyuba spoke about the vivid colors as well as the universal and ancient connections she felt when looking at and painting these fruits, e.g. the pomegranate in the ancient Greek story of Hades and Persephone. Lyuba also spoke about her fascination with wine and wine bottles, as well as their universal and ancient connections. Lyuba then spoke about her use of food and fruit in not only constructing images for her own still life’s, but in teaching painting as well. She claimed that painting images, like fruit, in real life was much better than painting from a photograph because a photograph was static and did not convey the changes that happen overtime (light, decay etc.… ), thereby being less real and having less connection.