Joshua David Stein Variety Hour...Half Hour

This week on The Joshua David Stein Variety Hour...Half Hour Joshua does an in depth interview about deli history with some of the most experienced delicatessen employees in all of New York. Topics of Jewish recipes, assimilation, tradition, and the history of the delicatessen are disscussed. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market. "Its was a jewish social club with free membership and free pickles[Delis]." [4:00] -- Ziggy Gruber on The Joshua David Stein Variety Hour...Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is chatting with the managers of Il Gattopardo Restaurant about Valentine's Day from the restaurant's perspective. With Valentine's Day being such a celebrated holiday in the United States and with dinner reservations being typical, Joshua asks the managers about the prep for the day and how they deal with the pressure of providing the perfect dinner atmosphere for each couple. After the break, Joshua welcomes back his son, Achilles, as the esteemed musical guest. This program was brought to you by Edwards VA Ham.

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking about vegetarians making it in the big city. In more than a few New York restaurants meat is the focal point of the dish, while the rest, namely veggies, can be easily forgotten. Joshua brings in his latest restaurant review of Semilla (written for the NY Observer) to help make a case for being "vegetable-forward." Welcoming guest Ryan Sutton, the food critic for Eater.com, he and Joshua agree that food critics should communicate with one another more often but also debate about their opinions on eating meat. After the break, Joshua welcomes Kyle Forrester to the show for a few of his original musical stylings. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center. "One of the interesting things about restaurant criticism is that, to a certain extent, we talk past each other. Part of that is good because we're in the business of criticizing and complimenting restaurants rather than criticizing other critics." [3:50] --Ryan Sutton on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is going 'Live from The Cecil!' Welcoming restauranteur Alexander Smalls to the show, the two discuss the importance of weaving restaurants into the communities in which they reside. Alexander tells Joshua about the vital role that the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) plays in The Cecil's employment. C-CAP identifies as a national non-profit, that works with public schools to prepare underserved high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry. C-CAP offers job training and internships, teacher training, curriculum enrichment, college advising, life-time career support and culinary scholarships. Many C-CAP students, as Alexander states, find rewarding careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry. After the break, Joshua chats with JC Hopkins of the JC Hopkins Biggish Band and tapes a live performance for listeners to enjoy! This program was brought to you by Fairway Market.

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein caps off 2014 chatting with execute producer and host of Ozersky.TV and James Beard Award Winner for food writing, plus frenemy, Josh Ozersky. Josh get his guests' opinion on this year in New York food before going head to head, quipping over their personal food picks and reviews of 2014. Josh goes on to lament about the current dining scene in NYC only to go point for point versus Joshua who contends that there are interesting cuisines happening in the big apple. After the break, Joshua welcomes Kyle Forester as the last musical guest of 2014. Kyle is the voice behind the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour theme songs and has a new joint project with Joshua that they debut this episode! Tune in for a wonderfully conversational joust in the first segment with some unique musical stylings in the second. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. "The fact of the New York dining scene that is indisputable is that it doesn't have the kind of vital, active, dynamic, original chefs that it once did." [2:43] "Everybody has craft cocktails now. Everybody has a ramen bar. Everybody has Neapolitan pizza. I think that when I 'm thinking of New York there's any number of good restaurants but they're not different from good restaurants in Portland, or Austin, or whatever." [7:33] --Josh Ozersky on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking the American diner as it relates to the typical coming of age storyline found in movies, such as American Graffiti. Chatting with consumer historian and blogger Jan Whitaker about this interesting topic, the two agree and note that the diner is a place where anything can happen considering the nonstop hours of operation and the eclectic customer base. The diner also points out social trends of the passing eras and has (though in dwindling numbers) stood the test of time. After the break, Joshua welcomes musical guest, Screamin' Rebel Angels, a rock 'n roll foursome hailing from Brooklyn, NY. Fronted by the dynamic soul-shouting, blues beltin’, sweet purring of vocalist/guitarist Laura Rebel Angel, paired with the blistering, stratospheric lead guitar of Brian “Bobo” Hack, the pounding and precise drums of Sean O’Connell and the driving rhythm and gallop of an upright bass, the group revels in the musical stylings of diners at their height. Invoking the primitive energy of early rock 'n roll and rockabilly, and emotion of 1950s rhythm & blues and soul, they perform a few tunes live in studio. This program was brought to you by Visit Napa Valley. "It's mostly boys in these coming of age settings, not usually two girls unless they are maybe flirting with a boy in the next booth." [5:05] "The classic diner really was a working class, unpretentious, noisy, a little bit rough in service, and not much decor." [5:55] --Jan Whitaker on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is in search for General Tso! In the wake of the documentary, "The Search for General Tso," Joshua speaks with Director Ian Cheney about his unravelling of a captivating culinary mystery. General Tso’s chicken is a staple of Chinese-American cooking, and a ubiquitous presence on restaurant menus across the country. But just who was General Tso? And how did his chicken become emblematic of an entire national cuisine? Joshua gets the scoop behind the documentary and hears from Ian the source of inspiration and curiosity to seek out the truth behind this dish's phenomenon. After the break, Joshua welcomes Mr. Jing-Qiang Guo and Ms. Eugenie Chen of the Chinese Classical Music Ensemble to not only chat about Chinese music and their traditional instruments (the erhu and ruan), but also the importance of keeping this style of music alive and well. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center. "Even as chefs adapt Chinese food to regional cuisines, which creates this very new thing called Chinese-American food, I'm guardedly optimistic that as more immigrants come in from other parts of China that we'll also be willing to explore other regional Chinese cuisines." [13:08] --Ian Cheney on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking children's books, and not just any children's book, but none other than the beloved "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. Talking to the duo via phone, Joshua asks how they concocted such a crazy tale and how it came to become one of the most iconic children's stories of all time. Judi divulges the method of her writing and how she randomly came up with the book's opening line. Ron goes on to say how he intended for the illustrations to seem realistic and plausible, as opposed to overly cartoonish, in order to create a certain feeling around the story. Joshua chats with the duo about their creative process surrounding the book as well as the evolution of children's books before welcoming his son, Achilles, to the show as the adorable musical guest. Tune in for a great episode! This program was brought to you by the Tabard Inn. "For some reason I thought of the line that said, 'Henry walked outside and got hit in the head with a meatball.' I don't know what made me think of it!" [5:10] --Judi Barrett on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour "It's like telling a joke with a straight face: I wanted to make everything seem plausible, that you could really see the gristle and the fat on the steaks in the sky." [7:02] --Ron Barrett on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking communication in restaurants. Welcoming Dan Jurafsky, Professor and Chair of Linguistics at Stanford University, who also writes and teaches about the language of food, he and Joshua kick off the segment discussing wordings in popular menus. Author of the book "The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu," Dan points out the subtle meanings hidden in filler words like "rich" and "crispy," and zeroes in on the metaphors and storytelling tropes patrons rely on in restaurant reviews. In the second half of the show, guitarist Richard Miller joins Joshua in studio playing some traditional Brazilian music via his nylon string guitar and explains some of the theory behind the music. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. "The cheaper the restaurant, the more they use the word 'you' or words related to choice." [3:00] "If you just measure out the length of the word in letters and say 'how long is the average word on this menu,' you can predict the price of an individual dish on the menu." [10:45] --Dan Jurafsky on the Joshua Davis Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is acknowledging the historic date of December 7th and is discussing Pearl Harbor and World War II. Holding particular significance to Joshua, he explains that his stepfather was born in American but of Japanese decent, while his step-grandparents were immigrants and living in the US when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Talking about the difference in perceptions of December 7, 1941 from what Americans learn of the event in history books versus what his extended family experienced having to enter into internment camps, JDS focuses the show on how food played a part in these camps. Welcoming guest Tomio Moriguchi, CEO of Uwajimaya, one of the largest Asian grocery retailers in the Pacific Northwest, to the show via phone, he gives a brief background on the successful business before sharing his family's experiences with "Executive Order 9066." After the break, JDS welcomes musical guest Feral Foster who plays a few songs or two. This program was brought to you by Brooklyn Slate. "When we were put in camp, I guess the closest thing I can think of is that the camp internees were rationed Army-type food... fortunately we had creative chefs that were able to beg, borrow, or steal soy sauce." [12:15] "Some of us boys... we heard that some camp mess hall had better food or treated you better, two or three of us just snuck away and went to the other mess hall!" [13:44] --Tomio Moriguchi on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking Indian food with guest Dr. Krishnendu Ray. Krishnendu is a Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU and talks to Joshua about the Indian cuisine in the city and how it is evolving. The two then embark on a lively discussion about the recent review Joshua wrote on the Indian restaurant Awadh. Krishnendu also talks about what the definition of ethnic food is and what it ideally should be. After the break, Sameer Gupta and Abhik Mukherjee, playing the tabla and sitar, round out the show with a unique and amazing musical selection. Catch them playing live with the Brooklyn Raga Massive. This program was brought to you by Rolling Press. "Once an audience classifies a cuisine as ethnic, what you are looking for is cheapness and tradition. You're not paying for innovation." [9:23] "We have great respect for foreign cuisines and relatively low respect in terms of prestige of respect for immigrant cuisines, which is what we call ethnic cuisines." [15:32] --Dr. Krishnendu Ray on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking endless shrimp! Welcoming writer and director George Motz, known for his short film "Head On: Shrimping in the Lowcountry," the film follows two generations of fishermen in South Carolina, many of whom have been shrimping since they could walk. Sarah Curry is a producer of the documentary "Raising Shrimp," which looks at many questions such as: Why does our food come from so far away? What are we really eating, wild or farmed shrimp, and is it our only choice? What happened to the American shrimp fishery? What could a more local shrimp mean for our health, and the health of our nation? Trying to answer if such things are even possible, George and Sarah comment on the status of the shrimp industry and how it is evolving. In the second half of the show, Joshua brings Hugh Pool in for some great music that melds the traditional Delta blues, country music, and classic rock and roll. This program was brought to you by Fairway Market. "Most of the shrimp we eat is imported from Southeast Asia and Central America, and a lot of that is not tested the way we would like it to be tested, and maybe it's treated with something before it hits the supermarket." [3:30] --Sarah Curry on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour "Food and music is a pretty good pairing!" [25:40] --Hugh Pool on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

Where do cowboys cook their meals? On the range! This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is headed west, talking about cowboy chefs with guest Kent Rollins, an acclaimed chuck wagon cook. With a restored 1876 Studebaker wagon, Kent and his wife Shannon travel across the country catering for weddings, corporate events and heritage festivals while preserving a part of America’s history. He is also the author of "A Taste of Cowboy: Ranch Recipes and Tales from the Trail," which is released April 7, 2015, and notably came out victorious on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Kent shares great highlights of his amazing career and a sneak peak of techniques and recipes from his book before telling Joshua his favorite cowboy meal to cook. After the break, Joshua welcomes musical guests Paper Anniversary, also known as Katherine Slingluff and Andy Stuckey, to sing a few country/bluegrass/Americana inspired tunes. Click here to check out their newest release. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures. "Most of all, it's [cowboy cooking] about simplicity. It's about not having to go to the store. You can reach in your pantry and find most the stuff that's in this cookbook." [1:33] "You get into that chuck wagon, which is the first meals on wheels ever invented, you know, you folks here in New York, ya'll got food trucks but I've got the original food truck." [3:52] --Kent Russell on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein kicks off the show with the favored segment Food Poems in an English Accent with Benji Lanyado narrating. Next, Joshua jumps into a great bagel debate: Montreal versus New York City. Research states that New York City-style bagels are chewy, soft, and doughy while Montreal-style bagels are smaller, denser, and sweeter. Both are boiled before baked, though notably the Montreal-style bagels use honey-infused water. Welcoming guests Comedian/Attorney David Heti and bagel moderator Helen Hollyman (Food Editor at VICE media) to join in with Joshua, the three commence in a great debate. After the break, Joshua is joined by musical guests Michael Winograd and Patrick Farrell with some traditional klezmer music in the style of the European bagel origins. Tune in to settle the great bagel debate! This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center. "You don't have to put a bacon egg thing inside of it. It's [the Montreal-style bagel] self-sufficient!"[5:18] --David Heti on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour "Well, I'm a very proud Texan so I can only image if I had a gun to my head about barbecue." [17:29] --Helen Hollyman on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein kicks off the show with the entertaining Food Poem in an English Accent segment featuring Jamie Muffet reading a selected piece. Joshua then ushers in this week's French theme by welcoming Executive Chef Christian Delouvrier of Essex House and most recently of La Mangeoire. Talking about his journey through the culinary world and his passion for food, he ultimately relays that La Mangeoire gave him a place to show his love of food and focus on the techniques and ingredients that define French fare. After the break, Joshua brings in a lovely musical guest: Dahlia Dumont and the Trio du Monde. Playing the idyllic soundtrack for a French bistro, the group graces the show with a live performance including a classic as well an original song that will leave you feeling "très heureux!" This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center. "What makes a bistro is a combination of very well crafted food. Consistency every day and, that, I think, is the main thing." [5:28] "My passion began when I started in this business began with my family in Gascony." [10:05] --Christian Delouvrier on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, host Joshua David Stein is talking critic on critic on critic. Kicking off the show with the beloved Food Poem in an English Accent segment, Joshua welcomes longtime restaurant critic, Moira Hodgson, with a beautiful reading of a poem entitled, "Onion." Joshua later brings New York Magazine critic, Adam Platt, on the show via phone to talk about their common craft of critiquing. They discuss the true role of the food critic, whether they are expected to discover new places or continue to comment on old places and gets Adam's take on the conundrum. Depending on each publication's spin on food reviews plus the trendiness of chefs and restaurants, Joshua and Adam agree that many magazines that have an online presence prefer what's new and hip (the "hamster wheel of newness"). In the second half of the show, Joshua schools us with a little ethnomusicology and takes listeners on a musical turkey hunt. Tune in for a great show! This program was brought to you by Roberta's Pizza. *Songs featured in this episode include: Shoo Turkey, Morning Star Hall Singers [Buy here] Froggie Went A-Courtin' (300 Turkeys) by Jim Nollman [Buy here] Tren Gelir Hos Gelir by Radio Ankara Ensemble [Buy here] Freight Train Blues by Brownie McGhee [Buy here] Your Blood Is Like A Railroad Train by Isabel Abrams and Roxana Alsberg [Buy here] "I'm the king of the 2 star review." [13:37] "A little review about a fried chicken joint is not going to gain a lot of attention, although, frankly, if you want to review something that gets some attention, review a fried chicken joint." [14:47] --Adam Platt on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

Tonight's program is all about vegetables, the anti-meat. Host Joshua David Stein starts the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour....Half Hour", with a dramatic reading of poetry by filmmaker Matthew Reeve, who pronounces the word cauliflower, as in the title of James McMichael's poem '"The Cauliflower" with a lovely West London accent. Reeve also reads, quite nicely, the lyrics to Joshua David Stein's favorite The Beach Boys' song, "Vegetables." The show's musical guest is the wonderful juan Wauters, who performs both under that name and with his band, The Beets. Wauters and Stein dissect the date that is currently unraveling in front of the studio window. The woman is checking Facebook; the man messages. Juan's friend, Tall Juan, a handsome Argentinean, silently looks on from his seat in the studio. In the second half, Joshua David Stein reads in his deep baritone a selection from a recent essay he wrote for Eater, entitled, Confessions of a Self-Loathing Carnivore. in which he bemoans his own meat-addiction.. He is joined by conflicted meat eater Tyler Kord, co-owner of the sandwich shop No. 7 Sub. Kord and Stein discuss the dangers inherent in dubbing a sandwich a "vegetarian sandwich" versus a "meat sandwich." "A sandwich is a sandwich," asserts Kord. This program was brought to you by Rolling Press "Everybody knows that there's no more cod left in the ocean." [27:15] "We could become a straight vegetarian restaurant.....but I think that we would lose all those people who come to the restaurant, order a sandwich and end up loving it even though they ordered a vegetarian sandwich." [32:45] --Tyler Kord on Joshua David Stein Variety Hour....Half Hour

This episode of the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour....Half Hour starts with a poem by Linh Dinh, a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. Joshua then delves into the unpacking of politics surrounding fried chicken, starting with his review of Birds & Bubbles (click here to read). He talks with culinary educator, Michael Twitty (Afroculinaria), about the racial connection sometimes made with fried chicken and how sometimes people misunderstand it. In the second half of the show, musical guest Corn Mo talks about his music and plays us three of his sweet tunes. This show was brought to you by The International Culinary Center. "You can try to divorce things like that from their past context but these things die hard and as long as they're out there, this is an issue we have to deal with." [9:45] "Some of these stereotypes about groups will come down to the next generation and they'll manifest but the issue is do they understand them?" [9:45] --Michael Twitty on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour...Half Hour "Me and a friend of mine Magic Brian, we would do a New Year's eve show at Parkside Lounge every year, where I would make my famous ribs, made of pork. I also made kale ribs for the vegan friends." [23:30] --Corn Mo on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour...Half Hour

This week on a brand new Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour, Joshua is talking community. But first, we start the episode with a food poem in an English accent read by Coco Mellors. Moving into the musical guest, Joshua welcomes Joe McGinty to the show. Joe is a composer, producer and keyboard player based in New York, that has performed with The Ramones, Deborah Harry, Nada Surf, Moby, Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, among many others. Joshua and Joe talk about the nuances of piano karaoke before Joe tickles the keys in studio and performs live. In the second half of the show, Joshua is joined by Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. It is a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog group dedicated to improving NYC's public parks. Joshua talks about his analysis on Tavern on the Green here in New York as well as his thoughts on luxury restaurants taking up New York's public spaces with educated input from Geoffrey. This program was brought to you by Edwards VA Ham. "There's some twist or turn where people think they know a song and get up and realize they have no idea how it goes!" [7:40] --Joe McGinty on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour "Whether they're successful or not they [restaurants] shouldn't be there, this is clearly not a park purpose." [36:30] --Geoffrey Croft on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour

This week on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour we're talkin' school lunch! Opening the show with food poems in an English accent by Mr. Daniel Thurlow, originally from Brighton. Discussing fond school lunch memories with Daniel and Matthew Tong, this sets the stage for Joshua to relive his recent review of a school lunch, having eaten it during the lunch hour at a local school. Joshua credits the recipe of the reviewed school lunch to none other than his next guest, Bill Telepan, of Telepan Local in NYC. Bill has worked in some of the world's top kitchens, and definitely has an appreciation for fresh ingredients, so it is no surprise that he implemented his culinary knowledge in his daughter's school lunch program. Upon meeting the founder of the Wellness in the Schools (WITS) program, he recognized that the organization's work was amazing and that their work was the perfect platform for his skill in the kitchen. Bill goes on to share more about the WITS program and the difference that he is helping to make. In the musical segment of the show, Joshua welcomes Mark Dzula to the show. Sharing his inspiration for writing music about food and school lunches, as it turns out, Mark is a teacher so is quite familiar with the cafeteria cuisine. Tune in for an episode that will leave you craving cafeteria delicacies! This program has been brought to you by Heritage Foods USA. "It's a matter of not only teaching [school food workers] how to cook but also how to prepare and mise en place themselves - how to be ready to make a chili for 600 in a day." [16:00] "Wellness in the Schools sort of brings ideas of how to get better ingredients into the schools." [20:22] --Bill Telepan on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour "I was going through the Joy of Cooking looking for a good wheat bread recipe, and I found a photograph of her and her ex-boyfriend, and it prompted me to write a song!" [33:28] --Mark Dzula on the Joshua David Stein Variety Hour... Half Hour