MUNCHIES: The Podcast

Colin Spoelman is master distiller at Kings County Distillery and an expert on the history of spirits - liquid and spectral.  This Halloween, Colin takes us to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery to meet some permanent residents and explore the myths and legends of famous distillers buried just a few feet below our own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We landed in Copenhagen and headed straight to the notorious Christiania neighborhood to meet Matt Orlando, owner and head chef of Copenhagen's Amass. At a small cafe along Pusher Street, he briefs us on the history of this anarchist micro-state, lays out his framework of eco-conscious deliciousness, and explains why this age-old city continues to captivate chefs around the globe. Hosted on Acast....

Today, we dive into one of the most incredible experiences fine dining has to offer: kaiseki cuisine. Combining hyper-local, foraged ingredients with refined Japanese technique, trailblazing Chef Niki Nakayama is redefining the traditional, multi-course Japanese meal at her acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant n/naka.    Helen Hollyman joins Chef Nakayama, her life-partner and sous-chef Carole Iida-Na...

I’m speaking to Courtney McBroom, owner and creator of the retro-inspired catering company, Large Marge and Leslie Discher to discuss why they are picking up where Betty Crocker left off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Los Angeles is a city that has some of America’s greatest culinary diversity; the place where many use the term “ethnic food” to describe the city's sprawling food landscape. I reached out to Andrew Ti, a comedian and the creator of the blog and podcast, Yo, Is This Racist? to get his impressions on the issues that the culinary world faces when describing, writing, and reinterpreting food from oth...

On the fourth episode from our LA series, we’re falling straight into the center of a demented wino k-hole with chef Kris Yenbamroong of award-winning Thai restaurants Night Market and Night Market Song to discuss how a new generation of young winemakers is changing the cultural b.s. that comes with wine drinking. We’ll also get into why Kris wants people to come to his restaurant, order wine, and...

On the third episode from our LA series, we’re heading to Koreatown to drink up downtown LA on a michelada bus with the powerhouse siblings behind the James Beard-award winning Oaxacan restaurant, La Guelaguetza, to discuss how this restaurant has become the unofficial LA Oaxacan consulate, or the heartbeat of what many people refer to as “Oaxacalifornia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

On today’s episode, we’re eating veggie burgers at BurgerLords, a burger-walk up in LA’s Chinatown with the band YACHT. Besides making music together, Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans are writers, artists, and the developers behind the popular app “5 Every Day,” a curated list of rad things to do in Los Angeles. Over burgers, I wanted to get YACHT’S impressions on why this town is one of the fastest...

On the first episode from our LA series, we eat fried shrimp tacos with Pulitzer Prize winning food writer, Jonathan Gold, and discuss LA’s changing food scene, how technology has changed food culture, and why he knows Dr. Dre so well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, we’re taking you into the legendary Austin bar, Dry Creek Cafe, where the likes of Willie Nelson have been kicked out. The spot’s late owner, Crazy Sarah, used to run things around here with an iron fist. It’s the place where you can learn how to be Texan, even if you ain’t one. So crack a Lonestar and tune in to hear some Texan bar stories—like how a sea turtle drinks a beer—w...

I head over to East Austin—a.k.a. the city's hipster den— to check out an unusual urban farm with chef Michael Fojtasek of Olamaie, one of the best contemporary Southern restaurants in the country. I sat down with Michael to discuss why he decided to open Olamaie, the difference between Southern and Texan cuisine, and find out who the real Olamaie is.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...

On the latest episode, I sit down with culinary historian Michael Twitty to discuss his new book, The Cooking Gene , and his open letter to chef Sean Brock, which addresses current racial inequalities in the Charleston food scene. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’re experiencing a Texan pastime: waiting in a long BBQ line at Micklethwait Craft Meats on Austin’s east side with some very special guests: none other than the band, the Deftones.   The band has been touring and making music together for almost twenty years. In that time they’ve gone from living off a couple bucks a day and eating whatever they could to becoming one of the biggest bands...

Austin’s restaurant scene has been making waves over the past few years in the national restaurant scene with spots like Franklin BBQ, but on today’s episode we are exploring the longstanding titan of the city’s culinary scene: food trucks. We’ll talk to old school and new school food truck vendors and an unexpected newcomer: Whole Foods, who recently announced that it would open its very first fo...

Every Sunday in Austin for over 18 years Texanshave gone to the Little Longhorn Saloon to drink ice cold beers andbet on where a chicken will drop a deuce. I recently went to thebar to experience one of the last strongholds of the old “KeepAustin Weird” culture that’s slowly disappearing from thecity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, we’re talking to Louis Black, the Austinite who co-founded the Austin Chronicle and SXSW, and most recently directed a documentary about filmmaker, Richard Linklater, called Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny . Linklater is one of the most important Texan filmmakers of our time, and one of the first people to capture the slacker vibe of old Austin with his film, Dazed and Conf...

Today, we are bringing you a special bonus episode: Two back-to-back live interviews we recorded at Southbytes, SXSW’s food programming which features panels, talks, and events with some of the most influential people in the food world. First, I sat down with Andrew Zimmern, food writer and host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel; the guy who’s consumed more innards, creepy crawlies, and odife...

You might think you know the EVOO queen, Rachael Ray, but today, we’re spending some time with the SXSW veteran—she’s been attending the festival for the past 20 years—to dive into one of her biggest passions: music. Her love for it is so epic that she’s been throwing one of the biggest SXSW music parties with her husband, John Cusimano, for the past nine years. The event, “Feedback,” combines foo...

We speak to some of New York’s new wave pizza makers who are reimagining what’s in a slice about what makes New York pizza so great, and try to get to the source of what might be the unexpected answer: water. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On our first episode of the second season of MUNCHIES: The Podcast , we’re pulling you out of the glut of sleepy winter, and there’s only way to do that: energy drinks. In 2005, fewer than 2,000 trips to the emergency room involved energy drinks. By 2011, that number was over 20,000. Brooklyn-based band Prince Rama’s just released their energy drink-inspired album, “XTREME NOW,” so we figured they...

On the final episode of the first season of the MUNCHIES podcast, we speak to legendary actress and culinary icon, Madhur Jaffrey, who brought Indian cuisine to the west, about her cultural impact and why she believes cooking and acting are very similar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Award-winning TV show Top Chef helped to define a new era in food by taking the reality TV contest format and placing chefs front and center. We spoke to permanent Top Chef judge Gail Simmons about the world that the show helped to create. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We went to a coffee psychic to see if coffee can predict your future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the latest episode of  MUNCHIES: The Podcast , MUNCHIES' Editor-in-Chief Helen Hollyman goes on an adventure through Central Park with smell artist, Sissel Tolaas, who is trying to capture the smell of the park. Helen Hollyman and Tolaas discuss why humans have become disconnected from our senses, how we can become better eaters through scent, and why she likes to serve the stench of dirty snea...

Being a cab driver in NYC isn’t easy. You're drinking coffee to stay awake, then you’ve gotta piss and find some time eat, but there’s nowhere to park. But Punjabi Deli has been an oasis where you could park out front and grab some food. In 2010, the city started construction that made that impossible. Today, I’m talking to the the unexpected person who helped solve the problem: Punjabi-American r...