Hungry for History with Eva Longoria and Maite Gomez-Rejón

With the holidays upon us, this time of year is one of the busiest for markets. On this episode, Eva and Maite go back in time to explore how early communities centered around one thing - mercados! The soul of every community, mercados provided people with gossip, entertainment and, of course, food!

Plus, Chef Bryan Ford joins the show to talk about his new book, Pan y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book. The cookbook is filled with the yummiest recipes from Latin America and explores breads and ingredients that would have been sold in pre-Hispanic markets.

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Beyond a source of nourishment, for centuries food has been used as a form of protest and activism around the world. From cookbook writing during the American Civil War to Mexican revolutionaries who helped empower women through the kitchen, Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen and Meymuna Hussein-Cattan’s kitchen with a mission, Flavors from Afar, in this special episode Eva and Maite discuss the different forms of food for good.

Links from today's episode:  

https://wck.org/ 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25631/25631-h/25631-h.htm

https://www.flavorsfromafar.co/ 

https://www.tiyya.org/ 

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In this episode, Eva and Maite explore the histories of the Milanesa and Chicken Fried Steaks of their childhoods. They uncover legends and early recipes including where the term “golden brown” may have come from. Plus - Maite welcomes a very special guest, her mom (!), to the podcast and together they travel through time and make the Milanesa she grew up with.

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Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is one of the most celebrated holidays in Mexico. Here's a short clip on Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead), a pastry made for this special day. 

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To celebrate Halloween Maite and Eva sip Vampiros, a blood red Mexican cocktail, while exploring vampire-like characters in Mesoamerican mythology. The ladies dive into history and uncover the connection between chocolate and witchcraft in colonial Latin America. Plus, host of Susto and South Texas native, Ayden Castellanos joins the show to share scary stories from the Texas/Mexico border!

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Garlic lovers, Eva and Maite take us back in time to unravel the mysteries of Garlic, a vegetable with medicinal properties used mostly to flavor food. Eva attempts to convert non egg eater, Maite, into a fan by making a garlicky egg dish from her cookbook, Huevos con Jocoque! 

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To celebrate the launch of Eva’s new cookbook, Eva and Maite talk about how cookbooks can serve as windows into cultures and histories. They discuss the first published cookbooks (one of which involves a plagiarizing scandal!), cookbook history in Mexico, and how recipes can serve as a form of activism.

Books discussed in this episode include:

Libro de cocina de Fray Geronimo de San Pelayo, 18th century

Libro de cocina Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, 17th century

UTSA’s Mexican Cookbook 

Recetario para la memoria

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As South Texans, Eva and Maite have carne asada flowing through their veins! Join them as they talk about the history of grilling meat, cowboy culture, and how Mexican barbacoa paved the way for American barbecue.

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When and where was pasta invented? How did sopita de fideo and mac and cheese become classic comfort foods in Mexico and the United States? Eva and Maite explore these questions and more as they trace the history of our favorite comfort foods and head to the kitchen to cook Tacos de Fideo from Eva’s new cookbook. 

Try Maite's Mac and Cheese Recipe HERE! 

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Eva and Maite head to the kitchen to prepare a deconstructed bacon wrapped hot dog recipe from Eva’s new cookbook. And they share lots of history of course! From the earliest references to sausages in antiquity, to how said sausage found two warm pieces of bread to snuggle into, how immigrants transformed it into our favorite baseball food and how the humble sausage found bacon and chiles in Mexico. This episode is all about creativity!

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