Lecker

Although she’s originally from the Isle of Man, Katie Callin has never made the most traditionally Manx of all foods: the bonnag - a soda raised baked good with links to the nation’s pre-industrial past, and to its folklore too.

She returns to her family home in St Johns on the west coast of the island to enter the World Bonnag Championships and, under the guidance of her mum Vanessa, she uncovers the secrets of great bonnag making.

Music:
Blue Dot Sessions - Chapel Bottom (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Home Home At Last (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Stale Case (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Petaluma (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Plaid Shapes (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Cicle Veroni (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - The Spills (https://www.sessions.blue/)
Blue Dot Sessions - Flagger (https://www.sessions.blue/)

Sean Blake is (in his own words) a part time food and drink photographer, music producer, low skilled worker and full time dad. He’s a big advocate for making food and drink more approachable and less wanky, and he makes the best cocktails of anyone I've ever met. Having managed the bar and designed menus for the likes of the Polpo group, Brunswick House, Pitt Cue Co, run Sean's Bar pop ups all over London, been a YBF finalist, and co-founded Corals in Peckham with Lerryn Whitfield, I thought he would be a great person to talk to about making the most interesting drinks possible with the dregs of your cupboards. But it turns out there's a much bigger conversation to be had about the future of drinking once this is all over.

You can find Sean on instagram @eatseanblake; I'm sharing some of his incredible photography on the Lecker instagram too @leckerpodcast.

Support your local bar/pub/distillery/brewery at this time. Sean recommends Sweet Dram, a distillery founded in Peckham, now based in Edinburgh. They normally make Escubac but have switched to producing hand sanitiser. He's getting beer from Gypsy Hill Brewery (my local is Brick Brewery and their fruit sours are the best.)

A lot of bars are also doing pre-pay drinks schemes: so you buy now and drink once they re-open. Check out your local bars to see if they're doing something similar.

Any struggling hospitality workers should look into Speciality drinks/Suntory bartender packages available online for struggling hospitality workers.

The newsletter I mentioned at the end of the episode is Vittles: Jonathan Nunn is commissioning so many interesting people to write about food and some incredibly important topics are being covered. Subscribe and support if you can afford to.

Music:
Blue Dot Sessions - Low Light Switch

When our food supply is threatened, or feels like it is, preserving fresh produce is a natural response. Jelena Belgrave, whose fermentation class I took part in over Zoom last week, grew up with communal preservation traditions in her native Serbia; she explores via voicenotes how the instinct to store food for herself and her family is rooted in her own history.

You can read more about Jelena and her work on her website oblutak.co.uk and find her on Instagram @potsandfoodtoshare.

Music:
Blue Dot Sessions - Lakal

In these strange times I’ve been thinking about food almost constantly. Unable to go out to eat (or go out much at all), food dominates my waking life even more than normal. Like many people on the internet, I’ve started using the solid blocks of time I have at home to start learning to bake sourdough, and I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’m so drawn to this and why I find it so absorbing. 

Via the medium of voicenotes, I asked my friend Rebecca Spaven, a professional baker, to consider where the domestic sourdough boom fits into a global pandemic.

You can find Rebecca on Instagram @bunhead_

Music:
Blue Dot Sessions - Coronea

Catherine Ross and her daughter Lynda-Louise Burrell are the founders of Museumand, a Nottingham-based a social history and community 'museum without walls' dedicated to preserving Caribbean history, heritage and culture in original and unusual ways.

I joined them for a Friday afternoon sweet tea to talk about the influence - and ingenuity - of slavery within Caribbean food, the hurdles they've overcome in setting up the museum, and their favourite coconut-based sweet treats.

You can find out about Museumand's work here and follow them on twitter here and Instagram here.

Tokyo: a symphony for the ears. Of Pachinko, cicadas and Taro's tea ceremony.

With thanks to Taro and Tomoko (and Rory).

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The Italian author Livia Franchini reflects on edible themes in her debut novel Shelf Life, and considers the prescriptiveness of Italian cooking.

Read more about this episode at leckerpodcast.com.

Sign up to the Lecker tinyletter for an extra bite, this time about tomatoes.

You can find Livia's recipe for Orecchiette ai Cimini di Rapa here.
Livia can be found on Twitter, and on Instagram.

Shelf Life came out in paperback on Doubleday in January 2020 and is available from all good booksellers (I like Hive).

Music: 
Blue Dot Sessions - Pedalrider
Blue Dot Sessions - Charcoal Line

The food blogger and Burmese cookbook author MiMi Aye remembers the UK online food writing movement of the mid 2000s and shares the sour delights of Burmese food.

Read more about this episode at leckerpodcast.com.

Sign up to the Lecker tinyletter for an extra bite, this time about the secrets of Burmese tofu.

You can find the recipe for Coconut Chicken Noodles here, taken from Mandalay with kind permission from MiMi Aye.
MiMi can be found on her website, on Twitter, and on Instagram.

You can buy a copy of Mandalay from Amazon or of course from your own preferred online or IRL bookseller (I like Hive).

Music: Blue Dot Sessions - Swapping Tubes

This is a mini audio version of the recent print zine I released! Featuring readings from Octavia Bright, Jennifer Obidike, Rhiannon Schabernack, Ruby Dhalay and Kelly Shearer, recorded at the zine launch party at Middle Lane Market in North London in November 2019.

Thanks to Kelly and Andrew Shearer of Middle Lane Market for hosting the event.

The first run of the zine has now sold out, but follow @leckerpodcast on Twitter and Instagram to be the first to hear the launch date for the second run.

Subscribe to the Lecker tinyletter

Music: Blue Dot Sessions - A Simple Blue; Filing Away

Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove

Claire Roberson is an excellent person to know if you want to know what to eat in Sicily. She introduces me to pesto alla Trapanese, prepared in the kitchen of her Palermo apartment.

Claire is on instagram @everythingbut and can also be found/contacted via her website everythingbut.me

Lecker is on instagram @leckerpodcast. Sign up to the newsletter tinyletter.com/lecker

Music: 
Blue Dot Sessions - Chromium Blush