Food Non-Fiction

#24 Ancient Egyptian Honey

In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we tell you about ancient Egyptian honey. Did you know that honey that archaeologists have uncovered from tombs that are thousands of years old remain edible? We tell you all about beekeeping from ancient Egypt. References: Smithsonian Eurasianet Reshafim Ancient Origins Book: The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting Book: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind Music from Looperman thank you ...

#23 BONUS! BBQ Boat with Friends

This is a Food Non-Fiction bonus episode! Lillian the host went on a BBQ boat with her friends today and recorded the experience to share.  Thanks to Joe, the owner of Joe's BBQ Boat for the interview

#22 Meat Becomes Fruit Flies

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode is about fruit flies. They seem to appear out of nowhere. In fact, people used to believe that small organisms like flies could be spontaneously generated from other matter, whether living or nonliving. This was called "the doctrine of spontaneous generation" or "Aristotelian abiogenesis". The concept of spontaneous generation was popular from Aristotle’s time (somewhere between 384-322 BCE) to the 1600’s. In 1668, Italian physician, Francesco Redi, cond...

#21 BONUS! Gigantopithecus and Bamboo

In this bonus Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we talk about giant apes and bamboo. In a National Geographic article, we read that perhaps giant apes competed with giant pandas for bamboo. To learn more about this, we spoke to the gigantopithecus (giant ape) expert, Dr. Russel Ciochon. In an enlightening interview, the professor informed us that there is no evidence of competition between gigantopithecus and giant pandas and that gigantopithecus is more likely to have become extinct because...

#20 Pandas Only Eat Bamboo?

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode is all about pandas and bamboo. We tackle the question - why do giant pandas only eat bamboo? The 2015 answer is that no one really knows. We also spoke to panda experts from the Toronto Zoo and Zoo Atlanta. We find out what they feed the giant pandas, when, why and how.

#19 How To Run A Blind Restaurant

In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, Lillian visits Dark Table in Vancouver and Fakhri visits O'Noir in Montreal. We speak to the founder of Canada's 3 dark dining restaurants and find out how to run a restaurant in pitch black. We also had a guest, Jaycelyn Brown, keyboardist from the Juno award winning band, Said the Whale. She dined with us and this episode has been a blast!

#18 Deep Fried Desserts

This is a mini episode from Food Non-Fiction. Because Lillian is getting ready for her Master's defence! This episode is a brief look at deep fried desserts. We talk about doughnuts, deep fried ice cream and even deep fried coke! References Smithsonian About.com

#17 Designing the Milk Carton

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode talks about milk cartons. We speak to patent attorney, Matt Buchanan, about the inventor of the milk carton and his patent, which was granted in 1915 in Toledo, Ohio. We then talk to Dr. Joel Best, author of "Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims", about the history of missing children milk carton campaigns. Special Thanks to Guests: Matt Buchanan (partner at Buchanan Nipper) Dr. Joel Best (University of Delaware Professor of ...

#16 Popcorn from the Beginning

In this podcast episode of Food Non-Fiction, we are talking about popcorn! Popcorn is made out of any variety of corn that can be popped. Corn was selectively bred from a wild grass called Teosinte, which was a very tough plant. So right from the beginning of the cultivation of corn, people were making popcorn, because corn kernels were a lot harder and popping it was one of the easiest ways to eat it. Corn spread over Central and South America because it was traded. One of the civilizations...

#15 Sumo Wrestler Stew

In this podcast episode of Food Non-Fiction, we speak with world champion sumo wrestler, Byamba. He is 6'1'' and 350lb but he has gotten his body fat percentage down to 11%. Sumo wrestlers may look fat, but they have more fat free mass (this includes the weight of internal organs and skeletal muscle) than body builders. This means that underneath the external fat is a wall of dense muscle. We talk about chankonabe, otherwise known as sumo stew. This is the sumo wrestler's staple food. It is ...

#14 When Paris Ate Their Zoo

In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we tell the insane but true story of when Parisians ate zoo animals to survive the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris. We transport you back in time to those five months when Prussian soldiers surrounded Paris to starve the city into surrendering. The five months started in September, 1870. As the months went by, people went from eating cows, pigs and sheep to eating horses. Then they resorted to eating street rats, as well as their own pet dogs and cats. Fina...

#13 China's Bone Chopsticks

In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we tell the origin story of chopsticks. During a 1993-1995 excavation of Neolithic ruins in North China, archaeologists found sticks made of bone. They believe that these bone sticks are the first versions of chopsticks. Previous bone sticks were considered to be hairpins but these bone sticks were placed close to the hands, alongside other things used by the hands, such as pots and tools, whereas previous bone sticks were more polished and placed ne...

#12 A Baker's Dozen

In this podcast episode of Food Non-Fiction, we talk about the baker's dozen. When someone says "a baker's dozen" they mean 13. But why is it 13 when a dozen is actually 12? The history of "a baker's dozen" goes back to medieval England. In 1266, King Henry III revived an old statute called the "Assize of Bread and Ale", which set the price of bread in relation to the price of wheat. To make sure that even the poorest of citizens could buy bread (because it was a staple food), bread was pric...

#11 Thomas Jefferson's Garden

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode is about the founding foodie, Thomas Jefferson. More specifically, we talk about his gardens at Monticello. Jefferson collected crops from all over the known world in his time. He planted a huge variety of fruits and vegetables and helped to spread the seeds. The south-facing design of the Monticello gardens allowed him to plant crops from cold to tropical climates as the location captured a lot of sunlight and tempered the cold winters. Jefferson enjoye...

#10 All About Mangos

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode is all about mangos! This is our first listener requested episode so thank you Spencer! Looking at fossils, we can trace the appearance of the first mangos to around 30 million years ago in Northeast India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Looking at old Hindu writings found in Southeast Asia and India, we can trace mango cultivation (for domestic use) back to 4000 B.C.E.  so that’s 6,000 years ago. Buddhist monks were amongst the first to cultivate the fruit and...

#9 History of Food Trucks

This Food Non-Fiction podcast episode tells the history of food trucks. The forerunners to food trucks are the chuckwagons of the cowboy cattle drives and the pushcarts of busy cities. Chuckwagons were invented by Charles Goodnight in 1866 to feed cowboys during long cattle drives that sometimes lasted for months. Chuckwagon cooks were called "cookies" and they would wake up bright and early to stoke a fire with firewood from the chuckwagon and prepare food with surfaces and supplies provide...

#8 Soylent & Ambronite

This podcast episode takes a look at the trending food alternatives - Soylent and Ambronite. These 2 liquid meal replacements were both created in 2013, one in the US and the other in Finland. Soylent is a sort of futuristic food - its formula is open source - and the aim is to be as cheap and efficient as possible. Ambronite also aims to be as efficient as possible but its ingredients don't compromise quality for price. References: William the Conqueror's Diet Rob Rhinhart's blog Megh...

#7 The World's Greatest Food Fight

This episode starts with the true story of Ryan Shilling and the huge food fight in his UK school, Jarrow, in the town of Jarrow. We then piece together the history of food fights, starting with the creation of the pie-in-face gag from the Vaudeville era to the first pieing scenes in silent films to our modern day idea of food fights in schools. Next, we tell you about the world's greatest food fight - La Tomatina in Bunol, Spain. We interviewed Rafael Perez, the organizer of the event. Sp...

#6 Save the Salmon - Part 2

In "Save the Salmon Part 2" we explain why environmentalists talk about the drastic loss in salmon populations even though salmon seems to be abundant in grocery stores and sushi restaurants. We talk about the differences between wild and farmed salmon. This episode also discusses the pros and cons in the debate on using farmed salmon as a way to provide salmon to the masses and alleviate the fishing of wild salmon. Should you be buying farmed or wild salmon? Which one are you getting at res...

#5 Save the Salmon - Part 1

This episode is a timely look at California's drought and how it has affected salmon runs. Specifically, we look at the Chinook salmon, also called the King salmon. These salmon can grow to be the size of a small person - up to 58 inches (4.8 feet) in length and up to 129 pounds. You don't find them in regular sushi places, because they're a more high-end species of salmon. They have the highest fat content of any salmon and that makes them delicious!  Special thanks to our guest, Kari Bur...

#4 Benjamin Franklin the Foodie

This episode covers Benjamin Franklin’s love of food. Benjamin Franklin was a very conscientious eater. At around the age of 16, he became a vegetarian for ethical and frugal reasons, but began eating meat again soon after, while traveling by ship from Boston to New York. He popularised Parmesan cheese in America and introduced soybeans, tofu, and rhubarb to the colonies. Milk Punch Recipe (recipe written by Benjamin Franklin himself) Benton Brothers Fine Cheese (cheese experts/shop in Va...

#3 Michelin Stars Restaurant Rating System

Intro 0:00 John lying to his Mom 0:17 Undercover Restaurant Reviewers 0:29 Michelin Guide Restaurant Reviewers 1:31 How the Michelin Guide began 2:14 Current use of the Michelin Guide 3:52 Michelin stars and symbols 4:10 Bib Gourmand 5:18 Mystery of the process 5:41 Anonymous Michelin Server 5:49     Preparing for a Michelin Reviewer 5:59     Characteristics of a Michelin Reviewer 6:12 Controversies around Michelin Guide 6:55     Pascal Remy "The Inspector Spills th...

#2 Eating Insects - Part 2

Intro 0:00  Recap of last episode 0:12 The ick factor 0:49 Six Foods story 1:27 Chirps 1:46 Harvard Innovation Lab pitch competition with mealworm tacos 3:12 Cricket flour 4:30 Massachusetts Innovation Nights 6:20 Ofbug (Kathryn Redford) 9:46 What to feed insects 12:20 Partnering with UBC’s Entomology & Toxicology Lab 13:10 Canadian law on insects as food 14:24 How Kathryn farms insects 15:20 David George Gordon (The Bug Chef) 17:43 What factors affect how an inse...

#1 Eating Insects - Part 1

Intro 0:00 Eating insects as a hot topic 00:26 Edible Insects - Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security 00:48 Time Magazine names insects one of the top food trends of 2015 1:40 FDA allows insect fragments in food 2:19 Theories on why we don't eat insects 3:02 BBC Documentary "Can Eating Insects Save the World" 5:13 Founders of Six Foods 6:07  Insect nutrition 7:06 The Bug Chef explains ECI 8:02 Contact us at [email protected] 9:33 www.foodnonfiction.com ...

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Promo Episode

Hello from Food Non-Fiction. This episode introduces the hosts of this podcast, Lillian Yang and Fakhri Shafai. Through this podcast, we will take you on a food journey through history and around the world. We can't wait to entertain you with stories about food - its creators, its venues, its composition and more - using interviews, storytelling and discussion.