Ep. 20 - Edible Finger Lakes and Ten Things #2

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Every 10th episode of Eating Ithaca we talk about Ten Things, and this one is packed with some great food finds and fun facts. First off is our interview with the founders of Edible Finger Lakes magazine, Zoe Becker and Michael Welch, who talked with us about how their magazine started and some of the incredible finds they've made along the way.

We're also continuing through the letter "E" in our visits to every restaurant in Ithaca with a review of Easy Wok in the Ithaca Mall food court. And along the way, we're talking about new food books and trends we've discovered, some Foods of Fall, local eating, our first ever song from a listener, plus a really wacky taste test with magic of Miracle Fruit. Be sure to listen to the episode for details on our new Giveaway Contest, and you could win a free subscription to Edible Finger Lakes!

If you want to get in touch or be part of a future episode, you may leave a comment on the blog, call our voicemail line anytime at 607-215-4392, or send an email to: feedback at eatingithaca dot com. Remember to check out our Flickr page for photos, and follow us on Twitter for continuing updates throughout the week. If you like what we're doing, be sure to share the love and tell a friend about us!

Listen to Episode 20


Stuff we talked about in this episode:

• Edible Finger Lakes magazine
• Roasted Acorn Squash recipe
• The Cider Mill of Endicott, NY
• Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China
  by Fuschia Dunlop
• Easy Wok Restaurant
• Spork by Light My Fire
• Miracle Fruit on Wikipedia
• Miracle Fruit in NY Times
• Buy Miracle Fruit Tablets
• Buy Miracle Fruit Berries
• Buy a Miracle Fruit Plant
• Enter the Eating Ithaca Giveaway Contest!
  (listen to Episode 20 for details)

Ep.10 - Ten Things!

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It’s our big 10th Episode and we’re celebrating this mini milestone with an extra-long discussion of Ten Things that have been on our minds, including dining outside Ithaca, foodie books and bad restaurant movies. Plus, we find out what happened to Ari, and our visits to every restaurant in Ithaca from A-Z continues with a discussion of the two Burger King locations in Ithaca (somehow overlooking that burger chain’s connection to Cornell!) and reminisce about the BK of our youth.

And if all that isn’t enough for you, we’ve also got a contest! We’re giving away a brand new paperback copy of Michael Pollan’s award-winning book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but you have to listen to the episode for details!

In order to make sure we’re not recording any future episodes on a holiday weekend, we’re taking an extra week off before the next episode, so this episode is longer than usual to help you make it through the three weeks until Episode 11 is online (June 16th). But don’t think we’re on vacation - we’re going to use these weeks to improve the website and the podcast, and we’re looking forward to sharing those updates with you soon.

There are a ton of links below for everything we’re discussing in this supersized edition of Eating Ithaca, and don't forget to check out photos at our Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/eatingithaca). Send us your feedback, your reviews, your opinions. We look forward to hearing from you!

Listen to Episode 10


Links for this episode:

DINING

• Burger King
  (and do you remember this contest?)
• WD-50
• ’SNice
• Momofuku Ssäm Bar
• Serendipity Catering of Ithaca
• Ithaca Soda Co. Root Beer
• Cornell Chicken Barbecue Sauce recipe

BOOKS

• Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany
  by Ben Schott
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
  by Michael Pollan
• The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef
  by Marco Pierre White
• The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
  by Jennifer 8. Lee
• Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal
  by Eric Schlosser

FILMS

• No Reservations
• Spanglish
  (you can find the wonderful "Spanglish Sandwich" recipe here)
• Ratatouille
  (get it now at the iTunes store!)
• Big Night
• Fast Food Nation
• Our Daily Bread
• King Corn

Pollan's "Eater's Manifesto" - free food for thought

If you've been listening from the first episode, you'll know we at Eating Ithaca are fans of writer Michael Pollan. His bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma is a fantastic introduction to the realities of our modern food chain that we cannot recommend enough, though it may leave you wondering what you can do to about how you or your family eat in your own day to day life.

That's one of the questions we're trying to answer over time in our own way with Eating Ithaca, but Pollan himself is exploring the issue in his latest book In Defense of Food, and we discovered a beautiful PDF excerpt of this book that anyone can download for free here at the ChangeThis website.

Check out this great writing, share it with your fellow eaters, and read the whole book if you can. We're just finishing it here and we'll definitely be talking about Pollan's ideas in future episodes.

Thanks to all of you who've been listening and subscribing to our podcast. We'll be back in a week with a new show featuring more restaurant reviews and new features. Keep listening!