125: One Food for Life: A Culinary Dilemma Cultural Influences on Food Choices

Rosie (00:00)
So this is from a friend and a listener. said to her earlier, shit, I forgot I'm recording with Roula in 20 minutes. I'm half asleep. Can you, do you have any topic ideas? And this is what she said.

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Roula (00:30)
Easy. For me, the answer is easy. I don't have to think twice. We talked about it in

Rosie (00:31)
No.

What is it? What is it? Zata. I've said

it wrong, but is it that?

Roula (00:40)
The Man'oushe. We talked about it in the episode about what we like to share from our culture.

Rosie (00:41)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah.

Roula (00:47)
And or is it the food? can't remember. Anyway, the one thing that I will eat every day for the rest of my life is Lebanese bread or pizza dough with my thyme, dry sumac and sesame seeds and olive oil. This is the kind of thing I will eat every day till the end of time. If it's only one, one thing that I have to eat, that would be it.

Rosie (01:14)
Wow. Wow.

Roula (01:17)
Dear listeners, it's vegan. It has all the goodness for our brain, the oils, the sesame seeds, the thyme. It's so good and healthy. And I remember at school when we had exams in the morning or on the day, in the morning, my mom would tell us to eat the sandwich. Hold on, what's sandwich in Aussie slang?

Rosie (01:44)
yes, our Aussie slang episode, ooh.

Roula (01:46)
I can't remember.

What's that which reminds me, please? Danga. Yeah. My mom would give us this Danga of it's called Sanga of Zatar because she tells us sesame seeds will open your brain and help you focus. And this is in the eighties. And my mom did not have any internet and did not have any higher education or whatever, but she knew that the wise woman.

Rosie (01:51)
SANGAH!

Sanga, sanga. Yeah.

Mmm.

Roula (02:16)
And that's the one thing I will eat for the rest of my life, Rosie.

Rosie (02:19)
You didn't even

have to think about that. I, I don't even know what to say. But actually I was, I was live streaming yesterday and I was talking about food. go through phases. Okay. Of eating the same thing over and over and over and over and over and And then I'll get sick of it and never eat it again. However, what I'm obsessed with lately.

is loaded fries. So I make some homemade chippies. ⁓ I put them in the air fryer and then once they're fairly well cooked, I'll put toppings on top of it. So I've been putting on steak, thick chunky slices of steak. And last night I put corn on there and cheese and sometimes I put mushroom and bacon. So that has been my obsession lately. So I don't know if I want it for the rest of my life, but that's, that's my favorite thing right now.

Roula (03:15)
don't hope so. This is the opposite

of the healthy food I'm having for the rest of my life. I don't want you to have this for the rest of your Your life will be short. ⁓

Rosie (03:24)
variety. So maybe

if I could pick a culture or a type of food, I would say Mediterranean or Middle Eastern, that kind of flavor, that kind of palate. Even though loaded fries is not that palate. Yeah.

Roula (03:43)
think Asian, also some Asian stuff, will, so, you my husband is, his roots are from Java Island in Indonesia. He's born in the Netherlands, so, but his roots are there. And also, if I ask him, I think I know his answer. They have something called Sauto Soup, and it's chicken soup with so many stuff and spices in it. And I think we...

Rosie (03:44)
⁓ yes! Yum!

Mmm!

Roula (04:09)
We can also eat this for the rest of our lives because when we make a pot and we eat from it few days because the day after it's even better. All the spices, all the taste. And then we invite family to eat. Sometimes we go to family and they make it. It's a whole event just to eat that thing. And I think he would love to eat it. I have to ask him because he's kind of, why are you making up things about me?

Rosie (04:19)
Mmmmm

Yeah, you should ask him. He'll be like, what a load

of bullshit, Roula. No, no.

Roula (04:40)
Bottom

line of what I'm saying is that so many cultures have lovely foods and we don't know everything about them. So it's limiting you. The question is limiting us.

Rosie (04:47)
Yeah. So let us know. Well, yes.

True. It is limiting us. I don't want to have to pick one food for the rest of my life. How boring. Let us know if you had to pick just one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

and you can't think about it too much. Pop it in the chat if you can think of it. And if you're listening at home, send us a voice message at rosianruler.com forward slash thoughts. Johnny has just said, wow, this is good. Love it, Johnny. You should go follow the podcast. No, he's saying this format is good, Ruler, I think.

Roula (05:24)
your fries are good or the recoil

Okay.

I want to tell you something. Okay. Okay. Yes. Continue. Sorry. I'm so excited.

Rosie (05:35)
Yeah, thank you. Zip it. Myree said she would eat chips.

See now that's kind of cool because you could put whatever you wanted with these chips. Clever.

Roula (05:45)
About chips. All right. There is this I don't know. It's we call it here a snack bar where you can have fast food and they have chips. We call them fries. And as you said, on top of it, it's the the the meat that is. ⁓ my God, like stew. Beef stew on on top of it and with.

Rosie (06:08)
⁓ okay. Yeah!

Roula (06:11)
so much taste. I haven't tried it. Every time I see it, I said to my husband, I said to my husband, please, can we one time try this together? I can never finish it. And I only have want to have a couple of bites. And we never get the time or the opportunity to try it.

Rosie (06:14)
How have you not tried that? That sounds up my alley. my god.

⁓ no, you have to go do it.

That can be one of your dates this week. You need to go try it. Now, Barb says if she had to choose one food to eat for the rest of her life, it's kichari. I actually don't know what that is. I'm looking it up.

Roula (06:34)
Yes.

It's... okay. ⁓

Rosie (06:44)
And I might've said it wrong. Ooh, it's made with split

mung beans and white rice.

Roula (06:53)
And what's its origins? Where is it from?

Rosie (06:58)
a staple of Ayurvedic cooking. I don't know what that...

Roula (07:04)
is it is it holistic? Is it something some, you know? Is it Asian?

Rosie (07:08)
It must be. I'm feeling very uneducated.

Dunno. Let us know, Barb. Johnny says he would eat butter chicken. You love butter chicken?

Roula (07:17)
I love butter chicken!

love butter chicken! Johnny, do you make it yourself? I wonder. Okay.

Rosie (07:22)
We need an episode where we have different foods in front of us. yes, Johnny, do you make the butter

chicken yourself or is it bought? Yeah, Barb says, okay, the Kichari is gut healing and very healthy. So Roula, this is up your alley. You were on a health kick. You need to look it up and try it. Yes.

Roula (07:35)
I knew it's something like that. Amazing. Yes.

Yes. So now for our listeners on the podcast who are not live, I hope that this interaction is inspiring them to make their menu for this week. What are they going to cook? We have so many stuff now.

Rosie (07:51)
⁓ yes, I have to do my shopping

soon. Like in the next couple of days, I should write this down. Kichari, butter chicken, and what's the bread called that you have? Well, that's, I eat that all the time. had that. And it has the za'atar on it. That's the mix of herbs. Yeah.

Roula (08:03)
Loaded fries.

The man who share, you know, the man who share the one you need to do. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Saoto soup, chicken soup, ⁓ Indonesian way. S-A-O-T-O.

Rosie (08:19)
How do I spill that?

Okay, and it's soup.

Roula (08:26)
soup yes

Rosie (08:28)
Well, we'll see. I like trying new things. Yes. And Johnny said, yes, he would make his own butter chicken. Love it. I feel like homemade, homemade food is just, it's nine times out of 10, it's better in my opinion.

Roula (08:30)
I'm so hungry now.

Amazing. Good for you.

I stopped going to restaurants because it's so disappointing. If I could cook better, why would I go? Okay, of course there are Michelin star restaurants, et cetera, but these are not the restaurants I go to every day. And I stopped going to any. Sometimes I do go to specific ones where really the food is so mind blowing ⁓ and it's like a treat.

Rosie (08:58)
No!

Yeah. ⁓

Roula (09:09)
but like to go,

let's go to a restaurant and have dinner. Maybe I'm too old for that. I don't know. I prefer to have people over and cook at home.

Rosie (09:13)
Too old. What a silly thing to say.

Too old. You're full of it. But one of the reasons when I get take away, often it's because I'm just like, I don't feel like cooking. Cause when you're single, there's no one who can pick up the slack for you. Tilly can't cook for me. Well, depending on your partner.

Roula (09:28)
even if you're not single. This doesn't have to do anything with your marri-

with your state relationship status.

Rosie (09:37)
All right, let us know, send us in a message. ⁓ You can leave a comment on Spotify, go follow us on TikTok, on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts. ⁓ We love, love, love to hear from you. We'll catch you in the next episode.

Roula (09:54)
Thank you so much. Bye.