Katherine Spiers

Jun 25, 2024 | smartmouth.substack.com | Katherine Spiers

The story goes that Cary Grant, a regular at a Chinese restaurant called Madame Wu’s Gardens*, in Santa Monica, CA, told the restaurant owner, Sylvia Wu, that he’d had a salad at another restaurant and wanted her to put her spin on it. And thus was born the Chinese Chicken Salad. I discussed this in the most recent podcast episode, below, with Jon Kung — his Asian Chicken Salad is made with arugula and grapefruit.

Jun 23, 2024 | podcasts.apple.com | Katherine Spiers

Do we really think Cary Grant invented a salad? Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen 1 For The Table Related episodes: Chicken & Waffles with Carl Tart American Chinese Food with Edgar Momplaisir Ruth Wakefield & the Chocolate Chip Cookie Personal Foodways with Chris Scott Listen to Smart Mouth: iTunes • Google Podcasts • Pandora • Spotify • TuneIn • Libsyn • Amazon Music • Podurama Check out all our episodes so far here. If you like, pledge a buck or two on Patreon.

Jun 15, 2024 | smartmouth.substack.com | Katherine Spiers

The southeastern United States has a tradition of great cakes, and like many Southern food traditions, the cakes are a mix of German, British, and Caribbean foodways. Here are just six of them, including one, the Lady Baltimore, discussed in the most recent podcast episode (below) and my current research obsession. If you want more, check out “American Cake: From Colonial Gingerbread to Classic Layer, the Stories and Recipes Behind More Than 125 of Our Best-Loved Cakes” by Anne Byrn.

Jun 8, 2024 | smartmouth.substack.com | Katherine Spiers

Why don‘t fruit flavored teas taste like fruit? Butter-free butter tea The tea: Spring white buds, sold by Nepali Tea Traders. $18 for 1.2oz. Up until 20 years ago, Nepal was never well known for its tea. Most tea was commodity fare destined for domestic consumption or trade with India. Some from the eastern Ilam district was smuggled through the Indian border to be resold as pricier tea from neighboring Darjeeling.

May 23, 2024 | smartmouth.substack.com | Katherine Spiers

Last week I asked: Do you decline restaurant surcharges when you see them on menus or your bill? 67% of you said no you do not decline them, you pay the surcharges — and the rest are split between always declining the charges and sometimes declining them. Pretty good odds for the restaurateurs!This week on the podcast my guest Elle Simone Scott of America’s Test Kitchen talked about gifts of food, and the history of boxes of chocolate.