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How to Snack Smarter Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

If you're looking for some new snack ideas, you'll be glad that this week's guests are two family and consumer sciences agents from the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Kimberly Bragg-Armatrout is with UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County and Shari Bresin is with UF/IFAS Extension Pasco County. They’ve got lots of snack ideas to get us out of a rut, including snacks that are healthy, kid-friendly and perfect for Florida’s hotter months.

What are you snacking on? Take a picture and tag us on Facebook or Instagram @TheZestPodcast.

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Come Fry With Me: Florida State Fair Funnel Cake Queen "Mama Jane" Harris Apr 22, 2021

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The Florida State Fair will look a little different this year, due to the pandemic. But one thing remains the same: The food will be as over-the-top as ever. As usual, serving up your deep-fried favorites will be Jane Harris, better known as Mama Jane. She’s worked with The Best Around Concessions for more than 35 years. The Cape Coral-based company is owned by the McGrath family, and they have trailers selling everything from turkey legs to corn on the cob. But it’s Jane, who manages the funnel cake trailer, who’s become a media darling and fried dough virtuoso. Jane lives in Pensacola and travels to fairs across the U.S. and Canada about eight months out of the year.

I spoke to Jane as she revved up to hit the Florida State Fair in Tampa. It kicks off today and runs through May 2. In our conversation, Mama Jane shares how to recreate fair food at home, she offers an approximate timeline for when some of your favorite fair foods were likely invented, and we’ll brainstorm names for her latest fried creation.

Hungry for more? Check out these conversations that celebrate guilty pleasures:

Chef Judi Gallagher on the Lost Art of Hand-Written Recipes Apr 15, 2021

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Judi Gallagher has a passion for preserving her family’s hand-written recipes. The Sarasota chef says cooking and baking have been therapeutic during some of the most challenging times in her life, including a tough childhood with her father who suffered from mental illness, a contentious divorce and her adult son’s debilitating health condition. So for Judi, her family’s hand-written recipes are more valuable than a pound of saffron or the rarest white truffles.

Judi is a chef, TV personality, entrepreneur and the author of Reflections & Recipes of Chef Judi. In our conversation, Judi shared the story of how she started baking as a young girl and advice for preserving your own treasured recipes.

You can read much more of Judi’s incredible life story in Dalia's profile of her. It appears in the summer issue of FORUM, the magazine of Florida Humanities.

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Halal Food 101 with Florida's Halal Food Guru Apr 08, 2021

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For some of us, eating halal food is about discovering our new favorite falafel cart. But for the nearly 2 billion Muslims around the world, halal food is a way of life. Regardless of which camp you fall into, the restaurant reviewer known as the Halal Food Guru wants you to have a place at the table. The Orlando-based blogger and YouTuber chatted about which foods qualify as halal, his picks for Florida’s best halal restaurants and how food can help create cultural allies.

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Beer Kulture Raises the Bar for Diversity in Craft Beverage Industry Apr 01, 2021

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Alcohol is a conduit for a lot of things. It can be a party starter. A truth serum. It could even be the road to a whole new career path. But for people of color, that road hasn’t been so smooth.

Latiesha Cook wants to change this. Along with her husband, Dom, Latiesha runs Beer Kulture. It’s a nonprofit headquartered in St. Petersburg whose mission is to make the craft beverage industry more diverse, equitable and inclusive. Beer Kulture uses scholarships, internship programs, job boards and community partnerships to, as its tagline says, “change the world one beer at a time.”

And the movement is getting national attention, in articles everywhere from the New York Times to Forbes to the industry website Brewbound. Latiesha recently spoke with The Zest about alcohol as a vehicle for social justice, how white people can be good allies and who she most wants to have a beer with. And of course, we had to ask her for some craft beer recommendations.

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It's Always Sunny at St. Petersburg's Brick Street Farms Mar 25, 2021

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When you picture a farm, what comes to mind? Acres of crops? Wide open spaces? Well, you’re about to meet a farmer who’s updating that image for the 21st century.

Shannon O’Malley is the co-founder and CEO of Brick Street Farms in St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District. It’s a hydroponic farm that uses climate-controlled shipping containers to grow produce. In our conversation, Shannon shares why she and her husband Brad Doyle started Brick Street Farms, why many chefs prefer their kale to other brands and how Brick Street 5vegetables ended up in hundreds of Publix supermarkets.

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How Florida Became "the Birthplace of Fusion Cuisine" Mar 18, 2021

Show notes

Here’s something you may not have learned in history class: The original Underground Railroad traveled from North to South. For reasons our guest will explain, during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Spanish Florida offered refuge to people fleeing enslavement from British colonies.

So what does this have to do with food? Well, the mingling of Spanish settlers, free Blacks and indigenous people in St. Augustine led to some pretty unique ways of eating whose influence shows up on our plates even today. That’s why our guest, historian Andrew Batten of Florida Living History, says Florida is the birthplace of fusion cuisine.

For more Florida food history, check out these previous episodes of The Zest:

Miami Herald’s Carlos Frías on Cuban Coffee, Edible Iguanas & Winning the James Beard Award Mar 11, 2021

Show notes

If you want to get to Miami, you could head south on I-95. Or even faster—just go online and read the work of Carlos Frías. He’s the Miami Herald’s food and dining editor and a James Beard Award-winning winning writer. We'd argue that Carlos could also add “travel agent” to his resume, because his writing will transport you to Miami. He writes about the Magic City like only a South Floridian could, from heartfelt stories about the intersection of food and immigration, to the offbeat trend of eating iguana meat. And of course, coffee. Dalia recently chatted with Carlos about all these topics and more.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Food Blogger Ricky Ly on Orlando’s “Tasty Chomps” Mar 04, 2021

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Ricky Ly is a civil engineer by day, a food blogger by night and a 24/7 encyclopedia of Central Florida restaurants. Ricky runs the popular Orlando-area food blog Tasty Chomps. He also wrote the book on Orlando restaurants—literally. His book, Food Lover’s Guide to Orlando, was published in 2013, and he’s eaten at hundreds more Central Florida restaurants since then. In our conversation, the Orlando resident recalls how he got into food blogging, shares the latest restaurant trends and offers advice for aspiring food influencers.

As you’d expect, you’re going to hear a lot of restaurants mentioned in this episode. But don’t worry about writing down all the names. We have links to all the restaurants Ricky mentions at our website, TheZestPodcast.com.

For more on Orlando's food scene, check out these previous episodes:

Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

Bryon White is a self-professed “plant nerd.” Growing up in New Smyrna Beach on Florida’s east coast, he got curious about the grove of yaupon holly bushes across the street from his family’s home. So about a decade ago, Bryon did what any plant nerd would do: He turned to books. He learned that yaupon is native to the American Southeast, and that indigenous cultures have been brewing it for thousands of years. So Bryon got his younger brother, Kyle, on board—and the two got cookin’.

Today, Bryon and Kyle White are the cofounders of Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. Their tea comes in flavors like lavender coconut, citrus spice and Florida chai. Yaupon Brothers is one of a small handful of businesses marketing the caffeinated plant to folks who want an energy boost without the jitters that coffee sometimes brings. Bryon and Kyle have also worked with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science to develop yaupon as a supplemental crop for farmers struggling with citrus greening. The brothers and their small staff operate out of Edgewater, just a few miles from where they grew up—and thousands of miles from Asia and Africa, where the majority of the world’s tea originates.

Bryon and Kyle chat with host Dalia Colón about the benefits of drinking yaupon, what it tastes like and how their company gives back to Yaupon’s Native American roots. You may hear some wine when Brian is speaking. That’s because he was calling in from a field in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he’s working on a yaupon-related project. More on that later.

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