BORDERLINE SALTY

On this episode of Borderline Salty, hosts Ricks Martinez and Carla Lalli Music marinate on marinades, share their tips for making whole fish less scary, and welcome a live caller. 

We’ll also hear Carla and Rick’s takes on blood sausage in the latest No, Thank You, Please. 

This week’s recipe book:

As always, we’d love to hear about your cooking conundrums at 833-433-FOOD (3663). 

Find us on Instagram @borderlinesalty

Find full episode transcripts and more about the podcast on our website borderlinesalty.fm. 

If you can’t get enough of our hosts – we don’t blame you! Subscribe to Carla's newsletters here and find links to her Instagram and YouTube channel at www.carlalallimusic.com. 

You can order Rick’s cookbook “Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico  here, watch the companion Mi Cocina video series here, and find all of his socials at www.rick-martinez.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

Rick Martinez: Hola, I'm Rick Martinez. I am a cookbook author, video host and lover of Coconut Thai curry. 

Carla Lalli Music: And I'm Carla Lalli Music. I'm also a cookbook author and video host, and I currently have 17 different kinds of hot sauce in my fridge. 

Rick Martinez: What? Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Why do you have 17 sauces in your fridge? 

Carla Lalli Music: I can't think of a reason why not. 

Rick Martinez: That's it. That's all I need to know. 

Carla Lalli Music: Rick and I have been solving and laughing our way through food problems together for more than a decade in test kitchens and videos and at magazines. 

Rick Martinez: And now we're doing it here on Borderline Salty, the show where we take your calls, boost your confidence and make you a better, smarter and happier cook. Just like us.

Carla Lalli Music: Today we'll weigh in on mushrooms, marinades and not scary whole fish. 

Rick Martinez: Not scary at all. 

Carla Lalli Music: But before we dive in, Rick, tell me something good. 

Rick Martinez: You are in for a treat today because I want to talk about sticky rice. 

Carla Lalli Music: Ah, love it 

Rick Martinez: I know, I know. It's funny, because anytime I eat rice, I think of you. 

Carla Lalli Music: Aw! 

Rick Martinez: It's like your number one carb. And so it's like slowly becoming my number one carb. I was in Toronto recently and I was lucky enough to get a table at Pai. This amazing Thai restaurant, and while I was there, the chef actually came out and sat with me and we had this amazing conversation about the origins of the restaurant. And the name Pai is a reference to the town in Thailand where she grew up. And as she's talking, about seven dishes of steamed, sticky rice, jasmine rice, other rices just land on the table. And my eyes, of course, glaze over with glee and delight. 

Carla Lalli Music: Wow. 

Rick Martinez: And my heart starts beating wildly. And she says, I'm going to show you the way that we used to eat rice in Pai, as children. The sticky rice were steamed in banana leaves, and so she opens one up. And so you get this like perfume of the rice and the banana leaves, and she takes a spoon. She scoops a little piece of rice, probably like maybe a little bit over a tablespoon of rice, and then she starts kneading it with her fingers, basically just squishing it into a solid mass and creates a little ball. She says it completely changes obviously the texture, but also just like brings out more of the internal flavors and aromas. 

Carla Lalli Music: Wow. 

Rick Martinez: It had kind of like the texture of mochi. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah.

Rick Martinez: You just get this pop like this really like amplified flavor of the sticky rice and and even the gluten. I don't know if it like is more developed when you do this, but it seemed to be more developed. And it was like a combination of like a tapioca ball meets mochi meets glutinous rice in your mouth at one time. It was amazing. 

Carla Lalli Music: These are like all my favorite textures and flavors, and I can smell it. 

Rick Martinez: It was just such an incredibly pleasant restaurant experience. 

Carla Lalli Music: Go Canada! 

Rick Martinez:  Carla. Tell me something good. 

Carla Lalli Music: Well, the good thing for me this week is that I got to do something I haven't done in a while, which was write a newsletter. I basically took a hiatus from writing after "That sounds so good" came out because I was so depleted. I had none of those muscles. They were just falling off the body and I just really needed a break. And I guess because I'm a masochist or something, I've like, missed writing and missed having that deadline. So one of my favorite things to kind of talk about is buttermilk. I always have buttermilk in the fridge, but just the act of kind of pulling those details together to write it up for other people, I like unlocked new uses for buttermilk that had not occurred to me before. And it was really fun, and it just like reminded me of why food is so much fun and things I've never done before. Like poaching, have you ever poached fish in buttermilk? 

Rick Martinez: Ooh, not in buttermilk, that sounds really good. 

Carla Lalli Music:Yeah, there were a few recipes that popped up for like buttermilk lemony brine that you could put aromatics in and then poached something easy like salmon. And it sounded so good and so cool. And so people are always saying, "Oh well, I bought buttermilk to bake biscuits or to make this pancake thing, and then I didn't know what to do with it. And then I threw it away," which is like, so upsetting because it literally never goes bad. So it was kind of fun to come up with, like 10 different things you could do with it. 

Rick Martinez: Yum. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. Love buttermilk. 

Rick Martinez:  Yeah. And never throw it away. Just make a cake. I love buttermilk cake. It is so good. So tangy, so delicious. I never have leftover buttermilk because I'm always like, I'll just fry something. I'll be good. It's cool. 

Carla Lalli Music: When in doubt ... 

Rick Martinez: Just fry it. 

Carla Lalli Music: Borderline Salty, you've reached us during working hours. 

Caller 1: Hi, Rick and Carla. I'm Sarah. I'm really scared of whole fish and it freaks me out because I always see them in the supermarket and I want to buy them. But I have no idea what to do with like the head and eyes and the scales and the bones, and I honestly just understand how to cook them. 

Carla Lalli Music: You know, when you think about it, a whole fish in the supermarket or wherever is one of the very few times that we, as Americans, have to like, see the whole animal that we are cooking, like everything else, has been broken down and taken down to [unclear site.] You don't have to come face to face with the eyes, the tail, the whole thing. 

Rick Martinez: Right. 

Carla Lalli Music: Fear of whole fishing is a very real fear, and it's such a real fear that I actually have a recipe in "That sounds so good" called "not scary whole grilled fish," because I know that it's frightening, but it doesn't have to be. So couple of things to look for. Everyone's going to tell you you want to look at the fish's eyeballs and look at the gills and smell the fish to make sure that it's fresh. So the eyes should be really clear and glassy, and the gills should be bright red and it should smell good. But another just really easy, straightforward thing is like ask the fishmonger because they're going to want to sell you the best product that they have in the case. Don't be afraid that they're going to try to be offloading the fish they have to get rid of. If you connect with that sales person and say, like, I'm cooking a whole fish for the first time, like what's the freshest fish in the case? Like, they're going to tell you they handled all these fish. They know. 

Rick Martinez: There's something really dramatic about a whole fish or even a butterfly eyed fish. That, to me, just adds to the experience of eating it. So, you know, imagine like the Thanksgiving turkey. If the Thanksgiving turkey came out as little turkey tenders, you know, it wouldn't be the same. You know, you want to see that bird as the centerpiece. And in a lot of cultures and honestly in a lot of places in the U.S., like they will cook a whole fish. You know, they'll fry the whole fish or bake it or grill it. 

Carla Lalli Music: I actually get mad in restaurants where they're like, Would you like us to take it off the bone for you? And it's like, no, that's why I'm ordering the whole fish. I don't want it to be cold and like, you know, sanitized for me. Like, I'm in it because I want to pick like every morsel of fish off of each bone. But it's also, you know, cooking it and serving it whole is really easy. So doing it for the first time, I wouldn't grill it and I wouldn't try to do it in your biggest skillet stovetop. I would get a whole fish, and I think something around three three to four pounds is good for three to four people. Get that fish home. It'll be scaled. You know, you're not going to have to do any of that stuff. It'll be scaled. It'll be gutted. It will have eyeballs and season it really generously outside and inside. Really important because like fish skin is almost a waterproof layer. You want the skin to taste good, but if you only season the skin, it's not going to get through to the flesh. So season it inside sliced some lemon whatever herbs you have in your herb drawer, like, put them in there. You don't have to tie it. You don't have to do anything, and just roast it. And you know when fish is done because you can make a little incision at the thickest part of the filet, which is going to be closest to the top fin is where it's like meatiest and thickest up there, and you can make a little incision. And if the meat kind of pulls away, it's cooked through. If it's still hanging on, that means it's not, you know, 100 percent going to pull away from the bone. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah, you should just be able to like literally spoon the flesh off of the skin. 

Carla Lalli Music: Exactly. 

Rick Martinez: A lot of times, too. And if you have this, I would recommend using it as well if you have a rack that you can set inside your sheet tray, I would put your fish on that as well, because that'll help with the air circulation, so you'll get hot air circulating around the fish to cook it evenly. 

Carla Lalli Music: Smart. 

Rick Martinez: And also like if the fish sits directly on the metal baking tray that part of the fish will cook faster.

Carla Lalli Music: Right, true. So just a rack will help in all of that. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, give it a try. I think this curiosity should be indulged completely. It's time to take the plunge, no pun intended. 

Caller 2: Hi, this is Derek. I am about to move to a new apartment and it will be my first time in my 29 years of life using a gas range instead of an electric cooktop. And I was just wondering if there's anything I need to know besides, don't leave the gas on it will kill you. 

Rick Martinez: Well, he's covered the biggest tip, so that's good. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, let's just give like a round of applause for yay, gas, a gas range. 

Rick Martinez:  Welcome to the 20th century. 

Carla Lalli Music: I mean, life is just about to get so much better. 

Rick Martinez:  When I think of like coil electric stoves, I think about Julia Child and my parents who bought their house in 1974. So, yeah, gas is definitely, I was gonna say a step up. But I mean, honestly, like you could say, induction is better. Like, I think it's all about personal preference. I like looking at the blue flame. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yes, I love fire. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah. I think induction is more efficient, but there's something very almost primal about seeing fire and being able to control visually your flame. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. I mean, people ask me this question a lot when they're deciding what kind of stove to get and people are like, is gas better? Is induction better? Like, people do really love their inductions. They go very fast from zero to boiling, but you can't see it. And I've cooked on induction and it's the same thing. I'm like, do do do, like turning the dial. It doesn't have the same like drama, you know? 

Rick Martinez: 100 percent. So what I would do first, just to get you acclimated to your new cooking sitch, I would just get a pot of water like you were going to make pasta. Put it on the stove, turn it on high and then just time it, to get a sense for how long it's going to take to boil water. Think about, like all the things that you would normally cook on your electric stove. So like if you made eggs every morning, right? So fry an egg the way that you would normally fry it on the same pan, but on gas and then just see the difference. You're probably going to find that your electric stove got a lot hotter, so you might have cooked your egg on medium, medium high, and you might need to put your gas stove on full high to get it to the same level of fried ness that you are used to. I also think that one thing that I had to learn is that most of your pots and pans, even a really thick, heavy cast iron or enamel cast iron, you're going to have a hot spot on the bottom of the pan, where the flame touches the metal, depending on what kind of electric stove you had, you might have had a more even heating. So just so that you can actually see what's happening, just take a skillet put like about half an inch of water in the skillet and turn the flame on high. And then once it starts to boil, you will see a ring of bubbles where the flame is touching the pan. And that is your indication where your hot spots are. So you'll know, like if you're searing a steak or a piece of chicken, that's where you want to put your meat or anything that you want to get seared. But if you've got like something that's, you know, a delicate vegetable, for example, you may want to avoid that area or turn your fire down. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yep. Have fun! 

Rick Martinez: Yeah! 

Caller 3: Hi, Rick and Carla. My name is Austin Marlowe. I have a few questions about marinades. I've always wondered why oil is a required ingredient in marinade, also in marinades, I've always wondered what is the limits or guidelines or how much acid you can put in a marinade and for how long it can be. Because obviously, that makes it taste great but I know if it goes too far, it can make me really grow. So those are my marinade questions. 

Rick Martinez:  I love a good marinade. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, this is really interesting to me. I think just to address the oil thing up front and I say this all the time when I'm cooking, oil is a flavor and oil also carries flavor. Like, there's some ingredients and flavors that actually need oil to be fully released, correct? 

Rick Martinez: And then there's others that don't. So it's not always necessary in a marinade. It just depends on what you're putting into it. So garlic, dried spices all need oil to help carry those flavors into whatever ingredient you're marinating. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, I think if you pull up a recipe for a marinade that has a very large amount of marinade in relation to the other flavorings or seasonings that are going into it like something is off there. But I do think a little bit of oil is a way to kind of get the marinade ingredients to mingle with each other and then also to get on to the whatever it is that you're marinating, whether it's a protein or vegetable or whatever, it's the vehicle. And if you don't have oil, then you have dry rub, which is also great. You know, I love a dry rub. I think I dry rub more than I marinate. But there are other liquids besides oil that are incredibly flavorful. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah, I use a lot of alcohol when I marinade, so either wine or beer or soy sauce, saké, mirin.

Carla Lalli Music: You had a delicious like spicy mezcal or spicy tequila marinade, I remember. 

Rick Martinez: Yeah yeah yeah.

Carla Lalli Music: Was that pork chops?

Rick Martinez: No, it was fajitas. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh yeah. 

Rick Martinez: Fish sauce and mezcal.

Carla Lalli Music: Oh yum.

Rick Martinez: Which is a really, really good combo. And if you're using a good mezcal, you'll get smokiness. You'll get a little sweetness. The alcohol is a tenderizer of protein. The acid and the alcohol are going to help tenderized that meat. 

Carla Lalli Music: Right, like all your citrus juices, you know, similarly, any kind of a marinade that has vinegar. It's not necessarily bad. They do have a tenderizing quality, the acidic ingredients. But you know, sometimes that's really beneficial. Sometimes, yeah, it can get weird and kind of make things spongy and dry, like with a delicate seafood, you would pull that off. 

Rick Martinez: I mean, I think the way that I always look at marinades whenever I'm writing a recipe, I always tell people, regardless of the ingredient. Even if all you have is 10, 15, 20 minutes, that is even a 20 minute soak in a marinade is going to give you a little more flavor than nothing at all. So if you have 30 minutes, great, if you have an hour, better, if you have two, even better, and depending on the type of ingredient that you're marinating, you can go up to 8, 12, 24, sometimes 48 hours. And the way that I think about it, any seafood product, any vegetable is probably going to be best between 30 minutes and an hour. And if you've got a lot of acid or a lot of citrus in the marinade, then for the seafood, you definitely want to stop at 30. Never go above 30. Or else you're just going to make ceviche. For cuts of meat that are chopped small. So if you, let's say, for example, you had chicken breasts cut into small pieces or a thigh cut into small pieces, boneless, skinless, those things are going to take 30 to maybe up to eight hours, depending on how concentrated your marinade is. And then I think on, you know, larger and tougher cuts of meat like pork and beef, those can definitely take the 24 to almost 48 hours, like I've taken Chuck Roast or pork shoulder and I've I've marinated those for a lot longer, so up to 24 to 48 hours and those are totally fine. The only thing that you want to be really careful of is anytime you use pineapple, pineapple has the effect of turning pork into mush within like an hour. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, there's a crazy enzyme in pineapple juice that just will break down protein really fast, 

Rick Martinez: Like literally to pudding. 

Carla Lalli Music: It's such a weird thing that happened. So I think in general, marinades should be delicious. Like you should taste your marinade and it should taste really good. It should be concentrated like if it feels diluted, It's a waste of time and money. And then would you say the more concentrated the marinade, the less time you need a marinade or is that more about the size of the protein that you're going to marinate it in? 

Rick Martinez: I think it's the size of the protein because again, you know, like you can have a very concentrated marinade after 30 minutes, the only flavor that you're going to get is within the first couple of millimeters of the protein surface. 

Carla Lalli Music: Right, right, right. 

Rick Martinez: It's not going to be it's not going to get into the center. And that to me, is what you want, you want to get the flavor throughout the piece of meat or vegetable that you're marinating. 

Carla Lalli Music: Totally. 

Rick Martinez: Hi, Tyler! 

Carla Lalli Music: Hi, Tyler. 

Tyler: Hi, Rick. Hi, Carla. 

Rick Martinez: Thank you so much for joining us. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah, thank you for being on borderline salty. 

Tyler: Of course. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. 

Rick Martinez: So we hear you have a fear. Can you please tell us about it? 

Tyler: Yeah. So I just really do not like mushroom texture. The texture feels like the sound of squeaking, if that makes sense?

Carla Lalli Music: That resonated on this end as well. We knew exactly what you were talking about. 

Rick Martinez: Nobody likes to eat squeaky things. 

Carla Lalli Music: Oh no, I love the taste. I love it. A taste of mushroom. But I can't do the texture. 

Rick Martinez: OK? What kind of mushroom? How thick are you cut in? Like, tell us about like the process? 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. And how are you cooking them too? 

Tyler: I've cooked with them once it didn't go well because I just didn't cook them long enough. I guess I don't even know what kind it is. I know there's a million kinds of mushrooms and I know they're amazing for the planet and I want more with them. I want to have this good relationship with them, but I can't get on board. 

Carla Lalli Music: Got it! 

Tyler: Here's what I've learned too, if I dice them very small like, that's fine, I think, but I don't really chew the food. I just kind of like, swallow that food. So where's the fun in that?

Carla Lalli Music: Right. 

Rick Martinez: One of the first things that I have learned that I love and this is like my standard go to getting a sear on a mushroom method. It's this idea that, you know, you start with a super hot skillet, right? So you want something that has a wide surface area, low walls, high heat, lots of oil. I typically use olive oil because butter will burn. You don't want to crowd the pan. So depending on how big your pan is, you may only want to start with like four, eight ounces, six ounces of mushrooms. Typically, I like to slice them so no more than a quarter inch thick. Put them down in a nice even layer, so everybody's touching flat on the surface of the pan. And then just step back. You want to let them just sit there on the pan. Some of the water will start to evaporate if your pan is very hot. You're going to seal that side of the mushroom. You're going to start to get some caramelization and some browning that is going to concentrate all of those flavors. If you cut it thin enough, you're not going to get that offensive squeaky texture. But I would say, like, this is where you really need to look for the visual cue. Like if the recipe says two minutes or five minutes or whatever, it doesn't matter because it's your kitchen, it's your pan. So take one mushroom. Flip it over. If it looks beautiful and deep golden brown, it's ready to flip. If it looks, you know, white and yicky, then leave it there, keep going and then just flip them all over and do the same thing on the other side. And you will have removed a lot of that moisture and you'll get this concentrated umami, mushrooming deliciousness. 

Tyler: Yeah, that sounds really good. 

Carla Lalli Music: So I think the key with what everything Rick described is the mushroom itself has a good amount of water content, and if you don't cook that water off, you're going to feel that bouncy, squeaky rubbery texture. So that's just that all of the cells are still filled with the mushroom liquid. So if you ever put your mushrooms in a pan and see like lots of steam and juices, they're going to get mushy and soft and squeaky. So you need space between them, lots of heat, a good amount of fat. 

Rick Martinez:  And also, I think what is key to remember and some recipes say this and some don't. If you're trying to sear that side, I think it's important to hold off on the salt, because what you'll do by putting the salt in the skillet when the mushrooms first go in, you'll pull out all of that moisture. And it's not the end of the world, but it's just going to mean you're going to have to sit there for a lot longer to wait for all of that juice to evaporate before you start to get any browning. And then you'll get more of a kind of a dryish type texture on the interior, which you might actually like. I mean, I enjoy that as well. I prefer a little bit meatier texture, but sometimes the meatier texture, it might be a little offensive to you in terms of the sqeakiness. So if you tried the first method and you still get a little bit of that eh, I'm not crazy about interior, if you salt them when you start cooking, you'll get a much thinner mushroom kind of like not completely crispy bacon texture, but it'll be like a little bit moist on the inside, but not squeaky. Speaking of bacon, I actually have a recipe which I will put in the show notes, for a vegan bacony mushroom. This is super easy and you can actually use just pre-sliced mushrooms that you would get at the grocery store. And it bakes for, I believe, about 45 minutes. And in that time, all the water is removed and then you start to basically fry the mushrooms in the oven on the roasting pan. The result is very, very small. Like, they shrink a lot, but you get almost like bacon bits, like they're just crispy mushroom chips with a lot of delicious olive oil and concentrated umami flavor. So those are really fun. You can use those as toppers for, you know, like eggs, soups, risotto, salads, whatever. You just eat them as chips like I do. 

Tyler: OK, I'm definitely willing to try. 

Rick Martinez: Yes, we love that. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. One thing we love is like, you've had not-great experiences, but the drive and the desire are still there and we want to celebrate that. 

Tyler: Me too. 

Carla Lalli Music: Don't give up on fungi. 

Tyler: Oh, goodness. 

Rick Martinez: I will say that like if you try all of those things and you just come to the conclusion that, nope, I can't do this, I can't do the squeaky nose, even if it's completely dehydrated. One thing that you can do to get that delicious flavor without the actual mushroom itself is you can use dried or ground mushrooms.

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. 

Rick Martinez: So for example, like a dried shortcake, you can just add that to soups and sauces. And I really like porcini powder, which is like magic dust, and you just won't be able to stop eating it. And so, you know, beware because you will stand at the stove and it's like, Oh my God, why can't I stop eating this? And it's that it's that magic mushroom powder. 

Carla Lalli Music:The fungus future is bright. 

Tyler: Oh, that was beautiful. 

Rick Martinez: Thank you so much, Tyler. This was so incredibly fun. 

Carla Lalli Music: Thank you for calling. 

Tyler: Yeah, of course. Thanks so much. 

Carla Lalli Music: Before we go, it's time for 'no thank you, please.' The part of the show where we discuss the foods we maybe don't love yet and open ourselves up to giving them the try that they deserve. 

Rick Martinez: What's this week's 'no thank you, please' food, Carla?

Carla Lalli Music: This week we're talking about blood sausage. 

Rick Martinez: Oh, so Carla, where do you stand on blood sausage? 

Carla Lalli Music: I have to say blood sausage is one of those ones. It doesn't come up that often, but it's it's a hard one for me. It is not my favorite. You say black pudding to me and I'm like, Don't sugarcoat this, this is a blood sausage. And I think for a long time, I thought they called it blood sausage because it looked like blood or it. And then it was like, why do they call blood sausage? And it's like, because it's a sausage made out of blood? I was like, Oh, OK, walk slowly backwards out of the room. But my mom loves blood sausage, and so does my dad. So like, I did grow up with it being made in the house and all the food that my mom made was good. So I would go into these things with a lot of trust and optimism and that irony flavor that, like, you know, it's from the blood, but it's a tough one for me. 

Rick Martinez: Well, see, I have the opposite reaction. I hear blood sausage and I my heart starts to palpitating. I start sweating and I'm like, Oh, you know, I love it so much. I did not grow up with it. But one thing and I think this maybe this is the reason why it just, the idea of it seemed so delicious. When I remember whenever you know, we grilled meat or hamburgers, the coagulated protein that comes out of meat, the little gray, squishy stuff. 

Carla Lalli Music: Sure.

Rick Martinez: I just found that irresistibly delicious, 

Carla Lalli Music: Interesting!

Rick Martinez: Like a savory meat pudding could just, you know, like that texture was just so pleasant. And then it was just this concentrated, meaty mommy thing. So then when I was introduced years later to the idea of a blood sausage, I was like, Oh, it's that stuff that I've been eating, like off of the grill. As a child, I just like, that's what happens when blood cooks. So I just I'd always been intrigued. And then once I started eating them, I just couldn't stop and I wanted more. And I also feel like blood as an ingredient is such an important ingredient across almost every culture on this planet. It stems from this need to use every part of the animal. And so when you're feeding a family or a village and you have a limited number of animals, you are going to use every part of it. You know, the fur, the intestines, all of the  offal, the blood, the hooves, the head, everything. What's interesting to me is that you have an ingredient that is, you know, probably not palatable to most people. Even then, it was this thing that we have to make palatable so that we can use it and eat it. So what probably almost everybody in all of these cultures that have blood sausage did is they added aromatics. They added fillers, they fermented, they smoked, they put it in casings, they made puddings. They did what they could to make it as good as possible. And I feel like, you know, if you put 10 different cultural versions of blood sausage in front of me right now, I would just eat with glee every dish. Because to me, it would just be, you know, this like snapshot of what was grown, what was liked, what was accessible in each of these cultures. And I just I love it. 

Carla Lalli Music: Yeah. So if you put the whole like buffet of, you know, the world's greatest blood sausages, you would dove in with delight knowing you were going to love everyone. If you were to sit me down in front of all of them, I would go one from the next trepidatiously, really hoping that I would find the one that is delicious to me and I want to try. And I also, to your point, these foods that have so much history to them and that really in modern day are like a lost art. We don't eat the whole animal the way that we used to, and there are things that fall out of favor or whatever. So there's a craft to it and like a beauty to it, and it's a very acquired skill. I would probably be looking for condiments to balance that slightly bitter irony flavor of the blood that I also pick up when I eat chicken liver. So acidic things, bright things, spicy things not to like, mask it or dunk it into a giant vat of, but to find the balance. Because I think that that predominantly irony flavor overwhelms a little bit. But I love condiments too. So, you know, those would be kind of a fun, crazy party.

Rick Martinez: OK, so next time I'm in New York, we're going to have a blood sausage party. I love a good sausage party. Sign me up. 

Carla Lalli Music: I want to try. 

Rick Martinez: That's it for this week's episode of Borderline Salty, but don't you worry, my little salties will be back next week. 

Carla Lalli Music: You can find recipes and recommendations from this week's episode in our show notes. 

Rick Martinez: If you have a question or a fear, you want us to help you through. You can always leave us a voicemail at eight three three four three three food. 

Carla Lalli Music: That number again is eight three three four three three three six six three. 

Rick Martinez: Borderline Salty is an original production by Pineapple Street Studios, we’re your hosts. I'm Rick Martinez. 

Carla Lalli Music: I'm Carla Lalli Music. You can find links to our work in the show notes for this episode. 

Rick Martinez: Natalie Brennan is our lead producer. 

Carla Lalli Music: Janelle Anderson is our producer. 

Rick Martinez: Our managing producer is Agerenesh Ashagre.

Carla Lalli Music: Our assistant producer is Mari Orozco. 

Rick Martinez: Our head of sound and engineering is Raj Makhija. 

Carla Lalli Music: Mixing and engineering by Davey Sumner and Jason Richards. 

Rick Martinez: Our assistant engineers are Sharon Bardales and Jade Brooks. 

Carla Lalli Music: Legal services for Pineapple Street are provided by Bianca Grimshaw at Granderson Des Rochers. 

Rick Martinez: Our executive producers are Max Linsky and Jenna Weiss-Berman. 

Carla Lalli Music: We appreciate Sarah, Derek, Austin and Tyler for calling in this week.

Rick Martinez: And thanks to you for listening. We'll talk to you next week. Bye! 

Carla Lalli Music: Ciao for now.

Rick Martinez: Adios. 

Carla Lalli Music: You don't have to go home but you can't stay here. 

Rick Martinez: Mwah.