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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Save Her Protection. iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.

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Speaker 2: And Unlearned Vocal BAM and today we have an episode

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Speaker 2: for you about baklavah Yesh.

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Speaker 1: Was there any particular reason this was on your mind, Lauren?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think so. I think I was looking

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Speaker 2: for a baked good and maybe maybe it had been

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Speaker 2: on our list, or maybe I'd been thinking about it

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Speaker 2: from the last time that I ordered like Greek tavern takeout.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Yeah, well, I have very fond memories

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Speaker 1: of bacabo. I love it. I love it. I love it.

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Speaker 1: I have a friend who that is her go to

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Speaker 1: dessert and she's a friend that I adore, So I

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Speaker 1: have positive associations with her and baclava because of it.

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Speaker 1: But that's kind of the only time I have it.

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Speaker 1: Oh really, she brings it, or you know, if I

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Speaker 1: if I do go to like a Greek restaurant or

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Speaker 1: somewhere that has it, I might get it. But she

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Speaker 1: definitely is the person that brings it, so I think

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Speaker 1: of her when I think of it. Yeah. I love

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Speaker 1: when you have those friends where you're like.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, looking forward to that one. Yeah, yes, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I've made it a couple of times. I certainly haven't

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Speaker 2: rolled out my own filo do that zero percent. But

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Speaker 2: but yeah, it's it's I I find the process really meditative,

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Speaker 2: you know, it just sort of it's it's a little

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Speaker 2: bit fussy and a little bit repetitive, but kind of

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Speaker 2: in a nice way. You know, you're just going at

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Speaker 2: your own pace, You're just doing your thing, and at

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Speaker 2: the end you get back liver.

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Speaker 1: That sounds nice. Yeah, that sounds nice. I think that's

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Speaker 1: a better way to look at it than I often do,

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Speaker 1: which is why this this is not done yet.

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Speaker 2: Oh but see you're you're you're much better at creating,

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Speaker 2: like like show stopping pieces. Like I'm not the guy

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Speaker 2: who's going to decorate something. But if making it happens

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Speaker 2: to require putting down twenty layers of incredibly thin pastry,

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Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, that's fine. This is why we work together, well,

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Speaker 2: different kinds of detail orientation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess this brings us to our question.

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Speaker 1: I guess it does. Baklava what is it?

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Speaker 2: Well, baklava is a type of dessert baked good made

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Speaker 2: of many layers of extremely thin wheat flour dough brushed

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Speaker 2: with butter or ghee and sandwiched with some kind of filling,

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Speaker 2: often fine chopped nuts and then baked to an airy

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Speaker 2: crisp and then usually drenched in sweet syrup. The result

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Speaker 2: is a delicate with this crisp crunch that gives way

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Speaker 2: to a light nutty tew that gives way to just

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Speaker 2: just a sort of melting sweetness. It is pretty rich,

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Speaker 2: so it's often served in small pieces. The filling can

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Speaker 2: include warm spices or fruit or dairy like a custard,

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Speaker 2: and the syrup can be made from white sugar or honey,

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Speaker 2: or can be flavored with a lemon or florals like

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Speaker 2: roset water. The pastry can be served warm or room temperature.

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Speaker 2: It can be absolutely doused in syrup or have a

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Speaker 2: little bit of a lighter hand in there. It's a

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Speaker 2: really ephemeral thing. It's like, it's like if you could

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Speaker 2: eat a book of poetry, just sweet and satisfying, but

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Speaker 2: also fleeting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh block oh, block them.

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Speaker 2: All right, So let's break down those ingredients. The sheets

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Speaker 2: of dough are a type called philo or yufka, made

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Speaker 2: often with just flour and water, sometimes egg or dairy

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Speaker 2: in there. And from what I understand again, no personal

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Speaker 2: experience here.

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Speaker 1: It takes a.

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Speaker 2: Lot of patience and practice and a light hand to

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Speaker 2: roll them out properly. They should be paper thin like tissue,

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Speaker 2: paper thin like translucent like you should be able to

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Speaker 2: read print through a sheet a philo dough. If you

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Speaker 2: have never seen artisans making it in bakeries, I highly

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Speaker 2: recommend looking that up. It's a beautiful process.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: To construct a baclava, you layer sheets of this dough

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Speaker 2: in a baking dish, brushing each one with melted butter

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Speaker 2: or maybe clarified butter or browned butter or melted ghee,

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Speaker 2: the latter two of which we'll add kind of toasty

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Speaker 2: flavors from the fact that you've cooked that butter down

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Speaker 2: a bit and caramelized from the sugars in it. And then,

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Speaker 2: depending on the type that you're making, once every few

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Speaker 2: sheets or sometimes in a thick layer in the middle,

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Speaker 2: you're going to spread in whatever filling you're using. That

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Speaker 2: filling fin fine chopped nuts like pistachios, walnuts, almonds, or pecans,

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Speaker 2: maybe some combination, just a little bit of sugar mixed

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Speaker 2: in there, sometimes with spices like cinnamon, cloves or cardamom

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Speaker 2: or with vanilla. Alternatively some kind of dairy like a

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Speaker 2: custard or clotted cream, or like a fresh unsalted farmer's

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Speaker 2: cheese type cheese. Sometimes both nuts and a dairy. I

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Speaker 2: can't tell you what to do, and then you slice it, yes,

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Speaker 2: pre baking into whatever shapes you like. Small triangles or

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Speaker 2: diamonds are easy, common shapes to make in a rectangular pan.

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Speaker 2: Do what you want, and then you bake it low

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Speaker 2: and slow. That buttery thin dough. It's going to puff

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Speaker 2: up around the filling and be crimped down where you

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Speaker 2: made the cuts and will go golden brown. Or sometimes

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Speaker 2: you're using such a thin layer on top that just

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Speaker 2: like the green of the pistachio or whatever filling, it's

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Speaker 2: going to show through.

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Speaker 1: Its super cool.

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Speaker 2: I did see in a couple of places that in

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Speaker 2: Turkish tradition there's a saying concept that the layers should

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Speaker 2: be so light and thin that you should be able

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Speaker 2: to drop a coin straight through to the bottom. But

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure at what point you're supposed to do

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Speaker 2: the coin drop anyway, this is the thing that I've heard.

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Speaker 2: At any rate, you bake it and then while it's

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Speaker 2: still warm, you give it that sugar soak. You might

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Speaker 2: melt down white sugar with water to make a sort

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Speaker 2: of thin syrup, or thin out honey or even molasses.

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Speaker 2: You might season it with lemon juice, rose water, orange

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Speaker 2: blossom water, and yeah, then you just pour it all

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Speaker 2: over the pan, usually enough to saturate the bottom a

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Speaker 2: few layers of pastry. It can be served straight away

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Speaker 2: or allowed to cool to room temperature or reheat later

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Speaker 2: if you like. It's often eaten as a dessert or snack,

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Speaker 2: sometimes with a strong coffee or tea. And you can

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Speaker 2: find it in bakeries, especially ones from the East Mediterranean

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Speaker 2: to like Central Asia regions, or you can make it

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Speaker 2: at home. And yes you can, as I have by

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Speaker 2: pre made frozen filo dough in many grocery stores to

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Speaker 2: use if you do not want to learned the artisan

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Speaker 2: construction of this dough. But yeah, there are all kinds

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Speaker 2: of local variations based on either what has historically been

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Speaker 2: available and preferred, perhaps a filling of walnuts and cinnamon

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Speaker 2: with honey and lemon syrup in parts of grease, or

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Speaker 2: walnuts with cinnamon and cloves and parts of armenia, or

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Speaker 2: almonds with cinnamon rosewater and geranium syrup and cyprus, or

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Speaker 2: orange blossom syrup in Algeria, or rose water and cardamom

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Speaker 2: in Iran. Some varieties will indeed appear green instead of

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Speaker 2: golden brown do cubistachio content. And of course this is

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Speaker 2: not even scratching the surface, like people get up to

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Speaker 2: all kinds of things.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: You can use hazelnuts or peanuts or pine nuts, a

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Speaker 2: paste of ground nuts instead of choppnuts. You could add

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Speaker 2: chopped chocolate or cocoa powder or coffee grounds. You can

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Speaker 2: use fillings like sour cherry or poppy seed. You can

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Speaker 2: cut the pastry into any dang shape you like, or

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Speaker 2: roll or fold the layers of dough into different shapes

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Speaker 2: before cutting and baking, or make nests of shredded filo.

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Speaker 2: You can flavor the syrup with citrus zest or pomegranate juice,

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Speaker 2: or thin it out with milk. There are versions that

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Speaker 2: don't really use syrup at all.

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Speaker 1: Whole world out there, Oh, a world, A world of baklava,

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Speaker 1: A world of boklava. Well, speaking of what about the nutrition.

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Speaker 2: This is a calorie dense food. Sugar is a treat.

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Speaker 2: Treats are nice. They are nice, so nice nuts are

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Speaker 2: good for you.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, yes, well we do have some

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Speaker 1: numbers for you. We do.

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Speaker 2: Okay, world record. I think this is the first time

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Speaker 2: in a minute, we've had a world record.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 2: The Guinness World Record for the largest baklava goes to

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Speaker 2: a pastry weighing one thousand, one hundred and thirty pounds

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Speaker 2: that's five hundred and thirteen kilos that was created in Ankara, Turkey,

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Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen. It contained round about eleven thousand, eight

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Speaker 2: hundred pieces of baklava, and fourteen pastry chefs from around

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Speaker 2: the country got together to make it.

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Speaker 1: Wow hm.

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Speaker 2: One popular chain of bakeries out of Turkey called I

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Speaker 2: really hope I'm not butchering this.

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Speaker 1: Gololu Baklova has.

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Speaker 2: Forty eight locations around the world. In Istanbul alone, the

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Speaker 2: chain produces some six thousand, six hundred pounds of baklava

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Speaker 2: every day. That's like three thousand kilos.

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Speaker 1: That's one chain. Wow oh.

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Speaker 2: Another city in Turkey is particularly famous for baklava, Ghazi

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Speaker 2: and Tep also called on tap As of a decade ago,

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Speaker 2: it had some one hundred baklava bakeries supplying some ninety

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Speaker 2: percent of the baklava in Turkey, and earlier Frommer's travel

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Speaker 2: guide from two thousand and one said that the city

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Speaker 2: had some five hundred baclava bakeries at the time.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that's a lot of boklava. It is, Yes, it is.

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Speaker 1: And there has been quite a lot of history around

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Speaker 1: this pastry.

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Speaker 2: Oh, yes, yes, and we are going to get into

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Speaker 2: that history as soon as we get back from a

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Speaker 2: quick break ForWord for our sponsors.

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Speaker 1: And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay.

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Speaker 1: So we've done a lot of episodes about things that

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Speaker 1: are related to baklava, somewhat tangentially, perhaps baked goods of

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Speaker 1: various kinds, yes, indeed. But the practice of sweetening wheat

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Speaker 1: of some type and mixing it with things like fruits

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Speaker 1: and nuts is a very long one though, the history

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Speaker 1: of baklava itself is much contested and fought over, particularly

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Speaker 1: between Turkey and Greece. Although they are by no means

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Speaker 1: the only places fighting over baklava, Armenia is also a

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Speaker 1: big proponent. They're a big contester. Most historians believe that

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Speaker 1: the early history of baklava goes back to eighth century BCE,

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Speaker 1: to the Assyrian Empire which is now parts of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait,

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Speaker 1: Syrian Turkey, when folks would layer unleavened flatbread with chopped

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Speaker 1: nuts and serve it as special occasions. The ancient Romans

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Speaker 1: and Greeks made placenta cake placenta here meaning I didn't

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Speaker 1: go into the etymology of it, but cheese meaning cheese,

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Speaker 1: Oh sure yes, placenta cake centuries later, which consisted of

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Speaker 1: cheese and honey, maybe using bail flavor layered between dough,

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Speaker 1: baked and drizzled with more honey. When it comes to

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Speaker 1: our more modern understanding of bakhlova, though, that most likely

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Speaker 1: goes back to the time of the Ottoman Empire about

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Speaker 1: five hundred years ago. Since the eleventh century CE, layered

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Speaker 1: folded dough based pastries, both sweet and savory, have been

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Speaker 1: a part of Central Asian Turkish cuisine. Also, this timeline

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Speaker 1: is kind of bessy, so please bear with me. Baklava

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Speaker 1: evolved from that, perhaps alongside the air practice of soaking

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Speaker 1: dough in honey or in a sugar syrup. The earliest

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Speaker 1: known reference to baklava is in a Turkish poem written

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Speaker 1: during the first half the fifteenth century, which implies that

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Speaker 1: it was fairly well known in the region by that time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the poem, by the way, was about banquets, and

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Speaker 2: it references a feeling of what could be interpreted as

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Speaker 2: either almonds or lentils. Known is entirely sure, but so

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Speaker 2: a banquet food is what this poem was setting this

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Speaker 2: item out to.

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Speaker 1: Be yes, yes, And then kind of separately, some historians

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Speaker 1: claim that by the tenth century CE, what was essentially

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Speaker 1: baklava was a delicacy in Greece and that through trade

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Speaker 1: routes it made its way to places like our Meenium.

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Speaker 1: So some think that Greece made an early version that

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Speaker 1: spread along trade routes that was then perfected in Turkey

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Speaker 1: and then traveled back to Greece where it was adapting. Again,

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Speaker 1: these are a lot of this is like arguments over

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Speaker 1: definitions and also just the mysteries of history, you know, yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: and we will talk about that more later because this

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Speaker 1: is still going on today. But okay, because the pastry

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Speaker 1: was tricky to make and the frequently used ingredients, which

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Speaker 1: were honey, sugar, and nuts were expensive. It was typically

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Speaker 1: reserved for special occasions, including things like weddings and Ramadan.

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Speaker 1: A fourteen seventy four palace kitchen register showed that baklava

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Speaker 1: with forty one layers were being made daily for Ramadan.

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Speaker 1: Many Automan recipes later called for sixty layers for their baklava.

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Speaker 1: It was often cooked over low heat coal embers, and

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Speaker 1: when the palace staff couldn't keep up with demand for

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Speaker 1: this complicated pastry, they outsourced this work to women in

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Speaker 1: the region. And it was a lot like it was

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Speaker 1: a lot of bakleva, yeah, that was being made.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I really cannot overemphasize how much work getting

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Speaker 2: that dough that bin without murdering it is.

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Speaker 1: It's difficult. Yes, Yes, I found a whole article that

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Speaker 1: was just like the the process of it, and I

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Speaker 1: got overwhelmed just reading. Oh wow. Okay, So as early

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Speaker 1: as fifteen twenty se the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

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Speaker 1: would give his elite soldiers large amounts of baklava during Ramadan,

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Speaker 1: and this was known as the Bakhlova procession. And this

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Speaker 1: practice remained in place until eighteen twenty six, and it

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Speaker 1: was a lot of baklava. Again, I stress it was

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Speaker 1: a lot of it. Meanwhile, some Ottoman Christians made bakhlava

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Speaker 1: for Lent, even going as far as to have forty

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Speaker 1: layers of philo do to represent the forty days of Lent.

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Speaker 1: Others went for thirty three layers to symbolize the thirty

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Speaker 1: three years of christ life. Some Jewish people living in

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Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire served baklava during Rashashana and Perim. Of note, though,

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Speaker 1: baklava was often a part of charitable practices as early

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Speaker 1: as the late fifteenth century, so it was something that

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Speaker 1: marked special occasions a lot of the time. But that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the only time people made and ate it. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: During the Ottoman Empire there was a particularly developed practice

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Speaker 2: of public kitchens that anyone could could come eat at

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Speaker 2: free of charge, often part of a larger complex along

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Speaker 2: with the mosque or inn, or school or kind of

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Speaker 2: all of the above, and baklava was big in these kitchens,

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Speaker 2: and around the same time, middle class folks were making

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Speaker 2: it too. There are records of copper baking trays being

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Speaker 2: passed down through families and special events. Though did have

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Speaker 2: reportedly like wildly impressive iterations. This One Turkish travel writer

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Speaker 2: wrote the wedding feasts in Belgrade featured baklavas the size

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Speaker 2: of wagon wheels with a thousand layers of dough, which

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Speaker 2: is probably an exaggeration, but by how much.

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Speaker 1: Nobody knows mysteries history. At the height of the Ottoman Empire,

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Speaker 1: baklavas bread along trade routes, especially to the Mediterranean and

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Speaker 1: the Middle East, where baklava was adapted to local ingredients

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Speaker 1: and taste. So in some places pistachios were more common

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Speaker 1: like turkey, and walnuts were more available in others like grease,

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Speaker 1: the syrup flavoring zery two from rose water and cardamom

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Speaker 1: to orange blossom water. So we get these different varieties

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Speaker 1: that some people are very strongly opinionated about. Oh yeah, yes,

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Speaker 1: uh huh. In the nineteenth century, records indicate that the

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Speaker 1: process of rolling out the philo dough had been simplified,

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Speaker 1: allowing to roll out ten or more pieces of dough.

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Speaker 2: At once, streamlined yeah, by dusting layers, eat each layer

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Speaker 2: of dough with corn starch or wheat starch to prevent sticking.

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Speaker 2: Bakers could roll out a bunch of layers at once

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Speaker 2: instead of having to work on a single sheet at

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Speaker 2: a time. And these starches are industrially made products that

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Speaker 2: hit the scene in the mid eighteen hundreds, so yeah, right.

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Speaker 2: During World War Two, flower shortages in Turkey led to

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Speaker 2: a temporary ban on making baklava.

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Speaker 1: And then jumping ahead, when President Obama enjoyed some baklava

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Speaker 1: at a celebratory dinner for Greek Independence Day in twenty twelve,

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Speaker 1: which is independence from the Ottoman Empire. By the way,

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Speaker 1: there were rumors in the Turkish press that this signaled

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Speaker 1: he'd picked aside in the debate between Turkey and Greece

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Speaker 1: over baklava's origins. The following year, the European Union granted

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Speaker 1: Southern Turkey's gazeean Tepe variety with protected status.

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Speaker 2: Turkey had been working on getting EU Protected Geographical Indication

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Speaker 2: status for the product since two thousand and seven. The

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Speaker 2: specific variety from Antep has this filling of local pistatio

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Speaker 2: and a type of a custard or cream that's thickened

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Speaker 2: with semolina flour and it's doused in sugar syrup, not honey.

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Speaker 2: And this means that iterations made in other places or

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Speaker 2: in other ways cannot use the name and tet baklava.

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Speaker 2: In the EU, the official seal has this background that

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Speaker 2: looks a little bit like a circular pan of rectangle

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Speaker 2: sliced baklava. Super cute mm hm.

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Speaker 1: And I have to say, like, there were plenty of

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Speaker 1: heated arguments, plenty of them. I won't say they're not

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Speaker 1: legitimate at all, oh yeah, But but I will also

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Speaker 1: say a lot of the things I read were very optimistic,

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Speaker 1: and this is from places like Grease or Turkey or

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Speaker 1: even Armenia, where they were like, you know, seems like

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Speaker 1: this is something that connects us, This is something we

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Speaker 1: all like as opposed to something that divides as it

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Speaker 1: shows that we have similar but also specific taste, like

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Speaker 1: this version is our version, that's your version, but they

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Speaker 1: also have similarities that different varieties emerged in different specific places.

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Speaker 1: So I'm not saying that there isn't heated debates and

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, debate about it, but it was a lot

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Speaker 1: from what I read of people being like it makes

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Speaker 1: sense that we all came up with this and it

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Speaker 1: kind of along their own paths, Yeah, became their own

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Speaker 1: specific things.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that you know, we all due to this shared

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Speaker 2: cultural history in a lot of ways had access to

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Speaker 2: these same products or similar products and similar methods and

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Speaker 2: through that cultural trade. Yeah yeah yeah. One last note

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Speaker 2: in the timeline. In twenty twenty three, after the devastating

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Speaker 2: earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, one of the restaurants

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Speaker 2: and bakeries and antap that that happened to still be

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Speaker 2: standing made itself into a modern charity kitchen and shelter.

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Speaker 2: They did resume making baklava after just nine days because

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Speaker 2: people were asking for it, sort of as a comforting

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Speaker 2: symbol of the hope of returning to normalcy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, again us the power of that food,

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Speaker 1: you know.

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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Yeah yeah, I am. I. As as

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Speaker 2: we were going through our little opening spiel, I was

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Speaker 2: like feeling weird about the fact that both of our

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Speaker 2: references were to Greek restaurants.

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Speaker 1: I think that in the Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: Area specifically, especially like like in the past, up until

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Speaker 2: the very recent past, we've mostly had We've had like

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Speaker 2: a bunch of Greek restaurants, very few Turkish or otherwise

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Speaker 2: Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asian restaurants. I think we've got a

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Speaker 2: few now. I think we're like we're like growing. I

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Speaker 2: haven't been to them yet because there's been a whole pandemic, but.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know a couple. I know a couple

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Speaker 1: because my friend actually comes more from not the Greek

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Speaker 1: part who I associate Black Of with. Oh yeah, but

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Speaker 1: it is true. Most of the time I have associated

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Speaker 1: it with Greece here. But it's it's great. I love

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Speaker 1: that based on what I read, at least, there does

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Speaker 1: seem to be a lot of like, oh, that's what

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Speaker 1: you're doing. Well, we're doing this, we're doing better, but

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Speaker 1: that's okay. Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly, which I appreciate. I appreciate.

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Speaker 1: But I think that's what we have to say about

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Speaker 1: Black Of for now.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we would love to hear anything that y'all have

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Speaker 2: to say about it, though, and we do already have

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Speaker 2: some listener mail ready for you. But first we've got

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Speaker 2: one more quick break for a word from our sponsors.

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Speaker 1: And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And

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Speaker 1: we're back with listeners man later. Yeah wow. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: we have a really fun listener mail today. It's a

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Speaker 1: bit longer, so we're just gonna split this one up

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Speaker 1: from a frequent writer, but we haven't heard from them

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Speaker 1: in a while, Big Yogi, and this is a great story,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, let's get into it. Big Yogi wrote, just

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Speaker 1: listened to your sea urchin episode, and it brought back

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Speaker 1: some good memories from the days when I used to

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Speaker 1: do a lot of scuba diving and underwater hunting. I

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Speaker 1: used to collect urchin a lot when it was in season,

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Speaker 1: and I often used urchin to getch other fish. Fish

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Speaker 1: go bonkers for sea urchin underwater. I would open up

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Speaker 1: a couple of urchin, wave the halves of one of

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Speaker 1: the urchin to create a bit of a cloud with

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Speaker 1: insides of the urchin, and the next thing you know,

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Speaker 1: you are surrounded by what seems like every fish within

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Speaker 1: fifty yards trying to get at the urchin. It's insane

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Speaker 1: how crazy the fish go when you hold up the

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Speaker 1: other urchin. At that point we could select what fish

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Speaker 1: we wanted and get it with a sling spear. In

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Speaker 1: one area I used to dive and hunt at a

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Speaker 1: local female sea lion we called Big Bama made a

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Speaker 1: practice of collecting taxes from the divers while they were hunting.

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Speaker 1: If she saw a diver in the area that had

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Speaker 1: a game bag, she would harass that diver until the

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Speaker 1: divers surrendered. Part of the days catched her. If a

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Speaker 1: diver refused to give Big Mama her tax, she would

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Speaker 1: take the diver's entire game bag, often dragging the helpless

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Speaker 1: diver along with the bag until the bag came loose.

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Speaker 1: Big Mama's favorite foods were a lobster and sea urchin.

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Speaker 1: She would sometimes hit divers with her nose and then

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Speaker 1: swim a few feet away before turning and looking at

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Speaker 1: the diver until the diver got the message she wanted

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Speaker 1: the diver to follow her. Big Mama would then guide

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Speaker 1: the diver to a hole where lobsters were hiding, or

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Speaker 1: to where a bunch of urchins were wow. Big Mama

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Speaker 1: would then wait until the diver pulled lobster out of

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Speaker 1: the hole, or until the diver opened up some urchins

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Speaker 1: for her. Big Mama would expect every diver she saw

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Speaker 1: to feed her a bit as her tax, and would

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Speaker 1: make her rounds to each diver until each diver gave

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Speaker 1: something up to her. Big Mama would also often have

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Speaker 1: a pup or two with her and appeared to be

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Speaker 1: teaching the pups the same tax collecting method. Woe be

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Speaker 1: the diver that did not pay the tax, because then

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00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 1: Big Mama acted like she was the bookie that you

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Speaker 1: were late. Hang off. Divers who absolutely refused to give

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00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: Big Mama her cut often ended up getting quite the

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Speaker 1: underwater beat down. Many a stubborn diver ended up back

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Speaker 1: at the beach covered and cuts and deep bruises, and

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Speaker 1: some ended up with broken ribs or broken a bandages.

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Speaker 1: Then after the beating, Big Mama would make off with

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Speaker 1: the diver's entire catch anyway, So you were better off

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Speaker 1: if you just gave up what she was asking for.

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Speaker 1: Pay your taxes. Folks, Oh dear.

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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. If y'all are not familiar with sea lions,

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Speaker 2: I need to impress upon you that like a lady

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Speaker 2: sea lion at like relative minimum is going to weigh

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Speaker 2: about like two hundred pounds. That's like a hundred kilos.

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Speaker 1: Like they are.

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Speaker 2: Bigger than you think. And if they want your lobster tax,

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Speaker 2: then you should just give it to them. If they

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Speaker 2: have made it clear, then do that be like yes, ma'am,

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Speaker 2: and give it.

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Speaker 1: To the Big Mama has some good tastes, is what

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Speaker 1: we can say for suredness. Right, Lobsters.

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Speaker 2: Love this okay, all right, all right, all right, they continue.

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Speaker 2: My last urchin comes with a recipe. It is how

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00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 2: we got Billy's stuck butt bisk. One time I went

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Speaker 2: on a chartered dive trip with a bunch of friends

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Speaker 2: to Catalina Island. One of our group was a friend

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00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 2: of a friend situation and was one of the most

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00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 2: obnoxious humans I have ever personally dealt with, and his

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00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 2: name was Billy. Billy was extremely egotistical and had to

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00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 2: brag about how much better he was at everything than

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00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: anyone else. People fantasized about stranding Billy on one of

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00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 2: the uninhabited Channel islands. Within an hour of first meeting him.

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00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:19,680
Speaker 2: One of my friends, who was one of the most

439
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 2: peaceful granola hippie girls you would ever meet, stated out

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00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 2: loud that she wanted to cut Billy's airlines while at depth,

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00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 2: after Billy made a very crass pickup attempt on her.

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00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:32,240
Speaker 1: Well.

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00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:36,159
Speaker 2: On the very first dive, Billy descended but first on

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00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 2: a bed of urchin. He had at least ten urchins

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00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 2: embedded in his booty in the back of his thighs,

446
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 2: causing Billy to ascend to the surface far too rapidly.

447
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 2: Causing decompression sickness, and he had to be airlifted to

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00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 2: the mainland for treatment. Karma can be crazy. Before the

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00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 2: helicopter came to get Billy, we had used pliers to

450
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 2: extract the urchin, and later that night in the galley,

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00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 2: I turned those very same urchins into a bisk, which

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00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 2: the other divers named Billy's stuck Butt bisc in celebration

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00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 2: of Billy's departure from the group. The recipe follows. It

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00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 2: sounds like a really like a really nice bisk. I'd

455
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: say that the the really fun parts, yeah, are the

456
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 2: addition of some sea urchins, some whole sea urchins, and

457
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 2: the serving of the soup in those sea urchins shells.

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00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I have to say this is an amazing

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00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: twist of a story in so many ways. Because I

460
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:53,880
Speaker 1: believe the email the subject line was Billy's stuck Butt

461
00:29:53,960 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 1: biss and I just assumed.

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00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 2: That it had to do with like pork, but sure,

463
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 2: I like, that's where your that's where your food brain goes.

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00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And then I was reading this, I was like, WHOA,

465
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 1: this did not go like I thought it was gonna go.

466
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 1: I got some jerkers, got a lot of urchins in

467
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: his butt, and then you made a delicious recipe out

468
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, I mean yeah, might as well.

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00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 2: Might as well, might as well. Yeah, you know, turn

470
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 2: turn those find find the rainbows in those rain clouds.

471
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: Uh, find the bitskin those butts urchins? Yeah. Yeah, Wow,

472
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 1: Well I hope that Billy. I don't want to say

473
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: learned a lesson, but maybe learned a lesson. I don't know,

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00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: because that's quite a that's a lot of come up in,

475
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:06,479
Speaker 1: that's a lot of coming That's an experience to be

476
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 1: helicoptered out.

477
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, as as I learned from Michael Crichton's novel Sphere, decompression,

478
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 2: stickness is nothing to connect with.

479
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: No, we don't mess with that at all.

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00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 2: Goodness goodness, but also just in general, like, be nice

481
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 2: if you're if you're scuba diving, be nice to your compatriots. Man, Like,

482
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 2: that's not an environment in which you want to make

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00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 2: anyone mad.

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00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't want to have people annoyed at you

485
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: in your life. Is somewhat in your hand. Yeah, no,

486
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: maybe we don't go down but first but yeah, yeah,

487
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, well I don't really know, So

488
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,320
Speaker 1: what can I say, sure, it didn't work out for you,

489
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 1: but it did result in a delicious sounding recipe. So

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00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: thank you so much for writing in for sharing this recipe.

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00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: If anybody wants it, just let us know. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

492
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: you can forward it along, but yes, if you would

493
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: like to contact us, you can. Our email is hello

494
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: at saverpod dot com.

495
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 2: And we're also on social media. You can find us

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00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we

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00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 2: do hope to hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio.

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00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit

499
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

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00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 1: You listen to your favorite shows.

501
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,479
Speaker 2: Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.

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00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 2: Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots

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00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 2: more good things are coming your way