In the summertime, I'm often near water, which makes me want to eat fish.
So I have this strong association between summertime and delicious fish.
But I'm not always near the water.
And I often don't feel like cooking because it's too hot.
That's where Gorton's Seafood comes in.
For over 175 years, Gorton's has been serving up restaurant -quality seafood that's unbelievably easy to make and ready to eat in just a few minutes.
I love their crunchy breaded fish fillets, the coconut shrimp, the double crunch shrimp, and any one of them is ready in a few minutes.
Visit gortons .com to learn more, find a store, and get recipe inspiration.
avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is with thumbtack you don't have to be a home pro you just have to hire one you can hire top -rated pros see price estimates and read reviews all on the app download today thanks for listening to the sporkful be sure to tune in each week for new episodes on amazon music Or just ask Alexa, play the podcast The Sporkful on Amazon Music.
Previously on The Sporkful.
People are walking in and they see us and they're like, ah, you're here for the sandwich. Do you remember that sandwich?
Oh yeah, yeah, I remember every sandwich. This was a pilgrimage spot.
Clearly that place is long gone.
Who knows whether the owners are alive or dead.
People started avoiding coming into hospitals, and that was when we started trying to help them.
We had one doctor that was kidnapped and tortured.
I interpreted it as a warning.
I was informed by a colleague of mine who worked with me, don't come back.
We are discovered. Our names are on each and every roadblock, so stay out.
They said, we are coming back to rebuild this place.
We will never leave Aleppo.
The taste of the guts get flashbacks, you know, that's the problem that we are all facing.
We try to remember the gut stock.
Then when you get something like this, you get everything back, you know?
You recognize that you're not coming back, you're not going back anymore there.
Hello? Hello. Hello, how are you?
Are you feeling better?
Wow, this is emotional.
I thought we were talking about sandwiches and then you surprised me with all this stuff and all these floods of emotion that I wasn't prepared to.
This is The Sporkful.
It's not for foodies, it's for eaters.
I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people.
In 2017, we aired one of our most popular Sporkful episodes ever, about a beloved sandwich shop in Aleppo, Syria.
When the brutal regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al -Assad fell last December, we heard from so many of you asking for an update on this story.
Over the past week, we've re -shared the original two -part series.
Today, we have that update, including our main character Shadi Martini's return to Aleppo after 12 years in exile.
But if you haven't heard parts one and two, please go back and start there.
When we left off, we had tracked down Imad Sergiyah, owner of the sandwich shop Sergiyah.
We learned that the place was still around, and it had such a following that one of Imad's former employees opened an outpost in Istanbul, where many Syrian refugees had relocated.
A Syrian -American named Fadi had helped me find Imad.
We also heard the story of Shadi Martini, who couldn't return to Aleppo because of his aid work.
He was helping people who were targeted by the regime, which made him a wanted man in Syria.
He hadn't seen family and friends in many years and hadn't eaten at his beloved sandwich shop.
Going to the place in Istanbul was the closest he could get.
Our first update picks up the story three years later, 2020, when the country was still under the Assad regime.
I got back in touch with Fahdia because I heard she had some news.
This might be the most important question of all, Fahdia.
Are you still making kanafeh?
Yes. Oh, my God. Every time I see kanafeh anywhere, I think of you.
Oh, yeah, yeah. You know what?
Anytime. You're more than welcome.
Oh, thank you. I have not had kanafeh since I had it at your house because every time I see it somewhere else or I see a recipe and think maybe I would try to make it, I'm always like, but if I do that, it's not going to be as good as Fadia's.
And I'll only be disappointed.
No, no, it will be very good.
I can walk you through all the details.
We weren't there just to talk about kanafeh.
Fadia had recently been to Aleppo, and she was really excited to tell me about all the food she ate there.
You eat the tomato, it's just like so juicy.
You eat their olives, it's just great.
Some sort of sweet that they do it with semolina.
They fill it with pistachio, and they add on the top of it marshmallow.
Fadia, you're reminding me once again that Aleppians love food.
food. That's right.
I mean, man, it's all coming back to me now, working on this episode a few years ago.
Like every time I talked to an Aleppi and they were like, oh, you got to go to this, all the olives, all the lemon juice, like, ah, the brain, like, just like the passion is like, it's infectious.
The food has to be really, if I'm cooking, it has to be good.
To get to Aleppo, Fadia had to fly to Turkey, then to Lebanon.
Then she took a taxi to Aleppo, about an eight -hour ride.
It was her first time back in 15 years.
I mean, to be honest with you, where we live, it didn't change that much. It's clean.
It's nice. People are really back to normal.
But when they took me to the places where it gets destroyed, your heart will get broken.
It's just too much. During the conflict, the areas of Aleppo controlled by the opposition were bombed heavily.
And throughout the country, there were severe shortages of many basic commodities.
On top of that, inflation had spiraled out of control.
While Fadia was in Aleppo, she asked her nephew to go pick up some sandwiches from Sergia.
Both locations of the shop were still open.
Fadia remembered the sandwiches being huge when she used to go there.
But during this last trip, she says they were much smaller, while remaining the same price.
So basically, shrinkflation.
So the sandwiches were smaller than you remember, but do they still have the same taste?
Same taste. It's like yesterday.
Same taste. Never changed.
I had what they call a sijjik.
Sijjik means it's like a sausage.
Right. But they add spices into it.
They made their own mayonnaise, but they add to the mayonnaise a grated lemon. Oh, like a lemon zest. Lemon zest. And how did it feel taking that first bite in 15 years?
It's just, it's just, it's just heaven.
You feel like 15 years younger and you eat it and you don't want to be finished.
Oh, now it's really over.
Let's hope. Of course, there was one more person we had to try to get in touch with.
It was 6 p .m. on Saturday in New York meaning it was 1 a .m. in Aleppo Imad Sergia had just closed up shop for the night He was like so much happy that people heard him from New York so it's good How are you?
He said that he's doing well and thank God everything is okay.
And I want to know what kind of pickles he's making this time of year.
He said that he's doing cucumber pickles.
We have a long green pepper, it's hot, and it tastes very, very good, so they do it for the winter.
Tell Imad that everyone I've spoken to tells me that the sandwiches are as good as they ever were.
That year, 2020, they were celebrating 60 years since the original Sergia first opened its doors.
But Sergia is not just sticking to the classics.
Emad told Fadia there were some new items on the menu now.
A sandwich called Mexicano. Chicken breast stuffed with peppers, corn, and spices, topped with ketchup, and broiled.
They have Turkish shawarma now, too.
And Sergia remained a popular late -night hangout spot.
The young people, young generation, always goes and buy sandwiches from them.
And now he opened two branches.
One is in Furkan. He just opened it.
And one is a place in Mogamboch. They are very crowded.
It. This was big news.
Imad was expanding Sergia in the midst of civil war, brutal dictatorship and coronavirus.
They weren't just surviving.
They were growing. Well, Imad, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
Thank you. Thank you.
And good luck. Good luck with all the new restaurants.
Fadia and Imad said their goodbyes and hung up it's not easy I've been there and everything is so expensive I mean I don't know how he's coping with you know a lot of stuff so many people they are like they could have been outside probably he has money to go outside but he decided to stay people are attached so much to their land and to their property and they don't want to leave but you know he's hoping that one day it's going to to get changed.
It's a very positive sign to me that he's opening two new restaurants.
I mean, you were telling me about the Aleppino. Aleppino people are just all like this.
You flush their head and they stand up and they said, tomorrow is going to be better.
I left that conversation feeling grateful that Sergio was still there, but uncertain about the future.
I mean, it was incredible that this sandwich shop had survived the worst of the civil war, but could it also survive these economic challenges?
Then, last year, seemingly overnight, everything in Syria changed.
We begin with breaking news tonight out of Syria, where rebels may be on the verge of toppling President Bashar al -Assad's regime.
All that, plus shatty martinis, returned to Aleppo, coming up.
Stick around. time to cook up some advertisements maine where life the way it should be transforms all who encounter its spectacular landscapes rugged coastlines pine -scented trails sandy beaches sparkling lakes and tranquil forests inspire you to reflect and make meaningful moments they offer endless opportunities for adventure and exploration.
Whether peddling or paddling, hiking or biking, Maine has more than enough outdoor spaces to make the most of long summer days.
Relish in exquisite flavors harvested from the ocean and the rich soils of orchards and fields.
Maine's makers are rooted to its heritage while boldly branching into new ways of thinking, doing, and being.
Connect with its people in warm and authentic towns, which beckon you to stroll art galleries and locally owned shops where where generations of artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and craftspeople see the world anew.
It's tempting to do it all when you visit, but take a beat and a breath.
Get a feel for the time and tempo of Maine.
Simple Pleasures, Scenic Adventures, where every route is the scenic one.
Discover more at visitmaine .com.
I've told you a lot about the behind the scenes of the making of my cookbook, Anything's Possible, but I think there's one detail I left out.
And that is that I tested every single recipe in that book on my Samsung range.
I have had a Samsung range for more than 10 years, and it is high quality and reliable.
That thing is a workhorse, and I count on it day after day whether I'm developing recipes for a cookbook or just getting dinner on the table for my family.
But recently, I got my first look at a whole new line of Samsung bespoke appliances.
They have the bespoke AI induction range.
Okay, we've talked about induction on this show.
So this thing heated a pot of water.
I've never seen water boil so fast. The oven has a built -in smart oven camera so you can monitor your meal from your phone.
And like I said, I love my Samsung range and oven.
That's probably why Samsung is number one in customer satisfaction.
Visit Samsung .com slash bespoke to learn more.
Features available through SmartThings app available on Android and iOS devices.
A Wi -Fi connection and Samsung account are required.
Number one customer satisfaction based on most customer satisfaction awards.
awards, home appliance surveys, leading consumer research organization 2020 to 2024.
In the summertime, I'm often near water, which makes me want to eat fish.
I have this strong association between summertime and delicious fish, but I'm not always near the water.
And I often don't feel like cooking because it's too hot.
That's where Gorton Seafood comes in.
For over 175 years, Gorton's has been serving up restaurant quality seafood that's unbelievably easy to make and ready to eat in just a few minutes.
I love their crunchy breaded fish filets, the coconut shrimp, the double crunch shrimp, and any one of them is ready in a few minutes.
Visit Gortons .com to learn more, find a store and get recipe inspiration.
You know, I feel like every year when the weather starts to really warm up, you realize you have some kind of gap in your wardrobe, right?
You realize you need to freshen things up and you want to find pieces that fit right, feel good and actually last, right?
Well, that's where Quince comes in.
Quince is the kind of stuff you'll actually wear on repeat, like breathable flow knit polos, crisp cotton shirts, dresses, linen, bathing suits.
All the stuff has a super super cool look.
It's incredibly comfortable.
I got a great new linen button down shirt.
So good for summertime, super comfortable.
I love it. And the best part, everything with quince is half the cost of similar brands by working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen.
Quince gives you luxury pieces without the markups.
Stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from quince.
Go to quince .com slash sporkful for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
That's q u i n c e .com slash sporkful to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince .com slash sporkful.
Welcome back to the sporkful.
I'm Dan Pashman. Back in June, we looked into the iconic Texas treat, kolache.
In parts of Texas, a kolache is about as common It's as common as a donut, but it's relatively unknown outside the Lone Star State.
The kolache is a traditional Czech pastry made with a sweetened yeasty dough that's filled with either fruit, cheese, or sausage.
It got a foothold in Texas after a wave of Czech immigrants came to the state more than a century ago.
Now, some entrepreneurial Texans are bringing kolaches to New York.
I talked to the owners of King's Kolache in Brooklyn, who think kolaches could be the next big thing in the Big Apple.
I think that everyone is born ready for this amazing, because every culture has some version of a kolache, and it's, you know, they're easy to eat, they're crushable, they're delicious, they're good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack.
So are they ready? Yeah.
They might not know they're ready yet.
I've always been ready.
They were born ready.
That's right. So can kolaches be bigger than Texas?
We try to find out.
Check out that episode where you got this one.
One more quick note before we get back to the show.
I want you to stay tuned to the end of this episode for a special segment presented by Samsung, where I test out an all new AI powered Samsung fridge.
This thing blew my mind.
So make sure you stick around for that.
All right, let's get back to the show.
We've covered the 2020 update on our Aleppo sandwich story.
Now we're up to today.
day. For years, Shadi Martini has been living in Michigan and working as the executive director of the Multifaith Alliance.
This organization provides food and medical aid all over the world, and Shadi is often on the ground, traveling to war zones or disaster areas.
In 2024, he'd been traveling back and forth to southern Turkey, right on the Syrian border.
The Multifaith Alliance was providing aid to refugee camps in the area.
But despite being so close to Syria, Shadi couldn't crossed the border.
He was still wanted by the Syrian government.
Then, in November of 2024, when he was on one of those trips to Turkey, he started getting some news.
The situation in Syria might be changing.
We have a lot of medical staff and hospitals.
So, when there is something happening, they always tell, like, be prepared for emergency services.
There might be something brewing.
There was this news for a year, but we got used to it.
Like, throughout the years, A lot of times we'll get these messages, but they turn out to be false.
But anyway, we knew that something was going to happen.
We didn't know where and when or how big.
As it turned out, it was very big.
On November 27th, rebel groups launched a large -scale attack on Assad's forces in the province of Aleppo, gaining control of towns, villages, and an Air Force base.
The government responded with airstrikes.
I was a lot worried about refugee camps who are along the borders.
You have like 4 million people in that area that are South Side Region control.
And we were worried that they're going to be bombed and there are going to be high casualties.
So all our staff was on high alert.
And bombing did happen, but it wasn't as intense as we used to.
They usually hit medical facilities.
They did, but not as intense as before.
four. So we were watching very anxiously.
And on the second day of the offensive, I was actually playing cards with friends of mine, like late night, a very Middle Eastern thing, in a coffee shop.
Shadi got a call from someone on his team.
They called me and said, you know, they're telling us tomorrow we are going into the city of Aleppo.
This was the first time rebel forces had gone into to Aleppo since they'd been pushed out in 2016.
Aleppo was a stronghold for the Assad regime.
It seemed impossible that the rebels could get there so quickly, after how fierce the fighting was a decade ago.
Like there was battles for neighborhoods in Aleppo that took months.
So two days, the city, it was a big shock for us.
But true to behold, next day, I was seeing pictures of opposition fighters inside the city, going inside the city.
The Syrian government launched another counterattack with more aerial bombardments.
And actually we lost two people in one of the ambulances that was hit by air bombardment in front of the biggest hospital, the university hospital in Aleppo, which is very close to my home.
I'm very sorry to hear that you lost those two aid workers.
They were just trying to help because during fighting, a lot of the staff of hospital leaves.
So we were trying to come in and help during this very tough moment.
And they are very seasoned emergency workers that are used to work during military activities.
It was very tough losing two of our folks.
This was a tragedy for Shadi and the Multifaith Alliance.
alliance. But he says if there was a silver lining, it was the casualties were minimized because of how quickly the rebel groups won over Aleppo.
The fighting was over in 11 days.
On December 8th, the rebel group took control of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and Bashar al -Assad fled to Moscow.
Hundreds of tanks were abandoned, thousands of soldiers just put civilian clothes and left. And all of a sudden, the regime that that controlled Syria for 50 years, disappeared.
So you're sitting in Turkey, just on the border of Syria, watching all this unfold.
When you start seeing those videos from your home city, how are you feeling?
I can't tell you how happy I was.
It was unbelievable.
For some time, the last couple of years, years we were getting depressed.
We thought we will never be able to go home.
We will never see our friends, our neighborhoods again.
So that's it. Like, we were destined to live in exile.
We were all wanted by the regime.
We were all marked for arrest and probably execution.
And all of a sudden we could go back to Syria.
So that's exactly what Shadi did.
A few weeks Weeks after the regime change, in late December, Shadi flew to Jordan, got on a bus to the Syrian border, and then took a cab to go inside Syria.
And I went in and I saw the first roadblock that the regime held after the border.
And I was asking the driver, he said, this is one of the worst, like, checkpoints that the regime had.
He said, like, a lot of people were arrested here or some were killed.
killed. So before the regime fell, if you had attempted to enter Syria through this border, you probably wouldn't have made it 10 feet past the checkpoint.
No, no. I would have been arrested immediately.
My crime was supporting terrorism.
And the only thing I did in Aleppo was try to help people who were getting hurt back in 2012.
but now shadi passed through the checkpoint without any issue for the first time in 12 years he was back in syria you know you could see that people are tired worn out it's a mix of shock of tiredness and happiness his first stop was the capital city of damascus being back was surreal but in the midst of trying to wrap his head around what had happened shadi also had to eat the most thing we were anxious to eat is actually a breakfast food that Damascus is very famous for.
It's called fete, pita bread that is fried to be crispy.
They mix it with yogurt and tahini and chickpeas with nuts covering it and with ghee butter.
It's a very nice specialty food for Damascus.
That sounds really good.
Wonderful. Do the pita chips stay crispy or do they get a little bit soft because they absorb the different things?
The way they do it there is they put it at the end on the top so it could stay crispy while you eat it.
But once you start eating, you can mix it and then it becomes more moist. So it's a little bit crispy with a little bit moist. It's a very unique way they do it.
And it's really, really good.
And you have like different type of pickles and greens beside it that you ate with it.
Oh, man, this sounds so good.
It is pretty good. And this place in Damascus, like, they do it like no one else.
And how did that first bite feel?
Oh, man, it was magic.
I went there, like, probably two times after that.
From there, Shadi headed to other parts of Syria to see family and friends.
I was surprised that he didn't make a beeline for Aleppo, his home city.
But he says, in a way, he was stalling.
He knew going back would be very intense, and he was worried about what he'd find there.
After a few days of zigzagging, he arrived in Aleppo.
When we were driving and I started seeing Aleppo, it was a lot of emotions.
Like I could, you know, I cried.
I cried a lot. I never thought that I'll be driving this road again and driving into the city again.
And it was very emotional, to be honest. Very, very, very, very emotional.
But we made it. You know, my dad and mom passed away during that time and I couldn't speak to them for five, six years prior to their passing away because they were always harassed, targeted, just because of their relation to me.
So it was a decision to try to minimize communication with your loved one because you don't want them to get hurt because of you.
It's really tough because you have to choose sometimes very high choices in your life.
Like, the pressure was always on them for me to stop what I'm doing, to stop what I'm talking about.
that. And just, you know, go do something else.
And it was a very hard choice.
You know, that was the biggest sorrows to my heart that I couldn't say goodbye.
Shadi wasn't able to see his parents before they died.
But during this trip to Aleppo, he did get to visit their graves.
Once word got around that he was back in town, Shadi was deluged with invitations.
Everyone wanted to have him over for a meal.
He got to eat dishes he'd been craving for years.
including one particular Aleppian specialty.
It's called the cherry kebab.
It's like a sweet and sour type of food.
They take the juice of the sour cherry and then they boil it.
So you boil the sour cherry juice until it becomes like a syrup.
You add a bit of sugar to cut the tartness.
Then you cook lamb kebabs on the grill.
And once they're smoky and charred, you add the lamb to the cherry syrup.
They boil it together.
Then they prepare a big plate of pita bread that is cut into triangle shapes.
Then they pour this cherry juice, the sour cherry juice with the kebab over the pita bread.
And then over it they put cinnamon and parsley.
Oh my goodness. this.
And you take each of these triangle pita bread that is soaked in cherry sauce, and you take one kebab, and you eat it.
And it's something that I really, like, wanted to eat, one of the first things that I wanted to eat, because it's hard to get the taste outside of Aleppo.
And it was amazing.
Shadi obviously enjoyed all the home -cooked meals, getting to eat all these dishes he grew up with.
But of course, there was one special sandwich that he had to go out to get.
I'm here at Sergia's Sandwich Shop.
This was the first sandwich shop in Aleppo that does unique sandwiches, including like brain sandwich, ton sandwich, sujuk, which is an Armenian type of spicy meat that they put in a sandwich. It's located near the central park of Aleppo now is considered the central in in Syria a lot of people in Aleppo loves coming here especially at night it's works 24 hours so people can come at any time and eat the sandwich now i just got a brain sandwich that I'm trying to see what changed Oh wow, actually nothing has changed.
You can hear the crispiness of the bread and it's grain, and it has seven spices, some pickles and tomatoes, and it's really unique.
It's something that… The bite actually takes you back in time.
The bite reminds me of the first time you you ate there and who you ate it with and what happened.
So it's a lot of memories that are broke back through the food, the taste of the food.
I was curious if they still had any of those new sandwiches that Ahmad Sergia mentioned in 2020, but Shadi wasn't much help on that front.
I don't look at them.
When you go in, you don't look at them.
Like, you go in and you know what you want.
This is what I want, this is what I want, this is what I want.
I don't care about anything else.
Shadi says the brain sandwich was still prepared perfectly, and cooking sheep's brain isn't easy.
Cook it for too long and it turns to mush.
Not long enough and it stays tough.
But for Shadi, the highlight is always the perfectly crisp baguette.
While he was there, Shadi got to speak with Namir Sergia, Imad's son.
Namir is now the owner.
When we spoke to Imad back in 2017, he had to be so, so careful about what he could say, for fear of the Assad regime.
Now, Shadi was able to talk to Namir more openly.
is a place where Syrian people met and got to know in Syria.
They struggled a lot during the war in Syria.
There was a lot of pressures and hardship.
But now after the fall of the Assad regime and the liberation of Syria, they are very hopeful.
I can tell you from my experience, when you come at night here, you would see like tens of cars and the place is packed.
It's not a huge place, but it's a very unique place because it has very important memories to the people of Aleppo.
So Surgia is still going strong.
I was curious, though, how the rest of Aleppo's restaurant scene is doing.
I mean, I remember when I first spoke with Shadi, he talked about what a big food city Aleppo was before the war.
I asked him what that scene is like today.
It's good that you asked me this question preparation because I don't think it's that good, to be honest. I was shocked.
There are some restaurants that are outliers that kept their exactly how I remember them, like Sergia and some other places, but a lot of the old traditional places are gone.
So I was surprised that it's not the same quality.
My hope is with people coming back from their forced displacement or being and refugees around the world, and hundreds of thousands are coming, if not millions.
I think this will pick up again.
It's interesting that you say that you're shocked that some of the food scene has deteriorated.
I mean, obviously, you know Aleppo a lot better than I do, but I would almost say the opposite.
Like, I'm shocked that Sergia is still so good, just considering how much they've been up against for so many years.
How, I mean, even staying open must have been such a struggle that to, on top of staying open in the midst of everything that's been going on, to also maintain a high level of quality is like another very high hurdle to get over.
Actually, you're absolutely right.
Now I'm thinking about it.
We're Halabi are very picky about our food.
And we don't shy from, because we don't care if you're in the middle of the war Your standard has to be tough That's no excuse That's no excuse for us Get us good food Come on As for the situation in Syria overall It's tenuous There's an interim president And a provisional government But they don't control the whole country There are sectarian groups In control of various regions That oppose the new government And there's ongoing violence Many Syrians and world leaders are still trying to get a sense of how the new president, Ahmed Alshara, plans to govern.
He used to lead a group affiliated with al -Qaeda, but in recent years he's projected a more moderate image.
Shadi went back to Syria in June, and because of all his work in the region, he actually got to spend two hours with the president.
When I met the president, he's a very soft -spoken person.
He's not intimidating.
He doesn't want to intimidate you, but he wants to talk to you, and he wants to explain his position and his vision.
And to be honest, I was very pleased with the rhetoric, the attitude, the vision, where he wants to take the country.
And I could see it as a type of moderation.
So Syria's long -term future remains unclear.
But there's more reason for optimism than there's been in a long time.
Meanwhile, Shadi and his team are expanding their work in Syria, especially in Aleppo, providing medical support to people in refugee camps.
Which led me to ask him one more question.
One of the things you said to me in our original episode that motivated you to put your life on the course that it's been on now for a number of years was that you thought someday your kids would come to you and they would ask you about Syria and they would want to know what did you do.
Since we last talked about this, have you had that kind of conversation with them?
Well, not typically, but they know about what I do.
They came to some of the events that I spoke at, and they were a little bit surprised because somehow I try to keep them away from learning what I'm doing because I don't want to scare them.
a lot of the things that i had to go through are very dangerous but they are really now more aware of what i do and actually i i think they're very proud they think that it's something that is unique and i told them you know someday you know people are gonna write about the work we have done and me and my colleagues and everyone and at least we put some footnote in history that we did get something good.
That's Shadi Martini, Executive Director of the Multifaith Alliance.
If you want to learn more about their work or make a donation, you can find them at MultifaithAlliance .org.
Next week on the show, The Salad Spinner is back.
Our rapid -fire roundtable discussion of the latest food news.
We've got some major news in the world of pasta science.
And we'll ask, if your favorite fast food sauce is available at the store, is it still special?
That's next week. While you wait for that one, check out some of our other recent episodes, like our Food Dispute episode with Paola Velez and James Park, our episode on the history of the Texas kolache, and the story about a restaurant critic who was confronted by one of the most celebrated chefs in America.
Those are all up now.
And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app?
Yes, the SiriusXM app has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad -free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage.
Does your podcasting app have that?
And there's interviews with A -list stars and so much more.
It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one.
Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to SiriusXM .com slash Sporkful.
This episode was produced by me along with managing producer Emma Morgenstern and senior producer Andres O 'Hara.
Our engineer is Jared O 'Connell.
Music help from Black Label Music.
The Sporkful is a production of Stitcher Studios.
Our executive producer is Camille Stanley.
Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.
And this is Shadi Martini reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.
This segment is brought to you by Samsung Bespoke Appliances.
Here's an issue I run into.
I try to make a list of groceries, and then I get to the store, and i see something on the shelf and i'm like do i have mustard do i have apples now i can't remember if there's other things that i need that i might have forgotten i don't know what i have well first i want to say you're not alone there's a lot of people that also struggle with that i'm in the samsung test kitchen with my buddy dj i'm the senior national training manager for samsung digital appliances to basically like a nerd who can talk to regular people sure as dj explained the sleek samsung bespoke refrigerator we're standing
in front of today has the answers to my shopping list woes.
So what's cool about this particular refrigerator is it has something called AI Vision inside.
When we think about Samsung and AI, AI is really all about how can I save you time and money?
So for your particular situation, you don't wanna have to run back home and see, do I have milk?
Do I have apples? This will let you kind of see exactly what's inside by creating like a digital inventory list. Not only what you have, but when you actually purchased that and put it inside the actual refrigerator.
It can tell me how long the thing has been in there?
Correct, yes. So once we go into this AI Vision application, you can see these are the things that we have inside of the refrigerator.
That's where really the fun begins because knowing what's inside your refrigerator is one thing.
Maybe it's Friday night and you don't want to call the pizza man to come and deliver some food.
How can I use up more of what's inside of my refrigerator?
So this will search for recipes based on what's already inside your fridge.
So it can not only tell you what's in the fridge, it can tell you what to cook with it.
Correct. And I should add, Chad, the fridge shows you recipes on a beautiful 32 -inch touchscreen that's flush with the door.
So there's photos on the screen of all the things in the fridge.
There's chicken, there's tomatoes, there's eggs, there's olives.
And so you just checked chicken, olives, and eggs?
And you clicked search for recipes.
Search for recipes, yep.
That's fine. All kinds of different options that we have right here.
French's crunchy onion chicken.
Yeah. You click on it, prep five minutes, cook 20 minutes.
Yep, there's our egg that we have on hand.
There's our French onion.
Oh, wow. Wow. So not only did the recipe come up, it told you which ingredients you have and which ones you need.
Yes. And you can send the ones you need to your shopping list. Correct.
So this will just send it to your phone.
Yeah. And then if you don't have the time, maybe you do Instacart or something like that.
It can send that to them to be able to get that already ready to go and brought to you so you can make that dinner.
But this huge screen isn't just for the AI Vision.
The screen acts as a hub for your whole kitchen.
Once you pick a recipe and have all the ingredients.
You can actually select how you're going to cook it.
Microwave or oven. So we're going to do oven.
All right. You want to pick any of these that we have here?
Let's check out these 30 -minute chicken tenders.
Okay. I can actually send the recipe over to the oven, and it'll actually automatically start the oven process for me.
Whoa. And the oven is just going to start preheating.
100%. And it's going to know which setting.
It says air fry, 375, 30 minutes.
Yep, and once you have that in there, you close the door, and it'll do the rest. And then send you that notification while you're watching that game on the couch. From the couch, you can use the Samsung SmartThings app to watch your food in the oven on your phone to keep an eye on it.
Not that you really need to.
The oven already knows what to do.
And for the part where you actually have to assemble the dish to get it in the oven, the AI Family Hub Plus screen on the fridge helps with that too.
So here's an issue that I run into sometimes, DJ, is that I'll see a cooking instruction video, but it's on my phone.
and then once I start trying to do it in cooking now my hands are messy or I can't find my phone and it's annoying.
As I understand it like this fridge has YouTube.
It has YouTube but the beauty of it is you can kind of watch what you're watching on your phone and then you can continue that on the actual 32 -inch screen so much bigger real estate and so the idea is you can kind of multitask here.
I know my wife will probably argue to say I can't multitask but I can still see the video of how they're preparing something but then at the same time I still can kind of see who's at the front door.
When you go to answer the door, you can check on what's in the oven.
Sure. You can also lock the door if you don't want them to come in.
Yeah. I can't come right—I'm cooking a focaccia. I love it.
I love it. Yeah. 100%.
100%. Yeah. I'm on the couch watching my focaccia rise.
Exactly. Exactly. I can't answer the door right now.
Thanks again to our sponsor, Samsung, for inviting us to test out their new product features.
And there's so many other cool features to this fridge that I didn't get to cover with DJ.
Like with the giant screen, you can have the weather up on the screen so your kids can check that out.
Then they know what to wear.
They don't need to bug you about it.
And you can even import your own recipes, like your grandmother's pie recipe.
And after you've done a bang -up job with your grocery shopping, how do you open the fridge?
Because your hands are full from the grocery hall.
Well, guess what? You can open that fridge with ease, thanks to auto -open door.
Just a light touch of the door sensor, and the fridge opens.
Samsung has thought of everything.
This fridge is not just a hub for your kitchen.
It's like a hub for your family, for your whole life.
It is the nerve center of everything, and it also keeps your food cold.
Samsung's new line of bespoke AI appliances simplifies your time in the kitchen.
Visit Samsung .com slash bespoke to learn more.
The SmartThings app is available on Android and iOS devices.
A Wi -Fi connection and a Samsung account are required.
An automatic closing function is not available.
