51. Samantha Rowland [Food is Love]

Join us this week as we dive headfirst into the concept of food as love. And also concepts like fried chicken being a sandwich? Macaroni and Cheese being a soup?? What is happening?

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Transcript

Joy Bork 0:10

Welcome to here. We are the podcast where we celebrate the beauty of being a nerd. By learning about nerdy things from fellow nerds. I'm your host Joy Bork. Today's interview is a real treat in so many ways. So I'm going to keep this intro very short. Prepare to laugh, get your mind blown, and maybe even get angry. But know that no matter what you feel, I know you'll enjoy this experience. Without further ado here's my friend Samantha to tell us all about how food is love

Samantha Rowland 0:47

I'm Samantha Rowland. And I feel like whenever someone asks me to introduce myself, I get that grade school panic of like, tell me something interesting.

Joy Bork 0:56

my favorite color is green.

Samantha Rowland 1:04

Or I'm gonna, I'm gonna introduce someone else in the class, like accidentally be like I'm Joy. Oh no, wait

Joy Bork 1:10

no, no, it's fine. We're fine. Everything's fine.

Samantha Rowland 1:17

so yeah, I'm Samantha and I have internal panic when I introduce myself.

Joy Bork 1:21

Hi, Samantha. Right? It's great to

Samantha Rowland 1:23

To be here. Thanks for having me.

Joy Bork 1:27

All right. Where did I meet you then?

Samantha Rowland 1:29

We met at work in New Jersey, which was gorgeous.

Joy Bork 1:34

Yeah, it was a thing

Samantha Rowland 1:35

it was a thing

Joy Bork 1:36

a lot of the gorgeous time inside a ballroom.

Samantha Rowland 1:39

we did. I don't think I walked outdoors for a full, like eight days on that show. So

Joy Bork 1:45

It's a little sad.

Samantha Rowland 1:46

a little sad, but we had some fun.

Joy Bork 1:48

We did. It was fun to text you across the room and then just turn and look at you over my shoulder and be like

Samantha Rowland 1:55

Yes,

Joy Bork 1:57

All right. What do you wanna nerd out about today?

Samantha Rowland 1:59

I always want to nerd out about food because it's my whole life.

Joy Bork 2:04

Yes, queen. Okay. When you say food, what are you talking about? Is there like a genre of food? Is it eating out? Is it eating in? Is it cooking? I don't know. What do you mean by food?

Samantha Rowland 2:13

Yes, that's a great question. So first of all, it's all of those things for me. But I think if we wanna get focused and nerdy about something in particular, it's probably sandwiches for me.

Joy Bork 2:24

Really?

Samantha Rowland 2:25

Yes.

Joy Bork 2:26

why?

Samantha Rowland 2:27

Why, because

Joy Bork 2:28

I like I'm so curious.

Samantha Rowland 2:30

it's my. favorite category of food. I don't know why, exactly. I don't know. I've always loved food. Like it's always been a huge thing for me since I was a little kid, but sandwiches for some reason. It's my favorite thing to seek out, to eat, to talk about. All of the above.

Joy Bork 2:48

Okay. So Since forever.

Samantha Rowland 2:50

Since forever. I've always been like a total sandwich lover.

Joy Bork 2:55

Do you have an early memory of like your favorite sandwich?

Samantha Rowland 2:58

Okay. So my mom is a crazy cook, like so good. I grew up totally spoiled with the best meals because she's such a good cook. And she would just like make me sandwiches for lunch all the time. I never had like peanut butter and jelly. She like goes hard. It's like gourmet

Joy Bork 3:17

Okay. So what was it like? Tell me like two or three days of lunch.

Samantha Rowland 3:21

Sure. Like I'd show up at school. And so first of all, I'm Lebanese. So sometimes I'd get like weird stuff that everyone was like, what is this? Not weird to me, but weird to, Americans who don't understand Lebanese culture. So sometimes I'd get some sort of like pita thing that would have shawarma it and whatever else, and I'd be like, yeah, this is awesome. And they'd be like, what does that smell? And I'd be like, it's called seasoning.

Joy Bork 3:43

It's called love Okay.

Samantha Rowland 3:44

It's called love and it's wafting into your nostrils right now. Take it in.

Joy Bork 3:48

Be very jealous.

Samantha Rowland 3:50

Be super jealous. And then sometimes she'd make some sort of like crazy sub, right? So she'd take some baguette that she went and got that morning. I'm telling you, it's

Joy Bork 3:59

What?

Samantha Rowland 4:00

Yes. She'd get, go get baguettes. And then she'd, create some sort of sandwich. It'd be loaded, right? It would never just be like all bread and two slices of meat. It would be like Turkey, 17 slices of Turkey. Salami. There'd be prosciutto on there.

Joy Bork 4:13

Oh my gosh.

Samantha Rowland 4:15

what other kids were like, what is prosciutto? And I'd be like, what do you mean you don't know about Italian ham?

Joy Bork 4:20

It's the best thing on the planet. Where have you lived your whole life?

Samantha Rowland 4:23

exactly. And then there'd be fresh veggies. There'd be lettuce. There'd be Sub dressing. There'd be mustard and Mayo. Like

Joy Bork 4:31

what's Sub dressing?

Samantha Rowland 4:32

Sub dressing. First of all, you can buy store bought Sub dressing. And it's actually pretty good, but it's like a vinaigrette almost, but it's never sweet. It's like very much oil and vinegar. There's some spices in there. There's usually like Italian seasoning in there. It's delicious and it belongs on all your sandwiches.

Joy Bork 4:47

is it called Sub dressing? So like I walk into the grocery store. Would I go to the condiment aisle?

Samantha Rowland 4:54

condiments aisle. I feel like they call it submarine dressing, cuz we have to be formal in the grocery store.

Joy Bork 5:01

We all live in a yellow submarine. So

Samantha Rowland 5:03

exactly. It's called submarine dressing. It comes in a little, like weird shaped bottle. I'll literally text you a picture of

Joy Bork 5:09

I need to go find this. Stat. Getting off going to find submarine dressing

Samantha Rowland 5:15

Yeah, gotta shake it before you put it on the sub. Don't forget to shake it cuz there's oil

Joy Bork 5:19

But it's not salad dressing.

Samantha Rowland 5:21

Nope. It belongs on a Sammy.

Joy Bork 5:24

Oh, my gosh.

Samantha Rowland 5:26

Yeah.

Joy Bork 5:26

Okay. My world just changed.

Samantha Rowland 5:29

your sandwiches just got so much better. I'm telling you.

Joy Bork 5:31

I don't even know how I've existed in the world until now.

Samantha Rowland 5:34

I'm so sad for you

Joy Bork 5:36

Thank you for making my life better. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're back to lettuce and then you said Sub dressing. Carry on.

Samantha Rowland 5:44

Yeah. So then she'd slice it up nicely and I'd have two sides of a sub and I'd get all excited. And she always had like sides and chips and whatever. I had some crazy lunches. There was never, she was never like a notes person either. So like very rarely would I get some sort of love you, blah, blah, blah, whatever note. But I didn't need it because like you just made me this beautiful sandwich. I obviously know you love me.

Joy Bork 6:06

Okay. In your family, was food, a language of love?

Samantha Rowland 6:10

Absolutely 1000%. I don't think I know how I knew, cuz I, it's like ingrained in me that food is love. It stems from my grandma's like my Oma, my German grandma who's on the Lebanese side also. She always made crazy Lebanese food for us. And my Nana, the Italian grandmother, she always made sauces and chili and whatever, I'd always show up to her house and it would smell like love you know, you'd waltz in. And I just think feeding people is how you show them that you care about them. It's what I do. I always cook for the people I love. It's my favorite thing.

Joy Bork 6:42

This is why I knew I liked you from the beginning, but we've never actually had this conversation.

Samantha Rowland 6:47

Yeah.

Joy Bork 6:49

I did that exact thing for friends last night. I'm gonna do my best to create an environment you to walk in. I want you to know you have agency in the kitchen, here's your pizza dough. You make your own pizza dough. You get to put t he toppings on whatever, I'm gonna facilitate the whole process for you and you're gonna walk away knowing not only do you have food agency and you belong here with me in this house and you are safe. I'm agreeing to not poison you and you are choosing to be

Samantha Rowland 7:12

There's no arsenic on the menu tonight.

Joy Bork 7:15

You're choosing to be in my presence. and this is like the best way of just like it's it's across all societies

Samantha Rowland 7:24

And you're sharing culture. You're sharing like a piece of yourself, cuz I think when you cook you, you have to add emotion to it.

Joy Bork 7:31

Yeah.

Samantha Rowland 7:32

It doesn't turn out well, unless you do. So like to me, it's like sharing a literal piece of myself.

Joy Bork 7:37

Fascinating.

Samantha Rowland 7:38

Yeah.

Joy Bork 7:38

do you know if you're sharing emotion or not? Or if you're putting emotion in it or not?

Samantha Rowland 7:42

I think especially when you're cooking for someone else, I think it's like easier to identify. Because I feel like I'm thinking about that person while I'm making the food. So whether it's one person or it's like a group of people, even when you're in the grocery store and you're buying ingredients for the people, you're thinking about them. and I think, when you think about the people that you love, you're sending love in their direction. Right? So like, as you're doing that, you're in the grocery store, you're picking out the dough for the pizzas. You're picking out the cheese, you're picking out the pepperoni, you're sending them love as you're doing that. Cuz you're thinking, oh oh yeah Allie hates mushrooms, but Brian loves them. So I'm gonna get the mushrooms cuz Brian loves'em but I'll make sure they're on the side cuz I know Allie doesn't want that. You know what I mean? Like

Joy Bork 8:23

Right. I do the exact same.

Samantha Rowland 8:23

yeah.

Joy Bork 8:24

do you have a mental record of your friend's food allergies?

Samantha Rowland 8:26

Absolutely.

Joy Bork 8:27

Me too.

Samantha Rowland 8:28

And also, so when I started working in production, I was a production assistant. I remember like random freelancers food allergies. And the ones I like, of course I'll be able to just spit out there oh yeah, Amelia, she's allergic to broccoli. Make sure you don't have it on the buffet. And I'm like, why do I know that?

Joy Bork 8:45

But again I love what I just heard you say of the intention of caring in the process of preparation. Like, I hadn't really thought about that before, but I totally experience all of that.

Samantha Rowland 8:55

Yeah. I think we do it without

Joy Bork 8:56

Yeah. Yeah. And then it's another layer of I remember what it takes to keep you safe. And I want you to know that you are welcome in this environment as you are.

Samantha Rowland 9:09

Yes.

Joy Bork 9:10

So I'm gonna I create the best place for you possible.

Samantha Rowland 9:13

best place for you. And that it's delicious also.

Joy Bork 9:16

Ugh. Feeds your soul. yes. absolutely. A hundred percent

Samantha Rowland 9:20

Can I share something with you that ruined my life about food?

Joy Bork 9:23

always.

Samantha Rowland 9:25

okay.

Joy Bork 9:26

I be scareShould I?

Samantha Rowland 9:27

You should be terrified.

Joy Bork 9:28

Okay. I'm terrified. Carry

Samantha Rowland 9:29

really. I don't know why this just popped into my head, but it's relevant. So my friend Fulton shared this with me. He's a chef. And he also is a, like a fount of obscure knowledge. Like I learned the most crazy things from this person. Honestly, you should probably invite him on this show because you would love to nerd out with him.

Joy Bork 9:46

connect us, please.

Samantha Rowland 9:47

I will. But so he taught me about this thing that ruined my life and it's called soup salad sandwich theory. I don't know if it's specifically called that, but it is a theory regarding soup salad sandwiches. And basically it's that anything over like two ingredients? I think it is, is either a soup, a salad or a sandwich.

Joy Bork 10:09

oh, no. Oh, no.

Samantha Rowland 10:13

Let me give you an example of something that horrified

Joy Bork 10:15

I'm so scared now.

Samantha Rowland 10:17

core fried chicken. You take chicken, you put it in a batter. You cover it in bread crumbs, whatever. You fry it up. That's a sandwich. Even if you don't put it on a sandwich because it's encased in breading,

Joy Bork 10:31

oh my gosh.

Samantha Rowland 10:33

fried chicken's a... sandwich

Joy Bork 10:34

Okay. Then what, what's a taco?

Samantha Rowland 10:36

Sandwich

Joy Bork 10:37

because it's encased in a grain sort.

Samantha Rowland 10:41

Yes.

Joy Bork 10:42

So then pizza is a sandwich.

Samantha Rowland 10:43

Pizza is a sandwich, but pasta is like a whole continuum, right? Cause like Mac and cheese, more of a soup, but like

Joy Bork 10:52

Oh my

Samantha Rowland 10:52

a pasta verdure where it's just like veggies and oil or like a pomodoro that's a salad.

Joy Bork 10:59

Oh my gosh. I. I feel that lightheaded feeling of wait,

Samantha Rowland 11:03

Take it in!

Joy Bork 11:03

What is real right now? Am I here? What is happening? We're fine, okay.

Samantha Rowland 11:09

We're fine, but pasta can be a salad when it's not pasta salad. I'm sorry. sorry to everyone listening to this right now. He told me this and I think I had to stare in silence. Like we were like at dinner. I had to stare in silence for a solid 10 minutes. And then I of course had questions and I on and on

Joy Bork 11:33

Please tell me how that went. Break, break that open for

Samantha Rowland 11:37

well, I mean, Like he's all in on the theory. Right. And I do this thing where like, when I talk to him, I'm like combative about it. I'm like, no, it can't be a sandwich because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I have this whole, I get very high pitched about it too. Like it's, It's very like Gretchen wieners from mean girls. That's what I sound like. Eventually in the conversation. There's a video somewhere on one of my friend's phones of me having an absolute temper tantrum about this theory. And uh, but then of course on the other side of it. Usually when I tell someone about it, if Fulton's not there, I like to be like, So that's a sandwich.

Joy Bork 12:15

That's what's up!

Samantha Rowland 12:16

I'm like such a faker about it. I'm like, yeah, no, it's totally true. This entire theory. Like I like to piss people off, like

Joy Bork 12:25

but yet toward the source, you're like, nuh uh! I'm like sobbing

Samantha Rowland 12:33

so

Joy Bork 12:34

dramatic.

Samantha Rowland 12:36

is Cereal

Joy Bork 12:40

a soup.

Samantha Rowland 12:41

Yes. Cereal's a soup, a milk soup.

Joy Bork 12:51

Okay. I'm breathing. I don't suddenly feel hot. Okay.

Samantha Rowland 12:55

You Take it in. Process it. Think about.

Joy Bork 12:58

I'm going to have to do some research.

Samantha Rowland 13:01

And apparently I was like researching this after he told me about it. And in recent years, like TikTok has gotten a hold of this information and Guy Fieri betrayed me

Joy Bork 13:12

what

Samantha Rowland 13:13

and blessed this theory. So.

Joy Bork 13:15

Have you started a personal war against him?

Samantha Rowland 13:18

Well, Here's the thing is that I normally love Guy Fieri. I'm a big triple D fan: Diner's, Drive Dives those who don't know. And I like when I travel somewhere new in the US, I look up the triple D restaurants in the area. And if I have time, if it's a work event or whatever, if I have time, I go out and I get some triple D food and I love And now I'm like, guy, how dare you?

Joy Bork 13:44

Yep. Of course. What else would you do, right? Absolutely. how dare you? It's personal at this.

Samantha Rowland 13:44

It's personal. That was a personal attack on me, which like, it's a nice that he thought of me, but don't do this Guy!

Joy Bork 13:51

Like

Samantha Rowland 13:52

you gotta be like that. I thought we had something special. Here I was watching your show, taking your advice and I'm still doing that.

Joy Bork 14:03

Yeah. Yeah. Huh?

Samantha Rowland 14:05

No, but yeah, of course, like if I'm talking about this in the right context, I'm like, yeah. So Guy Fieri's all about it and a sandwich!

Joy Bork 14:13

This is another reason why I just appreciate your existence so deeply.

Samantha Rowland 14:18

Thank you.

Joy Bork 14:19

So deeply. Okay. So gonna back away from this conflict for a hot second Back it up You have such an interesting food history. You said Lebanese, German, Italian.

Samantha Rowland 14:30

yes.

Joy Bork 14:31

What's the fusion of that? Like, I mean, You are obviously the fusion of

Samantha Rowland 14:34

I am the fusion of that. First of all. So it's funny. My Oma, she's married to my Opa who's the Lebanese one, right? And she like never made German food. Sometimes we'd get something kind of German, like some sort of potato, whatever, but most of the time she was all about Lebanese food. When she left World War II Germany, came to America, she moved in with my, Opa and his family. And it was all Lebanese food all the time. And then my Nana, like her parents are straight out of Italy and, she's all in on Italian. So it was like all Italian food all the time. So I feel like those were the foods I grew up eating the most and my mom learned from both of them. So like, My parents were high school sweethearts. And so she like at 16 started learning how to make the crazy Italian food. So like when I came on the scene as a child who could barely see over the counter, I was making both those things.

Joy Bork 15:22

that's amazing.

Samantha Rowland 15:24

Yeah. And there's this whole thing. So most people for Thanksgiving, they eat bread stuffing, right? I'm sure you've had it. It's is what it is. I didn't know what bread stuffing was until I was 14 and I had an absolute culture shock moment, cuz I grew up with Lebanese stuffing, which is like rice, pine nuts, noodles, lamb, seasonings out the Waz, like whatever.

Joy Bork 15:50

sounds so good.

Samantha Rowland 15:51

And uh, when I was 14, I went to my friend's house, like the day after Thanksgiving. And she's like, oh, my mom made stuffing and we have leftovers. Do you wanna try some? I'm like, oh yeah, I love stuffing. Get me in on this.

Joy Bork 16:02

Huh?

Samantha Rowland 16:03

And she pulls out this container and it's like soggy bread. And I'm like, what?

Joy Bork 16:08

What

Samantha Rowland 16:09

Julia, what is this.

Joy Bork 16:10

do you hate me right now?

Samantha Rowland 16:12

She's like, this is stuffing. I'm like, no, it's not. She's like, yeah, it is. I'm like, where's the rice. She's looking at me like I'm crazy.

Joy Bork 16:25

Wow.

Samantha Rowland 16:25

how can you have Stuffing without rice. What even is that? What is this grain in here? Like bread?

Joy Bork 16:31

is it is, wait is bread stuffing a sandwich?

Samantha Rowland 16:34

Yes,

Joy Bork 16:35

Oh, no,

Samantha Rowland 16:36

no, it might be a salad because of the way it's presented, because... it's

Joy Bork 16:40

is broth in it.

Samantha Rowland 16:43

but I think the broth cooks in enough that it's probably salad.

Joy Bork 16:47

Oh my gosh.

Samantha Rowland 16:48

Horrifying. I know.

Joy Bork 16:50

Would Lebanese stuffing be a salad?

Samantha Rowland 16:52

Yes.

Joy Bork 16:53

Wow. Okay. We're sticking with Lebanese then.

Samantha Rowland 16:55

Yeah, for sure.

Joy Bork 16:56

Okay, great.

Samantha Rowland 16:57

Anyway, I get I get picked up from Julia's house and I'm in the car with my mom. I'm like, mom. Julia's family is crazy. They've got this weird soggy bread business as stuffing. My mom looks at me and she goes, oh, Samantha. Oh, honey.

Joy Bork 17:14

That's one of those. Oh my dear. Pat, pat, Pat

Samantha Rowland 17:18

Honey and um, but I had been making stuffing or at least contributing to the stuffing since I was like a tiny child, because we do this thing, we call it chipping lamb in our family where you like take a big block lamb and you have to cut it into tiny little like microscopic pieces. You gotta trim all the fat off of it. It takes hours. You sit and you chip the lamb for hours on end.

Joy Bork 17:43

Wow. That is a dedication of love right

Samantha Rowland 17:45

Absolutely. And so I've been doing that literally since, before I could see over the counter, I'd sit up in a high chair and I'd like, barely use this knife. And it was probably unsafe and I'd help make the stuffing. Cuz I had chipped the lamb. Now of course in the past, like five, five, to seven years, my mom's been like, what if we tried ground lamb? Like we just got it ground?

Joy Bork 18:06

Now. you're saying that? Now?

Samantha Rowland 18:09

Now? Come on. I like to say though, that chipping lamb builds character

Joy Bork 18:14

it's kinda like how farmers say walking beans builds character. Yeah.

Samantha Rowland 18:22

but you just go to the store and they grind it for you and you can tell them that you want the fat trimmed off and they just do that. They give it to you in packages now. You can go to the store right now and get packaged ground lamb. It's like grass fed. It's like fancy. Do you know how many hours I chipped lamb? Because we did this at thanksgiving and Christmas. Ya gotta have stuffing at both!

Joy Bork 18:46

what have you been doing Your whole life? I'm so proud of you.

Samantha Rowland 18:57

Thank you

Joy Bork 18:58

okay. We're gonna fast forward to the current day.

Samantha Rowland 19:00

fast forward

Joy Bork 19:01

So since I follow you on social media, I noticed you just went to Paris. And before we started recording, you said that on the trip, your job was curating all of the food. First of all, that's a privilege and an honor, and I bow down to you and I would absolutely eat anything you curated. How did you do your research? What are you looking for?

Samantha Rowland 19:24

Sure. Like I said in the US, I always look at Guy Fieri, but when I go international. It's Tony Bourdain all day. I like to pretend we're friends. So I call him Tony

Joy Bork 19:31

absolutely.

Samantha Rowland 19:32

Hey, Tony, miss you love you. And so I look at Anthony Bordain and then I also crowdsource, of course, I wanna go word of mouth, and then it's a little bit of just like Google find the good reviews. Make sure there's a lot of reviews, not like four reviews and five star. Like, Obviously not dumb. sorry.

Joy Bork 19:50

you've lived a minute. You've, have character built into

Samantha Rowland 19:52

I've I've chipped lamb. I don't I

Joy Bork 19:56

I would love it if you could just pull that into like normal day conversations and be like, excuse me, I have chipped lamb.

Samantha Rowland 20:03

I have chipped lamb. So I don't think you need to tell me how to do this. So so for Paris I got a bunch of good recommendations from my friend, Mikey, who I would trust with any meal. Which is high praise coming from me, honestly. But I had two meals with him in LA and I was like, yes, I trust you with my life. So he gave us a bunch of recommendations and then I went the Anthony Bourdain route, and then there was one place that it was both of them recommended, anthony Bourdain and Mikey recommended and I was like, hell yes. So that was actually the first meal we had in Paris. It took me weeks to get this reservation. I was like stalking them. I was on a wait list. They called me a bunch of times. I couldn't answer. Cause they'd call me at weird times. Cuz it's Paris. It's like a whole thing.

Joy Bork 20:45

Yeah. Cool.

Samantha Rowland 20:46

We went back and forth a ton. And I finally get this reservation and it's an hour and a half after our train gets in. So I'm like girls, we're getting ready quick because we have to have a life changing meal.

Joy Bork 20:56

no dawdling.

Samantha Rowland 20:57

No dawdling. So we like scurry over this restaurant and it's one of those places that just feels cool, like it's like it's upscale, but it's definitely like more trendy kind of I don't wanna call it divey cuz that's not the right word, but it just didn't feel like a white table cloth, like fancy.

Joy Bork 21:14

vibe, right?

Samantha Rowland 21:15

Up straight. No, it was like very, just like trendy and cool. And they have the whole menu on a chalkboard, cuz I think they make new menus almost every day or like weekly or something like that. Yeah. And of course the whole menu's in French and I took enough French that I know most of the foods. So I'm okay. I can get by with eating. And I took this menu, I looked through it and one of my friends was like, okay, so she's gonna go into a silent place now. And we just don't talk to her. We just let her work it out in her head. And I was like, yeah, don't talk to me.

Joy Bork 21:50

Excuse me, I'm busy now.

Samantha Rowland 21:51

Excuse me, I'm busy hiding in a menu. And we got some crazy stuff. We got fried chicken, AKA, a sandwich that was in I'm still offended by

Joy Bork 22:00

that.

Samantha Rowland 22:00

I know it's horrifying. It was in a foie gras sauce, which I don't even know how to describe this sauce. It was like foie gras and miso and like the the umami, the flavor in this

Joy Bork 22:11

Oh,

Samantha Rowland 22:12

I think I'll be dreaming about it for my whole life. And then there was, we got like a whole duck that was de-boned and everything. And it was like, rendered to perfection. Got this one though, this Halmi udish and all the girls at the table were like, this changed my life. And I was

Joy Bork 22:27

What's Halimi

Samantha Rowland 22:29

Halumi's a type of cheese. Typically served in Middle Eastern food. And it's like not a melty cheese. Like it's very hard to I don't even know if it does melt ever. Honestly, I've never seen it like fully melted onto something.

Joy Bork 22:41

it low moisture? Like Parmesan?

Samantha Rowland 22:45

Kinda like that, but it's it's got more of a consistency of like a mozzarella kind of, but it's just it's like a, it's like a squeaky cheese, like when you eat it, it squeaks. Yes. And so what they did was they torched it. They had like a kitchen torch. They torched it to get like a nice crust on it. So it was like beautifully crusted Halumi cheese. And it's just like a brick. Like they give you like a brick of cheese. And then it had this raspberry honey sauce and then it had crumbled up nuts on top of it. I

Joy Bork 23:17

Oh my gosh.

Samantha Rowland 23:18

I need to, first of all, recreate it because I can't live without it.

Joy Bork 23:21

Yes, please. And thank

Samantha Rowland 23:22

let me know when you wanna come over and I'll try it out. and I seriously. It changed the lives of five other people at the table. And I was sent to heaven like on the wings of Halumi cheese.

Joy Bork 23:38

Thank you for coming back. That was a sacrifice. I know.

Samantha Rowland 23:41

You're welcome. Here. I am back from the Halumi experience, but it's just that's a piece of cheese and it just I'll talk about it until my dying day probably. And I love that food does that for people.

Joy Bork 23:54

But that also, that speaks to the intention that you have with food as well. You're not just eating it for sustenance, you're eating it for the entire experience. Which has taken me. years to be able to even scratch the surface

Samantha Rowland 24:07

right.

Joy Bork 24:08

of oh, this is I feel like this is lowering the analogy, but like in Ratatoullie, that sequence, when he's thinking about all the ways that the flavors can blend together.

Samantha Rowland 24:18

It's that's not lowering though, because that movie is such a good description of the way food is for some people, for people like me. And the way it can be forever. It's art at the end of the day, right? It's art and it's an expression of love. And the message of that whole movie is like that anyone can be a great cook, which is so true because technically anyone can learn to do it. Anyone can show that love. And I feel like the people who think that they can't cook, it's just because they're not putting their heart into it.

Joy Bork 24:49

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. been the conversation I didn't know I needed to have today.

Samantha Rowland 24:57

Yeah, I brought with you

Joy Bork 24:59

heaven on the wings of your Halumi experience. All those years of chipping lamb have really paid off for

Samantha Rowland 25:05

they have. So much character.

Joy Bork 25:07

Your character is full of umami and goodness. I just Thank you for welcoming me to the table of

Samantha Rowland 25:15

for letting me welcome you to the table.

Joy Bork 25:18

thank you for being on my podcast. This is so exciting.

Samantha Rowland 25:20

Thanks for having me. It was great

Joy Bork 25:21

a delightful human.

Samantha Rowland 25:23

as are you.

Joy Bork 25:24

Talk with you soon. Have a really good day. bye.

Samantha Rowland 25:27

bye.

Joy Bork 25:28

so here we are. I loved this interview. Samantha and I resonate so strongly in our love for food. This is one thing I have so enjoyed experiencing across many cultures. And Samantha is right. Food is love. It shows thought, care, and is universally welcoming. Even if fried chicken is a sandwich. I still can't get over that. If you have a flavor of nerd that you want me to celebrate, I would love to hear all about it. So go ahead and email me at herewearethepodcast@gmail.com and tell me everything. And guys are really mean it. I love taking time to sit and make space for nerd to be celebrated. If you really liked this podcast and want to financially support what I'm doing. Head on over to patreon.com search for here. We are the podcast and sign up for one of the many, many beautifully, and sassily written support tiers that I'm really proud of. So until next time. Don't forget that curiosity wins. And the world needs more nerds. Bye.