From MasterChef to World Traveler: Michael Motamedi's Culinary Quest

What if the best way to experience the world was to live in it—one month at a time?

In this episode, we meet Michael Motamedi: former MasterChef Canada contestant, marketer-turned-full-time traveler, and passionate culinary explorer. For the past three years, Michael has been traveling the globe with his wife and young daughter—living in one city at a time, uncovering local food gems, and sharing stories through his podcast No Fixed Address and viral food videos.

From pig nipples in Spain to baby eel breakfasts in Barcelona, Michael’s adventures are anything but ordinary. But beneath the fun is a deeper message: that food is a universal language, and community, not convenience, is what really nourishes us.
We talk about:

🌎 How selling everything led to a nomadic, food-filled life with a toddler
🍽️ Why tinned baby eels, fish juice, and Anthony Bourdain changed his view of food
💬 What it means to truly live in a place—beyond tourism, with real locals

Whether you're craving off-the-grid food stories or dreaming of a lifestyle less ordinary, this episode is a reminder to pause, savour, and rethink what truly fills you up.

HELPFUL LINKS

📸 Follow Michael on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok
🎧 Tune into Michael's podcast No Fixed Address
🧳 Download my free Travel Planning Tool

SUBSCRIBE, RATE & REVIEW

If you love this podcast and want to give me your support, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This goes a long way in helping me get in front of other culinary adventurers like you.

Just open up the Apple Podcasts app and go to “In My Kitchen with Paula”. Or, in this episode, click on the 3 dots in the right corner and click on “Go To Show”. At the bottom of the show page, you can rate and review.

SAY HELLO

In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

I'd love to hear from you! Connect with me in one of three ways:

• DM me on Instagram at @inmykitchenpaula
• Email me at paula@inmykitchen.ca
• Click to text me directly. Include your email address and I'll share my free travel planning tool!

Transcript

Paula Mohammed: Hi, I'm Paula Mohammed and welcome to In My Kitchen with Paula. This podcast is a gathering place for culinary adventures who love to travel. Every week, we'll come together with chefs, cookbook authors, talented home cooks, and everyone in between to talk about their story and their unique dish using food as the vehicle will take a ride into the ins and outs of their culture and country.

Come on, let's get this party started.

Welcome back In My Kitchen with Paula. So glad you're back at my table. In this episode, I sit down with Michael Motamedi, who is a former MasterChef Canada participant, chief marketing officer, and now full-time traveler traveling the globe with his three-year-old daughter and wife, Vanessa, for the last three years where they delve into the hidden gems of the local cuisines. It's just such a fascinating conversation. Not only does Michael have an interesting life, but he's such an amazing speaker. This was a lot of fun to do. We go from interesting pork dishes in Spain to talking about baby eels and so much more. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Michael, welcome to the show. I am so excited to have this chat with you.

Michael Motamedi: Thank you so much, Paula, for having me on. I'm super excited as well. I'm coming from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Paula Mohammed: This is the one time that I wish my podcasts were also videoed because the kitchen that I'm looking at is just stunning. But let's dive in because Michael's, uh, internet might be a little iffy here as well.

So we're going to just get started. Michael, I wanna make sure I'm pronouncing your last name right, Motamedi.

Michael Motamedi: Perfect.

Paula Mohammed: Wow, that's a first for me. Okay. Michael Motamedi is a former chief marketing officer, turned full-time traveler, content creator and culinary storyteller exploring the world with his wife and daughter. From building brands to discovering hidden food gems across the globe, he blends marketing savvy with a passion for authentic experiences. And I've recently discovered Michael's podcast show that you and your wife do called _No Fixed Address_ and I highly recommend it. You and I share this passion of exploring culture through food and I was so excited when we connected and learned of your same passion.

Side note, I of course had watched you Season Two MasterChef Canada a few years ago and really enjoyed that. To get our listeners up to speed, could you just share with us, um, your stories, how you found yourself selling everything, traveling full time with a young family three years ago?

Michael Motamedi: Well first of all, thank you for that intro, because when I hear it out loud, I feel a lot cooler than I actually feel all the time. So...

Paula Mohammed: It's all relative. Michael.

Michael Motamedi: I tell myself that every day. Paula, you don't need to remind me. But yeah, a little background on me. So when I, you want the long one or you want the short one?

Paula Mohammed: I want the long one. I'm so curious about your background.

Michael Motamedi: Okay. So when I was about 17 or 18 years old, I ended up moving from Los Angeles to Toronto to go to university. I went to York University. Um, a little, little background there. My father is a finance guy, a bank guy, banker. I took econ of course. I thought that was gonna be my life. I took Econ 101, I think it was microeconomics.

Immediately was like, heck no. This is not me. Unfortunately, I have to, you know, step away from this path. I ended up majoring in philosophy, which was probably the best decision I've ever made in my life. Because it really changed the way that my brain actually worked and functioned. But I always had that entrepreneurial spirit so I think that that philosophy background really gave my marketing upper edge to, to my comrades or my colleagues out there. Right. I started a couple of businesses out there, ended up on MasterChef Canada season two, which was, I was the villain at the time. I had a much larger mustache for, I know you guys can't see right now, but my mustache is coming back to where it was, you know, circa 1617.

Then I ended up moving to Kentucky to help start a bourbon company. And within three or four years, we sold the company to Pernod Ricard, which is the second largest spirit company in the world. Within a couple years of being in that corporate environments, my wife and I looked at each other and said, this is again, not for us.

We had just had Penelope at that time, so about three years ago. And I looked at my wife and I said, "Hey, I know, we're probably not gonna be able to live at the means at which we are now. I mean, we don't know what the future is going to hold, but would you like to travel the world with me?" And she said, absolutely.

And so having a ride or die wife like that has been very, very beneficial for me in my life. I think I, I attribute a lot to her. And so about three years ago, we sold our house, we sold our cars, we sold everything, and we hit the road with really no plan in sight. Just this is our first destination, which at that time was Colombia to visit her family.

And then the real first destination was in the Algarve in Portugal, where we stayed a month at the Benagil cave. So that was our first stint. And fast forward three years, I still can't believe it until this date's, actually probably on the date three years ago that we, we were in Portugal.

Paula Mohammed: I'm trying to remember now. That was post covid then? Or just post Covid? Yeah.

Michael Motamedi: It was definitely post-Covid because I, I remember Covid more than probably most because my wife and I had planned to get married in Colombia, and it was in March of 20 of 20, I believe it was. And we got the, the word that, hey, no one else is gonna be traveling anymore. So we lost all our deposits. All of our family and friends lost their outfits.

Because it was like a, you know, a Spanish wedding, a Colombian wedding, everyone wears white. They're like, you wear white to a wedding? And we're like, yeah, everyone bought white outfits. Lost it all. I still hear it to this day. Okay, so it was post-Covid.

Paula Mohammed: You said there's, it's in your season two trailer of your podcast show. And I love what you say here, taking a deep dive into the food of your travels by exploring the people, places, and stories behind it. We're so on the same page here, so listening to you, it sounds like you realized what you were doing is not how you wanted to be living your life. You packed up and you left. Was this part about exploring culture through food and discovering hidden gems, was that in your mind at that time or did that come later? What was your inspiration for that, that element?

Michael Motamedi: Such a great question, Paula. It's a little bit of a chicken and egg scenario when it comes to the content and the creation and the sharing. But from a, um, an inherent standpoint, an internal standpoint, it was always about the food. It was always about living like a local. I am not a big sight seer. And so being able to just go and stay...

By the way, this is a pretty, pretty big footnote in, in the whole context for the whole situation. We always stay at least one month in every city that we live in, right? And everybody's like, what are you gonna do in Benagil for one month? What are you, there's like three restaurants. Like, what are you gonna do in Crete for a month?

Right? Like, what? And I'm like, I'm just gonna live. Like I don't know. What do you do in, you know, Alberta for a month? What do you do, you know, in LA for a month, or in Santa Clarita or whatever it is. I am just going to live with these people, eat their food, understand their culture, and really embrace it.

And it's changed the way that I look at life, Paula. Obviously it's a luxury to do so. I'm not here preaching and saying that everybody can do it, and I'm a very, very lucky individual to be able to have cracked this code. But taking, you know, notes from Anthony Bourdain and really appreciating a culture. You can't do it in three days.

Paula Mohammed: The logistics. So you're traveling with Penelope, who's how old now?

Michael Motamedi: She's three and a half, she turns four in September.

Paula Mohammed: Three and a half. So the logistics of doing this; living one month in each place makes it probably a little bit easier. But I also, I've seen, the amount of content that you're putting out there, and you're on the move a lot. How does, how do you make this all come together?

Michael Motamedi: What we really pride ourselves on is being, I would say pretty malleable, right? Flexible in a sense. From a content creation standpoint, it's really understanding how to front load a lot of stuff. You know, a lot of times I'm posting stuff that I've experienced a month before or a couple weeks before, right? Because I'll film three or four things in a day, for example. And then, you know, as she got a little bit older post one or two years old, we would, we find preschools and daycares in these countries. Like my daughter has the strangest accent. I'm like, what? What, what is this? It's not Spanish, it's not English, it's not American. I mean, it is just, she's, she's a worldly child for a lack of better words.

Paula Mohammed: She's a lucky child. That's gonna be an amazing upbringing. When you're doing this, are you staying in places like VRBOs like places with kitchens? I, I know when I travel, , and it, I had to reflect on this. I didn't realize this is what I was subconsciously doing, but I actually prefer cooking when I'm traveling. I like to go to the markets. I like to get the ingredients. Are you doing that as well or are you finding that it's hard to balance that plus be out exploring the hidden gems?

Michael Motamedi: That is a 100% mandatory thing for me. Um, we always have a kitchen. We are always living in a home, in a neighborhood where a local will live. Maybe a privileged local, you know, I get a lot of flack on that, on the internet when I show the houses that I live in, because you get a lot of keyboard warriors out there saying, well, that's not how the locals actually live.

It's like, that's where my tax bracket lives. I'm not like, I don't understand. I'm not expecting you to come to LA and go stay in the Watts. You're gonna go and stay where you're, where you wanna stay. I mean, we were just in the St. Marin and we were just in Guadalupe, which are, you know, French and Dutch Caribbean islands. It's quite pricey in some places. And the, it's not like the local, you just go out and buy some street food here in Mexico. So I was cooking every single night.

And also my daughter has a different diet than I do. I am an unhealthy, probably semi- obese man. , Like I'm okay to go eat tacos and salt and margaritas all day long. I have a different diet for my daughter.

Paula Mohammed: Let's start calling you Jimmy Buffett. Where did this passion and love of food and exploration come from, do you think?

Michael Motamedi: Well, food was an interesting thing. Um, growing up in LA I was on the more blessed side of la. Um, my family worked very hard. I'm a first generation born American. My parents come from Iran. They came after the revolution. They worked very, very hard to supply my family and our family with, um, um, probably, you know, a very comfortable life for a lack of better words, right?

I'm not saying that we were uber rich flying private jets, but I'm not complaining, um, and then when I went, when I moved to Canada and I was all by myself at 18, 19 years old, I was like, oh my God, I can't afford to go to restaurants. I gotta figure this out. And so, um, I ended up figuring out how to cook.

I've never been culinary trained in any way, so food has always been extremely important in my life, especially growing up in an Iranian household. It's very like, food is at the crux of the foundation of everything that we do. And I think that might have been what has stemmed everything. I always say that food is a language and I, and I don't understand that we do not categorize it like that. I've been all around the world and guess what? The one common thing that everybody has is good food.

Paula Mohammed: Right.

Michael Motamedi: We can sit down, we can break bread, we can have a really great taco or a really great, you know, um, suckling pig or whatever it may be. And we're gonna look at each other in the eyes. We don't speak the same language and we're gonna be like, we're gonna nod. We're gonna say, yeah, yeah, that's good, right? And they're like, yeah, that's great.

Paula Mohammed: Were you a professional chef at one time? I'm just trying to tie that storyline into it, how you ended up on MasterChef and was it a profession for a while?

Michael Motamedi: No, not at all. MasterChef. Yeah, MasterChef was everybody in my life saying, "oh my God, you cook better than anybody that I know. You need to apply." And I was like, I don't, I mean, I don't know. And they're like, you just gotta do it. I ended up applying, and it was just, I don't know, I just, I guess I just succeeded at it in that way just very, very quickly.

There were a lot better people on that show than I was. I definitely agree with that, but I don't think anybody had the kind of, you know, charisma that I did. I'll just be honest. Okay.

Paula Mohammed: My boys and I would watch, um, the cooking shows when they were young. So say 2012, when they were about five and six. We would watch MasterChef and I don't know what year the season two was, I can't remember, but we watched your season and then my 17-year-old and I started watching a few episodes again because of course I, why wouldn't I, I'm going to be chatting with you. I wanted to refresh my memory. He wanted me to ask you, do they encourage you to take on an exaggerated persona? Like how much of it is scripted and how much of it is off the cuff? And I'll tell you why he wanted me to ask you that. Because when they do that initial vetting stage, like I think they select the first 16. There was definitely a character in you. As we watched further down that episode and other ones he commented and I saw it too, that oh my gosh, like Michael, he's really vulnerable. He seems like there's a, a kindness there. I know. Because I didn't picture you like that necessarily.

So anyway, that's our burning question on MasterChef.

Michael Motamedi: I don't know how long my, you know, confidentiality agreement lasts, but I should, I should definitely do a video on that. It's probably far gone. But to answer your question. I think it's a little bit of editing. I think it's a little bit of great casting and I think it's, a little bit of like, Hey, every person has a little bit of human inside of them.

Right? Or a vulnerable side in them. Maybe let's use that word instead. Right? And what I mean by those three different prongs is they definitely do a great job at casting a cast of characters, right, that are going to either mesh or not mesh, or at least give, you know, an audience, the viewership, a great way to connect with at least one of those 16 individuals.

So it starts there. I think everybody that's on that show comes in real, like, I was wearing suits every single day during that time. I did have a mustache. I was a cocky asshole. And so, um, and you know, if you look at a lot of the other individuals like David, who won the MasterChef, he was very humble. He was very skilled, right?

Now he wasn't coming from humble backgrounds as a construction worker, as much as they made him seem. I do know his family and where they're from, so there's a little bit of that editing. Now comes to the second prong of this, where that editing comes in and they make sure that they're really highlighting the things that exaggerates your specific personality.

And I think that's mandatory, right? Anything that's on TV, you're only getting a 10, 15, 20 minute specific clip of these individuals. You have to dive deep from a production standpoint on the things that you're trying to showcase. But inevitably, and this is the last front, inevitably that vulnerability is going to come out.

I was stressed. I was tired. I was hurt, you know. I was annoyed, but it didn't mean that I, I'll never forget this, this never made the air, I never even spoke about this on air. So this is an exclusive for you, okay? I think a lot of the people that were on that show took it much more seriously than I did. Um, because again, I didn't train as a cook or anything. I was just like a dude who knew how to cook and when I got knocked off, um, when they're doing the post interview, by the way, these post interviews are insane. If you wanna hear about that, let me know. But, so they're doing my last post interview and they go, okay, so what's, what's your plan after MasterChef?

You know, this like, grandiose question. And I was like, I don't know, I'm probably just gonna go out to the Dominican Republic for a couple weeks and hang out. And the producers were like, no, no, no, no. Like, we wanna know like that MasterChef. What do you want to do? It's interesting to, to kind of see how serious I took it versus others,

Paula Mohammed: Especially, and I'm gonna get off MasterChef. I didn't want this to be all about that, but the woman, who was the ex, uh, had been in the army, she's from Newfoundland, I think. She was intense, but man, I loved her. I loved her accent. And she was full on.

Michael Motamedi: You can't see my face right now. But she was definitely intense. Much more intense behind the camera than in front. But again, it goes to your point. I could have easily not liked her in, in any way, but there's somebody else who's watching who loves her, right? And I think that's the job of the producers.

And guess what? MasterChef is not a joke. Like we're talking 20, 30, 40 people on set every single day. Some you don't see, some you see. We're talking waking up at five in the morning, filming until six at night, then doing a post interview until eight. Every episode took three days to film because if you remember, there was a team and then there was a solo challenge. It it, it is definitely not for the faint of heart. I'll tell you that much.

Paula Mohammed: Wow. I didn't realize it would take three days for every episode. That's full on.

Michael Motamedi: And you're sequestered by the way, as well too. So you have no phone, no tv, you are staying in, in a room with usually another contestant. And they're moving the contestants all the time. My conspiracy and some of my constituents were, that as soon as you got lovey dovey with one of your roommates. Boom, move you. Because they don't want any teams happening on the show.

Paula Mohammed: Okay, let's come back to present day, traveling the world. I loved listening to your podcast episode, I think it was the most recent one where... is your wife's name Vanessa? If I remembered that. You and Vanessa were back in Colombia and you were talking with Chef Juan Delmar in Cartagena.

I'm gonna pronounce that wrong. Um, and that episode, it made me want to go and visit there. But what really resonated with me was the description that both chef and yourself and Vanessa talked about in terms of the vibe in Cartagena, the sense of community around the food, the dancing in the streets, and with your background, your parents being from Iran, I know from some other interviews, hospitality plays a huge role in Iranian culture in your travels now, over the last three years, compared to North America, have you seen this piece about community around food and hospitality come up over and over and over again? Can you just sort of talk a little bit about that in terms of the places you've been?

Michael Motamedi: I'm gonna take it a step further. I know it's gonna be a little bit harsh for people to hear in North America. Community in general is a lot stronger outside of North America, and I'm having a hard time even describing it because I get a little bit emotional. Just seeing the power of love and friendship and food and how it plays in everyday life.

Like, you'll be in Spain and you're talking easily four or five hours outta the day people are at restaurants, people are in the in, in the squares. They come there, they grab their coffee, they, they chat with the locals, they go to work, they come back. I'll never, I'll give you a Cartagena actual, exact experience that blew my mind. Because my wife is from there. Um, she's like, oh, we're gonna have a lunch. Someone's throwing you a lunch. Um, I was like, great. That sounds so awesome. One of her family members like, Hey, you're in town. We wanna throw him a lunch. We wanna get to know him. I'm like, wow, that's so great. Thank you so much.

That wasn't even the crux of it. It was like at 1:00 PM in the afternoon, there was 20 people sitting at a dining table meant for like a dinner of dinners. Okay? There was food being passed everywhere. 1:00 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. I'm looking around, I'm saying, what is going on? I asked my wife, I'm like, do these people work? What's happening? I don't understand.

She's like, every single person at this table works. I'm just like, how are they here? Like. This is their lunch break and after this they're gonna go nap. And after that they're gonna go back to work and that is how they live life. And it was just so eye-opening.

It was such an epiphany for me to basically understand that hey, this rat race that we all are in is what they're feeding us. And I'm not saying that there are, there're not downsides of living outside of North America. Life is hard. That's why people want, I mean, the first response like is why does everyone wanna come to the U.S.? Why does everybody wanna come to Canada? Well, guess what? Not everybody wants to, okay, they're telling you that everybody wants to, but you know, out of the, let's say outta the US out of, how many millions of immigrants there are, I guarantee you there's way more Mexicans living in Mexico.

And so to answer your question, it's like, yes, I do see it a lot more and it's very powerful

Paula Mohammed: Are you and Vanessa happier now in these communities and experiencing life this way versus when you were living in the States and Canada?

Michael Motamedi: I think it's a little bit of a loaded question only because absolutely, yes. But there are some kind of contextual things that need to be addressed there, right? One, we're living within our means; how grandiose they might be to some people or not to others, but we're able to spend every day with our kid. That's a very big important thing.

But yes, if I was gonna answer your question on the surface, I think that if I see another Walmart or a McDonald's or somebody saying like, that's making, you know, two, $300,000 a year, $150,000 a year and is struggling, I. I don't, I don't want to see that anymore. You know, that to me is wrong.

There's something inherently, there's an issue of, there's an issue with capitalism. Even though I have made my wealth on capitalism, I understand it. I understand what it is, but I also see the other side of it, and there is something wrong with the system, and we are in the middle of it right now. I always talk about the American dream. I don't call it the American Dream anymore. I call it the New American Dream, right? 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you could save up your money, buy a house, work every single day, then retire by selling your house and downsizing. Those days are gone. They are gone.

Our dollars in Canada and in the US are going so much further outside of our own native homes that the new American dream, the new Canadian dream, is to make money somehow, whether nomadic or not. And go and spend it in other countries. Now, the impact that that might make on those countries is unfortunate.

I'm just talking about, I'm living my life. I'm here for, you know, 60-70 years max. Right? Half my life is gone. I'm, you know, just going with the punches at this point.

Paula Mohammed: That's, so it's interesting you brought up about people taking their money and living abroad. Recently traveling, I struggle a little bit with, uh, the impact of tourism and so we were just, uh, recently in Portugal. I had lived in Portugal for a little bit, further north from where you were. I was in Cascais just outside of Lisbon and very different time in 1998 to what it's like now. So sometimes I struggle with the negative impacts of tourism. I get around it by, for me, traveling is about learning and understanding people and, hopefully creating better community worldwide that way. You, I imagine would have a big influence on a lot of people about where they're choosing to travel. Does the impact of tourism come into play when you choose where you and Vanessa and Penelope go?

Michael Motamedi: Great question. Um, very, very great question. Something that I toggle with quite a bit. There is definitely a negative impact from an influx of tourism on the local community. There just is. And I had this amazing conversation. We didn't, we did not film it. We did not do anything. I was at a bar that was established in 1920 here in San Miguel.

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a chef and I asked him the exact same question. I say, what do you think about the gentrification and the influx in tourism and expats that are coming into your city, which is San Miguel De Allende, for those that don't know, which is probably unknown to many, but is a big expat community for Canadians and for Americans.

And he said something so profound to me. He said, it's too late to determine if it's right or wrong. He said, now we adapt with the culture and we see the positives and the negatives as we do with everything in life. Whether there was expats or tourism or not, there are still going to be negatives and positives that come.

That's the beauty of life there. There is no good without evil. And so when he said it to me like that, as a native, as a local, as somebody who has three or four restaurants here, he's like, I do see the impact. I do benefit from the expats and from the tourism. But I also see the negative side of it as well too with cost of living rising.

But it's just part of the beauty that's been created, right? And so I kind of live within that philosophy. Even I was though, I was not able to emulate it as properly as he was. It's just this idea that you're gonna stop people from coming to a beautiful place. Nobody looks at the impact when it comes to us and Canada either. It's the same thing that happens. When you had a big influx in Toronto back five, 10 years ago when the Chinese dollar was coming into Toronto and was purchasing an immense amount of condominiums. I mean, there was horror stories of condo buildings being absolutely empty with just the guards sitting there because the Chinese were buying citizenship into Canada. That didn't make news. That wasn't like this huge, crazy thing. I mean, maybe in Canada it was, but it wasn't this huge, crazy thing, and so it kind of balances out, right? If you have a beautiful town that people want to visit, the only thing that you can do is to embrace it.

Now do I think that there needs to be some regulation from a government level? I do. And I think that is happening right now in places like Barcelona or Malaga, um, maybe even Lisbon, where they are stopping Airbnbs because the regulation isn't as high and people are buying outside investments, raising real estate prices, and basically ousting the locals from being able to live inside of Barcelona. So it's a very interesting question. I just don't think that there's a way to stop it. I just don't.

Paula Mohammed: One of the reasons why I want to go to Colombia now, Carte-, can you just pronounce carte? Am I saying it right? Cartagena.

You're saying it basically perfect. That's why I didn't correct you the last time. Paula, it's Cartagena. And you're saying Cartagena, so very, very close. Yeah.

I felt Juan Del Mar was encouraging, like I feel like that was Portugal maybe 20 years ago. So it, it did have a positive influence your episode on me choosing that I wanna go there at some point in the near future.

Michael Motamedi: Real quick on that, just before we go on, there's always two sides to a story, right? A business owner is always going to want business. The worker who works there who wants to live down the street is not. And the same thing happens in North America as well too, right?

We've seen small towns erupt, that are going crazy in the U.S., specifically like Louisville or Nashville. These places have been quote unquote gentrified in a way, but from a state perspective, it's amazing because people want to visit there and they want to see what Nashville is like.

Guess what? 20, 30 years ago, the people who were living, you know, on the Honky Tonk can't live there anymore because prices have gone up. I mean, this is just economic evolution. It's unfortunate for some, and fortunate for others.

Paula Mohammed: I'm in Vancouver and the likelihood of my kids being able to afford to buy a home in Vancouver is highly unlikely. We were been going to Whistler since 1985, which is a very popular ski resort now. It took us three hours to drive up there over Easter. But it's also been an influx of economic growth, just to put it in perspective, it should take an hour and a half to drive up there.

So, yeah, it's interesting what's happening in the world. I think it's great if it makes people pause, reflect, think. And also when we travel, to look at exploring culture through food, have an interest in getting to know. Because there's also this amazing positive that comes out of it where if we can have a better understanding of other cultures and then bring that home, it changes our perspective and how we get on with each other as well. Which is, which is great. That's my philosophy on it.

Michael Motamedi: That is like music to my ears, because I think a lot of people forget that when they are in different countries and they're being treated differently, it's not nice. Right? And then you go back to your own country and you treat other people differently because they have an accent? I think the biggest thing that I've learned is we are all a lot more similar than we are not.

Paula Mohammed: Right.

Michael Motamedi: And we laugh about the same things and we love eating great food and we love cooking great food and we love feeding our kids and our cousins and our friends and our family great food. And we love laughing at the same jokes.

If you see your brother trip on a step and fall down and hit his face on the concrete, you're gonna laugh at first and then try to help them. Like, like those are all things that we all have in common. I think that the people who are running the world, quote unquote, are trying to divide us, unfortunately. And it's sick and it's unnecessary and there are solutions to live in harmony.

And I think to take it back to food, I think that probably would be the best place to do it. If we could get the whole world and sit at a big dining table and all have great food, I bet you we're all gonna get along and laugh at the people who are, you know, puppeteering us right now.

Paula Mohammed: I agree wholeheartedly. Let's jump to pig nipples and ham juice in...

Michael Motamedi: What a transition, Paula!

Paula Mohammed: I know. We may not want to serve that at our big dinner table.

Michael Motamedi: On the contrary. On the contrary...

Paula Mohammed: This is want to know. So this, for our listeners, this is a, um, episode on Michael's YouTube channel and it totally pulled me in. Tell us about that dish and be honest about how that experience was because watching it is one thing. And then if you could just segue into that about the dish that you're sharing with us today as well, and why you chose it.

Michael Motamedi: Okay. By the way, just as I shared with, I was like trying to think of the weirdest thing because I'm a really weird guy and we'll get to that in a second. But just prefacing that, hold that as a note in your ears, okay?

The video that she's talking about was a homage to Anthony Bourdain while I was in Spain. And if you know, are an avid, , not even an avid listener or reader or watcher of Anthony Bourdain, you can probably tell that I have a lot of influence from him. He is probably, you know, as close to a God as anybody can get in my mind with the what he's preached. Unfortunately, God rest his soul, it seems that he had a lot of demons that we weren't aware of, and I think a lot of great, great people in the world are like that because you only see them on the surface, right?

Um, but we ended up going to three or four of his top favorite restaurants in Barcelona. And, um, the one that Paula is speaking about was, um, a very eccentric, I would say, to, to say the least, uh, restaurant. And, we sat there and we asked, you know, what, what should we order as usual? I, I usually don't come in with the meal or a dish in my mind. I usually let the server or the chef pick for me, because, you know, you only live once. Now, was I expecting to get an upside down, upside, an upside down concrete or marble pig and they served actual real pig nipples in the same exact place that the nipples would go. No, that was not, that was not what I was expecting at all.

Now that being said, as you dipped it into, what was it? I don't even remember what it was. What did you say it was?

Paula Mohammed: Ham juice in a glass.

Michael Motamedi: Ham juice. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you take the pig nipples and you dip it in the juice. And let me tell you something. It was so savory. So wonderful and just, you know, when you have a nice rib eye and you're looking forward to that little piece of fat to accompany your steak. Okay, I'm sorry vegans out there who have never experienced this, but it is a divine, divine experience. That was like having a Kobe fat piece in your mouth. It just sat on your tongue and melted away, and it was...

Paula Mohammed: Okay..

Michael Motamedi: ...phenomenal.

Paula Mohammed: And was the ham juice cold or warm?

Michael Motamedi: Warm.

Paula Mohammed: Okay. I could do that. Yeah. Interesting. I wasn't sure if it was more like cartilage. Your description's perfect. Because I love that little piece of grizzle with my steak.

Michael Motamedi: Yeah.

Paula Mohammed: Now, the dish that you're sharing with us today, um, I'm going to let you introduce it.

Michael Motamedi: I wanna preface something. The thing that I pride myself when I am in, um, a different country, even though I do like to cook at home for my family, isn't really trying to replicate their dishes. It's really to experience the food in that world. When Paula asked what's the dish that I would like to share, initially it was pretty difficult because I'm like, I was in love with the Oisin fish market in Barbados, or the original Fat Boys in St. Martin or the el pastor tacos in Brasimix in San Miguel or the zucchini pasta in Amalfi or the cochino, the suckling pig in Colombia, or the street food in Mexico.

But like, I never made any of those, right? Because I go there to experience them making it. But I knew that this dish that she was requiring was something that I was making. And it made me remember the first time that I went to Barcelona, I spent 30 days there. And if you go to my channel on TikTok or Instagram, you'll see it was 30 days of tinned fish or what they like to call _conserva_, which is basically tinned every kind of tinned seafood you can imagine, from tinned uni to tinned anchovies to octopus. And in this case, baby eels. Okay? And these are the real baby eels. They have some fake ones in Spain. They have the real baby eels.

And when I was asking around the markets in like the Boqueria market in, in, in Barcelona, which is one of my favorite places to visit, as commercialized as it may be, I know people are out there like, ah, you know, blah, blah. But, um, I said, what do people do with these canned baby eels? I can't even imagine. What are you doing with this? And the dish that they told me to make was a pan-fried egg or a sunny side up egg, or a fried egg, whichever one you prefer. And then you pan fry the baby eels. You basically just, it's in olive oil.

So you, you dump the baby eels into a skillet of whatever, whatever it may be, and you cook it in garlic and peppers. Then you fry your egg in the same oil, and then you top the egg with the baby eels. And it looks like a dish from another planet, but is one of the most delicious breakfasts you will ever have.

And I wanted to come out with a bang for the first time being on Paula's podcast. I didn't want to say burger or ceviche or pizza or pasta. I wanted to say fried eggs with baby eels on top.

And if you wanna go the extra mile, the last time I created that dish was the, was last year in Barcelona, and I did it with an ostrich egg. And then if you ever had an ostrich egg, it's the size of a human head. So there you go. Very simple. Pan fry the eels, fry your egg, throw it on top, and you are good to go.

Paula Mohammed: We'll have that recipe in the show notes and I'm gonna go and see if I can find a canned or tinned baby eels somewhere here in Vancouver, which I bet you I can. But I'm curious. We actually used to catch eels when I lived in New Zealand, in the river on the farm. And those eels are, are super long, like, you know, so a baby eel, like, I'm trying to picture this dish.

How, how long or how big are these baby eels?

Michael Motamedi: Probably the size of your ring finger max.

Paula Mohammed: okay. I can do that. Okay.

Michael Motamedi: And we're talking the diameter of a toothpick.

Paula Mohammed: Oh, easy,

Michael Motamedi: So you're talking like a can filled with little toothpicks.

Paula Mohammed: Right. Nice?

Michael Motamedi: very easy to digest, very, I mean, you're not talking like, you know, medieval eels being dropped on your eggs, you know. They almost feel like, you know, um, almost like soft fries.

Paula Mohammed: it sounds good, actually. It sounds really good. I'm gonna try it. See if I can find them. You mentioned something, is there a story behind this about it going viral? What's that story?

Michael Motamedi: So I had no idea how much North Americans were in, I don't know if they, like, I'm gonna use the word intrigued by tinned food. I think maybe because it's so, I guess, looked down upon in North America for a lot of, I mean, it's usually just, you know, tuna sandwiches for the most part. Right? Um, for the masses, I would say.

But in Spain and in Portugal, tinned food, _conserva_ is considered a delicacy. I mean, it is considered part of main, main dishes. Like you will go to restaurants, they will serve you, you know, tinned anchovies in a tin with a side of bread, and that's your meal. They literally will just crack it open. Or if you go to Quimet Quimet in Barcelona, their entire menu is just tinned food. I'm talking tinned hens, tinned octopus, tinned eggs, tinned... I mean, it is just, it is something else. And so I was like, you know what? This is something really interesting to do with Spain. Why don't I do every day I'll make a different recipe with tinned food. And I called it tinned fish day one of 30. I did it for 30 days straight. And that probably got over 12 million, 13 million views, um, within the month. It was absolutely bonkers.

Paula Mohammed: Wow.

Michael Motamedi: And then, and I ended up be they started calling me that, that the Fish Papi. I, I did not ask for that name. It's somewhat disturbing but I ended up making some shirts called the, the Fish Papi aprons and Fish Papi shirts. I mean, I was like, if people want it, let's do it, right?

Paula Mohammed: So is this all happening while you were living there as part of this three year journey?

Michael Motamedi: Oh yeah. It was so our, like I said, our first stop was... this was the second year I believe it was. So we did our first month in Spain was in Barcelona. And I literally would just go to markets, tinned fish stores, _conserva_ stores. Every day, I'd pick up one different tinned food and a bottle of wine. And I would make a recipe with it. I wouldn't just make it.

And now if you go on TikTok or you go on Instagram and you type in tinned fish, there are so many people who have been inspired by what I did and they're blowing up. And there is not a day in my comments, I swear I will go, Paula, I'll go to Michelin star restaurants, have conversation with the chefs, cook food on the Amalfi coast in the middle of like, you know, the Riviera. Okay? And I will not get as much views as me, you know, making a salad with anchovies in Spain. Okay.

Paula Mohammed: That's great. I'm gonna go and do that search. And I brought some tinned fish home from Portugal. And just a side note and I wanna know if you agree with me, you don't need to be buying the fancy branded labeled tin cans. Just go to the local grocery store and get the ones there that are from the country that you're in. That's my two two bits.

So you mentioned Michelin stars. When you're traveling, are you going to Michelin star restaurants as well? Is that part of the experience that you want to seek out? I know you're passionate about the local cuisine as well, but I'm kind of interested because I imagine after three and a half years and the exposure you've had, people probably want to bring you to their places to experience. Not unlike, Mr. Bourdain when he was traveling.

Michael Motamedi: Yeah, it's definitely true. I get DMs every single day. "Come here, try it out. Try it out. Try it out. Let's see." I do a little vetting myself to ensure that I'm going to enjoy it. Not that other people would not, because I don't have a negative channel. If I eat somewhere or I dine somewhere and I don't like it, nine times out of 10, I will not make a video about it.

I'll just eat, even if I've filmed it, it's been ready to go. I will not do it just because I might not have liked it. Or the kitchen might have had an off day, or the staff might have had an off day. I don't want that responsibility on my hands. I just don't like negative content.

One video can destroy a restaurant or a hotel or whatever it may be, and that's not my job to do. I'm here to just spread love and, you know, share cool places to go. If I don't like somewhere, guess what? I didn't mention it, so it's not my responsibility. But to answer your question, from like a Michelin star restaurant to, you know, more local cuisine, I'm a big advocate of going highbrow lowbrow.

Because not only is it interesting to see what a different city will do on a higher level and a lower level. If you go to Mexico City, it's a very great inclination of that. Like it is just one of my favorite places in the world. You can go to a Michelin star restaurant and spend a thousand dollars for three or four people, or you can go on the street and spend, you know, 10 pesos on a taco and you are going to love it.

I don't like when people in my comments section say, "well, you should go try to local stuff you haven't tried". First of all, you haven't been watching my channel, you don't know. But even if I hadn't and I was literally just going to the best places of a specific city, you should be proud of that as a Mexican or as a San Miguel native. I understand that you have proud of your native cuisine, but you should be proud that there are chefs of your culture, of your race, of your background, of your nationality that are creating food at this level, right? It's like. You don't see, and this is a, a positive side to my opinion, of North America in cities like Toronto, British Columbia, New York, LA you know, places that I've been, I'm not saying anywhere else that I've been, but you go there, you want to experience a five star Italian spot. You want to experience an Omakase in LA or in New York, right? They might be Japanese people that live there, but they are American, they are Canadian, and they're bringing up that city with what they've done and the caliber at which they're bringing it to. So long-winded way of saying is, I think that when you go places, put some dollars aside, save some dollars aside to be able to go to some of the highbrow places, see what they're doing there, and then, you know, go all in on the native stuff because it is absolutely wonderful. Like, you're not gonna get a better taco in America than you're gonna get on a side street in Mexico City. It's not going to happen.

Paula Mohammed: And on that note, what advice do you have for our listeners to find those authentic local places in their travels?

Michael Motamedi: Okay. Um, it's hard, but it's the real deal. It's being a human being and talking to other human beings, okay? We can do as many podcasts as we can here. I wouldn't even be able to remember the street food that I went on, but I do remember asking one street food guy, where can I get the best _lingua_ tacos, tongue tacos. Where can I get the best _cabesa_ tacos? Where can I get the best _chicharron_? They would point to me and I would walk. To find real local cuisine, it's difficult. You're not gonna read it in a Forbes. You're not gonna read it in a Travel & Leisure. You're not going to read it in Google Maps. These are all paid placements, okay? If you don't know, I'm telling you now, they're paid placements. Okay?

Paula Mohammed: Right, exactly. It's talking to the people. If you're, um, at a restaurant, I always ask the person "Hey, where do you go for lunch?" Where does your family like to go if you're gonna go out? Or where should I go and get the best, whatever it is where I am.

Michael Motamedi: And just don't be scared. I think that's the big thing. Like Paula, we don't know each other very well. We're getting to know each other. We're gonna know each other much better. But it seems like we have a lot of the same philosophy. Like, people are nice. By and large people are nice. Okay?

You might hear Mexicans are scary and they want to invade your land. They don't, okay? They're very nice people. They're one of the warmest people. Even when I hear about French and France, yes, they're rough around the edges. I understand that. Quick little beer, a little tip, whatever it may be, you're gonna break that barrier.

I was in Montenegro for a month, and it's like very Eastern European, and same with Slovenia. Very rough around the edges, very stoic faces. You share one beer, and I've never had a better time in my life. This is a side note, if you haven't been, go to Slovenia. Go to Slovenia. Go to Slovenia. People are nice. They want you to have a good time in their country. I promise you.

Paula Mohammed: I'm jotting down notes, because as we talk there's more and more things I'd want to ask you about. One of them being Slovenia.

But before we get to that, I wanted to go back to when we were talking about local restaurants versus Michelin Star. Do you have a philosophy or thought around, and I'm picking out Lisbon in particular, Lisbon in Portugal where there's been, I think they were just voted as the best food in Europe. I believe.

The fusion of the meals that are happening there. What's your perspective or philosophy on that, because you've had a lot of exposure now. Are you seeing a lot of fusion cuisine in the different countries that you're going to, and do you have any thoughts around it?

Michael Motamedi: Let's not take life too seriously. Let's not take food too seriously. No judgment. Right. I think we want chefs to be artists, as they are. And we want them to create whatever is in their mind. If they have the right motive behind it, I'm all for it.

I'll try it. I might not like it, but I'm excited and I'm intrigued and I'm proud to see other humans create things that I could never in my wildest dreams imagine, right? It's like telling a Picasso not to travel around Europe and be inspired by France. You know what I mean?

You just wanted to, to just be doing the Spanish, countryside. Like, it's just, that's just not how the world works, right? There is creativity in all of us. Just some people know how to express it in different ways. And I believe chefs are probably the most undermined, you know, up there with tattoo artists, in my opinion, in the artist's world, right?

And so am I more of a purist? Yes. I do want to go in Portugal and try Portuguese food. Do I wanna stifle a chef? I actually think he's paying respect and homage to his native cuisine, he's like, Hey, I want to elevate this. How do I elevate this? Well, let me bring some Asian in there. Let me bring some American in there. Let me bring some French in there. Lemme bring some Spanish in there. So to me. I think all of us need to just chill out a little bit, to be honest. I know it's probably not a popular opinion, but it's like let's eat, let just, if it's, if you like it, you like it. If you don't, you don't guess what? Next door there's probably a place who's literally serving sausage that's being flamed at a fado bar. Okay. Like it's gonna be okay.

Paula Mohammed: It's not unlike what you said about people who spend their day putting negative comments in your posts. You're doing what you want to do. If they don't like it, then don't follow. Let people be. I think there is something about as your generation and my generation and the next generations continue, I try to encourage people to make sure that they bring up those recipes from their grandparents and put your own thumbprint on it. But let's not lose that tradition and the heritage that we have.

Michael Motamedi: I think what you're saying is more, I agree with what you're saying. By the way, I would never wanna lose a family recipe. There's so much importance there, but I think there's a difference between the four walls that you live in or the kitchen that you're cooking in versus a chef who's trying to do something unique and put their name on the map and create a legacy for themselves, right?

If you want to create a Michelin star restaurant or just a very high end restaurant in Portugal. Well, guess what? There is probably a hundred or thousands of restaurants that have already done that. So it's now their job to put their name on the map by creating something different. And let's be honest, everything has already been thought of. I don't care what you've done. It's been created. And so we don't call it copy, we call it being inspired by, and so if you're inspired by Japanese cuisine and you want to intertwine it with your Portuguese cuisine, by all means go for it.

Paula Mohammed: I think that's a brilliant distinction family heritage versus somebody making their mark , and having creative license. Speaking of brilliant, it became very apparent to me that you're brilliant at marketing what you do. You have this YouTube channel and we'll put all the links in the show notes. Instagram, I'm not on TikTok, but I know your channel's blowing up on that. My kids have told me that. I'm curious through this content creation, and I know you mentioned earlier that the key is to front end it, but through this experience, have you had times where you find you're working more than you're traveling? Or are you losing that traveling feeling sometimes?

Michael Motamedi: Early on, 100%. When I decided to pull the trigger and market myself for the first time in my life, it was an interesting kind of experience to have. But I think the only way to be successful, there is gonna be a sacrifice that needs to be made, especially in content creation. Nowadays where I'm kind of getting lazier and lazier. If I miss a day, I miss a day, you know? But I will tell all the, you know, potential or ambitious content creators, influencers, whatever they may be out there that yes, it's gonna take a lot of work, but there is a plus side to that, and at least for someone like me who can find myself becoming lazy and like, oh, I'll just go to the local bar down the street and I'll be happy.

This content creation, at the very least, what motivated me and still motivates me till this day. Is that it pushes me to do really cool and unique things that I would otherwise not do. You know, like right now after this, I am jumping in a car and we are going to go find this traditional sandwich, Mexican sandwich that is completely immersed in tomato sauce and you eat it like that with gloves.

And so I'm very, I'm very excited about that. I would probably be usually pretty lazy after a podcast like this. I'm like, let me just go hang out by the pool. But you know, it's pushing me to do, so yesterday we went to a Tuesday market here in Mexico on the hunt for eyeball tacos. Would I usually do that?

Probably not. But I thought, hey, it would make some really good content. Did we find the eyeball tacos? No. Did I have three of the best tacos I've ever had in my life? Yes. The major thing that I like to get across when I talk to people, whether it's on a dinner table, whether it's in passing or in a podcast, Paula is just appreciate every last drop of what's happening in front of you. Right? We are all, and I don't want to get morbid, but I will. We are all going to die and if we're lucky, if I'm lucky, half my life is over, if I'm lucky.

Paula Mohammed: What is next for you? How long are you and Vanessa and Penelope going to keep traveling the world?

Michael Motamedi: So the conversation changes every single week. Right now I really am looking for stability for my daughter as she's turning four. And I just know the benefits that that brought to me. And so I have to put a little bit of my selfishness aside, I think. But there are a lot of arguments and studies that we've been reading, you know, in, especially in Scandinavian countries where they don't place their kids into school until five or seven.

So we're just looking for the argument that best matches us at the moment. But, um, there is a very good chance that we will continue for the rest of the year. But there is also a very good chance that we will settle down in Spain as well. That's kind of where our headspace is at right now. It seems like it's not the perfect place, but what we realized over the last three years that there is never a perfect place.

If I didn't have a kid, I think I would settle down in the Caribbean with a nice beach house in crystal clear waters, or maybe even in Asia and Bali or whatever it may be. But with a child, I'll need to be at least somewhat near to my family in the states. You know, having museums and culture and great education. And also, number one: food. I really need great food. I don't find that anywhere else. Um, that's just stable, good food. So this last three years, to me, has been a really great experience to figure out what's gonna be good for us and our family. And I just urge people to do the same for themselves.

You might have kids that are young, you might have kids that are old. You might not have any kids. You might be single. You might be solo. You might be divorced. You might be married. You might like warm, you might like cold. All I'm telling you now, and this is me directly to your listeners, is figure out a way to live the life that you wanna live. And if you can't at this moment, do everything that you possibly can every single day of your life to get to that point, because you're going to cease to exist. And then it's over. And this is a beautiful place we live. I mean, we're lucky.

Paula Mohammed: Follow your dreams and sometimes it means that we have to do things in the present that we don't necessarily want to do, but it's going to have a big payoff in the long run.

Michael Motamedi: Exactly. Just find that threshold though, because you...

Paula Mohammed: You gotta do stuff that you enjoy.

Michael Motamedi: The best thing that I heard, two of the, two of the things that I really love when I heard was like, everybody's waiting to retire to travel, and then when you retire, you can't do it anymore. You know what I mean? No one on their deathbed said, I wish I traveled less. I heard this from another podcast: if you die tomorrow, your boss is going to put your job up on LinkedIn or on Indeed by the end of the week. Just remember that, okay?

Paula Mohammed: Everybody's replaceable.

Michael Motamedi: Exactly. And you're not gonna remember how great you did for your boss in a year from now. Okay. But you are gonna remember having a nice suckling pig on the coast of Indonesia. You know what I mean?

Paula Mohammed: Exactly. I never regret a workout and I never regret a trip or travelling. If I've been worried about if I can afford the trip or if it's the right time. Never regretted it.

Michael, I want to come back to Slovenia because this has not been on my radar. But I would love to hear more about your experience and why we should travel there. Because it's not something that I would automatically go, "Hey, I wanna go to Slovenia."

Michael Motamedi: Okay, so the videos are not out. The podcast is not out from my understanding. But we did a full length, like 30-minute pilot in Slovenia, so that'll be coming out soon. And my wife and I did our first podcast, one-on-one with no guests talking about Slovenia, and we have a lot of short form coming out on that.

So not a lot of people know how strongly I feel about Slovenia. That's the only reason why I just want to talk about it. I'm not being paid or anything like that, I swear to God. Exactly what you said. I had no desire or need at all to go to Slovenia. Okay. And when I heard about it, I was like, okay, let's do it. Obviously.

I mean, I've been, I've been, people tell me to go to Bhutan. I'm like, let's go to Bhutan, let's go to Georgia. Let's go to Georgia. I don't care. I wanna go everywhere. Um, but when I got to Slovenia, we were in Ljubljana, which is the main city of the capital city, which is just the most beautiful. It's like Toronto with like a river in the middle of it.

Okay. Like you're on King Street, a Yonge, a Yonge Street. Like a Yonge Street is a river. Okay. It's just so gorgeous. The food is absolutely insane. And that's just in  Ljubljana. It, the country is very small. I think it's like a four or five hour trip from one side of the other so you can experience the whole thing.

It's got a lot of that Northern Italy, it's got that Southern Croatia. You were like right in the midst of the most, you know, influential countries from a cuisine perspective in the world. You're in it, you're breathing it, and then on top of that it is some of the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen.

I'm going give you a couple cool examples. One: went fly fishing. Okay. Absolutely amazing. It's some of the best fly fishing in the world, which I never knew. I'm not even a fly fisher, but they say people from all around the world come over to fly fish. Doing fly fishing, catch the fish, go and cook it. Okay?

There are towns, little towns that you go to that look like, almost like gnomes should be living there. Okay? Straw roofs, the most beautiful things you've ever seen. You can stay in these little inns, these little bed and breakfasts. They cook for you. They forage. They forage and forage and forage. They'll take you mushroom foraging, they'll take, I even went truffle hunting with dogs. Like it was so amazing. And then we finished our trip at one of the most picturesque towns. I'm talking maybe 200 people. Rolling hills like you see in Switzerland, grass rolling hills with huge foliages and, and forests behind it.

And there's a Michelin star there. I can't remember what it was called, but I'll message you so you can put it in there. And it's so modern and so beautiful. Got floor to ceiling windows and I'm sitting out there with the chef, it's a Michelin star restaurant. I'm sitting there and he's pointing at his town. He's like, I have a duck farm over there. My aunt's got a dairy farm over there. My sister has a garden over there. And I'm like, you know, everybody in this town? He's like, yes, of course. He's like, I've actually been, I've been drunk walking around this town. He is pointing at the houses. He's like, I've been to the bathroom of every single one of these people's homes.

Paula Mohammed: What an amazing experience to have. I definitely want to go to Slovenia. I want to have that experience. I love the immersive piece of it where you can, like you said, the chef lives right there. Forages there. Has the duck farm there. This is a perfect time to share with our listeners, how we can follow you on the different platforms. And then I'll also put the links in the show notes because I think, many of us would like to dive into your experiences in Slovenia more.

Michael Motamedi: Sure. So, on all TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, it's just my name, Michael Motamedi. Um, and, uh, our podcast is called _No Fixed Address_ because we don't have a fixed address and our podcast is very, very unique in the way that it's a traveling podcast that travels. Okay. And so for people who know how difficult it is to get sound right. To have mics and mixers, et cetera, we travel with a little suitcase and we will be in little islands that are indigenous islands off the Philippines. We will be in Juan del Mar's restaurants in Cartagena. We will be in Harajuku, Tokyo talking about the study of cuteness. We will be at the cookie factories. We will be in the places that these people that we interview are in. It is so unique, so difficult, but fascinating.

Paula Mohammed: I love that because why I started this podcast show is I couldn't find shows, I hadn't come across yours yet, where they were interviewing. I wanted to learn about the culture through food from people, from the places. And you've taken it that next step where you are actually there. I mean, that's, that's brilliant. I love it. And it's a great show.

Michael Motamedi: Don't, don't mind some of the sound issues. I mean, like, I'll be honest with you, like we're in a kitchen, there's people cooking, you know, like we do as much noise cancellation as we possibly can, but it's difficult. I mean, it's hard.

Paula Mohammed: It's, I think it's great. I think it brings a sense of humanness to it and also helps draw, draws me in to feel like I'm there. I felt like I was in Cartagena with Chef Juan  Delmar. It was, it was. I loved it.

Michael Motamedi: Thank you so much.

Paula Mohammed: Michael, thank you. This has been such a treat for me to meet you, have this chat and, uh, you're just a wealth of knowledge, but I also really appreciate your perspective and I wish you and Vanessa and Penelope all the best in your future endeavors.

Michael Motamedi: Thank you Paula. I really appreciate your time. Thank you for having me on and hopefully we'll be able to, maybe make some eel eggs together sometime soon.

Paula Mohammed: I would love that. I'd love that. Thanks so much, Michael.

I had so much fun chatting with Michael. He actually changed the way I'm going to travel. Because normally. When I go traveling, I kind of pride myself on not going to the Michelin Star restaurants. I enjoy finding something that's not on the tourist grid, so to speak, but Michael brings up a fantastic point, is looking at these, Michelin star restaurants or the highbrow places as another avenue of how food is being celebrated, how chefs are being created, and where that country, the people, the culture is going with their cuisine. So that just gave me a fantastic excuse to save up a little bit and hit some of those highbrow restaurants on my next trips.

Anyway, if you love this episode, please give us a five star rating on our show at In My Kitchen with Paula. Just click on the three dots, go to show and then scroll down to rate and review where you can give us a five star rating and also write your own review. It goes a long way to helping us get in front of other culinary adventurers just like you. Thanks, and we'll catch you on the next episode.