I Had No Chance Of Being Skinny

After a two month hiatus, this new episode of RideShare RoadTalk weaves its way through pizza dough secrets, family recipes, and a twelve‑hour, tear inducing lasagna. Veering into Cairo culture shock, hospitality, and the strange economy of scandal from the Clinton years, we find ourselves in yet another moving conversation about food, memory, and finding comfort on unfamiliar roads.

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Transcript

Pizza Dough Obsession

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk, Conversations in Motion. A podcast where we create unfiltered talk space that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host, and driver, John Foddett. And we're cruising the streets of Washington, D.C. Buckle up. Let's drive. Hi. I hope you brought pizza for everybody. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Good, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I'm okay. Kind of winding down my night. A little slow.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Everyone's on vacation. Congress is out.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Slow time in DC.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Oh, hi. That's a large bus. Pardon us. Wow, that was really aggressive.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Normally I would concede I'm just a dummy, but no, that person was just not really nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

What have you been learning tonight?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Tonight, absolutely nothing. Other than you make your own pizza. Which is admirable.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Um, well, yeah, slow summer, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Are you making your own dough or are you doing the store bought? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Okay. Yeah, I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

That's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

I've been perfecting it for years and I feel like. I think no, really, I'm just saying that I think I just got to the point where I could actually be like proud of it. Like it wasn't ever bad, you know, but it takes baking takes years of work.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Well, sure. It's I mean, it's alchemy. It's just, you know, it's balance, and you certainly know what you're putting in it as opposed to, you know, any restaurant or whatever. I don't have the patience for the dough process. Um in the past, I've made um like Greek, it's called somme bread. Uh-huh. And I don't know what makes it Greek sommeil bread, but it's just it's very distinct.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Um like flatbread?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

No, no, it's like a loaf. Um, but it's it's very, very pocketed and airy. Not so much like a facaccia, but a little bit tighter than that. Uh-huh. Slightly more dense. Um I just remember growing up with it. My grandmother would make it. And um it wasn't bad. But like pizza dough, I just start rising and letting it sit overnight, whatever you have to do.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

You know, not overnight, actually. But yes, I hear you. It's not for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

It's a quick rising yeast, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Not really. It's a it's a time thing always.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

You have to be planning ahead to be able to have pizza and eat, for sure. Which is not always the easiest, so not for everyone, but that's that's my thing. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Um, but but good for you. So uh you never know. You can start slinging pizzas.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

True. There's something about once you start making money for doing the thing you like to do, though.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

It doesn't become a passion anymore. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

It's just, you know. That's fair. But I I hear you. That's definitely you know, if all else crashes, like I guess I'll uh sling bread out of my window.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Well, if you lived in New York, it'd be great. You could just pulley it down on a dumb waiter or something and throw down a cash bag. Right. Always been a cook? Curious or family kind of a thing?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, I think I've always been curious by way of family, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

I was the same way. I used to just hang out for hours in the kitchen with my mom. She wouldn't teach me anything. But it was almost just like, you know, you just absorb it because you're just in the room.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I would always be in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah.

The Once‑a‑Year Lasagna Ritual

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah. I yeah, I'd say my grandmother and my mom just between the two of them, like always gravitated there. Mm-hmm. And then you just get older and you have to feed yourself. So I guess it you might as well take pleasure doing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Or else she used to make this, it was like a family lasagna dish. Must have been passed down. I mean, when I was a kid, the recipe was probably 60 or 70 years old.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And long after she passed away, it almost kind of like uh homage to her, I would only have lasagna once a year, and I would make that recipe on Christmas Eve the way she would do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Wow. Um Do you have it written down?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Oh yeah, it's in her handwriting. It's it's the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

And uh it took me a while. This I mean, she passed away a long time ago, like 20 something years ago. But like I just refused to eat lasagna for like years and years and years. As like, yeah, why bother? Because I've had the best and this just stop. And so it must have been like five years, and my wife was like, Why don't you make it? I'm like, all right. And I literally it the gravy takes like 12 hours, it's insane, and the tray weighs like at least 15 pounds. It's just it's ridiculous. And so I do the whole rigmarole, the kitchen looks like a disaster, and everything works out fine. And then you know how smell and taste is just a huge memory trigger. I took one bite and I literally just burst into tears in front of like 30 people. Like, what the hell's wrong with you? I was like, not fine. I just haven't you did it. Oh, yeah, it was incredible, it was amazing. Um, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, so your family's Italian?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

It's Greek and Italian, yeah. Greek Italian, yeah. Little Russian Jew in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So, and then I married an Egyptian woman, so lots going on in my house.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Lot of Mediterranean.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Lots going on, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah. You know what the best way, at least for the way that I grew up, was uh with the lasagna. It was always better the next day.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

In the morning, cold, right out of the fridge, and then rehit it with some olive oil and like a pinch of garlic salt. Oh my god. And no one gets it. They're like, cold? What do you mean? I'm like, trust me, man, you gotta try it cold because it's the way it sets up, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

The flavor's all meltdown. Oh my gosh. Kind of like a cake almost, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

No chance of being skinny. No chance.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

It's not like it's not that bad for you. That's healthy food.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Once a year, fine. Yeah. But you know, I just turned 57, so doctor's orders. Um let's turn the boat around a little bit. So here we are. No, no lasagna.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

There.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

But still, you can do Italian food, I feel like, and still find some more.

Mediterranean Roots and Marriage

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Caprese's my thing. That that's my outlet, you know. It's just, you know. Maybe a briscetta, I don't know. The deep dive into the favorites, I just can't do anymore. I just can't. I spent some time in Cairo with my wife's family. And I mean, just fascinating sitting for obvious reasons, you know, history and all that. But the the food just so good. I didn't care for it.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh, you didn't?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

No, I mean Alexandria it was better, because it's all Greeks. Shocker. Um, but like the food is similar, but the spices are slightly off from Greek food, but the quality just isn't there. Like everything's a little anemic, you know, all the proteins are kind of anemic. The vegetables will get you sick because of the water supply, so everything's brought in from Europe, you know, in a for commercial consumption or whatever. But there were some good spots. Um But yeah, it's just something I think I actually insulted my mother-in-law a couple of times because I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to eat a particular meal somewhere, and I was like, yeah, I just don't want to risk it.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Damn. I know. Gotta stay safe, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

I guess.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I've heard Egypt is a really difficult place to be a traveler too.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I will it it is not fun getting there. Um, it almost killed me. I mean, it was like almost 12 hours. And that particular trip, I flew coach, and this is just not a body for coach, just no way. But I've it's one of those things where like when you come back, you're like really appreciative of everything you did because some of it is not fun.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah.

Cairo Culture Shock and Comfort

SPEAKER_00 9:20

You know, for me it was total cultural food, language, everything overload. And I didn't go right to like a five-star hotel. I went into some nondescript neighborhood in the middle of 15 million people. But I felt incredibly safe. I felt safer in Cairo than I do here in DC. 100%. Um, but so I was like overwhelmed, and after like two nights, I went to my wife and I said, Look, I know I'm gonna create some problems here, but I gotta get the fuck out of here. I have to go to a hotel. I need some creature comforts, otherwise, this is just not gonna work. And so, you know, of course it exploded, and her mom was going, you know, going crazy, like, what's the matter? My home isn't good enough for you, and blah, blah, blah. But um, you know, checked into some hyatt, you know, on the Nile, and there's like European tourists and French pastries everywhere. And it's okay, cool. I'm in Egypt now, let's relax and have a good time. Great people. Very warm, very generous, very welcoming.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah. I think that's all around the Mediterranean because really nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Yeah. Well, they're especially because tourism is such the it's the lifeblood for them, literally. That uh they're very protective of the people that visit. Um it's very very endearing kind of feeling, you know, where people go out of the you almost think they're trying to scam you, but they really just want to make sure that you're comfortable and engaged. A lifetime ago, I used to work at the White House. I was a photojournalist for CNN.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

And just through casual conversation or whatever, um, all they wanted to know about was Bill Clinton. They loved Bill Clinton, and that's all we did. It was just the greatest thing ever. Just, you know, hanging out with a bunch of old Egyptian guys talking about Bill Clinton and smoking shisha's great.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah. Bubba transcends everything. Yeah, I'm don't know where you stand on his politics, but uh he's my OJ. I don't care what he does.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Were you in the White House then at that time?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah, yeah. Three years right during the whole Lewinsky thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Um, yeah, it was quite a time. Gosh, we should be so lucky that's the biggest problem in the world was a consensual relationship, albeit a little imbalanced, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

She got the raw into the deal though.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Oh, absolutely.

Safety, Hospitality, and Tourism

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Before the you know, can you imagine if like social media was a thing then? Oh shit. Like excruciating. You know. I mean, positive and negative, but she would have made out much better for herself, I think.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Um I don't think the world has proved that it's gotten much better, but yeah. But I think it's kind of the same problems in a way. She would have probably she it was I mean, media attention was different back then too. In some ways, yeah, it was overwhelming in a different way because one channel that people were watching.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

But that's what I'm getting at. It's like how many examples do you know of people that have you know run afoul of pop culture with salacious relationships or whatever, and whether or not they're right or wrong, they always seem to benefit monetarily from it. And I guess that's what I was getting at. Like in a different time period of social media, she could have leveraged some kind of a you know opportunity for herself to at least make things easier. Where it really did she got caught on.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Put through the ringer.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, Kim Kardashian kind of changed the game.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I have no frame of reference for that. I I so don't pay attention to Bob Calls.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

I barely do either, but like using a situation that would be embarrassing or like overly exploitative to just be famous. Just using it as PR. And now no one even really remembers why she was even famous to begin with, but it started similar situations.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Not really similar, but all roads lead back to OJ.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah. Well, actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

I mean, really, it really does.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

They actually use that ex They really did use that.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

The dad, right? Was one of those attorneys. Yeah, I I was out there for that. It was just bus it was just insane. Wow. Yeah. I used to do the court cases and stuff like that. Uh there was a documentary, so many documentaries. There was a one that was so well done. It was basically the one that everyone wanted to see and just knew what really happened, which was the jury came out and said, Yeah. Yeah, we know, but that's what we did, and we don't care.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

What else do you like to cook besides pizza? Or what do you cook well, I should say?

SPEAKER_01 14:51

That's a good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Subjective? Or is there a standout? There has to be something you know you're really good at.

White House Years and Clinton

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I just got pizza and I just made pizza recently. So I'm thinking about that. I don't know. I've been it's the summertime, so I feel like I'm like a bad cook. Not my best cook when I'm in summertime, you know. I'm like, what can we cook that's not gonna heat up the whole house? Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Um, so I'll make a lot of like I don't know, I have a I I love to garden, so I love to incorporate things that I'm growing into my food. That's fun. It's always I don't think right now I'm thinking of like specific recipes, but it's only because I'm in a the summer state of mind where you're just like, okay, I have a lot of this thing and I gotta figure out how to use it.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I'm that way, not with like ingredients or like like whole like ingredients like vets, but more like with aromatics. Like I'll do the staples, but I really like balancing aromatics. You know, with my cilantro, my basil, my thyme, and all those things.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Um yeah. Having lots of herbs is great.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah. I love basil so much I named my second son Basil. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

How does he feel about it now?

SPEAKER_00 16:18

It actually means brave in Greek and in uh and Arabic, but it still fits. It's a it's such a great name. It's a cute name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, it is like an actual name, I guess. Not a name about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah. Actually, he he uses Basil, but Basil, okay. Yeah, it's cool. And all the girls love it too, which is a unique name. It really is.

unknown 16:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

I think this is it. Yep, this is lovely chatting with you.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Yeah, likewise, have a good night.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Yeah, have a good night and good weekend and all that fun stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, don't do that. Take care.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Yeah, you too.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Bye-bye.

unknown 16:59

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Thank you for listening to this episode of Roger Road Talk. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd love for you to review the podcast on your favorite listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive.