728: A Delicious Deep Dive Into Somali Food with Ifrah F. Ahmed

It was a lot of fun having David Cho in the studio. David is a longtime media executive, having helped launch The Awl and Grantland. He’s also a pretty great guy to talk about restaurants with, and we do that. We also discuss Postcard, a new restaurant discovery tool and community. Matt's a user, and thinks it’s a great way to organize the restaurant recommendations that are constantly flowing through our world through a simple interface. We talk all about that and much more. And before that it’s the return on Three Things. Aliza and Matt discuss: A scene check at New York’s new favorite wine bar, Stars, and ​​Easy Joy Dim Sum & AYCE Hot Pot.  Also, we have a new favorite boxed cake mix: Oh So Easy. And we make visits outside of NYC to Golden Russet Cafe & Grocery, No Comply Foods, Zinnia’s Dinette, and Random Harvest Market.  Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠          Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Santiago Perez is the founder of Santo Taco, a new taqueria with two locations in New York City. Born and raised in Mexico City, he made his name in NYC working as a partner alongside chef Enrique Olvera in opening Cosme, Atla, Los Angeles’s Damian, and Mexico City’s Pujol. Now he’s bringing underrated tacos like steak trompo to NYC. Today on the show, we talk about going from fine dining to fast casual taquerias, his favorite spots in Mexico City, and more. Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Daisy Alioto. Daisy is the cofounder and CEO of Dirt and the cohost of the podcast Tasteland with Francis Zierer. It was fun to discuss her work at Dirt as well as her thoughts on paywalls, newsletters (when is it too much?), and food media tapping into live programming. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠    Read these stories on Dirt: Life and death at BalthazarSoftware as a Style Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it feel like to run some of the country’s buzziest restaurants, with razor-sharp points of view and terrific cooking? Our friend Simon Kim shares his story while completing the Resy Questionnaire. Simon runs COTE Korean Steakhouse, a joyous restaurant with locations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Singapore. He’s also behind Coqodaq, which, since opening in Manhattan in 2024, has changed the conversation around Korean fried chicken. This talk is honest, inspiring, and shows how Simon is one of the brightest stars in American restaurants. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our old friend Deuki Hong joins Matt in this episode for a really fun conversation. Deuki is the chef-partner at Sohn in San Francisco, an all-day café and community space in the city’s Dogpatch neighborhood. It’s such a cool place, and we talk all about it. We also reflect on the publication of Deuki and Matt's first book, the New York Times Bestseller Koreatown, released ten years ago today. We talk about where Korean food was then, and the exciting moments over the past decade that we’ve had a front row seat for. Also on the show Matt has a really fun conversation with Anthony Randello-Jahn, known widely as social star Donut Daddy. They talk about his new cookbook and so much more. Buy: Koreatown and Koreaworld. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maxine Sharf is a culinary creator and recipe developer who is passionate about bringing comfort, confidence, and community to cooking. She takes inspiration from her diverse background as Korean, Chinese, Russian, Romanian, and Polish with a California upbringing. She left her ten-year career in tech to pursue her mission to help others feel less intimidated in the kitchen, and she writes about it in her debut cookbook, Maxi’s Kitchen. And at the top of the show, Aliza talks about my recent trip to Taiwan, covering many stops along the way including: Ron Museum, Moon Moon Food, 詹記麻辣火鍋-西門大世界, 阿仁甕缸雞-名間店, and Shanghai Hao Wei Soup Dumplings. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was so great having Marcus Samuelsson in the studio. Marcus is one of America’s finest chefs, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden before, at age 24, being named executive chef of New York’s Aquavit and soon becoming the youngest ever to receive a three-star restaurant review from the New York Times. That was 1995. Today Marcus runs restaurants around the world, including the iconic Red Rooster in Harlem. He’s also involved in building community as much as developing dining concepts, and in this episode we talk about New York in the mid-’90s, building a restaurant for Harlem, by Harlem, and his various projects helping the food community.  Apply for the Rise Residency. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ifrah F. Ahmed is a Somali-born, Brooklyn-based writer, chef, and artist whose work centers around food, history, culture, memory, and migration. For years, she’s been sharing Somali food through her pop-up Milk and Myrrh and as a contributor to New York Times Cooking—and now, she’s releasing a gorgeous debut cookbook, Soomaaliya. It’s a pleasure to have Ifrah on the show to talk about the joys and challenges of translating an oral tradition into a cookbook, the rich legacy and influences of Somali cuisine, and much more.  And at the top of the show, Aliza talks about my recent trip to Tokyo, covering many stops along the way including Ramen Jazzy Beats, Nasu Oyaji, Laekker, and the Mori Art Museum. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Rabin is a Canadian food stylist and recipe developer who has worked as a culinary producer on shows like MasterChef Canada. She also appears in the terrific fever dream of a cooking show Just a Dash alongside Matty Matheson, now playing on Netflix. We love this show, and I love how Michelle speaks about making the leap from working behind the scenes to being on camera. Just a Dash is weird, visually creative, and highly entertaining, and we talk about how the show got made as well as her budding career as a “constipation consultant.” Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elyssa Heller is the chef and owner of New York’s remarkable sandwich shop and slushie seller Edith’s, with locations in Williamsburg and the West Village. I love these restaurants for their singular point of view. They’re part modern Jewish deli, part downtown all-day café, and fully Elyssa. I really enjoyed catching up about her journey to opening Edith’s, her time working in professional candy sales, and how she thinks about tapping into her Jewish identity with foods honoring the past. Also on the show we have a great conversation with Gráinne O'Hare, author of a terrific novel, Thirst Trap. We talk about the food scene in Belfast, and what it takes to write a great food scene in fiction. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Raij is the chef and co-owner of New York’s Txikito, Saint Julivert Fisherie, and La Vara, restaurants singular in their approach and wide reaching in their fandom. On this episode Alex takes the Resy Questionnaire, and we learn about her journey as a chef, what inspires her Spanish-inflected cooking, and her big hopes and dreams for the industry she cares so deeply about.  The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices