Blanca, Dee, and Mei have radically different relationships with cooking schools. Dee, always inquisitive, signs up for a cooking class every time she travels; deep-diving Blanca is a Cordon Bleu graduate (pictured) who has not only taken cooking classes but also taught quite a few; and Mei refuses to take a cooking class, mainly because her Chinese side doesn’t want to be publicly shamed when she fails! Cooking schools that make you cry. Cooking schools with hot instructors. Cooking...

James Oseland is a multi-award winning writer, former editor-in-chief of the American food magazines Saveur and Rodale's Organic Life, and one of the most hailed arbiters of the international food world. His first cookbook, Cradle of Flavor, about the cuisines of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, earned him his first James Beard award. Jim has also been a filmmaker, actor, and fashion and music journalist, and his memoir Jimmy Neurosis is a vivid and heartfelt recollection of his early gay...

Brazil is a vast multicultural food lab where you find a myriad of flours, Amazonian, African and Asian ingredients and Portuguese inspired sweets. As more Brazilians come to Ireland, we are starting to see more exciting food ventures from Brazilian style sushi to steakhouses. In this episode we do a whirlwind tour of Brazilian businesses and meet the charismatic  baker and entrepreneur Fabiano Mayor of Sugar Loaf Bakery in Dublin who tells us about the Brazilian sweets and food history,...

Science tells us that we get cravings when our bodies are deprived of salt, sugar, vitamins, and fat, a fact we will remember when we go on our next churros bender. Food cravings are naughty and nice, sophisticated and shameful. There are homesick cravings; cravings for food that we have never tasted, but encountered in a movie or a book; cravings you invent to impress other people. Moreover, no one person craves the same. Our culinary longings do not simply demonstrate our palates, they...

At Spice Bags, we are as much book geeks as food geeks. However, what is the role that food plays in books, and how do words serve to whet our appetite? In this special pre-season, collaboration episode we hope to do just that!With fellow HeadStuff podcaster Conor Reid, whose literary podcast, Words to That Effect, has always been a favourite listen of ours, we examine some of our best-loved novels and food excerpts. We discuss a sexy Sicilian detective, Stephen King, 17th-century Spanish...

Ellie Kisyombe is the  founder of Our Table and currently Ellie’s Kitchen, Home Edition. As an activist and a food producer, Ellie is well known on the political and the food scenes, and in many ways, one of the prominent  faces of a changing Ireland. Here, Ellie talks about living in Ireland in Direct Provision, but also her family, which was where she got her ambition and her culinary chutzpah. Plus she talks about Malawi food and what makes it distinct; its beautiful freshwater fish,...

It is time now to turn to our sizzling, Covid-era heartthrob, the kitchen, and unpack all its secrets. Going through your kitchen tools is like reexamining your dating history. Some tools are frivolous, some remind us of our parents, some we snapped up on a whim and can’t live without, some are pretty but what the heck were we thinking?We talk tools with food writer and stylist Ali Dunworth, Bob Toal, founder of Dublin’s cooking supply shop Trigger Fish, and Maria Llamas, who runs the...

Who doesn’t? This country is resilient, colourful, and has a reputation for having some of the most beautiful women in the world. Recently we have observed  a number of Venezuelans starting food businesses all around the world, including in Ireland.  We talk to some Venezuelans making food in this country. They include a TV food personality, a wine expert, two pastry chefs, a cheese maker and two guys committed to bringing a taste of their culinary heritage.  On the table: tequeños,...

Brought to you in the midst of lockdown, Spice Bags delves into bread. Let’s face it, many of us are making it, and most of us are eating far too much of it. Why can't you make soda bread outside of Ireland? Why does Blanca call communal ovens in Spain the original Insta? Who are the modern bakers shaking things up in Ireland today? Plus, we talk about bread dick pics.  Blanca and Dee also chat with Eoin Cluskey, founder and owner of Bread 41, one of the coolest, new bread bakers in town,...

Happy Year of the Ox! We kick off this episode with a crash course on dumplings, but the true highlight is an interview with the Lord Mayor, Hazel Chu. Chu, who is known for her commitment to a diverse Ireland, shares with us her memories of growing up Chinese-Irish in Dublin, her culinary passions, and some of her hopes for what the New Year (and the future) has in store. Plus she confesses dumpling love even though it is not part of her Cantonese heritage. P.S.  For those unfamiliar with...

Ahmet Dede, head chef of Dede in Baltimore, has many stories to tell. Among them: childhood memories of lavish breakfasts on the floor of the Ankara house that his grandfather built;  his rise in Ireland to earn a Michelin star at the West Cork restaurant, the Mews; and the origins of some of his favourite dishes in his native country of Turkey. What are Turkish culinary regional differences? What constitutes a great kebab? Most importantly, is it possible to be both a dedicated chef and a...

The Spanish have a tradition of late-night nibbling that the rest of the world has fetishized, adored, and mimicked. Yet what is a tapas and how does it differ from a pintxo? How have these traditions migrated and transformed in Ireland? We chat to Gorka Arrieta, the Basque chef based in Kerry, who has wowed Ireland with his Irish-Spanish fusion, and also brought the Spanish tradition of tapas and pintxos competitions on these shores. We also talk to Vanessa Murphy and Anna Cabrera, the...

With the holidays hovering and some of us feeling a touch homesick, is there a better person to chat with than the legendary Darina Allen? Allen is the fairy godmother of modern Irish cooking and the queen of Irish Christmas; however, she’s been instrumental in bringing the rituals and cuisines of other countries to these shores. Join us as we talk turkey with Darina, and dish about Darina’s classic book, A Simply Delicious Christmas, a book that has graced many a household (not just Irish),...

Hot on the heels of another Irish-American president elect, Joe Biden, Spice Bags delves into the complicated history of the Irish in America. Blanca has mingled with the Irish of Chicago and DC; Mei has lived in Boston, New Haven, and New York, and Dee has traveled widely in the US and contemplated immigrating herself. What’s up with corned beef? Why does Irish-American soda bread always come with sultanas?  We discuss how old Irish habits (and accents) have lingered in the US, where they...

In Soup, Spice Bags tackles another installment of “Staples” – where we three discuss a food from each of our cultural perspectives. In this episode, we talk soup, because baby, it’s cold outside. Soup, for us, is fundamental, and yet, as we discover, plays a different role in our lives. Why do the Spanish drink their gazpacho from a glass?  Why do the Chinese hate blended soups? What is the Jewish-American legacy of “chicken soup?” Why does Mei pack cans of Campbells in her luggage when she...

Nanphun Srakhunthod and Una Lancaster are daughters of two of the oldest Thai families in Ireland, who opened Baan Thai, Ireland’s first Thai owned restaurant, in 1998. Now on the eve of the Lantern festival, the two girls sit down with Dee to shed some light into a culture that we at Spice Bags love but know very little about. We hear about what it was like to grow up between Ireland and Thailand, and also something of the close-knit Thai-Irish community on our doorstep. We learn about a...

The Irish drink more tea per capita in the world, and yet it goes without saying that their “cuppa” differs from that of other cultures. Follow us as we take a dive into this beverage, with a history steeped in class and colonialism that is exciting if sometimes less than sweet. How did a Scottish botanist manage to smuggle the secrets of tea out of China during the Opium War? Why do posh people add milk first? When and why did the Irish finally concoct their own tea blend? Finally, what are...

Americans have been coming to Ireland in significant numbers for decades, often in a nostalgic search for their own cultural roots.  How has this history of American consumers shaped Irish food, restaurant and pub culture? From craft whiskey and pub music to the Irish adoption of the smoking ban, we investigate how Americans have helped shape the Irish culinary landscape. To American visitors, we explain why you should not order corned beef and definitely not a black and tan.   We also...

The Irish adore Mexico, and who can blame them?  In this country, the range of Mexican ingredients has vastly improved, and we can now regularly order huevos rancheros for brunch.  We talk with Lily Ramirez, founder of the shop and cooking school Picado and, for many years, a keeper of the authentic Mexican flame. We discuss her observations on the Mexican transformation in Ireland, while also getting the scoop on what brought Lily here (true love); why she won’t eat avocados; why burritos,...

As compared to Spain or France, for example, cheesemaking in Ireland seems to be dominated by women. How did this come to pass and what does it tell us about Ireland as a whole? What are some of our favorite lady cheeses? In this episode we talk about the ladies who rule the artisanal cheese movement here in Ireland starting with Veronica Steele, creator of Mileens. We also talk about some of  our favorite cheeses: Mileens (super Epoisse-y), Ardsallagh (because we love goat), and Durrus Og...

Ireland has some of the best Indian food we have eaten, compared to big cities like New York and London which have much larger south Asian populations.  In trying to answer this question, we spoke to Indian chefs, restaurateurs, and local residents and discovered that the culture of sophisticated regional Indian food in Ireland largely goes back to one courageous entrepreneur who took a bet on Irish consumers and their willingness to try new things. Restaurants www.anandarestaurant.ie...

From Australian chefs making Nashville hot chicken to Alison Roman putting coconut milk in her stew, cultural appropriation is a hot-button topic right now in the food world. What exactly is cultural appropriation? How has it shaped our culinary landscape? What does it mean when we talk about white privilege and its relationship to cultural appropriation? While we can’t begin to pretend to have the answers to this extremely thorny issue, we touch upon some writers and chefs who are tackling...

Everyone loves a food feud. In the wake of the recent Alison Roman-Chrissy Teigen dustup, we take a look at some of our favorite culinary squabbles, which range from delightfully entertaining to downright nasty. Also we salute some of our dearest food provocateurs, the late, great Anthony Bourdain among them. Why are food fights so tantalizing to us? What role, if any, do they play in shaping the food’s future? Amidst all the dishing, there is room for thoughtful conversation about how food...

Our guest this week is Manuela Spinelli, whose recent Irish Times article celebrating carbonara went viral. Spinelli is the secretary general of Euro-Toques Ireland, and is also beloved by many in this country as the former translator of football coach Giovanni “Trap” Trappatoni. Listen to us dish about the Italian food in Ireland, a narrative that ranges from fish and chips, over-the-top Celtic Tiger restaurants like the Unicorn and current spots like Grano. Spinelli has lived in Dublin...

While everyone's become a pioneer wife, turning to the cookbooks that teach pantry cooking and parsimony, in this episode we celebrate the ridiculous, the aspirational, the esoteric, and the gloriously dated. From the entertaining menus of fabulous interior designer Lee Bailey (no, we would not be invited to any of his soirées) to the sourdough loaves baked in outdoor ovens by the Basque shepherds of Idaho, Blanca unloads the best of these, along with some hilarious stories, from her time at...