El Paso Food Voices

May 22 2024 23 ep. 39 mins 1
El Paso Food Voices Podcast artwork

El Paso Food Voices is a collection of food stories gathered from home cooks, professional chefs, restaurant owners, community educators, and others from across El Paso, Texas. These stories bring to life the area’s mosaic flavors of its culinary landscape. El Paso Food Voices speaks to cross-cultural connections that define a city’s culinary identity that is made up of a diverse population, a past with roots spreading in multiple directions, and a dynamic and ever-changing present.

  Arts  Education  History
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


23: To Eat or Not To Eat

May 22 2024 48 mins  
“To Eat or Not to Eat” is part of El Paso Food Voices’ special feature on “Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship” as it looks at the role of culinary dystopia. Culinary dystopia is the tensions that create toxic relationships between people through food, hindering the potential for kinship. We focus on culinary dystopia formed through restriction, looking at national res

22: A Gustatory Journey Towards Home

May 22 2024 28 mins  
In this episode of EPFV's special feature on "Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship," we deal with the theme of a gustatory journey, exploring the profound impact of food on our sense of home and belonging. Sharing personal experiences of using food to reconnect with home while living away, we discuss the significance of dishes, Nepali mo:mo and eggs with chorizo in particular, in

21: Food Pleasure

Apr 25 2024 31 mins  
In this episode, Samuel Rodriguez and Frank Nabi join Meredith Abarca to discuss the topic of food pleasure and culinary kinship. They examine the teachings of Epicurus and Mother Teresa in order to talk about the spiritual pleasure that sharing food with others can bring. Samuel and Frank both share personal stories of how sharing food with others brought them joy and helped them

20: Searching for Belongingness: Roti, Tortilla, and Tamales

Apr 25 2024 36 mins  
In this episode, Ana Munoz, Jake Pineda and Renuka Khatiwada join Meredith Abarca in a conversation where they define the idea of “belongingness,” and its connection to food. From Mexico to the U.S, and Nepal, Ana, Jake, and Renuka weave personal stories on important foods in their life that represent belonging and finding a home through these foods. As author Grace Cho writes

19: Culinary Choice, Kinship, and Embodiment

Mar 20 2024 36 mins  
This episode is part of El Paso Food Voices’ special feature on "Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship.” Three graduate students from the University of Texas at El Paso coming from three different geo-political locations share their culinary stories: El Paso (Stephanie), Juarez—El Paso (Victor), and Nepal (Purna). These stories speak of empathetic passion, scarcity, and a de

18: Food and the Senses

Mar 04 2024 34 mins  
In this episode of EPFV special feature on “Culinary Heritage and Culinary Kinship”, graduate students Marissa Bond, Fernanda Estrada and Tony Diaz discuss how the senses not only relate to the consumption of food but to the relationships, spaces and experiences that come from eating. This talk offers a window into personal stories that encompass a variety of sensorial experien

17: Culinary Heritage and Kinship in Food Stories

Nov 23 2023 34 mins  
On this episode of the EPFV Podcast, Meredith E. Abarca and Joshua Lopez discuss their role in the development of the El Paso Food Voices project, the podcast and the open-source digital archive website. Meredith and Josh discuss the challenges and values of framing the “intimate histories” people share with one another through their food stories by using the terms culinary her

16: Sotol The Spirit of the Chihuahuan Desert

Nov 23 2023 44 mins  
In this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Valeria Alcalde who grew up in Ciudad Juárez, and after traveling the world, returned to create her own brand of sotol, an alcohol made from a native yucca plant of the Chihuahuan Desert. Valeria describes the history and process of making this spirit. We learn from Valeria’s story, not only about the artisan process of maki

15: Fusion of Mexican and Asian Flavors

Nov 23 2023 45 mins  
In this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with chef and restaurant owner of “El Charlatan: Taqueria y Ramen-Ya.” The restaurant is located in Socorro, Texas, about a 20 minute drive east of downtown El Paso. Enrique shares his culinary journey that began with him cooking downtown El Paso, took him to Chicago, to eventually opening his own restaurant, El Charlatan. In Ch

14: Lucy’s Café: A 50 Year Old Family Legacy

Dec 07 2022 44 mins  
In this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Josh and Margo Lepe, owners of Lucy’s Café North. Josh Lepe is the grandson of Lucy Lepe who in 1978 open Lucy’s Café in El Paso Texas. Josh shares that now it is Lucy’s sister who runs this first original Lucy’s Café establishment. In this episode, Josh shares memories of his family’s culinary signature dishes—M