Hello Friends,

It's not a good idea to start working on this missive while hungry. I had to step away from the laptop to make myself something quick. It turned out to be a three scrambled egg affair with chopped, blanched broccoli, green onions, a tablespoon of yogurt scrambled in, and a few blobs of cream cheese a la Sarabeth's in NYC.  Ohh, I feel so much better now. Looking back at last week, my favorite meal was at Azizam, a modern Persian pop-up, now with its own space on Sunset Blvd. in Silverlake. The food is so good, simultaneously light and homey. I can't decide if my favorite was the vegetarian eggplant-yellow split pea stew (so light!) or the kofteh tabrizi (giant rice-flecked meatball) or the ash-e-jo, a super comforting soup. Don't sleep on the shirini napoleoni, the milles feuilles for dessert. I'm already planning my next meal. A lovely, hospitable place.

With only a week left until PieFest, baker Nicole Rucker gives us tips on how to optimize your apple pie. I loved this conversation! And I can't believe PieFest is just a week away. Please come and hang out. I'll be on the demo stage most of the day with great guests, including Ira Glass! I'm in nerdy radio heaven. Ira will be part of the esteemed judging panel and will join me on the demo stage. I feel a frisson of nerves coming on! All are welcome at PieFest.

I want to bring attention to the Market Report this week. It's not about a vegetable. It's about the extraordinary longevity and innovation of Michael McCarty's Michael's. He's a fascinating guy who is never more passionate than when talking about the restaurant business. They are celebrating 45 years with a brigade of past chefs, a who's who of LA icons.

Scroll down for information on this week's show segments and some great recipes that came through.

Thank you, Evan

Fat and Flour's Nicole Rucker says, "Crumble is a lot of people's favorite, in terms of fruit pie topping." She makes two different types, a cream cheese-based crumble and an oat and brown sugar crumble. For the former, she replaces some of the butter with cream cheese. "It has this tender and slightly tangy cream cheese dough flavor and texture to it," she says. A great conversation with a master pie maker.

The Jewish diaspora encompasses an array of cultures with food and traditions that span many global cuisines. Naama Shefi showcases many of them in her new cookbook, The Jewish Holiday Table. Since launching the Jewish Food Society in 2017, she has dedicated herself to documenting and preserving Jewish food in all its global, diasporic glory. The book is filled with stories and really interesting recipes. I already bookmarked so many recipes in this book.

When Karla Tatiana Vasquez went looking for Salvadoran recipes on the internet, she couldn't find many that satisfied her, nor a cookbook in English. So the writer, recipe developer, and food justice advocate vowed to represent. She founded SalviSoul, initially as a way to preserve her family’s recipes. Since then, it has grown into so much more, expanding to document cultural memory and intergenerational connections among the Salvadoran diaspora. As part of that, she has just released The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes and the Women Who Preserve Them.

Another cuisine with little representation in cookbook form (in English) is that of Southern Thailand. Writer and photographer Austin Bush came to Thailand as a University of Oregon linguistics student. He stuck around and ended up living there for more than two decades. In The Food of Southern Thailand, Bush once again expands his geographic and culinary horizons. "It's a very distinct, palpable change," Bush says with lots of spice, coconut milk, and seafood.

Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison hails from the South, so when he heard about Joyce, a globally-minded Southern restaurant with Chef Sammy Monsour at the helm, he was excited. It did not disappoint. They're all great, but Addison has a hard time straying from the perloo, a South Carolina Lowcountry staple that's usually made with lots of pork and bacon. Monsour's version relies on seafood — oysters, shrimp, lobster stock — and hunks of Spanish-style chorizo. "That is the number one thing I recommend ordering for dinner," Addison says.

Standing at the Downtown Santa Monica Farmers Market, you can practically see Michael's, one of the restaurants in the vanguard of the farm-to-table ethos. When chef/owner Michael McCarty debuted it in 1979, he was only 25 years old and the farmers market hadn't yet launched. This week, the restaurant celebrates 45 years in business. Listen to this segment!